Extinguished 🩵 Harry Potter [2]

xii ⟶ More Dark And Dark

☽
╔═══════════════╗
xi. More Dark And Dark
╚═══════════════╝
☾

"DAD? WHAT ARE you doing here?" Thea asks, as the room around her turns back to planning the move to the Great Hall.

Her father smiles at her, and places his hands lightly on her shoulders, as though unsure of how she'll react to his touch. It takes her a moment, before she throws her arms around him, hugging him tightly.

"I missed you so much, Thea." His voice cracks, and all Thea can do is pull him closer, smiling brightly into his shoulder, despite the possibility of losing him before she's really got him back settling heavily on her mind.

"Don't cry, dad, it's alright! We're together now, and once this is all over we can catch up, OK?"

He nods.

"I am so, so proud of you," he says quietly.

"How did you know to come here? I don't understand?" she says, as she pulls away from him and throws her hair up into a ponytail, and grabs her wand so it's ready for when she leaves.

"Remus, he found me a few weeks ago – he wrote to me, unsure if I was alive or not. It was such a huge risk, I can't believe he took it, really – for me?"

Thea shrugs. "Well, you're here now, anyway. I got your letters, too, I figured out the password! We'll talk everything through once this is over, but now..." she pauses for a moment, then slings the locket over her father's neck, watching his face carefully until it morphs into a still pleasantly-aged face, but an unrecognisable one. "...we've got a war to win."

She hugs him once last time, before turning around and scarpering out of the Room of Requirement just as Dean reaches her and falls into step with her.

"That's your dad?"

"Yeah! Turns out Lupin's been in contact with him, so they told him we were all ready to fight. He came to help!"

They enter the Great Hall, taking seats next to Fred and George at the Gryffindor table.

"Hey, kid!" Fred grins, ruffling her hair.

"You're only like, a year older than me," she scowls, neatening her hair again and elbowing him.

"Actually, I'm a year and a half older than you," he snickers, nudging her back.

"Whatever, grandpa," she smiles at him wryly, before she bursts out into chuckles. "How are you, anyway?"

Fred's about to reply, when McGonagall steps onto the platform at the front of the Hall, and everyone falls quiet, looking right at her.

"The evacuation will be overseen by Mr Filch and Madame Pomfrey. Prefects, when I give the word, you will organise your house and take your charges, in an orderly fashion, to the evacuation point." 

"And what if we want to stay and fight?"

Thea hates the excited clapping that follows this, and she frowns around at everyone surrounding them, lingering for a moment on George, Dean and Fred. The thought of anything happening to any of them makes it hard to breathe.

"If you are of age, you may stay," McGonagall says.

"Where's Professor Snape?"

"He has, to use the common phrase, done a bunk," McGonagall says, to which Thea erupts into laughter.

Thea glances around at the flicker of movement at the walls, and spots Harry, just as his eyes lock on her. She gives him a tiny wave, to which he mouths, Ron and Hermione? and earns only a shrug off her in response.