Harry Potter: Chosen's Angel

Chapter 6: Of Chores and Butter

Night again befell the land of merry old England, embracing it in all its horrible woes. Even Wizarding kind has failed to conquer the night's most daunting foes. Indeed, inside the Weasley burrow, all but one member of the expansive family was enjoying the night's most fruitful aspect. Sleep. That one expectation however was poor little Ginny Weasley, who tossed and turned as if she had been afflicted by itching powder. However, inside the confines of her mind… she wished that were only what was afflicting her.

Ginny found herself walking through the long, dark, foreboding halls of a castle's great hall. Long, almost intimidatingly large tables lined with shadowy students in Hogwarts robes of varying sizes turned to look at her as they began whispering. As she listened closely, she could pick out what they were saying.

"Look… it's the girl Weasley…" One of them sneered.

"I heard her oldest brother was a Gryffindor Prefect and Head Boy…" Another one sneered.

"I heard her second oldest was captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and one of the best players in his year." Another whispered.

"And her oldest brother currently here, Percy, is one of the current Prefects of Gryffindor…" Another hushed whisper spoke out.

"Let's not forget the twins, who are two of the most coordinated Beaters the Gryffindor Quidditch team has ever seen…" Someone sneered at her.

"And her last brother, Ron, is supposedly the Best Wizard Chess player this school has ever seen along with being one of the heroes who won us the House Cup last year…" Someone from the Gryffindor table whispered.

"What can she bring to the Weasley Family legacy?" One of them asked.

"Yeah. It's not like she has any real talent of her own." Someone sneered.

"She's just the girl of the siblings. The baby of the family riding on her brothers' coat tails." Someone else sneered.

Ginny felt herself shrink more and more in on herself with each snide comment as she passed by. By the time she reached the Sorting Hat, a tattered old wizard's hat supposedly enchanted by Godric Gryffindor himself, she was afraid to actually sit down and have it put on her head. Gulping, she sat in the chair as the Hat was plopped down on her head.

"SLYTHERIN!" The Hat roared out.

The hall was silent for a moment. But only for a moment. Soon, snickers began to be heard amongst the hushed crowd. Those snickers began getting louder and louder until the entire hall was roaring with laughter. Laughter at her, the only Weasley in her family's history to not be in Gryffindor. Soon, Mafalda's voice spoke up as she turned to look at her cousin.

"Tough luck, cousin!" Mafalda sneered before laughing with the others.

The cacophony of laughter was what broke Ginny from the realm of sleep to the realm of the living. Bolting up, she felt as if she were about to jump through the ceiling into the attic. Her heart was pounding, cold sweat pouring down her like a tea kettle, and breathing heavily. Placing her heart on her chest, she looked at the slow ticking clock by her bedside. Realizing it was still in the dead of night, she frustratingly lay back on her bed, not bothering them. She just had to try and hope she could get some sleep.

Later: Near Breakfast Time

"Mrs. Weasley, it's all right. I just want to help." Harry's voice came from the kitchen as Ginny very tiredly dragged herself down the stairs.

"Nonsense, Harry dear. You are a guest in this house. I always place a spell on the dishes to make them wash and put themselves away after everyone is done. Honestly, you've been pushing for this for the last five days." The voice of the Weasley patriarch told The-Boy-Who-Lived.

"My Aunt always had me do dishes after meals, so I guess I'm just used to it now." Harry said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Well, you don't have to do that here. You're a guest in our home, Harry. Now go wash up and I'll have something put together for you once you get back." Molly told him.

Knowing when he is beat on stubbornness, Harry gave a nod and left the kitchen. However no sooner had he left the room, he ran into something. With a tumbling and a shake of his head, he then looked to see what he ran into. To his surprise, opposite of him was Ginny Weasley.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ginny. I didn't see you there." Harry said as he straightened his glasses before dusting himself off. Soon, he then outstretched his hand to pull her up.

"I-It's alright, Harry…" Ginny nervously but tiredly told him, accepting his offered hand.

With a simple pull, he had her up on her feet faster than expected. "Are you all right, Ginny? You look like you didn't sleep at all last night." Harry asked with concern in his voice, which got Ginny to clam up visibly.

"I'll be fine. Just need to get some food and tea into me to start the morning…" Ginny replied, trying to change the subject.

"Alright. See you at breakfast." Harry said, respecting her privacy and heading off to go wash up.

With the threat to her blood pressure having been dealt with, Ginny then headed into the kitchen. Molly soon then noticed her daughter's tiredness and soon whipped up a cup of builders' tea for her daughter. She then set it down, and Ginny did not even notice.

"Ginny, dear. Did you even sleep last night? You look horrid this morning." Molly said with all the concern of a mother hen.

Ginny yawned tiredly. "I didn't sleep well last night, mum. But I'll be fine after I eat and have tea." she told her mother.

"Well, don't be afraid to ask for more cups of tea, dear. I made plenty. I heard from Ron that Harry loves tea." Molly said as she then went back to cooking breakfast.

Ginny nodded. "Yes, mum…" she replied as she grabbed her cup with both hands and began sipping quietly.

As the early morning dragged on, and to be frank the Weasley's were never the swiftest in the morning. Harry, however, was making himself busy. When Ron finally waddled his way into the living room, he saw Harry hard at work sweeping the floor. Which, pun intended, floored Ron at his friend's early morning antics.

"Morning, Ron." Harry said with a smile to his best friend.

"Harry, you don't need to sweep the floors. We'll handle any and all cleaning later after breakfast." Ron told his best friend, becoming concerned because Harry was doing it again.

"You will? Huh… back home I always had to do it before." Harry said with a confused shrug.

"Harry. You are a guest. Go get washed up and then head to the table to relax." Ron exasperatedly told his friend.

"I already washed up. I was just passing the time." Harry said, which further frustrated his ginger friend.

"Then go find a book to read or something. Just try to relax." Ron sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Harry nodded and put away the broom and dustpan before washing hands again just to be safe. Afterwards he sat down and laid back. Everything was different here… and he was not entirely sure how to handle it. He felt like he should be doing something. Anything. It was at that point Harry noticed one of the moving pictures, one of a valiant knight astride his steed in a stunning landscape, was off kilter just a smidge. Harry then got up from the couch and tried to fix it ever so carefully, which finally had the twins, who had just entered the room, take action.

"Harry, you're a guest…" Fred told him in a deadpan.

"You don't have to clean or fix anything while you're here." George finished for his twin.

"Sorry, I just noticed it was off kilter." Harry said as he finished.

"Harry. Go and relax until everyone's here for breakfast." the twins told him in deadpan stereo.

With that, Harry sighed and nodded and headed off. The twins shook their heads at the boy's antics.

"Blimy George. What has that horrid Muggle household done to him?" Fred asked his twin.

"I don't know, Fred. But we need to work on undoing it." George told his twin brother.

"Shame they're in the Muggle world. We could try those dragon-powder firecrackers in their shorts." Fred giggled devilishly.

George smirked at his twin. "Who says we can't sneak over at night and do it while they're asleep…?" he snickered.

At that the grandfather clock chimed, as if giving them an ominous warning. With a sigh, knowing the damnable clockwork contraption would snitch on them, they also headed into the kitchen for breakfast. Within the next few minutes, the rest of the gargantuan family was finally seated and Molly got to work putting food out. However, everyone but their guest was seated.

"Where's Harry?" Ginny asked, confused.

"I gave up at this point. Ginny, you track him down." Ron said with a groan.

With a nod and a sigh, Ginny got up to do it in place of her lazy brother. To her shock, and soon disappointment, it did not take her long to find him. She found him hard at work scrubbing the loo in one of the bathrooms. And he did not even notice her open the bathroom door.

Sighing, Ginny pinched the bridge of her nose. "Harry? What are you doing…?" she exasperatedly asked him.

"What does it look like?" Harry asked as he kept up his work.

"Harry, I say this because I care. You. Are. A. Guest. You don't need to clean. Now get up, put away the cleaning supplies, and come have some breakfast before I drag you to the table." Ginny told him, a bit annoyed.

"I fail to see how you could do that." Harry said, as if almost daring her.

Inside the mind of the normally eternally kind Ginny Weasley, something snapped. Her fingers gripped Harry's right ear lobe faster than a Leviosa charm can send an apple to the ceiling. The sharp turning pain was immediate as Ginny used it to force him along.

"Ow! Ow! Ginny, that's my ear!" Harry said, dropping the cleaning supplies in pain.

"If you're going to be as stubborn as a troll, then you're going to get treated like one." Ginny huffed as she dragged the poor boy along. 

The rest of the family was certainly shocked at the sight that they were presented with. Ginny practically threw the poor boy into his chair after pulling it out for him. As Harry sat and rubbed his ear, Ginny soon heard from her mother about it.

"Ginny, what are you doing!? Harry is our guest!" Molly chided her only daughter.

"Mum, he's been cleaning all morning. If he's going to be more stubborn than a graphorn-riding troll, then he's got to be treated like one to get the point." Ginny huffed before sitting down, conveniently across from the bolt-scarred boy.

Ron sighed. "Don't be too hard on him, Gin. He was like this in our first year, too." He told his baby sister.

"Ronny Boy, you haven't been holding out a good story on us, have you?" George asked, immediately perking up from his half-soggy eggs from that.

"Ronald, don't you dare!" Harry told his best friend.

"Do it, Ron. Or we'll put a bullfrog in with your house scarf." Fred threatened, and Ron was torn.

Finally, after a minute, he looked at his best friend. "Sorry, Harry, but Fred isn't bluffing. I don't want to deal with Malfoy making fun of me for smelling like an amphibian." he told Harry.

"Ron. You are a traitor." Harry said with disappointment in his voice.

"I'll make it up to you later." Ron told his bolt-scarred best friend.

As Harry sank back into his chair with embarrassment in his voice, Ron began. "It all started back at the start of the school year…" Ron started.

Last Year: Roughly First Week of Hogwarts Curriculum

Ron, who was busy stuffing his face at breakfast, turned to see that Harry was not with him. Turning to Neville Longbottom, he swallowed a mouthful of chewed food. "Neville, where's Harry? I thought he was right behind me." he asked their roommate.

"He stopped and turned back into the room, Ron." Neville told him, sounding a bit worried.

Ron sighed and got up. "Make sure no one touches my food, Neville. I'll be right back." he told his friend.

"Sure, Ron." Neville told Ron as the Weasley boy headed back to their room.

Ron made his way swiftly through the halls of Hogwarts, not running, for then he would get in trouble. Once making it back to the dorms, he heard the sound of movement coming from their room. The door suspiciously left a crack open. Ron then kicked open the door, startling Harry and making him fall over.

"Harry, it's breakfast time. What are you still doing in here?" Ron asked confusedly as he pulled his friend to his feet.

"Just making the beds." Harry replied, going back to fixing the beds.

"... What?" Ron said in an utterly flummoxed tone.

"Everyone left their beds unmade, so I figured I'd take care of it." Harry explained, trying to get a wrinkle out of the blanket of one of the four-poster beds.

"What? Harry, you do realize that the house elves do that right?" Ron asked him.

"... What's a house elf?" Harry asked in confusion.

Ron sighed, then grabbed him by his robes and began pulling. "I'll explain on the way to breakfast. Now come on." Ron said as he pulled his friend out of the dorms.

"But Ron, I need to-" Harry began to protest before he was interrupted.

"No buts except yours sitting down and eating with the rest of us." Ron replied to his best friend.

End of Flashback

The room was filled with the wild hyena cackling of Fred and George at that, further embarrassing Harry. The other snickered or tried to hold it in as Molly was starting to get a very stern look on her face. However, it was not the matriarch of the Weasley family who acted against them first…

"Ginevra. We are not cave wizards and witches. We do not put our elbows in the butter." Percy sighed and told his little sister.

"What?" Ginny asked, confused at what her brother was saying.

Looking down, Ginny saw her elbow in the butter, the creamy dairy product staining the elbow of her shirt. Blushing red, Ginny immediately grabbed the butter and threw it at Percy's face. Laughing, the twins immediately capitalized on the situation.

"FOOD FIGHT!" the twins roared out, flinging their breakfast at Ron and Arthur.

Immediately, the situation devolved into mayhem as eggs, butter, sausage, and all other manners of things went flying across the kitchen. All while an outraged Molly tried to get back control of the situation.

"Not in front of Harry! Do you want him all to think we're savages!" the Weasley matriarch called out, whipping out her wand only for it to be knocked from her hand by a stick of butter of all things.

"Mum, we've done worse at Hogwarts!" Ron said, throwing a tomato into the side of George's face.

"Excuse me!?" Molly called out indignantly.

"I shouldn't have told you that…" Ron replied, getting a sunny side up egg to the face.

"Watch yourself, Ronald! Have at thee, yee demons Fred and George!" Arthur called out, lifted two pieces of buttered toast, and flung them at the twins.

Ginny's face went bright red at her family's behavior as she looked across at Harry. He gave a small smirk at the sight, which immediately had Ginny up and running. She soon rushed out of the kitchen to go clean up and changed. Harry, sensing something is wrong with her, rolls down below the table. Then he began to crawl below the table to escape the pureblood warzone.

He stopped briefly, reaching up and catching a piece of buttered and marmalade toast, and snacking on it as he crawled further. Once he reached the end of the table, and finished the toast, he made a break for it, just barely avoiding a mushroom having been curveballed by Mafalda. Once he was free from the kitchen he then walked after Ginny.

"I wonder what's gotten into her?" Harry muttered to himself as he began his way deeper into the house.