Chapter 23

Number 12 Grimauld Place

The next day, we put up the Christmas tree at home. Mum and Dad decided to leave it until I came back from Hogwarts. I was glad that they were so considerate. I really wanted to help out after not seeing them for so long.

Around 1:00, I heard this weird tapping on the window. I turned around and realized it was an owl, and a really tiny one at that. It had a letter for me! I opened the window and the little thing came zooming in.

"Calm down little guy!" I exclaimed as he zoomed around the kitchen. Finally, he landed and allowed me to grab the letter from him. I opened it up and recognized George's writing.

Hey Rina,

How are you? You made it home safely? Hopefully. We did, by portkey...it was a rough ride though. Very shaky. When we landed, I nearly crushed Ginny's skull. She yelled at me for it afterward.

Dad isn't doing that great. He was bleeding so much. Mum's been at St. Mungo's Hospital since yesterday. I've been by once to see him and he did not look well at all.

I still wonder what really happened, and why you had anything to do with it. Will you tell me?

Anyway, Harry's with us as well. Everyone else is fine, thank god.

I was also wondering if you would like to come over here for Christmas. I know you would want to be with your family but can you? Maybe you guys could all come. Harry also sent a letter asking the same thing. I dunno whether you've gotten it yet though. So is it a yes? Tell me it's so. Send me a reply and I'll let you know what's going to happen.

Hope you can come!

Love,

George

I felt like jumping up and down. Seriously. George wanted me to spend Christmas with him! It felt like I was in heaven! All of the sudden, a white thing zoomed through the open window. It was another owl! At first, I thought it was Rosella, but when I glanced at her cage, she was sound asleep inside. That meant that this owl was…

"Hedwig!" I realized. Harry's owl landed on my arm.

"Good girl," I replied. Sure enough, it was the letter from Harry I was expecting to see. It said the exact same thing that George's said.

"Mum," I said, "Harry was wondering if we could come spend Christmas with him at his place," Mum read the letter.

"It would be a good idea," she agreed. And that's how it happened.

The next morning Mum, Dad and I got into the car. Amelia decided that she wanted to come too so she was with us. Her Mum would probably pick her up tonight. I knew she just wanted to meet George…and probably gush all over Fred. But he is dating Angelina. I just haven't gotten to telling her that yet…

We arrived at Grimauld Place around 1:00 pm. We probably should have only taken an hour getting there, but we got lost. Thankfully, I spotted Ginny outside or else we would have been lost for ages.

"Ginny!" I called.

"Oh Karina," she said, "hi!" She ran up to us.

"I take it we found the right place?" Dad asked.

"Yes," I replied, "Mum, Dad, Amelia, this is Ginny. She's a fourth year and is in Gryffindor at school,"

"Pleased to meet you," Mum said.

"You too," Ginny replied, "Let's get your stuff inside," We hauled our luggage inside.

"Tonks!" called Ginny, "Karina's arrived!" Tippy barked loudly. He was tugging on the leash. I looked in the direction he was trying to pull me and there I saw a big fat ginger Persian cat. He was humongous.

"Tippy, stop that!" I said, tugging on his leash to follow me. He wouldn't follow. Luckily, he's only a Yorkshire terrier so I managed to pick him up before he caused any harm.

A woman with the brightest pink hair I had ever seen came downstairs. Wow, I thought.

"Welcome!" she said, "you must be Karina, right?"

"Yes I am,"

"I'm Nymphadora Tonks. You can call me Tonks, everyone does,"

"Nice to meet you," I replied.

"And you must be Mr. and Mrs. Rookworth," she said, acknowledging them.

"Yes," Mum said, looking a little bit disturbed by the pink hair.

"Nice to meet you," she managed to say, finally.

"Come on. Let's sit down to tea. Ginny, take Karina and her friend upstairs to your room," Tonks said, guiding my parents into the living room.

Amelia and I followed Ginny up stairs, down the hall to the last room. Inside were 4 beds cramped into it.

"Sorry it's so squished," Ginny apologized. On the bed sat Hermione who was rapidly scribbling something in her Arithmancy notebook. But wait a minute. What was she doing here? She was supposed to be skiing with her parents, wasn't she?

"Hermione, what are you doing here?" I asked her.

"Skiing isn't really my thing," she shrugged, "plus, I have to study for our OWLS,"

"OWLS?" asked Amelia, puzzled, "what the heck is that?"

"It's a test that you take when you're in your 5th year," I said, "it's about everything you learned all the way from first year,"

"Who is this?" Hermione asked me.

"Oh, this is my friend Amelia. Don't worry," I added, "she knows I'm a witch,"

"Okay then," Tippy started squirming in my arms. I let him go. He jumped on the bed right into Hermione's lap.

"Oh! Is this your puppy?"

"Yes," I answered, "his name is Tippy,"

"I hope him and Crookshanks won't get into a fight," she said.

"Crookshanks?"

"He's my cat," Hermione replied. That explained the big orange puff ball.

"So, where's George?" I asked.

"Dish duty," laughed Ginny, "he left another one of their fake wands out and Mum ended up breaking a few dozen wine glasses because she couldn't get the summoning charm to work,"

"Oh,"

"And Harry?" I asked.

"He's taking a walk with Ron," Hermione said shortly, looking back at her homework.

"Thanks,"

Amelia and I headed downstairs to the kitchen.

"So show me your hottie of a boyfriend," she teased.

"Mia!" I groaned, "Be quiet!"

"Ooh! So you have been gushing about George," said a familiar voice. It was Fred sure enough. Amelia froze. I knew she was going to do that. Fred was hot too.

"Hey Fred," I said.

"So, who's your lovely friend?" he asked.

"Her name's Amelia," I said, pushing my way passed him into the kitchen.

"Hey Georgie!" I exclaimed wrapping my arms around George's waist.

"Rina! You're here!" he exclaimed.

"So, got stuck in slave labor?" I asked.

"Yeah. Mum nicked my wand. She says I shouldn't do magic for every little thing so she basically put me to work on this," he said pointing to an enormous pile of dirty dishes.

"You wanna cheat a little?" I asked.

"How?"

"Here," I whipped out my wand from my pocket. George grinned.

"Up to no good, are you?" he laughed.

"Yes. Hurry up because I wanna go on a date,"

"Okay, okay!" he exclaimed. He muttered a spell under his breath and all the dishes became clean. "Thank you so much!" he exclaimed, "I've been here since 10:00 am!"

"You're welcome!" I replied. We headed out of the kitchen. Fred and Amelia were talking to each other still so we left them alone.

"So, where do you want to go?" George asked me.

"No idea," I replied. All of the sudden, there was the sound of someone yelling.

"Ginny! Give that back!" yelled Ron, thundering on the floor above us. Looks like Harry and him came back from their walk. At that moment, Ginny came hurtling down the stairs holding a huge box of candy.

"You stole half of mine the other day!" she retorted, "I want some of yours!" Ron looked mad. They chased each other around the house.

"Go Ginny! Go Ginny!" I called.

"Thanks Rina!" she yelled back, dodging Ron. They thundered back upstairs, causing more racket.

"Isn't it quiet anywhere?" George muttered.

"Doesn't look like it,"

"You know what," he said, turning to me, "let's go outside,"

After grabbing our coats, we headed out into the back yard. It was nice out, thankfully.

"So, how's your dad?" I asked when we sat down on the swing out back.

"Getting better slowly," George replied, "his wounds were pretty deep. It was horrible. I couldn't look at him at all the last time I was at St. Mungo's visiting him. He was so covered in blood and you know how I can't stand the sight of it,"

"Yeah," I said, "it was scary,"

"What I don't understand his how you were able to see into You Know Who's mind," he said after a long silence.
"Me neither," I replied.

"You don't have a scar or anything. You haven't even met Voldemort! How could you have…?"

"I really don't know," I replied, "and look, I don't want to talk about that okay? I just want to forget it ever happened. For last few days, I truly haven't been sleeping well. Ever since that night I've been lying awake thinking about it all," I sighed, "All of this makes me realize even more that I'm next on the list of those to die. Voldemort probably knows about me by now. He's going to go out of his way to kill me,"

"You are not going to die," George exclaimed, "Harry's a great wizard. He can defeat You Know Who,"

"Can you just puck up the courage to say his name?" I asked, "I'm tired of hearing You Know Who or He Who Must Not Be Named. It's really annoying,"

"Okay fine," George mumbled.

"Look, I'm sorry," I said, "I didn't mean to get upset at you,"

"It's okay," George replied, "I should say his name anyway. You're right. It is annoying,"

"Anyway," I started, but never finished my sentence. I had no idea what to say. George leaned over.

"What do you want for Christmas?" he asked.

"I don't know," I said, "surprise me,"

"Okay," he replied.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Surprise me," he replied. I giggled.

"Okay," I kissed him.