Faux Bravery

The Burrow

I yawned, trudging down the stairs. My grey hair was in knots, tied in a bun on top of my head. I headed towards the kitchen. I stopped when I saw four figures nearing the house. As I didn't want to wake anyone, I headed out to greet them, my hair bleeding back to brown. Fred went to open his mouth. "Don't start with me." I said, rubbing my eye with the heel of my hand. "You're lucky I'm the one who found you and not Mum, but that won't be much of a consolation, I'm telling her the moment she wakes up. I was...so worried for you all. I woke up and none of you were in bed."

"Sorry, Kenzie." George started. "But, see, we had to-"

"I don't care!" I snapped. "And the car? By Merlin, you could have crashed, been seen by Muggles. Just wait until Dad finds out about this. I swear, nothing this crazy happened with Bill, or Charlie, or Percy-"

"Perfect Percy." Fred muttered.

"Don't bring Percy in like that." I said, my hand running down my face. "I love you, I really do, but what you did was stupid." I turned to the new person. "Harry, lovely to see you again, kinda wish you'd reply to my letters. Come on in, it's almost time for breakfast." I turned and walked into the Burrow. I heard my brothers and Harry following after me. Our home wasn't the best, but it was...well...home.

Our kitchen was a bit cramped, it was housing 10 people after all. We had a pair of clocks on the wall, both magical. One had a single hand and listed the activities of the day such as 'Time to make tea', 'Time to feed the chickens', 'You're late'. The other one had pictures of us all on the hands, and around the clock itself read all the locations we could possibly be, school, home, dentist, bed, prison and lost. I watched as Fed and George's, and Ron's faces move from 'Lost' to 'Home'. We had old, worn books piled up into the corners, and an open window for Errol, Hermes and Aquila to enter and exit from. A couple pairs of knitting needles clacked away in the corner, and a radio crackled next to it, as if the knitting needles themselves were listening to the broadcast. Almost everything we owned was hand-me-downs or second-hand, and we didn't mind. It made it more homey.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!" A voice demanded. Mum was at the bottom of the stairs, glaring at my brothers with a fire that could melt the iron pots and pans. She spotted the dark-haired boy. "Harry, how wonderful to see you dear." She said, approaching us. Her glare returned. "Beds empty, no note, car gone. You could have died, you could have been seen!" Her gaze softened. "Of course, I don't blame you, Harry dear."

"They were staving him Mum." Ron said. "There were bars on his windows."

"Well you best hope I don't put bars on your window, Ronald Weasley." Mum threatened. She then smiled at Harry one more time. "Come now, time for a spot of breakfast."

"This way." I nodded toward the kitchen. I drew my wand and flicked it toward the cupboards. 9 plates slowly took themselves out of the cupboard and set themselves on the table. We took out seats, chatting idly as Mum cooked, our matriarch muttering angry words under her breath.

"Arthur and I have been worried about you too." Mum told Harry, tipping a handful of sausages onto his plate. "Just last night, we were saying we'd come get you ourselves if you hadn't written back to Ron or Kenzie by Friday." Mum finished distributing the sausages and started to pile eggs onto Harry's plate. "But really, flying an illegal car halfway across the country, anyone could have seen you-"

"It was cloudy Mum." Fred insisted as Mum flicked her wand at the sink, the dishes washing themselves and clinging softly in the background.

"Keep your mouth closed while you're eating!" Mum started to cut Harry some bread, and even buttered it for him. Out the corner of my eye, I saw Ginny rush into the room, squeal, and then run out.