Sneezing Sweets
a Harry Potter story
by tarotgal
"N-no, wait a second," he gasped, "I think I'm going to sneeze." Fred leaned forward anxiously, notepad in hand. He studied the screwed up face of his twin intently. George's breathing was shallow, unsteady. The corners of his mouth were twitching down in a frown. His brow was furrowed. Yes, it was indeed a sneeze. Fred's quill was poised and ready. And Fred scooted the box of tissues closer in anticipation.
But as quickly as the sensation had begun, it was gone. George sighed and shook his head, rubbing a finger under his nose. "No good," he said dejectedly. "Just wasn't enough to make me sneeze. It was only an annoying tickle in my nose." He rubbed his whole palm against his nose now, sniffing dryly. He located a tissue and pulled it from the box without looking. He rubbed at his nose, then blew. "We're going to have to wait until this tickle goes away in order to try again with a clean slate."
Fred agreed, putting the pad down. Another failure. He looked over the list of ingredients. "Maybe more black pepper?" he suggested.
George blew his nose and shook his head. "No, that just makes it burn more."
Frowning, Fred looked over the small jars or potions and ingredients they'd collected. "Maybe we should take a break and work on the Fainting Fancy remedy instead."
George shook his head. "I'll be all right, just give me a minute." The thought of the time Fred had stayed asleep for half a day was still fresh in memory. Problem was that it was hard to eat something when unconscious, and thus hard to test the effectiveness of the remedy. George sniffed a few more times, rolling his eyes thoughtfully as though trying to sense the inner workings of his sinuses.
"More gabhock root, then?" Fred suggested. "A pinch of ground toadstool?"
After thinking it over for a moment, George nodded. The rest was a routine, coordinated efforts. George added the ingredients to the cauldron as Fred made changes to the list they were keeping. Then George stirred as Fred spooned a bit into the mold. Fred said a hardening spell, and both stared at the chew. It was sky blue and conered dark spots. Hardly appetizing but not at all as bad as the Puking Pastilles looked.
"All right," George said, picking it up and inspecting it to be sure it looked mixed and set. "Here goes nothing." He popped it into his mouth, gave a few good chews, then swallowed.
Fred grabbed the pad and quill again, getting ready. He leaned close again. "Well, feel sneezy this time?"
George waited a few moments, considering, and then shook his head. "Actually, no, not really. I mean nothing more than... than... last time." But his expression changed. His face screwed up.
Fred grinned. "Not really? Not going to sneeze this time either?" he said playfully, trying to use reverse psychology on the sneeze which had alluded them for the last three hours.
Suddenly George tensed and his face relaxed. "Never... mind that..." he said, reaching out and grabbing George's forearm in excitement. "I think I... ahh... I think it's... going to be a good sn... snehh... sn-sneeze-ahhh-EHTCHHH!"
A thumping good sneeze at that. "Fantastic!" Fred exclaimed, taking notes furiously: how loud the sneeze had been, how many seconds it had taken, and of course the final recipe.
But George wasn't finished. Frantic, he managed to grab a tissue and hold it to his nose just in time for a second... and a third. "ahhh-Chehhhh! ahhhTChhhh!" He snapped forward at each, having released Fred now to cup both hands to his nose with the tissue. "hahhhTChhhh! Ahhhh... ahhhKEShhhh! ahhhCHHH!"
Fred stopped writing and looked up at his twin, caught in a strong fit of sneezing. "George... can you stop?" he asked timidly.
George tried to shake his head, but the sneezes kept coming. "I... ahhh... ahhhChehhh! I don't think... ahhhCHHHH!"
Fred quickly got out the other sweet they'd been working on and added a few drops of the current potion to it. It took a while, and quite a few blows of the nose, to get George to stop sneezing long enough to swallow it. "Any better?" asked Fred, worriedly.
George could not answer with jaw dropped, face slack, eyes closed, nostrils flaring. He lifted the tissue in hand to his nose as he breathed heavily. "ahhh... hahh..." Increased desperation accompanied each breath. "Ahhh...HAH-aahhhhh... AHHH-" But then he stopped. He froze in place for a few seconds. Then his shoulders sagged and he let out a sigh. "Yes," he said, sniffling. "Better now."
"You're still sniffling," Fred pointed out, handing George another couple tissues. "You sure you're all right?"
"Just residuals," George explained. He blew his nose hard and then sighed again, smiling. "That was downright incredible, though," he said. "In just a couple seconds I couldn't stop sneezing for the life of me."
"One minute and thirty-eight seconds, to be precise," Fred said, reading it off the paper. "But that's well under our target time. And the strength of the result was well worth it.
"AhhhShuhhhh!" George sneezed again, suddenly. His twin looked at him suspiciously. "Just one left over... and my nose is still kind of runny," he said, rubbing hard at his nose.
Fred frowned. "Guess we need to refine the reverse effect sweet. But all in all, a success, wouldn't you say?"
George agreed whole-heartedly. They had been trying to work this one out since the beginning. They'd even thought of marketing the snackbox without it. But both were quite relieved now that they had made it this far and wouldn't have to go without.
"Your turn," George said, grabbing the pad and quill from Fred. They always made sure both tried it before experimenting on other people. Fred chuckled as he ladled out more into the mold and let it set. He grabbed a handful of tissues expectantly, hoping soon he'd be sneezing without stop, too.
They're not mine and this is just for fun. Inspired by the weekly hatching week #10 bunny. Word count- 1000 words on the dot