It was an entire hour before she'd actually let me go again, and a further half an hour where I had to make her understand that I needed to go. "They don't know I'm alive, mum, I have to go. I'll be alright now. The Burrow is well protected, and it's full of the Order. We'll be safe."
Leo had to help me persuade her, and once she was calm enough, she kissed my face repeatedly and told me to be more careful. "I love you so much, sweetheart, and we are very proud of you but it's just so dangerous. Next time, try and choose a much safer mission, alright? For me?"
"I'll try. I love you both, cross my heart." I promised them with a smile, kissing them both before I mounted Harry's Firebolt, slipped Hedwig's hoop onto the end of the broom then kicked off in order to fly past the boundary before disapparating, heading directly for the Burrow where I appeared outside the border then flew in. When I landed in the garden, there was a shout from inside, a clatter like a table being overturned and my dad flew out with such a murderous look I genuinely thought I was going to die.
He grasped my shoulders roughly, looking me up and down with that almost mad gleam before then crushing me against him, everyone else running out and shouting my name, some of them starting to cry. "Sirius, we need to check that it's her. Could be an imposter." Moody said gruffly, limping outside with the rest but dad merely turned and roared with a rage I had never seen him before, even I felt terrified of him then.
"OF COURSE IT'S MY DAUGHTER! SHE JUST SAVED YOUR LIFE YOU UNGRATEFUL CAD!"
"Sirius…we just…" But dad yelled again so this time, I reached out and took his hand, giving it a firm squeeze as I held the Firebolt and Hedwig still hanging off the end.
"It's alright." I told him softly before then turning to the others. "My name is Euphemia Selene Black. I went to Hogwarts where I was sorted into Gryffindor but in actual fact, I expected and truly wanted to be put in Hufflepuff like my mother. I spent an entire week trying to transfer before I accepted it was impossible. My best friends are Fred and George Weasley, who I know for a fact when they were testing one of their products got blistery boils on their arses which I refused to treat because I thought it was hilarious. I'm proud, arrogant but undeniably talented, beautiful and one of the most intelligent creatures to ever grace this earth with my presence. Satisfy you lot?"
"That's her." Fred and George agreed together, and that's when I noticed George had a thick bandage around his head, covering his ear.
"What in Merlin's name happened to you?!" So then I was caught up with what had happened after I got pulled off course. Remus and George had been chased by Death Eaters, and it was Snape who'd used a curse which lopped off George's ear. It made me furious and I swore vengeance on that no account backstabber, and was about to spout of a great deal of colourful swear words when Hedwig screeched at me impatiently.
"Oh right, sorry Hedwig. Here you go Harry. Unfortunately she got a little banged up, my flying wasn't smooth, but I think I fixed her wing, though it would be best if you let Hagrid take a look at her." Pushing aside my hair which was now back to normal, I was then flooded with hugs by everyone around me. Harry fist, embracing me tightly before he let go and stepped aside with his broomstick and Hedwig to be replaced by Uncle Remus, the twins, Molly and Arthur, Tonks, Hagrid, Hermione and Ron, Ginny and then Bill and Fleur. By the time we'd gotten through everyone, dad had calmed down and pulled me back to him.
"I take it all back. I never want you to be reckless or brave again. You can be a coward for all I care, you're not putting yourself in that kind of danger ever again." Choosing not to answer, I squeezed him lightly then kissed his cheek before we all went inside where I was quickly supplied with a drink of firewhiskey as everyone else received a glass too. Moody took me aside in order to tell me that it was the stupidest thing he'd ever seen in his life what I'd done and that I shouldn't have deviated from the plan, but he admitted it was also brave and impressive, thanking me curtly before then giving me a firm nod which made me feel like I'd finally earned the great Mad-Eye Moody's respect.
We drank a toast in victory, though we wondered at how it could have slipped out that we were moving Harry tonight. The only answer was that someone had betrayed us. "Maybe it was Mundungus." Fred suggested as we all gathered together in the kitchen, the Burrow practically fit to bursting with all the people inside.
"I doubt it, though I did wonder at first." Bill answered, brow creased slightly in thought as he kept his arm slung around Fleur's shoulders. "But he couldn't have. They didn't know there would be eight Harrys, that confused them the moment we appeared, and in case you've forgotten, it was Mundungus who suggested that little bit of skulduggery. Why wouldn't he have told them the essential point? I think Dung panicked, it's as simple as that. He didn't want to come in the first place, it was Moody who made him, and You-Know-Who went straight for them. It was enough to make anyone panic."
"I'll be grabbing that little runt and stringing him up next I see him." Moody growled as he sat himself down in the comfiest chair he could find, putting up his false leg for a while.
"You-Know-Who acted exactly as you said he would." Tonks said with a look to Moody. "You said he'd expect the real Harry to be with the toughest, most skilled aurors. He chased Mad-Eye first, and when Mundungus gave them away he must have gone after you, Mia, since you tackled him out of the air. I guess he must have thought that would have been something the real Harry would have done." I grinned at Harry who shrugged, which meant of course he would have done the same thing. "Then he went for Kingsley, maybe you gave yourself away or something…"
"He did look a little distracted." I mused, thinking back. "And I was using advanced magic, stuff way beyond Harry's stage. No offence, so he must have figured out who I was then decided to go looking for Harry after all. Maybe he was called by one of the Death Eaters. Who did he go for next? Did he show up to anyone else after Kingsley? Wait…where is…was he…?" Remus quickly assured me that Kingsley was fine but he had had to go back to Downing Street in order to protect the muggle Prime Minister, so I sighed with relief.
"He went for the real Harry after Kingsley, because this gentleman didn't feel like knocking someone off his broom when he was trying to kill him." Dad said with a pointed look at Harry who hotly protested that Stan Shunpike, whoever that was, was innocent. "Harry, no one's innocent if they're trying to kill you. It's either you or them."
"Yes, yes, and zat eez all very good, but still eet does not explain 'ow zey knew we were moving 'Arry tonight, does eet? Somebody must 'ave been careless. Somebody let slip ze date to an outsider. Eet eez ze only explanation for zem knowing ze date but not ze 'ole plan." Fleur interrupted impatiently with a rather excellent point as she glared around at everyone suspiciously, her feistiness kicking into overdrive. We were all silent for a while, part of us beginning to wonder if it were true, had someone let slip the truth? But then Harry shook his head firmly and we all looked at him as he spoke.
"No. I mean, if somebody made a mistake and let something slip, I know they didn't mean to do it. It's not their fault." He insisted rather firmly and loudly, looking at us with confidence and trust which warmed us through much better than the firewhiskey had. "We've got to trust each other. I trust all of you, I don't think anyone in this room would ever sell me to Voldemort." Now he went silent, all of us looking at him which seemed to make him uncomfortable as he took a large swig of his drink, making me chuckle lightly to break the tension in the air.
"Well said Harry." Fred nodded approvingly as George agreed.
"Yeah, 'ear, 'ear." He joked and I couldn't help but smile in disbelief at him. Those idiots. How I loved them. Remus and dad were both looking at Harry with rather reminiscent expressions on their faces, making Harry look at them before asking whether they thought he was foolish for being so trusting.
"No, I think you're like James, who would have regarded it as the height of dishonour to mistrust his friends." Remus finally said to him as dad also agreed, placing his hand on Harry's shoulder with a clap.
"Your dad always trusted us, even though in one of us it was misplaced. Your dad would rather trust his friends rather than go about alone and uncertain of who he could turn to. It's both a good and a bad thing, Harry, I just hope it works out better for you than it did for him." People began to talk then, discussing what to do next though I turned around when Harry started to insist that he couldn't stay here, that he was putting everyone in danger so I smacked him on the back of the head with no ounce of gentleness.
"That's the firewhiskey talking Harry, so don't be daft. You're staying here and that's final. There's all kinds of protection spells on this place, old Voldy-Mouldy wouldn't be able to find it even if he had his ugly mug pressed up against the window." Molly gasped at my blatant show of disrespect though dad laughed loudly at my bluntness, and even some of the others allowed themselves a smile.
"Wait 'til it gets out yeh did it again, Harry." Hagrid hiccupped, already on his fifth or sixth glass of drink. "Escaped him, fought him off when he was right on top of yeh!"
"It wasn't me, it was my wand. My wand acted of its own accord." Straightening up, I found this very intriguing, though Hermione seemed to disagree, telling Harry that it was impossible and that he must have performed magic without meaning to, but Harry insisted that wasn't the case. "No, the bike was falling, I couldn't have told you where Voldemort was, but my wand spun in my hand and found him and shot a spell at him, and it wasn't even a spell I recognised. I've never made gold flames appear before."
"Gold flames?" I repeated, now more curious than ever. I asked to see Harry's wand and he promptly handed it over, allowing me to inspect it closely but saw now cracks or signs of damage that might have made it faulty. "And your wand has a phoenix feather, right? One of Fawkes's?"
"That's right. Does it mean something?"
"Well, I couldn't say for sure, but wands have always been mysterious. They help to channel the flow of magic we already possess, it's why we can make magical things happen when we're really young and don't have as much control over our emotions and powers. What I find interesting is that of all the spells it could have chosen, your wand created golden flames, like a phoenix. It can't be a coincidence." Handing the wand back to Harry, Hermione once again insisted that such a thing as spontaneous magic directed by the wand itself was impossible. "It's magic, Hermione, nothing's impossible. Not really." And so Hermione and I sparked a debate, taking opposing sides and didn't even notice when Harry slipped out for some fresh air.
Everyone else was talking, so he went unnoticed until Ron whispered to us both so I let them go to find him and suggested to everyone else that we all get some sleep as we were all tired. I went out to check on the others, hearing from Harry about his vision of Ollivander being tortured by Voldemort who was angry that his plan had failed, but as much as I wanted to do something about it, I was powerless right now. All I could do was send them all up to bed and check on Buckbeak who was now nestled in the shed which had been turned into a temporary stable for him, making sure he had food and water before heading up myself, the sudden exhaustion settling in so heavily that my limbs felt like lead and the twins had to help drag me up where we all went to their room in order to talk, but in the end we just all fell asleep on the same bed, cuddled in together like we had done hundreds of times before from a very young age.
Nestled between them, I slept peacefully, which was surprising considering the night we'd just had, but I guess having them there was silently reassuring, and we all slept until late the next morning, waking only when called by the delicious wafts of home cooked breakfast, sizzling away under Molly's expert care.