Chapter 2 - The Packets' Arrival
It had been four days since the letters from Hogwarts had arrived, and the Weasleys, accompanied by Harry and Hermione, were in Diagon Ally shopping for their new school supplies. They had already gotten all of their books and were on their way to the robe shop. None of them had gotten new robes in a couple of years and they were starting to look worn. When they entered the shop, Harry was glad to notice that he and his friends were the only ones in there.
"Good, this shouldn't take very long. I really want to look at the new brooms before we have to leave."
"Yeah, they said they were going to be showing a new broom sometime this week," said Ron. "I wonder if they'll have it out today." Ron got a dreamy look in his eyes as he started fantasizing about what the new broom would be like.
The four spent the next half hour getting fitted for their new Hogwarts robes. When they were finished with that, they walked around Diagon Ally for a while and window shopped. At five thirty that afternoon, Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione all met up with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley at the Leaky Cauldron so they could make their way back to the Burrow.
As the last person, Mr. Weasley, stepped out of the sizable kitchen fireplace, he noticed that the rest of the room's inhabitants were staring in disbelief at the table. He followed their gaze and saw what had dumbfounded them. On the table sat what looked like a complete Christmas dinner, minus a turkey that smelled like it was still cooking. He immediately knew something was out of the ordinary. The only people that had been home the entire day were Fred and George. Surely they weren't capable of something like this, were they?
Just then, the twins walked into the kitchen. They were both wearing nervous smiles and started helping to carry bags and boxes to peoples' rooms. When everything was put away, Fred motioned for everyone to have a seat around the table, and George went to retrieve the turkey. When all of them had been seated, except for George, Fred turned to Harry, Ron, and Hermione and handed each of them a thick envelope with the Hogwarts seal on it.
"Oh, these came for you while you were out shopping today," he stated.
"Thank you, Fred," said Hermione. "I was hoping they would come soon. I can't wait to find out more about what we'll being doing this year. It's going to be so exciting going to school in a different country."
Hermione was about to open her envelope, but forgot about it entirely when George set the giant turkey in the middle of the table. Everyone was in awe. The turkey, along with the rest of the meal, smelled delicious. Fred and George had obviously put a lot of work into this, but no one could understand why. But they really didn't care at the moment. They were just worried about getting some of the wonderful food that surrounded them.
After George had carved the bird, and everybody had taken what they wanted of the sides, they all enjoyed a very pleasant meal. The topic of discussion stayed mainly on the upcoming trip that three of the four students would be going on. But after a while it strayed to Fred and George's business.
"So, have you two run Zonko's out of business yet?" When Harry inquired as to how their joke shop was doing, the twins became nervous and fidgety again.
Fred gave a short chuckle before answering. "Well, not yet. Actually, Dad, there was something that George and I wanted to discuss with you..." Fred trailed off.
Mr. Weasley waited for his son to continue. When he realized that Fred wasn't going to, he prompted him. "Yes...?"
George took over at that point. "Do you remember the last time we tried out one of our new products here?" he asked.
Arthur looked at him, slightly confused. "Yes...?"
"And you do remember that we love you very much, right? I mean, look at this table. This has to prove something, doesn't it?" Fred was starting to look a little bit panicky.
Mr. Weasley did not like the direction this conversation was headed. "Yes..."
"Well we... I mean... Fred and I... we sort of... Why don't you just follow." With that, Fred, George, and Mr. Weasley stood up and headed up the stairs towards the bathroom.
After a few moments of tense silence, a muffled, "What the bloody hell happened in here?!" was heard in the kitchen. Harry and Ron exchanged amused glances, then bolted for the stairs. Thirty seconds later, the whole household was gathered outside the bathroom door, or, what was left of it anyway.
As it turned out, Fred and George had invited over some business associates and were giving a demonstration of their new Exploding Hand Soap. The twins thought they had worked out all of the bugs, but something about the explosion still was not right. The size of the explosion was supposed to be no bigger than the person's hand, and wasn't meant to harm anyone, but it had somehow taken out a wall and a half from the bathroom and knocked out the tester. They obviously still had some work to do.
Ten minutes later, after Mrs. Weasley had ranted and raved to the extent that she fainted, Fred and George were busy cleaning up their mess. They had been given the punishment of repairing the bathroom without using magic. Definitely not the way they wanted to spend the evening. Or the rest of the week, for that matter. Of course, Ron and Harry found this extraordinarily entertaining. They couldn't help but give the twins a few words of encouragement.
"Make sure you lift with your back," said Ron as Fred picked up a rather large piece of the wall off the floor. "You wouldn't want to hurt yourself." Fred glared at him, but went back to work without saying anything. Ron giggled at the look he received.
Harry felt the need to join in the festivities. "George, don't forget to sweep that corner over there. Yeah that one. The one that's really hard to reach." Harry also received a death glare, though it was much more severe than the one Ron got.
Although Ron knew he was walking on thin ice around the twins, he didn't seem to think he was in a terrible amount of danger. But, of course, he was wrong.
"Oh, and Fred-" Ron didn't get to finish his comment because Fred lunged at him, tackling him to the ground. It took Harry and George a full three minutes to wrestle Fred off of Ron. Once the two were finally separated, Harry suggested that he and Ron go take a look at their Hogwarts packets and let the twins settle down a little bit before trying to joke with them. Ron agreed while rubbing the spot on his neck where Fred had tried to strangle him.
When Harry and Ron returned to the kitchen, they found Hermione already half-way through her packet. She and Ginny had left the "scene" when Mrs. Weasley had started to yell. Hermione looked up from her reading and frowned when she heard the boys enter the room.
"You two really shouldn't provoke them like that. I'm beginning to wonder if you got those invitations by mistake."
"Oh, Hermione, we were just having a bit of fun. It's not like they've never done anything like that to anyone else. They deserve it," said Ron as he picked up his own packet and went into the next room to talk to his mother, who was sitting on the couch with a cup of tea.
Hermione turned her glance to Harry as Ron exited. Harry just shrugged, picked up his packet, and followed Ron into the living room to read it.
Harry sat down on the floor next to the couch. Mrs. Weasley had taken Ron's packet and was thoroughly reading it over. Ron was sitting very close to her on the couch, also trying to read what all the pages said. He was not having much luck and after a little bit completely gave up and decided to see what Harry's said. Harry emptied out his packet onto the floor. It consisted of about 20 nicely written pages. Skimming through it quickly, Harry found out that only the first 6 or so pages contained real information. All the rest were things that would need to be filled out in case of an emergency and so on.
Harry separated the useful information from the forms that needed filled out and put the latter back into the envelope. He was just about to read the first page when Ron reached over his shoulder and grabbed it from him.
"Hey, I was just about to read that," Harry said, a bit annoyed at Ron's actions.
Ron had just begun to read the first line when he felt a hand collide with the back of his head. Mrs. Weasley had taken notice of what he had done and was not very pleased.
"Ronald, you give that paper back to Harry right now. That's not the way we treat guests in this house."
"But Mum…" Ron began, but trailed off when she shot him a look that told him arguing would only cause more physical damage. Ron immediately handed the paper back to Harry.
"Ronald, I will be done with yours in just a few minutes. I am sure that you will not die before I finish," she said. Ron wanted to protest more, but decided that waiting was his best option. Instead of arguing, he sat back and once again tried reading over his mother's shoulder.
Now that Harry had his paper back, he could finally learn what was in store for him in the future. He read through the first page. It reminded him a lot of the invitation letter that Dumbledore had sent just a few days before.
Dear Mr. Potter,
Thank you for accepting this once-in-a-lifetime offer. This is sure to be a great experience for you. I'm positive that you will have a wonderful time meeting new people and learning about a different culture.
Once again, any forms included in this packet will need to be filled out prior to your return to school. There will be a meeting for all participants on September 2nd at 7:00 p.m. At this time, you will be expected to hand in your forms to your Head of House, and they will be happy to answer any questions that you have.
Once again, thank you for your willingness to participate in this exchange program. The success of this trip will determine if this offer will be made to future classes. Have fun!
Signed,
Albus Dumbledore
Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts Headmaster
Harry read this and concluded that it wasn't really a lot of helpful information, so he moved on to the next page. By now, Ron had given up on getting his own papers back and had moved from the couch to the floor. He was reading along with Harry.
Background Information about Allteline School of Sorcery
Allteline School of Sorcery was founded in the late 1700's by professors Harold and Christopher Allteline. These founding brothers completed their magical training and education at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Allteline started out as a fairly small school. Only around 50 students were enrolled the first year. When the school first opened, the Allteline brothers got help teaching classes from their wives, Marie and Sarah. As the years went on and the school enlarged, the professors decided that this new school would run more smoothly if it was operated the same as their alma mater. Because of this, the four houses in the school came to be.
At the beginning of their first year, students are sorted into their houses, Orion, Cassiopeia, Auriga, or Indus, by a candle ceremony. One student at a time is called upon and given a candle. The student must light the candle and wait for it to spark. Whatever color the sparks are determines what house the student will be placed in. Maroon for Orion, blue for Cassiopeia, purple for Indus, and green for Auriga. (Hogwarts students who will be attending Allteline this year will go through this process when they arrive).
Allteline School of Sorcery is now one of the more modern wizarding schools, presided over by Headmaster Randwin Napaliebalous. Staff and students at Allteline enjoy many modern conveniences such as a magical form of electricity. Although the school is a castle, the inside is furnished very comfortably. There is very little stone inside the building, and most classrooms are carpeted.
The students at Allteline are also allowed to travel away from the school on weekends, if they choose to do so. While some students like to visit their homes and families, others enjoy their freedom by exploring the city of Chicago, which is located about thirty minutes east of the school. While many people don't realize it, there are actually many wizarding hotspots to visit in downtown Chicago. Although this is a common activity, a parent or guardian's permission is needed for it. (Please see page 8 of this packet for the permission form).
"Woah, the spawn of Hogwarts. I can't wait to see what that's like," came from Ron.
"Spawn of Hogwarts? That makes it sound evil," said Harry.
Ron thought about this for a minute before responding. "It probably is evil. I mean, everything else we've been involved in has been evil in some way, hasn't it?" It seemed that he really did think this was possible.
Harry realized this and said sarcastically, "Ah, yes, I can see it now. The school building itself is going to be possessed, and the floor of our dorm is going to open up and swallow us whole."
Ron paled just a little at this. He didn't seem to understand that Harry was just teasing him.
"Oh, Ronald, you really are very gullible," Hermione said as she walked into the living room. She had witnessed the boys' conversation from the doorway. "Harry was joking. Not everything we've been involved in has been evil. Have you forgotten about S.P.E.W.? There is absolutely nothing evil about that."
Ron immediately got his normal color, plus a little more, back in his face. He groaned as Hermione brought up her house elf liberation organization.
"Ugh, Hermione, not now. I'm tired and don't feel like hearing a lecture about elf's rights. I want to get through the rest of these papers so I can go to bed." Ron rubbed his eyes and then yawned, as if proving his point about being tired.
"How much more do you have to read?" asked Hermione.
"Too much. The words are so small, and there's so many on each page, and there's so many pages. It's going to take me forever to get this done." Really, it was less than four pages, but he knew that if he whined enough he could get out of it.
"Fine, I'll tell you what it says. Heaven forbid you should actually do something that makes you uncomfortable once in a while."
Ron stood up from his spot on the ground, with a huge grin on his face, and hugged Hermione, who blushed. "You're the best, Hermione." He then laid down on the couch and closed his eyes. (Mrs. Weasley had removed herself from the room when the boys starting talking and making too much noise for her to concentrate on reading).
Hermione saw that Ron had closed his eyes. "Don't you dare go to sleep, Ron. I don't want to be talking to myself."
"I'm not going to sleep, I'm just resting my eyes. And besides, you wouldn't be talking to yourself. Harry's still here, isn't he?"
"Yeah, I am still here," Harry spoke up. "I should be offended that you didn't remember me. But, I'm not, so please continue. I don't want to read anymore either."
"Fine. The next page is just a list of rules that we're supposed to follow while we're away. Some of them are rules from Allteline, and some of them are just things that the Hogwarts staff wants us to remember, so we portray our school as a wonderful learning institution through our actions. I'm not going to read that page to you, I want you two read it yourselves. It's definitely something you two will need to go over thoroughly.
"The page after that is a list of the classes we will be taking and a description of each of them. There really aren't that many differences in the classes. Foreign Cultures Studies is the only class that looks extremely different from ours. It says that every month the class chooses a new country to study. They learn all about the culture of that country and learn the language spoken there. That actually sounds like a class that should be offered at Hogwarts. Maybe I should talk to McGonagal about it sometime." Hermione stopped talking for a moment while she thought about classes. She was brought out of her daydream quite suddenly, though, by Ron clearing his throat rather loudly.
"See, I'm still not asleep. You probably thought I would be by now, didn't you?" Ron asked accusingly.
"What? Oh, sorry. Anyway, the next page is a list of all of the new books and school supplies we will be receiving when we get to Hogwarts. It says that we will also be receiving a new trunk to carry all of our supplies for the other school, so we won't have to worry about keeping all of our things from both schools with us. Hopefully the new trunks aren't too small, I'd still like to carry a few extra books with me.
"The sixth page is a dress code that we've been asked to follow once we arrive at the new school. It's really not that bad. I actually think this could be better than the Hogwarts dress code. At Allteline they aren't required to wear a school uniform, persay. They can wear whatever they like, as long as it doesn't go against the code. The only thing they have to wear is a robe that's the color of their house. And even that doesn't have to look identical to everyone else's. If they want to have their robes made a special way, that's perfectly okay."
Hermione looked up from her paper to see the reactions from the boys at this bit of information. The only thing that greeted her was a slight snoring sound. Both of the boys had fallen asleep.
Hermione shook her head and sighed, chuckling slightly, as she stood up from her seat on the floor. She then headed to her bedroom for the night.