Chapter 6 – Life at the Burrow
After the incident in Diagon Ally Harry the Weasley household was on edge through dinner and a cup of hot chocolate before bed. Harry didn't eat much and this wasn't missed by Mr and Mrs Weasley though both decided to monitor the boys behaviour over the next week or so before sitting him down. Harry found it difficult to hide the bandage around his arm but kept it on because it was a comforting pressure around it. The day's events took its toll on Harry and he went straight to sleep.
Though the next morning it was a different story, Harry had a nightmare about his Uncle, he thought he had found him at the Burrow and hurt all the Weasleys. Ron had shouted his name for a good few minutes before he realised it was only a dream. To punish himself he went into the bathroom and cut himself as he had a shower it was relief and the feeling where he could actually function for the rest of the day.
There was a usual amount of chores to do and Harry didn't complain and even offered to help a bit more much to the disgust of Ron, the amount here compared to at the Dursleys was considerable and Harry even enjoyed it. Once the chores were done, everyone was free to do what they liked and that usually meant a good game of quidditch if it wasn't raining. Everyone tried to remember the score but usually couldn't which made it more fun, everyone soon realised not to put Harry and Ginny on the same team because they would demolish the lot of them.
If it was raining, the afternoons usually consisted of reading or games of chess and exploding snap in the living room listening to the radio. It was very enjoyable bit Harry knew he didn't deserve all of this and almost always panicked when Mrs Weasley started to shout usually at the twins. Most days consisted of that. Harry was still struggling with the meals after the third week. Mr and Mrs Weasley sat him down after supper on week before school and tried to talk to him about it but when they saw how upset Harry was and trying to hold the emotions in they decided to talk to the headmaster instead.
The day before they were going to leave for school Mrs Weasley sat them down and explained what was going to happen next day.
"Tomorrow you all will be going Hogwarts so before i let you out of this house I want all rooms clean, trunks packed and downstairs ready to go in the morning. Tomorrow we will be leaving here by 9.30 so no laying in bed Ronald Weasley. Harry you are in charge of making sure he gets up. Once we leave this house, we will not be coming back so if you forget anything I will send it with Errol in a few days. Is that understood?" everyone nodded before departing to their rooms.
Harry and Ron went up to Ron's room and started to pack. Harry quickly packed his blade at the bottom of the trunk before continuing to fold all his clothes and placing everything into his trunk neatly. Books on one side, clothes on the other, mismatched things in the middle. He then checked under his clap bed making sure he did not forget anything. After that he cleaned out Hedwig's cage and let her go for the long flight to Hogwarts, he then heaved his trunk to sit right by the door and placed the cage on top. Sitting down on his bed after finishing he looked over at Ron who was still packing everything together.
"Bloody Hell Harry! How did you do that so quickly!" asked Ron
"I don't know, practice I guess"
"You are telling g me you have practiced packing your trunk?"
"No" laughed Harry "I used to pack the Dursleys suitcases" it took a while for Harry to realise what he had just said. He didn't mean to say anything about the Dursleys. Mr Dursely always warned that if Harry were to at anything about the chores he did that he would find Harry and hurt him more than he had ever been hurt before. Harry was about to panic and he didn't know what to do to stop it so he excused himself to the bathrooms to relieved himself by punishment. It would not stop bleeding so he got out the old bloodstained bandage and wrapped it tight around his arm.
There was a knocking on the bathroom door and a voice saying, "Harry are you in there? Are you alright?" it was Ginny
"Yeah I'm fine, give me two seconds" replied Harry flushing the toilet to make sure that he wasn't suspected.
"All I wanted to ask you is if you would help me get my trunk down the stairs"
"Yeah I can as long as you help me with mine. Ron is still in the middle of packing. Slooowly" Ginny laughed and led the way to Ginny's room where her trunk was against the wall.. He washed to Ginny who waved back as he picked up one side of Hermione's trunk while she took the other and slowly they heaved it down the stairs. After that, they went back upstairs for Harrys and brought that down too. Mrs Weasley was very impressed and gave them both a freshly baked cookie.
Soon there was a pile of trunks at the front door. Percy and the twins had finished not long after Harry and Ginny and they were all in the living room playing exploding snap by the time Ron was downstairs and making a fuss that there was only the slightly burned cookies left.
Everyone had one final game of quidditch that afternoon and the grand prize was first choice for dessert for the dinner later. Harry, Ron, George were against Ginny, Fred and Percy and Harrys team won. Of course Ron had picked first because if his love for food that evening. It was like a Hogwarts feast, which gave Harry some anxiety about the upcoming day. However, he managed to put that feeling aside as he enjoyed all the conversations on the table and even managed to eat a bit more than he would have originally.
At 9pm Mrs Weasley sent them all up to bed and it didn't take Harry long to fall asleep but wondered if this is what family life was really like, no belts or punches or anything just happiness and laughter with a little telling off now and again.