Through All the Pain // N. Longbottom

After War // Chapter One

Somewhere far off in the distance, a Rooster called as the sun just barely peeked up over the hill covering The Burrow. Few people would have been awake before the Roosters or Sun, in fact, the only person in the Burrow up that early was Lorrinda. Lori was sitting up on the small overhang above the room she still shared with Ginny. As the sun continued to rise, Lori slowly reached over and grabbed her broom and flew down to the ground to go help her Mum cook breakfast.

Today's going to be a rough day. Lori thought as the front door creaked open. As it creaked Lori heard soft snoring coming from the couch, Lori smiled as she slowly shut the front door, fastened the latch, and lowered the shade in the living room before walking over to the couch. There curled up on the couch was her older brother George. George ever since the Battle refused to sleep in his old bedroom, and none of the Weasleys could blame him. In fact, all the Weasleys had something they could not do without Fred around.

Molly could not bear to go past their bedroom door to get to the attic. Arthur, could not seem to find any joy in tinkering with his Muggle magic tricks box that the boys gave to him for Christmas last year, Bill could only seem to smile if Fleur were by his side, Charlie would not get so interested in talking about Dragons, Percy has locked himself up in his room if it were not for Lori, Percy would also be starving himself too, for he was going through a huge patch of survivor's guilt. Ron and Ginny could not seem to find the trivial things to bicker about anymore, the most they could do was shove each other lightly at the table, however most of the time they just stayed quiet and barely spoke. Lori was the only one who seemed to function normally, she had to get supplies from the attic, she had to make sure the top floors were clean and safe, and Lori had to be the one who was okay.

Lori pulled a blanket over George's body and placed a small kiss on his temple. That was when Molly finally entered the kitchen.

"Oh! Lorrinda, you scared me!" she yelped, jumping back onto the stairs. "I will never get used to you being up before me."

"Well, get used to it, because until I get married and move out on my own, I'll beat you awake every single morning." Lori walked over and kissed her mother on the cheek before heading over to the cupboard to get down plates for breakfast.

"Let's see, You, Me, Dad, Bill, Fleur, Charlie, Percy, George, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Harry, was anyone else joining us for breakfast?" Lori counted off as she was pulling plates down from the cabinet.

"The Lupin-Blacks, George invited Lee and I believe Angelina over this morning, and Ron told me just last night he invited 3 more people to join us this morning," Molly answered as she started cooking some eggs and bacon. "Whom I don't even know," Molly said with a hint of annoyance. Lori could not help but smile, because just that little inflexion in her mother's voice meant she was slowly returning to her old self. However, Lori pushed the thoughts aside and pulled down all the needed plates.

Sadly, while placing the plates Lorrinda realized the table was too small for what they needed, so that meant Lori had to drag out the big, long tables from the shed and place them outside for everyone. So, Lori quickly tied her hair up and walked out to get the table set up, as she got over to the shed and started pulling the table out, she heard a voice call to her from upstairs.

"Need a hand?"

Lori looked up and before she could even respond, a loud CRACK happened as Percy apparated out of his room and down to the lawn with her. Forgetting the table, Lori instantly just leapt into Percy's arms and buried her head into his shoulder. As Lori hugged her brother tightly for the first time since right after the Battle, Percy's hand brushed her hair as he cried, not realizing how much he missed hugging his baby sister until that moment.