Logan eyes the cobbled-together house- The Burrow, according to a sign out front- and scents the air again. The aroma of home cooking is soured by the stench of a terrified rodent, but even that scent is wrong, like the cat who turned into a woman. At least Harry's bird ain't really a person in disguise- it smells like any other owl.
Harry's owl follows him everywhere, and Harry always looks scandalized when Logan calls it "the bird". He's probably named it by now, but seein' how he ain't a talker, he's never called it by name.
Logan has no clue what a kid would name a bird. Feathers? Snowy? Even Dumbledore's bird had a name as bizarre as his own.
Harry doesn't seem to sense anything off about this place. Even his dislike of wizards appears to have disappeared; he's scrambling out of the truck towards a tree-lined field, his owl flappin' behind him.
Logan follows Harry rather than the scent of the rat. When they reach the field, Logan sees three redheaded boys- two of them identical twins- swoopin' around on broomsticks as they toss apples to one another.
Logan thought the letter was kiddin' about broomsticks, but the alley had a store sellin' them too.
"Blimey, you're Harry Potter!" one of the twins says.
"And you're that bloke that stabbed You-Know-Who." the other says to Logan. "That was bloody brilliant! Didn't even need a wand!"
"You didn't have a wand as a baby, did you, Harry?" the first twin asks. "You fought him off without one this time, too. What'd You-Know-Who look like in the back of that bugger's head?"
Harry, of course, doesn't answer. He's eyeing the broomsticks, makin' his motorcycle sounds, even though they clearly ain't the same.
The boys suddenly look unsure.
"Are you really-" the youngest boy starts, then hesitates. "Um. Did the Killing Curse… hurt you?"
"How thick are you, Ron?!" one twin snaps. "It gave him a lightning scar. Of course it hurt!"
"You know what I mean! The Prophet said he's barking!" Ron retorts, then glances guiltily at Harry. "The Prophet's not always right."
Harry's revvin' louder now, shakin' his head and hands, as he always does when people discuss his scar.
The boys gawk until they suddenly become very interested in the trees surrounding the field. Logan snorts. He ain't concerned with rudeness.
The twins ask to see Harry's scar. When Harry doesn't bother to show it, they ask to see Logan's swords. Logan ain't here for showing off, but Harry grabs his hand, obstinately tryin' to curl his Logan's fingers into a fist. Logan refuses to pop his claws.
"Sorry, Harry." Ron mutters. "Um- do you talk?"
"No." Logan says simply. Ron and the twins jump, like they'd forgotten he was there. They all quickly turn back to Harry as he approaches Ron, reachin' out for the broom.
"Have you played Quidditch?" Ron asks, holding the broom out for inspection. "This is a Cleansweep."
As Ron gushes about the Nimbus Two Thousand on display at Quality Quidditch Supplies, Harry takes Ron's broom, scowling slightly, and brushes the end across the grass.
"You don't really sweep with it!" Ron exclaims, laughing "You've been living with Muggles this whole time, haven't you? But you have an owl now. She's beautiful. Dad got Percy an owl for becoming a prefect, but I just got his old rat."
"About that rat-" Logan starts, but Harry's tuggin' Ron across the field, back towards the truck. If he thinks Logan's takin' another kid, he can think again.
"Do you live in there? And it's not even bigger inside?!" Ron stares in disbelief at the camper on the bed of the truck, glancing back at his own rickety house as if it's suddenly become a mansion. Logan would wonder why they didn't magic it into a larger house, but he doesn't particularly care.
Harry hums contentedly, completely unashamed of livin' in a camper as he pulls the tarp off the motorcycle and climbs on the saddle. He cranes his head back, starin' at the sky, though he glances over at the broom.
"Wow." one of the twins whistles. "Dad's never brought home a motorbike before. He has this car he tinkers with, so now it flies."
"I don't suppose your bike flies, since he's a muggle." the other twin whispers, as if Logan can't hear.
"We don't know he's a muggle." Ron hisses back, his voice suddenly filled with concern "He looks like he could be a werewolf, and the Prophet called him-"
Harry howls at the sun instead of the moon, and soon he's howlin' with laughter. He darts into the camper and reemerges with his toy wolverine. He ain't quite as attached to it now that he's got his owl, but he shakes it pointedly at Ron.
"Ya got it, bub. Wolverines ain't wolves." Logan nods at Harry before rounding on Ron, who blanches slightly. "I'm no werewolf."
All three brothers relax at that news, until Logan adds "And yer rat ain't a rat."
"Scabbers?" Ron's eyes widen, then narrow in suspicion. "Are you mental? Of course he's a rat. He's been with us for ages."
Logan's scowl deepens. He definitely smells a rat if they aren't even aware that the rat is really a person. He ain't happy that he keeps gettin' dragged into these magical mishaps, not that he minds the killin'.
"Bring him here." Logan growls, but Ron hesitates and falters. The twins exchange a look and race into the house.
Logan can hear a woman lecturin' them inside. "You two leave that rat alone! I don't know what prank you're playing on Ron, but you stop it now!"
"But Mum, the sword savior said he's not really-"
"You think I'm falling for that, George?!" their mother demands.
"Is Harry with him?" a little girl asks, and Logan sees a redheaded girl peer out the front window. "Mummy! They're not lying! Harry's really here, and the sword man!"
"Ginny, they aren't something to goggle at in a zoo." the mother scolds.
Ginny races out ahead of the twins, who ignore their mother's call to let her go first. She runs up to Harry before her exuberance gives out to embarrassment. She goes as red as her hair, and if Logan hadn't just heard her, he'd think Ginny was speechless like Harry.
The twins jog up with the rat, which is desperately scratchin' and bitin', far more nervous than a pet rat should be.
Logan takes the rat from the twin, ignoring when it sinks its teeth into his thumb. Harry's owl screeches, and Logan wonders if it'll try carryin' the rat-man off for dinner. He won't give it the chance.
The twins whoop when Logan's claws pop out, and the mother pulls Ginny behind her plump frame. Harry opens his pocket knives, never one to be left out of Logan's fights, adding his own scream to the mix.
Ron starts to panic almost as much as the rat. "Don't cut Scabbers! He's already missing a toe!"
"Stop hidin'." Logan snarls at the rat, which squeaks nonstop in terror, flailing in Logan's grip as he brings his claws closer.
Logan feels the rat grow in his fist. He drops it but keeps his claws pointed in a clear threat. The rat grows like a sped-up film. A human head and arms pop out, and soon there's a short, balding man standing among them. He's shorter than Logan, and unlike the cat lady, somethin' about this man stays ratlike.
Ginny screams, Ron shouts "Bloody hell!" and the mother whips out her wand, aiming it at the man as she halfheartedly scolds Ron for his language. Harry hardly seems bothered- Dumbledore's earmuffs seem to help him more'n the ones Logan's been buyin'.
Harry doesn't even twitch when the mother shouts instructions to someone named Percy in the house, tellin' him to contact Dumbledore.
"H-hello." the man squeaks.
Dumbledore arrives remarkably quickly, somehow injecting a bit of calm into the chaos. He questions the rat man, and Logan only half-listens. The rat man is supposedly a hero, supposedly dead. All that was left was a finger. Logan snorts. If he's a hero, who has he been hidin' as a rat?
Not that Logan really cares. He doesn't give a rat's ass what happens to this guy. All he cares about is leavin', so he doesn't keep gettin' dragged into this shit.
The mother shoos her children away, ignoring their protests, and Ron drags Harry back into the field to show him how to mount a broomstick. Logan's seen Harry mount his hockey stick the same way.
Harry, it turns out, is a natural at flyin'. He shoots across the field like a javelin, not seeming to hear Logan's call that they need to get going. He races his owl back and forth, chuckling and howling in delight.
Harry flies up, over the trees, and Ron and one of the twins chase him down, telling him they can't let the muggles in the village see them.
Dumbledore binds the rat man and disappears.
"Time fer us to go, bub."
"Go?!" the mother asks. "Why don't you join us for supper? It's the least we can do after you saved us twice."
Logan starts to decline, but the mother is persistent, not taking no for an answer.
Logan sighs and follows her into the cramped kitchen. There's a peeler magically peelin' potatoes, and a knife choppin' them. Logan half-expected her to ask him to chop for her.
He glances at the clock, which shows a schedule rather than the time, as he lights up a cigar. The mother extinguishes it with her wand, and he growls.
"Do it outside," she tells him, and Logan stalks back out to the trees to watch Harry fly. Harry barrels towards him for a midair tackle, and the other boys watch Harry roll around the ground with Logan, clearly thinkin' they're too old for to wrestle with a guardian.
The boys' father, also a redhead, arrives, introducing himself as Arthur Weasley. The boys rush towards him, not to wrestle, but to tell him all about how Scabbers was really an animagus. "Percy was already puffed up being a prefect, and he's the one who called Dumbledore." Ron mutters.
Once the boys return to flyin', Arthur seems more fascinated with the camper and the motorcycle than Logan or Harry, peering inside the windows. "Remarkable! It's the same size inside. Is that stove gas or eclectic?"
Logan doesn't bother answering, and soon Arthur is proudly stating "I have a Ford, too." and showing off a blue Ford Anglia in the garage.
"I've rigged it to fly." he says.
Logan snorts. "Harry'll want you to make our motorcycle fly. And shrink our truck."
Arthur frowns. "You couldn't fly it where other muggles could see. And how would you grow your truck again? They don't cover the Engorgement Charm in the first-year curriculum."
Harry won't like that answer.
Logan simply grunts, and the mother- Molly, according to Arthur- calls them inside for supper. They sit around a rather cramped table, and Ginny knocks her cup over, too distracted by Harry. Logan smirks.
Harry's owl eyes the Weasleys' pathetic owl from her perch on Harry's head. Harry growls at it until Logan tells him it's just an owl. The raggled thing appears to have fainted.
The whole family stares, nonplussed, as Harry starts shoveling potatoes into his mouth with his hands.
"You weren't raised by wolves, dear." Molly hands Harry a fork. Ron and the twins glance quickly at Logan, then look away.
Harry forgoes the fork and the knife in front of him, grippin' his pocket knives like claws and spearin' his potatoes on them.
Logan's never gotten Harry to use cutlery, neither of them caring about the looks they get at diners. Not that Logan's usually the best example; Harry's seen him tear into dead rabbits with his hands and teeth.
As taken aback as they are by Harry's behavior, the Weasleys still welcome him into their home. They even welcome Logan in a way he ain't used to. Arthur bombards him with questions about his camper and Muggle things in general, not seeming to mind his scowls and clipped answers.
"Are you an accountant?" Ron asks.
Logan snorts, and Harry swings his knives into the table leg, like Logan chopping trees. The table is fixed with a wave of Molly's wand.
The twins ask how he got Logan claws- turnin' into animals clearly ain't unheard of in the wizarding world, but his claws are apparently a novelty. Logan couldn't answer that question if he wanted to.
Molly coddles Harry through dinner, cutting his food for him, leaving Harry looking confused and disgruntled, shaking his head.
Ron starts imagining all the adventures he and Harry will get up to at Hogwarts, already deciding that he's Harry's best friend.
"I'll be left alone," Ginny mopes.
Molly reminds her that she'll join them in a year. Ginny sighs, as if a year is forever.
"Harry ain't goin'." Logan says. "We already told Dumbledore."
"Not going?!" Ron's mouth drops open, showing his food. Molly scolds him for his manners, though Harry's were far worse. "Why not?!"
Harry gets up and wanders off to watch the flames dart in the fireplace. His fingers flick along with the flames, his brow pinched. Despite everyone having clearly never met someone like Harry, they all seem surprised he ain't goin' to their school.
"You're always welcome here." Molly tells them warmly, and Ginny adds that a girl who lives nearby is a bit strange too. Logan ain't lookin' to make more friends, or any really.
After dinner, Arthur slips out to start workin' on Logan's bike, while Harry practically vibrates with excitement.
Molly tuts disapprovingly as Logan guns the throttle and the motorcycle's wheels leave the grass, though she smiles fondly at Harry's obvious excitement as he clings to Logan on the seat. Ron and the twins race alongside the bike, while Harry's owl swoops around them.
Once Logan lands the bike again, Harry taps the truck impatiently. Arthur offers to enchant the truck too, and add an invisibility feature like his Ford has. With a little work, he says he can make it grow and shrink at will, too.
"You're supposed to be catching the misuse of Muggle artifacts, not encouraging it." Molly scolds, but she waves her wand to shrink the truck down to toy size. Harry holds their miniature home tenderly before handing it to his owl.
"You'll write, won't you?" Ron asks, and Logan huffs as he lights a cigar. Why do all these wizards think Logan and Harry want to keep hearin' from them?
The engine roars as Logan and Harry take to the sky on the motorcycle, Harry's owl carryin' their home beside them.
I know it's uncertain if Ginny knew Luna before Hogwarts. It's even more uncertain if Logan and Harry will meet her, because I'm sure Logan won't want to.
They're spending more time in the magical world than I expected, considering I write about X-Men far more often than I write about magical Britain. And Logan sure isn't happy with how they can't seem to get away from witches and wizards now.