𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝; 𝐲𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐡.𝐩

𝓨𝓮𝓪𝓻 2, 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓹𝓽𝓮𝓻 4: 𝓐𝓽 𝓕𝓵𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓑𝓵𝓸𝓽𝓽𝓼

~ chapter four: at flourish and blotts ~

Life at the Burrow was very different from life at Privet Drive. It was as different as it got, if Harry was being completely honest. For one, the Dursleys liked everything neat and ordered. The Weasleys' house burst with the strange and unexpected. He got my first real shock when he looked in the mirror over the mantelpiece for the first time and it shouted, "Tuck your shirt in, scruffy!" The ghoul in the attic howled and dropped pipes whenever it was too quiet for his liking. Apparently, small explosions from Fred and George's room were considered perfectly normal. But what he found really unusual wasn't the talking mirror or the clanking ghoul; it was that everyone there seemed to like him and Y/N.

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

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

Harry and Y/N heard from Hogwarts one sunny morning about a week after they'd arrived at the Burrow. Y/N, Ron and Harry went down to breakfast to find Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Ginny already sitting at the kitchen table. Ginny glanced up, and her eyes widened, but she didn't get up and run away from the table; she just gave them a small, shy smile and a wave before going back to eating her breakfast.

"Huh," said Ron as they sat down, "what's up with her? She's a little bit less shy than yesterday, but she's always so talkative..."

"Maybe she's just not used to having the two of us in her house yet," Harry said as he and Y/N took the toast Mrs. Weasley had offered them. "I mean, it's not every day that you have the Boy and Girl Who Lived in your house, is it?"

"Letters from school," said Mr. Weasley, passing Ron, Y/N and Harry identical envelopes of yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink. "Dumbledore already knows you're here, Harry, Y/N — 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. Harry's told him to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King's Cross Station on September first. There was also a list of the new books he'd need 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 had finished his own list, peered over at Y/N's, then Harry'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 that 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 Hogwarts this year?" Y/N asked Ginny.