The day passed by agonizingly quick. We went over the plan hundreds of times, so that we all had every detail memorized by the time we were to take off. We would be using disillusionment charms to fly most of the way to Harry's house, flying with our partners so that we could get used to their style. Everyone was painfully quiet as we climbed onto our various flying devices, mine was a Thestral, which I could now see unfortunately. The actual journey there would have been extremely boring had I not been so scared. I was terrified that something would go wrong, that this plan wouldn't work. I could hardly bear the thought of losing anyone who was coming with us, but the idea of losing George, Ron, Harry, or Fred was terrible, I'd almost rather die than lose any of them. George was just as tense as I was, though he had far more reason. Nearly his entire family was coming, Fred, Ron, Bill, Arthur, and the rest would be aiding in our escape.
It was dark by the time we finally arrived. I had never been to Harry's house before, but I would have recognized it from anywhere. It was exactly as Harry had described. We landed with a loud bang, probably from Hagrid's bike, and proceeded to disillusion ourselves as Harry stepped out the back door, a huge smile lighting his face.
I ran up to him and grasped him in a crushing hug as everyone else ran up to join our greetings. Hagrid was the first to speak, probably unaware that Harry didn't know about the change of plan.
"All righ', Harry? Ready fer the off?" He asked, beaming down at Harry. Harry nodded his head eagerly, practically glowing with excitement.
"Definitely," he said, looking at all of us. "But I wasn't expecting this many of you!"
"Change of plan," Moody growled, pulling his bulging sacks into the house. "Let's get undercover before we talk you through it." Harry led the way into the kitchen, chattering excitedly with everyone. I found myself cheering up, it was such a relief to see him alright. Sirius had already wrapped his arm around Harry, looking decidedly cheerier. He'd been awfully upset to discover that Harry would be riding with Hagrid, but he couldn't argue with the logic.
"Harry, guess what?" Tonks said from where she had jumped up on top of the washing machine. She wiggled her hand at him, showing her new wedding ring. Remus blushed from her side, glaring when Sirius laughed and patted him on the back.
"You got married?" Harry questioned, looking completely winded.
"Yep!" Sirius said, letting out a loud, barking laugh. "The old dog finally did it." There was a sparkle of happiness in his eye as he looked at his best friend. Remus rolled his eye, smiling some despite himself.
"Ha ha, Sirius." He said, shaking his head at Sirius's awful joke before turning back to Harry. "I'm sorry you couldn't be there, Harry, it was very quiet." He finished, looking embarrassed.
"That's brilliant, congrat –" Harry started, but was interrupted by Moody.
"All right, all right, we'll have time for a cozy catch-up later," He roared over the chatter. The kitchen grew painfully silent and the nervousness from earlier returned. I moved next to George and wrapped my arm around his waist, relaxing a small bit when he put his arm around my shoulder. "As Dedalus probably told you, we had to abandon Plan A. Pius Thicknesse has gone over, which gives us a big problem. He's made it an imprisonable offense to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a Portkey here, or Apparate in or out. All done in the name of your protection, to prevent You-Know-Who getting in at you. Absolutely pointless, seeing as your mother's charm does that already. What he's really done is to stop you getting out of here safely." Moody paused, taking a breath before continuing. "Second problem: You're underage, which means you've still got the Trace on you."
"I don't –" Harry started to interrupt, but Moody was having none of it.
"The Trace, the Trace!" He barked, his magical eye whizzing around in its socket. "The charm that detects magical activity around under-seventeens, the way the Ministry finds out about underage magic! If you, or anyone around you, casts a spell to get you out of here, Thicknesse is
going to know about it, and so will the Death Eaters.
"We can't wait for the Trace to break, because the moment you turn seventeen you'll lose all the protection your mother gave you. In short, Pius Thicknesse thinks he's got you cornered good and proper."
I could tell by the look in his eyes that Harry agreed with Pius. I had too at first. Things definitely didn't seem to be going our way at all. He wouldn't like our plan at all.
"We're going to use the only means of transport left to us, the only ones the Trace can't detect, because we don't need to cast spells to use them: brooms, thestrals, and Hagrid's motorbike
"Now, your mother's charm will only break under two conditions;" Moody continued, finally getting to the core of our plan. " when you come of age, or" – Moody gestured around the pristine kitchen – "you no longer call this place home. You and your aunt and uncle are going your separate ways tonight, in the full understanding that you're never going to live together again, correct?"
Harry nodded, still looking completely baffled and concerned. A small smile stole across my face despite myself. He'd lose it when he heard the quintessential part of our plan. I'd probably have to rip the hairs from his head myself.
"So this time, when you leave, there'll be no going back, and the charm will break the moment you get outside its range. We're choosing to break it early, because the alternative is waiting for You-Know-Who to come and seize you the moment you turn seventeen. The one thing we've got on our side is that You-Know-Who doesn't know we're moving you tonight. We've leaked a fake trail to the Ministry: They think you're not leaving until the thirtieth. However, this is You-Know-Who we're dealing with, so we can't rely on him getting the date wrong; he's bound to have a couple of Death Eaters patrolling the skies in this general area, just in case. So, we've given a dozen different houses every protection we can throw at them. They all look like they could be the place we're going to hide you, they've all got some connection with the Order: my house, Kingsley's place, Molly's Auntie Muriel's – you get the idea."
"Yeah," Harry said, but his eyes told a different story. He still looked like he thought we were all crazy.
"You'll be going to Tonks's parents. Once you're within the boundaries of the protective enchantments we've put on their house you'll be able to use a Portkey to the Burrow. Any questions?" Moody asked, finally finished, but he'd left out the most important part of our plan. Harry brought it up, and then Moody lowered the boom.
Harry's eyes grew ridiculously large when he saw the polyjuice potion in Moody's hand.
"No!" he said loudly. "No way!"
"I told them you'd take it like this," I said, sighing slightly as I looked at my best friend. Couldn't he just let us rescue him? It wasn't like we were just going to pack up our bags and leave because he said no. We were all just as stubborn as him.
"If you think I'm going to let six people risk their lives - !" Harry said angrily, his eyes wild with horror at the idea.
"—because it's the first time for all of us," Ron interrupted, rolling his eyes. I laughed quietly at his comment, not bothering to hide my grin. Harry just got angrier.
"This is different, pretending to be me –" Harry said, trying to regain the lead. He was looking around desperately, pleading with us to join his side. As if, we were getting him out of here tonight safely, he was the most important one. We'd knock him out if we had to.
"Well, none of us really fancy it, Harry," Fred piped up, standing straighter. "Imagine if
something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever."
I smiled and fought another giggle. Harry didn't look amused.
"You can't do it if I don't cooperate, you need me to give you some hair." He said, looking as though he really thought that fact would stop us. Was he really that naïve? There were 13 of us against him, he wouldn't stand a prayer.
"Well, that's the plan scuppered," George said, sighing dramatically and causing me to chuckle yet again. "Obviously there's no chance at all of us getting a bit of your hair unless you cooperate."
"Yeah, thirteen of us against one bloke who's not allowed to use magic; we've got no chance," Fred continued, fighting a smile.
"Funny," Harry said angrily, "really amusing."
"If it has to come to force, then it will," Moody growled "Everyone here's overage, Potter, and
they're all prepared to take the risk. Let's have no more arguments. Time's wearing on. I want a few of your hairs, boy, now."
"But this is mad, there's no need –" Harry once again interjected. This time, Moody lost his patience.
"No need? With You-Know-Who out there and half the Ministry on his side? Potter, if we're lucky he'll have swallowed the fake bait and he'll be planning to ambush you on the thirtieth, but he'd be mad not to have a Death Eater or two keeping an eye out, it's what I'd do. They might not be able to get at you or this house while your mother's charm holds, but it's about to break and they know the rough position of the place. Our only chance is to use decoys. Even You-Know-Who can't split himself into seven."
Oh god, Harry glanced right at me and I felt myself flush. George tensed beside me as did Ron and Fred. Moody had no idea that Voldemort could indeed split himself, and already had. Harry averted his eyes from me, a light flush coloring his own cheeks.
"So, Potter – some of your hair, if you please." Moody finished, completely unaware at how tense half the room had just gotten.
Glaring at all of us, Harry moved his hand to his hair and pulled out a hank. Moody took the hairs and dropped them into the polyjuice. It bubbled and frothed before it turned a beautifully bright gold.
"Ooh, you look much tastier than Crabbe and Goyle, Harry," I said without thinking. George let out a loud, clear, laugh and I blushed, aware of how silly that sounded. "Oh, you know what I mean – Goyle's potion tasted like bogies." I said, trying to explain, no one bought it, they just smiled at me.
"Right then, fake Potters line up over here, please," Moody commanded. George, Fred, Ron, Fleur, Sirius and I lined up by the sink, grabbed a cup and held it out for Moody to fill.
"Altogether, then …" Moody said once he filled each of our glasses. We glanced at each other before tipping our glasses back. A terrible, familiar, pain filled me and I felt myself grow taller and become stretched. I gained parts, lost parts, my vision grew terrible and I felt my hair shrink.
I took a deep breath, feeling disoriented and shaken as I turned to see how the others were doing. George was turned towards Fred and they were both looking at each other in surprise. "Wow – we're identical!" They said together, I let out a giggle despite myself laughing even harder when Fleur caught her reflection in the microwave.
"Bah," she said, touching her face in horror, "Bill, don't look at me – I'm 'ideous."
"Those whose clothes are a bit roomy, I've got smaller here," Moody said, pointing to the larger bag. "and vice versa. Don't forget the glasses, there's six pairs in the side pocket. And when you're dressed, there's luggage in the other sack." I moved to the sack and grabbed out a change of clothes, feeling grateful that it wasn't my real body I was showing as I stripped down.
"Good," Moody barked when we were all dressed and luggage laden in front of him. "The pairs will be as follows: Sirius will be traveling with me, by broom; Arthur and Fred –"
"I'm George," Was Fred's instant reply. I shook my head as he continued. "Can't you even tell
us apart when we're Harry?"
"Sorry, George –"
"He's lying." I piped up, smacking him on the arm. "He's Fred," I indicated the Harry I'd just smacked and then spun around and pointed to the Harry behind me. "That's George." Everyone was looking at me in surprise as George nodded his head that he was George.
"Blimey!" he exclaimed, a smile lighting his (err, Harry's) face. "How can you still tell us apart even when we're Harry?"
"Oh," I said, blushing as I realized everyone, even Moody, was watching me. God, this could be seriously embarrassing. It would show just how much attention I paid to George Weasley.
"It's the way you stand." I said, my voice growing squeaky. "You like to put your weight on your right foot, Fred puts his on his left. I think you two do it because you're always standing together, standing that way makes it where you don't bump each other."
"Okay," Moody said, gaining control back. I was blushing hard and missing my hair desperately. I used to be able to hide behind it, now my face was completely exposed.
" George," he pointed to the right twin, "you're with Remus. Miss Delacour –"
"I'm taking Fleur on a thestral," said Bill. "She's not that fond of brooms."
Fleur walked over to him and draped her arm across his shoulders. She looked at him tenderly with a loving smile. It looked so out of place on Harry that I had to fight the urge to laugh.
"Miss Granger with Kingsley, again by thestral –"
I smiled gratefully at Kingsley and he nodded his head back at me. I hated flying, he knew that and had agreed to go by Thestral so I'd be more comfortable.
"Which leaves you and me, Ron!" Tonks said excitedly. Ron smiled back at her before turning towards Harry.
"An' you're with me, Harry. That all righ'?" Hagrid asked, looking a little anxious.
"We'll be on the bike, brooms an' thestrals can't take me weight, see. Not a lot o' room on the seat with me on it, though, so you'll be in the sidecar."
"That's great," Harry said, smiling slightly.
"I make it three minutes until we're supposed to leave. No point locking the back door, it won't keep the Death Eaters out when they come looking. Come on …" Moody said, glancing around the room and doing a quick head count. I nodded my head and grasped my luggage before I felt an arm on my shoulder. I turned around to see George smiling at me.
"I'd give you a kiss good bye, but it'd be kinda of weird seeing as we're both Harry." I smiled at that and set my luggage down, wrapping my much longer arms around his body.
"I love you George." I said softly, squeezing him tight. He returned the gesture murmuring the same words into my ear.
"I'll see you back at the Burrow." He said, letting go and stepping up to Remus. I nodded my head, tears filling my eyes as I walked towards Kingsley. I would see George at the Burrow. The sense of foreboding I had was nothing. Everyone would be fine. Trelawney herself had said it, I didn't have any divination in me. George would be all right, we would all be alright. Nothing bad would happen, I was feeling nervous for no reason.
It's amazing how unconvincing your own voice can sound.