09/10/24

The next day (the one before Match Day) Harry was helping Remus and Sirius check they had everything they would need for their camping trip at the World cup.

· Tents with built in undetectable extension charms... check.

· Things to put up the tent... check.

· Food (plus extra chocolate)... check.

· Unpick-pocket-able wand holsters – something Harry had discovered when Sirius gave him his dad's old one for his birthday last week... check.

· Sleeping bags with pillows and extra blankets if needed... check.

· Things to make s'mores (marshmallows, crackers, bars of chocolate) check.

· Extra clothes (if need be) check.

And last but not least

· The tickets – sitting on the mantel-piece, and the ordered in advanced portkey sent straight to the house... check.

"What's a portkey again?" Harry asked handing the old muggle newspaper to Lupin who put it beside the tickets.

"They are simple objects that we turn into transportation devices to get to a certain place at a certain time." Remus replied.

"Like North's snow globe's?" Harry asked remembering the magic balls that acted as portals to get you to the place you said.

"No. These are dispatched by the Ministry, and have a one-time use on them, hence why it's set for a specific time." Remus explained.

"But... if you can just teleport yourself from A to B..." Harry said slowly as he zipped up his bag as he remembered Neville's grandmother doing so at the station last year "Why do you need these?"

"Because Apparition is like driving," Sirius said coming in with some mugs of coffee "You need to be of age, take a test and get a licence. Because it can go horrible wrong otherwise. You might leave a bit of yourself behind."

"Besides," Remus said smiling remembering how James had to do his test over a few times because he kept getting distracted by Lilly. "There will be Wizards and magical beings coming from all over the globe to see this. And as it's on Muggle land, not something that most of us were happy about, we can't just pop out of nowhere thousands at a time. People with less good seats had to come a week or two in advance."

"But since we have Top Box seats," Sirius said beaming proudly. "We can arrive on the day."

Rolling his eyes Remus set his mug down and zipped up his bag too.

Harry was about to ask some more questions when the fire behind them spared and turned green.

"Hello? Harry? You there?" It was Ron Weasley, one of Harry's friends.

"Yeah I'm here," Harry said reaching for the kneeling pillow placed beside the fireplace.

He had gotten use to this way of magical communication by now. When Ron first tried it, Harry didn't know what to think, just seeing the head of his best friend in the fireplace like that.

"What's up?" Harry asked smiling.

"Mum and Dad said to call you to check if it was ok if we can come over now, or if we should wait until later," Ron explained looking up at Sirius and Remus over Harry's shoulders.

"Well the beds in the rooms aren't quite ready yet," Remus said in a thinking voice. "But the rooms themselves have had extension charms set on them."

"So that's a yes?" Ron asked hopefully.

Remus looked to Sirius who shrugged and took another sip of coffee.

"I suppose," Remus said, about to say something else but Ron had already backed away and poof of green fire was there with Ginny, Fred and George, Mr Weasley, and two red heads Harry didn't recognize but guessed were Bill and Charlie – the two eldest Weasley children.

"Where's Percy?" Harry asked not seeing him.

"Back home," Fred said rolling his eyes. "Working."

"Honestly who spends the whole summer in their room, working on an essay for cauldron thickness?" George asked offering a bag of sweets to Sirius who raised an eyebrow to the teenager but took one anyway.

"Well that is an important thing to worry about," Remus said telling everyone to place their things next to theirs. "If a cauldron's bowl is not the right thickness for the potion you are making, it could either melt through it meaning the potion is spilt everywhere, or be effected by the fire – ie gets too warm or too cold."

"Yeah, you want it Goldie-Locks thickness, not-" Harry was starting to say when a coughing and a dropping of a coffee mug from Sirius made everyone look at him as he held a hand over his mouth.

Quickly Harry ran over to his godfather and tried to help, but didn't know what to do. However he did see the sweet wrapper on the floor beside the smashed mug.

Turning around, he saw Fred and George in a mix of trying to look innocent and trying not to laugh.

"What did you do to him?" Harry asked stomping over to the older boys.

"Just gave him a sweet me and George have been perfecting," Fred said holding the bag out to Harry "You want one?"

"NO!" Harry said shoving Fred's hand away. "Undo it!"

"Harry please, relax," Mr Weasley said calmly, used to this kind of chaos and already over with Sirius trying to undo the effects the sweet did to him. "This is just a simple engorgement charm, easily undoable. At least I think it is."

Giving one last glare at Fred and George, Harry went over to Remus since he couldn't go to Sirius just yet.

"Come on Harry, it's just a joke," George said beaming hopefully. "Ton-Tongue Toffee's we finished them a few days ago and wanted someone to test them on, only no one at home trusted anything we give them."

"And for good reason!" Harry said pointing to Sirius who was still breathing, thank god, but his tongue had grown blue with orange polka-dots and was half-way down his chest. "Do you have any idea how dangerous this kind of thing is?" he asked remembering what Jack Frost said to him and Hermione that lesson after the swelling solutions in Potions in his second year.

"What if he had more than one? What if he had a default one and it got his throat instead? What if it were to kill him, and you think this whole thing is nothing but a big fat joke?!"

There was silence in the living room (minus the muttering from Mr Weasley and spluttering from Sirius).

Breaking free from Remus' arms, mad at everyone, and couldn't stand their eyes on him, Harry ran upstairs and slammed his bedroom door.

Back in the living room all eyes had turned to the bag of sweets still in Fred's hand.

Looking his twin in the eyes, he sighed rolled the top down and held them out to Remus who took them, nodding, and went to put them in the kitchen bin.

"You know," Bill said from where he was sitting at the table having seen all of this. "If you had tried this with that Dudley Dursley, cousin of his, Harry might be a little less grumpy right now. But you would still be in trouble with mum."

"Yes, I have half a mind to not let you two come with us after this," Mr Weasley said looking to the twins. "But you Sirius, you should have known better then to take something from one of them like that. Didn't you train under Moody for a good few years?"

Rolling his eyes still unable to say anything, Sirius just crossed his arms being careful not to get his tongue in the way.

After few more minutes Sirius had his tongue back to normal and went to go and check on Harry.

He had just gone upstairs when there was a knock on the front door and Remus opened it to reveal the Dale sisters, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, and Jack Frost and his family.

"We came earlier but heard yelling so we thought we should wait a bit," North said looking around for the cause.

"It's fine, everything is sorted out," Remus said welcoming everyone in. "There was just a minor incident with a pack of sweets.

"Did someone eat all the green smarties?" Annie asked thinking that was what was wrong. "What?" she asked to the stares "They're the best ones."

"I think you will find that the blue ones are the best," Jack said confidently. "But something tells me that wasn't it."

"The sweets in question are not smarties," Remus said being the only one who witnessed it, and knows what 'smarties' are to answer their question. "Besides, the red ones are best."

"What are Smart-ees?" Ron asked confused as this colour argument carried on for a few more minutes.

"They're a muggle sweet," Hermione said after putting her stuff down. "Slightly flattened balls of chocolate covered in hardened and different coloured sugar." she explained. "And if I can put in my vote," she said turning to the Smarties Selection Squad. "I think the best ones are the white chocolate ones. I always liked white chocolate more than milk, and especially dark."

There was a pause before a new argument started, this one – what kind of chocolate is the best.

After a minute or so, all eyes turn to Remus looking for his opinion.

"Everyone is allowed their own opinion on which chocolate is the best, be it dark, milk, or white. As a child I, myself, liked milk chocolate." he admitted.

"What we need..." Harry's voice said from the stairs making everyone turn to see him and Sirius (who was trying to hold back his laughter) "Is a group of people who have not tried Smarties before, divide up the colours, blind fold the voters, and make them try the smarties. First the milk chocolate ones and then the white, and make them vote which is best."

All eyes turned to the Weasley's and Neville who looked a mix of confused and happy at this.

"We also need the sweets in question mate," Bunny said rolling his eyes.

"There's a shop close by where we can get them," Remus said going to get some shopping bags "I'd say a tube each should be fine right?" he asked looking to Arthur.

"If it will sort this out then yes," he said looking the most excited.

To think – he will get to try real life muggle sweets all for an experiment!

"Right, be back in a while," he said leaving with his muggle money wallet.

"I thought he said it was close by." Ron said confused.

"Ron, we're in the middle of the country side, AKA no-where," Harry said making him look out the window to see the farms and the grazing animals "Close by, here can take up to 20 – 30 minutes, just to get there."

"We're going to have to wait an hour before we can eat our smarties?" Annie asked sounding devastated and slumping to the ground.

"One, I doubt it will be that long," Elisa said rolling her eyes. "Two you won't be a part of the test because you have had them before so you have your opinion on them already."

Mimicking her sister's last few words while pouting and crossing her arms, Annie got up and asked if she could look around the kitchen for something to eat.

Nodding Sirius led everyone to the kitchen and opened the doors to the back garden so there would be more room.

AN: I don't think i will get back to it... but in your opinion readers...

Which colour and which chocolate is the best for Smarties?