The idea hovered and shivered delicately, like a soap bubble, and she dared not even look at it directly in case it burst. But she was familiar with the way of ideas, and she let it shimmer, looking away, thinking about something else. Philip Pullman
.***.
Lee stumbled out of an Apparition for the first time since he took his test. He felt sick to his stomach and exhausted and frustrated and concerned and helpless. He felt like he needed a stiff drink. "George, are you okay?" George nodded, glancing at his chest where the sectumsempra was now bleeding profusely. Lee opened the duffel bag to find an empty space.
"Bill always was good with expanding charms." George said, leaning against a tree trunk as he watched Lee. "Best just summon whatever you want."
"Where are we?" Lee asked, glancing around at the beautiful forest they were going to be camping in.
George shrugged. "Dunno. I was just thinking forest. It wasn't very specific. I'm surprised we got anywhere at all, actually."
"Dean…" Fred murmured from the ground, his face pressed into the hard Earth. From the way he was slumped, pale and shivering, it seemed he wouldn't be moving from that position for a while.
"Who?" George knelt down so he and Fred were on the same level. "Dean? Thomas?"
"Forest of Dean." Fred said, his eyes rolling back into his head without his needing to even move them.
"Ah." Lee put his head in his hands for a second and took a deep, shuddering breath. "Right." He looked up, groped for his wand. "Accio dittany." He passed the small bottle to George, who used it on his wounds before tipping some into Fred's mouth.
"Can't hurt."
"I guess." Lee summoned the tent, some food. He put up as many protective wards as he could remember. "At least we'll know they're coming." Lee managed to raise his eyes to George. "You and Fred should go over them later…you're better at wards than I am."
"It'll be fine, Lee, I'm sure." This was said quickly, to get it out of the way. "Lee, what happened? Do you need to sit down? Eat? You should get some sleep – I guess we'll be sleeping most of the day." George gestured vaguely to the impending sunrise.
"What? Oh, no, you two are the ones who are hurt." Lee said, standing. Just as he got to his feet, though, the ground wobbled beneath him. "Damn." He just managed to murmur before he fell to the ground.
When he woke, it was Fred who was sitting next to him, looking pale and drawn and tired but very much lucid. "Hey, mate." Lee's voice came out thick with sleep and something like tears, which had been dripping, unknowingly, down his face while he slept. "Welcome back to the land of the living."
Fred's movements were uncharacteristically slow, and maybe only George and Lee could sense exactly how much pain it took to accomplish even the little things, but he was still Fred, albeit with a little more..something…in his eyes. "I should be saying that to you, Lee. You had George worried."
"Just tired." Lee stretched a little, eyes quickly taking in the tent, his bed, another two beds across from him, one with a prone George flopped across it, fully clothed. "You two got to sleep for a few hours."
"Yeah." Fred shook his head as Lee made to push himself to his elbows. "Don't get up. There's some tea on the stove…" but he made no move to get it, just kept looking at Lee.
"What happened?" They both said this at the same time. Fred allowed a small smile, but spoke over his friend. "Really, Lee? Why'd you even come back to the shop?"
And so Lee had to tell him…everything. About his house, and Julian, and his mom and step-dad, all hovering in the air, quite dead. About the Death Eaters and the Order he'd overheard. He told Fred about going to Bill – "He was just the first person I thought of. Weird, right?" – and then going back to the shop, because he literally had nowhere else to go.
"If I'd known the Order had included twins, I would have gone to you guys first – obviously this is all Umbridge. It's only you two she's after. I could have stopped this -" he gestured to Fred, who was shaking slightly, to the sleeping George, whose blood was slowly turning the sheets under him red, despite many spells and applications of dittany.
Very few people outside the Weasleys and Lee had ever seen a concerned Fred, a comforting Fred. The Weasley twins were happy, intelligent, scheming, aloof people. Hard to read. But at that moment Fred looked so grateful Lee felt his cheeks go positively pink. "Lee…God, do you know that you probably saved George's life? And mine? And Bill's and Lupin's and anyone else in the Order with questionable characteristics? When they would have found out by morning, it would have been too late." Fred shook his head, "And after your family died? You were amazing."
And for the first time since everything had happened, Lee let himself dip his head into his hands and cry, big shuddering sobs that made his whole body shake. They were on the run. His family was dead. He was with the twins, who were going to be sent to Azkaban or worse if they were found. His family was dead. If he was found, he'd be thrown in Azkaban because he couldn't prove he wasn't a Mudblood.
His family was dead.
"What's going to happen to us?" Lee asked the quiet when he finally stopped crying. "What are we going to do?"
Fred shrugged, looking shell-shocked and scared as he nursed a cup of tea between his long fingers. "Dunno. Keep on the run, I guess. Try to get in contact with Bill…he'll keep us updated on the Order…"
"Is he alright? The Death Eaters didn't get to him?" The last thing Lee remembered, really remembered, about Shell Cottage was the door being blasted open with Rudolphus silhouetted in the door.
"George said Bill sent us a Patronus this morning, while both of us were out. They're safe, but stuck, basically. Bill's good at charms, he'll keep them out of the house. Anyway, it's Lupin they really wanted, and once they realized he wasn't there almost all of them left."
Lee pushed himself off the bed, which gave off such a loud creak it woke George, who shot upright, scrambling for his wand before he even opened his eyes. "What's going on? Fred?" His reaction would have been laughable if it wasn't so heartbreaking.
"It's fine, George." Fred looked at his twin sadly. "Let's try to get you cleaned up again, okay? And get some food in you. You need it." George was swaying dangerously, shirt drenched with new blood.
"I hate getting Sectumsempra'd," George grumbled as Fred helped him out of his shirt. Lee brought George some tea and a roll of gauze from their store of supplies.
"The good news is that we have enough food to last us about two years." Lee started taking stuff out of the magically expanded bags, and every time he reached in there was more food, which he stored in the tent's cabinets, placing the same charm on them to make them enlarge. "The bad news is…well, we might not see civilization for a while."
"It all depends on Harry now." George said between bites of his roll, "That's a mite terrifying, isn't it?"
"Only because you know him." Fred assured, muttering a range of spells in the direction of George's cuts, "Loads of people think he's brilliant."
"Loads of people haven't seen him fall off his broom fifty feet in the air." George said, but he said it fondly, as if he were talking about Ron, "I hope they're okay."
"About as good as we are." Lee reached into the bag and this time came out with the radio. He looked at it appraisingly before turning to the twins, a smile stretching across his face.
"Oh no," The twins said in unison, recognizing the I-Have-A-Plan face the three had seen on each other too often.
But Lee was too excited to notice their reaction, "This is perfect!" He exclaimed.
"I beg to differ," George cut in as Fred pressed a particularly sore spot. He yelped and flicked his brother's hand away.
"I can set up the radio station from here! We're on the run anyway, what's one more felony going to do?"
"I thought you couldn't get on the air…" Fred said, but Lee could tell he was interested.
"I couldn't get on the legal air." Lee corrected, "But if we're going to keep on the move…I could just hook up to…yeah…" He realized that he was drifting off but didn't bother to explain the inner workings of the British airways to Fred and George, who could care less.
"Are you guys okay with that?" Lee asked, because they were the ones in deeper trouble than he. Lee was just a Mudblood, they were wanted for God knows what. "I mean, obviously we can't do it all the time, but we'll be able to get whatever information we have out there on the radio, as opposed to the bull the Ministry's been feeding everyone."
"We could probably get in touch with Bill and Kingsley – stop moving, George, do you want to bleed out in the middle of the woods?...Honestly – they'll help with the information stuff."
"Lupin, too. He's underground. Probably has a lot of secrets under that old cloak." George let out a small sigh as the wounds closed, only to moan in pain and frustration as they re-opened with renewed vigor.
"It's going to be dangerous." Lee warned, "It'll be just another way to track us. Hey!" He remembered something from the night before. "You said something about Traces? How in the world did you guys manage to get Traces put on you?"
"No idea, it was that bloke –"
"Dawlish, the thick one -"
"Well, obviously he's bright enough if he can put Traces on us."
"Doesn't stop him from being thick – for Merlin's sake, George!' Fred yelled as George sank to the floor, blood still pouring out his side.
"How'd you stop this before?" Fred snapped at Lee, who was flipping feverishly through the books he'd managed to throw into the boxes before they left the shop. When he got to Standard Book of Spells, Year 7, he flipped to the end.
"Vulnera Senentur." He'd been pronouncing it wrong back at the Weasley shop. It was a miracle George hadn't been killed by his shoddy spell work. The cuts healed themselves but now George was almost as pale as Fred, who hadn't regained much color since being Crucio'd.
"Thanks." George managed to say, before passing out on the floor. Lee pushed him into the nearest bed while Fred found the Blood Replenishing Potion and tipped it into his twin's mouth. Fred was shaking, too.
"Are you alright, Fred?"
"Not really, no. You?"
"Not really." Lee stared at the radio, abandoned on the floor. "I think we should do the radio program. I think we should move every night and do the radio from wherever we happen to be."
"Sounds good to me," Fred sounded exhausted, but he still managed the barest trace of a smile, "Maybe we'll run into Harry. You can get an exclusive interview."
Lee laughed as he stood up. "Eat something, both of you. We should be out of here by twilight."
We personally live by Lee's pholosophy - if you're already in trouble, you mine as well be in trouble for something really interesting.
Please, please review.