Uncle Vernon was as bad as his word.
The following morning Uncle Vernon fit bars on the twin's window. He, himself, fitted a cat-flap in the bedroom door so that a small amount of food could be pushed inside three times a day. Their aunt and uncle let the twins use the bathroom mornings and evenings, otherwise they were locked in their room around the clock.
Three days later the Dursleys were showing no sign of relenting, and Harry couldn't find any way of talking him and his brother out of their situation. Harry was laying on his cot watching Loki attack a lone sock that had lost its mate weeks ago, while he, himself, played with the ends of his hair. Haiden was watching the sun sink behind the bars on the window. Harry sighed and wondered miserably what was going to happen to them… well, mainly him.
Harry had a feeling that if he was forced to spend another week stuck with his brother in this room, he would surely loose his mind. Or do something that he would regret later on down the line… maybe.
What was the point of magicking himself out of this room if Hogwarts would expel him for doing it? Yet, life at Private Drive had reached an all-time low, turning into a personal hell. Now that the Dursleys knew that they weren't going to wake up as fruit bats, him and his brother had lost their only weapon. Dobby might have saved Haiden from horrible happenings at Hogwarts, but with the way that things were going here, Haiden (along with Harry) was going to starve to death anyway.
The cat-flap rattled, and Aunt Petunia's hand appeared, pushing two bowls of canned soup into the room. Harry (whose insides were aching with hunger) jumped off his cot and seized one bowl up (though he was very tempted to take them both). The soup was stone cold, but he drank half of it in one gulp. He then turned towards the desk and used his hand to scoop the soggy vegetables into Heimdallur's empty food bowl before setting the bowl on the desk for Loki. Both animals gave him a look of deep disgust.
"It's no good turning your nose up at it – that's all we got." Harry said grimly. He laid back down on the cot, looking up at the starry night, somehow even hungrier than he had been before the soup. Harry sighed as he closed his eyes intending to try and get some sleep.
Supposing that they were still alive in another four weeks, what would happen if neither of them turned up at Hogwarts? Would someone be sent to see why he (or at least Haiden) hadn't come back? Would they be able to make the Dursleys let him go?
The room was now only lit by the light of the streetlamps outside. A car rumbled somewhere, drawing closer. The car pulled up in front of a house around the Dursley's house (sitting there idling) waiting for someone or something. Harry sighed, knowing that he wouldn't be sleeping any time soon with that car idling in front of the house, and opened his eyes. He blinked. Ron Weasley was staring at him through their window.
"What the–?" Harry cried, shooting up in his cot in shock. He spun back around so that he could look at the window to double check that he had actually seen Ron and hadn't been imagining it. Though why his mind would imagine Ron Weasley of all people coming to rescue him instead of Draco or even the Weasley Twins was a mystery. Ron was still there. Harry crawled back towards the window, grabbing his pillow, and tossed it at Haiden, waking him. Harry opened the window before quickly catching the pillow that Haiden had thrown back at him.
"Ron?" Haiden asked. "How did you – What the–?" Ron was leaning out of the back window of an old turquoise car, which was parked in mid-air. Grinning at Harry from the front seats were Fred and George.
"All right there, Kitten?" George asked in concern as his eyes flashed from Harry to the bars on the window and back.
"What's been going on?" Ron asked. "Why haven't you been answering my letters? I've asked you to stay twelve times, and then Dad came home and said you'd gotten an official warning for using magic in front of Muggles–"
"It wasn't me – and how did he know?" Haiden asked crawling onto Harry's cot, pushing him out of the way of the window. Harry glared at him, his hand balling into a fist before he turned away while rolling his eyes.
"He works for the Ministry." Ron said. "You know we're not supposed to do magic outside of school–"
"You should talk." Harry muttered shooting a look at the flying car over Haiden's shoulder.
"This doesn't count." Ron snapped at Harry, causing Fred to whack him in the back of the head with a harsh glare.
"We're only borrowing it, Kitten. It's our Dad's. We didn't enchant it. But doing magic in front of those Muggles you live with–" George started.
"We didn't – but it's too long a story to explain now. Look, can you tell them at Hogwarts that the Dursleys have locked us up and won't let us come back. And obviously neither of us can magic ourselves out because the Ministry will think that's the second spell that we've done in three days, so–" Harry explained.
"Shut up." Ron snapped. Harry glared at him. "We've come to rescue Haiden–"
"And you, Harry!" The Weasley Twins quickly cut in, both of them hitting Ron while glaring at him.
"–And take him home with us." Ron finished with a growl, continuing as if his brothers hadn't interrupted him.
"But you can't magic me out either." Haiden said confused.
"We don't need to." Ron said, jerking his head toward Fred and George with a grin. "You forgot who I've got with me."
"Tie that around the bars." Fred ordered tossing the end of a rope to Haiden.
"If the Dursleys wake up, we're dead." Harry informed them as Haiden tied the rope tightly around the bar, Harry double checking (and even retying) the knot. George gave Fed a tight lip look as Fred revved up the car.
"Don't worry, we'll get you away before they can lay a finger on you." Fred growled out. "Stand back, Kitten, don't want you getting hurt. Draco would kill us."
"That is if we don't beat him to it." George finished, flashing a smile at Harry.
Harry and Haiden quickly scooted off the cot. Thinking quickly, Harry picked up the cot and thew it onto Haiden's bed so that it was out of the way. He then backed up so that he was next to Haiden by Heimdallur and Hedwig, who seemed to realize how important this was and kept still and silent. The car revved louder and louder before suddenly, with a crashing noise, the bars were pulled clean out of the window as Fred drove straight up in the air. Harry ran back to the window to see the bars dangling a few feet about the ground. Panting, Ron began hoisting them up into the car. Harry ran over to the door and put his ear to it, listening anxiously, but there was no sound from the Dursleys' bedrooms. When the bars were safely in the back seat with Ron, Fred reversed as close as possible to Harry's window.
"Get in." Ron said.
"But all our Hogwarts stuff – our wands – his broomstick–" Harry started still listening for any noise as Haiden climbed into the car.
"Where is it?" Ron snapped just as Loki ran and dove into the car, landing hard on Ron's face and made sure to scratch him before jumping to Fred's shoulder with a smug look.
"Locked in the cupboard under the stairs, and I can't get out of this room–" Harry said before trailing off in embarrassment. He had been able to pick the lock of the cupboard, yet he couldn't pick the lock of his own room.
"No problem." George said as Fred removed Loki from his shoulder. "Out of the way, Haiden." Fred and George climbed cat-like through the window into the bedroom. Harry gave a small huff of a laugh when George took an ordinary hairpin from his pocket and started to pick the lock.
"You were right about that book, Harry, it did come in handy." George said before there was a small click and the door swung open. "So – we'll get your trunks – you grab anything you need from your room and hand it to Ron, who will put it into the car, or he will get a hairy guest in his bed tonight." George threatened looking over his shoulder to glare at Ron who paled.
"Watch out for the bottom stair – it creaks, loudly." Harry whispered to them as the twins disappeared onto the dark landing. Harry listened once more for any sound from the Dursleys before dashing around the room, collecting his things (mixing them with Haiden's to be extra sure that Ron took his stuff) and handed them to Ron and Haiden.
Once he was sure he had gotten everything, Harry shot his brother an annoyed look before leaving the room to help the Weasley Twins with the trunks. Every time Harry heard his uncle cough, he would tense up. At last, panting, the three of them reached the landing, then drug the trunks into the room to the window.
Fred climbed back into the car to pull with Ron (who had been forced to help), while Harry and George pushed from the bedroom side. Inch by agonizing inch, the trunk slowly slid through the window. Uncle Vernon coughed again.
"A bit more." Fred panted. "One good push–" Harry and George threw their shoulders against the trunk, and it slid out of the window into the back seat of the car. They took a minute to get their breaths back before they repeated the process with the second one.
"Okay, let's go." George whispered, climbing through the window into the car as Harry turned to get Heimdallur and Hedwig, who suddenly gave a loud screech. Which was immediately followed by the thunder of Uncle Vernon's voice.
"THAT RUDDY OWL!"
"Shut up, Hedwig! I was coming to get you, you bloody owl!" Harry hissed as he roughly grabbed her cage (making sure she hit the bars of the cage) before grabbing Heimdallur's cage. Harry tore across the room as the landing light clicked on – he passed both cages to Ron (who took them one at a time). Harry noticed that Ron made sure to take Hedwig's cage first.
Once both owls were safely in the car, Harry began to climb into the car. He had just scrambled onto the chest of drawers when Uncle Vernon hammered on the unlocked door, and it crashed open. For a split second, Uncle Vernon stood framed in the doorway; then he let out a bellow like an angry bull and dived at Harry, grabbing him tightly by the ankle, causing Harry to cry out in pain. Fred and George seized Harry's arms and pulled as hard as they could, Harry whimpered as the pain grew worse.
"Petunia!" Uncle Vernon roared. "They're getting away! THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!" But the Weasley Twins gave a gigantic tug and Harry's leg slipped out of Uncle Vernon's grasp – Harry was in the car curled up in George's lap as the teen slammed the car door shut.
"Put your foot down, Fred!" Ron yelled, and the car suddenly shot towards the moon. Harry (shaking more from adrenaline than anything else) couldn't believe it – he was free. He crawled off George's lap to the window and rolled it down, the night air whipping his hair (that now came just past his shoulder blades). He looked back at the shrinking rooftops of Private Drive, a strange yet familiar sensation flew through him. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley were all hanging, dumbstruck, out of the window.
"See you next summer! I love to hate you!" Harry yelled, waving at them happily. The Weasley Twins roared with laughter as George pulled Harry back into his lap and begun to run his fingers through Harry's hair. Harry gave an almost purr like sound as he turned and nuzzled into George's chest as he grinned from ear to ear. "Let the owls out. So that they can fly behind us. They haven't had a chance to stretch their wings in ages." Harry told Ron and Haiden. George handed the hairpin to Ron only to have both cages and the hairpin all but tossed to Harry a moment later. Harry sighed and took the hair pin from where it landed and made quick work in opening the cages. Heimdallur didn't even wait until the cage was fully open before bursting out of the cage and flew out of the car with a happy hoot.
"So – What's the story, Haiden?" Ron asked impatiently. "What's been happening?"
Haiden told them all about Dobby, the warning he'd given them, and the fiasco of the violet pudding with Harry inserting his side and correcting Haiden when he got things wrong or mixed up. There was a long, shocked silence when they had finished.
"And you're sure that the house-elf was a Malfoy elf?" Fred asked.
"Yes." Harry said.
"But that doesn't make sense. Why would Draco (or any of the Malfoys) order one of his house-elves to take your letters? I mean, he's worried that you're injured so bad that you can't write back. He even owled us yesterday, wondering if we've heard from you." George said.
"Draco's worried?" Harry asked suddenly feeling very giddy and ignored the rude sounds and muttering from the back seat.
"Of course. We've all been worried!" Fred cried turning the wheel to dodge a flock of birds.
"I'll make sure to write him when we get to your house." Harry said.
"Yeah, enough about that prick." Ron said. "I wanna know why Dobby wouldn't tell Haiden who was plotting all this stuff against him."
"I don't think he could, not that he wouldn't." Harry said with an annoyed sigh, half of him wondering if Fred and George would mind if he crawled into the back seat and push Ron out of the car. "We told you, every time he got close to letting something slip, he started banging his head against the wall. And George, I don't think the Malfoys know about what Dobby did. I think he's acting on his own, or that's what he implied." Fred and George looked at each other. "You think he's not acting on his own?"
"Well," Fred started, "put it this way – house-elves have got powerful magic of their own, however, they can't usually use it without their master's permission. I reckon someone somehow found a loophole to use Dobby without the Malfoys knowing and sent him to stop you and Haiden from coming back to Hogwarts. Someone's idea of a joke. Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against either you or Haiden?"
"Yes." Haiden and Ron said together at once.
"Draco Malfoy." Haiden said, causing Harry to roll his eyes and the Weasley Twins to smirk. "He hates me."
"I've heard dad talking about his father, Lucius Malfoy." Ron said, and the Weasley Twins gave off a soft chorus of groans. "Dad says that he was a big supporter of You-Know-Who." Harry bit his lip to fight the urge to say 'Voldemort'. "And when You-Know-Who disappeared, Lucius Malfoy came back saying he'd never meant any of it. Load of dung – Dad reckons he was right in You-Know-Who's inner circle." Harry crossed his arms over his chest and glared out the windshield.
Harry had heard all the rumors about the Malfoy family. At school last year (when he had first started hanging out with Draco) people who he didn't even know would stop him and try to 'help him' by telling him all about how 'evil' the Malfoys were. It made Harry mad. True, in the public eye the Malfoys appear to not be the best family, but that doesn't mean they are pure evil as everyone seemed to try to make them out to be.
"Can you not talk about Draco and his family where I can hear you." Harry snapped with a growl. Everyone fell into an awkward silence.
"I'm glad we came to get you." Ron said a few minutes later. "I was getting really worried when you didn't answer any of my letters. I thought it was Errol's fault at first."
"Who's Errol?" Haiden asked as George started to run his fingers through Harry's hair in a calming manner.
"Our owl. He's ancient. It wouldn't be the first time he'd collapsed on a delivery. So, then I tried to borrow Hermes–" Ron explained.
"Who?" Haiden asked.
"The owl Mum and Dad bought Percy when he was made prefect." Fred informed Haiden.
"But Percy wouldn't lend him to me." Ron growled in annoyance. "Said he needed him."
"Percy's been acting very oddly this summer." George said with a frown. "And he had been sending a lot of letters and spending a load of time shut up in his room… I mean, there's only so many times you can polish a prefect badge… You're driving too far west, Fred." He added, point at a compass on the dashboard. Fred twisted the steering wheel until they were once again heading in the right direction.
"So, I'm going to go out on a limb and say your dad has no idea you have his car." Harry said and the Twin smirked at him.
"You know us so well. When we got Draco's letter, we made a plan to 'borrow' the car tonight to check on you. Ron hopped in at the last minute." The Twins explained.
"Dad had to work tonight. Hopefully we'll be able to get it back in the garage without Mum noticing we flew it." Ron said and Harry had a feeling that their mother already knew.
"What does your dad do at the Ministry of Magic anyway?" Haiden asked.
"He works in the most boring department." Ron said. "The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office."
"The what?" Harry and Haiden asked at the same time.
"It's all to do with bewitching things that are Muggle-made, you know, in case they end up back in a Muggle shop or house. Like, last year, some old witch died, and her tea set was sold to an antiques shop. This Muggle woman bought it, took it home, and tried to serve her friend tea in it. It was a nightmare – Dad was working overtime for weeks." Fred explained.
"What happened?" Harry and Haiden asked as one, though Harry sounded more excited than Haiden.
"The teapot went berserk and squirted boiling tea all over and one man ended up in the hospital with the sugar tongs clamped to his nose. Dad was going frantic – it's only him and an old warlock called Perkins in the office – and they had to do Memory Charms and all sorts of stuff to cover it up–" George said.
"But your dad – this car–" Haiden stuttered, very confused.
"Yeah." Fred said with a laugh. "Dad's crazy about everything to do with Muggles, our shed's full of Muggle stuff. He takes it apart, put spells on it, and puts it back together again. If he raided our house, he'd have to put himself under arrest. It drives Mum mad."
"That's the main road." George said, peering down through the windshield. "We'll be there in ten minutes… Just as well, it's getting light…" A faint pinkish glow was visible along the horizon to the east. As Harry bit back a yawn, Fred brought the car lower, and Harry saw a dark patchwork field and clumps of trees. "We're a little ways outside the village," George explained. "Ottery St. Catchpole." Lower and lower went the flying car. The edge of a brilliant red sun was now gleaming through the trees.
"Touchdown!" Fred cried as, with a slight bump, they hit the ground. They had landed next to a tumbledown garage in a small yard, and Harry looked at the Weasley's house for the first time.
It looked as though it had once been a large stone pigpen, but extra rooms had been added here and there until it was several stories high and so crooked it looked as though it were held up by magic, which Harry was sure it was. Four or Five chimneys were perched on top of the red roof. A lopsided sign stuck in the ground near the entrance read: THE BURROW. Around the front door lay a jumble of rubber boots and a very rusty cauldron that would have had Severus screaming. Several fat, brown chickens were pecking their way around the yard. It was nothing like the Malfoy Manor, but it had the same feeling: warmth and love.
"It's not the Malfoy Manor, but its home." George said as he opened the door and helped Harry out.
"It's all right, it may not look the same, but it feels the same." Harry said as he limped between Fred and George towards the house before Fred picked him up.
"Now, we'll go upstairs really quietly," Fred whispered as they all stopped at the front door, "and wait for Mum to call us for breakfast. Then, Ron, you come bounding downstairs going, 'Mum, look who turned up in the night!' and she'll be so pleased to see Haiden and Harry, and no one need ever know we flew the car."
"Right." Ron nodded. "Come on, Haiden, I sleep at the – at the top…" Every one of the Weasleys paled as the door suddenly flew open. Mrs. Weasleys stood in front of them, her hands on her hips, staring angrily at Fred, George, and Ron.
"Ah." Fred said, tightening his hold on Harry.
"Oh, dear." George muttered moving closer to Harry and Fred. Harry looked Mrs. Weasley up and down, though she looked really terrifying, especially in her flowered apron with a wand sticking out of the pocket, Harry wasn't scared, in fact, he was amused. He had had a feeling she had known.
"So," She started, tone tight as if she was trying not to yell.
"Morning, Mum." George said, in what he clearly thought was a jaunty, winning voice.
"Have you any idea how worried I've been?" Mrs. Weasley said in a deadly whisper.
"Sorry, Mum, but you see, we had to–" Fred started. Harry bit back a smile and a laugh, all three of Mrs. Weasley's sons were taller than her, but they cowered as her rage broke over them. Was this what it was like to have a loving parent that was worried? Harry remembered one time how Severus had looked almost as Mrs. Weasley looked right now when Harry had been in the Hospital Wing at the end of last year, though (to Harry) Severus had looked a lot scarier.
"Bed empty! No note! Car gone – could have crashed – out of my mind with worry – did you care? – never, as long as I've lived – you wait until your father gets home, we never had trouble like this from Bill or Charlie or Percy–"
"Perfect Percy." Fred muttered darkly.
"YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF PERCY'S BOOK!" Mrs. Weasley yelled, prodding a finger in Fred's chest as he shifted Harry in his arms, which Harry was sure was starting to hurt from holding him. "You could have died, you could have been seen, you could have lost your father his job–" Harry rested his head on Fred's shoulder and started to drift off a little as Mrs. Weasley went on ranting for what seemed like hours before she yelled herself hoarse. When it went quiet, Harry peeked out from under his eye lashes to see that she had turned her attention to Haiden. "I'm very pleased to see you, Haiden," she then looked at Harry and gave a soft smile at the image of him practically falling asleep in Fred's arms, "Harry, dears. Come in and have some breakfast, or would you like to sleep, Harry?" Harry's stomach rumbled causing her to give a little laugh. "Breakfast then bed it is."
She turned and led the way to the kitchen with everyone silently following behind her. The kitchen was small and rather cramped. There was a scrubbed wooden table and chairs in the middle, Fred down and placed Harry in his lap as Harry leaned back against his chest and looked around sleepily trying to keep awake to eat. The clock on the wall opposite of him had only one hand and no numbers at all. Written around the edge were things like 'Time to make tea', 'Time to feed the chickens', and 'You're late'. Books were stacked three deep on the mantelpiece, books with titles like Charm Your Own Cheese, Enchantment in Baking, and One Minute Feasts – It's Magic!. And unless Harry's ears were deceiving him, the old radio next to the sink had just announced that coming up was "Witching hour, with the popular singing sorceress, Celestina Warbeck."
Mrs. Weasley was clattering around, cooking breakfast a little haphazardly, throwing dirty looks at her sons as she threw sausages into the frying pan. Every now and then she muttered things like "don't know what you were thinking of," and "never would have believed it."
"I don't blame you, dear." She assured Haiden, tipping eight or nine sausages onto his plate, Harry's stomach cried out for attention (wanting sausages, too) causing Mrs. Weasley to laugh again. "Nor do I blame you." She told Harry as she put the same amount of sausages on his plate. "Fred, put him down!" She hissed at Fred who tightened his grip on Harry.
"Why?" Fred asked.
"So he can eat." Mrs. Weasley said.
"He can eat just fine like this." Fred told his mother stubbornly. Harry quickly reached out and snatched a sausage as if to prove Fred right. "See." Mrs. Weasley gave him a hard look before turning back towards the stove.
"Arthur and I have been worried about you both, too. Just last night we were saying we'd come and get you ourselves if neither of you had written back by Friday. But really," she sighed and placed three fried eggs on their plates, each, "flying an illegal car halfway across the country – anyone could have seen you–" She flicked her wand casually at the dishes in the sink, which began to clean themselves, clinking gently in the background.
"It was cloudy, Mum!" Fred argued as he took a bite from his own plate.
"You keep your mouth closed while you're eating!" Mrs. Weasley snapped.
"They were starving them, Mum!" George cried, after he had made sure to swallow his food.
"And you!" Mrs. Weasley said, but it was with a slightly softened expression that she started cutting Harry bread and buttering it for him. She handed it to him before cutting another piece for Haiden. At that moment there was a diversion in the form of a small, redheaded figure in a long nightdress who appeared in the kitchen, saw Haiden, gave a small squeal, and ran out of the room.
"Ginny." Harry heard Ron mutter to Haiden in an undertone. "My sister. She's been talking about you all summer."
"Yeah, she'll be wanting your autograph, Haiden." Fred said with a grin but caught his mother's eyes and bent his face as he took another bite without another word. Nothing more was said until all five plates were clean, which took surprisingly short time. Harry yawned and somehow managed to curl up in Fred's lap and nuzzled the teen's left shoulder.
"Blimey, I'm tired." Fred yawned, tightening his arms around Harry. "I think I'll go to bed and–"
"You will not." Mrs. Weasley snapped. "It's your own fault you've been up all night. You're going to put Harry to bed then you're going to de-gnome the garden–" Whatever Mrs. Weasley was going to say next was cut off as Harry passed out from exhaustion.