CHAPTER 25

Harry woke up with a grin on his face. It was September first! He was finally going back to Hogwarts! It was still dark out, but he got to work making sure everything he needed from his room (mostly his muggle clothing) was ready to go for when he was allowed access to his trunk. With that done, he sat impatiently on his bed idly flipping through his book from Mr. Minton to pass the time. He'd read the whole thing already, thanks to his solitary confinement, and had even read bits of Hogwarts, a History due to sheer boredom. Some of it was kind of interesting, like the bits on the founders, but most of it was rather dull. He bet that Hermione was one of the only people to have read it cover to cover ever!

The sun seemed to rise agonizingly slowly, but at long last Harry heard the sounds of his relatives' alarm clocks going off. He tried to focus back on his book, but kept getting distracted. The shower sounds meant someone was out of bed! Uncle Vernon and Dudley went down the stairs (it was easy to tell their footsteps apart from aunt Petunia's), and Harry could vaguely hear them talking around the breakfast table. At long last, there was a sharp rap on his door.

"Get up, boy," aunt Petunia said. "It's time to go."

She unlocked the door and reluctantly let him out. "You have five minutes to pack your trunk, understood?" she said.

"Yes, aunt Petunia!"

Harry grabbed his pile of things. His book from Hermione and his wand polishing kit were hidden under his clothes so his aunt wouldn't realize that she had forgotten to confiscate them. He could carry it all in one load, but told himself that it was fine because he had new robes for Hogwarts that he'd be wearing most of the time anyways. His trunk was still in the cupboard under the stairs, so he opened it and stuffed his clothing and the things from Diagon Alley in as quickly as possible.

"MUUUMMY," Dudley bellowed from upstairs. "MY CLOTHES AREN'T FOLDED!"

"Coming sweetums," aunt Petunia replied. Dudley couldn't even pack his trunk himself! How had he survived first year? Oh right, Harry's help. Maybe this year he wouldn't get Harry to do his homework since aunt Petunia and uncle Vernon didn't care whether he did well.

Harry filled his backpack with a set of new robes, his wand, and one of Lockhart's books, just in case he really wasn't as horrible as he seemed. He closed up his trunk and lugged it out to the car where uncle Vernon was waiting impatiently.

"What've you done with Dudley," his uncle asked him.

"Aunt Petunia's packing his trunk for him since his clothes are too heavy for him to manage on his own."

"Haven't learned your lesson yet? Maybe next summer we'll need to get the message to stick better," uncle Vernon said as he took a threatening step towards Harry.

"Careful uncle Vernon," Harry taunted. "The neighbours might be watching!" He was hungry and cranky about Dudley holding them back for even a minute.

"Into the car," uncle Vernon commanded, "and not a peep out of you until we're at the bleeding station or so help me, we will turn right back around and come home!"

Harry mimed zipping his mouth shut and dutifully got into the back seat as uncle Vernon stomped into the house. The car was already getting hot from the morning sunlight so Harry hoped Dudley would hurry up. His shirt was sticking to his back uncomfortably. To amuse himself he fogged up the window and drew a picture of a big fat pig labeled Dudley. Hopefully next time the car window steamed up uncle Vernon would see while Harry was safe at Hogwarts!

It was at least 10 more minutes before the Dursleys joined him in the car. By then, he was beginning to feel rather faint from the heat.

"For heaven's sake," aunt Petunia muttered. She rushed back into the house while uncle Vernon loaded Dudley's trunk into the trunk and came out with a juice box and a slice of bread.

"Don't you dare faint and make a scene," she said to Harry.

"I'll do my best, but I'm just so hungry," Harry replied. "If you'd only fed me properly these past few days!" He did his best 'I'm Dudley and I haven't had a sweet in a whole ten minutes' impression.

"That's enough," uncle Vernon warned. "You're lucky to get anything, the way you acted while shopping! Now I won't suffer another peep out of you!"

Dudley took the fact that Harry wasn't allowed to talk as a personal invitation to do his best to force him to make a noise. He poked and pinched him and made sure to say the nastiest things he could about Hogwarts and wizards in general. His parents encouraged him, giving their typical 'don't trust Dumbledore or anyone who belongs to his organization' speech. Harry did his best to ignore the comments and pressed himself into the side of the car to try to avoid the pokes.

"Ruddy drivers!" uncle Vernon said when they got stuck in traffic. He honked the horn loudly and Harry glanced nervously at his watch. They were running late, and he was about to explode from Dudley's incessant taunting. He was pretty sure uncle Vernon wouldn't turn the car around if he broke his silence, but he wasn't willing to bet on it.

With only ten or so minutes to spare, uncle Vernon pulled into the parking lot of King's Cross Station, still grumbling under his breath at the state of drivers these days. They rushed through the station and made it to the wall between platforms 9 and 10 with a few minutes left. The Weasley's were there as well, doing their best to look inconspicuous as they took turns going through. Ron took one look at Dudley and pushed past his parents to go next.

"Come on dear," Mrs. Weasley said to Ron's younger sister. "No need to be nervous."

"I'm not nervous mum! It's not like I've never been here before!" she replied. She noticed that Harry was watching her curiously and promptly went bright red and practically dragged her parents through the barrier with her.

"Why it's Harrikins!" on of the twins exclaimed.

"Our favourite Slytherin," they chorused together.

"Don't mind our sister, Ginny," one of the twins said.

"She just has a bit of a crush on the famous Harry Potter," the other snickered.

"Stop dilly-dallying," uncle Vernon said. "If you miss the train, we're not helping you!"

He and aunt Petunia shepherded Dudley through the barrier, leaving Harry with the twins.

"C'mon Harry, we don't want to be left behind!" on of the twins said.

They lined up and moved towards the barrier together. There was still a minute before the train left, but they were cutting it rather close. The rolled their trolleys towards the wall, picking up speed as they went. It wasn't strictly speaking necessary to run at the barrier, but it was a bit of a tradition since most people needed to do it at a run the first time to avoid chickening out.

BANG! They smashed into the wall, their trunks falling off of their trolleys.

"What the -" Harry said.

"Bloody hell!" one of the twins exclaimed.

"That's never happened before, has it George?" asked the twin that was probably Fred.

"Not that I can recall," said George.

They all looked up at the clock, which said that there was still 45 seconds left. They piled their trunks back on their trolleys and felt around the wall.

"It's no use, we're locked out!" Harry said.

"We missed the train," Fred said faintly.

"Why would the barrier be closed already?" George said.

"Mum's going to kill us," said Fred. "It's our fault we were late in the first place!"

"The Dursley's are going to lock me up forever," Harry moaned. "What do we do?"

"Mum must've noticed we weren't behind her. But then -" George said.

"- why hasn't she come back to find us?" Fred continued.

"Maybe the barrier is closed from both sides," Harry said.

"You're probably right," said Fred.

"No use waiting around here then," George decided. It was true that the muggles were beginning to notice them.

"C'mon Harry, back to the car."

Fred rapped on the back of the car with his wand and the trunk popped open. They piled their trunks in and stood around deciding what to do.

"Y'know," George said with a mischievous grin. "Dad's made a few improvements to the car. We could fly after the train!"

"The car can fly?" Harry asked incredulously. It was amazing what you could do with magic! "But we couldn't do that. People would see the car flying and we'd get in trouble from the ministry."

"Ah, but Harry, they couldn't see us if we were invisible!" Fred said.

"You see, Harry," George started as he slung his arm around Harry's shoulders, "Dad installed an invisibility booster -"

"-So we could fly up over the clouds without anyone seeing us!" Fred continued.

"Dad wanted to use it to get over the traffic on the way here, but mum wouldn't let him," George said.

"No way!" Harry exclaimed. "And you can drive, er, fly it?"

"Don't tell our parents," George said with a conspiratorial wink, "but we may have taken it out for a test drive when we were supposed to be asleep."

"The invisibility was a bit faulty then, but dad said he fixed it," Fred remembered with a frown.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked. "I really don't want to be expelled!"

"I'm sure!" Fred said.

"Well, 90% at least," George added.

They were making Harry nervous. Maybe this wasn't the perfect solution. After all, the twins were known to get into trouble a lot. Harry thought it over a bit more, and began to think that this was probably a bad idea.

"Hogwarts is really far away. Is there enough petrol to get there? And how would we find Hogwarts anyways?"

"What's petrol?" Fred asked.

"It's what makes a car go!" Harry said.

"Huh," shrugged George. "Never heard of it. I reckon dad probably fixed it up to run on magic instead."

"I don't think I want to fly to Hogwarts after all," Harry said.

"Aw, c'mon Harry!" said George.

"Where's your sense of adventure?" asked Fred.

"I'm a Slytherin, remember? We're supposed to think things through," Harry said.

"Such a tragedy," Fred said as he shook his head sadly.

"They've gotten to him already," George said dramatically.

"It seems like only yesterday that he was battling his way past giant dogs and trolls," Fred sighed.

"Wait, how do you know about Fluffy?" Harry asked. Dumbledore hadn't told anyone about their adventure at the end of the year!

"Everyone knew about the troll," Fred reminded him.

"As for Fluffy, our dear brother needs to learn a thing or two about keeping secrets," George said.

"It's all he'd talk about for the first few weeks - 'Did you hear? I beat McGonagall's giant chess set!'" Fred said, using a mocking squeaky voice for Ron.

Harry groaned. "You don't think he told anyone else, do you?"

"Sorry mate," George said. "All of Gryffindor knows at least."

"Don't you remember?" Fred said. "Katie Bell told that Ravenclaw boy she fancies."

"Oh yeah," George said. "Rumours really do spread like fiendfyre through Hogwarts!"

"Of course it does seem to get a bit exaggerated," Fred mused. "They think you fought You-Know-Who!"

Harry nearly choked. Even that was getting spread around? The Slytherins were really going to go after him now!

George misinterpreted his expression at that statement. "Don't worry, we all know that slimy bastard's dead!"

"Exactly," Fred agreed. "Anyways, are we going or not? We need to be quick if we still want to be able to find the train!"

Harry began to protest again, but George was getting settled in the driver's seat and Fred started to drag him to the passenger side. Just when Harry was resigning himself to his fate, they heard a shrill yell across the parking lot.

"FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY, WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?"

Fred's face went pale as a sheet. "Looks like the barrier is open again," he said faintly.

Mrs. Weasley was storming across the parking lot towards them, Mr. Weasley trailing behind her and trying to calm her down.

"Now Molly, the muggles are watching us. Maybe we could have this conversation inside the car," Mr. Weasley said.

Mrs. Weasley reached the car and threw open the driver's door.

"OUT!" she said to George, who had frozen in place as soon as he noticed her. She shepherded him into the back seat and came over to Fred and Harry.

"IN THE CAR, NOW!" she grabbed Fred by the ear and got him into the back as well. "Oh, hello Harry dear. I'm sorry to see you've been caught up in this," she said in a much kinder voice. "I suppose you'd best get in the car as well."

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley got into the car. "What do you have to say for yourselves?" Mrs. Weasley asked in a slightly calmer tone. The twins started speaking over each other to tell the story.

"The barrier closed -"

"- Ran our carts into the wall -"

"- Didn't know what to do -"

"One at a time!" Mrs. Weasley commanded. "You first, Fred."

"We tried to go through the barrier right after you! But we bounced off the wall," Fred said.

"Yeah, and then we didn't know what to do! We thought you probably wouldn't be able to get back -" George continued.

"- So we thought we'd go to the car," Fred finished.

"The muggles were staring!" George added.

"Is this true, Harry?" Mrs. Weasley asked, fixing him with her best stern face.

"Yes ma'am," Harry said nervously. "We still had about a minute, but the wall was solid! Fred and George said we could go to your car, and I was worried my relatives would get really mad if they found out I'd missed the train…" he trailed off.

Mrs. Weasley's features softened. "You poor dear. Ron told us all about his visit to Dudley's - well, yours as well, I suppose - house."

"No worries, it seems that no real harm was done," Mr. Weasley said as he started the car and began to drive.

"Yes, well, since you boys didn't mean to miss the train and didn't do anything but wait in the car, I suppose you won't be in too much trouble," Mrs. Weasley said begrudgingly. "But if I EVER catch you in the driver's seat again you'll wish you were being punished by Mr. Filch!"

"Thanks mum," Fred sighed in relief.

"How are we getting to Hogwarts?" George asked.

"Don't worry about that," Mr. Weasley said. "I'll fire call Dumbledore when we get back."

With that sorted out, the mood in the car lightened considerably. Mrs. Weasley politely asked Harry about how he'd found Hogwarts, which he answered somewhat honestly.

"Do be careful of the other Slytherins," Mrs. Weasley fretted. "Many of them come from dark families that think they're superior due to their blood status."

"Now Molly, not all Slytherins are dark," Mr. Weasley said. "But don't go making any promises to them. Quite a few are the children of politicians who could try to use you for their family's gain."

"Don't worry, I'll be careful," Harry promised. He'd already found out the hard way that many of the students were trying to be friends with him because of his status as the Boy-Who-Lived and didn't think he'd be as naive in the future.

Instead of letting them continue warning him against the Slytherins, Harry changed the topic to Neville and Hermione. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley seemed very relieved that Harry was making some friends of the right sort, and Harry was much more comfortable talking about Neville and Hermione than his fellow Slytherins.

The car ride passed quickly enough, and soon they were pulling up to the Weasley's house, which they referred to as the Burrow. Harry couldn't help but gasp as they pulled up the driveway. The Burrow was an amazing hodgepodge of rooms all piled up on each other that seemed to defy the laws of gravity - probably thanks to magic.

"Welcome to the Burrow," Mrs. Weasley said as Mr. Weasley stopped the car. "Why don't you bring your trunk inside, and we'll get things sorted."

Harry and the twins lugged their trunks up to the house, dodging the curious chickens that were milling about and came inside to find Mrs. Weasley tidying up in the kitchen.

"Why don't you boys leave your trunks here and go play out back while we sort things out," Mrs. Weasley suggested.

"Hey Harry, you know how to fly, right?" Fred said.

"I love flying," Harry responded.

"Good idea," George said. "Let's show Harry how it's done!"

They pulled Harry out back and grabbed three ratty old broomsticks that would have been right at home in the collection the Hogwarts flying class could boast of.

"You get to fly whenever you want?" Harry asked enviously.

"Kinda," Fred replied.

"Whenever we're not doing chores," George said.

"Or pranking people," Fred added with a wink.

They mounted their brooms and kicked off. It was the first time Harry was flying properly in the open and it felt amazing! The wind in his hair was nice and cool, and he didn't have to worry about flying into walls or chasing after flying keys. The twins led the way over to an orchard that seemed to have a makeshift quidditch pitch set up in it.

"Hey! You're not bad," George complimented him after they had dodged around some trees.

"Yeah," Fred agreed. "Are you going to try out for your school team?"

"I dunno if there's really a point," Harry said. "I don't have my own broom, and I don't think the guys on the team like me very much."

"If you're any good they'd have to be stupid not to take you," Fred said.

"I don't even know the rules of quidditch," Harry said. "I just like flying."

Neither Neville nor Hermione liked flying, so all Harry knew about quidditch were the basics he'd picked up from conversations in the common room. Mostly he knew that the teams had to score goals in hoops at either end of the pitch, but then catching the golden snitch was usually what settled the game. It didn't make much sense, really. Wasn't the seeker the only important person on the team then?

"Do my ears deceive me?" Fred asked in mock horror.

"He doesn't know the rules of quidditch," George replied equally dramatically, nearly losing his grip on his broom as he clutched at his heart.

"Don't worry, Harry," Fred continued more cheerfully as he exchanged a look with George.

"The Weasley twins are happy to help!" they chorused.

They proceeded to give Harry a crash course on all the ins and outs of quidditch and then insisted on testing which position he should play when he tried out for his team. He tried to argue with them - after all, it was unlikely he was going to try out in the first place - but the twins were insistent, so he gave in.

"First up is chaser!" George decided as Fred flew back to grab a beat up old quaffle. "I'm going to block the hoop, and you and Fred try to score!"

"Catch!" Fred yelled as he zipped back and tossed the quaffle at Harry.

Harry nearly fell off his broom as he scrambled to catch the ball, almost fumbled it, but got ahold of it in the end.

"Now try to score!" Fred said.

George stuck his tongue out and made a silly face at Harry.

"Do I throw it with one hand or two?" he asked. The ball was awkwardly large, and Harry was having trouble figuring out how you could hold the ball and steer the broom at the same time.

"Try with one," Fred said. "Mum'll kill us if you hurt yourself falling off the broom!"

Harry lobbed the ball at George, missing the hoop completely. The twins made him try again a couple times, but it was clear that he needed more practise before he'd be any good.

"Not to worry," George said cheerfully. "Why don't you try being keeper instead?"

Harry found keeping to be a little boring. You had to stay in front of the hoops and not fly around as much. Meanwhile Fred and George got to toss the quaffle around and goof off!

"I don't think I like keeping," Harry told them.

"That's fine," George said. "You don't have the build for it anyways."

"You're small and wiry," Fred said. "If you're any good at catching the snitch, you'd probably make a good seeker."

"We're both rubbish at seeking, so we probably shouldn't use the real snitch," George said.

"Good point," Fred said. "Let's try throwing some of the practice balls and see if he can get them before they hit the ground. I've seen Charlie train that way before!"

"Who's Charlie?" Harry asked George as Fred went to grab some balls.

"He's one of our brothers. First there's Bill, then Charlie, Percy, us, Ron, and Ginny. He played seeker for Gryffindor for years - he was quidditch captain and everything! But he graduated before you and Ron started school, and Oliver - that's the current captain - still can't find a good replacement."

"What position do you play?" Harry asked.

"We're beaters! We'd show you how to play that position, but Slytherin hardly needs more of them," George replied with distaste.

"Alright!" Fred said as he returned with a handful of small golden balls. "Let's see what you can do!"

He and George began to throw the balls as far as they could, so Harry rushed to catch them. This was much better, Harry decided. He got to fly as fast as he could, dodging tree branches as he went to get the balls.

"Wow Harry! You're really good at that!" Fred said when Harry returned carrying a handful of the balls. "You caught nearly all of them!"

"This is way more fun than chaser or keeper," Harry grinned at them.

They were just about to try again when Mrs. Weasley shouted out of the house for them to come back. She fussed over them, brushing the leaves and twigs out of their hair before shepherding them into the living room where Dumbledore was waiting.

"Good day, boys," Dumbledore greeted. "I hear you had some troubles with the barrier to the Hogwarts express."

"Yes sir," Harry said. "The Hogwarts Express hadn't left yet, but we bounced right off of the wall!"

"How curious," Dumbledore said as he peered at them over steepled fingers. "You can't think of anything that could have caused it?"

"No sir," Harry replied. Fred and George shook their heads as well. "Are we in trouble?"

"No, my boy," Dumbledore replied. "Unless you believe you have done something wrong."

"We didn't!" Fred said.

"Honest, we didn't want to be left behind," George agreed.

"Then I see no reason to punish you," Dumbledore said simply. "You boys will floo to Hogwarts to arrive around the same time as the train. In the meantime, why not spend some time getting to know each other?"

"Wonderful," Mrs. Weasley beamed. "I think we'll have lunch now. Would you like to join us?"

"Thank you for the invitation, but alas, there are still some matters I must attend to before the students arrive."

With that, Dumbledore excused himself and Mrs. Weasley prepared a delicious meal. After lunch, Harry got to fly on a broom some more, saw some real live garden gnomes, and played gobstones with the twins. They also tried to teach him their pranking ways, going so far as to donate some supplies to the good cause of pranking Slytherins.

"If I get caught, Snape will kill me!" Harry insisted.

"Then don't get caught," George said.

In the end, Harry ended up adding a few fireworks, a dungbomb, and a handful of hiccough sweets to his trunk, even though he wasn't planning on using them.

Overall, Harry was very grateful that he had missed the train! Mrs. Weasley's casual use of magic was incredible to him, even if she was only doing mundane chores like stirring pots and cleaning up. The twins were super fun to hang out with, even if they were trying to curb him of his Slytherin ways by getting him to agree to help them play pranks on his house members. Plus, their older brothers sounded really cool! Bill was a curse breaker working in Egypt and Charlie worked on a dragon reserve. Harry wondered whether it would be weird to write to them and see whether they wrote down their adventure stories like Stephen, or whether they knew of someone who did. If the coming year was anything like the year before he would probably be spending lots of time avoiding people and could use a distraction!

As he grabbed his trunk, he couldn't help but wish that he could have stayed a little longer, although he reminded himself that Ron probably still didn't like him, even though he didn't like Dudley either. Mrs. Weasley had said he was welcome to come visit, so perhaps there was hope!

"Now I want you to take a pinch of floo powder and step into the fireplace," Mrs. Weasley instructed.

"How much do I need?" Harry asked.

"Why don't you show him, Fred," Mr. Weasley suggested.

The twins looked at each other.

"Are you Fred?" said one to the other.

"I don't think so. Are you?"
"I'm not sure. I could have sworn you were Fred."

"Boys! This is not the time!" Mrs. Weasley said. She grabbed the closest twin and pulled him over to the floo. "Show Harry how much powder you use."

The twin took a handful of powder, showed Harry how much he had, then stepped into the fireplace.

"Now you need to clearly say 'Dumbledore's Office' - clearly, mind you, or there's no telling where you may end up," Mrs. Weasley continued.

"Dumbledore's Office," the twin said.

"Wait! I just remembered! I'm Fred - it was supposed to be my turn first," said Fred, but George was already gone in a whirl of green flames.

"Okay Harry, into the floo with you," Mrs. Weasley said, ignoring her son. "Don't forget to be very clear! And keep your elbows tucked in! And you may want to close your eyes to avoid soot. Wait until you reach the right gate, and don't panic! Everything will go just fine, so long as you keep your head."

"Erm, okay," Harry said, swallowing nervously. He cleared his throat a few times, threw down the floo powder and said 'Dumbledore's Office' as clearly as he could. Suddenly he was twirling faster and faster through green flames. His elbow banged painfully against something, and he remembered that he was supposed to keep them pulled in tight. His eyes were starting to sting from the soot, but he didn't want to miss the grate! Finally the twirling slowed down, and Harry thought he could see George's red hair through the grate, so he left the floo.

THUMP! He landed in a heap on the floor, but he had made it! He was in Dumbledore's office, and soon Fred had arrived as well.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts," Dumbledore said. "Your trunks will make their way to your rooms by the time the feast is over."

He escorted them out of his office to the Great Hall where the rest of the students were just starting to trickle in. Harry smiled happily. Finally he was back in the wizarding world where he belonged!

A/N: I've defended my thesis, so I officially have free time again! That hopefully means I'll be able to keep a regular publishing schedule for the next few months at least!