FicWad

Chapter Ten: The Great Clockwork Caper

On a winding dirty road, a grimy looking man with stringy grey hair walked down the street. If it wasn’t for his curious attire, many would mistake him for an average middle aged man. This man was far from average. He wore a silvery body suit, adorned with images of clocks of different shapes and sizes, with a clock pendulum on the front of his outfit, swinging back and forth as he moved. On his face sat a curious pair of goggles, where the lenses were replaced by two miniature clocks. The man wore no few then twenty four different watches, marking the time I every time zone in the world. He was born Maxwell Eugene Windsor, but he had taken on quite a different moniker as of late. Windsor had been driven quite mad when he locked himself inside the New York City Hall Clock Tower. The grinding of the gears and the clanging of the bells within the clock slowly drove him to the brink of insanity. When he was found, he had taken on a new moniker. He was the Tyrant of Time, the Sultan of Seconds, the Master of Minutes, the Honor Guard of Hours, the Dean of Days, the Warrior of Weeks, among many other time related honors that he had bestowed upon himself. Hard luck petty thief Max Windsor transformed into the criminal mastermind of clocks known as Chronos due to having this one really bad day.

“Alas free, free from that wretched insane asylum,” declared Chronos. “And onto a new life, a new land to pillage. The King of the Clocktower will assume his rightful place as ruler of this land…”

Chronos squinted, examining a sign to gain the merest clue of his destination.

“Ottery St. Catchpole!” declared Chronos in a triumphant voice. “I claim this land in the spirit of time!

Chronos walked forward before coming across a discarded newspaper. The villain bent down before picking up the paper. Much to his pleasure, the paper seemed to be quite legible.

“Very interesting, You-Know-Who is suspected to behind Muggle attacks,” declared Chronos before pausing. “That’s rather unfortunate, carry a child for nine months and name him You-Know-Who. No wonder he’s lashing out on these Muggles, whoever or whatever they might be.”

Chronos began to read the paper, looking quite amused.

“This has to be some kind of spoof paper,” declared Chronos, before giggling madly. “Whoever wrote this is much madder then I could ever hope to be. I mean wizards, witches, cauldron, Ministry of Magic, Dumbledore, all sounds like a bunch of carefully formulated insanity. And I love it!”

Chronos gave another round of giggles.

“Harry Potter was…” declared Chronos in a mocking voice before realizing suddenly and his eyes going wide underneath his goggles. “Harry Potter, that wretched brat who foiled my attempts to make an honest dishonest living of petty thievery many years ago and made me the laughing stock of the New York criminal underworld!”

Chronos looked at the paper, scanning it briefly before his face contorted with pure fury.

“Harry Potter, pictured here with his girlfriend Ginevra Weasley, is said to be a strong opponent of You-Know-Who,” read Chronos in a scathing voice. “I can’t believe the gall of this Potter brat. First he ruins my life and then he decides to pick a fight with this You-Know-Who chap. The fellow’s got a horrible name already, I say this is an outrage and Potter’s time will be cut short.”

Chronos angrily flipped through the paper, hoping to find more but his eye was caught by an interesting tidbit.

“Harry Potter is rumored to be staying with his girlfriend and her family at the Weasley family home, known as the Burrow,” read Chronos nodding but something prompted him to read on. “The Burrow is located in Ottery St. Catchpole, a home of many magical dwellings. Among the features in the Burrow is a family heirloom, a clock that accounts for the whereabouts of every member of the Weasley family…”

Chronos threw up his hands with glee at the mention of a clock.

“Now that is some clock, I must have it for my collection, not to mention the profits that I’ll make once I duplicate its features and sell it. After all time is money,” declared Chronos before adding as an afterthought. “And revenge on Harry Potter, but matters of time come first and foremost, before revenge.”

Chronos began on his merry way, towards the Burrow. He had a clock to swipe and if he was lucky enough, he could score some measure of vengeance on Harry Potter. Only time would be the decider of that fact.

At the Burrow, Mrs. Weasley was looking absolutely flustered looking at the latest copy of the Daily Prophet, as the Turtles, Master Splinter, Harry, Hailey, Ginny, Lily, Fred, George, and Ron were all gathered around.

“Oh, Harry, I’m sorry, but I can’t even think why they could have guessed you were here, I mean, it’s not like Arthur or I told anyone when you were coming,” declared Mrs. Weasley.

“I’m glad those wards were reinforced yesterday, they should hold for about a year or so, unless someone tries to disable them, but they’d need to be an expert curse breaker to even get close in disabling them and there are so many different combinations of wards that can be used, so it would be a difficult task to knock them all out at once and I doubled up on some of the defenses whenever I could,” explained Harry without taking a breath. “I just didn’t expect the Daily Prophet would decide to print such confidential information.”

“I thought that you and the Ministry were at an understanding,” said Ron.

“We are but unfortunately, the Daily Prophet isn’t among the priorities of the Ministry right now,” declared Harry in a tired voice. “Still, I would hope that Voldemort would have better things to do then to try and kill me again.”

Harry just sighed.

“The confrontation we had with the Foot and Death Eaters did prove that Voldemort might have a pretty good idea you were here anyway, Harry,” suggested Leo.

“Yes, but the defenses should keep Voldemort out, but of course no defense is full proof,” declared Harry. “We need someone to stay here when we go to Diagon Alley. I would, but there is also a very strong chance that Voldemort would attack anyone remotely connected to me. He’s very likely to have people stationed in Diagon Alley.”

“You’ve thought this out, haven’t you Harry?” asked Hailey weakly.

“Of course he has,” said Ginny. “He has to think like Voldemort, if he has any hope of surviving. Not pleasant but I can see why he has to. The only way he can survive is to think like the enemy. ”

“Diagon Alley, shouldn’t be too crowded,” added Harry. “That could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at things. Most people are purchasing things by owl order. The shops are open, but there are a few Aurors staked out. Not enough for my liking, but at least Scrimgeour took my suggestion in mind. It will be harder to hide in a crowd for Death Eaters. On the flip side, it will be harder for us to hide into a crowd.”

“I don’t know Harry,” declared Mrs. Weasley in a fretful voice. “It might be a good idea if we followed everyone else and owl ordered everything…”

“No, I will not hide from Voldemort like a scared little kid,” declared Harry forcefully. “Of course, if you all want to stay here, then be my guest. I’ll take your lists and go to Diagon Alley by myself to get everything you need.”

“No, Harry, I don’t think that will be necessary,” said Lily quickly. “As long as we keep our eyes opened and stick together, everything will turn out to be just fine.”

“The problem is, the defenses should hold, but I’m a bit apprehensive in putting my full confidence in the defenses. Magic can fail,” declared Harry. “Obviously a worst case scenario, but I think I’d be much more at ease if someone else was here to keep an eye and perhaps a wand on things.”

“Look no further Harry,” declared George.

“The Weasley twins are on the case,” added Fred.

“We can stay here and make sure no one shady tries to find their way in,” suggested George.

“You sure, it’s not any problem for you guys, with your shop and all,” said Harry.

“No, in fact, today just happens to be our day off,” declared Fred.

“Of course, when owning your own business, one can take as many days off as possible,” added George.

“Not that we needed to go in that many times, business in Diagon Alley has been slow, with those meddling Death Eaters, so our business has been mostly owl orders,” said Fred.

“So, we only need to pop in a couple days a week, to send out the orders from our large inventory,” declared George.

“Fred, George, use this to contact me if the slightest hint of trouble arises,” said Harry, sliding the twins a spare communication mirror that he kept on him in case of emergencies. “The defenses should in theory keep out any dangerous threats, but…”

“We understand Harry,” declared George as Fred nodded in agreement. “We’ll get in touch with you at the slightest hint of trouble.”

“Harry, I’d feel a lot better if someone was here to keep an eye on Fred and George,” whispered Mrs. Weasley in a frantic voice. “They might be capable but…

“I understand,” declared Harry, before turning to his brothers, before closing his eyes and pulling out his wand and waving it, before pointing it. When Harry opened his eyes, he saw that Mikey was glowing slightly. “Okay, Mikey, I guess you’ll have to stay behind and miss out on the trip.”

“Wait a minute, we’re leaving Mikey in charge,” declared Raph. “I think your wand might be on the brink Harry.”

“Perhaps, but I wanted everyone to have an equal chance,” said Harry.

“Michelangelo, return to the attic and watch from above,” ordered Master Splinter.

“Right away, Master Splinter,” declared Mikey, as he raced up the stairs towards the attic.

“Now, for the matter of your disguises,” said Lily, turning to the three remaining Turtles and Master Splinter. “Even by the standards of the Wizarding World, your appearance may cause people to…”

“Freak out,” suggested Raph. “Like that little punk Malfoy did when we were hiding out at Hogwarts.”

“Well if I remember correctly, Malfoy complained to his father and nearly got us killed by the Ministry of Magic,” declared Don.

“The Ministry of Magic considers you all a threat as it is, no matter Harry’s best efforts to persuade them over wise,” said Lily, as she removed a box from underneath the table, containing a pile of cloaks. “These are ordinary cloaks, but added to them are mild disillusionment and confundus spells to prevent people who don’t know about you being there from getting too close to get a better look.”

“Yes, and the plan for us to patrol the parameter of Diagon Alley at a distance,” added Leo. “Now we don’t have to worry about our appearance causing an absolute panic.”

“So now it’s settled,” added Harry. “Put the cloaks on and we can complete our shopping quickly. If we’ll lucky, we should be done within a couple of hours.”

Several yards from the Burrow, Chronos crept in the bushes, as the sun glinted off of his many watches. Unfortunately, the information of the article lacked little in directions but did show a picture of the Burrow, so with some luck, Chronos would be able to locate the place in a matter of time. Craning his neck upwards, Chronos’s attention was piqued by a flash of light coming in the distance. Underneath his goggles, his eyes widened when he saw that he was just a matter of seconds from reaching his destination.

“At last, that clock will be mine!” declared Chronos, as he rose out of the bushes. “I mean, this clock can keep track of the whereabouts of people. If the police knew such a clock existed, they would be tripping over themselves to try and get one of their own. It can keep track of anyone, including criminals. Not to mention, every parent might want one to keep track of their meddlesome brats. I mean, wouldn’t you?”

Chronos looked around, before laughing and clearing his throat, looking rather serious, before he turned his full attention to the hobo he had been speaking to.

“Seriously, if you…perish the thought…had children, you would want this clock,” declared Chronos in a somber voice.

“Spare change,” declared the hobo in a slightly slurred voice.

“Of yes, of course,” said Chronos, before reaching into his pocket and shoving a few coins into the hand of hobo. The hobo seemed satisfied and walked off. The moment he disappeared, Chronos broke into a loud round of cackles, waving his hands loudly. “The fool doesn’t realize that I gave him American money! He won’t get any booze around here with that!”

Chronos threw his head back and laughed madly, before growing suddenly serious and pulling out large bag from underneath his costume.

“Let’s see what I’ve got in my bag of tricks,” muttered Chronos, rifling through. “Clockzooka, clock arrows, the sands of time knockout dust, exploding cuckoo clock, so many excellent gadgets, so little time.”

In the attic of the Burrow, Mikey sat with his legs crossed, looking out the window. His cat, Klunk, lurked around the attic, where the feline had spent the majority of his time, only wandering from the attic for brief times to be fed.

“Well, Klunk doesn’t appear to be anyone outside so far,” muttered Mikey. “Then again Harry’s only been gone for two minutes.”

Klunk pawed through a box before letting out a loud hiss and moving backwards. Mikey moved to his feet quickly, to see what the trouble was.

“What is it Klunk?” asked Mikey, before looking at the contents of the box carefully and relaxing to see that it was just a hair dryer. “See Klunk only a hair dryer, nothing to worry about, boy.”

At the moment, the hair dryer appeared to glow a bright gold color, before slowly levitating from the box.

“Okay, Klunk, maybe this is something to worry about,” said Mikey as he cautiously pulled out his nunchucks, as the hair dryer circled Mikey’s head. Klunk wisely moved into one of the sleeping bags in the attic. Mikey swung his nunchucks, but he just missed the hair dryer and the device magically shot hot air at Mikey, nearly blowing him backwards.

Mikey leapt onto a table, aiming carefully as the hair dryer dove towards Mikey, but Mikey swung his nunchucks towards the hair dryer, slicing it cleanly in two.

“Ha, it’s going to be a cold day in hell, before a mere hair dryer can get the best of the Battle Nexus Champion,” declared Mikey triumphantly but his glee was short lived as small white particles crawled from the hair dryer, before pulling the two broken pieces back together.

The plug dangled from the hair dryer, before latching onto what appeared to be a rusted down toaster. The toaster and the hair dryer began to fuse together.

“At last, revenge,” breathed the hair dryer as more white particles shot out, latching onto a coffee maker and a blender respectively, fusing them to the toaster as some kind of disgusting travesty of arms “Remember me, Michelangelo?”

“Not particularly,” declared Mikey in a bewildered voice. “Mind refreshing my memory a bit?”

“Oh but of course, you don’t remember me,” declared the voice. “Nearly six years ago, you and your filthy brothers tried to fry me in a furnace at a junkyard. Think back Michelangelo.”

Mikey screwed his eyes up, before his recollections of the past came back to him. His mind flashbacked to a tough battle in a junkyard in what seemed like a lifetime ago. Along with Raph, Don, Leo, and Harry, they were threatened by a group of nanobots, who had the intelligence of a two year old thanks to a scientific glitch, under the control of a hard luck hoodlum, who thanks to the help of the ability of the nanobots to dissemble and reassemble anything, stole a wide variety of jewels. Once the Turtles and Harry had caught up with the thief, he had ordered the nanobots to assemble into a fifty foot monster made of various pieces of rubbish found in the junkyard. After a scuffle, where the Turtles and Harry nearly got trampled, they managed to lure the body constructed by the nanobots over to a magnet, immobilizing it. Before the nanobots could dissemble the magnet, they were thrown into a furnace which melted the metal down, apparently destroyed them.

Unfortunately, it appeared that the nanobots were not as destroyed as previously hoped.

“Oh yes, I remember, you now,” said Mikey, as he stepped out of the way, as Klunk meowed at his feet. “Mind telling me exactly how you managed to survive and how you ended at the Burrow of all places.”

Outside of the Burrow, Chronos stepped towards the door, with a baseball cap, turned backwards, added to his regular costume.

“Now, for my extremely convoluted plan in gaining entry,” muttered Chronos to himself, before raising his hand dramatically and knocking on the door of the Burrow.

Chronos stood outside, tapping his foot impatiently, as he heard mostly muffled bits and pieces of conversation from inside, that the time obsessed villain could barely pick up. After a matter of moments, the door opened and George Weasley poked his head out of the door.

“May I help you?” asked George curiously.

“Excuse me, Mr…” declared Chronos, before trailing off.

“George Weasley,” supplied the twin.

“Ah, yes Mr. Weasley, the name is Maxwell Windsor, I am a photojournalist from the Clockwork Monthly and I was wondering if we could do a feature on that fabulous clock for next month’s magazine,” declared Chronos, before stuffing his fist into his mouth to stifle his giggles.

“You want to see our clock,” declared George, surveying Windsor with a slightly suspicious look.

“Of course, from what I’ve heard it’s a fabulous piece of temporal goodness,” replied Chronos. “But I do want to see it for myself, to survey its greatness.”

“Of course, right this way Mr. Windsor,” declared George before removing a blue piece of candy from his pocket. “Want a sweet before you proceed?”

“Don’t mind if I do!” declared Chronos in a boisterous voice, before snatching the candy greedily. He always was a sucker for candy, especially when offered by strangers. Chronos quickly popped the sweet into his mouth and chewed it with glee.

Chronos took a few steps forward, but a feverish feeling spread over him. He staggered back, feeling the emergence of several boils appearing on his face.

“No, this candy has been contaminated!” declared Chronos in a horrified voice. “The agony, the horror, the pure terror of it all. Is nothing in this world sacred?”

The boils seemed to grow larger as Chronos staggered backwards, with George snickering slightly as he shut the door. The boils eventually reached capacity before bursting, covering Chronos with green slime. Chronos yelled in horror, wiping the slime off of his face, but more boils appeared on his hands. It seemed once the slime touched bare skin, the process of the candy restarted. Chronos ran off, attempting to regroup and find a way to get the slime off of his face, without it replicating the boil effect elsewhere on his body.

Inside the Burrow, George walked towards his twin who was sitting at the table.

“Who was it?” asked Fred.

“Just some nutter wanting to look at our clock,” declared George. “Or at least that’s what he said. I think he might have been someone from a rival joke shop, most likely Zonko’s. We did steal many of their customers with our cheaper prices.”

“It couldn’t have been a Death Eater,” suggested Fred.

“No, I doubt it, he would have shoved his wand in my throat and demanded entrance,” said George, shaking his head. “Plus, I doubt very much he would have knocked.”

“Good point, but do you think he’ll come back?” asked Fred.

“If he does, we do have a few more products that haven’t been quite tested that might have some interesting side effects,” said George with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Back in the attic, Mikey backed off as his foe advanced on him.

“Before I destroy you utterly, perhaps I do owe you the courtesy of explaining to you why I’m here,” declared the abomination made of household appliances. “To make everything simple, not all of the nanobots were destroyed that night. We were separated from the hive mind and latched onto the nearest item a hairdryer. We were still active but had no sense of direction, because of the hive mind being obliterated. Shortly thereafter, an old woman picked the hair dryer up and brought us back to this country, before making some adjustments to it using magic. The magic somehow caused us to gain sentience and duplicated our intelligence levels a thousand times past our normal capacity. Sadly, the woman passed on shortly and eventually, the hair dryer that we reside in found its way into the hands of a Mr. Arthur Weasley, who confiscated me from the Ministry before I could be properly sent to the Department of Mysteries to be analyzed and promptly destroyed. No doubt Mr. Weasley wanted to take me apart to see how I worked. ”

“Damn your curiosity Mr. Weasley,” muttered Mikey shaking his head, before leaping up, into a fighting stance. “Okay, Nano, you want a piece of this turtle, you might get a little more then you bargained for. “

Mikey swung his nunchucks wildly, leaping up but several nanobots shot from the coffee maker and blender arms of Nano, latching onto Mikey’s nunchucks. The nunchucks were pulled, fusing to the body of Nano. Nano moved forward as Mikey stepped backwards, disarmed.

“So, do you think we can talk this over like mature adults?” asked Mikey cautiously but Mikey found himself having to dodge a swing by his own weapon that would have smashed his own head in had it connected. Mikey dodged around, his shell facing an open window. “I’m taking that as a no.”

Nano moved to the attack, attempting to knock Mikey out of the window, but to his credit, the turtle managed to block this particular assault.

Outside, Chronos sat, rummaging through his bag for something useful. Something to get inside that Burrow and get his hands on that wonderful clock that would make him millions once he found a way to replicate it.

“Ah, this should do the trick,” declared Chronos, as he pulled a clock arrow out of his bag. “This should allow me to pry the window open and this…”

Chronos pulled out a vial of his sands of time knockout dust.

“Should put anyone asleep for as long as I desire,” declared Chronos, before moving towards the window and taking his tool, before trying to wedge it underneath the window. Chronos attempted to pry it open but his lack of upper arm strength caused this task to go longer then imagined. After a matter of moments, Chronos looked up, before seeing an open window near the attic. “Oh but of course, I shall sneak inside that way, but I’ll need the proper equipment to sneak in through that particular avenue.”

Chronos bent down before rifling towards his bag and pulling out a gun. With a press of a trigger a rope with a clock arrow tied to the end shot out, before the arrow jammed right into the side of the Burrow. Chronos bent down, before pulling out four suction cups from his bag, attaching one to each of his hands and feet. Stepping forward, the King of the Clocktower, grabbed onto the rope, ensuring it was steady, before gingerly climbing his way up the Burrow step by step, inch by inch, until he was moments away from the open window.

The fight between Nano and Mikey raged on in the attic, as Nano lunged at Mikey, knocking him backwards to the ground. Mikey pulled himself up towards the open window, just as Chronus came inches away from the open window. Nano charged at Mikey but Mikey moved out of the way and Nano smashed into the open window, knocking Chronos off balance and causing his suction cups to pry loose and slide down the rope slightly towards a lower area of the Burrow, right by the window he attempted to pry open

A bewildered look appeared on the face of Chronos, as he attempted to readjust his footing to return to the open window.

Inside the Burrow, Fred looked up to see the figure attempting to pull himself back up the Burrow.

“That the guy, the one who tried and get inside earlier?” muttered Fred.

George craned his neck upwards to get a better look, before nodding in agreement.

“I’ll field this one,” said Fred, nodding, before moving towards the window, with a small blue, disk shaped object in his hand. “Ah yes, this one should do quite nicely, give him the hint to take a walk.”

“Excellent,” muttered George, nodding his head as Fred moved forward, before opening the window just slightly. With a tap of his light, the object began to glow slightly and Fred quickly flicked the object towards Chronos, before shutting the window.

Chronos managed to regain his footing, before feeling slightly flushed. He had the urge to climb down, a disoriented feeling rising within his consciousness. The villain lost interest in the mission slightly, before feeling the strong urge to sit down and totally abandon his mission at least for the moment.

“One of my favorites,” declared Fred from inside the Burrow to his twin. “The Disc of Disorientation. Causes whoever comes into contact with it to lose interest in what they are doing.”

“Yes, but with a few unfortunate side effects, varying on the victim,” added George.

“Like headaches.”

“Uncontrollable hives.”

“Dry mouth.”

“Irritated Eyes.”

“Irregular bowel movement.”

“Among other symptoms that we have yet to determine from our tests” concluded George with a somber nod. “Once we figure out how to counteract these without reducing the potency of the magic in the disc, it will be good to go for sale.”

“That it will,” replied Fred with a nod. “Do you think our friend will come back so he can be the unwilling victim of more of our slightly untested pranks?”

“I think that’s pretty much a given,” declared George, with a nod. “He’s obviously obsessed with sneaking in here, but we do have a few more surprises we can unleash on our new friend.”

In the attic, Mikey continued to dodge the ruthless assaults from his attacker, as Klunk hissed on the ground. Mikey managed to catch Nano off guard with a pair of vicious kicks. Nano staggered back, long enough for Mikey to scoop up Klunk and make a quick beeline in the direction of the door. Nano positioned his body, using the hot air from the hair dryer to propel himself forward towards the turtle. Mikey managed to open the door, before slipping through the doorway with Klunk and slammed it shut, causing Nano to smash into the door at the last second.

“I liked Nano a lot better when he had the intelligence a two year old, wouldn’t you, Klunk?” asked Mikey and the cat meowed in agreement, as his master bolted the entrance to the attic shut, before moving backwards down the stairs cautiously. “I mean at least then he was just destructive, now he’s destructive combined with the ability to think logically.”

At that moment, a small group of nanobots wormed their way from a crack by the attic door, before worming its way towards the bolt, disabling it. The nanobots found their way back through the crack and the door swung open, before the form of Nano made its way down the stairs.

“You’ll have to do better then that to contain me, turtle,” declared Nano, before propelling itself down the stairs, knocking Mikey to his back. Nano raised its arms, before slamming the nunchucks into the chest of Mikey. Another swing but Mikey managed to grab his own weapon and flip Nano to the ground. Mikey rose to his feet, before backing off.

“I’m warning you, don’t come any closer,” threatened Mikey, before stumbling reaching through an open doorway and grabbing the first item he saw, a half full glass of water. Drops of water splashed upwards causing Nano to step backwards.

“Back you fool, don’t get too close to me with that thing?” demanded Nano in shaky voice which caused a grin to form on Mikey’s face.

“At last, a weak spot,” declared Mikey, waving the glass of water. “Come on, Nano, afraid of getting a little wet?”

“Back, back!” exclaimed Nano in a horrified voice, before shooting a stream of nanobots towards the ceiling and pulling himself out of the reach of Mikey, before climbing to the ceiling like some sort of demented spider. Mikey threw all caution to the wind, splashing Nano with the contents of the glass.

Nano gave a blood curdling shriek, as several motionless nanobots fell from the frame of appliances, with no movement in them. Still, Nano had some life left in him and managed to make his way from the ceiling down the stairs towards the kitchen, to regroup and gain his revenge on another day.

“After him Klunk!” yelled Mikey in triumphant and Klunk gave a hiss, his fur standing up on end, before following Mikey down the stairs after the retreating form of Nano.

Outside the Burrow, Chronos gave his head a little shake, before placing a clock-shaped shoe on each foot.

“This time, I will not fail in my endeavor,” muttered Chronos, looking around wildly, before giggling randomly, before taking a deep breath. “These clocks will go off in a minute, springing up towards the Burrow and through that open window. Third time will be the charm and I will not fail this time.”

Back inside the Burrow, Fred and George peered out the window from a safe distance, before shaking their heads in unison.

“Babbling about his plan out loud,” declared George in a solemn voice.

“That shows either insanity, stupidity, or just plain sloppiness,” added Fred.

“Or some kind of demented combination of the three,” continued George.

“It’s your turn to try and deter him, my evil twin,” said Fred.

“I thought you were the evil one,” remarked George.

“My mistake,” said Fred in an apologetic voice. “I do tend to get us mixed up at times.”

“Right, let’s see, oh, this should be interesting, doesn’t have much use other then causing intruders serious body harm, which may work quite well this case,” muttered George, as he pulled out a handful of multi colored powder and moving quickly towards the window, pushing it open.

“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six,” chanted Chronos in a sing song voice while snapping his fingers and bopping his head back and forth but George hurled the powder out of the window, knocking Chronos off balance. Just as Chronos fell to the ground, the clocks went off, propelling Chronos across the ground right into the garden.

“And that’s not even the best part,” muttered Fred, as he got to his feet to get a closer look at the festivities.

Chronos attempted to vainly pull himself up to his feet, but he found himself being pounded on the chest, shoulders, and head but what appeared to be a group of demented potatoes with arms and legs. The King of the Clocktower squirmed, attempting to push his attackers away.

“I thought that was one of the better additions,” declared Fred from inside. “I mean, if our garden is going to be plagued by gnomes, we might as well take advantage of them as a security defense.”

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” declared George, before the twins looked up in bemusement at the sight of what appeared to be a weird mish-mash combination of Muggle appliances made its way frantically down the stairs.

“Now, there’s something you don’t see, even in the Wizarding World,” remarked Fred in a nonchalant voice as Mikey made his way down the stairs, with Klunk in hot pursuit.

“Definitely,” muttered George as Mikey seemed to be too preoccupied with his adversary to acknowledge the twins. “Dad’s Muggle stuff must have had a slight…glitch again.”

“More then a glitch,” declared Mikey in an absent-minded voice as Nano managed to push the door open, in a bid for freedom. The door opened, as Nano sprung out the door. Mikey followed closely behind as Nano stood in the garden as Mikey stepped in front of him.

Chronos managed to pull himself away from the attack, clutching his head in agony, before looking over at Nano dodging Mikey’s assault, before knocking the turtle off balance. He took the full absurdity of the scene before him in for approximately thirty seconds, before breaking into loud giggles.

“I must have hit my head harder then I thought,” declared Chronos in between giggles. “I mean a giant turtle fighting a group of sentient household electronics. That’s just wacky! Even more so than me!”

Chronos looked around, watching the turtle get knocked backwards. He stooped down, before shaking his head in amusement, before moving over towards his bag of tricks and removing the clockzooka from it.

“Time’s up!” yelled Chronos but a group of nanobots shot out, wrapping around the clockzooka. Chronos spun around, as he was pulled into Nano. “LET ME GO YOU STUPID PILE OF JUNK!

“I need that weapon!” yelled Nano firmly as Mikey looked up, looking rather amused, looking from Chronos to Nano who were fighting over the clockzooka.

Chronos pressed the button, arming the clockzooka before firing three clocks in rapid succession. They smashed against Nano, sending the pile of junk backwards right towards a large puddle of water. Nano screamed as sparks flew from him, as the nanobots were shorted out by the heavy amount of water that it was exposed to. Chronos bent down, before removing his clockzooka from the puddle and doing a mocking bow towards the crumpled heap of lifeless household appliances.

Mikey stepped in front of Chronos, before picking up his nunchucks, which Nano had dropped in the scuffle. In a flash, Mikey decided to take care of this joker by disarming him with a well placed kick. The clockzooka flew to the ground and Mikey stood between Chronos and the weapon, to avoid his assaults.

“One side turtle!” yelled Chronos as he stood in front of Mikey in a battle stance. “You can’t handle this, I’m a master of clock-fu!”

Mikey looked at Chronos with a bemused look as Chronos attempted to punch Mikey but Mikey casually caught Chronos’s arm before forcing it backwards, causing the Manipulator of Minutes to stagger. Mikey sprang up and swung his nunchucks, before cracking Chronos in the face. Chronos fell down with a pained look on his face, his goggles broken by the attack. He reached for his bag, but Mikey kicked it out of his reach, before pulling Chronos up in a standing position and hoisting him up before knocking him backwards with a kick. Another kick and Chronos fell right into the garden.

“Not again!” yelled Chronos, as he got pummeled by lawn gnomes, while thrashing around in an attempt to escape his attack.

“That’d teach you to mess with a turtle,” declared Mikey with a smug expression, before moving inside with Klunk moving at his feet.

“I doubt he’ll get the message, Mikey,” said George in a somber voice.

“Harry should be back soon and he’s a bit more forceful then I am,” replied Mikey, shaking his head as Klunk

“That he will be,” declared George.

“No doubt he’ll show this clock obsessed nutter the door,” continued Fred. “

“Still maybe we’ll get to test a couple more products before this guy’s visit is cut short,” declared George.

At that exact moment, Harry, Ginny, Hailey, Ron, Lily, Mrs. Weasley, Master Splinter, Leo, Raph, and Don materialized in the center of the kitchen, with the items they purchased in Diagon Alley. Harry seemed to be troubled about something but at that second, a loud bang echoed through the Burrow, causing Harry to rush over, before pulling his wand out.

“Honey, I’m home!” chanted Chronos in a sing song voice, before finding himself facing Harry’s wand in his face.

“Who the hell are you?” asked Harry in a dangerous voice as Ginny joined him to get a better look. “What are you doing here?”

“My name is Chronos, I am the King of the Clocktower, the Master of Minutes, the Sultan of Seconds, the Honor Guard of Hours, the Dean of Days, the Count of Clocks, among several other titles that I have proclaimed myself,” declared Chronos as he turned to face Harry. “And I am here to get revenge on the one known as Harry Potter and steal that wonderful clock in the kitchen.”

Harry and Ginny exchanged an exasperated look.

“You want to steal the clock,” declared Ginny in an amused voice as she pulled out her wand.

“Any and all clocks are my birthright, little girl!” yelled Chronos before turning to Harry. “Now step aside so I can claim my booty.”

“My counter offer is this, Chronos,” replied Harry calmly. “You have approximately fifteen seconds to start running or I’ll show you the door personally.”

“Who are you to order around the King of the Clocktower?” demanded Chronos.

“I’m Harry Potter,” declared Harry in a casual voice and Chronos’s eyes went wide, before pulling out the clockzooka and pointing it towards Harry, with a mad look on his face.

“At last, I finally get my vengeance on the one who caused me to be mocked by the criminal underworld!” declared Chronos but before he could fire his weapon at Harry, Ginny fired a stunner at him, knocking him completely out cold.

Harry looked at Ginny with an adoring look, before grabbing her in a tight embrace, kissing her passionately. The kiss broke just about a minute later, too soon for Harry’s liking, but he had business to take care of.

“You know, Ginny, I was about ready to do that myself,” said Harry as he let Ginny go.

“I know, but that’s just one last thing you have to do Harry,” replied Ginny looking down at the deflated body of Chronos. “Now what to do with him?”

Harry pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket, before tapping it with his wand and placing it in Chronos’s hand. In the blink of an eye, Chronos was yanked into thin air, when he vanished.

“He should appear in some back alleyway in New York, hopefully behind a police station,” declared Harry. “With any luck, he should be thrown into an insane asylum.”

“Merlin knows with that outfit he should already qualify, without his actions,” said Ginny before turning to Harry, as the couple walked back into the kitchen.

“Well that particular disaster has been averted,” said Mikey. “Clock boy has left the building.”

“Thankfully,” muttered Harry shaking his head. “I’m ready for a day of rest after today.”

“I don’t know what he’s trying to pull,” declared Hailey, looking at Harry for the first time. “I know you told me to…”

“Hailey, I told you my opinion on the issue,” replied Harry. “It’s very suspicious that he’s done such an about face in his beliefs, to oppose what his father stood for. But, it does reflect well on him when he pulled that stunt in front of all those people from the Ministry.”

“I still think you should have hexed him into oblivion on principle,” muttered Hailey shaking her head. “After all of the things he said about you, Ginny, Hermione, Daphne, Theodore, and pretty much everyone else over the years, he deserved it.”

“You’re not looking at this from a Slytherin mindset, Hailey,” replied Ginny calmly. “Harry wants to find out what he’s up to, give him enough room to hang himself if necessary. This looks to be about as much of a ruse to gain Harry’s trust as it is for him to gain the Ministry’s trust.”

“Ginny’s right, but the problem is, I don’t know exactly why,” declared Harry, rubbing his forehead deep in thought. “Plus on the off chance he has decided to not follow in his father’s footsteps, it would reflect badly on me if I attacked him right then and there.”

Harry sighed as confused looks appeared on the looks of Fred, George, and Mikey.

“Who are you talking about, Harry?” asked Mikey in a confused voice.

“Yes do clue us in,” started George.

“Oh wise one,” concluded Fred.

“I do owe you an explanation, I suppose, plus only Ginny, Hailey, and I saw pretty much everything, so it wouldn’t hurt to fill everyone else in on the rest of the details,” declared Harry, as he sank into a chair. “It all begins today when we were shopping at Diagon Alley.”