CANDY CRUSH {Fred Weasley}

74

Meeting at Hogsmeade. 

"Because Lord Voldemort's back."

Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself. A phrase Charlie came to know about from her grandfather. However good that saying was in theory, the practical part of it was still to be accomplished. When Hermione said the name of 'You Know Who' the reactions were wild. Cho's friend, Marietta Edgecombe, shrieked and slopped butterbeer down herself, Terry Boot gave a kind of involuntary twitch, Padma Patil shuddered, and Neville gave an odd yelp that he managed to turn into a cough. Fred and George jumped slightly along with their siblings while Charlie gulped hard. 

While Willy had told her not to fear the name, she couldn't help but be a little fearful.

"Well . . . that's the plan anyway," said Hermione. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to —" 

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" said the blond Hufflepuff player in a rather aggressive voice. 

"Well, Dumbledore believes it —" Hermione began.

"You mean, Dumbledore believes him," said the blond boy, nodding at Harry. 

"Who are you?" said Ron rather rudely. 

"Zacharias Smith," said the boy, "and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back." 

"Look," said Hermione, intervening swiftly, "that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about —" 

"It's okay, Hermione," said Harry. It had just dawned upon him why there were so many people there. He felt that Hermione should have seen this coming. Some of these people — maybe even most of them — had turned up in the hope of hearing Harry's story firsthand. 

"What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" he asked, looking Zacharias straight in the face. 

"I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you don't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone." The whole group seemed to have held its breath while Harry spoke. Harry had the impression that even the barman was listening in. He was wiping the same glass with the filthy rag; it was becoming steadily dirtier. 

Zacharias said dismissively, "All Dumbledore told us last year was that Cedric Diggory got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought Diggory's body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how Diggory got murdered, I think we'd all like to know —" 

"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone I can't help you," Harry said. "I don't want to talk about Cedric Diggory, all right? So if that's what you're here for, you might as well clear out." He cast an angry look in Hermione's direction. This was, he felt, all her fault; she had decided to display him like some sort of freak and of course, they had all turned up to see just how wild his story was. . . . But none of them left their seats, not even Zacharias Smith, though he continued to gaze intently at Harry. 

"So," said Hermione, her voice very high-pitched again. "So . . . like I was saying . . . if you want to learn some defence, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet, and where we're going to —" 

"Is it true," interrupted the girl with the long plait down her back, looking at Harry, "that you can produce a Patronus?"

"A corporeal one?" Charlie asked. She knew that the Patronus was involved in saving Sirius but she never realized that it was a corporeal one, it slipped her mind completely. She was impressed as it was a very tough one, even she couldn't conjure a corporeal one. 

The conversation then shifted to everything Harry had done over the years, him saving the Sorcerer's stone, then saving Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets evidently stopping Hogwarts from closing forever. His adventures during the Triwizard Tournament; him fighting against dragons and everything that came with it. Harry was telling them how he had help with everything but Susan Bones insisted that he had fought against the dementors on his own. 

"No," said Harry, "no, okay, I know I did bits of it without help, but the point I'm trying to make is —" 

"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" said Zacharias Smith. 

"Here's an idea," said Ron loudly, before Harry could speak, "why don't you shut your mouth?" 

"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him, and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it," he said. 

"That's not what he said," snarled Fred Weasley. 

"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" inquired George, pulling a long and lethal-looking metal instrument from inside one of the Zonko's bags. 

"Or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stick this," said Fred. 

"Yes, well," said Hermione hastily, "moving on . . . the point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"

There was a murmur of agreement as the conversation shifted to the number of times they should meet for the meeting, Angelina, Cho and Zacharias Smith argued that the meetings shouldn't conflict with their Quidditch timings and practice.  Ernie Macmillan then proceeded to question why was it that the Ministry had foisted such a useless teacher upon them who in such times won't teach them how to defend themselves.

"We think the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Charlie, "is that she's got some . . . some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilize us against the Ministry."

"Well, that makes sense. After all, Cornelius Fudge has got his own private army." 

The meeting ended on the note that everybody had to find a place to have the meeting. After writing their names on a piece of parchment, the twins along with Charlie and Ainsley decided to wander around the village for a little bit. In the last letter from Willy, he had discussed starting a shop in Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. A shop of their own and not keeping the candies anywhere else. Charlie was absolutely thrilled by the idea, it was a dream of her to open her own shop but with the Second Wizarding War arriving, that idea seemed like it would remain a dream.

"What you thinking, love?" Fred asked when he found Charlie distracted.

"What happens if someone finds about this?" 

"Who cares?" Ainsley said giddily. Everybody turned to look at him with disbelieving looks.

"Ainsley Holman! Are you fine? You sure you don't need to go to Madam Pomfrey,"