While George spoke to Flint, he kept an eye on Thea as she crossed the room with Liam and went into the love room. George stiffened. Why the hell would she go anywhere alone with him? He had a bad feeling about this.

With every moment, George's anxiety grew, and then, "George!"

George blinked and turned back to Flint.

"I just asked you what time you can meet tomorrow to bring the money."

"Oh, uh, in the afternoon, I think. Around 12?" George turned to see Thea hurry out of the love room alone. Jax was there waiting for her.

"You really like her, don't you?" Flint smirked at him.

George turned back toward Flint. "Oh, I..."

"Flint, over here now."

George turned back to see Liam stalking across the room, Jax following in his wake. George shifted to look for Thea, finding her at the exit. What was going on?

George crossed the room to Jax-Liam had just managed to shake him off. "What happened?"

"Thea's in trouble," Jax whispered, pulling a bit of parchment out of his robes along with a muggle writing device that George believed was called a pen. "I managed to scrape up some more of the Peruvian Darkness Powder you said you wanted, but you have to go and pick it up. That's the address." He handed George the bit of parchment. "Get her somewhere safe. I'm going to see what I can do to stall Liam," he added in a whisper.

With that, he took off to try to catch up to Liam, and George didn't hesitate-even when he heard the decoy detonators go off. He headed for the exit.

The wizard from the phone booth-the one in the baggy muggle clothing-stood there waiting. "As interesting as this was, I do need to get going. I have to finish the inventory at the shop tonight."

The wizard shrugged and pointed his wand at the doors. "Exitus revelare."

"I can figure it out from here," George told him, wanting to get away from him and all the other Unspeakables.

The silvery-green floor seemed to glow eerily against the darker walls as George all but ran over to the lifts. Even if time had been on his side, he wouldn't have wanted to linger. It was creepy down here, and he wasn't ashamed to admit that he was far less comfortable in this hallway alone than with Thea by his side. She came down here every day?

The lift clanged to a halt in front of him, and he climbed in. The lift didn't move. How did they get this to work again? Oh, yeah. "Main floor," said George, and the lift jerked back and then up, sending George into the wall. He gripped one of the handrails tightly. Had he really found this amusing on the way down?

The lift jerked to a stop at the main level. "Main Atrium."

"Great, thanks," George muttered to the voice and headed back out. Now, where was the lift to get out? It only took a moment for him to find it, but twice as long for it to arrive. Come on...come on...why did everything seem like it was in slow motion when you were in a hurry?

George hurried out of the phone booth and ducked down an alleyway before unfolding the bit of parchment Jax had given him.

45 Blyth Rd, Hayes UC 2

Without hesitating George disapparated, reappearing near Hayes and Harlington Station. While he wasn't overly familiar with this area, he knew generally where he was going. Blyth Road...that should be...yes, it was just down the street from where he was. George followed the road a little ways...39...41...43...45. He had stopped in front of a huge muggle apartment complex. Did Jax have this right?

Shaking that off because he had no choice but to trust Jax, George made his way across the concrete, past planted trees in wooden boxes and small lighted posts to the entrance. There were signs with letters and numbers, and it took a moment for George to understand-the letters were floors, while the numbers were apartments.

He jogged up a set of grey steps. The modern building seemed cold to his eye, but Thea had spoken of science as well as magic earlier that evening so perhaps it suited her. Floor B...and up one more set of steps, Floor C. And the first apartment on his right was number 2. He took only a second to catch his breath, and then he knocked.

"It's open," came Thea's voice from inside.

George opened the door to find softer furnishings. A small, black leather couch was softened by blue and bronze pillows and a navy throw rug on the floor in front of it. She had used a lot of blues in her decorating scheme, which George assumed was a nod toward her house at Hogwarts. In fact, as he thought it, he spotted a small Ravenclaw banner on the side wall.

He took a step further inside. The kitchen was modern with sleek silver cabinets and appliances-muggle appliances, he assumed, as they weren't anything like what he was used to growing up with, but rather, were more like the things he tended to see in his father's workshop. His father had always liked tinkering with muggle objects-taking them apart to see how they worked and then putting them back together again, usually with a magical spell or two added.

George moved forward to examine them more closely when he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned, startled, to see that Thea had stepped out of the bedroom in a pair of long black shorts cutting off just below the knee and a grey hoodie that said Cambridge University across the front of it. She no longer wore the black heels from the expo, but rather, a simple pair of sneakers. She hadn't bothered to take the makeup off or to take her hair down, and there was a duffle bag over her shoulder.

"What's going on?" he asked her, shoving his hands into the pockets of his robe. "Jax said you were in trouble?"

"Liam is sending Aurors after me...for breaking my vow," Thea said quietly, heading over to a corner table where she retrieved the keys to her apartment.

While George thought it odd that she even had keys, this was a muggle complex, so he shrugged it off. "He found out?"

But Thea shook her head, shoving the keys into the pocket of her shorts. "No. He's angry with me about something else. Lies and deception are sort of his thing. Does Jax have a plan?"

George blinked at her. A plan? Jax had just told him to take her somewhere safe. George met Thea's gaze, and for the first time, he caught a flicker of fear in them. "We can go to my place," he suggested, but he knew that was a lame suggestion. Liam had known he had come with her to the expo-his place was probably the first place Liam would search for her after her apartment.

And then it hit him. He knew exactly where to take her. "Do you trust me?"

They could hear pounding feet coming from downstairs.

Thea's eyes met his. "Yes."

He reached out a hand for hers, and as soon as she took it, he disapparated, taking her with him. A crash echoed behind them, but they were already gone.

They reappeared on the steps of Number 12 Grimmauld Place, and George carefully opened the door, putting a finger to his lips as he did so.

Luckily, Thea needed no further instruction than that; when she followed him inside, she stayed quiet until he led her into the kitchen. "Sorry about that," he told her once he had gotten the lights on. "There's a portrait in the front hallway that will start screaming if we get its attention."

"Yeah, I can imagine why." Thea was looking around at the dark decor-the dishes and silver with the Black family crest on them. "We're at the old headquarters from the war, aren't we? From the Order of the Phoenix?"

"Yeah," said George looking over at her in surprise. She was slowly trailing the length of the room, appearing to just be taking everything in. "How did you know that?"

Thea stopped her perusal of the room and turned to look at him. "You'd be surprised what's in the history books."

"The history books." Of course, she knew about it because she had read a book, not because she had actually been involved.

Thea had turned back to examine the room, but she turned back to face him for some reason-no, not some reason-because she had heard his thoughts. "You think that I should've stayed...helped."

Yes, she should have.

She sighed. "In the end, there was little we could do to help. We weren't connected to the order like you were. I didn't even know about the Battle at Hogwarts until after it was over. I don't know if we would have fought-I've said it before, and I'll say it again-I'm not a soldier, but I guess we'll never know because I didn't have the opportunity."

"Would you have fought had you had the option?"

Thea shook her head. "I don't know. I'd like to say yes, but I honestly don't think I would have. I didn't feel like I was part of the wizarding world any longer. I wouldn't have felt welcome had I shown up."

For a moment, George could only stare at her incredulously. For someone who had shown so much courage against Liam...he met her gaze. "That's why you didn't fight," he said softly. "It wasn't because of Jax's parents; it wasn't because you didn't feel welcome it was because of Liam, wasn't it? You lost hope after what he did, after he killed your parents, after the Prophet, and..." He trailed off. "Why did you drop it? Why did you let him get away with it?"

Thea turned away to focus on a serving platter, but George was pretty sure she wasn't really looking at it. She rubbed her left ankle absently with her right foot. "Please drop it." Her voice was quiet, and what was more concerning was that it shook.

"Thea..." George took a step closer to her, but she spun around so quickly that he stopped in his tracks.

"Please." She closed her eyes and a few tears fell down her cheeks. "I can't go there."

"Hey..." George took a few steps toward her to close the distance between them and just pulled her into his arms. Maybe it was the wrong thing to do, but she had been there for him when he had been grieving his brother's death, and he wanted to be there for her for whatever this was. "I'm sorry," he told her as she broke down on his shoulder. "It's not important right now. What's important is that you're safe. The Aurors won't find you here."