Chapter One Hundred Forty-One
Family Matters
Shatter every window 'til it's all blown away,
Every brick, every board, every slamming door blown away
'Til there's nothing left standing, nothing left of yesterday
Every tear-soaked whiskey memory blown away
Blown away
(Blown Away - Carrie Underwood)October 19th, 1998Mia remembered that when she had gone to Australia to say one last goodbye to
her Muggle parents at the end of the war, Harry had been handling a few family matters of
his own, having requested that the Order help get his aunt, uncle, and cousin back into
their home on Privet Drive. He wanted to move them himself, but he was unable to even
walk past the front gates of Grimmauld Place without being attacked by the press disguised
as Muggle paparazzi. Then there was the fact that he just was not ready to face the Dursleys
himself so soon after everything he had gone through.
Sirius admitted that he had not gone with the Order to Little Whinging, too worried
about what he might say or do to the Muggles.
Arthur was one of the few who volunteered to go to Surrey, as he considered
himself to have a decent rapport with the Dursleys. Mia figured that he was either happy
to ignore—or completely unaware of—the Muggles' disdain for wizards and the Weasleys
in particular, considering their past interactions.
He had returned to Grimmauld Place to inform Harry that his family had been
successfully moved back into their home. When Harry had gone off to bed, Arthur
confessed to Sirius that the home on Privet Drive had been almost entirely demolished and
had to have immense repairs done before the Muggles could be moved back in. It had
taken an extra week, and the Dursley parents had complained about it to anyone who
would hear of it.
The very moment that the keys to the newly restored, fully furnished home were
handed over, Vernon Dursley angrily demanded that all the "freaks" were to leave "his
bloody property," and if they even dared to come back, they would surely be in for it.