and where
did summer go
I will never know

ϟ

"Mum, if you keep force feeding her she's going to get sick," Fred said.

Molly Weasley slammed the fork down on the table and shot daggers at her son.

"Those mad muggles barely fed the child!" she ranted. "She's skin and bones! Skin and bones I tell you!"

Perry chewed as much as she could manage with a full mouth. By the time they had arrived home Mrs. Weasley had just finished breakfast. 

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley," Perry said after swallowing. "It really is delicious."

"You're very welcome, dear," she said before reluctantly returning to the stove. She kept glancing back at Perry to make sure she was eating.

The amount of times the Dursley's had taken the privilege of eating away from the young girl had made her thin and frail. Neither her nor Harry had noticed it since they were so used to being starved over the years.

From above, footsteps radiated down the stairs of the Weasleys house. A girl slightly smaller than Perry emerged down the staircase wearing a nightdress. Her red hair swung as she drowsily stepped off the last step and turned the corner to enter the kitchen. Her eyes widened as she sighted the blonde haired girl and raven haired boy sitting beside all the redheads.

"Hello," Perry said with a smile, remembering how the three Weasley boys had told her last year that they had a little sister.

She gave a small squeal and then ran back up the stairs. Perry looked to Ron and the twins with knitted eyebrows.

"Did I do something?" Perry asked.

"Don't sweat it, Perry," Ron said. "That's just Ginny, my sister. She's been talking about you two all summer."

"Yeah, she'll be wanting your autographs?" Fred said with a grin.

Nothing else was said until all five plates were spotless. Perry finished her last bite and stood up with Harry who had finished before her.

"Blimey, I'm tired," Fred said. "I think I'll go to bed and—"

"You will not," snapped Mrs. Weasley. "It's your own fault you've been up all night. You're going to de-gnome the garden for me; they're getting completely out of hand again."

"Oh, Mum—"

"And you two," she said sternly while pointing at Ron and George. Then she turned to Perry and Harry with a sweet smile, "You can go up to bed, dears. You didn't ask them to fly that wretched car—"

"It's okay Mrs. Weasley," Perry said sweetly.

"We can help with the de-gnoming," Harry added.

"That's very sweet of the two of you, but it's dull work," Mrs. Weasley said. "Now let's see what Lockhart's got to say on the subject."

Perry was familiar with the works of Lockhart. He was an extremely talented wizard from all she's read. Mrs. Weasley pulled out a big book and George let out a groan.

"Mum, we know how to de-gnome a garden—"

Perry stared at the wizard on the cover of the book, undoubtedly Gilderoy Lockhart. This moving picture was an image of him continuously winking at all of them.

"Mum fancies him," Fred failed to whisper.

"Don't be so ridiculous, Fred," Mrs. Weasley said as her cheeks turned a pink shade. "All right, if you think you know better than Lockhart, you can go and get on with it, and woe betide you if there's a single gnome in that garden when I come out to inspect it."

The five children walked out of the kitchen door and down the steps. Perry hopped down each one. Harry and Ron walked over to a little patch of vegetables, and Fred and George grabbed Perry to drag her over towards the flowers.

"Ever de-gnomed a garden, ickle Perry?" George asked.

"What do you think?"

"I'll take that as a no," he said.

"It's rather easy once you do it a few times," Fred said.

"Now, these gnomes aren't like any muggle gnomes," Fred said. "Don't feel bad for them; they'll bit you."

"Now watch and learn," George said. He reached down into a hole and pulled out a small, leathery, infant like potato looking creature. He held it by its ankles and started whipping it around in circles over his head. Then he whirled the creature into the air, tossing it about 40 meters out.

"Nice throw, Georgie," Fred said.

Perry's eyes were wide as she stared out at the creature.

"Don't worry," Fred said putting a hand on her shoulder. "It doesn't hurt them; just confuses them."

"And take it this way," George said, "If you don't hurt them, they'll hurt you."

"Blimey, how reassuring," she sassed.

George shook his head laughing. As he pulled out another gnome. Fred helped her grab the first gnome by its ankles and instructed her on where to toss it.

"Good job, ickle Perry," Fred said.

"You know, I'm taller than I was last year," she said.

"Yes, but still ickle," he said.

She rolled her eyes before grabbing another gnome. Harry was delicate with his first gnome, throwing him barely ten meters. That gnome, sensing weakness, ran back to Harry and sank its razor sharp teeth into his hand. Soon it became a game between the five children for who could throw the farthest gnome.

Ron and Harry walked over to where Perry, George, and Fred we're finishing throwing their last gnomes. George let out a sigh as he put his hands on his hips.

"They'll be back," Ron said. "They love it here... Dad's too soft with them; he thinks they're funny."

Right as he finished speaking, the sound of the front door slamming shut could be heard.

"He's back!" exclaimed George. "Dad's home."

The three Weasley boys ran past the two famous children and into the house. Harry looked at Perry and smiled. Perry smiled back and grabbed his arm pulling him into the house.

They walked into the kitchen to meet the other Weasleys. There they found a middle aged redheaded man wearing green, dusty robes. He had his eyes shut closed as he had had an eventful night.

"What a night," he sighed. "Nine raids! Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had my back turned."

"Find anything, Dad?" asked an eager Fred.

Perry caught a pair of brown eyes peeking around the corner of the stairs. Perry sneakily slipped away from the crowd as they listened to Mr. Weasleys recap of the night.

Perry walked around the corner and stood on the first step so the redhead girl couldn't sneak around her.

"Hello," Perry said with a smile. The girl jumped in place before turning to Perry, her eyes going wide as she did so. "I don't mean to frighten you."

"My names Persephone," she said extending her hand to the girl. "You're brothers tell me you're going to be a first year at Hogwarts."

She nodded and slowly shook Perry's hand before pulling it back urgently.

"You're going to love it there, I promise," Perry said. "And don't let your brothers scare you about anything, because whatever they say it's not half as bad."

The redhead girl let out a tiny giggle and smiled up slightly.

"I'm Ginny," she said.

"Nice to meet you, Ginny," Perry said smiling. "I'm glad there's another girl around here."

"You and me both," she said. "Try living with them."

"Oh, I could never," Perry said. "I think your mum said something about me staying with you in your room, as long as that's alright."

"Of course!" Ginny blurted out. "I mean— er— yeah, that's fine."

"Few," Perry said. "I can barely handle sharing a room with Harry; I could never share a room with Harry and Ron."

"Or you could get stuck with Fred and George," Ginny said.

"And wake up to a prank everyday until term begins," she said.

Ginny giggled. "Well," she said, "I should go clean up my room. Mums been telling me to anyway."

"Okay," Perry said moving to the side for her to pass by. She hurried up the stairs past the blonde haired girl. "It was nice to meet you, Ginny!" Perry called up the stairs before returning to the kitchen.

Perry returned to find Mr. Weasley up on his feet greeting Harry with a smile. "Good lord, is it Harry Potter? Very pleased to meet you, Ron's told us so much about—"

"Your sons flew that car to Harry's uncle's house and back last night!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "What have you got to say about that, eh?"

"Did you really?" said Mr. Weasley, not the slightest hint of anger could be found in his tone. "Did it go all right? I— I mean— that was very wrong, boys— very wrong indeed.."

Harry and Ron slowly backed away and towards Perry.

"Where'd you go?" Harry asked.

"To make friends," Perry said.

"With Ginny?" Ron asked. "Did she actually speak?"

"Yes," Perry said, "Somewhat."

"Well, come with me and I'll show you both my room," Ron said. "You don't want to stick around for their bickering."

Ron and Harry walked forward and Perry walked behind him.

"Where're you going, ickle Perry?" Fred asked.

"Come on," George said calling her over, "We'll introduce you to our dad."

Perry watched Harry and Ron walk ahead and turned back towards Fred and George with a polite smile painted across her face.

"Hey, Dad," Fred said, "This is Persephone."

Perry smiled at the redheaded man. He walked over and shook the girls hand.

"My, my, how nice it is to finally meet you Persephone," he said. "The boys certainly talk about you a lot, but then again so does Ginny. Ron told me about how brilliant you are. Now, this is a bit of an odd question, but can you explain to me the proper function of a rubber duck."

"Oh, well, I guess... it's to provide entertainment— and make taking baths less of a hassle for young children."

"Of course," he said slapping the table in excitement. "And why would one not use what muggles call a 'basketball' for the sport they call 'baseball'?"

"Well," she said, "Like quidditch, muggles use different equipment for their different sports. Quidditch happens to have three different balls in one game, and muggles have a different ball for each of their games."

He nodded. "And what about—"

"Arthur!" Mrs. Weasley squealed at him. "Let the girl be. Ron's trying to make up for her and Harry's missed birthdays, and your interrogation isn't helping."

"Missed birthday?" he asked, looking from the girl to the twins to his wife. "Well, that's not allowed is it."

He got up from his chair and walked outside the door. Mrs. Weasley let out a sigh and left the room to walk upstairs and help Ginny.

"Where'd you think he's going?" George asked.

"Dunno," Fred answered.

"Fred and George!" Mrs. Weasley boomed from up the stairs.

"Now what's that about?" Fred asked. "What else can she get mad about."

"Suppose mums seen our room," George said with a grin.

"Get up here now!" she boomed again.

"Be down in a jiffy, ickle Perry," George said running up the stairs. Fred sent her a wink and ran up after his brother.

Perry sat at the table for a moment to take in all that had happened in the past few hours. As she was recollecting her thoughts, Mr. Weasley burst through the door once again. In his hand he held a small, horribly wrapped parcel.

"Now," he said sitting in the seat opposite of her, "It just so happened that I had this in my shed, and if Molly or anyone asks you where you got it, it wasn't from me."

He slid it across to her and she carefully picked it up. She untied the twine bow and unfolded the brown paper. Inside she found a small leatherback book. She looked through the first few pages to find they were blank."

"My boys have told me that you're quite the artist, so I thought maybe you'd like to have this. I have no use for it."

"Thank you," Perry said with a smile, while a new warm feeling she hadn't felt before resonated in her chest.

"It's got endless pages," he said. "That's why it was in my shed. There's not a lot of charmed books like that anymore."

Perry put her thumb on the front of the book and slowly allowed it to trace over the pages, quickly flipping through them. The pages continued to flow. For at least ten second Perry stared at the book as the pages continued to flip. She placed it down in front of her, amazed that it still looked like a small leather book.

"Now," Mr. Weasley began to explain, "When you want to find a certain page, all you must do is think of it." He grabbed a quill from behind it and handed it to her. He opened up the book to a random page and held it open for her. "Go ahead."

Perry couldn't think of anything to draw so she signed her name in cursive across the page. Once she was done and the ink was settled, Mr. Weasley shut the book and handed it to her. "All you have to do is think about it and it will open to it."

Perry held the book and thought about her signature. The pages flipped open straight to the page with her name signed across it.

Perry hopped up and gave Mr. Weasley a big hug. "Thank you," she said while he hugged her back.

Perry smiled, grabbed the book, and walked around the corner to the stairs. She had no clue where she was going but she kept climbing. The stairs kept going, and Perry was out of breath by the time she reached Rons room. Since she left Hogwarts she hadn't gotten any exercise at all.

"There you guys are," she said with a smile.

"Where did you go?" Harry asked. "I thought you were right behind us?"

"I got caught up," Perry said taking a step into Ron's room. "This is your room?"

"I know it's not much," he said. "Especially compared to your room back—"

"Ron," Perry said cutting him off. "It's remarkable."

A pink blush fell upon his cheeks. Perry looked around at all of the posters with wide open mouth.

"What do you got there," Harry asked referring to the gift Mr. Weasley had given to her.

"Just a book," she said dreamily as she observed everything in the room. "Who are they?"

She was pointing to the many posters of a quidditch team wearing bright orange robes.

"The Chudley Cannons," Ron said.

"You're quidditch team, I'm guessing."

"Yeah," he said scratching behind his ear.

Perry sat down on the bed next to Harry staring around at the room.

"Ginny's room is right below us," Ron said. "That's where you'll be staying, Perry."

"Excellent," Perry said.

A loud bang from above startled both Harry and Perry off of Ron's bed.

"That's the ghoul in the attic," Ron said sheepishly. "He's a nuisance."

"I love this house," Harry and Perry said at the same time.