Disclaimer: All HP characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies - this is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites.
Summary: Set in the summer after OotP. Harry, grieving for his lost Godfather attempts to distance himself from his friends when he receives a belated invitation to the Official Opening of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes
AN: This story was originally written for a writing contest on another FanFiction site and was originally titled Opening Day for Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes and later changed to A Series of One Shots before being renamed to Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes since it only contained two related stories. Enjoy the story! - Jenn
Opening Day for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.
It was a mild summer afternoon on Privet Drive, and several teenage boys could be seen walking out of the front door of number four. One of them was an extremely heavyset boy with blond hair that lay slicked back on his large round head. From an upstairs window a smaller boy with dark messy hair, bright green eyes behind his glasses, and a lightning bolt scar, watched as his cousin Dudley Dursley headed across the street with his friends. Two blocks away Harry could see Mrs. Figg, who Harry had thought was a Muggle up until last summer when she confessed she was a squib.
Harry Potter pulled himself back inside the window and frowned as he considered his cousin. Harry knew that Dudley was only going out so he could find some poor hapless boy to use as a punching bag. Shaking his head, Harry put all thoughts of his cousin from his mind as he walked back to his desk and picked up the letter that lay opened on top. After a quick glance he tossed the letter back onto the desk and sat down as he searched for a quill and a blank piece of parchment so he could reply.
Quill in hand he turned once more to the letter from his best friend Ron. It was an invitation to celebrate the official opening of the twins' new joke shop in Diagon Alley. Harry wasn't really in the mood to spend a day in the company of the entire Weasley family and half the wizarding world. It had only been two months since his godfather had been murdered and Harry preferred to be left alone.
Sighing in frustration, Harry sat back and considered his response. As much as he felt the need to be alone, Ron was his best friend and Harry had not seen the tall, freckled red head since they parted company on platform Nine and Three-quarters several weeks ago. Harry reached up and pulled off his glasses with one hand while he pressed his other hand firmly over his eyes for a moment before replacing his glasses.
Maybe, he thought, it will do me some good to get out of this place for a day.
Having made his decision Harry quickly scrawled his reply on the small bit of parchment he had found and then carried the letter to where his snowy owl, Hedwig, sat dozing in her cage. Gently Harry woke her up and attached the letter to her leg before sending her off with his reply.
Three days later Harry found himself standing out in the alley behind the Leaky Cauldron tapping his wand on the brick that would open the entrance to Diagon Alley. Silently Harry watched as the bricks shifted themselves and the wall opened into a huge archway. Stepping through the archway, Harry paused for a brief moment so that he could check the address of Fred and George's shop, then he was moving swiftly down the crowded street in the direction of number ninety-three.
Five minutes later he was standing outside of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes that happened to be directly across from a store selling advertising a sale on Kneazles. Taking a deep breath Harry pushed opened the door and to his surprise found the store completely empty. He knew he was early, but he thought there would be a few of the others here as well. As he stepped though the door he heard a gong sound somewhere near the back of the store and went to investigate.
As he walked down the isle he let his gaze fall over the various items on sale. The twins were selling everything from Nose Biting Tea Cups to Ton Tongue Toffees and everything in between. There were four or five different kinds of trick wands, and several huge crates marked as Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-Bangs. The last made Harry smirk as he recalled those very same fireworks causing all kinds of mayhem for Delores Umbridge.
He was almost to the counter when he saw the first signs of life. Behind the counter and off a bit to the left was a solid oak door that separated the shop from the laboratory where Fred and George conducted their experiments and created the magical devices that they sold to the wizarding public. From under the door Harry could just make out a faint yellow glow. Harry considered calling out to announce his presence, but he decided against it in the event that Fred or George became startled by his voice. Harry didn't want to cause them to blow up their latest invention because he interrupted at the wrong moment. Quietly he moved towards door and as he reached for the handle he heard voices arguing.
A moment later Harry recognized Ron and Hermione's voices and Harry shook his head at the inevitability of those two finding something to fight about. Harry debated with himself for a minute trying to decide what he should do. His presence had already been announced by the gong-like device that had sounded the moment he stepped inside, but those behind the door were oblivious to his presence. In the end Harry simply shrugged off his indecision and opened the door.
There in the middle of the Weasley Twins' lab Ron and Hermione stood toe to toe telling each other off over something that had to have happened recently. Harry frowned at the familiar site; he had grown sick of hearing the two of them bicker constantly. He had thought that they would have been courteous enough to set aside their differences for one day, but no there they stood fighting. He watched them for a moment longer before calling out to them.
"Can't you two give it a rest for the summer holidays? I would have thought you fought, yelled and argued enough during last term."
Both Hermione and Ron jumped at the sound of Harry's voice, and whipped around guiltily. Ron's ears turned red and Hermione had the grace to blush, but both of them managed to smile in relief at seeing Harry.
"You made it then, Harry," Ron said as he backed a few steps away from Hermione.
"Good to see you Harry!" Hermione cried as she rushed forward to hug him. Harry hugged her a bit awkwardly back and smiled momentarily in return to their greetings.
"So what was it you two were arguing about this time?" Harry asked as he took a moment to glance around Fred and George's lab.
"Nothing," Hermione replied a little too quickly, which caused Harry to look back over at her with a slight frown.
"Malfoy," Ron answered in turn, which earned him one of Hermione's fierce glares.
"Draco? Whatever for?" Harry inquired as he turned his attention back to studying the lab. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Hermione and Ron exchanging glances and Harry wondered if it wouldn't have been better to have stayed at home after all.
Before either one of them could answer though, the doors at the back of the laboratory burst open to admit Ron's older brothers, the twins Fred and George. Both of them looked livid as they fired question after question at their sister Ginny who walked between them trying to explain something she had seen.
"What do you mean he called her a Mudblood?" George demanded outrageously.
"I told you -" Ginny tried to explain.
"What else did he say?" Fred asked before she could reply.
All three of them stumbled to a stop when they caught sight of Harry standing there with Ron and Hermione. The twins were the first to recover and they hurried over to shake Harry's hand in greeting and inquired after his health. When they were finished Harry asked a few questions of his own, his temper flaring a bit at everyone trying to keep him in the dark about what was going on.
"What in the world is going on? Where is everyone else? Isn't this supposed to be a celebration? I walked in and the whole place is deserted and everyone is arguing. And what's all this about Malfoy someone being called a Mudblood?"
No one met his gaze for several seconds and in the silence Harry tried to get himself under control.
"It's not like we are trying to hide anything from you, Harry," Hermione began slowly, searching for words. "There was supposed to be an opening party, but -"
"What she means is Malfoy crashed the party and started spouting off about all this Pureblood nonsense -" Fred inserted when Hermione paused.
"Unfortunately Malfoy forgot that Fred and I are of age, and we ran him out, but in the process Neville got trampled by Crabbe and Goyle. Mum took him off to St. Mungo's but will return when he has been cleaned up." George finished.
"One of these days I am going to give Malfoy what he deserves," Ron hissed angrily under his breath.
Harry rocked back on his heels stunned by Draco's audacity at showing his face here of all places. The anger he had directed towards his friends disappeared as his hatred of Malfoy flared. "Why don't we head over to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor while we wait for her and Neville to get back, my treat? And while we are there, you can give me all the details," Harry offered.
There were murmurs of agreement from everyone and while Fred and George locked up the shop the others waited out front. As he stood out front, Harry noticed a Kneazle in the window of the street across the way and was reminded of Crookshanks. He wondered how Hermione's cat was doing and was about to ask, when Fred and George appeared.
Together the six of them made their way to the ice cream parlor and found themselves a seat. Within minutes they had given their order to Florean and were chatting happily about how business was going for the twins when their ice creams arrived. An hour later, their ice creams finished, the talk finally moved towards what had occurred at the Joke shop before Harry's arrival.
"We were all sitting in the lab, mum was complaining about the messes in the shop when we hear the door gong go off," George said as he sat back in his chair. "We figured it was you, Bill, or dad and Ginny went to find out. A minute later she was yelling and we heard Malfoy's shout in response."
"Hermione and Neville were the closest to the door and we followed them out in time to hear Malfoy's poison about being a disgrace to Purebloods every where and how we shamed the name wizard by associating with Muggleborns and Halfbloods," Fred continued where George left off. "The same crap he spouted during that Quidditch game that got us banned during the first term last year."
"Draco has been stirring up all kinds of trouble since the term ended." Ron added in disgust. "He's bitter about his dad being caught and locked up."
"He showed up today to try and ruin everything for Fred and George," Ginny added softly as she stirred the melted remains of her sundae. "He hinted that the shop might be attacked during the opening celebrations. He also said some other things, but… I wish I was older; I wanted to curse him again. He never forgave me for that bat-bogey hex I set on him in Umbridge's office."
There were a few grins flashed at the mention of the hex Ginny had hit Malfoy with during the previous year. But they faded fast in light of the events that had taken place that morning. After a few more minutes they all stood up and after Harry paid for the ice cream, they headed back to the twins' shop.
As they approached the shop Fred stopped in his tracks and turned to George with a frown.
"We locked up the store right?"
"Yes," George answered with a frown of his own.
"Then why is the door open and the lights on?" Harry asked.
All six of them exchanged a worried glance before running the last few steps to the shop. Six wands were whipped out as they charged through the door only to come face to face with Molly Weasley who looked considerable worried and pale herself.
"Where have you all been?!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed as she tried to catch her breath. "Shop locked, all of you gone! No note, not a single clue as to where you went!"
"We were down the street with Harry, Mum," Ginny replied as everyone tucked their wands back into place.
"Oh, Hello there Harry. Everything all right dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she pushed through her own children to give Harry a motherly hug.
"Fine, thank you," Harry replied self-consciously.
"Everyone is here Fred, George. Neville will not be able to return though; Mrs. Longbottom took him home."
Concerns were voiced after Neville's health and when the six teens were satisfied that he would be all right, they allowed themselves to be led through the shop and back into the laboratory. Inside there were several people standing around talking in small groups. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, Flitwick and Mad-Eye Moody were standing over in the far corner, while Author Weasley and the oldest Weasley boy, Bill, we're chatting amiably over the goblins' latest announcements. There were also several other Order members examining various items sitting around the lab.
Harry was a bit shocked at the number of people who had shown up for the Weasley Twins' opening celebration. Mrs. Weasley called out to get everyone's attention and within moments everyone files back out into the main part of the shop and the lights were turned on amid a small firework display as the doors were officially opened for business. Congratulations were passed out to Fred and George who beamed good-naturedly at the comments McGonagall showered on them for their Fireworks display during the last term and Flitwick even whispered a heartfelt praise for their portable swap.
Harry sat silently towards the back of the crowd and watched the proceedings, as he watched he felt a little bit of the darkness that clung to him melt off. He was extremely glad that he had coerced the twins into taking his Tri-Wizard winnings little more then two years ago. Seeing everyone's happy faces gathered in their shop today gave Harry hope for the future.