By the time they had arrived back at the Burrow, the sun had started to rise. The chickens were already coming out of their house, clucking quietly as they strutted along. Fred had touched down a little roughly on the ground. When they came to a halt, they inched their way out of the car, leaving Harry’s stuff behind. They’d get it later.
Fred made sure that their way was clear when they got into the kitchen door.
“Okay, c’mon. We’re all clear.”
He allowed them to inch their way inside. Sera went over to her chair at the table and put her hand on the chair’s back.
“Do you think that it’ll be alright if we have some?” Fred whispered, motioning to the hot cross buns Mrs. Weasley had baked the afternoon before.
“Yeah! Mum will never know,” George answered, his voice hushed.
“It's not much,” Ron admitted guiltily. “But it’s home.”
“I think that it's brilliant!” Harry answered, grinning broadly.
They were interrupted when footsteps thundered down the stairs. A furious Mrs. Weasley came into view. She put her hands on her hips, staring at each of her child with a murderous look.
“Where have you been?!” she shrieked. In a calmer voice, she added to Harry, “Oh, Harry dear! I’m so glad that see you.” She gave each of her child a stern look. “Beds empty! No note! Car gone! You could have died! You could have been seen! Of course, I don’t blame you, Harry, dear.”
“They were starving him, Mum,” Ron insisted, his mouth full of bread rolls. “They put bars on his windows, they did.”
“Well, you best hope that I won’t put bars on your window, Mr. Ronald Weasley!” Mrs. Weasley threatened, pointing a finger at him. Each boy gave Ron an anxious look. Mrs. Weasley smiled at Harry and spoke more kindly to him. “Come on now, Harry. Let’s have a spot of breakfast.”
Mrs. Weasley dished Harry twice as much, knowing that he was a little malnourished from not eating so much. She showed him the Weasley’s dinner table manners. Sera and Ron caught each other’s eye. Sera rolled hers, shaking her head in disbelief.
More footsteps thundered down the stairs, and another red-head girl appeared. She had a messy bed head, and her eyes were sleepy-looking, as though she had just woken up.
“Mum. Mummy? Have you seen my jumper?”
“Yes, Ginny, dear,” Mrs. Weasley answered, sounding distracted. She was doing the dishes by now. “Last time I saw it, your jumper was on the cat.”
But Ginny didn’t seem to be paying any attention. She caught sight of Harry and her eyes went wide. Harry noticed.
“Hello,” he greeted, a little too quickly.
Ginny backed her way against the stairs before running back up to her room. Fred and George snorted with laughter. Sera shook her head. Harry looked confused.
“W-What did I do?”
“Ginny,” Ron answered a bit bitterly. “She’s been talking about you all summer. It got a bit annoying, really. Although, I think Sera was more annoyed about it than the rest of us were. She wouldn’t stop pestering her about her brother.”
“Now that Harry is officially here, maybe she can stop pestering me around,” Sera grumbled hopefully.
“What the bloody hell is all this noise?” a new, but familiar voice to Harry, spoke up.
Sera looked up and smiled when she saw a sleepy-looking Durante Knightley. She had told Mr. and Mrs. Weasley about Dante once they had approached the Weasley family when they got off the Hogwarts Express at the beginning of their summer break. Sera had reassured them that Dante wasn’t actually bad, just highly misunderstood. He had longed for a family that would love him and take care of him like their own.
“I’m hearing all of this jabbering, and all I’m doing is trying to sleep.”
“We’re just thrilled that Harry is here, safe with us, Dante,” Sera answered at once. She slid her hand in her brother's hand.
“Harry? But I thought that he went back to his aunt’s and uncle’s place?”
“He did. But we picked him up last night.”
Dante frowned. The morning brain fog was still present in his mind.
“Where is he, now?”
“Over here, dummy,” Harry answered half-jokingly.
Dante jumped before his eyes widened. He smiled broadly before approaching the brunette boy. Harry got up and gave Dante a quick hug, patting him on the shoulder.
“How are you?” Harry asked after their quick reunion.
“So much better, now that I don’t have to live with my awful relatives for the rest of the summer.” He shuddered, tugging at his pajama sleeve. He looked a little awkward.
“Dante, why don't you join us for breakfast? Mr. Weasley should be here any minute,” Mrs. Weasley suggested kindly.
Dante nodded and took his place in his chair next to Sera. Mrs. Weasley began to spoon hashbrowns on his empty plate, making sure that he had enough. Finally —
“Good morning, Weasleys! Good morning, Sera and Dante!”
There was a chorus of “good morning, dad”, and “good morning, Mr. Weasley” from Sera and Dante.
“What a night. Nine raids! Nine!” Mr. Weasley complained as he settled down in his seat at the dining room table.
“Raids?” Harry echoed, confused.
“Dad works at the Ministry of Magic in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts department,” Ron explained. “Dad loves Muggles. He thinks that they’re fascinating.”
“Well, now!” said Mr. Weasley with a satisfied sigh. That was when he caught sight of Sera’s brother. He furrowed his eyebrows together in confusion. “And who are you?”
“I’m sorry, sir. I’m Harry, sir. Harry Potter, Sera’s twin brother.”
Mr. Weasley sat there, looking stunned. Sera didn't blame him.
“Good lord! Are you really?” Harry only nodded shyly in return. “Well, Ron and Sera, of course, have told us all about you. When did he get here?” he asked his wife.
“This morning,” Mrs. Weasley answered. She was still bitter by the fact her sons and Sera took the flying car without their permission. “Your sons and daughter flew that enchanted car of yours to Surrey and back last night.”
She turned her back on him, fixing more breakfast at the stove. Mr. Weasley looked deeply impressed. He leaned in forward, eager to hear more information.
“Did you really? How did it go — I mean —” He paused when his wife whacked him sharply on the head. Mr. Weasley gave his wife a quick look of confusion before seeing her glare. He quickly changed his attitude. “That was very wrong of you, boys, and Sera. Very wrong of you. Now, Harry. You must know all about Muggles. Tell me: what exactly is the function of a rubber duck?”
Sera and Dante shared each other wary looks. Dante had been asked the same question. But when he told Mr. Weasley that he grew up in a wizarding family, he looked a little bummed out. But he still accepted Dante as his own child.
“Oh! Um —”
Luckily, Harry did not have to go into details, much to Sera’s relief. At the same time, an angry screech from their owl, Errol, was heard. Everyone turned their attention towards the window.
“Oh, that must be Errol with the post,” said Mrs. Weasley as she craned her neck to get a better look.
They watched as the tawny owl flew towards them, in the wrong direction. Ron was the first to notice.
“Watch it!” he exclaimed.
But it was too late. Errol had smacked himself into the glass window pane. He momentarily went still before disappearing.
“Oof. Get the mail, will you, Percy?” Mrs. Weasley asked.
Percy Weasley nodded and approached the door. Errol had hopped back onto the door, bouncing and twittering happily, acting as though nothing had happened. Harry turned to Ron, who looked confused.
“Errol?”
“Our owl,” Ron answered, shaking his head. “The bloody idiot. This happens nearly every time. He should learn to know where the open door is by now.”
“Oh, look!” said Percy after he had searched through the post. “Professor Dumbledore sent us our Hogwarts letters. Sent us Harry’s and Dante's as well.”
He passed around the envelopes. Sera took hers eagerly. She wondered which subjects they were going to need this year, and what books they needed. She was thoroughly disappointed, however, when she saw that the books were mostly written by some odd fellow named Gilderoy Lockhart.
Sera didn’t like the sounds of him. He sounded like a fraud. Fred voiced Sera’s worries.
“This lot won’t come cheap, Mum,” he said worriedly. “These weird Lockhart books are extremely expensive.”
“We’ll manage,” Mrs. Weasley answered with a nearly-defeated sigh that Sera immediately caught.
There was a pang of guilt in her stomach. Both she and Harry had inherited mounds upon mounds of money from their parents. She would have loved to have offered at least a good portion of her money to the Weasleys. But she knew they would never accept it.
“There's only one place that you’re gonna want to get all of this: Diagon Alley.”