Blessings ; George Weasley

Eleven

The next morning, I for once woke up before everyone else.

George was asleep and so was Roxanne so I decided to just get up, get changed and ready for the day before making my way downstairs to make myself some tea.

I walked down the stairs and turned around the corner, walking into the kitchen but my eyes immediately noticed the back door that led to the garden.

It was halfway open, some dirt in the form of a shoe print on the floor, leading into the house and getting fainter for each step.

The footsteps had been heading for the hallway where I was currently standing.

I thought back to Roxanne telling me about a man in her closet last night and suddenly I sprinted back upstairs, hurrying to open the door to Fred's room, making sure he was there.

He was sleeping peacefully in his room and after checking it for anyone, I hurried to Leah's room.

She was asleep and no one was in there either so then I continued up to the second floor, checking Elsie's room first.

Elsie was sleeping in her bed and her window was open so after checking the room for anyone, I closed the window.

Then I went to Roxi's room.

Her bed was empty but that was because she was sleeping next to George at the moment.

I checked her entire room, including the closet but there wasn't any sign of anyone.

The second I got to the room I shared with George, I hurried to his side and gently shook him awake, trying my best to let Roxi sleep.

George's eyes landed on me the second he woke up but he looked rather confused.

"What are you doing?" He muttered, running a hand over his face. He looked at Roxi before he looked at me again. "Go back to bed, Dia... it can't be that late."

"Roxi was right." I whispered. "There's someone in the house and if they aren't here anymore, there has been."

"What are you talking about?"

"I thought she was seeing monsters again like she did last year, but she told me she saw a man in her closet and now the back door is open as well as footsteps leading into the house."

George sat up, rubbing both hands over his face before he looked at me, his eyes squinted together.

"I locked the back door before we went up to sleep."

"It's wide open."

He looked towards the hallway before he got off the bed and made his way out with me following behind.

I closed the door behind us to our room and we walked down the stairs, George in the lead.

We turned the corner around the stairs and he froze for a moment when he saw the door.

"Can you close it?" He asked and looked back into the house, before he walked towards the utility room to see if anyone was there.

Meanwhile, I hurried into the kitchen and living room to close and lock the door.

"There's no one down here!" I heard George call and I looked back to see him stand in the hallway and look upstairs.

"I've checked all the rooms apart from the bathrooms." I told him. "I couldn't find anyone."

George looked at me for a quick second before he hurried upstairs and my eyes fell to the footsteps on the floor.

The second I heard Elsie scream, fear completely overtook my body and I sprinted into the hallway and up until I reached her room where George was holding her.

Roxi had come up here and stood in the hallway while Fred stood on the stairs.

Elsie was crying as George hugged her.

"There was a man!" She sobbed. "He was scary! He left through the window."

George and I exchanged a look before I walked over to the window and looked out, not seeing anyone.

How did anyone escape from the second floor? Unless they had a broom of course. It couldn't have been a muggle.

Muggles couldn't possibly escape through the second-floor window.

"Elsie, darling." I heard George say and I looked at them as he crouched down and brushed her hair out of her face. "Did you see what the man looks like?"

Elsie nodded, wiping her eyes.

"He was tall and he had dark hair. Black hair." She explained. "His eyes were dark too. They looked like mummy's."

Oh shit.

George looked at me and we exchanged a knowing look.

"Thank you, Elsie." George gave her a hug. "He's gone now, yeah? You're safe."

George stood up, looking at me again.

"I'm gonna go down to the ministry today." He told me and I simply nodded, knowing that it was a good idea. "But for now I think we should eat some breakfast."

He placed a hand against Elsie's back, guiding her to leave the room and walk with Roxi and Fred downstairs.

"George—" I breathed and went to apologise before he pulled me into a hug.

I hadn't expected it, but I hugged him back and buried my face in his chest, letting go of the breath I didn't know I had been holding.

"He didn't hurt any of you." He said. "That's the important thing."

Leah...

I pulled out of the hug and George seemed to realise too that Leah was the only one of our children who didn't come when Elsie screamed.

We both ran downstairs to the first floor and into Leah's room.

I had never felt so relieved as I saw Leah sit on her bed, in the middle of pulling on a pair of socks.

I took a deep breath and I heard George do too as we looked at her.

"Hi mummy." Leah smiled. "Hi Georgie. Is breakfast ready?"

I let out a small chuckle, walking over to help her with her socks as she seemed to struggle with them.

"Not yet." I smiled at her. She seemed completely unaffected, which meant she hadn't seen him and she hadn't heard Elsie either.

"I'm gonna go make it though." George said with a small smile. "Pancakes for everyone, eh?"

"Yay!" Leah cheered and George walked over to give her a kiss on the head before leaving, joining the rest of our kids downstairs.

Leah looked at me and reached a hand out to touch my cheek.

"Are you okay, mummy?" She asked. "You're crying."

I quickly wiped my cheeks, not even having realised that the fear of it all made me cry.

"I'm okay, beautiful." I assured her. "Don't worry."

"Okay." She said quietly, already in her own world again. "Can we go to the zoo? We went to the zoo with daddy and we saw the llamas. I wanna see llamas again."

I smiled, brushing my fingers through her hair.

"I'll talk to Georgie about it." I told her. "I'm sure we can find a day, yeah?"