Chapter Twenty-Four
A/N: Any recognisable words are from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book and/or the part one film of Deathly Hallows. So don't sue me! :)
He had not let go of her hand since they had left their children with Andromeda. They gave a long goodbye to their two youngest; hugging them and kissing them. Cecilia was at the Burrow, waiting for them there. She didn't want to be sitting at home waiting for her parents and family as they risked their lives. May was determined to go with Sirius. She wanted to protect her nephew more than anything in the world. Sirius agreed with May. She should be there for Harry, or she would be at home worrying and that would be annoying for Cecilia.
"Are you all right?" He asked as they walked up the path of Privet Drive, walking towards number four.
"No." She sighed and pulled her hand from his, but she, instead, wrapped her arm around his back.
Sirius draped his arm over her shoulders. "Why?"
"I hate it. I didn't want this to happen again. Fearing for our lives. Worrying whether or not we will see each other again. Or see our friends again." She stopped walking and wiped away the tears from her eyes with one hand.
Sirius stopped and held her close to him; wrapping his arms around her. "Hey. Hey." He rubbed her back to comfort her. Her arms were tight behind him, gripping his shirt tightly. "It will be all right. This war will be over very soon."
"I hope so." She tipped her head up and looked up at him. "I love being shorter than you." She stood on her toes and kissed him softly on the lips. "I love you."
"I love you too." He kissed her back.
They pulled apart when they heard the constant clang, which signalled the arrival of Mad-Eye Moody. "For God's sake, Padfoot. We don't have time for you two and your teenage kissing sessions." He pushed in between the pair of them and walked towards number four.
"Good old Mad-Eye." May chuckled as she and Sirius turned and followed the old Auror up the street. It was late evening and there was no one about except for the handful of wizards and witches, who would be escorting Harry to his safe point. As the couple approached number 4, people were already going inside. "Hello Harry." Smiled May as she was greeted by her nephew in the hallway, kissing him on the cheek, before moving inside. The room seemed small with Hagrid taking up half the space.
"Kingsley, I thought you were looking after the Muggle Prime Minister?" Harry asked the tall Auror.
"He can get along without me for one night," said Kingsley. "You're more important."
"Harry, guess what?" Tonks was sitting on top of the washing machine. She lifted her left hand, and a ring was there.
"You got married?" Harry asked in shock, looking between Tonks and Lupin.
"What?!" May and Sirius shouted in shock and stared at their friends.
Lupin blushed a little. "Sorry." He mumbled a little. "I'm sorry you couldn't be there. It was very quiet."
"Excuse me!" May folded her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. "Why weren't we invited?"
"It was a spur of the moment thing." Remus smiled a little and stood next to Tonks. "Just us."
"Hmph!" May turned away from them. "You could have at least told us." Folding her arms and refusing to look at them both.
"All right, all right, we'll have time for a cosy catch-up later!" Moody shouted over the grumbling of May and Sirius. The room fell silent as Moody spoke. "As Dedalus probably told you, 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 to 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." Everyone stood or sat still as they listen to Moody. "Second problem: you're under-age, which means you've still got the Trace on you."
"I don't-" Harry tried to speak but was cut off by Moody.
"The Trace, the Trace!" He was getting impatient. "The charm that detects magical activity around 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: Pius Thickness thinks he's got you cornered good and proper."
"So what are we going to do?" Asked Harry.
"We're going to use the only means of transport left to us, the only ones the Trace can't detect, because we don't need to cast spells to use them: brooms, Thestrals and Hagrid's motorbike." Mad-Eye continued. "Now, your mother's charm will only break under two conditions: when you come of age, or you no longer call this place home. Which is why you never called Sirius and May's home as your own home. You and your aunt and uncle are going your separate ways tonight, in the full understanding that you're never going to live together again, correct?" Harry gave a small nod. No one else spoke except Mad-Eye. "So this time, when you leave, there'll be no going back, and the charm will break the moment you get outside its range. We're choosing to break it early, because the alternative is waiting for You-Know-Who to come and seize you the moment you turn seventeen. The one thing we've got on our side is that You-Know-Who doesn't know we're moving you tonight. We've leaked a fake trail to the ministry: they think you're not leaving until the thirtieth. However, this is You-Know-Who we're dealing with, so we can't just rely on him getting the date wrong; he's bound to have a couple of Death Eaters patrolling the skies in this general area, just in case."
"They've been patrolling around the manor too." May spoke up. "Because they think Harry is there or here."
"Which is why we've given a dozen different house every protection we can throw at them. They all look like they could be the place we're going to hide you, they've all got some connection with the Order: my house, Kinglsey's place, Molly's Auntie Muriel's – you get the idea. Though Potter manor is out of bounds, due to the fact it is the most likely place you would go."
"Yeah," said Harry. Looking over at May, who gave him a small smile.
"You'll be going to Tonks's parents'. Once you're within the boundaries of the protective enchantments we've put on their house, you'll be able to use a Portkey to The Burrow. Any questions?" Asked Moody.
"Er – Yes," said Harry. "Maybe they won't know which of the twelve secure houses I'm heading for at first, but won't it be sort of obvious once sixteen of us fly off towards Tonks's parents'?"
"Ah," said Moody, "I forgot to mention the key point. Sixteen of us won't be flying to Tonks's parents'. There will be seven Harry Potters moving through the skies tonight, each of them with a companion, each pair heading for a different safe house." He pulled out a flask of some disgusting-looking liquid.
"No," Harry said loudly. "No way!" He understood Mad-Eye's plan.
"I told them you'd take it like this." Hermione shrugged a shoulder.
"If you think I'm going to let six people risk their lives-" Harry began but was cut off by Ron.
"-because it's the first time for all of us."
"This is different, pretending to be me-" He tried to argue against the plan.
"Well, none of us really fancy is, Harry," said Fred. "Imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever."
"You can't do it if I don't cooperate, you need me to give you some hair." He shook his head and took half a step back.
"Well, that's that plan scuppered," George said sarcastically. "Obviously there's no chance at all of us getting a bit of your hair unless you cooperate."
Sirius chuckled. "Just give up, Harry. You're not going to win." Harry looked over at his godfather, who was standing next to May, with his arm around her shoulder. May gave Harry a sympathetic smile.
"Yeah, fifteen of us against one bloke who's not allowed to use magic; we've got no choice." Fred chuckled and rolled his eyes.
"Funny. Really amusing." Harry said
Moody was getting annoyed with Harry. "If it has to come to force, then it will." He growled as he glared at Harry. "Everyone here's over-age, Potter, and they're all prepared to take the risk." He glared at Mundungus this time, who grimaced. "Let's have no more arguments. Time's wearing on. I want a few of your hairs, boy, now."
"But this is mad, there's no need -"
"No need!" Moody yelled, cutting off Harry. "With You-Know-Who out there and half the Ministry on his side? Potter, if we're lucky, he'll have swallowed the fake bait and he'll be planning to ambush you on the thirtieth, but he'd be mad not to have a Death Eater or two keeping an eye out, it's what I'd do. Thy might not be able to get at you or this house while your mother's charm holds, but it's about to break and they know the rough position of the place. Our only chance is to use decoys. Even You-Know-Who can't split himself into seven." Silence fell on the room for a moment. "So, Potter – some of your hair, if you please. Now!"
Harry looked around the room, his eyes falling on Sirius and May. "Just do it." Sirius chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "He'll pull them from your head if you don't do it in a minute."
Harry reluctantly pulled out some of his hairs. "Good," said Moody as he pulled out a flask, which was filled with a Potion. "Straight in here, if you please." Everyone watched as he dropped his hairs into the flask, mixing with the liquid, which frothed and turned gold. He hands the flask to George. "For those of you who haven't taken Polyjuice Potion before, fair warning. It tastes like goblin piss."
"Have a lot of experience with that, do you, Mad-Eye?" Fred asked as he took the flask from his twin. "Just trying to defuse the tension." He spoke as Mad-Eye glared at him. The flask was passed around and the seven volunteers each transformed into Harry. Until there were seven Harry Potters in the room.
"Wow!" Fred and George exclaimed. "We're identical!"
"Not yet, you aren't," growled Moody. He pulls out identical outfits from a sack. All the Harry Potters complained about their looks and their clothing. Once everyone was ready, or nearly ready. "Right then. We'll be pairing off. Each Potter will have a protector or two. As for you Harry..."
"Yes?" All of the Harry's answered Moody.
"The real Harry! Where the devil are you, anyway?" He growled.
"Here." The real Harry peered around one of his duplicates.
"You'll ride with Hagrid." He turned to the others and started pairing them off. "Dung, you're with myself, May and Sirius." Dung grumbled under his breath.
"Brought yeh here sixteen years ago when you were barely bigger than a Bowtruckle. Seems only righ' I should be the one ter take yeh away." He smiled down at the boy.
"Yeah, it's all very touching. Let's go." He ordered everyone out of the house. Hermione was with Kingsley, Ron with Tonks, George with Remus, Fred with Arthur, Fleur with Bill and Mundungus with Alastor.
Sirius and May remained in the house for a moment, kissing each other for a moment. "If anything happens to me, go straight to the children." He whispered softly, his fingers caressing her neck before kissing her again.
"Same to you. If anything happens to me, go to the kids. Hug them and kiss them for me." She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him once more before they both left the house to join the others.
"Right, now everybody is here." His gaze glaring at Sirius and May, who were mounting their brooms, ignoring him. "Good luck everyone. On the count of three. One... two... three..." Everyone left. Sirius and May kept close with Mad-Eye and disguised Mundungus. They wanted Voldemort, if he did attack, to believe that Dung was the real Harry. May caught a glimpse of the real Harry with Hagrid and she felt like just following them and protecting her brother's only child. But she couldn't. Her and Sirius being away from him, meant he was safe. They made it out of the clouds and hell broke loose. Within a few minutes, she lost sight of Sirius. She kept close to Mad-Eye.
She flew the hardest she had done in a long time. She was flying for her life. She threw curses one after the other. After a few moments of fighting, she saw the most terrifying sight ever: Voldemort. He was flying without a broom, he was just flying. "Shit." She gasped and ducked from a curse, thrown by a Death Eater. What made it worse was Mundungus decided to apparate away. That was it. Voldemort knew Harry was being protected extensively. He turned his wand towards Mad-Eye. May opened her mouth to shout but it was too late.
"Avada Kedavra!" He screamed, hitting Moody square in the chest.
"NO!" May screamed as she watched Mad-Eye's lifeless body fall to the ground.
"May, QUICK!" Sirius shouted from behind her. Both of them turned and flew hard and fast as they could. They gave up throwing curses. They had one thing on their mind: Harry.
A/N: So sorry for the late update. Been really busy with work and a stomach bug on top of it. Not had time to write loads at a time. Hope you all enjoyed! :D
Responses from chapter twenty-three:
warewolf-princess558750: I think they will turn grey very soon. Haha!
Harryginny9: Thank you. :)
Lalina92: Me too. Best character ever!
Padfootette: Thank you. Sorry for not updating sooner. I will try to more often.
CharlotteBlackwood: I looked up female star names and Lyra popped up and LOVED it! Don't steal it. :( Only joking. Hahaha!
Morgan: I will update a little more often. I promise. :)