The Sins of a Father

Chapter 17

              The past two weeks went by fast but not nearly as fast as I wanted them to go. I would get a letter from George nearly every day but it was usually the same thing. 'Dear Raven, everything is fine, business is good, miss you a lot, how are you, I'm doing fine,' stuff like that but a letter meant that he was safe and that was the most important thing to me right now.

Hermione came to the Burrow on Tuesday, which had been more than a welcome distraction. We shared a room and she would talk about how excited she was to start school again then Molly would go off about how the students had no business going back to school with Voldemort out on the loose but then I would step in and comfort her about Hogwarts's safety. She would grumble to herself then go back doing whatever she had been doing before Hogwarts came into the discussion.

"When are you going to tell him?" Hermione asked me while she had been brushing her teeth late one night. I let my head hit the wall that was against my bed and a loud thunk came from it.

"I told George that I'm going to tell him this year and I'm telling you the exact same thing," I answered, feeling a bit agitated about the question.

"It's getting harder to lie to him about your father, Harry wants to do some kind of search for your father and whenever he asks for help I'm purposely leading him in the wrong direction and I think he's starting to suspect it," she muttered to me.

I opened my mouth to respond when a loud discussion started up downstairs that caught our attention so we hurriedly walked downstairs and found Harry hugging Molly. Hermione went to Harry and hugged him next and I hung in the back, even though I was itching to give him a hug I feared it would embarrass him or something but he looked straight at me and his face brightened then he walked right into my body and the feeling of being wanted by him only made it harder to tell him the truth but I was still going to do it, no matter what happened.

"Harry, how have you been?" I asked him, my arms still cloaking his back.

"It's been durable and you?" he asked, parting from me.

"I've been good, how's your summer?" I questioned. I already had an idea of what it was like but wanted to hear him say it anyway.

"Considering that I'm still living at the Dursely's and Voldemort is out and about it's been tolerable. How was your summer? Not too exciting I hope?" he asked with a smirk on his face, I gazed at him with a suspicious look.

"What's Ron telling you?" I probed him with a raised eyebrow

"Only that you broke your ribs, that you pulled a prank on Bill's fiancé and that you were snogging George in front of everyone," replied Harry, smiling.

"Well I did break my ribs but Fleur mended them and it was Fred, George and myself that pulled the prank and I did not snog George in front of everyone," I corrected him, while yawning.

"Do we get to see their shop tomorrow?" I asked Molly.

"Of course we do! Tomorrow is school shopping and I believe you are leaving tomorrow as well?" Molly pointed out. Shocked eyes landed in my direction and I nodded nonchalantly.

"Yeah, Snape says that I have to be at school by the end of the day tomorrow but that's okay, I'll get to be with George before I leave," I sighed at the unhappy truth.

"I heard that long distance relationships never work," Ron observed quietly. Hermione smacked his arm while I grimaced at the comment.

"Ronald!" Molly hissed, "I'm sure that what he's saying is nonsense, you George are perfect together - you have nothing to worry about, dear," Molly reassured me but it didn't help all that much. In fact it didn't help at all. Instead it kept me up all night, thinking hard about the unwanted facts.