"Did he eat it?" said Fred excitedly, as Harry exited the fireplace behind me.

"Yeah," said Harry "What was it?"

"Ton-Tongue Toffee," said Fred brightly. "George and I invented them, and we've been looking for someone to test them on all summer. . . ."

The kitchen exploded with laughter.

"The test was a perfect success, you two are going to get somewhere amazing with this stuff, I'm sure of it!" I said

"How're you doing, Harry?" said Charlie, shaking hands with Harry.

Bill got to his feet, smiling, and also shook Harry's hand.

Before any of us could say anything else though, Dad appeared out of thin air at George's shoulder, looking angrier than I'd seen him in a very long time.

"That wasn't funny, George!" he shouted. "What on earth did you give that Muggle boy?"

"I didn't give him anything," said George. "I just dropped it. . . . It was his fault he went and ate it, I never told him to."

"You dropped it on purpose!" said Dad "You knew he'd eat it, you knew he was on a diet —"

"How big did his tongue get?" Fred asked eagerly

"It was four feet long before his parents would let me shrink it!"

Everyone apart from Dad roared with laughter.

"It isn't funny!" Dad shouted. "That sort of behaviour seriously undermines wizard–Muggle relations! I spend half my life campaigning against the mistreatment of Muggles, and my own sons —"

"We didn't give it to him because he's a Muggle!" said Fred indignantly.

"No, we gave it to him because he's a great bullying git," said George. "Isn't he, Harry?"

"Yeah, he is, Mr. Weasley," said Harry earnestly.

"He certainly deserved it!" I added

"That's not the point!" raged Dad "You wait until I tell your mother —"

"Tell me what?" said a voice behind us.

Mum had just entered the kitchen.

"Oh hello, Harry, dear," she said, spotting him and smiling. Then her eyes snapped back to her husband. "Tell me what, Arthur?"

Dad hesitated. It was obvious that, however angry he was with Fred and George, he hadn't really intended to tell Mum what had happened. There was a silence, while Dad eyed Mum nervously.

Then Hermione appeared behind Mum, smiling at Harry, who grinned back.

"Tell me what, Arthur?" Mum repeated, in a dangerous sort of voice.

"It's nothing, Molly," mumbled Dad "Fred and George just — but I've had words with them —"

"What have they done this time?" said Mum "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes —"

"Why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" said Hermione from the doorway.

"He knows where he's sleeping," said Ron, "in my room, he slept there last —"

"We can all go," said Hermione pointedly.

"Oh," said Ron, cottoning on. "Right"

I joined them.

"Yeah, we'll come too," said George.

"You stay where you are!" snarled Mum

We set off along the narrow hallway and up the rickety staircase that zigzagged through the house to the upper stories.

"What are Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?" Harry asked as we climbed

Ron and I laughed, though Hermione didn't.

"Mum found this stack of order forms when she was cleaning Fred and George's room," said Ron quietly. "Great long price lists for stuff they've invented. Joke stuff, you know. Fake wands and trick sweets, loads of stuff. It was brilliant"

"We've been hearing explosions out of their room for ages" I said, "Harry, you'd know, that was the case when you were here last time too. Their stuff is wonderful, last year they gave me a fire breathing drink for Christmas, and who can forget that Halloween joke with Andrew?"

We all laughed at the memory.

"Sadly though, Mum burned all the order forms and a whole load of their stuff. I've been helping them out though, there's a loose floorboard under my bed that Mum doesn't know about, so they've re made some of it and are hiding it there. I seal it up magically, it's not like the Ministry can tell who performs spells in this house" I continued.

"You'd think Mum would learn to confiscate all our wands when we come home for the summer" Ron said

"And then there was this big row," I said, "because Mum wants them to go into the Ministry of Magic like Dad, and they told her all they want to do is open a joke shop. She should learn to just respect that, we can all see how talented they are"

Just then a door on the second landing opened, and Percy looked out, a very annoyed expression on his face.

"Hi, Percy," said Harry.

"Oh hello, Harry," said Percy. "I was wondering who was making all the noise. I'm trying to work in here, you know — I've got a report to finish for the office — and it's rather difficult to concentrate when people keep thundering up and down the stairs."

"We're not thundering," said Ron irritably. "We're walking. Sorry if we've disturbed the top-secret workings of the Ministry of Magic."

"What are you working on?" said Harry.

"A report for the Department of International Magical Cooperation," said Percy smugly. "We're trying to standardize cauldron thickness. Some of these foreign imports are just a shade too thin — leakages have been increasing at a rate of almost three percent a year —"

"That'll change the world, that report will," said Ron. "Front page of the Daily Prophet, I expect, cauldron leaks."

Percy went slightly pink.

"You might sneer, Ron," he said heatedly, "but unless some sort of international law is imposed we might well find the market flooded with flimsy, shallow-bottomed products that seriously endanger —"

"Yeah, yeah, all right," said Ron, and he started off upstairs again.

Percy slammed his bedroom door shut.

As we followed Ron up three more flights of stairs, shouts from the kitchen echoed up to us. It sounded as though Dad had told Mum about the toffees.

"I do feel sorry for Fred and George" I said "This really isn't the end of the world"

"I know" said Ron "Mum's honestly a nightmare sometimes"

We entered Ron's room, where Ron's owl, Pigwidegon, was hopping up and down and twittering madly in a small cage. I had given him that name shortly after we got back from Hogwarts, and now he would only respond to that, much to Ron's frustration and my amusement.

"Shut up, Pig," said Ron, edging his way between two of the four beds that had been squeezed into the room. "Fred and George are in here with us, because Bill and Charlie are in their room," he told Harry. "Percy gets to keep his room all to himself because he's got to work."

"Er — why are you calling that owl Pig?" Harry asked Ron.

"Because he's being stupid," I said "Its proper name is Pigwidgeon."

"Yeah, and that's not a stupid name at all," said Ron sarcastically. "Ginny named him," he explained to Harry. "She reckons it's sweet. And I tried to change it, but it was too late, he won't answer to anything else. So now he's Pig. I've got to keep him up here because he annoys Errol and Hermes. He annoys me too, come to that."

Pigwidgeon zoomed happily around his cage, hooting shrilly.

"Oh come on Ron, you love him really" I said, sitting down and crossing my legs. "You were the same with Scabbers. You'd complain about him all the time, but when you thought Crookshanks ate him you were very upset"

"Yeah that turned out well didn't it? I'm not upset about losing ownership of a mass murderer in disguise!"

"Where's Crookshanks?" Harry asked Hermione.

"Out in the garden, I expect," she said. "He likes chasing gnomes. He's never seen any before."

Harry sat down on one of the beds and watched the Chudley Cannons zooming in and out of the posters on the ceiling.

"Can you believe it, the Cannons actually had some success recently, what is the world coming to?!" I said, laughing.

It was true, the Cannons had managed to secure promotion back to the top flight via the play offs.

"Yes, and about bloody time too! This is only the start of our rise back to the very top!" Ron said passionately

"If you don't finish in the bottom 3 this year, I'll get a tattoo of your choice on my cheek" I replied.

"A tattoo? What's that?" Ron asked.

"It's a muggle thing" said Hermione "where a design gets inked onto your skin. They're very difficult and expensive to have removed"

"Oh I am so taking you up on that bet then Ginny! I can't wait to see you with a Hippogriff's arse on your cheek!" Ron said

"Fine" I said confidently "let's shake on it"

And we did so.

"Percy's enjoying work, then?" said Harry

"Enjoying it?" said Ron darkly. "I don't reckon he'd come home if Dad didn't make him. He's obsessed. Just don't get him onto the subject of his boss. According to Mr. Crouch . . . as I was saying to Mr. Crouch . . . Mr. Crouch is of the opinion . . . Mr. Crouch was telling me . . . They'll be announcing their engagement any day now."

"Have you had a good summer, Harry?" said Hermione. "Did you get our food parcels and everything?"

"Yeah, thanks a lot," said Harry. "They saved my life, those cakes, especially yours, Ginny"

"You're welcome, of course I was going to go all out for you, love" I said, wrapping my arm around his shoulders

"And have you heard from Sirius?"

"Yeah," said Harry, "twice. He sounds okay. I wrote to him yesterday. He might write back while I'm here."

"Good to hear that. Hopefully he doesn't do anything reckless" I said

"I think they've stopped arguing," said Hermione. "Shall we go down and help your mum with dinner?"

"Yeah, all right," said Ron.

The four of us left Ron's room and went back downstairs to find Mum alone in the kitchen, looking extremely bad-tempered.