CHAPTER 3
Its been a day since my official joining to the Order Of The Phoenix and my plan so far has been structured well. But in the mean time I'm packing my bag to stay at the burrow with Fred for a few nights. I slept in a bit late but thats not my fault, Sirius was supposed to remind me, so I'm quickly gathering my things to take.
"Uh.. Book, clothes, toothbrush, broom. I think thats it.." A quiet squeak echos behind me and I jump at the horrible high pitched noise, "I think your forgetting something." Remus points to me, I look down and see that i'm in my pajamas.
"Oh, crap. That could have been embarrassing.." Remus laughs at me while I go the the closet in the corner and grab a teeshirt and a pair of jeans.
"Happy Birthday by the way, here I got you something." I walk over to Remus with a smile on my face, "thanks but you didn't have to."
"Here take it." Remus pulls out a rectangle package wrapped in brown paper, I take it carefully and open it.
"'The rare book of unknown and unused spells!'" I jump with happiness onto Remus giving him the biggest bear hug I could manage, thank you so much!" Remus finally gives into the hug and smiles, "very hard to find you know."
I nod, I have been looking for this book for the past 2 years, every book shop in Diagon Alley doesn't stock the item and the only known place that did, ran out and couldn't find anymore.
"Good to see you've cheered up a bit." I smile at him and put the book down neatly onto my bed, I was just about to lift up my shirt to get changed when I realised, "uh, could you turn around for a sec?" A slight tinge of red appears on Remus' cheeks and he turns to face the door, "sorry." I jump into my jeans and tug a shirt over my head, "okay, your safe." Remus turns around and I wave my wand over my head, making my hair straight and shiney.
"Anyway Remus, thanks for seeing me off and for the absolutely wonderful gift, but I better get going to the burrow." I smile and nod as I walk passed him then stop when I get to his feet, "thats alright, might see you tonight anyway." I give him a confused look, "Molly has invited most of the Order around for supper."
"Oh.. Well I'll see you then." I quickly give him another hug and say thank you then walk past him and to the stairs where I tumble down the last 4 steps, "ouch.." Harry walks out of a room to see what the fuss is about and gives me his hand, "you okay?" I nod, "yeah fine, thanks. Oh, sorry but I better be going." I jog to the front door, open it and step out onto the empty street where the light from bright sun reflects off the surface of the road. I prepare myself on my broomstick with my rucksack secured over my shoulders, and jolt at the sudden burst of air on my face as I fly off the ground and into the sky. I look over the many apartments and buildings of London before wondering how I get to the burrow from here. Sirius said it isn't that far away so I look over the hill tops and then turn to my right where the familiar empty land spreads across the hills, of course its really not that empty. I change my direction to the east and fly for about 30 minutes before I pass through the protective barrier and clearly see the burrow, I sigh, I wish I had such a warm place as this to call home. A pair of very small arms wave from side to side in the small vegetable garden so I lower the broom and land about 10 feet away from the one and only, George Weasley.
"Bells! Happy birthday!" George runs over to me and gives me a hug, I smile, this is what I really miss, hanging out with friends and forgetting all of the other troubles.
"Thanks." We both walk into the house, at first unnoticed by the others in the living room but then the floorboard creaked, "happy birthday!" Four screams echo across to my ears, Ginny jumps up and hugs me, I haven't seen her since Hogwarts last year, and considering we used to do everything together, is quite sad. I say hello hello to Mr and Mrs Weasley, George walks into the kitchen with Ginny and Ron whispers to me "Fred is upstairs if your wondering, Mum and Dad had a go at him." I nod and once everyone calms down a bit and continues with what they were doing before, I sneak up the main flights of stairs to find Fred. I have always loved that about the Weasley's, they always have a bit of excitement in them, cheerful and happy with a broad smile on their face. I run up the rest of the stairs and knock on Fred's door, "bugger off Ginny." I laugh and open the door, Fred is sitting on his bed holding a box of Bertie Bots Beans, he looks up at me and a silly smirk appears on his face. I jump on Fred's lap and kiss him on the lips, his lips soft with a stunned look on his face, he pulls back for breath, "wow, I missed you too." I put my arms around his neck and once again hug him, 'no matter what,' I think to myself, 'i'm not letting go.'
"Happy birthday." He plies me off with his arms to look me in the eyes, and hands me a small gold bracelet with a 'W' hanging from it. I smile and kiss him again, this time it lasts a lot longer and he's not as surprised as before. I pull back from our kiss and smile, "you really shouldn't have, its so beautiful.." I admire the bracelet and Fred takes my hand, "if you haven't already noticed the bad workmanship, I made the 'W,' it stands for Weasley. You really are a part of the family, to all of us." I smile, I never hoped for such a wonderful birthday, especially with all the tragedy that has happened in the last week, this morning surprisingly has taken my mind off everything, I needed this.
"No, its beautiful, thank you so much." Butterflies circle my stomach as Fred puts his hand on my waist and kisses me again. He pulls back again, "so what else has happened lately?" I sigh, and go on about Snape, Sirius taking me in and joining The Order Of The Phoenix, it took about an hour to explain but I got through everything.
"Bells, I'm so sorry about Snape..."
I shake my head, "its fine, I'm starting to realise that i'm doing the right thing and thats helping me through." He lifts me to my feet and grabs my hand, "come on lets go down stairs." I follow him down the stairs where we join Ron and Ginny in the living room, we sit on the small beaten up sofa and talk about different pranks George has been thinking up until its almost dark outside.
"Times gone fast." I pull the curtain to one side of the window and hear a small bell ringing, "i'll get it!" Mrs Weasley runs to the door in her cooking apron and opens it "come in, come in!" She waves Sirius, Tonks, Remus and Harry in, Ginny stands and rushes to Harry's side, I nudge Fred, "is Ginny and Harry going out?" He shakes his head, "they need to hurry up already." George laughs in the corner while Fred and Ron turn protective, "what do you mean!"
The newly arrived guests turn to the noise, I cough, "nothing." Sirius smiles and they all follow Mrs Weasley into the kitchen, "come on you lot, teas ready," she pops her head from around the corner and rushes back behind the door. Fred and I follow behind George and Ron into the kitchen, a large table is crammed in a small room surrounded by everyone, we all sit in our seats. Cutlery, plates, lovely smelling food and drinks fly across the room and land in-front of everyone with a slight 'bang.' I notice that Remus and Tonks are siting no-where near each other, I sigh, they must have had another fight, I always thought they were the perfect couple until they actually got together, no idea what went wrong though.
"Please, start." Mrs Weasley sits beside her husband at the head of the table and the conversation livens up, stories are told and laughs are focussed on Fred and George, the conversation moves on to a more sensible topic of the Ministry and then George changes the subject again to Fred's and his planing of opening up their own shop.
"Hopefully next week." I faded out of the conversation leaving Fred and George in the spotlight. It was another hour sitting at the table having tea before I joined the conversation again, someone changed the subject of Animagus', I turn to face Sirius, "can anyone learn to become an Animagus?" Everyone around us stops and faces us, also waiting for an answer.
"Well, when you put it that way, yes. But only some should." Everyone turns back to their conversation leaving Sirius and I in an awkward silence, I almost whisper to him, "would you be able to teach, me?" He curiously stares at me and smirks, "depends." I'll take that as 'i'll think about it' then. Molly stands up and starts to clear the table, waving her wand to take the dirty dishes and plonk them into the sink. Ginny stands and walks over to the bench, then turns towards me, "now I know you said I couldn't do anything," I shut my eyes and drop my head into my palm, "but.. This is my compromise."
"Ginny..." Someone hits me on the back of the head, "hey!" I look behind me, George trying to hold back a stupid look points at Ginny.
"Happy birthday," Ginny places a small green cupcake in-front of me, in the centre one candle. I sheepishly smile at her as everyone watches with a broad smile on their face.
"Come on then, blow out the candle." Sirius' encouragement doesn't really help my embarrassment but never the less I take a deep breath and blow it out. I look up at Ginny, "you happy now?" She nods with a smile on her face and George bursts out with a little giggle, I turn to him wondering whats so funny.
"Wha-" The cupcake explodes and lands over everyone, I've copped most of it though, I burst out into hysterics too, everyone has. Fred wipes a bit of cupcake off my face and eats it, "-you - alright there?-" My talking is now broken up with laughter, but I can't help it.
Mrs Weasley, just realising what has happened, strides over the Fred and George, hits them on the back of the head while yelling at them, just making the moment funnier as Mr Weasley sits laughing.
After Fred and George were forced to clean up everything that got splattered with cupcake in the kitchen I sat with Ginny upstairs talking until she found Harry and left, again. I smile as George enters the room, "having fun down there are we?" I show a sly smile, "yeah sure, sure." I laugh and George sits down next to me on the floor "its just karma."
"What?" I shake my head, "never mind. Anyway, wheres Fred? Planning another prank on an unwilling victim?"
"Now that you mention it, said he was going up to the attic to find our old joke book, so yeah probably." He smiles and I shake my head playfully at him, "everyones about to leave if you want to go say goodbye."
"Okay, i'll be back then." I stand and jog down the mainly flights of stairs to the front door Sirius and Remus stops when they see me, "you coming now too I suppose?" I shake my head, "Ginny offered that I stay the night, you know - to get away from your unpleasant wakeup calls." I wink at him and Sirius chuckles and turns to Mr Weasley, "might want to make sure that her and Fred's bedroom doors are locked then." I bush and timidly look at Mrs Weasley who stands next to her husband, "probably wise.." Remus and Sirius walk out the door and I follow Mr and Mrs Weasley to say goodbye, Tonks must have already left because I can't see her anywhere, I thought her and Remus would have left together as usual.. Somethings up with those two. Remus stares out into the dark night sky and his eyes turn fully black, "are you okay Remus?" Better ask just in case.
"Its a few days before the full moon, probably restless right moony?" Sirius puts his hand on Remus' shoulder and steps in-front of him, this time with a confused look. Remus takes a hurried step back and screams "watch out!" Two loud bangs were followed by large amounts of smoke, Mrs Weasley grabbed her husbands arm from shock as Remus ran towards where the noise came from, but a large fire surrounds his exit and spreads around the burrow.
"Sirius what happened!" I turn towards him, yelling over the noise of the fire. Remus stands ahead with Mr Weasley now trying to clam that flames that act like a snake.
"Stay here," Harry runs out the door and jumps through the fire, "Harry!" Sirius runs after him as does Ginny. My heart begins to race, the death eaters have left the fire and are now being chased by Sirius, Harry and Ginny. Without thinking I run to the fire but Remus grabs me by the arm just in time, "don't even think about it!" I roll my eyes, why does Remus has to be so protective at the right times? Can't I just do something stupid for once and live with the consequences? I pull my wand out from my back pocket, "sorry Remus." Waving the wand over the hand the clenches my arm it springs back and I run through the slight gap of the fire and into the tall grass fields, "Bella!" Remus runs after me and I turn my head while running forwards to catch a glimpse of him about five feet behind me.
"Come and catch me Potter!" The high pitched squeal of Belatrix Lestrange echos the distance, a sound you never forget in a life time. I puff furiously and sprint in the direction of the voice. Reflection from the moon bounces off a small lake just ahead and I suddenly stop in my tracks when I see Harry and Ginny back to back with wands drawn.
A hard and heavy force slams into my back and pushes me to the ground, Remus didn't see that I stopped and has tripped over me. I dropped my wand somewhere and try to move to find it but Remus is still on-top of me.
"Remus, I have to get up!" I yell as loud as I dare into his ear and he pulls himslef off me and grabs me arm to help e up before running to the middle of the lake to stands on a small patch of dirt with Harry and Ginny. Flashes of red light cross the lake and shields are cast to protect. I search the ground and find my wand covered in mud within seconds and run to Remus' side casting my favorite spell 'reducto' in the direction of our pursuers. Sirius runs from out of the tall grass and leaps in-front of Harry beside me and starts doing the same. Bellatrix's white face glimpses in the moonlight, her eyes crazed and hair tangled around her face she steps closer and an unmistakable green light flashes from her wand in Remus' direction, before he can notice I leap in-front of him and catch the worst effects of the torture curse, I scream and shake on the ground in pain and the other pursuer calls out to Bellatrix to leave, and so they do, black clouds of smoke spawn from the ground and disappear into the night. Remus drops to his knees beside me and takes me head in his hands, "what happened?" Ginny grabs my hand and tries to calm me and being me and hating the feeling of attention I calm my nerves and stop shaking to see Harry and Sirius run through the grass ahead, "will she be okay?"
"Yes, it looks like it." Remus' face is worried and full of guilt, "Bella, lay back down I'll go get some help."
"- n - no." My heart pounding in my chest and bones feeling torn and weak I slowly move to get up, "- I - i'lll be fine.."
"Bella lay back down you'll only make it worse!" Remus gently puts his hand on my collar bone to push me back down but I hesitate and move the muscles in my feet to get up, trying not to make the pain any worse but failing, "I need to help." Remus stands and takes me shoulders as Ginny lets go of my hand, "i'll go get someone to help her." She runs through the grass and I jerk out of Remus' grip feeling a intense pain in my left shoulder followed by a nasty crack. I softly swallow, grit my teeth and ignore it, my mind focused on Fred, to see if he's okay.
"Bella please," Remus tries to grab my arm to hold me back but its to late, I hurtle my way through the thick grass and out of the water feeling the pain in my shoulder and legs. I see a bright red and yellow up ahead as I reach the end of the meadow. The burrow, lit up and in flames from the line of fire surrounding it. I look around and see everyones outside watching it burn, including Fred and fall to the ground with relief. My eyes slowly black out and I hear hurried footsteps, "Bella! Can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you hand hear me?" Remus grabs my numb hand, I try to do what he has told me to butI can't. My hearing goes fuzzy and all I hear is 'Bella. Bella. Bella.' echoing past me. Finally, my mind gives way and I fall unconscious with strange dreams of bats and a black dog in an alleyway somewhere in London, the dark mark is high in the sky I and follow the dog down the never ending pebble path..