He sat back down at the desk and refilled his quill with ink but before he could write a thing there was a knock on the door and Ron stuck his head inside.
"Hey, Harry, you hungry?"
"Starved," he answered, more in the hope that once food was in front of him his stomach would remember he hadn't eaten since breakfast.
"Good," Ron said as he came the rest of the way inside. "Mum's going nuts downstairs. Apparently having you and Bill here is reason enough to throw a party."
"She doesn't have to go through all that trouble," Harry said, not wanting to be even more of a bother than he already had been.
"Well," Ron said sheepishly, running a hand through his hair and not quite looking at him. "I did lay it on a bit thick about your birthday. Looks like she wants to make up for all of them."
Harry smiled. A belated Burrow birthday was definitely something worth writing about. 'Hermione could wait a little longer,' he decided.
Dinner was certainly a lively affair and Harry ate eagerly, his appetite coming back with a vengeance. Mrs. Weasley prompted him to get seconds and he had to tell her he was already on thirds. Word must've gotten around to Mr. Weasley that his son had come in from Egypt because he had rushed straight home, exploding toilets be damned. As excited as he was to see his eldest boy again he was positively over the moon when Harry told him he could have the washing machine. Apparently Mr. Weasley was quite the fan of muggle appliances.
While Ron, Fred, and George were talking about the latest Quidditch standings, and Percy lamented his time out of his room and presumably his homework, Mr. Weasley kept Harry to his side all night - all the better for the man to pick his brain about all things muggle. Mrs. Weasley kept shooting her husband looks that said he was being rude and kept trying to get her daughter to join her brothers' conversation. The girl though had obviously decided the best course of action was to avoid being seen entirely. To be honest, Harry didn't mind. It just didn't seem right to be the object of one girl's attention when there was another he wanted to talk to instead.
"So Harry," Bill said, cutting through his father's muggle talk as they passed around pieces of cake for dessert. "How is it you've got a Litigator stalking the halls of Gringotts and an Overseer in charge of your account? I've never seen that happen before."
"It's pretty simple, really," Harry said, wanting to brush past the subject as quickly as possible. "I had my money stolen."
Ron dropped his fork and the silence afterwards couldn't have been more complete if he had insulted their beloved grandparents or suggested that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were brother and sister.
"Those little blighters are stealing from you?" Ron asked disbelievingly.
"Those little blighters are my bosses, Ron, and they take stealing very seriously," Bill said with a stern look.
"How much did they get?" Fred asked.
"You got anything left?" seconded George.
"That's not really suitable for the dinner table," Mrs. Weasley cut in decisively with a look even worse than Bill's and promised harsh rebuke should anyone cross her.
After that, the conversation was a falsely pleasant affair, full of grand plans for a series of two-on-two Quidditch games starting tomorrow while Bill told them what life in Cairo was like. Harry was actually glad for Mrs. Weasley's insistence on the matter. The last thing he wanted to do was repay their kindness by telling them the kindly old grandfather of the wizarding world was nothing more than a crook who stole from children. Plus, until he had Barchoke's beloved rental agreement signed and sealed, which he had said would take Lichfield days to word in a way no supposed guardian could interfere with, there was too much of a risk one of them would run off to get Dumbledore's side of the story, and that would mess up the whole plan.
Ginny disappeared as soon as the party was over; hiding in her room as she had hidden behind her mother all night. Mrs. Weasley followed soon after, only pausing to hug Bill again and tell him to visit his poor old mother more often while her husband Arthur quickly slipped out to fiddle with his new washing machine as soon as his wife wasn't looking. The man was practically giggling with nervous energy. Harry thought he might be a little mad, at least when it came to muggle things.
Ron and the twins were all set to drag Harry away but Bill got his hands on him and sent them packing. Harry had been dreading this, but if Lichfield and the goblins were going to be publicly calling Dumbledore a thief then the least he could do was stand up to Bill. He didn't even let the older boy get all the way through his first question before telling him in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to know anything then he could ask Barchoke and Lichfield themselves.
Bill grinned and said that the goblins must have rubbed off on him. Harry didn't know what to say to that but did try to make it up to him by politely asking if the mad old shoemaker in Diagon Alley had made his wonderful boots; turns out he had, so at least they could swap stories on that.
"I heard what happened with Ginny after you arrived," Bill said, nervously fiddling with his ponytail as if to make sure it was still attached after how much his mother had complained about it during dinner. "You'll have to forgive her. Being the only girl in a house full of guys hasn't been easy for her. The only friend she's ever had outside the Burrow was a girl named Luna, and Mum put a stop to that a few years back."
"Why'd she do that?" Harry asked.
"You haven't seen how Mum can get," Bill said with a shake of his head. "Don't get me wrong, she's a great Mum, she just mothers you too much sometimes and doesn't know when to stop. It's why Charlie and I wound up on other side of the continent," Bill chuckled. "Charlie's said dragons are easier to deal with than Mum. Anyway, Mum took exception to Mrs. Lovegood working from home and tried to tell her how to raise her daughter."
Harry winced.
"Yeah, that pretty much spelled the end of that," Bill explained. "Ever since then most of Ginny's friends have been in books."
"That's not such a bad thing," Harry said, thoughts turning back to Hermione. Her friendship with books had come in quite handy a number of times.
"That depends on what the books are about," Bill said meaningfully.
Harry had no idea what he meant by that, let alone what to say to that.
.....
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