Chapter 40, everybody! In which we're technically starting book four….
In other news Harry is still no good with wizarding transportation and the Dursleys are probably very lucky to be alive. Also Percy and George's last lines are a total mood.
Harry Potter © 1997 J.K. Rowling
Harry's time at the Dursley's was markedly different this time around—because, as Dumbledore said, he conveniently forgot to mention that Sirius was acquitted, instead opting to leave it at he's a wizard convicted for murder who escaped an unescapable prison and he likes to keep up with me because I'm his godson and make sure I'm doing all right—stuff like that.
Of course, there was the minor issue of the fact that packing what was left of Harry's belongings took all of one hour—everything else in his room had belonged to Dudley at one point and really, he could do without the baggy clothes. Hedwig was sitting snug in her cage, ready to go, and Snips was now riding pride of place on Harry's shoulder and delighting at flying after Dudley and snipping at Petunia, because after all, anything happened to Harry and poof, off went a letter to Sirius.
Harry still did the chores, though, mostly for something to do while he waited. Snips would occasionally point out something interesting, but for the most part, he seemed more invested in just sitting on Harry's shoulders and soaking up the sun.
But as it turned out, Harry received a visitor much sooner than the prescribed week.
Breakfast was being served, the doorbell had rang, and Dudley had been sent to answer it.
Dudley came running back in and out the back door with his hands clasped firmly on his behind.
What caused that reaction was clear when Albus Dumbledore came striding into the kitchen.
"Professor Dumbledore!" Harry blurted, stunned. "But—it hasn't been a week yet."
"No it has not," Dumbledore agreed. "But I received an owl today from Molly saying she was all set up, and if I let you stay here another moment unnecessarily, she would see fit to come pay me a visit. I, understanding her tone, chose to arrive immediately. May I sit?" he asked, before sitting down at the table, much to Uncle Vernon's horror.
"Tone?" Harry echoed.
"Yes, she sent me a howler to emphasize the importance of action. What a delightful spread, what kind of jam is that? Oh, Harry, are you all packed?"
"Yes sir," Harry said, nodding. "Only I had to let Hedwig out last night, and she hasn't come back yet."
"Don't fret, she will be at the Weasleys' tonight, I presume. Now it only remains to inform your relatives of this change. Petunia, would you sit? It's getting cold."
Aunt Petunia sat as though she were in a daze.
"Now," Dumbledore said, indicating that Harry ought to sit too. "As I'm sure Harry has informed you, recently he discovered that his godfather, Sirius Black, has escaped from prison."
Harry wasn't certain how to translate Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia's expressions there.
"As it turns out, Sirius escaped from Azkaban because he saw that Harry's life could be in danger. By his actions and the actions of Harry and his friends, new evidence has come to light and we are now in the process of clearing Sirius of all charges.
"As I said, Sirius is Harry's godfather, and one of the first people Lily and James wanted to take care of Harry. As such, Harry will no longer be staying with you."
Silence.
"When is he picking the boy up?" Vernon asked finally.
Dumbledore nodded. "From what Harry has told me, you would not be too terribly heartbroken over his leaving."
Vernon turned red. "Whatever he's told you is a lie."
"I do doubt that—you see, I have a tendency to know when I'm being lied to, and I have every reason to believe that Harry was telling the truth. I suppose the only consolation is that you have saved him from the indignancy of what you have put your own son through."
Vernon and Petunia exchanged confused glances at that.
"But all that is water under the bridge now, and hopefully all sorts of untoward action has been prevented," Dumbledore said. "There were several people who looked upon your treatment of your nephew very unkindly—it took a lot of convincing to dissuade them from coming here with all sorts of nasty curses leveled your way."
Harry didn't realize his aunt and uncle could go paler.
"Anyway," Dumbledore said, turning to Harry. "I'm not certain if you've had breakfast yet, or if you'd rather have it at the Weasley's—"
"Let me get my stuff," Harry said, bolting for his room.
By the time Harry came back down with his trunk and other sundries, Dumbledore was standing by the door with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon peering into the hall.
"You will of course be wishing your nephew well," Dumbledore asked them. "After all, it's likely you'll never see each other again."
"They don't really have to," Harry started—was cut off by Snips growling at him. "Ah…bye, then."
There might have been some noise that could have been "Goodbye," or maybe something like "Mimblewimble," but Harry was going to accept that—nodded at Dumbledore, who opened the door for him.
Harry was more than happy to step out of Number Four, Privet Drive for the very last time.
Dumbledore had shrunk down Harry's things and asked him if he'd prefer side-along apparition or the Knight Bus to get to the Burrow. Harry had picked side-along apparition, mostly because it was over with quickly instead of being several minutes long.
He still felt there had to be better ways to get around, though.
"You did very well," Dumbledore told him, returning his things to their proper size. "Most people throw up the first time."
"I did it before in second year," Harry said. "Professors McGonagall and Flitwick had to pick me and Ron up when Dobby closed the gate to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters." He shrugged. "I didn't throw up then either, even though I felt like I ought to."
"Very fair, not everyone takes to apparition," Dumbledore said—which was all he got out before Harry was tackled by several Weasleys.
"Harry!" Ron greeted. "Mom said she sent a howler to Dumbledore—uh, hi professor."
"Hello Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore greeted. "And Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Weasley, and Miss Weasley. I trust your mother is home?"
She was, considering she was at the door seconds later.
"Well it is about time you brought him!" she scolded, hustling down the steps and over to check him over.
"Mrs. Weasley, it's only been like…three days," Harry said.
"Three days too many—I'm sorry, Harry, I should have pieced it together last summer—"
"Ah—n-no really it's—"
"Mate, it wasn't fine," Fred said, interrupting him.
"Now it is," George said. "Mostly because we have an even number for Quidditch teams now."
"After homework," Mrs. Weasley said sternly.
"And possibly after breakfast, seeing as how we didn't linger," Dumbledore said. "I would love to stay, but alas I'll be required at the Ministry to move along Sirius Black's retrial. Molly I don't suppose you could spare something that can be eaten on the go, can you? Fudge can be rather spotty with ensuring we have breakfast at these meetings."
Mrs. Weasley did so, throwing together a breakfast sandwich from a spread that looked fit enough to feed all of Gryffindor and at least half of Hufflepuff on top of it.
"So we come home to find that Mum has been going like mad ever since we sent her the letter explaining everything," Ron told Harry after their moment of silence. "She had opinions about the Dursleys."
"This isn't going to be any trouble, is it?" Harry asked. "Because I could get a room at the Leaky Cauldron like I did last year—"
"I don't think Mum's going for that."
"We're pretty sure she's been knitting to keep herself from committing murder," Fred said.
"And then cleaning when the knitting needles started to become tempting," George agreed.
"But still," Harry started—cut off quickly when Snips started eyeing him threateningly.
"Nonsense Harry—you were a delight the last time you stayed, and you're certainly allowed to help with the potions again after your homework is all done," Mrs. Weasley said, putting another helping of toast and poached eggs on his plate. "And even if acquitting your godfather takes all summer, we're set to have you until school starts up again."
"And we'll find something to keep these two preoccupied while you finish your homework," Percy said, eyeing Fred and George.
"Oh don't worry about us, we'll find plenty of things to preoccupy ourselves with," George assured him.
"Like teasing you for never using the stairs anymore," Fred said—looked at Harry. "Perce here just passed his Apparition test, he's been apparating down the steps every morning just to prove he can."
"Is apparating on your own any better than doing it with someone else?" Harry had to ask.
"Not if you splinch yourself, but that only happens when you don't properly visualize your destination and commit," Percy told him—which then necessitated explaining splinching, which cemented Harry's desire to limit his magic-based travel to brooms from now on.
Harry quickly learned that he, Ron and Ginny were the only ones who had homework—Fred, George and Percy were awaiting the results of their OWLs and NEWTs, respectively, and therefore had nothing to do as far as homework was concerned. Percy, of course, was done with Hogwarts, but in Fred and George's case there was no point doing homework for a class you didn't know if you'd get back to. Mrs. Weasley, of course, found them plenty to do.
So for the next couple of weeks between arriving at the Weasley's and the exam results arriving, Harry found an easy routine of wake up, eat breakfast, do some chores outside with the rest of the kids, eat lunch, do homework, eat dinner, and then join the others in front of the wireless and listen to Quidditch matches or the news.
Said news involving Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew quickly became widespread, to the point that the news hardly covered anything else—a ministry official going missing was relegated to other news, and while Mr. Weasley expressed some concern, he also admitted that he knew the person and she was notorious for being terrible with directions ("Hopefully she'll turn up"). Quidditch, meanwhile, was exciting for the fact that England would be hosting the final, which made all the United Kingdom teams failing to win more than a little disappointing.
Herbology and Potions were fun in that in some cases they were able to go outside and find the plants and ingredients in question, and Mrs. Weasley was fine with them browsing through her pantry so long as they didn't mix anything up. Astronomy was fun too—since the Burrow didn't have any light pollution, they were able to go out at night and map the stars until the mosquitos and Mrs. Weasley sent them back in.
Charms and Transfiguration didn't have much in the way of such practical applications, although living in a wizarding household meant they could practice a few simple spells so they didn't get rusty. History of Magic they kept putting off, mostly because none of them had ever been able to stay awake in the class ("So glad we don't have to do that anymore," George said). Defense involved researching three dark creatures, writing down where they might be expected to encounter them, and then what their weaknesses were and how to counter them. Care of Magical Creatures involved researching a magical creature from their copy of The Monster Book of Monsters or Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and then writing about their behavior, environment and how to care for them—which did cause some questioning.
"I mean the easy answer is gnomes," Ron said, looking out at the thin line that was sneaking over the garden wall again. "But considering they kind of qualify as a magical pest…."
"We could write about Snips," Harry pointed out, causing Snips to turn up his beak and flutter over to where Ginny was still working on her Transfiguration homework.
"Snips isn't in either book though."
"And then there's the ghoul in your attic."
"Again I say pest," Ron said, flipping through his Monster book again. "Look, here's an idea—we pick a creature that we think would be cool as a pet, and then we do it up and make it like, researching getting one and whether or not it'd be worth it."
"Like what Malfoy did with Buckbeak," Harry said, recalling how the Slytherin had gone down cheering when Hagrid, Slughorn and Dumbledore had approached him at the end of the year and said that his mother had agreed with their findings and signed off on Buckbeak going with him (Malfoy's assignment was totally going to be about Hippogriffs, Harry was almost certain).
"That wasn't what I had in mind, but it works," Ron said. "Mostly I'm wondering about a replacement pet."
"Puffskeins seem cute," Ginny put in.
"Ginny if I got a Puffskein I'd never see it because you'd take it."
"I mean maybe," she admitted. "Maybe if I get a bunch of OWLs like Percy did I can have one—Percy got an owl for how well he did on his."
Which was when a very handsome owl swooped in and delivered everyone's marks and school lists. Percy practically dove for his, ripped it open and scanned it multiple times before sagging into a nearby chair in relief.
"Is that good or bad?" Harry asked him.
"It's finally over," Percy sobbed.
"Now you have to get a job," George told him.