Harry Potter ~ Classical Fairytales

Hansel & Gretel

Once upon a time a very poor woodcutter lived in a tiny cottage in the forest with his five children; Fred, George, Pervy, Ron and their only daughter, Ginny. His wife, Molly, was very ill and was forever nagging the woodcutter to get their eldest children to find work.

"There is not enough food in the house for us all. There are just too many mouths to feed! We have to get rid of the twins," said the children's mother.

The father was shocked, "What! We said we wouldn't do that, not again."

Molly sighed, "If we hadn't gotten rid of Bill and Charlie, the twins would have died. They were babies."

"And they can survive on their own now?" asked the woodcutter.

"Of course," Molly said, "they are eleven, they can cope and if not, we still won't worry."

"Molly, can't we try and work this out another way?" Arthur asked his wife.

"No, you will take them miles from my home, so far that they can never find their way back!" Molly said.

What they didn't know, was Fred and George were listening in from the top of the stairs. Frowns on their faces as they realised some truths about their family.

"We were right, Charlie and Bill didn't run away," Fred Said.

George nodded.

"If they do leave us in the forest, we can find our way back easily, we can make a trail.

There was a few moments of silence, then at the same time, they figured out a plan, "Pebbles!"

Sneaking out, under the cover of night, they filled there pockets with the little grey pebbles scattered on the ground around their home.

"Maybe someone will find them and give them a home." The downcast woodcutter said as sat in bed.

All night long, the woodcutter twisted and turned in his sleep. When he woke during the night, he looked over and saw his wife, Molly, fast asleep. While he was struggling to sleep over the prospect of losing more children, his wife, Molly, didn't seem to be bothered at all. What he didn't know was she cared very much for her children, but an unknown darkness was overtaking her heart and very soon, the wife he loved would be gone, unless something was done. However, you can't fix something if you don't know it's broken.

The next day, a few hours before noon, Arthur led his twin sons, Fred and George in to the depths of the forest. As they went further from home, Fred and George took turns dropping the little grey pebbles from their pockets, leaving a trail on the mossy forest floor. After a long walk and several hours later, their father stopped walking and mumbled an excuse to go back, but insisted the stay put and look after the bag, so he didn't have to carry at back.

Night fell, but their father did not return. They had spent their time waiting playing games, such as "Eye Spy" and "Tag", but even they got bored of pretending everything was okay. Fred and George were starting to feel down about the idea of being abandoned and not seeing their family again, when George remembered the pebbles. They got to their feet and soon found the last pebble dropped. They noticed they looked up at the sky, expecting to see the full moon, but they just saw the brightest star they had ever seen. They were amazed and stared up, admiring the star, before they started noticing the night air and started following the pebbles home.