Back at the Burrow

Finally the tall purple bus stopped in front of a very rickety house, it looked like a pig-sty with lots of stories built on top. The average muggle would think that if a breeze happened to pass them by it would fall down instantly, and that only magic would keep it upright. But as a matter of fact that was exactly what did hold it up.

Harry followed Arthur, Ron and Ginny down the many stairs from the top of the bus to the bottom. Before he got off he gave Stan a tip of seven sickles. As he stepped out he took a deep breath of fresh air, he could hear the chirping of the crickets in the undergrowth and he could see a few knobbly foreheads of gnomes, which were angry at the sound the Knight Bus gave off. He smiled and could just feel the magic radiating from this house.

As he crossed the threshold he smelled a delicious aroma coming from the kitchen. A smiling faced woman came out of the kitchen with a mixing bowl in her hand. She was slightly plump and had the famous red Weasley hair. Her name was Molly Weasley.

"Hello Harry! Welcome back! I hope you're hungry, I've been cooking up a treat for everyone." She beamed at Harry, Ron, Ginny and Arthur.

"You can count on it!" said a ravenous looking Ron.

"Ron, be a dear and take Harry and his luggage up to your room."

"'K. Come on Harry!" spoke Ron again.

The two boys rushed up the stairs to Ron bedroom.

The walls of his room were completely orange, his bedsheets were orange, his rug was orange and his curtains were orange. From all over the lurid orange walls, the same seven people smiled down at him. These people were the Chudley Cannons, and surprisingly enough,their team colour was orange. Harry spotted a shiny new broom-stick propped up at the end of the bed.

"Whats that?" Asked Harry, pointing towards the broom.

"Oh," Ron grinned and went over to get it, "Its a Nimbus 2000, like your old one! Great, huh!"

Harry wasn't sure how Ron had got hold of it, because though the Weasley's were a lovely family, they were extremely poor. So he chose his words carefully,

"Erm, I don't mean to sound rude but-" and much to Harry's relief Ron cut in.

"It's from Fred and George, Weasley's Wizard Wheezes really took off, so they decided that if me and Ginny were going to be on the team, then we would need decent brooms!"

Harry was truly happy that for once in Ron's life, something he owned wasn't a hand-me-down.

"Hey thats great Ron!" he said.

Ron looked at his broom for a couple of seconds and then voiced a question that has been spinning in Harry's mind ever since they left school at the end of last year.

"Harry, who do you think'll be Captain of the team this year? It could well be you, I mean, you'll be the person thats been on the team the longest."

Harry wasn't sure whether he really wanted to be the captain, on one hand he was sure that he could bring together a really good team; but on the other hand it could prove to be a lot to handle, with all the homework they'll be piling on in preparation for their NEWTs at the end of 7th year.

Ron saw the unsure look on Harry's face

"You would yes? If they asked you to be?" He asked

"Probably. Lets not talk about this at the moment, cross that bridge when we come to it eh?" Harry said quickly.

And they didn't talk about it at all for the rest of the night. They just talked about the proffesional Quidditch teams in the league, Hogwarts, and plans for the rest of the holiday. As Harry lay in bed before he slept, his last thought was, in spite of everything that had happened to him recently, how incredibly lucky to have a friend like Ron, who was willing to take him into his own home.