Weeks passed in a blur of strange uneventfulness. Katie stayed at the Burrow and helped Molly clean the whole house, top to bottom. It took a long time, even with wands. Only five of the Weasleys stayed in the Burrow. Ron had gone back to Hogwarts to finish his 7th year, Bill stayed in Shell Cottage with Fleur and Charlie remained in Romania, leaving Fred, George, Percy, and Mrs. and Mr. Weasley to keep Katie company. Although, Mr. Weasley recently got promoted at the Ministry, resulting in him staying long hours and sometimes disappearing for weeks on business trips. On top of that was Remus and Tonks' funeral which broke Katie's heart. Nymphadora Tonks had always been close to Katie ever since the two girls joined the order. Katie's older sister, named Stephanie, was killed while working as an Auror when Katie was in fourth year. Stephanie was a loyal member to the Order. During her sixth year, Katie found out about the Order of the Phoenix, and demanded that she joined to carry on her sister's work. Tonks knew how special Stephanie was, and slowly Katie became something like a sister to her. Katie often saw Tonks' broken body in her dreams and would wake up screaming, her face dripping with tears. After a while, everyone in the Burrow didn't react to Katie's nightmares because they knew nothing could be done. All of the survivors from the battle had nightmares.
Katie sat on a couch in the Burrow's living room, her feet curled under her and her long blonde hair in a bun. It was 6:48 in the morning and another one of those terrifying nightmares had hit her. Although Charlie's old bed was comfortable, the blankets felt suffocating and the room seemed stuffy. Katie wasn't able to fall back to sleep so she silently got dressed and crept down to the living room, where so many good memories had taken place in the years gone past. Rising from her perch on the couch, she walked to the back door. She opened the door slowly and slipped outside. Even though the war was over, she still scanned the corn fields for any unnatural movement.
'Old habits die hard,' The 19 year old thought with a smirk, sitting down on the steps and breathing in the early morning mid September air. The grass tickled her bare toes and made her shiver, as she was wearing only a long sleeved button up shirt and a pair of old jeans. It still seemed strange to her that she didn't have to carry around her wand, no matter where she went. The people of the wizard world were slowly returning to their old lives, although a little more cautious than before. Many had died at Hogwarts and the school would never quite be the same. Her pureblood family was completely untouched, living in a muggle suburb in London so Katie had no reason to worry. Her mum wanted her to move back home but to Katie, the Burrow was home. She always spent at least half of every summer holiday at the Burrow and the Weasley boys (minus Fred, of course) were like her overprotective, suspicious, quirky brothers. Once, in Diagon Ally, Katie was looking for a book for Transfiguration and Bill was assigned "Katie duty". A bloke walked up to Katie and asked if she needed any help and Bill cut in by putting his arms around her shoulders and steering her out of the shop, glaring at the poor man the whole way out. She could only imagine what was running through that guy's head.
Katie was shaken out of her thoughts as she heard shouting from inside. Glancing up at the sky, she realized that the sun was finally up. Katie twisted her body and dashed up the steps, throwing the door open and trying to not think the worst. Mrs. Weasley was running around the kitchen with her back turned to Katie, glancing through windows and opening doors everywhere. Katie could hear footsteps thundering upstairs and a name being called. Her name.
"Mrs. Weasley!" Katie called; slightly alarmed by the way the woman was acting. Molly Weasley turned to the tall, skinny blond and grief flooded her face.
"Boys! I've found her." She called up the stairs.
Immediately Fred, George, and Percy were in front of her, fully dressed. The group of men had the same identical grief-stricken faces. Mrs. Weasley sadly shook her head and walked upstairs. Percy avoided Katie's eyes as Fred and George simultaneously grabbed one of Katie's hands and led her to the couch to sit down. It was the same couch that Katie sat on earlier in the morning: orange plaid with a warm brown knitted blanket thrown overtop of it that strangely matched Fred's eyes.
"What's going on?" Katie demanded, watching everyone's faces. She noticed Percy's face was the first to break, revealing a flicker of fear resulting in a gasp from Katie. Fred, leaving his seat beside her on the couch, stood and smacked Percy up the side of the head lightly.
"Good job, you git. She's bloody terrified now." Fred growled to his older brother, fury in his brown eyes.
"She has to know anyways, Fred." George quietly mumbled from his seat on the couch, staring intently at his twin brother. Fred turned his head to look into George's eyes and then to look at Katie's terrified, grey eyes.
"Freddie? What's going on?" Katie whispered in a high pitched voice. Fear slowly overtook her and she saw images of her parents and younger brother being tortured by the remaining death eaters. Her brother was only 14. He should not have to deal with that pain. Katie herself knew the amount of pain the death eaters could hand out. During the battle a death eater had crept up behind her and set fire to her back. She would always have an ugly scar that reached from the bottom of her tail bone to the middle of her shoulder blades; no amount of magic could fix that.
"Kates, promise me you won't think the worse?" Fred walked towards her and kneeled down, gripping her face in both hands and staring into her eyes.
"There's been an accident, Katie" George spoke in a slow voice. He watched his brother, rather than Katie. It seemed like he didn't want to have to tell it to Katie straight and instead was trying to figure out how his brother would react to this situation.
"With my parents…. And my brother?" Katie questioned, looking from Fred to George. Fred was still holding onto her face, staring into her eyes.
"Yes, Katie, with your family." Percy finally spoke from across the room when no one would say anything. He rubbed his eyes and sat down on a wooden chair.
"Well then why are we waiting around here? I'm going to find them" The images of her family being hurt, burned, cursed, hexed, were all flashing before her eyes. Katie couldn't take it anymore. She wasn't sorted into Gryffindor for nothing. Pushing Fred aside, she dashed up the stairs, leaving the three men looking dumbstruck, staring after her.
"You said she would cry." Percy noted, staring at his brothers.