White Heather for Protection

Devotion

She met Fred and George back in her quarters and then portkeyed back to the Nest. The others weren't around, probably still at Gringotts.

Fred and George had successfully retrieved the Book of Names with Minerva's permission. It was fortunate that the Deputy Headmistress had not sent out the school letters yet, so their plan of keeping the muggleborns away that year was still possible.

Heather quickly drafted up a letter for the already-enrolled muggleborns, advising them to defer their schooling for the year for their safety. No doubt there would be a few of them who would ignore it, but Heather hoped they would be in the minority.

"How are we going to mail these out?" Heather asked, after duplicating enough copies of her letter for the students, "It will be suspicious to have so many letters coming from the same place!"

Fred shrugged. "Maybe we could ask Dobby to help? He can pop in and out unseen."

She bit her lip. "I feel kind of bad, asking so much of the house elves. It's a lot of work... Almost like taking advantage of them."

"You're starting to sound like Hermione." George shook his head. "The house elves love doing work and keeping busy."

Fred nodded in agreement. "As long as we treat them well, there's nothing wrong with asking them to do stuff."

They were right, of course, but she still felt bad. "Still, it's a lot of work for one elf. The Hogwarts elves can't exactly leave the school whenever they want to; they're bonded to the castle," she mused. She perked up when a thought occurred to her. "Oh, doesn't Sirius have a house elf too?"

Fred and George made faces at the mention.

"That crotchety old thing?"

"He'll be more likely to burn the letters and dance around the pyre than help deliver them!"

Heather crossed her arms. "I'm sure you're exaggerating. I didn't see that elf act up in any way when I was at Grimmauld Place!"

"Lucky you," they muttered.

"It couldn't hurt to ask," she said pragmatically. Ignoring the twin shudders her friends gave, she went to get the communicating mirror Sirius had given her and Hadrian.

Almost as if her godfather had been holding it, waiting for a call, he answered immediately.

"Heather!" came Sirius' loud voice, clear as if he were in the room right next to her. "It's so good to see you! How are you and your brother? And the other kids? Staying safe?" He had his face shoved right into the mirror, looking both relieved and anxious at the same time.

She felt vaguely guilty for not having contacted him before this. He must've been worried, even though Mr Weasley would have told him that they were safe.

"We're all alright, Sirius. You don't have to fret. How are you and Remus? Did you get injured?"

"We're fine, but are you sure you're okay? Need us to come get you? Where are you guys anyway? Where's Prongslet?"

She withstood the barrage of questions. "No, no, it's really fine, Sirius. We're as safe as can be where we are. Fidelius, you know." And that reminded her of the fact that Kreacher couldn't exactly reach them because he wasn't in on the Secret.

Sirius' eyes darkened. "Well, you know as well as I do that the Fidelius isn't exactly foolproof."

Heather's lips thinned at the reminder of Peter Pettigrew's betrayal. "The Secret Keeper is reliable, I'm sure of it. They are the last person to sell us out. Besides, the Fidelius isn't our only protection."