Always~Hinny

Chapter one*

Life at the burrow in Harry's opinion, was a lot better than living at his Aunt and Uncle's house. There was never a moment in which he had an empty stomach. Ron, Fred, and George had helped him escape from his home, and took him to the burrow where the Weasleys lived. Although they had used an illegal flying car, and got reprimanded by Mrs. Weasley, it worked. The Weasley family and Harry were sitting around the table eating breakfast when an owl flew in through the window - or at least - it tried. The poor, frail owl ended up crashing into the window beak first, and fell to the ground outside.

"Percy can you please get the letters from Errol?" Mrs. Weasley, a kind and plump looking woman, peered over at the owl with an anxious expression on her face. Percy squinted at the light coming through the window as he got up and went over. He opened the window wider and grabbed the mail from Errol's beak.

"It's our Hogwarts letters." Percy looked instantly more alert as he shuffled through the letters as if Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster, could see him through the writing. "Harry's is here too."

Mr. Weasley gave a kiddish grin and raised his eyebrows. "Dumbledore has to know you're here Harry. Nothing gets past him." He chuckled and continued eating.

Percy handed out the letters to each of the children. Harry's and Ron's read:

Second-year students will require:

The Standard book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk

Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart

Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart

Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart

Wandering with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart

Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart

"This'll be really expensive mum." Fred frowned.

"We'll figure it out." Mrs. Weasley said confidently, but bit her lip as she scanned their letters. As they continued eating their food, an unrecognizable owl flew gracefully through the window. Errol eyed it with a seeming envious expression through narrowed eyes.

It landed near Harry so he quickly swallowed his mouthful of food and took the letter from its leg. He opened the letter, and started to skim through it, smiling to himself when he saw name of the person who wrote it.

"Hey Ron!" He called.

Ron, who was shoveling food in his mouth, gave a muffled reply, which nobody could understand.

"It's from Hermione!" Harry grinned. He then proceeded to read it with Ron looking over his shoulder, still chewing quite obnoxiously.

Dear Ron, and Harry if you're there,

I hope everything went alright and that Harry is okay. You better didn't do anything illegal to get him out, Ron, because that would get Harry in trouble too. I've been really worried and if Harry is all right, will you please let me know at once? But perhaps it would be better if you used a different owl, because I think another delivery might finish your one off. I'm very busy with schoolwork, of course and we're going to London tomorrow to buy my new books. Why don't we meet in Diagon Alley? Let me know what's happening as soon as you can.

Love from,

Hermione

"Hermione wants to meet up with everyone in Diagon Alley tomorrow." Harry announced.

"Well that's settled then! We'll go there tomorrow morning." Mrs. Weasley said happily. After sending a quick reply to Hermione, they sat back down and continued to consume their delicious meal.

Once they finished and cleaned up, the kids went outside to play quidditch. Since Ginny really wanted to play, Percy was forced to play too so they could do a 3 on 3 match. The teams were Percy, Fred, and Harry, versus Ginny, George, and Ron, and they walked over to the shed to get their brooms.

The game started quite peacefully; the twins throwing Dung bombs at everyone, Ron fumbling the Quaffle too many times to count, and Percy was chiding Fred and George for their improper playing tactics. Which left Ginny and Harry to do one on one.

"Catch me if you can, Potter!" She laughed and zoomed off with the Quaffle. Harry shook his head at her surprising speed and chased after her on his own broom.

No matter how many times he tried to catch her, she'd somehow avoid him. If he sped up? She'd take a sharp turn and he would nearly crash into a tree. If he did a barrel roll like a hawk? She'd speed forward and he'd just miss crashing into the ground, almost becoming as flat as a pancake. Compared to most he was a very good quidditch player, but Ginny seemed to be in another league altogether despite her lack of practice on an actual team. He suspected she practiced in all of her free time.

"And that's another goal for me!" Ginny threw her hands up in the air victoriously, and flew to grab the falling Quaffle.

Harry observed how pretty her hair looked when she flew and he only hoped she might think the same way about him. Whenever he passed her, he felt an odd sensation in his heart as if it was trying to escape his body. But as soon as he had some distance everything was back to normal again. He shook off the odd feeling and focused back on the game.

Fred and George left early to do some "work" as did Percy, leaving the three youngest to play by themselves for the rest of the time. They had played until dinner and before they knew it, it was time to go to bed. Ron and Harry said goodnight to Ginny and Mrs. Weasley before getting into their beds. Exhausted from the vigorous playing, Harry closed his eyes and immediately fell asleep.

The next morning he woke up to the amazing smell of breakfast but unfortunately, that wasn't what woke him up. There was a sound of a huge explosion that came from Fred and George's room and he raced down the stairs to see what happened.

"Don't worry everything's fine!" Fred yelled sticking his head out their smoke filled room. Amused, Harry laughed to himself as he continued on downstairs. Everyone was rushing about getting ready to leave for Diagon Alley, while he began to eat breakfast.. Mrs. Weasley was passing through the room and saw him savoring his food slowly. He'd never woken up to food made just for him

"Oh sorry dear but we are in quite a hurry. Do you mind eating a little faster?"

"I'm so sorry. Of course!" Slightly embarrassed, Harry seemingly inhaled the rest of the food and went upstairs to get washed up and changed.

Within half an hour, everyone was in front of the fireplace ready to go.

"Well, guests first." Mrs. Weasley said kindly. She held out a flower pot containing a weird looking powder.

"Umm, sorry but what is that?" Harry frowned.

"Oh that's right you've never traveled by floo powder before. Here Ron show him how it's done." Mrs. Weasley said holding out the pot to Ron instead. Harry watched very closely not wanting to miss a thing.

Ron stepped forward, grabbed a handful of the mysterious powder, stepped into the fireplace, and yelled "Diagon Alley!" With a puff of green smoke he was gone.

"See dear it's not that bad. Just remember to be very clear when you say it." Mrs. Weasley said, holding out the pot to him once again.

Harry took some in his hand, and stepped into the fireplace. "Diagon alley!" With that, the Burrow vanished from view.