Chapter 11:
Harry and Hermione jumped to their feet and drew their wands but Alicia had thrown herself across the room and left them, her own wand in her hand as she was the only person to move for a moment. She went straight for Fred, not quite knowing how she knew where he was, and wove her wand for the two glasses in his hands to vanish. He opened his arms to catch her, as if expecting it, as Alicia threw herself into them.
"I can't stay." she whispered "Call me?"
He pulled her forwards and kissed her fiercely and Alicia welcome it. Around them someone screamed and panic erupted amongst all the guests. Alicia didn't care, she felt as though she might never see Fred again and her eyes pricked with tears.
They broke and she stared at him helplessly.
"I love you."
She stared at him wide eyed as people were disapparating all around them.
"Promise you're not just saying that cause of the situation." she whispered
"Promise." he responded, brushing her hair
"I'll await that ring." she said and he chucked before she looked at him deeply. "I love you." he nodded
"Good luck."
"Be careful." she responded and their grips loosened.
There was such reluctance as Alicia released him, she wanted nothing more than to stay in the safety of his arms and her tears fell as she looked at his face, with everything that was going on, she could very well not see him again. But being with her was dangerous, and if she wanted him, and they were to be safe and happy, she had to go and find the Horcruxes.
It was that that allowed her to walk away from Fred, it was by far, so far, the hardest thing she'd ever done as she turned and ran through the panicked crowd.
Cloaked and masked figures had appeared under the marquee. Alicia's wand flicked and flourished as she sent them flying away from her. Lupin and Tonks were doing the same, protecting the guests as Alicia pushed two people aside and Harry, Ron and Hermione came into view before her. They were shouting her name, holding onto one another, and she grabbed Ron's hand before they even saw her and spun on the spot, dragging them away with her.
Sight and sound were extinguished as darkness pressed against them, Ron's hand was tight in her's as they squeezed through space and time, away from The Burrow, away from the descending Death Eaters, away, perhaps, from Voldemort himself…
Her feet touched the floor and she released Ron, awakening him to the fact they'd arrived.
"Where are we?" said Ron. They were still surrounded by people but Alicia didn't dawdle.
"This is Tottenham Court Road." Hermione said
"Come here once with the orphanage." Alicia admitted as Hermione turned to follow her.
"Walk, just walk, we need to find somewhere for you to change." Hermione said and they half walked, half ran up the wide dark street thronged with late-night revellers and lined with closed shops, stars twinkling above them. A double-decker bus rumbled by and a group of merry pub-goers ogled them as they passed, the boys were still in dress robes.
"Hermione, we haven't got anything to change into," Ron told her, as a young woman burst into raucous giggles at the sight of him.
"Yes we do." Alicia admitted and Ron looked at her confused.
"Why didn't I make sure I had the Invisibility Cloak with me?" said Harry, inwardly cursing his own stupidity. "All last year I kept it on me and —"
"It's okay, I've got the Cloak, I've got clothes for both of you," said Hermione. "Just try and act naturally until — this will do."
She led them down a side street, then into the shelter of a shadowy alleyway.
"When you say you've got the Cloak, and clothes…" said Harry, frowning at Hermione, who was carrying nothing except her small beaded handbag, in which she was now rummaging.
"Yes, they're here," said Hermione, and to Harry and Ron's utter astonishment, she pulled out a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt, some maroon socks, and finally the silvery Invisibility Cloak.
"How the ruddy hell — ?"
"Undetectable Extension Charm," said Hermione.
"Hermione and I put them on something small and simple at the end of last year, we couldn't carry around trunks after all." Alicia said as she put her arm into her small blue bag and her arm disappeared right up to her shoulder, though the bag shouldn't have taken more than to her wrist.
"Tricky, but between the two of us Alicia and I managed to fit everything we need in the two." She gave the fragile-looking bag a little shake and it echoed like a cargo hold as a number of heavy objects rolled around inside it.
Alicia looked up surprised.
"Oh, damn, that'll be the books," she said, peering into it, "and I had them all stacked by subject…"
"And that's why my pensive isn't in there." Alicia said and Hermione shot her a look.
"Oh well… Harry, you'd better take the Invisibility Cloak. Ron, hurry up and change…"
"When did you do all this?" Harry asked as Ron stripped off his robes.
"I told you at The Burrow, I've had the essentials packed for days, you know, in case we needed to make a quick getaway. I packed your rucksack today, Harry, after you changed, Alicia had a feeling, what with so many people arriving at the Burrow." Hermione said
"It was just a precaution." Alicia admitted "Lucky really."
"You two are amazing, you are," said Ron, handing her his bundled-up robes.
"We know." Alicia grinned. Harry looked at her and only now realised she'd been crying, but she acted as if her eyes weren't slightly red and had wiped away any tears she'd had.
"Thank you," said Hermione, managing a small smile as she pushed the robes into the bag. "Please, Harry, get that Cloak on!" Harry threw the Invisibility Cloak around his shoulders and pulled it up over his head, vanishing from sight.
Alicia pulled a mirror from her bag and looked to see her transfigurations were still in place and she put the mirror back as Harry spoke.
"The others — everyone at the wedding —"
"We can't worry about that now," whispered Hermione. "It's you they're after, Harry, and we'll just put everyone in even more danger by going back."
"She's right," said Ron, who seemed to know that Harry was about to argue, even if he could not see his face. "Most of the Order was there, they'll look after everyone."
"With how many people were there… I doubt they'd have too much trouble." Alicia said "The most thing to worry about is if Mr and Mrs Weasley can stay in the house or not…" she said frowning.
"We've got enough safe houses, until it's safe." Ron assured her and she nodded, taking a breath.
"Yeah." Harry agreed from under the cloak.
"Come on, I think we ought to keep moving," said Hermione.
They moved back up the side street and onto the main road again, where a group of men on the opposite side was singing and weaving across the pavement.
"Just as a matter of interest, why Tottenham Court Road?" Ron asked Alicia.
"Just popped in I guess." she shrugged
"I came here once too." Hermione said, "Forgotten all about it."
"Muggle world is better than any wizard place, out here no one knows who we are and we're less likely to be reported in." Alicia believed
"Alicia's right, it's not where they'll expect us to be."
"True," said Ron, looking around, "but don't you feel a bit — exposed?"
"Where else is there?" asked Hermione, cringing as the men on the other side of the road started wolf-whistling at her. "We can hardly book rooms at the Leaky Cauldron, can we? And Grimmauld Place is out if Snape can get in there… I suppose we could try my parents' house, though I think there's a chance they might check there… Oh, I wish they'd shut up!"
"All right, darling?" the drunkest of the men on the other pavement was yelling. "Fancy a drink? Ditch ginger and come and have a pint!"
"Only if you want me to break your nose." Alicia responded sweetly.
"Let's sit down somewhere," Hermione said hastily as Ron opened his mouth to shout also back across the road. "Look, this will do, in here!"
It was a small and shabby all-night café. A light layer of grease lay on all the Formica-topped tables, but it was at least empty. Harry slipped into a booth first and Ron sat next to him opposite Alicia and Hermione, who had their back to the entrance which Hermione did not like: She glanced over her shoulder so frequently she appeared to have a twitch.
After a minute or two, Ron said, "You know, we're not far from the Leaky Cauldron here, it's only in Charing Cross —"
"Ron, we can't!" said Hermione at once.
"Are you crazy?" Alicia hushed
"Not to stay there, but to find out what's going on!"
"We know what's going on! Voldemort's taken over the Ministry, what else do we need to know?"
"Okay, okay, it was just an idea!"
"The fact that Voldemort's got the Ministry means we can't go anywhere with wizards, we need to stay off the radar. Give it a day and Harry will be Undesirable No. 1. We need to be smart and careful, information can wait."
Ron was clearly worried and he didn't seen to like this.
"Ron." he turned to Alicia "Remember, Fred and I still have our mirrors, give everyone at the wedding time to get somewhere safe and settle and we can call in, check that everyone's fine. The mirrors can't be traced after all." with this Ron seemed to relax and he nodded.
The gum-chewing waitress shuffled over and Hermione ordered three cappuccinos: As Harry was invisible, it would have looked odd to order him one. A pair of burly workmen entered the café and squeezed into the next booth. Hermione dropped her voice to a whisper.
"I say we find a quiet place to Disapparate and head for the countryside. Once we're there, we could send a message to the Order."
"Can you do that talking Patronus thing, then?" asked Ron.
"I've been practicing and I think so, in case Fred can't…" said Hermione but Alicia shook her head and took a sip of the cappuccino that'd been placed in front of her.
"Well, as long as it doesn't get them into trouble, though they might've been arrested already. God, that's revolting," Ron added after one sip of the foamy, greyish coffee. The waitress had heard; she shot Ron a nasty look as she shuffled off to take the new customers' orders. The larger of the two workmen, who was blond and quite huge waved her away. She stared, affronted.
"Let's get going, then, I don't want to drink this muck," said Ron. "Hermione, have you got Muggle money to pay for this?"
Alicia was staring at the huge blonde person and a face flashed past her mind as Hermione reached for her bag.
"Yes, I took out all my Building Society savings before I came to The Burrow. I'll bet all the change is at the bottom,"
Alicia was on her feet, her wand in her hand as the two workmen made identical movements.
Alicia's spell hit one of the Death Eaters full in the face as she'd recognised him and moved a fraction of a second first as Harry's voice sounded from under his cloak.
"Stupefy!"
Ron had acted a few seconds late but had lunged across the table to push Hermione sideways and out of the way.
Alicia had caused the blonde Death Eater to slump sideways unconscious while his companion shot another spell at Ron, unable to see Harry. Shining black ropes flew from his wand-tip and Alicia waved her wand for all of them to catch fire, the flames running back to the Death Eater like it did when burning gunpowder.
"Petrificus Totalus!" screamed Hermione from out of sight, and the Death Eater fell forward like a statue to land with a crunching thud on the mess of broken china, table, and coffee. Hermione and Ron crawled out from underneath the bench, Hermione shaking bits of glass ashtray out of her hair and trembling all over.
Alicia moved over to the two Death Eaters as Harry pulled off his cloak and followed her.
"He was at the Astronomy tower." Alicia said as he joined her "Firing all those curses all over the place, remember?"
"I should've recognised him." Harry nodded as he agreed "Good thing you did." he said to her and she shrugged. Harry turned over the darker Death Eater with his foot; the man's eyes moved rapidly between Alicia, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"That's Dolohov," said Ron. "I recognise him from the old wanted posters. I think the big one's Thorfinn Rowle."
"Never mind what they're called!" said Hermione a little hysterically. "How did they find us? What are we going to do?"
"We can't let them go and tell everyone what happened, if we do they'll will start hunting us in the Muggle world and we can't cause more to die for that." Alicia said
"Lock the door," Harry told Hermione, "and Ron, turn out the lights."
The lock clicked and Ron used the Deluminator to plunge the café into darkness.
"What are we going to do with them?" Ron whispered to Harry through the dark; then, even more quietly, "Kill them? They'd kill us. They had a good go just now."
Hermione shuddered and took a step backward. Harry shook his head.
"We do that, we're as bad as they are." Alicia said as she took her wand and pointed it at Dolohov.
"We just need to wipe their memories," said Harry. "It's better like that, it'll throw them off the scent. If we killed them it'd be obvious we were here."
"You're the boss," said Ron, sounding profoundly relieved. "But I've never done a Memory Charm."
"Obliviate." Alicia said and the three looked down at her. At once, Dolohov's eyes became unfocused and dreamy.
"Brilliant!" said Harry, clapping her on the back. "Take care of the other one, Hermione do the waitress while Ron and I clear up."
"Clear up?" said Ron, looking around at the partly destroyed café. "Why?"
"Don't you think they might wonder what's happened if they wake up and find themselves in a place that looks like it's just been bombed?"
"Oh right, yeah…"
Ron struggled for a moment before managing to extract his wand from his pocket.
"It's no wonder I can't get it out, Hermione, you packed my old jeans, they're tight."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," hissed Hermione, and as she dragged the waitress out of sight of the windows, She muttered a suggestion as to where Ron could stick his wand instead as Alicia wiped the other Death Eater's Memory. She levitated both back up onto their bench after repairing it. She laid them as if they'd just fallen asleep, one leaning on the wall, the other drooling on the table.
"But how did they find us?" Hermione asked, looking from one inert man to the other. "How did they know where we were?"
She turned to Harry.
"You — you don't think you've still got your Trace on you, do you, Harry?"
"He can't have," said Ron. "The Trace breaks at seventeen, that's Wizarding law, you can't put it on an adult."
"As far as you know," said Hermione. "What if the Death Eaters have found a way to put it on a seventeen-year-old?"
"But Harry hasn't been near a Death Eater in the last twenty-four hours. Who's supposed to have put a Trace back on him?"
Alicia didn't believe that was the case, there were other ways to find people… but with Harry under the cloak…
"If I can't use magic, and you can't use magic near me, without us giving away our position —" he began.
"We're not splitting up!" said Hermione firmly.
"With the Ministry under control… it's likely they've done something…" Alicia mumbled "I don't think it's connected to Harry exactly, or don't you think they'd have acted a little differently?" Alicia said toking at them. "They're supposed to catch Harry, this didn't seem like that was the objective."
"We need a safe place to hide," said Ron. "Give us time to think things through."
"Grimmauld Place," said Harry.
The other two gaped.
"Don't be silly, Harry, Snape can get in there!"
"Ron's dad said they've put up jinxes against him — and even if they haven't worked," he pressed on as Hermione began to argue, "so what? I swear, I'd like nothing better than to meet Snape!"
"But —"
"Hermione, where else is there? It's the best chance we've got. Snape's only one Death Eater. If I've still got the Trace on me, we'll have whole crowds of them on us wherever else we go."
"I don't think Snape's gonna turn up at Grimmauld Place." Alicia said "It's safe." the three looked at her "Trust me on this."
They shared a look and Hermione looked ready to argue but she went to unlock the door after a stern look from Alicia and Ron clicked the Deluminator to release the café's light. Then, on Harry's count of three, they reversed the spells upon their three victims, and before the waitress or either of the Death Eaters could do more than stir sleepily, Alicia, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had turned on the spot and vanished into the compressing darkness once more.