When the lamp hanging from the ceiling, faded to a glimmer, four of the seven boys were showered, teeth cleaned and the other three were in the process of getting dressed. The light dimmed, leaving just a single light in the bathroom, facing away from the dorm. The last three boys shuffled across the unfamiliar room and climbed into unfamiliar beds.

Quiet goodnights were called, and sleep began to claim them.

September passed and while there were odd looks from the twins' older brothers, at there being no obvious pranks, no one said anything. On the last Saturday of the month, in the middle of the afternoon, seven boys gathered around a large desk in an unused classroom on the sixth floor, large pieces of butchers' paper spread out on the desks between them.

"Alright, what have we got so far?" Remy asked.

"Filius Flitwick." Fred, or the twin wearing an 'F' jumper, answered. "Head of Ravenclaw. Rumoured to be part goblin, but nothing proven as far as the student body is aware. Date of birth 17th October, year unknown. Charms Professor. Height deprived. Regular library user, he always returns books on or before due date. No familiar. No owl. Lives in the school during summers. Rarely receives mail from outside. Unknown when he was a student. Unknown what his NEWTs' scores were. Unknown when he completed his charms mastery. Duelling champion in the 1960's, completed his Duelling Mastery in 1963, won the world championships in 1967 and 1969. Returned to Hogwarts in 1971. Offered Ravenclaw head's post in 1974. Little to no change in his circumstances since 1974." Fred slid one sheet of paper to one side.

"Next?" Remy asked.

"Minerva McGonagall." Paddrick raised his hand. "Born 4 October 1938. Rumoured to be a Hatstall at her sorting, eventually sorted into Gryffindor. Played chaser until bad fall in her seventh year. Dumbledore was her transfiguration Professor and taught her to become an Animagus, her form is a tabby cat. Joined the DMLE but wasn't happy in London, rumoured to not like the city. Applied to Hogwarts in 1967 to teach transfig. Married in 1982, he was bitten by a venomous tentacular in 1985 and died before treatment could be given. She's since devoted her life to the school. Became head of Gryffindor in 1969." He added his sheet of paper to Fred's.

"Hmm… we could…" Remy squinted and scribbled down a note on the notepad under his hand. "Next?"

"Severus Snape." Titan raised a quill. "Born 6th January 1960. Best friends with Lily Evans. He went into Slytherin, she went into Gryffindor, but they stayed friends. Picked on and bullied by the marauders, led by James Potter who didn't like Lily hanging around with a snake. Public argument with the marauders and Lily led to end of the friendship. Joined the Death-Eaters in 1979. Approached Dumbledore about defecting, six months later. Testified under veritaserum in January 1982, charged with minor misdemeanours, fined ʛ1250, given two-year good behaviour bond and released. Rumoured that Dumbledore paid the fine. Accepted potions apprenticeship under Horace Slughorn in February 1982, tested and passed mastery exams in June 1986. Began teaching alongside Slughorn in 1984, Slughorn retired in July 1986. Became head of Slytherin in 1987. Rumoured to wear mourning black in remembrance of Lily Evans. Is studying towards defence mastery, expected to sit mastery exams within two years. Runs his classes with strict discipline, as a result has the lowest student injury rate in the ICW school system. Rigidly fair to all students."

"Whoa…" George, or the twin wearing the 'G' jumper, gasped.

"That could be interesting…" Paddrick waggled his eyebrows. "We could do all sorts of things there."

"Make a note of your idea, Pads." Remy pointed at the notepad in front of Paddrick.

"Urgh…" Paddrick grunted but scribbled a few lines down.

"Next?"

"Argus Filch." Lee shook his piece of paper. "Nothing unknow about his personal life. He's a squib. Came to Hogwarts in 1967. Succeeded Appollyon Pringle in 1968 as caretaker. Hates kids for the most part. Mrs Norris is a purebred kneazle and came with him when arrived, given her age it's assumed that she is his familiar, as most kneazles only live about the same as cats, ten-to-fifteen years and she's well over that. Frequently overheard begging Dumbledore to let him string up students by their ankles from the ceiling as a part of their detention, given his attitude, it's assumed to not be a joke." Lee's paper joined the others. "Not much, but we can work on it."

"We can. Next?"

"Binns." Ken tapped his paper. "Cuthbert Binns. All we know about Binns is that he died before 1970 and he teaches the exact same lesson on goblin wars for every single class, regardless of year. That's it. Nothing else. There is a rumour that he died in the middle of class, but we can't get proof, either way. Multiple complaints against him, but no action has ever been taken. The Head Boy is a 'puff and says go to class but take your herbology earmuffs. Oh, and if we're interested, there's a series of study-guides put together by a Ravenclaw a few years ago. The story I got goes… the 'claw knew her younger brother was coming to Hogwarts and she wasn't going to let him struggle through Binns' class, so she started keeping track of what was in each exam and asked the older students for their old test-papers, and over the summer she put together a study-guide for History and convinced, or blackmailed... unknown which... other students who topped a subject to do the same for their preferred subject. By the end of the summer they had a guide for each first-year subject and new ones were written as each new year was finished. They cover everything for the exams, from first year, right through to OWLs and NEWTs. Exams only, not class essays. They're not expensive, but they're cheaper as a complete set for each subject for all seven years combined. §10 per guide or ʛ3 for the set, plus you provide a blank journal for each guide you want or… ʛ1 each or ʛ5 for each set, less the blank books."

"Question?" Fred raised a hand. "Is this widely known or a word of mouth secret?"

"From what I can gather, if you don't ask, you don't get told. The Professors weren't mentioned." Ken answered after checking his notes. "It seems to be a student-run thing."

"I just wonder… Does Pinnley know? Should we tell him?" Fred asked.

"If he doesn't know…? We could earn ourselves some house points." Lee said.

"Forget the house points, I'm thinking we earn ourselves some favours." Fred argued.

"Ooh… Yeah…" Paddrick grinned, bouncing in his seat.

"Alright, we tell Pinnley, get in his good books." Lee laughed.

"That sounds good. Who's next?"

"Me." George said. "Pomona Sprout. Born 15th May, again year unknown. Head of Hufflepuff. Mastery in herbology and journeyman in potions, both under Alejandro Delgado at Castelobruxo. Returned to Hogwarts in 1969. Became head of Hufflepuff in 1972. Private quarters are in the Portcullis Keep, not the castle proper. No family, she was an only child and her parents died not long after she graduated. She has a habit of taking 'interesting' plants to the 'puff's common-room as decorations. Very protective of her badgers. Reputed to have the highest NEWT marks for DADA in her year and frequently spars with Flitwick."

"I've got a few ideas, there." Titan offered, holding up his notepad.

"We'll get there, Ty." Remy said. "Anyone else?"

"I've got Aurora Sinistra." Titan answered. "Born 12 July 1966. When straight from NEWT exams to Astronomy apprenticeship, completed the apprenticeship, but hasn't sat the mastery exams. Returned to Hogwarts as short-term Professor, for the 1987/88 school year, but is still here. Was sorted into Ravenclaw. Among the highest astronomy scores in twenty years, only beaten by Lily Potter and Bartemius Crouch jnr. Lives in Hogsmeade during the summers. Expected to remain as Astronomy Professor for some years."

The boys continued exposing the lives of the school's Professors, both personal and public.

"And lastly… Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore." Titan held up the last sheet of paper. "Born 27th August 1881. Halfbood, mother was a muggleborn, father a pureblood. One brother, one sister. Sister was attacked by muggle boys and mentally damaged, she wasn't an obscurus, but only just. Albus was sorted into Gryffindor and was quickly courted by the purebloods, due to his father's actions of retaliation against the earlier mentioned muggle boys. Albus was not pleased and let it be known. Won numerous awards during his schooling, among them awards for spell casting and transfiguration, was named Head Boy in his last year, even though he was never a prefect. Planned to travel the world with his school friend, Elphias Doge, in 1899. The night before they were to leave his mother was killed by accidental magic, cast by his sister, leaving him head of house. Met Gellert Grindelwald that summer and the two became fast friends, which developed into a romantic relationship. His brother disapproved and an argument broke out, spells were cast, and their sister was killed, the caster was never identified." Titan shrugged at the look of astonishment on the twins' faces. "This is all public knowledge, if you go looking for it. The brother attacked him at the sister's funeral and broke his nose, it was never able to be healed magically. Started teaching at Hogwarts in 1906, having earned a DADA mastery and taught DADA. Moved to transfig., in 1926 and stayed there until becoming headmaster. Was the one to involve Scamander in the Grindelwald Global war. Banned from teaching DADA ever again, in 1927. Introduced Tom Riddle to the wizarding world in 1938. Defeated Grindelwald in 1945. Rejected any and all suggestions that he take the minister's position. Became headmaster in 1966, when Armando Dippet retired. Rejected Tom Riddle's demand for the DADA post in 1967. Created the Order of the Phoenix in 1972 in reaction to Riddle's terror attacks. Was the one to hear the prophecy regarding Riddle's defeat. Approached by Severus Snape for asylum in 1979. Was the one to cast the Fidelius for the Potters. Was also the first on the scene when Riddle attacked them, arrived too late to save them or Sirius Black, but Riddle was still present. A duel in a hallway and Riddle was dead, decapitated by a deflected cutting curse, cast by his own wand. Was the one to insist on questioning suspected Death-Eaters and sympathisers under veritaserum." Titan looked to Fred and George and smirked. "Was also the one to suggest William Weasley apply to Gringotts for a curse-breaking apprenticeship and refer a Miss Tonks apply to the Auror corps, when she graduates."

"Whoa…" The twins breathed.

"Thanks, Titan. Let's put them all in alphabetical order, surname first." Remy suggested and Ken and Lee began flicking through the sheets. When they were finished, he continued. "Who's first? And what's their subject?"

"Babbling. Study of Ancient Runes." Fred answered.

"Ideas?"

"We could make up our own rune alphabet." Paddrick said.

"We could write little notes or lists in futhark or Cyrillic." Ken said.

"We could make up our own cypher and write it in futhark." Lee said. "Leave notes for her to find."

"I like that, let's do that." Paddrick nodded vigorously.

"Next?"

"Binns. History."

"Can't we just exorcise him?" George asked.

"Send him notes to say, he's been fired." Fred said.

"Or that the classroom's been moved."

"Can we get the Grey Lady involved? Or the Bloody Baron?" Ken asked. "They're very protective of their students, if they think he's hurting their schooling, wouldn't they react?"

"Ooh, that one, please, that one?" Fred begged.

"We'll investigate that, we may have to speak to Snape or Flitwick and ask them to be a middleman." Remy warned. "Getting rid of him ay cause issues with the Ravenclaws and their study-guide systems."

"We'll think about it. And send Titan to Snape." Paddrick ordered. "Snape likes him."

"Dumbledore. Headmaster." Lee said.

"He loves his sweeties." Titan said. "What if we made a potion, that made everything he ate taste salty or sour?"

"Or… in the muggle world, kids are taught stranger danger. People offering children sweeties are dangerous. We could get some pamphlets from the muggles and leave them where he'll find them." Lee said.

"Ooh, ooh, ooh. What if we left the pamphlets for the muggle-raised?" George said. "How would he react if the muggle-raised freaked out every time he tried to give them a sweetie?"

"Sold." Remy, Paddrick and Lee all slapped their hands on the table.

"Next?"

It took the first-year lions five weeks to find the spells they needed and another six before they were happy that they could cast them. Which brought them well into December. A hasty conference and the seven boys decided that they'd leave the pranks until the last day of term, and that each teacher would discover the prank at different times and in different locations.

Titan was designated to speak to Snape about the day, he'd had to approach the stern man to ask about the charms that made his robes billow. They wanted to do use that on the curtains and anything that came close to Trelawney, but not have her own clothes react.

It was Snape that offered the comment that mandrake seedlings liked music but if played songs, they would repeat the what they heard for days and that venomous tentacular plants liked opera. Sprout kept them in the same greenhouse and Snape always wondered what would happen if someone were to put a gramophone in with them.

He also told Titan what the charm for his robes was and how to place the charm on a particular person but not have their clothes so much as flutter, even in a gale.

Breakfast on the last day of term was amusing.

Filch had a canary flitting from one shoulder to the other and every few minutes it could be heard to say, 'I twat I taw a puddy tat' as Mrs Norris slunk along behind him. Any muggle-raised nearby would invariably answer, 'you did tee a puddy tat, you did' and begin to laugh.

Professor Flitwick was only a few minutes behind the caretaker, and he had a set of kitchen steps following him. The three-step ladder had sprouted tiny feet, four on each leg, and padded along behind the charms Professor, waiting for a chance to act. Every time the Professor stopped, the steps would edge up beside him and one tiny little foot would reach out and tap little wizard on the foot, encouragingly, sitting up strong and firm. When he ignored them, the steps would wilt and sag, until he moved, and the process would start all over again.

Professor Babbling was already sat at the staff table, when the Horde arrived for breakfast, she had a sheet of parchment in her hand and a very confused expression on her face.

And the day got better from there.

First class of the day was potions and Professor Snape's robes were no longer black, now they were a deep pewter grey with emerald green trim with silver and black snakes slithering around the hem and collar.

Then it was history of magic. After very carefully considering it, the Horde, as they'd taken to calling themselves, had decided to leave Binns in place. With the study-guide put out by the Ravenclaws, getting rid of the ghost was pointless and might even mess things up, new teachers were never a good thing. Just look at DADA.

After lunch the Horde made their way out to the greenhouses but were stopped by Sprout before they'd left the Long Gallery and were directed to greenhouse two instead of greenhouse seven. The hornbeam seedlings and angel's trumpet seedlings, were being conducted by the venomous tentaculars while the mandrakes and the fanged geraniums were singing, tenor and soprano respectively. But badly off-key. The cacophony could be heard from the Gallery, horns and singing that clashed abysmally.

And the last class of the day was transfiguration. Titan was no Neville Longbottom when it came to plants, but he knew how to order what he wanted. On McGonagall's desk sat a small pot plant. Catnip. But it wasn't a normal catnip. Titan have laid out good gold to get pots of this plant. It was a magical crossbreed, between muggle catnip and a venomous tentacular. The Tentacular Felis Velicio or Catnip Vine had the vines of the tentacular, but the leaves were catnip leaves and the heads, instead of biting and being venomous, rubbed against you and purred like a cat.

It was also decorated with tiny Christmas baubles, tinsel and a glittering golden star that hung in the air above the plant, its tentacles brushing over the star and getting coated in glittering fairy dust, that made the little plant look like it was going to float away on a breeze.

The boys nodded to each other. Yep, they'd got it right.

Combine that last prank with adding their black-market businesses of study-trunks, muggle stationery, pet supplies and wizarding wares? Yeah, the seven boys were in high spirits as they boarded the train back to London.

It had taken the triplets only a few days to decide that the Room was too big for them to handle alone, so their dormmates had been subtly approached and chaos was born, in more ways than one. The Horde was what they called their pack and their business-group was to be named The Lion's Den. At first the triplets were the only members of the Horde, while the Lion's Den had four shareholders with Lee joining them instantly, followed quickly by the twins a few days later and in about a month, Ken had joined, too. But the pack had grown, first the twins, then some weeks later Lee signed on, while Ken hadn't joined them until they were putting their prank into production.

They spend a week hashing out the details, but finally a plan was formed. The Lion's Den was the 'Parent' business and frequently just called the Den, with a number of 'children' subsidiary businesses, under its banner. Each business would pay a small tithe back to the Den, half would remain with the Den to cover any costs of renting or buying a premises when they left school, while the other half would be paid back to the shareholders in ʛalleons. The boys would put up a certain amount each to the Den, be it time or money, ʛ10 or 100 hours, and would claim two shares, these would slowly pay back good gold, to those that had only had their time to give. This also allowed each boy to buy back a ten-hour-block of his time, by replacing it with a Den-paid ʛalleon, when they started to make profits. The idea being that eventually, they would invite other students and their businesses to buy into the Lion's Den, which would increase the Den's income and what was paid out to the shareholders.

The triplets' joint 'child' business was 'Tribus', this was primarily for the study-trunks and used one share from each boy to funnel profits back into the business. The standard study-trunk was plain pine with leather and brass fittings. It had a single expanded compartment, four-by-four with an eight-foot ceiling. It came with a wiz-space bathroom, consisting of shower, vanity and toilet;, a wiz-space office-cum-library that was ten-by-twenty foot and lastly a set of shelves on the wall opposite the entrance.

There were two secondary sizes, depending on what classes a student took. A four-by-eight foot trunk came with bathroom, office and options for two or three wiz-spaces. There was a catch, of course. You had to study a subject to get a wiz-space based on the subject. E.g. To get a potions lab, you had to be studying potions, to get a greenhouse you had to study herbology and to get a blank space, you had to be studying runes or transfig,. And they were to be warded that only family or dormmates could enter and only if you invited them. No one of the opposite sex could enter a trunk unless they shared your blood, were licenced healers or were a Professor. They had two additional options for the student. Did the student want to buy the trunk? Or would they prefer to rent it?

Titan also had 'The Bolt-Hole', which used his second share to bolster the fledgling business and was a range of trunks that were for the graduating seniors when they were leaving the school. They could have a bedroom, kitchen, laundry and the same options as the study-trunks. He would also consider selling them to relatives of students, that spent a lot of time travelling.

Remy's second share was used to support 'Insider Information', which specialised in books, he had bought all the books from the Room, from the Den. He put together libraries, one for each year of Hogwarts, that would complement the Ravenclaw study-guides. Then there were the advanced or remedial books, for those that needed them. And of course, there were a selection of muggle books that would help, too. Books on astronomy, maths, essay writing, how to research, time management and a whole range of muggle academic texts for those that wanted to keep up with their muggle schooling.

Paddrick had used his second share to help 'The Stellar Outfitter', he was the one you approached once you bought a study-trunk or a Bolt-Hole trunk, if you didn't want to furnish it for yourself. He would present you with options. What did the one want in their trunk? The library with a selection of textbooks? Or without? With potions equipment? Or without? With a selection of items for transfiguration? Without? With animated miniature versions of the animals in CoMC? Without? With greenhouse supplies? With plants? Without? With a charmed view of the night sky for astronomy? Without? He also stocked a whole heap of non-stationery school supplies, from cauldrons to earmuffs to gloves to quidditch equipment.

Lee's 'child' business was 'The Desk Set' and he used one share to fund it and one share was held in reserve for his savings. The Desk Set was offering muggle stationery – exercise books, pencils, pens, erasers, graph-paper and even geometry sets. And all of these, bar the exercise books and graph-paper, were things that were available to wizarding student, if they knew where to look, even if Lee was getting his supplies from the muggle world. Timber rulers, metal rulers, metal protractors, metal compasses, metal pencil sharpeners, glass quills, refillable fountain pens, ink cartridges, pen stands, student compendiums, scroll holders, clipboards, metal page markers, leather page markers, pencil leads, metal mechanical pencils, eraser and the list went on.

The twins, on the other hand used all their shares to fund their shop, 'Don't Forget The…', went for all the stuff that the muggleborn, or raised, didn't know about, didn't know how to get, didn't want to buy in Hogsmeade or buy in person or send a school owl for. Robes, wand holsters, wand stands, wand car kits, owl perches, bruise balms, pain-relief potions, contraception potions and general nutrient potions. Books of housekeeping charms, etiquette, law, first aid potions and how to apply them. And muggle styled clothes were there, too, some old enough to be back in fashion, some new enough to still be in fashion and some simple enough to never go out of fashion.

Ken aslo kept one share back and simply called his shop, 'Pets and Familiars' and went, ironically enough, with supplies for pets and familiars. Cat scratching posts, toys, beds, grooming tools, trees, collars, coats, perches for different sized birds, fish and aquariums for fish, toads or snakes. He had a surprising number of Slytherins who'd approached and asked if he could get them a snake, Snape being the first.

And one might wonder… How…? How were the boys were going to be acquiring these items? Particularly as they were first years and couldn't leave the school and the Express only got back into London on Wednesday evening and the Horde were having their 'shop day' on Saturday.

Well, the answer to that is something that many wizards forgot. While students can't leave the castle and its ground until third year, there's nothing stopping them from meeting with family or friends, at the borders, as long as the boundaries weren't crossed. There are two entrances to the school, on solid ground anyway, the main gates, near Hogsmeade, and the station gates, near Hogsmeade station on the other side of the Black Lake. And that was where the Horde had met with Moody, Lee's father and Ken' mother.

Unsurprisingly, the parents had no hesitation in taking the boys' shopping lists and going shopping for them, some in person and some by owl. It didn't take long and Lee was asking about how to get an expanded trunk. The triplets and Moody explained, and Remy suggested that each boy get two trunks, one for himself, like theirs, and one that was only slightly expanded and buy wiz-spaces from the Den, for his shop. After carefully negotiations, watch by amused parents, the boys decided that the Lion's Den would buy the trunks and each boy would pay it back, using whatever method they felt comfortable with. Lee and Ken went with a set amount each month, while Fred and George went with a percentage of their income.

Then there is the question of how they raised the money to fund the businesses.

They sorted the Room. Going through the rest of thepiles, one by one.

Furniture that could be repaired, was, and some the triplets bought from the Den, perches and cages were bought by Ken, while the remaining pieces were sold, either for scrap or to the second-hand store.

Magical Portraits had told the boys who their occupants were and what families they'd been part of, and the boys had listed them, some families were contacted immediately, and the portraits were returned, often with a small monetary reward as thanks, which was split between the boys, the rest were stored for the time being. All grimoires, and there were a surprising number of them, were catalogued and where possible, anonymously returned to the family, the Room having been 'required' to give them the name of the current head of house or the most senior member. If the family bloodline was extinct, the Room was 'required' to provide a method to 'unlock' the grimoire, that could be used at a later date. These grimoires stayed under the control of the Den's 'parent' business, not sold to Remus for Inside Information to sell on, the plan being that when a squib's descendants returned to the wizarding world, the grimoires would be there, waiting for them.

Clothes were assessed and some were sold to the twins and some were sold to the tailors in Diagon and Technic Alleys, to be stripped down and remade. Footwear was likewise assessed but what the twins didn't sell was vanished as unusable.

Equipment was assessed and some Paddrick bought, some was bought by Titan, some by Remy, some by the twins or Ken and the remainder was vanished.

The weekend before the Express headed back to London the boys had finally emptied the room of anything but Hogwarts owned school furniture, or items that belonged to someone currently still attending the school. As the Den had approached the elves about emptying the room they felt that Lee's suggestion, of the boys approaching the elves and asking them to forward notes to the students that the Room declared as an item's owner, telling them that they had so many days to call an elf to get their possessions back, was a sound move.

And now they were heading back to London. Usually, the Weasley boys stayed at Hogwarts over the Christmas break. With Arthur and Molly trying to feed, clothe and educate seven children, money for Christmas was often scarce and one way to ensure that the boys had a true Christmas, was to allow them to stay at school. But not this year. This year, Moody had contacted the Weasley's, Samuel Jordan and the Towlers and offered to sponsor the boys, his reason being, that he wanted his boys to have an animosity-free time at Hogwarts and having four boys angry or annoyed because they didn't have something that his boys did, could ruin the atmosphere in the dorm.

Ken's mother happily agreed, she was a muggleborn and worked long hours in the muggle world to support Ken, his sister and their father, who'd been severely injured in a car accident. His sister, Melissa, wasn't a witch and was quite grateful for that, she was leaning towards studying medicine school when she finished her secondary education. Moody's offer to contact a discreet healer to see if wizarding healing could help Mr Towler was quickly accepted and when the result was positive, a schedule of treatment and payment was agreed upon.

Lee's father was more dubious, but after hearing how much it cost for the trunk that Titan was recommending and how Lee planned to run The Desk Set, he shrugged and agreed. That was way outside his understanding, he was a soldier, not a salesman.

Arthur and Molly were the hardest sell, but when the twins begged to have the sponsorship, they reluctantly agreed. Having the boys suggest making Moody their fulltime guardian might have had something to do with it. Whether they would or not was an unknown, nothing had been decided.

Part of the sponsorship deal was that the boys would stay with Moody and the triplets for a week, or more, of each holiday. Given that Christmas holidays were only two weeks, that meant half the holiday and the boys had chosen the first half. Come Easter, which was only ten days, the sponsored boys would only be spending a few days with their families. Although Samuel had already asked if Lee could stay with them for the entire time as getting leave over Easter, for more than a day, was not easy. Summer holidays would be negotiated at the beginning of June.

The Den approached the Head Boy and Girl with information on what they planned to sell and offered to rent an upstairs parlour at the Leaky Cauldron, as a place to show their wares, on the condition that only fifth years and up would attend. The lower years would have to wait until the Express. Moody had contacted Tom the barkeeper and booked the room, from eight in the morning, until seven at night.

It proved to be a busy day and a very profitable one for all involved. Tribus sold forty-seven trunks and rented/leased out another thirty-two. Titan sold three post-graduation trunks and had commissions to make another nine. Remy sold nearly ʛ5000 worth of books including the libraries for twenty-one Tribus trunks and two of Titan's trunks. Paddrick was just as rapt, he had commissions to outfit those same trunks and had sold another ʛ400 worth of miscellaneous school gear. The twins sold far less, but they knew that most of their sales would come from the lower years and today was only for the seniors, but even so, ʛ350 was still a good haul. Lee had done well, over ʛ2500. The most popular being the exercise books, graph-paper and the glass quills. Ken was quite happy with his sales, too, roughly ʛ650. Four kittens, two of which were Siamese, one was Persian and the last was a Maine Coone. Three canaries, two budgerigars, a dove and one parrot. Four turtles and three snakes. Plus, beds, stands, toys and the cages or aquariums to house them.

Yes, it was a busy day and all seven boys knew they'd sleep like the dead that night, but come the next day they had plans to hit the muggle stores in Edinburgh and stock up as best they could, before returning to Hogwarts for the next term.