Chapter 11. The Weasley Family's Hidden Dragon and Crouching Phoenix
As payback for Newt treating him as a tool, Duncan promptly went to the secret realm, swept through Newt's workshop, and moved into his own case all the tools, potions, and feed he currently used and might use in future, filling up the once-empty shed.
Carrying the case back to his bedroom, Duncan pressed the rectangular button on the case's side and turned it ninety degrees clockwise, then opened the lid.
At once, the scene inside the case changed in a curious way.
The pitch-black entrance down to the little wooden shed vanished, turning into an ordinary suitcase meant for luggage.
After packing everything needed for school, Duncan watched the sun climb toward its apex until it was noon.
He went downstairs.
Stopping before the sitting-room fireplace, he called to his side, "Pro, hurry up, we've got to go."
After several dozen seconds, Pro slowly squeezed out from between the sofa cushions, blinking its round eyes and glancing about restlessly.
"Duncan... um... I won't go for the time being," it said.
"Once you all leave, I'll look after the house for you, in case a thief comes in and steals the good stuff."
Watching Pro put on airs, Duncan couldn't help a laugh.
He walked over, bent down, pinched the scruff of Pro's neck between three fingers, lifted it into the air, and said, "What thief are you guarding against?"
"Our house is protected by Grandfather with the Fidelius Charm."
"Only people who are permitted can come in, so how could there be a thief?"
"This... this..." Pro dangled back and forth in the air, its eyes darting about.
After failing to think of a good excuse for a long time, it could only assume a posture of dying-before-yielding, lifting its paws to pry at Duncan's fingers.
"Anyway I'm not going."
"I'd sooner die than go to the Weasleys'!"
"Don't worry."
Duncan knew Pro was afraid of the twins, Fred and George, who had bullied it before, so he comforted it.
"I'll protect you."
"I absolutely won't let those two brothers snatch the money in your pocket."
"Really?" Pro looked up at Duncan and asked.
"Have I ever lied to you?" said Duncan.
He tucked the now-quiet Pro into his jacket pocket and strode back to the fireplace.
On the mantel sat a fist-sized black porcelain bowl filled with glittering powder.
Duncan lit the fire, grabbed a handful of the sparkling powder from the bowl, and tossed it with a flourish into the flames.
With a whoosh, the fire turned emerald green in the blink of an eye and rose to the height of a person.
Duncan stepped straight into the flames.
He felt no scorching pain; rather, a warm breeze seemed to be blowing around him.
"The Burrow!" Duncan called out.
A moment later, a powerful suction seized him.
He spun round and round as he moved forward, as if squeezing along inside a narrow tube.
He had to draw in his limbs, reducing the space he took up, to feel even slightly better.
A rapid succession of hearths flashed past before his eyes, and if he focused, he could just make out the rooms beyond the grates.
As time dragged on, sourness rose in his stomach, as if his insides were heaving like the sea.
Just as he was about to reach his limit, the spinning seemed to slow.
His feet at last struck solid ground.
The ash piled in the grate billowed up at Duncan's sudden landing, eddying around him and repeatedly assaulting his nose and mouth.
Staggering out of the fireplace, Duncan nearly fell.
Once he had steadied himself, he coughed hard a few times.
"This thing is really uncomfortable..." Duncan ruffled his hair, slapped the dust from his clothes, and looked up.
The Burrow's ground floor was a bit cramped.
A heap of books was stacked above the fireplace, and on a side wall hung a clock with several hands bearing little faces, each pointing to where a family member currently was.
Only, there was no one in the sitting room or the kitchen at the moment, so no one noticed Duncan's arrival.
Duncan walked over to the clock, shifting his gaze as he tried to see where the twins, Fred and George, were.
Pro also cautiously poked out its head, watching the surroundings warily and searching for those two villains.
But just as Duncan took two steps, the mirror on the mantel suddenly started shouting, "Your clothes are covered in soot—so scruffy, so scruffy—go and change, go and change..."
The sudden noise made Duncan's eardrums buzz.
He quickly edged away until he had vanished completely from the mirror's view, and only then did the chattering mirror close its mouth with ill grace.
The upside was that Duncan no longer needed to consult the clock to find Fred and George.
The racket caused by the mirror seemed to have disturbed others.
From the corridor round the corner came a rumble of footsteps, as if an army was charging down from upstairs.
Yet a moment later, only two figures came running down the stairs, and they looked extremely alike.
With flaming red hair like a fiercely burning blaze, they were solidly built and a touch taller than Duncan.
Both shouted at once, "Duncan, our dearest friend, you've finally come—your loyal partners have been waiting for you for ages!"
Looking at the twin brothers as they lunged at him, Duncan felt black lines of exasperation dropping down his forehead and quickly backed away a few steps, wanting to avoid the crazy duo.
But he did not succeed.
Fred and George crowded in on either side of him, each hooking an arm round his shoulders, grinning as they said, "What took you so long?"
"Mr Scamander sent word through the fireplace last night that you'd be staying for a while."
"We thought you'd be here in the morning."
"We didn't even sleep in today—up at the crack of dawn—but we only saw you now, and it's made the two of us suffer terribly."
Duncan shot a suspicious look at the pair beside him.
Feeling they were up to no good, he forcefully prised their hands off and looked Fred and George up and down.
"Out with it."
"What wicked scheme are you two bottling up?"
"How can you think of us like that?" said Fred, his face full of sorrow, as if grievously wronged.
"You've wounded our hearts!"
"That's right, we're the acknowledged good children of the Weasley family!" said George.
"Mum is proud of us!"
"Get lost, get lost, get lost," said Duncan with a wave, not wanting to bandy words with the two rascals before him, while his gaze swept the room.
"Where are Mrs Weasley, Ron, and Ginny?"
"Back garden," said Fred.
"Helping Mum tidy the tomatoes and carrots she just planted."
"Why didn't you two go?" Duncan raised an eyebrow.
"Snuck back, did you?"
"How could we?" said George.
"We're hardworking children."
"At first we volunteered to help, but unfortunately, Mum didn't agree."
He finished and exchanged a look with Fred, and the same cheeky smile spread across both faces.
"Because Mum was afraid we'd swap her precious seeds for something else, and then what grew wouldn't be carrots and tomatoes."
Duncan shook his head with a sigh.
"It's the Weasley family's great good fortune to have the two of you—a hidden dragon and a crouching phoenix—at the same time!"
"Then I'll go and pay my respects to Mrs Weasley first, so she knows I'm here," Duncan said, turning toward the door.
"No need to trouble yourself," said Fred, grabbing Duncan's arm.
Together with George, he raised his voice and shouted, "Mum, Duncan's here!"
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