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The Halloween gathering of the Weasley family—and its adopted members—was in full swing, when the mischief started. Everyone was seated around the kitchen table, eating the delicious food and chatting amiably with each other, when Hermione let out a quiet gasp. Charlie and Ron, who were sitting next to her turned to her questioningly, and soon realized the source of her surprise.
A name—or better said, names—have found their place on everyone’s forehead. Everyone had a different name written on them, and there seemed to be a pattern there somewhere, but everyone was too surprised by the appearance of the names to be able to figure it out.
“Mollywobbles…” hesitantly started Mr. Weasley, who too has noticed the addition to everyone’s face. His forehead now sported the name of his wife written in bold capital letters.
“What is it, dear?” she was busy adding some stuffing to Harry’s plate—the boy was still too skinny for her liking, despite being out of the Dursleys’ ‘care’ for some years now—and had yet to notice this year’s Halloween prank taking effect.
“Er… Mum… You might want to look at everyone’s face…” continued Bill in his father’s place. By now he had realized the pattern in which the names have appeared. Judging by the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had each other’s names on their foreheads, as did Ron and Hermione and—as he strongly suspected—did he and Fleur, the name that everyone now had written on them seemed to be that of their partner. Or so Bill assumed.
Mrs. Weasley gave him a surprised look, which soon turned into fury, as her eyes ran from the face of one person to another and finally settled onto the twins’ innocent expressions.
“What. Did. You. Two. Do?!” Screeched Mrs. Weasley. Her forehead was proudly displaying the name of her husband, which was to be expected. After all, they have been happily married for some thirty-odd years now.
“Who–” started one of them.
“Us–” continued the other one.
“Do something–” took over the first twin.
“Never!” they finished in unison in the most earnest tone of voice possible.
Both of them raised their hands for good measure, as though to show that they were innocent of any accusation and that they surrendered to their mother’s mercy.
“I do not believe that for a single second. Now, I ask again, what did you do?” Mrs. Weasley was clearly running out of patience, judging by the way she was tapping her foot at an increasingly fast pace.
“Alright, alright, it was us! We added a little something to the apple cider.” Reluctantly confessed Fred. “But it’s going to wear off soon, swear!” He hastened to add as he caught sight of his mother’s angry face. He yelped and took a step back, when Mrs. Weasley’s hand reached for a pan that was lying in the kitchen sink.
Meanwhile his twin was unaware of the danger that was headed their way, too busy teasing his older brother. “My, my, Percy, got up to something other than work at the Ministry, did we?”
Percy, usually reluctant to participate in the rowdy family gatherings, had taken time off work to be with his family. He had taken a sip of the apple cider, so as not to upset his mother, and now had a name written on his forehead, along with everyone else. It read Penelope Clearwater in a flowing cursive script.
“Mum, look at Charlie’s and Harry’s faces!” shouted Ron in a bid to distract his mother from enacting her vengeance on the twins. The two young men whose names were mentioned looked into each other’s eyes and quickly averted their gazes, blushing.
“What–” started Mrs. Weasley, confused. “Oh… Oh!” She turned to her daughter, obviously trying to pretend she did not just see that the two young men had each other’s names displayed on their foreheads. “Ginny, dear, I though you and Harry…”
“Er, Mrs. Weasley, Ginny and I… that is to say… Charlie and I…” Harry was visibly flustered and couldn’t find his words.
“Mum, lay off, would you? Harry and I broke up ages ago, we’re both adults free to sleep with whomever we chose.” She looked defiantly into her mother’s eyes. “Provided that everyone consents, of course.” She added as an afterthought. “Or is it because they’re both guys?” Mrs. Weasley looked affronted at the notion of her disapproving of her children’s relationships.
Meanwhile Ginny carried on. “Well, I’m sleeping with Pansy! And I am not ashamed of it. It’s literally written on my face right now, for Heaven’s sake!” She declared loudly. “By the way,” she turned to the twins, “I assume this is your doing? When is it going to wear off? Cause as proud as I am of my relationship with Pansy, I am not ready to announce it to the whole wide world. At least not yet.” She looked inquisitively at her older brothers.
“Don’t worry, Gin. It’ll only last for an hour or so,” reassured her Fred.
“George and Fred Weasley!” Mrs. Weasley seemed to have recovered her bearings and was now advancing on the twins, a pan in her hand. “What on Earth possessed you to do something like this?!”
“We just thought it would be fun to share who’s going to be the next addition to the family!” cried George in their defense.
“Yeah, mum, you always say that everyone should bring their partners to the family gatherings, but no one ever fesses up on whom they’re seeing, so we thought we’d take it in our own hands…” added Fred.
“While you are correct on the note of bringing significant others to our gatherings, this is definitely not the way to do it! Besides, if you are so keen on seeing your siblings’ partners, you could have started by bringing yours today.” She looked pointedly at Angelina Johnson and Lee Jordan written of Fred’s and George’s foreheads, respectively.
“Well…” started George trying to find an excuse for not bring Lee to the party.
“’Well’ nothing, young man!” She turned to the rest of her children. “You all will introduce me to your significant others, won’t you?” Her look clearly said ‘you had better’.
“Of course!” chorused everyone, including Mr. Weasley, who had a healthy respect and fear of his wife in her moments of anger.
Deep down, Mrs. Weasley was thankful to the twins for their prank. Besides, it was high time that she met her children’s partners. Sue her, she was a curious woman and a mother of seven, which left little time for her own entertainment, so she secretly was delighted at finding out who her children were seeing.
After all, a mother always wants to know that her children are not only safe and sound, but also loved.