The Burrow

The morning air was crisp and cold as Eileen Apparated with Snape to a gently breezy hillside.

Before them stretched green meadows and woodlands, along with the beautiful scenery of Ottery St Catchpole village.

From the height, the village looked like clusters of toy cottages, dotted here and there among beams of light pouring through the clouds.

"Well, what do you think of this place?" Eileen asked.

"It's wonderful!" Snape said. "How did you think to build a house here?"

"I couldn't find anything suitable in the village, and then I heard Old Lovegood had a plot of land he hadn't sold for ages, so I went and bought it from him."

Eileen turned and pointed at the two-story wooden house behind them. "He was thrilled when I said I wanted to buy it. Look, he even helped me build this house—only charged me fifty extra Galleons."

"Lovegood?" Snape said, a little surprised. "Why would he sell the land?"

"He said it was too close to people, and he didn't like it. Though I have to disagree on that point," Eileen said hesitantly. "Compared to that odd cylindrical house he and his son live in, this place really is far too ordinary."

"Never mind that—I like it here!"

Snape grinned. Since Luna hadn't been born yet, why should he care about any of that?

For the rest of the summer holiday, Snape and Eileen busied themselves furnishing the house and tidying up the overgrown garden.

Although he had clearly told Eileen that the Trace couldn't accurately identify who cast a spell, and that the Ministry relied on wizard parents to supervise their children's behavior at home—and had argued with her about it several times—Eileen still insisted he follow the rules.

So he had to turn every patch of soil with his own hands and plant every tiny seedling.

"Oh, I've had enough!" Snape stood in the wide garden, leaning on his shovel. "Mother, you should come see this!"

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

A group of garden gnomes, with bald, potato-like round heads, were shrugging their little shoulders as they slipped through the newly planted hedge into the garden.

The hedge hadn't had time to grow together yet, so it was no trouble for them at all.

"It's not just one or two—there are more and more!" Snape pointed at the gnomes, who were trying to squeeze their tiny bodies into the ground. "If this keeps up, all the cabbage seedlings we worked so hard to transplant will be ruined!"

He bent down and grabbed a cabbage seedling roughly. With a violent struggle, an ugly gnome was yanked out along with it.

"Let me go! Let me go!" the gnome shrieked, kicking and thrashing with its hard-calloused little feet.

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

The gnome traced a beautiful parabola through the air before tumbling and rolling down the hillside.

"Severus," Eileen said, a little surprised. "That throw must have been fifty feet."

"Fifty feet?" Snape pointed in the direction the gnome had rolled, sounding somewhat exasperated. "Look over there!"

Following his finger, Eileen saw gnomes still straggling up the slope.

Tracing their path back, through a tall hedge and an orchard, a crooked little house came faintly into view.

Snape threw his shovel down on the ground. "We need to go over there."

Knock, knock, knock. Eileen, holding a box of freshly baked egg-and-milk biscuits, knocked on the front door of The Burrow.

"Bill—get the door!"

"Mum, no time, I'm busy!"

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

"Hello!" The anger on Mrs. Weasley's face quickly shifted 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 little while now, busy fixing up the house." Eileen sat down on a chair in The Burrow's living room, looking a bit embarrassed. "We should have come to visit sooner..."

Seeing Eileen taking so long to get to the point, Snape couldn't help speaking up to Mrs. Weasley himself:

"Mrs. Weasley, the thing is, while we were working in the garden, we noticed gnomes migrating up the hill from here." He jabbed a thumb toward The Burrow. "Since our hedge hasn't grown in yet, they've all slipped into the garden and started digging holes, so I thought—"

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

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

The taller one had long red hair—Snape guessed he must be Bill—while the stockier boy was Charlie.

"Mum, we're getting rid of the gnomes like you told us to!" Bill said impatiently.

"Never mind the gnomes for now, we'll deal with them in a few months." Mrs. Weasley said to Bill and Charlie. "Take the rest of the day off. Go on, let the gnomes go and wash your hands."

They clattered off again.

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

"It's all right." Mrs. Weasley said gently. "To be honest, I've almost gotten used to them. Arthur is too lenient with them—every time we chase them out, they're back before long."

As they chatted idly, a baby's cry suddenly came from one of the inner rooms.

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

After a moment, she came out with a baby cradled in her arms, softly humming a gentle tune under her breath.

Little Percy kept making babbling sounds in her arms, his tiny hands reaching unconsciously into the air, as if trying to grasp something.

Snape stepped closer to look at him. Percy tilted his small head slightly, as if curiously sizing up the stranger before him.

"You're adorable!" Snape couldn't help but touch Percy's pink little nose with his finger, then turned to look at Mrs. Weasley. "May I hold him?"

"Of course you can." Mrs. Weasley showed him how to properly hold a baby. "You need to support his neck and head with one hand, and with the other hand, support..."

Snape carefully cradled Percy, speaking in a cheerful voice only he could hear:

"Oh, you lovely little Weasley."