A Different Beginning

Chapter XXX - Tricks

Harry and Ginny headed downstairs together walking hand in hand. Both were a little nervous to see how everyone else would react to them being together. Ron's reaction had actually been the most feared but he had taken it all quite well and in a very Ron manner if they did say so themselves. Harry kept glancing quickly at Ginny from the corner of his eye; he still couldn't believe that she had actually agreed to be his girlfriend. It was a good feeling to know that she liked him the same way that he liked her. He still couldn't believe how lucky they had been in the whole Michael situation. What was the chance of him falling in love with someone in France around the same time that Harry wanted to get together with Ginny? Whatever the reasons were, he was happy. He knew that Ginny would have been nervous about breaking up with him and that she would feel guilty for doing so. She was too nice of a person and she would not want to have hurt anyone's feelings. But it had all worked out for them.

He stopped her when they reached the bottom of the stairs to pull her close into his arms for another soft kiss. He framed her face with his hands and kissed her softly. "Mmm, I'm so glad that we're together now."

Ginny smiled up at him, licking her lips to hold his taste in. "Me too. Come on, we need to go tell everyone the good news."

He grinned. "Uncle Sirius already knows and well, I told Da and Uncle Remus that I kissed you so I don't think that they'll be too surprised."

Ginny grinned. "So that only leaves Mum, Dad, Fred, George, and Hermione and eventually Bill and Charlie."

"Guess so."

Ginny squeezed his hand gently in reassurance. "Don't worry. It's going to be just fine."

He sighed and leaned in to kiss her softly again. "I hope you're right."

They headed into the living room where everyone was still hanging out for the celebration party and by the way that all of the attention had turned towards them, Harry assumed that Ron had already made the announcement. James was grinning at him and Sirius only continued to hold that knowing smile while wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at them. Remus only smiled and Fred and George were rubbing their hands together with identical evil grins on their faces. Molly and Arthur were also smiling and Hermione was grinning broadly. Before they could say anything, they found themselves being passed around the room for hugs and congratulations. Apparently, the entire room had been wondering when they would end up together. Harry wasn't sure if he found this unnerving or not. After all, he hadn't even known he had feelings for Ginny so how did everyone else know?

Hermione grinned at him before pulling him into her arms for a hug. "Oh Harry! I'm so happy for you! I knew that you liked her."

"You did? But I didn't even know I liked her until the beginning of the summer."

Hermione grinned. "I noticed that you liked her when she arrived and you jumped to catch her from tumbling out of the fireplace. The look on your face was ... priceless."

Harry grinned. "Well, I'm glad that I could amuse you."

Hermione laughed. "Anytime. Uh-oh, here comes Trouble Number One and Trouble Number Two."

Harry turned around to where Hermione was looking and sighed when he saw Fred and George heading towards him. Harry managed a small smile as he watched them walk over to him. He was a little nervous about how they were going to react to the fact that he was dating their baby sister. Ron had been right about one thing - it probably was not going to be good. Or in Hermione's own words - here comes trouble. His nerves didn't exactly get any better when he realized that Hermione had headed over to talk to Ginny leaving him very much alone.

"Hey guys, how's the inventing going?"

Fred grinned. "Brilliantly! In fact, we've been talking to Dung, you know Mundungus Fletcher from the Order, and he's going to be getting us some ... stuff through some of his ... business associates."

Harry only nodded at this as he knew through the Marauders that Dung was a thief. And that his business associates were not exactly the most honest people in the world. As long as Molly didn't find out he figured the twins were safe enough.

"Yeah and not to mention the fact that Sirius has given us free reign over the stuff in his house. He told Dobby and Winky not to throw out anything until we get a chance to look it over to see if we can use it for any of our products. We've been experimenting with Doxies, among other things. Good thing Sirius' house is such a dump!" George replied.

Harry laughed. "It's nice to know that something good came out of it." He sighed and decided that the idle conversation was making him more nervous. He wanted to know what the twins were going to do to him. "Alright, so what are you guys going to do to me?"

George looked shocked. "Do to you? Fred, my heart just breaks at the thought that our very own benefactor doesn't trust us?"

Fred nodded solemnly and pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. "Aye. It is sad. How can you not trust us, Harry?"

Harry grinned. "Because I've known you for five years."

George seemed to consider this for a moment before he spoke. "That's a good point, Fred."

"It is, yes."

George grinned wickedly. "Well, in that case ..." then before Harry could blink they pulled him close in a tight bear hug. "Welcome to the family!"

"We always knew that you and our little Gin-Gin had a thing for each other!"

"More like hoped." George piped in.

"That git Corner didn't deserve her!"

"But you don't deserve her either for that matter!"

"We just happen to like you loads better!"

"But if you hurt her -"

"In any way, shape or form -"

"We will kill you."

"In a most creative and painful way of course."

"After all, we wouldn't want to ruin our reputation otherwise."

"We have rules to uphold you know."

"Clear?"

Harry grinned as he finally managed to pull himself away from their grasp. "Clear."

Fred slapped Harry playfully on the back. "See? We'll all get along just fine."

George nodded and then Harry felt a weird tingling sensation that was much different from when he was trying to change his form or work on his wandless magic begin to take over his body. He looked down and realized that his entire body was turning royal blue.

He groaned. "I should have known that I wouldn't get away that easily."

Fred grinned. "Well, we had to test our new product somehow."

"So what exactly is this supposed to do?"

George laughed. "Make you blue."

Harry grinned. "Besides that. I mean, really why would anyone just want to be blue?"

George grinned wickedly. "Oh, that's not all it did. That's the only part that you can see at the moment."

"What do you mean?"

He heard a gasp from behind him and he spun around to where Hermione was standing, her hand over her mouth as she tried to stop giggling.

"No really, what can't I see?"

He heard a snort of laughter from the other end of the room and he turned around to look at his father.

James grinned. "Brilliant boys. You two will definitely have a good career in a joke shop."

Molly turned around then and let out a shriek when she saw Harry. "Fred! George! What have you done to Harry?"

Finally, Sirius pushed Harry in front of a mirror so that he could really see himself. Apparently when looking down at his body he could only see that he was blue, but when standing in front of a mirror he could see the full impact of what one of the twins' new products had done. Not only was his entire body and glasses blue but he had patches of neon orange fur shaped like hearts on his stomach, his forehead, over his ears, around each ankle and wrist, and one huge puffy fur-ball on his arse. He had fangs coming out of his mouth in rainbow colours and he had what looked like boils on his hands. But that wasn't the weird part.

The weird part was that he also wore a huge green hat with a vulture on top of it - similar to what Neville's Gran wore. He wore hot pink stiletto heels that were definitely the most painful shoes ever as they were at least two sizes too small and the toes pointed upwards with a tiny gold bell that jingled when he moved. His hair, which was normally messy and black, had also turned neon orange. Not to mention the boils that had developed in places that no one could see which were extremely painful. He also found himself wearing a canary yellow tube top and a lime green leather mini skirt that was sitting low enough on his hips to show the top of a hot pink G-string sticking out above the skirt and the orange fur. He was hardly looking his best.

"Haha, very funny guys. Can you change me back now?"

Ginny giggled from behind them. "Forge, Gred!! Come on now!"

George grinned. "It only lasts twenty minutes and then he will be back to normal."

Fred nodded. "Interesting that he turned blue though. George and I turned green."

"It must affect people differently."

"We'll add it to our research!" They exclaimed together.

Molly only groaned. "You boys are nothing but trouble! Where have you gotten the money to even do all of this inventing and research?"

Harry raised his hand calmly, surprised to find that he also had long nails in neon purple. "That's my fault, Molly; I gave them my Triwizard earnings."

Molly glared at him before her lips twitched. "Well, then you deserve this, don't you?"

"What is this product called anyway?" Remus asked in curiousity.

Fred grinned. "Instant Transvestite - Technicolour."

"Technicolour?" James asked.

George nodded. "We're working on one that makes the person entirely black and white but we haven't perfected it yet."

"And the point of this particular product would be?" Ginny asked.

"Pure entertainment." Fred replied with a grin.

"Okay," Harry replied. "How did you do it?"

George grinned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, how did you get me to change? You hugged me and slapped me on the back."

Fred held up a tiny neon green strip of what looked almost like wax paper. "With this! I just held it to your neck for a few seconds and voila! Instant Transvestite - Technicolour"

James grinned. "It is pretty amusing. Brilliant too. Why did you come up with it?"

Fred grinned wickedly. "Well, it originally started as an add on to our fine memory of Neville's boggart."

Harry snorted. "Snape in a dress?"

George nodded. "Aye. But we decided to tweak it a bit."

Ginny nodded. "So all you have to do is touch someone with this little strip of paper and it will appear."

"Yup, but it needs to be held for at least five seconds." Fred explained.

Remus grinned. "You two are going to make a fortune."

Molly smirked. "Well, if Harry wouldn't have given them that money."

Harry only grinned as everyone continued to laugh at his crazy appearance. Then he groaned loudly when he realized that Sirius was snapping pictures. "HEY! Come on now!"

Sirius only grinned. "Oh no, Harry, these are being printed and kept for a perfect blackmail opportunity."

James only laughed. "He's got quite a few blackmail pictures of me too, so don't feel bad."

Harry glared at Fred and George. "I'm going to get you two back for this."

George looked shocked. "He dares to challenge the masters?"

Ginny stood next to Harry and grinned. "I'll help him."

Fred paled considerably. "Oh, but Ginny dear, you wouldn't do that to your own dear brothers now, would you?"

Ginny grinned. "Damn right I would."

"Ginevra Molly Weasley! You watch your language!" Molly exclaimed.

Ginny blushed. "Sorry Mum."

Harry leaned over to whisper in her ear, "Ginevra?"

She blushed. "Mum thought it was exotic. And it's Ginny unless you want me to hex you."

Harry grinned. "Alright, whatever you say. So you're really going to help me with Fred and George?"

Ginny nodded. "Yes and I already have a plan."

Harry grinned broadly. "Good, I can't wait to hear it."

*********

The next day, Fred and George were wary of Harry and Ginny all day long. They knew that the two of them were plotting a small revenge and had no intention of letting them succeed. However, Harry and Ginny already knew that the twins would do so. So Harry convinced Maddy to put a small portion of a sleeping drought in the twins pumpkin juice for lunch. They would never suspect the house elves after all.

The two of them passed out quickly so Harry and Ginny set to work. Harry lifted them onto the bed and they began to undress them. Once they wore nothing but their boxer shorts Sirius came in.

"No, no, no! You got to make it better then that!" He replied before he pulled out his wand and quickly transfigured their underwear into hot pink G-strings. "There you go." He used his wand to move them so that they were wrapped around each other. "There, perfect."

Ginny grinned wickedly. "Oh, that's even better!" She pulled out her camera and started snapping pictures from every direction. "Wait! I just thought of something!"

She pulled out some pink lipstick from her pocket and quickly painted both of their lips. Then she began to apply eye shadow and mascara in dark colours, framing their eyes.

Harry grinned. "I've got an idea." He whispered it to Sirius and Sirius began to use his wand to make lipstick kisses all over their bodies so that it matched the lip stick they each wore.

The three of them cackled in laughter as Ginny snapped pictures. Then they left the room, hiding the camera in James' room for protection.

Harry and Ginny headed downstairs laughing at their joke and wondering how the twins were going to react when they woke up. They made themselves comfortable on the couch in the living room and Ginny leaned back against Harry and sighed.

"I'm a genius, I know!"

Harry grinned. "Definitely! I'm so glad that Uncle Sirius helped. My wandless magic abilities are not that advanced yet. If only we could do magic outside of school!"

Ginny laughed. "I can't wait to see their reactions." She turned in his arms and reached up to kiss him softly.

When her lips touched his it was just like the first time. The heat was just eating them alive. Their stomachs tingled and knotted as their hands raced into each other's hair as they took the kiss deeper. Someone groaned but they weren't sure who, they were too involved in each other's taste and touch. Harry slid his hand along her back, through that soft silky hair that drove him crazy. He pulled back and smiled at her, watching as her beautiful chocolate brown eyes fluttered open. Then he brought his mouth down to her neck.

Ginny moaned as his lips moved across her throat. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her hands were fisted in his hair as she held him close to her. When he moved back to her lips, she greedily kissed him back. She wanted to devour him whole. She parted her lips for his tongue and she moaned into his mouth as he kissed her.

Harry wasn't sure how long they stayed that way, curled up on the couch and snogging but they broke apart when they heard two identical shrieks coming from upstairs. They hurried towards the sound and when they got to the room where they had left the twins they only grinned as they watched the encounter.

"What do you mean what do I mean? I mean, how the hell did this happen, Fred?"

Fred shrugged. "You're asking me! Do you really think I put you in that G-String and that I ... put make-up on and ... stuff?"

George shook his head. "No! But I didn't do it! So who else does that leave? Our door was locked and booby-trapped! We would have heard if someone came in!"

"Are you sure about that, boys?" Ginny asked as she leaned back casually against Harry, his hands resting on her waist. "By the way, I've always wondered what you two did alone in your room, but this ... I never expected this."

"YOU!" Fred shrieked, turning to point at them. "You did this!"

Harry grinned. "Prove it."

George groaned. "This was ... this was ... you play dirty!"

Ginny giggled. "And we've got loads of pictures."

Fred paled. "Pictures?"

Ginny nodded. "Tons of them. So if you try to pull anything on us ... well, I bet there are some people at Hogwarts who would like to see those."

Harry grinned. "Gin, you're scary sometimes."

Ginny laughed and kissed him softly. "Well, I did grow up with these two."

Fred and George only continued to stare at them evilly. Finally, Fred spoke up. "Alright, you win. Now get out of here so we can change back to normal."

Ginny grinned. "Thanks!"

They waved goodbye before they closed the door and started laughing all over again.

"Did you see their faces?" Harry asked.

Ginny nodded. "Oh, I'm going to love rubbing their noses in this one!"

Harry grinned and pulled her close to kiss her softly. "Me too."

Ginny grinned. "Well, Mr. Potter, should we go find Sirius and tell him of our genius plan and how it worked out so well?"

Harry ran his fingers gently through her hair before he licked his lips. "Later," he kissed her softly. "Much later."