[191] The Last Dance of Ash

The Burrow.

"Hall, you're finally up!"

Ron, eating the breakfast Molly had made, still had a chicken leg in his mouth. He looked up and saw Hall coming down the stairs. "I left you a pudding tart!"

The twins suddenly appeared from nowhere. "Ron, you secretly hid the pudding tart! We want what Hall has!"

Ron chewed hard, a chicken leg dangling from his mouth. He clutched the pudding tart tightly to his chest.

"It's different! Hall is the younger brother!"

Ron spoke in a language only he could understand. Hall sat down beside him with amusement. Ron quickly pushed the pudding tart in front of him.

Fred and George instantly fell silent. They simply didn't dare snatch it from Hall.

"So, what's your plan now?" Hall asked, enjoying the pudding tart while looking at the twins. He was absolutely certain — the twins wouldn't be so quiet unless they needed something from him. Making a ruckus was the essence of their lives.

"Hehehe~"

"Our dear Hall~"

Fred and George sat down on either side of Hall, arm in arm, practically pushing Ron aside. Ron yelled and screamed. The twins pretended not to hear anything.

"We have an interesting idea!"

"We've also figured out something interesting!"

"Very practical!"

"Definitely a competitive product!"

"But — we're so short on money!!!"

A duet from the twins.

Hall held out his hand. Where's the thing? Talk isn't enough. He needed to see it in person.

Each twin pulled a palm-sized piece of wood from their pocket. Hall raised an eyebrow.

Fred and George exchanged a glance. "Come on, let's demonstrate for Hall!"

Fred pulled out a quill and quickly wrote some text on the wood. The next second, the wood flickered, and the text disappeared. Immediately, the wooden block in George's hand lit up, displaying the text Fred had just written.

"Hall, look! The ultimate cheating device for slacking off in class! You'll never get caught by the professor!"

Fred and George looked at Hall with beaming pride.

Hall remained silent. He was thinking. What were Fred and George thinking? They'd actually managed to invent... a pager? In Hall's view, the text communication between these two wooden blocks was just a pager. A more advanced touchscreen pager.

Amazing. Really amazing.

Hall had missed his mobile phone... but magic was too useful, and the magical world held so much for him to learn that he hadn't thought about it in a moment. But seeing what Fred and George were doing...

"What's the maximum distance that can be transmitted?" Hall asked.

Fred and George weren't surprised that Hall immediately grasped the crucial point. "For now, only one meter. Beyond that, the transmission lags. But it's enough for use in the same class. To transmit further... we haven't figured out a way yet."

What they didn't say was that back in January, they'd already put together a prototype. They'd been researching how to increase the transmission distance ever since. After struggling for almost half a year, the limit they could achieve was only one meter.

Hall nodded. "Because your research was going in the wrong direction."

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Fred and George's eyes lit up instantly. Their smartest brother! It seemed he'd already found a way to improve it.

"Although I don't know what you did to the block, its volume is what it is. Unless you can replace it with a vessel like a gemstone — one that inherently contains energy — any research or improvement on that vessel will be futile. A vessel is just a vessel."

The twins listened, thoughtful expressions on their faces.

Ron continued to frantically devour his chicken leg. Hall, Fred, and George were talking. Did it concern him? But Hall's pudding tart seemed almost finished. Give Hall a chicken leg! Breakfast should be hearty!

Ron nodded, pushing a plate of chicken legs towards Hall.

With Ron attentively feeding him, Hall ate his fill of brunch. Molly came out of the kitchen and saw this scene without saying anything. She waved her wand, and all the empty plates and cutlery flew up neatly, floating toward the sink.

"You can relax for a few more days, but don't forget to prepare for your trip to Romania."

Molly had no doubt that if she hadn't brought it up, her silly sons — especially Ron — would've frantically called for her.

Hall nodded. "So, have Mum and Dad decided on their travel arrangements?"

"Oh —" Molly frowned slightly. The dishes in the sink were already lathered with foam and were being moved in and out of the clean water. She continued cleaning the kitchen while manipulating her wand. "You know — there are only so many ways to travel in the wizarding world, not to mention we're going to Romania, which is too far. Floo Network, Portkeys, and Apparition won't work."

These three banned methods were precisely the fastest and most common ways to travel in the wizarding world. At least within Britain, they wouldn't be a big problem. But from Britain to Romania was nearly two thousand kilometres. That was beyond the scope of those spells.

"Mum, why can't we choose a flying carpet? Cool~ It'll feel like a wizarding scene from a Muggle fairy tale~"

Fred and George, arm in arm, said with a grin.

Molly glared at her two troublesome sons. "If you want your dad to lose his job!"

Fred and George whistled — none of their suggestions were actually useful. Flying carpets were a form of transportation prohibited by the British Ministry of Magic.

Hall curled his lip. Flying carpets were only banned in Britain. As far as he knew, their use was completely unrestricted in the East. Hall found the reason the British Ministry of Magic banned flying carpets utterly ridiculous. Because the Ministry considered them to be Muggle handicrafts.

Hall: "?"

When he first heard this, a whole row of question marks appeared above his head. Following this logic, wouldn't flying brooms also be Muggle handicrafts? The flying brooms used in the wizarding world were almost all specially manufactured by broom companies, each with unique craftsmanship. If something not made by a wizard qualified as a Muggle handicraft, then flying carpets could be too.

Sometimes Hall really couldn't understand what those people at the Ministry were thinking. Ignorance. Arrogance. Clinging to the past. Even Malfoy knew to do business with Muggles — Muggles were the future mainstream of this world — but the Ministry...

Never mind.

Hall tapped his fingers lightly on the table twice. What those people at the Ministry thought in the past was none of his concern, but the future... A smile crept onto his lips. He was very much looking forward to it. He was confident Lydia would make good use of the political resources and supplies he'd provided.

"I think we could perhaps take a carriage pulled by flying horses?" Ron, leaning lazily against Hall, said casually. "Last time when Beauxbatons came, they took a carriage pulled by flying horses! They flew all the way from France! Wouldn't that be enough to get us to Romania?"

Molly didn't immediately object, but showed a thoughtful expression. The dishes were already washed and being neatly arranged on the shelves. "It does sound like a good option, but the price might be beyond our budget." She sighed. "Arthur did get a raise, but that salary isn't enough for us to splurge. Besides, we can't all live with your brother in Romania, can we? That would be another significant expense."

Only a school could afford to pay for a carriage pulled by flying horses — five or six horses pulling in shifts, and the carriage enchanted with an enlargement spell.

Ron nodded. He wasn't too upset that his mother had refused.

"Actually, I think we could travel by plane," Hall suggested. Really. Don't limit your thinking to wizards' modes of transportation. Airplanes were really convenient. Especially in Britain — as a major European power, Britain had extensive air routes. In this era, the price of a ticket from Britain to Romania was around fifty-four pounds — about ten Galleons. For eight people, that would be eighty Galleons. The price wasn't as high as the Knight Bus, but it was still quite cheap.

"Fly... chicken?"

Molly's hand, waving her wand, paused. Luckily all the plates were already neatly arranged, otherwise a minor accident might've occurred.

"Yes, an airplane." Hall emphasized the word. "It's a common Muggle mode of transportation. From England to Romania, it takes about two and a half hours."

"Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?" Molly was somewhat tempted.

If it were before Arthur's raise, Molly definitely wouldn't have considered it. Arthur's monthly salary wasn't even two hundred Galleons. But now Arthur's salary was around three hundred to four hundred Galleons — almost doubled. But the thought of spending half that money on travel expenses... Molly's initial interest hardened again. A single trip cost eighty Galleons, so a round trip was a hundred and sixty! That was enough for their family's expenses for a month.

"How about we take the Knight Bus instead? The money we save can be used to buy you new textbooks when school starts. Oh! And new clothes!"

Three hundred Galleons was indeed a lot. But the Weasley family had six children still in school. Bill and Charlie had graduated, but the youngest, Ginny, had only just started. They should save where they could.

"We'll fly there and then take the Knight Bus back!" Just then, Arthur, appearing out of nowhere, made the decision.