Escape

Harry lay upon his bed bored. His uncle, insistant they would keep him from returning to school of weirdos, had barred his window and boarded up his door leaving a flap to pass food in.

They only let him out twice a day to use the bathroom.

He pondered his situation. 'If I can't leave the room I can't get back to the one place I'm happy. If I use magic to get out I'll get expelled and can't return. Why did Dumbledore insist I return to this miserable place?'

He was startled by a knock at the door. It was much too late for food and he'd already been given his night bathroom allowance.

The door swung open revealing Ron and one of the twins. Harry was on his feet in a flash. "What are you....how did you.......?"

"We were worried since we hadn't heard from you." Ron whispered back. "And Fred is seriously good a picking locks."

"It comes in handy."

"Grab your stuff we're going."

Harry gathered what was Hedwig in her cage and the few books he'd been able to hide in his room and directed Fred to the closet beneath the stairs where his uncle had put the rest.

They were heading out the front door when Harry had a thought. "Wait how did you guys get here?"

"We brought dad's car, George waiting."

They loaded up the old car and took off, Harry was shocked when the tires lft the road.

"What's the matter?" Fred asked picking the lock on Hedwig's cage. "Never seen a flying car before?"

"Well no but won't we get into trouble? None of us a graduated after all. I got a warning letter and it wasn't even me who did it."

"No worries, it's not like we enchanted it, it was already like this when we borrowed it from dad....without asking."

"Not that he'll notice anyways, he's been so busy with all the raids he's pretty much only been home for some quick sleep for months."

"Raids?"

"The ministry has been conducting raids looking for signs or items of dark magic or inappropriate use of magic. Since Dad works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office he's been running himself ragged."

Harry busied himself on the flight writing a letter to Carolina explaining why he hadn't written and how much he looked forward to seeing her and sent Hedwig off as soon as he finished.

They arrived at the Burrow as it was getting light. They were just getting their story straight when Ron turned green. The rest turned to see Mrs.Weasley marching arcoss the lawn.

Harry couldn't help but stare at the youthful looking woman, thick in all the right ways, poured into a dress a size too small.

“Have you any idea how worried I’ve been?” said Mrs. Weasley in a deadly whisper.

“Sorry, Mum, but see, we had to —”

All three of Mrs. Weasley’s sons were taller than she was, but they cowered as her rage broke over them.

“Beds empty! No note! Car gone — could have crashed — out of my mind with worry — did you care? — never, as long as I’ve lived — you wait until your father gets home, we never had trouble like this from Bill or Charlie or Percy —”

“Perfect Percy,” muttered Fred.

“YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAF OUT OF PERCY’S BOOK!” yelled Mrs. Weasley, prodding a finger in Fred’s chest. “You could have died, you could have been seen, you could have lost your father his job —”

It seemed to go on for hours. Mrs. Weasley had shouted herself hoarse before she turned on Harry, who backed away.

“I’m very pleased to see you, Harry, dear,” she said. “Come in and have some breakfast.” She turned and walked back into the house and Harry, after a nervous glance at Ron, who nodded encouragingly, followed her.