Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 69: A New Roof
"Hmm… what is it?..." Ginny groaned when she felt someone shaking her body.
"Come on, wake up already!"
This was soon followed by the annoying voice of her brother. "Ron? What are you doing in my ro—" Ginny stopped mid-sentence when she realized that this was not her room at all.
It was a large, fancy bedroom that she had never seen before.
Memories from last night began to rush into her mind. "Wait… we were in the garden with Harry, and… and then what?"
"I don't know either, but we are not at home, that is for sure." Ron offered his insight on the situation.
"You think?" Ginny responded with sarcasm as she stood up from the bed.
She looked down at herself and was relieved to find out that she was still wearing the same clothes as last night.
All of a sudden, the door of the bedroom opened. On the other side, there was a house-elf staring at them.
"Breakfast is ready," he simply said.
"W-wait, you are…" Ron pointed at the house-elf, but before he could say anything else, this one disappeared.
"I've seen that house-elf before."
"I thought these walls looked familiar," Ginny said before glancing at her brother. "Of course, you have seen the elf. That was Kreacher… we are in the House of Black."
She walked out of the bedroom and made her way down to the kitchen, where she found the rest of her family having breakfast at the table.
"Good morning, dear," her father greeted her with a smile.
"Did you sleep well? I don't really like the bedrooms in this house," Molly added.
"Sorry to hear that. I didn't have time to redecorate," Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Food!" Ron appeared from behind Ginny and immediately rushed to attack the plate of sausages at the table.
"Okay… can anyone tell me what happened?" Ginny asked.
"We were brought here last night," Fred told her.
"After our house was attacked, apparently," George said.
"Apparently?, But you were there when... wait." She remembered Harry muttering something before everything went dark.
'Did he put us under a spell?.'
Her eyes shifted across the room, only to find that the one person she wanted to speak with… wasn't here. "Where is Harry?"
"He is with Dumbledore," Sirius responded.
"Albus was here an hour ago," Molly said. "He explained the situation to us."
"Indeed, he did. Apparently, our house suffered a nasty attack last night. We won't be able to come back for a while," Arthur commented casually.
Ginny was surprised by the nonchalant attitude of her parents. "What do you mean by that? No, we were definitely attacked by Death Eaters. I saw the wards activating. And th—"
"Wait, we can't go back home? What about my stuff?" Ron sounded outraged. "No way I'm staying here without my things. I'll die of boredom."
"Just eat your sausages," George said.
"How long do we have to stay here? George and I need to take care of our shop. We are getting close to our grand opening," Fred commented.
"Albus said he will come back in the afternoon after he has a chance to investigate things properly. Until then, no one goes anywhere," Molly told them.
"This house may not be the coziest place in the world, but you are all safe in here," Sirius told them. "Also, Kreacher has been behaving much better lately. He even prepared the breakfast you are eating."
"Now that you mention it…" George said.
"He does look a lot less cranky than usual," Fred glanced at the elf as this one was cleaning the dishes.
"What happened to him?" Ginny was also surprised by the change.
Once the weight of that promise had been lifted from the poor creature's shoulders, he had been a lot happier.
"Who knows? Perhaps he had a change of heart." Sirius scratched his head. He couldn't really tell them that Kreacher's change had been triggered by Harry finding the Horcrux he had been hiding and promising to destroy it in his place.
Ginny turned to her parents. "You said that Dumbledore explained the situation to you… what exactly did he say?" She wondered if her parents had finally learned something about Harry's secret.
"Mmm…" Molly and her husband exchanged a look. "Nothing that you children should be worrying about. Let us handle this."
"Hey, that is not fair. It was we who ended up handling things at the Ministry," Ron complained. "We fought the Death Eaters and won!"
"Ron! Don't you bring that up now," Molly glared at him.
"That is not something to be proud of, son. You and your friends put yourselves in a lot of unnecessary danger," Arthur told him.
"And you didn't really fight any Death Eaters," Fred pointed out.
"Unless you count that brain in a jar," George chuckled.
"Shut up! I did fight them! I threw a stunner at Malfoy," Ron shouted.
"Ron, I told you that's enough! Eat your breakfast in peace," Molly demanded.
Ginny sighed and stood up.
"Aren't you going to eat?" Arthur asked.
"Sorry. I'm not feeling very hungry," Ginny responded. Right now, the only thing she wanted was to speak with Harry and find out what really happened, and not just what Dumbledore told her parents.
"Ah, hold on." Sirius walked up to her and pulled a piece of parchment from his pocket. "I don't know when he'll be back, but Harry left this for you," he said before handing it to her.
"For me?" Ginny took the note and looked at it for a moment. "Excuse me. I'll be in my room." She turned around and hurried out of the kitchen, eager to read its contents.
"Why is Harry leaving letters for my sister?" Ron looked at Sirius. "Did he not leave one for me as well?"
"Ehm… no, sorry," Sirius shrugged.
"Oh…" The twins exchanged a knowing look.
"Someone is having a nice summer," said George.
"What are you talking about? I was having a nice summer too," said Ron, not really understanding the meaning behind his brother's words.
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