*The Disclaimer* I don't own anything Harry Potter. JKR owns HP, not me
*Second Disclaimer* This story isn't meant to be humorous since I can't make a joke to save my life, but since I've been writing several depressing, sadistic stories lately, I thought I'd write one that could be considered cute...sweet. Story is only one chapter long. And yes, I did get the title from the old movie with Elisabeth Shue. I don't own that either :p
*Summary* Due to an emergency, Ron is stuck babysitting his wild cousins by himself and he has absolutely no idea how to handle children. Chaos happens.
16-year-old Ron Weasley was sitting in his bedroom playing Wizard Chess with his best friend Harry Potter, who was looking bitter at the chessboard. He was losing to Ron badly. Ron's girlfriend Hermione Granger was there as well, although she had to be leavng shortly. It was the beginning of summer and Hermione and her parents were getting ready to go on vacation for a few weeks. Hermione was sitting on Ron's bed reading a thick book.
"Why don't you two quit wasting time and do something productive?" Hermione asked them, looking up from her book. She normally wouldn't care what they were doing, but she was a bit upset that Ron was playing Wizard Chess during her last hour with him for two weeks instead of spending time wth her.
"We are doing something productive" Ron told her as one of his pieces smashed one of Harry's to bits.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Right. I see that" she said sarcastically.
"Don't worry, Hermione" Harry spoke up, catching on to why Hermione was so upset "The games about finished. Once Ron beats me, he's all yours"
Mrs. Weasley poked her head in the door. "Ron, love? Can I come in?"
"Of course" Ron said, strategizing his next move.
Mrs. Weasley entered the room. "I need to ask you a favor"
"Checkmate" Ron announced smiling broadly. Harry threw a pillow at him and muttered. "Show off". Ron laughed and threw the pillow back at Harry. Before a pillow fight could break out, Hermione said loudly. "Ron. Your mother asked you for a favor"
Ron straightened up. "What is it, Mum?"
She smiled sheepishly. "Your aunt Rose, remember her? My sister? and uncle Robert have a bit of a problem. Rose had to be rushed to St. Mungos for eating something bad, and Robert asked if I'd come along. They need someone to watch Emily and Sarah"
"Umm, ok" Ron said. "And your telling me this because?"
"I need you to watch Emily and Sarah. Your father's at work, your sister is spending the night at a friends house and your brother's don't live here anymore. Your the only one who can do it. They don't want the children at St. Mungos"
"But Mum!" Ron piped up. "I don't know how to watch kids. And I barely know them. I've only seen them....once or twice..."
Mrs. Weasley sighed. "I know, sweetheart, and I promise you that if I had someone else, I wouldn't be asking you. We can't have two five year olds running around St. Mungos"
Ron started to say something, but Mrs. Weasley seemed to read his mind and she said. "No, Ron, Rose and Robert don't have any friends to watch the kids. Rose is a stay at home mother and she never needed anyone to watch her kids"
Ron looked put out. "How long will you be gone?"
"I don't know" Mrs. Weasley said honestly. "Shouldn't be more than a few hours"
"I guess I don't have much choice" Ron said plopping on his bed.
"No you don't" Mrs. Weasley said brightly. "I'll let Robert know you will do it"
"When are they going to get here?" Ron asked.
Mrs. Weasley looked even more sheepish. "Well, love. They are here now"
"WHAT?" Ron jumped up from the bed. "Here? Now? How?"
"Robert didn't want to wait for an owl. After taking Rose to St. Mungos, he Flooed himself and the kids here" Mrs. Weasley told him.
Behind him, Ron heard Harry snicker. He had almost forgotten Harry and Hermione were here. Hermione had to leave soon, but at least Harry would be here to help him.
"Ok" Ron said. "I'll be right down"
As Mrs. Weasley left, Ron turned to his friends. Hermione smiled and kissed his cheek. "I think what your doing is wonderful. But I must run. Mum and dad are waiting for me"
The trio walked in the living room. Mrs. Weasley was talking to Robert, who was holding the hands of two twins with reddish-blonde hair. Ron had rarely seen any Weasley's who didn't have flaming red hair. He knew Rose, his mum's sister, had red hair, but Robert had blonde.
Robert looked up as they entered the room. "Ron!" he said brightly. He let go of his daughter's hands and walked over to Ron. "I want to thank you for doing this"
"It's no problem" Ron told him. Harry snickered again. Hermione smiled then, kissed Ron the cheek once more, hugged Harry and said "Well, I'll see you guys in two weeks. Have fun, Ron" she said and walked over to the fireplace and flooed herself to her house.
"We better be going too" Robert said. "Ron, the girls are Emily and Sarah, just play with them, and keep an eye on them. They can be a handful. They need lunch at noon. I've packed some stuff for sandwiches and a container of juice. There's enough to make yourself a sandwich, too, if you'd like"
Ron nodded. "Okay, got it"
"Thanks again" Robert said, kissed his daughters goodbye and went to the fireplace and flooed himself to St. Mungos. Mrs. Weasley did the same.
Ron looked at the identical twin girls and then looked at Harry. "So, I guess it's just us"
Harry looked around. "Well, Ron. I'm sorry, mate, but I've got business to do in Diagon Alley"
"What?" Ron asked. "What business?"
"Umm...just....stuff" Harry said.
"Harry, you can't just leave me here by myself" Ron pleaded.
Harry grabbed a bit of Floo powder. "I won't be long, mate. If I get back before your mother and Robert do, I'll be glad to help. But, I've got something I need to take care of" He flashed Ron a smile before flooing himself to Diagon Alley.
Ron grunted. 'Some best mate" he thought glumly. He turned back to look at the girls. He din't know what to say...or do, for that matter. He was staring at them, wondering how he could tell them apart. He had never seen any twins other than Fred and George, but ever since he could remember, he could tell them apart. Maybe because he spent his whole life with them. After a few minutes of akward staring, one of them spoke up. "What's your name?"
"Ron" he told them. "What's yours?"
"I'm Sarah" she said. Ron immediately tried to find a difference between Sarah and her sister, but couldn't. Emily spoke up then. "We don't even know you, we don't even know why daddy sent us to stay with you"
"Oh, well, you've seen me before" Ron told them. Then he remembered that the last time they saw each other was nearly two years ago, and then the girls were only three, so they probably didn't remember him. "I'm your cousin" Ron said.
"Can you tell us apart?" Sarah asked him.
Ron felt his stomache shake, not knowing why she asked him that. "Well, no. I'm hoping you two can help me with that"
Emily nodded. "Yeah, we'll help you. But first, can we play a game?"
"Sure" Ron said. "What do you want to play?"
Emily and Sarah looked at each other and smiled. "Hide and Seek"
"What's that?" Ron asked, afraid to hear the answer. It sounded bad.
"It's a Muggle game" Emily said. "We have a Muggle friend, and she taught it to us. Here's how we play. You have to cover your eyes and count to 100...."
"Count to 100?" Ron asked.
"Yeah" Sarah said. "Don't you know how to count to 100?"
"Of course I do" Ron said, a bit irritably. "That just sounds like a lot"
Emily ignored him. "You cover your eyes and count to 100. While you do that, we hide somewhere and you have to find us. After you get done counting, before you come looking for us, you have to shout 'Ready or not, here I come!'"
Ron didn't think he liked the sound of that game. Finding two identical twin girls in a house like this didn't sound fun to him. Plus, where did two five year old witches meet a Muggle person? Did they spend a lot of time in the Muggle world?
Ron sighed. "Ok"
"Here" Sarah told him, leading him to a wall. "Lean you head against the wall, close your eyes and count to 100...out loud. Once you start counting we'll hide"
Ron looked at them curiously, but leaned his head against the wall, closed his eyes and began counting out loud "1...2....3...." He heard the girls run off, giggling.
By the time Ron got to 50, he got tired of counting, so he decided to cheat a little. "50...52....54....56...60...100....Ready or not, here I come!" He opened his eyes and turned around. No twin in sight. No noise either. He began to feel apprehensive.
Ron began searching the living room, looking behind the sofa, under the sofa, behind the bookcase. He did a thorough search of the first floor. No twins. He started to walk up the stairs to the second floor, wishing he hadn't agreed to play this game. Or at least wished he told the girls to stay out of his room. Nothing on the second floor. He sighed and walked to the third, and last, floor of his house, getting more nervous. He entered his room, and looked under his bed. Sure enough, he saw one of the girls hiding there, giggling. "You found me"
"I sure did" Ron told her as she crawled out from under his bed. "Which one are you?" he asked.
"I'm Emily"
Ron nodded. "Okay, help me find Sarah"
Together they continued searching the house, but no Sarah. "Where is she?" Ron asked out loud as they entered the living room.
"Are you looking for me?"
Ron looked behind him. There was Sarah sitting on the sofa. "I got tired of waiting for you" Sarah told him.
"Where were you?" Ron asked.
Sarah smiled mischievously. "I'm not telling"
"Can we play again?" Emily asked.
"No" Ron said. "Let's think of something else to play" The last thing he wanted to do was play that game again.
Sarah thought for a moment. "We brought books to read. Can we sit here and read them?"
Ron sighed with relief. "Yes, go ahead" He plopped down on the sofa. After a few minutes of reading, Emily said. "Ron? I need to go to the bathroom"
"Ok" Ron said. "It's up the stairs, the first door on the left"
Emily nodded and ran up the stairs. Sarah continued reading. Ron picked up the latest copy of his favorite Quidditch magazine and began reading. Ten minutes later and Emily still hadn't come back downstairs. Before he could say or do anything, Ron heard glass shattering upstairs. "Oh bloody hell" Ron cursed, which made Sarah giggle, jumped up and dashed up the stairs. He noticed the bathroom door was open. No Emily inside. He ran up one more flight and noticed his bedroom door was open. He went inside and there was Emily standing in the middle of his room, his wand in her hand, and his bedroom window shattered. He groaned. "Emily!"
He could tell that she wanted to smile. "Sorry". Ron thought she sounded anything but sorry. Ron snatched the wand away from her. "Why were you playing with my wand?"
"I saw it and wanted to have a go at it" She said. "Mummy and daddy don't let me play with theirs"
Ron pointed to the window. "And you see now that there's a reason for that" He tossed his wand onto his bed and took Emily's hand and led her down the stairs. "You are no longer to be out of my sight" Ron hoped the Ministry of Magic won't send him a notice for doing magic out of school.
It was time for lunch anyway. Ron took the girls into the kitchen and made their sandwiches. Of course, the girls had to cause trouble during lunch too. Sarah spilled her juice onto Emily's sandwich, which made Emily cry. Ron made her another sandwich, glad there was extras. Then Emily placed her sandwich, not on her plate, but on the chair next to her, which happened to have been Ron's chair. She and Sarah giggled as Ron took a plate of some leftover's he had in his fridge, placed it on the table and sat down in his chair....right on Emily's sandwich. Mustard splattered everywhere, mostly, though, on Ron's backside. The girls laughed hysterically.
Ron closed his eyes for a moment, then stood up, threw the sandwich away and said. "I'm going upstairs to change my pants. I want you both to be sitting here when I come back. If anything, and I mean anything is out of place when I return, I will conjure up handcuffs and handcuff your arms and legs together so you can't get in any trouble" He knew he really wouldn't since he's not allowed to use magic outside of school, but he was hoping to scare them a little.
Cursing to himself, he walked up the stairs to his room and found a clean pair of pants. After he put them on, he went back in the kitchen, and naturally, the girls were not in the kitchen. He let out another growl of frustration. 'Those little brats', he thought, walking into the living room. He found them lying on the floor reading their books. Sarah looked up when he entered. "We moved to the living room, but we didn't do anything bad. Is that okay? We just wanted to read"
Ron looked around the living room to make sure everything was in place. "Ok, that's fine" he said, and went back to reading his Quiddich magazine. It was then he noticed the clock. His own hand on the clock was stuck to "Dead". 'What?' he thought. 'I'm surely not dead. What's wrong with the clock'?
He walked over to it and studied it for a moment. He heard the girls giggling behind him. He turned to face them. "Okay, what did you do to the clock?"
Emily put on a straight face. "Nothing"
"You did something" Ron told them. "What did you do?"
Before they could answer, Ron heard someone Floo into the house. His mother and Robert walked in. Ron felt his heart leap for joy. The girls ran to their father and gave him a hug. "How were they, Ron?" he asked.
"They caused a bit of trouble" Ron told him honestly, "but nothing too bad"
"What did they do?" Robert asked.
"They broke my window and made me sit on a sandwich...." Ron trailed off when his mother came over to him and said. "Ron, love, why does the clock say your dead?"
Ron nodded over to the clock. "And that"
Robert looked at the clock, shook his head and fixed it with a wave of his wand. "The girls know how to work a clock. They know how to open it, and move the hands. Sorry about that. Let me fix your window before we go" He went upstairs and returned a few minutes later. "All fixed"
"Thanks" Ron said.
Robert took his daughter's hands and said "Thanks again, Ron, and sorry for all the trouble"
"That's okay" Ron said. "how's your wife?"
"She's good, thank you" Robert told him. "She'll be out of the hopital tomorrow"
"Good" Ron said.
"Well, we best be off" Robert said and led the girls to the fireplace. "Bye Ron!" Emily called. She and Sarah ran to him and have him a hug around his waist. "We're sorry for the trouble we caused" Sarah told him. Ron hugged them back. "Don't worry about it" he said.
He watched as Robert flooed them back home and turned to his mother. "Remind me, never to have kids" he told her. This was a day he didn't want to repeat anytime soon.