You wake in the morning to find Hermione bringing you breakfast.
"Thought you might want to see this," she adds, handing you a newspaper. It is The Quibbler, and as you flick through the pages, you see several of Luna's articles. It seems a very long time ago that she was scribbling in her pyjamas.
On the way to the bathroom, you peek into the twins' room as you always do, and to your surprise you see that they are actually in there, curled up in bed together, looking tired and troubled.
---
You don't feel you can wander from room to room today, in your usual haunting check, because there are too many people here. You're used to an empty, ghostly Burrow by now, used to Luna being by your side.
Eventually you go out into the garden for some solitude, but even there you find somebody. Charlie, de-gnoming as if he's been here all summer.
"Sorry," he says, awkwardly, and rather uselessly.
"Why?" Everybody is sorry, all of a sudden. Harry, Hermione, now Charlie, as if you're being noble for putting them up, as if it's your house, as if they've never been here before. You don't want them to be sorry, you wouldn't expect it of them, but somehow it seems as though you'd be doing them a favour if you were grateful.
"For just turning up like this."
"It's not my house, I'm not in charge here, it's not like… like, Mum's dead or something!" A large part of your mind suddenly opens up and all the fear and worry you were expecting to feel this summer races into your conscious thoughts.
"Of course she's not…" Charlie says, looking rather bewildered. "She's in Egypt, out of the way, isn't she?"
You stare at him for a second, and then turn back into the house.
---
You hadn't meant to go to sleep - just lie on your bed for a while and think about things, because even with all the thinking you've been doing recently it seems there's still things left to be thought about. You didn't even notice yourself falling to sleep, and then you wake up and realise that it's evening.
As you wander into the kitchen to find the others, to see who's still here and who has come back (Luna?), you find Bill stepping out of the fireplace. Your parents are standing in the kitchen already, and Hermione's taking the luggage upstairs as though she's the nurse round here.
"Why aren't you at Hogwarts?" your mother asks suddenly, catching sight of you. She doesn't sound cross, just tired and worried.
"Errol was late… I was already at home by the time he turned up with the permission slip," you say quickly, but she still hasn't got cross.
"Well, at least you're safe," she says. She probably thinks Charlie was here with you, or something. The thought hits you then that everybody is home now except for Percy, and Luna.
---
You still haven't given up your just-before-bed room-checking routine, and to your relief you see that Harry is back, lying in a heap with the other two in Ron's room. Charlie and Bill are snoring, and the twins' voices can be heard in their own room. Downstairs, your mother is knitting and your father is reading The Quibbler.
Everything feels unnaturally normal. Once you were a summer ghost, flitting from doorway to doorway, haunting an empty house with a girl who suddenly shares your entire world. Now you're a girl again, the youngest child, one of many in a noisy anything-but-empty world.
And then, just as you are falling asleep that night, you suddenly find Luna crawling into bed beside you.
"My father's fine," she whispers, excitedly. "The Quibbler's fine, everything's fine! Are you?" she adds, suddenly, as though she might have forgotten to think about this one.
"Yes." Suddenly you don't feel tired anymore. "Everyone's home now."