"Would you like some more, dear?" Mrs Weasley asked with a smile as she brought the casserole towards Auden.
"Thanks, Mrs Weasley, but I'm really full, I promise," Auden replied as he finally managed to get the last few bites down his throat.
It's not that the food was bad, it was actually very good. The problem was that Auden had already eaten at least six times his usual portions in the last meal.
He had arrived at Luna's house in the morning after deciding that it was finally time for him to actually enjoy his vacation. Coincidentally, today was the day the Weasley family returned from their Egypt trip, so they had sent Fred to invite Luna and her father for a meal since they were neighbours.
And Fred, seeing Auden there, decided to invite him as well since Luna's father was busy with his newspaper.
And Mrs Weasley decided to take care of Auden after Fred and George accidentally revealed that Auden was an orphan during the introductions.
"How do"
"You"
"Like the"
"Food"
"dear friend?" Fred and George spoke one by one, seeing the suffering Auden was undergoing due to their mother's kind nature. Realizing the effect of revealing Auden's situation, both of them added information like he was mostly studying alone and was further alienated because of his intelligence that attracted the teachers' attention towards him.
It was a load of bull, but Mrs Weasley began mothering him in such a way that he was unable to utter anything to reject her kindness. So now Auden had to digest six times the normal amount of meals without saying anything.
But he's not going to let the twins get the last laugh.
"Do you need anything else, dear boy?" Mrs Weasley asked with a smile.
"Oh, Mrs Weasley, Fred and George promised me that they will show me how they managed to sneak around at night in Hogwarts without being caught. Can I go with them to see it?" Auden asked with a really sweet, adorable voice.
The entire Weasley family went silent.
"Traitor!!" Fred and George screamed as they ran away from their angry mother.
"FRED, GEORGE, HOW DARE YOU CORRUPT A CHILD!" Mrs Weasley shouted as she ran after them with the broom.
Mr Weasley just shook his head in exasperation. Ginny tried her best to hold her laugh in, while Ron looked at Auden as if he was his hero.
"Man, Hermione told me you are smart, but I never knew you were smart enough to put them in trouble," Ron muttered while stuffing his face with food.
"Well, don't copy what I'm doing. Since you live here, they might get revenge on you when you are sleeping at night," Auden advised as he washed his hands. He's not taking a risk by sitting at the table anymore. He was pretty sure that with the amount he ate, he won't have to eat for the next two days.
After making them run for half an hour and beating them up, Mrs Weasley brought Fred and George back into the house.
At the time, Auden was asking Mr Weasley about the enchantments he had done to his flying car.
Most people never noticed this, but the way the car came to save Harry and Ron from the spiders in the canon was actually not normal at all.
You can enchant a bit of life onto inanimate objects, but it is temporary, like every other transfiguration spell that people use. When magic runs out, transfigured objects turn back into their former form. And inanimate objects that had life implanted in them run out of it even faster than normal transfigured objects do. For the car to retain a bit of life so that it came to save Harry and Ron after an entire year—that's not normal.
The closest thing to objects that retain life is the Sorting Hat in Hogwarts. But that hat contained the soul of an old acquaintance of Gryffindor. Seeing that his friend was going to die young, Gryffindor transferred his soul into the hat. And his friend accepted the duty of sorting the students into four houses representing each of the four founders.
And while doing that duty for a century, the Hat miraculously connected with the castle, becoming a permanent object powered by the castle's magic. It was a miraculous coincidence because of which the Hat had lived for more than a thousand years.
But the car was not the same as the hat. It clearly did not have the soul of a person, as Mr Weasley did not look like a person who does necromancy while hiding in the Department of Muggle Objects.
And the car itself was able to sustain itself for an entire year without being magically charged by anyone else.
So either he created a way to permanently put life into objects, or he might have found a way to extend it more than anyone else had found out till now.
Both of which are troublesome if the world found out.
But Auden is not going to stop Mr Weasley in any manner. He was asking him about every step he took to enchant the car, even the ones he added and then later removed for something better. Auden was using the archive system to record everything that he said because he knew one of these combinations had created this miraculous coincidence in the car.
He is recording it so that he can find the reason and be ahead in case it is ever used for evil. Spreading this knowledge will completely depend upon whether Mr Weasley discovers it and decides to do it or not.
Auden had his integrity when it comes to these matters.
While Auden was learning, Luna was undergoing a test from a teacher she had accepted a year ago.
"Since you completed all the work I gave you, it's time I see how far you have come along, my dear," Rowena said as she raised her wand against Luna, who had taken a battle stance in front of her.
A/N - hope you like it.