My Chest Is Feeling Empty Always, and You're It's Only Cure

That was the first time I met any of the Weasleys, and I’m glad I did; they changed my life, for better and maybe for worse. Since that meeting on the Hogwarts Express we’d sat together every year on the way there, and back. For that Easter Holiday, after I’d met them, I stayed at The Burrow for the duration of my time off.
Meeting Mollie Weasley was a pleasant experience. She was a kind, welcoming woman who I admired for looking after the house. Her job can’t have been easy; looking after five boys, a shy Ginny and of course Harry, Hermione, myself and her husband.
Obviously, the first time – and a few times after that – I’d visited the Burrow Harry and Hermione weren’t there because the youngest boy, Ron, had not met them.
Ginny had been shy but as she was the only girl I had stayed in her room and we’d stay up at night talking. Ron was also shy, he’d blush if I’d talk to him at first and he’d never look me in the eye after doing something clumsy. We hadn’t spoken much but as one of the closest to my age we’d talked more the next year, when he was preparing for Hogwarts himself. Then there was Fred and George, who I would usually spend all my time with. Percy came after that, I’d met him at Hogwarts and he was too goody-goody for me, the twins would tease him all the time. Then came Charlie and Bill, who I hadn’t met until about 3 years after knowing the Weasleys.
Actually, thinking back, I had met Charlie. He’d come home for a visit for a day only. He was a charming man, like all the Weasley boys.
“Emma! Stop looking so scared, our parents don’t bite. Well, mum can get a bit angry at times but that’s only at us, for being twats,” Fred said, chuckling. I nodded, not convinced at all.
“But I’m imposing. Ugh, why did you boys insist I come here for the holidays? I’m sure your family are wonderful, better than you two at least,” I smirked, still feeling nervous.
Mrs Weasley and Ginny were meeting us at the train station after arriving back from school. “For Merlin’s sake, Emma! My mother said it was fine, she loves having people in the house. She is going to love you, okay? You’re wonderful,” George said, getting a little annoyed at my nerves.
I nodded, getting off the train as it came to a halt. I could see Mrs Weasley as soon as I’d gotten off. You couldn’t miss her, standing there in some robes with her red hair, just like the twins. A small, young girl standing next to her, clasping her mother’s arm, who I assumed was Ginny. She had the same fiery hair as her mother and brothers so I guessed that all the children had the same hair. Ginny smiled excitedly as she saw the twins on either side of me. They had one of my arms each, whispering things like, “It’ll be fine, stop worrying,” and, “Does she look like she’s going to hate you?”
I smiled when I stopped in front of Mrs Weasley. “Hello, Mrs Weasley, I’m Emma. Thank you so much for letting me stay with you.” George winked at me and I smiled.
“Oh, no bother dear! This is Ginny, she’s our youngest,” Mrs Weasley said, pulling me in for a hug. “I hope you won’t mind our house, it’s quite full.” I nodded as the kind woman turned to her twins. “Oh, Fred, how was it? George, did you boys get into any trouble? Did you do all your homework? You’ll have to tell me all about it when we get home.” The boys rolled their eyes at their mother’s worried questions.
“Mum, it was fine. We had fun.” The boys said together, a glint in their eyes. You see, the boys weren’t wrong when they said they liked pranks and jokes. They liked to play pranks all day, trying not to get caught and rarely they did. In fact it was usually only Professor Snape who caught them but he was a moody old git anyway.
After Percy had joined us off the train we set off.
As we arrived outside of the Burrow I was nervous again at meeting their father and younger brother. The building loomed over us, casting a large shadow. It was tall and rickety looking. At the same time, however, it looked very homey.
“Welcome to The Burrow, Emma,” The twins said in sync. I smiled up at them and they led me inside.
The kitchen was clean and I could see a boy younger than myself in the front room. “Ron, your brothers are here!” Mrs Weasley shouted as soon as she was inside the house.
“Oh joy,” I heard Ron say quietly as he walked through to the kitchen. “Hi Fred, George. Oh, hello,” He blinked up at me and I laughed a little.
“Hi, I’m Emma – your brothers’ friend,” I shook his hand and he grinned at me.
Mrs Weasley bustled around the kitchen, waving her wand to conduct the pots and food that were preparing themselves for dinner. “My husband should be home soon, he’s still at work,” She said, peering at me, and then looking at an odd clock-looking contraption on the wall. “Boys, why don’t you take Emma upstairs and show her where she’ll be sleeping?”
They nodded and led me up the stairs. Let me tell you, there are a lot of stairs in the Weasley household. I think there are four or five floors? We went past the first floor – their parent’s room was there – and we went to the next floor where Ron’s room was there along with their own. The next floor was Percy’s and Ginny’s, then the rest of the floors were bathrooms and Charlie and Bill’s old rooms. The bathroom was next to Ginny’s room and I walked inside and put my trunk in the corner. I felt like it was wrong being in her room without her so I stepped out.
“Let’s go to our room,” Fred said, slinging an arm around my shoulders and steering me down the stairs.
I lied on George’s bed whilst he sat on it, my head in his lap and Fred sat on his bed across from us. “So, your thoughts?” George asked, grinning at me but it was upside down from where I was laying.
“Your mother’s nice, friendly. Ron’s very shy. Ginny’s so lovely, she’s going to be so beautiful when she grows up with that long hair and petite frame. I’ve already met Percy but I still think he’s... a rule book kind of guy. And then there’s you two, you guys are... alright I guess, compared to the rest of the Weasleys.”
They looked offended for a moment, “Whatever, Emma, we’re you’re favourites.” Fred spoke with confidence.
I rolled my eyes, “Maybe, but who’s my favourite out of you two?”
“Me,” They both said at the same time.
“Well, at least one of you is right,” I said, sarcastically.
Fred thought for a moment, as did George. Then, they surprised me; they said each other’s names. They paused, and then turned to each other. “You discuss more with Fred, you’re closer,” George said, defending his reason.
“But she’s closer to you, George. I mean, you guys are like... always closer physically,” Fred didn’t look like he was happy with his choice of words. I didn’t actually have a favourite. I found Fred easier to discuss things with because he was always talking, George was a great listener but I felt like he wasn’t comfortable telling me things himself. That was something I was hoping of working on whilst I visited the family home.
Fred was right though, thinking about it. George and I sat close to each other, in their room I would sit on George’s bed – his being closer to the door – and take right now for example; my head was in his lap as his fingers danced through my hair.
“What?” George questioned, somewhat confused.
“Well, Emma and I may talk a lot but you guys are always together. Like she’s got her head in your lap right now, you’re kind of closer that way rather than emotionally. I’m not sure, George,” Fred spoke carefully but he still didn’t look satisfied with his words.
George’s fingers stopped moving in my hair and they retracted themselves. I frowned and gave Fred a look that he understood as ‘we’ll talk later’.
We sat down for dinner about an hour later. I finally met Arthur Weasley and he was a lovely man, interested in Muggles. I sat across from him as we ate our stew, cooked by Mollie. He knew I had a Muggle father and that I was raised in Muggle surroundings.
“So, what do you miss about the Muggle world, Emma?” He asked politely, the table listening. Mollie seemed a little annoyed that her husband was talking to me about the Muggle world.
I thought for a moment, what did I miss? Electricals didn’t work at Hogwarts, too much magic around. “Perhaps my iPod,” I pondered.
Mr Weasley looked at me, utterly confused, “An i-what now?”
I laughed and looked around the table, they seemed confused as well, “It’s like a small record player. You put your music onto it, it stores it and you can take it out of the house and listen to it through headphones which are little speakers that go in your ears so no one else can hear your music. I had a lot of music on my iPod, I guess I miss falling asleep to someone singing and I miss reading, studying and doing homework with my music playing in the background.” I stopped explaining and ate some more stew, peering around the table.
“Muggle music?” Ginny asked from beside George, who sat on my right.
“Yes, Muggle music. I enjoy music a lot,” I said, feeling tears in my eyes. I missed my home but I loved being at The Burrow. I don’t think I particularly missed home, it was more my mother I missed. “I’ll have to bring it to Hogwarts after Christmas for you boys to see, I can bring it here as well, Ginny, you can hear some Muggle music if you would like. I mean, if that’s okay with your mother,” I said, looking down at my stew, suddenly feeling very out of place.
I knew Mollie Weasley didn’t like her husband’s obsession with all things Muggle related. I think I may have crossed the line. “Of course that’s okay, dear. It’s just music after all. It can’t be that much different to our music apart from they don’t sing about anything magical.”
I nodded, smiling tentatively at the kind Mother who gave me a smile and a wink back. “Um, they usually sing about things like girls or boys, relationships, love. Just that kind of thing, like stories but with a melody.”
Arthur asked some more questions about the Muggle world which I answered best I could.
As the family left the table and Mrs Weasley waved her wands and the dishes starting to clean themselves. “Emma, dear, sorry about my husband he’s just so interested; I understand how difficult it must be. It must be very odd; people asking you about things that seem so normal to you. I mean, I don’t think my boys even know what DVDs are.”
I blinked at her, “You do, though?”
She nodded, “I went in to town once and there was a woman selling them, they were weird looking things. I asked Arthur about it and he found out for me. They’re used for watching movie images, aren’t they? Muggles watch them.” I nodded, smiling at her. “I may not be very interested in Muggle related things because I’ve never needed to know about them, but I know a few things.” She winked at me and I smiled.
“Mrs Weasley, can I go to the Twins’ bedroom for a while? It’s just my mother’s always a bit funny about boys being round, even though they’re just friends; I wouldn’t want to intrude on any rules you have.”
She shook her head at me, smiling, “Dear, of course you can, they’re the only ones you really know.”
Walking up the stairs I found the boys sitting on their beds and I walked to George’s bed and lied down like earlier. “Your mother is so nice,” I smiled and the boys laughed.
“What, did you expect her to be mean?” Fred laughed, I shook my head.
We talked mindlessly about random things; classes, teachers we hated, teachers we liked, memories the boys had and then came the topic I’d been dreading. “Emma, we always talk about our family, what about yours?”
I gulped and closed my eyes, taking a shaky breath. “Well, um, there’s not much to say really. My mum’s childish but she’s smart, I think she was looking forward to some time to herself when I left for Hogwarts. I worry about her though, alone in that house.” I opened my eyes to see George giving Fred a meaningful look, quite stern yet worried. He was telling his twin not to question why my mother was alone, without my father.
“I’m going to go get a drink, want anything?” George said, getting up.
“No thanks,” Fred and myself answered together. “Why don’t you talk to George like you talk to me, Emma?” I looked at Fred as the question tumbled from his lips.
My brows furrowed together, “What do you mean?”
Fred sat up, his legs dangling off of the side of his bed. He rested his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands, eyes boring into mine, “You’ll talk to me about how you’re feeling, how I’m feeling, problems and things; but not to George.”
I fidgeted, uncomfortable, “I don’t think George is as comfortable with me about those kinds of things,” I whispered.
“You’re so daft, Emma. George would have more to say about these kinds of things, he takes other people into account more so than I do. I’ll pull off a prank whereas George will ponder about the dangers then decide it’s fine. Maybe it’s because I spoke to you first, you perceive me as being the more talkative one – I probably am, but George is... George. He’s me, but with his own twist; as I am him, with a little more ‘umf’.” It was strange, talking about George with Fred. He was serious, Fred wasn’t serious often.
“It’s just, I don’t want to intrude on his feelings. I was hoping I could get closer to him while we were here,” I whispered, feeling embarrassed at having confessed that.
Fred smiled, “He’ll like that, he feels like you’re here because of me, not because of us. Now, hush, he’s coming up the stairs.” Looking towards the door, it opened and I stared at Fred, impressed.
They’re a package deal; Fred and George. You can’t have one without the other, well you could but they wouldn’t have that impact. They’re bouncy, friendly and so lively.
I yawned and George, instead of going back to sitting, put his glass on a small table and came over to his bed. He told me to stand up, I did and then he lied on his bed, his back towards the wall, then he signalled to me to lie down. I blushed lightly and lied next to him.
Fred yawned and lied down as well. “I quite miss school, I miss sitting in the Common Room, scheming,” Fred mumbled. George laughed, as did I, and his chest moved against my back.
“That’s all you ever do, you Weasley Twins, you scheme,” I mumbled back, feeling tired. “It would be a little boring without you, though. You bring fun into my life. Teachers hate you though.” Fred laughed and George flicked my nose lightly.
George fidgeted a little, “Yeah, well, it’s mostly Snape, and he hates everybody.”
“Except the Slytherins, he bloody loves those,” Fred grumbled. For the rest of the night, the three of us shared light banter about how Snape picked on everyone who didn’t belong to Slytherin. “I’d love to do something to that old git.”
George sighed into my hair, my eyes were closed and I knew sleep was nearly upon me, “Don’t even think about it Fred, we could be expelled. He’s not worth it.” I smiled as George was being cautious. “Getting the Slytherins would be fun, though. We’ll have to think of something.” I smiled. Leaning back into George, I felt sleep taking over.