It's Better If You Do

Bellamy looked up from her trunk and over to George with a less-than apathetic expression. She merely pressed her lips together and gave a short hum before peering back into her crowded trunk. Picking out a small wooden box, she flipped the lid and picked out the two wands she had put into it for safekeeping. She placed the box back into the trunk, leaving her wand forgotten on the top of it and walked over to Rose, handing over her wand just as it emitted a few pale lavender sparks, as if it disagreed with being in her hands. Her brow wrinkled a bit as she stared darkly at the wand before she righted herself and glanced between the two twins.

“What do you two do as far as meals go?” She asked, crossing her arms over her chest. “Is there a secret kitchen around here you haven’t shown me?” Fred looked over at her a bit bashfully and scratched the back of his neck.

“We…uh…don’t have a kitchen. So we sort of just eat out…a lot,” he said softly. Bellamy glanced from him over to her sister with a raised brow. She let out a heavy sigh and closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“I’ll have to see if I can make any arrangements in a storage room or something because I refuse to eat out every night,” she said, sounding as if her patience with the situation was running thin. She opened her eyes and glanced between Fred and George as she brushed her fringe out of her eyes. “I’ll cook nightly dinners for everyone. It’s the least I can do for your generosity.”

“Is she any good with cooking?” George asked Rose skeptically, but before she could answer Bellamy cut in; her eyes were aflame and the tops of her cheeks flushed an angry pink shade.

“If I’m good at potions, I’m good at cooking. There’s no difference between the two,” she said in a voice louder than the twins had heard from her, but it still wasn’t considered loud to them, at least. Her French accent also had come through more than it had before. The three others in the room looked taken aback by her slight outburst. Rose wasn’t accustomed to seeing Bellamy get angry about much, but she attributed to a combination of being unhappy and not getting enough sleep the night before. A silence lingered in the room that was rife with tension. Fred, feeling a bit brave, stepped over to Bellamy and placed a hand gently on her shoulder.

“Perhaps now would be a good time to show you two around and see what you’ll be best at,” he said tentatively and slowly, glancing from Bellamy, to Rose, then to George.

“Yes, perhaps it is,” Bellamy said in a soft voice, looking a bit guilty for her “yelling” but said not another word. The four stood, the twins leading the way, and filed back into the shop. There seemed to be an even larger crowd within the shop than before. The sisters finally got a good view of the different floors of the shop--they knew there were at least three they could see--and many, many different products they would soon have to learn about.

“How about showing Bellamy the WonderWitch line, Fred?” George commented, glancing to the fiery, small woman who seemed to be soaking in the shop.

“I think that’s a brilliant idea, George,” Fred said, the grin returning and he glanced to Rose. “And then perhaps we should show Rosie the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder.” The four slowly made their way over to a table that was stocked with items all violent pink in color. It almost hurt Bellamy’s eyes to look at them, but when she noticed they were all potions, she didn’t care.

“This is a line of potions made for adolescent witches wishing to increase their chances with love,” George said, flourishing a hand at the stand. He picked up a small vial and held it up. “The love potion is one of the best sellers from this line, despite the fact that it only lasts twenty-four hours. If we could make it last a bit longer, that would surely make it a best seller in the whole of the store.” Bellamy reached out and took the potion from him, turning it over in her hands slowly.

“Perhaps if you let the potion age a bit it would increase the potency,” she said quickly, causing Fred and George to exchange characteristic grins over her as she looked at the potion. They had just found their potion’s master of the store, certainly. “Judging by the color, this is fairly fresh. If you gave it around a month or two, it should last two days or more.”

“Blimey,” Fred said, shaking his head, yet smiling from ear-to-ear, “why didn’t we think of that?”

“Because we never cared to listen in potion’s class,” George replied, not missing a beat, causing them both to laugh to themselves. Bellamy let out a sigh and placed the vial back down, glancing over the display before giving a short nod to herself, and turned to the twins. Rose smiled a bit to herself, knowing that Bellamy would fit in, no matter how much she didn’t want to.

“Off to the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder then, ladies,” Fred said, starting off for the opposite side of the store.

The three began off to the back section, before they noticed a certain short blonde was missing. Fred blinked and looked around the shop, before picking her out beside the pygmy puffs. He nudged the other two and walked over. Bellamy smiled widely, knowing exactly what Rose would be up to half the time.

Rose was absolutely enthralled. Her eyes glowing, she all but had herself in the cage with them. When she noticed the three standing there, she crowed, "Miniture Puffskeins! You bred them down, and that's brilliant. They're adorable! What do you feed them? How old are they? Oh my goodness, they're so," she squeaked happily as one rubbed against her finger. "sweet."

George answered, a smile on his face as well. "We call them Pygmy Puffs. They'll eat just about anything; spiders, crumbs, and leftovers. We usually bring them back bread that we haven't finished. They sell so fast that we almost can't breed them fast enough. We've only had these for a couple weeks."

Fred smiled, and said teasingly, "I see you've found your niche."

She nodded eagerly, tickling one. They all crowded around her finger, twenty squeaking puffballs shaded in various violently bright colors of pink and purple. She looked back at them, and so resembled a small child in a toy store that they all grinned at each other.

A moment later she seemed to remember herself and reluctantly withdrew her hand from the cage. The squeaking grew to an alarming heighth and it drew onlookers. Little girls, teengers, and even adults came from all corners to stare at the cute little balls of fluff.

"How much are they?" asked a hassled mother. Her daughter clung onto her leg, begging at the top of her voice for a 'peenk' one.

"1 galleon for the Pygmy Puff, and we include the cage for only 5 knuts." said Fred smoothly. The mother seemed to waver, but the child only began to yell, "I wont a peenk won!"

She hurriedly handed over the money, and he arranged the pygmy puff in a cage. The little girl cooed at the cage, and the pygmy puff squeaked back. The customers began handing out money to Fred and George, and soon all four of them began helping out the distribution of the animals.

Rose giggled to herself as she realized she had just made the shop quite a bit of money. When all the customers finally left with their Pygmy Puffs, she looked down at the cage, and her shoulders drooped. Only one was left. It squeaked to itself and rolled around the bottom of the cage happily.

The twins were beaming at her as they had not done in years to anyone. They had just made nineteen galleons and three sickles from her being good with their Pygmy Puffs. They sold fast, but never that fast!

George cleared his throat, and bowed to her, "Mademoiselle, you are my new favorite person. Take this last adorable minuturized puffskein for your amazing sell today."

Her grin lit up her entire face, "Really?"

"Really." said Fred, grinning as well. "Never have we sold them that fast."

"But I didn't do-"

Fred waved her down. "If you weren't so good with them, they wouldn't have caused such a fuss. Take him."

She opened the cage and took out the purple pygmy puff, and laughed as her squeaked happily at her. "Ryussi. That will be your name."

Bellamy smiled, and nodding approvingly at her sister, while Fred and George exhchanged a confused look, "Why?"

"It means crowned with success in french," she settled him on her shoulder. "Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder?"

"Oh, yes!" Fred said, remembering. "Come along, then, unless you want to stop at something else and make us even more money."

"I think I'm good for now," Rose teased. She tapped her sister and held Ryussi to her. Bellamy took him gently, rubbing his tiny stomach with her index finger.

George and Fred led them back to the curtained off area, and Rose noticed it did indeed have items that she hadn't noticed them first time around. There weren't many, and their packaging was more subdued.

"We haven't figured out where to put this in with the other items," George admitted, handing her the box. She opened it, and took the small bottle out, looking at the dark sand like contents. "As what the title says, it's Instant Darkness Powder. Fire spells, Lumos, and the like won't work while it's in the air."

Rose thought for a minute, and began, "Maybe..." she mused, thinking. "You could start a more serious line. This isn't really joking material. Peru is known for violence in their country, so I could understand why they might need it... and the people here might need it, too, if what I hear is correct."

There was a slight pause in which the twins looked down darkly, but she didn't notice it, for Fred's voice was light. "What type of serious line, do you think?"

"Well, have you made anything else?" Rose asked, suddenly business like.

He grinned, and grabbed a large brown box off the floor that had been sitting in a corner. Reaching inside, he pulled out an ordinary black wizard's hat. He handed it to George, and pulled out his wand. "Demonstration."

"Furnunculus!" yelled Fred, and he ducked. The girls did not understand why, until they saw the jinx rebound off of George, and they dove down, too.

A chorus of yelps rang out. They had landed in a pile, with Rose on the box, and Bellamy ontop of Rose. Rose was frantically making sure Ryussi was unharmed, and let out a sigh of relief when he was.

Bellamy helped her sister up, unamused. She raised her eyebrows sourly at Fred. "You could have warned us."

"It was to show you how it worked," Fred said innocently, his eyes twinkling. "It was made for fun, you know. Get your mate to jinx you, and watch it hit them."

Rose bit the inside of her cheek, thinking. "This could be of good use, too," she said slowly. "Not many people know how to do shield charms... You could sell them to people for protection. It wouldn't do anything against the Unforgivable Curses, but against less severe curses, it would help a bit."

The boys stared at her in awe. George turned to Fred, "Mate, I think we're keeping them."

"I think so, too." Fred agreed, nodding solemnly.