"But George, I don't want to!" I whined as George tried to pull me out of bed to get to work. I loved staying at the Burrow, but leaving so early to go into Diagon Alley to clean up the rubble and ruins of the shop was so not worth the hassle.
"You are not getting out of this. Look, mum's making bacon! Ugh, I'm so sick of having to wake you up. Fine. I'll just leave you here. Maybe Ginny and Harry will forget which room is theirs for their morning snog-fest again." This got me up. I love Harry, but seriously, he needs to grow a spine when it comes to that sister of mine. And she needs to learn about the social acceptance of PDA.
"I thought that would do the trick. Now then, we need to leave in twenty minutes, so be down in ten. Why do I sound so much like mum right now? Do you see what you're doing to me?" George called over his shoulder as he left.
Honestly, I never thought I'd say this, but there are times that I can't wait for him to just marry Angelina already. Let me live my blissful single life and allow me to wake up at whatever time I please. Never the less, he had a point. The sooner we cleaned the shop up, the sooner we could re-open, which meant the sooner I was not trapped in my childhood home with every sibling and every sibling's significant other. It was times like this that I wished Charlie hadn't left for Romania. He knew the joy of not being tied down. No one else in this blasted house did.
By the time I did arrive downstairs, the kitchen was alive with activity. I paused at the door to figure out who had spent the night. I heard Harry's deep voice, followed by Ginny's bubbly laugh. And there was Penelope, jokingly admonishing Percy for working so much. Next, George talking about the best cleaning spells with mum. There was the voice I'd been waiting for- Ron mumbling something. There was a pause. For such a busy kitchen, I don't understand how it could get so silent while waiting to hear one voice. And then there it was. Hermione's sweet, gentle laugh. Shit.
"Morning, all! Beautiful day, isn't it? Thanks for the food, mum, looks delicious, George, we should get to the shop now, don't you think?" I walked through the kitchen as quickly as possible, doing my best not to even glance in her direction. I grabbed the bowl mum was holding out and started walking to the backyard.
"What's the hurry? I told you we had twenty minutes. You broke mum's poor heart." George said as he finally caught up with me.
"I just...I can't be in there and I can't explain. Can we please just get out of here?" By this time I'd finished the bowl of porridge and had already sent it back into the kitchen with my note of it's deliciousness.
"Fine, but you know that you'll have to explain at some point." With that, he apparated to the shop, with me not more than a few feet behind.