Twins' Shop Plan

Because of the fresh plant scent on the bed, Loren had no trouble sleeping in the same bed and slept soundly through the night without any dreams.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, a rustling and tinkling sound came from the room and continued for a while. Loren, who was sleeping between Harry and Ron, opened his eyes slightly and glanced in the direction from which the sound came.

The blankets covering George and Fred were billowing like tents, with a faint glow seeping through the gaps. Through their silhouettes, one could see the two men fiddling with something inside, and the muffled noises were coming from within.

Oh, it's George and Fred...

Loren thought vaguely, closed his eyes, and decided to go back to sleep.

When they opened their eyes again, George and Fred's bed was empty, and even the blankets were neatly folded at the head of the bed.

Molly knocked on the door from the outside, her loud voice tinged with tenderness. "Wake up! Time for breakfast! Children..."

Loren sat up and looked around. Harry was also awake and was groping for his glasses like a blind man. Ron's eyes were tightly closed and his brows were slightly furrowed. He had been woken up by Mrs. Weasley and was trying to maintain the most comfortable sleepiness for breakfast.

"Okay, Mom, we're getting up!"

Ron responded with his eyes closed, his words clear and his voice sounding very alert, but the next second he crawled into the blanket with the Chudley Cannons insignia and went back to sleep.

Just as Loren was unsure whether to wake him, Harry, who had already put on his glasses and regained his vision, patted him on the shoulder from behind, stepped over Ron, and put his feet into his slippers. "Mrs. Weasley usually wakes us up half an hour in advance, so we can sleep a little longer."

Loren shook his head and got up with him to go downstairs to wash up.

Molly bustled about in the cramped Kitchen. If Muggle housewife were to prepare breakfast for the whole family, she would probably have to get up at five in the morning. Fortunately, she was a wizard.

Everyone in the Weasley family except Ron was already up; the nine hands of the grandfather clock all pointed to their home. Everyone else was still in their pajamas, except for Arthur and Percy —they had to go to work at the Ministry of Magic after breakfast.

Hermione sat in the living room, with Ginny standing behind her, trying to comb her messy curly hair. She had probably never seen such unruly hair before; the comb would get stuck after going in a bit, and she didn't dare to pull it too hard, so she could only pull it out and start combing again.

After repeating this several times, he became so anxious that his face turned red.

Loren walked over. "Let me do it..."

Ginny's flushed face froze, and she stared at him blankly, looking rather dazed.

Loren took the comb from her hand, ran his fingers through Hermione's long, messy curls, and scratched her scalp. It was warm and cozy, and there was a slight tickling sensation as the roots of her hair touched his fingertips.

Hermione knew from the sound that someone else had taken over. Without turning around, she just sighed and said, "Try to break fewer things. Don't make Mrs. Weasley bother cleaning the room."

"Are you looking down on me?"

As Loren spoke, he inserted the comb into his hair, starting from the roots and working his way down the strands. When he encountered knots that he couldn't comb through, he didn't pull them off with his hands as he used to. Instead, he silently thought about untangling the knots in his hair, and with a gentle exhale of Magic Power from his fingertips, the comb slid down smoothly.

After quickly combing her hair smooth, I took the hair tie from the table and put it in a simple ponytail.

Loren patted Hermione on the shoulder and clicked his tongue. "How about it, Miss Granger? Service fee plus tip, only 100 Galleon."

Hermione held up the small round mirror and looked at herself, then hummed twice, unable to suppress a smile, "Last time you broke so much of my hair, and I didn't even ask you for compensation, yet you're charging such a high price?"

"Consider this compensation for last time; next time, I'll charge you."

"Consider it compensation next time."

"Then next time..."

"We will compensate for the number of hairs that are broken with the number of hair combing services."

"You're still asleep."

"..."

Ginny stood silently to the side, glancing at Hermione admiring her ponytail in the mirror and Loren playing with her hair, then at Harry arguing with Charlie about whether Bulgaria would win the Harry this year, her expression complicated.

Is it still worth learning from Hermione's dating advice from last night?

It feels like they're completely different things...

When Ron came downstairs looking completely bewildered and relying solely on muscle memory, Molly's breakfast was already on the table: freshly cut nut scones, slightly charred bacon, sausage, and eggs, milk, cherry tomato jam, and leftover mushroom soup from last night—that was the Weasley family's breakfast.

Molly believed that Harry had been mistreated by his Muggle relatives for a month, and Harry's eating habits last night only strengthened her belief. So she took extra care of Harry at the dinner table, adding eight Molly and three fried eggs to his plate after he finished his normal breakfast...

After breakfast, Harry felt a bit dazed.

Bill's long hair, which hadn't been braided yet, was even more noticeable in its messy state, along with that oddly shaped earring. Molly was extremely worried about it and continued her nagging from last night:

"... and it even has a terrifyingly long tusk on it. Really, Bill, what do the people at the bank say?"

"Mom, the bank is full of fairies, and they're so envious of my hair."

"I'm talking about wizards, human wizards."

Bill said helplessly, "The people in the bank don't care about my hair or what I wear. As long as I can Counter-charms and find lots of treasure, that's all that matters."

"But your hair is awful, darling..." Molly couldn't stand the sight of it, and as she spoke, she lovingly stroked her wand. "I've learned so many beautiful hairstyles from books, I really wish you would let me get it trimmed..."

"Mom, stop looking at those outdated hairstyle books from decades ago. They're even older than Professor Dumbledore," Ginny suddenly said, seemingly quite upset. "Compared to Professor Dumbledore's hair, this isn't even long..."

Molly glared at her and her hair, which made Ginny shrink back in fright.

After Percy took Arthur to work at the Ministry of Magic, Molly got busy at home again, having the Weasley family children take them to drive away the goblins in the Gnome, after which they could go to Stoat Hill to play.

Harry jogged out the door, seemingly very interested in the Gnome- driving activity. Bill and Charlie strolled outside slowly, while Ginny pulled Hermione along. This wasn't strange; girls are like that, always having so much to say.

"She always seems to have endless housework in her eyes..." George sighed.

"A few days of rest will cause her to develop allergic sores..." Fred said in a strange tone, glancing around before reaching out and pulling Loren, who was about to leave, back with a mysteriously pulled a toffee from his pocket.

"Look what this is!"

Loren recognized some of the ingredients in the toffee and raised an eyebrow. "The pulp of Horned Nightshade, the mushroom of Fly Agaric... Fat Tongue Toffee? You've made it?"

"That's right! Fat Tongue Toffee!"

Fred said with great enthusiasm, "The ingredients in the recipe you gave us were too expensive. When the order volume increased, we spent a lot of time and effort but didn't make much money. So George and I replaced some of the ingredients and simplified the sugar-boiling process."

George leaned in excitedly. "All summer, we've been trying to find someone to give it a shot..."

The two exchanged a glance and chuckled softly.

Loren noticed a particular word. "Order quantity?"

Fred peeked cautiously into the stairwell, making sure his mother, who was busy upstairs, wouldn't suddenly come down, then lowered his head and whispered, "Remember when we wanted that good-for-nothing Lockhart to guarantee our loan?"

Loren nodded. The Twins had wanted to open their own joke shop for a long time.

"Opening a shop requires a lot of money."

"We decided to start by selling goods using owls to save money."

"The profits are greater than we imagined!"

"If we make another fortune betting on the Quidditch World Cup, we can open a shop after we graduate!"

George and Fred each presented their grand plans in a sentence, then proudly raised their chins.

Loren roughly understood their plan. "So all that clanging and banging in your blankets at night is to complete orders?"

Fred was a little discouraged. "Yes, we dare not let Mom find out, so we can only do these things secretly at night."

"We have to mail the finished products out quickly, because we can't hide them at home and Mom will find them easily." George sighed with his head down. "We hid some in our old bedroom on the Third Floor, some under our current bed, some under the base of the clock, and some in the TV in Dad's shed."

Fred glanced cautiously upstairs, then whispered to him, "I'm terrified of Mom cleaning the house now, but we're getting more and more orders, and we'll be found out sooner or later if this continues."

George frowned and sighed sadly, "Mom will throw everything out, and then she'll throw us out too."

Is that so...? Loren remembered that the two of them really did open a magical joke shop later on, but not long after, Voldemort was resurrected, and the Second Wizarding War broke out.

He pondered for a moment and said, "You can stop your current business for now. If you want to open a shop after graduation, I can lend you enough Galleons. If you don't want to borrow, this money can be considered as equity investment."

George and Fred were taken aback, seemingly not expecting such an answer.

George frowned, his expression complicated. "I've always wanted to ask, why do you and Hermione, who are clearly Muggle wizards, seem to have no shortage of Galleons?"

Loren shrugged. "When we were in first year, Hagrid led us to help the Unicorn. The Unicorn gave me a bunch of fur, which I sold for several thousand Galleon."

George and Fred stared at him in disbelief for several seconds. George shook his head to clear his head of his rambling thoughts. "We're not asking you for money."

Fred added, "We're looking to buy something from you."

"Buying things?"

George nodded. "We plan to purchase some of those Storage Scale you made to store raw materials and finished toffee, Fake Wand..."

"Name your price!" Fred said gravely, his expression even showing some grief. "Name your price. If it's too expensive, we'll lease it out and buy it later when we open the shop."

Loren was somewhat speechless, then shook his head and smiled, "According to the Ministry of Magic's regulations, it is illegal for individuals to create spatial items such as the Untraceable Extension Charm without permission; renting or selling them is also illegal."

A look of disappointment flashed across George and Fred's eyes. They never expected to be hindered by this reason, but neither of them showed any disappointment, sadness, or blame. They forced a smile.

"It's alright, Loren, don't worry about us!" Fred said casually, turning to George: "Actually, we don't necessarily need Storage Scale, right? We've been hiding them quite well this month, haven't we?"

"Of course!" George straightened his neck. "General George and his soldiers can overcome any difficulty!"

Loren smiled and took out a bag of Storage Scale that he hadn't finished giving away during practice from his pendant and handed them over. Actually, there was an even more convenient briefcase, but it was a gift from Draco, so he wouldn't lend it to anyone else.

George took the Storage Scale, glanced at the stairwell subconsciously, and then stupidly stuffed Storage Scale into his pocket. The forced smile on his lips instantly turned into an uncontrollable grin.

Fred blinked, looking bewildered and confused.

Loren rarely saw the Twins with this expression and found it amusing. "Although I'm not exactly a rule-abiding person, Mr. Weasley seems to be in charge of this kind of matter, so I won't violate the Ministry of Magic's prohibition. I don't sell or rent these Storage Scale; I'll trade with you."

George nodded firmly and resolutely. "I'd trade my first kiss with Fred for it!"

Fred laughed and punched him lightly, "Your first kiss is still mine, I've already lost mine."

George's expression instantly turned serious. "When did this happen?! Who? You actually did this behind my back..."

"Stop!" Fred pushed him aside and looked at Loren. "What do you want to trade with us? Just tell me, and George will definitely be willing to give you his first kiss."

"Keep it." Loren stepped back in disgust. "I want a copy of your joke product; it seems really funny."

George and Fred chuckled and put their arms around his shoulders, laughing as they pushed him into the yard.

"The first deluxe gift package from the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes!"

"I'll serve it to you tonight!"

In the courtyard, the sun had already risen, casting a pale golden glow that draped the Burrow in a shimmering veil, making the hastily cobbled-together house seem less dilapidated. On the crooked chimney, the words "Humungous Bighead Percy" stood out prominently.

The ginger-yellow Crookshanks, with its bowed legs, ran around the yard, its bottle-brush-like tail held high, chasing after something covered in mud that looked like a potato with legs. That was Gnome, less than ten inches tall, but its sturdy little feet ran incredibly fast.

Hānhan, Hedwig, Hermes, Errol lazily perched on the chimney, while only the young Zhu Qiongwei darted around.