Lemon Grass and Sleep

12 GRIMMAULD WHAT NOW?

I was having a lovely lunch on the field with Glinda, some sort of picnic. The sun was shining and the snow had gone, just a dry breeze blowing her hair off her shoulders as she took dainty bites of a ham and cheese sandwich.

"You know, I think I want to work in the Ministry," she declared with a solid nod. "That sounds impressive, something to brag about."

"Really? I think it's a bit snobbish," I countered, glancing down to the food before looking up to the sky. Beautiful, billowy clouds gathered together to form magnificent shapes.

"Ah, what do you think you'll do, then?" She asked with an impish smile. "Be a good little housewife, will you?"

"What?" I asked, caught off guard.

"Thomas, wake up." Her lips moved sluggishly, not matching her voice.

"Thomas," a hissed whisper spoke from behind my head. My vision went pitch black, and wind brushed against my cheeks and threaded itself through my hair as if I was plummeting from a building with a hundred stories.

"Thomas, wake up," a hand gripped my shoulder, and grogginess flooded my senses.

"Huh?" I sat up, running my hand over my face to clear the darkness from my vision.

"Merlin, you're a deep sleeper when you want to be," a familiar voice piped up from across the room.

"Hush, George," Molly voice fussed.

Molly?

"Ms. Weasley?" I asked, my eyes adjusting to the darkness of the dorm room.

"Hello, dear," her motherly tone immediately made me completely comfortable with the fact she was in my Hogwarts dorm room. With those two words, I was completely convinced that this was where she belonged in the moment. Is this what imperio feels like? "We've come to collect you up."

"What? At this hour?" Confusion was the next thing that filled me, I glanced over at the clock on the wall, proudly displaying something like three in the morning.

"We'll explain later, come get your things," George said. Wait, George?

I glanced to my right, seeing Fred standing by my bedside, oddly quiet. George was leaned on the door frame, propping open the bedroom door to a pitch black hallway.

Something in the seriousness of their faces convinced me that this was not the time for questions, and I swung my bare feet over the side to land on the frigid stone floor. It didn't seem like there was much time to change, though, and I just put on my slippers before filling my luggage with my things.

"Don't you have anything else?" Fred asked, helping me put my last book alongside my few changes of clothes.

"Em, no," I awkwardly said, feeling a bit embarrassed that all of my worldly belongings barely filled half a suitcase.

"On we go, then."

Bells didn't quite appreciate broom rides, and I didn't particularly like this one either. Even with my arms wrapped around Fred's torso, and his heat seeping into my pajamas and spreading all over me, it was a long and dreary ride.

We were all damp enough to be a bit grouchy by the time we landed on a muggle street somewhere in London. I think I'd done a good job of not asking any questions up until this point, that I was owed at least a tiny explanation.

"So, what's this place?" I asked gently, afraid that if I said the wrong thing I'd be back in Hogwarts within the hour.

"Just a bit longer, dear," Molly replied tired, closing her eyes as if she was concentrating.