Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, was Fred and George's joke shop, which has exploded in popularity, and the amount of Galleons they were raking in was impressive if not astonishing. Despite Fred now earning more than me, and well on his way to earn a small fortune, I still insisted to pay my half of rent, much to his cries of disapproval.

I stood in the joke shop, looking around at its newly gathered customers, that still came in steadily even with the threat of death eaters.

Suddenly a pair of strong arms wrapped around my waist, and I instantly recognized them as Fred.

"Look at our newest visitors!" He pointed forwards, and my gaze followed his pointer.

It was Hermione. She was standing at a large display near the counter and was reading the information on the back of a box bearing a highly colored picture of a handsome youth and a swooning girl who were standing on the deck of a pirate ship. One of her eyes was blackened by what looked like something people received in drunken brawls.

"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," said Hermione, looking up at Harry, who had appeared next to her, "that really is extraordinary magic!"

"For that Hermione," Fred said, beaming at the compliment, "you can have one for free."

"How are you, Harry?" Fred and Harry shook hands. "And what's happened to your eye, Hermione?"

"Your punching telescope," she said ruefully.

"Oh blimey, I forgot about those," said Fred.

"Here, take this." I said.

I pulled a tub out of my purse and handed it to her; she unscrewed it gingerly to reveal a thick yellow paste.

"Just dab it on, that bruise'll be gone within the hour," said I. "Fred and George had to find a decent bruise-remover. They had me help test most of their products on themselves."

Hermione looked nervous. "It is safe, isn't it?" she asked.

"Course it is," said Fred bracingly. "Come on, Harry, I'll give you a tour."

Harry left Hermione dabbing her black eye with paste and followed Fred toward the back of the shop, where he saw a stand of card and rope tricks.

"Muggle magic tricks!" said Fred 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..."

George appeared from behind a large stack of self correcting quills, and shook Harry's hand energetically.

"Giving him the tour? Come through the back, 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 labeled: Edible Dark Marks--They'll Make Anyone Sick!

George pushed back a curtain beside the Muggle tricks and we entered a darker, less crowded room. The packaging on the products lining these shelves was more subdued.

"We've just developed this more serious line," said Fred. "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," said George. "'Course, they didn't have you teaching them, Harry."

"That's right... 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..."

"... I mean, they wouldn't help much against the Unforgivable Curses, but for minor to moderate hexes or jinxes..."

"And then we thought we'd get into the whole area of Defense Against the Dark Arts, because it's such a money spinner," continued George 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," said Fred, 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," said Harry, impressed.

"Of course we had a bit of help from our dear resident Slytherin." Fred beamed, pulling me into a side hug.

"Here!" George caught a few Decoy Detonators and threw them to Harry.

A young witch with short blonde hair poked her head around the curtain; She was a staff member the twins hired a bit of time ago.

"There's a customer out here looking for a joke cauldron, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Weasley," she said.

I found it very funny to hear Fred and George called "Mr. Weasley," but they took it in their stride.

"Right you are, Verity, I'm coming," said George promptly. "Harry, you help yourself to anything you want, all right? No charge."

"I can't do that!" said Harry, who had already pulled out his money bag to pay for the Decoy Detonators.

"You don't pay here," said Fred firmly, waving away Harry's gold.

"But..."

"You gave us half of our start-up loan, we haven't forgotten," said George 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 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?" asked Fred. "Follow me, ladies..."

Near the window was an array of violently pink products around which a cluster of excited girls was giggling enthusiastically. Hermione and Ginny both hung back, looking wary. I rolled my eyes, but followed Fred.

"There you go," said Fred proudly. "Best range of love potions you'll find anywhere."

Ginny raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Do they work?" she asked.

"Certainly they work, for up to twenty-four hours at a time depending on the weight of the boy in question--"

"-- and the attractiveness of the girl," said George, reappearing suddenly at our side.

"I've been trying to get these bone heads to take them off shelves because they're quite harmful and could result in very disastrous consequences." I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"But we're not selling them to our sister," George stated, 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," said Ginny calmly, leaning forward to take a small pink pot off the shelf. "What's this?"

"Guaranteed Ten-Second Pimple Vanisher," said Fred. "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," said Ginny. "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.

"Pygmy Puffs," said George. "Miniature puffskeins, we can't breed them fast enough. So what about Michael Corner?"

"I dumped him, he was a bad loser," said Ginny, 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," conceded Fred. "But you're moving through boyfriends a bit fast, aren't you?"

"Lay off her, she's old enough to decide who she wants to date." I say, shooting the twins angry looks.

"That's three Galleons, nine Sickles, and a Knut," said Fred, examining the many boxes in Ron's arms. "Cough up."

"I'm your brother!"

"And that's our stuff you're nicking. Three Galleons, nine Sickles. I'll knock off the Knut."

"But I haven't got three Galleons, nine Sickles!"

"You'd better put it back then, and mind you put it on the right shelves."

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," she said sharply. "Oh Y/n, dear! How have you been?"

"Oh you know, getting by..." I blushed.

"Arthur told me you got the Junior Alchemist position at the ministry?" Molly gushed.

"Yeah, I guess I did..."

"Mum, can I have a Pygmy Puff?" said Ginny drawing the attention away from me.

"A what?" said Mrs. Weasley warily.

"Look, they're so sweet..."

Mrs. Weasley moved aside to look at the Pygmy Puffs, and George slipped away again, leaving Fred and I alone.

"So how come you're not at the ministry?" Fred asked, taking my hands.

"Well, my job is fairly solitary, and the ministry thought it best I work from home." I smiled. "That's actually what I came down to tell you."

"Does that mean I get to spend more time with my darling?" Fred purred, a grin creeping on his face.

"Sadly, no. I'm still very busy." I said, watching Fred's smile shrink. "But you can feel free to visit me anytime."

I planted a small kiss on Fred's lips, and rushed up stairs into our flat, pushing past the newest crowd of customers entering the shop.

~~~~

I sat at my desk, a window in front me overlooking Diagon Alley, stubbornly staring at a muggle chemistry textbook.

BOOM

Fred was obviously testing something for the joke shop in one of the bedrooms he repurposed as a lab. I rolled my eyes and continued trying to figure my work out.

CRASH

"God fucking dammit Fred!" I yelled, getting up from my chair and stalking over to the door from which the noises were coming from.

"Fred what the hell?" I grumbled, throwing the door open, to reveal him crouched over a cauldron trying to boil something, and clearly failing.

"Hey Y/n I'm just trying to make a confusion comet-"

"Well keep it down." I scowled, and Fred stood up.

"Why are you being so grouchy?" He asked, a smile playing on his lips.

"I am not being grouchy!" I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

"Oh you're definitely being grouchy." Fred was now in front of me, his tall and lean frame towering over that of my own.

"Ok maybe I'm a little on edge." I couldn't help but smile.

"Alright pumpkin, now what's wrong." Fred snaked his hand around my waist.

"I'm just stressed from work, that's all." I sighed, pressing myself into Fred's arms.

"Tell me about it sweetheart." He cooed, gently stroking my hair.

"We'll see, I proposed this idea... You see..." I stumbled finding the right words. "Muggles have this thing called chemistry. It's quite similar to alchemy in it's own way. As a matter of fact, chemistry and alchemy share similar roots that trace back hundreds of years. Muggles however, since that point in time have advanced their chemistry to an insane degree. My theory is that if we were to figure out how to work modern muggle chemistry, it could lead to further discoveries in alchemy."

"That sounds bloody brilliant!" Fred exclaimed.

"Yeah, well the lead alchemist and Scrimgeour thought so too, and wanted to investigate it further."

"Well that's great isn't it?" Fred asked incredulously.

"Yeah it is, except for the fact that they tasked me with doing this alone and figuring something could come out of my theory by next week." I groaned.

"You're kidding?"

"Dead serious." I said, not a hint of humour in my voice.

"Alright, I'll go to George's flat to test my things then." Fred smiled softly, planting a kiss on my forehead.

"Thanks Freddie."