The Rescue
Grace just sat and stared at him. "Mr. Dursley, please, don't-"
"You heard me," he said. "Fifteen minutes."
Grace bit her bottom lip hard and stood up slowly. She walked through the living room and up the stairs with carefully measured steps. Very even, very calm, very steady.
Her calm demeanor vanished once she reached the privacy of the stairs. Grace raced up the steps and flung herself into the bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
She stood there, breathing heavily. No, no, no, no, no, they weren't going to take her away. They just couldn't!
Grace could feel the beginnings of tears forming in her eyes and instead of shedding them, she began laughing madly, great, huge, shaky shouts of laughter.
The odd laughter eventually died down and Grace felt her mind working overtime. Well, she wasn't going to be hauled around as if she was a doll! I think she'd look well here … no, I don't like the way this light shines on her face, move her over into the shadows … no, bring her back into the light …
Grace bit her lip, strengthening her resolve. She wouldn't let them take her away from her brother, not when she'd finally found someone who cared about her …
That's not true and you know it, she shouted at herself. Grammy cared about you.
If she had cared – had truly cared at all – she wouldn't have taken you into the forest with her that night, Grace told herself. The minute she thought that she knew it was the truth, as much as it hurt her to think so.
She sank down onto the floor, her head buried in her hands, trying not to think of where she'd be this time tomorrow.
Suddenly from downstairs came several loud, popping sounds, like gunshots. Grace lifted her head curiously, opened her door, and walked slowly down the stairs.
She reached the bottom just as Harry came running up to her.
"See? What'd I tell you? Dumbledore's got it all figured out already," he said, smiling brightly at her. She noticed the sadness had come back into his eyes. So the secret he had been hiding wasn't anything about being a wizard at all, it was about Sirius's death and the prophecy that had been made about him.
Grace put her brother's troubles out of her mind for now and continued down the last few steps, looking shyly out at everyone in the Dursleys' living room. There seemed to be about ten people she had never met before, all standing uncomfortably, staring at her. Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, Dudley, and Sarah were all standing on the opposite side of the room.
"Hi," Grace said nervously. A young woman with bright green hair smiled a bit.
"It's all right, girl, Dumbledore told us everything this morning," said an old man. One of his eyes was small and dark, the other was wide and a vivid blue.
"Why don't you two get your things packed up now?" said another man. He had blonde, slightly graying hair and kind, smiling eyes. "We'll be leaving in-"
"And just where do you think you are taking her?" asked Uncle Vernon in a loud voice. "She doesn't have anything to do with your type!"
"Aaah, I'm afraid you're wrong there, Dursley," said the man with two different eyes. "Grace is very much one of our type. But we wouldn't expect you to understand that."
"She – what? I – you must be mistaken, sir!"
"Potter, I thought I told you to pack up," said the man again. Both Harry and Grace were still standing at the foot of the stairs, watching the argument that was sure to take place. "Now, Dursley …"
Harry pulled her back up the stairs. "Come on," he said. "We're leaving."
"Where are we going?"
"Who cares?" he muttered. "Just as long as it's away from here …"
"Who were all those people down there?"
"Members of the Order," he explained. "The group that's fighting back against Voldemort."
"I remember."
"I think I saw Tonks, Moody, Lupin, Kingsley, Podmore …" Harry rattled off a bunch of names that meant absolutely nothing to Grace. "Don't worry about it," Harry said when he saw the look on her face. "You'll get to know them all."
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Ten minutes later, the twins were standing in the living room once again. The Dursleys had vanished, most likely into the kitchen.
"We're going to the Burrow," said the man with graying hair that Grace gathered was Remus … Remus Lupin.
Harry smiled grimly at this news, and Grace, looking at her brother's reaction, asked, "What's the Burrow?"
"You'll find out soon enough. We've got two Portkeys, since we're such a large group." The Order members separated themselves so that five of them were surrounding Harry and five were surrounding Grace.
"Ready, everyone?" asked the man with two different eyes. "We have sixty seconds …"
A thought suddenly occurred to Grace. She turned to the woman standing next to her, the one with the green hair. "Shouldn't I say good-bye to Sarah?" she asked softly.
"Who's Sarah?"
"The baby ... I've known her a while …"
"No, I don't think she'll mind if you don't say good-bye to her."
"Shut up you two! Thirty seconds left, everyone get ahold of your Portkeys now."
Grace grabbed a corner of the magazine they were using as a Portkey. The five Order members crowded in as well.
The man with two different eyes counted the last ten seconds off. "Ten … nine … eight …"
This is my last chance to turn back, Grace thought. I don't have to go through with this …
But the thought of returning to Derkhall Lane stiffened her resolve and she gripped her corner of the magazine tightly.
" … four … three … two … one …"
She once again felt that jerk somewhere in the region of her stomach and the Dursleys' living room dissolved …
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They rematerialized in a cluttered, messy kitchen. Harry's group arrived a second later. The only other person in the kitchen was an older woman with red hair, very motherly like. The woman pushed her way throught the crowd surrounding Harry and gave him a huge hug.
"Oh, Harry, dear, how lovely to see you again, so happy you all got here safely …"
"Not a bit of trouble, Molly," said Remus.
"Oh good," she said happily. "Everyone's upstairs, dear, if you want to go see them."
"Thanks, Mrs. Weasley," said Harry. He moved towards a doorway, through which Grace could see a rickety flight of stairs, but he didn't leave the room.
"And where's …"
But the woman – Mrs .Weasley? – had spotted Grace. She walked slowly towards her.
"So you must be Grace?" she said.
"Yep, Molly, that's her," said the woman with green hair.
Mrs. Weasley pulled Grace into a tight embrace, as if they had known each other for years and years. Grace breathed in the flowery scent of her perfume, felt the rough fabric of her sweater brushing against her cheek. It almost drowned out the feel and smell of Grammy's sweater. Grace pulled away, but the flowery scent now followed her as well.
"It's … very nice to meet you," she said softly, shyly.
Mrs. Weasley was looking down at her kindly. "You can follow Harry upstairs if you want. We'll bring your things up later."
"Thank you very much, Mrs. Weasley."
Grace made her way through the kitchen to the doorway where Harry was waiting for her.
"Who was that?" she asked as they started up the long flight of stairs.
"Mrs. Weasley. My friend Ron's mum. This is their house."
"And who are we going to see?"
"My other friends," said Harry as they climbed.
They climbed the rest of the stairs in silence. Grace noticed that the farther up they went, the louder certain noises from the attic became.
They finally reached the top, and Harry knocked three times on a door marked "Ronald Weasley."
The door opened almost immediately and the twins walked in.
The room was decorated with orange posters glaring at them from every wall, as if the room itself was on fire. The girl who had opened the door also had bright red hair. Seated in various positions around the room were three boys who also had red hair and a girl with bushy brown hair. All of the occupents stared open mouthed at the two of them, as if they were unsure of what to say.
The girl with red hair was the first to speak. "Harry? We missed you so much."
He paid no attention to her. "Did you get my letter?" he asked the girl with brown hair.
"Yes, a few days ago, but I didn't have time to answer it because that's about when I moved in here …"
Harry suddenly noticed Grace was staring wide-eyed at all of them and they were all staring at her. "Oh, right," he said. "Grace, these are my friends Ginny, Ron, Fred, George Weasley, and Hermione Granger."
"Hi," she said. "I'm Harry's …" Her eyes flickered to him for half a second.
"My sister," he interrupted. "She's my twin sister."
Everyone in the room looked at him as if he was mad.
"Harry …" Hermione said gently.
"Oh, no one's told you? It's a long story, but tell me what's happening here first."
"There's not much to tell, is there?" Ron said carefully with a glance in Grace's direction.
"It's okay, she knews everything …"
"There still isn't much to tell," said Ginny. "Mum and Dad don't tell us anything, and it's hard to find things out when we're not staying …"
"… at headquarters," finished Hermione sharply. "When we're not staying at headquarters, Ginny, you can say it."
"If there was something important they'd tell us about it," said Ron.
"In theory," added one of the twins.
"George," the other twin said suddenly, "Grace here looks a little out of it. You got a candy or something to give her?"
"Sure do."
George took a brightly wrapped candy out of his pocket and passed it over to her. Harry grabbed it out of her hands.
"All right, what have you done to it?"
"Aw, Harry, what a spoilsport!"
"They're Electos," said Ginny, taking the candy from Harry. "Give you an electric shock when you suck them."
"So go on, Harry," Ron said impatiently. "How in the world is she supposed to be your twin?"
Harry sat down on one of the beds and told everyone the story Dumbledore had told them yesterday. Grace hardly spoke at all. Everyone was so much older than she was, they all looked about fifteen or sixteen, and the Weasley twins much older than that, and she was afraid of making a fool out of herself in front of them.
When Harry finished his story, they all talked about various other things.
"The shop's going great, we've got all sorts of people in there, grown-ups too. They seem to think our products are funny …"
"Yeah, until we sell things to their kids and they let off fireworks in the house!"
"Harry, did you hear Cho Chang is rumored to be Head Girl next year?"
"Really?"
"Yeah, her and Adrian Pucey, that Slytherin on the House team?"
"Who's making prefect this year, Ginny?"
"Colin Creevey, the creep, and Eloise What's-her-name, the girl who tried to curse off her pimples."
Grace couldn't understand a word of this.
After what seemed like hours there was a knock at the door. Ginny hurried to open it.
The woman with green hair was standing outside the door next to Harry's trunk and Grace's battered suitcase.
"Just brought your things up. I'm leaving now, I'm supposed to be on duty, but I think I'll be able to come 'round for dinner …"
"Thanks, Tonks," said Harry, and he and one of the twins went to bring in the trunk.
"You'll be staying in Ginny's room, Grace, why don't you three bring the suitcase down now?"
Grace nodded and picked up her suitcase, and Ginny and Hermione led her down a flight of stairs. Ginny pushed the door open.
It was a large room, painted in soothing green and blue tones. The windows were open and the long, gauzy curtains were waving slightly in the breeze. On one side of the room was a cast-iron four-poster bed, with white sheets and covers and hangings of the same gauzy material as the curtains.
"There are some perks to being the only girl out of seven kids," Ginny said.
Grace looked around. "I like it," she said.
"It's not really my style."
Grace felt her cheeks go red. I like it, what a stupid thing to say. She twirled a red tangle nervously.
"I'm more a power girl, if you get what I mean. Let me take this," Ginny said, taking the suitcase out of her grasp and putting it down on one of two folding cots that were set up on the other side of the room.
"You're really quiet," Hermione remarked as she sat down on a white on the floor. Ginny and Grace did the same.
"I'm shy, I guess," she said.
"Harry was the same way," Hermione said. "It was like torture getting him to talk at first. And now he's fine. You'll get used to everything, don't worry. I'm Muggleborn … trust me, nothing's as confusing as it sounds …"
That's what you think, Grace added in her mind.
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A/N: I thought it got a little dull at the end, what about you? The next chapter will be various other boring but important things, and then the chapter after that will possibly be Hogwarts. Did you like Ginny's room? Tell me when you review, please review! Thanks a lot!
Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me except Grace and Sarah. And Derkhall Lane, I think I mentioned that once. Everything else belongs to JK Rowling.
