Disclaimer:I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter Four
Things remained tense between Harry and I the next morning, which of course extended into the rest of the group, fortunately we were all so busy preparing to leave that we didn't have much time to let it bother us. The plan was to have the Delacours join us at the Burrow at about ten, and then to portkey, slightly illegally, to my house. Of course despite having more than a week's notice, and the fact that we'd spent the entire week doing nothing, none of us were ready to leave, and the morning was a full of frantic activity. Midway through the morning it occurred to Hermione that all of the Weasleys' possessions would be destroyed in the fire and that we couldn't have them empty their home unless we told them about the vision. This of course set of a temporary panic as Ron and Ginny tried to figure out a way to save their possessions, in the end Harry suggested sending house elves to collect everything after we all left, so they agreed to pack only what they needed, for the three week visit that their parents were expecting to be taking. Only half-and-hour behind schedule we all gathered in the front yard with our trunks to leave, I pulled the rope I'd enchanted from my bag, and unwound it allowing everyone to grab hold, I did a short count down and we were off.
To say that I don't travel well by Floo is one thing, but to say that I don't travel well by portkey would perhaps be the biggest understatement of, well, ever. As soon as my feet hit the ground I stumbled did two complete somersaults and crashed into a tree. Almost everyone else had at least managed to remain upright, the only person in half as bad a state as me was Harry, who had fallen on his backside and looked decidedly green. I had planned to spent the morning unpacking and settling in but I was beginning to think that moving was a bad idea, the twins didn't seem to agree because they came over and pulled me to my feet. Everyone gathered their things and we headed toward the house, and I finally got a good look at my family's home for the first time. It was a truly awe inspiring sight, my parents chose not to live there after their marriage so that my mother could more easily remain connected to her muggle family, and friends, so I had never actually been to the house even as an infant. We ascended the front steps, to find Matty waiting with the door opened for us. She directed each of the others to the elf assigned to lead them to their rooms, and then she gestured for me to follow her.
"This way, Miss Ren, I is leading you to the master suite." She lead me up to the massive flight of marble stairs to the second floor, to and into a bedroom filled with the most beautiful cherry wood furniture I'd ever seen and decorated in creams in gold, perfect. I realized that Matty was talking and force myself to pay attention. "Would you like me to put your things away so that you can see the rest of the house?"
"That would be great thanks, Matty."
"Just remember lunch at noon, in the main dining room."
I nodded and headed toward one of the two doors on the opposite wall of the room, it lead to a small bed room, most likely originally intended as a nursery but now it was furnish for an adult, complete with a desk and a full book shelf, I love Matty I really do, she never fails to anticipate all of my needs. This room would be perfect for Draco, and I'd be able to set wards around the suite of rooms rather than else where in the house, it was less likely to be noticed there, or tampered with. I turned back to the main room to find Matty, gone it was really incredible how quickly those elves could work. The other door led to a bathroom, complete with whirl pool tub, and a huge walk-in closet. I left my room and headed out to explore my new home.
Later that afternoon found me sprawled out on my bed reviewing my notes on the wards that I needed to erect, they seemed simple enough but I'd never tried them out before, and I wasn't certain that McGonagall's inspection would be particularly easy to pass. The notes checked out perfectly, I'd been over them four times now, I really wanted to have someone else look them over but that was put of the question, the only people in the house capable of understanding them weren't like to help me without a full explanation, except maybe Hermione but then she would know how to break them and I couldn't take that risk. Time to resign myself to the inevitable, might as well just set them and hope for the best, if there was a flaw hopefully McGonagall could find it before she brought Draco, after all it wouldn't do anyone any good if he escaped.
I took a deep breath and cast the spell, there was a momentary surge of magic and then everything returned to normal, I did several quick spells to test them and found the wards to be up to my standards, so I decided to find somebody to hangout with for awhile. I was hoping to find Harry and crew but instead I found George, it was strange really to see one twin without the other but he looked like he could use someone to talk to so I took the chair across from him. "Why so down?"
He narrowed his eyes, sizing me up, "Why should I tell you?"
"Because I'm here and I'm willing to listen, but your call."
"I had a fight with Fred."
"Okay, what about?"
"Look, I'm no sure I want to talk about this."
"'Kay, let's talk about something else. How are things going at the shop?"
"Alright, I'll tell you, Fred wants me to go on a double date tonight, I don't want to go."
"Any particular reason you don't want to go?"
"Yeah, I'm …uh…I'm…umm," he let his voice trail off.
"Okay, you obviously have a reason, so why not just tell Fred?"
"Its not something I've ever told anyone before, and its kinda big."
"If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know."
"Ren, I'm gay."
"So just tell your brother, he's not going to care, he loves you."
"I know, but it has to change things right? I mean he's gonna want to know why I never told him before, I never kept anything from Fred before."
"Well, why didn't you tell him?"
He shrugged, "I don't know, I guess I wasn't ready."
"There you go, he'll get it. Just be honest with him."
"I'm not ready to tell him yet, I mean, I what to tell him but not yet. Would you do me a favor?"
"Uh, what exactly did you have in mind?"
"Let me tell Fred that we're an item, and then he'll understand why I don't want to go on the double date."
"I don't know, George that could turn into a pretty big mess. Maybe you should find a different excuse…"
"You said if I needed help all I had to do was ask."
"You know its not fair using that line; I just used it the other day. Fine, but I will not forgo my right to say I told you so when this blows up in our face. What exactly is this going to entail?"
"I guess mostly just hanging out together when I'm here; holding hands, and being my date for the wedding, besides that all the others will be all coupled up there anyway."
"I guess that won't be too bad, I just hope you're a good dancer, because if I'm doing this we aren't sitting out a single song."
"It's a date then."
I leaned over and gave George a kiss on the check at the exact moment the door flew open to reveal Fred, Harry and Ron. "Hello, brother mine, we're about to go play a game of quidditch, care to join us?" Fred asked glancing slyly between the two of us.
George glanced back at me, "You mind?"
"Not at all, have fun, I'll see you at dinner." They left, Harry giving me a questioning look as they took off, well looks like the whole house would know about my 'relationship' with George. If I wasn't feeling guilty about the McGonagall thing I wouldn't have agreed, would I? So much had changed so quickly, I wasn't sure which way was up anymore, things were rapidly becoming more confusing than I could handle. I retreated back upstairs, I needed time to think, and I definitely wouldn't get it once everyone heard 'my news'.
I must have dosed off, when I woke to find Matty leaning over me shaking me gently, "Miss Ren, you is needing to wake up, you is having a visitor."
I sat up to find Professor McGonagall standing in the doorway, jumped up and straighten my clothes, "Hello Professor, is there anything, I can do to help you?"
"I'll need the schematics to the wards that you've used so I know which diagnostics to run, if you'll just get the text for me."
Although I did not believe that the Professor was a particularly motherly person her clipped tone stung a little, if we'd met under different circumstances I imagine that we would have gotten along. I shifted nervously, and picked up the journal that I kept my notes in and opened to the first relevant page, and held it out to her.
She pulled it from my hand and began reading, "These are hand written notes, not a text I want the author's version, one that doesn't have as much risk for error."
Great this wasn't going to be pretty, "Those are the original notes, Professor, I received a spellcrafters license, just over a year ago, I wrote the wards myself."
She pressed her lips together until they nearly disappeared, "You are not old enough to have such a license, so these wards are not acceptable."
"No disrespect ma'am, but there is no age requirement to receive the license, I designed these wards specifically for this purpose, the only people who can get through them are the one who know that Draco Malfoy is in here, he can't get out, and only myself and Matty, the head of my elf staff can lower the wards. Every conceivable test that I can do on these wards tells me that they are flawless. You wished to test my wards; you never specified that they be already known to you." I took a deep breath to steady myself, "You're here, please just test them, if you find any problems then I will use some other form of wards, from a text written by someone who is older and wiser and all that."
She didn't responded just went back to looking at my notes, I remained silent waiting to see what she would say. She closed the book and began testing my work, it took her about twenty minutes to complete her examination, when she finished she turned and stared at me for several minutes. "You know when you first walked into my office and began making demands of me, my first thought was how disappointed your father would be, using such underhanded means to help a known Death Eater. Then I arrive here to have you demand to use your own wards, I thought that confirmed my original opinion of you, that they would be terrible and you had more ego than was good for you, but your work is the finest I've ever seen, so it makes me wonder what else I had wrong about you. On my way up here I heard that you and George Weasley are now something of an item, and however much chaos he created at school, he's a good person. Not to mention that Mr. Potter seems to trust you and I know him to be an exceptional person so I'm willing to give you a chance provided you don't attempt to blackmail me again."
"I'd really like that Professor, I'm sorry about that but I couldn't think of a better way to convince you, I wish I could tell you more about this, I know its all very strange, someday I'll explain it to you I promise."
"You know, I seem to remember getting a notice about six years ago, that a Miss Rendylin Brooks would not be attending Hogwarts because she was attending a rather exclusive magical school in Greece. So I'll just assume it has something to do with that, and I imagine that everything will be clear in the end. Have a good night, Miss Brooks." I smiled maybe things would work themselves out between myself and the professor, with a spring in my step I headed downstairs for dinner.
Dinner that night was probably the worst one yet, the entire family spent the meal flinging questions at George and I about our 'relationship', fortunately George was a rather experienced liar and managed to bluff them. As soon as the meal was over I dragged him out of the kitchen to talk in private, and we managed to fill in the remaining gaps, now I had two sets of lies to keep track of my own and the ones about my new boyfriend. Added to that mess I was starting to feel guilty about knowing George's big secret and not being honest with him so I decided that I had to tell him the truth, "George, I haven't been completely honest with you, I want to tell you the truth but only if you're sure you want to hear it."
"What's up? Is something wrong?"
"No nothing like that, its just that there a lot you don't know about me, and I want to be truthful with you, but I need you to keep it yourself, and if you don't want to keep it a secret say so now and this will be the end of it."
He pulled me into a hug, "Hey, who keeps a secret better than me, huh? I've managed to keep my secret from my twin, and your secret can't be any bigger than mine right?"
"Yeah, it's a bit bigger." And I was off, telling George Weasley, one half of the terrible twosome all of my secrets, yet I've never felt better than I did right after I finished telling someone else the entire truth, unfortunately it had me in tears again. This mess was getting ridiculous I hadn't cried since the day I left my stepfather's and yet this was the second time in less than two weeks that tears had escaped. It was strange crying against George's shoulder and yet oddly comforting, of all the people that I'd gotten to know since arriving at the Weasley's I knew in that moment that I would trust George above them all, even the connection that I shared with Harry could not compare. That night was the first night in years that I fell asleep without the aid of potions, I only vaguely remembered George carrying me up to my room and tucking me into bed, before laying down next to me and pulling me into another hug.
I woke up the next morning feeling completely refreshed; I went to stretch my arms only to find that they were pinned to my sides. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why until I felt warm breath on the back of my neck. I looked over my shoulder to find George lying next to me, I smiled good to know I hadn't scared him off, I rolled over and shook him gently, "Hey, time to wake up. We need to get downstairs before anyone comes looking for us."
"Little too late for that."
I nearly jumped out of my skin, "Damn it Harry! Don't do that to me!"
"Its time for breakfast, you might want to hurry," and with that he ducked back out of the room.
"Damn, can't we just go back to sleep?"
"Nope, if you're mum tries to come up here she'll realize that she can't get in, I doubt that will go over well, and I don't fancy having to tell her to knock off just because its my house, I don't know if that would work anyway." We crawled out of bed and I headed into the bathroom to change quickly before heading downstairs. Calling back over my shoulder as I went, "Well if nothing else this will help our story."
I arrived back in my bedroom to see George wearing some of the clothes left in the other room for Draco. "You know if your going to make a habit of this then you'll have to leave some of your clothes up here, as I doubt that Draco will be to happy about sharing once he arrives."
"Yeah, probably, how much does Harry know exactly?"
"Less than you, more than the others, I needed his help."
"When will you tell them the truth?"
"I guess when he's ready, if he's ever ready if not then I'll tell them when it becomes necessary."
"I think you're right about him, for what its worth," he said steering me out the door.
"Thanks, its good to know someone things I'm not nuts."
"Ha, I do think you're nuts, but in this case you happen to be right." With that he stole my hair clip and took off down the stairs.
I stumbled, as hair fell before my eyes, then took of after him, "George! Give that back!" I caught up with him, unfortunately he'd come to a dead stop in the dinning room entrance and I crashed into him sending us both to the floor.
He rolled over laughing, "You didn't tell me that you would be arriving by portkey."
I jumped on him and grabbed my clip, "You'll pay for that, just you wait."
He climbed to his feet and then helped me up; we sat down at the table to find the entire gathered group staring at us, unsure how to react. I smiled as I put my hair back up, "Morning everyone, breakfast looks lovely."
I dug in, George not far behind me, leaving the others to do the same when they got over their initial shock. Most of breakfast passed peacefully, everyone chatting idly about their plans for the weekend, hazard of a Friday I suppose, no one wants to face one more day of real life before they get a break. The only interruptions were the arrivals of two owls, one carrying Hermione's daily prophet article and the other carrying an unmarked letter addressed for me, I tucked it away and sent the owl off hoping that no one was paying attention, unfortunately Fred did.
"So what you get then."
"Just a letter from a friend I expect, I'll open it later."
"You should open it now, might be important."
"The only people who could possibly have urgent news for me are in this room, it'll keep."
"Ah, come on tell us what you got."
I was about to start shouting at him when George saved me the trouble, "Let it go Fred." If things had been awkward when George and I arrived for breakfast it was nothing to what they were now, apparently seeing the twins disagree was new to everyone.
Fred looked shocked, "Come on, your siding with her? What's the big deal, its just a little joke."
"She doesn't want to open the letter now, why don't you just let it go?"
Fred didn't respond for a second, then he whipped out his wand. "Accio letter."
He started opening it before anyone knew what was happening, I jumped to my feet and shouted the first spell that came to mind, "Oppungo."
Suddenly a swarm of birds was attacking Fred, I summoned the letter quickly and ran from the room, George and Harry hot on my heels. I opened my bedroom door and stood waiting for them to enter; as soon as they were in I slammed the door with all the might that my tiny frame could muster, throwing some magic into it for good measure. I put my hands over my face and screamed and then pulled the note out of the envelope and read it. The whole correspondence was only two words long, but its meaning was perfectly clear, 'Tonight Midnight'.
