Adventures of Harriet Potter

The Burrow

"Ron!" breathed Harriet, creeping to the window and pushing it up so they could talk through the bars. "Ron, how did you — What the — ?" Harriet's mouth fell open as the full impact of what she was seeing hit her. Ron was leaning out of the back window of an old turquoise car, which was parked in midair. Grinning at Harriet from the front seats were Fred and George, Ron's elder twin brothers. "All right, Harry?" asked George. "What's been going on?" said Ron. "Why haven't you been answering my letters? I've asked you to stay about twelve times, and then Dad came home and said you'd got an official warning for using magic in front of Muggles —"
"I only just got them three days ago. It wasn't me — and how did he know?" Harriet said, leaving out how the letters took so long to reach her — as well as what had happened to her as a result of the magic used in the Dursleys' home. "He works for the Ministry," said Ron. "You know we're not supposed to do spells outside school —" she looked pointedly at the car. "You should talk," said Harriet, still staring at the floating car. "Oh, this doesn't count," said Ron. "We're only borrowing this. It's Dad's, we didn't enchant it. But doing magic in front of those Muggles you live with —"
"I told you, I didn't — but it'll take too long to explain now — look, can you tell them at Hogwarts that the Dursleys have locked me up and won't let me come back, and obviously I can't magic myself out, because the Ministry'll think that's the second spell I've done in three days, and picking the lock is useless as I've nowhere to go, so —" she pleaded, thinking they were only there for a chat. "Stop gibbering," said Ron. "We've come to take you home with us." Harriet's heart sank in horror. "But you can't magic me out either —" she began. "We don't need to," said Ron, jerking his head toward the front seat and grinning. "You forget who I've got with me."
"Tie that around the bars," said Fred, throwing the end of a rope to Harriet. "If the Dursleys wake up, I'm dead," said Harriet as she tied the rope tightly around a bar and Fred revved up the car. Quietly adding "or worse" in her head. "Don't worry," said Fred, "and stand back." Harriet moved back into the shadows next to Hedwig, who seemed to have realized how important this was and kept still and silent. The car revved louder and louder and suddenly, with a crunching noise, the bars were pulled clean out of the window as Fred drove straight up in the air. Harriet ran back to the window to see the bars dangling a few feet above the ground. Panting, Ron hoisted them up into the car. Harry listened anxiously, but there was no sound from the Dursleys' bedroom.
When the bars were safely in the back seat with Ron, Fred reversed as close as possible to Harriet's window.
"Get in," Ron said. "But all my Hogwarts stuff — my wand — my broomstick —" said Harriet as she'd not picked the lock on the cupboard under the stairs to get her homework supplies out of fear for the punishment that she'd received again three days prior and was still sore from. "Where is it?" asked Ron hurriedly. "Locked in the cupboard under the stairs, and I can't get out of this room —" "without angering my uncle into violating me again." Harriet finished in her head, deeply ashamed of what happened to her despite having no reason to be ashamed of something she should tell someone was going on in the Dursley household. "No problem," said George from the front passenger seat. "Out of the way, Harriet."
Fred and George climbed catlike through the window into Harriet's room. You had to hand it to them, thought Harriet, as George took an ordinary hairpin from his pocket and started to pick the lock. "A lot of wizards think it's a waste of time, knowing this sort of Muggle trick," said Fred, "but we feel they're skills worth learning, even if they are a bit slow." There was a small click and the door swung open. "So — we'll get your trunk — you grab anything you need from your room and hand it out to Ron," whispered George. "Watch out for the bottom stair — it creaks," Harriet whispered back as the twins disappeared onto the dark landing.
Harriet dashed around her room, collecting her things and passing them out of the window to Ron. Then she went to help Fred and George heave his trunk up the stairs. Harriet heard Uncle Vernon cough. At last, panting, they reached the landing, then carried the trunk through Harriet's room to the open window. Fred climbed back into the car to pull with Ron, and Harriet and George pushed from the bedroom side. Inch by inch, the trunk slid through the window. Uncle Vernon coughed again. "A bit more," panted Fred, who was pulling from inside the car. "One good push —"
Harriet, trembling from Fred's choice of words, and George threw their shoulders against the trunk and it slid out of the window into the back seat of the car. "Okay, let's go," George whispered. But as Harriet climbed onto the windowsill there came a sudden loud screech from behind her, followed immediately by the thunder of Uncle Vernon's voice. "THAT RUDDY OWL!" Harriet felt her heart sink again. "I've forgotten Hedwig!" Harriet tore back across the room as the landing light clicked on — she snatched up Hedwig's cage, dashed to the window, and passed it out to Ron. She was scrambling back 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 Harriet, grabbing her by the ankle. She whimpered in fear but fought as hard as she could against his grip. Ron, Fred, and George seized Harrier's arms and pulled as hard as they could. "Petunia!" roared Uncle Vernon. "She's getting away! SHE'S GETTING AWAY!" But the Weasleys gave a gigantic tug and Harriet's leg slid out of Uncle Vernon's grasp — Harriet was in the car — she'd slammed the door shut —
"Put your foot down, Fred!" yelled Ron, and the car shot suddenly toward the moon. Harriet couldn't believe it — she was free. She rolled down the window, the night air whipping her hair, and looked back at the shrinking rooftops of Privet Drive. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley were all hanging, dumbstruck, out of Harriet's window. "See you next summer!" Harriet yelled, hoping Uncle Vernon wouldn't punish her too hard for her escape next year. The Weasleys roared with laughter and Harriet settled back in her seat, grinning from ear to ear.
"Let Hedwig out," she told Ron. "She can fly behind us. She hasn't had a chance to stretch her wings for ages." George handed the hairpin to Ron and, a moment later, Hedwig soared joyfully out of the window to glide alongside them like a ghost. "So — what's the story, Harriet?" said Ron impatiently. "What's been happening?"
Harriet told them all about Dobby, the warning he'd given Harriet and the fiasco of the violet pudding. There was a long, shocked silence when she had finished. She looked uncomfortable in the silence, like she'd left something out — which she had because it was horrible and all she had as evidence of it was her word, which wouldn't go far with police when Uncle Vernon could deny it and possibly line a few pockets with money to make the case go away.
"Very fishy," said Fred finally. "Definitely dodgy," agreed George. "So he wouldn't even tell you who's supposed to be plotting all this stuff?" Harriet adjusted in the seat, her nethers still hurt from her "punishment". "I don't think he could," said Harriet. "I told you, every time he got close to letting something slip, he started banging his head against the wall." She saw Fred and George look at each other. "What, you think he was lying to me?" said Harriet. "Well," said Fred, "put it this way — house-elves have got powerful magic of their own, but they can't usually use it without their master's permission. I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming back to Hogwarts. Someone's idea of a joke. Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against you?"
"Yes," said Harriet and Ron together, instantly. "Draco Malfoy," Harriet explained. "He hates me." Crossing her arms and blushing as she felt the starts of her bubbies squish under her arms. Too small to be noticed due to her malnutrition at the Dursley's. "Draco Malfoy?" said George, turning around. "Not Lucius Malfoy's son?" Concentrating Harriet thought about it for a minute. "Must be, it's not a very common name, is it?" said Harriet. "Why?" her curiosity piqued. "I've heard Dad talking about him," said George. "He was a big supporter of You-Know-Who."
"And when You-Know-Who disappeared," said Fred, craning around to look at Harriet, "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." Harriet had heard these rumors about Malfoy's family before, and they didn't surprise her at all. Malfoy made Dudley Dursley look like a kind, thoughtful, and sensitive boy. "I don't know whether the Malfoys own a house-elf. . . ." said Harriet, not mentioning that she didn't know much about house-elves in general. "Well, whoever owns him will be an old Wizarding family, and they'll be rich," said Fred.
"Yeah, Mum's always wishing we had a house-elf to do the ironing," said George. "But all we've got is a lousy old ghoul in the attic and gnomes all over the garden. House-elves come with big old manors and castles and places like that; you wouldn't catch one in our house. . . ." Harriet was silent, squirming in her seat again. Judging by the fact that Draco Malfoy usually had the best of everything, his family was rolling in wizard gold; she could just see Malfoy strutting around a large manor house. Sending the family servant to stop Harriet from going back to Hogwarts also sounded exactly like the sort of thing Malfoy would do. Had Harriet been stupid to take Dobby seriously? In the end she decided to wait and see, hoping the elf was just a horrible prank from her arch nemesis.
"I'm glad we came to get you, anyway," said Ron. "I was getting really worried when you didn't answer any of my letters. I thought it was Errol's fault at first —" Harriet looked at Ron quickly. "Who's Errol?" she asked. "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 —" Harriet quirked an eyebrow. "Who?" she asked, her eyes daring anyone in the car to say she sounded like an owl. "The owl Mum and Dad bought Percy when he was made prefect," said Fred from the front.
"But Percy wouldn't lend him to me," said Ron. "Said he needed him." Harriet sighed, glad to hear Ron had at least been trying to break through Dobby's enforced silence. "Percy's been acting very oddly this summer," said George, frowning. "And he has 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, pointing at a compass on the dashboard. Fred twiddled the steering wheel.
"So, does your dad know you've got the car?" said Harriet, guessing the answer. "Er, no," said Ron, "he had to work tonight. Hopefully we'll be able to get it back in the garage without Mum noticing we flew it." The way Ron said it made it seem unlikely that his mum wouldn't notice. "What does your dad do at the Ministry of Magic, anyway?" Harriet asked. "He works in the most boring department," said Ron. "The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office." Harriet was confused again. "The what?" she asked.
"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 friends tea in it. It was a nightmare — Dad was working overtime for weeks." Harriet was instantly intrigued. "What happened?" she asked. "The teapot went berserk and squirted boiling tea all over the place 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 —"
"But your dad — this car —" Fred laughed. "Yeah, Dad's crazy about everything to do with Muggles; our shed's full of Muggle stuff. He takes it apart, puts 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." Harriet giggled as it was hilarious and ironic. "That's the main road," said George, 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. Fred brought the car lower, and Harriet saw a dark patchwork of fields and clumps of trees.
"We're a little way outside the village," said George. "Ottery St. Catchpole." Lower and lower went the flying car. The edge of a brilliant red sun was now gleaming through the trees. "Touchdown!" said Fred as, with a slight bump, they hit the ground. They had landed next to a tumbledown garage in a small yard, and Harriet looked out for the first time at Ron's house. 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, Harriet reminded herself, it probably 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. Several fat brown chickens were pecking their way around the yard.
"It's not much," said Ron. "It's wonderful," said Harriet happily, thinking of Privet Drive. They got out of the car. "Now, we'll go upstairs really quietly," said Fred, "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 all pleased to see Harry and no one need ever know we flew the car." Harriet admitted it would be the perfect plan, aside from the fact that she was a girl. Aside from how improper it would look for her to share a room with Ron outside of school. "Right," said Ron. "Come on, Harriet, I sleep at the — at the top —"
Ron had gone a nasty greenish color, his eyes fixed on the house. The other three wheeled around. Mrs. Weasley was marching across the yard, scattering chickens, and for a short, plump, kind-faced woman, it was remarkable how much she looked like a saber-toothed tiger. "Ah," said Fred. "Oh, dear," said George. Harriet stepped forward to try smoothing things over for her rescuers, only for her throat to feel incredibly dry. Mrs. Weasley came to a halt in front of them, her hands on her hips, staring from one guilty face to the next. She was wearing a flowered apron with a wand sticking out of the pocket.
"So," she said. "Morning, Mum," said George, in what he clearly thought was a jaunty, winning voice. "Have you any idea how worried I've been?" said Mrs. Weasley in a deadly whisper. "Sorry, Mum, but see, we had to —" Ron tried for a brave moment. All three of Mrs. Weasley's sons were taller than she was, but they cowered as her rage broke over them. "Beds 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 —" Harriet winced, but was smiling as she felt whole with Mrs. Weasley worrying about them.
"Perfect Percy," muttered Fred. "YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF PERCY'S BOOK!" yelled Mrs. Weasley, prodding a finger in Fred's chest. "You could have died, you could have been seen, you could have lost your father his job —" It seemed to go on for hours. Mrs. Weasley had shouted herself hoarse before she turned on Harriet, who backed away. "I'm very pleased to see you, Harriet, dear," she said. "Come in and have some breakfast." It was slightly jarring how quickly anger shifted to kindness, Harriet was truly happy. She turned and walked back into the house and Harriet, after a nervous glance at Ron, who nodded encouragingly, followed her.
The kitchen was small and rather cramped. There was a scrubbed wooden table and chairs in the middle, and Harriet sat down on the edge of his seat, looking around. She had never been in a wizard house before. The clock on the wall opposite her 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 Harriet's ears were deceiving her, 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." Harriet felt a little guilty, her friends had gotten in trouble just to rescue her. "I don't blame you, dear," she assured Harriet, tipping eight or nine sausages onto her plate. "Arthur and I have been worried about you, too. Just last night we were saying we'd come and get you ourselves if you hadn't written back to Ron by Friday. But really" (she was now adding three fried eggs to his plate), "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!" said Fred. "You keep your mouth closed while you're eating!" Mrs. Weasley snapped. "They were starving her, Mum!" said George. "And you!" said Mrs. Weasley, but it was with a slightly softened expression that she started cutting Harriet bread and buttering it for her. At that moment there was a diversion in the form of a small, redheaded figure in a long nightdress, who appeared in the kitchen, gave a small squeal, and ran out again.
"Ginny," said Ron in an undertone to Harriet. "My sister. She's been talking about you all summer." Harriet smiled, knowing she'd be sharing Ginny's room. "Yeah, she'll be wanting your autograph, Harry," Fred said with a grin, but he caught his mother's eye and bent his face over his plate without another word. Nothing more was said until all four plates were clean, which took a surprisingly short time. Harriet wanted to groan at the idea of signing autographs, hating that she was famous for something like losing her parents before the man responsible got what was coming to him.
"Blimey, I'm tired," yawned Fred, setting down his knife and fork at last. "I think I'll go to bed and —" Harriet could have counted down to what happened next, predicting it based on what she'd seen of Mrs. Weasley. "You will not," snapped Mrs. Weasley. "It's your own fault you've been up all night. You're going to de-gnome the garden for me; they're getting completely out of hand again —" this intrigued Harriet. "Oh, Mum —" complained Fred. "And you two too," she said, glaring at Ron and George. "You can go up to bed, dear," she added to Harriet. "You didn't ask them to fly that wretched car —" But Harriet, who felt wide awake, said quickly, "I'll help Ron. I've never seen a de-gnoming —"
"That's very sweet of you, dear, but it's dull work," said Mrs. Weasley. "Now, let's see what Lockhart's got to say on the subject —" And she pulled a heavy book from the stack on the mantelpiece. George groaned. "Mum, we know how to de-gnome a garden —" he complained. Harriet looked at the cover of Mrs. Weasley's book. Written across it in fancy gold letters were the words Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests. There was a big photograph on the front of a very good-looking wizard with wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes. As always in the Wizarding world, the photograph was moving; the wizard, who Harriet supposed was Gilderoy Lockhart, kept winking cheekily up at them all. Mrs. Weasley beamed down at him. Harriet bit her lip as she felt a dampness between her legs looking at Gilderoy Lockhart.
"Oh, he is marvelous," she said. "He knows his household pests, all right, it's a wonderful book. . . ." Harriet reached tentatively for it, part of her expecting her hands to be slapped roughly. "Mum fancies him," said Fred, in a very audible whisper. Harriet could see why, such good looks. "Don't be so ridiculous, Fred," said Mrs. Weasley, her cheeks rather pink. "All right, if you think you know better than Lockhart, you can go and get on with it, and woe betide you if there's a single gnome in that garden when I come out to inspect it." Mrs. Weasley did hand the book to Harriet though, smiling at the obvious curiosity in the young girl's eyes.
Yawning and grumbling, the Weasleys slouched outside with Harriet behind them. The garden was large, and in Harriet's eyes, exactly what a garden should be. The Dursleys wouldn't have liked it — there were plenty of weeds, and the grass needed cutting — but there were gnarled trees all around the walls, plants Harriet had never seen spilling from every flower bed, and a big green pond full of frogs.
"Muggles have garden gnomes, too, you know," Harriet told Ron as they crossed the lawn. "Yeah, I've seen those things they think are gnomes," said Ron, bent double with his head in a peony bush, "like fat little Santa Clauses with fishing rods. . . ."
There was a violent scuffling noise, the peony bush shuddered, and Ron straightened up. "This is a gnome," he said grimly. "Gerroff me! Gerroff me!" squealed the gnome. It was certainly nothing like Santa Claus. It was small and leathery looking, with a large, knobby, bald head exactly like a potato. Ron held it at arm's length as it kicked out at him with its horny little feet; he grasped it around the ankles and turned it upside down. "This is what you have to do," he said. He raised the gnome above his head ("Gerroff me!") and started to swing it in great circles like a lasso. Seeing the shocked look on Harriet's face, Ron added, "It doesn't hurt them — you've just got to make them really dizzy so they can't find their way back to the gnomeholes."
He let go of the gnome's ankles: It flew twenty feet into the air and landed with a thud in the field over the hedge. "Pitiful," said Fred. "I bet I can get mine beyond that stump." Harriet learned quickly not to feel too sorry for the gnomes. She decided just to drop the first one she caught over the hedge, but the gnome, sensing weakness, sank its razor-sharp teeth into Harriet's finger and she had a hard job shaking it off — until —
"Wow, Harriet — that must've been fifty feet. . . ." Ron said impressed. The air was soon thick with flying gnomes. "See, they're not too bright," said George, seizing five or six gnomes at once. "The moment they know the de-gnoming's going on they storm up to have a look. You'd think they'd have learned by now just to stay put." Soon, the crowd of gnomes in the field started walking away in a straggling line, their little shoulders hunched. "They'll be back," said Ron as they watched the gnomes disappear into the hedge on the other side of the field. "They love it here. . . . Dad's too soft with them; he thinks they're funny. . . ."
Just then, the front door slammed. "He's back!" said George. "Dad's home!" They hurried through the garden and back into the house. Mr. Weasley was slumped in a kitchen chair with his glasses off and his eyes closed. He was a thin man, going bald, but the little hair he had was as red as any of his children's. He was wearing long green robes, which were dusty and travel-worn. "What a night," he mumbled, groping for the teapot as they all sat down around him. "Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had my back turned. . . ." Mr. Weasley took a long gulp of tea and sighed. "Find anything, Dad?" said Fred eagerly. "All I got were a few shrinking door keys and a biting kettle," yawned Mr. Weasley. "There was some pretty nasty stuff that wasn't my department, though. Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some extremely odd ferrets, but that's the Committee on Experimental Charms, thank goodness. . . ."
"Why would anyone bother making door keys shrink?" said George. "Just Muggle-baiting," sighed Mr. Weasley. "Sell them a key that keeps shrinking to nothing so they can never find it when they need it. . . . Of course, it's very hard to convict anyone because no Muggle would admit their key keeps shrinking — they'll insist they just keep losing it. Bless them, they'll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it's staring them in the face. . . . But the things our lot have taken to enchanting, you wouldn't believe —" Harriet thought it was rather ironic how right Mr. Weasley was, thinking back to the time she shrunk the revolting jumper with orange puff balls and how Aunt Petunia thought it shrunk in the wash. "LIKE CARS, FOR INSTANCE?"
Mrs. Weasley had appeared, holding a long poker like a sword. Mr. Weasley's eyes jerked open. He stared guiltily at his wife. "C-cars, Molly, dear?" His tone indicating he knew what she was talking about. "Yes, Arthur, cars," said Mrs. Weasley, her eyes flashing. "Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife all he wanted to do with it was take it apart to see how it worked, while really he was enchanting it to make it fly." Mr. Weasley blinked. "Well, dear, I think you'll find that he would be quite within the law to do that, even if — er — he maybe would have done better to, um, tell his wife the truth. . . . There's a loophole in the law, you'll find. . . . As long as he wasn't intending to fly the car, the fact that the car could fly wouldn't —"
"Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "Just so you could carry on tinkering with all that Muggle rubbish in your shed! And for your information, Harriet arrived this morning in the car you weren't intending to fly!" Harriet suddenly busied herself with checking her trousers for loose threads. "Harriet?" said Mr. Weasley blankly. "Harriet who?" He looked around, saw Harriet, and jumped. "Good lord, is it Harriet Potter? Very pleased to meet you, Ron's told us so much about —"
"Your sons flew that car to Harriet's house and back last night!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "What have you got to say about that, eh?" Harriet shuffled her feet, feeling bad for causing trouble for the Weasleys. "Did you really?" said Mr. Weasley eagerly. "Did it go all right? I — I mean," he faltered as sparks flew from Mrs. Weasley's eyes, "that — that was very wrong, boys — very wrong indeed. . . ." At that moment Harriet's nethers twinged and she shuddered while hugging herself. "Let's leave them to it," Ron muttered to Harriet as Mrs. Weasley swelled like a bullfrog. "Come on, I'll show you my bedroom."
They slipped out of the kitchen and down a narrow passageway to an uneven staircase, which wound its way, zigzagging up through the house. On the third landing, a door stood ajar. Harriet just caught sight of a pair of bright brown eyes staring at her before it closed with a snap. "Ginny," said Ron. "You don't know how weird it is for her to be this shy. She never shuts up normally, I assume mum will put you in her room since you're a girl —" They climbed two more flights until they reached a door with peeling paint and a small plaque on it, saying RONALD'S ROOM. Harriet stepped in, her head almost touching the sloping ceiling, and blinked. It was like walking into a furnace: Nearly everything in Ron's room seemed to be a violent shade of orange: the bedspread, the walls, even the ceiling. Then Harriet realized that Ron had covered nearly every inch of the shabby wallpaper with posters of the same seven witches and wizards, all wearing bright orange robes, carrying broomsticks, and waving energetically. "Your Quidditch team?" said Harry. "The Chudley Cannons," said Ron, pointing at the orange bedspread, which was emblazoned with two giant black C's and a speeding cannonball. "Ninth in the league." Ron's school spellbooks were stacked untidily in a corner, next to a pile of comics that all seemed to feature The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle. Ron's magic wand was lying on top of a fish tank full of frog spawn on the windowsill, next to his fat gray rat, Scabbers, who was snoozing in a patch of sun. Harriet stepped over a pack of Self-Shuffling playing cards on the floor and looked out of the tiny window. In the field far below she could see a gang of gnomes sneaking one by one back through the Weasleys' hedge. Then she turned to look at Ron, who was watching her almost nervously, as though waiting for her opinion. "It's a bit small," said Ron quickly. "Not like that room you had with the Muggles. And I'm right underneath the ghoul in the attic; he's always banging on the pipes and groaning. . . ." But Harriet, grinning widely, said, "This is the best house I've ever been in." Ron's ears went pink.