A/N: Seriously, don't review a story if you have nothing pleasant or constructive to say to help a writer improve!!

Chapter Three: Nuts?

Harry followed Aylish as she glided serenely through the massive manor. The silence bearing over them was only punctuated by the odd question like "How's school?" and "How do you like the house?". It wasn't that he was uncomfortable, it was just that he really had too many questions to ask them all today.

Finally, they came to a halt in front of a large mahogany door. Aylish turned around to face Harry and said:

"Okay, Harry, I believe it may need a bit of decoration so, will you give me a minute?"

"Sure," Harry replied, astonished that anyone would even want to make things right for him. Nobody had before now.

Aylish went inside and closed the door tight behind her. Harry waited outside for a while. Aylish kept sporadically popping her head out of the door asking things like "What was your favourite colour again?", "What Quidditch team do you support?" and, when Harry told her of Ron's Quidditch obsession, "Seriously, the Chudley Canons? Is your friend nuts?"

Harry stayed patiently outside and he could have sworn he could hear Aylish singing something that sounded like 'Help!' by the Beatles inside. He stood in the corridor which was like a wooden coffin, choking the light seeping into it, leaving only slithers of mesmerizing shadows dancing upon its dark surfaces. His mind still buzzed with thousands of queries which had yet to leave his tongue. Until, suddenly, Aylish burst from the room and stood before him.

"May I present to you, Mr Potter, your brand new bedroom. As improved by my own fair hands!" she said with a dramatic gesture. "Well, don't just stand there gawping at the door, it won't open itself you know. Go in!"

Harry, slightly apprehensively, forced the door open and held his breath. It was perfect! The walls were covered in a navy paint with a Golden Snitch or two rushing around them. The wooden floor was highly polished with a fluffy round white rug in the centre of the room. His bed was covered in a duvet bearing the Gryffindor crest (that was really the only team he supported). There were several bookcases filled with some of the most peculiar books that, Harry decided, he would have to investigate later. By the huge window was a table with three golden beanbags placed around it.

Harry wasn't used to having a room quite that big all to himself and it was so overwhelming. He plonked himself down on the bed and just looked around himself again.

"Wow…" was all that he could mutter (and he did so several times)… "Thank you so much. You really needn't have done all of this."

"Don't be daft. Besides, when your mother is a Transfiguration Professor, you get to learn things," Aylish said, tapping her nose. Harry laughed. Then, to his embarrassment, his stomach growled audibly. "What was that about you not being hungry?" Aylish quipped. "Don't worry; I won't cook it because, as Jack said, I'm a terrible cook!"

Harry had decided that he had just been welcomed into the most intriguing family he had ever come across (even the Weasleys) and he couldn't be happier.

~***********~

The pair went downstairs a while later and found Minerva in the living room, still reading to Lola and Lizzy, the latter of which was curled up in her grandmother's lap. Jack was lying by the magnificent fireplace with a cushion clamped over his face.

"'Why, Mary Ann,'" Minerva read, "'what are you doing here?"

"But Alice isn't called Mary Ann!" Lizzy exclaimed.

"'Run home this moment, and fetch me a pair of gloves and a fan! Quick now!"

"He's not very polite for a rabbit, is he?" Lola asked.

"Since when have you known rabbits to be polite?" Jack mumbled through the cushion.

"Mum, sorry to interrupt," Aylish said. "You were cooking before you left to get Harry, right?"

"Yes…"

"Do you know how long it's been since then?"

"Huh… Oh. OH BUGGER!" Minerva rushed off out of the room, moving Lizzy onto the red sofa that they were sitting on.

The remaining occupants of the room sat laughing for a moment before Harry said:

"Is she always this… I don't know…"

"Nuts? Yep, pretty much!" replied Jack.

"JACK!" complained Aylish, throwing a spare cushion towards her son (ignoring his pleas of: "But it's true!"). "If you mean relaxed, Harry, yes she is." Harry thought he could get used to this place.

A minute later, a silvery patronus in the shape of a tabby cat appeared before them and said, in the voice of Minerva:

"Dinner's ready and served, so get a move on!" And just as quickly as it had appeared, the patronus vanished.

They all trundled along to the dining room, Harry lagging slightly behind looking at all the portraits of various witches and wizards lining the walls. The dining room, much like the rest of the house, was very spacious with a huge wooden table taking up the majority of it.

~**********~

After dinner Harry went on a bit of a roam around the house before retiring to his new bedroom. He discovered many old wizarding photographs of the whole family, a number of extra rooms, a cupboard containing several broomsticks and a Quidditch set, Minerva's personal library and stables which were home to several horses. Harry still couldn't shake the feeling that he was going to be in for a rather… interesting time.

Despite his whirring mind, as soon as Harry's head hit the pillow, he fell sound asleep.

A/N: Next chapter: Questions answered… finally! Sorry it was a bit of a short chapter :)