AUTHORS NOTE :P

Hello people!

Sorry about the delay in the first chapter, it wouldn't let anyone read it for ages! Sorry about that

Now to answer some reviews... (I'll be answering some from the last chapter of the 3rd one too)

oOSmileOo: Sure, I'd love to hear any ideas anyone has :)

Nico: Sorry, damn typos... well done on your english test!

Green Nook: Thanks very much, that means a lot :) as for the Triwizard Tournament question, like I said before, Max won't be in the Tournament but she'll have something to do with it... :p

Dementia Jackson: Yeah, sorry about the wait on the chapter. And I don't really want to rush Max and Harry's relationship, but something might happen in this story... you don't know... ;)

Thanks to everyone else that reviewed!

Here are the free cookies and butterbeer!

Enjoy!

-Rach ;)

Max's POV

I was spinning and spinning, my arms pinned to my sides. When I felt myself slowing down, I braced myself to fall on the ground. Then I was sprawled on the ground, coughing out soot, rubbing my sore butt from where I landed on.

"Did he eat it?" Fred asked excitedly as he helped me stand up. "Yeah," I said, "What was it?"

"Ton-Tongue Toffee," George said, beaming. "Oh right. Another one of those Weasleys' Wizards Wheezes," I said, grinning. All summer, Fred and George have been making these things for the joke shop they want to have when they leave Hogwarts. They've made trick wands, sweets, fireworks, and every other kind of thing you would find in a wizards joke shop.

"What?" Harry asked, confused. "Fred and I invented them," George said, "We've been looking for someone to test it on. We nearly got Gazzy to eat one, but then Max came in, and ruined it all..."

The kitchen erupted in laughter, and that was when I noticed two other people sitting at the kitchen table with Ron and Fang. They both had bright, red hair and I knew who they were immediately. It was Bill and Charlie, the two eldest Weasley kids. I met Bill before, when we all went to Egypt last year, but I never met Charlie before, who works in Romania with dragons. I wonder when they got here.

Bill and Charlie both stood up, and walked over to Harry. "How are you doing, Harry?" Charlie said, offering his hand to Harry. Harry shook his hand, and as he did, I saw that Charlie had a huge shiny burn running up his forearm. Charlie was broad, and he his arms were very muscled. As Bill went over to shake Harry's hand, Charlie walked over to me.

"And your Max," he said, shaking my hand. "That's me," I said, grinning at him. "When did you and Bill get here?" I asked. "While you were all gone getting Harry," Charlie answered. Then he walked over to Fang and Iggy to introduce himself.

"Hey Max," I heard Bill say from behind. "Hi, Bill," I said. I must admit, before I met Bill I thought he was going to be an older version of Percy; bossy, fussy, and never broke a rule in his life. But Bill came as a shock to me. Even though he was Head Boy at Hogwarts, and works at the wizard bank, Gringotts, Bill had long hair, that he had pulled back in a ponytail, an earring that looked like a fang, and he was dressed as if he was going to a rock concert. He was cool.

Before anyone could say another word, there was a loud popping sound and Mr Weasley appeared out of no where at George's shoulder. He was angrier then I've ever seen him before. More angry then when the Gasman and Iggy blew up some of his Muggle things in the shed out the back.

"That wasn't funny Fred!" Mr Weasley said, "What did you give that Muggle boy?"

"I didn't give him anything, Dad," Fred said, "I dropped it. It's his fault he ate it, I never told him to."

"You dropped it on purpose!" Mr Weasley said, "You knew he was on a diet. You knew he'd eat it."

"How big did his tongue get?" George asked eagerly. "It was nearly four feet before his parents let me fix it!" Mr Weasley shouted.

The Weasley's, Harry, and the members of the flock that were there, roared with laughter again. "It isn't funny!" Mr Weasley shouted again. "That kind of behavior undermines the wizard-Muggle relations! I've spent half my life campaigning against the mistreatment of Muggles, and my own sons-"

"We didn't do it to him because he's a Muggle," Fred said.

"Yeah, we did it because he's a fat, bullying git. Right, Harry?" George said.

"Yeah, he is Mr Weasley," Harry said, trying to keep a straight face.

"That's not the point!" Mr Weasley said, "You wait until I tell your mother-"

"Tell me what?" came Mrs Weasley voice from the back door. Mrs Weasley had just walked into the kitchen, followed by Nudge, Angel, Hermione, Ginny and the Gasman.

"Oh, hello Harry dear," Mrs Weasley said, walking further into the sitting room. By the fact that she didn't seem surprised to see Bill and Charlie, they've already been talking since they arrived. "Tell me what, Arthur?" Mrs Weasley snapped to her husband.

It was obvious Mr Weasley never actually intended to tell his wife anything. He hesitated, eyeing Mrs Weasley nervously. There was silence, and Nudge was looking at everyone in the room, confused about what was happening.

"Tell me what, Arthur?" Mrs Weasley repeated dangerously.

"It's nothing, Molly," Mr Weasley said in a rush. "Fred and George, they just- I had a word with them-"

"What did they do?" Mrs Weasley asked. "It's nothing to do with Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, is it?" Mrs Weasley didn't like anything to do with what the twins were doing. When she first found all their papers with the orders for their merchandise, she had screamed herself hoarse at them.

"Ron, why don't you show Harry where's he sleeping," Hermione said.

"He knows, he slept there last time-" Ron started. I rolled my eyes. Honestly, that boy could be as thick as a brick sometimes.

"We can all go," I said, heading towards the stairs.

"Oh," Ron said, finally catching on. "Right."

"Yeah, we'll come too," Fred said.

"You stay where you are!" hissed Mrs Weasley.

We all edged our way out of the kitchen, and the flock, Harry, Hermione and Ginny climbed up the rickety staircase towards the top, where Ron's room was.

"What are Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?" Harry asked. We all laughed, except for Hermione. I'm not even sure if she knew what they were.

"Mum found this huge stack of forms in their room when she was cleaning it," Ron explained, "Long list of things they've invented. Joke stuff, you know. Fake wands, trick sweets...It was brilliant. I never knew they were even inventing them."

"I knew," Iggy said, grinning. "And so did Gazzy. We helped with all the explosive stuff."

"Of course you did," I said, rolling my eyes. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"We were asked not to tell anyone," the Gasman said.

"We've been hearing explosions from their room for ages," Ginny said, "But none of you actually thought they were doing anything."

"Most of the stuff- well, all of the stuff- that they were making was dangerous," Nudge said, "Then they said they were planning on selling some of it at Hogwarts to make money. Mrs Weasley went mental at them. She told them they couldn't make any more, then burned all their forms. She's furious at them. And they didn't get as many OWL'S as she wanted."

"Then there was a big row," I continued, "Because Mrs Weasley wants them to work at the Ministry like Mr Weasley and Percy, but they told her they want to own a joke shop."

The door beside me opened, and Percy pocked his head out, looking annoyed.

"Hi Percy," Harry said.

"Hello Harry," Percy said pompously. "I was wondering who was making so much noise. I'm trying to work in here, you know. I've got a report to do finish for the office. And it's rather difficult to concentrate with people thundering up and down the stairs."

"We're not thundering," Iggy said irritably, "We're walking. Sorry if we disturb the super top secret work of the Ministry of Magic."

"What are you working on?" Harry asked politely. Sometimes, Harry is just too polite.

"A report for the Department of International Magical Cooperation," Percy said smugly. "We're trying to standardize cauldron thickness. Some of the foreign imports we get are just a shade too thin. Leakages have been increasing at a rate of almost four per cent a year-"

"That report will change the world," I said sarcastically, "I bet it'll be on the front page of the Daily Prophet, you know, leaky cauldrons."

Percy blushed a light pink. "You might mock it now, Max," he said heatedly, "But unless some sort of international law is passed, we might well find the market full of flimsy, shallow-bottomed products that can be extremely dangerous-"

"Yeah, whatever Percy. Have fun with that," I said, and I started walking up the stairs again as Percy slammed his bedroom door shut. As the others followed me up the stairs, there were loud shouts from downstairs. It sounds like Mr Weasley finally told Mrs Weasley about the toffees.

We walked into Ron's room, which was so orange I thought I had walked onto the sun. His room was covered in posters of Ron's favorite Quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons. On the windowsill, there was a huge tank with a massive frog, and instead of Ron's old rat Scabbers sitting on Ron's desk, it was the tiny owl that Sirius let Ron keep. It was hopping up and down in a cage, twittering madly.

"Shut up, Pig," Ron said madly, edging his way through the extra beds in the room. "Fang and Iggy are up here with us, 'cause Bill and Charlies taking their room. Percy gets his own room, because he has work to do, and Fred and George's room is full of boxes from all the joke stuff they have. Mum doesn't know there, they hide them whenever she's coming up the stairs."

"Why are you calling the owl Pig?" Harry asked, eyeing the owl.

"Because Ron's being silly," Angel said, sitting on the bed beside Harry, "His proper name is Pigwidgeon."

"Yeah, and that's not a stupid name at all," Ron said. "The girls named him. They think it's sweet. I tried changing it, but it was too late. He was already used to it. So now he's Pig. I have to keep him here because he annoys Hermes and Errol. He annoys me too, actually."

"Oh, Ron, shut up. He's adorable," Nudge said, feeding Pig some owl treats. He tweeted happily and started zooming around his cage loudly. We all knew Ron too well to actually take him seriously. Before, he had complained continuously about his rat Scabbers, but when everyone thought he had died, Ron had been very depressed about it and stopped talking to Hermione, believing her cat had eaten Scabbers.

"Where's Crookshanks?" Harry asked Hermione. "Out in the garden I think," Hermione said, "He's chasing gnomes. He loves them."

"So Percy's liking work then?" Harry asked.

"Liking it?" Fang said, smirking, "He wouldn't come home if Mr Weasley didn't make him."

"He's obsessed," Ron went on, rolling his eyes, "Don't mention his boss. According to Mr Crouch...As I was saying to Mr Crouch...Mr Crouch's opinion is...Mr Crouch was saying...I swear, any day now they'll be announcing their engagement."

"Had a good summer, Harry?" Hermione said, "Did you get the food parcels we sent?"

"Yeah, thanks a lot," Harry smiled, "Those cakes saved my life."

"And have you heard from-?" Ron started asking, but he feel silent when I glared at him. He was going to ask about Sirius. Whereas the flock knew all about Sirius (I couldn't keep that away from them) Ginny didn't know anything about it. We agreed not to tell her until Sirius was free.

"I think they stopped arguing," Iggy said, covering up the awkward moment, because Ginny was looking at all of us curiously. "Maybe we should go and help with dinner." And if Iggy was offering to help with something, it was serious.

"Yeah, okay," I said, and we walked out of Ron's orange room. Mrs Weasley was alone in the kitchen, extremely bad tempered.

"We're eating in the garden," Mrs Weasley said, "There just isn't room in here for seventeen people. Girls, could you take the plates and cutlery outside? Bill and Charlie are outside setting up the tables. Boys, you take out cups and drinks," she said, pointing her wand a little roughly at the potatoes in the sink, which shot out of their skins so fast they bounced off the walls.

"Oh, for heavens sake!" Mrs Weasley shouted, pointing her wand at the dustbin that went off, scooping up the potatoes. "Those two!" she snapped, pulling out pots and pans from the cupboard. "I don't know what's going to happen to them, I really don't. No ambition, unless you count causing as much trouble as they can..."

Mrs Weasley slammed a huge pot onto the counter, and began spinning her wand around.

"It's not as though they haven't got brains," she went on, taking the pot over to the stove, "But they're wasting them, and unless you they pull themselves together soon, they will be in real trouble. I've more owls from Hogwarts about them then everyone the others altogether. If they carry on the way they are, they'll end up in from the Improper Use of Magic Office."

Mrs Weasley pointed her wand at the cutlery drawer, and it shot open. I jumped out of the way as knives went shooting at my head, then went across the kitchen and started chopping potatoes. I shared a shocked look with Harry, who looked like he didn't know what to do.

"I don't know where we went wrong with them," Mrs Weasley said, pulling out more saucepans. "It's been the same for years, and they won't listen to- OH NOT AGAIN!"

She had picked up her wand from the counter, but it emitted a loud squeak and turned into a large rubber mouse.

"One of their fake wands!" Mrs Weasley shouted. "How many time have I told them not to leave them lying around?" She grabbed her real wand and started cooking the dinner again.

"Come on," the Gasman said, "We should help Bill and Charlie."

I grabbed a few plates, knives and forks and walked out into the garden. We had only gone a few steps when Hermione's ginger cat, Crookshanks, came running past us, chasing what looked like potatoes. I recognized it was a gnome. It ran forward and dived into the pair of Welligton boots outside the door.

Meanwhile, there was a loud crashing noise from the other side of the house. When we entered the garden, we saw what was making the noise. Bill and Charlie were had their wands out, and they were making the two tables smash into each other in the air, trying to knock the other's out of the air. Fred and George were cheering, Ginny, Angel and Nudge started laughing. Hermione looked torn between amusement and anxiety.

Bill's table caught Charlie's, and with a huge bang, it knocked off one of the legs. There was a clatter overhead, and we all looked up to see Percy's annoyed head sticking out of the window.

"Will you keep it down?" he shouted.

"Sorry, Perce," Charlie said, smirking at his brother, "How are the cauldron bottoms getting on?"

"Very badly," he snapped, then he slammed the window shut. Chuckling, Bill and Charlie put the tables back onto the ground. Bill fixed the leg of the table and conjured tablecloths out of nowhere.

By seven o'clock, everyone was sitting at the tables which were groaning under the weight of all the dishes.

At the end of the table, Percy was telling Mr Weasley all about his report on cauldron bottoms.

"I've told Mr Crouch I'd have it ready by Tuesday," Percy was saying. I looked at Nudge, who was sitting beside me, and we both rolled our eyes, then laughed. We stopped so we could hear what he was saying next, "It's a bit sooner then he expected, But I want to keep on top of things. I think he'll be grateful that I've done it in good time. Our department is very busy now, what with the Quidditch World Cup. We just aren't getting the support we need from the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Ludo Bagman-"

"I like Ludo," Mr Weasley said absently, making me think he wasn't really listening to what Percy was saying. "He was the one that got us all the tickets for the Cup. I did him a favor once. His brother got into a spot of trouble with a lawnmower that had unnatural powers. I smoothed the whole thing over for him."

"Oh, Bagman's likable enough," Percy said, "But how he got to be the Head of the Department... When I compare him to Mr Crouch! I can't see Mr Crouch losing a member of our department and not doing anything about it. You realize that Bertha Jorkins has been missing for over a month now? She went to Albania and never came back?"

Mr Weasley frowned, "Yes, I was asking Ludo about that. He says Bertha's gotten lost plenty of times before. Though, I must say, if it was anyone in my department I'd be worried."

"Oh, Bertha's hopeless alright," Percy said, "I hear she was shunted from department to department for years. Apparently she's more trouble then she's worth. But all the same, Bagman ought to be doing something to find her. She worked in our department at one time, and I think Mr Crouch was fond of her. He's taken a personal interest in the matter- but Bagman just keeps laughing and saying she must of misread her map, and ended up in Australia instead of Albania. However-" Percy sighed impressively, his eyes flicking towards Harry, Hermione, Ron, the twins and the flock, "Our department is busy enough without having to look for people in other departments. As you know father, we have another huge event to organize right after the World Cup."

Percy cleared his throat, staring at all the younger ones at the table. "You know the one I'm talking about. The top-secret one."

Gazzy, who was sitting in front of me, rolled his eyes. "Ever since he started work, he's been trying to get us to ask what the event is. Probably something to do with thick cauldron bottoms," he explained to Harry and Hermione. We all snickered, and the Gasman seemed happy that he had said something to make us all laugh. My little trooper.

Mrs Weasley was arguing with Bill about his earring. "...with a horrible great fang in it," she was saying. "Really, Bill what do they say at the bank?"

"Mum, no one cares what I wear as long as I take back loads of treasure," Bill said patiently. It clearly wasn't the first time Mrs Weasley wanted to change something in Bill's appearance.

"And your hair is getting silly dear," she said, "I wish you'd let me cut it..."

"I like it," Ginny said,grinning at her eldest brother, "Your so old fashioned Mum. Besides, it's nowhere near as long as Dumbledore's." I caught Fang looking at Ginny with a goofy smile on his face. And Fang doesn't do anything goofy. Hmm...

Next to Mrs Weasley, Fred, George and Charlie were discussing the World Cup. "It's got to be Ireland (AN: WHOOP!) ," Charlie said, cutting up his potato. "They flattened Peru in the semifinals."

"Yeah, but Bulgaria have Krum," George said. "Krum's one decent player, but Ireland have seven amazing players," Charlie said shortly. "I wish England had gotten through though. That was embarrassing..."

"What happened?" Harry asked. I groaned, shaking my head. "We lost to Transylvania. Three hundred and ninety to ten," I said gloomily.

Me, Harry, Fred and George are all on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. I was a Chaser, Harry was a Seeker, and Fred and George were the Beaters. Harry had the best broom there is, a Firebolt. Sirius had sent it to him. Sirius wasn't only my dad, he was also Harry's godfather. I had a Nimbus Two Thousand, the next best thing to a Firebolt. Seeing as I could already fly without a broomstick, flying on my Nimbus was second nature.

Before we had ice cream, Mr Weasley lit the candles around the garden before it got dark. I was feeling well fed by the time we were finished, which wasn't a surprise seeing as I had four bowls of ice cream.

Ron looked up and down the table to see if anyone was looking, then leaned in closer to Harry. "So have you heard from Sirius?" he asked.

"Yeah," Harry said, "Twice." He turned to look at me. "Have you heard from him?"

"A bit. He sent me a few letters telling me him and Buckbeak were fine. That's it."

"I wrote to him yesterday," Harry said, "He might write back while I'm here." Then a strange look crossed his face. He seemed to be thinking over something.

"Look at the time," Mrs Weasley said, standing up. "The lot of you really should be in bed. You need to be up at the crack of dawn for the Cup. Harry, if you leave your book list out, I'll get all your things in Diagon Alley tomorrow. I'm getting everyone else's too. There mightn't be time after the match. The last one went on for three days!"

"Wow- hope it does this time!" Iggy said happily.

"Well I certainly don't," Percy said, "I shudder to think what my in-tray will look like if I'm away or three days."

"Yeah, someone might send you some dragon dung, eh, Perce?" Fred said, smiling.

"That was a sample of fertilizer from Norway!" Percy snapped. "It was nothing personal!"

"It actually was," George whispered to us as we walked back into the Burrow. "We sent it."

Hello! Sorry this chapter took so long to upload! I've been really busy!

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed reading it.

Free cookies and butterbeer to everyone that reviews! :) so...

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-Rach ;)