Chapter 2

The Seven Potters

It was about a week before the end of July when at 1:00 in the morning, the doorbell rang. I rolled over in bed. Who could be calling at this time? What if it was something bad? Chills ran down my spine. Quietly, I crept down the stairs and looked out the window. I could see that someone was there. They moved over to the window and I saw that they were holding a wand.

"Lumos," They muttered. The light from the tip of the wand shone at the person's face revealing their identity. It was the face of Arthur Weasley, Ron's dad.

"Open the door," he mouthed. I nodded and flung the door open.

"Thank you," he said, he walked into the house. That's when I realized that he wasn't alone. Into the house flooded Fred, Ron, Hermione, Bill, Fleur, Lupin, Tonks, Moody, Kingsley and finally George. Our eyes met for a moment and then he looked away hastily.

"What are you all doing here?' I asked.

"Getting you to safety," Tonks said.

"What is all the racket down here?" I turned around and saw Mum was heading down the stairwell of our mansion. Hate to say it. But I live in a rich neighborhood. Honestly, Cindy, my neighbor has and elevator inside her house.

"Mum, it's just the order," I said.

"What are you doing here in the middle of the night?" she spat at Lupin.

"Sorry to bother you Tina, but tonight we have to get Harry to safety,"

"Safety? To Where? I don't understand Remus,"

"Tina, tonight we have to get Harry to the burrow. I advise you to leave at once, get out of the country if you can. You must understand that here you are in great danger and you have leave. Death Eaters will attack anyone close to Harry and that would be you. You're the closest thing Harry has to parents,"

"Why couldn't you have told us sooner?" Mum demanded, "Then we would have had time to pack. And I thought we would be going to Bill and Fleur's wedding"

"We couldn't let anyone know about this," Lupin said. "I'll explain later. We have to get out of here in an hour, and yes, you will be at the wedding. Then you'll leave after it,"

"Karina, wake Harry," Tonks said, "get a move on!"

"Yeah," I bolted upstairs and jabbed Harry in the back.
"What the hell Karina?" Harry asked.

"Get dressed. The Order's here to take you to the burrow,"

"Oh that's lovely," he said sarcastically. I glanced around his room. It was all untidy and unpacked.

"Get packing then come downstairs,"

"Ugh"

"We only have an hour," I ran into my room and emptied my school trunk. No need for those, I thought throwing my Ravenclaw robes into the corner. I emptied my dresser and stuck all the contents in my trunk. Finally, I tackled my bedside table where I still hadn't removed the picture from 2 years ago of me and George together. Was it a mistake breaking up with him? I couldn't bear to look at it any longer. I miss him, but I can't turn back what I said to him. I placed the photo into my trunk. After taking down all my posters, I got changed.

I headed downstairs. Harry was still up there.

"That was fast," Hermione said.

"Yeah," I muttered. I couldn't help looking at George. I hadn't expected our relationship to be this hostile now.

"You okay Karina?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah I'm fine," I said tearing my eyes away from him.

After waiting another 15 minutes, we were ready to go.

"We will meet you at the burrow," Lupin said after he helped my parents load all our stuff into the van.

"What about Karina?"

"Karina will need to help us with a special matter of getting Harry to the Burrow,"

"Why can't he travel with us?" Mum asked.

"He needs all the protection he can. Trust me Tina; he will be much safer with all us Aurors then with you,"

"Aurors?"

"Dark wizard catchers," Ron said.

"Then why do you need Karina?"

"We need one more person to be part of our plan to get Harry to the Burrow alright," Lupin said, "I'll explain later,"

"Alright but it better be safe," Mum said.
"No worries Tina. It should all go smoothly,"

"Alright," Mum said, "we're off then,"

"See you in a few hours," I said. Her and dad left.

"Let's go into the kitchen," I said, turning on the light. Fred made himself comfortable on the stove while Ginny and Tonks hopped on top of the counter.

"Harry, guess what?" Tonks said from her perch in top of the counter. She wiggled her left and at him on it was a glittering ring.
"You got married?" Harry yelped looking from her to Lupin.

"Sorry Harry. It was very quiet,"

"That's brilliant! Congrat-,"

"All right, all right!" Moody exclaimed, "We'll do a cozy catching up time later," The room was silent.

"First of all we had to give up plan A. Pius Thicknesse has taken over at the ministry which gives us a huge problem. He's made it an imprisonable offence to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a portkey here or to Apparate in or out. All done in the name of you protection. To prevent you-Know who getting in at you. Absolutely pointless since your mother's charm does it already. What he's really done is to stop you for getting out of here safely. Second problem: you and Karina are both underage, which means you still have the trace on you,'

"I don't," Harry said.

"The trace," said Mad Eye "is the charm that detects magical activity from under 17 year olds. That's they way the ministry finds out if you have been using magic outside of school. If you or anyone around you casts a spell o gets 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 either cuz one Karina's underage and two, when you're 17 your mother's charm will break. In short: Pius Thicknesse think he has you cornered good and proper,"

"So, what's happening?" Harry asked.

"We're going to use the only methods of transportation the trace can't detect: brooms, Thestrals and Hagrid's motorbike," Harry nodded.

"Now your mother's charm will only break under 2 conditions: when you come of age or when you no longer call this place home. You, Karina and your aunt and uncle will be going their separate ways tonight, in full understanding that you're never going to live together again,"

Harry nodded.

"But I thought this was your home now," I said, coming up to Harry, "you refer to it as home,"

"Karina, I'm almost an adult now. I wasn't planning on coming back after this year anyway," he shook his head, "don't take it personally Rina. I just have my own life. This never really felt like home to me much, but at least it was nicer then with the Dursleys,"

"We're choosing to break it early because the alternative is waiting for You Know Who to come seize you the moment you turn 17," Moody continued.

"The one thing on our side is that You Know who doesn't know that we're moving tonight. We've leaked a fake trail of evidence to the ministry: they think you're not leaving until the 30th, however this is You know who we're dealing with so you can't rely on him getting the date wrong. I bet he has some death eaters patrolling the skies just in case. So, we've given a dozen different houses every protection we could throw at them. They all look like as if they could be the place where we would hide you because they all have some connection with the order: my house, Tonk's parents house, etc,"

"Yeah," Harry said.

"You'll be going to Tonk's parents' house. Once you're within the protective boundaries you can safely take a portkey to the Burrow,"

"Er-yes," said Harry, "Maybe they won't know which of the secure houses I'm heading to, but won't it be obvious if they see 14 of us fly off towards Tonk's parents?"

"Ah," Moody said, "I forgot to mention the key point. 14 of us won't be going to Tonk's parents' house tonight. There will be 7 Harry Potters flying through the skies tonight, each of them with a companion, each pair heading for a safe house,'

"No!" Harry said loudly," No way!"

"I thought he'd take it like this," Hermione muttered.

"If you think I'm going to let 6 people risk their lives for me, you are insane,"

"Well, none of us really fancy it Harry. Imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as scrawny gits forever," Fred said. I bit my tongue to keep from laughing. Harry didn't smile.

"You can't do it if I don't give you my hair," Harry said.
'Then that plan's scuppered," said George.

"Yeah, 13 of us against one bloke who can't use magic. We have no chance," Fred said.
"Funny," Harry snapped, "really amusing,"

"Let's have no more arguments. Times wearing on," Lupin said, "Harry, give us the hairs now,"

"But this is mad! There's no need-,"

"Just do it Harry!" I interrupted.

"Now," barked Moody. Harry reluctantly reached to the top of his head, grabbed some hair and pulled.

"Good," said Moody, 'straight in here if you please," Harry dropped the hair into the potion. At once, it turned bright gold.

"Oh, you look tastier then Crabbe and Goyle,' Hermione commented. Ron raised his eyebrows.

"What? Their potion looked like bogies,"

"Right then, fake Potters line up over here please,' I got into line. Fred, George, Hermione Ron and Fleur were all up there. Moody put the Polyjuice potion into little cups.

"Altogether then…"

"Cheers," I muttered. I took a sip of the potion. I gasped. All of the sudden, my skin started to bubble. I was getting taller my hair getting a bit lighter. My eyesight was getting better. Moody loosened the ties of large sacks which were apparently filed with clothes.

"Wow, we're identical!" Fred and George exclaimed. I rolled my eyes. Were they ever not?

"I dunno though. I still think I'm better looking," Fred said, examining his reflection in the kettle.

"Don't look at me Bill," Fleur said, 'I'm 'ideous," We changed into some clothes.

"Your eyesight is horrible Harry," Hermione said, putting some glasses on.

"I actually find it rather good," I said.

"How can you find my eyesight good?" The real Harry asked.

"Well, when you've been cursed by Bellatrix Lestrange, you can barely see a thing without glasses. I got lucky I didn't become blind," Harry just shook his head.

Once dressed, we took fake rucksacks and owl cages with stuffed snowy owls.

"The pairs will be as follows," Lupin announced, "Fred, you're with Moody,"

"I'm George," said the twin, "you can't tell us apart even when we're Harry/"

"Sorry George-,"

"Just yanking your wand, I'm Fred really,"

"Will you guys ever grow up?" I snapped at Fred.
"No chance Karina, no chance," he grinned. George jut stared off in the opposite direction. I couldn't shake off the feeling that our break up was wrong. Could that be what he was thinking about?

"George, you're with me" Lupin said.

"Okay," he muttered.

"Miss Delacour,"

"I'm taking Fleur on a Thestral," Bill said, "She doesn't like broomsticks too much,"

"Miss Granger with Kingsley, again by Thestral," Hermione looked relieved. Brooms were not her best friends.

"Ron with Tonks," Lupin said, "and Miss Rookworth, you'll be traveling with Mr. Weasley tonight," I nodded.

"That means Harry, you're with me," Hagrid said. Harry nodded.

"So now, we're off," Lupin said. I mounted my broom.

"Good luck everyone," Moody called, "see you in an hour at the Burrow," and we were off.