Harry woke up surrounded by a small swamp. He smiled, remembering the swamp the Fred and George had put in the hall at Hogwarts. "Fred! George! Would you two mind getting the swamp out of my room."
Two freckled faces appeared at the door of his room in the enchanted tent. "Sorry mate. We thought that the swamp adds to the originality of the room."
"I wouldn't get off of your bed if I were you." Fred said grinning.
"Why would that be?"
"Well right where you are it's about six feet deep."
"George. It's only five. Remember, we fixed it so the deepest it could get is five feet." Fred told George.
"Oh yeah, we didn't want anyone drowning in twelve foot deep swamp water."
Harry edged towards the center of his bed. "Would you mind taking the swamp out of my room?"
"It's okay mate. It's on a timer. It'll leave in an hour or so."
"Where will it leave to?"
"Dudley's room."
"You guys are mean."
"Yeah. Would you like a boat to get out of your room?"
"That would be nice."
One of the twins transfigured a reed into a small boat.
"That's a tidy little spell there. Where did you learn it?"
"It's a variation on the Canary Creams."
"So I don't get to find out what it is?"
"No. You're too smart."
"You might be able to figure out the canary cream incantation and there goes that business." George clarified.
"Hey! I'm one of your major sponsors here. Would I try and put you out of business?"
"No. But competitors might be able to torture it out of you."
"Or they could put some veritaserum in your pumpkin juice."
"Point taken." Harry said as he climbed into the boat and tapped it with his wand. It began moving slowly towards the door. Harry shuddered as he remembered where he had heard the threat of having veritaserum put in his pumpkin juice before. Snivellus. Or as Ron called him, the greasy haired git.
"Harry what do you want for breakfast?"
"I'll make my own food, thank you very much."
"Why don't you trust us?" Fred and George said together, their faces expressing mock hurt.
"No I just don't want to get turned into a canary or something equally silly."
"We wouldn't do that to you. Now would we Harry?" asked Fred innocently.
"Yes we would. Don't lie to him."
"No we wouldn't. Remember what mum said about testing our products on Harry."
"Oh yeah." In nearly perfect imitation of Molly Weasly's voice the twins said, "If you want to live to see your joke shop be a success, don't you harm Harry. He's like a son to me."
"I am?" Harry asked in amazement.
"Course you are. You're Ron's best mate, tolerate dad's obsession for muggle things, and funded our joke shop. The only downside is that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is trying to kill you. A small downside, but as half the family's in the order, you've got great protection."
"Thanks, I never really thought that anyone cared. Do you mind if I go for a walk?"
"Not at all. We'll be leaving soonish. So bye. See you whenever."
"Same to you." With that, Harry turned and left to take a short walk. As he was walking through the woods he came upon Kevin.
"Hello Kevin. How are you today."
"I'm fine, I was looking for you. Your aunt stopped at the shop as she was leaving with your uncle and cousin."
"So you know that I am alone then?"
"Yes."
Kevin's last comment was met with silence. Harry noticed the silence and tried to fill it, "I'm not completely alone. I've got my owl and a snake found me and said that it wants to stay with me, so I've got someone to talk to."
"Me 'n' Cat were talking last night after your aunt left. We thought that since we haven't hired anyone for a summer position in our store, it would be nice to hire you. It would be just some window cleaning, and shelf dusting. Possibly tending the shop full time for a week or so if the wife and I decide to go on a summer trip."
"Cat?"
"My wife. I call her Cat, it's short for Catriona. We agreed to pay you ten pounds, and a galleon weekly. (A/N: did you know that one knut is a little over nine and a half pounds??? If I did my figuring right... In Fantastic Beasts, there are some amounts. I think it's how much money comic relief has raised. It gives it in muggle money and wizard money. If I did my figuring wrong and someone knows the right way, please tell me.) If you need a place to stay, we have a small room in our loft."
"I can stay in my tent. Fred and George enchanted it so it is very comfortable."
"The Weasley brothers?"
"Yes. Do you know them?"
"I've got some of their products in my shop."
"You sell Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes to muggles?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Of course not. Well, maybe one in a great while." Kevin said obviously joking. "Mainly I keep them in the back room that I keep the wizarding things I sell in."
"Do you get many wizards in your shop?"
"Yes quite a few. Especially professors from your school. I've got some goods that are quite hard to obtain."
"Illegal goods?"
"That, my boy, is none of your business."
Harry thought for a moment. He decided that the work experience wouldn't hurt him, and he would be able to make a few extra galleons.
"Who were you warning me about?"
"Oh. A long time ago the Marauder's hung out in these woods perfecting their pranks. Some er... lasting effects are still around today. Nothing really harmful, but at one point, my two children, Meaghan and Kirley got stuck in a section of the woods.
"I'd love to know how the Marauder's managed to do that one." They had come back to Harry's tent and Fred and George were still there.
"Well Fred why don't you find them and ask them." Kevin said with a grin.
"Kevin, you knew the Marauder's and you never told us!" George accused Kevin.
Harry smiled. "Well there's only two of them left now, and one of them I'd rather not talk to, but I'm sure Moony would love to tell you how they did that."
"Harry! You too. Why?" Asked George mournfully.
"You never asked," replied Harry.
"I'm asking now," said Fred. "Who are they?"
"Do you really want to know," Kevin asked, "Wouldn't it be more fun just to wonder?"
"NO!" shouted Fred and George in unison.
Kevin looked at Harry, "Would you like to tell them as you are closer to two of them than I am?"
"Okay. Prongs is my father, Padfoot is my godfather, Wormtail is Peter Pettigrew, and Moony is Lupin."
"No way."
"Yes way."
"We've GOT to talk to Lupin. What about this Peter fellow?"
"You've met him. In fact you've lived with him."
"Really." Fred said skeptically.
"Did I mention that all four Marauders could take the shape of an animal."
"NO." Fred and George said crossly.
"Well Lupin is a werewolf, James was a Stag, Sirius was a large black dog who had an uncanny resemblance to the Grim, and Peter was a rat."
"Scabbers!" Fred and George said in unison. "Whatever happened to him?"
"He went back to his master."
"His master." George questioned.
"Voldemort."
"Oh. Sorry I asked."
George brightened, "It's cool that your dad was one of the Marauders."
Harry smiled. "Tell Lupin 'hi' from me when you corner him."
"Will do." With two pops, the twins disapparated.
Kevin smiled at the spot where the twins had been. "Those two. Always foolin' around. Never a dull moment with Fred and George around. So are you going to take the job?"
"Well, since I seem to be living on my own and living costs money, I guess that I'm going to have to get a job. Working at your shop seems convenient. I like the atmosphere there."
"That's great then. You start tomorrow."
"Thanks for offering the job. How many of the townspeople are still here that were here when..." Harry, unable to find appropriate words, just pointed at his scar.
"When He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did your parents in?"
"Yeah." The answer came quietly.
"Quite a few. The ones that are though are mostly the old-timers and wizards. The old-timers because they have been here for ever and they didn't want to leave and wizards because they know what actually happened that night."
"Oh. So I guess there'll be some gossip about me staying here."
"There's always gossip in a small village when someone new comes in."
"But there'll be more for me, as I'm the boy who lived."
"Good point. I best be going as I only told Cat I'd be gone for a half hour. I've been gone for a good hour. Don't want her to think that I've got caught in one of the Marauders old tricks. She'd have your friend Lupin out here searching for me before you can say wronski feint."
"Bye then." Harry said glumly, for he had the rest of a boring day by himself to look forward to. He brightened, remembering that he would see Kevin and Cat tomorrow. "See you tomorrow. What time do you want me there?"
"We open at nine, so come at about eight thirty."
"Okay then." Harry watched Kevin walk off through the woods towards the village.
"Sso, then. What will we do for the resst of the day?" Asked the snake.
"I don't know. What isss your name?"
"Sserpentine."
"Very ssnake like."
"When I wass exploring your tent I ssaw ssome interessting bookss in the ssitting area."
"Sso why don't we read then?"
"That ssoundss like a plan." Harry picked out a rather large book that was about Hogwarts' Teachers. "Something Hermione would love to read." Harry muttered. He and Serpentine read for the rest of the day. Actually Harry read and Serpentine watched the pages of the books, being a young snake and not knowing how to read.

A/N: Wow. This chapter is longer than I expected. I had some more things planned for this chapter, but some stuff took up more space, so I decided to end it here. There was suppoused to be a cliffy, but again, things took up more space.