"Launch it? You're nowhere near ready." Sullivan shot them down without hesitation. If the twins just wanted to play it themselves, fine. But putting it in the app store? Not even close.
"What? What are we missing?" George and Fred asked, looking a little pissed.
Their voices carried through the whole room. Everyone turned and started drifting over.
Ever since the twins first showed off the game, they'd been demoing it to the family nonstop—including Harry Potter, who had just arrived at the Burrow. The first time the Weasleys and Harry saw the holographic 3D wizards pop out of the phone screen, their jaws hit the floor. That reaction had given Fred and George total confidence. They were convinced this game would make them household names in the wizarding world.
Sullivan didn't answer them directly. He turned to Ron instead. "Ron, have you played George and Fred's new game?"
"Yeah, Professor."
"What do you think?"
"It's awesome. Totally new experience. Super exciting!"
Sullivan nodded. "Okay. Now—if you could play this game all day or play Wizard's Chess all day, which would you pick?"
"Wizard's Chess," Ron answered instantly.
Fred and George glared at him so hard Ron ducked behind Molly.
Sullivan turned to Harry. "What about you?"
Harry shot the twins an apologetic look. "Wizard's Chess, probably."
The twins' shoulders slumped. Sullivan kept going. "Look, the game you built is solid. But you missed the most important thing: fun. Playability."
"Professor Su, what's playability?" George asked.
Sullivan couldn't give a textbook definition, so he used an example. "Take the way it works right now—one hit and you lose. That's a problem."
"Say I'm playing against Harry. In real life I could take him down in one spell. In the game I could do the same thing. Harry's experience would suck."
The twins blinked. They hadn't thought of that. In their own duels they were evenly matched, so it never came up.
Sullivan continued, "Add health bars. A Blasting Curse takes off a quarter of your health. A Stunning Spell takes off a fifth. Suddenly even a big skill gap feels fair. That's playability."
Fred and George's eyes lit up. Molly and Arthur nodded along. Ron blurted, "Exactly! Every time I play George I die in one shot and don't even want to keep going."
Ginny muttered from the side, "Or maybe you're just trash. I beat you plenty of times."
"I let you win!" Ron shot back.
Sullivan cut them off. "See? Players need to feel like they have a chance. That keeps them coming back."
He kept rolling. "You should also add different houses—Slytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw. Same basic spells for everyone, but each house gets one signature ultimate move. Change the battle arenas too: Hogwarts grounds, Diagon Alley streets, the Forbidden Forest. Give it variety."
He rattled off a bunch of classic fighting-game ideas from the Muggle world. The twins hung on every word and even pulled out their phones to record him.
The younger kids were buzzing too, already picturing themselves as house champions taking down opponents.
"Professor, you're a genius," George said. "We're going to start fixing it right now." He grabbed Fred's arm and started to drag him off.
"Wait." Sullivan pulled out five hundred pounds in Muggle cash. "Take this. Go to the electronics stores in London when you get a chance. Play Street Fighter II and Fatal Fury. They might spark some ideas."
(The twins' eyes went wide at the cash. They thanked him and bolted.)
Once the kids were out of earshot, Sullivan turned to Molly. "Molly, Arthur mentioned Ginny starts Hogwarts next term."
"That's right. She's got real talent," Molly said proudly. All her kids were sharp—except maybe Ron, who still felt a little average.
"So after the holidays it'll just be you here at home, right?"
Molly's face fell a little. For years she had been a full-time mom. The family had scraped by on Arthur's salary until Bill started sending money from Gringotts in Egypt. Now the house was about to go quiet for the first time in decades, and she looked lost.
Sullivan kept his tone casual. "The Flying Feather phone store in Hogsmeade needs a good accountant. If you're interested, I'd love for you to come work with us. The job's important—I don't trust just anyone with the books."
He made it sound like he was asking for a favor, but everyone understood: he was giving the Weasleys a steady extra income so they wouldn't have to struggle.
Molly's eyes lit up. "Thank you, Su. You're a good man."
"I should be thanking you," Sullivan said with a grin. "Come by the store in Hogsmeade tomorrow and I'll walk you through everything."
He wanted the Weasleys tied closer to him. If he was going to push Arthur higher in the Ministry, shared interests were the strongest glue.
"Oh, one more thing, Molly. When are you planning to take the kids shopping for next term's books?"
In his memory, that was when Lucius Malfoy slipped the Horcrux diary into Ginny's textbook. Sullivan had pulled some soul-targeting runes from the wreckage of the Hopping Pot. He was curious to see exactly what they would do to Voldemort's little soul fragment.