Part Four

Molly sat there looking at the black haired girl. "Erin, where did they go?"

"I promised I wouldn't—" A noise downstairs caused Molly to jump up and rush down there. Erin was a little slower on the uptake. She was still on the stairs when she heard Molly's voice magnified about twice its normal decibel.

"Where have you been?" Oh boy. "Harry, dear, how nice to see you…Beds empty! No note! Car gone! Erin covering for you! You could have been seen! You could have died!" Erin finally got down there after this tirade. "Of course I'm not blaming you, Harry dear."

"They were starving him, Mum." Erin saw Ron, Harry, Fred and George all standing there, looking quite guilty and Ron talking. "There were bars on his windows."

"Well, you'd better hope I don't put bars on your window, Ronald Weasley." Even Fred and George looked frightened; of course Fred and George were rather frightened of their mother. "Now, how about a spot of breakfast?"

Molly swept passed them into the kitchen. Erin watched her go and then turned to the boys. "She tried half the night to get something out of me. She couldn't." Erin grinned.

Fred and George were smiling. "All right, that's our girl."

"I'm not your girl." Erin said hugging Harry. He hugged her back. "So, I assume you were kept from answering our letters…did you even get them?"

"No." Harry said sighing. "A house elf has been stopping the post and trying to get me not to go back to Hogwarts this year."

Erin raised an eyebrow. "A house elf? That's strange."

"Finally, someone thinks it's strange." Harry said looking up at the ceiling. "They think house elves are normal and hovering between disbelief and wondering if I hit my head on something."

Erin gave the Weasley's a look and they all looked away feigning innocence. "Harry, believe me, I have seen things you don't even want to know about, but a house elf stopping your letters and trying to get you not to go back to Hogwarts is very strange and also severely punishable. But, hey, strange things happen even in the Wizarding world. Ok, breakfast, Molly is a great cook." Erin took his arm and pulled him into the kitchen.

Once Harry sat down Molly filled his plate with pancakes, bacon and eggs. "There you go, Harry, tuck in. Just one moment, Erin and your toast will be done."

"Thank you, Molly." Erin said sweetly.

"Mum loves Erin." Ron said sitting down beside Harry and across from Erin. "She eats and Mum likes to see a girl do more than pick at food."

Erin grinned. "Can't help it, fast metabolism and I am always active."

"And you still have a great figure. OW!" Fred rubbed the back of his head. "What did I say, Mum?"

"That's not something you compliment a girl about, especially not in front of your mother." Molly chided as George saw the opening and slipped into the seat beside the girl he was so smitten with. Fred took the seat on the other side noticing it was empty, so he wasn't upset about it.

"Morning, Weasley's." Mr. Weasley came through the door.

"Morning, Dad!" The Weasley's called out. Erin just called out 'morning' and Molly said 'Arthur'.

He sat down as his wife loaded up his plate. "Nine raids last night! Nine!" He was saying.

"Raids?" Harry asked.

"Dad works for the Ministry of Magic." Ron explained. "In the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. Dad loves Muggles, thinks their fascinating."

Mr. Weasley looked around nodding to Erin and his twins and then he looked at Ron, Harry and Percy, who had joined them in his nightshirt and uncombed hair. He stared at Harry for a moment. "And who are you?"

Harry looked surprised for a moment and then said, "Oh, I'm Harry, sir, Harry Potter."

"Good lord, are you really?" Erin slapped her hand over her mouth so she wouldn't laugh too loudly. Harry nodded and, seeing Erin trying not to laugh, he grinned. "Well, Ron's told us all about you, of course—" Erin turned into George's shoulder shaking with laughter. The redheaded boy looked like Christmas had come early this year. "When did he get here?" Mr. Weasley was oblivious to Erin's laughter.

"This morning." Molly said and he nodded. "Your sons flew that enchanted car of yours to Surrey and back last night."

"Did you really?" Mr. Weasley asked as Molly turned away. "How did it go?"

Erin's laughter could not be contained any longer and while the boys' all answered at once in the affirmative Erin was practically falling off her chair with giggles. Molly slapped her husband in the shoulder. "Oh, I mean that was very wrong of you boys, very wrong indeed." He leaned over to Fred. "I want a full report after breakfast."

Ron and Harry had shared an amused expression and an even more one watching Erin. "Erin, are you all right?" Harry asked smiling.

Before Erin could answer Ginny came running into the room wearing her nightgown. "Oh, Mummy, have you seen my jumper?"

"Yes, dear, it was on the cat." Molly said as if this was a normal occurrence and in the Weasley household, it was.

Ginny caught sight of Harry and her face turned into practical horror. "Hello." Harry said.

Ginny didn't say a word she just turned around and ran back to the stairs. A moment later the door to her room slammed. Erin laughed even more. "Oh, that was classic."

"What did I do?" Harry asked Ron.

"Ginny." Ron said. "She's been talking about you all summer." Fred and George exchanged looks of 'there is going to be teasing later'. "Bit annoying, really."

"Yeah." Erin said still trying to contain herself. "Who wants to talk about Harry all summer?"

Ron snorted at this. "Well, according to Ginny, Erin, you two do an awful lot of that."

Erin shot him a look. "Shut up, Ron."

Harry looked a little confused as he looked between his two best friends. "Is something going on that I don't know about?"

"Constantly." Erin said grinning. "There is always something going on that we don't know about."

"That's not what I meant." Harry said. "But that's all I'm going to get out of you. Are you all right?" He asked again.

"Oh, fine." Erin said. "It's that time of the month, so I do act a little weird."

Ron's fork dropped and so did his mouth as he stared at the girl. Harry looked at Ron. "Ron, you've known her almost a year and you're surprised at this?"

Ron was bright red and he looked down at his plate mumbling something. "Sorry, Ron." Erin said. "I didn't quite catch that."

He mumbled something again and then cleared his throat. "Let's talk about something else."

"Well, Ron, I'm surprised at you." Mr. Weasley said cheerfully eating his breakfast. "We've had this talk before, do we need to have another one?"

"No!" Ron said very pointedly. "Why don't you have a talk with Harry, Dad, I'm sure he needs one."

Harry raised his eyebrows at Ron. "No, I don't think I do, Ron. I had Health class in school the year before last and I am pretty sure I understand everything. If not I'll probably ask Erin or Hermione. I think they'd know."

"Probably." Erin said. She thought it was funny how different Ron and Harry were about things. Harry was pretty laid back about it and he really didn't care, Ron, on the other hand, was mortified at the mere mention of 'girls'.

"So, Harry." Mr. Weasley said. "You must know all about Muggles, what exactly is the function of a rubber duck?"

Erin giggled again, she knew the function…it kept Muggles entertained in the bathtub. "Oh, umm…" Harry said.

There was a hoot from outside. "That will be Errol with the post." Molly said and sure enough the feather duster of an owl slammed into the closed side of the mirror a second later. "Oh, fetch it, Percy, will you, dear?"

Percy nodded and went to the window. "Errol."

"He's always doing that." Ron said.

The bird hopped into the window. "Oh, it's our Hogwarts letters, they've sent us Erin's and Harry's, as well."

"Dumbledore doesn't miss a trick that man." Mr. Weasley said as Percy handed out the letters.

Erin glanced over her list and saw most of it was comprised of Gilderoy Lockhart books. She glanced down it some more and rolled her eyes. She hated Gilderoy Lockhart. Mrs. Peabroom had the most insane crush on the man and it was the most annoying thing in the world. She felt like throwing up every time he was mentioned. Mrs. Peabroom was forever saying something like, 'Well according to Gilderoy…' or 'Oh, no dear! Gilderoy says to do it this way…' it was enough to make you want to use poison…on them!

"This lot won't come cheap, Mum." Fred was saying.

"We'll manage." Molly said as she held Harry's list in her hand. "There's only one place we're going to get all of this. Diagon Alley." Molly was still looking at the list. "Erin, Harry, you've brought your keys, right?"

"Keys?" Harry asked.

"Keys to the Gringott's vault, Harry." Erin said. "Yes, Molly, Mrs. Peabroom gave me mine before I left."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I have mine."

"Good, then." She said. "Oh, eat up. Erin, would you like some more?"

Erin had already finished her plate. "You know me."

"Oh, that's right." Molly said. "You've only had one plate." Molly was smiling and then she heaped up the plate with eggs, bacon, sausages and toast again. "I do love to see a girl who isn't afraid to eat."

"You'll never find me any different." Erin said.

"Yeah, Mum, you should have seen her last year." Fred said.

"She ate a whole cheesecake, by herself…" George said.

"Before breakfast…" Fred.

"And then had two plates at breakfast." George.

"I eat, ok?" Erin said laughing. "Nothing wrong with that."

"Nothing at all, dear." Molly said fondly. "You need some meat on those bones."

"A little weight would look good." Fred said looking the girl over.

"Quiet, Fred." Erin said. She lowered her voice. "I could show Molly the painting."

Fred went back to his breakfast. "You wouldn't, would you?"

"I would." Erin said.

"You're no fun." George said.

"Only your dreams." Erin said.

George and Fred both snorted and almost choked on their food. "What is wrong with you two?" Molly asked surprised.

"Nothing, Mum." Fred got out still laughing.