Chapter 15

Sunday 11 August started as a perfect day for Ginny's sixteenth birthday. Molly and Arthur had arranged for a day at one of the ocean beaches in Brighton. The day was perfect - Hot with a light breeze. They all apparated or were given portkeys to get there. Tonks, Remus, and Kingsley had come along, and took turns being on watch. It was fun to see their friends from school. Neville, Lavender, Collin, Dennis, Seamus, and most of the Gryffindors from Ginny's year had come. Ron and Luna spent time with Harry and Ginny in the surf, just being sixteen. It was fun to spend the day with them. Harry realized how much he missed spending time with his buddy. They split into teams of witches and wizards for a game of volleyball. Whether distracted by some of the witches in their very small bikinis, or bad luck, the witches easily won two out of three games.

Bill and Fleur came along with Charlie, and the twins. They had fun catching up on their news. At one point Bill came over to Harry and politely requested that Harry continue to take excellent care of Ginny. Ron seemed to have gotten over with his obsession of being overprotective of his baby sister, either because he'd heard that she could definitely take care of herself, or that she was in Harry's care. Regardless of the reason, Harry was relieved not to have been harassed constantly.

Neville seemed to have gone through a complete change. Where there used to be a round face, round everywhere boy completely lacking in confidence, stood a well-built 5' 11 young man with a wicked smile. He'd been studying and working out all summer. Each passing day was suiting him better and better. As a result, he had nothing to be ashamed of while wearing his swimsuit. Lavender seemed to be a lot more interested in him now than last year.

Ron and Luna seemed to really be enjoying each other's company. Luna had blossomed into a very pretty young woman with obvious intelligence and confidence. Certainly she still possessed her unique view of the world, but most of the others were beginning to see it as charming rather than weird. Ron was about 6'1 and had acquired a confidence of his own. Whether as a result of maturity, or the prospect of never having another hand-me-down in his life, it didn't matter. He too had blossomed.

The afternoon wore into the early evening and a chill entered the air. Shortly after dinner, most of the guests left. Harry invited the Weasleys and Susan's Aunt back to Grimmauld place for a bit more cake. They arrived at eight. Harry opened one of the bottles of Napoleon Brandy that he had and gave the Grangers, Amelia, Molly, Arthur, Fleur, Charlie, and Bill some. They spent a fun hour looking at his home, each marveling at how much better it looked. True to form, Arthur was delighted with the entertainment room. He had fun with the different remotes while Dan, Emma, and Molly looked on in quiet amusement.

Hermione, Ginny and Susan showed Fleur the library. Amelia inspected the gun range that they had built, marveling at what a wonderful training facility the young man had made. She was pleased to note that the weapons were held in a locked container, separate from the locked container marked ammunition.

Charlie, and Bill had taken notice of the third floor practice room. Bill commented that he could tell that there had been quite a bit of spell work done in the room. Harry told him that they'd been having the lessons and defensive practice up here.

Fortunately they never got down to the cellar, so Harry didn't have to explain the gun range. By 9:30 Charlie, Bill, Fleur, and Amelia had left, each wishing Ginny a happy birthday.

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At ten PM two terrible things happened. The floo network connection at the burrow was disconnected. Since no one at the time was attempting to use the floo either to or from the burrow, no one noticed. A moment later, nearly twenty Death Eaters apparated into the Weasley compound.

Molly and Arthur were over at Grimmauld place enjoying a beverage and a second slice of Ginny's birthday cake. Ron had left twenty minutes before saying that Luna had to be home by ten.

They were in the entertainment room watching a DVD when Harry had a blinding headache. Fighting it he shouted, "Mr. And Mrs. Weasley, we need to leave now. The burrow is under attack!"

Harry gave Dan his cell phone and asked that he call Director Bones. He gave him the number and left.

Pop, pop, pop, pop. The teens arrived in the back garden. "Reducto, Reducto, Reducto, Reducto." Outnumbered at least four to one, Harry was not going to take chances stunning the Death Eaters. Each of the Death Eaters that the teens had hit had massive tissue damage from the spells that were normally used to blast objects.

Inside Ron and Luna were in Ron's room snogging. Luna smelled smoke. Pushing Ron off her, she got up, pulled on her shirt, and shouted, "Ron, the house is on fire!"

Being that his room was on the top floor, the thick smoke had quickly reached his door.

"Reducto, Reducto, Reducto, Reducto." Another four Death Eaters went down. Some hadn't even realized that anyone else had arrived. Pop, Pop. Molly and Arthur arrived, and desperately tried to get into the house that had been magically sealed shut ignoring the jets of light flying in their direction.

Ron and Luna dashed down the top flight of stairs, only to reach the flames in the stairway. Luna cast a flame freezing charm, and they made it down the middle flight of stairs.

"Avada Kedavra." A witch with a short wand, cast a spell at Ginny who nimbly dodged the killing curse.

"Reducto, Reducto." Harry and Susan brought down two more of the attackers.

"Avada Kedavra." Death Eater Travers fired a killing curse directly at Hermione, who'd conjured a marble slab that cracked as the green jet hit it, stopping the blast. It was the last thing that he ever did.

"Whoosh Harry had cast the flame cutter curse on Travers, slicing him in two.

BOOM. The sky light up bright as mid-day. The burrow was gone, exploding into a million pieces. It would be a half hour before the investigators would find the remains of Ron and Luna who had both been thrown across the hedge by the blast.

Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. A dozen Aurors appeared on the scene. Hearing them arrive, the remaining Death Eaters immediately vanished.

Each badly burned by the fire, Molly and Arthur desperately searched for Ron and Luna. Hoping that they were at the Lovegoods, they apparated into Ottery St. Catchpole.

Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop. Four Mediwitches had arrived and began a fruitless effort to find someone in need of first aid.

Pop, pop, pop, pop. Dumbledore, Poppy, Minerva and Flitwick arrived looking for Order members who needed aid, and for the teens.

Pop, Pop, Pop. Molly, Arthur, and Mr. Lovegood had returned. "Ron, Luna," came her increasingly desperate calls for her children.

The fire was burning itself out, and the area was getting darker. Dumbledore, cast "Lumos Magnimus," and the yard was light up as if by a series of floodlights.

Harry, Ginny, Susan, and Hermione were all holding each other crying. Dumbledore found them and immediately created a portkey to get them back to Grimmauld place. They ended up on the third floor training area.

A few minutes later, Kingsley found Ron and Luna's bodies. Calling Amelia over, she looked at the two, and went to find Molly and Arthur who were being treated by the Mediwitches. Taking a steadying breath, she said, "Arthur, Molly, I'm sorry to have to tell you, we found Ron and Luna's bodies on the other side of the hedge."

Arthur held his best friend as she became violently ill.

Minerva left to go to Grimmauld place and tell the teens. Hestia left to find the twins.

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Back at Grimmauld place, Dan and Emma were trying to get the story out of the frantic and exhausted teens. Five minutes later Dobby showed Minerva in. Finding the six, she could think of little to say. "I'm sorry to tell you that Ron and Luna had apparently been in the house, and were both killed by the blast."

"Nooooooo," howled Ginny. "Oh nooooooo." The four teens held each other sobbing at the loss of their friends.

Poppy was shown into the house. She had brought several calming droughts and gave them to Hermione and Ginny. Acting the same as a dreamless sleeping potion, the two young women curled up on two of the sofas. Poppy conjured blankets for each of them.

Amelia came in. "Harry, Susan, thank Merlin you're both OK. What happened?"

Harry related the events from the time that she'd left. Harry told her about the vision that he'd had, and how they saw so many Death Eaters in the firelight when they arrived.

Bones replied, "Ten Death Eaters were killed, and another is mortally wounded. Most of them were older. We had known that Travers, and both of the Borgins, were active and had suspected that Mrs. Crabbe, Mrs. Goyle, and Mrs. Flint were active Death Eaters. There were several Death Eaters that we haven't identified yet."

Harry nodded, and said, "They didn't hear us arrive, there was so much noise and confusion, it was a few seconds before any of them saw us and started cursing us."

"Harry, we're doing forced memory extractions on the dying Death Eater, but we will need to talk again tomorrow. I'll be back at nine. All of you, please get some rest." She gave Harry and Susan each a hug and turned to leave.

Harry thought for a second and asked, "Wait. Where are the Weasleys going to stay? Please let them know that we have plenty of room here."

"I will. Both of them were badly burned, and will be spending the evening in St. Mungo's."

Dan and Emma came back from talking with Minerva. She told them that Ron and Luna had been killed when their home had been attacked, and that Arthur and Molly had been badly injured.

Harry could see that his professor had still not fully recovered from her own injuries from last spring and was also exhausted. He sent her up to Ginny's room for the evening. Winky helped find her some things for the evening. Harry levitated Hermione and Ginny up to Hermione's room.

Harry sat on the sofa in front of his bedroom fireplace, with tears rolling down his face for his friend. Images of an eleven year old Ron taking the Hogwarts express filled Harry's memory. As Harry has thinking about Ron being carried on the shoulders of the Quidditch team last year having won the cup with the refrain of Weasley is our king, the door creaked open. Ginny walked in unnoticed by Harry. Wearing only the thinnest nightgown, she slipped on the sofa in front of Harry and wrapped his arms around her.

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Harry woke up at 4:30. Realizing that he'd repeated the same mistake with his hands, he gently moved them to a safer location. He was surprised when a moment later, Ginny moved them back, and purred in her sleep.

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At 6:00 Harry got up and showered. He went up to the third floor to work out. This time, he was the only one up there. He put on a U2 CD and lifted weights in anger for an hour. After taking a second shower, he went down to the library. Dobby had brought several copies of the Prophet.

Death Eaters Foiled in Deadly Raid

(London – Lacy Pureheart)

Eleven Death Eaters were killed last night in a deadly raid that also left two victims dead.

Ronald Weasley and Luna Lovegood were killed in an attack on the Weasley residence. Ministry official Arthur Weasley and his wife Molly were seriously injured attempting to rescue the pair in the blaze that destroyed their home. Hogwarts Professor Dumbledore was quoted as saying, "The wizarding world will certainly miss Luna and Ron. They added so much to the lives of those who knew them."

Witnesses said that approximately twenty Death Eaters began the attack on the home at about ten PM. Ministry officials had not commented on who the unnamed heros were who helped to stop the attack. Ministry officials have not yet released the names of the Death Eaters.

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Hestia had spent most of the night looking through the force extracted memories of Thomas Borgin the shopkeeper turned Death Eater. Since there was a wider range of memories to search through, it took much longer than viewing a specific pensive memory. Rather it was like watching a VCR tape played in fast forward mode. After nine hours she found what she was looking for. Immediately prior to the attack, she saw what she was looking for – the Death Eaters staging for the attack. As they were putting on their masks, Delores Umbridge unmistakably came to light. She stopped the memory at that spot, and called Director Bones.

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Ginny woke up alone. Memories of last night flooded her mind – The screaming, the moaning of the wounded, the blood, the terror of seeing her parent's home destroyed, the deafening news that Ron and Luna had been murdered.

She wandered down to the entertainment room. Hermione was sitting in one of the sofas between her parents in a fetal position. Amelia was sitting on another holding her Grandniece. Harry was sitting on the third sofa by himself. Still wearing her night gown, and covered in a blanket, she sat down beside him.

Harry came out of his introspective thoughts and put his arms around Ginny, rocking her gently.

A few minutes later, Remus came in. He looked at each of them for a moment, not saying anything. After a moment, Harry noticed him, and Remus walked over and stood behind the pair.

Noticing the movement, Hermione and Susan looked over and walked over to Harry's sofa, and sat on either side of Harry and Ginny.

Poppy came over at eight long with Minerva. A few minutes later, Dumbledore came.

Amelia got call from Hestia. She and Dumbledore had the four teens go to her office for a few minutes to look at the pensive. They met Tonks and Shacklebolt there.

Bones called Tonks, Dumbledore, Shacklebolt, and the four teens to her office. Fifteen minutes later they all had arrived. Explaining that the memory that they would be seeing was graphic, and disturbing, Hestia got ready to start it. Bones asked that they watch to see if they recognized any of the Death Eaters.

Several of the people recognized Marcus Flint, and Delores Umbridge. Harry thought that he recognized Montague and possibly Theodore Nott.

She played the rest of the memory. As before it was brutally swift, beginning with the magical sealing of the house being magically sealed to twenty calls of "Inflambre", effectively starting the entire home on fire immediately. Once the house was set ablaze, it was less than two minutes before Dumbledore had sent the teens back to Grimmauld Place. A few seconds later, the burrow exploded, and Hestia stopped the memory.

Dumbledore made a note to himself to have Poppy spend time with the teens both individually and together. Each of them had been forced to take one or more lives, and each had been subjected to incredible stress.

Amelia felt the same way, and asked that Tonks escort the teens back to Harry's home using a portkey.

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