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One Hundred and Forty going on twelve
Happy at the Burrow
Molly Weasley had made her decision, she could not harm children no matter what the reason, and there was no way that she would let 'Arthur blooming Weasley' have the last word on any subject, and that included the sleeping arrangements of the two young visitors. She could not move Ron or Ginny from their own rooms, it would not be right, it just wouldn't be fair on either of her two youngest. So grabbing her wand she marched very purposely from the house, she was about to do something she had thought of doing on more than one occasion. "Right Arthur Weasley lets see how you like this when you get home," she said as she entered his work shed, she was going to enjoy this.
With a few waves of her wand she had shrunk all of Arthur's muggle collection and all of his other things every gadget and whatsit, and placed them in a corner at the back of the shed. A few more waves of her trusty wand and the inside of the shed slightly resembled Ginny's bedroom.
By the time she was conjuring a comfortable looking bed; Molly had lost her anger at Arthur and was actually enjoying herself.
It had been quite some time since she had performed any magic other than the usual cleaning and washing spells, so she set about the transformation of the little shed with eagerness. With a rather grand flourish of her wand she conjured a nice wall to wall carpet, with a deep pile and embossed all over with the Gryffindor lion. Pleased at how well things were turning out she thought about how cold it might get in the little shed at night, so she conjured tapestries to cover all the walls, and a little pot bellied stove to warm the place up. She even went as far as expanding the shed doubling its size, so she could add a few more touches. By the time she had finished she had been so carried away with her creation that it now looked like a place fit for a duke.
Molly stood at the door of the shed and looked at the now opulent interior and realised that she had really gone well over the top, but with a chuckle she left it as it was and returned to her kitchen to finish preparing breakfast for her sure to be hungry family. She left Harry and Hermione to sleep until the appearance of Ron, yawning and rubbing his eyes but still ready and eager for his morning feast.
In the living room Molly gave Hermione a gentle shake "Breakfast dear," she said as the bleary eyes of the bushy haired girl became focused.
"Thanks Mrs Weasley," Hermione croaked as she shook Harry to wake him.
"I have a little surprise for you after breakfast; now what would you like pumpkin juice or tea with your meal." Molly almost whispered as though not wanting to wake Harry.
"Could we both have tea please?" Hermione asked wondering why Mrs Weasley had such an odd, out of place grin on her face.
Harry felt absolutely great when he woke, none of his unhappiness from the day before was left, it was as though he had been a different person yesterday. Following Hermione through to the kitchen he took in a deep breath savouring the aromas that were drifting through the entire house.
Breakfast at the Burrow was a noisy affair; the entire family apart from the father sat happily around the kitchen table eating and talking, several different conversations were taking place all at the same time. Harry looked around the table and a huge smile crossed his face, this was how he remembered the Burrow, a place of happiness and joy, not the place of loneliness and sadness he had felt only yesterday.
Leaning over Hermione's shoulder Mrs Weasley placed an old book between Hermione and Harry, "You should read this, it really is interesting, I doubt there is another copy left anywhere else in the world, it's a sort of heirloom been passed down in the Prewett family for generations, I was reading a little of it yesterday," she said as she opened the book to the page she had shown Arthur.
"It explains why you kept falling asleep," she told Hermione who had given her a curious look.
Harry and Hermione read the page shown and they both instantly knew why they had been feeling the way they had, it was not because Hermione was spending to much time with Ginny, it was simply that since their arrival at the Burrow even though they had been in the same house, and most of the time in the same room, they had hardly had any physical contact, apart from a quick hug and kiss hello in the morning and then again at night when they said goodnight, when doing things together they had sat or stood with Ginny between them, whereas before they had constantly held each other, either holding hands or walking arm in arm, or wrapped in each others arms as they slept.
Hermione felt relieved as she read the page, she had been blaming herself for her husbands' unhappiness, an unhappiness that could be cured by simply holding hands whenever and where ever they could. Happy that she now had the answers to her problem, her appetite returned, she helped herself to some more bacon and ate as she read the old book.
Harry though feeling relieved was still a little angry at him self, he should have known about this, he should have spent sometime in his previous long life studying these sort of things; they were the sort of small details that a school headmaster should be aware of.
As Harry placed his knife and fork down on his now empty plate, and before he could open the top button on his jeans to let out his now slightly over full stomach, Mrs Weasley asked both him and Hermione to follow her. She lead them out to Arthur's old garden shed, the one Harry knew he kept his collection of muggle things in. Harry had always enjoyed Mr Weasleys fascination for all things Muggle. There was always some item that Arthur had charmed in some crazy way.
"Ok Harry, Hermione, I hope you wont mind if I move you out of the house and put you up in the shed," Molly said a huge grin on her face.
Molly almost burst out laughing at the look on Hermione's face, she could almost hear her thinking 'A shed, she's putting us in the shed'. Stifling a chuckle Molly opened the door and ushered them inside. She did begin to chuckle when she saw the look on the two faces of her guests, Hermione stood and stared at the room that she found herself in, it looked brilliant she thought as she looked to see Harry's reaction. He looked as stunned as she had been.
"Whoa, Mrs Weasley, this is amazing," Harry whispered after giving a long low whistle.
"Absolutely brilliant," Hermione declared as she sat on the bed.
Moments later Ginny entered "Bloody hell!" she exclaimed as she looked around "swap you rooms Harry," she said as she jumped onto the bed along side Hermione.
"Hey mum, how about redoing my bedroom next?" Ginny asked laughing as both she and Hermione bounced on the soft bed.
Harry had a sudden realisation as Mrs Weasley tutted at the two girls bouncing on the bed; he stood and watched them for a minute. His Hermione though his wife, and a lovable bookworm and she was clever well beyond her years was still a child, under the pseudo adult exterior she was a little girl who still needed to play with children and friends of her own age. He wondered why he had never thought about it before, not even in his other life, he and Ron had always thought of her as the grown up one of the trio.
'Hermione sweetheart is it ok if I leave you here with Ginny, I want to have a talk to the twins?' he asked smiling as the girls rolled around on the bed tickling each other. He would think of something to talk to the twins about later, for now he would leave Hermione playing with Ginny.
Taking a stroll around the Burrow grounds Harry decided that in future he would join in with Hermione and Ginny in what ever they did, even if what they did was 'girly' as Ron termed it, now that he had thought about it he knew he had not spent much time thinking about how things were affecting his wife and he should have. It should have been one of his main concerns, after all what would be the sense in saving her from Ron if in doing so he robbed her of her childhood and changed the woman she would become, just as Voldemort had done to Ginny.
'Yes if I have to I will play their games, just as I should have done last time I was eleven years old, this time I will be an eleven year old boy' he thought.
Unexpectedly Harry quickly found out he actually enjoyed most of the things the girls were playing, they had to teach him most of rules for the games they played like, hide and go seek, or I spy, he even quite enjoyed helping out with a skipping rope, holding one end of the rope while one of the girls did the skipping. Hermione and Ginny both knew Harry had never had the chance to play properly before, and both girls made an effort to help him. Harry found during the remainder of the week that he had actually missed out on a lot of fun and laughs in his other life time and he wondered if it had been due to Ron's anti girl attitude influencing him.
Arthur Weasley arrived home from work feeling quite pleased with him self, it seemed that his talk to Molly that morning had had the desired effect, she had not floo called him to tell him to contact Sirius Black so she must have rearranged the rooms of the children. He had just sat down to his usual cup of fresh strong tea when Ginny rushed into the kitchen and begged him to go with her to see Hermione's bedroom. Allowing Ginny to pull him along Arthur began to wonder what was going on, when instead of pulling him toward the stairs Ginny was pulling him toward the back door.
Normally Arthur would have been angry with anyone who messed with his collection of Muggle things, but looking into the hut with its stove pot warming the place nicely, and Harry and Hermione sitting on a bed holding hands and reading, he was pleased with what he saw. Arthur stepped into what this morning had been his old work shed, the change that had taken place surprised even him, it was now a very comfortable bedroom, tapestries and a fully carpeted floor helped to keep the place warm while adding colour to the once slightly rundown and dingy shed. Looking around the room Arthur found him self thinking it a great pity that conjured items would only last for a few weeks at most, this room was excellent.
Back in the kitchen Molly waited for the shouting to begin, the longer the silence went on the closer she stood to the open window, finally the curiosity getting the better of her she made her way out to the shed, she found her husband sitting on the bed with Harry, Hermione, and Ginny, discussing the book she had loaned to Hermione.
Standing in the doorway she chuckled "So Mr Weasley, I take it all this meets with your approval."
Arthur grinned at his wife "Marvellous my dear, worthy of an extra cuddle later," he said with a little wink.
The rest of the week for Harry, Hermione, and Ginny was a very happy one, on the two rainy days, while the boys sat in their rooms feeling bored, the new trio as Harry liked to call them, played around the house playing hide and go seek or reading, occasionally filling an hour with I spy. Molly Weasleys cooking was just as Harry had remembered it, he watched in the late afternoons as Molly taught the girls how to cook, occasionally he would make a mental note to himself about making some small change to one of the many recipes he had stored in his head.
Harry and Hermione enjoyed sleeping in the shed; they sat and spent time together reading or doing their homework each evening. Before getting undressed ready for bed, Harry cast a warming charm around the room each evening as the fire dimmed, then together he and Hermione climbed into the large comfortable bed and slept peacefully in each others arms. It was he thought, oh so much better than sharing Ron's old room.
The whole week had turned out to be one of the best Harry had ever spent at the Burrow; he was really pleased with his decision to become an ordinary eleven year old boy. The fun he had with Hermione and Ginny learning how to be a young boy with nothing to worry about was his happiest time yet, once or twice he actually felt sorry for Ron who spent most of his time in his room, it was more than likely he would be lying on his bed feeling bored all the through the holiday.
Hermione was really pleased that Harry was so willing to join in with her and Ginny even with the more feminine stuff. There was something slightly different about Harry, something that was good that she did not quite understand but she liked the small change in him, he seemed to give more thought to her and she liked that. That week they became even closer than they had been, her young love for him was growing and beginning to mature.
They almost accepted Molly and Arthur's invitation to stay until after Christmas, it was such a tempting offer, but Harry wanted to spend some time with his godfather Sirius, and Christmas seemed to be the right time for them both to get to know the man.
They were both sad when they left the Burrow, promising to keep on writing their letters to her they both hugged Ginny before saying bye for now. Teary goodbyes were said to Ginny and Mrs Weasley as Mr Weasley grabbed their trunks then he used a port key to take the young couple to London and Grimmauld place to stay with Sirius for the rest of the holiday.
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A/Note, I just want to thank all those of you who have been reviewing this story, reviews cheer up my day so thanks again.