"Mum, I see it!" Lily shouted from the last row of the Ministry car her family was sharing. She tugged on her cousin Hugo's shirt. "Look, look!"
"I know, Lily," her mother, Ginny, replied. "I did grow up here, you know."
Lily ignored her mother and continued bouncing on her seat. "Oh, I can't wait to see Lucy and Molly and Fred and Roxanne and Victoire and…" she went on, naming almost every member of the extended Weasley family.
On the other side of Lily, the Potter's oldest son, James, was in the middle of folding a dragon out of parchment. After he finished, he threw it at his younger cousin, Rose. She whipped her head around to see where it had come from, at which point James took up a position of looking out the window. Glaring suspiciously at him, Rose turned around again and continued her conversation with her same-aged cousin, Albus. Grinning wickedly, James aimed another dragon at the back of Rose's head, where it got tangled in Rose's bushy red hair, the spikes on its horny tail just barely visible.
Harry turned around from the front row of the car just in time to see a dragon come hurtling through the hot stuffy air straight at him. Harry caught it in his hand and barely had time to admire the accuracy with which his son had depicted a Hungarian Horntail before Ginny, seated a row behind him said, "James, no throwing dragons in the car. And especially not at people's heads."
James rolled his eyes and grumbled. Harry, who still held one of James's dragons, tapped its head with his wand, and the previously lifeless scrap of parchment waved its deadly tail in the air and roared. Uncurling his fingers, Harry allowed the tiny dragon fly back to James, who let it land on his knee and stuck his finger into it's mouth.
Smiling, Harry turned around. He too could see the car's destination coming into view. The Burrow was the same as it had always been. It still looked like it was about to topple over, and there was still a vast garden, which housed endless numbers of gnomes. Harry remembered the first time he had ever been here, and how the woman who was now his wife had reacted to his presence when she was a kid. He laughed out loud.
Ron leaned over to him. "Listen to Rose and Al," he muttered. "I swear to you, when Rose got back from Hogwarts this year, I thought Hermione had died and been reincarnated in Rose. It was scary, mate. She came up to me and said, 'Dad, I learned how to brew a Diminishing Draught! And I got one hundred and ten percent on my Charms exam!' I mean, that's only two percent less than what Hermione got in her first year!"
Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron. "I don't remember you being particularly impressed when I got one hundred and twelve percent on my charms exam, Ronald."
"That's because I nearly failed that year," Ron mumbled under his breath to Harry.
"Same here, " Harry said as he listened to what his son and his niece were discussing.
"I don't understand that thing about animal Transfiguration, Rose," Albus said worriedly. "I mean, how can an animal turn into an object? It makes no sense!"
"It makes plenty of sense, Al," Rose said. " Listen, it's a simple spell. Three taps and the incantation Feraverto will strip a creature of all of its animal characteristics and turn the animal into a water goblet. That's the simplest form of animal Transfiguration."
"Simple, yeah. Real simple," Albus muttered, shaking his head.
Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other and burst out laughing.
"We're here, " said the Ministry driver to Harry. "The Burrow, Outskirts of Ottery St. Catchpole, Devon, England."
"Thanks Alfred," Harry said, and shook his hand. Harry had gotten to know Alfred Cattermole quite well since he, Ron and Hermione had helped Alfred's mother and father escape from the corrupt Ministry of Magic twenty years ago. Alfred now worked for the Ministry in the Department of Magical Transportation as Assistant Head of the Broom Regulatory Control, and he always helped Harry out when he needed Ministry favors. He and his younger sisters, Maisie and Ellie Cattermole, were also frequent dinner guests at the Potter's.
When all of the occupants had extracted themselves from the car, they could see Molly and Arthur Weasley waving furiously from in front of the Burrow. Harry smiled, watching his children, niece and nephew. Nothing in the world could have made him happier than seeing his own family gathered together at the place where he had first learned what a true family was.
At long last, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, James, Albus, Lily, Rose, and Hugo reached the Burrow. Bill, Fleur, Percy and his wife Audrey, George, Angelina, and all their children had joined Molly and Arthur. The Weasley family was reunited again.