chapter 21

"Do you have everything? Clothes, wand, money? Everything?"

"Yes…" Harry answered his aunt. This is probably the fifth time she had asked. Harry was standing in the entrance hall with his aunt, cousin, Remus, and Sirius. Remus would Apparate Harry to the Burrow in a few minutes, after Aunt Petunia was finished nagging him. "I even remembered to change my face," Harry said as he gestured to his face, which had reverted back to how it was before the cleansing ritual.

"I'm just checking," Aunt Petunia said, smiling, as she carefully gave him a hug. It was still strange when she showed Harry affection, and she probably thought so too. The hug was awkward and short, but Harry was happy. This was proof that things were different now and would stay different.

"I'll see you in a few days," was the last he said before he and Remus Disapparated.

They appeared on the road leading up to the Burrow. Down the other way they could just barely see the village Harry knew the Burrow was next to, Ottery St. Catchpole. "Well, we're here," Remus began saying, "Do you want me to walk you there? I can carry your bag," he asked and looked down at Harry. Harry knew that as a werewolf Remus was stronger than normal people, especially close to the full moon.

"No, that's okay," Harry smiled at Remus, "You don't want to be caught by Molly. And I have a featherlight charm, and expansion charm, on my bag, I can carry them by myself."

"If you say so," was Remus' response. "I'll come and get you in two days, have fun at the Quidditch World Cup," he said as a goodbye before Apparating away after hugging Harry.

As soon as he knocked on the door it was flung open, and in the doorway stood Molly. "Oooh, Harry! Finally, you're here. We've been waiting for you since your letter arrived," she dragged him into the kitchen, "Why didn't you come sooner. Here, let's get you some food, you must be starving!"

She was about to shove him down in a chair when Harry finally managed to get a word in. "Sorry, Mrs. Weasley," he began, only calling her that because of the cover they had to keep, "but I already ate." Harry could see Molly's face contort into a frown at that. Does she really hate it that much that I already ate?

Molly changed her face back to her motherly mask before answering, "Well, okay then." Harry could hear the passive aggressive tone. Does she really think that she is hiding it? It was at that moment that Ginny came into the kitchen and stopped dead in her track when she saw him. "Ginny dear, Harry just arrived!" Molly said as she saw her daughter.

"Hey, Harry" she said quietly, like she was shy, but the stance she had changed to was anything but. She had placed one hand on her hip, which protruded out to the side. She stood like she thought she was a model with the most voluminous figure, and not a thirteen-year-old girl who hadn't gone through puberty yet.

Before Harry could answer Ginny Ron and Hermione came down the stairs. "Harry!" they both yelled. Harry almost froze at the sight of Hermione but managed to not make it show. "It's so nice to see you again!" Hermione said to him as they came over to him.

"Yeah, it's nice to see you, too," Harry answered back to her.

"Yeah, mate. Haven't seen you in so long," Ron chimed in, "Want to go to my room with your bag?" Harry was quick to nod, and on the way up the stair they were. They were talking and laughing like one of them wasn't a stealing liar.

"They're not in there, Bill and Charlie are sleeping there. Fred and George are probably in the shed out back, working on their joke shop products, but don't tell Mum that," Ron said as Harry looked at Fred and George's bedroom door. Harry could see Ron's magic twist uncomfortably at calling Molly "mum", but Hermione was there, and they had a cover to keep.

They met Percy on the floor above, probably having been to the bathroom and going back to his room. "Hey, Percy," Harry said as a greeting.

"Hello, Harry. I see you finally arrived," he greeted back, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to writing my report for Mr. Crouch," he said matter-of-factly. He was quick to leave them, closing the door to his room.

"That's the only thing he has been talking about the entire time I've been here," Hermione said to Harry, in her own matter-of-factly voice. "The report is about the legislation of the thickness of cauldron bottoms, apparently some cauldrons are a danger hazard because they break so easily because of their thin bottom," she continued to talk about it as they walked up the last flight of stairs. Harry, like he often does when Hermione begins on one of her tangents, tuned her out.

They finally reached Ron's room, where three extra beds had been placed, and Harry understood where Fred and George would be sleeping. As he placed his bag in the only made bed Harry eyes were drawn to the cage by the window. "Is that an owl?" he asked Ron and pointed at the cage.

"Hmm? Ooh, yeah. Mum got me an owl when we went to Diagon Ally," Ron said, as he walked over to the cage. As he got closer the owl inside began to hoot like wild and making a ruckus. "He's a miniature scope owl, apparently, and have the energy of a garden gnome." Harry came up to the cage as well and saw the smallest owl ever.

"He's the owl that delivered your letter to me," Harry laughed. That owl had flown around his room after delivering Ron's letter, totally tiering himself out before Harry even finished writing a reply to Ron. "I had to wait to the next day to send him out with my reply," he told Ron. "What's his name, by the way?"

Before Ron could answer Hermione began speaking, "Fred and George came up with it! Pigwidgeon, or Pig for short," she laughed as she told Harry.

"I wanted to name him something else, but he won't answer to anything else now," Ron said almost defeatedly, but Harry could see the smile Ron was sporting. "Anyway, as you probably guessed, Fred and George are rooming with us," Ron changed the subject, indicating the extra beds in the room. Harry had already guessed, but having it confirmed made him have to hide a smile. To again change the subject, Ron began talking, "It's still a while until dinner, so maybe we could go outside or something?"

"Ooh! Can we play quidditch?" Harry asked right away.

"Yeah!" Ron answered just as fast. They were out the room and halfway down the stairs before Hermione began following them.

"I'll be reading, thank you very much," she said after them, walking at a slower pace than them. They were already down a floor when they heard her even say anything.

As Harry and Ron passed by Fred and George's room, they door opened, and out came Bill and Charlie. "Hey, Harry! How've you been?" Harry and Ron had stopped as Bill asked.

"Hey, Bill! Hey Charlie! I've been good, we're just going out back to play quidditch!" Harry said excitedly.

"Quidditch, you say?" Charlie asked from beside Bill, "What do you say, brother," he looked over at Bill, "Should we join?" He smirked as he talked and received a smirk back as Bill nodded.

"The more the merrier! Though, I have to say that Harry is the best Seeker," Ron told his older brothers as they continued walking down the stairs. "He was the youngest Hogwarts Seeker in a century, and has won every game he has played," when Harry tried to protest Ron added, "The only reason you lost was because the Dementors came." Harry couldn't really say anything against that, so he stayed silent.

"Wow," Charlie laughed, "Wish you were on the team when I played," Charlie joked, trying to change the subject from Dementors. They began talking about Charlie's time on the Gryffindor Quidditch team as they made their way out into the back yard. "Should we ask Fred and George if they want to join? Do they even know you're here, Harry?" Charlie asked as he handed Harry one of the brooms that was in the small shed by the entrance door.

"No, actually, I don't think they know. But I bet they would like to join," Harry said to Charlie. "Hey, Ron?" Harry turned his gaze slightly to the side, "you said they were in the shed? Out back?" he asked.

"Yeah, they should be there, the shed is over by there," Ron pointed to the tumbledown garage they had landed next to, when Ron, Fred, and George had broken him out of Privet Drive the summer before second year. "Dad allowed them to work in there. They got a small corner in there in a few weeks ago." Harry nodded before he began walking over to the garage. "We'll be waiting in the field! Fred and George know where it is," Harry heard Ron shout after him, and Harry turned to see them begin to walk towards the trees behind the Burrow.

This is not a shed, was the only thing Harry could think when he opened the door to the garage. From the outside it looked like a normal, maybe a little tumbledown, garage, but the inside was anything but. The door led into a big room, probably as big as half the great hall in Hogwarts! This have to be magically expanded! Harry could see worktable after worktable filled with trinkets, muggle and wizen, and there were tall cabinets blocking parts of the room. "Hello!" Harry yelled after looking around and not seeing anyone, "Fred? George? Are you here?"

"Harry?" Harry heard from behind a row of cabinets and quickly made his way over to them. When he passed the cabinets, he saw Fred and George standing surrounded by worktables, even having one in the middle of the square too. All the tables were filled with different things, one long table had cauldrons placed in a line on it, while another was filled with glass boxes with different herbs and plants in them. There was a small opening between two of the table that probably worked as an entrance and exit. "Harry!" Harry's eyes again found Fred and George. Fred was standing by one of the cauldrons, stirring in it, and George was standing by another table having been cutting up some plant into shreds. "When did you -"

"-get here?" Fred finished as he continued to stir the substance in the cauldron.

"Not that long ago," Harry answered as he got closer, "Me, Ron, Bill, and Charlie are going to play some quidditch, and we wondered if you guys would like to join?" Harry asked, smiling at them. "What are you making?" He asked as he saw the table filled with small candies in different containers and colors.

"Aah, don't touch those," they said, like Harry would ever touch something they made for their joke shop without explicit details of what it was. Something they probably saw written on his face if their sheepish smiles where anything to go by. Fred had stopped stirring in the cauldron and walked over to the table Harry stood on the opposite side of. "These are, -"

"-as you probably already guessed, -" George chimed in.

"-products for our joke shop," Fred continued. They began explaining what each candy did, for how long, and how they made them. As they continued talking, George finished chopping the plant and dumped a portion into half the cauldrons. "Right now, we're working -"

"-on a product that should help -"

"-with the memory, making it easier -"

"-to remember things one study," they explained, diving into another explanation about what it's made out of and how the proses in going so far. "We're getting closer, -"

"-the potion isn't exploding in -"

"-our faces anymore," they said casually before stopping dead in their tracks. They carefully turned fully to Harry, their faces saying they did not mean to say that. "Harry, we -"

"Really? Exploding?" Harry's voice was calm, but Fred and George looked like they'd been hit over the head. "In your faces, you say?" he asked, not looking for a reply. He leaned the broom against the table and crossed his arms. Fred and George were standing in front of Harry now, only a table in between them, facing the floor. "Tell me!" Harry didn't shout, nor yell, only talking at a normal level – maybe even lower than that – but Fred and George knew that commanding tone.

"You know right after our -"

"-birthday, when we were gone -"

"-for an entire afternoon?" they began, still looking down to the side.

Harry was still standing with his arms crossed, looking at them, "Yeah, we were supposed to meet, but you guys never showed." It had been a bad day, and Harry wanted to talk with (read: whine at) them. They had planned it at lunch, but by dinner they were gone.

"Well, we had a free period last -"

"-lesson, so we decided to work on -"

"-our newest product for our joke shop. -"

"-It may have exploded in our faces, and -"

"-we were knocked out until evening. The -"

"-Obliviations on us were removed -"

"-though, and we went back to solely -"

"-theoretical after that for a while," they quickly explained, almost talking over each other in their haste to explain to Harry.

"'For a while'?" Harry repeated, raising an eyebrow, and indicated the numerous cauldrons standing on the table behind Fred and George with his eyes. "Then, what is this?" he asked as Fred and George didn't see his indication, since they were still doing everything to not look him in the eyes. Harry knew that they knew what he meant, they were glancing at their workstation.

"We started the experiments -"

"-again, when dad let us have this -"

"-corner, right after we met at Gringotts," they admitted. They were now almost as tall as Harry, with how low their head were hanging. They were also clamping their hands together in front of themselves, their fingers fidgeting.

Harry sighed, "Were you guys hurt?" he asked softly, he began to slowly walk around the table.

"None of the explosions -"

"-were as bad as the first one, at worst -"

"-we got a bruise from the fall." They said as they followed Harry's movement from the corner of their eyes. As they were talking Harry had rounded the table and was standing beside George.

Harry sighed again and finally released his arms from their crossed state. "Okay, good," he said quietly before leaning his head on George's upper arm, "It's good you weren't hurt." Fred moved from George's other side to stand beside Harry. He carefully wrapped an arm around Harry's back. They stayed like that for a while, just breathing. When Harry finally raised his head, he smiled up at Fred and George, before saying, "Now, let's get out of here and play some Quidditch!"

All three of them were quick to leave the shed, Harry grabbing his broom on the way. They got Fred and George brooms before walking through the woods and into a meadow with a miniature version of the three hoops-for-goals on one end. Harry looked up to see Ron, Bill, and Charlie playing around with a Quaffle. Harry, Fred, and George kicked of the ground and soon they were joining the game.

It was probably a few hours later that Ginny came into the field and called for them to land. "Mum asked us to set the table for dinner," she said when they all landed. That put a stop to their game, and they went back to the house, didn't want to make Molly mad.

The dinner lasted long into the evening and soon all the children were herded off to bed by Arthur. They were all lying in bed, talking quietly, since they weren't that tired yet.

"So…" Ron began saying, and Harry could hear the smug smile he was probably sporting, "is there something you guys want to tell me?" he asked. Harry knew exactly what Ron was referring to. Harry wouldn't say he was embarrassed, but he really didn't want to have that conversation with Ron – least of all in front of Fred and George.

Therefore, at that moment, Harry really wanted to disappear into the air. That was when it happened, Harry felt like a breeze flew through every vein in his body and suddenly he was weightless. He couldn't see, but he could feel everything around him, he could feel what was behind him, above and below him. It was like he could see, even without eyes. It was after this revelation that Harry heard his name.

"Harry?!" the panic was clear, even in the voice, and Harry felt how Fred, George, and Ron had sat up in their beds, frantically looking around. Ooh, they can't see me… Reforming onto the bed was as easy as breathing, and Harry sat calmly on his bed once more, no longer feeling everything in the room. "Harry…" Ron's voice was breathed out in a hard sigh, "What was that?" he almost begged.

Harry cringed slightly, "Erm, I may be part Sylph," he dragged out the "may" as he answered Ron's question. "Meaning air fae. So, I have some special abilities," Harry dragged out his answer as long as possible, not looking anyone in the eyes. "Though that was the first time I actually disappeared into the air," he added lastly.

"Cool," Ron actually meant it, "but please, warn a guy?" he added, half joking, half begging. Harry probably gave them all heart attacks.

When Harry looked over at Fred and George, he saw them having their "I'm talking to my twin in my head"-face. "George? Fred? What are you talking about?" Harry asked.

"Well, we were just wondering, since -"

"-you told us about your creature -"

"-heritage, if we should tell, too" they said casually, having clearly come to a conclusion in their discussion. Harry raised an eyebrow at them.

"Continue," was al Harry said. Ron, Harry could see from the corner of his eye, was staring at Fred and George.

"We're part fire fae," they said simultaneously, and they both reach out their hands, palms facing up. At first, nothing happened, but soon Harry could see small flames forming on their palms. Ron's eyes were bulging out of his face at this point, and if Harry hadn't been busy watching Fred and George he would have laughed at Ron.

Then something clicked, "You wouldn't have anything to confess, would you? Something to do with explosions," Harry asked, at the flames that had started in Fred and George's palms died out instantly.

They didn't look at Harry while they answered, "We may have better -"

"-fire resistance now."

"And?" Ron was, once again, following a conversation like a tennis match. His eyes were widely staring at Harry, and Fred and George, with eyes full of shock and confusion.

"That may be the reason we -"

"-haven't been hurt from the -"

"-explosions after the first time," they answered, again not looking at Harry, nor Ron for that matter.

Harry just sighed, "Of course," he said defeatedly. He sighed again, "Can you guys be more careful in the future? I know experiments come with explosions with you guys, but I still worry," Harry ignored Ron, who had come out of his confusion, maybe he had just accepted it, and was now wryly smiling at them.

When the silence continued the one to break it was Ron. "We have to wake up early tomorrow. Maybe we should sleep?"

Harry's head turned towards the door, "Yeah, we should. Molly is on her way up here," he said, knowing that none of the other had heard her. "I think she is using a silencing charm, usually we can hear her by now," Harry added as he lay down in his bed. Ron turned off the light before doing the same. No one had time to answer as the door creaked open.