"I hope nobody has plans today" Molly Weasley said as she poured cups of tea for her family and passed them round smiling at the eight redheads that made up her family.  It had been a long time since she had had her husband and all of her seven children to herself as a family - years really what with Bill in Egypt, Charlie in Romania and Ginny spending the last year hidden away in Australia

"No, nothing special."  Her only daughter answered absently as she spotted Hedwig, Harry's post owl flying up the window and got up to relieve her of the package and letter she carried.

*****

Ginny had only just sat down at the table with a plate of bacon and eggs in front of her when she heard a tap, tap, tap at the window and jumped up recognising the snowy white owl there as being Hedwig, Harry's owl.  Taking the letter and parcel that she held out for her, Ginny offered the owl a piece of toast before sitting down to open the package and read the letter.

Dear Gin,

How are you, sweets?  I'm OK, miss you loads though and wish I could be there with you!  Hope your brothers aren't teasing you too badly and playing too many tricks on you – tell them that they have me to face if they do anything too nicely and I don't get you back at Hogwarts with me in one piece – two weeks till Diagon Alley and I'm counting the days already.

Sirius and Remus have figured out that we are together – several comments about "those Potter men and their red-headed women" and a little teasing later I'm pretty much in one piece and enjoying my time here.  They've both been giving me flying lessons and with that added into the all the fitness training Ara had us doing last year those Slytherins aren't going to stand a chance!  I've also heard a lot more about my parents then ever before so that's cool, you wouldn't believe the similarities between some of the stuff the Marauders got up to and some of the stuff that I've gotten up to, both with you and everyone last year and also with Hermione and Ron before that.

Anyway, "Snuffles" is shouting something about breakfast and he's shouting loud enough to wake everyone in the street so I guess I better go and eat.

I Love You,

Harry

*****

Her mother watched as she read the letter and quickly sat on it before any of her brothers could grab it and read it before she continued.

"Your father has the day off work today and we thought it would be nice to go on a family outing, its been so long since we did something all nine of us together, and, well, we thought it would be nice."

One of the twins opened his mouth to protest - she could have sworn it was Fred but they always claimed to be the other when she rebuked them by name - and she quickly cut him off.

"No Buts!  We couldn't be altogether last Christmas but we can today and so WE WILL BE!!"  The last coming out in a slightly harsher tone then she had meant it to but this day was just so important to her, she was going to show how baby just how much she had missed her and give her the picnic she had wanted and it was going to be the best day in her daughters life - she was determined that nothing would go wrong.

*****

A leisurely breakfast followed, everyone trying to guess where they would be going and what it was they would be doing, and even those who had made the plans getting it wrong.

For a call through the fire from Albus Dumbledore ensured that there would be no picnic by the river that day, that Ginny would not get her belated birthday and Christmas gifts.

"Arthur! Molly!" came the call from the living room. 

All the inhabitants of the kitchen jumped when they heard the harried voice of the normally calm and easy-going Hogwarts headmaster, the noise of nine people eating and playfully arguing having effectively blocked the sound of the fire starting which normally heralded a floo-call.

Noticing the scared look on his wife's face and realising she was thinking back to that dreadful day when they had been told their only daughter must go into hiding, Arthur took a moment to squeeze her hand before hurrying to answer the Headmaster, all the while trying to hide the fact that he too was worried that Ginny was going to be snatched away from them again all too suddenly and all too soon.

"Ah, Arthur, good to see you.  So I interrupted breakfast, did I? Sorry about that."

Shocked that the man who one minute ago had sounded like he was making an urgent and/or life threatening call now wanted to make small talk, it took Arthur a minute to adjust before he answered.

"Q-Quite alright, professor." He answered, his nerves betraying him slightly making his voice shake a bit as he replied.

"I was wondering, would it be possible for you and Molly to come to Hogwarts as soon as possible to meet with me? It's about young Harry."

Molly had come up behind him as they spoke, he had been so intent on what Dumbledore was saying that he had not noticed her but out of the corner of his eye he saw her visibly relax as she realised that her fears were unfounded.

The conversation was quickly wrapped up after that point; arrangements were made to travel to Hogwarts later that day and Dumbledore said goodbye – but not before assuring Mrs Weasley that there was nothing wrong with the boy she considered her seventh son.

*****

It was something of a difficult journey to get to Hogwarts if you were not expected and even if you were it wasn't simply a case of going from A to B.  Luckily for the Weasley parents they were expected and so they could apparate right to the edge of the anti-apparition field, then walk the half mile to the castle before going straight to the headmasters office where the statue had been charmed to recognise them and so allowed them to enter without the password.

Molly Weasley had been a model student during her time at the school and so this was her first visit to the Headmasters office and she audibly gasped in shock when she laid eyes on its contents and saw the splendour of the surroundings.  She had had to travel to Hogwarts about her children a few times, most notably when Ginny was taken in the Chamber of Secrets in her first year but even then had not seen that office, Minerva McGonagall having preferred to remain in her office she occupied as Head of Gryffindor house during her brief tenure as acting headmistress. 

Arthur had not been a troublemaker as such when he was at Hogwarts but somehow he was always accidentally getting into scrapes and a few of these sticky situations had led to him being sent to that very office.  However, he too had never visited it under its present occupier and so just as his wife was shocked by some of the treasures he now laid eyes on all of which were things he had only dreamed of ever seeing and that showed the eccentric character of the supposed "greatest wizard of all time" to its full extent.

The headmaster gave them a few minutes to acquaint themselves with their surroundings and make themselves comfortable before he brought the conversation to the matter at hand.

"I am afraid Harry has had to go stay with his aunt and uncle for a few days… He has been very happy at Lupin Lodge with Remus and Sirius but the full moon is coming the ministry has been asking questions about just how safe it is to leave a sixteen year old boy with just a werewolf for company during its 'dangerous' phase."

Molly Weasley gasped when she heard this; unable to believe that after everything he had suffered the poor boy had been forced to go back to the family that hated him.

"Sirius is at Lupin's, of course.  But we can't tell the Ministry that, they would be believe that to worse then leaving him with a werewolf so it had to be Privet Drive, there was nothing else for it.  Arabella has resumed her disguise and is there watching over him of course but its not what I would have liked for him after all he's been through…"

Arthur was quick to make the offer the headmaster was hoping he would.  "Could he come to us?  We would love to have him, he's practically one of the family and the boys would certainly love to have him to stay, Ginny too – she's really missed him."

Molly nodded eagerly wanting to show how much she would love to have her honorary son there for she would do anything for the boy and couldn't bear to think of him back with those Muggles.

"To be honest, Arthur, I didn't like to ask but I was hoping you would say that.  I'll send Fawkes to him with a letter straight away.  He can walk to Arabella's and then floo from her house to The Burrow.  I'd say you can expect him to be with you within the next couple of hours"

In fact Dumbledore looked very relieved; he had many reasons to be very concerned about the boy and it wasn't without worrying that he had sent him to Lupin's.  Ideally he would have liked to allow him to remain with Ginny, as she too was something of a worry to him although he did not tell her parents that.  They had had enough problems accepting that there daughter was one of the few healers born in the last century without hearing more of the danger she faced.  He certainly did not want to tell them that the Fidelius Charm had not provided her with all of the protection it should have during the last year and that she had suffered atrocities that no one should ever have to face let alone one so young – Molly Weasley would remove her only daughter from Hogwarts without a moment's hesitation if she knew that and he couldn't take that risk, Ginny's talent was too great as was the Order's need for it.

Then they had a brief discussion about Ginny's schooling for the next year.  Her talents in the area of healing meant that it was imperative she receive training in the art of medi-magic and she also had to catch up in a few areas she had had to miss out on over the previous year, meaning that for both her and for Harry (who also needed special tuition to help him control his talents), a special timetable was required.  A little idle small talk about medi-magic and other seemingly random topics (but which were actually specifically chosen by the headmaster for a reason) followed used by Dumbledore as another attempt to calm the Weasley's and try to help them accept who there daughter was, they wrapped up the meeting and the Weasley's made to leave.

Indeed they did actually leave, made it as far as the main entrance to the castle all the while discussing how pleased Ginny and the boys would be to see Harry, making plans to delay their family day out until Arthur's next day off so he could be included, before Minerva McGonagall caught up with them looking more distressed then they had ever seen the normally calm head of Gryffindor.

"Stop! Stop!! STOP!!!" she shouted as she ran after them

They froze.  She might never have taught them, but the tone in the teacher's voice was unmistakable as was the reaction to it.  It was the one she used when she wanted complete attention and she wanted it NOW.  It worked too.  The terror on their faces at hearing the panic in her tone was obvious as they turned to face her.

"We've just had word..." Here the transfiguration teacher had to pause to catch her breathe before continuing.  "There's been an attack on Privet Drive.  Albus wanted me to tell you.  It's Harry.  Harry's hurt…"