As the sun rose from the horizon, illuminating Ottery St Catchpole and the Burrow rested in the vast field, which was at the foot of a hill. It also uncovered the veil the night had cast on the mess that had happened. The remains of the enchanted motorcycle and the sidecar lay scattered on the field.
Near the oddly shaped Burrow, was medium sized shed where the enormous man called Hagrid still slept, still reeling and tired from the night's encounter. His eyes still closed, he alternated between snoring and mumbling in his sleep. As though unwilling to see the new creature rest so peacefully in their territory, some sneaky gnomes attempted to pull his bushy beard, Hagrid, either too far gone in his sleep or used to magical shenanigans turned to his side and trapped them under him, still snoring.
The approaching Molly Weasley was in for quite a surprise. While the scouring Arthur would remain unaware of her shriek of surprise and horror, lost in his search of Muggle machinery.
***
This morning for the Weasley children was quite normal. Although there were noises outside their parents had taken some measures that they won't be disturbed and protected, sparing themselves the chaos that would've ensued and the extra trouble.
The eldest child present in the house, Percy, had woken up quite early. He had done his normal routine and was sitting at the dining table, having his morning tea.
The twins, Fred and George, were still asleep, as though still unaware of the rising sun and not a bit curious about the previous night's noises they may or may not have heard.
The last two of the Weasley children, Ron and the youngest Ginny had woken up and were searching for their parents, assuming they had woken up. As they finally approached their parents' bedroom, they were quite perplexed.
"Do you really think Mum and Dad are still sleeping?" Ginny asked.
Yawning and shaking his head, Ron said, "I don't think so. The kettle was hot and Percy would never make his own tea. She's definitely up. And maybe Dad's already gone to Ministry?"
Rolling her eyes at her brother, she said, "Today's Sunday, Ron. Why would he go to work on Sunday?"
Scoffing at her attitude, which was definitely unlike her age, he knocked the door. "Mum?" Knock. Knock. Door jiggle. "Dad?" Only slight snoring and breathing was heard, when they listened intently.
As they looked at each other in question, Ron pushed the door open. As they very silently went in, they looked at the bed and frowned. There was only one person sleeping on the bed. One 'small' person, covered head to toe in blanket.
"Did they really do it?" Ron conspiratorially whispered to Ginny.
"Who did what?" Ginny asked aloud, in a normal tone.
"The gnomes! Gnomes, Ginny!" He whispered furiously to her, adopting a dramatically serious expression. "Maybe they finally invaded our house! Must be tired of all the throwing we gave them!"
Although she frowned at him, doubting his words, she went head ahead and slowly uncovered the blanket from the top, expecting to see a gnome, and found a boy with round glasses and a lightning scar on his head, who had a sheepish expression on his face.
"Hey." The boy whispered, smiling slightly and eyebrows raised.
And Ginny Weasley froze. Her face going slightly pale and then rapidly turning a healthy shade of reddish pink. Countless words and poems flitted through her head. All of them referring to one single boy with a lightning scar.
Ron Weasley on the side though was once again very perplexed. Taking a page out of his twin brothers' book he had tried to prank his sister, hoping that the figure which had snuck into their parents' bed was their family ghoul. But apart from freezing on the spot with her back to him, she didn't even utter a word. Thinking that he had gone too far, he went near the bed and called her name.
"Ginny?"
As though suddenly very energetic, she squealed, turned and pushed past him out of the door. As he watched her running up the stairs with bewilderment he heard someone clearing their throat. With shock, he turned and stood there motionless with his mouth open. Indeed he had read the same books as his sister and knew of the boy with the lightning scar.
"Hey." The boy now had sat up. "I'm Harry Potter." And waved his hand.
For a moment Ron stood there with his head tilted and brows furrowed. He then turned around and went towards the door. As he was walking out the door, he looked back at Harry.
"Blimey." And closed the door. Leaving Harry's with his hand in the air.
"Well they're a friendly bunch alright." he muttered to himself as he got up. The presence of the little girl and the boy from earlier clued him that he still wasn't at Hogwarts. Could be a friend's house, he thought.
He stood in front the mirror and looked at himself. A skinny boy, skin pale and round glasses perched on his nose stood in front him. 'I'm Harry Potter.' he thought as though the revelations he had in his sleep weren't enough.
'Well, I've been me for nearly eleven years now. No denying it.' he released a breath at that thought. Still it felt surreal to him that he had knowledge of who he was in past life, what was it like back then and in this life too it wasn't marginally better. The Dursleys were NOT better, he thought bitterly.
Living in a fantasy world had been the dreams of all the webnovel readers in his past life…including his. But not having any idea where he was, who he actually was in wizarding world and most importantly had no prior knowledge of the HP series in his previous life.
He plopped down heavily on the mattress at those thoughts. Would he have to toil endlessly and create opportunities for himself on top of not getting killed? A little help would've been appreciated, he thought. But remembering the old hag's face from his dream, he laughed helplessly.
He took of his glasses and rubbed his eyes. His eyesight wasn't any better without his glasses. The world turned blurry. The floor was silent, he assumed that the redheads he met were elsewhere. Leaning forward on his hands on knees, he closed his eyes and thought.
'Am I a 11 years old kid or a 14-15 years old from my past life? Or am I a 26 years old? Does that even matter? And if it does would that change anything? For whom it would change? No one. No one knows who I was. They know Harry Potter, eleven, recently aware and a complete sh*t of wizard.
And that's who I will be-- well a better wizard of course.', he shook his head.
'Why would it matter if I can think, talk and act differently? No it wouldn't matter. And those who object…well they can f*ck right off. I am done taking shit from life.'
His thoughts were disturbed when someone unceremoniously barged into the room with cacophony of noises. As he turned, clumsily putting on his glasses, he saw 2 identical boys, twins, also redheads.
"You know Ron, it wasn't a bad prank if you managed to convince Ginny that we have bloody Harry Potter in our house--" said the one on the front, a letter F on his shirt.
"Agreed Fred. Little Ronnie is really learning the ropes now that this year he can go to Ho---ly b*lls. Ron you weren't kidding!" the second twin, with a G on his shirt, exclaimed unlike his brother who had frozen momentarily but was nodding along.
"I told you two. We both saw the scar on his head." the boy from earlier, Ron-- he assumed, mumbled from behind them. He also saw the little girl, Ginny, peeking at him, hiding behind Ron.
"Hey there." he waved slowly, not intending to scare them, as though he wasn't the one who was outnumbered.
"Hey there, Harry." said the F twin. "I'm Fred Weasley. This is my twin brother--"
"George Weasley."
Then Fred pointed at the remaining two, "That's my rude brother, Ronald Weasley. And my shy little sister, Ginny Weasley. She's a huge fan of yours--ack." Ginny had elbowed him. He just smirked at her as she took 2 steps back out of his reach, glaring at him.
"Oh hello. Nice to meet you all. I guess your brother told you my name. But let me reintroduce myself. I'm Harry Potter." He paused at that. They should be wizards and witches if Hagrid had brought him here. "I'm a wizard, or so Hagrid told me. Is he here?"
"Wait, Hagrid is here?" George said, a little surprised.
"Who's Hagrid?" Ron asked.
"Well George, that would explain the noises last night." Fred said, giving his twin a look.
"Who's Hagrid?" Ron again asked.
"Yeah, you reckon he brought some griffin along with him or something? Mum locked us in. Or we would've found out what was the deal outside." George answered, ignoring his younger brother.
"C'mon George, we have Harry here to ask. Surely, he came with him." Fred said, angling his head towards Harry.
And then the endless barrage of questions started.
"Did you come with him?"
"Did you ride on a Griffin last night?"
"Or was it a Thestral? I've never seen a Thestral."
"That sounds like Hagrid. But why did you come at night?"
"What was the noise outside?"
"I think I also saw flashes of light. Was it the knight bus?"
"WHO IS HAGRID?"
Reminded of the class presentations he gave in science class in his last life, Harry was about tell them to calm down and slowly, when someone else spoke.
"Hagrid, is the gamekeeper of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." The voice spoke calmly but importantly.
The voice gained a face when another redhead appeared. He looked remarkably similar to the Weasley's present. Definitely another brother of theirs. He pushed past his brothers and stood before Harry. He cleared his throat, pushed his hand forward and said, "Hello, Harry. I'm Percy Weasley. Its an honour to meet you."