Disclaimer: I can dream, can't I?

A/N: Sorry I'm a bit late with what I said the update date would be... Moony and Padfoot stole me and wouldn't give me back until today... 48 hours straight of Marauders... Oh my... Well, here you go!

Chapter Four: Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Part II

Hermionie and Ginny spent a good hour or so holed up in Ron's room, chatting, cleaning clutter so Harry didn't die from all of the junk in Ron's room, and sharpening their aim with whatever they could find.

"So... Ginny?"

"Yes?"

"Do you still like Harry?"

Ginny turned a deep red. "No! I mean, it was just a silly crush, all those years ago, and-"

Hermionie smiled. "Relax. Payback for the Ron comment."

Laughing uneasily, Ginny returned, "I'm glad you don't like Ron. Honestly, it would be odd for one of my close friends to start dating my brother." Hermionie nodded quickly.

A few minutes later, Ginny asked if Hermionie was excited about the World Cup. Hermionie, knowing Ginny's love of the sport, tried to be gentle in telling her that she herself could care less for the sport.

"Yes, I am, if just to see what professional Quidditch is like." Hoping to steer the conversation away from the topic of the game. "Do you know when Harry's coming over?"

Ginny responded immediately: "Five o'clock."

Hermionie checked her watch. "We have three hours until he gets here. How do you want to kill the time?"

Both thought for a moment. "We could... attack Ron."

"Nah. We'd permanently maim him."

"True."

Another brief pause, then Ginny said:

"We could play in the yard."

"What would we do out there?"

"Quidditch, tag, tig, tree -"

"Tig?"

Ginny nodded. "It's a game Charlie, Percy, and the twins made up to keep Ron and me occupied a long while ago."

Interested, Hermionie cocked her head. "How do you play it?"

"You see, it's kind of stupid. There have to be at least three people to play. You take a rock, and you toss it in-between the three of you." Ginny paused.

"Is that it?"

"No, hang on. I'm trying to figure out how to describe it." Hermionie gave a small 'oh'. Ginny continued. "The first person starts out by saying a sentence. Something like, 'Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Gara-goo-ley.' The name is usually really odd, because you have to say it off the top of your head."

Hermionie nodded, prompting Ginny to continue.

"Then the person who starts says 'Tig!' and passes the rock to someone else. They have to say whatever comes to mind. Then they say 'Tig!' and pass it to whomever. But, you have to tell a story. If you don't, or if you take too long, you have to act out a scene from what's happened so far." Ginny smiled, reminiscent. "Oh, the stories get so odd... It's great to watch someone act it out, but pure torture to act yourself."

"Why is that?"

Now, Ginny was laughing. "Why? Once, I had to pretend I was riding a newt to the great castle of Sizzle-frazzle, while singing the Hogwarts theme song and brushing my teeth."

Both girls laughed. "That must have been the twins' doing," Hermionie guessed.

Ginny shook her head. "No, actually; it was Ron's. He had said something about the great Chula dying because he got hit in the head by a cheese curl or something of the sort. What was I supposed to say to that?"

Another hour passed with the two talking about what Ginny could have said, and a few trial runs of the game, which resulted in much laughter, even more sock-throwing (one of Hermionie's, mind you), and Ginny acting out being run over by a stag with headlights and Hermionie stating that Queen Juju had royally passed a decree that large, black dogs were not allowed to eat pizza on Wednesdays.

Hermionie checked her watch again. "Two hours until five. You want to go out?"

Nodding, Ginny began pushing the bed away from the door. Hermionie got up and began pulling from the other side.

"Geez, what does Ron keep under his mattress? A ton of bricks?" Ginny grunted as she pushed.

"Hang on, I'll check." Both Hermionie and Ginny pulled the mattress away from the bed. There lay about ten books, covered in pink, and a flashlight.

"I was wondering where these went," Ginny cried, pulling out one of the books. It was titled: The Very Secretive Diary of Ginny Weasley.

"And what's this?" Hermionie asked as she pulled the mattress out further. Laying there was, indeed, seven bricks.

"What the...?" Both stared at the interesting discovery before putting the mattress back.

Pushing the bed a bit further, the girls were able to leave the room freely. Ginny then promptly tracked down Ron and thoroughly berated him for stealing her diary and reading it. Hermionie scolded him, quite annoyed, for having bricks under his mattress. Then Ginny tackled him. It was rather funny, really, to watch such a small girl jump onto the gangly boy's back and pull him down.

Yet another hour passed of actually playing Tig, followed by a broom-less game of something that was similar to Quidditch, but which required less skill and more of an ability to dodge flying projectiles. At four, the girls left the yard to let the boys play actual Quidditch. Hermionie was glad that Ginny gave up her broom to Charlie, meaning that Hermionie didn't have to play.

Heading up the stairs to their room, the girls found it turned upside-down. Quite literally. The bed was on the ceiling, the ceiling light was on the floor. Everything was anchored down (or up, depending on how you looked at it), including Hermionie's trunk and a rather unfortunate Crookshanks.

"Those bloody gits..." Ginny fumed as she stepped into her room. Hermionie followed, looking up. How the boys managed to do it, she had no clue, but she racked most of the doings up to Bill. Dragging her gaze from her cat to the ceiling (or floor, now), she spotted a small box. Walking closer, she realized that it was something oddly familiar...

"Ginny, come here. Look at this." Ginny walked over and gasped. There was Ginny's pink diary, the one Ginny had recently stolen from Ron. The front cover, however, read this:

An hour it will take

For the jinx to break

And for all our sake

A door locked will it make.

Your loving brothers,

Fred, George, Bill, Charlie, and Ron

Ginny made an odd choking noise and ran to the door. It must have closed of its own accord; and sure enough, it was locked. "Arugh!"

"Well, it looks like we're stuck in here..." Hermionie sighed and sat on the ceiling light in the middle of the room. Crookshanks mewed.

Looking up at her poor cat, Hermionie smiled. "Sorry, Crookshanks. We're all stuck. But I promise, you can attack Ron all you want once we get out." Crookshanks mewed again and settled on the bed.

Ginny started pacing the room, fuming. "The nerve of those boys... this is worse than last week, and I thought it was impossible to top that... when I get my hands on them... just wait until school starts... hex the pants off 'em and then some..."

Hermionie just watched as her friend paced. It was going to be a long hour, she thought sadly.

Indeed it was, but the hour passed, and the room flipped back to normal. Hermionie and Ginny had been sitting on the ceiling when it happened; now, Ginny was sitting atop her dresser and Hermionie was sitting atop Crookshanks. The latter of the two girls squeaked along with her cat and stood up quickly; the former hopped down easily. Both moved toward the door and made to open it.

"It's locked."

"But it's been an hour!"

"Over an hour, really, it's a quarter 'till six right now."

Ginny began banging on the door. "Help, somebody! Percy? Bill? Charlie? Mum? Dad? Help!"

Hermionie ran to her trunk and opened it. Digging through her stuff, she eventually found a plastic ID card that she always took with her, wherever she went.

The red-headed girl turned as Hermionie approached the door again. "What's that?" As Hermionie began jiggling the card in-between the door and the frame, she answered.

"It's an old ID my mum made for me when I was five. I always carried it around when I was younger, because it was so neat to have, and I still do. And right now," she paused in her speech to give the card another shove; whether it was the magic or something else, this door was very difficult to open, "I am using an old muggle trick to get the lock to open."

"Are you sure it'll... work...?" Ginny trailed off as the door opened with a satisfying click. Hermionie stood, gave the door a quick nod before pocketing the card.

Turning to Ginny, she opened the door. "After you." Smiling, Ginny walked through the door frame, waited a moment for Hermionie, and then both walked down the steps. They entered the kitchen in a moment of silence. Scattered throughout the area were all of the Weasleys... plus one black-haired, green-eyed boy.

Both girls smiled happily, glad to see their friend, and Harry smiled back. Hermionie looked to Ginny just in time to see her turn red. Letting her mouth quirk into a half-grin, the fourth year tallied it up as proof that Ginny still, indeed, did have something for Harry.

Mrs. Weasly spoke again; she sounded, though Hermionie wasn't sure, like she was repeating herself. "Tell me what, Arthur?" Both girls winced slightly. Mrs. Weasley tended to be dangerous when she used that tone of voice.

"It's nothing, Molly," Mr. Weasley mumbled, "Fred and George just - but I've had words with them -" He was cut off by Mrs. Weasley.

"What have they done this time?" she cried. "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes -"

Hermionie decided to save Harry from the rant that was about to come. "Why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" she inquired, hoping that the rather thick red-head would see what she was trying to do.

Apparently, he didn't. "He knows where he's sleeping - in my room, he slept there last -"

"We can all go," Hermionie stated, slowly, in hopes he was catching on.

"Oh. Right." There we go, Hermionie silently cheered.

"We'll go too," said either Fred or George, but Mrs. Weasley snarled a command for them to stay put.

Harry and Ron edged their way out of the kitchen. Once they were past the doorframe, the group of four set up the stairs towards Ron's room.

As they climbed, Harry asked, "What's Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?"

Ron and Ginny both laughed in memory. Hermionie, however, kept silent. She remembered the argument she had had with Ginny on the topic. Biting her tongue, she kept her comments to herself. Half-listening to Ron's explanation, Hermionie let herself hum 'My Favorite Things' from the Sound of Music. After she had finished, she tried to figure out where Ron was in his telling.

"...She's furious at them, anyway. They didn't get as many O.W.L.'s as she expected." Tuning Ron out again, she began reciting Hogwarts: A History to herself. She didn't get very far, however, for Percy poked his head out of his door as they walked by.

"Hi, Percy," said Harry.

"Oh, hello, Harry. I was wondering who was making all the noise. I'm trying to work in here, you know - I've got a report to finish for the office - and it's rather difficult to concentrate when people keep thundering up and down the stairs."

Hermionie let herself a small grin as Ron responded. Apparently, Percy hadn't changed much since he left Hogwarts. Then, Harry asked what Percy was working on. Percy drew himself up and started going on about cauldrons; Ginny looked over to Hermione and they both sniggered.

Ron tried to stop Percy by making fun of him; that did nothing but encourage him to rant on even more. Before it went on too long, however, Ron shrugged and headed back up the stairs. Percy slammed his door shut, making Hermionie and Harry jump. The three of them followed Ron as they marched up the stair.

Getting to Ron's room, Ginny shut the door to Mrs. Weasleys' shouts. As Hermionie looked around, she realized that the room had changed quite a bit since she and Ginny had been there. There were now four beds instead of one, and it was rather precarious work moving around in the small space. There, also, was Pig (who must have been outside at the time of Hermionie's and Ginny's siege of the room), who was fluttering about in his cage like a maniac.

"Shut up, Pig," Ron yelled as he sat down on one of the beds. Harry edged in after him; Hermionie sat in a bed opposite Ron's and Ginny sat next to Hermionie. "Fred and George are in here with us, because Bill and Charlie are in their room," Ron said to everyone else. "Percy gets to keep his room to himself because he's got to work."

"Where did the twins sleep before?" Hermionie asked as she looked at the beds.

"They slept in Percy's room last night, but Percy kicked them out. They were back in their room today; Bill and Charlie must've not needed it." Ginny shrugged.

"Erm... why are you calling that owl Pig?" Harry asked to no one in particular.

"Because he's being stupid," Ginny stated from next to Hermionie. "His proper name is Pigwidgeon."

"Yeah, and that's not a stupid name at all," said Ron sarcastically. Ginny glared at her older brother. "Ginny named him," Ron furthered in explanation, "She reckons it's sweet. And I tried to change it, but it was too late, he won't answer to anything else." Hermionie looked at Ginny, who was smirking. Hermione grinned, bemused at the antics of the siblings. "So now he's Pig. I've got to keep him up here because he annoys Errol and Hermes. He annoys me too, come to that." Both Harry and Hermionie rolled their eyes, knowing that Ron was secretly glad that he had a new pet, no matter how annoying it was.

Ginny, however, wasn't about to back down, for Pig was just as much her owl as it was Ron's. "Well, you must like him better then me, seeing as you didn't lock him in an upside-down for an hour!"

"It wasn't my idea! Honestly, it was all Fred and George!"

"Sure it wasn't. Who else could get a hold of my diary?"

Harry looked at Hermionie questioningly; Hermionie just said, "Don't ask." Harry nodded. After listening to the two of them bicker some more, Harry turned to Hermionie again.

"Where's Crookshanks?"

Hermionie shrugged. "Either out in the garden, chasing gnomes - he's never seen any before - or hunting down Bill."

The two listened to the sibling's bickering for a few moments more. Harry, catching a lull in the argument, leapt in. "Percy's enjoying work, then?" he asked.

Ginny gave a small groan and laid on the bed, watching the players of the Chudley Cannons zoom around from poster to poster.

Ron gave a small, fake laugh. "Enjoying it? I don't reckon he'd come home if Dad didn't make him. He's obsessed. Just don't get him onto the subject of his boss. According to Mr. Crouch... as I was saying to Mr. Crouch... Mr. Crouch is of the opinion... Mr. Crouch was telling me... They'll be announcing their engagement any day now." So saying, Ron promptly went back to his argument with Ginny.

The next hour or so passed in the same manner; everyone herded out to the garden for a huge dinner, complements of Mrs. Weasly. Chaos abounded, Harry learned about the bedroom incident, Percy's apparent love of Mr. Crouch was flaunted about some more, and, as the night fell to a close, Harry was able to tell Ron and Hermionie the newest news about Sirius.

At nine, the entire crew was shepherded back into the house, in preparation for the World Cup the next day. As Ginny and Hermionie changed into their pajamas, Hermionie was forced to listen to a full-blown rant about Viktor Krum and how amazing he was. As the bushy-haired girl climbed into bed, she couldn't help but wonder what she had gotten herself into.

A/N: There you go! R&R, if you will! Just a simple hello will do!