The Life at the Burrow

"See you next summer!" Haley yelled.

The Weasleys roared with laughter and Haley settled back in her seat, grinning from ear to ear.

"Let Hedwig out," she told Ron. "She can fly behind us. She hasn't had a chance to stretch her wings for ages."

Cassandra handed the hairpin to Ron and, a moment later, Hedwig soared joyfully out of the window to glide alongside them like a ghost.

"So — what's the story, Haley?" said Ron impatiently. "What's been happening?"

Haley told them all about Dobby, the warning he'd given Haley and the fiasco of the violet pudding. There was a long, shocked silence when she had finished.

"Very fishy," said Cassandra finally.

"Definitely dodgy," agreed Fred . "So he wouldn't even tell you who's supposed to be plotting all this stuff and also he wouldn't tell you who told him to tell you so?"

"I don't think he could," said Haley. "I told you, every time he got close to letting something slip, he started banging his head against the wall."

She saw Fred and Cassandra look at each other. "What, you think he was lying to me?" said Haley.

"Well," said Cassandra, "put it this way — house-elves have got powerful magic of their own, but they can't usually use it without their master's permission. I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming back to Hogwarts. Someone's idea of a joke. Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against you?"

"Yes," said Haley and Ron together, instantly.

"Draco Malfoy," Haley explained. "He hates me."

"Draco Malfoy?" said Cassandra, turning around. "Not Lucius Malfoy's son?"

"Must be, it's not a very common name, is it?" said Haley. "Why?"

"I've heard Dad talking about him," said Cassandra. "He was a big supporter of You-Know-Who."

"And when You-Know-Who disappeared," said Fred, craning around to look at Haley, "Lucius Malfoy came back saying he'd never meant any of it. Load of dung — Dad reckons he was right in You-Know-Who's inner circle."

Haley had heard these rumors about Malfoy's family before, and they didn't surprise her at all. Malfoy made Dudley Dursley look like a kind, thoughtful, and sensitive boy. "I don't know whether the Malfoys own a house-elf. . . ." said Haley.

"Well, whoever owns him will be an old Wizarding family, and they'll be rich," said Fred.

Haley was silent. Judging by the fact that Draco Malfoy usually had the best of everything, his family was rolling in wizard gold; she could just see Malfoy strutting around a large manor house. Sending the family servant to stop Haley from going back to Hogwarts also sounded exactly like the sort of thing Malfoy would do. Had Haley been stupid to take Dobby seriously?

"Sounds like a thing Malfoy would do." said Haley.

.The boys discuss Mr. Weasley, who works in the Ministry of Magic in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Department, reversing the damage caused when bewitched objects do strange and dangerous things. The Weasley twins explain that their father loves anything having to do with Muggles, and bought this car so that he could tinker with and put spells on it.

At dawn they arrive at the Weasleys' crooked and disorderly house, The Burrow, and they are met by a furious and frightened Mrs. Weasley. She greets Haley warmly, and then stormily chastises her boys, setting them to work de-gnoming the garden. Haley decides to tag along on this venture. Before they begin, Mrs. Weasley consults a book by Gilderoy Lockhart on how to remove household pests, and when she admires his moving, winking cover photo and praises his knowledge, it is obvious that she has a crush on the author.  The de-gnoming consists of peering through their untidy lawn and pulling small, leathery potato-like gnomes from bushes and violently flinging them out into a nearby field, rendering them too dizzy to find their way back. Haley tries politely to drop a gnome over the fence, but it senses her hesitation and bites her, so she resorts to flinging them. After the de-gnoming, Ron led Haley to the room she was going to stay.

They climbed one more flights until they reached a door with peeling paint and a small plaque on it, saying CASSANDRA AND GINNY'S ROOM.

Cassandra and Ginny 's room was quite big, It could fit at least four beds. It was literally of two different shades.

Cassandra's side (which Haley thought was her side because there is a photo of her) was quite different from what a girl's room would look like, not the Haley knew what a girl's room looked like considering she never had one till last year. But, according to what Aunt Petunia's room looks like, it was not a girl's room, it wasn't covered in pastel colors, it wasn't pink and perfume everywhere, instead it was filled with all fun items and toffees which didn't look really edible.

Quite contrary, Ginny's side looked exactly like a girl's room would look like according to Aunt Petunia. The wall was painted with pastel colors. It had some poster of eight men with mic and different musical instruments, named Weird Sisters. It was having three to four books lying around How To Style Your Hair : In a minute. Simple Beauty Spells. Haley did not understand the point of having the books if she can't use magic, but didn't want to question.

Haley had a small debate with herself, whether she like Ginny's side or Cass's side.

"It's a bit small than what you live at," said Ron quickly. "Not like that room you had with the Muggles.

"I love it" said Haley, still examining the rooms.

"We can arrange one more bed here and you are good to sleep." said Ron

They climbed one more flights until they reached a door with peeling paint and a small plaque on it, saying RONALD'S ROOM.

Haley stepped in, her head almost touching the sloping ceiling, and blinked. It was like walking into a furnace: Nearly everything in Ron's room seemed to be a violent shade of orange: the bedspread, the walls, even the ceiling. Then Haley realized that Ron had covered nearly every inch of the shabby wallpaper with posters of the same seven witches and wizards, all wearing bright orange robes, carrying broomsticks, and waving energetically.

"Your Quidditch team?" said Haley.

"The Chudley Cannons," said Ron, pointing at the orange bedspread, which was emblazoned with two giant black C's and a speeding cannonball. "Ninth in the league."

Ron's school spell books were stacked untidily in a corner, next to a pile of comics that all seemed to feature The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle. Ron's magic wand was lying on top of a fish tank full of frog spawn on the windowsill, next to his fat gray rat, Scabbers, who was snoozing in a patch of sun.

Haley stepped over a pack of Self-Shuffling playing cards on the floor and looked out of the tiny window. In the field far below she could see a gang of gnomes sneaking one by one back through the Weasleys' hedge. Then she turned to look at Ron, who was watching her almost nervously, as though waiting for her opinion.

"Our house is a bit small," said Ron quickly. "Not like that house you had with the Muggles. And I'm right underneath the ghoul in the attic; he's always banging on the pipes and groaning. . . ."

But Haley, grinning widely, said, "This is the best house I've ever been in."

Ron's ears went pink.

It took some time for Ginny to adjust to the fact that Haley is going to be in her bedroom, but after Haley asked her if she was uncomfortable, Haley being in her room, she burst her bubble, she spoke so fast about how she feels so excited to finally meet Haley Potter, talk to her, stay with her together, she went on about what she heard about her, about her greatness, about how she was famous in the wizarding world and that she always wanted to meet her and might be a friend of hers too.

By the end of Ginny's talk, Haley's face was as red as Ginny's hair. Then she spoke to Ginny that her greatness was a load of rubbish, that she doesn't even remember what happened and that she would be happy to be a friend of her.

Ginny beamed at Haley. They spoke about stuff, Ginny was fun and adventurous, she loved speaking about the Weird Sisters, who Haley now were a famous band, whose music was frequently played on the Wizarding Wireless Network (WWN) which is like internet in the muggle world. Despite their name, all eight known members were male.

Cassandra mostly used to spends her time in Fred's room, and the small explosions they make are considered normal here. Cassandra occasionally comes back to her room to speak to them, sometimes covered in soot, sometimes in different shades and colors, and when Haley asks what happened she always says "Just having fun", and then goes back to Fred's bedroom and the sound of explosions continue.

Mrs. Weasley fussed over the state of her socks and tried to force her to eat fourth helpings at every meal. Mr. Weasley liked Haley to sit next to him at the dinner table so that he could bombard her with questions about life with Muggles, asking her to explain how things like plugs and the postal service worked.

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

Haley heard from Hogwarts one sunny morning about a week after she had arrived at the Burrow. She and Ron went down to breakfast to find Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Ginny already sitting at the kitchen table. The moment she saw Haley, Ginny waved a "Good morning" to Haley. They became good friends and Ginny seemed to be comfortable around Haley considering she isn't prone to accidents anymore. Ginny would usually knock her breakfast bowl, or in her room she would cover herself with her blanket or accidentally knocks all of her books around Haley.

Haley returned a "good morning" and sat sat down and took the toast Mrs. Weasley offered her. 

"Letters from school," said Mr. Weasley, passing Haley and Ron identical envelopes of yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink. "Dumbledore already knows you're here, Haley — doesn't miss a trick, that man. You two've got them, too," he added, as Fred and Cassandra ambled in, still in their pajamas.

For a few minutes there was silence as they all read their letters. Haley'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. 

Ginny was starting at Hogwarts this year.  Haley remembered Ginny going on about how she wished to be at Hogwarts, since Bill's time, her oldest brother.

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I couldn't write much about Cassandra and Ginny's room, because, it wasn't mentioned in the book, it wasn't even in the internet, so I created it on my own by their personalities. Sorry if you feel it didn't fit the characters... i just based it on generalization of characters


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