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It's the third day of making a new batch of cookies that Arthur notices. He's taking a new tray out of the oven then freezes. There's only twelve cookies per tray, so forty-eight total per day. Arthur's only had two yesterday and they've already ran out. Someone's eating more than their share.
Now Arthur only has to figure out the culprit.
He writes down the list of suspects: Sirius, Remus, Molly, Severus, Alastor, Kingsley, Tonks, Mundungus, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny.
Sirius and Remus were out the entire day, full moon, so that's crossed out.
Alastor's out right away, he'd never eat anything he didn't witness being made.
Percy's out as well, he only likes gingerbread, probably only has one per day.
Molly's been in and out, doing last-minute Christmas shopping. She wouldn't eat a lot in a period of time, but probably would snack when passing the cookie jar. Arthur guesses three at most.
Bill has a big appetite but always gets sick after eating more than five.
That's about eleven accounted for. Right, Arthur's got to find the exact numbers for yesterday.
Arthur returns to the list with a sigh. For some reason, nobody's been too forthcoming with the amount of cookies they had. He begins to write down the exact details of what they had said. He's done many Muggle math problems before so maybe he could make this into one as well.
In Ron's current bedroom, Harry said he only had half of what Ron had while Ron insisted he had only two more than Hermione which wasn't much. Finding Hermione in the library, they had a small discussion over her book, Advanced History of Charms in Hungary. Hermione said she had only one and Percy, who overheard them from behind the shelf full of Runes books, admitted to breaking a cookie with Harry since he got a craving for chocolate.
In the hall, Arthur cornered Alastor who refused to give up any information and proceeded to accuse Arthur of trying to get him to eat some cookies. Finding Charlie in the living room had garnered more information. Charlie said he saw Alastor and Mundungus leaving in a hurry as he went to get some cookies. He only got two because Molly scolded him for ruining his appetite but snuck back after dinner and had two more.
Arthur ran into Fred on the stairs and Fred would only say he had less than George but two more than Ginny. Arthur did find Mundungus near Sirius's bedroom, looking very guilty. He had begged Arthur to not tell Sirius and that he didn't see anything worth taking anyway. Mundungus confessed to having some cookies with Alastor but they both left when they heard Molly coming.
When he was back into the hall, he bumped into Bill who was in deep conversation with Kingsley and Tonks. It emerged Tonks had two, Kingsley snagged three -one meant for dessert later- and Bill had three.
In the kitchen, Kreacher was busy muttering about bloodtraitors but said Mundungus left a mess in the library after eating two cookies. Kreacher knew it was exactly two because he saw Mundungus eat two. Alastor had entered while they were in there and further questioning had Alastor admitting to eating two and seeing Mundungus eat two.
On the way out, Arthur had ran into George who was as elusive as Fred. He said he ate an odd amount of cookies and that he had twice of what Charlie had but with Fred and Bill's cookies taken away from the product being the actual amount he had eaten more than Charlie.
Arthur found Ginny in her bedroom where she asked if he had made any more cookies. She readily admitted to eating three less than George, but not just one cookie, and that she definitely didn't have any more than four, honest. Ginny also told him Molly had two cookies, which she knew because Molly told her in confidence after they both ran into each other on the staircase when Ginny ditched Fred and George for more cookies. She didn't have any more since Molly ate the last cookies.
"What are you working on?"
Arthur looks up from the list and at Severus who's currently eating a cookie.
"How many did you have yesterday?" Arthur narrows his eyes.
"Arthur," Severus says seriously and steps closer. He puts his hand on Arthur's shoulder. "I don't think you want to know."
"You better haven't eaten it all already," Arthur shakes his head and stands up from the desk.
"Yeah, I think everybody's beaten you to it. This is the last one."
Arthur eyes the half eaten cookie. Severus sighs and hands it over.
"You're lucky you're cute."
"I'm lucky," Arthur echoes. He leans in for a kiss but Severus backs up with a disgusted expression.
"Not while you're eating!"