Advent '10 - December 3rd
December 3rd - 22 days to go
There was silence as everyone in the room turned to look at Harry who had brandished his wand with a rather large flourish.
"Er, Harry…" George said after a moment in which nothing happened.
Harry looked at his wand and then back up to George. "I don't understand" he said, sounding lost. "That should have-"
He was interrupted by a dull thump on the door.
Everyone in the establishment turned to look. There was a moment's pause and then the door slowly swung inwards. Standing, taking up the whole frame, was one of the guards looking very confused.
Clutched in his hand was a large croaking toad.
"Yay!" Harry cheered, bouncing across the room and carefully taking the slightly dazed toad from the very confused man. "Froggy!"
"It flew."
"Ah, yes." Harry agreed. "That tends to happen."
"It hit the door." The guard added still wide-eyed.
Harry frowned and checked the toad over. "Well it seems a little confused…but not dead."
The toad let out a large croak as if to prove this.
"Um, Harry." Fred said as he sidled up next to him.
"That isn't a frog." George added, coming up on his other side and looking down on the toad which seemed to be quite happy cradled in Harry's hands.
"That's a toad."
"Nonsense." Harry disagreed.
"No, they're right." The guard cut in. "That's a toad."
Harry clutched the toad to his chest, seemingly protecting it from their gazes. "He's a frog." He said firmly. "Otherwise why would he be called Froggy?"
The twins shrugged. "He thought it would be funny?"
Harry glared. "He's a frog." He reiterated. "And now I've gotta go feed him to the parrot so he won't be mad at me."
The guard looked at him, startled. "What?"
Harry opened his mouth to repeat what he had just said when he was interrupted by three more thumps on the door, one after the other.
"What was that?" He asked instead.
With sudden reluctance the guard turned back and opened the door.
Three dazed frogs hopped into the room.
"Now those-" Fred commented.
"-are frogs." George finished.
"You brought friends!" Harry said happily as he nuzzled the toad in his hands.
The guard let the door close again as the frogs hopped over to Harry and allowed him to pick them up.
"Are those pets?" The guard asked eventually when it didn't look like Harry was going to stop cooing over the new additions anytime soon.
"Of course not!" Harry protested. "I'm just awesome."
The guard opened his mouth to say something when there were more thumps.
But this time they didn't stop.
As one, the rooms occupants turned back to look at the door that was now shaking due to the constant battering it was receiving. Above the thumping was the constant sound of croaking that was slowly getting louder every second.
Fred and George took a step back, dragging Harry with them, as the door seemed to bow in the middle, straining on its hinges.
There was a muffled scream, that they realised must have been the second guard, which had them scrambling to the other side of the room, moments before the door exploded into the room - washed away by a giant tidal wave of rolling, croaking green.
"Too many friends." Harry managed to get out before the wave of frogs and toads swept through the room, catching and covering everyone and everything.
Then the screams started as the were's started to panic, having to practically swim to keep their heads above the rising amphibian level.
And still the frogs kept pouring in.
Harry felt Fred and George each grab one of his arms and, just before a giant wave broke over their heads, apparated away.
The three of them landed in a sprawl on Harry's bed at the Delacour house, surrounded by frogs and toads of all shapes and sizes which didn't seem surprised at the change in scenery and were quite happily hopping around the room.
It was to this scene that Gabrielle burst into the room.
She stood there speechless as Harry and the twins fought to untangle themselves from each other.
"What iz going on 'ere!"
"Oh hey, Gabrielle!" Harry chirped brightly, giving up and lying back on his bed. "We had the most brilliant night ever!"
Gabrielle eyed the frogs and toads that seemed to be migrating their way to Harry.
"I zink I can see zat." Her accent becoming stronger in her surprise. "'Arry, why iz your 'air green?"
"Parrots are green." Harry agreed. "So are frogs."
"Did we wake you?" George asked, as he too gave up. "What time is it anyway?"
"It's four in ze morning."
"Ooooh…" Harry winced. "I'm going to sleep then." He closed his eyes and within seconds was snoring.
Gabrielle looked at Harry in astonishment.
"He's had a long day, poor dear." George shrugged and lay down next to Harry, unbothered by the frogs that hopped up onto his chest and settled down. "Night!" He called out and fell asleep immediately.
Fred was left staring flustered at Gabrielle who was in her nightgown.
"Bon Nuit." She offered with a shy smile.
Fred gargled out something that wouldn't have been amiss coming from one of their new additions, blushed bright red and waved, feeling like a fool at the smile Gabrielle gave him as she shut the door.
With a sigh he fell back onto the bed, strangely empty of frogs, closed his eyes and joined his companions in sleep.
Harry awoke sometime in the afternoon, his head lolling on his neck.
He moaned in pain and clutched at his hair.
A croak distracted him and he pried his eyes open - only to come face to face with a rather large toad that was sitting on his chest.
Harry blinked.
The toad croaked.
"What in Merlin's name…" Harry trailed off, unsure as to whether or not he wanted that answered. Last night seemed to be one big missing blur.
He glanced around his room and spotted that his bed contained upwards of two dozen or so frogs and toads.
"Huh." He said, levering himself up and rolling off the bed and onto his feet. Strangely the frogs moved out of the way so he didn't squash any of them.
He shrugged to himself and staggered to his bathroom, practically throwing himself into the shower.
Once the hot water had worked out the kinks in his muscles that he had no idea how he got, he wiped the mirror clean and did a double take at the acid green hair he was sporting.
"What in Merlin's…green?"
Green. The colour was nagging at something in his memories from last night but he just couldn't think of it. He shook his head as if to clear it then groaned and half collapsed over the sink as a migraine stabbed through his head.
"Ow…" he moaned pitifully. "Need. Pain relieving potion. Now."
Staggering out of the bathroom, he deftly manoeuvred around his new roommates and threw on whatever clean robes he could find before making his way downstairs.
Fred and George were sitting enjoying afternoon tea, bright eyed and not looking like they were in any pain at all.
Harry swore at them and slumped in the nearest seat, closing his eyes and resting his head on the cool wood of the table.
"Here." George offered, sliding over a dark blue potion. "This should take care of the pain."
Without opening his eyes Harry felt around for the vial and, once he had found it, downed it in one go.
The pain behind his eyes lessened but the taste caused his stomach to roll. For some reason the potion seemed to make his hangover worse instead of better.
"Urgh," he groaned, "Can I have another one?"
With his eyes closed he missed the alarmed look that the twins shot at each other.
"That should have taken care of everything." George said.
"It was a double dose anyway."
"Just what did you drink?"
"I don't know. But it was green." Suddenly something clicked and Harry's head shot up. "Green!" then winced at his vision tilted, making his stomach protest even more.
Closing his eyes he breathed deeply. "Guys," he asked slowly, "Why is my hair green?"
"Oh," Fred said nonchalantly "you've had that since the translation spell."
Harry raised an eyebrow as George snickered. "It was quite funny really. You've been completely oblivious to the looks you've been getting."
But Harry wasn't really paying attention to them. "Green." He said again. "My hair's green. Why is green so important?" he murmured to himself.
"Green hair, green drink. Frogs are green. And frogs are green because…parrot?"
He opened his eyes and looked at the twins in confusion. "What do parrots have to do with last night?"
Fred and George shrugged.
"And why…" Harry continued, "Do I get the feeling that we should leave. Now."
Fred and George shared a glance. Usually Harry's gut instinct was spot on. They stood at the same time.
"I'll pack our stuff." Fred said.
"And I'll leave a note for the Delacour's."
"Then we go get a international portkey." They said at the same time before they rushed out of the room, leaving Harry resting against the table again.
Ten minutes later had them supporting Harry as they dragged him outside.
"Ready Harry?" Fred asked.
"No." Harry said weakly.
George rubbed a hand through his hair, Harry really wasn't doing very well. He was almost white and faintly trembling. "Okay. I'll side-along with you to the ministry. Don't throw up on me."
"I'm not going to promise anything." Harry replied with a twitch of his lips.
"Fair enough." George said, slinging Harry's arm over his shoulders to support him. Then, with a crack, they disappeared.
Reappearing almost instantly in the apparition point at the French ministry. Despite Harry's non-promise, he didn't actually throw up on George, but there was a lot of gagging and George had to take the full weight of him as he sagged on top of the red-head.
When Harry got his stomach back under some semblance of control he looked up to see pure and utter chaos.
Witches and Wizards alike were running around like chickens with their heads cut off and were talking so fast that Harry could feel the translation charm straining to keep up.
The constant movement was making him even more nauseous, so he just closed his eyes again and leaned heavily on George.
"Okay." George said lowly, "Fred has gone to get the portkey."
Harry hummed.
"I wonder what happened?"
Harry hummed again.
"Hey," George caught a passing Witch, "What's going on?"
"It's a disaster!"
"What is?"
"Someone revealed magic to the muggles!"
George looked around the room. "All this because some muggles found out?"
"Some?" The Witch said with wide eyes. "Try the whole of France!"
George's eyes widened and he hitched Harry up higher from were he had started to slip off his shoulder, wrapping his arm around his waist.
"The whole…? How?"
"Someone summoned every single frog in the entire country to the middle of Paris last night! The Auror's have been rushed off their feet trying to contain this! The Minister has been in an emergency meeting with the muggles all morning.
"They're having to blame it on freak weather conditions!"
George stiffened as Harry cracked open his eyes.
"There were toads as well." He mumbled.
"What?" The Witch asked, suspicion entering her eyes.
George laughed nervously. "He said, were there toads as well?"
"Yes…" the Witch trailed off, but the suspicion never left her gaze. "Do you-"
She was interrupted by Fred who fought his way back to them. "Hey guys, you'll never guess what Harry's-"
"I think we can guess!" George said loudly, talking over his brother.
Fred looked at them and winced at the situation he had walked into.
The woman opened her mouth once again but George cut her off again.
"Good Luck with that!" Then he grabbed Harry's hand and put it on the portkey in Fred's hand - an empty plastic bottle - and within seconds felt the jerk behind his navel.
The Witch was whisked away in a mixture of swirling colours and George heard Harry groan next to him. He had three seconds to realise that he was more than likely going to be thrown up on when they were slammed into the ground.
He immediately let go of Harry who collapsed to his knees and threw up everything in his stomach - which was practically nothing, though what did come up was the same green as the drink that he had been downing the night before.
Weirdly it was the same colour as his hair - which still hadn't been changed back to its regular black.
Once Harry had finished retching George helped him back up, slinging his arm across his shoulders.
It was then that he realised that Harry had just thrown up bright green in the middle of the lobby.
"Where are we?" He hissed at his brother.
"Germany." Fred hissed back, sending a scorgify at the floor and Harry.
George nodded and smiled brightly. "Nice day, isn't it?" He called out at the people who had stopped and were staring at their raggedy bunch.
"We need to get out of here." Fred whispered as he plastered his own grin on his face.
"We don't have anything booked yet, we were going to stay in France longer, remember?"
"Harry doesn't look too good - let's just find somewhere to crash right now. Tomorrow we can find something better. Hopefully he'll be better by then."
George nodded and hefted Harry higher on his shoulder, half carrying, half dragging him across the lobby to the information point that was being manned by a wide-eyed Wizard.
After a short, slightly desperate conversation with him, during which Harry fell asleep, Fred and George found themselves in possession of a set of directions to the nearest wizarding hotel.
Fred moved around to Harry's other side and slung his other arm across his shoulders so that Harry was propped up between them. They apparated almost immediately and Harry started gagging again, even though he was unconscious.
They shared a worried glance between themselves.
"What did he drink?" Fred wondered out loud, as he untangled himself to go and book a room for the three of them.
It was a further twenty minutes before the twins managed to get Harry through the hotel and into their room which held a double bed and a single.
George looked at his brother. "Someone should probably sleep with him to make sure he doesn't die."
"It would be a shame for him to do that now," Fred agreed.
They manhandled Harry onto the double where George collapsed next to him. Fred sat down slowly on the single.
"You know…" Fred started, "they almost didn't give me the portkey."
George looked at him questioningly.
"To get out of France." Fred clarified, "They were locking the borders down. It took me telling them an emergency and dropping Harry's name before they gave it to me.
"Luckily, Harry looks like death or I don't think they would have believed me."
George nodded and leaned back, closing his eyes. "You know what this means right?"
Fred nodded and did the same. "Yeah. Get the getaway portkey before we loose Harry upon them."
George snickered. "I'll get it in the morning."
With that they both fell asleep.