"You... you really bet?" George Weasley gulped, "25 galleons just like that? What if you really... really..."
He never dared to say the words guessed wrong, fearing he would jinx it.
"I trust my luck and my instincts." Albert said calmly, "You can make a fortune if you guess right."
"We don't have any money." The twins looked at each other and then shook their heads. The Weasleys were relatively poor, and even if the twins had some savings, they wouldn't waste it on gambling.
"Don't look at me, I want to save some money for other things." Lee Jordan shook his head back and forth. He only thought that what Albert did was crazy, and if he had that kind of money, he would never use it like this.
While the four boys were talking, the train had pulled out of London and was speeding along the fields.
Albert, for his part, flicked through the newspaper as he listened to the trio gossip about Quidditch, a subject in which he was unable to talk about, even if he knew the rules, he had to pretend that he didn't know them.
After all, Albert was from the muggle world, and it should be impossible for him to be know of anything regarding Quidditch.
"By the way, did you guys hear about Gabriel Truman?" George suddenly brought up the incident from a while ago.
"Nuttley almost got expelled from the Ministry of Magic." Fred whispered, "He personally had to go and apologise to Gabriel Truman, for this affair to be over and done with."
"I heard about that too. My mum said Rita Skeeter's article was unreliable." Lee Jordan said, "That woman likes exaggerating too much."
"Most newspapers do, but the content always needs to contain some kernel of truth." Albert said as he closed the paper. As one of the instigators in all of this, he naturally knew what was going on.
"I've been to Truman's cubicle earlier and heard him talking to someone about it. He said that he met a Hogwarts freshman practising magic during the summer holidays, and then he himself inexplicably received a letter saying that he was expelled from Hogwarts." Fred suddenly said. "At that time, Dumbledore and a Ministry of Magic's official approached him, the Ministry of Magic's attitude was very bad, and he didn't even give an apology, so he..."
Albert raised an eyebrow when he heard that, it seemed Truman had forgotten to be secretive about the whole affair. At least he didn't put Albert into the spotlight.
Albert's ultimately was more modest and subtle in his approach and didn't like to show off.
"By the way, do you know how the school is sorting us?" Albert changed the subject.
"I don't know, my family wouldn't tell me." Lee Jordan said shaking his head.
"Percy said there's a kind of test." George said a little annoyed, "He never tells us anything, he thinks it's funny."
"What about the life of a Wizard, is it going to be interesting?" Albert thought for a moment and added, "At first, my family was surprised when I got the letter, my mother wasn't very welcoming to Professor McGonagall. She was worried that I wouldn't be able to get a job after I graduated."
"That's not going to happen, both of my elder brothers graduated." The twins said in unison.
"Bill is in Africa working for Gringotts."
"Charlie is in Romania studying dragons."
"And your father?" Albert asked knowingly.
"He works for the Ministry of Magic." The twins looked at each other and spoke in unison.
"I think I'll probably stay in the muggle world after I graduate."
"Why?" The trio asked suspiciously, something that seemed to them to be incredibly difficult to direct.
"I came to Hogwarts mainly to learn about magic and master how to use it, Professor McGonagall said that if I don't learn about magic, it could lead to it getting out of control later on."
"But while in the muggle world we wouldn't be able to use magic at will, and we couldn't tell muggles that magic exists or we'd get ourselves in trouble."
"Right, so what do you guys want to do in the future?"
"I don't want to work in the Ministry of Magic."
"Me neither." The twins looked at each other and both couldn't help but smile.
"Being a Quidditch player would be nice, Charlie's was the Quidditch captain and I think I fly pretty well, it's a shame you have to be Second Year to join Quidditch." George said regretfully.
"I haven't thought about it." Lee Jordan said.
"What about you?" All three looked to Albert.
"Me? Get a job that's simple and easy and makes a lot of money."
"Is there really such a job?" The three couldn't help but look at each other again, if there was such a job, they would want it too!
"There ought to be, but I'm still searching for it." Albert said with a smile. He wondered when the twins got the idea of the joke shop.
"Remember to let me know if you find one." Lee Jordan patted Albert's shoulder in a serious manner, butcouldn't help and smile.
"Do you mind if I take a picture of you guys." Albert said as he took out his camera.
"Take a picture?"
"Yeah, my family wants to know about the magical world." Albert sat the three of them down on one side and held up the camera to take a few pictures of them.
"Why won't the photos move?" Lee Jordan raised his hand and poked at the photos, probably trying to get them to move.
"Muggle photos don't move." Albert explained, taking the photos and looking at them, satisfied with that, "Looks like I'm getting a little better at this."
"What's the point of a picture that doesn't move?" The three quickly lost interest in the photo.
Near noon, noises came from the train's aisle.
A moment later, a Witch pushed open the compartment door and asked, "Would you like to buy any food, dear?"
"I'll have an order of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans." Lee Jordan said he had brought his own food. The twins had brought sandwiches with them, since they didn't have much money, so they didn't buy anything.
"Bring me some of everything." Albert said to the Witch who had a kind smile.
Having just seen Albert's big gamble, the three of them were numb to the way he spent his money lavishly.
Albert paid a galleon for a varity of things.
"I bet your family is rich." Lee Jordan muttered.
"Not exactly rich." Albert opened the Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans and ate one, it was bean sprout flavoured, "They're all lawyers."
"What's that?" None of the three knew anything about muggles.
"People who represent people in lawsuits, you also can think of them as people who legally exploit loopholes in the law." Albert said thoughtfully.
"Legally exploiting loopholes." The three of them were a bit baffled after hearing this, what does it mean to legally exploit loopholes, how can exploiting loopholes be legal?
What kind of bizarre practice is this.
"Help me understand what kind of food these are." Albert made a please gesture, he didn't want to eat something he doesn't know, Wizards all have a bit of strange tastes. Moreover, this was an opportunity of sorts, even friendships, need to be managed and maintained.