11

The next morning Fred found himself yelling at a young boy who had attempted to steal a Biting Chatterbox, where when you went to stick your fingers in to see your note; it quite literally took a snap at your fingers, and in whilst attempting to stick it down his pants, he tore it beyond repair. The young boy had dark hair with a slight Asian look to him, and he quivered under Fred's glare. Fred finally sighed and held his hand out, giving the child a pointed glare, and the boy threw his change into Fred's hand before darting out the door.

"I'm really losing my patience with these thieves." Fred muttered to George when he got back to counter.

"I agree. Can't they do they proper thing and steal from their parents to buy from us?" George smirked.

"Hmm." Fred frowned. He dropped the change into the till and began pacing around their shop again. It was almost twelve and Carly hadn't arrived yet, and this unnerved him, though he couldn't explain why.

He rounded another shelf and started eavesdropping on two girls at the WonderWitch section out of boredom.

"Go on, you have to ask him out!" One said in a hushed voice.

"No! He wouldn't like me anyway. Oh look at this one.."

"Anne, seriously. There's no harm in it." The first girl continued her argument as Fred settled his back into the shelf, getting comfortable.

"Jane, stop it. Seriously. Why would he want me?" Anne replied.

"Just go and ask him!"

Fred rolled his eyes and smirked.

"I won't do it. He's probably already got a girlfriend."

"Fred Weasley? A girlfriend?" Fred started, bumping the shelf next to him, and he quickly froze the shelf before it wobbled anything off and gave him away. "You have to be kidding me! Every girl that comes near him probably runs off after he pranks them. I still don't get why you're interested.."

Fred raised his eyebrows. I've had plenty of girlfriends? What is she playing at? Sure, a few girls were too serious to understand my ambitions.. His memory flicked back to Angelina Johnson back at school. No, I do have a girlfriend now, and I pranked her once before. Where is Carly anyway..

Fred's thoughts came to an abrupt halt as his eyes focused on the two girls standing before him, arms crossed.

"Were you eavesdropping?" Fred recognized her voice as being Anne.

"No! I have free roam of my own shop thanks." Fred murmured.

"Come on Jane, your right. He's not the boyfriend type."

Fred laughed at the two girls and they huffed off, apparently annoyed that Fred didn't seem offended.

Fred flicked his wand at their backs as they left the shop, putting knots in their hair, then smirked to himself.

"Fred Weasley!" George cried, who was now standing right beside his twin. "What was that about?"

"They said I wasn't boyfriend material." Fred laughed, and George joined him.

"Well I guess they asked for that then." He smirked. "Anyway, I was just letting you know I'm heading out for lunch, you alright to take care of the place while I'm gone?"

"Yeah, of course." Fred grinned, patting his brother's back.

"Sweet, well I'll be back in an hour or two, see you bro." George waved, and left the store with a tinkle of the bell.

Fred sighed and headed back to the counter. Where on earth is Carly? Oh calm down Fred, I'm sure she'll be around soon. She would tell you if she couldn't make it. She's still coming…

The door tinkled again, signaling the arrival of a new customer, and Fred looked over the shelves eagerly. An older blonde woman smiled back at him, and Fred slumped back down disappointed. He conjured a chair out of thin air to land beside him, and he took a seat. He watched the woman in boredom for a while, then he began to notice something peculiar about her. She would occasionally come across an item of interest, bend down to look closely at it, glance around her and hold her position for a while, then stand up and move on. Fred wouldn't have found this too suspicious if she didn't have her hand in her bag whilst she did this, nor if there wasn't a flash from the front of her bag when she bent down. But by the looks of things, the woman was taking pictures of their products.

He immediately arrived at her side and held his wand in front of him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Fred asked, eyeing her bag.

"Nothing dear, just admiring your products." The woman flashed him a huge white smile.

"Why are you taking pictures? Your memory not good enough?"

"Pictures? I don't know what you're talking about dear." The woman continued to smile, but more eerily now.

"Then what's this?" Fred asked, before waving his wand, causing the bottom of her bag to split open. Among a few normal items, lipstick, make up, a mirror and a few tissues, a camera clattered out and Fred snatched it up before the woman could think properly. He tore the film from he camera and held it up to the light, and could immediately see his own products in shades of brown on the film.

"What were you going to do with this then?" Fred growled at the woman.

Before she could answer there was a loud SNAP from just outside the front door, and Fred glanced over to see Charles Verger sprawled on the steps.

Fred could hardly grasp who it was before the woman ran outside to assist him. Fred followed, wrenching the door open, the camera film in one hand, his wand raised in the other.

"What the hell are you doing here? I thought I made it pretty clear George and I don't want to speak to you.' Fred yelled at the man below him.

"Ah, Mr. Weasley! Very clever trick you've concocted here." Charles ignored Fred's question, and with the blonde's help, got to his feet. Fat boils had begun sprouting from his arms, a reaction to the spell George had hung over the doorway to prevent Charles entering the shop. Fred struggled to keep from smirking with satisfaction.

"So now you're sending others in to do your dirty work? I know what you're up to Verger." Fred spat. The woman stood beside Charles stroking his hair back.

"Oh really? Then you'll know that your products will be in no comparison to my boss' products. You'll know that you should either surrender your shop, and everything in it to Slick n Spick, or wait for us to destroy Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and everything associated with it ourselves? Perhaps you know then," Charles' voice got more hysterical as he spoke, the boils growing larger by the second, "that your silly little joke shop will shortly be out of business."

Fred stood and stared. Of course, he hadn't known this much. Now it came to it, he would rather have not known. The thought of his work being destroyed made him feel sick to his stomach. He also couldn't believe that Verger had been so blunt about his plans. Weren't the bad guys meant to keep things subtle? He found himself unable to speak for a while, until Verger and the blonde woman started snickering at his expression, which more than likely showed his shock.

"Weasley's Wizard Wheezes won't go down for the likes of you." Fred said mutely, silently wishing George was here. Or even more Carly..

"Well, I'm afraid you're just going to have to put that to the test." Verger smirked. "Good day to you Fred. And good luck."

The blonde barked a harsh laugh.

"Come Leah. We have work to do." Verger said to the woman, and the two of them apparated.

Fred stood in the doorway for a while longer, and then closed the shop, sealing the door shut with a spell. He put up the closed sign and stumbled out the back were he took a seat at his desk.

How could this have happened? What are we going to do? Surely they wouldn't destroy our shop, that's just ridiculous.. Fred thought to himself. Then thought of You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters and realized that really, this was nothing compared.

Come on George, I need you back here. Carly... Where are you..?

Fred jumped as he heard a rap at the shop's door. He moved cautiously to the front of the shop and found George and Carly both standing there, wands out, both looking cautious.

Fred unlocked to door and removed his spell, allowing the pair to come inside, before he replaced the charm.

"Fred are you alright?" Carly asked, wide-eyed. Fred noted that she looked like she hadn't had much sleep.

"Fred, something bad is happening." George whispered, pulling Fred to the back of the store, looking around. Carly followed quickly, taking Fred's hand in hers.

"How did you find out?" Fred asked, confused.

"Find out what? About Slick n Spick, and their plans to bring us down?" George replied slowly.

"Uh. Yes.. Exactly that." Fred replied. The twins stared at each other for a while, both as confused as the other.

"A man cornered me at the inn." George said.

"Verger came here with a woman who was taking pictures of our products." Fred said back, pointing at the roll of film stretching along the floor where he had dropped it. Carly bent to pick it up and held it to the light, inspecting it.

"Verger came here?" George cried.

Fred nodded slowly.

"A man named Morgan cornered me. I can't remember his first name." George sighed, summoning three chairs for them to sit on. "He sat down at the table with me. Started proposing us selling up to him. Said that if we didn't our shop would be destroyed anyway. Carly was coming through the inn to see you at the time, and she saw Morgan talking to me and watched from the corner of the room."

"I thought the guy looked suspicious so I hung around just to see what he wanted. George saw me though, and well Morgan saw who he was looking at." Carly added.

George looked apologetic as he continued, "Another guy came out of nowhere and grabbed her. Then Morgan got really serious. Told me he knew what Carly appeared to mean to you, and said to me that if we don't comply, they will start taking things from us. One by one."

Carly shuddered and Fred reached for her hand.

"Are you alright?" He demanded, his eyes searching her face.

"Yeah, I'm ok. I'm still here right?" She replied, smiling softly.

"Morgan left after that, and the other guy let her go. He nodded at me as he left the inn. Carly and I practically ran here. What happened with Verger?" George asked.

Fred told them his story, and when he was done the three sat and looked at each other wearily.

So Verity was right. Fred thought to himself. Now we're about to be brought down, and there's nothing we can do… He immediately stood up, and pulled Carly to her feet and into his arms.

"You'll have to stay with us." Fred told her. "I don't want you out of my sight again, I wont let you become a target. You can owl your father from here if you like, tell him what you will. Just please don't leave."

"Of course I'll stay. I'll help any way I can." Carly whispered into his shoulder.

George got to his feet and headed towards the stairs up to their unit upstairs.

"We're going to have to figure out a plan. I'm going upstairs to owl Dad."

Fred nodded at his twin and hugged Carly tighter.

"I'm gonna take care of you." He whispered. "I promise."