This story takes place in the same universe as my "Dragon Plague" and "Antidote to Darkness" but you don't need to read those first. These stories take place several years after the epilogue of The Deathly Hallows. Snape is alive and has a muggle wife and three children.

Sundays at the Weasleys were always busy. Of course, not all of Molly and Arthur's ever growing brood of children, in-laws, and grandchildren came every week. Percy, the dutiful son, and his family were there regularly, but Charlie portkeyed over from Romania only once every two or three months. Bill and Fleur visited almost as frequently as Percy. George and Angelina came often, although Arthur suspected that had more to do with getting a slight break from their rambunctious offspring and a chance to test new products for their store rather than for Molly's delicious cooking. Ron and his sister Ginny also tried to make it as often as they could with their families. Although it was not unusual for conflicting activities or illness to keep one or more away, almost every Sunday saw enough players for a pick-up quidditch game on the field behind the Burrow.

With the coming of summer, this was one of the rare weekends when everyone except Charlie had made it. Molly had slowed down slightly. She appreciated the help in the kitchen and always enjoyed the lively banter. She was adept at ducking under the silverware being sent out to the dining room and was able to back up a step to avoid the pans heaped with food being levitated from the oven onto the counter to be garnished without conscious thought.

With a momentary bout of melancholy for the missing Fred, Molly paused and gave an audible sigh. She then set the carving knife to slicing the roast beef brimming with juice. Fleur, sensing Molly's change of mood, gave her a comforting embrace before she took over making the salads, summoning the tomatoes for dicing. Meanwhile, George and Angelina worked harmoniously together preparing a magnificent looking dessert that no one would touch until the piece in front of them had been carefully inspected. The two had found it an entertaining challenge to jinx one piece of whatever dessert they created. This week, the activation agent was camouflaged within the floral decorations. As always, the effects would be delayed long enough that the person would think they had escaped the trap but not so long that everyone else couldn't enjoy the resulting havoc and ensuing laughter before their victim – er, family – went home. The kitchen aromas wafted into the dining room as if to call people to their seats at the magically extended table already groaning with food.

It was after dinner as everyone was eyeing the towering purple confection that looked like it would topple over if people didn't start to cut into it that Ron made his announcement. "I decided it's time to leave the aurors," he said, pushing his empty dinner plate away and reaching for a dessert plate. "I figure I've done my share to catch the bad guys. Recovering for a month from my injuries at St. Mungo's gave me ample time to think about what I really want to do for the rest of my life." He took a look at the tempting cake, poked it twice with his knife, and shrugged, taking a thin slice for himself. Hermione sat back to watch the reactions of the others to Ron's announcement.

A moment of silence greeted his pronouncement. He'd already told Harry, his oftentimes partner. Harry had taken several days to adjust to the decision but finally, while talking it over with Ginny, was able to accept that it was the right move for Ron. The rest became thoughtful as they mulled over the implications.

Arthur was the first to speak up. "You have to live your own life, son, of course. Have you given any thought as to what you'll be doing instead?"

Ron finished his slice of cake and absentmindedly cut another one. Ignoring the question, he looked over at the two bakers. "This is really good," he mumbled as he bit into it.

"Uh, thanks," George replied as he shared a brief look with Angelina. "If you're serious, we could use some help, even if it's only temporary, at the shop. Verity caught whatever it is that's going around. She's been out for a week now and won't be back anytime soon. It's our busiest time of year with the start of summer vacation. We're overwhelmed. If you can come work for me for a week now so we can catch up it would helpful. While you're there, if you're interested, we can talk about a future partnership."

Ron and Hermione silently consulted with each other. At Hermione's slight nod, Ron turned to George. "That would be great! I still have a week before I report back to the office but feel fit enough to help in the shop. How about if I work the upcoming week with you, then finish up with the Ministry before coming back full time?"

George smiled. "You've got a deal, brother dear!" As George started around the table to shake on their agreement, Ron moaned good-naturedly as his neck began to stretch. Simultaneously, his hair transformed into straw which stuck straight out from his head and his face turned a bright shade of purple. The weekly family tradition had been upheld, once again at Ron's expense as it often was.

The children at the table burst out into joyful laughter, but most of the adults managed to stifle their chuckles. Hermione just shook her head and conjured up a mirror to give to her husband. "That's what you get for having a second slice, love. Make sure I see your contract before you sign anything. I don't think moving from auror to prank testee is an upward move."

TRTRTRTR

Since Ron, like Ginny, Hermione, and Harry, had helped out at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes off and on for over twenty years, he quickly settled in. As he was already familiar with the merchandise, he knew what needed to be restocked and how to set up displays to be enticing to children and adults alike. He instinctively knew how large of a discount to give when selling higher priced items and had the knack of developing a friendly rapport with new and returning customers leading to additional sales. Thanks to his auror training, he could spot those who needed watching lest the booby-traps on items not paid for not prove enough of a disincentive to those with sticky fingers. People knew they could trust his opinion on what to buy as pranks or gifts.

Ron was helping to close up that Thursday when his sixth sense kicked in. He had opened the cash register to make the final run to Gringotts when something struck him as wrong. "Hey, George, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure, little bro." George slid down the ladder he'd been on, pointed his wand to a disorganized display of pillows which would start playing booming music at random to turn them off for the night, and made his way over to the counter. He looked quizzically at Ron.

Ron had the cash register drawer open. He looked serious. "By chance did you remove any money from the till this afternoon?"

George's smile instantly faded. "Tell me you're joking."

Ron shook his head. "I'm not kidding on this, George. There's something wrong. There should be at least ninety-eight galleons in here from sales since noon, but I count less than twenty."

"I assume you double checked all the divisions?"

"Of course – that was the first thing I did." Ron chewed his lower lip. "The only time I was away from the counter was during that lull we had mid-afternoon, and no one else was on the floor then."
George looked as grave as Ron had ever seen him. "Merlin! I thought we had an impenetrable theft deterrent system. I added my own improvements just last month."

Ron started to grow apprehensive. "George, I swear by Circe that I didn't leave the till unattended …"

"Calm down, Ron. I'm not accusing you of anything." George looked around the shop and cast a homenum revelio even though he knew he and his brother were the only ones inside. Even so, he lowered his voice.

"No one wants to admit to being vulnerable, but I've heard rumors of a pretty successful theft ring targeting shopkeepers in Diagon Alley. No one knows how they do it, but tills are short, usually significantly, at closing."

Ron slowly sat down. "How long has this been going on?"

George leaned back against the counter and idly set some dust cloths into action. "I first began to hear of problems a couple of months ago, but Merlin knows how long the thefts have been going on. I've upgraded our wards since then. I thought that was enough, thinking others were just being careless."

Ron put the pathetic handful of coins from the drawer into a moleskin bag. "What does M.L.E. recommend?"

George shook his head. "Nothing. They may not even be aware of it. I don't think anyone wants to report a theft fearing that they'd just become a bigger target once others found out they were vulnerable."

"Tell you what, George," Ron said slowly. "When I go back to the office next week, I'll see what I can find out."

TRTRTRTR

Ron told Hermione that night about what had happened. She looked thoughtful. "I haven't heard any rumors along that line in my department, but Harry might have heard something. Why don't you firecall him? It's still early enough, and that way Harry can start putting feelers out right away. If someone is getting rich on stolen galleons, they might get careless and start spending it freely. Something like that would be noticed. Harry would want to have his ears to the ground as soon as possible if that's the case so he doesn't miss anything."

Ron nodded in agreement. "You're right, Hermione."

"Admit it, as always," she teased back.

Ron headed to the fireplace, squatted down, and grabbed some floo powder. "Potter Manor, Godric's Hollow, Ron calling." He poked his head into the cool flame.

A moment later his sister's red hair appeared. She turned around when she heard the incoming floo call and knelt down. "Hey, Ron! What's the latest wacky prank product George and Angelina came up with?"

Ron smiled and her. "I don't know how the two keep coming up with such great ideas. You should bring the kids by the store soon to see them."

"How are you feeling? Are you still planning to return to work next week?"

"I'm fine. I'll return to the Ministry on Monday. In fact I wanted to get a head start on something. Is Harry available?"

"He's in the study. Let me go get him." She arose gracefully.

Ron shifted to his hands and knees for better balance.

"Hey, Ron. Is anything wrong?" Harry looked like he'd been relaxing. A book which had followed him to the family room hovered behind him, opened to a page about a quarter of the way through. The page kept starting to turn but was being forced back by the poking beak of a small bookmark in the shape of a phoenix.

"Maybe. I just wanted to find out if there were any current rumors of a theft ring targeting the shops in Diagon Alley."

Harry sat down on the floor in front of his own fireplace. "First I've heard of it. Do you have any details?"

"Apparently it's been going on for a while but George first learned of it a couple of months ago. I don't know how many robberies there's been, but shop owners are trying to keep it quiet so unsavory customers don't think they're an easy target. No suspicious characters, but money is short at the end of the day." He paused, but wanted to give Harry all the information he had. "Unfortunately, George was hit today. About eighty galleons just vanished."

Harry shook his head. "Not a good sign if they can get past George's wards. I'll put feelers out tomorrow. You'll be back in on Monday, yeah?"

Ron nodded. "See you then, mate. Let me know if you hear of anything before that." He pulled back his head and dusted off his hands and knees. Hermione looked at him questioningly, but he could only shake his head.

TRTRTRTR

Mid Monday morning, Ron knocked on Harry's open door. "Morning, mate! How have things been going?"

Harry looked up from behind a stack of parchment and smiled. "I'm glad you're back for now. Have you put in your papers yet?" He motioned to a chair while closing a file and sending it flying into a drawer.

"Yeah, just dropped them off in personnel. I'll work through the end of summer so I can finish up several ongoing cases and train a replacement. I'll continue to help George on weekends and now and then when I'm off." Ron sunk into the chair and looked up at the ceiling. "It hasn't fully sunk in yet that I'm leaving. On the positive side, Hermione's happy I'll be better able to control my schedule but I still feel like I'm abandoning you."

"Don't feel that way. Ginny and I were stunned when you first told us, but we fully support your decision."

Ron let his gaze travel around the office cluttered with mementos of past cases. "Any developments on the Diagon Alley thefts?"

Shaking his head, Harry directed a teapot to pour out two cups of tea and sent one floating to Ron closely followed by a small pitcher of milk and two cubes of sugar. "I've asked my street informants on Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley if they've heard of a successful theft ring. No one seems to be spending unusually large sums of money, which surprises me since in my experience thieves are too impatient to wait to flaunt their new wealth." He absentmindedly heated up his own tea.

"What did the shop owners say?"

Harry directed a file that had been sitting on the corner of his desk to Ron. "It's as you said. No one reported anything because they didn't want to seem incompetent, but when I persisted in the questioning, a dozen or so admitted that they were either victims or knew of a victim. All had the same story – no indication anything was amiss until they began to count the day's profits. Not everyone could even tell me how much was taken, just that they knew sales had been brisk but the galleons didn't match their expectations."

"Could someone be accio'ing the money?"

Harry shook his head. "Unlikely, as everyone's anti-theft wards were in place."

Ron drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. "The day George was hit, I never left the main display room. Would it help if we looked at a pensieve memory of that afternoon?"

"Great idea. We might discover a clue that you overlooked. When's a good time?"

Ron stood up. "Now's as good as any. Let's go fill out the paperwork to get everything documented."

"Gotta love that paperwork." Harry and Ron snorted over the shared joke as they left Harry's office.

TRTRTRTR

Because they weren't sure what they were looking for, Ron pulled his memory of the entire afternoon. They told their offices they would be unavailable for the rest of the day and entered the memory.

Harry snorted when he saw Ron in the memory. "Love the new look. I can hardly recognize you."

Ron laughed. "I almost forgot about that. We were testing a couple of new products. Don't I look great in blue hair and striped orange skin?"

Harry enjoyed looking around the shop and watching the customers' startled faces as they saw Ron and their looks of amazement as they came across new items. Ron looked relaxed as he helped them.

Harry had to force himself not to just watch the area of the store where the best-selling items were stacked up in an ever changing, eye-catching display. His stomach rumbled as he found himself with a craving for the chocolate cauldron cakes as they, literally, flew off the shelf into people's hands. He almost warned the distracted mother with the little girl who picked up a snitch, disguised as a simple practice item, guaranteed to explode with sparkling, fluorescent pink paint when it was caught before he remembered both had been home days already. Through it all, Ron of the past seemed to keep a fairly close watch on the elegant silver register. Not once was its drawer left open when Ron or George was not behind the counter.

Halfway through the afternoon, the shop was suddenly quieter than it had been up until then. The Ron in the memory took the opportunity to pour himself some pumpkin juice into an ornate glass covered with different models of brooms, all flying in circles. After gulping down half the glass, he proceeded to artistically rearrange the displays on the cash register counter. A flicker of reflective light from the front door caught Harry's attention. Not seeing a new customer, Harry didn't think anything of it until he noticed that the shadows of the items on display near the front window had suddenly jumped.

"Ron! What just happened?"

Ron, who had been idly watching the prank wands on display transforming into slithering eels and wriggling flobberworms, glanced over at Harry. "Huh? I didn't see anything, mate." He looked back at the wand display just as one turned into a squalling mandrake root which looked ready to bite the thumb of any unlucky holder.

"I think something might have happened. Let's go back a few minutes."

They left the pensieve and Ron restored the full memory before removing just that portion of the afternoon. Before they entered the shortened memory, Harry told Ron to watch for any sudden jumps in movement.

Harry nudged Ron when he once again saw the momentary reflective flash from the glass of the front door. "Did you notice anything strange?"

Ron looked grim. "Yeah. The box of eternal yo-yos suddenly shifted to the right."

Harry rubbed his forehead. "The first time I noticed the shadows abruptly shifted. This time I noticed the colors of puking pastilles changed in an instant. Let's watch your memory one more time. This time keep an eye on the cash register counter."

After another viewing of the memory segment, Harry looked discouraged. "Well, I didn't see anything unusual with the till."

"Not with the register," Ron said heatedly. "But did you notice my glass of pumpkin juice on the counter disappeared? Blimey, Hermione had that glass charmed special for me for my birthday a couple of years ago – it keeps drinks at just the right temperature. I was kicking myself for losing it - I've been afraid to tell Hermione. It turns out I had it at work that day but that knowledge must have been obliviated during the theft. Anyway, I either jumped forward in time … or someone obliviated my memory for, what, maybe fifteen minutes."

"Let's watch the rest of the afternoon just to be sure, but I think we've at least found when the crime occurred."