A/N: This just occurred to me, but if it matters I use American English as well as the US measuring system. Sorry if there has been any confusion. Also there is a bit of adult language in here for anyone that wants to avoid it, (mild spoiler) it is located after Arthur comes home from work.
Chapter 3
We walked quickly back to the portkey, Mr. Weasley had his wand at the ready the entire time as Harry held a lumous in the front so that we could find our way around. We all should have been exhausted but everyone seemed alert and ready to return to the Burrow. When we approached the hill where the portkey was we all quickened our pace. We all waited for Arthur to give us the go ahead to grab a hold of the portkey.
"Ready everyone? One, two, three," we were all sucked into the swirling vortex and thrown about. This time I remembered the trick that Mr. Weasley had shown us upon his landing at the World Cup. I cycled my legs like I was riding a bike and stumbled only a little as my feet touched the ground. Harry and Ron were both flopped on the ground, stiffly trying to get up. Hermione, being the smart witch she was, also took head of Arthurs mini lesson earlier on and also landed with a little more grace than the two struggling to get off the ground.
"Alright there boys?" Arthur slapped Ron on the back who then groaned, probably already trying to get over the soreness he felt throughout his body.
We walked on still with a quick pace, still on edge with our wands close to us. The night sky, which had been clear during the game, had grown cloudy as if the world itself were cringing from the traumatic scar that was cast upon the sky earlier. After a half hour of stumbling quickly through the dark a faint light could be see from over the top of a small hill we were climbing. As we reached the top we could see the Burrow and a few lights lit in the windows and doorway. I could hear Hermione breathe a sigh of relief.
Mrs. Weasley was sitting on a rocker on the front patio clutching her embroidery with firm hands, squinting out into the fields around her. She probably couldn't see us as well as we could her since she was within the safe light of the house and we were hidden in the shadows of the night.
"Hello Molly," Arthur called out as we were yards away from the house. Molly snapped her head to where the sound came from and jumped up from her chair dropping the embroidery which softly fell to the ground after the short soft cling that signaled the needle hitting the old, worn wood.
"Arthur," she called out stepping off the patio walking toward us.
"Over here," Arthur picked up his pace a bit so that he was in line of site to Mrs. Weasley.
"Oh, thank goodness. Are you alright, are the kids all with you?" She threw her arms over his neck and left her hands on the sides of his head as she asked about us.
"Right behind him, mum," Ron called and we all walked up behind Arthur who had ran a bit forward. She threw her hands forward grabbed Ron by the shoulders and hugged him just a bit tighter than she did Arthur.
"Are you all alright," she ran her eyes over all of us, seeming to need to make sure we were all there by placing her hands on all of our cheeks.
"We're okay Mrs. Weasley," I said softly. She took a deep shuddering breath. Her motherliness would surely cause her a heart attack one day.
"Right then," she pulled herself away standing up straighter than she had before, "off to bed, all of you. It's nearly three in the morning." We all nodded and walked tiredly up the many-storied house and to our perspective rooms. I pulled out the first night dress I could find and slipped into bed. Mrs. Malfoy had been appalled when she had seen me in my cotton shorts and large t-shirt that I would typically wear to bed and insisted that I throw the rags out. The next morning she had three bags of nightdresses, robes, and slippers for me to wear. When I returned to the Dursleys I was more than happy when Aunt Petunia handed me a pair of Dudley's old pajama pants that she was going to throw out and a large t-shirt that he had snagged a hole in the armpit. It took a good three washes before I felt comfortable to wear it.
Hermione and I both were quiet since Ginny was already asleep in bed. The bed I had been sleeping in had been transformed into a bunk for Hermione to sleep on top of. She climbed in first and after only a minute or two I could hear her subtle snore.
I breathed out and rolled on my stomach. Feeling my back relax from the strain it took from laying on it. All I could do was lay with my eyes open thinking about everything that had happened that day and if maybe Voldemort was returning.
The next morning I woke as I heard Molly bustling about in the kitchen. I must have only fallen asleep an hour beforehand. I had also always been a light sleeper. Light sleeping was necessary being a Slytherin. Trust wasn't a common trait the housemates possessed, which led to many trying to snoop through belongings. While I had nothing physical to hide, I didn't trust that they wouldn't create a lie out of the ordinary.
I sat up from the bed and tied a robe around my body not feeling like dressing quite yet and went down to the kitchen. Breakfast this morning was a little less festive than the one beforehand, I only was asked to boil some water for shredded wheat and pull out some sugar, milk, and honey for people to use. Shredded wheat was probably my favorite breakfast. I noticed as we prepared breakfast that Mrs. Weasley was very quiet. I could tell she was wrapped up in the events of the night before. Nothing seemed to bring her out of her trance of cooking until their owl smashed into the kitchen window. We both snapped our heads up to see what the noise was then watched as the old owl fell from the windowsill to the ground outside.
"Oh," Mrs. Weasley grumbled, "would you go get him, dear?" I nodded and walked outside to grab the poor exhausted owl. I stroked his head gently and lifted him up on my forearm, grabbing the letter that he held.
When I entered the room house again Mr. Weasley was talking in the family room to someone, who I presumed was Percy since the conversation was based around the Ministry. I held out the note to Mrs. Weasley.
"Thank you, would you mind giving that to Arthur?" I nodded and walked into the living room. I was slightly surprised to not find Percy in the room but instead Amos Diggory, but not his full self. Instead, I found Arthur sitting on a footrest crouched over some burning embers talking into the face of Amos Diggory. I hid my surprised and cleared my throat not wanting to interrupt rudely. Mr. Diggory quieted a bit and Arthur turned to look at me with his nightcap still lopsided on his head.
"This just came for you Mr. Weasley." I held out the letter toward him and walked away only hearing the last bit of the conversation.
"Please Arthur, we need you." I bit my lip. Mr. Weasley was a hard working man. He loved his family more than anything and did all that he could to keep money coming into their household and to keep them safe. I respected him more than any rich pureblooded man for that. After a few moments, Arthur came into the kitchen.
"The ministry needs me to come in and straighten out some publicity situations. That Rita Skeeter is causing quite a ruckus. I'll try and be back for dinner Molly." He walked over and kissed his wife on her head and seeming a bit frantic.
"When are you going."
"I'll be getting dressed and saying bye to the kids then heading out."
"What about breakfast?" Molly had always had a thing about people eating.
"I'll take this thank you!" He grabbed a piece of toast and put it in his mouth as he ran up the stairs. Molly went on to shake her head and hand me the large pile of plates to set out on the table.
"Might as well call them down for breakfast while you're at it Arthur," she yelled up the stairs after him. I smirked and knew that it would take more than Arthurs sweet and soft morning words to fully wake them and have them come down. In fact I looked forward to it. I wasn't normally the type of person to enjoy watching people suffer, but when Mrs. Weasley was inflicting the annoyance it was the most entertaining event.
Arthur ran down the stairs merely fifteen minutes later and kissed Mrs. Weasley again. I left the room with my tea and sat down on patio chair in the backyard. The morning sun was still a little pink. I waited and sat like that thinking of the short dream I had had the night before. It wasn't more than a few seconds, but I could see Peter Pettigrew holding a snake's fang to a bottle while the venom dripped from the teeth. I know that I needed to ask Harry if he was dreaming these as well. We obviously had both been feeling the pain from our scars but I don't know if he knew of my pain as well.
"Boys you come down for breakfast now," I heard Molly yell up the stairs. I stood up and went inside and found Hermione and Ginny sitting at the table with their cups of coffee. I sneered at the stuff.
"Looking like a true Slytherin you are," Ginny remarked at my sneer. I smirked and sat down.
"That poison will kill you one day." I said as I took another delicious sip of my tea.
"But it has already saved my life so many times," Hermione imitated me taking a deep gulp of her coffee before scrunching up her face in pain. "Hot." She leaned her head forward and clutched her throat.
"Exactly." I muttered and fetched her a cup of water.
"I told you to come get breakfast! Don't make me get the bucket, Fred Weasley," Mrs. Weasley yelled from upstairs. Hermione giggled and looked up at me while I was smirking. Ginny seemed unfazed and continued to read the newspaper she had gotten from Pigwidgeon. Who was excitedly flying around the outside of the house.
After breakfast Fred and George suggested a game of quidditch, which I wanted very much to. I nodded my head slowly as they stared at me with large pleading eyes.
"Alright," the twins both clapped hands and raced upstairs to change. Ginny was already dressed and headed out to the field to set up the game and pull the brooms out for us. I figured now would be a good time to talk to Harry. Hermione and Ron both ran upstairs and Mrs. Weasley was out in her garden pulling some weeds out.
"Wait," I grabbed a hold of his arm and watched the others run up. He turned around expectantly.
"What?" I let out a sigh of annoyance at his attitude.
"It's something important Harry," I furrowed my eyebrows together.
"Alright, what is it?" He rolled his eyes.
"I had a dream the other night." His attention suddenly snapped up and I knew that I didn't need to ask him anything else to know that he had also dreamt it.
"About Peter Pettigrew and two other men," he asked. I nodded.
"And I woke up because my back was burning." He nodded as well, I could tell that we were both thinking of the same grim meaning that could be behind the dreams, pains, and dark mark.
"I sent Sirius a letter," Harry said.
"Alright, let's see what he says and I think we should talk to someone at school." I twisted my fingers in my hand knowing that both Harry and I found faith in different characters.
"Right, I thought of sending Dumbledore an owl but I thought it would sound stupid." I took the turn to roll my eyes. I didn't trust Dumbledore as far as I could throw him. The man had always seemed to be up to something.
"I don't think we should tell Dumbledore." I crossed my arms and tilted my chin up.
"Who then? Snape!" I frowned at the way Harry spit Snape's name out as if it were the earwax Bertie Botts Every Flavor Bean.
"Fine, let's just keep it between us and Sirius." I had no actual intention of doing that and was set on meeting with Professor Snape later to discuss what we both had experienced.
The game had gone terribly. Much like the games for the next weak went, since that was mostly what we did at the Weasleys. I had fallen off the broom more times than I had even come near the bludger. I never saw the damn snitch and the only time I actually touched the bludger with my bat was when I tried to block it from smashing into me and of course throwing me off the broom.
"You okay Potter," George asked floating ten feet above me. I nodded then hoarsely replied.
"I think I'll keep score for a bit."
We played until the sun was setting and Mrs. Weasley demanded that we come in and eat since we had all (except Ronald of course) skipped lunch that day.
She had set up dinner outside since the night was so perfect and we ate in a merry and relaxed fashion. The only thing missing was Mrs. Weasley. Mrs. Weasley set aside a large plate for him before we ate though; Ron who had always been a big eater was going through another growth spurt. After dinner we all gathered in the family room. Hermione and I were on the couch reading. We exchanged books and wanted to finish before school started. Hermione and I tended to stay away from each other during the year. There were too many situations where the Slytherins who I was mostly around would make snide, disgusting comments on Hermione's non-magic heritage. If they didn't, they would ream me out later for socializing with her.
Bill and Ron were playing chess and talking about Rita Skeeter and her outlandish reports she had made. Charlie was darning a fireproff balaclava and Harry was polishing his broom. Fred and George, however, were huddled in the corner writing whispering to each other. I frowned and looked up from my book when I suddenly heard Mrs. Weasley quiet herself. She was looking at the boys in the corner.
"What are you two up two?" Her voice called out.
"Homework," Fred lied.
"Don't be ridiculous, you're still on holiday."
"Yeah, we've left it a bit late," George added to Fred's lie. While the lie wasn't totally off their character, I knew for a fact that still wouldn't do homework even this late.
"You're not by any chance writing out a new order form, are you? You wouldn't be thinking of re-starting Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, by any chance?" Hermione looked up over her book to watch the twins have it served to them.
"Now mum," Fred turned around with his hands in front of him ready to start an argument that I was positive wouldn't pass, "If the Hogwarts Express crashed tomorrow, and George and I died, how would you feel to know that the last thing we ever heard from you was an unfounded accusation?" I bit my lip to keep from laughing. George had told me how when they got back the other night Mrs. Weasley had thrown herself on them apologizing and saying that she was mortified that the last thing she could have said to them was that she was aggravated with them over OWLS. The rest of the room also all laughed.
The clock in the kitchen chimed signaling that someone's position was changing. Mrs. Weasley looked over.
"Your father's on his way home." Mrs. Weasley stated. Only a few seconds later there was a pop and we could hear Mr. Weasley approach the door. We all greeted him and waited for him to come back in with his dinner tray.
"Well the fat's really in the fire now," he was talking to Mrs. Weasley but I think that we all were trying to hear the conversation. "Rita Skeeter's been ferreting around all week, looking for more Ministry mess-ups to report." I took note of Ms. Skeeter's tendency to screw people over. This was not a woman to piss off. Somehow the topic of house elves came up and send Hermione into a frenzy against Percy. The subject was the fire to light her TNT. I also took note not to mention house elves around her.
"You should all go make sure that you've all packed properly for tomorrow." Mrs. Weasley saved us all from having to endure that argument any longer.
Hermione, Ginny, and I all ran up the stairs. I took everything out of my trunk and repacked everything pack in, crossing what I did have off my list. I did notice that there was one aspect of the list that I found curious. A formal dress was added to the list for the year.
"Here you go Ginny dear," Mrs. Weasley handed Ginny a cloth wrapped package. Ginny opened it up and smiled.
"It's lovely mum, thanks." I could see pink and blue fabric that seemed to be of a formal dress.
"What are the formal dresses for," I asked confused and looking at the list again.
"It's a surprise, you'll find out tomorrow when you lot get there." She started to shut the door. I felt a small bit of panic rise in me when I realized that there was no way I would be able to get a formal dress by tomorrow.
"Oh, I almost forgot." Mrs. Weasley popped back in the room and pointed to me. "Don't worry about getting your dress dear, I got a letter from Remus saying that he was going to take care of it." I was confused but I allowed it to slide.
"Alright, thank you Mrs. Weasley." I repacked my trunk up and climbed into bed. The exhaustion from the endless rounds of quidditch finally catching up to me sent me straight into my dreams, more like nightmares, which I would hardly call a break from the numerous meetings between my face and the ground caused by falling off a broom.
A/N: I know that this chapter was pretty uneventful, but I promise the next will be better. I'm glad I got this chapter done, it's always so much easier to write when its something dramatic haha. The next chapter should be up by Monday, Tuesday at the latest. Just in case that little bit of the dream confused anyone who hasn't read the books, in the books Peter 'milked' Nagini for Voldemort to drink from. Milking a snake means to take the venom from the fangs haha the first time I read the book I was certain that it meant he was literally milking the snake like a cow. Wrong. Also I just want to quickly thank the two reviewers that I had, very sweet comments, kept me inspired to keep writing. As always criticism is more than welcome, it is how I learn. I hope you all enjoyed.
