Chapter 133

C 133

There was nothing I could do about the newspaper situation that the Agents weren't already doing themselves. Apparently, the Daily Prophet had gone to ground after Diagon Alley was liberated. It was still obviously under Death Eater control, but it was now being printed and distributed across the magical community from an unknown location. The Death Eaters couldn't physically defeat SHIELD, so they had turned toward propaganda and turning the people SHIELD had saved against them. These witches and wizards really were sheep.

It wasn't exactly their fault, though. The Ancient One was correct. Hogwarts was an absolutely atrocious institution. The students who graduated there didn't have a chance in the real world. They hardly learned anything useful there and were never taught about fake news and not to believe something immediately just because it's in the newspaper. These tabloids were also probably the reason why someone was harassing the Agents as well.

…

While I pondered all of that, I was currently flying through the countryside, towards the location that Heather had given me. I had to admit that I was pretty excited to see the Burrow in real life. I wonder if it really was just a pile of sticks all held up by magic or if it was an actual house?

A few more minutes, and I had my answer.

The Burrow really was a pile of sticks…

A complete nonsensical mishmash of sticks, wooden boards, tree stumps, and any other type of wood had been magically fused together to create the single ugliest house I had ever seen. 

As I flew towards the Burrow, I felt some kind of ward or barrier try to prevent me from entering the nearby land. It wasn't even close to powerful enough to keep me out though. I busted through it with ease. A loud shattering noise echoed all across the homestead, and as I flew towards the wooden house, I could hear shouting inside.

"Our ward scheme was just destroyed!" Someone screamed.

"The Death Eaters are coming! They're coming! Call Dumbledore!" The panicked voice of a young man sounded out.

"Everyone get ready! We Weasley's won't go down without a fight!" A third voice yelled loudly. He sounded the oldest so far. I figured that was Arthur Weasley.

I landed on the front porch, feeling a bit awkward. I didn't think pushing through their wards would cause them to shatter…

There was nothing I could do about it now except apologize.

I knocked on the wooden door that looked to be just a large sheet of tree bark… I heard some shuffling around inside the house along with mumbles.

"Who is it?" Arthur Weasley asked loudly.

"Hello! I'm sorry about your wards. My name is Layla. I'm a friend of Heather's. She wanted me to come check on you all."

There was more muffled whispering inside the house before I heard someone march up to the front door. It swung open quickly, and I had to take a step back to avoid getting smacked. A second later, there was a glowing wand tip pointed right at my face!

"I don't remember Ron mentioning that Heather had any friends named Layla and…woah!" A man, who I would estimate to be in his 20s, with a large scar on his face got a good look at me and immediately lowered his wand. He cleared his throat and smiled at me in a way he thought was dashing. It actually was, it just didn't work on me obviously. "Well, Hello there gorgeous! Now that I think about it, I do remember Heather talking about her stunning friend named Layla. I take it that must be you?" Bill Weasley lied flawlessly as he flirted with me.

[He went from thinking he was about to die to trying to get laid… You and he could become best friends!]

"Bill what the hell!?" Another Weasley yelled from inside! "Keep it in your damn pants, you wanker! We don't know if she's a secret Death Eater or something!"

Bill turned around and yelled to his family. "I promise you guys. She's no Death Eater. This is the hottest bird I've ever seen in my life, and no inbred pureblood genes could create something like her!" He then spun back around towards me. "Would you like to come inside?"

"Sure," I replied as I followed him in. Just like in the movies, the inside of the Burrow was a lot nicer than the outside was. It felt very homey.

There were quite a few redheads gaping at the sight of me as I entered.

"Holy smokes, Gred! I think she's a goddess!"

"That's not true, Forge! She must be an Angel sent from Heaven!"

Two identical-looking redheads spoke one after the other. They were both joking around, but one of them almost nailed it right there. Too bad I wasn't exactly 'sent' from heaven and more like kicked out by its outdated system.

"Noys, it's rude to talk to a guest like that. Excuse my children miss Layla. I am Arthur Weasley. If you truly are a friend of Heather's, then you are welcome here. Maybe next time try not to break our ward scheme though. Those ward stones they require are expensive after all, especially now that Gringotts closed down and took all of our meager savings with them. The bastards!" Arthur muttered bitterly.

I still felt bad, so I waved my hand, and 100 Asgardian gold coins spilled out of my inventory and onto the floor. "Sorry again. This should do as repayment." The four redheads in the room all froze up and gaped at the gold coins as they clattered onto the ground.

"What? No…We can't accept any hand–" Arthur Weasley looked like he was going to reject the money, but his son Bill cut him off and told me thank you. He was the one who was supposed to be working for Gringotts. Now that they'd left, he was out of a job as well.

I looked around the living room and nearby kitchen of the Burrow. "So where is everyone else? I know that there's a lot of you Weasleys after all."

XXX

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