Chapter 7 - Auntie Muriel
"Drink," Hermione demanded. Lizzie rubbed her eyes and sat up to a cup of coffee on a saucer and a pitcher. "I let you sleep an extra hour, DRINK, there's so much work to do!" She said frantically. Lizzie obliged without hesitation while Hermione set out a plethora of makeup on Ginny's vanity table. Ginny's bed was covered in flower bouquets and hers and Lizzie's gold satin dresses hung on the back of the door.
In the doorway, stood a familiar little girl, now a few years older, with silver blonde locks and identical to Fleur in miniature. Lizzie smiled and Gabrielle ran over for a hug and pecks on the cheek.
"Are you excited?" Lizzie croaked with a tired voice. Gabrielle mumbled something in rapid French and smiled. Lizzie pretended to understand and got one more kiss on the head from the girl before she scampered off.
"LI-ZZEE PO-TTER!" she heard from downstairs. It made her choke on the coffee mid sip. Hermione's eyes were wide but she said nothing while Lizzie threw back the covers and pulled flannel pants on over the knickers she'd worn to bed. Over the railing she could see Molly giving her dagger eyes and pointing to floor to indicate she needed to come down. Lizzie's heart skipped a beat and the steps felt damning even though she hadn't the faintest idea what she did wrong.
Charlie was at the table rubbing the back of his head and looking both abashed and apologetic. He looked fifteen at the moment. Caught.
Remus sat across from him. Molly shooed everyone but the table inhabitants out and shut the door.
"You shared a cave apartment in London?" She asked sharply. Lizzie's mouth fell slightly ajar and she shook her head. "You two have been...are you INSANE?" She asked incredulously.
"You told Molly?!" Lizzie snapped at Remus.
"You cannot go galivanting around Great Britian on whatever quest you're on if you're... if you're... you move in here!" Molly shrieked.
"She's not..." Charlie said and it sounded like he must have said it a thousand times.
"You are INSANE if you think I'm going to risk your lives by living here. I'm the most wanted person in Britian," Lizzie retorted. "I am not pregnant!" She said assertively.
"You know? You know that? Go try on your dress, we'll see... go..." Molly insisted.
"I'm not... I don't think I can be with the curse so just stop this..." Lizzie said.
"What do you mean?" Charlie asked, looking slightly mortified.
"The curse, they eat at the young, it's a large part why parseltongues died out," Lizzie explained shortly.
"Jesus Christ, that didn't even..." Charlie said burying his face in his hands.
"Occur to you?!" Remus snapped harshly.
"No, because he wasn't thinking. She's too young, Charlie! What is the matter with you!" Molly added scathingly.
"Stop, back off!" Lizzie interjected. "I have a faint recollection of what I would feel like if I was, I'm not. Certain I'm not," she said.
"When were you?..." Remus asked, shaking his head in confusion. Lizzie washed over cold.
"Five years ago..." Lizzie strung together the words with difficulty.
"Thirteen," Remus said through a locked jaw while his nails dug into the table knowing who would have been responsible. Molly shook her head disbelievingly and tears streaked her face. She slapped Charlie on the head. Remus breathed with some sort of resolve.
"No. You leave her alone! Foot of distance between you. Do you realize how long he did that... Do not touch her!" Remus scolded.
"I'm not glass!" Lizzie yelled.
"If he's going with you, Lizzie I swear to..." Remus warned.
"He's not!" She snapped. Charlie shot her a hurt look.
"I'm not going with you?" He asked and stood up from the table, now he looked at least twice her age and she backed up impulsively. Lizzie swallowed and shook her head.
"What do you mean I'm not... you three need..." he protested, she shook her head again.
"We'll be fine," she lied. He frowned.
"What exactly are you after, Lizzie?" Remus asked. She shook her head and sat down looking defeated.
"There's a lot more to that prophecy than anyone realizes. He can't lose unless we... well...all those victims were a lot more than victims. That's all I can really say," she said.
"I'm the only one who knows him well enough..." she continued. "I wouldn't take Ron or Hermione unless I absolutely needed them. I don't want them, much less anyone else, in danger... the minute he realizes... we're doomed..."
"This should not be on YOU," Molly said hotly.
"That's not a choice I've ever had," Lizzie said with an underbelly of exhaustion at the constant insistence. She felt a hand on her arm and looked up at Remus. His face was softer but more worried now than angry. "I need to go get ready," she added dismissively.
"When are you leaving?" Charlie asked before she disappeared beyond the kitchen. She looked back at the three of them with regret.
"Right after the wedding," she said. They didn't say anything, but their faces said everything.
"Lizzzee!" Fleur shouted from upstairs. Lizzie smiled weakly and made her way back to the wedding preparations. Charlie rolled the box of rings for his brother and bride in his hand with intense thought and then tucked them in his pocket.
"Don't you even think about it," Remus warned. Charlie gave him a reproachful look.
"We're on the same side. I've said it before, you don't have anything to worry about, I would never hurt her," Charlie hissed back. "What's wrong with you?" He jabbed, eyeing the wedding band on Remus's finger and frowning. He rolled his head dismissively, wrung his hands, and got up to leave without a word to him.
"You look lovely," Remus said as Tonks skipped into the room in a purple mid-length gown. She spun and smiled and lifted her chin up to kiss him. He returned it with his hands on her shoulders.
"It's just a little snug," she complained, playing with the seam along her back. Remus leaned and whispered something in her ear and her face fell a little. She nodded sadly. "Did you ask Lizzie?" She asked hopefully. Charlie frowned curiously and Remus shook his head.
"Not today," he whispered and left. Tonks smiled back at Charlie.
"You do look lovely, my friend. Radiant. Wish we could have had a big thing like this for the both of you," Charlie said. She smiled wider.
"Oh we didn't need a fuss," she said and laughed faintly.
"Cheers to you," he said, handing her a butterbeer and opening his own. She clicked the bottle but didn't drink.
"I'm going to go help with flowers and set up, see you soon," she said and hurried off.
Hours were spent organizing the outdoor ceremony and the tent for the reception while Fleur got ready in the house. Lizzie slipped into her dress after Ginny did her makeup and hair. It was half up in a wrapped braid and half down in curls that fell over her shoulders and covered the more mangled parts of her face. The dress did not have sleeves and scooped low to the middle of her back but clipped in a v around her neck. She matched Ginny and Gabrielle perfectly, like they were all supposed to be copies in all but age.
Fleur was probably the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen, Ron's Aunt Muriel's tiara seemed to carry its own magical captivity. Lizzie stepped back from Ginny, Hermione, and Gabrielle putting final touches on her attire and admired from a distance. It struck her as bittersweet, and she was overcome by a melancholy wave of longing for a less bleak future. Lizzie took the necklace strand from one of the jewelry perches on Ginny's dresser and left the room for air that wasn't coated in perfume.
Moments after she retreated down a flight of steps fumbling with the clasp behind her neck, the door to a bedroom opened and the sound of the commotion on the other side spilled into the hallway. Fireworks or wizard wheezes from the sound of it, and five young, red-haired men laughing. Charlie slipped out and closed the door. He was mostly dressed for the wedding in all but the robes and stopped abruptly when he saw Lizzie.
"My God," he said. Lizzie frowned.
"Can you help me with this?" She asked impatiently, cocking her head backwards to indicate the necklace and turning around. He got it to hook immediately but left his hands lingering on the scoop between her neck and shoulders.
"You look incredible," he said, running hands down her arms.
"Well, I usually look run through the mill... so, relatively speaking..." she said sarcastically.
"This is low..." he said, the tips of his fingers at the back fabric line of the dress. She snorted and opened her mouth for a familiar retort to the same comment.
"Good job not putting it on backwards," he said facetiously. Goose bumps broke out on her back at the comment only because it was precisely what she intended to say.
Her mind jumped back to the yule ball and she swallowed with an impossibly dry mouth.
"Yeah, it's not that kind of wedding is it?" She asked to lighten the air in her head. He smiled, rested his hand on her jaw to rub a blushed cheek, and kissed her.
"You're beautiful," he said. "Please don't leave until the morning," he added sadly. His eyes looked hurt and apprehensive. Lizzie nodded and clenched her jaw tight.
Molly called from the side door that guests were seated and Lizzie took que to go get Fluer. She squeezed Charlie's arm and he kissed her hand as she retreated upstairs. She gave an informal half-curtsey and laughed a little at the formal gesture on his part and could feel his smile on the back of her head as she climbed the stairs toward Fleur's hideaway.
"You look stunning, guests are seated, I suppose we head down?" Lizzie asked. Hermione pressed her ear to the door.
"Wait for the boys first so Bill doesn't see her yet," Hermione said and Ginny leaned back to get a peak out of the window at the archway and the guest-filled rows of chairs.
"Who do we walk with?" Lizzie asked.
"The groomzmen, Lizzee... youz never been to a wedding before?" Fleur asked.
"She's been to several. But the girls are barely older than Gabbie and file in to meet a man three times their age," Ginny interjected.
"No bridesmaids or groomsmen... or flowers... or happiness, love, best wishes..." Lizzie explained bitterly. Fleur looked slightly mortified.
"Youz will walk with Charlie, Fred and George togezer, Ginny with Ron, Gabrielle layz flowerz," she instructed. Lizzie nodded. Hermione hurriedly slipped on a lilac-colored dress and hurried down to coordinate with the boys.
Down at the threshold, Lizzie saw Bill standing at the balloon archway patiently tense, but excited. She took Charlie's arm and watched Ron escort Ginny down the aisle and to their respective places. Fred and George happily and humorously clasped arms but refrained from jolly skipping down the aisle to avoid unleashing their mother's wrath, and took their places. Lizzie walked with Charlie, gentle breeze blowing in the early dusk. Some of the people she did not know personally, and who had not expecting her to be present or unearthed at all gaped slightly and there was a familiar ripple of light whispers.
Lizzie took her place beside Ginny, and Charlie by Bill. He flashed blue eyes in her direction inconspicuously a few times while Gabrielle laid flowers in anticipation for her sister. Ginny and Lizzie masked smirks at Muriel's anything-but-subtle comments about their low cut dresses. All rose when Fleur entered with her father, both Molly and Fleur's mother were crying softly into lace handkerchiefs in the front row.
Lizzie waved her wand when the vows commenced for the bouquets to erupt into a release of butterflies. The balloons, courtesy of Fred and George, fizzled into sparklers, and a white hare patronus danced across the onlookers. Lizzie looked up and smiled, recognizing Luna's gesture and conjured her own silver stag. Ginny did not hesitate, nor did Hermione, and the outpour of conjured happiness quickly encompassed the ceremony. There must have been four dozen patronuses dancing through the crowd. Gesture for the times we're in, Lizzie thought as she locked arms with Charlie once again and followed the bride, groom, and young maid of honor out to the reception. Charlie stole a kiss when the others disappeared into the reception tent and Lizzie smiled. Everything about the evening felt both refreshing and uplifting.
Immediately following their first dance and taking their seats, Fleur grabbed Lizzie's hand and smiled.
"I probably forgot to menzion I wanted you to sing for dinner," she said. Ginny choked on her laugh mid-sip of wine. Lizzie's face fell but she tried to hide it.
"Whatever you like and know iz fine, I'm zorry," she said apologetically. Lizzie elbowed Ginny in the ribs when she didn't stop laughing. She smiled back and agreed weakly, mouthing 'shit' as she racked her brain for a wedding appropriate song.
"Did you know?" Lizzie asked as Ginny rubbed her blushing face. She nodded and winked. Lizzie gave her a reproving look while Ginny poured a shot of Vodka.
"Two of these at least..." Lizzie said, taking the first and Ginny poured another with a maniacal grin. Lizzie looked out at mostly familiar and friendly faces and eased up some. George and Angelina, Ron and Hermione, Fred and Lee, Remus and Tonks with her parents, Dirk Creswell and his wife, Luna and her father, various other order members, Oliver and a girl Lizzie had never met, Viktor Krum noticeably solo, Hagrid and Olamp, the extended Weasley and Delacour Families, Bill's friends, some faintly familiar Beaubatton girls, and a few of Charlie's friends she'd met once at the top of the astronomy tower to hand off Norbert. Then she saw Amos Diggory, also alone, but chatting with Arthur, and Lizzie's heart sank into her stomach.
"Don't worry, I smuggled your records out, Fleur said you could pick when dancing starts," Ginny said with a wink. Lizzie gave her a slightly reproving look but appreciated the gesture.
Lizzie was in motion to take one more shot before heading to the piano when Charlie grabbed it from her hand. "Oh, this family will be the death of me," she muttered under her breath and headed toward the piano. She sat there for a long moment of silence contemplating with her eyes on Amos for a telling moment. He smiled back at her weakly. Without thinking, her hands moved on the ivory and ebony keys.
"Some say love
It is a river
That drows
The tender reed
Some say love
It is a razor
That leaves
Your soul to bleed
Some say love
It is a hunger
An endless aching need
I say love
It is a flower
And you
It's only seed
It's the heart
Afraid of breaking
That never
Learns to dance
It's the dream
Afraid of waking
That never
Takes the chance
It's the one
Who won't be taken
Who cannot seem to give
And the soul
Afraid of dying
That never
Learns to live
When the night
Has been too lonely
And the road
Has been too long
And you think
That love is only
For the lucky
And the strong
Just remember
In the winter
Far beneath
The bitter snow
Lies the seed
That with the sun's love
In the spring
Becomes the rose"
Her hands danced over the keys almost on their own.
"It's the one
Who won't be taken
Who cannot seem to give
Lies the seed
That with the sun's love
In the spring
Becomes the rose..."
Lizzie looked up to see Amos reduced to tears, as was Tonks, Molly, Fleur, and Hemione. The applause was tumultuous, and Lizzie swallowed down another drink before sitting down.
Dinner proceeded with lively conversation at each table. Lizzie coddled a drink and made her way to put up a line up of music. It was well received. In between laughing until her stomach cramped with Ginny, Hermione, and Angelina at the Weasley boys and Lee Jordan dancing to The Weather Girls, and twisting to Chubby Checker with almost the entirety of her old quidditch team, was a slow dance to Unchained Melody.
Luna stopped Lizzie for hug and introduced her father, Xenophilius. He extended his undying support and it was clear to Lizzie exactly where Luna had cultivated her oddities.
Lizzie sat down to catch her breath and sip champagne she had no business drinking at this point after so much liquor. Viktor Krum sat down next to her.
"Hi!" Lizzie said, extending her arms for a hug he returned stiffly.
"How are you?" He asked. Lizzie laughed and spilled her drink slightly. Viktor raised his eyebrows in a telling way that it was obvious she'd crossed a line of tipsy into drunk. She pecked him on the cheek.
"All of us together again" she said dreamily. He looked confused. "The champions!" She clarified, he nodded stiffly.
"All but one," she added, and her face fell. He looked over at her without turning his head. His eyes had been fixed on Hermione dancing with Ron.
"You know... the day Bill and Fleur met, was the day Cedric... died," she said. He set down his drink and put a hand on her shoulder almost to warn her not to sink into her own quicksand.
"Funny how that it is? Isn't it? How it works. I wanted to marry him. I would have you know?" She said. Vicktor looked sad, remembering too well the horror of that evening, and looked around to change the subject.
"Lizzee, that man, who iz he?" He asked pointing to Luna's father.
"Xenophilius Lovegood," Lizzie said.
"You know him?" He asked.
"I met him tonight, I know his daughter," Lizzie explained.
"That necklace, I could duel him 'ere just for vearing it," Viktor spat. Lizzie giggled but stopped abruptly when she realized he wasn't kidding.
"Why what is it?" She asked. She stared across at Xenophilius's chest at an eye-like symbol. Triangular, with a circle, and a line through the center.
"Grindewald's mark," he said reproachfully. Lizzie gaped.
"No..." she said in disbelief. "He wouldn't support the dark arts," she said with a faint laugh.
"That mark is carved into a vall at Durmstrang. I had family die at the hands of that monster. That is his mark," he said with a sinister glare and menacing point.
Lizzie was interested, but thankful when Charlie asked her to dance, he didn't mask the underbelly of possessiveness very well. The dance floor shortly thereafter cleared for a father daughter dance and daughters were invited to join Fleur and Monsieur Delacour. Lizzie sat down and made herself comfortable but a cough broke her attention and she looked up at Remus.
"Do you want to dance?" He asked.
Lizzie looked out to see Luna and her father, Ginny and Arthur, Creswell and his daughter, and other extended family members and their girls joining, some as young as eight or nine. Lizzie shook her head and forced a laugh. "Father daughter dance, my friend, I'm nobody's..." she started to say.
"You're everybody's daughter, Lizzie," he said reprovingly. "Hagrid would dance with you, so would Arthur... If you want I can ask one of them to..." but Lizzie shook her head as her eyes drowned quickly at the sentiment. She took his hand and they danced.
"Sirius would have choreographed something," Lizzie muttered. Remus laughed.
"Think I'm bad? Sirius wouldn't have had to wait until a full moon to maul Charlie," he said.
"Snuffles didn't maul Cedric," she reminded him.
"Cedric wasn't twelve years older," Remus said.
"I was married to a guy who -" she retorted.
"Yes, I know... and he deserved to be doused in kerosene and set on fire," Remus said under his breath. Lizzie nodded in concession. She felt safe for a long moment and like every moment like it, it ended with a heavier heart.
Before she sat down, Lizzie spotted Elphias Doge and made her way over to say hello.
"Mr. Doge," she said sweetly.
"Miss Potter, sit, please, lovely to see you. The song was beautiful," he said with flattery.
"Thank you, Bette Midler, not sure why it came to mind. The Rose, Fleur, flowers... sorry! I ramble with liquor. You can call me Lizzie," she said. He smiled.
"I found what you wrote for Dumbledore and assumed you knew him well?" She asked.
"Yes, well, the longest. He was a remarkable man even as a boy," he said. Lizzie swallowed.
"Oh Elphias, I hear he has been thoroughly unriddled by Rita Skeeter," Aunt Muriel interjected without invitation. She gazed at Lizzie for a very long moment with the edges of her mouth turned up in a smile that suggested her motives for joining them were less than kind.
"Don't believe any of that garbage," Elphias reassured Lizzie.
"Oh I love her! Lot to say about you, darling," she said, still gazing at Lizzie.
"Oh I'm sure she does," Lizzie groaned with a terrible taste in her mouth at the thought of Rita Skeeter.
"What she's written about her is cruel and tactless," Elphias interjected harshly.
"Never mind her, though there is going to be a whole section on him and you in her new book... Dumbledore was not who you think," Muriel said curtly.
"Tell me, Lizzie they call you? Those things she wrote about you a couple years ago... they were true, weren't they?" She asked with a sinister stare. Lizzie shifted uncomfortably. "It doesn't take a genius to read through those lines and when news broke about what you did to that Pettigrew traitor and Bellatrix Lestrange... I knew you had it in you," she cackled.
"Had what?" Lizzie asked, keeping her expression even in the haze the alcohol had put her in.
"Well you wouldn't have killed a priest if he hadn't hurt you. You uncle died too did he not? Vengeful. What did he do? That priest? I was around when the muggle news started breaking out with all the Vatican inquiries on priests and cardinals... bishops that raped or molested their alter boys and girls..." she sneered. Lizzie dropped her glass rather loudly and rubbed her mouth to fight off a wave of sick.
"Say nothing, darling, I can see it on your face," she said with a drunken slur of her own.
"Muriel!" Elphias protested.
"After reading about Dumbledore it surprised me none at all that he left this girl with one of the cultists subsects of the catholic church in our hemisphere. After what he did to his sister..." she continued, steamrolling through Elphias's astounded expression.
"Arianna was delicate. The lies they are spewing about her are outrageous," Elphias said, throwing up his hands. "That she's a squib... that Kendra locked her up... it's outrageous, I'd never seen Albus more beside himself than when she died," he continued in an exasperated tone.
"Locked her up?" Lizzie asked.
"Oh yes... after Percival was locked up in Azkaban for killing those three muggle boys that assaulted his little girl, Kendra moved them to Godrics Hollow and shut poor little Ariana away, she was six mind you, seven maybe. Meanwhile Albus was off at school, his brother had recently started. Nobody there knew Ariana even existed," she explained. Lizzie iced over.
"Bathilda Bagshot I hear spilled the beans on Dumbledore. My God girl, you look flushed beyond measure. Don't tell me you didn't know Dumbledore hid you and your family in his home mind you..." she continued.
It felt like a loud ship horn rang in her ears the moment Muriel said it, sounding an alarm for the tip of an iceberg about to be struck.
"Never mind that, Kendra was a proud woman, mortified to be raising a squib. She was muggle born see... she wanted to live in the illusion that neither her husband was a monster and nor the girl in her arms something to be ashamed of..." Lizzie's stomach lurched and suddenly Kendra, though she'd never seen a picture, looked astonishingly in her mind like Petunia.
"Ill informed sniping!" Elphias shot back.
"Why did nobody ever see her, Elphias?" She asked self-righteously. "If Kendra hadn't died first, I would have thought she'd done away with Arianna herself," she added.
"Muriel!" Elphias yelled. "Her health was always too poor," he said.
"She'd never been seen at St. Mungos though. Never received real care. Not if it meant somebody would find out..." Muriel sneered. Lizzie's mouth was numb while her mind raced around her own childhood. Vernon's rage at any attempt others made to seek care for her when she needed it. The last time she saw Claire and the words she shouted down the hall through tears when he dragged a ten-year-old Lizzie out by the arm, the hospital gown still tied around her shoulders. "They'll be pounding down your door for her! You monster!"
"But it doesn't fit, because Kendra died first, how...nobody knows," Muriel said.
"I'm sure Skeeter has written that Arianna killed her, then!" Elphias spat indignantly.
"Why not? Tell me Lizzie, is it true you killed your uncle? Desperate bid for freedom, or sheer hatred and spite?" She asked. Tears involuntarily rolled down Lizzie's face but she said nothing.
"I think Albus might have done away with her. Head of the family and all, didn't want the responsibility," Muriel said.
"Oh for heavens!" Elphias said, throwing up his hands in concession and shaking his head with pure disdain.
"Anyone who could sit by and let a little girl get imprisoned in her own home like that. You tell me, not a care in the world... true monster he was," she sneered.
"How... how old was she?" Lizzie asked in a cracked voice.
"When she died? No more than twelve, maybe eleven," Muriel said. Somehow now Ariana, who she had never heard of while Dumbledore was alive looked just like all the other girls who had taken up o cupancy in her head.
"How did she die?" She asked just above a whisper.
"They couldn't tell. Buried her quickly. There were marks from some type of unknown magic I heard but that didn't get substantiated, it was hushed up," Muriel spat reproachfully.
Doge was looking at Lizzie apologetically, his gaze was troubling, like he wasn't saying something. She caught a glimpse in his eyes of headlines about Lizzie. He knew why this was having a horrible affect on her. Lizzie didn't notice how badly her hands were shaking. If she wasn't a squib, maybe she was a... she thought as she watched the trembling quicken. But they would have known. That is hard to hide in most cases. But if she had been an obscurial, that surely would have meant Dumbledore had known it about her herself from the start. Was that the magic she'd have that Voldemort didn't if he cultivated it? Did he want to use her the way Voldemort once had but in the reverse? If his sister were like her in that way, like all of Riddle's girls had been like her in ever other, then Dumbledore knew exactly what he was doing when he left her on Privet Drive, when he insisted she go back every year, when... hands were on her because she'd stood up and toppled to the floor in a gut wrenching amount of pain.
"Liz-Lizzie!" Charlie said, he'd rushed forward when he caught sight of her demeanor from a couple tables away.
He refilled a water glass and told her to drink before taking her back to a table with friends and away from the evil cackling woman who seemed pleased to have her Lizzie Potter rumors confirmed.
Cake was being served and Lizzie felt shut up in the cupboard as it invisible walls. closed around her. The equivalent of four straight years of her life spent in there. More than 1200 tallies. The walls she'd remembered as her real home, the happy home in Godrics Hollow had simply been a prison to another little girl and it felt tainted. The walls closed in more tightly, the darkness loomed, and she retreated in her chair like a shelled turtle into the corner of tent so she wouldn't be seen burying her head in a pair of trembling hands.
"What happened? Let's get air?" Charlie asked. Lizzie felt suffocated but she shook her head and beared down on her jaw for control. "No more liquor, please. I will get you some cake, that should help," he said, brushing hair from her face and headed off to the table cake was being served at.
The room fell astonishingly quiet and a silver light appeared at the center of the tent. The air felt different like the wedding tent was a floating piece of ice in the center of the artic ocean, vulnerable to the elements. A lynx appeared in the silvery light and addressed Arthur. Kingsley's voice spoke clearly from it.
"The ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They're coming," the voice said. Lizzie looked around at a speed that made her sway on her feet. Hermione was first in her line of sight and Ron was making his way through the crowd toward her. "Lizzie!" She yelled.
"Charlie?" Lizzie whispered, looking around for him. Black billows collided with the walls of the tent and cracks reverberated all around as guests apparated. The protections had already come down. "Charlie!" She screamed through the commotion and ran toward what she thought was him dueling a death eater in black robes with his brother, Bill. Arms latched around her abdomen and pulled her back.
"Lizzie, GO!" Remus screamed, panic laced on every crevice of his face as he showed her toward Ron and Hermione. Ron had arms protectively on Hermione's shoulders and she reached for Lizzie's hand. Lizzie lunged forward, narrowly missing a curse in her direction and with a loud crack they were gone.
The first thing they heard were cars flying by on a muggle street. Lizzie blinked and looked up and down a muggle road before letting her hair out and morphing into the black hair, brown eyed disguise she'd grown accustomed to in London. Hermione grabbed her hand and they walked uncomfortably down the road and into an alley with Ron bringing up the rear.
A group of men cat whistled at them at them as they passed. One reached for Lizzie and Ron shoved him hard to back off. Had they not been drunk and amused by his dress robes it might have escalated. Lizzie grabbed his arm and took off down down street after Hermione who walked with resolve and seemed to know where she was going.
Lizzie ripped off the uncomfortable shoes and ran with the straps of the heels entwined in her fingers until they were out of sight.
"Here," Hermione said, digging her arm into her beaded bag and pulling out clothes to change into. Lizzie exhaled with relief, tied her hair back in a messy braid, and pulled on jeans under her dress and slipped the dress over her head to pull on a comfortable, tightly knitted, long sleeved shirt. Hermione pulled out walking shoes and Lizzie kissed the side of her head in appreciation.
Ron gaped at the idea that her tiny bag supposedly held everything they needed, but turned to give them privacy before peeling off his dress robes and slipping into modest and comfortable clothing.
Lizzie grabbed her head and swayed. "Your scar?" Hermione asked. Lizzie shook her head in discomfort and threw up next to a dumpster. It had been brewing in her abdomen since the conversation with Muriel and like a shaken soda bottle in the commotion, spilled over.
"Coffee..." she said rubbing her temples. Hermione nodded.
"You look nothing yourself, really. You've gotten good at that," Hermione said, handing Lizzie a pair of fake glasses to further deter reginition.
They entered a coffee shop and sat down. "Do you have muggle money?" Lizzie whispered, her breath was quivering still, screams from the assault on the wedding echoed in her head, a pit in her stomach formed around the thought that people were hurt, or worse. She wanted to go back and impulsively made a gesture as though to stand. As though he read her mind, Ron pulled her arm down firmly and grounded it on the table. He clasped her hand.
"We can't go back," he said, but he looked scared. They all sat petrified for a moment in thought before the waitress asked what they wanted.
"Vanilla latte, two extra shots of espresso, please," Lizzie chirped. The waitress raised her eyebrows considering how late it was. "Just black coffee," Ron said. "Cappucino, thank you," Hermione said and set money down on the table.
"I have all the essentials. I didn't want to risk leaving anything in the house, had a strange feeling after the Minister left yesterday," she explained. Lizzie grabbed the sides of head and rocked slightly thinking hard about what to do.
"Oh I can't believe this," Hermione whispered. "Voldemort will have control of everything by weeks end, and the hunt for you..." she added faintly.
Lizzie shuddered. She wished Charlie were with them, and for the first time realized how well he kept the reigns on everything while they hid in London.
"Where should we go?" Ron whispered as the coffees were set down in front of them. Hermione bit her lip nervously. Two work men entered the Cafe and headed toward the counter. Something itched on the back of Lizzie's neck and she looked up at the backs of their heads suspiciously. The dark haired on reached for something in his pocket and with seeker reflexes she screamed "DOWN!" at Hermione and pushed Ron under the table.
"Stupify!" She yelled, drawing and pointing her wand at one, but dodging the same relayed in her direction.
"Expelliarmus!" Ron shouted, and sent the blonde one back into the counter unconscious. The remaining death eater assaulted them with several curses that were either blocked or narrowly dodged.
"Petrificus Totalis!" Hermione shrieked and sent him flying behind the counter.
The waitress stood in the corner trembling and Hermione pushed her into the kitchen, from the sound of it performed a memory charm, and then told her to leave.
Lizzie got the window shades and waved her wand to repair the multitude of shattered glass. Ron examined the blonde one curiously.
"That's Thorfin, he was on the astronomy tower with Snape and Draco," Lizzie said, recognizing him now that she looked head on.
"This is Dolohov," Ron said as he made his way around the counter. Lizzie went rigid. Aside from the brief encounter outside of Kingsley's Dolohov was amongst the death eaters at the Manor in the time she'd been abducted. She hadn't known if Voldemort had actually allowed them access to her, or had just made her think his recently escaped death eaters were visiting the room she'd been in. She'd forced herself to think and believe the latter, because the curse Voldemort administered was too much by itself to have grappled with, and the rumors that spread about her being raped by death eaters made her desperate for any reasons to refute. But she didn't know. In the time she was there he'd made her relive every horrible experience she'd had to date along with everything she feared whilst being there, and if she fought it, if she closed him out even a hair, his displeasure reeled and physically ate through her body.
That was the promise she had if she was returned to him. He would either kill her or keep her, and she would have easily begged for the former if it meant even a short lifetime of the latter.
Lizzie crouched down next to Dolohov. "Yep, that's him," she said coldly. His eyes flickered around.
"Lizzie, what do we do with them?" Ron asked. She had her wand at his temple.
"I'm tempted to torture information out of them, but my better nature is telling me not to," she said ominously. Lizzie had a horrible urge to remove his tongue and eyes but snapped herself out of it.
"Bind them in the back, wipe their memories, we need to get out of here," she said.
"Lockhart style memory charm, if you can manage," Lizzie said to Hermione. Her eyes went wide.
"Permanent? No memories?" She asked. Lizzie nodded.
"They deserve it, at least Dolohov does. I don't know about Thorfin, but just whatever you can manage to throw them off our trail," she explained. Hermione hesitated but obliged.
"How did they know we were here?" Lizzie asked when they left the shop for a safer place to take refuge.
"I don't know," Lizzie whispered with goose bumps covering every micrometer of her skin. "Number 12" she said. "We hide in plain sight... sort of... I think they think it's primarily the last place I'd go," she said. Hermione gaped in protest.
"Just for now," Lizzie reassured her.