24 August, 2010;

England:

Only four days after Nora had brought up the idea of moving away to her Aunt Andy and she was all packed up and getting her last cuddles from her Teddy-bear. She was excited to get to see another country but she was really going to miss her Teddy-cuddles.

Aunt Andy on the other hand seemed like she was starting to regret agreeing to let her adopted daughter go and was channelling all of it into fussing over the girl instead. Poor Nora was close to sacrificing Teddy to the fussing and escaping while she still could.

Three days ago she had spent the day looking through magazines, browsing online, and buying some (or all) of her furniture. Two days ago she started to say her goodbyes to those that mattered. Yesterday she spent the day packing up her room and now she was ready to leave – she had a seat on a plane booked and waiting for her and everything, since they had decided that since this would be the start of her living 'muggle' she may as well arrive via muggle transportation as well (even if Aunt Andy had given her an emergency Portkey 'just in case' because she does not quite trust the, what she called, 'muggle tin can')

"Make sure you keep your hair the same whenever you are out and about. And feed yourself – that means no cookies for breakfast, dinner, and tea!" Andromeda was saying as they carried Nora's suitcases outside to wait for the taxi, having set Teddy down in his playpen after his cuddles. She may have cheated the weight allowance for baggage by shrinking and putting feather-light charms on items (and furniture!) but no one needed to know that.

"Are you even listening to me?" Aunt Andy asked once they had reached the curb outside and set the cases down.

"Of course," Nora said, a cheeky smile slipping onto her face, "You said cookies. Does that mean you baked some for me?"

"Nora…"

"Alright, I was listening," Nora said quickly, before her aunt could get too annoyed at her. Her Aunt Andy may have a sense of humour but even Nora knew not to push it when the older woman was worried. "You need to stop worrying so much, I'm going to call at least every two nights. I'll be fine and I bet you'll be begging me to leave you alone after two weeks," Nora tried to joke.

"I will," Andy pulled her adopted daughter into a hug, she had learned over the years to recognise when her youngest was covering her own insecurities with jokes and Merlin help her; she was going to protect that little girl where she could, if that meant reassuring her every now and then, then Andromeda would do just that. She'd had to accept that Dora had grown up from the little girl with two missing front teeth and rainbow hair, but Nora would always be that too small, wide-eyed elven year old that she had first met. "If you ever need to talk then I'm expecting you to just call me. I will not care what time of day it is, if you need me then I'm here." She whispered against Nora's dark purple hair – of course she would settle on purple when she was expected to always keep her hair the same.

"Okay," Nora whispered back before she pulled away from the hug. She could see her taxi pulling up so it was time to leave. "I'll call you when I get to the apartment, okay?"

"Okay, do not forget," Aunt Andy told her as she picked up one of the suitcases and handed it over to the driver to put in the taxi, Nora passed the other over after. "Remember that Gringotts has organised for someone to meet you at the apartment, to talk you through the security and all of that."

"Right," Nora pulled her aunt into one last hug, murmuring "love you" into her shoulder. Nora had never been the best at saying those words out loud, something that her aunt knew. "Give Teddy extra kisses from his favourite aunt for me?"

Andromeda smiled at that, "You're his only aunt, dear."

"Still his favourite though," Nora replied as her aunt pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Get going then, you don't want to miss your flight,"

With that Nora climbed into the taxi and confirmed where she wanted to go, all while wiping her eyes from the few tears that had escaped. She may know that leaving was currently the best thing for her but she was still going to miss her aunt and little Teddy.

24 August, 2010;

Ohio:

Nora normally loved flying but she could safely say that she preferred to do it from the safety of her broom. At least with her broom she did not have to put up with airports and multiple other passengers – she was in control and it was just her and the sky.

You could safely say then, that by the time she had caught a taxi to her new apartment, she was not in the best of moods.

It was too bad for her that she would have to deal with some Gringotts employee talking her through the wards that they would be putting up and probably patronizing her at the same time. Was she not just the luckiest girl?

Holding in a sigh, Nora climbed out of the taxi once it had pulled up to a building that she recognised from pictures. She flashed the driver a smile when he set her cases down on the pavement and only fumbled slightly with the different currency when she paid him – if she could get used to wizards gold then she was sure that dollars would not be too hard of a change from pounds.

"Thanks," she said before grabbing her two suitcases and heading inside. She knew that the Gringotts employee would be waiting upstairs where her apartment was. Oh joy.

Nora was extremely glad that she had used some weight-altering charms on her suitcases when it came to the stairs; she doubted her ability to carry them all the way to the top otherwise. At least the building only had four floors though, even if she was right at the top of those four.

She was too busy focusing on her cases to notice him straight away, so there went the constant vigilance that Mad-Eye always went on about. That would be why when she heard her name being called she nearly ended up falling back down the stairs again.

"Nora! Careful," a familiar voice said as someone grabbed hold of her to stop her from falling.

"Bill?" Nora asked once she was safely away from the stairs and had gotten a good look at who had stopped her from falling. "What're you doing here?" She glanced around; half expecting other Weasley's to pop out of nowhere.

"Working, of course. Did you really think I'd let little Nora skip off to a whole other country without volunteering my excellent warding skills?"

"That isn't your job though, Billy," Nora said, pulling out the nickname as she usually did just to bug him.

"I volunteered; we want you safe,"

She nodded, she could understand that, "Fair enough. Have you been inside yet?" She could accept working with Bill, at least she knew him.

"Yeah, it's looking good, if a bit empty."

"Well, I'll be changing that, of course," Nora told him as they headed towards her new front door, she could not help but grin at the red paint. "Aunt Andy and I shrunk down most of my new furniture, now I was resigned to getting it all into place by myself but I guess you can help, since you volunteered."

Bill shot her an amused glance as he pushed the door open, "Yeah, yeah, I'll help."

Nora grinned at him before heading inside her apartment, her suitcases being left next to the door. She was extremely relieved to see that the work had been done exactly how she had wanted it, right down to the colour of the kitchen work tops – black bases with red counter tops, all to match the light red ceiling and grey walls. She had set her mind on a colour scheme and she was going to stick to it! It had been a tossup between red and purple, admittedly, but in the end her house pride had won out from her favourite colour. She was more used to her house colours from Hogwarts covering her sleeping area, it made it feel like home for her and the sooner the little apartment felt like home too, the better.

She turned to face Bill and pointed to the door that he was stood in front of, "Bathroom?"

"Yeah, don't worry that matches what you wanted too, I checked."

"Can I check too or are you standing there all day?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I may have put your present from the family and your aunt in there for now, so later,"

She looked at him for a moment before shrugging, "Fine. I want to start putting the furniture up anyway, it's too empty and as comfy as the floor is, I would like my bed tonight."

She headed over to her suitcases and lay the slightly bigger one down before she unzipped it. Everything was exactly how she had organised it that morning; such were the joys of magic.

She stared at the array of tiny furniture for a moment before pulling out three tiny two-door wardrobes, two of them with black doors while the other was red. She set them on the ground before she pulled out a folded piece of paper that had all of her doodled plans. "'M not sure why I hid that under there," she muttered to herself before shaking her head.

"This is around about how everything should go, think we can manage that?" she told Bill as she held the paper up for him to see.

"Of course," he said after taking the paper and glancing over it, his eyes scanning the room after to help picture it. He had seen the original apartment plans and he had to admit that he preferred Nora's plans for it.

Nora grinned at him before she started to pull out some more shrunken pieces of furniture - three black two sided bookcases that she planned to use as room dividers, she honestly loved that fact that she could see through them but they would still offer her that little bit of privacy for her make-shift bedroom.

A black dining room table that she would probably only ever use if her aunt came to visit, six black and white chairs to go around it, came next followed by eight more wooden bar stools to go around the kitchen island - why she needed eight Nora was not sure, but her aunt had insisted. A box that contained all of her kitchen appliances, such as her precious coffee maker, went down next to the table, another holding her other electronics on top of it.

Nora placed a black two-seater sofa that at normal size could probably fit three next to the black sleeper sofa, a dark red loveseat quickly following them, she knew that they would all be organised in the room together so it made sense to keep them together for now. She really was not sure why her aunt had insisted on so many seating options, but they looked nice so Nora had not argued.

She pulled a few shelving units out of her suitcase next, some of them waiting to be mounted on wall while others would stay stood up, a stand-up mirror quickly followed them, then her bedframe, a mattress, and various other boxes that held other items and knickknacks.

Bill watched her the whole time that she was pulling items out, his eyebrows slowly climbing up, "You look like you're decorating a dollhouse, Nora," he oh-so-helpfully informed her.

Nora, the grown up that she is, simply stuck her tongue out at him and flicked her wand into her hand.

"Just for that, you get to do all of the heavy lifting."

"You were going to make me do it anyway. I've seen you, Hermione, and Ginny gang up on the boys, I know how this works by now."

Nora simply shrugged at that, not taking any offence at what she knew to be true, "At least now we can say it was your own fault. Think you can follow all of these instructions," she pointed to the piece of paper that he was still holding, "while I set up all of my electronics, because, no offence to you, but between your dad and younger siblings, I do not trust a Weasley with my electrics anymore."

It was enough work getting magic not to interfere with them without having to protect them from Weasley's too.

Bill looked like he was about to object to that before he really thought about it and silently agreed with her. He had heard the horror stories about his family getting their hands on Nora's electronics.

"I can do that, as long as you pay me in coffee later,"

Nora simply grinned, "I knew there was a reason you were my favourite Weasley!"

"I am definitely going to tell the others that you said that."

Nora simply chuckled as she lifted up the boxes that contained her electronics, "You do that, it's entertaining for me and the girls to watch you argue over it."

Bill jerked his head up to look at her through narrowed eyes, "That's why you always call us your favourite!"

"Took you long enough to get that one," she said as she placed the boxes on the kitchen island and started to resize them, "Me and Ginny have spent many a night laughing in her room over it."

"Not her too… You corrupted my baby sister didn't you?" He asked, looking amused at the thought now.

"Would you believe me if I said that she corrupted me?" Nora returned, trying to look innocent.

"Honestly? I think the two of you banded together to corrupt Hermione."

Nora grinned at that, she was rather proud of the fact, "It was so tempting though!"

Bill snorted as he looked over at her plans one last time before he started the slow job of resizing the furniture and then placing them where Nora had marked on her doodles.

"Anyway, I for one think that we did a fantastic job." Nora told him as she started to set up her coffee machine.

"I will admit to that," Bill said almost absentmindedly as he focused on setting some mats in the right place around the bedframe. "I'm slightly worried about what you and Ginny can manage when you team together."

"You love when we team up really, me and my little minion are the best,"

"Nora? I hate to break it to you, but she's taller than you." Bill deadpanned.

"That's just mean, Billy," Nora told him, affecting a disappointed look as she turned to look at him, "You get no coffee if you're going to be mean."

"Doesn't make it any less true," Bill told her in a sing-song, "And you would never withhold coffee, I believe you once told mum that was a crime."

"Well it is! You cannot expect someone to wake up before the crack of dawn and not give them coffee! There has to be a law against that somewhere!" Nora had really grown to appreciate her late mornings after escaping from the Dursley's, so she did not appreciate when they were taken away from her.

Bill shot her an amused smile before turning his attention back to the bookcase that he had floating. "It's been two years now, Nora, I think it's time to let it go."

Nora stuck her tongue out at his back and then focused on the tangle of wires that she was holding, muttering as tried to sort them out, "Every damn time…"

The two fell into near silence after that, only the odd comment thrown at each other every now and then until Nora finally got around to connecting her music system. After a triumphant yell she glanced at Bill and then clicked play. A pleased grin spread across her face as she heard the opening to 'American Idiot' coming on.

"That's more like it!"

"Is that what you've spent all of this time doing?" Bill asked with a raised eyebrow. He had heard from his younger siblings all about Nora's love for music and her habit of breaking out into song.

"No," she replied with a slight blush, "I got the coffee machine working first; I just don't have anything in to make any with. Remind me to go shopping when you leave actually, I'm pretty sure Aunt Andy said something about not having cookies for breakfast and that is all I have in my bag."

"You would live on coffee and cookies if someone let you,"

"What happened to being my coffee-buddy?" Nora pouted at him as she carried the TV over to the wall opposite her bedroom corner.

"I'm still here," he assured her, unable to resist that pout even after fifteen years of his sister using it on him, "but mum would shout if I let you live on just that and mum is scary. I'm twenty-six and I will admit that."

"And the world would agree with you," Nora said with a solemn nod. "Mrs Weasley loves me though, so I'm safe."

"You are her favourite child, but I think that's just because she doesn't have to deal with you all of the time."

Nora snorted at his reply before they both silently agreed to get back to their work once more.

An hour later and they were finally finished.

"Admit it," Nora said as she sprawled across the sleeper sofa, "It looks good in here."

Nora was quite pleased about how it had turned out herself, she had everything set up, her books and comics were all in place and a couple of posters and other decorations spread out throughout the apartment. It all looked just how she had wanted it to. She could honestly say that she could see this place becoming 'home'.

"I'm completely jealous, compared to my current apartment this place is like heaven," Bill replied from where he was lying on her couch. "Just promise me one thing, Nora."

She looked over at him when she heard his suddenly serious tone.

"You'll come home eventually, even if it's just for visits. We expect to see you. We don't want to lose you too, 'Nor."

She sat up from where she was lounging to look at him properly, pulling a pillow to hug to her chest. She should have known that she would not escape the serious conversation, she had still tried to though - she had hoped that he would just ignore the elephants in the room and not bring anything up, that he would let them have their day of laughs. She should have known better.

"I'm not leaving forever, Bill," she whispered, her voice not managing any louder than that, "I'll go back eventually, I just can't right now."

"I know, 'Nor, we all realise that, well… Ron will realise that soon enough too with the others help." Bill told her, keeping his voice quiet as if he would scare her off if he spoke any louder. "But we will miss you. You're part of our crazy and ridiculously large family."

"I know," she stayed silent for a moment before giving him a small smile, "Will you do something for me?"

"That depends?" He really had learnt better than just accepting straight off the bat without knowing.

"Get Dean and Ginny together? Those two have been crushing on each other for a while now, and you know Dean will treat Ginny right."

He pulled a face at the thought of Ginny having a boyfriend, but before he could object Nora carried on.

"None of that, you big idiot, if those two miss their chance then you just know that she will end up with someone who doesn't deserve her brilliance. You have no idea how many lads I scared away from her when we were at Hogwarts," she paused for a moment, thinking about what she had just admitted to before she quickly added, "and you are not going to mention that I ever did that either."

Bill shook his head, smiling slightly at the thought of little Nora sneaking around behind Ginny and scaring people away.

"I'll think about it," he agreed when he realised that she was still waiting for an answer.

She nodded, realising that was as good as she would get out of him. She was trying to set his little sister up on a date after all.

"Good, now, if you don't mind, can I finally go into my own bathroom because I want to put some stuff away in there?" Bill had locked the door with his own magical signature earlier and it had annoyed the stuffing out of her. Just because what he had done was too advanced for her to figure out how to reverse, especially since it was done with his magical signature. Sneaky Gryffindor's who could have been Slytherin…

"Right! Present time!" He declared as he jumped up off the couch. He carried on talking to her as he walked to the bathroom door. "Now, your aunt approached us all while you were busy planning to leave us all, asking about ideas on what to get you. Originally she was thinking on getting you something to keep you company but, well, she couldn't figure out what until…" he paused as he started to unlock the bathroom door, his hand then rested on the knob as he carried on his little story. "Ron mentioned a conversation that you'd had a couple of years back, my baby brother has a weird memory, and so we all got together and got you –" he pushed the door open while he was speaking allowing Nora to see into the bathroom where a box sat in the middle of the room holding two-

"Puppies!"

Two puppies that were sleeping, at least they had been until they were disturbed by Nora's rather loud shout.

"They're Labrador Retrievers, both male and about nine, ten weeks old. They're from the same litter if you were curious." Bill told Nora, a smile playing at his lips as he watched the younger girl approach the box that held the two puppies.

Nora grinned as she knelt down in front of the box. The two puppies were looking up at her, the black one that looked slightly larger was blinking lazily at her while the yellow one, who was sprawled half across his brother, was staring up at her with what could only be described as excited curiosity.

"Their whole family has been surrounded by magic for generations, so the breeder said that, like our owls, they are that bit smarter than your average dog. He said that they will be okay to stay here while you're at school so long as you leave water and a bit of food, oh, and take them on a walk every day."

"They're brilliant, Bill!" Nora cut off his talk from going any further as she reached into the box to scratch both of the puppies behind the ears. "Do they have names yet?"

"No, we just about managed to stop Ginny from naming them."

"I don't know how you managed that but I am eternally grateful for it. We can't have these two cuties stuck with silly names!" She addressed the last part mostly to the dogs as she reached in to pick them up from the box.

Bill had to admit that Andromeda and Ron had had a good idea this time, Nora seemed genuinely happy with the dogs.

"I can tell everyone that they went down well then?"

"Oh you definitely can! And you can tell Ron that he's my new favourite Weasley!"

"…I'll do the first and kindly ignore the second."

Nora looked up from where she was cuddling her two new dogs to give him an amused look, "You do that, Billy."

"Oh, don't worry, I will," he said, completely serious, "We went ahead and bought you some supplies for these two, since for some reason I doubt you have any dog food or toys in this lovely apartment of yours." He nodded towards the second cardboard box that she had not even noticed.

"Strangely enough I think you may be right about that, eh, there's a first for everything, right?" Nora grinned up at him before hiding her face in the black Labradors fur.

"You're lucky you are holding cute puppies right now, Nora," he tells her, though he does not really mean it. "Now, since I am that much nicer than you, I'm going to leave you to your cuddles while I got out and shop for you and then I'm going to have to actually do my job and set up your wards."

"You're a star, Bill, even if you are just trying to claim the favourite spot once more," she told him, not bothering to look up from her cuddles. "There's a list on the kitchen island, I was working on it as I put things away, if you just add a green dog collar to it as well as a red one, then that should do until I can get out myself."

Bill nodded, collected the list and then took his leave. Nora, on the other hand, stayed sat on the bathroom floor for a while before she stood up with her two babies and walked over to her bed, she set the two of them down and then looked at them seriously,

"Now, don't think this means that you're allowed up there all of the time, we're going to have some rules in this house. I just need to sort your stuff out." She tried to keep up her serious face, she did, but it was just too amusing watching the black Labrador flop down in the middle of her bed without a care, even as his brother started to once more crawl all over him. "I think I can tell who will be more trouble," she snorted with a shake of her head before walking back to the bathroom and grabbing the second box that Bill had pointed out.

She then proceeded to empty the box in the middle of the floor and find everything a home. She set one comfy looking dog bed down near her bed while the other one went over by her sofas and TV. She picked out a cupboard to keep the dog food after putting some in a bowl and placing that under the window near her dining room table, along with a full water bowl. She left some toys out and hung up the two leads on the hooks by her apartment door.

She could be good at this owning a dog thing, she was sure of it.