Author's Note: It's been pointed out to me that, depending on the browser being used, that this fanfiction site's page breaks don't always show up. That can make it confusing to a reader when the POV changes, so I am changing the POV breaks to the acronym 'ECOTS' to make these viewable for everyone. Hopefully that solves the issue. I'll be going back and fixing other chapters for this as well.

The chapter numbers of this story did change. My re-write/revision of the beginning is complete (mostly) and I have rewritten chapter 1-6 and heavily revised 7-23. I also deleted some chapters and combined things for a smoother read, so this story did go from 85 chapters down to 75. You are not hallucinating. That being said, these are all not yet beta read, but the amazing SammyBlueGA and Nauze have been helping me with this (these guys deserve medals), so please be forgiving of typos. This has been a long haul.

I'm working on putting this on AO3 as well. Harrypotterfanfiction has some kind of glitch that is making editing extraordinarily hard. Apparently after the last tech update there it took all the chapters of this and randomly moved them around (chapter 3 became chapter 1, chapter 40 became chapter 20, etc.). I will edit and post on there eventually, but it took 20 minutes to do one chapter fix so that is a long ways off. This site here will remain my primary posting site.

Also, I've been working on a far shorter story that will be a Harry/Daphne fanfic that takes place after the 7th book so it'll be canon, minus the epilogue. That will be much, much (did I mention much?) shorter than this. I'm going to get a few chapters of that created before I post, but just a head's up that that'll be coming soon-ish. It'll probably be only 20 to 30 chapters in total.

Anyways, onto this chapter!


ECOTS


Chapter 79 ~ Surrey is Screwed

"Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you." ~ Jean-Paul Sartre


ECOTS


There had been a leg, apparently.

Neville, Ginny and George were the first to arrive, and George had immediately set about making this point very clear.

When Fred had sent out the call for help the three of them had been the closest. Ginny had also been stuffed into a Girl Guides of the UK uniform, and they had been going door-to-door doing their own reconnaissance. Ginny was, by George's account, "gifted" at distracting the poor, unsuspecting saps that answered the doors. She'd draw them out onto their front stoops, and he and Neville had taken advantage, literally slipping into each house to scout it out from the inside, looking for Death Eaters that way.

You know, because they had to do things different.

At any rate, they had been within the anti-apparation zone when Fred had charmed the phoenix tattoo with a message for help. They'd been rushing to meet them when a splinched leg wearing a sandal had erupted out of thin air, right in front of them, dropping right into the middle of the Muggle street, toes still twitching.

Unfortunately it had dropped down right in front of a kid on a tricycle, and the subsequent screaming had resulted in more than one obliviation spell being used on their well-meaning parents and neighbors.

They still didn't know who the leg belonged to.

Ginny had barely prevented George from suffering the same fate, stopping him before he apparated to St. Mungo's with it. She'd realized, rather quickly, that if someone had been splinched themselves then something was wrong – very wrong.

In the end Neville had known all the right spells to use. After his parents torturer – Bellatrix – had escaped Azkaban the wizard had worked harder than anyone else to enhance his magical potency, and he'd been able to detect the spells preventing portkeys and apparition. That had led to the three of them rushing through the Muggle neighborhoods, a bloodied leg tossed over George's shoulder, while they frantically tried to find a spot where the anti-apparation wards weren't in place.

It'd taken them over an hour.

Lee Jordan, Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, Oliver Wood, Justin Flinch Fletchley, Susan Bones, Cormac McLaggen, Terry Boot, the Patil twins, and Lavender Brown weren't far behind. Someone with cat eyes by the name of Rolanda Hooch, hauling the other Americans - Matt, Jessica and Aiden - with her, joined two hours later.

She promptly had tossed down a half dozen brooms, declaring that was the aerial team if they were needed.

Ginny had looked gleeful at the prospect.

Each and every single person had arrived disillusioned, crawling through an open first floor window. Fred had gotten word to them that they couldn't portkey or apparate in, but most had already figured that out.

They had figured it out because McGonagall, Hagrid, Professor Flitwick, Molly Weasley, Hestia Jones, Hannah Abott, Mr. Delacour, Elphias Dodge and four additional Aurors that had been recruited had all already tried it.

The effort had splinched them, then sent them magically bouncing right back to where they'd started.

Each and every single one of them had been nearly torn in half. According to the message charms flying back and forth Professor McGonagall, Molly Weasley, Hestia Jones, Hannah Abott and three of the Aurors were in critical condition. Professor McGonagall was doing a 'little' better than the other six, having mainly splinched her tail off her rear. She'd transfigured herself into a cat partway through the 'incident' as soon as she'd felt something off. Somehow, that had helped.

Hagrid, Professor Flitwick, and Mr. Delacour were all part creature, and had fared somewhat better thanks to their creature blood. That, at least, would give them a better chance at healing.

The final Auror had died, splinched at the neck.

It all made a twisted kind of sense.

It was a miracle more of them hadn't died.

The more experienced wizards and witches had wanted to arrive there first, to scope things out as a matter of safety for the younger Order members. McGonagall, Fred's mother, the four Aurors, Professor Flitwick, Elphias, and Mr. Delacour all qualified, and had went ahead to 'be the reconnaissance party.'

The Death Eaters had anticipated that. They'd struck a considerable blow in one foul stroke, taking out a number of the most experienced Order members right from the get-go.

It was a dirty tactic. It was also a good one.

As for Hannah Abott, Hestia Jones and Hagrid…that had just been their bad luck.

It was why it'd taken so long for the other Order members to meet them on Privet Drive, and as they all stood there, crammed into a dead Muggle's living room, George Weasley summarized what they were all thinking with a single word.

"Shit."

Then the planning began.


ECOTS


Given the crowd in the house, they'd escaped to the garage.

"You can't possibly think that's going to work."

George slung a comradely arm around Hermione's shoulders, grinning. "Sure it will!" He gestured at the old, yellow sports car, his grin only slightly maniacal. "Just look at it! It's a modern-"

"Archaic," Alicia said, eyeing the rust.

"-stallion-like, road and fisycks-defying-"

"Physics," Hermione hissed.

"-piece of machinery! And look, we've even improved it!"

George finished his proclamation, sweeping the arm not draped over Hermione out at the vehicle in what Kally could only presume to be a grand gesture, as if just waiting for applause.

Remus, Ron, Hermione, Luna, Regulus, and shockingly Amarante and Malana had all been late arrivals. But they'd arrived, and all of them, with the exception of Remus and Regulus, were now gathered in the garage with her, Jake, Fred, George, Lee, Oliver, Katie, and Alicia.

Needless to say even the garage was crowded, especially now that the 1964 Lotus Elan had been elongated, a double backseat added to it, expanding its holding capacity from two people to eight. Fred had helpfully pointed out that if anyone were willing to ride on the front and back hoods, then they could reasonably expect to get that capacity up to twelve.

They all just stared at it.

"I am not," Alicia declared, "riding in that death trap."

"Oh come on Alicia," Lee said, throwing his arm around the dark haired girl's shoulders, "it's no worse than a broom. And you ride those real-"

The two had been dating, and judging from the loud smack and Lee's subsequent disappearance from view, Kally could only assume the older girl had just taken out her boyfriend at the kneecaps.

Fred let out a low whistle, peering over the hood of the car. "Bad luck there mate. How're the family jewels?"

A disembodied voice from somewhere beneath the car let out a low groan. Alicia simply stepped over something – probably his body – and began tying her hair back. "If you drive down the street in this," she argued, "you and anyone else inside of it is going to be a sitting duck."

Fred's grin grew wide. "Why my favorite chaser, that's the idea."

Katie's eyes narrowed from beneath a light brown fringe. "I thought I was your favorite chaser?"

"Depends on my mood," he said easily, "and whichever one of you is most heavily armed."

The wizard named Oliver snorted. "They're both always armed."

Katie shot him a withering look.

"Better hop on fixing that mate," George grinned, "looks like your bird's pissed."

Oliver glanced towards Katie and lifted his eyebrows, as if seeking clarification about just how much trouble he was actually in.

Kally, in the span of five minutes and actually meeting all of these people, had figured out that Alicia and Lee were dating, Katie and Oliver were dating, and it was anyone's bet which one of those wizards would inspire their girls to violence first.

George, his arm still draped around a resigned-looking Hermione's shoulders, leaned down to whisper something that sounded suspiciously like a bet. Hermione sighed. Ron growled, and Kally was pretty positive it was in the direction of his brother.

Lee, at some point, had clambered to his feet and appeared to be knocking on the front windshield, as if inspecting. "What are those things those Muggle nutters use again? That shatter windows and organs and the like? Budgets?"

"Muggle nutters?" Malana repeated, rather dangerously.

The dark skinned wizard nodded absently. "Yeah, that lot. Them and their budgets. This thing," he rapped the window again, "budget proof or no?"

Malana reached slowly into the duffel draped over her shoulder...

George released Hermione and promptly snatched at the Hawaiian-Swedish girl's hand, inevitably preventing Lee's looming death by firearm violence.

"I think you mean bullets," Amarante corrected diplomatically, "not budgets." He paused. "Though both are equally dreadful to deal with."

As if by silent agreement all parties in the room ignored the slight scuffle in the corner between Malana and George. Malana, usually reserved and solemn, was making unpleasant sounds and attempting to yank her hand away from the twin. George, naturally, ignored this and tossed an arm over the Muggle girl's shoulder, yanking her against his side and grinning. "We're in love. Planning a Spring wedding."

Jake and Fred chuckled. Ron, now that his girlfriend had been freed of his brother's clutches, had tossed an arm around Hermione's shoulders to hug her to him, the brunette letting out a long suffering sigh. "No," she said, rather calmly, all things considered, "glass is not bullet proof."

Fred's eyes practically lit up. "We can fix that!"

"Yeah," George chimed in, "already made it spell-proof. Insta-shield charm embedded in the armor-"

"Did he just imply the classic sports car was a tank?" Alicia asked.

Katie nodded. "Yup."

"-and thanks to dear old dad's old tinkering even gave it a good ole fashioned cloaking charm!"

At that Ron tried to repress a laugh and failed. Hermione shot him a disapproving look.

Fred held up both his hands. "Now, now, I know you're all wondering about the flying charm-"

"We weren't," Katie said.

"But that one takes a bit more time on account of the stability boosters-"

Alicia eyed him like he'd lost his mind. Ron just frowned, mouthing, 'stability boosters?' George finally succeeded in snagging Malana's gun, holding it out of her reach with one hand and trapping her to his side with the other. Fred ignored them all and continued, "But we guarantee that if the car survives tonight-"

"Which it won't," Lee warned.

"-that it'll be good to go for a moonlight flight sometime next week."

Oliver chuckled.

"So who's in?"

Kally just rubbed at her forehead, finally giving in to the temptation to close her eyes.

"Depends," Lee said, "you passing out helmets pre-trip or no?"

"As the only one here who has recently suffered a serious head injury," Amarante carefully broached the topic, "I'd suggest helmets."

"Recent?" George argued. "Please. That was so six months ago."

"Seven," Luna chimed in without looking up.

Kally actually groaned, collapsing back against the wall. She didn't get around to hitting her head against it, because her sleeve was grabbed and a sharp tug sent her off balance, Kally falling to the side and thudding against a broad chest, an arm lopped casually around her shoulders.

Kally sent Fred a sidelong look.

The wizard didn't so much as glance at her, whistling innocently.

Strangely everyone had actually shut up to stare at them. The only exception was Luna, who was humming quietly and twining string through a series of recycled cans that she'd set up on the floor. Other than that it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Jake broke it, flat out snorting. "Bold mate."

Lee drug his attention away from the car, the wizard sliding down the car hood, where he'd somehow wound up.

Kally actually squirmed. Fred just tightened his hold, lifting both his red eyebrows at the eleven other people sharing garage space with them. "What?" he said, giving her a little shake. "Everyone else has got a cuddle buddy. Fancied grabbing myself one."

"You do realize," Jake pressed, "Potter will kill you."

"For this?" Fred said, grinning more. "Nah. Now if I went ahead and snogged her…"

George's expression was entirely serious. "I'll start your eulogy now then? You got a preference for what accent I use to deliver it?"

Fred frowned thoughtfully. "Medieval pig-Latin, it's the only way to go."

Ron choked on a laugh.

Hermione shot them all scolding looks. "Honestly, you're making Harry sound like a deranged wizard prone to outbursts of violence."

Kally frowned. "Isn't he?"

Everyone's heads darted towards her, the non-witch wincing. "I never said it was unprovoked…"

Fred just grinned smugly, now seeming more determined than ever to keep his arm right where it was as he mimicked George, Ron, and Oliver's cuddle time. "Besides, you all are forgetting," he stood up a bit straighter, posturing, "I can take the surrogate little brother."

"No," Ron said, "you can't."

Fred made a mock sound of outrage, glancing at her. "I'm bigger then him, aren't I?"

It took her a moment to realize that hadn't been rhetoric and he was actually expecting an answer. "Like I know?" she said, incredulous. "I haven't seen him since May."

"But in May I was bigger?"

She sighed so hard strands of hair blew up out of her face. "Yes. Happy?"

Lee, who for some reason had wound up sitting on the hood of the car, waved his hand in their general direction. "You both realize we could be taking that all kinds of dirty ways, yeah?"

Jake closed his eyes. "And I shared a room with the two of them. The nightmares…"

Ron scoffed. "How do you think I feel? I shared a room with Harry."

Everyone glanced at him, Ron frowning. "Do I seriously have to explain that sharing a room with Harry means I shared a room with Harry and Kaylens? Together? In the same bed?"

Alicia blinked. "How the hell did they get away with that in school?"

"Are you kidding? Hogwarts has been practically closed since last November. Prefects aren't exactly roaming the halls and McGonagall might be a hard ass, but doubt she wants to walk in on that."

The dark skinned girl's mouth opened and closed. "But…that's not fair."

"Yeah," Lee chimed in, sounding put-out. "You have any idea how many hoops we had to jump through when we were there just to get in a good snog? Downright unfair that-"

His complaint was cut off by his girlfriend's sharp elbow, the witch sending him a withering look.

"Yeah well, betting Kally-kins andickle Ronnie-kins don't have that problem," George teased.

Kally simply stood there, in the cold garage, wishing they'd stop. They didn't. The friendly banter continued, but she barely heard them. She felt drained, no longer fighting Fred's grip on her, and felt undeniably empty.

It'd been months since she'd last seen her boyfriend. Over a month since Harry had gone back in time. Over a month since he should have returned. And for him…

He'd time travelled back six months. Another month made seven. He'd now been gone nearly as long as their relationship. She had no way of knowing if he was still alive, if he was alright, if something had happened, if he was even coming back.

Ron was regaling them with details on how he was still traumatized over that first time he'd walked into his dorm to find she and Harry snogging on his bed.

It was like a knife to her chest, but Ron didn't realize that. Or Alicia. Or George. Or Lee.

But Hermione did.

Brown eyes studied her, the other witch's lips parted in silent understanding, concern etched upon her face. "Ron," she hissed. "Harry's missing. Maybe we shouldn't…"

Kally offered her a weak, grateful smile.

Ron choked off mid-sentenced, a visible weight falling onto his shoulders. His blue eyes shot to hers, the wizard looking sheepish. "Yeah er…sorry about that, Kaylens." He drug his free hand through his hair, and for an instant it was obvious that she wasn't the only one missing Harry.

The sudden silence was unbelievably awkward.

Alicia snapped her fingers to get everyone's attention. "Can we get back to spell and bullet proofing the car, please?"

Kally could have kissed her, Fred letting out an abrupt chuckle and tugging her against his side. His head dropped over hers, the wizard cursedly tall enough to treat her like a sodding child if he wanted. But right then, shaken as she was at the reminder that they were conspicuously without Harry, she was grateful for the feel of his chin digging almost painfully against the top of her head.

Katie raised a hand. "They're Zombies and Death Eaters, so why exactly are we bullet proofing the car?"

"Because reinforced steel is not enough?"

"Can someone please explain why we need a car anyhow?"

"I'm not walking out there with zombies on the loose!" Lee burst. "I want something nice and solid between me and them and most importantly their teeth."

"Besides," Fred boldly stated, his chin rustling her hair as he spoke, "my brother o'mine, Lee and I, we have a plan and having wheels is an important point in its execution."

Kally rolled her eyes up to eye him oddly. "And when exactly are you sharing the details of this plan?"

He shot a mischievous look down at her. "And spoil the surprise? I'm a showman at heart, Kally-kins. You wound my fragile soul by even asking."

She glared.

He smirked.

"I still think we should be using the flying option," Oliver suggested. "If we go in on brooms and flank either side of the drive," the wizard pulled a quill out of his pocket and looked as if he were about to begin using the car hood to diagram it out-

Six voices burst out at once. "Oliver NO!"

Katie snatched the quill away from him and smacked him on the nose with it like a naughty pup.

Alicia just groaned, "Focus! We don't exactly have a lot of time here."

And she was right.

The Death Eaters were attacking at midnight. That gave them eleven hours.

As if on cue the garage door leading inside the home opened, Remus sticking his head in to say, "Come back inside. We have a lot to discuss."

Conversation exploded.

Despite the activity going on around them, Fred kept a firm hold on her, leaning down and lowering his voice. "Screwing around about pissing off the surrogate brother aside," he whispered, "you okay?"

Kally was struck once again with how very, very glad she was that Fred was there.

Harry was gone. They were about to march headlong into an attack they knewwas coming. And Dean…

Dean hadn't shown up.

And neither had Snape.

She couldn't think about it. Thinking about it made her feel uneasy, upset. Yes she did it anyway. Was she honestly okay? Keeping her eyes on the less than orderly filing through the door, she shook her head no, words softly contradicting as she spoke, "It doesn't really matter, does it? I have to be."

She had to be, because this was war. None of them had much of a choice in it. They either fought, or they didn't, and either way they'd probably all wind up dead sooner or later. Being okay didn't really factor into it.

Fred hissed a breath, as if dissatisfied, but when she tried to move, to follow the others, he drug her back to him in a fierce hug.

There, in the garage, alone with Fred, she flat out clung to him for a second.

And then she didn't, because they had to move.

When they got back inside they found everyone lined up down the foyer, crowded and scrunched. Some had taken up precarious positions atop the back of the couch, straining to see over the heads of the taller people in front of them. The petite Ginny was actually sitting on Neville's shoulders, while others had crowded into the stairwell, craning their necks for a better view. Fred tugged her off to the side, sandwiching her firmly between he and Jake. George shot the three of them an amused look, commenting about their co-dependency wounding him, now that he'd been abandoned by his own twin for an American and a nice set of legs.

She ignored the subsequent scuffle between the twins, Jake snorting alongside her. There was a giant, makeshift map of Harry's street and the surrounding blocks spread down the length of the foyer, with key locations scrawled in big red letters with blinking X's. At the far end was a giant squiggle of black lines with the name 'Area Forgelee' scrawled in messy handwriting. Someone had taken the liberty of drawing and animating a twitching zombie in the center of the squiggles, the thing looking like it was drowning.

Kally shot Fred a curious look, the wizard grinning and holding a finger to his lips, making a grand show of shush-ing her.

With a bark to get their attention, George shouting, "Oh Mooney you hound you!" Remus let out an annoyed growl, then started filling the larger group in.

As it turned out Remus, Regulus, Neville, Ginny, Charlie Weasley, and two of the Americans – Jessica and Matt - had drafted up the battle plan for the evening. With Moody missing, McGonagall out of commission, and all the other senior members splinched, the Order was temporarily leaderless, and that had left Remus in charge.

Terrifyingly enough he'd appointed Regulus second in command. Casper's only response had been to mutter something about 'ungrateful Gryffindor blood kin rolling in their grave.'

Remus seemed irked, but set about explaining the plan. Kally almost wished he wouldn't, because the more he talked the worse the knot in her stomach got. It knotted as badly as if she had the stomach flu, for the entire plan was based off information she, Jake and Fred had gotten out of the two Death Eaters. If they'd missed something, it'd be on them.

She felt sick.

The Death Eater had told them their plans. First, the undead would be portkeyed in. Next, Death Eaters on brooms would set fire to select houses. Then, once the Muggles had begun to flee their homes, the undead would presumably eat the Muggles, creating more undead, and the Death Eaters would wait for Harry to come out.

And then they'd kill him.

She felt even sicker, hearing it laid out so matter-of-factly, as if this were something normal.

Plague victims had already overrun Ireland, and small subsets of England and Wales. Parts of France, Spain, Italy, and Germany had pockets of the plague, while Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg had been completely overrun.

And that was just in Europe. So far, by some miracle, it had only spread to North America, affecting only parts of Canada and the United States. At last report, the Southern Hemisphere was remarkably devoid of it.

So far.

Death Eaters were using this information, and they were flying to an overrun sector in Wales, waiting for midnight. At midnight they would drop portkeys on a timer down, and when they went off they would drag any and all of the undead within a ten meter radius from Wales directly into the center of Privet Drive.

Anti-portkey and apparition wards only affected the living, after all, and not the re-animated. It didn't matter if a dead body got splinched. It would simply get up, sans an arm or part of its torso, and start walking. Even if it lost a leg or two, the things could still crawl, and as long as they could crawl they could still could still kill, and that was all the Death Eaters wanted. Nothing more and nothing less than the complete and total annihilation of all things Muggle.

And of all things Harry.

It was sick and twisted how a megalomaniac was so obsessed with him.

Naturally the Death Eaters expected the Order to arrive, eventually, and when the Order did they were under orders to take any partial creatures within its ranks alive. Whatever experimentation Voldemort had done was apparently at a standstill, and the bastard was in need of fresh hybrid humans for ideas.

Which meant she was a target.

As was Remus.

As was Ron.

As was some witch named Rolanda Hooch.

Kally listened to Remus' rundown in silence, leaning against the farthest wall in between Fred and Jake.

"Well go in groups of three. We'll spread out under disillusionment and chameleon charms, and leave one group at a time through the back window. One group will leave every ten to thirty minutes. That ought to minimize the chance of any Death Eaters noticing the movement," Remus was telling.

"Ah yes," Regulus drawled, strolling out of the kitchen with an empty wine decanter in hand, "it'd be such a shame if our plan to 'save the Muggles' got obliterated by a pureblood supremacist growing axons and noticing too much rustling in the blades of grass to be natural."

Amarante and Remus were instantly eyeing the empty carafe. "You couldn't possible have drank all of that already," the Gai brother said with open skepticism.

"Of course not. We're about to battle to the death, and other such nonsense. I just prefer to hold it to ease my growing anxiety."

"I can't tell," muttered Jake, "if he's kidding or not."

Kally crossed her arms and sighed, "No one can."

Fred stared in awe. "My God, it's his security blanket."

Regulus simply raised his wand, filling the decanter with water and taking a deep, long swig. "If I only close my eyes and confound myself I might believe it is the real thing."

"I swear to Merlin he's a functioning alcoholic," Kally hissed quietly, eyes narrowing as she wondered where the flask was hidden on his personage. "Either of you see a flask on him? It's metal and black and looks concerningly burnt. Like someone tossed it in a fire out of concern for the general populace or…" She trailed off.

Regulus too, stopped. He'd been close enough to overhear, and now he stared at her, something peculiar in his expression, his hand seeming frozen mid-way to his mouth with the drink.

Suddenly Kally found it very hard to breathe. Everything around her was hazy, and she felt her shoulders striking the wall as she fell to lean back against it, closing her eyes as something – like a memory- swept over her. It was strong, overpowering everything else.

"Searching Black with the proficiency of a Muggle TSA agent?" Harry deadpanned. "Yeah, Hermione, I know."

Something tore inside her mind.

A dizzying swirl struck her, and like a horrible, terrible rush of blood she felt that tear within her mind spread wider. It was like a thorn pricking the skin, just a tiny bit of blood welling out and up onto one's palm, just enough to trickle down, but every movement tore it wider, made it bleed fiercer. It made her feel light headed, her heartbeat quickening as she tried, tried, tried to remember how and where and even why she knew that Black had an onyx-colored flask or when Harry had said that. But she couldn't. For the life of her she couldn't. She wasn't even aware that she'd quietly whimpered, her legs weakening.

"Kally?" Fred's voice was somewhat urgent, but she couldn't respond. Her head was pounding too much, like a rush of blood she couldn't stop and simply had to wait out. So she reached out a hand and clutched onto his arm, managing a small nod that made everything spin even worse.

"Fifty years aged scotch, girl, squandered on your inelegant taste buds."

It was like being in a vacuum. All the air was sucked out of it, and though Kally could still hear things the words were muffled. They were muffled by a backdrop of other words, and she wasn't even sure where they were coming from.

"Black! You're a Healer right?" Jake demanded from nearby. "What's wrong with her?"

Her lips parted and she tried to whisper, to tell him she was fine, only once again all that came out was a whimper. Jake was talking and Fred grabbed onto her shoulders, giving her a distinct shake.

She managed a vague, "Ow," at that.

She felt familiar fingers wrapping around her foot, grabbing onto her toes and giving them a slight shake. "Remarkably subtle," Harry said. "What's next? Clubbing him over the head?"

Her throat burned, her breath a dull wheeze. "Shit if I know but I am not doing that again."

"So," came Hermione's voice, sounding baffled, "this is…normal then?"

Hermione…

Kally managed to pry her eyes open, only to find Fred's face directly in front of hers. The rest of the Order seemed to be discussing the plans, going over where they were to be stationed on the street, arguing over who got to bring a broom, but Remus had been gestured over to them, as had Regulus.

Hermione, however, was staring directly at her, her lower lip pulled between her teeth, the witch worrying at it as if nervous.

Kally looked right past Fred to her. "We were in a dingy shack…"

Remus' hazel eyes looked alarmed.

More words drifted inside her mind and her eyes clamped shut. Someone grabbed her, and everything spun, though this time she suspected it was because her legs had been scooped out from beneath her.

When she cracked her eyes again they were going up the stairwell, away from everyone else, Hermione trailing after them.


ECOTS


The door to the bedroom slammed shut, Remus' voice coming out with more authority than he was used to. "What the hell is wrong with her?"

"Like I know? She was fine a minute ago."

Remus watched Fred drop next to where Kally sat on the bed, the girl leaning forward with her elbows on her knees. Her hands were at her temples, rubbing either side of her head, her entire expression scrunched as if in severe discomfort.

The twin dropped a hand onto the back of Kalliandra's neck and began rubbing immediately, watching her with a frown.

Remus tried to think of how to approach this diplomatically. They had enough moving parts right now and didn't need anything further complicated by pranks or wounded feelings, but he'd been a professor to them both and knew how they both worked. "Fred," he started, not unkindly, "I realize your products are created with good intentions, but when you and your brother get together…"

Fred's head shot up, as fierce a look on his face as he'd ever seen. "I didn't use anything on her."

Remus nodded. Fred Weasley may be a fan of practical jokes, but he wasn't a liar. "Okay." He moved his hazel eyes between the others gathered in the room – Jake, Hermione and Regulus. "Any ideas on what's wrong with her then? What did she mean about the shack?"

Kalliandra made a mildly irritated sound from the bed without glancing up. "I can hear you."

She hadn't talked until then, and Remus felt a bit of relief at her return of hostility. That typically meant she was feeling alright. "Well I suppose this means we should start acting as if we don't care again, in that case?" he questioned mildly.

"Ha, ha." She attempted another ha, but that third and last ha was cut off by an ow and a wince.

Sirius' brother sank heavily down into a dressing chair, clearly blind to the pair of pantyhose and dirty-looking granny-sized undergarments that he was now sitting on. The wizard just stared at Kalliandra, his brow furrowed deeply, looking lost in thought.

Then he slowly, absently reached into his inner coat, unearthing a dark-colored flask that appeared to have been charbroiled at some point. The wizard stared at it with a strange amount of detachment, before looking back up.

"Okay," Remus amended his previous question, "any idea on what's wrong with them?" He gestured at Regulus now, just in case there was any question about who them was.

Jake grimaced. "Got me."

Remus could feel himself growing grayer by the minute. Something was wrong with Kalliandra, and their resident Healer was catatonic. Great. Fantastic even. The wolf inside him rose up in frustration.

"They're remembering."

Remus' attention jerked towards her, Hermione Granger looking fretful and pensive. "What do you mean remembering?" he demanded, very aware of how little time they actually had for this.

The witch seemed to be debating something, then finally shook her head, glancing cautiously between those in the room. "They're remembering going back in time with Harry." She sighed tiredly, looking back and forth between Regulus and Kalliandra. Then, without prompting, she launched into an explanation. "Harry's probably still time traveling, but Kally…you got hurt, so Harry went back again with you to give your injuries time to heal." Her gaze landed on Black. "You went with them to help because…because Kally was really bad off. Once you were done time travelling we had to wipe your memories."

Her words were matter-of-fact, straightforward. Remus knew that Harry was time travelling. He knew because he was travelling with Tonks, his Nymphadora, and Remus had been eagerly awaiting their return perhaps as much as Kalliandra had been.

And they hadn't shown.

"Okay," Remus said, careful to keep his voice level. "So they were obliviated."

Fred shook his head. "I thought you couldn't get memories back from being obliviated?"

"Voldemort can," Hermione said. "Dumbledore told Harry once that Voldemort could break through even well-executedobliviations as long as the person's mind is intact. Even patients who have had bad ones can be sometimes cured by St. Mungo's. Stands to reason a poorly done obliviation charm could also wear off…" She glanced at Regulus, the former Death Eater now looking sharply at her. "I-I was the one who obliviated Regulus and I've never done the charm before…."

"There is no feasible way," the man in question stated, "that I would have let an unskilled and untested child near my head." All-in-all, he sounded rather calm.

Hermione's eyes glinted with something annoyed. "You would and you did."

Fred was still frowning, now rubbing Kally's back as she let out a soft laugh. "Call me insane," he said-

"You are," Hermione supplied.

"-but I thought the whole point of being, you know, obliviated was so they couldn't force the memories back?"

Remus shook his head, tone turning professorly. "The benefit of obliviation Fred is that you don't know what you don't know. If you don't know that you were obliviated, how could you possibly attempt to even begin at recovering those memories? The charm was invented to wipe the minds of Muggles in cases where the Statue of Secrecy was breached, as they would never entertain the possibility that mind-wiping was even possible. It was never meant to be used against wizards."

"Alright," Jake said, "now even my head hurts."

"So you obliviated us," Kally spoke up, her head remaining down and eyes clenched tight. "How do you fix it?"

"I didn't obliviate you so I don't exactly know. Harry-" She paused, as if again debating whether or not to continue. "Harry refused to obliviate you. He didn't want to risk you forgetting everything you both had been through, so he built a wall in your mind to box in several months' worth of memories."

Kalliandra let out a coarse laugh.

Remus growled, "Of course he did." Harry had done it once before, when Kalliandra had first been injected with unicorn blood - a situation Remus acutely recalled. He really needed to stop being surprised by the things the progeny of James Potter did.

Even Kalliandra was looking up now, one hand having fallen onto Fred's leg, as if the young woman was afraid of losing her balance sitting up. "Of course," she echoed. "Only Harry would do something that ridiculously reckless."

Hermione shot her a sympathetic look. "He said he left a lock on one of the bricks in the wall. He spelled it, somehow, so it unlocks with an activation word. If someone uses legilimency to go into your mind and unlocks it you'll get the memories back. Or at least…that's how it's supposed to work." She frowned. "I imagine that will solve your headache, but…I'm not sure about Black's." At that she winced, looking back at Black. "I'm sorry. I just…I'm good at mostmagic, but at the time I tried to tell you that I wasn't even remotely experienced enough to be trying a spell that complex."

The man lifted his hand, waving her off. "If I was idiotic enough to allow you to use me as an experimental guinea pig, then I doubt I cared about your magical inadequacies. I probably picked you for that express reason. I'm sure in my mind I was plotting to remember despite the charm, and the only way to do that was to ensure the charm was cast poorly."

Hermione's eyes had gone wide and expressive. "You used me," she breathed, sounding awed.

Black looked up, hands on his knees, and scowled. "I was a Slytherin. Do try not to sound so surprised."

Remus seriously considered cursing the headstones of both James and Sirius for the tidal wave of trouble their respective family members caused. Hopefully the afterlife wouldn't hold it against him.

For now there were a few things that had to be done, and they needed done quickly, and not by him, because he certainly was not a legilimens.

But he knew for a fact that the Black family children had been taught it beginning at a young age, the practice a matter of sport and coercion. It was a championed skill that would give them an edge against their opponents in political affairs, something the entire Black family was expected to be involved in, and Remus distinctly remembered Sirius bitching – at length about the unwanted lessons in, as he'd called it, "skull fuckery".

"Regulus," he requested, "can you go into Kalliandra's mind and unlock her memories for her?" He paused, rubbing at the side of his own head as it gave a low throb. "Perhaps seeing her floodgate of memories will assist in the removal of the obliviation charm from your own mind as well." It seemed a simple enough logic.

The werewolf wasn't sure what he had expected – an argument, or at the very least a long list of the potential risks? He received neither. Instead Regulus strode across the room to where Kalliandra and Fred sat, the young woman's eyes darting up to lock onto Regulus'.

"What, pray tell," the man drawled, "is the keyword?" He glanced at Hermione. "I assume Potter made you privy to it."

She nodded. "Kismet."

"Kismet?" Jake asked, eyebrow raised. "Like fate?"

Hermione shrugged. "He said it was some kind of weird nickname."

Kalliandra gave a small, breathy laugh. "Of course he did," she said softly, her lips curving up.

Regulus stood there for a second, maybe two. Then his wand whipped out and around before she could say or do anything else. "Legilmens!" A dim, yellow light burst out, and the two fell silent.

Remus stood there in silence. "I hope this works," he said tiredly. "We're already down enough people and the way they are right now…we could not possibly permit them to fight."

The American wizard sent him a strange look. "You're worried about the number of wands we have?"

"I would be a fool not to," he admitted. "They are two of the few present who have dealt with the undead before. We need that knowledge out there, not in here, and if their minds are not their own we cannot allow that. They'd be liabilities." No one required elaboration on what a floodgate in memories would do to a person's mind. It would distract, and distractions in the thick of it would result in deaths. Deaths they could not afford, and yet… "We cannot afford to be down another two wands," he finished lamely.

He disliked thinking of them like that, but right now he had little choice. He had never wanted to wear a mantle of leadership, but right now he was forced to and it was not something he relished.

Hermione shook her head, looking worried. "I told Harry it was a bad idea."

"You weren't wrong."

Jake let out a bark of a laugh. "No offense as I barely know the guy, but he doesn't strike me as someone who will just do what you tell him." The wizard's eyes were narrowed critically. "He leads, not follows. Not to mention gets a bit tetchy when it comes to her." He studied Kalliandra pointedly.

The wolf also found his gaze studying Kalliandra. Barely over a year ago he'd been called to Hogwarts to educate her on the wizarding world, a crash course so that she could properly blend in. He'd apprised her of magic, what it was, and what to expect in the new world that had been opened up to her. Thatgirl had just lost her entire family to the war; she had received a dire medical sentence; she'd been told that her form of magic would eventually, inevitably kill her.

At the time he'd wanted nothing more than to protect her. The profound protectiveness was logical. He'd failed Harry. He'd failed Cassy. After James and Lilly, after Sirius, after Peter he'd effectively cut himself off from anyone in his previous life.

Long ago he had torn the throat out of his own fiancée. The wolf had seen to that. She had died because she had trusted him. He'd killed the one person who had trusted him, implicitly.

His three best friends had not made that mistake. They had not trusted him. They'd thought him a Death Eater.

Funny, how trusting him had cost Cassilyda her life, and not trusting him had cost James his.

In the end, the three that had become animagi with him, the only ones to have ever shown him love and support, who had not judged once despite knowing what he was, had. They had judged him. They thought a bite enough to have made him a traitor, willing to give up his best friends to certain death.

People like that would not want him anywhere near their infant son. James had not wanted Remus near Harry, so he'd stayed away. He'd respected James choice, even in death. Knowing what he knew now, knowing how Harry had actually been raised, knowing that it had cost the wizard love and compassion and security, that'd been a grievous mistake.

He shouldn't have let James' judgement affect how he handled things; yet he had.

Kalliandra had been different. She wasn't the daughter of a boyhood friend. She wasn't a blood relation. But she was alone, she was suffering, she was angry, she was closed off, and when he had first looked at her he'd felt such a pit in his stomach, such a profound, bone-deep sense of regretthat Remus had wanted to do anything he could to fix that.

He couldn't fix that Harry had grown up, been forced to deal with tragedies alone.

He'd tried to make sure that Kalliandra didn't have to.

The young woman sitting there looked like that girl, yet looked nothing like her. She had grown, matured. She'd learned to survive. Strangely, perhaps ironically, it was because of Harry. The young woman that Remus had tried to take care of, to make up for how he'd failed Harry, had survived because of Harry.

And Harry had apparently messed with her memories, Remus' lips twitching at the prospect. He was Prongs son. He shouldn't be surprised.

Regulus and Kalliandra stared into one another's eyes, both parties entirely silent, Fred's hand remaining protectively on the golden haired girl's back. She had friends. She was safe. Remus let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding, aware he needed to mentally regroup to proceed.

"Hermione," he said, "since you were obviously in contact with them while they were time travelling, have you heard from any of them since-"

She shook her head swiftly. "No. Not since June, actually." She wet her lips. "Last I heard they were following some-" she stopped abruptly, looking towards Jake, clearly hesitant to continue.

It took the American a second to realize whyshe was looking at him. Until now he'd remained near the door, arms folded across his chest, eyes narrowed in concern.

Now he just looked amused. "Let me guess," he said, "you'd like me to leave?"

Hermione's lips parted, as if uncertain how to politely say yes, but Fred cut in for her.

"No. He's not going anywhere."

That got her attention. Remus watched his former pupil's head whip around so fast that her curly hair hit her in the face. "Fred, we can't just-" Her head whipped back to Jake. "It's nothing personal, but I don't actually know you and the-"

"The fewer people who know the better. Yada, yada," Jake said, not disagreeably. "I get where you're coming from. Just a bit annoying as I'm beginning to wonder how many times we have to risk our necks before you all stop assuming were Death Eaters in disguise, or worse, pig-headed Americans so full of ourselves that we're incapable of working with anyone else." He winked. "That's a bad stereotype you know."

Hermione's mouth hung open, flapping as if in a breeze.

Remus couldn't help but actually laugh. Then he held out a hand to stop the younger wizard, the man's hand having already begun to open the doorway. "A moment Jake," he requested, considering this. On one hand he understood Hermione's hesitancy. They were at war, and whatever she was going to say clearly involved Harry and Tonks. That alone caused a stirring of nerves within him, for both of their safeties, and yet…

From the wizard's carefully controlled reaction and words it was obvious they had not trusted him.

Remus mulled over what he knew about him. It was not a lot, but he did know that he'd been subjected to veritaserum more than once. Remus had helped in that first interrogation of him, right alongside Snape and Minerva. So Remus already knew that the wizard had crossed the Atlantic, a far from easy feat given the blockades in place, and he'd done it to come help at the heart of the war. He had not wanted to be on the periphery.

He also knew what it was like to be left out, isolated, boxed out simply due to assumptions people on the same side of the war had made. However fond he remained of James and Sirius, his own best friends had once done the same to him.

It made the decision easy.

"Hermione," he said calmly, "if Minerva trusted him to accompany Kalliandra and Fred this summer, then I am certain that he can be trusted with this."

Her mouth snapped shut, but she still looked uncertain.

"Oh for fuck's sake," Fred groaned. "If he were a Death Eater he could have killed Kally-kins and myself here in our sleep ten dozen times over by now. We shared a room with him. Not to mention he hasn't said a bleeding word about what Kally actually is to anyone or mentioned the actual recipe for the plague's cure and believe me, bloke had chances." He nodded at him. "How much did that one wizard in Spain offer you?"

Still standing by the door a grin crossed his face. "Two hundred thousand galleons," he said. "I mean, I did owl to get a few vials for him and his family so they wouldn't die, but then told him to get lost when he got a bit…physical."

Hermione was now staring, looking like she would rather not know, yet asking anyway. "Physical?"

The American wizard shrugged. "He attacked me. Held me down with a wand to my throat and threatened to slit me from chin to family jewels nice and slow if I didn't give it up."

"And he didn't even hex him back for it either," Fred chimed in.

The blonde shrugged. "He was just scared for his family. Scared people panic, do crazy things. Don't mean nothing by it."

Remus felt his mouth twitching just a little, and tilted his head towards the Gryffindor. "Sounds rather calm headed and logical to me. How about you, Hermione?"

For another moment she didn't say anything, Jake hooking a thumb over his shoulder, telling, "Or I could just leave before my presence pushes her into an anti-outsider panic?"

Fred didn't even try to repress the snort he let out, and neither did Remus.

Hermione looked chastised. "It's not that, it's just…this is Harry. It's my best friend we're talking about and I-"

He held up his hands. "I get it, thus offering to leave."

The witch sighed, then, with some reluctance, filled them in on what she knew. She called it the 'cliffs notes' version. What startled Remus the most was that they'd been tracking the locations of Death Eater safe houses, and had actually found at least one at the time of their last correspondence.

And Hermione hadn't heard from them since.

A chill slid down Remus' spine.

Hermione, the clever girl, must have realized. "It might not necessarily be a bad thing," she offered. "Harry said I might not hear from him until they came back to the same timeline. I'm sure they're okay. They must have just gotten delayed…" Despite her words even she didn't look fully convinced.

Remus closed his eyes and reminded himself that he had to have patience, even when there wasn't time for it.

A nagging feel at the back of his mind reminded him that Harry was with Nymphadora, and that Tonks – his Tonks – attracted trouble like a magnet attracted metal.

A sharp thrum snapped through the air, breaking the silence, and everyone's heads turned towards where Regulus had just lowered his wand. His chest heaved, breaths hard and labored, and the ghost of Sirius Black sat back on his ankles looking winded and annoyed.

"That man," he declared, "is a menace."

Kalliandra tried to nod agreement, only to slip completely off the bed. Fred let out a shout, making a grab for her and missing. The Reach barely seemed to notice. She fell forward onto her hands and knees right alongside Regulus, her hair hanging limply in her face, eyes closed as she breathed hard and deep, as if she'd just run around the block several times playing at distraction for the undead.

Fred slid down to the floor too, muttering, "Jesus woman….gonna give me a heart attack doing that shit…"

Kalliandra let out a shaken laugh.

"And she thinks that's funny. Way to be concerned about your protector, oh-grateful-one," Fred told, grabbing a sizeable chunk of her hair and lifting it carefully up, so that it no longer veiled her face. He peered at her beneath it, "Well? That work? Headache cleared up? Dizzy feints vamoosed and all that?"

Regulus growled and shot Kalliandra a dark glare. "I really could have done without the traumatizing visuals."

Her head darted up, hair still clutched in Fred's hand and now hanging like a strange type of drapery. She blinked at Regulus for a second, then let out an abrupt laugh. "Then you shouldn't have looked."

Judging from Regulus' reaction Remus suddenly had a very good idea about what type of memory he might have seen.

He instantly closed his eyes and tried to not vomit. "Please," he muttered, "do not continue talking."

He didn't have to worry. Kalliandra batted Fred away, sitting up. She collapsed against the bed post, staring straight ahead and looking slightly stunned.

Hermione looked unbelievably worried.

Jake just seemed amused. "Well? Did it work?"

"Potter," Black practically spat the word, "tried to poison me."

"Guess that answers that," Fred snorted.

"Routinely. At breakfast."

"Would you have preferred dinner?" Fred questioned innocently.

Black's eyes tore towards the Weasley twin, flashing daggers. "He messed with my coffee."

"Ah, well can't have that. Perhaps afternoon tea would have been better?"

Sirius' brother snarled, and Fred eyed him as if he were a viper about to spring.

Kalliandra had not moved. She slumped to the floor, back propped against the oak bed frame. Overly frilly bed hangings hung in her face, and Remus would have bet hard earned sickles that she didn't notice. She didn't even appear to notice the increasingly animated conversations occurring around her as Regulus made increasingly creative threats about what he was going to do to Harry, Fred masterfully baiting him, while the American shook his head in bemusement.

Hermione looked mildly horrified.

Remus let out an amused breath. "Regulus, you do not happen to recollect anything about my fiancée's whereabouts by chance?"

Black's deep set eyes jerked to him, snarling. "That cousin of mine is a menace. You'd be better served to stage an accident and claim sterility than to proceed down your ill-advised nuptial path that will surely lead to her." he shuddered, "procreating."

Remus chuckled. "I'll take it under advisement."

Tonks' cousin simply eyed him critically. "I suppose we could just neuter you. You are part dog. Do it under a full moon and it might hurt less."

Jake shook his head. "You lot are far too interested in one another's reproductive abilities. I'd recommend a therapist but heard you wizards don't use them here."

"We engage in therapeutic activities. It's called vanquishing your enemies."

"Is anyone worried about Kaylens here?" Jake changed topics. "Seriously Kally, you look ill."

"Don't worry about her," Black bit, sounding testy, "her synapses have just been scrambled. She'll be fine once the pounding headache wears off."

Remus inclined an eyebrow, but turned his attention back to Kally. She still had not moved, and he would have been mildly concerned had she not just had her mind, as Black had so eloquently put it, 'scrambled'. From what he could gather Regulus had just watched a slide show of past events, as if they were a movie, but he had not actually regained his own memory. Whereas Kalliandra had just had a floodgate of memories unleashed within her mind.

He made a mental note to talk to Harry when he returned. It really was poor form to mess with your woman's mind, particularly when that woman was prone to violent outbursts.

In the corner Hermione had closed her eyes and appeared to be counting backwards from pi. A smile tugged at his lips.

Then something sparked within Kalliandra's eyes, and it sparked rather brightly.

"Looks a bit like a lightning bug when she does that, don't you think?" Fred said conversationally.

The young woman managed a small glare in Fred's direction.

Remus watched with bemusement.

It was several minutes before the girl finally deigned to talk; when she did Remus really shouldn't have been surprised.

"I," she declared quietly, "am going to kill him."

Regulus abruptly stopped his rather detailed description of how he was going to murder the 'Gnat-Who-Lived' and looked at her. "Good." He sounded calmer. "He'll drop his guard for you. You distract him, then I'll get him from behind."

Jake winced. "You have no idea how bad that sounds…"

Hermione choked.

Kally nodded. "Don't use magic. Use something blunt. It'll hurt more." She sounded shockingly serious.

Fred grinned and rubbed his hands together. "Oh, I can't wait for Harry to get back."

Then, to Remus' horror, the Weasley twin looked around the room and grinned even wider.

"Anyone want to place a bet?"

Regulus growled. Jake inquired if they were betting simply upon whether or not Potter would survive, or if they were getting more specific and into the 'how' he was going to be killed. Regulus muttered that a simple Avada Kedavra would be far too painless and suggested a rusted tool of some sort. Kally suggested a small hammer. They didn't want to kill him with one blow after all. Hermione sputtered incoherently.

Remus could not help but actually smile.


ECOTS


It was nine o'clock and the street lamps had all turned on, casting shafts of light through the still pouring rain. Thunder rumbled moodily, and inside a dead woman's house ten people hovered in the back room.

Ginny bounced on the balls of her feet nervously. "How much longer?"

Remus glanced at his watch. "Three minutes, then you and Regulus will go."

The red head nodded, expression serious.

Black bore the look of the mildly annoyed. "We'll pan to the right girl, stick to the East side of the street and cover them from there. We sit in opposing directions to ensure no undead take us by surprise. There's a good chance that they may portkey in on top of us. You grasp that or are you another one of the more dense Weasley spawn?" He looked at her hair and his lips curled. "I assume you're a Weasley."

Ron, Fred and George all stiffened, but Ginny fixed them with such a calculating look that they backed off. Her eyes then shifted back to Black, and she smiled in such a way that sane men and women would have taken cover. "Don't worry Reggie," she said, plainly imitating the name she'd heard Tonks use in the past, "I'm more of the 'hex you sterile and ask questions later' type of Weasley. Not the dense sort. That's Percy. Though if you ask really nicely, I might throw in an impotency charm while I'm at it."

Regulus' expression betrayed nothing, but he was clearly thinking.

"Perhaps if you're really good, I may even give you a nice numbing charm so the pain's delayed," she continued, "but that's only if you've really behaved yourself."

Fred let out an impressed whistle.

Regulus was oddly quiet. "I suppose," he granted after a long silence, "she will do."

Ginny snorted in as unladylike a fashion as humanely possible. "Gee, what won you over?"

"Your complete and unabashed willingness to inflict physical pain," he drawled. "We will need that against the undead. But do try to not aim your wand in the direction of my testicles. I so do have a bit of a twitchy hand when it comes to simply not caring whose brains I splatter, and it'd be a shame if I mistook you for one of the plague-ridden."

Kally glanced up from the two-way mirror, one she'd been toying with for some time. "Play nice, Casper."

He scowled. "I didn't curse her, did I?"

"Right," she said, purposefully drawing the word out, "how could I have missed that? Ginny still has a head, so you must be wearing your friendship badge today. You two making friendships bracelets later or did you already have that disturbing gift exchange?"

"I burned mine," Ginny muttered, not as beneath her breath as she thought.

Black tossed a forearm up alongside the open window, remarking, "I should have brought more poison."

The scary part was he sounded entirely serious. Everyone fell silent after that. Rain pattered against the windowsill, splattering inside to sprinkle the kitchen floor. The steady sounds of the downpour drifted in, a waterfall cascading down just to the left of the window, the water spilling out of a gutter attached to the roof. It was hypnotic, relaxing.

It was almost as if they weren't about to wage battle with the undead; they weren't about to attemptto remove Muggles from the area without breaking the Statue of Secrecy; they weren't about to deal with fiendfyre, a living flame with the single-minded purpose of devouring anything and everything in its path, a prospect thatactually scared her.

And that was all without mentioning the Death Eaters.

According to the two Death Eater's, ones Regulus had happily taken over the interrogation of, there were ten more stationed along Privet Drive alone.

Kally flipped the mirror around in her hand, clutching it in her palm. It was a nervous habit at this point. For the past month she'd been oscillating between wanting it in her line of sight, just in case Harry 'phoned', and wanting to throw it at something – like his head.

Kally leaned her elbows onto the table and rubbed at her head. It still hurt, throbbing from what Potter had done to it. Everything, absolutely everything had come flooding back: mushroom gathering in the Forbidden Forest; the attack that had left her temporarily brain dead; the way Potter had looked when he'd appeared out of the forest, disillusioned and covered in blood, stalking towards Voldemort, literally hunting him; Dumbledore's cottage; the fact that Potter had saved her life not once but three more times; the way his body had felt in that cemetery crypt…

She closed her eyes and tried to block out the haunting visuals of Hazel's decayed and desiccated corpse.

Something slid across the table, thunking into her elbow and Kally jerked her head up. In front of her sat a half-filled glass of water and a bottle of aspirin.

Fred was twiddling his thumbs, George whistling.

She shot them both a grateful look and downed two without pause.

"Two minutes," Remus reminded.

Ginny spun her wand and looked eager to use it.

Small groups of two to three people had been sneaking out of the house in ten minute intervals, leaving through the kitchen window under the guise of disillusionment charms. They figured if a Death Eater were staking out this particular house, and they probably were after the earlier commotion, then they couldn't risk repeatedly opening and closing any of the doors.

Death Eaters, even the dumbest, would have noticed that.

They also figured that a Death Eater, even a dumb one, might notice footprints appearing in the mud, grass being trampled underfoot, and shrubs being moved aside if all thirty of them tried to leave the house at once. So they had decided to spread their escape out. The rain was coming down hard enough to obscure the footprints of one or two people quickly, so that was how they were doing it.

And they'd been doing it for the past eighty minutes. Every ten minutes a small group would sneak out the window, setting up position along Privet Drive, and then they waited.

Hermione, Neville and Luna were going from home to home, trying to determine how many people were in each house if they could. Warning them would be ideal, but they couldn't simply force people out of their homes with magic. Not only would it violate the Statute of Secrecy, but that much magic being used in one Muggle area? A few spells here and there would go under the radar, but if an entire street lit up with spellwork the Ministry might take notice.

They couldn't risk that. The Ministry was compromised. They'd known that for awhile.

The tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

Regulus lovingly drawled out the word 'scalping.' Ginny muttered something about 'loving to see him try.' Black, equally quietly, mentioned the word 'anthrax.'

Despite herself Kally found it hard to suppress a smile.

"And to think," Remus bemoaned, "I had thought the bar for what constituted amicable cooperation was already set as low as it could be."

Now Kally couldn't help it; she did smile. Looking up she caught his eye, the former professor just shaking his head in bemusement.

Then he grunted, loudly, because Fred Weasley had come up from behind and thumped him solidly on the back.

"Don't worry," the twin assured, "we're getting there."

"Yeah Mooney, give 'em a bit." George clapped Remus on the arm from the other side. "Five minutes out there hiding under a bush together and I bet you Reggie comes running back with some bat bogeys attacking his nose."

"Little sis is just a bit hex happy you see."

"And our boy Reginald-"

"Strange…I don't recall that being his name," Amarante said.

"-is just bound to rub her the wrong way."

"And then she'll hex him."

"All by herself."

"Our little Gin-Gin's growing up," Fred lamented, wiping fake tears from his eyes.

The looks Remus and Ginny shot them could have killed.

"Merciful fucking Merlin," Regulus cut in, "Two minutes is up." He didn't even cast a look back at any of them, just smacked himself with his wand, his form rippling out of view, and then – judging from the way the water smeared on the ledge and the subsequent grunt and thud – shoved himself outside.

Ginny laughed, casting a meaningful glance back at her brothers. "Oh this is going to fun."

"Try not to antagonize him too much," Amarante suggested, spinning his wand on the table top like the needle on a compass, "not that I'm against messing with him, but it might be a bit of a giveaway if he hauls off and hexes you in the middle of the street."

The red head, still in her mock Girl Guides of the UK uniform, shook her head, fiery red hair splayed around her face. "Sure A-Dog, anything for you."

Then she too was out the window.

Amarante looked surprised, glancing at the rest of them. "A-Dog?"

Kally's lips twitched, watching the shrub outside bristle as a disillusioned Ginny slunk past it. "She's been hanging around with Dean too long."

Fred's eyes narrowed instantly. "Dean? I thought they broke up."

Ron scoffed, "I wish…" and Kally couldn't help but notice the way he was cracking his knuckles.

She reached out and gave his arm a conciliatory pat. "Think of it this way, better him then a complete stranger. Least this way you know where he's been."

Ron grimaced. "Oh yeah, because that's reassuring."

Jake chuckled, the American wizard pulling his wide-brimmed hat low over his eyes, looking every bit like a character straight out of one of those old Westerns her mother used to watch.

In the absence of a sister-defiler to pummel, Ron's annoyance redirected to him. "Exactly how is that supposed to help you when we're all out there?"

Jake leaned back in his chair, arms folded across his chest as he studied Ron. "You mean my hat?"

"Of course I mean your hat." Ron looked baffled, muttering, "Not like you're wearing anything else useless."

Kally exchanged a look with Fred, smiling a little smile at that. Fred just widened his eyes and made a point of getting unbelievably comfortable, settling in for the show.

George threw a suspicious glance at them both, and then summarily summoned popcorn. A cabinet door opened, the Muggle package flying out and smacking into his hand.

George stared at it and honestly looked confused. He glanced from the un-popped package, to Fred, to her, then back down, looking a bit morose.

Clearly he'd been expecting a full bowl to appear.

Amarante chuckled and tossed a spell at it, the thing erupting in a series of explosive pops that sent the bag expanding rapidly outwards, the warm scent of butter filling the air.

George's eyes lit up like Christmas had come early.

Meanwhile Jake hadn't said anything. He remained right where he was, his feet propped up on an empty chair, the spurs on his boots glinting in the dim kitchen light. "So," he finally asked, "the premise of your question is that my hat is useless, and you want to know why I'm wearing it?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Could have sworn that's what I just said." He glanced around, as if looking for support. He didn't find any, leaving him to make a frustrated sound. "Look, I just don't see the point of wearing a hat into a wand fight. Won't help you any, blocks your vision, you can't see who's flying over your head, looks ridiculous…"

Tearing paper ripped through the room.

Fred has torn open the popcorn bag and plunged a hand in, unearthing a large helping of popcorn, which he promptly shoved in George's mouth. George did the same, and they both chewed loudly, their cheeks puffed out like chipmunks.

Kally marveled how they didn't choke.

The American was busy nodding at Ron's oddly valid points. "Mmm, makes sense." He leaned his head back, blonde fringe getting in his eyes. He didn't fight with it, just closed them.

He seemed to think about it for a long time.

Fred and George stared with mock, rapt attention.

Jake seemed oddly relaxed when he spoke next. "So we should only be wearing things that'll help us fight better, right?"

Ron grunted. "Yeah, obviously." Then he muttered under his breath. 'That's why the hat's stupid."

Jake paused. "Your pants don't exactly help ya fight better though, do they?" He tapped one hand against his forearm. "So…might as well take 'em off if were going with that premise. Unless you prefer buttock-less chaps?"

Kally actually liked Ron now, but it didn't mean she didn't enjoy seeing his reactions.

Like this one. Ron actually made a choking sound. "That's-that's daft, that is…" he managed, shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

Jake cracked one eye, peering at Ron from beneath the sizeable brown brim. "Why?"

Ron look bewildered. "What do you mean why? You just-" he glanced around again. "You just told me there's no point to wearing pants."

"Well by your logic there isn't."

"Of course there is!"

Jake was rather calm while Ron turned red. "So you prefer the asshless chaps then?"

"I don't even know what a chap is."

Jake lifted a hand, making a vague gesture. "Leather leg covers that cover the thighs and calves. Us horseback riders wear 'em for extra protection. But you could wear 'em without pants underneath and then they're a bit ass-less. Gives the ladies a bit of a show and all."

"Ass-less?"

Amarante held up a hand, a silent request for popcorn, which Fred and George obliged. Kally shot them a pathetic look of her own, which resulted in a popcorn ball getting levitated over.

Ron shot her a mildly betrayed look, and she extended the ball to him to see if he wanted any.

He didn't. In fact, she was pretty sure he growled at her.

His attention had turned back to Jake. "I mean," he reasoned, straightening up a bit more calmly, "you can't just go around telling people not to wear pants."

Jake shrugged. "My feelings exactly about my hat."

"That doesn't even make sense."

Remus held up a hand, a silent request, and Kally lobbed the popcorn ball to him. "Buttery cheddar," she said.

The former professor made an agreeable sound. "Excellent."

"See the thing about my hat, Ron," Jake said, as if there was nothing else going on in the world, "is that it keeps the rain off my head, sun out of my eyes, and it's a real chick magnet. Kind of like ass-less chaps. There's no downside."

Kally chewed her popcorn thoughtfully and glanced at Ron with a curious look, smiling as she popped another piece into her mouth. He glared. She just batted her eyes. He muttered something about her being as bad as Ginny. She mimed looking scandalized.

Ron frowned and returned his attention to Jake, clearly intent on winning the nonsense debate. He folded both his arms on the table, fidgeting for a second as if searching for an argument, then lifted a hand triumphantly. "What about when it blocks your view, eh? Prevents you from seeing one of those dead, worthless chomping things-"

"The dead, worthless chomping things that used to be people?" Remus said, now frowning.

"-and they bite you? What then?"

Jake shrugged and lifted a hand, patting the brim of his hat lovingly. "My lady will protect me, but your concern is touching."

"Lady?" Ron sputtered.

Even Amarante looked a little concerned. "After this we might need to get you a woman, mate. A real one."

"Thanks, but got my eye on one already." Jake now opened both his eyes and shot them all a wink. "Reckon I'm just about wearing her down."

George looked intrigued. "Who?" he tried to ask, but he did it around a mouthful of popcorn so it came out as more of a, "Foo?" Half chewed kernels sprayed out, hitting Fred.

Fred wrinkled his nose, lifting his shirt and shaking it. "I'm your twin and even I think that's disgusting."

Amarante leaned back in his chair and laughed.

It was a good sound, and Kally took a second to look him over, given today was the first time she'd gotten to see him in months. The fact that he was sitting there, next to her at the table, smiling with his eyes clear made her chest squirm happily. She hadn't seen his eyes clear in a long time. To be honest, she'd been afraid they'd never see them fully clear again, not after the head injury.

He was brave. He'd been with them at Hogsmeade. He'd laid down cover fire for her and Harry when they'd played at bait. He'd been there in Dublin too, and nearly gotten killed for it. His injuries had disabled him for months, over half a year, yet here he sat, smiling and laughing with them, wand hanging lazily at his side, his hair mostly grown back in, except for where an ugly scar ran along the entire left side of his head.

He'd grown his light brown hair a bit longer, the ends flopping over to cover it. If she hadn't known it was already there she might have missed it.

She hadn't realized how long she'd been staring until Amarante caught her eye, a bit of a knowing smile there. He tucked his head down, asking, "Everything alright there, Kalliandra?"

She nodded, glancing at the others who were still giving Jake a hard time about his mystery woman and whether or not he wore 'ass-less chaps for her' or not. "Yeah," she assured, her eyes darting back to flicker with concern over him. "What about you though? I'm not trying to pry but-"

"But six months ago I couldn't even feed myself on my own let alone hold my own in a wand fight?"

Slightly abashed she gave a small nod.

Amarante – the kind man – didn't make her squirm. "Not going to lie," he said, "I'm a bit slower than I used to be. Still have a bit of damage to my left side, but Pomfrey's worse than a cattle-driver in drought season with her therapy regimen so I've learned to work with it and hide it pretty well. Not something you'd know anything about I'm sure." He nodded knowingly towards her left arm, Kally's fingers clenching in unconscious memory of her long-healed nerve damage.

The Australian was going on though. "Nice bit is my magic never got affected, so I'm not going to content myself with sitting by on the sidelines while the war passes me by." He said all this quietly, volume beneath the prominent conversation going on in the kitchen. "Though between you and I, had everyone else not gotten themselves splinched not sure I'd have gotten to come today so…be kind on my post battle performance review, will ya?"

And then the man who had been through so much, losing his independence, losing his brother, winked.

The rest of the conversation exploded, flooding her ears.

"Now Ronnie-kins, if you're that worried about ole Jakie-boy here going after Hermione, just do that 'no pants' thing he suggested. Guarantee that'll get her attention, Weasley honor."

"Yeah Ronnie-kins, just imagine it," George tossed an arm around his brother's shoulders and waved a hand, as if picturing it, "you'll be running through the streets, no pants and bare bottomed, scarring innocent, unsuspecting little old lady Muggles and undead alike, while your bits there just go flopping around all up and down for her to see…"

"And it's storming too George, we mustn't forget that."

"Nope. Can't forget the rain."

"Lightning strike risk if his pole is big enough…"

"Be more worried about a zombie trying to take a," George chomped his teeth, "bite outta it."

Fred looked thoughtful. "Though might be a bit cold for him…"

"Right you are Forge. Whole thing could backfire if his bits get too cold. Could get some shrinkage."

"Can't have shrinkage."

"Might send Hermione running."

"Yup. Smart girl, that Hermione. Knows that whole 'size doesn't matter' tripe is a myth." He wiggled his hips. "Motion of the ocean and all that bull."

"Can't screw in a nail without a proper wand after all."

"Yup, gotta be right sized first before it can do any actual work."

"Work? I thought it was all fun."

"Mostly fun."

"Which brings us back to shrinkage. Get too much shrinkage and it might sully the Weasley honor. Give us the wrong rep."

"Us Weasleys, known for being well gifted in that," gesturing at his zipper, "arena."

George grinned. "How do you think mum and dad had so many of us? Right Forge."

"Right you are brother-o-mine."

"And given how long it took ickle Ronniekins to ask ickle Hermionekins to a snognic-"

At that Remus looked confused. "Snognic?" he asked, sounding like he was asking against his better judgement.

"Date that is half picnic," Fred said with a finger raised, "and half snog-fest."

"And because of that delay," George said, looking solemn, "we inferred the despairing truth."

"That you'll need every centimeter you can get."

"Because it is clearly already smaller than the average Weasley."

"Hey!" Ron protested.

They ignored him. "So no shrinkage can be had."

"But you know what the solution is don't you?"

Both twins turned to Ron, simultaneously telling, "Better use a warming charm."

Ron's ears had gone completely red, and she honestly wasn't sure if it were from rage or embarrassment. Perhaps both.

Kally's lips twitched. "You are both," she told, widening her eyes, "absolutely mental."

The twins directed identical blank expressions her way. "No idea what you mean."

"Sheesh, Kally-kins, such accusations. You certified for that mental health assessment or just moonlighting on weekends?"

Folding her hands carefully in front of her, the two-way mirror sandwiched between them, she leaned forward onto the table and peered at them very, very seriously. "Listen carefully," she said, "no one, and I mean no one wants to see any of your bits." Pausing, she calmly added, "Not to mention if you're going to start a mine's bigger than yours contest with your little brother, you really might want to reconsider. He's part wolf, and despite my better attempts to gouge my ears out and a failed attempt to flee a Fidelius-charmed house that I was trapped in, Tonks still managed to make sure there was no possible way that I wasn't learning that all wolves are absolutely hung," in the corner Remus winced, "even the ones that start off small. And last time I checked Fred," she flicked her eyes down pointedly to his zipper, then back up like a curious cat, "back at the monastery you fit into those tighty whiteys you slept in just fine, so I seriously doubt you'll be winning any contests there with Ron."

Fred's mouth fell open and he looked scandalized. George's shoulders, however, began to shake with repressed laughter.

Her eyes flitted to him, and she tilted her head. "Aren't you boys identical?"

His laughter died in his throat.

Ron made a sound that was part death throe and part laugh, falling back into his seat and choking, "Bleeding hell, Kaylens, that was-"

"Traumatizing." She shuddered. "I know. Let's never speak of it again and pray someone hexes both of us so hard that the preceding twelve hours is wiped from our minds."

From beneath his hands, which appeared to be trying to gouge out his eyes, Ron nodded enthusiastically. "Deal."

Fred was still staring at her with that abject look of betrayal. "You are the worst wingwoman ever."

Now she just looked confused. "I'm sorry, were you trying to pick up Jake?" She glanced at the American, who appeared to be sleeping with a vague sort of smirk. "Jake, you don't care if Fred's not hung like a horse do you?"

Fred made a sputtering sound; Kally shrugged. Ron merely rubbed at his eyes, bemoaning, "I hate my family."

The tiniest bit of relief wound its way through her stomach, the distraction something she'd needed and needed badly. A knot had been in her stomach all day, refusing to release its hold, and she hated it. It was paralyzing, toxic, and she needed to be relaxed enough to focus on what they were about to do.

Having a host of memories suddenly back wasn't helping though.

Harry knew her. Harry knew so much about her, and she hadn't even remembered.

She didn't know when she was going to see him again.

A scuffle broke out over the popcorn bag, Fred getting George in a headlock, and George yanking Fred's shirt halfway over his head. Remus rubbed his head wearily, as if combatting an oncoming headache. Amarante picked up the bottle of aspirin and lobbed it to him. Remus caught it gratefully. Ron rubbed at his pants, as if reassuring himself that his nads were still there, and Jake continued to 'sleep.'

"You're like a cat, aren't you?" Amarante remarked. "Can fall asleep anywhere."

From his reclined position in the uncomfortable plastic chair, Jake made an affirming sound. "Yeehaw."

Kally tiredly leaned forward onto the table, allowing her eyes to slide to him. "Yeehaw?" she murmured. "Gods Miller, you're like a walking stereotype, you know that, right?"

Jake Miller tilted his hat to her. "Reckon I'm okay with it."

Fred and George stopped scuffling over the popcorn and torturing Ron long enough to hear this. "Wait," George said, "aren't you from New York? That's not exactly an old West place is it?"

"Cowboy hats," Jake said very, very seriously, "are always classy."

Fred seemed to consider something, then turned to her. "Hey Kally, if I wore a hat like that do you think you'd-"

"I don't think," she cut across, "cowboys wear tighty whiteys."

"Sure they do," Fred dismissed. "All that bouncing up and down on the horses," he mimed this, "gotta protect the lads somehow."

She closed her eyes and groaned. "Somehow I don't think that's really your look, Fred. In fact, might send witches running."

He stuck out his lower lip and gave her a solid pout, while Jake snorted, saying, "You're the boy next door, Fredrick. Run with that. To pull this off," he blindly waved at his entire personage, "you have to have the rugged air of the prairie or Fordham."

"Fordham?" Ron asked.

"Neighborhood in the Bronx," Jake replied. "A Muggle one. Spent my formative years in it. Shootings, rapings, muggings, and anything you can think of all in one nice neat row with nightly viewings. Grow up there and live, reckon that's a testament to," he paused, "what is it you were all so obsessed with? Testicular size? Well, get out of there alive and you've either got balls as big as Quaffles or a lot of luck."

Ron snorted. "Suppose you're claiming you've got the former?"

"Hardly," Jake said darkly. "My Muggle parents got shot after an argument about their 'freak' son and my hide got left in a garbage dump. Getting found and living was pure providence and nothing butluck."

Instantly everyone shut up.

George had Fred's arm twisted halfway behind his back, and Fred's finger was half up George's nose, but they froze. Ron blinked as if he'd just been slapped. Kally's lips parted as she stared at him. Remus merely donned a strange, sympathetic air and Amarante…

Well Amarante winced. "That's tough luck mate."

"Depends how you look at it," he said noncommittally. He still didn't move, his hat pulled down low over his eyes. For all the world it looked as if he'd just told them what his favorite cereal was and not that his entire family had been butchered and he left for dead.

Hearing the silence, Jake finally let out a resigned breath, tilting the brim of his hat up. He looked around the room, fixing them all with a direct look. "Look, I got adopted by a nice family. Wizarding, actually. The American Ministry caught wind that there was a kid at the orphanage doing weird, freakish things and arranged it. Loving people. Freakishly rich. Lived in a practical palatial compound. More important, they loved me and I loved them. I had a great life, so there's nothing for you all to be looking so morose about, alright?"

Amarante's brow furrowed, as did Kally's, catching onto the past tense.

She half regretted the words forming, but they came out anyway.

"Jake," she said softly, "what happened to them?"

She didn't imagine it; his shoulders stiffened. She'd never seen that before. In every situation he always looked relaxed, even when things were trying to kill them, but right then…he tensed, and he tensed noticeably.

She half expected him to deflect.

He didn't.

"Some undead plague carriers tore their throats out on a weekend trip I was supposed to take with them." His fingers rubbed at the golden ring on his hand, a family crest emblazoned into it, the gesture looking like it soothed him. "Wasn't exactly a good thing to walk in on when I finally made it."

Everyone had gone silent again. A rumbling thunder crackled outside.

Fred was the one to speak first. "How come you never mentioned this?"

"Didn't seem relevant."

"Yeah but-"

"It's not relevant," he interrupted. He shoved his hat up, now looking firmly at them all. "You see…I came here to help. So did my friends. And ever since we got here most of ya," he glanced towards Ron, but not accusingly, "have made it clear you'd rather we hadn't because you don't know if we should be trusted or hung out to dry, but we stuck around because ya'll need the help and England in a silo isn'ttaking care of the problem. There's a war going on. It affects everyone, so my family's tragic demise didn't exactly seem pertinent. Everyone's lost someone." He shrugged, as if the entire conversation were an annoyance. "Now don't you think we have better things to talk about, like getting yourselves into a good mental state for what were about to do? Because by my count," he glanced up at the clock on the wall, "we have three minutes before the next group of us heads out there."

Kally hadn't realized he'd even been counting. Until then he'd seemed so relaxed.

Now she understood that he hadn't been; he'd just been mentally preparing himself.

Remus nodded. "Next group will be you and Lee-"

"No."

It was rare to see Lupin look surprised, but he did. "No?"

Jake didn't move other than to repeat himself. "Yes, I said no." He tilted his head at her. "I presume Fred's doing something with that vehicle in the garage?" Fred waggled his eyebrows, an affirmative if she'd ever seen one, Jake spotting and confirming, "Alright then, I'm going with Kally's group. We've stuck together this long, not about to break up the band if we don't have to."

Remus appeared to be thinking on it. "You are aware, Jake, that those in the final group are all part creature?"

Jake fixed him with an unreadable look. "Yup."

"And we planned it this way," Remus continued, "since Voldemort's followers may exercise some degree of discretion in the use of lethal curses on part humans." He allowed it a moment to sink in. "You, Jake, are fully human."

Now Jake actually smirked. "Yup."

Her first teacher in the wizarding world sighed. "Jake, Voldemort's followers may have use for us hybrids, but he has no motivation for keeping one such as yourself alive."

"I'm the primo target in the group. Got it."

Remus shot her a look. "Kalliandra, want to help me out here?"

She gave a one shouldered shrug. "I've been living with him for months," she said. "I gave up arguing with him after the first week."

Lupin looked as if he were rapidly developing a migraine, and he eyed the aspirin bottle as if debating taking more, before shooting her a pleading look. Jake looked bemused.

"You know Americans," she said, "bullheaded and strong willed and all that." She cast Jake a sly smile, not meaning a single word. "Best not argue with them. You'll only lose and develop a rapid onset migraine."

Jake snorted.

Remus rubbed his head.

An extremely odd expression tainted Ron's face. "You lot are close, aren't you?"

Before Kally could answer Jake and Fred did for her. "Yes!"

Ron frowned, staring blankly at the kitchen wall. The floral-print wallpaper was grating on the eyes.

Jake shrugged. "Battle undead and eat enough stale food together while holed up in a poorly reinforced shack and ya get close."

Remus' head shot towards her, looking alarmed. "What does he mean reinforced shed?"

Now it was Kally's turn to shrug. "We had some problems travelling to Beauxbatons, and then from Beauxbatons to the monastery," she admitted.

Fred mimed brandishing an umbrella, fencing against the undead plague carriers. "In tight quarters we had to use inanimate objects and," he gave a parry and a thrust, "improvise!" He gave a mock stab, a thrust, then began to stomp on a non-existent but vanquished foe, before looking up with a grin. Spotting everyone's odd looks he clarified, "Well you can't exactly use blasting hexes to take off their heads in tight quarters. The blood splatter alone would infect you."

George was frowning. "You lot had all the fun didn't you?"

"Sorry brother. I tried not to."

Ron had turned in his chair. "Bleeding hell," he muttered. "You tell Harry about this?"

She winced. "Er…a bit?"

Ron frowned fiercely.

She bristled. "Well it's a bit hard given he hasn't exactly spoken to me and seems to have gone missing," she pointed out.

Now Ron winced.

Eager for any other topic she glanced at Fred and George. "What exactly are you both doing?" she asked. "And where's Lee and Rolanda?"

"The garage," Ron said, "doing Merlin knows fucking what to that car."

"Oi! Don't speak ill of our wheels brother!"

"That's practically our child, that is."

"More like stolen child," Ron muttered.

Her eyes flickered between the Weasley brothers. "That doesn't exactly answer what Fred and George are-"

"Why Kally dear, we," George boasted, "are the contingency plan."

"Because every good plan-"

"-or bad one-"

"-needs-"

"-absolutely, cannot survive without-"

"-a contingency plan!"

She blinked. "You know," she backpedaled, "I'm not sure I actually want to know."

"Smart choice," Ron said dryly.

He was probably right.

"All you need to know," Fred told, "is that your jobs are to draw those chompers down the road and away from any fires that get set, and get to Area Forgelee-"

"How am I related to them," Ron said, as if dumbfounded.

"-and all will be well," Fred finished.

Everyone was silent, then Jake spoke up. "I'm still going with Kally's group."

Remus groaned, but relented. "Fine. Jake, you'll be with Ron, Kalliandra, Rolanda and I. You'll be disillusioned along with me. The three of them will be-"

"In full view, I know," Jake said, not un-politely, tipping his hat in a sign of respect. "I was there for the briefing."

"That means Lee will be with me then," Amarante said solemnly, glancing at the clock. "Someone should probably go get him. We should be heading out now."

Now….

Kally abruptly stood, placing a hand on Amarante's shoulder. "I'll get him," she said, suddenly eager to move. The two-way mirror in her hand practically burned, and the idiocy of what they were about to do pressed down hard on her. Spotting his look, she added, "I need to do something. I can't just sit here."

Amarante caught her arm, giving it a squeeze.

She squeezed back.

"Be safe," he told her, shoving out his chair and standing.

She smiled, reaching up and giving one o his recently grown in strands of hair a tweak. "I should be telling you that."

"I'm the elder."

She scoffed. "Barely." He was in his early thirties. That barely counted.

She didn't reflect farther than that. She got up, she left, she went to the garage and poked her head in to find Lee's head covered in what looked suspiciously like motor oil and Madame Hooch looking bored, yet remarkably clean.

A minute later and Kally had gone upstairs, looking for privacy. Lee and Amarante had just left, which gave her ten minutes.

Given that Harry wouldn't reply, she really only needed thirty seconds.

Her stomach squirmed uncomfortably, but she slipped into a bedroom and shut the door behind her anyway. She leaned against it, feeling unwell. She didn't have time for this; she didn't. But she knew if she didn't make time for this, right now, no matter how much looking into the glass scared her each and every single time - because each time she didn't see his face or hear his voice answering back that pit in her stomach, the one that just knew something bad had happened to him, grew even larger – that she wouldn't be able to sodding focus.

And Kally really needed to focus.

Take a number and get in line; she didn't have time for this.

The door felt cool through the fabric of her shirt, her spine pressing against it. Slowly she unwrapped the fabric from around the piece of glass, Kally lifting it up to look into it. Something inside her tensed, half-hoping to see him there, looking back, only-

There was nothing.

A thousand things swirled through her head: the way he'd looked at her through it the last time she'd seen him within its reflective surface, her wizard promising it'd be barely a day before she heard from him again; the way he'd sodding held her, pressed her against the cool castle wall as he'd kissed her goodbye at the beginning of June; the way he'd hovered over her on that beach, promising he'd find a way for her to remember their time together, traveling through time.

Well, he'd kept that promise at least.

Kalliandra looked into the mirror and saw her own, scared eyes reflected back. "Harry Potter," she said into the glass. It was harder than normal to control her voice, the words almost trembling, and Merlin…

She hated that.

Like always her own reflection disappeared, the image swirling…

Then all she saw was a blank blackness, as if she were standing on the edge of a pit and staring straight down into a bottomless void.

Her hazel eyes flickered across the void; she felt ridiculous. "Harry," she whispered, even that single word costing her something, "I don't know if you can hear this, or if you even have yours on you right now, but…" she trailed off, wetting her lips, before a deep, stabbing pain in her chest sent her hissing, "I hate you so much right now for not coming back when you were supposed to. I'm sodding scared. Everyone's scared, and the last sodding thing I want is to be scared that something happened to you too, Potter." She paused, barely managing, "Git."

She hadn't come up here to yell at him though, him and his non-existent presence in the black void of a mirror that he'd once had.

It was probably dropped down some horrible chasm and he was probably laying alongside it, dead.

Kally could honestly be staring straight at his dead, vacant eyes in pitch black darkness and she'd never sodding know because she couldn't see him.

She could see in the dark, when she was physically there, but through a sodding mirror it didn't work that way.

The terrifying image of his green, empty eyes haunted her. She'd seen it before, when he'd been sprawled across those angry black rocks as Regulus had tried to resuscitate him. Her nightmares had plenty of actual imageries to choose from.

She shook it off, swallowing back her worst sodding fears, and continued.

Her voice maintained that horrible, tremulous quality she hated.

"They're attacking Privet Drive, Harry. They're….they're here looking for you. Most of the Order's already been hurt, Harry. McGonagall's down, Mrs. Weasley might be dying. All of the Aurors everyone managed to recruit over the summer are already out of the fight too." She shivered. "We're on our own."

Thinking of it she could have laughed, and she did. Shakily, Kalliandra actually laughed. "It's all of us young people, who don't know what the hell we're even supposed to be doing, but we're all that's left. We still have Remus, Regulus and even Amarante – he's been getting better, by the way – but Mundungus never showed and-and well that's really it." She wet her lips. "Surrey's probably screwed."

Kally barely noticed the room she was in. She didn't notice the bloodstain by the window, where the one Death Eater had been knocked unconscious by the sleeping powder, only to collapse and hit his head on the way down. She didn't notice that this was a guest room.

She just noticed the mirror, and the impenetrable blackness that didn't respond.

"I'm rambling," she said, closing her eyes, as if embarrassed. "But…if you can hear any of this, just in case everything goes wrong…I love you." Her eyes flickered back open into an infinitesimal glare, glaring into the depths. "You stupid git."

"I have to go now. We're…." she sniffed, offering a barely there smile, "We're going to play bait now, for a bunch of plague-ridden undead zombies and Death Eaters. Can you believe it? Remus is actually letting us do that. Me, Madame Hooch, and Ron. Figured the Death Eaters are the least likely to hex us dead since they might still want us alive, but...ought to be fun enough, I suppose. That's what Ron keeps saying, though I'm not sure he actually believes it." Every single cell inside her felt on fire, unsteady. "You're missing out on your favorite game, Potter. I'm back in England, by the way."

This was unfathomably ridiculous.

Kally closed her eyes again, almost laughing to herself. "If you three are planning to come back and, I don't know, maybe help us out, don't try apparating or portkeying in. They've got anti-apparation and portkey barriers set up for ten blocks around the whole area. You'll get yourselves splinched. That's how were missing half the Order actually. Throwing it out there, just in case…."

She swallowed, breathing unsteadily. "I hope you're alright, Harry." And with that….

She dropped her arm back down to her side, no longer looking into it, her entire form shaking, eyes watering.

She was terrified that Harry was dead.

She couldn't be terrified right now though. Nose and eyes burning, she took in a few deep, calming breaths….

Then she wiped at her eyes hastily, re-wrapping the mirror as quickly as possible, shoving it back into her pocket.

She never saw the black void within the mirror shift slightly, as if the blackness she'd been staring at for weeks had been nothing more than a face-down mirror shoved to the bottom of a desk drawer.