Chapter 1: Percy Sleeping
Harry has been staying with the Weasleys for almost a week now and he was starting to get used to their life. He gets dressed and goes downstairs when Mrs. Weasley calls for breakfast. When he gets into the living room, however, he freezes at the sight of seeing Percy asleep with a book on his lap.
Harry is surprised he could be so comfortable with being that vulnerable. Sleeping in the living room? Never at the Dursleys. He did it once and Dudley and his friends shaved his head while he slept. Said something to Petunia and she defended Dudley, taking away his meals for a few days. How could Percy be so comfortable?
“Harry,” Mrs. Weasley calls out, snapping Harry out of his thoughts. She walks in and sees Percy asleep. She scoffs and Harry is about to say that he’ll wake him when she starts walking. He then gets surprised when he watches Mrs. Weasley gently nudge Percy awake and close his book with his marker so he didn’t lose his place. Percy stretches as he wakes up and Harry just watches in confusion with his mouth hanging open. “Come on, dears. Breakfast’s ready.” Mrs. Weasley waves them into the kitchen and Harry tries to keep the surprise off his face.
“What’s wrong, Harry,” Percy asks as he stops in front of the boy.
“I just didn’t expect that.”
“Expect what?” he chuckles, but he’s still very confused. What happened?
“Mrs. Weasley waking you up like that.” Now, Percy is even more confused. What was strange about the way she woke him up?
“Well, I often fall asleep reading-”
“You do?” Harry asks with genuine surprise. “You’re not scared of someone shaving your head?”
George and Fred laugh. “We’ve done that one,” Fred responds, and George adds that “Dad made us de-gnome the garden for a week as punishment.” The family laughs at the memory. Harry laughs as well, though he’s surprised they were so casual about it.
Percy hits Harry’s arm jovially but the boy still flinches. “Come on, let’s go eat.” They sit down and Harry eats his food, still trying to wrap his head around this family dynamic. He doesn’t think there was really a moment where all the Dursleys laughed at once. Usually, Harry was trying to hide his laughter at them or was being laughed at.
As the family eats, Ginny begins shooting questions at Mr. Weasley about the Daily Prophet while he’s eating. He doesn’t answer them cause his mouth is full, but Harry tries to give her some warning looks to get her to stop. At the Dursleys, he could never speak at a meal unless they directly spoke to him. The only times he spoke otherwise were to make snide comments that always got him in trouble. He was trying to save Ginny from the same fate.
But then Mr. Weasley swallows his food, looks up, says, “Well, Ginny,” and begins to answer all of her questions. Harry has to stuff food into his mouth to keep from it hanging open.
Wow, Harry thought, things were so different here than from the Dursleys.
Chapter 2: Goodnight Fright
Harry and Ron laugh at a joke Ron makes and then the door to Ron’s room opens. Harry freezes. “Goodnight, dears. Make sure you get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Mrs. Weasley wishes kindly, and Ron tells her goodnight. The door closes and Harry listens to her footsteps retreat while glancing at Ron.
He didn’t do anything. He’s tried to help with chores. He hasn’t made any snide comments to her. He’s been well-behaved. Done everything she told him to, though it was barely anything.
“Harry,” Ron says, waving his hand in front of Harry’s face. “Mate, you alright? What’s wrong with you?” Ron chuckles.
“N-nothing, I’m just trying to figure out what I did wrong,” Harry answers honestly.
“What do you mean?” Ron’s eyebrows furrow in confusion. “You haven’t done anything wrong. What makes you think that?”
“She told us ‘Goodnight,’” Harry points out as if that was an obvious indicator.
Ron just raises an eyebrow. “Yeah,” he agrees slowly, not understanding the problem, “because that’s what mothers do with their children.”
“It is?” Harry nearly exclaims. And right after he says that Mr. Weasley comes in and tells them goodnight as well. Ron says it back and Harry just stares at the door as he leaves. His eyes are wide and his breathing shaky. “Gosh, have I been that bad?” Harry whispers with fear.
Ron notices that he looks downright terrified. “What are you talking about?” Ron asks, getting his attention. “That’s just what Mum and Dad do every night. You haven’t been bad at all.”
“Then why’d they both come?” He doesn’t sound any calmer. “Oh, they’re gonna kill me,” Harry mutters under his breath.
“What?” Ron exclaims incredulously. “No! Harry, they told us ‘Goodnight’ because that’s what parents do with their children. And they said it to you too because Mum has practically adopted you. Why would them saying ‘Goodnight’ make you think you’re in trouble?”
“Because that’s the only reason the Dursleys ever came to my room at night,” Harry explains. The Dursleys would tell Dudley goodnight downstairs, but they never came to his room unless he’d done something. And it was rarely ever both of them. If it was, Harry would try to hide so they wouldn’t use him as a piñata.
Ron just stares at him, with both sympathy and concern evident in his eyes. He’s used to his parents telling him goodnight. And if they don’t, it doesn’t mean anything. But for his friend, if the Dursleys didn’t tell him “Goodnight”, it was a good thing. That’s terrible! “Well, it’s not like that here, Harry. They say goodnight all the time. It doesn’t mean anyone’s in trouble,” he assures his friend awkwardly. He never thought he’d have to assure someone of that. And he hated to imagine that the Dursleys would take something so simple and turn it into a terror warning for his friend.
The boys laid down to go to sleep. “Goodnight, Harry,” Ron tells him, and then assures him that he’s not in trouble. Harry laughs and jokingly scolds Ron for scaring him. Though Ron’s still unsure whether he should worry about Harry or not.
He decides to worry when he has to tell Harry that he’s not in trouble the next few nights when Ron’s parents tell them goodnight. He’s also noticed that Harry won’t speak until he doesn’t hear their footsteps anymore. It’s slowly stopping, but still happens occasionally. Ron decides to tell his parents in hope that they’ll know how to help his friend.
Ron goes up to Mrs. Weasley while Harry’s outside, helping the twins de-gnome the garden. Mrs. Weasley turns to her son, and he explains the way Harry gets scared every time they tell him and Ron goodnight. Like, downright petrified. Mrs. Weasley was shocked and confused, but then she got angry when Ron explained why he got scared.
“I’m adopting your friend. Hope you don’t mind, but Harry’s becoming your brother next summer,” she tells Ron, and he chuckles. He doesn’t mind that at all. Mrs. Weasley tells Ron “Thank you” and then talks with Mr. Weasley about it. He completely agrees with adopting Harry, and they start waiting for Harry to tell them “Goodnight” in response to them at night.
Harry is scared at first, not understanding why they kept staring at him. Ron nudges him and nods towards his parents and then it clicks in Harry’s head. He stumbles over the words the first few times, but it slowly becomes natural. He’s enjoying life at the Weasleys.
Chapter 3: The Chase and Chores
Harry finishes his lunch and asks George a question when the thought crosses his mind. “Hey, George, I was just wondering. Who does all the chores here?”
George looks at him and answers honestly that “We all do.” Harry chuckles a bit, thinking he’s joking, but then he realizes that George is serious and the red-haired twin leaves too quickly for Harry to ask him more about it. Back at the Dursleys, Harry had to do all the chores cause none of them would want to. And because it kept him from being hit by Petunia’s frying pan. Though that was only if he saw it in time.
Later that afternoon, Harry and Fred are outside, messing around, and Fred begins to chase Harry to mess with him. But the idea doesn’t click in Harry’s head. He begins running away from Fred, but it’s not in joy, it’s in fear.
Harry runs away as fast as he can, fearing for his life. As soon as he gets far enough away from Fred, he ducks into a hiding spot. He takes deep breaths to try to still his racing heart and then breathes as softly as possible so no one would hear him. Whew! Harry thinks with relief. He’s safe. But he also then feels betrayal and panic creep inside him as he tries to figure out why Fred would do that.
What he’d do? He thought he was safe at the Burrow! Why is he no longer safe? What’d he do to make that all go away? Why would they want to hurt him now? What’d he do wrong?
Fred chases Harry and laughs when he trips over something and falls. However, when he gets up, Harry’s disappeared. He looks around, a smile still on his face. However, it starts to fade as he looks for the boy and can’t find him. “Harry? Mate, where’d you go? Harry!” He calls for him, walking around the garden. After about ten minutes of searching, Fred realizes that he lost Harry. “Oh, no! Ron’s gonna kill me,” he groans. And right on cue, Ron and the other family members come outside.
“Fred? What’s going on?” George asks with confusion when he sees his twin looking worried.
“Don’t kill me,” he tells Ron.
“What’d you do?” Ron growls. “Did you replace my shampoo with green hair dye again?”
Fred would’ve laughed if this was a different situation. “No, but I might’ve... lost Harry,” he says slowly.
“What?” They all exclaim at once.
“How hard is it to lose a stick with black hair among red-haired ones,” Percy questions a little jokingly. The family smirks, though Mrs. Weasley sighs.
“Alright, I’m sure he’s here somewhere. Come on, let’s spread out,” Mrs. Weasley orders. They go and search the grounds. They look everywhere, but Harry really did disappear. It’s almost two hours before Percy shouts that he found him.
Percy moves a crate aside to reveal a shaken Harry with tear stains on his face. Percy’s eyebrow furrows in worry when he holds his hand out to help him and Harry recoils away. He takes Percy’s hand after a minute and the Prefect pulls him to his feet. Harry quickly wipes his tears away as the others come up.
“Harry, there you are,” Fred breathes in relief. “Where’d you go? We were playing and then you just disappeared.” He chuckles.
“P-Playing?” Harry stutters in shock. That’s what he was doing?
“Yeah, playing chase. We do it all the time,” Ron explains. Harry says nothing and looks embarrassed. He can’t believe he reacted that way when they were just playing. He must look so stupid now. And is probably in big trouble for hiding for that long. “What’d you think he was doing?”
“Thought you were about to pummel me,” Harry explains awkwardly, not meeting anyone’s eyes.
“What?” They exclaim.
“We might be pranksters, but we’d never do that to our brothers,” George and Fred say in sync. Harry stares at his feet, embarrassed once more.
“Yeah, we’ll shave Percy’s head,” Fred starts.
“Or replace Ron’s body wash with blue skin stainer,” George continues.
“That was you?!” Ron exclaims.
“But we’d never hurt them,” George and Fred finish their statement.
“Harry, why would you ever think they’d do that?” Percy asks. He knows his brothers can be a bit much, but he’s never thought they would pummel each other or him. If they ever started chasing him, he’d just run away for a bit until he could turn things around and then chase them. Why would Harry think that?
Harry says nothing, fearing that it’d make things worse. He’s never played chase before. If he was ever being chased, it was by Dudley and his friends, and that always ended in Harry getting injured.
“Harry, have you ever played chase before?” Ron asks, beginning to guess at what was going on. Harry shakes his head. “Then what was chase like at the Dursleys?”
“Run or get beat,” Harry mutters somberly. The Weasleys all look at each other, worry filling their expressions. Now, they understood his reaction. They wish they didn’t because it was horrible, but they did. Fred apologizes for scaring him and explains the way the game works. Then the kids play it all together, letting Harry be the chaser- mainly so he wouldn’t disappear again.
It took a while for him to get it, but soon, he was laughing. Even Percy stayed to play instead of going back to his books. And after a few rounds, one of them became the chaser, and Harry didn’t disappear again. They considered that a major win. And from then on, they made sure that Harry knew it was a game if one of them started chasing him.
Chapter 4: A visit and a meal
Mrs. Weasley’s making lunch while Ron and Harry sit at the table, talking about Hogwarts. “Think we’ll have a normal year this time,” Ron asks his best friend. Harry hopes so. He could use without all the life-threatening dangers trying to kill him and his friends. He’s getting a little tired of fearing for his life. And Voldemort. Especially that nose-less bald guy.
Mrs. Weasley accidentally burns whatever she was making and puts it on a plate, throwing it away. Harry notices and absentmindedly mutters to Ron, “She could’ve given that to me. It’s what I used to eat when I’d mess up dinner.” Ron’s mouth falls open in horror.
“That’s horrible!”
“Not entirely. It was a little bitter, but still had some flavor,” Harry responds casually. Ron is slightly freaking out and actually gets into a small argument with Harry because the boy doesn’t understand why Ron’s freaking out.
Harry’s used to it. He doesn’t really see the big deal. If he’s responsible for cooking dinner and he messes up, then he eats the mess-ups so he doesn’t waste food. What’s the problem? It was reasonable. The Dursleys had a lot of money, and food, but they also hated to waste food. And it also taught him to not mess it up as often.
Ron doesn’t get Harry’s point of view. That’s not reasonable at all! That food wasn’t edible and definitely not healthy. Though, he guesses that explains why Harry’s so tiny. But still, it’s horrible! Yeah, Ron understands not wasting food, of course he does, but that doesn’t mean that they should force a kid to eat something that he could possibly get sick from.
Mrs. Weasley ended the argument by announcing lunch. The boys aren’t sure that she even heard them. And at lunch, Mr. Weasley announces Bill’s visit. All the kids are excited, except Harry. He’s heard amazing things about Bill, though he’s never met him in real life, but when guests are over, he’s not supposed to exist, so he’ll just have to wait for another opportunity.
Later that night, Harry and Ron are in his room, still talking about Hogwarts and their friend, Hermione, since school was starting soon.
“Bill’s here!” The twins call from the staircase leading to Ron’s room. Ron cheers and races out the door. Harry is about to follow him when he reminds himself what he’s supposed to be doing.
“Staying in my room and pretending I don’t exist,” he grumbles as he pulls out a book and starts reading. He hears the family cheering that Bill has come and Harry feels a tinge of jealousy against his best friend’s brother. The Dursleys would never welcome him back like that. Bill’s lucky.
His family actually cares about his presence.
Hedwig flies over to Harry and nips his nose affectionately. Harry chuckles. “Thanks, Hedwig. I love you too,” he coos as he pets owl.
“Oh, Bill, do you remember Harry Potter,” Ginny asks her older brother when they’re all in the living room. He’s been here for maybe two hours, catching the family up on what he’s been doing, and Ginny had almost forgotten Harry was here- he hasn’t made any noise. It’s like he’s not here at all. Bill nods and then Ron cuts in before Ginny can.
“He’s living with us!” Ron cheers and Bill matches his excitement.
“Mom adopted him?” He jokes and they all laugh.
“Not yet,” Mrs. Weasley answers. “But mark my words, I’ll try to. Those Muggles were worse to him than we realized, poor dear.” She clicks her tongue and shakes her head. “Though, speaking of which, where is Harry?”
“He must still be upstairs,” Fred notes. “Bet it’s another Dursley-thing.” He rolls his eyes. Molly scoffs and tells Percy to go get him.
Percy nods and heads to Ron’s room. Harry freezes as he hears footsteps rush up the stairs. Oh no! Percy opens the door and is immediately met with an exclamation of “I’ve been quiet, I swear.”
Percy shakes his head, not expecting that at all. “What? Uh, yeah, that’s why I came up here,” he explains awkwardly. Harry looks confused. “You’ve been so quiet, we barely knew you were here.”
“Yeah, I thought that was the point. When guests are over, I’m supposed to not exist,” he explains. Pery looks baffled and entirely taken off guard. The hell?
Then he remembers what Fred said and clears his throat. “Well, you should come downstairs.”
“Why?” Harry asks, genuinely confused.
Percy stops as he turns to leave and looks back at Harry. “Because everyone’s downstairs and there’s a guest over,” he says obviously. “Here, everyone conversates with the guest. The entire family. So come downstairs and join us.” Before Harry can argue that he’s not family, Percy’s gone. He tried to sound nice, but failed miserably.
Percy’s really having a hard time understanding Harry’s reaction to these kind of things. He knows that Harry grew up in a different home than he did but he didn’t think it’d be that different.
First, he’s surprised that Mrs. Weasley was so gentle when waking him up for breakfast. Then at their parents saying goodnight, and Ginny bombarding their dad with questions and him answering so casually. Percy saw the warning looks Harry kept trying to shoot her before their dad answered and Harry’s eyes went wide. And he got so shocked when he finds out that they all share the chores and then thought Fred was trying to hurt him when they were just playing.
And now this! Not existing?
He’s trying to not get annoyed at it, but it’s getting a little hard. Especially since he still remembers how terrified and upset Harry looked when he found him behind that crate. He hid it well once Harry realized that Percy was trying to help him to his feet. Percy just doesn’t understand it. And something tells him that’s a good thing.
Back in Ron’s room, Harry sits on the bed, still a little confused by Percy’s actions, but finds it better to just do what he said rather than risk making them angry. Well, angrier.
When he gets downstairs, everyone’s talking and laughing, so Harry finds a spot on an empty couch and sits down.
There’s a red-haired boy with long hair that goes to his shoulders and three scars across his face. Harry knows that’s Bill because he looks almost just like everyone else. Only true differences are the scars and the fact that he’s a little frightening since his eyes aren’t as warm or soft as the other siblings. Arthur starts explaining something to Ginny while the twins are joking around with Percy, and Ron and Mrs. Weasley were talking with Bill. Bill looks over and sees Harry. He walks over to him and sits down on the couch. “You must be Harry. Glad I can finally meet you, Mum’s said a lot of great things.” He holds his hand out for Harry to shake.
Harry shakes it, though he is absolutely floored at the fact that a guest was possibly talking to him and it not be about cleaning something up. “About me?” he asks meekly.
Bill chuckles. “Yeah, the whole family. They’ve talked a lot about your Quidditch games, how you’re the youngest Seeker ever, congrats by the way. And about you staying here with Ron. Which, thank you, by the way as well.”
“For what?” Harry is trying so hard to not seem as bewildered as he feels.
“For being Ron’s friend. It’s not easy being a Weasley. We’ll welcome whoever needs us and we stick together like family should, but to the rest of the wizarding world, we’re a disgrace. Me and my brothers are changing that image, but people look down on our family cause our dad likes learning about Muggles so much. But, even despite that, Ron’s always been in our shadows. Having five older brothers is not easy. We’ve all made so many accomplishments that Ron’s always felt like whatever he does is no surprise. Mum’s always tried to help him, but you were the only one who seemed to make him see things differently. So, thanks for helping my baby brother,” Bill finishes kindly and smiles at him.
Harry has no words. Guess, he’s not frightening at all. Though, the last thing he ever suspected was someone thanking him for being someone else’s friend. That was a major surprise. He always thought it’d be him needing to thank Ron for being his friend, not Ron’s brother doing the opposite.
It’s very... strange.
“I-Uh, you’re welcome, I guess,” Harry stutters out. Bill laughs and asks him questions about himself. Like if he’s enjoying Hogwarts or not. They compare his memories of his first year with Harry’s. Bill tells him about the scars- which came from a werewolf apparently. Harry gets surprised by how long Bill tries to keep the conversation going. This is probably the longest he’s spent with a guest ever!
The Weasleys are so different from the Dursleys. And Harry considers that to be the best thing ever. He loves the Weasley family.