Everything had been closely and carefully arranged in order to move Harry out of his aunt and uncle's house before he turned seventeen and the protection magic that his mother had left on him broke. We felt it would be safer, unexpected, and Voldemort wouldn't see it coming. Fifteen of us volunteered for the job. Well, fourteen plus a very reluctant Mundungus. I had been brewing polyjuice potion all summer in order to get everything ready, helping to arrange everything else and ensure that everyone knew their routes, had their mounts and that everything would go smoothly. Voldemort was getting more restless now that he knew that Harry was soon to turn seventeen, with more killings and disappearances by the week like his impatience forced him to distract himself with other means.
Dad and I flew on Buckbeak, who seemed happy for the chance to stretch his wings as we all cast disillusionment charms on ourselves and flew there with the others, Hagrid riding dad's old motorbike which I thought was the coolest thing I'd ever seen before in my life. So far, the plan was going smoothly, as we all arrived at the same time, though the bike made a great deal of noise which brought Harry running into the back garden to see us popping into view as we each lifted our charms. Hermione launched herself at Harry to hug him as we all smiled and greeted him, Ron clapping him on the back as Hagrid grinned. "All righ', Harry? Ready fer the off?"
"Definitely, but I wasn't expecting this many of you!"
"Change of plan." Moody announced, carrying two large bags in his hands. "Let's get undercover before we talk you through it." We all squeezed into the house one by one, dotting ourselves around the place as dad and I looked around with interest.
"There's no dust. Anywhere." I marvelled as I wiped a finger along a shelf to find it pristine and sparkling. "How do muggles manage it without magic?"
"Um…my aunt just cleans every day. All day."
"Hmph. Sounds exhausting." I mused before then pushing myself up onto the kitchen surface as dad hugged Harry and ruffled his hair. Once all of us were inside and variously placed around the kitchen and living room, Harry began to look at us all in turn as there were quite a number of us. Myself and dad, Ron and Hermione, Fred and George, Arthur and Moody, Tonks and Remus, Bill and Fleur, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Hagrid, then finally, there was Mundungus.
"Kingsley, I thought you were looking after the muggle Prime Minister?" Harry questioned to one of the leading aurors of the ministry.
"He can get along without me for one night. You're more important." He said in his low, velvety voice as Tonks then eagerly lifted her left hand in order to show him the wedding band which was now wrapped around her finger.
"Harry, guess what?" Catching sight of it, Harry's mouth dropped open as he then stared at Tonks and Remus, who had his arm wrapped around his now wife.
"You got married?!"
"I'm sorry you couldn't be there, Harry, it was very quiet." Remus apologised as I grinned.
"I went, it was quiet until we opened up a tab at the bar and had a few drinks. Then it was just interesting." I reminded him which made him laugh lightly, looking happier and healthier than ever before. Tonks was definitely good for him.
"Alright, alright, we'll have time for a cosy catch-up later!" Moody interrupted with a sharp snap of his voice, drawing our attention back to him. "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 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 underage, which means you've still got the Trace on you."
"I don't…" Barking loudly to interrupt him, Moody was clearly in a hurry to keep to the schedule.
"The Trace! The Trace! The charm that detects magical activity around under-seventeens, the way the Ministry finds out about underage 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 Thicknesse thinks he's got you cornered good and proper."
"So what are we going to do?" Harry asked slowly whilst looking around at the rest of us.
"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, that hippogriff, and Hagrid's – sorry – Sirius's motorbike." Dad had coughed just then, reminding Moody and everyone here that it was in fact his motorbike, just on a long-term loan. "Now your mother's charm will only break under two conditions. When you come of age, or you 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?" Nodding his head without hesitation, I couldn't imagine that Harry was sorry to hear this.
Looking around the place again, I saw a distinctive lack of Harry. There were no pictures of him, still, moving or otherwise. They were all of the fat necked uncle, the stick-thin aunt and that bulbous cousin of his with that mop of blonde hair that really looked odd on such a round face. "So this time, when you leave, there'll be no going back and the charm will break the moment you get outside it's 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."
"Which of course, would be a real shame Harry." I promptly added with a grin, purposefully knocking over a rather ugly looking vase so that it smashed in a mild protest against these muggle people, having known their poor treatment of Harry over the years and wanted to get back at them in some small way. "You're a decent sort of fellow, hard enough to find them around these days." Giving me a dark glare with both eyes, Moody told me to be quiet so I winked at him, allowing him to continue.
"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. 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 place, Molly's Aunt Muriel's, Euphemia's mother's place, you get the idea."
"Yeah." Although he said this, Harry still looked a little confused, like he was sure something was missing from the plan. He wasn't going to like it when he finds out what we had in store, but we'll deal with that later.
"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?"
"Er, yes. Maybe they won' 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, I forgot to mention the key point." Like Circe you did Moody, you were just avoiding it for as long as possible. "Sixteen of us won't be flying to Tonks's parents'. There will be eight Harry Potters moving through the skies tonight, each of them with a companion, each pair heading for a different house." When Moody pulled out large flask and popped open the stopper to show Harry the polyjuice potion inside, his face dropped in horrified realisation.
"No! No way!"
"I told them you'd take it like this." Hermione said tartly from where she sat on the sofa but Harry ignored her.
"If you think I'm going to let seven people risk their lives…"
"Because it's the first time for all of us." Ron pointed out but Harry heatedly argued that this was different.
"Well, none of us really fancy it, Harry." Fred told him with a smirk. "Imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever." I took that as a personal insult to my potion brewing ability.
"Excuse me, I took an entire month to brew that potion! It's flawless!" I protested but smiled at the twins as dad told Harry that everything would be fine, that the disguise was merely a precaution, but still Harry was not intending to agree to the plan.
"You can't do it if I don't cooperate, you need me to give you some hair."
"Well, that's that plan scuppered." George flung up his hands in defeat. "Obviously there's no chance at all of us getting a bit of your hair unless you cooperate."
"Yeah, fifteen of us against one bloke who's not allowed to use magic. We've got no chance." Fred agreed but Harry wasn't able to see the humour.
"If it has to come to force, it will. Everyone here's overage, Potter, and they're all prepared to take the risk." Moody informed Harry bluntly, leaving no room for arguments. "Let's have no more arguments, time's wearing on. I want a few of your hairs, boy, now." Harry tried to protest one more time but Moody spoke over him. "No need?! 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 no to have a Death Eater or two keeping an eye out, it's what I'd do. They might not be able to get at you or this house whilst 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."
The choice of words seemed almost…ironic, though I made no motion to show that they meant anything significant. Moody had Harry give him some of the hairs off his head, having no other alternative. A cluster of deep black hairs were dropped into the potion and I watched curiously as it began to smoke and froth, the ugly grey liquid turning into a rather pleasant shade of gold. "Ooh, you look much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle, Harry." Hermione said before she could help herself, making me laugh as Ron arched an eyebrow at her. "Oh you know what I mean, Goyle's potion looked like bogies." I laughed again.
"Right then, fake Potters line up over here, please." I hopped off my seat in order to join the line, standing between Fred and George as Ron, Hermione and Fleur lined up with us. We were one short which Remus pointed out and Hagrid roughly grabbed Mundungus who had tried to hide himself out of sight and dropped him into the line beside Fleur who quickly marched away, choosing to stand with me instead.
"I've told yer, I'd sooner be a protector." Mundungus insisted but Moody growled at him.
"Shut it, as I've already told you, you spineless worm, any Death Eaters we run into will be aiming to capture Potter, not kill him. Dumbledore always said You-Know-Who would want to finish Potter in person. It'll be the protectors who have got the most to worry about, the Death Eaters'll want to kill them." It appeared that this did not make Mundungus feel any better, but Moody ignored any further complaining or mumbling by shoving a small cup into his hands then passing up the rest until we were all holding one, which he then poured a bit of the potion into each. All at the same time we drank and I did my best not to grimace at the rather foul tasting potion hit me. The golden liquid was gravely misleading. Feeling myself beginning to change, I grew taller by an inch or two and my black hair lost it's curliness and shot backwards into my head, which was a rather unpleasant sensation to say the least.
Within moments I was Harry's double, but the gin I had was still definitely my own as each of us began to check out the other. "Wow, we're identical!" Fred and George said together as I began to fuss with the hair, wondering if it really did refuse to go flat but no matter how much I tried, it wouldn't neaten itself out. "I dunno, though, I think I'm still better looking." Fred said as he admired his own reflection.
"Oh please, we all know you two have nothing on me." I went to flick my hair but of course, my curls were gone so instead I'd given a rather feminine gesture whilst being Harry, which was hilarious and we all laughed whilst Fleur told Bill not to look at her because she was hideous. Tossing down the two bags Moody had been holding, they spilled open to reveal all kinds of clothes in one and luggage in the other.
"Those whose clothes are a bit roomy, I've got smaller here, and vice versa. Don't forget the glasses, there's seven pairs in the side pocket, and when you're dressed, there's luggage in the other sack." I looked down at myself, wondering if I could get away with wearing my own clothes since I hadn't really changed much except shape wise. I was glad I'd thought ahead tonight and not worn my usual underwear. Everything I was wearing was men's clothing, including the underwear, which were actually much more comfortable than I thought they would be now that I had certain…equipment.
"Hey dad, Harry, think this will pass? I tried to dress like Harry does." I lifted my arms and turned around, wearing a loose t-shirt, faded jeans and an oversized and rather baggy long sleeved shirt over the top.
"I think you look fine, just like him. What do you think Harry?" He refused to answer, now staring in slight shock as other people started to strip off right in front of everyone else and I had to feel a little sympathetic for him, since it was his body we were parading around. I grabbed a warm looking jacket from the clothes pile and found the glasses in the pocket before putting them on, making my eyesight much clearer than it had been before. I can't believe Harry's eyes were this bad without glasses, if I had realised, I'd have offered to help improve his eyesight a long time ago. Once everyone else was dressed, we each then took a rucksack each as well as a cage with a fake but rather realistic snowy owl.
"Good." Moody said approvingly as his magical eye swept over us all before then resuming checking the surroundings. "The pairs will be as follows. Mundungus will be travelling with me, by broom…"
"Why'm I with you?" Mundungus muttered unhappily from where he was slouching by the door.
"Because you're the one that needs watching." Giving him a glare, Moody then returned to his list, pointing at one of the Harrys where the twins had been standing before they'd taken the potion. "Arthur and Fred."
"I'm George."
"Sorry, George…"
"Only yanking your wand, I'm Fred really." Moody was not happy about the joke, and neither did he find it funny though dad and I snorted quietly at the same time.
"Enough messing around! The other one – Fred or George or whoever you are – you're with Remus. Miss Delacour…"
"I'm taking Fleur on a thestral. She's not that fond of brooms." The Harry which was Fleur quickly moved over to Bill, the two of them exchanging a loving look together as Moody moved on.
"Miss Granger with Kingsley, again by thestral. Euphemia will be with Sirius, on Buckbeak."
"Which leaves you and me, Ron!" Tonks announced cheerfully and in her haste to wave at him, knocked over a stand with mugs hanging off it. The odd things these muggles have.
"An' you're with me, Harry. That alrigh'?" Hagrid looked at Harry with slight nervousness, as if worried that Harry wouldn't be happy with the arrangement. "We'll be on the bike, brooms an' thestrals can't take me weight, see. Not a lot o' room on the seat with me on it, though, so you'll be in the sidecar."
"That's great." Harry responded with a genuine smile up at Hagrid who beamed back at him.
"We think the Death Eaters will expect you to be on a broom. Snape's had plenty of time to tell them everything about you he's never mentioned before, so if we do run into any Death Eaters, we're betting they'll choose one of the Potters who look at home on a broomstick, which is why Euphemia kindly agreed to loan the use of her own Firebolt to one of the flying Harry's. Makes it more believable." George grinned, lifting the broomstick at me and I felt a pang of worry and pointedly told him that if I got that back with so much as a scratch or splinter, then I was going to hex his head to his feet. "Alright then, I make it three minutes until we're supposed to leave. No point locking the back door, it won't keep the Death Eaters out when they come looking. Come on."
Harry quickly went to get his own things as the rest of us moved into the garden where Buckbeak clicked his beak. Everyone bowed in turn and he bowed back quickly, as if knowing that we were on a schedule so I tossed him a ferret I'd been keeping for him which he happily swallowed in practically two gulps, everyone beginning to mount up. Dad swung up onto Buckbeak first but before I did so, I turned around to see Harry leaving the house with his rucksack, Firebolt and Hedwig in her cage. Making a split decision, I went on over to him. "Harry, give me Hedwig and the Firebolt."
"Huh? Why?"
"If Death Eaters do show up, they'd go after anyone on or with a broomstick, so you can't have that, and they'd soon figure out that the birds aren't real if they're paying attention. Just trust me, it's better if I have them. I can protect myself since I can do magic whilst you technically can't." I told him simply as I made him switch birds with me so I got the real Hedwig, then pulled the Firebolt out of his hands. "I promise I'll look after them both. You'll have them back soon."
"I know it's just…be careful, okay?" Giving him a smile, which was probably weird for him considering it was his own face he was talking to, I decided that it would probably be too weird to hug him so I just ruffled his hair and told him that I'd see him soon. So with a bag on my back, the Firebolt in one hand and Hedwig's cage under the other, dad pulled me up onto Buckbeak who flexed his wings, getting ready to fly as I found a comfortable way to support everything. I put Hedwig between my knees so that she was squished between me and my dad, apologising to her softly and promising to supply her with all the owl nuts she could possibly want once we'd got to the Burrow. I then held the Firebolt in my right hand, which left my left free for my wand in case I needed it, having it tucked away at the ready as we all waited for Moody's go ahead.
"Alright then, everyone ready please. I want us all to leave at exactly the same time or the whole point of the diversion's lost." Moody called to us all so I lifted my head.
"And everyone remember to call your doppelganger Harry, otherwise the whole thing would be pointless!" I called to which Moody gave an approving nod. Tonks was as bright and cheerful as ever as she told Ron to hold onto her, who looked mightily embarrassed as he sent an apologetic look over to Remus before putting his arms around his wife's waist. Remus was with George, the both of them mounted on my Firebolt and I hoped that nothing was going to happen to it. I was rather attached to it.
"Good luck everyone. See you in about an hour at the Burrow. On the count of three. One…two…THREE!" The moment he'd shouted, dad gave Buckbeak a firm tap with his heels which made him rear up and give a fierce cry, racing forwards a few powerful steps before opening his wings and taking off, his back hooves clipping the fence as we all took off to rise up into the sky together. We flew up above the clouds as one, but then without warning, we were surrounded by long, black cloaked figures, each of them riding brooms of their own.
"NO!" I bellowed in outrage as several others screamed, Mundungus was definitely one of them, before spells began to shoot from every direction. There were thirty of them at least, and I had to cast a strong protection spell to shield our left flank as dad made Buckbeak fly higher and roll, forcing me to clutch onto everything tightly so that we could break free and begin to fly as fast as Buckbeak was able, but with the two of us, there was too much weight. At least ten Death Eaters broke off in order to follow us, forcing us to weave through the clouds and dive through them for cover as dad and I parried with our best spells.
A stunner from dad hit one of them in the chest, throwing him off his broom and I created a flock of large birds which attacked another, making him scream and throw up his arms as they went for his eyes. "They think I'm the real Harry!" I realised after a moment, tapping dad's shoulder as we hid in the clouds for a moment, soaked to the bone within seconds. "Because I'm with you!"
"What?!"
"No, it's good! We can lure them away, it'll be a challenge! There's too much weight on Buckbeak, however, so I'm going to fly alongside you on the broom. Get ready to fly!" Grabbing Hedwig's cage, I placed the top handle over the broomstick so that it looped on, shouldering the backpack more securely then rolled off Buckbeak's back and quickly fell onto the broom which quickly kicked into life and responded, soaring forwards. Together, dad and I burst through the clouds with spells to break through the Death Eaters that had tried to surround the entire cloud, forcing them to give chase once more.
Looping and weaving was much easier on a broomstick, though Hedwig was screeching in her cage which had to move with the movements I made as I gripped the handle with the hook behind my hand to make sure she didn't fall off. "Sorry Hedwig." I said through gritted teeth as I kept close to dad, though I flew with every ounce of talent and trick I possessed. With a slash of my wand, a jet of flames flew out and I landed it like a whip against them as we headed north towards our destination. Three of the Death Eaters went down, falling from their brooms and into the darkness of the night.
"Brilliant!" Dad praised as we continued altering ourselves back on course, where we then noticed Bill and Fleur on their thestral some ways away from us, as well as Moody and Mundungus a little closer, all of them being trailed by Death Eaters, though the ones following Moody seemed to be holding back.
It made me curious, frowning slightly as I flung a hex over my shoulder, not even bothering to look and see whether it hit. In fact, our Death Eaters were holding back too, they weren't firing any spells at us, and it only became clear why when a figure suddenly rose up as if materialising from darkness, flying completely unaccompanied with no broom or anything to hold him upright. Voldemort. He was aiming straight for Mundungus and Moody, wand pointing at them as he faced them. Without even thinking about it, I accelerated, dad's cry disappearing behind me in a quick snap of air.
The bright jet of green began to erupt from Voldemort's wand as he cried out the killing curse, Mundungus screaming in terror before disapparating on the spot, leaving Moody to face Voldemort alone. Then again, not so alone. Harry's Firebolt moved just as fast as mine did, so in the burst of speed I put on, I collided with Voldemort with such momentum that the curse veered off target and shot into the open sky as I felt my shoulder impact with his chest, throwing us both off as we dropped. The Firebolt and Hedwig spun out from underneath me as I started to fall, summersaulting several times before I summoned both the broom and the cage back to me, Hedwig screeching fearfully until I had both and was flying once more.
Only thing was, Voldemort was now focused on me. I was way off course now, everyone else was completely out of sight as we'd dropped a couple hundred feet in the air with an unknown forest beneath us. Another bolt of light followed so I dodged it, letting the Firebolt carry me as I then swerved upwards and launched a spell back at Voldemort, and even through the darkness, his pale face and blood red eyes glared back at me, his lipless mouth pulled into the most sinister snarl. We circled and duelled, my magic now even more advanced than when we had last fought as I released bolts of lightning from my wand to launch them at him, the thunderclap of sound booming around us with the intense flash of light.
He blocked the lightning and parried as I created a cloud cover and dove down further, leading him astray before then managing to get around, firing a spell which this time, clipped him. It barely touched his shoulder, but that mark which now adorned the split in his robe was enough to send me forwards with another tirade of spells, but then Voldemort seemed to look up suddenly, as if hearing someone call him and just like that, he disapparated. "Damn it! Come back here you coward!" But he was gone, and I was completely alone. "Damn it." I said again before asking my wand to point me north so I at least knew which direction to head off in.
I rose higher, scanning the clouds for any signs of my dad and Buckbeak, or anyone really. There was too much open air between us, however, so all I could do was aim for our safe house and return home, where the portkey was waiting and hope I didn't miss it. Knowing where my own house was without needing too much direction, I soon saw it come into sight so I looked down to check on Hedwig. Her feathers were ruffled and she was favouring one of her wings, so I took this moment to fix it up carefully, apologising repeatedly. "I'll get Hagrid to get a proper look at you once we're at the Burrow, he'll make you fit as a fiddle again. I'll understand if you hate me. Tell you what, I could even ask Fawkes to give you a tear, that'll heal you up in a jiffy, how does that sound?"
By this point I was now nearing my house so I pulled up and alighted in the backyard having passed through the boundary layer that I myself had set up. "MUM! DAD! DAD-TWO!" My voice bellowed and in a heartbeat, mum came flying out the door. I'd barely dropped the Firebolt and put Hedwig's cage down before mum tackled me with such a powerful hug we both went flying. "Ow! Ow mum that hurts!"
"Where have you been?! Do you know how worried I was?! Your father comes flying in on that hippogriff saying you'd attacked You-Know-Who and that you'd disappeared! I almost killed him myself!" Mum was screaming at me but crying also, sitting on the grass and insisting on cradling and rocking me as she sobbed, Leo also rushing out to drop down and hug us both.
"Thank Merlin you're safe, when you didn't come with Sirius we thought…well, in any case you missed the portkey and we forced Sirius to go, he needed to follow the plan and there was a chance you would go straight there once you got free…" He too was crying and for a while, the three of us sat on the damp grass huddled together, me squished between them and I felt there was no place I would rather be in the entire world as I softly promised them that I was okay and tried to explain myself.
"He was going to kill Moody, Dung fled when he appeared, and I just went for him. It was stupid I know, but when have I ever not been reckless? Come on mum, please try and stop crying, I really need to get to the Burrow, I need to make sure everyone else got there alright." Mum was now hiccupping but still refused to let me go so I resigned myself to staying within her grasp, listening to her sobbing as she continued to rock with me until I wasn't sure who she was trying to comfort anymore. Me or herself.