A Magical Summer

Brothers

Ron's POV

I couldn't believe that Mum just shuffled Fred, George, Ginny and me out of the room just as Harry was at the door. She quickly informed us that we would be sleeping in one of the rooms at headquarters for the night, before leaving in a rush. I dozed off in the newly cleaned bedroom, that I was planning on sharing with Harry, for a few hours. When I woke up, I was alarmed to realize that Harry wasn't there yet.

   Why wasn't Harry there? I thought back on the night before... Someone was injured!  I vaguely remembered hearing that before I was shoved out of the room. Was Harry okay?

   I swiftly sat up and darted into Fred and George's room, knowing that the twins might know a bit more about the situation. Ginny was already in their room, sitting on their floor, looking like she had just crawled out of bed. Fred and George were lounging on their beds and seemed oddly energized, as if they had had been already up, probably thinking of some new prank.

"Ron?" George says, looking at me in concern. I must've looked looked worse than Ginny. Maybe he was surprised that I was in his room in the middle of the night- I hadn't done that in years.

"Err- Have you guys seen Harry?" I asked, trying unsuccessfully to keep the panic out of my voice.

"Haven't seen him," Fred said, sounding unconcerned,"Are you looking for him?"

"Someone was injured," I blurted out, my voice steadily rising with panic about my
friend,"When they went to go get Harry. He hasn't come up yet."

   All three of my siblings were staring at me, wide-eyed. Fred opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I couldn't breath- what if Harry had been attacked by Death Eaters? He had already been attacked by Dementors this summer. All I could picture was the end of the third task, when Harry came out of the graveyard looking almost dead. Suddenly, I felt two hands on my shoulders, pushing me into a bed to sit down, and a voice telling me to breath.

"Look at me, Ron," the voice, George's voice, said, "Take a deep breath- in and out," he continued, demonstrating with his breathing as he spoke, "Harry's fine. He's here at headquarters."

"We can go find him, if you want," Fred added, while Ginny quickly nodded her agreement.

"Alright," I answered shakily, still attempting to regain control of my breathing.

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   Fred and George made a plan.

   I thought it was unnecessary, really. This wasn't some elaborate prank, we just needed to see if our friend was okay. We couldn't get in trouble for that, right?

Either way, we had a plan. Fred and George would use their newly invented extendable-ears to see if any Order members were still downstairs. If the coast was clear, Ginny would sneak downstairs (since mum considered her the most innocent). If she wasn't sent back up then everyone else could follow. Simple.

"Alright," Fred said, after listening with the extendable-ears for a few minutes,"The coast is clear."

Ginny slipped down the many staircases of Grimmauld place, and we waited. I heard an odd squeak-like sound coming from down the stairs. It sounded like it came from Ginny, but it was a very un-Ginny-like sound. When she didn't come back upstairs after a few minutes, we all decided it was safe to follow.

After sneaking down the stairs, I looked around. Maybe Harry was still down there. Ginny was standing in front of the couch and staring at it with an odd expression on her face. Then, I saw tufts of black hair sticking up from the side of the couch. Was that Harry? I walked around the couch to check if it was him. I gasped.

   Harry looked bloody awful. His face was slightly bruised, his hand was wrapped in bandages while his right arm was in a sling and his ankle and ribs were splinted.

"Blimey, what happened to him?" Fred questioned, walking around the couch to look at Harry.

"Death Eaters, you think?" George guessed softly, putting a hand on my shoulder.

Death Eaters... that wasn't right. They used curses, and that defiantly wasn't from curses. It looked much too muggle. Wait, muggles?

"The bars," I said, remembering,"on the windows."

"What about them?" Fred questioned.

"I dunno- maybe it wasn't Death Eaters."

"Well, well who else could it be? He was with the muggles the whole time." George replied uncertainly.

"Bars on the windows. Locks on the door. His stuff locked up in a cupboard under the stairs," I elaborated slightly, hoping to be proven wrong.

"But they're his family!" Ginny protested.

"They starved him, Ginny," I said bluntly, my voice rising,"We sent him food last summer! Harry said they would be disappointed that he didn't die-"

"Well it's might not be much of a reach," George finally said after my voice faltered.

We were all silent after that. I noticed that Harry was shivering a bit. I couldn't blame him, he didn't have a blanket and the fireplace was out for the night. I looked around the room and found a warm-looking, though rather old looking, blanket. I tucked my friend in, hoping that no one would dare to bring it up at a later point. I sat down in the neighboring, hideous armchair.

"I'm staying here," I announced.

Fred, George and Ginny just nodded in agreement and sat down on the other couch. Before long they had fallen asleep. I looked over at them, and then at Harry and realized something. I wasn't going to let Harry go back there. A strange feeling of protectiveness washed over me. One that made me think of protecting Ginny. But it was a bit different.

'So this is what having a little brother feels like,' I thought.

Finally I decided that I should be getting to bed. I didn't need Mum having another thing to be angry with me about in the morning.

"G'night, Harry."

A/N : This chapter was based off of my idea that Ron and Hermione would've gotten a bit over-protective after the third-task when they may have thought that Harry was dead. I think Ron reacts like this a bit at the end of the fourth book. It doesn't help that Ron must've felt guilt for not believing Harry and here his friend shows up beaten up in the beginning of summer. Also, Harry quite a few months younger than Ron if I'm not mistaken.

Sorry for the long wasn't between chapters I had a bit of writers block and was behind on school work. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! :)