Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 5

The first thing I did after I began my recovery was talk to Harry about what happened to him once we left Privet Drive. Hearing that he had run into Voldemort the day before had freaked me out beyond belief and I wanted to know everything I could so we could figure out what to do if something like this were to happen again.

"He didn't know it was me at first," Harry explained to me as we sat just outside of the Burrow. "But I suppose, like Lupin said, that he must have figured out that it was me when I used a disarming spell."

"You're going to need to be more careful with that," I told him. "If they're recognizing that you use that a lot, then you might want to consider using a different spell."

"I've already thought about it," he said. "But it didn't help us out much then anyway."

"At least you escaped from him," I said. "You must have done something right."

"I don't know what happened, Emily," he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, suddenly confused.

"When he went to attack Hagrid and me, the bike was already falling from the air," Harry explained. "I wasn't really aware of my surroundings like I should have been, but it didn't matter at the time because my wand seemed to act on its own."

There was a pause in our speech while I tried to process what he was trying to tell me. Was he implying that it was his wand that fought off Voldemort and not him?

"I know that it sounds strange," Harry said. "But when he was attacking me, my wand just spun around in my hand and these gold flames shot out toward him."

"And you're sure that it wasn't just you acting instinctively?" I asked him. "Are you sure that it wasn't some subconscious act?"

"I know it wasn't," he said. "I don't even know what spell that was – I've never seen anything like it before."

A wand performing magic on its own? It all seemed impossible to me, but it didn't surprise me as much as it should have. Then again, there really wasn't that could shock me much anymore – everything recently was so unexpected that it was hard for me to believe anything was impossible anymore.

"I don't know how that could have happened," I shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't either," Harry sighed.

It wasn't that I didn't believe that something like this could have happened, but I had no explanation on what could have happened between Voldemort and Harry in that moment. Thinking about it made me wish that Dumbledore were still here so he could try to explain what was going on. Would he know what happened? Even if he didn't, he would have known what to do about it all and could have helped us out so much more.

Then again, if Dumbledore were here, then most of this wouldn't have even happened.

But I couldn't think like that anymore. Dumbledore was gone and we were all just going to have to figure everything on our own. We couldn't just rely on a person that couldn't help us anymore. Maybe there was an explanation for what happened, but maybe we would just never find out what occurred between the two of them.

"I heard that Snape was there," Harry said suddenly, breaking my thoughts in the process.

"He was the one that hit George," I told him. "It makes me wonder if anyone else we knew was there…"

I didn't actually say his name, but it had been running through my head for a while that Draco Malfoy could have been there. I didn't want to think that he was still involved with the Death Eaters, but I knew better than that. It hurt me a lot that he would join in with them to attack us, but I had to be realistic. Draco was one of them whether I wanted to believe it or not.

I wanted to be furious with him for going against us, but it hurt me to even try to me angry with him. The way that he acted during our last year of school made me feel like he wasn't doing this because he wanted to – his family was forcing him into this. Maybe I was wrong and maybe this was just something that he was destined to do, but I couldn't help but think that something wasn't right.

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry for everything…try to remember that I didn't have a choice and that I really don't want to hurt you…"

Those were some of the last words that he shared with me and I had thought so much about them since then. At the time, I didn't understand what he was talking about, but now it was starting to make more sense.

If he was being genuine, that meant that he was reaching out to me to tell me that this wasn't what he wanted. They were going to kill his family – that's what he told Dumbledore in the Astronomy Tower that night. So, what was his purpose in coming to me for help? Had he been talking to me about how much he didn't want to do it to try to talk himself out of it? It wasn't like I knew exactly how his mind worked and I seriously doubted that I would ever find out the truth. For now, I would just have to come up with what I believed based on the way he acted toward me. I just hoped that he would keep himself safe if he was still around Voldemort…one wrong move and Draco would be dead…

"Emily?" Harry said.

I suddenly blinked and looked over at my brother who was staring at me as though I had a second head. It was then that it occurred to me that he had said my name multiple times in attempt to capture my attention.

"Sorry, what did you say?" I asked.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You're really pale."

"I'm ginger, Harry – I'm always pale," I said. "What were you saying to me before?"

"I was asking when you were going to get Neville from the hospital," he said. "You told me that you were going to meet up with him there while he was visiting his parents and bring him back here for the wedding before we head off."

"Right, I'm going to be meeting with him the day before the wedding," I said. "I've already discussed this with him, but maybe I ought to write him a letter to remind him. Where's Hedwig – I'm sure she could go for a stretch of the wings."

Harry's face suddenly dropped and I had a feeling that I had said something wrong. I didn't even have to ask the question for him to respond.

"Hedwig was killed," Harry said. "It was on the way over here and one of the Death Eaters hit her."

As he said it, I knew that he was hurting. Hedwig wasn't just an owl to him – she was the one thing that kept him connected to the Wizarding world while we weren't at Hogwarts. Hedwig kept him company when I wasn't there – she was more than a pet to him, she was a friend. And now she was gone.

"I'm sorry, Harry," I said as I put a hand on his shoulder. "I had no idea…"

"It's okay," he said. "Her death was instant…I'm just happy she didn't have to suffer…don't worry about me though, I'm fine. You can go ahead and write that letter – I'm sure that someone will let you use their owl."

I nodded and left him alone so he could think through some things. In the meantime, I went and found some parchment and made a quick letter to Neville to remind him when we were going to meet – just in case he forgot, which I knew was very possible.

Neville,

In case you've forgotten, we're still going to be going to visit your parents together on the 31st of July. I'll meet you in front of Purge and Dowse and we'll go on from there. I look forward to seeing you!

Much love, Elizabeth

Before we left each other at Kings Cross Station, Neville and I agreed that I would go by the name Elizabeth in my letters to him in case they ended up in someone else's hands. I didn't include it in the letter, but we both also knew that I would not have the same appearance when I met up with him.

As a precaution, I had brewed Polyjuice Potion to become a Muggle girl that lived a few doors down from us on Privet Drive. The real Elizabeth was a sixteen-year-old girl that was rather short and had medium-length, brown hair and a kind face. I had only spoken to her briefly a few times, but we weren't what anyone would classify as friends. During the summer, the final time I would see her, I managed to get a piece of her hair off of her jacket at the local park before heading back to the Dursleys to complete the potion.

Now that I didn't have Hoot (due to the fact that he was at Neville's house) and Hedwig was gone, I had to use Ron's owl to deliver my letter. It didn't take much time to find him in his room and he didn't even seem to care at all that I wanted to use his owl. Actually, it hardly seemed like he heard the question at all as he looked fairly traumatized.

"You look like you just saw a ghost," I laughed.

"You could say that," he said quietly.

"What happened?" I asked.

"It was your brother," he said to me. "I just had a row with him about my sister."

I knew that whenever Ron refrained from using people's names that he wasn't a happy person. Though, considering the people that were involved, I had a bad feeling that I knew why he was upset.

"I walked in on them snogging," Ron said.

I didn't speak for a moment because I expected more than just that, but I eventually decided that it was all he was going to say. Although I was slightly baffled that my brother had gone from talking about his dead owl to snogging Ginny Weasley in such a short period of time, I wasn't exactly seeing his point with this. I guess he just needed a bit more coaxing.

"Why is that a bad thing?" I asked.

"Because he's playing around with her feelings, that's why!" Ron said. "Ginny was really upset when he broke things off and then he goes off and does something like this – you can't think that's a good thing!"

"I didn't say that it was," I told him. "But I don't really see why you're getting so upset about it. It's not really your business."

"I'm her brother!" he said.

"Yes, and I'm Harry's sister," I said. "I know that it isn't good for them to go at it again with what's about to happen, but they aren't five-year-olds and they know what they're doing."

"Fine, but that doesn't make it okay," he muttered.

"Fair enough," I shrugged.

Not wanting to discuss who my brother snogs anymore, I decided to go ahead and send off my letter. After doing that, I walked on into the house and looked around to see if anyone needed help with anything. Mrs. Weasley was in the kitchen making dinner, but she assured me that she would be able to do it herself.

Eventually I ended up in the sitting room where I found George messing around with the bands that were wrapped around his head to help his ear. Much to my surprise, he had a toothbrush stuck in the hole where his ear used to be and he appeared to be scratching it. When he saw me, he immediately stopped and smiled as he pulled the toothbrush out.

"I'm glad that didn't look strange," I smirked.

"There was an itch there that I couldn't get to," he said. "Don't judge me."

"Never," I said.

I took a seat next to him as he began to readjust his bandage and settle back into the chair to make himself comfortable. Even now that his head was healing, I still felt terribly sick that this happened to him. Flashes of his unconscious body being dragged into the Burrow flew into my head and I had to start talking before I began to have a breakdown.

"Is it hurting at all?" I asked him as I looked at his bandage.

"Not as much as you would think," he told me. "Mum gave me some good medication, so I reckon I'll be all right."

I nodded slowly and looked down at the ground.

"There was a lot of blood, George," I told him. "I was…I was scared, I thought we were going to lose you…I thought you were dying…"

"Don't worry about it," George said. "It's all over – we're both fine."

"This time we are," I said. "But this is only the first attack, George. Voldemort isn't going to stop now and he's going to do everything he can to get to us – that includes going after you. We have to be careful."

"I know that," he said. "But sometimes accidents happen."

"You're going to try to stay safe, aren't you?" I asked him. "Keep yourself hidden?"

"That was the plan," George said. "We're going to keep paying up on our shop, but we aren't getting much business at the moment. I guess not many parents want their children running around Diagon Alley with You-Know-Who on the loose."

I nodded and thought about how sad this was making him. I knew that he didn't want to give up on the shop, but there wasn't much he could do with everything that was going on. It wasn't like Fred and George were really giving up on their business, but they were just going to have to put things on hold for the time being.

That was the truth with everything though, wasn't it? The whole world was going to have to be put on hold just because of Voldemort. Nothing would be the same as long as he was around and no one would be safe. Just look at what's happened already and the war has hardly begun.

"I'm sorry, George," I whispered as I looked down.

"It's fine," he shrugged. "I'm not really worried about the shop right now."

"I'm not just talking about the shop," I told him. "I'm talking about everything."

George paused and kept his gaze away from me. Without a word, he pulled me closer to him and wrapped his arm around me in an embrace. He kissed me on my forehead and then let out a sigh.

"I'm sorry that you think all of this is your fault," he said. "I wish you wouldn't blame yourself for all of this."

"Whose fault is it then?" I asked.

"It's…Voldemort's," he said with a grimace.

It was the first time he had ever said the name out loud and I had a strong feeling that it was going to be the last. It sounded so strange with his voice and I could almost feel the distaste as he said it.

"He was the one that started this," George continued. "We're just the ones that are going to have to finish this."

I smiled as I held onto his hand and I suddenly felt like Harry and I weren't alone in this. We might have been the ones that were mentioned in the prophecy, but we always had people there to back us up and help us when it all came to be too much for us to handle.

"I love you, George," I said.

"I love you too," he smiled.

With that, both of us fell asleep together on that couch and didn't wake up for a couple more hours. For a while, everything in my dreams seemed to be going peacefully until I felt a searing pain from my head and everything that I was seeing suddenly changed before me.

"You told me that this would work!" a voice screamed in my head.

"I thought that it would!" another person screamed in agony. "I had no idea – please forgive me!"

"I should have known that you would have tried to help the Potters, Ollivander!" the first voice spat. "You were trying to trick me all along!"

"I wasn't – I swear!" the man said.

"Then why didn't it work?" the first man demanded.

"I don't know!" the man cried. "I thought that it would - you have to trust me! I had no idea that something like that would happen!"

"Then figure something out!" the first man yelled.

There was a scream in my head one more time before my eyes shot open and I sat up as quickly as I could. When I looked around, I noticed that Fred was now in the room and George was still sitting beside me.

"Are you okay?" Fred asked. "You were moving around a lot in your sleep."

"It…it was nothing," I lied. "Just a nightmare…"

George gave me a curious look, but I did my best to ignore him as I tried to calm myself down after what I had just witnessed.

Voldemort was furious, that was obvious. He had attempted to use someone else's wand because he knew that all three of ours shared a connection and it would be difficult to cause any permanent damage as long as he used the one that he had.

He also had Ollivander with him and that was enough to make my skin crawl. The old man never did anything to harm anyone and now he was the newest victim of Voldemort's rage. What was it that Voldemort wanted with him? Would he really have taken him in simply for knowledge on how to use another wand against us?

Suddenly my attention was taken away from what I had just seen when I heard Fred speaking directly to me.

"So, I heard we're going on a hunt," Fred said with a mischievous grin.

As soon as he said it, my eyes darted over to George. He immediately looked down at the ground and tried to occupy himself by staring intently at his watch.

"You told me that you wouldn't tell anyone!" I said angrily.

"I only told Fred!" he said defensively.

"This isn't some sort of joke, George!" I lectured. "I should have never told you what I was doing – what was I thinking?"

"I didn't tell anyone else!" George said. "Only Fred! It isn't like he's going to tell anyone because he hasn't got any friends!"

Fred sat back and had a grin on his face as he looked between the two of us. It almost looked like he was pleased with himself that he knew something that he wasn't supposed to know.

"You all cannot come with us," I told Fred and George. "It's too dangerous."

"And that's a problem?" Fred asked. "In case you've forgotten, we don't care if things are dangerous or not – it's what we like!"

"You're treating this like it's some sort of game!" I said furiously.

"We know that it's serious," George told me. "Which is why I don't want you to go in the first place – I've already told you that."

"I have to do this and you know that," I said. "But I don't need everyone tagging along."

"Then why is Neville going along with you?" George asked with a slight hint of irritation in his voice.

I could almost feel the color leaving my face when he said it. I should have guessed that he would have found out about that sooner or later, but I didn't want him to get the wrong idea about it. Honestly, I wasn't even sure that I would have said anything to him about it if he hadn't found out himself.

"How do you know about that?" I asked him.

"Ron told me last week," George said. "He said that you were going to meet up with him at the hospital to see his parents and then be on your way."

For a moment, we stood there quietly and I nearly forgot that Fred was standing off to the side looking around the room awkwardly. When George gave him the we-need-some-privacy look, Fred just casually began to shuffle his way to the door.

"I'm pretty sure I saw Mum in the other room making some ham…" Fred said. "Think I might see what's going on with that…"

Once he was gone, I could practically feel George's eyes burning through my skin. Why did Ron have to mention that Neville was coming? I should have known that this wasn't going to go over well.

"You're angry…" I assumed.

"I'm not angry," George said. "I know why you want him to come along, but I don't know why you didn't tell me."

"I don't have to tell you anything," I said. "Not to be rude, but we aren't dating anymore."

"Thanks for rubbing that in," he muttered. "I just thought that you might have mentioned it before I had to hear it from Ron."

In a sense, I could understand why he was upset about this. Even though we hadn't been dating for a while, we still felt like we could talk about things like this with each other.

"You're right," he said after a moment. "I guess that you don't owe me any explanation for anything you do anymore. I must have missed the part where we stopped giving a damn about each other."

"This is why I didn't say anything to you," I retorted. "I knew that you were going to act like this!"

"Act like what?" George argued. "A normal human being? I don't care that you're taking Longbottom along with you – I care that you think that it's going to be easy for me to just walk out of the door and let you die on this mad adventure of yours!"

"Adventure!" I shouted. "This isn't an adventure, you prick! It's not like I'm out on holiday – I'm trying to put an end to this so good people won't die!"

"I know what you're trying to do!" George shouted back. "Which is why I don't understand why you think that it's just completely mad of me to want to help you!"

"Because it's too dangerous!" I said.

"I don't give a damn if it's too dangerous!" he said. "I know what I would be getting in to!"

"You have no idea what you'd be getting in to!" I said. "Hell, I hardly know what I'm getting in to!"

"So let me help you!" he demanded.

Anger suddenly flooded through me as I got close to George's face and my face was practically as twisted as his was with irritation of the subject.

"You are not going with us," I said angrily. "And that is final."

Suddenly the door swung open and we both immediately turned to see Ginny and Ron walking into the room mid-conversation. When they saw us standing this close to one another, I immediately realized what this must have looked like if you didn't realize this was an argument. Without saying a word to one another, George and I immediately responded in the same way by stepping quickly away from each other.

"I can't go anywhere in this house without people snogging," Ron muttered. "First Ginny and Harry and now the two of you – "

"That wasn't what we were doing, Ron," George rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry, we won't tell anyone," Ginny said as she followed Ron out of another door.

I let out a sigh of irritation as I quickly walked behind Ron and Ginny in hopes of escaping George's presence. All I needed was some time to cool off after that argument and I found that it would be incredibly difficult to do as long as his family surrounded me.

The closest chance to an escape I would have would be in a couple of days when I would be able to leave the house to go get Neville. Until then, I would just have to deal with the fact that I was in George's house and busy myself with the plans for Bill and Fleur's wedding. After all, it was the only distraction that I had.

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