There may be a bit of a delay between this chapter and the next, I just need to have a re-shuffle.
Enjoy!
It was a week later when Hermione found herself standing in the middle of Diagon Alley, surrounded by dragon-hardened researchers and wearing a determined expression covered by a wide smile. The street party was well underway, Molly, Fleur and Ginny had pulled out all the stops when it came to providing food, they thought they were feeding the five thousand. There were long table set out down the center of the cobbled street, behind which the women were handing out cakes and sweets to young children and laughing at their toys from Fred and George's shop.
The twins had done spectacularly well to prepare for the party in only a week. They had worked through the night to get Smoking Dragon Balls, Harmlessly Flammable Pet Dragons and their new dragon themed Skiving Snackboxes (with real-ish Dragon Pox Parma Violets!) onto the shelves. The twins and Hermione had agreed that they would fund the street party, and one research mission, and in return their logo was on everything. These dragon toys and pranks were just a bonus from them, and it helped draw in excitable children to their store.
The party was in full swing, Hermione answering her fair share of questions as she spoke to public with ease. It had taken a few days, but she had memorized Charlie's research and made a copy of it for herself. Like with the Ministry protest, Charlie kicked it all off and answered the most questions.
Before long, Hermione was in a deep discussion with Gus and a gaggle of people who were distracted on their way to the Apothecary.
"But we need dragon scales for potions!" one of them bleated.
"We can't carry on if the prices go up! How can we compete with other people when our blood replenishing potion is too expensive to buy?" another man whined.
"For that potion, only a small amount is needed," Hermione reasoned. "Surely only a tiny scraping from one scale is enough for a large supply. If you're buying more than that, it makes me wonder what you are using them for?"
"Are you implying something there, Miss Granger?" the man retorted hotly. "Because I can assure you that I-"
"Sir, all Hermione was saying is that if you are concerned about the cost, and in such a volatile potion, surely you would want the safest ingredients? Buying illegally could kill you, never mind how much you are using." Gus interrupted. "I suggest you read this and think about what you are supplying to other people." He placed a flyer in the man's hand and steered Hermione away.
"You ok, girl?" he asked affectionately. "You seem on edge a bit."
"I'm fine, Gus," she insisted. "Thank you for that back there, I should have kept my cool a bit better."
"You go find Charlie and take ten minutes," he said soothingly. "I haven't seen you take a break and I know he wouldn't have. We can handle this."
Hermione tried to protest, but Gus had already taken her flyers and was shouting for Charlie across the street. Hermione quickly hugged Gus and moved towards the tall redhead where he quickly asked if she was ok.
"I'm fine," she smiled. "Gus told me that we need a break so here I am."
"I suppose he has a point," Charlie conceded. "Mum saved us some food and we can use the shop's back room."
Together they greeted Molly and quickly stole away into the relative quietness of the back of the shop. They sat and both sighed heavy sighs at the same time.
"Is it always this tiring?" Hermione asked with a laugh. Taking a desk job hadn't done wonders for her fitness levels it seemed.
"Pretty much, you get used to it though," Charlie said around a cucumber sandwich. Andrei and Caleb had decided nothing was more British than a street party, so there was everything from cucumber sandwiches, to scones, cream teas and vats of steaming Earl Grey. The twins had also placed their own products on the tables, as well as Honeydukes and their happily supplied chocolate dragons and sugared firepops.
The turnout for the street party was huge, Seb and Kurt had been apperating around the wizarding towns of Britain, spreading the word and leaving posters all over the place.
"Any news with Marco?" Hermione tried to sound nonchalant.
"Not a sausage," Charlie kept the tone light. "Are you worried?"
"I'm trying not to worry," she admitted. "I think it's an innate thing to worry when I've known Harry and Ron for as long as I have."
"If he does anything, I'll be the first one to bring him down," Charlie promised. "We've got the Order here today, he'd be more stupid than I give him credit for if he did anything in such a crowded place."
Hermione had approached Remus and Tonks a few days previously to explain their need for security. They were shooting from the hip and Order and off duty Aurors were interspersed in the crowds outside.
"Speaking of crowded places, are the twins ok to go ahead with their big finale?" Hermione asked. She'd seen it once before, but she wouldn't want to miss it now they were doing it again.
"Oh I think so," Charlie said with a wide smile. "We're just waiting for them to give us the signal."
They looked at each other for a moment, and before another word was uttered, they grabbed their bottles of chilled Butterbeer and ran for the Alley laughing between their gasps for air they sought the tall twins. Fred and George were just leaving the shop with their brooms and an old WWW crate between them when Charlie waved them down
"OI! Charlie!" Fred shouted across the street. "We're good to go if you are!"
"You two get in the air, we can cover for you," Charlie called back. This had been Fred and George's idea, of course, but Hermione and Charlie thought it was genius. No one else was any the wiser as Charlie cast a 'snorus' at his throat and called for attention.
"Ladies, gentlemen," he started with confidence. The crowd calmed almost instantaneously and he caught the questioning looks of the rest of the team.
"First of all, I want to thank you for coming here today, and if you didn't mean to come but got caught up with us, thank you all the same." A small chuckle came from the crowd. Molly looked up at her second eldest son as Bill placed a comforting arm around her shoulders. The immense pride she felt was palpable as she looked up to him.
"As I'm sure you all know by now, our ultimate goal is to get the laws changed so illegal dragon poaching is stopped and only safe products will be used in wand making and potion brewing. The team and I have been handing out flyers and answering questions all afternoon, and is happy to carry on in a short while. Before then however, my brothers, and official sponsors have something they would like to do."
Charlie stood aside as Hermione threw up an armful of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder into the sky above Gringotts. The blackness caused a few screams and excited children to laugh and cry out. Before the darkness cleared, Fred and George shot through the black cloud and emerged in the sky to loud cheers and a whoop from Bill and Ginny.
"Not a lot of people know this," Fred shouted through his own 'snorus' charm.
"But this was out parting gift to Hogwarts School!" George finished. There were rumours of their last moments of course, but the only evidence was a small, out of focus photograph taken by Colin Creevey that was in the Prophet a few weeks later after Umbridge was ousted from the school. The young children on the street were squealing so loud the windows in the shops were rattling.
"Ready Fred?"
"Ready George!"
No one could play a crowd like the twins, and before anyone knew it, they were soaring through the sky on their Fire Fly 1000's, throwing fireworks through the thinning black cloud below. When they called their trademark phrase to each other, everyone knew something spectacular was going to happen.
The loud flashes, huge bangs and whizzes and pops had the crowd in awe as they craned their necks to watch. Camera flashes were going off at ground level, but were outdone by the bright colours in the sky that were now twisting and turning, interweaving as the two twins flew with style and panache. The fireworks were spreading through the sky, towards all corners of the Alley now.
Hermione was looking up at the sky, next to Charlie as he looked on in shock. He had heard about the twin's exit from Hogwarts, but didn't realize the scale of it.
Fred jabbed his wand towards the street now, the long thin arms of cackling sparks joined with the heads of people, causing their hair to stand on end. The adults were shocked but the children were howling with laughter. George directed this stream of energy towards Bill whose hair leapt from his ponytail and danced around his face. Gus was no exception either, his long dreadlocks sticking out like spikes on a Blast Ended Screwt.
Andrei and Caleb were both laughing, as Kurt and Seb were subject to the same treatment as more strands of static came from the sky. Fred and George had used the static to cover their next move and were busy levitating small bundles of explosives at various places in the sky. The winding strings of their fireworks were changing colour, flashing blues and greens and golds and slowly disappearing with a pop from each one.
"And now, ladies, gentlemen, boys and girl," George shouted over the screams.
"The ONLY way to leave Hogwarts in style," Fred called after.
They left their levitated packages in the sky as they swooped low over the heads of the crowd. They were only feet from the heads of their captive audience, moving at speeds that left them as a magenta blur.
"What about volunteers, Freddie?" George asked loudly, playing up to their audience. They were hovering near the entrance to the street, looking down towards the bank.
"You know what, Georgie. You have a damn good idea," Fred pondered while dramatically stroking his chin. "Volunteers put you hands up!"
Every child raised their hands and unbelievably screamed even louder. Fred and George swooped and picked a boy and a girl from the crowd and landed by them. After asking permission quickly from the parents, they lifted the kids onto the front of their brooms and slowly lifted up into the sky. Their arms were around them, but they used sticking charms nonetheless. This was about good publicity after all.
"Ok, what we want when we say so, is to hold our wands with us and shout 'boom' as loud as you can, ok?" Fred said quietly as they got higher and higher into the sky. The children nodded enthusiastically.
"Can we have a countdown from ten?" George called to the crowed as they leveled with their target.
"TEN… NINE… EIGHT… SEVEN… SIX… FIVE… FOUR… THREE… TWO…ONE…" the crowd shouted together.
At three, the twins took their wands from the sheaths on their forearms and held them level with their awaiting packages. They were charmed to go off at their wands only, to save any unfortunate accidents while they were performing to the people below. The trigger word wasn't of importance, but their display was all about theatrics. The children on their brooms were wide-eyed and excitable. At two, they put their hands over their guardians and called the numbers and waited for the countdown to be over.
"BOOM!" Fred, George and the two children called.
The finale was spectacular. The largest fireworks blew from the middle and exploded in all directions. The glittering gold triple W of the twins shop was in the middle, it was hissing and popping as a giant dragon thundered through the sky and up and down the alley.
The red and gold scales shimmied by as yellow flames licked the tops of the crowd's heads and blue and green flashes were seen when it crawled up the side of a shop. It then jumped to the roof of Gringotts bank and reared back on it's hind legs and pulled in a deep breath before it shot sparks and flames from it's glittering mouth. The firework flames were vast, spreading nearly fifty feet into the air.
In the cloud of smoke left behind by the twin's antics, the words "KEEP ME ALIVE" were visible in orange and blue letters under the twin's shop logo.
The final crescendo of whooping and shouting came from the audience as Fred and George landed on the raised platform Charlie and Hermione were still stood on.
"Dig deep people! We're collecting donations at our shop if you want to help the cause!" Fred called as he and George bowed low to the crowd.
With nothing left to say after Fred and George retired to the shop, Charlie and Hermione stood, speechless at what they had seen.
"Fuck me sideways," Charlie breathed. "That was bloody incredible. They did that when they were sixteen?"
"They did," Hermione confirmed. She was as gob smacked as he was seeing it again. "They used the dragon to chase Umbridge out of the Great Hall."
"No wonder they nearly blew themselves up the summer before that year," Charlie said with a laugh. He and Hermione walked back into the crowd to meet with the other Weasley's. Harry and Ron had joined them in time to see the finale.
The rest of the evening went smoothly, and as darkness started to fall the shops started to close the punters headed home. The team and the Weasley's all stayed for the clean up operation. Fred and George had people flocking to their shop after their display and before long they had nearly a thousand galleons just in donations alone.
Andrei and Caleb were using their wands to sweep the rubbish from the cobbles as a tall dark haired man made their way towards them.
"Marco?" Caleb asked.
"Where's Weasley?" he asked unkindly.
"We don't want any trouble, Marco," Andrei said firmly. "Don't make a scene."
"It seems like you've done that already," Marco said dryly before spotting a group of redheads using their wands to fold up tables and shrink the uneaten food. Before either of the Belarusians could answer, he was striding towards them. Marco had given up his battered gear for a smart dark grey suit covered in a dark blue robe. Ever the pureblood.
"Weasley," he stated, and every redhead turned to look at him. A small man with black hair and a scarred forehead also turned to glare at him, as well as a pretty blonde witch and Hermione. Using surnames with such a large family was a redundant idea so amended his request to "Charlie."
"Valdez," Charlie started coldly. "I told you not to come back."
"You did, but word spread of your little street party and I couldn't not come and see what you've done with the place. Very impressive." He tone was cold, thick with his pureblood upbringing.
"If you're looking for trouble, you won't find it here," Charlie pressed back firmly. "You've wasted your time."
"I already told you, Charlie. I'm not looking for trouble, but someone else is. Just watch your back."
Charlie was ready to rip the man's throat out with his bare hands, but Bill and Ron holding him back stopped him.
"Don't Charlie," Bill warned. "It's too public. Get him another day."
Marco turned on his heel and sauntered away.
For now…
Ok, I know there wasn't much Hermione/Charlie in this, the twins took care of that for me and I couldn't stop writing them!
Uh-oh! Marco is a bit of a bastard isn't he?
Please review and let me know your thoughts!