Harry Potter 1. A Final Summer on 4 Privet Drive

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 1**

The only sounds that came from the fourth house on Privet Drive in the early hours in the morning were the snores of those who lived there. Like many others at this time, the Dursleys were fast asleep in their warm beds, most likely dreaming about nothing in particular as they allowed their minds to wander freely in their sleep.

In this dark and quiet home, none would suspect that there was someone who was not enjoying a peaceful night's sleep. While her relatives slept, the redheaded girl walked slowly around the kitchen preparing a cup of tea in attempt to ease her restless mind from the thoughts that were preventing her from getting any sleep that night. After a cup was prepared, the girl stepped into the sitting room and walked directly out of the window as if she were checking to make sure she wasn't being watched. After she determined that she was alone, she allowed herself to settle down in a nearby armchair as she drank her tea slowly as she allowed her thoughts to wonder around.

This particular girl happened to be me, Emily Potter, a sixteen-year-old witch that was extremely out of place in this exceptionally normal neighborhood. However, I was not the only unusual person in this neighborhood because I was lucky enough to share this abnormality with my twin brother, Harry Potter.

For the two of us, our return to the Dursley's house from school was extraordinarily different this summer. Instead of their usual barks of orders and grunts of disapproval, our relatives were hesitant to speak to us and would usually just curiously stare at us from afar.

When I first got back from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I had a small part of me that wondered if they somehow knew something bad had happened to us, but that was not the case. They did not ask about it, so we did not tell them. It was as simple as that.

In all honestly, Harry and I hardly talked about the death of Albus Dumbledore and the events that lead up to it. It wasn't necessary and we knew that it wouldn't make any difference. We both knew what the other was going to say and I was in no mood to discuss what happened.

I knew that the Dursleys were not the only ones that watched me. Harry did too and I didn't even have to ask why. On our ride back to Kings Cross Station, I heard my twin brother talking to our friends about me. Harry was worried about my sanity. Just as I was returning to our compartment on the train, I heard him tell Ron and Hermione that he thought that I was not going to be able to keep it together much longer after witnessing the betrayal of Severus Snape. He knew that it hurt me more than I was telling anyone and he was concerned that I was going to lose my mind before too long.

Harry had a right to be concerned about me. When Severus Snape, the one person I trusted above so many people, took the life of Dumbledore in the Astronomy Tower that night, something inside of me felt like it had broken. It wasn't like this incident prevented me from going on from my everyday life, but it was something that I found incredibly difficult to get over.

For a couple of weeks after the incident, I would wake up in the middle of the night crying and shaking after reliving the event in a nightmare. Harry would wake up with me and try to help me when he could, but there really wasn't much he could do to stop the nightmares. After the first couple of weeks, I did my best to remain quiet when waking up in the night and continued to relive those moments repeatedly.

Now that some time had passed, I had nearly become accustomed to being woken up in the night. Having these nightmares had become so routine for me that they hardly even bothered me anymore. Instead of crying and shaking, I just woke up feeling numb and would just walk around the house until I felt tired enough to return to my bed.

It was for this reason that I was awake right now. Unable to find comfort in my own bed, I had come downstairs into the sitting room in attempt to find some solace with a cup of tea as I paced around the room.

However, there was only so much that tea could do after yet another nightmare. Like all of my other dreams since the incident, they all somehow connected to what I saw in the Astronomy Tower that night. The dream that I had awoken from seemed so vivid that I had trouble believing that it wasn't really happening.

Before I woke up in the middle of the night, I had dreamed that I was standing in Hogwarts surrounded by the Death Eaters that I saw on the day Dumbledore was killed. All of them were wearing masks and all of them had their wands pointed toward me. I was standing in the middle of their circle and was begging them to not kill me where I stood.

In the middle of all of this, one of the Death Eaters stepped forward and removed his mask from his head to reveal who he was. Although I had been through this dream before, I was still mortified to see Snape standing in front of me with a twisted grin on his face.

_Snape…you have to help me_, I begged him in the dream.

All of the Death Eaters laughed at me through my tears and my stomach twisted when I saw that Snape joined in with the mockery.

_You didn't honestly think that you mattered to me, you stupid child_, Snape mocked me. _I never cared about you – how could you be so naive? My loyalty has always been to the Dark Lord._

Every time I had this dream, those words became more twisted until I felt like I was rotting within. While I knew now that this dream was a repeat, what this version of Snape told me always seemed new and horrifying while I was in the dream itself.

_I thought I could trust you_, I would murmur through the tears that streamed down my face.

_It is your own fault_, Snape said. _You should have listened to your brother while you had the chance to get rid of me, but you're too late now_.

After that, Snape pointed his wand directly at me and said the Killing Curse that sent a flash of green light toward me. Every time, without fail, I would wake from my dream in a panic that cannot be described in words. It would take me a moment to realize it was just a dream and then I would somehow manage to calm myself down enough to be able to mobilize myself.

While the dreams always seemed to be different and more drawn out, I slowly began to realize that they all had the same theme. Snape was always there to tell me how idiotic I had been for trusting him and I would always end up nearly dead before waking up and realizing that it was all just a nightmare.

Occasionally things would become different. Sometimes Harry would be there and he would be killed off first so I would have to watch. He would blame me for his torture and tell me how I should have listened to him when he told me that Snape couldn't be trusted. Other times someone else would join me in the dream, but it always turned out to be someone that I deeply cared about.

In the end, I guess it shouldn't have bothered me as much as it did. These dreams were only projecting what I believed myself. I should have never trusted Snape and should have listened to others before everything got out of hand.

Would it have made any difference if I had thought about this before? Would the course of events played out any differently if I wouldn't have trusted Snape like Harry? Honestly, it was difficult to make any assumptions. Considering Dumbledore trusted Snape just as much, if not more, than I did, things probably would have ended up the same either way.

But perhaps I would have been more prepared for what happened.

It wasn't like any of this consideration mattered anyway. All of this already happened and there was no way to go back and change it. Now all Harry and I could do was try to put an end to all of this and live up to our promise to Dumbledore.

We had to find Voldemort's Horcruxes if we wanted to prevent something like this from happening again. It wasn't like we knew where we were starting, but we had a plan to go searching and that was exactly what we were going to be doing.

Our first plan of action was to get as far as we could away from Privet Drive – all of us, not just Harry and me. Before our protection was lifted from the house, Mad-Eye Moody was going to escort us to our protected location, though we were both unsure of where that would be at the moment, in order to keep us out of Voldemort's reach. As far as we knew, the location would just be somewhere that we could be easily protected from Death Eaters for the time being.

All of this we knew was going to be happening in a few days time thanks to a visit from Kingsley and Mr. Weasley in the beginning of the summer. Although their visit was fairly unexpected at this time, I was happy to know that they were completely comfortable explaining what all was happening to our angry relatives about the fact that they were going to have to be removed from their home for their own protection. Although it was incredibly obvious that they didn't have a choice, Uncle Vernon continued to put up an argument regardless. However, in the end, it was understood that no one could remain in this house if they planned on continuing their lives.

Once we were taken to this location, we would remain there for a period of time before Harry and I started our mission to find the Horcruxes. While not everyone that we knew was aware of this fact, we still planned on going beginning our search.

With things going the way they were, there was no way that Harry and I could return to our everyday lives at Hogwarts where Voldemort could easily take us in. Instead, we had to stay hidden from him and his Death Eaters. As soon as they noticed we weren't boarding the Hogwarts Express, we knew that we were going to be on constant watch. Voldemort wouldn't rest until we were murdered at his hand, but we couldn't let him get away with it without at least putting up a fight to give others a chance to get rid of him.

Knowing that all of this was up to Harry and me gave me a sickening feeling in my gut. The entire world depended on the two of us to destroy the one man that could completely take over and put an end to the world as we know it. While we had the help of our friends that were going to be joining us on our trip – including Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, and Neville Longbottom – it would all come down to us in the end.

Either Voldemort dies or we do. As simple as it sounded, it continued to make me want to crawl into a hole and never come back out.

"Emily?"

The sudden noise that went through the room startled me for a moment. Interrupted from my thoughts, I quickly looked over toward the staircase where I saw a person standing. With the lack of lighting in the area, it took me a moment to determine who it was that was talking to me.

"What are you doing awake, Dudley?" I asked him in a monotonous tone.

"I thought I heard someone walking down here earlier," Dudley said. "So I came to check who it was."

"You ought to be more careful," I told him. "I could have been a murderer for all you knew."

Dudley's eyes grew wider as he looked at me. There wasn't any doubt that he wouldn't have considered something like this when he stepped out of his room, but it's something that he should be prepared for. Being in a house with the Potters brought on more dangers than the Dursleys even knew. Luckily, considering we were still underage, we were still being protected and there was less of a chance that we would be found.

"I didn't think about that," Dudley said.

"I figured as much," I murmured.

Much to my surprise, Dudley stepped over and sat down in the chair directly across from me. For a moment, I began to wonder if he would actually speak to me, but I guess he was just figuring out what to say to me because of our lack of actual conversation.

"You haven't been sleeping well," he said.

It wasn't a question – it was a statement.

"No, I haven't," I said to him.

There was a moment of hesitation before he spoke up again. I don't know what it was, but it seemed as though Dudley was afraid to speak of me. Perhaps it wasn't exactly fear of me, but just the uncertainty of our conversation.

We didn't get along when we were younger, that was a fact. However, I have noticed that Dudley seemed to have picked up some genuine interest in Harry and me these last couple of years. I wasn't exactly sure what it was, but he no longer tormented us like he did in our youth. Instead, he just gave us a curious stare most of the time and looked as though he wanted to say something to us all of the time.

"Did something happen at that…school of yours?" he asked. "Something bad?"

"Something bad happens every year at school, Dudley," I told him.

"It was worse this year though, wasn't it?" he asked. "That's why we have to leave the house, right?"

It was true. The Dursleys were told that they were going to have to leave Privet Drive this summer to avoid being found my Voldemort or the Death Eaters. This was going to be the first place they would look as soon as we came of age and we couldn't risk having anyone here when that happened.

"Yes, things are getting worse," I said. "And it's just going to be getting worse from here on out."

"It has to do with that man," Dudley said. "The one that killed your parents."

"Yes," I said. "He's becoming more dangerous and is gaining more followers every day. That's why you all have to leave – we have to make sure that he cannot find you."

"What about you?" he asked. "What happens to Harry and you after we leave?"

"We're going to stay hidden," I told him. "We have a plan."

Of course, we didn't actually have a decent plan at the moment. As far as I knew, we were just going to be doing our best to keep out of sight as long as we could while we went searching for Horcruxes in various locations. As to where those locations were, we were still unsure. All of this, of course, I did not voice aloud to Dudley because I knew that it would all be far above his level of comprehension. He wouldn't understand and, honestly, it was probably for the best that he did not know.

"So…we aren't really going to be seeing much of each other after this, are we?" he asked.

I started to say that there was a high chance of us not even making it out of this alive, but I figured that was slightly inappropriate to add to the conversation. Dudley hardly knew enough as it was, and there was no sense in add more into the mix.

"I don't know, Dudley," I said. "It's difficult to say."

He nodded and, for a moment, he almost seemed to be a bit discouraged to hear this. I started to question whether or not I believed Dudley was truly upset to hear that he might not be seeing us much longer, but I immediately backtracked on the thought.

I couldn't trust my own assumptions anymore – that much was clear. I had already made that mistake with others and I turned out to be wrong. Why should my assumptions now be any different?

"You should go to sleep," I told him. "I'm sorry for waking you."

He didn't respond and just stared at the ground for a moment before standing up from his chair. Even though I knew that it wouldn't be easy for me to go back to sleep at the moment, I figured that I would follow suit and try to make my way back up to my room as well. Knowing that I had woken Dudley in my escapades made me realize that I had not been as quiet as I thought I had been and there would be no use in staying down here for much longer.

As we ascended the staircase, I tried to ease my mind by reminding myself that there was no use in dwelling on the past. Constantly waking up because of my own fright was not only affecting me, but those around me as well. Sometimes even people that I wouldn't have expected like Dudley.

Just as I stepped over toward the smallest bedroom in the house with my cup of tea in hand, I was stopped when Dudley turned back and looked at me as though he wanted to say something again. Keeping my hand on the doorknob as I kept the door slightly opened, I looked over at my cousin expecting him to say something.

"I'm sorry," he blurted out.

His apology caught me off guard. In my surprise, I was unable to respond immediately because of how unsure I was about where this conversation was going.

"For what?" I finally asked.

"For the way that I treated you two when we were younger," Dudley said. "For the way that my parents treat you two now."

"You don't have to apologize, Dudley," I said awkwardly.

"Yes I do," he said, though it seemed like he was straining to let the words out of his mouth. "We've never treated you well…and you never did anything wrong."

I blinked and was unable to form any words. Never in a million years would I have expected Dudley to apologize for not only his actions, but for the actions of his family. This made me wonder how long Dudley had been thinking about this. For once, I no longer saw the little boy that used to terrorize Harry and me through our youth.

"Don't worry about it," I finally responded. "It's all in the past now."

He nodded and then slowly walked into his room and shut the door behind himself before I realized that I was still standing in the same spot. Still holding onto the doorknob to my room, I pushed open the door and quickly stepped into the room that Harry and I shared.

When I closed the door quietly behind me, I turned around and saw that Harry was sitting awake in his bed with his eyes locked on me. Judging by the confused look on his face, I gathered that he heard what Dudley said to me before I stepped into the room.

"He…apologized?" Harry said in disbelief.

"I guess he's smarter than we thought," I said to Harry. "We haven't given him enough credit over the years."

"I guess not," Harry said. "I just can't believe that he admitted to being wrong."

"He has been acting different for a while now," I murmured.

Harry nodded as I walked over and sat down on the side of my bed. When I sat my tea down on the table next to my bed, I noticed that Harry was watching me curiously.

"You're still being woken up, aren't you?" he asked.

My lips remained pressed together as I looked down at my hands in shame. The fact that Harry wasn't as badly affected by all of this as me was embarrassing. I knew that he was still traumatized by what happened in the Astronomy Tower, but it was so much easier for him to hide it than it was for me.

"What was it this time?" he asked.

"Nothing out of the ordinary," I shrugged and looked down. "It was another one where _he_ was trying to murder us to finish off the job he started at Hogwarts."

I didn't have to say Snape's name for Harry to get the hint. Saying his name aloud had become as hard to say for me as saying Voldemort's name aloud was to others. It hurt me to say it because I knew that it was once the name of a person that I cared so much about. In a way, I knew that it was ridiculous that I wouldn't say his name, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

"It'll get easier," Harry said.

There were those words again. Harry said them all of the time and I knew that he genuinely believed that this was the truth, but I couldn't be so sure. It still hadn't been that long since all of this happened, but it felt like the pain would never subside.

It wasn't as if this was not hard on Harry too, but it was different for him. Losing Dumbledore was a shock and it hurt him more than anything – that became more and more obvious as he read through the _Prophet_ every day to catch up on the latest word about what people were saying about him. And I knew that Snape and Draco's betrayal affected him too, but it was not as personal as it was for me.

Although it sounds dramatic, I knew that this part of it hurt me more than it did him. Harry never like or trusted either one of them the way that I did. My brother understood this and he did everything that he could to help me through it, but there was only so much he could do for me because of his lack of understanding. It wasn't like I didn't appreciate his support, but I knew that he could only go so far if he didn't quite understand the pain I was going through to the fullest extent.

"I'll just try to get some sleep," I said as I pulled the sheets over myself and laid down against my pillow.

"Good night," he said to me as he laid back down in his own bed.

While I turned over to face the wall, I knew that I wouldn't be getting much more sleep that night. The only reason that I was even attempting to go back to sleep was to amuse Harry and attempt to prevent him from worrying about me.

In truth, I knew that I was going to have to try harder to pull myself together while I still could. I could mope around and be sad all I wanted right now, but it couldn't continue to go on like this if I planned on getting anything done.

Once we turned seventeen, Harry and I were going to have to be alert at all times. We were going to be hunted and there isn't going to be any time for me to lose my head over what happened in the past.

What happened in the Astronomy Tower was only the beginning of what is to come and I had to be prepared for much worse if I had any hope of making this out alive.

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	2. A Final Farewell

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 2**

"Why should _we_ have to leave the house?" Uncle Vernon mumbled to himself as he carried another box down the stairs. "It's _our_ house!"

"We've already explained – " I started.

"I don't want to hear it!" my uncle said irritably.

Tonight was the last day we would be seeing the Dursleys. They already had their things packed and ready to go, but they were not at all pleased by it. This past week, while getting their things together, Uncle Vernon had done nothing but complain. Time and time again, he made the claim that he was going nowhere and would start to unpack his things again. Of course, after our consistent reminders that he had no choice if he planned on living, Vernon Dursley finally realized that he _had_ to leave Privet Drive.

Harry and I didn't take nearly as long to pack in comparison to everyone else. Then again, we didn't have very many possessions and we hardly unpacked our things over the summer and didn't have much repacking to do.

"Shouldn't they be here by now?" Aunt Petunia complained as she stared out of the window.

As my aunt stared toward the road, I felt like telling her how unlikely it would be that they would be arriving by car, but I knew it would be a waste of breath. Besides, it probably would have just angered Uncle Vernon to hear that they would be Apparating here anyway.

"Late," Uncle Vernon huffed. "Just as I expected."

"It's only two minutes after they said they would be here," Harry commented as he looked at his watch.

The two of them continued to pace around the room while completely ignored what Harry just said to them. The only person who seemed even slightly sane, other than us of course, was Dudley. Sitting next to his various suitcases, our cousin seemed to be sulking in silence as he stared at the ground. It probably had to do with be forced to move away from everything that he ever knew. Part of me felt bad, but it was for their own good – they couldn't stay here.

"Let's go get our things down here," Harry told me.

Happy to not have to stick around and listen to our aunt and uncle complain, I quickly began moving up the stairs to grab my one suitcase and Hoot's cage to bring to the first floor. Seeing as we were in no rush to get into conversation with the Dursleys downstairs, both of us took our time picking up our things.

"You don't think they're going to expect some drawn out farewell, do you?" Harry asked me as he gave Hedwig some treats.

"I seriously doubt it," I said while petting my own owl. "I can't really see them being that upset about leaving us."

"I'm sure they're thrilled that this will be the last they see of us," Harry said with a short laugh.

That's when it suddenly hit me. After all of these years that I lived in this hellhole of a house, I would finally be leaving tonight. Never again would we walk through the threshold of 4 Privet Drive to be ignored by the Dursleys and never again would we have to hide the fact we were different from others.

"Do you really think that we'll never see them again?" I asked. "If we don't get killed, I mean."

Harry just sat there for a moment and pet Hedwig while he thought to himself. Maybe he hadn't considered this before.

"I don't know," he said after a moment. "I couldn't imagine they would be too heartbroken if they never saw our faces. I know that I'm not really going to mind so much."

I nodded, but then thought about what Dudley told us the week before about being sorry for the way that they treated us. Maybe we were leaving just when things were starting to change. It wasn't that I wanted to stick around here and be as miserable as I've always been, but I began to wonder what would become of Dudley. Would he finally become accepting of the Wizarding World? Would he be able to convince his parents of how wrong they had been with their prejudices?

Or would our cousin simply forget about us and move on with his life?

"It's about time they get here!" I heard Uncle Vernon say from the floor below as he stomped toward the door.

Harry and I looked at each other and then went directly down the stairs to meet with the people that would be taking the Dursleys away from Privet Drive. Even though we wouldn't be going until Mad-Eye came to meet with us, both Harry and I brought our things down in preparation.

When we got there, Dedalus and Hestia were already through the door talking to the Dursleys about what the plan was going to be. They just finished going over it and Uncle Vernon was just about to start complaining about it when they noticed us walking down the stairs.

"Ah, the Potters!" Hestia said. "It's nice to see the two of you here."

"Hello," Harry smiled. "You're here to take our…relatives?"

"That's right!" Dedalus answered. "I was told that you two have separate arrangements that you've been informed of, but I also need to tell you that there has been a change in those plans."

"Wait, what?" I asked.

"It will be explained when they get here, don't worry," he said.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"It would be much easier if you let Mad-Eye explain it," he repeated.

Accepting that this was the best answer we were going to get at the moment, we put the topic to rest. My best assumption was that our plans somehow got out and we were going to have to travel by an alternative means in order to avoid trouble. It was what made sense anyway.

"Do you three have your things packed?" Hestia asked the Dursleys.

"We've been packed for a while," Uncle Vernon said with a hint of irritation in his tone.

"Wonderful!" Hestia said, apparently not picking up on our uncle's attitude.

"I guess that we just need to give you some time to say your farewells," Dedalus said.

My stomach dropped when he said this. That meant that we were going to be forced to say something to the Dursleys about our departure and at least attempt to act like we care about each other.

Instead of leaving the room to give us privacy like I hoped for, the two stood off to the side and stared at us all expectedly. I guess that it wasn't that obvious to a newcomer that we didn't get along with each other and had no interest in trying to be sentimental.

Luckily it wasn't up to me to speak up first and I was relieved that Uncle Vernon was the one to first break the silence.

"So I guess this is goodbye," Uncle Vernon said awkwardly.

"I guess so," Harry said.

All five of us just stared at each other for a moment without knowing what to say to one another. After all, what was there to say? It wasn't as if all of us had grown incredibly fond of one another and were deeply upset about leaving each other – in fact, it was a rare occasion when we had a conversation that didn't end badly.

"Well, bye," Uncle Vernon said with a forced smile.

He grabbed the final suitcase and began walking to the door, but was stopped when Hestia opened their mouth.

"That's it?" she said in disbelief. "You might never see them again and all you have to say is _'well, bye_?'"

Our uncle looked toward his wife and they both looked slightly embarrassed that they had been addressed in such a matter over something like this. Either that or they were trying to find a way that they could actually make it seem like they cared about us in words.

"It's not a problem," I said.

"It really isn't," Harry added. "It doesn't bother us."

"It doesn't bother you?" Dedalus asked. "Do they realize the danger that you two are in? You two could be killed and they have _nothing_ to say to you?"

"Wow, thanks for sounding so hopeful for us," I muttered sarcastically.

"What do you mean they could _die_?" Dudley asked. "Emily said there would be protection for them – I thought they were going to be safe!"

Harry looked at me curiously – probably wondering what all I told Dudley this summer. While I had been somewhat honest with our cousin in how we were in trouble with Voldemort, I might not have been so honest with other parts of my explanation.

"They will be guarded, but we aren't facing any ordinary man," Dedalus explained. "You-Know-Who is a very powerful wizard – we're all in danger."

"Okay, that's enough of that talk," Uncle Vernon said. "We might want to get on the road if we want to get out of here in time, isn't that right?"

Our uncle was now turning to us for support because he knew that we wouldn't hold him up with leaving us. It was almost sad how desperate he looked to get out of the situation we were all putting him in.

"Yeah," Harry said. "It's probably for the best that they get out of here as soon as possible."

"Right, that's what I meant," Uncle Vernon said.

Dudley continued to look at us and toward the door as his father stepped out and walked toward the car. Aunt Petunia, who hadn't uttered a word since we came downstairs, seemed confused about the entire situation and just stood in the frame of the door without knowing what to do.

"We'll see you later, Dudley," I said with a smile.

"Will you?" he asked in a small voice.

"I hope so," I said honestly.

For the first time in my life, I wish that I would be able to see Dudley Dursley again. It was difficult to say about our aunt and uncle, but it would be nice to live long enough to have that opportunity…not that I would want to see the two though.

Just when I thought he was moving towards the door, I nearly jumped out of my skin when Dudley stepped toward me and put his arms around me. It took me a moment to realize that he was trying to hug me before I responded and hugged him back. It felt unnatural and uncomfortable, but I appreciated the notion behind it. As I recovered from my surprise, he gave Harry a handshake and then looked at us one more time before he walked toward the door to follow his father to the car.

"I'll see you around," Dudley said.

"Yeah, see you later," Harry said while still sounding surprised.

Once he was gone, I noticed that Aunt Petunia was still standing at the doorframe wiping tears from her eyes. I was tempted to scoff at her for even having the nerve to act like she cared that her son was making an effort to have some compassion, but I resisted. It wasn't necessary considering this was going to be the last time I saw her.

"Bye, Aunt Petunia," Harry said after a moment of awkward silence between us all.

Like she always did, our aunt looked like she wanted to say something to us. She lingered by the doorstep for a moment longer before walking off to follow her husband and son out the door. Once they were gone, Dedalus and Hestia told us goodbye and wished us the best of luck before following the Dursleys out of the door.

Once they were gone, Harry and I just stood where we were for a moment longer to soak in what just happened. Although we spent the majority of our time in this home wishing that the Dursleys would leave, it somehow felt strange and empty without them. We weren't being yelled at and we weren't being judged for our differences – it was almost like we were in an alternate universe.

"Well, I'm not sure that could have gotten more awkward," Harry said with a small laugh.

"Did you even hear Aunt Petunia speak?" I asked him.

"Now that you mention it, I don't think I did," he said. "I guess she just wanted to stay out of it."

"Can't really blame her for that," I said. "I probably wouldn't have said anything either if I could have gotten away with it."

"What is up with Dudley recently?" Harry asked. "It really seems like he's changing."

I nodded in agreement, but I stood there trying to think back to when all of this change with Dudley started. The previous summer he seemed to be more open to having actual conversations, but the time before that was not the same at all. That's when I remembered what must have changed him.

"Do you think it has to do with the dementor attack?" I asked him.

"Why would that have to do with it?" Harry asked.

"He's just been acting different ever since then," I said.

"I guess he has…" Harry agreed. "Maybe he realizes that we aren't so bad after all."

"He isn't too bad either," I said. "You know, now that he isn't terrorize us."

"Maybe he'll turn out okay," Harry shrugged. "Even with his parents being who they are."

That got me thinking about Dudley as a person. All through the years, we never once considered that it wasn't his fault that he thought the way he did about us. Then again, we didn't really have the will power to think this way while he was terrorizing us. It's sort of hard to become understanding when someone is making your life a living Hell. But maybe if his parents had been more accepting of us, things might have been very different. Maybe we could have even gotten along if his parents didn't convince him that we were the vilest piece of scum to walk the planet.

As time passed, Harry and I found ourselves sitting on the ground of the sitting room talking about anything that came to mind while we waited for night to fall. Now that the Dursleys were gone, we didn't hesitate to talk about our life outside of the house.

"How long do you think it'll take them to figure out we're not at Hogwarts?" Harry asked me.

"Who knows," I shrugged. "They might even notice when they see we aren't on the Hogwarts Express."

"I guess that makes sense," Harry said. "With Dumbledore gone, they're probably willing to do anything."

"I wonder who the new headmaster will be," I said. "I feel bad for whoever it is – it'll be difficult to fill Dumbledore's shoes. Not to mention that it's going to be really dangerous this year."

"I didn't think about that," Harry said. "It'll probably be Professor McGonagall – she seems like she knows what she's doing."

"I would say so," I said. "Actually, I hope it is her – she's a great witch. I wouldn't want to cross her if I were a Death Eater."

"I just hope that she knows what she's up against," Harry said. "They know that Dumbledore isn't there to protect them anymore and it wouldn't be surprising if they tried to attack the school."

"I'm sure they've thought about it," I said. "They've probably set up precautions in case something does happen – they aren't completely stupid."

"But will it be enough to hold them all off?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," I sighed.

"I'm surprised they even opened up the school," Harry said. "Parents aren't going to want to send their children there with everything going on."

"I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them don't let their children go anyway," I said. "If it were me, I wouldn't want my child there."

"Which only makes me feel worse that we won't be there for everyone," Harry said while looking at the ground. "They're going to be looking for us. When they don't find us, they'll be furious and take it out on everyone else."

"They would have done the same if we were there," I told him. "They just would have killed us first and then moved on to everyone else who didn't want to join them."

It was the truth – we both knew it. Even if we were to show up at Hogwarts, Voldemort would have slaughtered us and moved on to the rest. If we really wanted to stop Voldemort, we had to go after these Horcruxes. They were our only chance and we were going to have to deal with that. We couldn't protect everyone at once if we wanted to end this once and for all. It wasn't like we were running away from Hogwarts because we were afraid – we were running because we had to find and destroy all of the Horcruxes Voldemort made as soon as we possibly could if we wanted any chance of defeating him.

But, for now, we couldn't do anything but wait. We had to wait until we became of age before we could even begin the search. And, even sooner than that, we were going to have to wait for Mad-Eye to get to the door so we could get out of this house and out of sight. That was the most immediate problem we could worry about, but we still had to wait.

Trying to waste time while we waited for Mad-Eye, we circled around the house several times to make sure we didn't forget to grab anything before we left. It wasn't that we expected to find any of our belongings scattered around the house, but we knew that we were going to have to pass the time somehow.

While Harry went upstairs to check around to make sure we didn't leave anything behind, I looked around the ground floor. Knowing that this was going to be the last time that I walked through the house, I couldn't help but let my mind wander to the past for a bit as I stepped into each room.

In the kitchen, the memories started to flood into my mind about the times that I spent in this room. The many mornings were Uncle Vernon shouted at us about hurrying up with the food; Dudley's birthdays were he complained about not having enough presents; and Aunt Marge flying out of the door…

Leaving there, I looked into the sitting room. Even with it vacant, every memory I had of that place seemed to flash into my mind. This room was where I went when I tried to escape Aunt Petunia when I was younger. She would call out to me and I would jump behind the chairs and not come out until she left. The strongest memory I have of this was when I was eight years old and I was in trouble for making her hair turn bright pink after she tried to force me to wear make-up to cover up the scar that Voldemort gave me. Of course, at the time, I didn't know how it got there. I just knew that I didn't want to hide it because it made me different and I liked it.

When I stepped out into the hall and saw the door to the linen closet, time seemed to stop. It seemed like a lifetime ago that I lived in this closet. Back then, everything seemed so simple. The day that I was made to move out of that room, everything in my life seemed to change. The letters came in the mail, I found out that we could use magic, and I went to Hogwarts.

What would have happened if we never found out what was in those letters? Would I still be living in that linen closet? Would Voldemort have returned? What would have become of us?

Even with all of the chaos that happened since that day, I never regretted finding out what I am. Despite all of the pain we've been through, it was better off this way knowing the truth. But I couldn't help but wonder how things would have turned out if those letters stopped coming in the mail. Everything would have been so different.

That's when I realized how much I was actually going to miss coming back to this house. It wasn't like I enjoyed my life while I was there, but it seemed strange to leave it all behind. It was my childhood, even though I don't like to admit it.

As many complaints as I have about living with the Dursleys, Privet Drive was somewhere where the expectations of us were set low. We weren't known as the Chosen Ones – we were just the children that were forced on a family. Even though they didn't like us being there and hated our existence the majority of the time, we didn't have to act like the brave people that everyone else expected us to be. We were just Harry and Emily here – no one special. In a sense, it was relaxing.

_Knock, knock, knock._

I nearly jumped when the sound from the door interrupted my reminiscing. Looking at the time, I realized that it must mean that Mad-Eye was here to take us from the house. When I heard footsteps from up the stairs, I knew that Harry must have heard the knocking as well and was coming to meet up with me so we could talk to Mad-Eye about the new plan of action we were taking.

Figuring that Mad-Eye would get irritated if I waited to long to let him in, I walked up to the door myself and opened it up. Much to my shock, he was not the only one standing at the door – in fact, there were several people standing in front of 4 Privet Drive.

"Um…hello?" I said as I looked at the crowd.

"Is that Mad-Eye?" Harry asked as he stepped over to look out of the front door. "I thought he would be coming soon – oh…hello everyone."

"There's been a change of plan," Mad-Eye said. "Would you let us in the house already, or is that too much to ask?"

* * *

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	3. A Change of Plans

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 3**

Once everyone walked into the house, I realized just how many people had come. Along with Mad-Eye, the others that gathered into 4 Privet Drive included Hermione, Ron, Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Tonks, Lupin, Kingsley, Hagrid, and Mundungus Fletcher. Seeing this many people in the Dursleys house had me seriously considering what this new plan of Mad-Eye's could be.

"I had no idea that you all were coming," I said looking around at the crowd.

"It was a last minute change of plans," Lupin explained.

"How have you been?" Tonks asked us. "I feel like it's been ages since we've seen each other."

"We've been…okay," Harry said with a fake smile on his face.

They should have known right off the bat that he was lying through his teeth. Neither of us had been anything close to _okay_ since we left the castle, but there was no need in bringing all of that up again. On the other hand, I was pleased that Tonks was no longer in misery like she had been for a long time. In fact, she looked rather pleased with herself and I couldn't put my finger on what it was.

"How have things been going with you?" I asked as everyone started to get settled in the sitting room.

"Well, we actually have something to tell you two," Tonks smiled as she looked over at Lupin.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

Without a word, but a large smile on her face, Tonks held up her hand and I noticed the wedding ring that was on her finger. Despite the shock of this, I couldn't have been happier for her – she finally got what she wanted. Well, more like _who_ she wanted.

"Congratulations!" Harry and I both said.

"We really wanted the two of you to be there," Lupin explained. "But we didn't want to make it into a big event with everything that is going on."

"Don't worry about it," Harry shrugged.

"All right – enough with the catching up," Mad-Eye said irritably. "We don't have all of the time in the world."

The chatter that was going on immediately came to a stop as everyone gathered around to listen to what Mad-Eye's plan was. Though I suspected that Harry and I were the only ones that did not know what was going on, everyone remained quiet nonetheless and allowed Mad-Eye to explain everything to us.

"As the two of you are aware, we were originally planning to Apparate from this house to the location we selected," Mad-Eye said. "Unfortunately, we have run into a problem where a protection has been put up around this house to prevent you from leaving it magically without someone else being notified. In other words, we can't use the Floo Network, we can't Apparate, and we can't use a Portkey without You-Know-Who finding out about it."

"How would he find out about it?" Harry asked.

"Pius Thicknesse and other Ministry officials have gone over," Mad-Eye said. "And with the Trace still on both of you, no magic can be used without Thicknesse finding out about it and telling the Death Eaters."

"I'm sorry, but what is the Trace?" I asked.

"It's a charm that's on anyone witch or wizard that is underage," Mr. Weasley explained. "If any magic is used by them or around them, the Ministry will be informed – that's how they find out about underage magic."

"Now, the protective charm that your mother gave to you both will break under two conditions," Mad-Eye said. "The first way, which is most likely what the Death Eaters will be counting on, is the moment that you both turn seventeen. The second is when you no longer consider this place a home. Considering that your aunt and uncle have already left and you are all on the understanding that you will not be in contact any time soon, we are going to be using this method to break the charm earlier than intended."

"Once we leave this house, the charm will be broken?" Harry asked for reassurance.

"Correct," Mad-Eye said. "As soon as you come to the understanding that you will not return here again. Now, having this in mind, we've sent a false trail through the Ministry about when we will depart. Although they know that we will be attempting an escape with you, they were given false information about the time that you will be departing."

"So how are we planning to get out of here without using magic?" Harry asked. "Are we just going to have to use a Muggle way of travelling?"

That's where I imagined this was going, but I still wondered why Mad-Eye brought so many people if we were going to be traveling by something like a car. Perhaps it had something to do with us needing to be protected just in case something happens because of how long it would take to travel.

"No, we just can't use any enchantments," Mad-Eye explained. "But that doesn't mean that we don't have other means of travel – we can fly. We have broomsticks, we have thestrals, and we have that motorbike of Hagrid's."

"How are we going to travel like that?" I asked. "We can't just casually fly out of here – I'm sure that Death Eaters have been posted around the area to make sure we can't escape."

"Not to mention that they'll be sixteen of us travelling," Harry mentioned. "I have trouble believing that someone won't notice if we're all going to the same place."

"We won't be traveling to the same place," Mad-Eye said. "We have several safe-houses that we have set up for us to travel to and each of us will pair off and go to a separate house. Once we're there, we'll use Portkeys – now that you would both be out of the area of the enchantment – to go to our final destination."

Even hearing this, I knew that there was another problem that they were not addressing. Practically stealing the words out of my mouth, my brother spoke up to point out the flaw in the plan.

"If we run into trouble, they'll still be able to follow us," Harry said. "I'm sure it won't take them that long to figure out which way we're traveling as soon as they spot us."

"They'll have more difficulty than you think," Mad-Eye said. "Especially when they see that they'll be four of both of you."

Everyone went quiet and I suddenly understood where he was trying to go with this plan. They were going to try to take Polyjuice Potion to try to trick anyone that we might run in to. Completely baffled and horrified by the plan, I had to clarify what he was talking about.

"I'm sorry, but I think I heard you wrong," I said while crossing my arms. "There is no way that you are suggesting that six people turn into us."

"I told you there would be an argument," Ron muttered.

"Do you realize how dangerous this could be?" Harry asked. "Someone could die – hell, we could _all_ die!"

"Everyone here is well aware of the potential danger," Mr. Weasley said. "But it's a risk we are all willing to take to get the two of you out of here."

"Oh my god," Fred said as his hair suddenly changed to another shade of red and grew longer. "I'm becoming a girl!"

"It would be you that got my potion," I said as I covered my face with my hand in embarrassment.

"I am growing boobs – I repeat, I am _growing boobs!_" Fred announced as his voice suddenly began to change into mine mid-sentence.

"Oh my god, can you _not_ announce that?" I asked while I shook my head and fought the impulse to run into a corner and die.

"So this is what you're dealing with," Fred said as his transformation came close to being complete and then gave me a wink. "Not too bad, eh?"

"I will end your life if you make one more comment like that," I threatened him.

"Okay, all right – you know I'm joking," he said defensively and then switched to a sly grin. "Or am I?"

"Keep it up and I'll knock you out," George said as he began to transform into Harry.

"Would you two behave?" Mr. Weasley said. "And Fred – do not be inappropriate."

"I'm sorry," Fred said. "You know I don't mean it – I'm only joking with you."

"I know, just try not to look at yourself when you're changing," I told him. "I'd rather not have you know what I look like naked."

"It isn't like you don't know what _I _look like naked," Fred muttered. "I mean, you were with my twin…"

"What was that?" Harry asked.

"Nothing," Fred and I said at the same time.

Thankfully, Fred hadn't said it loud enough for anyone to properly except for me and Harry continued on awkwardly standing as he watched his duplicates find their new clothes. Watching ourselves go over to the corners of the room to find our proper clothing was a very strange experience. Once they all began to switch out of their clothes, I suddenly felt myself becoming incredibly self-conscious, as they all didn't really seem that concerned about carelessly removing their clothing in front of everyone.

"I feel so violated," I muttered.

"I know what you mean," Harry agreed as he looked over and saw his doppelgangers throwing their clothes carelessly off of their bodies.

"Mind giving us some respect?" I told them.

Despite my request, they continued to dress as if no one else was in the room. I guess that it didn't matter to them what body parts were shown off if it wasn't theirs to show. Then again, I couldn't imagine that they would be too modest considering it wasn't even their own bodies…I would just have to hope that Fred wouldn't pay too much attention to his own body…

Once everyone was dressed and completely morphed into us, they all began to bring themselves back to the crowd and talk amongst themselves.

"This is so strange," said one of Harry's duplicates, which I strongly suspected was George. "Harry, you're so short…and not ginger…"

"You think it's strange for _you_?" one of my duplicates said, undoubtedly Fred. "At least you don't have a vagi – "

"Okay, that's enough," Mad-Eye spoke up. "I need those who are escorting the Potters to find their respective companion – Mundungus, you're coming with me."

One of the duplicates of Harry started muttering to himself as he followed Mad-Eye toward the door while the others stepped up to call out who would be travelling with them. Although I wondered to myself why it really mattered who was paired together, I kept silent.

"Hermione, you're with me," Kingsley said as one of my duplicates walked up to him.

"I have Ron," Tonks said as he looked over at one of Harry's duplicates.

"Fleur, you're coming with me on one of the thestrals," Bill said.

"I have Fred," Charlie called over to the last of my duplicates.

"I guess that means you're the real Harry," Hagrid spoke to my brother that stood beside me. "You'll be coming with me on the bike."

Seeing that Mr. Weasley was the only person remaining, it didn't take much thought to figure out that I would be traveling with him. Honestly, I was happy with this decision because I was very comfortable with him – I trusted him very much and had no trouble believing that he would do anything to get me to our destination as safely as possible.

"Emily is going with me," Mr. Weasley smiled while looking at me. "We're going to be riding a thestral, if you don't mind. Mad-Eye reckons that people might be expecting you to be on a broomstick."

"It makes no difference to me," I shrugged.

"Is everyone with the person that they're riding with?" Mad-Eye called out to us all just as he opened up the door to walk into the back yard.

No one objected as we all walked over to find our designated transportation. As I stepped out, it occurred to me that we had thestrals in the backyard of the Dursleys house. This probably would have been stranger to me in normal circumstances, but I felt like it was hard to compete with the fact that there was three other people walking in the yard that looked just like me. It's a bit difficult to consider anything else weird when you see that.

Considering they were the only ones that had the capability to carry anything with them, Hagrid and the real Harry took my things with them. Not wanting to have too much in the sidecar of the motorbike at once, we decided that we would leave Hoot's cage behind and just let him fly off on his own. For the time being, I sent him off to Neville's house to keep him away from our trail.

"Over here," Mr. Weasley said to me as he directed me toward one of the thestrals.

The one in the middle was the one that Mr. Weasley said we would be taking. Although I was opposed to the idea of having to ride one of these for any extended period of time, I kept my mouth shut. There was no use in complaining any more about the situation – as long as we got out of here without any trouble, then it wouldn't matter either way.

After Mr. Weasley helped me onto the creature, he jumped up and sat in the spot in front of me so he would be able to direct the animal. I was thankful that I wasn't going to have to do anything because I wasn't too sure on how to ride these things. Despite our rides on them to the Ministry the night that Sirius died, I still wasn't that confident in riding them again.

"Everyone knows where they're going?" Mad-Eye called out to us all.

There wasn't any protest to the leader of our group and I took that to mean that everyone was sure where their first destination would be. Of course, I wasn't entirely sure of where I was going, but Mr. Weasley answered back saying that he was, so I was confident that we would make it there just fine.

"Okay, then let's get this over with," Mad-Eye called. "Good luck everyone – let's head out."

One by one, each of us flew up into the air. Just after Bill and Fleur/me went up into the air, I felt the thestral move underneath of me and I quickly held onto Mr. Weasley in front of me. Just seconds after it took off in a short run, its wings came out and it jumped into the air.

Although terrified of being on the creature, I did my best to not seem as though I was uncomfortable. It didn't take us too long to find ourselves high up in the sky and going away from Privet Drive for the last time. Before we got too far away from it, I allowed myself to look back at it one more time.

Just as the house that I lived in for seventeen years vanished from sight, I looked ahead into the area ahead of me. It was difficult to see ahead due to the lack of light and the increasing amount of fog that blocked the view, but I didn't need to see that far ahead to understand what we were running ourselves into. In front of us, I heard the screams of shock and red lights shooting through the fog that told me that someone out there expected us to be here.

"Death Eaters," Mr. Weasley said in a hushed tone as we entered the cloud that was ahead of us with the others.

As soon as we were in the clearing, my eyes widened when I saw that we were completed surrounded and under attack – it was as if every Death Eater had been waiting for us.

The feeling of fear suddenly shot through me as I thought of what could happen. Although it was considered before, it was terrifying to see that the danger we predicted would be so immediate.

_Would any of us get out of here? Would Voldemort be there? What if someone got captured or even died?_

These thoughts flew through my head as Mr. Weasley did his best to steer us out of the way of the Death Eaters path. Now that they saw all of us flying through the air, Voldemort's followers were shooting every curse they could think of toward all of us without any thought of what they were doing.

It occurred to me then that they must have panicked when they saw that they wouldn't be able to find out who the real Harry and Emily Potter were when they saw us all in the air. While it didn't seem like they had been unsure of when we would be passing through, this detail seemed to catch them off guard as they all flew around in a panicked attempt to find which of us was the real one.

"THERE'S ONE TO THE RIGHT!" I shouted as Mr. Weasley quickly turned out of its way after hearing me shout.

We just narrowly escaped the curse they shot at us as the thestral moved its wings faster and pushed us through the air as quickly as it could.

Another Death Eater began flying toward us to the left of us, but it seemed to be aiming itself toward the group that had Lupin and George/Harry. That's when I noticed that there were two flying directly at them.

"Oh my god," I heard Mr. Weasley say in front of me.

When I looked at him to see what he was talking about, I noticed that someone below us was falling through the air at an alarming rate. Although I only caught a glimpse, I could tell that it was not a Death Eater – it was one of our people. By the time we noticed him falling, it was too late to do anything. The person had already fell into the trees and had most likely hit the ground by now.

"Who was that?" I shouted.

"I think it was Mad-Eye," he shouted back to me in a strangled tone.

"Where is Mundungus?" I called.

"I don't see him anywhere!" Mr. Weasley said.

"We have to go see if he's okay!" I shouted.

"We can't!" Mr. Weasley said. "I have to get you there safely – it's the only thing we can do."

"But – " I started.

Before I could say another word, Mr. Weasley suddenly directed the thestral to make a sudden movement and I noticed that there was a Death Eater coming up from our left.

Just as the thestral flew to the right in a sudden jerk, a red light flashed around me and I felt a searing pain erupt in my right side. I let out a short scream of pain as my one arm flew to my side that now felt wet with the blood that was coming out. Hearing my cry of pain, Mr. Weasley did everything he could to make the thestral steer clear of any further damage to ourselves.

Trying to ignore the pain while I looked around at the people that were attacking us, I tried to brace for another hit when I saw one of the Death Eaters pointing their wands directly at me. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, I saw a flash of red hit directly into their chest and they began to fall through the air and out of our path.

When I tried to figure out who it was that managed to save us, I was confused to see that no one from our side was where the spell originated. In fact, the only person in sight seemed to be another Death Eater that appeared to have changed their direction so they were going away from us.

"We're almost there," Mr. Weasley called back to me.

Just as I began to mumble some sort of response to him, I felt myself become incredibly faint as more blood came from out of the wound I had on my side. Although I wasn't entirely sure of what I said next, I knew that I mumbled some incoherent thing before I felt myself slip off of the thestral and fall into blackness.

* * *

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	4. Sudden Escapes From Reality

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 4**

"It's a big wound," someone was saying as I regained consciousness. "I'm not surprised that she lost so much blood."

"I just narrowly missed the hit myself," a man, who I assumed to be Mr. Weasley, said. "I'm just glad that the thestral moved fast enough to catch her when she was falling."

When I opened my eyes, I saw Mrs. Weasley kneeling next to me as she looked at my side. It didn't take me too long to figure out that she was examining the wound that was the source of my pain.

"Oh, here she comes," Mr. Weasley said. "Emily, can you hear me?"

I wasn't even sure what the words were that came out of my mouth – or even if they were words at all – but I somehow managed to form something that told them I wasn't dead. Through my blurred vision that continuously went from total blackness to the world around me, I noticed that Mrs. Weasley was attempting to mend me.

"The others…"I mumbled. "Are…they…okay?"

"They aren't all here," Mr. Weasley said. "Just hold still, Emily – Molly is nearly finished here and you'll be all better."

"Go get me the…" Mrs. Weasley said as I started to drift off again.

It didn't seem like I was out too long because the next thing I remember was a vial being held up to my lips and a demand for me to drink the potion that was inside of it. Honestly, I could have just ingested poison for all I knew, but I was in not state to figure that out for myself.

Only a moment later, I felt warmth flow through my body that made me jerk awake and gain full consciousness again. As soon as I sat up, too quickly judging by the stretching feeling in my side that made me want to scream, I looked everywhere I could.

"Harry – where is he?" I blurted out. "Where is everyone – why are we here alone – WHY ISN'T ANYONE ANSWERING ME?"

"Calm down!" Mrs. Weasley demanded. "Harry is just in the other room with Hagrid! I had to get them out of here because Harry wouldn't calm down about you getting hurt."

"Well, I am fine," I said despite my side feeling like it had been ripped off. "Where are the others?"

"No one else has arrived," Mr. Weasley said. "Molly said that they missed their Portkeys."

"Who was supposed to be here before us?" I asked.

"Fred and Charlie were supposed to come before you," Mrs. Weasley said nervously. "And Ron and Tonks should have been first."

There was a loud sound outside and a yell for help that interrupted the conversation we were having. Both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley raced out of the room at once and left me sitting on the ground alone.

It wasn't until after they left that I noticed the large amount of blood-soaked towels that was just a small distance away from my side and the blood-replenishing potion that sat close to me. When I looked down at my side, I noticed that there was now a large white bandage attached to where I was hit. Even though I knew that it had only been there for a few minutes, I noticed that it was already starting to turn red with the blood that was still coming out of my body.

"Harry?" I called to the other room.

Two sets of footsteps immediately raced into the room. Following closely behind my brother, I saw Ginny looking down at me with concern.

"Help me up, would you?" I asked them.

"I don't know if you should be moving…" Ginny started.

"Just help me up!" I demanded.

Both of them grabbed my arms and helped to slowly lift me up. I only grimaced for a moment, but tried to hide my pain once I was on my feet once again.

"Who just got here?" I asked them.

"We aren't sure," Ginny said. "Mum and Dad told us to wait here for them."

The mystery didn't last much longer after the door burst open to reveal Lupin carting a blood-soaked person into the room. It took me a moment to realize who it was because of the amount of blood that was covering their face, but my entire body seemed to shut down as soon as I recognized him.

"George?" Ginny gasped next to me.

My entire head seemed to be clogged with panic, but I wasn't able to utter a sound as I stared wide-eyed at George. The carried him just past me and I followed right behind them. Honestly, I wasn't even sure how I was able to move my legs, but I somehow managed to get into the other room where they set him down on the couch.

"What happened?" Harry asked as his eyes flickered over to me.

When I finally got a good look at him, I completely froze. George's ear was missing – that's where all of the blood was coming from. I began to feel light headed again and I had to grab onto Harry's shoulder for support, but my eyes did not leave the unconscious body of George.

"Harry – come with me," Lupin ordered as he grabbed my brother and walked into the other room.

Standing alone, I watched as Mrs. Weasley grabbed her spell book and started conjuring everything she could to help mend her son. Despite the clear panic on her face, she worked quickly and with determination.

"Emily – go get the blood-replenishing potion I gave to you earlier," Mrs. Weasley ordered.

Without hesitation, I ran into the room that I had been lying in only a few moments ago to grab the large vial that sat on the ground. When I got back to the room with George, I raced over to his side.

"I'm going to revive him for a moment," Mrs. Weasley said to me. "You need to get him to drink that potion as quickly as possible, is that understood?"

"Y-yes," I nodded quickly.

She said a spell under her breath and George began coughing up some of the blood that got into his mouth.

"George, you're going to need to drink this," I told him as I held the potion up to his lips. "It'll help with the bleeding."

Just as I had done when I was made to drink the potion, George drank it without asking any questions. Although he was still in a lot of pain, he began to regain some color on his face where the blood was now replenishing itself.

"George, honey," Mrs. Weasley spoke to her son as she tried to clean off the blood. "You're going to need to keep still, okay? Just for a bit…"

There was a small grunt from him that told us that her message got across. Grabbing another rag for myself, I began to get some of the blood off of the rest of his face as Mrs. Weasley worked through the area where his ear had been before.

"Is there any chance that we'll be able to repair his ear?" I asked her.

"I don't think so," Mrs. Weasley murmured. "It was blown off with Dark Magic – much like that wound of yours. It's impossible to mend wounds with magic like that."

I nodded, but did not worry. George may not have an ear anymore, but he it was just as likely that he could have lost his life the way he was hit. In a sense, we were lucky.

"Here, keep cleaning him," Mrs. Weasley said. "I'll go find a potion for his pain."

I nodded and then moved over to the other side where a giant, gaping hole remained where his ear belonged. Mrs. Weasley had already gotten a good majority of the blood, but there was still plenty more that remained.

When I began to feel lightheaded again, I began to wonder if it was from seeing all of this blood. It only took me a minute later to realize that the bandage that was on my side was completely covered in my own blood. Not wanting to waste any of the potions on myself, I tried my best to ignore the pain and control my breathing.

"E-Emily?" George murmured as he looked toward me lazily. "I think I might need a Band-Aid for this…"

"I'm not sure if that'll cover it," I said, as the blood seemed to be cleared up for the most part. "But I think you're finished bleeding…"

He mumbled something else incoherently as Mrs. Weasley came back into the room with another vial in her hand. Just as he drank some of it, I heard hurried footsteps in the doorway. When I turned around, I saw that the room was no longer as empty as it had been before. Maybe it was that I was preoccupied, but I didn't notice that there had already been others in the room while I was cleaning George up.

The two people that had just arrived, Charlie and Fred, were both looking down at their brother in horror when they saw the reddened hole where his ear had once been. Fred, who was now the color of a sheet of paper, seemed to be frozen on the spot as he stared at his twin brother.

"Mum…is he going to be all right?" Charlie asked as Mr. Weasley returned to the room.

"He should be fine, darling," Mrs. Weasley said nervously as she stroked her injured son's face. "He won't be able to reform that ear, but it could have been much worse…he's just resting for now…"

During the moment of silence that was shared, my head suddenly felt like it was swimming and I found it difficult to sit up straight and focus on anything in particular. I began to blink rapidly as I attempted to keep myself from falling backward.

Through the muffled sounds that I heard around me, I heard a man's voice say my name and ask me if everything was okay, or something like that anyway. I tried to respond saying that everything was fine, but the words that came out seemed like the furthest thing from it. The last thing that I remembered was my eyes rolling back and my head smacking against the wall behind me.

* * *

Blinking my eyes quickly, I gained focus of the room after a minute. It took me a moment to realize that I must have gone unconscious _again_. If that wasn't embarrassing, then I don't know what is.

I knew that I wasn't in the exact spot that I was in before, but I was clearly in the same room. Instead of the ground that I was kneeling on earlier next to George, I was now propped up on a smaller couch on the side of the same room.

"Emily, you need to lie still," Mrs. Weasley said. "You tore open your wound when you were moving around earlier and it started bleeding again. I've done what I can to stop it, but you've got to stay still until it heals properly."

She gave me more of the potion and I drank it without complaints. At this point, it seemed like everyone had arrived at the house. Except something felt off – almost as if I had missed some sort of news that everyone was focusing on.

Hermione was sitting in the chair next to me and her eyes looked swollen and red like she had been crying. As I looked around at the others, they all looked as though they were in some sort of internal pain.

"What's happened?" I asked Hermione.

She jumped at the sound of my voice, almost as though she didn't expect me to be conscious again. Some others passed into the other room as she began to answer, and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach because of the unanimous silence that was being held between everyone.

"It's Mad-Eye…" Hermione said slowly. "He…he didn't make it…"

"Did he get caught by the Death Eaters?" I asked, thinking about how angry he would be as a captive.

"Um…no," she answered. "Mad-Eye was killed."

It took me a moment to process what she said to me. It seemed like I must have heard something wrong at first, because there was no way that _Alastor Moody _was dead. I couldn't imagine him like that.

Then something occurred to me. A man had fallen through the sky earlier when I was flying on the thestral with Mr. Weasley. I wanted to go after him to make sure he was okay, but Mr. Weasley insisted that there was nothing that we could do. That falling man must have been Mad-Eye…but where was Mundungus?

"Was Mundungus killed too?" I asked in a hallow voice, still trying to come to the realization that the retired Auror was dead.

"No, he escaped," Hermione said.

Just as she said it, Harry walked over when he saw that I was awake again. I moved myself up so I was sitting properly so that he could sit at my feet. Harry gave me a weak smile and then looked at the ground. Not long after, Ron joined us and looked just as worried as everyone else.

"Voldemort was there," Harry told me. "He was looking for both of us…and he found out which one I was."

"W-what?" I asked. "How did he know – there were so many of us?"

"He didn't go directly to him," Lupin said as he approached us. "He checked the others first. He must have assumed that he would be with the tougher Aurors – that's why he went for Mad-Eye first."

"I guess that Mundungus's escape gave away that it wasn't him," Hermione said.

"Exactly what we were thinking," Lupin nodded.

"But how did he figure out that Harry was the real one?" I asked.

"It was the spell he used against Stan Shunpike," Lupin said.

"Wait, the Knight Bus conductor?" I asked.

"We figure that he's under the Imperius Curse," Lupin said. "But what was important was that Harry used _Expelliarmus _against him – it was a dead give away."

There was a brief pause where I tried to figure out why this would give away that he was the real Harry Potter. Anyone could have used that spell, why would it indicate that it was the real one just by that one little thing?

"It's considered his signature spell," Lupin explained as though he could read my mind. "He uses it far too often and the Death Eaters recognize that. It must have gotten back to Voldemort in time for him to start chasing Hagrid and him."

"Why don't you think he found Emily?" Ron asked everyone.

"Probably had something to do with me not being conscious," I said. "You can't really give much away when you're like that."

That seemed to be unanimously agreed on because no one put up a counterargument. It wasn't likely that Voldemort would suspect the person he was looking for to be knocked out cold because of lack of blood in their system. I suppose that he had higher expectations for someone like me.

The crowd of people that had gathered around me didn't stick around too much longer after Mrs. Weasley walked into the room and shooed them off. Despite the fact that I was feeling much better, she insisted that I remain as still as possible and get as much sleep as I could so I could heal faster.

To appease her, I did my best to go back to sleep. After a while, this task proved to be difficult because of the information that I just heard. I didn't speak a word of it to Mrs. Weasley, but I didn't have to. She already knew that I was bothered to begin with and practically forced me to drink a Dreamless Sleep potion to ease my mind.

"I think I'll be okay," I told her. "I'm not really that tired – I've already passed out a couple of times."

"Either you're going to take this potion, or I'm going to knock you unconscious," she said with a smirk on her face. "It's your decision really."

"I suggest the potion," I heard George murmur sleepily from his couch. "It's some great stuff."

"I have a feeling that you've had more than that," I said.

"Just take it," Mrs. Weasley said as she handed it over.

It didn't take very long to go to sleep after that. Before I knew it, my eyelids grew heavy and I found it really hard to keep myself awake. Giving up on fighting with the urge to keep myself awake, I gave in to the peacefulness of darkness that was my sleep.

* * *

The next time I woke up, the light from outside was lighting up the room and everything was completely silent aside from George's nearby snores. When I moved to sit up, I noticed that a blanket had been draped over me and I started to wonder who it was that put it there.

Due to the lack of other activity in the room, my tired eyes found themselves pointed toward the only other person in the room.

From the angle I could see him, and despite the new loss of his ear, George appeared to be at peace as he twitched in his sleep. His long body stretched across the couch and his one leg drooped off of the side, which gave the appearance that he was just lounging around. If it hadn't been for the large bandage that was wrapped around his whole head, I wouldn't have thought there was anything wrong with him.

"They must have given him the good stuff," Fred laughed as he walked toward me and looked at his twin brother. "He is knocked out cold."

"Have you slept at all?" I asked him.

"Er…sort of," Fred said. "Maybe an hour."

"Do you need some of that potion that your mum's been giving us?" I asked.

"No, I think I'll be okay," he said. "It isn't like this is the first time I've gone without much sleep."

After taking one other strange look at the bandage on his brother's head, he moved over to sit in the chair that was placed right next to the couch that I was propped up on. It took a moment before Fred turned to face me.

"How are you doing?" Fred asked. "Not going to faint on me again, are you?"

"No, I don't think so," I said while pulling my shirt up enough to look at the bandage. "I think I'll live."

While there were still some spots of blood on it, it looked like Mrs. Weasley managed to mend it well enough that it would now be able to heal properly. It was aggravating not being able to move around, but it hurt a lot less too. Now that the shock of everything had died down, I was now able to feel the ache of it all.

"I saw Mad-Eye get hit," I told him. "I didn't know it was him, but I saw him fall…maybe we could have – "

"Don't try to say that you two could have saved him," Fred said. "It would have been impossible – you have to remember that we were _all_ under attack and it was you that they were looking for."

"Well if it wasn't for all of this, then he still would have been alive," I muttered.

"It wasn't your fault that the information got out," Fred said. "You didn't even know what the plan was until we got to your aunt and uncle's house."

"I guess," I sighed. "I just wish…I just wish that things would have gone differently."

"I feel like it would be strange if you _liked_ the way things went," Fred said as he nudged me.

"I just can't believe that Snape knocked his ear completely off," Fred said.

As soon as he said it, I felt all of the blood drain from my face. The word _mortified_ hardly even begins to describe how I was feeling knowing that it was him that did this to George. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that Snape actually knew which one of them was the real Harry, but it didn't matter.

Fred must have picked up that this wasn't something that he was supposed to say because he went about as white as I was.

"No one told you?" Fred asked quietly. "Emily, I'm sorry – I shouldn't have said anything."

"I would have found out anyway," I said. "I just can't believe…I can't believe that he would do this…"

"He might not have been aiming for him in particular," Fred said. "It might have just been an accident – "

"It doesn't matter that he wasn't aiming directly for George," I snapped. "It's that he was attacking _any of us_! How could he do this? Wasn't killing off Dumbledore enough?"

Fred just looked at me and then at the ground. He had no response, but I didn't expect him too. No one else could truly understand the anger I had toward Snape because I was the only one that trusted him before it all happened.

"Listen, I'm sorry," I said to him. "I didn't mean to snap on you – it isn't your fault."

"I know," he said truthfully. "Despite what everyone said, I thought that Snape might not have been so bad after all…I don't know, maybe I just thought he was a bitter, old man. Don't try and act like you were the only one that didn't expect this."

"But it isn't like anyone actually cared that he turned on us," I said back to him. "None of you trusted him like I did."

"And you think we don't know that?" Fred asked. "We _know_ that it effected you more and I'm sorry for that, but having a pity party for yourself isn't going to change anything."

"I'm not having a pity party," I retorted.

"Listen, you aren't the only one that trusted Snape," Fred said. "Sure, none of us did, but Dumbledore trusted him long before you even knew who he was and look where that got him. You're right, maybe we didn't care for Snape as a person like you did, but we all cared about Dumbledore and he was the one that got killed. So don't sit here and preach like you're the only one that was hurt by this."

Fred was right. I was dwelling on this too much and it wasn't like I was alone in the situation. It took me a moment to actually respond because I suddenly began to feel shame for what I had done to everyone else. I was acting like a child – this wasn't all about me.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't mean that no one else was hurt…"

Fred let out a sigh and leaned back in his chair.

"I know you're upset," Fred said. "I know that you blame yourself for basically 90% of everything bad that happens, but you need to know that you aren't alone in this."

We were quiet for a minute and I let everything sink in. Seeing that it was coming from Fred, the last person that I would have expected to put me in my place, I took it to heart. It wasn't often that he would throw his honest opinion out there about things that didn't involve some sort of laugh, but he knew what he was talking about. I should have known that he was just as concerned as everyone else about what was to come, but he always put on such a façade that he was fine through the constant jokes that he would tell. I guess that some people just deal with things in a different way.

"Are you two finally finished over there?" George grunted from the other couch. "Because it's getting way too real for me."

"Oh, shut it," Fred retorted as he playfully threw a pillow at his brother. "I thought your _holiness_ was sleeping!"

"I would be if you two weren't discussing your feelings over there," George said. "Some people are trying to sleep."

"Oh, why don't you just cover your _ear_ and pretend we aren't here," Fred said.

The two continued their back-and-forth banter for a little while longer before we heard some footsteps on the other side of the door signaling that someone was coming. Only a few seconds after I heard them, the door to the room opened and Mrs. Weasley was looking around to see what was going on.

"Are you bothering the injured, Fred?" Mrs. Weasley scolded.

"I was just here to raise their spirits," Fred told her. "The best cure to any wound is seeing my bright, smiling face."

Mrs. Weasley rolled her eyes and tried to resist the urge to smile at her son's remarks. Instead of kicking him out like she usually did, she just stepped into the room and checked to make sure that we didn't need any more help with our wounds. She changed the bandaging on each of us, something that nearly sent Fred out of the room in disgust – though I do believe that it was her plan from the start.

"That's disgusting, Emily," Fred said. "Why didn't you tell me it was that bad?"

"You didn't ask," I shrugged.

"Why can't you fix it, Mum?" Fred asked.

"Because it was hit with the same sort of Dark Magic that they used on George," Mrs. Weasley said as she finished up with the bandaging. "Don't you think I would have tried that already?"

"I don't know how your mind works," Fred said.

George's bandage didn't take that long to finish up, but the wound seemed to be doing as well as it could. From what I could tell, it was a clear shot that had blown off his ear and the bleeding hadn't started to continue anymore. So, in a sense, he was doing as well as he could. After she finished up our bandaging, she gave us some potions for our pain and told us that we could try to move around today.

Now we couldn't make an excuse to lie around for the rest of the day and we would be forced to face the reality that we were dealing with. I tried my best to put on a brave face as I stepped out of the room to meet with everyone that had helped us on our journey here.

There was a part of me that hoped that this was the worst it was going to get, but I knew that I was just lying to myself. This was only the beginning.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! So I have added a poll to my profile page (I don't know how long it'll take to show up, but it should be showing up on my profile shortly) that asks you all to select which person you want Emily to end up in a relationship with by the end of the series. I've created it to see what you all wish to happen because I've been getting a lot of questions about it and I was wondering what you all were thinking. So, please vote if you want to have a say in it!**

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	5. Recovering in the Burrow

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 5**

The first thing I did after I began my recovery was talk to Harry about what happened to him once we left Privet Drive. Hearing that he had run into Voldemort the day before had freaked me out beyond belief and I wanted to know everything I could so we could figure out what to do if something like this were to happen again.

"He didn't know it was me at first," Harry explained to me as we sat just outside of the Burrow. "But I suppose, like Lupin said, that he must have figured out that it was me when I used a disarming spell."

"You're going to need to be more careful with that," I told him. "If they're recognizing that you use that a lot, then you might want to consider using a different spell."

"I've already thought about it," he said. "But it didn't help us out much then anyway."

"At least you escaped from him," I said. "You must have done something right."

"I don't know what happened, Emily," he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, suddenly confused.

"When he went to attack Hagrid and me, the bike was already falling from the air," Harry explained. "I wasn't really aware of my surroundings like I should have been, but it didn't matter at the time because my wand seemed to act on its own."

There was a pause in our speech while I tried to process what he was trying to tell me. Was he implying that it was his wand that fought off Voldemort and not him?

"I know that it sounds strange," Harry said. "But when he was attacking me, my wand just spun around in my hand and these gold flames shot out toward him."

"And you're sure that it wasn't just you acting instinctively?" I asked him. "Are you sure that it wasn't some subconscious act?"

"I know it wasn't," he said. "I don't even know what spell that was – I've never seen anything like it before."

A wand performing magic on its own? It all seemed impossible to me, but it didn't surprise me as much as it should have. Then again, there really wasn't that could shock me much anymore – everything recently was so unexpected that it was hard for me to believe anything was impossible anymore.

"I don't know how that could have happened," I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't either," Harry sighed.

It wasn't that I didn't believe that something like this could have happened, but I had no explanation on what could have happened between Voldemort and Harry in that moment. Thinking about it made me wish that Dumbledore were still here so he could try to explain what was going on. Would he know what happened? Even if he didn't, he would have known what to do about it all and could have helped us out so much more.

Then again, if Dumbledore were here, then most of this wouldn't have even happened.

But I couldn't think like that anymore. Dumbledore was gone and we were all just going to have to figure everything on our own. We couldn't just rely on a person that couldn't help us anymore. Maybe there was an explanation for what happened, but maybe we would just never find out what occurred between the two of them.

"I heard that Snape was there," Harry said suddenly, breaking my thoughts in the process.

"He was the one that hit George," I told him. "It makes me wonder if anyone else we knew was there…"

I didn't actually say his name, but it had been running through my head for a while that Draco Malfoy could have been there. I didn't want to think that he was still involved with the Death Eaters, but I knew better than that. It hurt me a lot that he would join in with them to attack us, but I had to be realistic. Draco was one of them whether I wanted to believe it or not.

I wanted to be furious with him for going against us, but it hurt me to even try to me angry with him. The way that he acted during our last year of school made me feel like he wasn't doing this because he wanted to – his family was forcing him into this. Maybe I was wrong and maybe this was just something that he was destined to do, but I couldn't help but think that something wasn't right.

_"I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry for everything…try to remember that I didn't have a choice and that I really don't want to hurt you…"_

Those were some of the last words that he shared with me and I had thought so much about them since then. At the time, I didn't understand what he was talking about, but now it was starting to make more sense.

If he was being genuine, that meant that he was reaching out to me to tell me that this wasn't what he wanted. They were going to kill his family – that's what he told Dumbledore in the Astronomy Tower that night. So, what was his purpose in coming to me for help? Had he been talking to me about how much he didn't want to do it to try to talk himself out of it? It wasn't like I knew exactly how his mind worked and I seriously doubted that I would ever find out the truth. For now, I would just have to come up with what I believed based on the way he acted toward me. I just hoped that he would keep himself safe if he was still around Voldemort…one wrong move and Draco would be dead…

"Emily?" Harry said.

I suddenly blinked and looked over at my brother who was staring at me as though I had a second head. It was then that it occurred to me that he had said my name multiple times in attempt to capture my attention.

"Sorry, what did you say?" I asked.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You're really pale."

"I'm ginger, Harry – I'm always pale," I said. "What were you saying to me before?"

"I was asking when you were going to get Neville from the hospital," he said. "You told me that you were going to meet up with him there while he was visiting his parents and bring him back here for the wedding before we head off."

"Right, I'm going to be meeting with him the day before the wedding," I said. "I've already discussed this with him, but maybe I ought to write him a letter to remind him. Where's Hedwig – I'm sure she could go for a stretch of the wings."

Harry's face suddenly dropped and I had a feeling that I had said something wrong. I didn't even have to ask the question for him to respond.

"Hedwig was killed," Harry said. "It was on the way over here and one of the Death Eaters hit her."

As he said it, I knew that he was hurting. Hedwig wasn't just an owl to him – she was the one thing that kept him connected to the Wizarding world while we weren't at Hogwarts. Hedwig kept him company when I wasn't there – she was more than a pet to him, she was a friend. And now she was gone.

"I'm sorry, Harry," I said as I put a hand on his shoulder. "I had no idea…"

"It's okay," he said. "Her death was instant…I'm just happy she didn't have to suffer…don't worry about me though, I'm fine. You can go ahead and write that letter – I'm sure that someone will let you use their owl."

I nodded and left him alone so he could think through some things. In the meantime, I went and found some parchment and made a quick letter to Neville to remind him when we were going to meet – just in case he forgot, which I knew was very possible.

_Neville,_

_In case you've forgotten, we're still going to be going to visit your parents together on the 31__st__ of July. I'll meet you in front of Purge and Dowse and we'll go on from there. I look forward to seeing you!_

_Much love, Elizabeth_

Before we left each other at Kings Cross Station, Neville and I agreed that I would go by the name Elizabeth in my letters to him in case they ended up in someone else's hands. I didn't include it in the letter, but we both also knew that I would not have the same appearance when I met up with him.

As a precaution, I had brewed Polyjuice Potion to become a Muggle girl that lived a few doors down from us on Privet Drive. The real Elizabeth was a sixteen-year-old girl that was rather short and had medium-length, brown hair and a kind face. I had only spoken to her briefly a few times, but we weren't what anyone would classify as friends. During the summer, the final time I would see her, I managed to get a piece of her hair off of her jacket at the local park before heading back to the Dursleys to complete the potion.

Now that I didn't have Hoot (due to the fact that he was at Neville's house) and Hedwig was gone, I had to use Ron's owl to deliver my letter. It didn't take much time to find him in his room and he didn't even seem to care at all that I wanted to use his owl. Actually, it hardly seemed like he heard the question at all as he looked fairly traumatized.

"You look like you just saw a ghost," I laughed.

"You could say that," he said quietly.

"What happened?" I asked.

"It was your brother," he said to me. "I just had a row with him about my sister."

I knew that whenever Ron refrained from using people's names that he wasn't a happy person. Though, considering the people that were involved, I had a bad feeling that I knew why he was upset.

"I walked in on them snogging," Ron said.

I didn't speak for a moment because I expected more than just that, but I eventually decided that it was all he was going to say. Although I was slightly baffled that my brother had gone from talking about his dead owl to snogging Ginny Weasley in such a short period of time, I wasn't exactly seeing his point with this. I guess he just needed a bit more coaxing.

"Why is that a bad thing?" I asked.

"Because he's playing around with her feelings, that's why!" Ron said. "Ginny was really upset when he broke things off and then he goes off and does something like this – you can't think that's a good thing!"

"I didn't say that it was," I told him. "But I don't really see why you're getting so upset about it. It's not really your business."

"I'm her brother!" he said.

"Yes, and I'm Harry's sister," I said. "I know that it isn't good for them to go at it again with what's about to happen, but they aren't five-year-olds and they know what they're doing."

"Fine, but that doesn't make it okay," he muttered.

"Fair enough," I shrugged.

Not wanting to discuss who my brother snogs anymore, I decided to go ahead and send off my letter. After doing that, I walked on into the house and looked around to see if anyone needed help with anything. Mrs. Weasley was in the kitchen making dinner, but she assured me that she would be able to do it herself.

Eventually I ended up in the sitting room where I found George messing around with the bands that were wrapped around his head to help his ear. Much to my surprise, he had a toothbrush stuck in the hole where his ear used to be and he appeared to be scratching it. When he saw me, he immediately stopped and smiled as he pulled the toothbrush out.

"I'm glad that didn't look strange," I smirked.

"There was an itch there that I couldn't get to," he said. "Don't judge me."

"Never," I said.

I took a seat next to him as he began to readjust his bandage and settle back into the chair to make himself comfortable. Even now that his head was healing, I still felt terribly sick that this happened to him. Flashes of his unconscious body being dragged into the Burrow flew into my head and I had to start talking before I began to have a breakdown.

"Is it hurting at all?" I asked him as I looked at his bandage.

"Not as much as you would think," he told me. "Mum gave me some good medication, so I reckon I'll be all right."

I nodded slowly and looked down at the ground.

"There was a lot of blood, George," I told him. "I was…I was scared, I thought we were going to lose you…I thought you were dying…"

"Don't worry about it," George said. "It's all over – we're both fine."

"This time we are," I said. "But this is only the first attack, George. Voldemort isn't going to stop now and he's going to do everything he can to get to us – that includes going after you. We have to be careful."

"I know that," he said. "But sometimes accidents happen."

"You're going to try to stay safe, aren't you?" I asked him. "Keep yourself hidden?"

"That was the plan," George said. "We're going to keep paying up on our shop, but we aren't getting much business at the moment. I guess not many parents want their children running around Diagon Alley with You-Know-Who on the loose."

I nodded and thought about how sad this was making him. I knew that he didn't want to give up on the shop, but there wasn't much he could do with everything that was going on. It wasn't like Fred and George were _really_ giving up on their business, but they were just going to have to put things on hold for the time being.

That was the truth with everything though, wasn't it? The whole world was going to have to be put on hold just because of Voldemort. Nothing would be the same as long as he was around and no one would be safe. Just look at what's happened already and the war has hardly begun.

"I'm sorry, George," I whispered as I looked down.

"It's fine," he shrugged. "I'm not really worried about the shop right now."

"I'm not just talking about the shop," I told him. "I'm talking about everything."

George paused and kept his gaze away from me. Without a word, he pulled me closer to him and wrapped his arm around me in an embrace. He kissed me on my forehead and then let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry that you think all of this is your fault," he said. "I wish you wouldn't blame yourself for all of this."

"Whose fault is it then?" I asked.

"It's…Voldemort's," he said with a grimace.

It was the first time he had ever said the name out loud and I had a strong feeling that it was going to be the last. It sounded so strange with his voice and I could almost feel the distaste as he said it.

"He was the one that started this," George continued. "We're just the ones that are going to have to finish this."

I smiled as I held onto his hand and I suddenly felt like Harry and I weren't alone in this. We might have been the ones that were mentioned in the prophecy, but we always had people there to back us up and help us when it all came to be too much for us to handle.

"I love you, George," I said.

"I love you too," he smiled.

With that, both of us fell asleep together on that couch and didn't wake up for a couple more hours. For a while, everything in my dreams seemed to be going peacefully until I felt a searing pain from my head and everything that I was seeing suddenly changed before me.

_"You told me that this would work!" a voice screamed in my head._

_"I thought that it would!" another person screamed in agony. "I had no idea – please forgive me!"_

_"I should have known that you would have tried to help the Potters, Ollivander!" the first voice spat. "You were trying to trick me all along!"_

_"I wasn't – I swear!" the man said._

_"Then why didn't it work?" the first man demanded._

_"I don't know!" the man cried. "I thought that it would - you have to trust me! I had no idea that something like that would happen!"_

_"Then figure something out!" the first man yelled._

There was a scream in my head one more time before my eyes shot open and I sat up as quickly as I could. When I looked around, I noticed that Fred was now in the room and George was still sitting beside me.

"Are you okay?" Fred asked. "You were moving around a lot in your sleep."

"It…it was nothing," I lied. "Just a nightmare…"

George gave me a curious look, but I did my best to ignore him as I tried to calm myself down after what I had just witnessed.

Voldemort was furious, that was obvious. He had attempted to use someone else's wand because he knew that all three of ours shared a connection and it would be difficult to cause any permanent damage as long as he used the one that he had.

He also had Ollivander with him and that was enough to make my skin crawl. The old man never did anything to harm anyone and now he was the newest victim of Voldemort's rage. What was it that Voldemort wanted with him? Would he really have taken him in simply for knowledge on how to use another wand against us?

Suddenly my attention was taken away from what I had just seen when I heard Fred speaking directly to me.

"So, I heard we're going on a hunt," Fred said with a mischievous grin.

As soon as he said it, my eyes darted over to George. He immediately looked down at the ground and tried to occupy himself by staring intently at his watch.

"You told me that you wouldn't tell anyone!" I said angrily.

"I only told Fred!" he said defensively.

"This isn't some sort of joke, _George_!" I lectured. "I should have never told you what I was doing – what was I thinking?"

"I didn't tell anyone else!" George said. "Only Fred! It isn't like he's going to tell anyone because he hasn't got any friends!"

Fred sat back and had a grin on his face as he looked between the two of us. It almost looked like he was pleased with himself that he knew something that he wasn't supposed to know.

"You all cannot come with us," I told Fred and George. "It's too dangerous."

"And that's a problem?" Fred asked. "In case you've forgotten, we don't care if things are _dangerous_ or not – it's what we like!"

"You're treating this like it's some sort of game!" I said furiously.

"We know that it's serious," George told me. "Which is why I don't want you to go in the first place – I've already told you that."

"I have to do this and you know that," I said. "But I don't need everyone tagging along."

"Then why is Neville going along with you?" George asked with a slight hint of irritation in his voice.

I could almost feel the color leaving my face when he said it. I should have guessed that he would have found out about that sooner or later, but I didn't want him to get the wrong idea about it. Honestly, I wasn't even sure that I would have said anything to him about it if he hadn't found out himself.

"How do you know about that?" I asked him.

"Ron told me last week," George said. "He said that you were going to meet up with him at the hospital to see his parents and then be on your way."

For a moment, we stood there quietly and I nearly forgot that Fred was standing off to the side looking around the room awkwardly. When George gave him the we-need-some-privacy look, Fred just casually began to shuffle his way to the door.

"I'm pretty sure I saw Mum in the other room making some ham…" Fred said. "Think I might see what's going on with that…"

Once he was gone, I could practically feel George's eyes burning through my skin. Why did Ron have to mention that Neville was coming? I should have known that this wasn't going to go over well.

"You're angry…" I assumed.

"I'm not angry," George said. "I know why you want him to come along, but I don't know why you didn't tell me."

"I don't _have_ to tell you anything," I said. "Not to be rude, but we aren't dating anymore."

"Thanks for rubbing that in," he muttered. "I just thought that you might have mentioned it before I had to hear it from Ron."

In a sense, I could understand why he was upset about this. Even though we hadn't been dating for a while, we still felt like we could talk about things like this with each other.

"You're right," he said after a moment. "I guess that you don't owe me any explanation for anything you do anymore. I must have missed the part where we stopped giving a damn about each other."

"This is why I didn't say anything to you," I retorted. "I knew that you were going to act like this!"

"Act like what?" George argued. "A normal human being? I don't _care_ that you're taking Longbottom along with you – I care that you think that it's going to be easy for me to just walk out of the door and let you die on this mad adventure of yours!"

"_Adventure_!" I shouted. "This isn't an adventure, you prick! It's not like I'm out on holiday – I'm trying to put an end to this so good people won't die!"

"I know what you're trying to do!" George shouted back. "Which is why I don't understand why you think that it's just completely mad of me to want to help you!"

"Because it's too dangerous!" I said.

"I don't give a damn if it's too dangerous!" he said. "I know what I would be getting in to!"

"You have no idea what you'd be getting in to!" I said. "Hell, _I_ hardly know what I'm getting in to!"

"So let me help you!" he demanded.

Anger suddenly flooded through me as I got close to George's face and my face was practically as twisted as his was with irritation of the subject.

"You are not going with us," I said angrily. "And that is final."

Suddenly the door swung open and we both immediately turned to see Ginny and Ron walking into the room mid-conversation. When they saw us standing this close to one another, I immediately realized what this must have looked like if you didn't realize this was an argument. Without saying a word to one another, George and I immediately responded in the same way by stepping quickly away from each other.

"I can't go anywhere in this house without people snogging," Ron muttered. "First Ginny and Harry and now the two of you – "

"That wasn't what we were doing, Ron," George rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry, we won't tell anyone," Ginny said as she followed Ron out of another door.

I let out a sigh of irritation as I quickly walked behind Ron and Ginny in hopes of escaping George's presence. All I needed was some time to cool off after that argument and I found that it would be incredibly difficult to do as long as his family surrounded me.

The closest chance to an escape I would have would be in a couple of days when I would be able to leave the house to go get Neville. Until then, I would just have to deal with the fact that I was in George's house and busy myself with the plans for Bill and Fleur's wedding. After all, it was the only distraction that I had.

* * *

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	6. Staying Preoccupied

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 6**

Harry and I ended up having to tell Ron and Hermione about what we saw happen to Ollivander in our head. Of course, this only led to confusion and horror in their minds and a slight overreaction with Hermione.

"You cannot let him inside of your heads!" Hermione said. "It's far too dangerous now – "

"And it wasn't before?" Harry snapped back, slightly irritated.

"Hermione, we know that it's dangerous," I said calmly. "But it isn't like it's something we want to happen either – sometime it just catches us off guard. Besides, it lets us know what he's up too."

"But he might be able to see what you're doing too," Hermione said.

"Okay, okay – we get it," Harry sighed. "But I want to know what he wanted with Ollivander."

"He was probably trying to find a wand that would work against ours," I suggested. "Remember when we were in the grave yard a few years ago and his didn't work against ours? He probably thought that using another wand would make him more powerful."

"I guess he was attacking Ollivander to get that information out of him," Harry said. "Ollivander must have told him that using another wand might help, but he might not have known."

"Either way, he isn't looking too good," I said uncomfortably. "I wonder how long he's had him captive…"

The thought of the old wandmaker being tortured at the hands of Voldemort made my skin crawl. It was hard to tell how long he could have been there, but the fact that he had been tortured even once for this information was hard to even think about. Flashes of Ollivander's horrified expression kept going through my head and it hurt me because I know that there wasn't any way to get him out of that situation.

We probably would have continued the conversation if others hadn't come into the room, but the house was starting to get busy again with preparations for the wedding that was coming up in just a few days time.

"You four look like you're up to something," Fred said with a wink.

"I agree," George said. "You wouldn't be talking about a certain trip, would you?"

"Why did we tell them the plan?" Ron asked. "Wait a minute – _we_ didn't."

Ron gave me a piercing look and I rolled my eyes. Sure, Fred and George were pretty smug about knowing what we were plotting, but it wasn't necessarily _my_ fault that they both knew. I told George, but he wasn't supposed to go spreading it around like it was casual gossip.

"Mum is looking for you all," Fred said. "I think she's trying to keep you all busy so you can't plan your great escape."

"It's not going to stop us," Harry said.

"No, but that doesn't mean she's going to stop trying either," George said. "She'll do anything she can to keep you here."

For a moment, I forgot that I was supposed to be angry with George about our fight the day before. It was difficult for me to hold a grudge against him when he was in a good mood so often and being his usual self with Fred.

I wouldn't admit it to him, but I knew that he had a right to be upset with me going on this hunt without him. In all honesty, I wanted him to be with me through it all, but I knew that it was far too dangerous for him. I would much prefer him to be away from me in hiding with a group of experienced fighters that could protect him – he was already hurt enough and I didn't want to risk anything else.

"Fred, George – where have you gone?" Mrs. Weasley's voice called from the other room. "I need you to go tend to the chickens!"

Looking like that was the last thing that they wanted to do, the twins walked quickly into another room to avoid her as she stepped in to see the four of us sitting around. And, just as Fred and George predicted, she immediately set us to work to keep our minds off of the hunt for Horcruxes.

It couldn't have been more obvious throughout the day that Mrs. Weasley was intentionally keeping us apart from one another. Whenever we finished a task that she assigned us, she would immediately send us in another direction that was completely different from each other and required us to keep our distance.

On the rare occasion that one of us would cross the other's path, we tried to not draw attention to ourselves so we could have a conversation without Mrs. Weasley hearing from the other room. Although she was far busier than we were, she seemed to have the best hearing in the world. Maybe that's just what happened to a person when they had so many children to look after – they could just hear _everything_.

I was lucky to run into Ron at one point in the day long enough for him to give a warning about his mother's intentions with us all.

"I've already told Harry, but you should know too that Mum is going to try to get you to tell her where we're going off to," Ron said to me.

"Has she already asked all of you?" I asked him.

"She tried to get it out of Hermione and me already," he said. "Fred and George too, but none of us have said anything to her."

"Well, she shouldn't think we're going to tell her either," I said. "Besides, she would be just as angry if she knew what it really was that we were up to."

"Probably, but that isn't going to stop her from trying to find out anyway," he shrugged.

Accepting the fact that I was probably going to be questioned about what we were going to be doing, I went about my day at the Burrow as usual. I was slightly hesitant to stay in a room alone with Mrs. Weasley to avoid that conversation, but I managed to keep myself busy with helping others with the wedding preparations.

However, this led me to sticking around Fleur a lot more than I really wanted to. It wasn't that I didn't like her, but she was way more excitable and talkative than I really cared for. This was far better than being cornered by her soon to be mother-in-law and it made it significantly easier while Bill was with her. In this particular moment, I found myself standing in front of both of them in the sitting room.

"Ve need to tell you who you vill be for ze wedding," Fleur said as she clapped her hands together.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"We can't let it be known that the Potters are at our wedding," Bill explained. "We have to have you both take Polyjuice Potion so you can be disguised."

"That makes sense," I nodded. "So who am I going as?"

"You're going to be a cousin from mum's side of the family," Bill told me. "So you're going by the name of Abigail Prewett, daughter of Fabian Prewett."

"Who is Fabian Prewett?" I asked.

"Mum's brother," Bill explained. "He was killed a while back by some Death Eaters before you were born. He didn't actually have any children, but mum said that the Weasleys don't really know that. If some of the older ones do remember him, you're just going to say that you were born out of wedlock and he didn't know about your birth before he died."

"That sounds complicated," I said.

"Exactly," Bill nodded. "Which is why no one will question it. I'm sure they won't even question you after you've told them you're a cousin on the Prewett side."

After we discussed it once more to make sure I got the story right, we went on with the rest of our day in order to avoid being yelled at for being unproductive.

It was impossible to avoid Mrs. Weasley the entire day. As hard as I tried to not end up in a room alone with her, it ended up being inevitable. Mrs. Weasley was everywhere at once that day and she was a very determined person. I guess there was just no stopping her when she wanted to find something out.

We ended up alone together outside when I was tending to the garden and she came over to assist me. Part of me wondered if she would actually go through with questioning me, but it didn't take long for her to start talking about it.

"You know, Ron's been talking like you all aren't going back to school next year," Mrs. Weasley said in a tone that was far too casual. "Harry and Hermione seem to feel the same…"

Her eyes kept flickering over to me as she waited for a response. Ron's warning suddenly began to make sense, but I feared that this conversation wasn't going to end very well. I'd never been on Mrs. Weasley's bad side per say, but I knew from observation that I really did not want to be.

"They're right," I said hesitantly. "We aren't going back to Hogwarts."

"Why not?" she asked immediately.

She was prepared for this conversation – that was far too obvious. I highly suspected that her practice of discussing this with the other members of the group already had her prepared for what was to come. I just hoped that she wouldn't get too angry when I refused her information.

"There's just something that we have to do," I said.

"Harry told me that it was something that Dumbledore wanted you to do," Mrs. Weasley said, her eyes locked on me.

"Well, yes…that is true," I nodded.

"And what is it that Dumbledore expected of a group of seventeen-year-olds?" she asked.

"It's really between the people that are involved," I said as I lowered my tone, scared of what was coming next.

"And you think that I am not involved?" Mrs. Weasley asked, getting angrier by the second. "My son is involved with this – all of you could be in danger. I think that I have a right to say that I am involved with this."

"We didn't ask Ron to go with us," I said. "We didn't ask Hermione or Neville either – "

As soon as I said that, I regretted it. It didn't cross my mind that she didn't know that there was another member involved other than the four of us that were in her house.

"Neville Longbottom is involved with this too?" she asked. "And you think that his grandmother will allow this – hasn't she been through enough already? She's already lost her son and her daughter-in-law! Do you want her to lose her grandson too? That's all she has left, Emily! Think about her – "

As she said it, anger rose up in me to the point that I nearly wanted to cry because of what she was trying to accuse me of. The woman that had cared for me for so many years was going to

"You think I haven't thought about that?" I said furiously. "I've told them time and time again that they shouldn't come with me, but they won't listen! So don't you _dare_ accuse me of not considering what could happen to them – this is _not_ on me."

She started to say something else, but I did not listen to her as I walked as quickly as I could away from her. I knew that I was about to start crying and there was no way that I was going to let her see that she had driven me to that point.

"Emily – what's wrong?"

When I turned and saw that it was Mr. Weasley, I seriously debated whether or not I should have just kept walking so he wouldn't know what just happened. However, I decided that it was too late to avoid him as he began to walk up to me. While I spoke to him, I tried to avoid the tears that had been trying to come through my eyes earlier so he wouldn't get worried about my sanity.

"Nothing, I'm fine," I lied to him.

"You look upset," he said with concern. "What's happened?"

He stepped over to me and put his hand on my shoulder for some sort of comfort and I just knew that there was no way that I was going to be able to not tell him what just happened. Then again, he probably would have found out anyway after his wife spoke to him.

"I was just talking to Mrs. Weasley, that's all," I said as I tried to avoid eye contact.

"Did it have anything to do with not going to Hogwarts this year?" Mr. Weasley asked. "She has been talking a lot about that to me lately."

I nodded, but didn't let any words come out of my mouth. What would he say if I just told him exactly what she just said to me? Would he agree and say that she was right? Or would he go against his wife? Neither option felt right to me.

"Emily, what did she say to you?" he asked, his eyes shifting toward the direction that I had come from as if making sure no one else was listening.

"It doesn't matter," I shook my head.

"You're upset about it – of course it matters," Mr. Weasley said.

"She found out that Neville Longbottom is going with us too," I finally let out. "She said that his family has already been through enough and I had no right to bring him along and rob his grandmother of the only person she has left in the world."

Mr. Weasley stood there for a moment in silence, probably trying to interpret what I had just said to him. I didn't say everything that happened, but it was assumed what I had meant by that – his wife was trying to pin the potential death of my friends on me to stop me from going through with my plan.

"I'm going to go talk to her," Mr. Weasley said after a moment.

"No, you don't have to do that," I said, not wanting to start an argument between them.

"Yes, I really do," Mr. Weasley said. "I know that she doesn't want you to go through with whatever it is that you all are doing, but that's taking it too far. I don't want you all to do this either, but I don't blame you for anything that happens to my son – or anyone else for that matter – while you are gone. As far as I know, you didn't ask them to come along with you."

A sudden appreciation for Mr. Weasley swelled up inside of me and I immediately went to hug him in attempt to avoid crying. Everything that was happening recently was making me emotional…it made me uncomfortable…

"Thank you," I said to him.

Mr. Weasley smiled at me after I let go of him and gestured that he was going to go outside. That much told me that he wasn't going to let any time pass before speaking to his wife about what she had just said to me. As angry and upset as I was with her, I hoped that it didn't lead to conflict between the two of them because I didn't want to be responsible for coming between them.

Once he was gone, I realized that I no longer had anything that I was supposed to be doing. Running off from Mrs. Weasley left me without a task for the first time that day. So, taking my leave of absence from the wedding preparations, I went upstairs towards the bedroom. When I got there, I realized that I was not the only one that managed to escape from it all.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione had all somehow found their way into Ron's room for the time being. As soon as I walked in, I noticed Ron flinching at the sound of the door opening.

"Mum, I – oh, it's just you," Ron said with relief.

"Yeah, I'm definitely not your mother," I said as I looked around his room.

From what I could tell, he had been in the middle of cleaning his room before he got distracted – most likely by Harry and Hermione coming into his room. It took me a moment before I realized that Hermione was sitting on the ground with a pile of books around her and tears coming from her eyes. Harry was sitting off to the side looking slightly uncomfortable while Ron was trying to console her.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Well…she just told me about her parents," Harry explained to me in a hushed tone so only I could hear while Ron spoke to Hermione. "She made them a completely new life where they don't know who she is so she could come on this trip…"

My heart sank as he said it and I suddenly felt so much guiltier about our friends joining us on this trip. Even though this was our trip, they were giving up so much more by coming along with us. We didn't have families that we had to worry about when all of this happened and they did. I never even considered what Hermione would have to do to protect her parents. Unlike the Weasley's, the Grangers didn't have the same sort of safety because they were Muggles – if Voldemort found them, there was nothing they could do to protect themselves.

"Hermione, I'm sorry," I said as I walked over to her.

"It's fine, honestly," she said through tears. "I just did what I had to do and they'll be safe this way…don't worry about be, I'm just a bit emotional…you should see what Ron's done – show them what you did."

Ron nodded and stepped up away from her and walked over another part of the room where he pointed his wand and said a spell aloud. When the attic door dropped and a ladder fell down, Ron gestured for us to come look.

"You might not want to breathe through your nose," Ron suggested as I stepped onto the ladder.

After I had climbed up, I instantly realized what he was talking about when he said not to breathe through my nose because the smell of it nearly knocked me to the ground. It took me a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room, but when I did, I noticed a lump laying a short distance away.

I descended from the ladder and let Harry take a look just before Ron started to explain what was going on.

"Did you see it?" Ron asked me as Harry was looking into the attic.

"What was it?" I asked as Harry gagged at the smell from above.

"It's a ghoul," Hermione said as she continued to sort through some books and wiped away the last of her tears. "It's clever, really."

"I don't understand," Harry said as he came down from the ladder. "What does a ghoul have to do with anything? And why was it wearing clothes?"

"It was?" I asked. "I guess I just couldn't get passed the smell of it."

"Which is what we're counting on," Ron smiled. "That ghoul is going to be my excuse for not going to Hogwarts this year."

Ron and Hermione smiled at us both as if they had just explained the plan in such detail that we should have understood. In reality, they had not explained anything and Harry and I just stared at them.

"I don't…I don't understand," I said as I looked at them. "I feel like I'm missing something."

"The ghoul is dressed in my pajamas and we've made it look like it has red hair," Ron said. "We've also given it enough pustules to make it look distorted."

"I'm still not following how this has to do with you not going to Hogwarts," Harry said.

"The ghoul is going to pass as me with spattergroit," Ron said. "It's a cover in case the Death Eaters come here to look for you – the story is going to be that I'm far too sick to go to Hogwarts this year! Once they think that I'm not with you two, then they'll keep away from my family."

It took me a minute to process what he was saying, but it seemed to all make sense and be a good enough plan. Even if the Death Eaters came to check up on the story, they would find the ghoul sleeping in his bed and be far too disgusted by the smell of it all to get a close enough look to find out that it isn't really him.

"That's pretty clever," Harry nodded.

"I know," Ron said proudly. "As long as my family sticks with the story, everything should check out okay."

After Ron closed the door to the attic and I was able to breathe clean-smelling air again, I began to wonder what Hermione was doing with all of those books surrounding her. I couldn't see how this was a good time to go through her personal library.

"So what's with the books?" I asked her.

"I'm trying to figure out which ones we can use," Hermione said. "I'm bringing some along with us in case we need them…you never really know when one could come to be useful."

I was about to question her, but I realized that it was pointless. This was Hermione and her books and there was no way that she was just going to stop what she was doing. Books held the answers to everything in the world and I wasn't going to stop her from bringing them. For all I knew, they really could have some things we could use in them.

We didn't get to stay together too much longer because Mr. Weasley called us down for dinner and I knew that it was best to not ignore him now.

When I went down into the dining room, I realized that I hadn't told Harry, Ron, or Hermione about the conversation that I had with Mrs. Weasley. Maybe it was best to just keep it away from them, but I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable when I noticed that she was staring at me as she set the table when I walked into the room.

"Emily, would you mind helping me with some things," Mrs. Weasley said while her face went a little red.

"I can give you a hand – " Ginny started to say.

"No, just Emily," Mrs. Weasley said too quickly.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all looked between Mrs. Weasley and me for a moment – most likely because of the suddenness of what Mrs. Weasley said. Seeing that Mr. Weasley was the only one that knew that there was some tension there, everyone else was just left confused.

Instead of making the situation even more awkward than it already was, I decided to just follow her into the kitchen without putting up any sort of argument. Even though she was probably the last person I wanted to be alone with at the moment, I just went with it – there was no need to cause a scene.

Once we were out of the uncomfortably silent room, we stepped into the kitchen where Mrs. Weasley walked toward some of the plates that had food on them. She was just about to grab something when she turned to face me.

"Emily, I wanted to apologize for what I said to you earlier," Mrs. Weasley said while facing the ground. "I was out of line…"

I nodded and did not say a word to try to make her feel like I was just going to brush off what she said earlier just to avoid conflict. I didn't want to argue with her, but I wasn't going to be able to truly forgive her for the accusations she made earlier that easily. It was just going to take some time.

"I'm just afraid of what could happen to all of you out there with…whatever it is that you're doing," she said without meeting my eyes.

"I'm afraid too, Mrs. Weasley," I said to her. "We all are, but I'm not forcing anyone to do anything that they don't want to do and I do not appreciate being accused like that."

"I was wrong," she agreed. "I know that I don't know exactly what you're doing, but I know that it isn't something that is going to be easy and I don't think you should take your safety so lightly."

"We aren't taking it lightly," I said. "We know what we're getting in to."

Of course, I didn't realize fully what we were getting into given the fact that we didn't exactly have a stable plan, but we were aware of how dangerous this was going to be.

"I just…I just want you to be careful," she said. "I know that I can't talk you out of it, but I can't help but try…"

I nodded and tried to look at it from her perspective. As a mother, she was worried not only for the life of her children, but for us as well. Even though she wasn't _really_ our mother, she had done so much for us in the past that it was difficult to not see her as a mother figure. This was hard for her too, but it wasn't making it any easier on us by trying to point out how dangerous this was going to be – this was something that we already knew.

"Okay, we better get these things out to the table," Mrs. Weasley said. "I just wanted to tell you that I was wrong about what I said earlier and that I'm sorry…"

Without really expecting a reply from me, she picked up some of the plates and started to walk out of the door.

"I'm sorry too, Mrs. Weasley," I said honestly. "I'm sorry that I'm putting everyone's life in danger…"

* * *

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