Chapter Text
“You sure you have everything you need?”
“Yes.” Dazai rolled his eye.
“You have pajamas and a change of clothes?”
“Yes.”
“Did you make sure to pack a hair brush and your toothbrush?”
“Yes.”
“Did you be sure to pack a clean pair of under-.”
“I’ve got everything!” Dazai exclaimed!
“I’m just making sure you’re prepared.” Snape sighed with annoyance.
He was worried for the boy. This is Dazai’s first official sleepover away from the house with friends, and he wanted to make sure that he was fully prepared. Dazai spent every other weekend at Poppy’s house, but this felt different to him.
“I’m not a child.” Dazai rolled his eye once more.
“You are, in fact, a child and it is my job to guide you while you finish growing up.” Snape felt another ‘Dazai headache’ coming on.
“I’m fine.” Dazai huffed.
There was a bit of tension building between the two of them lately, so this extra break for Snape was probably a good thing. Dazai was excited for a break as well but there was a part of him that also felt a little nervous. Ever since he was saved from the mafia, Snape and Pomfrey were always there for him. He felt safe with them. Now he was going to be without them for a night and the thought caused him to feel some anxiety.
“I know you are.” Snape sighed again.
“I can handle myself.”
“I know.” He looked entirely unconvinced.
The bus arrived and Dazai started towards it. Something stopped him in his tracks and he turned back to look at Snape.
“What is it? Did you forget something?” Snape asked.
Dazai briskly walked towards Snape, wrapped his arms around him in a big hug, and then quickly scampered back towards the bus.
“I’ll see you later.” Dazai reassured with a smile. He didn’t wait for a response and quickly boarded.
A small smile appeared on Snape’s face as the bus drove off.
-
“This is your stop.” The bus driver called out while looking at Dazai in the mirror.
“Thank you sir.” Dazai bowed and stepped off the bus.
The home he saw looked a bit worn down. ‘I guess I’ll be walking a bit.’ He thought as he made his way towards the house. He made sure to wear his gloves and keep his whole body covered. The Weasleys probably had a lot of magic in their home and he didn’t want to accidentally nullify anything important.
When he reached the front door, it swung open before he could even knock.
“There you are, mate!” Ron quickly grabbed Dazai by the non-broken arm and pulled him into the house. He took brisk steps while dragging a confused Dazai along with him.
“No more pranks!” Mrs. Weasley huffed.
“Sorry, mum.” Fred and George said in unison. Dazai surveyed the situation and realized that Mrs. Weasley was scolding her boys for something.
“Honestly, I don’t know where you both get that mischievous side of yours.” She sighed.
At this, Fred and George smirked at each other which only earned another glare from her.
“Seems like you two are in a bind.” Dazai chuckled. Mrs. Weasley whirled around and a pleasant smile appeared on her face when she saw him. The twins peered around her and their faces lit up too.
“Dazai!” She gasped, “You look well!” She noted that the dark circle under his eye was gone, although he did have a broken arm…
The twins ran over to Dazai and wrapped him up in a group bear hug.
“Aww, it's our little Snakey wakey!” Fred started.
“You appeared at the perfect time!” George finished. They both looked at their mom who dismissed their lecture with a wave of her hand.
“You boys have fun. And don’t cause any more trouble!” She glared at the twins.
“Yes ma’am.” They giggled.
“Good.” She nodded and walked to the kitchen.
Dazai pushed the twins off of him with a huff.
“Geez, you two were smothering me! I thought I was finally going to die.” He sighed.
“Hey Snakey, we haven’t seen you in a little bit-.“ Fred started. He eyed Dazai’s cast, already knowing what happened thanks to a letter they received.
“in order to check in, of course! How are things with professor Snape? He’s not giving you a hard time, is he?” George finished.
“He’s fine… although he’s been kind of annoying lately. He says I stress him out. Also, now he calls his daily headaches ‘Dazai headaches!’ Isn’t that just rude?” Dazai fake pouted.
“Probably.” Fred chuckled.
“It’s an accurate name though...” Ron interjected, thoughtful.
“Well, as long as you are safe with him, we will try not to worry too much.” George patted his shoulder.
“I’ll be fine. I can handle myself.” Dazai was annoyed at having to constantly repeat those same words over and over again.
“Whatever you say.”
“Anyways, why don’t we show you around the house?”
“Sounds good.” Dazai nodded and followed them.
“This is our room.” Fred and George showed off. “You’ll be sleeping in here with us so we can keep you safe.”
Dazai groaned at that. They’ll never stop mother-henning him, will they?
“That’s not happening.” Ron chimed in and Dazai was grateful for his interjection.
The twins turned with questioning looks to Ron who elaborated further.
“You only have 2 beds in here. I have a spare bed in my room he can sleep in. Now, follow me, Dazai.” Ron started walking out and Dazai chuckled and followed behind.
The twins gasped and followed while bickering at Ron.
Ron ignored their protests and swung his bedroom door open.
“This is it. That bed there is yours for the night. Feel free to set your bag down anywhere. It looks heavy.”
Dazai nodded and flung his bag onto his bed. The twins realized they lost, so they accepted their defeat.
“By the way, here is a sharpie!”
“A what? And what for?” Ron asked while taking the mysterious marker from Dazai’s outstretched hand.
“To sign my cast! Duh!” Dazai giggled. He showed the three Weasleys the two signatures he already had.
“Oh neat! I’ll sign it first.” George grabbed the marker from Ron, who gasped, and he opened it up.
‘Try to be more careful, Snakey. -George.’ He handed the marker to Fred next.
‘This arm is now under the strict protection of the Weasley Family. -Fred.’ With a smiley face next to it.
Fred teasingly handed the sharpie to Ron who snatched it angrily and wrote ‘Looks painful, mate. -Ron.’
Dazai smiled at the new signatures added to his arm. “Thanks.” He beamed as he took the marker back and closed it. He stuffed the sharpie in his pocket in case anyone else wanted to sign. He was hoping to have the signatures of all of his friends on it before getting his cast removed.
“We have time to chill before dinner is ready. What should we do?” George took a seat on Dazai’s bed which caused an angry huff from Ron.
“Don’t forget, mum said no more pranks.” Ron folded his arms.
“Oh please, she knows us well enough by now to know we will definitely keep pranking her.” Fred giggled.
“What kind of prank did you pull on her, anyways?” Dazai asked.
“Oh, it was so funny! We charmed the toaster to shoot the toast at whoever was using it. It landed right on mum’s face and she was so mad.”
The twins cackled to each other and Dazai rolled his eye while smiling fondly.
“Surely we can do better than that.” Dazai smirked.
Two things happened simultaneously, the twins perked right up, eagerly awaiting for Dazai’s plan, while Ron deflated with a look of dread appearing on his face.
Dazai opened his bag and pulled out lots of ingredients. No wonder his bag was so heavy…
“I swiped these from professor Snape’s stash without him noticing… yet…” with ingredient bags this big, Snape would definitely realize soon enough.
“What are you going to do with those?”
“I’m glad you asked.” Dazai cheered. “While I was at the library, I did a brief study on pranks that wizards can do.”
“And?” George was practically bouncing in anticipation.
“And… These are the ingredients to make belching powder.”
“That’s genius!” Fred and George clapped. Ron looked like he was regretting being there.
“Ron, mind fetching a bucket for me?” Dazai smiled, innocently.
Ron couldn’t say no to that face…
“Fine.” He sighed.
Once Ron came back into the room, just barely able to sneak the bucket without getting caught, Dazai started working on the powder.
“We add this much Red Myrrhe, some Ammoniacum, and a crap ton of honey!” Dazai called out as he poured each ingredient in. He threw in a bunch of other ingredients as well.
“How did you manage to get so much honey?”
“Oh, Snape loves that stuff. He keeps a big bucket of it since we go through honey so quickly.” Snape’s stash definitely dwindled quite a bit after this experiment. Dazai will probably earn himself a “detention” when he gets home. It was definitely worth it, though.
He gave the bucket a good mix with a wooden spoon. He silently thanked Snape for his new potion brewing skills.
“Done.” Dazai nodded in satisfaction.
“So, what are we going to do with it?” Ron asked, nervously.
“We could put this in Percy’s drink during dinner time.” Dazai giggled. “He will be belching like crazy, and won’t be able to stop.”
“That’s brilliant, mate!” Fred grinned.
They passed the time by playing games until Molly called out for dinner time.
The boys knew the plan, dazai would distract their mom, the twins would distract the others, and Ron would pour the powder into Percy’s cup.
They made their way downstairs and Molly had dinner on the counter and was pouring water into cups.
“Hello, Mrs. Weasley.” Dazai smiled. She turned her back to the drinks and smiled.
“Hello, Dazai. Is everything alright?”
“Oh everything is great.”
“Glad to hear it. You boys having fun?”
“Lots of fun! You should’ve seen Ron and I go head to head in monopoly! We weren’t sure who would win at first. I, of course, ended up winning, but it was a good game.”
“Beating Ron in a game certainly is impressive. That boy has always been very skilled in card games and board games. He’s good at chess as well.”
Dazai took note. He would definitely challenge Ron to a game of chess in the future. For now, though, they had a different objective. He decided to talk to her more about the monopoly game.
The twins smiled at the rest of the family who were taking their seats at the table.
“Hey dad, did you ever find out what muggles use rubber ducks for?”
“Ah, not yet. I swear, I will find out one of these days.” The Weasleys’ dad spoke, confidently.
“Well I have a few theories if you’d like to listen.” George took his seat and started.
“Yes, in a minute… Ron!” He called out and Ron, who was behind Molly, startled. He poured the powder and quickly turned around to face his dad.
“Yes sir?” Ron asked.
“Mind bringing me over a water? I’m parched.”
“Sure.” Ron fake smiled and brought over the water cups to the table.
Dazai decided the distraction was enough and said “well, I’ll tell you about the rest of the game later.” Even though he didn’t plan on bringing up the game to her again. He won and that’s all that matters to him.
They took their seats while Molly brought out the pot of food. She gave it a quick stir and served everyone on their plates. They all dug in… well… almost everyone. Ron awkwardly stared at his food and Dazai felt a sting of magic bite his tongue before nullifying from his dish completely.
“Ron dear, aren’t you hungry?” Molly asked. Dazai turned a questioning look to him when he realized that the powder was mixed in with the food and not Percy’s water.
‘He must’ve poured it in the wrong place by mistake when his dad startled him.’
Before Ron could respond, the other remaining Weasleys started belching a lot. They couldn’t stop.
“What is this?” Ginny whined, embarrassed.
Fred and George giggled excitedly as they started having a contest to see who could burp the loudest.
Arthur Weasley ignored his urge to burp and just kept eating.
Percy was horrified and instantly glared at the twins in between burps.
Momma Weasley tried her best to swallow hers down. Her initial confusion turned to anger. “Boys!” She shouted. The sudden shout caused Dazai to jump and he ended up dropping his bowl onto his lap. The hot food seeped through his cream colored pants, staining them.
As Dazai quickly jumped to his feet, the room fell silent and every Weasley stared at him.
“Dazai, are you ok? I’m sure that’s hot.” Momma Weasley stood up. “I’ll grab a towel.” She quickly went into the kitchen to get something to clean the mess up.
Dazai felt his mind shutting down. His vision started to get blurry and his hands started shaking. He looked down at the floor, frozen in place. He looked like a robot whose power button had just been turned off. He grabbed handfuls of his shirt at his sides.
“I’m sorry.” He muttered, anxiously. The room was spinning and his senses started going away, almost like he was floating in a void. His breathing picked up as if he had just finished running. He was definitely going to be punished for this- or so he thought.
“There’s nothing to apologize for.” Ron reassured, worried. Arthur got up from his seat with a napkin. When he approached Dazai, the boy flinched away instinctively. Arthur froze.
“Honey, I assure you that it’s ok.” Molly quickly made her way back over to dazai with a wet rag and started cleaning up his pants. “You’re not burned are you? Oh this looks like it’ll stain… not to worry, I can get it out. You should go change and I’ll start cleaning them.”
Dazai was still frozen so Ron grabbed his hand and led him up the stairs to change.
Ron closed his bedroom door behind them and turned to Dazai who stood, kinda folded in on himself.
“Are you ok?” Ron asked. Dazai shook his head. The only way he knew how to come back to reality when Snape or Pomfrey weren’t there… well, he couldn’t do that in front of Ron.
The ginger boy sighed and wrapped his arms around Dazai.
He let out a shaky breath on Ron’s neck.
After a few minutes, Dazai felt the imaginary ice melting off of him and he was able to function again.
When Ron let go, he turned away so dazai could change his pants before heading back down.
“We should go finish our dinner before it gets cold.” Dazai teased.
“Yeah, I’ll pass. Well, unless you nullify the magic for me first.” Ron said, hopeful.
“I’ll think about it. I suppose Ron was kinda helpful to me just now, even though you screwed up the prank in the first place.”
At Ron’s scoff, dazai giggled. They made their way downstairs and Ron handed the stained pants to Mrs Weasley who whisked them away to where she did laundry.
Dazai made a point to touch everyone’s plates to nullify the magic in their food so everyone could eat without belching throughout their meal.
“Your prank-.” Arthur started. Dazai felt his spine straighten. “Was marvelous!” He laughed. “You totally got me!”
Fred and George laughed with him and Dazai had a sigh of relief. He appreciated Arthur’s attempt to melt the tension from earlier.
“You can thank Ron for that one.” Dazai winked and nudged Ron in the arm.
“You’re the one who made the powder.” Ron rolled his eyes.
“It was clever, I’ll give you that.” Molly said with a hint of irritation as she sat at the table.
“Don’t worry, Dazai nullified the magic in it so it’s safe to eat now.” Percy added.
“Thank goodness. That was so embarrassing.” Ginny whined.
“By the way, Dazai. I have a serious question to ask you.” Arthur started.
Dazai nodded for him to continue.
“What is the function of a rubber duck?”
-
The kids all settled into their beds for the night. Dazai curled up into a small ball with his blanket wrapped around him tightly.
“Other than dinner, did you have a good time here?” Ron asked nervously.
Dazai did enjoy his day here. The Weasley family certainly were an interesting bunch, and very different from anything he’s ever known.
“Yeah.” He smiled. Ron returned the smile.
-
“You’re welcome to come back anytime you’d like.” Molly patted dazai on the shoulder.
“Thank you, ma’am.”
He was surprised when Molly pulled him into a hug.
“And if you ever need anything… anything at all, you let us know.”
“I will.” He melted into the hug before they broke away from each other.
Dazai said his goodbyes to the lively family as he stepped onto the bus.
He stared out the window as he replayed the new memories he made there.
When he arrived at his stop, he grabbed his bag and hurried off.
“Did you have fun?” Snape greeted as Dazai stepped off the bus.
Before dazai could answer, Snape grabbed his bag from him. “Your bag feels much lighter than when you left.” He looked at the boy, suspiciously.
“I did have fun but I had a panic attack at dinner.” He beamed. Snape’s face grew concerned before Dazai quickly added “also I used two pounds of your honey and that’s why my bag was so heavy.” Snape’s face did a weird series of changes before Dazai quickly added yet again “among several other ingredients I’m sure you’ll find missing.” Snape’s face started growing irritation when Dazai once again quickly added. “Also I didn’t bring pajamas because my bag was too full so I had to borrow a pair of Ron’s.”
Snape watched him for a moment before concluding that dazai was done talking. “Anything else?” He sighed and rubbed his forehead.
Dazai’s smile grew even wider. “I also beat Ron at monopoly.”
“I’m sure you did…” Snape and Dazai started walking towards the house.
“Oh, one more thing.”
“What is it?”
“What is the function of a rubber duck?” Dazai teased. Snape’s confused face told Dazai that he had absolutely no idea. Dazai laughed and Snape’s eye caught his cast.
‘More signatures. That’s nice.’ He thought to himself, pleased.
-
“Who else should we use this on?” The twins hovered over the bucket of belching powder, menacingly. There was still a ton left considering they only used a small handful so far.
“Oh, we are definitely bringing it to school with us this fall. Imagine all the people we could get with such an amount!”
They silently thanked Dazai for such a great prank idea.