CANDY! ✯ RON WEASLEY

xi. Cat vs. Rat (Again)

"Yes!-"

"-No!"

"He is, Mum!" Maddie added quickly. "He's trying to mess it all up, he's gonna blow it up in the oven like he did to my cookies last year, remember?"

Their mother sighed, and gave Lee a knowing look.

"Wha- I'm not!" Lee lied. "Brother-sister quality time baking, you know, what could be better?"

"Burning to death," said Maddie, returning to her Yule log whilst her mother got rid of Lee.

"Lee, I think you might've mistaken me for a gullible idiot," their mother said, dragging her son out of the door. "Come on, leave Mads to it, because you'll be the one complaining when we don't have anything nice to eat on Christmas - let's face it, she is the best baker in the house-"

"I'm good at baking! I made a sponge cake once, remember?"

"Yeah, it wasn't cooked in the middle, we had to throw it out–"

The two's voices faded as the door closed, and Maddie sighed with satisfaction, gladly being able to continue her baking what with the only noise in the kitchen now being Last Christmas by Wham playing as she mixed and hummed along to the muggle song.

"What's all that noise out there?" Maddie's father asked, wandering into the kitchen and nodding towards the open door Mrs Jordan and Lee had just disappeared behind.

"Oh, that's just Mum threatening to kill Lee,"

"Oh. What're we making, then?" Mr Jordan said, leaning over his youngest child and peering at her mixture of ingredients.

"Yule Log," Maddie replied. "Remember, I wanted to make one last year, but we didn't have enough ingredients? And then we never got around to buying them, so..."

"Ah, yes," The man nodded. "Yeah, I remember. Well, I think you should let me know when it's done, so I can try it to make sure it's not poisonous," he added, jokingly.

"Ha, ha," Maddie replied sarcastically. "Just because I'm rubbish at potions, the class just gives bad vibes-"

"I was just trying to get the first piece, but okay," her Dad replied, frowning a little but still grinning.

"Oh," Maddie said, pausing for a second but then grinning. "Right. I'm too used to Snape telling me I'm going to poison someone with my brew. It's a shame it's not true, really, considering he usually does all the testing..."

Mr Jordan chuckled, and ruffled her hair. "Oh, Mads..."

"Actually, he refuses to test most of mine anyway,"

"What is the problem with this Snape teacher, anyway?" Maddie's Dad asked, opening one of the kitchen cupboards and helping himself to a biscuit.

"A lot of things," Maddie replied. "Too many to count. He deserves to be fired, really,"

"Really?" Mr Jordan raised an eyebrow. "Fired? So he doesn't just make quite a few mistakes then,"

"Mistakes?" Maddie repeated, giving her Dad a funny look. "If that's what you want to call them, but he should still be punished. He's awful,"

"Awe, come on, Mads, you can't always punish people if they just make an honest mistake,"

"Well - I made an honest mistake pushing Lee down the stairs, and you still punished me,"

"I-" Mr Jordan paused, his forehead creasing, slightly. "I'm not sure that's really an honest mistake-"

Maddie raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.