Here yet another chapter guys! Special thanks to my twin for all of the editing that she did in order to make this chapter far better than I was when I originally wrote it! I really appreciate the effort you put into helping me out! 3 Please leave me a review when you've finished reading this chapter and feel free to share it with your friends.

Chapter Three
Escape Plan

Most of the next two days were spent in hiding for both girls, who left the safety of the bedroom only when absolutely necessary so as to avoid any interaction with the Dursley's. Only once, when the Dursley's had gone out to the store together, did the girls dare to venture further downstairs and take a look around, curious to know about the way Harry had lived in the nearly sixteen years that he had been forced beneath their roof. When they heard the crunch of gravel in the driveway, they scurried back upstairs and whispered to each other about everything they'd seen, leaving Harry completely out of their conversation.

The two girls told Harry of Dedalus Diggle and Hestia Jones' plan to come by the house and remove the Dursley's from harm by taking them to an undisclosed location where they would be well protected for now. For all Harry knew, they could be removed to another country all-together. And while the move was being described as "for their own safety," Harry couldn't help but think that perhaps it was just a smoke screen they were using in order to protect him more than anyone else. If Voldemort and his minions were to get hold of the Dursley's, he did not doubt that his Uncle Vernon would attempt to give him up in order to see his own life spared. The only real use a muggle such as Uncle Vernon could have to someone like The Dark Lord was to serve as bait…to see if the great Harry Potter would dare give himself up for the family that hated him nearly as much as Voldemort did.

As the days wore on Harry found that everything the two girls did had him questioning their motives, wondering if what they had told him on that very first night was indeed the truth or not. Kyra still seemed to be more than happy to answer the questions that he had, always greeting him with a thankful smile when he brought up the food that he had taken from the kitchen to make sure the girls didn't starve to death while they waited. Unfortunately for Harry, every opportunity to learn more was shut down quickly by a glance from Destiny, who wasn't nearly as open to the idea of sharing information with him.

A glance at the clock told him that the time was drawing near for the Dursley's to leave, which would mean that his own departure from Privet Drive was approaching. It was almost surreal, the thought that he would never again return to the home that had caused him so much misery for almost sixteen years. The few things that he had planned on taking with him where now packed away inside the knapsack that he had slung over his shoulder. The Marauder's Map, the photo album of his parents and the shard of glass from the mirror that had once been a gift from his godfather all lay at the bottom, along with a spare change of clothes, a flashlight and a few other little trinkets he thought might be of use. His Firebolt would stay behind, as would all of the textbooks he had accumulated over the years. But Hedwig had been secured in her cage and placed on the fireplace mantle downstairs, hooting at him as he came into the living room and tossed the bag on the floor beneath her.

"I know you don't like it much," he said gently as he slipped his fingers into the cage and stroked her head. "I'll let you out as soon as we get to the Burrow, alright? She cooed softly and brushed her head against his fingers in response. A small smile crossed Harry's face. At least someone understood.

He could hear the tail end of a whispered conversation as the two girls joined him downstairs. He turned just in time to see a glint of something around Destiny's throat before she hurried to stuff it down the front of her shirt again. But it was then that he realized what they both carried something he hadn't noticed they had before: as if out of thin air, both Kyra and Destiny carried broomsticks much like the one that he had purposely left upstairs. Seeing the questioning look in his eye, Destiny turned to him and opened her mouth as if to speak, only to be cut off by a voice that boomed loudly from the kitchen.

Uncle Vernon had changed his mind again.

"I've changed my mind," he announced, moving through the kitchen door. "We're not-"

His eyes came to rest on the figures of the two girls who stood behind his nephew, his face becoming purple in colour. It was almost as if time had frozen around them as they all watched Vernon Dursley, blue veins bulging from his forehead as if his body were straining to work without oxygen. In fact, it almost looked like the old man had stopped breathing. Then his chest began to heave as he took several deep breaths, making him appear more like an angry bull with each passing second. His eyes grew menacingly wide as they flicked between the two girls who stood in his living room before his head snapped to the side and he rounded on Harry.

"WHO THE BLOODY HELL ARE THEY AND WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN MY HOUSE?! IF YOU'VE BEEN KEEPING BROADS IN YOUR ROOM-"

There was no time for Harry to respond to his Uncle's overreaction before a streak of blonde flashed passed the corner of his eye and Kyra stormed past him to approach the Muggle who was nearly four times her size. She showed absolutely no fear as she reached out with a slender finger and jabbed him sharply in the chest.

"How dare you talk like that!" she hissed back at him, advancing a step with each poke she delivered. "You're nothing more than a nasty old man who screams and yells until he gets what he wants. Well guess what? It doesn't work for you in the future, and it sure won't work for you now!"

Destiny, for her part, merely shoved the hand not holding her broom into the pocket of her jeans and stood there observing the verbal attack Harry's Uncle was taking from her friend. She made no move to step forward and call Kyra off, nor did she speak to defend herself against his blatant accusations. She seemed neither bothered nor concerned with what might happen next. Vernon Dursley was, for once in his life, at a loss for words - he simply stood there with his mouth agape. It was only when Kyra turned her back in triumph that Vernon moved toward her and Destiny leapt between the two with her wand pointed at him.

"Not another step," she warned in a quiet tone. "Or I might just turn you into a penguin."

The old man glanced from the wand in her hand to the girl who gripped it before he finally looked to his nephew. Harry just stood there dumbfounded. He was surprised to see the aggression that Destiny had showed in defending her friend against his uncle. She held the larger, more intimidating man at bay with such ease; her eyes were locked on his chunky frame, never wavering once as she stood with the stillness of a statue. Though he had to admit, it was rather amusing to see that his Uncle was afraid of a girl who was so much smaller than he was.

"Don't just stand there!" Vernon barked at Harry, sounding almost as terrified as he looked. "Call her off!"

Harry just shrugged. "Maybe you shouldn't have jumped to conclusions."

Both men stared each other down for several seconds before a knock on the door distracted them; Hestia and Dedalus had arrived. Kyra nodded to Destiny with a slightly panicked look before she drew her wand and rounded the corner to stand on the second step, hidden from sight by the wall. The brunette quickly turned back to Vernon, her voice a low whisper that could easily have been mistaken for a growl.

"Your entourage is here to take you and your family away. You're going to go with them now, and I don't want to hear a single complaint about it. Take your wife, your son and whatever you have packed, but go without a word. Got it?"

The old man took a minute to respond before he called back into the kitchen. "Petunia! Dudley! We're leaving!"

As soon as the door had closed and the five of them were gone, both girls flopped onto the couch with exasperated sighs of relief. Destiny ran her fingers through her brown locks again as she looked up and did her best to avoid making eye contact with Harry, instead staring intently at the clock on top of the fireplace mantle. She knew that the day had only just begun for them, she knew what lay ahead when Harry did not. While he hadn't questioned her about the broomsticks in their hands, he was likely to be burning with nervous anticipation. And she couldn't blame him for that. He wanted answers that she could not give him, questions he probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to ask if her plan had gone off as she had expected it would.

"Why do you look so tense?" Harry finally asked her, breaking the silence between them as his curiosity got the better of him.

She turned rather suddenly, her dark eyes a little wide. "Tense?" she asked, sitting upright with a straight back as she tried to regain her cool composure and throw him off. "Why would you think I'm tense?"

He rolled his eyes as he looked at her, hardly believing that that they still thought him to be so dense that he couldn't see what was plainly in front of his face. "I'm not blind," he muttered, turning away to focus on Hedwig instead. "You know something, I know you do. Why don't you just tell me what it is?"

This was not a confrontation that Destiny wanted to deal with right now. Her shoulders slumped forward as she leaned her elbows against her knees, chewing a little on her lower lip nervously. It didn't escape Harry's notice either. All of a sudden she wasn't someone who had journeyed back in time to try and save people she loved from disappearing - she was a teenaged girl who was scared at the prospect of what lay in wait. She was vulnerable, he realized. And what struck him as being even stranger was that he didn't like to see her that way.

She pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and fore-finger, "I know things, I won't lie about that. But right now I can't share those things with you, Harry. Not yet."

Frustrated, Harry turned sharply on the ball of his foot and strolled to the other side of the room and pressed his back against the farthest wall, putting as much distance between him and them without leaving the room itself. Both girls watched him go before they turned their eyes forward once again and leaned heavily into the back, as if they were already weighted down by something pressing on their minds. Destiny closed her eyes, pressing her forehead into the palm of her hand as Kyra looked down at her and pressed her lips tightly together.

"He won't let us go anywhere if this keeps up," she whispered.

"What else do you expect me to do?" Destiny asked, looking over at her friend as she did her best to keep her voice down. "We can't tell him what we know, or we risk throwing things off entirely. All we can do is follow him and the others for as long as we can and hope that we're able to stop our future from being changed."

As much as she hated to admit it, there was only so much that she knew about the time that they had returned to. She didn't know all of the details because her research time had been cut short, some of the facts becoming muddy she tried to read as many books as she could. They were already at a serious disadvantage and they hadn't even truly begun yet. There were still a million hurdles for them to leap over. She gave her bag a small nudge with her foot; everything she had thought to bring with her had been packed into that little bag. What if she had forgotten something vital? What if, despite all of her planning and careful attention to detail, she had missed something that would get someone hurt or worse? Kyra's father would never forgive her if something happened to his little girl.

She'd never forgive herself.

It was a sharp knock on the door that startled Destiny from her thoughts and reminded her of what she now needed to do. But with that came the realization that she would shortly find herself face to face with something she didn't know if she was ready to handle yet. She bolted to her feet and stared at the front door, suddenly feeling her nerves begin to freeze her blood and her courage leave her. Even as Kyra moved from her side and approached the door to open it, she couldn't help the nauseated feeling that gurgled in the pit of her stomach. Yet the voice in the back of her mind quickly gave her a kick, reminding her that she didn't have time to lose her confidence with so much on the line. Better to get through the night and see what waited for her in the morning.

Pulling the door aside, Kyra raised her wand at the pair she saw standing before her, eyes narrowed slightly in mistrust. "State your names and your business here."

"Don't bother," Destiny called to her, beckoning her friend away from the door with a wave of her hand. "It's them. It's alright."

The two in the doorway had pulled their wands almost instantly though, and did not lower them even as Kyra stuffed her wand back into her pocket and turned to walk back into the room. It was only after a small nod from Harry, still leaning up against the far wall, that they slowly shuffled their way inside, but their eyes never once left the girls who moved to the fireplace where they could watch the procession of people file into the room. They couldn't risk being outside for long; the muggles might peer through their blinds and catch a glimpse of the crowd that had gathered outside the Dursley's home.

First came Nymphadora Tonks, who quickly crossed the room to greet Harry and show him the simple wedding band that now sat on her left hand. Her cheeks flushed brightly as she tried to fill him in on the details, apologizing that she hadn't been able to invite him before Remus strolled to her side and managed to quiet her down, his own face tinged slightly with pink though he wore a small smile on his face. Kyra nudged Destiny and the pair exchanged a quiet grin as the couple walked away.

Next came Fred and George Weasley . They both grinned from ear to ear as they saw Harry, and then noticed the two girls who stood alone in the corner of the room. They exchanged a quick look and a nod, beginning to head in their direction before they were caught by their shirts by Arthur Weasley and Kingsley Shacklebolt, both of whom had seen the message pass silently between the twins and knew it could only mean trouble.

"I don't think so," Arthur told his boys, who immediately looked a little crestfallen.

Releasing the twins the two older men moved out of the way and headed for the overstuffed armchair in order to allow Ron, Hermione, Bill, and Fleur to make their way inside. Each sent Harry a silent greeting before catching sight of the girls and nodding uncertainly in their direction. The only response he offered was a shake of his head. There would be time when the night was over to explain what little he knew to Ron and Hermione, who were sure to have a lot of questions . Harry watched as Ron looked between the girls, pausing as if he too saw something familiar in each one, but eventually gave his head a small shake and went to lean against one of the walls that Aunt Petunia had worked so hard to keep white.

Hagrid entered the house just after Mudungus Fletcher, though the giant had a little bit of difficulty fitting himself into the tiny house that hadn't been built for someone of his stature. He somehow managed to squeeze himself into the living room after closing the front door, bent over at the waist to prevent his head from bumping into the low ceiling. He greeted Harry warmly and moved to stand a little closer to him, not even noticing the two intruders that everyone else had noticed.

A smirk crossed Kyra's lips as Mudungus flinched uncomfortably under the heavy glare that he was getting from Destiny, and supressed a laugh when she saw him scamper a little closer to Mad-Eye Moody, who had taken up a position on the other side of the fireplace mantle with his bags in hand.

Before either girl knew what was going on, they found themselves confronted by Remus Lupin, who took each one by the arm and moved rather quickly to a vacant corner of the room, ignoring their quiet protests against his aggressive hold. When he was satisfied that they were far enough away from the crowd, he nudged them both roughly so stand in front of him and pulled out his wand, frowning heavily upon them.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" he demanded, keeping his voice down so as not to disturb the others. "Nobody outside of the Order knows about this meeting, so who told you?"

Kyra stared up at him, rubbing the spot on her arm that he had grabbed so tightly. "That's quite the grip you've got, old man."

"Don't antagonize him, Kyra," Destiny murmured, brushing a hand across her face to remove the stray hairs from her eyes. "It's not his fault."

The blonde grumbled under her breath, speaking inaudible words, but Remus was not in the mood to play any games and lifted his wand a little higher in a threatening manner. "I won't ask you again."

To try and pacify him, Destiny lifted both of her hands to show that she intended no harm. "We're here to help," she said slowly. "Tonight, your plan to get Harry to the safe place is going to be interrupted. There was a leak in the Ministry who told them the real date that you were going to be moving Harry, not the one that you wanted the Deatheaters to believe. They're coming, Remus. And they want Harry."

The werewolf grit his teeth a little, angry to hear such secret information passed onto him by a perfect stranger. He pointed his wand directly at Destiny now, solely focused on getting what he wanted out of her. "What do you want with him?"

"I won't harm him," responded the girl, careful to keep her eyes locked on him and not allow them to stray over to where Kyra stood.

"I have no reason to believe you," stated Remus with a growl.

She nodded in understanding. "I realize that. And I realize that right now, you don't know the first thing about me. But I know you, Remus. I know how guilty you feel because you're the last of the Marauders alive, and you want to protect that boy just as much as I do for the sake of his father. Because every time you look at him, I know that you see James. You see Lily in his eyes, but you see James in every other part of him."

For a moment the older man seemed to be lost in her words. His eyes dulled a little as she went on, the grip on his wand growing slack until it was no longer aimed at the middle of her chest. Turning slightly, Remus looked behind him at the group of people who had assembled in the hopes of moving Harry safely to a new location. Harry – the boy who looked so like Remus' long lost friend. Save for his eyes, the boy was the spitting image of his father – someone he missed terribly even after all these years.

"He's still here," Destiny whispered, taking a small step forward. "James. He's never left Harry. But I'm here to do what he can't do, and that is protect him in the physical sense."

Very slowly, the werewolf turned back to look down at the girl with a visibly softer gaze. "You really mean that, don't you?" he asked, tilting his head a little in question.

She nodded, the touch of a smile showing in her lips.

The two stared at each other for a moment before she tore her gaze away from him and hurried forward to the others, Kyra on her heels. At their approach, the group turned around to face them with expressions that were mixed between distrust, anger and concern. Mad-Eye shot them a dark look and immediately stopped explaining the process of the plan as he looked toward Lupin with a growl, clearly displeased to see that Tonks had hurried back to his side and was speaking softly to him.

"Mad-Eye, we don't have much time-"

"Who the devil are you?" he demanded.

To try and forgo the same scene she had just had with Lupin, Destiny turned to look at the crowd. "Look, I know that none of you know us, but we're here to help."

They muttered among themselves. "How do we know that we can trust you?" Hermione whispered, her eyes locked on Destiny.

"We don't have time for this!" Kyra said hotly, looking around at every visible face. "Take the Polyjuice Potion, change your clothes and get to your assigned flight partner, damn it!"

A soft sigh fell from Destiny's lips. "Once this is all over, you'll have more of a reason to trust us. But if we don't move quickly, we will lose any head start we might have had over the Deatheaters. The leak in the Ministry didn't work. Please…Hermione…"

Hermione held her gaze for a few seconds, biting down on the corner of her lip before she hurried over to Mad-Eye and began muttering quietly to him. With a nod and a gruff sound that beckoned the others over to him, he resumed explaining who would be taking the Polyjuice Potion and who they would be with for the dangerous journey to their specific location. Everything was time sensitive; there was no room for error that night.

Moving a little further away, Kyra caught sight of Harry standing near the crowd and gently reached out to touch his arm. "They know what they're doing," she said softly. "You don't need to worry about your friends. With seven versions of you in the sky the Deatheaters will have to spread themselves thin in order to try and capture the right one, which means they won't be nearly as powerful as they would be together."

"I still don't like it," he said stiffly, never once looking down at Kyra. "If any of them get hurt because of me-"

"How do you think Destiny feels?" she asked him, finally catching his attention as the both looked toward the brunette who had wandered back to the bag she had left sitting at the foot of the couch. "I wasn't supposed to come with her, you know. She wanted to do this all on her own. But she's my best friend, and I wouldn't leave her to face any of this by herself, the same way your friends aren't willing to leave you."

She released him from her grasp and folded both of her arms across her chest, looking toward her friend with a softer gaze. "Neither of you may like it, but you're going to have to accept it. Not even you can do this alone."

She gave him no time to question her further, but he could feel that there was another meaning hidden within the words she chose. Instead Harry just watched as she moved across the room to join her friend once again and then cast his own gaze back toward the crowd that was now taking the Polyjuice Potion to transform into seven versions of himself. Having taken it once before in his life he couldn't help but feel sorry for them when he remembered how unpleasant the experience had been.

"I don't know that he trusts us yet, but you sure did a number to the poor guy."

Destiny scoffed a little. "Which one?"

"Which one do you think?"

Destiny looked up as she swung her bag around to place her arms through the straps, her eyes focused on where Remus Lupin still stood with his wife. But she dropped her eyes almost as quickly. "He's not our concern right now," she said evenly, as if it didn't really matter to her.

"Des-"

"Don't," she said sharply, giving Kyra a look that instantly warned of danger ahead. "We have other things to be worried about, alright? Just stick close to George tonight like you were told and everything will be fine."

Kyra sighed, reaching down to collect her broomstick from where she had set it on the couch before she straightened back up again and cast her friend a questioning glance. "Do you really think we can do this?"

It took a moment, but as she adjusted her bag and gripped her own broomstick, Destiny looked up with a small smirk that was far more familiar for Kyra to see. "Don't do anything stupid, alright?"

Her blonde companion couldn't help but grin a little, giving her leader a wink and a quick salute before she set off toward the others, pulling her wand from her pocket once more. Destiny fiddled with the straps of her bag once more, mentally going over everything that she needed to watch for when they took to the air that night. Though she knew that Kyra was a capable young witch, she couldn't help but worry that something might go wrong. One tiny slip, despite all of their careful planning, and it could ruin everything they had set out to do. They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, she reminded herself. And she was pretty damn sure that hell was just waiting for them to take off.