Moving Forward

It was a bright, new, promising day for the store, and on top of that, it was Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes 6^th Anniversary. George busied himself by dusting the shelves early in the morning, before the store opened. Thousands of items now glittered from each corner of the store; barrels of candy and chocolate shined delectably from in front of the register; imported powders and potions glimmered in their fancy packaging near the front of the store; and covering one entire wall was what Fred and George had become famous for--their Snackboxes, Fancies, and Nougats, and of course, their ever-popular fireworks sets.

Behind the register, George stared around his store, smiling, amazed at how it had grown and what it had become. He turned around to face a large, moving portrait behind him. It was a picture of himself and Fred, years earlier, standing outside the shop they had just recently purchased. Fred grinned widely, with the perpetual look of mischief in his eyes, one arm thrown haphazardly around his twin. George couldn't help but laugh; they both never realized how popular their store was going to get.

The front door swung open with a jingle and Daniel, the assistant George had recently hired, shuffled in.

"You're late, Dan," reprimanded George. "I've already dusted the shelves."

Daniel stared at the floor. "I am so sorry," he replied, his face scrunched in what was evidently an attempt at looking like he was in pain for being late. "I'll do the shelves again, and the mopping."

"No, don't do the shelves again. There's something slippery on the stairs leading to the storage room, make sure you clean that up. But first, I need you to do inventories on all of the items. I've promised to donate half of what we make today to Mungo's Charities," George said. "I have to make sure that we give them what we've promised, alright? Look sharp, now."

Daniel shuffled off in search of the clipboard with the inventory sheet attached.

George shuddered a little. When had he become such a hard-nosed businessman? He remembered when he used to be much more in the background, and Fred was the one taking the lead in all of the business ventures. Now that task had fallen to him, and he had to change his attitude to the "business-savvy entrepreneur" that he knew Fred would have been better at being.

George took one last glance at the moving portrait behind the register and began helping Daniel with the painfully slow task of counting up every individual item that lined the store's shelves.

The store was packed by midday. George wished he had about eight eyes, or at least that Ron could be bothered to take the day off to help out in the store. Throngs of people crowded the store, most of them brought in after the parade that had wound down Diagon Alley, celebrating the official re-opening of Gringotts Bank. It had, in fact, been open these last five years, but fully without a front entrance, due to the events of the War year, when a giant dragon had torn away most of the white bricks that made the front entrance.

George glanced around the store, and then realized that the shelves that were usually filled with firecrackers were now nearly empty.

"Dan!" he called out. "Take over the register. I'm going to go get more fireworks." Dan weaved his way through the crowd and slid behind the register, and took over momentarily.

George went towards the back of the store, where they kept the daydreaming potions and imported products and tapped a hidden door with his wand. He stepped inside and lit his wand so he could see the staircase that led down to the storeroom. The box of fireworks was right at the bottom of the stairs and he could see from where he was standing. He began down the stairs, and then everything happened at once.

He slipped on a stair about halfway down and slammed his head after falling backwards. His head was spinning, but he realized then that he was now falling full-force down the tall staircase, which knocked him unconscious. He landed with an awful thud right on top of the box of fireworks, his wand letting out sparks as it snapped in half under the weight of his arm. A spark caught hold of one of the fireworks in the box, and one spark was all that was needed.

The crowd in the small antechamber near the storage room screamed in shock and horror as thousands of fireworks shot up through the staircase and out into the store. Many of the the fireworks were slowed though, because George was getting the brunt of their blast, lying out cold on top of the boxes.

Daniel, manning the counter, stared in alarm at the fireworks now bouncing around the store, knocking items off the shelf, wanting to get out.

"Prop open the front door!" Dan shouted, and witch near the front of the store pulled it open. The fireworks, which seemed to have a mind of their own, burst out through the front door and out onto the street, where the midday shopping crowd scurried to get out of their way.

He pushed his way through the crowds towards the store room and stumbled down the stairs, nearly slipping like George had, on the stair that Dan had forgotten to mop.

The fireworks had subsided by the time he got down to the bottom of the staircase. Dan then saw George, lying unconscious, his face blackened by the bursting fireworks and his arm twisted in an unnatural position beneath his body. Dan stood back, and made what looked like a cross in mid-air with his wand: the signal for the Mediwizards of Mungo's, alerting them to an emergency.

He heard popping sounds at the top of the staircase and watched as a witch and wizard in emerald green robes swooped down on what looked like a set of brooms with a stretcher attached in the middle.

The witch began questioning Dan, who knew very little of what happened, and the wizard bewitched George and floated him carefully onto the stretcher that sat in the middle of the two brooms.

"I-I don't know, I just saw the fireworks, and I came down to look and I saw George-will he be alright? His arm doesn't look right-" Dan stammered, feeling enormously guilty for not have mopping the stairs like George had asked him to.

"He should be fine," the wizard answered gruffly, securing George with straps to the stretcher. "We'll take him to Mungo's. Best send an owl to his family, young man. Quickly now."

The witch asked a few more questions, and then hopped onto the other broom with the wizard. They made their way slowly up the stairs, with Dan following meekly behind. The mass of people still in the store moved out of the way as George was brought through the store and out the front door. Dan watched them soar out of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and out towards the entrance to Diagon Alley, where they veered a sharp left, surely on their way to St. Mungo's.