Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 4

It took a minute to reach the door of the Burrow, but when we did Dumbledore knocked on the door immediately and I suddenly became anxious to see the Weasleys again. I heard walking on the other side of the door and a sudden stop.

"Hello?" a woman's voice asked.

"It is Albus, Molly," Dumbledore said. "I am here to escort Harry and Emily to your home."

"Oh, of course!" Mrs. Weasley said happily from the other side of the door as she pried it open. "Come on in!"

We all stepped into the house one by one and I was surprised to only see one other person in the room that I hadn't heard: Tonks. Something about her seemed off - she didn't look cheerful and full of laughter like she usually did and it concerned me greatly. Was it the loss of her cousin or could it be something completely different.

"Hey Tonks," Harry waved when he saw her.

"How are the two of you?" she asked with a strained smile on her face.

"I've had better days," Harry shrugged.

"What about you?" I asked. "Is something bothering you?"

She shook her head and looked down at the floor for a minute to avoid our gaze. After a second or so of silence, she suddenly turned to Mrs. Weasley and gave her one of those strained smiles.

"I thank you for allowing me to come by," she said softly and then turned to us. "I'm sorry that I can't stay to see you all, but I need to be going."

She gave us all a quick hug and waved before she all but ran out of the door. We all watched her in silence as she walked away from us and suddenly vanished where Dumbledore, Harry, and I had appeared only moments ago.

"What's wrong with Tonks?" I asked with concern.

"She's just…going through a rough time," Mrs. Weasley said hesitantly. "I'm sure she'll be back to herself in no time."

Even though Mrs. Weasley seemed very sure of herself by her tone, there was something in her expression that told me she was having serious doubts. What was it that was doing this to Tonks? I would have to write to her later to see if I could get a response from here, but I wasn't too sure if I would actually get one. Judging by her quick exit, I hardly believed that she wanted to talk to anyone at the moment.

"Did everything go okay with you all tonight?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Everything went just as planned," Dumbledore smiled. "These two did just what I wanted them to do and now my search for a new staff member is finished."

"Excellent!" Mrs. Weasley said. "I just hope that this will be the last time for a while that it is necessary."

"I think that we all are hoping for that, Molly," Dumbledore said respectfully. "Now, I'm sorry to say that I must make this a short visit because I have some business that I need to attend to."

"Of course, of course," Mrs. Weasley said. "Have a good night and keep yourself safe."

"And to you the same," Dumbledore said with a bow. "Good night to you all and I shall see you later."

Dumbledore waved to us all before opening up the door behind him and walking out of it just as Tonks had done only a few minutes ago. Once Mrs. Weasley closed the door behind him, I noticed that something of ours was in the room - our luggage must have been sent over here when Dumbledore picked us up.

"I have Fred and George's room made up for you both," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Oh, are they not here?" I asked sounding more disappointed than I intended to.

"They've been staying in Diagon Alley," Mrs. Weasley said. "Hasn't George told you?"

"He left out that detail..." I murmured.

"Don't take it personally," Mrs. Weasley said. "They've been very busy with their business and hardly had time for anything. I swear that George has asked me when you were coming here every time I've seen him."

"Really?" I asked without being able to hide my smile.

"He does," Mrs. Weasley smiled. "They should be coming by tomorrow - well, I suppose that it's today now."

"How's their business going?" Harry asked with a yawn.

"Really well," Mrs. Weasley nodded. "Every time we go there to visit them the place is packed. We spend most of our time waiting around for the shop to close to be honest."

"I'm sure things will calm down once all of the kids are at Hogwarts," Harry said.

"Maybe," Mrs. Weasley sighed. "But they always try to make time to see the family - they're really good boys, you know that?"

There was a sudden look of pride that shot across her face that made me smile to myself. This is what they had wanted from their parents: acceptance. All while they were thinking of making the shop, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were always going on about how worried they were that their sons wouldn't be successful in their business, but look at them now.

"You two need to get to bed," she said suddenly. "I'm sure that you'll have a big day tomorrow and you need all the rest you can get."

"Thank you for all of this Mrs. Weasley," I said while looking towards the stairs leading up to where we would be sleeping. "It means a lot."

"It's no bother," she smiled. "There will always be room for both of you in this house."

We both took turns giving her a hug before we grabbed our bags and walked up the stairs to get ready for bed. It wasn't until we both laid down in our beds when I realized that I was completely exhausted. I reached over toward the lamp that sat next to me.

"Goodnight Harry," I said quietly.

"See you in the morning," he yawned in the bunk bed that sat above me.

Only seconds after I turned out the light, I found myself being engulfed in a peaceful darkness that I wanted so badly.

...

"Emily - Emily, wake up!"

I quickly sat up from my bed with my heart racing a mile a minute. I immediately started throwing my hands around in a mad scramble to find where my wand was for some sort of protection. Where was I - where was my wand - ?

"Emily, you're fine!" a familiar voice said.

It took me a moment to remember that I was in Fred and George's room at the Burrow. When I looked around, I found that there were three people looking at me with huge smiles on their faces.

"Having bad dreams, are we?" Ron asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I just forgot where I was," I shook my head and tried to focus.

"When did you two get here - Harry, wake up!" Ginny said as she threw a nearby sock at the bed above me.

"Ow!" Harry grumbled.

I heard creaking from above me where Harry was shifting his weight around the old bed he chose to sleep in. Once we both sat up, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny began to attack us with questions.

"Is it true that Dumbledore dropped you off here?" Hermione asked. "I thought I heard Mr. and Mrs. Weasley saying something about it."

"Yes, it's true," Harry yawned as he stepped down from the upper bunk. "Can someone hand me my glasses?"

Ron took the round glasses off of the bedside table and put them in Harry's hand. As soon as he was able to see again, he quickly found a spot to sit at the end of my bed.

"What did he want?" Ginny asked. "Mum and Dad wouldn't tell us."

"That's odd," I said. "We were only helping Dumbledore find a new teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Who is it going to be?" Hermione asked looking eager to know.

"Horace Slughorn," Harry told them. "He was a professor at Hogwarts a long time ago - Dumbledore thought it would be a good idea to get him out of retirement so he could teach again."

"Is there anything wrong with him?" Ron asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked with a small laugh.

"He's saying that every other professor that's taught that class has had something wrong with them," Ginny explained for her brother. "Did you notice anything strange about him - he isn't a vampire or anything, is he?"

"No, he's not a vampire," I laughed. "But he seems a bit strange if you ask me."

"And he's a Slytherin," Harry said in disgust. "Dumbledore told us after we left - I should have known that was it."

"Being a Slytherin isn't such a bad thing," Hermione said. "You shouldn't judge him so quickly Harry."

"Name one Slytherin that's turned out okay and I'll take it all back," Harry said.

Hermione opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. For the first time in ages, Hermione Granger seemed to not have an answer to something.

"Fine, I can't think of an example at the moment," Hermione sighed. "But he can't be so bad if Dumbledore wanted to hire him."

"Yeah, because all of the other people that Dumbledore has hired for that job have turned out to be wonderful people," Ron said sarcastically.

"Don't be like that Ronald," Hermione said scornfully. "Besides, they said that he worked for Dumbledore before so he can't be too bad."

"I hope you're right," Ginny said.

I didn't say it out loud, but I was hoping the same thing. Being a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts wasn't really a good thing. They just didn't have the best of luck...

...

Just as I sat the last few plates and utensils on the table for dinner, I heard a knock on the front door of the house. Mr. Weasley rushed over to it while Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, Hermione, and I finished setting the table.

"How are you boys doing - did you have a good business day?" Mr. Weasley said from the front of the house.

"As good as always," Fred said proudly. "We nearly had to kick a few people out for staying past closing."

"It's difficult being so popular," George sighed.

"Sounds like it - you must get your charm from me," Mr. Weasley said. "Come to the kitchen - we just got dinner on the table."

"Did he say we," Ginny said. "He didn't do anything."

Mrs. Weasley shot her daughter a look before she turned back toward the door where her twin boys came marching through in what seemed to be the best suits I'd ever seen them wear. Well, I guess I haven't seen them in suits very often - but they were really spiffy regardless.

Mrs. Weasley stood in her place for a moment with a huge smile on her face before she suddenly walked over to her sons and hugged them both very tightly around their waists.

"Oh, I've missed you both so much," she said in a muffled voice as she squeezed them.

"We just saw you a few days ago," Fred said. "It hasn't been that long!"

"Try not to crush my lungs Mum," George said. "I might need to use those later."

George hugged his mother back and looked around at everyone from over her shoulder. When his eyes met mine, a big smile went across his face and he gave me a quick wink before his mother finally let him go.

"Are you all hungry - I've cooked plenty to eat," Mrs. Weasley said as she walked around the table to find where she would be sitting. "Don't be shy - take as much as you want."

"Don't mind if I do," Fred said cheerfully as he took his jacket and put it on the back of a chair that he chose to sit down on.

Everyone else followed suit and quickly found a chair. George nearly tripped over himself trying to get a seat next to me and almost lost the seat to my left by Ron, but he just blankly stared at Ron until he moved so he could have that seat.

"Hey babe," George said as he leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "Has my family annoyed you too much today?"

"Excuse you," Ginny said from the other side of the table.

"They've been lovely," I said as I reached for the bowl of carrots in front of me.

"I'll have to ask you that again once they aren't in the room," he laughed.

I elbowed him lightly and he laughed before he grabbed for something to eat. Within minutes of starting our meal, everyone was already chatting happily around the table about any old thing they could think of. Mr. Weasley was telling Mrs. Weasley about what was going on with his department in the Ministry while Ginny and Hermione told Harry all about what they did during their summer vacations. Fred, George, Ron, and I had our own conversation which consisted mostly of Fred talking about all of the customers at the new joke shop.

"You should see them - they're all mad!" Fred said. "I nearly had someone hit me in the head when I told them that we were all out of dungbombs today."

"I can't wait until I see the place," I said. "It must be great if you're so busy all of the time."

"You should have assumed that it was great anyway," Fred said. "It's our shop, so it's naturally going to be amazing."

"Don't get cocky," I warned.

"Don't tell me what to do," he said while pointing his fork at me.

Not much later after dinner, we all found ourselves going up to bed. It had been a long day of catching up with everyone and I was still tired from the lack of sleep that I got the previous night.

"Emily dear - would you mind sleeping in Ginny's room tonight with her and Hermione?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Oh, sure," I yawned. "But what's wrong with the room we've been in?"

"We're going to be staying the night," Fred explained. "I mean, you could bunk with us - I'm sure George wouldn't mind - "

Fred laughed and Mrs. Weasley threw him a look. George hid a smirk from his mother, and I just laughed and walked up to Fred and George's room to grab my things before retiring in Ginny's room. It only took a few minutes before I fell into a deep sleep.

...

CLINK!

I jumped up from my sleep and I looked around the room - what was that noise that I heard? Maybe it was just something from a dream I had been having. I shrugged it off and pulled my blankets closer to me before I closed my eyes again.

CLINK!

I sat up in my bed and looked around again. Hermione started to stir in her sleep, but Ginny seemed to be unalarmed by the noise as she continued to sleep. When Hermione rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock next to her before she noticed me sitting up.

"Did you hear that?" I asked.

"Yeah, what's going on?" she asked through her yawning.

CLINK - CLINK!

Both of us suddenly looked over to the window where I could have sworn the noise was coming from. This time the noise woke up a very annoyed Ginny who immediately glared from Hermione to me trying to figure out who she should yell at for waking her up.

"What are you two doing?" she asked irritably.

Her hair was tossed around in a mess from her sleeping, so it was really hard to take any of her anger seriously. Instead of laughing at her and making her angrier, we both shrugged and looked over at the window.

"I think that there's something outside," I said.

Then I saw a small, round object flying at the window that the noises were coming from. All three of us stood up quickly and walked over to see what was going on. Ginny, who seemed to be still irritated from being woken up, threw the window open and stuck her head out of it.

"What do you think you're doing?" she shouted down after a minute.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"Can you get Emily?" I heard someone say from below.

"He wants you," Ginny grunted as she stomped away from the window and threw herself under the blankets that she had been sleeping underneath peacefully only a few minutes ago.

Although I was seriously confused, I still walked over to the window and hesitantly stuck my head out of the window to see who it was.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, with hair so fine - come out your window, climb down the vine," George said dramatically.

I let out a laugh and shook my head. Through the dark of the night, I could see George standing on the ground with a few pebbles in his hand - so that's what it was, he must have been throwing them at the window to get our attention.

"Wait a minute, how do you even know who Rapunzel is?" I asked him. "It's a Muggle story."

"Our father was going through a phase," he shrugged. "Just get down here!"

"Okay, okay - let me get dressed," I said.

"You don't have to be dressed babe," he winked.

"George!" Hermione hissed from behind me.

I laughed at them both before I rushed over to get into some jeans and a green t-shirt that I had lying on the top of my suitcase. I stuck the shoes on my feet that Tonks had sent over for my birthday and walked back over to the window. The thick vines that ran down to the ground made me feel uncomfortable.

"What's wrong?" George asked from below after I stood there for a moment.

"What if they break and I fall?" I asked. "It isn't exactly a short distance, you know?"

"You practically weigh two pounds - the vines aren't going to break," George said. "Besides, I'd catch you anyway."

"You better," I muttered as I threw one leg outside of the window.

"Emily - what if you get caught?" Hermione asked. "It's five in the morning - everyone is going to wake up soon!"

"I'll cover you," Ginny groaned from her bed.

"Thanks - see you later!" I said as I put my other foot out the window and started to climb down.

I went down slowly and I felt uncomfortable with each new place I put my foot. When I looked down, George smiled up at me as he moved himself to make sure he would be in a spot to catch me in case I fell. Half way down the vine, I started to relax when I knew that there wasn't much further to go. And of course, as fate would have it, I found myself unable to pull my foot out of the vine to move down.

"Why'd you stop?" George asked.

"I think I'm stuck," I said sounding a little bit panicked. "My foot - it won't move."

"Try to take off your shoe," he suggested.

"But won't it get stuck here?" I asked.

"Well...yes," he said sounding confused.

"But Tonks gave me these for my birthday," I said.

George let out a laugh and I threw a look at him. I was irritated for a minute until I realized how much of a prat I just made out of myself. I started laughing too and then reached down and yanked my foot right out of my shoe so I was free.

I quickly began moving down the vine again and jumped down once I got to the bottom. When I got there, George picked me up from the ground and hugged me tightly before putting me back down.

"Well good morning to you," I smiled when he took my hand.

"It's a good morning now," he said while beaming at me.

"You are so corny," I laughed. "But I love you all the same."

"The feeling is mutual," he winked. "Now, do you want to go see the sun rise?"

"Really?" I asked.

"Yes," he said as if this was a completely normal thing to do. "I normally wake up before the sun anyway with these crazy business hours, but I thought it would be something you would like."

"Okay, lead the way," I smiled.

He nodded and pulled me along to a tree just a few yards away from the Burrow. We sat at its base and looked out toward the horizon. Part of me wanted to laugh at how he had taken the time to wake me up so we could see the sun rise, but it was really sweet at the same time. I wonder if this had been something he was planning to do for a while or if it was just a spur of the moment sort of thing. Either way, I was happy to have an excuse to cuddle up to my boyfriend that I hadn't seen in so long.

"Do you really watch the sun rise every day?" I asked.

"Usually," he said with a smirk. "Fred and I like to keep up with our romance like this."

"Very funny," I chuckled.

The horizon began to lighten up a bit and looked more purple like than it did a navy blue like it had moments before. I leaned my head back into George's shoulder and let out a sigh. I would have loved to be able to sit with him like this forever - not a care in the world and just peace all around us.

"Is Harry getting any better?" George asked after a moment.

"I think so," I said. "I've been trying not to bother him as much, and I'm pretty sure that being around other people is helping him a lot. He can't hide from everyone here like he did at the Dursleys."

"I'm sure he'll be back to normal soon," George said. "It just takes a little longer for some people to deal with things."

"I know..." I sighed. "I just don't like seeing him so sad all of the time - he would usually get better after we talked, that's why I was being so pushy."

"Maybe he just needs some space this time," George said. "He was really close with Sirius."

"And I wasn't?" I said.

"I'm not saying that," he said quickly. "I'm just saying that you two have seen a lot of people die and maybe Sirius's death just pushed him over the edge."

I wanted to tell him that Sirius's death wasn't the only thing that was bothering us, but I couldn't. I was afraid of how George would react if I even suggested what the prophecy said about our future. He would panic and worry, and I didn't want him to go through that. Times were hard enough without throwing that information on him.

"So Ginny told me that you got to meet the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor," George said.

"Unfortunately," I frowned.

"Is he that bad?" George asked.

"Well, it isn't that he's bad," I said. "He's just strange, that's all. He kept going on about how he taught our parents and how much he loved my mother. It was just awkward...and we had to try to convince him to come out of retirement."

"That's what I heard," George said. "Mum said that she had him as a professor when she went to Hogwarts - she said that he loved to pick favorites. She didn't say too much about him, so I'm guessing that he didn't pick her as one of them."

"Dumbledore says that he likes to befriend important people," I said. "I guess it makes him feel important too."

"So that's why Dumbledore brought you two along," George nodded in understanding.

"More or less," I sighed. "I didn't like it - he made me feel like I was an animal he was looking at in the zoo."

"You mean that you weren't?" he asked.

"Keep it up," I laughed.

"I'm sure he'll relax once the year starts up," he continued. "And I'm sure that he's good at what he does if Dumbledore wanted you two to help bring him back."

"He better be," I said.

Just then, the sun began to poke out of the horizon. Slowly it began to climb up out into the sky and we both watched it in silence. It was a beautiful thing to sit back and watch nature like this - I wasn't used to it. Maybe I needed to do more of this so I wouldn't get so stressed out all of the time...

When the sun was completely above the horizon, I turned around and looked at George to see what he was doing. He smiled at me before he leaned in and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he pulled closer to me and deepened the kiss. Just as he began to lean me down against the ground, my heart nearly stopped beating when I heard a loud yell come from the house.

"GEORGE - EMILY - WHERE ARE YOU?"

Both of us suddenly broke apart and jumped up from where we were sitting. From where I was, I could see Mrs. Weasley marching out of the Burrow looking both furious and worried at the same time. When I saw George's face, I started to wonder if he was going to run away from his mother in terror, but he seemed to be frozen in place.

I grabbed George's hand and quickly walked over so we were within her sight. As soon as her eyes found us, they narrowed and I immediately understood the terror in George's eyes. Mrs. Weasley was going to murder us - Voldemort would be so disappointed.

"Where have you two been?" she asked while her eyes burned into George's face. "I've been worried sick - both of your beds empty - I cannot believe - "

"We were just watching the sun set," George said quietly.

"Watching the sun set - a likely story!" Mrs. Weasley said while she grabbed George's arm and pulled him away from me so she could practically drag him to the door. "I was not born yesterday George Weasley - imagine what Harry would say if he found out you two were missing - how many times must I tell you that I don't want the two of you alone - "

I didn't catch the rest of the conversation as she dragged him into the house, but I had a feeling that I knew where it was going from that point. I stifled a laugh and pushed the door open and walked directly up the stairs so I wouldn't make things more awkward in the kitchen where Mrs. Weasley had taken George. I immediately found my way to Ginny's room where I found both Hermione and her asleep.

"So much for covering me," I said.

Hermione sat up quickly and looked around as if she was lost. Ginny, on the other hand, remained fast asleep under her covers.

"I'm so sorry - what happened?" Hermione asked quickly.

"Mrs. Weasley noticed that we were gone," I said. "So she started to assume some things..."

"What do you mean?" she asked. "What could you two possibly be doing - oh!"

Hermione's face flushed and she started to pick nervously at her fingernails.

"Well, you two have been dating for a while," she said. "...so...have you two ever - ?"

Luckily she didn't finish her question because there was a knock on the door and Harry popped his head in. I thanked God that he didn't hear the conversation that we were having - I think he would have lost it.

"What's going on downstairs?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"George looks like he was just hit in the head with a Bludger," Harry said as he stepped into the room. "And Mrs. Weasley looks like she's the one that hit him with it."

"Oh, I'm not sure," I said while eyeing Hermione.

Harry looked at both of us and raised an eyebrow - he was suspicious of us. Sure nothing actually happened this morning, but I didn't want to go through the trouble. I knew that Harry would be as irritated as Mrs. Weasley that I was out with George by ourselves.

Some things were just best left unknown between a brother and sister.

...

Thanks for reading - I hope you liked it! The next chapter should be up around Friday! (If you see any mistakes, feel free to tell me so I can fix them)

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