Fred heaved the box onto the countertop with a cringe and a groan, then lay for a moment over the cardboard, panting. "Bloody hell, George, exactly what did you put into this new formula?"

George grinned from the ladder, where he was busy stocking shelves. "Nothing," he replied innocently. "Just whatever you slid into the directions."

"What directions?"

"The ones you gave me." Still the perfect innocence.

Fred gazed suspiciously at the box. "These are supposed to be canary crèmes."

A box tumbled from George's hand. "Oops."

It was clear Fred was fighting an urge to scream, but instead he gazed for a long time at his twin, than ripped open the large box. "Cute. A weight spell."

George laughed and accioed the fallen box back onto the shelf. "Don't worry; it won't affect anything else."

"I don't know..." Fred took out of one the now lead-heavy candies and weighed it carefully in his palm. "Maybe people will pay us more for these if they think it's different."

"Fred, I love your thinking."

"Except that would be morally wrong and if Mum found out..." Fred laughed and dropped the candy to the countertop with a thud. "Well, I was just kidding anyway."

George also laughed. "I wasn't. Ow!" He caught the candy as he fell from his head and chucked it back at his brother.

Ron instinctively moved as the canary crème sailed uncomfortably close to him. Even then he could still feel the rush of pressure as it grazes just past his neck. "I don't know, Percy, I think they're having enough fun already." He ducked another candy. A war had begun.

Percy smiled from his post just above the shop door. Ron was beginning to fear any situation where Percy dared smile; on one hand it was fun, but... it certainly wasn't natural for anyone like him. "Come on. I'm surprised you weren't the one to suggest it. When you first died didn't you find it fascinating that you could just stick your hand into someone and leave it there and they couldn't see you or even much feel you...." His voice trailed off as he frowned. "That's kind of a disturbing concept."

Ron missed avoiding a small box of fake wands that sailed through his head. "I think I was fascinated enough by the fact that I couldn't touch anyone. I didn't prolong it." And yet it was an interesting idea. He remembered first grabbing at Harry, feeling nothing but that strange sensation of heat. He hadn't really wondered what the living might feel in return. And yet here he was, half-dragged all the way from Hogwarts to his brothers' shop on Diagon Alley.

"It's Fred and George," Percy reminded him. He drifted away from the door to where George was using his ladder as a fortress in a now-messy shop floor, arm outstretched. "Haven't you ever wanted to seek some revenge?"

Ron actually smiled. "I thought you would be above revenge! You do realize that you were the butt of half of their pranks."

Percy sniffed. "Too well do I know that. Well, it's not like they can kill me now for any repercussion." With an almost evil grin he slid his hand, invisible, through George's neck—Ron shuddered—and held it.

Immediately George shivered, but Percy didn't move.

"What the--?" George shook his head, accidently avoiding a well-aimed acidic ink bottle that smashed with a mess into the opposite wall. "Is it suddenly cold in here?"

Fred took the advantage to make another throw. "Hah. You fail to disarm me."

"I'm serious!"

Ron had to laugh. "They're never serious," he said.

"You're never serious," Fred practically echoed.

Still utterly unaware of Percy's presence, George grabbed an armload of trick wand boxes from the shelf and tossed them down at Fred. "It's you! You've learned some..." He searched for a weird. "Some freezing spell and didn't tell me about it."

Fred laughed and shielded his face with his arms and the boxes tumbled over him. "La la la! Your mumbo jumbo still isn't working!"

"But my neck is still cold!" George jerked his head around, but Percy's arm followed.

Suddenly it was more than Ron could believe. Something like this couldn't be happening, not by Percy. Percy actually torturing one of the twins—and George completely clueless. Evidently hell had frozen over. And yet after all the torture the twins had done to Percy. . . even he couldn't avoid revenge very long. Ron laughed as he watched George now wriggling in almost-pain.

The twins hadn't been harmless to him over the years...

With Percy's freezing spectral hand in his neck, George was being slowly rendered defenseless to Fred's attacks. That couldn't be fair.

"You're on Fred's side!" Ron called. "We have to make this even." He sailed over to Fred.

For a moment he paused. Strange. He hadn't been this close to Fred in... months. Fred and George had the shop in London, Ron had school. . . that didn't make it easy to sit next to each other at the dinner table or something. And then that night. . . he hadn't even seen the twins in months, not until Percy suggested they pay a visit to help Ron recover from Dream's little attack.

But this wasn't time to reminisce. With a wink at Percy, he plunged his hand into Fred's head, the red hair curling around and through his arm like mold. It was familiar, the strange heat. But he had never held his hand into the living so long before, and the comfort of warmth didn't last long.

Fred didn't seem to be too pleased, either. He snapped his head around, Ron almost losing focus. "What is that?"

"Brain freeze," Ron muttered. His hand was getting too warm, but... there really was some sick pleasure in actually getting the better of the twins.

"It's not fair to put your little charm on yourself!" George called.

Fred managed a laugh and another well-placed canary crème. "I believe you're the one who should be taking that."

If Ron didn't know his brother so well, he would have certainly believed an actual fight was going on. And he himself wasn't harming anyone—he was merely aiding the fight. Was that at all a crime? There had been fights like this before—innocent little spouts full of hysterics and pillows and Mum's good china and whatever else was available. It was good to be in one again. Even if his hand did feel like it was on fire. Amazing Percy could stand it that long.

As if on cue, Percy, grimacing, pulled his hand away and shook it. "That really burns," he gasped. "You wouldn't think it would, but it does."

Now George had the upper hand. Not that it mattered. The shop was already a disaster area. But if it didn't matter. . . Summoning his strength, Ron shoved his hand farther into Fred, who gasped. Perhaps this was cruel. Sort of. But fun.

"I can't believe you would come up with something like this," he said to Percy, who had drifted down next to him to watch the battle.

Percy shrugged, hardly flattered. Ron should have known. "Well, I didn't originally think that I'd go freeze people that way. But it's the only way they. . . the living. . . can actually feel us. You remember back at Hogwarts, when you were alive, walking through Sir Nick or someone."

Ron did. "Funny we can do that people now."

Fred shuddered again, still trying to keep up his defense against his twin.

Percy gave a low chuckle. "Yes, hilarious."

"It'd be even more fun to be the one throwing things. Like Peeves."

"Peeves isn't like us."

Another painful reminder. He could barely stand the feel of his arm now, and reluctantly pulled it from Fred. So that was all he could do. He caught himself just in time; he was slowly learning that it wasn't worth feeling sad. Because it had been fun, delivering that limited agony to the twins. Still, throwing stuff while invisible would be even more so. Maybe even. . .

The idea was out before he could stop himself. "What if we appeared to them?"

Percy whirled at him, his glasses nearly tumbling off. "Ron, we've been through this. It would be a stupid thing to do."

Of course. He was perfectly aware of that. The Hermione incident, where she now believed she was crazy, was proof enough. "But if we did it right."

Percy sighed, dodging the fall of a box that would have gone right through him. "And exactly how do you suggest we do it right? Anyone do it right? What exactly does that mean?"

Ron opened his mouth to answer, then shut it. He had no clue.

"It's easier this way for everybody." Percy's voice had softened, almost drifting into an apology. "We're dead, and that's what they know. Look at Fred and George. You died a month ago. They seem fine."

"The twins single-handedly destroying their own store." He smiled. Yes, the only thing that would make it for perfect for them was if the place belonged to someone else. They certainly looked happy. And, to his surprise, he actually felt hurt.

"So this is where you've been! Are you trying to avoid dream?"

A crackle of flames made him turn around. Jillie hovered in front of a display of mini-bombs, slightly visible behind her hair and freckles. Next to her was the floating ball of fire that was Cornelia.

Were they all stalking them today?

"Hello," Percy said stiffly. Ron sensed him back away. That wasn't fair. Ron was the one who had actually gone through the Dream incident.

"Hi, Percy," said Cornelia's voice from amid the blue ghostly flames. "Hi, Ron. Look, we didn't mean to follow you here, but—"

Jillie shushed her. "We heard all about Ginny Weasley today and we just came to say that we are very impressed."

It took Ron a moment to figure out what she was talking about. Ginny's little bug hex. Jillie thought. . . "Yeah!" Somehow he managed to express enthusiasm. "I'm glad you like it. It was my idea—"

"Our idea," put in Percy.

Ron rolled his eyes. "My idea. And so we did what you said and—"

Jillie blinked as a canaray crème slammed through her arm. "Nice try. Unless you somehow managed to find Ginny napping outside the girls' dormitories, we are impressed with only her."

"But she ruined that date," Percy said, panic edging its way into his voice. "I don't want her with Harry, but if she's attempting herself. . . isn't that what you want?"

"Yes, that's what we want, and we think it's really funny and cute that she did that, but it'd be so much more fun if you were involved! We wanted you to talk to her in her sleep or something. I mean, you two are her brothers!"

"And I still don't want to be involved."

"Careful." The fire was starting to slide off of Cornelia. "We could find a male version of Charity Broadbent—or even worse—for your sister, someone you really wouldn't want her dating."

Jillie whistled approvingly. "Cornelia actually made a threat. I'm becoming impressed with a lot of people today. Especially you, Ron. I heard what you did to Dream. She's been talking about you for the longest time and then. . ." She laughed and even Cornelia managed a giggle. "I'm sorry, but it was terribly cruel."

"Then why are you laughing?" Ron asked. Suddenly an image of Dream coming at him was before his eyes.

"Because it means you probably like her, if you reject her like that."

Oh, for crying out loud.

"It must be nice to have girls throwing themselves at you," Percy teased. "Even if they are insane."

Cornelia blushed silver, and Jillie laughed harder.

"Oh, dear, I'm sorry." She managed to end her laughter. "I'm completely forgetting why we came all the way to London to find you. It is to remind you of what you agreed to do for us."

Ron felt as if the box that had just been thrown through him had actually managed to hit him.

"Oh, no," Percy began.

"It'll be so easy! Ginny's plans are secure. She's going home the weekend after this one. And unless she has some sort of barrier around her room there, which I doubt, you can work on her there."

"Why can't you do it at school?" Ron asked. "You can get into the girls' dorms just fine."

Jillie made a face. "Eh, it's not as fun that way. We actually like going into the boys' dorms. And since you're not even helping with your friend Harry in a place you actually can go. . . you know what, I can't even believe I'm talking about this. We already discussed it."

But that would mean going back to the Burrow. . . it only took one look to realize that Percy felt the same way.

"I could join you if you wanted," Cornelia quietly volunteered.

"Ooh!" Jillie finally noticed the shop around here. "This is fun! I've never actually been in here, though I've heard all the students talk about it. So your brothers own it?" She sailed down to a corner display of fake vomit. "If we had stuff like this when I was alive. . ."

"There's nothing to prevent you from being trampled to death by sheep," Ron said. "Though if you wanted to bug sheep you could. . ."

"You're not actually giving her more ideas?" Percy hissed.

He paused. "I am, aren't I?"

"Is it this much fun when they aren't throwing stuff at each other?" Jillie continued. "I'm assuming the place is closed; if anyone walked in here, they'd die immediately."

Ron glanced at the window where the sign hung. The shop was indeed open. And Fred was now standing on the counter wielding a trick beater club like a sword.

"Someone probably will die." Percy gave something between a laugh and a groan. "Let's go back to Hogwarts while the girls are distracted."

"Before they toss anymore plans upon us," Ron agreed. "Look, Cornelia! Fake fire that burns realistically!" He pointed at a shelf near the back of the shop.

Vaporating was becoming easier and easier, he realized. He could see it perfectly in his mind, almost every detail of the Gryffindor common room. And he getting there before Percy good. It was much more fun to the be one jerking the other around. He felt the air swirl around him—strange for a ghost—and he was there, Percy appearing next to him only a second later.

"I hate when you don't warn me," he muttered.

"You did it to me all the time."

The common room was empty; apparently everyone was at class. Kind of refreshing to not have the first years running around screaming.

Then Cornelia popped out behind them. "You're just running away from everyone today, aren't you?"

Percy really did groan. "You followed us?"

"I wasn't done talking to you."

She was almost as bad as Dream, Ron thought.

She smiled, her fingers tugging mildly at her hood. "You know, you really don't have to go see Ginny next weekend if you don't want to."

Reverse psychometry, he realized. Or whatever that Muggle thing was called that Hermione and Harry had always talked about. It was just another trick the girls were playing. Cornelia would tell them they didn't have to go whisper commands of dating Harry to Ginny, and that would mean they would have to. They thought they were so twisted and smart. Well, he wasn't going to fall for it. "But earlier you said that we had to."

"That was Jillie," Percy pointed out.

Cornelia shrugged. "She can get. . . worked up sometimes. She's been dead for centuries; she's too used to being a ghost and needs something to entertain herself."

"Too used to being a ghost?"

She shrugged again, almost embarrassed. "I've been dead since the World War II and I'm still not used to it. Every so often you still think that you can touch something. Or be mad at someone. Not that my death was anyone's fault, so I don't have to have issues like Moaning Myrtle does. But really, you can't tell me it's not weird sometimes."

"I've only been dead for a month," Ron said. "I'm not used to anything."

"Bad example," she said with a small laugh. "Well, I also came to ask you something else. Not a command. Not even a favor. At least not really. My deathday is next week, and sometimes I like to have a few friends in the Ravenclaw common room or somewhere. . ."

"You're inviting us?" Percy asked.

Cornelia blushed again.

"A deathday party?" He remembered when he had attended Nearly Headless Nick's his second year. One of the more miserable times of his life. Nick's had been depressing, so why would Cornelia's be any different? "Why would anyone want to celebrate their death? Not that Percy's isn't fascinating."

"Shut up," Percy murmured.

Cornelia stared at him. "You told Ron how you died? You haven't told the rest of us."

For a moment Ron considered bringing up the poisoned broccoli. No, it really would be too cruel.

She studied Percy for a moment, than shook her head. "Well, Ron, what else are we supposed to celebrate? I mean, birthdays are kind of pointless since we're dead. We have to some fun in the afterlife."

"It's still a depressing idea."

"So are many things. Are you going to come?"

Dream would probably be there.

Percy sighed. "Sure, we'll come."

She shrieked in delight and threw her arms around him. "Oh, we're going to have so much fun."

Percy was absolutely stunned. Ron laughed. It was strange to see a girl at his brother. Not that he and Penelope Clearwater had been a pleasant site.

"Oh, sorry." Cornelia immediately backed away, looking very flustered. "There's Nearly Headless Nick. Perhaps I should ask him."

Why was everyone sneaking up on them?

Apparently Nick didn't look ready to be invited to anything, because fear sank into Cornelia's eyes as she shrank away with a barely audible "Sir Nick."

Percy turned around. "Is there something wrong?"

Nearly Headless Nick didn't look angry at all, so apparently they had done nothing wrong. But it was a different sort of inapproachability: His already pale face was blanched with terror.

"The Bloody Baron just spoke to me," he murmured, clenching at the ruffle around his neck. "It's usually best if you ignore him and he ignores you and—"

And no one came to complain about it.

"At least I was lucky enough it doesn't involve me," Nick continued. He locked eyes with Ron. "What exactly have you done to upset him further?"

Cornelia gave a small cry. Ron felt like doing the same. Had Nick found out about the whole conspiracy? Ron glanced at his brother. Percy, fortunately, looked utterly calm.

"I'm not sure what you mean, Sir Nicholas," he answered.

Nick glanced back at the wall, as if expecting the Bloody Baron to storm in. "He says he wants to meet with you. Apparently he has a task he wants you to start on immediately."

Author's Note: Credit for the conversation regarding the party goes to my darling Lady Kazaana.

Shout Outs to My Beloved Readers: You guys are so amazing. Thanks for all your help and comments.

ArcherofDarkness: And I bet Draco has given his teddy bear a very embarrassing name. I have a white stuffed pig!

Crystal Lightning: The best part is that Ginny wasn't properly mischievous until book 5. And then she was delightful. Go Ginny!

Dr. Huff-Puff: Lol! I'm glad you actually imagine Ron's face! The poor guy. And yes, Ginny still does like Harry. That, or she just likes being mean.

duj: Yeah, I really should give out more info that I do.

Erisinia: Lol, my brothers—and sisters—also beat up on each other. But we also have to defend each other. Great how it works out like that. Yeah, I always thought Fred and George were very mean to Percy. Heck, I thought they were mean to Ron at times. No wonder Percy has such issues. But yes, there is nothing like bonding.

HiddenFlame42: I accidently stuck a 12 reference in there? Oh dear. I'm good, aren't I? Can you point it out for me? Please?

HotDog-Jo: Thanks!

hydraspit: Harry/Ginny forever! But I did get attached to Charity. Maybe I'll find a boyfriend for her later.

Kellalor: Of course Ginny's fixing the problem herself! She's not a damsel-in-distress waiting for ghosts to set her up. She can wreak her own havoc!

Krenya alenak: You are so helpful. Thanks for the advice! )

Lady Kazaana: She's not in love with Percy, persay.... Come on, you know what a hopeless romantic I am.

Lady Meriadoc: Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer? Lol! I think you just ruined that chapter for me.

Lahar: Don't worry. I don't intend any intense Dream/Ron. I just thought it would be funny if she had a crush on him and actually tried to take it places. But she is a very nice girl ghost....

liseli: I figure that if it's a one-time character (which Charity is) the only way to make them memorable is to make them fun. Glad you liked her.

LJ Fan: You are so forgiven. Here's a lollipop. So my story is complex? It's actually a lot more complex than I ever intended it to be. Here is a promise: Harry and Ron WILL talk.

meenrocks: Oh no! Death by fanfiction! But what a way to go!

Neoma: Teehee. Your mom sounds fun. School is stressful. Very stressful.

Pline: I am a Ginny/Harry shipper. Therefore, Ginny is still mad about Harry.

Poemzie: I think the only reason Ron wants Harry and Ginny together is because Harry is the only guy he trusts. Percy doesn't like Harry, so that makes it all harder. But yeah, it's hard to make guys work at anything involving romance. Well, the girls earlier were whispering things to Harry, but it probably would be more appropriate to have Ron do that.

rosepetal13: Mm. Muffins. Here, have a lollipop.

SirIsaac: Thanks! I've always had fun with dialogue. Sometimes I think I do a little too much, but oh well.

Starsmiles: You thought it was original? Thanks. Actually, my roomie was watching The Mummy, and that has bugs in it...

Tabitha78: Thanks! You're right on: The Baron's request involves his death. Can you guess what that might be?

Tru Lys: Well, Ginny has taken me hostage until I reveal the representative. She said you told her to.

v-babe24: You know I just love torturing you.

XXNaziHaloXx: Ginny taking revenge against the world... no, I didn't intentionally mean it that way, but it is a good way at looking at the situation. You are so useful for analyzing. Yay! But as for Dream seducing Ron and using him to take over the world and then dragging it all down the hell... you weren't supposed to figure that out yet! Curse you!