Suspicions Confirmed
I lay awake that night thinking of my adventure. After leaving the shop I had successfully made it back to the Three Broomsticks bathroom via Floo network and with a few minutes to spare before I was back in the right time. 7:00. I sat in the pub drinking a butterbeer and played Quidditch with everyone for a few hours so it wouldn't be suspicious if I came back too soon. Mad-Eye hadn't suspected a thing and apparently didn't miss his time turner.
The lesson was immensely embarrassing but I had a good time until the end. Fred and George didn't know what they said and what it meant to me but right now the joke wasn't at all funny. My mind kept running over Sirius and my memories of him; or rather the lack of memories. He was in my life for what 2 years? I still hadn't gotten to know him, I had barely seen him. And their joke of him hurt me deep. Padfoot had been kept on a leash, while in Azkaban and the last year of his life. Why did I have to save Pettigrews life in the Shrieking Shack? Then at least Sirius would have had some kind of revenge. Damn it!
My thoughts were interrupted as heard a strange sound, like glass breaking. I jumped up and ran to the window and pulled the curtain out of the way. I stared transfixed in horror at the window. Little cracks were snaking across the frame threatening to break the whole damn thing. I couldn't help but wonder if this was happening in all the windows in the house. A light wind was picking up tossing papers around and candles were lighting themselves. Fuck! My magic was loose again. I had to calm down and get it under control. Taking a deep breath I tried to first stop the glass from breaking as it was the biggest problem. Who'd want to set off alarms loud enough to be heard in Hogwarts? Dumbledore would be down here before I could say "ooops". The wind died down and the glass seemed to stop breaking, though I'm not sure how that works. I wasted no time in picking up my wand from the night stand and fixing the window with a quick reparo. That seemed to do the trick and I finally took a look around my room. Wow. You don't want to know what it looked like.
While considering the look on Mad-Eye's face if he found out what I done I went through the house and fixed all the windows just thankful the whirlwind disaster was restricted to my room.
Looking at the clock I saw that it read 2:00am. My thoughts turned to how much had happened to me lately. It was, pretty fun. It was good to be someone else for the summer. Then I'd go back to school and see my friends, and my enemies and life would be back to normal. Or, at least as normal as it would ever be.
I was greeted the next morning by Mad-Eye's roar of "Potter! Out here now! We've gotta move it!" Apparently he was in such at fritz he forgot to my fake name. Not to professional that. What the hell is his problem though? I wondered, not in the best mood myself. Wandering into the hallway clad only in boxers and a t-shirt I found Moody in his room packing all his things up. "wha-" I asked but Mad-Eye noticed I was there and explained hastily "Someone tried to break in. Damn stupid about it though. Tried to break my window see." My mind was no longer groggy from sleep and realization sank in. I hadn't entered Mad-Eye's room to see if he had a window, I hadn't fixed it! Bugger. He wasn't going to be happy.
"Mad-Eye. It-"
"No no no. Shut up you ignoramus! I'm the auror here. Move!" Mad-Eye said, cutting me off again. I couldn't let us leave Hogsmeade and make all the trouble that would surely follow for absolutely no reason. Not to mention how pissed Moody would be then!
"But Moody it wasn't D-"I attempted only to be interrupted again.
"Constant Vigilance boy! And Merlin, get some clothes on you prat!" Moody yelled at me, not unlike my Uncle Vernon. He just wasn't purpling in the face and the saliva stayed in his mouth. For now. I thought pessimistically to myself. Taking a brave try I walked over to the trunk Mad-Eye was loading with clothes and with one yank pulled them all out and most of them landed on the floor. The idea was to get his attention, which I sorta did, for a second.
"Goood point. What am I doing!" He asked me, slapping his forehead with his hand. He flicked his wrist and his wand shot out giving me a start. He pointed it at the clothes and with a whoosh they jumped back into the bag. He did this to the whole dresser and was moving into the living room before I thought up another plan.
Taking a deep breath I yelled as loud as possible "It was meeeeee!"
Well, this got his attention sure enough. "What?" He asked, clearly bewildered. He had even stopped trying to fit his dark detectors into his trunk. "I broke your window." at his blank look I added a sincere "Sorry!" as an after thought. With a sound that was something like "merf" Mad-Eye emptied his trunk with a wave of his wand, all the things in it going back where they were before.
"What cha do that for eh?" He asked me, his magical eyeball whizzing around, probably looking for Death eaters hiding in the bushes still.
Feeling slightly nauseous now, as I was unable to stop looking at the disgusting thing for some freakish reason I protested "It was an accident! I didn't do it on purpose."
Mad-Eye seemed to be considering this and said simply "You. Me. Backyard. Now!"
"What?" I asked. Surely I must have heard him wrong! He wanted to beat me up?
"You're right." He said, now confusing me worse. "Get some clothes on then meet me in the back." When I didn't move, only stared at him, he said, fingering his wand "Do you think you'd move faster as a ferret, boy?"
Half an hour later I dropped into bed, despite the fact that it was only 9 in the morning. Mad-Eye had put me through my paces. He insisted that we have a duel; more than one actually. I was whipped into a fence, accumulated numerous grass stains and one hell of a dizzy spell before he let me retire to my room. But I seriously believe that he only let me get away because I was seeing four of him. Course, the trip to my room was a danger crossing in itself if you think about, smacking into no less than 3 walls can't be good. No indeed. Mind you I dealt as much as I got. No cutting spells or permanent damage was the rule so I resorted to disarming and a few more creative tricks. At one point Mad-Eye was spinning on his head like a top, before he cast the counter curse and retaliated by tossing me cross the yard, and headlong into the fence, and not for the last time.
We continued to have duels for the rest of the week, and Mad-Eye gave me a good route for doing my jogging, something I'd been putting off since I left the Dursley's. I went to the twins again for lessons and nothing especially worth reporting happened until Friday; two days before my birthday. I went over to Fred and George's for lessons again.
As usual the closed sign was up, but the lights were off, it was pitch black. I opened the door cautiously to have my suspicions at last confirmed. Confetti fell on my head and a big sign appeared in front of my face flashing in bright fluorescent pink writing "you've been had!" With a snap the door closed behind me, nearly clipping my feet and I had to wonder, wasn't the door closing by itself a classic horror movie must have? You never want to encounter one of those in real life, I'm sure. A little uneasy now, and for good reason if you ask anyone who has been pranked by the twins, I called out "k guys, guys..."I received no answer and called again "You just had to get pay back for my ringing the bloody bell didn't you? Well, you got me. Hehehehe. Guys?"
My gut filling with dread I watched hopelessly as the sign in front of me disappeared. The second the sign was gone the normal lighting in the shop came back on all at once. In reflex I shielded my eyes with my hands and closed my eyes tight from the sudden pain (however slight) and trying to dispel the tye-died arrangement of colours dancing in front of my eyes. But the fun wasn't over yet. The most horrible version of Happy Birthday was played cheerily around me, the twins alternating with the verses.
"Happy Birthday to you!"
"Happy Birthday to you!"
"Happy birthday dear Harry" was chorused together,
And followed by "Happy birthday to you!"
By now my eyes had adjusted and I lowered my hands cautiously, not sure if they were quite through yet. Thankfully I looked upon a gleeful Forge and Gred, wide smiles firmly in place. They had cone party hats on their heads which I noticed had Harry Potter written all over them in different fonts. Scary. They enthusiastically strolled up to either of my side and taking one arm each strung theirs between mine and walked firmly forward, leading me into the back room. Not knowing what to expect I tried to convince them to "cease and desist" I believe was exact wording, but to no avail.
One twin strode up to the door and theatrically swung it open. What I looked upon inside was, intimidating. The room was left pitch dark except for one light which illuminated a circular table for three. Upon the table was a very impressive birthday cake, 3 layers and wizard style sparklers. I say wizard style because after the lights went out on them they were entirely edible, though a choice not recommended, especially in the twins company. I stood staring at it, one twins are still entwined with mine. I think I was in post state shock, or something. I'd only had one birthday party ever and this "took the cake" as they say.
Regardless, my lack of attention cost me dearly. I stood ignoring the twins, the free twin more specifically and was taken by surprise when another flash blinded my senses. Wide awake now I rubbed my eyes, quite tired of the abuse. Fred or George released my arm and walked over to his twin who was standing about 2 meters away, facing me and to my horror realized what he was holding. A camera! A perfectly normal one I might add, I'm not sure how that works, I mean they're pure bloods right! Nonetheless my fears were recognized as a card slid out the end and he said "good shot, if I do say so myself." The other twin looked at it for a moment and nodded his agreement.
"Your very photogenic Harry, though not as much as me. Haha!"
Cursing Polaroid to the pits of hell I raced forward to see for my self. It was a rather good picture. I stood next to a Weasley, still not sure which, with my eyes staring wide at some point past the camera with my mouth forming an "O" of surprise. The twin looked perfectly respectable, arm wrapped around mine and the other firmly in his pocket. He was at least looking at the camera.
Anyway I had to ask "Why do you have a muggle camera? It's not your Dad's is it," fearing the last. I remembered only too well how the last borrowed article of Mr. Weasley's had gotten me and Ron into trouble.
"No, no, no course not." Fred said waving his hands alarmed.
"How dare you accuse us of that Harry!"
"It's ummmmmm…" Fred continued, not at all convincing.
"Never mind! Poor lady won't miss it. If you must know it's cheaper to use to potion to make the pictures move. Not that we care. Here Fred take some more pictures." George said handing Fred the camera.
A good five minutes and many pictures later they formally introduced me to the birthday cake. I say formally because it was quite so, they conjured the "royal birthday cake cutter" (knife) and forced me to slice it into 3 enormous pieces. Like we were actually going to eat the whole thing!
I soon discovered that the twins had slipped a potion into the cake somehow, I'm certain they didn't make it themselves. In any case, I began to get kinda giddy and carefree and stopped wondering what was in it, just enjoying my self.
We engaged in a fierce battle of crazy eights, then poker, were feeling sick from eating to much cake and about 2 hours later we had calmed down slightly, enough for me to remember that I had to be back in about half an hour. I told them so and they fetched my presents hidden somewhere in the store. Fred forced his into my hands and urged me to open it. I ripped up the Quidditch wrapping paper to reveal a good dozen chocolate frogs, and one lone famous witch or wizard card. "Sorry," Fred said happily. "Got hungry."
Rolling my eyes I turned it over to see who I got. I gasped and cried out, my voice cracking "What!" I was looking at a picture of myself. How embarrassing! I was wearing my school robes and waving enthusiastically apparently very happy about something. "Guys this is NOT funny! This is the only one right?"
"Don't look at us! We didn't do it! Your picture is brand new on the cards too so it's kinda rare. Right George?" Fred said this all very quickly and with his smile firmly in place. You'd think his cheeks would hurt by now, but no.
"Indeed. I'll bet nobody else has even seen it." George added unconvincingly.
"I stand by what I said before, you are very photogenic pal." Fred said, attempting to lighten the mood.
"Where'd they get the picture though?"
"Well you see there once was this boy who was very famous" George began. Not amusing.
"And consequently had many fans." Fred went on. "Not to big a stretch to assume he had fans, who had a camera and would accept galleons to have it published."
"Can they do that? Isn't that illegal? Don't they need my permission?"
"Ummmmm, no." Fred stated bluntly. "Wizard law." He added shrugging.
"Next present!" George said out of the blue, tossing a light weight box at him, with identical Quidditch wrapping paper. Inside this one was a force to be reckoned with, more samples of the WWW. I still hadn't used the other stuff they gave me! Mostly due to the fact that I don't much want to be squashed by Moody. Never the less, a few skiving snack boxes could come in handy at Hogwarts this year. Hehehe. I thanked George enormously and headed back to Hogsmeade promising to be back on Monday. I had no idea how "eventful" my real birthday on Sunday would be.
