Chapter 31: An End to All Prank Wars?

At first Simon let Sue's Christmas prank slide. Giving him the white hair and beard of the muggle Santa Claus was something he could accept on Christmas day. But it was a bit too much when his hair remained white the next few days. The beard kept coming back when he shaved it. It finally went away when his dad brewed him a potion.

Sue seemed to be disappointed with his lack of response to this prank and threw in another few for good measure in the few ensuing days. Simon briefly turned into a canary after Sue made sure he got a cupcake filled with canary cream. Then the next day Sue somehow put Zonko's "Can You Smell Something" powder into all his underpants so as soon as he opened his drawer it smelled like a million farts. The day after, when washing his hands with soap, Simon found stink pellets embedded within and even various cleaning spells were not enough to remove the smell. Once again, Simon had to wait for another potion from his dad, which required him to soak his hands in the liquid for hours to remove the dung like fumes they were giving off.

Simon was ready to finally say something to his mother but Dirk beat him to the chase.

"I think we really need to do something about Sue," he began, when his wife entered the potions room.

"It is getting quite serious, especially the rate of the pranks," Jane agreed, "Although I do feel like she is doing extra these few days because she misses Simon a lot."

"That is an interesting way to show she misses me," Simon grimaced as he felt a weird bubbling sensation in his hands that were dipped within the pink slimy potion.

"Look, we let you two do these prank wars at home mainly because I never had the luxury to do that back when I was young," Jane explained and Simon nodded. With all the prying eyes of the ancestors on the manor walls and many much older siblings who could blast Jane and Charlotte with a flick of their wands if they misbehaved, Simon doubted his mother and aunt had much opportunity to ever let loose as he and Sue could.

"It is wrong of me not to have disciplined her sooner," Jane sighed, "But it is hard…"

"Because she reminds you so much of your younger self," Dirk noted, unable to hide his smug smirk after making the comment.

"Maybe," Jane rolled her eyes and gave her husband a playful nudge.

"Hello! I am here!" Simon loudly reminded them of his presence. He had to do this every time his parents started acting like teenagers again.

"Noted," Jane replied, "Now son, since you were on the end of these pranks for a whole week, any suggestions on how you would like us to deal with Sue?"

Simon suddenly recalled how another prankster younger sibling was once dealt with and a cheshire cat smile appeared on his lips.

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Sue slowly tip-toed towards Simon's room. It was very out of character for Simon not to have done anything in retaliation after *that* many pranks. As usual, their parents have not really seriously chastised her for her behaviour. Maybe they were dying to see another full-blown Li siblings prank war again. Well, it was not like she had many days left to make Simon fight back…

Spying Simon lying peacefully in bed with Raze snuggling on his neck, Sue readied herself to throw a pack of Zonko's finest "GRRRRRs", those wonderful nightmare inducers, onto his blanket.

"Why aren't you in bed, dear?"

Sue turned around to see her mum standing behind her. Sue quickly slid the box into her back pocket.

"Nothing mum, I was just going to say good night to my brother," she said, trying to channel her best innocent smile.

A sharp glint appeared in Jane's eyes as she continued to smile warmly at her daughter, "You are my child. I know what you are really up to."

Sue continued to do her best puppy impression as her mum continued, "You know how I am like. I am fine with a few pranks here or there but a prank per day when your brother is back for a short break is a little too much. Maybe we should have disciplined you earlier when you started pranking a lot more these past few years. Especially when your pranks tended to be a lot more harm-inducing than those your brother did."

Did her mother just say *discipline*?

"Your brother kindly offered to end the prank wars with you, or at least limit them to maybe at most once or twice a month when he is home but your dad and I are not sure you would agree. So we thought we would give you a little taste of how it was like on the receiving end of your recent pranks…"

Before Sue could respond, Jane whipped out her wand and Sue found herself being brought to the maze. Suddenly, a circle of light appeared below her feet.

"AAAAHHHHHH!!!!"

Sue found herself falling through the circle and suddenly plummeting from the sky. She was not sure how high she was falling from but she saw no ground in sight. Suddenly, a strong wind blew powder onto her face, causing white hair and a long snowy beard to grow from her head and chin.

As she continued to fall, she suddenly felt much smaller…did she turn into a canary? But one which could not fly as she plunged further and was surrounded by the smell of farts. After a while, she turned back into a human but her hands – good lord, they smelled like dragon dung.

Finally, she saw a bright circle below her and through it, she fell onto the grass outside her family home.

"I…I…I felt like I was falling for 30 minutes?!"

"I don't know, I wasn't timing," Jane said.

"Anyways, recall this time in the future when you prank your brother. It is fine to have fun but he will be your only family someday," Jane continued, using a serious tone Sue rarely hear coming from her, "You know your dad and I won't last forever."

She pulled Sue up from the grass. "Now hurry to bed. Your dad will give you the potions your brother had to take over the past week when you wake up the next morning. Sweet dreams our little Santa Claus."

Sue slowly walked to bed, thinking about the past 30 minutes and her mother's words.