Disclaimer: I own none but Jason; the rest is JK Rowling's property.

The Stronger Love

Where we love is home,
Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Homesick in Heaven

The loud pop! cracked in the air like a whip, and Harry patiently awaited his turn at the front of the apparition line. In front of him, dozens of wizards grumbled at the long wait. Ever since the fall of Voldemort, many things had changed, including the institution of top-notch security.

His mind, however, was on other matters. Today was the day he would be returning to England. It had been a long time, too long. Seven years, to tell the truth. He felt more than a little nervous, the anxiousness boiled in his stomach and his heart pounded. He had been dreading and putting this day off for years. Now was the time to face it.

The line moved forward slightly. Pops filled the air from other various stations, going to different regions of England. Of course, this was just the hall for those traveling to England. There were more halls in the Apparition Center than Harry was capable of counting. Each one was assigned a specific country. The amount of travelers to a certain country determined how long its lines were, and England was one of the most traveled, since it was the location of a Ministry.

Harry's thoughts began to wander once more. He was filled with a sudden excitement. He was going home! What a relief that would be, despite his apprehension. He had missed it so much over the years. He could not wait to see everyone again. Ron, Hermione, the Weasleys, his old classmates.

And, he mused, it would be very nice to see a certain red-head again.

He was especially nervous and excited to see Ginny again. When he had left, they'd been in a good place, and it broke his heart to leave her. But he had to do it. No matter what she thought, he did not have any choice in the matter. He hoped that she would forgive him and they could begin a relationship again.

An hour later, Harry reached the front of the apparition queue. He removed his papers from a folder and handed them to the station manager. They were scanned for any incorrect information, the manager magically made a copy for himself and returned the original to Harry. Given the go-ahead, Harry concentrated and with a pop, he was gone.

"Ginny, dear. Could you please just join us for a little while tonight?" Molly Weasley pleaded with her daughter.

"Mum, Jason has a very important dinner meeting with the company tonight," Ginny replied. "He really wants me there. I have to go."

"Oh alright," her mother sighed. "You haven't been to any of the family dinners in such a long time, and we all miss you. And it is Ron's birthday today, and he'll want you there."

"Well, I suppose I will drop by after dinner and see if he is still there. I have a present for him, so tell him to stay, okay?"

After hanging up with her mom, Ginny knew that Ron would never hang around at home on his birthday, since Hermione probably had her own romantic evening all set up for him. But, it was worth a shot, and it satisfied her mum, so everything turned out alright in the end.

Deciding to get ready for the big dinner that night, Ginny showered and applied her make-up. She put on a lavender dress and threw on a white sweater in case it got chilly. It was beautiful during the day, if not a little rainy, but it was May and summer was around the bend, bringing promises of love and happiness.

Her wedding was scheduled for August 5th, and although that was almost three months away, it seemed like only three days. Planning a wedding was tricky business. And expensive. Thankfully, Jason was a successful business man for Wizard Technologies, a company that dealt with special wizarding gadgets to make life for the ordinary wizard even easier. His region of business dealt with advertising new products and dealing with the wizarding community. Ginny smiled as she though about that. He was definitely fit for the job; an outgoing people person, and everyone loved him. Including Ginny. She loved him and she wanted to be with him forever.

Harry stood outside of the Burrow door for five minutes. It had been seven years. Recently that phrase had seemed to become his mantra. Seven years. He had talked to nobody, erased all contact with everybody, sans one person. However, this person had no idea that Harry was about to show up.

For a fleeting second, Harry worried that they would all shun him. After all, it was not like he had let them all know when and why he left, or where he went. He imagined Mrs. Weasley had spent many sleepless nights worrying over him, and he was sure she still did, sometimes. Harry felt the worst for not telling her. It must have broken her heart. And as welcoming as she was, he worried that she would punish him for that torment and refuse to let him stay.

As Harry stood there for minutes more, fretting about his situation, he heard footsteps in the hall inside, coming towards the door. Before he could react, the door was opening.

"Yes, Fred, you duffer. The shipment specifically said that it would be in yesterday, and I was banking on it," George was whispering in conspiratorial tones. "Ron would believe it too… you know how thick-"

As soon as the door was fully open and Harry had a complete view of the twins, so also did they have a full view of him.

George seemed to have been rendered speechless, as did Fred. The two stood there and stared at him, making Harry very uncomfortable.

"Are you kidding me, George?" Fred asked his twin. "Wait. Are you really Harry?"

"In the flesh," Harry provided them with an uncertain smile. He did not know whether they were mad or glad.

"Blimey George," Fred said again. Then, he reached out and poked Harry's arm. George did the same. Then, Fred pinched him very hard.

"OW!" Harry shouted, surprised at the pain. "Why'd you do that?"

"Sorry," Fred said. "Just had to see if you were actually real."

Harry looked at them questioningly.

"Ah, Harry," the twins looked at each other, and George said,"Why don't we, uh, go for a walk."

They both shut the door and the three of them started out walking next to the road in front of the Burrow.

"So, what brings you back to good ole' England Harry?" Fred inquired.

"I wanted to come home," Harry said simply. "I was tired of being away for so long."

"So… you're just coming back because you can?" George looked at him doubtfully.

"I missed everyone. A lot. That was one of the main reasons."

Fred and George exchanged glances. Harry remembered that he hated when they did that.

"Well, you see Harry," George began. "Things aren't exactly the same as they were when you left. I mean, it has been, what? Five or six years?"

Harry grimaced. "Seven." It did sound bad this time.

"Yeah, and that's a long time. People can change a lot in seven years. I mean, you haven't seen anyone since then, have you?"

Harry shook his head. This was getting worse by the moment.

"And if you just show up, it's a pretty big shock. If you really want to know, Bill is not married yet, but he's dating this one girl, Rochelle or some French name. Charlie is married, his wife's name is Sarah. They have two girls, real cute kids. Percy married Penelope, of course, and they're living in Australia right now. Marriage has made him real adventurous, you see," George grinned at him. "We, of course, are still single, but you can't expect more from us. We're tied in a holy bond with our shop. And Ron-"

"Ron and Hermione are married, I know that," Harry cut in. Seeing the twin's quizzical faces, though, he hastily informed them, "They were engaged before I left." There was a pause, as Harry waited for them to explain Ginny, who was next in line. When they didn't, he prompted them.

They both frowned, and immediately their stances became more guarded. "Ginny's fine. She's very happy right now." And they did not elaborate further.

The walk now continued in a tense silence.

"How's your mum?" Harry decided to ask after a few minutes.

"She's good, like usual," Fred said. "Still after us about our shop-"

"Or should we say, 'shops'," George interrupted. "We are now located in five different places, three of which are located in England, one in France, and we are going to open our premier shop in Australia this August. We're rolling in dough, I might pleasantly add. It's really helping the family out, too," he and Fred put on goofy smiles.

Harry was impressed. "Wow, Australia. That's pretty big."

Fred nodded. "Yeah. Percy, of all people, managed to make some connections down there, as only he can do, and it ended up working for our benefit also."

"No kidding. Who ever suspected Percy would be furthering our joke endeavors someday," George laughed evilly.

"So the whole family is taking a big trip down there at the end of July. We'll all be spending three weeks there, what with our shop opening, and Ginny's-" Suddenly Fred stopped talking. Harry, whose interest had been piqued by the mention of Ginny, was disappointed.

"Never mind. I suppose you'll find out later," George said. Then he smiled. "Oy Fred, I got an idea," he said.

Fred raised his eyebrows in curiosity. The two removed themselves from Harry and walked a few feet away. They talked for a few minutes. When it appeared they were finished, they rejoined Harry.

"Alright, then," George said, turning to him. "We have an idea. Our present for Ron's birthday did not show up, and we had no idea what to give him."

"Until now," Fred said. "Harry, would you like to be our birthday present to Ron?"

"He'd be thrilled to see you-"

"And we think that we'll just hide you in our room, and then right before dinner, we'll bring you downstairs, present you all formally, Ron will be shocked-"

"Mum will probably break a few dishes, faint, and sob with happiness-"

"But we think it could work well."

Harry raised his eyebrows. It was all a little too much for him to take in. But then again, this way, he could present himself to the entire family and deal with all of their reactions simultaneously, instead of one at a time. That was beneficial. Plus, he didn't have anything to give to Ron for his birthday, and he knew Ron had been waiting for him to come home for months, and what better time to surprise him than on his birthday.

"Alright," Harry said, after thinking it over. "But you're only presenting me. No jokes, no poison, no tricks, and no giving me any deformities."

"Good," Fred said. "Deal?"

Harry shook each of their hands. "Done."

At six-thirty, Ginny spotted Jason when she arrived at the Piereto in downtown London, a trendy restaurant amidst many expensive boutiques that peppered the streets.

"Jason!" She called, awarding him with a huge smile. She had not seen him in two days, since he had been away on business. She missed him.

He quickly strode over to her and held her arms as he kissed her on the lips. "I missed you," he informed her when they were done.

"I missed you too," she replied. "So where is everyone? Already at their fancy table drinking champagne and eating expensive cuisine?" She joked.

"Gin, you know that we shouldn't make fun of tonight until after it's over," Jason lightly reprimanded. "Who knows? The food could taste excellent."

Ginny rolled her eyes. Jason had a tongue for fancy grub and there was nothing she could do to cure him of it. "You know I hate restaurant food, Jason. Nothing can quite live up to my mother's-"

"Yes, yes, your mother's home cooking. I've heard," he winked at her.

"Well, you do realize that we are missing Ron's birthday dinner tonight, and my mum was quite frustrated that I had to spend my time with a bunch of schmucky businessmen instead," she tossed in a fake haughty air.

"Oh, well, isn't that terrible, my dear. Come on, lets go find the group."

Dinner was, as Ginny had expected, quite boring. All business jargon that made no sense to her ears. She wondered how people would manage to talk about the same thing for hours on end, but here she was, listening to the simultaneous drone of stuffy rich men talk and talk about money.

Not that Jason was a stuffy rich man, of course. She glanced over at him with a half smile on her face and admired his features. He was a very tall man, lean and blonde. His hair was neatly combed, and his suit was clean and crisp. Ginny loved the continuous twinkle in his blue eyes, and the smile he beamed on everyone he encountered.

Jason glanced her way and caught her smiling at him. He winked and she returned it.

Ginny was so happy, happier than she had been in years. The thought of marrying him this summer made her queasy with excitement, and she wanted to jump out of her skin and laugh out loud. But that would be extremely unorthodox, especially at a formal dinner such as this, so she contained her excitement to smiles.

She had met him four years ago, when she was twenty years old, and he was twenty-one. He had come to Fred and George's shop, having made a good business transaction with the twins, who wanted to buy some of their gadgets to destroy and "repair". Little did he know, part of the transaction ended up turning him into a string bean, and a rather large one at that. Ginny, who had evidently been the only one to notice, yelled at her brothers for minutes on end about turning innocent strangers into strange objects or, in Jason's case, vegetables. The twins turned him back into a regular sized human being.

Once restored to his everyday body, Jason and Ginny began dating, which eventually led her to be where she was today. His fiancé.

Harry paced the hallway outside of the Weasley family room and kitchen. The fresh air, change of scenery, and opportunity to stretch his legs was welcomed with happiness, but apprehension soon took its place. From here, he could hear all of them. He could hear Mr. Weasley's babbling, Mrs. Weasley commanding the dinner, the boys laughing, Hermione pestering, and Ron responding to said pestering.

He had been listening with hopeful ears for Ginny's voice, but he did not hear it. That was odd. She was quite a talkative person, and would be enthused to join in her older brother's conversations about Quidditch. Harry wondered what was wrong with her tonight.

It was odd, having them all together in the next room, right there for him, and yet he still felt out of place and separated from them- and not just because there was a wall between them. He hadn't seen any of their faces (except Fred and George) in much more than a couple of years. What did they look like? Harry wanted to see how they had changed, and he wanted to put a name and face to the new voices he heard.

He also felt guilt. Especially in the cases of Ginny, Mrs. Weasley, and Hermione.

Suddenly, the room went quiet at the sound of a loud bang. George's voice was heard: "Attention all! Silence all! Yes, that's more like it. Well, all me and Fred can say is that Ron has been a great brother for the past 25 years-"

"And a great pawn in testing our various products," Fred added.

"Yes, that too. So tonight, to honor our little brother, we have a very, very special surprise. Not just for little Ronnie-kins, but for all of you."

"So without further ado, we would like to present…" Fred stomped around the floor in imitation of a drumroll.

"Come on out!" George yelled in Harry's general direction.

Harry took a deep breath, and pushing aside thoughts of doubt and fear, he stepped into the room.

What had been excited chatter the minute Fred and George announced they had a surprise stopped like an auto that rams into a wall.

He stood there. They looked, and he looked some more. Harry gave an insecure smile at the many, gaping mouths. His vision was blurry. Man, there was a lot of red hair.

There was the sound of breaking glass as someone dropped a dish in the kitchen, shattering it all over the floor. When he turned to look, he saw Hermione bounding over to him. Jumping over large chunks of glass, she leaped right into his arms and buried her head in his shoulder. After that, he was vaguely aware of what happened. Hermione was sobbing and repeating his name over and over again. Bill and Charlie shook his hands and Charlie introduced his family, Mr. Weasley gave him a huge hug. Ron came up to him. They looked at each other for a long while, and then Ron nodded and said "It's the best gift, mate. Thanks," and then they slapped each other on the back.

The best reaction, however, was that of Mrs. Weasley. With tears in her eyes, she swept him up into her biggest hug yet, and, while planting motherly kisses all over his head, told him "I'm so glad you're back, son". After that, Harry knew there would be no issues over where he would stay.

His eyes raked the room, and the one thing that saddened him in all of the happiness was the absence of Ginny.

Please review because it makes me really happy, and give me any comments, constructive criticism soI can improve the story. Thanks for reading!