Title: Harry Potter and Kinson's Orb
Author: Kararen
Disclaimer: I wish I owned Harry Potter, but I don't.
Author's Note: Here we get to see Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes joke shop up and running!
-Chapter Four-
Number Ninety-Three Diagon Alley
Harry stayed in Ron's room on the top floor of the Burrow. The room was still decorated in the orange paraphernalia of the Chudley Cannons, Ron's favourite quidditch team. Ron's owl, Pigwidgeon (Pig for short) was hooting excitedly as soon as Harry had stirred in his bed.
"Okay, Pig, give it a rest! We're up!" Ron said as he sat up in bed and let out a yawn.
Ron let Pig out of his cage and the owl started zooming around the room.
"He's still hyperactive! I can't figure out what to do with him!" said Ron.
"Maybe you should try giving him some owl treats!" suggested Harry.
Ron threw a few treats at Pig who kept zipping around their heads.
"It was worth a try," said Harry as he and Ron shut the door to Ron's room leaving Pig to fly around the room on his own.
As they made their way down the stairs, they met Ginny and Hermione coming out from Ginny's room.
"Morning!" said Hermione while wiping her eyes.
"Good morning!" Harry replied, still in an uplifted mood after his birthday party the day before.
The four of them made their way to the kitchen where Mrs. Weasley had breakfast ready. They sat down at the table and helped themselves to french toast with syrup, bacon, hash browns and orange juice.
When they had finished eating, they helped Mrs. Weasley clean up, as the other members of the Weasley family had gotten up, eaten, and left for work long before, even Fred and George.
"Thanks dears. Now take some floo powder and be on your way to Diagon Alley. I want you to go straight there! You can never be too careful nowadays! Fred and George are expecting you! They want to show Harry what they've done with their shop," Mrs. Weasley said offering them floo powder from a jar above the fireplace.
The joke shop wasn't part of the floo network yet, so they had to go to Flourish and Blotts first. When all four of them arrive safely, they cleaned themselves off, had a laugh over the time in his second year that Harry had missed the fireplace in Diagon Alley, and walked out into street.
Witches and wizards in many different coloured robes were scattered about the street. They didn't go in any other shops, but looked into the windows as they passed. Harry wanted to suggest going into Quality Quidditch Supplies to look around, but Mrs. Weasley had told them to go straight to the joke shop.
Finally they came to shop number ninety-three. There was a bright red sign above the door that said 'Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes'. Harry opened the door for everyone and they stepped inside one by one.
Harry stopped just inside the door and looked at the shop in total awe. This was surely a troublemaker's paradise! Only Fred and George could have created a store like this one! There were shelves of Filibuster's Fireworks, piles of wands that turned into chickens when the person tried to cast a spell with them, there were containers filled with Pepper Imps, Ice Mice, and Canary Creams, a whole row of Extendable Ears, a Portable Swamp being prepared to go into the window display, and a Weasleys' Specialty section that contained Skiving Snackboxes, Fainting Fancies, Nosebleed Nougat, and Puking Pastilles.
Harry took a few more steps in. As he did so, Lee Jordan called out to him from behind the cashier's counter.
"Harry! How are you? Wait right there, I'll get Fred and George, they're in the back!"
Within seconds, the twins were rushing towards Harry and the group.
"Harry! Finally you're here!" said George.
"We've got something special to show you!" Fred added.
They each grabbed one of his arms and pulled him over to the side of the shop, where the counter stood. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny followed.
"Lee, if you would be so kind as to go and grab the plaque…" Fred said, motioning behind the counter.
"I would be honoured," Lee replied and ducked out of view.
Harry looked to the others, but they were as uncertain of what was going on he was. The few people that were in the store were starting to be interested in what was going on, and were forming a small audience around them.
"Here you go," said Lee, handing something in a gold frame to George.
"Ahem, if I could have everyone's attention please," said Fred, loud enough for people out on the street to hear. "We would like to welcome you all to this ceremony to honour the founder of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes, Mr. Harry Potter!"
Everyone around clapped wildly, but Harry stood in his place, shocked.
"He provided us with what we needed to begin this shop, and could not have got it running without him. He made our dreams to help kids make trouble everywhere, and for that, we'd like to thank him by putting up this plaque with his picture on it." George said, as he placed the plaque up on the wall. It had a headshot of Harry smiling, and underneath it read,
Harry Potter
Founder of Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes
June 1995Thank you for your contribution.
"Come on up and say a few words Harry, don't be shy!" Fred cried out.
Everyone cheered and Ginny gave Harry a push up to the front. He looked at everyone, noticing that the crowd had grown considerably, and cleared his throat.
"Er, thanks Fred and George. I was happy to help! Just let me know if you ever need anything again!"
Suddenly, there were some whispers from the crowd and a few muffled laughs. Harry was beginning to feel very nervous. He looked to Ron who was also trying not to laugh but not doing a very good job.
"Look behind you Harry!" Hermione mouthed to him.
He turned and looked in time to see an invisible marker begin to draw on Harry's face in the picture. It drew devil horns, a moustache, and several boils on his face. Harry couldn't help but laugh. It seemed that once he begun, everyone else let go and an uproar of laughter filled the shop.
"We couldn't just have a normal picture up there could we now?" George said.
Harry tied to move out from the center of attention, but Fred grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
"Not so fast Harry! " said George. "We're not finished."
Fred continued to speak to the audience, "We would also like to present this certificate making Harry an official member of the team here at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. It entitles him to anything he desires from the shop! So let's all give Harry another round of applause, and remember that you can pick up order forms at the counter as well as sign up for the testing of our new products!"
With that said, everyone cheered again, and the crowd began to disperse throughout the store.
"Well that certainly brought in a lot of business," Ron said happily.
"Yes, well, that was kind of your birthday present Harry. Anything you want is yours! You did give us the money to start it!" Fred said with a smile.
"Thanks! But I don't really know what I want. Can we look around for a bit?"
"Of course! You are welcome to try out anything you want to as well!" Fred told him.
"Come on," Ron said, "You've got to try their newest thing!"
Harry and the two girls followed Ron back to where they had come into the shop. There was a sign that said, 'Mad Eye Mints'.
"They are a tribute to Mad Eye Moody! Fred and George think that they will sell well with Hogwarts students!" Ginny explained. "They make your eyes wobble around and end up in the back of your head. You have to walk backwards until they wear off!"
"Let's all try one and see who can get to the other side of the store first!" Ron suggested.
"Do you really think that these are safe?" Hermione asked, eying the mints cautiously.
"Of course they are! They wouldn't sell them if they weren't!" Ron said angrily.
"Don't get upset, I just think that we should be careful that's all!"
"Fine, you don't have to try them, the three of us can do it."
"Well, I wasn't saying that I'm not going to try them!"
While those two sorted out their argument, Ginny nudged Harry to look at his picture on the wall. He noticed that the horns and boils were gone, and this time the invisible jokester drew a crack in his glasses, big bushy eyebrows, and a beard right down to the floor. He and Ginny laughed, which made Ron and Hermione stop and look as well.
"Okay, enough arguing, honestly you two, we can't take you anywhere! Everyone grab a mint!" Ginny instructed.
They each grabbed one, and on the count of three, put them in their mouth. Harry felt really dizzy as his eyes roamed freely about his head before stopping at the back. He could see everything behind him.
"Go!" Ron roared, and they all began to stumble across the joke shop trying to get to the other side.
Harry tumbled over some chicken wands, and Ron nearly got stuck in the Portable Swamp. Hermione had fallen right at the beginning and had given up quickly. Ginny it seemed was by far the most talented at it, and got to the other side without falling once!
They spent the day doing much of the same sort of thing. They were having a wonderful time, and even Fred and George joined them for a few laughs. Each time Harry looked at his picture during the day, something new had been drawn on him. He had a halo and wings one time, no ears another time so his glasses kept falling off his face, and at one point he was smiling broadly without any teeth.
In the afternoon, Harry found out where Ginny had gotten the money for a Nimbus 2000. George had informed her that it was her turn to work the next day. Her and Ron had been working at the shop all summer and were getting paid for it. Ginny immediately went out and bought a broomstick, excited to practice so she could try out for the house team. Ron couldn't choose what to get first, and had decided to save his money for the time being. Though, he thought he'd like a dragon skin jacket like Fred and George had.
They were having so much fun that Harry didn't even think when George offered him a red lollipop before putting it in his mouth. About thirty seconds later though, Hermione gasped and Ron and Ginny chuckled.
"What's wrong?" Harry said, quickly removing the sucker from his mouth and wondering that he had taken it in the first place.
"See for yourself!" Fred said, pointing at Harry's reflection in the window at the store's front.
Harry ran to it and saw that his jet black, untidy mop of hair had turned flaming red, just like that of the Weasley family members. He looked quite comical and broke out laughing! Everyone followed suit except Hermione who looked rather concerned.
"It's one of our new things Harry," Fred told him. "They aren't even for sale yet!"
"That's a good one Fred! Now how do I get rid of it?" Harry asked.
"What, don't you like it? Now you are really part of the family!"
Harry grinned. He liked to think that the Weasley's considered him to be family.
"All you do is chew on the stick once you've finished eating the lolly! Then it will go back!"
They continued to play in the joke shop, but when Harry had finished and began to chew the stick, nothing happened.
"Fred, George, come quick, it's not working!" Ginny called out.
The twins rushed over and tried everything that they could, but with no success. At the end of the day, Harry still had red hair, and they had to leave for the Burrow hoping that tomorrow they could figure something out if it hadn't worn off by then.
When they arrived, Mrs. Weasley gave each of her children a kiss, including Harry without realizing it. When she noticed that there was not a black haired kid in the group, she panicked and yelled, "Where's Harry! My goodness, this is terrible, we must find him straight away! I'll alert Dumbledore, and Fred go call your father…"
"Calm down, I'm right here Mrs. Weasley," Harry said hurriedly.
"Oh, Harry! Your hair! What happened?"
"We had a little mishap at the shop. We're not quite sure how to get rid of it yet!" George explained.
"What do you mean?" said Mrs. Weasley crossly.
"Oh don't worry, it'll all work out," Fred said confidently.
"And if not, you can just adopt Harry! No one will question his belonging to the family with hair like that!"
Everyone laughed, including Mrs. Weasley.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Author's Note: I think that that was a most enjoyable chapter!! Keep reading and don't forget to review! I've already got the next chapter planned, so hopefully it won't take long to write!