Harry woke at sunrise. What a weird dream he had had! Snape had come to investigate because of the hover charm, and then he’d let Harry out of the room and ... but had it really been a dream?
He grabbed his glasses and put them on.
There was one of Dudley’s old shirts over Hedwig’s cage. And there in the corner – his school trunk!
Why would Snape do something this nice?
He probably couldn’t imagine that Harry actually liked his schoolbooks and wanted to get his homework done.
Harry went to Hedwig’s cage and looked. She was gone. The padlock was still there, but Hedwig was gone. Free. In exchange for a promise he’d only have to keep if he could go back to Hogwarts.
If he could go to Hogwarts, it would all be worth it.
If.
But Snape’s visit showed that Dumbledore cared, right? Snape had said something of a punishment. No punishment could be worse than not going back to Hogwarts, so it didn’t really matter. He’d gladly do anything they wanted, even go to the Forbidden Forest again, if he could return to Hogwarts.
He was jolted out of his thoughts by a strange noise behind him. When he turned around he saw it was Snape, standing there. Now, in the daylight, he looked ridiculously out of place, like aconite growing out of the pavement.
Harry recalled having seen some dandelion growing out of the pavement in front of the Railview Hotel. It had been a nice sight, the bright yellow flower amidst all the gloom.
Snape in Privet Drive was ... less nice, but much more out of place.
And, for some reason, Harry felt hopeful at the sight of him.
“Get dressed and ready to leave, Potter. I suppose your possessions are all in that trunk?”
Harry stared at him. This must be a dream! His possessions – they were all in that trunk, but did that mean he was going somewhere for ... longer?
“No dawdling. Alohomora!”
The locks on his door opened with soft clicking noises, all at once. Harry opened his trunk, grabbed his robes and tiptoed to the bathroom, locking himself inside.
He decided to take a shower. If it woke anyone, they could take it out on Snape. Opening the locked bathroom door from the outside was possible, but would take them a while.
After a quick shower and changing into his robes, Harry brushed his teeth and packed his toothbrush. It was ancient – relict of some dentist visiting the primary school – but he didn’t want to ask Aunt Petunia for a new one. Hermione might be able to get him one ...
A knock at the door made him jump.
“Potter, hurry up.”
Oh, just Snape.
Weird, a couple weeks ago he would have considered being caught by Snape the worst thing that could happen.
Snape hadn’t explained where they were going – to Hogwarts? – or why, but Harry figured it couldn’t be worse than being imprisoned in Privet Drive. Regular prison might be worse, but he was too young for that, he was pretty sure. Besides, if it was anything unpleasant, Snape would have gleefully told him, right?
He stepped out of the bathroom. “Where are we going, sir?”
“Outside, where we will wait for your ride in an orderly fashion.” Snape gestured towards the stairs.
Harry walked down, stopping in front of the cupboard under the stairs.
“I shall retrieve your broom. Grab some bread and get out.”
Snape didn’t have to tell Harry twice.
Since he was going to leave and the Dursleys couldn’t harm him, then, Harry dared to pour himself a glass of orange juice to go with the slice of bread onto which he put a slice of cheese.
He emptied the glass as fast as possible, then walked outside to eat his bread in the morning sun.
How had he never noticed what a nice time of day early morning was? Must be because he usually spent it in his cupboard.
Or, admittedly, asleep.
Snape stepped out of the door, holding his Nimbus 2000 and looking extremely out of place.
“So, where do we go?”, Harry asked again.
“I will go back home. You will go live with – ah, there they are.”
A light blue car was driving towards them. It stopped and a tall man with thinning red hair got out and waved to Harry.
Harry’s heart skipped a beat. The man was wearing a robe!
He strode towards them. “Good morning, Professor Snape. And you must be Harry. Ron told us so much about you!”
Harry shook the man’s hand. “Um, who are you?”
“Oh, I thought Professor Snape had told you. I’m Arthur Weasley.”
“There was no time to explain.” Snape took something from his pocket. “This is Potter’s school trunk and the cage of his owl. I trust you can end the shrinking charm I placed on them.”
“Yes, of course, but - ”
“Good. Your broom, Potter. And now off with you.”
Snape stood there staring at them until Harry was sitting in the passenger seat and Mr. Weasley started the car.
Only when Harry looked back one last time did he see Snape walk away.
“Professor Snape didn’t tell me anything at all. Can I stay at your place for the summer, sir?”
“Nothing at all? Well, the most important thing is that you will live with us, now. You know our younger boys, and then there’s our daughter, Ginny. But of course, you’ve met her, too, haven’t you?”
“Live with you? For – forever?”
“Until you are grown up”, Mr. Weasley confirmed. “Like our other children.”
“Your other children? Sir?”
“No need to call me sir. Yes, Harry, you will be a part of the family from now on.”
What? This couldn’t be happening. Or could it? It was even better than Hagrid telling him he was a wizard! “That’s – that’s great. But why?” Just yesterday, he had thought he was in horrible trouble because of the house elf, and now ...
“From what Ron told us, you weren’t happy at your relatives’”
“I wasn’t, but - ”
“And this morning, Dumbledore sent me a message saying that he urgently needed a family to foster Harry Potter. He didn’t explain much, but ... did your aunt and uncle mistreat you, Harry?”
Harry hesitated. “I guess. It’s just that ... no one cared, before.” They had adressed the letter to his cupboard. And he wouldn’t have gotten Dudley’s second bedroom after if it wasn’t somehow wrong to make him sleep in a cupboard. “I mean, Hagrid did ... tell them he didn’t like how they treated me and all, but no one said I could live someplace else.”
“We do care, Harry. If Dumbledore hadn’t contacted me, we would have come to check in on you, anyway. We all were very worried when you didn’t answer Ron’s letters.”
“Really?”
“Of course.”
Stunned, Harry let himself sink into the surprisingly large seat. Live with Ron! It was like a dream.
“You won’t have your own bedroom”, Mr. Weasley explained. “I am afraid you will have to get used to a lot of changes, but Dumbledore assured me you wouldn’t mind having to share a room with Ron.”
“Not at all.” Harry felt a big grin spread all over his face. Then he remembered something. “Uh, won’t Ron mind?” Dudley hadn’t taken the news of losing one of his two rooms well ...
“Ron is used to sharing rooms with his brothers. I am sure he won’t mind, once we explain the situation to him.”
The sun had fully risen by the time they passed a sign with the name Ottery St. Catchpole on it.
Harry enjoyed the view from the window. There were fields of some kind of grain, some already harvested, green hills and a house now and then.
Other children of his age had probably seen a lot more different landscapes than he had, Harry thought with a pang of jealousy.
It wouldn’t be at all remarkable to them.
“And here’s the Burrow”, Mr. Weasley announced.
Contrary to the name, it was not a hole in the ground. There was a small building of roughly hewn stone, on top of which there were several stories made of wood, and they looked like they only just so managed to balance on top of each other.
It must be held together by magic, there was no other explanation.
“Wow.” He would love living here. There were chickens in the yard! Aunt Petunia would have a heart attack at the sight of an animal that wasn’t kept in a cage!
Harry had only just gotten out of the car when he heard a voice call out his name.
Ron ran towards him. “Harry! You’re here!”
“Yeah, I’m here.” Harry grinned. “And I – I can really stay? You won’t mind?”
“What? Are you kidding? I’ve been pestering Mum and Dad to go check on you all this time!”
Mr. Weasley got out of the car. “Has your mother told you everything?”, he asked in a rather serious tone.
“I guess? That Harry’s relatives are crap and he’ll stay with us?”
“Yes about that, Ron.” Mr. Weasley looked rather uncomfortable. “You know his relatives will not change. So ...”
“He’ll stay forever?” Ron looked delighted at the news.
“Yes, that’s the idea.”
“Come, I’ll show you my room – our room!”
Dazed, Harry followed Ron to the bedroom they would share. It was below the attic, and Ron explained Dumbledore had done something to make it larger.
There still wasn’t much space – not much more than he had in the dorm at Hogwarts – but Harry didn’t mind. He had never really used the space in Dudley’s second bedroom, anyways.
“You can get your own decoration, if you want”, Ron said slowly, gesturing at the walls, of which three quarters were covered in Chudley Cannons posters. “But the Chudley Cannons are really the best team!”
Harry suppressed a chuckle. “It’s alright, Ron. I love it.”
Before Ron could reply anything, Mrs. Weasley called them downstairs for breakfast.
And what a breakfast that was!
It was almost better than breakfast at Hogwarts. Or no, it was better – Harry actually had the time to eat everything.
There was scrambled eggs and sausages and toast with marmelade. Orange juice, milk and hot chocolate ...
“You don’t eat that kind of breakfast everyday, do you?” Harry asked when he was so full he could hardly move anymore – which was after just trying a bit of everything.
Mrs. Weasley smiled. “I didn’t know what you liked, dear, so I just made everything. Do you like the sausages?”
She was about to put another piece of toast on Harry’s plate, when he hastily shook his head. “No thanks, madam, I’m full.”
“What?!”
“It is all delicious, but I really can’t eat any more.” Harry blushed. “I, um, am not used to eating a lot in the mornings?”
Mrs. Weasley frowned, and for a moment she looked like a sabre-tooth-tiger. “You can come talk to me about your relatives anytime you want”, she assured him, her face softening, and Harry let out a breath he hadn’t noticed he was holding. She wasn’t angry at him, but at the Dursleys. “But I won’t ask any questions if you don’t want to talk about it.”
“Thanks, madam.” That suited Harry just fine. He really just wanted to forget the Dursleys.
“And you can call me mum. If you want to.”
Chapter 2