Home Sweet Home

That Afternoon

Sally-Anne and her family arrived at the Burrow just after lunchtime. She was sure they'd missed the others, but she wasn't upset about it. They would only be gone for the day, so she'd see them before long.

"You're sure you'll be alright, Lady Princess?" Taltria asked.

"I'll be fine, Taltria," Sally-Anne replied. "Nothing will happen at the Burrow. I'll have all of Ron's brothers to keep me safe, and I'm quite sure Mrs. Weasley will not allow harm to befall me before the others get back."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Taltria said. She leaned in and whispered, "Lord Scarface will be there too."

"I'm sure that won't be a problem, Taltria," Sally-Anne said. "I think time to catch my breath this summer has been just what I needed."

Taltria and Sally-Anne got out of the car. Sally-Anne pressed down her dress and adjusted her ribbon. After standing up straight, she walked around to the driver's side where her father sat.

"Have a good time," her dad said, kissing her on the cheek. "Lady Princess."

"Don't you start," Sally-Anne said, laughing.

"You've always been my little princess," he said. "Now I've got a good reason to call you that out loud."

"Call us if there are any problems," her mum said. "There's a phone booth in the village, not ten minutes from here by foot."

Sally-Anne rattled off the directions to the booth in question, along with her parents' number.

"Good girl," her mum said. "And you've got the money for it?"

Sally-Anne patted her pack, which was slung around her shoulder.

"You know, a lady wouldn't be carrying her own bag," her father said. "She'd have a servant do it for her, if at all."

"Madame Walker has told me that many times," Sally-Anne replied. "Then Taltria will have one of her evacuation drills, and I'll forget all about it." She smiled politely. "See you at King's Cross on Sunday."

Sally-Anne took a moment to compose herself as Taltria walked her to the door to the Burrow.

"Take care of yourself, don't get into trouble, all that nonsense," Taltria said. "Same old, same old."

"I will, Taltria, thank you."

"Above all else, don't forget to have fun," Taltria said. "Try paying other boys some mind."

"I'm not sure that's how you say that," Sally-Anne said.

"Alright, let's put it another way: Flirt with as many attractive young men as you can, and break some hearts until you find the right one."

Sally-Anne laughed, then knocked on the door.

"Sally-Anne, there you are," Mrs. Weasley said when she answered the door. "And who are you?"

"Taltria." Taltria bowed to Mrs. Weasley. "I'm just dropping off Lady Princess."

"'Lady Princess'?"

"Taltria's my bodyguard, appointed by Rose," Sally-Anne explained. "I don't know why she insists on calling me that, but there's no stopping her, so I've learned to live with it."

Mrs. Weasley looked from one to the other, then nodded and smiled.

"You're welcome to stay."

"No, but thank you, Mother Weasley."

Mrs. Weasley frowned, but Taltria started back to the car before she could protest.

"Come in, Sally-Anne. I'm afraid you've just missed everyone."

"That's alright," Sally-Anne said. "I was expecting that, and I'll see them tomorrow. That way, we can all have time to talk without them rushing out the door."

"I can't argue with that. It'll just be us for supper, so I'm not making anything fancy."

"That's quite alright. I'm still full from luncheon."

Mrs. Weasley turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

"'Luncheon'? So your hair, clothes, and voice come with a matching vocabulary, I see."

Sally-Anne smiled.

"I guess they do. I've been taking elocution lessons over the summer."

"What for?" Mrs. Weasley asked, sitting in one of the chairs in the room.

"It was Mum's idea, in a way," Sally-Anne said, sitting in a chair facing Mrs. Weasley. She sat up straight, laying one hand over the other in her lap. "I've had a few… outbursts lately, and I wanted help managing them. I asked my parents, who insisted that I didn't need anger management classes. We settled on elocution lessons."

"Sounds like you've been busy this summer," Mrs. Weasley said. She waved her wand, and a table walked in the room bearing a pot of tea and two cups. "Would you like some tea?"

"I'd love some, thank you."

The table walked over to Sally-Anne, and the teapot poured tea into one of the cups. Sally-Anne took the cup, holding it gently in her hands.

"Did you animate that yourself?" Sally-Anne asked after she'd taken a sip of tea.

"I did," Mrs. Weasley said, taking her own cup of tea. "I've got most of this house running on its own. A woman's got to have her hobbies."

"Quite right," Sally-Anne said. She took another sip of tea. "If I may say so, it must be lonely here without any of your children."

"I think every parent goes through that at some time or another," Mrs. Weasley said as the table returned to the kitchen. "Of course, they never tell me anything anymore. Bill and Charlie are good boys, but even Percy's keeping to himself now. The only thing I've heard from Ronald in months was this awful letter last year."

"I'm so sorry," Sally-Anne said, her smile fading. "I gave him the idea to write to you, but he didn't let me see the letter until he went to send it."

"It's not your fault, Dear. Boys will be boys. I should know, I've raised plenty of them." She sighed. "One day, he'll get married, and then it will be her problem to make sure he behaves properly."

Sally-Anne frowned and placed her cup and saucer on a nearby table.

"Don't talk like that."

"Like what?"

"Like he's a disappointment. He's not."

"Of course not. I didn't say he was, just that he's young and still has to grow."

"Then tell him that," Sally-Anne said. "He's honestly worried you don't love him. He thinks no matter how hard he tries, you'll always value Bill and Charlie more than him."

Mrs. Weasley glared at Sally-Anne.

"Are you judging the way I raise my children?"

"Nothing of the sort. I'm only telling you what Ron told me. I'm sorry if I offended you."

Mrs. Weasley held her tea as if she were going to take a sip, but glared at Sally-Anne for another minute before taking one.

"At least he talks to someone," she said after she'd had some more tea.

"Mum said she never wanted to talk to her parents either, so you mustn't blame him." Sally-Anne picked up her tea. "Have they at least told you what happened last year?"

"Only as much as they needed to in order to explain where Scabbers went. Arthur… Mr. Weasley said they sent Dementors to Hogwarts, but the Daily Prophet said everything worked out okay. They kept the students safe long enough for the staff to apprehend Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew."

This time, it was Sally-Anne's turn to glare. Her hand shook, but she forgot all about the teacup in her hand.

"What?"

Mrs. Weasley frowned and put down her teacup.

"Is that not what happened?"

"Did they really use the word 'safe'? Was that their exact word?"

"Of course. Dementors only go after people who've done wrong."

"And I suppose you know what they do to those people?" Sally-Anne asked, her vision going blurry from tears.

"Settle down, Dear, it's not a big deal."

"Dürah!" Sally-Anne screamed, crushing her cup in her hand.

When she realized what she'd done, her eyes grew wide with horror.

"I'm so sorry," Sally-Anne said. "I didn't mean to, I just–"

"It's alright," Mrs. Weasley said. She stood up and waved her wand over the broken teacup. The pieces reassembled themselves and returned to the table next to Sally-Anne. Another wave of her wand removed the tea from Sally-Anne's skirt and blouse.

"I'd hate to see such a nice dress ruined."

"It would take more than that," Sally-Anne said. "Rose made me this dress, so I'm sure it's sturdier than that."

Mrs. Weasley took Sally-Anne's hands in hers, and Sally-Anne reflexively drew her hands back.

"Sorry," Sally-Anne said. "Force of habit."

"An interesting habit," Mrs. Weasley said as she looked over Sally-Anne's hands for scratches from the broken teacup. "I see what formed it. Ginny's mentioned that you've got a rune on your hand. What is that?"

"A Shield Rune," Sally-Anne replied, folding her hands back in her lap as Mrs. Weasley returned to her seat. "Professor Babbling's been teaching me how to use it."

"You'll have to tell me all about it, but first I've got a few things I'd like to know. First: What did you mean? I assume dürah is some curse word you kids are using."

"Yes, but not like you think. It's something we've all picked up from Rose. The way she uses it, it means 'nonsense' or 'something ridiculous', but Daddy says it probably means something else."

"Well, then, I promise not to tell anyone that you used such an unladylike term, but you've got to tell me what you meant about the Dementors."

Sally-Anne was downcast for a moment, then returned her gaze to Mrs. Weasley. She did her best to explain what transpired the previous year, although she broke into tears more than once.

"I don't mean to look silly, I'm sorry," Sally-Anne said, wiping her eyes again.

"You're fine. I didn't realize how bad it was. Those Dementors shouldn't have gone after you and your friends. Didn't you tell someone? There was never a report about this in–"

"Mum says the Daily Prophet is run by the Ministry, so they couldn't report on anything that would harm the Ministry's image when they're trying to restore it."

They didn't say anything for a few minutes. Sally-Anne regained her composure, but kept her face hidden behind her teacup.

"Let's change the subject," Mrs. Weasley said. "Is there anything going on between Ronald and Hermione? They seem awfully friendly lately."

"They had this big fight last year, and I think they're just happy it's over. Ron might fancy Hermione, but I'm not sure if she feels the same."

Mrs. Weasley watched her expectantly.

"And the rest?"

"I'm not sure I should be gossiping about my friends."

"I'm not going to tell anyone, and it's not as if I'm getting any romance these days."

The two of them laughed.

"Alright. I've heard nothing official, but Hermione fancies Cedric Diggory."

"Really?"

"I can't tell if he's interested or not, but she's certainly keen on him."

"It will be interesting to see how that plays out. What about Ginny? Is there a special young man in her life?"

"I'm not sure. She was obsessed with Harry for the longest time, but I think she's over him now."

"That's a pity," Mrs. Weasley said, finishing her tea.

"Not enough that he's your unofficial son?" Sally-Anne asked.

"I guess not," Mrs. Weasley said.

Mrs. Weasley went quiet for a few moments, and Sally-Anne chose to root around in her mind. A decision that she would later come to regret.

… unfortunate. It was cute while it lasted. It'd be nice to have the Potter fortune, but–

"What?" Sally-Anne asked.

"What?" Mrs. Weasley echoed.

"You just want his money?!"

"I didn't say that," Mrs. Weasley said, furling her brow. "What are–"

"'It'd be nice to have his fortune!' Harry's a person! He's been through Hell his entire life! If you dare think you're going to fix Ginny up with Harry just to get his money, I will fight you tooth and nail! I don't care who you are!"

"Sally-Anne, calm down. I didn't mean it. It was just a… passing… thought."

Sally-Anne was so angry, her vision was going red. This woman claimed she loved Harry like her own son, but in reality, she was just after his money!

"I didn't say that, I thought it," Mrs. Weasley said. "Are you in my head? How?"

In some distant part of Sally-Anne's mind, it occurred to her that she'd just outed the pendant.

"Did you ever actually care about him?!" Sally-Anne screamed. "How far back does this lie go?! Who else is in on it?!"

"Calm down!" Mrs. Weasley shouted in a distorted voice. The ceiling vanished behind dark clouds, and the floor turned black and eroded away, revealing a maelstrom of blood beneath them. Lightning flashed in the clouds above them and the maelstrom below them.

Sally-Anne snapped out of her blind rage and sat back down. Her eyes grew wide as she took in every detail around her.

"There, that's better," Mrs. Weasley said as the room returned to normal. "I'm sorry to scare you like that, but when you're a parent, you'll understand."

"How did you do that?" Sally-Anne asked. "What spell was that?"

"I think it was Professor McGonagall that taught me that when Charlie was a teenager. There were times when he just wouldn't listen."

Sally-Anne nodded, her eyes still wide. She hadn't believed it until then, but Molly Weasley was not a force to be taken lightly.

"It was just a stray thought," Mrs. Weasley said. "I'm sorry, Sally-Anne, I didn't mean to imply I just wanted Harry's money in the family. I want him in the family. He's like another son to me, and it'd be wonderful if he were a proper part of my family. Now, why don't you tell me how you read my mind?"

Sally-Anne took a few more breaths.

"This," she said, holding up her pendant. "Rose made it for me after I was attacked by the Basilisk two years ago."

"What?"

"They don't tell you anything. Harry and I just had… a rather public argument, and I… I was alone and the Basilisk got to me. Afterwards, while I was recovering in the Hospital Wing, Rose gave me this."

Sally-Anne blushed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout like that. I'm such an idiot! I'm not supposed to tell people about my pendant, and now you know about it, and–"

"I won't tell a soul," Mrs. Weasley promised.

"All summer I've been practicing keeping it together, and I still get worked up over Harry."

"Really, it's–"

"I wanted to take anger management classes, but would Mum let me? No! 'You're fine, Sally-Anne. You don't need to manage your anger.'"

"'Worked up over Harry'?"

Sally-Anne stopped talking and her eyes went wide.

"I'm just going to stop talking now," Sally-Anne said, her face now bright red. She covered her face with her hands. "Don't look at me."

"I was planning on asking about you next," Mrs. Weasley said, laughing, "but you've answered that for me."

Sally-Anne regained her composure.

"Any young man would be lucky to have you, 'Lady Princess'," Mrs. Weasley said. "Don't be surprised if I start trying to push one of my boys your way."

"I will try to take it as a complement," Sally-Anne said, a smile returning to her face. "I must say, I am enjoying our chat overall. It's nice to get to talk about all this. Everyone comes to me for advice these days, and Alex and Myrtle are the only ones I can talk to about it."

"I haven't heard about them."

"Alex Nertlyn was mine and Hermione's prefect. She's wonderful. She's been like a big sister to me for the past three years. I've been writing to her all summer, and she even visited once. I don't mean to sound conceited, but I think I was her favorite."

Mrs. Weasley smiled.

"Myrtle is Myrtle Warren, one of the ghosts at Hogwarts."

"Moaning Myrtle?"

Sally-Anne nodded.

"She and I are good friends. I visit her now and then, and we talk about anything that comes to mind. Usually boys. She never had any friends, so she's kept everything to herself for the past 50 years."

"You've got quite the group of friends," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Well, I do count Rose and Luna among them. I haven't the faintest idea what's going on with either of them, though. Rose is… well, last year she had a lot on her mind. Not that I can tell, mind you. She did warn me that I wouldn't be able to read her mind when she gave me the pendant, although Luna's… different. I can hear her thoughts, but I can't make sense of them. They just jump from one thing to the next, and they're even out of order sometimes. It's bizarre."

"Well, given her father, I'm not surprised that she's different."

"She's still my friend," Sally-Anne said. "Even if she is odd. Professor Babbling says her mum was brilliant."

"I didn't know her too well," Mrs Weasley said. "I mean, Ginny and Luna are friends, but I never spoke much with her parents. Just small things, such as the weather, or the market. It wasn't that easy to talk to them either."

She paused for a moment, and Sally-Anne resisted the urge to go digging again.

"What about Harry? How's he been doing?"

"Right now, Harry's obsessed with this girl called Cho Chang."

"Who?"

"The Seeker for Ravenclaw. Her with her 'oh, I'm so pretty and amazing at Quidditch'. She flashes him one smile and suddenly he's enamored!"

Sally-Anne paused and took a few deep breaths.

"He's happy with Sirius, though. I'm glad for it, really. His aunt and uncle are awful people."

They spent the rest of the day talking. Mrs. Weasley showed her around the house, and told her stories about herself. They ate a small dinner, during which Mrs. Weasley gave Sally-Anne some embarrassing stories about the Weasleys next time Sally-Anne needed to keep them in line.

"I'm glad I've got an ally in the cause," Mrs. Weasley said.

"I don't know how I became the responsible one," Sally-Anne said. "I thought it would be Hermione, but then I ended up trying to keep everyone safe. I guess she stops us from breaking the rules, while I keep us all in one piece."

"There's nothing wrong with that."

Sally-Anne awoke that night to a loud chime echoing through the house. It was still dark, and the entire house was silent, broken only by the clock chiming.

"What's happening?" she asked, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. "Is everything alright?"

She snapped out of her trance when she heard Mrs. Weasley scream.

"What's wrong?!" Sally-Anne shouted, leaping out of bed. She grabbed her robe from her bed post and sprinted downstairs.

She soon found the source of the chimes: the clock that showed the status of all the Weasley children.

All the hands were on "mortal peril".

"What do we do?" Sally-Anne asked Mrs. Weasley, who stared at the clock in horror.

"There's nothing we can do," Mrs. Weasley said. "They're too far away, and–"

"How fast can you get an owl to my house?" Sally-Anne asked, shouting to be heard over the chiming of the clock. "Taltria's there, and if she can get here, then she can send a message to Rose. Rose could send us there, if she doesn't just handle it herself." She frowned. "Wait, it took nearly an hour to drive here, so an owl will take longer than that, and then she'd have to get back. Neville's closer, right? Intelligencer's with him. We could–"

"Augusta won't be awake," Mrs. Weasley said, "and they had to travel by portkey. It wasn't a long range one, so they had to walk until they were within range. We can't just send someone there either."

Sally-Anne ran through any possibilities. The only condition conchs were with Hermione and Dripty, and Hermione was at the match, and Dripty was at Hogwarts. Owls would take too long to get back to her house, and the Longbottoms wouldn't be awake. Intelligencer didn't sleep, but he couldn't open the door or window for them.

"I should've let Taltria stay," Sally-Anne said. "If I had just let her stay, this wouldn't be happening."

"There's no time for regret," Mrs. Weasley said. "There's a village not far from here. If we can–"

"Phone booth!" Sally-Anne exclaimed. She bolted up the stairs, grabbed her pack, and pulled out the small bag of coins her mother had given her.

"I can make a call from the phone booth in the village," she said. "I know the way. Mum made me memorize it in case there was a problem."

"Let me throw some clothes on, and I'll come with you," Mrs. Weasley said.

She started up the stairs when the clock stopped chiming.

"It stopped," Sally-Anne said. "What's that mean?"

"That they changed to something less urgent," Mrs. Weasley said as she hurried over to the clock. "Thank Merlin, they're alright."

Sally-Anne caught up to her and saw the hands were now over "traveling", with the continued exception of Mrs. Weasley, who was "home".

"What about Harry and Hermione?" Sally-Anne asked. "Are they alright?"

"We'll just have to wait until morning," Mrs. Weasley said. "They'll be home first thing, so we'll find out before long. Let's try to get some sleep."

Sally-Anne didn't sleep that night. She laid in bed, staring at the ceiling. What happened? Did Rose know? If Hermione were in danger, Rose would've been there. Right?

She knew the way to the phone booth. She could call home and see if Taltria was still there, but she was afraid to go out alone. It wasn't that Sally-Anne was afraid of what might happen, but that she'd run into trouble and not be able to defend herself without giving herself away.

The next morning, an owl dropped a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of Mrs. Weasley. The headline read "DEATH EATERS AT WORLD CUP".

Both women read it together, and Sally-Anne wanted to collapse when they finished.

"No mentions of any casualties," Mrs. Weasley said. "That's a good sign."

"They didn't mention that students were being tormented by Dementors either," Sally-Anne said. "They also didn't mention how the Ministry workers fended off the Death Eaters. It said Death Eaters took those poor people captive, but it didn't say how they were freed."

"You're reading too much into it. Everything's fine."

An hour later, Sally-Anne was pacing around the living room, glancing at both a normal clock and the grandfather clock every few seconds.

"They're late," Sally-Anne said, pacing around the house.

"I'm not sure a lady paces nervously," Mrs. Weasley said. "You're going to make yourself sick if you worry so much."

"I'll be fine," Sally-Anne said.

"When was the last time you saw Harry?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"June."

"So you've put all this work into your appearance and behavior, but this is going to be his first impression of it all?"

"He might've gone home with Sirius," Sally-Anne said, trying to reassure herself more than anything.

Mrs. Weasley had a point; she wasn't sure she could stand having Harry see her like she was. Her hair was a mess, she hadn't washed up since the previous day, and she'd barely got any sleep. When she thought about it, he'd probably seen her much worse.

"You could still have a chance to clean up," Mrs. Weasley said. "It might help you take your mind off everything."

"Maybe, but they could be here any second," Sally-Anne said. "I want to be here when they get here."

Mrs. Weasley glanced out the window, then turned to Sally-Anne.

"Don't tell Ginny I did this, otherwise she'll be asking me to do it all the time."

Sally-Anne stopped pacing.

"What?"

Mrs. Weasley waved her wand, and Sally-Anne's hair cleaned and fixed itself. Sally-Anne felt the magic sooth her body, as if she'd just been scrubbed from head to toe in a nice, warm shower.

"Thank you."

"It's no problem." She glanced out the window again. "And just in time, too. Here they are, safe and sound. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go hug my children within an inch of their precious lives."

An hour later, Hermione and Sally-Anne sat in the shade of one of many trees near the Burrow. Hermione's head rested on her knees, and she stared vacantly at a blade of grass. Screams from the night before still rang in her ears. She still saw burning tents and smoke when she closed her eyes.

"Are you sure you don't want to go home now?" Sally-Anne asked.

Hermione nodded. She felt safer surrounded by so many people. Not to mention, Rose wasn't that far from where she sat. Seeing how frightened Mrs. Weasley had been was bad enough; she couldn't bear to put her parents through that. Hermione had already decided she wanted to give her parents more time to be happy. They didn't need to know what had happened just yet.

"Alex says 'hi'," Sally-Anne said.

Hermione smiled at the mention of her former prefect.

"I could use her right about now," Hermione said. "She'd know what to say."

It was Sally-Anne's turn to smile. "She always did."

Hermione allowed her mind to drift back to the days of the past year. It all seemed like a dream to her. Happy days and bad times all jumbled together. She couldn't tell the difference; they all seemed good compared to what she'd just been through. Even her fight with Ron wasn't that horrible anymore.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there," Sally-Anne said. "I could've helped."

Hermione shook her head. "They'd have just hurt you too. Besides, I didn't exactly give anyone a chance to wake up. I just ran in on my own."

Sally-Anne shifted closer to her and put an arm over her friend's shoulders. "It'll be alright. I can talk to my parents. I know Mum will have some answer. Probably some friend she's made that will be the perfect solution. She's got a lot of friends like that, and if she hasn't, Dad has."

Hermione nodded, although she hadn't paid much attention to what Sally-Anne said. She just kept telling herself that she wanted to go home.

"How are your lessons going?" she asked, taking the first idea for an alternative topic of conversation that popped into her head.

"Not as well as I'd like," Sally-Anne replied. "I still had a few outbursts when talking about… erm…"

"Is it about your crush on Harry?" Hermione asked.

Sally-Anne let out a small yelp, then blushed and recomposed herself. "Who told you? Or did you just work it out or something like Alex did?"

"You're not that good at hiding it," Hermione said absently. "If he's as oblivious as Ron, then you've got nothing to worry about. He'll never pick up on it."

Sally-Anne let out a small laugh. Hermione couldn't tell if her heart just wasn't in it, or it was her hiding behind her manners.

"Have you talked to Ron since last night?" Sally-Anne asked.

"No, just you and Rose."

"How'd Rose take it?"

"Not that well. I think she was scared."

"Not surprising, given what you've been through. I think we're all a little scared." She smiled at Hermione, who couldn't bring herself to smile back. "What about Cedric? He'll want to know too."

"What for?"

"He's your friend, remember?" Her smile took on a sly edge. "And I know you fancy him."

Hermione shot Sally-Anne the dirtiest look she could muster.

"That's more like it," Sally-Anne said. "I expect dirty looks from you, even if that one doesn't look that different from your sulking face."

Hermione let out a small laugh. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Sally-Anne said, giving her a quick squeeze before withdrawing her arm. "It takes me a bit longer than Alex, but I find the right thing to say eventually."

Hermione smiled and allowed the pain from the previous night to drift away.

"Look at the bright side," Sally-Anne said. "This time next week, we'll be back at Hogwarts. Spending time with all our friends, going to class, keeping the boys out of trouble."

"Something's going on at the Ministry," Hermione said. "Cedric and Mr. Weasley avoid the subject, but there's something going on."

Sally-Anne frowned. "Does Rose know?"

"I don't know, but she might."

"Then there's nothing to worry about," Sally-Anne said. "If it's a problem, Rose will sort it out."

Hermione wanted to believe that. Rose had been the one that stopped the Death Eaters, but she wasn't always there. She tried to be though. That was important, right?

Hermione decided it didn't matter. She pushed the thought out of her head, and focused on the upcoming school year. That'd surely provide her with the distraction she needed. Then she could put the World Cup behind her like a bad dream and move on with her life.