"J. K. Rowling - 6 - Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince(1)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rowling J. K)

“Oh them?” asked George, pointing to the people that looked exactly like themselves behind the desk. “Yeah, they’re our clones. We alternate shifts… it works out well.”
“Clones?” asked Harry, sounding very surprised. Last year, he, Ron, and Hermione had had some very nasty incidents with clones. “Isn’t that a little… bad?”
Fred shook his head.
“Nah, not really. They’re just like regular workers, only they look like us. We pay them, give them a place to live… it works out well.”
“Heh, you’re lucky that it worked out good for you because when me and Harry here tried to clone-” said Ron, before Harry jabbed him in the side with his elbow, signaling to him to stop.
“That’s quite enough, Ron,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Hey, how would you like to have the grand tour of this place?” asked George. “It’s really all quite amazing!”
“Sure!” said Harry and Ron together, eager to see what inventions the two of them had cooked up.
Fred and George showed them the entire store, and it was even more amazing than Harry had imagined it would be. Each room, like the upside-down entrance, had some sort of special feature. Once of them had a floor mad out of a bouncy, jell-o like substance; another one’s ground was like that of a game board, and you could only move certain spaces depending on the roll of a dice, and occasionally even had to go backwards due to landing on certain areas; another room had fluffy balls shoot out in every conceivable direction every few seconds, and yet another was a zero-gravity room, one that people floated around in. The last room on the agenda was the dormitory. Inside it, there were six beds (one for Fred and George, their clones, Ginny, and Percy). However, the beds liked to changed places, colors, and stuffings every day, so you never slept in the same one twice.
And, of course, each room was packed with goodies. There were some of the things that Harry had seen Fred and George use last year, but there were also an almost uncountable number of new inventions. There was Giant Gum, a candy that made you grow as high as the ceiling of a room, and the opposite, Shrink Sugar, that made you become the size of an ant. There were Ants-In-Your-Pants-Plants, vegetables that when eaten gave that very unpleasant sensation to the consumer. There was some Gassy Guzzler, a soda that made you float about for several minutes, and Harry’s favorite, Itchy Exploders: little bombs that created a gas when set off that made everyone who breathed it in feel itchy all over, and make them scratch for up to ten hours. There were hundreds of other items to see, but Fred and George didn’t have time to show everything.
“Yeah, we’ve got a pretty good system going on here,” said Fred, returning to the first floor. “Me and George run the register and come up with ideas for new stuff when it’s not our shift, and Percy finds ways to market the new inventions and keeps inventory. He also takes polls to see what items are popular and which aren’t.”
“Sounds like you guys have it pretty easy,” said Ron. “Run the register for a few hours, then come up with jokes for the rest of the day.”
“It’s actually a little harder than that,” said George. “We have to constantly be coming up with new ideas, people can’t be playing the same jokes on each other forever, and we can’t simply improve on old ideas anymore, we need completely new inventions. It’s very difficult.”
“Yeah, I’m sure…” said Ron sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Just then, Fred and George’s exhausted clones came up to them and told them it was time for their shift.
“Alright, we’ll see you later you two,” said Fred, heading to the register.
“Yeah,” said George, “but remember Harry! All of this… none of it would be here if it wasn’t for you!”
“Well… I’m happy to see you have put the money to good use… very good use,” said Harry, taking another look at the place. “It’s doing much more here than it would have ever done sitting in my account.”
“Thanks again Harry!” the two of them yelled, returning to their work. Harry suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around, and saw Ron behind him, eyes-wide, and mouth open.
“What is it?” asked Harry. Ron didn’t say anything, just merely pointed to the wall right in front of them. Harry looked at it and fell into just as much shock as Ron did. Before them, there was an entire wall… full of packs of Wizard Duel cards. Literally, the entire wall was filled with small packs of cards that glittered in the sunlight as if they were gold. Each wrapper had a different image on it, depicting one of the millions of cards. It was truly a sight to behold.
Harry and Ron flew over to that almost-sacred wall, and immediately grabbed several packs off of it as if they were treasure. On the cover of each pack, it said that there were sixteen additional cards: one rare, five uncommons, and ten commons. After taking about ten packs (he would have bought more, but they were seven sickles each, and Harry didn’t have too much money with him) Harry quickly ran up to the above floor and bought a few Itchy Exploders… he just couldn’t resist the thought of using one on Malfoy.
The two of them, hands bulging with goods, got in the quickly-moving line, and it was soon their turn.
“Hey! Didn’t expect to see you this soon!” said Fred, grabbing their packs.
“I didn’t know you guys sold cards here!” exclaimed Ron.
“Oh yeah, they’re our best selling items,” said George, adding up their total. “We have to get new shipments every night… they go like crazy!”
“Well, I’m proud to say that we’re part of those crazy people,” smiled Ron, handing Fred exact change for his cards. Harry did the same. The both of them grabbed their stuff, and headed to the exit door.
“Hey!” yelled George. “You two can just use Floo Powder to get out of here! The fireplace is right to your left!”
“Yeah, that’d be a good idea,” said Ron, stuffing his packs into his Never-Growing Bag. “Even those these bags don’t get bigger, they certainly get heavier, and I don’t want to have to carry them all the way back home.” Harry agreed, and put the packs into his bag and the Itchy Exploders into his pocket.
The two of them walked over to the fireplace, Ron reached into his pocket, took out some Floo Powder, and threw it in, causing the flames to turn from a dark red to a bright green. He stepped right up to the fire.
“The Burrow!” he yelled, right before disappearing into the flames. Now it was Harry’s turn. He stepped up, and reached into his pocket for some powder. But, just as he reached in, he accidentally took out one of the Itchy Exploders, and it fell to the floor, causing a large, green cloud of pure itchiness to appear. The effect was instant, and Harry felt as though mosquitoes were biting him all over… he couldn’t stop scratching!
But, he had to concentrate on getting the Floo Powder. While he scratched himself with one arm, he reached into his pocket with the other, and grabbed out some powder. He quickly threw it into the flames.
“Th- the bur… ack! It itches! Oh man… the b- Burrow!” gasped Harry, jumping right into the fire. The entire world around Harry turned black, and began spinning rapidly. Faster and faster… until Harry shot right out of the remote fireplace.
“Ron!” groaned Harry, still itching all over. “Where are you?” Harry took a closer look around, and saw that he was definitely not in the Burrow. Everywhere surrounding him, there were dark and decrepit shelves, contained some of the most horrific items that Harry had ever seen: skulls with the eyes still in them, hands that had hands, and many assorted items in jars of water… or at least what Harry thought was water. Harry assumed he must have accidentally arrived at some sort of store, but it looked much more like a tomb.
Suddenly, Harry heard a footstep and a loud creak in the floor. He immediately tried to forget about his itchiness and took out his wand. Who else could be here? Could this be a trap? Another creak in the floor echoed throughout the room.
“Who’s there?” asked Harry, walking around one of the dusty shelves. A few feet in from of him, there were a figure, hidden in the dark shadows of the store.
“Who are you?” demanded Harry.
“Finally…” hissed the figure. His voice was deep and dark, just like the store.
“Finally? Finally what?” asked Harry. This had to be one of Voldemort’s traps! How could he have been so stupid as to let an Itchy Exploder fall on the floor?
“FINALLY!” yelled the figure. Harry had no time to react, the figure just jumped right at him, and pinned him to the floor.
Chapter 4- The Ring
“Ow! Get off me!” yelled Harry at whatever had jumped on him. Drool was coming down from his attacker’s mouth and splashing all over Harry. He was acting like a dog that hadn’t seen his owner in decades. It finally dawned on Harry that this was not one of Voldemort’s minions. A Death Eater would not pounce on his target, but use some sort of spell. This was just a crazy old man.
“Finally,” he yelled again. This time, Harry got a good look at him, and there was only one word to describe him: hideous (hih-day-us). He only had one eye, and it was three times the normal size, with veins popping out all over it. His face was just a sea of wrinkles, and it looked like his nose and mouth were upside down. “Finally!”
“Finally? Finally what?” asked Harry, trying to push the guy off of him.
“Finally!” he thundered, jumping off of Harry and throwing his hands into the air. “A customer!” He brought his arms down, and began tapping his fingers together with a menacing look.
“Um… yeah,” said Harry, just relieved to not have to deal with a Death Eater. “Where am I anyway?”
“You are in The Itchy Man’s Burrow, the greatest shop in all of Knockturn Alley!” the old man exclaimed. He suddenly spun around, giggled quietly, and walked behind an ancient cash register. He put his elbows down on the counter, and rested his head on top of his bandaged and mangled hands. “Now… what can I interest you in?”
Harry sighed; he didn’t want to make the man feel bad, but there was nothing in the shop that Harry was even slightly interested in. In fact, most of the items made Harry feel as though he was going to throw up.
“Um… I’m sorry, but there’s really nothing-” said Harry slowly before the man interrupted him. He glared at him with his one massive eye that had a distinct twinkle to it, and suddenly pointed to a small and cobweb-covered sign above him. Written in dark red ink, that Harry thought could have been blood, were the words: “You enter, you buy something, lest you die.” Harry swallowed hard. Even though the man looked old and weak, he probably knew a few magical tricks.
“Yes, you see,” hissed the man, “if you leave without something from my store in your hands, you will explode. I’ve enchanted all of the exits, so don’t even try.”
“Well, I can see why this place is so popular,” said Harry to himself, looking around for a cheap and non-disgusting item that he could quickly buy. Harry looked behind the register, and saw an assortment of different jewelry. Maybe he could buy something for Cho. Quickly looking at the selection of different earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and… rings. Those seemed to be the greatest of all the jewelry available, and Harry took a closer look at them.
There were at least a hundred rings pinned to the wall, each with its own unique Stone and symbol, though they were all almost exactly the same size and shape. There were gold rings with ruby phoenixes, there were jade rings with crystal stars. All of them looked incredibly expensive, and Harry only had a galleon and a few sickles left after his spree at Fred and George’s store.