Mrs. Weasley led Thomas and Harry back into the house. Harry nervously followed behind, glancing back at the Wesley siblings, who were still frozen in their spots. Thomas understood their fear, and from what Ron told them many times in the past, Mrs. Weasley had a reputation for being lovely but also fiercer than a lioness when it came to her babies.
As they reached the door, Mrs. Weasley turned towards her boys, and with a stern expression on her face, she shouted at them. "What are you three standing there? Come inside and eat some breakfast."
Fred, George, and Ron exchanged glances before they scrambled to their feet and rushed inside. They knew better than to keep their mother waiting when she was in such a mood. Meanwhile, Thomas couldn't help but chuckle at the scene, especially when he saw the twins so scared for themselves, then again, even they knew when to heed their mother's orders.
The kitchen was small and rather cramped. There was a scrubbed wooden table and chairs in the middle, and Harry sat down on the edge of his seat, looking around. He had never been in a wizard house before. Thomas on the other wasn't all that shocked since he had been to Adam's house which in a way wasn't exactly normal considering his father was part of the magical world and worked for the Ministry. Not to mention that he had been at three different devils' houses, which was by far comparable with anything he had ever seen in the magical community.
The clock on the wall opposite him had only one hand and no numbers at all. Written around the edge were things like Time to make tea, Time to Feed the Chickens, and You're Late. Books were stacked three deep on the mantelpiece, books with titles like Charm Your Own Cheese, Enchantment in Baking, and One Minute Feasts. Most, not all of those things were a god sent for someone like Thomas who wanted to make the lives of his parents easier and more comfortable. And so when we will leave, Thomas decided to kindly ask Mrs. Weasley for those books so that he could help his parents back home.
Meanwhile, Harry had a very different reaction since for him, this was the first time in his life he walked into a proper wizard house. Everything seemed magic! Moreover, unless Harry's ears were deceiving him, the old radio next to the sink had just announced that coming up was "Witching Hour, with the popular singing sorceress, Celestina Warbeck."
While Harry was in his little bubble, Mrs. Weasley was clattering around, cooking breakfast a little haphazardly, throwing dirty looks at her sons as she threw sausages into the frying pan. Every now and then she muttered things like "don't know what you were thinking of," and "never would have believed it."
Then when she saw that both Thomas and Harry felt guilty for this, she turned towards the two boys. "I don't blame you too, dears," she assured them, tipping eight or nine sausages onto Harry's plate and almost twelve on Thomas's plate.
"Arthur and I have been worried about you, too. Just last night we were saying we'd come and get you ourselves if you hadn't written back to Ron by Friday. And even when Tom came to our door a few days ago, and after he told us that he was being forbidden from entering the place you lived, I was ready to blow the door and take you with us. But really," Mrs. Weasley stopped as added three fried eggs to Harry's plate and then the same amount to Thomas's plate). "Flying an illegal car halfway across the country, anyone could have seen you …"
She flicked her wand casually at the dishes in the sink, which began to clean themselves, clinking gently in the background.
'That's a neat trick. 'Thought Thomas while watching the dishes putting themselves on the drying rack after they washed themselves.
"It was cloudy, Mum! No one could have seen us," said Fred.
"You keep your mouth closed while you're eating!" Mrs. Weasley snapped.
"They were starving him, Mum!" said George.
"Mrs. Weasley, the twins are right. Harry's so-called uncle was ready to shoot him if Harry was to leave the room he was being locked in. They kept him in such condition that prison was a better alternative."
"Oh, my! If I knew earlier…," said Mrs. Weasley in an almost guilty tone. Almost as if she was blaming herself for not being there for poor Harry as she started cutting Harry's bread and buttering it for him so that the starved boy won't pass out.
At that moment there was a diversion in the form of a small, redheaded figure in a long nightdress, who appeared in the kitchen, gave a small squeal, and ran out again.
"Ginny," said Ron in an undertone to Harry. "My sister. She's been talking about you all summer."
"Yeah, she'll be wanting your autograph, Harry," Fred said with a grin, but he caught his mother's eye and bent his face over his plate without another word. Nothing more was said until all four plates were clean, which took a surprisingly short time.
George chuckled and leaned towards Thomas, whispering mischievously, "You're becoming quite the celebrity, mate. You are the first student to defeat a troll, not to mention that amongst all of the first years, you are the one with the most spell-related knowledge."
Ron turned to Thomas with a grin and said, "Yeah, Ginny really looks up to you too. She can't stop talking about how cool you were during that troll incident, which is kind of my brothers' fault for telling her the story. I think she wants to be just as cool as you when she starts Hogwarts."
Thomas blushed slightly, hearing all this. He hadn't expected to be admired by anyone, let alone the younger sister of his new friends. "Oh, well, I just did what anyone would do to protect their friends."
"Yeah, yeah the two legends of our peaceful school. Blimey, I'm tired," yawned Fred, setting down his knife and fork at last. "I think I'll go to bed and …"
"You will not," snapped Mrs. Weasley gently putting her hands on her son's shoulder. "It's your own fault you've been up all night. So, right now, you're going to de-gnome the garden for me. They're getting completely out of hand again."
"But, Mum …"
"And you two will help your brother," she said, glaring at Ron and George. "You can go up to bed, dear," she added while looking at Harry. "You didn't ask them to fly that wretched car to get you from that horrible place."
But Harry, who felt wide awake, said quickly, "I'll help Ron. I've never seen a de-gnoming …"
"That's very sweet of you, dear, but it's dull work," said Mrs. Weasley. "Now, let's see what Lockhart's got to say on the subject …"
And she pulled a heavy book from the stack on the mantelpiece at which George groaned.
"Mum, we know how to de-gnome a garden …"
While Mrs. Weasley was punishing her boys, Thomas didn't exactly know what to do in this situation since, in a way, he too was guilty for this thing when he came and asked Ron and the twins for help. So, rather than escaping from this, he decided to join his friends, even if he didn't know anything about getting rid of gnomes.
"Mrs. Weasley."
Mrs. Weasley took her eyes from the book before looking at Thomas. "Yes, dear?"
"Ma'am, the truth is that Ron and the twins took the car because I asked them for help. If they are being punished for that, I want to join them in de-gnoming the garden."
"Oh, Tom, dear. You don't have to worry about that. It was my boys' idea, I'm sure of that. "
After saying that, Mrs. Weasley looked back at the book and Thomas could see written Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests. There was a big photograph on the front of a very good-looking wizard with wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes. As always in the Wizarding world, the photograph was moving which in a way was similar to looking at a video on your phone or table.
"Oh, he is marvelous," she said. "He knows his household pests, all right, it's a wonderful book, like all of his other books."
"Mum fancies him," said Fred, in a very audible whisper to Harry and Thomas.
"Don't be so ridiculous, Fred," said Mrs. Weasley, her cheeks rather pink. "All right, if you think you know better than Lockhart, you can go and get on with it, and woe betide you if there's a single gnome in that garden when I come out to inspect it."
Yawning and grumbling, the Wesley boys alongside Thomas and Harry made their way outside. The garden was pretty large, at least in Harry's eyes, however, for Thomas, the garden was just a normal-sized one, well, compared to the garden that his grandparents have.
As the boys walked to the back of the garden, Harry thought of something before turning towards Ron.
"Muggles have garden gnomes, too, you know."
"That we do, Harry. However, luckily for us, ours are made from clay or terracotta. These ones instead, are very much alive."
"Yeah, yeah you think they are like that, but those gnomes are not so cute and harmless as the terracotta ones, instead they are…," said Ron, bent double with his head in a peony bush, "like fat little Santa Clauses with fishing rods. …"
"How does one get rid of them? I mean you guys aren't going to kill them no?"
"Heavens no. We might hate them, but while they can be a nuisance, they are not inherently evil or dangerous like some other magical creatures, they are simply mischievous pests."
Just as Ron wanted to continue, the boys heard a violent scuffling noise and the peony bush shuddered, before Ron caught something. "This is a gnome."
"Gerroff me! Gerroff me!" squealed the little gnome.
It certainly did look like the terracotta ones, making Thomas wonder if the one who invented the garden gnome had actually seen one in real life. The creature was small and leathery looking, with a large, knobby, bald head exactly like a potato. After catching him, Ron held it at arm's length as it kicked out at him with its little feet, then he grasped it around the ankles and turned it upside down.
"This is what you have to do," he said. He raised the gnome above his head while the gnome kept screaming his lungs out before he started to swing it in great circles like a lasso. Seeing the shocked look on Harry's face and the amused one on Thomas's face, Ron smiled before explaining to his shocked friend what he was doing, "It doesn't hurt them. But at the same time, you've just got to make them really dizzy so they can't find their way back to their holes."
He let go of the gnome's ankles and the little thing flew twenty feet into the air and landed with a thud in the field over the hedge. Once the gnome was out of the garden, Harry decided to give it a try as well after seeing Ron's demonstration. He chased after a gnome, but the creature was nimble, and it took a few tries before Harry could catch it. With a triumphant grin, he swung the gnome around, mimicking Ron's earlier actions, and let it fly through the air. The gnome flew far and landed with a thud, just like the one from before.
"Nice one, Harry!" Fred exclaimed, patting him on the back. "You've got quite the arm!"
"Yeah, that was impressive!" George added, chuckling.
Thomas watched his friends with amusement before deciding to give it a go himself. However, instead of flinging the gnome away like the others, he hesitated for a moment. Then, to everyone's surprise, he carefully placed the struggling gnome inside his satchel.
"Thomas, what are you doing?" Ron asked, bewildered.
"Yeah, why aren't you tossing it like we did?" George inquired.
Thomas grinned when he saw the puzzled expressions on his friends' faces. "Oh, don't worry, guys," he said, trying to reassure them, but his tone only seemed to make them more worried for the poor creatures. "I just want to try something different with the gnomes. You know, a little experiment."
Harry, Ron, and the twins look at each other in fear. They knew Thomas well enough to recognize that "mad scientist" look in his eyes. It usually meant he was about to do something that no one has yet tried to do.
"What kind of experiment?" Harry asked cautiously.
"I thought it might be interesting to see if I can make the gnomes work for me," Thomas replied. "I've read some fascinating things about magical creatures, and I want to see if I can somehow employ them to work in a garden while at the same time giving them more than enough space for their own place to live in."
"Making the gnomes work in a garden?" Fred repeated with raised eyebrows. "You mean like plowing the soil and planting plants?"
"Well, yes but not exactly for normal plants. You guys know that I love potions and Herbology right? So I was wondering if there was a way to make them take care of a magical garden."
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