you catch that, please?' she asked, pointing at something with springs and wheels and some kind of whistling part that trundled away from her.
'Yes, Mum,' Ginny said quietly – she was near as quiet as Harry, and he was glad for it – and chased after the thing, scooped it up and put it back in its place. 'Stay there,' she scolded, shaking her finger at it, and Harry giggled, covering his mouth with his hand.
Ginny looked over at him and smiled shyly. 'It's a Funderbus. Always wandering off, too.'
Harry didn't ask what a Funderbus was, figuring he would be told or not, but it wasn't his right to ask questions.
'Mum,' Fred said in a sing-songy voice that was not quite a whine, 'can't we—'
'—just play now? You brought our—'
'—brooms and all.'
Mrs. Weasley smiled, but looked a little weary, like she heard this all the time. 'Lessons first, boys, you know that. Then play time.'
'Awww, Mum—' George started, but Mrs. Weasley held up a hand and he trailed off before complaining. Mrs. Weasley didn't even yell at him for arguing. Harry was amazed.
'Now, Harry dear, you're new to this, so why don't you stand by me,' said Mrs. Weasley, and gestured to a spot beside her. 'The others will be spread out inside the circle.' As she said it, the twins, Ron and Ginny each took a place within the circle of objects, some of which were making low humming noises, and some of which had moving parts and lots of arms that seemed to be waving at him.
Harry nodded and let Treacle down again, but she followed him as he stepped into the circle to stand by Mrs. Weasley.
'Excellent, dear.' She waited, eyebrows lifted disapprovingly, while the twins swapped places with each other several times before settling down, and then she smiled down at Harry. 'Now, I'm going to ask a question or pose a problem, and each of you will try and find the answer. You can use any of the objects in the circle to help you. Each of you will figure your own answer, and – except for Fred and George, dears, I know – it's unlikely any two people's answers will be the same. All right, Harry?'
Harry had absolutely no idea what she meant except that he was going to have to answer questions. It sounded almost like school. Well, he could probably do that, except he knew he didn't know near enough about anything to answer questions. Like Uncle Vernon said, he was lazy and stupid. But he nodded just the same.
'All right then,' Mrs. Weasley said. 'Please tell me four kinds of plants that are used in potions. If you're seven or older, I want you to describe the plants, too. If you're nine or older,' she added, looking at the twins, 'in addition to describing them, tell me where they can be found, and how to harvest them for peak performance.' She grinned. 'Go!'
The Weasley children all scrambled to the devices that surrounded them, and there was a sudden cacophony of sound: whistles, churning gears and the susurrus of metal and wood and cloth rubbing together. Lights appeared and glowing pictures of plants and trees and all sorts of things, over the objects and surrounding the children.
Harry stared, with no idea what to do. He pulled his bottom lip in between his teeth and bit down hard before stumbling almost blindly toward the edge of the circle. A squishy object sat there that looked like a plush animal with an elephant's head, except it had horns like a rhino, and a tiger's legs and paws. And several flaps on its belly that appeared to be liftable. Weird.
Crouching in front of the thing, Harry covertly checked to see what the others were doing. The twins each held a many-armed . . . thing made of cloth, and were poking each other with the arms. Ginny was sitting with her object, which looked almost like a scooter with many extra wheels, in her lap, and tapping the wheels with her index finger as if it were a wand. Ron was hunched over the Funderbus, poking it and seemingly talking to it, too.
Taking a slow breath, Harry lifted one of the flaps on the elephant thingy's belly. A tiny picture of a tree appeared on the fuzzy surface,
