He knocked at the door and a women answered. She stared at him, stark white, as if she was about to fall over in surprise. "Harry?"
"Mrs. Weasley?" He responded.
"Oh Harry dear!" The woman rushed over towards him and embraced him in a rib-breaking hug. "We were afraid we were never going to see you again!" And of course Mrs. Weasley started crying.
"Now why would you think that?" In reality Harry knew exactly why he would think that, he had been missing with no word as to where he was, not even a letter to say that he was okay, instead they were left to think the worst. The world did not know what to think, they did not find a body, but they did not find him either, in the end they just rested on the fact that perhaps he really was dead and the only way he could have defeated Voldemort was by dying himself.
"I don't believe that warrants an answer…" Her mood suddenly turned down quite a bit.
"So how's Ron been doing?" He must have said something wrong because her mood really took a drop this time.
"I haven't seen Ronald in at least two years…" Her eyes filled to the brim and she excused herself, giving her apologies. Harry on the other hand just sat there in awe, the Weasleys, a family that has always been so close, have they really fallen apart? Maybe it's just been Ron who she has not seen in a while…
"Mrs. Weasley?" He asked her as she came out of the kitchen.
"Yes honey?"
"Is it only Ron you haven't seen? Have you heard from Ginny? Charlie? Bill? Percy maybe?"
"I'm sorry dear, but I have heard nothing from anyone, and if you came here looking for them then I must tell you that I don't even know where to find them they've been gone for so long. I'm not even really sure what made them leave. All of a sudden Hermione stopped coming by, Ron moved away, as did Ginny and the twins, they promised they would write, but, they didn't. It's really quite disappointing really… My own children don't even come to see me…"
"Mrs. Weasley, there must be a reason, I would love to stay with you to try and figure out what exactly it was, however I'm afraid that I must find them and find out the real reason. I feel horrible that I have caused you this pain, thinking that I was dead, and I am quite scared thinking that I have perhaps caused such pain to Ron, Hermione, and perhaps most importantly… Ginny…" Mrs. Weasley gave Harry a feeble smile.
"Bring them back home will you Harry? I'm afraid Arthur and I are quite lost without them…"
"I'll try my best Mrs. Weasley." And with that he left, and then it hit him… This is going to be a lot harder than he thought…
Where to begin he thought to himself. It would be quite a task to find his friends, and he had no clue where to start. The floo network. Of course what a great idea, maybe one of them has their fireplace connected. He was counting on Ginny for this one, as he knew that she was not much of an apperating person. And so he looked for their names and sure enough, Ginerva Weasley, 1693 Tizardo St. Well, this should be interesting, he quickly found a map and proceeded to walk to her house, as he did not bring his broom and had not been there before, and therefore could not concentrate hard enough on it to apperate.
About an hour later he found himself at a quaint little house, he knocked at the door hastily, failing to keep his anxiety on the inside. A lanky man answered the door, Harry asked for Ginny, he was invited inside to wait for her to come to the door. Harry stood there, extremely uncomfortable and the wait seemed like forever, and then an average height woman with gorgeous red hair came into the hall, as soon as she looked up at him she screeched so high an owl would have been jealous.
"Harry!" She stared at him in disbelief.
"Ginny, hi I…" He was cut off by, yet another, rib-busting hug.
"Harry, how could you go off like that without even sending an owl?" Gasped Ginny.
"The same could be said to you with your mother…" Ginny looked at him, sure he had said it under his breath, but she heard him. She stood there about to say something, but stopped and just gave a blank look. "Look, I know it's not my place, but your mum needs you, you know that. You and the rest of your brothers have always been her world, and I honestly can't believe you all took that away from her." He followed Ginny into the living room.
"Harry, I know it was wrong, but after you 'disappeared' we all thought the worst, and it was more than we could handle, we just kind of drifted away, after time, funny thing time is, can bring people together, just as fast as it can tear them away…" She looked off. "Anyway, let's talk about you, where have you been? Why haven't you written? Did you know everyone thought you were gone forever? Have you seen Ron or Hermione yet?"
"Well first I have been in Canada for the past three and a half years, living with my girlfriend," at this Ginny's eyes dropped a little, but she was quick to regain her poise. "I haven't written because I didn't know exactly where you all were, No I didn't know everyone though I was a goner, and I have only seen your mother so far since I've been here, oh a whole day at most."
"Hmm, well then I guess you'll be mighty tired, you'll be staying here then," Harry opened his mouth to protest but was cut off, "Potter that was not an invitation, it was an order." He chuckled lightly.
"Fine, I suppose one night will be okay…"
"Oh one night is simply not an option, you will be staying here until you decide to move here yourself…" Her eyes darkened, "or go back to Canada…"
Harry was uneasy about this, could he stay in the same house as this woman, a woman he had loved and wanted for so long? Could he control himself? What about the man who answered the door? Who was he? This was all too much for him to think about now, he let out a stifled yawn. Ginny took the hint and lead him to the spare bedroom and told him to take a nap, and so he decided it was probably best to do what he was told.
Harry woke up with one thing in mind, he must reunite his old friends… But how? He made his way downstairs and found Ginny in the kitchen. "Hello Ginny."
"Hello, Harry, how did you sleep?" She responded cheerfully with a cup of coffee in her hand.
"It was great, listen you wouldn't happen to have a remotely recent letter? From Ron I mean."
"Well I can go and look for you, meanwhile help yourself to some coffee." She smiled gently as she left the room. Harry got himself some coffee and sat down at the dining room table. The man who answered the door came into the room, got himself a coffee and took a seat beside Harry.
"Hello, I'm Mark." He said studying Harry carefully.
"Hi, I'm Harry." Harry droned.
"So, you are the Harry…" He started.
"Yes.." Harry cut off, but Mark didn't give him a chance to even begin.
"The Harry, the one who disappeared, the one who left his friends to think him dead, the one who left my friend Ginny here to cry every night for weeks on end, that same Harry?" He finished angrily. Harry didn't know what to say, it was as he feared, he had caused his friends terrible pain.
"I'm sorry, I had no idea…"
"Sure you didn't, you don't have to apologize to me, there are more important people in this world that mean more to you, they really need some answers Harry, especially Ginny. You need to explain to her, why you made her cry every night, she at least deserves that, Harry." He stood up and left the room. I know, he thought. He put his head in his hands, not sure in the least how to talk to Ginny about this. Just then Ginny entered the room with a letter in her hand.
"I found one, but I don't see how it's going to help you, it has no address on it." She stated.
"Well, do you have an owl?"
"Yes I do."
"Well, did she by any chance retrieve this letter?"
"Actually I do believe she did!"
"Excellent, and where is she?"
"Follow me." She walked down the hall, and into the second left door. This must be her room, he thought. "So this is my room and this is my owl, Shreleigh. She was the one who would have sent the original letter to Ron, this is the reply he gave me."
"M-hm, well Shreleigh, do you remember where Ron's house is?" The owl shook her head yes, "Do you think you could take me there?" The owl looked at him confused, and eventually nodded. "Alright," he turned to Ginny, "If it's alright I would like to borrow your owl for the moment, just to find Ron, I'll be back tonight is that okay?"
"Yeah, I guess that would be okay, here's a key, I enchanted the door so it only opens with a key." She handed him the key. He gave her a hug, called her owl and then he left.