The break-in at Gringotts should have been a major event in the wizarding world, but most of the young witches and wizards at school did not particularly care.
Apart from a tiny minority, such as Harry, the students had no money deposited at Gringotts at all. Although many wizarding families kept their fortunes in its vaults, those riches were nowhere near belonging to the children while their parents were still alive.
This was especially true of the first years. Some did not even know where to find Gringotts in the United Kingdom.
Harry and Ron were among the few students paying attention to the incident. Harry was concerned about his own assets, while Ron was interested because his eldest brother, Bill, worked at Gringotts.
Ron often mentioned Bill. From the way he talked, Bill was the most accomplished child of this generation of the Weasley family. He had done exceptionally well at school, earning twelve Outstandings in his Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests.
He had been a prefect in his fifth year and Head Boy in his seventh. He had also been a Beater on his house Quidditch team, though he had not been as good as his younger brother, Charlie Weasley-the Weasley family's second son. From Ron and the other children from wizarding families, Harry had heard that Charlie might have joined the national team if he had not gone off to study dragons.
After graduating, Bill Weasley had secured a job at Gringotts thanks to his excellent results.
Harry listened in amazement.
In Muggle terms, that meant being a top student at school, a star player on the football team, getting perfect A-level results, and then landing an offer from Standard Chartered Bank...
A bigger, upgraded version of Percy?
That was what Harry thought. After all, Percy also had outstanding grades and was a prefect. Unfortunately, he was no good at Quidditch...
As they left Hagrid's and headed back toward the castle, Harry suddenly remembered something. When Hagrid had taken him to Gringotts, he had apparently collected something as well, seemingly on Dumbledore's behalf.
Harry had asked what it was at the time, but Hagrid had said it was a secret and refused to tell him.
Back then, Harry had not known Hagrid very well and had been too reserved to press him. Besides, there had been so many things in the wizarding world to be curious about that he had forgotten all about it. Now, however, it came back to him.
I wonder whether whoever broke into Gringotts had anything to do with what Hagrid brought back.
While Harry's thoughts wandered, the two of them returned to the castle.
They had barely stepped inside when two figures appeared out of nowhere and blocked their path. It was the Weasley twins, Fred and George.
"Harry, we heard Snape docked you fifty points?" One of the twins looked at Harry with a deadly serious expression. The other wore the same look.
"Ah..." Harry immediately felt awkward.
Showing off had certainly felt great at the time, but having to face the consequences afterward was rather less enjoyable. It would have been a lie to say he did not regret it at all. Harry did care a little about his house's honor. This week, he had earned his house a total of eight points in his other classes, second only to Hermione's eleven.
And then Snape had gone and wiped out fifty points in one stroke.
"Well..." Harry began apologetically. "I got a bit carried away..."
Before he could finish, the twins let out a cheer in perfect unison.
"Whoa, that was brilliant!" One of the twins grabbed Harry's hand. "Harry, you probably don't know this, but you're Gryffindor's hero now! How many people, how many people?"
"How many people have suffered under Snape's tyranny!" The other twin picked up without the slightest pause, perfectly in sync.
"But no one dared stand up and challenge him!"
"Until you came along, Harry. Oh, the great Harry Potter..."
"Not only did you take him down a peg, you left him speechless!"
They alternated sentences without a gap. Their voices were identical, too. With his eyes closed, Harry would never have guessed that two people were taking turns speaking.
People always said twins had a special connection. Harry had been skeptical before, but this pair of Weasley twins certainly possessed such an ability. It was very magical, and here at Hogwarts, in the wizarding world, magic made things perfectly reasonable.
"Whoa!" they cheered together again.
Harry was stunned.
He had already realized that the twin brothers were not exactly dependable, and he had heard more evidence of that at Hagrid's just now.
These two little troublemakers often wandered into the Forbidden Forest-the vast, dark forest beside the castle, whose true extent was anyone's guess. And surely the word "forbidden" in its name made its meaning clear enough.
So Harry had thought he was prepared for them. Yet when they actually demonstrated just how unreliable they could be, he still could not help marveling. Apparently, these two did not care about house points in the slightest.
Still, to give them their due, the twins had excellent grades and were highly skilled at magic. The little pouch of Galleons in Harry's pocket proved that. And they had only been second years when they made it.
"Oh, Gryffindor's been losing for years. It's no big deal." The twins seemed utterly unconcerned by Harry and Ron's puzzlement. "It's always either Ravenclaw or Slytherin."
"There's really nothing we can do about Ravenclaw. They're all bookworms. They get good grades, and there's no getting around that. As for Slytherin, you've experienced it yourself. Their Head of House, heh heh..."
Harry had thought the twins were the only Gryffindors who did not care about the points he had lost. Well, perhaps their best friend, Lee Jordan, with his head full of dreadlocks, did not care either. He was another unreliable one.
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