Harry Potter and the Unknown Power

Chapter Two

The morning that they were due to start work at the joke shop was hot and sticky. Harry lay in bed for a long moment, Ron was still sound asleep, snoring softly. He sorted through his thoughts and was just about to get up when he heard a light tap on the door, then watched in horror as the door began swinging open. He franticly pulled the covers back over himself, and yanked them to his chin. Ginny poked her head through the door, with a grin. "Mum's got breakfast on the table, and Tonks should be here soon." She had on a light blue tank top and a pair of jeans that Harry was certain had belonged to Ron at one point, cuffed several times and cinched at the waist with a belt.

She then looked at him with a mischievous grin and pounced on Ron. Ron jerked awake with a high pitched shriek, sending Ginny into fits of laughter. He scowled at his sister before shoving her roughly to the floor; Harry sat up to make sure she was okay. She sat on the floor still laughing, while Harry tried very hard to suppress his own laughter. Ron glared at her, "Bint! What did you do that for?"

"Ah, brother mine, for the sheer satisfaction of hearing you scream like a little girl," she said still chuckling.

Ron looked down at himself, then at Harry, before shouting, "GINEVRA MOLLY WEASLEY! WE'RE NOT DRESSED!"

She waved her hand still trying to control her laughter, "Honestly, Ron, it's not like I haven't seen you starkers before. For goodness sakes, we used to bathe together when we were little!"

"And Harry?" growled Ron, "I don't believe you ever bathed with him?"

Then Ginny did the most amazing thing, she looked at Harry and blushed, but stood her ground looking at him carefully, "No," she said in a quiet voice, "I've never bathed with him." Harry's eyes widened and he began to blush furiously. Ron grabbed her arm and frog marched her to the door, shutting it firmly in place.

Harry heaved himself from his bed, and pulled on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, and his ragged trainers. Ron looked at him oddly.

"Erm, Harry, not that I have any fashion sense, but what on earth are you wearing?"

"They are a bit beat up, but, I figure with Fred and George, I can count on coming home covered in muck."

"No, it's not that, mate; for someone with a bloody fortune, you look like a pauper. And I know you don't know this, because of those Muggles you lived with, but you will need to wear your cloak, if you are going to wear that, when we go to Diagon Alley. Most wizard folk are fine with long pants and jumpers, but shorts and T-shirts are something else entirely."

Harry rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out his school cloak and fastened it over his clothes. He grinned, "Is this better?"

"Not by much, Harry, not by much, but you'll do."

Ginny grinned saucily as Harry and Ron scooped up several thick bacon sandwiches and tall glasses of cold milk. Ron scowled at her, and Harry met her eyes with a shy smile. What is going on here? He ignored the voice in his head as they each threw a pinch of Floo Powder in the fireplace in the cozy parlor, where Tonks was already waiting and shouted, "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes!"

When Harry tumbled out of the fireplace, he looked at the shop with amazement. The shop was quite large, and the shelves lining the walls were filled with jokes; trick wands, and hats and the counter case was filled with trick sweets and Skiving Snackboxes. The walls were lurid purple, with violently pink and green trim. The twins were both wearing black jeans; Fred was wearing a bright yellow shirt with vertical green stripes and George was wearing a blue shirt with orange polka dots. All the colors reminded Harry of some Muggle tie-dyed shirts he had once seen in a shop. He smiled to himself thinking that they would make excellent gifts for the twins.

"Welcome, welcome, especially to our benefactor!" said George.

"All right, you lot," said Tonks, "I have to go and take care of some errands. I'll be back before closing to take you home. Don't leave the shop, under any circumstances. If something happens, you two," she said jabbing the twins in the chest with a hard finger, "will escort them back through the Floo to the Burrow."

"Of course," Fred said with a wheeze.

"Will do, Cap'n," said George with a mock salute, rubbing his chest. Tonks sniffed, but grinned as she walked out of the door.

"Come on, we will show you what to do," said Fred.

"Nothing too dangerous..." said George, with a grin.

"...Mum would kill us," sighed Fred dramatically.

"But, if you should turn colors," said George.

"...or lose a limb or eyesight," said Fred.

"Do let us know, so we can take a picture!" They said together.

They laughed, and then led the way into the back of the shop. Harry's jaw dropped as he took in the enormous space.

It was easily as big as the Great Hall at Hogwarts. The walls were painted in cheerful colors, with pictures of sweets and the twins' more famous jokes framed on the wall. Harry stopped to inspect the framed photograph of the Portable Swamp in the corridor at Hogwarts, complete with Filch punting the students across to the other side. Right next to the photograph was a framed letter signed by Professor Flitwick, congratulating them on their expert use of magic. The worktables were covered in bins and beakers of all descriptions, while cauldrons steamed and smoked. Stacks of boxes containing more of their inventory were neatly placed on shelves in the back of the room. What was really amazing was that the staff, who were all busily putting together the jokes, packaging the inventory, and doing the neat stacking, were all house elves.

"Hermione will throw a wobbly when she hears about this!" breathed Ron.

"Erm," Harry cleared his throat, "How did you get all these elves?" He thought he saw nearly twenty of the small creatures, each wearing a crisp red tea towel, emblazoned with three gold W's in a golden circle, all tied like the togas, with a gold rope belt.

"Ron, Hermione will be thrilled to hear that we have hired all these elves. You see, with so many Death Eaters going back to You-Know-Who, a lot of the old families are leaving the country. The Ministry won't let them take the elves, so there were a lot of elves looking for work. We bought the building next door and turned it into an apartment building for them. We told them we have to pay them, because we can't house them or feed them, and they need to pay rent to live next door. They won't take clothes, so we compromised and bought tea towels with our logo on them. They organized themselves. One group does the shopping and cooks and cleans the flats, the rest work here," said George, slinging his arm over Ginny's shoulders, steering them towards the work tables.

"Really, they are paying the mortgage on the building, with their rent. Pity Wizarding law won't let them own property, or we would sign it over to them. With the kids going back to school, we need to build up our inventory, for the rush," said Fred, "and they are right hard workers."

"That is where you lot come in," said George, "we need more hands to do the spells. Right now it's just me and Fred. The Ministry won't let them have wands, and their magic doesn't work with the jokes. Once you are employees, though, you can do magic here in the shop and not get any warnings from the Ministry."

Fred said, "Right, so sign here, it's a magical contract, you work for us, and don't use these spells for yourselves -they are trademarked -and we pay you at the end of the day."

All three signed the parchment, and got out their wands. After a few mishaps, they got the hang of charming the wands to turn into rubber mice, parrots, and fish. Ginny managed to turn a few of hers into great, flapping rubber bats. Ron had managed to make one of his rubber cod belch great clouds of smoke that smelled of rotten cabbages. Harry melted a few before he got the hang of the wrist movement.

Harry was so busy concentrating on the wands in front of him that he didn't notice the house elf standing timidly at his elbow, "Sir, I's has your lunch ready!"

Ron toppled off his stool in surprise, "Lunch?"

"Of course, Ronnikins, can't have Mum thinking we starved you," said Fred.

George added, "The elves save our skins every day. We get busy and would forget to eat, but they take good care of us."

"Thanks you, Mister George! Thanks you Mister Fred!" the elf bobbed an odd bow, and left them to their lunch.

Harry ate several thick turkey and ham sandwiches and enjoyed the company of his friends. He wondered if this is what it would be like to just be normal. When all the plates were empty and the elves took the crockery away, Fred clapped his hands, "Alright, crew, back to work! Hats this afternoon!"

The hats were fun, but difficult. "Hermione thought it was just a spell, but this demiguise potion they came up with is very clever," said Ginny. The potion needed to be painted onto every bit of the hats then the incantation to charm the hats to work when placed on the head. "How did you get so few OWLs and still manage to do such advanced magic?"

The twins simply grinned at her and continued brewing several potions that would later fill their trick sweets.

Fred and George had also bought the idea for the House hats from Luna Lovegood. They wanted to sell hats for each of the four houses, "Slytherin Galleons spend the same as everyone else's, little brother!" The Gryffindor Hat featured a large lion that roared realistically. The Ravenclaw Hat had a large bronze bird that flapped its wings and screeched. The Hufflepuff Hat was a bit more difficult since no one knew what a badger sounded like, and settled instead for it baring its teeth and claws. The Slytherin hat was likewise difficult, and in the end the large snake simply undulated in an eerie way and hissed loudly.

"Oi!" shouted Tonks, who was dripping wet, "You prats could have turned the joke at the door off!"

Fred grabbed a camera and snapped a picture before Tonks could dry herself off, "That's one for the wall, Tonks!"

George laughed, "Sorry, Tonks."

Just before they were due to leave, Fred pulled Harry aside, "We need you to sign one more thing, Harry, right here. This is to make you a full partner. Without you, we never would have managed this at all. We figure in a few years, we can buy you out, and you will have made a tidy profit on your investment. We are planning to start an owl service catalogue this spring, and it should help quite a bit."

George said in a low voice, "We are working on a few things for the Order, too. We've picked up a few things from the Muggles and as soon as we have some samples, we will send them to you to try out..."

"...The Room of Requirement will come in handy, I'm sure," said Fred, winking, and thrusting the quill into Harry's hands.

Harry started to protest, he had given the twins the money, and didn't need an investment. "No, mate, we insist," they said, as they pushed Ginny and Ron through the Floo. Harry sighed and scratched his near illegible signature on the line, and shook hands with the twins, as he was unceremoniously shoved through the fireplace.

Harry tumbled onto the floor of the Burrow and smiled. It was good that they were focusing their considerable talents into making people laugh. He had been right, after the Tournament -there was going to be precious little to laugh about now that Voldemort was back.

***

Chapter Four

One morning while Harry was eating his second helping of scrambled eggs and sausage, a strong looking brown owl swooped into the kitchen and dropped three letters bearing the Hogwarts seal on the table. Ron swallowed hard on his toast and reached a shaky hand towards the envelope.

"Mum!" Ginny yelled, "Mum! Come quick! OWL results are here!"

"Ginny," Ron said, pushing her shoulder roughly, "What did you do that for?"

"So you couldn't hide them, its best to get it over with straight away, like a plaster," she said smugly.

Ron muttered something under his breath, which sounded suspiciously like some healer you're going to be. Ginny smirked as Harry slit the top of the envelope with his knife and slipped the parchment out. Ron looked nervous as he did the same, while Mrs. Weasley gripped Ron's shoulders and read over his shoulder.

"Ron! Eight OWLs! That's wonderful!" Mrs. Weasley enveloped him in a tight hug, before turning her eye to Harry. "Harry? How did you do, dear?"

"Eight, just like Ron," he said, then he reached over and took Ron's letter, "We got the same grades in everything, except I got a P in History of Magic, you got an A. And I got an A in Astronomy, and you got a P. Still, neither one of us is going to get into Advanced Potions. McGonagall said we had to get an O on the OWL. Looks like we need to find another career, mate." Harry felt out of sorts; he had been counting on getting into the Auror program since he couldn't really see himself doing anything else.

"Maybe we should start checking out Quidditch programs, instead. I think Charlie said you only need three OWLs, and it doesn't even matter what you get them for," said Ron, "It says here we need to reply within the week with the NEWT courses we want to take."

Harry chuckled, "Yeah, maybe we can both play for Chudley. I'm not going anywhere near Puddlemere unless they chuck Oliver Wood out, the man is a psychopath when it comes to Quidditch."

"Now, now, I am sure you two will find something much more worthwhile. Perhaps Professor McGonagall can give you some other options when you get back to Hogwarts," said Mrs. Weasley, levitating a huge basket full of wet clothes before her, as she and Ginny went out in to the garden to hang the laundry.

"I wonder how Hermione did," said Ron, "Actually, she probably got an O in everything. Honestly, I don't know how she does it." Harry looked at his friend's face and noticed the pride in his voice. "What do you reckon, for this term?"

Harry replied, "I don't really want to give up Care of Magical Creatures, or Herbology, but History of Magic and Potions are definitely out."

"Divination, too, mate. I don't care which planet is aspected with what, nor do I care what your teacup looks like after you've swigged it all down," said Ron.

"'Die, Ron, die'?" teased Harry.

"Abso-bloody-lutely," said Ron emphatically.

Harry thought for a minute, "Ron? Can I ask you a question?"

"You just did, old chap," grinned Ron.

"When are you going to tell Hermione that you like her?"

Ron sobered instantly, "I dunno, mate. Probably as soon as I can get the gumption to tell her I love her, I've been in love with her since we clubbed that troll in first year. She drives me mad, you know, she is completely mental. Between her studying and her grades, and spew and all the madness we get into. She has time for everything, and she is interested in everything. I just don't know that she will ever take me seriously, or will ever think I am interesting enough for her. I've wanted to say that bit for a while, but I wasn't sure how you would take it."

"Me?"

"Yeah, your two best friends getting together, wouldn't you feel, well, left out? I know I would."

"But I would be happy for you, besides, I've known how you felt since the Yule Ball. I think that you are plenty interesting for her. If nothing else, you make her laugh and do that funny thing with her mouth when you swear. Maybe you should write her, and ask how she did on her OWLs."

"Yeah, I think I will... but first, you haven't been trounced in chess recently!"

Later that night, after several glasses of milk and some of Mrs. Weasley's oatmeal raisin biscuits, Harry waited until he was sure Ron was asleep. He sat up and opened the window and sat on the ledge. The night was warm, and the stars were bright. He found Mars, and sure enough it was as bright as he had ever seen it. After a few minutes, he checked his watch and counted down the seconds until his sixteenth birthday.

"Happy Birthday, Harry," he heard Ron whisper.

"Thanks," he said, "Go back to sleep. Everything is fine."

Several owls swept in and dropped envelopes and parcels onto his bed. He opened his birthday card from Hermione. She had gotten twelve O's on her OWLs, and had picked up his gift in Italy. It was a silver cloak clasp in the shape of a leaf, charmed to keep his cloak securely fastened, and to never tarnish. He smiled; he had been expecting a book. The next card was from Hagrid, and a boxful of his treacle fudge. He also got a letter from Neville.

Happy Birthday, Harry!

I just want to thank you for letting me into the DA last term. I got an O in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Herbology! I even somehow managed to scrape an A in Potions, making it six OWLS in all. Gran is very pleased. Even Dad didn't get an O in Defense Against the Dark Arts!

She took me to Diagon Alley today to get a new wand. I think that it might help in my classes, it seems much better suited to me than Dad's.

See you soon,

Neville

He sighed, and brushed of the stray feathers from his lap and settled into bed. He drifted off and was fast asleep with a faint smile on his lips.