Chapter 264 The Burrow and the World Cup
Bruce returned to Harry's world.
It's summer vacation now and it's still early before school starts, but Hermione received a letter from the Weasleys a few days ago. It was written by Ron.
"Hermione - Dad has got the tickets - Ireland vs Bulgaria, Monday night.
"Mom invites you and Bruce to live with us. I sent the pig to deliver this letter to you. I hope you can receive it soon!"
Piggy is Ron's new owl, and Katoom has made him his new little brother.
The timeline was reset in the third year, and the paradox timeline no longer existed. Many things developed according to the original plot, but Scabbers still ran away, and Ron got a new pet as he wished.
The tickets mentioned in the letter are tickets for the Quidditch World Cup.
Hermione wasn't a Quidditch fan, at least she claimed not to be, but getting together with her friends was always something to look forward to.
"Bruce, are you done?"
Hermione knocked on Bruce's door, and when she came in, she saw that Bruce's box was still empty, and she immediately became angry.
Bruce spoke up first: "It's all Katum's fault. He packed a bunch of snacks in my box and it took me a long time to clean it up!"
"you!"
Katum's eyes widened. Is this bastard Bruce so skilled at betraying people?
"is it?"
Hermione looked unkindly and turned to stare at Katum, "You said you wanted to lose weight, but you still eat secretly every day!"
Who agreed with you?
Katum really has no way to defend himself. It was Hermione who was talking alone from the beginning to the end, okay?
But Hermione didn't care about that. She took Katum away and kept a close watch on him. When she left the room, she said to Bruce, "Pack up quickly. I'll give you five minutes!"
five minutes?
Not even a minute, please.
Bruce took out his magic wand and waved it casually. All the luggage automatically flew into the air and sorted themselves neatly into the suitcases.
Speaking of which, the wand in Bruce's hand now is not the Supreme Wand.
But it was the bat staff seized from the bat wizard.
As a staff blessed by the ghost, Bruce always felt that it should have some special power. After all, the ghost is the spirit of vengeance of God, and his blessing should always have some unexpected surprises.
It’s a pity that Bruce didn’t find it after studying for a long time.
He guessed that this staff might have some kind of master recognition procedure, or even something like a spirit, but he just couldn't find a way to activate it yet.
In desperation, Bruce could only choose to wave it around more often, hoping to establish some kind of bond sooner.
……
When Bruce came downstairs with his luggage, Hermione was already waiting in the living room.
This time they were going to the Weasleys' house via Floo powder, and Hermione had already applied at the Floo Network Administration.
Bruce doesn't actually need this thing, he can Apparate.
But the Ministry of Magic has regulations on Apparition for underage wizards. If Bruce uses it, important officials from the Ministry of Magic will come to his door soon.
Hermione had already lit the fire, and she pulled a small drawstring bag from her pocket, opened it, and pinched a little powder into the fire.
The flame immediately turned emerald green and shot up higher than before.
Hermione walked right into the fire, the green flames doing her no harm.
"The Burrow!" She pronounced every word with great accuracy.
With a whoosh, Hermione disappeared.
Bruce did the same thing, walked into the fire, and after reading the location, he spun rapidly in the fireplace.
The working principle of Floo powder is not that it reaches the destination from the starting point in an instant, but that there is a Floo network connecting almost all the fireplaces in wizards' homes.
This means that during the transmission process, the user may pass by countless other fireplaces just like taking the subway through a subway station, but without stopping in between.
Travelers may see a series of furnace doors flash by in a blur as they travel, and may even get a glimpse of the room beyond the fireplace.
At this moment, countless fireplaces flew past Bruce's eyes. This was a normal phenomenon, but this time, Bruce encountered something unusual.
As he passed a fireplace, he vaguely saw a woman lying in a pool of blood in the room.
Next to the fallen woman stood a man in a black robe. Under the hood of his robe was a skull without any flesh or blood.
Generally speaking, normal people cannot see this scene even if they use the Floo Network because the speed is too fast.
But Bruce was different. He had been in contact with the speed force for a long time, and his senses had adapted to the extremely fast environment. In a quick glance, he saw the scene outside the fireplace clearly.
However, even though he saw it, Bruce's movements were completely unable to keep up.
Without Harley, he has no Speed Force.
The Weasleys were waiting outside the fireplace when Bruce stumbled out of it.
"Bruce, watch out!"
Mr. Weasley grabbed Bruce's arm to stop him from falling to the ground.
After a brief feeling of dizziness, Bruce regained consciousness. The first thing he did was to grab Mr. Weasley and tell him what he had just seen.
Originally, the Weasley family was waiting in front of the fireplace, intending to give Bruce a welcome ceremony.
But unexpectedly, the first thing Bruce said was a woman lying in a pool of blood and a skeleton in a black robe. It sounded like a horror story.
Everyone looked at each other, wondering whether what Bruce said was true or not.
But Mr. Weasley was a parent who respected his children very much. He did not think that Bruce was talking nonsense just because ordinary people could not see the room outside the fireplace.
On the contrary, he took it very seriously.
"I'll talk to the Floo Network Administration right away," Mr. Weasley asked. "Bruce, do you remember any more details about that room?"
"I remember."
After recalling for a moment, Bruce described the furnishings in the room.
"Okay, wait a moment."
Mr. Weasley Apparated away from the Burrow, and Hermione supported Bruce and took him to sit on the sofa.
In fact, Bruce didn't need any help, he was fine.
But this action seems to have become an unspoken rule, just like handing a blanket to comfort someone who has suffered a misfortune, everyone will do it unconsciously.
"Are you okay, Bruce?" Hermione asked quietly.
"I'm fine," Bruce said.
The Weasleys are from a large family, and today the whole family is here. The twins surrounded Bruce and asked him excitedly about what he had just seen.
A short while later, Mr. Weasley returned.
"We found the room." He said as soon as he stood firm, "but there is no woman or skeleton, and there is no blood on the floor. Bruce, did the Floo powder spin too fast just now and you saw an illusion?"
No?
Bruce was sure that he was not hallucinating. He was well versed in hallucinations, and nothing could fool him unless it was of extremely high quality.
What I just saw was real.
But Mr. Weasley's words meant that when he looked at the room, the other party also noticed his sight. He quickly cleaned up the scene and was not caught.
In this case, Bruce no longer insisted and followed Mr. Weasley's words: "Maybe I really saw it wrong, but Mr. Weasley, can you tell me where the fireplace is?"
"Sorry Bruce, it's not that I didn't tell you, it's that I didn't know."
Mr. Weasley looked apologetic, "The Floo Powder Administration has many regulations, and generally does not reveal too much information."
"OK then."
Bruce didn't ask any more questions, but just kept this in mind.
The reason why he cared so much was because he remembered that there was indeed a skeleton man in the Harry Potter world today.
Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts.
After he was resurrected, he did not restore his physical body. Unlike Ravenclaw who still cared about his image, Salazar did not care about these things.
But it is also possible that Salazar felt that the skull face looked better than his original face.
"I'll ask Katum to check it out later. Owl always has a way."
……
Since it was a false alarm, everyone around heaved a sigh of relief.
Only the twins were still mysterious. George leaned close to Bruce's ear and said, "Bruce, we two believe you. What you saw just now was definitely not an illusion!"
Fred also nodded: "Yes! You have to stick to your own ideas."
Bruce smiled but didn't answer. He always had to be cautious when communicating with the twins.
When there is danger, you can completely trust George and Fred, but when there is no danger, they are the biggest danger.
Mrs. Weasley then introduced Bruce to the rest of the family's children, primarily the oldest, Bill and Charlie, whom Bruce had never met before.
"We're going to pick up Harry tomorrow."
Ron said at this time, "His aunt and uncle are both weird people. We are not sure whether they will allow Harry to come. After all, they have never even heard of Quidditch."
The red-haired freckled boy was extremely excited at this moment.
He is a complete Quidditch fanatic, and his favorite team is the Chudley Cannons. Ron is also interested in Quidditch. He hates those fans who like a team just because of its fame, and he insists on being loyal to one team.
For example, when the Canadian team won the World Cup, many fans of the Canadian team suddenly appeared around.
Ron was extremely dissatisfied with this, and he kept chasing after a group of so-called fans all day, saying things like "Let me test you", which annoyed others.
Back to the topic.
Bruce himself has no interest in Quidditch, and he has no preference between the Irish and Bulgarian teams. It doesn't matter who wins or loses.
It's just that because of the previous timeline travel, Bruce also has some understanding of what will happen in Harry's world in the future.
He remembered that if he hadn't existed, there would have been a Death Eater riot after this Quidditch match.
Although there were no casualties, it caused great chaos at the scene.
I don’t know if this kind of thing will happen again now that the timeline has been reset.
……
The next day, the Weasleys set out to pick up Harry.
They also used Floo powder, but Bruce did not follow them. A large group of people had already gone there. If Bruce followed them, he would probably be squeezed in the fireplace with them and unable to move.
About half an hour later, the fire in the fireplace roared again, and the members of the Weasley family came out one after another.
Harry followed at the end. He felt a little dizzy and almost fell to the ground.
Fred was the first to ask, "Did he eat? Did he eat?"
"I ate it..." Harry said groggily.
When they went to pick up Harry just now, they seemed to have some minor friction with the Dursleys, so Fred and George played a little prank on Dudley.
They used their own prank props, Fat Tongue Toffee, to leave Dudley with an indelible and wonderful memory.
……
Bruce's experience at the Burrow could perhaps be described as a noisy one.
There were too many people in the Weasley family, with different personalities. Plus, there were the twins who couldn't sit still, so the noise didn't stop until almost midnight, long after bedtime, when the Burrow slowly quieted down.
Bruce actually doesn't hate this family atmosphere.
Although the Burrow was noisy, it was full of life and vitality, unlike his Wayne Manor, which was like a huge tomb.
Mrs. Weasley woke them up before dawn. They had a long way to go, and if they didn't want to miss the game, they had to get up early.
Everyone got dressed in silence, too sleepy to talk.
Bruce was quicker, and when he finished washing up, he saw Ron and Harry coming downstairs and into the kitchen, yawning and stretching.
Soon after, Hermione and Ginny came over. Both of them looked very pale, as if they had not woken up yet.
Bruce suspected that the two of them just didn't sleep.
"We will have to go to Ferret Hill first." Mr. Weasley instructed, "We must be on time. After all, there are other people who want to join us. We can't keep them waiting for too long."
"Who?" Ron asked, stuffing noodles into his mouth with his cheeks bulging.
"Amos Diggory of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and his son, whom you should know, Cedric."
"Oh, that's the same house as Bruce," said Harry.
Cedric.
Bruce had a strange expression on his face when he heard the name. Come to think of it, his hammer fragments were still chasing the time remnants of Paradox Bats all over the world.
Hopefully, none of the fragments will suddenly run over and kill Cedric himself.
The Mobius strip is gone, and Cedric will no longer be Paradox Batman.
Of course, he won't be the Reverse Flash.
But Bruce knows very well that Cedric's destiny is still connected with the Speed Force, and maybe one day, he will still become a speedster.
After breakfast, a large group of people started to head to Stoat Hill to meet up with Diggory and his son.
“It’s been really hard to organize this year.”
While climbing the mountain, Mr. Weasley couldn't help complaining, "Can you believe it? Tonight, there are 100,000 wizards in the UK, from all over the world!"
"One hundred thousand?"
When the twins heard this number, they immediately became excited.
Fred held his chin and said, "If we create some mischief at this time, the effect will definitely be very good."
"Shut up!"
Mr. Weasley scolded fiercely, "Don't even think of that! This year's World Cup will be successfully concluded, and there will be no trouble!"
(End of this chapter)
