The shop was packed with customers; Vega could hardly see the shelves in her line of sight. She looked around the place, taking in the brightly-coloured surroundings – there were boxes piled to the ceiling: Here were the Skiving Snackboxes that the twins had perfected during their last, unfinished year at Hogwarts; Vega noticed that the Nosebleed Nougat was most popular, with only one battered box left on the shelf.
There were bins full of trick wands, the cheapest merely turning into rubber chickens or pairs of briefs when waved, the most expensive beating the unwary user around the head and neck, and boxes of quills, which came in Self-Inking, Spell-Checking, and Smart-Answer varieties. Vega felt like this busyness was just what she could expect.
A space cleared in the crowd, and Vega pushed her way toward the counter with Harry right behind her, where a gaggle of delighted ten-year-olds was watching a tiny little wooden man slowly ascending the steps to a real set of gallows, both perched on a box that read out to the audience in an array of flashing colours:
Reusable hangman – spell it or he'll swing!
"'Patented Daydream Charms...'" Hermione had managed to squeeze through to a large display near the counter and was reading the information on the back of a box bearing a highly coloured picture of a handsome youth and a swooning girl who were standing on the deck of a pirate ship.
"I think I might want that one," Vega joked, trying to lighten the mood and she was glad when Harry laughed lightly in the back.
"'One simple incantation and you will enter a top-quality, highly realistic, thirty-minute daydream, easy to fit into the average school lesson and virtually undetectable, side effects include vacant expression and minor drooling. Not for sale to under-sixteens.' You know," Hermione said, looking up at Vega. "That really is extraordinary magic!"
"For that, Hermione," said a voice behind them. "You can have one for free,"
Vega whipped around to find a beaming Fred stood before them, wearing a set of magenta robes that clashed magnificently with his flaming hair. He laughed at her reaction and held his arms out for her to hug him, which she gladly did.
"Fred!" Vega breathed, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and reaching up to give him a kiss, making Fred grin against her lips. "I missed you,"
"I missed you, too, love," Fred assured her before looking at their audience. "How are you, Harry?" He held his arm around to shake his hand.
"Good," Harry replied, shaking his hand back.
As Vega moved back from Fred, she brushed her hair away from her face and looked at her boyfriend in confusion when he took her chin to move her head to look at him, staring at her closely until she realised that he was focused on her eye.
"What's up with your eye?" Fred asked, genuinely curious.
"I got a bit hurt," Vega replied before adding hastily, "By accident – of course, we were all just fooling around with your punching telescopes, you see,"
"But you know it's dangerous, Vega," Fred said, frowning and not looking for a second convinced that she took part in that. "Show me how bad it is; I've got something to fix you up,"
Hermione took the moment to flee the scene, causing Vega to look after her in bewilderment and she quickly busied herself with undoing her Metamorphmagus cover-up and allowed Fred to see what was up with her eye and he frowned deeper.
"How long have you had it now?" Fred asked as he pulled a small tub of cream out of his pocket before reaching to inspect her black eye. "Does it hurt?"
"No," Vega mumbled, feeling his finger brush against her injury. "It didn't hurt much, I promise,"
"Well, I'll put this on your eye, okay?" Fred told her, unscrewing the tub lid to reveal a thick yellow paste. "I'm just going to dab it on and your bruise will be gone within an hour, okay?"
Fred took some of the paste and Vega continued to look up at him until he had finished.
"But why do you have something like that on the ready?" Vega asked shrewdly.
"We had to find a decent bruise remover," Fred told her almost casually. "We're testing most of... our products on ourselves," His ears turned pink.
"Don't you get yourself hurt," Vega said almost warningly as she narrowed her eyes at him, and Fred nodded quickly to appease her.
"Of course, you know I am," Fred replied, pressing a kiss against her head. "Come on, I'll show you around the shop – you should come along, too, Harry,"
Fred led the pair of them through the shop, and all the way around to the back of the packed shop, and here, Vega's eyes fell on a stand of card and rope tricks. Harry raised his eyebrows, clearly recognising some of them from his Muggle school days.
"Muggle magic tricks!" Fred said happily, pointing them out. "For freaks like Dad, you know, who love Muggle stuff. It's not a big earner, but we do fairly steady business, they're great novelties... oh, here's George..."
And it was George, who was dressed similarly to his twin brother, shook both Vega's and Harry's hands rather energetically, grinning all the same.
"Giving them the tour?" George asked. "Come through the back, Vega and Harry, that's where we're making the real money – pocket anything, you, and you'll pay in more than Galleons!" He added warningly to a small boy who hastily whipped his hand out of the tub labelled edible dark marks –
they'll make anyone sick!
George pushed back a curtain beside the Muggle tricks and Vega saw a darker, less crowded room. The packaging on the products lining these shelves was more subdued.
"We've just developed this more serious line," Fred informed them. "Funny how it happened..."
"You wouldn't believe how many people, even people who work at the Ministry, can't do a decent Shield Charm," George said. "'Course, they didn't have you teaching them, Vega,"
"That's right..." Fred agreed, his arm wrapping around Vega's waist. "Well, we thought Shield Hats were a bit of a laugh, you know, challenge your mate to jinx you while wearing it and watch his face when the jinx just bounces off. But the Ministry bought five hundred for all its support staff! And we're still getting massive orders!"
"So, we've expanded into a range of Shield Cloaks, Shield Gloves..." George added.
"... I mean, they wouldn't help much against the Unforgivable Curses," Fred said carefully. "But for minor to moderate hexes or jinxes..."
"And then we thought we'd get into the whole area of Defence Against the Dark Arts, because it's such a money spinner," George continued enthusiastically. "This is cool. Look, Instant Darkness Powder, we're importing it from Peru. Handy if you want to make a quick escape,"
"And our Decoy Detonators are just walking off the shelves, look," Fred said, pointing at a number of weird-looking black horn-type objects that were indeed attempting to scurry out of sight. "You just drop one surreptitiously and it'll run off and make a nice loud noise out of sight, giving you a diversion if you need one,"
"Handy," Harry said, impressed.
"This is all really impressive," Vega admitted, looking around in amazement, feeling like the boys were working faster and more than she had figured from Fred's letters.
"Here, you two," George said, catching a couple and throwing them to Vega and Harry.
A young witch with short blonde hair poked her head around the curtain; Vega saw that she too was wearing magenta staff robes – it seemed like they were the uniform colour for the shop, and Vega felt like that it oddly suited all of them well.
"There's a customer out here looking for a joke cauldron, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Weasley," She said, and Vega found it very odd to hear Fred and George called 'Mr. Weasley,' but they took it in their stride.
"Right you are, Verity, I'm coming," George said. "Vega, Harry, you two help yourself to anything you want, all right? No charge,"
Verity looked toward Vega in intrigue when she heard her name, and Vega felt like the older witch must've heard about her around the shop, and that made her a bit embarrassed. But she was promptly distracted by what George had said.
"We can't just take anything," Vega said as both her and Harry gave the pair of twins an absurd look. "We must pay – it's your hard work,"
"You two don't pay here," Fred said firmly, waving away Vega and Harry's offer of payment.
"But –" Harry began.
"You two gave us our start-up loan, we haven't forgotten," George said sternly. "Take whatever you like, and just remember to tell people where you got it, if they ask,"
George swept off through the curtain to help with the customers, and Fred led Vega and Harry back into the main part of the shop to find Hermione and Ginny still poring over the Patented Daydream Charms.
"Haven't you girls found our special WonderWitch products yet?" Fred asked. "Follow me, ladies..."
Near the window was an array of violently pink products around which a cluster of excited girls was giggling enthusiastically. Vega, Hermione and Ginny all hung back, looking wary – more uncertain because they knew how Fred and George were than the unfiltered pinkness of the situation. And Vega turned to look at her boyfriend for answers.
"There you go," Fred said proudly. "Best range of love potions you'll find anywhere," Ginny raised an eyebrow sceptically and Vega blinked. "Don't worry, Vega love, I kept it under the limitations you asked me to, okay? No laws broken!"
"Do they work?" Ginny asked.
"Certainly, they work, for up to twenty-four hours at a time depending on the weight of the boy in question –" Fred began.
"– and the attractiveness of the girl," George said, reappearing suddenly at their side. "But we're not selling them to our sister," He added, becoming suddenly stern. "Not when she's already got about five boys on the go from what we've –"
"Whatever you've heard from Ron is a big fat lie," Ginny said calmly, leaning forward to take a small pink pot off the shelf. "What's this?"
"Ron and his rumours, huh?" Vega muttered, getting flashbacks to her third year.
"Guaranteed ten-second pimple vanisher," Fred said. "Excellent on everything from boils to blackheads, but don't change the subject. Are you or are you not currently going out with a boy called Dean Thomas?"
"Yes, I am," Ginny said. "And last time I looked, he was definitely one boy, not five. What are those?" She was pointing at a number of round balls of fluff in shades of pink and purple, all rolling around the bottom of a cage and emitting high-pitched squeaks.
"You got around to them?" Vega asked as she turned to look at Fred, who nodded. "And did you...?"
"Don't worry, I filled the forms to the Ministry," Fred assured her, pulling at her nose playfully. "I promised I wouldn't get in trouble, didn't I?"
"But what are they?" Ginny asked.
"Pygmy Puffs," George answered, shaking his head at his twin and his girlfriend. "Miniature puffskeins, we can't breed them fast enough. So, what about Michael Corner?"
"I dumped him, he was a bad loser," Ginny said, putting a finger through the bars of the cage and watching the Pygmy Puffs crowd around it. "They're really cute!"
"They're fairly cuddly, yes," Fred conceded. "But you're moving through boyfriends a bit fast, aren't you?" Vega pinched his arm to keep this conversation for later.
Ginny turned to look at him, her hands on her hips. There was such a Mrs. Weasley-ish glare on her face that Vega was surprised Fred didn't recoil.
"It's none of your business. And I'll thank you," Ginny added angrily to Ron, who had just appeared at George's elbow, laden with merchandise. "Not to tell tales about me to these two!"
"That's three Galleons, nine Sickles, and a Knut," Fred said, examining the many boxes in Ron's arms as he took the chance to avoid his sister. "Cough up,"
"I'm your brother!" Ron exclaimed.
"And that's our stuff you're nicking," Fred pointed out. "Three Galleons, nine Sickles – I'll knock off the Knut,"
"But I haven't got three Galleons, nine Sickles!" Ron said.
"You'd better put it back then, and mind you put it on the right shelves," Fred said.
Ron dropped several boxes, swore, and made a rude hand gesture at Fred that was unfortunately spotted by Mrs. Weasley, who had chosen that moment to appear.
"If I see you do that again I'll jinx your fingers together," Mrs. Weasley said sharply.
"Mum, can I have a Pygmy Puff?" Ginny said at once.
"A what?" Mrs. Weasley asked warily.
"Look, they're so sweet..." Ginny said.
Mrs. Weasley moved aside to look at the Pygmy Puffs, and Vega, Harry, Ron, and Hermione momentarily had an unimpeded view out of the window – Draco Malfoy was hurrying up the street alone. As he passed Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, he glanced over his shoulder. Seconds later, he moved beyond the scope of the window and they lost sight of him.
"Wonder where his mummy is?" Harry said, frowning.
"Given her the slip by the looks of it," Ron said.
"Why, though?" Hermione said.
"Doesn't look he's up to any good..." Vega trailed off, bewildered by this given that seeing the protective hold Narcissa had on her kid, she wouldn't let him go like this.
Vega noticed Harry glancing around at their entourage; Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were bending over the Pygmy Puffs. Mr. Weasley was delightedly examining a pack of Muggle marked playing cards. Fred and George were both helping customers. On the other side of the glass, Hagrid was standing with his back to them, looking up and down the street.
"Get under here, quick," Harry said, pulling his Invisibility Cloak out of his bag.
"Oh – I don't know, Harry," Hermione said, looking uncertainly toward Mrs. Weasley.
"Come on!" Ron said, and Vega watched Hermione hesitated for a second longer, then ducked under the cloak with him and Harry.
"Do you guys want to get in trouble again?" Vega asked, frustrated with what they were doing. "I'm not going to partake in this behaviour,"
"If you come along, we won't get in trouble," Ron told her. "Come on, now, just once!"
It was the last thing that Vega wanted to do but she begrudgingly got under the Invisibility Cloak with them – unsurprisingly, nobody noticed them vanish; they were all too interested in Fred and George's products to give a look to them.
And with that, Vega, Harry, Ron, and Hermione squeezed their way out of the door as quickly as they could, but by the time they gained the street, Malfoy had disappeared just as successfully as they had done back in the store.
"He was going in that direction," Harry murmured as quietly as possible, so that the humming Hagrid outside the store would not hear them. "Come on,"
The four of them scurried along, peering left and right, through shop windows and doors, keeping a very intent look out until Hermione pointed ahead. Vega, who was still very unhappy with this behaviour, followed her finger and saw a familiar blond head.
"That's him, isn't it?" Hermione whispered. "Turning left?"
"Big surprise," Ron whispered.
For Malfoy had glanced around, then slid into Knockturn Alley and out of sight. Vega pursed her lips, growing quieter as she tried to process what was going on – she didn't expect a person as cowardly as Malfoy to go down there. She glanced around to make sure that they were not being led into a trap or being followed by Narcissa Malfoy.
"Quick, or we'll lose him," Harry said, speeding up.
"Our feet will be seen!" Hermione said anxiously, as the cloak flapped a little around their ankles; it was much more difficult hiding all four of them under the cloak nowadays.
"It doesn't matter," Harry said impatiently. "Just hurry!"
But Knockturn Alley, the side street devoted to the Dark Arts, looked completely deserted. They peered into windows as they passed, but none of the shops seemed to have any customers at all. Vega supposed it was a bit of a giveaway in these dangerous and suspicious times to buy Dark artefacts – or at least, to be seen buying them.
And it was just then that Vega noticed that blond head in a nearby store and grabbed Harry, Ron and Hermione to stop them, just as Hermione gave Harry a hard pinch.
"Ouch!" Harry hissed.
"Shh! Look! He's in there!" Hermione breathed in Harry's ear.
They had drawn level with the only shop in Knockturn Alley that Vega and Harry had ever visited – Borgin and Burkes, which sold a wide variety of sinister objects. Vega frowned, now knowing that Malfoy was certainly not up to any good.
There in the midst of the cases full of skulls and old bottles stood Draco Malfoy with his back to them, just visible beyond a large black cabinet. Judging by the movements of Malfoy's hands, he was talking animatedly.
The proprietor of the shop, Mr. Borgin, an oily-haired, stooping man, stood facing Malfoy. He was wearing a curious expression of mingled resentment and fear.
"If only we could hear what they're saying!" Hermione said.
"We can!" Ron said excitedly. "Hang on – damn –" He dropped a couple more of the boxes he was still clutching as he fumbled with the largest. "Extendable Ears, look!"
"Fantastic!" Hermione said, as Ron unravelled the long, flesh-coloured strings and began to feed them toward the bottom of the door. "Oh, I hope the door isn't Imperturbable –"
"No!" Ron said gleefully. "Listen!"
All four of them put their heads together and listened intently to the ends of the strings, through which Malfoy's voice could be heard loud and clear, as though a radio had been turned on. Vega bit her lower lip as she listened to the conversation.
"... you know how to fix it?" Malfoy was asking.
"Possibly," Borgin said, in a tone that suggested he was unwilling to commit himself. "I'll need to see it, though. Why don't you bring it into the shop?"
"I can't," Malfoy said. "It's got to stay put. I just need you to tell me how to do it," Vega saw Borgin lick his lips nervously.
"Well, without seeing it, I must say it will be a very difficult job, perhaps impossible," Borgin said. "I couldn't guarantee anything,"
"No?" Malfoy said, and Vega knew, just by his tone, that Malfoy was sneering. "Perhaps this will make you more confident,"
Malfoy moved toward Borgin and was blocked from view by the cabinet. Vega, Harry, Ron, and Hermione shuffled sideways to try and keep him in sight, but all they could see was Borgin, looking very frightened.
"Tell anyone," Malfoy said. "And there will be retribution. You know Fenrir Greyback? He's a family friend. He'll be dropping in from time to time to make sure you're giving the problem your full attention,"
"There will be no need for –" Borgin began.
"I'll decide that," Malfoy interjected, clearly trying to be tough. "Well, I'd better be off. And don't forget to keep that one safe, I'll need it,"
"Perhaps you'd like to take it now?" Borgin asked.
"No, of course I wouldn't, you stupid little man, how would I look carrying that down the street?" Malfoy responded with hostility. "Just don't sell it,"
"Of course, not... sir," Borgin said as he made a deep bow.
"Not a word to anyone, Borgin, and that includes my mother, understand?" Malfoy said.
"Naturally, naturally," murmured Borgin, bowing again.
Next moment, the bell over the door tinkled loudly as Malfoy stalked out of the shop looking very pleased with himself. He passed so close to Vega, Harry, Ron, and Hermione that they felt the cloak flutter around their knees again. Inside the shop, Borgin remained frozen; his unctuous smile had vanished; he looked worried.
"What was that about?" Ron whispered, reeling in the Extendable Ears.
"Dunno," Harry said, thinking hard. "He wants something mended... and he wants to reserve something in there... could you see what he pointed at when he said 'that one'?"
"No, he was behind that cabinet," Ron replied.
"Maybe it is something next to the cabinet?" Vega asked. "Or something in the cabinet? There's not a lot of stuff big enough to make him look like a fool when he has that thick a head to carry anyway,"
"You three stay here," Hermione whispered.
"What are you going to do?" Vega asked sharply.
But Hermione had already ducked out from under the cloak. She checked her hair in the reflection in the glass, then marched into the shop, setting the bell tinkling again. Ron hastily fed the Extendable Ears back under the door and passed two of the strings to Vega and Harry.
"Hello, horrible morning, isn't it?" Hermione said brightly to Borgin, who did not answer, but cast her a suspicious look. Vega sighed.
"You can't be cheerful Death Eater at such times, can you?" Vega mumbled. "She's going to be a very bad spy if she can't pick a hint from the scene that we just witnessed,"
Humming cheerily, Hermione strolled through the jumble of objects on display. "Is this necklace for sale?" Hermione asked, pausing beside a glass-fronted case.
"If you've got one and a half thousand Galleons," Mr. Borgin responded coldly.
"Oh – er – no, I haven't got quite that much," Hermione said, walking on. "And... what about this lovely – um – skull?"
"Sixteen Galleons," Borgin said.
"So, it's for sale, then?" Hermione asked. "It isn't being... kept for anyone?"
Mr. Borgin squinted at her. Vega stifled her groan. She had the nasty feeling Borgin knew exactly what Hermione was up to, which wasn't surprisingly with her action. Apparently, Hermione felt she had been rumbled too because she suddenly threw caution to the winds.
"The thing is, that – er – boy who was in here just now," Hermione said. "Draco Malfoy, well, he's a friend of mine, and I want to get him a birthday present, but if he's already reserved anything, I obviously don't want to get him the same thing, so... um..."
It was a fairly... lame... story in Vega's opinion, and apparently Borgin thought so too.
"Out," Borgin said sharply. "Get out!"
Hermione did not wait to be asked twice, but hurried to the door with Borgin at her heels. As the bell tinkled again, Borgin slammed the door behind her and put up the closed sign.
"Ah well," Ron said, throwing the cloak back over Hermione. "Worth a try, but you were a bit obvious –"
"Well, next time you can show me how it's done, Master of Mystery!" Hermione snapped.
Ron and Hermione bickered all the way back to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, where they were forced to stop so that they could dodge undetected around a very anxious-looking Mrs. Weasley and Hagrid, who had clearly noticed their absence.
⚡️