Chapter 5: A Very Weasley Trip Home
"Are we there yet?" Harry asked through a groan, lounging in the back seat behind the driver.
"No, we are not, Harry. Why?" Ron asked in confusion, trying to follow the map while holding the map upside down.
"Your cousin keeps poking me." Harry groaned, referring to Mafalda in the middle of the back seat.
"Don't make me turn this flying Muggle contraption around!" George called towards the back.
"So, I'm between the devil and the deep blue sea, then." Harry muttered in frustration.
"What does that mean?" Mafalda asked, confused.
"Also, Ron, you're holding the map upside down." Harry said to his friend.
Ron looked more closely, then turned as red as an apple in embarrassment before turning the map right side up. He then pokes at George to show him the mistake, which got the red head a bonk to the head for his trouble.
"Thanks a lot, Ron. Now we are bingo fuel and have got to fill this stupid thing up. Or dad will kill us." George said, staring furiously at the gas gauge, as if trying to will it too full again.
"Then stop at a petrol station." Harry said with audible frustration in his voice at the trivial nature of this argument.
"Right. Petro and snack break, here we come!" Fred called out.
"Does anyone have Muggle money?" Mafalda asked, raising an eyebrow.
Harry grumbled and reached into his pockets. "I think I have enough for a full tank and snacks." He told the present redheads.
"But why do we need the money? This thing has an Invisibility Booster." Fred said with a mischievous smile.
"Is it a good idea to keep that thing on all night? Even when we're filling up for petro?" Harry asked worriedly.
"Why wouldn't it be?" George asked.
"What if the Invisibility Booster goes out mid-flight because it overheated from overuse?" Harry asked back.
"Our dad enchanted this clap trap, and he understands Muggle things pretty well. It will be fine." Ron said, waving off his friend's concern.
Harry shrugged and pulled out enough money for snacks at the station. "Fair enough." He replied, handing the money to Fred.
"I see one down there!" Fred called out, pointing down at a speck on the ground.
"Hold onto your trousers!" George yelled as he nosedived the car towards said speck.
Harry screamed in fear, clinging to Mafalda for dear life like he was trying to crush the life out of her. Meanwhile, the Weasley girl was laughing her head off in joy at the experience as Fred held onto his seat.
Back at the Burrow
As the hustle and bustle of the Weasley household dragged on into the night, a petite, flame-haired girl clenched her fists in sudden anger. Her normally pale skin turned to match that passionate color of her hair. Molly noticed the girls change and felt the need to inquire about it.
"Ginny? Is something wrong, dear?" Molly asked in concern.
"I don't know. I sense a disturbance. A sudden urge to strangle Mafalda, for some reason…" Ginny noted, taking a deep breath to calm herself.
"Well, you two should probably talk about that. I'm sure it's all a big misunderstanding." Molly said supportively.
Ginny nodded. "Yes, mum." She told Molly.
"In fact, let's go up right now and get it out of the way." Molly suggested.
The two got up and had to maneuver around the pink flamingo demon resting on a hat rack before heading up the stairs to the guest rooms. Molly then knocked on the door once. Then twice. Then thrice. Finally, and somewhat concerned, Molly opened the door to reveal… no one in the room…
"So much for talking. She's flown the coop." Ginny scowled, crossing her arms in a huff.
"Well, this is a bit concerning…" Molly noted, a bit worried.
"Where do you think she would be, mum?" Ginny asked her mother.
"She usually wanders off, so she couldn't have gone far." Molly answered. "Maybe she's with the boys. We find the boys, we find Mafalda."
The two Weasleys split up at that and got looking. Yet, despite their best efforts, they could not find where she went. Worse still, they were finding more people that were missing. Molly checked Fred and George's room, and it was empty. Ginny checked Ron's room, which was also empty. This sudden disappearance of a whopping four members of the family soon made Molly Weasley panic.
"No sign of them, mum. Any luck on your end?" Ginny said to the older Weasley woman, a bit concerned.
"None whatsoever. Maybe they're outside?" Molly suggested.
"Have you checked Percy's room?" Ginny asked, willing to try anything at that point.
"Why would I do that? We both know they would never go in there." Molly replied nonchalantly.
"Fair enough. Let's check outside." Ginny replied, heading for the door.
Heading out swiftly to the back, they flung open the doors… only to find nothing. The garden was as it always was, the makeshift Quidditch patch was untouched, and they swore they saw two hedgehogs fighting gnomes. It was absolutely as the back should be, which only confused the two even further. However, this silent confusion was soon shattered by the loud, angry noise of Arthur Weasley from the garage.
"WHERE THE BLOODY HELL IS MY CAR!?" Arthur yelled out in fury.
"They didn't…" Molly muttered.
"... Mum. This is Ron, the twins, and Mafalda we're talking about here." Ginny replied in a deadpan tone.
"... Oh lord, they did." Molly sighed with a face palm.
Meanwhile: Back with the Wayward Weasleys and Harry
Harry sighed and leaned on a post, after an annoying explanation to George on how to actually fill up the petro. He knew he had to go in after the rest of them to pay for snacks. He did not want to, but he knew he had to. Shaking his head at having to guide a bunch of madmen around a world they did not understand. With another sigh, he went into the gas station store to find Ron, Fred, and Mafalda arguing about which snacks they wanted.
"Harry! What are good muggle snacks!?" Ron asked excitedly.
"Ron, you realize these kinds of snacks will make you fat. Trust me. I know." Harry said with a sigh.
"Perfect, I can trick Ginny with some when we get home." Mafalda said with an evil smile.
"Fine." Harry said in exasperation.
Harry soon went into the aisles and swiped up anything that looked halfway interesting. He was not doing it to sate their hunger, more distracting them for the journey. After grabbing an armful of chips and candies, he handed them out to the rest of them. Ron quickly became enamored by a chocolate animal.
"Say Harry you didn't tell me you had chocolate animals, too" Ron said as he opened the chocolate bunny wrapping, looking disappointed when it did not hop away.
"Ron don't open it! We haven't paid!" Harry whispered to his friend.
"Right… sorry…" Ron replied sheepishly, quickly closing the box.
Harry sighed and pulled the three along to the counter. Now, your average night shift counter employee is not one to be phased by the oddities that can happen on such a horrible shift. However, even they were forced to raise an eyebrow at the odd assemblage of people before them. Harry soon pulled out of his pocket a staggering number of British Pounds and put them on the counter.
"Can I get another chocolate bunny? I think I got a dead one." Ron quietly asked Harry, who was at the counter.
"That's not how they work out here, Ron." Harry whispered back at his friend.
"Oh. Well, that's frankly lame." Ron said with a dejected tone.
"Is that everything?" The counter clerk asked, observing the staggering amount of food they had to scan.
"Yes, it is." Harry said, pushing the large amount of money towards them on the counter.
"Do you want change?" The clerk asked in shock at the amount he was putting forward.
"Um… No. You can keep the change…" Harry said, having not considered that, but at this point just wanting to leave.
The clerk, equally wanting to be done with this situation, ran the transaction through. After that and then paying for the gas separately, Harry rushed the three out and into the car.
"Now I understand why Aunt Petunia gets so annoyed when we take so bloody long." Harry said with a sigh as he closed the door.
"George, step on the gas! He's bringing the demon up again!" Ron yelled, shaking his big brother's shoulder.
"Hold on! It's gonna be a bumpy flight!" George replied as he started up the car.
With that the car roared to life, the poor underpowered engine began to move forward. George, despite putting the pedal to the floor, found that the old car to be sluggish to start from a standstill like this. As he wrangled with the machine to get it up to speed, Ron looked down at the controls. To his horror, they forgot to turn on the invisibility booster.
"George, you forgot to turn on the invisibility booster!" Ron squealed in panic.
As the car began finally getting off the ground, the clerk turned after sneaking a drink from below the counter to see it take off. They blinked once, blinked twice, and blinked thrice. Before then immediately putting the drink down below the counter and swiftly making a call on the counter phone.
"Mum? Yeah, it's me. You can put me down for therapy for drinking. I'm starting to see things." The clerk said onto the phone, honestly unsure what is going on.
Meanwhile at Hogwarts
"Albus, have we still not heard back from the boy back at Privet Drive?" Professor McGonagall asked Dumbledore.
"Unfortunately, not, Minerva." Dumbledore sighed a bit.
"Well, we have to do something about this!" She told him sternly.
"Not to worry, Minerva. I'll be sending our top man to take care of this." Dumbledore assured her.
"You don't mean…?" McGonagall asked in shock.
"Yes. Our top. Man…" Dumbledore replied ominously.
Meanwhile in a Hut Bordering the Forbidden Forest
As this was going on, a veritable mountain of a man with a long, shaggy beard in a truly massive coat was inside the hut. He had his window open and, outside, was a truly enormous, three-headed dog. He smiled and cooed as he pet the gigantic beast on one of its monstrously huge heads, scratching it behind its ear.
"Who're good boys!? Oh, who's a good three-headed dog!? You are, Fluffy! That's right, you are!" The man called out as he scratched the back of Fluffy's ear.
The middle head, the one getting its ear scratched, growled happily and licked Hagrid. It was at that moment that his fireplace glowed brightly, flashing between red and bright green. Soon, Hagrid stopped scratching the back of his massive dog's ear as he looked ominously at the fireplace.
"I must go, Fluffy. I have been summoned…" Hagrid said seriously as Fluffy threw his three heads up into the sky and howled. "To the Hagrid-mobile!"
Later: Morning Near the Burrow
"Ron, despite the fact your family has a flying car, this is the slowest trip I've ever been on. Are we there yet?" Harry said annoyedly.
Before Ron could say anything, he saw George with a smile on his face. A wonderful smile. An awful smile. He had a wonderfully awful smile.
"Attention, passengers. I got good news and bad news. The good news is we are about to land." George said in a voice imitating what he thought a Muggle pilot would say.
"About time." Harry said in relief.
"The bad news is. It's a crash landing." George said, before taking his hands off the wheel and his feet off the pedals.
As soon as he did this, the car plummeted from the sky. Ron and Harry both screamed in terror as Mafalda and Fred laughed like mad people. Soon, when they got close to the ground, George quickly hit the gas again while gripping the wheel and turning. Just before they hit the ground, the car started back up and sped back into flight. Soon the car then touched the landing strip near the garage, and with a sudden application of the breaks, they finally stopped.
"Okay… after nearly dying… we finally made it." Ron said, trying to see the bright side.
"Never… do that… again…!" Harry said through fearful pants.
"That was fun." Mafalda said with a smile.
"Of course you'd say that." Harry snapped.
"Right. Now then. All we need to do is sneak inside before they all realize that we were gone." Ron whispered as he slowly began to open the door to the car.
Slowly the five sneaked into the house, slowly and quietly opening the door. Gently shutting it behind them, they all smiled at each other.
"I think we're in the clear…" The twins said with equally identical grins.
"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?" The voice of the Weasley matriarch screeched out in fury as Percy, Arthur, and Ginny came down having heard the head of the house.
"Oh bollocks…" George and Fred muttered in unison.
Molly was about to continue yelling, until she saw Harry among them. Fast enough to give them all whiplash, she changed her tone and demeanor.
"Oh! Hello, Harry." Molly said in surprise, but equally not unpleasantly.
"Hello, Mrs. Weasley." Harry answered, a hint sheepishly.
"Allow me to introduce you to the rest of my family. You already know Percy," Molly told him, motioning to Percy, who simply nodded his head in greeting. "This is my husband Arthur," she motioned to Arthur, who gave him an excited smile and waved to him.
"It's a pleasure Mr. Weasley." Harry said, though he noticed Arthur was more focused on the car.
"What did you boys bloody do to my car?" Arthur said, rushing over to look at the car all over.
"Noooooothiiiiing…" the twins said, looking back out of the corner of their eyes suspiciously.
"They nearly gave me and Harry bloody heart attacks is what they did!" Ron snapped out, glaring at his brothers.
"Worry about the car later, Arthur." Molly sternly told her husband.
"Yes, Molly…" Arthur replied, quickly shutting up.
Turning back to Harry, Molly gave a smile as she motioned to her daughter. "And last, but most certainly not least, this is our dear Ginny." She told him as Ginny shyly waved at Harry.
"Nice to meet you, Ginny." Harry replied with an awkward smile.
"Percy, do you mind showing Harry to one of the guest rooms?" Molly said, giving her son a look that told him not to argue with her.
"Right. This way, Harry." Percy said, with Harry grabbing his luggage to follow him.
Ginny, in a sort of daze, followed the two upstairs. All while the sound of Molly yelling at and lecturing the boys downstairs could be heard.
"HOW DARE YOU FOUR STEAL THAT CAR! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!? WERE YOU EVEN THINKING AT ALL!? YOU COULD'VE DIED OR BEEN SEEN!" Molly's voice screeched out at the boys and Mafalda like some sort of enraged, demonic bat.