Harry and Merope to the Rescue - Chapter 36
Disclaimer:
I don't own the HP universe, unfortunately.
Weeks passed and the Weasley children settled into their new lives very nicely. Grimmauld Place was no longer a quiet and boring home, it was now filled with the joyous sound of children's laughter and merriment.
Kreacher was ecstatic with all of the work that came with having a houseful of children to clean up after and cook for.
Walburga Black, who was lovingly called Gran by all the children, loved having a full house. She had even gone so far as to search out her niece, Andromeda Tonks, and invited her and her young daughter to come for play dates with the Weasley children. Walburga hadn't really expected Andromeda to accept, but was pleasantly surprised when she did. Unknown to Walburga, Sirius had been keeping in touch with Andromeda and had steadily convinced her that Walburga had changed and that she should give her a chance if the opportunity ever presented itself.
It would take a bit of time before the two women would stop feeling somewhat awkward around each other, but since they were both willing to keep trying, it was only a matter of time before the awkwardness was gone and they felt like a real family again. Walburga even requested that Sirius officially invite Andromeda back into the family and there were currently talks of reconciliation with Narcissa and her young son. No one had any such hopes for Bellatrix, however, as she was currently in Azkaban and was nearly insane.
Sirius and Remus were frequent visitors to Grimmauld Place and the twins seemed to be enamored by their happy-go-lucky and playful personalities. The two had even taken to calling the twins little marauders in the making. They were always trying to play little harmless pranks on everyone.
Trips to the island were frequent and all of the Weasley children became very close with the Potters. Though, everyone thought it would have been Ron that would have made really good friends with Little Harry, because they were so close in age, but it seems that without Molly Weasley there to direct and pull strings, Ron and Little Harry didn't have enough in common for the two to spend all their playtime together. So as it turns out it was the twins that became Little Harry's best friends.
Now, that wasn't to say that Ron never played with Little Harry, in as much as it came to playing with the miniature quidditch set together or playing with Legos and such, they had a blast. Ron was still very much obsessed with chess, though, so Remus made sure to take extra time to play chess with him and work on honing Ron's skills.
It was after Ginny seemed to be showing signs of an almost obsession with Little Harry that Harry suggested to Walburga that all of the Weasley children should be taken to St. Mungo's for a thorough checkup, just to make sure there were not any lingering mind altering magics in their system. It was decided that they would all wait until Bill was home from Hogwarts, so that all of the children could be seen at one time.
Finally, it was time to come home for the summer and Bill Weasley had been happily left alone on the Hogwarts Express in a compartment to himself. Ever since the "Howler" that had come to him from the Potters and Blacks, no one had dared to lay a finger on him, much less a hex or prank. While having a friend would have been nice, the fact that the whole school had turned on him for what his mother had done made him realize that he didn't want to be friends with any of them. He only had a tentative truce with his dorm mates right now. He thought he would wait until next year before even considering making more than cautious acquaintances with anyone that was at the school this year.
Many letters had been exchanged since the day he received their "Howler," and he had enjoyed getting to know his new family through regular letters, but he was a little nervous to be meeting them in person, and a little excited, too.
During the journey, he wondered what would become of The Burrow, and tried to think of anything that was there that he would even like to have. Sadly, the only thing he felt he would miss from The Burrow was their makeshift quidditch pitch. All of his possessions were bought secondhand and he didn't really have any emotional attachment to any of it. How sad was that? He had spent eleven years of his life in that home and he didn't even really miss it. He had taken all of his treasured possessions with him to school and could think of nothing that was remaining at The Burrow that he wanted to retrieve.
Soon he felt the train begin to slow and he drew in his breath and prepared to gather his trunk and meet his siblings and new guardians.
The Potters, Blacks, Remus, and the Weasley children were all anxiously waiting for Bill inside Platform 9 ¾. They were receiving many stares, but thankfully, no one attempted to approach them or speak to them.
They stood a bit in a semicircle, with the adults all either holding a hand of the smaller children, or in their arms as was the case with Ginny, while the older children (Charlie and Percy) were standing just in front and between Sirius and Remus. The adults remained alert and in a protective stance, if a bit relaxed. It's not like they were expecting to be attacked, but in Harry's opinion, it never hurts to be prepared. Just because he took care of all the free Death Eaters didn't mean that someone else hasn't decided to try to fill the void their absence made.
The crowd was finally thinning a bit when Harry caught sight of Bill, who seemed to be looking around anxiously. Harry said, "There's Bill everyone!" Bill spotted the group before more than Sirius, Remus and the twins could start waving wildly. Grinning widely, he sped up his pace and made his way through the crowd, dragging his trunk behind him.
"Hi everyone," Bill said a great big smile.
"Welcome home, Bill," said Walburga with a genuine smile. "We're so happy to meet you in person at last."
"And I'm glad to meet you all in person, too," replied Bill with a respectful nod and a happy smile on his face.
"Well, first thing's first, there's no sense in hauling this huge thing around," said Sirius as he took his wand out and waved it over Bill's trunk before giving it a tap, then it disappeared with a pop. "There you go."
"Where did it go?" Bill asked curiously.
"Oh, I've just set it on ahead to Grimmauld Place. We're all going to St. Mungo's for a checkup, and then we're going to Diagon Alley for an ice cream." Sirius responded with a grin.
"Why do we need to go for a checkup?" Bill asked curiously.
Walburga responded with a gentle smile and said, "Well, Bill, we just want to make sure that you and your siblings are not suffering from any ailments that we don't know about."
Bill thought about it for a moment and decided that that was probably a good idea. Madam Pomfrey was a good mediwitch, but he had been hit with an awful lot of hexes at Hogwarts, so it would probably be smart to get another checkup to make sure there weren't still some lingering effects that he hadn't noticed yet. "Yes, ma'am," Bill said, "that sounds like a good idea."
"All right," Harry said as he pulled out a rope. "Every grab hold and we'll be on our way."
The visit to St. Mungo's went about as smoothly as one would think it would with five adults and eight children in tow. They were directed to the Pediatrics floor straight away, only to then be directed to the waiting room on that floor where they then proceeded to wait for about an hour until a room was available.
Ginny was fussy. Ron was bored. Little Harry was sad he didn't have Basil there to play with. The twins tried very hard to behave, but they had a difficult time actually doing so; however, they did their best to keep Little Harry from missing Basil too much. Percy was content reading a book he had found on one of the end tables. Charlie and Bill were playing Exploding Snap.
Finally, a mediwitch led them to a room where all of their vitals were checked and documented for the healer to review before coming in to see them.
30 minutes later:
A cheerful, white-haired healer came into the room with his head bowed over his parchment. Occasionally he would hum to himself in thought, nod to himself, then make a gesture with his quill that gave the appearance of checking something off a list. After a moment, he rolled up the parchment and placed it in his robe pocket, along with his quill, then he turned to greet the family.
"Hello everyone," the healer said with a smile. "I am Healer Pembroke Relish. What brings you all in here today?"
Not one to be deterred by an unusual name, considering what her first name was, Walburga said, "Well, Healer, I have accepted guardianship of all of these children, minus young Harry here, and I wanted to bring them all in for a checkup, as we have no idea when the last time they received a checkup would have been. We want to make sure they have no allergies we are unaware of, among other things."
Then she added as delicately and tactfully as she could, "Considering the unfortunate business dealings their biological mother seems to have had with the Late Headmaster Dumbledore, we thought it best to have them all checked over, now that we have them all together, for any curses, memory charms, or any other sort of mind altering hexes."
"We also wanted to make sure Bill," Walburga pointed Bill out to the healer, "is thoroughly checked over. He had a rough patch at Hogwarts this year where he was constantly harassed and hexed by the other students, and we would like to make sure there is not any lasting damage from that."
"Hmm. I should think Madam Pomfrey would have taken care of all of them, but we'll make sure to look over him very thoroughly to make sure there are no lingering issues," said Healer Relish.
"Thank you, Healer," said Walburga.
Healer Relish nodded and said, "Of course, Madam." Turning to the others present he said, "Now, the room is a bit too crowded to attempt everyone's checkups at once, so what I want is for everyone to return to the waiting room, except for the youngest child and Madam Black. Then we'll start with the next youngest and so forth, the twins can be seen together, and then ending with young Bill. Any questions?"
Seeing there were none, everyone returned to the lobby, except for Ginny and Walburga. Next was Little Harry, accompanied by Harry and Merope. Then came Ron, the twins, Percy, Charlie, and then finally, Bill.
As it turns out, Ginny was experiencing lingering effects of a mild love potion she had been regularly dosed with, along with a weakened compulsion charm that seemed to be encouraging her to want to be near Little Harry every time she saw him. The love potion was mostly out of her system, but Healer Relish gave her a flushing potion to get rid of it entirely. As for the compulsion charm, it appeared to be breaking down on its own and so it was only a matter of a simple finite to make it dissipate entirely.
Little Harry had a good bill of health, as Harry and Merope had already corrected all of the problems that he had previously been suffering from.
Ron was found to have had a delayed compulsion charm that was geared to trigger his feelings of jealousy. It was not clear when the compulsion was set to kick in, but it was speculated that it would have been prior to starting Hogwarts. No one could think of any logical reason for this delayed compulsion to even have been placed there, but then again, they were dealing with illogical magicals.
The twins were surprisingly free of any charms or manipulations, same with Percy and Charlie.
Bill, however, was found to have several hexes that had not been completely removed, but nothing that could be attributed to the manipulations of Molly Weasley and the late headmaster. The hexes were all easily removed and Bill was considered lucky to not have been experiencing any negative effects from only their partial removals.
Everyone was tired from the long day, but as Sirius had promised at King's Cross Station, they all went out for ice cream at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour in Diagon Alley, after which they all went home to Grimmauld Place, with the exception of the Potters who continued home to Potter's Refuge.