Prompt for this one was 'George pranks Hinny. Hinny retaliates.'

This one is going out to J. Jamie Dupane

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Counter Strike

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Timing was everything.

Muggle Magicians, pick-pockets, quick-change artists, comedian's and pranksters alike all knew it.

George figured he fell into the last two categories. He was a funny guy. He was THE funny guy. He'd built a whole empire around that fact.

It had taken a while to get back to himself after losing his twin, but after a significant amount of time sticking his head in the sand and avoiding the world while he figured out how to cope as a single entity he managed to pick himself up and carry on.

The whole world had carried on. All his siblings, save for Charlie, were married and all of them, himself included, were creating the next generation of Weasley's.

Not Ginny though.

And not because she would actually be creating the next generation of Potters, that was merely a technicality. The offspring of Ginevra Weasley would still be a Weasley. It didn't matter that their father was the guy that saved the world. (And it was the whole world, not just the magical world. That fucker wouldn't have stopped before it was the whole world under his control.)

No, George's only sister would be creating a child that would be just as mischievous and stubborn and brilliant on a broom as she was.

And their mother was quite eager for her to start as well. The woman may have had six grand babies already, but none of the women who bore them were her own flesh and blood. Molly Weasley wanted her daughter to start riding the pregnancy train and she wanted it to start now.

She'd been dropping the not so subtle hints about it when they were all gathered together, such as suggesting that Fleur set aside whatever Louis grew out of for, you know, the next baby in the family, then tilting her head towards Ginny. Clearly the woman had forgotten that George's own son Freddy would be next in line for those hand-me-downs.

George understood his sister and her spouse's delay though. Harry hadn't had a chance to enjoy a childhood. He'd been neglected until he was eleven, and then there was an evil monster after him through his teens. He didn't have time to enjoy himself while he was in Auror training either, and that was three years long.

Ginny too was still early into her Quidditch career, and she was doing phenomenally well. She'd been at it for four years already and made it into the third Chaser position for the Holyhead Harpies in record time. The only time she was focused on anything other than Quidditch and Harry was when she was getting married, and technically all that mad wedding planning was still her focusing on Harry.

Harry and Ginny were getting rather miffed at his mum every time they went over to the Burrow now.
George could see it in their eyes when they walked in. And that was too good of an opportunity to mess with them, by messing with his mum.

Really it was two birds with one stone he was doing here. And in the end it would be a public service he'd be doing.

There was a whole pyramid scheme he had to pull together with the kids, from one innocent and cherubic face to the other. They all loved their fun Uncle George, even Teddy. He just needed each of them to complete their task properly. Unknowing of what they would be doing, but still, that would be part of the prank.

His own child was the easiest, Frederick wasn't yet 6 months. He only needed to be a cute baby and do what cute babies do, which is cry.

All of the others. Well. This is what all of the others had to do;

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"Hey mum." Ginny greeted her mother with a kiss to the cheek when she arrived at the Burrow. The whole family had descended down on the Burrow for their bi-monthly get together and the place was chaotic, but it was a familiar chaotic that she loved. Her nieces and nephews were all getting so big. And honestly, it was really cool to her that they found her really cool. Victoire had even brought a magazine article with her picture on it so she could sign it last time, it had been a strange and wonderful feeling that her niece found her to be somewhat of a hero like that.

"Hello dear." She kissed her cheek back. "Harry outside?"

"No, he'll be along in a bit, he's just collecting Teddy from Andromeda." Ginny went over to the counter and started to help with the food prep.

"Hey mum, oh! Hey Ginny." George popped into the kitchen holding a crying Frederick. "Uh, would one of you mind?" He asked holding up his son slightly. "I've got to pop into the loo and he's not wanting to be put down at the moment."

Ginny hadn't yet gotten her hands dirty so she gladly accepted the little bundle, cooing at him. She'd gotten loads of experience with her other siblings children, and with Teddy, who was basically her part-time son at this point. Tucking the little squirming man into her arms she looked down at his, now calm, angelic face and brushed some of his fringe out of the way.

"Oh." She cooed, getting slightly emotional. "He's just." Her chin warbled. "He's just so precious. Isn't he just so precious?" Tears were forming in her eyes as she looked at him.

This wasn't a normal reaction for her to have with her brothers children. Normally she just bounced or rocked them and made funny faces until they laughed. She didn't cry over how precious they were unless it was the first time she'd ever seen them.

"Ginny?" Her mum asked with slight concern. "Are you alright dear?"

She tried to calm herself down, but she just wanted to bawl and had no excuses for it. "I don't know why!" Tears rolled down her face. "Freddy is just so freaking cute!"

"Ah, thanks for that." George came back into the kitchen. "Whoa, what's with the water works?" He asked Ginny, looking more disgusted than concerned, a typical male and brotherly reaction. The reason she tried so hard to suppress all her 'girly' feelings growing up in this house.

George took Freddy out of her arms and gave her a bewildered look before heading back through into the sitting room.

Ginny sucked in a deep breath and wiped her eyes before giving herself a shake. "I don't know what that was." She told her mum. "I'm fine, really." She cleared her throat. No more urge to cry. Her mum simply nodded at her and turned back to her task with the vegetables, still giving her looks out of the corner of her eye as she worked with the breads and cheeses.

"Hi Aunt Ginny!" Teddy ran into the kitchen and barreled straight into her with his arms immediately wrapping around her waist. He was only six now and already so tall. He'd changed his hair red to match the majority of occupants at the gathering as he usually did when he was over at the Burrow.

"Hello Teddy!" She greeted and hugged him tightly, kneeling down to wrap her arms around him properly. "How have you been doing at school? Did you make a bunch of friends this week?"

Andromeda had sent him to a Muggle primary school, having to spell his hair to stay the same colour. Thus far it was the only part of himself he'd figured out how to morph and didn't always have the best control of it. He was only five after all.

"Yeah! Isaac is my new best friend. And Matthew is not my friend anymore-" He continued relaying the intricacies of his kindergarten social structure at rapid pace until Harry mentioned Victoire was already out at the paddock with her broom, then he gave a quick hello Ginny's mum and ran back out the door. Not before snagging a piece of cheese.

Harry gave them both a kiss hello and followed his Godson outside. Not before giving Ginny a quick pinch to her bottom and making her squeak and smack his hand away with a smile to her face.

She and her mum chatted casually about this and that as various family drifted in and out the door.

"Aun-tie Gin-ny." Her niece Dominique managed to enunciate when she toddled into the kitchen.

"Hello little one!" Ginny beamed and picked up the beautiful three year old and put her in her lap as she sat at the table. "What's this you've got?" She asked in the exuberant excited voice one uses with preschoolers and took a piece of paper from her niece.

"I make it for you!" Dominique told her and gave her a slobbery kiss before squirming and running back to the sitting room.

Ginny chuckled and shared and endearing smile with her mum before looking at the paper and standing up, all the swirls on the paper though, with the black lines on the white. It was like looking at an optical illusion of sorts and had her instantly dizzy.

"Oh." She had to rest her palms on the table until her dizziness passed. "Whoa." She blew out a breath.

"Are you alright?" Her mum asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, just give me a sec." Ginny blinked her eyes a few times. "Whew." She stood up straight. "Fine, just a dizzy spell."

Her mum peered at her speculatively. "Why is it Harry went to get Teddy by himself?" She asked in what she'd obviously thought was a casual manner, but all her children and their spouses knew she used that tone when she was asking something more.

"He went over there a little early to chat with Andromeda a bit and let me have a lay in." Ginny told her straight. "Why?"

"Just curious." She smiled tightly and turned her gaze out the window.

"I'm going to head outside with everyone else." Ginny told her mum and walked out the door.

It was a nice warm day. She was about to start an intense week of training tomorrow for the beginning of a series round of games coming up. Gwenog needed all her players on top form. That meant no booze and a ton of exercise. She'd taken that morning as her last chance for a long while to sleep past 7am.

Harry, lovely man that he is, let her sleep in until 7:30 before rubbing his hands all over her and getting her worked up. It was always a nice way for her husband to wake her up. Morning shags were the best. He always went so nice and slow, so thorough. It was luxurious when they had the time for that.

She frowned wondering how long it was going to be until she got another wake-up call like that. For the next few months any morning shags were probably going to be few and far between and probably in the shower. There was little to no chance she'd be able to fall asleep right after like she had that morning.

"Hey babe." Harry greeted her. "Was she bugging you again?" He nodded towards the house. He knew how eager his mother-in-law was for them to give her another grandbaby.

"No, but she was getting there. I could see it in her eyes." She ground her teeth slightly.

"Can I get you a drink faire maiden?" Teddy asked her doing a mock bow and gesturing to the beverage table that had been laid out.

"Teddy is playing our porter. And doing a great job of it!" Harry grinned and ruffled his hair.

"Well, thank-you Theodore." Ginny said with a swotty air. "I would very much enjoy an ice water if it's not too much trouble."

"I can make a mix drink too!" He announced proudly. "Uncle Charlie showed me how to make a 'gin and tonic'. It's got part of your name in it! I can make you one of those!"

"Thank you for the offer." She chuckled. "But that drink has alcohol in it, and I can't drink that at the moment." She explained. "So I'm good with the ice water. If you want to make it fancy, why don't you go ask Grandma Molly for a slice of lime?"

A few moments later George came outside with Freddy and Teddy, Teddy carefully holding a slice of lime in his palm. George handed Freddy off to Angelina who was chatting with Fleur and came over to chat with Harry and Ginny for a bit.

Louis was handed to Ginny at one point in the conversation, he was just over one and she rested him on her hip. Fortunately she didn't well up or anything ridiculous like she had with Freddy, but unfortunately he did get some dirt on the front of her shirt. Harry helped her wipe it off and then they were all called to the table for dinner.

Little Molly wanted to sit next to Ginny and she'd been sharing part of her plate with her aunt.

Unfortunately something that Molly had shared was making everything taste a little off. "Does this smell a little soapy to you?" She asked Harry, who was on the other side of her, offering up a forkful of her mashed potatoes.

He simply leaned over and ate it off of her fork. "No." He said before swallowing and shrugging. "Tastes good to me."

The rest of the meal Ginny tried to suppress her nausea and engage in conversation around the table, but everything smelled and tasted wrong. She didn't say anything more, but couldn't help the faces she'd been making.

All the men brought in the dirty dishes after the meal was done, as was now tradition at the Weasley gatherings. The wives had put their feet down about that three years ago when two of them had been pregnant and irritable. Now it was permanently the men's work.

They brought dessert out and Victoire came to sit in her lap, her front pressed against her eldest nieces back while they ate. Luckily the dessert didn't taste or smell at all off to her and she scarfed down her chocolate cake and was eyeing the treacle tart when she started to feel uncomfortable. Not in her stomach though. Her breasts. It hurt to have her niece's weight against them, even slightly. "Sweetie, why don't you go and sit by Teddy?" Ginny suggested.

Victoire didn't think anything of it, but she pushed back from the table and into Ginny a little hard as she got down off her lap and Ginny winced, sucking in a breath.

"You okay?" Harry asked.

"Yeah." She shifted uncomfortably, not wanted to grope her own breasts at the family dinner table. "It's just." She leaned over. "My breasts really hurt for some reason."

"Alright! That's it." From the other side of Harry her mum threw her napkin down. "I don't know why you don't just admit it to me! Why are you hiding it? Why?" She glared at Ginny, then Harry.

They looked at each other bewildered before turning back to her. "Admit what?"

"You are obviously pregnant. Why wouldn't you just tell me?"

"WHAT?!" Ginny yelled. "What do you mean I'm 'obviously' pregnant?" She stood up. "Does this look like the belly of a pregnant woman?" She gestured to her Quidditch toned stomach. Which was flat.

"You've been getting emotional for no reason, having dizzy spells, you aren't drinking, you couldn't eat your dinner because you were nauseous, and yet scarfed down your dessert, and now your breast hurt!" She rattled off. "And don't think I didn't see Harry rubbing your belly earlier." She pointed out as though she were proud of her detective skills.

Everyone was staring at Ginny with wide eyes and clamped mouths at that. Except for her mother who was still scowling with narrowed eyes and crossed arms, and Harry who was staring at her belly in wonder.

"Harry was wiping the dirt from Louis shoes off my shirt, and I'm not drinking because I'm in deep training tomorrow." She pointed out.

"And what about everything else, hmm?" Her mum wasn't backing down.

"Well." Ginny started off angry, but she didn't have an explanation for it. As she stared at her mother she quickly did period math in her head. She was due to start in a few days, but was she late? It was generally around this time that she got it. "Well..." She trailed off with less conviction.

Her mum wasn't looking angry any more. "You. You didn't know?" She asked.

Ginny looked down at Harry then. This wasn't when they'd planned to have kids, but accidents happened. "I. I don't know."

Before anything more could be said Hermione jumped up from the table. "I'll go brew the potion!" She practically shouted and ran into the house.

Ginny sat down hard in her chair, still staring at her husband. "I don't know." She repeated.

"You could be?" He didn't look upset at the possibility.

"I guess. I could be." She answered unsure and was trying to think back to if she'd been delayed in taking her monthly potion at all.

"Oh! Well this is so wonderful!" Her mum gushed. "You are going to be such wonderful parents!" Tears of excitement were coming to her eyes.

Ginny suddenly felt nauseous again, but it had to do with her mother's over reaction to it all than with Ginny not being ready for this. She was only just about to turn 22 after all. They still had plenty of time to have kids down the road. The first by the time she was thirty sounded fine to her.

The men got up and cleared away the dessert dishes again as she sat there anxiously. Ginny really wished this hadn't all happened when the entire family was around.

Hermione came back outside with the pregnancy test potion in a mug for her. All she had to do was drink it and if her belly glowed blue she was pregnant, if it glowed white she wasn't.

"Cheers!" She lifted her mug in a slightly resentful salute and downed the liquid.

Ginny couldn't look, she closed her eyes tight and waited, feeling comfortable enough to let everyone else's reaction tell her the results. Harry was right beside her, gripping her hand and he gave out a sigh that she couldn't translate. It could have been a relieved sigh of 'I'm going to be a father' or one of 'oh thank god I don't have another responsibility right now'. Her mum's disappointment rang out clear enough though.

Ginny opened her eyes and looked down at the white light that was now dissipating and gave her own sigh of relief, sharing a smile with Harry. This was good news. A few more years was what they wanted for it to be just the two of them.

"Well then." Her mum huffed. "What was all that about?" She gestured to Ginny's whole being.

It was then that George burst out laughing.

The whole family turned to stare at him as he had a small melt down at the table.

Ginny thought over everything that had happened that day. She'd had very little interaction with George directly, but he was acting the way he normally did when one of his plans was perfectly executed.

"George?" Her father asked sternly. "What did you do?"

"Oh. It was just so perfect!" He laughed. "I couldn't resist!"

"George!" Ginny screeched. "What did you do?!"

"Oh, calm down." He leaned back in his chair. "Just a few potions here, a few charms there. Maybe an anti-relief cream over the back of a shirt with a barrier between it and Victoire." He shrugged. "It all played out masterfully." He preened.

Ginny connected all the dots. Her nieces and nephews! "You used the kids to make me and mum think I was pregnant?!" She asked in outrage. "You think that's funny do you?" She stood up to launch herself across the table at him, but Harry stopped her.

"You can't risk getting injured!" He reminded her. She did have to be in top form for tomorrow. "I don't though." He said dangerously before turning to George and pulling out his wand.

George yelped and ran off towards the pond with Harry chasing him.

The thrashing that George received that night was minor, but it got everyone laughing and Ginny felt much better after watching her husband physically throw her brother in the pond.

()()

Three weeks later George woke up in bed and stretched out. He could hear Angelina in the other room with Freddy. He was so grateful to have her in his life. She'd made everything better, and she was so understanding of what he'd gone through missing his twin.

These past few weeks he'd been appreciating her so much more than usual.

His emotions were really all over the place lately and he was trying to get a handle on them most of the time. He was up one minute, down the next. He was tired, he was sore. He could be laughing hysterically, then crying hysterically. And his nipples hurt. That was the oddest one.

His nausea and consequent vomiting seem to have passed though. It must have been a bug he had. That was the only reason for it he could think of.

Getting out of bed he went to the shower to get ready for the day.

Part of the great thing about having a wife was that he had a team member in his life to notice things that he might not. Like when they were getting low on toothpaste and such like that. She was always replacing his hygienic care products before he even remembered they were nearly out.

Take his shower wash for instance. He thought as he picked it up and started rubbing it in his hands before applying it. Angelina had replaced it when it was getting low a few weeks ago. She'd grabbed him a different brand, but it looked really close to the old one, and it smelled fine. But she'd done that with-out his having to bring it up.

As he rubbed the lather over himself he noticed that the label was peeling off of the bottle and there was something underneath it.

Curious he brought it closer and peeled off the rest of the label and read, his eyes growing wide.
Horror filled his body before he tossed it roughly towards the bin outside the shower and knocked the whole think over before crumpling to a ball at the base of the tub and turning hysterical again. He honestly didn't know if he was laughing or crying because that was a brilliant thing for them to have done. It was sneaky and clever and he hadn't seen it coming. It also explained everything.

Three weeks of using that and he hadn't seen the warning until now. They'd probably designed it that way. That sounded like something Ginny would do.

As he sat having his laugh cry in the tub the bottle of body wash was slowly drip drying on the bath mat beside all the other various disposed of bathroom products, the warning on it flashing through a colour spectrum on repeat;

Warning: Prolonged use of estrogen cream will result include; Nausea, vomiting, bloating, stomach pain, breast tenderness, headache, weight changes, mood changes and dark areas of the skin on the face.
The Potter family doesn't recommend George uses it anymore and refrains from bringing harm to himself by way of retaliation in the future.