The train ride this time around was buzzing to say the least.
Usually me, Hermione, Neville and Luna would sit together and pass the ride discussing our holidays in a calm way. The topics of our discussion usually centered around any new books we might have read or any new advancement in the magical community or a new and interesting creature that Luna had decided to focus on in the upcoming year.
This time however even we only had one topic to discuss, the Tri-wizard tournament.
Neville was especially excited and looking forward to the tournament. Luna was more interested in the Veela's that were supposed to be arriving with one the schools participating. Hermione was particularly more interested in interacting with the different students and understanding the differences between the path magic teaching has taken in schools outside of the Great Britain. My interest was obviously Voldi himself.
The students on the train were all restless and continuously moving about. The seniors were all enthusiastic about the chaotic year that was promised in the coming year and the juniors were trying to chat them up for any possible information on this tournament.
The start of the term feast was lackluster to say the least. There was no long speech by Dumble's and no unnecessary commotion by anyone. This was mostly because it was being reserved for welcoming the two schools that would arrive by tomorrow. As was always the case, we had arrived for a new term just before the weekend so that the students can settle down before beginning the academic year.
That night after the commotion had settled down, I had asked for the twins and Hermione to stay back as I had something to discuss with them. The coming year would be the turning point for everything and I had to share a few things with them for them to be ready a bit.
I began by congratulating the twins for their amazing performance on the O.W.L's. The next thing was the restarting of the business that was shut down by us after making a highly skilled product. The twins had kept their promise of studying diligently for their O.W.L's and kept away from the business aspect of things for well over a year and now that all hell was going to break loose in the wizarding world as a whole, no one better than me knew how much our world would need the positivity that would come along with the opening of their store.
With the profit that we made by selling our first product, we had more than enough on hand to buy a nice plot of land in the Daigon alley and start a physical store front. The twins and Hermione were visibly baffled by the notion that I was suggesting the twins to drop out of the school after they had finally shown such stellar academic results in their school life. While the twins were not exactly upset about my suggestion, they too were hesitant.
I had to carefully explain that it was never that the twins were dumb or anything, just that they had a lack of motivation in the academic field. The reason I had insisted that the twins complete their O.W.L.'s seriously was because it was the one regret that their parents had in the past. Though they were proud of the twins at the end, this was the one thing that always remained on their mind.
With their performance this time that too was out of the way and the twins themselves knew that the place where they will shine the brightest is not in these classrooms, but in the outside world where they would have freedom to pursue whatever twisted and crazy ideas they had in order to smile and make the world around them smile a bit brighter.
Hermione and the twins could not refute my argument because deep down they themselves knew that what I just said was the reality. The twins however did raise a point, that if I was going to suggest them to drop out anyways why wait till the first day of a new term, it would have been better if they began their store during the holidays.
The only reason I did not do so was because I wanted them to drop out not this year but the next. I explained how they were now done with being serious in their academics and this year they can use their time at Hogwarts experimenting first hand on their eventual customer base with all the products and ideas they could think of. A bonus was that this was the only year when they get to do research on foreign schools and their preferences without going through underhand means as they too will be living with us for an entire year.
The twins were visibly excited and the wheels in their brains started to move rapidly and soon they were too engrossed in their own thoughts. They did not even wish us goodnight before they drifted away to their room chatting in a language known only to them in this world.
The only ones now remaining in the common room were me and Hermione.
She looked at me and jokingly told " hope you won't tell me too to drop out because I am too smart or something on that line "
We had a small laugh before I asked her that this was serious and we should save this banter for the rest of the year.
Hermione immediately became more attentive, she knew that I was usually not very serious about her behaviour so she knew that whatever it was that I was going to say was serious.
Me " Hermione, you know you are the closest friend I have. What I am about to say to you is very important and I wish that you will understand that whatever you wish to do after hearing this piece of information I will accept without question."
Hemione " Harry, don't scare me. What is it that you are so afraid to tell me? I have known you since the moment we both began our journey in this magical world and you have not once sounded so serious. Not when you were chosen as Heir to two houses, not when you told me that you will have to marry twice when you were barely twelve and not when you knew that there was a monster roaming around the school during our second year."