WRITTEN FOR QLFC, Book Club

These Violent Delights

Prompt:

[word] Monster

The Monster Under The Bed

Fred and George try to prank Arthur but fail. Charlie decides to help them prank Percy instead.

Arthur yawned as he held onto the bannister and trudged upstairs. He had had a long day at work, and all he wanted to do was get into bed, cuddle with his lovely wife and go to sleep. But fate had different plans for him.

He had almost passed by one of the rooms when he heard Fred call out, "Dad! Is that you?"

Arthur pursed his lips to muffle his yawn and slowly opened the door. "Yeah, it's me… Shouldn't you be asleep right now?"

Five-year-old Fred lay in a small ball on his bed, wrapped in his blue blanket. He stuck his little hand out and motioned for Arthur to come closer, fear evident on his face.

Sighing under his breath, Arthur walked over to his side and leaned down to kiss Fred's cheek. Fred cupped Arthur's face and whispered, "Dad, I think there's a monster under my bed."

Arthur closed his eyes to forestall the headache already brewing and got onto his knees to look under Fred's bed. There, he found his son curled up in a ball, his eyes wide with fright.

"I think there's a monster on the bed, Dad."

"Please, go to sleep, George," Arthur said with a soft chuckle. He reached out to pull his son out from under the bed and dusted him off. "It's way past your bedtime, son."

The twins pouted as they realised their prank hadn't worked on their father. They watched him leave the room before they decided to go trick Percy instead.

They found him engrossed in one of his books, but before they could attempt anything, Bill and Charlie came up behind them and caught them by their ears.

"Ow! Stop that!" Fred and George whined as their brothers dragged them away. "We'll tell Mum!"

Bill snorted and said, "That's not going to work on us, boys. Now, if you really want to prank Percy, you need to plan before you do anything."

"Like what?" the twins asked in unison, making Bill grimace at the creepiness of their tone.

"Scare him when he's asleep," Charlie suggested with a grin. "If you want to make him believe there's a monster in his room, you have to be stealthy."

"What's stealty?"

"Stealthy means in a way you're not seen or heard by anyone," Bill explained patiently. "And Charlie, you shouldn't encourage them. Mum will—"

"Oh, come on, Bill! It's not like we never pranked Percy before! It's all in the name of harmless fun," Charlie protested.

Bill sighed exasperatedly. "Fine. But I'm not a part of this," he said, raising his hands in defence as he walked back towards the stairs.

Charlie grinned as he turned towards his little proteges. "Now, to act like a monster, you must become the monster… And I have the perfect Potion that will help you."

"Charles Weasley! How dare you feed your brothers a Polyjuice Potion? Don't you have any idea how dangerous it is?" Molly screamed as she ran after Charlie with her slipper in hand.

"I said I was sorry! I didn't know the nails belonged to Scabbers! I thought they were the gnomes'!" Charlie howled as the slipper hit his backside. "Mum, that hurts!"

"Serves you right for trying to scare me," Percy said, trembling with fear. The image of two rat-faced monsters sneaking into his room through the window—in the middle of the night!—would haunt him for the rest of his life.

"What do you mean by 'try', Perce? We did scare you," Charlie teased but shut up when Molly Accioed her slipper once again. "Sorry, Mum!"

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