Chapter 3- A Trip to the Burrow

"Well, I'll be off then. Bye! Meet you at the Burrow then Harry" Mr. Weasley said, then he turned to the twins "Don't go too fast" With that he went into the house to disapparate.

"Here Harry, I'll give you a hand" called George "Let Pig and Hedwig fly, that way we have less luggage".

Harry and George lifted his luggage and hauled it to the boot. George slammed the boot shut and indicated Harry to get into the car. Teasingly Fred and George waved at Uncle And Aunt Petunia promising to keep in touch everyday. Harry caught a glimpse of a horrified looking Aunt Petunia.

When both Fred and George got into the car Harry couldn't suppress his curiosity any longer.

"When did you get the car?" he asked.

Fred laughed as he started the car "Quick aren't you? Aren't you" he winked.

"Sorry," Harry smiled.

"Nah, s'ok" Fred smiled back "we got it yesterday after we both passes our driving test. Cool car, eh? Heard the chicks love guys who have expensive cars,"

"And we have caught a few chicks attention, make no mistake," George added.

"Bet you did...What's with the rock? And rock gear?" Harry asked.

"Whoa, one question at a time, s'il vous plait! I have one mouth" Fred said "well, we're kinda into rock now – it's better than chamber music- and we love the gear."

Harry smiled "How's the joke shop going?"

"Thought you'd never ask, mate!" beamed George.

"Brill, mate, brill" Fred grinned.

"Yeah, we've got two new products."

"One's 'no bone choc'."

"And the other 'blugder boomer'."

"And what do they do?" Harry asked.

"Well, we were inspired by Lockhart removing your bones after the match against Slytherin..." George began.

"...so the 'no bone choc' removes the bones on your good hand only for fifteen minutes..."Fred continued.

"...a tribute to you, mate!" George ended.

"Gee, thanks" Harry said "what does the blugder boomer do?"

"Ah," Fred sighed "One of our favourites. It's basically a model of a firebolt..."

"... Mind you we had to pay a good sum for the copyright rights" interrupted George.

"Where if you touch it, it starts shooting blugder at you, but you got to re-fill 'em because once you use a blugder the effects wear off. You can also re-program it so it shoots at someone else" continued Fred.

"Of course that's after a few blugder have hit you first," George mused.

"So, how's it been at the burrow" Harry asked.

"Fine. Lupin's staying with us now – mum was a little apprehensive at first. Y'know the werewolf thing but then she agreed, Infact Lupin offered to look somewhere else but mum insisted and MADE him stray, innit ironic? The meetings takes place at ours for the moment. Which kinda sucks – I mean, who wants to see Snape at their houses?" Fred replied.

"How's Ron?" Harry asked quickly to change the subject. He didn't feel like talking about the order or Lupin. The twins seemed to have sensed this because they gave each other knowing glances.

"Weird. I mean, yeah, he's naturally abnormal but he's acting weirder than usual" Fred said as he stopped at the last red light they were to encounter.

"Yeah. He walks around with this vacant expression already but if you add the blankly staring into space, he just looks....well, it makes him look mentally ill" George agreed.

"Mind you, I do think he is mentally ill" opined Fred.

"He locks his door when he's in his room quite often. He smiles for no reason sometimes, and when we ask what's up he turns bright red and mumbles random stuff" George carried on "we turn right from here, Fred."

"Right-o. If I hadn't known better I would have said he's in love. But who'd fall in love with Ron though. Forget love- who'd want to be in a relationship with Ron" Fred mused.

"That's no way to talk about your brother" Harry said, smiling.

"What are you going to do? Report me?" Fred challenged Harry good naturedly.

"I'll personally report you to your mother" Harry replied.

All Three laughed at this.

Fred stopped the car and said warmly "welcome to the Burrow, mate."

"You go inside, we'll carry your luggage" George said.

Harry walked towards the door and was just about to open it when it flung open to reveal Mrs. Weasley. She looked tired and pale but nevertheless happy to see Harry.

"Harry – how are you?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Fine" Harry replied through a rib-cracking hug.

"That's great! Come in!" She said.

Harry went in the Living room and saw bill, Mr. Weasley, Tonks and Ginny.

"How are you Harry?" Bill and Mr. Weasley asked at the same time.

"Good."

"Here," Tonks patted a seat beside her "sit here."

Harry sat down on the sofa where Tonks was seated. Just then Lupin entered the room. It looked like he almost stopped walking and looked surprised to see Harry for a fraction of a second, but when he smiled warmly at Harry, Harry told himself he was being paranoid.

"Harry, when did you come?" He asked.

"Just now."

"Oh, right. Well, welcome back. How're you feeling?" Lupin questioned

"Not bad," Harry said truthfully, smiling.

Lupin smiled back yet Harry noticed his smile did not reach eyes. They seemed expressionless. The brown eyes looked solid and in a way cold, as if it was a piece of cut down wood in the frosty cold. It didn't look warm and full of expression as it once was. It was almost as if he was blocking anyone from seeing inside him. Harry noticed he had bags under his eyes and he look exhausted. His hair had slightly more grey streaks than the last time he saw him.

"Would you like to sit?" Harry showed the seat between him and Tonks.

Lupin looked at the seat, took a slight breath in and let out a small sigh. He looked up at Harry and smiled a humorless smile "No thanks, Harry. I better go."

Harry watched him go with slight relief, it would have been awkward if he had accepted yet he felt a twinge of rejection. "What's up with him?"

Ginny sat between him and Tonks and Harry felt his heart skip a beat, but he could not understand why "He's like this most of the time. He was quite social in Grimmauld place, now it's like he doesn't want to be around people. Still you can't blame him. " She patted his hand and Harry felt a weird sensation. As if he had just swallowed a butterfly and it was fluttering its wings in his stomach. "What's up?"

"Nothing much" he shrugged "Where's Ron?"

"In the dining room, Setting the table –it was his turn" she replied.

Ron entered the room "Harry! You've arrived! "

"I know I have" Harry smiled; he walked over to Ron and gave him a brief, one armed hug which was returned by Ron "How're you?"

"Couldn't have been better" Ron beamed, and judging by the sparkling looks in his eyes and huge grin, he was.

"Is lunch ready, Ron? I'm starving!!!" Tonks said.

"Oh yeah!" remembered Ron "that's why I came here for, to say lunch was ready."

"Oooh, goody!" cried Tonks jumping to her feet quickly, knocking the vase of flowers on the coffee table and breaking it into pieces. "I'm really sorry; I'm such a klutz... I'll -"

"It's ok" reassured Bill "it's no problem. Repairo" He pointed his wand at the vase and the vase returned to its original form. Bill then placed it on the table putting the flowers and some water back in it.

"Now come on, men" Ginny said jokingly "Forward march. Oh a-eating we will go-"

"Ginny! Shut up!!!" Fred said irritated.

Harry laughed as he followed everyone to the dining room, Ron beside him chatting away.

Everyone was seated down eating and talking cheerfully. Ron, in particular, was blabbering away about the letters and postcards Hermione sent and whereabouts she had been in her European holiday tour with her parents. The only person not talking or eating was Lupin. He sat on the far left side of the table playing with his food. Harry joined in with the conversation glancing at Lupin every now and then, catching a glimpse of Ginny in the process too. Ginny had seated herself next to Lupin hoping he would open up a bit, but her attempt didn't work Lupin had barely eaten anything when he had excused himself from the table.