Title: Beware of Potions

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Summary: Fred and George create a new product in the summer before their 6th year, but when one of them samples it, they find that it has far different effects than they'd hoped for.

Chapter Five

As fast as Molly had become over years of trying to put a stop to the twin's antics, the lengthy spell she needed to cast to close the floo was easily outdone by her son's quick use of the network. She nearly swore and felt the need to destroy something and then rushed to the fireplace to grab the floo powder, intent on finding her sons and making it so that they wouldn't leave their rooms for a month, school be damned!

Before she was able to grab a handful though, Arthur had come in and put a hand on her shoulder, asking her softly where the twins had gone. She seethed under his hand and Arthur felt a moment of pity for his twin sons when they would finally be within their mother's reach. He had heard the floo activating as he came inside and had ached with the desire to stun the twins and lock them in their room indefinitely.

"Your sons," she growled out, making the word "your" sound almost lethal, "found it necessary to take off on an adventure to DIAGON ALLEY!" She screeched, and Arthur used all of his will power to not back away from her at that moment. The rest of the children, who had followed him inside, had already taken measures to hide behind furniture. Arthur made a point to stand in between them and his enraged wife, not wanting the unsuspecting teens to feel her misplaced wrath.

"Come now, Molly dear, we'll get it sorted out soon enough," he said, trying to placate her as best he could. "What destination did they use when they left?"

She still looked ready to kill and Arthur wasn't sure it would be safe for any of them if he let her see the boys just yet. He'd have to seriously talk to them before returning them to Molly, and even then, he would have to hold out hope that they'd live to see morning.

"George said 'The Leaky Cauldron,' and I can only assume that's where Fred went as well. You go get them and march them right back here!" She demanded and he already had his hands up in a way that was meant to calm someone, although it was almost like trying to give a friendly handshake to a dragon.

"I'll be back soon enough, dear," he moved to give her a light kiss, but thought better of it, choosing instead to hastily grab some floo powder and shout out his destination. The five teens that had been left behind with Molly made to go upstairs and Molly didn't stop them. None of them wanted to escalate the situation any further.

Molly held her wand in her fist after Arthur left and slowly counted to twenty in the attempt to regain control over her rightfully raging temper. Once she felt that she would not hex into oblivion the next person she spoke with, she called the other children downstairs, wanting to check Hermione's leg once again.

The five teens came down slowly; even Percy hesitated, having never seen Molly look so bent out of shape. She eyed them all and then spoke quietly, "I'm not angry at you lot, now get over here before I do become angry."

They hustled over to the living area where they could see the Weasley family clock, which Molly eyed with growing anger. The twins' hands kept moving around the clock, signaling that they were travelling, as did Arthur's, which meant that he was most likely searching for them through the floo. She sighed loudly and sat down, motioning for Hermione to sit next to her.

Quickly performing a simple diagnostic spell that every mother of any number of boys needed to know, she found that Hermione only had a rather painful bruise and a slight cut that was easily mended. Molly summoned a bruise salve that she kept for such occasions and, while applying it to the quiet teenager, glanced once again at the clock.

Two of the hands had stopped.

The twins' hands had finally settled on "mortal peril," while Arthur's was still travelling. The five teens in the room with her froze at her startled gasp and followed her eyes to the clock. They watched in silence as Arthur's hand joined the twins' at "mortal peril" before one of the twin's hands suddenly began moving again. The group in the Burrow continued to stare in dreaded anticipation as the hand passed "home" and "school" and settled on "lost."

The teens in the Burrow shared worried glances, but none looked as distraught as Molly did. She stared at the clock in silence, looking like she was willing the "lost" twin's hand to move and growing more and more upset every second that it didn't.


Arthur came to a stop at the Leaky Cauldron and poked his head out long enough to see that the twins weren't inside. Tom noticed him from behind the bar and called out to him.

"Your boys haven't been playing with the floo, have they?" Tom said, smirking knowingly.

"Unfortunately, yes. Have they gone outside, do you know?" Arthur asked quickly, wanting to find the boys before they caused any more trouble for themselves than was absolutely necessary.

"The one almost caught the other but then they jumped right back into the floo, shouting out a destination in Hogsmead."

"Ah think it was tha' sweets shop, aye it must'a been," said one slightly inebriated customer. Arthur rolled his eyes ever so slightly but thanked them nonetheless, stepping back into the floo with a new destination.

He followed rumors of the twin's appearances from there to Honeydukes and then back to Diagon Alley's Flourish and Blotts, where he learned that the twins were not to be allowed back in anytime soon. Apparently they had upset several book stands which Arthur spent a few moments setting back to rights. Not only had they been trying to hex each other but they had disregarded anything and anyone around them. Arthur's pity for what his wife would do to them was slowly wearing off.

Just as he was about to ask where they had taken off to next, he heard an explosion happening a short ways away from the store. Arthur walked to the window of the store and stood watching the people on the street quickly move away from the entrance to Knockturn Alley, which was where the explosive sounds were coming from. An inner debate raged inside of him: go off and find his two wayward sons or go assist with what looked like a quickly growing battle occurring down the street.

The decision was made for him a moment later as a patronus in the form of a lynx, which he knew belonged to Kingsley Shacklebolt, flew in to inform him of possible Death Eater activity in Knockturn Alley. They had heard rumors of old Death Eaters causing trouble here and there and it looked like this one was a bit too close for comfort to Diagon Alley. He sighed and hoped that his two boys hadn't gotten too far ahead of him and that they would tire of this game soon. He hoped more than anything that the two would hear of what was happening and return home, but he would soon find that his hopes were in vain.


Fred was doing his best to lead George on a wild goose chase, or "wild Weasley chase" as they sometimes called events such as this, but George was determined to give as good as he got. They had held "wild Weasley chases" in Hogwarts many times, usually with Lee chasing the twins. Unlike those events, this one wasn't planned or agreed upon, and Fred really seemed to be trying to lose George. To his benefit, however, George could somewhat anticipate the places his brother would go and wasn't surprised when he shouted out the destinations he did.

He matched his twin pace for pace when they arrived at a new store or, in one case, the ministry of magic (that visit didn't last long at all). They spent all of a minute at most at each location – long enough to fire off a few hexes, none of which hit the other boy, and then they jumped back into the floo. George felt slightly guilty about the damage they were causing, but the adrenaline pumping through him was overriding any other forms of common sense.

Each time they reached a new destination, the two leapt out of the floo with the intent to stop the other, or in Fred's case, prevent George from following. George wanted nothing more than to stun his brother and tie him up, but none of his spells hit. He knew they were evenly matched and that a win for either of them would only come if someone else were to intervene. George had been hoping that one of the shopkeepers in Diagon Alley or Hogsmead, or even a ministry official, would be irritated enough to put a stop to their race.

At one point, Fred had shouted out "Honeydukes!" and disappeared in a swirl of green. George had jumped in right after him, hastily apologizing to the shopkeeper in the store they were just in before the green flames swept him away as well.

While George was hoping for both of them to stop, Fred was getting more and more frantic at the fact that he couldn't get away from George. He'd felt like he had no control over jumping into the floo back in the Burrow, and with each step he took, he felt more of his control slip away. It was almost as if that potion was more in control of the situation than he was, and Fred was worried that he wouldn't be able to stop this with George nearby.

Fred stepped out and immediately turned to where George was appearing, pointing his wand and shouting, "Impedimenta!"

George side-stepped it and lashed back, shouting "Expelliarmus!" Fred easily deflected it and George let his irritation show, "Damnit Fred, will you put a stop to this already!"

Fred wasn't able to hold the words back, but even so, what came out was the truth. "Stop following me and it'll be over and done with in seconds! Aguamenti!" With that, a jet of water shot towards George and the teen jumped to avoid getting wet.

"Stop this at once!" One of the Honeydukes employees demanded from a few feet away.

Fred groaned and raised his wand into the air with a loud call of "Avis," which summoned a large flock of birds within the building. He followed it up by pointing his wand at George and calling out "Oppugno," which directed the flock towards his twin.

George angrily muttered "depulso" at the birds to get rid of them as his twin jumped back into the floo. Quickly, George threw an "immobulus" spell to slow him down and then darted after, once again throwing apologetic looks over his shoulder to the clerk who was taking cover a few yards away.

Before Fred shouted out his next destination, George found himself wishing with all his might that his twin would head home or just give it up. It was obvious that the clerks in the stores they had run through weren't going to be any help, and no one else seemed keen to intervene. Still, George hoped that someone would come and put a stop to it before something truly regrettable happened.

Fred felt his control over the potion's effects slipping even faster as he jumped into the floo. A phrase, a name, a terrible conjunction of words that would surely spell trouble was fighting to escape him and though he tried desperately to contain it, the words were not to be tamed. Fred looked at his twin and caught the expression of disbelief on George's face as Fred called out his next destination.

"Borgin and Burkes!" His shaky but clear voice rang out through that portion of the store.

Disbelief wasn't the right word to describe what George felt when Fred called out the name of that place. The worst part, he knew, was that there was nothing he could do to stop Fred as the green flames began to sweep him away. George knew instantly that this little chase had been taken too far when Fred jumped into the floo and shouted out that location. Not only would their parents – both parents, mind you – kill them, but they could seriously piss off the residents of Knockturn Alley by jumping out of fireplaces hexing each other.

Despite his mother's stern voice yelling from deep within his conscience, George quickly jumped into the floo and followed his twin, proceeding to grab Fred's arm as soon as they reached the dark store. "Fred, what are you thinking?" he whispered urgently. "We can't keep doing this, especially not here!"

Fred cringed and clenched his eyes shut before grinding out, "Get away." Fred pulled from George's grasp and fired off a stinging hex which George shielded himself from. It was at that moment that George realized that Fred was trying to stop this in the only way that seemed to make sense at the moment. A large part of his anger dissipated entirely as he realized that Fred was running so as to avoid hurting other people again. Not for the first time in the last few days did George wonder just was that potion's effects were. Knowing that he had no time with which to spend on that topic, he considered letting Fred get away so that he could calm himself and regain what control he could. George immediately dashed that option off the list as he wasn't about to leave his twin in this state in the middle of Knockturn Alley.

While George was distracted with his revelations, Fred ran through the store to the doors which led to the Alley, firing off a couple spells as he did so. One of them knocked over something that looked like it might have been either very valuable or incredibly worthless, and not a second later, Mr. Borgin made his presence known.

"Who the hell is rampaging through my shop!" He followed them through the store, cursing all the way while Fred darted ahead of them. George nearly had a heart attack – did his twin have a death wish? But no, he reminded himself, this wasn't his twin acting. This was the work of that potion, and somehow it had affected Fred, or at least he desperately hoped that was the case.

George bolted ahead of Mr. Borgin and grabbed his twin's sleeve just as they reached the door. Right at that moment, however, Mr. Borgin had decided to use other measures than shouting to stop them. With an enraged shout of "Reducto!" an intense blasting curse shattered the doorframe just to the right of them, effectively throwing them out into the street. The explosive sound echoed through the Alley and turned the heads of everyone present.

Mr. Borgin appeared out of the smoke, just like one of those muggle movie stars might emerge from what surely should have been a fatal explosion, and he was brandishing his wand in a way that declared his intent: he wanted to kill whomever was responsible for causing such a mess in his shop. George glanced to his left to where Fred was also frozen by the sight of the angry store owner, and thanked Merlin that he was no longer firing off spells at anything and anyone. George felt a great bit of relief as Fred stood closer to him so that they seemed united, not as though they had just been dueling it out in over ten different locations over the last twenty minutes.

The twins quickly stood as one and started to back away from Mr. Borgin, lifting their hands in a way that showed that they didn't want to cause any more problems.

"Ah, sorry about that, sir," Fred said, trying to sound as apologetic as he could and look it, too. The shock from the older man's blasting curse had given him the chance he needed to regain a bit of footing in the fight to not continue acting like an idiot.

"We never meant to end up here, you see," George tried to carry on, but the look on Mr. Borgin's face silenced him immediately.

Once again, they tried to back away when they were stopped, each with one hand on a shoulder. The boys turned abruptly to see Lucius Malfoy of all people standing just behind them with an evil smirk on his face. George flinched but could hardly move with the vice-like grip that Malfoy Sr. had on his shoulder.

"My, my, Mr. Borgin, it seems that two of your guests have been quite rude…" Malfoy practically purred with pleasure, and the rest of the crowd seemed to edge closer in anticipation while the two boys grew smaller by the second. "Allow me to assist in teaching these worthless little blood traitors," at this his grip tightened even more, "some of the reasons why acting with more propriety and class would benefit them."

Mr. Borgin smirked and replied, "By all means, Mr. Malfoy, be my guest." No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the two Weasleys were thrown to the ground and a myriad of hexes and curses began flying through the air.

The two boys tried their utmost to defend themselves, and for having just finished their fifth year, they were doing better than expected. Unfortunately, they were no match for the highly skilled wizards that were bearing down on them. It only took a matter of moments for several cutting, burning, and bone-breaking curses the fly through their flimsy shields.

Either twin was focused solely on watching out for the other – it was as if their argument that morning had never occurred and that, in light of current danger, the potion was reacting more strongly to a greater threat. When one of the twins received a cutting curse to the shoulder, the other growled in anger and threw back the strongest hex he knew. When that one encountered a nasty burning curse in the leg, the other fired off a quick succession of small hexes in the hope of buying them some time.

The battle, if a ten-on-two fight could be called such, continued on for perhaps two minutes, although to the twins it felt like two hours. Both were now injured and having trouble breathing, either because of the stress or from an injury. A brief call of "Aurors! Aurors are coming!" gave them a burst of energy which they used to the fullest in the hopes that help would arrive soon.

Just before the aurors made their appearance, a strong blasting curse threw the twins apart, one landing closer to the entrance to Diagon Alley and the other landing almost at the feet of Malfoy Sr., who looked far too pleased with himself. Seeing that the time to leave was fast approaching, Lucius knelt down, sneered at the twin farther from him and clutched the shoulder of the one at his feet. Staring in horror, the twin farther away could only watch as the dark wizard apparated away with his brother.

At that moment, something broke inside the twin that remained in Knockturn Alley. He completely forgot the English language as he tried to formulate words to express his shock and denial. He stared at the place where he'd last seen his other half, seeing nothing else and feeling nothing but a sudden and gut-wrenching loss.

He barely registered the men and women cloaked in red running past him and firing off spells at the ones that he'd been trying to defend himself from only moments before. One of the newcomers knelt before him and was speaking to him, but he didn't hear or understand what the man was saying.

Feeling himself being shaken, he tried to focus on the man in front of him – red hair, a few freckles, and familiar blue eyes – Dad, he thought wearily. He'd never felt so tired in all his life, and he suddenly found his eyes drooping shut. His father's voice rang out frantically for him to open his eyes and, though he tried, he couldn't fight off the comfort that he knew sleep would provide.

Oops… mwa ha ha! I seriously need to stop taking my anger out on those two! They don't deserve it! lol Lucy, you have to admit, this will make it harder for them to fight anymore… although I don't think this is what you had in mind ;)

In any event, while I try not to beg, PLEASE leave a note describing the lameness of my story from 1 to 10 – 1 being "oh my goodness just go get another latte and leave the twins alone" and 10 being "yeah I feel angry sometimes too (hehehehehe)."

I'll stop the lameness for now. Love ya k thankx bye!