Upon reaching the village of St. Catchpole, Alaric received a warm welcome from the Weasley family.
The twins enthusiastically hugged him and then looked at his double-decker bus. "Cool! You actually want to build your home inside a bus. How did you come up with that idea?"
They also offered him a piece of toffee, but Alaric declined their kindness.
"The smell of burping potion is almost wafting out of this piece of candy," Alaric glanced at it with disgust. "Whose terrible idea is this?"
"It's George's idea!"
"No, it's Fred's idea!"
The twins immediately shifted the blame to each other.
Ron just shook hands with him, appearing somewhat reserved. His relationship with Alaric was average, but after the Philosopher's Stone incident, he began to feel respect for Alaric.
Mr. Weasley was a thin man, a bit balding, but the remaining hair was as red as his children's.
He wore a green robe, looking a bit dusty. He hurried back from the Ministry of Magic to welcome Alaric.
Mrs. Weasley was a plump and kind-hearted woman, wearing a floral apron with a wand tucked in her pocket.
When the twins brought Alaric in front of them, the Weasley couple warmly greeted him and gave him a welcome hug.
"Hello, Alaric," Mr. Weasley shook hands with him.
"I've heard about your exploits, actually confronting the followers of the mysterious person in your first year.
You're truly a brilliant wizard—heard you've been living in a Muggle orphanage in the past.
Oh, I shouldn't have brought that up—but you must be quite familiar with the Muggle world, right..."
"Alright, Arthur, don't ask these questions as soon as we meet!" Mrs. Weasley loudly interrupted him, then turned to Alaric, looking at him affectionately.
Although this gaze had no ill intentions, Alaric felt a bit uneasy—was it because she was an older woman?
"Oh, you must be Alaric, right? Such a handsome young man," Mrs. Weasley nodded approvingly.
"I've heard a lot about you from Ron, and George and Fred often mention you. I have to thank you for protecting Ron at school.
I'm glad they have a friend like you. I heard you've been living in... well, an orphanage."
She wiped the corner of her eye with her hand. "A good boy..."
Under their enthusiastic invitation, Alaric visited the humble dwelling of the Weasley family.
It seemed to have been a stone-built pigsty before, with some additional rooms here and there, stacked up several floors high, crooked and twisted, clearly magically constructed.
There were four or five chimneys on the red roof, and a sign leaning against the front door read "The Burrow."
Some high-top leather boots were thrown beside the gate, and a rusty cauldron lay nearby. Several brown, plump chickens were pecking in the yard.
The Weasley family's garden was large, overgrown with weeds, surrounded by many gnarled trees along the walls.
Various plants sprawled out from each flowerbed, and there was a large green pond with many frogs inside.
It was a simple but warm home.
Upon entering The Burrow, in the living room, Alaric also saw two other members of the family.
One of them was slightly taller, neatly dressed, with a knit vest adorned with long badges—Percy Weasley, their elder brother.
Alaric noticed that Percy's gaze toward him was quite complex, with a mix of envy and discontent.
"Percy is jealous of you," one of the twins whispered to Alaric.
"Since he came back home, I've noticed he's been secretly writing letters to someone, but never got a reply."
"Yes!" The other twin chimed in.
"We intercepted Errol—our family's owl—and found out he was writing to Penelope Clearwater, the pretty Ravenclaw senior.
Oh, those were passionate love letters. I got goosebumps reading them, but Penelope never replied. He's just getting his hopes high, and we all know—"
At this point, he raised an eyebrow at Alaric.
But before he could speak, the other twin jumped in. "We all know Penelope is often with you. I bet all of George's Skiving Snackboxes on it. She likes you, and Percy has no chance!"
"You stole my words, George!" the first twin exclaimed angrily.
"I am George!"
"No, I am!"
With that, the twins started arguing with each other.
In the face of this, Alaric could only shake his head helplessly.
What is going on here? Percy hasn't given up even after being rejected by his crush.
However, he snorted.
This guy has no chance at all.
He glanced at Percy.
'Not as good-looking as me, not as skilled as me, not as wealthy as me. Would Penelope even consider him?'
Another member of the Weasley family was a red-haired little girl, Ginny Weasley, who was about to start her first year at Hogwarts this year. When she saw Alaric, she just shyly nodded.
In addition, they actually had two more elder brothers, but neither was currently at home.
Bill, the eldest, worked as a curse breaker at Gringotts, and Charlie, the second, studied dragons in Romania.
After having lunch at the Weasley's, the twins took Alaric to their room to seek advice on how to perfectly remove the burping potion smell from candies.
Alaric stayed at the Weasley's for a whole day, even spending a night, experiencing many daily activities of a wizarding family, such as clearing gnomes from the garden.
He even saw a ghoul in the attic of the Burrow. Overall, it was indeed a novel and interesting experience.
But early the next morning, Alaric had to start working.
The first step was to dismantle the interior of the double-decker bus. Alaric and Arthur spent a whole morning running up and down the bus, while George and Fred assisted them.
To be honest, compared to manual dismantling, magic was much more convenient, with spells like the Disillusionment Charm, Levitation Charm, Summoning Charm, Flying Charm, Transfiguration, and more, all being quite practical.
Arthur was particularly interested in the luxurious seats inside the bus and moved a few into the house.
Next was the phase of the Untraceable Extension Charm.
This turned the entire carriage into a stage for Alaric alone:
A space of just a few dozen square meters was expanded by Alaric to several hundred square meters.
A ceiling that was less than two meters high was expanded by Alaric to four or five meters.
In addition, he opened a hole at the top of the bus and built a canopy on the roof, surrounded by glass, turning it into a garden.
His skill with the Untraceable Extension Charm left the entire Weasley family stunned. They had never seen such a powerful Untraceable Extension Charm.
Other wizards, when using the Untraceable Extension Charm, could at most expand a pocket-sized space several tens of times or increase the size of a car or house by a few times.
But who could achieve expanding the space of a double-decker bus by a hundred times?
Not even Dumbledore could do that, right?
However, Alaric, right in front of them, turned a double-decker bus into a villa spanning over a thousand square meters.
Now, the Weasley couple finally understood how much of a powerful wizard Alaric was at Hogwarts.
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