EMILIA

THAT night I was woken up by Ginny shaking me awake. I had to stop myself from reaching for the dagger underneath my pillow as I noticed she had tears streaming down her face and her eyes were rimmed red. This made me jump out of bed and quickly pull her into a hug. "Ginny, what's wrong?" I asked her as I felt the shoulder of my shirt became wet from her tears.

"It's...my dad," she gasped through her sobs as I felt her shoulders shaking from her sobbing.

I tightened my arms around her before moving my arm to wrap around her shoulders and pull her into my side. I quickly threw on my black dressing gown over my pyjamas before I slowly guided us out of my room to make sure that we didn't wake up the other girls that were asleep in my dormitory. We made our way down the stairs to the common room where I saw McGonagall wrapped up in a dressing gown with Fred and George standing beside her. Without a word, McGonagall signalled us to follow her to Dumbledore's office where Harry and Ron were. As we entered the room, we saw Dumbledore was pacing back and forth in front of his desk. I guided Ginny to sit down on one of the armchairs while her brothers stood behind it. Harry remained in the middle of the room with McGonagall standing behind me as Dumbledore now stood still with his back towards Harry.

"In the dream, were you standing next to the victim or looking down at the scene?" Dumbledore asked Harry which his question caused my eyebrow to frown in confusion.

What is going on? I thought to myself as I stood up from my spot kneeling down beside the chair Ginny was in.

"Neither. It was like I..." Harry started to answer before asking Dumbledore, completely confused and terrifying; "Will you please just tell me what's happening?"

Dumbledore completely ignored Harry as he walked over to the portrait of an older man and said; "Everard, Arthur's on guard duty tonight. Make sure he's found by the right people."

"Sir," Harry began but again was interrupted by Dumbledore turning to another portrait and saying: "Phineas. You must go to your portrait at Grimmauld Place. Tell them that Arthur Weasley is gravely injured... and his children will be arriving there soon by Portkey."

I placed my hand on Ginny's shoulder and I gripped it tightly as I finally realised what happened as Dumbledore quickly turned to me. "Emilia, send a message to the Protectors to see what they know about this attack," he ordered me which I quickly nodded before rushing over to his desk to grab a piece of parchment and a quill.

As I quickly wrote out the message, I heard the voice of one of the portraits speak; "They've got him, Albus. It was close, but they think he'll make it. What's more, the Dark Lord failed to acquire it."

"Oh, thank goodness. Next, we need to..." Dumbledore was interrupted by Harry suddenly yelling; "Look at me!" which caused him to suddenly look at the frightened teenager in shock.

"What's happening to me?" Harry asked the headmaster after a few moments of silence; terrified of what was going on.

"You wished to see me, Headmaster?" the voice of Snape rang out as he entered the room.

"Oh, Severus. I'm afraid we can't wait. Not even till the morning. Otherwise, we'll all be vulnerable," Dumbledore informed Snape who grabbed Harry by his wrist and dragging him out of the room.

Grabbing my stele which was shoved into the waistband of my pyjama bottoms, I quickly draw the fire message rune and suddenly the piece of parchment burst into flames. It disappeared and I turned to Dumbledore and gave him a nod, signalling to him that the message was sent.

Dumbledore brought the portkey, which was an old book, towards us and signalled us to touch it. Suddenly, we were transported to Grimmauld Place where Mrs Weasley and Dad was waiting for us. Mrs Weasley had tears streaming down her face as she pulled her children into a large hug. Dad wrapped an arm around my shoulders as we watched the Weasleys hug each other.

They were pulled apart when the sound of the front door opening and shutting rang throughout the silent house. From Dad's face turning serious signalling to myself that he didn't know who had entered the house, I pushed the Weasleys to stand behind me as I felt my bracelet came alive and slide off my wrist to form into a whip.

Dad pointed his wand out as my eyes widened in shock when a familiar blonde-haired male that had black runes marked over his pale skin entered the room we were in. "Jonathan," I gasped in shock as he stared at my whip with a 'really' face.

My whip crawled back onto my wrist as I walked over to Jonathan who pulled me into a hug. "I got your message," he informed me as we separated from our hug.

I turned back to the Weasleys and Dad to see them staring at Jonathan in confusion who gave them a charming smile. My eyes landed on George who seemed to be glaring at Jonathan which made my eyebrow raise in confusion.

"This is Jonathan Verlac. He is the head of the London Institute," I informed them as I signalled to Dad to put his wand away.

Jonathan continued to give them his charming smile as I felt his hand being placed on the small of my back as we went into the living room. As I walked with Jonathan, I could feel eyes glaring at us. "So, what have you heard?" I asked him as we sat down on the couch together.

Jonathan let out a loud sigh before saying; "I went to St Mungo's. He is going to make it."

His words caused Mrs Weasley to breathe a sigh of relief while more tears streamed down her face. "For now, we don't know much besides that Voldemort failed to obtain it," Jonathan explained and while the Weasley children stared at him in confusion, Mrs Weasley, Dad and myself knew what Jonathan was referring to.

I placed my hand in his shoulder and smiled at him. "Thank you, Jonathan," I said to him with a smile before we stood up from the couch and I showed him to the door.

Once we were at the front door, he stared down at me with a serious expression. "Be careful Emilia," was all he said before placing a kiss on my cheek and exiting Grimmauld Place with me standing by the door with my brows frowned in confusion.

I remained standing by the front door for a few moments until a voice spoke, causing me to jump slightly; "Well, isn't he charming?"

I turned around to see George leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. It was unusual seeing George was a serious face as he was always smiling. I rolled my eyes at his obvious jealousy, but a smile remained on my face. "There's no need to be jealous. He is more a brother to me than a boyfriend," I informed him, placing a hand on his shoulder to help pull myself closer to his face to kiss his cheek.

A cheeky grin formed on my face before I walked away. However, I didn't get very far as I felt his hand lightly grip my bicep to turn me back towards him. What happened next kind of surprised as his lips suddenly met mine. At first, I froze in shock before my hands moved to grip his shirt to pull him closer as I kissed back.

I felt his hand gripped the back of my neck with his fingers lightly gripping my hair. After all the teasing and flirting that happened between us, having this moment felt like complete bliss. I didn't know how long we were kissing for but when I remembered what had occurred tonight, I pulled away. Both of us were breathing heavily for lack of air as George rested his forehead against mine. "You've been through a lot tonight. You're not thinking straight," I explained to him as I pulled away, trying to see the reason why he would suddenly kiss me.

"But..." he began but I held my hand up, stopping him from talking.

"If you still feeling the same way tonight as you do on Christmas Day, you know what to do," was all I said before walking away.

Once I had entered my bedroom and closed the door tightly behind, I placed a hand over my mouth to try and contain my sobs. I placed my back on the door and slid down to the floor, pulling my knees to my chest as I began to sob into them. My heart felt like it was ripped out of my chest but I had already dug my grave.