Chapter 7
They all entered the kitchen together and sat at the table where Mr. Weasley had the bridge of his nose between two fingers and was grinding it furiously. He smiled weakly as they entered and put his arm down and his glasses on, but, as he did, Harry noticed he seemed to wince a bit. Harry was about to question about this as they were all seated, but Mr. Weasley began to speak.
"Well, Voldermort attacked a group of wizards, and he had a whole group of his lot with him, naturally. It seems he has recruited more Death-Eaters, and we think he must be accumulating a fair-sized army of creatures as well," Mr. Weasley explained to the table grimly.
"Why do you say that?" Harry asked before he could stop himself.
Mr. Weasley just smiled grimly and said, "Well, we knew he recruited some creatures already of course, but if he only had a few creatures and a few Wizards, he wouldn't have done an open attack of wizards, right in front of everyone's face. He must have a load of Wizards and creatures either under his control, or supporting him to be as bold as to do this. We dueled it out a bit with a few Death-Eaters and captured two of them, and they were sent to Azkaban. Honestly though, I reckon they'll be out soon, considering Voldermort will soon have the Dementors under his command fairly soon, no doubt." Mr. Weasley looked at them all and said, "Well, I think you all need to go to bed now, as we've kept you up all night worrying."
Before anyone got up to leave, Ginny asked quickly, "Was anyone hurt?"
Mr. Weasley sighed wearily and said, "Unfortunately, two civilians died. As for us, nothing a Strengthing Solution and a good nights rest won't fix."
Ginny, however, had stopped paying attention and stood and walked over to her father's left sleeve, where there was a long cut in the fabric, and something wet. Ginny touched it before he could stop her, and he winced as she did. She drew her hand back, which now had a red sticky substance on it. Ginny then pulled up his sleeve to see where he was hurt. On Mr. Wealey's arm was a long and deep gash, which was still bleeding freely.
"Daddy! Why didn't you say something?" Ginny practically shrieked. Mr. Weasley blushed and tried to cover his arm, but Ginny smacked his hands out of the way.
"It's nothing, really, it's not as bad as it looks, don't worry about it," Mr. Weasley pleaded.
"You should have healed yourself before you told us what went on! You probably lost a lot of blood," Hermione said, with a shocked look on her face.
"Arthur Weasley! How dare you just sit there and bleed without telling me you were hurt! You know I could have fixed it," Mrs. Weasley shouted at her husband as she descended upon him.
"Don't you reckon I'm injured enough without you three having a dig at me?" Mr. Weasley asked, still blushing.
Almost immediately, the girls changed their attitudes. Ginny and Hermione bustled around making tea while Mrs. Weasley healed his wound, and prepared a Blood Replenishing Potion and a Strengthing Solution, which Mr. Weasley took. Harry noticed, by the time they had all finished drinking their tea, he looked much better, and had much more color in his face then he had when he had first entered the kitchen.
After the tea, Mrs. Weasley began to shoo and shepherd everyone, including Mr. Weasley to the bedrooms. For a short time, Mrs. Weasley patrolled the corridors, but was obviously content that no one was talking, for a little while later, they heard her bedroom door close. As soon as it had, Harry put his glasses back on, too full of adrenaline to sleep. Ron obviously felt the same, as he sat up in bed, and they both started whispering excitedly, discussing that night's events.
They had been talking for less than 10 minutes when they heard a soft knock on the door. Harry and Ron looked at each other, both praying silently that it was not Mrs. Weasley. Harry lay back down, pretending to sleep, as Ron clambered out of bed and unlocked and opened the door. Ron opened the door, and two people stepped inside the room, closing the door behind them.