Chapter 5:
The shock of losing Mad-Eye hung over the house in the days that followed; Order members came and went from the house, relaying news of things that had been happening outside of the Burrow.
Harry still had thoughts of leaving, but until their birthday Alicia shot them all down as they crossed his mind, though she never let anyone else know of his constant plans.
Besides, Hermione and Ron would kill you if we went without them and they'd probably just go looking for you and get themselves hurt or kidnapped in the process. she said in annoyance at him.
Ron had caught the two having such a conversation and was with Alicia.
"Well, you can't do anything about the" — Ron mouthed the word Horcruxes — "till you're seventeen. You've still got the Trace on you. And we can plan here as well as anywhere, can't we? Or," he dropped his voice to a whisper, "d'you reckon you already know where the You-Know-Whats are?"
"No," Harry admitted.
"I think Hermione's been doing a bit of research," said Ron. "She said she was saving it for when you got here."
They were sitting at the breakfast table; Mr. Weasley and Bill had just left for work. Mrs. Weasley had gone upstairs to wake Hermione and Ginny, while Fleur had drifted off to take a bath.
"The Trace'll break on the thirty-first," said Harry. "That means I only need to stay here four days. Then I can —"
"Five days," Ron corrected him firmly. "We've got to stay for the wedding. They'll kill us if we miss it. It's one extra day," said Ron, when Harry looked mutinous.
"Don't they realise how important — ?"
"One day is not going to break us Harry, we don't even know where we're going or where to start." Alicia said cutting him off.
" 'Course they don't," said Ron looking at Alicia. "They haven't got a clue. And now you mention it, I wanted to talk to you both about that."
Alicia looked at him as Ron glanced toward the door into the hall to check that Mrs. Weasley was not returning yet, then leaned in closer to the twins.
"Mum's been trying to get it out of Hermione and me. What we're off to do. She'll try you two next, so brace yourself. Dad and Lupin've both asked as well, but when we said Dumbledore told you not to tell anyone except us, they dropped it. Not Mum, though. She's determined."
"Well I have enough experience in rowing with your mother." Alicia said "Brace yourselves, it's gonna get loud." she said.
Mrs Weasley cornered Harry first within a few hours shortly before lunch.
"There she goes, I told you."
"Yeah well she's no control over me and its your choice to do as we've asked so sorry." Alicia said
"Sometimes it scares me how you can go up against my mother." Ron said
"You've forgotten who I am clearly." she responded.
A few hours later she had Alicia in her grasp as she asked the girl to help her cut some vegetables for dinner.
"What is this I hear about you dropping out of school Alicia?"
"I don't really see a question in there Mrs Weasley."
"Harry seems to think Dumbledore gave you two specifically a job to do—"
"He doesn't seem to think Mrs Weasley, he did. And only Harry and I can do it."
"And what makes you think that?" Mrs Weasley snapped
"Several reasons of which I am not at liberty to discuss unfortunately. It's a grave matter that even if I wanted to give to someone else I would not. I wont allow others to put themselves into this kind of place or to give this kind of job to and from my point of view it is much more important than my education, learning is not going anywhere."
"If that's the case why didn't he have the whole Order behind it?"
"Because the less people who knows about it the more likely we are to succeed. Now Dumbledore told absolutely no one of his plans for Harry and I and he permitted us to tell no one but Hermione and Ron, so we are not telling you not matter how much you badger us Mrs Weasley. If Hermione and Ron decide to drop out of school to accompany us then so be it, that's their decision and we're safer if we're together. There is nothing you can say or do, that can stop us or make us change our minds, but I know you're going to try so good luck." And the stubborn Alicia walked away without another word.
Hermione, Ron and Harry were all in the living room, ears dropping.
"What do you mean she'll try and stop us?" Ron asked when Alicia was close enough
"Oh come on, she doesn't approve, she doesn't know what it is but that doesn't mean she'll give up. She's where Ginny gets her stubbornness from." Alicia said rolling her eyes annoyed.
From that moment on, Mrs. Weasley kept Alicia, Harry, Ron, and Hermione so busy with preparations for the wedding that they hardly had any time to think. The kindest explanation of this behaviour would have been that Mrs. Weasley wanted to distract them all from thoughts of Mad-Eye and the terrors of their recent journey. Alicia believed otherwise.
"She's keeping us apart so we can't get any further with our plans." Alicia told the three in an evening "She's trying to stop us in her own weird usual way."
After two days of nonstop cutlery cleaning, of colour-matching favours, ribbons, and flowers, of degnoming the garden and helping Mrs. Weasley cook vast batches of canapés, and they began to notice it as well. For one thing, all the jobs she handed out seemed to keep Alicia, Harry, Ron, and Hermione away from one another; the three had not had a proper talk since the first night, when Harry had told them about Voldemort torturing Ollivander.
"Give it a bit and just watch, I'm gonna loose it if she starts interrupting." Alicia said to Harry.
As if on cue, Mrs Weasley's voice sounded.
"Alicia, come here a moment and give me a hand dear!" Alicia turned away, took a deep breath to calm herself and went off, Harry chuckling as she did.
They were often joined by other Order members for dinner now, because the Burrow had replaced number twelve, Grimmauld Place as the headquarters. Mr. Weasley had explained that after the death of Dumbledore, their Secret-Keeper, each of the people to whom Dumbledore had confided Grimmauld Place's location had become a Secret-Keeper in turn.
"And as there are around twenty of us, that greatly dilutes the power of the Fidelius Charm. Twenty times as many opportunities for the Death Eaters to get the secret out of somebody. We can't expect it to hold much longer."
"Great so our own house is likely infected." Alicia complained
"But surely Snape will have told the Death Eaters the address by now?" asked Harry.
"Well, Mad-Eye set up a couple of curses against Snape in case he turns up there again. We hope they'll be strong enough both to keep him out and to bind his tongue if he tries to talk about the place, but we can't be sure. It would have been insane to keep using the place as headquarters now that its protection has become so shaky."
The kitchen was so crowded that evening it was difficult to manoeuvre knives and forks. Alicia was squashed between Hermione and Ginny, Harry on Ginny's other side.
"No news about Mad-Eye?" Harry asked Bill.
"Nothing," replied Bill.
They had not been able to hold a funeral for Moody, because Bill and Lupin had failed to recover his body. It had been difficult to know where he might have fallen, given the darkness and the confusion of the battle.
"The Daily Prophet hasn't said a word about him dying or about finding the body," Bill went on. "But that doesn't mean much. It's keeping a lot quiet these days."
"And they still haven't called a hearing about all the underage magic I used escaping the Death Eaters?" Harry called across the table to Mr. Weasley, who shook his head.
"I actually forgot that was a factor." Alicia said "There were so many of us who's to say we even did it." she shrugged
"Could be because they know I had no choice or because they don't want me to tell the world Voldemort attacked me?"
"The latter, I think. Scrimgeour doesn't want to admit that You-Know-Who is as powerful as he is, nor that Azkaban's seen a mass breakout."
"Yeah, why tell the public the truth?" said Harry
"Isn't anyone at the Ministry prepared to stand up to him?" asked Ron angrily.
"Of course, Ron, but people are terrified," Mr. Weasley replied, "terrified that they will be next to disappear, their children the next to be attacked! There are nasty rumours going around; I for one don't believe the Muggle Studies professor at Hogwarts resigned. She hasn't been seen for weeks now. Meanwhile Scrimgeour remains shut up in his office all day: I just hope he's working on a plan."
"What would be the point in resigning anyway? No where else is much safer than Hogwarts, or anywhere else really. Not much different whether you're there or not." Alicia believed
There was a pause in which Mrs. Weasley magicked the empty plates onto the work surface and served apple tart.
"We must decide 'ow you will be disguised, 'Arry, you too Alicia," said Fleur, once everyone had pudding. "For ze wedding," she added, when he looked confused and Alicia paused. "Of course, none of our guests are Death Eaters, but we cannot guarantee zat zey will not let something slip after zey 'ave 'ad champagne."
"Yes, good point," said Mrs. Weasley from the top of the table, where she sat, spectacles perched on the end of her nose, scanning an immense list of jobs that she had scribbled on a very long piece of parchment.
"Can't we just turn my hair red for the night and maybe transfigure a few features, like my eye colour, I'll wear contacts, seems pretty simple to me." Alicia said "I changed my hair red once in class, looked like my mother was staring back at me." she smirked
"It's not very full proof Alicia." Hermione said
"Could be if we did enough work." she shrugged. "Better than being someone else again."
"Now, Ron, have you cleaned out your room yet?" Mrs Weasley spoke up.
"Why?" exclaimed Ron, slamming his spoon down and glaring at his mother. "Why does my room have to be cleaned out? Harry and I are fine with it the way it is!" Alicia thought he was being rather childish.
"We are holding your brother's wedding here in a few days' time, young man —"
"And are they getting married in my bedroom?" asked Ron furiously. "No! So why in the name of Merlin's saggy left —"
"Don't talk to your mother like that," said Mr. Weasley firmly. "And do as you're told."
Ron scowled at both his parents, then picked up his spoon and attacked the last few mouthfuls of his apple tart.
"I can help, some of it's my mess," Harry told Ron, but Mrs. Weasley cut across him.
"No, Harry, dear, I'd much rather you helped Arthur muck out the chickens, and Hermione, I'd be ever so grateful if you'd change the sheets for Monsieur and Madame Delacour; you know they're arriving at eleven tomorrow morning."
"And Alicia, you and Ginny will need to make room in Ginny's room too."
"Would you like me clean the living room and scrub your kitchen as well? How about I weed the garden and remove all the broken flowers by my self seeing as I'm not allowed any help!" Alicia snapped at the women, in which everyone stopped and looked at her. "Seriously I'd wish you'd stop moving us all around and manipulating us like pawns to try and in-plant your antics in a place they're not wanted!"
Everyone had watched her shocked, Mrs Weasley included as she got up and stormed out of the kitchen.