A/N: I need to clarify something:

Ray- I'm sorry, I forgot the rest of your penname… please keep all 'bad' words out of your reviews. My younger brother picked up on a few of them… Thanks for your reviews, though!

Point Number One- I expect at least five reviews before I put another chapter up on my stories. That goes for all of them. One is good, Two is fine, three is better, four is even better, five is great, any more is excellent. I would like at LEAST one review, please? Or I will be forced to become mean. Thanks go to yayalulu for reviewing…!

Anyway, thank you for your patience, and on with the story.

Chapter 6

The Twins' Revenge

Fred and George Weasley, apparently, had forgotten that their mother had wisely placed an Unbreakable Charm on The Burrow's each and every window. As it was, Harry watched them in utter disbelief as first Fred, then George, peeled their faces off his window, wearing identical expressions of pain.

Stunned by their sudden appearance from nowhere, Harry let them in.

Fred, still clutching the broomstick he'd been riding, flopped down on Harry's floor, nursing a bruised nose.

"Wotcher, Harry," he said in a suspiciously over-casual voice. "Just been out for Quidditch practice once more…"

Harry saw the play-along-with-me look that the twins exchanged.

Heaving a sigh, Harry inquired, "Whatcha do, whodja mow down?"

George, holding a wad of tissue to his bleeding nose, spoke for both of them.

"Dunno whatcha mean, Harry…"

"You know what I mean… What did you do?"

"Nothing, Harry!"

"Don't make me drag your mother in here…"

Both twins blanched.

"Okay, okay Harry," Fred said hastily. "No need to get huffy… we went to go tend our store for a while, and guess who we saw there?"

Harry shrugged. "Dunno. Who?"

"Umbridge."

A grimace of utter hatred crossed Harry's face as he remembered the toadlike Defense against the Dark Arts professor he was unlucky enough to have.

"Yeah? What happened?"

Fred grinned wickedly. "Well, what else? We invited her in and gave her a demonstration of one of our products. You know those big inflatable toys Muggles love?"

"Yeah…"

"We found one of a centuar, charmed it to move, you know? And then we blew it up and set it on her."

George's nose had finally stopped oozing blood, and he removed the tissues to continue the narrative. "It chased her a fair way down Diagon Alley… we called the centuar back after a while."

Harry grinned widely. Noticing his look, Fred raised an eyebrow grimly.

"Yeah, that's how we felt, until McGonagall showed up."

"What'd she do?" Harry asked slowly, unsure of whether or not he wanted to hear the answer.

"Lectured us for a while on our little departure last year… gave us about four hundred hours of service at Hogwarts… then cancelled it all and bought four of the centuar inflatables."

Harry grinned. Professor McGonagall had loathed Umbridge nearly as much as the pupils, and had been distinctly heard voicing a strong desire to watch Umbridge's final mad dash from Hogwarts, closely pursued by Peeves.

"And, as gratitude toward you, dear Harry… we thought it only fair that you take this."

George pressed a sack of Galleons into Harry's arms.

"One thousand Galleons."

Harry stared at Fred and Georges' eager faces, then sighed and pushed the bag back at them.

"No, thanks… give it to Ron. He'd like it."

Fred stared incredulously at Harry, then shrugged.

"All right… we'll give it to him… from you."

Harry grinned. "Thanks, you guys."

George winked at him and sneezed.

"Aw, damn," he swore, pressing the wad of tissues to his nose once more before following his twin out of the room.

Once more, Harry was left to contemplate all the possible meanings of the word 'isolated'.

Footsteps paused just outside Harry's door, and Ron poked his head in, looking more confused than Harry had ever seen him.

"I just got knocked over by a flying sack of Galleons Fred said were from you," Ron said, obviously thinking he was dreaming.

Harry's spirits soared. "Yeah, take them, I don't really need them…" he said quietly.

The incredulous look on Ron's face was enough to make Harry's day.

"You mean it?"

Harry nodded. "Yup."

"You're bloody delirious…"

"I know. Go buy yourself something…!"

Ron looked as if he couldn't believe his ears, then sighed and said, "We're leaving first thing in the morning."

"Kay."

Ron turned to leave, only to be dragged into the room by Hermione as she nonchalantly reached out and grabbed him as she passed.

She sighed and plopped down beside Harry on the bed. "What're we gonna do until four AM tomorrow?"

Harry stared at her. "Huh?"

"Even if we fall asleep this instant, we won't be able to get up by four AM! It's one in the morning already… so, what d'you want to do for three hours?"

Ron and Harry exchanged glances.

"Chess tournament?" was their chorused reply.

Hermione looked ready to say no, but the looks they were giving her apparently changed her mind.

"Oh, all right," she sighed. "But if Professor McGonagall catches us, it's not my fault…"

Harry sighed, then removed his wand from the pocket of his jeans.

"Accio Ginny!"

There was a squeak from down the hall, and Ginny, a book in her hand, wire-rimmed glasses perched on her nose, shot into the room, bowling Harry over as she hit him.

Ron and Hermione exchanged looks, then, surprisingly, Ron grinned.

Ginny stared at Harry as he sat back up, rubbing his shoulder where she'd hit him.

"I was reading, thank you very much," she said irritably, then smiled at Harry and said, "But I'll watch…"

Ron rolled his eyes and politely refrained from saying anything. Hermione, on the other hand, was ready to burst out laughing.

Harry grinned at Ginny, then turned his attention back to the chessboard as Ron arranged the pieces one by one.

A/N: So, what did you think? Do the author a favor? Rate the entire story so far, based on the classic 1-10 scale, One being worst, 10 being best, and why. I don't spend countless hours a day typing this to laugh at my own writing, you know…

Next chapter: On to California!