Chapter 3

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In the next few days, Harry made sure that he didn't leave anything behind.   With his trunk all packed, he waited and waited till Saturday came. And it did.  Half past four that afternoon, Harry was at his room checking to see everything was in place.  As he was going downstairs to wait for the Weasleys, he heard a conversation that his aunt and uncle in their room.

   "….but Marge would wanted him here…you know how she likes to keep an eye on the boy…" he heard Vernon said.

   "Well, we'll just tell her that St. Brutus wanted to keep him there during the summer," suggested Petunia. 

Aunt Marge coming here?  Harry thought.  Yes! And I don't have to be here.  This is turning out to be a great summer after all!  He waited downstairs and sat at the foot of the stairs overlooking the door.  He checked his watched. It was 4:45 p.m.  He waited and waited.  His relatives came downstairs and were now pacing at the living room.  It finally came to five o'clock when Harry heard a car engine coming to a halt outside. A car door opened and shut.  The doorbell rang and uncle Vernon went to go get it.  As he opened the door, a plump, red-haired woman stood in front of him.

   "Hello, my name is Molly Weasley.  I know we haven't met but I wrote to you last summer asking for Harry to come and stay with us.  Well, you have met my husband, Arthur, and, er, my sons before," said Mrs. Weasley, looking uncomfortable.

Vernon was just looking at her with at most shock.  Harry hoped he would say something.  Mrs. Weasley has spotted him and asked,  "Well, Harry! Are you all packed and ready to go?"

Harry nodded.  The driver, as if on cue, came up to the door and asked where his things were.  Harry pointed his room and helped the driver to get his trunk and things in the car.  All the while, Mrs. Weasley tried with all her might to start a conversation but gradually failed. 

   "Well, I guess that's everything.  It's really nice to meet you all. Er, Harry, are you ready?" said Mrs. Weasley.

   "Yes, I am," answered Harry.  "Well, good bye.  See you next summer." He added to the Dursleys.

And on his way out, he grinned and said to Dudley,  "Say hi to Aunt Marge for me."

He left with Mrs. Weasley.  As soon as they got in the car, she said,  "I'm sorry Ron couldn't come with me.  He needed to do something for me.  Er…we were going to use the Floo Powder, but, well, you know what happened last year.  I don't think we should scare them anymore than they are. So we borrowed a Ministry car."

Harry chuckled,  "That's alright.  It doesn't matter, anyway.  I'm really glad you invited me to stay with all of you again.  I don't think that I wanted to stay there with Aunt Marge."

They reached the Burrow hours later.  The driver helped get Harry's things out of the car, bowed politely, and drove away.  Ron ran out to see him. 

   "Hey! Thank god you're here.  Wanna help us out with degnoming at the garden?" asked Ron.

   "Sure.  Can I, Mrs. Weasley?" asked Harry.

   "Go ahead.  Just as long as you do a very good job," she called after them.

They reached the garden.  Fred and George Weasley were already their swinging gnomes above their heads.  They nodded to Harry and continued to work.

  "Grab a gnome and join us," said George.

  "Where's Percy?" asked Harry, grabbing a gnome by the leg and swinging over his head like a lasso.  Percy was Ron's older brother.

  "Percy? Percy who?" asked Fred. "There's no Percy here."

Ron sniggered.  Harry looked at him at a quizzical way. 

  "Percy's at work.  He only comes home late at night.  I swear mum's always complaining about him.  She's always on about how he's always overworking and never eating the things she cooks for him," explained Ron.

  "Is he the head now or something?" asked Harry.

  "Nope.  That's the thing. He's not.  They got a new head.  His name is John Kensington.  Percy's a bit disappointed cause he's not head, but he's still the head's personal butler, er, I mean personal assistant," remarked George. 

  "Yeah. And he thinks it's very important that he's there.  To help out the new head, he says, especially during these difficult times.  I think it's good that he's has a hobby," said Fred.

  "Dad's not home all the time either.  Ministry's very busy now," added Ron. 

After their chore, they all came in the kitchen and found Mrs. Weasley busy making dinner.  Harry found a copy of the Daily Prophet on the table and picked it up to read it.

Muggles Gone Missing

Since the rumored resurrection of You-know-who, the Ministry has reported to have many muggles missing ten miles away from Hogsmeade.  Cornelius Fudge was unavailable to comment on this report, and no one else in the Ministry was available either.  However, a "representative" of the Ministry stated that the Minister of Magic himself has taken the matter into his own interest- 

Harry wasn't done reading the newspaper when a hand grabbed the newspaper from him. 

  "This is nothing of your worries, dear," said Mrs. Weasley calmly.  "You don't need to worry about this.  Dumbledore doesn't want you to, well, not right now."

Ron and Harry looked at each other.  Mrs. Weasley noticed it and added,  "Well, Hermione will be here tomorrow.  I'm sure that you two would like that."

   "C'mon. I wanna show you something," whispered Ron to Harry.

When they reached Ron's room.  "What's up?" Harry asked.

   "Bill's coming home two days from now.  Dumbledore sent him a letter saying that he needed his help.  Mum doesn't reckon he should do it," said Ron, sounding worried.

Harry looked at him.  He knew it. It was happening.  It doesn't sound too good. 

   "So Sirius sent you anything yet?  He's with Professor Lupin, right?" asked Ron, more brightly.

   "It's not Professor anymore.  It's just Remus now. He told me so. Well, Sirius said Dumbledore doesn't want him to tell us.  I wonder why?"

   "Maybe because he doesn't want us to worry about things that we can't help with, well, not yet anyway," said a bossy sort of voice at the door.

Ron and Harry both recognized who that was and quickly turned around.  It was Hermione standing at the doorway with her arms folded.

  "What are you doing here?  Mum said you weren't suppose to be here till tomorrow," exclaimed Ron, looking at her. 

  "Oh, nice greeting, Ron.  So I came here early, what's the big deal?" answered Hermione. "Guess what?"

  "What?" the boys asked together.

  "I got a letter saying that I've made a prefect at Hogwarts!" said Hermione.