In This World And The Next (Completed)

Chapter 7

Arthur couldn't take it anymore and left the table, heading straight out the room, his actions though just made Muriel worse.

"How am I supposed to teach the child manners when the parent behaves like that? The sooner you all leave here and it's just young Ginevra and I, the better. Now what else does that letter say?"

Ginny was trying to get hold of herself, "Luna met the people who bought the Burrow," everyone was now silent as their eyes were glued to the littlest Weasley, awaiting the news. None of them were prepared for what came next. "It was the Potters!"

There was mayhem until Bill shouted them down, "Quiet!"

Percy couldn't let it go though, "But Bill, they stole our home!"

"They didn't steal anything and, had you said that in public, mum and dad could have ended up in court. They bought our land at a very fair price, the only other offer on the table was from Lucius Malfoy and was almost a tenth of the one our family accepted. Malfoy wanted to publicly rub dad's nose in it, he probably made sure all of his 'friends' wouldn't bid either. Without the other offer from the Potters, none of you would have been able to return to school."

Ron still didn't get the point, "But they're living in our house!"

It was a still tearful Ginny who answered him, "Our house is completely gone, Luna said they removed every trace of it and are building from scratch."

There were now tears in almost every eye at that revelation, the Burrow held a lot of happy memories for all of them, there was no going back now.

Arthur rather decisively marched back into the dinning room that now had the atmosphere more akin to a funeral parlour, "Boys are you packed?" After receiving nods all round he turned to Ginny, "I have another option for you princess, would you like to stay with Luna?"

Ginny had trouble believing what she was hearing so wanted to make sure there were no mistakes, "You mean instead of here?"

Her father's nod had her diving out her seat and straight into his waiting arms, bugger asking her aunt's permission to leave the table, she was leaving this entire nightmare.

Molly just looked at her husband for confirmation, "I just spoke to Xeno on the floo, he would be delighted if Ginny stayed there. Luna has been withdrawing in to herself more and more since her mother died and he thinks this is the very thing to help both of our daughters. I feel bad enough having to leave Ginny behind but couldn't live with myself after seeing how unhappy she is here?"

Muriel was raging, "That child will grow up spoilt if you give in to her every whim, a touch of discipline is what she needs, not pampering."

With that comment Arthur lost any doubts that he'd made the right decision, "I don't think 'pampered' could be used to describe any of my children, you seem more than wiling to administer the discipline Muriel but there is no love in this house to balance it out. You are welcome to raise any children you have, however you see fit but mine will be raised the way I want. Weasleys let's go, we're spending the night at the Leaky Cauldron before going our separate ways in the morning."

It was as if Arthur had performed an exorcism on the room, there were suddenly smiling redheads hurrying to collect their trunks in case their father changed his mind or they got left behind.