Three days after that massive farce at the station, the Hogwarts Express once again pulled up beside Platform Nine and Three-Quarters at King's Cross Station.
The Ministry of Magic had issued a statement over the past two days, claiming that the farce on September 1 had been nothing more than a prank orchestrated by a group of pranksters. No Muggles or wizards had been injured during the incident, and the Muggles affected by the Confundus Charm had since undergone memory modification. The only person injured in the entire affair had been a second-year Hogwarts student whose luggage had been taken by the pranksters amid the chaos. But there was no need to worry—the Ministry of Magic was already tracking it down.
Inside the Hogwarts Express parked at the platform, the "unlucky child" mentioned in the newspaper sat in his compartment with a helpless expression. Roy irritably tossed the Daily Prophet onto the table, leaned back with his hands behind his head, and turned to look out at the platform crowded with fully armed Aurors.
"What kind of pranksters inject people with a neurotoxin that leaves them bedridden for three days...?"
The Ministry of Magic's newspaper, meant to whitewash the whole affair, was simply laughable. Roy, fresh out of the hospital, sat alone in his Hogwarts Express compartment and watched the pedestrians coming and going beyond the window as he muttered to himself.
"Yo! Isn't this our great hero, Smee?"
"Say, you didn't lose control of your bowels, did you? What if your sphincter..."
"You two, enough—"
The compartment door opened. Roy did not even need to look to know who had entered. With voices that obnoxious, who else could it be but Fred and George?
"Fine, fine—"
Fred and George hurriedly stuffed their luggage into the overhead rack. Only then