After cursing for the best part of an hour, Mrs Weasley pointed her wand at the jokey magical merchandise lying on the floor.
"I'm going to burn all these things now. If I see any of you messing around with these useless things again, I'll throw you out!"
"No! Mom, you can't do this!" George said, breaking down and throwing himself at the joke merchandise, vowing to defend their efforts.
Fred's cheeks flushed, and he gathered his courage to retort in a disgruntled voice.
"They're not useless, and we'll be selling them soon! Ivan says the Ministry will buy them!"
"Ministry of Magic? They'd have to be mad to buy your stuff!" Mrs Weasley was momentarily amused at their antics.
An ugly sphere that, according to George and Fred, produces foul-smelling juice when it hits someone.
A listening Extendable Ears, an automatic homework quill, and other random items of unknown use.
In Mrs Weasley's opinion, only young wizards who were equally fond of mischief would buy such a thing…
"Get out of my way…" Mrs Weasley angrily rolled up her sleeves and tried to pull George away, but Fred begged her to get out of the way.
Fred had to turn to the rest of the family for help.
Ron stayed back to watch the fun, and Ginny tried to help, but kept quiet when she saw how angry Mrs Weasley was.
Arthur Weasley, however, turned a deaf ear to them and continued reading his newspaper. He was furious with George and Fred's poor grades.
Suddenly, an owl with a package tied to its paw flew into the shop through the open window. When it saw George and Fred, it cried out in joy and flew towards them…
"It's Macha! Ivan must have written back!" Fred exclaimed.
Hearing Fred's words, everyone looked over, and George, who was lying on the ground, jumped up.
Seeing their excitement, Mrs Weasley became even more furious and grabbed hold of the falling owl, wondering what they were up to.
Mrs Weasley immediately removed the bundle tied to the owl's foot, turned it over impatiently and shook it vigorously.
George was furious, it was theirs, but in the next instant he was almost blinded by a flash of reflected golden light.
A pile of round, shiny gold objects fell out of the bag and hit the ground with a loud clang.
"Oh my God, it's full of Galleons!" Ron's eyes lit up at the sight of them strewn across the floor.
One of them even rolled to Arthur Weasley's feet.
Arthur couldn't be bothered to read the newspaper, so he squatted down and picked it up. He examined it carefully to make sure that it was real and not Leprechaun gold.
Mrs Weasley, who had not expected to find so much money in the bag, was left speechless.
"They're all ours!" George and Fred rushed forward excitedly and picked them up one by one. They even grabbed the one Arthur was holding and counted fifty Galleons.
"Where on earth did all this money come from?" Mrs Weasley frowned in confusion, panic and fear.
Fifty Galleons was not a small amount!
"We told you that the Ministry of Magic was willing to order our goods. These are just the down payment. In total, we make two hundred Galleons. You can read this letter!" George waved the envelope in his hand and said confidently.
Fred nodded in agreement, thinking that Ivan's letter was so timely that their many days of hard work would have been burned if it had come any later.
Mrs Weasley scowled at them, took the envelope from them and read it.
Arthur couldn't sit still any longer and came over to check the envelope.
Ron and Ginny also wanted to see it, but Mrs Weasley held it high and refused to let them.
George and Fred looked at them triumphantly, both of them convinced that their mother would not try to stop their research. After all, it was a Ministry order!
Even after reading the letter, Mrs Weasley was still in disbelief. She looked at Arthur suspiciously, wanting him to confirm it.
Arthur was silent for a moment before speaking.
"It seems so. Recently, the Department of Executions requested funds from the Ministry for a number of casualties, around five thousand Galleons. Apparently, they purchased quite a few magical items from a wizarding shop."
"That's Ivan's family's wizarding shop," George said. "That's where we put them!"
Fred was shocked by Arthur's offer of five thousand Galleons.
They thought they and George had made a lot of money, but it was nothing compared to Ivan.
Envy was one thing, but when Fred thought about it, it made sense. After all, Ivan's family sold magical objects officially, unlike amateur researchers.
After confirming the information with her husband, Mrs Weasley was somewhat convinced, but was still unable to accept it.
"I think you should be concentrating on your studies, not…not on all this weird stuff." Mrs Weasley was having trouble speaking for a moment, clutching the envelope.
"Mum, it's a Ministry order! If we don't get it done, we'll be in Azkaban!" shouted George.
"Bollocks!" Arthur slapped the newspaper on George's head. The Ministry of Magic was not run by Dark Wizards. How could they arrest anyone?
However, after giving George a piece of his mind, Arthur tried to persuade Madam not to go to Azkaban for failing to complete the Ministry's orders, as the family could not afford to pay such a large penalty.
Besides, isn't it nice to have so many Galleons?
After much persuasion, Mrs Weasley reluctantly nodded and agreed that George and Weasley could take some time out of their summer holidays to complete their orders and even research magic props.
However, they were not to be allowed to spend their time at Hogwarts conducting experiments, especially if it affected their grades!
"If you fail any of your final exams in the next school year with an "E" (unexpected) score, all these conditions will be voided!" warned Mrs Weasley with a scowl.