Standard disclaimers apply!

I do not own Harry Potter. I have nothing to do with Scholastic, Warner Bros or Bloomsbury. I'm not JKR and I am certainly not making any profit out of this.

9.00am, 5th September, 1998

The Burrow

All joking aside, I'm glad you seem to be settling in. You will tell me if you're not, won't you? I don't know what I could possibly do ... but tell me anyway.

Work slowed down the last few days, I think because the holidays are finished. By slowed down I mean busy, instead of bedlam. It's nice to have a breather.

George is talking about moving into the flat above the shop. Mum's not happy about it, but she's keeping it to herself (more or less). I'm not sure how I feel about it either. George recons that the only way he's really going to get on with life is to move in there. Apparently he's a big boy and it's time for him to come out from behind Mummy's skirts and act as such.

I can see where he's coming from, but yeah. Still not sure about it.

Charlie is just about ready to head back to Romania, too. It's been good having him around, but in the end the dragons are his thing and he needs to get back to them.

Soon it will be just Harry and me in the house. Harry's seriously considering starting Auror training with their October intake – I know you already know all of this, because Harry told me he wrote you about it on Friday morning. We all know that Kingsley would give him Auror right off the bat, but Harry's opted for the full three years training instead, because he wants to feel like he earned it (honestly, I ask you?)

I don't know, part of me thinks that I should be tempted to go with him – but I'm not. Even if I wasn't committed to George and the shop at the moment, I don't think I'd want to go. Is it wrong of me to just want a couple of peaceful years?

Peaceful? Working for George? What am I saying?

Thinking of peaceful ... Remember Llandaff Cathedral? Remember walking around the graveyard and reading all of the names? Remember how I got sunburnt on the back of my ears? Remember how we hid behind that big old oak tree and you kissed my ears and then they were all better (and so was I)?

I want to do all that again, but not just for a day. Next year, when you're finished with Hogwarts, I'll take you on a proper holiday and we'll do all those twee tourist things that we pretend not to enjoy – and you can know more about the "ancient structures" than the guide does, and I'll pretend to tease you about it ... but I'll really be so proud that you somehow manage to remember all of that stuff.

But right now, Harry and I have to help Mum with the garden.

I think that's what you'd call an anticlimax, isn't it?

Lots of love, from Ron The Soppy