"You've got a wicked streak you have!" Jordan remarked breathlessly as Harry strode over and offered her his hand. She gladly took it and together they got her back on to her feet.
Suddenly after months of letter writing they both seemed to find themselves at a loss for words and just looked at each other rather awkwardly, waiting for the other to say something. Jordan was so pleased to see him that her heart was racing and she could feel her hands shaking a little, but as much as she wanted to speak, no words offered themselves to her.
"So... where are we?" she asked eventually, breaking the silence.
"The Burrow" Harry replied, turning round and pointing to a rather odd shaped house behind them "Ron's house"
"Where is he then?"
"Waiting down at the house with Hermione"
Once again they just stood and stared at one another for a moment.
"You better give me this!" he advised taking the envelope containing the twig from her "Mr Weasley will know what to do with it"
"Oh Ok!" she shrugged
"Shall we go and see them then?" he asked,
"Yeah... lead on!" Jordan replied, unable to stop herself feeling disappointed, this wasn't exactly the reunion she'd hoped for.
He started walking, but had only taken a few steps when he stopped and turned round to look at her once again.
"What?" she asked.
"Erm..." he paused, looking a little flustered "Erm... Did your brother and sister like the sweets?"
"Oh yeah, they were floating around the room when I left" She replied, chuckling at the memory.
"Oh good" he smiled and turned round to walk once again, almost immediately stopping in his tracks and spinning around to face her once more.
"Erm... Your parents weren't too annoyed about the change of plans were they?"
"They were floating around the room when I left too... so no!" she assured him.
"Oh right! He nodded; looking a little frustrated and turned around again. This time he took two steps before coming to a standstill for the third time and turning round to look at her yet again.
"Are you alright?" she laughed; his rather bizarre behaviour was starting to look like some kind of weird dance step.
"I'm fine!" he blushed, unable to stop himself from smiling too.
"Only you're acting a bit...Well ... Odd!"
"Am I? Sorry!" he shrugged, rotating round and taking a few steps away from her. This time however Jordan didn't even begin to follow, which was just as well, because merely seconds later, Harry had abandoned his walk and was facing her once again, mouthing wordlessly.
"Ok, you're starting to scare me now!" she giggled.
He grimaced, shook his head and took a deep breath.
"What I'm trying to say is..." he paused, reaching his hand out toward her "That I'm really glad you're here!"
"So am I!" Jordan grinned, leaning over and grasping hold of his hand , her heart pounding even harder than before.
"That wasn't so bad!" he muttered to himself, breathing a sigh of relief.
"You were starting to worry me a bit!" she teased "But that goldfish impression was great"
"Ha ha!" he rasped sarcastically and began to walk once again, pulling Jordan along behind him "C'mon let's go to the house. Ron and Hermione are dying to see you too!"
They walked in through the doors and Jordan gasped. On the sofa the cushions were plumping themselves and the broom was sweeping the floor completely unaided. A duster was flying around the room, wiping down every surface and the washing up was leaping out of the sink, where it was dried by a tea towel which seemed to have a mind of its own, before putting itself away in various cupboards around the room.
"I could use this on my bedroom!" Jordan muttered, imagining how much time she would save.
"Jordan!" Hermione sang as she walked into the room, closely followed by Ron "How are you?"
"Good Thanks" she smiled.
"Ah you're here!" A cheery looking woman remarked as she walked into the room. Her red hair left her in no doubt as to whom she was; though she introduced herself anyway
"I'm Ron's Mum" she announced "It's so lovely to have you here"
"Thank you!" Jordan replied.
"I hope you'll excuse me, but I just need to pop out to the shops, I'm running low on a few things!"
"Course not!" Jordan shrugged.
"Behave all of you while I'm gone!"
"We will!" Ron sighed, looking a little embarrassed.
"I was thinking more of Fred and George actually!" Mrs Weasley smirked, grabbing her bag off the side and striding over toward a large fireplace on the opposite wall "I shouldn't be too long!"
"Mum... Mum!" Ginny called as she came charging into the room " can you get me some more ink, I've run out!"
"Yes dear! She smiled, reaching into a pot and grasping a handful of fine black powder, before going over to stand inside the arch of the fireplace.
Jordan wondered silently why she was the only one in the room, who thought this the least bit strange. Presumably they all knew something she didn't.
"Diagon Alley!" Mrs Weasley said, her voice slightly raised and threw the powder at her feet.
Jordan leapt back in shock, colliding with Harry and stepping on his toe as Mrs Weasley was engulfed in bright green flames, before disappearing completely. There was a momentary silence, then everyone in the room, except Jordan, of course, burst out laughing.
"The look on your face was so funny!" Ron guffawed, falling back onto the sofa.
"You're not funny y'know!" Jordan declared, her heart pounding once again, but this time for a very different reason " I nearly jumped out of my skin!"
"We know... We saw!" Ron cackled
Just then Fred and George walked into the room, having heard the laughter.
"What's so funny?" They asked in unison.
"Mum just went shopping and Jordan nearly had a heart attack when she left!" Ron informed them.
"Sorry we missed that!" Fred chuckled, winking at Jordan.
"I'm glad I amuse you all!" Jordan added bitingly, although she was not really annoyed, just a little startled.
"C'mon!" Hermione beckoned " Ginny and I will show you where you're sleeping... You can put your bag up there too.
"Oh all right!" Jordan agreed, glancing back at Harry, she considered apologising for stepping on his foot, but as he was still chuckling away with Ron, she decided he really didn't deserve it "I'll see you in a minute!"
"Hang on... We don't just walk up the stairs her!" Ron informed her.
"You don't?" Jordan asked nervously.
"Only kidding" He sniggered.
"Honestly Ron!" Hermione tutted and started up the stairs, shaking her head. Jordan glared playfully at Ron and followed her.
"You'll be sharing with Ginny and I!" Hermione told her as they walked into a large room containing three beds, one of which had a large ginger cat curled up asleep on it.
"That's your bed!" Ginny offered helpfully, pointing to the nearest one. Jordan gladly threw her bag down on it, only aware of how much her shoulder was aching once she'd put it down.
"This house looks much bigger inside than outside!" She remarked.
"That's cause it is!" Ginny replied, flopping down on her bed.
"But... How?" Jordan began "No don't tell me... Magic!"
"So did you have a nice Christmas?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah I did actually, how about you, I take it you spent Christmas with your Mum and Dad?"
"Yeah, I got here yesterday"
"It's nice to have some more girls here, usually I'm totally outnumbered!" Ginny added.
"So have they got any other horrible surprises lined up for me I should know about!"
"Not that I know of!" Hermione shrugged "Although I wouldn't put it passed them!"
"Neither would I!" Jordan muttered, taking off her coat and throwing it down on the bed. As she did this, her mobile phone fell out of the pocket reminding her of her promise to her mother "oh I must text my Mum!"
"You won't get a signal!" Hermione warned her and on picking it up Jordan found she was right.
"I promised I'd let her know I was all right"
"Use Pig... Ron won't mind! Ginny advised her.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah he could use the exercise, he's starting to look a bit chubby... which when you're as small as he is, isn't a good thing. I keep expecting Hedwig to mistake him for an Owl treat and eat him!"
Jordan quickly wrote a note to her family, letting them know she was safe and well and had arrived at her destination, then tied it to Pigwigeons leg (which is not as easy as it sounds with such an excitable bird), then sent him on his way.
After having a bit of a chat, the three girls made their way back downstairs. It was obvious to Jordan that Harry had been watching the door as she walked through it, but looked away quickly to pretend as if he hadn't.
"Jordan's used Pig to send a message to her Mum!" Ginny told Ron, he just shrugged.
"Couldn't get a signal on my mobile!" Jordan informed him.
"You're what?" he asked.
"My mobile" she repeated, he was still looking at her blankly "Mobile phone... you know!"
Now he was shaking his head as she were talking complete nonsense, so she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, then held it out to him. He took it off her cautiously and just looked at it for a moment.
"It's a telephone Ron... One you can take anywhere!" Hermione explained.
"Oh a telephone!" he remarked, the penny finally dropping "You should show this to my Dad, he loves everything to do with muggles!"
Both Harry and Hermione looked at Jordan waiting for her to react to being called a muggle, but she didn't, she just smiled and shook her head. She had decided that as muggle wasn't an insult, she really shouldn't be offended when someone referred to her that way, after all, that's exactly what she was!
"Hang onto it if you want and show him... I can't use it anyway!" she told him.
She looked over at Harry who was sitting down on the sofa now that the cushions had finished fluffing themselves. He smiled warmly and patted the empty space beside him, signalling her to join him. She did not need asking twice and crossed the room quickly, sitting down next to him. Almost immediately he draped his arm around her shoulders and the pair of them sank back into the seat, seemingly unaware that everyone in the room was watching them and smiling in a goofy fashion.
It was then that Jordan noticed a clock on the facing wall. But it was not an ordinary clock, instead of numbers it had words such as home, work and school. And instead of a minute and hour hand it had ten hands, all with pictures of people on them, that were smiling back at her. Nine of them had blazing red hair and she could clearly recognise Ron, Ginny, Fred, George and Mrs Weasley. The tenth hand looked somewhat newer then the others and on it was a picture of Harry.
"Unusual clock!" She remarked.
"We just had Harry put on!" Ron told her "mum says he's like a member of the family"
She glanced at Harry to find he had a huge grin on his face and was regarding the clock proudly.
"That's nice!" she whispered to herself, still looking at Harry. It was obvious from the look in his eyes how much the gesture meant to him and even though she hardly knew them, she felt a wave of fondness for Ron's Mum and Dad, just for making Harry so happy.
The rest of the day seemed to fly by. The house was so busy and full of chatter that there wasn't a dull moment. At dinnertime they all sat down around the table and ate a huge meal that Mrs Weasley seemed to concoct from nowhere. Mr Weasley was completely baffled by Jordan's mobile phone and studied it for over an hour before returning it to her and quizzing her on all things muggle related. The atmosphere was wonderful and it felt like Christmas all over again. The conversation lasted late into the evening and it was Ginny who first stood up and announced she was going to bed.
"I'll come with you!" Hermione agreed, rising drudgingly to her feet.
"Good grief, is that really the time?" Mrs Weasley asked, rather surprised "I didn't realise it was so late, you should all be in bed really!"
"I'm going anyway" Ron yawned "I'm done in!"
"Me too" Harry agreed, standing up, then reaching out, taking Jordan's hand and pulling her up too.
The five of them made their way slowly up the stairs, said tired goodnights and went their separate ways till only Jordan and Harry remained on the landing.
"I've had a really nice day!" She told him.
"Me too, it's nice that we are all back together..." he agreed, then added sadly "Even if it is only for a little while!"
"Let's just enjoy it while it lasts!" she continued, not wanting to think about leaving when she'd only just arrived.
"Goodnight then!" he smiled, leaning over and kissing her quickly on the lips, trying to do it before his nerves failed him.
"Goodnight!" she beamed.
"See you in the morning"
"C'mon Harry... I want to turn the light off!" Ron called groggily from inside their room.
"I'm coming!" Harry groaned.
And the two of them headed off to bed.