Veritaserum

Disclaimer: Nothing's changed since last chapter, I sadly don't even own Leo; he was created from the idea of the Weasley cousin that's never talked about -chuckle-


Almost an hour after Hermione had owled her letters, the occupants of the Weasley household slowly began to wake up. Well actually, it was more Molly Weasley yelling at the boys to get up and de-gnome the garden. After she had made sure they were all up, she descended the stairs heading for the kitchen, planning on making herself some tea before she started cooking everyone's breakfast.

About to make her tea, the woman spotted two owls on her window sill. One was a Tawny owl that looked like it came from Hogwarts, and the other was a Barn owl with a small sack tied to one of its legs. She had no idea who that one was from. Going over to the owls, she took their letters and the sack, checking who they were addressed to. Seeing one was to Ron in what looked to be Hermione's hand writing, she set it on the counter and then looked to the other. The handwriting on the front of the letter gave her no help in figuring out who it was from.

Opening the sealed parchment with the tip of her wand, her eyes skimmed the letter and nearly dropped it in shock when she saw her cousin's signature on the bottom of it.
"Now why would he be writing to me out of nowhere,"

Molly mused to herself as she went back to the beginning of the letter and read it over carefully.

Dear Molly,
Hello, how are you doing? In good health, I hope. I shall get right into my reason for sending you this letter, instead of wasting your time with boring small talk. My son, Leo, has become far too advanced in many of his classes to stay here and continue going to Cellis, so I have decided that he will transfer into Hogwarts. Seeing as how neither his mother nor I can accompany him to Britain, I have decided that he should stay with you until he leaves school. What is family for if not help in a pinch? But do not worry I'm not just sending him too you with nothing. Tied to Tybalt's leg is a sack, open it and look inside.

Molly paused her reading for a moment to look inside the sack, and she nearly dropped everything she was holding again. Inside the pouch was numerous gold Galleons.--

I am going to send Leo an allowance every month so that he can be self sufficient. You won't, and shouldn't, have to worry about buying any of his school things. Also, if he asks for money just tell him he has his allowance, I've already told him that everything he buys is going to be out of his own money.

Leo should arrive sometime soon after you get this letter, as he is flooing to your home around nine. The boy is well mannered and polite so you should have no trouble with him, but if you do send me an owl and I'll take care of it properly.

Your loving cousin,
Bran O'Connor

As soon as she finished reading, Molly looked at one of the only clocks in the house that told time correctly. Seeing as it was eight fifty-nine, she assumed Leo would be getting there any minute. Hearing someone Floo in behind her confirmed her thoughts and setting Ron's letter on the counter she turned to have a look at her nephew. She immediately saw a red haired, pale boy with freckles and thought it was Ron trying to sneak in but once she had waved her wand at him and said "Scourgify" she knew that it wasn't one Ron, meaning it must be Leo.

The boy standing in front of the fireplace had almost blood red hair, though it was a little too dark to be called that. One of the thing Molly Weasley thought was that he needed a hair cut. The boy's shaggy hair was hanging in front of his eyes messily and it covered the top half of his ears. Which is why it took her a moment to realize that he had his ear and his eyebrow pierced. The earring in his ear seemed to have a lion claw hanging from it and the witch couldn't tell exactly, because of his hair, but it seemed like there was what looked to be a miniature green barbell through his eyebrow which made Molly wonder about Bran's authority over the boy.

As Molly continued her examination of the boy she noticed a scar that ran from his left eye to the tip of his nose. She decided she would ask him how that happened later on. Her eyes made a sweeping check of his clothing choices and she had to approve, although she had a feeling that he only dressed nice to make a good impression given his shaggy hair and pierced face. Leo wore a sensible navy blue sweater and jeans, and an ivy green cloak to top it all off.

"Well, you must be Leo, I'm Molly Weasley, I just read your father's letter not two minutes ago." She laughed to herself then continued, "I have your allowance here for you and I'll have Ron show you to your room once he gets himself out of bed."

Molly smiled good naturedly offering the pouch to Leo. The wizard smiled in return as he took the pouch and tucked it into an inside pocket off his robe.
"Thanks Mrs. Weas-"
"Oh, you can call me Molly, or Aunt Molly whichever you're most comfortable with, dear."
"Sure thing, Aunt Molly. Thanks again for letting me stay with you, I realize my Da' kind of forced it onto you." Leo smiled apologetically rubbing the back of his neck with a hand.

Molly noticed that he had a thick Irish accent, but it was fine since she could still understand him. Smiling, she waved her hand dismissively.
"Don't trouble yourself over it dear, I'm always happy to help out family, although right now I do need to start cooking. Would you mind going to Ron's room and making sure he's up? It's the fifth landing, first door you come upon." Without giving Leo much time to answer, Molly turned and began to prepare breakfast.

Turning, he looked at his things which Molly surely hadn't noticed or she would of commented upon them. On top of his suitcase was a very large cage holding an equally large Eurasian Eagle Owl. The rare owl, named Portia, had been given to him as a gift when he got the highest marks in Cellis in his 3rd year. Laying next to his suitcase was a young wolf her head resting on her paws. The wolf, named Calpurnia, had been raised from birth by witches so she was very tame. She had been given to him for his seventh birthday, and the two had become very close since then. Luckily Leo's father had made special arrangements with Dumbledore so that he could bring Cal and Portia with him to Hogwarts.

"C'mon Nia, let's go meet our relatives."

Upon hearing his voice, Cal stood up quickly and bumped her snout against his hand gently, letting him know she was ready to go. The young man smiled down at the wolf. After petting Cal for a moment, Leo was about to go find his cousin's room when he thought about letting Portia out. So he reached over and opened her cage taking her out of it carefully. The large owl nipped his ear affectionately and then flew out the open window, the tawny owl following her seeming to have gotten tired of waiting for a return letter from Ron.

Molly turned as she saw an owl flying past her head and out the window. She opened her mouth about to make sure that was his owl but then saw Calpurnia.

"Leo O'Connor why is there a wolf in my kitchen!"

Leo winced as the observant woman noticed Cal, reaching down with his free hand, he stroked the top of Cal's head.
"Oh, you mean Calpurnia? She wouldn't hurt a fly, I swear."

As Molly stared at the wolf looking her over, she sighed in acceptance.

"Fine, fine just make sure she doesn't eat the gnomes. As annoying as they are I would hate for the poor creatures to become a meal."

Leo chuckled and nodded before took off his robe and draped it over Portia's now empty cage, then went to find the stairs. He found them quickly enough once he stepped into the living area.

It took the boy and his wolf a full minute and a half to climb up to the fifth landing, and all the while he was wishing they had elevators, seeing as how it would make things so much easier. Dismissing the thought, he stood on the correct landing for a moment before glancing around. When he saw a door with a sign on it that said 'Ronald Weasley' he stepped in front of it, knocking a few times on the door.

There were footsteps, and Leo could of sworn he heard some choice words being muttered by the boy behind the door, who was angry at being woken up. A second later the door opened revealing a half asleep Ron.

Leo almost thought he was looking in a mirror until he realized that the other wizard's hair was flaming red and he had green eyes, but other than those two things the boys could have passed for twins. Cal, who was peering around her master's legs, also seemed slightly confused by the similarity of the two boys.

Ron blinked staring at the kid in front of him, he had no idea who he was other than he looked a lot like himself. Only he had dark red hair and blue eyes, and Ron's eyes widened as he saw there was a wolf standing behind him. He gulped audibly which made the other teen chuckle.
"Don't worry about Cal she's as dangerous as a Diricawl, which isn't saying much. Oh I'm Leo O'Connor, my dads the second cousin who's never talked about." Leo grinned, his words obviously in jest.

Ron laughed nervously, still not quite comfortable with the wolf yet. He stuck his hand out to shake Leo's.
"I'm Ron Weasley, you'll probably end up sharing my room, it may be crowded if Harry ends up staying with us too, but it shouldn't be too bad."

Ron closed his door and turned to go down the stairs, but Leo reached out, grabbing his arm with a devious glint in his eyes.

"Hey Ron, feel like stirring up some mischief?"

Ron looked back at his cousin, and he noticed how similar the look was to how his brother's looked when they were planning something. He grinned, thinking maybe he'd finally have someone in the Weasley family to really connect with.
"Sure, what do you have in mind?"

Leo said nothing, and instead pulled out his Elder wand and magicked his own hair colour to match Ron's. As he watched the other's hair become the same as his own, his jaw dropped. Soon after he regained his composure and said,
"Wicked, Mum won't be able to tell us apart."

Leo laughed and nodded, and also realizing that it was slightly creepy how closely the two resembled each other. Putting his wand away, he gave Ron a light push towards the stairs, which brought him back to reality. The two descended the stairs, and as they went, Leo thought up another idea. He slipped his wand from his robes, and silently transfigured his clothing to mimic Ron's; a simple red shirt and jeans. Humming contentedly to himself, he tucked the wand back into his pocket and reached down to pet Cal as the trio walked into the kitchen.


A/N: Wheee, another chapter of Veritaserum done, oh and the reason Leo can do magic is because he's 18, he had to repeat a year of Muggle school which made him enter Cellis (a completely made up place I thought of -laugh-) a year late. The next chapter Hermione visits Harry giving him quite a shock, and also receives a shock of her own. Please R&R I love everyone who does )

Review Replies (RR)
Emikae - Yay, my first reviewer -gives a cookie- :D My beta says thank you and she's glad that you reviewed also ) Oh, don't worry about rambling I do it all the time, I dyed my hair black the other day actually, was quite fun.

WORDS OF THE BETA: The BETA says that Panda has serious comma, sentence fragment, tense shifts and run-on sentence problems, but other than that, she can spell well and has fairly good grammar and word choice. XD Shakespeare rocks my effin' socks! Whoo hoo!

A/N: Had to edit because I forgot that the Weasley's fireplace is in their kitchen, not the living area