Mellow! Thx again for the favs. and follows. I still would really love to have a review. But the story will be better once Harry gets to school. Hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 3: Down at the Burrow

The Weasleys filled Harry in on what has happened over the summer as well as listen to Harry as he explained about the crazy house elf.

"Hm, You said that Malfoy doesn't like you, right?" George asked.

"Yeah, but I don't know if he even has a house elf." Harry mumbled.

Ron snorted, "Like there isn't anything he doesn't have. You know that his father always buys him really expensive things."

"That, and most old wizarding families have a few. Even if the Malfoy's are strong supporters of You-Know-Who that doesn't mean it was them." Fred added.

"You know Mum's always wanted one." George said. "We have a lousy old ghoul in the attic and gnomes in the garden, but no house elves."

Harry went silent to chew over the new information, granted it wasn't much, but it was something. If it wasn't Malfoy, then who could it be? It sounds like most purebloods have house elves, and most of them support Voldemort from what I know. So that narrows it down to just a few hundred people that I don't know. Great.

"Harry!" Ron shouted.

"What?" Harry blinked, unaware that his best friend had been trying to get his attention for the past few minutes.

Ron rolled his eyes at his friend, "Harry, we need a plan so Mum doesn't get all mad at us."

"Yeah," George said. "So the plan is that we park the car, dad never told her it flies, and you and Ronny go run up to his room."

"Then you two wait until breakfast. Just tell Mum that he showed up during the night." Fred finished.

Ron rolled his eyes, "Like that isn't suspicious."

George scowled, "Well if you have a better plan little brother, do tell."

"Um, guys. I don't think you have to worry about the plan now." Harry muttered looking at the very angry Mrs. Weasley standing in the yard with her arms crossed.

"Oh bugger," Fred said as he parked the car.

As they climbed out of the car, Molly started warming up her vocal cords. "Beds empty! No note! Missing car! You could've crashed and gotten yourselves killed! Really! what were you thinking! Were you even thinking?" Harry winced at here sharp tough, but unlike Uncle Vernon she seemed to care.

"But Mum! We had to get him, they were starving him." Ron whined.

"Yeah and they had bars on his windows." George added.

"I was out of my mind with worry! Didn't you think that your father and I weren't worried about Harry as well? You could've gotten him killed flying that car. Or seen by muggles! And for what?" Molly's yelling seemed to go on forever but eventually she ended it with the classic and chilling, "Wait until you're father gets home!"

As the three redhead boys blushed, Molly turned to Harry. Please don't yell! Don't hit me, I'll be good! "I'm pleased to see you again Harry." she said kindly. "Come on in and have some breakfast."

Baffled Harry turned to Ron who shrugged and mouth, "She's always like that."

With a shrug of his own, Harry followed the Weasleys in. The kitchen was small, cramped, and homely, an accurate pretrial of the rest of the house.

Feeling the magic around him Harry smiled. So this is what a wizard's house is like. Harry was a bit startled at first when the food started cooking itself, having been without magic for a while.

From the clock that had no numbers to the books about charming cheese, Harry was fascinated. This is brilliant, bloody brilliant!

Even now, Molly was still obviously upset as she muttered to herself. Turning to Harry she brightened up a bit, "I don't blame you. Arthur and I was going to get you tomorrow, but some one bet us to it. Although flying an illegal car was one of the stupidest ways to do it!" she shouted at the three boys again.

All of the boys had simply given up all hope of pleading their case to Molly, however they were going to try again with Arthur.

"Blimey, I think I'm going to bed." Fred yawned.

"Think again." Molly snapped. "You're father's going to talk to you three." she pointed her spoon at them. "And you still have to de-gnome the garden today, they're getting out of hand again."

"But Mum-"

"No, you three got yourselves into this mess." Molly turned. "Harry you could go to bed though, you didn't ask them to fly a car in the middle of the night to go get you."

Harry did feel tired, he hadn't sleep that well for the past week. The terror of Uncle Vernon coming to get him at night keep him up. "I want to help de-gnome though. I've never seen it before."

Molly smiled, "That's sweet of you, but it's boring work."

"That's why she makes us do it." George piped up. A glare from Molly was all it took. "Sorry Mum."

"How about I wake you up for it, you do look tired mate." Ron offered.

Harry nodded, that sounded like the best way to go. "How do you de-gnome?"

"Well, let's see what Lockhart has to say about it." Molly turned to go get a book.

"Oh, Mum we know how. It wouldn't be hard to show Harry." Fred complained.

"But he really knows his household pest!" Molly persisted.

"That's just cause she fancies him." George 'whispered'.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Molly said, closing the book. "Fine do it you're way, but there better not be a single gnome in that garden."

Amongst the grumbles, Ron nudged Harry. "How about I show you my room, mate?"

Harry tried to take his eyes off the family arguing, "Sure."

"Anything to get out of that room." Ron muttered the second they were out of earshot.

"You're mum is nice." Harry threw in.

Ron looked a little pleased but still grumbled, "Only when she isn't yelling or ordering you around she is."

They climbed their way up to the third floor. Two brown eyes peered out at Harry, then the door slammed shut. "That's Ginny, she been acting so weird. She's normally never this shy."

Two more flights later they stood outside of a room labeled 'Ronald's Room'.

Opening the door showed a blazing inferno. Or at least that's what it looked like with all the shades of red and orange that decorated the room. The same seven witches and wizards cover the walls.

"Quidditch?" Harry asked knowing his friend very well.

"The Chudley Cannons." The bedspread with the two black Cs and cannon ball farther explained his point. "Ninth place in the league."

Harry smiled and looked about the room. He was sure other wizard families with more money had better things, but to him this was the best. Seeing that Ron was watching, more that likely waiting for his opinion, Harry said. "This is the best house ever." and he meant it.

"But it's a bit small and the ghoul in that attic likes to make noise and-"

Harry cut him off, "Ron, this place is bloody brilliant."

Ron blushed, "Well since I got to go wait for my dad and all go ahead and sleep on my bed."

"Thanks, mate." Harry was happy for the first time in weeks. Mrs. Weasley made sure he had a enough to eat, granted he didn't have as much of an appetite as the others, the other boys seemed to view him as another brother, and they all seemed to care about him. Even though his bruises still hurt, much more after last night, Harry knew that he'd be fine. If only I had a family.

Harry fell asleep with a smile on his face.

Several hours later Ron woke Harry up, "We were going to wake you earlier, but Mum said that you really needed the rest."

Harry yawned, "Did you de-gnome yet?"

"No, we couldn't start without you since it's you're first time and all." Ron rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Dad came home and yelled at us, but that was all. He isn't like Mum. Oh and he said he has some questions for you."

Harry was a little alarmed, "What about?" It could be anything! Maybe he's made over what happened last night. Or something to deal with Voldemort and that house elf.

Ron rolled his eyes, "Dad is fascinated with muggles, probably has something to do with things like that."

"Oh ok," Harry was relieved. That's nothing too bad. "So are we going to de-gnome or what?"

"Sure mate, let's go find Fred and George."

And the two proceeded on their way, until they were stopped by Arthur. "Oh, Harry do you know the use of what muggles call a rubber duck."

Before Harry could answer Ron interrupted, "Dad we're going to de-gnome."

"Oh yes, your mother did say something about that. Have fun."

"Bye Mr. Weasley." Harry quickly said as his best friend drug him outside where Fred and George was waiting for both of them.

"Ah look Fred, it's the-boy-who's-up." George said with a laugh.

"Oi, the boy-who-will-learn-to-de-gnome." Fred joined his twin.

Ron waited for their laughter to die down a bit. "Alright you two had your fun, now show Harry how to do this."

"You know that muggles have gnomes too." Harry said.

"Yeah, those fat little elf things right?" George said.

Fred ducked his head into a bush and brought up a small wiggling creature. "This is a real gnome."

"Gerroff me!" The gnome yelled before Fred begun to swing it violently.

After noting the shock on Harry's face Ron explained. "It doesn't hurt them. You just got to confuse them and throw. Dad's too soft on them and that's why they keep coming back."

Finally understand, or at least he thought he did Harry tried it out himself. After latching the farthest gnome he decided to do as few as he could. It hurt his back so much to de-gnome and he didn't want to bleed or give the Weasleys any reason to worry about him anymore.

"Boys! Lunch time!" Molly called from the kitchen.

Ron finished tossing the last gnome, "Just in time." he grinned at Harry. "Oh, and we got your letter from Hogwarts. I thought the ruddy owl was confused, but it must've known that you were coming."

Harry smiled, "Wicked."

Harry filed in after the others still smiling. The stars were lined up so that everything would be fine. Hopefully he wouldn't ever have to go back to his relatives and no one would know about the abuse. All he had to do was hold out until his back was healed. Then he would be free.