Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 6

Harry and I ended up having to tell Ron and Hermione about what we saw happen to Ollivander in our head. Of course, this only led to confusion and horror in their minds and a slight overreaction with Hermione.

"You cannot let him inside of your heads!" Hermione said. "It's far too dangerous now – "

"And it wasn't before?" Harry snapped back, slightly irritated.

"Hermione, we know that it's dangerous," I said calmly. "But it isn't like it's something we want to happen either – sometime it just catches us off guard. Besides, it lets us know what he's up too."

"But he might be able to see what you're doing too," Hermione said.

"Okay, okay – we get it," Harry sighed. "But I want to know what he wanted with Ollivander."

"He was probably trying to find a wand that would work against ours," I suggested. "Remember when we were in the grave yard a few years ago and his didn't work against ours? He probably thought that using another wand would make him more powerful."

"I guess he was attacking Ollivander to get that information out of him," Harry said. "Ollivander must have told him that using another wand might help, but he might not have known."

"Either way, he isn't looking too good," I said uncomfortably. "I wonder how long he's had him captive…"

The thought of the old wandmaker being tortured at the hands of Voldemort made my skin crawl. It was hard to tell how long he could have been there, but the fact that he had been tortured even once for this information was hard to even think about. Flashes of Ollivander's horrified expression kept going through my head and it hurt me because I know that there wasn't any way to get him out of that situation.

We probably would have continued the conversation if others hadn't come into the room, but the house was starting to get busy again with preparations for the wedding that was coming up in just a few days time.

"You four look like you're up to something," Fred said with a wink.

"I agree," George said. "You wouldn't be talking about a certain trip, would you?"

"Why did we tell them the plan?" Ron asked. "Wait a minute – we didn't."

Ron gave me a piercing look and I rolled my eyes. Sure, Fred and George were pretty smug about knowing what we were plotting, but it wasn't necessarily my fault that they both knew. I told George, but he wasn't supposed to go spreading it around like it was casual gossip.

"Mum is looking for you all," Fred said. "I think she's trying to keep you all busy so you can't plan your great escape."

"It's not going to stop us," Harry said.

"No, but that doesn't mean she's going to stop trying either," George said. "She'll do anything she can to keep you here."

For a moment, I forgot that I was supposed to be angry with George about our fight the day before. It was difficult for me to hold a grudge against him when he was in a good mood so often and being his usual self with Fred.

I wouldn't admit it to him, but I knew that he had a right to be upset with me going on this hunt without him. In all honesty, I wanted him to be with me through it all, but I knew that it was far too dangerous for him. I would much prefer him to be away from me in hiding with a group of experienced fighters that could protect him – he was already hurt enough and I didn't want to risk anything else.

"Fred, George – where have you gone?" Mrs. Weasley's voice called from the other room. "I need you to go tend to the chickens!"

Looking like that was the last thing that they wanted to do, the twins walked quickly into another room to avoid her as she stepped in to see the four of us sitting around. And, just as Fred and George predicted, she immediately set us to work to keep our minds off of the hunt for Horcruxes.

It couldn't have been more obvious throughout the day that Mrs. Weasley was intentionally keeping us apart from one another. Whenever we finished a task that she assigned us, she would immediately send us in another direction that was completely different from each other and required us to keep our distance.

On the rare occasion that one of us would cross the other's path, we tried to not draw attention to ourselves so we could have a conversation without Mrs. Weasley hearing from the other room. Although she was far busier than we were, she seemed to have the best hearing in the world. Maybe that's just what happened to a person when they had so many children to look after – they could just hear everything.

I was lucky to run into Ron at one point in the day long enough for him to give a warning about his mother's intentions with us all.

"I've already told Harry, but you should know too that Mum is going to try to get you to tell her where we're going off to," Ron said to me.

"Has she already asked all of you?" I asked him.

"She tried to get it out of Hermione and me already," he said. "Fred and George too, but none of us have said anything to her."

"Well, she shouldn't think we're going to tell her either," I said. "Besides, she would be just as angry if she knew what it really was that we were up to."

"Probably, but that isn't going to stop her from trying to find out anyway," he shrugged.

Accepting the fact that I was probably going to be questioned about what we were going to be doing, I went about my day at the Burrow as usual. I was slightly hesitant to stay in a room alone with Mrs. Weasley to avoid that conversation, but I managed to keep myself busy with helping others with the wedding preparations.

However, this led me to sticking around Fleur a lot more than I really wanted to. It wasn't that I didn't like her, but she was way more excitable and talkative than I really cared for. This was far better than being cornered by her soon to be mother-in-law and it made it significantly easier while Bill was with her. In this particular moment, I found myself standing in front of both of them in the sitting room.

"Ve need to tell you who you vill be for ze wedding," Fleur said as she clapped her hands together.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"We can't let it be known that the Potters are at our wedding," Bill explained. "We have to have you both take Polyjuice Potion so you can be disguised."

"That makes sense," I nodded. "So who am I going as?"

"You're going to be a cousin from mum's side of the family," Bill told me. "So you're going by the name of Abigail Prewett, daughter of Fabian Prewett."

"Who is Fabian Prewett?" I asked.

"Mum's brother," Bill explained. "He was killed a while back by some Death Eaters before you were born. He didn't actually have any children, but mum said that the Weasleys don't really know that. If some of the older ones do remember him, you're just going to say that you were born out of wedlock and he didn't know about your birth before he died."

"That sounds complicated," I said.

"Exactly," Bill nodded. "Which is why no one will question it. I'm sure they won't even question you after you've told them you're a cousin on the Prewett side."

After we discussed it once more to make sure I got the story right, we went on with the rest of our day in order to avoid being yelled at for being unproductive.

It was impossible to avoid Mrs. Weasley the entire day. As hard as I tried to not end up in a room alone with her, it ended up being inevitable. Mrs. Weasley was everywhere at once that day and she was a very determined person. I guess there was just no stopping her when she wanted to find something out.

We ended up alone together outside when I was tending to the garden and she came over to assist me. Part of me wondered if she would actually go through with questioning me, but it didn't take long for her to start talking about it.

"You know, Ron's been talking like you all aren't going back to school next year," Mrs. Weasley said in a tone that was far too casual. "Harry and Hermione seem to feel the same…"

Her eyes kept flickering over to me as she waited for a response. Ron's warning suddenly began to make sense, but I feared that this conversation wasn't going to end very well. I'd never been on Mrs. Weasley's bad side per say, but I knew from observation that I really did not want to be.

"They're right," I said hesitantly. "We aren't going back to Hogwarts."

"Why not?" she asked immediately.

She was prepared for this conversation – that was far too obvious. I highly suspected that her practice of discussing this with the other members of the group already had her prepared for what was to come. I just hoped that she wouldn't get too angry when I refused her information.

"There's just something that we have to do," I said.

"Harry told me that it was something that Dumbledore wanted you to do," Mrs. Weasley said, her eyes locked on me.

"Well, yes…that is true," I nodded.

"And what is it that Dumbledore expected of a group of seventeen-year-olds?" she asked.

"It's really between the people that are involved," I said as I lowered my tone, scared of what was coming next.

"And you think that I am not involved?" Mrs. Weasley asked, getting angrier by the second. "My son is involved with this – all of you could be in danger. I think that I have a right to say that I am involved with this."

"We didn't ask Ron to go with us," I said. "We didn't ask Hermione or Neville either – "

As soon as I said that, I regretted it. It didn't cross my mind that she didn't know that there was another member involved other than the four of us that were in her house.

"Neville Longbottom is involved with this too?" she asked. "And you think that his grandmother will allow this – hasn't she been through enough already? She's already lost her son and her daughter-in-law! Do you want her to lose her grandson too? That's all she has left, Emily! Think about her – "

As she said it, anger rose up in me to the point that I nearly wanted to cry because of what she was trying to accuse me of. The woman that had cared for me for so many years was going to

"You think I haven't thought about that?" I said furiously. "I've told them time and time again that they shouldn't come with me, but they won't listen! So don't you dare accuse me of not considering what could happen to them – this is not on me."

She started to say something else, but I did not listen to her as I walked as quickly as I could away from her. I knew that I was about to start crying and there was no way that I was going to let her see that she had driven me to that point.

"Emily – what's wrong?"

When I turned and saw that it was Mr. Weasley, I seriously debated whether or not I should have just kept walking so he wouldn't know what just happened. However, I decided that it was too late to avoid him as he began to walk up to me. While I spoke to him, I tried to avoid the tears that had been trying to come through my eyes earlier so he wouldn't get worried about my sanity.

"Nothing, I'm fine," I lied to him.

"You look upset," he said with concern. "What's happened?"

He stepped over to me and put his hand on my shoulder for some sort of comfort and I just knew that there was no way that I was going to be able to not tell him what just happened. Then again, he probably would have found out anyway after his wife spoke to him.

"I was just talking to Mrs. Weasley, that's all," I said as I tried to avoid eye contact.

"Did it have anything to do with not going to Hogwarts this year?" Mr. Weasley asked. "She has been talking a lot about that to me lately."

I nodded, but didn't let any words come out of my mouth. What would he say if I just told him exactly what she just said to me? Would he agree and say that she was right? Or would he go against his wife? Neither option felt right to me.

"Emily, what did she say to you?" he asked, his eyes shifting toward the direction that I had come from as if making sure no one else was listening.

"It doesn't matter," I shook my head.

"You're upset about it – of course it matters," Mr. Weasley said.

"She found out that Neville Longbottom is going with us too," I finally let out. "She said that his family has already been through enough and I had no right to bring him along and rob his grandmother of the only person she has left in the world."

Mr. Weasley stood there for a moment in silence, probably trying to interpret what I had just said to him. I didn't say everything that happened, but it was assumed what I had meant by that – his wife was trying to pin the potential death of my friends on me to stop me from going through with my plan.

"I'm going to go talk to her," Mr. Weasley said after a moment.

"No, you don't have to do that," I said, not wanting to start an argument between them.

"Yes, I really do," Mr. Weasley said. "I know that she doesn't want you to go through with whatever it is that you all are doing, but that's taking it too far. I don't want you all to do this either, but I don't blame you for anything that happens to my son – or anyone else for that matter – while you are gone. As far as I know, you didn't ask them to come along with you."

A sudden appreciation for Mr. Weasley swelled up inside of me and I immediately went to hug him in attempt to avoid crying. Everything that was happening recently was making me emotional…it made me uncomfortable…

"Thank you," I said to him.

Mr. Weasley smiled at me after I let go of him and gestured that he was going to go outside. That much told me that he wasn't going to let any time pass before speaking to his wife about what she had just said to me. As angry and upset as I was with her, I hoped that it didn't lead to conflict between the two of them because I didn't want to be responsible for coming between them.

Once he was gone, I realized that I no longer had anything that I was supposed to be doing. Running off from Mrs. Weasley left me without a task for the first time that day. So, taking my leave of absence from the wedding preparations, I went upstairs towards the bedroom. When I got there, I realized that I was not the only one that managed to escape from it all.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione had all somehow found their way into Ron's room for the time being. As soon as I walked in, I noticed Ron flinching at the sound of the door opening.

"Mum, I – oh, it's just you," Ron said with relief.

"Yeah, I'm definitely not your mother," I said as I looked around his room.

From what I could tell, he had been in the middle of cleaning his room before he got distracted – most likely by Harry and Hermione coming into his room. It took me a moment before I realized that Hermione was sitting on the ground with a pile of books around her and tears coming from her eyes. Harry was sitting off to the side looking slightly uncomfortable while Ron was trying to console her.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Well…she just told me about her parents," Harry explained to me in a hushed tone so only I could hear while Ron spoke to Hermione. "She made them a completely new life where they don't know who she is so she could come on this trip…"

My heart sank as he said it and I suddenly felt so much guiltier about our friends joining us on this trip. Even though this was our trip, they were giving up so much more by coming along with us. We didn't have families that we had to worry about when all of this happened and they did. I never even considered what Hermione would have to do to protect her parents. Unlike the Weasley's, the Grangers didn't have the same sort of safety because they were Muggles – if Voldemort found them, there was nothing they could do to protect themselves.

"Hermione, I'm sorry," I said as I walked over to her.

"It's fine, honestly," she said through tears. "I just did what I had to do and they'll be safe this way…don't worry about be, I'm just a bit emotional…you should see what Ron's done – show them what you did."

Ron nodded and stepped up away from her and walked over another part of the room where he pointed his wand and said a spell aloud. When the attic door dropped and a ladder fell down, Ron gestured for us to come look.

"You might not want to breathe through your nose," Ron suggested as I stepped onto the ladder.

After I had climbed up, I instantly realized what he was talking about when he said not to breathe through my nose because the smell of it nearly knocked me to the ground. It took me a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room, but when I did, I noticed a lump laying a short distance away.

I descended from the ladder and let Harry take a look just before Ron started to explain what was going on.

"Did you see it?" Ron asked me as Harry was looking into the attic.

"What was it?" I asked as Harry gagged at the smell from above.

"It's a ghoul," Hermione said as she continued to sort through some books and wiped away the last of her tears. "It's clever, really."

"I don't understand," Harry said as he came down from the ladder. "What does a ghoul have to do with anything? And why was it wearing clothes?"

"It was?" I asked. "I guess I just couldn't get passed the smell of it."

"Which is what we're counting on," Ron smiled. "That ghoul is going to be my excuse for not going to Hogwarts this year."

Ron and Hermione smiled at us both as if they had just explained the plan in such detail that we should have understood. In reality, they had not explained anything and Harry and I just stared at them.

"I don't…I don't understand," I said as I looked at them. "I feel like I'm missing something."

"The ghoul is dressed in my pajamas and we've made it look like it has red hair," Ron said. "We've also given it enough pustules to make it look distorted."

"I'm still not following how this has to do with you not going to Hogwarts," Harry said.

"The ghoul is going to pass as me with spattergroit," Ron said. "It's a cover in case the Death Eaters come here to look for you – the story is going to be that I'm far too sick to go to Hogwarts this year! Once they think that I'm not with you two, then they'll keep away from my family."

It took me a minute to process what he was saying, but it seemed to all make sense and be a good enough plan. Even if the Death Eaters came to check up on the story, they would find the ghoul sleeping in his bed and be far too disgusted by the smell of it all to get a close enough look to find out that it isn't really him.

"That's pretty clever," Harry nodded.

"I know," Ron said proudly. "As long as my family sticks with the story, everything should check out okay."

After Ron closed the door to the attic and I was able to breathe clean-smelling air again, I began to wonder what Hermione was doing with all of those books surrounding her. I couldn't see how this was a good time to go through her personal library.

"So what's with the books?" I asked her.

"I'm trying to figure out which ones we can use," Hermione said. "I'm bringing some along with us in case we need them…you never really know when one could come to be useful."

I was about to question her, but I realized that it was pointless. This was Hermione and her books and there was no way that she was just going to stop what she was doing. Books held the answers to everything in the world and I wasn't going to stop her from bringing them. For all I knew, they really could have some things we could use in them.

We didn't get to stay together too much longer because Mr. Weasley called us down for dinner and I knew that it was best to not ignore him now.

When I went down into the dining room, I realized that I hadn't told Harry, Ron, or Hermione about the conversation that I had with Mrs. Weasley. Maybe it was best to just keep it away from them, but I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable when I noticed that she was staring at me as she set the table when I walked into the room.

"Emily, would you mind helping me with some things," Mrs. Weasley said while her face went a little red.

"I can give you a hand – " Ginny started to say.

"No, just Emily," Mrs. Weasley said too quickly.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all looked between Mrs. Weasley and me for a moment – most likely because of the suddenness of what Mrs. Weasley said. Seeing that Mr. Weasley was the only one that knew that there was some tension there, everyone else was just left confused.

Instead of making the situation even more awkward than it already was, I decided to just follow her into the kitchen without putting up any sort of argument. Even though she was probably the last person I wanted to be alone with at the moment, I just went with it – there was no need to cause a scene.

Once we were out of the uncomfortably silent room, we stepped into the kitchen where Mrs. Weasley walked toward some of the plates that had food on them. She was just about to grab something when she turned to face me.

"Emily, I wanted to apologize for what I said to you earlier," Mrs. Weasley said while facing the ground. "I was out of line…"

I nodded and did not say a word to try to make her feel like I was just going to brush off what she said earlier just to avoid conflict. I didn't want to argue with her, but I wasn't going to be able to truly forgive her for the accusations she made earlier that easily. It was just going to take some time.

"I'm just afraid of what could happen to all of you out there with…whatever it is that you're doing," she said without meeting my eyes.

"I'm afraid too, Mrs. Weasley," I said to her. "We all are, but I'm not forcing anyone to do anything that they don't want to do and I do not appreciate being accused like that."

"I was wrong," she agreed. "I know that I don't know exactly what you're doing, but I know that it isn't something that is going to be easy and I don't think you should take your safety so lightly."

"We aren't taking it lightly," I said. "We know what we're getting in to."

Of course, I didn't realize fully what we were getting into given the fact that we didn't exactly have a stable plan, but we were aware of how dangerous this was going to be.

"I just…I just want you to be careful," she said. "I know that I can't talk you out of it, but I can't help but try…"

I nodded and tried to look at it from her perspective. As a mother, she was worried not only for the life of her children, but for us as well. Even though she wasn't really our mother, she had done so much for us in the past that it was difficult to not see her as a mother figure. This was hard for her too, but it wasn't making it any easier on us by trying to point out how dangerous this was going to be – this was something that we already knew.

"Okay, we better get these things out to the table," Mrs. Weasley said. "I just wanted to tell you that I was wrong about what I said earlier and that I'm sorry…"

Without really expecting a reply from me, she picked up some of the plates and started to walk out of the door.

"I'm sorry too, Mrs. Weasley," I said honestly. "I'm sorry that I'm putting everyone's life in danger…"

Thanks for reading! I apologize for this taking so long, but apparently all of my professors thought it would be a fantastic idea to assign me multiple research papers to stress me out and assure me that I wouldn't have any free time for a good while. Despite my excuses, I appreciate you all sticking with me!

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