Chapter 7: The Order of the Phoenix
"I'm worried. They were supposed to keep in touch with us! I knew that Fred and I should have gone with them!" George stated.
Just as he said that, as if it triggered the arrival, the patronuses flashed in through the door. The silver otter and the lion pranced about, delivered their message and vanished.
A great silence filled the room. Nobody spoke, for they were all thinking of what they had just seen. They were having a hard time deciphering it. Was the patronuses to tell them that they were all right? Or were they to tell them that they were in trouble? Or something else?
"Oh my gosh… I can't believe it…" Lupin said, he sounded close to breakdown.
"What? Don't believe what? Did you understand it?" Fred asked, half eagerly, half apprehensive.
"Oh, yes. Don't you see? There's an otter for Hermione, and a lion for Ron…. But-"
"Where are the stag and the fox? What happened to Harry and Ginny?" Bill finished.
Everybody was quiet for a while more. They were all thinking of horrible ways that Harry and Ginny had been killed by the Death Eaters.
All except for George, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go find them."
Tonks replied sadly, "George… they're gone, they're dead. It's not worth risking our lives to recover the bodies…"
"Well, the way I see it is that Harry and Ginny aren't with Ron and Hermione. They're in trouble. They could be kidnapped, or hurt, or lost, or anything. We need to go find them. Even if they are dead, we can't take the risk. Obviously Ron and Hermione need help. They could have waited to apparate here to tell us, but if they needed help or were in trouble they would warn us."
Everybody thought about this for a moment. Then, all in unison, Lupin, Tonks, Neville, Fred, George, Bill, and Charlie all went off to prepare for the journey.