A Weasley Bedtime

'Fred! George! Get down here now!'

Molly Weasley was sick of her eight year-old twin sons. She never had the same problem with Bill or Charlie, and ten year old Percy was simply a doll. But the twins were a different story. Molly was constantly chasing them around, making sure they didn't wreck the house she had expertly put together on a budget.

And now it was just after nine o'clock and her youngest son, Ron was bouncing about on the beds with his brothers. If she wasn't careful she'd have three little rascals to chase. Not only were they breaking the beds, little Ginevra was asleep only two doors away. Arthur was, as always, working hard at the Ministry. Even without the threat of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named the Ministry was as busy as ever, especially the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad. Arthur worked tirelessly as an office assistant, trawling through hundreds of files to determine whether magical maladies could be determined 'accidental' or whether it was a job for the Improper Use of Magic Officers.

'I'm warning you boys. If you wake your sister...' Molly started, but the two red heads began descending the stairs and she stopped.

'Mum, if you keep shouting you'll wake Ginny. She needs her sleep you know,' George said. Molly scowled at him.

'Her name is Ginerva,' she corrected him. 'Where is Ron?'

'Oh, he's asleep,' Fred said as the twins made it to the kitchen with their mother. Molly wasn't convinced.

'Come with me,' she instructed them, walking past them to the bottom of the stairs.

'You just told us to come down, now you say go up. Mothers are so contradictory,' George said. Fred stifled a giggle when he saw his mum's face.

'Stop reading Bill's school books,' she warned. Molly led the two boys up to their younger brother's room. Ron was, as she suspected, tucked in his bed, with the cover right round his neck. He was facing the wall on the other side, breathing heavily. 'Well, as he really is asleep I guess the two of you will be the only ones having ice cream.'

'Ice cream?' Fred said.

'Yes, it's been proven that ice cream helps you sleep,' Molly said.

All of a sudden there was movement from Ron's bed. The covers were thrown back and he appeared, wide-eyed and grinning.

'Mum, I can't sleep. Can I have ice cream?' he shouted.

Molly winced at the sound of his voice, anxious of Ginevra.

'Shh Ronald Weasley. Just because you three don't feel the need to sleep, everyone else in the village does!' she exaggerated slightly. It was after all only nine o'clock. 'Now come on, quickly. You can have one bowl of ice cream and then bed. You promise?' Mrs Weasley asked. The three boys nodded and Fred whooped. Mrs Weasley shot him a look and he hung his head and followed her down the stairs.

After they had each eaten a bowl of ice cream, Mrs Weasley ordered her youngest most troublesome boys back to bed.

'But mum, it's only half past nine!' Fred whined.

'I said one bowl of ice cream. Don't argue with me please,' she pleaded. With Arthur not home until late, Molly had to get all of her children to bed. It wasn't so bad in the school term, with Bill and Charlie at Hogwarts. Although she loved her boys, she looked forward to a time when she was at home with just Ginevra, whom she had a soft spot for.

Fred, George and Ron traipsed up the stairs and all piled into Ron's room. Molly had put her youngest children on the first floor so she and Arthur were as close as possible (their own bedroom being on the second floor). However, she was having doubts. She suspected that this was only the beginning of things to come.

'Ron,' she said when she walked into his room.

'I'm going to sleep mum,' he said climbing under his sheets.

'No, I wanted to know, do you want to change rooms?' Molly asked.

'OK! Where?' Ron said. He got out of bed again.

'Well, Bill doesn't like his room on the top floor. How about you move there?' she suggested. Ron nodded his head.

'Then when Fred, George and I are up all night playing wizard chess and gobstones you won't shout 'coz Ginny will be all the way down here,' he beamed.

'Her name is Ginevra. We'll see about this, okay? Now get to sleep and I will talk to your dad about it when he gets home from work. Come on boys, up to your room,' she said to the twins.

'Mum, we've been talking, and -' Fred started.

'We don't think it's fair that we go to bed - '

'At the same time as ickle Ronnikins. So...'

'We need a new bedtime. How about half past ten? Then maybe dad can tuck us in, and tell us about Martin the Muggle and how he meets the wizards and - '

Molly interrupted. 'No, nine thirty is quite late enough for a couple of eight year-olds. Off to bed with you.' The twins groaned and walked out the door and up the stairs.

'Mum?' Ron said from his bed. Molly looked at her son. By now she was exhausted. 'Can I please have a bedtime story?' Ron grinned at his mother, his front teeth missing. Molly's heart melted. However tired she felt she always had time for her children. She nodded and Ron had settled himself into bed. Molly sat on the edge and began reciting the story she told all of her sons.

'A long time ago, there were four brilliant wizards. They ....'

'Mum, are you putting us to bed or not?' Fred shouted from the doorway.

'Shh,' Ron told his brother. Fred looked and saw Molly asleep on Ron's bed. 'She fell asleep as she was telling me bit when Helga and Rowena snuck up on Salazaar and turned his hair green,' Ron informed him.

'So you didn't finish the story?'

'No, we didn't even get to the part when Rowena and Godric fight Salazaar in a battle to the death,' Ron said, a sad look on his face.

'Come with me,' Fred said suddenly.

'Why?' Ron asked. He had good reason to be suspicious of any gesture from his twin brothers, especially after the spider-bear incident years before.

'Because, mum is asleep and you need a bedtime story,' Fred said, pointing his finger at Ron. Ron looked back at Molly who was exhausted. He slowly got out of bed, and taking Fred's hand walked up the flight of stairs to the twin's room.

'Why have you got Ron?' George asked as his two brothers walked into the room.

'Mum's asleep. He needs a bedtime story,' Fred said plainly.

'And we are going to tell him one?' George asked sarcastically.

'Exactly,' his twin replied. George groaned and climbed out of his bed.

'We'd better push our beds together so that we can all fit,' George suggested. Quietly, the three boys pushed the two single beds together and climbed in. Ron sat in the middle of the twins and looked expectedly at them.

'Are you going to finish mum's story?' he asked.

'No, we will tell you a new story,' Fred said.

Just then a figure appeared at the doorway. Ginevra Weasley was out of bed.

'What are you doing Ginny?' George asked.

'Where's mummy?' she asked, walking into the room.

'Mummy's asleep. Fred and George are telling me a story. Go to bed Ginny,' Ron said. Ginevra screwed her face up as though she was about to bawl.

'No no Ginny. Come and sit down. We will tell you the story too,' George said. Ginevra straightened her face and walked over to the bed. She climbed up and sat between Ron and George, smiling contentedly.

'Okay, everyone comfortable?' Fred asked. His little brother and sister nodded. 'Then I will begin. Once upon a time...'

'No you dope. You don't start a good story like that! All boring stories happened "once upon a time",' George butted in.

Fred groaned as the two younger children smiled up at him. 'Okay, one day, there was a lonely boy in his house. But it wasn't really his house, was it George?'

'Oh no, this house belonged to his evil aunt and uncle who...'

'Not evil like our cousin Steven, the accountant. Really evil, pure blooded evilness,' Fred interjected.

'Evilness isn't a word, dumbo,' George said. The twins started bickering until Ginevra spoke.

'I think I'm gonna go get mummy. Your story is boring.' She yawned and went to get out of the bed.

'No, stay, it gets better, if George stops arguing,' Fred said, giving his brother a look.

Ginevra nodded and pulled the cover tighter around her.

'Okay, so he lived in this house with his horrible aunt and uncle. Now, they had a little boy as well, Henry's cousin, but they liked him more than they liked Henry.'

'Who's Henry? Ginevra asked.

'That's the boy, living with his aunt and uncle,' George said, glad he wasn't five and unable to follow a story.

'And what's the cousin's name?' Ron asked.

'Henry, George just told you that,' Fred said, glad he wasn't five or six and unable to follow a story.

'No not him, the other cousin. The aunt's son,' Ron said, glad he wasn't eight and unable to tell a story properly.

'Oh him. His name is err, Douglas,' Fred said.

'Can we get on with the story?' Ginevra said, silently glad she wasn't a boy and argued about everything.

'Yes,' George said. 'So Henry is living with his aunt and uncle and Douglas. Now, Aunt, Uncle and Douglas aren't magic. They don't know anything about it.'

'Muddles?' Ginevra asked.

'Muggles Ginny, muggles,' Fred said. 'But, little Henry is magical. He is a wizard. Only, he doesn't know it.'

'So, Henry is magic, but he can't use it. He doesn't have a wand, or a pretend wand. Or he can't even borrow his mum's wand and do magic with that,' George said.

'That's right. And Henry doesn't know about Quidditch or Hogwarts or even You-Know-Who,' Fred said dramatically.

'So he doesn't know Harry Potter?' Ginevra asked. Fred shook his head. 'Wow, I thought even muddles knew Harry Potter.'

'Okay. So, Henry is five years old by now. He still doesn't know he's magic and his cousin Douglas is fat and horrible. Then one day, Aunt Margaret came to stay. She wasn't Henry's aunt but he had to call her 'aunt',' George said.

Ginevra yawned. 'This story is kinda borin',' she said.

'It gets better I promise,' Fred said. 'Well Aunt Margaret was really weird. Instead of having a husband and having lots of babies she liked guinea pigs. This one time she visited, she brought her favourite guinea pig, Cutter. Cutter was horrible and was always biting Henry. One day when Aunt Margaret was round, Henry didn't wash up quick enough and Margaret made Cutter chase Henry up the stairs, trying to bite him!'

Ron and Ginny gasped. None of the children knew what a guinea pig was, but Fred had heard one being talked about on the Wizarding Wireless and assumed it was a ferocious beast.

'Well, after that, Henry's aunt and uncle made sure he did all the chores, or they threatened him with Cutter,' George carried on.

'Skip forward a few years. Henry is eight. He and Douglas go to school. Not Hogwarts but a muggle school, where they do things like 'mats' and 'jog graphs',' Fred said.

'How do you jog a graph?' Ron asked. Fred shrugged his shoulders.

'So anyway, at school Douglas doesn't talk to Henry. He pretends he doesn't even know him! Douglas has a lot of friends. Not because he is nice but because he hits people until they sit with him. But Henry has to wear all Douglas's clothes and they smelt bad.'

'Poor Henry,' Ginevra said quietly. She looked close to tears.

'But one day,' George said a little louder than he intended to, 'a letter came in the post. It was for Henry. But his uncle took it right from him. More and more kept coming; the letters filled the living room. So his aunt and uncle took him to a hotel and on his eleventh birth he finally saw the writing on the card and it said he was a wizard!'

'Wow, that's amazing!' Ron said. 'Imagine not knowing you were gonna be a wizard!'

'So, Henry got the letter, but he knew he wouldn't be allowed to leave his aunt and uncle. He had to do their washing up every night. Henry drew a birthday cake in the dust on the floor and blew it out. As he did, the door blew open and in walked a giant!' George said.

'That's not believable George. Giants don't just walk around hotels anymore,' Fred said.

'This one does. It's my turn to tell the story. Anyway, the giant came in and scooped up Henry in one ginormous hand and carried him away. They went shopping and ate ice cream, played gobstones and talked about the wizarding world. At the end of the day the giant left Henry at the Leaky Cauldron and gave him a ticket to Hogwarts,' George said. He sounded like he had finished but Fred didn't want to leave it like that.

'Well, Henry got to the train station and like all the muggle borns; he didn't know how to get to the platform. He stood around for a while but then he heard someone say 'muggle'. So thinking they were wizards, Henry went and asked them about getting to the train. The mum laughed and told him to take a run at the wall. He seemed worried but after watching a boy do it, he ran at the wall and disappeared through to.....'

'Platform nine and three quarters!' Ron and Ginevra called together.

'Yes! Platform nine and three quarters. Well, Henry got through the barrier and didn't know where to go. The mum asked him if he would sit with her son, because he was a first year too. Henry said yes and the two boys spent the whole journey eating sweets and playing chess,' Fred said.

'I love chess!' Ron said.

'I know Ron, so does Henry's new friend,' George said, lightly touching his brother on the shoulder.

'Well they get to Hogwarts and all live happily ever after!' Fred finishes. His siblings stared at him.

'You're finishing this great story with that?' George said disgusted.

'Why not?' Fred said.

'Because, well because, it's rubbish!' Ron said. George nodded and Ginevra giggled.

'Well that's the end and that's that!' Fred said sulking.

'We might as well go to bed then,' Ron said. He and Ginny wriggled out of the bed and walked to the door.

'Night night,' Ginevra said.

Ron and Ginny walked out the room and to their own bedrooms. Fred and George separated their beds and climbed into them. Fred turned to his twin.

'That story was so unbelievable!' he laughed.

'I know, reckon those two bought it though?' George said.

'No, not even a six year old can be that stupid! 'Night Forge,' Fred said.

''Night Gred,' George replied. With that they both closed their eyes and dreamt about Hogwarts.