Slowly Harry walked up to his room. Considering how tired he was, his pace was quite rapid. Harry sat at the edge of his bed. He had just finished doing his chores, and he was exhausted. It was only 3, but he had been up since sunrise. Well, at least all the chores kept his mind off of Sirius. He so hated being at the Dursley's. He lay back on his pillow and he quickly found himself drifting off to sleep. For the first time since the Ministry, he found himself having a dreamless, or nightmare less, sleep.
*
Harry was within a house that was unfamiliar, but somehow he knew it was his own. He was sitting on an overstuffed chair, reading a book on Quidditch. Someone was walking through the halls of the house, getting closer. Harry felt no feeling of foreboding, just happiness. Ginny walked around the corner. He realized she looked to be 27 or so, and she was the picture of complete bliss. She sat down next to him on the arm of the chair, and planted a kiss on his forehead. He pulled her down off of the arm and into his lap. She put her head against his neck, and put her arms around him. He rested his head on top of her's, circled his arms around her waist, and pulled her closer. He was content just to stay there for the rest of his life and never move. His dream stayed like that, for the rest of the night; completely relaxed, complete joy, completely heaven. He wondered if this was what love felt like.
*
The next morning, he felt himself being gently shaken awake. He opened his eyes to see…
"Harry dear, you are coming with us,” Mrs. Weasley smiled.
Harry sat there stunned for a second but managed to spit out, “Is there something wrong?
“No, No, Harry, nothing like that. Dumbledore has just talked to us. You are staying with us for the rest of the summer and the summer after and as long as you want to stay. You never have to come back here.” He noticed Mrs. Weasley put a special emphasis on the word never.
“Is this a dream?” Harry asked feebly, unable to comprehend what going with the Weasley’s meant.
“No, Harry,” Mr. Weasley laughed.
Before Harry could respond, Fred and George popped in out of nowhere. “Hello Harry,” said Fred grinning madly.
Mrs. Weasley sent them one of her most deadly looks. “I thought I told you to stay home.”
“Couldn’t resist Mum,” George's smile dripping with charm. Apparently it worked since Mrs. Weasley went on without another word for them.
“We’re going to go have a discussion with you Aunt and Uncle, Hary.” Mrs. Weasley pulled Mr. Weasley away from a broken TV of Dudley’s, and started down the stairs.
“What’s going on?” Harry asked Fred and George.
“You’re coming to live with us. Dumbledore explained or uh, actually we heard him say it,” chuckled George, grinning and holding up an Extendable Ear.
“Since we are relatives of Sirius, and he died to save you,” Fred paused noticing Harry wince a little, “sorry mate, no other way to say it, the same protection that you have at this house, you have at our house, though it isn’t quite as strong, since you aren't related by blood to him. Still, when a wizard dies to save another wizard, a bond is created. You can stay with us. Dad got a little carried away and already added on an extra bedroom right next to Ron’s.”
“We were rooting for you taking Percy’s room but Mum took him back after he apologized.” George grimaced and made a loud retching noise.
“We even offered to dye your hair red and call you the ‘New and Much Improved Percy,’” Fred shook his head, “But Mum wouldn’t go for it. I don’t know why.” Both Fred and George looked puzzled at this.
“Most of us like you better. Especially Ginny,” joked George in a falsely sweet voice adding a little giggle on to the end. Harry blushed slightly, so slightly that it wasn’t noticeable.
Harry was having a hard time taking all this in. He had just bid goodbye to these people less than two weeks ago and here they were saying that he could live with them. They said they’d see him soon but he didn’t realize it would be this soon.
“I doubt you’ve had time to unpack much so gather up you things, and make sure you don’t leave anything, and we’ll portkey out of here."
Harry grabbed Hedwig, who was in her cage, his trunk, and the few belongings possessed and gathered them all together. Fred and George grabbed the trunk and Harry grabbed the bag of items and Hedwig. Quickly they were off down the stairs and were just in time to see Uncle Vernon jumping for joy, which was quite a feat for a man of his, erm... stature.
“Of course,” Mr. Weasley was saying, “You won’t be as well protected if Voldemort comes looking for you to get information about Harry, but, that’s a risk we are willing to take. Now, once again, where will Harry be?"
“In a house, outside of Paris, with his long lost cousin,” said Uncle Vernon rolling his eyes, “How come we haven’t heard of this said cousin before. If he had this long lost cousin why did he have to stay here?”
Harry opened his mouth to object but then he realized they weren’t telling them so if Voldemort did come then they couldn’t give his real whereabouts.
“All right Harry, Fred and George will go with you while you portkey, and we’ll apparate and follow,” instructed Mr. Weasley.
“Gather around you three,” Mrs. Weasley was holding out a battered old bicycle helmet, “3…2…1.”
Harry felt the now very familiar tug around his navel. Soon enough he was in the Weasley’s kitchen with Ron pulling him up from off of his knees.
“Hey Harry.” Ron said, beaming ear to ear. “Great to see you again so soon. I’ll bring you to your room.”
Just as they were going up the stairs, they reached Percy’s landing. Percy popped out of the door looking extremely put out.
”Harry, I…uh….er, I just want to say I’m sorry.” He muttered, looking as if he meant it. Harry didn’t know whether he was sorry to admit his judgement had been wrong or sorry that he had accused Harry. Either way, he was sorry, so Harry decided to forgive him. After all, he would be LIVING in the same house as him, thought Harry with an internal happy dance.
“Everyone makes mistakes,” admitted Harry, extending his hand for Percy to shake which he took gladly, “Yours was just bigger than most, but no hard feelings, I mean half the wizarding world didn’t believe me.”
“Yeah, but the rest of the Weasley family did,” said Ron, throwing Percy a look of the deepest disgust, “And THAT should have been enough for him.”
“Just because Mum, Dad, and Harry forgive you doesn’t mean you’ll get off as easily with the rest of us,” Fred, who had come up to the landing behind them, scowled.
“Yeah, and to make sure you listen better next time, maybe Fred and I should clean out your ears for you,” said George, extending the same instrument he had offered to use on Zachariahs Smith’s ears, the instrument he so obviously loved. Percy gave a small yelp and retreated to his bedroom.
“We can apparate you know!” Fred called into the room.
“I love doing that,” George grinned happily, placing the ‘Ear Cleaner’ in his pocket.
“Yeah, it’s more for threatening then for using,” Fred grinned.
“Now if you’ll excuse us, we have some inventing to do; were working on a new one right now.” George smiled.
“Yeah, Hagrid kind of inspired it. It is a biting book. Not quite as strong as the monster book so it could do no real harm but it is quite funny to pretend to be handing someone a Potions book when they really are getting a book that will snap onto their hands and tickle them until you say the, excuse the cliché “magic words.” And with that they apparated.
Harry immediately knew where they apparated to, but only because they heard Percy scream.
Fred and George both apparated out of Percy’s room and onto the landing above, yelling, “Jumpy!”
Harry and Ron laughed as they walked up the stairs to Ron’s room. Ron opened his door and Harry walked into the now familiar furnace orange room, and sat down on the floor near Ron’s bed.
“Hermione and her parents are arriving in a couple of weeks,” Ron stated, sitting down, and then getting up quickly, “Oh yeah; I’m supposed to be showing you to YOUR room.”