The Potion Princess

Harry and the Dementors

The news came during dinner, as most exciting and upsetting things have.

"He was attacked by what?" Mrs. Weasley jerked her serving soon to the side so fast that mashed potatoes splattered the wall, nearly missing the side of Sirius' face. "How? Where was Mundungus?"

"It appears, he, er...." Arthur looked around at the table helplessly and seemed to wilt under the pressure of all the worried eyes. "Well, he wasn't there. But Harry's fine, that's the important thing."

"Fine?" Sirius echoed dully. "My godson has to fight off dementors in the middle of muggle London and we're going to pretend that that's fine?"

"This is good though, right?" Ron asked earnestly. He had, for once, abandoned his dinner. "I mean, you guys can't possibly say that he shouldn't come early now, not after this. We're going to go get him out of there, right dad?"

"Well, Dumbledore thinks that it might be best if he stays there, at the present." There was a sudden uproar all around the table, during which Arthur tried his best to remain the level headed one. "Just momentarily, mind you!"

"And what are we supposed to do now?" Audra demanded, surprised to hear herself speaking. "Just sit here and wait for Dumbledore to deem it acceptable for all of us to actually know something?"

There was an uncomfortable silence where the adults exchanged looks and the kids held their breath. Then Mr. Weasley sank into the chair, pulling a plate towards him and starting dinner. "We double up on watch shifts. And wait for Dumbledore to give us the all clear." He rubbed at his eyes, obviously exhausted. He'd gone to work right after an eight hour shift for the order. Audra's not sure when the last time he got a full night's sleep was. "And no rescue missions until then, do you understand me!"

"That includes you two!" Mrs. Weasley barked. Ron and Hermione froze on the second step, cutting their frantic whispers off when they felt all the attention. Audra didn't doubt that they were already halfway through formulating a rescue plan. "There will be no need for a rescue that involves any of you, thank you very much!"

They all piled into the twins room as soon as Molly stopped throwing suspicious glances at them. They climbed onto the bed and cast a silence charming, Audra and the twins on one bed and Ron, Hermione, and Ginny on the other. Audra let herself lean into Fred, trying to find a position that stops her head from aching- she had had another training session with Snape the night before. "We've got to go get him." Ron said, staring around at all of them, daring them to disagree. "Dementors today, you know-who-tomorrow, that's what I say."

"You hear that, you bloody git of a bird?" George snapped towards Hedwig. She blinked balefully at him before ducking her head under her wing. Just twenty minutes ago, she had been flying around dive bombing all their heads and pecking at their knuckles, apparently under Harry's orders. "We're trying to save him."

Hedwig, apparently, didn't give a damn about how hard they were trying.

"Ron, you-know-who isn't just going to show up on Private Drive. Let's think about this."

"Do we, Hermione? He showed up at Hogwarts, and even though we told everyone that the big scary guy was going to come back, no one believed us. Twice! Popped up in a bloody graveyard a few months ago, didn't he? Besides," Ron said, and there was a surprising amount of hatred coloring his tone, considering he was addressing Hermione. "They attacked his cousin too. How do you think those muggles he lives with are going to treat him after that?"

They all fell silent for a moment, remembering the little details they had managed to gather from the few times that Harry talked about his family- the cupboard, the punishments, the weeks without real food, the total lack of christmas and birthday presents, the abuse that must have happened and he never spoke of. "Okay," George said, rummaging in his pocket for the pack of cigarettes. He won't find them. Molly confiscated it the last time she did laundry. "Here's what we'll do."