A Tough Tough Night in the Lupin Household

"Remus, I need you to take Anna!" Tonks yelled.

"I'm kind of busy with Vega sweetie!" It was a very busy day, and the Lupin kids were very hyped up for some unknown reason. At this point, there were six children:

"Mama, Mira keeps scaring me!" Sadr ran in the room and tugged on his mother's shirt, paler than ice.

"It's fine, dear, no need to be scared. Now run off and play with Lyrae."

"He won't play with me. As Albatross Wingulfer once said, 'Life is but unfair to all those who seek fairness.'"

"English please?" Tonks asked.

"He's counting his 'income'."

"WHAT!? I'm going up there now!" Tonks set down Anna ad Apparated into her oldest son's room. Upon entering, she screamed and broke all the windows.

"WHAT IS ALL THAT?!" she cried. Everywhere, there were toys, goodies, and a few galleons here and there. Lyrae looked up, got spooked, and cried "NOW!" Just then, every sibling in the house began to cry miserably. Tonks was overwhelmed.

"REMUS! HELP ME!"

"I CAN'T! VEGA'S GOT A STINKER!" Remus cried. And downstairs, he was having issues of his own.

He couldn't figure out what the hell Vega had eaten, because the poop was like an energizer battery: it just kept going and going and going and going. Meanwhile, Anna was running around, and her uncontrollable magic was turning random objects into statuettes of her family members. Remus set down Vega, and was admiring his daughter's handiwork. The best one was Mira's. It looked just like her. But all of a sudden, her statuette was moving, changing, and going all weird. Turns out it was Mira, just playing a joke. But upstairs, things were getting worse.

As Remus was handling matters downstairs, Tonks was desperately trying to catch Lyrae and Sadr. Then, a thought came to her.

"REMUS, WHERE IS ADARA? I HAVEN'T SEEN HER FOR A WHILE!" she yelled, but then, the loud racket from upstairs made the whole house go silent. It kept coming.

"ADARA?!" They both yelled.

"MOM, DAD! HELP ME!" Sure enough, Remus raced up the stairs, Tonks following with the other kids. They reached the attic, and sure enough, Adara was locked inside a giant wardrobe. Remus sprung the latch open, and let out a girly scream when he saw his eldest daughter. Tonks slapped her face, changing its entire appearance.

Adara was usually a very pretty young woman, but not at this point in time. Her hair was wound up with glue covered feathers and dyed bright green. Her face was covered in lipstick, and her eyebrows were shaved off. As for her body, she was dressed in what looked like what a Mardi gras ghost would wear. Remus ran up to her and cleared up the mess with a wave of his wand.

"What happened to you?"

"IT WAS MY STUPID BLOODY SIBLINGS! WHY COULDN'T I HAVE BEEN AN ONLY CHILD?"

"Guys, you have a lot of explaining..." Tonks began to her children, but in the act of turning around, she was fuming to find that they were all gone.

"KIDS! WHERE ARE YOU!?" she yelled, and not a moment too late. She saw Vega drop fleetingly past the attic window. Tonks screamed, and Remus leapt to the window and cast the first spell that came to mind.

"Arresto Momentum!" he cried, and the baby stopped inches before the stone patio, and then landed softly. The two exasperated parents ran down to get her, but the problems didn't cease.

"MOTHERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" Adara yelled.

"What?" Remus said, but he nearly fainted at the sight in front of him.

The house was in shambles. The grandfather clock had a missing pendulum, which was now swinging from the dining room chandelier, making it swing and nearly break itself. The living room couch had all its stuffing pulled out of it, the grand piano's strings had all been cut, the floo powder bin was overturned and the remaining floo powder was somehow stuck on the ceiling. Last but more like most than least, Remus found a small house of American Congress smashed to pieces.

"AAH! Arthur's American Congress diorama! Oh no, they broke little Condoleezza! And dear me, little Dick Cheney's head has been shot by the tiny gun in the office! ARTHUR"S GOING TO KILL ME!" Remus went insane, while Tonks took a different approach. She was running around, stepping on bits and pieces of valuables, trying to find her kids.

The first on she caught was Sadr, by far the easiest catch. He was crouching under a pile of old Witch Weekly magazines, laughing hilariously. The next was Lyrae, who was hiding under mounds of "loot" in his room. The following was Anna, who was busy trying to figure out how she was stuck at the top of a sycamore tree while squirrels chatted beside her and how she had conjured up a patronus in the form of a dementor. Oh, how I love irony. Next Mira came, who was looking just like a young version of her mother on that day, and constantly changing with her impertinent laughter. Once they were all caught, Remus and Tonks lined them up to punish them. In the middle of the first word, Remus put his hand over Tonks' mouth.

"Honey, count the children."

"Alright...One, two, three, four, five."

"Oh my god, dear, where is..." Remus began, but not for long, because an enormous albino thestral (a visible one to all, at that) came pounding through the door. It stood facing them, and then the parents yelled.

"VEGA! EVERYBODY RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!" And with that, every person split up and ran in different directions while Vega destroyed the Lupin household piece by piece, smashing through walls and snapping at anything in its way. It came upon Tonks and Lupin, and they crouched down and embraced each other, hoping to survive. And then, all at once, it was over.

The house was back to normal. All the children were sitting quietly and reading, except Vega, who was chewing on her left foot.

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Tonks and Remus screamed.

"What do you mean? We have just been sitting here reading. Why work yourselves up over this?" Lyrae said.

"Oh my goodness, what happened to you? You look bloody awful. Are you alright?" Adara asked.

"Yes, we'll just be going to bed. Night." Remus and Tonks strode out the door, arms over each other, thinking they had a bad dream or something. As soon as the door shut, however, the kids all put their books down and Vega stopped chewing her big toe. Sadr, who was closest to the window, opened it up.

"You can come out now, guys!" he whispered. Ron sprang out of the bushes first, reaching down to pull Harry and Hermione up. Hermione's hair was all haywire (emphasis on the "hay") and Harry had lipstick all over his face.

"Thank GOD you guys finished early! These two..." he pointed to Harry and Hermione, "...have been making me sick all evening!"

"Hey, you could have switched bushes!" Hermione harshly spoke.

"And have watched yours shaking from a distance? EW. Anyway, how'd it go?" Ron asked.

"Perfect. They actually thought we were wrecking the house! It was classic!" Mira exclaimed.

"Especially when little Vega here..." Adara lifted Vega up to the windowsill, "...turned into her albino thestral! I knew that would set it over the edge! I knew they would tell us to scatter, so I programmed a button to reset the house once Vega towered over them!"

"Aha! The daughter of Moony is a born marauder! I'm so proud!" Harry said.

"Yes, she was the best one of us all! Well, we must be off. Goodnight and thank you very much for the idea. I hope you took pictures!" Lyrae said.

"A roll and a half!" Ron exclaimed. The Lupin kids shut the window and went off to bed. A good prank makes anyone tired. Ron stepped out of the bushes laughing, but Harry and Hermione stayed put.

"So...Hermione...back in the bush?"