An: Thank you for the lovely reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter. This was written before DH so don't be too upset if things stated are not consistent with DH.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Chapter 1 - Welcome Home
Harry, Ron and Ginny froze for a second before they decided to draw their wands. They were slow on the draw though, since it had been so long since they had to react to a situation. They each had a bet on who would answer the door. Ginny thought for sure it would be their mom. Harry said he thought it might be one of the grandkids. When they left Fleur had just given birth to a baby girl, Nathalie. Ron said he thought it might be one of the twins. Never had they expected it to be him.
The moment's hesitation was enough time for him to disarm them and summon their wands. He stood there smirking at them and enjoyed revelling in the moment.
"Famous Harry Potter comes back to visit and is disarmed in less than a second. One would think you would be able to put up a better fight than that Potter?"
"Malfoy! What are you doing here?" Harry sneered as he looked at his wand clasped in Malfoy's left hand.
"Draco!" A women's voice called out from further inside the Burrow interrupting the standoff. "Draco Lucius Malfoy, you get back here this instant!" The female screeched at the top of her lungs. Neither of them recognized the voice and Harry could swear he saw a flicker of fear pass over Draco's face.
"There you are! I hope you don't think you are getting out of his house through that door." The woman stated angrily.
In response Draco opened the door wider for her to see the three people at the door. She was tall with short red hair that stopped at her shoulders. She had freckles on her face and beautiful green eyes. Her skin was slightly tan and she had a great figure. She narrowed her eyes at them and glanced briefly back into the Burrow and then back at them. Harry could see a spark of recognition in her eyes.
"Oh my god Draco is that." She said in an astonished voice.
"Yes." Draco said nonchalantly before he decided to do a formal introduction.
"Arianne meet Harry James Potter, Ronald Bilius Weasley and Ginerva Molly Weasley." Draco said a bit too smugly as he waved their wands carelessly through the air. He enjoyed watching them squirm.
"Oh Molly's going to be so thrilled. I will go floo her right away." Arianne said enthusiastically looking at Draco
"She's busy today." Draco reminded her in a know it all tone that sounded eerily of Hermione.
"Right," the redhead head said giving him a confused look. "What about the others? Where's Percy?" Harry looked incredulously between the redhead and Draco. He couldn't understand why Malfoy was in the Burrow with that woman and why they were acting so normal.
"Hogwarts," Draco replied
"Charlie?"
"Work"
"Fred and George?"
"Hogwarts"
"So what are we going to do?" Arianne asked exasperatedly.
"Invite them in?" Draco said with a shrug.
"This is my house you can't be debating over whether or not to invite me in!" Ron said angrily as he decided to barge straight in with Ginny rounding up behind him. Both took the opportunity of Draco's distraction with Arianne to retrieve their wands from him. Once inside the house Ron trained his wand on Draco and Ginny pointed hers at the mysterious woman. Harry grabbed his wand from Malfoy and quickly cast a binding hex on him so he would be unable to move his arms and legs.
"Who are you?" Ginny asked as she glared at the female intruder.
"Didn't I just tell you her name is Arriane. Jeez Weasel, you would think after all these years you would have at least a little bit more intelligence." Draco sneered at Ginny.
"Don't talk to my sister like that." Ron shouted at him. Ron's ears had gone bright red and his face was slowly turning colour to match his hair.
"Settle down guys. I'm your sister in law, Ginny." Arianne replied with a happy smile on her face. She had no fear that Ginny would hex her. Molly had always described her only daughter as a caring girl and Arianne couldn't imagine Ginny hexing her over nothing.
Ron and Ginny both turned to the other completely confused. They had been gone for seven years. They realised that their brothers must have married but they never expected to meet one of their brother's wives like this.
"Potter you going to release me or what?" Draco asked as he broke the confused atmosphere that had settled on the Burrow.
"Malfoy, I don't know what is going on here but before the end of the day I will wipe that smug smile off your face." Harry threatened.
"Release him. Let's go to the kitchen for some tea and we can explain everything. I imagine it's been quite a shock for you." Arianne said warmly.
-*-
Harry noted that nothing much had changed in the burrow as he, Ron and Ginny made their way to the kitchen. Once they entered the kitchen, they did notice that the table that once sat nine, now sat twice as many. Again, they should have expected that the family would have expanded when their brothers got married but actually encountering these small changes still affected them. Ginny briefly glanced up to where the clock should have been but was disappointed to see it gone.
Arianne busily set about making tea and told them they could sit anywhere. The three of them sat together on one side of the table and Draco sat opposite them. Arianne levitated the tea pot along with the cups and saucers to the table.
"Draco, you think we could make this into a surprise for Molly? I can just picture it now. If we can get everyone here it would be perfect." Arianne said enthusiastically as she sat down next to Draco.
"Sorry to burst your bubble Ari but not everyone comes to the burrow and I think something like this is best left to be discovered naturally. Molly will be here in a few hours to check up on me. She'll find out then." Draco said confidently.
Arianne gasped. "I almost forgot." Draco groaned. He had given himself away. He glanced at the door and started deciding on the best escape route. It was a skill Snape had taught him.
"Draco, don't you dare." Arianne said as she followed his line of sight to the door. "I promised Molly I would take care of you and I will. Now open up and take this potion. It's just a drop." Arianne said summoning the potion and a dropper into her hand.
"If it's just a drop, let's see you take it!" Draco replied as he stubbornly crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"Don't make me hex you!" Arianne said threateningly
"Ha! You couldn't hex an elephant if it were standing right in front of you!" Draco replied superiorly.
"I could hex him." Both Harry and Ron volunteered happily.
"Draco stop being so stubborn and take the medicine." Arianne said ignoring the comment from Harry and Ron.
Like a little child, Draco turned his back to her and clasped his hands over his ears saying he couldn't hear her. Arianne giggled at his antics and Ginny looked horrified at Draco.
"That may have worked for Louis but you are an adult Draco. I don't care how bad your childhood was you can't behave like a child with me." Arianne said seriously.
"I'm not taking that blasted medicine ok." Draco replied stubbornly.
"Listen here mister, either you take it or I will call Hermione and Luna to shove it down your throat!" Arianne threatened.
Harry had been ignoring their little spat and patiently waited for them to get to the part of the conversation that involved their presence at the Burrow. However, the mention of Hermione's name caused Harry to listen more intently to their idle chit chat. Throughout his seven years of travelling it was Hermione's presence that he missed the most. There were so many things he saw or did that he wanted to share with her. It was Hermione that brought him back to London.
"Mione and Luna are at work!" Draco teased with a broad smile.
Harry frowned at what Draco called Hermione. She hated nicknames and she would never let him or Ron call her anything but Hermione.
"Maybe not but I'm sure if I floo them they would be more than happy to come and help." Arianne said with an evil smile.
"Uh, not to interrupt the lovely argument but I would be more than happy to shove that whole vile down his throat." Ron said menacingly.
Arriane jumped a bit when Ron spoke. It appeared as if she had completely forgotten their presence. A wicked smile came to her face.
"No" Draco said fearfully.
"Either you take the medicine or I enlist the help of your brothers and sister." Arianne said with a rather large smile.
"I am not his brother and Ginny and Harry definitely are not his brother or sister!" an enraged Ron stated.
"Well Draco?" Arianne asked as she held the medicine up again. She had completely ignored Ron's comment.
"As the movie said, catch me if you can!" and Draco was gone with a soft pop.
"That insufferable git! Hear my words Draco, I will get that medicine down your throat before Molly comes back if I have to tie you down and give it to you? Arianne screamed loudly into the house.
"Why are you screaming? He's gone. Isn't that good?" Ginny asked. She was beginning to think the woman in front of her wasn't all there in the head.
"He's still in the burrow. He wouldn't have left. He wouldn't dare defy Molly like that." Arianne said as she appeared to talk more to herself than them.
"What is going on here?" Harry asked in a firm tone. He had had enough of the strange woman's ramblings.
"I'm so sorry. I know I haven't been the best hostess but Molly entrusted this task to me and I have to prove to her that I can do it. She told him he was to stay in the burrow all day. He wouldn't have gone against her wishes. If only she had told him he was supposed to take his medicine. I can't believe the one thing she has ever asked me to do and I can't do it. Why must Draco be so difficult! I don't know how Hermione and Luna can put up with him!" Arianne rambled on but Harry noted the reference to Hermione and Luna. She grabbed three more droppers and gave one each to Harry, Ron and Ginny.
Harry looked incredulously at the woman. She still hadn't answered his question! How hard was it to answer a simple question? She was really beginning to gnaw at the small amount of patients he had left.
"What are these for?" Ron questioned looking at the tiny dropper she handed him. Ron had thought of a very good word to describe his so called sister-in-law would be neurotic! No wonder his mother didn't trust her to do things very often.
"These are droppers. He only needs a drop of the medication. We have to hunt him down and force him to take it. We'll need to split up. I suggest one person cover the kitchen, one person the bedrooms, oh, I guess I should do the bedrooms. We don't want the babies to wake up. One person should go to the attic and I think one person in the garden. That should do it." She said as she listed off the places on her hand.
"Hold up a second, why are we running around the house after Draco?" Ginny asked
"Draco's got the flu. He has to take this medicine or it will just get worse. But being Draco he doesn't want to take the medicine. He'd rather suffer with the flu. Which would be fine really, except the last time he had it, he gave it to everyone and trust me you don't ever want to see Hermione sick?" Arianne shuddered at the thought of a sick Hermione.
Ron had in fact seen a sick Hermione once and he knew that he definitely did not want to experience that again.
"Why do we have to split up?" Ginny asked innocently.
Arianne explained that the wards had recently been improved and Draco was one of the few people that could apparate within the burrow. If all four of them confronted him he would just apparate somewhere else. She reasoned if one person confronted him and he did apparate, there was a high possibility that he would apparate right in front one of them. She continued rambling until she decided they had wasted enough time. On the way out they could hear her mumbling continuously to herself.
"Is it me or does she need to be taken to Arkam Asylum?" Ron asked. He had become quite the Batman fan recently.
"Definitely mental," Harry agreed shaking his head.
"I think we're missing something really big." Ginny said thoughtfully.
"Big is an understatement Gin. I feel like I'm a complete stranger here." Ron frustratingly stated.
"The big question is why is the ferret in the Burrow on Mom's orders?" Ginny asked confused.
"At least now we know why we couldn't apparate straight here. Though I wonder why they would have needed to change the wards." Harry said as he began to ponder the issue of the wards.
He remembered during the war Mr. Weasley had placed strong protection wards on the Burrow. They got through the entire war without a single incident. He couldn't understand why they would need to redo the wards now.
"Besides the whole crazy persona, she seems pretty nice. You think we should help her?" Ginny asked
"On the bright side, it does mean getting rough with the Ferret." Ron stated eagerly.
"Well, since you put it like that, I'm definitely in." Harry said with a wicked gleam in his eye.
"Do you think we could trust her?" Ginny asked. She had been pondering how trustworthy she was the minute she saw her with Malfoy.
"I guess but we'll keep a close eye on her. Malfoy did say that your mother would be stopping by soon. We could wait until then." Harry replied as he analysed the situation. He started to think of different torture scenarios he could use on Malfoy.
"Ok, Harry, you got the attic and Ron gets the garden. I will stay down here." Ginny said with a broad smile as she pulled out a magazine out of her bag and started reading it on the table.
Harry and Ron both groaned as they headed to their particular assignments. Harry had many ideas about how they would be greeted and to be honest, none of them included the Ferret and a neurotic sister-in-law.
There were two main themes to the fantasized welcome home. One in which the Weasley's were angry at them and the other where they were elated that they had finally returned. Each fantasy was a little different. The differences were usually the person who told them to get lost or welcome back.
Harry got the feeling that they missed out a lot in the last seven years and they had a huge amount of catching up to do.
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