Chapter 433: Plans for marriage!

"Okay, we can go to the Burrow!" said Ivan; Ron's house was more convenient than his own house to do anything!

Ivan also wanted to talk to Fred and George about expanding the scale of Weasley joke products.

"Mrs. Mason was hoping that the two of us could stay at her house until the end of the summer vacations." Hermione whispered, red-faced.

Ivan didn't know what his mother had just told him, but he noticed that Hermione seemed to blush exceptionally easily today.

Seeing Hermione's unusual shyness, Ivan quickly guessed some of the content of her conversations with his mother. It seemed that the latter was very, very pleased with Hermione, and did not consider how old the two of them were.

It is true that in most of Britain, you can marry at sixteen with your parents' consent.

In that case, Ivan and Hermione had less than three years left, and they really needed to prepare beforehand.

Thinking about marrying Hermione, Ivan felt nervous.

If he could, he certainly hoped to marry Hermione; of that there was no doubt.

But now was not the time to think about such things.

Last Christmas in Diagon Alley, the atmosphere was so good that Ivan wanted to ask her to be his bride, but in the end, the lack of experience and extreme shyness of both of them got in the way.

The atmosphere in the room was delicate, and Hedwig gave a low cry, looking at the two who had become strangers.

Pigwidgeon, on the other hand, kept shouting, and wanted something to eat as a reward for successfully delivering the letter.

"Well, we'd better fix something for both of us!" Ivan said, thinking carefully about his choice of words, "Rest, Hermione! I'll convince my mother. I can see that she likes you very much. If you are willing to come to my house, you can come any time."

He feared that Hermione knew what he had just thought and that marriage was a subject too far away for her.

"We'd better go to the Burrow for the last two weeks of the summer vacations." Ivan continued, "Besides the Quidditch World Cup, we have to go to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Illness and Injury to see Sirius. All in all, it wouldn't be very convenient for us to stay at home."

He turned around and wrote in his letter that the Weasleys had invited them to the Burrow.

"By the way, we'd better ask Ron when they're going to pick up Harry!" Ivan said as he wrote, "We can both go with the Dursleys to meet there; otherwise it would be too inconvenient."

.....

After Harry washed up, he went back to his room and asked Hedwig, who had just returned, to deliver the letter to Ivan.

He then went down to the kitchen full of hope.

By this time, the three Dursleys were already seated around the table.

None of them looked at Harry as he entered or sat down.

Uncle Vernon's big red face was hidden behind the Morning Paper, and Aunt Petunia was cutting a grapefruit into quarters, her lips pursed over her horse teeth.

Dudley looked furious and morose, and somehow seemed to be taking up more space than usual.

This was saying something, as he always took up a whole side of the square table by himself.

Aunt Petunia put a quarter of the unsweetened grapefruit on Dudley's plate with a tremulous "Here you go, Diddy dear."

Dudley looked at her with smug eyes. His life had taken a most unpleasant turn since he had arrived for the summer with his end-of-year report.

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had managed to find excuses for her poor grades, as usual. Aunt Petunia always insisted that Dudley was a very gifted boy, but his teachers didn't understand her; while Uncle Vernon maintained that he didn't want a little boy genius to be his son.

They also overlooked accusations of bullying in the report.

"He's a noisy boy, but he wouldn't hurt a fly!"

Harry had his doubts about that, but at the end of the report, there were some well-chosen comments from the school nurse that even Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia couldn't explain away.

No matter how much Aunt Petunia complained that Dudley was big-boned, and that his weight was really puppy fat, and that he was a growing boy who needed a lot of food, the fact was that the school suppliers no longer had pants big enough for him.

The school nurse had seen what Aunt Petunia's eyes, so keen when it came to seeing the footprints on her shiny walls, and watching the comings and goings of the neighbors, simply refused to see: that far from needing extra food, Dudley had reached about the size and weight of a young killer whale.

So, after many tantrums, after arguments that shook Harry's bedroom floor, and many tears from Aunt Petunia, the new regimen had begun.

The diet sheet that the Smeltings school nurse had sent had been taped to the refrigerator, which had been emptied of all of Dudley's favorite things like fizzy drinks and cakes, chocolate bars and hamburgers....

There was only fruit and vegetables in the recipes and the sort of things Uncle Vernon called "junk food."

To make Dudley feel better, Aunt Petunia insisted that the whole family follow the diet as well.

Now she passed a quart of grapefruit to Harry.

Harry realized that it wasn't really comparable, as it was much smaller than Dudley's.

Aunt Petunia seemed to feel that the best way to keep up Dudley's morale was to make sure that he at least ate more than Harry.

But Aunt Petunia didn't know what she had hidden under the loose board upstairs.

She had no idea that Harry wasn't following the diet at all.

The moment she learned that he was expected to survive the summer on carrot sticks, Harry sent Hedwig to his friends.

They immediately responded positively to his pleas for help.

Ivan and Sirius were not in Britain for the adventure and could not help Harry.

Hermione asked Hedwig to bring Harry a large box full of sugar-free snacks.

Hagrid had eagerly helped with a sack full of his own homemade rock cakes, which Harry didn't even touch. These rock cakes were harder than bricks, and he didn't want to break his teeth!

Mrs. Weasley sent the family owl, Errol, with a huge fruitcake and assorted meat pies.

It took poor Errol, who was old and feeble, five full days to recover from the trip, after the delivery of the goods.

And then, on Harry's birthday, he had received a total of six super-sized cakes.

They were given to him by Ivan, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid and Sirius. Ivan and Sirius ordered French-style cakes for Harry.

They had been guests at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, and these cakes actually came from France.

During the summer vacations, Harry wondered what Beauxbatons was like.

He only saw in his textbooks a description of the school, which was juxtaposed to Hogwarts as one of the three largest wizarding schools in Europe.

He had to admit that these cakes were very delicious. So far, Harry had three large slices left.

Expecting a real breakfast when he returned upstairs, he ate his grapefruit without complaint.