A Cord of Three

Curses

The mud puddle idea had gone so well, that Molly had ordered the three of them to clean up all the muddy footprints everyone had made. They were everywhere. But the laugh the trio had gotten out of it was worth the trouble.

When Tikki woke up on the left side of the bed the next morning, she glanced over her shoulder in confusion. Neither of the boys were touching her in any way, which was odd with the way Fred moved in his sleep. She found them both on the right side of the bed, pressed against each other and the edge. With a chuckle, she used her foot to shove them both off the bed, waking them up as they landed on the floor.

"Hey!" they said in protest, sitting up.

"What were you two dummies doing all the way over there?" she giggled.

"Avoiding you," they said, they slapped a hand over their mouths.

She raised an eyebrow with a smile. "Why?"

"It's day three," said Fred with wide eyes.

"Curses," George said.

Tikki bowed her head, chortling. The third C was Curses because it was the day she was more irritable. Her body was tired of releasing blood and her mind was tired of trying to keep up. If she was ever going to curse, which she never did, this would be the day.

"Well, I feel fine so far," she informed them, getting out of bed. "Let's eat breakfast, take our showers, and then decide what we're going to do today." While they were eating, she suggested they ride brooms again, but a glance outside showed it to be too windy, especially for an inexperienced flyer like herself. "It's definitely going to rain," she said. "Looks like we'll have to find something to do inside."

Percy came downstairs, glowering when he saw them. "As long as I'm away from you," he muttered, getting some cereal out of the pantry. His hair was back to its normal red, but it was clear he was still bitter.

"You're going to work, you'll be fine," said Tikki. "Ron and Harry on the other hand..." She grinned wickedly.

Percy rolled his eyes to the ceiling. "How did I ever end up with two ill-behaved brothers and an almost equally ill-behaved cousin?"

"Hey." Tikki wrinkled her nose at him. "I'm not nearly as bad as those two."

"Rude," the twins said.

Their older brother sat in the chair farthest away from them. "But you encourage them. It's almost just as bad."

Tikki finished the plate of eggs the boys had been waiting for her to eat and set it in the sink. "Well, these three ill-behaved brothers and cousin are going to take their showers since you've already done yours." The trio charged upstairs, almost running into Harry and Ron who were going down. "Sorry!" Tikki cried, avoiding them without slowing down.

They took their showers, did their chores, then decided to do a puzzle since it had begun raining outside. They got bored after fifteen minutes but kept going anyway because they couldn't think of anything else to do. Eventually they finished it and sat around until lunch. Afterward, Ginny asked them to play Dutch Blitz so she could practice some more. They played a tournament, the overall winner being Tikki, who left all of them in the dust. Most of her candy was gone, but she rewarded herself with a chocolate bar.

"Well, I don't know what to do today," she said after they had packed up the cards. She suddenly sat straight up. "Wait, I haven't pranked Ron yet! Any ideas?"