Chapter 132: Arc 4: Chapter 20: Wizard’s Home – The Burrow

There were plenty of magical elements in the wizarding world.

Merlin followed Mr. Arthur and young Hermione through the burning fireplace using a shiny green powder, and after 10 seconds of bizarre flight, they arrive at the Weasley's house.

"Blergh"

Young Hermione who was back on solid ground retches, Merlin supports her wobbly body. The young girl fiddled with her messy hair while complaining to Merlin with a pale complexion:

"I still can't handle Floo Powder even after so many times."

"Yeah."

Merlin's expression was slightly painful, he rubs on his forehead and says to Hermione:

"It's like throwing you into a laundry machine and spinning you for several hours, that feeling can make you puke out your dinner from last year...but to be real, it's much more useful than the door key."

"Door key?"

Hermione turns to look at Merlin, she says with surprise:

"You made a door key without permission? You didn't get...oh, I forgot, you're not in England and you're beyond the Ministry of Magic's jurisdiction."

"It's best not to do so in the future."

Mr. Arthur walks out of the fireplace behind them, he flings the back ash from his cap and warns Merlin and Hermione:

"There's a Ministry of Magic in North America too, and the acting style of our peers in North America is much more savage...it won't be fun at all if you get caught by them."

As he spoke, Mr. Arthur spreads his arm in the dim living room and exclaims to Merlin:

"Welcome to the Weasley House, Merlin, make yourself at home. Believe me, the place may look worn-out, but it's more comfortable than those of the other pure-blood families."

As he finishes, Mr. Arthur glances at the clock on the wall, his expression changes slightly, then he says to Merlin and Hermione:

"Kids, I have to go out, I'll come back with my dear Molly in the afternoon. Young Hermione, take Merlin to his room, mmm...perhaps he can stay with Ron for now."

"Also, introduce to him the members of the Weasley family, I'll be going now."

As he finishes, Mr. Arthur takes a spoon of powder from the table and sprinkles it at the fireplace, he then proceeds to enter the fireplace and disappear.

From Mr. Arthur's slightly anxious tone and expression, Merlin could guess that he was going to deal with some important yet secret affairs.

"Come with me, Merlin."

Hermione did not mind, the 15-year old young girl was still naive, she pulls Merlin's hand and walks on the crooked stairs across the narrow living room.

Merlin notices a lot of old pictures hanging on the walls of the staircase, like the photos of those wizards, the figures in these pictures could move. Some figures in some worn-out murals even stopped what they were doing and looked at Merlin with curiosity.

To be frank, it did not feel so nice to be stared at by phantom-like figures.

They walked all the way to the sixth floor where Hermione slightly roughly pushed open the door to the top floor; Merlin stands outside, he saw a small wooden sign on the door, on it, was 'Ron's Room'.

The font of the words was elegant and seemed to be moving, and as Merlin observed the wooden sign, he hears a boy let out a horrified scream in the room.

"No! Hermione! You can't just barge into a man's room like this! This isn't polite in the slightest!"

"Shut it! Ron!"

Hermione's sharp voice resounds in the room:

"We have a guest, put your clothes on!"

Moments later, Hermione peeks out her head and says to Merlin:

"Come in, Merlin, you may have to live here for the night. Err, your roommate is a bit stupid, but don't mind that."

Merlin smiles and enters the room with his suitcase, in there, a young boy with messy red hair and freckles on his face was putting on his coat in a fluster.

One could tell from his face that looked similar to Mr. Arthur's, that this boy should be Mr. Arthur's son.

As well as one of Hermione's good friends, Ron.

Merlin had not forgotten that Hermione had promised to go on a date with this kid 3 years ago to help him.

The style of the room was pretty much the same as the Burrow itself, shabby yet warm.

On the walls and slanted ceiling of the room were odd orange-yellow posters. On them were young men in wizard robes and riding on broomsticks, they were chasing something odd-looking that looked like a moving red ball.

Merlin could not understand why these people would chase a ball while riding a broomstick, but he could guess that this was the 'Quidditch' competition that was popular among the wizards.

But he had no interest in it.

Merlin also notices the bedsheet on Ron's bed that was the same style as a poster, on it was a golden lion red shield logo, two black letters 'C', and a flying cannonball.

There was a fish tank by the window of Ron's room, but the kid didn't look like the animal type, as there were only frog eggs and the water looked like it hasn't been changed for days.

On the table were a deck of shuffling cards, in the cabinet next to the table were some magic items Merlin did not know of.

To be honest, aside from the unignorable magic elements in the room, this sloppy style was no different from the room of the average 15-year old.

Hermione quickly helps her friend tidy up his messy room, clearly, she did not want her friend to get embarrassed in front of Merlin.

Ron, on the other hand, did not mind, he picks up a toothbrush and places it into his mouth; the toothbrush then starts to brush Ron's teeth on its own. Then Ron places a shabby towel on his face, and clear water starts to rinse down.

Ron completed tidying himself up in a short few seconds with the help of magic items.

He turns to look at Merlin, curiosity flashes in his blue eyes just like his father Mr. Arthur, he then asks:

"You're Merlin? Merlin Reilly?"

"Yes, I am."

Merlin places his suitcase by the bed and extends his hand to Ron, saying:

"You must be Ron? Hermione told me in a letter...that you were one of her best friends?"

"Oh, really?"

Happiness flashes on Ron's face, he holds Merlin's hand and tells him:

"Hermione never told me about this."

"Merlin!"

Hermione on the side screams unhappily:

"You can't tell people about the contents of the letters I wrote to you! Ron's not my friend, he made me cry last semester! He hasn't even apologized yet!"

"Mmm?"

Merlin squints his eyes, he looks at Ron and acts gloomily:

"You made my adorable sister cry?"

One must say, Merlin looked quite deterrent when he's acts angry.

He purses his lips and sharpens his gaze, the cold stare of an elite agent made Ron slightly helpless.

"Bam Bam"

And then, as if sensing Merlin's cold atmosphere, an odd noise resounds from the attic above the two.

Merlin abruptly raises his head and looks at the wood above him, in his second sight, Merlin could sense a cold yet gloomy presence in the attic.

It was a ghoul!

"Kids, get out!"

Merlin takes out his pistol that was loaded with holy silver bullets from his waist, he turns off the safety while telling Ron and Hermione:

"There's a ghoul here, I'll take care of it."

"No!"

Ron clearly knew what the cold weapon in Merlin's hand was, he quickly reaches out and presses down Merlin's raised gun, he tells Merlin:

"It's not dangerous at all, Merlin, in fact, it's our house pet. It's been in the attic ever since my dad was little."

"Mmm?"

Merlin looks at Ron, then looks at the anxious Hermione, he then says confusingly:

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"You keep a ghoul as a pet? Do you know that these creatures' sudden attacks in the darkness can easily bite apart a normal human's neck?"

"You're talking about wild ghouls, Merlin."

Hermione explains:

"The ghoul in the Burrow is domestic, it feeds on moths and flies, it dares not to harm others in a wizard's home."

"..."

Merlin sees the children's seemingly un-fake expressions and glances above him one last time before keeping his gun back to the holster. He pats on Ron's shoulder and says:

"Don't worry, I was just joking with you. But for real, I advise you to not continue living under a ghoul. In New York, dozens of misfortunate people get eaten by the ghouls living in the darkness; my job is to deal with creatures like them."

"You're an Auror?"

Ron was not angry, instead, he looked at Merlin with curiosity:

"An Auror of the North American Ministry of Magic?"

"Uhh, I'm not."

Merlin for a moment did not know how to explain his work to this child who grew up in the wizarding world, he definitely didn't know what an agent was. Eventually, the sharp Hermione says to Ron:

"Merlin's an agent, you can think of him as an elite Auror of the muggle world."

"Wow, cool!'

Ron contemplates Merlin, he wanted to ask more, but is tapped on the shoulder by Hermione, she says:

"Merlin's a guest. Ron, shouldn't you bring Merlin to check out the Burrow? How impolite of you!"

"Oh, I forgot."

Ron scratches his head awkwardly, he then makes a 'please' gesture to Merlin:

"Then please follow me, Mr. Merlin, I'll bring you around the Burrow. My parents live on the 5th floor, right below me."

He brings Merlin on the crooked stairs and introduces his home to Merlin enthusiastically:

"And this is my brother Bill and Charlies's room, they both have official work, Bill's a curse-breaker in Egypt, while Charlie's a draconic researcher in Romania."

Ron points at the room on the 4th floor proudly and tells Merlin:

"They occasionally come back to live, but that's where mom usually puts some sundries."

"Curse-breakers and draconic researchers?"

Merlin smiles:

"What a very wizard-like job, maybe I can find some time to have a talk with them; I have a friend who'\s also interested in Fantastic Beasts."

"They don't come back all that often, but I can give you their mailbox."

Ron scratches his head and tells Merlin:

"We can send them a message using owls. This is Percy's room, unfortunately, he got in a fight with mom and dad a few days ago, so he's moved to London, I wonder when he's coming back."

The child points at the room on the third floor slightly depressingly, but soon he cheers up:

"If Percy doesn't come back, maybe I can move here from the top floor; I don't like the sunlight on the top floor, I can't get a good sleep because of it."

"On the other side of the third floor is Fred and George's room, they always do some odd experiments in their room; mom scolded them many times but there's still a stinging smell of gunpowder there. Mom burned some of their orders just last year, I heard that Fred and George have been secretly making some toys for magic tricks, trying to sell them for money."

"Oh? Is that bad?"

Merlin says:

"It's quite the outstanding feat to start earning money during their student years in the muggle world."

"But it's different in the wizarding world."

Hermione whispers to Merlin:

"Arthur and Molly are the traditional types of parents, they wish for their children to have a formal and decent job rather than play a clown."

"On the second floor is my sister, Ginny's room, but she's gone to Diagon Alley with George and Fred today, so she's not home. Oh right, Hermione lives with Ginny whenever she comes over."

Merlin looks at the room on the second floor, on the door was a very feminine carving, meaning that this was a lady's room.

"Ginny's a year younger than me."

Hermione tells Merlin:

"She's the youngest of the Weasleys, she's also my good friend, a pretty and talented young girl."

Merlin nods, he stands at the bottom of the staircase and looks up, the crooked stairs form an odd yet regulated image; he looks to Ron and asks:

"Is there some kind of magic cast on the Burrow? I feel like the internal space of this house is a bit too big..."

"Yeah."

Ron nods:

"When my grandparents built the Burrow, they used some spatial magic to make the Burrow even bigger than how it looks. Like an enlarged magic tent."

"How marvelous."

Merlin exclaims so, he then follows Hermione and Ron out of the door of the Burrow.

In front of him were a green grass field and a small river, the sunlight shining on the grass field made the scenery feel like a beautiful rural scene; the grass field continued outwards until it reached a small mountain at the edge of Merlin's vision.

He turns and looks backward, at the back of the Burrow was a paddock, in it were fruit trees, and even further were mountains with forests on them.

But what surprised Merlin the most was that the Burrow, from the outside, looked like a crooked tower without symmetrical style; like Ron had said, the house looked to be only a few stories high from the outside, yet the internal space was much larger than its external looks.

And then there were 4 or 5 chimneys on the shabby red roof, yet Merlin did not see any chimney-like structures indoors.

This magically-built house was truly fascinating.

"Want to see the Burrow from the sky? Merlin."

Ron extends his left hand and chants a spell, a lightly worn-out broom then flies into his hand, Ron tells Merlin:

"You can take my broom to look at my house from the sky, it's quite beautiful."

"Thanks, child."

Merlin glances at the flying broom and says:

"I don't like riding a broom, it gives me a weird feeling. But if you want, I can bring you into the sky...I mean, without using the broom."

"Really?"

Hermione widens her eyes and looks at Merlin:

"You can do that? Have you learned *unsupported flight*?"

"No, I haven't."

Merlin holds Hermione's hand with one hand and grabs Ron's shoulder with the other, he smiles and tells the two children:

"But I have a special flying technique...hold on."

"Boom"

At the next moment, Merlin's body transforms into black fog, and in the childrens' screams, Hermione and Ron are carried by the fog into the sky dozens of meters from the ground without the use of magic objects.

Like...they had invisible wings.

"Wow! So cool!"

In the blowing wind, Ron spread out his arms and glided like a bird under the push of the black fog; Hermione's hair waved in the air as she screamed:

"Higher, Merlin! Higher!"

"Bring us to the clouds!"

"This is much cooler than riding a broom! Harry would love this! Oh, true flight!"

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