Lemon Grass and Sleep

SOMETHING LURKING IN THE RYE

Fred hadn't looked at me the entire dinner, but I like to think he was joking around enough with Bill to cover it up. Glinda definitely noticed, and I thought for a brief moment that if we weren't surrounded by witnesses she would launch her knife right between his eyes.

It was alright, though, I'm a big boy. I can handle a little silent treatment for something I'd said, we would just have to wait it out until Fred felt like he was ready to talk to me. That's how every single argument worked, anyways.

"We'll be going, then," Remus called from the armchair he was lounging in to preserve his post-dinner haze.

I watched from the living room as they made to leave, feeling a little cold. Fred had followed George up to their room, where Glinda was probably laying on George's bed fuming. There was no part of me that was eager to share a bed with someone who was mad at me, again, so I had offered to help Molly clean up.

"It was delicious, Molly," Tonks said, smiling as she followed her husband out of the door.

"Oh, thank you," Molly replied, standing beside Arthur as he talked to Remus on the porch about something I couldn't really hear.

I watched from inside, leaning against the back of the couch as they made to leave, Lupin looking like he had zoned out on the porch. It made me nervous, seeing him eye the wheat fields like that.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay?" Molly asked Tonks quietly, glancing at Remus nervously.

"No, no," Tonks assured, "The first night of the cycle is usually the worst. We'll be going then, dear?"

Remus didn't seem to react much, only slightly turning his head toward Tonks. It didn't seem like it was the moon, bothering him. He almost looked like he was wobbling, like he's had too much alcohol before standing up too quickly.

"Remus?" Arthur called, "Is something wrong?"

The other adults, too, were now looking into the wheat field, desperately searching for what had caught Remus' attention. Still, even as my eyes blurred the stalks together from staring too long, I could only see what I deciphered to be odd shadows cast by the house's lights.

"Sweetheart?" Tonks softly whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear it.

I hadn't realized it, but my body had moved of its own accord to stand somewhat behind Mr and Mrs Weasley, gazing past their shoulders to look into the night. It looked like a normal wheat field, gently trembling in the wind.

Clearly, there must've been something more to it if Remus was delaying getting home on the first night of the moon cycle. Just what was within the field that he could see, what were we missing?

"What's that?" I heard Tonks whisper, a gentle whirring sound coming through the doorway.

I felt my entire soul break into two as I watched the largest fireball I'd ever seen come careening through the sky, before slamming into the base of the clearing around the house. It immediately circled us, blazing up in a tall wall of fire.

Bellatrix LeStrange appeared in front of it, her body forming from a mass of black smoke. A devilish smirk covered her face, her eyes looking unhinged and needy. I felt my blood run cold as someone shoved past me, and it took mere moments of the overworked gears turning in my brain to realize it was Harry.

Remus and Tonks desperately began to run after him, being fought back by the flames of what my disoriented mind tried to identify as fiendfyre.

"Harry, no!" Arthur called, a firm fatherly tone drenching his words as he lurched forward into the field.

Before I could call out for Harry as well, Ginny was already taking off after him, wand at the ready. She disappeared into the gap of the flames as she followed Harry, and I could only realize that I was seeing this because I, too, was outside--right beside the ring of fire.

Something overtook my body--whether it was the instinctual need to protect my friends to the uncontrollable urge to make sure any child that ran out of sight be found, I ran after Harry and Ginny. My thoughts were racing so fast inside my tiny brain that I couldn't even pause them long enough to know what they actually were. I could've been thinking of a thousand things right now, but none of them mattered.

Every single bone and strand of muscles in my body was operating purely on reckless, impulsive instinct. Is this how Fred and George felt all the time? Completely winging every single second of their life?

My blood pounded in my ears as I was surrounded by the sound of rushed footsteps tearing through wheat stalks, and the sound of my own labored breath as I fought every single nonathletic bone in my body--begging every single limb to keep going further.

"Thomas!" I heard called out behind me, but I ignored it--Fred could yell at me later. He could break up with me and swear my name up and down, but this was my time to act. If I waited even a second longer, I would have to face the possibility of someone being hurt due to my inaction.

I'm not going to let anything happen to these children, not if I can do anything about it.

I paused, my chest heaving and panting with the taste of blood in my throat. Where was I? Where had Harry and Ginny gone? I could vaguely see the Burrow behind me, the top of the house gently peeking over the wheat that corralled my vision.

For a moment, my brain finally fixated on one, unnecessary thought: what was I supposed to do?

The sound of deflected spells made my head snap to my left, and I couldn't even process the sound before my feet were already bounding in that direction.

Eventually, a clearing appeared in front of me. Nothing more than a large puddle of water and some raised grass in the middle, but there were two faces I recognized with their backs to each other, looking into the fields anxiously.

"Merlin's beard" I ripped from my aching lungs, all but bursting from the wheat fields to join them on the island, my wand pointing threateningly at the darkness surrounding us.

It was dead silent, but there was a certain ringing on the edge of my senses that made the hair on my arms stand up.

Spells, nonverbal, began leaking out of the fields at high speed--leaving me little time to actually think on a defensive spell and forcing me to rely on my instincts alone. It felt like they were all around us, somehow moving at inhuman speeds and performing wand movements without so much as rustling the reeds.

"Shit," I hissed, slinging my wand aggressively to deflect the spells that were coming at us from all directions.

Just when I was sure we were going to be overwhelmed, the sound of crashing footsteps and wildly waving arms came from our right--from the Burrow.

"Ginny!" Arthur's voice shouted from just beyond our line of sight.

"Harry," Remus called, coming out of the wheat and scrambling onto the island.

Tonks and Shacklebolt were hot on his trail, following suit. Soon, all of our toes were submerged into the water, the six of us struggling to stay on top of the island while deflecting the spells launched at us.

It seemed all that was needed to deter the death eaters was the appearance of the intimidating members of the Order, and I watched intently as there was a certain lack of spells being sent our way suddenly. My eyes darted to follow the dark mass of smoke as the death eaters shot into the sky, retreating.

"Merlin," I whimpered, watching as they headed straight for the Burrow, running into the tower and lighting the entire thing up in flames.

The six of us immediately stumbled back into the wheat fields, making sure to not get separated as we navigated back to the house quietly. The only sound I could process was the labored breathing surrounding me and the faraway crackling of wood.