Two familiar voices came from the staircase.
"Ron, why are you whining like a little girl again?" Fred asked.
"Did you remember something unpleasant?" George added.
The twins came down the stairs wearing identical grins. Making fun of Ron appeared to be one of their favorite hobbies.
"Go away," Ron said immediately.
"Such a warm greeting."
"Really makes a person feel appreciated."
They ignored him completely. Both twins had already spotted Victor standing among the group. They stopped. Then identical grins spread across their faces.
"Victor!"
Before anyone could react, both crossed the room at alarming speed and surrounded him from both sides. Victor looked at them with immediate suspicion — he had spent enough time around the Weasley twins to know this never ended well.
Fred threw an arm around his shoulder. George copied him from the other side.
"Look who finally decided to visit the Burrow."
"A rare sight indeed."
Victor looked at the arm on his left. Then the arm on his right. Then at both twins. "Should I be concerned?"
"Probably."
"Definitely."
Ron looked deeply offended. "Why are you two more excited to see him than me?"
Both twins answered at exactly the same time. "Because we see you every day."
Ron opened his mouth. Then closed it. That was unfortunately fair.
The twins turned back to Victor. "How's summer treating you?"
"Caused any international incidents?"
"Started any secret conspiracies?"
"No," Victor said.
The twins exchanged a look. "He's lying." "Definitely lying."
Victor sighed. "Why do you always assume I'm responsible whenever something strange happens?"
Fred looked genuinely confused. "Because you usually are." George nodded. "And when you aren't, you're normally standing nearby."
Ron immediately pointed at them. "See? Not just me."
Victor was beginning to understand why Professor McGonagall occasionally looked exhausted.
Fred's grin widened. "Besides, you've become quite famous around Hogwarts." George continued.
"The mysterious Slytherin."
"The professors' favorite headache."
"The student most likely to make Snape proud and disappointed simultaneously."
Even Molly laughed softly at that.
"Sorry to disappoint you both, but I'm not doing anything interesting this summer," Victor said.
Fred immediately looked skeptical. "Then would you mind explaining how you bought out Harry's uncle's company and threatened him into cooperation? We need to understand your business tactics."
Molly's expression shifted. "What blackmail? What company?"
Fred and George exchanged identical grins. "Oh, this is definitely a story worth telling over dinner," Fred said. "Very juicy," George agreed.
As Molly finished arranging lunch on the table, everyone gradually took their seats.
The conversation wandered from topic to topic until Fred suddenly remembered something. His eyes lit up immediately.
"Oh, Mum, did we ever tell you how Harry got his Hogsmeade permission form signed last year?"
Victor immediately knew where this was going.
Unfortunately, stopping Fred and George once they started talking was about as realistic as stopping a hurricane.
Molly looked curious.
"No, I don't believe you did."
Fred grinned.
"Harry's uncle refused to sign it."
"Absolutely refused," George agreed.
"Wouldn't listen to reason."
"So Victor handled it."
Molly turned toward Victor, who was already regretting sitting down.
"What do you mean, handled it?"
The twins exchanged a glance.
"Victor found out where Harry's uncle worked," George said.
"Then he bought the company," Fred added.
The kitchen fell silent.
Several seconds passed before Molly finally blinked.
"I'm sorry," she said carefully. "You did what?"
Victor sighed.
"I bought the company."
Molly stared at him while Fred and George looked thoroughly pleased with themselves.
"Then he informed Harry's uncle that signing the permission form was probably in his best interests," George explained.
"Very strongly informed him," Fred added.
"You bought his company?"
"It wasn't a particularly large company," Victor replied.
That somehow made the story even worse.
Molly slowly lowered herself into her chair. Victor was the same age as Ron and Harry, yet he was discussing the purchase of a company with the same casual attitude most children reserved for buying sweets.
"Victor," she asked cautiously, "where exactly did you get enough money to buy a company?"
Victor blinked.
"My family gave it to me."
The answer came easily. Explaining that the money had actually come from various Muggle businesses he owned would only lead to more questions than he cared to answer.
Molly rubbed her forehead.
Of course the Malfoys were wealthy. She had known that for years. What she had not realized was that their version of wealthy apparently included giving a fourteen-year-old enough money to buy a Muggle company because he was annoyed with Harry's uncle.
Arthur would probably faint if he ever heard this story.
Ron looked between Victor and his mother.
"That isn't normal, right?"
Molly didn't hesitate.
"No, Ronald. It is definitely not normal."
Fred and George immediately burst out laughing.
Victor, meanwhile, looked mildly puzzled. To him, the strange part wasn't buying the company. The strange part was how shocked everyone else seemed by it.
That realization alone convinced Molly that Victor had grown up in a world completely different from the one the rest of them knew.
Across the table, Ginny glanced at Victor thoughtfully.
She had always known the upper-class Slytherin was strange. Hogwarts was full of rumors about him, and over the years she had heard plenty of them. Most students dismissed half of those stories as exaggerations.
Now she was beginning to suspect the rumors had actually been toned down.
After all, it wasn't every day someone casually admitted to buying a company to solve a school permission-slip problem and then seemed confused about why everyone found it shocking.
*****
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