A/N Yes well, this story was going to be a fairly simple Angelina story, however, Lady Dragonsbane and I started talking and it grew. The characters introduced themselves and told me their stories and explained things in such a way that I was forced to begin what could very possibly be an epic. And if there is any confusion on who the children belong to Ron and Hermione own Meshach (said meshack), Mab, and Mia. Harry and Ginny own Lily, and Neville owns Ivy and Lotus.
The perspective will change a lot, so be prepared for that. If there is any confusion or questions e mail me at Mooncroww@aol.com.
PS thanks Lady Dragonsbane. Couldn't do this without you. I'd lose my drive and never write again. Lol.
In The Woods
(Angelina)
Sometimes it felt almost surreal to be a teacher. Almost as thought it weren't quite how things were supposed to be. Once I was captain of a Quidditch team, once I had a chance of playing professionally, once I lived in a different world. Now I teach reading and writing to six children who aren't even mine.
The arrangement hadn't started off to include children, I was only needed to be with Arthur as he recovered and dealt with the loss of his wife. The progress was slow, but eventually he was able to return to work and I was left alone in a big house with nothing to do. I considered getting another job but there was a fear that Arthur might relapse and to leave felt like betraying Fred. So I stayed.
Perhaps if I had left things might have gone better. Maybe if Fred hadn't been with me that night he would have been in Hogsmead when the fires started. He could have alerted the Order immediately, they could have come and stopped the destruction and the death. As it was an owl reached us at one o'clock in the morning, throwing itself against the glass of the window. Fred rose and took the letter it carried. He looked at me and then back at the letter.
"We've got to go." He said and began to get dressed.
His hands were shaking and he couldn't seem to work the buttons on his shirt. I watched him for a moment and began to get dressed myself.
"I meant George and I." He said frowning and shoving his feet in a pair of boots.
"I don't care. I'm going too."
"It's too dangerous."
"What's going on?" I asked without pausing.
"Hogsmead is burning. Death Eaters. I want you here. Safe." He answered without looking at me.
A long moment passed as I digested this new information. There had never been an attack like that. Blatant destruction, there was always a plan before, always some strategy.
"I'm coming." I whispered.
He glared at me and was out the door to rouse George and his father before I could say another word. So I followed and when we were all gathered in the front room I disapparated with them.
It was worse than I imagined. As though a thousand fireballs had simply fallen from the sky. People lay everywhere, some dead, some injured. I recognized many of them from when I was in school. George caught me as I lost my balance.
"You should go back." He said and followed his brother into the burning mess.
Without thinking I continued after them. My eyes searched for anything that was left whole, something that was still good and clean. There was nothing. A woman lay in the street weeping. I knelt beside her to try and help if I could.
"My children were in there. I could hear them screaming." She moaned and continued to weep.
I tried to help her to her feet but she pulled away and fought me off. A scream interrupted my attempts and I ran through the burning rubble to find the source.
My shock grew as I approached a tall building with many people gathered around the front. The screaming was a young woman, she fought against the crowd to get into the building, but they held her back. Every time she tried to shove through someone caught her and pulled her away. I tried to go to her, to help her if I could but the press of the crowd was to thick.
"There are more people in there!" She cried.
This time she plowed her way through and ran into the building. The smoke was thick and black as it poured from the windows, it reached the crowd and soon everyone was coughing. Fred was beside me then.
"Who was that?" I asked covering my mouth with my sleeve.
"Tonks." He said simply.
His arm wrapped around me as we waited to see if she would emerge. The only sound was coughing and the crackling of the wood burning.
"Can't you do something to put out the fire?" I pleaded.
"Curse fire. Water makes it burn hotter. Only thing to do is wait it out." He said, his voice near a whisper.
Another voice rose from the crowd.
"Can't sit here waitin all day." A figure that stood taller than the others, seemed almost impossible, made it's way to the front.
His long strides took him easily into the building. The moments that followed were terrible. Shouts came from the fire, a crash seemed to shake the very ground we walked on and then the large man jumped out of the flames. In his arms lay Tonks.
It seemed forever before Fred and I got to her. George and Arthur were sending the crowd away, if there had been any other people in the building it was to late to help them. The best they could do was to go and help those that were still alive. It seemed that everyone was there. I recognized Remus Lupin, Moody, and a man Fred called Kingsley. Hermione appeared with Ron behind her, they seemed unable to speak, or even breathe as they watched their friend lie still on the ground.
"Move." Said a soft voice, I turned and saw Ginny pushing through.
She knelt beside the unconscious auror and began to remove the burnt and smoking clothing from her body. Had I been myself I would have vomited. As it was I could only stand and watch in horror as the extensive burns were exposed. The whole of her abdomen was charred and bleeding.
"Someone find Neville." She said.
Hagrid hurried off into the burning night.
"Can you help her?" Ron asked.
Ginny was silent, tears were in her eyes, but she held them back. It was only moments before Neville shoved through the people and joined Ginny at Tonk's side, but it felt an eternity. I knew there were others to help, others who needed healing. Ginny was the best, she should be helping them, but it seemed so important to help Tonks. So important to keep this one girl alive. The faces of the others were like stone. Lupin seemed to be holding his breath.
Neville brought a small packet out of his pocket and poured the contents into Ginny's hand. Deftly the girl spread the green powder on the burns, they smoked and an acrid smell rose into the air. Once again I covered my mouth with my sleeve.
Tonks began to stir. Her eyes opened and she screamed. That voice echoed for days in my head, shrieking as if she would die. Her fists gripping the earth and her head bent back in agony. The scream lasted until she had no breath and then she gasped, began to weep.
"Come on. There are others." Moody said and helped Neville to his feet.
"Stay here with her. I'll be back to get you." Fred whispered and turned with his twin to leave.
Moments later it was only Lupin and I. He seemed to sink into the ground rather than sit, as though his limbs couldn't hold him any longer. I watched one hand slowly reach out to touch her face, but it pulled back quickly.
"She'll be ok." I said stupidly.
He nodded and his stone face began to shed tears.
"I was supposed to take care of her. Sirius always said I was supposed to take care of her. 'Don't let her out of your sight' he said. She was his only family. She was special and I … I… I failed." The words didn't hurt me so much as that he stated them in such a manner that there was no other possibility. He had failed. There was nothing else.
"She'll be ok. They fixed her." I sounded so dumb, so little and naïve.
He only shook his head and continued to cry.
Days after that Hermione came to visit me in The Burrow. Her manner was friendly enough, but I could tell that she was straining to forget the horror of that night.
"Angelina. I have a favor to ask you." She said with a small smile.
"Sure." I replied returning the smile.
Silence followed and I wondered if she were going to continue.
"Things have changed." She paused again, "I can't continue to work for the Ministry. I have decided to quit. Instead I will be working with Neville in his shop. I think something simply is the right job for now."
Again she paused. Her eyes lowered and her hands rung together nervously.
"Not every day of course. Three days a week. I was hoping you would be willing to watch the children during those times. The lady who normally watches them was injured in the fires, I can't ask her to keep watching them. It may only be for a short while, I can't say now."
I thought for a long time and finally nodded.
"I can do that."
So I became a teacher. Not at first of course, but as the children grew I found a need to do something productive with them. Hide and seek, tag and peek a boo only went so far. Lupin provided me with grammar and spelling books, Dumbledore himself brought me parchment and quills and though Fred teased me and called me Professor Angelina, he too helped by clearing out a cupboard for the school supplies.
Before the fires I had wanted badly to know exactly what the Order was doing. I wanted in on the meetings, to listen to them talk about plans and strategies, it all seemed so much like quidditch. I thought if they let me in, perhaps I could be useful. I was good with tactics and maneuvers. Of course then I really saw what could happen. I saw the death and mayhem, I felt it down into my being. Sometimes at night I could still hear Tonks scream. Things like that stay with you, and I no longer wished to know things.
It was easier to do my part and watch the children. That was how I was useful.
"Angelina?" A small voice asked, pulling on my tunic.
"Yes" I said smiling and shuttling my daydreams to the side.
"I finished my work." Mia said pointing to a paper on the table.
The other children looked up momentarily and then went back to work on their own sentences.
"Very good. You just need to make the tail on your letter g a bit longer." I said and took her quill to show her.
She watched intently and grinned when I handed her the parchment back. Though she obviously had what Fred called the Weasley curse, freckles and red hair, she was very much her mother's daughter. You could count on her to catch onto a concept quickly and her desire to learn was overwhelming. Of course there was the incredible bushy head of hair if nothing else proved it.
Her brother Meshach was quite intelligent as well, though he tended to apply himself to learning things that were less academic. There didn't seem to be an ounce of Hermione in him anywhere. Instead Ron was stamped across his features.
Mab somehow was a mixture of her parents. A bit of her father's red hair and freckles, her mother's eyes, a knack of getting into trouble coupled with a need to know everything.
It wasn't long before Lily raised her hand to tell me she had finished. Somehow Lily always seemed to be done before the others. She worked no faster and was no smarter, she just got things done. I walked over and heard her humming a little to herself. Nothing phased her. A hippogriff could land on her head and she would hum and twiddle her thumbs until it went away.
"Very good Lily. I think that's the best work I've seen you do. If you'd like you can look onto the next chapter while the others finish up." She smiled at me and began going through the next few pages of her book.
An hour later everyone had completed their work. Ivy was eyeing the door as though she might jump up and run out of it if I didn't release them soon. She didn't need to worry.
"Go on and play outside while I get lunch ready." I said.
There was a yell from Mab and all five of them were out the door. Mia still hung onto the hem of my tunic waiting for her nap time. I picked her up into my arms and carried her to one of the spare bedrooms. She snuggled down into the blankets and sighed a little sigh before going to sleep. I tucked the blankets around her feeling strangely at home. A sound down in the kitchen disrupted my musings and I shut the door quietly behind me as I left. Lily stood at the bottom of the stairs rocking slowly on her heels.
"Could you put my hair up?" She asked holding a ribbon out to me.
"Sure." I said knowing that no matter how tightly I tied the ribbon her thick brown hair would be out of it in an hour.
Smiling she scampered back out the door when I finished.
I heard shouts and cries of joy as they made their way into the large group of trees. The children thought they were being secretive with their plans, but I had known for ages that they were building a tree house off in the woods. Though the location was a mystery it wouldn't take long to find it if I had to. The woods were little more than a grove of trees to the back of The Burrow, nothing I couldn't search in a matter of minutes. Besides, Mrs. Weasley had been kind enough to charm the edges of her property so as to keep her children from wandering to far.
I smiled to myself and began to dig out in the cupboards for lunch. As usual I found some fruit and cheese and a large pitcher of pumpkin juice. Another convenient little charm of the late Molly Weasley allowed me to find nearly everything I needed in whatever cupboard I opened. Humming absently I got out my wand and was getting ready to use a severing charm to slice the fruit into pieces when a loud pop from behind startled me. Whirling about, expecting to see Fred or George playing a joke on me I found instead Remus Lupin.
"Lupin!" I shouted and hugged him hard.
He smiled his shadowy smile and hugged me back. His robes were in need of patching again and his hair was more grey than brown, but nothing could change him really. Everything was still the same though I hadn't seen him in months.
"Harry asked me to stop by and see how his daughter was." He stated while taking a seat at the kitchen table.
"She's fine. Would you like some tea?" I asked reaching up to get the tea pot from the cupboard.
"No. No thank you. Can't stay very long."
"How is Tonks? I heard from Fred that she's seeing a new healer. Some kind of physical therapy. Were the potions and charms not working?" I asked even as he cringed.
He swallowed hard and pretended to be looking through one of the children's grammar books. "She'll be fine. Going through a bit of a rough patch. Curse Fire doesn't just burn flesh, it burns deeper, no potion or charm can touch that. That's also the reason she can't shift out of it. She is doing better though. Can walk with a little help from a balancing charm, though she prefers a muggle cane. Always was a bit quirky, that one."
I nodded and gazed out the window at the tree line. It was highly difficult for Lupin to discuss Tonks with anyone. Over the years we had grown close and his discomfort was lessened when we spoke though I could still hear the catch in his voice. From the way he was fidgeting I could tell it was time to change the subject.
"Lily is fine. You can tell Harry that nothing amiss has happened. She's doing wonderfully with her lessons, I think perhaps she has a better grasp of the English language than I do. I think she is missing him something awful though. You can never tell with Lily, she doesn't show much of anything, but I think she gets homesick."
It was his turn to nod.
"And the others? Is Meshach still getting into trouble? Mab still his shadow? And the twins?" A twinkle rose to his eyes as he spoke of children.
"Meshach couldn't stay out of trouble if he tried. I swear that boy lives and breathes mischief. His sister behaves well enough. She's developed a need to know and understand everything, and refuses to ask questions, just goes running about on her own. The twins are hard to read though. Ivy is pretty quiet, but I think she helps Meshach mastermind most of their plots, hard to tell what that one is thinking. Lotus, though, is her father all over again, except with a need to stay clean. Mia is upstairs sleeping." I replied laughing to myself.
"You've done a fine job here." He said quietly.
"Thank you."
"Sometimes I wish…" He stopped as though talking to himself.
"What?" I asked timidly.
"I wish we could go back to before. When you and I were to watch the children all day. I miss having an assignment so simple and yet so important."
I remembered those days well. The Death Eaters had still been a danger though Voldemort himself was thought to be dead. Members of the Order were a common occurrence to have in the house at all hours. I would wake to find Mad Eye Moody sitting in the chair by the fire, or Kingsley rummaging through our cupboards for something to eat. Lupin had been the most common though. He could be found sleeping on the couch or reading in the study, didn't matter what time of day, he always seemed to be there. Someone was supposed to stayed with me all day, and Lupin usually got saddled with the assignment. It was nice to have the company of another adult, comforting to talk to him and know that he understood most of what I said. The long days with the children were what sparked our friendship. I missed those days a bit myself sometimes.
"Yeah. But the war is over." I said and realized I was being stupid again.
"The war will never be over, at least not until Harry deems it so. I don't think Dumbledore himself could convince him to stop. The boy will not be happy until every bit of dark magic is gone from this world."
"Surely he wants to stop and be with his family. I mean…." I was cut off by a piercing scream from outside.
For a long moment I thought I was back in Hogsmead watching Tonks writhe on the ground.
"Was that one of the children?" Lupid asked sitting bolt upright.
I dashed for the door. Lupin followed me. We tore through the yard and into the trees. The screaming continued as well as another voice calling my name. I knew my way through the trees fairly well, but in seconds we were no longer on Weasley land. Lupin took the lead and I followed knowing his senses were keener. It was an effort to keep my feet under me as we zigzagged through the trees. The screaming was still echoing all around me. I was concentrating so hard on the sound I nearly tripped over Meshach's body.
Quickly I dropped to the ground beside him while Lupin went to the other children. The young boy's arm was caught beneath him at an odd angle and blood ran down his face from a wound on his forehead.
"Meshach!" I called wiping the blood from his eyes with my sleeve.
He did not respond.
I turned to find Lupin lifting Lily off a tree branch and momentarily wondered how she had gotten up there when she was terrified of heights. The others were watching me. Lotus was crying silently, her sister gripping her hand tightly.
"Keep them quiet and lead the way back to the house." I ordered lifting Meshach into my arms.
Lupin nodded and herded the children in front of him. Mab tugged on his robes and he allowed her to scramble onto his back. I noticed then that Lily was gripping her wand so tightly her knuckles were white, perhaps she has tried to save her cousin from falling. Or perhaps she was the reason he fell. There would be many questions when we reached the house.
"Hurry, we have to get him to a healer." I called up to Lupin.
He nodded and walked a little faster.
(Meshach)
The only sound in the room was the scratching of quills on parchment. I raised my eyes slowly trying to catch Mab's gaze. She was glaring into her lesson book as though taking personal offense to it's contents. Darting a glance at Angelina, who seemed to me daydreaming at the end of table, I aimed a kick at my sister's legs. It missed and I hit Ivy instead. She looked at me oddly and then grinned. The light of her face told me she understood perfectly, and nudged Mab for me.
Movement at the end of the table startled us into out work again. Mia was up and asking Angelina to go over her work. Patiently I waited until she sat back down then looked back at the girls sitting across from me. Ivy frowned for a moment and looked up the table at Lily. I followed her gaze. Very quietly I elbowed Lotus who jumped, but thankfully made no noise. She looked confused at me and then her twin. Ivy grinned a mischievous grin in her direction and then threw a look at Lily. For a second I didn't think Lotus understood, then she nodded and kicked at Lily under the table. My cousin smiled as she peeked up from her book. A grin spread over my face as well, we were all on board to work on the tree house today.
Angelina stood up a minute later as Lily raised her hand to say she was done. It never failed that Lily was done before the rest of us. She had tried to explain it to me once, that it wasn't that she was smarter or faster, she just focused better. All her attention went into her work and therefore she had no distractions. I found it was easier to be jealous of her that to understand her explanations.
The next hour passed by slowly. I found myself reading the same line three times and still not understanding it. Giving up I began to doodle at the side of my parchment. If class didn't end soon I might go insane. Ivy wasn't even making a pretense of working instead she had given up and was staring at the door hungrily.
"Go on and play outside while I get lunch ready." Those were the words we had been waiting for all day.
With a shout we were all out the door and making our way for the tree line.
"I thought we were never going to get out of there." Mab said catching up to me.
"Did seem long didn't it?"
"Yeah."
The grass was high at the tree line and difficult for us to push through, I stopped and held the worst of it aside as the others climbed over. Lily was no longer with us, looking back I saw her running to the house waving a red ribbon in the air like a banner.
"What's she doing?" I asked the others.
"She forgot to have Angelina tie her hair up." Lotus answered picking bits of grass from her shirt.
"It's just going to get tangled and fall out anyway." I muttered but led the way through the trees.
Our grove was beyond the boundary of the Burrow, and passing over the charm line felt a little funny. Long ago my grandmother had placed the charm on her land to keep her children from wandering to far, but time had weakened the spell. All we had to do was focus and step over it, though some took it better than others. Lotus had given a little shriek the first time, and Mab started shivering.
The tree was as we had left it. Little notches carved into the wood using Lily's wand, a pile of boards on the ground beside it. Everything had been done painstakingly slow, the gathering of the boards had taken an entire day of digging through the overgrown garden. Carving out the notches had been another two days of experimenting with various curses. In the end though we were proud of our work.
A loud rustling in the grass told me that Lily had finally arrived. She was panting and her hair was already coming loose from the ponytail. Pausing for only a moment I hefted myself up onto the notches and began to climb. The others seemed so small from the limb we had chosen to build on.
"Lily come on up." I shouted.
She paused at the base of the tree and seemed to be waiting for something.
"Are you coming?" I called.
"Yeah." Her voice was shaking.
Her progress was half mine and it seemed to take ages for her to reach me.
"Come on."
"I'm coming. Please, just give me a minute."
Those green eyes had a sheen over them as though she might cry, but instead she took my hand and straddled the branch. Her knuckles were white where they gripped the bark and a series of tiny scrapes marked her arm.
"Did you slip?" I asked.
"Yeah, for a moment. I'm fine."
I nodded and turned to look down at the others, "Start passing the boards up one at a time."
A flurry of movement was followed by Mab tossing a board to me from halfway up the tree. I caught it easily.
"Ok I'm going to hold the board down and you use that charm we looked up to stick it on."
Lily nodded and pulled out her wand. When the board was positioned I smiled at her and waited. Her hand was trembling as she lifted the wand, the words came easily but nothing happened.
"I can't do this." She whispered tears beginning to fall.
"Why? What's wrong?" I asked confused.
"I can't be up here. I have to get down. I need to go home. I need my mom. I have to get down." She was beginning to panic and started to back towards the trunk of the tree.
"Calm down. We'll be done in a minute and we can get down. Try one more time for me." I whispered reaching for her hand.
"I can't."
"Yes you can. Just raise your wand and try again." My coaxing seemed to work for she did as she was told.
A flash of light blinded me and I felt something sharp in my chest. Icy fingers gripped my heart and I was back in my dream. The green and silver flames leapt about my body and I was falling, falling forever. Someone was screaming. Someone was calling my name. The flames swallowed me and darkness came.
(Neville)
"Did you move the Bouncing Bulbs?" Hermione called from the back room.
"No." I called back.
My hands were elbow deep in dirt as I filled pots for replanting a rather large shipment of daisies. Never failed though, some plant would disappear or a customer would come in just as I was getting started on a project.
"Well they aren't where they should be. Perhaps we should build a lid for their container." I sighed and wiped as much dirt as I could off with a towel and made my way back to help her.
The store carried almost any kind of magical plant a customer could want, and what we didn't carry I could almost always order in. It was this fact that made things so hard to manage. Magical plants tended to be blessed with a kind of half sentience, thus they escaped at the worst possible moments. My skin would still crawl at the thought of the lost leaping toadstools. We finally found them hiding behind a bobotuber in a back corner, of course by that time they had grown wild and were very hard to deal with.
"Did you check under the work bench, last time that's where they hid." I asked weaving my way through boxes and into the work room.
"Yeah. Could you check back behind the Tentacula, it likes you better than me."
I laughed and nodded.
"I think they sent us to much sage as well. I only remember ordering two crates." She muttered absently while I made friendly with the Tentacula.
"Well send one back then."
"I'll have to check the records first just to be sure."
"Whatever you need to do."
As Hermione had suspected the Bouncing Bulbs had hidden behind the much largeer intimidating plant. I gathered them into a corner of my robe and hauled the squirming bundle back to their box, only this time I placed a bigger box over them.
"I'm going back to replanting daisies." I announced.
She followed me into the main gallery to look at the record book kept at the desk.
"When is Harry due home?" I asked conversationally.
"Soon I hope. Ginny usually owls to say they're on their way. No, looks like I ordered three. How odd." Her attention was split between me and the record book.
"Do you think he'll leave again?"
"Probably. He always does. No rest for the determined."
"Will Ginny go?"
Hermione looked up at me with her brow furrowed and I gulped audibly.
"I don't know. Maybe not, they've been gone so long I don't think Lily even remembers what they look like."
I was silent a moment and began packing the dirt down around the roots of the daisy. For a long time I had thought it unfair that Harry leave his wife and child home alone for so long. My children did with only one parent because they had to, to do it voluntarily seemed wrong. My thoughts were interrupted however by the sound of the door opening.
"Hello, how can we help you today?" I heard Hermione say politely.
"Hermione." Another familiar voice answered in equally civil tones.
"Oh , Draco. How pleasant to see you." There was no mistaking her tone however, she was less than pleased.
I looked up and smiled at both of them, though inside I was squirming under the gaze of the man who had tormented my most of my young life. He hadn't changed much. His silver blonde hair was shorter and less stiff, the piercing blue eyes were hard, but no longer seemed to mock me, and at his side was a small child.
"Who is this you have with you?" Hermione asked grinning down at the child despite herself.
"Bane, this is Mrs. Weasley, Hermione this is Bane."
The child smirked and opened his mouth to say something I was sure would be scathing in response, but Draco cut him off with a glare.
"Did you need something particular?" I asked once again wiping my hands off.
"Yes," Draco said nodding his acknowledgement of me, "Scurvy Grass, Sneezewart, and Lovage."
Quickly I concluded he was making a confusion draught.
"I think we have all of those in at the moment. Did you need a clipping or each or the entire plant?"
"The entire plant if possible. I'm trying to teach Bane a little before he goes to school, it's easier if we have all the ingredients handy."
Something was wrong and I couldn't put my finger on it. He was being too nice, too civil, he'd been here five minutes and had yet to say something horrible. I looked at Hermione and saw her smile had disappeared. She did seem very intent upon the child however.
"Could you check in the back and see if we still have any Lovage?" I asked her.
Seemed an eternity to drag her eyes from Bane, but she nodded and bustled off. I nodded to Draco and made my way through various plants to where the Scurvy Grass was kept. I could still hear my customers though they were blocked from sight by the large flowers hanging from the ceiling.
"I told you to hold your tongue when we came in here." My ears heard Draco whisper angrily at his child.
"But Father…" The boy started.
"No. You will not say a word from now on. Not a single word." His father replied sternly.
I lifted a pot of Scurvy Grass and another of Sneezewart and brought them to the counter. The boy was looking sullen and eyed me with what could only be hatred. At that time Hermione came in carrying a bundle of Lovage.
"That'll be…4 sickles even." I said.
Draco handed me the coins and told his son to carry one of the plants.
"Goodbye. Have a nice day." Hermione said though her posture told me she was highly uncomfortable.
When they were gone I turned to look at her speculatively
"Did that seem odd to you?" I asked.
"Why?"
"He wasn't mean or cruel at all. Just took his things and left."
She turned to me with her lips pressed together tightly.
"He wouldn't dare." Her voice was so low I almost missed it.
We stood for a moment in thought until she sighed and I turned to go back to the daisies. Just as I touched the dirt to fill another pot something bumped the window. Hermione opened the front door and a large brown barn owl landed on the desk. Carefully she untied the note it carried and unfolded it.
"I have to go." She said suddenly dropping the note on the floor.
"What? Why?" I asked
"Meshach is in the hospital, I have to go." She frantically trying to untie the apron from around her waist.
"Hold on, just a moment. I'll close the shop and we'll go together." I soothed helping her with the knot in the apron.
Within minutes we had both disapparated and were standing in front of St. Mungo's."
The perspective will change a lot, so be prepared for that. If there is any confusion or questions e mail me at Mooncroww@aol.com.
PS thanks Lady Dragonsbane. Couldn't do this without you. I'd lose my drive and never write again. Lol.
In The Woods
(Angelina)
Sometimes it felt almost surreal to be a teacher. Almost as thought it weren't quite how things were supposed to be. Once I was captain of a Quidditch team, once I had a chance of playing professionally, once I lived in a different world. Now I teach reading and writing to six children who aren't even mine.
The arrangement hadn't started off to include children, I was only needed to be with Arthur as he recovered and dealt with the loss of his wife. The progress was slow, but eventually he was able to return to work and I was left alone in a big house with nothing to do. I considered getting another job but there was a fear that Arthur might relapse and to leave felt like betraying Fred. So I stayed.
Perhaps if I had left things might have gone better. Maybe if Fred hadn't been with me that night he would have been in Hogsmead when the fires started. He could have alerted the Order immediately, they could have come and stopped the destruction and the death. As it was an owl reached us at one o'clock in the morning, throwing itself against the glass of the window. Fred rose and took the letter it carried. He looked at me and then back at the letter.
"We've got to go." He said and began to get dressed.
His hands were shaking and he couldn't seem to work the buttons on his shirt. I watched him for a moment and began to get dressed myself.
"I meant George and I." He said frowning and shoving his feet in a pair of boots.
"I don't care. I'm going too."
"It's too dangerous."
"What's going on?" I asked without pausing.
"Hogsmead is burning. Death Eaters. I want you here. Safe." He answered without looking at me.
A long moment passed as I digested this new information. There had never been an attack like that. Blatant destruction, there was always a plan before, always some strategy.
"I'm coming." I whispered.
He glared at me and was out the door to rouse George and his father before I could say another word. So I followed and when we were all gathered in the front room I disapparated with them.
It was worse than I imagined. As though a thousand fireballs had simply fallen from the sky. People lay everywhere, some dead, some injured. I recognized many of them from when I was in school. George caught me as I lost my balance.
"You should go back." He said and followed his brother into the burning mess.
Without thinking I continued after them. My eyes searched for anything that was left whole, something that was still good and clean. There was nothing. A woman lay in the street weeping. I knelt beside her to try and help if I could.
"My children were in there. I could hear them screaming." She moaned and continued to weep.
I tried to help her to her feet but she pulled away and fought me off. A scream interrupted my attempts and I ran through the burning rubble to find the source.
My shock grew as I approached a tall building with many people gathered around the front. The screaming was a young woman, she fought against the crowd to get into the building, but they held her back. Every time she tried to shove through someone caught her and pulled her away. I tried to go to her, to help her if I could but the press of the crowd was to thick.
"There are more people in there!" She cried.
This time she plowed her way through and ran into the building. The smoke was thick and black as it poured from the windows, it reached the crowd and soon everyone was coughing. Fred was beside me then.
"Who was that?" I asked covering my mouth with my sleeve.
"Tonks." He said simply.
His arm wrapped around me as we waited to see if she would emerge. The only sound was coughing and the crackling of the wood burning.
"Can't you do something to put out the fire?" I pleaded.
"Curse fire. Water makes it burn hotter. Only thing to do is wait it out." He said, his voice near a whisper.
Another voice rose from the crowd.
"Can't sit here waitin all day." A figure that stood taller than the others, seemed almost impossible, made it's way to the front.
His long strides took him easily into the building. The moments that followed were terrible. Shouts came from the fire, a crash seemed to shake the very ground we walked on and then the large man jumped out of the flames. In his arms lay Tonks.
It seemed forever before Fred and I got to her. George and Arthur were sending the crowd away, if there had been any other people in the building it was to late to help them. The best they could do was to go and help those that were still alive. It seemed that everyone was there. I recognized Remus Lupin, Moody, and a man Fred called Kingsley. Hermione appeared with Ron behind her, they seemed unable to speak, or even breathe as they watched their friend lie still on the ground.
"Move." Said a soft voice, I turned and saw Ginny pushing through.
She knelt beside the unconscious auror and began to remove the burnt and smoking clothing from her body. Had I been myself I would have vomited. As it was I could only stand and watch in horror as the extensive burns were exposed. The whole of her abdomen was charred and bleeding.
"Someone find Neville." She said.
Hagrid hurried off into the burning night.
"Can you help her?" Ron asked.
Ginny was silent, tears were in her eyes, but she held them back. It was only moments before Neville shoved through the people and joined Ginny at Tonk's side, but it felt an eternity. I knew there were others to help, others who needed healing. Ginny was the best, she should be helping them, but it seemed so important to help Tonks. So important to keep this one girl alive. The faces of the others were like stone. Lupin seemed to be holding his breath.
Neville brought a small packet out of his pocket and poured the contents into Ginny's hand. Deftly the girl spread the green powder on the burns, they smoked and an acrid smell rose into the air. Once again I covered my mouth with my sleeve.
Tonks began to stir. Her eyes opened and she screamed. That voice echoed for days in my head, shrieking as if she would die. Her fists gripping the earth and her head bent back in agony. The scream lasted until she had no breath and then she gasped, began to weep.
"Come on. There are others." Moody said and helped Neville to his feet.
"Stay here with her. I'll be back to get you." Fred whispered and turned with his twin to leave.
Moments later it was only Lupin and I. He seemed to sink into the ground rather than sit, as though his limbs couldn't hold him any longer. I watched one hand slowly reach out to touch her face, but it pulled back quickly.
"She'll be ok." I said stupidly.
He nodded and his stone face began to shed tears.
"I was supposed to take care of her. Sirius always said I was supposed to take care of her. 'Don't let her out of your sight' he said. She was his only family. She was special and I … I… I failed." The words didn't hurt me so much as that he stated them in such a manner that there was no other possibility. He had failed. There was nothing else.
"She'll be ok. They fixed her." I sounded so dumb, so little and naïve.
He only shook his head and continued to cry.
Days after that Hermione came to visit me in The Burrow. Her manner was friendly enough, but I could tell that she was straining to forget the horror of that night.
"Angelina. I have a favor to ask you." She said with a small smile.
"Sure." I replied returning the smile.
Silence followed and I wondered if she were going to continue.
"Things have changed." She paused again, "I can't continue to work for the Ministry. I have decided to quit. Instead I will be working with Neville in his shop. I think something simply is the right job for now."
Again she paused. Her eyes lowered and her hands rung together nervously.
"Not every day of course. Three days a week. I was hoping you would be willing to watch the children during those times. The lady who normally watches them was injured in the fires, I can't ask her to keep watching them. It may only be for a short while, I can't say now."
I thought for a long time and finally nodded.
"I can do that."
So I became a teacher. Not at first of course, but as the children grew I found a need to do something productive with them. Hide and seek, tag and peek a boo only went so far. Lupin provided me with grammar and spelling books, Dumbledore himself brought me parchment and quills and though Fred teased me and called me Professor Angelina, he too helped by clearing out a cupboard for the school supplies.
Before the fires I had wanted badly to know exactly what the Order was doing. I wanted in on the meetings, to listen to them talk about plans and strategies, it all seemed so much like quidditch. I thought if they let me in, perhaps I could be useful. I was good with tactics and maneuvers. Of course then I really saw what could happen. I saw the death and mayhem, I felt it down into my being. Sometimes at night I could still hear Tonks scream. Things like that stay with you, and I no longer wished to know things.
It was easier to do my part and watch the children. That was how I was useful.
"Angelina?" A small voice asked, pulling on my tunic.
"Yes" I said smiling and shuttling my daydreams to the side.
"I finished my work." Mia said pointing to a paper on the table.
The other children looked up momentarily and then went back to work on their own sentences.
"Very good. You just need to make the tail on your letter g a bit longer." I said and took her quill to show her.
She watched intently and grinned when I handed her the parchment back. Though she obviously had what Fred called the Weasley curse, freckles and red hair, she was very much her mother's daughter. You could count on her to catch onto a concept quickly and her desire to learn was overwhelming. Of course there was the incredible bushy head of hair if nothing else proved it.
Her brother Meshach was quite intelligent as well, though he tended to apply himself to learning things that were less academic. There didn't seem to be an ounce of Hermione in him anywhere. Instead Ron was stamped across his features.
Mab somehow was a mixture of her parents. A bit of her father's red hair and freckles, her mother's eyes, a knack of getting into trouble coupled with a need to know everything.
It wasn't long before Lily raised her hand to tell me she had finished. Somehow Lily always seemed to be done before the others. She worked no faster and was no smarter, she just got things done. I walked over and heard her humming a little to herself. Nothing phased her. A hippogriff could land on her head and she would hum and twiddle her thumbs until it went away.
"Very good Lily. I think that's the best work I've seen you do. If you'd like you can look onto the next chapter while the others finish up." She smiled at me and began going through the next few pages of her book.
An hour later everyone had completed their work. Ivy was eyeing the door as though she might jump up and run out of it if I didn't release them soon. She didn't need to worry.
"Go on and play outside while I get lunch ready." I said.
There was a yell from Mab and all five of them were out the door. Mia still hung onto the hem of my tunic waiting for her nap time. I picked her up into my arms and carried her to one of the spare bedrooms. She snuggled down into the blankets and sighed a little sigh before going to sleep. I tucked the blankets around her feeling strangely at home. A sound down in the kitchen disrupted my musings and I shut the door quietly behind me as I left. Lily stood at the bottom of the stairs rocking slowly on her heels.
"Could you put my hair up?" She asked holding a ribbon out to me.
"Sure." I said knowing that no matter how tightly I tied the ribbon her thick brown hair would be out of it in an hour.
Smiling she scampered back out the door when I finished.
I heard shouts and cries of joy as they made their way into the large group of trees. The children thought they were being secretive with their plans, but I had known for ages that they were building a tree house off in the woods. Though the location was a mystery it wouldn't take long to find it if I had to. The woods were little more than a grove of trees to the back of The Burrow, nothing I couldn't search in a matter of minutes. Besides, Mrs. Weasley had been kind enough to charm the edges of her property so as to keep her children from wandering to far.
I smiled to myself and began to dig out in the cupboards for lunch. As usual I found some fruit and cheese and a large pitcher of pumpkin juice. Another convenient little charm of the late Molly Weasley allowed me to find nearly everything I needed in whatever cupboard I opened. Humming absently I got out my wand and was getting ready to use a severing charm to slice the fruit into pieces when a loud pop from behind startled me. Whirling about, expecting to see Fred or George playing a joke on me I found instead Remus Lupin.
"Lupin!" I shouted and hugged him hard.
He smiled his shadowy smile and hugged me back. His robes were in need of patching again and his hair was more grey than brown, but nothing could change him really. Everything was still the same though I hadn't seen him in months.
"Harry asked me to stop by and see how his daughter was." He stated while taking a seat at the kitchen table.
"She's fine. Would you like some tea?" I asked reaching up to get the tea pot from the cupboard.
"No. No thank you. Can't stay very long."
"How is Tonks? I heard from Fred that she's seeing a new healer. Some kind of physical therapy. Were the potions and charms not working?" I asked even as he cringed.
He swallowed hard and pretended to be looking through one of the children's grammar books. "She'll be fine. Going through a bit of a rough patch. Curse Fire doesn't just burn flesh, it burns deeper, no potion or charm can touch that. That's also the reason she can't shift out of it. She is doing better though. Can walk with a little help from a balancing charm, though she prefers a muggle cane. Always was a bit quirky, that one."
I nodded and gazed out the window at the tree line. It was highly difficult for Lupin to discuss Tonks with anyone. Over the years we had grown close and his discomfort was lessened when we spoke though I could still hear the catch in his voice. From the way he was fidgeting I could tell it was time to change the subject.
"Lily is fine. You can tell Harry that nothing amiss has happened. She's doing wonderfully with her lessons, I think perhaps she has a better grasp of the English language than I do. I think she is missing him something awful though. You can never tell with Lily, she doesn't show much of anything, but I think she gets homesick."
It was his turn to nod.
"And the others? Is Meshach still getting into trouble? Mab still his shadow? And the twins?" A twinkle rose to his eyes as he spoke of children.
"Meshach couldn't stay out of trouble if he tried. I swear that boy lives and breathes mischief. His sister behaves well enough. She's developed a need to know and understand everything, and refuses to ask questions, just goes running about on her own. The twins are hard to read though. Ivy is pretty quiet, but I think she helps Meshach mastermind most of their plots, hard to tell what that one is thinking. Lotus, though, is her father all over again, except with a need to stay clean. Mia is upstairs sleeping." I replied laughing to myself.
"You've done a fine job here." He said quietly.
"Thank you."
"Sometimes I wish…" He stopped as though talking to himself.
"What?" I asked timidly.
"I wish we could go back to before. When you and I were to watch the children all day. I miss having an assignment so simple and yet so important."
I remembered those days well. The Death Eaters had still been a danger though Voldemort himself was thought to be dead. Members of the Order were a common occurrence to have in the house at all hours. I would wake to find Mad Eye Moody sitting in the chair by the fire, or Kingsley rummaging through our cupboards for something to eat. Lupin had been the most common though. He could be found sleeping on the couch or reading in the study, didn't matter what time of day, he always seemed to be there. Someone was supposed to stayed with me all day, and Lupin usually got saddled with the assignment. It was nice to have the company of another adult, comforting to talk to him and know that he understood most of what I said. The long days with the children were what sparked our friendship. I missed those days a bit myself sometimes.
"Yeah. But the war is over." I said and realized I was being stupid again.
"The war will never be over, at least not until Harry deems it so. I don't think Dumbledore himself could convince him to stop. The boy will not be happy until every bit of dark magic is gone from this world."
"Surely he wants to stop and be with his family. I mean…." I was cut off by a piercing scream from outside.
For a long moment I thought I was back in Hogsmead watching Tonks writhe on the ground.
"Was that one of the children?" Lupid asked sitting bolt upright.
I dashed for the door. Lupin followed me. We tore through the yard and into the trees. The screaming continued as well as another voice calling my name. I knew my way through the trees fairly well, but in seconds we were no longer on Weasley land. Lupin took the lead and I followed knowing his senses were keener. It was an effort to keep my feet under me as we zigzagged through the trees. The screaming was still echoing all around me. I was concentrating so hard on the sound I nearly tripped over Meshach's body.
Quickly I dropped to the ground beside him while Lupin went to the other children. The young boy's arm was caught beneath him at an odd angle and blood ran down his face from a wound on his forehead.
"Meshach!" I called wiping the blood from his eyes with my sleeve.
He did not respond.
I turned to find Lupin lifting Lily off a tree branch and momentarily wondered how she had gotten up there when she was terrified of heights. The others were watching me. Lotus was crying silently, her sister gripping her hand tightly.
"Keep them quiet and lead the way back to the house." I ordered lifting Meshach into my arms.
Lupin nodded and herded the children in front of him. Mab tugged on his robes and he allowed her to scramble onto his back. I noticed then that Lily was gripping her wand so tightly her knuckles were white, perhaps she has tried to save her cousin from falling. Or perhaps she was the reason he fell. There would be many questions when we reached the house.
"Hurry, we have to get him to a healer." I called up to Lupin.
He nodded and walked a little faster.
(Meshach)
The only sound in the room was the scratching of quills on parchment. I raised my eyes slowly trying to catch Mab's gaze. She was glaring into her lesson book as though taking personal offense to it's contents. Darting a glance at Angelina, who seemed to me daydreaming at the end of table, I aimed a kick at my sister's legs. It missed and I hit Ivy instead. She looked at me oddly and then grinned. The light of her face told me she understood perfectly, and nudged Mab for me.
Movement at the end of the table startled us into out work again. Mia was up and asking Angelina to go over her work. Patiently I waited until she sat back down then looked back at the girls sitting across from me. Ivy frowned for a moment and looked up the table at Lily. I followed her gaze. Very quietly I elbowed Lotus who jumped, but thankfully made no noise. She looked confused at me and then her twin. Ivy grinned a mischievous grin in her direction and then threw a look at Lily. For a second I didn't think Lotus understood, then she nodded and kicked at Lily under the table. My cousin smiled as she peeked up from her book. A grin spread over my face as well, we were all on board to work on the tree house today.
Angelina stood up a minute later as Lily raised her hand to say she was done. It never failed that Lily was done before the rest of us. She had tried to explain it to me once, that it wasn't that she was smarter or faster, she just focused better. All her attention went into her work and therefore she had no distractions. I found it was easier to be jealous of her that to understand her explanations.
The next hour passed by slowly. I found myself reading the same line three times and still not understanding it. Giving up I began to doodle at the side of my parchment. If class didn't end soon I might go insane. Ivy wasn't even making a pretense of working instead she had given up and was staring at the door hungrily.
"Go on and play outside while I get lunch ready." Those were the words we had been waiting for all day.
With a shout we were all out the door and making our way for the tree line.
"I thought we were never going to get out of there." Mab said catching up to me.
"Did seem long didn't it?"
"Yeah."
The grass was high at the tree line and difficult for us to push through, I stopped and held the worst of it aside as the others climbed over. Lily was no longer with us, looking back I saw her running to the house waving a red ribbon in the air like a banner.
"What's she doing?" I asked the others.
"She forgot to have Angelina tie her hair up." Lotus answered picking bits of grass from her shirt.
"It's just going to get tangled and fall out anyway." I muttered but led the way through the trees.
Our grove was beyond the boundary of the Burrow, and passing over the charm line felt a little funny. Long ago my grandmother had placed the charm on her land to keep her children from wandering to far, but time had weakened the spell. All we had to do was focus and step over it, though some took it better than others. Lotus had given a little shriek the first time, and Mab started shivering.
The tree was as we had left it. Little notches carved into the wood using Lily's wand, a pile of boards on the ground beside it. Everything had been done painstakingly slow, the gathering of the boards had taken an entire day of digging through the overgrown garden. Carving out the notches had been another two days of experimenting with various curses. In the end though we were proud of our work.
A loud rustling in the grass told me that Lily had finally arrived. She was panting and her hair was already coming loose from the ponytail. Pausing for only a moment I hefted myself up onto the notches and began to climb. The others seemed so small from the limb we had chosen to build on.
"Lily come on up." I shouted.
She paused at the base of the tree and seemed to be waiting for something.
"Are you coming?" I called.
"Yeah." Her voice was shaking.
Her progress was half mine and it seemed to take ages for her to reach me.
"Come on."
"I'm coming. Please, just give me a minute."
Those green eyes had a sheen over them as though she might cry, but instead she took my hand and straddled the branch. Her knuckles were white where they gripped the bark and a series of tiny scrapes marked her arm.
"Did you slip?" I asked.
"Yeah, for a moment. I'm fine."
I nodded and turned to look down at the others, "Start passing the boards up one at a time."
A flurry of movement was followed by Mab tossing a board to me from halfway up the tree. I caught it easily.
"Ok I'm going to hold the board down and you use that charm we looked up to stick it on."
Lily nodded and pulled out her wand. When the board was positioned I smiled at her and waited. Her hand was trembling as she lifted the wand, the words came easily but nothing happened.
"I can't do this." She whispered tears beginning to fall.
"Why? What's wrong?" I asked confused.
"I can't be up here. I have to get down. I need to go home. I need my mom. I have to get down." She was beginning to panic and started to back towards the trunk of the tree.
"Calm down. We'll be done in a minute and we can get down. Try one more time for me." I whispered reaching for her hand.
"I can't."
"Yes you can. Just raise your wand and try again." My coaxing seemed to work for she did as she was told.
A flash of light blinded me and I felt something sharp in my chest. Icy fingers gripped my heart and I was back in my dream. The green and silver flames leapt about my body and I was falling, falling forever. Someone was screaming. Someone was calling my name. The flames swallowed me and darkness came.
(Neville)
"Did you move the Bouncing Bulbs?" Hermione called from the back room.
"No." I called back.
My hands were elbow deep in dirt as I filled pots for replanting a rather large shipment of daisies. Never failed though, some plant would disappear or a customer would come in just as I was getting started on a project.
"Well they aren't where they should be. Perhaps we should build a lid for their container." I sighed and wiped as much dirt as I could off with a towel and made my way back to help her.
The store carried almost any kind of magical plant a customer could want, and what we didn't carry I could almost always order in. It was this fact that made things so hard to manage. Magical plants tended to be blessed with a kind of half sentience, thus they escaped at the worst possible moments. My skin would still crawl at the thought of the lost leaping toadstools. We finally found them hiding behind a bobotuber in a back corner, of course by that time they had grown wild and were very hard to deal with.
"Did you check under the work bench, last time that's where they hid." I asked weaving my way through boxes and into the work room.
"Yeah. Could you check back behind the Tentacula, it likes you better than me."
I laughed and nodded.
"I think they sent us to much sage as well. I only remember ordering two crates." She muttered absently while I made friendly with the Tentacula.
"Well send one back then."
"I'll have to check the records first just to be sure."
"Whatever you need to do."
As Hermione had suspected the Bouncing Bulbs had hidden behind the much largeer intimidating plant. I gathered them into a corner of my robe and hauled the squirming bundle back to their box, only this time I placed a bigger box over them.
"I'm going back to replanting daisies." I announced.
She followed me into the main gallery to look at the record book kept at the desk.
"When is Harry due home?" I asked conversationally.
"Soon I hope. Ginny usually owls to say they're on their way. No, looks like I ordered three. How odd." Her attention was split between me and the record book.
"Do you think he'll leave again?"
"Probably. He always does. No rest for the determined."
"Will Ginny go?"
Hermione looked up at me with her brow furrowed and I gulped audibly.
"I don't know. Maybe not, they've been gone so long I don't think Lily even remembers what they look like."
I was silent a moment and began packing the dirt down around the roots of the daisy. For a long time I had thought it unfair that Harry leave his wife and child home alone for so long. My children did with only one parent because they had to, to do it voluntarily seemed wrong. My thoughts were interrupted however by the sound of the door opening.
"Hello, how can we help you today?" I heard Hermione say politely.
"Hermione." Another familiar voice answered in equally civil tones.
"Oh , Draco. How pleasant to see you." There was no mistaking her tone however, she was less than pleased.
I looked up and smiled at both of them, though inside I was squirming under the gaze of the man who had tormented my most of my young life. He hadn't changed much. His silver blonde hair was shorter and less stiff, the piercing blue eyes were hard, but no longer seemed to mock me, and at his side was a small child.
"Who is this you have with you?" Hermione asked grinning down at the child despite herself.
"Bane, this is Mrs. Weasley, Hermione this is Bane."
The child smirked and opened his mouth to say something I was sure would be scathing in response, but Draco cut him off with a glare.
"Did you need something particular?" I asked once again wiping my hands off.
"Yes," Draco said nodding his acknowledgement of me, "Scurvy Grass, Sneezewart, and Lovage."
Quickly I concluded he was making a confusion draught.
"I think we have all of those in at the moment. Did you need a clipping or each or the entire plant?"
"The entire plant if possible. I'm trying to teach Bane a little before he goes to school, it's easier if we have all the ingredients handy."
Something was wrong and I couldn't put my finger on it. He was being too nice, too civil, he'd been here five minutes and had yet to say something horrible. I looked at Hermione and saw her smile had disappeared. She did seem very intent upon the child however.
"Could you check in the back and see if we still have any Lovage?" I asked her.
Seemed an eternity to drag her eyes from Bane, but she nodded and bustled off. I nodded to Draco and made my way through various plants to where the Scurvy Grass was kept. I could still hear my customers though they were blocked from sight by the large flowers hanging from the ceiling.
"I told you to hold your tongue when we came in here." My ears heard Draco whisper angrily at his child.
"But Father…" The boy started.
"No. You will not say a word from now on. Not a single word." His father replied sternly.
I lifted a pot of Scurvy Grass and another of Sneezewart and brought them to the counter. The boy was looking sullen and eyed me with what could only be hatred. At that time Hermione came in carrying a bundle of Lovage.
"That'll be…4 sickles even." I said.
Draco handed me the coins and told his son to carry one of the plants.
"Goodbye. Have a nice day." Hermione said though her posture told me she was highly uncomfortable.
When they were gone I turned to look at her speculatively
"Did that seem odd to you?" I asked.
"Why?"
"He wasn't mean or cruel at all. Just took his things and left."
She turned to me with her lips pressed together tightly.
"He wouldn't dare." Her voice was so low I almost missed it.
We stood for a moment in thought until she sighed and I turned to go back to the daisies. Just as I touched the dirt to fill another pot something bumped the window. Hermione opened the front door and a large brown barn owl landed on the desk. Carefully she untied the note it carried and unfolded it.
"I have to go." She said suddenly dropping the note on the floor.
"What? Why?" I asked
"Meshach is in the hospital, I have to go." She frantically trying to untie the apron from around her waist.
"Hold on, just a moment. I'll close the shop and we'll go together." I soothed helping her with the knot in the apron.
Within minutes we had both disapparated and were standing in front of St. Mungo's."