Gaunt ~ Book 2

Three~Potter

a/n: Part of this chapter is my own writing and the other is J.K. Rowling's.

Harry was in shock. Ron Weasley, one of his best friends from Hogwarts, was outside his window in a flying car. His two older twins, Fred and George, had just retrieved Harry's things from the cupboard under the stairs. Now, for the hard part, getting Harry's school supplies into the back of the Weasley's flying Ford Anglia. Harry and George threw their shoulders against the trunk and it slid out of the window and into the back seat of the car.

"Okay, let's go," George whispered.

But as Harry climbed onto the windowsill there was a sudden loud screech from behind him, followed immediately by the thunder of Uncle Vernon's voice.

"THAT RUDDY OWL!"

"I've forgotten Hedwig!"

Harry tore back across the room as the landing light flicked on – he snatched up Hedwig's cage, dashed to the window, and passed it out to Ron. He scrambled back onto the chest of drawers when Uncle Vernon hammered on the unlocked door – and it crashed open.

For a split second, Uncle Vernon stood framed in the doorway; then he let out a bellow like an angry bull and dove at Harry, grabbing him by the ankle.

Ron, Fred, and George seized Harry's arms and pulled as hard as they could.

"Petunia!" roared Uncle Vernon. "He's getting away! HE'S GETTING AWAY!"

But the Weasleys gave a gigantic tug and Harry's leg slid out of Uncle Vernon's grasp – Harry was in the car – he slammed the door shut –

"Put your foot down, Fred!" yelled Ron, and the car shot suddenly toward the moon.

Harry couldn't believe it – he was free. He rolled down the window, the night air whipping at his hair, and looked back at the shrinking rooftops of Privet Drive. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley were all hanging, dumbstruck, out of Harry's window.

"See you next summer!" Harry yelled.

The Weasleys roared with laughter and Harry settled back into his seat, grinning ear to ear.

And then everything went wrong.

"Oh, dear," said George.

Mrs. Weasley came to a halt in front of them, her hands on her hips, staring from one guilty face to the next. She was wearing a flowered apron with a wand sticking out of the pocket.

"So," she said.

"Morning, Mum," said George, in what he clearly thought was a jaunty, winning voice.

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

"Sorry, Mum, but see, we had too –"

All three of Mrs. Weasley's sons were taller than she was, but they all cowered as her rage broke over them.

"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, Charlie, or Percy –"

"Perfect Percy," muttered Fred. 

"YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF PERCY'S BOOK!" yelled Mrs. Weasley, prodding Fred in the chest. "You could have died, you could have been seen, you could have lost your father his job – just because he used it to get Marvolo doesn't mean you can use it to get Harry!"

"Wait, Marvolo's here?" said Harry, startled.

"Oh, yeah," Ron said. "We forgot to tell you, me and Dad picked him up a couple days ago. Mum and Dad said it'd be better for him to get him away from that muggle orphanage. It was horrible Harry, you should have seen how they treated him, that place seemed —"

"That's quite enough out of you," Mrs. Weasley hissed, then she turned to Harry. "Marvolo's helping me with breakfast, you can meet him inside."

Harry nodded and ran inside, happy to get away from Mrs. Weasley's yelling. She had been right, Marvolo was in the kitchen, putting sausages onto a sizzling pan.

"Marvolo!" Harry said happily.

Marvolo looked up and a grin spread across his face when he saw Harry.

"Harry! How did you get here?"

Harry told him what had happened with Uncle Vernon and the flying car ride to the burrow, he almost forgot to tell him about Dobby and his warning. Once he finished, Marvolo's mouth was gaping open.

"A house-elf told you not to go to Hogwarts?" he said.

"Yeah, do you know what a house-elf is?"

"Of course I know what a house-elf is! They've come up in a lot of books I've read,"

"But what do I do?" asked Harry pleadingly. "Fred said it could have been someone's idea of a joke,"

"Probably is," Marvolo said. "Malfoy'd love to get at you. His family, or some other Slytherin family, is probably Dobby's owner. He could have gotten them to send Dobby,"

"Yeah, I was thinking about that," Harry said.

He opened his mouth to say something else but at that moment, Mrs. Weasley came bursting into the room.

"Time for breakfast, dears," she said to Harry and Marvolo. Marvolo stepped out of the way so she could finish.

Mrs. Weasley began finishing up breakfast. Every now and then she muttered things like "don't know what you were thinking of," and "never would have believed it."

"I don't blame you, dear," she assured Harry, tipping eight or nine sausages onto his plate. "Arthur and I have been worried about you, too. Just last night we said we'd come and get you ourselves if you hadn't written back to Ron by Friday. But really" (she was now adding three fried eggs to his plate), "flying an illegal car halfway across the country – anyone could have seen you – at least the orphanage was a couple miles away –"

"It was cloudy, Mum!" said Fred.

"You keep your mouth closed while you're eating!" Mrs. Weasley snapped.

"They were starving him, Mum!" said George.

"And you!" said Mrs. Weasley, but it was with a slightly softened expression that she started cutting Harry bread and buttering it for him.