DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Harry stood in front of the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron, looking at Hermione skeptically. He had always known that, while exceptionally brilliant, his best friend never possessed much common sense and she was proving his point now.

"You want us to FLOO to The Burrow? Hermione, are you COMPLETELY mental? I can't just show up in the living room out of nowhere. Not after six years. Do you know how they would react? I would give them all a heart attack!"

"You're not going FIRST, Harry. I'll go ahead and warn them, you and the girls will follow about ten minutes later."

"I'm not so sure about this. I think it would be better if the girls and I just went back up to our room. I don't want to disrupt everyone's lives."

"Oh, don't give me that," Hermione scoffed. "You're just scared, admit it. You are going, and there's no getting out of it! I'm going through first; you give me about ten minutes and the come through. And don't try and get out of it! If you don't come through, I'll come back and find you. Don't think I won't!"

"Fine, fine, go on." Harry mumbled. He may as well face this; there was no getting out of it. He watched Hermione grab a handful of floo powder and walk into the gaping fireplace in front of them, calling out The Burrow. As the green flames engulfed her, his daughters clung to his legs, their eyes wide with fear. This was beginning to seem more and more like a bad idea. Even though he had explained the concept of using floo powder to the girls, they had never experienced it before. All too quickly ten minutes past, and he found himself ushering his girls into the fireplace. "Hold on tight to me, girls. Don't let go, okay?"

"Oui, papa." Tiny little twin voices responded to him, sounding small and frightened.

"It will be okay, mon peu ceux. But remember, the people we are going to visit don't speak French. You must use your English while we are there." Harry told his daughters. He made sure they were attached securely to him before throwing out the floo powder and calling out to go to The Burrow. As the flames surrounded them, his arms encircled his children and held them close to his body. As he felt the swirling around him slow, he stepped out into the Weasley living room, and right in to Molly Weasley's waiting arms.

"Oh . . .oh my. Harry darling, it IS you. When Hermione told me . . . I just didn't believe it until I could see you for myself. She said you were following behind her and now here you are. Oh, you've finally come home." Molly Weasley was a mixture of nervous laughter and tears. It was as if she didn't know how to respond to him being back. "Ron, Fred, George. Get down here! Hurry! Come down, quick."

Harry could hear the three men running down the stairs, making enough noise to be easily mistaken for a herd of hippogriffs. With in second the youngest three Weasley boys were hurrying in to the living room.

"Mum, what is it? What's happ- . . ." Ron came to an abrupt halt at the site of his childhood best friend standing in the middle of his home. His eyes narrowed in dangerous fury. "What are you doing here?"

"I invited him, Ron," Hermione answered before Harry could say anything. "I ran into him at Diagon Alley and brought him back with me."

"You had no right to do that," Ron growled at her. "He has no business being in this house."

"Ron, stop acting like a child. He almost didn't come; I had to talk him into it. You need to be more polite to your guests."

"He's not my guest. You should have left him where you found him."

"Ronald Weasley!" Molly scolded. "This is still my house, and it is up to me who is a guest in my home. I, for one am delighted to have Harry back."

"He doesn't belong here anymore, Mum," Ron shook his head. "He gave up that right six years ago."

"Hermione, I told you I shouldn't have come," Harry sighed in disappointment. "It was a bad idea. The girls and I will just go back to our room."

For the first time since Harry had arrived at the Weasley house, everyone noticed the two little girls clinging to his legs. Both children were frightened to begin with, and when they noticed all eyes on them, they clutched their father tighter and moved to hide themselves behind him.

"Who are they?" Ron snapped at the sight of the girls.

"These are my daughters, Abigail and Rachel."

"You have a hell of a lot of nerve. You disappear on my sister; don't bother to let anyone know you're alive. You virtually disappear off the face of the earth for SIX years, and then you come back, with a wife and kids. Kids that look like they were on the way before you ever left my sister."

"First of all don't assume that just because I have children, I also have a wife. I was never married; things didn't work between their mother and me. Second of all, how DARE you imply that I was cheating on Ginny? I would never do something like that, and you know it."

"Oh, I do, do I?" Ron asked as he inched closer to Harry. "I don't know anything about you. I thought I did, a long time ago, but you seem to have proven me wrong. The person I used to be friends with, and I thought I knew, would never have betrayed his friends the way you did."

"Ron, it wasn't like that. You haven't even given me a chance to explain."

"I don't want to hear any explanation you have come up with. I knew you long enough to know that you can come up with a million and one excuses, and can talk your way out of anything. But it's not going to work now, Harry. Not anymore, and certainly not with me." By the time Ron had backed Harry up against a wall and had grabbed a hold of the front of his shirt. "Do you know the hell my sister went through after you left? Do you have ANY idea what it's like to hold your sister while her heart is breaking? To listen to her cry herself to sleep NIGHT after NIGHT? For a MONTH! To see her get her hopes up every time there was a rumor that you had been seen? She fucking LOVED you! Then she woke up one morning and you were GONE! She didn't know where you were, nobody did. Everyone thought you were dead, but she never gave up hope, NEVER. For two years she would tell us that you would be home, you were coming back to her! Then one day, she finally accepted the fact that you were gone for good. I had to watch the light die in my baby sister's eyes! I haven't seen a smile reach her eyes in years! They've been dead and dull! I had to watch her heart break all over again! I will not let you come back into her life and hurt her again!"

"Ron . . .please . . . ."

"NO! I don't want to hear it. Now get out of my house," Ron yelled as he shoved Harry across the room, back towards the fireplace. "GET OUT!"

Harry stood in shock for a moment, staring at his former best friend, before nodding dejectedly. He took a hold of Abigail and Rachel and turned sad eyes toward Hermione.

"I'm sorry Hermione, I tried. You know where we are, and you're always welcome to come visit us."

He had just gotten to the edge of the fireplace, ready to floo himself and his daughters back to Diagon Alley when he was stopped dead in his tracks by a voice from the doorway.

"Mum, is everything alright? I thought I heard shouting, what's going-" Ginny Weasley stopped mid-sentence at the sight of her former love. Her eyes locked with Harry's and she stared at him in shock for a brief moment before collapsing to the floor in a dead faint.