Chapter 2: "Relieving Burdens"
The confusion that always accompanied a full Weasley household was something that Harry had grown to relish. At first, it had been overwhelming. Now, it was welcome, especially given the events of the past few weeks. With Dumbledore's death, the attack on Hogwarts, his decision to break things off with Ginny and his own two-week sentence with the Dursleys, he badly needed some laughter in his life.
It was late by the time the commotion had died down, brought on by a combination of excitement and the oh-so-timely arrival of Fred and George - something which Mrs. Weasley once commented seemed to always coincide when the chaos was at its worse. Miraculously enough, the PlayStation had managed to survive the carnage - mainly because Hermione had both summoned the items to her and shrank them at the same time. After proceeding to give Ron, Fred and George a lecture that rivaled one of Mrs. Weasley's howlers, she stomped upstairs with the items.
Harry swore he heard Mrs. Weasley say something about how Hermione would make a most lovely daughter-in-law some day. Ginny merely lifted an eyebrow and followed her friend up the stairs.
She reclined on her bed, watching with amusement as Hermione stowed the items in her trunk. She pushed herself into a sitting position and glanced out the window, at the garage where the light steadily burned. She hoped that he was still caught up in Harry's gift. "Dad's going to be disappointed when he comes in and finds that gone," she mused.
Hermione straightened and joined Ginny. "I didn't think of that," she admitted. "Is he still..."
Ginny nodded. "He was when we were out there." She explained Harry's gift to her father. When she finished, Hermione's eyes shone with unshed tears.
"Magnificent," she whispered and brushed at her eyes. "That's wonderful. That...git is such a selfish, horrible person." Hermione dropped her hands into her lap. "He deserves to have his things taken away from him. He deserves to have food withheld, affection denied and locked into a cupboard."
Locked into a cupboard? A thousand questions, all forbidden, leaped into Ginny's mind. Harry's family, or lack thereof in his case, was something she'd always wondered about since the summer before her first year - when Ron, Fred and George had stolen their father's car to go retrieve Harry from the Dursleys. A few days later, Ginny stumbled across a set of iron bars in the garage and George explained how they had come off of Harry's bedroom window. Being almost 11 and half in love with Harry already, she'd been horrified. The events of that school year pushed the discovery to the very back of her mind.
She was willing to bet what little money she had to her name that the bars were still in the garage.
Twin wars battled inside of Ginny's chest. One was the aching curiosity to know what happened at the Dursleys. Harry, Ron and Hermione had all been so tight-lipped about their two weeks in Little Whinging that not even Mrs. Weasley was able to get much out of them - only that they all appeared noticeably thinner. The second was her conscience, reminding her that this was a very intimate part of Harry's life and if anyone should be telling her this stuff, it should be him.
Hermione leapt to her feet and began to pace. Then she took the decision out of Ginny's hands. "They're horrible, horrible people, Ginny. There's a stereotype in the wizarding world about Muggles - you know those. The Dursleys make me ashamed that I am one, because they fulfill each and every one."
She sank to her bed and cradled her head in her hands. "When I saw my parents at King's Cross, they hugged me. They kissed me. They told me how much they missed me and even gave me this." She pulled a small pendant from beneath her shirt with a single pearl on it. "They were disappointed that I wasn't coming home, but they understood."
"When we got to Harry's house, that horrible uncle of his was yelling at him because his part of his share of dinner was a bit larger than normal. Do you know what he had, Ginny? A slice of bread! I quickly found out that normally it was just half a slice."
"Half a slice?" Ginny thought of all the meals she shared with Harry. When he put his mind to it, he could nearly tuck away as much food as Ron could - and that was quite a lot. "His only dinner was half a slice of bread?"
"He had a little more," Hermione admitted. "His uncle and aunt were eating steak and he got a slice of bologna. They drank wine, he drank water. It was...horrid," she spat, leaped up and began to pace again.
Ginny knew she would grow ill if Hermione kept moving like that. "Calm down," she ordered. "Start from the beginning." She got off the bed, pressed on Hermione's shoulders until she sat on the opposite bed, then took the spot beside her.
She drew in a deep breath and began to tell Ginny about their two weeks in the Dursley household. They had barely seen Harry at times, she explained, because his uncle had him working so hard. Ron pitched in to help out, but that only seemed to make things worse. It got so bad that even Hermione considered hexing the lot, as Ron had repeatedly mumbled the entire time.
"They treat him no better than a house elf," Hermione sobbed. "I take that back, I've seen house elves treated better than him. Every morning, he'd get up before all of us and would have breakfast waiting for them. They barely fed us at all. The things that... man called him... The first night, there was such a huge row that Ron and I weren't sure if it would make things better or worse if we left. Harry said that it didn't matter and you could tell he wanted us to stay so badly. You could see it in his eyes."
Ginny passed over a handkerchief and Hermione wiped her face before continuing. "The worst part was about three days before we left. There was bolts and locks on Harry's bedroom and a small flap door for food - we were even locked in. Thankfully, Ron and I could use magic, so we were able to sneak out. We didn't use it that much though. They're scared of magic, but we didn't want to get Harry in trouble with the ministry. We crept downstairs to get some food and saw that the small cupboard under the stairs was open."
She twisted the handkerchief. "Inside, there was a broken light bulb and this thin mattress and some clothing remnants. I noticed they looked to be about the size a first year wore -well, a first year if he happened to be the size of Dudley Dursley and Ron pointed out that it looked like someone had lived there. Then, it suddenly clicked for both of us. Ginny, that's where Harry lived until he got his Hogwarts letter."
Ginny listened, stunned, as Hermione recounted everything that Harry told them that night - about when he finally unburdened himself about the nearly 10 years of his life that separated the night of his parents' murder and when he left for Hogwarts. Despite the small laugh she got about the hundreds of Hogwarts letters that assailed the Dursley household, the remainder left her furious.
Finally exhausted, Hermione went to bed. Ginny watched her sleep and realized it was the first true rest her friend had gotten since they returned to the Burrow. She understood why she'd been so tormented. How could anyone sleep knowing how horribly the Dursleys had treated Harry? Hermione had kept her thoughts to herself until they finally overflowed because she hadn't wanted to worry either Ron or Harry - especially Harry.
Ginny knew that if she'd been in the same situation, she would had done the same thing. She chuckled slightly. Well, it now appeared like she was in that very situation.
She slipped from the room, still dressed. She crept downstairs and started to assemble the makings for tea. She wasn't quite sure what she wanted to do. Part of her wanted to go in Ron's room - hang Harry's honor and her brother - and give him the biggest hug she could. Most of her wanted to go hex the Dursleys into oblivion. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. No, there were worse things she could do than a simple hex. She could unleash Fred and George on them.
She heard the back door open and automatically reached for a second cup and more tea leaves. She heard the low mummer of conversation and about a minute later, as Ginny placed two cups on the table, her parents stepped into the kitchen.
"What's this?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"I figured you'd like some," Ginny explained, feeling suddenly at a loss. She really didn't want the tea. It just gave her something to do. She smiled at her parents, arms wrapped around each other's waist. It faded when she saw their haggard faces and realized that this war, probably even more so than the last, had made them older. A lump formed in her throat and she quickly looked away, turning her attention to pouring out cups of tea.
"When we got to Harry's house, that horrible uncle of his was yelling at him because his part of his share of dinner was a bit larger than normal. Do you know what he had, Ginny? A slice of bread! I quickly found out that normally it was just half a slice."
Tears burned, but she refused to cry. If she did, she would wind up telling them everything. That not only would violate the trust Hermione had in her, but Harry's as well. No, her parents had enough on their minds. She wouldn't add to their burdens. Besides, Harry would never be going back to the Dursleys again.
Ginny set the tea kettle back on the stove and walked over to her parents. "You two sit and relax," she urged them, then gave them each a fierce hug. "I'm going to bed." She headed to the stairs, then glanced back over her shoulder. She wasn't surprised to find her parents giving her an odd look. She gave them a weak smile. "I haven't said it lately, but I do love you both. Good night!"
She headed upstairs, gave a fond glance at the stairs leading to Ron's room, then headed to bed, where she dreamed of Bat-Bogey Hexes aimed at wicked Dursleys.
The Power of Love and Friendship by DQBunny
Chapter Notes: I do apologize for the unanswered reviews from my first chapter. I moved around the time it was posted and was unable to get back for awhile to check things. There's also been a change in the title of the story, to reflect the fact that I dropped the 30Kisses claim on LiveJournal. I still plan to finish this story using the claims from the 30Kisses community. It's actually up to 11 chapters on another site, so I will be catching up with it over the next several days.
The theme used in this chapter was #27: overflow.