*NOTES* Wow almost three weeks! Really? Wow! Well, I guess you guys want this update then. I hope you enjoy it. There are about three chapters left to this story. I've already written the next one because I got a stupid plot bunny but I'm not going to post it right away I want to hear your thoughts on this chapter first. There are a bunch of laughs in this chapter which I felt was needed after all those depressing letters. Anyways, read, enjoy, and as always review.
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Molly Weasley was use to cooking for so many people, but she wasn't use to the help she was receiving. Tonks and Jane Granger were also filtering around the kitchen as they cooked for the huge amount of people that was going to clean out Grimmauld place in one hour. She pulled out four more plates as the twins and Bill and Fleur came bustling in from outside. Today was going to be one hectic day, she thought, as she yelled upstairs for Arthur to come down and eat.
Breakfast flew by rather quickly and soon she found herself standing in the square outside of Grimmauld place. She watched as Remus went and tested the door. He opened it and then ushered Fred forward. When Fred didn't go flying backwards he decided it was safe enough for the rest of them to come inside. Molly looked about and saw all the furniture had been covered in white sheets. They really did think of everything, she thought as she looked around.
"Okay we are going to do this in an organized fashion." Molly started to say but soon everyone started calling out where they would be. The twins said something about the bathroom, Bill and Charlie said Ron's room, Remus and Fleur said they would tackle the kitchen, Tonks said the map room, Ginny said the library, and that left her and Arthur to the two bedrooms left. It was then she noticed that the Grangers had filtered into the parlor area and where starting to clean.
Fred and George decided they would tackle the main bathroom first and then go to the one that was down by the kitchen. Bathroom are private places and they knew they were going to find a bunch of junk, but the note on the door, that first greeted them, was not something to be expected.
Ron's Shopping List
Please pick up:
Milk
Cookies
Chocolate bars
TAMPOONS (the slim kind)
Sanitary Napkins (You remember the brand right?)
Silently they shared a look. Both of their faces had gone an intense red color as they tried to laugh it off. But they knew that Ron and Harry had not had it easy living with a girl. Thankfully, they weren't at that point in their relationships with their respected others.
The door really should have been a clue as to what the other side could hold but they went in anyway. The twins were met with a huge amount of color. White, black, red, some pink, and a tiny bit of purple. They immediately shut the door to met Charlie and Bill coming up the stairs.
"Hey you two," Charlie said. He took in the twins rigid statures and knew they were up to something. "What did you two do? Mum is going to kill you if you make a mess out of this house."
"We didn't do anything we swear. We just opened the door to the bathroom." George said in a high pitch tone of voice. Bill reached out to open the door they were all standing in front of. "I don't think Hermione would want you doing that bro." George said but Bill paid him no heed.
All four Weasley boys were met with the most unusual sight. Inside the bathroom, Hermione had hung all of her knickers up. A quick and easy way to laundry without doing a load, but then again the boys didn't know that.
"Well, we will get Ginny to clean this out," Charlie said as he took in the sight of a lacy pink thong.
Bill and Charlie had moved on to Ron's room while the twins went to tell Ginny about her new chore. They braced themselves for the worst of messes before they opened the door. But they were pleasantly surprised to find the floor in the room spotless. Not the same thing could be said for the walls though.
The walls were completely covered in pictures, maps, notes, and even pages from books. Charlie conjured up a couple of boxes and they got to work cleaning off the walls. They found pictures of every member of their family, Harry, Hermione, Neville, and even one of a blond haired girl with bottle caps around her neck. There were multiple pictures of Harry and Hermione, some with and without Ron. The maps were of different areas of England. On the maps were push pins and notes. Obviously, Ron was keeping track of the Death Eaters movements.
It took them a while to clean off the walls; apparently Ron had gotten good at the sticking charm, but once they were down they could see the white walls. Bill moved on to the desk and Charlie tackled the dresser.
They worked silently sorting through all of Ron's stuff. Bill found a tin can full of napkins with girl's handwriting on them and phrases such as "call me" written on them. Charlie found a pile of dirty laundry bigger than a pile of dragon dung. It took them a couple of hours but when they finally piled all of Ron's stuff into boxes it looked just as before. Almost like the room had never been lived in. If it wasn't for the wall posters, which were now in the boxes, no one would have even given the room a second thought.
Remus and Fleur sat at the kitchen staring at the impossibly clean counters and cradling cups of strong tea. They both knew that there would be no need to clean the kitchen and they both had their reasons for avoiding the other areas of the house. For Remus it held too many memories. Some of Harry and some of Sirius, but mostly the memories were of Harry. For Fleur she was in a bind. She didn't know what to think or what to do. She just sat there drinking her tea and wishing it would all go away.
"When are you due?" Remus cleared his throat before posing the question.
"Seven months," She let a sigh she had been holding and then broke down with the thought that finally someone acknowledged it all. "He hasn't noticed, Remus. What if he is like this with the baby?"
"The Weasley boys can be a little daft but when Bill is finally told he will be the best father in the world. Stop doubting him and most importantly stop doubting yourself." They both turned back to their tea and their thoughts. Each lost in their own world of preoccupation while the others picked up the pieces of three lives.
Jane Granger had just picked up a picture of Harry and Hermione around what looked like Christmas time. She noticed that mistletoe hung over the two heads but neither of them seemed to notice. They just stood in the picture laughing and occasionally chatting about something. The picture of course was a magical one. It had taken her some time for her to get use to these types of pictures, but now she was so accustomed to it that she wondered why the some of them didn't move, in all Roger and her packed up two boxes full of pictures and three boxes full of books.
"It seems that they capture every possible moment they could in pictures." Jane said as she picked up one and almost dropped it.
She found herself staring at her daughter, who looked much disheveled, Harry, who's arm was draped protectively around her slightly cloth less body, and Ron was also in the picture. All three were sitting in the same room that she currently occupied. The three of them sat on a love seat couch, one she noticed wasn't that far away, and they all looked extremely tired if not happy. It looked like the three of them had just fought a battle, but what made her almost drop the picture was the look in Hermione's eyes. They sparkled with something that she had never seen before and she tried to place it but couldn't. Her daughter had changed too much for even her own mother to recognize her facial expressions anymore.
Ginny made a face as she looked at all the books the library held. It was as she was on to her third box of books that she got flung away from them. Her wand was immediately drawn and aimed at Dobby the house elf.
"I is sorry miss but no one is allowed to touch Miss Hermy's library books. Harry Potter said so." Suddenly the books all went flying back to their original places and even opened to the pages they were left on if they were left open. "I is to guard them," Dobby said as if that explained it all and in truth it really did.
"Well can I at least clean up around the books?" She was getting irate of all this `Harry protecting Hermione' crap. What about Harry protecting her? Didn't she count for anything anymore?
Dobby said he saw no problem as long as she didn't touch the books. She went about dusting around all the books and picking up dirty dishes. It took some time but she finally finished cleaning the insane library. "Hey Ginny," Charlie's voice came floating over to her from the doorway. It was then she noticed a pile of clothing in the corner by the door. She paid no heed to her brother as she went to pick up the clothes.
Bending over she picked up one of Hermione's shirts, a pair of socks that looked like they belonged to Harry, and a sweater with the letter "H" on it. It was at the bottom of her pile that she felt her anger take over. There was a bra.
"Well I guess you already got a head start on what we need you to do." Charlie said trying to make light of the situation. By the time Ginny forced herself to turn around she had gained her composure somewhat. After all, she thought, this could be completely innocent.
"Did you need something?" She asked as she pilled the dirty dishes on top of the clothes.
"Yes," Charlie noticed his sister reasoning with herself. "We were wondering if you could clean out the bathroom." Ginny let lose a sigh and nodded her head. She handed, shoved, the clothes and dishes to Charlie and left the room for Dobby to continue guarding.
Tonks was on guard as she entered the map room. It wasn't like the room was dangerous she just never knew what state it was going to be in when she entered. Tonks spent many hours training the three teenagers in the map room. One side of it held all they would need for muggle and wizard fighting, and the other side held all they would need to have some fun.
Her eyes met the familiar sight of padding on the walls and of their weapon case. True they were wizards so they barely ever used muggle weapons, but Tonks liked to give them a complete background in everything. She began taking a tally of what they had taken with them. All the throwing daggers were missing, two of the mini shields were gone, and so was Ron's double-sided sword. Well, she thought, this makes it easier for cleaning this side of them room.
Once she was done taking down the sparing equipment and packing up the rest of the swords and even two shotguns did she face the other side of the room. There, her eyes set upon, two bookshelves full of games. The first game she pulled out was the one she hated and loved the most, Twister. She had spent hours playing this game with the three of them and it had actually improved her klutziness.
Carefully she brought down each game and put them in boxes. It felt weird to be doing such a thing because it sort of meant they were never coming back. Sighing she put the last game in a box, Chinese Checkers, and then shrunk all the boxes. This is life and they just happened to live during a war, she thought as she closed the door and locked the door to the map room.
Ginny opened the door to the bathroom and immediately started to laugh. She could just picture her brothers face's as they took in Hermione's knickers. In fact Ginny got the feeling that the older girl had done this on purpose. With yet another snort she set about gathering up all the clothing and then silently left the room the now empty room.
Molly was surprised at the emptiness of Hermione's room. She should have known better judging from the memories and letters but she had hoped they had kept up some decorum. It was in seconds of leaving Hermione's room that she approached Harry's door. But before she could even put her hand on the door knob a pop sounded from behind her.
"Ma'am I is sorry but I is to deactivate the wards. Harry Potter told me." She found herself staring at a house elf with big bottle green eyes. This, she thought, must be Dobby. She waited patiently for Dobby to work his magic and then thanked him.
Entering the room was somewhat of a laugh for Molly could tell which side clearly belonged to each person. Hermione's was the one closest to the door and it was neat and had a pile of books by the bed. Harry's side was somewhat of a mess; clothes were strewn about, Quidditch posters were on the walls, and even one painting of Hogwarts. Cleaning Harry's side of the room was going to take some time.
Molly got to work making the bed which had way too many pillows on it and then she set to work picking up the clothes. She was amazed at how many clothes two people could amass. It seemed that Hermione finally got Harry to go clothes shopping for all the clothes he owned now looked like they might fit him.
Once she had packed all the clothes into some boxes she went about packing up their knickknacks. Like in every other room in the house this one also had a mass of pictures. On Hermione's bedside table she found pictures of the Grangers and on Harry's she found pictures of Lily and James and even one of the entire Weasley family. In the box that the pictures went in she also put in Hermione's books. She then went around the room collecting the posters from the walls.
"How's it coming dear?" Arthur's voice floated over from the doorway.
"I just need to empty their bedside tables and then I will be done." She gave him a soft smile and headed towards Hermione's bedside table. Arthur took Harry's and they empty the insides of them.
Finally everyone had gathered back in the entryway with all the boxes. There was about twenty-five in all and Remus took one last glance at the house. "They sure picked up a lot of junk," He commented at the sight of all the boxes shrunken and lined up next to each other.
"We would have had more if Dobby had let me pack up Hermione's books, but no that is forbidden." Ginny said with sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Do we even know what Dobby is going to do now that they are gone?" Ginny questioned Remus but he had no answer for her. It was as he shrugged that they all heard a pop, "it seems that Dobby has other plans. I'm sure he will be fine." Remus said and with that he gathered up all twenty-five boxes and left Grimmauld place without looking back.
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