The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow III » Harry Potter

3.9 | Whispers in the Night

The Monday morning at the Burrow came with slightly better news:

Margaret's trial had been cancelled.

"Seems like they're too focused on celebrating the fall of the Ministry to actually do any work," says Margaret, reading the letter she had received earlier that day. She had expected it to be pushed back, not cancelled entirely, but she would gladly take the win where she could.

"They're pretending that everything's all right," says Mr Weasley. "Of course, we know the truth. But with Thicknesse taking over, the wizarding public is being led to believe that Scrimgeour's death was an accident, not a murder."

Margaret continued her dinner wordlessly, reminding herself that she was respecting Scrimgeour's own wish. He had asked for about a week to get used to his new routine. His legs may never function again, and he did need a respite after being tortured mercilessly, so it was only right to respect his request. Alice and Frank had not batted an eye before inviting him to stay with them. Given the fact that Scrimgeour had no wife or children nor any siblings, there was no one else that the Death Eaters could go after in his name. On the other hand, the scenes after the wedding had not been pretty for the Order.

At the same time that the Death Eaters and Ministry personnel – who were all the same now – were smashing up the wedding, others were forcing their way into every Order-connected house in the country. There had been no deaths, but they had not been kind. They burned down Dedalus Diggle's house, but he was not there as he was with the Dursleys, and they used the Cruciatus Curse on Tonks's family, trying to find out where Harry had gone after he visited them. Ted, Andromeda and Tonks were all right — shaken, obviously, but otherwise okay.

"They can't keep You-Know-Who's increasing power a secret for too long," says George, looking as bothered as all of them felt. "People are gonna start recognising his barbaric ways soon enough."

"Yes, and then what?" says Margaret. "It's not like that would inspire people to suddenly start fighting against him. Can't blame them for being scared, honestly. Everyone's worried that their families would be targeted next. There are other concerns too, of course, like the necessity to earn money. So, unfortunately, people will pretend that terrible things aren't happening for as long as they can, in exchange for keeping their families alive and well. The Death Eaters are counting on that fear."

"Exactly. It's understandable, no matter how horrible," says Mr Weasley with a sigh. "It's why we must keep our heads down and do our jobs for as long as we can... it's our only chance to gain insider information. As I said, we know the truth as members of the Order. The smart thing to do now would be to remain innocent in their eyes while trying our best to rebel against them."

Not only did Margaret understand the reasoning, but she also related to it.

Even if Scrimgeour had taken off her Admonitors - a feat the rest of them believed had happened because he was 'dead' - he had still filed her case for trial. It was why Margaret had stayed at the Burrow today. In case Death Eaters and their henchmen came to arrest her, they needed to find her there. She could not risk the Weasleys and their home, where she was supposed to be under house arrest.

Fred and George had stayed home as Mr Weasley could not. The only other occupants of the house were Ginny, Mrs Weasley, and the ghoul in pyjamas pretending to be Ron with spattergoit. Bill and Fleur had gone to live at the Shell Cottage for the time being, while Charlie had moved to France for his new project.

As the day went on, no one showed up to arrest Margaret. The relief settled in once Mr. Weasley came back from the office with some more good news.

"I ran into Elphias Doge," Mr Weasley tells them. "He's working on getting your trial cancelled altogether, Margie."