Secrets Only Trouble Knows - George Weasley

46 - Goodbye, Year Four

"Yeah, but you're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there—" Ron added.

"Well, Fawkes isn't an ordinary bird." Harry replied before turning to face us all quickly. "Alright, here's what we're doing. We've got to hold onto each other. Nova, you hold tightly onto my robes. Ron, grab her hand. Ginny, you grab Ron's and Professor Lockhart—"

"He means you," Ron said sharply to Lockhart.

"— you hold Ginny's other hand."

Harry tucked the sword and the Sorting Hat into his belt and we all followed his orders. As I latched onto Harry, Harry reached out and took hold of Fawkes's tail feathers.

An extraordinary lightness spread throughout my body and the next thing I knew, Fawkes, in a rush of wings, was flying all five of us upward through the pipe.

"Amazing! This is just like magic!" Lockhart yelled from below me, his legs dangling childishly in the air.

The cold wind whipped through our hair as we soared up and up. It was quite an enjoyable ride, but it ended in the blink of an eye when we abruptly hit the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"You're alive," Myrtle said blankly to Harry, eyeing us as we all stood to our feet and the sink that had hid the pipe slid back into place.

"There's no need to sound so disappointed," Harry replied grimly.

"Well, I'd just been thinking... if you'd died, you'd have been welcome to join my toilet." she said, giggling. Harry grimaced and with that, we decided to leave the bathroom.

"Where now?" Ron asked.

Harry pointed. Fawkes was leading the way, glowing gold along the corridor, and we strode after him. Moments later, we found ourselves outside Professor McGonagall's office. Harry knocked and pushed the door open.

For a brief moment, there was silence as all five of us stood in the doorway, completely covered in dirt and slime and, in Harry's case, blood. Then, there was a sudden piercing scream.

"Ginny!"

It was Mrs. Weasley who'd been crying by the fire. She immediately leapt to her feet and she and Mr. Weasley flung themselves onto their youngest child.

I, however, was looking past them, noticing the other people with us in the room. Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming, next to Professor McGonagall, who was clutching at her chest in shock. But, even those two I wasn't looking much at. I was focused on the other people sitting in the chairs in front of my professors— Jasper and George.

Jasper was on his feet in and instant, running over to me and pulling me into the tightest hug he'd ever given me before I could even process what was happening.

George stood up and walked over as well, standing a little ways behind Jasper to give him and I some room, but his eyes were boring into mine as I looked at him over my brother's shoulder. It was evident in the expression on his face that he was feeling a wide variety of different emotions right now; mainly what appeared to be a mixture of anger, sadness, relief, and happiness all in one.

"Holy shit, Nov, you're bleeding." Jasper said, breaking away from me with some blood on his hands from having touched the back of my head. He quickly wiped it off carelessly.