Part IV: Revolution
Chapter IV: In Which there is a Wedding
"What happened in there?" asked Ginny once they were underneath the kitchen window and they cautiously stood up. "I could only hear things if they were shouting, which wasn't until towards the end."
"Dumbledore left them some items in his will and Scrimgeour was trying to figure out why," said Corinna as they slowly rounded the corner and went to sit down at the table. It seemed that their presence wasn't missed. "He probably wouldn't have given them the items, but he's required by law to give them the items after they were deemed not-Dark. In fact, I think he's passed the thirty-day threshold by a few weeks. Probably made some excuses to keep them longer."
"Figures," muttered Ginny as the five of them rejoined the group after Scrimgeour's less than pleasant departure. "You can have it, actually," she said as Corinna made to hand the extendable ears back. "Fred and George left me plenty."
Harry sat down next to Corinna while Mrs. Weasley fussed over dinner. Dinner was a rushed affair as it was happening much later than planned. After a chorus of "Happy Birthday" that the twins sang joyously, with George, now earless, apologizing for his poor tone. "It's very hard to 'ear now!" It was a testament to his character that he could joke about such things only a few days after the fact.
After everyone ate their cake and Hagrid departed to set up a tent in the nearby field as he was invited to the wedding tomorrow but there was no where he could sleep in the overstuffed Burrow, they all headed inside. Harry gave a hasty whispered to her and Hermione to meet them upstairs after everyone else had gone to bed.
"Corinna, dear," said Mrs. Weasley. "You will be staying in Ginny's room with her and Hermione. There's a camp bed set up for you. AND DON'T STAY UP TOO LATE, ANY OF YOU!" she shouted and no doubt the entire Burrow could hear her. "We have a very busy day tomorrow!"
The three girls slipped into Ginny's room. It was much more girly than she would expect from someone who was tomboyish like Ginny. It was also small, really no bigger than the broom shed that Corinna tried to have a romantic moment with Harry. Between Ginny's single bed and the two camp cots, there wasn't much room.
"Let me guess," said Ginny after she managed to crawl over Hermione and Corinna's beds to get to her own, "you lot need to go meet up with Harry and Ron once everyone goes to bed."
"Yes," said Hermione, since there was no point in lying to Ginny.
"It will be awhile since the house is so full," she said. "And remember to avoid the stair right next to my parents' bedroom. I swear they enchanted to purposefully squeak except for them. I've seen Mum step on it when taking laundry up and it never makes a noise for her, but as soon as I step on it, it does."
They all sat in silence as they waited for the house to settle. Ginny opted to crawl under her covers and was asleep after tossing and turning for a while. Corinna and Hermione didn't say anything out of respect for her and it wasn't until past midnight that the house seemed quiet enough to venture out. Hermione pointed out the trick stair and they made it to Ron's attic bedroom. "Muffliato," Hermione whispered once they were through the door.
"I thought you didn't approve of the spell," said Ron. He laid on his own bed, fiddling with the Deluminator, while Harry sat on his own camp bed playing with the snitch.
"Times change," said Hermione as she sat on the edge of Ron's bed and Corinna opted for Harry's. "We need to show Corinna what we got from Dumbledore."
"Oh, I already know," she said as Harry sat up. "Ginny gave me this flesh-colored-string-thing and I could hear you lot, although I could sometimes hear Harry without it."
"Extendable Ears, of course," said Hermione. "Well, since you already know; Ron, show us that Deluminator."
Ron held up the Deluminator and clicked it once. The solitary lamp went out at once.
"The thing is," whispered Hermione, "we could have achieved that with Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder."
There was another click and the light went back to the lamp on the ceiling. "Still, it's cool," Ron defended. "And from what they said, Dumbledore invented it himself!"
"I know, but surely he wouldn't have singled you out in his will just to help us turn out the lights!"
"Do you think he knew the Ministry would confiscate his will and examine everything he'd left us?" asked Harry.
"Definitely," said Hermione. "He couldn't tell us in the will why he was leaving us these things, but that still doesn't explain…"
"…why he couldn't have given us a hint when he was alive?" asked Ron.
"Well, exactly," said Hermione as she flicked through the book she received from Dumbledore's will. It was an older copy than Corinna had, that was for sure. "If these things are important enough to pass on right under the nose of the Ministry, you'd think he'd have let us know why…unless he thought it was obvious?"
"Thought wrong, then, didn't he?" said Ron. "I always said he was mental. Brilliant and everything, but cracked. Leaving Harry an old snitch—what the hell was that about?"
"I've no idea," said Hermione. "When Scrimgeour made you take it, Harry, I was so sure that something was going to happen!"
"Yeah, well, I wasn't going to try too hard in front of Scrimgeour, was I?" At Hermione's confusion, he continued. "The snitch I caught in my first ever quidditch match? Do you remember?"
Hermione got it right away, but it took Ron and Corinna a moment to remember. "That was the one you nearly swallowed!" said Ron.
"Exactly," said Harry. He looked at the snitch a moment before bringing it to his lips.
When he pulled back, nothing seemed to happen right away, but Corinna pointed to the snitch. "There's writing!" They all moved closer to it and examined the slanted handwriting:
I open at the close.
The phrase mystified everyone, even Hermione. No matter how many different times they said the phrase, nothing clicked in recognition.
"What about the sword?" asked Corinna.
"Yeah," said Ron, "why did he want Harry to have the sword?"
"And why couldn't he just have told me? It was there, it was right there on the wall of his office during all our talks last year! If he wanted me to have it, why didn't he just give it to me then?"
Silence punctuated Harry's statement. It was obvious that Dumbledore had not planned to die that evening, or at all. He might have thought he had more time to prepare Harry and the others.
"And as for this book," said Hermione, breaking the silence. "The Tales of Beedle the Bard…I've never even heard of them!"
"You've never heard of The Tales of Beedle the Bard?" asked Ron. "You're kidding, right?"
"No, I'm not! Do you know them, then?"
"Well, of course I do!"
Corinna and Harry exchanged a look and he seemed to be thinking along the same lines as her: there were better odds of Scrimgeour coming back to apologize than for Ron to have read a book that Hermione had not.
"Oh, come on!" said Ron, more amused than anything. "All the old kids' stories are supposed to be Beedle's, aren't they?"
"Yeah," said Corinna, glancing back at Ron who seemed relieved that someone else knew what he was talking about. "There's 'The Fountain of Fair Fortune.'"
"'The Wizard and the Hopping Pot.'"
"'Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump.'"
"Excuse me?" said Hermione with a smile on her face. "What was that last one?"
"Come off it," said Ron. "You must've heard of Babbitty Rabbitty."
"I never liked that one," said Corinna. "'The Tale of Three Brothers' was my favorite."
"Ron, Corinna, you know full well Harry and I were brought up by Muggles!" said Hermione. "We didn't hear stories like that when we were little, we heard 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' and 'Cinderella'—"
"What is that, an illness?" asked Ron.
"So these are children's stories?" asked Hermione.
"Yeah," said Ron. "I mean, that's just what you hear, you know, that all these old stories came from Beedle. I don't know what they're like in the original versions."
"But I wonder why Dumbledore thought I should read them?"
"I mean, each of them is supposed to have some sort of moral," said Corinna, feeling like she was grasping at straws to find some sort of connection. "Or, you know, scaring children into being afraid of the dark. Either one works, I suppose."
A noise came from downstairs, and Ron assumed it was Charlie going to regrow his hair after his mother hacked it off. Hermione thought they should all head to bed anyway to avoid the wrath of Mrs. Weasley. As much as she didn't want to, Corinna stood up from Harry's bed to follow Hermione out of the room. The way his hand lingered holding Corinna's, he felt the same way.
She still owed him part of his birthday present, after all.
The morning was utterly chaotic. Everyone was running around everywhere without a rhyme or reason, it seemed. Corinna just stood among the chaos until Madame Delacour asked her if she was good at hair. As she was somewhat competent with a plait, Madame Delacour shoved styling tools and products as well as the world's largest makeup bag into her hands and she was assigned to help with hair and makeup for Gabrielle and Ginny.
Gabrielle kept talking to her excitedly in French and Corinna could barely keep up, and Ginny kept saying swears from various different languages under breath. It was all Corinna could not to pull her own hair out in frustration as she managed to make the two vastly different girls look like beautiful angels, according to Mrs. Weasley anyway.
Although none of the guests were Death Eaters, it was better safe than sorry where Harry was concerned. Fred summoned some hair from a red-haired boy in the nearby village and Harry took a large dose of Polyjuice Potion to disguise himself. He was now Barny and hopefully he would just get lost in the shuffle of the numerous other Weasleys. Harry, Ron, Fred, and George were to act as ushers to greet the guests and to show them were to sit.
Everyone immediately started to panic when the first brightly dressed guests started to arrive. Corinna wasn't even in her own dress robes. By the time she had made sure the Gabrielle was perfect according to Madame Delacour's impossible standards, she did not have much time to put on her cornflower dress robes. Ginny, at least, agreed to plait Corinna's hair while she put on a minimum amount of makeup.
"You might want to be careful," warned Ginny. "If Mum realizes how long your hair is, you might be next for a haircut."
"Honestly, I would love that," she admitted. Figuring she was good enough considering she was a no-name someone in the crowd. "Maybe I'll just shave it all off and be done with it."
"Do you really want to have shorter hair than Harry?"
"Wouldn't be the worse thing," said Corinna as she put a couple of dangling earrings on. Grudgingly, she put the necklace that Harry gave her on. It seemed to shine even more against the pale fabric of her dress robes.
"Wow, that's beautiful," said Ginny, eying the necklace. "It matches your eyes."
"Thanks."
Hermione came in from helping upstairs wearing lilac robes and her hair slicked back. In fact, she looked downright beautiful. No sign of the buck-toothed, frumpy girl she met on the train six years ago. The only thing out of place was the beaded bag she held onto with a tight fist. She had explained it to Corinna this morning when she asked where her bag was as she needed a few things from it for today. She had enchanted the bag with an undetectable enlargement charm so they could fit everything they could possibly need into it. Hermione had all her books, plus all their clothes and whatever else they needed. It was quite ingenious.
"Oh, good, you're ready. Mrs. Weasley says we ought to—" She was cut off by an elderly witch barging into the house, supported by a cane. She had a beaky nose and red-rimmed eyes. With the feathery pink hat, she looked like a bad-tempered flamingo.
"I certainly hope neither of you are the bride," she said to the three of them as Gabrielle had run off to be with her mother and sister upstairs. "None of you are pretty enough to be part-veela." She eyed the three of them. "Ginevra, must you wear something so revealing? No wonder you seem to cycle through boyfriends. Oh dear, is this the Muggle-born? Bad posture and skinny ankles. The way Ronald kept going on and on about her, you would think she was something special." She then eyed Corinna and scowled. "And this one. You can tell her grandmother was from Poland. What's your name again?"
"Corinna Crouch, ma'am," she said. "And you are?"
"Crouch," she scoffed. "There was no hope for you. Ah, well. Molly, dear, where is the bride? I must make sure she wears the tiara correctly. It is Goblin-made, you know."
"Yes, Auntie Muriel, I know," she said as she took the elderly woman's arm and guided her up the stairs. Out of fear that Bill might stumble upon her, Fleur had taken residence in one of the bedrooms upstairs, even though none of them hadn't seen a single man walk into the sitting room after Mr. Weasley came in with his eyes shielded wondering if Mrs. Weasley was in there.
Once they had disappeared from the landing, Hermione said, "So, that's Auntie Muriel?"
"The one and only," Ginny muttered as she crossed her arms. "I only had two boyfriends, thank you. Speaking of, Dean should be here any minute. You lot mind if he stays with you during the ceremony?"
"No," they both agreed.
"Are my ankles really that skinny?" asked Hermione as she shifted her robes to get a better look.
"I don't think so," said Corinna. "But, really, it's the nineties, are people still on about the Polish?"
"You should have heard what she said when she found out Bill was marrying someone French," said Ginny.
But Corinna looked over at Hermione and she looked concerned as well. How did Auntie Muriel know that Claudia Zima was actually her grandmother? All Corinna could hope for was that Auntie Muriel didn't know who her real mother was. She had a feeling there was no way to keep that woman quiet like she had with the others.
Hermione and Corinna were sent to take Auntie Muriel to the tent where she was going on and on about…whatever it was she said. Corinna paid the old crow no mind as they gladly passed her off to Ron who looked absolutely miserable, especially when Auntie Muriel started comparing him to Ginny for his long hair. At least she didn't seem to recognize Harry and accept that the Weasleys just seem to multiply without anyone noticing.
Harry, Fred, and George managed to get the line down while Ron was still handling Auntie Muriel. "Wow," said Harry, his voice squeakier as Barny. "You look beautiful, Corinna."
"Hey, watch it," she teased. "I'm already taken. You might have heard of him. His name's Harry Potter."
"Sounds like a real tosser," he said right back. "At least he seemed to have good taste in jewelry." He gently picked up the jewel from Corinna's chest as if he was seeing it for the first time. "Will you at least save me a dance? I promise not to tell the bloke."
"Why, Barny Weasley, you are quite the charmer." In her peripheral, she could see Hermione shaking her head. "I suppose a dance wouldn't hurt. He did try to break up with me. The noble git!"
"Nightmare, Muriel is," said Ron when he finally managed to break away from his great aunt. "She used to come for Christmas every year, then, thank Merlin, she took offense because Fred and George set off a Dungbomb under her chair at dinner. Dad always says she'll have written them out of her will—like they care, they're going to end up richer than anyone in the family, rate they're going." He seemed to finally notice Hermione standing there as he beamed at her. "Wow, you look great."
"Always the tone of surprise," said Hermione. She talked about the run-in they had with Auntie Muriel but changed what she said about Corinna to her mother being Polish as Fred and George appeared.
"Talking about Muriel?" asked George. "Yeah, she's just told me my ears are lopsided. Old bat. I wish old Uncle Bilius was still with us, though; he was a right laugh at weddings."
"Wasn't he the one who saw a Grim and died twenty-four hours later?" asked Hermione.
"Well, yeah, he went a bit odd toward the end."
"But before he went loopy, he was the life and soul of the party," said Fred. "He used to down an entire bottle of firewhiskey, then run onto the dance floor, hoist up his robes, and start pulling bunches of flowers out of his—"
"Yes, he sounds a real charmer," said Hermione while Harry and Corinna roared with laughter.
"Never married, for some reason," said Ron.
"You amaze me," said Hermione.
They were all laughing and carrying on that they hadn't noticed a latecomer. Corinna didn't recognize him at first with his dark hair and heavy brow, but Hermione immediately went pink when he spoke up. "You look vunderful."
"Viktor!" she shrieked and dropped her beaded bag. She had turned a delicate shade of pink whereas Ron had gone as red as his hair. "I didn't know you were—goodness—it's lovely to see—how are you?"
Corinna was quite amused by the scene unfolding in front of her. Harry shook hands with him while Ron who looked like he was torn between being annoyed with Hermione and being angry with Viktor Krum. "How come you're here?" he demanded.
"Fleur invited me," said Krum, which made sense as they were both champions and might have stayed in touch.
Harry then took up his usher responsibilities and lead Krum to his seat. Ron and Hermione looked like they were about to go off at each other when Fred and George glanced at the time. "Blimey, is it that time already," said Fred. "We better get a move on unless we want to get run over by the bride."
They met back up after Viktor was seated and Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Corinna took their seats in the second row behind Fred and George. Harry and Corinna thought it prudent to sit between Ron and Hermione, so Ron was complaining lowly to Harry while Hermione fanned herself to get rid of the color on her cheeks.
People were still whispering among each other in anticipation for what was to come. Corinna looked back and saw Dora and Remus. Dora was talking animatedly with her neighbor—some sort of veela cousin—while Remus looked downright miserable. She knew they did not like leaving the party suddenly last night, and he might have felt guilty that he could not give Dora a wedding like this.
Her attention was drawn away from her family as she saw Mr. and Mrs. Weasley bustling down the aisle, both beaming with pride. It almost seemed silly that they were apprehensive about Fleur in the first place as they had nothing but pride on their faces as Bill and Charlie, his best man, walked down the aisle and stood at the front. Fred, of course, wolf whistled, which the eldest Weasleys seemed to have expected and almost appreciated the gesture. But the crowd immediately stilled when music swelled from the golden balloons hanging in the air.
There was a great rustling as everyone turned back to the entrance as Monsieur Delacour walked Fleur down the aisle. She wore the most beautiful white dress that Corinna had ever seen, seeming to almost give her a silver aura around her. Doubting that it was just her handy work, even Ginny and Gabrielle, who were walking behind Fleur and Monsieur Delacour, seemed to glow as well in their beaded gold dresses. She spotted Dean in the crowd where he sat with most of the Order and he looked absolutely gobsmacked. Ginny seemed to have noticed him as well as her ears went pink, but it seemed to add to her overall beauty.
Monsieur Delacour whispered something to Bill which left him smiling even more as Fleur stepped up in front of her groom. Monsieur Delacour bustled to where the parents of the bride and groom were sitting and gripped tightly onto his wife.
"Ladies and gentlemen," a familiar voice said, but Corinna did not recognize the small wizard, "we are gathered here today to celebrate the union of two faithful souls…"
"Yes, my tiara sets off the whole thing nicely," said Auntie Muriel in a stage whisper. She made another comment about Ginny's low-cut dress but Corinna's mind was drifting away from the tent as she stared up at Bill and Fleur. At a young seventeen, she never gave much consideration to her own wedding day. That along with having a career and children just seemed like such a long way off that she never extended much thought towards it. But, as she sat there, watching two people who were madly in love vow to be together until the end of their days, she didn't think she would ever get to that point.
She couldn't help but glance over at the Harry that wasn't Harry. She wondered what her life would be like if she liked a man who wasn't destined to destroy Voldemort. What if she was in love with a Barny Weasley, would she be thinking about her own wedding with him, or would that be putting the cart before the horse considering they would still be in school? They would have their whole life together instead of a looming bleak future of hunting Horcruxes for potentially years.
And then a sickening thought occurred to Corinna, forcing her to face the front as the wizened man droned on about commitment or whatever overly lovey-dovey thing was being said. Neither can live while the other survives, the prophecy said, the line that Harry repeated for Corinna when he told her what was going to transpire during one of their clandestine meetings either in an abandoned classroom or underneath the beech tree when the weather turned nice.
The prophecy didn't say that Harry had to be the one to survive, she thought bitterly. She watched as Bill and Fleur intertwined into their first kiss as husband and wife, and the wizard waved his wand to officiate the bond. As the crowd exploded with applause for the happy couple, Corinna selfishly saw herself up there and could only see one person standing next to her as she did so.
The golden balloons that produced the music burst as birds of paradise and tiny golden bells flew around the tent, adding to the din.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" called the officiant. "If you would please stand up!"
They all stood up from their chairs, no one else seemingly bothered by it except for Auntie Muriel. The chairs rose into the air as the center aisle transformed into a dancefloor in the center of the tent. The canvas walls disappeared to look over the rolling hills and gave an amazing view of the sunlit orchards surrounding them. White cloths descended from the air and spaced around with the chairs going around to form the tables people could sit and dine at. As if on cue, the black-clad waiters descended among the crowd carrying trays full of food and drink. A golden-clad band started to play at the front where the podium used to reside to add ambiance to the crowd and those who wished to dance a beat to do so.
"We should go congratulate them," said Hermione as she looked around to find Bill and Fleur surrounded by well-wishers.
"We'll have time later," said Ron as he snatched four butterbeers from a passing tray. He passed two of them to Harry and turned away from them. "Hermione, cop a hold, let's grab a table." Corinna took her drink as she was supposed to pretend that Harry wasn't Harry and they started to walk towards the nearest table. "Not there! Nowhere near Muriel—"
Ron led the way across the empty dancefloor while Hermione graciously held onto his arm. He kept glancing around until he spotted a table that was only occupied by Luna. "All right if we join you?" he asked.
"Oh, yes," she said happily as the others descended around her. "Daddy's just gone to give Bill and Fleur our present."
"What is it?" asked Ron. "A lifetime's supply of Gurdyroots?"
That earned him a swift kick from Hermione, but she had hit Harry instead. She must have caught him right in her heel as his eyes seemed to water from the pain. Hoping that no one was paying attention to them, she fussed over him until the pain subsided.
In the meantime, the band began to play and Bill and Fleur descended onto the dancefloor, both looking at each other as if no one else were there with them. Eventually, Mr. Weasley lead Madame Delacour to join them, followed by Monsieur Delacour with Mrs. Weasley. Luna announced abruptly that she liked that song and gracefully went to the edge of the dancefloor with her eyes closed and swaying to the music.
Corinna was about to ask Harry if he wanted to dance when Viktor Krum descended about them. "Who is that man in the yellow?" he asked with a scowl on his face.
"That's Xenophilius Lovegood," said Ron and Corinna craned her neck to look over at the man who was dressed in the same color as Luna, "he's the father of a friend of ours." He then quickly ushered Hermione to go dance with him, who was surprised but nonetheless pleased. She accepted Ron's hand and they joined the dancefloor, disappearing into the crowd.
"Ah, they are together now?" asked Krum.
"Er, sort of," said Harry. Corinna merely thought that it was about time he noticed.
"Who are you?"
"Barny Weasley."
As they shook hands someone tapped Corinna on her shoulder. "Excuse me," said the man barely older than Corinna. He had brown hair so dark it looked black in the mood lighting. "Would you care to dance?"
Corinna opened her mouth and glanced over at Harry. His face was unreadable as he gave a slight nod of a blessing. She turned back to the man. "Yes, all right."
She stood up and the man guided her over to the crowd on the dancefloor. "I'm sorry if I was taking you away from your date."
"Oh, he's not my date," said Corinna rather hastily. She placed a hand on the man's shoulder as he effortlessly placed his hand on her waist.
"Good," he said, "I would hate to have competition with a Quidditch player."
That's when Corinna realized that he must have assumed she was with Krum. He probably hadn't even noticed Harry in his disguise, which was what they wanted, but still…
"The name's Eric Boseman," he said as he twirled Corinna around. She momentarily got a glimpse of Harry who was talking with Krum but kept glancing over at her. "And you are?"
"Corinna Crouch," she said, forcing herself to turn her attention back to Boseman. "How do you know the bride and groom?"
"I work with Bill at Gringotts," he said as the first song faded and transitioned effortlessly to the next number. "How do you know them?"
"I'm friends with his brother."
Boseman chuckled. "Which one?" he asked.
"The youngest. Ron."
"Does that mean you are still in Hogwarts, then?"
"Going into my last year," said Corinna, trying to turn them in a way so she can keep an eye on Harry, but they were too deep in the crowd. "When did you graduate?" she asked, as he seemed English.
"Blimey, it was four years ago now," he said. "But, I don't recognize you. You must not be in Gryffindor."
"I am," she said, wishing she could find a way to break away from this guy. She did not like the vibe he was giving off.
"Really? Figured I would have remembered seeing someone like you in the Common Room."
"Considering I was thirteen at the time, I hope not," said Corinna haughtily.
"Jeez, that was supposed to be a compliment," said Boseman. "What is with women today, can't even accept it when a bloke—"
"I think I just spotted my boyfriend," said Corinna, which immediately shut him up. "I would say it was a pleasure dancing with you, but I don't like lying." She walked away before he could say anything else and he stormed off.
"I'm not dancing with anyone else," she said as she pulled Harry over to the dancefloor and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He kept glancing at his feet and let Corinna lead. "Honestly, Bill needs better work friends."
"So I wasn't being nice by saying you can dance with him?" asked Harry.
"No, he acted like I was a goddamn prize to be won since I wasn't here with Krum," said Corinna. "And you didn't let me. I just wanted to make sure you were okay with me dancing with another bloke. But let's not give that Boseman any more time. What did you and Krum talk about? He seemed to have his knickers in a twist over something."
"It's the symbol that Xenophilius Lovegood is wearing on his chest," explained Harry. Corinna tried to recall back to when she saw the man, but all she could remember was yellow. "Apparently that was the symbol that Grindelwald used. Apparently he was like Voldemort but in Bulgaria and he carved that eye-symbol thing at Durmstrang."
"Do you think he's a supporter?" she said, trying to remember from History of Magic, but that was never her strongest subject. She was constantly getting dates and names mixed up, but she recognized the name Grindelwald from the extensive obituary the Prophet released about Dumbledore, and the subsequent article that Rita Skeeter was writing a supposed tell-all about the real Dumbledore, which sounded like a bunch of hogwash to Corinna. "I mean, he was defeated a half a century ago." She shrugged. "Then again, look where we are now."
"I doubt he's a proponent of the Dark Arts like that," said Harry as he mindlessly rubbed his thumb into her hip. She wasn't sure if he noticed what he was doing, but she certainly did. "He probably just thinks it's a cool rune. But that's not all we talked about. We also talked about Gregorovitch."
"Who's Gregorovitch?" asked Corinna.
"I had a dream about him the morning of my birthday," he explained. "Voldemort was looking for him. According to Krum, he's a wandmaker."
"Didn't Ollivander disappear last year?" said Corinna. "If he needed a wandmaker, he's already got one."
"Except I think that Ollivander failed him somehow," said Harry. "Listen, the night I got to the Burrow, I had a vision of Voldemort telling Ollivander that he was wrong, that the wand didn't work."
"What wand?"
"He was using Lucius Malfoy's wand instead of his own. He even tried to grab another Death Eaters when my wand somehow destroyed Malfoy's."
"What do you think it all means?" asked Corinna.
"Dunno," he said, annoyed with himself. "Just, don't tell Hermione about Gregorovitch, okay? She thinks I'm blocking my mind at night."
"Your secret is safe with me," said Corinna, deciding to offer him some Occlumency lessons once they were on the search of Horcruxes. "I'm going to go grab us a couple of drinks and then we are going to talk about something that doesn't involve dark wizards and weird runes and whatever else in that similar vein."
"Sounds good," said Harry as they broke off. Corinna squeezed her way through the crowd as she tried to locate a waiter. There were now champagne bottles floating around, tipping bubbly into a glass whenever one was held above. Ron and Hermione were still dancing, both looking as if they were having the time of their lives. In the corner of the tent, Charlie, Hagrid, and a wizard Corinna didn't recognize were singing a rowdy rendition of "Odo the Hero" which was a song that belonged more in a pub than at a wedding.
As she spotted a waiter, she nearly ran headfirst into Ginny and Dean. "Oh, hello, Corinna," said Dean, a brilliant smile on his face as he held Ginny around her waist.
"Hi, Dean," she said, glad the two of them got over their little spell. They did seem to make a cute couple. "I'll leave you to it, then," she said, as it seemed that Ginny was annoyed that they were interrupted. "Your mum is coming this way so you might want to save room for Morg—hi, Mrs. Weasley." Sure enough, they broke apart and were now dancing as many of the students did during the Yule Ball, extremely rigid and with enough space between them to hold another couple.
"Hello, Corinna," said Mrs. Weasley, completely oblivious that her daughter and her boyfriend were standing there. She put an arm around Corinna and started dragging her from the dancefloor. "Wasn't this a beautiful wedding?" She obviously hit the drink a little too hard as she gave a slight hiccough.
"Very beautiful," she said. "You did an amazing job."
"Oh, you are so sweet," said Mrs. Weasley, patting Corinna's cheek with the hand that didn't hold the drink, which was being held at a dangerous angle close to Corinna's robes. "And so helpful. Ginny and Gabrielle look like angels."
"Well, erm, thanks," said Corinna, wondering how she was going to break away from Mrs. Weasley. "Anything I could do to help."
"And you look so pretty tonight with the necklace that matches your eyes," Mrs. Weasley continued and, with much relief, she spotted Mr. Weasley talking with another redheaded man—she assumed a brother or cousin as they seemed to be close in age. "You have such pretty eyes. I think they are prettier than Harry's!"
"Mr. Weasley," said Corinna as she walked over to the two men and Mr. Weasley merely shook his head. "I think this one is yours."
"Thank you, Corinna," said Mr. Weasley as Mrs. Weasley gladly released Corinna and went over to her husband. "I am very sorry. She gets very sentimental when she's drunk. I hope she didn't do something silly like start planning your wedding."
"I hope not," said Corinna, doubting she will ever get the chance. "Just a nice chat. I'll leave you to it, then." She nodded at the other red-headed man and turned back around to find the waiter, but she lost sight of him. After wandering around a bit, she finally found one and grabbed a couple flutes of champagne.
She squeezed through the crowd back towards where she had left Harry, but he was nowhere to be found. She even studied every red headed boy she came across just in case she had forgotten his disguise. She spotted him sitting at a table with Auntie Muriel and a man she had never seen before. As they were all talking animatedly and Corinna did not want to deal with Auntie Muriel, she turned back around and would instead wait for Harry to finish up his conversation. She drained one of the champagne flutes and set it down on a random table. She intermingled with the people she knew until she noticed that Hermione had drawn up a chair next to Harry. She then went to join them when a brilliant silver light drew in everyone's attention. It materialized into a lynx above the dancefloor as everyone gaped at the Patronus that had Kingsley Shacklebolt's voice.
"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."
Corinna immediately drew out her wand and Harry and Hermione were already on their feet as silence spread around them as the lynx disappeared. Once someone screamed, all hell broke loose as the three of them threw themselves into the crowd to go and find Ron.
Many people were already Disapparating as the enchantments on the Burrow were now gone. Hermione screamed loudly for Ron, panic evident in her voice. "Ron, where are you?"
As the pushed and shoved their way through the dancefloor, Corinna gripped onto Harry's robes and Harry gripped onto Hermione's. Masked figures were appearing all around them and it seemed like everyone was shouting "Protego!"
"Ron! Ron!" Hermione continued to shout, but it came out as a sob as well as they were squeezed in amongst the terrified guests. A streak of light flashed above them and Corinna could only hope that it wasn't what she thought it was.
It came as a relief when they spotted Ron. Hermione grabbed his arm and began to turn on the spot.
Pain exploded from Corinna's head.
She released Harry's robes as she was yanked back, her hair trapped in someone's strong grip. "Stupefy!" she shouted, and the relief almost instantaneous as the masked man flew back into the crowd. He had tugged the tie on the end of Corinna's hair loose and her plait started to unwind.
Her heart was pounding fast as she massaged her scalp. "Merlin, that bloody hurt!" she muttered as she turned back to where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were, but they were gone.