Disclaimer: You know the drill, I don't own J.K. Rowling's creation.
NOTE: As the last chapter was quite short, I decided to do a double update again. So enjoy!
Chapter 15
The grounds the Burrow sat on was beautiful. The river ran right in front of the house. Though none of the Weasley's knew how to fish, golden and silver scales glinted in the sunlight as they dove in and out of the water. The garden was large and dotted with random plants and trees. Unfortunately, there were several holes in the grass, where gnomes stuck their heads up to look around and then dropped back down and appeared somewhere else twenty seconds later.
I wanted to find a hammer and play a life-size version of the hammer-whack-things-in-holes game which I couldn't remember what it was called. If I did start doing that though, the Weasley's would be very confused and it would get them asking questions that I didn't want to answer.
The explosion jolted me from my thoughts and I turned away from the window. Fred was looking guiltily at the cauldron that was cracked in half and oozing silver goo onto the carpet.
Fred saw me watching and shot me an apologetic look, "Sorry, Iz, I'll buy you a new cauldron"
"No you won't, I'll add it to my shopping list" I shrugged.
Ron rammed through the door while George was attempting to scrape the goo from the floor and bottle it into the glass vials. They had several of them lining the shelves, though all were in a different shade of grey – this was one of the lighter ones. Apparently, they were aiming for a pale yellow colour. They had named this particular edition of sweet they were developing. It was a Fainting Fancy. When they had told me that, I had been silent for a while, trying to hold back tears. I was there for the creation of the Skiving Snackboxes, it was a beautiful scene to witness.
"Okay guys, stop a minute" ordered Ron, "Hermione still hasn't heard from Harry either, so we need to go in and rescue him!"
"How?" asked Fred, "What are we going to go to Little Whinging, knock on the Dursley's door and say "Hi there, we're here to rescue our friend"?"
"The car" George said, an idea forming in his mind.
"What car?" Ron asked with a frown.
"The car, idiot. The flying car. We'll fly to Harry's house, see if he's okay and if he is then we'll slap him for worrying us and come right back. If he's not, then we rescue him and bring him back with us" George grinned. "Mum will never know we're gone"
"Dad just sent a message to Mum saying he has to work tonight, so if we go this evening after Mum's gone to sleep"
"Eager are we Ron?" Fred grinned, scourgifying the rest of the mess on the floor with a flick of his wand.
"Fred!" gasped Ron, "You're not allowed to do magic outside of school!"
Fred tapped his nose with his wand, "Ah, Ron, poor Ron. Izzy let us in to a little secret. The Ministry can't detect who performed the magic, they can only detect where magic was performed. So, if they see a magical signature here, they'll just assume it was our parents. Tricks of the trade, Ronald"
"Really?" He looked at me for confirmation and I nodded with a smile, "Lumos" He cried, "Wingardium Leviosa. Stupefy"
"Oi, don't go destroying our room" George complained as Ron knocked over a lamp with his stunner.
"Yeah, because it's not already destroyed" Ron scoffed, looking down at the remains of my cauldron.
"Izzy?" said Ginny, as she quietly tiptoed over to my makeshift bed. I turned to face her, having been unable to sleep. The boys had left a couple of hours ago to rescue Harry. I had offered to stay behind so there was enough space in the car for the four of them, plus Harry's trunk and owl cage. "Can we go and play some Quidditch?" She asked.
"Not tonight, Gin" I replied. If we woke Molly up before she was supposed to, things could go badly.
"Why?"
I sat up with a grin. There was no point keeping her in the dark. "George, Fred and Ron have taken your Dad's flying car for the night. They're going to rescue Harry and bring him back here" Ginny gaped at me. "Promise you won't be all weird and shy while's staying here?"
"Harry's coming here? To stay with us?" She squeaked, "Now I definitely won't be able to sleep. I can't believe Harry Potter's going to stay in our house!"
I grinned and rolled back over.
My wand vibrated in my hand and I awoke again. As soon as the sun started to glint on the horizon I checked that Ginny was still asleep before saying, "Amato Animo Animato Animagus"
There was a sharp rap on the door, "Izzy?" Molly called, rapping sharply again. Ginny woke up and frowned at the racket.
"Yes, Mrs Weasley?" I answered, hurriedly pulling on some decent clothing.
"Do you know where the boys have gotten to?" She asked. I didn't want to have to lie to her, "The clock says they're travelling" She rushed on, her voice coming out fast and frantic, "And the car is gone" She took my silence to mean I knew where they were, "If you know something, tell me"
I sighed, "They'll be back for breakfast. They've just gone to fetch Harry"
"And they didn't leave a note! They could have crashed!" Molly shrieked, stomping back down the stairs to wait for them outside.
"Beds empty! No note! Car gone – you could have crashed – out of my mind with worry – did you care? – never, as long as I've lived – you wait until your father gets home, we never had trouble like this from Bill or Charlie or Percy…YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF PERCY'S BOOK!"
Silently laughing, I clutched my sides, tears streaming down my face as I struggled for breath. Ginny laughed too as she watched me, a little confused at why I was laughing at my friends being told of, but amused herself that her brothers had been shouted at.
"Come on" I wheezed, already dressed. Ginny had a soft spot for the rather formal robes that I wore, and had made me promise that when I grew out of them, I would hand them down to her. I was fine with that, and planned to grow out of them as quickly as possible so I could go back to jeans.
We hurried down the spiral steps and came out just in time to hear, "You'd better hope I don't put bars on your window"
"Harry!" I yelled, racing over to hug him while Ginny stood watching with wide eyes. "Thank Merlin you're alright! Ron wouldn't stop worrying" I smirked behind him at the red-head.
"Izzy, what are you doing here?" Harry asked, sitting down at the table. Molly pushed a slice of buttered bread into his hand.
"Her mother's sick" George explained, "She's been here all summer"
"What's wrong with her?" Harry asked, rubbing my arm sympathetically.
I hadn't thought that far in advance, "She gets ill a lot, it goes on and off, but she's having it worse recently"
The other occupants of the kitchen made various sympathetic hums and then lapsed into silence.
"Blimey, I'm tired" Fred yawned, his cutlery clattering onto his plate, "I think I'll go to bed and…"
"You will not" snapped Mrs Weasley, "It's your own fault you've been up all night. You're going to de-gnome the garden for me; they're getting completely out of hand again"
"Oh Mum"
"And you two" She stabbed an accusing finger at George and Ron. "Harry dear, you can go up to bed"
"I'll help Ron. I've never seen a de-gnoming"
"That's very sweet of you, dear, but it's dull work" Molly admitted, "Now let's see what Lockhart's got to say on the subject" She pulled out a book from the stack on the mantelpiece.
George groaned, "Mum, we know how to de-gnome a garden!"
"Come on" I grinned, tugging George's sleeve, "Let's go before she starts drooling over his picture on the cover" Molly having heard me, looked over at me in horror. I smiled at her and winked.
"You know, muggles have garden gnomes too" Harry said to Ron as they stood on the lawn. He was looking expectantly around the garden as if eager to see a red-hatted-gnome suddenly start moving.
"Yeah, I've seen those things they think are gnomes…like fat little Santa Clauses with fishing rods…" He scooped a dull brown potato up and hung it as far away from him as possible, only holding onto its legs. "This is a gnome" He swung it around over his head. "Don't worry, this doesn't hurt them. You have to make them really dizzy so they don't find their way back into the garden" He let go and it went soaring over the fence into the field beyond.
"Pitiful" Fred commented, "I bet I can get mine beyond that stump"
I grabbed hold of a gnome around its waist and started swinging it around. I let it go when I was facing away from the house, and it collided with the one Fred had just flown when it landed.
"Are you performing a Deverill Smash with gnomes?" Fred asked with a smirk, "You have to teach us that at some point"
"You mean teach the opposing team – the enemy – my greatest tactic?" I gasped, "You know, Harry, you should try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team this year. I bet you'd make an amazing seeker"
"But Scott Webster is the Gryffindor seeker" Harry said, "And anyway, I've barely flown before"
"Firstly, if Scott Webster is so good, how come Gryffindor didn't win the house cup?"
"It's not like Slytherin won either" Fred mumbled. That was true. Despite my best efforts, the Ravenclaw Quidditch team were just too good.
"Anyway, Harry" I ignored Fred, "You're probably a natural. It's in your blood"
"What?"
"James Potter was an amazing chaser in his day. He was great at flying!"
"How do you even know that?"
"Word gets around. I saw his name on a shield trophy in the trophy cabinet at Hogwarts" I shrugged, "We can play once we've finished with the garden"
"Not us, we're heading straight to bed. Not all of us got a full night's sleep" George said.
"I don't think we've had a full night sleep for a while" I replied and he winked knowingly. It wasn't easy having to stay up in the summer till the sun had set, and wake up just before dawn.
The last of the gnomes had been ejected from the garden, when the front door slammed shut. We spun around to go greet their father and I glanced behind me to see the gnomes standing up and walking around disoriented, crashing into each other and getting further from the house. With any luck, they wouldn't be returning to the Weasley's garden any time soon.
"What a night!" Arthur complained, pouring himself some tea and shoving his satchel to one side. "Nine raids! Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had my back turned…"
"Find anything, Dad?" Fred asked, while Arthur sighed deeply.
"All I got were a few shrinking door keys and a biting kettle" He told them, rubbing the sides of his eyes with his glasses laying nearby on the well-scrubbed, wooden table. "There was some pretty nasty stuff that wasn't my department, though. Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some extremely odd ferrets, but that's the Committee on Experimental Charms, thank goodness…"
"Why would anyone bother making door keys shrink?" George asked.
"Muggle baiting" I replied absently, "If they key keeps shrinking, they can never find it. It's not like the wizard selling the shrinking keys would be arrested, because they can't prove anything, no muggle is going to admit that their key keeps shrinking. They'd get chucked into an insane asylum by the other muggles"
"Exactly" Arthur beamed at me, he had taken a liking at me as I showed at once good knowledge of muggle society and he kept asking me all sorts of questions – especially about rubber ducks. "You wouldn't believe all the random things that are being enchanted these days-"
"LIKE CARS, FOR INSTANCE?" Molly shouted, appearing behind them, she didn't wait for a reply, just ploughed on, "Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife all he wanted to do with it was take it apart to see how it worked, while really he was enchanting it to make it fly"
Arthur gulped, "Well, dear, I think you'll find that he would be quite within the law to do that, even if – er – he maybe would have done better to, um, tell his wife the truth…There's a loophole in the law, you'll find…As long as he wasn't intending to fly the car, the fact that the car could fly wouldn't-"
"Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law! Just so you could carry on tinkering with all the Muggle rubbish in your shed! And for you information, Harry arrived this morning in the car you weren't intending to fly!"
"Harry" Arthur blinked, his expression blank, "Harry who?" He scanned around the table, "Good Merlin, is it Harry Potter? Very pleased to meet you, Ron's told us so much about-"
"Your sons flew that car to Harry's house and back last night-" Molly continued to shout.
"Did you really?" Arthur interrupted eagerly, "How'd it go?" Ron sniggered and Harry looked rather bemused. "I mean…" He caught the arrows Molly was shooting through her eyes as they sparked, "that was very wrong boys – very wrong indeed…"
"Come on" Ron muttered, "Let's leave them to it. Come on, Izzy, let's play some Quidditch!"
"Can I come?" Ginny asked eagerly.
"Of course" I grinned, grabbing her hand and pulling her along. We borrowed the old brooms from the shed. Ginny and I immediately pushed off from the ground, and Ron joined us quickly. Harry watched us for a moment, his eyes betraying the awe he still felt every time he witnessed unbelievable magic. Then he kicked off and joined us.
"Race you" I said to all of them, leaning forward without giving them time to respond and sped off. Ginny was used to that kind of nonsense from me, and was close on my tail. Ron came behind, and then Harry sped straight past us, taking the lead in an instance.
Once we had all touched down again he grinned, "Maybe I will try out for the team"
NOTE: Just one more chapter of the summer after this. I don't really have much Izzy can do during it. Later years (like the summers before fourth and fifth year will definitely be more fun).
Thanks to my sister for pointing out some grammatical errors in this.
As always, reviews are very welcome.