Ron kept looking between Victor and the twins, still clearly trying to understand what exactly had happened overnight.
"What did you even do to them?" he asked again.
Victor looked back at him with the same flat expression he always wore, as if Ron had just asked the most unnecessary question possible.
"They are the ones following me," he said calmly. "Not the other way around. How exactly would I know what's wrong with them?"
Ron stared at him for a second.
The problem with Victor was that his face almost never changed. Whether he was joking, annoyed, serious, or planning something questionable, he looked exactly the same.
Which made conversations with him deeply unhelpful.
Ron turned toward his brothers instead.
Fred immediately waved him off.
"Ron, don't interrupt important business."
George nodded in agreement.
"You're lowering the professional atmosphere."
Ron looked offended.
"What professional atmosphere? You two are literally staring at him while eating toast."
"That," Fred replied seriously, "is because observation is a delicate process."
"Now bugger off," George added. "We're working."
Ron stared at both of them in disbelief while Hermione looked like she was trying very hard not to laugh at the situation.
Victor had absolutely no idea what Fred and George wanted from him.
Trying to predict the twins was pointless. They operated on a level somewhere between chaos and criminal creativity, and Victor had long accepted that understanding them fully was probably impossible.
Which was why he barely reacted when both twins suddenly appeared beside him and threw arms over his shoulders.
"My dear junior," Fred announced dramatically, "we have something extremely exciting to show you."
"You'll absolutely love it," George added.
Victor immediately looked unimpressed.
"No," he said flatly. "I have important things to do today."
"Oh, come on," Fred protested. "After everything we've been through together."
"You mean one night hiding from Filch?" Victor corrected.
"Exactly," George said seriously. "Shared trauma creates friendship."
Fred leaned closer slightly.
"We know loads of interesting things about Hogwarts."
"Secret things," George added. "Useful things."
Victor finally glanced at them properly after that.
Honestly, the only thing the twins possessed that interested him at all was probably the Marauder's Map, and judging from how confidently they acted, they were almost certainly carrying it around somewhere.
Victor considered it briefly before answering.
"…Fine," he said at last. "We'll talk after Hogsmeade."
That answer immediately caught Harry's attention.
His expression dropped slightly.
Unlike everyone else in third year, Harry still couldn't go to Hogsmeade because he never got his permission form signed.
Then an owl swooped down into the Great Hall and landed directly in front of Victor carrying a letter.
Victor looked mildly pleased as he opened it.
Ron, naturally, leaned over at once trying to read it.
Then he froze.
"…What the hell?" he said loudly. "Why do you have Harry's Hogsmeade permission form?"
Harry looked up immediately.
Victor calmly handed the paper over to him.
Harry stared at it in shock.
It was real.
It had a signature.
"What—how?" Harry asked.
Victor looked completely unconcerned.
"Well," he said, "my father gives me more money than I actually use, and I've been exchanging a lot of my childhood vault savings into pounds through Gringotts."
Ron already looked lost halfway through that sentence.
"The goblins love gold," Victor continued, "and Muggle entertainment businesses are surprisingly profitable if you understand what children waste money on."
Hermione blinked.
"…You started a business?"
"Several, technically," Victor replied. "Mostly card collections, toys, games, things children become obsessed with for no reason."
Fred and George were now staring at him with open admiration.
"That," Fred said quietly, "is brilliant."
Victor ignored him and continued talking to Harry.
"One of the companies I purchased manages temporary employment contracts," he explained. "Your uncle works through one of them."
Harry slowly lowered the paper and looked at Victor.
"You blackmailed my uncle into signing this?"
"I offered him continued employment," Victor corrected calmly. "The alternative was unemployment."
Ron still looked completely confused.
"I'm stuck on the part where you casually bought the company," he admitted.
Hermione rubbed her forehead slightly.
"You can't just threaten people with unemployment whenever you want something."
"I can," Victor replied calmly. "That's usually how ownership works."
The twins, meanwhile, looked like they had just discovered a new role model.
George placed a hand over his chest dramatically.
"He's evil."
Fred nodded immediately.
"But in a really inspiring way."
*****
A/N : 🔥 On Patreon🔥
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