Here we go, chapter 3 of Chamber of Secrets!


George's voice echoed from the yard. "He's back! Dad's home!"

The boys rushed in the door from the garden, hands filthy from digging for gnomes. Mr. Weasley slumped in a kitchen chair, glasses off, eyes closed. He was a thinner man, going bald, but the hair he did have left no doubt which children were his. He wore long green travel robes, that were dusty and well used.

"What a night," He mumbled, groping for the teapot. I nudged it into his hand, though he seemed not to notice. "Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to hex me when I wasn't looking."

He took a gulp of tea with a sigh.

"Find anything, Dad?" Fred asked.

"Just a few shrinking door keys and a biting tea kettle." Mr. Weasley yawned. "There was some pretty nasty stuff that wasn't my department though. Mortlake was taken in for questioning about some very odd ferrets, but that's the committee on experimental charms, thank goodness..."

"Ferret? Must mean Draco Malfoy." I muttered. George heard me and snickered.

"Why would anyone make door keys shrink, Dad?" He asked, rather than address my musings.

"It's just muggle baiting." Sighed Mr. Weasley. "Sell them a key that keeps shrinking to nothing so they can't find it. Of course, it's rather hard to catch onto such things, as the poor muggles won't admit the key shrinks. Keep insisting they must have lost it, rather than admit to the idea of magic. The things our lot 'ave taken to enchanting-"

"LIKE CARS FOR INSTANCE?" Mrs. Weasley had appeared at his side with a fire poker.

Mr. Weasley's eyes went wide. "Ca-cars, Molly dear?"

"Yes. Arthur. Cars." said Mrs. Weasley. "Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife he just wanted to take it apart to see how the bloody thing worked, while really he was enchanting it to fly."

Mr. Weasley blinked. " Well, dear, I think you will find that said wizard, well that he would be quite within the law to do so, even if- erm- even if he had been better off to tell his wife what he intended... There's a little loophole in the law you see... You'll find, as long as he had no intention of ever using the car to fly, well... The fact that the car could fly wouldn't-"

"Arthur Weasley!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "You made sure that loophole was there when you wrote that law! Just so you can carry on with your tinkering with all that Muggle rubbish in your shed! And for your information, Harry arrived this morning in that blasted car you weren't intending to fly."

"Harry?" said Mr. Weasley blankly. "Harry who?"

He glanced around, saw Harry, and jumped.

"Good lord, is it Harry Potter? Very pleased to meet you, Ron's told us so much about-"

"You're sons flew that wretched car to Harry's house and back last night!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "What have you got to say about that, eh?"

I tried to hide my giggles behind my hand. George glanced my way and sniggered, elbowing Fred in the ribs.

"Did you really?" said Mr. Weasley eagerly. "Did it go alright? I- I mean..." He stuttered as he trailed off, eyes trained on Mrs. Weasley as sparks flew from her eyes. "That was very wrong boys- very wrong indeed..."

"Leave them to it," Ron muttered. "Come on, I'll show you my bedroom." He pulled Harry up the stairs.

I turned to the twins with a grin. "Nap?"

They nodded back with yawns and grins of their own.


Life at the Burrow was wilder than I ever thought. Of course, I expected chaos with this many people around, but my home with Remus was calm and contained. At the Burrow, the mantelpiece judged your clothing choices. The ghoul in the attic howled at all hours of the night and dropped pipes when he thought it was too quiet. Small explosions from Fred and George's room left the rest of the household hoping they weren't the next prank victim, but were considered perfectly normal.

I was having the time of my life with the twins. They had finally offered to include me in their prank planning.

I also was amazed at how the rest of the Weasley's took to Harry. Mrs. Weasley fussed over the state of his socks, and piled on fourth and fifth helpings of food. Mr. Weasley bombarded him with questions about Muggles, asking to explain things like plugs, and how the postal service worked.


About a week after Harry arrived, our Hogwarts letters came. When I followed Fred downstairs to breakfast, Harry and Ron were in the door in front of us, and Ginny had just knocked her bowl into the floor. She dove under the table, while Harry, bless his soul, pretended not to notice.

"Letter's from school." Mrs. Weasley passed them around. "Dumbledore sent yours, Harry, Leo. Doesn't miss a trick that man."

There was silence for a few minutes as everyone read their letters. Same as last years, instructions to catch the train at Platform 9 ¾, and the list of needed books and supplies.

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk

Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart

Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart

Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart

Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart

Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart

Fred, who had finished his own list, peered over at Harry's.

"You've been told to get all Lockhart's books, too!" he said. "The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher must be a fan—bet it's a witch."

At this point, Fred caught his mother's eye and quickly busied himself with the marmalade.

"That lot won't come cheap," said George. "Lockhart's books are expensive."

"Well, we'll manage," said Mrs. Weasley. "I expect we will be able to pick up a lot of Ginny's things second hand."

I knew from experience with Remus not to offer to buy them things, but I couldn't help piping up, "I've outgrown most of my uniforms. If Ginny would like them she's welcome to them."

George gave me a friendly nudge and I smiled back as Harry spoke with Ginny about Hogwarts.

But no one missed Percy's entrance, his sweater vest already sporting his prefect badge, though school wasn't due to start for a while. I snickered as he ran his hands down his chest in an obvious attempt to draw attention to it, then properly laughed when he sat on Errol.

"Errol!" Ron took the limp owl from Percy, and pulled another letter out from under his wings. "Finally, he's got Hermione's response to my letter. I wrote her and told her we were going to try and fetch Harry."

He read it aloud and was aghast at the idea she was doing homework. I rolled my eyes, but I wasn't surprised. She wanted to meet up on Wednesday for school shopping.

"Well, that fits in nicely, we can go and get all your things then, too," said Mrs. Weasley, starting to clear the table. "What're you all up to today?"

I glanced between the twins, Ron, and Harry. "Quidditch?"

Excited nods. I turned back to Mrs. Weasley. "Quidditch."