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[ chamber of secrets ]
LIFE AT THE BURROW WAS AS DIFFERENT AS POSSIBLE FROM LIFE AT THE ORPHANAGE FOR TROUBLED GIRLS. Madam liked everything neat and ordered; the Weasleys' house burst with the strange and unexpected. What Maya found most unusual about life at Ron's, however, wasn't a talking mirror or a clanking ghoul: it was the fact that everybody there seemed to like her.
Mrs. Weasley fussed over the state of her socks and tried to force her to eat fourth helpings at every meal. Mr. Weasley liked Maya and Priya to sit next to him at the dinner table so that he could bombard them both with questions about life with Muggles, asking them to explain how things like plugs and the postal service worked.
"Fascinating!" he would say as Maya talked him through using a telephone. "Ingenious, really, how many ways Muggles have found of getting along without magic."
Maya heard from Hogwarts one sunny morning about a week after she had arrived at the Burrow. She and Priya went down to breakfast to find Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, beside Harry, Ron and Ginny who were already sitting at the kitchen table. The moment she saw Maya and Priya, Ginny went slightly flushed, her shoulders hunched. Despite Maya and Priya having to sleep in her room, Ginny was still a bit jittery whenever Maya looked her way.
"Letters from school," Mr. Weasley said, passing Harry, Maya and Ron identical envelopes of yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink.
"Dumbledore already knows you're both here," Mr. Weasley said, looking at Harry and Maya. "Doesn't miss a trick, that man. You two've got them, too," he added, as Fred and George ambled in, still in their pajamas.
For a few minutes there was silence as they all read their letters. Maya's told her to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King's Cross station on September first. There was also a list of the new books she'd need for the coming year.
SECOND YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:
The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk
