Gred and Forge and the Time Machine

- Chapter Four -

"Now, let's see, the blue button brings us to the past..."

"And the purple one to the future..."

"We will only be able to travel through time in England..."

"And we choose our destination by pressing the correct buttons on the left panel..."

"During the journey through time, the red light will be blinking..."

"And when we've arrived at your destination, the green light will be blinking..."

"Well, that's a lot of instructions to remember..."

"And we must remember not to bring back anything from the past or future..."

"Because that will disrupt the passage of time, whatever that means..."

"And if the machine detects any item from the past or future, we will not be able to get back to the present..."

"We will be able to walk around our destination, but we can't get 10km away from the machine..."
"Because if that happens we will not be able to get back to the machine on time when our time slot is up..."

"And we will each be given a watch..."

"Which will show our distance from the machine and the time left to explore..."

"And when time is up..."

"We press the glowing red button on the watch..."

"And we will appear in the time machine immediately to travel back to the present..."

"And we press the orange button with the word 'present' to get back..."

"And we will appear back where our journey started..."

"And when we are in the past or future..."

"We will not be able to speak to anybody during that time..."

"And we will appear invisible to everybody there! Now that's interesting... I didn't know muggles knew those kind of spells..."

"That's why, George! I told you Muggles are smart and you didn't believe me..."

"Ohhhhhh... Fred! Don't start that SPIM thing again! You and Hermione will make a fine pair, what with SPEW and SPIM!"

"I didn't start SPIM! You were the one who gave it a name!"

"But you were the one who started protecting those intelligent muggles, who are in fact not intelligible at all!"

"George! MUGGLES ARE SMART! ADMIT IT AND STOP ACTING LIKE AN IDIOT! I'M SURE DAD AGREES WITH ME! LOOK AT HOW THEY LIVE WITHOUT MAGIC!"

"ME ACTING LIKE AN IDIOT? NOW LOOK WHO'S ACTING LIKE AN IDIOT! AND MUGGLES CAN LIVE WITHOUT MAGIC BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO DUMB TO KNOW THAT MAGIC EXISTS! THEY ARE SIMPLY TOO - "

"What are you guys quarreling about?" Charlie, who had just returned home for vacation, heard their squabbles and went up to their room to calm them down.

"HE THINKS HE'S SO SMART!" yelled Fred.

"HE IS A MUGGLE-LOVER!" yelled George.

"Okay, boys, calm down. You two are the best of friends, right? What happened?"

Fred and George scowled and sat down on the bed with their arms crossed, backs turned away from each other.

Charlie sighed. He silently wished that the twins would both stop acting like idiots and just grow up. Even Ron, who was younger, was more sensible and kept his temper for most things. The quarrel reminded him of one he had with Bill. They had a cold war for a month - it was over a girl - and they only made up when they found out that the girl had cheated on both of them. The next month, both of them were kept busy playing tricks on the girl, and ignoring all her shrieks and curses. Now, his twin brothers were facing the same dilemma. What could he do?

His eyes wandered around the twins' room, and he caught sight of a little book on the table. Thinking that it was a book of tricks, he reached for it and flipped it open, hoping that he could find some tricks to play on himself to cheer up the twins. "The things I am willing to do for my brothers!" he thought, shaking his head.

He scanned through the book, only to find that it was filled with instructions with occasional phrases like "press the purple button", "pull the big lever", or "wait till the green light starts blinking". Curiously, he was about to flip to the front page and find out what the book was for when the twins jumped to their feet and snatched the book away.

Fred scowled. "You can't just read our stuff like that, Charlie!"

"What's that book for anyway?"

"It's really none of your business." George replied.

"Are you guys ganging up on me?"

The twins glanced at each other and grinned, thinking of how childish and stupid it was of them to quarrel like two over-aged babies.

"Yeah!" The twins then threw a Dungbomb at Charlie and shoved him out of their room.

"Best friends and twins again?" Fred asked, sticking out his hand.

"Why not?" George shook his hand and grinned.

The twins looked at each other, took a deep breath, and confirmed the choices. They felt a heavy wind sweeping them off the ground, and were knocked unconscious almost instantaneously.

The twins stirred. They rubbed their eyes and woke up, finding themselves lying in the garden of the Burrow. "We must have made it!" they thought. They gave each other thumbs-up and stood up.

"Do you suppose we are invisible to those people?"

"Maybe. We should really test it!"

"Yeah, let's go into the house."

In the house, the Weasley family were having breakfast. The twins were shocked to see Hermione (who looked extremely grown-up and pretty) there, sitting beside Ron (who was taller but more muscular) in her nightdress and enjoying her breakfast thoroughly. They were even more shocked to see her give Ron a little kiss and whisper something into his ear. Ron grinned and turned to Ginny. The twins stared at Ginny. She had grown up to be a very beautiful young girl, more slender and attractive. Curious to hear what the secret was, the twins walked over to them and tried to eavesdrop. They almost jumped out of their skins when Ginny turned to them and said, "Hey Fred, George! I thought both of you were on holiday? Why did you come back acting like you were fifteen or sixteen?"

"Er... no... erm... we just... erm..." Fred stammered.

"Made a 'Make-yourself-younger Potion'!" George continued.

"Yeah! That's it! The reverse of the ageing potion, remember?" Fred exclaimed, playing along.

"Yeah, we feel that it will be fun to... erm... be younger for the holidays. So we... erm... lied to you guys about the holiday thing and came back when we finally made the potion! Yeah!" George said.

"Oh." Ginny eyed them suspiciously.

"Erm... what's Hermione doing here? And where's Mum?"

"Are you okay, Fred? Don't you remember? Hermione's engaged to Ron! And Mum's on holiday with Dad to Egypt to visit Bill, so they're all not at home!" Ginny put her hand to Fred's forehead and felt his temperature. "Are you guys sure you are alright? Are there any side effects to the potion?"

"Yeah, some of your memory goes..." Fred jumped at the opportunity to account for their weird behaviour.

"Oh, I see. That's why. Really, Fred! How can you just take a potion you have made like this? I suppose George has also lost some of his memory, isn't it?"

"Yes, Ginny, stop being a know-it-all. Where's Harry, anyway?"

"Harry?" Ginny blushed.

"Harry is staying at Sirius' place nearby." Hermione answered.

"Sirius? Sirius Black? The madman?"

"He's not a madman," Ron snapped. "He's Harry's godfather, and he is not guilty of any crime anymore. Don't you remember these stuff, Fred, George? Remember that time Pettigrew was caught? Really, I think I prefer you older. You really sound like ignorant little kiddies. After Sirius was freed, he built a house nearby and Harry went to stay with him. You can visit him now if you like, and regain some parts of your memory by the way."

"Oh, okay." "Things sure are getting complicated. Why is Harry staying with Sirius Black? I thought he escaped from Azkaban and was a wanted murderer? And he killed 13 people with one curse too! Things are weird." thought the twins.

"Is dear Ginny being caught up in a relationship with somebody?" George asked with a twinkle in his eye.

"I... er... " poor Ginny stuttered and blushed furiously.

"Who's the lucky young man who took away the heart of our dear little sister?" asked Fred, pretending to be very concerned.

"Oh stop it, you guys. You know perfectly well as I do that Harry likes Ginny. Why else do you suppose that he visits us everyday and persuades Sirius to find a place nearby?" Hermione said.

"Really?" George smirked. "So will he be here today or will he forget to come and leave Ginny's heart broken or will he - "

"Shut up, George." Harry's voice said.

The twins whirled around to find Harry stepping out of the chimney. Ginny leaped up and helped Harry to brush off the soot on his clothes, while the twins stared. Harry had definitely grown a lot taller, and he was very handsome, with his even more greenish eyes and messy tufts of jet-black hair. He was holding a rose in his left hand, and a tiny box with tiny pink flowers on it in his right hand.

"Hi, Harry," the twins muttered, staring at Harry unbelievably. Before they could even think of anything else to say, Harry was already on his knee. He gazed at Ginny and said, "Ginny dear, will you marry me?"