Chapter 56 – Potter times 8
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After countless discussions and one huge fight were Charlie and Cedric escaped through the backdoor of the cottage, Bash finally agreed for me and Cedric to join the order. Bill's wedding was coming closer, and they were making a plan to retrieve Harry, which Cedric and I weren't included in. But sending Hermione and Ron in, who were barely of age, that was according to them a good idea, I grumbled about it enough to Cedric when we were alone.
We were all in the burrow now and Cedric and I were standing in the corner, he had his arms around me as he leaned against the wall, me in front of him. More and more people were coming in the house. Charlie and Bash had returned to Romania for an emergency and would be back for the wedding, hopefully. Hermione was talking to Ginny, who looked angry for not being included in the plan, but that, I thought, was reasonable since she wasn't off age. The twins were talking in hushed tones near the fire when two of my old professors walked in the room, Lupin and the real Moody, behind them a young woman with purple hair and a short man, who didn't look like he wanted to be there. I patted Cedric's hands on my stomach, and he let me go.
"Professors." I smiled and walked up to them.
"Not your professor anymore, Gwen. Call me Remus." He smiled.
"Remus then."
"And I was never your professor since I was locked inside a chest for a year. Alastor." He grumbled.
"I'm Gwen."
"Yeah, yeah. I heard about ya." He said and limped further inside the house. I chuckled as he walked past me.
"Gwen." I turned to Remus's voice. "This is Tonks." He gestured to the woman with the purple hair.
We grinned at each other before we both turned our face into a duck's beak, we quacked before we laughed, and the others in the room looked at us grinning. "Nice to finally meet you."
"Oh, you heard of me?" I chuckled surprised, but she just grinned at me.
"From what I've heard, we're going to get along just fine." She grinned and wrapped an arm around me.
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We moved to the kitchen where we all took place at the large dining table when the last guest arrived. I jumped up from the table quickly and walked over to the door with a large grin.
"Hagrid!" I stepped out of the kitchen and looked up at him. Hagrid didn't fit in the house and had to stand outside.
"Here is my favourite student!" Hagrid beamed when he saw me behind his beard.
"You're going to help get Harry too?"
"Course I am. I went to pick him up years ago, I'm already an expert on it." He said proudly.
"We're starting, get in!" Alastor barked. I rolled my eyes at Hagrid, he smiled back.
"We'll catch up later." I walked back in the kitchen and sat down next to Cedric, who placed his arm over the back of my chair. Hagrid crouched down and peered his head inside he kitchen.
"We already went over this at least twenty times over the past weeks, so everyone knows what to do." Alastor shared a look with Remus, who nodded. "There will be one light change."
Everyone straightened at the last-minute change and looked to Alastor, who was leaning against the counter heavily. The room was silent as everyone waited for him to continue; the only noise was coming from the crickets in the garden.
"So, the original plan was that there would be seven Potters." My heart thumped faster when his fake eye glanced at me. "Northon, you would be the eight Potter." All eyes turned towards me, and I felt Cedric stiffen next to me. "Diggory, you'll be with Delacour and Bill with Northon."
I knew Cedric was going to object before his mouth uttered one single word. And by the looks of the others in the room, they had expected it too.
"What?" Cedric jumped up. "No, I'm going with Gwen."
"Cedric." Remus started.
"No, she is my wife! I'm not going to let her go alone."
"Every one of you is being paired with an adult." Remus said.
"We are adults." Cedric grumbled.
"You know what I mean."
"Ced." I tugged on his hand. He tore his glare away from Alastor and Remus and looked to me, his gaze softened in an instant, he lowered himself back in the chair. "I'm with Bill, I'm not alone. And I trust Bill with my life." I glanced over to Fleur, who had her fingers intertwined with Bill's. "Besides, Fleur has to go without her future husband."
Cedric took my hand and intertwined his fingers with mine. "Yeah, but she has me." He gave me a weak smile.
"And I have Bill."
He sighed and looked back to Alastor while his fingers played with my wedding ring. "Fine."
"Right, now that all that mushy stuff is over." Alastor grumbled and the others snickered. "We'll go over the plan once more."
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Hermione had just plucked hairs from Harry's head and handed it over to Alastor. I gave Cedric a slight tug on his hand, and he turned towards me with a nervous smile. I wrapped my arms his neck.
"Kiss me before I turn into Harry." I chuckled and he obliged without hesitation. When we parted, Hermione handed me the goblet after she drank from it. I smiled at her with a slight shake of my head. "Don't need it." And my hair started to shorten and darken at the same time.
"Right." Hermione chuckled as her facial features started to change. The next moment, Hermione and I turned fully into Harry. Harry looked around the room with furrowed eyebrows.
"You know it's freaky you can change into another person without Polyjuice potion." Harry said as he stepped closer and looked me over.
"It wouldn't be the first time." I huffed a laugh and winked to the twins, who were listening in. I turned back to Harry. "Think I missed something?" I asked when I inspected him back.
"I don't think so." Harry frowned as he looked at me. Cedric grinned and leaned against the wall as he watched the interaction. Harry and I were looking at each other, trying to find anything that needed to change. "I think you're good. Maybe lose the wedding ring though." He grinned.
"Right." I smiled and took the ring off and handed it over to Cedric as Alastor tossed me a change of clothes. "Keep it safe for me will you." I winked at my husband.
Cedric shook his head widely. "No, don't do that. It's disturbing that Harry's winking at me."
I couldn't help but laugh as I switched clothes. Just as I pulled on the jumper, I heard the twins say. "Look, we're identical."
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The moment Bill and I flew off, we were surrounded by death eaters. I was seated in front of Bill on the broom as we soared through the dark. Behind me, I heard Bill curse to himself.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck. Hold on." He swirled the broom down as curses and hexes went flying over us.
"Bill." I shouted. "You focus on the death eaters, I'll steer." I saw Bill nod in the corner of my eye, and he straightened up, letting his grip on me go. I leaned closer to the broom as we swivelled through the air, trying to avoid those fucking idiots. I felt something sting, and thought I must've been hit by a spell, but I pushed it back and put my focus on my surroundings.
I reached for my wand and clasped it hard in my hand. I quickly cast a Protego over us, as Bill sends out spells and hexes. Suddenly a death eater appeared in front of us, appearing out of nowhere. He was so close; I could touch him. Before another thought, I pulled my arm back and punched his nose. The death eater looked so stunned, it would be funny in another scenario. With him distracted by his bleeding nose, I shot a stunning spell at him, and he fell down into the black of night.
"No!" Bill called out suddenly. I turned the way he was looking and just saw Alastor fall from his broom, just like the death eater a few seconds ago. But there was nothing we could do for him; it was too late. Bill's head snapped to mine, with clear terror on it, he didn't even try to hide it. "Go to the -" He stopped, and I nearly fell from my broom when I saw Voldemort fly by, without a broom or anything. He had his wand raised at us, before he suddenly vanished. The blood was rushing through my ears so fast that I didn't hear Bill behind me.
"Gwen. GWEN!" He shouted. I shook my head and turned to him. "There, to the left." He pointed at house in the middle of a field. I steered the broom down and I felt when we flew through the wards. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." My heart still hammered fast in my chest. "I'm good. You?"
"Same." He nodded stiffly, his wand still firmly in his hand.
"Where are we?" I asked looking around, but it was so dark I couldn't see anything, not even the house.
"You don't recognize it?" He asked and he guided me to the other side. Once the house became visible, I stopped in my tracks. "Let's go in, it's not safe out." I nodded and started walking again.
My parents' house was silent, all the furniture had been covered by blankets. Seeing the house like this, made me shiver. My parents haven't been home for a long time, and it was noticeable. Why they still had the house was beyond me, but here I was... How did they know about this? Bill seemed to have read her thoughts as he said.
"Bash told us we could use this place as a safe house, since your parents are away."
"Makes sense." I nodded and walked to the fire mantle. A few pictures were still displayed on it. My fingers grazed a picture of Bash holding me as a baby. "When does our Portkey leave?"
"Five minutes. We missed the first one." Bill said as he walked up next to me. He placed his hands on my shoulders, making me turn towards him. "You did great, Gwen." He smiled as he looked down at me. "You can turn back if you want."
"Oh, right." I chuckled as I saw my/Harry's reflection in the frames on the mantle.
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Both holding onto a tea coaster, we appeared in the garden of the burrow. Harry was sitting with Ron and Hermione on the steps of the house, they all looked grim. Cedric was pacing in front of them but when he heard us appear, he stopped and looked at us. It took him a second to register it was me before he came running towards me. He wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in my neck. I clutched to him harder, holding him tight against me.
"When your Portkey arrived without you, I thought..." Cedric's muffled voice came from my neck.
"We're okay, I'm okay." I whispered back.
"Is everyone here?" Bill asked as we fell quiet again.
"Just Moody and Mundungus." Cedric said as he pulled back, but he didn't let me go. Bill and I shared a look, but the others didn't seem to notice because Cedric continued. "George is hurt."
"What?" Bill and I asked, our heads snapped towards him. Before Cedric could elaborate, Bill bolted inside the house, and we followed. George was laying on the couch, and my knees started to tremble when I saw the hole on the side of his head. Molly was putting dittany on it, while Fred sat pale next to him, holding his hand. I didn't know how, but my feet carried me closer. When I was a meter away from them, I stopped. The house was quiet for a long moment, then Bill spoke, his arms around Fleur's waist.
"Moody's death. We saw him fall." That was the only thing that was said, and the room went quiet again. Cedric wrapped his arm around my waist as he saw my legs tremble. Harry, Hermione and Ron came in, and stood behind us as they looked to the couch. Hermione's eyes were on Fred, who was still looking pale. It looked like she wanted to go to him and had a hard time staying put. Then George stirred and Fred leaned closer.
"How you feeling, Georgie?"
George's fingers went to his ear. "Saint-like."
"What wrong with him?" Fred asked, looking terrified. "Is his mind affected?"
"Saintlike." George repeated and opened his eyes, looking at his twin. "You see... I'm Holey, Fred, geddit? Holey."
Fred let out a dry laugh. "The whole wide world of earl related jokes and you come up with I'm holey? That's pathetic."
"Reckon I'm still the better-looking twin." George offered a grin, and Fred laughed. I let out a breath of relief and chuckled. But the chuckle made me wince, the pain flared up once I saw my love-ones safe. Cedric was in front of me in a second and leaned down, his face filled with worry.
"Winnie, love, what's wrong?"
"Nothing, I'm fine." I answered, my eyes closed from the pain in my side. I breathed in deep and let my eyes flicker open. The whole room was looking at me now, Fred had stood up and had the same concerned look on his face as his twin. The pain didn't subside, so I lifted my shirt to reveal a dark blue, almost black spot on the side of my stomach. The pain was getting too much, and my sight started to blur, I could hear the room gasp and footsteps come closer, but my eyes were already closed again. "Okay, maybe not." I said before I collapsed.