"Oh Lord. What did you two do this time," Harry warily asked the twins.
"Harry, old chap. It's not so much what we did, but rather, what we didn't do," George answered, and Fred quickly thrust a piece of paper into Harry's hands.
To George and Frederick Weasley,
It has come to our attention that during the past fiscal year your business has generated over 34,509 galleons of gross revenue. As such, a payment of 13,203 galleons was due on March 17th of this year. Since the department of taxation received no payment of any kind from your franchise, according to tax code 43-b, a 15 additional tax will be administered. That brings your total balance due to 15,183 galleons, due in full by July 17th of this year. Failure to comply with the fair taxation laws could subject you to 3-10 years imprisonment.
Respectfully,
Jonathan Leonard Mugglebee, II
Ministry of Magic, Chief Minister of Corporate Taxation
"And I take it that you two boys don't have the money," Harry asked, arching his eyebrows.
"Not quite. We have a little more than 5,000 galleons in the bank at Gringotts, but we need that money as a cash reserve to run Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," George added.
"Yeah, it's hard enough to run things as it is these days, no one told us we had to pay all these taxes on our stuff," Fred chimed in. "No Weasley has ever had the problem of running a business before. This is uncharted ground for us."
"Have you considered getting a loan to pay it off," Harry asked the twins.
"We went to Gringotts yesterday to see if they could help us, and the goblins offered us a 15,000 galleon loan, except we would have to pay 12 interest on it, and we would have to get either mum or dad to cosign on it, because of our 'credit risk,'" Fred said.
"And, of course, we don't want to do that," George lamented.
"So I'm guessing you want me to give you the money then," Harry concluded.
"Not just give, Harry. We fully intend to pay you back. And to prove it, we'd like to set up an automatic deposit of 1/3 of our profits into your account, forever," Fred commented, and George vigorously shook his head in the affirmative.
"Of course, guys. I'd be happy to help you out. I'd just like to ask one more thing in return," Harry said.
"Anything, Harry, old chum. What can we do for you," Fred added.
"Well, here's my plan. Remember that girl, Stacy Clearwater, that came into the Leaky Cauldron to have a chat with me," Harry started.
"No, Harry. We can't remember. There's so many gorgeous blonde supermodels that we see on a regular basis, we can't possibly remember which one you're talking about," George commented, in an attempt at humor.
"Okay, good. Well, I'm going to move in with her for the summer, and…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Fred said, "I don't even want to know how you landed a babe like that. Not bad, Harry. Not bad. I guess our little ickle Harrykins is growing up after all."
"Yeah, well. Anyway, I'm trying to make the move tomorrow night, and I was wondering if you two could help me escape unnoticed," Harry mused.
"Wait a second, Harry. Are you asking us to deliberately disobey our parents, the Order, and Dumbledore?"
"Basically, yes." Harry countered.
"I don't know, Harry. That sounds pretty risky," George said. And after sharing a look with Fred, the twins said in unison, "We'll do it."
"Thanks, guys. I need to leave here a little bit before eleven o'clock tomorrow night. I have a couple ideas, but what do you think is the best way to make it happen?"
"It shouldn't be that difficult. The only people from the Order who should be here tomorrow night are mum, dad, and Remus, and mum and dad should be sleeping by then, and lord knows Remus has enough on his mind to worry about monitoring you, so I think you're in the clear. We'll cover up that bitch of a mum Sirius has, and it should be easy enough for you to sneak through the floo. Just keep a low profile tomorrow and act remorseful, and they'll be none the wiser," Fred rambled.
"That's what I was thinking, Fred. Just make sure they don't notice I'm missing until morning, and when they do realize that I'm gone, tell them I left on my own. I'd hate for them to worry that old Moldeywart stopped by in the middle of the night to kidnap me," Harry finished with a chuckle.
"Don't you worry about a thing, Harry, we'll take care of it," Fred said. And then George continued, adding a wink, "And, Harry, when you're with that Clearwater babe this summer, make sure you don't do anything we wouldn't do."
The rest of the evening passed without event, and the morning of Harry's planned departure soon arrived. He spent the entire day trying to act as inconspicuous and cheerful as possible, by being polite to Mrs. Weasley, goofing around with Ron, and "opening up" with Hermione. In short, they suspected nothing. The Order had a meeting that day, and Harry again kept a low-profile, and even exchanged a smile with Dumbledore, trying to artificially convey his acceptance of Dumbledore's wishes.
But once the night arrived, it was another story. Since Harry had hardly unpacked his belongings, he had no problem quickly getting all of his belongings together for his exodus from the Black family home. He had sent Hedwig off several hours previously to Stacy, just to confirm that he would indeed be arriving at her house around eleven o'clock.
Harry wanted to make sure that everyone was sleeping; he decided to check each person's room to make sure that no one was stirring. Harry imagined how catastrophic it would be if he got caught trying to leave- Dumbledore would probably put monitoring bracelets on him to make sure that he didn't go anywhere! As he looked around, he thankfully noticed that Fred and George had covered up the portrait of Mrs. Black. At least he wouldn't have to deal with that tonight!
He silently tip-toed towards the bedroom of Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Opening the door just a creak, he could see that they were both in bed sleeping. He went next door to Lupin's room, and did the same thing. Harry sighed in relief. All the adults were accounted for! Just to be safe, he wanted to make sure that both Ron and Hermione were asleep as well.
As he approached Ron's room, Harry could hear his best friend's snoring from outside the door. No need to check on him! Now all he had to do was make sure that Hermione was sleeping as well. He approached her door, silently opened it up, and peered upon the visible outline of Hermione under the blankets. He had to admit, he felt a little guilty about the way he had treated his friends lately, and he started second-guessing his decision to leave them for the summer. But before he could feel too guilty, Harry envisioned himself spending the rest of the summer on a luxurious island with the most glamorous supermodel in all of Britain, and that helped make his decision easier. Harry needed to break off from Dumbledore, and this was his perfect opportunity to do so.
Resolute, Harry headed towards the secluded fireplace, looking for the floo powder. The fire was roaring, and the saucer that usually contained the floo powder was sitting there empty. Where on earth do they keep that stuff? After thoroughly inspecting the area around the fireplace, Harry was thinking about owling Stacy to ask her for floo powder, but eventually decided against it, not wanting to sound lame. However, right before he turned around, Harry heard a familiar voice say, "And just where do you think you're going, Harry?"
Author's note: Another update. Hopefully a rapid-fire of updates now and in the future will make up for the hiatus I took. I hope you like it so far!