Always Together

17. Floo Powder

Chapter 17 | floo powder

Life at the Burrow was as different as possible from life on the Malfoy Manor. The Malfoys liked everything neat and ordered; the Weasleys' house burst with the strange and unexpected. What Caitlyn found most unusual about life at Ron's was the fact that everybody there seemed to like her.

Mrs Weasley fussed over the state of Hary's socks and tried to force him to eat fourth helpings at every meal. Mr Weasley liked Harry and Caitlyn to sit next to him at the dinner table so that he could ask with questions about life with muggles -- Harry still lived with muggles and Caitlyn had too for eleven long years --, asking him to explain how things like plugs and the postal service worked.

"Fascinating," he would say as Caitlyn talked him through using a telephone. "Ingenious, really, how many ways muggles have found of getting along without magic."

Caitlyn heard from Hogwarts one sunny morning about a week after she had arrived at the Burrow. She, Harry and Ron went down to breakfast to find Mr and Mrs Weasley and Ginny already sitting at the kitchen table. The moment she saw Harry, Ginny accidentally knocked her porridge bowl to the floor with a loud clatter. Ginny seemed very prone to knocking things over whenever Harry entered a room. Guess who had a crush?

"Letters from school," said Mr Weasley, passing Harry and Ron identical envelopes of yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink.

"Dumbledore already knows you're here, guys -- doesn't miss a trick, that man. You two've got them, too," he added, as Fred and George walked in, still in their pyjamas.

For a few minutes there was silence as they all read their letters. Caitlyn'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 for the 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 had finished his own list, peered over at Caitlyn's.

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

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

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

"Well, we'll manage," said Mrs. Weasley, but she looked worried. "I expect we'll be able to pick up a lot of Ginny's things secondhand."

"Oh, are you starting at Hogwarts this year?" Harry asked Ginny.

She nodded, blushing to the roots of her flaming hair, and put her elbow in the butter dish. Fortunately no one saw this except Harry, because just then Ron's elder brother Percy walked in. He was already dressed, his Hogwarts prefect badge pinned to his sweater vest.

"Morning, all," said Percy briskly. "Lovely day."

He sat down in the only remaining chair but leapt up again almost immediately, pulling from underneath him a moulting, grey feather duster, but it ended it being --