"So what are you planning to do next?" Leonard asked, watching the two of them fooling around again.
"What else can we do? Finish the orders as fast as possible, obviously. We still have a bit of money left, so we can slowly fill in the gaps," Fred said, shoving George aside.
"I'm talking about Mundungus," Leonard said leisurely.
"Mundungus... sigh, that guy's not easy to deal with." George shook his head helplessly.
"So just because he's hard to deal with, you're going to leave it at that? You have to show some response, don't you?" Leonard said.
"You mean... make trouble for Mundungus?" Fred asked cautiously.
Leonard nodded. "Hasn't that guy always been ripping you off? And this time he even took advantage of the situation. You're really just going to let him off? Not even teach him a lesson?"
"But he's slippery, he's an adult wizard, and he can Apparate. We're no match for him." George sighed. Then he looked at Leonard, and hope suddenly lit up in his eyes.
"Leonard, are you going to help us?" George asked excitedly. "This weekend, come with us and..."
"Sorry, I don't have time." Leonard waved him off. He already had plans this weekend to meet Midgard and Claudia. He had no interest in tagging along with the twins to make trouble for someone else.
George looked disappointed, but even more curious. "Then what are you planning to do? Fred and I can't teach Mundungus a lesson by ourselves."
"You don't have to show up in person to teach someone a lesson." Smiling, Leonard took a Galleon from his pocket, wrapped it in a small piece of dragon hide, and handed it to George.
"What's this?" George looked down at the dragon-hide-wrapped coin. "A gold Galleon?"
"That's right. Think of it as a cursed Galleon." Leonard fixed him with a look. "Make sure you keep it wrapped in dragon hide. Don't touch it directly."
Fred leaned in next to George, and the two of them stared together at the utterly ordinary-looking coin.
"Oh, don't worry." George carefully wrapped the Galleon up again. "So what am I supposed to do with it?"
"Find a way to hand this Galleon to Mundungus. That shouldn't be difficult. A man like that has to be obsessed with money."
Leonard continued, "Before you leave, just tell him one sentence. Money you shouldn't have earned brings a curse."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"So this Galleon really is cursed?" George looked at the wrapped coin, clearly itching with curiosity. "But Mundungus is experienced. He usually carries dark magic detectors. Wouldn't he notice?"
"You should trust my ability. My magic isn't that easy to detect." Leonard smiled.
Of course, there was no jinx or dark magic on the Galleon at all, because what Leonard had placed on it was a special kind of power, something that could neither be detected nor sensed.
A curse, one taken from Salazar Slytherin's notebook.
A curse cast on an object, cursing every person who came into possession of it.
Voldemort had once used this curse too. He had used it on one of his Horcruxes, such as the Gaunt family ring, causing the wearer pain and gradual corruption until they finally lost their life.
But his most iconic use of it was, of course, the curse he laid on the Defense Against the Dark Arts position.
Cursing something nonphysical required a high level of skill with curses, and Leonard still could not do that. For now, he could only attach curses to physical objects.
Still, with enough study, Leonard was confident he could eventually reach or even surpass Voldemort's level.
Who wasn't a genius, after all?
This time, Leonard simply wanted to test how effective his curse really was, which was why he had volunteered to help George and Fred get even.
There were no suitable test subjects inside the school, after all.
"All right then." George carefully put the Galleon away, already thinking through how to get it into Mundungus's hands.
Sunday morning.
George and Fred flew toward Hogsmeade on Leonard's broom under the envious gazes of the other students.
While everyone else headed for Honeydukes or the Three Broomsticks, the twins quietly made their way toward the Hog's Head.
The Hog's Head was different from the Three Broomsticks. The latter was aimed at students, run by a kind and still charming landlady who treated students warmly and mostly sold ordinary drinks or low-alcohol fruit wines.
The former, on the other hand, was for the adult wizards of Hogsmeade who actually needed hard liquor. The owner looked fierce, and the people going in and out did not look like the sort anyone should provoke.
Still, being located in Hogsmeade, the village closest to Hogwarts, the Hog's Head did have its bottom line.
Certain people with sticky fingers were not allowed in.
Like Mundungus.
When George and Fred got there, Mundungus was standing outside the entrance to the Hog's Head, stretching his neck to peer inside.
Because he had stolen from the place before, the owner refused to let him in. So all he could do was stand outside and smell the alcohol from the doorway.
"Mundungus." The moment Fred saw him, he felt his temper shoot straight up. "You really do look like a dog right now."
Mundungus instinctively turned when he heard his name, but after realizing it was only George and Fred, he relaxed. A sly grin spread across his face.
"A dog? No, no. I think I'm more like a wolf. One that tears apart little rabbits too stupid to know danger when they see it."
The little rabbits were obviously George and Fred.
Mundungus looked at the twins, his eyes gleaming with cunning. "Here to talk business? I remember you wanted dragon claw powder and love potion last time, right?"
"So?" George gave nothing away, grabbing Fred before he could spit out a sarcastic reply.
"So?" Mundungus chuckled. "I think the old price was too cheap. Twenty Galleons a pound sounds about right for dragon claw powder."
"Twenty Galleons for one pound of dragon claw powder? Why don't you just go rob somebody?" Fred shot back.
"Isn't that what I'm doing? Or maybe you two are the ones volunteering to be robbed." Mundungus laughed nastily. "You should count yourselves lucky. The black market's been in turmoil lately. The merchant who used to run it disappeared out of nowhere. I had to pull quite a few strings just to get connected again. It's only natural the price went up."
The merchant running the black market disappeared?
That sounded oddly familiar.
George and Fred exchanged a glance. Leonard's channel was probably tied to the black market too, except he had made it all look ridiculously easy.
Suppressing their curiosity, George looked at Mundungus coldly and said, "We can't accept that price."