Chapter 13: Realization
The next day Harry and Jacob went down to the cellar of the twins' shop to practice.
Half of the cellar was used for storage, but the other half was a room used for developing new pranks.
The room contained a full potions lab, and an area for spellcasting.
Due to the fact that the room was used for experimental purposes, the ministry required that several heavy-duty wards be placed on it, wards that would block the ministry-mandated tracking spell on Harry's wand, allowing him to practice magic without having to worry about being arrested.
Harry and Jacob quickly discovered that while certain charms and some transfiguration worked well wandlessly, some charms, as well as most hexes and all of the conjuration that they had attempted did not appear to be possible wandlessly.
Still, Harry found that he could produce a shield, a stunner, blasting and cutting charms wandlessly, and he was certain that there would find more things that he could do wandlessly.
It was things like avis charm or the bat-bogey hex that he couldn't perform wandlessly.
After an impromptu duel, performed wandlessly of course, they decided to take a break from practicing wandless magic, and headed over to the potions lab side of the room.
Jake grabbed the standard book of potions, grade 3, having gone through the first two books already.
Harry grabbed his grade 6 potions book, and opened one of the drawers in the desk, looking for some potions to take notes on, he grabbed a small stack of parchment, and started flipping through it, looking for a piece that wasn't covered with the twins' scribbled notes.
About half way through the stack, he froze in shock.
There, sitting in his hand was a piece of paper that changed the way he saw not only the twins or even just the Weasley family on the whole, but everyone he had ever seen interact with the twins, including himself.
This document hereby certified that Frederick Weasley has completed all of the necessary requirements to achieve a certification level of master in the field of experimental potions.
Harry quickly looked at the next page in the stack.
This document hereby certified that Frederick Weasley has completed all of the necessary requirements to achieve a certification level of master in the field of experimental charms.
It read.
This document hereby certified that George Weasley has completed all of the necessary requirements to achieve a certification level of master in the field of experimental potions.
This document hereby certified that George Weasley has completed all of the necessary requirements to achieve a certification level of master in the field of experimental charms.
Harry stared at the pages blankly for a moment, his mind feverishly going back over the five years since he had first met the twins.
Of course, you stupid sodding git! He admonished himself.
It all made sense now.
All of Fred and George's pranks were highly inventive, and very difficult to counter if you did not already know how.
Harry smiled as he remembered the swamp that the twins had created in one of the hallways at Hogwarts last year.
Not even Professor Flitwick, a charms master, and Professor McGonagall, a transfiguration master could dispel it, even while working together.
That, combined with the Canary Creams that the twins had created should have tipped everyone off.
The Muggle saying that "It is easier to destroy than to build" held true to magic, Harry knew.
It was always easier to reverse a transfiguration or dispel a charm than it was to perform the magic in the first place, and any potion that caused or altered a transformation was considered master level, and since no one ever found any charms on the Canary Creams, they must have some kind of potion, Harry reasoned.
Harry felt himself flush with embarrassment as he remembered his perception of the twins over the years.
He had never been rude to them, in fact he always liked them, and they usually got along quite well, but he had always thought of them as nice, easy-going, and fun-loving, but not particularly intelligent.
Harry found this illusion quickly evaporating as he studied the certifications in front of him.
He had seen similar certifications mounted in frames on the walls of various professors at Hogwarts, usually in the subject they were teaching.
Harry paused suddenly, and grinned wolfishly, remembering seeing Snape's master certification in his office.
Snape's certification was a regular master-level certification, meaning that he was good enough to brew any existing potion, but the twins had master certifications in experimental potions.
Harry turned and bolted out of the cellar and up the stairs, looking for the twins.
He found George behind the counter of the currently empty shop reading a book.
"Hey Harry" George greeted amicably.
"Hey George" Harry replied, setting the certificates on the counter.
"I found these while I was looking for some blank parchment to take notes on" He said.
George's smile faded as he saw what Harry had found.
"Harry, please don't tell anyone about this" he said earnestly.
Harry frowned. "why not?" He asked in surprise.
"We, uh, don't want anyone to know." George said earnestly. "If they find out they'll want us to give up our 'foolish shop' and get 'real jobs.'" He shrugged. "This is what we want, this is our dream, but Mum can't understand that."
Harry nodded, and George continued. "For all Mum complains about how Percy has treated the rest of the family, he gets his ambition from her. All of our lives she has told us how she wants us to work at the ministry, to be important and powerful men in the government, and now she is acting surprised when Percy goes and does it."
He shook his head. "She wants us to be great men, and at the same time manage to be her good little boys, but she doesn't realize that the two don't mix."
Harry nodded again. "Allright, I wasn't planning on telling anyone anyway, but I have a couple of questions." He stated simply
"Allright, let's hear them"
"First off, you deliberately failed your OWLS didn't you?"
George nodded. "Yes we did, for the same reasons that we don't want Mum knowing about these certifications."
"Allright, next question." Harry continued. "What is the difference between your experimental potions master certification, and Snape's regular master potions certification?" He asked
George grinned. "A normal potions master certification like Snape has means that he can brew any potion as long as he has accurate written instructions, an experimental potions master understands enough about how various ingredients interact to create new potions." He said simply.
Harry's eyes lit up. "So someone like Snape can brew any potion that they have a recipe for, but he can't legally try to create a new one."
George nodded "Take the wolfsbane potion for example. Before any regular potions master like Snape could legally brew it, it had to be created and tested by someone with a masters in experimental potions, like me"
Harry grinned "Wicked!" He exclaimed. "So the experimental charms mean that you and George can legally create new spells?" George nodded.
"Double Wicked! One more question." Harry said, suddenly looking at George seriously.
"What's that Harry?"
"Would you be willing to take some time over the summer and teach Jacob and I?"
It was Georges turn to grin. "Sure Harry"