Visit to the Burrow
"Harry, are you almost ready?" Sirius called from the hallway.
"Just about. I can't get this button, though," replied the rather distraught five year old.
"Hang on, let me see."
Sirius entered the room to see Harry's sweater on backwards and the buttons and their holes matched up in every which way. He tried not to crack up.
"It's, er, on backwards," Sirius said with what he hoped was a straight face. "But the rest of you looks good."
Harry beamed and then tried unsuccessfully to undo the buttons of his sheep-covered sweater. Sirius smiled.
"Here, let me help," he volunteered, stepping behind his godson and undoing the buttons.
Ten minutes later, Harry and Sirius were on their way to the Weasleys, using the broom and (of course) the invisibility cloak.
"Sirius?" Harry piped up while glancing at the clouds.
"Yes?"
"Where did you get the invisibility cloak?" Harry wondered.
"It…it used to be your dad's," Sirius replied, rather guarded. "Dumbledore gave me it when I adopted you."
"What happened to Mummy and Daddy?"
"They…died. When you were about one."
"Oh." Pause. Then, "Will I ever see them again?"
"Most likely, but no one knows for sure," was the honest response. "Not for a long, long time, at any rate."
"Then you are. . ."
"I was your dad's best friend. He asked me to raise you in case anything happened to him."
"Are you an uncle, then? Like Uncle Vernon?"
Sirius smiled awkwardly. "We're distantly related by blood, but much closely related by love. That's what counts," he explained.
He would rather not consider himself like Harry's beastly uncle. He also couldn't help but wish that they were somewhere else having the conversation rather than on a broomstick. He rather wanted to be facing his godson as he explained family to him, too.
Then again, Lily and James hadn't wanted their last moments to be pleading for Voldemort's mercy; Sirius should consider himself lucky.
At least Harry didn't ask how Lily and James died. Sirius knew that he didn't even have the guts to discuss it for a few more years. He was too close to the situation.
He then wondered if maybe it would have been best to let the Dursleys raise Harry. They certainly wouldn't have any problems discussing the murder.
Then again, considering how Petunia and Vernon saw Harry as a freak…
Sirius shook his head. It was too much to think about right now.
Sirius stared at the small house, rather amused. It looked as though rooms had been added on randomly from a reasonably stable base. He had a feeling that the house was being held up by magic; though he had never been to muggle school, Sirius knew that by the laws of physics, the Weasleys' house should have collapsed.
There was a lopsided, newly painted red sign that read "The burrow" near the stone pathway. The stones, however, were random sizes and completely nonlinear; Sirius' parents and the Dursleys would frown at such a mess. Some articles of clothing were piled up near the door, and Sirius saw that they were in a bucket for soaking.
"Well, Harry, this is the Weasleys' home," he said as they landed.
Harry threw off the cloak to get a better look. "Wow, neat!" he exclaimed. "Our house should be like that!"
Yeah, and have the Dursleys literally throw us out, Sirius thought, trying to hide a grin.
"Be sure and tell them," he remarked instead. "I'm sure they'll appreciate your enthusiasm."
He scooped up the cloak and put it on the broom. At first, Sirius made as though to learn both against the barn, but then he decided against it and held onto them. He knocked, rather tentatively, on the door. Almost immediately, the door flung open.
"Welcome! Sirius, and Harry Potter, it's so nice to have you!" exclaimed a flushed, red haired woman with a blue checkered apron. "Come on inside."
"Mummy!" screamed a rather high-pitched voice. "George won't give me back my sock!"
"We need it for experimenting, Mum," another voice shouted, just as loud. "We'll give it back when we're done."
"It will probably smell better than, too," added another voice. The two snickered.
"Ron, Fred, and George, that's enough!" shouted Mrs. Weasley, hands on her hips. "We have company, and I would have expected you to behave better."
A minute later, four faces raced downstairs, peering at Harry. Three boys and one girl.
"Where's Percy?" questioned Mrs. Weasley, surveying her children.
"He's reading," replied Ron, as though it were the most boring thing in the world. "I think that it's just some book about goblin rebellions, but the twins claim it's about how to take over the world."
Fred and George covered their mouths with their hands, but Sirius could hear some snickers escape. Mrs. Weasley glared at them before turning back to Sirius.
"Children, this is Sirius Black and Harry Potter. Ron, why don't you go show Harry your room?"
"It's really neat, Harry," chirped Ron as they left the hallway. "I have posters and everything!"
"Ginny, you can go with them, if you like," Mrs. Weasley continued. "Or, if you'd rather, I can read you a picture book."
"Can Mr. Black read me one?" replied the little girl, smiling.
"Sirius," Sirius corrected, grimacing. "'Mr. Black' sounds like I'm an old neighbor or something."
"Sirius, then," replied Ginny, smiling.
"Why don't you ask him?" Mrs. Weasley smiled broadly. "You can show him your loose tooth."
"Sirius, can you read me a story?" Ginny recited.
"Sure. You're Ginny, right?"
She nodded. "Uh huh! Come on, let's go in the kitchen. All of my books are there," she explained, grabbing Sirius' arm and dragging him in. "Hurry up! You're going too slowly," she complained with a exasperated sigh.
Sirius heard Mrs. Weasley yelling at the twins as he was being dragged across the house.
". . .And don't you ever try to poison your brother's socks again!" she was threatening. "Your father and I have had it up to here with you, what will you do when you get to Hogwarts?!"
An hour later, Harry and Ron returned to the kitchen, hoping for a snack. Mrs. Weasley was knitting two sweaters at once by magic, and Sirius was reading a slightly thick book to Ginny. Occasional explosions sounded from Fred and George's room to confirm the twins' existence.
"'The witch ran over the dog. . .' Oh, hi, Harry. Ron." Sirius abruptly broke off his reading upon hearing the two pairs of footsteps.
Harry waved back cheerfully and ran into Sirius' arms for a hug; Ron was slightly more reserved.
"Hi," he said, walking up to Mrs. Weasley and tugging on her apron. "Mum?"
"Yes, dear?" she asked, searching for a magazine.
"Can Harry and I have some cookies and milk, please?"
"All right. Ask Fred and George if they want some too. Ginny?"
"Okay," she replied, eyes glued to the book as Ron's footsteps disappeared.
Harry stayed in front of Sirius, unwilling to join in.
"Harry, why don't you read with us?" Sirius suggested. "You can help Ginny sound out some of the words."
Harry took a seat next to Ginny. "Where are you at?" he asked.
"The witch just kicked the dog," Ginny explained somberly.
"Ginny's an animal lover," Mrs. Weasley clarified, smiling. "She even likes the garden gnomes, those mischievous creatures. Takes after her dad in that, I expect."
Suddenly, a loud crash came from directly above them. Sirius could have sworn he heard someone say, "Uh oh."
Chapter 4. The Twins
"'Uh oh'?!" demanded Mrs. Weasley, jumping up almost as soon as she heard the crash. "What on Earth is going on up there? Fred! George! Is that you?"
"I don't think it's Daddy, Mummy," Ginny replied calmly. "He's at work." To Sirius, she explained, "My daddy works at the Department of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts in the Ministry of Magic. It is a very important job."
Sirius tried to look properly impressed.
"Hmph! Even your father's bizarre fascination with plugs and other strange muggle tools can not account for that crash," she replied, hassled. Then she shouted, "Fred! George! I'm coming up right now if you don't come down this instant!" Mrs. Weasley threatened, shaking her wand furiously.
"They're in T-R-O-U-B-L-E," Ginny whispered to Harry, looking alarmed. "I don't know what that spells, but Mummy uses it when she's really mad. And boy, is Mummy's really mad this time."
"Uh oh." Harry gulped and then cast a suspicious glance at Sirius as though asking, "Are you ever going to get that angry at me?"
Sirius put a hand on Harry's shoulder comfortingly as he shook his head. "You won't be too harsh with them, I hope?" Sirius asked, gently edging Harry further away from Ron's mum.
"This wand is for repairing whatever they crashed," Mrs. Weasley replied crisply. "Their father, on the other hand, will deal with them when he gets home; I'll just give them a good, solid piece of my mind."
Harry was now hiding behind Sirius' robes. Sirius scooped him up and tried to reassure him without Mrs. Weasley noticing.
"She's just angry," he whispered in Harry's ear. "Don't worry; she won't hurt them. Just yell at them until she loses her voice, I imagine."
Ginny nodded. "Yeah. Daddy only uses the tickle charms for really bad stuff. This is just kind of bad," she added in a hushed voice.
Harry remained unconvinced and cowered terribly under Mrs. Weasley's fierce gaze.
"Oh, I don't blame you, Harry, dear," she said, misinterpreting his uneasiness. "I know that you had nothing to do with the crash. . ."
Before she could say anything else, Fred and George appeared sheepishly in the doorway.
"Hi, Mum," said one of them.
"Mum, dear!" said the other, trying to grin.
"Fred. George," Mrs. Weasley replied through gritted teeth. "What was that crash?"
"Um, well you see. . .it was. . .you tell her, George," Fred muttered.
George shot his twin such a scathing look that Sirius nearly to burst into laughter.
"Well, Mum. . ." he trailed off, clearly losing his nerve. George eyed Fred who eyed him back with his hands folded. George proceeded to stare at the floor as though it were trying to tell him something.
Sirius couldn't help but feel sorry for the twins. Harry was practically trembling in his lap. Sirius gave his shoulders a reassuring squeeze, wishing it was possible to communicate through his thoughts to Harry. He saw no means of escape from the situation. Mrs. Weasley had forgotten that Harry and Sirius were there, and he had no desire to call attention to this fact.
"Boys!" Mrs. Weasleys' eyes narrowed. "What happened?"
"We, er. . . broke the vase," Fred muttered after a moment's pause, eyes downcast.
"You did what?!" Mrs. Weasley nearly shouted.
"Broke the vase?" replied George, not daring to look at his mum. "You know, the one with the flowers on the bottom."
"The ugly one," Fred muttered under his breath. "Too girlish."
"Girls have cooties," Ron agreed.
"Excuse me!! I am a girl," Ginny declared, placing her hands on her hips.
"Yeah, but you're our sister. You don't count," George retorted.
"Boys! I believe we have a vase to attend to." Mrs. Weasleys' reaction surprised Sirius. Silence fell at once. "That's better. Now, where are the pieces?"
"Everywhere," was the unhelpful response. This time, both of the twins had spoken at once in nearly the same voice.
"See, it fell over the railing. . ." Fred started.
"And broke on the way down. . ." George recounted.
"All the way down. . ." Fred corrected.
"So the pieces scattered," George finished, now quite eager to tell the tale.
"A lot," Fred clarified, also looking cheerful.
"It went boom!" Ginny piped up, clapping her hands happily.
Mrs. Weasley sighed and decided to ignore Ginny's comment.
Probably best if Molly acts as though she never heard it, Sirius thought, stealing a glance at the four year old.
She sat gleefully at the edge of her seat, watching the scene as though it were as interesting as a Muggle television program.
"Well, that does complicate things a bit, but it shouldn't be a huge problem," Mrs. Weasley was saying in a dismissive tone. "Now, you all stay out of the way while I gather them up and repair them. Nothing a simple summoning charm and repairing charm combined shouldn't do. I won't have you stepping in the pieces in the meantime, though."
Fred and George nodded, relieved that their punishment wasn't worse.
Mrs. Weasley, however, wasn't finished with them yet.
"No more explosions for the rest of this week, though. That should help you to learn to be more careful. Excuse me, Harry, dear. Sirius." She made her way through the kitchen, shutting the door behind her.
Sirius tried not to look shocked that she remembered that he and Harry were still in the house. He cleared his throat loudly.
Fred and George exchanged high fives.
"We got off easy!" exclaimed Fred, reaching into the cookie jar and grabbing several. "Last time it was no more explosions, period."
"She's gotten easier over the years," George remarked in a sage tone. "Dreadful after our first explosion, wasn't she?"
"I thought it was because we mixed the contents with Ron's shampoo," Fred corrected.
"Oh yeah, that's right. Well, it does explain his freckles," laughed George. "I don't think we ever found the antidote."
Even Ginny couldn't quite manage to hide her snigger.
Ron glared at the twins and was about to speak when Sirius interrupted.
"Guess she's getting used to your bizarre hobbies, then," Sirius smiled, helping himself to an oatmeal raison cookie. "Once she found out what happened with the vase, I must say that your mum reacted rather well."
"She usually does, but then again, she can use magic at home and we can't," George pointed out, pouting. "So we have to tell her what happened instead of fixing it ourselves."
"The yelling's a pain, though." Fred shook his head as though disapproving of his mother's violent temper. "But it's a necessary evil."
"Quite," George agreed, "but I, for one, can't wait to learn about Muting Charms when I get to Hogwarts. The home will be so much nicer after I'm selectively deaf to everything Mum says," he explained, acting as though this made perfect sense to him.
"What about wandless magic before then?" Ron piped up, anger forgotten.
"That only works on things when you can't really help it, Ickle Ronniekins," Fred replied unhelpfully. "Like when we turned your teddy into a spider. Remember?"
The twins howled with laughter. Ron, Ginny, and Harry shuddered at the idea.
"Yeah, and it's thanks to you I've been scared of 'em ever since!" Ron retorted heatedly, taking a drink of his milk.
"If you had let us take the bear for experimenting, we wouldn't have had to do that," Fred replied with perfect seven year old logic.
Ron rolled his eyes. "At least Mum was able to turn it back," he grumbled. Then, turning to Harry, he added, "Never let them near your stuff!"
Sirius hid his laughter as a rather awkward cough. "So, Ron, how are your tonsils?"
Ron shrugged as he scratched his chin delicately. "Okay. I didn't feel much when the Healer shrunk 'em, and they were only a little sore afterwards. It wasn't too bad."
"Yeah, so far he hasn't had any relapses," George grinned maliciously. "No bleeding or anything. But they can happen sometimes."
"Yeah right." Ron rolled his eyes disdainfully.
"It's true, Ronniekins. I heard about it at the hospital from a little girl about your age. She had hers shrunk and everything went well. A few weeks later, there was nonstop bleeding and they finally had to silence her."
"S-silence her?" croaked Harry, trembling.
"Use a Muting Charm. Her screams were so loud. . ."
"GEORGE!" screamed Mrs. Weasley, suddenly appearing in the kitchen.
George turned as red as his hair. "Oh, hi, Mum."
He looked much less brave now that he was being yelled at.
"You know perfectly well that's not true! Scaring Ron, and in front of our guests! You should be ashamed of yourself."
George tried, and failed, to appear chastised. "Sorry, Mum."
"Go to your room," she hissed, pointing the way with a long, rather plump, finger. "Stay there until you understand why you shouldn't tease your brother."
George looked surprised that Mrs. Weasley was taking this kind of action, rather than merely making a threat, but meekly obeyed.
Perhaps it was because Sirius was present and Mrs. Weasley felt that she needed to set a good example.
Sirius cleared his throat. "Er, have you repaired the vase, Mrs. Weasley?"
"Call me Molly, Sirius. Yes, I had just finished it when I heard them frightening poor Ron."
Sirius nodded and glanced down at Harry, who was still huddled against him, terrified. It was all he could do not to laugh.
"It's okay, Harry," he whispered once Mrs. Weas –Molly's back was turned. "Don't worry."
It didn't seem to help. His eyes looked pitiful and Harry shook his head in a frightened manner, tugged on Sirius' shirt, and begged quietly, "Can we please go home now, Sirius?"
Sirius then glanced at his muggle watch and saw that they had been at the Burrow for two and a half hours. He nodded shortly to Harry before speaking.
"It's, er, getting rather late. Harry and I should be going soon if we want to make it back before dark. Safer, and all," he clarified, remembering that they had ridden to the hospital on the new moon a few weeks ago.
"Are you sure you don't want to stay for dinner?" Molly inquired. "It wouldn't be any trouble at all. You could spend the night easily. Arthur could lend you some of his pajamas and Ron's would probably fit Harry quite easily."
Sirius smiled, but shook his head firmly. "No thanks. We'll meet again soon, though, surely?"
"Oh yes, of course." Molly's eyes gleamed. "Perhaps Diagon Alley, next time? Ginny wants to meet her friend Luna Lovegood there soon. It would be a nice outing for all of us."
"That might be best," Sirius agreed. "Come on, Harry."
Harry jumped out of Sirius' lap onto the floor, waved goodbye to Ginny, Fred, and Ron, and picked up Sirius' broom and the invisibility cloak.
"Can I drive?" he asked innocently and hopefully.
Sirius ruffled Harry's hair. "Not this time. You're a tad too small. Maybe we can practice a few tricks at a nearby forest, though," Sirius joked.
"Actually, there's a lovely patch of land nearby that the boys use for practicing," Molly spoke up. "They often use apples and such for the Quidditch balls. Charlie got most of his summer practice in that way."
Ginny nodded. "I can't wait until I can fly!" she declared, a bright smile revealing a set of white, even teeth. "Only seven more years, I think."
There was a strange look on Ginny's face that made Sirius suspect that she had already, or was going to, start practicing Quidditch on one of her brother's brooms.
Sirius guided Harry to the door, still dragging his Nimbus, as he waved goodbye to the Weasleys, thanking Molly for such a lovely time.
After all, for a first visit, it went well enough. It might even prevent Harry from misbehaving in the future. Not that it was possible for a Potter to avoid mischief at home and at Hogwarts for long, of course.