Once they were far enough, they allowed themselves to stop and take a breath.
"Will you be okay?" Edmund asked Fred.
The young man was breathing difficultly, and was even paler than before.
"Yeah. I think so."
"What did they do to you?"
"Crucio."
Edmund didn't understand, and turned to Hermione.
"The torturing curse." She explained.
"I stumbled while carrying a bag." Fred said.
His twin brother came close to him, put his hand on his shoulder, and said.
"It's over, now. We're free."
Edmund could see his lip trembling before he held his brother against him.
"What do we do, now?" Edmund asked
"We have to get to safety." Hermione declared.
She took a quill and a piece of parchment from her bag, and wrote a short phrase. She passed it to the rest of the group. That's when she noticed that Bill, Percy and Ginny were missing. When everyone had read the parchment, she hurriedly destroyed it.
"Can you apparate?" She asked with hope.
"Not without a wand." Charlie replied.
"Then we only have one way. Let's keep walking."
So they started walking again, apparently following no particular road, for about half an hour. When she was finally satisfied, Hermione took out her wand, and signed to call the Knight Bus. She paid a ticket for all passengers, and then went and settled like they could on the beds inside the bus.
"Where to, Missy?" Stan Shunpike asked.
"London. Piccadilly."
The bus had to make two stops before Piccadilly. Therefore, the journey seemed to last forever, and Edmund thought that such a way of travelling should not be permitted. Then, finally:
"London, Piccadilly!" The shrunken head announced.
And the group left the bus. Noticing how the Weasleys seemed to be starving, Edmund suggested they entered a pub to have dinner.
"Good idea, Hermione said. They won't look for us in a muggle pub."
They then picked a quiet pub, and Edmund took care of ordering the food (fish and chips for everyone). Hermione, as for her, settled to a table with the family. Edmund observed the way she let her head rest on Ron's shoulder. She was shaken, and clearly exhausted. He paid for the bill, and ignored the weird way the cashier looked at him when he handed her bills from 1940.
"Where are the others?" Hermione asked Ron.
"They sent Ginny back to Hogwarts. They said they found a better use for her there." He answered in a dark tone.
"So she's alive?" She asked in a relieved tone.
"As far as we know, yes. She is."
"Bill managed to hide away." Arthur said. "As far as we know. We think they would have told us if they had managed to capture or kill him."
Molly shivered at the word.
"And..."
"And that's all." Arthur said with a closed face. "I don't have any other children."
"Percy betrayed us." Charlie explained. "He's working with a woman named Umbridge, and he tracks down "Magic thieves"."
"You mean people like me?" Hermione translated. "Muggle-borns."
Ron passed his arm around her shoulder, in a gesture Edmund interpreted as reassuring and protective.
"What do we do, now?" He asked when he came back with the plates.
"We can't stay here for too long." Hermione answered, getting tensed again. "We have to get to the address I let you read."
"How far is that?"
"Around White Chappel. We have to take the subway."
"So that's why you chose Piccadilly?"
"Yes. And also because of the crowd. It's easier to hide."
Edmund nodded. They gave the Weasleys time to eat their dinner, and Hermione barely touched her plate.
"You should eat..." Edmund said.
"I'm fine. I ate quite a lot at the coronation."
"You're lying. I watched you, you barely touched your food. And you didn't each much more at Aslan's camp."
"I'm not really hungry."
Edmund was about to reply, but changed his mind a just sighed. Hermione glanced at him, and picked up a fry. She ended up eating her whole plate.