Chapter two: Safety

Ivy

Perched on the end of the camp bed in Ginny's room I looked around the room, the desire to do something filling me up but I was not really in the mood to go down to the others yet. I needed to get my head straight first, to put my priorities in order and get myself in the right frame of mind for the task that lay ahead of me, it would do me no good to dwell on the past now. Glancing at Ginny's bedside table I spotted my wand and reached out to pick it up. Feeling the slender wooden stick against my finger tips I hitched up the silken skirt of my dress and slipped the wand into a holder around my leg, I wasn't taking a bag downstairs and I had nowhere else I could put it that was easy to access. I had to have my wand with me, I thought as I let the hem of my dress fall back to the floor and I straightened out the skirt, the wizarding world had taken a turn for the more dark and dangerous lately, you never knew what would happen next. There were prominent witches and wizards disappearing and turning up dead left right and centre, it wasn't wise to walk about unarmed, even in the places were you felt safe. Because now no one was out of harm's way, not even the bravest or most skilled duellers. That thought triggered a memory and with a heart full of sorrow I remembered the best example of the fact, that no one was safe anymore.

A few weeks ago

The cool summer breeze ran its fingers through my hair as I sped through the night sky with Bill on the back of a Threstral. Clinging to him I couldn't help but feel that I'd sooner be on a broom, but I knew that tonight wasn't the night to be complaining and I'd be fine as I was, besides the rush of adrenaline that came with flying was still there and I'd missed it lately. Looking right I glanced in the direction I knew the others, who flying along side us, were. I couldn't see them due to the Disillusionment Charm everyone had up, but I knew they were there and I felt a certain amount of comfort and pride from knowing we were all flying out together. Determination filled me up as we flew towards our destination, this was my first real mission alongside the Order and it was a vitally important one, tonight we were taking Harry away from Private Drive to the Burrow before his mother's charm broke and he became vulnerable to the Death Eaters. It was a very delicate operation, given the state of the wizarding world at the moment, which was shifting more and more towards being owned by Voldemort with each passing day.

It had taken a lot of planning from the Order but they had worked out a plan we were all happy with and we were executing it tonight. In addition to Bill and I there was also Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Tonks, Lupin, Mr. Weasley, Fred, George, Moody, Kingsley and Mundungus in the team that would be safely transporting Harry away. We were all anxious about the way things were going to go tonight, trouble was a very real and frightening possibility, despite everything that had been done to prevent anything going wrong and everyone was feeling the pressure. Myself included, despite how flying made my heart feel weightless in my chest, my stomach still seemed to be filled with led.

Turning away from the others I looked down at the scattered lights of the Muggle town we were flying over, wondering where we were now, we'd left the Burrow a while ago now, we had to be near little Whinging by now. As I stared out into the blackness bellow, dotted here and there with lights, I felt my mind start to drift, trying not to over think the task we were going to do I thought about the past few weeks with a slight fond smile in place. They had been pleasant, but the calm before the storm I couldn't help thinking.

As soon as we left Hogwarts for the summer I had come straight to the Burrow with Ron, as the Weasley's had taken me in during the holidays since I couldn't stay with my parents. This meant, in addition to spending a lot of time with my second family, I was swept up in the Weasley's preparation for Bill and Fleur's wedding, which as a safety precaution for Harry would be held in the Weasley's garden. Every moment since then had been spent running round with the Weasley children, tidying the garden, emptying the attic, dusting in the rooms, helping Fleur try on her wedding dress for the hundredth time, those sort of things. I didn't have a problem with any of this, and why should I? The Weasley's had taken me in without a second thought ever since Boxing Day and had made me feel really welcome, not once did I feel like I was getting in the way, this was simply an opportunity to thank them for letting me stay with them and have some fun with friends. Fred, George and Ginny made even the most tedious tidying tasks enjoyable and often had Ron and I in stitches.

Things hadn't all been rosy though, I thought with a frown, I might have been enjoying this bit of calm with my friends but the gravity of what we were about to do was always with us, weighing on our minds. Never more so than when Hermione arrived at the Burrow. Fred, George, Ron and I had been cleaning out the pond in the garden using the Wingardium Leviosa charm, finding all kinds of strange things drifting beneath the surface, when Hermione apparated just beyond the gate. Dripping wet from head to toe thanks to the water fight Ron and I had had with the twins, and trying to avoid the strange, soggy, droning doll (which must have once had a charm on it to make it talk that had long since been ruined by the pond water) that Fred was levitating above my head, I had been suddenly nudged by Ron. Confused I had turned to see Hermione standing alone by the gate. Sharing a look with Ron since we had expected Hermione to come today, she'd sent us an owl the day before, but not quite so early we ducked to avoid the manky boot the twins were now playing magical keepy ups with and headed towards her. It wasn't until we were almost at the gate that we realised she was crying.

"Hermione?" I asked gently, suddenly alarmed as I watched the tears roll down my friend's cheeks.

"What happened?" Ron asked before quickly opening the gate and standing by her side, looking like he wanted to comfort her but wasn't sure how.

"I…I…" Hermione sobbed "I did it. I didn't want to but I had to… now they're gone." She managed before dropping her head into her hands, Ron looked at me pleadingly and I hurried to Hermione's other side where I wrapped an arm around her and nodded for Ron to do the same.

"It's all right," I soothed, wracking my brains trying to figure out what Hermione was talking about. I then spotted her trunk and Crookshanks' cat carrier on the path behind her and remembered that we had decided that Hermione would move into the Burrow too, so that we could plan and wait for Harry to come on. "Hermione, what's happened, what did you do?" I asked as Ron awkwardly rubbed her arm and looked at her intently with such worry and tenderness that my heart throbbed painfully. I ignored it, my friend was more important.

"I m…modified my parents m…memory," she whimpered "they don't remember me any more, it's for the b…b…best I know, they've gone to Australia under different names…but still." Hermione gave up trying to regain her composure then and cried openly into her hands, feeling my face contort with understanding and upset for Hermione I rubbed her back soothingly, wanting to help her but knowing from my own experience that there was nothing anyone could say to make her feel better, not yet.

Sharing another glance with an equally sympathetic Ron who said "Come on, let's get you inside." To Hermione we started to lead our friend to the Burrow, her things floating behind us after a quick flick of my wand.

Hermione was fragile for the rest of the day, she barely spoke to anyone unless it was to thank them and even then she looked as though she might suddenly start to cry again. I understood how she felt completely, having done something similar to save my parents from Voldemort and his Death Eaters. It wasn't an easy decision to make but the best one, but that was easy for me to say though I supposed, at least my parents still remembered me. But then again Hermione hadn't been lied to like I had so I supposed we were slightly more even. Hermione had been telling Ron and I for days that she had to do something for them and we agreed with her, we had just hoped it wouldn't hurt her so much as this had. Hermione's attempt to protect her family and my family's current situation had gotten Ron thinking too. After we went off in search of the Horcruxes, what was there to stop the Death Eaters from coming to the Burrow in search of information, it was a thought that terrified us all. After a few days thought Ron had come up with the perfect solution, with the help of Fred and George he would bewitch the ghoul in the attic to look a bit like him, so that if anyone came looking for him when he didn't turn up at school then his mum, who had found out that we weren't going back to Hogwarts and was firmly against it, would tell them Ron had spattergroit. A nasty wizarding infection that was highly contagious. And with that we had at least one thing sorted out; our families would all be safe in our absence.

Though Ron and I wouldn't have believed it possible before, things got even busier after Hermione arrived, and not just because the wedding was getting closer and the Order was planning on moving Harry from the Dursleys soon. Hermione had come out of her misery in the only way you'd expect from her, full of energy and determination, she'd spent the next few weeks nagging Ron and I to pack our things up so that we would be ready to leave at a moments notice and trying to plan out what we would do. She had turned all her energy towards making this mission of ours a success so much so that Ron and I could only stand there and be nervous.

However, I was fortunate enough to find an escape from that for a little while. A week after Hermione arrived I got a owl from Marcus and Carcia (the witch and wizard looking after my family) saying that Dumbledore once mentioned to them that he thought I might like to visit my parents this summer, and they were asking me if I would still want to. After only a moments pondering at how Dumbledore could have possibly known that and a skywards thank you to him, I hastily wrote a letter back explaining that I'd like nothing more than to visit my family. The next thing I knew I got an owl saying that Marcus would come to the Burrow that very evening to pick me up and I'd get to spend the whole week with my family, who I hadn't seen since Christmas. At the agreement of the Order and the encouragement of my friends (though Ron wasn't pleased he had to bear the brunt of Hermione's nervousness) I was ushered out of the Burrow and apparated to the safe house with Marcus to visit my family.

The trip wasn't very exciting, but it was exactly what I needed and I felt better after just an hour in my family's company, less worried, less hurt, less angry, it was as though the troubles of the past month and what was going to happen in the future melted away and none of it mattered any more. Though these things didn't leave me entirely, they stayed at the back of my mind, niggling away. However I did my best to ignore that. Everyone was fine, they missed home and their friends but they were all coping and I found myself incredibly proud of my family and sorry at the same time. They shouldn't have to go through this.

As the end of my visit grew nearer my parents started to act more worried about me, they'd heard quite a few things from Marcus and Carcia about what had happened at Hogwarts and they were frightened for me. I reassured them I'd be fine but Matt was harder to sway, he'd overheard Marcus cursing Malfoy for what he'd done and demanded that I explain why someone I had said was my friend would try to kill Dumbledore. In the end I had to tell Matt the truth, he was determined that he would know everything and, like my friends, I hated lying to my family, even though I'd do it without a moments hesitation if I had to and with the others, I had to. Matt was older and more likely to understand. I told him everything that happened between Malfoy and I because I knew he'd never leave it be otherwise. He didn't react well. To say he was mad would be an understatement, Matt looked as though he were ready to hunt Draco down and rip his head off but I made him promise to be good and not tell anyone, he agreed very reluctantly. After all their worrying later in the week everyone made a special effort on the last day to be twice as jovial and happy as usual to make up for it, however halfway though laughing at my sisters' dinner time antics I had a vision. It was my first vision since arriving at the safe house and my family were horrified to find the state I got into during my visions now and all panicked when I fainted. They'd never seen me react like that before; however, they weren't as scared as I was when I came back around.

In my vision I was on ridding on the back of a Threstral with someone else, rain fell harshly against my cheeks and it was freezing. The vision didn't last very long but it was long enough, as soon as I got my bearings on the Threstral I realised that we weren't alone up in the skies, that several dark, hooded figures surrounded us. Death Eaters. With a gasp I came back around, surrounded by my frightened family and breathing heavily. After reassuring everyone that I was fine and that this was normal I realised that I had had this vision before, after Dumbledore's funeral in the long vision of flashing scenes. Anxious I said goodbye to my family, realising with a horrible prang that this could be the last time that I ever saw them, and apparated back to the Burrow, with Carcia this time. She smiled at me and told me that she was coming in to talk to the Order, who were having a meeting at the time. As we walked in I heard them talking about their plans to retrieve Harry from the Dursleys' in a few nights time, they would be using brooms, Threstrals and Hagrid's motorbike to get Harry safely to the Burrow and avoid detection by the Trace. Not to mention the rain forecast to fall on the night in question, which would also be able to cover them. As soon as I heard the words 'Threstrals' and 'rain' I remembered my vision.

"You can't move Harry then," I said suddenly and every pair of eyes in the room shot to me, the Order, the Weasleys, Carcia, Fleur, Ron and Hermione. I didn't blush though; I just held my head high in determination, trying to look as credible as possible.

"Why is that?" Mad-Eye Moody asked from where he sat at the head of the table, detailing the plan.

"I had a vision," I said as Moody's electric blue eye inspected me "I saw myself ridding on the back of a Threstral in the rain at night and then suddenly there were Death Eaters all around me. I think it means they know when we're planning on moving Harry, it's not safe to go then."

The Order pondered my words and after a few questions like 'are you sure it was a vision?' and' it was definitely them?' they agreed that we'd have to move Harry on a different day. Opting for that coming Saturday the Order also decided to put some extra precautions in place, such as using Polyjuice potion to confuse any Death Eater that should show up and setting a false trail for the Death Eaters to follow, leading them away from the new date.

And here we were, flying out to Harry's aunt and uncle's house on brooms, Threstrals and Sirius' old motorbike, about to undertake to difficult task of getting Harry to safety. It was hard not to feel edgy as I sat on the Threstral with Bill, given the scenes in my vision, but I had done all that I could to prevent it and it wasn't raining now like it had been in my vision, so I told myself I'd be fine and focused on other things. Ron, Hermione and I couldn't wait to have Harry with us, even if we had to keep him safe first; we'd all missed him terribly. It hadn't seemed right to us, sitting up in Ron's room and trying to plan without him. Not that Mrs. Weasley gave us much chance to plan, ever since she found out that we weren't going back to Hogwarts next year she had been trying to keep us apart in the hopes we'd give up our plans. I could see her reasoning and I didn't blame her at all, she thought of the lot of us as her family and I felt bad for having to do this to her, but there simply wasn't another way.

"Almost there," Bill told me over the sound of the wind rushing past my ears and I looked up from the ground.

"Alright," I called back, holding myself straighter on the Threstral and preparing myself, we didn't know what to expect. If I was Voldemort (shudder) and my arch enemy was being kept somewhere I couldn't touch him, but I knew that he would be moved soon I knew for a fact that I'd have someone watching the building, just in case, and I would be surprised if we didn't come across a Death Eater sentry. That would be the best case scenario of course, the worst case scenario would be that we had been betrayed by one of our own and they were all already waiting for us. Feeling my wand pressing against my thigh through my jeans pocket, I hoped for the best.

My stomach lurched a little and I noticed that we were losing height, looking down I spotted a small cluster of lights I took to be the village of Little Whinging. Here we go, I thought as we descended and I held onto Bill a little tighter with my left arm and pressed my right to my jeans pocket, just in case. Everything went fine though, we weren't attacked and there wasn't so much a dark cloaked figure in sight. Landing in the very tidy garden of one of the houses there everyone lifted their Disillusionment Charms and popped back into existence. Looking to my right I watched as Hermione, who really didn't like flying, was lifted pale faced from the other Threstral by Kingsley; she gave me a sheepish smile which I returned with a little laugh. Dismounting from the Threstral Bill and I made our way over to the others just as Harry's back door flew open and out dashed the man himself.

"All righ', Harry?" Hagrid asked from where he stood by the motorbike "ready fer the off?"

"Definitely," Harry answered without a moment's hesitation, as anxious to leave this house as I had been to leave my old Primary school, which made perfect sense. Grinning widely at us all he said "but I wasn't expecting this many of you!" In a way that suggested he wasn't upset by the turn out.

"Couldn't stay away," I joked having missed my friend, there was a murmur of pleasant laughter and then Moody said seriously,

"Change of plan, lets get undercover before we talk you through it."

And with that Harry led the way into the Dursley's house, the back door opened up into the kitchen and I couldn't help but notice how clean it was in there, Harry hadn't been exaggerating when he said his aunt was a neat freak. Every surface shone with cleanliness and there wasn't a thing out of place as far as I could see, well apart from all of us of course, we didn't belong somewhere like this. Leaning against the kitchen table the twins were now sat at I waited for Moody to say something but Harry spoke first.

"Kingsley, I thought you were looking after the Muggle Prime Minster?" he asked as Hermione lent against the cabinet by his side.

"He can get along without me for one night," Kingsley said with a warm smile "you're more important."

"Harry, guess what?" Tonks said from where she sat atop the washing machine, I watched as my pink haired friend waved her left hand at Harry and caught sight of the glittering ring there. I smiled as Harry's eyes widened and Lupin grinned at Harry sheepishly.

"You got married?" Harry exclaimed his gaze flicking between the newlyweds questioningly.

"I'm sorry you couldn't be there, Harry," Lupin apologised, him having said the same thing to the rest of us I expected it. Very few people had even known they were going to get married. I didn't mind that I hadn't gone and I doubted Harry would either, I was just happy for them both. "It was very quiet."

"That's brilliant, congrat-" Harry started but was cut across by Moody, who looked impatient.

"All right, all right, we'll have the time for a cosy catch up later!" he shouted over the sound of everyone talking, since all the others had taken this as an excuse to strike up their own conversations. Behind me the twins were tapping the buttons on the microwave to make it beep and Mr. Weasley was inspecting the house phone with a keen interest. Everyone fell silent at Moody's words and turned back to look at him.

"As Dedalus probably told you," Moody said to Harry "we had to abandon plan A. Pius Thicknesse has gone over, which gives us a big problem. He's made it an imprisonable offence 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 getting out of here safely."

"Second problem: you're under-age, which means you've still got the Trace on you." Moody continued but a confused Harry interrupted.

"I don't-" he said but Moody cut across him again.

"The Trace, the Trace!" he urged, though Harry looked none the wiser "the charm that detects magical activity around the under-seventeens, the way the Ministry finds out about under-age magic! If you, or anyone around you, casts a spell to get you out of here, Thicknesse is 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, Thicknesse thinks he's got you cornered good and proper."

"So what are we going to do?" An anxious looking Harry asked.

"We're going to use the only modes of transport left to us, the only ones the Trace can't detect, because we don't need to cast spells on them: brooms, threstals and Hagrid's motorbike. We're moving you before the trace breaks. We wanted do it the other day, like we originally planned, but Jones here had a vision that made us change days." Moody said as he jerked his thumb in my direction, Harry looked at me questioningly and I shrugged.

"I saw Death Eater's attacking us in the air, despite everything we were planning to do to stay safe. But it was raining in my vision; it isn't tonight so we ought to be fine now we've changed days." I said more to reassure everyone, since all eyes were now on me, than anything else, since I still knew it was better to be safe than sorry were Death Eaters were concerned.

Moody then went on to explain to Harry that we were breaking his mother's charm early because the only other alternative was to do it on his birthday, when Voldemort would surely be waiting to descend on the house and attack Harry. He then told Harry about all the other protective measures the Order had put in place, like the fake trail in which the Ministry thought Harry was leaving on the thirtieth and not today. Also he explained that just in case the Death Eaters were watching they had given twelve different houses intense amounts of protection implying that any one of them could be the house Harry was heading for. Seeing a supposed hole in the plan Harry then pointed out that while this was all fine and good, wouldn't the Death Eaters only have to follow Harry to know which house he was going to, at which point Moody told him the final part of the plan. Seven of our number would be drinking Polyjuice potion and flying around looking like Harry to confuse the Death Eaters.

"No!" Harry protested, reacting exactly like Hermione, Ron and I had expected him to. We knew he wouldn't like the idea of people endangering themselves for him, because it certainly would be dangerous to look like Harry if the Death Eaters did appear. Though that said, they wouldn't be aiming to kill those that looked like him, their master wanted to be the one to finish Harry and they wouldn't want to anger him. "No way!"

"I told them you'd take it like this," Hermione said with a touch of smugness.

"If you think I'm going to let six people risk their lives- !" Harry continued to rant, all but oblivious to the fact that not one of us cared.

"- because it's a first time for all of us." Ron drawled.

"Yep," I agreed sarcastically, this was just like at the end of last year when Harry was trying to go off on his own to find the Horcruxes, he still didn't understand that we were in this with him, that we'd risk our lives to protect him "we've never done anything dangerous before, us."

"This is different, pretending to be me – " Harry spluttered and Fred rolled his eyes.

"Well, none of us really fancy it, Harry," Fred told him "imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever." Harry set his lips in a firm line but the rest of us chuckled at bit at that.

"You can't do it if I don't cooperate; you need me to give you some hair." Harry said firmly, folding his arms across his chest and looking determined.

"Well, that's the plan scuppered," George intoned "obviously there's no chance at all of us getting a bit of your hair unless you cooperate."

"Yeah, thirteen of us against one bloke who's not allowed to use magic; we've got no chance." Fred said toying with his wand meaningfully.

The argument went on like that for a little while longer, Harry didn't want to back down and obviously hated the idea of us putting ourselves in danger for him but he had no choice, we were all over age and we'd all made our decision. So, a few more threats, sarcastic comments, a growl from Moody and a few 'just do it' looks on our part later, Harry reluctantly pulled some hairs from his head and deposited them into Moody's flask of potion.

"We'll be fine," I said quietly to a dejected looking Harry as the potion began to smoke and froth. Harry just let out a noise of passive agreement that told me he didn't really believe what I had said.

"Ooh," Hermione said drawing my attention to the potion that had now turned from muddy brown to a brilliant gold "you look much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle, Harry."

I laughed then, catching a double meaning there but privately agreeing with Hermione, the shiny golden potion that would make us look like Harry appeared a lot nicer than the ones we had drunk in our second year. Ron raised his eyebrows at Hermione who rolled her eyes "oh, you know what I mean – Goyle's Potion looked like bogies."

"That it did," I agreed "this cant be as bad as Parkinson's at least," I said looking at the potion, remembering how I had taken a hair from Parkinson in our second year to put in Polyjuice potion so that I could sneak into the Slytherin common room with the others. "That was like drinking liquefied soot." I observed with a shudder at the memory, not pleasant.

"Right then, fake Potter's line up over hear, please." Moody called and Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and I stood in single file before him.

"Were one short." Said Lupin from where he stood beside an unhappy Harry, who was watching us all with worry.

"Here," Hagrid said as he lifted Mundrungus up by the scuff of his neck and dropped him into line behind me. The smell coming off him turned my stomach but I didn't move, I just turned away from the cowardly wizard and looked at Ron and Hermione.

"I've toldjer, I'd sooner be a protector," Mundrungus insisted, obviously terrified.

Having none of Mundrungus' cowardliness Moody growled "shut it," irritably before forcibly telling him what I had already reasoned, that those pretending to be Harry would be the safest of all of us tonight, since no Death Eater would want to risk the wrath of their master by killing Harry. Mundrungus looked far from reassured but no one really cared, Moody was already pulling half a dozen shot glasses from inside his cloak and filling them with Polyjuice potion. He then began to hand them out. Taking my serving of the gold liquid I eyed it for a moment, wondering if it would feel as bad to turn into Harry as it had to Parkinson and knowing that it probably would, the discomfort had been the potion at work and had nothing to do with personality like the taste had.

"Altogether then…" Moody said and without any hesitation at all I gave the others one quick glance and downed the potion.

Author note: so yeah, I'm not very happy with this chapter, I dislike it; it was supposed to be more exciting than this but as if the norm with me, this has turned out longer than intended so what happens next will have to be another chapter. Sigh, but what am I gunna do about it? Anyway, feedback is always welcome; please let me know what you think.

Oh and while I' here, I'd like to make a recommendation. If you don't already I would, suggest that you start to read Civia Snape's Harry Potter fic: 'the tale of Civia Potter'. It is set during Harry's sixth year and follows his aunt Civia who takes up the post of potions mistress that year, it is an absolutely stunning fic and I love the way it's written and its slowly building, but adorable, romance. So yeah, I'd recommend that you read it if you get the chance. :)

Anonymous review reply:

Maddy: Thanks for the review, I'm glad you liked it and pleased that you found it addictive. Your comments were fair, I do have problems with my spelling and paragraph length and I can only hope that this chapter is better, I have made a conscious effort. However I do appreciate your comments, constructive criticism is always welcome as it helps to make you a better writer, which is what all of us want. Also I am thrilled that you like the way I portray Draco. So thanks! :)