December Prompt #4: Family
"Bill," Charlie whisper-yelled into Bill's ear (even though they were the only ones in the room). "Psst! Hey, Bill! Listen! Are you listening to me? Hello, Bill!"
Bill rolled his eyes and said, "I can hear you just fine, Scorch. What do you want?"
Charlie grinned at the nickname Bill had given him when they had been younger. Charlie had dressed up as a dragon on Halloween, but he had claimed his outfit wasn't complete without dragon-fire. In the end, he had singed eyebrows and had almost choked on the soot that flooded his mouth, horrifying their parents but amusing Bill to no end.
After his mum and dad had taken him to St Mungo's Hospital and scolded him for his stupidity, Bill had dubbed him Scorch, and the name had stuck. Charlie could still remember the way Bill had 'knighted' him with a thin stick they had found in the orchard behind the Burrow.
"Scorch? Hey? What are you saying?" Bill waved his hand in front of his face, bringing Charlie out of his trip down memory lane.
"Sorry," Charlie said quickly, straightening up before grinning excitedly. "Yeah, I was saying that have you noticed we finally have enough siblings to make a human pyramid?"
Bill's eyes widened and he immediately began to scoot away from Charlie. "Uh-uh. No way. Nope. I'm not listening to you—"
"But come on, Bill! It will be so much fun! Just think of the family pictures we could—"
"I heard the words 'human pyramid' and I'm leaving before I'm held responsible," Bill said, getting to his feet.
He was about to walk away when Charlie threw himself at Bill's back and knocked him down to the ground. Bill cried out and wriggled to get away, but Charlie latched on to Bill's shoulders and held onto his brother like an octopus. "Come on, Bill! Please! It will be so much fun!"
"You've got enough people without me," Bill tried to reason, but Charlie shook his head, almost banging their heads together.
"No, you're the only one who can do magic! You could Levitate the others up and make sure they don't fall down. It'll be safer."
Bill groaned and went limp under Charlie. "Mum will kill us all."
"Nah, Mum doesn't want to go to Azkaban. At worst, we'll be grounded," Charlie said with a giggle. He squeezed Bill tighter and asked, "So? Will you do it? Please, Bill, please!"
Bill gritted his teeth and twisted his neck to scowl at Charlie. "You won't let me up until I say yes, will you?"
"Yep," Charlie stated, not even bothering to look ashamed of himself. He knew his brother like the back of his hand.
"Fine, I'll do it, but if Mum catches us—"
"You leave Mum to me. I know just the thing to distract her." Charlie let go of Bill just to rub his hands together like one of those villains in the Muggle comics their dad brought home.
"Fine, but how are you going to convince Percy into this? The twins will probably do whatever you tell them to, which terrifies me, but Percy…" he trailed off pointedly.
"I'll convince Percy, don't worry." Charlie knew just the thing to manipulate Percy into helping them. "You go dress Ron and Ginny in warm clothes, and leave the twins and Percy to me."
"If you're sure…" Bill slowly rose to his feet before leaving the room. The less he knew now, the better he'd be later.
"I'll burn your books if you don't come outside with me and do exactly what I say," Charlie threatened, holding Percy's books over the fire.
Percy's tears streamed down his face as he knelt nearby, his hands clasped tightly. "No, please, leave my books… Please."
"Do you promise you won't tell Mum what we're going to do?" Charlie tilted his hand just enough to make it look like he was going to drop Percy's books into the fire, and Percy jerked forward to clutch Charlie's feet. Charlie held the books out of reach. "Uh, uh, uh… Swear."
"Like the… f-word?" Percy whispered, horrified at the prospect.
"No! Not that! I meant promise me you won't tell Mum," Charlie demanded, slowly inching the books towards the fire.
"I promise! I promise!" Percy cried out in full-blown sobs.
Charlie nodded and pulled the books away from the fire. He wasn't really going to burn his brother's books—he wasn't that ruthless or heartless. He handed Percy the books, and Percy almost wailed with relief as he clutched the books to his chest and petted them. Charlie rolled his eyes and said, "Leave them for a while, Perce. Go put on your sweater and shoes, and meet Bill outside."
Percy sniffled but went up to his room to put away his books.
Charlie then went to look for the twins. He found them in the attic, trying to tie up the ghoul with Spellotape and rope. Charlie leaned against the doorway, amusing himself with the sight for a few moments before reluctantly deciding to help the poor ghoul. He stepped over to the excitedly babbling twins and picked them up off the ground. "Come on, you two. There's snow outside and I have an idea you'll love."
"But, Charlie!" they whined in unison, trying to wriggle out of his firm grip.
"We're making a human pyramid," Charlie explained, and the boys stopped moving. They looked up at him curiously, and Charlie realised they didn't know what it meant—he sometimes forgot they were uncultured little shits who always lied to people, when in fact, they were only four years old.
"Yeah, Bill and I will explain, but the main thing is that if Mum catches any of us doing it, she'll kill us. Are you two in?"
"Yes!" they exclaimed, nodding their heads in excitement. One of them—Charlie thought it was George—said, "We're always in when you say Mum will kill us."
"We like murder," the other twin said, grinning cheerfully up at Charlie.
"O...kay," Charlie said awkwardly, trying not to think too much about what they had just said. "Go get dressed and then meet us outside. Don't let Mum catch you."
"Okay!" They cheered and ran out of the attic, leaving the poor ghoul half-tied. Charlie did his best to placate the ghoul with a sweet he had stolen from Bill's drawer earlier that morning and went to distract his mum.
"So… how are we doing this?" Bill grumbled, hoisting Ginny properly onto his hip. Ginny giggled and reached up to grab onto Bill's hair. She yanked so hard tears welled up in Bill's eyes, but somehow, he managed to stop himself from crying like a baby.
"Alright, listen up!" Charlie called out to the rest of their brothers, and they all snapped to attention—except for Ron, who was sprawled on his back in the snow and was making snow angels.
Charlie walked over and yanked him up by his arm. "Focus, kid. We don't have much time. Any moment now Mum could catch us, so we have to be quick."
Ron scrunched up his nose, but he didn't cry. He simply stuck his tongue out at Charlie's back, who ignored his disrespectful brother for the time being.
"What are we doing?" Percy asked, his arms wrapped around himself. Fred and George were trying to steal his beanie, but because Percy was a little taller than them, they weren't succeeding.
"We're going to make a human pyramid!" Charlie declared.
Fred—or was it George—raised his hand. "What's a pee-ramid?"
"Do we have to pee on it?" the other twin queried right after, raising his hand too. Charlie was getting tired of being so confused about their names, so he decided to give them a nickname.
"Ooh, ooh, can we pee on it?" Thing One asked hopefully, bouncing up and down in the snow.
"No, we're not peeing on anything," Bill interjected before Charlie could explain anything.
"Aww, peeing on things is fun!" Thing Two whined, pouting up at them.
"We're not peeing on anything," Bill announced and was met with loud groans from the twins and Ron while Percy looked relieved.
Charlie said, "Now, everyone will do exactly as I say or else we'll get hurt."
"That's why we shouldn't do this—"
Percy was immediately interrupted by the twins. "That's why we should do this!" they exclaimed and began cheering loudly.
Ginny joined in, making loud baby noises that made no sense to Charlie, but Bill seemed to think it was the most adorable thing he had ever seen. He kept on kissing Ginny's plump cheeks and making her laugh, and Charlie had to wonder if Bill remembered she was the same girl who had peed on him a few days ago—right after she had thrown up on Charlie.
Charlie had to yell over the din to make himself heard. "Perce and I will stand together, and Fred and George will climb on our shoulders, and Bill will Levitate Ron on their shoulders."
The twins gasped and their eyes widened in absolute awe. They whispered, "Wicked!"
Bill frowned. "What about Ginny? And you know using magic outside of school isn't allowed."
"Come on, Bill, it'll be fun!" the twins and Charlie whined in unison.
"Merlin… Fine!" He pulled out his wand and said, "But if Mum catches us, I'll blame you."
Charlie easily agreed to take the blame because he knew their mum wouldn't be able to catch them… unless the gnomes magically decided not to return to their garden, of course. Then, and only then, their mum would find out the house seemed too quiet, get suspicious, and come looking for them.
"Come on, Percy, stand with me." Charlie yanked Percy beside him and then helped Thing One up onto his shoulders. He grunted under his weight but remained standing still.
Thing One cried, "I'm so high! I can see our house from here!"
"Ooh, I want to see!" Thing Two demanded and began his arduous climb up onto Percy's shoulders. Percy almost doubled over under the weight, but he stood up to his full height; his trembling legs were the only way Charlie could see that he was suffering.
"Levitate Ron up now, Bill," Charlie panted out, holding onto Thing One's legs, making sure the idiot didn't try to jump off his shoulders in excitement.
"This is going to end in disaster," Bill muttered. He carefully placed Ginny down on a big pile of snow and then tried to Levitate Ron onto Fred's and George's shoulders. The twins grinned and actually were nice enough to let Ron stand on them.
Ron cried out, "Whee!" and he began to sway back and forth. Charlie's shoulders and legs hurt as he tried to stop his brothers from moving too much.
Bill yelled, "Don't move, Ron!"
But Ron didn't listen.
Before anyone could do anything, Ron tottered and fell forward. Thing One—or was it Two?—reached forward to grab Ron's arm to break his fall, but he ended up falling off too. The other twin yelled, "Wheee!" and jumped after his twin.
Ron landed with a soft thump, facefirst in the snow. Bill hurried over to help him up, and Ron began to wail at the top of his lungs. "Mummy! Mummy!"
At Ron's cries, Ginny opened her mouth and howled, the back of her throat visible to a flustered Charlie. "Oh, shi—" He stopped himself from swearing in front of the twins, knowing they would pick up on the word and use it in front of Mum at the wrong time.
"Bill, do something!" Percy pleaded, covering his ears to keep the noise out.
"Charlie, take care of Gin," Bill ordered, immediately swooping in and picking Ron up. He rocked him back and forth, swayed from side to side, and even bounced him up and down in an attempt to shut him up.
"Shove some snow into his mouth," Charlie suggested. When Bill shot him a glare, Charlie said defensively, "Snow makes him happy, right? Give him some snow."
Bill grunted but crouched down and placed Ron on the ground. He scooped up some snow and said, "Hey, look, Ronnie! Snow! You like snow, right? Do you want to play with this?"
Ron's wails slowly turned to sniffles while Bill was talking. He blinked tearily up at Bill and reached out to grab the snowball from him. Bill said, "There you go! What do you want to do with the snow?"
"Ea' it," Ron mumbled, his face and eyes both red.
"Uhhh… okay, do whatever you want," Bill said awkwardly.
Charlie snorted and watched as Ron brought the snowball up to his mouth and took a huge chunk out of it before grimacing and crying out in pain. "Hurts!"
"How about instead of eating the ball, we play with it?" Bill suggested helpfully, and when Ron nodded, his pain (mostly as a response to his terror) at having fallen from such a height forgotten, Bill began teaching him how to scoop up snow and form it into little balls.
Now that Ron was quiet, Ginny's cries trailed off too, and soon, she was back to her happy, bubbly self. Charlie put her down near Ron, who quickly shoved her away from his deformed snowballs, but Ginny didn't have any interest in them.
She dropped onto her back and began flinging as much snow up into the air as she could get her hands on. To Charlie's surprise, Percy laughed and lay down beside her. "Snow shower!"
The twins yelled, "Snowball fight!" and ran around the orchard, forming snowballs and throwing them at each other's heads.
Charlie joined in, his plan on making a human pyramid now forgotten for the time being. He darted behind a tree and began scooping up handfuls of snow and simply flinging it on Fred's and George's faces. They shrieked and chased him through the snow, trying to shovel snow down the back of his shirt, but it was well nigh impossible as Charlie was too tall—well, taller than them at least.
So, the twins had to get creative. Instead of shoving it down his shirt, they wrestled him onto the snow and yanked his shirt up before slathering him with snow.
Charlie squealed like a pig. "No, no, no! Too cold! Too cold! Get it off me!"
Ron giggled at his reaction, and even Ginny clapped to show her delight. Percy pushed himself up onto his forearm and yelled, "That's for trying to burn my books!"
"I wouldn't have burnt your books!" Charlie yelled back, trembling as the cold began to bother him.
One of the twins bent down to pick up some snow, balled it up, and flung it at Bill's head. Bill cried out just as their Mum's voice rang through the orchard. "Bill, Charlie, where are you all?"
"Oh, no…" the twins whispered, suddenly stopping in their tracks.
"We're busted," Bill whispered, grabbing Ron's hand and helping him up.
Ginny made a sound that Charlie decided to take as agreement. He picked Ginny up and began to walk back home. The twins were trying to sneak back into the treeline, but Percy and Bill had a strong grip on them. Ron was just enjoying prancing through the snow, kicking it up for his amusement and watching it sprinkle over his hands.
When they reached the Burrow, Mum was standing outside, her hands on her hips, and a scowl on her face. Bill stepped forward possibly to explain what was going on when Mum raised her hand and silenced him. "Were you all having a snowball fight?"
"Yes, Mum," they all chorused, looking down at their feet.
"I can't believe you all…" she murmured, sounding disappointed.
Mum was silent for so long that Charlie began to fear their punishment. But then…
A snowball hit Charlie, and his head snapped up in shock. He found Mum with her wand drawn and a mischievous grin on her face. "Mum," he started to say, but Mum stopped him.
"I can't believe you'd leave me out of a snowball fight!" Mum cried before creating snowballs out of thin air. "This time, I'm participating, and I'm taking you all down."
"Ha! I'd like to see you try," Charlie taunted, and Ginny babbled nonsensically in what he hoped was agreement.
"Oh, bring it on, Scorchy," Mum countered, grinning at him. She had a mischievous glint in her eyes that Charlie immediately recognised was a lot like Fred and George's.
"Whoo! Go, Mum!" the twins yelled, and Ron cheered as well. Bill and Percy laughed as they quickly ran up to help Charlie.
Mum began to pelt them all with snow, and the snowball fight began.