(A/N) This might be a bit fast, I did skim over like a month of happenings but in the first draft of this chapter i had four pages of them arriving right after the portkey and it just didn't flow properly. I think this one is the better version, I guess that's why its called a second draft...
It had been a month since the night that Narvana (who turned out to be Neville) and Fran (who was Fred) had teleported them back to Hogwarts. The rumours they had overheard at the party about all of Harry Potters' supporters disappearing from Hogwarts had technically been true. The moment they appeared in the Room of Requirement they were swarmed by all the members of Dumbledore's Army, and when Harry asked them why they were there the group explained how the school was slipping easily into Voldemort's grasp and it was safer to plan in hiding. Fred left the day after, to the Burrow, so he could fill Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in on how well Ginny and the rest were. Ginny had wanted to go with but Harry said it was too dangerous to transport her to and from Hogwarts when everyone was looking for them, but she felt isolated without her family! Her parents raised their children on the value of family togetherness, so days spent without any connection to her close knit relatives felt like months, so when she found out that Mrs. Wealsey would be visiting you can understand her excitement.
"Ginny!" Harry barked at her, she was sitting on the bed doing up her shoe laces as Harry rooted through the closet for something to wear. "I can't wear this!"
He held up the black pressed suit Ginny had bought for him a few days previous especially for the lunch with her mother, which Harry would be attending of course (he was her fiance, after all).
"Harry, you need to look your best! You're meeting my mother!" Ginny replied with a role of her eyes.
"I know your mother, Ginny! I've known her for seven years now and she's seen me at my worst, why do I need to wear a suit to this particular meeting?" he asked her.
She gave a sigh and replied, "Because she's meeting you under a new context, you're my finace now. She's only ever known you as Ron's best mate, remember how much she disliked Fleur when Bill got engaged to her?"
"Your mum didn't like Fleur anyway, before they had even met. Don't you think you're going a little overboard?" he asked her and she shook her head.
"No, I am not." Ginny replied simply as she stood form the bed and walked to the door. "End of discussion." she finsihed with.
"Sometimes you're freakishly like your brother," Harry muttered and as he walked off to the bathroom, Ginny left the room. The Room of requirement had been expanded to something that resembled a large apartment block. The hallways were crowded with doors that led off to everyone's rooms and even though Ginny had her own room, she spent most of her nights in Harry's room, like Rory and Jess did. Ginny wove through the twisting hallways until she reached her own room opposite Luna's.
Pushing the door open, she was greeted by the green walls and yellow bedding. Luna had quickly become very advanced in magical decorating, and she could create a bed or color scheme with a simple wand flick! The ravenclaw had graciously agreed to do anyone's room if they asked her nicely, and Ginny had done just that.
Ginny walked to her own closet and opened the door, trying to find the best outfit to wear. Something classy would probably be best, but she had nothing like that, nor did she have anything that could be possibly constrewed as formal. She breathed a string of swear words as she flicked back and forth through her yellow, blue, green and pink frocks and sweaters. If Hermione was around Ginny could just steal a nice acceptable outfit from her, but she pushed that thought from her mind. She missed the fellow Gryffindor to the point that she felt hot tears behind her eyes when she thought of all she was missing.
With a sigh Ginny got out a light green babydoll dress with yellow flowers along the hem and then her brown cowboy boots from America would top off the ensamble. With only 15 minutes to go, Ginny rushed through getting dressed and left her hair to float freely near her elbows and then she moved to her jewlery case. She popped on her watch and various beaded bracelets along with a few colourful strings. She finsihed by polishing off her enagement ring and gem.
She was happy with the finshed product so Ginny bolted from her room and back Harry's. She threw open the door without knocking and saw him in the black designer suit she had gotten for him, smiling to herslef she came up to her love and wrapped her arms around him.
"Told you you'd look great," she whispered softly.
"Yes, well I can only hope your mother thinks so too, she's the only reason I agreed to waer this thing," Harry replied and Ginny began to lead him out of the room and through the hallways until the two of them reached the living room. "Why don't you have to wear anything like this?" Harry asked as he readjusted the suit once more.
"Because she loves me no matter what I wear," Ginny said with a smile. "And formality doesn't really suit me."
"I've seen you in loads of formal stuff!" Harry protested.
"I stole it all from Hermione," Ginny said in a quiet voice.
"Oh, should have known..." Harry muttered and they didn't speak again until they reached the sitting room and saw Luna smiling brightly. Ginny had asked Luna to convert one of the spare rooms into a small private dining room for the lunch with Mrs. Weasley and Luna had agreed.
"Its all done!" Luna beamed once they walked up to her. "I finished ages ago and I was going to go and find you but I managed to get lost the other day and now I'm afraid too try again on my own." she said in her usual light voice. "I'm just going to wait until Draco gets here-"
"No need!" Draco said as he walked into view from one of the hallways. The living room served as a main entrance, there were several main hallways that stemmed from the large circular room and there were stairs that led up to a second floor which served as an auditorium for their weekly DA meetings. "I was just in one of the potions room, I was trying to make an exploding potion but it kept... well, exploding."
Luna let out a long laugh that made her brace herself against her knees, and Draco beamed poudly at the fact he had made Luna laugh so hard and just as the front door was opening the two of them were leaving to go to Draco's room for some afternoon delight. A round figure in a long brown coat entered the main room, their head was bent so Ginny couldn't make out their face until the new comer lifted the hood from their head to show the curly red locks of Mrs. Wealsey.
"Mum!" Ginny excliamed. She ran up to her mother and embraced her tightly, and when they both drew apart small tears of joy were running down their cheeks.
"Ginny, my dear!" Mrs. Weasley cried out, grasping both of Ginny's shoulders. "Let me look at you!" Mrs. Wealsey smiled to herslef as she took in her daughter's face. "You look so much older then I thought you would," she said then looked down at the dress. "But you still dress the same I see. Nothing wrong with that, is there? Its not like this is a formal lunch!"
Harry let out a small moan of discontent and Mrs. Weasley almost thrust Ginny out of the way to see him. Ginny watched while she wrung her hands as her mum took in the sight of her fiance. Finally a huge smile broke out across her mum's face and she ran up to Harry and burried him in a Weasley bear hug.
"Oh Harry!" She said loudly, her voice full of emotion. "You look so mature! I love that suit on you, makes you look your age. Ron would never be caught dead in it and that's why he looks like a slob."
Ginny smiled proudly to herself, she had known the suit would be a hit with her mother despite Harry's arguments.
"Speaking of Ron," Mrs. Weasley began. "I heard about him staying in Stars Hollow with Hermione and Mr. Weasley and I couldn't be more proud of them! It takes a lot of guts to stay in a war but it takes even more guts to stop fighting." Harry nodded sadly, he didn't like talking about Ron and Hermione because even though he loved them to peices and supported their decision to drop out of the fight, he missed them terribly and the subject brought him sadness (like it did to everyone else). Ginny could safely say that it was probably the one subject that the group of them couldn't talk about without tears.
"Let's go into the dining room, shall we?" asked Harry, as he cleared his throat. "We have a meal all cooked up!"
"Oh perfect," Mrs. Weasley said happily. The three of them walked through the door and saw that Luna had really went all out on the room, there were several sterling silver food carts that were up against the blue walls and there was a circular light brown table where three steats stood around it. Being the gentleman he was, Harry relieved Mrs. Wealey of her coat and while he hung it up Ginny pulled the chair out for her mom to sit down on.
"Oh this is so cosy," She mumbled once Ginny had pushed the chair under the table and sat down in her own chiar. The moment they were all seated the first silver cart began move from the wall, circled the table once then came to rest by Harry's side. The top flew off and revelaed three glasses of water and three ceasar salads.
"Wow, Luna rocks," Ginny heard Harry mutter as he handed the food out.
An hour later Mrs. Weasley was standing up from the table and Harry was reaching for her coat. They walked from the little room and across the large sitting room to the exit. Tears were building behind Ginny's eyes, because she didn't want to say goodbye to her mother. The knowledge it could possibly be the last time she saw her mother's loving face was almost too much to bear, and her hands and legs shook as they walked slowly beside Harry. Ginny cleared her throat excesivly as she tried to find the right words to say, but nothing was coming out!
They stood in silence by the door, as emotions tugged at their heartstrings. Harry rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet and Mrs. Wealsey played with the hem of her sleeve nervously. Ginny took in a deep breath and looked at her mother who followed suit and looked into the eyes of her daughter. Ginny opened her mouth to speak but the clump in her throat held her words back.
"Mum," she began, the word was heavy with emotion.
Before anything else could come out from either of them Jess burst into sight, his face was flushed and his eyes were blazing with thrill. Harry straigtened his back as he became alert, Ginny saw that his mind was quickly formulating any sort of ready plan for what might be coming. Ginny meerly cast an anxious glance to her mother who was suddenly tearing at the hem of her sleeve while staring at Jess.
"What's up, Mariano?" Harry asked in a deep voice, it was the tone he took when his position of leader was put into affect.
"Rory found something out, she's calling a meeting." explained Jess in a rushed voice, and he then went to the set of the stairs on the left and ran up them two at a time. "Hurry before the rush starts!" he called back at them.
Ginny stepped forward but had to jump back in fright as wave after wave of other DA members flew past in an excited buzz. They were all going so fast it was just a blur of Hogwarts students, and it had astounded Ginny that their room of requirement could fit them all. By the time the crowd had thinned it had almost been five minutes since the rush had begun. Rory was walking behind them all, her nose was stuck in a stack of papers and photos, she didn't even look up when her brother fell into step next to her.
"What's going on, Ror?" Harry finally asked as they begun to mount the stairs. She looked up and took in Harry's suit.
"Nice threads, very West Wing." she said with a coy smile. "Armani?" she added with an impessed cock of her eyebrow.
"Yeah," called out Ginny as she hurried her steps to keep up, she looked behind her to see Mrs. Wealsey hiking her dress up so she could run behind them faster.
"Nice," said Rory and then turned back to the photos, and her smile was replaced with a frown.
"So, what's going on?" Harry asked again.
"Major development," Rory replied vaguely, Ginny and Harry joined in an irritated sigh. They finally eneterred the auditorium and it was packed with members that wiggled around in their seats, all chatting in small excited whispers. Once Harry and Rory entered all talking died down at once and every set of eyes fell on to the siblings.
"You two go find seats," Harry said to Ginny and her mother before he followed his sister to the stage. Ginny just gave him an irritated glare before seeing that Jess had in fact saved two seats next to him, Luna and Draco. She scooted past the hushed crowd and plopped down into a seat. Mrs. Weasley sat down too and looked around at the crowd of followers that surrounded them. Ginny suddenly felt a huge desire to know excactly what her mom was thinking, but her thoughts were pulled in another direction as Rory began to address the crowd.
She cleared her thorat a few times as she shuffled the papers she had laid on the podium, and the large projector hummed quietly into life and the right white wall of the auditorium was lit up by its projected light. Rory looked very professional in an a-line black skirt, red tight shirt and matching red pumps. Her hair was up in a ponytail with a quiff, and as she stood next to her borther, Harry, they both looked as if they had been born to lead.
"Just moments ago as I was going through surveillance tapes at my grandparents house, I spotted something very interesting," began Rory. She took out a photo from her stack of papers and put it on the projector. Suddenly the front gate of a huge mansion was lit up against the wall, and everyone turned in their seats, and craned their heads to get a good view.
As was the way in magical photos, the large branches of oak tress swayed in a strong gail and rain fell hard onto the cobble stone courtyard, and it made it very hard to discern one dark object from another. But suddenly, right on the outside of the gates Ginny spotted a dark figure lurking by the estate. Its face suddenly turned to the camera and even through the rain and wind Ginny made out the white porcelin skull mask.
There was a loud murmur that sweapt over the crowd as the image repeated it self and each time the white mask looked at the camera, a cold fear gripped Ginny's heart. Mrs. Weasley had the same look of worry etched into her eyes as she looked over to her daughter.
"We'll be leaving soon," Draco whispered to them and Jess nodded quickly.
"When we were at the party a little over a month ago Luscious Malfoy let slip a date for attack – June." Rory said and everyone again erupted into conversation. "And as you all know its almost the end of February."
"What's the plan then," Someone called out from the crowd.
"Myself and my borther," Rory began to answer. "Have already consturcted a ready team to leave immediatly after this assembly! Neville Longbottom will then be in charge of the bigger army that will follow us in once we give the signal."
Ginny's eyes searched the crowd and saw Neville beaming from his seat in the front row. She wished she could feel that way, Ginny wanted to be proud she was about to be in the fight to end all fighting but her mind was going over all the selfish reasons she didn't want to leave. Her mother, for example, was one of her most close family members and now she only had as little as five minutes to say goodbye for, possibly, eternity.
"Those who are in the small group with Harry and I know who you are, please stand and exit. The rest of you please stay here and Neville will adrress you all." Rory said, and she collected her papaers and made her way off the stage, Harry in tow. Draco, Jess, Luna and Ginny all stood up and Mrs. Weasley bostled after them as they quickly snuck past the crowd to leave. Just as Ginny was about to descend the stairs she cast a glance back at the stage and saw Neville standing proudly in front of the people who were going to follow him to the end of the world, or at least to Conneticuit.
"You better get changed," Rory said, "We might be going stright into battle and I wouldn't want to fight in Armani." she cast a smile at Harry before dashing off to her room. Draco was inspecting his own black suit and decided she was probably right and he and Luna ran off to get changed, followed by Harry and Jess.
"I should really get changed..." Ginny muttered to her mother who was stainding quietly near the door. Ginny walked over to her and suddenly her mother's arms were wrapped around her, and she could hear her mother crying into her shoulder. They drew apart and Ginny could see the tears making rivets in Mrs. Weasley's well done make up, her mother hd obviously gone a to a lot of trouble to look good. It sent a heartbreaking jab into Ginny's heart. "Mom, I -" Ginny began but Mrs. Weasley cut her off.
"I'm so proud of you, Ginny!" She exclaimed. "You go and show what us Weasley's are made of."
"I'm glad you got to see what we've been doing all these months, instead of hiding out like most people say," said Ginny as her mother slipped her coat on and prepared to leave. "It means that there will at least be one person left to carry on the message that we went down as fighters."
"You won't go down, my darling. You'll all stay strong and victoriuos in the face of danger, You-know-who won't know what hit him!" said Mrs. Weasley passionatly before she opened the room of requirement's door and suddenly she was gone.
"I hope you're right..." Ginny whispered before she sprinted to her room. Finally reaching it, Ginny threw open her closet door and grabbed her black skinny jeans and light blue short sleeved top, she quickly stripped off her dress and boots and put the other clothes on. As she dashed for the door she grabbed her grey sweater and Van sneakers. She hopped down the hallways as quickly as she could, one foot in the air as she tried to run and put the sneakers on at the same time. Fiannly she reached the main sitting room fully clothed and saw everyone waiting anxiously for her.
"About time, Ginny!" Draco said as he slipped his wand into its holster on his belt. He wore an old pair of beat up jeans and a white singlet covered with a black shirt. Luna stood next to him in light pink converse and a matching pink dress. It wouldn't have looked very battle ready except Luna had accesorised with a cream belt that hugged her waist and matching light brow tights. Harry was standing in his usual black jeans and grey t shirt and his glasses were firmly on his face as he stratched his limbs.
Rory bounded into the room with a small sequinned bag that made Harry laugh.
"Did Hermione give you that?" He asked and Rory nodded.
"She had already cast the expansion charm on it so she gave it to me so I didn't have to stress myself out trying to do it." Rory replied. She was wearing wide legged jeans and the same tight red top but matched it with red puma shoes. She quickly tied her long dark brown hair into a hair tie and took her wand out of her pocket.
Ginny quickly tied her own hair at the back of her head and then took out her wand from its belt holster, and then looked as Harry held his wand at the ready and Luna slowly took hers out from behind her ear. Jess held Rory's hand as she called out the name of their next destination and they all disapparated out of the room.
"Hartford!" She called and the room bled away and Ginny was dragged away from Hogwarts, away from peace, and towards the last saga of a battle that has ripped through the decades to come to an end with their small group of magical teenagers.
(A/N) Almost there... what's going to happen, I wonder? Reviews make me happy! Its the only way I can let some clues out as to what they're going to find at Richard and Emily's house! And maybe you have some suggestions?
In the next chapter Harry rides the roller coaster of war...