Chaos Rising |BOOK 2| Harry Potter x PJO |Alexandra Marine|

ANNABETH CHASE

"We're still waiting for Bill and Fleur and Mad-Eye and Mundungus. I'm going to tell Mum and Dad you're okay, Ron." Ginny ran back inside.

"So what kept you? What happened?" Lupin sounded almost angry at Tonks.

"Bellatrix," said Tonks. "She wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, She tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I'd got her, I owe Bellatrix. But we definitely injured Rodolphus.... Then we missed the Portkey...."

A muscle was jumping in Lupin's jaw. He nodded, but seemed unable to say anything else. I made a mental note to talk to him about it later.

"So what happened to you lot?" Tonks asked, turning to us.

We recounted the stories of our own journeys, but all the time the continued absence of Bill, Jason, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus seemed to lie upon us like a frost, its icy bite harder and harder to ignore.

"I'm going to have to get back to Downing Street, I should have been there an hour ago," said Kingsley finally, after a last sweeping gaze at the sky. "Let me know when they're back."

Lupin nodded. With a wave to the others, Kingsley walked away into the darkness toward the gate.

The Weasleys came racing down the back steps. Both parents hugged Ron before turning to Lupin and Tonks.

"Thank you," said Molly, "for our sons."

"Don't be silly, Molly," said Tonks at once.

"How's George?" asked Lupin.

"What's wrong with him?" piped up Ron.

"He's lost-"

But the end of Molly's sentence was drowned in a general outcry. A broom had just soared into sight and landed a few feet from the boundaries. Bill and Jason slid from their brooms, windswept, wet from the rain and almost unhurt. Jason's forehead was bleeding.

"Bill! Thank God, thank God-"

Molly ran forward, but the hug Bill bestowed upon her was perfunctory. Looking directly at his father, he said, "Mad-Eye's dead."

Nobody spoke, nobody moved. I stood stuck to the ground, unable to believe my own ears.

"We saw it," Jason yelled through the heavy rain. "It happened just after we broke out of the circle: Mad-Eye and Dung were close by us, they were heading north too. Voldemort- he can fly- went straight for them..."

"Dung panicked, I heard him cry out," Bill continued as Jason lowered his gaze. "Mad-Eye tried to stop him, but he Disapparated. Voldemort's curse hit Mad-Eye full in the face, he fell backward off his broom and- there was nothing we could do, nothing, we had half a dozen of them on our own tail-"

Bill's voice broke.

"It's okay," I said, patting Jason on the back. "It's alright."

"You couldn't have done anything," said Lupin.

We all stood looking at each other. At last it seemed to dawn on everyone, though nobody said it, that there was no point of waiting in the yard anymore, and in silence we followed Molly back into the Burrow, and into the living room, where Fred and George were laughing together.

"What's wrong?" said Fred, scanning their faces as they entered, "What's happened? Who's-?"

"Mad-Eye," said Arthur, "Dead."

The twins' grins turned to grimaces of shock. Nobody seemed to know what to do. Tonks was crying silently into a handkerchief: She had been close to Mad-Eye. Hagrid, who had sat down on the floor in the corner where he had most space, was dabbing at his eyes with his tablecloth-sized handkerchief.