AN: Sheesh. I caved. Normally I wouldn't post this until tomorrow or the day after...but I really really wanted to do it today. So I told myself that I could put this up if I wrote anoter chapter tonight, and then...I did! Yeyah Me!! And all of you lovely readers get another chapter a day early. ) "So, what's this great plan?" Lee asked excitedly. He had walked through the door into his dorm room a moment before to see Fred and George kneeling in front of George's trunk, rummaging through it's contents. "Have you got it? Whatever it is."

"Of course!" Fred answered, glancing over his shoulder with an offended look. "You didn't think that we'd lose this little piece of brilliance after what we went through to make it?" He went back to pulling aside books, clothes, and other items that, knowing the twins, may or may not have been dangerous.

"Well, you wouldn't think so," Lee said, closing the door behind him, "but you don't seem to have it."

"Sure we do!' George pulled an old pair of trainers out of the corner of his trunk and reached in again. "Somewhere in here…. There! Got it!" He pulled a miniscule potion bottle out from inside a rolled up pair of mittens.

"It's a potion?" Lee asked, surprised. "Okay, what exactly have you planned here?"

"Just a little something we've cooked up for Alicia over the summer," Fred informed him. "As a result of her quite literally obsessing about her fingers-" He held the bottle up to the light and looked at it. The liquid inside was a deep blue color. "A simple, innocent, practical joke. You know she made Quidditch practice almost unbearable for a while. Practically refused to catch a Quaffle if it might mean breaking a nail."

"A drop of this and it will take quite a bit to get them to stop growing." George took the potion from his brother's hand and pocketed it.

"Actually, all it would take is one more drop. It reverses itself. We figured that she would want them to stop growing eventually."

Lee grinned as he pictured the scene his friends were planning. Anyone that knew Alicia Spinnet knew that she was proud of her hands. They were always adorned with rings and bracelets, her nails nicely trimmed. This would be a bit of a shock. Fred and George grinned mischievously back at him.

"How did you come up with this?" Lee asked in awe.

George placed a hand on Lee's shoulder. "Sheer genius, my friend."

"That and very large gloves," Fred added, shaking his head ruefully. "You should have seen how some of our tests turned out!" He and George laughed together and walked for the door, Lee close behind. Fred couldn't help but think how it was amazingly nice it was having George back to normal. Yesterday had been terrible, but apparently he had gotten over whatever his problem was.

They walked into the Common Room and saw Alicia sitting alone on a couch in front of the fireplace with a half empty Butterbeer on the table next to her. Perfect. George grinned roguishly at Fred and Lee before walking towards the unsuspecting girl across the room. He took the potion out of his pocket and concealed it in his fist, then sat on the couch next to Alicia and slid his arm around her shoulder, putting his hand with the small bottle right next to her drink.

Within seconds George had Alicia laughing and in a conversation. Fred was already inwardly celebrating - She'd had this coming since last year.

He walked to the fireplace and smiled at Alicia, getting her to look at him and away from her drink. "I wanted to say again Alicia, great job in the game yesterday. Third year in a row Gryffindor has beat Slytherin!"

Fred saw George take advantage of the distraction and tip the bottle over her cup, pouring several drops of their concoction into the Butterbeer. No wait, that was too much. It only needs one drop. Fred looked urgently to his twin, asking with his eyes what was he doing. George winked slyly and turned back to Alicia, and Fred relaxed slightly. George must know what he was doing.

"Okay, what's up with you two?" She smirked suspiciously at both of them. George shrugged and shook his head. Fred folded his arms and leaned against the side of the fireplace, and Alicia picked up her cup, "I've known you long enough, I can see when you're plotting something." She lifted the drink to her lips.

Fred caught his breath in anticipation of the moment, then let it out and grinned in triumph as she set the cup back down. George pulled his arm out from around her and folded it behind his head, a smug smile on his face. She looked over at him.

Then a curious expression appeared on her face, a mixture of uneasiness and confusion. She jumped abruptly and looked down to her decorated hands. "Oh… oh my g-" her nails were slowly and steadily emerging out of the tips of her fingers.

Fred grinned at George who had sat up straight, and Lee was already laughing and was walking towards them from where he had been watching by the stairs. Then Alicia started breathing heavily and shaking.

"Fr..Fred… what?" She looked up at him and then at George, her face a mask of fear and even pain. Fred straightened and stepped toward her as she started to gasp and whimper softly.

Her nails were growing much faster than they were meant to. Fred glanced up at George who was, unbelievably, still smiling. Alicia had her fingers held straight in front of her and was staring at them with a horrified expression.

"Alicia, you okay?" Lee hurried the rest of the way to the couch and reached out a hand to hers. Her nails were already five inches longer than they were seconds ago. She let out a cry mingled with a small scream.

"I…It hurts!" She looked up at the two friends in front of her with tears down her face. "What ha..happened?" Alicia clenched her teeth to try to keep the sobs back. Fred knelt in front of her and looked closely at her hands.

His stomach turned and small panic gripped him as he saw small droplets of blood forming on the sides of her fingernails.. This had gone all wrong. She screamed again and threw her head against the back of the couch, her hands trembling in her lap. Her fingernails were growing so rapidly that they were cutting her skin and ripping out the back.

Fred stood quickly and laid a hand gently on her arm. "Hold on, I've got something to stop it." he said, thankful that they had made sure of a cure. Alicia opened her eyes wide and nodded at him, still shaking with sobs.

Fred turned to his brother and held out his hand for the bottle, but George stayed staring at Alicia, his expression solid and cold.

"George!" Fred nearly yelled. "Where is it?" He flinched as Alicia shrieked again. Her nails were over a foot long, with blood dripping steadily off of her fingertips. Fred turned back to his brother. "Give her the cure!" His voice was strained. George slowly turned his head towards his twin and blinked. Fred felt himself fill with anger. What the bloody hell was George's problem?

He reached for George's hand to take the potion for himself. Fred was sure that he saw George pull back slightly before opening his hand briefly to allow him to take the bottle. Fred searched his twin's face for a small sign of what was going on, then was shaken back to the present urgency by Alicia Spinnet's pained cry.

He turned back to her and slid his hand under her tense neck, as he pulled the lid off of the small bottle with his other. Fred quickly poured the remainder of the blue liquid into her mouth and urged her to swallow.

Alicia let out one last piercing scream as her nails retracted back into her skin, spurting small amounts of blood onto the floor as they went. She then broke into shaking sobs and grasped both of her hands tightly under her chin.

Fred reached around her and pulled her up into a hug, he himself still shaking from the ordeal. "I'm so sorry," he said quietly, "That wasn't supposed to happen…"

Alicia tried to reply, but wasn't able to get out much more out than a whimpering moan. The portrait hole to the Common Room swung open and Professor McGonagall climbed in, followed by a shaken looking first year. The eleven year old had apparently gone for her Head of House when she'd heard Alicia's screams.

Fred looked up over Alicia's shoulder to see McGonagall's shocked and frightened face staring down at them. Alicia slowly turned and faced the Professor, struggling to control her tears.

"What happened?" McGonagall asked immediately, searching the room for signs of a catastrophe. She walked briskly from the door the to the spot where Alicia, Fred, and Lee were standing, and for the first time Fred noticed the twenty or so students clustered around the small couch.

Minerva McGonagall put her hand on Alicia's arm and looked concernedly down at her. "Are you alright?"

Alicia nodded and blinked rapidly, and Professor McGonagall assumed a stern look and set her lips in their common straight line. "Now, someone tell me immediately what was going on here." She looked sharply from student to student, waiting for an answer.

Fred took a deep breath and described the situation - how a simple prank had resulted in a not-so-simple crisis. He finished his explanation and held up the empty potion bottle wearily. George sat silently through all of this, not once moving from his original spot on the couch.

McGonagall shook her head disappointedly and stared directly into Fred's eyes, making him feel overwhelmingly like a useless worm. He couldn't help but look down slightly.

"This… foolishness. Miss Spinnet, please let me see your fingers." Alicia held her hands out and let her Head of House look closely at them. There was still fresh blood smeared across her fingertips. Minerva closed her eyes slowly and gently closed her hand over Alicia's.

She looked back up at the girl in front of her and smiled sympathetically. "Go up to the Hospital Wing. I believe that Madame Pomfrey is still in."

Alicia nodded and smiled shakily back, but stopped before she reached the door. "Professor," she said quietly, "I'm not angry with Fred and George. It was an accident, I understand." She shrugged and smiled briefly at Fred, then turned and climbed out through the portrait hole, careful not to put much weight on her hands. Once she had left the room, Professor McGonagall turned back to the twins.

"How do you explain yourselves?" She looked over her glasses at one, then the other. Fred respectfully meeting her gaze, and George leaning leisurely against the arm of the couch. "I can't imagine how an idea like that got into your heads. A homemade potion to unnaturally speed human growth tested on a classmate."

Fred restrained himself from correcting her. They had tested it on themselves many times before this, George had just given Alicia too much. Fred didn't know why he felt so guilty, it really hadn't been his fault at all.

"I want the two of you in my office directly. We will talk more there." McGonagall's robes shuffled on the floor as she walked toward the door. Fred turned to Lee and George and gave a humorless laugh. He hadn't felt this tired in a long time. Anyway, that was three months of experimenting and testing wasted. More than wasted, actually for the worse.

He waited for George to pull himself onto his feet and then followed him out of the Common Room, leaving behind the steady buzz of students discussing what had just happened.

Okee. By now, everyone on Fanfiction sites should know the routine. Reading is directly followed by - say it with me now - reviewing. That makes The Authoress happy and that makes the story turn out better! And it gives me more stories to read, because I love reading the stories of my reviewers!