Mrs. Weasely looked anxiously at the clock. It was nearing ten o'clock. Bill had been due home for over an hour already. He had said he was going to work late tonight, but she was starting to worry about him. He knew how worried she got, and he promised he would be home by nine at the latest. He never forgot about the time and he was always punctual. She turned back to the stove and stirred the contents of the pot slowly. Despite her steady movements, her foot was tapping anxiously. Mrs. Weasely wasn't sure how much longer she could keep dinner waiting for her eldest son. There was a tap at the window. Mrs. Weasely looked up quickly. Her face clouded with even more worry. Maybe it was an owl from St. Mungo's. Perhaps he was finally coming home from St. Mungo's. Arthur had been hit with a curse during The Battle, and as of yet, no one could bring him out of his magical coma. The healers said that if he didn't wake up soon, they might have to drain him of his magic, thereby hopefully waking him up. Apparently, the curse with which he was hit overloaded his magic and blacked him out. Mrs. Weasely couldn't imagine Arthur going through life without his magic, he used so nonchalantly. His job required the use of his magic. The Ministry had been helping the large family with money, but it wasn't enough to do more than barely get by. Bill had helped out by moving back in and selling his house to help the family get by, but Mrs. Weasely didn't like tying her son down. He deserved to live on his own, find a new girl to settle down with; he couldn't mope about Fleur for forever. Mrs. Weasely figured she might be able to get a job herself, but she wasn't sure how much she could make. She shook her head and brought herself out of her reverie and looked at the owl that was trying hover outside the small kitchen window.
Mrs. Weasely gasped in shock, when the shadowy owl was lit from the light of the kitchen. It was Hedwig. She took the pot off the stove; she didn't want to burn anything and hurried to let the owl in. Once the window was opened, Hedwig fluttered inside and landed on the kitchen table, eyeing the contents of the pot, trying to decide whether or not it was edible. She turned her head back to Mrs. Weasely, hooted softly, and held out her leg, on which a small piece of parchment was tied. Mrs. Weasely eyed the roll of parchment like a child looking at her colorfully wrapped Christmas presents. Mrs. Weasely tried to calm her shaking hands as she thought of what the letter might hold. Surely this meant Harry was on his way home!
Mrs. Weasely gently untied the parchment, handling it as if it were some sacred document. She turned it in her hands to see to whom it was addressed to. She wanted nothing more than to open this letter from the last missing member of her family, though. Her face fell however, when she recognized the handwriting not as a messy young man's scrawl, but as her daughter's unique writing style addressed to "Mum". Much disheartened, Mrs. Weasely tapped the cylinder of parchment with her wand. The magical seal broke apart and the parchment unrolled itself. Dutifully, Mrs. Weasely settled herself to read the report from her daughter. After all, she had requested Ginny to send her a letter at least once a week, telling her how her daughter was faring her seventh year at Hogwarts. Her face fell even more though as she read what she thought was going to be a quick letter describing her daughter's classes. By the end of the letter, her hands were shaking again and her eyes were brimming with tears. Mrs. Weasely fell limply into a kitchen chair that sat at the scrubbed table. She held a hand to her eyes. Her daughter was in danger. Worse than that, she was going to kill herself! Mrs. Weasely knew it was unfair to him, but she blamed Harry. If he hadn't been so selfish by running away and not keeping and touch, Ginny wouldn't be in this mess. She rubbed her eyes lightly and stood up with shaking knees. She had to get to Hogwarts. There was no question about it. Her daughter was in mortal peril and she had to protect her family like she had done for many years. Her new determination gave her strength, but not enough to quell her trembling. She moved unsteadily towards the living room where she could floo over to Hogwarts and her poor daughter. She reached her hand into the pot that held the floo powder, vaguely noting that they needed to buy more floo powder. Her hazy mind numbly recognized the sound of someone knocking at the door. Why didn't her son just walk in? This was his home, Mrs. Weasely thought without interest; her mind was concerned with other things, not surprisingly.
"Bill, come quickly…" she called out in a shaky voice. The only response was another three knocks on the front door. "Oh, for heaven's sake Bill! The door's not locked!" she exclaimed as she put the pinch of floo powder back and walked towards the door. She opened it and saw her son's shadow. She couldn't see his face because the setting sun was in her eyes, but she knew it was her son from his straight back and long hair. "Honestly, knocking at a time like this, in the middle of a crisis!" The figure remained in the doorway. Mrs. Weasely pulled on his arm. "Bill-" she started, but stopped with her mouth hanging open when she saw who was in front of her. He had just stepped into the light of the house. She bit back a scream of horror. "You're not Bill," she said faintly. The face was sickening to look at. The poor boy! She didn't recognize him, but he looked like he could use a few good square meals. She was just about to offer the poor boy a bath and her eldest son's waiting dinner with the promise of a warm bed afterwards, but stopped. A look of contemplation crossed her face. Behind the grime and sullen face, she recognized the boy in front of her. Was he a friend of Ron's? She open and closed her mouth several times. She didn't know what to say to him. His robes were ripped and his hair was matted. His eyes looked like they had seen more horror than anyone, let alone someone so young, should have seen. His face was marred beyond comparison. The deep gash that ran down his cheek looked like it was in danger of being infected. A pink line above his eye looked like it would take years to disappear, if it would. His lips were chapped as if he hadn't had enough to drink in ages. Her eyes swept critically up and down the boy, looking for other indicators of his health. His hands were just as scratched as his face, but they looked like they'd heal, unlike many marks on his face. Her eyes reached his face once again. His shoulder length hair looked knotted and she saw traces of crushed leaves and pine needles in it. She saw something dark clumping hairs together; she had the sickening idea that it might be blood. This boy had seen a better day of that she was certain. Despite her current financial predicament, she promised herself that she would care for this young man as if he were her son until he was well enough to be on his own. She looked into his green eyes, startling green eyes that hid behind scratched glasses. There was something about the green eyes that made her stare. And the black hair that covered parts of his face… She recognized this man. It was…it couldn't be, but it was!
"Miss me?" he asked hopefully, smiling awkwardly at Mrs. Weasely's evident joy.
Author's note: Well, there's the chapter. This is the chapter where I officially call Harry home. Thank you to those of you who dealt with me, and even reviewed my one-shots! The end of the story is in sight now. I hope you're enjoying it so far! I have a lot of the chapters already written, and they're just waiting for editing, so hopefully I can turn chapters out a lot faster now.
Response to Reviews: As much as I love having so many reviews, and the ones saying how wonderful my story is :P…I'd also like (I know this sounds greedy, and I apologize) but I'd also like a few more people telling me how to make the chapters better. The number of reviews to hits wasn't as good as it was last chapter, but still quite respectable.
General Concerns: Look everybody, I'm really sorry I didn't bring Harry home when I got my 130 reviews, I really wanted to. But to be honest, I wasn't expecting to get so many reviews so fast. I had that chapter all planned out…and it needed to be there. So I apologize that I fell short on my promise. To make up for it, I'll try to keep the updates more consistent, and I'll try to keep my promises. Again, I'm sorry.
Anonymous Reviews: Just one this time!
Emily- I'm sorry I'm so mean. (Please see above note in General Concerns) A lot of people were happy to see Ginny end "What ever it was" with Erik. I hope you keep reading my story, even though I'm mean 0:)
