Hoare was stunned. He clearly remembered that what he gave to the headmaster was his newly developed healing potion. How could it have the st of peppermint?

  The only thing with a peppermint st was...

  The twins, seeing Hoare's realization, grinned wickedly. "You actually dared to give Professor Snape a Joy Potion!"

  "Well done!"

  The two of them high-fived excitedly.

  The Joy Potion, as the name suggests, gives a sense of happiness, making everything seem wonderful.

  Hoare khis potion was created by the Half-Blood Prince.

  Which meant the one who actally fell for it was Headmaster Snape.

  When Hoare first learned about this potion, he was amazed at how miserable one's life must be to crave such false happiness.

  Later, when he found out it was the Half-Blood Prince who created it, he wasn't surprised at all.

  But how did the headmaster end up taking this potion? Hoare distinctly remembered destroying it due to poor sales.

  However, Hoare couldn't let on that he was unaware. The twins were grinning mischievously, and he o figure out what they were up to.

  "So, what do you want from me?" Hoare asked.

  The twins hooked their arms around Hoare's shoulders and pulled him aside.

  "We see you have a knack for pranks."

  "And the guts."

  "How about joining us to make the prank business shine and grow!"

  Gee and Fred's eyes sparkled brighter than their red hair at the mention of pranks.

  They wanted Hoare to join not just because of this prank, but also due to his exceptional potion-making skills.

  When they made the same potion, it was impressive if two out of several bottles turned out perfectly.

  But when Hoare made them, almost every bottle erfect.

  Of course, the most exg part was having a Slytherin team up with two Gryffindors for pranks, which promised excitement and challenge.

  Just thinking about everyone's reas when they found out made Gee and Fred eager to drink more pumpkin juice.

  "Not ied," Hoare deed directly. He just wao eat.

  Besides, the prank was an act. If he really teamed up with them, the headmaster would punish him by making him scrub the Potions room by hand every day.

  Ugh... just the thought of it was disgusting.

  Gee leaned in close to Hoare's ear. "Don't be so quick to refuse."

  Fred leaned in oher side, holding up a small notebook in front of Hoare. "This is our profit from st month."

  Hoare's eyes widened in disbelief as he looked betweewo of them.

  Goodness! He always thought their family oor, but it turns out they were hiding two wealthy individuals!

  Hrabbed the ledger and flipped through a few pages.

  Siheir sed year, except for holidays, their monthly sales were at least a thousand Galleons, sometimes reag two thousand.

  Hoare also checked their cost of goods, some of which were raw materials they made themselves.

  Their profit was actually 70% of the sales.

  "You're really okay with showihis?" Hoare raised an eyebrow.

  Fred shrugged. "It's ented. If we don't open it and hand it to someo will self-destruct."

  "And there's a time limit, so read quickly, Henry," Gee urged, pointing at the ledger.

  Hoare had to admit that his two brothers were ialented, but not in business.

  Their material costs almost ed all their profits.

  Hnced down and saw the patched hem of Fred's robe, sighing.

  "I join you, but only behind the ses." The twins were puzzled by Hoare's meaning.

  "I'll provide the materials and formus. As for the pake them—I guess you were using it before, The Room of Requirement."

  The twins' business was only within the school, so the ption was manageable, and Hoare dared to offer materials.

  But he wasn't ied in developing prank items with them.

  After all, it was the twins' hobby, not Hoare's.

  Hearing Hoare's words, the twiaken aback.

  The Room of Requirement was a secret even to uppercssmen. They only discovered it because the Marauder's Map showed something odd about the location, prompting them to iigate.

  But for Henry William, who had just started school, to know about it too...

  However, everyone has secrets, and the twins didn't press further.

  "Will you provide all the materials? Even for our experiments?" Gee's eyes lit up. Research required tless experiments, and materials were the biggest expense.

  Their miserable state was because all their money went into buying materials.

  "Yes," Hoare assured, "except for rare materials, I'll provide the daily ones, but I'll review your experiment records to ehere's no waste."

  The twins eagerly hrilled at the ued windfall.

  "Seventy pert of the profits go to me," Hoare tinued, dousing their excitement.

  "You know my formus are unique. Sihey're uhey must be worth the price," Hoare's words left the twins silent for a moment.

  Hoare calcuted that they had almost no savings each month.

  sidering they were family, he was generous to leave them with 30% of the profits.

  But he hadn't expected the twins to have such a wide range of products and ers spanning all grades and houses at Hogwarts.

  Hoare even saw Hermione and Malfoy's purchase records in the ledger.

  He g the twins, who were deep in thought.

  If they ever found out that their biggest shareholder was Hoare, the ohey'd bullied and pranked since childhood...

  The thought of that se made Hoare chuckle to himself.

  It would be payback for years of pranks.

  The twins exged a gheir silent uanding needing no words.

  "Deal," Fred spoke for the twins.

  "Tomorrow, pce the tra the Room of Requirement. I'll pick it up after training. As for the materials, I'll leave them there in advance," Hoare rattled off the follow-up arras like a mae gun.

  "Now," Hoare raised his hand, pushing away the arms around him, "I'm going to the Great Hall to eat."

  "This is for you, goodbye," Hoare hahem a potion he had made out of boredom.

  With that, he strode off.

  Hoare's formu was very detailed.

  It otion that would randomly make a part of the body extremely flexible.

  It listed the exact grams needed for eagredient, the effects of slight deviations, and the final successful oute.

  The twins, holding the formu, were too excited to care about anything else, eager to experiment with it immediately.

  As Hoare left the twins and headed to the Great Hall, he waited until they were some distance away before reag into his robe.

  Inside was another identical potion. The st successful batch had only two bottles; he gave oo the headmaster yesterday, and the one in his hand was the st.

  He gnced around, then hid behind a suit of armor.

  Slowly, he uncorked the crystal bottle.

  The crystal bottle could stabilize the potion, ensuring no ges occurred.

  And at that moment, Hoare really did smell a faint peppermint st from the potion in his hand.

  What oh was going on?

  0Niffler0