THE WITCHING HOUR ➸ h. potter

18 - the burrow

I was running late. Again.

Seemed like the story of my life, huh? It felt like it.

A week ago, I had gotten a letter from Rom saying he, Fred and George were going to be 'rescuing' Harry from his house in a flying blue car and bring him back to the Burrow - their house - for the rest of the holidays.

I was all for the plan, since he hadn't been answering any of our letters and I was getting a bit worried. I had even asked my mum if I could go with them, but she had immediately said no.

Even so, I was allowed to go spend the holidays with my friends at the Burrow but only after Harry had arrived there.

Yesterday, I had finally gotten confirmation from Ron that Harry was safe with him and his family - and today I was leaving my house to go visit them.

Sadly, Hermione wouldn't be able to join us, since she was traveling, but she did keep in touch with me over the summer and sent me loads of pictures.

Anyway - back to the topic.

Since neither my mum nor I knew how we could travel to a place when we didn't know where it was, Mrs Weasley was coming to our house to pick me up.

She had said she's be in our fire at 10 am, and it was already half past nine - but Alaska just refused to get into her travel cage.

My kitten was currently hiding under my bed, not letting me grab hold of her. She was mewing her head off at my mum who was half under my bed herself.

I sighed, getting down on all fours as well.

'Alaska, c'mon sweetie. We gotta go. I promise you'll like it there. It'll be fun!"

My mum gave me an are-you-crazy-why-are-you-talking-to-a-cat look, but I ignored her. Alaska always seemed to understand me.

Sure enough, she slowly slid out from her hiding spot and let me pick her up - but let out another sad mew when I took her towards her cage.

"Alright. You want me to carry you? Okay . . . but you have to promise not to try and run away."

Yes. Now even I knew I was crazy. There was no way Alaska could respond to me even if she could understand me. But I took her purring as a yes and tucked her under my arm. Thankfully she was still small enough for me to do that easily.

Within minutes, Molly Weasley, Ron's mother, was standing in the middle of our fireplace.

I'll admit - it was a bit of a shock. Even Alaska jumped.

"Oh hello, dear! Never seen anyone travel by the floo network, have you? Well - its really quite simple. Just grab a handful of this power I'm brought, stand in the middle of the fireplace, and yell the name of the place you have to go. In this case, just yell The Burrow and we should end up home."

It was a lot to take in all at once, but I stammered out a hello, said goodbye to my mother, and listened to Mrs Weasley explain what I had to do a second time.

"Alright, I think I've got it. Should I go first?"

"Yes, dear. Of course. Now . . . grab some power - very good. Go stand where I was - go on, its not gonna hurt. Drop the power into the fireplace gently and say 'The Burrow' as clearly as you can."

Green flames erupted all around me.

"The Burrow!" I said and I was no longer in the living room of my house.

I was standing in a completely different place all together.

"Natalia! You're here!"

I'd recognize Harry Potter's voice anywhere.