Two days before the wedding could start, you and the rest of the members of the Order had to tranfer Harry safely from Privet Drive-where he grew up- to the Burrow. It seemed like a hard task but it somewhat excited you. It was your first ever Order mission after all!
You and Tonks were chatting in your bedroom about the upcoming mission and the upcoming wedding- you were just so excited to see Bill and Fleur finally tying the knot.
"You know, I know this is a dangerous mission but I'm quite excited for it." You admitted to Tonks.
"I would be as well in your place, but with this little one," she rubbed her belly ", it's a bit scary."
"Wait, Tonks-" your eyes widened "YOU'RE PREGNANT?!"
Tonks nodded happily. You hugged her tightly. "Congratulations!" You took a step back from her "It's Remus's right?"
"Who else would it be, (Y/n/n)? Are you joking?" You both laughed.
A sudden knock was heard on the door. "Come in!" You said smiling, the effect of yours and Tonks' talk had in you.
The door opened revealing Fred in his casual clothes but his face a bit...down? That concerned you a lot. Fred was never this serious.
"Freddie? What's wrong?" You asked and he took a step inside the room, the wooden floor beneath him creaking slightly.
"Tonks, can you leave us for a moment?" Fred said in a low voice. Tonks nodded and stood up, giving you a small smile of encouragement before she walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.
"What is it?" You asked again.
"(Y/n), look," Oh no. "Tomorrow is the mission, right?" You nodded lightly. "I don't want you to come."
You laughed, "Nice joke, Fred."
"I'm not kidding." Fred said sternly "I talked with Lupin about this earlier and he agrees with me. It's better you should stay back with mum and Ginny and Astrid-"
You stood up, "Absolutely not!"
"(Y/n), please. I'm doing this to protect you-"
"Hell no you aren't! And what if something goes wrong and I won't be able to know if you're okay or not?" You said, looking Fred dead in the eye.
"I'll be fine." Said Fred "What if something happens to you and I won't be able to protect you?"
"You really think I can't protect myself? Is that the kind of person you think I am?" You said, your voice increasing by every word.
"I didn't say that-" said Fred cowardly.
"You meant it though!" You said, "I can't believe you, Fred. That you'd think like this." You took a step back, and looking down. "You're letting literal children like Hermione and Ron to go and you're not letting me? Hell, even Tonks is going and she's pregnant!" You said, absolutely disappointed.
"Hermione and Ron are friends of Harry's and Tonks isn't my responsibility, she is your uncle's and it's her choice-"
"I am NO ONE'S responsibility Fred!" You said louder than ever. The whole house could probably hear you. "It is my choice to go, not yours!"
"Please. Understand the situation we're in." Said Fred, also looking down. He meant good but it hurt you in a way.
"Fine." Fred looked up and his eyes widened. "I won't go." You went into the closet and grabbed a spare pillow and a blanket. "But I don't want you to talk to me at all for now."
Fred didn't say anything. Guilt had risen on his face and his heart was breaking.
"Good luck, Freddie." You said before closing the door behind you, tears threatening to leave your face.
---
It felt like ages. Astrid was upstairs trying to calm the twins. You, Ginny and Mrs. Weasley were downstairs, trying not to panic in your seats. But that's when a light came into view revealing Harry. One of you screamed. Harry stood up, swaying slightly, and saw you, Mrs. Weasley and Ginny running down the steps by the back door as Hagrid, who had also collapsed on landing, clambered laboriously to his feet.
"Harry? You are the real Harry? What happened? Where are the others?" cried Mrs. Weasley.
"What d'you mean? Isn't anyone else back?" Harry panted.
The answer was clearly etched in Mrs. Weasley's pale face.
"The Death Eaters were waiting for us," Harry told her. "We were surrounded the moment we took off - they knew it was tonight - I don't know what happened to anyone else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort caught up with us -"
You could hear the self-justifying note in his voice, the plea for her to understand why he did not know what had happened to her sons, but -
"Thank goodness you're all right," she said, pulling him into a hug.
"Haven't go' any brandy, have yeh, Molly?" Asked Hagrid a little shakily. "Fer medicinal purposes?"
She could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back toward the crooked house, You knew that she wanted to hide her face. Harry turned to Ginny and she answered his unspoken plea for information at once.
"Ron and Tonks should have been back first, but they missed their Portkey, it came back without them," she said, pointing at a rusty oil can lying on the ground nearby. "And that one," she pointed at an ancient sneaker, "should
have been Dad and Fred's, they were supposed to be second." You felt your heart drop at the sound of Fred. "You and Hagrid were third and," she checked her watch, "if they made it, George and Lupin ought to be back in about a minute."
Mrs. Weasley reappeared carrying a bottle of brandy, which she handed to
Hagrid. He uncorked it and drank it straight down in one.
"Molly!" You shouted, pointing to a spot several feet away.
A blue light had appeared in the darkness: It grew larger and brighter, and Remus and George appeared, spinning and then falling. You knew immediately that there was something wrong: Remus was supporting George, who was unconscious and whose face was covered in blood.
Harry ran forward and seized George's legs. Together, he and Remus carried
George into the house and through the kitchen to the sitting room, where they
laid him on the sofa. As the lamplight fell across George's head, Ginny gasped and your stomach lurched: One of George's ears was missing. The side of his head and neck were drenched in wet, shockingly scarlet blood.
No sooner had Mrs. Weasley bent over her son than Remus grabbed by the upper arm and dragged him, none too gently, to the wall near the fireplace, where Hagrid was still attempting to ease his bulk through the back door.
"Oi!" said Hagrid indignantly. "Le' go of him! Le' go of Harry!"
Remus ignored him. "What creature sat in the corner the first time that Harry Potter visited my office at Hogwarts?" he said, giving Harry a small shake. "Answer me!"
"Remus!" You shouted at him while you fetched some towels for George.
"A - a grindylow in a tank, wasn't it?" Remus released Harry and fell back.
"Wha' was tha' about?" roared Hagrid.
"I'm sorry, Harry, but I had to check," said Remus tersely. "We've been betrayed. Voldemort knew that you were being moved tonight and the only people who could have told him were directly involved in the plan. You might have been an impostor."
"So why aren' you checkin' me?" panted Hagrid, still struggling to fit through the door.
"You're half-giant," said Remus, looking up at Hagrid. "The Polyjuice Potion is designed for human use only."
"None of the Order would have told Voldemort we were moving tonight,"
said Harry. "Voldemort only caught up with me toward the end, he didn't know which one I was in the beginning. If he'd been in on the plan he'd have known from the start I was the one with Hagrid."
"Voldemort caught up with you?" You said sharply. "What happened? How did you escape?"
Harry explained briefly how the Death Eaters pursuing them had seemed to recognize him as the true Harry, how they had abandoned the chase, how they must have summoned Voldemort, who had appeared just before he and Hagrid had reached the sanctuary of Tonks's parents.
"They recognized you? But how? What had you done?" Remus asked.
"I..." Harry tried to remember; the whole journey seemed like a blur of panic and confusion. "I saw Stan Shunpike... You know, the bloke who was the conductor on the Knight Bus? And I tried to Disarm him instead of - well, he doesn't know what he's doing, does he? He must be Imperiused!"
Remus looked aghast. "Harry, the time for Disarming is past! These people are trying to capture and kill you! At least Stun if you aren't prepared to kill!"
"We were hundreds of feet up! Stan's not himself, and if I Stunned him and he'd fallen, he'd have died the same as if I'd used Avada Kedavra! Expelliarmus saved me from Voldemort two years ago," Harry added defiantly. Remus was reminding you of the sneering Hufflepuff Zacharias Smith, who had jeered at Harry for wanting to teach Dumbledore's Army how to Disarm.
"Yes, Harry," said Remus with painful restraint, "and a great number of Death Eaters witnessed that happening! Forgive me, but it was a very unusual move then, under imminent threat of death. Repeating it tonight in front of Death Eaters who either witnessed or heard about the first occasion was close to suicidal!"
Silence fell between all of you as they looked up at the sky. There was no sign of movement; the stars stared back, unblinking, indifferent, unobscured by flying friends. Where was Ron? Where were Fred and Mr. Weasley? Where were Bill, Fleur, Tonks, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus?
"How is he?" Remus asked Mrs. Weasley.
Mrs. Weasley looked around and said, "I can't make it grow back, not when it's been removed by Dark Magic. But it could have been so much worse... He's alive."
"Yeah," said Harry. "Thank God."
"I'll prove who I am, Kingsley, after I've seen my son, now back off if you know what's good for you!" You had never heard Mr. Weasley shout like that before. He burst into the living room, his bald patch gleaming with sweat, his spectacles askew, Fred right behind him, both pale but uninjured. You shared a small smile, happy that they were both alive.
"Arthur!" sobbed Mrs. Weasley. "Oh thank goodness!"
"How is he?" Mr. Weasley dropped to his knees beside George. For the first time since Harry had known him, Fred seemed to be lost for words. He gaped over the back of the sofa at his twin's wound as if he could not believe what he was seeing.
Perhaps roused by the sound of Fred and their father's arrival, George stirred.
"How do you feel, Georgie?" whispered Fred.
George's fingers groped for the side of his head. "Saintlike," he murmured.
"What's wrong with him?" croaked Fred, looking terrified. "Is his mind affected?"
"Saintlike," repeated George, opening his eyes and looking up at his brother. "You see... I'm holy. Holey, Fred, geddit?"
Mrs. Weasley sobbed harder than ever. Color flooded Fred's pale face.
"Pathetic," he told George. "Pathetic! With the whole wide world of ear-
related humor before you, you go for holey?"
"Ah well, I reckon I still look better than you." said George, grinning at his tear-soaked mother. "You'll be able to tell us apart now, anyway, Mum." He looked around.
Mrs. Weasley ran forward, but the hug Bill bestowed upon her was perfunctory. Looking directly at his father, he said, "Mad-Eye's dead."
Nobody spoke, nobody moved. You felt as though something inside you was falling, falling through the earth, leaving you forever.
"We saw it," said Bill; Fleur nodded, tear tracks glittering on her cheeks in the light from the kitchen window. "It happened just after we broke out of the circle: Mad-Eye and Dung were close by us, they were heading north too. Voldemort - he can fly - went straight for them. Dung panicked, I heard him cry out, Mad-Eye tried to stop him, but he Disapparated. Voldemort's curse hit Mad-Eye full in the face, he fell backward off his broom and - there was nothing we could do, nothing, we had half a dozen of them on our own tail -" Bill's voice broke.
"Of course you couldn't have done anything," said Remus.
You all stood looking at each other. You could not quite comprehend it.
Mad-Eye dead; it could not be... Mad-Eye, so tough, so brave, the consummate survivor...
At last it seemed to dawn on everyone, though nobody said it, that there was no point waiting in the living room anymore where Fred and George were quietly laughing together.
"What's wrong?" said Fred, scanning their faces as they entered. "What's happened? Who's - ?"
"Mad-Eye," said Mr. Weasley. "Dead."
The twins' grins turned to grimaces of shock. Nobody seemed to know what to do. Tonks was crying silently into a handkerchief: She had been close to Mad-Eye, you knew, his favorite and his protégée at the Ministry of Magic. Hagrid, who had sat down on the floor in the corner where he had most space, was dabbing at his eyes with his tablecloth-sized handkerchief.
Bill walked over to the sideboard and pulled out a bottle of firewhisky and
some glasses.
"Here," he said, and with a wave of his wand he sent twelve full glasses soaring through the room to each of them, holding the thirteenth aloft. "Mad-Eye."
"Mad-Eye," you all said, and drank.
———
You and Fred were now sitting beside George who was sleeping peacefully on the sofa. There was an awkward silence between you two, probably the the first time this has ever happened. You fiddled your firewiskey glass on both your hands. You took a deep breath, your voice almost like a whisper
"Freddie, I—" He turned to look at you but his gaze went back on the floor. "I'm sorry for everything that happened earlier. I just I— I know you're trying to protect me but— but if something had happened to you and I wouldn't be able to protect you and I wouldn't know what had happened to you, how would you think I'd feel?"
Fred didn't speak. He was also fiddling with his glass on his left hand.
"Yes, Mad-Eye is dead. What if you were the victim?"
"(Y/n)," Fred said, his voice just as low as yours "there is a war coming, I want to protect you in every way I can. People will die. I don't want you to be one of them."
"I won't be, Freddie. I promise." You put your hand on top of his, looking at him. Even after everything, in this light, he was still the man you loved.
"I want to grow old with you." Said Fred "I want have a future with you and that won't happen if you...die."
"Then," you said, holding his hand now. "Let's promise each other that we will protect each other." You smiled at each other. "Oh! And please have more faith in me, Freddie."
Fred chuckled lightly "I always do, my love." He wrapped his hand around you, allowing your head to rest on his shoulder. At the end of the day, you couldn't be mad at him— he was just something else.