No Laughing Matter

A stunned silence met this extraordinary announcement. Fred broke it with a succinct swear, followed by his prompt collapse onto the floor when he tried to stand on legs too wobbly to support him. Carly rushed over to his side, and she and Bill lifted him back to the bed as Molly sat up herself and said, "Fred, don't be stupid. Stay in bed before you hurt yourself even more."

"Tell us exactly what happened," Arthur said, shaken by yet another blow to his family.

"I went to meet Charlie," George said, his breath still coming short. "I Apparated to the front garden of the Burrow, and found it in splinters. Just... like it had been picked up into the air and thrown back down to earth. The Dark Mark was hanging in the air over the wreckage, making everything look green in its light. There was no one around that I could see, but I didn't want to take any chances, so I hid against the big tree by the workshop, but there was no movement around at all. Rowan showed up just a few moments later, and so I came out, and then Charlie showed up a second after that. We all just sat there for a moment, watching the Mark fade, kind of stunned, you know? Then we all Apparated here to come and tell you what had happened."

Charlie and Rowan were nodding their agreement with George's account. Arthur's face was impassive, as if he had ruthlessly shut off his emotions because they had become too much to control. Molly's lips were a thin white line, and there were tears in her eyes, but she stayed calm. Fred looked livid, Bill looked distant and Charlie and George still wore looks of disbelief.

"What are we going to do now?" Charlie asked everyone in the room in general.

Arthur turned to look to his wife, and a message seemed to pass between them before Molly said calmly, "We'll rebuild, of course. There isn't a single item in that house that can't be replaced as long as the rest of us are safe. In the meantime, the authorities will need to be notified. If any Muggles from the village spotted Death Eaters or the Dark Mark, the Obliviators will have to be called out to modify memories." Her practicality seemed to be taking over as she absorbed the news that she was now homeless. "We'll have to notify Dumbledore as well. Ron and Ginny..."

"He's already told them about Percy," Arthur said gently. "He is going to arrange for those students who lost family members tonight to take Port Keys to their homes. We'll just have them sent somewhere else." Molly looked thoughtful for a moment, and Fred knew that she was thinking of Grimmauld Place; he wondered if she'd picked up on the implications of what his dad had meant by "those students who lost family members."

"Molly," Carly said timidly. "I don't want to intrude into family business, but -"

"Don't be silly dear," Molly said, not quite managing a smile. "You are family."

"Thank you. That means more to me than I can say; and as family, I'm sure that you and anyone else in this family who needs a place to stay will be welcome at my Aunt and Uncle's house until you figure out what exactly is going on."

"That's right," Rowan agreed, losing some of the shocked look that she'd been wearing since her arrival. "Their house is huge. There are at least six bedrooms that sit empty most of the time. They'll be delighted to have a way to help out."

"That's very kind of you, girls. We may very well take you up on the offer while we make plans." Molly said kindly.

Carly breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "Now that you're all here together, I think that it's up to me as a Healer-In-Training to tell you all that you need to sleep. I'm about to send my Aunt and Uncle home to get some rest, and I think that Charlie, Bill, Rowan and George should go with them. They can all get a few hours sleep there, while Molly and Fred get the rest they need here. Both of them have taken potions that should have had them sleeping for at least another few hours, and they need to quit fighting it. Arthur can write his letter and finish any business he still has left, and then he can stay here with Molly and Fred. There really isn't anything more that can be done tonight that couldn't be done when the sun comes up."

"What about you?" Fred asked her.

"I've got work to do still," she said simply. "The worst of it is over for now, I think, so I should be able to get a few hours sleep myself soon."

Everyone saw the logic of Carly's suggestion, and Rowan led the group out to go and find her Aunt and Uncle. Arthur sat beside Molly to write his letters to Dumbledore and to Ron and Ginny. Carly made sure that both Fred and Molly were comfortable before leaving to Floo her neighbor and returning to her duties. She hid the tears that had been threatening until she was well out of sight and hearing distance of their room. She stepped into a small alcove near the stairwell and allowed a few tears to escape, just to relieve some of the tension built up inside of her chest. Once she was no longer needed by just about everyone she came across, she would allow herself a nice long crying jag and the sleep she so desperately needed. Wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her robes, she stepped back out into the corridor and made her rounds to check on those she had treated earlier before she released them to go home - if they still had a home.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Rowan bit her lip as she, and the three Weasley men reached the hospital lobby. She could feel the bottled up grief, fear and sadness that Carly was struggling to keep in, and knew that if her sister didn't get some rest soon, she would have to come and fetch her and make her. Her exhaustion was wearing her down, just as Rowan's was. When both of them had emotions running so high that it was impossible to tell what feelings belonged to which of them. The best cure, Rowan knew, would be for them to lock themselves together in a room and just let their tears come while they consoled one another. She feared that the opportunity to do that was still a long way off, but it would come; but for now she had a job to do. She needed to get her family, new and old, back to the Winters' estate and into bed. She would allow herself a couple of hours rest, and then she would commit the article already in her head onto parchment for that day's Evening Prophet.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*

Back in the small room, Fred had lain down once more and was almost asleep; the monotonous scratching of his dad's quill was serving to lull him to sleep. He was awake, but kept his eyes closed when he heard his mother whisper.

"Arthur."

The scratching of quill on parchment ceased immediately, and Fred could hear the rustling of his father's robs as he turned to face his wife. "Yes dear?" There was such tenderness in his father's voice that it brought a prick of tears back to Fred's eyes, but he kept them determinedly closed. It seemed like a lifetime ago that he had watched his parents dancing lovingly together at that Halloween party.

"You said that Dumbledore was arranging for those students who lost family members. How bad has it been? Did they attack the school?"

"No!" he assured her quickly. "The school was left untouched. There were attacks all over Britain, though, and many casualties. Azkaban was emptied. I'm afraid that the war has well and truly begun."

"Well it's no more than we expected, is it?" Molly said staunchly. "We weathered the storm last time, and we'll do it again."

"We've lost so much, Molly," came Arthur's quiet, tear-filled voice. "We have a lot of work ahead of us."

"That's true," Molly said, her tone sad. "We'll just have to take things one step at a time. The first step is to gather the family together and to bury our son."

Her voice wobbled a bit, and Arthur stifled a sob. Fred could see, in his mind's eye, Percy's lifeless brother crumpled on the floor of that kitchen while a battle raged around him. He felt anger building up inside of him at the thought of the torture his parents must be enduring, having to cope with such a heavy loss and still having to worry about the rest of their children at the same time. How would Bill live the rest of his life with the vision of Percy holding his wand over him, preparing to administer a killing curse? 'Damn you, Percy, for being so stupid!'

"Bill's been looking into the initial preparations." Arthur sniffed, and Fred had the urge to go to his parents and throw his arms around them in comfort, but couldn't bring himself to interrupt such a private moment. "We'll lay him to rest in the village cemetery, where we can be close."

Molly made no verbal reply to this, and so Fred imagined that she must have nodded in agreement. "This will be hard on the children." She said. "First their brother, and now their home. They shouldn't have to bear this type of burden."

"They're good kids," Arthur said, his voice strengthening. "They're strong, and they'll pull together and help each other through. We can't let them blame themselves."

"No," Molly agreed. "And some of them will, at least a little. What should we do about the house?"

"I don't know," Arthur said heavily. "But we definitely don't have enough money to completely rebuild."

"We'll get by," Molly said sleepily. "We always do."

"Of course," Arthur said. "Now get back to sleep."

"You need some sleep as well," Molly yawned.

"I will, sweetheart," Arthur promised.

Fred heard rustling again, and then the scratching of the quill began again once more. Before he could form another thought beyond, 'Mum and Dad need help with the house,' he was asleep.