Inside was worse. Someone had rifled through the house, searching every room. Their stuff was all over and a lot of it was broken. Who ever had been here had left a message on the wall. The weasleys had a suspicion it was written in blood, not human thankfully but dragons. Mrs Weasley gasped as she read it. "WE WILL FIND THEM, THEY CANT HIDE FOREVER AND WE WILL KILL THEM, THEN YOU BLOOD TRAITORS". Mr Weasley put his hands on her shoulders and said, it s over now. They can't hurt us anymore," Then he waved his wand to disappear the message but it wouldn't vanish. Arthur starred at the wall angrily until Hermione walked over to it with a cloth she had found in the kitchen and rubbed at it. It began to rub away obviously the arrogant death eaters hadn't considered getting rid of it the muggle way. Percy and Ron joined her and the rest of the family explored the house assessing the damage. Ginny s room was the worst but Ron and the Twins rooms were relatively untouched: that was probably because the ghoul was in Ron's pretending to be infected with spattergroit and the twins room was full of failed experiments or unreleased products. The death eaters must have been cowards and not wanted to have risked it. Probably wise. Once they had finished looking the slowly made their way back downstairs into the kitchen.
"Ok so it is a mess but we can fix it. We have a meeting here tomorrow night so. Off to bed all of you and we will start with the clean up tomorrow morning. I know your rooms are a mess but we will just have to improvise beds for tonight, announced Mr Weasley answering Ron s unasked question.
"Is it alright if we stay as well Dad?" asked Bill.
"That would be great. I think your mum was going to insist anyway." Molly was sat silently on a kitchen chair staring at her hankie in her hands, tears rolling down her cheeks.
"Then I think I am going to put up some wards before I go to bed, I won t be long."
"Do you need any help son?"
"No it's ok, I shouldn't be long" Bill walked out of the door and down the tracks to the gate and began chanting a series of complicated hexes and wards.
Harry had gone silently upstairs his mind reeling off everything he still had to do; clean the burrow, go to the meeting, get Ginny back, go to the funerals, meet Teddy. Had anyone even told Andromeda about Remus and Tonks? Surely she would know already. Harry was going to go back down and ask but then thought twice remembering the look on Arthur and Molly s faces. Instead he went into Rons room and pushed some of the rubbish into the corner, uncluttering his camp bed which was missing all of its legs. Then Ron walked in "Bloody hell it smells like a ghoul s arse in here"
"Well Ron that would be because there has been a ghoul in here pretending to be you for the past year"
"Good point" said Ron."Well good night." Ron lay down and was immediately asleep. That wasn't unusual as he could literally fall asleep anywhere but normally him and Harry would chat for a while until either one had nodded off.
"Good night" said Harry to no one and he climbed under the blankets keeping on his jumpers but removing his jeans. But he couldn't get to sleep, not used to sleeping indoors after a year of sleeping in a tent so he laid their hands behind his head and starred at the ceiling listening to Rons snores.
Harry had always been an early riser. Probably because of the Dursleys ordering him to make breakfast all of the time but he had to admit half five was way too early to be up, especially as he got to sleep a little after one. Harry stood up, unable to lay there anymore, and dressed quickly, thinking that he should probably ask Hermione for a clean shirt when she woke up. Then he kept downstairs avoiding the squeaky step near the bottom of the stairs. He walked to the kitchen and looked in the pantry, not that he was hungry but he wandered what the food situation was like because surely everyone else would be. As he suspected it was empty.
"Kreacher" he whispered.
With a small pop the house elf appeared wide awake despite the time. Do house elves ever sleep?
"How can Kreacher be of service master?"
"Call me Harry, Kreacher"
"Yes Master Harry"
"That s not what I..." Forget it he thought, it's too early to explain. Can you get some groceries in for the weasleys as there is nothing? here to eat?"
"Of course Master Harry, Kreacher will leave them on the kitchen table"
"Thank you, also what is Grimmauld Place like?"
"It was ruined but the men that followed you back when Master Harry went to the Ministry."
"Could you go there and begin tidying; maybe you could take a friend from Hogwarts so you re not lonely."
"Yes Master Harry, Kreacher will do it right away sir and will take Winky with him."
"Kreacher there is no rush, I'm not moving there just yet"
Harry had decided last night that he was going to move back to Grimmauld in September when Hogwarts reopened because he was going to begin Auror training not return to Hogwarts and it would be too weird to stay here even though the thought of going back to Sirius' old house was not a popular one.
Harry walked outside, it was a little cold outside but he could hardly feel it. He looked around at what needed doing and began to walk towards the garden drawing his wand and beginning to cut the hedges and grass. He might as well make himself useful as he had nothing to do anymore. No more destiny, no more running, no more Voldemort. Harry smiled and continued. It took him until seven but the garden was beginning to look normal again. Harry was working up a sweat and had stripped down to just his t-shirt. He left the degnoming, he wasn't really a fan of it unless he could do it with Ron and make it into a competition to see who could throw the gnomes the furthest. Pleased with his work he walked inside and sat at the table. Still no one was up, not surprising really as they were all exhausted. Still looking for something to do Harry picked up the food Kreacher had left and began to pack the pantry. Harry was nearly finished then the stairs creaked. Harry turned around to see Mr Weasley. "Alright Harry? You re up early"
"Couldn't sleep, I got Kreacher to get in some food."
"You didn't need to do that"
"I know but I wanted to"
"Cup of tea?"
"Yes please" he replied as he sat down.
Mr Weasley looked out of the window and poured them both a mug of tea.
"Harry?"
"Uh hu"
"Did you do that?"
"Do what?" "The garden"
Harry blushed,"Oh um yer, I was up and I had nothing to do so I um well..."
"Thank you. But you know, there are a lot of us in our family so you didn't need to do it on your own. We are all here to help you"
"I know but I didn't mind."
They sat there in quiet until everyone came downstairs.
Mrs Weasley noticed the garden straight away and smothered Harry in a bone breaking hug. Thoroughly embarrassed Harry sat down and they ate a quiet breakfast, without George. The worst bit was that Ginny wouldn't look Harry in the eye and spent the whole time looking at her plate.
After breakfast Mrs Weasley divided everyone and gave them jobs apart from Harry.
But Mrs... Molly, I want to help."
"You already have, now if you do want to do something you can go to Andromeda Tonks' and meet your godson, but remember to be back by four for the meeting."
"But..." "No buts go we will be fine."
"Mum that s not fair."
Don t you 'that s not fair' me Ronald Weasley, Harry got up early and did some work this morning so you can do some now without complaining." Ron knew she meant business so skulked off upstairs to clean his and Harry s room.
Harry said goodbye to everyone after putting on a clean shirt from Hermione s bag and walked off down the road until he could apparate to see his godson for the first time.
Thanks for reading, please review and tell me what you think. Thank you to everyone who had already reviewed. :) Next chapter hopefully shouldn't be too long to wait.