SIXTY EIGHT
RORY SHOVED HER HAND in her jacket pocket and yelped when she brushed against what was inside. She paused, put her hand back in and touched what felt so hot against her skin.
Just then, Ginny ran into Rory's room, socks sliding slightly on the wooden floor with a shocked expression.
"Did you —"
Rory nodded and pulled out what had – without realizing it – been in her pocket for years. A small golden coin inscribed on the side: May 1st, 1998. Now.
"Fred! George!" Rory shouted anxiously. The two ran in, holding their coins as well. Eyes wide and mouths agape.
"It's happening?" George asked, clutching the small gold between his fingers.
Ginny nodded. The four looked at each other, silent for a bit. Processing the information they now had.
Something was happening at Hogwarts and they needed to fight. It was time. Everything they had been fighting for for months, was finally coming to something.
"We've got to tell them — the Order needs to know!" Fred said. He ran out of the room and began shouting, "Mum! Dad!"
Rory followed him down the steps and knocked feverishly on Andrew and Cordelia's door as Fred wrangled his parents to tell them the news.
"Dad! Mum! We have to go to Hogwarts!" Rory said loudly, not caring whether or not it would stir Emily.
Cordelia opened the door and Andrew sat on the bed with Emily in his arms.
"What?" Cordelia asked, "Rory, did you just say we have to go to Hogwarts?"
Rory nodded and pulled out the coin, "This coin, we used it for Dumbledore's Army. Remember, I told you about that? Right. Well, it's charmed to heat up the whenever a date for a meeting is set. Look at the side! That's today! That's right now! They need us at Hogwarts!"
For the first time since Aaron's death, Andrew looked alive. His eyes lit up like fireworks and he stood up carefully, walking over to Rory.
"Should we tell the Order?"
Rory nodded, "Yes! Tell everyone you can!"
And so, they did.
"Alright, we can apparate to Hogsmeade, get in through there," Cordelia said as the adults gathered in the sitting room.
"What about Emily?" Andrew asked.
Cordelia looked at him, deep ocean eyes frozen over, "Muriel will watch her! Or Ginny! Mr. Ollivander! You aren't fighting with me over this, Andy! I'm not going to sit here when all of you are out there fighting! If you expect me to stay home like some bloody Stepford Wife —"
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Andrew said quietly, taking a hold of his wife's hands, "Muriel, you'll be alright watching Emily?"
The old woman grunted, but nodded. She did have a bit of a soft spot for Andrew it seemed.
Andrew looked at Rory with a warm smile, "We'll see you in a bit, yeah?"
Rory nodded, "Yeah."
And so, the older Order members went off to inform anyone else they could and get to Hogsmeade.
"You've told Angie and Mar? Lee? Katie? Kirsty?" Rory listed, looking at the twins, "The McDowells?"
"They were first on our list, actually," George said, "And they went and told everyone they know. The world must look like a zoo with all the Patronuses flying around. Let's go, we don't want to miss anything."
Rory stuck out her hand to the boys, "Together?"
"Whoa!" Ginny snapped, "I'm coming too!"
"Right you are, Gin!" Fred beamed, "Hand in, we'll take you."
The four apparated to Hogsmeade together. It was the first time any of them had been outside in a while. The streets looked familiar to Rory, yet so strange. It wasn't the same Hogsmeade where she used to go as a young teenager. However, it was filled with the same people.
Members of the D.A and the Order were lined up in the Hog's Head, sticking out of the small pub. Rory ran forward to the end of the line where Angelina and Marina stood.
"Rory! We came as soon as we heard! Aberforth – Dumbledore's brother, he owns the place. There's a passageway to Hogwarts! That's how we're getting in!" Angelina beamed.
"Mar," a voice spoke from behind Rory. It was George. "It's good to see you."
Marina just looked at him, no expression on her face. Rory wasn't sure what would happen next through the tension, but the girl cracked a smile and flung her arms around the Weasley boy.
"It's good to see you too, Georgie."
Rory exchanged a happy look with Fred and they entered the bar. It was dimly lit, the orange glow of candlelight illuminating the faces of those she'd grown up with. Her classmates for seven years were now going into battle. Kids she'd known since she was eleven, now adults with fury in their eyes and strength in their hearts.
The Archer girl had been through her fair share of secret passageways at Hogwarts. So when she stepped through the dank portrait hole in the Hog's Head with Fred and George behind her, she felt right at home.
It wasn't particularly long. Before she knew it, she had emerged out of the Room of Requirement. It looked much different than the last time she had seen it. House banners and colorful hammocks covered the place instead of practice dummies and landing cushions.
"Hiya, Rory!" A familiar voice said, "You've sure grown up a lot since the last time I saw you."
"Oliver!" Rory beamed as her ex-Quidditch captain stood in front of her. Seeing him took her back to being fifteen, when the biggest worry in her life was his approval at practice. He looked much older as well. His light brown hair was slightly longer and his build was stronger, probably due to his professional career as a Quidditch player.
A hand tugged softly on her wrist and she instinctively followed. Of course it was only Fred. Rory followed him towards a more clear area in the front of the room as more people shuffled in through the portrait.
"Freddie!" Rory smiled, "They came!"
In the crowd, a pair of dark haired twins emerged, looking more ready to fight than anyone in the room.
"Of course we did!" Cleo said, "Still have yet to punch a Death Eater. This is a once in a lifetime chance to knock that off my bucket list!"
"You blokes been treating Kirsty alright?" Zane joked.
Suddenly, a blonde figured appeared next to them, "You called? Personally I think I deserved a raise! It was borderline child labor what I was put through!"
George rolled his eyes sarcastically, "You slay me with your humor, Blaine."
The two laughed softly and Rory saw as Marina (who was watching the group), dart her eyes to the ground. Before she could walk over to her, Fred caught her attention.
"Rory, look," he said, nudging her. She looked over and saw some other than Harry Potter.
He looked astounded at all the people who were now coming. Rory noticed as other members of the Order began to fill in towards Harry.
"Harry, what's happening?" said Lupin, meeting them at the foot of the stairs.
"Voldemort's on his way, they're barricading the school — Snape's run for it — What are you doing here? How did you know?"
"We sent messages to the rest of Dumbledore's Army," Fred explained. "You couldn't expect everyone to miss the fun, Harry, and the D.A. let the Order of the Phoenix know, and it all kind of snowballed."
"What first, Harry?" called George. "What's going on?"
"They're evacuating the younger kids and everyone's meeting in the Great Hall to get organized," Harry said. "We're fighting."
At that moment, surges of Order and D.A members began exiting the Room of Requirement and heading towards the inside of the castle. The crowed began thinning, Rory stayed in the room along with a few others.
Rory, Fred, and George went to Ginny and all their parents along with Bill and Fleur.
It seemed to be a bad time, as Molly realized Ginny had come with them.
"You're underage!" Mrs. Weasley shouted at her daughter as Harry approached. "I won't permit it! The boys, yes, but you, you've got to go home!"
"I won't!"
Ginny's hair flew as she pulled her arm out of her mother's grip. "I'm in Dumbledore's Army —"
"A teenagers' gang!"
"A teenagers' gang that's about to take him on, which no one else has dared to do!" said Fred.
"She's sixteen!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "She's not old enough! What you three were thinking,
bringing her with you —"
Fred, George, and Rory exchanged a guilty look.
"Mum's right, Ginny," said Bill gently. "You can't do this. Everyone underage will have to
leave, it's only right."
"I can't go home!" Ginny shouted, angry tears sparkling in her eyes. "My whole family's here,
I can't stand waiting there alone and not knowing and — Fine," she said, staring at the entrance to the tunnel back to the Hog's Head. "I'll say goodbye now, then, and —"
Suddenly, someone stumbled out of the tunnel. Gangly and frantic, nearly falling on a chair as he came down. His glasses were slightly askew and and scrambled to adjust them.
The Prodigal's Son had returned.
"Am I too late? Has it started? I only just found out, so I — I —"
Percy spluttered into silence. It seemed he had not expected to run into most of his family. There was a long moment of bewilderment, broken by Fleur turning to Andrew and saying, in a wildly obvious attempt to break the awkwardness, "So — 'ow eez little Emily?"
Cordelia and Andrew looked at her, startled. The tension between the Weasley's was higher than she'd ever felt it.
"I — oh yes — she's great! Five months today!" Cordelia said loudly. "Yes, Muriel is with her —" Percy and the other Weasleys were still staring at one another, frozen.
"Here, I've got a picture!" Andrew smiled, pulling a photograph of the blonde haired blue eyed baby from inside his jacket and showing it to Fleur and Harry.
"I was a fool!" Percy roared, so loudly that Andrew nearly dropped his photograph. "I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a — a —"
"Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron," said Fred.
Percy swallowed. "Yes, I was!"
"Well, you can't say fairer than that," said Fred, holding out his hand to Percy. Mrs. Weasley burst into tears. She ran forward, pushed Fred aside, and pulled Percy into a tight hug, while he patted her on the back, his eyes on his father.
"I'm sorry, Dad," Percy said.
Mr. Weasley blinked rather rapidly, then he too hurried to hug his son. Rory felt an overwhelming sense of happiness.
"What made you see sense, Perce?" inquired George.
"It's been coming on for a while," said Percy, "But I had to find a way out and it's not so easy at the Ministry, they're imprisoning traitors all the time. I managed to make contact with Aberforth and he tipped me off ten minutes ago that Hogwarts was going to make a fight of it, so here I am."
"Well, we do look to our prefects to take a lead at times such as these," said George in a good imitation of Percy's most pompous manner. "Now let's get upstairs and fight, or all the good Death Eaters'll be taken."
"So, you're my sister-in-law now?" said Percy, shaking hands with Fleur as they hurried off toward the staircase with Bill, Fred, and George. Rory was with them, smiling softly despite the conditions.
"Yes! It is good to see you!" Fleur beamed.
Percy turned to Rory, "Are you my sister-in-law now too?"
Rory laughed, "Oh, no! Not yet, anyways... It's really good to see you, Percy. I always knew you'd come around."
The Weasley boy pulled her into a quick hug and looked at her with a way that was full of gratitude.
"Head Girl and Head Boy, how cute!" Fred teased. Rory lightly smacked him with an eye roll and continued heading to the Great Hall.
"Head Girl? Very nice, Rory." Percy complimented as the reached the Hall. The place where Rory used to eat her meals and do her homework was now a battlefield.
Of course, McGonnagal was in charge. They sat in their old spot, the Gryffindor table with the students as she began to give orders.
"Underage students must exit through the tunnel to Hogsmeade! Evacuation will be overseen by Mr. Filch and Madam Pomfrey. Prefects, when I give the word, you will organize your House and take your charges, in an orderly fashion, to the evacuation point."
Many of the students looked petrified.
A younger, but of age boy stood up at the Hufflepuff table and shouted, "And what if we want to stay and fight?"
There was a smattering of applause.
"If you are of age, you may stay," said Professor McGonagall.
"What about our things?" called a girl at the Ravenclaw table. "Our trunks, our owls?"
"We have no time to collect possessions," said Professor McGonagall. "The important thing is to get you out of here safely."
"Where's Professor Snape?" shouted a girl from the Slytherin table.
"He has, to use the common phrase, done a bunk," replied Professor McGonagall, and a great cheer erupted from the Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws.
"We have already placed protection around the castle," Professor McGonagall was saying, "but it is unlikely to hold for very long unless we reinforce it. I must ask you, therefore, to move quickly and calmly, and do as your prefects —"
But her final words were drowned as a different voice echoed throughout the Hall. It was cold and clear.
"I know that you are preparing to fight." Some students screamed. Rory just reached out and grabbed Fred's hand as protection. The voice continued. "Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood."
There was silence in the Hall now, loudest kind of silence.
"Give me Harry Potter," said the voice, "and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter, and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter, and you will be rewarded. You have until midnight." The silence swallowed them all again. She knew it was the voice of him. The voice of Voldemort.
There was a bit of a commotion as Pansy Parkinson broke the silence to try and turn Harry in. However, it seemed nearly every other student disagreed and stood up, surrounding Harry with their wands towards the Parkinson girl.
McGonnagal proudly called the Slytherins to exit, followed by the Ravenclaws... then Harry joined the Weasley's at the end of the table.
"Where are Ron and Hermione?"
"Haven't you found — ?" said Arthur, looking worried.
But he broke off as Kingsley had stepped forward on the raised platform at the front of the Hall to address those who had remained behind.
"We've only got half an hour until midnight, so we need to act fast! A battle plan has been agreed between the teachers of Hogwarts and the Order of the Phoenix. Professors Flitwick, Sprout, and McGonagall are going to take groups of fighters up to the three highest towers — Ravenclaw, Astronomy, and Gryffindor — where they'll have a good overview, excellent positions from which to work spells. Meanwhile Remus" — he indicated Lupin — "Arthur, Andrew" — he pointed toward the men, sitting at the Gryffindor table — "and I will take groups into the grounds. We'll need somebody to organize defense of the entrances of the passageways into the school —"
"We've got that covered!" Rory smiled, gesturing to herself and the twins. Kingsley nodded in approval.
"All right, leaders up here and we'll divide up the troops!"