I woke up the next morning with a mouth full of red hair. A coughed a little trying to get it out of my mouth and sat up slowly, trying not to wake Lily. She really did have a rough day yesterday; she could use a lie in.
I slipped on a big jumper over my pjs and started down the stairs. The kitchen was surprisingly quiet. When I entered, only Mr. Potter was there. He was making some pancakes over the stove. It smelled delicious. I sat down at the table.
Soon the pancakes were done, and I noticed there were chocolate chips in them. They were heavenly. I could feel Mr. Potter looking at me, and I looked back up at him.
"Amelia…"
I interrupted him. "Thank you."
"Thank you? For what?"
I swallowed what was left of my pancake. "For everything. For letting me stay here when I had nowhere else to go. For bringing me to my apartment when I wanted to go. For following me that day. For saving me from that, that thing. I can't even call him a person. For taking care of me after when I couldn't take care of myself. For saying whatever you did to Ginny that made her want to help me too. For Lily. Thank you so much for Lily. She's wonderful. Thank you for not letting him…" I swallowed again. This was harder than I thought it would be. Talking about it. "If you hadn't been there, he would have raped me. I know he would have. I am lucky that you were there, and that he didn't. I am so lucky that you stopped him."
I could see Mr. Potter trying to blink away some emotion in his eyes. He stood and walked back over to me and hugged me like he did the day before. He was warm and comforting. He was hugging me like I hugged Lily the day before.
"Amelia. I am so sorry. I am sorry for not being fast enough to stop him from taking you. I'm sorry that he touched you at all. He shouldn't have been able to. I should have got to you sooner. I should have been able to protect. And I shouldn't have hid from you all week when I felt guilty. I should have been here to help you."
I was crying by this point. I didn't know what it was life to have a father, but maybe this was it.
"You are a great kid, Amelia. So great, despite all the shit you dealt with growing up. You have every reason to hate people. Every reason to hate me. To hate anyone you come into contact with and you don't. Instead you saved my daughter from being hurt and alone from who knows how long. But I left you hurt and alone. And I will never forgive myself for that."
I hugged him harder and buried my head into his chest. I knew I was getting his shirt all wet, but in that moment I just needed someone to help me stand up. I was just learning how to accept affection. How to accept someone caring about you more than they care about themselves.
I let go and wiped my eyes. I put my hands on my hips like I had seen Ginny do to him. "Well, you better forgive yourself, Mr. Potter. Because I already have. There was never anything to forgive. You didn't leave me alone. You left me with Ginny and Lily and Molly. And they did everything they could and more. I am forever in debt to you and your family. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you. I'd still be in that apartment. Or I would have been kidnapped and never found. Or I would be dead. But I wouldn't be here. Alive. Happy."
"Harry." He wiped his own eyes.
"What?"
"I'm not old enough to be Mr. Potter, I hope. And I think we've gone through more than enough that you have earned the right to call me Harry." He gently guided me back to my seat and put some more pancakes on my plate.
"Oh. Okay. I can do that… Harry." It felt funny in my mouth when I said it, but he smiled.
"Hermione is finally coming over today to talk to you. I have a feeling she's going to love you. Everyone does." My eyes widened. Loved me? They loved me. I guess it made sense. I love them. Suddenly, I remembered that these wonderful people weren't really my family. What was going to happen now? I wasn't going back with my mother. I would rather be alone than drug back into that world.
I cleared my throat, and Harry looked at me.
"What's going to happen to me now?" I looked down at my plate. Don't make eye contact. It will hurt more when he sends you away.
"Well…" Here it comes. The big let down. Don't cry. Don't cry, Amelia. "How would you like to come stay with us? Me and Ginny, I mean. And Lily. At our house. Not the Burrow."
I looked up, confused.
"Look, Amelia. I have been doing this a long time, and no kid has ever affected me the way that you do. I can't stand the idea of you hurt or alone or unprotected. Not for a second. Ginny agrees with me. So we want you to stay with us."
"Like move in with you? Live with you guys? Like… like a family?" Damn it. I was crying.
"No, not like a family. Actually a family. We want you to be apart of our family. You basically already are. We love you. Lily loves you. Molly and Arthur love you. All that's left is the boys, and they're easy to please. Maybe you can even go to Hogwarts with them next year if you want."
Damn it. I was really crying now. I just nodded my head. Harry smiled again. Family. A real family. I was going to be Lily's sister after all.
When Harry, Ginny, and Ron told me about her, they never mentioned how pretty she was. That was one of the first things I noticed. I also noticed that she didn't know how pretty she was. He brown hair was long. It was a little wavy and seemed to have a habit of getting in her face. She kept tucking it behind her ear.
Her eyes were brown, a very light brown. And her smile was rare, but it was radiant. It lit up her face like a Christmas tree. I understood why everyone else was so intent on making her happy. So she would smile more.
I held out my hand to her. "Hello, Amelia. I'm Hermione Weasley, but please just Hermione."
"Hello." She shook my hand. She was soft-spoken. I knew why Lily liked her so much too. Lily could talk without much interruption.
"I hope it's okay that Harry, Ron, and Ginny talked to me about you. All good things I promise." I smiled, and gave me a small smile back. "Ginny especially thought we might relate a little bit. She told me what that man did to you, and I'm very, very sorry it happened. But believe me, I know that sorry doesn't make it better."
Her eyes looked up at me with a questioning look in them. I lifted the sleeve to my jumper and showed her the scars left by Bellatrix. She openly gasped and then covered her mouth with her hand.
"It's okay. Don't worry. I understand. It's hard to believe at first that someone exists that is so evil that they would do this to another person. These scars, they're nothing to me anymore, but it's how I was scarred on the inside that really matters."
She wasn't looking at me, but I knew she was listening, so I kept going. "Amelia, I just wanted to come tell you that, the fear and pain you're feeling is one hundred percent okay because it's how you feel. Don't let anyone tell you how to feel or how to heal. You are you and you will grow and change in your own way, whatever that may be. But I have talked to a lot of people about their scars." I saw her glance at my arm again. "No. Not those scars. The ones here." I gently leaned over and put my hand over her heart. I have talked to a lot of people about those scars. And talking seems to be the key. Hiding it, keeping it all in is what keeps the hurt inside you. But if you can talk about it, open up to someone who means something to you, you will feel different. I won't say you'll feel better because you may not, not for a while anyway. But you'll feel different. And sometimes different can save you."
She put her hand on top of mine over her heart. She nodded her head and thanked me. I pulled her into a hug. She seemed surprised, but recovered. It was like hugging Harry all those years ago. Like he didn't know what to do. Neither did Amelia, but like Harry, she would learn.
"Hey. Smile, kid. I heard you're basically a Potter now. Which means you're basically a Weasley. Which means, we're family. And family is everything. You can come to me at any time okay? For anything."
Amelia nodded again. I hugged her again. I smiled, maybe we all need to be more like Harry. Always trying to be the hero.