Chapter 1
the beginings of a journey
"It was about time you showed up", a dark haired man snarled angrily. The person that this unnecessary remark was aimed at flinched inwardly at the aggressiveness. It was not his fault that he was late, if it weren't for his lycanthropy he would have made it on time. Being a werewolf after his certain time of the month made him tired and run down. But this didn't cause his unseen reaction, he knew, as he glanced towards the man's sinister appearance. It was the fact that the bitter comment was aimed at him and him alone. Three other people had turned up at the weekly Order of the Phoenix meeting at the same time that he did and nothing was said to them. Remus sighed. Severus just hated him. There was no other way to explain it. He was just dirt under his shoes, try as he might not to get trodden on.
"What, Severus, did you miss me?" Remus replied smoothly, hiding the sudden hurt he was feeling.
"Of course, why wouldn't I miss a filthy, flea bitten half breed like you", he replied in what Remus thought was the most sarcastic tone he could muster. But Remus ignored said comment, instead sitting himself calmly into one of the wooden chairs around the overly large table. He had placed himself in-between Harry and Mrs Molly Weasley. Harry was his late best friend's child and even though they were not related to each other in any way, he saw Harry as his best friend and surrogate son. Mrs Weasley was one of the most motherly women that he has ever met and he got on very well with her, her son was Harry's best friend. Just being near these two people, made his heart rate slow to an agreeable speed. Even his anxiety started to ebb away.
He noticed that Severus' heart beat was much faster than it should normally be. He could even feel the tenseness of the other mans muscles from where he sat four seats away. This was a skill that he had developed as his years with lycanthropy increased. It had not only amplified his hearing but also all of his other senses. You could even say that he had a sixth sense, and right now it was telling him that Severus was worried, almost to the point of a breakdown. Of course, Remus thought, Severus had excellent control over his emotions so imminent breakdown wasn't that much of a threat. Besides, if Remus was too ask if he was ok, he would more than likely get a smart whack around the ear, so he remained quiet. Severus could look after himself. As if to confirm this, Snape's black eyes bored into his own with the highest level of hate possible, as a silent warning. The tenseness past as Severus swiftly stood up to deliver the information he had discovered. This he had received from spying on the death eaters in the past few days.
"The death eaters have become aware of the order of the phoenix and its where abouts. I discovered this piece of information via one of the members of the werewolf army which is a new subsection of the overall death eater army. He told me that Mundungus Fletcher had snuck into death eater territory, and divulged everything about the orders members, location and what they have been doing for the last few years. Luckily for me, that certain werewolf was not aware of my name or station as spy, if he had he would have killed me then and there. You see, they now believe me to be a traitor because i didn't reveal the Orders location. They had their worries about me before but now that there is proof that the name of the location could be said without dying, I'm in deep shit, and so are all of you." And with that, Snape sat down, his face pale and drawn. Remus could have sworn he saw Snape's hands shaking but decided to ignore it, not out of spite, but because everyone else resembled him in some way or another. The ones that had experience with this sort of thing before, which was very few, tried to remain as calm and composed on the surface as possible for those that weren't. The two that fit this category best was Ron Weasley and Tonks; both looked highly panicked as though death eaters could walk through the door at any moment.
"So Severus, what exactly are we supposed to do now", a flustered looking Mrs Weasley asked in an almost no existent squeak. Remus patted her hand trying to reassure her. Contrary to his actions, the middle aged woman jumped clean out of her pale freckled skin. You could tell that she was trying to keep it together, as her non-official role as the Orders matriarch. It was her job to keep everyone calm and feeling safe in a family like atmosphere in tough times. Remus felt sorry for her though, a woman of her age shouldn't be forced to go through traumatic events like this. It was physically obvious that the last few years had taken on her. Not only was her once bright red hair going grey and lifeless in places, but her spirit, though strong, seemed chipped and broken in places. Her family was her life, but in making them her priority, she was also making them her weakness. Weakness was something that the Order tried to hide from the outside world at all costs.
"Due to the seriousness of our situation, I recommend going into hiding, removing ourselves completely from our old lives.
"Like a complete lockdown", Kingsley asked
"Unfortunately. This brings us to our next problem. We need to find a secret location that is both large enough to house us all and almost completely undetectable to outsiders. Any ideas?" Snape said, eyeing off each individual, poking around for an answer rather like he did when teaching at Hogwarts. They say that old habits die hard but Remus was surprised to see that he used this sort of behaviour outside of Hogwarts.
"What about Charlie?"Bill, Charlie's older brother and Molly's oldest son stated. "I mean, he lives in Romania. That pretty far out of the way and due to the Dragons living there, there has to be the most maximum level of security available."
"Yes, but what about the people that work with him, could they get suspicious if we all arrived there out of the blue?" Arthur asked. Arthur was molly's husband and they were quite similar in both appearance and characteristics.
"I met them all once," Bill replied, "they're all down to earth farmers, labourers and dragon carers. The best thing nearly all of them support our cause."
"That's good enough. Now, how are we going to get there? It's going to have to be very private as changing our appearance is out of the question. For one thing it would take too long to make, and all my potion stock is at Hogwarts. So it's far too much effort on my part. Don't you have any more close family members that own any forms of transport suitable for getting us to Romania?" Snape was obviously stressed, he was starting to speak faster and he was almost constantly picking at his nail. Remus knew that these were not goog signs.
"Um, Severus, hate to butt in, but when exactly are the death eaters expected to get here?" Remus asked, trying to suss out how much time they actually had left.
"We have to be packed up and moved out before the morning, so it gives us about eight hours. It will take that long to prepare an attack on us, even with Mundungus giving them hints about our weaknesses." Shit, Remus thought, they were in trouble.
Hermione lifted her hand timidly, forgetting that she wasn't at school any more, and asked, "what about Victor Krum, his family own a private ship and I know he wants nothing to do with the death eaters. Would he be a good choice?"
Ron pipes up "Wait! Are you sure that you can trust him?" Remus almost laughed, Ron just didn't like Hermione hanging out with him. He was just jealous; everyone in the Order knew that.
"Honestly, i don't think that it matters, Mr Weasley, we haven't the time. Granger, where exactly is his ship now?" Snape cut in.
"Well, last I heard, he was in Ireland but he is sure to have moved his ship since yesterday."Hermione said with heavy concentration written on her face.
"Well then, you had better contact him right now and arrange for him to pick us up. We will have to organise a form of payment later." Snape sighed uncharacteristically, running a potion stained hand through his shoulder length black hair. It was as though he had to find the money from out of his own pocket.
As Hermione scooted off to talk to Krum, with whom she had been in contact with continuously since the Tri-Wizard tournament, everyone else moved to pack up their belongings and close up all loose ties and links to the outside world. It wasn't hard, as most of the Order had already cut themselves off as much as possible to protect their family, friends and above all themselves. Remus sighed, it was always a matter of self preservation with the order, you aren't meant to fully trust anyone, even your family. Remus despised this. It was unfair on the Weasley family and it also meant that forming romantic attachments were not advisable. As Remus glanced over to Tonks he thought, screw the rules. He gave her a reassuring smile and continued his packing. It was suggested by Snape that all of their belongings be shrunk to the size of matchboxes. This would make them look less suspicious in the open if they only Cried one small bag each. Soon, the old black house looked very empty and everyone was waiting at the door. Remus shuddered, either way Krum decided, they would all need to be out of this house tonight. Because, he knew, if they stayed, they would all cease to live another day and they would all be faced with their last breaths.
