"You'll never guess who we saw today!" Exclaimed Ron.
"Who? One of your Hogwarts friends?" guess his brother Charlie.
"No, we're not friends but she it from Hogwarts. Alex Whittenshire, she says you know her brother."
"Oh, yea. We were friends in school. Haven't seen him in years though."
"Where'd you see her?" joined in Fred.
They were all at the Burrow, celebrating the private re-wedding of Bill and Fleur and the life of Alastor Moody. For safety reasons the big ceremony Fleur had wanted had taken place in Fleur's home country, France and the Weasleys had been unable to go. Now, most of what was left of the Order was at the Burrow, drinking wine and Fire Whiskey. Across the room from Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George and Charlie were Bill, Fleur, Mrs. Weasley and Ginny. They were talking about the wedding.
"Eet was beautiful, zere was gold everywhere and ze celebrations afterwards were simply wonderful, lasting all night."
"Oh, I'm just so sorry we had to miss it! It sounds like it was just perfect!" Mrs. Weasley replied.
The others were sitting in the back garden. Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Rubeus Hagrid and Mr. Weasley were secretly discussing plans for the Order of the Phoenix. They had to be quiet because Mrs. Weasley had forbidden them to talk about such depressing matters tonight. But they knew the needed to go over plans to attack and defeat Lord Voldemort, the most evil and powerful dark wizard of the time.
"We need to find out what Harry, Ron and Hermione are planning. Maybe we can help them." Mr. Weasley insisted.
"Ah! I say we just leave 'em to it. They ain't gonna tell anyway." Boomed Hagrid who had to be 'shh'ed quickly.
But the conversation could go no further. At that moment there was an extremely loud "BANG!" at the other side of the yard. Death Eaters were climbing over the garden fence. They had broken the protection place on the house. Everyone ran inside and started barricading the house while Mr. Weasley shouted what was going on to those already inside. They all jumped up to help, except Hermione who instead took out her wand and mumbled something. A silver flash darted through the wall and then she waited. Seconds later a white wolf Patronus entered the room. Everyone stopped to look at it.
"Safety at 77 Kettlesworth Road. I'll meet you there." A familiar voice said, coming from the mouth of the wolf before it disappeared.
They all understood immediately and, grabbing their things, disapperated.
hr
77 Kettlesworth Road was a vacant lot covered in trees. The group stood there quietly, not knowing what was going to happen. Everyone jumped when a twig broke behind them. It was Alex. Fred and George looked relieved, so did Hermione.
"I understand your looking for a safe place." She smiled. "Follow me." And she turned and started walking at a brisk pace. After a confused second, in which time Hermione explained, "She was the safest person I could think of. And she has a huge, safe house all to herself," they followed. About ten uneventful minutes of walking later they reached a really large gate. There was a plain-looking man sitting in a chair on the left side of the gate. Alex smiled at him, pulled out her wand, and tapped the gate, which opened and then turned to the man and whispered "Obliviate!"
Behind the gate was a large courtyard with four other, smaller gates that led to four huge mansions. Alex walked towards the largest and farthest away. They all continued in silence. When they reached the gates to the mansion, Alex put her hand on them and they opened at her touch. She walked up the path, the group following her, and placed a hand on the doorknob. It glowed green for a second before she turned it and they all went inside.
The entrance hall had exquisite marble floors and a large grand staircase of marble that led to the second floor. There was a hallway on either side of the stairs, both ending in more stairs, leading to the basement. There were six doors on the walls on either side of the grand staircase, made out of dark wood. Also made out of dark wood were the double doors they had just gone through to enter this fastidious home. Alex turned to face them and said, "Welcome to the Whittenshire mansion. It's safe here because of the protection placed n it by all sides, if you want to stay. To your right is the sitting room and to your left is the kitchen. The door next to the kitchen is the dinning room, which is used for special occasions. There are, like hundreds of rooms upstairs," she gestured to the stairs. "If you want to stay here of course. If not then you can use the fireplaces on the third floor. Don't worry, the lines of transportation and communication aren't being watched here. The other room on the third floor is the library. On the fourth floor is where all of the spare things are kept, you can find anything you need up there, and I mean anything. Oh, and if you need anything else, Slitch and Ayamee, my house elves will be happy to get you whatever you want." She smiled her beautiful smile, turned and went into the kitchen.
"Well I'm staying!" Ron declared immediately, "It's like heaven here!"
Fred and George looked each other and said, "Definitely staying!"
"At least for a bit." Fred continued.
"Well, the Burrow's not safe anymore and we were invited…" Hermione said, looking at Mrs. Weasley, who said, "Alright fine, we'll stay. She seems like a nice girl and if she's your friend then she's got to be safe."
"We'll be leaving, our home is still safe." Bill said. Fleur nodded.
"We're leaving too, but we can stay for drinks." Said Lupin.
"I really should get back to work. I'd better set off now." Charlie pronounced.
"I best get back to me house." Grumbled Hagrid. "I gotta leave now too."
Everyone said good-bye to Hagrid, Bill, Fleur and Charlie, who went upstairs to find the fireplaces with the male elf, Slitch.
Alex came back into the hall and said, "Ayamee just made hot chocolate, if you want one before bed."
They went into the kitchen to a have a cup. Then they went upstairs and had fun choosing rooms, all wanting the biggest ones, while Alex watched and laughed at them. Finally, around eleven o'clock they all went to bed and fell asleep surprisingly quickly.