Summary: Six-year-old Ginny has her first loose tooth, and with six older brothers, it's bound to come out sooner than expected.
Disclaimer: I own the plot, but that's it.
Only months ago, Ginny Weasley had woken up one morning to find that one of her teeth was loose. It was the one in the very front of her bottom row of teeth, and it made her very excited to know that it would soon be departing from her head to be replaced by a bigger, better tooth.
When the initial excitement of running around the house and showing her tooth to each and every family member had worn off, Ginny had taken to nurturing her tooth. She didn't think anything unusual about her behavior. She brushed and flossed three times a day to make sure her tooth was in good condition. She figured the brighter the tooth, the more it would be worth.
She wiggled it whenever her hands were free. George had told her that if she didn't wiggle it enough, it might get stuck and never come out. Then she would be known as "that girl with the baby tooth stuck in her face" for the rest of her life. Of course, she couldn't have that.
And so, slowly as the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months, Ginny's tooth loosened even more. Finally, one day, she was sitting in a chair in the living room listening to the wireless and kicking the cat at her feet when Mrs. Weasley looked up from her knitting to see her playing with her tooth again.
"Come here, Ginny," she said kindly. "Let me see that tooth."
Ginny slid off the chair and walked over to her mum to let her examine the tooth. Mrs. Weasley studied it for a while, poking and prodding the tooth, until she let go of Ginny's head and announced that the tooth would probably be coming out any day now.
Ginny gave a squeal of excitement and hopped up and down.
"Do you want me to take it out for you?" Mrs. Weasley asked, pulling out her wand. "It won't hurt."
"No thanks," Ginny replied. "You wouldn't understand. This is kid stuff."
"That's fine, dear."
Mrs. Weasley put her wand away as Ginny ran from the room and bounded up the stairs to find her brothers. Climbing the stairs as fast as her short legs would let her, she stopped outside of Bill's room to tell him the news.
She knocked on his door. When he opened it she noticed that he looked like he had just been woken up.
"It's late, Bill," Ginny said, slipping past him into his room and making herself comfortable on his bed. "Why are you still sleeping?"
"I know," he replied. "But I was out late last night. Is there something you wanted?"
Ginny remembered why she was there. "My loose tooth is almost ready to come out!" she squeaked excitedly. "Mum said so."
"That's great, Ginny," Bill said, yawning. "But did you really have to wake me up to tell me that?"
"Yes, you should be awake by now anyway, and I thought you would be excited for me."
He sighed. "I am excited, you just can't tell because I'm tired."
This seemed to please Ginny.
"Do you want me to help it come out faster?" he asked, taking out his wand.
"No," she said firmly. "I don't want to use magic. I want it to come out by itself."
"Whatever," Bill shrugged. "If that's all you wanted to tell me and you don't want my help, why don't you go bother Percy or Ron so I can sleep."
"Okay."
Ginny slid off the bed and went to the door, but before she left, she turned back to Bill and said, "I won't tell Mum you were out late last night."
He winked at her. "Thanks, Gin."
She closed the door softly and started up the stairs for Fred and George's room, but had only made it four steps when she was nearly knocked over by someone going really fast in the opposite direction.
"Watch it!" she called.
"Sorry Ginny," Charlie said, laughing. "I didn't see you there. I wouldn't want to knock my favorite sister down the stairs."
Ginny giggled. "I'm your only sister."
Charlie acted surprised by this.
"Really?" he said in mock-surprise. "You're right. Sometimes I get confused about Percy."
Ginny giggled even harder.
"Charlie, guess what!" she said.
"What?"
"My loose tooth, it's about to come out!"
"You don't say."
He bent down to examine the tooth in question and replied that it was very loose and very likely to fall out at any given moment.
"You know what would make it come out even faster?" he asked.
"What?"
"If you eat an apple. The tooth will get stuck in it and you can just pick it out of the apple."
Ginny was interested. She instructed him to go find an apple. When he came back with the fruit, she took a bite out of it, but the tooth just bent down and passed under the apple.
"It didn't work!" she cried through a mouthful of apple.
Charlie shrugged.
"Sorry, Ginny. I tried. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go talk to Mum about the new racing broom I want for my birthday next week. Hopefully she hasn't knitted a sweater for me already."
Giggling, Ginny headed up the stairs once again.
When she knocked on Fred and George's door, she could hear muffled voices inside.
"Quick! Hide them under the bed!" Fred was whispering just loud enough for Ginny to hear from out on the landing. But when he answered the door, he was calm and collected and acted like he had nothing to hide.
"Oh, it's only Ginny," he called over his shoulder when he saw her standing there.
She tried to see into the room, but George quickly stepped in her way.
"Come in, little sister," he said innocently. "And to what do we owe the privilege of today's visit? Did Ron run through a spider web again?"
"No," Fred answered. "I'm pretty sure we would hear the crying and screaming like last time."
Ginny shook her head. "No, there was no spider web. This visit is about my tooth."
"Ah! The tooth!" George remarked.
"It hasn't come out yet, has it?" Fred asked.
"No, it's still in my mouth."
"It's been in there a long time," George said, casting a glance at Fred. "It must be one of those teeth that never actually come out."
"Shut up!" Ginny snapped. "Mum told me not to believe you two anymore."
"Ouch."
"That hurts."
"So what is it you wanted to tell us about your tooth?"
"It's about to come out," she said.
Fred and George grinned at each other. Ginny didn't like when they did that.
"We can help it come out faster," Fred told her.
"No thanks," she replied, taking a step back.
"It won't hurt a bit," George assured her. "We just take a bit of string." Fred held up the string. "Tie it to a doorknob." Fred tied it to the doorknob. "Tie it to your tooth." Fred held the string up to his mouth. "And close the door." Fred closed the door. "Your tooth will come right out. You won't feel a thing."
"That looks like it will hurt," Ginny said. "I think I'll let it come out by itself."
"No," George said, shaking his head. "You'd better let us handle this."
Despite her protests, Fred and George forcefully took Ginny by the hand and pulled her over to the door. They tied the loose end of the string to her tooth and were about to slam the door when Ginny started screaming like a banshee.
"Ginny!" Fred cried. "Stop screaming!"
George covered his ears.
"Untie my tooth!" she said in between screams.
George untied the tooth.
Ginny stormed from the room, but not before falling to her knees and looking under George's bed.
She smirked. "Thank you for your help," she said innocently. "And mum will be finding out that you've been practicing magic illegally with her wand and the gnomes from the garden."
Fred started to protest, but he was interrupted by a bossy voice coming down the stairs.
"What's going on in here?" Percy asked. "Why is there so much screaming?"
Ginny pointed to the twins. "They tried to pull my tooth out by slamming it in the door."
Percy shot them a dirty look that said, "I'll deal with you two later", and led Ginny up the stairs to his room. It took longer than he had expected because Ginny climbed the stairs very slowly, being so small.
Once they finally got to his room, he instructed Ginny to sit on his chair.
"So your tooth is finally ready to come out?" he said. "You must be excited."
"Oh, I am!" she assured him.
"Can you bend it in every direction?"
"Yes."
"Do you want me to help you pull it out?" Percy asked.
"No."
"Why not?"
"I want it to come out by itself," she replied. "I want it to fall out one day and surprise me."
"I don't think you want that," he said. "One time, George had a really loose tooth, and he was eating a piece of bread and he didn't even feel it come out. He just swallowed it down with the bread."
Ginny gaped at him. "Really?"
"Yep, he didn't even get a chance to put it under his pillow."
"Percy, are you lying?"
Percy chuckled. "Would I lie to you about something like that?"
"No…but I don't want to swallow my tooth!" she whined. "What should I do?"
"Pull it out," he replied with a shrug.
"I don't want to pull it out."
"Suit yourself," he said with a shrug. "But don't blame me when something bad happens to it."
With that, Percy herded her out of his room and closed the door behind her.
Ginny stood on the platform thinking. If Percy was right, which he usually was, her tooth might never make it to be under her pillow. If that was the case, she would have wasted a lot of time taking care of her loose tooth. She really didn't like thinking about that.
While she was standing there considering her options, her only other brother came down the stairs towards her, too busy reading a Quidditch magazine to notice her. She was too engrossed in her thoughts to notice him.
But he kept walking and she kept standing still, neither one aware of the other until he ran into her, knocking her down on the platform. Then, they noticed each other.
"Oops, sorry Ginny," Ron said. "I didn't see you. Why didn't you stop me?"
"I didn't see you either," she replied, rubbing her shoulder where she had hit the wall.
"Hey!" he exclaimed. "When did your tooth fall out?"
She gasped. "My tooth came out?" she cried. "It was still in my mouth a minute ago. It must have fallen out when you knocked me down. Help me look for it."
The two of them got down on their hands and knees and searched the area for Ginny's missing tooth.
"I found it!" Ron cried, holding up a baby tooth.
Ginny squealed and grabbed it from his hand.
"Thanks Ron," she said, hugging him. "You're my favorite brother!"
"Really?"
She didn't answer him. Instead she asked, "How much do you think this tooth is worth?"
Ron shrugged. "I don't know. Since it's your first tooth you might get a whole Galleon for it. First teeth are always worth more."
Ginny couldn't stop smiling. She stuck her tongue in the empty space where her loose tooth had been. It would take some getting used to.
"I can't wait to show everybody else!" she cried, knocking on Percy's door. "They'll be so excited!"
Ron simply wished her luck and went downstairs to find something to eat, leaving Ginny to visit each and every one of her brothers…again.
A/N: Yes, I'm still alive, and no, I haven't given up on you guys. Okay, so I know this story is extremely different from my usual L/J and Marauder Era stories, but I had to write this. I don't like it very much, and I almost didn't post it at all because of that, but I decided to anyway, so telling me it's astupid storywould be pointless. Don't worry, I have another story coming after this one, and it will be a multi-chapter L/J fic although it's pretty different from my usual stories, too, in its own way. You'll see what I mean when I post it. It's seems as though my pattern is multi-chapter, one-shot, one-shot, repeat. That's interesting. My next story still isn't a long one (only three chapters), but I'm working on one.I just need an idea.
This story won't be posted on Portkey because it doesn't fit into any of the categories, so this will be the only place you can find it. Enjoy. I don't know when my next story will be up, but if you're patient it will come. Just wait. It shouldn't be too long since I finished it last night, but I'm not promising anything.
Thanks for reading! Please review! I'd really appreciate it.
Cat