Year 2, Ch 2: Welcome to the Burrow

The three Weasleys and two Potters laughed as they flew up, up, and away from Number 4 Privet Drive. Robert watched as it grew smaller and smaller, and as clouds blocked it from view.

"Let Hedwig out." Harry said turning to Ron. "She can fly behind us. She hasn't had a chance to stretch her wings for ages." George handed the hairpin to Ron and, moments later, Hedwig soared joyfully out of the window to glide alongside them.

"Where's Armstrong?" Harry asked as they continued flying.

"Sent him away with a letter before the whole house-elf fiasco."

"You can pick locks?"

"Not well, and not quickly."

"What kind of name is Armstrong?" George asked.

"You know like Neil Armstrong." Robert said, the three Weasleys looked blankly back at him. "the american muggle astronaut, first man to walk on the moon?"

"Wait, muggles put a man on the moon?" Ron asked confused. "Without magic?"

"Uh, yeah. You really don't pay any attention to muggles do you?" Robert asked.

"Nope! So - what's the story, Harry?" said Ron impatiently. "What's been happening?"

Harry then explained the house elf-violet pudding fiasco.

"So a house elf has been intercepting all letters going to or from Privet Drive?" Robert asked disbelieving, Harry nodded. "Bloody hell." he muttered.

"It's all very fishy if you ask me." Fred said.

"Very dodgy." George agreed. "He couldn't even tell you who was plotting this stuff?"

"I told you, every time he almost let something slip he'd punish himself."

"Not a lot of help is he then?" Robert said.

Fred and George exchanged a look, a look that Harry caught.

"What, you think he was lying to me then?" Harry asked.

"Well," Fred began, "House elves have very powerful magic, but they can't use it. Not without permission. Somebody at school probably thought it'd be funny, stopping Harry Potter from returning to Hogwarts. Do you know who might try that."

"Draco Malfoy." Ron and Harry said together.

"It's something he would do." Ron said confidently.

Robert thought about it, "let's see, get you in trouble? Check. Doesn't involve him actually doing anything? Check. Yeah sounds like him."

"Malfoy, as in Lucius Malfoy's son?" Fred asked.

"Must be, Malfoy's not a common name is it?" Harry said shrugging.

Robert half listened as the others started discussing the Malfoy's and their old evil shenanigans, he couldn't really bring himself to be surprised, Malfoy didn't play Mr Goodie Two Shoes very well. Robert was just happy to be out of Privet Drive and that his friends probably didn't forget about him over the summer. He watched the clouds as they flew the car through them. Eventually they began descending, and touched ground again and drove up the rode and parked squarely in front of a tall crooked house with a sign reading 'The Burrow'. Robert examined the crooked house, it seemed some wizards weren't fans of making straight buildings. He grinned as he thought of the Dursley's reaction to such a strange house.

As the five boys exited the car, Fred and George began explaining the plan. "Alright, Mum should be asleep so we'll sneak up to our rooms. Rob and Harry, you'll go with Ron to his room-" Robert was distracted a moment as he saw a flash movement from the bottom floor, no one else noticed " -for breakfast Ron you'll be like 'look who turned up in the night'" There was another flash of movement, now Robert was certain they were caught as he saw what he recognized as Mrs Weasley's face through the window.

"So your certain this plan will work?" Robert asked adding a hint of doubt to his voice, Mrs Weasley was sure to be out in a second.

"Absolutely!" Fred said confidently.

"Foolproof!" George confirmed.

Fred, George, and Ron turned to walk into the house but all three of them stopped dead. Mrs Weasley was marching across the garden, she looked absolutely furious.

"Foolproof, right George?" Robert laughed.

"Oh, dear." said George.

Mrs. Weasley came to a halt in front of them, her hands on her hips, staring from one guilty face to the next. She was wearing a flowered apron with a wand sticking out of the pocket.

"So. "she said.

"Morning, Mum." said George, in what he clearly thought was a jaunty, winning voice.

"Have you any idea how worried I've been?" said Mrs. Weasley in a deadly whisper.

"Sorry, Mum, but see, we had to -"

All three of Mrs. Weasley's sons were taller than she was, but they cowered as her rage broke over them.

"Beds empty! No note! Car gone - 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 -"

"Perfect Percy." muttered Fred.

"YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF PERCY'S BOOK!" yelled Mrs. Weasley, prodding a finger in Fred's chest. "You could have died, you could have been seen, you could have lost your father his job -" It seemed to go on for hours. Mrs. Weasley had finally shouted herself hoarse before she turned on the Potters, who both backed away. "I'm very pleased to see you two." she said. "Come in and have some breakfast."

Mrs Weasley began walking back to the Burrow. Harry nervously followed her with a quick glance at Ron, Robert held back another moment before one of the twins nudged him forward. Robert hoped he wasn't going to be on the receiving end of Mrs Weasley's yelling anytime soon. Mrs Weasley continued to shoot dirty looks at her sons as she bustled around kitchen, cooking a large amount of food.

"We had to go Mum, besides it was cloudy." Fred said through a mouthful of eggs.

"They were starving them." George continued.

"Don't eat with your mouths open." Mrs Weasley snapped at them, though her face softened and she put extra eggs and bacon on Robert's and Harry's plates. As Mrs Weasley finished cooking the five boys continued eating their breakfast, breakfast was a quiet affair when a small red headed girl suddenly appeared then squealed then disappeared as quickly as she appeared.

Fred, George and Ron sniggered quietly, while Harry and Robert looked where the noise came from.

"Who was that?" Robert finally asked.

"Our sister Ginny. All summer she's been talking nonstop about you Harry." Ron answered.

"She's probably going to want an autograph." Fred joked but returned to his food after a glare from Mrs Weasley.

As the boys finished eating Percy the Prefect entered the kitchen and got his own plate of food, "Morning Mum." Percy greeted.

"Hullo Percy." Mrs Weasley greeted her third son, "Now that you're here we can discuss sleeping arrangements."

"What arrangements?" Percy asked.

"Well now that we have two guests staying with us we need to see where they'll sleep." Mrs Weasley explained.

"I thought that Harry and Rob would stay in my room." Ron said. But Mrs Weasley shook her head.

"Ronald your room doesn't have enough space to fit two more beds comfortably. I was thinking that Harry could share with Ron, Robert you could share with Percy."

As soon as she finished Robert and Percy immediately complained, but for different reasons.

"But Mum, why can't he share with Fred and George they should have space."

"I don't want to be a bother Mrs Weasley, I could just sleep on the couch."

Mrs Weasley glared at both boys and they shut up instantly, she pointed her finger at Percy. "Firstly, If he shares with you then there's an even number of people in every room so no one is too crowded." She then pointed her finger at Robert, "Secondly, it's no bother at all. You don't need to sleep on the couch." She then returned to what she was doing.

As they finished eating Fred stood up and stretched, "Blimey, I'm tired. I think I'll head up to-"

"You will not." Mrs Weasley snapped, "It's your own fault you were up so late. You three-" She gestured at Ron, Fred and George, "will be de gnoming the garden." She waved her wand and a book floated up to her. "Now let's see what Gilderoy Lockhart has to say on the subject." Ignoring George protests Robert glanced at the cover, there on the front was a good looking wizard with waving golden locks. In Robert's opinion he looked a bit full of himself, like the Ravenclaw Quidditch team after they won the Quidditch Cup at the end of term.

"Mum fancies him." Fred stage whispered to Robert and Harry.

"Don't be ridiculous Fred." protested a blushing Mrs Weasley. "And if you think you know better than Lockhart then go ahead. You two can go up to bed."

Harry though not appearing to be very tired jumped up from his seat, "I'll help. I've never seen a de-gnoming before."

"That's kind of you dear, but it's very dull work." Mrs Weasley said. But Harry went out with the others to de-gnome the garden anyway, leaving Robert and Percy at the table. Robert sat at the table wondering what he should do now. After a few minutes Percy finished his breakfast and stood up.

"If you'll grab you're trunk I'll show you where you'll be sleeping." Percy said as if he was talking to first years. Robert stood and retrieved his stuff from the flying car, as he lugged it from the yard to the foot of the stairs Percy stood waiting rather impatiently on the stairs. As Robert slowly dragged it across the floor Percy's impatience got the better of him and he stepped forward grabbing one end of the trunk and helping carry it up to the next landing. Together they carried to a door labeled in neat writing 'Percy's Room".

Robert was not surprised by how bland the room was, there was a desk covered in papers under a window at the far wall, there was a bed tucked in one corner, a dresser across the room from the bed, and a bookshelf stood next to the door. There wasn't a single thing out of place about the room, no clothes on the floor, no useless junk, not even dust on his books. They dropped his trunk in an unused corner of the room. Robert examined the room more to see if he missed anything at his first glance, but there wasn't anything else. Robert finally wandered towards the desk, but as he was going to examine the papers on the desk Percy came forward and began organizing them and tucking them away.

"Ehem; well this is where you'll be staying, Mum will bring up a cot for you later today." Percy said, appearing a bit flustered. "Any questions?"

"No, not right now." Robert said glancing at Percy weirdly, surely a 16 year old doesn't have any papers that interesting.

"Well now I'm sure you have work you need to finish." Percy said dismissively focusing his attention entirely on his papers.

Robert pulled his school texts out of his trunk, some blank parchments, a quill and a bottle of ink and left the room. Deciding to leave Percy alone for the moment Robert left the house and settled down in a tree a few yards from the front door. He dipped his quill in some ink and began working on his homework.

Barely an hour had passed before Robert was interrupted by a crack, Robert's head snapped up. And there standing in front of him was a balding red haired man, Mr Weasley he assumed. The man noticed Robert as well.

"Oh, hello there." He said surprised. "Who are you."

"Robert Potter." Robert answered, shifted his books and parchments so he could stand and shake the man's hand.

"Ah, Ron's said much about you and your brother of course. Where is Harry anyway?" Mr. Weasley asked peering around as if expecting Harry to jump out from behind a nearby shrub.

"De-gnoming the garden with Ron, Fred and George. Mrs. Weasley's in the kitchen." Robert said. Mr. Weasley nodded his thanks and continued into the Burrow.

Robert sat down and continued his essay.

It was noon before Robert was distracted again. Mrs. Weasley had called him in for lunch. She had a plate full of sandwiches stacked so high it was more than halfway to the ceiling. Robert thought at first it was overkill but that was before he witnessed probably the most amazing and disgusting sight in his young life, when all the Weasleys sat down to eat no amount of food could last long. In minutes the food plate was picked clean. As lunch came to an end Robert watched as Mrs. Weasley used magic to clear and wash the dishes, Robert was no stranger to washing dishes but it was still fascinating to him watching them clean themselves. Even after a year of magic at Hogwarts and all the extraordinary things he saw there, there was a certain charm to seeing it used for ordinary tasks. As he looked around the house almost everything radiated magic, were all wizarding homes like this?

An: Thank you all for reading, I appreciate it a lot. I had to put this on hold as I've had a lot on my plate over the past months, but finally got this finished and ready to go. See you all at a later date.