Rejection and Acceptance

The four boys woke to loud screaming by mid-morning. Mr. Weasley had arrived home, Ginny and Percy were awake, and Mrs. Weasley could not figure out where the younger three were, and the flying car was STILL not in the garage.

The four boys snickered to each other as the trooped down the stairs, but nudged each other to put on straight faces. Once they were in the kitchen and face-to-face with their mum, it was very easy for the three Weasley boys to keep straight (if not terrified) faces as they hid Harry behind them.

"Where were you boys!!!!" Mrs. Weasley demanded at the sight of her three youngest boys trooping down the stairs. "I searched for you three and the car was gone and EXPLPAIN YOURSELVES!!!!!"

"We were home mum!" George started

"Honestly, we made a bet that.." Fred started

"Ron couldn't sleep the whole night under his bed." George finished.

"But i refused to do it unless they did too." Ron added to explain where his brothers were.

"And mum"

"Look who we found"

"In Ron's room!" George and Fred crowed, pulling Harry in front of themselves to distract their furious parent.

"It's Harry mum!!!" Ron smiled happily.

"And how did he come here if not for YOU three boys!" Mrs. Weasley demanded.

"We don't know"

"We've been in bed"

"All night" Fred and George finished in tandem.

"Well then, where's the car? Have you put it back in the garage? We shall know the truth soon enough!" Mrs. Weasley declared already on her way to the garage. As her family trooped out behind her, she waved her wand, and the garage door flew open. Everyone peered inside and then Mrs. Weasley demanded "Where is that car Arthur Weasley!!!"

"It was here just last week i swear! Oomph!" Arthur gasped as he ran into the garage and bumped into thin air. "Oops, i must've left the shield up." Arthur Weasley blushed as red as Ron, showing how Ron came about this. He felt his way around the car and opened the door, reached in and pressed the button to unshield the car.

"See mum, we told you it wasn't us!" Ron exclaimed happy at having struck a patch of good luck at not getting caught.

Harry then remembered all his things were in the car and pulled the twins aside and whispered his worries.

"Don't worry little Harry" George winked.

"We covered that m'lad" Fred announced in a hushed whisper and showed Harry all of his things, safely shrunk into a small bag.

As the gang returned to the house, Molly apologizing profusely to her sons, Hedwig swooped down and onto Harry's shoulder.

"Harry, if the boys didn't get you, how DID you get here? And where is all your stuff?" Molly wondered.

"Well i guess my things are in Ron's room, and as for how i got here, i don't remember. The last thing i remember is falling asleep locked in my bedroom at the Dursley's wishing i had more than just watery soup to eat." Harry felt bad for lying to Mrs. Weasley, the closest thing to a mother he had ever known, but he didn't want the boys to get in trouble for saving him either. After all, much as they weren't supposed to, Harry was afraid that if he'd been left there any longer he would have died.

After breakfast, the four youngest boys went to de-gnome the garden, while Ginny ran upstairs to hide from Harry and Percy retreated to his room to polish his prefect badge and write some 'very important letters' which he sent with his new owl, Hermes.

During the next week, Harry spent at the Weasley's they played, and did chores which to Harry seemed a blast, though the others grumbled their way through them. When the owls came with their lists for the next school year, a date was planned to visit Diagon Alley.

With those plans, Harry and Ron sent Hedwig with a letter to Hermione telling her about the visit in a week. They waited for her response and were happy when they found out her parents were agreeable to meet them there. The Grangers could not get enough of the wizarding world. Seeing all the articles and artifacts that were so different from their regular lives pleased them immensly, and they had very much enjoyed meeting all the Weasleys.

The following days passed in a whirlpool of action as Mrs. Weasley attempted to get everyone ready for the upcoming year. Since all of her children would be going to school this year, she wanted to start the preparations early so no one would have any last-minute things to gather.

The twins stayed in their rooms a lot, as they were starting their fifth year, and they wanted to make as many potions and pastules and other gidjets and gadgets to torture, err 'play' with the new students.

The biggest shock of all however, came the day before they were to go to Diagon Alley. Harry and Ron were playing with the twins and Ginny was trying to spy on them, as she still hadn't gotten over her crush on Harry. Harry was attempting to run and hide behind a bush just a few feet off of the Weasley property when he ran into a smooth, wall. After glancing up from his space on the ground, he figured it had to be some ward. Still stunned on the ground, he didn't notice when Ron creeped up until his best friend tackled him.

"I got you, i got you!!!" Ron crowed.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever mate, umm, hey, are there wards around your yard or something?" Harry asked.

"No of course not, why would we have wards? Well, i mean apart from the ward that keeps muggles away, but it's not like we notice it." Ron answered.

"Ok, well walk forward and see if you can get to that bush over there." Harry demanded.

"Umm... okay?" Ron walked forward and touched the tree. Harry stared in amazement then got up and started walking forward, but again, he walked into a wall. "What's with you mate?" Ron demanded. "Come over here!"

"I can't." Harry exclaimed. "There's a ward stopping me... feels like a wall."

"Not possible." Ron said, believing that his best-friend was teasing him. Grabbing Harry's arm he pulled forward, but Harry wouldn't move. His arm moved every which way, except forwards. "What the fuck mate? Let's go find mum.!"

As the boys ran towards the house they encountered the twins and explained everything. So the four boys trooped into the house and demanded answers, which Mrs. Weasley refused to give. No matter how much the boys ranted, raved and demanded.

Finally, the twins realized they would get more from their dad, as the clock told them he was on his way home. Leaving the younger boys to deal with their mum, they walked out the door and demanded answers of their dad. Stunned, and un-thinking, Mr. Weasley answered their questions before he realized it. Telling them of the escape of the convict, Sirius Black. George ran back into the house and Fred was following, when Mr. Weasley demanded a promise from them to keep silent. Fred gave his promise, but George was already in the house.

Grabbing the younger boys, George herded them upstairs with admonishments to leave their mum alone. Accompanied by the outraged remarks of the two younger boys, George pushed them into Ron's room. He started the explanation without Fred. Just as he finished, Fred and Mr. Weasley burst into the room.

"Come here George!" Mr. Weasley demanded. Out of hearing range of the others Mr. Weasley demanded the same promise Fred had given.

"I promise not to tell them anything they don't already know about this situation." George promised. Mr. Weasley walked down the stairs, happy with the promise. George returned to the room, happy that he had already told the boys everything. Inside the room, Ron was demanding answers from George who explained his answer and Harry was staring into space in shock. Without warning Harry stormed down the stairs.

"How could you?" He demanded of the older witch and wizard. "How could you keep the fact that ANOTHER person is trying to kill me FROM me? Did you think this would help me?"

Mr. Weasley glared at his twins. who shrugged.

"We didn't break our promise."

"I already told him everything before." The twins answered the unspoken question.

Mrs. Weasley tried to sound reasonable as she explained how they had only wanted Harry to finish his summer on a happy note. Without knowing all the details of how is god-father had gotten out of Azkaban and without learning that he was the one who had consigned the Potters to their horrible fates. (She said this without realizing that she had given Harry un-expected news, such as that the newest person out for his blood was his god-father and he was the one who had basically killed his mum and dad.)

Once he learned the newest news, he demanded to know about Black, what his relationship with his parents had been, how he could have betrayed them to the evilest wizard of their time. Mrs. Weasley realized her mistake, but it was too late to change anything. He already knew it all now.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

The day to visit Diagon Alley arrived at last, and instead of the happily bustling crowd, it was a somber group that gathered on the Weasley front yard. Several ministry Aurors popped into the yard and met them. Tonks among them.

"Hey Harry." She greeted him.

"Hi." Harry muttered morosely, still thinking about the news he had received the previous day.

"What's wrong?" Tonks demanded, when she didn't see him happy. "Who died?"

"My parents... because of their best friend." Harry snarled and turned away. Grabbing him by his arm, she shook the boy.

"Are you really going to be mad at these people, who are only trying to help you? The ones who tried to keep you safe without making you worry? The ones who would do anything in their power to make sure you have a good time, even if it meant that they had to make hard decisions and keep secrets from you! Do you think they took pleasure in not telling you the truth? Come on Harry, you know them better than that. We all decided that if you were safe and happy, then there was no reason to worry you at this time. don't you believe we would do everything to protect you?"

Realizing she was right, and thoroughly chastised, Harry nodded to her in understanding. The Weasley's would never hurt him on purpose. They truly did love him as one of their own. Feeling like all sorts of bad, Harry walked over to Molly and Arthur and apologized. With his apology, and how everyone made up, a much happier group made their way to the portkeys that would bring the group to Diagon Alley.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

Hermione looked around Diagon Alley dragging her parents. She didn't want to go to Gringotts just yet, she wanted to find Ron and Harry and the rest of the Weasley's first. Finally she spotted them, just arriving at the portkey destination. Running forward she greeted everyone.

"Harry, Ron!" she laughed, running forward to embrace them. She then proceeded to greet the rest of the Weasley's and their entourage as her parents causght up and followed her action. The Grangers were pleased to meet the Weasley's again.

The group trooped to Gringotts, Hermione and her mom walked up to the desk, to change pounds into wizard gold, Harry and Tonks took a Goblin cart down to his vault, and Molly took Ginny in a second cart to the Weasley vault.

Harry arrived at his vault and found even more gold there than had been the last time he had looked.

"What happened here?" He demanded of the Goblin.

"Well sir, there have been witches and wizards accross the country sending you some gold and letters, but they reached here instead of wherever you were, see" He pointed to a pile of letters. "And some of the gold is being put into your vault much like an allowance from an anonymous source, who sent you one special letter, but won't say anymore. And we are under oath not to tell who it is."

Harry gaped and then grapped the letters, Tonks shrunk them and put them in his bag for safe keeping. Then the group returned above ground and formed into groups with which they would visit hogsmeade.

*AN* ok, well i wanted it to be less like the book, but it was getting long. The next chapter however Harry will meet Draco again... what's gonna happen??? dun dun dun

p.s. don't forget to review!! your thoughts are important to me!!!