Chapter 20. Set Off, to School!
After what happened last night, and with Mrs Weasley's anger not yet cooled, Duncan and Fred and George all became obedient in a hurry, lest they accidentally tug at Mrs Weasley's whiskers again and make her angry.
In the blink of an eye a week passed.
The summer holidays ended, and the day to start school arrived.
"Are you all ready yet?
We ought to set off!"
Mrs Weasley's voice echoed through every corner of the Burrow.
She was up as soon as the cockerel crowed this morning.
She was busy as a spinning top that couldn't stop turning.
First she prepared breakfast for the whole family.
Then she helped several of her children pack their things.
Especially Ron.
Like Duncan, he was a first-year.
But unlike Duncan's ease, he seemed to have a fear of term starting.
The moment he got up, tension and worry were written all over his face.
He came downstairs with his clothes on inside out, only realising after someone reminded him.
Even when chatting with Duncan, he was absent-minded, like a puppet whose limbs were being tugged along by strings.
As departure time drew near, his nervousness grew worse.
He kept feeling there was still something he hadn't put in his trunk, and he ran up and down the stairs over and over.
His voice echoed from every corner of the house.
"Mum, do you know where my xx is?
I can't find it!"
Mrs Weasley would answer, "Didn't you put that in your trunk last night?
Have another proper look!"
Ron would reply and then throw himself into searching for the next thing.
He spent the whole morning dashing back and forth.
At Mrs Weasley's repeated calls, a rumbling sounded at the stairhead.
Fred and the others appeared one after another, each dragging one or even two huge trunks.
Standing among them with only a suitcase made Duncan look out of place.
"Have you all packed your things?" Mrs Weasley asked.
"Done, done, we guarantee not a single thing left behind!" Fred rattled off, as if urging them to depart.
Mrs Weasley gave Fred a dubious once-over.
"You two haven't stuffed any of your dangerous things into your trunks, have you?"
"What dangerous things?
How could we take that sort of thing to school!" Fred and George blinked with faces full of innocence.
"Those contraptions you make!" Mrs Weasley said sternly.
"Open your trunks and let me check!"
"Mum, you ought to trust us!" Fred protested loudly, sounding mortally wounded.
"I used to trust you too much, and that's precisely why you made so many mistakes!" Mrs Weasley strode forward and snatched the twins' trunks.
She flicked her wand.
With a snap the latches sprang open, and clothes, books... all sorts of things surged out, circled the room with drilled precision, then settled back neatly into the trunks, which clicked shut.
Fred snatched his trunk back from Mrs Weasley, looking as if he were angry.
He and George hauled their trunks towards the door in long strides.
"Mum, we already said you ought to trust us!
But you still did that—checking our trunks as if we were criminals bound for Azkaban!"
"That's because the impression you left me in the past was far too abysmal!" Mrs Weasley shot back without the slightest politeness.
Then she turned to Ron.
"Have you packed your things properly?"
"Eh?" Ron snapped out of his wild thoughts only when he heard his mother's question.
He nodded on reflex.
"Y-yes, all packed..."
Mrs Weasley nodded in satisfaction and shifted her gaze to Duncan.
"And yours, Duncan?"
"I've very few things.
I packed last night," Duncan said, lifting his suitcase and giving it a little shake.
"Then let's be off!" Mrs Weasley took Ginny by the hand and swept out towards the door.
Duncan followed right behind them.
In the little front garden by the door, a brand-new small car stood parked on the path.
It was the one Duncan had written a few days earlier to ask Tina to book for them, to make getting to King's Cross Station easier.
Mr Weasley circled the car with great interest, now and again bending down to touch here, tap there, and peer closely along the bodywork.
He looked for all the world like a madcap engineer.
The hire had originally come with a driver, but Mr Weasley had refused.
He said he could handle the driving perfectly.
Percy stood to one side holding something and reading it.
"Arthur, can we set off yet?" Mrs Weasley cut across Arthur's research and called out.
"Of course, of course..." Mr Weasley reluctantly took his eyes off the car.
He opened the boot and waved the children over.
"Come on, put your trunks in."
When Duncan came over, Mr Weasley slung an arm companionably around his shoulder and leaned in.
"This car's really something," he said excitedly.
"I'm thinking of modifying the one in the shed to be like this.
Next term you can ride in my car to school."
Duncan glanced at Mrs Weasley, who was shepherding everyone into the car, and lowered his voice.
"Does Mrs Weasley agree to your doing that?"
"Let that be our little secret for now—don't tell her yet.
By the time I've done it, it'll be too late for her to object!" Mr Weasley winked at Duncan with a grin.
He kept his arm hooked around him, and the two of them got into the car together.
"Ready?" Mr Weasley, a little overexcited, started the engine.
After everyone replied, he stamped on the accelerator.
The tyres spun twice on the spot with a hiss, left a black streak, and the car shot out of the garden.
Duncan and the others were flung all over the place.
Ron and Percy cracked their heads together with a sharp smack and yelped in pain.
They complained loudly and shouted for Mr Weasley to drive more steadily.
Pro slipped out of Duncan's pocket as well.
It scrambled up onto his head, grabbed his hair to steady itself, and stood there, afraid of being squashed by the people on either side.
Mr Weasley nodded in acknowledgement, but his foot still didn't ease off the accelerator.
The car hurtled forward madly, and the scenery outside the windows turned into blurred afterimages, like multicoloured liquid sliding across the spotless glass.
Fortunately, the car had been treated by magic, so everything in the way would automatically jump aside.
Otherwise, with Mr Weasley's novice driving and rough manoeuvres, they would have been smashed to bits long ago.
Because of Mr Weasley's speeding, they reached the station half an hour earlier than planned.
He pulled up by the kerb and handed the car over to the car-hire company employee who had been waiting there.
Mr Weasley found luggage trolleys for everyone, then stayed to speak with the hire man.
Meanwhile, Duncan and the others unhurriedly made their way into King's Cross Station.
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