Opening School

The next morning, the storm had stopped. Albert pushed open the window and took a deep breath. The air outside was exceptionally fresh. However, there was still no sign of clear weather; huge masses of dark clouds churned across the sky, and another downpour could fall at any moment.

"Morning." George covered a yawn with his hand and greeted Albert. "It looks like it might rain again."

"If this storm keeps up, the lake's going to flood." Lee Jordan had climbed out of bed too. They needed to get to the Great Hall early today to confirm their sixth year timetables with Professor McGonagall.

"Sixth year is great. We've got loads of time to arrange as we please." Fred stretched lazily, clearly in high spirits.

"Don't waste what little time you have left at Hogwarts. The most valuable thing for you now should be the Hogwarts library. Make good use of these last two years and put those books to work. They can give you more inspiration and help with your joke products," Albert said after opening a tin of cat food for Tom. "That is, if you don't want to become the next Zonko."

"What does this have to do with Zonko?" Fred was baffled. How had they suddenly started talking about Zonko?

"Zonko is a typical case of running out of inspiration. He doesn't have enough knowledge to support the invention of more joke products, so he ended up like this." Albert shut the window again and motioned for them to talk as they walked.

"Zonko's shop still gets customers only because there aren't any other shops in the British magical world competing with him. If another, more interesting Joke Shop appears, Zonko's Joke Shop could be forced to close at any time under market pressure."

"I remember