You Have Our Curiosity

Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm I doing wrong (to correct it).

"And here they are, people! The Gruesome Twosome! The Twin Terrors! The Dynamic Duo! The Weasley Twins themselves!" Harry held open the door of the compartment, allowing everybody inside to look at the pair that had knocked a moment before.

"Oh, you know us so well, Ickle Harrykins!" Fred smiled, while George bowed to the group.

"Say, can we talk to you for a minute? Ronnie is in quite a state back in our compartment, and we would like to hear your side of the story." George said, while Fred repeated his brother's bow to the group.

"Before deciding if there's any need to prank you, our beloved almost brother." They chorused.

"Sure." Harry sweeped a hand towards the group of students who shared the compartment, apart from Hermione, everybody shrank a bit on their seats, not wanting to catch the attention of the infamous pranksters.

Fred and George raised their empty hands, "We come in peace, everybody; just relax. We will return Harry to you in a few minutes."

Harry closed the door behind him, and ushered the twins into the next, empty compartment.

After George cast a few privacy spells at the door, Harry began his explanation. "Well, before the summer break ended, I decided to write to some other students from other houses, to propose a study group. Ron didn't like that I included Miss Greengrass."

"Ah, pretty bird, that one." Fred said, rubbing his chin.

"She's smart, ambitious..."

"Like most snakes, you must admit, Harry." George interrupted him.

"Yeah, but unlike Malfoy and his goons, she actually works at getting better herself, not at pushing everybody else down. Hermione has shared a library table with her several times, and Greengrass treats her decently. So, I asked her to hear my proposal."

"Aren't you a bit young to propose?" Fred winked at George.

Harry blushed a bit, "To propose the study group, you reprobate!" Harry laughed. The twins joined him a moment later.

"You know how deep Ron's attitude to anything Slytherin is. Nothing more than a den of dark Wizards in training, just Death Eaters wannabes. He is unable to see anything else!"

"And you are able?" The twins asked.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Please! I have realized that not everything is so cut and dried as I had thought. Bloody hell, just last year I was believed to be Slytherin's Heir, guys!"

The twins nodded, "A fine prank had it been true. A Gryffindor Heir of Slytherin! Old Salazar would be spinning in his tomb so fast it would be heard in Beauxbatons!"

Harry smiled at the image. "Yeah, you're right. Now, back to Ron. He was my first friend in the Wizarding World, and it would hurt to lose him. But I have decided to think on my future, beyond whatever disaster is waiting for me this year."

Both twins scowled, "Black."

"Black." Repeated Harry, "Just think for a moment, a Gryffindor betrayed his closest friends. A Gryffindor. Not a Slytherin, a Ravenclaw, or a Hufflepuff." It irked him to use Padfoot's undeserved reputation this way, but he needed to establish himself as a forward thinking wizard. Bloody hell, that had been Padfoot's idea! "I need to get much better at magic to have a hope of surviving the Dark Lord's followers!"

"Ah, so you're not going Ravenclaw on us, little brother." Fred said.

"As much as I would like to goof off a lot, the truth is I cannot afford it. I really need to focus on my studies." A sudden light flashed in his brain. "Hey, would you like to participate? Not as students, but as mentors. I am very sure you are not as bad at studying as your grades show. Am I wrong?"

The twins looked at each other, silently debating with each other. After a moment, they looked at Harry, and Fred spoke. "Very good, little brother, very good. You are right, we aim at keeping our scores at a certain point." Meanwhile, George balanced his hands up and down, palms upward.

Harry leaned forward, conspiratorially, and tapped the side of his nose. "Not so high as to have a shot at a job at the Ministry, not so low as to have to repeat a year."

"My, my, Fred!" George smiled, "Our little Harrykins has found our secret! Maybe we can get some use of that graveyard lot we got from that muggleborn witch back in our Second Year!"

'Shinji didn't tell me about that!' Harry thought, then reason reasserted itself. "I'm sure we don't have to go to such extremes, big brothers of mine. I... have a non-marriage proposal for you. And I am sure enough you will accept that I am willing to put ten galleons on the line." He proceeded to put a small pile of golden coins on the compartment table, one by one.

"Really? Well, what kind of proposal you have in mind?" George leaned back and crossed his arms, Fred followed suit a second later. Yet both nodded and rummaged in their pockets, they had five galleons in total, they put the coins on the table, next to Harry's own. "Sorry, five is our limit for now."

Harry shrugged, and took one coin from his pile, "Business. I want you to help me with potions and to learn spell crafting. I can pay you a reasonable sum. But you have to keep it secret, guys. I want to learn in peace."

"Harry, Harry, Harry..." Fred tsked; "You are asking for us to split our very valuable time and resources. Some extra money would be nice, true, but we are doing well for ourselves."

"Ah, but my payment would not be limited to mere money. Let me speculate a bit." Harry smirked, 'Speculate, my arse. I know exactly what you want.'

He leaned back, tenting his fingers in front of his face. "You want to work by yourselves, and all this pranking you do at Hogwarts is not simply a way to pass the time. It's research. You are developing your own line of prank products. You want to open your own store."

"Guilty as charged, Harry. We'd appreciate if you kept that under your hat. Mum would go spare before we are ready to begin!"

"I know, I know." Harry raised his hands conciliatorily, "I have seen her Howlers and I don't want to be near one again. Now, the thing is, I want your help, and I can help you. I want to be your business partner. By the time I graduate, I will receive my inheritance, and I'm sure it will be more than enough to open a store. That is if we aren't ready to begin before that, but we are working with that goal date."

Fred rubbed his chin in deep thought, while George scratched his forehead with his left index finger.

"Tempting, But I think we must refuse."

Harry nodded, and pushed the pile of coins towards the duo, "Well, thanks for listening. We had high hopes for working with you two."

"Hmm… who are this 'We' you speak of?" George raised an eyebrow, " Do you mean Plural or Royal?"

"Plural. I have a partner, whose name I'm not at a liberty to share. But I can tell you the name of our business enterprise."

"Oooh... a mysterious partner!" Fred clapped once and proceeded to rub his hands together. "And a secret, probably nefarious group!"

Harry stood up, he didn't want to stay away from his compartment, the Dementors could arrive at any minute. "Yeah, Padfoot Enterprises, but we might change the name later, if we can think of a better one. See you later, guys." He closed the door behind himself.

The twins stayed there for several minutes, their mouths gaping.

By the time they finally came out of their stupor, the next stage of this little drama would be over, with surprising results.

Author Notes:

My apologies to everybody, I had planned to do the Dementor visit for this chapter, but then realized the Twins were already on their way to speak to Harry. I really didn't have the heart to put them in harm's way.

Next chapter will have some fan service, Evangelion style!

To Guest, comments on Chapter 33.

There is another member of the Endless who has yet to appear in this story, one who never was too far from Shinji, specially at the end of the story. Asuka also met this Endless when she was at her lowest.

Just give me one or two chapters more.

You are referencing Mana Kirishima, from the Girlfriend of Steel videogame. She was not an Evangelion pilot, but of a completely robotic project. I haven't played the game, and don't know her original version.

She has been featured in several fanfics, and in the Shinji Ikari Raising Project manga, she's quite a fun character in that story, playing with Shinji's shyness and Asuka's jealousy in a good-natured way (SIRP was based on the alternate world Shinji imagined, the one without EVAs). All the NGE characters are very well adjusted in that story, BTW, but it gets too fan-service-y after a few volumes.

Having post Second Blood War Harry, and Post Golden Dawn Taylor in a therapy group with Post-Third Impact Shinji (both NGE and Rebuild) would do all of them a world of good.

Misato has more in common with Sirius than the obvious overgrown children aspects of their personalities.