The Mysterious Heir

Chapter 2, Book 2, "The fiasco at Diagon Alley"

Life at the Burrow is as different as possible from life on Privet Drive. The Dursleys like everything neat and ordered; the Weasleys' house bursts with the strange and unexpected. Harry gets a shock the first time he looks in the mirror over the kitchen mantelpiece and it shouts, "Tuck your shirt in, scruffy!" The ghoul in the attic howls and drops pipes whenever he feels things are getting too quiet, and small explosions from Fred and George's bedroom are considered perfectly normal. What Harry finds most unusual about life at Ron's, however, isn't the talking mirror or the clanking ghoul: It is the fact that everybody there seems to like him.

Mrs. Weasley fusses over the state of his socks and tries to force him to eat fourth helpings at every meal. Mr. Weasley likes Harry sitting next to him at the dinner table so that he can bombard him with questions about life with Muggles, asking him to explain how things like plugs and the postal service work.

"Fascinating!" he says as Harry tells him how to use a telephone. "Ingenious, really, how many ways Muggles have found of getting along without magic."

Harry hears from Hogwarts one sunny morning about a week after he arrived at the Burrow. He and Ron go down to breakfast to find Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Polaris and Ginny already sitting at the kitchen table. The moment she sees Harry, Ginny accidentally knocks her porridge bowl to the floor with a loud clatter. Polaris smirks. Ginny seems very prone to knocking things over whenever Harry enters a room. She dives under the table to retrieve the bowl and emerges with her face glowing like the setting sun. Pretending he doesn't notice this, Harry sits down and takes the toast Mrs. Weasley offers him.

"Letters from school," says Mr. Weasley, passing Harry, and Ron identical envelopes of yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink. "Dumbledore already knows you are here - doesn't miss a trick, that man. You three've got them, too," he adds, as Fred and George amble in, still in their pajamas.

For a few minutes there is silence as they all read their letters. Harry's tells him to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King's Cross station on September first. There is also a list of the new books he needs for the coming year.

SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk

Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart

Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart

Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart

Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart

Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart

Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart

Fred, who has finished his own list, peers over at Harry's.

"You've been told to get all Lockhart's books, too!" he says. "The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher must be a fan - bet it's a witch." Polaris laughs at this.

At this point, Fred catches his mother's eye and quickly busies himself with the marmalade.

"That lot won't come cheap," says George, with a quick look at his parents. "Lockhart's books are really expensive...."