Happier with you- Charlie Weasley

GOF 2

By twelve o'clock their school trunks were packed with their school things and all their most prized possessions. Harry had emptied his hiding place under the loose floorboard of all food whilst Rory double-checked every nook and cranny of their bedroom for forgotten spellbooks or quills, and taken down the chart on the wall counting down the days to September the first, on which Harry liked to cross off the days remaining until the return to Hogwarts. The atmosphere inside number four, Privet Drive was extremely tense. The imminent arrival at their house of an assortment of wizards was making the Dursleys uptight and irritable. Vernon had looked downright alarmed when Harry informed him that the Weasleys would be arriving at five o'clock.

"I hope you told them to dress properly, these people," he snarled at once. "I've seen the sort of stuff your lot wear. They'd better have the decency to put on normal clothes, that's all." Harry and Rory had rarely seen Mr. or Mrs. Weasley wearing anything that the Dursleys would call "normal." Their children might don Muggle clothing during the holidays, but Mr. and Mrs. Weasley usually wore long robes in varying states of shabbiness. They were both anxious about how rude the Dursleys might be to the Weasleys if they turned up looking like their worst idea of wizards. Vernon had put on his best suit. To some people, this might have looked like a gesture of welcome, but they knew it was because Vernon wanted to look impressive and intimidating. Dudley, on the other hand, looked somehow diminished. Lunch was an almost silent meal. Dudley didn't even protest at the food. Petunia wasn't eating anything at all. Her arms were folded, her lips were pursed, and she seemed to be chewing her tongue, as though biting back the furious diatribe she longed to throw at her niece and nephew. "They'll be driving, of course?" Vernon barked across the table.

"Er," Harry said. "I think so," Vernon snorted into his moustache. Normally, he would have asked what car Mr. Weasley drove; he tended to judge other men by how big and expensive their cars were. But Rory doubted whether Vernon would have taken to Mr. Weasley even if he drove a Ferrari. They spent most of the afternoon in their bedroom. Finally, at a quarter to five, they went back downstairs and into the living room. Petunia was compulsively straightening cushions. Vernon was pretending to read the paper, but his tiny eyes were not moving, he was really listening with all his might for the sound of an approaching car. Dudley was crammed into an armchair, his porky hands beneath him, clamped firmly around his bottom.

"You" Petunia spoke suddenly pointing at Rory. "Hide that hideous thing on your neck this instant. We don't need to see that" Rory pulled her hair around further to cover her neck before rearranging her hoody as well. Harry was looking angrily at Petunia, Rory shook her head at him it wasn't the worse she's said since she first saw it. The two Potters left the room and went to sit on the stairs in the hall.

"You okay Ror" His eyes found hers.

"I'm fine Harry she's said worse I don't care anymore what she says" Five o'clock came and then went. Vernon, perspiring slightly in his suit, opened the front door, peered up and down the street, then withdrew his head quickly.

"They're late!" he snarled at Harry and Rory.

"I know," Harry said whilst Rory sat next to him looking down at her lap subconsciously making sure her hair still covered her neck before deciding to just put her hood up to hold it more in place. "Maybe - er - the traffic's bad, or something." At half past, they heard Vernon and Petunia conversing in terse mutters in the living room.

"No consideration at all."

"We might've had an engagement."

"Maybe they think they'll get invited to dinner if they're late."

"Well, they most certainly won't be" Vernon said, standing up and start pacing the living room. "They'll take them and go, there'll be no hanging around. That's if they're coming at all. Probably mistaken the day. I daresay their kind don't set much store by punctuality. Either that or they drive some tin-pot car that's broken d- AAAAAAARRRRRGH!" Harry and Rory jumped up. From the other side of the living room door came the sounds of the three Dursleys scrambling, panic-stricken, across the room. Next moment Dudley came flying into the hall, looking terrified.