𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲, draco malfoy

02. STOADSHEAD HILL

CHAPTER TWO
✧
-: fourth year :-

── IN WHICH THEY SET OFF
 FOR THE CUP

. . .

MRS WEASLEY WAS FURIOUS. Hermione was quick to come up with reason to escort herself, Ginny, Ron, Harry and Emily away from the row between the mother and the two teens, and the five of them began up the winding stairs up to Ron's room at the very top of the house.

"What are Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?" Harry asked as they walked slowly upwards. Ron, Ginny and Emily let out a laugh. Hermione didn't, however, and looked quite disapproving.

"Oh, it's wonderful, Harry." Emily shook her head. "They've been writing to me about it all summer."

"Mum found this stack of order forms when she was cleaning Fred and George's room," Ron told the boy quietly. "Great long price lists for stuff they've invented. Joke stuff, you know. Fake wands and trick sweets, loads of stuff. It was brilliant, I never knew they'd been inventing all that... Fred said you gave them the idea for the fake wands."

"If you wave them the right way then they make red sparks." She informed him. "It wasn't really my idea though, I was watching telly and my mum was looking through some of my old books to give away to a friend and when they asked I thought it would be nice for some of their younger future customers. You know, kids." She shrugged.

"We've been hearing explosions out of their room for ages, but we never thought they were actually making things," Ginny shrugged, looking slightly proud of them, something which was contrasted in its entirety by the look on Hermione's face."We thought they just liked the noise."

"Only, most of the stuff - well, all of it, really - was a bit dangerous," Ron said with a frown, "and, you know, they were planning to sell it at Hogwarts to make some money, and Mum went mad at them. Told them they weren't allowed to make any more of it and burned all the order forms... She's furious at them anyway. They didn't get as many O.W.L.s as she expected."

"And then there was this big row," Ginny said, "because Mum wants them to go into the Ministry of Magic like Dad, and they told her all they want to do is open a joke shop."

They had come to a natural stop to listen to the pair as they recounted the major disagreements of the Burrow that summer. Just then a door on the second landing opened, and another ginger-haloed face poked out wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a very annoyed expression.

"Hi Percy," Harry noticed the older brother first, and they turned to look at him.

"Oh hello, Harry," Percy greeted. Behind the glasses, eyes flickered over to the unfamiliar head of platinum hair. "Emily." He added, with a curt nod. "I was wondering who was making all that noise. I'm trying to work in here, you know - I've got a report to finish for the office - and it's rather difficult to concentrate when some people keep thundering up and down the stairs, shouting about trunks and-"

"We're not thundering," Ron scowled. "We're walking. So sorry if we've disturbed the top-secret workings of the Ministry of Magic."

"What are you working on?" Emily asked. She didn't know a lot about the Ministry of Magic, really, and as much as she didn't care much for it after such an aggressive campaign against Sirius and the limitations it put on poor Professor Lupin, but it was more of an attempt to satiate Percy's annoyance. It was evident that he was mighty proud of his job there and after knowing him at Hogwarts, she knew exactly the type of person he was. Perhaps, she hoped, it would help them bypass his anger.