A Cord of Three

Cravings

Tikki woke up with her face smashed into her pillow. She was on her stomach, holding the heat pad tightly against herself, even though she had turned it off before she went to sleep. Fred and George were also sleeping on their stomachs, each of them with an arm stretched across her back. Tikki sat up, the boys mildly protesting with sleepy moans, but George raised his legs so Tikki could get out of bed. She grabbed her clothes and stumbled to the bathroom, not really caring whose turn it was. In the Weasley family, they took their showers according to age. So, since Charlie and Bill were never home, Percy went first, followed by Tikki if she was there, then Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny. No one was in the bathroom, so either Percy had already gotten up to take his shower, or he was still asleep. She didn't really care. She took the quickest shower she could, then dried off and headed down to the kitchen for a bite of breakfast. It was about eight o'clock, so Aunt Molly was still in her room, probably just getting up.

Her tastebuds craved blueberries, so Tikki made blueberry muffins, despite her slightly aching stomach. There was some sugar in the muffins, but that's exactly what she wanted. Today, it didn't matter what she ate, her stomach was going to hurt anyway, so she always gave in to her tastebuds' demands. She took a plate of muffins up to Fred and George, eating two of them herself.

"What was your craving this morning?" asked George around a mouthful of muffin.

"Blueberries." The second C of her period was Cravings. Usually, they took a trip to town and ate lunch wherever Tikki was feeling like, then bought sweets to last her the day. At home, she didn't allow herself to splurge so much because she would go broke, but she always saved up extra money for the summer months so she could take the twins out. "Where do you guys want to go today? Of course, first of all we're going to Hampton Sweets, but where else?"

The boys glanced at each other. "General's General," they said. Sometimes she wondered if they planned what they were going to tell her ahead of time.

"I want to see if they have any new fireworks," said Fred.

"And I want to pick up a new Quidditch magazine," said George.

She nodded, picking up a muffin even though she had no intent to eat it. "You know what? Instead, let's go to General's General first, then to Hampton Sweets, and then we'll see where we end up for lunch."

"Wicked," they chimed. When breakfast was finished, they took the empty plate downstairs and informed Molly of their plan. She agreed to let them go and gave Tikki a sympathetic hug. Fred and George hurried out to the car with her trailing after, wondering why they were running so fast. Fred got in the driver's seat with George in shotgun and Tikki in the back in case she wanted to lie down. As Fred started the car, they all heard a horrified scream, then an angry shout.

"FRED! GEORGE!" They zoomed away as Percy stormed out of the house, all of his hair gone. He waved a fist at them, then stomped back inside.

Tikki watched from out the back window, nearly crying from laughing so hard. "What did you two do to him?"

"Nothing much," they said innocently.

"We just put some powder in his brush," said Fred.

"That would make his hair invisible for the day," said George.

The brunette leaned forward. "How much of that stuff do you have? I wanted to make the pond water invisible."

Fred glanced at his brother. "Not enough to make the whole pond disappear..."