Chapter 3
Harry and Ron awoke the next day to the smells of another feast. Mrs. Weasley was cooking up a storm downstairs, and the fragrances wafting upstairs indicated that she was whipping up eggs, bacon, sausages, pancakes, waffles, and even more tantalizing dishes. The whole family thundered down the stairs, still dressing, trying to get to the scrumptious food first. All six of them sat down at the table. But only six? Harry counted the people around the table, and realized who was missing.
As soon as this thought crossed his mind, the two missing men came running down the stairs. Mr Weasley grabbed his coffee and bit his toast, while Mrs. Weasley got up to help him tie his tie. Percy Weasley had his arms crossed and was tapping his foot.
"We don't have time for this nonsense, Dad! The ministry is waiting for us!" Percy wailed.
"Can't leave without a breakfast though," Mr. Weasley said, smiling to his son. Percy just rolled his eyes and held open the door as his father rushed out, and then followed out after him. No one really paid much notice to this, too busy with the food to observe the spectacle. Fred and George inhaled their food in 5 minutes flat so that they could tell Harry about their shop.
"With your money, Harry, we were able to open Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley!" Fred said, beaming.
"Within one summer, we were able to make enough money to pay you back, and then some!" George added.
"Yeah, enough money to open up another one. And guess where?" said Ron, putting down his food to talk. He was just as excited as they were.
"Where?" Harry asked, his mouth full of bacon.
"Hogsmeade," Ginny said, speaking to Harry for the first time since the end of the last school term. She blushed, and immediately went back to her waffles.
"How are you going to keep two shops going and still go to school?" asked Mrs. Weasley in a condescending way.
"Relax mum. We'll hire managers to run the stores for us!" George said.
"And what about now? Today, and all this week, you two have to go to that new shop your building at Hogsmeade, and you haven't hired any managers yet!" their mother said seriously.
"Ron, Harry, and Ginny will do that for us, won't you?" said Fred, turning his eyes on each of them as he spoke their names. They all nodded an affirmative, and the twins turned innocent smiles on Mrs. Weasley. She sighed, and mumbled to herself what sounded like, "What am I going to do with you kids?"
At last, everyone was done eating. Harry felt like he was going to explode as Mrs. Weasley pointed her wand at the dishes and levitated them to the sink. With a look of disapproval on her face, she left to do her housework. The twins laid out the plan for the three younger teenagers.
"Okay, we'll be at Hogsmeade," Fred began.
"How?" Ron asked.
"Floo powder. So anyway, we'll be at Hogsmeade, and you'll..." Fred started again.
"Stay out of trouble!" George finished his sentence. Harry, Ron, and Ginny started laughing at this. It was ridiculous to hear the twins tell them not to make trouble. "We're serious!" George whined. "All you have to do is man the register and stock up the supplies in the back when stuff disappears from the shelves."
"I think we've got it under control," said Harry. The twins gave them smiles approval, and led the others up to the fireplace. Each of the twins took a handful of Floo powder in hand, throwing it into the fire and yelling "Hogsmeade!" before stepping in. They both disappeared into the green flames. Then, Ron stepped up with some Floo powder, throwing it in and yelling "Diagon Alley!" After he had gone, Ginny repeated the same thing, and Harry followed after them.
He felt the same sensation of spinning as he had those other times he had travelled by Floo powder, and closed his eyes so that ash wouldn't get in them. He finally felt solid ground under his feet after a few seconds of this weightlessness, and stepped out into a very bright store. He rubbed his glasses a little bit on his shirt to get them cleaner so he could see better, and found he had walked into a dream world that could only have been thought up by the infamous Fred and George.
Lots of the merchandise in here seemed to glow red, orange, and yellow, and Harry wondered if he was still in the fire. Then he saw Ron and Ginny waving at him, and realized that this was the right place. Ron was already at the old fashioned register.
"I know how to operate this thing," he said, clicking its raised up buttons. Suddenly, the cash box flew out. "Oops. Lucky that no money was in there yet," Ron said sheepishly. Harry just shook his head and took an apron from behind the cashier area. Ginny did the same, and showed him where the back room was.
"This is where we, uh, keep the extra stuff," she said nervously. Harry gave her a nod and went back out into the main store to look at what the money he had donated had bought. There were so many thing to marvel at. Harry walked past a whole aisle full of what looked like those tiny, white Chinese poppers, except the boxes had pictures of animals on them instead. He saw one lying idle on the shelf, took it, and threw it at the ground. Instead of the little "pop" noise, the little thing quacked like a duck. Harry was a little startled at first, but then laughed. Another aisle seemed to be made especially for girls.
"I helped them with this one," said a quavering voice. Harry turned around to see Ginny.
"Really? That's nice Ginny," Harry replied. Ginny blushed profusely, and continued to walk down the aisle with him. On the shelves were shrinking violets that withered when given to another person, feather boas that turned into snakes, and little stuffed animals that insulted rather than complimented. Harry grabbed a bear and squeezed its hand. "Let go of me you wanker!" it screamed back in a shrill voice. He and Ginny started laughing really hard. They strolled over to a rack adorned with ridiculous hats and another next to it with seemingly harmless puppets. Harry took one of the hats, which looked like a dead opossum, and placed it on Ginny's head. She giggled so much that she bent in half. He then took a purple dinosaur puppet and placed it on his hand. To his surprise, it started talking on its own.
"Do you want to sing a song?" it said to Harry. "Okay. I love you! You love me! We're a happy family! With a..."
"Ah! Get it off!" screamed Harry. Half the store watched as Harry struggled to get the infernal thing off of his hand. But the harder he pulled, the harder it stayed on. Ginny grinned at him from under her grotesque hat.
"It's like a Chinese finger trap. Fred and George can't seem to get enough of Oriental humor," she said. She then made Harry relax. The puppet then released itself and Ginny placed it back gingerly on its rack.
"Thanks, Ginny. You're a great friend, you know that?" Harry said, nursing his now freed hand. Ginny's smile faded away.
"Just friends?" she said, taking of the dead animal and putting it back on the its rack. "I thought..."
"I'm sorry Ginny," said Harry, regretting what he had just said. "I mean that....well....you'll always just be a like a little sister to me..."
"I know," she said, turning her back on him. She shook once or twice, and seemed to be wiping her eyes. She then turned back around. "So, friend? Shall we go back to walking the aisles?" Harry smiled and nodded, and they continued taking the inventory. They heard a loud, ringing sound and yelling. Harry grabbed Ginny's hand and they ran over to the register to see Ron fumbling with the exploded register as his customers were growing angrier and angrier by the second.
"I'm sorry sir! I'll try to get that change back to you as soon as I get this register back in order!" Ron said.
"You incompetent fool! You don't even know how to run your own store! You are a Weasley, aren't you?" the fuming customer bellowed. To Harry, he looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. Then, Ginny tugged on his sleeve and pointed to the fireplace. There, Fred was waving at them, and putting his finger to his lips. Harry made a confused face at Fred, who then mouthed "polyjuice potion" back. Harry then understood. George had taken some of this magical potion to change form. He guessed that they had gone through his trunk and used one of Uncle Vernon's old socks.
Harry and Ginny tried to suppress their laughter as Ron shrunk behind the register's desk. But, they couldn't hold it in any longer when Uncle Vernon became thinner, his hair getting redder and redder. Ron saw this happen, and realized what had happened. He grew angry and started yelling at the customer, George.
"Temper, temper little brother!" George said, putting his hands up as if admitting his faults. This statement was contradictory though, since Ron was obviously as tall, if not taller, then his older brother.
"And remember, the customer's always right!" said Fred, stepping out from the fireplace. Ron scowled at them.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" Ron said.
"Just making sure that our store is taken care of!" Fred said.
"You should watch what you do here, because we could be watching you again!" George said with a snicker. Before Ron could reply, both disappeared into the fireplace again. The other clients watched in awe, and the whole store was silent for a few minutes. Then, all the customers resumed their shopping. Harry and Ginny lugged out the spare register from the storage room, placing it in front of Ron.
"The nerve of them!" Ron said. "I thought for a minute there that my very first customer was going to be so nasty!"
"Whatever, Ron," Harry said, hopping up to sit on the area right next to the register. There, they just talked for the rest of the day, with many interruptions by the shoppers of course. The rest of the week was the same, with Ginny as a sort of Hermione substitute for the time being.
At the end of the week, Hermione did, however, come back from her vacation. It was one week before school started. Harry, Ron, and Ginny were working like mad in the store, since so many people back-to-school shopping decided to visit. Ron was so frazzled from all the Hogwarts students coming in to buy new things, while Harry and Ginny tried to control the crowds. Harry caught Dean and Seamus playing with the animal- noise poppers, and Colin Creevey and his little brother were helped by Ginny in the puppet section. They had gotten stuck with one puppet on each hand, all singing off key to different songs. Neville had found his way to the candy section, where he had unfortunately had some of it. He was both sprouting feathers and growing a large tongue this time. Harry had to stop Parvati, Padme, and Lavender from trying on the deadly feather boas, and Ginny tried in vain to keep Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle out of the store.
"No! You can't! There's too many people inside already!" Ginny said, trying to push the three out.
"Uh, huh. Sure little Weasel," Malfoy sneered. He started laughing, then elbowed Crabbe and Goyle behind him to signal them to laugh too.
"Oh shut up, Malfoy," came a familiar voice behind them.
"Hermione!" Ginny squealed, running to hug her friend. They started hugging jumping up and down. Hermione than let go of her best gal pal and turned to Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.
"You have no right to call her Weasel, bleach head," Hermione said, turning steely again.
"And just what are you going to do about it, Mudblood?" Malfoy spat.
"Oh nothing," said Hermione innocently. "Just this... ?I'l('è'·)!" Immediately, a tiny brown squirrel came out of her wand. Malfoy smiled at it.
"Oh, how cute. A little pet," he said, crouching down. Then, the squirrel attacked, jumping on Malfoy's neck. "ARRGH!" Malfoy yelled, running down the lane. Crabbe and Goyle shrugged at each other, then copied their leader, shrieking and running down the lane after him.
"What was that?" Ron said from the door of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
"Japanese for squirrel. My friend Bunnie taught me," she said, turning around. She was startled to see two very tall, mature boys staring back at her. "Geez, did you grow!" she said to Harry and Ron.
"We weren't the only ones," Ron said, pointing out Ginny. Hermione's eyes opened in surprise as she realized that Ginny did look grown up. "You grew too!" Harry said to her. She walked inside the store and picked up a mirror from one of the shelves. She took one look and made a face.
"Ugh! No! I didn't! I grew shorter and fatter!" she said in a disgusted voice.
"Herm, that's a trick mirror. You should learn not to trust anything that Fred and George make!" Ron said. Hermione shot Ron an evil look, then walked around the store with Ginny.
The first thing she said when she got back was, "Did you two do your homework yet?"
Both rolled their eyes and mumbled, "Yes." They had a good laugh, when the twins came in through the fire.
"Okay, guys," Fred said. "We finished with our Hogsmeade store and hired managers for both of the shops.
"You and your two girlfriends can leave now," George said playfully.
"You've got to be kidding," Harry said.
"I'm not his girlfriend!" screamed Ginny at the same time.
"Fine then. Harry, Ginny, Ron, and his girlfriend must leave now," said Fred.
"WHAT?" Ron and Hermione said at the same time. They both got really red and inched away from each other. They both ran out of the store as fast as they could. Outside, you could see them go in opposite directions.
"Heh heh. Those two," George said. "Puppy love."
"Yeah, you gotta love it," said Fred, putting one of his arms around George's shoulders. "You two better keep an eye on the lovebirds, okay?" Harry and Ginny laughed.
"Sure thing," Ginny said. She and Harry walked out of the store to find Ron and Hermione still running in and out of shops, still trying to avoid each other.
Harry and Ron awoke the next day to the smells of another feast. Mrs. Weasley was cooking up a storm downstairs, and the fragrances wafting upstairs indicated that she was whipping up eggs, bacon, sausages, pancakes, waffles, and even more tantalizing dishes. The whole family thundered down the stairs, still dressing, trying to get to the scrumptious food first. All six of them sat down at the table. But only six? Harry counted the people around the table, and realized who was missing.
As soon as this thought crossed his mind, the two missing men came running down the stairs. Mr Weasley grabbed his coffee and bit his toast, while Mrs. Weasley got up to help him tie his tie. Percy Weasley had his arms crossed and was tapping his foot.
"We don't have time for this nonsense, Dad! The ministry is waiting for us!" Percy wailed.
"Can't leave without a breakfast though," Mr. Weasley said, smiling to his son. Percy just rolled his eyes and held open the door as his father rushed out, and then followed out after him. No one really paid much notice to this, too busy with the food to observe the spectacle. Fred and George inhaled their food in 5 minutes flat so that they could tell Harry about their shop.
"With your money, Harry, we were able to open Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley!" Fred said, beaming.
"Within one summer, we were able to make enough money to pay you back, and then some!" George added.
"Yeah, enough money to open up another one. And guess where?" said Ron, putting down his food to talk. He was just as excited as they were.
"Where?" Harry asked, his mouth full of bacon.
"Hogsmeade," Ginny said, speaking to Harry for the first time since the end of the last school term. She blushed, and immediately went back to her waffles.
"How are you going to keep two shops going and still go to school?" asked Mrs. Weasley in a condescending way.
"Relax mum. We'll hire managers to run the stores for us!" George said.
"And what about now? Today, and all this week, you two have to go to that new shop your building at Hogsmeade, and you haven't hired any managers yet!" their mother said seriously.
"Ron, Harry, and Ginny will do that for us, won't you?" said Fred, turning his eyes on each of them as he spoke their names. They all nodded an affirmative, and the twins turned innocent smiles on Mrs. Weasley. She sighed, and mumbled to herself what sounded like, "What am I going to do with you kids?"
At last, everyone was done eating. Harry felt like he was going to explode as Mrs. Weasley pointed her wand at the dishes and levitated them to the sink. With a look of disapproval on her face, she left to do her housework. The twins laid out the plan for the three younger teenagers.
"Okay, we'll be at Hogsmeade," Fred began.
"How?" Ron asked.
"Floo powder. So anyway, we'll be at Hogsmeade, and you'll..." Fred started again.
"Stay out of trouble!" George finished his sentence. Harry, Ron, and Ginny started laughing at this. It was ridiculous to hear the twins tell them not to make trouble. "We're serious!" George whined. "All you have to do is man the register and stock up the supplies in the back when stuff disappears from the shelves."
"I think we've got it under control," said Harry. The twins gave them smiles approval, and led the others up to the fireplace. Each of the twins took a handful of Floo powder in hand, throwing it into the fire and yelling "Hogsmeade!" before stepping in. They both disappeared into the green flames. Then, Ron stepped up with some Floo powder, throwing it in and yelling "Diagon Alley!" After he had gone, Ginny repeated the same thing, and Harry followed after them.
He felt the same sensation of spinning as he had those other times he had travelled by Floo powder, and closed his eyes so that ash wouldn't get in them. He finally felt solid ground under his feet after a few seconds of this weightlessness, and stepped out into a very bright store. He rubbed his glasses a little bit on his shirt to get them cleaner so he could see better, and found he had walked into a dream world that could only have been thought up by the infamous Fred and George.
Lots of the merchandise in here seemed to glow red, orange, and yellow, and Harry wondered if he was still in the fire. Then he saw Ron and Ginny waving at him, and realized that this was the right place. Ron was already at the old fashioned register.
"I know how to operate this thing," he said, clicking its raised up buttons. Suddenly, the cash box flew out. "Oops. Lucky that no money was in there yet," Ron said sheepishly. Harry just shook his head and took an apron from behind the cashier area. Ginny did the same, and showed him where the back room was.
"This is where we, uh, keep the extra stuff," she said nervously. Harry gave her a nod and went back out into the main store to look at what the money he had donated had bought. There were so many thing to marvel at. Harry walked past a whole aisle full of what looked like those tiny, white Chinese poppers, except the boxes had pictures of animals on them instead. He saw one lying idle on the shelf, took it, and threw it at the ground. Instead of the little "pop" noise, the little thing quacked like a duck. Harry was a little startled at first, but then laughed. Another aisle seemed to be made especially for girls.
"I helped them with this one," said a quavering voice. Harry turned around to see Ginny.
"Really? That's nice Ginny," Harry replied. Ginny blushed profusely, and continued to walk down the aisle with him. On the shelves were shrinking violets that withered when given to another person, feather boas that turned into snakes, and little stuffed animals that insulted rather than complimented. Harry grabbed a bear and squeezed its hand. "Let go of me you wanker!" it screamed back in a shrill voice. He and Ginny started laughing really hard. They strolled over to a rack adorned with ridiculous hats and another next to it with seemingly harmless puppets. Harry took one of the hats, which looked like a dead opossum, and placed it on Ginny's head. She giggled so much that she bent in half. He then took a purple dinosaur puppet and placed it on his hand. To his surprise, it started talking on its own.
"Do you want to sing a song?" it said to Harry. "Okay. I love you! You love me! We're a happy family! With a..."
"Ah! Get it off!" screamed Harry. Half the store watched as Harry struggled to get the infernal thing off of his hand. But the harder he pulled, the harder it stayed on. Ginny grinned at him from under her grotesque hat.
"It's like a Chinese finger trap. Fred and George can't seem to get enough of Oriental humor," she said. She then made Harry relax. The puppet then released itself and Ginny placed it back gingerly on its rack.
"Thanks, Ginny. You're a great friend, you know that?" Harry said, nursing his now freed hand. Ginny's smile faded away.
"Just friends?" she said, taking of the dead animal and putting it back on the its rack. "I thought..."
"I'm sorry Ginny," said Harry, regretting what he had just said. "I mean that....well....you'll always just be a like a little sister to me..."
"I know," she said, turning her back on him. She shook once or twice, and seemed to be wiping her eyes. She then turned back around. "So, friend? Shall we go back to walking the aisles?" Harry smiled and nodded, and they continued taking the inventory. They heard a loud, ringing sound and yelling. Harry grabbed Ginny's hand and they ran over to the register to see Ron fumbling with the exploded register as his customers were growing angrier and angrier by the second.
"I'm sorry sir! I'll try to get that change back to you as soon as I get this register back in order!" Ron said.
"You incompetent fool! You don't even know how to run your own store! You are a Weasley, aren't you?" the fuming customer bellowed. To Harry, he looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. Then, Ginny tugged on his sleeve and pointed to the fireplace. There, Fred was waving at them, and putting his finger to his lips. Harry made a confused face at Fred, who then mouthed "polyjuice potion" back. Harry then understood. George had taken some of this magical potion to change form. He guessed that they had gone through his trunk and used one of Uncle Vernon's old socks.
Harry and Ginny tried to suppress their laughter as Ron shrunk behind the register's desk. But, they couldn't hold it in any longer when Uncle Vernon became thinner, his hair getting redder and redder. Ron saw this happen, and realized what had happened. He grew angry and started yelling at the customer, George.
"Temper, temper little brother!" George said, putting his hands up as if admitting his faults. This statement was contradictory though, since Ron was obviously as tall, if not taller, then his older brother.
"And remember, the customer's always right!" said Fred, stepping out from the fireplace. Ron scowled at them.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" Ron said.
"Just making sure that our store is taken care of!" Fred said.
"You should watch what you do here, because we could be watching you again!" George said with a snicker. Before Ron could reply, both disappeared into the fireplace again. The other clients watched in awe, and the whole store was silent for a few minutes. Then, all the customers resumed their shopping. Harry and Ginny lugged out the spare register from the storage room, placing it in front of Ron.
"The nerve of them!" Ron said. "I thought for a minute there that my very first customer was going to be so nasty!"
"Whatever, Ron," Harry said, hopping up to sit on the area right next to the register. There, they just talked for the rest of the day, with many interruptions by the shoppers of course. The rest of the week was the same, with Ginny as a sort of Hermione substitute for the time being.
At the end of the week, Hermione did, however, come back from her vacation. It was one week before school started. Harry, Ron, and Ginny were working like mad in the store, since so many people back-to-school shopping decided to visit. Ron was so frazzled from all the Hogwarts students coming in to buy new things, while Harry and Ginny tried to control the crowds. Harry caught Dean and Seamus playing with the animal- noise poppers, and Colin Creevey and his little brother were helped by Ginny in the puppet section. They had gotten stuck with one puppet on each hand, all singing off key to different songs. Neville had found his way to the candy section, where he had unfortunately had some of it. He was both sprouting feathers and growing a large tongue this time. Harry had to stop Parvati, Padme, and Lavender from trying on the deadly feather boas, and Ginny tried in vain to keep Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle out of the store.
"No! You can't! There's too many people inside already!" Ginny said, trying to push the three out.
"Uh, huh. Sure little Weasel," Malfoy sneered. He started laughing, then elbowed Crabbe and Goyle behind him to signal them to laugh too.
"Oh shut up, Malfoy," came a familiar voice behind them.
"Hermione!" Ginny squealed, running to hug her friend. They started hugging jumping up and down. Hermione than let go of her best gal pal and turned to Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.
"You have no right to call her Weasel, bleach head," Hermione said, turning steely again.
"And just what are you going to do about it, Mudblood?" Malfoy spat.
"Oh nothing," said Hermione innocently. "Just this... ?I'l('è'·)!" Immediately, a tiny brown squirrel came out of her wand. Malfoy smiled at it.
"Oh, how cute. A little pet," he said, crouching down. Then, the squirrel attacked, jumping on Malfoy's neck. "ARRGH!" Malfoy yelled, running down the lane. Crabbe and Goyle shrugged at each other, then copied their leader, shrieking and running down the lane after him.
"What was that?" Ron said from the door of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
"Japanese for squirrel. My friend Bunnie taught me," she said, turning around. She was startled to see two very tall, mature boys staring back at her. "Geez, did you grow!" she said to Harry and Ron.
"We weren't the only ones," Ron said, pointing out Ginny. Hermione's eyes opened in surprise as she realized that Ginny did look grown up. "You grew too!" Harry said to her. She walked inside the store and picked up a mirror from one of the shelves. She took one look and made a face.
"Ugh! No! I didn't! I grew shorter and fatter!" she said in a disgusted voice.
"Herm, that's a trick mirror. You should learn not to trust anything that Fred and George make!" Ron said. Hermione shot Ron an evil look, then walked around the store with Ginny.
The first thing she said when she got back was, "Did you two do your homework yet?"
Both rolled their eyes and mumbled, "Yes." They had a good laugh, when the twins came in through the fire.
"Okay, guys," Fred said. "We finished with our Hogsmeade store and hired managers for both of the shops.
"You and your two girlfriends can leave now," George said playfully.
"You've got to be kidding," Harry said.
"I'm not his girlfriend!" screamed Ginny at the same time.
"Fine then. Harry, Ginny, Ron, and his girlfriend must leave now," said Fred.
"WHAT?" Ron and Hermione said at the same time. They both got really red and inched away from each other. They both ran out of the store as fast as they could. Outside, you could see them go in opposite directions.
"Heh heh. Those two," George said. "Puppy love."
"Yeah, you gotta love it," said Fred, putting one of his arms around George's shoulders. "You two better keep an eye on the lovebirds, okay?" Harry and Ginny laughed.
"Sure thing," Ginny said. She and Harry walked out of the store to find Ron and Hermione still running in and out of shops, still trying to avoid each other.