Chapter Three: Potters, Weasleys and Quidditch:
“Welcome,” says Hermione, “To the Burrow.”
I look in awe at the beautiful house. Although it is rather crooked, it looks stable. The garden looks beautiful with lots of new colors and plants. Attached to the side of the house is a pig pen with pigs that are hungrily devouring food out of a trough. There is a second house, painted in blue and white with roses and lilies in the window sills, that stands next to the Burrow.
Suddenly a woman bursts out of the Burrow. She has graying red hair that looks a lot like Ginny and Ron's hair. I assume that she is their mother and the “Mrs. Weasley” that Hermione was talking about.
She walks towards a tree and yells up into it, “James Potter you come down here right now. Don’t try and hide, I know you’re in there,” she screams, then she turns towards us as a teenage boy starts climbing down, “Oh, hello, dear. I’m Mrs. Weasley and you must be the Julia, Hermione has told us about. Welcome to the Burrow. Don’t worry about James; he’s always up to trouble.”
I instantly take a liking to Mrs. Weasley. Her personality and appearance is very similar to that of my grandmother and I can’t help but remembering the different things I used to do with my grandmother; going to the park, taking the dog for walks, baking cookies, but of course I can’t do those things anymore, since my grandmother died last year. We had always been very close and even though it was a year ago, memories of her still make my cry. I don’t want to cry, but even now I can feel the tears threatening to fall out of my eyes, making my eyesight blurry.
“What is it dear?” Mrs. Weasley asks me, walking towards us, her arms held out in a motherly way.
“You r-remind me of my grandmother,” I say, starting to cry, “She died a year ago.”
Mrs. Weasley engulfs me in a very warm and comfortable hug and strokes my hair, “There, there, dear. It's all right. No need to cry. You're here at the Burrow now, and the Burrow is a place of happiness. Hermione was right, you are like Rosie, her grandmother, Hermione’s mother, died last winter and she’s still upset. Shh...There's a dear. You will always be welcome here dear and you can always talk to me if you are upset.”
I sniff and wipe my eyes with the back of my hand. Hermione hugs me, then grabs my hand and says, “Let's go see the kids. I think they’re playing Quidditch.”
“I’m sorry about your mother.” I say as we walk down a long path.
“It was sad, I didn’t see much of her, being at Hogwarts and then-“
Hermione stops abruptly and falls silent.
“And then- what?” I ask, trying not to be rude, but very curious.
“There was a war.”
“A war?”
“But you’re wizards! You have magic, how can you get into a war?”
“Let’s just say that some wizards don’t use magic to the benefit of others, rather for the greater good of only them,” Hermione says and I understand that our discussion is over. It must have been a rather terrible event.
We walk silently along the path until we arrive at a large flat dirt filled expanse. There are three hoops on each side and a small set of bleachers. Many of the players and people in the bleachers have red hair that shines in the sun. I’m beginning to think that it’s a sign of a Weasley, since all of them seem to have that trait! We walk over towards the only bleacher that has people in it.
“Hi everyone!” says Hermione.
They respond with a variety of “Hi Aunt Hermione!” “Hi Mum!” and “Hi Hermione!”
She smiles and says motioning towards me, “This is Julia Smith, and I want you all to be very nice to her, or else you're going to have to clean up after everyone after dinner and none of you want that! Make sure you tell that to the people playing Quidditch, especially James.”
Wasn’t he the one that just got into trouble with Mrs. Weasley? How did it take him such a short amount of time to get here and into the sky?
“Yes we will,” they all answer.
Hermione points to a girl at the top of the bleacher and whispers to me, “That’s my daughter, Rose. Why don’t you go sit by her?”
I do as she says and say, “Hi, I’m Julia.”
Rose smiles and says, “I'm Rose, although you probably already knew that. All of my stupid cousins like calling my Rosie, but I don't like it. No one gets to call me that, except Nana Weasley. Do you know how to play Quidditch? I wanted to play, but James wouldn't let me.”
She says all of it rather quickly, almost as if she has wanted to say it all day. I think I'm going to like Rose, I hope we can become friends at Hogwarts.
I shake my head and say, “Hermione explained it a bit, but it seemed like it’s rather hard.”
She nods and says, “Well, James would give you this two hour long speech on everything and all the fouls and such stuff. But, I'm only going to tell you the basics to that you understand what's happening and can talk about it at school. She then proceeded to tell me about Quidditch and all of the different things that can happen and the different players.
After her explanation she looks down at a silver watch on her arm and says, “It’s almost dinner time and I want to introduce you to everyone! But, now I have to go tell anyone that it’s dinner time. Do you want to come along?”
“Alright.”
Rose grabs my hand and pulls me behind her and onto the path. We wave goodbye to the others, but most of them are too concentrated on the game to acknowledge us.
Rose pulls a long list of names out of her pocket. My eyes widen at how many names there are on it.
“Why do you have a list like that?” I ask Rose.
“Oh. Nana has me tell everyone when it is time to eat, so this tells me who is here and where they are. Look! It even has you and your family on it!”
We look at the list and there are so many names on it, some of them I know, but most of them I don't.
“Why don't we go tell Teddy first!” says Rose. “He's one of my favorite people. He isn't really a cousin but he's Uncle Harry's godson, since both of his parents were killed in the Second Wizarding War.”
“Wait there have been two?” I ask her and her eyes widen.
“You mean Mum hasn't told you about them?” she asks.
“Well, I tried to ask her, but she avoided the topic.”
“Yeah, it’s a hard topic to talk about.”
Rose grabs my hand and says, “Come on, I'll bring you to Uncle Harry and Mum, they can tell you about it. You absolutely have to know about it. It is a very important part of our history.”
We walk together back towards the Burrow. I see the other house again and ask her, “Whose house is that?”
“Oh! That's my family's vacation home, we have a house in London too, but we live here most of the time during the summer and winter.” Rose answers. “Now come on, we should talk to them before dinner!”
She runs towards the Burrow and I follow her. Rose opens the door and the smell of food wafts out. My mouth waters, I didn’t knew I was this hungry before, but the food smells so good.
Inside the Burrow, is a welcoming sight, chairs stand in disarray in the room and the smell of food wafts from what is probably the kitchen. I hear voices coming from another room and Rose and I walk into it. There are many adults in the room. I see my dad and wave to him, he waves back but I can tell that he is immersed in conversation with a graying and balding red haired man. I see my mum talking to a blonde haired woman that looks like Rose's cousin Victoire.
Then I see Rose go over to a tall older girl with brown hair. I follow her.
“Amanda, this is Julia Smith. Julia, this is Amanda Wood. Her father is my Uncle's old Quidditch Captain and her mum is one of my dad's friends and fellow Quidditch players.”
I shake Amanda's hand and she says, “It's a pleasure to meet you Julia! I'm a Gryffindor 5th year and I'm the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain this year!”
“Amanda, you are?!” asks Rose in amazement, “That's so cool! Do Dad and Uncle Harry know yet?”
“No,” Amanda laughs, “I was going to surprise them, but I'll go and tell them now! Bye Julia and Rose, nice to meet you, Julia!”
Next, Rose pulls me towards a girl that looks like she is the same age as us. She has blonde hair and green eyes and looks a bit like Neville.
“Hi Alice!” says Rose happily. “This is Julia Smith. My mum brought her here today; she just found out that she is a witch! Julia this is Alice Longbottom, Uncle Neville's daughter.”
I shake her hand and say, “Its nice meeting you! Your dad seems pretty cool!”
“Thanks!” she says.
We talk for a bit and I realize that I think I have found two people that I am going to be friends with at Hogwarts, Rose and Alice. I was worried that I wouldn't have any friends, but now I know that I will.
“Bye Alice!” Rose and I say together as we walk over towards Hermione, Harry and Ron.
I hear them whispering together and when Rose and I get over to them I hear Harry say, “-have to tell her about...” but he stops when he sees me.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling owns them all, so all rights go to her.