George held the packet of popping candy, turning it over to inspect the back.
“‘Strawberry flavor,'” he read aloud.
“‘Directions: Tear open and pour into mouth.'”
“That’s it?”
Fred leaned over and flicked the plastic packaging with a fingernail.
“Sounds way too normal, Valentine!
You don’t honestly expect to trade a bag of ordinary candy for our new recipe, do you?”
Evelyn leaned back against her seat, resting her hands behind her head.
“What’s the success rate on your new recipe?”
“One hundred percent!”
“You just said forty percent a second ago.”
Fred fell silent, giving her a deadpan look.
“That was the old version!
After using your delayed sugar-coating method, we improved it.”
“A hundred percent success rate for a fart bomb in exchange for a hundred percent popping candy.
That’s a fair trade!”
Evelyn raised a single finger.
“The difference is that I already know how your stuff works.
Mine, on the other hand, you haven’t experienced yet.”
George raised the popping candy to his ear and shook it, listening to the fine rustling sound inside.
“It’s just a bag of candy.
How special could it be?”
“Eat it and find out.”
Hermione looked up from her textbook and glanced at Evelyn, her eyes wide with apprehension.
“Valentine, is this what you used on Neville’s toad?”
“Yep.”
“To simulate the vibration frequency of insects?”
“Yep.”
“And now you’re going to let actual people eat it?”
“Yep.”
Hermione closed her textbook with a snap and quietly scooted closer to the window.
Fred stared at Evelyn’s face, trying to spot a flaw in her expression.
“Have you eaten it yourself?”
“Of course.
I’ve been chewing on it this whole time.”
“Any reaction?”
“Nothing special.
Just a fun popping sensation in your mouth.”
Fred and George exchanged a glance, Fred puffing out his chest.
“What are we afraid of, George?
Is there anything a Weasley man hasn’t eaten?”
“Spot on, Fred.
We even survived the salamander hot sauce Charlie sent back from Romania!”
“What could a bag of Muggle candy possibly do to us?”
“Together on three!”
The two tore open their packets at the same time and poured half a bag each into their mouths.
The compartment fell silent for two seconds.
Fred smacked his lips.
“A little jumpy.”
George chewed a bit.
“Pretty sweet, actually.”
“That’s it?
Valentine, did you overestimate this…”
Before Fred could finish his sentence, his entire body suddenly bounced!
His heels lifted roughly three inches off the floor.
Before George could laugh at him, his own knees buckled, and he popped straight upward into the air.
Fred and George stared at each other in absolute shock.
“What’s happening?”
Just as Fred asked, the second bounce struck!
This time it went even higher, his head nearly cracking against the luggage rack. The source of this chapter is g.com.
George grabbed the seat armrests with both hands, trying to hold himself down.
It was useless.
The moment his bottom touched the cushion, an invisible force propelled him right back up!
“Valentine!
What did you put in this candy?!”
“Popping candy.
The name told you everything.”
Evelyn sat in her seat, watching the two red-haired boys bob up and down in the compartment, her tone completely calm.
Fred clung to the luggage rack, but his legs wouldn’t stop moving.
He hung in midair, doing an involuntary tap dance.
George hugged the compartment doorframe tightly, his soles hammering the floorboards anyway.
*Tap-tap-tap.* The rhythm matched a professional tap dancer down to the beat.
“I’ve got a grip!” Fred declared.
Before the words were fully out, a screw on the luggage rack came loose.
He rattled along with the rack three times before falling back to the floor with a clatter.
The second he landed, he bounced right back up!
“How long?” George croaked, clinging desperately to the doorframe, his voice shuddering with every bounce.
“How long…
does this…
last?”
“About five minutes.”
Fred’s eyes went wide with terror.
“Five minutes?!”
“Depends on the dosage.
You two poured half a bag each into your mouths, which is about triple the standard amount.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?!”
“You didn’t ask.”
Hermione held her textbook in front of her face, her shoulders trembling with suppressed laughter.
George abandoned his strategy of hugging the doorframe and tried walking in the brief gaps between bounces.
The result was disastrous.
He bounced right into a wooden box on the seat, knocking it over and sending six sugar-coated spheres rolling across the floor.
Fred stepped on one of them, stumbled, and landed butt-first on top of George.
The two stacked together and bounced three times in unison.
The glass windows of the compartment rattled violently.
Several heads poked into the corridor.
A dark-haired boy with glasses and a red-haired boy were standing side by side at the doorway.
“Fred?
George?” The red-haired boy’s mouth hung wide open.
“What are you doing?”
Ron stepped on a tiny fragment of popping candy.
Nothing happened, since it was just a remnant, not something he had swallowed.
Even so, Ron scrambled back into the corridor in sheer terror.
The dark-haired boy adjusted his glasses and took a closer look into the compartment.
He nearly got smacked in the face by Fred’s flying elbow, prompting him to retreat as well.
The two heads vanished down the corridor.
Fred finally figured out a solution.
He jammed himself into the luggage space beneath the seat, using the underside of the bench to cap his jumping height.
Continuous *thud-thud-thud* sounds echoed from under the seat, making the entire bench vibrate.
George chose a different strategy: lying flat on the floor.
However, the popping candy’s force acted on his whole body.
The result of lying flat was that he flopped along the floorboards like a landed fish, making rhythmic *slap-slap-slap* sounds.
Evelyn pulled a pencil stub out of her trunk and began timing the scene in the margin of her textbook.
“Three and a half minutes.”
“Only one and a half left?” George groaned, his face pressed flat against the wood.
“Give or take.”
“Valentine,” Fred wheezed, poking half his head out from beneath the seat, his eyes bloodshot.
“Is this recipe…
for sale?”
Evelyn stopped twirling her pencil. Follow the newest chapters on novelping.com.
“What did you say?”
“How much for the recipe for this popping candy?”
Fred’s voice shook from the vibrations, but his tone was absurdly serious.
George flipped over on the floor, bouncing upward toward the ceiling as he added, “Fred’s right, this stuff is brilliant!”
“Colorless, odorless, completely unsuspected before eating!”
“Controllable onset time, harmless effect, but intensely embarrassing!”
“The highest level of prank artistry is making the victim lose control of their body in public!”
“If we could mass-produce this…”
Fred crawled out from under the seat.
The intensity of his bouncing had died down significantly, leaving only his heels twitching slightly.
He leaned both hands against the seat cushion, his eyes shining with feverish excitement.
“Valentine, partner with us!”
“Partner in what?”
“A business venture!
You supply the Muggle high-tech recipes, and we handle distribution at Hogwarts.”
George climbed up from the floor, dusted off his robes, and limped over to Fred’s side.
“A fifty-fifty split on profits.”
“Sixty-forty.
Sixty for me, forty for you.” Evelyn tucked the pencil stub behind her ear.
“Deal!” the two blurted out instantly.
Hermione set her textbook down, her expression grave.
“What are you even discussing?
Selling prank items at Hogwarts?
That violates Rule Two Hundred Seventeen of the school rules!”
“Granger,” Fred said, placing an arm around her shoulder, only for her to slap it off immediately.
“School rules are static; business is dynamic.”
“Besides,” George stepped in front of Evelyn and formally extended a hand, “the Weasley brothers never do a losing deal!”
Evelyn shook his hand firmly twice.
George’s hand was warm, with faint wood-splinter marks still visible on his fingertips.
“I have one condition, though,” Evelyn said, letting go.
“What condition?”
“I get to pick three items from your current inventory.”
“Pick whatever you like!” Fred declared with a broad wave of his arm.
Evelyn tilted her head.
“Do you have anything that can get aquatic animals excited?”
“Get aquatic animals excited?” George scratched his head.
“What do you want that for?”
“I heard Hogwarts has a Black Lake.”
The two brothers looked at each other.
“The Giant Squid lives in the Black Lake,” Fred said in a low voice.
“And merpeople,” George added.
“You’re not planning to…”
***
The train whistle blew a second time, and the sky outside the window had darkened completely.
Along the distant ridge, the outline of a castle emerged amidst scattered lights.
Evelyn pressed herself against the train window, her nose nearly touching the glass.
Hermione leaned over, took one look outside, and gasped.
“Hogwarts.”
The entire compartment fell silent.
Upon Evelyn’s vision, translucent system text slowly materialized.
[Main Quest Hint: Arrive at Hogwarts.
First-years must cross the Black Lake by boat to reach the castle.] [Side Quest Unlocked: Cause a biological-level disruption on the Black Lake boat ride worthy of entering Hogwarts history.
Reward: Mischief Points +300!]
She reached into her pocket and touched the canister of catnip.
It had been exchanged from the System Mall in advance.
The curve of her lips cast a small patch of fog onto the cold windowpane.
“Fred, George.”
“Yeah?”
“You mentioned the Giant Squid earlier.
Exactly how giant is it?”