Chatter filled the kitchen of The Burrow. It was a rainy day in the beginning of August. The Weasley family, plus Hermione and Harry, had gathered together to welcome Fleur and Bill home. After their wedding in July, the couple had been sent off to Egypt to do work for the Order.
It seemed like an ordinary summertime meal for the Weasleys. Fleur and Bill were describing Egypt to Hermione and Molly. Fred, George, and Ginny debated about which Quidditch team would be the strongest this season, and Mr. Weasley informed Ron and Harry about the latest assumed location of Lord Voldemort and his followers.
There was a loud crash of thunder and everyone jumped. Fred Weasley checked his new gold pocket watch, his newest treasure purchased with the profit he made from the joke shop he founded with his twin brother, George.
Ginny saw Fred checking the time. “You can’t leave yet! Mum taught me how to make pumpkin juice this morning and you haven’t tried any,” She told them.
“Ginny, it’s getting late. Responsible adults like us can’t stay up all night!” George winked at Harry, who snorted into his pudding when he heard George refer to himself as a responsible adult.
“But I made it just for you!” Ginny pleaded as she filled two goblets with her homemade beverage.
Fred and George drank their pumpkin juice, said goodbye to everyone, and headed back to their flat where they immediately collapsed onto their beds and drifted off to sleep.
When George woke up the next morning, he immediately knew something was wrong. He opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. At first, he didn’t notice a problem. He rubbed his eyes gently and examined the room again. On this second inspection, George noticed he was in Fred’s bed.
That’s odd, he thought to himself, I could have sworn I went to my own bed last night.
George slowly got up from bed and walked across the room to the place where Fred lay snoring.
“Oi, Fred! Get up!” George shouted at his twin.
“What do you want? And why are you waking me up so bloody early?” Fred whined sleepily. He looked around. “And why am I in your bed?”
“I don’t know. We must have been so tired last night that we got confused. It doesn’t really matter, but you need to get your arse up. The store opens in twenty minutes,” George told him.
Fifteen minutes later, Fred and George were dressed in their magenta robes and ready to open Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes for the day. All day people who knew them”old friends from Hogwarts, their best customers, and even their assistant, Verity”were calling them the wrong names. Neither twin found this unusual after a lifetime of often being identified incorrectly.
“Excuse me, Mr. Weasley, but do you have any more Creature Converter Potion?” A small blonde boy asked Fred late in the afternoon.
Comprehension dawned on Fred’s face. Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes new product, the Creature Converter would switch the bodies of any two animals or humans for twenty-four hours as long as each person drank half of the potion. How could they have not thought of this earlier?
“Yes, you can just ask that lady at the counter, and she will get some from the back for you,” Fred told him, exiting from his own private thoughts. He then marched right over to George. “You better be taking care of my body,” Fred said to his twin.
The pretty girl George had been trying to sell a Basic Blaze Box to shot George an odd look, turned on heel, and exited the store.
“What’d you do that for?” George grumbled.
“I know why people have been confusing us all day,” Fred bragged in a sing-song voice.
“Yeah, I know too. It’s because we’re twins!”
“No, I mean why they’re confusing us more than usual. It seems that our baby sister got her hands on a bottle of Creature Converter Potion.”
“Wait, you mean I’m you and you’re me?” George asked with his brow wrinkled.
Fred nodded, “That wasn’t just pumpkin juice she was so keen on making us drink last night.”
George looked angry for a moment, but then a wide grin spread across his face. “We can't get in trouble for pranking her,” He told Fred ecstatically.
That night, Fred and George decided they ought to pay another visit to their childhood home. They would confront Ginny and plot their revenge.
“Fred, I wasn’t expecting you tonight!” Molly said, embracing George.
“I’m George. Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother?”*George replied.
“Sorry, dear,” Molly apologized to George as she wrapped her arms around Fred.
“It’s alright, Mum, we’re used to it. Do you know where Ginny is? We need to have a word with her,” Fred asked.
“I think she’s outside playing Quidditch with Ron, Harry, and Hermione,” Molly told them as she stirred a large pot with her wand.
As soon as the twins got outside, Ginny flew to the ground and put on a smile.
“Well, I didn’t know you two were coming over today!” Ginny said warmly.
“We were not planning on it, but this morning we realized one of our siblings thought she could use one of our products on us.” George smiled.
Ginny pretended to look offended. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Fred laughed. Ron, Hermione, and Harry were now gathered behind Ginny. Hermione and Harry looked genuinely confused, but Ron was focusing on the grass in the area between his grey shoes.
“Ron! You wouldn’t happen to know anything about Ginny using one of our products on us, would you?” Fred questioned his younger brother.
“No,” Ron said, still avoiding eye contact with either twin.
“If you say so. Just remember that we know each and everyone of our products better than the rest of the world. If you were going to confess and tell us how sorry you are for being so cruel to your poor, innocent, kind-hearted brothers, we were going to forgive you,” Fred told Ron and Ginny.
“But since you won’t admit to it, I guess we’ll have to make things even again,” George said happily as him and George headed into the house. Behind them they could here Ginny telling Ron not to give in to their pressure, something that made them laugh even harder.
Ginny and Ron thought that they were safe and forgiven for playing a prank on the twins after a quiet, uneventful family dinner. They told themselves that Fred and George had played countless pranks on them, so they wouldn’t mind one tiny prank.
At least, that is what they thought until the next morning when loud, very feminine screech erupted from Ron’s bedroom.
*Line taken from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Chapter 6.
One Small Prank by FanficWriterNikki
Chapter Notes: The body switch may make things confusing, but the names are based on the person inside the body, not their outer appearance.