Chapter 4 - Meeting the Weasleys

In London, just on the corner of Dutch and Madison Street, a lonely, slender girl with curly, dirty-blonde hair made her way towards the Leaky Cauldron. She carried in both hands a large paper grocery bag, half-filled with bread, pears, grapes, cookies, milk and apple juice. That was all she could afford here, living alone in a big city like this, but she always got along just fine. Shed been working at the Cauldron ever since she was ten; five hours a day for a room and pay for meals and rent.





The tiny bell rang as she opened the door to the rusty old pub and walked inside to the usual crowd of usual folk talking, standing about and reading their papers.





Linely girl! Whereve you been? called Tom from the front desk.





Just out said the girl. Why? Did Mr. Becker have another whiskey spell?





Tom laughed and shook his head. No, but we just booked a family of five red-heads upstairs in room 12. Theyre close friends o mine.





Well, Tom! With the hours you spend wound up in this insipid ol place, I wouldnt have guessed you had an inner circle chimed one of the usual by-standers. A couple of chuckles broke out across the room.





Bah, you spend more time here than I do, old man.





The chuckles erupted into a roar of drunken laughter at Toms remark, and the cramped old man rolled his eyes with a resentful scowl.





Haha, now then Tom said to Linely as he handed her a pair of keys go on up to room twelve and check on those friends o mine.





Alright Linely said, as she took the keys and headed for the stairs, still carrying the bag of groceries in her arms.











Ron! Quit stealing my pillows! Ginny whined, chasing after Ron, who clutched two large feather-pillows to his chest.





Cmon Ginny! Faster! Ron yelled as they continued to run circles around the room of Weasleys. Charlie sat idly on his cot, laughing hysterically at the ridiculous two.





Ron, if you dont stop- MOM! Rons stealing my pillows again Ginny shouted.





Mrs. Weasely peaked in from the next door room, watching Ginny run after Ron, grabbing at his sweater and trying to tackle him. She couldnt help but laugh, as she brought her hand to her mouth to hide her smile.





Mom! Ginny wailed.





Alright, Ronald Mrs. Weasley said in mid-laughter. Give Ginny back her pillows.





Ron laughed tauntingly and thrust the pillows in Ginnys face. She was flustered and red with utter frustration. As soon as his back was turned, Ginny took one of the pillows and hurled it at Ron. He saw it coming just in time and was able to narrowly avoid being hit. Unfortunately, neither of them had noticed the young girl with brown curls walk in from the hallway. Completely taken by surprise, the oncoming pillow caused her to stumble backwards and drop her bag, spilling the contents out onto the floor.





Ginny! Now look at what youve done Mrs. Weasley scorned.





Oh! Oh my Gosh. Im so sorry! Ginny sputtered as she rushed over and helped the girl.





No, its okay. Really! the girl said humorously, as she picked herself up and gratefully took back her groceries.





Tom just told me to come up and make sure you were all comfortable the girl said to the family.





Oh, thank you dear. Yes, were all quite comfy Mrs. Weasely said, thankfully.





Okay, dinners at seven then. With that, the girl excused herself and disappeared into the hall. She was just about to close the door, when she heard the strangest thing.





Nice going, Ginny the boy with red hair teased.





Ron, I swear Im going to hex you before the day is out!





Linelys widened to the size of about a quarter piece. Hex? Could they really mean & Wait; A family of red hair& The Weasleys! Of course she knew them; Ronald and Ginny Weasley! Linelys mind began to spin and twist every which way with memories of the article and, strangely enough, the image of her parents she had always held in the back of her mind, until now.





Linely couldnt understand what was causing all these long-forgotten memories to suddenly emerge. Ever since that night, she swore she would never let them reenter her life again. Why, then, should she be thinking about them now of all times?





To rid her tormented mind of these thoughts, Linely turned her full attention back to the Weasleys. She had read about them in an article from the Prophet three years ago; something about a magical school and a chamber.





Linely silently slipped away, and continued walking towards her room at the end of the hall; still thinking excitedly to herself.





Inside her room, Linely set her bag of groceries down upon the small, wooden table and walked over to her bed. She bent down and reached under her pillow, pulling out a heavy black spell-book crammed with torn pages and separate article clippings. She took out one from the W section, where she kept all the Weasley articles. Chamber of Secrets Uncovered in Hogwarts read the bold, italic headline. As she scanned over the long article, she finally found the two names she was looking for; &Harry Potter and fellow students Ronald and Ginny Weasley&





She closed the book and sat down on her rickety old bed, staring contemplatively at the floor.





So, these were the friends of the famous wizard. Never before had she come so close to anyone who knew the story of Harry Potter, or rather, the legend, aside from the whispers shed heard of him amongst the bar-standers, for most of them commuted regularly between the Wizarding world and The Cauldron.





Linely had always dreamed of crossing over to the other side of the portal hidden in the courtyard behind the Cauldron. Yes, she had always known where the portal was, but could never figure out how it worked exactly.





The Wizarding world was a complex tapestry of multicolored, intertwining threads, each one with a entire world of secrets to behold. That was something she remembered hearing a long time ago, when her parents were alive.





No, dont think about them. Just forget them, like you always do.






Now, as the sun began to dip ever so slightly behind the massive buildings, Linely stood up and left the room, heading downstairs to help prepare the meals.

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