Out of the Dark (A Harry Potter Fan Fiction)

Chapter 4- No Room in the Inn

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE HARRY POTTER STORYLINE, SETTINGS OR CHARACTERS, ALL CREDIT GOES TO J.K ROWLING.

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 “Welcome to the Burrow!”  George cheered happily spreading his arms out as if he were going to hug the rickety building in front of us. From outside The Burrow looked worn-out and precariously balanced, it gave me an uneasy feeling that it would fall down at any moment. Not wanting to seem rude, I let Ginny and George drag me inside. As soon as I entered the house the uneasiness had melted away, instead replacing it with a warm glow expanding in my stomach. It looked so homely, it was an organised mess of miss- matched furniture, pots and pans and children’s crafts; obviously made by the various family members. As I was taking in the living room; amongst all the family photos and drawings of different muggle items (I needed to remember to ask about those) I noticed something that intrigued me, a clock. It had 9 hands each pointing at a different family member; their names written in swirling writing, it told me if they were at home, school, or work, if they were travelling, lost, in hospital, prison, playing quidditch or in mortal peril. What fascinated me the most, though, was it had no numbers on it. It didn’t tell the time at all. At the moment all the hands pointed to ‘home’, except one. Under Fred’s name the clock hand pointed to lost, tears welled in my eyes at the thought of the family’s grief, I blinked furiously to try and get rid of them.

 “Quite a place isn’t it” I turned to find Harry stood next to me, he was smiling broadly and he looked as comfortable here as he did at Hogwarts.

 Ginny came over to us and slipped her arm around Harry’s waist. “You look slightly stunned, Athena” she laughed,

“I’ve never been anywhere like it” I breathed, they both laughed.

 “You’ve never lived!” Harry chuckled as he brought me into a one armed hug. We were interrupted by the sound of Molly and Fleur screaming at each other in the kitchen “You never told me you were staying!” Molly yelled,

“Bill and I always told you that we were not going back to zee cottage!” Fleur screeched back at her,

“Really?! How come I didn’t know then?!”

“I don’t know, maybe you were choosing to ignore me again!”

“How dare you!”

The two screaming women were separated from each others throats by Bill “Mother, Fleur. I thought you two had decided to get on!”

I heard Harry snort next to me “They will never get on” he muttered.

“Well, if your wife, or you for that matter, had decided to tell me that you were staying I wouldn’t have an issue!” Molly fumed. “Where is poor Athena going to stay now?!”

  After hearing my name I decided to risk cutting into the conversation “If I’m causing any hassle I can find a hotel or something…”

“Don’t be stupid dear, you’re not the one causing hassle” she emphasized the word you’re by glaring at Fleur. I could feel the awkward tension rising, thankfully George strode in, “If it helps she can stay at the flat with me”

 “And how exactly do you know what we are talking about?” Fleur shot at him.

“I could hear you from down the garden, so could Ron and Hermione but they weren’t brave enough to risk walking into a warzone”

I heard suppressed laughter from Ginny; I turned around and smiled at her, after controlling her laughter she spoke “It would seem easier Mum, and if Athena feels that she needs rescuing from George’s at any point we’ll come and get her” everyone laughed except George, who said in mock hurt “And what makes you think she would need rescuing?”

“You own a joke shop; one of your wild fire whiz bangs could go off!” I looked at her in concern, Harry muttered “Fireworks” at me before she continued, “you’re the messiest human being on the planet and I’m not sure Athena could cope with too many corny jokes”

“My jokes are not corny!” George complained. I butted into the conversation before another argument started. “I’ll manage, if I am indeed in need of rescuing I’ll send an urgent owl straight to you Ginny” I said with a cheeky smile sent in Georges direction, he shook his head at me, causing everyone to laugh. “Well then it’s sorted, Athena will stay at mine until other arrangements can be made” he said.

“Ahh good, we have no problem then. Yes?” Fleur smirked at Molly. If Arthur hadn’t steered her out of the room Molly would have torn Fleur’s head off.

“Come on zen Bill, we’ll take our bags to our room” Fleur tossed her golden hair and fluttered her eyelashes at her husband. Bill was the only one taken in by that, I suddenly realised that Molly wasn’t the only who didn’t like Fleur. Ginny, George, Hermione and Ron all scowled at her behind her back, displaying a definite dislike for her. I had to admit, it was likely that she would annoy me as well.

After Fleur and Bill had left George suddenly said in surprise “Is that the time?”  He was looking at his watch, it was midnight “We’d better be off, if you want to get settled in” he said looking at me.

“Probably” I said, I turned to everyone else “Thank you so much,” I smiled “You’ve made me feel really welcome” They all smiled back and suddenly Ginny flung her arms around me, pulling me into a hug. “See you tomorrow” she said excitedly. “I’ve got loads of plans, we need to play a game of quidditch; see how good you are, we need to go to Diagon Alley, and Hogsmeade and-” 

Harry interrupted her “Shall we let Athena get some sleep first?” he said to her smiling, Ginny looked down to her feet “Oh yeh…”

 This made me laugh more “Looking forward to it!” I giggled.

“Coming?” George asked, he was holding my bag, so he held out his other arm for me to take, “We’re apparating” he said. I nodded and waved goodbye to everyone and then I felt the twisting feeling in my stomach and the odd sense of leaving something behind.

We landed outside a large store which had a model of a ginger man with a top hat outside, the perfect image of George, except with two ears. He unlocked the door and led me into the shop, it was full of bright colours and hundreds of different patterns, there was a plane flying around the ceiling holding a banner saying ‘20% off sale!’ it was breathtaking. Without realising I let out a little gasp, George laughed I turned to him “It’s amazing” I said.

“I know,” he said smugly “but I’ll show you the rest in the morning” he chuckled; slipping the arm that I was originally holding around my waist and leading me to the back of the shop. We got into a bright red lift; there were three buttons on the inside ‘Experiment Lab’, ‘Store Room’ and ‘Our Personal Palace’. George pressed the one saying ‘Our Personal Palace’, I felt the lift rise temporarily and then the doors opened. I looked inside, “Welcome home!” George said.