Disclaimer: All characters belong to JK Rowling, not I. I hope I won't embarrass her too much by what I do with them. : )
The Promise Ring - by The White Lily

Chapter 14: Diagon Alley

Harry concealed his reluctance to travel by Portkey rather well. When the group finally stopped in a shady green park several streets away from Privet Drive, Mrs. Weasley told them all to hold hands. Harry reached out resolutely to grab the hand nearest to him. Concentrating on not crushing the hand holding his and on keeping his breathing even, Harry closed his eyes and waited. When the familiar tug behind his navel came and the ground was jerked from under him, he fought down the panic that threatened to overwhelm him. When his feet slammed into the ground he quickly opened his eyes and looked around. He was in the Leaky Cauldron. He was safe.

"Fred and George Weasley, where do you think you're going?" Harry turned to see the twins attempting to sneak off into Diagon Alley by themselves.

They looked slightly less sure of themselves under their mother's intense glare. The twin wearing the red shirt, whom Harry thought was probably Fred, started. "Well, Mum, you know, it's like this –"

"We owled Gambol and Japes –"

"– the joke shop in Diagon Alley –"

"– to ask if they –"

"– were interested in –"

"– selling our, um –"

"– products. Um, they told us –"

"–that we should –"

"– come by and talk to the –"

"– manager."

The twins put on angelic faces and looked up at their mother. Mrs. Weasley was not impressed. "You want to try to sell those useless and dangerous things to self-respecting people in Diagon Alley? No! No, no, and NO!"

"Now, Molly," interrupted Mr. Weasley, "We've talked this over and we decided that they can't disappoint this mystery investor of theirs." Mr. Weasley's eyes flickered almost imperceptibly towards Harry before he turned to the twins. "But we can't split up, boys. Now, we can all go to Gambol and Japes when we're finished with everything else. Is that all right?" The twins gave identical sullen nods. "I want you to promise that you won't try to sneak off. Your mother and I will support you if this is what you want to do." Mrs. Weasley looked slightly dubious, but Mr. Weasley pushed on. "But you have to be worthy of our trust." The twins gave slightly less sullen nods and the party moved off into Diagon Alley.

The twins were as good as their word; throughout the entire visit to Diagon Alley they stayed near, helping to carry all the parcels. Harry shared a cart through the long, underground tunnel with them, as they had to go to the new vault they had opened that summer under the name of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. It didn't make Harry feel quite so bad to let the twins see his embarrassment of riches since he was funding their enterprise.

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes seemed to be doing quite well from what they told him; they had made half again on the money Harry had given them in the month since they had received permission from their parents to service Owl Order forms. The twins had been concentrating on food products, as these were the mostly potions added to normal food, and one of the only things they could do without magic. They had heaps of new inventions, including Glowing Gems, which glowed so bright when you sucked them that you could see the light shining through your cheeks; Jumping Juice, which gave the drinker so much excess energy that they couldn't sit still; Midget Mints and their counterpart Giant Jelly, which shrank or grew the person who ate them accordingly. Harry's personal favourites, however, were the Fire Belching Brownies.

"You belch out these huge columns of fire just like a dragon," said Fred eagerly.

George hurried to explain, "Only it's completely harmless, so they won't so much as singe anyone's eyebrows."

"Dad sat us down and talked to us into making sure all our inventions are safe and that the effects are only temporary."

"Dad wasn't very pleased about the Ton-Tongue Toffees –"

"– because he had to perform a counter-spell to reverse it."

"He said that if he hadn't been there your cousin could have been in real trouble"

"And that the people we sell them to might not be responsible with them." Fred's eyes twinkled at this.

"So now all our inventions are timed –"

"– so that they'll wear off after a few minutes –"

"– like the Canary Creams."

"So, we're respectable businessmen now and we have to make sure no one will be hurt by anything we do," Fred concluded, pretending to look rather gloomy at this prospect. Harry wasn't fooled though; he could see the joy sparkling in Fred's eyes as he and his brother lived out their dream.

Soon enough, the cart screeched to a halt back at the surface and all discussions ceased as Harry and the twins rejoined the others in the Gringotts foyer. As the small party emerged from Gringotts, Harry waved cheerily to a passing pair of Hufflepuffs in his year and was stunned by their reaction. Justin Finch-Fletchley flinched visibly when he saw Harry, then leaned forward and murmured something to Susan Bones. She glanced at him fearfully and the pair hurried away with their heads down. Harry looked to the Weasleys, but none of them had noticed the obvious cold shoulder he had received.

Harry stared at the retreating backs of the two Hufflepuffs. What a great start to the year. He had managed to alienate all the Gryffindors in his first year, the entire school in his second, Hermione in his third, and all the other houses and Ron in his fourth year. Unless this was an isolated incident, this year was shaping up to be no different than the others.

Idly kicking at a stone on the cobbled street, Harry followed the Weasleys, falling in step beside Hermione. "What's the Daily Prophet been like over the holidays?" he nervously asked her.

"Quiet," said Hermione, "I don't know whether the Ministry is covering up attacks or whether they're just not happening. But there's been nothing to suggest that You-Know-Who is back. It almost makes me wish I hadn't made Rita Skeeter promise to keep her quill to herself for a year. We need someone like her to come out and say what the Ministry doesn't want to hear."

"And – um – what about … Cedric," the name came out in nothing but a whisper.

Hermione pretended not to notice Harry's discomfort as she replied, "I've been scouring the Prophet every day and there was nothing except a small notice in the Obituaries column. It was a private service for family members only; I guess they didn't want to attract You-Know-Who's attention by having a big memorial service." Hermione's face took on a puzzled look, "There was one odd thing though - they said to send money to The Order of the Phoenix in lieu of flowers. I've heard of asking for people to send money to a charity instead of sending flowers to the family, but I've never heard of The Order of the Phoenix. I'll look it up when I get back to the library."

The two walked along in silence for a few minutes, before Harry was struck by a sudden thought. "Hermione," he asked, "are you a Prefect this year?"

Hermione blushed faintly as she replied, "Yes. Yes, I am. And that means that we can only break rules if it's a real emergency this year." She seemed somewhat worried about it as she turned to Harry and continued urgently, "Please don't cut me out though, Harry! I won't let you break rules on a whim, but when have we ever done that?"

"It's okay, Hermione," Harry assured her, "I wouldn't dream of it. Congratulations! I know you wanted it."

Hermione smiled gratefully at him and indulged in a small hop and a squeal of happiness, "Oh, Harry, it's so wonderful! This means that I could be Head Girl in seventh year!"

Harry smiled back, "I'm sure you will be, Hermione, I can't think of anyone else who'd do a better job."

***

When the group entered Flourish and Blotts, they had quite a bit of trouble finding an assistant to help them. When they finally did and enquired if he could collect their booklists for them, the harassed looking man simply said, "I've got half my staff off sick today, just join the queue. I'm going as fast as I can." Harry gasped when he realised that the people lined up all around the wall of the store were all in the queue. It was going to take them forever just to get their books together and then they had to join another line to pay!

Mrs. Weasley had obviously had a similar thought, since she immediately joined the line to pay and sent everyone off to a different part of the store to collect books for the whole group. Hermione eagerly dashed off to the Charms and Arithmancy sections, while Ron went with particularly bad grace to the Potions section, muttering under his breath about "greasy gits".

Harry moved to the Transfiguration section to pick up two copies of Transfiguration for the OWLs for himself and Hermione, Ron had an old copy from one of his brothers. He also had to get one copy of Transfiguration for the NEWTs. Fred and George were going to toss for the new book, the loser getting Percy's old book.

Harry found the books for the OWLs easily enough but a little further down the shelf, in the section for NEWTs, a group of seventh year Ravenclaws were watching him angrily, blocking his path to the bookshelf. Harry stared at them for a few moments then gathered up his Gryffindor courage, muttered, "Excuse me," and squeezed between the two tallest to reach his book. The group made no attempt to touch him or move out of the way, but as Harry retreated, his stack of books clutched to his chest, he could feel their stares burning into his back.

Oh, yes. It was going to be a great year.