"Children! Dinner!"
"Fred! George! Put those gnomes down!"
Molly's roar echoed through the garden, and soon the young wizards, led by the Twins, scrambled into the house looking rather disheveled.
They were filthy, Hermione included, though they quickly cleaned themselves up with magic.
They were all full of energy and looked as though they still hadn't had enough.
Vaughn knew they had just been tormenting the gnomes in the garden. Degnoming was something of a Weasley Family tradition, but it wasn't time for that yet. Besides, what they had been doing could hardly count as clearing out gnomes. They hadn't even ridden their broomsticks; they had simply been running wild in the garden.
The Weasley children had actually lost interest in the garden gnomes long ago. Only the Twins never seemed to tire of them.
But Hermione and Harry both loved the activity and had been thinking fondly of 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 mood 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 troubled 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 different sort of house-elf!"
"He told me you used magic to change the way some house-elves think, making them long for freedom and even want wages!"
"What sort of magic was that?"