The Potion Princess

Mr. Weasley

She waits for Hermione beside the portrait of the Fat Lady just like Dobby told her to. He had apparrated into her room and told her to hurry, that she must get Harry's friend and go down to Mcgonagall's office. And that they could not get caught, not by Filch, and not by the nasty woman with the evern nastier quill.

Audra hadn't waster any time, just grabbed her wand and a cloak to wrap around herself before racing up to the Gryffindor tower. The younger girl appeared a second after she had gotten there, red faced and panting, clutching at a stitch in her side. Like Audra, Hermione was still in her pajamas with a robe pulled over it. "What's going on?" She looked scared. Audra couldn't blame her. It's not often that the Head of House sends you on a top secret mission. "Dobby just told me I have to come meet you."

"I don't know." The whisper was harsh in the quiet, and even in the darkness, she could make out Hermione's pale, worried face. "We have to go to Mcgonagall's office. Everything's going to fine." She pulls her into a hug, and for a moment, she lets herself just be a scared girl clinging onto one of her friends. "Okay?"

Hermione nods, her grip tightening on her wand. "Okay."

They make their way to her office quickly, peering around corners and darting through corridors, ducking into abondoned classrooms and tiny broomsheds as they wait for one of Umbridge's henchman to pass them by. Audra doesn't really breathe again until Mcgonagall throws the door open and ushers them into chairs. Then she sees that McGonagall is still in her dressing gown and Audra's heart leaps into her throat, because something is really, really wrong. "What's happened?"

"There's been an accident." McGonagall's voice was thick, like she had to choke out the explanation. "Mr. Weasley was attacked."

Hermione asked how and when at the same time Audra asked where, but her mind was already spinning, piecing together an image of a lone Mr. Weasley and a long corridor stretching out behind him. She knew Mcgonagall's next words before she heard them. "By a snake, it would seem. At the ministry."

"Nagini," Audra breathes out, but it is swallowed up in another round of exclamations from Hermione.

"Is he alright?" Hermione was rummaging in her pockets for something, probably a quill, though Audra couldn't imagine how that would help. Shock, maybe. "Do the rest of the Weasley's know? Where's Ron?" She freezes at that and straightens up, eyes narrowing. "Why isn't Ron here, professor?"

"The Weasley children and Harry are at headquarters."

Audra had a sudden image of the twins and Ginny alone in that gloomy place, huddling in a circle around an unlit fire place, Harry and Ron off in their rooms plotting some rescue plan for a new emergency, all of them waiting to hear whether their father was alive or dead. It had not escaped Audra's attention that McGonagall did not answer Hermione when she aske if Arthur was alright. "Then we're going too. That's why you brought us here."

Audra was so certain of it that she had already moved towards the floo powder. "No."

"what do you mean, no?" Hermione's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Exactly that, Ms. Granger. A family emergency can wave away the absence of the Weasley's, even of Harry Potter. But do explain away the absence of our top student and the daughter of two people the minister holds in high regard?" Mcgonagall shakes her head so severely that the bun on top of her head wobbles. "No."

"Why not?" Hermione through herself into the chair and crossed her arms, finally seeming to have found a problem that she could not puzzle her way through.

"You're being watched. Both of you. And you can't slip up." McGonagall breathes in deeply through her nose as if to calm herself. "When break starts, you'll certainly be taken to headquarters. Until then- no letters. No talking to each other. When you go to breakfast, act as if you do not know of the attack and had no idea of the Weasley's absence. Don't do anything to draw attention to yourself. And for the love of Merlin, don't give Umbridge a reason to put you in detention. Do you understand?"