Despite smoothing things over with the girls and making Fred turn a delicious shade of red, that night Winona still got hardly any sleep. What little she did get was plagued by the most horrendous type of nightmares, and eventually she just gave up trying. An hour or so before the sun came up, she wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and walked bleary-eyed from the dorm.
The fire was still crackling away down in the common room, meaning somebody had been tending to it, and when she arrived at the foot of the stairs she found a familiar head of messy, inky black hair sat on the couch by the hearth.
Harry was staring into the flames, a mug of something hot in his hands. He looked up as she approached, but he didn't seem surprised to see her. "Hey, Winnie," he said quietly as she settled into the spot on the couch beside him. Without hesitation she lifted the blanket she was holding, draping it over his shoulders, too. "Can't sleep?"
"Never," she admitted with a soft sigh. "Nightmares."
"Visions?" he asked quietly.
"Yeah, but they're not clear. Sometimes I think I just get them as punishment."
"Punishment?" he echoed. "Punishment for what?"
To that, Winona had no answer. "Where'd you get the hot chocolate?" she wondered, blatantly changing the subject, and Harry was just sweet enough to let her.
"I have an in with a House Elf," he confessed. "I usually don't abuse the privilege, but I needed something warm to drink." He paused, looking up at her in alarm. "Don't tell-"
"Hermione," she finished knowingly. "Don't worry, Boy-Wonder, my lips are sealed."
Harry held out the mug in offering. "Want a sip?"
She smiled as she took it, taking a deep sip of the hot, chocolatey goodness inside. It tasted just a tiny bit like cinnamon, and it warmed her from the inside out. "You couldn't sleep, either?" she asked as she handed it back, tugging the blanket around them tighter.
"I haven't really slept since…" he trailed off, but he didn't need to finish that particular thought. It didn't take a Seer to know what he was going to say.
And despite the fact that neither had she, Winona still said, "That isn't healthy," in her most admonishing tone of voice.
His eyebrows raised on his forehead, the skin around his famous scar folding and crinkling with incredulity. "Bit rich, coming from you, isn't it?"
"Haven't I ever told you?" she replied cheerfully. "None of the rules apply to me." Harry didn't quite smile, but he rolled his eyes, and that was good enough for her. She bumped his side with her own.
"Did the twins tell you Mrs Weasley tried to get Dumbledore to agree to let me stay with them this summer?" he asked after a few minutes of easy quiet.
"I knew she was going to ask," she said, looking over at him, his face lit up by the glow of the fire. "But I never heard the outcome. What did he say?"
"He said no," Harry told her, the way his lips pressed together telling him exactly what he thought of that. "I don't get it; he knows how much the Dursleys hate me. Why does he keep making me go back?"
"You heard what he said," she reasoned. "At the Dursley's, your mother's protection keeps you safe. If you were to leave, Voldemort might be able to find you. And if he finds you, Harry, then it's all over."
Harry didn't say anything to that, eyes fixed on the crackling flames. "I'd rather risk him finding me than have to go back to that place for one more minute," he whispered, the truth behind the words ringing clear, and for a moment Winona felt a burning rage towards Dumbledore. The awful feeling boiled and stewed in her gut like the contents of a lit cauldron. Winona took a deep breath, trying to rid herself of the unpleasant sensation.
Hatred did nothing but breed hatred. Shouting at the world wasn't going to make it any fairer; and no matter how good it felt to try, all that did was invite the chaos in. She had to be better than that.
"What are you going to do?" Harry asked, and Winona realised she'd been silent for too long, staring wordlessly into the flickering flames and overthinking, as per usual. "Over the summer, I mean?"
"I dunno," she admitted. "My plan is just to apparate back to my foster place once I get to King's Cross. I figure I'll camp out there for a few days, until I figure out what to do."
Harry didn't look happy with the bare-bones of her terrible plan. "Voldemort's after you, too, Winnie," he reminded her. "And you don't have anything protecting you there. You might as well paint a target on your back and go sit out on your roof."
"Don't worry about me," she insisted. "I'm seventeen now, remember? I can do magic away from school, so I can look after myself just fine. Besides, I have my Apparition license now, too. The Death Eaters can't torture me if they can't catch me."
Harry was neither convinced nor amused. "I don't like it."
"Neither do I," she agreed, and they left it at that.
Harry fell silent for so long that Winona grew worried, but then his head tipped down against her shoulder and she realised he'd just fallen asleep. Smiling, she took the empty mug from his limp hands and set it on the ground, then pulled her blanket tighter around them both and waited for the sun to rise.
The next day dawned, and Winona woke Harry once people started appearing in the common room. Bleary-eyed and yawning, Harry made his way up to his dorm while Winona went to hers. Her things were already packed from the night before, so she just showered and changed into fresh jeans and a teeshirt with a stencil of a unicorn traced onto the front.
By that point the girls were awake, too, taming their hair and brushing their teeth before it was time to go down to the Entrance Hall to get the carriages back to Hogsmeade Station where the Hogwarts Express would be waiting to take them back to London.
She walked down through the castle with the girls, Fred and George having already booked it down to breakfast. They found them in the entrance hall, tossing no-heat fireworks between one another, much to the awe and delight of the younger students.
Winona pecked Fred on the lips as she passed, waving at George and heading through to grab a quick bite to eat before the carriages arrived. She scoffed down her strawberry pancakes, silently acknowledging that it was likely to be her last good meal for months, then sent a silent goodbye to the Great Hall as she followed her friends out to the carriages.
She caught sight of the twins stood beside a ranting McGonagall, telling them off for one thing or another, but when she caught Fred's eye he waved her along, telling her without words that he'd meet her on the train.
Shrugging, she caught up with the girls as they climbed into a Thestral led carriage. The girls were all chattering about their summer plans, and Winona – having none – was content to just sit there and listen to them prattle on. It was easy and mindless, and Winona found comfort in it, listening to them laugh and talk excitedly about seeing their families.
"I, er, I don't suppose you'll be seeing your…father…will you, Winnie?" Alicia asked stiltedly. Winona was warmed by the fact that they were making an effort, awkward though it may have been.
"I don't know," she said, glad it was the truth. "We haven't made any plans to meet up."
"Well, that's a relief," said Angelina, then winced at her own thoughtless words. "Sorry," she apologised immediately. "I didn't mean-"
"It's okay, Ange," Winona assured her. "I know what you meant. Don't worry, one day soon I'll get his name cleared, and then you can hear the whole story of how he was framed, and why."
The girls all looked uncomfortable with her fervent promise, but Winona didn't mind, smiling at them just a little bit cheekily.
"Come on," she pressed. "Don't stop talking now. Leesh, you were saying something about visiting your grandmother in Greece?"
And just like that the awkwardness was snuffed like a light and levity returned to the carriage. Soon enough they reached the station, and Winona climbed onto the Hogwarts Express with a weight like a stone in her heart. She didn't want to leave Hogwarts, for more reasons than one.
For one thing, the protection it offered was very real, and the scenery was perfect for her cluttered mind. The thing she hated most about going back to London every summer had always been losing her access to distant mountains and glittering lake. It did terrible things to her creativity to be stuck in a room with four walls and a perfect view of the side of her neighbour's concrete house.
The girls found a carriage near the back of the train and the moment they were settled, Winona took out her sketchbook, tracing the lines of her friends with a pencil that she intended fill in with colour later. She was so lost in her art that she didn't even notice the twins hadn't arrived until the train took off from Hogsmeade Station with a tiny jolt.
"I'm gonna go look for the twins," she told the girls, who looked up from the horoscope in the edition of Witch Weekly Katie had delivered every Sunday.
"I'm sure they'll be along soon," said Alicia with a flap of her hand. "They're probably just trying to get in some last-minute sales of their joke stock."
Winona pursed her lips. "Maybe. But even still, I'm going."
"Wait, Winnie," called Katie. "Don't you want to know what your horoscope says?"
"Not particularly."
Katie looked incredulous. "But you're a Seer."
Winona blinked. "Why should that matter?"
She huffed, impatient. "Would you just listen?" Katie jerked the magazine so it lay flat, holding it out and reading from it in a melodramatic voice. "With hazy Neptune in your sign this week, clarity is essential to progress. The coming full moon across your communication axis could be an emotional one, and so if there's something you need to talk about with someone, now is the time to do it."
Winona remained unimpressed. "So it's basically just saying I need to get glasses and have a heart-to-heart?" Katie rolled the magazine up into a tube and slapped Winona on the thigh. "Ouch! What was that for?"
"Take this seriously."
"Fine, fine," Winona held up her hands in surrender. "I will. And on that note-"
She left the compartment, leaving the girls to titter and decipher their horoscopes in peace. Winona looked from left to right, ultimately deciding to go left, something in her gut pulling her in that direction.
She walked down the length of the long train for a good few minutes, peeking into each compartment she passed, but the twins weren't anywhere in sight. She was nearing the end of the train completely when she peeked inside another one and found Harry, Ron and Hermione sat within.
Deciding to take a brief pause, Winona knocked thrice on the door before pulling it open and slipping inside. "Wotcher," she greeted them, stepping past Ron and taking a seat on the bench next to Hermione, opposite Harry. "What's with the jar?" Hermione was holding out a small jar filled with a few twigs and leaves, and Ron was peering inside like it held all the answers to the universe. "Are you collecting insects now, Hermione? Sounds like something you'd do."
"It's not an insect," she said haughtily. "It's Rita Skeeter."
Winona stared at her, speechless. "Oh my God," she murmured, turning to look at Harry and Ron with wide eyes. "It finally happened. She finally cracked."
Hermione tutted impatiently, looking unimpressed with Ron when he snorted his amusement. "No, Winnie, it really is her," she said, thrusting the jar into her hands. Winona took it, holding it up to the light. The beetle within was large and had wings of a shiny, metallic green.
"Please tell me there's an explanation that doesn't involve you Transfiguring this woman into a beetle and keeping her in a jar like a pet," Winona begged her. She could put up with a lot, but even that was too close to batshit crazy for her liking.
Hermione snatched the jar back, a sour look on her face as Harry snickered. "She's an Animagus," she said snidely. "Honestly, Winona."
"But if she was an Animagus, it'd be public knowledge, wouldn't it?"
"Not if she's unregistered," Hermione said triumphantly. "I caught her on the windowsill in the hospital wing. Look very closely, and you'll notice the markings around her antennae are exactly like those foul glasses she wears."
Harry leaned forwards to get a better look, but Winona wasn't interested in getting any closer to the woman who had outed her two darkest secrets in the span of only a few short months.
"There was a beetle on the statue the night we heard Hagrid telling Madame Maxime about his mum!" Harry exclaimed, remembering the fact suddenly.
"Exactly," said Hermione. "And Viktor pulled a beetle out of my hair after we'd had our conversation by the lake. And unless I'm very much mistaken, Rita was perched on the windowsill of the Divination class the day your scar hurt."
"Holy shit," Winona breathed. "Fred pulled a beetle out of my hair one day when we were talking about Sirius."
She wanted to slap herself in the face. This was where being careless got you; outed to the entire wizarding world as the daughter of a mass murderer and stuck in a train compartment with a woman stuffed into a jar.
"She's been buzzing around for stories all year," said Hermione with a narrow-eyed look down at the beetle in the jar.
"When we saw Malfoy under that tree…" said Ron slowly.
"He was talking to her, in his hand," Hermione explained. "He knew, of course. That's how she's been getting all those nice little interviews with the Slytherins. They wouldn't care that she was doing something illegal, as long as they were giving her horrible stuff about us and Hagrid."
"Er, and how long are you planning to keep her in there, exactly?" Winona wondered, watching as Hermione tapped the glass like some kind of sociopath. It was actually kind of impressive.
"Oh, I've told her I'll let her out when we get back to London," said Hermione cheerfully. "I've put an Unbreakable Charm on the jar, you see, so she can't transform. And I've told her she's to keep her quill to herself for a whole year. See if she can't break the habit of writing horrible lies about people."
Hermione looked awfully pleased with herself as she gently slid the jar back into her schoolbag, zipping it shut securely.
"Very clever, Granger," came Draco Malfoy's voice, and Winona's hand immediately went for the wand skewered through her hair. She curled her fingers around the wood, feeling it warm in her hand as she pulled it from her high bun.
Crabbe and Goyle were standing behind him. They had almost gleeful expressions on their ugly faces, and Winona silently resigned herself to punching out yet another personin a single term. At this rate, she'd beat her own personal best.
"So," said Malfoy in a menacing drawl. Winona knew she wasn't going to like what followed. "You caught some pathetic reporter, and Potter's Dumbledore's favourite boy again. Big deal." Harry didn't react, and Winona stayed where she was, clutching her wand, careful not to overreact. They had to give her a reason, and only then would she let them have it. "Trying not to think about it, are we?" Malfoy continued, voice like spun sugar, but more sickly than sweet. "Trying to pretend it hasn't happened?"
"Get out," Harry warned him, voice colder than Winona had ever heard.
But Malfoy never had been terribly intelligent. "You've picked the losing side, Potter! I warned you! I told you you ought to choose your company more carefully, remember? When we met on the train, first day at Hogwarts? I told you not to hang around with riffraff like this!" He jerked his head at Ron and Hermione. "Too late now, Potter! They'll be the first to go, now the Dark Lord's back! Mud-bloods and Muggle-lovers first! Well – second – Diggory was the f-"
Winona didn't hesitate to draw her wand and cast a nasty hex in their direction. It was like one of the twins' fireworks had gone off in the compartment. Bright colour flashed all around them and there was a loud bang, leaving them blinking to try and recover.
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were all laying unconscious in the doorway, the twins stood over them, wands brandished proudly. It became clear to Winona that Malfoy and his goons had just been hit by six different hexes. Hers alone was nasty, so she couldn't imagine what kind of havoc all of them combined would wreak.
"Thought we'd see what those three were up to," said Fred casually, stepping over the Slytherins laid limp in the doorway, pocketing his wand. He dropped gracelessly into the spot beside his girlfriend, throwing his arm over her shoulders and grinning widely.
"Interesting effect," observed George, kneeling down to look more closely at Crabbe. "Who used the Furnunculus Curse?"
"Me," said Harry, raising his hand as if in class.
"Odd," George said curiously. "I used Jelly-Legs. Looks as though those two shouldn't be mixed. He seems to have sprouted little tentacles all over his face. Well, let's not leave them here, they don't add much to the decor."
Ron, Harry, and George kicked, rolled, and pushed the trio of stupid Slytherins out into the hall, then left them there, shutting the door in their faces. Somebody else would deal with them – or they wouldn't. Either way, it wasn't their problem.
"Exploding Snap, anyone?" Fred offered, pulling a pack of cards out from his back pocket.
Winona and Hermione both passed, Hermione wanting to finish the chapter of the book she was reading and Winona more interested in drawing the group while they were all together.
She'd finished the outline and was just digging in her bag for her watercolours when Harry broke the easy chatter with a serious question.
"You going to tell us, then?" he asked George. "Who you were blackmailing?"
"Oh," said George darkly. "That."
"It doesn't matter," said Fred, eyes focused on the game between them. It was easier than thinking about the way Bagman had screwed them over. Winona's heart clenched at the thought of all that money, lost, and she hooked her foot around Fred's ankle, dragging his leg towards her then winding hers around it, a subtle comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. "It wasn't anything important," he finished, hardly convincing. "Not now, anyway."
"We've given up," added George.
"Come on," pushed Ron. "After all that, you're not gonna tell us?"
"Doesn't matter," Fred insisted stubbornly.
In a traitorous move, Ron turned to Winona. "Will you tell us?"
Winona rolled her eyes, turning back to her work. "Oh, just tell them, you two," she said, not really wanting to get involved. "As if it'll do any harm."
"You're meant to be on our side," said Fred in a mock-stern voice. Her only response was a vague flap of her hand. "All right, fine, if you really want to know … it was Ludo Bagman."
"Bagman?" asked Harry, and Winona could hear the fear that gripped him in his voice. "Are you saying he was involved in-?"
"Nah," George assured him quickly. "Nothing like that. Stupid git. He wouldn't have the brains."
Ron looked impatient. "Well, what, then?"
Fred hesitated, glancing to Winona, who looked up to meet his eyes and nodded encouragingly. With a sigh he turned back to the others. "You remember that bet we had with him at the Quidditch World Cup? About how Ireland would win, but Krum would get the Snitch?"
"When you used Winnie to earn some quick gold without talking to her about it first?" Harry finished. Fred and George gave a matching wince at the blatant callout, and Harry managed a smirk. Winona lifted a hand to smother her laughter. "Yeah, I remember. Continue."
"Well," said Fred, struggling to regain his footing, "the git paid us in leprechaun gold he'd caught from the Irish mascots."
Harry immediately turned sympathetic, but Ron didn't understand. "So?"
"So," echoed Fred shortly, "it vanished, didn't it? By next morning, it had gone!"
Hermione gasped. "But – it must've been an accident, mustn't it?"
When George laughed it rang with well-deserved bitterness. "Yeah, that's what we thought, at first. We thought if we just wrote to him, and told him he'd made a mistake, he'd cough up. But nothing doing. Ignored our letter. We kept trying to talk to him about it at Hogwarts, but he was always making some excuse to get away from us."
"In the end, he turned pretty nasty," added Fred. "Told us we were too young to gamble, and he wasn't giving us anything."
"So we asked for our money back."
"He didn't refuse!" Hermione gasped again.
A shadow passed over Fred's face. "Right in one," he said gloomily.
Ron looked white as a sheet, probably thinking of their mother's reaction, should she ever find out. Winona had to wince at the same thought. "But that was all your savings!" Ron said, horrified.
"Tell me about it," said George. "Course, we found out what was going on in the end. Lee Jordan's dad had had a bit of trouble getting money off Bagman as well. Turns out he's in big trouble with the goblins. Borrowed loads of gold off them. A gang of them cornered him in the woods after the World Cup and took all the gold he had, and it still wasn't enough to cover all his debts. They followed him all the way to Hogwarts to keep an eye on him. He's lost everything gambling. Hasn't got two Galleons to rub together. And you know how the idiot tried to pay the goblins back?"
"How?" asked Harry, eyes wide.
"He put a bet on you, mate," said Fred. "Put a big bet on you to win the tournament. Bet against the goblins."
"So that's why he kept trying to help me win!" said Harry. "Well – I did win, didn't I? So he can pay you your gold!"
"Nope. The goblins play just as dirty as him. They say you drew with Diggory, and Bagman was betting you'd win outright. So Bagman had to run for it. He did run for it right after the third task."
George went back to dealing out the cards for their next round, and this time Fred opted out, leaning back against the seat and dropping his hand lightly on Winona's thigh. She was suddenly painstakingly aware of how short their time left together was, and she shut her sketchbook with a snap, stuffing it in her bag and turning to face him.
"Are you sure you won't just come back to the Burrow with us?" he asked quietly, the words meant for the two of them alone. A compartment full of friends and noise and company, and all of it melted away as she leaned towards Fred, a moon caught forevermore in his orbit. "Mum would be thrilled to have you. So would Ginny."
She smiled softly. "I've gotta go back to my foster place before I do anything else. If I don't, they might call the Muggle authorities, and that'll just turn into a complete shit show. No, I'd rather face it and cut ties properly – without all the mess."
"And then you'll come to the Burrow?"
Winona sighed. "I dunno, Fred."
She was hesitant – the target on her back was big and glaring, and the last thing Winona wanted was to put any of the Weasleys in danger. She'd tie a ribbon around her head for Voldemort himself before ever letting anything happen to any one of them.
Fred didn't seem to think of it from that angle, because he asked, "Still holding out hope Sirius will come back?"
"Kind of, yeah," she confessed. It wasn't her main motivation, but it was there all the same. She wanted so badly for him to pull a miracle from his sleeve and find the perfect place for them to hide away. Somewhere Harry could join them, and that maybe the Weasleys could even visit.
When she tried to imagine such a place, she could almost see somewhere in her mind. A thin but tall townhouse, all dark walls and even darker furniture. If she closed her eyes she could almost smell it – like dust and mothballs and something she could only describe as dark magic.
She was hoping it was a hint from the Powers-That-Be, some small morsel of hope for her to hold close and keep her warm. She couldn't know for sure, but so far it was doing an all right job.
"Think of all the apple pie you're missing out on," Fred whispered, his breath tickling the shell of her ear.
It made Winona laugh. "Is that meant to be a euphemism?"
Fred wagged his eyebrows playfully. "You're just going to have to come stay and find out."
He swooped in to steal a kiss from her lips, and she was helpless but to grip at his hair and tug. They may have gotten just a tad out of control, because Winona felt something heavy hit Fred's shoulder and heard the sound of George booing them loudly.
She pulled back from Fred, glancing down at the book George had lobbed at them. Hermione picked it up and dusted it off, glaring at George in stern reprimand.
"Keep it in your pants, lovebirds," George jeered at them, ignoring Hermione's ire. "Honestly, you have no idea what it's like to share a dorm with them," he added conversationally to Ron. "I had to get an extra cake of soap just for something to wash out my eyes with."
Winona rolled her eyes. "You're such a drama queen."
The rest of the journey passed in easy jest, Ron going on to win their miniature Exploding Snap tournament. George gifted him with a chocolate frog for his efforts.
By the time the train pulled into King's Cross, Winona realised she'd done such a good job of pretending not to be anxious about the coming separation that she hadn't at all prepared herself for the moment it would actually arrive.
Ron and Hermione stood to gather their things, then carefully stepped over the unmoving forms of Malfoy and his goons, making their way out onto the bustling platform. "Fred – George – wait a moment," said Harry suddenly, and Winona paused in the doorway to see Harry fumbling for something in his trunk.
Finally he withdrew his bag of a thousand Galleons – his winnings from the Tournament.
"Take it," he said, rather unceremoniously thrusting the sack into George's empty hands.
For a long moment, all the twins could do was stare. "What?" asked Fred, flabbergasted. Winona was similarly stunned.
"Take it," Harry repeated himself firmly. "I don't want it."
"You're mental," scoffed George, trying to shove it back into Harry's arms, but he wouldn't take it back, crossing his arms over his chest stubbornly.
"No, I'm not," said Harry calmly. "You take it, and get inventing. It's for the joke shop."
Fred sucked in a sharp breath. "He is mental," he whispered.
"Listen, if you don't take it, I'm throwing it all down the drain. I don't want it and I don't need it. But I could do with a few laughs. We could all do with a few laughs. I've got a feeling we're going to need them more than usual before long," said Harry, impassioned like Winona hadn't seen him in weeks.
"Harry, there's got to be a thousand Galleons in here," whispered George as if it wasn't already common knowledge, testing the weight of the small sack he held, wonderment on his face.
"Yeah," Harry grinned, and the sight of it warmed Winona's heart. "Think how many Canary Creams that is."
The twins could only stare at him, utterly speechless. It made Winona laugh – it wasn't often someone could leave the twins without words, and she almost wished she had a camera to capture the moment on film.
"Just don't tell your mum where you got it … although she might not be so keen for you to join the Ministry anymore, come to think of it…" Harry mused.
Fred looked from Harry to Winona and back again. "Harry," he began, but Harry silenced him by pulling out his wand and holding it out in gentle threat.
"Look, take it or I'll hex you," he bargained. "I know some good ones now. My cousin taught me well. Just do me a favour, okay? Buy Ron some different dress robes and say they're from you."
He left the compartment before they could say another word, looking awfully satisfied with himself. The twins stared after him in shock, and Winona brought her hands up to cover her mouth, feeling strangely overcome with emotion.
With Harry gone, the twins turned back to one another. "A thousand Galleons," Fred breathed.
"That's more than enough to buy a space in Diagon Alley – and front all the production costs for the first six months!" said George excitedly. They looked so thrilled that Winona was surprised they didn't just start dancing right there on the spot.
They turned to Winona, speechless once more but with questions swimming in their eyes. "I had no idea," she answered their unspoken question. "But Merlin, do I love that kid."
"Yeah," said Fred, still dazed. "Us too."
It wasn't until they got beyond the barrier that they saw Mrs Weasley. She was squeezing Harry tightly, but promptly turned her attention to Winona as she appeared.
"Now, you know you can come home at any time, right dear?" she said in Winona's ear, and hearing Mrs Weasley call the Burrow her 'home' made it strangely difficult to breathe.
"I know," she whispered, hugging her back, soaking up the mother's love she only ever got from Mrs Weasley.
"And are you sure you're okay to be going off on your own?"
Winona smiled into her shoulder. "I'm sure, Mrs Weasley," she insisted. "Thanks."
Mrs Weasley pulled back and took Winona's face in her hands, patting her affectionately on the cheek before pulling away to pull Ginny into an enthusiastic hug. Winona turned to Harry, finding him stood beside his Uncle Vernon, who looked as though he was there at wand-point, scowling at everyone like he thought they might be conspiring against him.
"You'll be okay?" Winona asked Harry, hands braced on his shoulders. His only answer was an unconvincing nod, and Winona pulled him into a firm hug. "I'll see you soon, Boy-Wonder," she promised him.
She felt Harry grip her just a tad too tight, like he were afraid that once he let go he'd lose her forever. She squeezed him back, pulling away and smiling gently.
"Come on, boy," snapped his Uncle Vernon. "I have places to be."
Harry's shoulders slumped as though the weight of the world had settled onto them. "Harry – thanks," said George quickly, Fred nodding fervently at his side. Harry shot them a wink before waving to Winona one final time and reluctantly leaving with his uncle.
Winona turned to the twins, both of whom still looked rather like they'd been bonked over the head.
"Fred, George!" called Mrs Weasley, standing a few metres away with Ginny and Ron at her side. The twins turned to Winona with wary frowns.
"I'll be fine," she insisted, pulling George into a quick hug. He felt strong and solid beneath her, and she got the same sense from hugging him that she did Harry – like being held by a brother. "Be bad, cause trouble," she said in his ear.
George flicked her nose as she pulled away, and it made her smile. When she turned to Fred, George politely turned away, wandering over to his waiting family to give the couple time to say their goodbyes.
Fred was frowning. "Are you sure-?"
"Fred," she said, slapping a hand over his mouth and smiling at him in exasperation. "I'm going to be fine."
He said something, the words smothered by her hand, and she slid it up into his hair instead, pulling him in for a passionate kiss. She swallowed whatever he'd been trying to say, holding him tight against her, kissing him like she wasn't sure when she'd get another chance – because truthfully, she wasn't.
George wolf whistled loudly from where he was stood with the others, and Winona pulled back from Fred, grinning at his dazed expression. "I'll see you soon," she promised.
"You'll be safe?" he asked worriedly.
"Of course," she assured him, pecking his lips once more before pushing him stubbornly in the direction of his family. "Go!" she said, and with great reluctance, Fred left with his family, their trunks trailing after them, Ginny filling her mum in on everything that had happened throughout the term.
Alone in the middle of King's Cross, Winona stayed rooted to her spot in the midst of a sea of faceless strangers.
She'd told the others she needed to go back to foster house to pick up her things, but that wasn't necessarily true. Everything worth keeping was already stored away safely in her school trunk. But where was she supposed to go, if not to the foster house the government was expecting her to return to?
She stood in the middle of the Muggle platform, people walking around her like she were no more than a spectre. And in that moment she felt as invisible as one. What would the Ministry do if she were to just…leave? She could write to Sirius, go find him wherever he was. She might not have wanted to bring the wrath of Voldemort down on the Weasleys, but she was sure Sirius could handle himself.
Besides, the two of them had some serious father-daughter bonding to get started on.
She turned in a circle, looking for somewhere she could sit to write out a letter, but before she could get that far, a familiar figure caught her attention.
Without stopping to think, Winona slid her wand free from the knot atop her head, brandishing it out in front of her, its end aimed directly at Mad-Eye Moody's heart. Moody scowled at her from where he stood, mere feet away, making her palms slick with nervous sweat.
"Would you put that away?" he growled at her, voice so familiar that it sent a jolt of shock and terror through her. The last time Winona had seen him, he hadn't been himself at all, but rather a Death Eater attempting to kill Harry, kidnap her, and take her away as a gift for his master. Surely that justified her reaction.
But Barty Crouch Jr was gone – his soul sucked from his body in a fate worse than death – and this Moody was the real one. She was at least 98% sure.
He was glowering at her, unimpressed, and with a trembling hand, she slowly slid her wand back into its place in her hair. "Moody?" she asked hesitantly.
"In the flesh," he muttered like her very existence annoyed him. His magical eye wasn't whizzing about like usual, probably in an attempt to keep from gaining any unwanted attention, but that alone wasn't quite enough. All the Muggles streaming past them, racing to get to their trains on time, were gaping at the horrific mess that was Mad-Eye Moody. She couldn't blame them – he looked like someone had taken a lawnmower to his face. "Well, are you just going to stand there?" he snapped.
"Um," Winona said, brain short-circuiting.
Moody gave an impatient grunt. "Coming?" he growled, turning on his heel and beginning to limp his way back through the crowd. Winona picked up the end of her trunk and followed, helpless to do anything else.
"Er, where are we going, exactly?" she asked warily. She wanted to trust him, but the fact of the matter was that she didn't know him. The man she'd spent a year in the company of had turned out to be a psychotic, murderous imposter. What did she know about the real Moody, other than the fact he was a complete coot and a close personal friend of Dumbledore's?
"You'll see," he barked, and Winona fell silent.
He led them out of King's Cross, but when Winona assumed he would hail a taxi, he instead took a sharp right and began to lead her around to the back alley around the side of the train station. Heart racing in her chest, Winona began to panic. Was he taking her back there to kill her? Would she have enough time to draw her wand and apparate away?
She hadn't apparated in the real world before – she'd passed her exam easily enough, but she wasn't exactly well practised – but it was looking like a good option right about now, even with the added risk of splinching herself.
But when they rounded the corner to the main part of the alleyway, Winona came to an abrupt stop when she saw who was waiting for them. Professor Lupin was stood beside a large metal bin, talking quietly to a young woman with spiky, bubblegum hair.
He looked up as Moody limped towards them, meeting Winona's eyes, a smile ready on his lips. "Winnie," he greeted her like they were old friends – and she supposed they really were.
"Professor Lupin," she said, surprised. He strode towards her, hand held out to shake, but Winona stunned him by slipping her arms around his thin waist and hugging him tightly. They didn't know each other very well, but he was one of the only remaining connections to her family left. He was her father's best friend, and he'd visited her would-be grave every year since she supposedly 'died'.
Surely all of that warranted a hug?
"Call me Remus, Winnie, please," Remus said faintly, surprised by her open affection, patting her woodenly on the back. "I'm not your professor anymore."
She pulled away and smiled up at him sheepishly. "Old habits die hard."
The woman with bubblegum hair appeared at her side, a wide smile on her pretty face. "Winnie, hi," she greeted Winona like they were old friends. She reached out to shake her hand, and Winona did so automatically. "I've heard so much about you. It's great to finally meet you."
"Um, thanks."
"True Seers are almost as rare as Metamorphmagi," she continued happily. "Maybe we should start a club!"
Professor Lupin – Remus, she chided herself – had a fond glint in his eyes that erased itself when he caught Winona looking. "Winnie, this is Nymphadora Tonks. She's…she's on our side," he said, a little bit stilted. It gave Winona a jolt to realise there were sides now. That was the new world they lived in. Us and them.
"Just Tonks," the Metamorphmagus corrected him with a stern glare, nose wrinkling at the sound of her full name. "I refuse to answer to Nymphadora." She turned to Winona with a rueful smile. "Why couldn't I have been called something pretty, like Winona?"
Feeling flattered, Winona couldn't help but smile. Before she could say anything, Moody interrupted, appearing between them with an impatient scowl on his twisted lips. "Would you like to continue chattering out in the open like this, where anybody could apparate in and steal the Seer from our guard, or shall we continue onto headquarters now?"
Tonks rolled her eyes, but Remus looked chastised. "Right."
"Headquarters?" Winona echoed in confusion. "You mean like a lair?"
Tonks broke out into a wide grin. "Exactly like a lair."
"We'll be apparating there," said Moody as though neither woman had even spoken. "You'll be apparating alongside Lupin, being as you've never been there before."
But Winona wasn't about to just shut her eyes and let them take her wherever they pleased. "Wait – Dumbledore – shouldn't we-?"
"Dumbledore's already waiting there for you," said Remus patiently. "Along with your father."
A ping of surprise mingled with excitement in her gut. Sirius was there? Well, now the trip didn't seem so daunting after at all. "Okay," she said, relinquishing control.
"Tonks, you take her trunk," Moody growled at the pink-haired beauty. Tonks winked at Winona as she gripped the trunk in a steady hand, spun in a tight circle, and Disapparated with a quiet pop.
Remus held an arm out to Winona in a playfully gallant move, and in that moment Winona thought she saw a hint of the clever troublemaker who had once upon a time made a magical map with three of his closest friends, just because he wanted to see if he could.
But there was one thing holding her back. "Where we're going," she asked, "is it safe?"
A sympathetic smile twisted at her ex-professor's mouth. "I don't know if anywhere's safe anymore, Winnie," he told her with breathtaking honesty, his old, hazel eyes sad. "But I think this is about as close as you're going to be able to get."
And she believed him down to her bones. Nodding once, she reached for his arm, slipping her hand into the crook of his elbow. As soon as she made contact there was a sharp tug at her navel and the breath was forced from her lungs as she felt like her whole body was being yanked through a tube the size of a drinking straw.
It lasted an eternity and also barely any time at all, but then she could breathe again. The sunlight was beaming down onto her, and in the distance she could hear a siren wailing.
Blinking against the brightness, Winona stared at her new surroundings. They were stood in a derelict neighbourhood, blackened buildings making up townhouses across the road from them. Despite its desperate need of a clean, Winona liked it. The street had character – even if that character was a stray cat shitting in a cardboard box on the corner.
Tonks was already there, Winona's trunk sitting by her feet, and she greeted them with a little wave as they appeared. A beat passed and then Moody arrived with a tiny pop of noise. For a long moment they just stood there, and Winona wondered if there was something she was missing.
Then Moody fished a torn piece of parchment from his pocket and shoved it unceremoniously into her hands. Bewildered, Winona took it from him.
"Read it. Memorise it," Moody ordered her briskly.
Unfolding the piece of parchment, she peered down at what was scrawled onto it, brow furrowed as she felt something drop in her stomach. Like something inside of her knew how important what she was about to read actually was, even if she didn't know it consciously.
Narrowing her eyes, she read.
The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed. Next chapter we dive into the whole new world that is Order of the Phoenix – but let me tell you, we're going to be sticking around at Grimmauld Place for quite awhile yet. As Winnie said – there's still lots of bonding to be done.
Spotlight review goes to: BooksEnPointe – thanks so much for reading and reviewing! It was so amazing to read that you and your friend both read the story, and I laughed when I read that you looked up the average book-length. If only I had this sort of dedication to my original works :') Glad you're liking it, and I hope you enjoyed this one!