AUTHOR NOTE – Set in Book 4. Be warned that this gets very dark and unhappy.

Fred and George waited eagerly for Harry to arrive. They had just come from his house, where they had "accidentally" forgot one of their Ton-Tongue Toffees on the floor. If Harry's cousin, Dudley, lived up to Harry's stories, then he had probably gobbled it up right away. They had seen him catch sight of the candy on the floor, right before they took the Floo back home. They had wished they could have stayed to see the results first-hand.

Harry came tumbling out of the fireplace, managing to catch himself before landing face first. Fred went to help Harry up. As Harry grabbed his hand, Fred excitedly asked, "did he eat it?"

Harry frowned in confusion. "Eat what?"

Fred shared a look with George, George shrugged in response.

George helped to dust off Harry as he answered. "Nothing, Harrikins. We're just trying out new ways to say, 'welcome to our home'. Should we put 'did he eat it?' down as a maybe?"

Harry chuckled as he shook his head in amusement. When Mister Weasley arrived shortly afterwards, seemingly unperturbed, the twins assumed the candy had been a dud. An hour later, they noticed they had accidentally left a second candy on the floor of the Dursley house (leaving this one having been an actual accident). That was slightly annoying, but the batch was faulty anyway, so not a big loss.

Dudley relaxed when he saw the adult freak finish fixing the house and finally leave.

Ever since that giant had given him a tail, he was terrified of the adult freaks. The small of his back had never fully recovered from the tail incident. A couple of weeks after the doctor had removed the tail, he had collapsed in class as the scar on his back split open. The doctors were very confused, as they had no idea how Dudley could have suddenly lost a chunk of skin, fat, and a blessedly small piece of muscle (no one ever put forth the idea that the problem was caused by a partial human transfiguration finally wearing off, and that the missing tissue could be found where the tail had been discarded). Almost three years later, and the physical pain ranged from mildly annoying to aching to short spikes of severe pain.

Now that the adult freak was gone, he could breathe easier. He made his way up the stairs and to his room. With the door closed, he took out the two toffees the twin freaks had dropped. When he had first picked up the first toffee, he had been tempted to eat it right away. His summer diet had him craving any sort of sweet treat, so the temptation was huge. But he then noticed the second toffee and he was able to tamp down his impulses as he sneakily picked up the second treat. Now he could truly savor the taste in the privacy of his room.

Placing the second toffee in his pocket for later, he unwrapped the first toffee and popped into his mouth. He barely suppressed a moan of ecstasy as he chewed the candy and swallowed. He wondered if he could hold back and save the second one for after dinner. Maybe not though. He could feel his tongue watering in anticipation, almost like his mouth was nothing but tongue, like he couldn't even fit his tongue in his mouth, like…

Dudley's eyes widened as he began to gag. By the time he managed to stumble down to his parents for help, he could only manage to breath through his nose. He saw his reflection, where a two-foot-long purple tongue lolled out of his mouth. That was also the moment when he heard his mother scream.

As dinner was finishing up at the Weasley household and Molly was about to hustle everyone off to bed, Mister Weasley looked surprised to see a pair of men walking around the house to the picnic they were having in the back yard. One of the men was Kingsley Shacklebolt, an Auror he knew through Albus Dumbledore. The second man was Albus Dumbledore.

Arthur looked at the grim expressions of the two men, and a sense of trepidation filled his heart. "Headmaster, Kingsley, what brings you here tonight?"

Molly looked at the men in surprise, then looked at everyone else seated around the picnic table. "Bill, Charlie, Percy, could you please take the children inside the house?"

Before any of the referenced children could protest, Kingsley spoke up in his deep and serious voice. "Not so fast Molly. I need you, Arthur, Mister Potter, and anyone who went to Mister Potter's house today to stay. Everyone else, please go inside."

"What's going on?" asked Bill (the eldest Weasley son).

"Official Auror business. If your parents decide to share it with you, that is their choice. For now, all of you who didn't visit Harry Potter's residence, go inside. That is not a request."

Percy and Charlie shepherded Ginny and Hermione into the house. Both girls looking back at the bewildered Harry and Ron with concern. Bill looked to his father, who nodded. Bill then followed the rest back into the house.

"Professor Dumbledore" Harry spoke, "what is going on?"

Dumbledore looked down at Harry, with a world-weary look in his eyes. "Harry, this is Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt. He's a member of law enforcement, and something… something has happened that he needs to ask all of you about. I am here to act as your adult advisor, Harry. Before you answer any questions or say anything, I beg you to talk to me first so I can advise you."

Dumbledore looked over at Arthur and Molly. "Molly, you are here to represent your children's interests. I cannot overemphasize that now is not the time to berate or punish, even if you happen to feel the impulse. Please make sure they talk with you first before answering any questions or speaking. Arthur is here to answer questions himself, so it would be best for him to not act as a representative of your children."

Molly and Arthur both looked at each other in alarm and nodded to Dumbledore in response. The children simply looked at the adults, faces filled with confusion and concern.

Dumbledore turned to Kingsley. "We're ready."

Kingsley gestured for everyone to take a seat the table. He sat on one side and faced everyone else sitting on the other side. Harry sat next to Dumbledore while Fred, George, and Ron sat sandwiched between Arthur and Molly.

Once everyone was settled, Kingsley pulled out his wand to cast a series of privacy charms. He then pulled out two objects from his pockets. One was a wrapped toffee. The other was an empty toffee wrapper.

Molly, Arthur, Ron, and Harry looked at the objects in confusion. Albus looked at the objects with sadness. Fred and George looked at the objects and struggled to keep their eyes from widening in worry.

"Several hours ago," began Kingsley, "we were alerted to an incident at the home of Harry Potter, his aunt, uncle, and cousin. A neighbor, who knows the Headmaster, observed a collection of emergency vehicles surrounding Mister Potter's home. She informed the Headmaster who immediately called us in once he discovered what was happening. Our initial investigations reveal a… disturbing story."

Kingsley indicated the two objects.

"We found the wrapper on the bed of Mister Dudley Dursley. That would be Mister Potter's cousin, who is also a muggle. We found the wrapped toffee in Dudley's pocket. Our analysis of the toffee shows that it is a newly invented creation. An impressive piece of charm and potion work, that is meant to cause a person's tongue to grow around two to three feet, stop growing, and then revert to normal over fifteen to thirty minutes. The sort of thing I wouldn't be surprised to find as a prank candy at Hogwarts. We have already checked around and confirmed that Zonko's Joke Shop has never seen it, nor any of their competitors, nor the Headmaster, so we have a magical piece of candy that has never been seen before."

Molly looked at the twins, who were staring straight forward. Though it was a struggle, she held her tongue and looked back at Kingsley, who sat quietly watching the silent movements of the people across from him. When everyone was looking at him, he continued.

"Of course, that is how this toffee is supposed to work. But that is assuming that the one eating the toffee is a witch or wizard. The candy relies on the consumer's inherit magic counteracting the magic of the toffee. Without that inherit magic, inherit magic that is not found in muggles, the toffee's magic goes unchecked until… well, our analysis was not certain. Perhaps as soon as the toffee is completely digested, or perhaps however long it takes for someone to cast the counter."

The twins felt the blood draining from their faces, trying their best to stay still and quiet.

"Based on the empty wrapper, I think you all can start to see where this is going. It appears that Dudley ate the first toffee, and it began to work on him. According to his parents, he stumbled downstairs from his room shortly after all of you had left their house. At that point, Dudley's tongue was already at least two feet long, and growing. Dudley's mother, not knowing it was a tongue, feared some sort of creature was trying to enter Dudley's mouth. She immediately went to help her son by trying to yank it out of his mouth. Dudley was unable to speak to tell her it was his tongue, as his tongue's size limited him to gagging sounds."

Molly's hand covered her mouth as a gasp left her lips, her eyes tearing up.

"Dudley's father joined Dudley's mother in attempting to pull out what he also thought was a snake-like creature. They felt they were making progress, as they mistook the growth of the tongue for successfully pulling the creature from his mouth. The pain that the poor boy must have experienced… I can barely imagine. At around six feet long, Dudley's panicking father came up with the heartbreaking idea that they needed to kill the creature. So, he ran to the kitchen to grab a butcher's knife."

Harry grabbed the edge of the table's bench, his fingers digging into the wood. Everyone, save Dumbledore, looked as if they were on the edge of being sick. Dumbledore simply looked infinitely sad.

"Sadly, the underlying magic of any engorgement-based potions or charms on animals and humans ensures there is proper blood flow going to all the engorged tissue, enhancing the heart to ensure it can handle the additional strain. Put succinctly, the heart will pump harder. As such, Dudley's father ensured they were now dealing with a loss of blood situation that worsened as the tongue grew, and the tongue was most assuredly still growing. At this point, Dudley's mother called for an ambulance. Shortly after the ambulance arrived, I arrived on the scene along with a team of Obliviators to ensure we were able to maintain the Statute of Secrecy. By that point, Dudley's tongue had stopped growing with a final length of roughly 12 ½ feet. We assume that was the length when the blood loss and heart strain finally overwhelmed the poor boy. You see, the magic of the toffee has no effect on the deceased."

At this point, Ron threw up his dinner. Followed shortly by George and Fred. Harry simply felt numb.

Kingsley waited for the kids to settle down, as he vanished the mess with his wand. Once he had their attention again, he pushed the wrapped toffee forward.

"Now… I have a dead child on my hands and questions I want answered. So, would one of you like to tell me how Dudley Dursley, a muggle child, got his hands on one of these toffees?"