I do not own Harry Potter or J.K. Rowling. This is a project of love and respect for the world she has built, and I intend to make no money from it.

Ron Weasley woke up to loud knocking on his door, and the frenzied voice of his mum.

"Wake up, Ron, we're running late..." she said, voice getting quieter as she rushed off to prepare breakfast, like she did every morning. Sometimes Ron wondered why she bothered to do that on September 1st, which was always the busiest day of the year for the over-large Weasley family. It's no surprise that they were running late... a quick glance at his bedside alarm clock told Ron that it was 6:22. They had to be at King's Cross Station before 11:00am, and the drive there was 4 hours.

And that's another thing Ron didn't understand. Why can't we just apparate to King's Cross? Ron thought as he arose and got dressed. Apparition is instant. Mum says side-along apparition is too dangerous, but splinching hardly ever happens with fully qualified wizards...

But before Ron could ponder this further, his door flew open and two identical boys, Ron's twin brothers Fred and George, ran inside.

"Still not - up yet? Get a - move on! Can we - borrow this?" they said, finishing each other's sentences and grabbing Ron's roll of Spellotape. He couldn't get out a "Yeah, sure" before they were gone in a hurry. This wasn't unusual; they were always running around doing something suspicious.

It was when Ron dressed and left his room that he found out what they were doing. Fred was holding two pieces of a broken length of wood together as George frantically wrapped the Spellotape around it, trying to fix it. After nearly ten wraps around, they tossed it into Ginny's room and rushed up the stairs to get ready.

Ginny was Ron's little sister, the smallest Weasley child after Ron. She would not like that the twins had broken her toy wand, no doubt while enchanting it to do some crazy thing. The toy wand meant a lot to her, a Christmas gift she got two years ago in an attempt by her parents to stopper her tumultuous eagerness to go to school like her brothers.

Ginny was hopelessly excited to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; every year since she could talk she begged and begged to be let onto the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross. The answer was always, "No," of course. When a young witch or wizard turns 11, they receive their invitation to Hogwarts, detailing what they'll need to bring for their first year. Ginny, being only 10 years old, wasn't quite ready. To be honest, Ron wasn't so sure he was ready.

Ron started down the stairs and ran into his older brother, Percy, who appeared to already be ready.

"Hello, Ron. Mum's packed us lunches for the train, she'll have yours ready for you," said Percy, who then hurried off to his room. Ron continued down the stairs and walked into the kitchen. He saw his mum, Molly Weasley, making hurried little hops all around the kitchen, juggling the tasks of making breakfast, packing everyone's lunches, and keeping hold of her head.

"Here's your lunch, dear. Go get ready, we're running late," said mum, gesturing to a paper lunch bag on the counter, and quickly looked down to prepare more sandwiches. Ron grabbed his lunch and turned to head back to his room to pack it. He didn't have to open the paper bag to know his sandwich was -

"MUUUMMYYY!"

- corned beef. That was the scream of Ginny, who had apparently found her wand. A quick succession of stomps sounded down the stairs and she was in the kitchen, looking miserable.

"Mummy, F-F-Fred and George b-broke my wand!" she cried between sniffles.

"Oh - FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY, GET DOWN HERE RIGHT THIS INSTANT!" bellowed mum. Judging by the distant groans, she'd woken up the ghoul in the attic.

Ron hurried up the stairs, not wanting to watch the fight that was brewing. He packed his lunch into his trunk, and picked up the cage that held his pet rat, Scabbers. Scabbers was a hand-me-down, originally Percy's. Scabbers appeared to be taking a walk around his cage.

"Scabbers, d'you ever feel like you're... like you're trapped inside your own head?" asked Ron. Scabbers gave him a knowing look, and immediately fell asleep.

Ron laid on the bed for a few minutes, listening to the aggravated voices of his mum and brothers and sister downstairs in the kitchen, which were competing for aural dominance with the groans of the ghoul in the attic. Currently his mum's voice was winning...

This situation wasn't particularly rare, but it certainly didn't happen every day. September 1sts are always the worst of it, though, with the early rise in the morning and the logistics of making sure five children are packed and ready to go all contributing to the atmosphere of stress. No, the family truly did love each other dearly, and summer mornings were usually much better and happier times. It was only on days like this that Ron felt worst. Like he was caught in the middle of it all, as if it were his fault... but Ron knew better, deep down. Ron also knew that he had to get up and eat breakfast before he got all mopey on his big day. Things were going much better than last year, after all...

Ron rushed down the stairs to see the state of the argument. It appeared Arthur Weasley, Ron's dad, had joined the fun.

"Molly, I think they're telling the truth," said dad.

"We are! - Just give it a wave!" urged the twins.

"Oh, all right! Arthur, you do it," said mum.

Dad, evidently eager to end the scuffle and dig in to breakfast, reached over and took the broken wand from mum. He cleared his throat for some reason and swished the wand through the air, and after a loud crackle and a violent poof of smoke came and went, a sad-looking bouquet of flowers slowly crept out of the end of the wand. They were wilted and infested with weeds. Ginny gasped.

"See, mum? - We told you," said the twins.

Mum's eyes suddenly glistened, and before she could formulate an apology, Ginny hugged each twin in turn. Sensing that mum might become emotional in front of everyone, Ron offered to go get Percy for breakfast.

Ron ran up the stairs and knocked on Percy's door. After a short pause, the door opened, and Percy stepped out, closing it right behind him.

"Er, breakfast is ready," said Ron.

"Oh, lovely! Thank you for telling me, Ron. I'll be down in a moment," replied Percy stiffly, trying - but failing - to appear normal.

Eyeing Percy sidelong, Ron turned to go back down the stairs. As he reached the bottom, he heard George start, "Don't worry about it, mum - we understand." They were all sitting at the table, now, and Ron joined them. The ghoul was now banging violently on pipes and making a noise that sounded somewhat like yodelling.

"I do wish that ghoul upstairs would be quiet now," dad said, glancing at the stairs with a frown.

"Dad, that's no way to talk about Percy!" gasped Fred, feigning shock.

It was then, as if summoned by the mention of his name, that Percy walked in and joined them at the table, where they all had a happy, hurried breakfast.