Ron doesn't stir once while Izuku gets out of bed and changes. Granted, Izuku steps quietly and does his utmost not to make any loud and sudden noises. Pigwidgeon was out for the night, still, or his chattering would have woken the entire house.
Unfortunately, with his move to the top floor of the Burrow, he now has several flights of stairs to sneak down, all of which tend to make loud creaking noises at the most inopportune of times. Everyone else in the house is still asleep, given the fact the pre-dawn light has barely begun to paint the sky. Percy might be the only exception, getting up before dawn and leaving before anyone else wakes.
Izuku, so long as he's careful, can skip the stairs entirely. Float, and some careful, precise applications of Blackwhip, carries him downstairs without him having to once step foot on any of the creaky stairs.
He finishes his morning run and workout with the sun steadily beginning its climb into the sky. Mr. Weasley is probably awake and getting ready for work, Percy will have already left, and Ginny and Mrs. Weasley may be getting up soon.
However, he forgot to account for the two new variables in his understanding of the Weasley family routine.
"You're up early," Hermione remarks as Izuku steps into the kitchen. She sits at one end of the table, and Mr. Weasley reads the morning paper at the other end. He greets Izuku warmly, and Izuku greets him back before turning toward Hermione.
"I get up when Percy does, which …." He gives it another second of thought. "Okay, yeah, that's early."
Hermione scoffs, "Especially compared to every other teenage boy I've ever met."
Izuku is far from the only member of his class to get up pre-dawn to go running or get some early workout in. Iida and Kacchan have both been common running partners of his, and Yaoyorozu and Todoroki are both habitual early risers as well. Kirishima and Satou like to hit the weights early, before any saner students would want them, and Tokoyami and Shouji are a common sight watching the sunrise from one or the other's balcony.
… Maybe he shouldn't base his expectations of standard teenager wake-up time off of hero students, especially not students as notoriously gung-ho about training as his class.
Izuku shrugs in response to Hermione's statement. "I'm hardly the only person I know who gets up early."
Yeah, hero students are not normal. You're all up so early it should be considered torture, Banjou gripes.
Charlie arrives after dinner, apparating into the yard with a loud crack while Izuku, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione are outside enjoying the cool evening air. Hermione, sitting under one of the oak trees with her back pressed to the bark, nearly drops her book, while Izuku launches to his feet and just barely holds himself back from activating One For All.
(He's not quite sure why he's so reluctant to use any of his quirks in front of anyone else—quirk use laws may just be deeply ingrained in him, despite being quirkless for fifteen years. Or, possibly, he's just not quite sure how to explain them, even with his vague possibly-non-human background tale.)
"Charlie!" Ginny bolts across the lawn, throwing herself at her brother. Charlie laughs and catches her, hefting her up while she wraps her legs around his waist and bonks their heads together.
Broad-shouldered and stout, Charlie has no issues carrying Ginny as he walks toward the kitchen door. Fred and George crash through it before he can get there, wide grins on their faces.
"Smuggle any more dragons?" Fred asks, winking at Ron and Hermione, the latter who blushes deep and glares daggers (or is it jinxes, in this case?) at him and the former who blushes just as much and looks away with his arms crossed.
One barked laugh, sharp and loud, and Charlie replies, "No, not in a while. Why? You have one you want me to pick up for you?"
"Not at this moment, but we'll let you know if we do." George slaps Charlie on the back, while Fred flanks him on the other side.
A business-man slick grin in place, Fred picks up where George left off. "Good to know our dearest elder brother will come through for us in a pinch."
"I thought I heard an annoying voice."
More Weasleys join them, Bill smirking and leaning against the wall beside the kitchen door as Mrs. Weasley bustles past him. Charlie sets Ginny down just in time to embrace his mother, groaning over-exaggerated as she squeezes him.
"Oh, look at you!" She holds him at arm's-length, looking him up and down before clicking her tongue over a shiny patch of skin on his arm—a freshly-healed burn. "Have they been taking well enough care of you, there? You didn't have this last time …."
Charlie chuckles. "Mum, I'm okay. The healers on the reserve are top-notch. Dragon-fire burns just scar. We've got a new nesting-mother in—a Chinese Fireball. She's a bit temperamental."
Dragons exist here, then, and Charlie must work with them. Izuku misses the next few words exchanged, too busy wondering—they're likely not similar to Ryukyu, considering her quirk turns her into a dragon rather than already being a dragon. Besides, there's many different dragon mythologies around the world—he wouldn't be surprised to find out there's just as many variants of actual dragons here.
Mrs. Weasley steps away from Charlie, letting Mr. Weasley step up and clap a hand on his son's back to guide him toward the kitchen door. The rest of the Weasley clan follows, leaving Hermione and Izuku on their own outside.
They don't speak, an awkward tension rising in the air, and he's just about to turn and follow the Weasleys inside when she speaks.
"I've been wondering. Did you actually cram three years' worth of Hogwarts classes into a month?" she asks. "It seems a bit—absurd. Hogwarts is, after all, the best school of magic in the UK. I find it hard to believe anyone could do that."
Izuku shrugs. "The teachers seemed to think I understood well enough to be put into the fourth year, yes. I'm sure I'll get a firmer understanding of the material during school."
"Well." Hermione closes her book and stands, brushing grass off her pants. She looks up at him, brow furrowed and lips pursed. "If you want any help studying, I'd be happy to do so."
"It would probably be nice to study together, sometime," he agrees.
She nods, once, before marching toward the kitchen door. He follows her inside, finding most of the Weasleys in the living room.
"Ah! Hermione! It's nice to see you again," Charlie calls out to her. "Third year go alright? Heard they had dementors stationed around the school. Nasty things."
"It was good, thank you," she replies, finding a spot on one of the couches and squeezing herself in next to Ginny.
"So, you must be Midoriya." Charlie turns to face Izuku, eyes pausing first on his hair then tracking down toward his eyes and freezing as they briefly make eye contact. Izuku glances away first, finding a spot between Charlie's eyebrows to stare at. "It's nice to meet you."
Izuku resists the urge to bow at him, fighting back all the ingrained instincts telling him that he's being rude. "It's nice to meet you, too."
"So you got stuck in Bill's old room? Sorry to kick you out, mate," Charlie says.
Izuku shrugs. "Sharing with Ron isn't bad."
"You don't have to be polite to spare our dignity. We all know how he snores." Charlie grins playfully at Ron, who pouts back, beet-red.
"A quick muffling charm and I didn't even notice," Izuku replies.
"I thought you were still underage?" Bill speaks up, one eyebrow raised.
"Oh, I am." Izuku turns to him, heat rising to his cheeks. "I have a waiver, for educational purposes, that lasts until the start of term."
"Is that so? Carry on, then, and maybe you could muffle the ghoul in the attic while you're at it."
The Weasleys share a laugh at this, and soon, Izuku finds himself quietly excusing himself and slipping away up the stairs. He likes the Weasleys—he does—they're just a bit … overwhelming, all at once.
I understand, Shinomori pipes up. They're loud.
You spent eighteen years as a hermit in the woods. You think everything is loud, Banjou snipes back.
While the fourth and fifth bicker, Izuku finds himself pausing outside Percy's door: the only Weasley not downstairs and greeting Charlie.
Before he can talk himself out of it, Izuku knocks on his door.
"Shove off, I'm busy!" Percy shouts through the door.
Izuku raises his voice, not quiet shouting back, as he replies, "Charlie's here. I thought I should let you know—"
"In case I somehow missed the commotion?" Percy's voice grows closer, and a moment later, he opens the door. His glasses sit tilted on his face, and his short hair stands on end like he's been running his hands through it for a while. "I apologize for my shortness with you. I just have reports I need to get done, and it's very hard to do so when I'm constantly being interrupted every half hour by some inane demand."
"I'm sorry for bothering you, then," Izuku replies. "I'm sure what you're working on is very important." He steps away, heading for the next flight of stairs, but pauses when Percy sighs.
"It … can wait. Thank you for letting me know."
"You're welcome." Izuku watches as Percy fixes the collar of his shirt—even changed out of his work robes, he still wears dress shirts and slacks—and heads downstairs.
Ron doesn't sleep, that night, so by extension, neither does Izuku. He lays there, listening to the other boy toss and turn, ignoring the rattles and clanks coming from the attic, before tossing off his covers and sitting up.
"Restless?" he asks, whispering loudly.
"… Yeah," Ron replies, in the same tone. "We're picking up Harry tomorrow."
"Too excited to sleep?"
"Probably, yeah."
"Come on, then." Izuku stands, bare feet landing soundlessly on the worn carpet.
Ron sits up, a rumpled silhouette in the moonlight from the window. "Come on where?"
"Outside? If I'm too restless to sleep, getting exercise helps."
"… I'm wearing my pajamas."
"So change?" Izuku, for his part, has been wearing shorts and a long-sleeved shirt to bed for the past couple nights he's been sharing with Ron. A little miserable, in the hot upper floor of the house, but he would rather not be asked about the scars on his arms, and especially not after Mrs. Weasley's reaction to Charlie's burn earlier.
He isn't ashamed of them, but he could live without dealing with the questions, not when he's yet to figure out a way to answer them in-line with his concocted backstory.
"… Alright," Ron agrees, also getting out of bed. Izuku pulls on socks and steps out to give him the privacy to change, and Ron joins him a minute later, shirt inside-out and hair still a mess.
They sneak downstairs together, a process much slower than when Izuku snuck down in the morning on his own. Ron goes first, pointing out where Izuku should step, and not a single stair creaks on their way.
After putting their shoes on, they step outside into the cool night air. The moon, just barely beginning to wane, casts enough light for them to see easily.
"What now?" Ron asks, voice still low, bouncing up and down like he can barely contain himself.
Izuku shrugs. "Do you like running?"
"I dunno, usually when I'm running, it's because something's trying to kill me." Ron speaks easily, simply, shrugging off the statement like it's nothing.
Which …. Well, Izuku hardly has a leg to stand on, here. He's spent his own fair share of time running from people trying to kill him, after all.
"We could run up to the orchard together," Izuku offers. "And then see how you're feeling."
"Alright."
Izuku sets the pace, taking off at a light jog, then re-evaluates and jogs a bit slower as Ron begins to lag behind. His form is atrocious, but then again, so was Izuku's before All Might (then later Iida) taught him how to run. There was also a glaring lack of any kind of physical education listed as part of the Hogwarts curriculum, though again, Izuku and the teenagers he's used to spending time around are all some form of fitness or training freak. It comes with the territory of being a hero student.
By the time they reach the orchard, Ron is red-faced and gasping for breath. Doubling over, he speaks between gasps, "How … do you do … that?"
"Stand up straight and put your hands on your head," Izuku corrects without really thinking about it. "You'll catch your breath faster. And walk around, too, so your muscles don't get sore, later."
"Right." Ron sounds skeptical but does as he's told.
"And I enjoy running," Izuku addresses Ron's actual question. "I do it a lot. That's … why I wake up so early. Part of it, at least. The more you run, the easier it gets."
"Harry's good at running," Ron replies.
"Then he must do quite a bit of it."
"His cousin's a git," Ron snarls. "A great, big, bullying git. Harry's told me that he chases him around before."
"Oh." Izuku, not unfamiliar with being chased around by bullies, bites his lip as something tugs in his chest. "That … is awful. I'm sorry."
"At least he only has to spend summers with them now." Ron, by now having caught his breath, turns to Izuku. "They're awful. They put bars on his window, once. If underage magic wasn't illegal, I'd hex them."
Izuku blinks, taking a moment to think of what to say next. When he doesn't respond immediately, Ron keeps going.
"I don't think they feed him enough, either. They were basically starving him this summer with this stupid diet thing, and—" Ron cuts himself, face twisted in fury as he kicks the ground. "Mum would take him in, happily, if she was allowed. But no. He has to stay with his family, for whatever stupid reason!"
"That's … terrible." An inadequate response, Izuku still trying to balance himself and catch his reeling thoughts. "He'll be here for the rest of the summer, though, right? Then he'll be at Hogwarts."
Ron sighs. "Yeah. And then he'll have to go back to his stupid aunt and uncle, again."
Izuku is so completely out of his depth, here. It's not the first time he's had someone spill some secret like this to him—that was how he and Todoroki started becoming friends, after all—but back then, he didn't have so little idea of what to do about it.
He doesn't know anything about wizarding law, or anything else that would help here beyond what they're already doing to help.
Being so totally lost, again, is an uncomfortable feeling.
"Are you … ready to head back?" he asks, instead.
"Yeah. Sure. Whatever," Ron agrees, taking off in a clumsy run back toward the Burrow.
Izuku follows and lets him set the pace, lets the rhythm of their footsteps drive some of the thoughts from his head. When they're back at the Burrow, taking their shoes off on the back step, he speaks again.
"I … think I understand, some of what you're going through. A friend of mine didn't have the greatest home life for a while, and …." Izuku shrugs. "It got better, after a while, but …."
Ron doesn't reply, just pulls his shoes off with furious movements and stands. They both head inside, leaving their shoes by the kitchen door, and sneak back upstairs, where they crawl into bed without speaking to each other.
In the evening, after Ron, Mr. Weasley, Fred, and George set out to pick Harry up, Bill and Charlie rope Izuku into joining them in the kitchen.
"Have to admit, we don't really know much about you, yet," Bill says, sitting down with Charlie across the kitchen table from Izuku. "Though, Ginny seems fond of you."
"Um, yes?" Izuku replies, leaning back in his chair and glancing between the two oldest Weasley siblings. "I-I have, I have no romantic interest in her, or any of your other siblings, if that's what you're worried about."
Charlie barks out a laugh and shakes his head, while Bill smiles and replies, "That's not what we're asking about, though if you did, that might be another conversation …."
"No, we're just curious, really," Charlie continues. "Have you been introduced to Quidditch, yet?"
"I'm familiar with the concept—"
"We're going to have to play a pick-up game before Bill and I leave," Charlie declares. "Oliver's told me that Harry's almost a better Seeker than I was when I played for Gryffindor. I've been wanting to play against him since."
"I don't think we'll have enough for Seekers, though," Bill muses, frowning thoughtfully. "You, me, Fred, George, Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Midoriya, if he's willing. Two Chasers, a Beater, and a Keeper."
"Well." Charlie shrugs. "That's still a bigger game than we've ever had—"
The fireplace lights up, cutting Charlie off. Fred pops out first, then George, hanging onto a big wooden trunk. Ron stumbles out next, and the fire dies back.
Fred and George snicker and giggle together, whispering with each other and Ron as they step away from the fireplace.
"Oh, that sounds like trouble," Bill murmurs, just loud enough for Charlie and Izuku to hear him.
The fire lights up green again and spits out someone Izuku has yet to see—this must be Harry. All gangly limbs and frizzy, curly black hair (clearly, someone has no idea how to take care of curly hair, which doesn't surprise Izuku that much—Ashido was the one who ended up teaching Izuku how to properly take care of his curls, after all), he catches himself with his hands before he can smash his face, probably breaking his glasses with it, into the floor.
Izuku finds himself scrutinizing the boy as Fred helps him up, and Ron and George crowd toward him. Even next to tall, weedy Ron, Harry looks skinny.
The three younger Weasleys in the kitchen burst out laughing.
"I'll bet their reaction was brilliant," George says, grinning and shepherding Harry toward the table. Bill and Charlie both stand, greeting Harry and shaking his hand, and Izuku stands to do the same as Harry turns curious eyes to him—
A pop, and Mr. Weasley appears, a furious glare on his face as he begins to demand answers from Fred and George—apparently, they fed something to Harry's cousin, one of the things they had been experimenting to create in their room all summer.
Then, Mrs. Weasley arrives. Izuku's already backing away toward the stairway by the time she appears, and her arrival puts a bit more urgency in him. He isn't afraid of her, but he does remember the epic shouting match from when she found their order forms earlier in the summer.
Ginny and Hermione join the rest of them, probably summoned by the shouting. With a few sharp, well-placed words, Hermione gets Ron and Harry to join them and head upstairs. Ginny pulls Izuku along with him, and she and Ron explain the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes to Harry and Hermione as they climb. After a brief encounter with Percy, the five of them end up crammed into Ron's room. Pigwidgeon chitters in his cage, though quiets as Ron throws a sheet over it.
"We're sharing with Midoriya," Ron says, pointing at Izuku. "Bill and Charlie get the room he's been staying in, and Percy gets to keep his room to himself because he has work."
"You're Midoriya, then?" Harry asks, turning to Izuku, expression guarded. His eyes pause on Izuku's hair, for a moment.
"That's me," Izuku replies. "And you must be Harry. I've heard a lot about you—it's nice to finally meet you in person."
"Er, right," Harry blushes and glances away.
"Hey, Midoriya's eyes are a brighter green than yours," Ron bursts out. "Think Snape'll start fixating on his, instead?"
Izuku raises his eyebrows, while Harry turns toward him again. He can pinpoint the exact moment Harry notices what's off about his eyes—the other boy's own eyes widen, giving Izuku a better look at their color. They're hardly as bright as some of the colors he's used to seeing from his classmates (perhaps quirks play a role in this) but still a light, noticeable green.
Rather than commenting on Izuku's pupils, Harry snorts and looks back toward Ron. "We'd have to convince Snape that he's my long-lost brother who just so happens to be a completely different race than either of my parents."
The five of them end up chatting for a while. Izuku mostly watches, remaining silent, as Ron, Ginny, and Hermione catch Harry back up on the various Weasley family going-ons.
It ends when Hermione mentions the arguing seems to have stopped. The five of them head downstairs and help set up for dinner in the garden, where Izuku ends up sandwiched between Ginny and Ron. Percy and Mr. Weasley's conversation about Mr. Crouch and Ludo Bagman carries loud enough for the entire table to understand them, while conversations by the other Weasleys chatter underneath.
After dinner, after ice cream, underneath the warm light of Mr. Weasley's conjured candles, Izuku's listening in on a conversation Ginny and Bill are having when he hears Ron ask Harry a question, voice just as soft as it was under the moonlight the night before.
"So—have you heard from Sirius, lately?"
It takes Izuku a moment to decide that's a name.
Harry responds, just as quietly. For a moment, Izuku ponders the idea of turning and asking who Sirius is, but before he can, Mrs. Weasley stands and declares that it's time for bed before chasing the youngest—Fred, George, and Izuku included—away from the tables.
As the three of them settle into bed, Izuku considers asking them who Sirius is, before deciding to hold his tongue. Clearly, it's some sort of secret, and there will be plenty of time later for Izuku to ask when they're not supposed to be waking up before the crack of dawn.
