A sound of crashing, a flair of magic, a small explosion, repeat. At least, that's what Dumbledore was planning on doing when he finally got back to his tower in Hogwarts, but then, a thought occurred to him, he should actually investigate what was going on with Harry Potter to see if there was any chance of him getting the control that he once had back. Now, where to start? Instead of returning to Hogwarts, he decided to apparate straight to the Burrow for the interrogation to come.
For the coming confrontation with the youngest Weasley boy, Dumbledore had to prepare himself, after all, no one actually knew of Dumbledore's agenda in this matter, or, ever, for that matter. A short walk was all that he needed to return to the façade of the person that everyone knew and loved with the twinkly eye and the cheery face. A knock later, and the mask was complete and in place once again.
Mrs. Weasley answered the door amid her shouting at her sons and daughter, something about chores or homework, either way, Dumbledore didn't care. "Hello Mrs. Weasley, how are you today?"
Molly seemed surprised to find the great Albus Dumbledore at her doorstep, but after having the Weasley twins, nothing set her off her toes for long, "Hello Albus, staying busy as always, what brings you to the Burrow? Where are my manners, won't you come in, you're just in time for lunch if you'd like?"
"That would be delightful Molly," Dumbledore said as he stepped through the kitchen door into the chaos of the Weasley residence. With pot in hand and a look of determination on her face, Mrs. Weasley stepped into the dining room filled with a mess of redheads that made it seem as though there was a sea of red in the room. It didn't help that each and every one of them was moving at the insane pace that can only be managed by hungry teenagers and wild animals.
"Kids, we have a visitor," and, as though given a signal from above, all of them became completely motionless and stared at the man following their mother. A moment of recognition followed by one of confusion and then they all sat down, it was all quite eery on their part. Before he could say hello, the final two Weasleys apparated right in the middle of the room, on top of the dining room table, holding what appeared to be rockets in their hands.
"Fred, George, if you launch thos-," but she was cut off by the whizzing of the items in question and the crack of disapparition. The rockets just levitated in midair for a minute before taking off in a spectacular fashion, exploding and going the complete opposite way that was intended, which was unfortunate for the twins because they had apparated into the living room to watch the fun only to have their inventions hurtling towards them at an unbelievably fast pace. At first, there was laughter, and then they realized what was going on, mainly because they got hit by the rockets, and then the laughter really began, but this time coming from the rest of the family. A few howls and cries later, and the rockets were spent, and the two Weasleys stumbled into the dining room amid a chorus of encore and clapping. Instead of being embarrassed though, the twins stood their tallest, and then they both took deep bows in turn, which only increased the laughter as their hair was aflame.
"I told you they weren't to be launched in the house, now you see why."
"MOM? You booby-trapped the house against us?"
"Of course, the logical method of forbidding you to do it never seems to work so I decided to pull a leaf out of your book, fight fire with fire so to speak."
The Weasley children looked at each other for a long moment and then turned towards their mother with shocked looks on their faces, "We didn't know you had it in you," Ginny said.
"Well, where did you think you got it from?" she replied with a mischevious smirk on her face, "Enough of that though, we have a guest."
And thus, the attention was returned to Dumbledore, "Good morning to you all."
"Hello professor," was heard from each of the children.
"He'll be joining us for lunch, but, what was it again that brought you here today?"
"I had hoped to ask Ronald some questions concerning Harry," and, noticing the looks of concern that crossed everyone's face, he added, "in private."
"Well, it can be done after lunch whatever it may be, now we're just waiting for Arnold and Bill, and here they are."
"Hello mum," Bill said, stepping through the front door, while her husband stepped quite gracefully out of the fireplace and said, "Hello all."
"Sit down everyone, lunch is almost done," and with that, she hurried back into the kitchen while everyone else took their seats.
"Well, Albus, I wasn't expecting to see you here," Arnold said, but Dumbledore didn't miss the way that Bill's head snapped at the name.
"Yes, I just stopped by to ask Ronald some questions and apparently I couldn't have chosen a better time than now, I positively adore Molly's cooking."
Whatever might have been said after that was interrupted by the re-entrance of Molly with the main course. "Alright everyone, dig in," and with that, all speaking stopped, it was pointless as the din of scraping silver and shouting for food, and the occasional small scuffle that broke out around the table, drowned any conversations out.
Half an hour later, as the dishes were clearing themselves, small talk started to break out among the adults, but, the children teens, they decided not to stick around, and began to disperse around the house, except for Ron, who Dumbledore held back.
"Well, I must get going," Arnold said, "Good to see you again Dumbledore."
"Always a pleasure Arnold, now, Ronald, where may we speak in private?"
"Take the office, Arnold added it on for his tinkering, but as he's gone right now, I doubt anyone else will enter willingly," Mrs. Weasley said.
"Thank you Molly."
As Ron led the way, Albus contemplated Bill's reaction to his presence. What could have made Bill so leery of him? Within seconds though, they were at the office of which Molly spoke.
"Professor, you may not want to touch anything when we get in there, none of us know what anything does, and we're not entirely sure that dad does either," Ron said.
"Thank you for the warning Ronald, shall we continue?"
Ron opened the door and the two of them were met by darkness, that is, until Ronald turned on the light. From the looks of it, Arnold had quite a collection of everyday muggle items such as a blender, a microwave, and what appeared to be a gameboy, among many other things.
Shaking off his curiosity at what truly lied in the pile of muggle artifacts that Arnold had, Albus turned to the matter at hand, "Ronald, what happened to Harry after the three of you left Hogwarts?"
He shrugged, "Nothing much different than the rest of the years professor, he was kind of depressed about Sirius death though, so he wasn't very talkative, less so than normal I mean."
"Has he contacted you since you departed?"
"No professor, at least, I don't think so."
Dumbledore believed him, but he decided to take a look through Ron's memories just to make sure that he wouldn't miss anything that an un-attentive teenager might overlook.
Without Ron even realizing what was happening, Dumbledore was in. There wasn't all that much to the boy, what you saw was what you got so to speak. Sifting through his memories Dumbledore found the ones that he was looking for. Watching from what transpired from Harry stepping on to the train, to, pretty much, just the end of the ride at platform 9 ¾, Dumbledore learned that there really was nothing to the trip that would tip anyone off.
Returning to Arnold's office, Dumbledore concluded his meeting, "Thank you Ronald, that was all that I needed to know," but before he could leave, Ron grabbed his arm and asked a question with his eyes, "Harry is alright, I know it as truth, I saw him not four hours ago." And with that, Dumbledore was done at the Weasley household. Walking back the way that he had come, he passed Molly, bid her good day, and continued toward the door. He also passed Bill, and with a little bit of surface legilimency, he caught a flash of Harry Potter at Gringotts. With a smile of victory, Dumbledore left.