Twisted Fairy Tales : Snow White

Chapter 5

'Now, remember! Don't let any strangers into the house,' said the good-natured Bill as he and his siblings prepared to leave the cottage for work. 'If the queen is as powerful as you say she is, she'll know soon enough that you're still alive.'

Draco stood by the door and watched the Weasleys as they walked towards the mountain, the forced smile on his face fading. As soon as they were out of sight, he slammed the wooden door with all his might (which wasn't really much). The evil prince stalked towards his - well, Ron's - bed, not noticing the shadow among the bushes outside the kitchen window. It was Ron, who had decided to stay behind to spy on Draco. He was determined to prove to his siblings that his suspicions about the prince were true.

'Hmm... What story should I tell those idiotic fools today? I must say, yesterday's story was a brilliant stroke of genius,' said the boastful prince to himself, unaware that someone was hearing everything he said. 'Let's see... I know! I shall tell those stupid dim-wits that a peddler had came by selling combs. I did not let the peddler in, but had tried on one of the combs, and had become unconscious.'

With that, Draco put his hands on his waist, bent back wards slightly, and let out a maniacal laughter.

'Muahahaha!!'

Ron knew at that instant that Draco was definitely evil, despite what his siblings believed him to be. It was universally know that all evil and wicked people have a universal laughter - otherwise known as the Evil Laughter - and Draco's laughter sounded just like it. Furthermore, he also had the 'evil person laughing' position mastered. (According to the How to be Evil manual, there are 3 steps to the 'evil person laughing' position that all villainous people should learn: 1. Stand up with arms akimbo, 2. Bent backwards slightly, 3. Let out the Evil Laughter!) Ron knew that he had to tell his siblings of Draco's wicked nature. Quietly, he snuck away from the bush in search of the Weasleys.

*

Meanwhile, in a small cave in the mountains...

'We dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig in our mine the whole day through!' sang Fred in a merry tune.

George joined in. 'To dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig is what we really like to do!'

Soon the twins were in perfect harmony, singing after one another, while the rest of the Weasleys watched in a mixture of disbelief and amusement.

'It ain't no trick to get rich quick!'

'If you dig, dig, dig with a shovel or a pick! In a mine!'

'In a mine!'

'In a mine!'

'In a mine!'

'Where a million diamonds SHINE!' echoed the twins.

Both Fred and George would have continued with their singing had it not been Bill interrupting them.

'Where in the world did you come up with that song?' asked Bill, who could not help grinning.

The twins shrugged in unison.

'No idea,' said Fred. 'I just had the urge to sing it.'

George added, 'Yeah. For some odd reason, I felt like I was one of a group of seven dwarves when I sang.'

Ginny, who had been giggling and teasing Charlie as he whistled to the twins' song, stopped to protest. 'Hey! Who are you calling a dwarf?'

At that moment, something clicked in Bill's mind. Seven... seven...He made a mental head count. One, two, three, four, five... Oh wait, I forgot to count myself in. That makes six. Six?

'Has anyone seen Ron?' asked Bill, his eyes scanning his surroundings for any signs of his youngest brother.

There was a chorus of 'no's and shaking of heads. It was at that precise moment that Ron appeared at the mouth of the cave. Excited, the boy revealed everything he knew about Draco before they had a chance to say anything. The Weasleys listened intently to their brother. There was a range of feelings as Ron spoke - surprise, disbelief, upset - but by the end of Ron's speech, all seven of them agreed that they were all... very angry.

*

The comb, long and fine-tooth, was on the table. The spell laid written on a rough piece of parchment, waiting to be applied onto the comb. Draco's grey eyes grew dark with intensity as he looked out the window, awaiting the Weasleys' return. He knew they were to return soon. It was crucial that he cast the spell shortly before the seven siblings were to enter the house. Otherwise, the spell - use to cause unconsciousness in a person - would really result in his death. It was not long later that the Weasleys returned from their work. As they approach the cottage, Draco cast the well-memorised spell onto the comb and stuck the comb onto his hair. Immediately, the spell took effect, and Draco fell onto the floor.

It was no surprise to the seven redheads to see the unconscious prince on the floor of their cottage. Before they had returned from the mountains, they discussed what they were to do with Draco. Worried that Draco might hurt them if they were to expose him, Bill decided it was best that they returned home and pretended they knew nothing of his lies. They would visit the queen the next day and ask for her help. In the meantime, all they could do was play along with Draco's plan. Both the twins and Ron wanted to give the prince a few kicks or punches, but Bill stopped them, unsure that the prince was truly unconscious. Reluctantly, Ginny took the comb out of Draco's hair. The cunning prince woke up, and relayed his planned story of how the queen disguised herself and poisoned him with her comb. The siblings were prepared for this, and pretended to be sympathetic, although Ron could not help himself in 'accidentally' kicking the prince in the shin.

*

When the seven Weasleys left their cottage, Draco was so busy concocting another story in his mind that he scarcely noticed that Ron and the twins were giving him angry glances. He also failed to notice that none of the Weasleys bothered to warn him to stay away from the 'evil' queen. He had other things in his mind, such as where to find a bright red apple, and a mirror. The apple was crucial to his story for when the Weasleys return, and the mirror was, well, just for him to look into to admire his good looks.

Draco decided to pretend that he was given a poisoned apple by the disguised queen. I wasn't going to take the apple, but it looked so nice and juicy. (Cue innocent, wide-eyed look) When the queen took a bite out of the apple, I thought that it was safe to take it. Who knew it was half-poisoned! (Look frail, pretend to faint) The evil prince had always been able to concoct farfetched stories, but this was the best one yet. I bet no one would even think of such marvellous stories!

Little did he know of a pair of brothers who were travelling around the country, collecting fairytales... but I digress. Now back to the story...

The Weasleys had never been very good at mining, for if they had been, they would have been wealthy by now. However, there is one thing that they were worse at than mining - reading a map.

'We're not lost, are we, Bill?' asked Ginny worriedly as they rested for lunch.

Bill let out a nervous grin. 'Well... We might be having some trouble.'

'Some trouble?' Ron echoed. 'In case you haven't noticed, we've been passing by this tree stump I'm sitting on five times!'

Ginny scowled at her brother. 'Thanks for sharing the information, Ron. You could have told us that earlier!'

'I thought Bill knew what he was doing!'

'Hey, don't you drag Bill into this! You would have saved us loads of trouble if you had told us about Draco earlier!'

'Huh! Like you'd believe me! You were drooling all over him!'

Before Ron and Ginny could get into one of their usual shouting matches, the sky above them rumbled, and rapid drops of rain fell onto the ground. The Weasley siblings scrambled around to gather their things, and ran for shelter underneath one of the trees.

'Great. Just great,' mumbled Ginny. She shot a glare at Ron, as if the rain was his fault too.

As they settled down under the tree, Charlie gave a sudden yell. The map was wet from the rain, and when he wiped off the excess water from the parchment, he discovered that there was a piece of paper stuck onto the map. Both he and Bill had interpreted the paper piece as part of the map. All the Weasleys groaned in frustration when they realized the mistake. Like I said, they were never very good at reading maps.