Chapter Two

The further Ron traveled down the paved road, the stranger the thoughts popping into his head became. 'God, my nails are driving me bonkers!' lead to, 'What am I going to make for dinner?' and eventually became, 'Nice ass honey!'. The last one of course confused him the most because he had been walking behind a man looking rather like his father when he'd heard it.

'What in the bloody hell is going on?' He thought out loud, detouring into an abandoned alley to the side. After a brief moment, Ron realised it must have been something to do with the potion tweedle dumb and tweedle stupid had tested on him. He immediately turned back twords the shop, making a mental note to ignore anything he heard on the way.

Then he thought he'd heard Hermione's voice. Instinct had him turning around to search for her, as if she'd been calling out to him. He saw her, just barely through the cafe window about 3 shops down from him.

'I wonder if he knows...' her voice said. 'Should I tell him? I should. No! I shouldn't; if I do, what if he gets angry?' Hermione's thoughts ran on through Ron's head. He then continued on his way, unable to hear anything but his own thoughts. 'What could she have been talking about? Who knew what?' a miillion possibilities went through his head. Before he knew it, Ron had reached the shop and was standing just outside the door. He shook it off and entered the shop, spotting Fred and George leaning over a cauldron.

'Your bloody potion's jinxed.' Ron announced his presence. 'I keep hearing other people's thoughts.' He finnished. The twins stood there in silence, staring at him. Ron then got visibly annoyed. 'What in Merlin's name is wrong with you?! I just told you...'

'Oh sorry, we thought you heard voices.'

'We didn't want to confuse you.'

'Thought you might be able to hear ours.' Fred finnished with the same smirky grin his brother was wearing.

'Don't be daft. I can't hear everyone's thoughts...only some. And Im begining to think they've all been women's voices.' Ron noted, realising it for the first time.

'Really?' the twins both asked at the same time, then smiled at each other. Ron had the suspicious feeling they were going to make more of that potion for their own use later on.

'Yes! And it's a bloody nightmare, now fix it before I seek dementors on you!' he warned, hoping for once they would take him seriously.

Ron's hopes were shattered as his brothers laughed at him in perfect unison. Ron promptly responded with a face that looked like he had just walked in on them doing the tango together.

'All right, all right.' said George and handed him a vile.

'That should do the trick.'

'Or kill you.'

'We're not sure which.' Fred addmitted.

'I swear, if this kills me Ill haunt you both untill your dead as well.' Ron warned.

'That's great!'

'Yeah, we could use a bit of ambience round this joint.' George agreed.

Ron rolled his eyes just before he shot down the anti-potion (the twins made sure to always have one of them before they tried out one of their new inventions...) and closed his eyes, waiting for some sort of effect.

Nothing happened. Ron opened one eye and looked at his brothers. 'How do I know if it worked?' he asked, opening the other.

Just then a couple walked into the shop, arm in arm, looking around.

'May we help you?' Fred and George asked in unison. Ron tried to read her thoughts.

'No, I think we're allright.' the woman said.

Ron moved closer to the woman, hoping he could hear something...but nothing came to him. He gave the twins a thumbs-up and walked back twords them. The boyfirend, who'd been on the other side of the shop looking at beetle-bomb display, huffed up to him.

'Hey red! You get a good look at my woman?' he siad, popping his knuckles. The man looked an auful lot like Harry's cousin Duddley, only instead of being hefty, this guy was beefy. Not to mention he towered over Ron by at least a foot.

Ron shook his head. 'No...er...I mean, I wasn't looking.' he siad, hoping the man would believe him. He didn't. Ron was promptly punched in the jaw.

'Have a nice day, jerk.' George said as the man left with his woman and he helped Ron off of the floor.

'You always were a whimp.' said Fred, watching from the register.

'Thanks...thanks for that.' Ron siad, standing up and gingerly touching his jaw. He could feel it was swollen already. He was sure to have a bruise by the end of the day. Just then Hermione walked in the door; followed by the whistles of the Weasley twins...