Destiny

Chapter 53

Lillian's Perspective:

It was hard keeping a secret. I wanted to tell someone because I knew it would be good for someone to know about the plot of my capture, but I didn't need anyone to worry about me. In fact, I didn't want anyone to worry about me. I knew Fred would flip out, George wouldn't be much happier, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley would definitely not allow it. Not to mention my parents would fear for my life and their own. I was about to be so close to Voldemort that I could endanger the two people I moved to protect.

I began to practice Occlumency, which wasn't hard. I mainly wanted to keep my mind closed so that no one could penetrate it. I didn't want to be the one who gave away Order plans. I would only be endangering more people if I allowed that to happen.

I spent the following months acting as normally as possible, though I did notice a rise in how many nightmares I was having. In the process of stuffing all my concerns, it seemed the fear came back in the form of terrible dreams. But I kept quiet.

On the first day of March, also a day I had taken off of work, Fred, George, and I went birthday gift shopping for Ron. We planned to meet him at the school to give him his gift, and Fred and George had some business to take care of in Hogsmeade. The three of us would be up that way no matter what happened.

After finding our gifts, we apparated to Hogsmeade where the twins spent the majority of the day organising preparations for their shop to possibly branch out. They were planning to own Zonko's and use it as a branch of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.

I spent my time exploring the small town while the boys did their thing. I liked the alone time.

Many hours later, Fred and George found me with urgent looks on their faces. And the concern was almost unnatural.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Something happened with Ron," Fred said.

"We need to head to the school," George added.

I took Fred's hand and we headed up to the castle. I assumed that Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had already been alerted, but I was surprised to note that Fred and George were very concerned for their brother.

I didn't know what had happened, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to.

We were directed to the Hospital Wing where Harry and Hermione sat around a bed that Ron was laying in. Madam Pompfrey was very concerned in the corner, and Ginny was there too.

The three of them filled us in on how Ron was poisoned and how Harry had saved him.

"So, all in all, not one of Ron's better birthdays?" Fred said.

I smacked him. Now was definitely not the time for jokes.

"This isn't how we imagined handing over our present," George said grimly, putting the gift we had picked out on a bedside cabinet and took a seat next to Ginny.

"Yeah, when we pictured the scene, he was conscious," Fred said.

I smacked him again, but attempted to stifle an inappropriate laugh.

"We were in Hogsmeade, waiting to surprise him," George said.

"You were in Hogsmeade?" Ginny asked.

"We were thinking of buying Zonko's. A Hogsmeade branch, you know, but a lot of good it'll do us if you aren't allowed out at weekends to buy our stuff anymore," Fred said sadly. "But never mind that now."

As Fred asked for an exact retelling of what we already knew, I excused myself to go find Draco.

I found him in the library, which was odd. I never remembered him spending any time there, but even so, I sat down with him.