Chapter 115

The back room was still a jumble of bizarre ingredients on shelves and the giant table mixed in with parchment, ink, quills and both finished and half-finished pranks of all shapes and sizes.

"Now, before we get down to the mundane, I'm guessing that you're wanting to see is what new, cool, brilliant, bizarre, and down-right fun things we've come up with since the last time you ordered?" George guessed, a massive grin on his face.

"Bring it on," Harry agreed, rubbing his hands together.

"To start with," George said, gesturing grandly to a basket filled with small purple silk bags, "we have the 'ExpectaVision Goggles'."

Harry plucked up one of the bags, pulled apart the drawstring and tipped a pair of glasses into his hand. The frames were actually fairly stylish, if one ignored their florescent yellow colour; and the dark grey lenses would be certain to hide one's eyes.

"I'm assuming that what you see using them is not what one would expect?" Hermione guessed.

"Right in one, Miss Granger," George replied. "I haven't actually decided what I'm going to do with these yet; they didn't come out as intended."

"What were they supposed to do?" Harry asked, eyeing the pair in his hand warily.

"See through clothes," George grinned.

"George Weasley!" Hermione screeched. "What in Merlin's name were you thinking!"

"Cor, you don't half sound like Angelina! That's almost a dead ringer for what she said when she first heard about them," George said, putting a finger in his one good ear and wiggling it around.

"So, what do they do?" Harry asked, intentionally moving the conversation on.

"Well, they do let you see through clothes, but skin and muscles as well," George replied. "Right down to the bones. Also lets you see through walls, well, ones made of wood or curtains at least; concrete and bricks are a no-no."

"Sell them to Healers," Harry suggested as he put a pair on and began looking around the room. "Could make their job easier when diagnosing broken bones and whatnot."

"Cheers, Harry," a happy George exclaimed. "For that, the pair you're wearing is yours."

Harry nodded as he took the glasses off. Seeing Hermione's bones moving as she did was quite disconcerting. Looking back into the shop through the wall, though, was kind of interesting.

"Just make sure to check that they are healers; burglars and thieves would have a field day with these," Harry remarked.

George nodded before moving on to a bin full of small round, glass balls about the size of a marble. Different coloured gasses swirled about inside the balls – red, blue, green, orange, yellow and purple.

"These are the next generation of our Daydream products," George stated. "A person only needs to inhale one of them and they're instantly lulled into a pleasant dream which lasts from anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour. Great for distracting someone or even distracting yourself. And easy to hide as well, just don't get them mixed up with your gobstone set."

"Do they have a proper name?" Hermione asked.

"Not yet," George confessed. "Still working on that bit. Only just finished the testing phase and moving into the marketing side of ideas."

Grabbing up a scoop, George dipped it into the barrel before filling a bag with the glass balls before handing it over to Harry.

"Here you go, partner," he smiled.

"Thanks, George," Harry replied before slipping the bag into one of the pouches on his belt.

By the time that George had finished showing Harry and Hermione all of his latest and greatest inventions, Harry's pouches – even the ones designed to be practically bottomless – were bulging.

"I don't think I want to know what you're going to do with all of that," Hermione remarked with a shake of her head as he pushed the last item, a pair of gloves that, when being worn, allowed the wearer to stick to anything, into his pocket.

"Have fun," Harry stated.

"Play pranks," George agreed.

"Beat up bad guys," Harry added.

"Boys," Hermione sighed, but the small upturn of the corners of her mouth told Harry and George what she really thought of it all.

ooo00ooo

Hogwarts castle, home of Hogwarts School of Witchraft and Wizardry, hadn't changed in the years that Harry had been gone. Everything, from the towers to the great stone walls to the expansive grounds surrounded by the Forbidden Forest and the Black Lake and even Hagrid's overgrown hut were exactly as he remembered it. Consequently, he couldn't help pausing just inside the gates to the ground to stare in wonder.

There were so many memories attached to this place – both wonderful as well as the type that had kept him up countless long nights as they haunted his dreams. This was the first place he'd known as home; it was the first place that he'd made friends; the first place he could remember risking his life for others. And it was the place that so many that he loved and cared for had died.

How long he stood staring, he wasn't sure; only the touch of Hermione's hand on his broke the spell. A shared smile and they started their trek down the path once more.

The rumbling of hundreds of voices that greeted their ears as they entered the castle told them that they'd arrived during dinner. Hermione, Harry could see, was reluctant to interrupt them; her glance told him that she was willing to wait at the stone gargoyle for the Headmistress to finish.

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