Picking Up the Pieces
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Chapter Six
Sacrifices and the Unknown Trio
"Is that everything?" Ron scanned the list of ingredients Hermione had made.
"Yes. I think so. I mean, my bank account is practically cleaned out, but I think that's everything."
"Good. So what now?"
"We need a place where we can stay the night"
Hermione said, folding up the list and putting it in
her bag.
Ron blinked.
"Like...just you and me?"
Hermione grinned.
"Down boy."
Ron turned bright red.
"T-That's not what I meant..."
"I know. I was kidding."
Ron tried to erase some rather interesting mental pictures that had just flashed through the back of his mind, clearing his throat.
"We could ask Fred and George...they have an apartment above their store, they might let us stay with them."
"Great. Let's go."
They arrived at Fred and George's joke shop, their arms full of bags, Ron opening the door for her with some effort.
Business was booming as usual, and it was quite a chore to finally reach the twins at the very back of the store, selling two very pretty, giggly girls on their new products.
"Not that you two lovely ladies would need it, but we
also have a new line of beauty products that- Ronnie!
Hello, little brother! And Hermione- well, you just
get better-looking everytime we see you. Pleasure to
see you both. Now. What the hell are you doing here?
It's the middle of the summer."
"Hey, Fred. We need to talk to you two." Ron pushed past the two rather affronted girls.
"Alone." Hermione added.
Fred and George looked at each other with raised eyebrows. They shrugged in unison.
"Come into our office. Excuse us, ladies." George slyly winked at the two girls, ushering Ron and Hermione into the back storage room.
Ron and Hermione set down all their bags, sitting down on stacks of boxes labeled with Weasley Wizard Wheezes logos.
Fred and George leaned against the wall opposite them.
"So...guessing this isn't just a "I love my big brothers so much I couldn't be away from them another second" kind of thing?" George asked.
"No, not exactly." Ron sighed.
"Well, then, why the long faces?"
"We need a place to stay. Just for tonight." Hermione said.
Fred and George waited for further explanation.
"What's the problem? You two finally got hitched and don't have enough money for a place of your own?"
"What? No. Nooooo. NO." Ron said, his voice squeaking strangely.
Hermione laughed.
"No, nothing like that. Harry, Ron, and I are trying to find the objects that will make Voldemort mortal again. So Harry can finally defeat him. But, Harry wanted to...see where his parents are buried before we started on all this. And Ron and I are trying to make a tracking potion to find out where they could be. And we obviously can't do that at the Burrow. And we don't have enough money to get our own room. So we were wondering if we could stay at your place."
"Just for one night. Then we'd be out of your hair"
Ron added on.
Fred and George looked at each other, taking this all in.
"That sounds really dangerous." George finally said,
in an uncharacteristically adult tone of voice.
"Yeah, we're aware." Ron rolled his eyes.
"Look, Harry's the only chance the wizardering world
has left. And we're doing everything we can to help
him. All we're asking is that you do the same"
Hermione stood up, looking at them.
There was a long silence. Finally-
"Yeah, of course. Anything we can do." Fred patted her on the shoulder, and they led them up the back stairway to their apartment.
Ginny woke up the next morning to her mother shaking her frantically.
"Ginny, darling, wake up!"
"Whazzamatter?" Ginny mumbled, rolling over.
"Harry, Hermione...Ron! They're not here! There's a note from your brother- it's says they've gone to stop Voldemort--oh Ginny, did you know anything about this?"
Ginny's eyes fell on her letter from Harry on her bedside table. Blushing slightly, she nonchalantly slid a book on top of it, making it look as if she was using the table to sit up. She didn't really want her mother reading everything in the letter.
"Yes, I knew about it."
"GINNY WEAS-"
"What, mum? What did you want me to do? They're adults."
"No, they're not! Not yet!"
"Mum, those three have been adults since they were
eleven years old. You know that. If anyone can do
this...they can. And I hate that my brother, the only
girl I've ever really called my friend, and...well,
Harry had to do this. But that's the way it is. And I
wanted to go with them. I would've. But someone's got
to stay behind...someone has to lead Dumbledore's
Army."
"Dumbledore's what?"
"Never mind, mum."
"Ginny, you're not making any sense. Where have they gone?"
"To stop Voldemort. To find the Horcruxes. That's all I know. Now please...just leave me alone."
"No, I'm not going to leave you alone! Are you going to go running off on some crazy suicide mission?"
"It's not a suicide mission! Don't say that! Harry's the only chance we've got! He can do this! He's not going to die! None of them are going to die!" Suddenly Ginny was yelling, and she had no idea why she was getting so worked up.
Her mother looked at her for a long moment.
"What happened between you and Harry this year?" Mrs.
Weasley asked softly.
Ginny bit her lip hard. She couldn't believe this. For the second time in a week, she was about to cry. This past week excluded, she couldn't even remember the last time she had cried.
"Mum, please, I don't want to talk about this. I know you fancy yourself the relationship doctor of everyone but-"
"I'm your mother. Who else are you going to talk to?"
"Just leave me alone." Ginny looked stubbornly away from her.
One more word, and she knew she was going to start bawling. And she just couldn't do it. If she finally let herself feel how scared and upset she was...she just knew she couldn't take it.
Mrs. Weasley finally nodded, kissing her forehead.
"I love you, Ginny. I'm always here if you need me."
Ginny just nodded.
Her bedroom door closed softly.
Tonks sat cross-legged on the floor of Grimmauld Place, sifting through yet another box of Black family heirlooms.
She could feel a headache coming on from all the dust,
and so far had not found anything about Regulus Black.
Next to her, she had stacked anything of interest- an
old music box stuffed to the brim with jewelry,
including a beautiful locket she couldn't quite pry
open, a extensive knife collection, and a collection
of silverware embossed with the Black family crest.
All very cool stuff- but nothing even remotely
connected to Regulus Black.
She got up to pull another box from the shelves, and in the process, managed to trip and spill the contents right onto her head.
"Bloody HELL!" Tonks yelled, seeing stars swirling in
front of her eyes as she lay sprawled out on the
floor.
She felt a heavy weight on her stomach. She looked
down, her head pounding. It was a thick, leather-bound
book with no title.
Sitting up slowly, blinking to stop the room from spinning, she opened the book. The pages were all blank. She flipped through it, feeling a strange prickle crawl up her spine. There was some kind of dark magic in this connected...years of Auror training had honed this instinct in her, and now it was buzzing to an almost painful degree.
Suddenly, a picture fluttered from the pages to the floor.
Tonks picked up, inexplicably feeling her hand shaking slightly.
She turned it over, revealing a wizardering picture of three teenagers standing in front of what looked like a fireplace in a dungeon. She saw a snake engraved into the wall.
The Slytherin common room. It was two teenage boys and a girl.
One of the boys was unmistakably a young Severus
Snape. The girl had long blond hair and sharp,
chiseled features. She was beautiful in an almost
supernatural sense. The other boy had a wide, roguish
grin, dark shaggy hair, and elegantly handsome
features.
"Regulus. There you are." Tonks said quietly.
Suddenly, there was a creak on the staircase outside the room.
Tonks spun around, drawing out her wand instinctively.
A woman, creepily reminescent of the picture, stepped into the room. Her long blond hair fell streaming over one shoulder, and her thin fingers were clutched tightly around her wand.
"Find anything of interest?" Narcissa Malfoy asked in a tone of cool elegance.
Harry walked up to the front porch of the house he'd pictured so many times in memory and dreams, and tried to stop his heart from beating out of his chest.
His parent's house. His home.
It was completely deserted. Harry had wondered on his journey to Godric's Hollow if anyone would be living here now. But it was empty.
Empty and open, as if no one had set foot in it after the day his parent's funeral had been held here.Maybe no one had. He walked through the house, his throat uncomfortably tight. Their things were still here. The kitchen his mother had cooked in...his father's coat still hung on the hook...his high chair was still at the table. It was as if no one could bear to move everything out. He knew he couldn't. Their memories of the happy family that had once been here should stay undisturbed.
Finally, he reached the backdoor. He looked through it, seeing a sprawling backyard with overhanging trees, and a swingset.
And under the tallest tree stood one gravestone.
Harry pushed the door open. The sound of crickets chirping and leaves rustling were all that reached his ears.
His feet crunched in the dry grass as he made his way across the lawn. It was a hot summer afternoon, but Harry couldn't stop his hands from trembling.
Finally he reached his parent's graves. He got on his knees, his hands on the cool stone.
The epitaph was apparently written by them before
their death. Harry swallowed hard. They had known.
They had known it was coming.
JAMES AND LILY POTTER
TO OUR HARRY- NEVER STOP FIGHTING FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN AND WHAT YOU KNOW TO BE RIGHT. WE LOVE YOU.
TO OUR FRIENDS- THANK YOU FOR THE KIND OF HAPPINESS FEW EVER FIND.
TO THE ORDER AND DUMBLEDORE- WE ARE PROUD TO HAVE FOUGHT BESIDE YOU ALL.
Harry leaned his back against the grave, feeling tears in his eyes. He was finally alone, finally allowed to feel everything he'd kept inside for years. His parents. Sirius. Dumbledore. They'd all faced death bravely, faced it because of a fight they knew they might not win, but they'd fought just the same.
And now...maybe it was his turn. Maybe this foreboding
feeling in his stomach was just what his parents had
felt before they'd sacrificed themselves for him.
Everything in his life, every sacrifice that had been
made for him, had led him to this moment...to this
final task.
He wasn't going to let them down. He wasn't going to let their sacrifices count for nothing.
He was going to face what his whole life had been preparing him to face.
No matter what the outcome.
A/N- Please review!