Luna left with a wave over her shoulder and Daphne turned towards Harry with a question on her face. He sighed deeply then explained how he had started a new division and what it would be doing and how it would be run. Once he was finished he leaned back waiting for her to get angry.
"Not a bad idea." Was the answer that surprised him, "Do you get all your ideas from wanting to help others?"
"The best ones." He grinned, "Potion ingredients supply was to help George get ingredients for his Wheezes."
She shook her head for a moment before brightening, "I saw Dean Thomas today."
"Dean was in Paris?" Harry asked.
"No mother needed to have her wand checked." Daphne shook her head, "She used some new polish on it and it started acting wonky. Anyway Ollivander looked it over and then handed it to Dean to scan. He said that the polish had something that didn't like her core. They cleaned it thoroughly and gave her some of the polish she used to use and told her not to try anything new without stopping by first. Dean was really professional and courteous. Mother didn't even realize he was a muggleborn. She just kept going on about that nice pureblood boy that I should get a date with. I told her he was already dating someone and that she needed to stow the pureblood crap since he wasn't."
"The older generation really won't let that go will they?" George shook his head, "We'll I'm gone. See you next week Harry."
"Night George." Harry called as he left then turned his attention on Daphne, "How was your day?"
"Wonderful." She grinned, "I need to go put everything away."
"Did you have any dinner?" he asked as they both headed up the stairs.
"Yes we ate at a wonderful café." She proclaimed, "You would have loved it. Nothing fancy just peaceful and beautiful."
"Sounds nice." He agreed. He saw her to her room and then went on down the hall to his own. He didn't stay for long though as the night stalker felt the need to get out some.
On Saturday Harry attended dinner at the Weasleys. Bill, Fleur, Charlie, George, Molly and Arthur were the only ones in attendance. Ginny was expected to show but they didn't wait for her. They were near the end of dinner when she breezed in.
"Hello, I can't stay long, got a date." She walked through the room without acknowledging anyone.
Charlie gaped as she walked by without speaking directly to anyone. After she was up the stairs and out of earshot he turned to his parents, "What was that?"
"Ginny." George said, "You know little sister, quidditch star and royal pain in the…"
"Do not finish that." Molly warned but her frown wasn't focused on George, "She's busy."
"Too busy for family?" Charlie asked.
"Too busy for us lowly…" George was again interrupted.
"George!" Molly turned to him finally, "Please stop."
"Sorry mum but she is acting that way." He shrugged.
"He's right mum." Bill agreed, "She doesn't have time in her busy quidditch star schedule to have family. She'll come around some day but don't expect it to be any time soon."
"Harpys was the correct team for her." Fleur whispered to Harry as she patted Victoire's back to wind her.
"But…" Molly started but stopped when the girl came down the stairs.
"See you later." She breezed through again, "I'm going to go have some fun. Dean's taking me to a café in Paris he heard about."
Harry's weren't the only eyebrows that were lifted at her departure. He glanced at George and got an 'I told you so' look at which he sighed and nodded. George knew he was agreeing to help prank the girl. Charlie turned his gaze on his mother and waited.
"Fine she's being a selfish brat." Their mother gave in to even more raised eyebrows, "However I'm not going to say a thing. She'll be learning this the hard way."
"Really?" Arthur asked amazed.
"She already tried and Ginny ignored her." George added, "She didn't get nasty she just was so totally wrapped up in herself that she didn't even hear mum talking. Well yelling really."
"Well Harry I think we're all glad you didn't get mixed up with that." Charlie turned to the only silent person at the table.
"Charlie really." Molly huffed.
"So how is that sexy hot babe you're shacked up with?" he asked to the mortification of his mother.
"She's fine." Harry smirked back and heard Molly muttering under her breath about the two of them, "She's having dinner with her parents. Her father is trying to insist she sign one of the marriage contracts and she said she's going to toss them all in the fire."
"Why in the world would he try to marry her off to some old sod when he's got Harry Potter knocking at the door I'll never know." George added his opinion.
"Daph said he thinks we will get together and he's trying to prevent it." Harry laughed ignoring what he thought was George teasing, "I guess he can't see we're just friends."
"He still believes that?" Arthur mutter to George as Molly talked to Harry about inviting Daphne to the next dinner he came to.
"Blind as a bat." George returned, "She's almost as blind as he is about it."
"Do you think we're wrong?" Arthur wondered quietly.
"Not a chance." George replied loudly.
Harry glanced his way before continuing his conversation with Molly. It was nearing nine when Harry stood from the chair he had been sitting in after dinner, "I hate to leave but Daph has a breakfast meeting scheduled for six in the morning."
"Don't work too hard Harry." Molly admonished.
"I'm not going to." He gave her a hug, "We're just going to finalize the plans for Blaise and Draco's snake farm. Nothing really difficult, mostly I just need to sign on the dotted line."
"At least someone can provide that service." Arthur stopped the complaint on Molly's lips, "Snakes have many useful parts the most easily identified one is anti-venom."
"But they're Slytherins." Molly hissed.
"All the better to deal with snakes." Harry grinned then changed topics, "Molly surely you know not all Slytherins are bad just as all Gryffindors are not good. Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor as was Albus Dumbledore. I don't know if I can name any other two people who ruined my life more."
"Sorry old prejudices die hard." She sighed.
"That's the reason we're having so much trouble recovering from the war." Harry pointed out softly.
"You're right, I'm sorry." Molly hugged him again before he left.
George followed him through the fire intent on asking another question. He put off his question as he spotted Daphne in the drawing room when they arrived, "How was your evening?"
"It wassss grreaaaat." They spied the glass in her hand and quickly realized she was drunk.
"That good?" Harry pulled her up from the couch and put her drink back on the table, "You didn't have to sign any contracts did you?"
"NOPE." She grinned, "I burrrred them in the fio…firo. They went bye bye."
Harry chuckled at her before he turned her towards the stairs and called Kreacher for a hangover remedy to be placed at her bed side, "So you must be celebrating."
"Yesssss." She stretched as he tried to pull her up the stairs, "I burred that stuff. And daddy was so huffy."
"Well why don't you get some sleep and we'll talk about it in the morning." Harry suggested as he helped her get into her room.
She flopped on the bed and grinned for a moment before she slowly blinked, "I'm tired."
With that she was out like a light. Harry transfigured her clothes to be pajamas and then levitated her off the bed. He pulled back the covers and lowered her down before covering her up and leaving quietly.
"That had to be the funniest thing ever." George cackled, "You and your moral fiber didn't even take advantage of it."
"What was it you wanted again?" Harry shook his head hoping his question would distract the man.
"So you are in with pranking Gin Gin right?" he asked.
"Yes." He frowned, "I can't believe her behavior. I mean she's acting so off. Do you think its imperious curse?"
"No I checked." George grumbled, "One of the things Fred and I had wanted to do before the war was to make a wheeze that would detect it. We didn't get it done in time for that but I managed it earlier this year. She is clear."
"Have you thought of bringing Charlie and Bill in on the pranks?" Harry suggested.
"Charlie and I are meeting you here at noon tomorrow." George said, "You can feed us lunch and then we can play all afternoon. I'm going to wait until tomorrow to tell Charlie what we're working on though."
"Sounds good." Harry yawned as he talked.
"I'm leaving, I'll see myself out." George laughed, "Night."
"Night." Harry responded as he made his way to his room and was soon in bed himself.
George and Charlie arrived just as Blaise and Draco were leaving from their breakfast meeting. The four exchanged greetings and small talk before Daphne made it to the room.
"Harry's waiting on you guys in the lab." She pointed to George, "I have to go give the papers to the solicitor and then I'll be back to help."
"Really?" George grinned, "You're in on the big project?"
"Harry told me about it a few days ago." She grinned, "I am so in."
"Dare I ask?" Blaise looked skeptical.
"No, you'll want to retain your plausible deniability." George shrugged but his evil grin was breaking through.
"Oh, I am gone." Draco was the first into the fire at that look.
"Me too." Blaise practically jumped in the flames with Draco in his haste to leave.
"Don't have too much fun without me." Daphne called as she left.
"I had no idea you knew such big words." Charlie grinned as the two started for the basement.
"Oh I have a few bigger ones too." George laughed as they entered the lab, "I just like scaring people with them."
"Using big words again?" Harry asked as he heard them enter.
"How did you know?" Charlie asked.
"He likes scaring people when he uses them." Harry shrugged, "He always follows it with that maniacal grin, smirk thing. Freaks people out."
"Am I becoming that predictable?" George whined.
"Just what are we going to do today?" Charlie asked trying to change the subject as he took a seat, "I don't think I've heard of the Big Project."
"It's not called that." George waved him off, "This is phase two of POB."
"I thought you got them last year outside the shop?" Charlie scratched his head, "You know all the rotten food throwing and the laughing and such."
"Ginny missed out." George frowned, "And we aren't even close to payback. One day of rotten tomatoes is not enough. We're just letting mum and dad think we're done."
"I think we found a jinx for Ron." Harry offered, "I call it the superstition jinx. It's rather complex but whenever a superstition is crossed something bad happens."
"So say a black cat walks across his path then something bad will actually happen." George nodded.
"A broken mirror would really cause him seven years bad luck?" Charlie asked.
"Yes but he has to do it." Harry stated, "If a mirror breaks because of his bad luck from something else it doesn't affect it. So it takes a long time to figure out you've been jinxed. The effects of the jinx will last for two weeks."
"So if he broke the mirror in that two weeks he would still get bad luck for seven years." George offered.
"Yes but the spell induced bad luck will disappear after the two weeks." Harry grinned.
"Oh you should know when Ron and Hermione got home last night they broke the news." George snickered, "They're getting married in a few months. Mum asked why they were in such a hurry and when neither volunteered any info she asked if Hermione was preggers."
"And?" Harry smirked.
"They're doing it for money." Charlie shook his head and frowned, "Turns out she wants to apply at muggle uni to see if she could become a muggle solicitor. If she's married and they both don't have jobs when she applies she gets hefty amount of help with her tuition. They're both claiming that they're orphans."
"Ron has no muggle birth records or school records or anything. He can get away with it because they can't prove he isn't." George took a seat, "Hermione's parents disappeared off the face of the earth, as far as muggles are concerned, so they were declared dead."
"What happens if they decide to return from Australia?" Harry asked.
"They were obliviated." Charlie explained, "She can't do anything about getting their memories back. They are for all intents and purposes the people she changed them to be."
"But she had plans to go back after them." Harry said, "She said she thought…"
"She was wrong." George stated with a slight shrug.
"Soooo, bad luck for Ron then?" Charlie broke the somber mood.
"Yep." George nodded decisively, "So tell me about this prank, how often can we reset it?"
"That's the fun part." Harry grinned, "We don't have to reset it. You know that jersey he has up on his wall?"
"Cannon's keeper jersey?" Charlie asked, "He touches that for luck every morning."
"We can make it so that the jinx retriggers every time he touches it." Harry explained, "The jinx is on the shirt so they can check him for tampering and as long as he isn't wearing that shirt or checking it, it won't be detected."
"How long will it stay on the shirt?" George was trying to hold in his evil cackling.
"Until it is washed or the magic on the jinx fades." Daphne explained as she returned, "That depends on who places it and how much power they put on it."
"So say Harry did it." George asked, "How long would it last?"
"I would say at least years with no washing." She said, "Somehow the water and soap weakens it considerably."
Several hours later found the four of them sitting around the dinner table. Harry had been quiet for several minutes while the other three carried the conversation. Finally Daphne turned and tried to pull him in.
"What do you think Harry?" she asked.
"What?" he looked up with a slight look of confusion.
"We were talking about a prank for Hermione and wondered what you thought about it." Charlie explained.
"Sorry my mind was elsewhere." He apologized, "I'm sure whatever you thought of was brilliant though."
"Of course it was." George snickered, "But what I want to know is what has your mind in a twist?"
"I talked to Xeno and Luna after breakfast." Harry stated, "He refused any money for the Quibbler. I insisted and he told me to just give it to my favorite charity. I don't know of any charities in the magical world so I was trying to think of one to start. I'm debating between one that helps people recover from dark magical attacks and one that helps magical children."
"What children would it help and how would it help?" Daphne asked.
"Any magical child, I want to make sure they are all being treated well regardless of their parentage." Harry scratched the back of his neck and looked at the table, "Surely I wasn't the only one abused as a child."
"You weren't." Daphne agreed, "But yours was the most severe case I've ever seen. I was surprised no one else seemed to see it."
"They didn't want to." Charlie shrugged.
"Ron and Herm always told people that you had a condition that wouldn't allow you to gain weight." George added, "I didn't know that was a lie until after the war."
"Slytherin didn't believe them." Daphne stated, "We know what abuse looks like. Death eaters weren't the best parents to have. But we all assumed one of the adults had taken care of it and that you were suffering the after affects not still being abused."
"Ok, so we'll start a charity for detecting abused children and getting them help." Harry turned the subject away from himself, "We need to know how to start a charity, how to run one and someone trustworthy to do it."
"Actually this may be a good job for my mother." Daphne suggested.
"Mum would probably help too." George added.
"A group of mothers going after parents who abuse kids." Charlie grinned, "This will be fun to watch. But why contain it to just magical kids?"
"Muggles already have a way to deal with this kind of thing." Harry said, "Any non-magical children we find we can refer to them."
"We don't always know if kids are magical or not." Daphne pointed out, "At least not until they do their first magic."
"I feel a wheeze coming on." George rubbed his hands together, "It would have to be a liquid to use on really small kids."
"We can start by going into muggle orphanages and pulling out the magical kids." Harry began to really work the idea, "We can find them homes in a magical family but we'll have to have an orphanage to hold them until they are placed. Some of the older kids may not want to be in a family like that. Maybe if we do this we can prevent the next Voldemort."
Everyone by now knew about Tom Riddle and how he grew up. It wasn't any surprise to the other three in the room that Harry had come up with the idea. His experiences gave him ideas that wouldn't occur to anyone else. It was why his business was so successful.
A few days later George was sitting at the kitchen table in the burrow again eating breakfast.
"I know it will work." He heard Hermione's voice, "It's illegal."
"I don't know of any law that makes it illegal." Ron was saying as they entered the kitchen from the stairs, "Magical people may not have the law."
"One company can't own all the pieces of a specific industry." She explained not really listening to his arguments, "It's called a monopoly."
"The board game you showed me?" Ron asked confused.
"Monopolies are illegal." Hermione was still not listening to anything he said as she wound up her argument, "We can take him to court and we will win this time."
"I'm not helping!" Ron finally yelled to get her attention.
"You have to." She tried to force the issue.
"I am not putting myself out there like that again." He argued, "Wizard law doesn't care about Monplies."
"Monopolies." Hermione corrected.
"Whatever." Ron grouched, "It isn't a law in the wizarding world so we can't take him back to court. And I wouldn't help you if it was."
George thought maybe Ron was opening his eyes and thinking about Harry's feelings. But that thought was crushed when he opened his mouth again.
"We already looked like fools and it put us on Harry's bad side." Ron explained, "Remember it would be best for us if we just leave him alone and let someone else deal with him. I have no responsibility to watch him and I refuse to do it. I'm barely managing my own life I don't want to take on his.
"But it's illegal." She stressed the importance of the word.
"Not in the magical world." Ron told her with a final bit of authority in his voice, "It is completely legal and there isn't anything we can do about it. So unless you can change the wizard laws then drop it."
"Well then we'll just have to change them." She sneered, "We can't allow him to do this. He's taking advantage and using people."
"Kind of like you did." George stood and stormed away from the table but stopped short of the door leading to the garden, "At least Harry is helping people, he's never done anything for selfish gain."
"You're only siding with him because he helped you." She frowned at him.
"He has helped me and tons of other people." George admitted, "But that isn't why I'm siding with him. I'm siding with him because unlike you he is my real friend and a real brother."