Chapter 8

Diagon Alley. Colin closed his eyes and took a deep breath as the bricks

moved and shifted aside to form the welcoming arch. This was the fifth time he'd

done this but he never tired of it. A breeze ruffled his hair and he opened his

eyes and the four of them waded into the bustling crowds along with Dennis and

his parents. It was Saturday and that meant that the Alley was three times as

crowded as it usually was. Colin would have preferred to go the day after their

letters arrived but his parents were intent on coming with them. They had gone

with Colin each year and each year, their fascination with the place increased

and they were interested in everything.

Colin hoped to lose them in the bookstore, which just happened to be their first

stop. As Dennis liked to say, "Get the unpleasant tasks out of the way first,"

and new textbooks were high on that list, meaning homework and hours of future

misery for all students. Fortunately, it didn't take too long. Besides the books

for Dennis' new classes, they only really needed new defense books and The

Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5 for Colin. Dennis could use all of Colin's old

books for everything else. By the time they had purchased them, Mr. Creevey was

well immersed in Muggle Machinery: Managing without Magic and Mrs. Creevey was

attempting to read Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pets but the miniature

Lockharts kept distracting her by waving and winking roguishly.

"Now's our chance," Colin murmured to Dennis, handing him the bad of

books. He cautiously approached his father. "Hey, Dad." Mr. Creevey didn't take

his eyes off the book to reply. "Hmm?"

"We need to go to some other shops now. We need knew robes, some potions

ingredients, that sort of thing. D'you and Mum want to go or..." he trailed off

as his father started rummaging through his pockets, eyes still on the book and

handed him the stash of wizarding money they'd exchanged. back when

you're finished."

Colin grinned, thanked him and vanished out of the shop with Dennis in

tow. They did need some new robes and they went there next, then the

apothecary's for potions. Colin begrudgingly handed over a good portion of their

money and took his ingredients. "Snape is not worth that much money," he told

Dennis grimly. Dennis didn't answer. "Dennis?" He glanced around but Dennis was

nowhere to be found. Typical. Turn your back for one moment and Dennis was gone.

His younger brother was standing in front of Quality Quidditch Supplies, mouth

wide open, staring at some Quidditch brooms hanging in the window. "Cleansweeps.

On clearance." He held his moneybag up in the air. "I think I have just enough

to buy it-"

"And have no money left over for anything else," Colin reminded him.

"That's all your allowance for months. You have a good enough broom," Dennis

looked at them longingly. "Come on, we have bigger fish to fry. Besides, you owe

me money for potions ingredients," he prodded and pulled Dennis away from the

window.

Truth to tell, Colin wasn't all that manic about Quidditch. Sure, he liked it.

Everyone liked it but he wasn't a Get-Together-With-Your-Mates-And-Stand-Half-

Naked-With-GRYFFINDOR-Painted-on-the-Chests fan but if he managed to get a spot

on the house team, all the better, especially if Harry made captain. Dennis had

the drive on this issue; Dennis had the passion to get out there everyday and

practice until he dropped. The only thing Colin could feel that way about was

photography. Everything else was the result of too many "whys" and too few "why

nots."

They walked down the alley, eyes sweeping up and down the buildings,

looking for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

Then it happened.

Colin had heard of it happening but this was the first time it had ever

happened to him. It seemed like the sky cleared and a ray of light shot down

from the sky, beaming down on a building and enshrining it in golden light. The

building itself was fairly narrow, painted a dark red. Gold lettering running

above the window and door read "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes" and so great was its

beauty that Colin had to force himself to keep walking and not stop in the

street staring at it with an absent look on his face. They approached it

dreamily and pushed open the front door. It opened with a pleasant twinkling

sound and they were inside.

The store was not dank, dusty or odorous like other stores in Diagon

Alley. Nor was it clean and overloaded with goods. Instead, it was bright and

rows of shelves filled with fun, dangerous looking things ran up and down the

stores length. The first thing they saw was a stack of large catalogs sitting on

a counter with a sign next to them reading "Take one." Dennis did and began to

leaf through it, hungrily. "I'll just walk around and see if there's anything

that can help us," Colin said eagerly. It looked as though the Weasley brothers

had put their early departure from Hogwarts to good use. While he had gotten a

pretty good idea of the extent of Fred and George's inventory at Hogwarts, the

store showed exactly what creative thinking and hours spent in History of Magic

could do. He was surrounded by the old classics-Ton Tongue Toffees, fake wands,

and Canary Creams. Skiving lunchboxes were on special for Hogwarts students: the

image of a student thoroughly enjoying himself while his classmates languished

in boredom was pinned up on an advertisement board. Colin passed by them and

smiled, remembering how Dennis had bravely (foolishly) volunteered to be the

only second year test subject. He'd thrown up for about thirty minutes,

eventually he descended into dry heaves but Dennis still insisted the money more

than made up for the puking.

Colin frowned as he passed a row of books stuffed into a bookshelf. They

looked like the Hogwarts textbooks sold in Flourish and Blotts and Colin pulled

one out, wondering what exactly they were doing in this store. The copy he had

was One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi and it was for sale. In a store owned

by the Weasley's. "You have to tap it with your wand and say 'Oblivion,'" a

helpful voice told him and Colin jumped and turned around. Standing behind him

and grinning proudly was one of the Weasley twins.

"Alright," Colin said nervously and pulled his wand out of his pocket. He

tapped it and the inside font changed from descriptions of herbs to the colorful

drawings of "Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle?" Colin said in amazement.

The twin smiled proudly. "Of course, this is just the original sub-story.

The publishers of "Martin Miggs" paid us a nice sum to put a sampling issue in

it. Once you buy it, it can naturally be replaced with anything you'd rather be

reading."

"Anything can be hidden in there? That's ingenious, Weasley." When in

doubt, use the last name.

"Thank you," he said, giving a modest bow. "You can only imagine how the

History of Magic books have been flying off the shelves-"

"Really? Why? Binns would never notice if the whole class got up and

started to jig, much less read a different book."

Weasley laughed. "I don't ask; I just sell."

"Well, it's a good idea anyway, and you could bet I'd be getting one for

potions if I didn't think it was more than my life is worth to be caught not

paying attention in there."

Fred/George looked aghast. "You mean, you're not here to empty your money bag?"

Colin smiled grimly. "I didn't say that. As it happens, Dennis and I are here to

see if you have anything to help us deal with a filchian problem."

The twin looked impressed. "You've managed to irritate Filch during the

holidays? Well done, Creevey."

"Er, actually, no. We've irritated his muggle counterpart."

Now he looked very impressed. "Oh, now that's intriguing. Come on up front and

let's see if we can't help you out." They weaved back through the tall shelves

and reached the front counter where Dennis was crouched on a stool, voraciously

reading through the catalog. "Don't drool on it, younger Creevey, or else you'll

have to buy it. Oy, Fred!" George (now Colin knew) shouted.

"Just a sec...having problems with the-Ow! I'll be right there!" His voice

sounded a bit panicked but George smiled benignly and leaned against the

counter. Finally Fred appeared from behind the booth, flicking his hand in the

air and grimacing. Then he looked up and saw the two of them standing there and

all signs of pain vanished and a smile appeared. "Aha! More young deviants from

Hogwarts. How may we corrupt you today?"

"Well, we'll start with the dungbombs," Dennis said in a faraway voice, still

lost within the catalog, "then maybe the professional box of fireworks-"

Colin interrupted him impatiently. "No, we don't need that. We need your

advice." He leaned in over the counter. "We need a way to distract a muggle

policeman who seems to be channeling Filch and that is without magic and without

cluing anyone onto what we're doing."

Fred looked fascinated. "An alarm of sorts, you mean?"

"Yes, just to give us enough time to get away so we can keep practicing

Quidditch."

"Are you two going to try out for the team this year?" George asked.

Dennis beamed and turned the page in the catalog. "Yes, for beaters."

"Ah. Well, best of luck to you. I'm sure you'll do fine. Then again, anyone

would be fine over the two useless beaters whom we shall not name we had on our

team last year." All four of them cringed at the memory. Gryffindor's final

victory had been nothing short of a miracle and the games still gave them bangs

of misery and embarrassment.

"We've been trying to get in form all summer but we seem to have irritated the

local law enforcement," Colin told them. "He is determined to arrest us or at

the very least, kick us out of the park."

Fred tsked. "Muggles. They have no understanding of the importance of

Quidditch."

"Hmm," George rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then swiped the catalog away from

Dennis and flipped to the back, where he had a sort of index. He read quietly

for a few minutes and the others looked on. Fred rubbed the fingers of his right

hand absentmindedly. After a few minutes, George closed the book with a thump.

"Well, there's nothing in there that you could use, especially if you want to do

this without using underage magic. Look, we'll sleep on it for a while and let

you know if we come up with anything, okay?" He paused. Colin and Dennis gave

their agreement and George went on. "Excellent. In the meantime, any orders you

would like to place would be -appreciated." The twins looked at Dennis and Colin

expectantly and Colin knew what they meant. As they say, one hand washes the

other. He pulled out his moneybag. "I'll take a couple of Headless Hats and

Canary Creams-"

They met up with their parents at Fortesque's an hour and many galleons later,

their arms filled with all sorts of goodies guaranteed to make Agnes' head spin.

Admittedly, that had been Colin's motivation when buying most of the objects. He

thought of her turning into a bright yellow canary, grinned maliciously and took

a large bite of his ice cream sundae in order to hide it. They hadn't achieved

their main objective in going to Diagon alley but tomorrow was another day. One

Colin found himself looking forward to immensely.