Winifred Oliver gripped the bent handle of her wand tightly, looking at her transfiguration book and at the button on the table in front of her. Transfiguring buttons into beetles seemed an impossible task- but Winnie was trying to have some confidence in herself and in her magic lately- and her new wand was definitely helping with that. She muttered the incantation to herself a few times- but picturing a beetle made her skin crawl. Winnie did not like bugs. Never had and probably never would. Bugs were gross and creepy crawly and should be stomped on instead of transfigured on purpose.

Sitting up straighter in the arm chair, she glanced at the button again, then waved her wand. The incantation was difficult to wrap her tongue around- and she did her best- but didn't realize until half a second too late that while waving her wand she had knocked the bottle of buttons over. Her spell hit a stack of buttons instead of one. They all shivered and wiggled then began to sprout legs- but they weren't like normal beetle legs, they were long and spindly like the legs of a spider. The army of little button bugs began to march across the table- and then fall off of the table to the floor.

Winifred jumped out of the arm chair and watched as they spread out across the common room. One of them even burrowed under a throw rug, and she could see the bump inching across the floor under it. Ew. It poked its button-head out from the other end of the throw rug and started climbing up the side of a chair. She realized, rather quickly, that her cousin was in the chair- looking totally relaxed, entirely unaware that a bug-button was about to crawl across him.

"FREDERICK!" she screeched at the top of her lungs. "It's coming after you! Get up! Squash it!" Winifred rushed over- pausing a few feet away before standing up on a chair as a few other bugs scurried around near her feet. "Catch it! Kill it! Do something with it!" She shivered watching the spindly legs creeping across the arm of the chair. Winifred should have known better than to do something like this on her own without supervision. How could she even think she was capable of that kind of a spell? "THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!"

Revising was never fun.  Revising for astronomy made it even more painful than normal.  (Even a studious person like Fred didn’t love spending all their waking hours reviewing material.)  So, it couldn’t be much of a surprise that he had dozed off while reading about the rotation of planets. 

He didn’t know how long he had been asleep, but his rest was cut frightfully short when he heard his named like nails on a chalkboard. His eyes snapped open and all of his limbs started at once. “What the?!” His book clattering to the floor as he kicked out – sliding down as the seat of the overstuffed cushion dislodged itself to the floor.  “Oof!” he landed with a thud. 

Bringing his hands to his eyes, he rubbed hard, dimly aware that he was now on the floor.  He also only just realized it was his cousin and she was yowling like a cat about something.  He lowered his hands and turned to look at her but before he could… “Oh my God!” he roared as he suddenly felt something crawling up his hand.  He looked up and there were more of them!

Immediately feeling his heart thumping in his chest he waved his hand frantically, scurrying backward as fast as he could in a crab-crawl situation.  “What did you do?!” he shouted, pushing himself to his feet.  Some of the scary little things had started to follow him.  “My wand!” his eyes darted around, looking for it.  He was starting to sweat.  He really had a sweating problem.  “Do you see my wand?!”

"I didn't do it on purpose!" She looked around for his wand, but didn't see it. "I was practicing my transfiguration! The buttons into beetles. I knocked over the jar of buttons and hit them all and the spell messed up and now they all have gross, creepy legs and they're all over the common room!" The pitch of her voice was high and the volume was much louder than it needed to be given the situation. No matter how old Winifred got she was always a drama queen- probably always would be.

One of the critters skittered up the chair she was standing over and across her foot. She kicked out, flinging it off her leg, watching as it smacked hard against the wall and fell to the floor. Winnie wasn't surprised to see it pick itself back up and continued wandering around the room. They were going in all different directions- all various colors. The bugs didn't have eyes or brains so she had no idea how on earth they were bouncing around with such skill and ease.

"Help me, Freddy! Fix it! I broke everything! They're going to end up in the dorm rooms and crawl all over people in their sleep and then everyone is going to hate me! I don't know what to do! I don't know how to fix it. Oh Godric's garters I didn't mean for this to happen!"  Winifred inhaled loudly, her bottom lip was already trembling and her chin quivered. "I was just trying to practice my spells. I was just trying to study and be a good student and look at what I've done! I've just ruined everything!"

"I don't see your wand anywhere!" Winifred still had hers gripped tightly in her hand- but she knew better than to hand it over. The wand was finicky. It hated her so it would probably just hate everyone else.

As soon as Winnie started screaming her story, Fred realized he didn’t much care what she had done.  This was not the sort of thing you sat around and talked about, particularly as it seemed more and more of the buttons from the jar were starting to sprout their demon legs and scurry around.  Fred wasn’t necessarily afraid of bugs, but these were gross!  Long and spindly, unsure of their direction… little eyeless monstrosities set to destroy his life, clearly. 

 And Winnie’s for that matter.  If an older student walked in… if their head of house walked in… his head went light with the thought of losing points for this.  He would absolutely look guilty and he hadn’t even been involved!  He’d been napping in an armchair!  Freddy hadn’t asked for this. 

But here he was, being asked to save the day and his wand was nowhere to be found!  “Just – stop screaming!” he yelled, counterproductive really, to yell at a yelling person to stop, “I – I can help!” At least he hoped he could.  The chair was covered in the gross little bug things by now but he had to.  Holding his breath, he rushed forward and shoved his hand through the sea of bug things and into the couch cushions.  He hoped he wasn’t doing this for nothing… if his wand wasn’t lodged in that chair… his eyes screwed shut and he tried to focus on breathing and finding his wand – not the sensation of nasty little legs tickling his arm and hand. 

Finally, his fingers hit something hard and he hoped for the life of him it wasn’t a petrified breadstick or something of the sort and removed it from the cushion.  His arm covered in button bugs, at the very least he held his wand.  Shaking madly, the bugs flew off his arm and hit various pieces of furniture before scurrying back to life – shock apparently didn’t register with them and he pointed his wand down at the ground.  Snapping whizbees there were so many of them. 

His aim moved from spot to spot, unsure of what to do or where to start.  There were too many to do this one by one… “Wingardium Leviosa!” he finally decided and turned the now empty jar the buttons had come from upright on the table.  If they could just get them IN the jar… “Accio buttons!” Fred finally commanded.  Unfortunately, of course, this just sent them flying at him. 

Fred cried out and rushed to cover his face with his hands as the hundreds of buttons flew at him, legs wriggling in the air.  That plan didn’t work.  “Help!” he yelped, sweeping from side to side to try and get the buttons off of him.

Winifred was taken aback with Fred yelled at her. She stopped hollering and blinked. It wasn't like she could really control the volume and pitch of her voice. Not when she was this terrified! She crossed her arms in annoyance and frowned at him. It didn't matter if Freddy was helping- she was grumpy now because he had yelled at her. Why on earth would he do something so mean? Winnie grunted a little, watching as he finally found his wand. It seemed the button-bugs were more concerned with her cousin than her at this point- so at least she could be thankful for that.

She watched as he waved his wand toward the button jar. And then he did... Well, he did something incredibly stupid and for a very, very brief moment Winifred felt a little better about herself. The accio spell made sense- to an extent- but then the buttons were all flying directly at Fred instead of scurrying everywhere. They were all coming at him and there was nothing Winifred could think of to do to help.

Wasn't there a spell to end another spell? She was sure there was, but Winnie couldn't remember the incantation for the life of her. "How?" she called back- yelling at him again, still in a panic. The buttons just kept flying. But at least they were all in one spot now.

"Can't you stop the spell?" she asked. "Like just turn them all back into buttons again? Is there a transfiguration spell to turn stuff into buttons instead of just turning buttons instead stuff?" One of the button bugs flying at them smacked Winifred in the back of the head and the spindly legs got tangled in her hair. She screeched and started smacking wildly at the back of her head, trying to pull it out, but it was only making more of a mess. In her flailing she fell off the chair she had been sitting on, hitting the ground with a loud thud. It was Winnie's term to yelp this time.

Of course she would make such a huge disaster out of a simple transfiguration spell. This is what she got for having some confidence that she could do a supposedly easy spell! She kept tugging at the bug in her hair- trying to pull it loose- but she just wasn't making any progress. It was terrible. This was all just terrible!

Oh no. 

Winnie was useless.  Fred thought that in the nicest way possible, but there was no way she could help.  When he yelled for her, she didn’t have a clue.  This was the worst ever.  They were crawling everywhere they could.  On his face, his hands…. Fred jumped out with a squeal as he felt something down the back of his neck and into his shirt.  Oh no! 

He was completely distracted by the feeling of little legs crawling down his back and Freddy had to do something.  Reaching down, he grabbed the hem of his sweater with one hand and tried to pull it up.  Unfortunately, this moved all of the bugs from his sweater onto his head and the panic set in for real.  He wasn’t breathing out of his mouth anymore for fear that the bugs would crawl into it and his nostrils flared as he dropped the sweater – still tugged up under his armpits and some of the buttons fell to the floor, but they were still mostly crawling all over him. 

Lifting his wand, he took Winnie’s advice: he could do something.  He couldn’t turn them all back into buttons again, not without turning himself into a button at this point, but being blinded and obstructed by the bugs, he didn’t know what happened to Winnie as she started to screech and then there was the sound of a hard fall – what was going on?! 

Fred turned his wand on himself and thought that maybe he could freeze the buttons and then be able to step out of it – wiping them off without doing any damage to himself.  “Immoulus!” he announced and the stream of light hit not only the bugs, but him.  His joints immediately seized, he couldn’t lower his arm, nor could he move. 

Isla was not the only Hufflepuff who was lounging in the common room-- unlike some, she was not doing homework. Rather, she was busy writing letters to send back home to her parents who probably cared about every little nonsensical detail about her day. Then, suddenly, the world went crazy.

Winifred had fallen out of her chair and was writing on the floor, making noises like a tormented labradoodle. Fred had also fallen onto the floor, frozen in place with.... Immobile insects all over him.

"Oh no!" She gasped, tossing her parchment off her lap. It fluttered over everybody else's work. "Sorry--" Isla gave her housemates an apologetic look and ran towards Winnie and Fred, brandishing her crooked wand. "I can help--" She looked from Winnie, to Fred, and back to Winnie. Fred needed the most help-- he couldn't move!

With a confidence that Isla truly, truly did not deserve, she pointed her wand at Fred.

"Finite Incan-- incantenum!" She said, a red, warbling light coming from her wand.[1]

She waited for Fred to move. And waited. And waited.

All at once, the bugs began to crawl all over his motionless form.

1.	It's mispronounced, the spell isn't quite right.

Winifred finally managed to get the bug out of her hair. She sat up, brushing a few more off of her sweater before getting to her feet. She blinked when she saw Fred standing there- unable to move, his arm raised in the air. The Hufflepuff was confused. Why was he just standing there like that? She'd heard him spout off some kind of spell- she just wasn't sure what it had been. But at least some of the bugs weren't moving anymore either? That was a plus, right?

She watched as a third year came and pointed her wand at Fred. That was it! That was the spell Winifred hadn't been able to remember.

"The bugs! They're alive again!" With a sudden bout of bravery, Winifred started stomping on the bugs on the floor. It broke the spindly, plastic legs and it stopped crawling and just quivered on the floor. Grabbing a basket full of magazines from beside a chair she dumped the books out and dropped the wriggling button into it.

"Jump on the bugs, Isla! It breaks their legs off!" Winifred starting stomping loudly- aiming for the bugs crawling near her. But it seemed they had at least some form of sentience because they started to scatter in the opposite direction from her feet. Winnie was scooping up button bodies and dropping them in the basket as she stomped them. Fred's immobile form was forgotten to her at the moment while she was busy stomping the bugs.

Isla watched in horror as Winifred Oliver started stomping on the bugs. It was absolute genocide.

"YOU'RE MURDERING THEM!" She screeched, getting on the floor beside Fred, pale belly exposed as she stretched her shirt into a makeshift bowl to scoop the bugs into.   "They probably have families, Winnie! They didn't do anything to you except exist." And crawl all over Fred's immobile and traumatized face. It was his real-life horror story. Isla was the type of person to gently move insects and spiders outside, rather than stomping them like some sort of heartless villain. Her face flushed a violent scarlet just thinking about it.

One by one, she began to pick the bugs off of Fred's face, "It's okay Freddy." She said consolingly, though her voice wavered, "At least they're not in your mouth."

Winifred turned to Isla. "They aren't real bugs! They're buttons! I messed up transfiguration. It's all plastic. I'm not killing anything! They aren't even alive." She stomped on a few more, scooping more buttons into her basket.

Then she suddenly remembered that Fred was laying on the floor immobile. She shivered at the idea of the creepy crawlies being in her mouth. Winifred moved to where Freddy was and gave Isla a gentle nudge. "Move. I can handle this!" Just because she had screwed up the transfiguration didn't mean that she would screw up another simple spell, right? Right. At least she hoped so.

Winifred pointed her wand at Fred. And somehow, probably from luck, she managed to actually get the spell right. "Finite Incantatem!" A red light came from the end of her wand, striking Fred in the chest. She squeezed her eyes shut for half a second, fully expecting Fred to explode or lose a limb, then she finally opened one to peer at him- and was more than relieved to finally see him start to move. She had done it! Winnie couldn't believe it! She had used a spell on another person and it hadn't backfired this time or caused any serious injury! Freddy wasn't maimed!

She was so excited! Winifred let out a loud whoop- cheering for herself. "I did it! I fixed Fred and I didn't blow him up! Hell yes!" Winnie danced around in a circle- stomping more bugs in the process. "You're going to be okay, Fred! I FIXED YOU!"

Being frozen in time was not pleasant.  He could still feel things touching him, hear what was happening around him, and see – albeit not really because he had his eyes closed, but he just couldn’t do anything about it.

Winnie was trying to kill the bugs, apparently, and Isla – he’d recognize her voice anywhere – didn’t agree.  For the first time, it was clear he would have agreed with Winnie.  They were little plastic things with legs.  Until this moment they’d been perfectly happy keeping shirt cuffs closed.  They didn’t exactly have deep, complex emotional lives. 

He feared he wouldn’t either after this, really.  Because even as he felt Isla pulling the bugs off his face, he was certain between the two of them he would die like this.  Frozen in time: a new statue for decorating the common room.  Would anyone even notice? 

He felt sort of suffocated all of a sudden, as if the idea of being forgotten for all time was just the end of the line (it really was) and his chest hurt.  If he could scream, he would have.  Freddy just wanted to – [i[Ow![/i] Something struck him in the chest and all of a sudden, everything came crashing down.  Fred was able to move his arms and stand regularly – he could breathe.  There were no bugs on his face.  He took in a gasping breath and his eyes buldged, “Snapping whizbees, Winnie!” he announced, “You did it!” 

It was said with equal parts amazement and gratitude.  He looked down – hands hands were there, his feet were there… he pressed his palms to his chest over his rumpled jumper – he was truly alive and unharmed, even where the spell had struck him.  If only Professors Donovan or Storm had seen it – they wouldn’t have believed it was possible.   Of course, the celebration was short lived because Fred shrieked when he felt something on his ankle – looking down quickly enough to notice some of the button beasts crawling up his trouser leg.  “You’ve got to be kidding!” he shook out his foot and stumbled away, shaking his foot and waving his hands. 

He pointed his wand at a bundle of the things – all crawling all over one another and tried something: “Verto Authenticus,” he watched as the little legs all seemed to shrink up into the buttons and they laid in a harmless heap on the ground. Success! Fred looked to Isla and Winnie with a flushed, excited face, they should be able to do this one.  He pointed his wand at another swarm of them – each clinking helplessly as it resumed normal button status. Fred was certain he’d never heard a more amazing sound that buttons falling on the ground.  Thankfully none of them were transfigured! They’d be totally fine as he continued – hoping he would catch all of them.   

Isla let out a sigh of relief when Winnie 'fixed' Fred. She was impressed at Winnie's wandwork as much as she was impressed with the fact that Fred hadn't died or exploded or lost any limbs in the process. She couldn't lose him! He was one of her favorite Hufflepuffs! It didn't matter that her favorite Hufflepuff was usually the one she had seen most recently. They were all such pleasant, fun, and sweet people that it was hard not to like them.

"Good job Winnie!" Isla praised the older witch, "I'd rather have two brothers than only one." Her elder brother, Alistair, was in Fred's year. The two did look related, and Alistair joked that they shared a father. A concerning amount of people actually believed him, and an equally concerning amount of people didn't, but went along with it anyway. She wasn't sure which category Winifred fell in.

"Why did you two turn buttons into bugs?" She asked curiously, as if it were the sort of thing that people did on purpose.

Winifred was so excited she couldn't even be offended by the fact that both Fred and Isla seemed shocked she did a spell correctly. "I know I did! I'm so glad it didn't hurt you and that you're okay!" She would have to write to her uncle about her new found magical prowess in a time of crisis. He would be so prou.d At least, she hoped he would be. He had always encouraged her to try harder and now she actually was.

FINALLY Fred had figured out a way to deal with the buttons. Brilliant! Winifred twirled her wand in her fingers a little- wondering if it was safe for her to try it or if she would end up setting a throw rug on fire or something worse than that.

Winifred looked to Isla. "Well I was practicing transfiguration. You're supposed to turn buttons into beetles. I only mean to turn one or two of them- but the spell didn't work right and I knocked over the buttons and somehow they turned into these weird half spider things instead of actual beetles. I didn't do it on purpose... I'm just not very good at transfiguration." Or anything else, really.

"How do you say that spell again, Fred?" she asked. "I think maybe I said it wrong? I don't want to mess up anything in the common room by accident because I didn't do it right. I mean, it's bad enough I made this happen," Winifred said, gesturing around the room at the button bugs that were running around.

She saw a small group of buttons skittering nearby and she pointed her wand at them. "Verto Authenticus!" But nothing happened. The spell didn't even fire off a dud and they just kept going about their button business. Winnie frowned. At least the spell had worked right when she really needed it to- getting Fred unfrozen was super important after all.

Fred rubbed the back of his neck as he thought he had gotten all of the button bugs back to buttons.  They were surprisingly tricky, but they also seemed to travel in packs, so Fred could get a lot of them at once.  And once they were immobile, he could levitate them back to the jar where they belonged. 

While Winifred needed to practice, Fred was rather proud of himself.  Sure, he’d petrified himself for a bit, but he also saved the day.  That was the more important piece!  That was the bit Winifred and Isla would surely not forget to mention when they told their friends about this… right?  Oh snapping whizbees… now he had to worry about other girls knowing! And not just ones he was related to!  Wait… no, that was just Winifred.  Alistair’s stupid fake rumor confused him sometimes. 

Pursing his lips, Fred shrugged.  “It just sorta… came to me, I guess.  It’s not really a big deal,” he kicked his foot as he looked at the ground, humble as ever.  It was from an old lesson, he knew that, but he was good with that sort of thing.  After a few trial runs of bad ideas, anyway.  The Accio had not been his finest moment… but at least it wasn’t his last. 

When Winifred asked how to say the spell though, Fred could at least help her with that!  Deliberately and slowly, he was careful to announce each syllable, “Verto Authenticus,”it was sort of crisp, he liked the sound of it on his tongue.  Of course, it didn’t have quite the same impact coming from Winifred as she tried… that was a flop if there ever was one.

Fred twisted the wand in his hand and quickly disarmed the false button creature.  “Maybe next time you practice,” Fred suggested, trying to be as nice as possible to his extended cousin, “take one out… you know… away from the rest… just in case…”