Story Title/Link: Pranks and Twin Troubles
School and Theme: Ilvermorny, Artefact incidents
Main prompt: [First Line] 'This was not a good idea. In fact, it was probably their/his/her worst idea yet.'
Additional prompts: [Object] Torn T-shirt, [Quote] "It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up" - V Lombardi
Year: 7th year
Wordcount: 1418
AU: Fred lives, George marries OC instead of Angelina
This was not a good idea. In fact, it was probably their worst idea yet.
Making a t-shirt that changed size as someone was wearing it seemed like a good idea for the shop, but ended up being more trouble than it was worth. It had started strangling Fred! He had nearly died! Nope, definitely not a good idea. Maybe they should stay away from prank clothing.
Healer Diaz, the healer they had been assigned, came in and did a quick once over of all the equipment before speaking.
"Just some bruising on and around the neck. Mr. Weasley, you were very lucky you got him here when you did, much longer and he would have passed out, possibly worse, died. I would suggest keeping Mr. Weasley here tonight, so I can keep an eye on him overnight and I will see about tomorrow. Do your best to not come here again, because this is the third time this month! Granted, this is the first time because of a physical injury, but with the curses and hexes you are creating and putting together, you come here more often than people twice your age!"
"Yes, Healer Diaz." George sighed.
"Oh come on George, call me Faith. I just called both you and Fred, Mr. Weasley, because it is required to do so, even though we went to Hogwarts together. But now I have an excuse to call you and your brother by your first names: You're in here too often. I've got to go now, but I'll drop by later, once I finish work. See ya!" Faith jogged back to her office, her bright blue hair flying out behind her.
"Bye, Faith!"
George left the building and disapparated with a pop. When he popped into existence at his destination, George went straight through the door and up to the loft above the shop. He quickly changed and headed back down to where his and his brother's second-in-commands, Kate Li (Kit) and John Blair (Gino), were behind the counter. Walking up behind them, he stayed as quiet as possible and then stomped his foot. Kit and Gino jumped and turned around with practised synchronisation, Kit's curly black and red hair flying around to smack her in the face, and when they saw George, they relaxed and started scolding him.
"You almost gave me a heart attack, sir!" Gino exclaimed.
"Yeah, I nearly sent a hex at you, George. Don't do that!" Kit nearly yelled.
"I only do that because it's fun. You get so distracted that it's easy to- Hello, what would you like to buy today?" George asked, cutting himself off to address a customer.
"May I get a Pygmy Puff and 2 sets of Extendable Ears?" the customer asked, depositing the Extendable ears on the bench.
"Of course, that'll be 7 galleons and 10 sickles, please." The customer handed over the money, and went to select a Pygmy Puff. George turned back to Kit and Gino. "It's easy to scare you when you get distracted."
Just before George went upstairs, he called out to them. "Faith is dropping by when she finishes work, so, can you let her up? And no one else? I'm gonna work on something."
"Sure, George!" came the sound of Kit's voice.
George continued on his way up to the loft, and closed the door behind him. He then set off to the potions lab and decided to work on a Calming Draught. As he finished, George heard a knock on the door to the loft. He quickly left the lab, opened the door and ushered Faith inside.
"So what have you been doing? How are you?" George asked.
"Second question, I'm good. First question, I've been helping patients like always and have applied to take the position of Head Healer. If my interview goes well, it'll be between me and 2 other people. If it doesn't, well, I'll still be a healer. What about you?"
"I'm fine. I don't know why Fred and I thought that t-shirt would be a good idea, but I ripped it to shreds." He pointed at the torn t-shirt in question, which was hanging over the back of the chair at the desk. "I'm thinking of working on a new handbook of all the prank spells you can use."
"That's a good idea, you could make updated versions every few years. Just… make sure none of the spells purposely seriously harm or kill people, or else you could be taken to court."
"I know, and I will be personally double- and triple-checking the spells to make sure they are completely safe."
"Good. Um, what do you want to do?" Faith was nervous about what George's reply would be.
"Well, I've got a new product I was thinking of?" George suggested, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Really? What is it?"
"It's a Calming Draught inside a jelly bean. I'm thinking of calling it U-BE-CALM," George replied, getting more confident now.
"Why U-BE-CALM?"
"Because it sounds cool."
"That is no reason to name something."
"Fine. I'm thinking U-BE-CALM because it is a Calming Draught, and they make you calm down easier. And they look similar to the U-NO-POO products we made…"
"That's a good idea! Come on, let's make a few sample ones…" Faith exclaimed, wanting to get right into it.
"Annnnd, done! In three hours, we have made three batches of U-BE-CALM, which is 9 containers ready for sale! Now all we've got to do is spread the word." Faith said, screwing the lid onto the last container.
"Easy, Rita Skeeter owes a friend a few favours, and that friend owes me one, so I'll use those to get an advertisement in the Daily Prophet." George kissed Faith and left both him and Faith surprised at what happened.
"Um, is this you asking me out?"
"...I guess? Will you go out with me?"
"Yes! I've liked you for ages, George. You just didn't see it."
"Oh, dammit. I liked you as well, but I thought you liked someone else, so I didn't ask."
The next day, Fred stirred and blinked in the harsh light of the hospital room he was in. Then, he heard a "FRED!" and looked to his right. There, in all its glory, was his family, all 25 of them, standing around his bed. Their faces all brightened and then he was tackled by his brother, George.
"You're okay!"
"I'm not deaf. I'm not dead. My body is not in pieces, so, yeah."
"Good to have you back, Mr. Weasley," Faith said, allowing a small amount of her relief to show in her voice.
"Good to be back, Faith - I mean - Healer Diaz." Fred stammered.
"Call me Faith, you've got a good excuse." Faith said, looking over his vitals and the machines.
"Oh? And what's the excuse?"
"You are in here too much, so for convenience, you call me Faith."
"Okay. George, what happened to the shirt? Did you destroy it?" Fred asked, sitting up.
"Yep! Destroyed the shirt and created a new product which will come out soon." George said, looking like Christmas had come early.
"Why did you destroy the shirt? I had a backup plan in the notebook. Also, can we talk about the product later?"
"We'll talk about it later," George confirmed.
Back at the loft, the whole Weasley clan was in the living room/kitchen combo room, talking about what had happened. The talking ceased when Fred walked into the room.
"Hey, so George and I were working on a new product for the shop and, well, it started strangling me. But I'm fine now, my neck is just a bit sore. Um, how have you all been?"
By the time everyone except for Fred and George had left, 4 hours had passed. They then spent an hour going over the U-BE-CALM product samples, and then going over the recipe.
When everyone was celebrating George and Faith's wedding, after 3 years of dating, Fred got up to do a speech.
"... And even though we've all been knocked down, we've gotten back up, and that is the most important thing. It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up. We can all get up after we are knocked down together, because our bonds of family, friendship and love have withstood some of the hardest things, and will continue to do so."
Everyone started clapping, and Fred sat back down feeling proud of what they had done, together.