3 Chapter 2: Life in the Countryside

Early morning at the Burrow,

"*Yawn* Ahh Today marks the beginning of the rest of my life... " [Ron]

Life in a countryside usually begins before the sun rises. But in the wizarding society, that isn't necessarily the case. With magical tools that automatically carry out menial chores throughout the household and farm, wizards can take it easy and wake up much later and still get their work done on time.

Even so, I still prefer waking up early in the morning. I find the idea of never letting the Sun catch me sleeping to be rather enticing. Plus, there are a lot of things that I can accomplish while everyone else's asleep.

One of those tasks happens to be befriending the Ghoul that lives in the Attic above my room. The Ghoul has been living up in the attic of the Burrow for years. Although it is harmless, it does occasionally bang the pipes inside the attic whenever the house gets too quiet.

Even though the Ghoul can be pretty annoying, everyone in the Burrow considers it to be something like a pet. Especially me. I do know that the Ghoul was especially helpful to Ron in the Canon, when he was looking for the Horcruxes. So for that, I am grateful to the little guy… well kind of.

I quietly head downstairs and fill up a mug with lukewarm water as well as a portion of last night's leftovers and head back to my room. Then I head to the center of my room and chant <Wingardium Leviosa> to make the glass of water and the plate of food float to the door of the Attic.

As if on que, the attic's door slightly opens and a pair of green hands nimbly yanks the floating items inside before shutting the door.

"Mornin' Ted. You seem to be in a jovial mood today."[Ron]

I call him l Ted, Ted the Troll. I mean I know he's a Ghoul but I can't help it. He's cranky and lives in the attic, which counts as a basement in a sense, so he's obviously a Troll.Moments later, an empty plate and cup were returned.

I started greeting and feeding Ted about two years ago. At first he was unresponsive, and even made a lot of noise by groaning and throwing pipes at night, but as time went by he started opening up to me little by little.

Now, he even helps me out a little by hiding the coins I am trying to save from the twins and giving them back to me when I need them, so he's like my personal Gringotts Vault. I once tried asking mum if I could have my own vault in Gringotts, but she refused, citing the large fee required to open a new vault as an excuse.

Keeping the money in the Weasley's vault would be akin to throwing the money into an abyss, since the money in the vault always gets used up one way or another. Thus, Ted the Troll became Ted the Part-time Banker as well.

Although Dad has a well-paying Job in the Ministry of Magic, the money he earns is often barely enough to raise a family of seven kids. Also, it can't be helped that the Weasleys are terrible at saving money. In the canon, even after Bill and Charlie move out the house, the Weasleys barely had a few galleons at their Gringotts Vault.

Knowing the sacrifices that the twins, Ginny and I have to make in our school lives really motivates me to earn money. But as a child, my means of earning money are limited to selling the chickens that I raise and helping my neighbours with odd chores like throwing away Gnomes in the Diggory's backyard along with Cedric or helping to take care of the Lovegood's garden.

One time I even helped pose as a model for Ms. Fawcett who loved to paint. I had to stand for hours with a platter of fruits in my hand, but in the end, the pay was good and it was totally worth it to watch the painting come to life in front of my eyes.

Little my little, I my earnings started to accumulate, and my relationship with my neighbours improved. I became good friends with both Cedric and Luna. Cedric would often come over to the Burrow to hang out and play Quidditch with the twins and read comics.

One of my favourite pastimes in this world is to visit the Lovegoods and spend time with Luna.

I could never get tired of watching the quirky girl all day. Especially in the spring and fall when I would simply sit in her garden with my knees tucked and watch the girl play with her 'imaginary' friends in a trance.

The way she places a flower over her ear and dances around among the flowers with her wavy blonde hair dancing in the wind like a fairy sometimes takes my breath away, and I am not ashamed to admit that as an adult in the body of a child.

She would often introduce me to these 'friends' of hers and I would often play along just to carry on the conversation. It seems she takes after her father who is really quirky, even by wizarding standards.

Her mother, Ms. Pandora on the other hand is a nice woman who is very kind to me. I know that she dies due to an accident in front of a nine year old Luna in the future, causing her to be able to see Thestrals. I don't know if I can prevent her death seeing as I don't even know what caused her death in the first place. But I wish to prevent it in any way I can.

The sun begins to rise over the horizon just as I finish feeding Sally and the birbs, I head over to the Orchard and inspect the resting place of my furry victim. The small area was barren so I casted the <Herbivicus> spell to make tiny sprouts of grass to grow in the area. The spell couldn't make the grass grow completely since I casted it without a wand, but it will do for now.

I headed back home and freshened up before heading to the Kitchen to prepare breakfast for my family. I mostly try to use magic to cook since it turns out to be a great way to practice spells. Not long after, I am joined by mum, who kisses me on my head and joins me in cooking.

Soon, the Dining table is filled with large servings of the typical English breakfast including eggs, ham, sausages, baked beans and toast, just in time for the others to join in. No matter how poor we are, the Weasley household always has enough food to feed the entire family plus guests, and still have some food leftover.

While we were having our breakfast, questions regarding Scabbers' whereabouts were asked and I had to deflect the conversation towards the Chudley Canons' recent game a couple of times. No one seems to have suspected anything at the moment and from the nonchalant attitudes everyone seem to have towards Scabbers, I'm sure he won't be missed much either.

Later, when everyone went about their own things, I headed back to my room to learn and practice magic. At present, my entire magic repertoire consists of five spells: <Wingardium Leviosa>, <Incendio>, <Locomotor>, <Herbivicus>, and the sleeping charm. All these spells are from 'The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1' by Miranda Goshawk.

I knew that learning a ton of spells wouldn't help me much in killing Peter Pettigrew, who was a former student of Hogwarts. Thus I decided to spend 4 years trying to master a select few spells to a high enough proficiency that I could cast the spells effortlessly without a wand, and in the case of the sleeping charm, non-verbally, such that my chances of successfully killing Peter using the element of surprise would be higher. Ironically though, I didn't require any spells to kill Peter, but meh, the results are all that matters.

Now with that problem out of the way, it's finally time for me to catch up on my studies that I have been putting off for so long. There are a few more spells that I have yet to learn from the book like the locking and unlocking charms, the mending charm, the wand lighting charm and the Severing charm.

I wanted to learn the severing charm so bad, but I nearly cut myself by trying it out once, so I decided to put it off until I got a wand to practice it with.

Wands aren't a necessary component in casting magic, but they help to channel one's magic power to easily achieve results. I once read that there are several wizarding schools in other continents that teach students to cast magic without casting.

Sitting down on my desk, I mulled over the various spells shown in the book, and tried to visualize how each of these spells come to existence. I find that having a proper mental picture of the spells makes it easier for me to cast them wandlessly.

Then I looked over the other books for the first year in Hogwarts, but I found some of them to be daunting, especially Potions and Herbology. Learning about the flora and fauna in the magical world is really a difficult task.

It is one of the few places where my advantage of being a reincarnated person is useless, because even in my previous life I knew zilch about plants and animals… except maybe that one walks and the other doesn't.

But oddly, that is what makes me drawn into these subjects, because any progress that I make in these field swill be due to my own hard work and perseverance.

I didn't notice time flowing by as I was engrossed in the books and soon, it was evening and Dad had come home from work.

While we were having dinner, a messenger Owl dropped by with a letter from Bill. He wrote about how he had once again been chosen to be the Prefect for Gryffindor House this year, and how professor McGonagall had hinted that he may be selected as Head Boy in year VII since his O.W.L. (Ordinary Wizarding Level tests) scores are Outstanding.

The whole house got into an uproar that night and celebrated the good News. Even Ted the troll, could be heard often banging the pipes in a rhythmic manner.