The next morning, the storm had stopped. Albert pushed open the window, and the air blowing in felt especially fresh. However, there was still no sign of clear weather outside. Great swathes of dark clouds churned across the sky, and another downpour could begin at any moment.
"Morning." George covered a yawn as he greeted Albert. "Looks like it might rain again outside."
"If this storm keeps up, the lake's going to flood." Lee Jordan had gotten up too. They needed to head to the Great Hall early today to finalize their sixth-year timetables with Professor McGonagall.
"Sixth year is great. We'll have plenty of time to allocate freely," Fred said happily.
"Don't waste what little time you have left at Hogwarts. Right now, the most valuable thing for you is Hogwarts' library. Make good use of the next two years and put the books there to work. They can give you more inspiration for your joke items." After opening a packet of cat food and feeding Tom, Albert spoke to the three of them, who were ready to embrace the joys of sixth-year life. "Unless you want to become the next Zoko."
"What does this have to do with Zoko?" Fred was baffled. How had they suddenly started talking about Zoko?
"Zoko is a classic case of someone who ran out of inspiration. He doesn't have enough knowledge to support the development of more joke items, so he ended up like this." Albert shut the window and gestured for them to talk as they walked.
"The only reason people still visit Zoko's shop is that no other new shop is competing with him. If another, more interesting joke shop appears, Zoko's Joke Shop could easily fail to withstand the market pressure and go out of business."
"I remember you