Darkest Before the Hope • Harry Potter ❥ Terence Higgs

02: Life at the Burrow

They got out of the car and Cassia looked at the Burrow again.

"Okay, now we'll go upstairs really quietly and wait for Mum to call us for breakfast. Then, Ron, you come bounding downstairs going, 'Mum, look who turned up in the night!' and she'll be all pleased to see Harry and Cassia, and no one need ever know we flew the car," Fred told them.

Cassia wondered how that was going to be believable. It wasn't like there was some sort of wizarding bus system to take them here overnight. She frowned and looked at Fred. "How—" She trailed off, noticing how he seemed to have shrank back, along with George.

"Right," Ron interrupted. "Come on, Harry and Cassia, I sleep at the – at the top—"

Cassia looked at him confused and saw he had turned a rather greenish color and looked forward, noticing Mrs Weasley marching across the yard. Despite being looking like a plump, kind-faced woman, she resembled a saber-toothed tiger that Cassia saw in an animal book once when she was younger. She was wearing a floral apron with a wand sticking out of the pocket.

"Ah," Fred said.

"Oh, dear," George said.

Mrs Weasley came to stop in front of them, her hands on her hips, staring from one guilty face to the next. She said, "So."

"Morning, Mum," George said, trying to use a jaunty, winning voice.

"Have you any idea how worried I've been?" Mrs Weasley asked in a deadly whisper.

Ron said, "Sorry, Mum, but see, we had too—"

Mrs Weasley interrupted him, by shouting, "Beds empty! No note! Car gone – could have crashed – out of my mind with worry – did you care? – never, as long as I've lived – you wait until your father gets home, we never had trouble like this from Bill or Charlie or Percy—"

Cassia noticed that even though the Weasley boys were taller than their mother, they were cowering before her.

"Perfect Percy," muttered Fred.

"You could do with taking a leaf out of Percy's book!" Mrs Weasley yelled. She prodded Fred's chest. "You could have died, you could have been seen, you could have lost your father his job—"

Cassia looked at Harry, who looked almost as awkward as she felt. It must've been embarrassing to the Weasley boys having their mother yelling at them, right in front of their friends. Harry looked back at her.

After a while, Mrs Weasley seemed to have finally shouted herself hoarse, turned to Cassia and Harry. The both of them backed away, Cassia was a little terrified that Mrs Weasley was going to yell at them, too.

"I'm very pleased to see you two dears," Mrs Weasley said, smiling. "Come in and have some breakfast." She turned and walked back inside the house as if she didn't yell at her songs.

Harry and Cassia looked at Ron, both equally stunned. Ron nodded encouragingly and the two Potters walked after Mrs Weasley.

They were led passed the living room, which seemed cozy, with a sofa, armchairs, a fireplace, and a wooden wireless set. There was a clock with what looked like multiple hands.

They entered the kitchen, which was small and cramped. There was a scrubbed wooden table and chairs in the middle of the kitchen. Cassia set the cage on the table. The Potter twins both tried to sit in the same chair, only to slap at each other's hands for the seat. Cassia took the chair next to Harry's instead and looked at the clock on the wall opposite of them. It had one hand and no numbers at all. Written along the edge was 'Time to make tea,' 'Time to feed the chickens,' and 'you're late.' It had many pendulums and three bells on it.