It’s A Peanut
Hermione sat on the sofa in the Burrow, digging inside the box her mum had sent her for her birthday, trying to find the object inside.
Ron picked up one of the packing pieces that had fallen onto the floor. “What’s this?” he asked, rolling it between his fingers.
“It’s a peanut,” she said absentmindedly, her fingers finally finding a plastic-encased, solid object.
“No,” Ron said, flicking his wand at the offending small, white thing. “This is a peanut.” He promptly cracked the shell and popped the nut in his mouth.
“Ron, that’s a good bit a magic…” she started to say before Ron spit out the nut, saying, “Ewww, gross.”
Hermione cocked her head and a crease formed between her eyebrows. “Did you remember to change the Styrofoam into a peanut or just change the shape?”
Ron’s ears turned red. Hermione stifled a laugh, pulled out her present, and unwrapped it. Her mum had sent her a lovely crystal bottle with a red heart stopper.
“What’s that?” Ron asked, pointing to the packing she’d discarded.
Hermione handed it over with a sigh. “Bubble wrap.”
Ron picked it up and looked at it, accidentally making a bubble pop. “Oh, cool!”
Three hours later as Ron and Mr. Weasley still sat together on the sofa with the magically repaired, for the umpteenth time, bubble wrap, Hermione decided it was time to go to bed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fantastic Bubble Popper Paper!
Arthur was elated. His son really had come out with something wonderful and just in time for secretary’s day!
He entered the Ministry lifts to go to his office and bumped into his friends Bob MacDaniels. “Morning, Arthur.”
“Morning, Bob.”
“Whatcha got there?”
Arthur beamed. “Bubble popper-paper-thing – my son George made them,” he said proudly. “Hermione gave Ron the prototype, and…” Arthur handed Bob a sheet. He had plenty. “See you pop them, and when you get to the last one, pinch the gold one and they repair themselves!”
Bob gave the Bubble Popper Paper a go and beamed at the sharp little pop sound. “Oh this is marvelous!”
The door opened and the voice announced Arthur’s department. “Good day, Bob.”
“And to you, Arthur,” bob replied happily popping his bubbles.
~*~*~*~
Popper Paper
Dirk Cresswell had forgotten about secretary’s day – completely forgotten. He stood in the lift and couldn’t help by overhear Arthur and Bob talk about the Popper Paper. Later that morning when he went to the Department of Muggle and Muggle-born Relations offices, he saw a curious sight. The ladies of the office were all smiling with delight and sounds of sharp little pops filled the air.
Dirk forgot all about the dangerous Fwooper canaries that little Amy was breeding in her aviary and went to Floo to Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes to get Popper Paper for his secretary, Anita.
~*~*~*~
That Truly Evil Bubble Paper
Kingsley was trying to read his mail. There were complaints from three department heads, the Hogwarts school governors wanted to know who was going to be Headmaster, and Severus Snape still hadn’t responded to his owl. That, and there were these persistent and annoying little pops going on outside his door.
He got up to investigate and saw all the secretaries happily popping bubbles on a clear piece of… something.
“Oh, Minister, we simply love our presents,” Whilimena Smutter said, crunching her bubble thing to her chest making a lot of bubbles pop at once. She giggled and quickly pinched the gold one. “It’s so much fun!”
Gift? What gift? He hadn’t realized he’d mumbled.
“Why our secretary appreciation gift that you gave each of us,” Cecelia Randles said a bit perplexed, showing him her sheet bubble wrap. “Percy handed them out to all of us this morning.”
Kingsley nodded thoughtfully and went to look for Percy Weasley.
~*~*~*~
Hermione looked up. Minister Shacklebolt was standing in the doorway to her office, arms crossed and looking rather cross. “May I help you, Minister,” she asked, setting down her quill.
“You can explain this!” he said, stepping forward and brandishing a sheet of bubble wrap at her.
“It’s bubble wrap, sir,” she said, not sure of the problem.
“What manner of Dark Arts is this?” he asked, dropping the wrapping on her desk as if it were offensive.
“It’s not Dark Arts, sir, it’s what Muggles use to wrap delicate objects when they send them through the post. In lue of a Cushioning Charm,” she explained, perplexed.
Kingsley looked at her, a furrow of concentration creasing his brow. “Is it contagious? Or addictive that you know of?”
“Is it what?” she asked, stunned by his question.
“Contagious – addictive…” he repeated himself. “Every secretary in the building has a sheet of this and is popping bubbles! Every one of them! They cannot seem to put it down. I even have some of my department heads and assistants – it’s all over the building. So I am asking you, since its origins, according to Arthur, is you – is this an addictive material?”
Hermione’s hands flew to her head and her elbows landed on her desk. “No, it’s not… Oh, damn.” She banged her head on her desk, making several of the bubbles of the wrapping pop. “No, no, no! Not here too!”
“Well?”
Hermione looked up. “The novelty should wear off in a week or two, sir.”
“A week or two? Nothing is getting done! A… fine.” Kingsley turned and stormed from her office. Hermione set the offending bubble wrap aside. Kingsley reentered her office. “I forgot my bubble paper wrap,” he said, retrieving it and leaving quickly again.
~Fin~