Fred and George had been right; Mom surely had a lot of work in store for us. The first day of the holidays, she let us off easy, but hell broke loose from the next. And no, I'm not exaggerating. The Burrow sure is a tidy place but to keep it so a lot of hard work is required. And that laborious hard work was what was asked from us. 

"Merlin's Cheese crackers! Come out of the broom closet this instant, George!" Looks like the twins are up to something again and Mom's not too glad about it. 

"Katerina please join Ginnevra and Ronald in the garden, will you?" she turned to face me, "they could surely do with some assistance in degnoming it." 

I nodded and walked out leaving her banging the door of the broom closet where dear Georgie was supposed to be hiding. In fact, it wasn't George who was in there at all. 

To be honest, the twins had locked up the old family ghoul in there merely to give Mom an uncalled for fright and well because the ghoul was destructing my room (it used to have its quarters in the attic before I came, so obviously it wasn't glad of my return). 

However I went out to the garden from the backdoor where Percy was shouting orders and Ron and Ginny were toiling hard. 

"Take it by the ankle, Ronald," he was perched up on a twisted tree branch as if it was some high seat if authority, "now spin it anticlockwise and when the desired momentum is attained you throw it afar."

"Hi Perce!" I greeted him.

He looked up from his book for a second through his spectacles that were about to slip from the bridge if his nose as usual. And then he threw a shovel at me from nowhere that missed my head by mere inches. 

"Hey, what was that for?" I asked.

"Dig the potatoes out," he replied, "if you come across a potatohead that isn't keen to come out then Ron will degnome it for you." 

Ah well... I picked up the shovel and began digging.

"A 360° arc, didn't I tell you? 360 degrees," there goes Perce again with his never ending mathematical calculations. But before he could rave on about the 360°, a gnome came flying out of nowhere and hit him in the face as a result of which he went toppling down to the ground. 

Source of commotion? Fred and George, obviously. Without a shadow of doubt. And true enough, there they were demonstrating the uses of their new invention.

"Saving you the trouble of rotating these gnomes in a complete 360° arc, we present you the revolutionary Gnome Catapult. Manufactured by the only geniuses of their time; Weasley and Weasley."

Percy stood up rubbing his head and scoffing evidently under his breath, "the only idiots of their time; Weasley and Weasley." 

Both the twins launched into an elaborate explanation of the functions of the catapult and after that degnomed the garden in minutes much to our relief. Teaching the principles of science to them both did prove to be beneficial after all. By the end of the machine's excellent performance, even Percy had stopped complaining and was examining the plugs and knobs closely. 

Wait a second... Plugs and knobs?

"Where exactly did you get this stuff?" he asked soon enough pointing to the plugs, "if it is what I assume, then you are in for a lot of trouble."

"Aw come on, Perce, we were cleaning the garage, it's not like we took things that were under authorized supervision or extensive surveillance," the twins protested. 

"If Mom comes to know of this..."

"Well, she won't."

"And why not? I'm going right now to..."

"No you aren't, we won't let you!" And with that both of them pounced on him and tackled him to the ground. Again. Poor Percy. 

Anyhow their assault on dear old Perce was broken up when Ron came running up to us with his face radiant from excitement. Hey wait, when did he even sneak out of here in the first place? 

"Mom's calling you all inside," he spoke finally after he had caught up his breath. Oh good, garden work's over for now. Thank Heavens. We all went back to the Burrow with Percy still as determined as ever to tell on the twins' theft from the garage. 

***

However a surprise was waiting for us inside and Perce never got the chance to complain about the plugs robbery: Dad was at home early. And judging by the huge grin in his face... The surprise surely is a big one. And true enough it was revealed rather soon. 

Ginny had gone to the kitchen to ask Mom and shortly returned, both Mom and Gin had the same radiance I had seen on Ron's face earlier. 

"Would you kindly stop killing us with all the suspense and smug faces? Can't we know what all this is about?" Fred remarked. 

"Of course dear," Mom spoke, "your father has won the Annual Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw."

"What?"

"No way!" 

Percy took the letter from Dad and scanned it all over then looked up with his eyes as wide as saucers, "seven hundred galleons?"

Uh... Okay...? Now that really was a giant amount. Simply huge. 

"That could like pay for Nimbus Two Thousands for the whole family as well as a joke shop or two in Diagon Alley," George estimated. 

"And considering the merchandise..." 

But Fred was cut short by Mom, "no boys, that is not how we plan to spend the gold." 

At last Dad spoke up, "exactly kids. The real surprise is that we're all going on a vacation. To Egypt." 

Ginny squealed in excitement, "really? That's where Bill lives, right? Egypt... Cool!" It's good to see her act normal after so many days. All of us surely need a vacation right now. 

"Yes honey. Bill will meet us there and Charlie's coming too," Mom told her.

"Great. Absolutely fantastic!" She was so excited that she rushed off to her room to pack already.

"Would you pinch me, George?" Fred asked. 

George did so then said, "your turn, mate." 

When both had pinched each other and finally realized that all this was real, they both hugged Dad, "this one's gonna be a massive vacation, right Dad?" 

He nodded, "absolutely. And for some of the trip we'll be using Muggle transport as well. I heard we'll be going on their water conveyance... Forget what that was called... Pruise ship?"

"Cruise ship," I corrected him.

"Yes that. Have you been on it before? Ah well, I have to go sort out some documents now kids. See you at dinner," and with that he got up and made his way to his room. 

Muggle transport, cruise ship, no wonder Dad is every much as excited as Ron and Ginny. 

"Well now that all's settled, I want to make one thing clear to all of you," Percy stated in his highly authoritative attitude again, "you can do all you want, celebrate however you want, pack whatever you want but my room is strictly off limits. And particularly you, Ronald. I want your shoes off my bed this instant. It's not your shoe cabinet, okay?" 

Yeah, right. Not anyone's shoe cabinet.

"Oops, well we forgot to tell you something very important, Perce," Fred called out after him with that mischievous glint in his eyes as always. 

Wonder what they're up to now. 

"Yeah what?" Percy turned glaring at them through his horn rimmed specs. 

"We accidentally used the wood from your bed to render the finishing touches to the Gnome Catapult," George finished sheepishly but I knew inwardly he was dying of suppressed laughter. 

Fred put emphasis on what he had just said, "completely by accident."

"WHAT?!?! YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOTS! MOM, THESE TWO DUMBHEADS HAVE DESTROYED MY BED...!!!" 

Now be prepared for a massive war. I think it would be best if I make my escape. By now poor Perce was chasing the twins all over the Burrow shouting and cursing. 

I took my chance and sneaked up to my bedroom. 

The feud between Percy and the twins is expected to go on for a while. At least... Until or unless Mom springs into the action as well.

***