Chapter 27: PEEVES
Harry figured he would really know if he had the Mark of Ancients again when he learned what the first task was going to be. On his reasoning, he would probably have a fit and start crying himself into a ball on the floor, horribly embarassing himself in front of the entire school. But he tried not to think about it because the more he did, the more of a foreboding feeling he got that it would happen.
Cho's letter came three days after Harry had sent one to her and as Harry promised, Harry was to give Hedwig some bacon each morning. He was keen on keeping her happy as she was going to be a doing a lot of letter delivering this year which she didn't object to unless she was properly rested... Cho's reply made Harry feel a lot better as she had told him to not let the dream get to him, that he's stuck out far worse things, like Voldemort himself, for example and, one way or another, it would all be over after this year. She also asked if there was any chance she could go to Hogwarts with him to the Yule Ball. Harry felt strange about her asking about it but was excited all the same. He sent a letter back that very same day after asking Professor McGonagall, whom after some pleading on Harry's part, agreed ("Fine, Potter!" she snapped. "Fine!"; "Thank you!" said Harry gratefully).
There was an incident involving Peeves the following day that involved Raides and one of her greatest wishes. It had snowed the previous day and Peeves had been throwing snowballs out on the grounds from atop the tallest tower at Hogwarts, the Astronomy Tower. Apparently, he didn't think Raides would be able to know it was him.
Walking around the lake, Harry heard it before he felt it. A Hagrid-sized snowball, or more correctly, snow-boulder, connected with Harry's head, soaking his robes, entering his shoes to soak his socks, turning his usual black hair white and knocking him down. Full of snow and shivering, Harry lost it completely.
"PEEVES!" he roared, making Hermione jump after Raides had muttered the same under her breath. He couldn't help himself; he had become a human snow-man.
Harry got up, shook his head, brushing the snowflakes out of it and off of his robes. Peeves, feeling daring, swooped down upon him and Raides, sneering and doing a jig in mid air, all the while picking up and throwing more snowballs at the two of them. Harry stared, a certain fire in his eyes.
He and Raides both stood, taking snowball after snowball, all the while growing more and more angry. Whether he wanted her to or not, Raides leapt into the air, transforming into the Staff of Cybele inside a cloud of misty gray smoke and Harry clutched her tightly in his hand.
Peeves stared at the staff, not knowing what exactly Harry had in mind, but what he did have in mind was Raides telling him he could trap the filthy Poltergeist in a crystal ball. And so --
"Accio crystal ball!" Harry roared, waving the staff in his hand, and, not even soaring through the air, a crystal ball simply appeared in his other hand. Not even taking the time to be amazed, Raides muttered something and Harry shouted it into the morning air. "Adnexum haec anima intra haec cavea!"
It happened in screams of agony and a rush of wind.
In one swift move, a thick, humongous, pearly white hand escaped the staff's crystal and grasped Peeves, squashing him, making him howl in pain (how could a Poltergeist feel pain? Harry thought) and disappeared inside the crystal ball. There was no more Peeves outside on the grounds and there was no Peeves anywhere to be seen. He had been magically binded to the ball.
Ron and Hermione stared where Peeves had just been floating.
"I should shatter this," said Harry angrily, leaning on the enormous staff.
"Maybe you ought to bring it to Filch first," said Ron, halfway between shock and laughter.
"I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve it, but you've basically killed him," said Hermione, also halfway between shock and laughter.
"I heard screaming," wheezed a voice as footsteps came out of the castle behind Harry. "What's going on here?"
Harry wheeled around to see Filch, and his cat, Mrs. Norris, prowling around his feet.
Harry, still hot all over at Peeves, said, "It's Peeves, Mr. Filch. Well, it was." He held up the crystal ball.
Filch stared. "What's this rubbish?" he said. "And where's Peeves?"
Harry waved the crystal ball in Filch's face. "He's in here. I binded him to the ball. He's not getting out unless I let him."
For a fleeting moment, Filch looked horrified but then he broke out laughing, ripped the crystal ball from Harry's hands and ran back into the castle with it, his eyes stunned but his face still laughing. Harry watched him go, a look of savage triumph on his face.
A few hours later while eating in the Great Hall, he almost couldn't believe what he did. It didn't help that several people had come by to congratulate him ("Oh thank you! several first years said).
"I think half the school already knows," said Ron, grinning at Harry's distressed face.
"I still can't believe I did that," said Harry, wishing he could forget about it.
At that instant, Harry saw Dumbledore enter the Hall, a grave look on his face, Harry's stomach gave a horrible turn as he spotted Harry and walked towards him. Dean, Neville, Seamus and Craig quickly stopped talking about why anyone would let Peeves stay in the first place when Harry pointed them in Dumbledore's direction, who was almost upon them now.
Harry saw the remains of a sparkle behind his half-moon spectacles but he was walking with his hands folded in front of him, his long, crooked noise pointed directly at Harry as he walked.
"I had caught wind of your exploits with Raides," he said slowly as he stopped. Harry remained seated. "I believe I have warned you once before to not abuse the staff --"
"Professor --" Harry began desperately, without any idea what he was about to say and was partially glad that Dumbledore didn't stop speaking.
"-- and I believe this will be your second warning, Harry." He looked down at his feet, something Harry never saw Dumbledore do before, and then back up at Harry, the sparkle completely gone now. "I must confess that under normal circumstances, the proper punishment would likely be a suspension but seeing as -- and as Professor McGonagall had once said not too long ago, since your life means more to us than a pack of magic tricks --" he was looking quite strained while trying to find the proper words to express himself with.
There was a disappointment in his voice that Harry felt was worse to hear than getting yelled at so loudly his ears would be hurting. Rarely had Dumbledore ever strained himself for words.
"There will be no detention as I -- good day, Harry," he finished and turned, walking away, letting his arms fall to his sides.
"You really upset him, Harry," said Hermione.
"What was that all about?" Ginny said.
"He looked very stressed out about something," said Harry.
"But he's right, you know. You need to stop abusing that staff. People are going to think you're falling to the Dark arts."
"You mean again?" said Harry, rolling his eyes and referring to his second year.
A few days later, word had got around Hogwarts that the crystal ball containing Peeves had been accidently dropped. Raides had celebrated with several first years in the entrance hall that morning. Filch said it was an accident but Harry knew better; he couldn't pass up the opportunity to be poltergeist-free if it had come so easy.
The Saturday before the first task, it took Harry a minute to realize why his stomach felt like mush. Then he remembered that, in about twenty four hours, he'd be somewhere on the school grounds, shaking from head to toe while only having mere seconds to think up how to do something extraordinarily difficult. It gave him no pleasure.
Third years and up were allowed to visit the village of Hogsmeade that day and it didn't take any persuasion at all from anyone to convince Harry to go. There was no more snow on the ground but that didn't stop it from being slightly cold and the first thing Harry went for was a Warmth Cloak he'd gotten from his father, one of the few, but so very precious, items passed down to him.
"Wish I had one of those," said Ginny, her lips turning blue as they walked out of the castle and down the sloping lawns towards Hogsmeade.
"I guess I can just engorge it," said Harry, pointing a finger at it and saying, "Engorgio!" Absolutely nothing happened. "So much for doing it without my wand," he said irritably, pulling out his wand and engorging the cloak properly.
"You haven't been practicing magic without a wand much, have you?" asked Raides, grinning, as Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny pulled the cloak around themselves, looking very odd indeed.
"No," said Harry. "Everything we're doing in class looks too hard to try without one. How good do you think I am?"
"Better than you think."
"What's she talking about?" asked Ginny curiously.
"Raides wants Harry to practice magic without a wand," Ron explained.
"Because I did quite a few spells without a wand over the summer... mostly on accident," Harry told Ginny.
"I have this feeling you're going to be without your wand and in a very bad situation," said Raides.
"Oh now you have Divination powers, too?" Hermione scoffed.
Raides looked up at her, grinned, and then growled playfully. "Besides," she said, "the better you are at it without a wand, the better you'll be with one."
"The opposite works, too, doesn't it?"
"Well, yeah."
Hermione made a distinct noise of dissent in the back of her throat on Raides' opinion that Harry practice magic without a wand. She could be heard muttering something that if he can't even do a simple Engorgement Charm, how was he supposed to summon an ice dragon. Harry privately agreed, but he did think it would be cool to do a handful of spells without a wand.
Many people stopped to stare, not at Harry, but at the seven foot long, golden and scarlet lion following him that was Raides. It was a welcome change, if still slightly distracting. Raides didn't seem to mind; she rather enjoyed the attention. The first shop they stopped to visit was Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
"Should buy some Ton-Tongue Toffees for Dudley, Harry!" said Fred when the subject about things at Hogwarts fell upon Dudley.
"The scary thing is I think he's getting fatter while he's here," said Harry.
"What House is he in, anyway?"
"Gryffindor," said Hermione, looking at something that resembled a Muggle electric toy car.
"And has anyone in Gryffindor actually made friends with him? Or are they all afraid you'll curse them if you do?" George asked Harry, laughing while Fred sniggered loudly.
"Er," said Harry.
"He's in Gryffindor," said Ron uneasily, "but..."
"But what?" said Fred, still sniggering. "So everyone is afraid Harry'll hex them?"
"But he actually hangs out with Slytherins."
Fred and George both stared at Ron.
"What?" said George.
"Dudley was hanging around the Gryffindor common room but it seems he made friends with our old friend Draco Malfoy at some point," Harry explained, "so now I rarely ever see him in Gryffindor Tower."
"They pulled a nice prank on Harry where they stole his dad's Invisibility Cloak," said Ginny in a that-was-a-very-bad-thing-of-them-to-have-done sort of voice.
"Except Harry lost it, nearly killed them and Dumbledore confiscated the cloak," said Hermione in a that-was-a-very-bad-thing-of-Harry-to-have-done sort of voice.
"Don't remind me," said Harry bitterly. Then he grinned and added, "I used Raides to turn Invisible to go to the Owlery one night to send Cho a letter --"
"Still talking to her, are you?" said Fred, which made Harry's ears turn a nice shade of pink.
"Yes," said Harry, suddenly very interesed in the Muggle toy car that Hermione was looking at.
"When are you two announcing your engagement --"
"What's this thing do?" said Harry hastily, going slightly redder and picking it up.
"Ah!" said George in a misty voice that reminded Harry of Professor Trelawney. "That is our latest invention. Give it to your Muggle friends. Never needs batteries! It runs on magic..."
"Never can break it!" said George, coming out from behind the desk and looking over Harry's shoulder while Fred looked over the other. "A Destruction-Proof Charm..."
"Never need to have it repaired! There's nothing inside of it..."
"Never buy them!" said a witch as she stormed into the shop. "Are you two the owners of this shop?" she said angrily, looking at Fred and George. "My Muggle son ran one through a wall which in turn knocked an entire house down! Made a big mess with the Accidental Magical Reversal Squad, let me tell you!"
Ron smiled.
"We better go," he whispered to Harry, Hermione and Ginny. "Oh they'll be just fine. They get complaints all the time," he added, noting Hermione's shocked face. "People claiming that Squad had to sort something out but they've got everyone's number. They check the records with dad at the office once a month, nothing of their's has ever caused the Accidental Magical Reversal Squad to get called in."
"Why do they do it then?" said Harry.
"Money," Ginny said simply. "One person confessed under Veritaserum that he loved the thing so much that he wanted his money back. I don't know, we get some real weirdos in here. I helped out a bit on the weekends over the summer."
Harry saw Fred wink at him as they left the shop, Raides behind them all.
"I need to go to Honeyduke's," said Harry as they stopped and looked around to see where to go next.
"Don't tell me you're still going to buy something for Dudley," said Hermione in disbelief.
Harry thought for a minute. He was really in no position to have to buy Dudley anything, given he never gave two gnomes in a barrel for Harry every summer at Privet Drive... As they stepped into Honeydukes, Harry looked around at all the sweets on the shelves. Would Dudley want a Cockroach Cluster? A box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans? Fizzing Whizbees (makes you levitate), Droobles Best Blowing Gum (fills a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that don't pop for days), Toothfloosing Stringmints, Pepper Imps (make you breathe fire), Ice Mice (makes your teeth chatter and squeak), toad-shaped peppermint creams (which hop realistically in your stomach), sugar-spun quills or exploding bonbons? Harry couldn't make his mind up.
He then grinned mischeivously.
"I want to get him something that looks innocent but's somewhat mean," he said, which made Ron grin too but Hermione scowl.
"Harry, you get him nothing," she said firmly.
"Oh, Hermione, lighten up," said Ron, examining a box of Stomach Swirlers ("makes your stomach really feel like it's twisting, extremely nauseating!").
"Harry, better you get something for Cho," said Hermione, now grinning herself. "Her birthday's the thirtieth!"
Harry's face immediately changed from mischief to very red and he walked right towards the part of Honeydukes that held their most expensive and best sweets. He was now looking at Nougat Centers, nine Sickles by the dozen; Butterbeer Buttercups, eleven sickles for a box of nine; Honeyduke's Special, twelve sickles by the dozen; Dark Chocolate Delight, fifteen sickles for one box; and a very mysteriously named one called The Recipe that was a whopping two galleons for a box of thirty.
He pointed it out to Ron but the shopkeeper immediately came over.
"I do believe I gave you a sample of that last year?" he said, rubbing his old, wrinkled hands together in delight.
Harry thought for a second, trying to recall what it tasted like because he didn't remember it by the name. Then he looked at the box again, and it immediately came back to him. Each piece was about an inch square, the outside half made up of white milk chocolate, the middle of dark chocolate with the face of a famous wizard on it. There was a pleasant hint of butterbeer mixed in with the succulent taste of the rest and Harry had to agree with his last decision: it was the best thing he'd ever tasted.
"Two boxes, please," said Harry, pulling four galleons out of his money bag and trying to ignore the shock on Ron's face.
"Hey, it's expensive, but you get a lot of them," said Harry, trying to calm Ron down and making sure the one foot by one foot box containing Cho's present was safely in his bag.
"Blimey, Harry! Two galleons?" Ron said weakly. "And you rememeber the more they pack in a box the less expensive it is because they lose less on packaging!" But then he seemed to change moods, a hungry look in his eye. "I've never been able to afford those... Mom said she would have my broom..."
Ginny's dismay was beyond words. Harry doubted whether she'd ever been entrusted with ten galleons. Her lips were pursed as she eyed the bag hungrily.
"Only one's for Cho. The other's for us," said Harry impatiently.
"Sweets for your sweet?" said Ginny.
"Oh shut up."
Harry figured he would really know if he had the Mark of Ancients again when he learned what the first task was going to be. On his reasoning, he would probably have a fit and start crying himself into a ball on the floor, horribly embarassing himself in front of the entire school. But he tried not to think about it because the more he did, the more of a foreboding feeling he got that it would happen.
Cho's letter came three days after Harry had sent one to her and as Harry promised, Harry was to give Hedwig some bacon each morning. He was keen on keeping her happy as she was going to be a doing a lot of letter delivering this year which she didn't object to unless she was properly rested... Cho's reply made Harry feel a lot better as she had told him to not let the dream get to him, that he's stuck out far worse things, like Voldemort himself, for example and, one way or another, it would all be over after this year. She also asked if there was any chance she could go to Hogwarts with him to the Yule Ball. Harry felt strange about her asking about it but was excited all the same. He sent a letter back that very same day after asking Professor McGonagall, whom after some pleading on Harry's part, agreed ("Fine, Potter!" she snapped. "Fine!"; "Thank you!" said Harry gratefully).
There was an incident involving Peeves the following day that involved Raides and one of her greatest wishes. It had snowed the previous day and Peeves had been throwing snowballs out on the grounds from atop the tallest tower at Hogwarts, the Astronomy Tower. Apparently, he didn't think Raides would be able to know it was him.
Walking around the lake, Harry heard it before he felt it. A Hagrid-sized snowball, or more correctly, snow-boulder, connected with Harry's head, soaking his robes, entering his shoes to soak his socks, turning his usual black hair white and knocking him down. Full of snow and shivering, Harry lost it completely.
"PEEVES!" he roared, making Hermione jump after Raides had muttered the same under her breath. He couldn't help himself; he had become a human snow-man.
Harry got up, shook his head, brushing the snowflakes out of it and off of his robes. Peeves, feeling daring, swooped down upon him and Raides, sneering and doing a jig in mid air, all the while picking up and throwing more snowballs at the two of them. Harry stared, a certain fire in his eyes.
He and Raides both stood, taking snowball after snowball, all the while growing more and more angry. Whether he wanted her to or not, Raides leapt into the air, transforming into the Staff of Cybele inside a cloud of misty gray smoke and Harry clutched her tightly in his hand.
Peeves stared at the staff, not knowing what exactly Harry had in mind, but what he did have in mind was Raides telling him he could trap the filthy Poltergeist in a crystal ball. And so --
"Accio crystal ball!" Harry roared, waving the staff in his hand, and, not even soaring through the air, a crystal ball simply appeared in his other hand. Not even taking the time to be amazed, Raides muttered something and Harry shouted it into the morning air. "Adnexum haec anima intra haec cavea!"
It happened in screams of agony and a rush of wind.
In one swift move, a thick, humongous, pearly white hand escaped the staff's crystal and grasped Peeves, squashing him, making him howl in pain (how could a Poltergeist feel pain? Harry thought) and disappeared inside the crystal ball. There was no more Peeves outside on the grounds and there was no Peeves anywhere to be seen. He had been magically binded to the ball.
Ron and Hermione stared where Peeves had just been floating.
"I should shatter this," said Harry angrily, leaning on the enormous staff.
"Maybe you ought to bring it to Filch first," said Ron, halfway between shock and laughter.
"I'm not saying that he doesn't deserve it, but you've basically killed him," said Hermione, also halfway between shock and laughter.
"I heard screaming," wheezed a voice as footsteps came out of the castle behind Harry. "What's going on here?"
Harry wheeled around to see Filch, and his cat, Mrs. Norris, prowling around his feet.
Harry, still hot all over at Peeves, said, "It's Peeves, Mr. Filch. Well, it was." He held up the crystal ball.
Filch stared. "What's this rubbish?" he said. "And where's Peeves?"
Harry waved the crystal ball in Filch's face. "He's in here. I binded him to the ball. He's not getting out unless I let him."
For a fleeting moment, Filch looked horrified but then he broke out laughing, ripped the crystal ball from Harry's hands and ran back into the castle with it, his eyes stunned but his face still laughing. Harry watched him go, a look of savage triumph on his face.
A few hours later while eating in the Great Hall, he almost couldn't believe what he did. It didn't help that several people had come by to congratulate him ("Oh thank you! several first years said).
"I think half the school already knows," said Ron, grinning at Harry's distressed face.
"I still can't believe I did that," said Harry, wishing he could forget about it.
At that instant, Harry saw Dumbledore enter the Hall, a grave look on his face, Harry's stomach gave a horrible turn as he spotted Harry and walked towards him. Dean, Neville, Seamus and Craig quickly stopped talking about why anyone would let Peeves stay in the first place when Harry pointed them in Dumbledore's direction, who was almost upon them now.
Harry saw the remains of a sparkle behind his half-moon spectacles but he was walking with his hands folded in front of him, his long, crooked noise pointed directly at Harry as he walked.
"I had caught wind of your exploits with Raides," he said slowly as he stopped. Harry remained seated. "I believe I have warned you once before to not abuse the staff --"
"Professor --" Harry began desperately, without any idea what he was about to say and was partially glad that Dumbledore didn't stop speaking.
"-- and I believe this will be your second warning, Harry." He looked down at his feet, something Harry never saw Dumbledore do before, and then back up at Harry, the sparkle completely gone now. "I must confess that under normal circumstances, the proper punishment would likely be a suspension but seeing as -- and as Professor McGonagall had once said not too long ago, since your life means more to us than a pack of magic tricks --" he was looking quite strained while trying to find the proper words to express himself with.
There was a disappointment in his voice that Harry felt was worse to hear than getting yelled at so loudly his ears would be hurting. Rarely had Dumbledore ever strained himself for words.
"There will be no detention as I -- good day, Harry," he finished and turned, walking away, letting his arms fall to his sides.
"You really upset him, Harry," said Hermione.
"What was that all about?" Ginny said.
"He looked very stressed out about something," said Harry.
"But he's right, you know. You need to stop abusing that staff. People are going to think you're falling to the Dark arts."
"You mean again?" said Harry, rolling his eyes and referring to his second year.
A few days later, word had got around Hogwarts that the crystal ball containing Peeves had been accidently dropped. Raides had celebrated with several first years in the entrance hall that morning. Filch said it was an accident but Harry knew better; he couldn't pass up the opportunity to be poltergeist-free if it had come so easy.
The Saturday before the first task, it took Harry a minute to realize why his stomach felt like mush. Then he remembered that, in about twenty four hours, he'd be somewhere on the school grounds, shaking from head to toe while only having mere seconds to think up how to do something extraordinarily difficult. It gave him no pleasure.
Third years and up were allowed to visit the village of Hogsmeade that day and it didn't take any persuasion at all from anyone to convince Harry to go. There was no more snow on the ground but that didn't stop it from being slightly cold and the first thing Harry went for was a Warmth Cloak he'd gotten from his father, one of the few, but so very precious, items passed down to him.
"Wish I had one of those," said Ginny, her lips turning blue as they walked out of the castle and down the sloping lawns towards Hogsmeade.
"I guess I can just engorge it," said Harry, pointing a finger at it and saying, "Engorgio!" Absolutely nothing happened. "So much for doing it without my wand," he said irritably, pulling out his wand and engorging the cloak properly.
"You haven't been practicing magic without a wand much, have you?" asked Raides, grinning, as Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny pulled the cloak around themselves, looking very odd indeed.
"No," said Harry. "Everything we're doing in class looks too hard to try without one. How good do you think I am?"
"Better than you think."
"What's she talking about?" asked Ginny curiously.
"Raides wants Harry to practice magic without a wand," Ron explained.
"Because I did quite a few spells without a wand over the summer... mostly on accident," Harry told Ginny.
"I have this feeling you're going to be without your wand and in a very bad situation," said Raides.
"Oh now you have Divination powers, too?" Hermione scoffed.
Raides looked up at her, grinned, and then growled playfully. "Besides," she said, "the better you are at it without a wand, the better you'll be with one."
"The opposite works, too, doesn't it?"
"Well, yeah."
Hermione made a distinct noise of dissent in the back of her throat on Raides' opinion that Harry practice magic without a wand. She could be heard muttering something that if he can't even do a simple Engorgement Charm, how was he supposed to summon an ice dragon. Harry privately agreed, but he did think it would be cool to do a handful of spells without a wand.
Many people stopped to stare, not at Harry, but at the seven foot long, golden and scarlet lion following him that was Raides. It was a welcome change, if still slightly distracting. Raides didn't seem to mind; she rather enjoyed the attention. The first shop they stopped to visit was Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.
"Should buy some Ton-Tongue Toffees for Dudley, Harry!" said Fred when the subject about things at Hogwarts fell upon Dudley.
"The scary thing is I think he's getting fatter while he's here," said Harry.
"What House is he in, anyway?"
"Gryffindor," said Hermione, looking at something that resembled a Muggle electric toy car.
"And has anyone in Gryffindor actually made friends with him? Or are they all afraid you'll curse them if you do?" George asked Harry, laughing while Fred sniggered loudly.
"Er," said Harry.
"He's in Gryffindor," said Ron uneasily, "but..."
"But what?" said Fred, still sniggering. "So everyone is afraid Harry'll hex them?"
"But he actually hangs out with Slytherins."
Fred and George both stared at Ron.
"What?" said George.
"Dudley was hanging around the Gryffindor common room but it seems he made friends with our old friend Draco Malfoy at some point," Harry explained, "so now I rarely ever see him in Gryffindor Tower."
"They pulled a nice prank on Harry where they stole his dad's Invisibility Cloak," said Ginny in a that-was-a-very-bad-thing-of-them-to-have-done sort of voice.
"Except Harry lost it, nearly killed them and Dumbledore confiscated the cloak," said Hermione in a that-was-a-very-bad-thing-of-Harry-to-have-done sort of voice.
"Don't remind me," said Harry bitterly. Then he grinned and added, "I used Raides to turn Invisible to go to the Owlery one night to send Cho a letter --"
"Still talking to her, are you?" said Fred, which made Harry's ears turn a nice shade of pink.
"Yes," said Harry, suddenly very interesed in the Muggle toy car that Hermione was looking at.
"When are you two announcing your engagement --"
"What's this thing do?" said Harry hastily, going slightly redder and picking it up.
"Ah!" said George in a misty voice that reminded Harry of Professor Trelawney. "That is our latest invention. Give it to your Muggle friends. Never needs batteries! It runs on magic..."
"Never can break it!" said George, coming out from behind the desk and looking over Harry's shoulder while Fred looked over the other. "A Destruction-Proof Charm..."
"Never need to have it repaired! There's nothing inside of it..."
"Never buy them!" said a witch as she stormed into the shop. "Are you two the owners of this shop?" she said angrily, looking at Fred and George. "My Muggle son ran one through a wall which in turn knocked an entire house down! Made a big mess with the Accidental Magical Reversal Squad, let me tell you!"
Ron smiled.
"We better go," he whispered to Harry, Hermione and Ginny. "Oh they'll be just fine. They get complaints all the time," he added, noting Hermione's shocked face. "People claiming that Squad had to sort something out but they've got everyone's number. They check the records with dad at the office once a month, nothing of their's has ever caused the Accidental Magical Reversal Squad to get called in."
"Why do they do it then?" said Harry.
"Money," Ginny said simply. "One person confessed under Veritaserum that he loved the thing so much that he wanted his money back. I don't know, we get some real weirdos in here. I helped out a bit on the weekends over the summer."
Harry saw Fred wink at him as they left the shop, Raides behind them all.
"I need to go to Honeyduke's," said Harry as they stopped and looked around to see where to go next.
"Don't tell me you're still going to buy something for Dudley," said Hermione in disbelief.
Harry thought for a minute. He was really in no position to have to buy Dudley anything, given he never gave two gnomes in a barrel for Harry every summer at Privet Drive... As they stepped into Honeydukes, Harry looked around at all the sweets on the shelves. Would Dudley want a Cockroach Cluster? A box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans? Fizzing Whizbees (makes you levitate), Droobles Best Blowing Gum (fills a room with bluebell-colored bubbles that don't pop for days), Toothfloosing Stringmints, Pepper Imps (make you breathe fire), Ice Mice (makes your teeth chatter and squeak), toad-shaped peppermint creams (which hop realistically in your stomach), sugar-spun quills or exploding bonbons? Harry couldn't make his mind up.
He then grinned mischeivously.
"I want to get him something that looks innocent but's somewhat mean," he said, which made Ron grin too but Hermione scowl.
"Harry, you get him nothing," she said firmly.
"Oh, Hermione, lighten up," said Ron, examining a box of Stomach Swirlers ("makes your stomach really feel like it's twisting, extremely nauseating!").
"Harry, better you get something for Cho," said Hermione, now grinning herself. "Her birthday's the thirtieth!"
Harry's face immediately changed from mischief to very red and he walked right towards the part of Honeydukes that held their most expensive and best sweets. He was now looking at Nougat Centers, nine Sickles by the dozen; Butterbeer Buttercups, eleven sickles for a box of nine; Honeyduke's Special, twelve sickles by the dozen; Dark Chocolate Delight, fifteen sickles for one box; and a very mysteriously named one called The Recipe that was a whopping two galleons for a box of thirty.
He pointed it out to Ron but the shopkeeper immediately came over.
"I do believe I gave you a sample of that last year?" he said, rubbing his old, wrinkled hands together in delight.
Harry thought for a second, trying to recall what it tasted like because he didn't remember it by the name. Then he looked at the box again, and it immediately came back to him. Each piece was about an inch square, the outside half made up of white milk chocolate, the middle of dark chocolate with the face of a famous wizard on it. There was a pleasant hint of butterbeer mixed in with the succulent taste of the rest and Harry had to agree with his last decision: it was the best thing he'd ever tasted.
"Two boxes, please," said Harry, pulling four galleons out of his money bag and trying to ignore the shock on Ron's face.
"Hey, it's expensive, but you get a lot of them," said Harry, trying to calm Ron down and making sure the one foot by one foot box containing Cho's present was safely in his bag.
"Blimey, Harry! Two galleons?" Ron said weakly. "And you rememeber the more they pack in a box the less expensive it is because they lose less on packaging!" But then he seemed to change moods, a hungry look in his eye. "I've never been able to afford those... Mom said she would have my broom..."
Ginny's dismay was beyond words. Harry doubted whether she'd ever been entrusted with ten galleons. Her lips were pursed as she eyed the bag hungrily.
"Only one's for Cho. The other's for us," said Harry impatiently.
"Sweets for your sweet?" said Ginny.
"Oh shut up."