Friendless » Fred Weasley

cxxi. dumbledore's order

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were all lying unconscious in the doorway. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were on their feet, all three of them having used a different hex.

"Thought we'd see what those three were up to," Fred said matter-of-factly, stepping onto Goyle and into the compartment. He had his wand out, and so did George, who was careful to tread on Malfoy as he followed Fred inside. Tori purposely gave the boy a hard kick, watching Goyle's ear twitch from her own hex.

"Interesting effect," said George, looking down at Crabbe. "Who used the Furnunculus Curse?"

"Me," Harry said.

"Odd," said George lightly. "I used Jelly-Legs. Looks as though those two shouldn't be mixed. He seems to have sprouted little tentacles all over his face. Well, let's not leave them here, they don't add much to the decor."

Ron, Harry, and George kicked, rolled, and pushed the unconscious Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle - each of whom looked distinctly the worse for the jumble of jinxes with which they had been hit - out into the corridor, then came back into the compartment and rolled the door shut.

"Exploding Snap, anyone?" Fred asked, pulling out a pack of cards.

They were halfway through their fifth game when Harry glanced up at the trio.

"You going to tell us, then?" He asked George. "Who you were blackmailing?"

"Oh," George said darkly. "That."

"It doesn't matter," Fred tried to assure them, shaking his head impatiently. "It wasn't anything important. Not now, anyway."

"We've given up,"  George sighed, shrugging. Tori bit her lip nervously, wincing in pain as one of the cards snapped at her.

But Harry, Ron, and Hermione kept on asking, and finally, Fred said, "All right, all right, if you really want to know...it was Ludo Bagman."

"Bagman?" said Harry sharply. "Are you saying he was involved in -"

"Nah," said George gloomily. "Nothing like that. Stupid git. He wouldn't have the brains."

"Well, what, then?" Ron pressed. Fred hesitated, then said, "You remember that bet we had with him at the Quidditch World Cup? About how Ireland would win, but Krum would get the Snitch?"

"Yeah," Harry and Ron said slowly.

"Well, the git paid us in leprechaun gold he'd caught from the Irish mascots."

"So?"

"So," said Fred impatiently, "It vanished, didn't it? By the next morning, it had gone!"

"But - it must've been an accident, mustn't it?"
Hermione asked, glancing at Tori.

George laughed very bitterly.

"Yeah, that's what we thought, at first. We thought if we just wrote to him, and told him he'd made a mistake, he'd cough up. But nothing doing. Ignored our letter. We kept trying to talk to him about it at Hogwarts, but he was always making some excuse to get away from us."

"In the end, he turned pretty nasty,"
Fred sighed, wrapping his arm around Tori. "Told us we were too young to gamble, and he wasn't giving us anything."

"So we asked for our money back,"  George said, glowering.

"He didn't refuse!" Hermione gasped. "Right in one," said Fred. "He's a nasty man." Tori sighed, leaning her head on Fred's shoulder.

"But that was all your savings!" Ron nearly yelled.

"Tell me about it," George agreed, sighing with defeat. "''Course, we found out what was going on in the end. Lee Jordan's dad had had a bit of trouble getting money off Bagman as well. Turns out he's in big trouble with the goblins. Borrowed loads of gold off them. A gang of them cornered him in the woods after the World Cup and took all the gold he had, and it still wasn't enough to cover all his debts. They followed him all the way to Hogwarts to keep an eye on him. He's lost everything gambling. Hasn't got two Galleons to rub together. And you know how the idiot tried to pay the goblins back?"