Fractured AIAOY 6

Chapter 15

Number 12 Grimmauld Place became their home for the bulk of the winter holiday.  Rebuilding at the Burrow took longer than projected due to the depths of the damage.  Harry was the first up and apparated over with Arthur every morning, and Harry stayed until the last group was done for the day.  He only paused when forced to, and he never stopped.

The work was hard and time consuming, leaving Rebecca and Fred with only a precious few minutes before sleep to be with one another.  It quickly became their favourite part of the day.

The adults used magic to fix the structural damage, but the sorting through the rubble was a hand-needed job.  Belongings were sorted into piles of salvageable and not, walls and floors were repaired once rooms were cleared.  The water proved both a positive and a negative since there was anything left to save at all, but it had frozen and encased much of the work that needed to be done in ice. This left George, Cedric, and Fred on thawing duty.

Nearly every day went the same way: they woke up and ate a quick breakfast before going back over to sort and they continued to work until dinner with a small break for lunch somewhere between.  It was hard work, harder still as Remus and Sirius had to excuse themselves the day before the full moon after Remus and Cedric had nearly come to blows.

Two wands down, the work was all the more slow going.

"Fred?"  Rebecca called from what had once been the front room with the fireplace.

"Yeah?"  Fred shouted back, moving around the floor above so that he was balancing over the hole in the ceiling.  One of the main beams of the house had been weakened and fallen.  "Thawed or dried?"

Rebecca held the book up and turned the page, ink from the shattered inkwell having leaked down the shelf and into the pile of books she had spread in front of her.  "De-inked."

Fred waved his wand and the ink slipped off the pages.  "Anything else?"  Rebecca shook her head and they went back to sorting through their assigned areas.

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"Come eat!"  Molly's voice echoed through the house.  There were only days left until those returning to Hogwarts would make the trip to King's Cross and, at the rate they were working, the Burrow might be finished that by that night.  "Now!"

Fred jumped through the hole in the ceiling, still of the opinion that it wouldn't hurt to leave it.

Rebecca paused in the doorway and wondered if she had time to go up the stairs and jump down too.  With a sigh, Rebecca decided against it.  "Let's go, darling.  She won't ask twice."

"No, I will not."  Molly marched past them down the length of the house, searching for a different black-haired child who loved to vex her.  "Harry!"  Molly gasped and moved to help him.  He was straining to lift the table top back onto the legs.  

Harry nearly dropped it, startled at her appearance, but with her help it didn't hit the floor.  They balanced out the large surface the family dined around and slid it into place until the peg in the middle took and the table was once again whole.

"Thanks."  Harry panted, shaking his hands out.  Finishing the dining room had been his goal before lunch and now that he had met it, he could consider almost consider lunch.  "Everything look the same in here?"

"Everything looks fine, Harry."

Harry followed her out of the room without a word.  He didn't want to hear her tell him to say no one blamed him, or that he needed to stop.  He knew they were both lies and he deserved their blame, he wished they would treat him without the kindness they had been so he could truly be punished.