Gina and Blake both stared at the motionless body on the floor in shock. Gina was the first one to snap out of the trance. “I’ll go distract Grandma. Hide the body!”
Blake stared at her blankly. “Where?”
“Anywhere!” Gina yelled impatiently. “Just get him out of here!” She ran into the family room, just barely beating Ginny to the door.
“Gina, what is going on in there? Why did you scream?” Ginny looked worried, trying to glimpse into the kitchen, but Gina slammed the door shut behind her.
“Nothing, nothing happened,” Gina stammered, trying to think fast. “I…uh…saw a spider! Yeah, it freaked me out, but Blake killed it.” Gina crossed her fingers, praying she wouldn’t be suspicious.
“Oh, that’s all?” She laughed, and Gina sighed in relief. “It looks like Uncle Ron did influence you. Come on, come play another game of Exploding Snap with us.” She sat back down on the couch next to Will, who stared at Gina. He knew his cousin had no such fear of spiders. She was covering something, and he was determined to figure out what.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Blake’s bed sagged slightly when Harry gently landed on it. Blake leaned close to the body, examining it. It was very weird to picture his Grandpa as a teenager, let alone see him as one. Harry’s body was hidden under mounds of clothes now sizes too small. His hair was pure black and sticking up in the back, and the lines on his face were gone, but what worried Blake most was that the scar that Harry had when he was a teen was not there.
Blake took his eyes off Harry and began pacing the room. The door was pried open as Gina ran into the room. “Where did you put the-"She stopped, staring at Harry. She faced her cousin angrily. “On the bed? Why not just hide him on the front porch, or on the couch, or some other place just as obvious!”
“Well, you said anywhere!” Blake said crossly. He closed the door forcefully and sat on Will’s bed. “Now what? What the heck are we supposed to do with him?”
“I’m thinking!” Gina buried her face in her hands. This couldn’t be happening. This was all just a very bad dream. She would wake up on the floor, dazed and confused next to the wrapper of some Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes product and Blake would laugh, saying she fell for his prank again. Gina smiled, but the smile vanished when she opened her eyes. The body was still there.
“I don’t understand. The charm was just supposed to give him a younger outlook on life, not literally make him younger!” Blake thought aloud, drumming his fingers on the wall, which really irritated Gina.
“Yeah, and you used the wrong incantation. This probably isn’t the only side-effect of your screw-up!”
“Look, I’m sorry, ok?” Blake’s blue eyes flashed dangerously behind his glasses.
“Sorry?” Gina jumped to her feet with such force both of her feet ached. “You turned your grandfather into an adolescent and all you can say is your ‘sorry’?”
“Well what did you want me to say?” Blake shouted, letting his temper get the better of him. “Boy, it sure is good Quidditch weather today?”
The door opened suddenly, and Will stood in the doorframe. “What are you two yelling about?” His eyes rested on Harry and he let out a cry of surprise. Blake grabbed him by the arm tightly and yanked him in, slamming the door at the same time. “What happened?” Will gasped.
“Your brother,” Gina spat, glaring at Blake, “cast a spell on Grandpa. And he didn’t even have the decency to do it right!”
“Would you quit it? I made a mistake! I’m sorry! I’m willing to fix it!”
Gina rolled her eyes. “How generous of you!” she said sarcastically.
“Would you two quit it?” Will said, moving between them. “Why don’t we focus on our main problem?” He motioned toward Harry.
Gina and Blake both mumbled and sat on the bed, arms crossed.
“What spell did you cast on him?” Will asked. Gina snorted. “Ok, try to cast on him?” Blake glared at him, but told the story with a steady voice.
“Why did you try to cast a spell on him you never tried before?” Will asked, amazed at his brother’s biggest mistake yet. This definitely beat the time he stole the Charms test and tried to copy the answers invisibly on his watch. He sneezed halfway through the incantation and ended up with the answers written all over his body in permanent ink. Professor McGonagall, their Headmaster, was livid.
“I’ve tried the spell before!” Blake said indigently. Gina glared at him. “Ok, maybe I didn’t try that particular spell….”
“Just give it up, Blake,” Gina interrupted, seething. “You didn’t know how to do the spell properly. Do you at least know how to reverse it?” Blake flushed.
Will sighed. “Even if he did know how, it probably wouldn’t work. He needs professional help. Maybe Grandma can take him to St. Mungo’s….”
“No,” Gina and Blake said at the same time.
“Grandma will kill me,” Blake said pathetically. “She’s going to be furious when she finds out, to say the least. Besides, I just got off de-gnoming duty for turning Will’s hair purple.”
Will’s face got really red with both anger and shame. It had taken him a week to completely get the color out. Gina bit her lip, trying not to smile.
“Honestly, Blake,” Gina said, trying to keep a straight face, “why do you have to be so selfish? We can’t take Grandpa to St. Mungo’s. Do you really think that they will keep quiet about what happened to him? It will be all over the Daily Prophet by tomorrow, and you know as well as I if the public hears about this. It’s not like Grandpa doesn’t still have enemies.”
A picture popped into Gina’s head instantly. Draco Malfoy, powerful Ministry figure and former Death Eater, his white blonde hair tied back in a small ponytail, cold grey eyes glinting, with a sneer plastered on his face.
“Even if we don’t take Harry to St. Mungo’s, we should still tell Grandma,” Will said.
Blake shook his head. “Please don’t. Let’s not tell anybody just yet, at least until we figure out what the heck I did to him,” he added sadly.
Gina felt a rush of sympathy toward her cousin. He had always been very close to her; they were born only a month apart. Besides, hadn’t he helped her out when she needed it? This could be the deed that finally pushed his mom over the edge….
She wrapped her arm around her cousin. “Fine, we won’t tell anybody yet.”
Will stared at Gina in disbelief. “Gina! How long do you expect to keep this a secret?”
“Not long, just long enough to find help or figure out how to reverse it ourselves,” Gina said.
Will opened his mouth as if to argue, but couldn’t think of what to say and closed it. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
Ginny’s muffled voice was heard from the kitchen, startling the trio. “Blake! Gina! Will! Time for dinner!” Will jumped up and headed off to distract her, leaving Gina and Blake.
“Now what?” Blake asked frantically.
“We remember to breathe,” Gina said. “Then we hide Grandpa in a place a little less obvious than the bed.” Blake nodded. He pointed his wand at Harry.
“Mobilicorpus.” Harry’s body floated off the bed and he hovered in the air, head lolling and arms stretched at his side.
“Open the closet door,” Blake said, not taking his eyes off of Harry.
Gina stared at Blake. “What?”
“Just do it,” Blake said exasperatedly. Gina sighed and opened the empty closet. It was empty, and both silently agreed it was a good thing Blake and Will didn’t unpack before now. Harry’s body floated into the closet and slowly drifted to the floor, crumpling into a heap. Gina gingerly closed the door.
Will stuck his head out the door. “Dinner’s ready.” The two followed Will down the hall to the kitchen, where a meal of chicken, salad, mashed potatoes, and biscuits, along with Ginny, waited for them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After dinner, Ginny insisted on waiting for Harry to come home from work. The three cousins shot nervous glances at each other, but said nothing. They passed the time by playing Wizard Chess, and Ginny would tell her own stories of Hogwarts, or talk about volunteering at the Kneazle Breeding Area where she spent most of her time nowadays. Around midnight, Ginny started to yawn, but forced herself to stay awake. Gina and Blake excused themselves, saying they wanted a drink of water, before going to the kitchen.
“She’s not going to fall asleep until she sees him. What are we going to do?” Gina asked.
Blake thought for a moment. “Leave it to me. Just distract her.” Gina nodded, feeling worried.
Gina walked into the living room first, smiling. “Hey Grandma, you never did tell me how you and Harry met,” she said, grinning impishly. She took a seat in front of Ginny, looking expectantly.
Ginny smiled. “We met in 1991, right before Harry’s first year. He needed help getting onto Platform 9 3/4, and so he asked my mother.” Gina noticed, out of the corner of her eye, Blake getting behind Ginny, pulling out his wand.
“I really got to know Harry in my first year, his second year. I had such a big crush on him that year, and two years after that. I remember that year I sent him a singing Valentine’s day card.” Ginny laughed at the memory, just as Blake whispered, “Stupefy.”
A jet of red light hit Ginny in the back of the head. Her face showed shock for a split second before her eyelids fell and she curled forward. Gina caught her, her face looking aghast. “You Stunned Grandma?!?!”
Blake shrugged. “It was the only way I could think of that would knock her out. We’ll wake her up tomorrow and just say she fell asleep.”
Gina muttered under her breath as she laid Ginny on the couch, covering her with a blanket. Will smiled. “A faulty Youthful Charm for Grandpa, and a Stunning Spell for Grandma. You’re on a roll today, Blake!”
Blake couldn’t help but laugh at this. He yawned, stretching his arms. “Well, goodnight everybody.”
“Wait,” Gina said, getting up. “What about Harry?”
“We’ll wake him up tomorrow,” Blake said.