Harry Potter and the Wizards of Narhassa

Chapter 2: The Burrow

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Ron stretched lazily, reaching for the air above his bed in a vain attempt to push the sun back out of sight. His crystal blue eyes fluttered for a moment as a groan escaped his lips. Finally giving up, he rolled out of bed and crashed onto the floor with an unceremonious thud.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Rise and shine, prat!" called either Fred or George (Ron was not sure) from behind the door. "Busy day!"

Ron lifted his head from the mahogany wood floor of his room, right under his Cannon's poster. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see the Quidditch players in the picture pointing their fingers and laughing at him.

"'o away..." cried Ron, burying his eyes into his arm. "What 'ime is ieh?" he mumbled into the floor.

The door to his room flew open as Fred and George both entered, fully dressed and grabbed their little brother by his arms.

"It's day time," replied George coolly.

"We've developed a new product and need a guinea pig," added Fred cheerily.

Ron was powerless to fight as the twins stood him up upon his feet. The sun was only barely over the horizon, noticed Ron. It couldn't have been later than 6 AM.

"Don't you guys ever sleep?" whined Ron as Fred held him upright while George rushed into his closet and began throwing some clean clothes out for him.

George shook his head and grabbed a pair of Ron's boxer's between two fingers, flicking them over to him at arm's length.

"Nah," said Fred. "We'll sleep enough when we die."

Ron caught his fresh pair of boxers and lazily threw on one of the shirts that Fred had tossed out for him, a maroon turtleneck. "Great philosophy," he grumbled.

Fred smirked while George began pushing Ron out of the room. Despite having laid out clothes for him, Ron had only gotten into half of them. Ron did not bother to remind the zealous twins that he was wearing nothing more than a turtleneck and a pair of boxers as he was led down the winding, uneven steps of the Burrow and into their bedroom

They are beyond reach by now, sighed Ron as George and Fred sat him down in a chair between both of their desks, after he had been careful to step over a Potions kit.

The twins' had turned their messy bedroom into a laboratory that would make Snape quite jealous. Dozens of tools Ron had never even heard of before let alone seen were scattered about the room with seemingly little order. Upon Fred's desk, Ron saw about a dozen green, bite-sized tablets. Without waiting, George grabbed a glass of clear liquid, dropped one of the tablets in, and thrust the cup into Ron's hands. The tablet hissed something awful as olive-green smoke filled the air above the beaker.

"We call this Pinocchio's Booger," announced Fred proudly. "Drink. Now."

Ron moaned. He considered making a mad dash for the door, however, each time he had tried it, George was always one step ahead of him. It was either comply, or be tied down and forced. Ron sniffed the contents of the flask and nearly wretched. It smelled something like heaps of garbage in a garage during the hottest day of summer. He shot a pleading look to George, who glowered fiercely at him, waving a galleon gold coin at him. Ron's eyes followed it with longing desire.

"You want better dress robes for next year? You're gonna have to work for em."

Images of the purple dress that his mother had picked out for him and Malfoy laughing at his selection gave him willpower above and beyond the norm. With a second moan of resignation, Ron closed his eyes and downed the potion. He quickly put his hand to his mouth to prevent it from coming back up and willed himself to keep it down.

"Excellent," said Fred. "Now, tell me Ron. Do you like Hermione?"

Ron arched a curious brow. "What do you mean?"

"You know what we mean," snickered George. "Would you like to snog her in the Astronomy Tower at Hogwarts and take pictures to remember the night?

Ron performed a double take. He would NOT be having this conversation with Fred and George at 6:03 AM in the morning!

"No!" he snapped doggedly.

Suddenly, Ron's eyes went wide as he felt a tingling in his nose. Reaching up in horror, he found that his nose now extended six inches from his face. Fred and George gleamed in triumph.

"What about Harry, would you like to snog him too?" laughed Fred wickedly.

"NO!" screamed Ron, his blue eyes glaring with anger.

Thankfully and to Ron's utter relief, it seemed that their little trick was working. His nose remained the same, at six inches longer; he just did not swing that way.

"So tell us Ron... how long is it?" snickered George.

Ron felt himself turning green. Do they have any shame whatsoever?

"I'm not going to answering that!" shouted Ron, his voice cracking with the effort.

Ron felt his nose beginning to twitch again, as it stuck clearly into his line of vision, nearly a foot from his face.

Fred and George exchanged mischievous grins. "Apparently, you will."

"Ok! Fine!" cried Ron as he grasped at his nose in vain. "Long!"

He could feel his nose pushing against him in an attempt to expand. "Stop!" cried Ron, as he fought the loosing war.

George snickered crossing his arms upon his chest. "Just speak truthfully..."

"The truth will set you free," chided Fred.

Ron whimpered, his nose nearly two feet out from his face now. "Size doesn't matter, it's how you use it!" he cried defensively. "No... wait...!"

He could feel his nose growing once again.

"Alright," said Fred with a sly grin. "I think we can put the Pinocchio's Booger on the market..."

George nodded, ducking under Ron's three-foot nose as he went to find himself a parchment and quill. "Quite so. Perhaps something to improve the taste... can we make it cherry flavored?"

"Guys," whimpered Ron hollowly, his voice sounding as if it were spoken from the end of a long hollow tube. "Help..."

Fred nodded. "We can try, though it might upset the delicate balance of the spell... might have people loosing eyes as people's noses shoot out from their faces uncontrollably."

"A small price to pay, my brother," said George. "A small price..."

Fred smeared some powder upon Ron's nose, and within moments, it retracted to normal size, drawing a breath of relief from him.

"OK, next up..."

Ron groaned and resigned himself to a long morning. Yet, there was a knock on the door spelling out blissful interruption.

"Ron, Fred, George!" cried the lofty voice of Percy through the wooden door. "Get out there and de-gnome the garden or something and stop with all the noise! SOME of us have work today!"

Fred and George exchanged their patented mischievous grins. "Yes, o' wise sultan of International Foreign Relations," retorted George sarcastically.

"Shall we iron your knickers while we are at it?" chipped in Fred.

The only sound that retorted was Percy's indignant stomping down the steps. Ron turned his attention back to his two brothers to find that they were fumbling about in their desk drawers for something. Ron chanced a look over just as they found what they were looking for at the exact same time. Both slipped identical black rings with a dozen or so gray slashes running down the sides upon their third fingers.

"What are those?" asked Ron.

Fred looked at his ring like a father would a son. "This, my dear brother, is the result of an idea George and I formulated after watching Star Wars."

"Star Wars?" asked Ron cluelessly.

George sighed. "Just because you are a wizard doesn't mean you can't see Muggle movies. Some of them are actually pretty good!"

"Boring," replied Ron lethargically. "I'd rather play Quidditch."

"You will go see a Star Wars movie," said George dreamily, waving his hand in front of Ron.

"I will go see a Star Wars movie," said Ron, without conscious awareness of the words coming out of his mouth. With a sudden blink, he realized what he just said. He gawked at George. "Blimey! What the hell was that? How'd you do that?"

"Bang on!" exclaimed Fred. "The working title is a Jedi Mind Trick Ring, but we are afraid that we'll get sued, so we are trying to find something better."

"Wow!" replied Ron, truly intrigued.

"Unfortunately," sighed George, "In the movie, they actually could get the people to do what they wanted... however, if we found a way to do that, that would also be another guise for the Imperius Curse."

Fred nodded. "Yeah, and that would put us in Azkaban for life. Not a good thing."

"So all that really happens is that you say the words, nothing more," added George.

"It is still wicked," said Ron, his eyes wide. "Can I have one?"

Fred and George exchanged looks and for a split second, they looked like responsible parents, deciding if they should let their son have a bee-bee gun.

"Sure," said Fred, reaching into the desk and tossing Ron a similar looking ring. "We need beta-testers for these products anyway."

George nodded, and a smirk crossed his face. "Let's go have some fun with Percy."

After making Percy say more embarrassing things than he had ever said in his life and Mrs. Weasley nearly kicking Fred and George out of the house along with Mr. Weasley, who could not stop laughing, breakfast ended with a noticeable tension in the air. So, it was with relief that his mother handed him a letter that had just arrived with Hedwig, Harry's beautiful snowy white owl. With a smile, Ron strolled across the kitchen to the window and gave Hedwig a piece of bacon from his plate. The proud owl accepted it and nipped Ron's finger affectionately. He unrolled the parchment, and began to read it.

Upon reading that, Ron nearly dropped the letter. "Is he on drugs?" he asked himself rhetorically.

I've met this awesome girl who moved next door. Picture Parvati Patil, only twice as good looking and not annoying at all..

Ron sighed as his brows arched in consideration.

"Wow..."

Ron knew that Parvati was easily one of the best looking girls in Gryffindor, if not in the whole school, but her beauty did come at a cost. She was one of the louder and more annoying girls as well.

Her name is Jessica, and we have been going on dates for the past month. I really like her a lot. And actually, that's sort of the problem. She has been having some rather strange dreams the past few months. I've told her about some of my dreams depicting Voldemort, (Ron winced visibly upon reading the word) and Jessica's dreams follow a very similar pattern of fear and pain.

Ron lowered the parchment with a quizzical look upon his face. Without wasting any time thinking over Harry's request, he ran back into the kitchen. Percy had just polished his shoes and was about to Apparate to work.

"Percy, wait," said Ron quickly.

The young man with the black-rimmed glasses looked from his wand to Ron with an arrogant leer.

"Make it fast," snapped Percy airily. "I am exceedingly late for a meeting."

Ron sighed. It was unnerving how cold and aloof Percy had become, treating his family much like burdens in his life. Ron had not even spoken to Percy directly in many weeks, yet now, for the first time he wanted to talk, Percy was already shoving him away. He remembered another person who followed a distinctly similar pattern, according to Dumbledore and Harry: Bartleby Crouch, whose career and life had ended in total chaos after he put his job before his family.

Coincidentally, Percy now had Mr. Crouch's old job.

"Harry wanted me to ask you if you knew anything about ... um..." Ron glanced back down at his letter.

Percy rolled his eyes. "Make it snappy, will you?"

Ron glanced up irritably, looking over the top of the parchment. "I bet you aren't even due in for another hour."

Percy bit his lip, but said nothing. Ron could hardly believe that he was right. He looked back down to his paper.

"The Wizards of Narhassa," read Ron from Harry's letter.

Percy blinked slightly, his hot-winded anger becoming curiosity, "They ring a bell. Why?"

Ron explained about Harry's girlfriend and her strange dreams.

"Well," said Percy, lowering his wand and setting his briefcase back down to the ground. "There have been recent reports on the international fronts that wizards all over the world have been complaining about bad dreams. I do not have all the details at this time; this is what the meeting today is about. Is this girlfriend of Harry's Muggle born?"

Ron shrugged his shoulders weakly. "Harry didn't tell me."

Percy nodded. For the first time in years, he seemed generally interested in what Ron had to say.

"Write a response to Harry asking him if his girlfriend is one of the recent boons in the past four months," instructed Percy. "After this meeting of the Department heads today, I may have some answers."

"OK," said Ron with a nod. He turned around to make his way back to Hedwig to write Harry a response, but stopped. Glancing over his shoulders, he saw Percy watching him for a moment with an unreadable look. For the first time in years, Ron was reminded of the older brother who taught him how to swim in the quarry behind the Burrow when he was nine. He remembered the older brother who, before he become a Prefect in his fifth year and became unreachable, would always listen to Ron talk about his public schooling and any situation that came to mind. Now, Ron had turned fifteen, and Percy was going to be twenty soon. Percy just did have any time for him now.

"Thanks, Perce," said Ron, turning back around with a slightly pained expression.

Percy nodded slowly. "Don't mention it."

Ron quickly scrawled his response on the back of the paper Harry had sent him. Hedwig, modeling what perfect owl posts are all about, waited for Ron and extended her leg stoically for him to tie the note. When Ron finished, Hedwig took off with an affirming hoot.

Just before he was able to catch his breath, however, he was yanked from behind by Fred and George and, before he could complain, was pushed up the stairs and into their room... again.

"So, Harry," said Jessica, her always-present smile upon her face. "Tell me what it's like at Hogwarts. I've never been to a witches and wizards school before."

Harry was walking with Jessica through Faircounty Mall, a half-hour trip from Privet Drive. Strolling through the mall, hand and hand with this young witch was something so special for him. Such joy was never known in his entire life when not at Hogwarts, studying with Ron or Hermione, or playing Quidditch atop his broom. If all Muggles could have this much fun without magic, reasoned Harry, they don't have it so bad at all.

Harry chortled slightly as images flooded his head. "Where could I possibly begin?"

Jessica giggled slightly with her high-pitched, yet extremely soft voice. "Why not begin where you did. What was your first night like? It might be useful information since, well, in two weeks time, we will be going back."

With a glance into Jessica's kindly blue eyes, Harry began talking at length. He talked about his friend Hagrid and how he had taken him down Diagon Alley. It was amazing to him how vividly it all came back to him. While he knew he was walking with Jessica in some Muggle Mall, he could feel his sense of exhilaration and even doubt as he strolled through a throng of wizards for the first of many times in his life. He discussed the first time he met his arch nemesis Draco Malfoy while getting measured for his robes.

"I almost thought he wasn't THAT bad at first; stuck-up, but not deplorable," admitted Harry, remembering their brief, but not bitter, encounter in the clothing store. "Though the Sorting Hat put him in Slytherin the second it made contact with his head."

Jessica furrowed her brow and laughed out loud. "OK, you've totally lost me there."

Harry smiled and looked to Jessica with his kind, emerald eyes. The corners of his mouth twitched with amusement. "You'll see. Wouldn't want me to spoil the surprise now, would ya?"

Jessica eyed him with mock (very mock) anger. "You wizards and your surprises."

With a laugh and a bounce to his step, Harry and Jessica entered what appeared to be some kind of Muggle magic shop... for hearty entertainment.

Harry returned home to 4 Privet Drive that night, floating on clouds. The feelings he was experiencing were so unique that he didn't even know how to label them. Part of him felt that high-speed anxiety that had been present whenever he gazed upon Cho Chang, his not-so secret crush at school. Yet, this was much more than a one-sided attraction. Only a handful of people in Harry's life had shown him true and equal friendship: Professor Lupin, who selflessly had sacrificed his Thursday nights during the second semester of Harry's Third Year in order to help him master his Patronus summoning, which had inadvertently saved the lives of Sirius Black, his godfather, and Hermione from a wall of unfeeling, parasitic Dementors. Then, of course, there was Ron and Hermione, his friends to the end. Harry didn't even bother trying to list all the times they have been there for them.

And finally, there was Sirius Black. An enigma in every sense of the word, he was still wanted by the Ministry of Magic as well as every Muggle authority for the murder of thirteen innocent people. Yet, it was not Sirius who had done this; it was an animagus servant of Voldemort's by the name of Peter Pettigrew. Sirius had helped him through his fourth year by his ample correspondence and had come all the way to Hogsmeade, the town a stone's throw away from Hogwarts to try and keep him safe.

Jessica seemed to be well on her way to becoming a fifth. Every spare moment he had, he watched TV over her house, talked with her nonstop and, when he was not with her, thought about her constantly. Granted, there wasn't much else to do when he was stuck in the Dursleys' house, however, it made the time pass a little bit quicker.

Harry's reverie was broken when he realized the door to 4 Privet Drive was shut and locked. It was now late at night and the Dursleys had already retired to bed. Should he knock? He wondered with half-seriousness if his uncle would call the police and have him thrown in jail for attempted robbery. With a sigh, Harry decided that it was not worth it. It was a beautiful night and it wouldn't be his first time sleeping out under the stars. On plenty occasions, the Dursleys had kicked him outside for the night for little more reason than to amuse themselves.

Besides, Harry was in too good of a mood to let a night outside rain on his parade. With a romantic sigh, Harry flopped onto the front lawn and rolled onto his back. He gazed up into the starry night sky, feeling a small sense of awe and wonder. It was 11:08 PM according to his watch, and Privet Drive was asleep. The sounds of crickets filled the air around him as he tried to loose himself into a calm sleep.

Suddenly, however, a small shape crossed the moon and spiraled down from the heavens. It appeared to be small, like a bat, though it was carrying something. Harry's eyes widened as he realized that the small little creature was diving straight at him and hooting energetically. At the last second, Harry rolled out of the way as the owl crashed into the ground next to him with a soft thud. With a lethargic roll of his eyes, Harry glanced back down and picked up a small ball of feathers, who continued to hoot loudly.

"Hello Pig," said Harry dryly. "A little late to be delivering messages, isn't it?"

Ron's little owl shook in Harry's hand, nibbling on his thumb with tenacious affection. Harry adeptly removed the note that was attached to the small owl's leg. Desiring nothing more than to use a Lumos spell, but also desiring not to be expelled from Hogwarts, Harry made due by reading the paper as the moonlight reflected off of it.

Harry lowered the paper. "Yeah," he thought in a whisper. "A very strange coincidence." With an unconscious move, Harry ran his index finger along the lightning bolt scar atop his forehead.

Sighing, Harry withdrew a pen from his pocket, not having an eagle quill or bottle of ink to write the letter the Wizarding way.

Harry tied his reply to Pig's leg and with an energetic shutter and a surprisingly loud hoot, the small owl shot into the air like a rocket propelling itself to the moon. Within moments, the owl had blended into the night sky and faded from view.

With another romantic's sigh, Harry folded his arms behind his head and resumed his bleary-eyed gaze at the stars above.