Born From Madness (Harry Potter Fanfic)

42

Hermione turned around to see a man, who must be Mr. Weasley, waking over towards the house. Soon everyone was hurrying across the garden and to the house. Hermione could see Mr. Weasley, hugging against Grandma Elka before parting away from each other. Mrs. Weasley was telling Mr. Weasley something that seemed very important because she had a stern look in her eyes. Just as they walked through the front door, everyone shattered and began acting like there wasn't anything going on between the three of them. 

"What a night," Mr. Weasley said while everyone proceeded to their seats, "Nine raids. Nine! And Old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had my back turned..." 

"Well you can never trust Mundungus with anything! That man's a coward and a complete scandal! Can't put anything past that man." Grandma Elka stated with a nod of her head. 

"Find anything Dad?" Fred asked.

"Just a few shrinking door keys and a biting kettle," yawned Mr. Weasley, "There was some pretty nasty stuff that wasn't my department, though. Mortlake was taken for questioning about some extremely odd ferrets, but that's the Committee on Experimental Charms, thank goodness.." 

"Why would anyone bother making door keys shrink?" Hermione asked. Mr. Weasley turned towards Hermione. 

"You're Elka's Granddaughter. It's lovely to meet you." Mr. Weasley told her, "To simply put it, it's Muggle-baiting. Sel them a key that keeps shrinking to nothing so they can never find it when they need it... of course, it's very hard to convict anyone because no Muggle would admit their key keeps shrinking-- they'll insist they just keep losing it. Bless them, they'll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it's staring them in the face... but the things our lot have taken to enchanting, you wouldn't believe..." 

"LIKE CARS, FOR INSTANCE?" Molly asked with her arms crossed over her chest. Mr. Weasley's eyes jerked open then laughed nervously. 

"C-cars, Molly, dear?" 

"Yes, Arthur, cars," said Mrs. Weasley, "Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife all he wanted to do with it was take it apart to see how it worked, while really he was enchanting it to make it fly." 

"Well dear, I think you'll find that he would be quite within the law to do that, even if-- er-- he maybe would have done better to um, telll his wife the truth... there's a loophole in the law... as long as he wasn't intending to fly the car, the fact that the car could fly..." 

"Arthur Weasley! You made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law!" Mrs. Weasley shouted, "And for your information, Harry arrived this morning in the car you weren't intending to fly!" 

"Harry? Harry who?" Mr. Weasley asked before glancing around the table till his eyes landed on Harry, "Good lord, is it Harry Potter? Very please to meet you, Ron's told us so much..." 

"Your sons flew that car to Harry's house and back last night!" Mrs. Weasley growled, "What have you got to say about that, eh?" 

"Did you really?" Mr. Weasley said, "Did it go all right? I-- I mean, that-- that was very wrong, boys-- very wrong indeed..." 

"Let's leave them to it," Ron muttered while they slowly started to get up, "Come on, I'll show you my bedroom." 

They hurried upwards and down a narrow passageway, Hermione waved at her Grandma on the way upstairs. As they were reached the third landing, door slammed close, nearly causing Hermione to fall down the stairs if it hadn't been for Harry to grab her. 

"Ginny," Ron mumbled, "You don't know how weird it is for her to be this shy. She never shuts up normally--" 

They claimed two more flights until they reached a door with a small plaque on it saying Ronald's Room. As they walked in, Hermione was taken back by all the bright orange that stared back at her. But she quickly noticed that the walls were covered with the same seven witches and wizards all wearing the same bring orange color as the bedroom. 

"Your Quidditch team?" Harry asked. 

"The Chudley Cannons, they're ninth in the league." Ron answered. Hermione walked over a Self-Shuffling playing cards on the floor and headed towards the window. From a field far below, she watched the gnomes making their holes just a few feet away from the house. 

"It's a bit small," Ron said, causing Hermione to look back towards him, "Not like that room Harry had with the Muggles. And I'm right underneath the ghoul in the attic; he's always banging pipes--" 

"This is the best house I've ever seen," Harry said, grinning widely while Hermione nodded in agreement. Ron soon went pink. 

Life at the Burrow was wonderful. Grandma Elka had left Hermione there so she could deal with whatever Hermione's parents threw at her for going against their wishes. But not without giving her her vault key for her to buy her school supplies. 

Hermione had fun sharing rooms with Ginny, who entrusted her with all details of how she felt towards Harry. Hermione advised her that she should probably try to not knock anything over. It was fun with talking to Mr. Weasley alongside with Harry to discuss Muggle things. Mrs. Weasley fussed a lot about the states of Harry's socks and having him eat a few extra helpings at every meal. After a week at the Burrow, they received letters from Hogwarts. They were heading downstairs to breakfast where Mr. Weasley handed their letters at the dinner table. 

Upon opening them, Hermione noticed that most of the books were written by Lockhart. She could picture her Grandma Elka's reaction to it with a big roll of her eyes and mumbling another 'dumbass'. 

"This lot won't come cheap," George said as he looked over at his parents, "Lockhart's books are really expensive..." 

"We'll manage," Mrs. Weasley mumbled, but she had a look of worry gleaming in her eyes. Hermione wanted to offer to pay, but she felt it would offend Mr. and Mrs. Weasley if she were to do so. 

Hermione followed behind Harry and Ron and the twins to a faraway garden to play some quidditch. They couldn't use real quidditch balls due to the fact there was a muggle village a few yards away so they threw apples. Hermione had fun watching them flying around the garden until Harry had the bright idea of her trying out his Nimbus Two Thousand. 

"Now just hold on tight..." Harry told her as Hermione nervously held onto the broomstick, "Now just lift it up a little higher..." 

Hermione started to lift up till she found herself flying high above the trees. She didn't know what happened when she felt the broom going crazy. She started screaming before she found it flying back over an open field till it went soaring through a few trees. Hermione clung tightly to the broom, shrieking till she felt herself landing onto the ground. She tumbled around the floor, leaves flinging around her, till she landed a few feet away from an old oak. She winced while she pushed herself onto her feet. Hermione pulled twigs and leaves from her hair as she tried to look for the broom. 

It took a few minutes till she found the broomstick. She went to pick it up when she heard a twig snapping. She turned around and suddenly she froze. Standing a few feet away from where she was, she could see there was a man in a large leather trench coat. Even though she could see his face, she knew he was looking right at her. Hermione felt her heart pounding in her chest as she watched him start to make his way towards her. Before he could get too close, she could hear Harry's and Ron's and the twin's voices echoing throughout the trees. It was enough to drive the man to run away from her. Hermione stood there still froze when she saw Ron and Harry rushing to her side. While they were trying to make sure she was alright, she couldn't help but kept staring where the man had been standing.