Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters.

Chapter Eighteen

Harry's New Worry

Harry left the Potions lab feeling slightly disturbed about how the morning had gone. While he rationally was resolved about how things had gone with George, he couldn't suppress an uncomfortable feeling about their interaction. How could he be hopelessly, well- in love, with someone he'd really just met, and then instantaneously be so completely out of love? It just didn't make sense. No sense at all. He only hoped that he would be cheered at his next destination. He'd promised the twins that he'd help them conduct an inventory at their Hogsmeade shop. Ron and Hermione were going to meet him there, surely full of questions about his study session with George. He was pretty embarrassed to have to tell them that he'd been all wrong about her; that he had no feelings for her whatsoever.

As he cut through the quadrangle between the main Hogwarts buildings, he couldn't help feeling he was being watched. No one was in sight as he made his way down to the village. The feeling of being watched was so strong though that he wondered if somebody else on campus had an invisibility cloak as well. His cheerless feeling left as soon as he walked into the door of the local Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. "Is there actually supposed to be work going on here?" he yelled to the motley crew of temporary employees. The shop, closed for the day of counting, was a wreck. Boxes and packaging of gag gifts, jokes, and all sorts of dangerous and funny items were strewn about, giving the store a post-hurricane look. Glitter was suspended in the air, which was a peculiar shade of indigo. Those gathered to supposedly put the place in order were milling about joking, laughing and throwing things at each other. Harry had to raise his voice even further to be heard above the din of talk and laughter. "What's happened here?"

Everyone looked around at once, finally hearing Harry and paying him their full attention. Hermione emerged breathless, right next to Harry, from a large open box of fake wands. Packing peanuts were embedded in her bushy hair, and she carried a rather official-looking clipboard. Harry let out a yelp of surprise but observed, "at least someone's actually taking this seriously. I should have known you'd be the responsible one, Hermione."

"Hey, I take offense at that, Harry," Ron exclaimed as he exited the same box of wands, "we've all been hard at work." Ron's disheveled appearance and matching packing-peanut hair decorations confirmed Harry's original assessment.

"Right, Ron. Whatever you say. I can tell you and Hermione were really working up a sweat in there," Harry grinned.

"Harry, you're just in time for our break! Fred- get the food and sweets. Ron and Hermione- pry yourselves off of each other and do something helpful. Harry- there's a crate of Moonstone Merlot and Shadwrap's Chardonnay right behind you. Look under the rubble," George barked out orders as if he'd truly been supervising all morning. They all pushed away wrappings, exploded bombs and miscellaneous refuse to make a cozy picnic area on the shop floor.

"We did really start out working, Harry," Hermione couldn't wait to explain, "but then someone stepped on a box of Chinese fireworks. Sparkly lights and lavender mist filled the place. When Ron looked up to see them, he fell backwards, and ended up sitting on a package of Frenzied Frisbees. The charmed discs got loose and started flying all over the shop, destroying whatever was in their way. Then Fred and George started squabbling over lost profits and who was really in charge. Their argument got pretty heated, and they started throwing Flying Insult charms at each other. These in turn set off more fireworks and exploding boxes of gags. At that point, none of us could help but to scream, laugh or both! Ron and I took cover in the box of wands, which seemed the safest by far."

When everyone stopped laughing again from Hermione's re-telling, the twins changed the subject. "So, Harry, we hear that Potions is now your favorite subject," George teased.

Fred joined in quickly, "wouldn't have anything to do with that hot tutor, now would it? Is she also the reason for your new look, Harry?"

"Sorry, Harry. Ron and I couldn't help filling them in on your new study arrangement. I hope you're not cross. It's just that we're happy for you, you know, getting over..." Hermione let her voice trail off.

"Well, you know all that Harry. Just tell us how things went. Did you set a date? I mean for a date, mind you, just a date," Ron encouraged.

Harry looked around at his best friends sheepishly. "Well, the thing is... well, you see the thing is..." he stammered.

"The thing is what, Harry?" Ron asked impatiently.

"Well, the thing is... that I don't feel the same way about her as I did, that's all," Harry started to explain.

"Crikey, Harry, she dumped you!" Fred exclaimed.

"And you hadn't even had your first date. Blimey, that's rough!" George rubbed in.

"She didn't dump me! Really." Harry tried to persuade the disbelieving faces staring skeptically back at him. "Believe me, I was intent on pouring my heart out to her this morning, and then..."

"Harry, I can tell you're telling the truth. What happened?" Hermione looked genuinely concerned and somewhat alarmed.

"I don't honestly know, Hermione. One minute I was all excited about the potential for a relationship, and the next I felt nothing for her at all," said Harry.

The Weasley's were agog. "You're serious, mate," George said.

"That's just not normal, Harry," Fred commented.

Ron looked at Hermione with a worried look on his face, and then looked back to Harry. "Gee, Harry, I'm really sorry. I know you've been looking forward to knowing her better. This is a real shock. You must be really disappointed."

Harry's face told the whole story. "Hey, I'd hate to eat and run guys, but I think I'd better get back to Hogwarts and finish up the assignment she gave me, or I'll be at it the rest of the weekend," he said hurriedly, putting an end to the uncomfortable conversation,

"Oh, that's okay, Harry," Ron consoled.

"Just don't expect a paycheck, Harry," warned Fred.

"Which is a good thing, 'cause we'd have to dock you for the cost of the food," George laughed.

Harry hustled out the door. Seconds later, the lot of them were out the door too, following what sounded like Harry screaming "Pappy!"

"Harry!" Hermione screamed. She watched in horror with the others as Harry lay prone on the cobblestone path, a dementor hovering over him.

"She's sucking out his soul! It's the dementor who took Dudley to Azkaban Junior!" screamed Ron, "Somebody, do something! Hermione, do something!"

"Ron, what can I do? This is beyond me," Hermione said helplessly. "I saw Harry repel the dementors once, but I've never done it."

"What did he say, Hermione? What did he say" Fred and George demanded.

"Expecto patronum- that was it!" she remembered.

"Expecto patronum!" Fred bellowed as loud as he could. What seemed miraculously, a giant glowing and growing beam of light emitted from Fred's wand. The light created a forcefield of goodness that the sole dementor could not combat. It had taken on the unmistakable shape of... a waffle! With the dementor well out of sight now, they rushed to Harry's side. The brothers lifted him carefully back into the joke shop. "Well, no shortage of chocolate, here," Fred said proudly.

"Fred, when did you learn to do that?" Ron and George asked him together.

"Fred, that was wonderful! Are we to understand that you'd never done that until just now when I remembered the spell?" Hermione asked, shaking her head and smiling. "I'm impressed!"

"Thank you, Hermione. I told you you had the wrong Weasley!" Fred joked, secretly pleased that he had conjured a patronus, albeit a breakfast starch.

"Don't you say that again, Fred Weasley!" Ron demanded of his older brother.

Harry was reviving, now that he had consumed about two bars of Godiva's chocolate raspberry. "That was nasty," Harry understated.

"Harry, Ron thinks it's the dementor who took Dudley. Why would she be after you? And how did she get away from Azkaban Junior? Did you see her before you came into town? Have you ever seen her before?" Hermione shot questions at him as quickly as they came into her head.

"I don't know, Hermione. I really don't know," Harry said exhaustedly.

"Harry, I think we need to have Madame Pomfrey check you out," Ron said worriedly.

"And maybe someone at Hogwarts will be able to tell us what they know about that dementor," Hermione added, "surely Dumbledore or Hagrid will have some idea."

"Allow me," Fred said with a dramatic and gracious sweep of his hand. "You can use our floo," he suggested, still smiling proudly at his earlier act of superior wizardry.

"I'd go with Harry," George explained, "but someone's got to clean up this mess, and I guess it's going to be me."

"Thanks, guys. You've been great- especially you, Fred," Harry said grinning broadly at the waffle-maker. "I know I am!"

"So, we're off," Hermione began. "Hogwart's hospital wing!" she shouted, as she disappeared in a sea of green flames.