It was a normal morning at the Burrow, the home of the wizarding family, the Weasleys until the firecrackers which usually exploded in Fred and George’s room spread out into the dining room. “FRED AND GEORGE! OUT OF THE DINING ROOM. NOW!!” Molly screamed. “Sorry, mom. We just wanted to create another pack of Weasley’s wizarding whiz-bombs before we travel to New York”, shouted one of them. Raising six kids was a daunting task alone and having these two doubled the efforts for Arthur and Molly Weasley. The eldest of the Weasley kids, Bill was getting married to Fleur Delacour and they were going to New York on the insistence of Fleur to shop her and Bill’s wedding robes in ‘Madam Malkin’s robes for all occasions’ special branch there which was in collaboration with the famous Muggle brand Bloomingdale’s. Unlike in Britain, magical laws in the U.S.A were much more liberal and permitted free interactions of the non-magical folk (Muggles) and the wizarding community. This led to many wizard-muggle collaborations like the one above.
Bill, Fleur, Arthur, Molly, Fred, and George stood near the fireplace with the Floo powder in their hands to travel to New York by the Floo network which connected different places through a fire-place network. “The Floo network in the USA is still under construction, so there is a definite chance we may land somewhere else than Madam Malkin’s but I am sure we will definitely reach New York”, said Arthur as they stepped into the fireplace. They landed with a thud somewhere as they reached the end of the network.
“Smelly cat!! S-M-E-L-L-Y CAT!! What are they feeding you…” a voice sang.
“I didn’t know Malkin had a wild taste for muggle music,” said Fred as they came out of the fireplace.” It was not a dress shop but a coffee shop. The nameplate read ‘Central Perk’. “We did land in the wrong place”, said Fleur, noticing the stunned looks of people at their wizard robes and wands. They moved towards a cozy orange sofa right in the middle of the shop where a group of five was applauding the singer. “Great show, Phoebe!!”
“Excuse me. Is this New York?” Arthur asked a man seated on the sofa.
“Yes, this is. Did Halloween come early?” he asked.
Another man eating pizza looked at the pack of chocolate frogs in George’s hand. He had eaten them at a wizarding snack shop down the street last week. “Are you wizards by any chance?” he asked. “We have broomsticks in our hands and emerge out of fireplaces. Yes, we are wizards.” George said. “We are looking for a shop called Bloomingdale’s. We somehow landed here.” Fleur said.
“Are you Miss Fleur? I am Rachel and I think I am the one you are looking for,” asked Rachel.
“Yes!! We had sent an owl to Madam Malkin informing her about our visit for wedding robes. She told us to meet you after we arrived. It is a pleasant surprise to see you here.” The six people stood and shook hands with the Weasleys. Rachel had been talking nonstop about the famous Weasley family coming to Bloomingdale’s for about a month. Chandler and Joey had read all about Fred and George’s joke shop called ‘Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes’, which was making waves in the muggle market too, especially for prank enthusiasts. They exchanged greetings with each other. Bill and Ross were wearing similar T-shirts. One said “GO DRAGON” and the other said, “GO DINOSAUR”. They decided that Bill and Fleur would go with Rachel for the shopping while Fred and George hung out with Chandler and Joey.
“Can I join too?” asked Ross. “I would be glad to know more about dragons. I have always thought similar to evolved forms of dinosaurs” he said.
“I always thought Ross was an evolved form of a rat,” said Chandler.
“I would love it if you came along. I have always admired Darwin’s work. I always wonder how a muggle could do so much work without magic.” Bill said.
Rachel and Fleur rolled their eyes hearing both of them speak as they set out to shop.
Chandler, Joey, Fred, and George had an hour to hang out at the formers’ apartment.
“Chandler and I are huge fans of yours,” Joey said. “Joey ate the box of the ‘Weasley’s Skiving snack boxes’ and his face turned blue for the whole day. Do you have something to turn Joey into an eyelash batting turkey?” Chandler asked.
“We are working on something similar,” said George, winking.
They played foosball, a table game of football with plastic players which the twins found to be very boring.
”Let’s jazz it up a little bit,” said George.
“Why not make these plastic pieces fly!!”
“We have a pack of’ Weasley’s Wildfire Whiz bangs’ with us”, said Joey.
“I am ready to set myself free and fly“, said Chandler, grabbing a broom.
Meanwhile, Monica and Molly were in a deep conversation about different kitchen cleaning methods. Monica almost fainted when the latter mentioned ghouls and garden gnomes in her kitchen. She was in awe when Molly mentioned the Scouring Charm which resulted in spotless cleaning. Molly was amazed how a Muggle household could be so clean without magic. She didn’t know clean freak Monica required no magic while tiding things up. She was magic in herself. She was about to ask her for help in cleaning the boys’ apartment which had given her, her worst nightmares when they heard loud bangs in the hallway.
“FRED! GEORGE!” shouted Molly, “CHANDLER! JOEY!” screamed Monica.
It was complete chaos in the hallway .There were big plastic people flying on smaller brooms with fire crackers exploding behind them. Joey whizzed past them clinging upside down onto his broom screaming “London Baby!!” and Chandler saying something which sounded like “I’m the king of dragons”. One plastic man just missed Rachel and Fleur as they walked toward the hallway. They were not in the least mood to notice Fred and George sitting on the flying plastic men. Then came Bill and Ross, who was busy explaining Darwin’s theory to the latter who seemed to be stupefied by the former’s words.
Fred asked them if they had just seen a dementor.
“Two hours of Bill speaking about the advantages of dragon dung”
“Ross speaking about 100 different types of dinosaur horns is definitely worse than your soul being sucked out.” Fleur and Rachel said.
“All while you were deciding whether cherry red or rose red suited your robes best” shrugged Bill.
Arthur Weasley came in running with many muggle artifacts in the pockets of his robes. “The ministry has summoned all wizards to the grounds of Hogwarts as soon as possible. YOU KNOW WHO and his followers are prowling everywhere. We need to leave now” said Arthur.
As they were leaving, Joey asked George who YOU KNOW WHO was.
“A nose less bald buffoon” he replied.
“OH MY GAAAWD”, there came Janice.
“Here’s our YOU KNOW WHO” shrugged Chandler.
“Hey! Fred, can I get another pack of ‘Weasley’s Skiving Snackboxes’ ”, asked Joey.
The Weasley family stepped into the fire place as the view of Central Perk disappeared with Janice turning blue. She turning blue was the perfect end to a great afternoon.
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