Left Behind (A Fred & George fanfic)

15. Omniscience

 “Check out our new Caps of Omniscience! After the success of the Headless Hats and our famous Anti Gravity Hats, here's your chance to experience something completely new! Are you sick of that little know-it-all outsmarting you all the time? Do you want to be able to finally answer a question correct in Potions class? C'mon! Don't wait any longer and find out what will happen to YOU when you put on this cap!”

George stood on a little ladder attached to one of the shelves inside Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, shouting his sales chat over and over again. He looked overly happy, unusually happy – careless, even.

What on earth had happened to him? Angelina thought, watching him from a corner of the store. She stood near the section of Muggle Magic Tricks, which was – as usual – deserted. Why she had decided to visit her husbands' work, she had no clue. Still, she was here, watching George closely, lost in her own thoughts.

“Excuse me, miss!” An old odd-looking man with a long yellow robe and blue ribbons in his beard drew her attention. He pointed at the Magic Tricks behind her and gave her a nod.

“Oh, I'm sorry.” Angelina stepped aside as the man observed some kind of flower badge. He squeezed one of its leaves and a small trickle of water came out of it, which caused the man to giggle.

Even in the wizarding world some people look – and act – like complete idiots, Angelina thought, watching the man walking towards the counter with a content look on his face and the badge in his hand.

Ah well, there were always the Lovegoods, compared to them this guy was extraordinary ordinary. Dear Luna was currently hunting Crumple-Horned Snorkack with Rolf Scamander in Romania, after all those years she still hadn't managed to catch one. But of course she wouldn't give up on it, and neither would Rolf.

“Take a look at our Caps of Omniscience!”

Angelina threw another look at George. Still confident, he yelled happily at his customers, wearing an oddly shaped cap, which obviously had to be one of those omniscience hats.

“Did you know that you can lead a cow upstairs, but not downstairs?” He said.

A little boy with spiked dark hair – he couldn't be much older than 10, because otherwise he would have been at Hogwarts right now – walked up to him. “I can push it downstairs, if you want to.” he said.

“Now don't be a smart-ass, little one!”

The boy looked up at him provocative. “I thought that was the whole point of wearing a hat like that.”

“Oh is it? So tell me, when you shower, do you use a sponge?”

“Uhm... Yes, of course I do.”

“Your sponge contains more bacteria than your toilet.” George said promptly.

The boys' face twisted with disgust. “Ieehhhll!”

“That's what I thought! Now, do you want to try this hat on too?” George took the cap off his head as the boy nodded eagerly. He handed it over to him, a mischievous smile on his face.

At that moment he caught Angelina's gaze and smiled at her. Angelina saw something that wasn't quite right, something with his smile. It seemed as if his smile were too happy, too real, too convincing to actually be George's smile. The way the corners of his mouth twitched, the way his eyes seemed to lighten up... She recognized this smile, but she hadn't seen it in twenty years.

What happened in the Forbidden Forest? What had changed him so much? It had to be something in there, since Neville had told her George had run into the Forest while he was in complete distress. Still, he had come out of it as a happy human being.