In the World of Magic(Harry Potter Next Generation Fanfic)

Chapter 26 - The Burrow

Amanda's POV

I couldn't believe my mum. She had a hard time adjusting? What about me? But of course I didn't matter. It was all about how it affected others. She probably saw everything as my fault too. I mean, I took part of the blame, but everything wasn't my fault.
Currently, James was leading me around the platform trying to find his parents. I was a bit nervous. I had met his father before, but then I hadn't been his girlfriend. I hadn't even met his mum!
Albus and Lilly were just behind us, talking about different things they would do when they got to the Burrow.

"I wonder what mum will say now that I have a beautiful girlfriend", James wondered out loud with a smile my way when he mentioned me being beautiful. Some times I wondered how he could always be so nice.

"Stop it! You're making me even more nervous", I complained and lightly hit his arm. He stopped in his tracks and turned towards me. There was this kind of adoring look in his eyes that made me a little uncomfortable.

"You're nervous?", he wondered with surprise. I cleared my throat a scratched my neck a little before answering.

"Yeah! I mean, I've never really been nervous before when I've met anyones parents. It have never been a big deal before", I told James as I bit my lip and changed my weight from left foot to the right. James leaned forward and kissed my lips quickly. I frowned with a small smile and tilted my head.

"What was that for?", I asked him in complete confusion.

"That was a thank you for caring enough about our relationship to be nervous", he explained before starting to pull me away once more. I laughed lightly as I realized that he was right. The reason I was so damn nervous was because I cared. It was nice knowing that, almost calming. Only almost.

"There they are!", I heard Lilly exclaim just before she rushed past us towards two adults. One of them I recognized well as Harry Potter. He was standing next to a stunning looking woman, who I could see looked a bit like Lilly. I followed James while taking deep breaths in a last attempt to calm my nerves.

"Hey guys!", James greeted and embraced his parents. Lilly and Albus also seemed as happy as James was to see their parents. I could easily understand their happiness.

"You must be Amanda. I'm Ginny Potter. It's really nice to meet you! I hope that my children haven't been acting annoying infront of you", the woman greeted me with a warm and allert smile.

"It's nice to meet you too. I can promise you that they've only been slightly annoying", I teased. Without missing a beat, all three Potter children exclaimed at the same time "Hey!". Harry, Ginny and I all laughed att their reaction.

"Let's go to the car, we have a long way to drive", Ginny said and motioned for us to start walking. We did and I felt James take my hand discreetly. We walked close together while trying to push past all the people around us.

"That wasn't so bad, now was it?", James asked me with a carefree smile. shrugged my shoulders a little and looked around us. We had just gotten out from the train station and the cold winter air ad hit us. Snow lay on the streets in a mixture of grey and white. In a way it was beautiful. In a way it was disappointing.

Everyone always expects perfect white snow in the winter, but we only get the grey mush that comes with the fumes from the cars. That's one of the few reasons why I would prefer to live outside a city. Somewhere close to the forest where no one ever walks. A silent and private place where I would be able to experience actual white snow.

"Here's the car", said Harry and opened the trunk. We hadn't brought our trunks, just normal bags. That way they could all fit inside the trunk of the car. The problem came later on when we realized that everyone would not fit in the car. There were only five seats in the car, we were six.

"Ron and Hermione are here to pick up Rose and Hugo. One of you could ride with them", Harry suggested almost immediately after we had discovered the problem. Lilly was directly volunteering to go in the other car.

"We need to find them first, though", Ginny thought out loud and she went together with Harry to find their friends. Albus and Lilly were left with James and me.

James leaned towards me and put his arms around me in an embrace as soon as his parents were out of sight. I leaned into his warmth and put my head against his shoulder.

"Could you two stop? There are still people present to witness your disgusting acts", Lilly exclaimed in a deep groan. I could feel James chuckle as his chest vibrated. I smiled a little to myself and felt as if I could actually fit in. James' family was at the time more like a family to me than my own was.

•••

I was not sure if I would have gone into the house had I not seen magic before. It looked like it could have fallen over any second. When I stepped inside all of my doubts about the house disappeared. It was very cosy and I loved that you could see that people actually lived there. It wasn't like many houses, where everything was set to perfection. The house had character, something that made it easier for me to feel at home inside of it.

"Lilly, could you show Amanda your room?", Ginny asked as she started to walk up the stairs with a bag in each hand. Lilly smiled broadly and lead me towards the same stairs her mother had just gone.

"I hope you don't mind us sharing a room", Lilly said as she opened the door to one of the rooms in the house. A girl was already inside, unpacking.

"Amanda, this is Rose. She's our cousin and daughter of Hermione and Ron. Rose this is Amanda, James' girlfriend", Lilly introduced us. I smiled at the girl and thought about the coincidence that she has the same name as my best friend. I didn't even react at the way Lilly had said girlfriend, emphasizing every letter and saying the word a little louder than the rest of the sentence.

"It's nice to meet you", Rose smiled kindly at me. I couldn't help but notice how many books were laid out on the bed in front of her. By the looks of it they were all school related books.

"The pleasure is all mine", I told her and followed Lilly towards the bed she showed me was mine. I put down my bag on it and prepared to unpack. There were four other beds in the room except mine. Lilly and Rose were occupying two of them, which meant there were still two beds empty. I didn't bother asking whose they were. I simply assumed that I would find out when the time was right.

As the three of us unpacked in silence my mind started to wonder towards my previous troubled thoughts. It was so nice that James' whole family got together the way they all did. The problem was that it got me thinking about how my own mother couldn't handle seeing me. I knew that she had written that the reason for me not coming home was my own safety. I had trouble believing that. She had not seemed that concerned about my well being in that letter. I felt hurt that she could let go of me so easily. She barely wrote to me, she was completely fine with me maybe not coming home next summer. A normal mother would be concerned about me and a normal mother would have written to their child every chance they got. I seriously felt neglected. And it hurt.

When Lilly, Rose and I walked downstairs we went towards the kitchen. There I met more of James' family. There I also started to feel better. They didn't threat me as a stranger, nor were they acting the least bit cold towards me. As I sat with the bunch I actually felt like I belonged with them. They talked with me and treated me like everyone else. Their kindness made me realize something. It made me realize that I wouldn't be without family on Christmas. I would be surrounded about loving, caring and incredible people. To me, that was more than enough.