A Hogwarts Legend: Round Two [2]

Chapter Three

It seems to go on for hours. Finally, Mrs Weasley turns to me.

"Of course I don't blame you Emily, no doubt Fred or George lured you in," Mrs Weasley says, then turns to Harry, who backs away slightly.

"But it was her idea!" Fred protests.

Mrs Wealsey glares at him then says, "I'm very pleased to see you, Harry, dear. Come in and have some breakfast."

She turns and walks back into the house and Harry, after a nervous glance at me, follows her, with me close behind.

The kitchen is small and rather cramped. There is a scrubbed wooden table in the middle and I sit down next to Harry, who's looking around, dazed. George sits on my other side and Ron and Fred across from us.

The clock on the wall opposite me has only one hand and no numbers at all. Written around the edge are things like "Time to make tea", "Time to feed the chickens" and "You're late". Books are 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 the old radio next to the sink has just announced that coming up was "Witching Hour, with the popular singing sorceress, Celestina Warbeck."

If she's so famous, why haven't I heard of her?

Mrs Weasley is clattering around, cooking breakfast a little haphazardly, throwing dirty looks at her sons as she throws sausages into the frying pan. Every now and then she mutters things like "don't know what you were thinking of" and "never would have believed it".

"I don't blame you either, dear," she assures Harry, tipping eight or nine sausages onto his plate. Then she puts six on mine and a stack of toast, which I immediately start on. "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's now adding fried eggs to all of our plates), "flying an illegal car halfway across the country - anyone could have seen you -"

She flicks her wand casually at the washing-up in the sink, which begins to clean itself, clinking gently in the background.

"It was cloudy, Mum!" says Fred.

"You keep your mouth closed while you're eating!" Mrs Weasley snaps.

"They were starving him, Mum!" says George.

"And you!" says Mrs Wealsey, but it's with a slightly softened expression that she starts cutting bread and buttering it for us.

At that moment, there's a diversion in the form of a small, red-headed figure in a long nightdress, who appears in the kitchen, gives a small squeal, and runs out again.

That would be Ginny, ladies and gentleman!

"Ginny," says Ron in an undertone. "My sister. She's been talking about you all summer."

"Yeah, she'll be wanting your autograph, Harry," grins Fred, but he catches his mother's eye and bends his face over his plate without another word. Nothing more is said until all five plates are clean, which takes a surprisingly short time.

""Blimey, I'm tired," yawns George, setting down his knife and fork at last. "I think I'll go to bed and -"

"You will not," snaps 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."

"Oh, Mum -"

"And you two," she says, glaring at Ron and Fred. "You two can go up to bed," she adds to Harry and I. "You didn't ask them to fly that wretched car."