Chapter 57 - Arcane Solutions: Shop-Chapter 57: Fred's Failed Embrace and George's Bruised Face

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Placing the box on the table, everyone regarded it with obvious curiosity. "What is this?" Ron couldn't resist reaching out to touch it, but George slapped his hand away sharply. "Don't touch it!"

George looked toward Molly. "Mum, how did you used to call us for dinner?"

Molly observed George with complete bewilderment. "Have you forgotten? Is something wrong with your memory?"

Witnessing Molly raise her wand and approach, George waved his hands frantically. "No! No, Mum! I'm just feeling nostalgic—could you do it once more?"

Molly's expression immediately softened, and she still rushed forward to embrace her son solidly. "Of course, George. That's perfectly simple."

With that, Molly walked to the stairway and, under everyone's watchful gaze, leaned forward and shouted upstairs with characteristic vigor, "Come down for dinner!"

George seized the moment when everyone's attention focused on Molly to activate the box's switch, then continued leaning against the sofa, raising the camera he'd borrowed from Gemini to film everyone.

As Molly's voice faded, thunderous footsteps echoed from upstairs—thump, thump, thump. Everyone exchanged bewildered glances. All the Weasleys were present—who was upstairs?

Moreover, given the Burrow's stair quality, such loud sounds should have caused dust to cascade from the stairs by now. Yet not a single speck of dust fell—what was happening?

"Coming! What's for dinner today, Mum!" The voice from upstairs was heartbreakingly, impossibly familiar.

Everyone turned toward George on the sofa, confirming he hadn't spoken. Then who could it be?

The footsteps reached the stairway entrance. A tall, achingly familiar figure descended the stairs while fastening his sleeve cuffs with casual precision.

Everyone in the living room froze completely, staring fixedly at the shadow on the stairs. In the dim light, no one detected the figure's ethereal quality or noticed the absence of any shadow trailing behind.

"Fred!" Molly reacted first, her voice trembling with desperate hope.

"Fred?!" Everyone gasped in unison.

"Hey! Surprised? I'm back!" Fred stood on the stairs, spreading his arms wide toward his family with that familiar, mischievous grin.

Molly released a wail of pure emotion and charged straight toward him, with everyone else following in a desperate rush. They were all surging toward Fred.

"Hey, hey, hey?!" Fred waved his hands frantically, attempting to halt their advance, but utterly failed.

Molly lunged through empty air. Everyone lunged through nothing. The entire group tumbled onto the stairs in a heap while Fred stood helplessly in place, spreading his hands with rueful acceptance. "I'm merely a shadow."

Molly, comprehending what had transpired, observed George collapsed with laughter on the sofa, then regarded Fred's innocently apologetic expression, and immediately understood. After all these years, they'd been thoroughly pranked by the twins again!

After considerable commotion, George sat properly on the sofa with a magnificently bruised and swollen face, while Fred's image settled ethereally beside him, awaiting questions from their beloved family.

"So what exactly is transpiring here?" Arthur, as the family patriarch, spoke first with paternal authority.

"It's that individual who visited before, Tony Stark, he's..." George explained through gritted teeth and obvious discomfort, causing Arthur's eyes to illuminate immediately.

"It's this box? Muggles can create such sophisticated devices now? May I dismantle it for examination?!" Arthur's attention had completely shifted to his favorite obsession.

George and Fred frantically intercepted Arthur's eager hands. Others might remain ignorant, but they understood perfectly—the Arc Reactor contained within, if Arthur accidentally dismantled it incorrectly, forget the Burrow, the entire hilltop could detonate spectacularly.

Arthur finally, under Molly's forceful suppression, reluctantly cast one final longing glance at the box before closing his mouth and maintaining silence.

Harry observed the docile Fred, hesitated momentarily, then spoke with quiet intensity. "Do you believe this would be feasible to create? Could we... make one of Sirius?"

Everyone fell into profound silence. If anyone had suffered the greatest losses, none of the people present could compare to Harry alone.

"And there are those students who perished in the Battle of Hogwarts—they were all so young then. I believe their families must miss them terribly too. After all, not many from that era left portraits behind," Harry continued with gentle melancholy.

George immediately brightened with renewed energy. "Fred, can you create them? Do you understand the principles?"

Fred hesitated thoughtfully. "I can construct them, but others cannot be like me—only simplified versions. After all, I believe it's optimal if artificial intelligence cores don't circulate widely."

George's eyes sparkled with sudden inspiration. "Even if the core leaked, it wouldn't matter. Have you forgotten? This is the wizarding world—who would comprehend networks? Simply request Tony to add backdoors in the programming and secure the network connection ports. Even artificial intelligence couldn't accomplish much within a local network, correct?"

Fred immediately grasped the concept. "Precisely! That's remarkably simple! No need to locate Tony! I can manage it myself!"

Everyone observed the twins discussing programming and local networks with completely blank expressions. Even Hermione, after working at the Ministry of Magic, found these Muggle technologies quite distant from her current reality.

After preliminary discussions, George decisively determined to construct another box under Fred's guidance for their Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, with Fred creating a backup in the store so they could accept orders there. This concept was primarily Tony's, so while Tony remained unaware, he already possessed a thirty percent stake in Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.

Naturally, for the primary materials, George still contacted Tony, who facilitated connections with Muggle material merchants in Britain. The Arc Reactor was too crucial to leak carelessly, and if those wizards actually dismantled it and it exploded, that would prove catastrophic anywhere. So they substituted Tony's newly developed solar batteries—simply leave the machine in sunlight for one day and it could operate for a month. Even London, notorious as the "Fog City," wouldn't present difficulties.

The morning after George received Tony's authorization, the front page of the Daily Prophet appeared in wizarding households everywhere: "The Weasley Twins Return—Are You Ready?"

This immediately reminded that generation of students of Hogwarts' magnificent fireworks display and the Bludger-like twins who had terrorized Umbridge so spectacularly.

Since Voldemort's complete destruction, the wizarding world had barely experienced any major news. Such a novel development immediately captured everyone's attention. How had Fred returned? Wasn't it confirmed that no portrait was left behind? Had he become a ghost? Logically, since he perished at Hogwarts, he could very well have become a ghost, but how could a ghost manifest outside the school?

Mystery after mystery shrouded the closed Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. The shop's exterior was surrounded by concealment barriers, reportedly undergoing renovation, with the official reopening scheduled for the first day of Christmas holidays.

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