Chapter 16 - Introductions

***** REGULARLY SCHEDULED RELEASE ***** A/N: Lol so I had a joke chapter planned for yesterday on april fools. But seeing how people reacted to the vow a few chapters ago, i decided to skip, lest everyone get angry and take it seriously ahahah. Anyways, I had covid last week, so that was fun. I'm recovering still, but at least now I can look at screens ahaha. Anyways, expect 2 bonus chapters this week, to make up for my sickness last week. Hope you all enjoy! *****

"Did he eat it?" asked Fred excitedly, as Hermione helped Harry to his feet, after mobbing him.

Fred and George had flashed into the living room right before Harry.

"Yeah." Said Harry straightening up. "What WAS that?"

"Ton-Tongue-Toffee. George and I invented it." Said Fred brightly. "We've been looking for someone to test them on all summer!"

'Definitely Garreth's descendants'. Thought Khan to himself, at Fred and George's inventions. He fondly remembered all the crazy experiments Garreth did in Potions class.

The living room exploded with laughter.

Harry looked around after getting to his feet, and took in the surroundings; especially the 3 unfamiliar people.

Two older redheads sat on a nearby sofa, with a well-dressed asian student sitting on a loveseat directly opposite them.

Having heard about the elder Weasley siblings before from various individuals at Hogwarts, he immediately knew these two redheads must be Bill and Charlie.

He did not however recognize this Asian student.

The only noticeable asian student he knew of that attended Hogwarts was a soon-to-be-5th year student named Cho Chang.

Having flown against her in Quidditch, he was vaguely familiar with the asian beauty.

Perhaps this student was her elder brother, attending an overseas school?

"How are you doing Harry?" said the nearer of the two, grinning at him. Getting to his feet and holding out a large hand, which Harry shook, feeling calluses and blisters under his fingers.

'This has to be Charlie, who works with dragons in Romania.' He concluded to himself.

Glancing him over, he observed that Charlie was built like the twins; shorter and stockier than Percy and Ron, who were both long and lanky. He had a broad, good-natured face, which was weather-beaten and so freckly that he looked almost tanned. His arms quite muscly and budging, one of them sporting a large, shiny burn on it.

The other redhead, Bill got to his feet smiling, and also shook Harry's hand, greeting him. "Hey Harry!"

Bill came something of a surprise to Harry.

He knew that he worked for Gringotts wizarding bank, and that he had been headboy at Hogwarts. Thus, he had always imagined Bill to be an older version of Percy, who was headboy his previous year at Hogwarts; Fussy about rule-breaking and fond of bossing everyone else around.

However, Harry was dead wrong about his assumption.

Bill was, for lack of a better word, cool.

He was tall, with long hair that he had tied back in a ponytail. Sporting an earing, with what looked to be a fang dangling from it, Harry observed that even his clothes would not look out of place at a muggle rock concert, except that Harry recognized his boots to be made not of leather, but of dragon hide.

The Asian student also got to his feet, smiling and holding out his hand to greet him.

"Nice to meet you Harry! I have heard a lot about you from my new friends, Hermione and the Weasleys. I am Jordan Khan. I look forward to getting to know you."

Harry shook Khan's hand in response also greeting him back, as he looked him over trying to place the unfamiliar student.

'Definitely not Cho's brother.' He thought to himself.

Khan meanwhile was looking at Harry with interest.

With his ancient magic, he could see various colors of magic spells.

Control spells, such as Glacius and Levioso, appeared yellow to him.

Force spells, such as Accio and Descendo, appeared purple to him.

Harry however, seemed to have some kind of pinkish colored protegeo spell, surrounding him, constantly pushing against a green colored spell, originating from his scar on his forehead.

And due to his experience, Khan knew from his use of dark magic, that it typically appeared green.

'So an unknown pink spell, is attempting to fight off some dark magic curse?'

Khan was intrigued with this new spell color, intending to research it further.

Was this another form of ancient magic?

Before anyone could say anything else, Arthur apparated into the room, looking angrier than Harry and Khan had ever seen him.

"That was funny Fred!" He shouted, face as red as his hair. "What on earth did you give that Muggle boy?"

"I didn't give him anything." said Fred sporting an evil grin. "I just dropped it.... it was his fault he went and ate it. I never told him to."

"You dropped it on purpose!" roared Mr Weasley. "You knew he'd eat it! You knew he was on a diet!"

"How big did his tongue get??" Interrupted George, as he asked his dad eagerly for the results.

"It was four feet long before his parents would let me shrink it!"

Harry, Khan, and the rest of the Weasleys roared with laughter.

"It isn't funny!" My Weasley shouted in protest. "That sort of behavior seriously undermines wizard-muggle relations! I spend half my life campaigning against the mistreatment of muggles, and my own sons-"

"We didn't give it to him because he was a muggle!" Interrupted Fred indignantly.

"We gave it to him because he's a great bullying git!" Finished George for his twin. "Isn't he Harry?"

"Yeah he is." Agreed Harry earnestly.

"That's not the point!" raged My Weasley. "You wait until I tell your Mother-"

"Tell me what?" said a voice from behind them.

Mrs. Molly Weasley had just entered the living room.

She was a short plump woman, with a very kind face.

Though at the moment her eyes were narrowed with suspicion, at what she had just walked into.

"Oh! Hello, Harry dear." She greeted Harry kindly, spotting him and smiling.

Then, quick as a flash, her eyes snapped back to her husband, as she asked him in a scary tone.

"Tell me WHAT, Arthur?"

Mr Weasley hesitated.

Harry and Khan could tell, that however angry he was with the twins, he hadn't really intended to tell Mrs Weasley what had happened.

There was a silence, as Mr Weasley eyed his wife nervously.

It was then, that the youngest Weasley, Ginny, decided to join them in the living room.

A small girl, she was rather feisty, being the youngest of 6 brothers.

She smiled in greetings at Harry, who smiled back at her. This caused Ginny to go scarlet - She was still quite taken with Harry, and had been since his first visit to the Burrow.

"Tell me what, Arthur?!?" Mrs Weasley repeated, in an increasingly dangerous tone.

"It's nothing, Molly." Mumbled Mr Weasley placatingly. "Fred and George just... They..... But its ok....I've had words with them."

"What have they done this time?" asked Mrs Weasley. "If its got anything to do with their 'Weasleys Wizard Wheezes....."

"Errrr... Why don't we show Harry where he's sleeping?" Said Hermione helpfully, hoping to politely avoid a family argument.

"He knows where he's sleeping." Responded Ron ignorantly. "In my room! He slept there last time..."

"We can help him with his things." Added Hermione, as she stared at Ron pointedly, hoping he caught on.

"Right...." Agreed Ron, more out of fear of Hermione's gaze, than at understanding the situation.

"Yeah! We'll come too!" said George, hoping to avoid his mother.

"YOU TWO STAY WHERE YOU ARE." Snarled Mrs Weasley in response.

Khan, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny made their exit, as they all edged out of the living room sneakily. Setting off along the narrow hallway towards the rickety stairs, they began to climb up towards the upper stories, carrying Harry's things.

"So what are Weasleys Wizard Wheezes?" asked Harry, as they all climbed upstairs.

Ron, Ginny and Khan laughed out loud, although Hermione didn't.

"Mum found this stack of order forms when she was cleaning Fred and George's room." replied Ron quietly, as though fearful his mum would catch him gossiping. "Great long price-lists for all the stuff they've invented. Joke-stuff, you know? Fake wands, trick sweets, potions; loads of stuff. It was brilliant! I had no idea they were inventing all those stuff...."

"We've been hearing all types of sounds coming from their room for ages. Explosions mainly." Added Ginny helpfully. "But we never thought they were actually MAKING things! We thought they just liked the noise."

"Except..... most of the stuff.... well, all of it really..... was just a bit dangerous." Finished Ron. "They were planning to sell it at Hogwarts to make some money, but Mum went mad at them. Burned all their order forms, and told them they weren't allowed to continue..... She's furious at them anyways, so this just pushes it over the top. They didnt get as many O.W.L.s as she expected."

"And then there was this big row." Continued Ginny. "Because Mum wants them to go into the Ministry of Magic like Dad, and they told her all they want to do is open a joke-shop."

Just then, a door on the 2nd landing opened, and a face poked out wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a very annoyed expression.

"Hi Percy." Greet Harry politely, as Khan simply returned Percy's annoyed back to him.

Something about Percy rubbed Khan the wrong way.

"Oh hello, Harry." Percy condescendingly greeted him back in response. "I was wondering who was making all the noise. I'm doing important work in here you know! Top secret and highly important for the office! And its rather difficult to concentrate when people keep thundering up and down the stairs."

"We're not thundering." Replied Khan irritably. "We're walking. Sorry if we have disturbed the 'top secret' workings of the Ministry."

"What are you working on?" Asked Harry politely, trying to keep the peace.

"I shouldn't tell you.... but I am working on a report for the Department of International Magical Co-operation." Bragged Percy smugly. "We're trying to standardize cauldron thickness. Some of these foreign imports are just a shade too thin. leakages have been increasing at a rate of almost 3% a year-"

"That'll change the world, that report will." Interrupted Ron, hoping to keep Percy from going off on a bragging spree. "Front page of the Daily Prophet I expect, Cauldron leaks."

Percy went slightly pink at the comment.

"You might sneer, Ron." He replied heatedly. "But unless some sort of international law is imposed, we might well find the market flooded with flimsy, shallow-bottomed cauldrons, which will seriously endanger-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right." Ron says dismissively, as he continues upstairs, passing Percy.

Percy slammed his bedroom door shut, in response, as the 4 of them followed Ron up 3 more flights of stairs.

An angry shout was heard from Mrs Weasley downstairs, as they all arrived.

'I guess she found out about the Toffee.' Thought Harry to himself, as he began to place his things down on the ground of Ron's room.

"Khan is rooming in here with us, since Bill and George are in the spare bedroom." Explained Ron to Harry, as he gazed at the still unfamiliar student.

Harry curiously wondered who this student was.

He had a British accent like them, but Harry didn't know of any other Wizarding school in Great Britain aside from Hogwarts. And he didn't recognize him from there.

But this student seemed to be rather close to the Weasleys, if him staying here was any indication.

The room at the top of the house where Ron slept, looked the same as it had the last time Harry had visited. The same posters of Ron's favorite Quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons, were whirling and waving on the walls and the sloped ceiling.

Ron's old rat, Scabbers was no longer here. In his place was a tiny hyperactive grey owl, who had delivered Ron's' letter to Harry that summer. It hopped up and down in a small cage, twittering madly, excited to see Ron.

"Shut up Pig." Ron greeted his pet rudely, as he sat down on the 3 beds that were squeezed into the room.

Harry putting down his things, got comfortable on another bed, before asking something that had been weighing on his mind.

"Um - Why are you calling that owl Pig?"