Chapter Seventeen: To the Burrow!

"You sure 'bout this Mrs. Weasley?" Kevin rumbled as he and his group found themselves being herded from the train and into Ministry Cars.

"Of course dear! We can't expect you to go all the way back to the States for a week can we?"

"We can stay at the school," Julie reminded the woman, "plenty of kids are…"

"Nonsense, you'll fit right in…"

"Then at least let us provide our own lodgings…" Gwen said lowly.

"How would you…?" Mr. Weasley began.

"Ben's heading back with Ship to grab our…mobile home, Rustbucket IV," Gwen explained, "The muggles have mobile homes, apartments on wheels, you can move it around by attaching it to a car—"

"Amazing what muggles can come up with!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed in wonderment.

"—Now usually these mobile homes are very small but with some magic—"

"And tech."

"And technology we've increased the interior space to the size of a comfortably large suburban home." Gwen finished.

"With all the needed muggle utilities," Julie added, "running tap, hot and cold, electricity, plumbing…"

A shadow fell over the line of cars; "It's Benji," Kevin sighed, having glanced out and up, "he's not cloaked…"

"Goddamn him!" Julie was quickly on her cell-phone, telling her idiotic boyfriend, "Cloak it right now you moron, before you get shot down!"

"He's cloaking it…" Kevin told them, "and it's gone."

"Thank you," Julie sighed, "Love ya too…" she smiled and hung up.

Time passed quickly and soon they were out in the countryside, standing in front of a tall, teetering house that looked like it should have fallen down as soon as it was built. But the survival of it was probably the work of magic.

"I think that defies the laws of…everything we've ever learned about…" Julie whimpered, actually fainting.

"Is she okay?" Ginny asked worriedly as Ben cradled his girlfriend and tried to bring her back to consciousness.

"She'll be fine," Gwen replied as she hoisted Harry to sit on her hip, "Your house was the last straw for her mundane muggle sensibilities…It'll take awhile for her to adjust…"

"Okay…"

"Mum," Ron spoke up, standing very near Luna who had gone home with them, "I'm gonna see Luna home…"

"Alright dear, be careful…" Mrs. Weasley agreed, "C'mon you lot, we all could do with a bite of lunch…"

The Weasley clan, minus Ron, led the Americans, Harry, Draco, and Evander, into the Burrow.

"Wow…" it was a wonderfully cozy home, with the laundry and dishes washing themselves. Cinnamon and other warm inviting scents wafted through the air.

"I like it here!" Harry exclaimed happily, earning fond smiles from all the Weasleys present.

"Where's the house-elf…?" Draco asked, having scanned around for any sign of servants. His house had loads of them after all; there should always be a house-elf in a Wizarding home.

"We don't need house-elves," Mrs. Weasley explained softly.

"Then how do you clean…?"

"We all work together," Ginny explained. Draco looked aghast. (Despite living with Gwen, Kevin, and Harry they had not had enough time to break the concept of chores to him before he was de-aged. And although he did some little things by himself, he was still very dependent on his new parents.)

"We do have a ghoul though—" Fred offered quickly

"Yeah, up in the attic—" George continued.

"Bit of a nice fellow, gets real loud though at night sometimes—" Fred added.

"We'll take you up to meet him later, name's Basant—"

"Bill sent him back from Egypt, found him starving in a pyramid—"

"Might be thousands of years old, might be decades—"

"Mum and Percy nursed him back to health, now he sleeps in the attic—"

"Real gentle though, loves little kids—"

"Used to babysit us, Ron, and Ginny, got real protective—"

"Enough boys," Mr. Weasley chuckled, "you can take them up later. Right now why don't you give them the tour?"

"Alright, c'mon you yanks…" and so they were led through the Burrow and around it.

"Percy finally moved out," Ginny cheered. She loved her brothers but Percy could be a bit…let's just say he was better to be dealt with in small doses.

"Oh yeah," Fred nodded, "Didn't you get an owl?"

"He's working for the Ministry now." George shuddered, "Secretary for Crouch."

"I swear he's not related to us…" Ginny muttered.

"I—Sweet Merlin!" George shouted, scaring their guests.

"Wha—My god!" Fred joined in, staring at the mantle in shock.

"Come off—Oh god!" Ginny finally realized the out of place item.

"She added to the clock!" Fred whispered hoarsely, "She hasn't done that since Gin was born!"

"What? What's so important about a clock?" Kevin demanded.

The Weasleys pointed out the clock.

It was a very strange clock. It did not have numbers but phrases like 'at work', 'at home' or 'at school', however there was also things like 'traveling' and 'in mortal peril', around the rim where the numbers should have been. And there were more than the usual three hands and each hand was the same length. Each was etched with a name, a Weasley name, but they also had the names, 'Verdona', 'Gwen', 'Ben', 'Kevin', 'Julie', 'Harry', and finally 'Draco' which all had their own hands.

While most of the Weasley names were pointed towards 'at home', Ron was 'traveling', Percy was 'at work' as were the names 'Charlie' and 'Bill'.

'Verdona' was 'at school', the other six non-Weasley name-hands were pointed to 'traveling' alongside Ron's.

Suddenly Ron's spun to 'at home' just as the so named boy came walking into the house.

"Need some help Mum?" Ron asked.

The Weasleys spun about, horrified. Ron was offering to do chores?!"

"Something—Something very bad's gonna happen," Ginny trembled before her eyes landed on Harry, "We need to get some backup over here…Boys, you owl Cedric. I'll get to Luna and Hermione. Hermione and Luna can camp out in my room; Ced can stay in Ron's. We'll set Gwen, Kevin, Draco, and Harry up in Percy's old room—"

There were whirling sounds, "Oh!" with a shaking hand Ben pointed out the very strange clock. All the hands, sans Percy, Charlie, Bill and Verdona's, now pointed to 'in mortal peril' as if to prove Ginny's fears.

"Oh, not good. Not good."

Ginny once again took charge of things, telling the Americans, "Leave Julie and the boys here; you can apparate; we need to get the Diggorys and Lovegoods here, now. Hermione too," she turned to the twins, "go get the tent, we can set in up in Percy's room for extra beds…I'll go warn Mum and Dad…Go!"

They quickly acted, and soon the house was fortified by both magic and alien tech. Still it was an uneasy night. But that night turned into a week, as even as the kids departed for Hogwarts the hands had yet to move to a safer place. Indeed Percy had joined them in being 'in mortal peril'.

The Americans, the Weasleys, Hermione, Cedric and Luna all shared a compartment on the train back. (It was a bit cramped but Ben had turned into a tiny alien that sat on the luggage rack with Ship, Harry and Draco were tiny and sat in laps, Luna and Hermione were petite, Julie was slim, and Ginny and Gwen floated in midair, cross-legged and pink eyed and finally Kevin and Ben stood guard at the sliding door so they all fitted…) And because they left the luggage and pets, sans Ship, on the train to be taken up to the school later they somehow managed to fit everyone in a single carriage.

The first thing they did once they got into the school was seek out Verdona and warn her…