Chapter One
- THE LETTER -
As usual, eleven-year-old Charles F. Weasley woke up early this morning. It was only 5.30 when he woke up his two years older brother, Bill, with whom he shared a room. But as usual, Bill just grumbled and turned his back to Charlie. And as usual, Charlie jumped up in Bill's bed, just to annoy him. And as usual, Bill woke up, yelled at Charlie, pushed him back down and went back to sleep.
Charlie walked downstairs. No, he didn't walk, he thundered. It didn't wake anyone up, though. All the Burrow residents were used to noise, din, roar and clatter. After all, they were seven children. Although Bill had been gone at Hogwarts almost the whole last year, but now he was home for the summer holidays. And right now, he was asleep.
Charlie went outside and got his broom. He could fly around a bit before his family woke up. Actually, his mum wasn't so pleased with him - or any of her children for that matter - being outside alone. Because of an evil wizard named You-Know-Who. Well, of course his name wasn't You-Know-Who, but no one dared say his name, even though everyone knew it almost too well. Even Charlie knew it: Lord Voldemort. But except for his name, Charlie didn't know especially much about him. He had heard some of the grown-ups talk about that You-Know-Who killed for fun, but he wasn't meant to hear that, and usually, his parents wouldn't let any of their children listen while they talked to other grown-ups about You-Know-Who. You-Know- Who was evil and dangerous, that'd be enough for them to know.
But she couldn't keep Charlie inside. He was that kind of boy who almost starts to climb the walls if he was inside too long.
He could just fly a bit in the backyard, it couldn't be so dangerous, he thought, as he sat on his broom and rose in the air. When he reached the window on second floor, a little, redheaded boy opened it.
"Hi Charlie! Can I please get a ride? Please?" the little boy said, looking pleadingly at Charlie with big, brown eyes. Charlie grinned at him.
"Sure, Erec, just get on!" he said and lifted his little brother out of the window and placed him in front of himself on the broom. The little boy laughed heartily as they rose into the air. Erec loved heights. Though he was only six years old, he was the Weasley champion in climbing trees.
"Isn't Percy awake yet?" Charlie demanded.
"No, he's just sleeping and sleeping and sleeping", Erec said. "But we've planned to go out and explore the wood today", he continued.
"The wood? You're so not allowed to!" said Charlie.
"We know that, but you won't tell Mum anything, will you?"
Charlie grinned. "Not in a million years! But if you want me to go with you, I will".
"We do, we do! Will you really go with us?" Erec turned his head to look at his all-time-mighty-above-all-else-admired brother.
"Of course I will". Just then, the window on second floor was pushed open again, and Percy's head poked out.
"Erec! Come inside! There's something I have to show you!" he shouted. Charlie flew Erec to his window and helped him inside.
"Charlie can't see it! It's a secret!" Percy said sternly.
"Okay, Perce, I'll go", said Charlie and turned his broom away from the window, smiling to himself. What secrets could two kids their age possibly have? But if it was that important for Erec and Percy to keep whatever-it- was to themselves, it was okay with him. Percy and Erec were funny. Always getting into trouble. They were...... 'Just like me and Bill, when we were younger', Charlie thought. Not that he didn't got in trouble now, but Bill had spent the last two years at Hogwarts and had only been home for Christmas, and Charlie had in fact been a bit lonely. Erec and Percy and the twins were okay, but the twins were two years old, Percy four and Erec six, so. and of course, there was Ron, but he was only four months, and wasn't much fun.
****
When the rest of the Weasley family woke up, Mrs. Weasley started to cook breakfast, and no one missed Charlie before breakfast was ready and his chair was empty.
"He's outside", Erec said, "He took me for a flight earlier".
"He knows he's not allowed to go outside without anyone knowing", said Mrs. Weasley. "And you're not either, Erec!" she added, looking sternly at the boy, who bent his head.
"I'll go and find him", Erec said.
"I'll go with you!" Percy jumped up from his chair and both boys went outside.
A couple of minutes later, they returned. "We've found him, he's on the roof", Percy told his family.
"What?" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed.
"He said: He's on the roof", Erec repeated his brother.
"What's he doing up there?" Mr. Weasley said.
Erec shrugged. "I dunno". He didn't have to say more. His parents were already outside.
"Charlie! What're you doing up there?!" Mr. Weasley bellowed.
"Nothing!" Charlie yelled back.
"Stop that right now and come down here before your mum gets worried!"
Charlie sighed. "Alright". He stepped forward to get his broom, but he tripped and fell off the roof! Mrs. Weasley screamed, but Mr. Weasley didn't hesitate a second and caught his son seconds before he hit the ground.
"Hi Dad", Charlie grinned, but Mrs. Weasley snapped him from her husband and kissed, hugged and scolded at one time. At eleven, Charlie was a pretty heavy boy, so how Mrs Weasley managed to lift him that easily was a mystery.
"Mum, put me down! I'm okay, nothing happened!" Charlie told his mum. And finally, she put him down, but she didn't let go off his hand before they were inside the Burrow.
"What happened out there?" asked Bill as Charlie sat down and started to eat his breakfast.
"Nothing. I just fell off the roof", Charlie explained.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Bill asked a slice of bread.
"Billy, you're not supposed to speak to your food. You're supposed to eat it!" Charlie said, snatched the bread from Bill's plate and crammed it in his mouth before Bill got a chance to protest.
"Why do you always have to eat my food?" Bill complained.
"'Cause u dun do it urseff", Charlie answered, spitting little pieces of bread all over his big brother.
"Stop spitting food at me! And I would eat it myself if *someone* didn't always steal it from me just because he's a glutton without any manners!" Bill said, angry.
"Sounds like me", Charlie said, thoughtful.
Bill was about to say something, but was interrupted by an owl that flew in, carrying two letters. Mr. Weasley took them.
"Oh", he said, "they're from Hogwarts. One for William". He handed Bill a letter.
"And one for me!" Charlie shouted before his dad could say anything. Mr. Weasley smiled.
"Yes, Charlie, one for you". He handed Charlie the letter.
"Yes! I knew it!" Charlie yelled and opened his letter.
"Read it aloud!" Percy asked.
"Yeah, alright". Charlie read the letter: "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore...... and then there's some gibberish I can't read, but then it says:
Dear Mr. Weasley,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find en...... enclosed a list of all ne...... nece...... ne-ces-sa-ry books and e...... equi...... e-quip-ment. Term begins on 1. September. We await your owl by no later than 31. July.
Yours sincerely,
Mi-ner-va Mc.... Mc....... Mc-Go-na-gall
Dep...... deputy Head...... head..... mistress".
"Fantastic reading!" said Bill sarcastically.
"Shut your face!" Charlie said angrily. He just couldn't stand when someone teased him with his reading problems. It wasn't because he was stupid. It was just that he had way too much energy to just sit still and read.
"When are we going to Diagon Alley?" he asked.
"We could go tomorrow", Mrs. Weasley answered with a look at her husband.
"Fine with me", Mr. Weasley said, shrugging.
They had just finished their breakfast, when someone knocked on the door, and a few seconds later, a voice echoed through the house.
"Hello? Is anybody home?"
It was Evan Mullins, Bill's best friend. The Mullins were the only other wizard family in Ottery St. Catchpole with children Bill and Charlie's age.
"Hi Evan", Bill answered his friend. Then he noticed a girl standing behind Evan. A girl with yellow curls.
"And hi Annie", he added, smiling.
"Evan and I got our Hogwarts letters today", Annie chirped up with a perfect, pink mouth.
"Stop! Wait a sec - did you just say Hogwarts letter?" Charlie said, looking almost horrified at Annie.
"Yes, do you have a problem with that? Or maybe you haven't got yours yet?" Annie said sharply.
"Of course I have! What I meant was that I really don't wanna go to Hogwarts with *you*!" Charlie informed her.
"Is that so? Well, then I have to tell you that I sure don't want to go to Hogwarts with you either!" Annie told him, before turning her head away from him, making her curls bounce up and down.
Bill and Evan rolled their eyes. They were used to this. Charlie and Annie hated each other, that was a fact for everyone to know. Bill, Evan and all Annie and Charlie's friends in the small school in the village. No one really knew why they hated each other so much - probably not even themselves - but they did. Charlie thought Annie was a preppy little Miss Perfect, and she thought him childish and just plain stupid. Nevertheless, Annie kept coming to The Burrow with Evan, only to see Bill, because she had a secret crush on him. All right, how secret it was there might be different opinions on, considering that Bill himself knew.
"Hello Evan, Annie", said Mrs Weasley, who now came out to the children. "Listen, we're going to Diagon Alley tomorrow. Would you like to come?"
"Yes, we'd love to. It might be fun", Annie said, her blue eyes shooting daggers at Charlie.
"But we'd better ask our mum and dad first", Evan said.
"I'll help you with that", said Mr Weasley, and the three of them went into the kitchen to call Mr Mullins in the fire.
"Mum, have you gone barking mad? I don't wanna spend a whole day in Diagon alley with Annie!" Charlie said, turning to his mother.
"Charlie! Annie is a very nice girl, and I'm sure you could learn a lot from her if you didn't were so determined to hate her", Mrs Weasley told him.
"Yeah, right".
It didn't take longer than a few minutes before Evan and Annie were back, saying they were allowed to go. And if that wasn't bad enough, they stayed at The Burrow all day long, which was why Charlie spent most of the day in the woods with Erec and Percy.
However, even the longest day gets an end, and that night, when Charlie lay in his bed in his and Bill's room, he couldn't sleep, so instead, he started asking Bill questions about Hogwarts.
"Billy? Is the headmaster very strict?" was his 13. question.
"No. Dumbledore's cool enough. But if he gets angry, he gets *really* angry!" Bill answered.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, that if you're bad, he turns you into...." Bill thought for a second about what would scare Charlie the most. ".... a bar of soap!" he then said.
That worked. Charlie got scared.
"Nah. You're just trying to scare me", he said after a moment.
"Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not", Bill said. "Good night".
End of Chapter One.
- THE LETTER -
As usual, eleven-year-old Charles F. Weasley woke up early this morning. It was only 5.30 when he woke up his two years older brother, Bill, with whom he shared a room. But as usual, Bill just grumbled and turned his back to Charlie. And as usual, Charlie jumped up in Bill's bed, just to annoy him. And as usual, Bill woke up, yelled at Charlie, pushed him back down and went back to sleep.
Charlie walked downstairs. No, he didn't walk, he thundered. It didn't wake anyone up, though. All the Burrow residents were used to noise, din, roar and clatter. After all, they were seven children. Although Bill had been gone at Hogwarts almost the whole last year, but now he was home for the summer holidays. And right now, he was asleep.
Charlie went outside and got his broom. He could fly around a bit before his family woke up. Actually, his mum wasn't so pleased with him - or any of her children for that matter - being outside alone. Because of an evil wizard named You-Know-Who. Well, of course his name wasn't You-Know-Who, but no one dared say his name, even though everyone knew it almost too well. Even Charlie knew it: Lord Voldemort. But except for his name, Charlie didn't know especially much about him. He had heard some of the grown-ups talk about that You-Know-Who killed for fun, but he wasn't meant to hear that, and usually, his parents wouldn't let any of their children listen while they talked to other grown-ups about You-Know-Who. You-Know- Who was evil and dangerous, that'd be enough for them to know.
But she couldn't keep Charlie inside. He was that kind of boy who almost starts to climb the walls if he was inside too long.
He could just fly a bit in the backyard, it couldn't be so dangerous, he thought, as he sat on his broom and rose in the air. When he reached the window on second floor, a little, redheaded boy opened it.
"Hi Charlie! Can I please get a ride? Please?" the little boy said, looking pleadingly at Charlie with big, brown eyes. Charlie grinned at him.
"Sure, Erec, just get on!" he said and lifted his little brother out of the window and placed him in front of himself on the broom. The little boy laughed heartily as they rose into the air. Erec loved heights. Though he was only six years old, he was the Weasley champion in climbing trees.
"Isn't Percy awake yet?" Charlie demanded.
"No, he's just sleeping and sleeping and sleeping", Erec said. "But we've planned to go out and explore the wood today", he continued.
"The wood? You're so not allowed to!" said Charlie.
"We know that, but you won't tell Mum anything, will you?"
Charlie grinned. "Not in a million years! But if you want me to go with you, I will".
"We do, we do! Will you really go with us?" Erec turned his head to look at his all-time-mighty-above-all-else-admired brother.
"Of course I will". Just then, the window on second floor was pushed open again, and Percy's head poked out.
"Erec! Come inside! There's something I have to show you!" he shouted. Charlie flew Erec to his window and helped him inside.
"Charlie can't see it! It's a secret!" Percy said sternly.
"Okay, Perce, I'll go", said Charlie and turned his broom away from the window, smiling to himself. What secrets could two kids their age possibly have? But if it was that important for Erec and Percy to keep whatever-it- was to themselves, it was okay with him. Percy and Erec were funny. Always getting into trouble. They were...... 'Just like me and Bill, when we were younger', Charlie thought. Not that he didn't got in trouble now, but Bill had spent the last two years at Hogwarts and had only been home for Christmas, and Charlie had in fact been a bit lonely. Erec and Percy and the twins were okay, but the twins were two years old, Percy four and Erec six, so. and of course, there was Ron, but he was only four months, and wasn't much fun.
****
When the rest of the Weasley family woke up, Mrs. Weasley started to cook breakfast, and no one missed Charlie before breakfast was ready and his chair was empty.
"He's outside", Erec said, "He took me for a flight earlier".
"He knows he's not allowed to go outside without anyone knowing", said Mrs. Weasley. "And you're not either, Erec!" she added, looking sternly at the boy, who bent his head.
"I'll go and find him", Erec said.
"I'll go with you!" Percy jumped up from his chair and both boys went outside.
A couple of minutes later, they returned. "We've found him, he's on the roof", Percy told his family.
"What?" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed.
"He said: He's on the roof", Erec repeated his brother.
"What's he doing up there?" Mr. Weasley said.
Erec shrugged. "I dunno". He didn't have to say more. His parents were already outside.
"Charlie! What're you doing up there?!" Mr. Weasley bellowed.
"Nothing!" Charlie yelled back.
"Stop that right now and come down here before your mum gets worried!"
Charlie sighed. "Alright". He stepped forward to get his broom, but he tripped and fell off the roof! Mrs. Weasley screamed, but Mr. Weasley didn't hesitate a second and caught his son seconds before he hit the ground.
"Hi Dad", Charlie grinned, but Mrs. Weasley snapped him from her husband and kissed, hugged and scolded at one time. At eleven, Charlie was a pretty heavy boy, so how Mrs Weasley managed to lift him that easily was a mystery.
"Mum, put me down! I'm okay, nothing happened!" Charlie told his mum. And finally, she put him down, but she didn't let go off his hand before they were inside the Burrow.
"What happened out there?" asked Bill as Charlie sat down and started to eat his breakfast.
"Nothing. I just fell off the roof", Charlie explained.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Bill asked a slice of bread.
"Billy, you're not supposed to speak to your food. You're supposed to eat it!" Charlie said, snatched the bread from Bill's plate and crammed it in his mouth before Bill got a chance to protest.
"Why do you always have to eat my food?" Bill complained.
"'Cause u dun do it urseff", Charlie answered, spitting little pieces of bread all over his big brother.
"Stop spitting food at me! And I would eat it myself if *someone* didn't always steal it from me just because he's a glutton without any manners!" Bill said, angry.
"Sounds like me", Charlie said, thoughtful.
Bill was about to say something, but was interrupted by an owl that flew in, carrying two letters. Mr. Weasley took them.
"Oh", he said, "they're from Hogwarts. One for William". He handed Bill a letter.
"And one for me!" Charlie shouted before his dad could say anything. Mr. Weasley smiled.
"Yes, Charlie, one for you". He handed Charlie the letter.
"Yes! I knew it!" Charlie yelled and opened his letter.
"Read it aloud!" Percy asked.
"Yeah, alright". Charlie read the letter: "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore...... and then there's some gibberish I can't read, but then it says:
Dear Mr. Weasley,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find en...... enclosed a list of all ne...... nece...... ne-ces-sa-ry books and e...... equi...... e-quip-ment. Term begins on 1. September. We await your owl by no later than 31. July.
Yours sincerely,
Mi-ner-va Mc.... Mc....... Mc-Go-na-gall
Dep...... deputy Head...... head..... mistress".
"Fantastic reading!" said Bill sarcastically.
"Shut your face!" Charlie said angrily. He just couldn't stand when someone teased him with his reading problems. It wasn't because he was stupid. It was just that he had way too much energy to just sit still and read.
"When are we going to Diagon Alley?" he asked.
"We could go tomorrow", Mrs. Weasley answered with a look at her husband.
"Fine with me", Mr. Weasley said, shrugging.
They had just finished their breakfast, when someone knocked on the door, and a few seconds later, a voice echoed through the house.
"Hello? Is anybody home?"
It was Evan Mullins, Bill's best friend. The Mullins were the only other wizard family in Ottery St. Catchpole with children Bill and Charlie's age.
"Hi Evan", Bill answered his friend. Then he noticed a girl standing behind Evan. A girl with yellow curls.
"And hi Annie", he added, smiling.
"Evan and I got our Hogwarts letters today", Annie chirped up with a perfect, pink mouth.
"Stop! Wait a sec - did you just say Hogwarts letter?" Charlie said, looking almost horrified at Annie.
"Yes, do you have a problem with that? Or maybe you haven't got yours yet?" Annie said sharply.
"Of course I have! What I meant was that I really don't wanna go to Hogwarts with *you*!" Charlie informed her.
"Is that so? Well, then I have to tell you that I sure don't want to go to Hogwarts with you either!" Annie told him, before turning her head away from him, making her curls bounce up and down.
Bill and Evan rolled their eyes. They were used to this. Charlie and Annie hated each other, that was a fact for everyone to know. Bill, Evan and all Annie and Charlie's friends in the small school in the village. No one really knew why they hated each other so much - probably not even themselves - but they did. Charlie thought Annie was a preppy little Miss Perfect, and she thought him childish and just plain stupid. Nevertheless, Annie kept coming to The Burrow with Evan, only to see Bill, because she had a secret crush on him. All right, how secret it was there might be different opinions on, considering that Bill himself knew.
"Hello Evan, Annie", said Mrs Weasley, who now came out to the children. "Listen, we're going to Diagon Alley tomorrow. Would you like to come?"
"Yes, we'd love to. It might be fun", Annie said, her blue eyes shooting daggers at Charlie.
"But we'd better ask our mum and dad first", Evan said.
"I'll help you with that", said Mr Weasley, and the three of them went into the kitchen to call Mr Mullins in the fire.
"Mum, have you gone barking mad? I don't wanna spend a whole day in Diagon alley with Annie!" Charlie said, turning to his mother.
"Charlie! Annie is a very nice girl, and I'm sure you could learn a lot from her if you didn't were so determined to hate her", Mrs Weasley told him.
"Yeah, right".
It didn't take longer than a few minutes before Evan and Annie were back, saying they were allowed to go. And if that wasn't bad enough, they stayed at The Burrow all day long, which was why Charlie spent most of the day in the woods with Erec and Percy.
However, even the longest day gets an end, and that night, when Charlie lay in his bed in his and Bill's room, he couldn't sleep, so instead, he started asking Bill questions about Hogwarts.
"Billy? Is the headmaster very strict?" was his 13. question.
"No. Dumbledore's cool enough. But if he gets angry, he gets *really* angry!" Bill answered.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, that if you're bad, he turns you into...." Bill thought for a second about what would scare Charlie the most. ".... a bar of soap!" he then said.
That worked. Charlie got scared.
"Nah. You're just trying to scare me", he said after a moment.
"Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not", Bill said. "Good night".
End of Chapter One.
