Author's Notes:

So, I thought that I would go ahead and post another chapter, seeing as this is where Brandon finally gets himself introduced into the magical world, so it finally gets interesting.

Also, I'm sure you'll noticed that this is a lot longer than the previous chapters. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 were a lot shorter than I'm hoping to make most of them, Chapter 1 being absolutely tiny by comparison. I don't expect that all my chapters will be as long as chapters 2, 6, and 7 are (as they are all about the exact same length), but very few of my chapters will be as short as those formerly mentioned.

Anyways, without further ado:

Chapter 6

The Dursleys were most displeased at having such short notice that Mr. Weasley was coming. Vernon would have to be at work and thus would not be able to meet him himself. Petunia would be at home alone with the boys whenever the 'freaks' arrived. Dudley had wanted to visit a friend's house, but his mother had insisted that he should stay home to say goodbye to his little brother.

Brandon's goodbye to his father that morning before he left for the day was awkward to say the least. "Should I come home for any of the holidays?" he'd asked him.

"If you want to," Vernon had replied rather stoically. "Have a good year at—at school. Behave yourself, and get—get good marks." They shared a brief hug, and his father took off for work.

It occurred to Brandon that if he had misinterpreted the meaning of Mr. Weasley's letter, he and Harry would be in a very awkward situation when his father got home, late that evening.

Petunia, in comparison to her husband, was much more emotional on the matter. "I can't believe I have to go through this again," she had burst into tears as Harry brought his trunk downstairs. She ran forward and hugged her youngest son. "Vernon won't like it, but be sure—be sure to owl us. At least once a week!"

Brandon thought that he might cry when he heard these words. "I will, Mum."

But then his mother ruined it, "But remember that you can still live a normal life. You don't have to be a freak. This only has to be until you can control your—your m-m-magic."

He shared a pained look with Harry.

"Dudley!" Petunia shouted up the stairs after that. "Get down here, and spend some time with your brother before he leaves."

"You don't have to do that, Mum," Brandon said with a grimace. "Mr. Weasley said three o'clock and it's barely noon." But his mother seemed not to hear him.

Dudley came down the stairs, looking one part irritable, one part nervous, and two parts scared. He sat on the sofa and turned on the television without saying a word.

The last hours before three o'clock were torturous. What ifMr. Weasley didn't show up? What would they do then? Doubts swirled in the minds of both cousins, and all they could really do was wait. Sitting in the living room with Dudley didn't help matters any either.

By ten till three, the two of them were extremely anxious. Petunia busied herself doing some last minute cleaning, always eager to make a good impression, no matter who she was meeting. And Dudley continued watching TV in silence.

Finally the doorbell went off, and Harry and Brandon both rushed to answer it. When they opened the door, they found two men standing outside. One was very thin with balding red hair, wearing glasses, obviously Mr. Weasley. The other was even taller, black, and totally bald.

"Harry Potter!" Mr. Weasley said cheerfully. "A pleasure to meet you! Ron's told us all about you, of course. And this must be Brandon." He shook each of their hands.

"The pleasantries can wait, Arthur," the black man said. "Harry, we've secured the perimeter and found no sign of anyone that might be intercepting your letters. Do you have any idea who it is?"

"It's a house elf named Dobby," Harry told him.

"A house-elf, you say?" Mr. Weasley asked incredulously.

"I see . . . " the black man said wearing an exasperated expression. "That's just wonderful. Now I'll have to explain to Scrimgeour why I have half his department in Surrey chasing after a house elf."

"We're sorry," Brandon told him, "We didn't mean to be such a nuisance, but we had no means of contacting any -"

"No, It's okay," the man said. "I believe you, and it's not your fault. We just thought that you were in serious danger."

"Regardless, we're sorry to be so much trouble, Mr. . . ?" Harry began.

"Kingsley Shacklebolt of the Auror Department at the Ministry. It's good to meet you, Harry—Brandon," the man said, giving them a smile. "Now I'm sorry to cut this short, but I'll leave you in Arthur's capable hands. I have to round up the rest of the Aurors here and return to the Ministry to give my report." And with that, there was a pop—significantly quieter than when Dobby had done it—and Kingsley Shacklebolt disappeared from sight.

Petunia walked up behind them just in time to see, and gave a shrill shriek.

"Oh!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed. "I'm terribly sorry if we alarmed you, Mrs. Dursley!"

"Just come in," she said quickly, ushering Mr. Weasley through the door.

"Well, now that that's been sorted, it'll take a minute for Kingsley to get everything straightened out with the rest of the Aurors, but he'll send the car around as soon as he gets done."

"What is an Auror?" Harry asked him.

"Well, Harry, as you know, not all witches and wizards adhere to all of our laws," Mr. Weasley began. "The Auror Department is the elite of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Mainly they chase down dark witches and wizards. Sort of like Muggle please-men."

"You mean policemen?" Brandon asked.

"Exactly!"

Just then, Brandon noticed Dudley watching them all warily from his place on the sofa. He looked ready to run screaming from the room at any time.

"So, have you packed all of your things?" Mr. Weasley asked after a moment. "All ready to go?"

"Yes, Mr. Weasley," Harry told him.

"Ah, good. Here comes the transportation." And indeed a shiny black car had pulled up Privet Drive to park right outside the House. "Do you need any help with the trunk?"

"We can manage—" Brandon began, but before he could finish, Arthur pulled out his wand, gave it a little flick at the Trunk and it began levitating toward the car.

"Brilliant!" Brandon told him with a huge smile on his face. Thank you for your help, Mr. Weasley.

"It's nothing at all, the man told him with a smile.

Brandon turned back to give his mother and brother one last goodbye.

"I'll see you next year," Harry said, leaving his cousin alone with his mother and brother.

Petunia gave her son a hug and handed him a check, and told him, "This is for your tuition, and school supplies, as well as all the allowance you're going to receive for the rest of the year."

Brandon looked at the figure his mother had written on the check. "Good grief, Mum!" he exclaimed. "I'm sure this is way more than I need!"

Mr. Weasley looked at the number and appeared to do some quick calculations in his head, converting the pounds into galleons. When he was done, his eyes bulged near out of his head. "Merlin's beard, magical school supplies aren't that expensive!"

"I just want to make sure that you can afford the best of everything," Mrs. Weasley told her son emotionally.

"Well, thanks Mum," he told her feeling awkward, he'd never even seen what this much money even looked like. "But you really don't need to give me this much."

"I don't need to, but I am," Petunia told him firmly. "Since Vernon made that Deal with Mr. Mason, we can afford it. Just don't lose it."

"Okay," Brandon said. "I really appreciate it Mum." He carefully put the check into his pocket.

"Goodbye, my sweet Bran Bran. I'm going to miss you so much," his mother said, tears running down her face. "I love you."

"I love you too, Mum," Brandon told his mother. "I promise to write." After a moment he added, "Goodbye, Dudley."

"Bye, Brandon."

And with that, he got in the car and Mr. Weasley told the driver to take them to the Burrow, just outside of Ottery St. Catchpole.

The drive didn't take particularly long. The car seemed to be moving at about two hundred miles per hour by Brandon's guestimation. Whenever it seemed like it was about to run into something, it always seemed to squeeze out of the way at impossible angles. Sometimes, if it went between two cars, it actually did literally squeeze itself until it was small enough to pass between. What was really amazing though, was the simple fact that none of the Muggles seemed to notice.

"So, Brandon," Mr. Weasley said from the front passenger seat, "You'll be a first year at Hogwarts this year?"

"Yes, sir," Brandon replied. "I'm really excited about it."

"Well, I can certainly understand," Mr. Weasley laughed. "So, since you've both lived with Muggles all your lives, perhaps you can tell me, "What exactly is the function of a rubber duck?"

Brandon and Harry looked at each other with bemused expressions and proceeded to answer all the man's questions about the Muggle world.

"Fascinating!" he exclaimed as Harry talked him through how to use a telephone. "Ingenious, really, how many ways Muggles have found of getting along without Magic."

Soon, they arrived outside a small village in the country at what was assuredly the most interesting looking house Brandon and Harry had ever seen in their lives.

"Here we are," Mr. Weasley said. "The Burrow! Home, sweet home."

It looked like it had once been a large stone pigpen, but extra rooms had been added on here and there so many times that was now several stories high and so crooked that it could only be held up by magic. Four or five chimneys were perched on the red roof, and a lopsided sign sat in the ground near the entrance that read, THE BURROW.

The three of them got out of the car and grabbed the trunk, and Mr. Weasley waved to the driver yelling, "Thanks for the ride, Angus!" as the shiny black car sped away again at ridiculous speed.

The door to the house opened and it seemed like everyone who was inside came out to greet them. Brandon recognized Mrs. Weasley, Ron, and Ginny, as well as two brothers that were unmistakably the twins - Fred and George. One more boy, older than all the rest and the only one that wore glasses like their father, came out last; Brandon knew Harry had mentioned an older brother in his letters but couldn't quite remember what his name had been.

"Harry!" Ron yelled as he ran to meet his best friend.

"Ron!"

"Hello, Mrs. Weasley," Brandon told the Weasley matriarch. "It's good to see you again."

"A pleasure to see you again too, sweetheart," she said, smiling warmly at him.

"Thank you for agreeing to take us in for the rest of the summer," Harry put in.

"It's no trouble at all, dears, now come on inside, and make yourselves at home."

"So who was intercepting your mail, Harry," Fred asked.

"We're the one's who cracked your genius code," George put in.

"Actually, that was my idea," Brandon told them.

"You'll both get to hear all about it after you've finished degnoming the garden," Mrs. Weasley told them sternly, eliciting groans from her twin sons. "Honestly, if you'd done it when I asked you to this morning, the job would be well and done several hours ago."

"But Mum—" began Fred.

"No, buts," Mrs. Weasley told him.

"Can't we hear what was going on first? Honestly, we were worried, that's why we couldn't get any work done," George protested.

"A likely excuse if ever I've heard one," their mother said, but she seemed to have softened a little, and ended up letting them listen in as Harry and Brandon told them all about how they'd tried sending mail all summer long, and how Dobby the house elf had shown up in their room to give Harry his warning.

Mr. Weasley put in that the Ministry had been detecting a lot of magic from Little Whinging during the past year, but had chalked the whole thing up to Brandon having lots of bursts of accidental magic.

"From the sounds of things, you have a lot of magic in you, young man," he told him, causing Brandon to blush.

"That's very unusual," Fred said.

"Don't house elves normally have to have their master's permision to use magic?" George added.

"Normally, yes," Mr. Weasley answered. "But I do believe there have been cases of rouge elves causing mischief before. "And they always end up having to punish themselves when they do it, like you said he did, Harry." He looked thoughtful before continuing, "But it's so very rare that I still think it's almost more likely that it was someone pulling a bad prank on you."

"Speaking of pranks," Mrs. Weasley said, rounding on the twins, "the two of you have heard the story, now get outside and degnome the garden, and be quick about it, because dinner will be ready before too very long."

"Yes, mum," Fred and George replied in unison, running off outside.

"Well, I'd best get back to the Ministry, Molly," Mr. Weasley told his wife. "I've still got some paperwork that needs filling out, but I should be home before too long. Though, you probably shouldn't wait on me for dinner, dear."

Harry and Brandon, with the aid of Ron, soon took their trunk up the stairs to the top floor where Ron's room was, which was where they'd be staying.

Stepping inside, the first thing Brandon noticed—the first thing anyone could notice who wasn't color blind, was that everything in Ron's Room was a violent shade of orange, from the bed spread to the walls and even the ceiling. After a second he realized that Ron had covered every inch of the shabby old wallpaper in his room with posters of the same seven witches and wizards, all wearing bright orange robes, carrying broomsticks and waving energetically.

"Your Quidditch Team?" Harry asked his best friend.

"The Chudley Cannons," he said, pointing to the bedspread, which was emblazoned with two great black C's and a speeding cannonball. "Ninth in the league."

The room was a bit untidy, but comfortably so; in the way that any young boy's room should be. All Ron's spellbooks were tucked away in a corner, and Ron's wand lay atop a fish tank full of frog spawn on the windowsill, next to his fat pet rat, snoozing in a patch of sun.

Ron asked them what they wanted to do, when Brandon asked, "What does your mum mean by degnoming the garden?"

"Gnomes are just garden pests," Ron told them. "Here, you know what, let's go on outside and you can see."

X X X

When Harry, Brandon, and Ron had all gone out to see the degnoming, they had decided to go ahead and help out since they were already out there. Needless to say, the twins finished quite early, thanks to the extra help, and when they went back inside, their mother immediately interrogated them.

"Back so soon? I know you can't possibly have gotten all those gnomes out of the garden already all on your own."

"We helped, Mrs. Weasley," Brandon defended the twins. "We'd never seen a degnoming before. We were curious."

"Well that was very sweet of you dears," Mrs. Weasley told the two boys, "But you really didn't have to. Honestly, Fred and George should have gotten done with it hours ago."

"It really wasn't any trouble, Mrs. Weasley. It went really quick with all of us working at it," Harry said.

"Well, dinner should be ready in a few minutes. Ron, why don't you go find Ginny. I think she's playing in -"

"I'm here, mum," Ginny said quietly as she walked into the room.

"Oh," Mrs. Weasley said. Well, in that case, why don't you go find Percy. He should be -"

"In his room," Fred finished for her.

"He's been spending a lot of time in there," George added.

"Wonder what he's up to," Fred continued, "He hasn't been himself lately. His exam results came in yesterday; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all."

"They were very good marks: ten O's and two E's," Mrs. Weasley said proudly, before returning to the kitchen where she returned her attention to the dinner she was preparing, and Ron went up the stairs to go get Percy.

"O.W.L.s?" Brandon asked. "Owls?"

"Ordinary Wizarding Levels," George explained. "Bill got twelve, too. If we're not careful, we could have another Head Boy in the family. I don't know if I could stand the shame."

"I've got so many questions spinning throug my head right now, I don't even know where to start," Brandon told them all.

"I guess it must be a bit overwhelming," Fred said.

"The Wizarding World is a whole other world," George added.

"First off," Brandon began, "O's and E's? Those are different marks than we get muggle schools."

"Really?" Fred asked.

"Well," George explained, "Passing grades are Outstanding, O; Exceeds Expectations, E; and Acceptable, A. Failing Grades are Poor, P; Dreadful, D; and the great insult of the lot: Troll, T."

"Troll?" Brandon laughed.

"Troll," Fred confirmed.

"Also," Brandon began with another question, "another, head boy? I thought Percy was the oldest? There are more of you?"

"Two more," George laughed.

"I wrote to you about Charlie," Harry told him, "When Ron, Hermione and I were figuring out what we were going to do with Norbert."

"I guess you did," Brandon replied, "But it was hard to keep track of so many Weasley's before, when I'd never even met any of them."

"Well, Bill is the eldest," Fred told him, "He lives in Egypt and works for Gringotts as a curse-breaker.

"Charlie is next," George continued, "And he lives in Romania, and works at the Dragon Reserve there.

"Then there's Percy," Fred said, looking up the stairs.

"Just a great, royal git, that one," supplied George, catching on, not needing to look back behind know the elder Weasley brother was descending the stairs.

"Oh, grow up, you two," Percy said irritably, Ron trailing shortly behind him.

Dinner with the Weasleys couldn't be any more different than dinner at the Dursley household, Brandon found himself thinking. The atmosphere was lively and everyone was talkative. His parents, on the other hand, always liked for dinner to be a relatively quiet time. It was a pleasant change. He told Mrs. Weasley that he loved the house. "It's so rustic, and very homey," He'd said.

"Why, thank you, Brandon, dear," Mrs. Weasley said with a warm smile. "That's very sweet of you to say."

When dinner was done, Fred, George, Ron, and Harry all showed him how to play a game of exploding snap. Ginny watched quietly, and when she was out of earshot, Ron told he and his cousin, "You don't know how strange it is for her to be this shy. Normally she never shuts up." Paying more attention, Brandon noticed that she was a lot more talkative and blushed a lot less whenever Harry wasn't in the room.

By the time Mr. Weasley came home, Mrs. Weasley had announced that it was time for bed.

Fred and George hurried up to their room without complaint, and there was no doubt in Brandon's mind that the two of them had to be plotting something. Judging from the expression on Mrs. Weasley's face, the same thoughts were crossing her mind. Ginny shyly told he and Harry good night, before retiring upstairs herself, and Percy had already turned in for the night, hours ago.

Finally, after a goodnight to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Harry, Brandon and Ron all made their way up the stairs to their room.

When they got there, to their surprise, Fred and George were waiting for them.

"What are you two doing in here?" Ron asked them uncertainly.

"We're here to properly introduce Brandon to the Wizarding World," said Fred.

"Tell us, have you ever flown before?" Geroge asked.

After waiting for a couple of hours for Mr. and Mrs. Weasley to go to bed, the five of them snuck downstairs and outside to an old shed, where they found an aged turquoise car, a Ford Anglia.

Brandon raised his eyebrows questioningly at the twins. "Don't tell me that—"

"It flies," Ron said with a huge grin.

"Don't mention it to Mum though," Fred told he and Harry.

"Dad only told her that he bought it to take it apart and see how it worked," George said.

Fred and George climbed into the front seat, and Brandon, Ron and Harry in the back. Ron took the middle, since he'd done this before, so that the two who hadn't could get a decent view down below from the window seats.

"So why did Mr. Weasley have to borrow a Ministry car if he has this?" Brandon asked as Fred fired it up.

"Well, Dad would prefer if the ministry didn't know that he even has a car," Ron explained, "If they found out he'd enchanted it to fly—which isn't exactly legal—"

"He could get into a lot of trouble," Fred continued for him.

"And it would look pretty bad considering that Dad works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office."

"The what?" Harry asked.

They were moving down the road now, and Brandon felt a tickling sensation in his stomach as the car left the ground, he looked out the window and watched as the ground moved further and further away. Five feet - ten - twenty . . . .

"It's all to do with bewitching things that are Muggle-made," Ron said. "You know, in case they end back in Muggle hands, like if the owner loses something where a Muggle could find it, it gets stolen, or they die and their stuff gets sold to Muggle shops."

"Needless to say, flying cars—" began Fred.

"—are totally illegal," finished George.

"If he raided our house, he'd have to put himself under arrest!" Ron said. "It drives mum mad."

"I bet," Harry laughed.

"So how are you liking your first experience flying?" Ron asked Brandon after a minute.

"It's wicked!" Brandon replied enthusiastically. "I only wish it were a little brighter out and we could see the countryside a little better."

"Too risky to go out during daylight," Fred said.

George continued, "Could be spotted by muggles, or worse—"

"MUM!" Fred and George said together.

Finally, after flying around for about half an hour, the two of them brought the car back down and Brandon felt the tickling sensation in his stomach again as it touched the ground.

As they parked it back in the shed, they immediately knew that they'd been caught when they saw that the lights in the house were on. As they were all getting out of the car, they all heard Mrs. Weasley's voice shout, "FREDRICK AND GEORGE WEASLEY!"

"Stay in here." Fred whispered to Harry, Brandon and Ron. "It sounds like we might be able to take the fall for this by ourselves."

"There's no sense in you lot getting in trouble for this," George added.

"Are you sure?" Harry whispered back. "We could -"

"No time to argue!" Fred and George said together as they stepped out of the shed.

"Hey, Mum!" Fred said as he and his twin stepped out of the shed.

"Fancy meeting you out here in the middle of the night," offered George.

The sound of Mrs. Weasley's fury was a terrible thing to behold as she gave them a thorough tongue lashing, but it didn't take long for them to see her leading them both back inside the house by their ears.

"So will we wait out here for another hour?" Brandon asked. "Wait for them to fall asleep again?"

"No," Ron said, "I've got a better idea." He walked over to a pile of old broomsticks picked out three of them. He handed Harry one and Brandon another.

"More flying?" Brandon asked amusedly.

"It's really simple," Ron told him, "as long as you don't freak out. If you hurt yourself there's no way we'll not get in trouble. How're your nerves?"

"Trust me," Harry said teasingly, "he's got a lot of nerve."

Brandon took that for the compliment he knew it was.

"Better to be certain," Ron said. "Here, lets go back outside." The two of them marched back outside to a wide open area back behind the garden so that they couldn't easily be seen from the house. Ron took Brandon's broomstick and laid it out on the ground and told him to stand to the right side of it.

Brandon did as he was told, and once he was in position, Harry said, "Now put your left hand over the broom and say, 'up.'"

Somewhat bemused, Brandon once again did as he was told and found himself deeply surprised when the broomstick shot up into the air and into his waiting hand.

"It senses fear," Ron told him. "A lot of people have trouble doing that their first time flying, and then some people never do get the hang of it, always afraid of flight."

Harry and Ron walked him through how he should hold his broom and how to control it, and then showed demonstrated to him how to hover.

Brandon copied their movements, successfully hovering a few feet off the ground for several seconds before coming back down.

"That was great," Harry told him encouragingly, now let's see if you can actually fly around a little bit."

Remembering their instructions, Brandon kicked back off the ground again and pushed the broom forward, and soon found himself flying around above the garden. He spotted a couple of gnomes wandering back into it, and he smiled. Harry and Ron joined him a few seconds later.

"Follow me and keep quiet," Ron told them, flying off toward one of the windows that Brandon recognized as the his bedroom.

Ron quietly opened the window and slipped inside, followed by Harry and finally Brandon.

As Harry and Brandon settled into the little extra bed that Ron said had been brought up for them, they heard Mrs. Weasley whispering angrily at the twins a little ways outside the door on the stairs.

"Honestly! The two of you are worse than all your other brothers put together!"

As Ron settled into his bed, he knocked something big and heavy that made a loud BANG, and the whispering outside their door suddenly went silent. After a moment, they heard the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs getting closer and closer to Ron's door.

When it opened, Mrs. Weasley stuck her head in, and Fred's and George's incredulous faces could be seen behind her.

"Is everything okay in here?" Mrs. Weasley whispered.

"We're fine mum," Ron said in a sleepy sounding voice. "I had the window cracked and you woke us all up earlier when you were shouting at Fred and George outside."

"Oh, I'm so sorry to have waked you, dears," she apologized, not seeing the broomsticks laying under the windowsill. Fred and George did though, judging from the proud smiles on their faces, which they quickly lost as their mother turned back around on them.

"Now you two!" she whispered very sternly. "Get to bed! You've caused enough trouble for one night!" She closed the door and the three of them slowly drifted off to sleep.

Author's Notes: I made the Ministry Cars a little more like the Knight Bus, which I don't know if I really like or not. But anyways, this really was a fun one to write. I hope you enjoyed it!