The Teacher's Son

Chapter 11

Harry was in awe of the Weasley household.

Ron had explained that it was called the Burrow, and Harry stood by the fact that the house was held together solely by magic.

Molly pulled him aside after breakfast, when all the boys had been sent out to do various chores.

"Harry, you know the boys wouldn't think any different of you because of your mum. Arthur and I will keep the secret as long as possible, but you should tell Ronald and the others."

"I know, I just want to choose when to tell them." Harry said.

"Alright, dear. Will you go help Ronald with the garden gnomes? He won't be able to get them all on his own and it would be a good experience for you."

Harry nodded, knowing the other reason. She was going to give him every opportunity to tell Ron about his mum. He just wasn't ready yet.

He ran out the door. "Hey, Ron, what are you..." He watched Ron hurl a potato-like creature as far over the fence as he possibly could. "...doing?"

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Minerva sighed as she finished packing her things. The house was quite quiet without Harry running around. She had checked to make sure he hadn't left anything in his room, and aside from a few broken quills, there was nothing.

"Where did I put the key?" She muttered to herself as she waved her wand at her trunks, sending them to her study in the castle.

"Accio key!" The small metal object flew into her hand from the other room.

"Wonderful." She disapparated after locking the front door.

"Wonderful, Minerva, you're back." Dumbledore said serenely when she reappeared in front of the castle.

"Hello Albus. Did you need something?"

"I wondered if you wished to meet the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" The old man asked.

"That would be wonderful, just give me a few minutes to clean up a little."

Dumbledore nodded and walked off, heading in the general direction of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Minerva watched him go, then morphed into a cat and scampered off towards her office.

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Harry bit his lip to hold in a laugh. He and Ron the twins had gone to the woods behind their house to play some games. They had made a no wands rule automatically after Fred and George got into an argument with Ron about fairness of using spells for 'Hide and Seek,' which Harry had explained to them. Well, partially. He had changed it a little to interest the other three more.

Fred was mere feet away from him, scanning the bushes with a frown. Harry, up a tree, carefully leaned over and grabbed a loose piece of bark from the trunk. He quietly took aim and chucked the small hunk of wood at a bush off to the side.

"Aha!" Fred leapt into the bush, his hands reaching for nothing.

Harry suppressed a giggle, hearing Ron and George do the same nearby.

"Hey, no fair!" Fred complained.

"It's a muggle game, you gotta think like a muggle!" Harry called, crawling along the tree branch and dropping into another tree.

The boy seemed to consider this, his head cocked slightly to the side.

"Hey, Georgie, this was where we found that big spider nest the other day, right?"

"Spider nest?!" Ron yelped. Fred ran over to where his voice had come and tapped him on the head.

"Found you!"

"Cheater!"

"Not so, Ickle-Ronniekins. I simply thought like a muggle."

George snickered, but this time his twin was too close.

"Got you, Georgie!" Fred announced triumphantly.

"Now what?" Ron asked.

"Now we get to help Fred chase Harry around. If he reaches the house then he wins, if we reach him, we win." George said, recalling the version that Harry had taught them.

Harry continued to crawl across the tree branches, trying to stay quiet until he could get to the ground and run.

"Oh Haaaaaaarryyyyyyyyyy!" Fred called as the three redheads spread out, searching for him.

Harry stopped when Ron passed under him, then crawled to the tree trunk next to him and dropped to the ground quietly. There was almost no underbrush near him, but it would still be quite the run.

He began to sneak through the forest, waiting for a shout to go up as he was spotted.

"There!" Harry had reached the edge of the forest before the Weasleys found him.

"Get him!" Ron shouted excitedly as the black haired boy took off at a sprint.

The teens ran down the hill, laughing and whooping the whole way. The twins were flinging hexes, having forgot the no magic rule, and Harry dodged them as fast as possible, hoping he wouldn't have to duel all three at once.

Even with his mum's extra lessons, he wouldn't be able to best all of them.

"What are you imbeciles doing?" Percy came out the back door right as Harry was about to smack his hand against the wall next to him. The older boy let out a girly shriek.

"I win!" Harry yelled hoarsely, bending over and puffing as he tried to catch his breath.

"No kidding!" Fred shouted back.

[A/N Running around with the Weasleys]