Harry’s idea of family morale was getting a bit of tissue off the Dursleys for Christmas. It’s no small wonder that the warm glow of the Weasley household called to him... and us too.

We can’t help but dream about relocating to this ramshackle home, held together with clutter and magic, in the middle of the English countryside. Here is why The Burrow is still many a Harry Potter fan’s dream abode...

‘It’s not much,’ said Ron.

‘It’s brilliant,’ said Harry happily, thinking of Privet Drive.
Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets

It’s not just a house, it’s a home

Much like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, The Burrow seemed to be constantly teetering on the verge of collapse. Not to mention Fred and George’s constant explosions, ghouls in the attic, an erratic owl and constant gnome invasions. We often wonder how Mrs Weasley handled it all. (Except we do know: Mrs Weasley was an actual treasure.)

With an adjacent field – used as a Quidditch pitch by the Weasley children – and a shed where Arthur Weasley tinkered with his Muggle gadgets, The Burrow was more like a home than anywhere Harry had ever lived. The Weasleys spent a lot of time together and everyone pitched in.

Mrs Weasley’s cooking

With books like Charm Your Own Cheese, Enchantment in Baking and One Minute Feasts – It’s Magic! in the house, you can imagine that Mrs Weasley’s cooking would be something magical.

The descriptions of the food that Harry ate at The Burrow throughout the series are always so delectable – the perfect combination of hearty, healthy and comforting – that you can perfectly understand why Harry preferred mealtimes at The Burrow to being slipped cold tinned soup through a cat flap at Privet Drive. It's not exactly a tough decision.

By seven o’clock, the two tables were groaning under dishes and dishes of Mrs Weasley’s excellent cooking, and the nine Weasleys, Harry and Hermione were settling themselves down to eat beneath a clear, deep-blue sky. To somebody who had been living on meals of increasingly stale cake all summer, this was paradise, and at first, Harry listened rather than talked, as he helped himself to chicken-and-ham pie, boiled potatoes and salad.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The Burrow was about belonging

One of The Burrow’s greatest treasures was not Arthur Weasley’s battery collection but an enchanted clock with nine hands that would always tell you where a Weasley family member was.

It was pretty amazing: a clock that let Molly know when her kids were at home, school or work, travelling or lost, or in hospital, prison or ‘mortal peril’. The real reason we love this clock so much, though, is that it showed just how tightly knit the family was.

It’s different from Privet Drive… and reality

When it comes down to it, the reason Harry loved The Burrow so much was that it was the polar opposite of life at Privet Drive. And for readers, it exemplified what life in the wizarding world could really be like.

From Fred and George rounding off an evening meal with a display of Filibuster fireworks, to Bill and Charlie jousting in the backyard with two battered old flying tables, or Mr Weasley conjuring candles to light the darkening garden so the family could eat dessert outside – The Burrow was just the best, isn't it?

Life at The Burrow was as different as possible from life in Privet Drive. The Dursleys liked everything neat and ordered; the Weasleys’ house burst with the strange and unexpected. Harry got a shock the first time he looked in the mirror over the kitchen mantelpiece and it shouted, ‘Tuck your shirt in, scruffy!’ The ghoul in the attic howled and dropped pipes whenever he felt things were getting too quiet, and small explosions from Fred and George’s bedroom were considered perfectly normal. What Harry found most unusual about life at Ron’s, however, wasn’t the talking mirror or the clanking ghoul: it was the fact that everybody there seemed to like him.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets