The first offical chapter of Merlin's Beard Daycare! Enjoy.
Ms. Figg had stopped smiling by now. She was busy with the twins, keeping them far away from the curtains that they threatened to tear down if they got near the wispy cat patterned fabric. She meanwhile had threatened to take away their matching teddies. The twins were obviously were at a standstill of what to do, they wanted to wreak havoc, but how could they do that without their cuddly bears. (Of whom were named Gred and Forge). "Geowge, we need a-," Fred stopped whispering, his babysitter's eyes were fixed firmly on him. "Bill's stowy!" He and his twin scurried over to Bill and Charlie. While they looked like they were listening, Figgy could plainly see that more plans were being created in the toddlers' minds.
She didn't have too much time to reflect on what the twins could be planning. Her thoughts were interrupted by loud cries from Neville. She picked him up off his blanket and started cooing and talking calmly to him. Before this ridiculous job, she'd not had too much experience with kids. There were the jobs while she was in school, yet that was years ago, more than what she wanted to think. Her only children were cats, and cats were much different than babies.
Neville's cries continued, "I bet you're hungry little Neville!" She said, trying to stay happy and cheery, his cries were very loud and pitchy. "Let's take a trip to the refridgerator and see what we find!" So, baby in arms, Ms. Figg walked to her kitchen and opened up the door to the fridge. Milk bottles were lined up, with initials marking which baby the bottle was intended for. She picked up a N.L. bottle and walked back to the living room.
Again, the sight that met her was not something she wanted, it seemed that there was a second bomb that had gone off. A bomb, which was created by Fred and George. Figgy knew that young wizards couldn't control their magic until they were at least seven. Yet, she had a sneaking suspicion that they knew she couldn't take their teddies if she was feeding Neville.
"Nasty lot you two are, tricking me like that." She glared at the two, who were enveloped in the curtains. They smiled back at her, then went back at each other laughing and giggling as they tried to trip each other with the long fabric. She looked down at Neville, who was in turn looking serenely up at her. "You'll be no problem when you're older, a nice quiet boy. Eh Neville?"
He kept staring and sucking at the bottle. "Fantastic, I'm talking to babies and trying to keep toddlers under control." She knew that she was going mad and she didn't have her cats to comfort her. For their own safety, she'd locked them up in her room upstairs. The poor things wouldn't know what hit them with babies pulling at their tails and the twins... she didn't even want to think of what would happen to her little dears.
The laughter had since turned to screams of delight, she put down Neville and haphazardly threw his bottle over her shoulder. "Alright, that's it." The woman stood up and towered over the two. "You know, Ms. Figgy wants to be good friends with you two. But she can't do that if you keep acting like Fwoopers, she'll just go insane!" The twins looked at her confused.
"But Ms. Figgy, wha's a Fwooper?" George asked innocently.
"Fantastic, a diversion." The twins gazed expectantly at her. "Well, the story of the Fwooper starts like this..." She told the tale of the African bird, and was appreciative of the two anxiously asking questions about the bird. "Have I told you the story of the wayward wizard who was driven crazy by the call of the bird?" Fred and George shook their heads vigorously.
"Sounds good, how does it go?" George asked. So, again she put on her storytelling voice and talked about the crazy wizard, Percival, who was driven mad by the Fwooper's song and went on to foolishly mingle with trolls. Where he joked about muggles making them out to look like Santa Claus. At the end of the story, the twins rolled on the floor, laughing about poor Percival's fate.
Figg looked to the rest of the children, and they looked back, Charlie and Bill had finished their storytelling as well by this point. "Hmm, now what is it that young wizards and witches like to do?" The kids kept staring. "Art? Or perhaps reading? I can't take you outside, Merlin's beard, all that could happen." Just as she said that, Fred hiccuped and purple bubbles burst out of his mouth. She grimaced as the twins jumped for the bubbles that didn't seem willing to pop. "Fantastic."