"Children! Dinner!"
"Fred! George! Put those goblins down!"
Molly's roar echoed through the garden. Before long, the young wizards, led by the twins, came scrambling into the house looking rather disheveled.
They were filthy, Hermione included, but quickly cleaned themselves up with magic.
They were all full of energy and looked as though they hadn't had enough yet.
Vaughn knew they had just been tormenting the goblins in the garden. Degnoming was something of a Weasley family tradition, but it wasn't time for it yet. Besides, what they were doing hardly counted as clearing them out. They hadn't even ridden their broomsticks; they had simply been running wild in the garden.
In fact, the Weasley children had long since lost interest in the garden goblins. Only the twins never seemed to tire of them.
Hermione and Harry, however, loved the activity. They had been thinking about it ever since their last visit to the Burrow.
Sometimes, whether something was fun had little to do with the activity itself. What mattered was who you did it with.
So Ron and Ginny had enjoyed themselves too.
The atmosphere at the dinner table was cheerful. Molly was as warm as ever, and Arthur occasionally asked how the children had been getting on, making Harry and Hermione feel entirely at home.
Harry, however, seemed a little odd throughout the meal. He looked weighed down by worries and kept glancing at Vaughn, as though he wanted to say something but couldn't bring himself to speak.
Hermione had no such reservations. Her eyes shone as she said, "Vaughn, I met Dobby! He's a very unusual house-elf!"
"He told me you used magic to change the way some of the house-elves thought, making them long for freedom and even want wages!"
"What magic was that?"
Hermione's words