A Sensational Story

Author's Notes: I am so sorry for the inordinate delay – real life happened, and forced me to focus on other important things. I hope I can make it up to all of you with this chapter. Once again, thank you so much for your support!

A big thank you to White Squirrel for beta-reading this chapter - parts of it literally wouldn't have come out if not for him.

Disclaimer: Recognizable portions in this chapter have been taken from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling. I neither own nor intend to make any profit from the use of Harry Potter and the associated characters of the series, in my story.

Chapter 3: Snape

The Burrow

'Chapter 3,' began Snape, and even in the Great Hall, he was able to ensure that everyone was paying attention to him with the least effort on his part, 'The Burrow.'

'Home sweet home,' said Ron happily.

'"Ron!" breathed Harry, creeping to the window and pushing it up so they could talk through the bars. "Ron, how did you – What the –?"

Harry's mouth fell open as the full impact of what he was seeing hit him. Ron was leaning out of the back window of an old turquoise car, which was parked inmid-air." Mr Weasley,' called out Snape, looking up from the book and glaring at the Gryffindor table.

'Yes?' said Fred, George, and Ron together. The three red-heads grinned at the unplanned coordination, while Ginny groaned and dropped her head onto the table.

'Clearly, your little excursion to Hogwarts on the first day of term that year was not the first time you had driven the car,' he said in a menacing tone.

Ron gulped, but Fred and George weren't cowed.

'To be fair, I was driving it that time,' pointed out Fred.

'And, we weren't really seen by anyone,' added George.

'You were underage,' sneered Snape. 'Neither of you was legally allowed to drive.'

'I think we did a pretty good job of it, to be honest,' said Fred cheerily. 'Right, Forge?'

'Right you are, Gred.'

'That remains to be seen,' said Snape, glowering at the pair of them for a moment before returning to the book.

'I'd forgotten that we'd used the car to get you out of there,' said Ron. 'They won't do anything to us, would they?'

'Well, it was a long time ago…' said Harry.

'And we didn't enchant the car. That was Dad,' said Fred.

Right on cue, Snape's voice floated over just as they fell silent. '"Oh, this doesn't count," said Ron. "We're only borrowing this, it's Dad's, we didn't enchant it."'

The rescue of Harry from the Dursleys' resulted in considerable cheers from the students; Harry and Ron were quite embarrassed by the end of it, and were ducking their heads to avoid the stares and admiring glances. Fred and George, however, were lapping it up, their heads held high and puffing their chests out importantly. It was only when Ginny remarked that they were doing quite a good impression of Percy that they became normal once more – or at least, as normal as one could expect from the twins.

Hermione was particularly impressed with the way they had manually picked the lock of Harry's room using an ordinary hairpin.

'I didn't even think of doing that,' she admitted.

'This, coming from the girl who panicked because there was no wood to start a fire,' sniggered Ginny.

'Oh, shut up.'

They quietened down, and listened as Snape went on with the narration of their ride from Surrey to Devon.

'"Well," said Fred, "put it this way – house-elves have got powerful magic of their own, but they can't usually use it without their masters' permission. I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming back to Hogwarts. Someone's idea of a joke. Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against you?"'

As Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all said, 'Yes', Snape read out Harry and Ron's assent from the book, causing chuckles from the group at the Gryffindor table.

'Hang on,' said Vector. Snape stopped reading to look up at the Arithmancy professor.

'What now, Septima?' he asked.

Vector glared at her fellow ex-Slytherin. 'Mr Weasley is right – house-elves can't use their powers without their master's permission.'

'Probably a first for that,' muttered Snape in an undertone. Vector ignored him.

'So how did this Dobby manage to get away from his master's house and warn Mr Potter about whatever was about to happen?'

The Great Hall was silent for a moment.

'Technically,' said Dumbledore, 'a house-elf is bound to obey the orders of its master. However, a more…adventurous member of the species may look to exploit any loopholes in any instructions that it may receive.'

'Adventurous, or deceitful, Albus?' asked Flitwick.

'That is neither here nor there, Filius,' said Dumbledore.

'So, it's possible that Dobby was exploiting the ambiguity in his master's directions in order to warn Mr Potter,' said Sinistra. 'Who is his master, anyway?'

"Perhaps we will find out later in the book," Dumbledore said with a smile.

'"Draco Malfoy," Harry explained. "He hates me."

"Draco Malfoy?" said George, turning around. "Not Lucius Malfoy's son?"'

At the Slytherin table, Draco's friends and cronies were staring at him in disbelief.

'Wow, Potter got it right – wait, your house-elf went to warn Harry Potter not to come to Hogwarts?' asked Montague. 'What were you thinking?'

'I didn't tell him to do it,' said Draco defensively.

'Then how did he end up at Potter's place?' said Crabbe.

'Yeah! You heard that Professor – they're always supposed to follow orders!' said Goyle, nodding his head in agreement.

Draco looked at the pair of them and sighed. He wasn't in the mood to explain to his knuckle-headed friends as to what the professors had really meant. In any case, he was trying to make sure that he was quite invisible to the rest of the student body – Snape had just read out Potter's internal thoughts that Draco made Dudley Dursley look like a kind, thoughtful, and sensitive boy, and everyone was staring at him with a wide variety of expressions. Most of them seemed to be finally appreciating the level of rivalry and mutual hatred that he and Potter had for one another.

Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys shared knowing grins with each other when the subject of Percy's odd behaviour cropped up. They looked up at Percy, who was determinedly staring at a point on the wall behind the staff table, trying to avoid everyone's eye, and unsuccessfully attempting to curtail his blush.

'Uh oh,' said Fred, suddenly.

'What?'

'I think we may have gotten Dad into more trouble.'

'How's that now?'

'"Yeah, Dad's mad about everything to do with Muggles, our shed's full of Muggle stuff. He takes it apart, puts spells on it and puts it back together again. If he raided our house he'd have to put himself straight under arrest. It drives Mum mad."'

'Ah,' said George.

'Yeah,' sighed Fred.

Harry looked up in time to see Madam Bones instructing one of her companions to write something down. A sort of sinking feeling went through him – he only hoped that Mr Weasley wouldn't get into even more trouble, just because of his love for Muggle things.

Fred's master plan to avoid Mrs Weasley's wrath over flying the car caused Hermione and Ginny to snort with laughter. Even the other Gryffindors around them were sniggering at the 'genius' of it.

'Did you really expect Mum to fall for that?' asked Ginny with a giggle.

'It would have worked,' said Fred with a scowl, 'if she hadn't found us first.'

'Even I wouldn't have believed that,' chuckled Neville. George folded his arms across his chest and gave Neville a dirty look.

Their mood did cheer up, however, when they heard Harry comparing Mrs Weasley to a sabre-toothed tiger – after Hermione, Dean, Natalie McDonald and Colin Creevey (rather enthusiastically) took turns in describing what a sabre-toothed tiger was.

Snape chose not to imitate Mrs Weasley's shrill voice when she was shouting at all of them for being out so late and stealing the car, but the students got the gist of it. Most of them had been around when the Weasley matriarch had sent that Howler to Ron on the second day of term, which elicited a round of laughter from all of them.

'"You could have died, you could been seen, you could have lost your father his job –"'

'Nice to know that Mum's got her priorities sorted,' quipped Fred.

Most of the Muggle-born students, who had never set foot inside a wizarding house before, listened with keen interest as the Burrow's kitchen was described. Christine Maxwell was especially fascinated with the Weasley family clock.

'That sounds amazing!' she gushed. 'Where can you get such things?'

Ron's ears went pink, but he answered anyway. 'I remember Mum saying that Grandad Weasley had it made by a clock-maker in Diagon Alley. We just added hands to it as the family increased.'

'"At that moment, there was a diversion in the form of a small, red-headed figure in a long nightdress, who appeared in the kitchen, gave a small squeal, and ran out again."'

'Oh dear,' said Ginny, burying her face in her hands, as her brothers sniggered. 'That was mortifying!' Her blush only increased as Ron said that she had been talking about Harry all summer; the saving grace was that she was joined in sporting a red face by Harry. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together for this – everyone knew of Ginny's initial fascination of Harry.

'I don't think that's the worst of it, Ginny,' said Hermione, patting the younger girl on the back sympathetically while trying not to laugh herself.

'Yeah? What could possibly be worse?'

'The elbow in the butter dish.'

Ginny groaned even louder at that, in part because Seamus also chose to say at that instant, 'The Valentine song too!'

The mention of Gilderoy Lockhart elicited a number of loud groans from the student body; even some of the staff rolled their eyes on hearing the name of their former colleague. Harry was particularly doubtful on whether Lockhart knew much about de-gnoming a garden, given his penchant for Memory Charms, and his incompetency in handling Cornish Pixies in a classroom.

The description of Weasleys de-gnoming a garden was fascinating, to say the least. Most Muggle-borns, and some half-bloods, were intrigued by the way a gnome looked like from Harry's perspective – small and leathery-looking, with a large, knobbly, bald head exactly like a potato. A few of them did give shrieks of surprise at the way the gnomes were tossed out of the garden, but, like Harry in the book felt, they learned not to feel too sorry for the little blighters, especially if they preferred biting people to escape.

The narration continued on to Mr Weasley's return, and his description of his busy night.

'That Mundungus Fletcher really needs to get a proper sense of things,' said McGonagall, her lips pursed in disapproval, as Mr Weasley told them all how Mundungus had tried hexing him when his back was turned. She hadn't forgiven the thieving man for abandoning his post of watching Harry over the last summer, and leaving him at the mercy of the Dementors.

'Now, Minerva,' said Dumbledore gently. 'He is a particularly useful person to have around.'

'Yes, but I still don't like him, Albus,' said McGonagall.

Snape, who had paused for Dumbledore and McGonagall's conversation, continued reading.

'That's horrible!' exclaimed Hermione, as Mr Weasley described the desire for wizards to engage in 'Muggle-baiting'.

'C'mon, Hermione,' said Ginny. 'You remember what happened at the World Cup two summers ago.'

Hermione nodded grimly. The image of the Death Eaters torturing and making fun of the Roberts family at the World Cup campsite was not something she wished to revisit any time soon.

'"Bless them, they'll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it's staring at them in the face…"'

'That sounds about right,' agreed Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies professor.

'It's remarkable how ignorant and narrow-minded Muggles can be,' said Vector.

'We are equally guilty of being the same way towards them, Septima,' reminded Dumbledore kindly.

'Of course, Albus, but if it's staring at you in the face…'

Conversations began to spring up at three of the four House tables, with many of the Muggle-borns disagreeing with Mr Weasley and Professor Vector.

'If they actually saw the key shrink, they wouldn't ignore it,' said Justin Finch-Fletchley to his friends. 'They wouldn't admit it since either they'd think they were going crazy or they'd worry that other people would think they were crazy. And it's hard for Muggles to figure anything out when wizards always cover it up.'

'Did your parents ever figure it out?' asked Susan Bones.

'My parents and I knew there was something different about me, but we couldn't really understand what it was. It was only after McGonagall came and explained everything that it all made sense.'

Michael Corner, however, had a rather different story to tell. 'My Dad's a Muggle-born wizard, so my parents knew about it, but they were scared. They didn't tell me what it was until I got my Hogwarts letter. They had hoped that I didn't have it, but when my letter came, their worst fears had come true.'

'What were they scared of, though?' asked Terry Boot, his friend since their first year at Hogwarts.

Michael sighed. 'Dad was attacked by Death Eaters during the last war. His mum was killed, and Grandpa wound up in a wheelchair. Plus, he graduated at a time when it was hard for Muggle-borns just to get by in the magical world, so he didn't want anything to do with magic after that.'

Snape cleared his throat impatiently, and the chatter died down at once.

'"…but the things our lot have taken to enchanting, you wouldn't believe –"

"LIKE CARS, FOR INSTANCE?"'

'Merlin, your Mam's one scary woman, Ron,' said Seamus, as they listened to her argument with Mr Weasley about the loophole in the law regarding experimenting on Muggle items and artefacts.

'You don't say…' said Ron.

Up at the Ministry table, Madam Bones was whispering further instructions to one of her colleagues. Harry had the feeling that she was looking at ensuring that the loophole in the law that Mr Weasley had described was plugged up immediately.

'You know, technically, your Dad hasn't done anything wrong, Ron,' said Parvati.

'Yeah? How do you figure?'

'Well, it's not like he misused any of these items, did he? I'm sure the car was particularly useful in getting all of you around at once. And I'm quite sure he didn't use any of the stuff in his shed for nefarious reasons.'

Ron stared at her.

'That's an amazing argument, Parvati,' said Neville earnestly, and she blushed at the praise.

'"It was like walking into a furnace: nearly everything in Ron's room seemed to be a violent shade or orange: the bed-spread, the walls, even the ceiling."'

Many people were confused at the description of the bright orange in the room, but it became quite clear from Harry's next observation, and Ron's response. The mention of the Chudley Cannons immediately resulted in an impromptu discussion about people's favourite teams and their position in the Quidditch League. Unsurprisingly, the Cannons had very few supporters – most of the school were rooting for the Tutshill Tornadoes. Ron loudly theorised that half of them were just jumping on the bandwagon due to their recent winning streak, earning him dirty looks from the Tornadoes' fans.

'How on earth did you start supporting a team like Chudley Cannons, Ron?' asked Seamus incredulously.

Fred and George sniggered, but didn't comment. Harry instantly knew it was a rather embarrassing story, and secretly resolved to ask Ron about it later.

'"It's a bit small," said Ron quickly. "Not like that room you had with the Muggles. And I'm right underneath the ghoul in the attic, he's always banging on the pipes and groaning…"

But Harry, grinning widely, said, "This is the best house I've ever been in."

Ron's ears went pink.'

'Cheers, mate,' said Ron with a grin, and no trace of the blush he'd had in the book.

'Trust me, it is,' said Harry. 'Better than Grimmauld Place, anyway.'

Up at the staff table, Snape shut the book close with a snap. 'That is the end of the chapter,' he said. 'I believe Horace was next to read?'

Harry watched as the new Potions professor – an enormous bald man with a huge, silver, walrus-like moustache – looked around at Snape.

'Me?' he said. 'Would it not be appropriate for Filius –'

'You are the most senior Head of House after the Heads of the school, Horace,' said Dumbledore kindly. 'Please, do continue with the reading.'

Slughorn gulped noticeably – clearly he didn't seem too keen in being in the spotlight for so long – but he accepted the book held out by Snape, nevertheless, opened it, and began to read.