Part II
Arthur knew nothing. His mind was blissfully blank yet only one thing seemed to register in there.
He had to go with the Death Eaters on their mission to capture Harry Potter.
He didn't know why, only that he had to. Which was why he was standing, green eyes empty, with the Warsaw Pact. They were all staring at him as he mounted his broom, the very image of a loyal Death Eater.
Voldemort had made Draco Malfoy lend him his wand for this and the hawthorn wand was now sitting in the folds of his Death Eater robes. He was also wearing a hood.
"Like, what is he, like, doing with us?" Polish Feliks Łukasiewcz asked. "Isn't he, like, totally on Harry's side?"
"Imperious Curse, Feliks," Lithuanian Toris Lorinatis said quietly, glancing ruefully at Nataliya, who was looking rather gloomy.
"I totally knew that," Feliks muttered. All around the Warsaw Pact, the other Death Eaters were preparing to take flight. Not just Death Eaters, though – there were several other people looking as blank-faced as Arthur.
Estonian Eduard Von Bock gloomily looked at his wand. "I don't want to do this," he said softly.
"None of us do," Hungarian Elisabeta Héderváry replied.
Voldemort took flight; the rest of the Death Eaters rose like a phalanx of black swans.
"What are you all doing here?" green-eyed and bespectacled Harry Potter asked as they all piled inside his kitchen.
"Taking you to the Burrow, of course!" Alfred exclaimed with a grin.
"Harry, guess what?" Hermione asked, pointing to Lupin, who sheepishly held out a hand. Harry's jaw dropped.
"You got married!" he exclaimed, gaping at the ring. "To Tonks, I suppose? Where is she?"
"Tied down at the Ministry with Kingsley," Mr. Weasley replied. "The whole O'Brian assassination attempt..."
Harry nodded. "Yeah, I read about that." He shot a look at Kiku, who merely pulled a half-smile that looked more like a grimace.
"Let's get going," snapped Moody suddenly. "Right, Harry, as Dedalus probably told you, we had to scrap plan A. Thickenesse posed a danger to us when he was promoted and we considered scrapping back then – but then it became definite that we had to abandon that plan completely when he went over."
"He's made it an imprisonable offence to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a Portkey there, or Apparate in or out," Lupin pitched in. "All done in the name of your protection, to prevent Voldemort from getting at you."
"Absolutely pointless, because your mother's charm does that already," Moody finished. "What he's really done is to stop you from getting out of here safely. Now our second problem is that you're still underage, which means that you still have the Trace on you."
"The what?" Harry echoed.
"The Trace!" snapped Moody impatiently. "The charm that detects magical activity around under-seventeens! It's how the Ministry finds out about underage magic. If you – or anyone around you – cast a spell to get you out, Thickenesse will know and so will the Death Eaters. We can't wait for it to break because once you turn seventeen the protection your mum gave you will be lost."
"So what are we going to do?" Harry asked.
"We're going to be using the means of transport left," Lupin answered. "They're the ones that the Trace can't detect because we don't need to cast spells to use them: brooms, thestrals, and Hagrid's motorbike."
"This charm that your mother gave you will break only under two conditions," Moody continued. "First, when you come of age. Second, when you no longer call this place home. You and your aunt and uncle are going separate ways tonight, fully understanding that you're never going to live together again, right?" Harry nodded at that.
"So this time, when you leave there will be no going back and the charm will break the moment you get outside its range. We're choosing to break it early, because once you turn seventeen You-Know-Who will come and seize you. There's one advantage to this plan – we've leaked a false trail back to the Ministry and they think you're not leaving until the thirtieth. But this is You-Know-Who we're dealing with, so he might be keeping a couple Death Eaters in this general area just in case. We've given several houses every protection we can throw at them – they're all houses with some sort of connection to the Order, somewhere where you might hide. You're going to Tonks's parents' house and from there you can use a Portkey to get to the Burrow. Any questions?"
"Er... I have one," Harry replied. "Maybe they don't know which house we're going to... but won't it become obvious once fourteen of us head off towards Tonks's parents'?"
"That's because he forgot to mention the key point to this plan," Alfred cut in, a grin on his face.
"Not all of us are going with you," Moody finished. "There will be seven Harry Potters moving through the skies tonight, each with a different companion heading towards a different safe house."
"Where are they supposed to be?" Prussian Gilbert Beilschmidt demanded astride his broomstick. They were hovering above Little Whinging, hidden in the clouds high above the houses.
"Somewhere down there," Nataliya replied tonelessly. "Preparing to take flight."
Arthur sighed, still feeling nothing. His hands unconsciously gripped the broom handle tighter.
It was odd being Harry, Kiku thought as he donned a pair of glasses. He, Feliciano, Madeline, Ron, George, and Fred had all taken Polyjuice Potion and transformed into Harry. The first thing that was odd was that his vision was suddenly horrible. He had groped around for the sack with the glasses for a moment before Hermione handed him a pair with what was probably an amused look on her face.
Now they were all heading outside to take off. Harry – the real one – looked rather unhappy at the prospect of being squeezed into the black sidecar attached to Hagrid's flying motorbike, and Kiku couldn't help but smirk as he mounted his broom next to Alfred.
"We thought that the Death Eaters will expect you to be on a broom," Moody said as he grabbed his own broom and stumped over to where a rather scared-looking Harry stood waving his wand as if it were a white flag. "Snape's had plenty of time to tell them everything about you he's never mentioned before, so if we do run into Death Eaters, they'll probably pick one of the Potters that look at home on a broomstick. We've got three minutes before we've got to go."
Everyone else were mounting brooms and thestrals as well; Harry glumly got into the sidecar.
"Good luck, everyone," shouted Moody as Hagrid started the motorbike. "See you all in about an hour at the Burrow. On three – one, two, THREE."
Kiku and Alfred rose into the air, climbing higher and higher. Kiku let the wind rush through his hair, a little smile on his face. They were set to go to their flat in London and Alfred turned his broom in that direction –
Suddenly they were surrounded by hooded figures, and that happy little bubble within Kiku popped.
Arthur saw the Order members rise and suddenly something in his mind told him that he should attack them. Attack the ones that don't look like Potter; capture Potter, the voice said.
But there were seven to choose from...
He looked around, finally selecting the one with Alfred. Following them for a moment, he realised they were heading towards London. The Potter he was chasing sent several Stunning Spells at him and he dodged them, firing curses back at the two of them.
Suddenly they were going into a complicated series of dives and rolls and Arthur found his hood flying back on their last feint. They rose back upright again; the Potter looked at him with shock etched across his features.
Arthur raised the hawthorn wand. "Avada Kedavra!" he screamed, aiming a Killing Curse at Alfred.
Kiku nearly screamed when the spells broke out on all sides – green, green, green flashing all over. Alfred dived and Kiku hastily followed him, trying to aim spells as he went.
Chaos rang throughout the air as they tried to escape the Death Eaters. Up ahead, Alfred flung himself into several dives and rolls that were supposed to deter someone else from chasing him; Kiku followed suit. They were being chased by three Death Eaters; the one closest was aiming curses at him while adeptly avoiding Kiku's Stunners.
Alfred went into a dive; Kiku followed suit and the two of them feinted at the last possible moment. Unfortunately, the Death Eater seemed to anticipate it and he pulled up sharply – his hood fell back – Kiku gasped in horror.
It was Arthur.
"Arthur!" he cried, wanting to pull back and face Arthur. "Arthur, what are you doing here?"
But he suddenly saw how blank Arthur's face was.
"Avada Kedavra!" the Imperioused Arthur screamed, and Alfred dodged the Killing Curse that had been aimed at him. Kiku screamed.
"Arthur! What are you doing? Why are you doing this?" he gasped, forgetting for a moment that he didn't look like Kiku, that he looked like Harry. He pulled his broom to a stop, turning around to face Arthur.
"Kiku – I meant Harry! Come on!" Alfred screamed from up ahead. "We're almost to London!"
"Arthur," Kiku whispered. "I'm so sorry about this, Arthur-san... Stupefy!"
The Stunning Spell hit Arthur full in the chest and he slumped, falling from his broom down into the murky depths of clouds below.
"That was Arthur?" Alfred screamed as they rushed into the empty apartment, looking for the Portkey. They had gotten off relatively easy compared to the others; the other Death Eaters seemed to reckon that Harry wouldn't fly with Alfred into London. "But... how?"
"Imperious Curse," Kiku replied tersely as they tossed their broomsticks into their room and grabbed the fish-shaped cushion that had now become a Portkey. It glowed blue, there was a jerk at their navels, and then they were flying through nothingness.
Arthur fell through the air, regaining conscious control of his mind as he fell.
Why am I falling? Why am I wearing these robes? He thought, confused.
He slammed hard into a concrete path; he felt the pain and heard the cracks of bones breaking – but only for a second.
He knew no more after that.