Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
More Important Than Any Broomstick - Chapter 21 - Flying High
The next day Harry woke up at seven with his Game Boy in his lap, as his alarm clock played a song that he just decided he hated. He thought about chucking the cd out the window, but then remembered that he'd made all his cds impervious to damage anyway. He settled on turning off the alarm. He fumbled his way to the shower as he felt the affects of sleep deprivation that the world cup had afforded him.
Hermione showed up at eight with a few of her textbooks in hand. She said, "I didn't see the point of bringing the books that you already have. I'll put them on the network before I go home today. For now, I guess it's time for more training."
At that moment, Hedwig flew into the house carrying a letter. Harry took the letter and went back to the kitchen to grab a piece of bacon for her before the elves cleared off the table. It was too late. As Hedwig was looking expectantly and impatiently at Harry, he called out, "Winky!" and the elf appeared.
"Yes Harry," she said.
"Is there any bacon left so I can give Hedwig some?" Harry asked.
"Yes Harry! I is getting it now!" With that she disappeared, reappearing a few seconds later with a piece of bacon, which Harry immediately gave to Hedwig, who took it and flew to one of the empty rooms she seemed to have claimed for herself.
Harry looked at the letter and said, "Hermione, this is from Fred and George. It says,
Harry and Hermione,
From what our father tells us, you have learned how to charm muggle devices, such as cop-muters, to work at Hogwarts. Is this true? If it is, we have a business proposition to make. You charm muggle devices for other students (for a fee of course). We advertise and handle the business aspect of it (advertising, etc.) and then give you the devices to charm. We then split the profits evenly.
Sincerely,
Fred and George"
Harry and Hermione looked at each other. Harry sighed, "Well, what do you think?"
"Well," said Hermione, "When people see our laptops and Gameboys, they'll probably be bugging us to charm their stuff anyway. With this business deal, we won't have to deal with the students, just the muggle devices. And since they'll have to pay, it'll be less people than if we did it for free. However, I do think that we should get more profits than the twins, since it's your mum's research that makes it possible. We should demand two-thirds of the profits."
"Actually," said Harry, "We should ask for three-fourths, and then they'll negotiate down to two-thirds. I would like it if you did the charms, though. You're better at it than me, and I certainly don't need the money."
"What if it gets to be too much work?" asked Hermione. "I don't want to get behind in my studies."
"If it gets to be too much," suggested Harry, "we can sell the twins the power charms, which would probably be the biggest seller."
Hermione smiled, "If it really does get that popular, we could charge the twins a lot for that spell."
"Ok, then it's settled. I'll write the letter." Harry then got a ballpoint pen and paper (He used them at his house because he didn't really like using a quill with ink and parchment). He wrote,
"Fred and George,
It is true that we can charm any muggle electronic devices, such as our computers, to work at Hogwarts. We would be glad to go into business with you, but we feel that we should get three-fourths of the profits. Hermione will be doing the majority of the spellwork. We promise not to charm anybody's devices for free. If it becomes too time consuming, we'll consider selling you the spells so you can charm the devices yourself. Let us know what you think of our proposition.
Sincerely,
Harry and Hermione"
Harry called Hedwig, who reluctantly stuck her leg out for Harry to attach the letter to. "Take this over to Fred and George, and then wait for their reply, girl." She then flew off out the window.
"Aren't you two ready for training yet," came Lupin's voice from behind them.
"We are now," said Hermione, as they turned around and headed toward their torture chamber.
Three and a half hours later, while they were eating lunch, Sirius said, "We're going to take a little trip today. Hermione, I already cleared it with your folks."
"Really?" said Hermione, "Where?"
"It's a surprise," said Lupin.
"Come on guys," said Harry, but before he could continue, Hedwig flew to the table and landed on Harry's shoulder. Harry saw a piece of parchment tied to her leg, so he took it and gave her a bit of his lunch. He then petted her feathers and said, "Thanks, Hedwig."
The letter said,
"Harry and Hermione,
We agree that you'll probably deserve more profit than us, since it's your spells, but three-fourths is a bit too much. The most we can give you is two-thirds. We hope this deal is acceptable. Once we have enough Galleons, we'd be glad to purchase the spells from you. Hopefully we'll be able to do that by the end of the school year. We won't demand that Hedwig keeps flying back and forth between us again today. We'll see you on the train in a few days and finalize our agreement if you agree to our terms.
Hopefully your partners,
Fred and George"
"See Hermione," said Harry smiling, "I knew they'd negotiate down."
"You were right," said Hermione, beaming back at her boyfriend. "I guess we've just gone into business with the Weasley twins. Oh Sirius?"
"Yes," said Sirius, who'd been chatting with Lupin and not paying attention to Harry and Hermione's conversation.
"Don't show anyone how to charm the muggle devices like your laptop. If anyone asks, send them to Fred and George. We're going into business with them."
"Really," said Sirius, grinning from ear to ear. "What if the teachers don't want to do business with students?"
"Then I'd suggest you talk to Fred and George to find out how much they're going to charge, and maybe make an agreement that says you sell to teachers only and they sell to students only," suggested Hermione.
"Hmm," said Sirius, scratching his chin. "Maybe I will. Anyway, we're going to apparate someplace, and I want to bring brooms for all of us."
"All right," said Harry hesitantly. "I still wish I knew where we were going."
"You'll like it," said Lupin, "we promise."
They went outside to the broom closet near the quidditch pitch, and took out the two firebolts and two cleansweeps. Then Sirius apparated with Harry while Lupin apparated with Hermione.
They appeared in the middle of a forest clearing, and several magical animals, such as unicorns, ran away when they arrived. Hermione asked, "Where are we?" but Sirius ignored her and pulled out what appeared to be a whistle. After Sirius blew into it, making no sound audible to the human ear, he finally answered Hermione's question. "We're in a magical forest that's about a thousand kilometers south of Hogwarts."
"Why are we here," asked Harry. "Are we going to do some training on our brooms?"
"Yes we will," said Lupin, "but first we'd like to say hello to…"
"BUCKBEAK!!!" exclaimed both Harry and Hermione as the hippogriff fugitive flew down near them. They both bowed to him immediately, and he bowed his head back, allowing them to approach.
"Hello, Beaky," said Hermione as she stroked his neck, "How are you doing?"
"Hey Buckbeak," said Harry as he softly patted the hippogriff's head. "Do you mind if I ride you?"
Buckbeak shook his head, seemingly answering Harry's question, so Harry climbed aboard his back, and held out his hand to Hermione.
"Er, no I don't think I will," she said, appearing nervous.
"Come on Hermione," said Harry, "It's a lot of fun! Please?" he said, giving her a pleading look that she could never resist.
"Oh, alright," she said, and Harry helped her get settled behind him, and then Buckbeak took off into the air. Hermione was holding tightly to Harry and screaming as loud as she could (causing Harry an earache) at first, but then as she got used to it, she began enjoying herself, and even let go of Harry for a few seconds while she held out her arms like they were wings of an airplane.
While she was doing that, she heard Sirius' voice say, "That a girl!" which startled her, causing her to grab Harry's waist again. She turned to see Moony and Padfoot flying right behind them on their brooms.
When Hermione looked shocked, Lupin said with a smile on his face, "You didn't expect us to let you go off unsupervised, did you?"
Sirius laughed, "What kind of chaperones would we be?" Harry joined in the laughter.
After a few minutes of that, everyone returned back to the clearing, and then Sirius and Remus started chasing Harry and Hermione on broomsticks through the forest. It was actually a lot of fun. For the first round, Harry and Hermione used the firebolts while the others used the cleansweeps. After the young couple successfully mastered that, they switched brooms, which made it a lot more difficult to escape the Marauders. After a few enjoyable hours of that, they said goodbye to Buckbeak and apparated back to Potter Manor. Dobby made dinner while they cleaned up. Hermione said she'd scan the schoolbooks into the computer after dinner.
While they were eating, Hermione mentioned, "I think I've gotten fairly good at flying. I was thinking of trying out for quidditch this year."
Harry looked ecstatic. "That would be great!" he shouted.
Both Sirius and Remus put their heads down.
Hermione looked uncertain, "Er, I know I'm not as good as Harry, but I thought I might…"
"It's not that," said Sirius, "You actually have gotten very good at flying this summer, and you might even have made the team, but you see, er, this year you're not having quidditch."
"WHAT!?" shouted Harry, while Hermione looked perplexed. "How can they not have quidditch?" he demanded.
"Well," said Lupin, "we're not allowed to say…"
"We might as well tell them," said Sirius, "or Harry might refuse to go to school. You can't tell anyone else until Dumbledore makes the announcement." The two teens nodded. "Have either of you ever heard of the Triwizard Tournament?"
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