Chapter 2: Frantic
Tonks shifted slightly on her broom to ease the ache that was beginning to set in on her lower back area. She was on watch tonight and had been following the Dursley's car along the highway for about a half an hour on her broom, trying to stay hidden just above the cloud line. The Order had recieved an owl from Harry earlier on in the week telling them that he planned on going to a wedding with the Dursley's (actually he had been invited by Dudley's girlfriend), and wanted to know if it would be alright, considering he was under twenty-four hour surveillence these days.
The members of the Order had been hesitant about letting Harry leave the Dursley's and go into such a chaotic situation as a wedding. There just wasn't a way to stake out all angles and protect him fully. Harry was important to the war effort and all the members knew that Dumbledore, even after his death, wanted them to protect him and keep him out of harm's way. None of the members of the Order knew exactly what part Harry was to play, but with Voldemort after him constantly, watch on Number 4 Privet Drive and anywhere Harry went was a heavy priority.
Tonks had been one of the members to speak up at the last meeting, stating that Harry deserved to have a little fun. She knew from watching him on previous guard duties, that he'd had a rough time of it at his aunt and uncle's house and she hated seeing him isolated and sullen all the time. She knew that there were things weighing heavily on the sixteen year old's shoulders. He'd seen so much and had suffered so much pain and loss in his sixteen years. He'd been put through things and survived situations that full grown wizards and trained Auror's like herself would never dream of. Yes, he deserved a night out to be sixteen.
So Tonks, along with some newer members of the Order had volunteered to follow the car on brooms, and then attend the wedding in disguise, staking out any potential hazards or threats. She had enjoyed watching Harry make a fool out of himself on the dance floor and get a little tipsy. He had laughed and smiled and had the time of his life and Tonks had felt her heart lift just watching him.
"We'll never get to sleep if that fat-headed Dursley doesn't drive any faster. It doesn't take more than an hour and a half to get back to Surrey," shouted Hawkins, a young brown-haired witch flying to Tonk's left. Tonk's couldn't agree more. It was a muggy and wet night and flying in the midst of it didn't exactly make for a comfortable broom ride. Tonk's robes were starting to stick to her back and she could feel the moisture forming where her hands had been clutching her broom for a half an hour.
"Maybe it'll rain and cool us down, though I don't think I'd appreciate getting soaked," smiled a young blonde wizard by the name of O'Connor. In her mind, Tonk's wouldn't mind a bit of cool rain, but the thought of how heavy her robes would get and how awful that would feel while flying on her broom, turned her off to that notion.Tonks glanced down again at the small dot of the Dursley's car winding down the dark highway, making sure that nothing had happened while they were shouting to each other.
"Looks like some pretty heavy cloud cover coming up," yelled Hawkins as she dissapeared into a thick white cloud. Tonks looked up just in time to see a very thick and heavy patch of clouds coming up. Within seconds her vision was reduced to almost nothing and she dove a bit lower to see if she couldn't break through and get a clear view of the car. But as she dove lower she found that a thick patch of fog blocked all view of the road and the car.
"Shit!" Tonks shouted to herself, "Hawkins! O'Connor! Can you see the road?"
"Nope, If I go any lower I'm afraid I might be on the road...can't see a bloody thing!" yelled a female voice through the haze.
"Tonks? I think we should climb higher and see if we can't find a break in this. We're not going to be able to see a thing until we clear this fog," came O'Connor's husky Irish voice.
"Alright...break above the clouds and let's regroup," bellowed Tonks. Shooting straight up, she broke through the top of the clouds and could see the clear night sky and all the stars above. Looking around, she saw both her partners shoot through the fluffy cloudcover and break into the clearing above them. Tonks took out her compass from the inside of her cloak and held it out in front of her.
"Right. Highway heads south, so if we follow this until we see a break in this fog we'll intercept the car. O'Connor, I need you to ride a bit lower, see if you can't break through and see something. Hawkins and I will ride above the clouds. If you find anything, send up your patronus and we'll join you," said Tonks shaking her head assuringly.
The young male wizard took off into the clouds and the two witches skimmed above the cloudtops, searching for a break.
"Tonks! Found it!" hollered O'Connor through the clouds. Tonks manuevered her broom into the thick patch of clouds and broke through underneath the cover. She looked over at her male counterpart and he pointed toward the highway. There it was. The pinpricks of headlights could be seen as the silver car snaked it's way down the highway and into the night.
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"Wasn't that the turnoff?" shouted O'Connor from behind Tonks. Tonks spun around and surveyed the road below. The car they had been following for the past hour was now heading toward the east, away from the soft glowing lights of Little Winging.
"Yeah...maybe he missed the exit or maybe he had to go to the market to pick something up?" shouted Tonks from her broomstick.
"At one in the morning Tonks?" inquired Hawkins from just beside Tonks.
A sudden panic filled Tonks and she thought wildly. Surely this was the car they had been following for the last hour. They might have lost it in the fog, but it was the only car on the road the whole time they'd been flying. Or was it?A sick filling crept up her throat and she suddenly felt very hot.
"O'Connor. Fly to Privet Drive and see if they didn't arrive home yet. Hawkins. Follow that car and see where it goes. I'll stay right here and report back to me when you can. Maybe we flew ahead of it when we lost the car and they'll come this way if they are," barked Tonks.
Tonks watched her two partners wip off into the night toward their destinations. Tonks guided her own broomstick upward and just into the cloudcover, where she hovered, watching the roadway below intently. 'What did I do now?' she thought to herself, 'I'm the one who suggested we let him go and now something goes wrong on my watch. God Harry...you better be alright.'
The roadway below her was empty and she was starting to get worried when neither of her partners had returned. 'Maybe i'll send my Patronus to Harry and see where they are. The Dursley's would freak...but at least i'd feel better,' she said to herself. She raised her wand and cast her Patronus into the night, sending her message with it, asking Harry to return it with his Patronus.
Five minutes later she heard a rush of an approaching broom in the night air and wipped around to see O'Connor speeding toward her. He had a worried look on his face and his tan face was paled in the moonlight.
"I checked the entire house and the yard. There was no one home and there was no trace that the car came back," stammered O'Connor.
"Damn!" cried Tonks, "I guess we'll wait for Hawkins and I sent a Patronus to Harry. I hope we get word soon."
Not a minute later, Hawkins pulled her broom beside the two others.
"That car pulled into a house a few miles East of the town. It was an older couple that got out of the car," reported Hawkins, looking down at the road below.
"Are you sure?" impored Tonks
"Yes"
"Damn!" swore Tonks who was now very worried. Her Patronus had not come back and it had been several minutes. Even at a great distance, it should have only been a matter of minutes for the Patronus to reach him.She knew what she had to do. She would have to go back to Grimmauld Place and alert the Order that Harry and the Dursley's were missing. God would she catch flack for this. What would she tell Remus?
"You to scan the area and then make your way back down the highway and see if you can't find the car. I'm going to go and alert the Order. If you find anything...anything at all...report back to Headquarters," ordered Tonks.
"Ok," chimed the two young wizards as they flew off to search the surrounding area.
Tonks landed in the cover of a thin tree line and hid her broom from sight. Sighing into the night and taking a deep breath she Apparated to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place to tell the Order she had lost Harry Potter.
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Molly Weasley was sitting in her favorite chair, sipping a warm glass of cocoa she had just made. It had been a long day. She had spent most of it with Fleur, planning wedding details and trying to teach her new daugher-in-law to cook. The cocoa hit the spot and curling up in her flannel nightgown, she was listening to the silence that was now echoeing through the house. Everyone was asleep after a long day of fixing up the Burrow, and night time was the only time that the house was ever quiet.
It'd been a long time since she had all of her family back under one roof. But this summer her older boys (minus Percy) had decided to come home and help out around the house with wedding preparations and Order bussiness. It felt nice to have everyone here, especially in times like these. They were in the midst of a war and Molly spent almost every minute of her day worrying about whether her family would make it through unscathed.
Molly watched the dying fire in the hearth crackle and pop as it illuminated the dark room. She felt her eyes drooping and struggled to keep them open. Sensing sleep was imminent; she picked up her mug of cocoa from the table next to her and made her way to the kitchen. She set the empty mug in the sink and looked out the big bay window watching the thin patch of clouds washing over the full moon. 'It looks so beautiful out tonight' she thought to herself.
She was just about to make her way up the stairs to retire for the night when she heard a pop come from the sitting room and heard a voice call "Molly, Arthur?" She was used to members of the Order popping in and out of the Burrow at all hours of the night, but every time she heard that fire, she was afraid that bad news was not far behind.
Calling for Arthur to come downstairs, Molly made her
way to the sitting room to see the head of a rather rattled Remus
Lupin dancing in the now blazing green fire lit inside the
hearth.
"Arthur will be down in a minute Remus. What is it?"
she asked, hoping to God this was normal late night call.
"We have a problem. I really need to speak to……. Arthur," Remus sputtered as the bed headed figure of Arthur Weasley ambled into the sitting room.
"Remus, what is it?" asked Mr. Weasley, running a hand through his thinning red hair.
Remus looked around at Molly, almost as if he wanted her to leave the room. Arthur picked up on Remus's hesitance to discuss the situation in front of his wife and quickly thought of a way to politely ask her to leave the room.
"Molly why don't you go wake Charlie and Bill," whispered Arthur soothingly to his wife and then turned to Lupin's head in the fire, "Remus why don't you come on over here." She gave him a questioning look and headed quickly up the stairs to wake her two eldest boys.
Turning back to the fire, the figure of Remus Lupin came spinning into view and he landed awkwardly in the sitting room. Remus looked as though he had been running his hands incessantly through his graying hair and was still in his bed clothes. Obviously he had some bad news if he had Floo'd over in his pajamas.
"Remus what…." started Mr. Weasley but was cut off.
"Tonk's arrived back at headquarters a few minutes ago. They'd been on duty all night watching Harry and the Dursley's at the wedding he wrote to us about. They were on the way back to Little Winging when they ran into some heavy fog and lost the car for a bit. When they got their bearings, they found the car on the road again and followed it," Remus hesitated and looked as though he was going to be sick with worry.
"And...?"
"And when they reached the turn-off to Little Winging the car continued south and ended up somewhere east of the city. It wasn't the Dursley's car. And they went to Privet Drive to see if they had arrived back…..and no one had been home," blurted Remus.
"Arthur. Harry's missing."
There was a gasp from the stairs as Molly made her way back downstairs.
"What do you mean he's missing? What if he's hurt? What if….. Oh God!" Molly cried as she placed a shaking hand over her mouth and visibly paled in the dark room. Bill made to stand behind his mum and helped her sit in one of the armchairs.
"Molly–we don't know anything for sure yet," Arthur reassured his wife, but casting questioning glances at Remus who was fiddling with something inside his robes.
"How long has it been since he's been seen?"
asked Charlie from just inside the door frame.
Remus retold the
story of the Auror's losing the car in the fog and concerned and
worried looks slid across the faces of the Weasley men. After a short
silence Bill spoke up.
"Remus, it could be nothing. They could have stopped somewhere, or maybe they stopped for the night at a hotel or something. We could be overreacting. If Harry was in trouble don't you think he'd try and contact us somehow?" affirmed Bill.
"Tonks sent a Patronus to see if she couldn't locate him. The Patronus never was returned. She waited and even sent it a second time after she'd come here to alert the Order. Something's not right…." responded Remus, his eyes studying the carpet of the sitting room intently.
Mrs. Weasley began to quietly whimper as she thought of all the horrible possibilities that could come with Harry's disappearance. She thought of Harry as a son, one of her own, and losing him was almost too horrible to comprehend. Bill put a reassuring arm around his mom and held her closer.
"Mum, don't worry. Harry's a tough kid and a great wizard….." Bill's voice trailed off as he thought of something else to comfort his hysteric mother, "He's gotten out of some bad scrapes in the past and I'm sure he's fine."
Remus cleared his throat and reached inside his robes, pulling out the object he'd been playing with within them.
"Bill….Harry didn't have his wand on him. O'Connor found this at Privet Drive when he searched the house. He could be anywhere and he's without his wand. He's vulnerable and that's what scares me," choked Remus as he brandished Harry's wand in his hand, fumbling with it as he struggled to hold his emotions in check.
"What are we doing standing here? What's being done?" exclaimed Bill as he left his mother's side and stood up.
"We've got Moody, Kingsley, Elphias, and Hestia helping O'Connor and Hawkins retrace the route and search the surrounding area. Other members are searching places like Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and trying to pick up information on any Death Eater activity. We've got all members on it right now. Dora is going to stay at Grimmauld Place incase he shows up," answered Remus as he clutched Harry's wand.
"What
can we do?" asked Arthur.
"Bill and Charlie…..you can join
the rest of the Order trying to search the surrounding area where the
car was. Arthur, could you wake the twins…inform them of the
situation and send one of them to the joke shop. If Harry's in
trouble….he might go there. Then you can join the search…but try
and keep this quiet and don't raise too much suspicion. We don't
want Death Eaters to be alerted to any problem or pick up on Harry's
disappearance if they're not somehow involved," ordered Remus as
his voice became steadier and he took control of the
situation.
Molly looked around as her two oldest boys nodded and whipped out of the room and headed off to join the search.
"Molly, I need you to stay here. If Harry's in trouble or
hurt…he may try to Apparate here……And I'm sure you'll need
to deal with Ron when he wakes," Remus voice trailed off as he
fastened his cloak and strode over to Molly and gave her a quick
squeeze before Apparating away.
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A sliver of sunlight broke through the
slit in the curtains and shown on the freckled face of Ron Weasley.
Groaning, Ron turned over on his stomach and dug his face deeper into
the pillows and tried to fall back asleep. But now that he was awake
he could hear the goul in the attic banging on the pipes and he knew
that any chance of him falling back asleep was gone.
Not lifting
his head from his pillow, Ron reached his arm off the edge of his bed
and groped around on the floor for a t-shirt. Finding the crumpled
t-shirt he had discarded prior to falling into bed last night, he
grabbed it and ripped it over his head, and then stood up and
stretched his long tired limbs and yawned.
Still wiping the sleep from his eyes, Ron pushed open the door to his upstairs bedroom and made his way down the winding stairs, sniffing the air for a clue to what his mom was preparing for breakfast. Almost halfway down the stairs Ron noticed that the smell of bacon or eggs did not reach his nose. That was odd. It had to be almost nine o'clock in the morning and with all the boys home for the summer, breakfast should have been prepared ages ago. 'Maybe I missed it?' he thought to himself as he continued down the stairs and into the quiet kitchen.
His mother was sitting at a chair in the middle of the long kitchen table. She was holding a mug in her hands and her head was bowed.She was still in her flannel nightshirt and her hair was still in the curlers that she wore to bed each night. Something wasn't right. Ron wasn't sure she was awake or not, so as he entered the kitchen he cleared his throat.
Molly Weasley's head snapped up at the sound of someone entering the room and Ron stopped in his tracks at the sight his mothers face. Her cheeks were blotchy and tearstained and her eyes were irritated-looking and red-rimmed. It looked as though she had not been asleep and very obviously had been crying about something. Ron was worried about what had brought on his mother's current state, and he was very afraid to ask, dreading that something terrible had happened to a brother or his dad.
"Mum?" he questioned while taking a step closer to his mother.
"Oh Ronald," she said forcing a smile onto her face and quickly getting up and taking her mug to the sink, "I must have fallen sleep. Breakfast will be up in a bit." She summoned various pans and some fresh eggs from their proper places and hastily started busying herself with breakfast. But as she made breakfast, she appeared shaken. She cracked several eggs with her wand, and missed the bowl, sending the contents crashing to the floor.
Something was definately not right and Ron wasn't buying his mother's excuse that she had fallen sleep. Ron strode over to his mum and grabbed a rag, bending down beside her to clean up the smashed egg yolk. Her hands were shaking as she clumbsily tried to clean up the mess. Ron could hear her sniffling and knew that she was crying.
"Mum?
What happened?" he asked softly, ceasing his efforts to clean up
the egg mess.
She didn't seem to hear his question and commenced
on scrubbing the floor even harder with the rag. Ron grabbed her
hands and pulled them towards him, forcing her to stop and to look at
him.
"Something's wrong...Who is it?" he asked a bit more firmly. Since the war started a few years ago, Ron had gotten used to asking "who" rather than "what" when it came to bad news.
"Ron," Molly whispered quietly while taking his wrist in her hand and standing up, "you need to sit down." He gave her a worried look and stood up. He was more than a head and a half taller than her and he felt awkward as his mother led him over to the table and sat him down. She then seated herself opposite him and placed her hands on the table, clasping them with his.
"Please tell me it's not Dad? I thought he was home last night? It couldn't be Bill or Charlie...I stayed up with them until almost midnight playing chess. Oh no! Who is it?Fred or George?" Ron cried out breathlessly.
"Ron," Molly said softly.
"It wasn't Professor Lupin was it. I know Harry said something about a misson with werewolves...but it wasn't a full moon last night and..." Ron rambled on while ignoring his mother's silent pleas to listen to her.
"Mom? It's not Hermione is it?" He asked with tears in his eyes. "I knew we shouldn't have left Harry's. I knew it was dangerous for her to stay with her parents..."
"Ron!" Molly shouted. Ron stopped and stared at his mother. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, willing her mind to be able to explain last nights events to him.
"Ron, last night Remus called on us through Floo just as I was about to tuck in for the night," she took another deep breathe and tried to decide the best way to go about explaining things.
"And?"
"And Tonks and the Aurors who were assigned to Harry came back last night to report that they had had problems with the Dursleys..." Molly paused as she looked at her son across from her.
Ron scrunched his face as if he were thinking. "Oh yeah...Harry had that muggle wedding with those relatives of his. What was the problem? Harry didn't do some accidental magic on them, did he? Though I have to admit those muggles deserve anything Harry throws at them. What'd he do? Blow someone up? Give Dudley a snout to go along with that tail of his? Don't tell me the Ministry is putting up a fit over him doing magic. What'd they do? They didn't come and snap his wand, did they? Don't tell me he's got to go on trial again?"
Molly shook her head. Ron wasn't understanding and she didn't have the heart to tell him that his best friend was missing and feared kidnapped or killed by Death Eaters.
"No Ron. They were on their way back from the wedding when they lost the car in fog. When the Aurors finally located the car they followed it, but when it was time to turn into Little Whinging, the car went on and it turns out that it wasn't the Dursley's car. They went and searched at Privet Drive, and tried to contact Harry...but no one knows were he or the Dursley's are. They never came home and the whole Order is worried because Harry didn't have his wand." Molly stopped when she saw Ron's eyes go wide and his Adam's Apple bob up and down as he swallowed.
"He's missing?" Ron said in a dead voice.
Molly nodded and squeezed her son's hands harder.
"How long has he been gone? Has there been any word yet?" Ron said in a strangled voice, staring at a spot on the table.
"It was early this morning when Remus called and it's been since a little before one this morning when they saw the Dursley's car. I'm sorry I didn't wake you up Ron...I just hoped we'd have heard something before. But there hasn't been any news...good or bad," Molly choked through a fresh wave of tears.
A million scenarios began playing through Ron's mind. Horrible scenes of Harry being tortured by Death Eaters and of Voldemort sending the Killing Curse towards a shocked Harry played through his head like a bad film strip. No. He had to find Harry. Ron and Hermione were the only people that Harry had confided the contents of the prophecy to. He knew what the implications of Harry's death meant for the world. If Harry was dead, that was it, there would be no future for anyone. Voldemort would prevail and the world would become dark and evil.
But that didn't matter to Ron right now. If Harry was dead, it didn't matter if Voldemort ruled and hunted down those fighting against him. Harry's death meant that he'd lost a best friend, a brother. Harry's death meant that Ginny would lose her true love and a chance at a happy future together. His parents would lose a boy they throught of as a son. And the world would lose a great wizard and a good man. No. He had to find him.
Ron yanked his hand from his mother's grasp and stood up, causing the chair to clatter to the ground behind him. He whipped around and hurried upstairs to his room. Tossing off his dirty t-shirt, he pulled on a jumper and a clean pair of jeans and grabbed his cloak from the doorhandle and tossed it into a knapsack. Searching through the drawers of his dresser, Ron tossed the few coins he had and a small dagger his grandfather had given him for his seventeen birthday into the knapsack as well. He slung the pack around his shoulders and tugged on his socks and trainers. He then reached under his bed, pulled out his Cleansweep and strode out onto the stair landing and made his way downstairs.
"Ron! Where do you think you're going?" his mother cried as he entered the kitchen.
"Where the bloody hell do you think I'm going? My best friend is missing; you don't expect me to sit here and twiddle my thumbs, waiting to hear if they found his body or not?" snapped Ron as he made his way toward the door.
Molly moved in front of her son and tried to block his way. He was much bigger than her and if he wanted to he could just push her out of the way.
"Mum...move." Ron ordered threateningly while readjusting the pack on his back.
"No. Ronald Weasley you're going to stay here," Molly shrieked, her emotions finally getting the best of her. The strain of having a family so involved in the Order and the war rose to the surface. "I'm not going to allow you to go running out there by yourself. You don't even know where to look or what or who could be there if you find him. I'm may not be able to stop your father or brothers from going, but you're not a member of the Order and while you still live under my roof, you'll listen to what I have to say."
"NO! He's my best friend...he's my brother and I'm not going to sit here and do nothing. If I was in trouble...Harry'd be out there right now, risking his life to find me," Ron shouted. His face was set with a fierce look of determination and passion for his best friend. For a moment, Molly couldn't help but be proud of her son. He was more brave and loyal to Harry and to his friends than she had ever known anyone to be, but she couldn't let him go out into the world alone and unaided.
"Ron," she said a bit more soothingly, "every member of the Order is looking for him. If you leave now and someone comes back with news, any news, we won't know where to find you. And if Harry is in trouble and captured...who's to say you couldn't be too. We need to notify the Order if you're leaving and they're all spread out now. When someone checks in...I promise you...you can go and look with the Order. But I'm not allowing you to go off by yourself. Ron...Harry wouldn't want you to risk your safety...you know that."
Ron let the broom that he had propped over his shoulder clatter to the ground and his head fell to his chest.
"You're right Mum. I wouldn't know where to look for him...I'm just so...so scared for him. He wouldn't want anyone to risk their lives for him...he hates it when people do that. But he needs us to help him...now more than ever. I just don't want to lose him," Ron said quietly through tears.
"I know Ron," She said as she embraced him and ruffled up his hair as he laid his head on her shoulder, quietly sobbing. Molly was saddened even deeper as she stood in the middle of the kitchen with her seventeen year old son crying on her shoulder. Her children had seen so much and had things put on their shoulders that no grown adult should have to endure. She was proud of how all of her children had held themselves through all the uncertainty and dark times. But maybe it was beginning to be too much.
She knew that Ron, Hermione, and especially Harry were all more involved in all of this than they ever let on. There was something going on between the three of them. She had felt it when she had arrived at the hospital wing at Hogwarts the night of Dumbledore's death and as she watched them converse after the funeral a few days later. They had seemed closer, more determined, and more mature than she had ever seen those three be. And her feelings were reaffirmed when Ron had informed the family he would be spending the summer, until the wedding, with Harry and Hermione at Privet Drive.
It worried her constantly to think that Ron's fate was so
closely knit with Harry's. Ron was Harry's best friend and Harry was
The Boy-Who-Lived. He was the prime target of Lord Voldemort. And he
was, according to the press, The Chosen One. Harry was supposedly the
only one who could and who was destined to, vanquish Lord Voldemort
from existence.
Molly didn't know if what the papers said were
true and she hadn't heard the prophecy's contents. But somehow she
knew, though her heart hoped it not true, that Harry would be the one
to finally rid the world of Voldemort. If it was destiny or
redemption that would be driving him...she didn't know. But the fact
that Ron and Hermione would follow Harry wherever to the end is what
scared her. It was what had her up into the wee hours of the morning.
They were no longer children, they hadn't been for a long time, and
it pained her to see them robbed of the freedoms of their teenage
years.
Ron lifted his head from his mother's shoulders and took a deep sigh.
"I have to go let Hermione know," his voice cracked quietly.
"Ron...an owl's probably not a good thing. She needs to know...I agree. But we should have someone Apparate over and get her. We'll need a member of the Order, so we'll just have to wait for that too," she said bracingly, waiting for an angry protest from Ron.
"Yeah...you're right. I just hate that I can't even tell her that one of her friends is missing.It's just not fair...none of it," sighed Ron sadly as he sat down at the table again.
Molly nodded and patted Ron on the back as she went over to the stove and started making some tea. After putting the kettle on to boil, she turned back to her son, who was still sitting at the table, his head back, and his eyes closed. She went back to fussing over the kettle and got out two cups.
Taking the kettle off of the stove, Molly poured tea into the two cups, filling one with milk and honey and one with just milk. She brought the two cups over to the table and sat across from Ron, who had leaned forward and had another look of horror on his face.
"Ron...what is it?"
"Ginny...was
she up already this morning?"
"No."
"I need to tell her."
"Ron...I can tell her when she's up.." but Ron cut her off.
"No...I need to tell her. She's my sister, I'm his best mate, It needs to come from me."
Molly nodded and watched her youngest son get up from the table and head up the stairs. She had forgotten about Ginny.
