Emerald Eyes - HP one-shots

Paper Chains

This story takes place in The Half Blood Prince.

"That does it! Out!" cried Molly Weasley, the knife she held in her hands pointing towards the kitchen door. "I've had enough of your shenanigans!" she continued, in a voice that was trying its best to be stern. Her tone was belied, however, by the slight quirking of the lips she'd been unable to suppress.

It was Christmas Eve, and Molly had begun preparations for the sprawling dinner she had planned for her family and their guests. She had enlisted the help of the twins, Ron, Harry and Ginny in a vain hope that their help would make the preparations faster.

But she should have known her hopes were but a pipe dream. After a fairly rough beginning to the holidays, where she'd had to squish as many people as possible in each room to accommodate all the visitors, - resulting in the grim prospect of Ginny sharing a room with Fleur- everyone had settled into having a good time. Perhaps as a result of the uncertainties of the war, or the fact that the whole family hadn't had a proper Christmas at the Burrow in a while, holiday cheer abounded. The young people, led by the twins and Ginny, whom Molly thought was taking turns being their apprentice and their leader, were sowing as much chaos as possible in the small confines of the Burrow. This had led to an atmosphere of almost giddy joy in the younger occupants of the Burrow.

Molly had to admit that while she didn't necessarily appreciate the resulting antics, she was enjoying having the Burrow being filled to the brim, and spilling with mischief and laughter once again. But things had come to a head that faithful afternoon in her kitchen. Nothing was going to plan, and her "helpers" had turned out to be the biggest hindrance to the progress of her plans.

Ginny, who was supposed to be cutting up a little mountain of carrots and green beans had spent more time doing incomprehensible-to-Molly-things, and muttering asides that kept sending Harry, on potato peeling duty, into laughing fits. Simultaneously, she also seemed to be helping the twins tease Ron about someone Molly thought she might have heard them call Lav Lav. A state of true chaos was about to be reached and no real work was getting done. And Molly had finally had enough.

"I think I've had more than enough of your help in the kitchen" she went on, "why don't you go and decorate the living room for tonight instead," she suggested. Before she could even finish speaking, her rascals had abandoned their work and jocularly made their way out the door, Ginny assuring her the decoration will be done.

When they got to the living room, Ginny wanted to go immediately up to the attic to get the decorations. Molly Weasley was a lover of all the chintz and sparkle associated with the holidays and had passed on that love to her daughter. There was nothing Ginny liked more than decorating the house for the holidays, and then taking in that festive atmosphere. Needless to say, she was brimming with excitement at the thought of finishing the decorations, the tree having been decorated the night before. Her brothers, however, could easily recognize the glint of excitement in her eyes and knew to steer clear of her.

"Oh no, you're not dragging us down that path," started Fred, exaggeratedly backing away with a feigned look of horror on his face.

"Not today," continued George, who had taken up his brother's cues and was running with it. "We'd rather go throw some gnomes. In fact, we're going to go do that now." And matching actions to words, they both ran out.

Giggling at their antics, Ginny turned to Ron and Harry. "Well?" she asked in an affected voice reminiscent of her mother when she was trying to guilt them into something. "Are you going to help me or not?"