I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.

The Family that Chooses You

Chapter 28 – A Rescue

"Am I a bad brother?"

George looked at Fred, wondering if he was kidding. That was their usual mode of communication. Truths said jokingly, half-truths delivered amusingly, lies delivered hilariously. They spoke in confusing ways most of the time, treating life as a joke and they the comedians.

Fred had no trace of a smile. He had no hint of jocularity in expression both how he looked or sounded. He looked beyond serious. He almost seemed angry. He did not look angry however.

George felt angry. No, he was furious. Since he was feeling that way inside, he knew Fred probably felt close to the same.

"Do you mean are we bad brothers?" George tried to thin the thickening tension.

"If you wish," Fred replied, almost tersely.

George rose from his bed and joined his brother at the window. "Let's break it down then. For us to be bad brothers, it means we have done something bad to one of our siblings. Have we done something to Bill?"

"No. He's in Egypt and the effort to do something to him from so far away is too much."

"Charlie?"

"No, for the same reason save he's in Romania."

"Percy?"

"Surprisingly…no. He didn't even tell us to do our homework at all this summer so we've mostly left him alone."

"Ron?"

"Not really unless you count taking him with us on something so dangerous and irresponsible." He parroted his mother's words with practiced familiarity.

"Ginny?"

"I called her a thieving magpie."

"She did nick our potion tools to try and turn them pink."

"So it was warranted?"

"I'll deny it if you say so but yes in my opinion."

Fred snorted.

They looked out the window, letting the sounds from outside fill the silence within. Harry and Ron were running around the garden of the Burrow, the Weasley home. They were being chased by Percy who was shooting blasts of water at them from his wand. The boys were laughing and Percy was pretending to be upset but even could not hide the smile on his face. Ginny, their little sister, had watched longingly for a while before Harry literally dragged her into the game. Soon the three of them were shrieking with laughter, dodging blasts of water while throwing wet towels at the older boy.

Despite the obvious happiness outdoors, they felt grim indoors.

"What about our last sibling?" Fred asked.

"Harry?" George smiled wryly. "I would think flying an illegally enchanted car across the country and busting out an underaged magical minor against the will of his Muggle Guardians would be the opposite of treating him badly."

Fred grunted.

"So, by the rubric we laid out earlier, no. I cannot say that we are bad brothers."

"Then why do I feel like one?" Fred asked.

"Probably because I feel like one too," George admitted.

The table by the window started to shake. The knick-knacks on the table started to rattle. The window glass began to creak and flex in the frame.

George grabbed his brother and threw him onto his bed. "Ease off Fred," he said as calmly as he could.

Fred clenched his hands. His normally smile wreathed face was a statue of jagged edges. He breathed deeply, trying to calm down. The shaking and rattling started to fade.

Though George had a tighter hold on his magic, he knew he felt just like Fred. He knew if he released his control the room would shake apart between the two of them. It made him feel better that he and his brother were the same in this. It made him feel worse that the both of them could lose control like this.

Even if it was for a good reason.

Seeing Fred getting riled up prompted George to flick his wand about them, casting a Silencing Charm on the door and window.

"He had bars on his window," Fred said in a barely controlled whisper.

"Yeah, I saw. We had to break them off with the car. Means they were really deep set."

"They locked him in."

"Yeah. Good thing we brought those lockpicks. Especially given that we didn't know he already had a warning about underaged magic."

"They locked his things away. He couldn't even have his things with him. They took everything from him. Our gifts, his school things, everything."

"Yeah. Sometimes I wish I couldn't get to my school things but that was…taking it far." George was having trouble making jokes now. His own fury was on the rise.

"There was a…cat flap on his door. A sodding cat flap."

George tried but he could not come up with a joke. He could not come up with anything to say. Nothing polite anyways.

Fred screamed and threw his pillow at the wall. From an early age the twins learned to not break things. Even with magical repairs, things did not last long if you kept breaking them. Their family could not readily replace things broken in fits of temper. They typically worked their frustrations out through physical activity or inventive swearing.

Sometimes though, throwing something was the go-to response.

"They treated him like an animal! A ruddy animal!" Fred picked up his pillow and swung it violently at empty air, at a target he wished was there. "A BLOODY ANIMAL!"

"You can see his bones again," George said hollowly. Where rage gave Fred energy, it sapped George's. "He looked almost as bad as when we first saw him last year. Worse really. Before he looked like a scrawny shrimp. Now…you can't think that."

Fred's chest heaved as he panted from the exertion of flailing his pillow about like a weapon. "He was wincing. We had to help him climb into the car. He's been hurt."

"I don't think he's ever not been," George spat.

Fred sat down, his rage leaving him tired. "Did you see his back?"

George nodded but did not say a word. The clothes Harry wore were obvious hand-downs, something the Weasleys were used to. Except in their case their mother typically changed it a little, made it fit better, made it look nicer. Harry was so small and his cousin so large, he looked like a stick wrapped in a bed sheet.

In the light of the electric lamps that night, they could see him as he walked in clothes beyond voluminous. They could see what was on his back. The twins had noticed immediately. They do not know if Ron noticed.

Out of respect for Harry, out of fear of knowing, they never asked either boy.

The twins sat in silence for long moments.

"What do we do?" George asked. He tried to sound matter of fact, as if this was a normal thing to be discussed and overcome with careful planning. He hated thinking that it was becoming frightfully normal in terms of Harry.

Fred took a few deep breaths. "Let's break it down, bit by bit. Like we always do."

George nodded, grateful for Fred to take the lead.

"We have to tell Mum and Dad. I think Mum is starting to suspect something anyways," Fred said.

"I think Percy may have mentioned things. She was going to hug him at the station weeks ago but he stopped her. She was confused and asked him why when we came home. I think he…knows some things about Harry."

"Huh. That explains it." At George's look of confusion, Fred explained. "Why do you think it was so easy to get the keys yesterday? Who do you think left the door unlocked for us? He was asking Mum a lot of things too to keep her distracted yesterday. He even got Ginny to go to bed early. I thought that was weird."

"You think he knew we were planning on going?" George could barely believe it. He knew Percy typically did not try to ruin any plans the twins made, unless he was the unwilling target of them. Absconding with an illegal car would be high on the list of things Percy would not approve of and try to prevent however.

"I think he had an idea. He'd never join us but…"

"I never thought he would help us either."

They looked out the window where they sat. The Charm prevented sound from leaving the room but did not block sound from coming in. They could hear Percy laughing with the younger kids.

"We tell Mum and Dad. Hopefully Mum can talk to Dumbledore and Dad can do something at the Ministry," George said.

Fred nodded. "We better write the girls and Wood. They were getting as anxious as we were. Everyone sent him letters and he never returned a one. He wouldn't ever act like that."

"Makes you believe that a House Elf really was preventing him from getting his mail." George ground his teeth. "If I ever get my hands on that House Elf…"

"You tell me and we will do lots of things together," Fred finished. He sighed. "The girls are going to be…quite upset."

"Let's just tell them that we got him and he'll be okay," George said. "I don't want to lie to them really but-"

"-but we don't want to share things Harry wouldn't want to share himself." Fred agreed. "Remember when I said I hope Katie was wrong?"

George remembered all too well. "No chance of that hope now."

"Which leads me to step two. We make sure the team is set in taking care of Harry when we get back to Hogwarts."

George smiled, the first smile in over forty-eight hours. His last smile was the smile of satisfaction at reaching the Dursley residence without being caught. It died swiftly and violently when they saw Harry through the bars in his window. "We won't be able to stop them from that."

"Would you want to?" Fred snorted at George's rude gesture. "Just saying. Not saying you would, just stating rhetorically."

"Is there a step three?"

Fred was silent for a moment. "Yeah. Step three is planning our revenge on his aunt and uncle and cousin. Step three is us thinking of ways to make them regret every single harsh word, every despicable act, every bad thought they've ever had about Harry." Fred's smile lacked warmth or good feeling. It was beyond feral. It was a primal smile of a beast hungry for blood.

George felt like it was looking in a mirror. It matched how he felt his smile looked. "I like step three."

"I knew you would."

"Because you like it too?"

"Exactly."

-0-

Ron slipped on the wet grass and tumbled end over end. He could not remember the last time he ran around outside like this. It seemed like something only really little kids did. Run around and be chased by someone. Throwing things and playing with water.

It seemed, and felt, extremely silly. He thought they were far too old for it. Ginny who was younger, only by a year but still, seemed too old to be doing this. When they first started doing this, caused by a prank by the twins of course, he did not really want to play like this. He would have rather played Quidditch in the orchard, or played chess, or done lots of other things honestly.

There was no denying how happy Harry was.

The other boy was genuinely happy. He looked like he was having the time of his life. His smile was wide. His eyes sparkled. He laughed loudly and heartily.

His happiness was infectious and Ron was swept up in the moment with him.

Ron was not as slow as some people teased him as. Sure it took him some time to understand things, mostly school things, but he was not that thick. He knew some things were dreadfully wrong with Harry. He was the one that brought up that something had to be wrong. He knew Harry would not purposely ignore mail or messages. He knew Harry, who loved all things magical and the Wizarding World, would never willingly avoid it.

Thankfully the twins, and surprisingly Percy as well, believed him. Ron knew he did not know the best way to help so he went to the smartest people he knew, the twins. He knew they would figure something out. And they did. It went amazingly well. Practically everything went right.

But Ron still knew some things were not right. He knew Harry did not look right. He knew Harry went through something dreadful. Harry never said anything, out loud anyways. Even Ron could see the terrible way Harry looked at food and ate. He saw him curled up again into a tiny ball on the cot in his room. He heard him make distressing noises while asleep.

Ron would not begrudge the simple joy Harry was feeling right now. Running around on the grass in the sunshine without a care in the world. Being sprayed with water. Playing with Percy of all people. Ron could not remember the last time Percy had played with them like this. Harry even included Ginny readily enough. The girl had been oddly quiet and incredibly awkward around Harry for some reason. It only took a moment for Harry to see how wistful Ginny looked, how she looked at them longingly to be included, for him to literally drag her into the fun.

Ron decided to forget about being embarrassed. Instead, he would just enjoy being with his best friend and help him be happy. He deserved it after all.

-0-

Percy could not remember the last time he had this much fun.

He was doing something he thought beneath him. If someone had asked him the other day that he would enjoy chasing his younger siblings and Harry about spraying them with water, he would have given them an annoyed look. He would have denied that he would. He would have said he rather do just about anything else.

If you had asked him before he saw Harry that is.

Percy had been shocked when he saw Harry the morning after he was brought to the Burrow. It had taken him a long moment to walk into the kitchen. He had stood and stared at the boy for a long time. Were it not for the glasses, the emerald green eyes, the untidy black hair, Percy would have sworn this was not the boy he had come to know at school.

This boy was obviously starved and malnourished, practically a skeleton. This boy walked as if movement hurt him. This boy was an extreme caricature of the shy nervous first year that was Harry Potter.

Many thought Percy was incapable of extreme emotion. That he varied between pompous satisfaction and general irritation.

He had felt intense terrible anger at that moment.

Seeing a child so obviously hurt and abused did not fit in Percy's worldview of propriety. Children should be taken care of. Taught the value of hard work and diligence certainly. To respect superiors and institutions naturally. But they were children. They should be allowed to be children.

This was no way for a child to be.

He knew that Harry was technically older than what some would call a child, but he was still young. And if this was how he was treated now, then he must have been treated worse when he was an actual child.

Thinking about Ginny being put in that position like made Percy literally see red.

Percy had been worried when he heard Harry had not been responding to mail or attempts to get a hold of him. He secretly approved when he overheard the twins planning with Ron. While he could not publicly condone their actions, he did what he could to smooth the way with them.

Seeing how Harry was when he arrived made Percy wish he had gone with them. To do something actively.

His mother had already interrogated him yesterday. All of a sudden, she had realized why Percy had stopped her at the station those weeks prior. After sending him to Ron's room yesterday, her smile of welcome was dropped and she demanded for Percy to tell her everything he knew. She had cried silently the entire time.

He was not immune to tears himself he found. He cried as well.

Percy had told her all he knew which he admitted was not much. He did tell her to speak to the twins. He suspected they knew more than he did. He suspected no one knew as much as they should have however.

Only Harry did. His knowledge was bought with personal experience, a cost too steep.

Earlier when everyone ate lunch, Percy's glass expelled water at him, drenching him. Percy had looked at Fred, a sardonic look in his eye.

Fred claimed, unconvincingly, that it was not him. That he had seen Harry and Ron perform the Expelling Jinx on the glass. Seeing how the Jinx was one taught at sixth year and above usually, the idea was ludicrous.

However, Percy caught the gleam in Fred's eye. He saw the way he tipped his head at the two younger boys. He saw how he looked outdoors. Normally Percy refused to be drawn into games that the twins played.

Normally.

"Is that right," Percy said with feigned suspicion. He looked down at the two boys. Ron looked confused and shook his head wildly. Harry looked concerned and Percy thought he should not have.

So Percy used the Aguamenti Charm and shot a blast of water right into Harry's face.

The boy had looked shocked. Percy did not miss the way Harry had tensed when he was falsely accused by Fred. He did not miss the way Harry curled as if to protect himself. But the jet of water had been as light as Percy could make it. Harry sat there, dripping wet, looking befuddled.

George had then asked Harry if he was going to take that from Percy. With lots of encouragement from the twins Harry had very slowly taken up his glass and thrown water back at Percy.

The older boy could have deflected the water easily. He could have returned it back to Harry. He could have changed it to flower petals or even evaporated it before it hit him. He did none of those things, instead letting the water splash against him.

"Game on Potter," Percy had said. He rose from his chair and shot another blast of water at the boy. By now Harry had realized it was a game. He dodged almost as if he was on a broom, rolling beneath the blast. He threw more water, another glass given by George, and fled from the kitchen laughing.

Which is how Percy found himself chasing Harry, Ron, and Ginny around the garden, shooting water at them and dodging all manner of things they threw back at him. He felt ridiculous. He still dripped water from earlier though the strong sunshine was drying him out. He felt overblown slightly, having run round and round for a long time. He was starting to learn that Ginny had a keen eye and a strong arm given how hard his shoulder stung from the boot she threw at him.

He finally had caught Ginny and was doing his best to saturate her from head to toe before Harry had tackled him. Then Harry, Ron, and Ginny were trying their best to lift him and toss him into the pond. Due to their lack of co-ordination, he was able to drag them in with him.

He floated in the water, bemoaning the state of his soaked clothes, but utterly content while listening to the other three laugh their heads off.