Chapter Forty-Five
Late Evening, December the Eighteenth, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Five
"Would you just come to bed already, woman?"
"I don't understand why I couldn't have kept watch in the Department of Mysteries, it's not as if it's out in the open. ," Davie said sourly. "Honestly -"
"You haven't figured it out yet? This our lot in life, getting left out of things," Sirius said with a sarcastic chuckle, which only succeeded in souring Davie's mood more. "Now, come on, just sleep it off or I'm going to -"
"Going to what?"
"Hex you."
"You won't."
Sirius chuckled and picked his wand up from the bedside table, and at this motion, Davie immediately pulled her wand out from the pocket of her too-large corduroy pants - but in a rare moment of fumbling, Davie pulled out the wand and instead of pointing at Sirius defensively, it flew out of her hands, pegging him clean on the nose.
"Merlin's foot, Sirius!" Davie yelped, immediately rushing over and sitting on the bed next to him, placing her hands on either side of his face and examining in any damage had been done by the rogue wand. "You shouldn't scare me that way, you know I get flustered - Sirius!"
Sirius was chuckling as with one arm, he had flipped her onto her back during her moment of vulnerability so that he was now hovering over her with his weight braced on one forearm, grinning wolfishly.
"Convenient," he smirked, leaning over and kissing Davie soundly, running a hand over her suddenly disheveled hair. He felt, admittedly, a bit triumphant when he felt a small laugh erupt from her lips, which was cut short as her breath hitched - he had ran his hand up her slide, slipping under the dingy wool shirt she had taken to wearing around the house, and he felt her skin prickle.
"Now," Sirius chuckled as he broke the kiss and gently nuzzled her neck. "I don't want to hear any more talk about the bloody Order for the rest of the night."
"Fair enough," Davie said with a throaty laugh, her hand sliding to the small of Sirius back, fingertips running over the small section of his spine and gently urging his body closer to her own. "I don't think talking is among one of my current priorities."
"In that case," Sirius said with a lopsided smirk, relishing in the cloudy expression in Davie's eyes as he obligingly settled his body against hers, "we can get to -"
Davie gave a loud yelp and a hard shove, however, when they heard the sound of someone behind them clearing their throat with the obvious intention of getting their attention, and Sirius looked quite annoyed to see Phineas Nigellus in the portrait frame that was normally empty, as Phineas usually remained in his portrait at Dumbledore's office.
"Good to know the pair of you are making such productive use of your time -"
"What do you want?" Sirius growled, stalking over towards the portrait menacingly. "I swear to Merlin, if you -"
"Arthur Weasley is injured. His wife, children, and Harry Potter are coming to stay here for safe-keeping. Arriving shortly by Portkey," he said in a bored tone which seemed nowhere near close to appropriately concerned for the news he was conveying. Davie, however, paled considerably and stood up, skittering across the floor so quickly that it was almost as if she had teleported to the spot just behind Sirius. "I take it the message was delivered clearly -"
"Yeah - yeah, I'd be delighted to have them - right away," Sirius said, and to Davie's surprise, he seemed astonishingly pleased, though she knew it was simply at the prospect of having company. Phineas departed boredly, leaving Davie and Sirius getting themselves straightened out after the sudden interruption.
"Are you going to chuck something at me for saying I'm glad it wasn't you at the Department?"
"Don't say that in front of the children, Sirius, they're going to be completely mortified," Davie chided, shaking her head as they walked out to the receiving room. "They're - Kreacher!"
The petite woman gave a yelp as she nearly tripped over the unpleasant-looking house elf, who had been keeping his ear pressed to the door the entire time and now looked livid at what he had just overheard.
"The mistress will not be pleased," he hissed vehemently. "Mistress will not allow her home to be invaded by filth -"
"Get out of here, Kreacher," Davie said, raising her eyebrows at the elf, who simply paused only momentarily to glare at her before he returned his gaze to Sirius and continued his tirade.
"Back again, the blood traitor brats. Is it true their father's dying -"
"OUT!" Sirius roared, and not, the elf obliged, unable to disobey a direct command from his master. Meanwhile, a loud crack had signaled the children's arrival by Portkey, and both Sirius and Davie rushed forward to aid them to their feet. "What's going on?" Sirius inquired, moving first to help Ginny, as she was the only girl among them. "Phineas Nigellus said Arthur's been badly injured/
"Ask Harry," said Fred, just as Davie was moving towards the boy, who looked suddenly quite pale and ill; she assumed that he had not taken to traveling by Portkey very well and reached out to support the crook of his arm.
"Yeah, I want to hear this for myself," George piped in, and everyone was now staring at Harry. Kreacher's distancing footsteps had halted outside.
"It was -" Harry began, slowly trying to gain his bearings and not lean so heavily on Davie, but now, he looked even more ill. "I had a - a kind of - vision…"
Everyone stared at Harry incredulously while he told his story, save for Davie, who looked more comprehensive and concerned than anything else. The snake, the Department of Mysteries - she knew what was kept in the Department, and what stake He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named held in it. She hated the feeling as though she were analyzing Harry, but years of working as an Auror, of staging countless interrogations, hinted that there was something Harry was not telling everyone. She did not press him for this, however, as the others in the house seemed to have more important concerns than why Harry had seen these things.
"Is Mum here?" Fred asked.
"She probably doesn't even know what's happened yet," Sirius explained, crossing his arms and staring at Harry, scrutinizing.
"What matters is that you lot are out of the school before Umbridge could stop you, McGonagall will have that taken care of," Davie explained, placing a hand on Harry;s shoulder. "I'm sure Dumbledore's attempting to reach Molly as we speak -"
"We've got to go to St. Mungo's," Ginny interrupted, causing everyone to whirl around towards her. "Sirius, Davie - could you lend us cloaks or anything -?"
"Hang on, you can't go tearing off to St. Mungo's!" Sirius said to the teenagers' chagrin.
"Absolutely not, you can't leave here," Davie agreed. "We can't let you out of here right now until -"
"'Course we can go to St. Mungo's if we want," Fred said defiantly, drawing himself up and squaring his shoulders. "He's our dad!"
"And how are you going to explain how you knew Arthur was attacked before the hospital even let his wife know?" Sirius asked, and Davie couldn't helped but feel impressed by his foresight, one of the rare moments in which he actually maintained a level head.
"What does that matter?" George said hotly.
"It matters because we don't want to draw attention to the fact that Harry is having visions of things that are happening hundreds of miles away!" Sirius roared, shifting as he noticed the twins' change in posture, which looked as though they were close to making a run for it. "Have you any idea what the Ministry would make of that information?"
"Somebody else could have told us…" Ginny protested weakly, glancing at Harry as Davie tried to guide him into the closest armchair. "We could have heard it somewhere other than Harry…"
"From who? From either of us? That's just asking for trouble." Davie asked, raising her eyebrows slightly; she looked considerably less flustered than Sirius at the situation. "There's no reasonable explanation for why any of you would be there that doesn't jeopardize the Order's security."
"Your dad's been hurt while on duty for the Order and the circumstances are fishy enough without his children knowing about it seconds after it happened," Sirius said, still sounding surprisingly responsible. "You could seriously damage the Order's -"
"We don't care about the dumb Order!"
"It's our dad dying we're talking about!"
"Your father knew what he was getting into, and he won't thank you for messing things up for the Order!" Sirius roared in response to Fred and George, the Davie was distracted as she sensed Harry quavering slightly at what was happening. She watched him carefully as Sirius continued. "This is how it is - this is why you're not in the Order - you don't understand - there are things worth dying for!"
"Easy for you to say, stuck here!" Fred bellowed. "I don't see you risking your neck!"
Sirius paled, and his jaw clenched - he looked her much like he was about to lunge at Fred, but surprisingly, it was Davie - Davie, who everyone knew as being calm, collected, and rational - who placed her petite form between the Fred and Sirius, looking infuriated. Indeed, Fred looked honestly afraid of the woman, who looked absolutely enraged as she angrily jabbed a finger into Fred's chest, drawing herself up to her full height.
"We've been making sacrifices since before any of you were born. We were risking our necks fighting against You-Know-Who when we were your age - sacrificed our lives for the Order. Without everything Sirius and the rest of us have given up, none of you may even have been here. People have died for the Order," Davie hissed vehemently; Sirius seemed momentarily awed at how heatedly Davie had leapt to his defense, and he felt the color return to his face, Davie speaking to the children gave him a chance to cool his head. "And that includes your mother and father," Davie continued, glancing at each of the Weasley children. "And we haven't asked for that same sacrifice from in return from you, Fred. All we've asked of you is to listen and to trust us. So for everyone's safety, Sirius and I are keeping you lot in this house until we know the coast is clear."
"I know it's hard," Sirius said with forced calm in his voice; though his initial anger had subsided, he was still perturbed by Fred's accusations. "But we've all got to act as though me don't know anything yet."
After Davie's sudden outrage, the boys and Ginny looked surprisingly contrite, allowing themselves to be urged to take a seat wherever they could in the room as Sirius conjured up a few butterbeers for all of them. Davie had to nearly shove the mug into his hands before he obliged, looking quite lost in his thoughts. She was about to try and get his attention when with a crack, a plume of flame appeared in midair over the coffee table where the tray was sitting, and a scroll of parchment fell with a thud, along with a bright golden, ornate phoenix tail feather. Davie made to reach for it, but Sirius managed to swipe it first. Initially, he seemed eager to open it, but, thinking better of it, he hand it to George, who wasted no time in reading it aloud:
Dad is still alive. I am setting out for St. Mungo's now. Stay where you are. I will send news as soon as I can. Mum.
Everyone in the room shared a glance at the very brief, very distant feel of the letter, which sounded very unlike the warm, jovial Molly Weasley. Sirius and Davie glanced at one another - the children would surely not know this side of Molly, in any case. Members of the Order, however, were more familiar with one another.
When the Weasley children and Harry all seemed unwilling to go to bed, Sirius nodded towards the door, and Davie agreed that it might be best to leave them alone for the time being. They retreated to the bedroom, both patting Harry on the shoulder on their way.
"I don't feel good about this," Davie said, shaking her head and allowed her face to betray some of the worry she hadn't wanted to show in front of the younger lot. Despite the fact that Sirius had closed the heavy door behind him, she kept her voice to a near-whisper. "Visions - getting into Harry's head - this is out of our experience. Not even the Order know how to deal with this, Sirius."
"Shush," he said gently, chastely kissing her forehead and sitting on the bed next to her in an unusual show of tenderness. He kicked off his slippers and reclined into the pillows, and Davie mirrored his motions, nestling into his side. "You, love, are one of the most brilliant witches I know - and come tomorrow, once we know what's happened, you'll know -" he yawned, stretching and putting an arm around Davie as she pulled the covers over them and shut her eyes reluctantly, "- precisely what to do. Let's shut our eyes for an hour or two before we need to wake them. Just an hour or two."
"We'll need to talk to Harry," Davie said, yawning as well, her voice betraying the fact that she was on her way to falling a sleep. "I have a feeling - something's troubling him, more than just seeing Arthur attacked."
"Tomorrow," Sirius yawned, pulling out his wand and extinguishing the light.
A/N's
A lot lifted from book canon, with some edits, but I promise all of you that there are more substantial chapters to come. At the time of my posting this chapter, I've just gotten home from a very important entrance exam, so I'm hoping I did alright with it. That's part of the reason why the updates were a bit slower than promised. I will forego one-by-one review responses for this chapter in favor of having it posted for all of you quicker, but I do want to especially thank Lulu14168 whose review I received within twenty minutes of posting the last chapter.
I hope to hear from more of you guys soon - I'm in the middle of writing some of the heavier chapters of the story, and I'm projecting the total length to be about 60 chapters plus an epilogue. Thank you all for sticking with me! The next chapter should be posted quite soon, as it's already written, just needs some proofreading, which I always need to do with a fresh eye, since I don't have a beta.
Until next time, cheers!
