I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.

If you read A Taste of Magic as well, you may notice a similar theme with this chapter. When I wrote the little bit in the other story, it inspired me to try and flesh it out into a complete chapter and here it is. Is it lazy using an idea from a different story? Yes. Do I feel shame? Also yes, but not for this. Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it.

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Extended Family

Chapter 116 – Pillow War

Takes place after chapter 85.

George stepped through the Floo and nearly went back into it from the sudden wall of sound that hit him. He shook his head, thinking he was back at the Wheezes for a moment due to the commotion, before he realized it was his children causing all the noise. He gaped as he watched Hailey, Alex, and Abby fighting and scrapping with each other in the middle of the living room. After a moment, he eased his way around the melee and walked into the kitchen where Angelina was cooking and watching wearily.

He sighed with relief as the sound levels decreased dramatically and he hugged and kissed his wife. "New charm?"

"Hermione taught it to me," she said, nodding and kissing him back. "It dampens sound coming in but certain key words will come in clearly and normally so if I have to intervene, I can."

"Smart. What's all this about?"

Angelina sighed. "Alex said Abby stole something which to her credit she admitted to it but it was in retaliation for something he stole last week. That set them off and Alex was losing so he roped Hailey into it and that backfired because at first she turned on him before she decided to take them both on and now it's a free-for-all."

"At least they're using pillows," George observed.

"I forced them to at least and I told them no stealing ours later. I'm tired of our pillows being ragged and literally beaten because they didn't want to use their own." Angelina snorted. "Hadley was the smart one. She grabbed that one pillow that somehow always keeps its shape."

"Mum made that one. Hmm, I should ask her how she did it. It does seem to be surviving the longest and now that you mention it, all our pillows were pretty resilient." He watched his children fight on. "How long have they been going at it?"

"A while, probably an hour, feels longer," Angelina said. She grinned ruefully. "I know a part of me says I should've broken it up a long time ago-"

"-but we both come from big sib families where the sibs beat the crap out of each other lovingly and sometimes you just gotta let them fight it out," George agreed. "Plus, we don't have an orchard here for late night fights."

"And hopefully it'll tire them out so they go to bed early," Angelina snorted. "And if they do develop anything more than a bruise, we can go get Katie or Rabbit, if an episkey doesn't fix it."

"I'd say usually a pillow shouldn't cause any real injury but then again, I know I got some doozies with Bill and Charlie and Fred and Ron and Ginny."

"Not Percy?" Angelina smiled.

"That goes without saying," George grinned. He looked at his children thoughtfully.

"I know that look. That's your inventing look."

"I just got an idea for pillows specifically for fighting and hopefully can mitigate property damage as well as permanent health damage."

"Now that would be a money-maker."

"Yeah…it would."

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"Hey Freddie, I gots me an idea."

Fred looked up from his coffee. "Yeah?" Hit me with it." He snorted when George threw a pillow at him. "Alright, feeling literal today, are we? We selling pillows?"

"Pillows specifically for pillow fighting," George said. "Got the idea last night when I watched my sprogs try to murder each other with them."

"Ooh, who won?"

"Angelina of course. A wayward pillow hit her and she waded in with it."

Fred winced. "Poor sprogs."

George smiled. "But anyways, one of the pillows that wasn't hurt was one of Mum's and I was surprised when it didn't really damage anything. So I asked her how she makes them and get this, she charms the materials and the end product."

"Oh, layered spells? That makes sense. The contents too?"

"Yep, them too."

"Damn, each individual feather or bit of stuffing?" Fred groaned.

George laughed. "No, not each bit but those she does together, but the fabric and the thread she does separate and then the end product."

"I always wondered how she got those to last almost forever. That's smart." Fred hugged the pillow. "We should do that with our plushes."

"Good idea. But yeah, I figure we can make like a set of different pillows and make them a bit different like small ones for throwing, bigger ones for swinging, long thin one for poking."

"Now that sounds like fun. Oh and then charm them to not cause any permanent damage to anything?"

"Exactly!"

Fred smiled, ideas percolating in his mind. "A deceleration charm when it hits something to lower impact. Cushioning charm obviously, make one even more so for hitting flesh and bone. Durability charms for other obvious reasons."

"And we can add some fun stuff like sound effects and what not to go off on impact," George said enthusiastically.

"I like it! Weasley War Pillows: When a fight is not enough!"

"Love it!"

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A few days later, the twins looked down with satisfaction at the arsenal of pillows they created. "Nothing like a job well done," Fred said.

"And a vision successfully executed," George agreed. He hefted a small hand-sized pillow in one hand, throwing it up and down. "Good balance." He turned and threw it at Fred as hard as he could.

Fred smiled when the impact pushed him a little but did not hurt. The pillow bounced off after making a very loud satisfying thwack noise. "Nice! Bit of a sting and a definite impact but no worse than a shove or so."

George stumbled a bit when Fred swung one of the larger ones with both hands. "Yeah, perfect! A hard shove but doesn't hurt. Then again, our tolerance for pain and discomfort is a smidge higher than average."

"More than a smidge," Fred snorted. "Looks good though and all the extra charms on the materials before putting them together didn't take that much more effort and time. And it was fun finding the new charms and weaving them together, making them work."

"Definitely one of our more pricey products but not our most expensive ones. I think we can do some more testing and see how it works with our target demographic."

"Wait, weren't we already at the test stage for that?" Fred asked.

"Uhm, I thought we were going to do it when there's time for more direct observation." George winced when Fred did. "What did you do?"

"I, uh, might have left the main test bundle of products somewhere that is easily accessible to clever sprogs," Fred said weakly.

"Dammit Fred," George sighed. "You're coming home with me today and we're getting flowers and a lot of ice cream before we do."

"Good thing we made pillows," Fred laughed. "Could be worse."

"Like what?"

"Beater bats."

"Yeah, that'd be worse."

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"What's this?" Iris asked.

Abby and Alex had pulled a long heavy trunk into the Triangle playground together. Iris and Heather and Melanie were playing there and watched the twins drag the heavy thing to them.

"It's a new Wheeze!" Abby said.

"I thought we weren't supposed to play with new Wheezes," Heather said.

"We're not," Melanie said, frowning at the chest.

"Uncle Freddie left it in the play spot though," Alex argued. "Where things are ready to be played with."

"Oh, that might be okay then," Melanie said thoughtfully. "What is it?"

Alex and Abby lifted the lid. "They're pillows for pillow fighting!" they said together.

"You have special pillows for pillow fighting?" Heather asked.

"Well now we do," Abby said. She picked up one of the small hand pillows that was bright red. "Seems kinda small to swing though."

"Looks like you throw it," Iris said.

"Why me?!" Alex squawked when his sister turned and cocked her arm back. He dove and the pillow missed him. He rolled, picking it up mid-roll, and threw it back at her and she was unable to dodge.

"Oof!" she said when it hit her in the side. She and the rest erupted into laughter when the pillow made a loud raspberry sound on impact. "Hey, that didn't really hurt!"

Heather reached into the chest and pulled out a long tubular pillow that flopped comically. After Iris nodded, Heather hit her gently on the back. It made an incredibly loud fwap sound and Iris stumbled a bit but she smiled broadly and shook her head at Heather's concern. "It felt like a heavy pillow hit but not in a bad way!"

The five children looked at each other and smiled.

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"They're making a lot of noise," Hailey said, looking up. She and Hadley and Iris were in Hadley's room, finishing some classwork.

"Yeah they are." Hadley walked to the window and looked out. "They're pillow fighting."

"Uh oh, they better not be using our pillows, Mummy was upset at us when we were," Hailey groaned.

Dahlia looked out too. "I haven't seen those pillows before. And there's more in a chest. See?"

"What does the chest look like?" Hailey asked, alarmed.

"It looks like a chest," Dahlia said. "Wood, with metal fastenings. It's got some orange and magenta on it though."

"That's a Wheeze and it must be new! They should know better!" Hailey ran out of the room and Hadley and Dahlia followed close behind. "Hey! Stoppit!" Hailey shouted as they ran to the playground.

"You stoppit!" the twins shouted back.

"You two know you shouldn't be playing with new Wheezes!" Hailey said angrily.

"It was in the play spot!" Abby said back, crossing her arms like she had seen her older sister and mother do when they were cross.

"Did you ask Mum?" Hailey asked.

"No, she's not here," Alex sniffed.

"Are they just pillows?" Dahlia asked, picking one up.

"Yeah! They're fun!" Iris said and whacked her older sister across her rear with one.

Dahlia whooped and stumbled, retaliating with the one she had. It made a very loud quack sound when she hit Iris, making them all laugh again. "That didn't hurt," Dahlia said with a large smile.

"Yeah! See?" Melanie threw one of the small ones and hit Hadley in the face. She grinned cheekily as the pillow slid slowly off Hadley's face, falling to the ground with a plop.

Hadley glared at her little sister and leaned down to pick up the pillow. "I'm going to get you!" she shouted and chased after a squealing Melanie, throwing the pillow back at her and knocking her over. Unperturbed, Melanie got up and ran to the chest and grabbed an armful of the throwing pillows and started throwing them at Hadley.

Hailey looked torn until Abby climbed on top of Alex's back and he snuck up behind her, allowing Abby to swing a pillow with full force and hitting Hailey from behind, knocking her over.

"Okay, game on," Hailey snarled and she picked up the biggest pillow she saw and chased after her squealing siblings.

Dahlia fought gamely, trying to push Heather off who was lying across her to keep her pinned while Iris gleefully buffeted her with a pillow. A loud bark cut through and the three looked up to see Hedwig landing on a table beside the playground.

Hedwig looked down at them, eyes narrowed and she barked again.

"It's okay," Dahlia said cheerfully, "we're playing!"

Hedwig looked dubious, tilting her head.

"Look out!" the twins yelled.

A red throwing pillow came rocketing in and hit Hedwig from behind, knowing her beak over talon. Hedwig splayed out on her stomach, wings out and feathers rumpled.

"Oh no," the twins said, horrified. Everyone stopped and stared.

Hedwig clambered up to her feet and her body was stone still but her head turned slowly all the way around. She looked at the twins with eyes wide open with shock and affront before they narrowed with sheer indignation.

"Don't point at me!" Abby said, smacking Alex's hand. "You threw it!"

"You ducked!" Alex said.

Hedwig flapped her wings and flew in place, picking up the pillow in her talons. She flew up and then sharply dove before flapping hard, twisting her lower body and releasing the pillow. The pillowy projectile flew on and it hit Alex first in the stomach before bouncing off and hitting Abby in the stomach too. The twins fell over from the impact and the others giggled and snorted and gasped.

Dahlia's eyes widened when Hedwig flew to the chest and somehow lifted the biggest pillow out of the chest. Hedwig grasped the pillow firmly with her talons, shaking it to find the balance and her eyes narrowed as they did when she sighted prey.

"Run," Dahlia said. Soon she and the others ran shrieking with Hedwig in hot pursuit, swinging the pillow menacingly while barking and hooting loudly.

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Tonks stepped out of the Floo and blinked when she heard the noise outdoors. She hurriedly threw her bag onto a chair and tossed her cloak over another and opened the door. She held her wand at the ready, looking about. She gaped when Iris and Heather came running up the path to her. "Come here!" she shouted and ushered them in. "What's wrong?!"

"We're having a pillow fight!" Iris said, breathing heavily.

"A pillow fight?" Tonks repeated. "It sounds like you lot are killing each other!"

"We're running from Hedwig, she's really good," Heather gasped.

"Hedwig is a part of this pillow fight?" Tonks shook her head. "Actually, that doesn't surprise me. So it's nothing bad then?"

"No Auntie Dora," Iris said happily.

"Alright," Tonks said skeptically. "I'm still not convinced though." She opened the door again and got a face full of pillow, a small throwing one impacting her solidly, making her stagger back. Iris and Heather shrieked with glee and used Tonks as a shield when another came flying in.

Tonks pulled the pillow off her face and glared at Hedwig flying away. "Oh, so that's how it is then? Okay, pillow fight? Let's fight."

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"Hey! No fair having Auntie Dora on your team!" Hailey shouted as she ducked behind the table.

"She's only using pillows too!" Heather shouted back as she handed another throwing one to Tonks.

"Send out the chicken!" Tonks shouted, waving a large pillow with one hand after throwing the other. "I've got beef with that bird!"

"Hedwig isn't on anyone's team, it wasn't fair!" Hadley shouted as she pummeled Alex with the floppy pillow.

Tonks held up the pillow as a shield, swinging it after blocking a blow. She flailed with it several times, growling when Hedwig dodged the return attempts and flew off, hooting condescendingly. "Come back here! This has been a long time coming!"

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"Hey Alicia," Katie said, stepping out of the Floo. She banished the soot and ash off and did the same when Harry, Angelina, and Oliver came after her. "So why did you tell us to Floo here?"

"It was safer," Alicia said dryly. She pointed out the window.

"What happened here?!" Harry gasped. There were pillows littering the gardens and the Triangle and he watched in open-mouth astonishment as Tonks and Hedwig dueled in the middle, swinging large pillows at one another while the others fought around them.

"From what I can gather, a large pillow fight broke out and Hedwig got involved and then the others did piecemeal." Alicia shook her head when Luna pegged Tracy with one and Fleur battled against Iris and Dahlia. "I don't know where those pillows came from however."

"Those are Wheezes," Angelina groaned. "I didn't know they were ready for testing though."

"Must be enchanted ones," Oliver said when he saw Melanie nail Hadley in the face again with Hadley running on looking little worse for wear.

"Thank Merlin for that," Katie said, giggling as she watched Fleur go down and be belabored by her daughters.

"You didn't want to join in?" Oliver chuckled.

"I wanted to make sure the pillows were safe," Alicia said. "I would believe the twidiots doing something to them to make them do strange things to us as hidden jokes."

"They shouldn't have, at least not for these," Angelina said. "George kept me in the development process for these."

Harry walked out into the gardens, followed by the rest, and an errantly chucked pillow hit him cleanly in the face, knocking him over. A silence fell over the area as the children gasped with shock and horror at him being hit and all action stopped immediately.

"Ow you bloody bird!" Tonks shouted when Hedwig took advantage of Tonks' inaction, thwapping her solidly in the head.

Harry chuckled and got to his feet, 'helped' up by a hysterically laughing Katie. "I'm okay," he assured everyone. "So, pillow fighting?"

"I think it's technically a pillow war," Tracy said. "A bit bigger than a fight."

"The chest was in the play spot!" the twins shouted when they saw their mother looking at them.

"I'm going to have words with Fred and George," Angelina sighed.

"And no one is hurt?" Katie asked. Everyone shook their heads. "That's good at least."

Harry looked around at them and then at the pillow in his hand. "So, who threw this?"

"Me," Luna said proudly. She squealed when Harry threw it back at her, hitting her in the side. That restarted the war with Fleur and Luna attacking Harry, only to be driven off by the combined force of all the children and the owl coming to his defense and the other adults scooping up pillows to join the fray.

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"It looks clear," George said. He and Fred looked around the living room carefully. The peace was both welcome and somewhat worrying to them.

"Hi Angelina!" Fred greeted brightly and loudly.

"Hi Fred," Angelina said wryly. "Good day at work?"

"Sure was! We gots you some treats for being such an awesome person," he gushed.

"Why thank you," she said, taking the flowers and ice cream from them. "And not for any other reason?"

"None that I can think of," Fred lied winningly. He winced when she looked at the chest that was sitting out in the open. "Oh well maybe that too," he said with a weak smile.

"Seeing that out though, how did things go?" George asked.

"I wasn't around for the start but played a bit myself. They're pretty nice," Angelina said. "And the only bumps and bruises were from diving and falling and not from getting hit."

"Oh that's good," the twins said with relief. "Did the sprogs enjoy themselves?"

"You should ask them," Angelina smiled.

"Sounds like a plan to me. Maybe they'll want to play a bit more before bed," George said. "Let's go encourage it actually-wait." He opened the chest and saw that it was empty. "Where are the pillows? Where are you going?" he asked when Angelina ducked back into the kitchen.

"Now!" Angelina yelled.

The closet door flew open and Fred and George danced about as they were bombarded by a flurry of pillows. The children poured out of the closet, throwing the pillows and shouting happily and soon they chased a laughing and yelling Fred and George out of the Weasley home and into the back gardens.

Angelina followed after them sedately, shaking her head and smiling at the new melee forming between Fred and George versus all the children. She walked to the Potter home and accepted a bottle of butterbeer from Harry. "Finally, a bit of comeuppance."

"They love it as much if not more than the children," Harry chuckled.

"They're not loving it as much right now," Katie laughed, watching George and Fred fleeing before a pillow-wielding Hedwig, screaming with actual fear.

Tonks growled. "I'm going to get her. I swear, I'm going to get that flying pillow one day."

Harry smiled and leaned against her. "I should be surprised that she knows how to pillow fight, but I'm not really."

"She's very talented," Luna nodded when Hedwig bounced the pillow off Fred and George's head, hooting gleefully.

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Ghostwriter - Thank you, glad you liked it.

odonnellzoo99 - They are adorable little sponges that have full exposure to very creative and clever people and the ability to combine them into a terrifying power.

Kaya - Thank you.

poka - Honestly? I have no idea. The vast majority of my chapters are literally one little detail that just grows into something more. Like the penguin ice one. I literally started that one with the idea that Hedwig wanted to slide around on her belly. That's it. My mind is a very odd place.

alix33 - It's important to know what's worth rebelling over.

DOOOOOOM Lord of Waffles - That might happen in a coming chapter.