Author's notes:

I hope you all enjoyed Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince as much as I did. It was nice taking a break from writing to relax, read, and take everything in. Of course now that we have a new book by the talented J.K. Rowling, this story, (as a sixth year fic), has been delegated to the Alternate Universe realm. So while some things that are now cannon, such as the whole Horcrux issue, work well with this story, other's things might not. I have no intentions of going back and re-writing any portion of the story that has already been posted to make it flow better with cannon. I will however add a few minor details that correspond with HBP here and there in future chapters (if I can) to help the two story-lines stay as closely related as possible. I will not however, be changing any major plot points or the ending of the story in any significant ways. So if you see something major that corresponds with HBP, it is either because I was planning on doing it anyway, or because it's not something I consider to be major at all, which made it easy for me to alter.

Chapter 70

For a moment, neither Bill, nor Charlie knew what to say in response to Ron's comment. Not only had he used a dodgy artifact like a Lànain talisman to tie himself to one of his best friends, he'd confounded the problem by linking himself to her with a Coupling Potion as well. They hadn't just invested a small bit of their magic in one another as the two brothers originally thought; they'd linked themselves, bodies and soul.

A Coupling Potion? Bill repeated the words in his head in disbelief. "That's not something I remember being covered in my N.E.W.T classes," he finally said, more to himself than to anyone else in particular. "How did you even know how to brew something like that?"

"Yeah, what the hell is Snape playing at teaching you..."

"Please," Ron replied, rolling his eyes. "As if we need him when we have Hermione. Oh come on," he stated, when Charlie glanced at Bill and looked even more disturbed than he had the night before when Ron used the Lànain against him. "They don't call her the brightest witch of our age for nothing. You know it's true," he said, when Hermione blushed and he felt her self-consciousness pour into himself.

"RONALD WEASLEY!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked as his bedroom door unceremoniously flew open, taking everyone in the room by surprise. "It better not have been you that imperturbed this door. What is the meaning of..." she started to say and then stopped short when she realized Ron and Hermione were far from being alone in his bedroom. "Bill?" she said, clearly not expecting to find her eldest son standing in the center of the room, let alone, Ginny, Harry and...Charlie? "Oh, Charlie," she cried happily, all thoughts of imperturbed bedrooms and snogging teenagers having vanished from her mind.

"Way to ruin your surprise, Mum," Charlie said, intentionally shifting the blame for the shielded door onto himself, as he rose up off Ron's bed and crossed the room to give his mother a quick kiss on the cheek.

"When did you get here?" George asked from the hallway, where he and Fred had obviously been lurking in hopes of eavesdropping as Ron and Hermione were told off.

"Last night," Charlie answered over their mother's head as she continued to hug him. "Late last night," he amended, going out of his way to explain why the twins hadn't known he was home. He knew it wouldn't put them off indefinitely, but he was hoping that at the very least he'd prevent them from asking too many questions until their mother was out of earshot. "Most of you were already asleep," he continued. "I was planning on surprising the rest of you at breakfast, but the trip must have taken more out of me than I thought. Did I miss it?" he asked his mother, sounding truly disappointed. "Breakfast I mean, because I've been dreaming about a hot, home cooked meal for days."

"Of course not," Mrs. Weasley answered, beaming at her second son. "I was just coming up to wake your brother and Harry. Oh Charlie, it's so good to see you, but you really should have let us know you were coming," she scolded, as he ushered her out of Ron's bedroom. "Arthur has already left for work. He'll be so disappointed that he missed you. We'll send him an owl of course, but he has some..."

"Some what?" Ginny asked when her mother turned around, glanced back into Ron's room, and abruptly stopped speaking.

"Never you mind, young lady."

"So it's something to do with the Order then," Ginny said knowingly, her eyes jumping from her mother to Bill, who was just as likely to know what it was about.

"Enough," Mrs. Weasley snapped. "Downstairs. Now. The lot of you. Or your breakfast will get cold."

¤

Remarkably enough after breakfast was over, Ron managed to avoid his brothers without much trouble. Bill, though obviously reluctant to do so, flooed to work when he was finished eating, although not without fixing his baby brother with a look that let him know the conversation they'd been having before their mother interrupted was far from over.

The twins, who were their own bosses and set their own hours, opted to stay at the Burrow however, much to Ron's chagrin. Hermione's abrupt departure from the kitchen that morning had obviously alerted Fred and George to the fact that something unusual was afoot, and apparently they weren't completely convinced that Charlie's visit was all there was too it. And it certainly didn't help matters any that Hermione, who had spent most of the morning hidden away in Ginny's bedroom 'studying' for her upcoming Apparition test, blushed as soon as Ginny managed to dragged her downstairs again and she spotted Charlie in the kitchen with his mother.

"Ginny, dear," Mrs. Weasley said, popping her head into the sitting room before either of the twins had an opportunity to start questioning Hermione. "Go upstairs and tell your brother and Harry to come down. I need to speak to them for a moment. And come back down with them," she added, almost as an afterthought, before disappearing back into the kitchen, "because I need to speak to you as well."

"All right, what gives?" Fred asked Charlie, when he entered the room and Hermione immediately ducked around him and followed Mrs. Weasley out of sight.

"What are you talking about?" Charlie asked nonchalantly, picking up the morning copy of the Daily Prophet and flipping to the sports section as he fell down in the nearest chair.

"Why is it that Hermione keeps blushing..."

"...and leaves the room, every time you get within five feet of her?" George finished.

"No idea," Charlie answered, his face now hidden from view behind the paper.

"Yeah, right," George shot back. "Did you apparate into the loo this morning and find it already occupied or something?" he sniggered, his eyes jumping from Charlie to his twin brother, who was holding his wand over a box of what appeared to be a stationary chocolate frog.

"Kneazle got your tongue, eh?" Fred chimed in when Charlie didn't respond. "Looks like we'll just have to coax it out of Ronnikins then," he said, squirreling his wand away as they listened to the sound of three separate pairs of feet clomping down the stairs.

"Oy, Ron!" George said, as soon as his brother came into view. "What's with your girlfriend and the turnip impersonation? She wouldn't by chance have a sudden interest in dragons, would she? Because they are truly fascinating creatures, don't you know?"

"Huh?" Ron said, more than a little caught off guard by the odd questions.

"Or maybe it's dragon-keepers she interested in," Fred sniggered.

"Hardly," Charlie chortled, closing the Prophet and tossing it on the closest table as Ron cottoned on to what the twins were insinuating and his eyes quickly narrowed. "It's no big deal," Charlie stated, before Ron had a chance to tell the twins to go to hell. "But since you refuse to drop it," he said, lowering his voice and glancing at the kitchen to make sure their mother wasn't going to overhear him. "Ron was in the kitchen last night when I flooed in, and he wasn't alone if you catch my meaning. A little embarrassing for all concerned," Charlie added, as Ron's face instantly took on a lovely red tinge, " but we'll all live."

"HO!" George shouted.

"Nothing like a little midnight snack, eh Ronnikins?" Fred chuckled.

"You'll shut up if you know what's good for you," Ron growled back.

"I'm really scared now, Fred," George scoffed. "What about you?"

"Terrified."

"You'll be singing a different tune when he tells Hermione what you just called her and she hexes the pair of you," Ginny said, clearly insulted by the 'midnight snack' reference on Hermione's behalf. "Thought so," she said with some satisfaction, as the twins fell silent for a moment while they each contemplated whether or not they wanted to tempt that fate.

"Well, that makes it official anyway," George finally chuckled, ignoring the fact that Ron was still scowling at him. "Every member of the family scared for life."

"Except Percy," Harry said without really meaning to say it out loud.

"Git." Fred and Ron said at the same time.

Percy, had sent a rather impersonal Christmas card to their mother, but it had contained no well wishes or personal comments whatsoever, just a hurried signature. Mrs. Weasley chose to view it as a sign that Percy might be ready to reach out and make amends with his family, but most of her children suspected that it was little more than a form letter of sorts he signed without thinking and sent out to a number of people. If he'd wanted to reach out, he would have delivered it to his father personally at work, but he chose to have a Ministry owl deliver it instead.

"He doesn't count," George added.

"Like it or not, he's still family," Charlie stated.

"Not," Fred exclaimed rather loudly so no one would doubt what his preference was.

"All right, you lot," Mrs. Weasley said, choosing that particular moment to step into the room again. "I have to go to headquarters for a little while and take care of some things so your father can come home straight from work. Charlie is in charge," she said, looking directly at Fred and George. "I'll be back well before dinner," she added, glancing around at the rest of them. "You three are not to set one foot outside this house," she said to Ron, Harry and Ginny. "Is that clear? Not for any reason, and that included Quidditch. I've cast a locking charm on the broom shed anyway," she informed them. "And don't think I won't know if you try and convince one of your brothers or Hermione to break though it. Your lunch is in the kitchen," she said, glancing around at all of her children one last time and then vanishing from the room with a loud pop.

"Where are you going?" Charlie asked Ron, who waited until everyone else was moving towards the kitchen and tried to slink off towards the staircase instead of following. "Not hungry, eh? Or perhaps it's conversation you want to avoid," he whispered, throwing his arm over his brother's shoulder and steering him back towards the kitchen. "Because we're definitely not finished talking about what you've done. But that won't be happening as long as Fred and George are around, so there is no need to starve yourself."

"Rotten luck," Fred sniggered, as Ron took a seat directly opposite from Harry, who had already grabbed a sandwich off the platter in the center of the table and tucked in.

"Corned beef," Ron groaned, wrinkling his nose up in revulsion and dropping the sandwich he'd grabbed down on his plate uneaten when he realized what it was.

"Here," Hermione said, snatching her own plate of the kitchen counter and leaning over the table to swap it with Ron's, before taking the seat beside Harry.

"Hey," George whined, as he stared down at the pair of sandwiches sitting in the middle of his brother's plate and realized Hermione had made them out of the previous nights left over chicken. "What about the rest of us. Maybe we'd rather have chicken too."

"You have two hands don't you?" Hermione replied, before picking Ron's discarded corned beef up off her plate and biting into it.

"Yeah," Ginny agreed. "If you want something else, go make it yourself."

"You've got two," George said to Ron, who was looking rather smug and thoroughly pleased with his lunch now. "Give me one of those."

"No way," he replied, throwing his arm out to block his brother's view and guard his plate at the same time. "Hermione made these for me, not you. What?" he asked, when he noticed Charlie scowling at him. "It's not like I asked her to wait on me or anything," he said, his ears taking on the same tint as Hermione's cheeks because they both knew what Charlie was thinking.

"What was that?" Fred asked, when Charlie mumbled something unintelligible under his breath and reached for the platter of sandwiches in the center of the table.

"Nothing," Charlie insisted, although he continued to watch Ron out of the corner of his eye the entire time they were in the kitchen, waiting to see if he'd order Hermione to do something else for him.

Charlie wasn't quite sure what to make of the situation just yet. He hadn't been around Hermione enough to know what to expect from her. If she'd gone out of her way to make something special for Ron to eat as a sign of affection, that was one thing, but if she'd done it because she had a Lànain charm around her neck and Ron expected her to, that was quite another. Fortunately, Charlie saw no signs of Ron treating his 'wife' as his personal servant at any time during the course of their meal. Of course that didn't mean Charlie was completely convinced yet. He was definitely going to keep a close eye on them until he got a better handle on what exactly was going on.

¤

"FRED!" Ron bellowed at the top of his lungs several hours later, his angry voice reverberated through the house as he chased his brother down the staircase. "GET YOUR ARSE BACK UP HERE AND FIX HIM RIGHT NOW!"

"Him?" Ginny asked in surprise, dragging her eyes off the groaning staircase and locking them on George, who'd been standing beside Hermione in the sitting room for the past forty minutes, talking her through the proper way to apparate while helping her vanish from one side of the room and appear on the other via Slide-Along- Apparition. "You only offered to help Hermione because you wanted to distracted her," she said accusingly. "What have you two done to Harry?" she shouted, jumping out of her chair and glowering at one brother as his identical twin streaked though the room.

"You're going to fix it," Ron said, doing an abrupt about face and focusing his attention on George when the kitchen door banged shut, announcing that Fred had made it into the safety of the yard Ron had been forbidden to enter.

"Now hold on," George protested, vanishing from the spot his brother was bearing down on and materializing on the other side of the room, making sure the sofa was between them for good measure. "I didn't do it. It wasn't my idea. It wasn't even meant for Harry."

"No," Ron shouted, his anger kicking up another notching when what he suspected was confirmed. It had been his chocolate frogs the two of them had been eating when Harry abruptly stopped speaking, started croaking, and then vanishing right before Ron's eyes with a puff and green smoke. "It was supposed to be me," he cried resentfully.

"Well, yeah," George admitted without shame, trying hard not to snigger as Charlie entered the room carrying a frog twice the size of Trevor in his hands, "but there is a reason for that. You're the only one who has a girlfriend handy to counteract the spell."

"Harry, I presume?" Charlie asked, holding the frog up in the air.

"What?" Hermione yelped, the shock and horror that had been leaching out of Ron now combining with her own.

"You turned him into a frog?" Ginny shrieked.

"And now you're telling us that you can't fix him?" Ron shouted.

"Me personally?" George asked. "Nope. Sorry. Not going to happen."

"Hermione can still do it," Fred shouted through the window with a wicked grin, as he was still standing outside and had a wall between himself and his brother.

"Do what?" Ginny demanded.

"Why kiss him of course," George replied, as if the answer ought to be blatantly obvious. But if the stunned expressions plastered on everyone's face was any indication, they'd hadn't seen it coming. "We got the idea from one of those Muggle fairy stories. You have to kiss the frog if you want him to turn back into Prince Charming. Not that you've ever been charming," he said to Ron. "So there is every chance that even if Hermione did kiss you, you'd remain a frog."

NO! No. No. No. No, was all Hermione could think.

"KISS HIM!" Ron shouted indignantly.

"I am NOT kissing a frog," Hermione finally stated.

"It's not a frog," Fred said loudly from behind the closed window, "It's Harry."

"He's still all slimy and I am NOT doing that."

"Oh, but you'll kiss Ron?" George scoffed. "That's even more disturbing, if you ask me but..."

"You two did this," Charlie stated, "so you can fix it."

"I'm not kissing a bloke," George protested loudly.

"So you prefer we chuck Harry in that old tank up in Ron's room for safekeeping and leave him there until Mum gets home, do you?"

"Oh for Merlin sakes, I'll do it," Ginny said, her cheeks blooming with color as nearly everyone in the room goggled at her. "Hand him over," she said to Charlie, who for a moment appeared to actually prefer his idea of shoving Harry in Ron's old terrarium, but then he seemed to think better of it and reluctantly handed him to his sister.

"Does it matter where I kiss him?" she asked George, who seemed to be stuck somewhere between amused observer and wary big brother for a moment. But he must have decided that watching his sister peck a bloke in frog form was too good of an opportunity to pass up, because he answered her question.

"On the mouth of course."

"It's not funny," Ron insisted, as he moved forward to stand beside Hermione, who was biting her lip and trying very hard not to crack a smile now. Unfortunately when the Harry-frog started croaking in protest she couldn't hold it in anymore and hid her face against Ron in hoped of muffling her chuckles.

"First person that cracks a Ginny snogged a frog joke dies," the young redhead hissed, clearly uncomfortable now that there was no turning back and everyone was watching her expectantly.

"If that were really me, you wouldn't seriously leave me like that, would you?" Ron asked Hermione, causing her to snigger even harder as Ginny spun around so her back was facing the group and marched into the kitchen with Harry still struggling to leap out of her hands.

Ginny barely stepped out of the room when there was a loud crack, proceeded by a brief interval of music that sounded very much like miniature trumpets announcing the return of 'Prince' Harry. This was the final straw for Hermione, who gave up all pretenses and burst into full-blown laughter, made worse when Charlie snapped, "What's taking them so damn long?" when neither Ginny or Harry returned from the kitchen straight away.

"No, don't," Hermione said, latching on to Ron's arm when he looked like he was about to move towards the kitchen door and investigate. "They're embarrassed. We would be too if it had been us. Just leave them alone for a minute. They'll come back out once we stop laughing."

"You're the only one laughing," Ron snapped, which was completely true, although George had a rather large grin on his face. And Fred, well Fred had disappeared from the window, but he walked out of the kitchen door moments later with a completely human Harry, who's face was so red it rivaled the most vivid Weasley blush.

"Sorry about that, mate," Fred said, sounding remarkably sincere. "You're not exactly the test subject I was aiming for," he confessed, "but no harm done, right? You appear to be wart free anyway."

"Might want to hop upstairs and check yourself out though," George advised. "You shouldn't have any problems, but if you find anything, let us know. Fred had a wicked case the first time he sampled one of our patented snog frogs, but..."

"We've worked that kink out."

"And Fred still has the ointment if you need any."

"So," Fred said loudly, clearly trying to steer the topic away from his case of warts and back to what Harry was experiencing. "Any other side effects? Got your voice back? Not feeling any sudden cravings for bugs are you? Those'll pass, if you are. Let's see your tongue, not sticky is it? For a moment there I thought you might actually be stuck to Ginny when I yanked the two of you apart."

"Oh god," Harry moaned, covering his face with both hands and sinking down into the nearest chair as if he hoped it would shallow him whole. He'd just kissed Ginny Weasley and three quarters of her family knew about it. Alright, so technically she'd kissed him, but he hadn't pulled away from her when he transformed back into himself and discovered her hands still cupping his face and her lips still pressed firmly against his own. He'd kissed her back. He'd continued to kiss Ginny in human form and she hadn't shrieked, pulled away, slapped him or looked disgusted by it. Ok, so she was more than a little flustered when Fred barged into the kitchen, dragged Harry off her, and shoved him into the sitting room, but she hadn't pulled away from him on her own. That had to mean something, right?

Wait, a little voice screamed in his head. What did it mean exactly? Could it be possible that Ginny still fancied him a little? Is that why she hadn't pecked him quickly, then pulled away in revulsion to watch him transform? Was it possible that she continued kissing him because she wanted to kiss him as a human? If Fred hadn't barged in, would her soft lips still be locked on his? The mere thought of that possibility sent Harry's heart fluttering out of his chest and into his throat as a wonderful warmth washed over his body. But then he remembered that Ginny had a boyfriend and his heart plummeted to the pit of his stomach, where it promptly began to churn around in a manner that quite literally made him feel ill.

"Voice works anyway," George said, mentally checking that possible side effect off a list in his head. "All in all, I'd say it appears to be a smashing success."

"I'll show you smashing," Ron barked, clearly still holding a grudge because he had been the intended target.

"Oh no, you won't," Charlie insisted, making it clear that he had no intentions of standing back while Ron chased the twins through the house to extract his revenge.

"I never said I'd be the one throttling them," Ron shot back. "I'm perfectly happy to sit back and watch Mum do it. And she will," he said, smiling in satisfaction. "Come on, Harry, let's go upstairs and...where did Hermione go?"

¤

"Ginny?" Hermione said softly, having nipped into the kitchen to check on her friend while the boys' attention was focused elsewhere. "Are you all right?" she asked, when she spotted Ginny leaning against the table, looking rather embarrassed and completely bewildered by what had just happened.

"He kissed me back," Ginny stated, sounding oddly distant.

"Did he now?" Hermione asked with a wry smile. "Well, that's good, isn't it? Being yourself finally seems to be paying off."

"Hermione!" Ginny groaned, clearly looking for sympathy, not encouragement.

"Well, it's what you've always wanted isn't it? So was it everything you hoped it would be?"

"He was a frog," the redhead stated tetchily.

"Not the whole time."

"What am I going to do?" Ginny groaned.

"Talking to him about it might not be such a bad place to start," Hermione suggested, but if Ginny's open mouth and incredulous stare was any indication, that wasn't exactly what she'd been hoping to hear. "Or not," Hermione offered. "Although pretending that it didn't happen or that it didn't mean something if it did, isn't going to accomplish anything."

"I suppose I could just walk in there, kiss him again, and then stand back and see what he has to say about it," the redhead said sardonically, although deep down there was a part of her that was tempted to do just that. Maybe if her brothers weren't all standing on the other side of that door with Harry, but they were, damn them.

Unfortunately the kiss Ginny had just shared with the boy she'd worshipped since she was ten years old was all but forgotten when a green flame unexpectedly roared to life the fireplace and a very attractive woman with long, flowing blond hair stepped into the kitchen. Hermione and Ginny were so astonished to find themselves face to face with Fleur Delacour, that neither of them said a word. They just stood there, gaping at her as if they'd been struck dumb by her Veela powers, rather than the nerve it took for her to march into someone else's house uninvited.

"Fleur?" Bill called out her name, even as he materialized in the kitchen with a loud crack. "Are you..."

"Ici," she replied immediately, hurrying to his side and latching onto him. "I am so relieved zat you are 'ere. I was just about to explain to your seester et Harmony..."

"Her-MY-oh-nee," the two girls corrected her in unison.

"Lock the door and all the windows," Bill barked out at Ginny, as he hurried over to the fireplace and slammed the lever that would shut the flue up in the air, temporarily blocking the house off from the floo network. "NOW!" he shouted.

"What's going on?" Charlie said, banging through the door separating the kitchen from the sitting room because he'd heard his brother shouting and was concerned by the tone of his voice. "What happened?"

"Dementors," Bill replied, rushing over to the door leading out into the back yard and locking it himself since Ginny seemed to be rooted to the ground where she stood. "On Diagon Alley. I didn't wait around to see how many there were," he said quickly. "Just long enough to shove Fleur into the closest fire, but now that I know she got here safely, I'm going back."

"NO!" Fleur shrieked, latching onto Bill's arm again.

"We've already been over this," Bill shouted at her. "My brothers might still be..."

"Fred and George are here," Charlie interrupted. "They just went upstairs with..."

"What is it?" Ron asked, running up behind Charlie, who was still standing in the doorway and shoving him out of the way so he, Harry and the twins could enter the room. "What's...wrong?" he asked, stopping short in the center of the room and gazing at Fleur for a moment, before shaking his head as if he were trying to clear it and zeroing in on Hermione, whose fear was surging through his own body.

"There are Dementors on Diagon Alley," Ginny answered.

"WHAT!" Harry bellowed, jerking his own eyes off Fleur and whipping his wand out of his pocket.

"What about the Ministry?" George asked, as his twin brother spun around and marched out of the room.

"All non-essential personnel are being evac..."

"SHITE!" they all heard Fred swear loudly, seconds before he raced back into the room, the Weasley family clock held firmly between his hands. "This is not good," he said, holding it up in the air so the rest of his family could see that each and every one of their hands was pointed at Mortal Peril. "Even Mum's is..."

"Mum's at headquarters," Ginny moaned. "You don't think..."

"Headquarters is probably the safest place any of us could be right now," Bill cut her off. "I'm sure Mum is fine."

"But..." Ginny started to protest, however her brothers ignored her.

"What do you reckon?" Charlie asked Bill. "We could floo the four of them to headquarters and then you, Fred and George could..."

"No, Dad said not to use the floo network," Bill interjected. "The Dementors might just be the first stage of a larger attack. It could be Death Eaters next."

"So Dad's all right then?" George said. "You've seen him?"

"But Ginny," Charlie mumbled under his breath, venturing a quick glance over at his sister.

"We'll just have to stick together and do our best to watch out for..."

"You could take Hermione at least," Charlie argued with Bill. "She's had enough practice that Side-Along-Apparition wouldn't be a prob..."

"NO!" Hermione yelled loudly, the shock and fear that she'd been trying to stomp down erupting into full-blown panic at the thought of being separated from Ron and Harry. She knew what it was like to spend hours alone, sitting in the dark with no idea of what was going on, and no options but to wait for death to come and claim her. She was not going to be sent off and forced to endure that kind of hell again. "I'm not going to run off and hide while the rest of you..."

"Hermione," Ron started to argue.

"I SAID NO!"she bellowed so fiercely that even Bill and Charlie stopped discussing their options and stare at her.

Well, that answers one of my questions anyway, Charlie thought, as he watched Hermione shove Ron away from herself and cross her arms in front of her chest as she dug in for a fight. She might be a lot of things, but 'subservient' clearly isn't one of them.

Hermione was not going to bend on this. Charlie could see it, and if the expression of defeat on his brother's face was any indication, Ron saw it as well. Of course that didn't necessarily mean he was done trying. "But..." he managed to say half heartedly, before Hermione cut him off.

"It isn't going to matter where I am if they attack you, Ron," she stated.

Ron, who shut his eyes and visibly deflated at this remark, obviously got the point, as did everyone else in the room that knew their souls were connected.

"You don't seriously think..." Ginny started to asked, but it was so horrific that she didn't want to finish the statement for fear of having it confirmed. If a Dementor came after her, at least she'd have the opportunity to fend it off, provided her Patronus was strong enough to outlast it. But to know that it was possible, or even probable, that a Dementor could strip her of her soul without even getting near her... no wonder Hermione looked so pale.

"I don't know," Hermione moaned, the fierce determination that had been holding her together, crumpling when the guilt and fear Ron was experiencing pumped into her body and combined with her own. "I just don't know. It's possible," she said, reaching out for Ron again and leaning against him for both comfort and support.

"What's possible?" Fred asked, glancing around the room at all the somber and fearful faces. "Something is going on that I don't know about?"

Harry and Ginny looked at one another, as did Bill and Charlie, but none of them answered the question. Harry did eventually break the strained silence however, when he raised his wand and shouted "Expecto Patronum!"

"Oh Harry, no," Hermione moaned, when his silver stag shot out of the tip of his wand, cantered over to her and Ron, lowered it's antlers, and stood between them and the door like a shimmering sentry.

"I don't care if they do chuck me out of school," he said defiantly, knowing exactly what Hermione was about to say. "I'm not going to just stand here and wait around for them to attack us first."

"But you didn't need to be the one to do it," Hermione scolded. "I could have..."

"No offense, Hermione," Harry shot back, "But you have a hard time fending off a Boggart in Dementor form. Trust me, the real thing is much, much worse. I don't know about Bill or Charlie, but I know for a fact that the rest of you have never done it. If they want to come into this house, they are going to have to go through me to do it."

"Harry is right," Bill said. "There's a vast difference between producing a patronus in a classroom situation and producing one when you're face to face with a real Dementor that is sucking all the happiness from the room. You three," he said, pointing at Ron, Ginny, and Hermione, stick with Harry while the rest of us go outside and..."

"You can't go out there," Ginny yelped. "What if..."

"If they're going to come," Charlie said calmly, "They'll likely wait until it's dark. Dementor's prefer misery and darkness to light and cheer. They might feed off happy thoughts, but they revel in fear. If they leave us to stew in it for a while, so much the better for them. Lock all the doors," he said, pulling out his wand so he could apparate outside and throw a few hasty wards up to protect the house. They might not stand up to a full scale attack, but they'd pose a bit of a problem and provide them with a brief warning if any uninvited guests tried to get too close to the house.

"Turn on all the lights," Bill added, after Charlie had vanished from the room with a loud crack, "and stay together until we get back. Fred, apparate to headquarters and let Mum know that we're all ok, so she doesn't worry herself sick. George," he said, glancing at Ginny briefly, before locking eyes with Fleur, "stay in here and help Harry if..."

Nearly everyone in the kitchen jumped when there was an unmistakable knock on the back door. And as if that weren't startling enough, the eerie silence that immediately fell over the kitchen was obliterated by the sound of at least two separate people materializing in the center of the room in rapid succession. Fortunately, Harry and Bill, who both had their wands clutched firmly in their hands, happened to notice that one of those people was Arthur Weasley before they started throwing curses in the intruders' direction.

"DAD!" Bill and Ginny called out at nearly the same time. One lowering his wand and the other moving forward to hug her father.

"Isn't Dumbledore here yet?" Remus Lupin asked, quickly scanning the kitchen and taking a few extra moments to consider Fleur, before allowing his eyes to wander to the silver stag that appeared to be ready to charge through the back door. "Still as impetuous as ever, I see," he said to Harry, with a wry smile. "I don't suppose it occurred to you that..."

"That I might get chucked out of school?" Harry finished for him. "Yeah, I considered that. For all of ten seconds."

"Aw well," Lupin sighed. "That's about five more than your father would have given it anyway."

"I'm glad you're all together," Arthur said. "You've all got your wands?" he asked, watching as Ron jerked his wand out of his back pocket and Ginny and Hermione nodded their heads in agreement, before continuing. "Good. Now Dumbledore should be here any minute and when he gets...that will be him," he said, letting go of Ginny's shoulder and hurrying towards the backdoor when there was a second knock.

"Arthur," Dumbledore said, giving a deferential nod as he hurried through the door and into the kitchen with one of the rubber boots the Weasley family kept just outside the door clutched in his hand. "Aw, and Miss Delacour," he added, upon spotting Fleur, who had moved to stand next to Bill again. "What an unexpected surprise. Not an altogether unpleasant one," he added with a smile, "but I'm afraid there isn't much time for pleasantries at the moment. Ready to go?" he said, looking at Harry and his friends.

"Go?" Ginny said. "Go where?"

"Headquarters?" Ron said.

"This portkey," Dumbledore stated, holding the rubber boot up in the air and dangling it in front of his students, "will take the four of you straight to Gryffindor Tower."

"But, what about our..."

"Don't worry about your things," Lupin replied before Ginny managed to finish. "We'll send them along. But you need to hurry now. There are a lot of things that need to be taken care of," he said, looking directly at Harry, as he was the one that was the most likely to argue, "but none of us can't do that until we know you're safe."

"But we want to help," Ron said.

"They aren't going to let us help," Harry informed Ron. "If we stay, half the Order will show up to keep us out of trouble," and by us, I mean me. "At least if we go back to Hogwarts, those people will be able to go to Diagon alley and possibly help someone else."

"On the count of three then," Dumbledore said, counting as he setting the boot down on the table and stepped away to watch Harry and his friends come forward and grasp the portkey at the same time.