It had been just over two months since the Battle of Hogwarts had come to an end. The funerals seemed to stretch on for weeks after that, the sorrow that lingered, even longer. At first, Harry was numb and he eventually learned to be grateful for that when it had all come crashing down on him. The golden trio returned to the Burrow after shortly staying at Hogwarts after the battle. Even though Harry was somewhere he had always felt safe and loved, it was only a mild comfort to him as he dealt with the raw emotions of grief and guilt that seemed to slowly eat his soul, turning and twisting it.
That had all changed with the support of Ginny. Now lying under the willow tree in the backyard of the Burrow, their hands were intertwined. Ginny had her head resting on Harry's chest, was lazily dozing off to soft pitter-patter of Harry's heartbeat, which she was eternally thankful for.
"Ginny?" Harry asked softly, seeing if he love was still awake.
"Hmm?" She mumbled.
"I love you." He whispered for the hundredth time that summer, running his hands through the fiery red hair that he loved just as much as the girl who owned it.
Ginny raised her head and looked directly into Harry's blazing green eyes that had finally started to regain some sparkle, some life. She reached up and placed her lips delicately on his. Their kiss, at first soft and tender, turned compassionate after a moment. They both finally broke away, sighing contentedly.
"I love you too." She said, smiling even wider at the sight of his own smile that she had placed upon his face. She scooted back down so that she could snuggle into his side when they were interrupted.
"Oi! You better get in here!" Ron's voice carried to their spot by the trees. After almost ten years, Harry was able to discern the unsaid meanings in Ron's voice. He was tense enough to get Harry to quickly scoot away from Ginny out of instinct, but his voice also told him he had better come quickly.
After Ron had disappeared back into the Burrow, Harry stood, pulling Ginny with him. He smiled when she hadn't let go of his hand after he pulled her up. They entered through the open backdoor that lead right into the kitchen. The majority of the Weasley's were either sitting or standing around the table. Not seeing any food in front of them, told Harry this gathering wasn't just a shared meal.
He slowly started to relax when he saw that no one's faces were tensed or grim. In fact, most of them had a gaze of curiosity or confusion. "What is it?" He asked them, starting to become curious himself.
"Well, Harry, this…this came for you?" Hermione said, her statement tapering off into a questioning look. She walked over carefully scooted an opened package down the table towards him.
"Who opened it?" He asked, as he opened the wrappings that had fallen flat onto the object itself. A single black sock lay on the table in front of him. "Better yet, whose it from?"
The head of the family begun to speak. "To the first, I opened it. I felt as though you would appreciate a bit of screening for your parcels seeing as many Death Eaters are still about. I was able to cast a few spells without opening the package itself but couldn't only cast certain identifying spells on the object. It has no dark signature, nor is it a portkey."
"Well that's good." Harry mumbled, still as confused as he was earlier, but a bit more relieved.
"As to the second question", George piped up, "we were hoping you could answer that mate."
Deciding it was safe, Harry slowly went to pick up the sock. He felt Ginny's hand tighten ever so softly around his own. He looked over and smiled reassuringly. He continued on and picked up the sock without another moment's hesitation. He took it with his one open hand and examined it. It looked like an ordinary sock
Nothing happened.
"Well that was anti-climactic." Ron stated lazily. Everyone seemed to let out the breath they all didn't know they were holding.
"Mum, who delivered it?" Ginny piped up as her mother rose from the table to start dinner.
" Actually, it was a house elf. Odd that." She mused, swishing her wand at the pantry.
Harry looked up at that. "A house elf? Who? Did they leave their name?"
"Nope, I had never seen—" Before she could even finish her statement, a loud crack filled the air.
The entire family turned towards the living room where the sound originated from. They all had their wands in hand as they rushed towards it. Harry and Ginny had broken apart but were the first to enter the room. They stood their frozen for a second, their wands trained on a familiar wide-eyed house.
"Winky?" Hermione asked as she appeared in the room. The poor elf was frozen in fear from the 7 wands pointed at her. "Winky, what are you doing here?" Hermione asked softly, putting her wand away and stepping towards Winky who had a package in her hand. "Did you come to deliver that?" She continued until Winky finally looked at her. The house elf nodded ever so slightly and seeming to gather all the courage she had walked over to Ron and lifted the package up to him.
They would have all laughed at the face Ron made if the situation hadn't been so bizarre. While Hermione and Ron spelled to package, Harry continued with the questions, gently approaching the elf as though she may scamper off at a moment's notice.
"Winky…did you deliver the other package as well?" He started nice and easy.
"No." Winky sniffled.
"Who did?"
"Carly. She works in the kitchens at Hogwarts too. I must be going now." Without another word Winky had disapperated back to wherever she had come from, probably Hogwarts Harry guessed.
"Odd. Quite odd." Hermione surmised. "The sock Ron received was just as harmless as yours Harry. Although it had a gold pattern on it. I'll look into seeing if there's a way to locate where they had both originated from." And with that she ran up to her room to immerse herself in the world of literature.
"Don't be too long dear!" Mrs. Weasley called up the stairs after her. "Dinner will be ready soon!" The rest of the evening continued on, unperturbed by any more events.
Over the next few days the Burrow was chaos. House elves were apperating constantly without fail, one after the other and sometimes even multiples at the same time, each of them bringing a single sock addressed either to Harry Potter or Ron Weasley.
The situation was quite intriguing at first, with house elves popping up and scaring the day lights out of everyone at least once. After that stage had passed, it turned into downright annoyance. No one could go two sentences in conversation before a house elf popped into the conversation, literally.
Another problem the boys were having was where to keep their "gifts". A sock or two lying around was nothing, but a quick spell had revealed they were now up to nearly a thousand. After the first few days Harry and Ron had turned to Hermione for a solution.
She sighed slightly at always being the one to have the answers, but really, she did enjoy it. She ingeniously came up with a very simple solution. A shrinking spell.
After practicing for a couple of hours, there was now a layer of socks covering almost every surface of the Burrow.
"Seriously mate, once you get over the oddness of it all, it's a bit gross." Ron said conversationally as he and Harry had begun cleaning up the living area.
"Well, at least they don't smell."
"Maybe…its still barmy though."
They continued cleaning the house, area by area and noticed that the house elves weren't coming in such quick succession any more. They ended up assuming it was a prank that George had yet to claim account for, although they still had some suspicions seeing as he was so adamantly denying it.
They went to bed that night, all drifting to sleep thinking of their own theories. Little did they know, they were to find the answer the next morning.