Tightly Knit ⟶ Fred Weasley

CHAPTER EIGHTY

"It's a small world, I tell you," Lyall told her, "I remember when Amelia was just an intern herself at the Ministry. She looked after your father and Nixie when they were little ones whenever they were in the office. You're going to love her, she's tough but she's a sharp woman, you'll learn plenty working under her."

"I hope so," Eleanor said, "I just have to pass the Apparition Test before I can do anything."

"And you'll do so with flying colours," he said, "we can do it tomorrow if you'd like? I'll take you myself."

It sounded like a plan before Lyall shooed her off and told her to enjoy her party. She proceeded to make her way over to where Cedric, Marnie, Fred, and George were waiting patiently, talking among each other. She approached Cedric first, glad to see him up and moving, pulling him into a hug.

"It's good to see you, Queenie."

"Ellie, it's only been a couple of days since I went home," Cedric replied, "and I told you in my last letter that I was doing fine."

"And yet, even when you're supposed to be resting, you still managed to learn of my surprise party? You never cease to surprise me, Queenie. Always one of the first to know about everything."

"Excuse me, but I'll have you know that I was actually the last to know about this surprise party," he said. "Well, last before you. But it was Marnie who told me about it only yesterday."

Eleanor turned to Marnie. "How long did you know about it?! And you had me believe that it was going to be a while before we saw each other!"

"Well, that's the whole point of a surprise party, you dumbarse!" Marnie laughed. "It's supposed to be a surprise. "Come on, Ellie, you're of age now, the baby of the group is finally an adult, we needed to celebrate and go all out. I sent an owl to your mum, and she thought it was a great idea. I got Fred and George to ask their family to come too. It worked out that Nixie and Sirius were already staying here, and I made sure Cedric was up to coming before bringing him over."

"You did this all for me, Marnie?"

"Of course, I did," she said in a softer tone, "you're my best friend and after everything you've done this year for me...for everyone really, it was the least we could do. Now stop getting emotional on me and let's just enjoy this party, alright?"

While everyone seemed to be enjoying the party, whether they were dancing to the music that was being played or talking amongst themselves, it was Remus who sat in the kitchen to himself for a bit. Every so often he would look over in Eleanor's direction watching as she laughed at something the twins said to her or asked Ron to dance, leaving the young Weasley boy to blush furiously. She seemed to be enjoying herself and for that, he was more than thankful but he couldn't ignore what Margaret had told him upon arriving home. She pulled him aside in private and explained that Eleanor had suffered a panic attack on the drive home, exposing her fear that her life was in danger.

Of course, it was clear that Margaret had done a good job at calming her down because it didn't seem to be on Eleanor's mind. However, it had been on Remus' mind since the night he had been summoned to Hogwarts after being told Eleanor had been attacked. It was shocking enough to learn that she had been attacked by Barty Crouch Jr, a Death Eater who had been posing as Alastor Moody with the help of Polyjuice Potions.

Suddenly, all of Eleanor's previous letters where she explained the smell of Fluxweed and Knotgrass made sense, as well as her speculations that Moody was acting quite odd. He mentally kicked himself over and over once everything was revealed, feeling as though he should have pieced together all the clues sooner to prevent anything from happening to his daughter. But it didn't stop there as it was revealed that Eleanor's knitting went above and beyond anything Remus had previously theorized.