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Title: Sneeze Sweets
 "Fred and George Weasley! If you do not start studying for your NEWTs right this instance, you will not see the light of day for a very long time. Is that understood?" Molly Weasley yelled dangerously. Her two sons gulped at her tone and bolted up the stairs to their bedroom. Ever since the unveiling of their OWL scores, their mum had been on a tirade to get them to study, even though it was a full nine months before sane people would start revising. Once in the room, Fred looked at George and waggled his eyebrows. George raised one and looked quizzically at his brother. Fred just sighed and pulled out a cauldron with a green potion in it. George nodded, finally understanding. The younger twin took a brush from under his bed and dumped it into the slime and started coating the door with it. The potion simply adhered and hardened into a green block. Once the door was covered and all cracks were filled in, the two talked. "It's a good thing we discovered this, isn't it George?" Fred asked as he put away the cauldron. "Do you think we should add it to the Wheezes?" his brother asked, mind straying from his brother's question. "No Forge, the last thing we want to do is have our number one product out on the market. Plus, if mum finds our forms, she'll make sure we don't have any more of this stuff. Imagine what she would say if she knew that we had an anti-magic field covering us!" Fred said reasonably. "True. But maybe we should get Ginny in on it. After all, the chance to do magic in the holidays without detection?" he pointed out. "Well, it'd keep the boys away from her." Fred rolled his eyes. "Yeah, including us. Do you have any idea how long it took her to learn the Bat-Bogey Hex from Bill? Do you really want her to have more firepower than she already has?" George shivered in agreement and dropped the subject. "So, are we going to work on the Skiving Snackboxes?" "Bloody hell, yes!" Fred exclaimed. "I think the Nosebleed Nougat is almost ready, but as that has to wait a few days before it can be tested, we should work on the Sneeze Sweets." "Right, then," George agreed, pulling out four samples. "Here's one for you, and one for me." Fred took his. "Ready?" Fred asked. He had a piece of parchment and quill ready for record keeping. George nodded and bit into the red end of the sweet. He chewed and swallowed it, waiting for the sneezing to start. The two waited for nearly five minutes, but there was no sign of it working. George sighed, "I guess that's a bugger, then." "Yeah," Fred said dejectedly. "Why don't we put all this away and review over the charms work again? Mum's due to check in on us in another two minutes anyway." George put away the sweets and waited until Fred had set out the books before breaking the green potion off. It peeled off as usual, being as light as Muggle Styrofoam, but much hardier and magic proof. Plus, once heated, it melted back into potion form to be reused. He piled the blocks into the cauldron and put it under his bed for later. The twins then plopped onto their beds and opened the Charms notes from their past years. While George was studying for the NEWTs, Fred was going over the recipes they used to create the Sneeze Sweets, hoping to figure out their mistake. George sniffled and ran a hand under his nose, feeling funny. His nose and throat were itching uncomfortably, and suddenly he felt tired and ... ill. He sniffled again and cleared his throat, hoping that the feeling would go away. And momentarily, it did. But then... "HUH-CHOO!" George sneezed. Both brothers looked up in surprise at George's sneeze. The ailing twin grabbed a tissue and blew his running nose. "George, what was that?" Fred asked. It was nearly three hours after his twin had ingested the Sneeze Sweet. Why would it be working now? "HUH-CHOO! ETCHOOO!" George sneezed again. He sniffled heavily and was forced to blow his nose again. "What's going on?" George asked, his nose tickling again. "Why do I feel so snee...ee... EHH-YEH-CHOO! HEEH-CHOO! HEH-CHOOO! ... sneezy all of a sudden? "Maybe we made a mistake on the sweets?" Fred suggested as his twin was seized with a heavy sneezing fit. "HEH-CHOO! HEH-CHOO! ... Yes, butd shouldn'd I jusd be sdeezy? HUH-CHOOO! HUUUH-CHOOOO! Sndiff!" George asked, congestion creeping into his voice. Fred looked confused. "Well aren't you?" he asked. "Do," George shook his head. "I...I... EEEEHH-CHOO! HEEH-CHOOOO! HUH-CHOO! ... I feel ill tdoo ... HUHCHOO! IIITCHOOO! HEEEH-CHOOOO!" Fred thought for a moment while his twin pitched forward with sneezes. "Let's see if the antidote works..." George nodded quickly as the sneezes grew wetter and more frequent. He pulled out tissues from the box as more snuck up on him. "HHHEEH-CHOO! HEH-CHOOO! IIII-TISHOOO! HUH-CHOOOO! HEH-TISHOOO! ... Hurry Fred!" Luckily, his brother was able to retrieve the other end of the sweet and pressed it into his twin's hand. George ate it as quickly as possible. Gradually, the sneezing died down, but it didn't go away altogether. "HEH-CHOO! HUH-CHOO! ... Why do I stdill feel like I hab a code?" George asked after he blew his stuffy nose thoroughly. Fred felt his twin's forehead and looked thoughtful. "Probably because you do." At George's look, he explained, "I think that the Sneeze Sweets can give you a cold, but it has a time delay. And then, when it starts working, you start sneezing uncontrollably, like we wanted you to do. But when the antidote is given, you still have a cold, but the sneezing is more manageable." George sneezed, "HEHCHOO! HUHCHOO!" He sniffled miserably through red and watery eyes, a pink nose, and a pale face. After blowing his nose and throwing the balled up tissue into the big pile near his bed, he flopped onto his bed and groaned miserably, rubbing a hand under his itchy nose. Fred smiled at his brother in sympathy for a moment, before his eyes lit up. He ran over to the sweets and pulled one out. George had looked up at his brother's movement and looked blearily at him. "Whad are you doig?" he asked. "Testing," Fred said, acting innocent. He bit into the sweet and set the other half aside for later. George sat up and looked at his twin in bewilderment. "Add why would you do thad? Dis code is horrid," he said, punctuating his words with a few sneezes for emphasis. "HEEEH-CHOOOO! IIITCHOO! HUH-CHOO! HEEH-YEH-CHOO!" "Yes, but when mum finds out you're ill, she's going to let you rest and relax without forcing you to study for at least a week," Fred reasoned. "And I'll be stuck revising. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not. Hard work never killed anybody, but why take the chance?" The End | |||||
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