Chapter Two: We've Come to Get You

Thump.

What was that?

Thump.

I sat up in bed, my heart now stuck in my throat, preventing any screams that wanted to escape. "M-Mom?" I took my moment to thank Merlin I'd turned seventeen in April and grabbed hold of my wand tight. "Lizzy, is that you?"

Creeeeeeeeak.

"I swear Dad, if you're doing this on purpose..." My eyes didn't move from the doorknob as it turned slowly to the right, then the left. The fact that Voldemort was back constantly throbbed in the back of my mind. He knew who Harry's friends were; what if he'd come to finish them off?

The door suddenly swung open wide and I let loose a scream that would have awoken all my neighbours. Unfortunately, the scream was unnecessary. It was only, "Fred!"

He allowed me to sprint across the room into his arms. I'd never felt so at home. "Sara!" he chuckled. "How have you been?"

"I would love it if everyone stopped asking me that question and perhaps told me what they'd been up to recently." I said, my mood changing almost instantly from excited to bitter. I could see Fred was taken aback by my accusation, but I kept talking. "No one's given me any bit of news this summer! It's already almost time to go back to school. I don't know if Harry's okay; I don't know where you've been; I don't know anything! What have you been hiding?"

"If you quiet down a minute, I'll tell you!" Fred interjected, not in a harsh tone, but in a way to tell me to stop yelling and that everything was okay. "We've come to get you."

"Who has?"

"George, me and Dad. We took the Floo Network here. They're talking to your family downstairs – sent me to wake you. They thought for some reason that the sight of me would somehow make you, I don't know, calmer."

I giggled and felt myself blush. Oops. Then I remembered what he'd said. "You've come to get me? Where are we going?"

"I'm not really authorized to tell you..."

"I trust you."

"Dad is explaining it all to your parents right now. Do you think you can wait until we get there?"

I was getting shaky, but I did trust him; I knew wherever the Weasleys had to take me, I wouldn't get hurt. "Yes."

Fred wrapped his arm through mine and told me he'd meet me in the living room. When I got there, both our families sat facing each other. "Sara, there you are!" Mr Weasley exclaimed, standing at the sight of me. He and George were on the two small couches and Mum, Dad and Lizzy were on the perpendicular sofa. "Has Fred told you why we're here?"

"Not exactly." I felt anxious not knowing what was going on. "He said we're going somewhere."

Mum gazed at me. "Lizzy, too, as we understand it."

"She's coming?"

"Take care of her." Dad instructed me as Mum was already giving my little sister a hug that could have popped her head right off her shoulders.

George beamed at her, then at me. "You've nothing to worry about. Your daughters are safe with us." He put his arms over our shoulders, squeezed me tight and whispered in my ear. "How've you been?"

"Nervous." I chuckled uneasily into his. "Where're we going?"

"We'll tell you when we get there."

"That's what Fred said, too."

Suddenly I heard a small pop! and Fred had appeared behind me. "Bloody hell!" I jumped at the feeling on his hand on the small of my back. "Do you have to do that?" I'd passed my Apparation Test that summer as well, but I obviously wasn't having as much fun with it as Fred was.

"Yes." Fred had a smug look on his face as he gripped my trunk in one hand. "I packed your things. Let's go."

He grabbed my hand and my breathing pace quickened. "You sure you know what you're doing?"

"I'm not going to splinch you if that's what you're thinking."

"...No."

He looked me in the eye and rubbed my back. "I've got your trunk and Chuck's cage, and we're going to be alright. Take a deep breath and you won't feel a..."

Suddenly I felt a jerk in my chest and we were standing in front of a rundown townhouse. "...thing." George and Lizzy had appeared shortly next to us.

Everything around me made me think we were in the projects – shingles were falling off the roofs, shutters off the windows... "Where are we?" Mr. Weasley, who had Apparated right behind us, began to mutter something under his breath. The townhouses started to tremble and as though it was inflating from the ground up, another house materialized between numbers eleven and thirteen.

"Number Twelve Grimmauld Place." Mr. Weasley said, I assumed finally answering my question.

"The Order of the Phoenix."

"What?"

"Shut up, Fred. We'll tell them inside."

Entering this old house made me apprehensive, but if this is all I had to do to get some answers, I did not object.

"Sara, Lizzy, before the twins take you upstairs and fill you in on everything, there are some people I'd like you to meet." Mr. Weasley led me through a long hallway and around a corner to a big, black door with intricate details around the edges. "This is the Order of the Phoenix." He grasped the handle and pushed, allowing the door to swing back on its hinges. As the room before me seemed to grow upon the door's opening, I took notice of all of the witches and wizards sitting at the long, wooden dining table – and just how many of them I actually recognized.

"Are these the last ones, Arthur?" a witch with stringy, shoulder length, magenta hair asked happily.

"Yes." Mr. Weasley pushed Lizzy and I in front of him so everyone had a good look at their latest recruits, I was guessing. I was painfully aware that both Fred and George had already gone upstairs. "Girls, that's Nymphadora..." The young, purple-haired witch glared at him. "Er, sorry, that's Tonks. The man to her left? That's Kingsley Shacklebolt. Then the real Alastor Moody. You know Professor Snape and my wife, Molly... The man at the head of the table there, that's Sirius Black – Harry's godfather."

"Since I was forced to go into hiding from the Ministry, the only thing I could offer up to the Order was my mother's house." Sirius explained with a short chuckle.

It made me curious when I shot a frightened look at Mr. Weasley and everyone at the table began to laugh comfortably. "He was framed, he wouldn't hurt a thing." There was a pause before he cleared his throat and said, "Everyone, this is Sara and Elizabeth Hughes."

"Lizzy." My sister's correction made everyone at the table smirk.

Shacklebolt looked pleasantly surprised. "Matthew's daughters?"

"Well, pleased to meet you." Sirius opened his arms welcomingly and smiled at us.

Mrs. Weasley stood from her seat, making her not much taller than everyone who was still sitting down. "Girls, everyone else is upstairs if you'd like to go..." I didn't let a moment pass before grabbing Lizzy's wrist and tugging her up the stairs after me. "First door on the left!" Mrs. Weasley shouted after us.

Lizzy was the first one brave enough to open the door, and I'm glad she was. Ginny nearly tackled her to the floor with her welcoming hug. We appeared to have entered a bedroom; three mattresses were lined with their headboards along the wall to my left. Hermione and Ron were sitting on the bed closest the door, Harry lay on his back on the one behind them, while Ginny, Fred and George anticipated our arrival next to the door. "I missed you!" Ginny squealed, releasing one of her arms from around my sister to embrace me as well.

"We all did." Ron interjected pointedly. "How have you –"

"We're fine." I was feeling frustrated. "Can someone please tell me what's going on here?"

Exhaling, Hermione sat straight up. "This is the Order of the Phoenix – it used to be a group of radicals against Voldemort years ago in the war. Now that he's back, Dumbledore thought it would be a good idea to get everyone together again."

"You understand now why we couldn't tell you anything in the post, mate?" George sighed. "We couldn't risk You-Know-Who intercepting any information..."

This was all too much too soon. "Are you all part of the Order, too?" Lizzy asked the question on both of our minds. I loved her for that.

"Not exactly... Not yet anyway."

Ron scoffed. "Mum thinks we're too young or something."

"Is there..." I could barely bring myself to say it. "Is there going to be another war?"

Looking around the room for anyone's opinion was discouraging until Harry swung his legs off the bed and slumped over, so he was looking at his shoes. "I don't know. They all say it feels like last time."

It was hard to recognize what good company I was finally in when the possibility of war was looming so closely over all of our heads.