Third person- Harry.
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Harry was slipping into a fitful sleep...he was sitting in a zoo cage behind a sign labeled "Underage Wizard" and people were jeering at him through the bars of his cage...Dudley goggled at him, five chins wobbling...
Harry woke with a start. Someone was, in fact, staring at him through the bars on his window, but it wasn't Dudley. Ron's pale, freckled face and mop of red hair greeted him.
"All right, Harry?" came another voice-the Weasley twins.
"Ron? Fred? George?" Harry asked, bewildered. Was he still dreaming? "What are you doing here?"
"Rescuing you, of course," said Fred.
"Missed one," said a feminine voice from behind Ron. Ashlynn Dream poked her head out of what appeared to be a floating car's window, scowling.
"Ash? Why're you-"
"If you'd bothered to read my letters, you would know," she replied stonily, but Harry couldn't help but notice the glint of amusement in her grey eyes.
"Listen, it wasn't my fault--there was this house elf and I got in trouble because he used magic--"
"Stop gibbering," Ron said. "We're here to break you out."
"But you can't magic me out-" Harry started.
"You forget who I've got with me."
Fred and George looped a rope around the bars covering his window and slammed on the gas. With a horrible tearing noise, the bars were ripped from the wall and fell onto the pavement below with a clatter.
"Where's your stuff?" Fred whispered. Harry listened for any signs of his Aunt or Uncle being awake, but there was no sound.
"In the cupboard under the stairs," he murmured back.
Fred and George grabbed an ordinary hairpin from the dashboard and then climbed through the window.
"Useful when you can't use magic at home, rather under-rated," George said as he fiddled with the lock on Harry's bedroom door.
"Watch the bottom step, it creaks," Harry warned the twins as they climbed down. Soon, they came back upstairs, liggin Harry's trunk and his broomstick.
"Okay, climb in-" Harry started in, but Hedwig gave a loud screech.
"THAT RUDDY OWL!"
"I've forgotten Hedwig!" Harry dove back in through the window and grabbed her cage, tossing it to Ron, who caught it and handed it to Ash.
"PETUNIA!" Uncle Vernon had barreled into the room, wide awake and still in his nightclothes. "HE'S ESCAPING! HE'S ESCAPING!" he had grabbed Harry's ankle in a desperate attempt to keep him from getting away. Ron was pulling on Harry's arms, but losing the battle.
"Oh, move over," Ash scoffed, and with one fierce tug she pulled Harry into the car.
"See you next summer!" Harry called gleefully as the car sped away from 4 Privet Drive.
"You better have a good explanation for why you didn't answer any of my letters," Ash said, frowning at him. Harry proceeded to explain about the house-elf named Dobby, the magic violet pudding fiasco, the warning from the Ministry, and apologized to Ash, telling her about Uncle Vernon locking up Hedwig in her cage, which Ron promptly unlocked so Hedwig could fly next to the car.
"Apology accepted," Ash said, smiling at Harry. She looked as though she had just wanted to make him squirm a little.
"Very fishy," mused Fred in response to Harry's tale.
"Definitely dodgy," agreed George.
' "And you said he was banging his head against the wall?" Ash wrinkled her nose.
"That must mean he wasn't supposed to tell you...?" guessed George. "Can you think of anyone who wouldn't want you to go back to Hogwarts this year?"
"Malfoy," Ron, Harry and Ash said at once.
"He hates Harry," said Ron. "And Ash."
"And you, and Hermione," Ash argued. "He hates everyone that doesn't worship him. We can't be sure."
"I've heard Dad talking about the Malfoys," Fred said. "They were big supporters of You-Know-Who. Lucius Malfoy came back after he'd died saying that didn't mean any of it. Load of dung--Dad reckons he was right in You-Know-Who's inner circle."
Harry had heard rumors about the Malfoy's. Draco Malfoy made Dudley seem like a kind and considerate sibling.
"I don't know if Malfoy owns a house-elf..." Harry trailed off.
"They usually come with mansions and castles," said George. "The Malfoys are a wealthy old family, they probably have one."
"I'm glad we came to get you, anyway," said Ron. "I'd asked you to stay so many times and Errol, the family owl, had to carry Ash's and Hermione's letters to you as well. He's almost reached the end."
"I'm glad that you weren't ignoring us on purpose,' Ash said. "I would have throttled you on the train." Harry winced. He didn't doubt it.
"Can I drive?" she asked eagerly, leaning forward in between the front seats.
"You're underage, Ashy," said George, ruffling her hair. She swatted his hand away and flopped backwards grumpily.
"So are you," she grumbled. "And I told you not to call me Ashy."
"So here's Plan A," George instructed. "We go upstairs, quietly, and come down in the morning, saying, "Look who turned up in the night!" And Mum'll be all pleased and will never have to know we flew the car."
"Right," said Ron. "Come on, Harry--I sleep at the--at the top-"
A furious-looking Mrs. Weasley strode across the yard, scattering chickens.
"Ah," said Fred. "Time for Plan B."
"What's Plan B?" Harry questioned, but Ash shushed him and they stood nervously in front of the angry, red-haired woman.
"Where have you been!" Mrs. Weasley spat. "Beds empty--no note--"
"We went to go get Harry," said Fred.
"That car shouldn't even exist! And you-"
"Please, Mrs. Weasley," said Ash, in a very un-Ash like way. She turned her feet towards each other and looked down, hunching her shoulders. "Don't blame them. It was my idea. I've just--missed Harry so much and--and I was worried when he didn't answer his letters--and--and--it's all my fault, please don't get mad."
"Of course I don't blame you, dear," Mrs. Weasley said kindly. "I'm very glad you're here, Harry. Why don't you come inside for some breakfast?"
Harry looked at Ash in awe, who Fred and George high-fived as they walked back into the house, Ash back to herself again.
"Brilliant," said Harry, grinning. "This is where you live?"
"It's not much," said Ron.
"It's the best house I've ever seen."
Ron's ears went pink.
Mrs. Weasley bustled around, making breakfast and clattering about. She didn't seem half as mad now, thanks to Ash, and Harry was content with just gazing around the kitchen and looking at all the magical mayhem going on.
In one corner, knitting needles knit a sweater unaided. A large grandfather clock was next to a patched couch, and instead of numbers, it had things on it like Time to make tea, Time to feed the chickens, and You're late!
Suddenly, there was a diversion as a small figure with red hair came into the kitchen.
"Mummy, have you seen my-" he eyes widened at the sight of Harry.
"Hello," Harry said kindly. She turned to run out of the room, but was stopped by Ash standing up from the table.
"Gin, is that my shirt?" She said suspiciously, noting the oversized blue-grey shirt Ginny had on.
"No?"
"It is!" she dropped her plate on the table and ran after Ginny, who had squealed and run upstairs with a lot of thumping. "GINEVRA!"
Fred and George snickered.
"Ginny," said Ron as Mrs. Weasley tipped seven sausages onto Harry's plate. "Been talking about you a lot."
"And is Ash..?"
"Oh yeah, they're always like that," said Fred dismissively. "Ash is more like a sister to Ginny than Ron is."
Ron made a noise that sounded like "hey!" but it was muffled by the biscuits in his mouth.
"Blimey, I'm tired," said George, yawning, pushing away his clean plate. "I think I'll go to bed and-"
"No you won't," said Mrs. Weasley, who's temper had returned a little. "Go out and do the garden, it needs to be de-gnomed." The Weasley's collectively groaned, but Ash hauled Harry up, coming downstairs with the shirt clutched triumphantly in her fist.
"Harry and I will do it, he's never seen a de-gnoming," she said, much to the relief of Ron, Fred, George, and Ginny, who had come down the stairs after figuring out that Harry was leaving the room.
"What's a de-gnoming?" Harry asked her and she led him to the back garden.
"I'm warning you," Ash said. "They do not look like Muggle gnomes." She reached her hand into a shrub and pulled out what looked like a grubby potato.
"Gerroff me! Gerroff me!" the gnome squealed.
"This is a gnome," she said, eyes gleaming as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Ash had a knack for that--making a menial task seem exciting, and when she cracked jokes and was generally outgoing, she couldn't help but bring a smile to people's faces.
"You swing it around like this," she demonstrated, swirling the gnome around like a lasso. "It doesn't hurt them, you just have to make them dizzy." She let go of the gnome and it flew almost fifty feet away, landing with a thump.
A dozen other gnomes had come out of their holes, and Harry seized one and swung it like Ash had shown him, the gnome flying a few feet.
"Come on, Harry, use your big-boy muscles," she teased, throwing another gnome farther than the first. Harry turned red but laughed along with her as she chuckled.
"Seriously, I was worried about you," she said suddenly. "I had a gift for your birthday all planned out but Errol couldn't carry it, so I couldn't deliver it to you."
"You--you did?" Harry asked, dropping the gnome he was holding in bewilderment.
"'Course," she said, flinging another. "I'll give it to you later tonight-"
"Wait," Harry said. "What about your birthday?" She stiffened and the next little potato she threw only went twenty feet.
"I don't know when my exact birthday is-"
"That's no excuse not to get a celebration-"
"I'd rather not have anything."
"I know what it's like to not have any birthdays," Harry said fiercely. "You can share mine. Next year, you'll have a proper one,at Hogwarts, and we'll all celebrate."
"...Thanks," Ash said quietly. Harry nodded and they finished the garden, watching the rest of the gnomes walk away in a line, shoulders drooping.
Just then, there was a sound of a door slamming. Ash straightened up.
"Mr. Weasley's home!" she said, grabbing Harry's hand and running back inside.
Mr. Weasley was slumped in a chair with his glasses off and his eyes closed. He was a thin man that was going bald, but he had red hair like his children. He was wearing long green robes that were dusty and travel-worn.
"What a night," he mumbled as they sat around him, groping for the teapot. "Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when my back was turned..."
He took a long gulp of tea and then sighed.
"Find anything, Dad?" George asked eagerly. Harry noticed Ash and the twins lean forward.
"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 in my department, though..."
"Why would anyone bother making door keys shrink?" Ron asked.
"Just Muggle-baiting," said Mr. Weasley. "Sell them a key that keeps shrinking so they keep losing it-of course, they never realize that it's shrinking, they'll do anything to deny the existence of magic, even when it's right in front of them-bit of a waste of time to enchant, but the things people have taken to enchanting, you won't believe-"
"LIKE CARS, FOR INSTANCE?" Mrs. Weasley had returned, holding poker like a sword.
"C-cars, Molly dear?"
"Yes, Arthur, cars," she said, her eyes flashing. "Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife that he just wanted to see how it worked but he was really enchanting it to make it fly."
"W-well, there is a sort of-of loophole, in the law-"
"Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law! And for your information, Harry arrived this morning-"
"Harry?" Mr. Weasley said blankly. "Harry who?"
Fred and George pointed.
"Good lord, is it Harry Potter? Very pleased to meet you, Ron and Ashlynn have told us so much about-"
"Your sons dragged Ash along and flew-"
"But," said Ash, meekness returning to her voice. Mr. Weasley looked instantly relieved. "Mrs. Weasley, they didn't drag me. If anything, I dragged them."
"I know, dear," said Mrs. Weasley kindly. "I just need to have a chat with dear Arthur about the existence of that car-" she grabbed Mr. Weasley by the shoulder and steered him out of the kitchen, Mr. Weasley's guilty, panicked look coming back full force.
"I tried," mouthed Ash with an apologetic look.
"Very useful to have this one around," said Fred, grinning.
"Let's leave them to it," said Ron to Harry as yells floated through the doorway from the sitting-room. "Come one, I'll show you my bedroom."
"Orange-topia!" yelled Ash, beating them to the staircase and running upstairs. Ron turned red and ran after her.
Upon entry, Harry almost had to shield his eyes. Ash was bouncing on Ron's bed, oblivious to his shouts and protests and Harry examined the many Chudley Cannons decorations around the room.
"Your Quidditch team?"
"The Chudley Cannons," Ron said proudly. "Ninth in the league."
"It's a bit small," said Ron quickly as Harry looked around. "Not like that room you had with the Muggles--and the ghoul upstairs--"
"Which I still haven't seen," interjected Ash, stepping off Ron's bed having considerably rumpled his sheets.
"He makes noise, banging on the pipes and groaning..."
But Harry, grinning widely, said: "This is the best house I've ever been in."
Ash laughed as Ron scratched his head, embarrassed.
"I almost forgot," said Ash quietly to Harry, while Ron straightened his bed. "I have to give you your gift."
She slipped out of the room as Ron challenged Harry to a game of Exploding Snap, and came back moments later with a bundle in her arms.
"I know it's not much," she said sheepishly. Harry gratefully took the bundle from her and Ron looked at it, interested.
He peeled back some brown paper and inside lay a shiny, polished broom handle.
"It's a customized handle," Ash explained. "I carved it myself, and enchanted it back at school. It's got limited wind-resistance, a waterproof charm, and a self-straightening detector. You can replace your old one with it. If you want," she added hastily.
Harry beamed at her.
"Thank you," he said, and she smiled back.
"You made this yourself?" Ron asked, impressed. Harry handed him the handle and he turned it this way and that in his hands. "That's really cool."
"Thanks," Ash said. It was her turn to blush. "You just tap the handle currently on your broom twice and then tap this one three times with your wand. It doesn't technically count as magic."
Harry put the handle on top of his trunk.
"I'll change it out tomorrow. I'm sorry I don't have a gift for you."
"Don't worry about it," she said quickly. "I don't need one."
Ron grabbed the handle off the ground and looked at it in awe as Ash left the room.
"That is really extraordinary magic," he said. "She'll give Hermione a run for her money."