“So, what are you going to do with all of your money, dear?” Molly asked Ginny as she bustled around making dinner, “Do you have anything in mind that you want to buy?”

“Yes,” Ginny said, “I’m going to pay off Fawkes. I suppose with Dumbledore working at the Wolf-kin clinic now he can’t be too bad… but I don’t like him having debt to hold over dad either way.”

Molly stopped walking and looked at Ginny, “Have you discussed this with your father yet? He’s been rather stubborn about accepting Sirius’ help with anything.”

“This is different from that,” Ginny insisted, “He only took on that debt for me. I’m just paying him back.”

Molly looked skeptical, but nodded, “Well it is your money. If you can convince your father then go ahead. I’m sure he’ll be very grateful.”

— — —

“No, Ginny. It’s your money you shouldn’t be giving it to Dumbledore…”

“I’m not, you have the debt over you for all this time because of me. I’m just paying you back for what you did. I’ll still have two hundred galleons left after. That’s plenty of money.”

Dad hesitated, “Are you absolutely sure? And it's actually seven hundred galleon debt now. We’ve paid part of it off already.”

“Well, three hundred galleons then,” Ginny said, “It’s my money, isn’t it? And that’s what I want to do with it.”

“Come here you,” Dad said and then they hugged each other for a bit, “Now how about I show you some of the new enchantments me and your uncle Sirius have been working on? We’ve got quite a bit done since Christmas.”

“Sure! Are you still building that second car together for Sirius?”

“Yes, we’ve made quite the improvements since last time. It’s rather fun to work with all the high end muggle parts that he’s bought for it…”

They went to the garage and Dad showed her all the interesting enchantments and little car parts that he and Sirius had been working on. According to him Sirius had been a little busier recently doing political things in the Ministry to help the wolf-kin. But he still was able to come over and work on the car together with Dad, and generally just hang out together on the weekends.

Over the next few days, Dad worked it out with Dumbledore and the money was fully transferred and now Fawkes officially belonged to Ginny. Not that he liked her saying it like that. He had refused to let her pet him for a full day after she’d told him the news and said the wrong thing! But he’d relented the next day after she’d apologized a few times so it was okay. He knew that she hadn’t meant it in a bad way, just that now no one could try to take him away from her anymore for some legal reason or another.

After some cajoling from Ginny, Fred and George somehow managing to get the hundred pounds of meat that Fawkes had requested so long ago, and Fawkes had forgiven them for their mistakes. They had carefully pet Fawkes for the first time with his permission and things had gone well. Ron was jealous and had only compounded his mistake by trying to pet Fawkes without permission again. Thinking that Fawkes wouldn’t notice since Ginny and the twins were distracting him with their own pats. Fawkes had squawked and nipped at Ron’s hand with his beak and made Ron draw back his hand with a curse before he even touched the Phoenix.

“Oh, you’re really done it now, Ron,” Ginny said when she noticed what had happened, “Now you’ll have to work twice as hard for Fawkes to forgive you.”

Fawkes chirped in confirmation.

Ron muttered and turned away, nursing his hand where Fawkes had pecked him. Fawkes’ annoyance quickly switched to satisfaction as Ginny, Fred, and George kept spoiling him as he sat there on the couch. It was after dinner and nearly time for bed.

“What are you going to do with the rest of your money, Ginny?” Fred asked casually, “You’ve still got three hundred galleons after paying off Dumbledore, right?”

“I don’t know,” Ginny said as she kept stroking Fawkes with her left hand, “I haven’t really thought about it. There’s not really anything I want right now. I’ve never had any of my own money to spend before. Alexa said that we could go clothes shopping for some cute muggle clothes for me to wear over the summer. That could be fun. How many muggle pounds is a galleon worth anyways? Alexa kept saying how much things cost in muggle pounds but I had no idea how much it was worth.”

“About thirty five hundred muggle pounds I think?” Fred said, “Yeah, just around there. Pretty much the price of gold since galleons are made completely of the stuff. Plus a little extra since it’s goblin gold instead of the less valuable muggle stuff.”

“Oh. Wait, so you’re saying that I won three and a half million pounds as champion?”

“Yep, you’re rich sister,” George said, “And you’ve still got just a bit north of a million muggle pounds left with your three hundred galleons even now that you’ve paid off Dumbledore.”

Ginny just sat there.

“Woah. I had no idea it was that much.”

“So, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about buying clothes unless Alexa has some real expensive tastes,” George said.

“Yeah, I guess not. I don’t think I realized quite how much the eight hundred galleons for Fawkes really was. I can’t believe Dad agreed to that.”

“Well, it’s over now and you’re a rich woman,” Fred said, “You really don’t have anything but new clothes shopping with your friend? Nothing big you want to splurge on?”

“No, not really. I guess I can just save it? That’s a lot of money, I could probably buy a house or something with it after I leave school right?”

“True, true, that’s probably the smartest…” Fred said reluctantly before sharing a loaded glance with George.

“Hey, what’s up with you two?” Ginny asked, “What are those looks for? Do you think I should buy something?”

“Well, we’ve got an offer for you actually,” George said.

“No, George. We should wait, maybe she’ll think of something,” Fred protested.

“Hey, we can just tell her,” George said, “She can think about it.”

George turned back to Ginny. “Remember that joke wand that we gave you for Christmas? The one that turned into a mouse when you tried to cast with it?”

“Yeah, that was pretty cool,” Ginny said, “I still have it in my room I think. I can’t believe you made those yourselves, the enchantment seemed pretty complicated.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” Fred replied, “If you do anything wrong then it transforms into something that’s almost a mouse. It’s way more disturbing than you’d think it would be when the details don’t come out right.”

“I’m glad we all got working ones then,” Ginny said, “How many did you make?”

“Probably about two dozen or so,” George said, “The ones we gave to everyone were the first successful batch that we made.”

“Wow, that’s a lot. You made them just for us?”

The twins shared a look, “Not exactly,” they said in unison, “How about we show you our room and we’ll explain,” Fred said.

“Your room?” Ginny asked as she gently reached out and lifted Fawkes so he rested against her chest, “You’re super secretive, you don’t let anyone in there ever.”

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“Well, don’t tell anyone we’ve got big secrets cooking in there,”

“Yeah, we’re trusting you with this, Sis. Mom will be furious if she figures out what we’re up to.”

“Well, okay,” Ginny said, “Let’s go then. Something secret’s in your room?”

The twins went and Ginny followed behind.

“You’re taking Fawkes?” Fred asked as he looked back.

“Of course!” Ginny said before nuzzling Fawkes with her nose, “He’s just the best at keeping secrets, aren’t you Fawkes. Mhhhmmm and he’s just the cutest too!”

Fawkes let out a half annoyed chirp and Ginny raised her head and adjusted her grip on the phoenix’s toasty form.

“And handsome,” she added, “He’s a very manly bird.”

Fred just shook his head with a slight smile and turned around again.

“Guess the phoenix is coming then.”

They went to the twins’ room and went inside. The twins even had a ward set up that they had to deactivate before they could open the door.

When she went in her magic sense immediately felt all the enchanted objects littered everywhere around the room. There was a long table on one side that looked like some kind of workbench and pieces of parchment all scattered about, with a bunk bed smooshed up into the corner.

“This, sister, is what we’ve been working on for the last few years,” George said as they fully entered and Fred shut the door behind them. Fawkes was peering around with interest as Ginny walked around to inspect a few of the objects on the workbench.

“We’ve been making our own products, candies, all of it. We’ve been developing them and testing out what works and what doesn’t in our room here. We’re going to try to open up our own joke shop. A competitor to Zonko’s, you know the one in Hogsmeade by Hogwarts? We’ve got about twenty different candies and five enchanted products including the joke wand. And those are only the ones that we think are good enough to sell. We’ve got plenty more that we’ve made but aren’t quite there yet that we could sell them to someone.”

“Oh, that’s great!” Ginny said, “This is so cool. So you’re going to do this after you graduate?”

“We hope so,” Fred said, “But none of our supplies are free. We’re hoping to try selling at Hogwarts next school year. Seeing what people like, what they’ll pay for things… Make a name for our products. We hope it’ll go well, but we’ll try to get a job at Zonko’s if things fall through.”

“Oh, but you made so many new things,” Ginny said while still holding Fawkes, “It’d be a shame if no one bought them. I liked the joke wand, it was fun. I’ve never seen anything like it at any of the other shops I’ve been to before.”

“So the thing is,” George said, “In order to have enough to get started, we need money. We’ve saved and spent everything we could, but we only have less than ten of each type of candy and only five or so of the products. If we really want to sell during the school year we need more than that prepared.”

“So, you want to ask me for my money?” Ginny asked, finally figuring out what they were asking for, “Well, I don’t know. I would like to help. But why don’t you just ask Sirius? He’s rich, I’m sure that he’d be interested.”

“We want to prove ourselves before we bring it to him,” Fred said, “Have sales numbers, profits, everything… We want to impress him and get him as a serious investor once we’re out of school and are actually starting our real joke shop.”

“But Sirius is basically family,” Ginny said, “If you show him your products I’m sure he’ll be plenty impressed. I showed him my joke wand you gave me and he liked it a lot. Didn’t he compliment you two on it after?”

“Well, that’s true…” Fred said, “Still, we’re taking this seriously. We want him to be a serious business partner and without something proven it will be hard for him to treat it that way, even if he thinks our products are good.”

“Well, I think you two are really overthinking it. You should just tell him and see what he thinks about it,” Ginny said before looking between the uncharacteristically serious twins, “But okay. I guess it’s up to you. How much money do you need? How does this work?”

“We’ve calculated it out,” Fred said, “And for ingredients for the immediate supply for a month or two if we have high demand would be about fifty galleons. After we have some time to determine what products sell the best, we can only focus on those. We’re guessing it’ll be between a hundred and two hundred galleons total to supply us for the whole school year. But fifty galleons to start off with and more if things go well.”

“Two hundred galleons?” Ginny said, “That’s a lot of money. What if you just lose it all? Mom and Dad would be furious if I gave all my savings to you and then you lost it.”

The twins’ faces tensed in unison, “We won’t lose it all, we’re sure it’ll be profitable. And these supplies aren’t cheap, that’s why we need so much money to start off with,” George said, “We’ve planned everything out, don’t you worry. And we're starting lower to see how it goes, it won't be two hundred if things really go wrong.”

“Well… what do you think, Fawkes?” Ginny asked as she looked down at him.

Fawkes let out a long trill.

Ginny sighed. Ugh. She didn’t even know what she had expected there.

“What’d he say?” Fred asked anxiously, “Does he like the idea?”

“He said that I should buy a herd of cattle so he wouldn’t have to fly as far to hunt,” Ginny said, “Apparently he wasn’t paying attention and was too focused on thinking on how much food that amount of money could buy.”

“You greedy, greedy bird,” Ginny said affectionately to Fawkes and bounced him up and down slightly in her arms, “If you could get fat then you’d be a big round meatball by now.”

Chirp.

“No, I’m not doing that Fawkes. You’re very important but I can’t blow all my savings buying food that you’d eat and just forget about again in a week.”

Chirp.

“No, not half of it either. I’ll give you extra head pats to make you feel better? How would you like that?”

Chirp.

“What? You want to pet me for once? Where’s this coming from?”

Chirp.

“Well, of course we’re equal. But how would that even work? You don’t have fingers or anything?”

Chirp.

“Okay.”

Chirp.

“Alright.”

Chirp.

“Well, okay. If you want to. I guess it’s only fair.”

Fred cleared his throat and Ginny looked up as she realized she had forgotten about them.

“Sorry, business stuff right? So I just give you the money? I don’t really mind helping you, I really don’t have anything else I want to do with it.”

“Wait,” Fred said, “Surely you don’t think you’re giving us the money for nothing?”

“Yeah, we’ll give you a quarter of the profits from the stuff we sell at Hogwarts,” George said, “And then five percent of the profits on our eventual joke shop for getting in early. It’s not a gift of money, it’s an investment for you.”

“Is five percent a lot?” Ginny asked, “I don’t know much about these things. I was just going to give you the money a minute ago, you don’t have to do all of that.”

“C’mon, we’re not going to cheat our own sister!” Fred protested, “We’ve calculated it out. If we do well then you’ll more than make your money back for the Hogwarts bit, and the joke shop profits would be a pure bonus. We don’t even have to be that successful to earn enough galleons to pay you back if it comes to that. Plus it’ll be like a loan. We’ll pay you back over time even if we don’t give you your money back with the Hogwarts sales or if we fail.”

“That sounds good. You two seem really serious about this. I’ll give you the money. But I want discounts on stuff too! Maybe I’ll want to use some of them myself.”

“Okay,” Fred said with a chuckle, “And big discounts for our cute little sister. Deal?”

He held his hand out. Ginny walked forward and awkwardly crouched as her arms were trapped holding up Fawkes. Eventually she was low enough to grab Fred’s hand and bent her knees up and down a few times to mimic shaking it.

“Deal.”

There was a moment of silence where the three of them stood there as Ginny straightened up again.

Fawkes chirped.

“Oh, right,” Ginny said, “Fawkes was going to go try and pet me. I’ve got to go.”

“Oh no you don’t,” George said with a wide grin, both of the twins much more relaxed now that Ginny had shook on the deal.

“No way we’re missing this,” Fred added, “Lead the way, sister.”

Ginny shrugged and walked back out of the room and back to the living room as the twins put the wards on their room back up.

She carefully placed Fawkes on the end of the couch at the arm closest to the back cushions. Fred and George came in just as Ginny laid down on her side on the couch. She rested her head on the front of the arm at the end of the couch. Her red hair spilled behind her and got tangled slightly as she shifted slightly to shift backwards while facing outwards towards the room. She stopped just when she felt Fawke’s clawed feet bump into the back of her head.

She lay there waiting as Fred and George rounded the couch and sat down in the chairs while watching her with interest. She waited but nothing happened for a moment. Then she felt a brush of feathers on her head and saw a bright orange wing above her. It was soft and warm.

After sliding his wing down to her chin, Fawkes lifted his wing again and reset it to touch the top of her head and started stroking down the side of her head again.

“Mmmmhhhhhh,” Ginny mumbled as he kept going and she closed her eyes and relaxed.

“Well, by Merlin,” Fred said, startling Ginny and making her jolt. Fawkes chirped firmly and Ginny shifted on the couch slightly before Fawkes continued petting her with his wing.

“That phoenix is really petting her,” Fred finished.

“You’re just jealous,” Ginny mumbled through half closed eyes as Fawkes’ warm wing kept going over her, “I told you all that he was smart… He’s…*Yawn* so smart…”

“I guess so. You’re really melting into that couch aren’t you?”

“You’d melt too if a phoenix was petting you,” Ginny mumbled, her mind going fuzzy as her eyes began to fully close, “No wonder Fawkes wants pets all the time if they feel like… this…”

Before she even knew it Ginny was asleep, the last thing she felt was Fawke's warm wing brushing over her head.