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Today was finally the day (or rather, afternoon) that both you and Harry had been waiting weeks for: the day that you'd get to see your friends again for the first time in what felt like forever.
Your trunks were packed full to the brim in preparation, and you'd gone over your checklist of things to pack a dozen times. You had never been this obsessive over packing your bag before.
"Pacing around isn't going to make them arrive any faster, you know?" Harry reminded you from where he was sat on his bed.
He was flicking through an old muggle newspaper to pass the time, reminding you of how your Uncle Vernon would do the same in the morning. It was clear that Harry had no interest for the goings-on of the muggle population, but he kept reading nonetheless.
One of the downsides to sharing a room with your brother meant he had to watch all of your nervous habits.
"But what if they've forgotten to pick us up along the way? Or if they can't remember our address?" you stress, ignoring him and continuing to pace back and fourth across the wooden floor.
Knowing your Aunt and Uncle, they'd probably complain about this, saying that the creaking floorboards were making too much noise for their liking.
"They'll be here in no time. Ron, Fred and George will remember where we live because they came to rescue us in their flying car only two years ago, remember?" Harry exclaimed, folding up the newspaper and throwing it to his bedside table.
Another look at your worried face made him try to reassure you again, "And we told them our address in our response letter, George is responsible enough when he wants to be.
"I guess you're right." you sigh, flopping down onto your bed which was situated on the opposite wall to Harry's.
"And he'll re-read the letter anyway." he murmured, but you managed to catch his words.
Your head jerked from the mattress so you could properly glare at your brother, "What do you mean by that?"
"You know exactly what I mean Y/n." he scoffed, and he was right, you did know what he was getting at.
Harry had a tenancy to tease you about your friendship with the twins, but usually George in particular.
You'd learnt that the best way to get out of that conversation was so ignore him, so ignore him you did. You broke the menacing eye-contact and let your head fall back onto your pillow.
With arms and legs carelessly dangling in various angles, you tried to get yourself to relax. The high amounts of overthinking you did was one of your least favourite qualities about yourself.
"And here I am, thinking that people were supposed to get wiser with age." your brother scoffed.
"Watch it Harold, I'm almost at the age where I can curse you outside of school." you grumbled back, which shut your brother up rather quickly.
To you, the next half-hour felt like it was the length of a year. Nothing happened throughout that time, you couldn't hear any noise apart from Harry's occasional shuffling on the other side of the room.
But soon enough, just as you were about to get up and start pacing again, something interrupted the rare silence in the Dursley household.
A loud thud, followed by a swarm of alarmed yelling caught your attention. Your head shot up from the pillow and you locked eyes with Harry, who shared the same expression of excitement which you also held.
"They're here!" you both exclaimed in sync, springing up from your beds.
You were hot on Harry's heels as he rushed down the stairs towards the source of the outburst of noise. As you ran closer to the lounge, the sound of voices grew louder.
Your brother swung the door open and you peeked over his shoulders, allowing you to see the four read-headed boys that were stood in the center of the room. The quartet of Weasleys was made up by George, Fred, Ron and their father.
The room fell silent, all eyes quickly landing on you and your brother. You offered a small smile to the Weasleys, but your eyes quickly diverted to your Aunt and Uncle.
"Harry! Y/n! It's lovely to see you again!" Mr Weasley smiled warmly, turning his back on your angry, red-faced relatives.
Both Dursley adults were absolutely fuming at the intrusion. This was down to the fact that you didn't actually tell them that your friends would be arriving that day, and neither did Harry.
"YOU! POTTERS! What is the meaning of this?!" Vernon spat.
"Sorry Sir, but could you lower your voice? I'm sure your neighbours have better things to do instead of snooping in on us." George pointed a finger out of the window and into the back garden to where a middle-aged woman was peering over her fence.
Vernon's face fell instantly, "Don't order me around in my own house, boy." he hissed, but became considerably quieter from then on.
"I want you out of our house this instant." Petunia's shrill voice interrupted her husband's intense stare-off with the younger Weasley twin.
"We just need to take their luggage and we'll be out of your hair in no time." Mr Weasley replied, trying to sooth the situation to no avail.
"You will do no such thing!" Vernon retorted, "I have every right to call the authorities on you outlandish group of freaks!"
"Oi, who are you calling freaks?!" Ron barked back, taking a step towards the man.
But before he could do anything, his father swung an arm out in front of him, "Ron." was all he said in an unnaturally stern tone, which quickly made the youngest boy stand down.
"Y/n, Harry, take the boys up to your room and they'll help you with your bags." Mr Weasley added, much to Petunia and Vernon's dismay.
They tried calling after you, but the twins had hooked their arms through yours and Harry's, and were now pulling you both upstairs as fast as they could.
Ron was following close behind, "Did you miss us?" he asked with a grin, visibly glad to be seeing you and your brother again.
"Y/n definitely does, she couldn't stop pacing for a whole hour after she finished packing." Harry said flatly as he opened the bedroom door.
"Hey! You weren't supposed to tell them that!" you hiss back, smacking his arm.
"That excited to see us, hm?" George taunted, following you through the door.
"We're flattered." Fred added, ruffling your hair.
"As if." you scoffed as you tried fixing what he had just messed up, "I'm simply looking forward to the Quidditch World Cup."
"I don't think I believe you." Fred doubled down, reaching his hand back over to your head.
You dodged him, smacking his hand and turning away from him, only to come face-to face with George.
The younger twin was crouched down to purposefully be directly at your height so he could stare you dead in the eyes, face only a few inches away from yours, "Are you sure about that, love?"
"Okay that's enough!" Ron interjected, clapping his hands to gain everyone's attention, "Dad's got his hands full downstairs so he probably doesn't want us to keep him waiting."
"But he's got all that muggle stuff to look at while we're up here!" George protested, standing up straight and gesturing behind him: down the stairs.
You breathed a small sigh of relief that he was now out of your face, the proximity and the small distance between you two made your head spin. He was your friend, he did these sorts of things all the time and yet you'd never gotten used to it.
"Yeah, I'm sure you and Harry will get a right earful from him about everything he sees here." Fred nudged you in the ribs.
"I think it's kind of sweet that he's so interested in muggle things." you huffed and elbowed him back.
Truthfully, you enjoyed talking to their father about muggle 'artifacts'. It reminded you of how you and your parents would talk about other meaningless things for hours on end before their untimely death.
Ron took another deep breath, deciding to be the responsible one in the room, "Well if we want to get back home soon, we've got to be quic-"
An ear-piercing screech interrupted him, but it wasn't from anyone in the house like you would've expected.
All heads turned in the direction of the open window, and you recognised the source of the sound, "Juno!"
Your owl perched herself on the windowsill and cocked her head at you, "You got here just in time." you cooed, smoothing down the feathers on the top of her head.
Juno was an all-black owl, the exact opposite to Harry's Hedwig. Hagrid bought her for you on your first trip to Diagon Alley.
"So now we've got everything, right?" Fred asked with Harry's trunk in hand.
"I think so." Harry replied, "Now can we leave? I don't want to spend another minute in this house."
Ron agreed, leading Harry and Fred downstairs. You had to take a moment to get Juno into her cage, whilst you were doing so, George grabbed your trunk for you.
"All good?" he asked.
"All good, lets go." you smiled back, shutting the door behind both you and George as you left.
"You really have to have that stupid ginger carry around all your stuff because of your tiny little injury?" the voice of your cousin called from the other end of the hallway.
The boy was leaning against his bedroom doorframe, looking at you in disgust.
"For the hundredth time Dudley, it's not just some small injury." you sigh, looking down at your left arm wistfully.
It was a constant reminder of your parents' murders, instead of a lightning-bolt scar, you received a much more limiting repercussion. On the night of the attack, your father hid you in the wardrobe of his bedroom. The space was tight, but it was the best place he could hide you in.
The last thing you remember of your father was the feeling of him letting go of a tight embrace, and then him kissing your forehead with a hushed whisper of "I love you".
You could hear the yells and screams of your parents as their lives were taken by the Dark Lord, and yet you could do nothing. When Voldemort then turned on your younger brother, you had to press a hand over your mouth to stop yourself from screaming. This only made your arm even more cramped, pressing it against the wardrobe door even harder.
The killing curse was used against Harry, and you had to bite down on your hand as you saw the flash of emerald light, but the spell rebounded in two directions. One struck Voldemort, and the other shot straight in the direction of your wardrobe.
That was the first time you screamed since the Death Eaters invaded your house. The jet of green light hit the wardrobe door - which thankfully dampened the blow a lot - but it still damaged you. It struck your left shoulder, the one that was pressed against the door, leaving a scar in the shape of a massive fork of lightning that reached from your shoulder to just above your elbow.
Ever since that day, the mobility in that arm had been limited. It wouldn't move in certain directions, and usually caused horrible throbbing pains which sometimes affected that whole arm - not just the shoulder.
"Don't waste your breath explaining it to him again." George said when he realised you hadn't given a retort like you usually would. He pointedly glared at your cousin, which sent him scurrying back into his room at the end of the hall.
"You okay?" he asked softly, vastly contrasting the harsh tone he had used with Dudley.
"I'm fine, he's just a prick." you say with a roll of your eyes, but then you noticed George's worried face, "Don't look at me like that! I'm all good, I mean it."
"If you say so Y/n." he shrugs, then puts on a smile, "We should get going, c'mon."
You follow him downstairs to where they originally came from. Mr Weasley was staring at something on the fireplace in awe, and the Dursleys were staring at him in silence as he tried making feeble conversation. Fred, Ron and Harry were stood awkwardly among this, and the youngest Weasley seemed to be trying to feed his own finger to Hedwig.
"Aha!" Mr Weasley said upon seeing you and George arrive, "We'll be off then."
Vernon mumbled something under his breath, but he didn't seem to have the nerve to say it any louder.
"George, Y/n, I'll take you back first," he added, then turned to the others, "And I'll be right back for you three."
Without wasting any more time, the man grabbed both yours and George's upper arms tightly. Before you had a chance to speak, the world started spinning and you felt like you were falling at a million miles per hour.
And then all of a sudden it stopped, and your vision unblurred quickly after. The first thing you noticed was another redhead stood in front of you.
"Mum! Y/n is here!" Ginny yelled out behind her as she pulled you into a hug.
"It's nice to see you again Gin." you smiled, squeezing her tightly in return.
She pulled back from you, letting her eyes sweep across your face, "It's felt like forever since I last saw you!"
"I should go get the others, I'll be back soon." Mr Weasley said, awkwardly reaching over you to ruffle his daughter's hair. An ear-splitting crack echoed through The Burrow, and then he was gone.
"He needs to stop doing that right next to us, too loud." George groaned, covering his ears.
Mrs Weasley suddenly appeared from elsewhere in the house, coming down the stairs with a bundle of clothes in her arms. She quickly dumped them on the sofa and approached you three.
"Stop fussing George!" she scowled, then turned to you with a smile, "Hello Y/n, how have you been, dear?"
"I've been fine, but you know how the Dursleys can be." you smile softly as she hugs you.
The Burrow felt like home, more of a home than Privet Drive had ever felt. You felt welcomed here, and you loved every second of being here.
With another loud crack, your brother and the remaining Weasley boys returned. Molly was quick to scoop Harry into the hug too, meaning you were squished against him uncomfortably. You gasped for air once she let you both go.
"It's lovely to see you too Harry!" she beamed.
"You too Mrs Weasley." he flashed her an identical smile to the one you wore.
"No greetings for your kids?" Fred laughed, raising his eyebrows at her. Molly rolled her eyes in return, then turned back to you and Harry.
"Now I'm sure you're both tired dears, so the boys will take your bags up to your rooms for you." she said, then turned back around to her children and gave them a pointed stare, "Won't you."
It was less of a question and more pf a non-negotiable statement. They looked between eachother and furiously nodded at their mother, who was now bearing a satisfied smile.
"Harry, you'll be staying with Ron. And Y/n, you'll sleep in with Ginny, Hermione will get here in the morning."
George let out a shocked gasp at his mother's announcement, "She's our friend! Why can't she share a room with us?"
Harry suddenly started choking on air, startled by what he had just heard. Ron even thumped him on the back a few times to help him clear his throat.
When your brother stopped choking, he stared daggers at George, "Pardon?" he hissed at the older boy, but was ignored.
Ginny grabbed your wrist and pressed her lips together in an attempt to stop laughing at Harry's reaction, but you could only awkwardly furrow your eyebrows at her.
You had to admit, you almost laughed at George's accidental innuendo too.
"I'm not having boys and girls sleeping in the same room!" Mrs Weasley scoffed.
"But-" Fred tried to back his brother up, but was quickly interrupted again.
"No buts! Now, boys, take Harry's and Y/n's bags upstairs for them. It's getting late." she said definitively, turning and going back to the pile of clothes she had previously discarded.
"Yes Mum." all three Weasley boys drawled in sync.
The twins grabbed the trunks again, signalling for you and your brother to follow them.
"Oh, I'll take Juno up for you!" Ginny offered, and you didn't have the energy to protest, so you handed over the cage.
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There were only a few more hours left of daylight after you had arrived. You spent those hours mainly lounging around and catching up with the twins in their room.
A constant smile was etched onto your face from simply being around them, it felt natural to be by their side once more.
"I missed this." you sighed from your place at the foot of one of their beds.
"We told you you'd miss us." Fred laughed, tossing an empty chocolate frog box at you.
"And we missed you too." George added, catching the box before it hit you, and then throwing it back to his brother with ease.
Instead of making a sarcastic remark like you normally would, you let a peaceful silence settle in the room. The twins were worn out from working on their new pranking projects, so they were calmer than usual.
But that silence didn't last for long, because Ginny was soon calling for you to come to her room to sleep, "Y/n! If you're not here in five minutes I'm going to make you sleep on the floor!"
You let out a loud groan in protest, "I guess that's my queue to leave."
"Why do you have to go so early?" Fred complained.
"Yeah, I don't get why we have to go to sleep so early!" George nodded along, then thought for a moment and added, "Or why you can't stay in here for the night."
"I think your mother just wanted everyone awake really early tomorrow." you explained, though you didn't truly know the answers to their questions.
"Doesn't answer why you can't share a room with us." George grumbled.
"Well, as much as I'd love to spend more time with you two, I don't want to face the wrath of Molly Weasley in the morning." you say, swinging the door open to leave, "I'll see you both tomorrow anyway."
The twins both called out their goodbyes as you closed the door behind you, but you ended up standing with your back pressed against their door when you heard the unmistakable sound of Fred's laughter.
You could hear him wheeze out something between his bursts of uncontrollable giggling, but you couldn't exactly make out what he had said.
The sound was muffled through the oak door, but you could swear you heard a pillow slam into Fred's face to interrupt him, along with a quick, "Shut up." from the younger brother.
It seemed like Fred and Harry were alike in their teasing ways, it was probably a brotherly thing.
You shrugged and let out a yawn that you didn't know you were holding in, "Maybe I really do need to go to bed." you mumbled to yourself.
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