Chapter 50
It seemed that all the residents of Number four Privet Drive were very glad when the day of departure arrived. Eliza walked down into the living room and smiled in greeting to Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle who were conversing with Kingsley.
"Finally, right?" Harry said, looking at his sister. Eliza nodded; despite the fact that this had been one of the shortest summers in Surrey it had also been one of the most difficult. Aunt Petunia now seemed to have two personalities that Eliza differentiated in her head as; Aunt Petunia, Eliza's aunt and Petunia Dursley, Vernon's wife. They were as different as night and day, and Eliza knew which one she preferred.
"I see you are packed and ready. Excellent! The plan, as Kingsley has told you, is a simple one. We shall be leaving before Harry and Eliza do. Due to the danger of using magic in your house – with the twins still being under-age and Kingsley's presence being a secret, we don't want anyone arrested – we shall be driving, say ten miles or so, before Disapparating to the safe location we have picked out for you. You know how to drive, I take it?" Dedalus asked, looking at Uncle Vernon.
"Know how to- ? Of course I ruddy know how to drive!"
"Very clever of you, sir, very clever, I personally would be utterly bamboozled by all those buttons and knobs." Vernon muttered darkly and Harry tried to hide his smile.
"Right, time to say your goodbyes, perhaps we should wait in the hall, gentlemen." Hestia said, attempting to shoo Kingsley and Dedalus out of the room.
"There's no need." Harry said firmly. Kingsley nodded in agreement, clearly uncomfortable with leaving the twins and their Uncle in the same room without him present.
"I'm staying here." He said in his deep, calming voice, Eliza felt herself blush and she looked at the floor.
"Well, this is goodbye then, boy." Vernon said, ignoring Eliza completely as he had done every day since Kingsley had thrown him off his niece. Harry didn't reply.
"Ready, Diddy?" Aunt Petunia asked as Dudley stood up, he nodded but them looked unsure.
"Come along, then." Vernon said, nearly at the door.
"I don't understand." Dudley said, bemused.
"What don't you understand, Popkin?"
"Why aren't they coming with us?" Dudley asked, pointing to the twins.
"What?" Asked Uncle Vernon, briskly.
"Why aren't they coming too?" Dudley said again, looking at Harry particularly hard.
"Well, they- they don't want to. You don't want to do you?" Vernon asked, looking around at Harry.
"Not in the slightest."
"What about her?" Dudley asked, pointing at Eliza who shook her head.
"See, they don't want to. Come on, we're off.''
"But where are they going?" Dudley asked. Hestia looked outraged.
"But…surely you know where your niece and nephew are going?" She asked, looking at Vernon.
"Course we do, they're off with some of your lot. Get in the car Dudley, we're in a hurry."
"Off with some of our lot?" Hestia repeated, looking over at Kingsley for confirmation, he raised his eyebrows and nodded.
"Its fine, it doesn't matter." Harry said.
"Doesn't matter? Don't these people realise what you've been through? What danger you are in? The unique position you hold in the hearts of the anti-Voldemort movement?"
"Er – no…" Harry began, but Aunt Petunia cut across him.
"Of course we do but they've made their choice!" She snapped, suddenly looking quite tearful.
"They think we're a waste of space." Harry said at the same time. A loud silence followed both of these speeches. Dudley broke it first.
"I don't think you're a waste of space." He said quietly.
"Well…er…thanks Dudley." Harry looked nonplussed and Eliza raised her own eyebrows.
"You saved my life."
"Not really, it was your soul the Dementor would've taken."
Aunt Petunia seemed to break down completely and she rushed towards Dudley, hugging him.
"So…so sweet, Dudders, saying thank you…" She muttered.
"But he hasn't said thank you at all! He only said he didn't think Harry was a waste of space!" Said Hestia indignantly.
"I'm waiting in the car!" Vernon said, slamming the front door angrily.
"Yes, we really must be off." Dedalus said, looking down at his watch.
"I'll…just check I…turned the oven off." Petunia muttered, walking into the kitchen. Harry started talking to Dudley and Eliza followed her Aunt.
She was standing in the kitchen crying, nowhere near the oven.
"Aunt Petunia?" Eliza asked, grabbing a piece of kitchen towel and passing it to her Aunt. Petunia grabbed her hand instead of the tissue and then pulled her into a hug.
"Eliza," she sobbed into Eliza's hair "…I'm so sorry!" She wept. Eliza held her for several minutes before she managed to compose herself.
"What for?" Eliza asked as she pulled away.
"For not being like you." Petunia said, simply.
"What do you mean?"
"For….for not being….brave….and standing up for…both of you." Eliza nodded and Petunia took a deep breath. "Good luck Eliza, stay safe." Eliza nodded and Petunia was nearly in the hallway before Eliza ran ahead of her and pulled her into another hug.
"There are many different kinds of bravery, Aunt Petunia, it's not too late!" She whispered. Petunia nodded and left the kitchen.
"Alright, Eliza?" Harry asked as the front door closed behind Hestia Jones, who waved at Eliza with a reassuring smile on her face.
"Yeah." Eliza said quietly. She walked into the landing and opened the cupboard under the stairs, sitting down and leaning on the radiator, staring into her cupboard. Harry walked into the living room and kept Kingsley out of the way.
Eliza stared into the cupboard and was struck by how little it had changed since she was last in it. It seemed that the Dursleys had not filled it with shoes or umbrellas or anything. Aunt Petunia had not cleaned it. It look exactly the same as the last night she had been in it, after the Triwizard, for about half an hour before a nightmare had sent her to the shed where she had remained until Dumbledore and McGonagall had rescued her.
Eliza poked her head in and pulled out the empty box, Harry's coat hanger was in it. Eliza laughed and Harry poked his head out of the living room to see what had amused her.
"No way!" He said, as Eliza lifted the coat hanger and showed it to him.
"It's exactly the same in here Harry, it's like nothing's changed."
"Everything's changed." Harry said taking the coat hanger and putting it back in the box.
Eliza pulled herself up and sat in the cupboard, Harry sat next to her.
"Can you believe we both used to fit in here?" He asked, his neck to the side to fit.
"Not for long."
"When I moved upstairs, you stopped talking, that week."
"Did I?" Eliza said, looking away. Harry put his hand on her lap and squeezed her hand.
"I'm sorry, Eliza."
"Do you think we're going to survive this, Harry?" Eliza asked, not acknowledging his apology in the slightest. "I think the odds have changed since Christmas, don't you?"
"Everything's changed." Said Harry again, Eliza nodded.
Harry stood up and left the cupboard but Eliza stayed in there, thinking.
She heard the doorbell rang and Kingsley move to answer it.
She heard muffled conversation and greetings with a degree of detachment. It wasn't still Fred appeared in front of her that she fully appreciated that everyone had arrived.
"Need me to rescue you again?" He asked, with a small smile.
"Please." Eliza replied, holding out her hand. Fred took hold of it and pulled her forwards before picking her up and spinning her around, kissing her firmly on the mouth.
"Put me down!" She shrieked, glad that there were only a few people present. He put her down and she took one last look in the cupboard and then shut the door, firmly.
Fred and Eliza walked into the living room together and Eliza hugged Ron, Hermione, George, Remus, Tonks, Arthur, Fleur, Hagrid and Bill as they walked in.
"Hey Eliza, guess what?" Tonks said, wriggling her left hand in front of Eliza for examination.
"You got married?" Harry yelped, looking between Tonks and Remus
"Yep, sorry you couldn't be there but I thought I better get him down the aisle quickly before he changed his mind." Tonks said, looping her arm around Remus'.
"Good thinking." Eliza said, hugging Remus again; he looked relieved by her approval. Several other people filed in and Eliza fell silent.
"All right, all right, we'll have time for a cosy catch-up later." Moody barked, looking over at the twins. "Right well as Kingsley's probably told you, we had to abandon Plan A."
"Yeah, but he didn't tell us what Plan B, was." Harry said, looking at Kingsley with obvious annoyance.
"Well Pius Thicknesse has gone over, which gives us a big problem. He's made it an imprisonable offence to connect 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.
Second problem: you're both under-age, which means you've still got the Trace on you."
"I don't…" Harry began.
"The Trace, the Trace! The charm that detects magical activity around under-seventeens, the way the Ministry finds out about under-age magic! If either of you, or anyone around you, casts a spell to get you out of here, Thicknesse is going to find out 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 Thicknesse thinks he got the pair of you cornered good and proper." Eliza raised her eyebrows silently congratulating Thicknesse.
"So what are we going to do?" Harry asked, looking around at the assembled group.
"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, Threstrals and Hagrid's motorbike." Eliza shared a worried look with her brother.
"Eliza's not…" Harry began but again Moody interrupted him.
"We know she can't ride a broom, she'll be using a Threstral. Now, your mother's charm will break only under two conditions: when you come of age, Harry because you're younger…"
"Am I?" Harry asked, looking amazed. Eliza realised she had forgotten to tell him.
"Yes, by about four minutes if I remember correctly." Remus said from behind Harry. Eliza bit her lip to keep from smiling and Fred shook his head and turned away from her.
"Or when you both no longer call this place 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?"
Both Harry and Eliza nodded. Fred had finally turned back around and looked relieved that Eliza was no longer pulling the face that he found so difficult to resist.
"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 the pair of 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 false 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 Eater patrolling the skies in this general area, just in case. So, we've given a dozen different houses 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, Kingsley's house, Molly's Auntie Muriel's- you get the idea." Eliza nodded.
"Yeah." Harry said carefully.
"Harry, you'll be going to Tonks' parents, once you're within the boundaries of the protective enchantments we've put on the house you'll be able to use a Portkey to the Burrow. Eliza, you'll be going straight to the Burrow, we know you don't like Portkey's." Eliza nodded, feeling very relieved.
"But won't they know which of the secure houses I'm heading for when, I'm presuming, half of us fly to Tonks' parents and the other half fly with Eliza to the Burrow."
"Ah, I forgot to mention the key point. There will be four Harry Potters' and three Eliza Potters', each flying to a different location." Harry and Eliza stared at Moody as he withdrew two flasks from him pocket and Eliza knew instantly it was Polyjuice Potion. She paled and Harry's face darkened, both in anger.
"No! No way!" He shouted stepping away from Moody.
"I told you he'd take it like this." Hermione said from behind Eliza.
"If you think I'm going to….and I feel I should warn you that Eliza is very, very angry about this…Merlin Eliza, calm down you're giving me a headache!" Harry stepped away from Eliza and grabbed his head in apparent pain.
"Eliza, calm down!" Harry roared, holding his head.
Remus walked up to Eliza and pulled her into the kitchen, realising that she wouldn't talk in front of such a large group.
"Eliza, calm down. It will be fine!" He said, shutting the door so that she would feel comfortable enough to talk.
"I…No, there's no way…" She spluttered; she was angrier than she had been in ages and it was as much as she could manage not to explode the windows.
"Eliza, it's the only way, your safety comes first!" Remus said, facing her with a slightly desperate expression on his face.
"I'm not doing it, no way." She said folding her arms and resisting the urge to stomp her foot with great difficulty.
"Well, we're doing it with or without your permission."
"I'm not giving you my hair!" She said putting her hands on her head.
"We knew you wouldn't but we've already got it; Fred plucked one out when he hugged you…" Eliza put her hands by her side and took an angry breath before storming out of the kitchen and back into the living room.
"Fred, take cover." Harry said from the sofa. Fred looked around at Eliza and winced at the anger on her face.
"Hey, it wasn't my idea!" He said, putting up his arms. Eliza glared at him and sent a message to Harry.
"She said 'you better watch your step when you get back to the Burrow'. Eliza can you calm down please, you're giving me a migraine." Eliza looked over at Harry and drew comfort from the fact that he didn't like the plan any better than she did. She took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind.
"Thanks, can you warn me before you get angry like that again?" He asked, standing up and walking back over to Moody and handing him a couple of his hairs.
"Right Tonks, you can take Granger, Delacour and Potter into the kitchen." Tonks took the flask and bag of clothes from Moody, and Hermione and Fleur followed her with Eliza walking behind them.
"Here you go, girls." Tonks passed the Potion to Hermione who pressed it to her lips.
"Wait!" Said Eliza, quickly, before Hermione could take a sip.
"Eliza don't make it diffi…" Began Tonks, sighing.
"I'm not, I know you're going to do it. I'd just like you to…respect my privacy."
"What?" Hermione said, bemused. Tonks looked at Eliza carefully.
"I've…I've got some…scars and things. I'd rather no one knew about." Fleur, Hermione and Tonks all stared at her.
"Eliza…" Tonks started but Eliza shook her head.
"No one! If you're doing this against my will then at least give me this!" She said, firmly. All three witches nodded, Tonks last, and Eliza indicated to Hermione that she could take the Potion.
Eliza turned away from the scene trying to compose herself and when she turned back Hermione and Fleur had been replaced by her doppelgangers. It was beyond bizarre.
Hermione and Fleur changed quickly, barely glancing down at Eliza's body. Eliza also changed into the assigned clothes, no one said anything. Tonks looked incredibly uncomfortable and Eliza felt quite relieved to return to the living room where Harry was looking completely confused.
"Alright Fred, which one is Eliza?" One of the Harry's, clearly George, asked. Fred looked up and immediately pointed to the correct Eliza.
"That's easy; she looks ready to spit nails." Fred-Harry came to put his arm around her but Eliza stepped away, this was too weird.
Tonks and Bill laughed, loudly.
"It's nice to have full use of my wand arm again Harry, cheers." Eliza looked at Fred and then cast a worried glance at his arm.
"Right, now we're all ready. This is how we're doing it. Mundungus, you're with me, by broom. Fred, you're with Doge also by broom, Bill…" Eliza relaxed slightly to know that Fred and Remus weren't together, it increased their odds of surviving, of at least one of them returning to her unharmed.
"I'm taking Fleur on a Threstral, she's not that fond of brooms." The Eliza-Fleur walked over to Bill and looked up at him with a very soppy expression and Bill looked down at his fiancée, clearly rather confused.
"George you'll be with Remus, Granger with Kingsley, again by Threstral. Ron you're with Tonks on a broom. Eliza you're going with Arthur on a Threstral." Eliza nodded and walked over to Mr Weasley.
"Got everything, Eliza?" She nodded and tried to smile but it came out as more of a grimace.
"An' you're with me, Harry. That all righ'? We'll be on the bike, you'll be in the sidecar. You seemed to like it when I brought you here in it, slept nearly the whole way in the sidecar yeh did. Didn't make a sound."
"What about Eliza?" Ron asked, looking over at Hagrid.
"Screamed the whole way, had to keep her in my coat. I swear I can still hear her when I'm flying sometimes!" Hagrid said, wistfully. Eliza smiled at him as the others laughed.
"Right, everyone outside." Eliza followed Mr Weasley outside of the door and Fred came to stand near her. The others dispersed in their pairs.
"See you at the Burrow, Eliza, I love you." He said, looking like he expected a kiss. Remus and Arthur chuckled. Eliza closed her eyes before she answered.
"I love you too, Fred. Please don't kiss me when you look like Harry." She whispered, opening her eyes as she finished speaking.
"Yeah, please don't snog her when you look like me, Fred." Harry said from the sidecar where Hagrid was buckling him in.
Eliza walked over to her brother and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"So, this is weird." Harry said, looking around at all of the others.
"Beyond weird, be careful Harry. See you at the Burrow." Harry kissed her on the cheek and she walked back over to Mr Weasley who helped her onto the Threstral.
Eliza sat behind Mr Weasley and put her arms around his waist to secure herself.
"The last time I was on one of these it was with Ron." She said conversationally.
"Really? Well Moody expects them to go for the Aurors first so we should be alright. Remus wanted you with him but with the marriage the Lestranges are out for him as well as you and Tonks so we thought we'd better be on the safe side." Eliza nodded but did not reply.
"Can't believe I'm finally leaving." She said after a couple more minutes. Moody was still barking orders at everyone.
"Well, believe it, Eliza, Molly can't wait to have you home!" Eliza smiled.
"Good luck, everyone. See you all in about an hour at the Burrow. On the count of three. One…two…THREE!"
The Threstral kicked off from the ground hard and they soared up and were above the houses within seconds. Eliza took a last glimpse at Privet Drive and then suddenly it was gone, and they were surrounded.
A/N Welcome to DH! So long to the Dursleys, or is it? Anyway please review!
Next chapter; The battle of the skies, Voldemort turns up, Snape too, and Eliza gets a blast from the past.
Thanks to mozie for beta-ing
