Harry Potter And The Breeding Darkness

Chapter 1

Ginny Weasley was sitting up in her bedroom in the Burrow trying to hide from both her mother and her twin demon brothers when she heard the chime ring on the floo downstairs. They had only been home from Hogwarts for two days but the twins were clearly already deeply embedded in something... sinister. Or at least, horribly dangerous for anyone who happened to be within range when they needed to test out one of their devious inventions. This was made even more dangerous by the fact that they had reached their seventeenth birthdays that prior April and were now of age to perform magic at home. She had determined that her room was the only place that was even remotely safe from them, as long as she kept her door locked, and stayed inside.

But aside from her two manic twin brothers, her parents had also been acting oddly since arriving home. They seemed... worried. Her mother had been cleaning everything, which was usually something she did obsessively to try and distract herself when she was especially stressed. Her father had also taken that day off work, which was especially odd.

Her parent's odd behavior, and the fact that it was rather rare for someone to arrive via the floo so early in the morning, was the only thing that could make her risk leaving the safety of her room, and face the potential threat that was posed by the twins.

She slipped out of her room and down the stairs just in time to hear her parents greeting... Headmaster Dumbledore at the door?

She tried to slip as far down the stairs as she could manage to try and listen in, but their voices were quickly too muffled to make anything out and she scowled. What the heck was Professor Dumbledore doing there?

"And what might you be up to, dear sister of ours?" a voice that sent a chill of exaggerated terror down her spine.

"It looks to me like she's trying to eavesdrop on our parents, Gred."

"Ah, that it does. But she's going about it all the wrong way, dear Forge."

"Be quiet!" Ginny hissed as she looked back over her shoulder at her twin brothers. "I'm trying to listen!"

"How about we offer you a hand there?" 'Gred' said.

"Or better yet, an ear?" 'Forge' added with a grin.

"What are you two on about?" she said in a harsh whisper.

Fred pulled something fleshy out of his pocket at that point and handed one to George and one to Ginny. She twisted up her face in confusion, and well-earned distrust, as she looked at the object with considerable suspicion.

"Extendable ears," Fred said finally.

"Just put the string in your ear, and direct the other end to whatever it is you want to listen in on, and -" George said.

"-you are as good as eavesdropping." Fred finished.

"Much more effective," George added and then the two twins nodded to each other in agreement.

Ginny looked down at the object again and saw that the fleshy part did look like an ear with a string attached to it. She hesitantly put the string into her ear and was impressed with the magnified sound. She gave them an approving sort of nod and a small smirk. The two twins grinned back.

The trio refocused on the adults downstairs then. The voices were growing quieter and more muffled.

"They're going into the kitchen," whispered Fred. George nodded.

The three red-heads slipped down the stairs and around the corner. They hid at the closed door to the kitchen and all three slipped their extendable ears underneath the door before placing the ends of the strings into their ears.