The Burrow

The morning air was cool as Eileen Apparated with Snape to a breezy hillside.

As far as the eye could see lay lush green grass, woods, and the beautiful scenery of Ottery St Catchpole village.

From high above, the village looked like clusters of toy houses, scattered amid shafts of sunlight spilling down through the clouds.

"What do you think? It's a nice place, isn't it?" Eileen asked.

"It's fantastic!" Snape said. "How did you think of building a house here?"

"I couldn't find anything suitable in the village. Then I heard that Old Lovegood had a plot of land he'd been unable to sell for ages, so I went to buy it from him."

Turning around, Eileen pointed at the two-story wooden house behind them. "He was so pleased when he heard I wanted to buy this land. Look, he even helped me build the house, only charging fifty extra Galleons."

"Lovegood?" Snape looked surprised. "Why did he want to sell this land?"

"He said it was too close to other people, and he didn't like that. Though I disagree on that point," Eileen said hesitantly, "compared with the strange cylindrical house where he and his son lived, this place was indeed rather ordinary."

"Forget it. I like it here!"

Snape grinned. Luna had not even been born yet, so why should he care so much?

For the rest of the summer holiday, Snape and Eileen stayed busy furnishing the house and clearing the overgrown garden.

Although he had clearly told Eileen that the Trace could not accurately identify who had performed magic, that the Ministry of Magic relied on Wizard parents to supervise their children's behavior at home, and had argued with her about it several times, Eileen still insisted that he follow the rules.

So he had no choice but to turn over every patch of soil with his own hands and plant every tiny seedling himself.

"Oh, I've had enough!" Snape stood in the spacious garden, leaning on his shovel. "Mum, you need to come and see this!"

"What is it?" Eileen poked her head out from behind the window.

A group of Garden Gnomes, with bald, round heads like potatoes and tiny hunched shoulders, were slipping into the garden through the newly planted hedges.

The hedges had not yet grown together, so getting through was effortless for them.

"It's not just one or two—they keep coming!" Snape pointed at the gnomes trying to cram their tiny bodies into the ground. "They'll ruin all the cabbage seedlings we worked so hard to transplant!"

He bent down and fiercely grabbed a cabbage seedling. With a violent bout of struggling, he yanked out an ugly gnome.

"Let me go! Let me go!" the gnome shrieked, kicking and flailing with its callused little feet.

Amid the gnome's screams, Snape seized it by the ankles, held it upside down, raised it over his head, leaned back, and hurled it with all his strength—

The gnome traced a graceful arc through the air before rolling all the way down the hillside.

"Severus," Eileen said in surprise, "that must have been fifty feet."

"What fifty feet?" Snape pointed in the direction where the gnome had rolled, sounding exasperated. "Look over there!"

Following the direction of his finger, Eileen saw gnomes still scrambling sparsely up the hillside.

Tracing their route back, past a tall hedge and an orchard, she could vaguely make out a crooked little house.

Snape threw his shovel into the dirt. "We need to go over there."

Knock, knock, knock. Holding a box of freshly baked custard biscuits, Eileen knocked on the front door of The Burrow.

"Bill—go answer the door!"

"Mum, I'm busy!"

Before long, a plump woman in a patterned apron hurried over and opened the door for them.

"Hello!" The anger on Mrs. Weasley's face quickly transformed into a friendly smile. "Oh, Eileen, is this your child?"

Eileen smiled and nodded. "Yes. This is Mrs. Weasley, Severus."

"Hello, Mrs. Weasley," Snape said.

"Thank you, Eileen." Taking the biscuit box Eileen handed her, Mrs. Weasley happily invited them inside. "So you've already moved in?"

"We've been here for a while, but we've been busy settling the house." Eileen sat down on a chair in The Burrow's living room, looking a little embarrassed. "We should have come to visit sooner..."

Seeing Eileen take so long to get to the point, Snape could not help saying to Mrs. Weasley:

"Mrs. Weasley, it's like this. While we were tending the garden, we noticed gnomes migrating up the hill from here." He gestured at The Burrow with his thumb.

"Because our hedges haven't had time to grow yet, they've all slipped into our garden and started digging holes, so I was thinking—"

"Ah—" Mrs. Weasley suddenly cried out. "Bill, Charlie, come here!"

Two red-haired boys came running over, each carrying several gnomes.

One of them was slightly taller and had long red hair. Snape guessed that he had to be Bill, while the sturdier boy was Charlie.

"Mum, we're clearing out the gnomes like you told us to!" Bill said impatiently.

"Forget about the gnomes. We'll deal with them again in a few months," Mrs. Weasley told Bill and Charlie. "Take the day off and get some proper rest. Now, put the gnomes down and go wash your hands."

They ran off again with a clatter of footsteps.

"We're so sorry," Eileen and Snape kept apologizing to Mrs. Weasley. "We've caused you trouble and interrupted their work."

"It's all right," Mrs. Weasley comforted them softly. "Honestly, I'm almost used to them by now. Arthur is far too lenient with them. Every time he drives them away, they come back again before long."

As they chatted idly, a baby suddenly began crying in one of the rooms farther inside.

"Oh, Percy, he's awake." Mrs. Weasley gave them an apologetic smile, then turned and left the living room.

After a while, she came back carrying a baby in her arms, softly humming a gentle tune.

Little Percy kept making babbling noises in her arms, his tiny hand unconsciously reaching into the air as though trying to catch something.

Snape leaned closer to look at him. Percy's little head was tilted slightly, as though he were curiously studying the stranger before him.

"You're so cute!" Snape could not help touching Percy's rosy little nose with a finger. He turned to Mrs. Weasley. "May I hold him?"

"Of course." Mrs. Weasley demonstrated how to hold the baby properly. "You need to support his neck and head with one hand, and use the other to support..."

Snape carefully took Percy into his arms and said happily in a voice only he could hear:

"Oh, adorable little Weatherby."