While my mind was running at full speed and I was trying to make sense of the situation, my body was suddenly enveloped into the familiar warmth of the one maternal figure in my life. My mind went blank and all the unnecessary thoughts now subsided and I let myself go in the warmth.
As I was immersed in the hug I noticed a small familiar head which was now peaking at me from behind her brothers. There had been much change to the harry potter story than the last time and hence I was not met this time with the overly excited and equally shy but rather a somewhat cautious girl trying to figure it out for herself which of the two pieces of knowledge that she had was true.
She wanted to find out whether the harry in her stories was the brave one like told in her fairytales since young or the cold one like told by her brother after coming back from his first year with the great harry potter.
Mrs. Weasley released me from her grasp and asked me to go with the twins to freshen up so that I could join with the family for breakfast and that she would like to speak with me a bit after everyone had their fill.
The commotion had finally woken up the last member of the house as Ron came downstairs half asleep, yawning and demanding to know why the house is on fire this early in the morning. As quickly as he came down was just as quickly he was reprimanded by his mother to be polite and first greet the guest in the house rather than shout.
Ron was surprised to see me in his house during the holidays when the interaction between us had been cordial at best. He still greeted me politely and looked towards his family searching for a answer to this unwanted, unannounced presence in the house, but all he got in return was neglect as everyone went back to what they were doing and left him hanging.
I followed the twins to their room and after I had settled my luggage and got ready we moved to the breakfast table.
By the time we came down the then empty breakfast table was already full to the capacity with Ginny already seated and Ron still nowhere to be seen. Despite the table being full mrs. Weasley was still in the kitchen keeping busy.
Me and the twins sat on the table and began to make small talk about the upcoming year and the results this year. The twins were confident that they will score much better than anyone is expecting from them but also feel that they would just like to learn stuff as they like instead of following a mold already set in the form of a traditional Hogwarts education as that hampers their going off topic everytime they feel interested in a particular topic.
I had to explain that they should rather look towards Hogwarts more like a place of free test subjects and fun time instead of a punishment because all three of us knew that they were not made to fit the mold of any ministry job or the like and at the end will always depend on their creativity and spontaneity to make a living, and that they will only be happy following their hearts.
The twins complained that even if they were fine with following their heart, their mother will not support the loose career that they will be struggling to make and will try her best to make them follow a reputable career that will give them stability.
I had to convince the twins that there was a simple way to let their mother be okay with it, to score well in their OWL's. The look on their face was priceless . They complained that on one end I was telling them to have fun during their time at Hogwarts and on another I was suggesting studying hard to get good enough scores on OWL's to appease their mother, which if they go by past experience of their brothers will be very difficult.
I had to clarify that in the next two years they would have my financial backing to support their making of products or ideas as well as a strong network of correspondence with trained wizards and witches, without the pressure of releasing anything new so they now had to imagine the vast knowledge that they will stand to gain in the next two years while doing what they love. Yes it will be true that the knowledge will not totally correspond to the curriculum but due to the nature of their interests and the type of products that they create it is always the case that behind every single object they delve into always has the application of more that one subject and the knowledge behind it. This means that while they will be sitting for their OWL's they will have enough or even excess knowledge to score well, it will be just that it was not gained in the traditional way but at the end of the two years it will accumulate into success.
The twins understood somewhat but not completely and I knew that I had the rest of the summer break to make some sense for them and so I left the topic and turned towards Ginny to greet her but she instantly left her seat and made a dash towards the kitchen, I sighed and gave up.
After sometime we were all sitting on the table for breakfast, with Ron woken up by mrs. Weasley and Ginny too coming back to the table.
Midway in breakfast we heard the door open and in came Mr. Weasley. He was oblivious to my presence as he was the first time around and greeted his wife and kids. While Mrs. Weasley took the bag from his shoulders he made his way to the table and sat for breakfast. He immediately began discussing the work he had to do and his fascination with muggle products while realising mid sentence that one of the kid was not his and looked in a questioning manner towards mrs. Weasley.
Before she could introduce me I got up and introduced myself along with a polite bow and turned towards Ron to reprimand him that if he was to invite his friends he should have let them know so that they could prepare well. Seeing Ron deny that he was the one to invite me he looked confused and asked me to clarify who's guest was I if not Ron's.
I told him of my acquaintance with the twins and how in my first year I became friends with them along with informing him about the condition in which I was being kept by my relatives and politely asked for his permission to stay for a couple of weeks till new term starts to which he happily agreed.