After the latest twist in the 'this could only happen to me' soap opera that Harry called his life, he decided that what he really wanted to do was to go see some familiar faces. It would have been almost two days in the Wizarding World since he had left it, so his friends would have hopefully received his messages by now. But as much as he wanted to see them, the last thing he wanted to deal with was more drama. Which pretty much left Ron out for the moment, the red-head was just as likely to go off on him for skipping out with only a note, as he was to accept Harry popping over for a visit with Ash and Fionn in tow. That also meant he couldn't go visit Hermione. She'd freak out on him in worry first, and then go into research mode about his Demon status, and Fionn's Fae heritage, and the Realm, and anything else she could think of. Which left him with Fred and George.
He knew they'd be worried about him as well of course, but unlike Ron and Hermione, they wouldn't grill him about everything that had happened. He could count on them to check and be sure he was fine, which he was, mostly. And then they'd do their best to cheer him up and make him laugh. They might even have a few ideas on the brand on his back, what it might be and how to get rid of it. Sure, Healer Tristan said the Realm Healers would be able to get rid of it, but he had also said he had never seen anything like it. If nothing else, it wouldn't hurt to ask the twins if they had any ideas.
After Harry had gotten all that sorted in his head, he focused on his surroundings again and blushed a little as he realized that Fionn was waiting patiently, and Ash not-so-patiently for him to rejoin them. Ash had already gotten his next Healer's visit sorted, and was twitching her wings and examining her nails in obvious boredom.
"Sorry. Way too much to think about, especially with this last fun twist in my life. Uh, I was wondering if we could go visit some of my friends? You'd like the Weasley twins, they're pranksters and own their own magical joke shop..." He wasn't actually sure introducing Ash to the twins was in his best interests, but since he couldn't get himself there as yet he didn't really have a choice...
"Magical joke shop? That sounds like fun!" Ash's eyes lit up and she actually rubbed her hands together in glee. "Oh, but if we're going back to the mortal Realm, we're going to have to wear glamors. Can't just show up and expect not to get hunted down and staked. Plus I don't actually know where we're going, so I can't just pop us into their house or store or whatever."
"They're in Diagon Alley, number 93."
Ash just nodded and looked at Harry carefully a moment, then she reached out and traced a wavy line in the air with one finger, starting just above the level of his head, and ending about waist-high. He felt a gentle breeze blow past him, and then it was over. Before he could ask what she was doing, she repeated the gesture, only this time her finger pointed at herself, and Harry saw her wings, horns and claws seem to vanish.
"There, that should do it. Fionn won't need a glamor as his looks aren't as obviously non-human. Gather round now, I want to see this magical joke shop!" Ash gathered them close to her, Harry on her left and Fionn on her right. She held Harry around the waist with her left arm, and Harry held Fionn as Ash raised her right arm and called Air. Moments later they appeared in an empty alley between two stores, Harry immediately recognized Diagon Alley when they stepped out onto the main street and led the way to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.
As they entered the shop, he saw it was packed with people, but there was no sign of the twins anywhere. A girl was working the cash register, he supposed it was Verity, the twins assistant, but he had never met her. Making his way through the crowd, he drew Fionn along with him, Ash had already taken off and was looking at all the products in fascination.
"Excuse me, but where are Fred and George?"
Verity looked over quickly and then back at what she was doing. "Sorry, they aren't here today, had to work on a few things. Come back tomorrow, they might be in then."
"Can you tell me where they are? I really needed to talk to them today, and I know they'll want to see me."
"Look, it's busy right now and Fred and George are busy too. Try back tomorrow."
Harry sighed, he didn't want to announce who he was in front of all these people, he'd never get out of here. As it was, he was surprised no one had recognized him yet. Well, he knew how to get to the twins flat above the store, if they weren't in the workshop in the back they might be upstairs. And if they weren't there, he'd have to try back some other time. He waited until Verity was distracted by another customer, and then towed Fionn to a door marked "Employee's Only". Taking another quick look around, he ducked through it and shut it quickly after Fionn. The noise of the shop was instantly silenced and he headed down the short hall to the workshop. It was empty, as was the storage room beside it. So he climbed the stairs leading to Fred and George's flat. At the top he knocked and then waited. After a moment he knocked again. Just as he was deciding no one was home after all, the door was yanked open and Fred appeared looking grumpy.
"I told you we're busy today! Wha- Harry?!" Fred's eyes widened comically and then he was dragging Harry inside, Fionn was pulled along as well as Harry hadn't let go of him yet, and the door was slammed shut and locked behind them.
"We got your letter, but we weren't sure what to make of it. Ron is right pissed you know, I wouldn't visit the Burrow for a while at least until he cools down." Fred hugged Harry quickly and then held him at arm's length as he continued to talk. Fionn moved slightly behind Harry during this as he was still a little iffy about new people, especially loud exuberant ones like Fred.
"Who's this then?"
"Fred this is Fionn, he's a Fae from the Realm. Fionn, this is Fred Weasley, don't ever eat anything he gives you."
"Oi! I'm hurt, Harry, hurt!" Fred seemed to be his usual self, but something felt off. His eyes weren't quite as cheerful as usual, the twinkle of mischief was completely missing, and Harry didn't see George anywhere in the main room. Harry frowned slightly.
"Fred, where's George? Is everything okay? You and Verity both said you were busy, did I interrupt you in the middle of testing?"
"No... George is... Well he's in the bedroom. Mum wasn't any too happy when she found out that we had the funds to start this place. It didn't help that we didn't tell her until after we opened, but we were hoping she'd be a little happier for us since the business is doing so well." The smile fell off Fred's face and his shoulders drooped a little, but he also looked a little angry and that wasn't something Harry was used to seeing on the face of either twin.
It worried him a bit, enough that he took the few steps between him and the bedroom door and opened it without asking Fred if he could. The room was dim, the curtains drawn even though it was the middle of the day, only a single candle lit on one of the night tables near the head of the bed. As Harry's eyes adjusted, he saw George sitting on the side of the bed with his shoulders hunched and one hand covering his face. He didn't move, not even when Harry called his name softly. Harry walked slowly into the room, stopping only when he stood directly before George. Kneeling on the floor, he looked up but still couldn't see George's face.
"George? Do you want to talk about it?"
George finally moved, dropping his hand into his lap and lifting his head to look at Harry. And that was when Harry saw the livid purple hand print on George's left cheek. It stood out against the fair skin, and looked recent as well as extremely painful. Harry sucked in a breath in shock and then his eyes narrowed. He didn't even notice when the candle flame tripled in height, he was too angry that someone had hurt George. He was going to find out who had done it and then they were going to pay.
"Who did it? Who hit you?" He wasn't paying attention to anything but George now, though in the back of his head a thought was running around saying it had been a bad idea to leave Ash downstairs.
"Mum. She said-" George winced and broke off, talking was apparently painful.
"She said that the shop wouldn't amount to anything, that it would be a useless waste of money. And that she wished she'd never given birth to such twisted and sick sons as us." Fred said flatly. He had followed Harry into the room, and stood near the doorway.
"Twisted and sick? Because you opened a joke shop?" Harry shook his head, even in his anger, this wasn't making any sense to him at all. Fred crossed his arms and slowly shook his head.
"Twisted and sick because we're dating each other."
"Well of course you are. You're one soul in two bodies. Hermione looked it up once in third year, I don't remember much, but you two fit all the bits the book had about how to tell."
"We are? I mean, we do? I mean, that would explain a lot really..." Fred looked surprised and then thoughtful.
Fionn had remained mostly forgotten through all of this, but as the tension died down, he crept a little closer to the bed and Harry and George. His eyes flickered a little as though he was battling something inside himself, and then very slowly he reached out and lightly touched George's cheek right in the middle of the hand print. Before George had time to jerk away, Fionn's fingers began to glow a soft gold and warmth rushed into George's cheek, taking all the pain with it. When Fionn dropped his hand and slid back behind Harry again, nothing was left of the bruise that had been there but seconds before. Harry's mouth opened in shock, and Fred moved quickly over to the bed to see for himself.
"F-Fionn. How did you do that?"
Fionn just shook his head and dropped to his knees so he could press his face into Harry's back. Harry sighed softly and shrugged a shoulder at the twins. "Fionn is Fae, I'm going to guess that either this is something all Fae can do, or it's Fionn-specific and we won't get answers about it from Fionn either way. He's been badly abused and still getting used to the fact that Ash and I aren't going to hurt him, or let anyone else hurt him anymore." Harry ran soothing fingers through Fionn's hair as he explained to the twins what little he knew.
"Who is Ash?" George looked up to see if there was anyone else in the room with them, Fred shrugged in answer.
"Ash is my Guide. She took one look at your store and went all toddler in a candy store, I don't expect to see her for another few hours at this rate. She's an Air Demon and I don't know if it's normal for her type, but she's easily distracted by shiny things, and thinks the strangest things are 'fun.' That's how I found Fionn, the first thing she did after we got to the Realm was take me to a...Brothel." Harry's face turned red, both at the thought and at the fact that he had just confessed that to the twins! He was never going to live this down. Indeed, Fred and George had identical evil grins on their faces.
"Did ickle Harrykins have fun?"
"Yes, did Harrykins finally change his status?" Fred's eyebrows wiggled up and down as he and George leered at Harry.
"I knew telling you that would be a bad idea. And no, I did not have fun. I bought Fionn to get him out of there and then made Ash take me somewhere else. On a completely different note, I actually did have a reason to visit you two. Besides letting you know I really was fine and all."
The twins stood up in unison and pulled Harry, and thus Fionn, up off the floor as well. "Then let us adjourn back to the living room, more light and seating and all that in there." Fred linked arms with Harry and led him off, and George did the same with Fionn. The Fae looked a little confused but wasn't actually objecting to being dragged off by a virtual stranger, Harry supposed that was progress. They all ended up squished onto the couch with a twin on each end.
"What was it you wanted Harry? Products? Pranking help?"
"Uh... well, not exactly. Apparently I didn't just end up with a Demon Inheritance, oh no, that wasn't bad enough. Ash took me to the Healer's today because I couldn't get my Demon magics to work and we found out there's some kind of brand on my back that's tied into my magic. Specifically, it's suppressing my Demon Magics, and a bit of my Wizarding magics as well. I was wondering if you two had heard of anything like that before?"
Fred and George looked at each other, almost seeming to have a conversation in nothing but the way their faces twitched. An eyebrow raised here, a shrug there. Finally they looked back at Harry and spoke.
"Not that we can think of, but maybe seeing this brand would help."
Harry had known this was going to happen sooner or later, so he got off the couch and turned his back to them. He hoped Ash's glamor didn't cover the brand as well as his Demon attributes. Pulling his shirt off over his head he pointed to where Healer Tristan had said the brand was and waited. Soon he felt two sets of fingers lightly tracing over the marks, and a murmured conversation was fired back and forth, he only caught a word or two of it and nothing that made sense. Finally the fingers withdrew and he put his shirt back on before facing them all again.
"It's strong magic, but nothing we've ever seen before. Sorry Harry, we could look into it though if you like?"
"Nah, it's okay. My Realm Healer said he was going to show it to more senior Healers and he was sure they could get it unraveled. You have enough to worry about with the shop, I just thought it was worth a try. Speaking of, if Molly gets worse, or you need somewhere to escape to, contact the Goblins. They'll get a message to me and I'll come and get you. One day here is seven days in the Realm, so you won't have to wait long for me to arrive if you do need me. I mean it. Promise you'll contact me if you need to." He tried to look stern, but had the feeling it came off more like a kitten trying to intimidate a wolf or a tiger. He'd grown with his Inheritance, but was still quite short for a male his age.
"We promise Harry."
"But I don't think it'll come to that." Fred said and shrugged. Just then the door leading up from the shop thumped open and Ash appeared looking way too Happy for Harry's state of mind. She was also completely loaded down with bags.
"This place is wonderful! We need one in the Realm. Just think of all the fun I'm going to have with all this stuff!"
AN:
For what it's worth, I don't actually hate Molly. Or Ron or Dumbledore for that matter. But I needed some bad guys for the fic and this is where the plot bunny ran.
I know, I'm horrible to my poor characters. Happy stuff will happen again too at some point, promise! Comments and suggestions are wonderful things, and I may add in requests/ideas if they work with my plot. Nothing is currently pre-written, I'm working on chapters after I get off work at night.