Dear Arthur,
As it turns out you already have brooms at school so I’m not going to worry about it.
Since the owls are magic, Can I just try sending letters to your teachers?
Can you send me their names?
Yours lovingly,
Helen Smith.
…
Mom, don’t do this.
Please don’t do this.
Please.
I promise not to ask for anything else.
Just please don’t do this…
Arthur paused writing his letter when Cedric walked over to him holding some almonds dipped in chocolate.
Flora always sneaked to the kitchen to bring them something.
Sometimes Arthur thought that he shouldn’t encourage the idea, but whatever she brought was always tasty.
Who was he to stop a kind soul clearly looking out for her friends?
“Why do you look so pale?” Cedric asked while handing him the bowl of treats and taking a seat on Arthur’s bed.
“Look at it.” Arthur said as he handed Cedric the letter his mom had sent him.
He had been planning to write a letter regularly, since it took Sir Newton about half a day to deliver the letters to his house.
It was a good idea, though he was starting to doubt it.
For someone who had a second chance at life, he was pretty good at finding brand new ways to screw over himself.
“You’re in trouble.” Cedric said after finishing the short letter, “You think your mom will find out that your cauldron in melted?”
Arthur went even more pale at that.
…
The magical world was throwing him problems that were very much not magical, like homework and your parents contacting your teacher.
Whatever the problems were Arthur knew he had to be the one to solve it.
Homework was a trivial matter.
His mother finding out what he did at school on the other hand made him just want to give up.
The first step as Cedric reminded him would be to find a new cauldron.
The one he had bought had cost about 20 galleons.
The problem was that he was broke.
He had some money but those were for ’emergencies only’ as his mother put it.
He thought it was a wise move, even though he would never admit it to her.
Arthur needed to find some way to make money.
He wasn’t looking forward to the job market at Hogwarts, not that he could look anywhere else.
Maybe his friends had some idea?
…
“I need to earn some money fast.
Any suggestions?
“Arthur asked the entire group sitting around the common room.
If you looked around the Hufflepuff common room you would always find at least two items of food, courtesy of being so close to the kitchen.
“Have you tried treasure hunting?” Anna suggested, while stuffing her mouth with the food.
The way she had that ready to go made Arthur think that she had been planning something of the sort for a long time.
She continued, “We live in an ancient magic castle. There has to be something valuable lying around.” He was right.
“Am I crazy or does that logic actually make sense?” Cedric said looking for his input.
“It does make sense, but we don’t even know what is valuable.” Arthur pointed out.
“We’re all new to magic except for you.” he said pointing to Cedric, “Can you help?”
“If it’s related to quidditch.” Cedric said with conviction in his voice.
As if quidditch could make him rich.
He paused at the thought and let it go because he was still in his first year.
Gambling could wait until he had more money.
“Purebloods might know something.” Patricia suggested, “Aren’t they always bragging about being ancient and having access to magical trinkets?”
Arthur gave the girl a deep look.
It was a good idea except for the fact that he would have to ask a Slytherin for money.
He could just feel the jokes forming, maybe even a nickname or two, “Do we know any nice purebloods?”
“We might.” Cedric and Anna said at the same time.
Flora packed some food in a little lunch box for them before they set off.
…
“Well, there might be treasure lying around.” said one twin while eating a chip.
“But we have not found any so far.” said another while eating the fish.
“We could help the search.” Arthur tried to reason, “More hands means light work.”
“No offense mate.”
“But what you can find.”
“Anyone can.”
“Do you rehearse that or is that a twin thing?” Anna asked from the side.
She had tagged along for the chance at ‘treasure hunting’.
She reasoned that she would be useful for getting into tight spaces.
Arthur and Cedric were not going to argue.
“Twin thing”
“Twin thing”
“I don’t need much money right now.” Arthur continued, “Just enough to buy a cauldron.”
“Well, for such a small sum you wouldn’t need a treasure.”
“You could just ask a senior for ideas.”
“They ought to have some.”
“Otherwise they couldn’t buy anything from Hogsmeade.”
“Dating does require money.” Arthur agreed, “Secret money your parents can’t know about.”
“Are your brothers reliable?” Cedric asked.
“No.” “No.”
“Do we even know anyone reliable?” Cedric asked Anna and Arthur.
“I don’t know about the reliable part.” Arthur said starting to lose confidence in the idea by the minute.
“If you’re going to be looking for money.” This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
“Then we’ll join too.”
“Only if you include us in the treasure.” Arthur said negotiating the stakes.
“In the treasure hunting too.” Anna said adding to the stakes.
The twins looked at each other for some time and said in unison “”Deal.””
…
They found Tonks in the great hall trying to sit at the teachers table.
She acted innocent when they arrived but was so transparent that everyone had to forcefully accommodate her.
Before anyone else could arrive they presented their dilemma to the nervous teenager.
“Pfft, That’s easy.” Tonks said causing them all to breathe a sigh of relief, “I already know how to make good money.”
“Is it safe?” Cedric asked.
“Is it reliable?” Arthur asked.
“Yes and Yes.” Tonks said, “Come on! I’ll show you guys.”
The five of them hurriedly tagged behind the confident Senior.
They put some distance from her just in case she fell.
How you could even get a reputation for being clumsy, while being a literal Metamorphmagus was beyond anyone’s capacity to figure out.
…
“Are you sure this is the place?” Arthur asked looking around nervously.
The greenhouse looked a lot bigger without all the kids around.
He didn’t want to be caught in case Tonks stole one of the magical plants from their own head of the house.
Especially now that his mother might also know about his activities.
“Relax! I asked Professor Sprout during detention last year and she said that she would always be looking for help.” Tonks said with an unusual amount of confidence, as if she had not just used the word ‘detention’.
The group of children were not relaxed, not even a little bit.
“Professor Sprout!
I brought a bunch of first years.” Tonks said when they saw the Professor, “They said they would like to do work for some extra money.”
“I could use some help.” Professor Sprout said immediately in response, “Would you kids be willing to help me?”
“What exactly will we be helping with professor?” asked the twins.
“Did you know that our headmaster Albus Dumbledore is famously credited with discovering twelve uses of dragon’s blood?”
She certainly knew how to grab the attention of a bunch of children.
…
“Of course it would be dragon dung.” Arthur said, with regret in his tone, “She told us so in our first class.”
“Great work detective.” Anna responded with dripping sarcasm.
To be fair she had tagged along hoping for an exciting treasure hunt but was now made to basically grab heaps of dragon excrement from a magical tank and transport it to various parts of the greenhouse.
Since no external interference was allowed, they had to use dragonhide gloves and move the material with their hands only.
Apparently, almost the entire budget was used to procure the dung, so no other helpful tools could be bought.
“Look at the bright side.” Arthur said trying to cheer her up, “Maybe the treasure is the excrement we picked up along the way…”
“Get it because it’s expensi…” Arthur had to run from the angry little eleven year old girl holding fistfuls of things he’d rather not have on him.
He forcefully dragged a confused Cedric with him.
You never knew when you needed a friend to block something for you.
And Hufflepuffs were nothing if not loyal, right?
Looking at the three Hufflepuffs running around the greenhouse Fred and George looked at each other.
Reaching the same conclusion they nodded and started to run behind them.
Their plan was to help Anna try and Arthur and Cedric because…well, what else would they do?