'Okay, I can't stand it anymore!' thought Harry. It was several hours after he woke up from the disastrous Godric's Hollow journey, and he was thinking about family. Not his blood family, but the closest one he ever had that is alive today. He walked out of the tent, up to Hermione, who was on guard duty.

"Hey Hermione, I'll take over for now." He said. She looked surprised, but welcomed the break. She went inside, and Harry sat in the entrance to the tent. He resumed his thinking of his closest family in life, the Weasleys. He knew that Ginny would probably be back for Christmas, and Ron would most likely also be at the Burrow, but there would be no way to check.

But there was.

But it was too dangerous…

But it's Christmas!

But I would be putting them in danger…

Christmas is a time of family!

I can't apparate very well…

So convince Hermione!

Knowing that the pros outnumbered the cons, Harry walked into the tent. Miraculously, Hermione wasn't asleep, but she was climbing into bed.

"Hermione," Harry said. "Can we go to the Burrow?"

Hermione looked at him as though he was daft. "Are you kidding me, it's way too dangerous!"

Harry blanched, and looked at her with his best defeated-with-puppy-dog-eyes look. "But it's Christmas, and Christmas is a time for family."

This time it was Hermione that blanched. She knew that Harry wouldn't let it go, not for something this important. Last time she had refused was for Godric's Hollow, and he hadn't let it go for months. "Fine."

Harry's face lit up, notably the first time in a long time it had done so. Hermione saw this, and knew she had made the right decision. He raced out the tent like an anxious five-year old, and she smirked but followed. The moment she was outside the tent, Harry packed it up using magic and handed it to her, and she put it in the beaded bag. She took down the wards, and he immediately put on the invisibility cloak and grabbed her arm. She smirked at him, and disapperated, appearing at the edge of the Burrow's wards.

When they crossed the wards, they had to hope that the Weasleys and whomever they may have over would be too distracted by Christmas dinner to notice. When they stepped across in sync, they knew that this was the case, as no distressed Molly or Arthur Weasley came sprinting out. They walked over to the door, still under the cloak, and Harry took the chance, stuck his arm out of the cloak, and knocked.

Mrs. Weasley was at the door a couple seconds later, and when she opened the door, and saw no one, she started to close it, but Harry stuck his hand out of the cloak and motioned her to stop. She had a small fit, but obeyed.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"Get Ron," said Harry, "I can't show myself and I understand you not wanting to let me in in these times."

Molly evidently didn't recognize his voice (he frowned) as she looked confused, and said: "Ron is in bed with spattergroit." Harry rolled his eyes.

"Then get Ginny." Harry said. Molly sped off.

Harry knew he was being a drama queen, but didn't care. He wanted to make an impact if he was visiting. He could just feel Hermione rolling her eyes next to him, though he didn't look at her. Molly came back and Harry's breath caught in his throat. He had never seen her look anything close to how beautiful as she did at this moment. She looked confused at seeing nothing.

"What's this?" She asked her mum.

"Someone is outside and said that they can't come out of their invisibility cloak, but they asked for you," he mum responded.

"Ginny," said Harry, his voice a partial too low for her to recognize it. He stuck his left hand out of the cloak, and Ginny looked closely at it, still confused by the look on her face. She noticed the faint imprints of red on the back of the hand and grabbed the hand to get a closer look.

'I Must Not Tell Lies,' she mouthed. Where did she remember that from?

Then it hit her. The blissful months in her fifth year, with her special someone explaining about Umbridge with the blood quill…

"Let him in," she told her mum firmly, and looked back at the hand with disapproval. It slipped under the cloak again, and her mum obliged, standing aside. Harry and Hermione stepped in and Harry slowly pulled off the cloak, not wanting to meet either female Weasley's eyes.

When his eyes (his head stayed down) looked up at the girls, he saw Mrs. Weasley's jaw opened wide, and Ginny frowning at him. He sensed Hermione in the same position as him.

Finally Ginny snapped out of it, stepped forward, and gave Hermione a huge hug. Mrs. Weasley squealed and hugged Harry, and he felt his bones cracking. Eventually Mrs. Weasley stepped back, and Harry saw Ginny doing the same. Ginny looked at Harry and he smiled faintly back awkwardly. Harry knew that they were going to have to have a talk later.

Great.

"Where's Ron?" asked Mrs. Weasley.

"Left," said Harry simply.

Harry and Hermione followed tentatively as Mrs. Weasley and Ginny walked back into the kitchen. Mrs. Weasley, of course, made as grand of an entrance as possible by saying loudly: "Look who decided to show up!"

Harry and Hermione entered. Silence. For about three seconds. Then Fred started clapping. Then George started clapping. Then Arthur started clapping. And everyone joined in one by one, until everyone (except Ginny, Harry noticed) was clapping as loud as they could. Harry and Hermione, unsure of what to do, stood there awkwardly. He noticed Remus looking at him in with a calculating expression on his (Remus') face, and he remembered him shouting at Remus at Grimmauld Place. Hurrah, yet another talk. But Remus was clapping all the same.

When the applause stopped, Molly cleared two seats for Harry and Hermione. And he wasn't sure whether it was an accident or if Molly purposely put him beside Ginny. Ginny looked as displeased with arrangements as he felt. They each scooted to the opposite edges of the chair, and Ginny took up conversation with George, who was on her other side.

The dinner was extremely good, and the one time Harry and Hermione were questioned, Harry said with a pained expression: "Can we not talk about that?"

He knew he also was t supposed to talk about it, but he didn't want to think about that in the moment of happiness. And then there was a second knock on the door. Mrs. Weasley jumped up once more, and ran to it. Harry and Hermione blanched when they heard the one word she said.

"Ronald!"