Mundungus Fletcher's Confunded idea had been well received by the Order, though Dumbledore's plan had left little place for Harley. They decided that, since she was good at potions and jinxes, she would be on emergency medical and defencive duty, in case it was necessary.
They did not know that she had another job that evening, to be one of the tails of Death Eaters following one of the Seven Potters. Once Voldemort had seen that there were multiple convoys flying out from Privet Drive, he had immediately called his followers to action.
There would be a group of four for each Potter, and Severus made certain that she would be flying with him.
Harley, feeling foolish, had said, "I cannot fly a broomstick. I don't know how much help I could possibly be." She hoped that she could stay out of it, but the Dark Lord happened to know the bewitching spell required to make a broomstick do its rider's bidding through spellwork alone. No skill was necessary except for that of a wand.
Harley had never worn the black robes or masks the Death Eaters wore, but now she would. She sat staring at it for a long time before putting them on. Severus would not look at it.
"I fucking hate this," he spat, swearing for the first time in her presence. "This is not your place, you should not be here!"
"You keep saying things like that, yet here I always am," she replied. "It is not for much longer. It can't be. Things have to come to a head-one way or another." Grimacing, she straightened the black robes (not unlike her own, she admitted, but rather plain) and lifted the mask to hide her face. Were she seen, it would be catastrophic to the plan.
They had the routes each couple would be taking, though they did not know about the polyjuice potion, which hopefully gave the Order an edge.
"Can you fly a broomstick?" she asked him.
"Yes," he replied. "But your mother could not. Many Muggle-borns have trouble with flying, and it seems you inherited that from her despite being a half-blood."
Severus handed her a broomstick and she mounted it, reciting "Fugite!" The broom lifted a few feet in the air. "Audiat!" It obeyed her next command, which was to go higher. The spells were working, it seemed, and the foursome flew off in the direction of their intended target. Severus and Harley brought up the rear, to spot things going awry and hopefully stop any deaths.
The two they were following were Lupin and George, Harley realised. The two Order members took the Death Eaters on what could only be called a high-speed broom chase, firing and dodging spells. The chase went on so long that George's polyjuice potion wore off, shocking the two Death Eaters who had not known of this plan.
Harley saw one of them-she had no idea who-reach for his wand and fire a spell at George, who barely missed getting Stunned. The Death Eater then went into the arm movement for the Killing Curse, but Severus was faster...or tried to be.
"Sectumsempra!" He fired his curse, hoping to hit the black-robed figure when two things happened at once: the man moved, and Harley's broom faltered, sending her diving down to the ground. Severus moved to catch her broomstick, and the spell that had been accidentally headed for George's lungs missed and hit only his ear instead, making the accident non-fatal.
Harley saw her father's mask slip and she cursed the Death Eater for moving. Now they would think he had hit George on purpose!
The two men Apparated away, leaving the foursome with nowhere to go but back to the Manor. Harley tugged her father aside and said, "Thank you for trying to save him. It could have gotten you killed."
"You do need a best man at your wedding," Severus replied loftily, and she was surprised she was able to smile at him.
She was able to leave and go to The Burrow, to check on everyone, right on schedule. In the house, she was accosted with more identity-confirming questions before she could enter. She was nearly dragged by Bill and Fleur to George's side.
Pretending to be shocked, she asked what happened to his ear as she pulled out wound solvents and flesh regenerating potions, but first she needed to stop the bleeding. "Vulnera sanentur."
"Severus Snape happened," Lupin glowered. "That damned Dark curse of his." He glared at Harley, as if her relation to him was her fault. "At least he made a countercurse."
Harley tended to George's ear as well as she could, but the Dark Magic in that spell was strong, and there was no way to magically regrow the ear. It would have to heal the Muggle way: slowly and painfully. She hated to think what he would look like had the spell ripped open his torso. Dark magic like this was definitely not to be wielded by an untrained hand, or by anyone in an uncertain environment. One mistake, like that Death Eater moving, could have been deadly.
"This could have been much worse," she told him. "You are lucky."
"I am," he agreed. "There was a Death Eater next to Snape, and their broom faltered. It was only because of that accident that Snape's curse missed cutting my body to ribbons."
Remus's eyes widened. "I wasn't looking, too intent on steering. This Death Eater didn't know how to fly a broomstick?" Harley felt her whole body stiffen as her godfather looked her over, looking for signs she had been on a broom, apparently.
"It looked like the broom was defective," George replied. "Before that, the Death Eater looked like they were flying it fine. You know that they were on our arses the whole way."
Eventually, the room filled up with everyone, though Fred was so late Harley had begun pacing the room, alternating with Molly. When he got to The Burrow, Harley threw herself in his arms, thankful to see him alive.
He unfortunately brought with him bad news: Alastor Moody was dead, killed by Voldemort because Fletcher Disapparated, leaving Moody alone and vulnerable. More death, and what was it all for? Absolutely nothing.
Harley stayed with the rest of them for that evening, teaching Molly how to apply the wound solvent potion to George's ear, and then giving everyone bottles of potion to calm their nerves from the day.
She hugged and kissed Fred goodbye as the night turned to the dark hours of morning, promising to be there for the wedding. She was, after all, his date.
Back in her flat, she fell into bed, exhausted. While it was a tragedy about Moody-and she would be taking that up with Fletcher soon, the coward-she was chalking this night up as a win for the Order.
"You polyjuiced Harry to look like a Weasley?" Harley hissed to Fred when she got to The Burrow. "Of all the hairbrained ideas…haven't you had enough of polyjuice yet?"
At the party, Harley flitted about as much as she could, restless over what she knew was going on at the Ministry, wishing she could have warned someone.
Eventually, she found her polyjuiced half-brother, and Fred introduced her to an old, woman, his aunt Muriel.
"A little sombre for a wedding, aren't you, girl?" she scoffed, looking at Harley's black dress robes and apparently dour expression. "And how do you know my family?"
"I am Fred's fiancee," she said, biting her tongue to lash out. It was difficult having her mother's Gryffindor temper but her father's Slytherin patience. It was like her emotions were at constant war with each other.
Before Muriel could respond, Fred was called away by his mother, leaving Polyjuice-Harry and Harley alone with the old bat. For once, Harley was thankful, as Muriel began talking about Dumbledore's hidden history. Harley wished she was able to take notes, but she remembered more than enough so she and her father could use the information to the Order's advantage if necessary.
Certain things, about Aberforth and Ariana, stuck in Harley's head, and she had so many ideas swirling around now that she nearly forgot about the Death Eaters at the Ministry. She needed to sneak into Godric's Hollow and get that book before it hit the shelves of Flourish and Blott's, but when would she have the time? What if she and the rest of the Order were following the orders of a total madman who murdered his own sister?
"This is one crazy show," Fred commented sitting down and interrupting the stilted conversation. "Harley, when we get married, none of this, okay? Just you, me, family, and a few friends. If I have to Body-Bind Mum, so be it," He smirked at her.
Fred had approached the table just in time, as Muriel decided to go and start insulting Harley's sense of fashion again. She and Harry were exchanging glances before Fred asked Harley to dance.
The moment she took her fiance's hand, all Hell broke loose.
A lynx Patronus appeared, and the voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt announced that the Ministry had fallen. Pandemonium broke out. Harley reached Hermione and Ron and told them to get Harry out of there. "Go to a Muggle town," she suggested. "A place Death Eaters won't think to look."
"What about you?" Harry asked.
"I need to be sure everyone is safe. I will be fine. Now go!" She made sure they Apparated away, avoiding being seen by the Death Eaters as they began to swarm the wedding. She wished she had a dose of Polyjuice, it would make this all much easier.
Fred, George, and Bill were all doing the same thing she was, getting everyone away. Most Apparated, but they got brooms for those who did not get their Apparition certificate."Is everyone from your family safe?" she asked Fred, who nodded. "Then get the Hell out of here." She kissed him hard and Apparated away, to Spinner's End.
The house was empty, her father was at the Ministry. She poured herself a glass of firewhiskey and downed it quickly. She was surprised that it had been so quick and clean, getting everyone away. They were mostly stubborn Gryffindors there, and she had expected them to try and fight, thus getting injured in the process.
She sat in her usual place, Transfiguring her dress into something more comfortable, and began to think about what Dumbledore had said would come next. Her father's appointment as Headmaster, of course. That was something she wanted to be proud of, but she had not wanted him to gain his position like this. He was brilliant, and he could have gotten the position blindfolded with his wand hand tied behind his back. Now everyone would think he had only gotten the job because he was the Dark Lord's 'most trusted advisor'.
Dumbledore had wanted her in the school, doing security patrols. The Death Eaters would think she was on their side, but she and her father would do their best to keep injury and punishments to a minimum. It was all they could do. Harley was convinced that the old Headmaster's plans had been full of large, dangerous holes. This was one of them.
And then what? Just wait until Voldemort went after Harry? Would Harry have to keep running forever? That was the problem with most Gryffindors: they didn't stop to think. Dumbledore could be leading Harry to his death...which was, incidentally, what he wanted. So maybe Dumbledore had been thinking. And that wasn't good.
She would have killed Voldemort herself, but for that prophecy, the one that said it had to end with Harry versus Voldemort. Neither can live while the other survives. Harley didn't believe that Harry had to die, and neither did Severus.
She realised she would need to hire a shopkeep for when she would be patrolling Hogwarts. That would be her next step then, to find a reliable witch or wizard. Those would be hard to come by these days. She could not trust Death Eaters, and no way in Hell could she count on a random wizard/witch not to discover her hidden back room, even though she had warded it expertly.
After that, it would be up to the two Snapes to get Harry to kill Voldemort. The question was how would they do it?
The Potion Master had been taking interviews for a week, and Harley was ready to throw in the towel when the bell above the door jingled. She looked up from her desk and saw Draco looking very awkward as he walked around the store.
"Malfoy," she greeted, a bit more kindly than she would greet other Death Eaters. Draco was not evil, he was forced to make poor choices by a father who was in every sense a bully.
"Snape." He gave a small grin.
"What brings you here? Business or pleasure?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Neither. Can I- ...I trust you. And I need to tell someone this or else I'm going to lose my mind. Please, can you promise me you'll never tell a soul what I say here?"
She nodded. "I am no stranger to secrets, Malfoy. Sit down." She kept a desk with chairs around it for patrons who wanted consultations about certain potions and that was where she invited him to sit.
She poured him a bit of a relaxation potion and he drank it with a shaking hand. Harley had seen this side of the usually guarded boy before, let loose when he usually thought no one was paying attention. She had never imagined he would willingly show her.
"I don't want to do this anymore," he said. "I want out, and I can't get out. If he doesn't kill me, my father would."
"You never wanted in, did you?" she asked.
He shook his head miserably. "I guess you wouldn't know what that feels like. I saw you and your father: neither of you even flinched when you got your Mark. You chose this. I never had a choice if I wanted to live."
"You're right. I did choose this. But unlike you, my father did not want me to. He had reservations over me pledging my life to the Dark Lord so young. He is happy we're working towards a common goal, of course, but he tried to stop me, initially."
Draco's eyes widened. "Why? He's above my father in the Death Eaters. Why would he not want you to join?"
"He thought I should take care of my business, get my life going, before I joined the crusade," she lied. While her father had been teaching her Occlumency, Harley had been taking some time to teach herself its opposite, Legilimency. She was not very skilled yet, not like Severus, but she could glean thoughts from unprotected minds. And at the forefront of Draco's mind was not his father, but her own relation.
"What does Harry Potter have to do with this?" she asked quietly. She watched as Draco jumped, his already pale skin turning white.
"How do you...what makes you think Potter has anything to do with anything?" Draco stammered.
Harley smirked. "I am a practicing Legilimens. Your thoughts are not hard to penetrate. So tell me, why is Harry Potter mixed in your thoughts? Loathe to kill a former classmate? That is understandable."
She waited while Draco fought against the effects of the Veritaserum she had slipped into his relaxation potion.
"I couldn't bare the thought of hurting him," he murmured.
"Why?" She leaned across the desk, wearing down whatever resistance the Veritaserum had not already whittled away.
"Because I love him, okay?" Draco shoved his chair away from the desk and began to pace back and forth. "From the moment I met him in Diagon Alley, before I even knew who he was, I fell for him. I always tried to impress him. I did everything I could but I couldn't do it right! It all came out mean."
Well. This was an unexpected development.
"Draco, there is a Muggle phrase coined decades ago; 'pulling her pigtails'. It means you tease or bully the person you have romantic feelings towards. If I were to take that saying seriously, then I would rightly assume that what you say is true, and you went about your emotions all wrong. Believe me, Draco, I know emotions are messy things that require a great deal of control. You have very little control over them, and you hate that, don't you?" He nodded. "You have a choice, kid. You can stay on the Dark Lord's side, a mere tool, or you can take a shot at happiness. The choice is yours."
He sighed, and it sounded like he was on the verge of tears. "How can you be telling me to ditch the Death Eaters? You're one of us!"
Don't remind me, you little brat. "I am telling you that because I believe in freedom of choice."
Draco put his head in his hands. "I can't leave. I waited too long to want to be a rebel. I just don't want to hurt anyone anymore. Harry...Hermione...Dumbledore..."
Harley leaned back in her chair. "You did not hurt Dumbledore. And I think I have a way where you can still be a Death Eater and not have to hurt anyone anymore." She stood up and walked around to his side of the desk. "I have to go and enforce punishment at Hogwarts once Father starts his term as Headmaster, which means I need a clerk for the shop. I can't hire just anyone, because of the Dark back room. I believe I can trust you, as long as I get Father to convince the Dark Lord."
Draco's eyes brightened considerably. "Why would you do this for me?"
Harley smirked. "Because I pity you. You had a bully of a father, were forced to believe ideals you had no way of researching, and alienated anyone who could help warm your heart. The least I can do is give you a safe place to work."
"Honest, borderline cruel. How did no one realise you were the daughter of Severus Snape sooner?" Draco grinned. "I better go. Let me know if they agree?"
She smiled. "I'm sure it will be at the next meeting, so you'll know straightaway. They better agree. It's that, or I don't go to Hogwarts, and the Dark Lord certainly won't have that."