It was highly unusual for there to be a silent moment at the Weasley house, being that it was home to six boys and one girl from the ages of eleven to twenty-three. By two o'clock in the morning, however, most likely everyone in the house was a sleep. This morning,on the 29th of August, was not acceptation to that fact, except that the two eldest Weasleys, Bill and Charlie, had not yet returned from what their mother, Molly, believed to be a party with some friends who they used to attend the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with.
Yes, the Weasleys were a wizarding family. The children, like most young wizards, attended Hogwarts, in which they learn necessary wizarding skills from flying brooms to mixing potions. There were four houses at Hogwarts: Gryffindor (which the Weasley children belonged to), Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. The Slytherin house was notorious for producing dark wizards; so those in the other three houses tended not to bond very well with those in Slytherin.
The rare silence of the Weasley house was broken when the sounds of the front door slamming echoed throughout.
" Mum! Dad! Anyone!" shouted the eldest Weasley, Bill, from the bottom of the staircase. This shout caused both Mr .and Mrs. Weasley to come bounding down the stairs; a sound which awakened the four remaining Weasley children.
The third-born Weasley, sixteen-year-old Percy, reached over to his nightstand and grabbed his glasses. He looked over to his twelve-year-old brother, Ron, who was sitting up in bed, wide-eyed.
"What's going on, Percy?" asked Ron.
Percy managed to pull himself out of bed, trying to seemed dignified ,despite his red hair flying in every direction as a result of tossing and turning in his sleep.
"Let me go check." he said, leaving the room. He headed down the hall, followed by Ron; the fourteen-year-old twins, Fred and George; and the only girl, eleven-year-old Ginny.
" Oh my God...." muttered Percy, once he saw what the commotion was about.
There, at the bottom of the stairs, was Bill who was helping to carry Charlie over to the couch. Charlie was amazingly pale and so limp that he looked like a rag-doll as Bill set him on the couch. Once he was laid down, Charlie gave what sounded like a cross between a couch and a gurgle; and then spewed up deep red blood, which trickled down his chin and onto his white shirt.
Upon viewing this, Fred leaned over the banister and vomited, George sat down on the steps and buried his face in his hands, all the color drained from Ron's face, Ginny started crying, and Percy just swallowed and remained standing there stoically.
Bill looked up at his younger siblings, his hazel eyes flashing with both anger and hate as he breathed the name "Draven".
Everyone in the wizarding world knew about the infamous war between the the Weasley and Draven families. It was known as a "war" rather than a "feud" because very rarely does a feud result in bloodshed. No one- not even the Weasleys and the Dravens themselves- seemed to know the actual reason behind the war. In fact, It seemed that the two families knew only to hate each other; if not for a particular reason, than just for their name.
Ron was the first to catch his breath and ask, "How did it happen?"
Bill shook his head. "Marcus Draven," he said, "threw Charlie off his broom."
Molly looked up from tending to her injured son, "I'm certain we have some potion around here that can help him." She said with a tone of desperate hopefulness in her voice.
Fred, George, Ron, and a sobbing Ginny, all went and gathered around the couch; Percy just remained on the steps.
"It seems the only place that the children are safe from the Dravens is at Hogwarts." Stated their father, Arthur Weasley. "I take it that they've all graduated by now."
"No," said George, " there's a Draven girl in Gryffindor."
Fred nodded in agreement, "Her name's Athena and she's in Percy's grade. She's a Prefect as well."
Arthur's eyes widened, "Why would a Draven be in Gryffindor? All the Dravens have been Slytherins as far back as I can remember."
Percy opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it, deciding it was in his best interest not to.
"She seems nice enough...." Fred started to say, but he was cut off by his father.
" You cannot trust someone whose family has caused more deaths to Weasleys than the plague."
With those words from his father, Percy, without hesitating, bolted upstairs to his room.
"We never said that we trusted her, Dad." said Ron who seemed rather interested in the blood his brother was hacking up. Arthur nodded, placing his hands on Molly's shoulders and gentilly pulling her away from Charlie, so she wouldn't upset herself more. Molly's teary eyes moved from the couch to the staircase.
"Oh Arthur," she said through her tears, "Where did Percy go?"
"Ron,"said Arthur, "Go upstairs and find your brother."
Ron nodded and bounded up the stairs. He ran down the hallway to his and Percy's room, and knocked on the door.
"NO!" yelled Percy from behind the door.
"Tough, it's my room too!"
And with that, he pushed the door open. There sat Percy, at his desk, writing on a piece of parchment.
"What's that you're writing?" asked Ron
Percy quickly stuffed the parchment into an envelope.
"A letter?"
"Mind your own business!" said Percy, hotly, as he tied the letter to the foot of his large screech owl, Hermes.
Ron tried to catch a glimpse of the address on the letter; but before he could, Percy opened the window, and Hermes flew off into the foggy London sky.