Survival

Chapter 4: The Run Begins

9:00 am; 5th July 1997; Axminister

The Creevey home is cosy like it always has been as Mrs Creevey serves breakfast to her husband and two sons. After a short while, she joins them on the table and everyone enjoys the food. Or rather, the adults enjoy the food, while the two brothers eat it up with rather queasy stomachs. They are queasy because of what they are about to do and Colin is positively more nauseated than Dennis

"Mum and Dad," Colin begins, "We won't be going back to Hogwarts this year."

Their parents look very, very baffled by this proposition of his.

"But son," his father says, "aren't your OWL thing's results going to come this August? Also, isn't next year Dennis' turn to give those exams?"

"Dad, forget those exams. Things are much more difficult now," Dennis manages to say. "You'll have to go away. Somewhere properly foreign to be exact."

Colin stands up. It's almost like he had been waiting while Dennis had been speaking, preparing himself.

"Look," he says, "there's this bad guy who's spoken of as, 'He Who Must Not Be Named'."

"You've mentioned him before," his mother whispers.

"Yes. And he's back. Properly back. He's going to wreck havoc and hunt people like Dennis and I. And he won't spare the Muggles too. He hates our kind. He hates us. People are touting Harry Potter to be the Wizarding World's saviour but I don't believe that nonsense."

"I have read that book of yours, Colin. I read it with you, remember? Hogwarts: A History?" their mum says.

Colin nods.

"That book says that Harry defeated that dark wizard as a baby. Surely, he can do it again?"

"Mum, you're putting too much faith in him. He might be the Wizarding World's saviour, but he is not our saviour. I don't believe that. That's bullshit."

"Colin!"

"Hush dear…" their dad says. "What do you believe then, son?"

"I believe that only we ourselves can save us."

"Those are wise words for a sixteen year old. But what I don't understand is why you aren't coming with us? Like, okay, I understand that your Mum and I need to go away somewhere foreign, as you put it, but why aren't you two coming with us?"

"Because Hogwarts will need us," Dennis pipes up after his long silence. "Because we need to be here when the final battle happens. They'll need soldiers."

Mrs Creevey looks like she is about to faint. "My babies go and fight in a battle? Unthinkable!" she exclaims.

"It is what it is," Colin asserts.

"I am afraid we can't allow you to stay here, son. Either you come with us or we all stay right — " his dad taps the table twice, " — here."

"Dennis, I knew this was going to be difficult," he says. Then he turns to face his parents. "I am sorry, Mum and Dad. I really am."

"Why?" they ask unanimously.

Colin shakes his head. Dennis looks at his dejected brother. After that, everything is in frantic snapshots.

Suddenly, Colin's wand is out. And then, a single word.

"Imperio!"

"What. Are. You. Doing?" Dennis almost hisses. "This is fucked up. You just put Mum and Dad under the Imperius ,not to mention the fact that you're still carrying the Trace. What the fuck, Colin! They'll have us hanging by our necks now."

"Oh come on, learn to follow up, Dennis. I drank that Knockturn Alley Trace removing potion before doing this. I bought it for emergencies like these. I have put half of my earnings in the drawer where Mum puts in the savings. Look at them, they're out of it. They'll go away. I have done what I to do."

"But – "

"Not. A. Word. About. Morals. Now come on!"

And then Colin can see it in his brother's eyes; Dennis is afraid of him.

11:00 am

They are ready to run. A while ago, their mum had come to ask them what she had been doing and that she could not quite remember it. Colin told her that she and their dad had planned a visit to the quiet French seaside for some months by sailing across the Channel and then she had said, "Oh yeah, of course."

The Imperius is working.

Dennis doesn't like this. Dennis doesn't like this at all. But Colin's in charge and Colin's being super weird by even his own standards. Their mum comes to bid them goodbye and when Dennis hugs her, he knows that he isn't going to get this opportunity for a long, long time. He can almost cry.

They watch their parents go off to the station and then it hits Dennis that the war that had seemed so far away is suddenly so very near. Perhaps his older brother had been much more intuitive than he had ever given him credit for.

When their parents' silhouettes have blended in with the horizon, Colin says, "I think it's time we started packing too."

And pack they do. Colin casts an undetectable extension charm on two bags while Dennis empties the two bags he had packed earlier on Colin's orders during the previous night. "Dennis, pack only the necessities. You might think we are going to have a lot of space because we're miniaturising everything and we have undetectable extension charms, but too much things, and it's going to be a mess. So, just keep the bare minimum."

At this point, Dennis knows better than to question his brother. Colin goes up to his bedroom and unpins the map of Britain from the wall adjacent to his study table. He brings it downstairs and keeps it on the dining table for Dennis to see.

"We're here," he mutters and circles Axminister with a red marker. "First we'll go to Ernest's in Charmouth, and then we'll see it from there. I know we can stay there for as long as we like." Colin feels like a military general as he says all this. He knows he appears rather calm for the situation they are in, but inside his mind, it's going on and on like, "Fuck, fuck fuck!"

"And how do we go there? Train?"

Colin thinks of the two brooms lying in his bag upstairs.

"We fly, of course."