A Very Harmony Christmas

Oh, Deer!

Prompt: December 14th. Antlers.

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Oh, Deer!

Harry and Hermione walked into the kitchen to find it filled with everyone else in the house, including Remus. They shared a look that was half-grimace; they'd hoped to be able to sneak in there and have a quiet 'breakfast' together, especially after the extremely late and emotionally draining night that they'd had.

"There you two are!" Mrs Weasley exclaimed upon noticing them. "I wanted to wake you hours ago, only Sirius wouldn't let me."

This last was said with a decided scowl at Sirius, as though he had no idea what he was doing stopping her from doing what she knew was right. Everyone else had stopped their conversations at the table to look at them. Well, not quite everyone, Harry noted, as Fred seemed to be murmuring something, probably to George.

"They're on holidays, Molly, they can sleep as late as they want," Sirius said, a phrase which Harry suspected had been said multiple times already that morning.

"Well, you missed breakfast, sleeping in so late as you did," Mrs Weasley continued, completely ignoring Sirius.

"Sorry, Mrs Weasley, we were up late talking," Harry replied cheerfully, eliciting a derisive snort from a twin and a deep scowl from Ginny.

"Hmm," Mrs Weasley huffed. "Well, we're about to have a snack, you can help yourself to something or I can whip you up something proper."

"No need to put yourself out, Mrs Weasley. We'll manage," Hermione told her.

Together they walked further into the room and took side-by-side seats near one end beside Sirius.

The table was filled with three platters of small cakes and biscuits, all decorated in Christmas colours or with Christmas motifs drawn in their icings. Every person also had a mug of hot chocolate, an extra two of which (one for each of them) was floated over to them the instant that they'd sat down.

"Ooh, a reindeer!" Ron exclaimed. "That one's mine!"

Ron was instantly half out of his seat and leaning over the table towards the platter of small cakes at the other end of the table, his hand reaching past Ginny who was forced to lean right back out of his way. A momentary look of glee on the twin's faces caught Harry's attention and he raised an eyebrow at them. Something was up, he was sure of it. Surreptitiously, he nudged Hermione and, once gaining her attention, pointed at the twins with the smallest jerk of his chin.

Boom!

The mini thunderclap was accompanied by a cloud of red and green smoke that quickly dispersed, leaving behind a fully formed deer, complete with antlers standing at the table where only moments before, Ron had been.

Twin guffaws of laughter erupted into the stunned silence.

"Brilliant!

"Even better than we'd hoped!"

"A smashing success, I'd say!"

"Fred! George! I thought that we'd gotten rid of all of your silly products!" Mrs Weasley screeched.

"Only a bit of harmless fun, Mum..."

"For Christmas."

"It'll wear off in a couple of minutes."

Deer-Ron, for his part, had reared back hard onto his back legs in shock and smashed into the counter behind him. Plates and cups rattled and he tried to spin around to see what had happened. Unfortunately, that brought his great head around, his antlers nearly skewering Ginny in the process.

"Boys, boys, boys!" Sirius said to the twins, shaking his head. "I expected better from you!"

"If you're going to do a prank, you need to learn to get it right," Remus added.

The two Marauders nodded to each other before both pulled their wands. Seconds later, twin streams of magic, one gold, one silver, hit deer-Ron. This resulted in deer-Ron's antlers being filled with tinsel and his nose turning red and beginning to shine.

Harry was laughing so hard that tears started rolling down his cheeks. Beside him, Hermione, too, was chuckling and, wonder of wonders, even Mrs Weasley had a small smile trying to appear at the corner of her mouth. A flash and a puff of purple smoke announced that George had taken a picture of their brother, most likely so that their newest creation could be improved upon.

Bang!

Once again, Ron was obscured by a cloud of red and green smoke. When it cleared, he was no longer deer-shaped. He was, however, draped in tinsel and his nose was still red and shining.

"That wasn't funny!" Ron huffed, his hands on his hips.

"You are in error, brother-deer..."

"It wasn't just funny..."

"It was hilarious..."

"And we have the photo to prove it!"