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Pranks, in their essence, were simple. Playful tricks designed to surprise someone. To get a laugh. A good prank should always end with laughter. That was rule number one in the Weasleys’ Guide to Pulling Off the Perfect Prank. Followed quickly by rule number two: don’t get caught. Almost, if not equally as important as rule number one.
George and Fred had clicked onto that one early.
Perfecting the guide had taken years. Throughout their childhood, across their Hogwarts years, and into adulthood. If you could call running a joke shop adulthood. Some people certainly didn’t. But at twenty-seven years old George thought he qualified. Just about.
When him and Fred had been young the guide had been filled with things like: don’t tell mum. And: farts are funny. Both still true a couple of decades later. But over the years he liked to think the guide had gained more finesse. Something he could pass on to the younger generation with pride. When he actually found someone to make a younger generation with, he wasn’t passing that guide on to just anyone after all. And Fred seemed content to live his life as fun uncle and Diagon Alley's second most eligible bachelor. Second to him of course.
During their Hogwarts years the guide gained: Don’t cause irreversible damage to a person. Buildings were fair game, but actually disfiguring someone was a bit far even for them. They’d learnt that lesson after pushing Montague into a vanishing cabinet, not that they’d known what it was at the time. Also added was: know your audience. Pulling a prank in front of prefects likely wasn’t going to go over well. Case and point: Hermione Granger.
Later on: fix your mess, was added. The Weasley twins running a joke shop together was always going to be messy. But there was only so much glitter, confetti, and other less annoying prank components that could be scattered over every inch of their flat before both twins called a truce. They’d clean up their own messes. There was no truce on the actual pranking though, how else were they to test products?
Maybe messing with time should have been added to the list. Although it was a little late for that as George was already trying to perfect a new product. A watch. One that would send you back in time. Just a tiny hop, five, ten minutes maximum. The perfect length to be able to watch your prank come to fruition. It was a solid idea. A bestseller if ever he’d thought of one.
Until it went wrong.
A slight miscalculation. The tiniest slip.
That sent him and Hermione Granger hurtling backwards through time.
Yeah... he’d definitely be adding that to the list.
You know, when he found a way to fix the mess he’d made. See, he was following the guide! Just the mess was a little bigger than glitter. And the consequences were a little more dire than a sparkly flat. George might not only end up stuck somewhere in time, he might end up with Hermione hating him. And that just wouldn’t do.