The Eighth Weasley

The Eighth Weasley - Chapter Ten

The Weasleys

Notes: We've finally reached THE chapter! You have no idea how thrilled I am to actually get this far into the story and still have an abundance of ideas. I have no idea how adopted kids react to meeting their biological parents, so apologies if this seems inaccurate.

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Two wide, worn, red velvet couches lined opposite walls of the private parlour, broad windows with off-white lace curtains and a solid oak table decorated with a gold candelabra and twin vases of rather dusty-looking dried roses lining the third wall.

The fourth wall only contained the door that lead into the hall and clean rectangles on the musty yellow wallpaper, where portraits of Wizards had been hastily removed, to allow the family some additional privacy.

Molly and Arthur were sitting side-by-side, holding one another's hands. Both of them were pale, exchanging nervous glances from time to time. Percy and Bill were sitting on the same couch, each of them glancing at their watches every few seconds.

On the opposite couch, the other five Weasley children sat together in silence, which was a small miracle, but their parents were too nervous themselves to notice. Ginny especially looked pale and fraught, toying with the end of her braid.

The doorknob squeaked and every pair of eyes snapped to the round, gold knob.

It seemed to turn with agonising slowness until the snib clicked and the door started to open inwards, squeaking even more loudly than the knob. Molly got to her feet quickly, her heart thundering against her ribs, her husband swift to join her.

Professor Dumbledore entered first, wearing his usual colourful array of expensive and beautifully-stitched robes, smiling broadly around at them, then stepped aside to let his young companion enter.

Head down, the youngest Weasley stepped into the room, timidly looking around from beneath swathes of loose deep red hair that obscured her eyes. "Uh...hi..." She raised her face shyly, a nervous smile on her lips. "I-I guess you're my family, then."

"Oh my...Willow..." Molly started forward, holding out both of her hands.

Before Willow could protest, warm soft arms had caught her in a hug, something she had rarely received from her adoptive mother and she felt tears springing to her eyes as she returned the embrace. Pulling back, Molly lifted Willow's face in her hands, then hugged her again.

"Our little one...its so good to see you again..."

"Its good to finally meet you...mom," Willow's smile was still shaky, but brighter than it had been before.

Arthur hurried forward to join his wife, catching one of Willow's hands and shaking it heartily, unable to speak. A choked laugh escaped him and he drew her into a hug as well, embracing her tightly.

"You poor child...cursed with my good looks..." he managed to mumble with a smile against her silky red hair. Willow laughed softly, tears streaming down her face as both of her parents hugged her as if she was their most precious possession.

The rest of the Weasleys had all got to their feet awkwardly, uncertain what to do as their parents embraced the missing one of their number. Bill was the one who finally took the initiative and moved forward.

"Hi, Willow?" Her face still resting against their father's chest, she looked at the striking, long-haired man who was clad in leather - or was it dragon-hide? "I'm Bill," He held out a hand, shaking hers. "I'm your biggest brother."

"Hey Bill." Her parents release her to meet her siblings, embracing one another and exchanging smiles. "I guess you all kinda know who I am, seeing as you called me by my name and everything and, oh boy, real nervous...nervous...leads to babbling..."

"You babble when you're nervous, too?" Ginny suddenly brightened at that. She stepped forward, then both she and Willow froze, staring at one another and - more particularly, at what they were wearing.

"Oh my God..." Willow managed to utter in astonishment.

The youngest Weasley twins had accidentally picked practically identical clothes for their first meeting with each other - red blouses with low-cut collars and figure-hugging black trousers, as well as black boots.

At around the same height and build, the only differences in the pair were visible in their hair and faces. Willow had her father's strong features, while Ginny looked more like Molly, Ginny's hair a wild mass of curls, while Willow's was silky and straight.

"Well, you are twins," Professor Dumbledore noted with a small smile.

"We are...aren't we?" Willow turned her attention to Ginny's face, examining her as closely as Ginny was examining Willow. "We don't look alike."

Ginny grinned. "You look like dad and I look like mum, that's why." She looked down at her hand, wondering if she should offer it to her twin, but - instead - took two more steps across the room and hugged her. "Its great to have you back, Willow."

"Great to be back," Willow murmured tearfully. With one arm looped around one another, the twins turned to their brothers and Willow took in each face, trying to place it from what she had read in the books.

A tall, gangly youth with a wild mop of red hair and a mass of freckles approached them. "All right, Willow?" He offered a hand, which she shook. "Nice to finally get to see who I was writing to."

"You're Ron, aren't you?"

"S'right." He grinned broadly. Stepping forward, he enveloped Willow in one of the most comfortable hugs she had ever had. He smelled warm and familiar, so very like Xander. "Bet its kinda weird to put a face to the hand-writing, eh?" Willow nodded, her arms around his waist. "And yep, Ron, the second most famous Weasley after Ginny...mind you, if I'd gone and married Harry, I would have been most famous."

"I don't think Harry would have liked that as much as you would, Ron," Ginny laughed. Ron pulled a face at her and mussed her hair. "Hey! Gerroff!"

"Out the way, Ronniekins!" Two identical men in their early twenties hauled Ron back, each offering a hand simultaneously to Willow. "Nice to have another complete set of twins in the family, Will. You don't mind if we call you Will? Good!"

"Uh..."

"I'm Fred," One shook her hand, then handed it to his brother. "That's George."

"George, shove off. I'm Fred," the one shaking her hand said.

"For goodness sake," Percy sighed, shaking his head. "The one on the left is George and the one on the right is Fred."

"Bzzt! Wrong!" both men chimed in unison, drawing a grin from Willow. Something about the pair reminded her a lot of Xander, but in different way compared to Ron.

Ron seemed to provide the comfortable familiarity. He was friendly, he had the goofy grin perfect, he had eyes that said he was a nice guy. It felt like she had known him for ever and beyond, but with Fred and George, she was getting the strange urge that if she was ever down, they would be the ones to cheer her up.

The twins were grinning at her and she could already see a difference between them.

One had a slightly wonky tip of his nose, like it had been broken and fixed very well, but just a little squint.

"Okay, we'll behave," the one on the right said. He was the one with the normal, wonk-free nose. "I'm George."

The one on the left, with the wonky nose, nodded. "Which means that I'm Fred, normally."

"Contradiction in terms there," the final member of the group said, peering around both of his younger brothers. "All right there, Willow?" He grinned at her, his red hair a mass of singed frizz. Stretching out a hand, he shook hers. "I'm Charlie."

"Nice to meet you, Charlie," She eyed his head. His skin had several shiny marks on the cheeks and on his forearms too, but still, it was the black-tipped red hair that drew her attention. "Uh...what happened to your hair?"

"The Swedish Short Snout had hiccups."

"Huh?"

Ginny replied for her brother. "Charlie works with dragons. He's been looking after a baby Swedish Short Snout lately and apparently it ate too quickly."

"A baby dragon? How cute!" Willow exclaimed. "I'd love a dragon."

Ron sniggered. "You're gonna get on well with Hagrid."

"Is it true you're dating a werewolf?" Percy butted in quickly. "By the way, I'm Percy, your elder brother." Wearing an impeccable suit that reminded her painfully of Niles in 'Frasier' and horn-rimmed glasses, he had a pompous look on his face.

Willow eyed him, remembering the Harry Potter books. "I never would have guessed you were Percy," she said in a deadpan voice. The rest of the brothers muted sniggers. "And yes, I do date a werewolf."

"Seriously?"

"I'd say," She nodded. "We've been together for nearly three years."

"That's not quite what I meant..." Bill said with a lop-sided grin. "What's it like? I've never seen a werewolf. I mean, I've seen a werewolf, but I haven't seen one as a wolfy werewolf...how did you find out he was one?" They had somehow managed to sit down while they were talking, Willow sandwiched between Ginny and Ron, Bill and Percy flanking them.

"Find out?" The youngest Weasley frowned, trying to remember. "I went to see him one night, just after we started dating. It was just after there had been an attack and he was trying to chain himself up. He turned into the wolf, chased me and probably would have killed me and eaten me, if I hadn't shot him."

"You shot him and you're still actually together?" Ron looked impressed. "That's commitment."

"It was only a tranquilliser gun." She shrugged. "It knocked him out long enough to get him into the cage in the library that Giles had." A frown crossed her brow. "I never did work out why Giles had a cage in the library."

"Old Rupert always was a kinky sod," Arthur said with a small smile. "Did he bring you over?"

"I think he said he was taking my friends into Diagon Alley," Willow nodded.

George cocked his head. "They're all muggles, aren't they?"

"One was a witch, about a thousand years ago," That drew some puzzled looks from her family. "But yeah, I guess you could sorta call them muggles. I mean, Oz is a werewolf, Buffy's a slayer and Anya's an ex-demon but Xander's...well, he's Xander. All muggly and stuff."

"What's the Slayer like?" Percy demanded eagerly.

"Well, she doesn't like being called the Slayer," Willow smiled faintly. "You call her Slayer and she'll probably to throw you across the room." Percy flinched, sinking back on his seat. "Call her by her name and she'll be fine. She's great, though. My best friend."

"Is she built like a rugby player? I mean, if she's fighting demons and everything without magic, she'll have to be pretty big..." Ron put in, one of his long arms looped around Willow's shoulders. Normally no one would have been so tactile with her, but the youngest Weasley couldn't help feeling utterly at ease in her elder brother's embrace and looked up at him.

It took a moment for what he had said to sink in and Willow blinked, then doubled over laughing at the thought of a King-Size, Rugby-player version of Buffy wearing the familiar, girly normal-size Buffy wardrobe. "Oh God... gone to a scary visual place here..."

"What?" Ron looked bemused.

"I can't explain now, Ron," Giggling uncontrollably, Willow shook her head, one hand patting his knee. "Oh God..." Even Professor Dumbledore was having trouble keeping a grin from his face. "Buffy... rugby-playing...I'll have to tell her that..."

"But she is big?"

"You'll just have to wait until you meet her...you are staying for a while, right?" Willow looked around anxiously, her laughter fading as quickly as it had come. "Everyone wants to meet you guys, cos they've heard all about you from the letters and everything."

Molly nodded with a broad smile. "Of course! We'd be delighted to stay as long as you are."

"Actually..." Professor Dumbledore murmured, moving from his position at the door for the first time since he had entered the room. "That was a subject I was wondering if I could bring up with you all."

"Oh?" Willow managed to make the feeble squeak.

"Molly, you recall what we discussed several weeks ago?"

Apparently she did, looking from the Professor to her youngest daughter and biting on her lower lip nervously. "Do you think...that is to say..."

"Why don't you ask her, Molly?" Dumbledore suggested gently.

The plump witch nodded nervously. "Um...Willow, we were...that is...is there any chance that you might like to come and spend the rest of the summer with us, at The Burrow?" Willow gaped at her. "I mean, I know you probably have other things to do and everyone will probably be coming and going a lot, but..."

"I would love to!"

"Really?" Willow nodded eagerly and Molly beamed. "That's wonderful! And we can help you with your magic and everything, if you're going to..." She looked up at Dumbledore, who smiled slightly and moved a little closer to the group.

"Willow, there has been some dicussion among the staff body at Hogwarts," he said, "and we were wondering if you would like to attend the school, in some capacity to learn to use your abilities properly. After all, you have a lot of power and we would like to give you a little help in finding out how to use it."

The youngest Weasley stared at him in confusion. "I-I don't understand. I thought I was too old to attend the school."

"You're very advanced already, you know, so I'm sure we could arrange private tuition in specialist areas," He smiled reassuringly. "You could attend classes you were interested in and it would be one of the best ways for you to learn about our world, even if you only attend for a single school year."

"Me? Go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?" A dazzling grin crossed the young witch's face. "That would be amazing!"

"I hoped you would say that," Dumbledore smiled. "If you stay with Molly and Arthur for the summer, at least we will know where to contact you."

A wrinkle marred Willow's brow momentarily. "But what about my friends, Professor? I mean, if I come to the school, would Oz be able to come with me, if he wants to? Is there a cage that I could put him in at the school? I don't want to leave him behind."

"I'm sure we could arrange something, Miss Weasley."

"Only someone from our family would ask for a cage for their love- interest," Charlie remarked with a wry grin.

Willow smiled again at the use of her name, grinning at Charlie's comment then paused, a curious look crossing her face. "Will I have to be sorted?" she asked, a note of excitement in her voice.

"If you intend to attend regular classes, it would probably be necessary, so yes," Blue eyes twinkled brightly. "Or if you just wanted to be sorted for the sake of it, I am sure we could fit you into the register."

Ginny grinned. "You just want to see what the hat says to you, don't you?"

"I am kinda curious," Willow returned the grin weakly. "Do you think I'd be a Gryffindor like the rest of you? I mean, has there ever been anyone who was in this family, who wasn't in Gryffindor?"

Fred and George immediately started to speak. "We thought we'd have some peace from the family when we got there, but no," George sighed dramatically and his brother took up the speech. "We got stuck with Perfect Percy."

"I resent that!"

"That was the point, Perce," Fred grinned.

"But what if I end up in Slytherin? I mean, I've done some spells that have gone a teeny bit...wrong...and ended up with things not of the good..."

Ginny gave her twin a reassuring hug. "Then you'll show them exactly what a muggle-raised Weasley can do," she lowered her voice and added in a wicked whisper. "And if they really annoy you, you could always let your boyfriend loose in the common room on a full-moon."

Willow couldn't help smiling at that thought. "Its very tempting, you know," she said, her eyes dancing with mischief, then looked across the room at her parents questioningly. "If I come and stay with you, when will it be?"

Arthur gave her a broad smile. "As soon as you would like to, Willow. It might be a bit of a squeeze, but I'm sure we'll be able to fit you in...after all, none of this lot are meant to live with us anymore, seeing as they're all grown up and everything."

"Yeah, but we've never had a new baby sister to annoy," George grinned in a way that made Willow very uneasy. "We have nineteen years of annoying to catch up on, haven't we?"

"You don't want to annoy me too much," Willow cautioned, her eyes dancing.

"Why?"

She smirked. "I have something you don't have."

"Well, we all knew about THAT," Fred put in with a dirty grin, receiving a magic clip around the ear from his mother's wand. "Mum!"

"Don't be crude, Fred," Molly scolded.

"Well, he is right about that, mom," Willow grinned. "But I still having something better than what he's got..."

"Hey!" He looked offended, then frowned. "Um...so what do you have that George and me don't, then?"

"A Slayer who would happily beat you up, if I asked her to," Willow gave her big brother a thoroughly innocent smile. Ginny gave a shout of laughter and Fred and George shut up very quickly. "You'll just have to make sure I don't get upset, won't you and George?"

He and his twin nodded emphatically.

"You know," Ginny remarked conspiratorially. "I think you and I are going to get on very well."