Chapter Two: Family

Willow sat alone in the strange office, her head a roiling storm of fear and curiosity vying for dominance. She had blown up her house! It had gone up in fire and smoke and had collapsed on her. But somehow, she'd been fine. Willow knew enough about science to know that she should be dead. She also knew that the cause of the explosion had been something that she couldn't explain with science. It was scary to have that kind of power, but it was also kind of nice.

Before she could even crawl her way out of the debris of her old house, strange men in cloaks had appeared out of nowhere and taken her to where she was now. She thought she heard someone say she was in Salem, which she knew was in Massachusetts on the other side of the country, but how had they all gotten so far so fast? One moment they had been outside of her house, and the next, they were here.

It had been two days since the explosion, and she just wanted to go home. It hadn't yet sunk in that she didn't really have a home to go to. All she knew is that Xander and Jesse would see the house and think that Willow was dead. She had to find them and let them know that she was okay, but the stupid grown-ups wouldn't let her go anywhere.

"It's for your own good," they kept saying, but what did they know? What did anyoneknow about her? These people were all strangers, and they kept telling her that 'things are being worked out' and 'everything will be okay soon.' They didn't seem to care that her mom and dad were dead, and even though Willow tried to mourn them, she found that she wasn't sure how much she cared that they were gone.

They never told me they loved me. Well, they probably did, but I don't remember it. And they left without saying goodbye, or even leaving a note. And they were leaving the country! Why would they do that?

Willow thought about all the times her dad had told her to stay away from anything close to magic, and Willow could understand why. She'd blown up the house! But a niggling little voice in the back of her head was telling her, 'Your daddy knew all along that you had this power, and that's why he never loved you. Your mom was just the same. They all knew what you could do, and they were afraid of you.'

She had to keep shaking her head and telling the voice to go away, that it wasn't true at all. But if she had used magic to blow up her house, didn't that prove that magic was evil? And it had taken her away from Xander and Jesse. She was being punished, she knew it. God was telling her that she'd been bad, and that now she had to pay for what she'd done.

But another voice inside her head whispered to her, 'This power is a good thing. You can use it to become stronger. Your parents saw you and thought you were too weak to love. If you had been stronger, they would have loved you more. And what about Cordelia? I bet that she wouldn't be so bossy and mean if she knew that you could blow her up.'

Willow smirked when that little voice told her that. No, Cordy Chase would be nothing next to such power. If only she could learn to control it… Didn't all the other people around here use strange powers to go to and from places? Were they all magicians, too? If they could learn to do such things, then maybe she could, too!

A while later, the woman whose office Willow was in returned with two other adults. There was a balding man and a plump woman who both had red hair.

"I'll leave you be for now," the black-haired woman said, leaving the three redheads alone in her office.

Willow curled up in her chair, suddenly nervous at being left alone with two strangers.

The man and woman looked at her with strange looks on their faces. Willow hadn't seen such faces before. It was like they were smiling at her while also trying to keep from crying. Why were they looking at her like that?

"Hello there," the woman said. She talked funny, like she was from another country. "My name is Molly, and this is my husband, Arthur. We're cousins of your father's."

They were family? Willow had family on her mother's side that lived far closer than Massachusetts. Why hadn't they come for her? "I… I don't know you. I want to go home!"

The man – Arthur – kept up that strange sad smile. "You want to go back to Sunnydale?"

"Y-yeah! Xander's there, and so is Jesse! I miss them. A-and their parents aren't nice at all, and they get to spend time at my parents' house so they don't get hurt. Oh, and I wasn't supposed to talk about that. B-but they'll be all worried! 'Cause my house went all boom and stuff. And I didn't mean to do it! It just happened! All I wanted was to find my mom and dad!"

The woman, Molly, came closer and wrapped Willow in a hug as she started to sob. Too tired to fight it, Willow just leaned into the woman's shoulder and let out her tears. Molly was soft and warm. It felt good.

"W-why… Why are you doing this?" she asked pitifully. "H-holding me, I mean."

Molly held Willow gently and looked her in the eye. "Didn't your mother ever hold you like this when you were sad?"

Willow shook her head. "Nuh-uh. If I depended too much on others, then I wouldn't grow up to be independent. It's important to be independent," she recited, just as her parents had told her so many times.

Arthur came closer and crouched next to his wife. "It's all right to let other people in, Willow. I bet you liked it when your friends were around with you."

This was entirely the wrong thing to say. "How do you know my name? Y-you want to take me away from Xander and Jesse, don't you? They need me, and I need them! Let me go!"

Bursting out of her chair, the little girl burst for the door and tried to get out, but the door wouldn't budge. "Let! Me! Out!"

Molly placed a hand on Willow's shoulder after she had spent some energy on the door. "Some people who are in charge of helping others told us about you. We're your family, and well, we'd like you to come live with us."

"L-live with you?" Willow was curious now. Why did these people want her to live with them? "I don't know you. You don't know me. How do you know it'd be okay?"

"You're family, Willow," Arthur said softly. He spoke so gently. It felt like a soft feather against her ears. "And we're like you."

"What do you mean, like me?" Willow asked suspiciously.

Molly smiled kindly. "Well, Arthur is a wizard, and I'm a witch. Just like you."

Willow's face paled. "No. No, I'm not a witch. Witches are evil and are against God. Witches sent my father away, and God struck them down for their sins." Her eyes narrowed. "You sent my dad away. You took away his family!"

Molly recoiled as if struck. Willow looked up at her and felt bad all of a sudden. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt you. Honest! D-daddy always said that he was almost a wizard, but when he wasn't, they took him to the orphanage and left him there. He said that witches and wizards were bad people, and that magic was evil.

"A-and, I guess that means that I'm evil, too."

Arthur looked rather scared himself. "Well, Willow, I can imagine your father must have been very upset, but you have to understand that magic isn't evil. It doesn't just hurt people. Did you know that you can help people with magic?"

Willow shifted nervously. "I guess. I mean, I tried to find my parents with magic. Looking for people isn't evil, is it?"

"No, of course it isn't!" Molly said softly. "You were scared and alone, and that made your magic burst out of you by accident. You can't cut yourself off from it, Willow. It's a part of who you are, and you can't just make it go away. But you can learn about it and use it to help people."

"Y-you can teach me to use my power?" If she learned how to do magic, then she could go back to Sunnydale and make everything okay for Xander and Jesse!

"Well, not us, exactly," Arthur said. "You'd have to go to school. A school for magic. They teach you all sorts of things there. How to turn one thing into another, how to brew potions, how to study the stars, and so much more."

"So," Willow said, thinking very quickly, "there are other kids like me?"

"Plenty!" Arthur said happily. "We have seven children of our own, and all of us can use magic. One of them is your age, and another is just a year younger."

"I could have brothers and sisters?" Willow lit up like a Christmas Tree at the news. She'd always wanted a sibling. When Xander and Jesse weren't around, and her parents were busy, it got awfully lonely. And a brother or sister would love her, wouldn't they?

"Well, one sister and six brothers," Molly said with a weak smile. "Ginny is the youngest, but Ron is just your age. He'll be starting at Hogwarts this year, along with you."

"Hogwarts?" Willow wrinkled her nose. "That sounds really gross. What is it?"

Arthur chuckled. "That's the name of the magic school you'd be going to, Willow."

"Oooh. Is it… Is it far away?"

"Well, yes. It's in Britain, along with our house. You'd be moving in with us for the summer and for vacations, but you'd spend most of the year at school."

"A boarding school?" Willow was liking this less and less.

"Oh, it's really quite amazing. I don't know what Muggle boarding schools are like, but Hogwarts is one of the most amazing places in the world."

Willow cocked her head to one side, confused. "What's a Muggle?"

"Oh, that's just our word for non-magical people," Arthur said airily.

Willow frowned. "Sounds pretty racist to me. So, what does that make me?"

"You'd be a Muggle-born witch, Willow," Molly said gently.

"You judge people by their race? What are you? Nazis?"

Molly shook her head. "I don't know what a 'Nazi' is, Willow. It sounds rather awful."

"It is!" Willow said, eager to tell two adults something she knew that they didn't. "A long time ago, when my grandparents were kids, there was a bad man in charge of Germany. He tried to take over the world, and he started by trying to kill all the Jews in the world. If you had any Jewish blood in you, then you could be taken away to a death camp. My grandma's parents didn't make it out in time," she said softly, looking at the floor.

Molly and Arthur shared a look, as if they were talking without words. Finally, they nodded. "Willow, there's something you need to know about us. Well, not us personally, but about our world and its history."

"D-did you have a Holocaust, too?"

"In a way, we did," Arthur said softly. "Many witches and wizards want nothing more than to help people and go about their lives. But there was one wizard who went bad. He became evil. He thought that the only wizards worth having were the ones whose families had always been magical. He and his followers would kill Muggles for fun, and they would kill any wizards who tried to help them."

"Magic Hitler!" Willow gasped.

"That wasn't his name," Arthur said.

"Arthur! You don't mean to…"

"She has to know, Molly!"

"What? What do I have to know?"

Arthur sighed. "This wizard was so evil that people were afraid to speak his name. But you need to know. His name was… Voldemort."

Molly and Arthur both winced and shuddered as they said his name.

"Voldemort," Willow repeated, going over it in her head. "Vol, fly, flight. De, of, from. Mort, death. Flight from death! He was immortal?"

"No one knows," Arthur said softly. "People say that he tried, but he was defeated ten years ago. There was a family, the Potters. He killed James and Lily Potter, and then he tried to kill their son, Harry. He was only one year old at the time."

Willow paled. "He tried to kill a baby? Why?"

"No one knows," Arthur repeated. "But he couldn't. Somehow, little Harry Potter survived the curse that no one else could. And what's more, the curse rebounded back on You-Know-Who and stopped him. He hasn't been seen or heard from since."

"Wow! Harry Potter must be really powerful." Willow wanted to meet this Harry Potter very much. She could learn so much from him! Enough to make Cordy Chase wish she'd never been born!

"Maybe," Arthur conceded. "It's a mystery. No one really knows how it all happened. But there you have it. That's the tale of one of the darkest chapters in our history."

"I see," Willow said, her mind working quickly. "And what if a bad witch shows up near us? How do I protect myself?"

"They teach you that at Hogwarts," Molly said softly. "There's an entire class dedicated to Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Wow!" If she could learn how to protect people, then she could go back to Sunnydale and help Xander and Jesse. "And if I go back with you… Will you be my mom and dad?"

"Oh, heavens no!" Molly said. "We could never replace your parents, dear."

"Why not?" Willow protested. "They never loved me, but you're family, right? Can't you love me instead?"

"Oh, Willow!" Suddenly, Molly had engulfed Willow in a great warm hug.

Willow gasped, but soon found that it was a nice feeling, and she relaxed into Molly's embrace. "So this is what love feels like," she whispered softly, closing her eyes.

Molly rocked Willow back and forth gently until Willow had fallen asleep in her arms.

Picking her up in both arms, Molly nodded to Arthur. "Let's go home, Arthur. It's time this poor girl had a proper family."

Ron and his siblings sat at the table in the kitchen watching the clock for any changes. Mum and dad had told them all very briefly about what had happened. They had a cousin somewhere whose folks had died, and she might be living with them. Just great, Ron thought. Someone else who I need to work past to get noticed around here.

Right now, the hands of the clock had all of the Weasley children's hands – save for Bill and Charlie – pointing at 'Home.' Their mum and dad were pointed at 'Overseas.'

"Guys! Look! Look at the clock!" Ginny said excitedly.

Next to 'Arthur' and 'Molly,' a third hand shimmered into being, labeled 'Willow,' and it too was pointing at 'Overseas.'

"Willow?" Ron said, confused. "Sounds old."

"Don't be a dingbat, Ron," Fred said.

"Yeah," George chimed in. "I mean, she's got a wand wood name."

"Well, I for one am perfectly willing to welcome our cousin with all the respect and dignity that she deserves," Percy said proudly, puffing out his chest.

"You do that, Perce," Fred and George said together.

"Oh, look! They're on their way back," Ginny said, as the three other hands went from 'Overseas' to 'Traveling.' Finally, the hands began to turn towards 'Home.'

Fred, George, Percy, and Ginny hurried to the front door to wait for their long lost cousin, but Ron couldn't bring himself to go over. Part of him wanted to say that she would be just like the rest of his siblings and torment him mercilessly. But another voice in his head scolded him and told him that he didn't know her at all, and he hadn't grown up with her.

Swallowing his fear, Ron moved to the living room to greet the mysterious Willow.

After what seemed like ages, their parents came through the front door. Their mum was holding someone's hand, and that someone seemed to be hiding behind her.

"I see you're all eager to meet your new, well, I don't know if we should call her your cousin or your adopted sister," their dad said. He looked behind their mum. "It's okay, Willow. They won't bite, I promise."

"Um, okay," a shy voice said from behind Ron's mum, surprising him greatly. She sounded not just shy, but scared! Maybe she wouldn't be so bad after all.

Finally, a small girl who looked a bit like Ginny peeked out from behind their parents. She did look a lot like Ron's sister, only her face was a bit more round and pixie-like than Ginny's. She was also paler and seemed rather fragile.

"Everyone, this is Willow," their mum said. "Willow, this is Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny."

"Uh, h-hi," Willow said nervously.

Ron felt suddenly sorry for Willow, not to mention feeling like an idiot himself. Unfortunately for Willow, Percy chose that moment to be his usual idiot self and step forward all bold and proud.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Willow!" Percy said with as much pride as he could muster. "I'm Percy, and I'm the eldest of us here. Oh, there's also Bill and Charlie, but they're not here right now. They've graduated and are working, which makes me the Senior Weasley at Hogwarts. You'll be attending, won't you? If you have any trouble, you can come to me. I'm a prefect, you see?"

Ron resisted the urge to bang his head into the nearest wall. For her part, Willow stood her ground while mum and dad looked at Percy with something between wrath and pity.

"Um, okay," Willow said. "W-what's a prefect?"

"Don't ask," Fred intervened. "Unless you want to be bored for hours and hours about things you couldn't care less about."

"This handsome git next to me is Fred, and I'm George," the other twin said.

"That's right," Fred said. "I am the handsome one. That's how you can tell us apart, you see? If you see the ugly one, you know it's George."

Ron rolled his eyes, but Willow giggled. "Maybe I'll just call you Fredngeorge. You know, like Samneric?"

The twins looked at each other with something akin to surprise and wonder. "Did you just make up one name for the both of us?" they said as one.

"Yup. Sure did."

"Well don't just stand out there," Ginny said. "Come inside!" she said, taking Willow by the hand.

Ron held back as they all moved to the living area. He wasn't quite sure what to say.

"Ginny, right?" Willow asked, sitting down next to her.

"Yeah. And that's Ron over there."

"Oh. H-hi. I'm sorry if I'm kinda quiet. It's just strange, moving in with a new family. A-and you're a family of wizards and witches. And you don't seem evil. You all seem really nice. Which I guess makes my dad wrong about magic being evil. But I guess he was wrong about a lot of things. Not that you would know about that, since you never met him. At least, I don't think you did. He was really angry at you, but I don't think you deserve to die just because he grew up all crummy."

Before Ron or any of his siblings could respond to that, their dad spoke up. "Willow was raised by non-magical parents. One of them was from Molly's side of the family who was put up for adoption when they discovered he didn't have any magic."

Willow looked up at him and smiled. "Thanks, dad."

Ron's eyes widened. Did she just call him 'dad?'

He just smiled. "For what, Willow?"

"For not saying 'Muggle' or 'Squib.'" She replied.

Percy decided to be an arse yet again. "Oh, there's nothing wrong with classifying people with simple terms like that. Otherwise, how would we be able to speak plainly about which people are what without our conversations going over so long that they'd become pointless?"

Willow's eyes narrowed as she affixed Percy with a cold stare that Ron swore he neverwanted directed at him. "Shut up," she hissed softly. It sounded like a threat.

"Wow," Fred said. "I'm impressed," he said. "Only a few minutes here, and already you can tell that Percy is a first class prat."

"Fred!" his mother scolded him.

"It's okay," Willow said. "He's the handsome twin, right? Doesn't that mean he gets to be right sometimes?"

"Oh, no. What have you done?" George said in shock.

Percy opened his mouth to protest this new development, but no words came out.

"What are you trying to say, Percy?" Willow said, sounding annoyed. "Speak up."

"…am nota prat!"

Ron blinked, putting two and two together. "Uh, Willow," he asked gently.

"Hm?" she asked, turning to him. "Oh! Sorry, Ron! Is everything okay?"

"I dunno. I think you just made Percy shut up, and then you made him speak up again."

"I did?" She looked to their parents. "Did I do that? Can I even do that at all?"

Percy cleared his throat. "Well, some witches and wizards are able to use magic without a wand without meaning to. Of course, to do so intentionally is far rarer, and is surely the sign of…"

"Shut up, Percy."

"…"

Ron's jaw hung open as Willow giggled a bit. "Wow! That was neat!" she said.

"Wicked!" Fred and George said together.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Ron said enthusiastically. "I've wanted to do that for so many years!"

"Be that as it may," their father said, clearly trying to hide a smile, "that was not something you should be doing, Willow. There's a right and a wrong way to use magic."

"Oh. Sorry," she said, and she really looked like she meant it. "Um, sorry, Percy. Uh, speak up again?"

Percy visibly relaxed and opened his mouth again. No sound came out.

"Oh no!" Willow looked panicky. "Speak up, Percy! Speak up! Speak UP!"

Nothing happened.

"I'll take care of this," Ron's mum said, grabbing Percy gently and leading him away from the living room.

The rest of them laughed, save for their dad, who was trying to keep up a respectable front. Ginny pulled her sister up to her feet with both hands. "Welcome to the family, sis."

"Yeah! Welcome!" Fred and George said.

Ron stepped forward, liking his new sister despite himself. "Uh, welcome to the family, Willow."

She surprised them all by grabbing them all and holding them close. She spoke softly, but Ron could have sworn her heard her say, "So this is what family feels like."