Soon, it was time to bring Harry to the Burrow. Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle were to go with the Dursley's while they left their house, for safety, while the rest of us went to bring Harry. The people chosen were me, Remus, Tonks, Ollie, Bill, Fleur, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Mr. Weasley, Mad-Eye, Kingsley, Hagrid and Dung. Most of us were to go on brooms, while Hermione was with Kingsley on a Thestral, and Fleur with Bill doing the same thing, and of course, Hagrid was on his famous Moterbike.
Mad-Eye, Tonks, Kingsley and I went around placing Disselusisment Charms on everyone, and then we were off. It didn't take very long for us to get to Harry's place, and soon our charms were lifted as we landed in front of his house.
The backdoor of the house opened and Harry hurried outside. Hermione flung her arms around him, Ron clapped him on the back, and Hagrid said, "Alrigh', Harry? Ready fer the off?"
"Definitely," said Harry, beaming at us. "But I wasn't expecting this many of you!"
"Change of plan," growled Mad-Eye, who was holding two enormous, bulging sacks, and whose magical eye was spinning from darkening sky to house to garden with dizzying rapidity. "Let's get undercover before we talk you through it."
Harry led us into the house and into the kitchen. People sat around chair, a few leaning against the counters. I hopped up onto the kitchen counter, with Remus leaning against it next to me, his elbow gently resting on my thigh.
"Kingsley, I thought you were looking after the Muggle Prime Minister?" Harry said.
"He can get along without me for one night," said Kingsley. "You're more important."
"Harry we have some news." Tonks said, wiggling her finger while leaning against Ollie.
"WHAT!" Harry cried.
"And that's not all." Ollie grinned, looking at Remus and i.
Remus and I sheepishly held up our fingers too and Harry's mouth dropped open. "I wanted to come!"
"I'm sorry love, we kept it very quiet." I said.
"Congrats to you all though-"
"All right, all right, we'll have time for a cozy catch-up later," roared Moody over the hubbub, and silence fell in the kitchen. Moody dropped his sacks at his feet and turned to Harry, "As Dedalus probably told you, we had to abandon Plan A. Pius Thicknesse has gone over, which gives us a big problem. He's made it an impressionable offense to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a Portkey here, or Apparate in or out. All done in the name of your protection to prevent You-Know-Who getting in at you. Absolutely pointless, seeing as your mother's charm does that already. What he's really done is to stop you from getting out of here safely. Second problem. You're underage, which means you've still got the Trace on you."
"What-"
"The Trace, the Trace!" said Mad-Eye impatiently. "The charm that detects magical activity around under-seventeens, the way the Ministry finds out out about underage magic! If you, or anyone around you, casts a spell to get you out of here, Thicknesseis going to know about it, and so will the Death Eaters. We can't wait for the Trace to break, because the moment you turn seventeen you'll lose all the protection your mother gave you. In short: Pius Thicknesse thinks he's got you cornered good and proper."
"So what are we going to do?" Harry asked.
"We're going to use the only means of transport left to us, the only ones the Trace can't detect, because we don't need to cast spells to use them: brooms, thestrals, and Hagrid's motorbike. "Now, your mother's charm will only break under two conditions: when you come of age, or"—Moody gestured around the pristine kitchen— "you no longer call this place home. You and your aunt and uncle are going your separate ways tonight, in the full understanding that you're never going to live together again, correct?"
Harry nodded.
"So this time, when you leave, there'll be no going back, and the charm will break the moment you get outside its range. We've choosing to break it early, because the alternative is waiting for You-Know-Who to come and seize you the moment you turn seventeen. "The one thing we've got on our side is that You-Know-who doesn't know we're moving you tonight. We've leaked a fake trail to the Ministry: They think you're not leaving until the thirtieth. However, this is You-Know-Who we're dealing with, so we can't just rely on him getting the date wrong; he's bound to have a couple Death Eaters patrolling the skies in this general area, just in case. So we've given a dozen different houses every protection we can throw at them. They all look like they could be the place we're going to hide you, they've all got some connection with the Order: my house, Kingsley's place, Molly auntie Muriel's—you get the idea."
"Right."
"You'll be going to Tonks's parents. Once you're within the boundaries of the protective enchantments we've put on their house you'll be able to use a Portkey to the Burrow. Any questions?"
"Er—yes," said Harry. "Maybe they won't know which of the twelve secure houses I'm heading for at first, but won't it be sort of obvious once"—he performed a quick headcount— "sixteen of us fly off towards Tonks's parents'?"
"Ah," said Moody. "I forgot to mention the key point. Fourteen of us won't be flying to Tonks's parents. There will be nine Harry Potters moving through the skies tonight, each of them with a companion, each pair heading for a different safe house."
Mad-Eye took out the Polyjuice Potion.
"No!" Harry said loudly, his voice ringing through the kitchen. "No way!"
"I told them you'd take it like this," said Hermione with a hint of complacency.
"If you think I'm going to let six people risk their lives—!"
"—because it's the first time for all of us," said Ron.
"This is different, pretending to be me— "
"Well, none of us really fancy it, Harry," said Fred earnestly. "Imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever."
"You can't do it if I don't cooperate, you need me to give you some hair." Harry said.
"Well, that's that plan scuppered," said George. "Obviously there's no chance at all of us getting a bit of your hair unless you cooperate."
"Yeah, sixteen of us against one bloke who's not allowed to use magic: we've got no chance," said Fred.
"Funny," said Harry, "really amusing."
"If it has to come to force, then it will," growled Moody, his magical eye now quivering a little in its socket as he glared at Harry.
Harry crossed his arms, stepping away from us. I hopped off the counter and walked to Harry. "Come on Harry, here, give me a hug."
Harry hesitated, before putting his arms around me and I squeezed him.
"Feeling Better?" I asked.
"Mmm." he grumbled.
"Okay, good." I let go of him and yanked some of his hair.
Harry gasped. "Traitor."
I shrugged and walked over to Mad-Eye, putting the hair in the flask. the potion began to froth and smoke, then, all at once, it turned a clear, bright gold.
"Ooh, you look much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle, Harry," said Hermione, before catching sight of Ron's raised eyebrows, blushing slightly, and saying, "Oh, you now what I mean—Goyle's potion looked like bogies."
"Right then, fake Potters line up over here, please." said Moody.
Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Fleur and I lined up in front of the gleaming sink.
"We're one short," said Remus.
"Here," said Hagrid gruffly, and he lifted Mundungus by the scruff of the neck and dropped him down beside Fleur, who wrinkled her nose pointedly and moved along to stand between Ollie and I instead. I patted her arm and muttered "I know right."
"I've told yer, I'd sooner be a protector," said Mundungus.
"Shut it," growled Moody. "As I've already told you, you spineless worm, any Death Eaters we run into will be aiming to capture Potter, not kill him. Dumbledore always said You-Know-who would want to finish Potter in person. It'll be the protectors who have got the most to worry about, the Death Eaters'll want to kill them."
Mad-Eye pulled out glasses, handing them to all of us and pouring potion in each glass. "All together then."
We all drank and gasped. I grimaced as I felt myself shooting upwards and my hair shrunk into my skull, my eyes suddenly completely blurry.
Fred and George turned to each other and said together, "Wow—we're identical!"
The twins then turned to me, recognizing me by my clothes, and grabbing me. "We're identical too!"
"Shut up." I shook my head.
"I dunno, though. I think I'm still better looking," said Fred, examining his reflection in the kettle.
"Bah," said Fleur, checking herself in the microwave door, "Bill, don't look at me— I'm 'ideous."
"I dunno, I'd say I'm quiet dashing." I said, standing in front of actual Harry looking at my reflection in his glasses. "Ginny's a lucky girl."
"Shut it." Harry muttered, turning red.
"Those whose clothes are a bit roomy, I've got smaller here," said Moody, indicating the first sack, "and vice versa. Don't forget the glasses, there's eight pairs in the side pocket. And when you're dressed, there's luggage in the other sack."
We all pulled out glasses and clothes, quickly changing.
"I knew Ginny was lying about that that tattoo," said Ron, looking down at his bare chest.
"What tattoo?" I asked.
"Ginny said I had a tattoo on my chest when people at school kept asking." Harry mumbled and I laughed.
Once we were all dressed, the fake Harrys took rucksacks and owl cages, each containing a stuffed snowy owl, from the second sack.
"Good," said Moody, as at last the seven dressed, bespectacled, and luggage-laden Harrys faced him. "The pairs will be as follows: Mundungus will be traveling with me, by broom— "
"Why'm I with you?" grunted the Harry nearest the back door.
"Because you're the one that needs watching," growled Moody, and sure enough, his magical eye did not waver from Mundungusas he continued. "Arthur and Fred— "
"I'm George," said the twin at whom Moody was pointing, "Can't you even tell us apart when we're Harry?"
"Sorry, George— "
"I'm only yanking your wand. I'm Fred really— "
"Enough messing around!!" snarled Moody. "The other one—George or Fred or whoever you are—you're with Remus."
"I still don't see why I can't be with Rem." I pouted.
"Because I don't want the newly weds to be distracted."
"I take my job very seriously Mad-Eye!" I gasped.
"Miss Delacour— "
"I'm taking Fleur on a thestral," said Bill. "She's not that fond of brooms."
"They're newly weds!" I cried.
"Miss Granger with Kingsley, again by thestral— " Mad-Eye ignored me and continued on.
"Rude." I said loudly.
"Ron with Tonks, and Sara with Ollie." he finished while Ollie chuckled.
"An' you're with me, Harry. That all right?" said Hagrid, looking a little anxious. "We'll be on the bike, brooms an' thestrals can't take me weight, see. Not a lot o' room on the seat with me on it, though, so you'll be in the sidecar."
"Of course." Harry said.
"We think the Death Eaters will expect you to be on a broom," said Moody, who seemed to guess how Harry was feeling. "Snape's had plenty of time to tell them everything about you he's never mentioned before, so if we do run into any Death Eaters, we're betting they'll choose one of the Potters who look at home on a broomstick. All right then," he went on, tying up the sack with the fake Potters' clothes in it and leading the way back to the door, "I make it three minutes until we're supposed to leave. No point locking the back door, it won't keep the Death Eaters out when they come looking. Come on . . . "
As we all walked outside, I looked at Remus.
"I don't really feel like kissing you while I look like this, so I'm just going to give you a big hug instead." I said, hugging Remus tightly.
"Be careful Sara." Remus said earnestly.
"All right then," said Moody. "Everyone ready, please. I want us all to leave at exactly the same time or the whole point of the diversion's lost."
We all mounted our brooms. Ollie and I were to go to my mother's place, for our Portkey.
"Good luck, everyone," shouted Moody, "See you all in about an hour at the Burrow. On the count of three. One . . . two . . . THREE."