Molly was not entirely excited about celebrating Christmas with Aunt Muriel which had led to an argument between her and Arthur about their safety and staying hidden. In the end, Molly had agreed with Arthur that they needed to stay as safe as possible and they couldn't risk anything, no matter how much they wanted to.
Christmas was meant to be quiet, just between the family and no one else. Milena had had a little hope that Remus and Tonks would stop by for dinner, but she knew they wouldn't be able to risk it. Milena hadn't seen Tonks in months, not since before she had gotten pregnant and now she wanted to see her friend more than anything, but she understood that with a baby on the way, it was even more important for them to be safe now than ever.
Ginny had returned from school for their Christmas break and just as when she had been dropped off, she had a small army of people to escort her to Aunt Muriel's house for the holidays. Milena had made sure to get the extra bed in her room ready for Ginny and the moment they were home, the two were off to the shared bedroom to get her unpacked and catch up on the last few months.
So much had happened at Hogwarts in only just a few months and Ginny was bursting at the seams to tell someone about it all. The moment the door was shut, she immediately began to tell Milena everything. She went on a tangent on how Snape had taken over as headmaster and how these two Death Eaters called the Carrow twins had taken over the Defense Against the Dark Arts class and renamed it to just Dark Arts and also the Muggle Studies class. They had been teaching students awful things, trying to convince them that using dark magic was fine and they should be encouraged to use it on muggles and anyone who refused or stood up to them were physically punished. It sounded like a nightmare.
"Neville, Luna, and I brought the DA back in secret too. Plenty of recruits have joined us from every house... well except for the Slytherins, unfortunately even the ones who want to join risk other Slytherins exposing them." Ginny explained. "Anyways, you'd be surprised how daring Neville's gotten. He's really starting to show his Gryffindor side."
"This all sounds so horrible though. I mean not you three being leaders, that's fantastic, but Snape? The Carrow twins? The physical punishments?"
"Oh those aren't that bad, we've made it through for now." Ginny brushed off. "Besides, it's not like you exactly back down to this sort of thing."
Ginny tapped her nose insinuating the scar that was still lashed across Milena's face.
"Do as I say, not as I do." Milena laughed. She paused for a moment, becoming a little more serious again. "Please though, don't get yourselves into too much trouble, definitely keep resisting, but don't get yourselves killed."
"We won't, Milly." Ginny said. "I promise."
Christmas Eve arrived and Molly and Milena had taken it upon themselves to decorate the house for Christmas as much as Muriel would allow them too. They had searched for what seemed like hours looking for any Christmas decorations and eventually Milena stumbled on a box tucked into the corner of the attic that had a healthy amount of ornaments, tinsel, and a few small wreaths they could decorate with. When she had brought it down, Fred and George had just finished setting up a stubby pine tree and were wiping the dirt from their hands. Muriel had been less than impressed by the dirt they had dragged in which she promptly made them clean up.
They spent the next hour or so decorating the tree and then the fireplace mantle while Fred, George, and Ginny looked for places they could hang the assortment of wreaths. When they had finished the decorations, Milena took a step back to take a look at it all, feeling pleased with what they were able to do with just one box of decorations.
"The tree looks nice, Love." Fred complimented, snaking an arm around her waist.
"I think we did an alright job." Milena smiled.
"I feel like we're still missing something though..."
Milena frowned as her eyes searched around the room, trying to figure out what she had missed. Then she looked up at Fred who was grinning at her. He held up his wand, looking up at the ceiling, and waved it at the spot just above them and in place grew a beautiful, red and green mistletoe. He lowered his wand again and looked back down at Milena, still grinning.
"That was it." He said as he leaned down, pulling Milena into a kiss with him.
"Godric, you two are gross." Ginny grimaced as she passed by the two.
Milena and Fred both laughed.
"Not feeling the Christmas spirit, are we?" Fred teased his sister.
"Clearly not as much as you two." Ginny replied, dropping onto the couch.
Milena let go of Fred and dropped onto the couch next to Ginny, a little grin on her face.
"Oh Ginny, we would never leave you out!" She said, glancing at Fred who took the hint and flopped onto the couch on Ginny's otherside. She gave them both a suspicious look, looking back and forth between the two.
"No! Never!" Fred joined in.
"What are you two- AGH!"
Milena and Fred both pulled her into a bear hug, planting obnoxious kisses on both sides of her face. She quickly wrenched herself out of their grasp and stood off of the couch. Fred and Milena fell into a fit of laughter together as Ginny wiped both sides of her face.
"I hate both of you." She laughed.
~~~
Christmas day was a quiet one compared to the usual Christmases the Weasley's often celebrated. There was no rush of people coming for the Christmas dinner or anyone stopping by to wish everyone a happy Christmas. Bill and Fleur had joined them for Christmas dinner, but they were the only two who had come for dinner and the only two they expected.
As for Christmas presents, no one had really had the opportunity to do any Christmas shopping or even leave the house for that matter, except for the rare occasion they may have had Order business to attend to. Molly still managed to round up enough yarn to knit some mittens, hats, or scarves for everyone, but no sweaters this year. Ginny and Milena had attempted to make Milena's mum's brownies from memory and to her surprise they didn't turn out all too bad. Her mum's were better though.
Lee had stopped by a few days before Christmas. Their radio show had been done earlier in the week and Lee had gotten his happy Christmases in while he was there. He wanted to be able to spend Christmas with his family so he left a couple of small gifts for Milena, Fred, and George, but it was really all he could do. George said he understood why Lee wouldn't spend Christmas with them, but Milena could see the disappointment in his face when he didn't show up at all on Christmas.
Most of Christmas day, Molly had spent glancing at the windows, which Milena assumed was because she hoped that maybe Ron, Harry, and Hermione might turn up. But no one showed up.
After dinner, Milena offered to help with the washing up while George and Molly cleared the table for her. She stood by the sink monitoring the dishes as they scrubbed themselves, dried themselves with the dish towel, then floated to the drying rack where they neatly stood themselves up.
As the last of the dishes finished cleaning themselves, she went to drain the water and dwindling suds from the sink when something caught her eye out the window. She thought maybe it had been her eyes playing tricks on her, that maybe she had just been seeing things because when she did a double take, it was gone.
She could have sworn for just a moment, just a split second, she had seen what she thought was Ron standing in the yard, but when she looked again, no one was there. She leaned closer to the window, looking to see if maybe he had moved closer or to a different spot, but there was no one outside.
"What are you looking at, dear?" Molly asked as she entered the kitchen.
"Oh! Um... Nothing, just thought I saw snow falling." Milena lied as she jumped away from the window.
"Well, that would be nice, wouldn't it? Some snowfall on Christmas." Molly smiled.
Milena knew Molly didn't believe her, but for once she didn't seem to press her on it and she was grateful for it. How would Molly react if Milena casually told her she thought she saw her missing son standing outside? Not well, she assumed. Some things were just better left unsaid.
After that, the night was spent quietly between everyone or rather the Weasley's version of quiet. Molly had found a radio Muriel had tried to hide and switched it on, immediately switching through to her favourite wizard station that was playing non-stop Christmas music. Not a single bit of muggle Christmas music was played, but Milena had grown used to listening to this type of music from spending so many Christmases with them. Everyone had gathered around the radio as it played, talking to each other and playing games, trying to pretend that for one night, they had a little bit of normalcy.
New Years Eve was about the same celebration wise. Once again, it was just them and Molly had managed to round up some snacks and drinks for everyone. Fred and George desperately wanted to put on a fireworks show for everyone, something to lighten the mood, but Molly and Arthur would not let them. It was far too much of a security issue.
The holidays were quieter than they had ever been, which under these circumstances, Milena supposed, was probably a good thing.
As the holidays came to an end and Ginny had no choice but to return to Hogwarts, Milena's concern for her and her classmates seemed to only grow stronger. How had Snape managed to take control of Hogwarts? Why was no one actually doing anything about it? Why were all the students being left to just deal with it?
But unfortunately, they had no choice, but to let her go back as they couldn't afford to raise any more suspicion and there was no point in trying to convince Ginny not to go back. She was convinced she needed to return, if not for herself, but to protect all of the other students. Sometimes, Milena forgot how brave Ginny really was, people never really seem to give her the opportunity to prove herself.
The train was just a few minutes from departing and Ginny was just about to get on when Milena pulled her aside for a moment.
"Listen," she started. "I know there's no point in telling you to stay out of trouble, so instead I'll just say this before you go. Give 'em all hell from me and make it count."
Ginny smiled at Milena and let out a little chuckle before grabbing her into a hug.
"Now, get on that train before they leave you behind." Milena said, nudging her towards the train.
Ginny hopped onto the train just as the last train whistle blew to signal the time for departure. It seemed that after the holidays, the train was even emptier than it had been when it arrived. Less and less people were returning to Hogwarts, especially those who were muggle born. It was a little sad to see the amount of empty compartments through the windows as the train began to roll out.
Milena met back up with the rest of the Weasley's and they got into their new pairings for apparating. Milena was with Bill this time and they seemed to have a considerably better time apparating a bunch of times than she had had before with George.
When their feet finally hit the ground back at Muriel's, Milena was a little bit wobbly, but other than that, she felt alright. After answering another question from Arthur, they went back inside where everyone was waiting for them to arrive.
There was something off about the atmosphere when Milena entered the room. Everyone seemed gloomier than usual and when Fred saw Milena had entered the room, he was immediately up from his seat and his arms were wrapped around Milena. She hugged him back quickly then pulled herself away to look around at everyone, but he made sure to stay close to her side.
"What's going on? It's only been a few minutes... you're all acting like you thought I was dead." Milena looked around at everyone again, they seemed to be avoiding her eyes. "Seriously, what's happening?"
"The Death Eaters have started attacking muggles." Arthur said, frankly.
"Yeah... I know. They've been doing it for a while now..." Milena replied, wondering where this was going.
"Mills..." Fred softly said.
"What...?"
"Your parents... the Death Eaters were attacking really close to where they-"
"Are they alive?" Milena cut in. No one replied. "Are they alive!?"
"No one knows..." Arthur finally replied.
"How does no one know!?" Milena spat angrily.
How was it possible that not a single person could tell them if her parents were alive or not? This had been her worst fear since the first string of muggle attacks had happened. Everyday she feared that she would wake up and be told her parents were dead and she hadn't been there to defend them. How had her seer power not told her anything? How had it just overlooked her parents in danger? If she hadn't seen anything, then they ought to be alright, hadn't they?
"I have to go and check on them." Milena demanded as she turned for the door.
"Milena, no!" Arthur shouted as he quickly stood between her and the door. "It's too dangerous! The Death Eaters could still be lurking there. They could be waiting for you to show up. This could have been on purpose."
"Well then I'll have to take that risk." Milena said, growing more frustrated. "But I'll be damned if my parents are dead and I did nothing at all."
"Milena, I can't let you leave on your own." Arthur said, straightening upwards.
"Then someone can come with me! But I can't just stay here!"
"No Milena, you can't leave." Arthur said again.
Milena grew more frustrated as he said it again. She felt her frustration festering into anger, into blind rage. She wasn't proud of what she had done next and she regretted it almost as quickly as she had done it. But she needed to see her parents, make sure they were okay and Arthur was in her way.
In a flash, he fell to the floor and she jumped for the door, sprinting as fast as she could outside until she was just outside of the barrier. Fred had chased after her, normally he would have had no issue catching up to her, but for the first time, Milena moved so much faster than he had ever seen. By the time he himself had made it just outside of the barrier, Milena was turning on the spot and had apparated away. She could have sworn she heard him yell "Shit!" as she disappeared, but she had no time to worry about that right now.
When she landed again, her legs wobbled and she fell back against the brick wall of a house in its alleyway. Her head was a little dizzy as she leaned back for a moment. She had completely forgotten how many times she had just apparated before, but now she remembered.
She took a few deep breaths and steadied herself, standing up off of the wall. Peering around the street just outside of the alleyway, she recognized the area. She was just a street over from her parent's home. Everything looked fine from where she was, nothing disturbed and mostly quiet. It was midday so she assumed most people would be off at work.
As she stepped out of the alleyway, she stumbled a little, but caught her balance. She probably looked completely drunk trying to keep her balance, she thought, but that was unimportant. As she walked down the street at a steady pace, her wand readied, she glanced around, looking for any signs of destruction or danger. When she reached the end of the street and came to her parent's street, she saw it.
Multiple houses looked as though they had been set on fire, burning through at least three of them. There was one clear house that had been mainly attacked and it looked as though the fire had then spread to the houses on either side of it. None of these were her parent's house, but just a few more houses down she saw their house. It was just barely out of reach of where the fire had been, a few scorch marks on the side of the wall, but other than that, it seemed completely fine.
She quickly ran to the front door of the house to let herself in, but the door was locked. She quickly pointed her wand at it and whispered "alohomora" as it clicked open. She rushed in, calling out for her parents, but they didn't answer.
They're probably just at work, she thought to herself, trying to stay calm. She called out one more time just to be safe and there was no answer, at first.
"They're not here." A man's voice said from the living room.
Milena's head immediately turned to the direction of the living room, her wand readied in front of her and she made her way out of the front hall and into the living room.
Standing in the centre of the living room, just in front of the fireplace, holding an old family photo that had been sitting on the mantle, was Ivan.
"Hello, Milena." He smirked at her. "I see you don't have your Veasley boy vith you."
Rage pulsed through every vein in Milena's body as she watched him look at the family photo again, then poorly place it back on the mantle.
"Did you do that to all of those houses?" Milena asked immediately.
Ivan shrugged.
"You're parents are fine, by the vay." He said as if he was doing her a favour.
"Where are they?" She asked, stone cold.
"I thought you vould be able to see that?" Ivan cocked his head, the smirk still plastered over his face like this was a game to him.
Milena narrowed her eyes at him, grinding her teeth.
"Now... vhy vould a filthy mudblood like you be a seer?" Ivan asked, curiously. "How could that be possible?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Milena responded as flatly as possible.
"Don't lie to me." He took a step closer to Milena and she pointed her wand a little harder, halting his next step. "Ve know all about you."
"What do you mean we?"
Just as she asked the question, a flash of red sparks hit her hand and her wand flew in the air which someone had caught. She glanced to her right, just for a moment and saw that same Death Eater with that horrible smile once more. She hadn't noticed him creeping in the shadows, her focus being centred on Ivan.
"Hiya, love." He said with a nasty smile as he moved a little closer to the two, both her wand and his in his hands. "You're gonna make us rich."
"Oh yeah, a bounty on someone like you... you're the perfect catch." Ivan sneered as he moved even closer to her. He raised his free hand and slowly brought his finger to her face. She winced a little, but tried to remain straight faced. He traced a finger along the scar on her face. "I see someone's pissed off Thicknesse then..."
"At least I can take a hit." Milena spat back without thinking.
Ivan glared at her for a second, seemingly dumbfounded by the sudden remark. His face grew a little red as he grinded his teeth now. Then, in a flash, the palm of his hand harshly connected with her cheek, making her stumble back a little. She looked back at Ivan and straightened herself up again. He let out a little laugh and the other man laughed too.
"Seems you can."
"It's easy when it's a weak hit."
Ivan's laughing stopped and he glared at her again for a second before he raised his wand and in one quick motion said "Incarcerous!"
Milena was thrown back against the wall and binded in tight ropes. She landed on the floor in a slump, the wind knocked out of her from the force. She coughed and sputtered a little, trying to get her breath back. Ivan laughed again, enjoying the chaos he was creating. He then crouched down to Milena's level, still hovering above her.
"Don't move." He laughed as he stood back up and joined the Death Eater who had Milena's wand.
They quietly began conversing in the corner and from what Milena could make out, it was about how they ought to bring her to the "new ministry." She did her best to try and listen in, to get whatever information she could and think of anyway out of this situation.
Why didn't she just listen to Arthur? Why didn't she just stay where she was and get an Order member to check on them? Where were her parents? Were they safe? A million more thoughts shot through her mind as she looked around for ways to get out. Suddenly, something in the back of her mind grew louder, clearer.
Get Ivan in front of the window.
Milena looked back to the Death Eaters to check they still weren't paying attention, then looked to the window that looked out to the street. It was just for a moment, but this time she knew what she saw. Fred was crouched outside the front window. He caught Milena's eye for a split second then ducked down.
Get Ivan in front of the window.
Just next to Milena was a side table with a framed photo of Milena when she was a child and a small flower vase. It was just close enough for her foot to barely tap it.
She moved a little further towards it as quietly as she could, then kicked the table as hard as she could. The table toppled over, sending the picture and vase flying, both landing on the floor and shattering, making a loud crash. Ivan swung around then grunted.
"There's no use in trying to escape, mudblood." He snarled as he walked closer to her.
Yes, that was it. Just walk a little closer...
"You know, Ivan... you and I have the same flaw." Milena said.
"Vhat?" He asked, angrily.
"Yeah... we have the same flaw. When we get too into the moment, we don't notice what's happening around us... We get tunnel vision."
He took a few more steps towards her glaring until he stopped, just about to speak then... BOOM!
The entire front window exploded, sending glass shards flying everywhere as Ivan flew back into the other Death Eater. Milena ducked her face away as the glass landed all around them. She heard the sound of glass crunching under shoes as she looked back up and saw Fred climbing into her living room through the window, his wand pointed at the two Death Eaters who were crumpled against the back wall. When he was sure they wouldn't move, he ran to Milena, unbinding the restraints holding her back.
As soon as the ropes had disappeared, she swung her arms around Fred's neck, pulling him down towards her in a hug.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I should have listened! I'm sorry!" She repeated over and over, gripping Fred tightly.
"Mills! Mills! Mills, are you hurt!" Fred asked, pulling away to look over her.
"Not as much as I could have been." Milena said quietly.
"Not as much as you will be... CRUCIO!"