"Quite the amazing things these muggles dream up." Mr. Weasley said, admiring a blender with an amazed expression
"Indeed, so how will we be getting to your house, Mr. Weasley?" asked Chris, enjoying the look on Mr. Weasley's face.
"Oh, right, we'll be using the Knight bus. Whenever you're ready." Replied Mr. Weasley. Chris ran upstairs and after some muffled conversation, came down ready to go, but without a trunk.
"All done." He said with a smile, but stopped when he saw the confused looks on Harry and Mr. Weasley's face. He removed a small jewelry box from his pocket. "It's all in here." He said, while waving it before returning it to his pocket. They left with no goodbye to anyone it the church and headed toward Number twelve privet drive but were greeted by to the sounds of Uncle Vernon shouting at Dumbledore. Harry opened the door to clarify the problem.
"NO BLOODY MAGIC!" Vernon shouted, his face was already quite red, but became redder as Harry walked in. "YOU! GET HIM OUT OF HERE!" Just as Vernon said it, Dumbledore flew down the stairs and they all left through the same current of air.
When they arrived at the burrow, Harry was greeted by the whole Weasley family.
"Oh Harry, I was starting to get worried about you, living with those muggles, you must be starving, come have something to eat." Mrs. Weasley pushed him towards the kitchen where he met up with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and the twins.
After Hermione was done choking the air out of him, Ron held out his hand to greet Harry. "Hey, mate, how's the summer going?" Ron asked courteously, obviously the effect Hermione was playing on him during the break. He shook Ron's hand and introduced the Weasley's to his new friend.
"Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George, this is Chris. Apparently he's a transfer student to Hogwarts this year." Harry said. Hermione eyes instantly sparked up.
"I wasn't aware Hogwarts had an exchange program…well none the less it's a pleasure to meet you." She said, as if covering something up. Ron and the rest made their introductions and they all walked outside.
"Quite a nice piece of land you guys have here. Been in the family long?" He asked. Harry new the burrow was not much to look at, but Chris didn't seem to think of it as a heap of rubbish. "It really has a homey feel to it. Do you mind if I ask where I'm going to sleep?" He asked.
"Oh, right then, probably with Harry and me, I'll let you know if anything changes. With so many people here, mum has had to juggle around rooms." Ron responded.
"Well just tell her I didn't mean to be a bother, I'll sleep outside if the need be." He said. He looked around as if looking for another topic to discuss. "So what kind of magic do we learn at Hogwarts?" He asked. Ginny jumped at the question.
"Well we learn the basics, charms, transfiguration, potions, defense against the dark arts and so on. Later on in the years we can learn specialties and such. Most of the teachers are nice; of course you'll run across a couple of bad eggs." She said. "Snape." They all said in unison.
Chris smirked and resumed speaking. "And which one is your favorite?" He asked Ginny. Her ears turned slightly red, as did Ron's, but not for the same reason.
"Why do you care? It's not like its any of your business." Ron snapped. He was getting quite hot tempered in his old age.
"I was asking the young lady a question. Don't get your knickers in a twist." He said with a smirk. He wasn't seriously asking for trouble, but apparently Ron was giving it to him.
"That's it, you and me, right here, right now." Ron said, he got up and waited for Chris to stand as well. The twins started laughing.
"Harry, is that the kid that destroyed Dudley?" Fred asked with glee in his voice.
"That would be the one, but I don't remember telling you." Harry said, feeling rather confused.
"Well we got bored and traveled over" Fred started. George continued. "And, arrived just in time to see old Dudley boy beaten to a pulp in the street." Harry laughed at the memory.
"Hold on a second then, how did u know it wasn't me?" Harry asked. The twins laughed.
"No offence Harry, but I don't think Voldemort himself could deliver such a fierce walloping as Dudley had endured." Fred replied. Chris stood up and cracked his knuckles.
"I am normally a man of piece, but if you u want violence then you got it sister." He said with a twinkle in his eye. He rubbed his forearms and pointed at Ron. "If you don't give up after the first 5 seconds then you will be beaten like a red headed step child." Chris laughed after the statement then started bobbing around Ron. Ginny, who seemed rather angry at Ron, was cheering for Chris, with Hermione and the twins. Harry was feeling indifferent, so he didn't say a word.
Ron sized up Chris for a short time before throwing the first punch. That was Ron's first and last moment of glory. Chris reached with his right hand, caught Ron's hand at the wrist and twisted it until his arm was straight behind him, then Chris kicked Ron's leg and brought him down to the ground, then let go of his arm.
"This is your last warning," Chris said joyfully, knowing that Ron wouldn't give up. Ron stood up and held his wrist for a moment, before going into a boxing like wrestling stance.
Chris just shook his head and backed up, lowered his hands and laughed. He looked at Hermione, and said "Hey, would you like to go out some time?" This was enough to throw Ron over the edge. He ran at top speed with his fist poised to punch, before he got close enough, Chris grabbed the whole of his face with his hands, and the rest of Ron's body went limp and flew out until Ron's legs were almost above his head, then Chris threw him down. This sent the twins into a fit of laughter. Hermione went and looked to see if Ron was at least conscious. Chris just walked back to Harry and sat down.
"We'll he sure knows how to throw a fit." He said to Harry.
"Well he wouldn't have gone stark raving mad if you hadn't asked Hermione out on a date." Harry pointed out. Chris looked at him then at Hermione.
"Well I didn't ask his girlfriend out, I asked his sister." He replied. Harry looked over at Ginny and realized they were sitting right next to each other, it was an easy mix up.
"Oh, but still…" Harry trailed off.
"Yeah yeah, I get what you're saying, I wanted to ask her out when I first saw her, but didn't know when. Behind my rough, manly exterior, there's a teenager with an extremely low confidence in himself." He chuckled, "That adrenaline can do wonders for a man, eh?" He said with a smirk. He noticed Ginny walking over and stood up. "Have you considered my offer, fair maiden?" He asked. She smiled.
"I would be delighted to, I'm just glad my freak of a brother didn't scare you out of my family." He smiled at her remark, after that she kissed his cheek and went back into the house. Fred and George walked over and sat down on the ground with Harry and Chris.
"Don't let the red hair fool you. She's pure evil that one." Fred said with a grin. Chris smiled.
"What can I say, I'm a sucker for red heads. Hell, if I hadn't asked her out, then one of you would be next." He said with a smile. The twins laughed and George started making lustful looks at Chris.
"You're not so bad your self there big boy." George said with an odd seductive look. Then the twins broke out in laughter, which Harry could not help but joining in on, Chris smirked.
"Sorry, but we're going to have to stay friends. I'm just not into you like that." He said, then watched Ron and Hermione walk pass. Hermione stopped in front of them.
"You know you didn't have to abuse him this badly." She said to Chris. He looked her square in the eye.
"He didn't have to fight me, plus I warned him twice." He pointed out. She looked much like she didn't care how badly Ron was beaten. She let out a sigh and said.
"Oh well, just do try to keep him in one piece from now on." She said. Chris gave her a small salute and told her not to worry. As her and Ron walked off, Harry could have sworn her say something along the lines of "Serve's you right."
It wasn't long before Mrs. Weasley called them in for dinner. They all took their seats, but only after a long while of careful deliberation. It ended up being arranged as such: Harry, Chris, Ginny, Fred, George, Hermione, and finally Ron, to make sure there was a safe enough distance for Ron not to try anything utterly stupid. Chris was busy making small talk with Ginny, and Ron and Hermione were busy doing the same.
"So Harry, can we interest you in some new gags this term?" Fred asked. "We have lots of new inventions, like this Fake Fizzing Whiz bee." George said. "You give them to the unsuspecting passerby, who puts in his mouth, and is disappointed because of the lack of desired effect." Fred finished.
"So all it is, is a dud then?" Harry asked, it seemed quite low key for something Weasley worthy.
"Well we only made it a dud because we couldn't afford to give it the normal affect and the…special affect." Fred replied. "The unsuspecting eater of the product sweats completely green water for a day, then the insult of your choice on their forehead for another six days." George said with glee, they sure were getting quite good in the pranking field.
Dinner was superb as usual, Chris was impressed with whatever she made. Apparently steak and kidney pie was not that big in the states. The sleeping arrangements changed once Mrs. Weasley found out about the days events. Chris got to sleep in Percy's old room, which he found rather bland, so he used that excuse to lounge about with Ginny and Hermione in their room. Before Chris walked into their room, he knocked on Ron's door and said the two girls decided to play magical truth or dare. Though it seemed very unusual for the two of them, Harry and Ron went along reluctantly, not knowing what they were in for. Although Harry did have some idea of what was to come.
