Rose Granger-Weasley was bored. Her mother was out for a meeting at the Ministry of Magic, her dad was working on some kind of experiment for his and Uncle George's joke shop, and Hugo was reading a chess book in his room. She decided to go and see if she could help her dad, seeing as if she asked Hugo to play with her, he'd probably not even bother answering. She went up the stairs and paused outside the door of her dad's 'Experiment Room'. There was a very loud bang, which made her jump violently.
"Aargh!" grumbled her dad from inside the room. "I was sure I'd had it this time?"
Thinking it was about time she did something about her boredom, she pushed the unlocked door open and nearly tripped over a scuttling crab-like creature. It clicked its pincers at her and scuttled out the door.
"Oh, great!" said Ron. "Ah, well, your mum will probably know how to make it stop. And I can't even Accio it because George put a charm on it to block all spells, except for the ones we use for experimentation."
"Yeah, she will. Mom knows everything."
Ron chuckled. "Yes, she does. And you will, too, one day," he said proudly. Rose grinned, but her face fell slightly again.
"Dad, I'm bored. I've got absolutely nothing to do!" she complained.
"What about Hugo?"
"He's reading about chess again," said Rose.
"Is he?" said Ron running his hands through his hair. "Well…"
"Dad, play with me!" she said looking up at him.
"I have a better idea!" Her father suddenly looked like what she'd heard about Albus Dumbledore. His eyes started twinkling madly. "Oh, she won't know what's hit her!" He rubbed his hands.
"Er…and that idea is?" prompted Rose, looking slightly scared. This was NOT going to end well.
"Let's prank your MUM!" said Ron. "Oh, I've been waiting ages to do this…"
"Er, dad, I don't think-" said Rose nervously.
"It'll be alright. Come on and help me pick some stuff out!" Ron sat back in his chair, intently studying a floor plan of what looked like their house, while Rose wandered through his inventory picking out odds and ends.
"Oooh! Slime!"
"Yeah! It's supposed to be really sticky, too!" said Ron.
"Is that a portable swamp?" asked Rose.
"Yeah. Your uncles George and - and Fred made that when we were in fifth year at Hogwarts." His voice broke slightly, the same way it always did for all the adults when they spoke about Fred.
"Instant Darkness powder! From Peru!"
"Yeah…best to not let that fall in the wrong hands," said Ron darkly.
Rose wondered why that was. Surely it was just a bit of fun? "Candy!"
"No! Don't eat that! You'll thro-"
Too late. Rose had already shoved it into her mouth, and as soon as she did, he started feeling a little hot and tired. "Dad…I don't feel so good."
"Eat the other bit, fast!" said Ron anxiously. Rose did, and instantly felt better.
"Whoa! What was that?"
"Fever Fudge," said Ron grimly.
"Cool!"
Approximately two hours later, when Hermione was due to come home any minute, Ron and Rose had perfected their plan and put everything into action. Hugo still hadn't moved from his bedroom, which was good for their plan. Any moment now…
They heard the sound of the key being turned in the lock.
"Ron! Rose! Hugo! I'm back! How was your day?" called Hermione. Silence.
"Ron? RON?" Silence.
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Hang on a minute. Specialis Revelio!" The spell revealed a cleverly concealed lever that launched Peruvian Instant Darkness powder.
Ron and Rose gaped at each other from under the sofas, covering their mouths. How had she known?
"Oh, Ron, you'll have to try better than that!" She shook her head fondly.
She proceeded to levitate the curtains open, avoiding the hatch that would have released glitter glue on her head, cut open a biscuit that was hiding a Puking Pastille inside it, and had actually enjoyed banishing her briefcase to the other side of the portable swamp in the middle of the hallway, before conjuring a bridge over it and 'Immobulus'-ing a moving boxing glove that would have otherwise knocked her back into the swamp.
Ron and Rose sighed. Wouldn't she fall for at least one of the pranks?
The door to the living room was open just enough for Ron and Rose to see out of it, and for Hermione to slip inside. And not notice the ginormous bucket of slime disillusioned and placed on the top of it.
"Ron? Hugo? Rose? Where ARE YOU?"
"Mum?" said Hugo quietly.
"Finally," she said, walking up the stairs to Hugo's room. "What are you reading? Oh. Chess, again?"
"Yeah, you should, too," mumbled Hugo, too absorbed in his book. Hermione snorted. It was very likely that that would help her get better at chess. Everybody knew that she was the worst at chess in the entire Weasley-Granger-Potter-Lupin clan.
"I'll go find your dad and get him to make some dinner," she said, walking back down the stairs. "RON? RONALD?"
She went to check the hall again, and pushed the door open more. Ron and Rose exchanged excited looks.
"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY!" she exploded, drenched in thick, sticky, green slime.
"EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" Ron and Rose tried to back away as cautiously. Rose got away. Ron did not. Hermione saw him standing up, and he was big enough to block the other flash of ginger hair that disappeared into one of the closets.
"AAAAAARGH!" Ron ran out of the house before disapparating to the Potters.
"I swear, I WILL tell your mum this time," grumbled Hermione. She wondered where he'd gone. Probably to get help from Harry. Of course. Well, maybe Ginny could help her. The Potters would probably be at home (except James, who was at Hogwarts, of course), seeing as it was a Sunday. She quickly disapparated from the house, locking it up as she went and setting up monitoring charms, as Rose and Hugo were still home.
Ron ran to the door. "Harry! HARRY!" Footsteps could be heard running down the hall.
"Hey, Ron. What's up?"
"She's chasing me! Help!" he said desperately.
"Who? Hermione or Ginny?" Harry knew exactly what was going on. He'd been in similar situations, too, before.
"Both, soon! Hide me!" said Ron.
"Uncle Ron?" said a girl's voice.
"Hiya Lily! I'm sorry, I've got to go now."
"Ginny, I'll be back in a few! Lily, I've got to go now, but I promise we'll finish the LEGO spaceship when I get back." Harry grabbed Ron and both of them ran out of the house.
"Er…okay?" said Lily. Honestly, those two. Just then, her Aunt Hermione turned up covered with slime.
"Aunt 'Mione? Why are you covered in slime?"
"WHERE'S RON?" she yelled.
"With Dad?" said Lily. "Why?"
"Lily, can you get your mum?" she said, trying to calm down.
"Sure," said Lily. "MUUUUUUUMMMMM!" she hollered.
"What is it Lily?" said Ginny, coming out of the backyard where she was doing the gardening. "I swear, they just get crazier and crazier. I just saw Harry and Ron running full pelt into the woods. I wonder what they were running from - oh." said Ginny, looking up at Hermione. "What've they done now?"
"Ronald had the very sensible idea to dump a bucket of unremovable slime on my head after I got back from the Ministry," said Hermione, eyes flashing.
"Ooooh, I know where they are. Harry goes in there to hide from me sometimes," said Ginny, jogging towards the woods.
Slightly confused, Hermione followed her friend into the forest and to a large storm cellar.
"HARRY, OPEN UP!" yelled Ginny.
Silence.
"Oh, not again," said Hermione. There was a quiet whimpering noise from inside the cellar.
"We'll tell mum," grinned Ginny.
"NO, NO, NO!" said Ron.
"PLEASE, ANYTHING BUT THAT!" said Harry.
"Then come out!" said Hermione.
"Merlin," muttered Ron. He climbed out of the cellar and held his hands above his head. And made the mistake of snorting at a still-slime-covered Hermione.
"YOU!" she said angrily.
"Er…" said Ron.
"We are TALKING about this at home!" said Hermione, dragging him by the arm and disapparating back to their house with a sharper-than-usual 'crack!'
Harry climbed out of the cellar. "Okay. I'm sorry. But I have to go and help Lily build a spaceship, so…"
Ginny grinned. "Don't worry, I was just messing with Ron. I'm not going to do anything. Unless you leave any of those LEGOs lying around."
Meanwhile, back at the Weasley-Granger house, Hermione was ranting at Ron about every single prank he'd played on her after getting back from work and about her being tired and annoyed and promising to take revenge on him as soon as she'd gotten the slime off of her. Rose, who was watching from the second-floor landing, couldn't help but feel slightly guilty. Dad hadn't done any of that on his own. Spotting the weird crab-machine, she suddenly had a brainwave, and dropped the machine on her mum's slime-covered hair.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" she screamed, giving Ron time to run up the stairs and barricade himself in Rose's room.
"Thanks, Rosie," he breathed.
"Anytime," she said.
"ROSE GRANGER-WEASLEY!"
"Oh, here we go again," said Rose.
The End
A/N: Happy Harry Potter day everyone!