Chapter 3: The Jungle Book.

It was the week before the Easter holidays at a Hogwarts. Some of the muggle-horns were excited to be returning home for their family Easter egg hunts. Fred and George Weasley, however, were excited for different reasons. That's kind of a long story, though.

It all began earlier in the year, when the Weasleys had attended the annual Potter Family Christmas Party.

Harry was unwrapping some new Disney VHS tapes he'd gotten recently. Fred saw him and decided to help him.

"Oi, George!" Fred called.

"Yeah, Freddie?" George replied, sticking his head through the doorway.

"C'mere and help us, will you?"

When George entered the room, the three of them started to unwrap like man. They noticed that the boxes for these tapes usually contained paper advertisements for upcoming Disney products on the home entertainment market. One of these was a pamphlet for a new Sega Genesis game based on Disney's The Jungle Book. It also mentioned the upcoming rerelease of the film in the Spring.

This caught their interest because of the expressions on the animal characters. They found them so amusing, almost as if they could be sold as Zonko's toys or be bred in the shops, like Pygmy Puffs. Harry promised them he'd get them the release date so they could go see it.

One day in late March, Hedwig arrived with a rolled up newspaper. Harry unwrapped it and found the advertisement he was looking for. He saw Fred and George planning their next move.

"Excuse me, gentlemen," he mock announced. "I hate to interrupt your knitting, but I couldn't help but wonder if this might strike your fancy."

He unrolled the newspaper and showed them that the film was due to open on April 2.

It was only a week until most of the students were returning home. Fred and George wrote their parents and they worked out a deal. Harry and Hermione had never usually stayed at the Burrow before, so they were going to spend their Easter Holidays there. They'd enjoy a relaxing Easter Sunday before finally going to see the film on a Monday. There was a little cinema in the village, with only one screen, that was going to be playing it.

Soon enough, the big weekend finally came. On the train home, the Golden a trio were occupying themselves, when all of a sudden, the compartment door opened. In stepped Fred and George looking as they typically would, except they were chewing something. When Fred opened his mouth to speak, all that came out was monkey chattering. When George opened his mouth, he let out an elephant's trumpet. They threw some of the sweets they were chewing to the three friends. As soon as the effects wore off, Fred spoke.

"Save it for the movie," he advised.

When they were gone, they glanced around and decided to chew them.

Ron chewed and when he opened his mouth, he too sounded like a monkey. He made a note to himself to get back at Fred and George for that.

Hermione, rather reluctantly chewed hers and out came the snarl of a lioness.

Accompanied by her was Harry. When he chewed his, he let out the roar of the king of the beasts himself. Hermione joined him in his snarl session, while Ron just sat there, embarrassed.

"Why couldn't I get a cooler animal?" He grumbled.

By the time they pulled into King's Cross, Harry and Hermione found their families there waiting for them. They were accompanying the children to the Burrow to ensure they got there safely. When they arrived, Harry and Hermione were given their usual kisses on the forehead from their mothers before they departed.

On Friday night, everyone had a complete ease of mind. Mrs. Weasley didn't hear any of Fred and George's explosions, as they were busy practicing with Harry and Ron, who had his bedroom soundproofed as to not disturb anyone. They thought that if The Jungle Book had songs in it, like any of the other Disney films they'd seen, they'd have to play them as a part of their act.

"I'd be glad to have more drums in it," Ron added.

Saturday seemed to go uneventful also. The boys headed out to play Quidditch, followed by Ginny. Even though she was only in her first year at Hogwarts, she wasn't afraid to get out there, as in this universe, as there was never any Chamber of Secrets incident. A sister playing Quidditch was something the Weasley brothers learned not to complain about.

This makes you think… that maybe some boys are afraid that Quidditch might come with cooties.

Anyways, their little Quidditch match went by like a "whoop-dee-doo", without the complaints that were like saying, "Girls can't play baseball".

Sunday, of course, was Easter. Mr. Weasley had to badger Harry and Hermione with questions as to how muggles celebrated the holiday. Hermione turned his attention to her parents, who were joining the festivities, along with the Potter family.

After a "kind of" relaxing Easter Sunday (I don't even know how witches and wizards celebrate Easter, they don't mention it in the other timeline and I don't know that much about it because I'm Jewish, so I don't celebrate it myself), they headed down to the one-screen Fairfax Movie House in the little village. Unlike the other two cinemas, I just made this one up. It seems unlikely that I'll ever find out if there are any movie houses in Ottery St. Catchpole.

Anyways, they had tickets for the 12:00 showtime, just an hour before the local lunch hour, I guess. I've never been to this town so I don't really know.

Anyways, Harry and Hermione entered first, knowing their way around this sort of place, and let the others in. Ron, Fred, and George burst in and headed for the snack bar, while Molly and Arthur followed, holding Ginny close to them. It took Harry everything he could to convince them to let go of her. Percy followed, having been forced to attend this outing by his parents, and made up for it by sticking his nose in the air and rolling his eyes.

This cinema, having only one screen, was much smaller than the others, but it still had a snack bar that sold interesting sweets, especially ones produced specifically in the village. Fred and George made a note to order a double sized popcorn with extra butter.

When they were seated, it was not stadium style like the Plaza, but rather auditorium style, like the Odeon. Mr. Weasley was his usual ecstatic self. Mrs. Weasley, of course, had to placate him.

Soon enough, the previews begun. Harry and Hermione saw the previews for Aladdin and Snow White and had the same reactions as they did the last time. They made note to inform Mrs. Weasley about their plans for seeing Snow White.

Soon enough, the movie begun. All it needed was the score of the opening credits to suck Fred and George in. They thought the cutesy moments, like Mowgli as a baby went on too long, but soon enough, they got what they were waiting for.

The songs were all they needed to enjoy in this movie. Songs like The Bare Necessities and I Wanna Be Like You had them tapping their feet. These were the songs they felt they needed.

Also, they wondered if they could make their own Zonko-style Jungle products. They were in their fifth year at Hogwarts and, if not for being musicians, their ambition was to start a joke shop of their own. If Mrs. Weasley finds out, she'll go nuts.

Well, too bad for her.

Soon enough, the movie ended. Fred and George saw fit to annoy their mother by singing those songs on end. Just then, they noticed Harry and Hermione looking at the poster. Hermione pointed to the little stub, which read,

Visit the new EuroDisney Resort in Paris.

"That's where we're going for Harry's birthday," she explained.

This, of course, tempted Fred and George.

On the way out, they noticed a little secondhand toy store nearby. With parents' permission, they entered the store and started looking around. After browsing for a few minutes, Fred found something rather intriguing.

It was a small plastic bag containing some nicely painted, miniature plastic figurines of characters from The Jungle Book: Baloo, Bagheera, King Louie, Col. Hathi, the Baby Elephant, and Mowgli. In addition, there were some little plastic palm trees and an old newspaper clipping marked, Disneykins.

A little tidbit for you, Disneykins was a series of small plastic toys made to resemble Disney characters. Originally released in the 60's and sold as supermarket and food product related offers, I'm not sure if they were ever offered in Britain. Like I said, I'm not even 100% accurate with product placement.

This little bag of plastic figures was moderately priced, so Fred picked it up. George came running to him with a huge grin on his face. In his hands was an original sheet music book containing the Jungle Book songs.

Fortunately, Harry was kind enough to help them turn their pocket money into Wizarding money for the shop.

As they returned home, they found Mr. and Mrs. Weasley waiting for them with lunch, but Fred and George ran upstairs before they could say anything. But, of course, they didn't miss the meal. At least, not for Ron's sake. Anything would give them more pleasure than see him suck his food down like an elephant.

Speaking of which, they knew what they were going to do after. They spent most of the afternoon transposing their new sheet music to the instruments they were playing.

Also, Fred proposed they make copies of the little figures using a duplication spell, enchant them to come to life, and sell them as their own joke products. They'd also copy the little plastic trees and enchant them to come to life, and grow a little underbrush to give their plastic Jungle animals a realistic environment to play in. They decided to call it, Miniature Jungle.

Also, they demanded that Harry get the video game so they could play it when they visited the Potter House.

Yes, life was good for Fred and George. I mean… better than it already was for them.