Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter, people, jeez.
Chapter 12 To Repair Something Broken
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Two months after Ginny Weasley had come to the Marauder's Castle, and he was seeing her in his mind more and more. He wanted to be with her again. Even his thick head could understand this.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ But he had waited so long because he still hadn't faced the Boggart. Though talking with Ginny helped, it wasn't everything he needed. He wasn't fully agreeing with the idea to allow the Weasleys, and the rest of the Wizarding World, back into his life.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ A life that had just begun living.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry knew that even almost nine months after Azakaban and for all the progress made, he was still stuck at a standstill. The fear was still there. The Boggart proved that.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ And although Harry had found much to do within the confines of the Marauder's Castle, he wanted to take a stroll. So he did. He had strolled through the forest, and now he found himself here.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ On the edge of a muggle village.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry wondered if he should go in, there might be wizards and witches down there. If they learned Harry Potter was in the area, and if the media caught on, all the wards in the world might not be enough. He would never get any privacy.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ But then again, this was the middle of nowhere. Who would know?
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ With that thought, Harry strolled into town, unaware of that what would transpire would be the final catalyst in the process of healing.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry strolled down the muggle village, smiling slightly at the children who played in its streets. A rural, isolated village, its rustic charm had a good effect on Harry. As he walked down the road, he felt drawn towards a tiny shop at the end of the road. It was a blacksmith store that made glass items.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He didn't know why, but he decided to go in. Something about it seemed to draw him, like the smell of warm, delicious food.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He smiled, and walked inside, and stopped dead as he came in, his every mental function stopped. On the shelf lay four tiny glass animals. Harry breathed softly, "Prongs, Padfoot, Moony, Wormtail."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Near perfect replicas of the four Marauders lay there. The rat caused Harry a small amount of pain, but he smiled at seeing it with all its toes and no silver paw. It reminded Harry that once, Wormtail was a young, innocent boy, not a murdering backstabber. Padfoot stood on its haunches, made of black glass and looking far larger than a normal dog, yet looking carefree at the same time. Moony was on all fours, his normally snarling and drooling jaws were in what looked like a smile. And in the front of this makeshift pack stood a majestic stag, made of a much lighter, silvery glass. Its huge antlers looked like a regal crown, echoing the majestic stance the stag took.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry tore his gaze away from the sight, eyes beginning to sting, and his breath was stolen again. A glass lily, carved of a green colored glass lay on another shelf, glinting in the sunlight. It looked delicate, but was probably extremely strong, Harry knew, without even touching it. What the…Harry thought in wonder.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry backed up, slightly scared now, and accidentally hit a shelf. He gasped in surprise and caught sight a bird like glass figurine before it crashed into the ground, shattering.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Oh shit…" Harry muttered, before a voice from behind startled him.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Oh good."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry yelped in surprise, and turned rapidly, almost drawing his wand and blasting the shopkeeper into pieces. Which would be very, very, very bad for this business. "Oh! I'm sorry. I was just slightly surprised and…"
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "It's quite alright." The young man before him said, smiling. He had dark brown eyes and black hair, with tanned skin. He was smaller than Harry, but still a fairly good height. "It's nice that someone new stopped by this old shop."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "But… I broke one of these beautiful figurines…I'll pay for it of course." Harry said, still apologetic.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "No, no. It's fine." The man said, waving away any apologies. "This is my greatest craft."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Your what?" Harry asked, confused.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "This is my favorite, and many say, greatest, craft." The man said, and he grabbed a broom and pan from the side and swept it up as he said this.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "How…" Harry asked, even more lost than before.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I remake broken figurines. And that is my favorite thing to do. I take something broken, and make it into something stronger and more beautiful than before." The man smiled, finished sweeping.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Wow… that's incredible." Harry said in awe.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Indeed. It is an extremely difficult and long process, which is why it is rarely done, but the end result is far more satisfying that way, don't you agree?" He asked, and Harry got the distinct feeling that he wasn't talking about just mere glass anymore.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Please, come back in a few hours, and I will have this figurine for you." The man said, putting the pieces into a jar.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Oh no, I couldn't…" Harry said, but the man wouldn't take no for an answer.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "You allowed me to remake something, and make it better. Anyways, I would be honored for you to take a piece of my work, Mister Potter." The man said, then turned and walked into the backroom, the door closing behind him, leaving behind a shocked Harry Potter.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Wait! How did you know who I am!" Harry asked. "Who are you!"
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "My name is Daniel Rodriquez." The man answered from behind the door, and then there was only the sound of a furnace heating up.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ As Harry walked out into the sunlight, the lesson that Daniel had been trying to teach him was currently working inside of his mind.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He didn't know what the glassmaker was trying to convey, or what had transpired. But frankly, he was more concerned as to how in the hell the man knew who he was.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He didn't show any of the shock, or the awe that any wizard who had heard of him normally possessed. Frankly, he treated him just like a regular person.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry decided that this Daniel Rodriquez wasn't a bad fellow to know.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry, as Daniel had advised came back after three hours. The Sun was only just beginning to hit midday, as he had long since learned to tell time with the Sun. Not a precise measurement, but he could tell hours and such. Just another perk of being Harry Potter.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry walked into the shop, knowing that he should have been on edge with the blacksmith's knowledge of who he was, but somehow, with the small amount of Legilimency that he always had on, he had picked up no malice. Harry didn't know why, but he felt that the young man could be trusted.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The shop was empty, and Harry decided to call out to Daniel. "Mister Rodriquez, I'm back!" Harry called out, but no one seemed to hear him. He must still be working. ྭHe turned to leave when a voice was heard.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Don't call me Mister Rodriquez. Makes me sound old." Daniel said, appearing as if from nowhere. "I'm glad you came back Mr. Potter. This figurine is one of my finest works."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I still don't understand why you'd give me an item free of charge after I broke it and you had to-" Harry began, but the brown-eyed man cut him off.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I meant what I said, Mister Potter." Daniel said, "You let me rebuild something anew, make it better than it ever was."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Don't call me Mister Potter," Harry said, smiling, "Call me Harry."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Daniel smiled at the imitation, and reached behind the counter for the item. "It is fitting, Harry, that you should have broken this piece. It is almost… fated it seemed." Daniel said carefully, as he pulled the item out slowly.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ When Harry saw the figurine, he gasped loudly, unable to hold the shock in.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He had broken a phoenix figurine. A jade green phoenix figurine. The color of Harry's eyes. The cracks were visible, but they now seemed to be feather marks, adding only more beauty to the figurine, instead of a blemish.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "A phoenix reborn in fire," Daniel mused, "Almost poetic, no?"
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry could only nod, and he took the phoenix figurine slowly, shaking. "Are you sure you don't-"
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Harry, for the last time, I'm certain." Daniel said firmly, looking into the Boy-Who-Lived's emerald eyes with his own dark brown eyes. "Rebuilding is more difficult than forging, but it is so much more rewarding. Wouldn't you agree?" He asked, and the message finally became clear.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ It all clicked in Harry's head. Daniel was teaching him that rebuilding a relationship could be an enjoyable, rewarding experience that would produce something better than before. It might even make it stronger, and more fluid. Just like the cracks on the phoenix figurine made it more beautiful, could the betrayal make the relationship's Harry would make even more beautiful?
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Thank you, Daniel. For the figurine, and the lesson." Harry said gratefully. "I hope your business picks up. It should." He said sincerely.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Daniel seemed amused by this for some reason, and smiled at Harry Potter. "You're welcome, Mister Potter." Daniel said.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I'll stop by again," Harry told the brown-eyed man, and he definitely was amused by that. But he didn't say anything, except goodbye.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ As Harry left the shop, however, he could have sworn he heard Daniel say "No you won't."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry, having gotten pretty far down the street, turned to see if Daniel was still watching him leave. What he saw floored him.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ There was no blacksmith. It was as if it never existed.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Excuse me, Ma'am," Harry said to an elderly woman who was crossing the street across from him. He ran up to her, and she looked at him curiously over her half-moon spectacles that reminded Harry not so painfully of Dumbledore. She had silver hair that had streaks of brown in it, and her tiny gray eyes seemed magnified by the glasses.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Don't think I've ever seen you around here before." She commented.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I'm just visiting. Could you tell me what happened to the blacksmith shop over there?" Harry asked, pointing to where Daniel's shop once stood.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Blacksmith? We haven't had one of those in ages, son!" The woman said incredulously.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry made his way back to the castle, again reassuring himself that the phoenix figurine proved that Daniel had been there. Where did the young man go?
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Was he some sort of messenger from above, or an illusion? Harry figured he would never really know.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ But he did know one thing. With the phoenix figurine in his pocket, reassuring him and reminding him of what he could be doing, Harry knew what he had to do.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ It was time to kick some Boggart arse.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry strode powerfully down to his study, his confidence shaky, but stable. The weight of the phoenix figurine in his pocket held it together, an eternal reminder of what he could do.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry decided that one the business with the Boggart was done, he'd find a great place for the figurine. Maybe right above the fireplace, or next to his bed.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He opened the door wandlessly from a good ten feet across. It never hurt to make a good entrance. He realized what he had really done a moment later.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Note to self," Harry muttered, "Make good entrances when people are around to see them."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He strode in a moment later, and glared at the dresser. "Okay, time to kick your arse." Harry snarled, before correcting himself. "If you have one."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The Boggart sprang out immediately, taking the form of Remus Lupin, as before.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Betrayer! You betrayed your parents!" Remus- Boggart-Remus, Harry corrected, yelled out.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I did not. You are not Remus Lupin." Harry replied scathingly.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Without changing its angry expression, it quickly turned itself into Molly Weasley.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Sorry, but you aren't her either." Harry said, before the Boggart-Molly could even yell at him.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The Boggart quickly changed into Dumbledore, Arthur Weasley, Ron, and Hermione. Harry, though beginning to weaken, felt the strength of the phoenix figurine, its comforting weight giving him strength, as if a phoenix song was playing.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "You're not Hermione. She's not like that anymore." Harry replied wearily, the emotional drain quite taxing.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The Boggart, sensing that this would not be enough, changed into a haunting visage. Sirius Black. Harry almost lost it, but kept his composure. "Sorry, I talked with Sirius before he died. And my parents. They're proud of me. Your not my godfather, your just a stupid little Dark Creature!" Harry snarled.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The Boggart began faltering, but changed into another haunting visage. James and Lily Potter.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "STOP!" Harry roared. "STOP IT NOW! STOP DEFILING MY PARENT'S MEMORIES! JUST GO AWAY YOU STUPID BOGGART!"
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The Boggart-Potters were thrown back by the sheer force of Harry's rage (coupled with accidental magic bursts). Harry glared at them, and in a low whisper, said, "You are not my parents."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The Boggart-Lily and James seemed enraged by the lack of terror, taking the shape of Ginny Weasley instantaneously in a loud pop and burst of smoke. Ginny's beautiful face was contorted in rage and betrayal.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Going straight for the killing blow, aren't cha?" Harry said nonchalantly, but slightly shaken.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The Boggart-Ginny began shouting. "You betrayed me Harry! How could I ever-"
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "YOUR NOT HER!" Harry roared, glaring at the Boggart.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I am Ginny Weasley!" Boggart-Ginny yelled, "And you are nothing but a pathetic wizard who has betrayed us all!" She snarled.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry's resolved faltered, and he took a few steps back in weakness, looking down. The Boggart moved for the kill. "You are nothing Harry! I never loved you!" Boggart-Ginny roared out, glaring at him with so much hate that Harry's heart almost broke in two without looking at her, only feeling the heat of her glare. He was losing the battle.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry looked up at that moment, and met those enraged fake brown eyes, so different from the kind brown eyes that always interested and were adored by Harry. It was in that moment that memories of Ginny over the past eight months poured in, memories of a woman who wanted him to be happy, to be whole again. Not this… creature.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "YOU ARE NOT GINNY! I KNOW GINNY, AND YOU ARE NOT HER!" Harry roared, and glared at the Boggart as all his magical force began descending in anger towards this… thing that had tried to destroy Harry.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The force of that power demolished the Boggart, without any Riddikulus casting or laughter. Just sheer magical force. As Harry looked at the dusty remains, he felt a relief grow within him. He had conquered his demons.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry, after an hour of debating with himself and deciding, was beginning to question his resolve. "Am I mental? Do I really want to do this?" Harry asked himself.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ But he knew that this would be the day. Newly conquering his demons had given him the strength. Along with the phoenix figurine's reassuring weight, he felt certain this was the right thing to do.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Nevertheless, he was bloody nervous!
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Man, it's not even as bad as that first date with Gnny, Potter. Get a hold of yourself." Harry muttered, and his anxiety cleared as he remembered in a blush how that date had ended.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry checked his watch, one of his dad's old ones. It told regular time with a simple two-hand set up, but it could also be used to track certain people, like the Weasley's clock. Harry had found it along with a small note.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ To be given to Harry at his marriage ceremony.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry had almost broken down crying that day, but stayed strong, mostly through humor. His parents had already planned his marriage out, probably!
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ It wasn't his marriage ceremony, but he figured that his parents wouldn't mind him getting it now. It was a nice watch. And somehow, it reminded Harry of his promise to continue the Potter line and live happily.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry, in his most guarded and hidden corner of his heart, had always wanted children, to give them the life he never had. To protect them, and spoil them. Well, not to the extent of Dudley, but they would never want for food or clothing. Harry always attributed living happily as living with a wife and kids.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Three years ago, and quite recently, Harry's wife had brown eyes and red hair…
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry looked at his watch after the moment had passed, remembering what he had been doing before his thoughts led him astray. "They're probably sitting down for dinner about now." Harry muttered, picturing the warm, delicious feasts that always accompanied Molly Weasley's dinners.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry casted a Portkey, and squashed any second thoughts. Although he preferred Apparation, it might alert those he would be visiting to his presence. "Time to go see some old friends." Harry whispered, and was jerked from the Marauders Castle by a familiar tug on his navel… And found himself in front of the Burrow.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry walked up the Burrow slowly, as if he was in disbelief about being there. He could see that it had been fixed up, and looked nicer than before, but still had that homely feel to it. He didn't feel any Aurors around, nor any other magical law enforcement, so Mr. Weasley must have insisted that he not need protection. And frankly, Harry agreed. The twins were more than enough deterrent to any sort of attack.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ As Harry turned his attention to the Burrow, he opened his magical Sight fully. He found that, much to his surprise, every single Weasley family member, Hermione, as well as several others he recognized as Fleur Delacour, Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell. He supposed that Fleur, Angelina, and Katie were now tied to three of the Weasley brothers. He figured that Charlie and Ginny were the only untied Weasleys, as Percy was-
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Before Harry could allow that thought to fully form and destroy his resolve, he moved closer to the door, and closed his eyes, breathing out heavily. Then he knocked on the door.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Heaven help me.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I'll get it mum!" Ginny called out, having been closest to the door. She had been disappointed when Harry had not come by at any time, but she respected his wishes. It would take time, if time could rebuild their relationship.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Still, she couldn't help but hope!
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ When she opened the door, despite her hope, however, she nearly fainted. Standing there, looking sheepish and uncertain, was Harry Potter.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Er… Hi Gin. Can I come in?" Harry asked, looking uncertain.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Ginny, somehow managing to get her vocal chords working again, managed a soft croak. "Su-sure. We're just about to have dinner. Join us."
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Ginny looked at Harry uncertainly, and Harry looked just as uncertain, weighing his options. Finally, he decided to be a Gryffindor again.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Okay." Harry said, and Ginny felt happiness flood her veins.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Ginny led an uncertain Harry Potter into the kitchen, and, despite three years of not even picturing the Burrow, Harry found himself not being led so much as being pulled along, lest he try and leave.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Which of course, was Ginny's intention. Harry, despite all his courage and bravery, might back out. She wasn't about to let that happen!
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Hey guys, look who turned up for dinner!" Ginny said cheerfully, pulling Harry into full view of the Weasleys.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ In any other moment, Harry would have found the moment hilarious.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Hermione was frozen, a spoon full of potatoes halfway between his mouth and plate, not moving. Ron had his own potatoes falling out of his gaping mouth. The twins had spat out their drinks, all over Angelina and Katie, who didn't seem to notice their faces were wet as they gaped at Harry. Charlie had dropped his drink onto his lap, but didn't seem to notice. Bill and Fleur looked similarly gobsmacked, and from the way Bill had been turned, towards Mr. Weasley, they had been talking. That conversation was effectively been killed when Harry turned up. Mr. Weasley seemed to be struggling to keep his composure from falling into shock, and failing miserably. Mrs. Weasley had dropped the plate of food she had been holding, which was a pity, considering how good the dish smelled.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Er… Hi!" Harry said cheerfully. "Mind if I sat down with you guys?"
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ After a few more moments of uncomfortable silence for Harry, Mrs. Weasley broke the silence. "Of course dear. Let me get you a plate." She said, looking at him the way she used to, gauging how much he had been starved.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ After that, the conversation seemed to return to normal, save with Ron, who still looked somewhere between mildly uncomfortable to gobsmacked.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Ron, your mouth is still hanging open dear." Mrs. Weasley commented as she ushered Harry into a chair.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Ron quickly shut his mouth, figuring that it would be best for Harry to be comfortable and not ask questions about why he was there. Better to enjoy the moment now.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Harry felt a rush of gratitude towards the Weasleys. None of them even batted an eye (apart from that incident) about him coming over, and treated it as naturally as ever. It was just like the first time he came to the Burrow, with the Weasleys not even really shocked or amazed that he was there without an invitation.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ He sat down next to Ginny, who smiled at him, as if to say You're home now.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Mrs. Weasley fixed Harry a gigantic helping, far more than even Dobby could have mustered. And with Dobby, he tried to drown Harry in food sometimes.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The conversations continued as normal, but from time to time, the Weasleys looked at Harry, as if they wanted to say something. Harry noticed, but he said nothing, and mostly just ate and reveled in his time at the Burrow, and the delicious meals of Molly Weasley.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ The Weasleys, however, figured this was the best time to talk with Harry. They all got up, almost in unison, both the redheaded Weasleys and their significant others, and were about to say something when Hermione made a small squeak of surprise.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ Everyone turned to look at her. Hermione never squeaked!
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "Hermione? What's wrong?" Ron asked concernedly.
ྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭྭ "I think my water broke," Hermione whispered.