Harry Potter and the Unknown Power

Chapter Five

The next morning an explosion rocked the Burrow. Ron and Harry both jumped out of bed, crouching with their wands out, "What the bloody hell was that?"

"I dunno, but no one is screaming," said Harry.

"FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY! WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME WAS THAT?"

Harry and Ron grinned at one another, and pulled on some clothes and went downstairs, colliding with Ginny at the landing. The twins were standing in the kitchen, looking down at the floor, and looking sheepish.

"...THOUGHT WE HAD BEEN ATTACKED! AND HARRY! THE POOR BOY HAS BEEN THROUGH ENOUGH! YOUR BROTHER AND SISTER ARE STILL RECOVERING FROM THE ORDEAL THEY WENT THROUGH AND YOU TWO ARE ACTING LIKE CHILDREN!"

"Mum! We just thought we would surprise Harry with his birthday gift!" said Fred.

"Really, Mum, this place is secure, you heard Dumbledore," said George.

"Birthday?" asked Mrs. Weasley blankly.

Fred and George looked at one another and began a funny little war dance in the kitchen, "Mum forgot! Mum forgot! Mum forgot!"

"It's alright, Mrs. Weasley, I don't need anything special, just being here is gift enough," said Harry quietly.

"Nonsense, Harry, I will make something special for dinner and a cake for dessert, that will be nice, right? Now why don't you lot go outside and see what nonsense the twins brought with them?"

Outside, there was a deep, smoking, meter-wide hole in the ground, Harry looked at the twins and cocked his eyebrow.

"It's a hole, Harry," said Fred, proudly.

"Yes, I see that, but what am I supposed to do with it?"

"You see, it's portable. You roll it into your pocket, and throw it at the ground, you get a tremendous explosion and there is the hole. When you are done, you just roll it up and put it back in your pocket," explained George.

"That is really clever; so if someone is chasing me, they will fall in the hole?"

"Yes, but it doesn't work on everyone. Mad-Eye's magical eye can see the ground underneath, so he just walks right on top of the hole. We got the idea from a Muggle children's film. Quite brilliant, really that rabbit fellow," said Fred.

"They come three to a box, but they won't be on the market for some time, mainly just tricks for the Order to play on Death Eaters," said George quietly.

"But can you think of better test subjects, brother?" chuckled Fred.

Harry thought a moment, "What happens to whoever it is that falls into the hole? Will they get rolled up when I collect it later?"

"Ingenious, isn't it?" asked George.

"That's what the Order asked. They're rather like portable prisons in that regard aren't they?" said Fred, "Some of them are rather deep, like this one. The ones we sell will likely only be big enough to trip a person, not actually imprison a person."

"Harry!" Ginny came running from the house, "Bill and Charlie will be here for dinner tonight, and Mum thought she would invite Neville and his grandmother, too. She feels awful about forgetting, would you mind going in the house to talk to her for a bit?"

Harry took off at a trot and found Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen, several saucepans were stirring themselves, and a delicious aroma was emanating from the oven. She had her face buried in a tea towel, and her shoulders were shaking.

"Mrs. Weasley? Are you all right?"

She looked up and wrapped her arms tightly around him, "Harry, dear, I am terribly sorry that I forgot. With everything going on and you being here since nearly the beginning of the summer, it just slipped my mind. You know I think of you as one of my own, right?"

"Of course, and really you don't have to go through all the trouble, Mrs. Weasley. It's all right, honest. And I am glad that you think of me as one of your own, at least until I get my own Howler for doing something stupid," he grinned.

"Oh, go on with you," she said smiling wetly, "the garden needs de-gnoming before you lot go back to school. We're going to Diagon Alley tomorrow to get school things. I think Tonks and Moody will be escorting us tomorrow, and Arthur said that he was going to take the afternoon off, too. Won't that be nice? Could you let Ginny and Ron know? Thank you, dear," she said hugging him tightly on last time, before turning to check the bubbling pots on the stove, dabbing her eyes on her apron.

He went out and related what happened, Ron groaned when he heard about the gnomes, but perked up when Harry mentioned Diagon Alley, "Great, the new broom I was telling you about is at Quality Quidditch Supplies. It's supposed to have greater acceleration than the Firebolt, and handle better on switchback turns. And Fred and George said that they wanted to get Ginny a new broom, a Cleansweep just like mine. They said it was her reward for not making prefect and upholding the Weasley honor. Honestly."

Harry grabbed a gnome, pattering by on its horned little feet, and swung it over the garden wall. Soon the air was thick with flying gnomes; Ginny found a nest of doxies and threw those over the wall, too.

"Is this a private party, or is anyone else allowed to throw gnomes, too?" called a voice from the back door.

"Bill!" Ginny ran to her brother and he swung her around. Harry thought wistfully, I wonder what it would be like... Though he couldn't tell if he wanted to be swung or do the swinging. Where on earth did that thought come from?

"Harry, Ron, how are you?" he asked, once he had set Ginny back on her feet, "Charlie is inside helping Mum put some things in the oven, after those dragons he deals with it's a wonder he can tell whether things are hot or not!"

"I've heard my name, someone call?" asked Charlie innocently, hugging his younger brother and sister in turn, and shaking hands with Harry.

"We are glad we caught you without Mum. Don't show her these, else she'll have kittens. Do you know what they are?" Showing them four slim silver objects. Ron and Ginny shook their heads, but when Harry craned his neck over to see better, he knew.

"Cellular phones? I thought they didn't work near magic, Bill?"

"Right, these are Muggle portable telephones. We Charmed them to work with magic. We know it wasn't your fault, what happened," he said looking at Harry meaningfully, "but we want you to have a reliable way of getting in touch with everyone. Charlie and I each have one, so does Dumbledore, and a few others. We agreed that you, Ron, Ginny and Hermione needed one, too. Only use them when you need them, but keep them on you at all times, just in case," Bill went through everything they needed to know, and how to dial the preprogrammed numbers on the phones.

"Here comes Mum," said Charlie quietly. They quickly pocketed the phones and went to help arrange the tables in the garden. "And Neville and Mrs. Longbottom, too."

As they were setting the cutlery on the table, Mr. Weasley came outside and bent low to Harry's ear, "Did Bill, erm...?"

Harry nodded, and nodded once towards Ginny and Ron. Mr. Weasley sighed, "Good, good," he looked at Harry carefully, "Harry, if you need anything, anything at all..."

Harry swallowed hard. He had been carefully tamping down those feelings of guilt and anger, ad he could feel it rising to the surface, "Thanks, Mr. Weasley." He grabbed another gnome and began to make rather a meal of disposing of it.

"Hello, Harry," called Neville. Harry was genuinely happy to see his dorm mate. Neville had slimmed down some, grown another couple of inches, and looked different somehow. Harry realized that Neville was looking straight at him, instead of the ground, and his shoulders were different, too, they weren't hunched over like they used to be. It seemed as though he was no longer trying to make himself smaller than he was.

"Hello, Neville, I am glad you could come. Hello, Mrs. Longbottom," he said politely.

"Hello, Harry, it's good to see you, give him his gift, Neville," she instructed. Harry, stifled a grin as he imagined her hat, with its stuffed vulture on Professor Snape's head, and opened it to find a handsome framed photograph of his parents, and Neville's. Lily Potter and Alice Longbottom were holding two dark headed babies, obviously himself and Neville. His mum waved at him and held up Baby Harry who was very interested in stuffing his tiny fist into his mouth. Baby Neville was sitting calmly in his mother's lap, gazing at Baby Harry.

"This is great, Neville, looks like we've been friends all of our lives, doesn't it?" Neville nodded in agreement, smiling.

"And you both do your parents proud," said Mrs. Longbottom, softening slightly at the photo in Harry's hands.

"Thank you, Neville, Mrs. Longbottom. This is wonderful," he said.

"Lunch is served!" shouted Ginny. She came and looped an arm through Neville and Harry's arms, leading them to the table. Harry caught sight of Neville's face as he beamed at the girl on his arm. Neville likes Ginny. The thought undid him somehow, though he couldn't place why.

Harry eagerly dug into his chicken and ham pie, and mashed potatoes and gravy, "This is really good, Mrs. Weasley, chicken and ham pie is my favorite."

They talked amiably around the table, and enjoyed the fresh evening air. Ron was asking Charlie what he thought about England's chances for the World Cup.

"I don't know, Bulgaria is still looking good, but most don't think that Ireland has a chance this year, Moran is on medical leave. I think it will be down to Bulgaria and Italy, personally. Maybe when Harry is old enough to play, England will have a real shot at the Cup."

"Charlie, why didn't you play for England? Everyone says you could have," asked Harry.

"I guess I just liked the dragons more, and the chance to live in another country instead of just playing a game or two and then moving on to the next match. And then Quidditch doesn't last forever, you know. Most players wind up with serious injury, or in Moran's case become parents and leave the game, only to find they aren't any use for anything else. Still, it would have been nice to play for a season or two," sighed Charlie.

"I took Curse-Breaking because I wanted adventure, but if I had been graduating while all this business with You-Know-Who was going on I probably would have been an Auror," said Bill.

"That was what we were thinking, too, but we needed an O for Potions to get into Snape's NEWT class. We got Es but it's not enough. That was why we were asking about other careers," replied Ron.

"I'm rather glad not to have to take Snape's class this year. Professor Sprout said she would let me work on a few special projects during my free time anyway," said Neville.

Hearing Mr. Weasley clear his throat, Harry said, "I'm not interested in working for any Ministry with Fudge in charge anyway. Hopefully, someone else replaces him before life as we know it is over."

"Actually, Harry, that was just what I was about to say, children, Molly, I have an announcement. Fudge was voted out of office this afternoon. I have been named Interim Minister until they can hold a proper election, next spring. Amelia Bones and Amos Diggory are running for the position this spring," said Mr. Weasley, with a dull flush creeping up his neck and tingeing his ears.

"That's great, Dad!" said Ginny hugging her father, beating Mrs. Weasley to it.

"You aren't going to run, Dad?" asked Bill.

"No, I'm not interested in being in charge. It would mean a lot of late nights and such, and I am just not interested in it. They thought I could keep things running until the new Minister is elected. Both are good candidates, though, and have just as strong a chance as the other."

"Congratulations, Arthur," said Mrs. Longbottom.

"I can't wait to see Malfoy! You know he is always going on and on about his father's connections with the Ministry! This is brilliant!" said Ron.

Once everyone had calmed down, Fred piped up, "Here, Harry, here is your present from George and me."

"But, you two already gave me my present... the holes."

"Nah, that was just a sample of the newest merchandise for our new partner," said George.

Harry opened the lurid green and orange paper, and pulled out a handsome leather rucksack, "It's charmed to expand to fit whatever you need, and the straps are guaranteed to never break. You will still have to charm it to be feather light, though. So if you put a piano in there, its going to fit, but it will be bloody heavy."

"Fred! Language!"

"Yes, Mum."

"This is from me, Harry," said Ron. Inside a large box was a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, several packages of Chocolate Frogs, and a new Chudley Cannons poster. From Mr. and Mrs. Weasley he got a box of homemade peanut butter fudge and a book of defensive spells.

But his biggest surprise was the gift from Ginny. He opened the flat package and found a hoop with intricate webbing and several feathers dangling below. He cast a bewildered glance at her, "It's a dream catcher. I know you have bad dreams and so I wrote to Hermione trying to figure out what we could do about it. She met an American wizard and his family in Italy and they explained dream catchers to her. We were able to order one through owl post from America. The natives there believe that it will catch the bad dreams before they get to you. You just have to hang it near your bed."

Harry was touched, "Thank you, I am sure this will make a difference this year." He held her awkwardly as she hugged him tightly.

"Neville, this is for you," he said, handing him a slim package. Neville looked at him disbelievingly and opened the gift.

Harry had gotten him a pocket knife much like the one Sirius had given him, one that could unlock any door and undo any knot, "Harry, this is great, thanks!"

"Well, I hope everyone left room for cake!" Mrs. Weasley levitated a large chocolate cake from the kitchen, with sixteen candles burning merrily on top. Harry closed his eyes, I wish I will be able to celebrate my birthday again next year, and blew out the candles.