Chapter 3 is now up :)


On the third day of our holidays, the clouds finally relented, and we got our first rays of sunshine. James, who was most enthused about this, proposed an immediate day trip to the country to play a game of Quidditch. I thought it was a fantastic idea but dad was dubious; he said that you never knew where you would find muggles on their odd long walks. School trips were pretty good at visits to obscure places too and if they were to see us there would be trouble.

Trouble being a lot of work for the Obliviators and being practically hanged by the Ministry of Magic, the 'famous Harry Potter' and family or not.

'Why can't we just use a concealing charm?' Albus said with a shrug, while drenching his cereal in milk.

'It could still be risky, and that sort of thing was always Hermione's department.' Anyway, I didn't think you were that into Quidditch, Al?'

Albus shrugged. I felt a bit sorry for him sometimes, being the black sheep of the family. Both our parents loved Quidditch and Mum used to play on the Holyhead Harpies, but the sport just didn't excite Albus in the same way as James and myself. He was on the Slytherin Quidditch team for a couple of years, but then dropped out because of his O.. That was another reason why he was different; Al was the only member in the Weasley/Potter clan to be sorted into Slytherin. James teased him dreadfully about it and Al would pretend to get offended, but we all knew really that he was perfectly happy where he was.

'Oh come on, please can we go? Rose and Hugo can come with Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron,' I said, and promptly dropped my toast on my dressing gown, covering it in butter.

'I don't know Lily…' Mum started. 'There are still risks.'

I turned to Dad with a pleading look. His will was always a lot easier to break through. He sighed, and lay down his spoon.

'Ginny dear, we always managed to play Quidditch in the fields near the burrow didn't we? If we just went somewhere near there…'

James and I cheered, and Albus smiled as Mum finally gave in. Straight after breakfast while I went to go and get dressed, Dad contacted Grandma and Grandpa Weasley to arrange a visit to their house in a couple of hours. Such a short notice would probably have bothered most people, but Molly and Arthur were always happy to see any of their grandchildren whenever they could.

After I'd got dressed, I peeked through the curtains of my room to check that the weather was still reasonable. There were only a few small white clouds remaining, which was good and I just prayed that it would stay that way for at least a few hours. It took me much longer than it should have done to find and extract my Firebolt 360 from my trunk. It was quite an old broom, having been around for about fifteen years, but it worked well enough. James' was much better.

At about eleven o'clock we were all gathered in the sitting room. We were going to apparate because it was the easiest form of travel and we were low on floo powder. Much to my annoyance though, I had to go side along because I hadn't passed the test. I could see the corners of Albus' mouth twitch slightly as I gripped onto his arm and turned on the spot with him. I'd thought that the novelty of being seventeen and legally an adult would have worn off him since last September, It obviously hadn't.

Grandma Molly was waiting for us in the kitchen as we all appeared in the large garden of The Burrow, our broomsticks carried by Mum, Dad and James.

'Arthur! They're here!' She yelled, and hurried out to meet us as fast as she could in her old age. Strands of her wispy gingery-white hair flying around her head like some sort of halo.

'My dear Al, you're growing so fast! How tall are you now?'

'Six foot two,' he replied with a grin, before being pulled along with me into a rib-cracking hug, not unlike the one Mum had given us a few days before. I wondered if it was something I'd have to perfect when I had children. Maybe there was some sort of course, 'The Art of Hugging'. I'd have to do some research.

We were finally released, and she moved onto James, who had been trying to slip into the house with Mum and Dad. He pulled a face at me and Albus over Grandma's shoulder, causing me to collapse into a fit of giggles.

'What's so funny?' Grandad had arrived.

Still smiling, I just shook my head and allowed myself to be hugged.

'Guess what we've got, Albus?' He said excitedly, after letting me go. 'A Fellytision!'

That meant he'd finally broken through. For years, Grandad had been trying to buy a television, but every time he'd asked, Grandma had refused him. I wondered what had triggered this sudden change of heart on her account. I did wonder though how on earth they managed to work it without mains electricity. I was pretty sure that there were other things that made getting and being able to actually watch a T.V impossible too, but I wasn't sure what. I didn't do Muggle Studies like Albus, and frankly, I didn't really care.

'Don't you need a licence from a television company?' Albus asked, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Well it wasn't obvious to me.

'Well we haven't quite got it working yet… but won't it be amazing to be able to watch the BCC? We'll know everything that's going on in the Muggle World, and even what the weather is going to be like!'

I rolled my eyes and left them to it. If I'd survived this long without the need for electricity, so I was sure I could survive a little longer. Walking through the door of the kitchen, I found Mum sitting on the sofa and humming quietly, while Dad stared out of the window. James was sitting at the table. Intense concentration filled his muddy brown eyes as he sat trimming the twigs on the end of his broomstick to exactly the right length. I picked mine up from where it had been propped against the sink, and sat down to polish the handle. It didn't really need it, but it was something to do.

'Hogwarts changed at all? Has anything interesting happened yet?' James said after we'd been working for a about a minute.

'Nope.'

We continued in silence for a short while, before he spoke again.

'It's strange to think isn't? All those things that happened… while Mum and Dad were at school. With Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione you know? Hogwarts just seemed so normal. After all the stories we'd heard as kids, I'd half-expected to be confronted with a dragon the moment I stepped through the doors.'

'I wouldn't have had it any other way for you,' Dad said suddenly from the window in an unusually grave tone, which immediately silenced my light-hearted laughter. 'It may sound like fun to you, but there are no words to describe those years and the pain that we went through - especially in the last year. Teddy's parent's died in that war.'

James ran a nervous hand through his messy auburn hair and I looked down, feeling a little bad. It was mainly Uncle George who had told us the stories, but that was generally only the funny and exciting bits, and we'd found out a little from history books and newspapers as children. This was the closest Dad himself had ever got to recounting his teenage years. I'd seen him sometimes when I was younger, just sitting by himself or staring at old photographs for up to hours at a time. Mum had always told us to leave him be when he was like that and I'd even heard him once or twice, yelling in his sleep. I remembered Mum finding me and my brothers huddled up on the sofa one night, terrified at the sound of his screams. She'd gone out of her way to make sure he got a calming draught for his sleep every night since then.

At about quarter to twelve while we 'admiring' the flat screen TV in the sitting room, we heard voices in the kitchen. From the sound of it, Rose and Hugo had arrived. They'd come alone by floo powder, while their parents had decided to stay at home. Much to my surprise, they both had broomsticks. Like Albus, Rose wasn't much of a Quidditch player. At closer inspection though, I observed an old looking novel in her spare hand. I could just make out the title as being Sense and Sensibility. I failed in hiding my smile as my two cousins got their ribs cracked by Grandma. It wouldn't have been fair if they'd been spared the treatment.

Alright – I'm being a little unfair. Of course I love Grandma Molly, and I love hugs. I just don't like being squished into mush, that's all. I'd rather keep all of my bones intact, because I never want to have to drink skele-grow again in my life. Ever.

After being set free, Hugo caught my eye and wandered over to where I was sitting, rubbing his chest with his hand. Of all my many cousins, Hugo was the only one in the same year at Hogwarts as me. Only just though, his birthday was in the last week of August-

Crap. Another present to buy. Why is my family so damn large?

'Lo, Lily,'

I liked Hugo. He was only four inches taller than me, and probably one of the shortest almost-sixteen-year old boy I knew. Despite their similar heights, he and his sister couldn't have any more different in appearance. Rose was red-headed, brown-eyes and freckled like me, but unfortunately inherited the thick bushy gene form Aunt Hermione. Hugo on the other hand, had blue eyes like his father and his brown hair, although often messy, was dead straight. I suppose you could say that their noses were slightly similar, if you squint.

'Hi Hugh, how's it going? Looking forward to the O. results?'

He replied by pulling a face, and claiming that they 'probably wouldn't be too bad'. I rolled my eyes and hit him playfully on the side of the head. He may not have been quite as intelligent as his sister and mother, but he was still more than a match for my brains. I wouldn't have been surprised if he got a full run of E's and O's.

Grandma ushered us all into the kitchen for a quick lunch before we went flying. I was quite glad about this, because she made the best sandwiches in the world. You could say that all sandwiches taste pretty much the same, but it would be a lie.

'Are you excited about the Quidditch then?' Grandad asked.

'Well, I don't know about excited-'

I was cut off in mid-sentence as James choked on a mouthful of fruitcake. Albus reached over and whacked him on the back. The lump of food was dislodged from his throat and the conversation moved on. Mum and Dad looked strangely relieved. I mean, so their nineteen year-old son was choking – but it's hardly as if he was on the edge of death, was it?

At about two o'clock, we headed out to the meadow where we could safely play without being spotted by prying muggle eyes. To our surprise however, it was already occupied. We were about to turn back, when we recognised the blonde twins sitting against the trunk of a tree by the far side of the field. It was the Scamander twins, Lorcan and Lysander. Come to think of it, their grandfather, Xenophelius Lovegood lived quite close, so it wasn't unusual for them to be around.

They looked up as they saw us approach, with identical, half-dazed grins on their faces. They were in the year below me and their mother, Luna, had been friends with my mum, and had known Dad, Ron and Hermione fairly well too. I had never been particularly close to either of them, but I knew that my cousin Lucy had a bit of a thing going for Lysander, the more outgoing and 'sane' of the pair. Okay, that's probably a bit rude. Luna just had a few… interesting quirks, which seem to have rubbed off onto her sons. One more than the other.

'You've got a wrackspurt in your hair, Lily,' Lorcan said.

See what I mean?

'Oh, I don't mind them,' I said absentmindedly, while inspecting the contents of the jar his brother was holding.

Lorcan just looked at me like I'd dribbled on my shirt. 'If that gets inside your ears and breeds then your brain will get slowly eaten away.'

'Oh. Right, well I'll just kill it then.'

I hit my head in various places, just to please him. I must have got 'it' in the end because Lorcan gave me a smile of satisfaction, before taking the jar from Lysander and peering inside. I did wonder what on earth had possessed the Sorting Hat to put him in Ravenclaw, while his twin was in Gryffindor.

'We're going to play Quidditch now, do you want to join in?' James asked.

'Nah, that's ok, we were just heading back home for lunch now anyway,' Lysander said.

'Ok, we'll see you around then.'

The twins climbed over the fence and disappeared down the hill on the other side of the field. We split into teams, Me and James versus Hugo and either Rose or Albus, who had decided to take it in turns.

'You ready, cuz?' Hugo said with a sly smile, before we kicked off into the air.

'Bring it on.'