Chapter eleven

Molly, Arthur, Charlie and Harry kept talking while they ate lunch, with Arthur, Molly and Charlie giving food to Spirit the whole time and Harry laughing because he knew Spirit was spoiled by everyone.

'Harry, I asked you something, can you at least answer me?' Hermione said trying again to get him to talk to her.

Charlie, Molly and Arthur all looked at Harry, Spirit gave a small growl before Harry finally turned his head.

'Did you say something?' he asked coldly.

'Yes, I did, I would like to ask if you could lend me some money to go see my parents.'

'No,' Harry said and again coldly before turning back.

'Why, you're giving all this money for a restaurant, I just want to visit my parents.'

'Then go find a job and work for it, you'll get nothing from me.'

'Well, I need to go buy some timber for that wall. Do you want to head home love or come with me?' Charlie asked.

'I'll head home with Spirit, I want to work off all this great food.'

'No you don't Harry, you need to start putting on weight or you'll fade away to nothing.'

'I sometimes think I'm going to break him in two when we shag.'

Harry scowled as he punched Charlie in the arm, 'I'm not that thin love.'

'Too thin, so I'll walk you and Spirit out before I go buy that timber.'

'I'll see you both in the morning,' Harry hugged Molly then Arthur, Spirit jumped up at Molly and licked her face, making Charlie, Harry and Arthur laugh, 'He loves you mum, because you always feed him. Come on Spirit, remember who your master is mate.' Harry, Charlie and Spirit left, while Molly and Arthur sat together talking over some ideas for the restaurant.

Over the next week, Arthur and Molly found the perfect place for their restaurant. So they put all the paperwork into the ministry so they could have it licensed before they went home to start working on how they wanted it to look. Bill, Fleur even Percy had been giving ideas as well and Molly wanted the families input. But if Ron said anything, again, no one took any notice.

Harry had finished working out and was doing some laps in his pool when he heard Arthur's voice calling to him. Harry wrapped a towel around himself and met Arthur in the living room and knew instantly something was wrong.

'What?'

'Charlie was attacked when he was out, he's in St Mungo's.'

'Let me dress,' Harry raced up the stairs, dressed and ran back down, 'Do they know who attacked him?'

'From the descriptions, death eaters.'

'That's not possible, there all dead or locked up,' Harry and Arthur went outside and apparated away.

The two men raced through the waiting room and into a ward then a room where Charlie was lying unconscious on the bed with Molly, Ron, and Hermione were next to him.

'Why wasn't I told about this?' Harry asked as he sat on the bed and took Charlie's hand.

'They don't recognise you as his next of kin, that you're married. So they informed Molly and I.'

'We are legally married, I should have been told,' Harry looked up at the healer, 'So how is he?' the healer looked at Arthur, but Harry stood up and glared at him, 'He is legally my partner and I ask you a question, how is he?' he asked with a hard edge to his voice.

'He's going to be fine, but it was close Mr. Potter. He was bleeding badly when he was brought in, and had lost a lot of blood. Luckily, we got to him in time.'

'When will he be conscious?'

'He should wake within the hour, but he will need to be kept calm so the potions can work on him.'

'How long before he can come home?'

'I will be able to tell you more about that tonight.'

'Fine, then can you leave so we, the family can be with him?' Harry said coldly. The healer nodded then left, 'Do you know if they were caught?'

'They weren't, they attacked Charlie then left. From what I was able to find out, it seemed planned, like they went after Charlie deliberately.'

'Why would they go after Charlie, the death eaters wouldn't even know who he is?' Ron asked.

'That's true, but they do know he is Harry's Partner, it was in every paper for weeks that you two had to go marry in another country because you weren't allowed here. It might have been because of that, we just don't know anything at the moment,' Arthur said as he stared down at his son.

'We were told they were all locked up or dead, so if they were real death eaters, how did they get missed or escape?'

'That's what we need to find out Harry. I was going to speak with Aberforth, see if he's heard anything.'

'He does have ears everywhere, let's hope he has.' Harry said but kept his eyes on Charlie.

'We'll wait till he wakes, then I'll go see Aberforth. I might even contact Minerva, see if anyone has heard something from the Slytherin's.' Arthur said.

'Has Bill and the others been told?' Harry asked but never took his eyes off Charlie.

'I sent Errol to Shell Cottage, I'm sure they will turn up soon.'

'Something I want to know, how did they know where Charlie would be?' Molly asked.

'That is something else we need to find out Molly. Only family knows Charlie buying timber to fix those rooms. There is one way though, but they don't have anything to do with death eaters,' Arthur looked around at his family, 'We had to put forms in to have the work approved. So the ministry does know that Charlie is doing the work because he had to prove he was experienced before they did approve it.'

'Even if the ministry is run by idiots, they don't deal with death eaters. But someone knew Charlie was going out buying timber, someone knew where he was buying it and someone knew when he might turn up. If it was because of me, we get that and Charlie knew he had to be careful. But we were told, they came and told me they were all dead or locked up. So either they lied to us or because their too bloody stupid to do their job properly, they missed some and didn't want to admit it.'

'Calm down Harry, we will get the answers, it just might take a while. Now you're place is protected, no one can use magic there unless you remove those charms. Spirit won't let anyone hurt either of you, so Charlie might have to stick to the house until we do. For now let's just be here for him and hope this was an isolated incident and they get found soon.'

Harry nodded, but something told him this wasn't an isolated incident, something told him this was planned. The feelings inside him were telling him that this was just the first of many things that were going to happen and soon.