A Summoner in the Wizarding World

*After reviewing the events of Goblet of Fire, I realized Hermione should be at the Burrow at this time - so the events of the previous chapter will be hypothetical, though this chapter (the real one) would not change that much.

The flames spun faster and faster, and only when I felt my vision partially returning did I stabilized myself and stepped out of the fireplace. A brilliant emerald flash and the loud roar of flames greeted me to the Burrow.

"Oh, Harry dear! Welcome, welcome! Dinner's being prepared, so settle in with Ronald and Hermione, they're upstairs. Oh, Bill and Charlie would be thrilled to see you!" Mrs. Weasley smiled and gave me a quick hug.

The Burrow's cozy living room smelled of peculiar flora, a whiff of Butterbeer, with a faint reminiscent of Floo powder. Floral wallpaper covered the entire of living room while mismatched furniture, seemingly all bought secondhand, littered across with no rhyme or reason. In front of the fireplace, a clock with hands labeling not minutes or hours, but each Weasley members' names, lay pointing to various states such as "time to de-gnome the garden" and "you're late!".

"Mum! Is that Harry?" Ron's voice echoed from upstairs. With a shuffling noise, the staircase creaked as multiple individuals rushed down on it.

Two girls appeared first in the kitchen doorway. One, with very bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth, was myself and Ron's friend, Hermione Granger. The other, who was small and red-haired, was Ron's younger sister, Ginny. Both of them smiled at me, who grinned back, which made Ginny go scarlet - she was obviously been very taken with Harry, courtesy of JK Rowling's awkward romance writing, ever since his first visit to the Burrow.

Unbeknownst to everyone else, a familiar voice sounded in my head as I met Hermione as her fourth-year self: 

"Side Quest conditions met.

'Hermione, the First Heroine' activated.

Completion conditions: As a reincarnator, fix another of JK Rowling's awkward and mismatched romance. Prevent Hermione from dating Ronald Weasley by making her your girlfriend.

Bonus reward: Universal Time Turner (able to turn back time in any universe)."

Well, whether this quest is here or not, I would never let that terrible character match happen. Though it is slightly troubling that I had to become Hermione's boyfriend myself - well, hanging out with her for a total of over 3 years in both worlds should be a good base for a relationship, I suppose.

Before I could continue this train of thought, Ron, whose future girlfriend is about to be stolen, came next, his red hair still as tousled as ever. "Harry, mate! Good to have you here! Have you been following the World Cup at the Muggles'? Bulgaria's Seeker Viktor Krum is amazing!"

"I think Ireland has a higher chance at winning the finals, their roster is stacked", I replied, knowing the ultimate victor. 'And you'll stop fanboying soon when Hermione goes to the Ball with him.' Before Ron could launch a full-length Quidditch analysis, the other Weasleys made their way into the crowded living room.

"Good to see you, Harry. How's summer?", greeted Bill, smiling while shaking my hand. He worked as a cursebreaker at Gringotts, and had once been Head Boy at Hogwart. However, unlike Percy, Bill was - there was no other word for it - cool.

He was tall, with long hair that he had tied back in a ponytail. Bill Weasley was wearing an earring with what seems like a fang dangling from it. His clothes would not have looked out of place at a rock concert, except for his boots which instead of being made from leather, they were dragon hide. 

"Doing well, Harry?" greeted another redhead next to Bill, grinning and holding out a large hand, which I shook, feeling calluses and blisters under his fingers. This had to be Charlie, who worked with dragons in Romania - the large, shiny burn on one of his hands is probably a "souvenir" from that job.

After greeting everyone and excusing myself, I caught up with Ginny, the twins and the other two of the Golden Trio. As we went up the stairs, Hermione and Ron each told me about their vacation - though it's mainly Hermione doing the talking as she went to France over the summer.

"Did you visit the French Ministry of Magic, Hermione? I heard they have all sorts of interesting creatures, Newt Scamander mentioned some of them in his book.", I asked. Well, it's not 'heard' but seen as I read both the spin-off Fantastic Beasts book and the prequels that Warner Bros are still milking for all their worth.

Hermione looked quite surprised, never expecting me to have read and noticed those. Apparently, she has not made that connection either - Newt never mentioned explicitly where those beasts are kept as it's confidential for the governments.

"I haven't Harry - how did you find out about it? I went to the market but there's no unseen species there.", she replied. Ron, Ginny and the twins looked at me quizzically as the original Harry is, like Ron, not that much of a reader.

"Blimey, mate, I can't believe I'll see a day you can stump Hermione! What are those beasts, anyways?", he stared in disbelief.

After pestering to tell for some time, I drew out some of the species such as the Matagot cat that splits when they're struck or the Nundu that flew over Paris in the second Fantastic Beasts movie. Hermione absorbed like a sponge, constantly flipping through her books and muttering: "I can't believe it!..." - for the first time, her knowledge seems to be filled with holes that one textbook cannot cover.

As she looked at me in newfound respect, I found it quite similar to my own sessions with young first-year Hermione back in my dimension. It seems a good and healthy step towards building her affection and trust.

The sky slowly darkens and time flew while I was hanging out with the group. Mrs Weasley called us down for dinner, levitating the dishes onto the table and everyone else took their place around it. Dinner was peculiar in it's variety: it would even rival that of Hogwarts, where literally hundreds of house elves are employed to cook an endless amount of food for students. I suppose this is the difference between starving poor Muggles and perfectly healthy, second-hand using wizard families.

Most of the available food are British such as kidney pies and roasted lamb, to my absolute relish. Thinking of eating like this for the rest of the vacation, I vowed to teach Molly Weasley some new Eurasian dishes like Italian spaghetti and maybe even Japanese curry, as summoning a cookbook would have a negligible cool down for the benefits it would bring to my diet.

Turning to my left, however, I realized I have no need for such fancy things when I have a walking encyclopedia next to me. Poking Hermione, who was listening to the conversations intently, I asked:

"Hermione, did you learn any new French dishes? I'm sure Mrs Weasley will appreciate if you can share them, I certainly will."

"Only bouillabaisse and some others... you're often the one cooking at home, right Harry? Should we help Mrs Weasley tomorrow and see which food is better? A friendly competition, you know...", she suggested, though her eyes are anything but friendly. It seems she has not forgiven me for surpassing her knowledge.

"Let's make it a formal challenge, then", I whispered, smiling wickedly. "What do you want to bet on? If I win, I'll get first access to your notes for 3 months, how about you?"

With eyes blazing in determination, Hermione thought for a brief moment before replying: "If I'm better, treat all of us to Honeydukes chocolate for one day then. Deal?"

"Deal", I said, shaking her outstretched hand.

As everyone's belly is stuffed with multiple servings, we cleared out the table together before leaving to each do our own thing. Without a training location for my Shadow Magic, I must admit I was quite bored.

"Mrs Weasley, me and Hermione here decided to have a cooking contest. Can we take care of tomorrow's lunch and be voted on who did better?", I asked hesitantly. Hermione nodded in agreement, and with a little push, Mrs Weasley agreed to let us compete.

"I've always wanted to play this game together with everyone. Would it be alright to all stay and try it out?", I made a reluctant expression, as the important matter is concluded. "It won't take a lot of your time, I promise."

The bushy-haired girl next to me stared in vigilance, thinking I'm already trying to overtake her. I merely assured her it was a friendly family game, nothing to worry about. Mrs Weasley looked at me kindly and replied, calling out to the rest of the family:

"Sure we can, dear. Arthur, call the kids back, Harry wants to play a game with us!"

Hearing his wife's words, Mr Weasley rounded up everyone around the living room sofa. Ron looked slightly confused, Fred and George perked up at 'game', Ginny blushed and silently sat down while the three eldest smiled politely with anticipation.

Looking at those various expressions, I took a deep breath before introducing the rules.

"The game I want us to play is called 'Who's the Death Eater'. It's when each of us are given a secret role, and we all have to shut our eyes and wait every turn until our roles are called. I'll write what each role is on the table here, but essentially the wizards need to find out who's the Death Eater and eliminate all of them to win."

(Think Werewolf but instead of Werewolf, Hunter, Witch, Bodyguard it's Death Eater, Auror, Healer, House Elf)

After answering more questions and writing the name of every role on a separate card visible to only that person, courtesy of Bill who works as Cursebreaker, we officially started the game. Of course, a certain Granger looked positively alarmed at me "inventing" a game out of thin air, but nobody took notice.

At the first round, I became the moderator to supervise and help with any issues. It was quite fun that Ron was a Seer and found out Fred was the Death Eater at the first round, only to be voted out the very next day by the twins.

Ron's mouth threatened to fall off when Fred slowly deceived and eliminated everybody else, leaving only George alive. The House Elf, Ginny, could not stop his onslaught. Even Hermione, who suspected Fred, could not convince everyone else to eliminate him.

As I declared the Death Eater's victory at the end of this round, the rest of the family looked at the twins with deep suspicion but slight respect. Ron told me to weaken the Death Eater because the role felt too overpowered, though with much restraint from declaring "Skill Issue", I merely told him to continue a few more rounds, and promised to consider if it was too unfair.

Unfortunately for Fred in the next round, he was instantly suspected and voted unanimously. The Death Eater this round, Percy, unfortunately could not escape scrutiny and was killed off by the Auror, Hermione, while attempting to silence her. She was praised as the hero in the end of the round by everyone for excellent deduction skills.

The games continued late into the night, as each found their way to enjoy it. Percy, Mr Weasley and Hermione used deduction quite competently to narrow down the suspects, while Mrs Weasley, Ron and Ginny were much more emotional and prone to being convinced. Charlie, Bill and the twins often side with each other to sabotage and misdirect, caring not to win but to cause as much chaos as possible, to Hermione's dismay.

Percy's oratory skills becomes apparent for everyone, but his speeches only work once or twice before he had to change strategies lest he becomes the diversion for the Death Eater side. Ginny and Ron were subjected to much pressure from both sides as the deciding vote, but seemed to enjoy nonetheless.

And so, with a "Oh, blimey, look at the time! Off to bed, everyone!", Mrs Weasley ended the game but failed to stop the board game craze that would sweep the Burrow in the following days.

I also received requests for new games every few days, and had to summon a few board games before getting the cookbook due to the high demand. As the World Cup draws nearer, I pondered whether or not to bring a game from the future to the wizarding world: even technically difficult ones have magical workarounds, after all.

As for the cook-off, it ended in a tie for both myself and Hermione, which meant both sides got what they want - an excuse to follow Hermione while studying for me and a nice hangout where Ron no longer had to worry about money for her. Though when that time comes, I will make sure not to allow their feelings to magically Apparate into thin air as in the original books.