Chapter 3
The tent was filled with dancing witches and wizards within the coming hour. Bill and Fleur knew they had some more unorthodox plans for their wedding, but they had decided that they wanted to greet their guests as well as see them out; both stood inside the tent to welcome their friends and family to the celebration of their love.
Fred had been searching for Rebecca with a growing urgency as the ceremony's start time grew nearer, and he finally found her and Tonks standing outside the warmth of the tent chatting to one another.
"Rebecca!" Fred sighed in relief. It wouldn't do for his entire plan to go off late, though it would be sort of symbolic.
"Fred!" Rebecca copied how he sighed her name before growing more serious when she looked him over. "What's wrong? Did something happen?" Fred shook his head and Rebecca felt her worries lighten slightly. "You didn't eat that cake we found, did you? I told you I had no idea how old-"
"That's not it." Fred interrupted. His cheeks warmed at how Tonks failed to entirely hide her laughter behind her hand. "And no, I did not eat that."
Rebecca reached a hand up to his collar and rubbed at a spot. "Darling, this is chocolate."
Fred reached up and wrapped his hand around her wrist before apparating them to the platform he and Bill had levitated over the tent that morning. Rebecca stepped closer to him at the appearance of their little island and laughed at the surprise it had been for him to take her somewhere. "Bloody hell!"
Fred shushed her and peered over the edge to make sure no one was looking up for the source of the sound of laughter. "I wanted to talk to you." He said when his attention returned back to her entirely.
"Weren't we talking down there?" Rebecca asked, confused.
Fred held her hands in between them. "We were. I wanted to talk to you privately though." He took a slow breath and reached into his pocket. "I know we haven't really talked about it, you leaving. But there's something I've been meaning to say, something I don't know why I put off. Rebecca, I want to be yours...forever and always, yours."
Rebecca stared at the still-closed box in his hand. "And the box?"
"Open it."
Rebecca flipped the soft lid open and almost dropped it. Fred cupped his hands under hers and searched her face for anything other than the shock that had been on it since he had started talking, the shock that didn't change after the ring was revealed.
"You want to get married?" Rebecca whispered.
"If you do, then yes. If you don't, I can wait." Fred smiled, finding peace in finally asking the question that had been running through his head. "RJ, I'll wait for you forever."
Rebecca looked up at his eyes. "I don't-" She shook her head. "You don't want to marry me. W-what if you wake up tomorrow and, I don't know...maybe you would have-"
"Changed my mind?" Fred offered incredulously.
"Yes!" Rebecca nodded. "Or what if you're-"
"If you're about to say that my feelings might change, I might have to murder you." Fred looked over her face carefully, finding the little tells to what she was thinking. "Where is this coming from? I've known I wanted to spend my life with you since I was fifteen years old. There's no way, not one in the entire world, my mind could ever change."
"But..." Rebecca cursed the fact that tears grew in her eyes. Sure she had thought about marrying Fred in daydreams...and her real dreams. But that was before everything always had to be so complicated. "What if you woke up and your heart feels different than it does right now and you're just stuck with me?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper, but it was heavier than stone to Fred's ears.
Fred went to his knees in front of her and she did the same. "My love, my love...if that were to happen, if my heart were to feel any differently for you than it does right now, I wouldn't be me and you wouldn't be you. You have my heart, you have had it longer than I can know and you will have it for every second of forever." He shook his head and brought his hands to her shoulders, the box resting on their touching knees. "Stuck with you? Rebecca, I couldn't imagine a more perfect future if I tried."
Rebecca closed her eyes and let his words wash over her, let them smooth over every insecurity the question had raised. "Yes." She said. "Yes, I'll marry you."
Fred slipped the ring out of the box and remembered the day he had seen in it Diagon Alley. He, Cedric, and George had been out on a run for supplies the flat needed when they passed the window for the jewelers. It seemed to scream at him, the ring. George and Cedric noticed that Fred was no longer with them a few stores down and they doubled back to see what had stopped him.
"You're looking at that one, right?" George had asked as he pointed to one in particular.
The decision was made quickly. It was simple and what Fred had felt that Rebecca would have chosen for herself. The ring didn't have a stone, certainly not one of the gaudy ones the store tried to push on them. It was a thin band with a dark line traced around the silver, almost reminiscent of the line around her wand handle. The ring itself was ornamental in its simplicity, the material inside the groove one that changed colour with the light.
Rebecca reached for her wand and felt her face warm. "Accio ring." A box whizzed out of the bottom drawer of their dresser, leaving a trail of socks and underwear across their room. "I always-" She shook her head. "If I were lucky enough to get to do this with you, I knew how I wanted yours to be."
She couldn't tell him that she had been carrying around this box since she and Harry had learned that they or Voldemort would die in the end. Rebecca had never decided if it would be for their wedding or something for Fred to remember her by if the unimaginable came to be.
Rebecca took the ring out of the box and turned it so that he could see inside of it. "Look."
Fred leaned down and found that Rebecca's handwriting was inside. "All's well." He traced a finger over the words and looked at her with his amazement clear. "How did you do that?"
"Magic." Rebecca took the ring she had for him back as the tent beneath them fell silent at the officiator's clearing of his throat.
"We gather here to see the unification of two families in holy matrimony."
Fred stood back up and held a hand out to bring Rebecca with him. His eyes couldn't leave hers, trapped in the green pools he could spend the rest of his life in.
"If any should have reason for such a union to halt, speak now or forever hold your peace."
Rebecca turned her hand so that she held his and took a step closer so that she was directly in front of him, their bodies nearly touching. It didn't matter that the officiator didn't see them. It didn't matter that this was technically nothing.
Fred and Rebecca had each other and that was all they needed.
Harry, in a chair with the rest of the Weasleys and family guests, leaned over the empty space he had saved for Rebecca to whisper to Remus. "Where is she?"
All Remus offered as an answer was a small smile and Sirius leaned forward to give Harry a big thumbs up to clear any remaining questions.
"The vows, if you please."
Rebecca spoke first, just as Fleur did. She had nothing prepared but knew exactly what she wanted her words to encapsulate because it was what was in her heart. "When I saw this house nearly eight years ago...I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I did consider the possibility of living in your tree house forever."
Fred chuckled and wiped away the tear that ran down her cheek.
"I never, not in my wildest, happiest dreams could have imagined finding a family. I never could have imagined finding so many people to love. But, most of all, I never imagined being loved." Rebecca slid the ring onto Fred's finger. "And that's what happened. I have a family, I have love to give, and I am loved. I have so much love for you, Fred, that I don't know where to keep it all sometimes." She laughed and he wiped away another tear. "But I'm going to have to figure it out because forever is a long time and I won't accept anything less."
"Good." Fred nodded. "Because neither will I."
Fleur's vows ended and they could hear the murmur of Bill's beginning.
Fred took this as his cue and tried to put his feelings for Rebecca into words. "When I saw you downstairs that night, I thought that it had only been a rogue gnome again." He laughed once. "But seeing you on the floor...it was like my world froze. I didn't know who you were, I didn't know why you were there, and I didn't know why I needed to find these things out."
Just as he had for her, Rebecca reached up and brushed away his tears.
"I don't know how you do the things you do to me, Rebecca. You drive me mad, in the best way. You make me think about thing I never would have without you. You make me a better person--a stronger person." Fred held her hand and prepared to put the ring on her finger. "And that's why I know that this is right: we balance each other out. Through our family, our business, our conversations and every minute I have been able to spend with you; I have learned that the love I have for you, you have for me and it's all I will ever need."
Rebecca looked at the rings on their fingers and reached up to cup Fred's cheeks so she could kiss him.
"You may now kiss the bride." Echoed the officiator through the tent.
Fred pulled himself from her before starting their kiss again. He wanted to say that at least that was done by the books.
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Fred apparated them both back down to the grassy clearing in front of the tent from which they had disappeared from before. With the reception in full swing, they were able to slip into the party with minimal notice.
Madam Maxine and Hagrid were off along the side of the tent and although Hagrid was entirely smitten, he couldn't help but find his attention pulled to the side as Fred and Rebecca served themselves from the tables that pyramid of glasses that would never empty and found their table.
Sirius and Remus stopped them at the edge of the dance floor. They both had yet to catch sight of any ring or other indication as to how it had gone. Rebecca hadn't meant to indulge their eagerness, all she had tried to do was push her hair behind her ear out of habit.
Remus let out a gasp and grabbed for Sirius' arm to keep him upright. "The ring! She's wearing the ring, Padfoot!"
Fred's attention hitched on what Remus called Sirius. "What did you just call him?"
Remus, clearly a little inebriated, was too busy trying to still Sirius long enough to kiss the top of his head to answer.
"Padfoot, Fred. It's a nickname." Rebecca's grin gave away that she knew more than he had.
"You knew?!" Fred gasped. "You knew they made the map?"
Rebecca put her arm around his waist. "Just like you knew there was no such thing as Wizard's Mistletoe."
Harry, standing near his table, smiled at the sight of Fred and Rebecca making an appearance on the dance floor. The light shone off of something on Rebecca's hand behind Fred's neck as they swayed side to side at the slow song that played. Harry had already ensured that the record he had brought from Grimmauld Place, Lames' song, was somewhere in the lineup.
It was a sentiment Harry knew Rebecca would appreciate, even more so now that Harry was piecing together where they had been during the ceremony.
Ron stood near Harry, but he hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. Harry wasn't even sure he had noticed Rebecca and Fred's absence. Ron's attention had stayed in Hermione's direction consistently. He was still looking off towards Hermione when Harry stepped away to find Ginny.
"Hello, Harry!" Luna said as she appeared in front of him.
Harry stepped back, slightly startled. "Hello, Luna."
"I've interrupted a deep thought, haven't I?" Luna asked. "I can see it growing smaller in your eyes."
"Of course not." Harry reassured. "How are you?"
"Very well."
A man who looked strikingly like Luna came up behind her and kissed the top of her head before introducing himself. "Xenophilius Lovegood. We live just over the hill."
"Pleasure to meet you, sir." Harry shook the hand that was offered to him. Over Luna's shoulder, Harry caught a glimpse of Rebecca's reaction to something Fred whispered. Rebecca had her head thrown back in laughter.
"I trust you know, Mister Potter, that we at the Quibbler are unlike those toadies at the Daily Prophet in that we fully supported Dumbledore in his lifetime and in his death, you just as fully."
Harry's attention wavered from Rebecca to the dangling charms and baubles around Xenophilius' neck that neared his eyes as Luna's father stood much closer than other people would have. He wasn't all that surprised though, not knowing Luna. "Thank you."
Luna gave Harry a small smile and grabbed her father's hand. "Come on, father. Harry doesn't want to talk to us right now and he's too polite to say so."
Harry choked. "No, not at all!" Luna had already led her father away. How was it that his mind could be so easily read sometimes? Harry shook the question from his head and paused his pursuit of Ginny to tap Fred's shoulder.
"May I?" Harry asked without really asking.
Fred took a step back and kissed the back of Rebecca's hand before stepping away to find Bill.
Rebecca and Harry began to move about with the rest of the crowd.
Harry couldn't deny that she was the happiest he had ever seen her. "I saw something strangely shining over here." He said softly, in case he wasn't meant to have seen anything.
"Really?" Rebecca asked. "I wonder what it was."
"Something tells me it was quite special." Harry looked to their hands that Rebecca turned over so that hers was on top. His eyes focused on what he had very obviously been alluding to and found nothing but warmth. "So, marriage?"
Rebecca's smile dimmed slightly. "We know it's not official. But it could be all-"
"All that you need." Harry changed the path she was going down. He couldn't bear to see her think of such horrible things when minutes earlier she had been nearly luminescent with joy. "Who needs a piece of paper anyway? All you need is a hyphen, right? Write it in. I'd like to see what happens to whoever tries to stop you."
"He-" Rebecca bit her lip and tried to keep her emotion in check. "He wants our name, too."
"Potter-Weasleys or Weasley-Potters then?" Harry was a little surprised, but not overwhelmingly so. Fred's devotion had been as unquestionable as anything.
"You've grown a lot, you know." Rebecca kissed Harry's cheek before the dance went around again. "I remember when you had your knickers in a knot because you thought we'd-"
"I remember." Harry laughed. "That seems like a million years ago."
"Potter-Weasleys, if you must know." The song ended and another began, though Rebecca stepped back and let go of Harry's hand. "Wrong person you should be dancing with, Harry. Don't forget your big boy trousers."
Harry found Ginny and Rebecca found Fred seated with Bill and Fleur in the area the guests had avoided to only allow family inside.
Rebecca greeted Fleur and popped a French Fancy from the bowl on the table into her mouth. "Comment ça-va, madam?" (How are you, mrs?)
Fleur laughed as she always did at the wonder of the translating sweets. "Très bien! Mais, j'écoute un pièce d'info qu'est qu'il avait deux mariages cet nuit..." (Very well! But, I heard a piece of information that there were two marriages tonight...)
Rebecca couldn't think of anything to say big enough for her gratitude and she could feel the candy wearing away. "Merci, pour votre gentillesse." (Thank you for your kindness.)
Fleur grabbed Bill's hand and smiled up at him. "That's what family's for."
Fred pulled a chair out at the table behind the newly-weds for Rebecca and sat beside her with an arm around her shoulders. He was contently observing the party in front of them: Sirius had sobered Remus up enough to keep him happy for tomorrow but not sober enough to not dance with him. Remus was close enough to the edge of the dance floor to be able to say he wasn't technically dancing, but Sirius was just happy to have him there at all.
Harry and Ginny were with George and Cedric on the opposite side of the tent, snacks and drinks between them as they talked happily. Charlie was near Tonks, Molly and Arthur close to them.
Fred glanced down to Rebecca and was surprised to find her studying him intently. "What?" He wiped at his mouth. "More chocolate?"
Rebecca giggled and scooted even closer to him, but still didn't find it to be enough. She moved over so that she sat on his lap. "No, no more chocolate though I did say that you ate that cake and I remember someone saying that they didn't."
"I didn't eat that cake!" Fred scrunched his nose up. "It crackled when we picked it up!"
"Then the chocolate on your collar came from another cake?"
"You know," Fred changed the subject. "Kisses are supposed to help your memory."
Bill turned to Fleur. They had both been listening to the conversation behind them nosily. "Did you know that, Fleur?"
"I did not, William!"
"Maybe we forgot!" Bill laughed and kissed her before they stood and went off to converse with their guests once more.
Fred kissed Rebecca after they were gone. "Look at that!" He widened his eyes. "I remember?"
"Eating that cake?" Rebecca shuddered. "I'm sorry then."
"Oh no, I was serious about not eating that." Fred laid his head against her chest and held her closer. "I remembered that I love you."
Rebecca looked down at him and ran her hand over his hair, traced her finger down his jaw. "I love you."
And that's how they were when the world exploded.
Harry had finished dancing with Ginny and excused himself to find Hermione, wanting to ensure that she knew of the development between Fred and Rebecca and also to offer a dance with her--no matter the fact that a dance with Harry was nearly a punishment. Ron and Hermione had just come into his view when the white light lowered itself into the middle of the wedding's full-swing sounds.
A lynx patronus formed out of the illuminated orb and spoke its message loud enough so that all in attendance could hear. "The Ministry has fallen." Kingsley's voice sounded. "The Minister of Magic is dead. They are coming." His voice dropped to a whisper and Rebecca wasn't sure she wanted to know why. "They are coming."
Fred was on his feet instantly, setting Rebecca on her feet in front of him and grabbing her by the shoulders firmly. "You are going to be fine, okay? You're going to go an do what you need to and then you're going to come back to me." Then he pulled her into a hug. "Be safe."
Rebecca nodded and tried to step away from him, to leave his arms.
"Rebecca!" Harry gasped, running up behind them. "We have to-"
Fred bent down and kissed her before being the one to take a step back. "I love you."
"I love you more." Rebecca took a step towards Harry and looked back to him. "I'll be as safe as you are."
Rebecca followed Harry to where Molly was trying to direct Hermione and Ron off to the evacuation organising. "It's time." Rebecca shook her head when Molly tried to start a discussion. "We have to go. I"m sorry."
"Tell dad that I love him." Ron added, standing behind Harry and Rebecca as proof that he was a part of their scheme. "Tell everyone."
Rebecca repeated his wish on her behalf and Hermione returned from her seat with the bag she had been carrying. She had just laid her hand on Harry and Rebecca's shoulders--Ron's hand having been firmly held by Rebecca's, when the first wave of Death Eaters arrived.
The guests began to disapparate in mass quantities and the Death Eaters tried to gather up the stragglers underneath the top of the tent that had been lit on fire. Sirius and Remus fought side by side and, when Harry moved to defend Ginny, threw him back to the group that they knew would be leaving. "GO!" Sirius roared, his wand constantly in motion to send a spell of counterspell. "GO!"
Harry returned to Hermione's side and found them plunged into a different kind of madness.
Rebecca was the only person to react to the headlights that bared down on them, throwing her arms out wide enough to encompass Hermione on one side and Ron with the other, to shove them back onto the sidewalk before the double-decker bus smashed them all flat.
The streets were filled with muggles of all ages, heading in all directions. The sides of the buildings were covered in screens and adverts flashing. Rebecca walked alongside Harry and Hermione did Ron, hoping to blend into the walking traffic in case anyone had managed to follow their exit. Hermione maneuvered she and Ron so that she was leading and directed them into an even more crowded street.
"Where are we?" Ron asked as soon as one's own thoughts could be heard. Nothing around them was familiar, not in the slightest.
"Shaftesbury Avenue." Hermione said. "I used to come to the theatre here...with mum and dad. I don't know why I came here. It just popped into my head."
"It's brilliant!" Rebecca looked around in a daze. She had never been in Muggle London at night and the lights were as blinding as the noise was deafening. "You couldn't find anyone in this mess if you tried."
Hermione turned to the left as she was able and marched them down an alley. She only stopped when a minor turn had appeared to give them a modicum of privacy. "We need to change." Hermione reached into the bag she had had on her hip for days and was able to fit her arm up to her elbow with ease.
"How the bloody-" Rebecca reached under the bag to see if she could feel Hermione's arm.
"Undetectable extension charm." Hermione answered before thrusting a change of clothes into Rebecca's hand. Then she did the same with Harry, then Ron.
Ron looked at the clothes in disbelief. "You're amazing. You are!"
Hermione smiled cheekily, ready to return his own words. "Always the tone of surprise." She was still digging around for her change of clothes and knocked exactly what she had been trying to avoid.
Harry eyed the bag uncertainly at the clamour of many, many things falling and crashing.
Hermione sighed. "That'll be the books."
Harry and Ron began to strip down immediately, discarding their dress clothes into the cleanest section of alley they could. Rebecca tried her best, but couldn't reach the zipper of her dress. Hermione reached forward to help and noticed the new addition to her finger.
"What's this?"
Rebecca slipped out of her dress and began to change without shame. "My hand?" She tried to feign innocence before shaking her head. She wasn't able to hide the smile that spread across her face; she wouldn't have been able to no matter how hard she tried. "Desperate times, desperate measures, right?"
Hermione grinned and changed as Rebecca was, beginning to ask follow up questions.
Rebecca's unease with the situation never really appeared, not as it would have years before. Not at the wave of questions and not at their changing. Having been subject to Fred's compliments and reassurances for so long had left her without the mortification she had expected of herself. But, with Fred's building up, it didn't matter to her to be changing in an alley with her best friend, brother, and already-considered-brother. It only gave her one more thing to try and remember to thank Fred for.
The conversation quickly shifted to where they should go next, where they thought they would be safe enough to have a more at-length discussion.
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"Do you think we should go back?" Harry asked in the coffee shop they ended up in. "All those people at the wedding, they might need help."
"We'd only make it worse." Rebecca lowered her voice as the girl working started walking to their table. "They're after us, after all."
"Coffee?" The girl asked.
"A cappuccino, please." Hermione looked to Rebecca and Ron and found matching clueless expressions. "They'll have the same."
Harry nodded. "Me, too."
The girl scribbled onto her pad of paper and snapped her gum. "Four cappuccinos? You got it. Eat in or takeaway?"
"In, please."
Ron put his hands through his hair and lowered his eyes once they were alone again. "Where do we go from here? Leaky Cauldron?"
Harry shook his head. "Too dangerous. If Voldemort really has taken over the Ministry, then none of the old places are safe."
Hermione agreed. "Everyone from the wedding will have gone underground, into hiding."
"My backpack with everything!" Harry gasped. "I left it at the Burrow!"
The bell on the door jingled as it opened and closed.
Rebecca's hands shot to her mouth. "My god, mine too. I had things we'll n-" Hermione set her bag on the table and patted it, trying to ease them both. "You're joking!" Rebecca let out a breath of relief. "Merlin, I'll just have a heart attack while you hold onto things like that." Her smile showed that she was really nothing but thankful.
"I've had the essentials packed for days, never-"
"GET DOWN!" Harry shoved Rebecca off her chair and onto the floor beside their table. The two men waiting at the counter for the girl to take their orders had just taken their wands out.
One man turned and started to send curses at the group of four while the other focused more on blocking the exit with overturned tables. The sound of smashed dishes filled the little cafe.
Harry caught a jinx on the shoulder and was sent spinning through the air until the door caught him with a painful sounding thud. Rebecca and Hermione had already begin exchanging attacks and one of the men was paralysed while the other was knocked unconscious. Ron helped Harry hobble over to where the girls were stood over the fallen Death Eaters.
"This one's Rowle." Harry muttered, pointing at the one paralysed. "He was on the Astronomy Tower the night Snape killed Dumbledore."
Rebecca's trainers crunched on the glass of the shattered case to look over the other one. "Who's this one then?"
"Dolohov, yeah?" Ron stared down at him. "Recognise him from the wanted posters. They did a good job, better than most. Some never get the nose right." Ron raised his wand and leveled it with Dolohov's head. "They'd kill us if it was the other way around."
Hermione's head shot up. "Ron!"
"What if he did Mad-Eye?" Ron asked, still holding his wand up.
"If we kill them, they'll know we were here." Harry placated, making eye contact with Rebecca that reassured her that the idea wasn't actually considered. As soon as the words had left his mouth, Rebecca looked to her twin with such incredulity that reassurance was necessary. "It's better if we wipe their memories."
Ron was pulled away from the man by Rebecca who spoke to Hermione as they passed. "You're the best at memory spells, always have been." Rebecca brought Ron to the area behind the counter and told him to find a bin bag while she began to pick the undestroyed foods and set them in a pile.
The spell caught in Hermione's throat before she could cast it. The last time she had, she had made herself effectively parentless. "Obliviate." Eventually, the spell came--it was needed for the mission.
Harry crouched down and put the pile into the bag Ron held open, nodding his head in surprised-approval. "This was smart."
Rebecca looked around the cafe in case there was anything anywhere else and then shut the bag. "Food will be hard, but we'll manage."
Hermione glanced around the wreckage they were leaving behind. "We're not going to steal it all, will we?"
"It's not really stealing." Rebecca reasoned as they left. "It all would have gone in the rubbish anyway."
Hermione took the lead again. They walked down the street in the crowd as long as it lasted and then separated away down a quieter path.
"How'd they find us?" Rebecca asked. The question had been running through her mind repeatedly. "That's what I don't get."
"Maybe we still have the trace?" Harry offered.
Ron shook his head. "Trace breaks at seventeen, wizarding law."
Hermione's steps faltered as she paused and was bumped back into motion. "Your birthday! We never celebrated it! Ginny and I-" Hermione sighed. "We prepared a cake and everything."
"Chocolate, wasn't it?" Rebecca was thinking about how adamant Fred had been that he hadn't eaten the old cake but still had chocolate on his collar.
"Yes, Fred insisted."
"He 'tested' the batter, too?"
Hermione laughed once. "Yes, repeatedly."
"Yeah, he had it on him." Rebecca stared ahead of them and felt the weight of what they were doing dawn on her for the first time. Ron grabbed her as she stumbled over nothing and held her tightly against his side until she was strong enough to stand on her own again.
"Thank you, Hermione." Harry spoke, wanting their gratitude to be known first. "But considering the fact that we were almost killed by a couple of Death Eaters a few minutes ago..."
"Right." Hermione shook her head. "Perspective."
Rebecca looked around and saw a row of buildings with glass roofs across from a part. "We need to get somewhere safe, somewhere off the streets."
"You alright?" Ron asked quietly, turning himself slightly so that there was a bit of privacy.
Rebecca brought a hand up and wiped her sleeve across her face once, bringing herself back into the present. "I'm fine. We're close to somewhere that'll work, if I'm right." She raised her voice so the others could hear her and then began to guide them. When she paused again, she was on Grimmauld Place. "Wolfstar." Rebecca held her wand up and spoke the codeword so that the building would appear.
Just as it had appeared so miraculously summers earlier, the rowhouses stretched apart to reveal a darker, grimier house between number eleven and thirteen. Once again, Harry was surprised at how much better Rebecca was thinking ahead than he was. Food and now shelter, he hadn't had an idea for either.
Rebecca directed them behind her as she walked up the stairs and, after the door had been closed behind them and the hall light had been turned on, Rebecca raised her wand as a dense fog gathered near the doorway to the kitchen across the house.
Rebecca waited as the fog took form into a wispy form of Dumbledore, and then waited until it had begun to fly towards them with outstretched hands. "Protego!" A shield went up from her wand and the Dumbledore copy hit it before dissipating into nothing.
"What was that all about?" Harry demanded. It was one thing to feel inferior to her, it was another to feel left out of the loop. "How did you know that that would be here?"
"Mad-Eye's idea, originally." Rebecca shrugged the weight of Harry's stare off the best she could. "He wanted to know about how some of our products could be used for home defense, didn't even know that was our newest line."
Harry nodded, understanding and regretting his tone. They--she, Fred, and George--had to have something to do in the weeks they had been at the Burrow while Harry was at the Dursleys; at least it had been constructive.
Rebecca froze as a thump sounded out from across the house. Sirius and Remus no longer lived in Number 12, instead bouncing from place to place with the hope of finding a home--whether that be the rowhouse or not--after the war.
Hermione pointed her wand down the hall as another thump could be heard. "Homenum revelio!" Nothing happened. "We're alone." She said.
Rebecca brought them through the house quickly before they could go to sleep as they wanted to so badly. She directed them into grabbing pillows, blankets, and cushions as they climbed the stairs and then pointed them up the winding stairs to the topmost room with the wall of windows.
"It'll be the easiest to escape from." Rebecca snapped as Ron's complaining reached an apocalyptic level. "If anyone storms the front door, we'll have plenty of time to disapparate before they could get up here."
Harry, once again, kicked himself for not seeing her reasoning beforehand. Sleep went over them all without much of a fight; the day had been emotionally and physically draining.
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The shone into the room early, waking Rebecca with a startling sense of routine from the attic. She reached across her makeshift bed expecting to find Fred's warmth there but her hand laid on nothing but floor and she sat up quickly. Looking around, she remembered where they were.
Rebecca had always been an early riser, it had made life in her before times easier. Even after so long in a real home, she was up earlier than late. Deciding against lying in bed agonising over Fred and the others' safety, Rebecca grabbed her wand and slipped out of the room.
The house was dark as ever and made it so she needed her wand out in front of her with the end blazing. The doors were labelled institutionally, plain font on silver plates. When she found the room that once had been Sirius', she opened it. Rebecca had a hunch.
"Regulus had the real locket at some point, we know that." Rebecca's voice cut through the staleness in the untouched room. Sirius hadn't returned to it in he and Remus' time at Grimmauld, always leaving it for another day; he didn't want to face the memories inside. "And," Rebecca continued to speak to no one. "Now we just need to figure out what he did with it."
Sirius' room was adorned with Gryffindor banners, pennants, and any surface that could was painted red and gold. There were photos of motorcycles pinned up around the room and, behind the door, Rebecca found a section of pinned up photographs. Some had James and Sirius as young boys, and then older adolescents. Remus and Sirius had a few together, older yet.
One picture in particular caught her eye because it was torn down one end so that one person, Wormtail, she assumed, had only a hand left in the frame. James was between Lily and Sirius, his arms wrapped around both neck. Remus stood stiffly at the side, his hand just barely able to be seen in the picture tucked in Sirius'.
Rebecca left the room as it was and closed the door behind her. The locket wasn't inside, just grief and loss.
"I think I found something!" Ron's voice echoed from somewhere nearby. The others had woken early in the new and strange surroundings too. "Down here!"
Hermione and Rebecca found each other before they found the boys, and then entered the hall Harry and Ron stood by a door together.
"Look." Ron motioned to the door's half-loose label before pushing the door open to reveal a clearly ransacked room.
Rebecca moved ahead of Harry and was the first in the room. She had felt such a tether between their godfather's brother and herself after learning that he had been subjected to Wilhomena's prophecy just like she was.
Hermione read the door as she stepped in behind Harry. "Regulus Arcturus Black."
Rebecca looked around the wreckage and felt that the room was permeated with as much loss as Sirius' had been. "We know he had the real locket at one point." She said, her voice hollow as she repeated herself with other ears there to hear her. "Question is, did he actually destroy it."
A thump, just like those they had heard from the night before, sounded out from the hall. Harry marched out of the room with his wand in front of him; he was tired of the mystery noises and the fear that shot through him every time they had happened.
Harry followed the sound to the small, cleaners closet in the hall. The key was still in the peephole. Rebecca grabbed the door knob from underneath Harry's hand and motioned for him to step back instead of trying to open it and hold his wand at the ready.
"One...two...three!" Rebecca mouthed before throwing the door open and catching the little shape that tried to run. "Oh, it's you." She tossed Kreacher back to the doorway to the closet and stood, staring down at him. "You've been spying on us?"
Kreacher shook his head. His eyes flit between the four of them nervously. "Kreacher has been...watching."
"Maybe he knows where the real locket is." Hermione wondered. The little creature in front of them reminded her of all the cruel things he had said about her, but the mission came out on top of her thoughts.
"Have you ever seen this before?" Rebecca reached into her pocket and fished out the fake horcrux. She held it from the chain so that it dangled in front of Kreacher who didn't answer explicitly. How his eyes widened though, how he gasped at the sight. Kreacher had seen the locket before. "Where?" Rebecca demanded.
"Uh-I-it's Master Regulus' locket."
Harry crossed his arms, his wand still in hand threateningly. "But there were two. Where's the other?"
Kreacher let out a groan. "Kreacher doesn't know where the other locket is."
Rebecca stepped forward angrily at the clear half-truth. Worried about what she was going to do, as well as the cloud over her expression, Hermione interrupted. "But did you ever see it? Was it in the house?"
Kreacher turned on Hermione, raising his voice. "You filthy Mudblood! Death Eaters are coming-"
Ron had a broomhandle in hand and was swinging for the house elf in seconds, Hermione turned to try and catch his arm and couldn't stop him. Harry jumped in before anything could happen to Kreacher, as dead house elf would be even less help.
Rebecca grabbed Kreacher by the straps of his pillowcase dungarees and held him up against the wall. "The locket, Kreacher. Don't test me."
"It was here!" Kreacher cried out. "It was in this house. An object most evil!" Ron froze at the admission.
"When?" Rebecca lessened the force that she held him against the wall, but still left him hanging.
"Before Master Regulus-" The house elf choked back a sob and the emotion startled Rebecca. She hadn't thought he had any. Rebecca let his feet rest back on the ground and crouched in front of him, awkwardly patting his shoulder until he had composed himself enough to continue. "Before Master Regulus...died, he ordered Kreacher to destroy it. No matter how hard Kreacher tried, Kreacher failed his master."
"No, Kreacher." Rebecca shook her head. "You didn't fail him."
Harry pulled Rebecca back up to her feet beside him. "Where is it now?" Kreacher shook his head. "Did someone take it?" Harry elaborated.
"He came in the night." Kreacher muttered. "He took many things, including the locket."
"Who, Kreacher?" Rebecca asked as seriously as Harry had, but without the imminent threat of violence from before. The house elf she had always seen as a heartless, hateful being was so clearly grieving for Regulus and this brought him into a new light for her. Kreacher had other feelings than hate because grief can only come from love. "We need to know."
"Mundungus." Kreacher spat the name like a curse. "Mundungus Fletcher."
Harry looked at Kreacher and sighed. "Find him. Do you understand me?"
Kreacher acknowledged the order, but looked to Rebecca for the dismissal. Kreacher had seen something in her that reminded her of Regulus, something that screamed of responsibility that had landed on her without want.
"We have to find him, Kreacher." Rebecca nodded her head once and looked to the rest of them. "He'll do it."
"Kreacher will?" Kreacher asked drily.
"Yes, Kreacher will." Rebecca answered. "I know you will because you want Regulus' death to be answered for; you want justice for Regulus."
Kreacher stared at Rebecca and then apparated away without another word. The four of them were left to pick through the bag of smashed bakery goods from the diner the night before and try and form a plan.
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Ginny slammed the compartment door shut behind her to block off any other students from accessing the space she marked as her own to sulk in. Not that the space was needed, Ginny thought ruefully. There had hardly been enough first years boarding the train for a class, minimal search was needed for solitude.
The train was the emptiest Ginny had ever seen it.
Neville and Luna rapped on the door, opening it despite the fact that Ginny ignored it. "Come, Ginevra." Luna said softly. Luna was the only person who ever got away with calling Ginny that. "Sit with friends, it helps."
Ginny sat a stubborn moment more, but followed the others to the open-aired tables at the end of the train. Nigel waved to Ginny from his table where he was sat with Louis and Yara, but he made no move to leave their serious-looking conversation.
Neville slid into the booth further so Ginny could sit with them and focused on the countryside blurring past them. "No word then?" Neville didn't want anyone looking at them to be able to read his lips.
"Not a one." Ginny snapped angrily. "I didn't mean it like that, I know you-"
"We know." Luna spoke again without looking up from her upside down copy of the Quibbler. "We take no offence."
The train's brakes squealed as it stopped hours before they would get to their destination. The Hogwarts' Express was boarded by a line of Death Eaters in black robes, branching off from their single-file entrance to search every compartment.
At the end of the train, they found a scowling seventh year with his arms crossed and his feet planted firmly. "They're not here, losers." Neville's glare grew stronger as the Death Eater entered.
"And if they were," Nigel added in, bringing the attention away from the shaking second year the Death Eater had narrowed his sights on. "You'd never see them." Nigel threw a fragment of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder on the floor and the train was launched into chaos.
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"I bring souvenirs." Remus spoke from Sirius' side inside the entrance of Grimmauld Place that afternoon. "I disagree with them, but someone insisted."
Sirius slapped the posters on the table he led them to. Undesirables NO. 1: Harry Potter and Rebecca Potter, was printed clearly along the bottom while images of Harry and Rebecca stared out from the center.
"I insist and I edit." Sirius conjured a marker to the table and scribbled Weasley after Rebecca's name. "Hyphen, yeah?" They all found a moment of laughter at how she blushed and nodded before Sirius wrote it in. "Better." He nodded, proudly.
"What are you guys doing here?" Harry asked through his fading chuckles. "Did everyone-"
"Everyone made it out safely." Remus said, turning back to business. "Have you seen yet? New Minister, clearly a pawn. Just announced all Ministry workers will submit themselves for evaluation."
"Arthur?" Rebecca asked. Ron grabbed onto the chair in front of him with white knuckles.
"He's fine, well prepared." Sirius winced. "Everyone's been moved to safe houses but I can't tell you where."
"We don't want to know." Harry shook his head. "It could compromise them."
"You're right." Remus' pride was evident.
Hours later, dinner was being put together by Sirius and Remus while the other four whittled away at the time waiting for Kreacher to return. Harry sat on a couch near the out-of-tune piano Hermione and Ron were sat at. He winced as Ron roughly pecked out the pattern Hermione had shown him, the notes chiming out sharply at his stone touch.
"It's a little gentler!" Hermione laughed and held his hand over his. "Like this."
Ron studied Hermione's face as she softly made the piano sing. Where the notes shouted out from under his fingers, the keys sang under Hermione's.
Hermione glanced up at the weight of his stare and took her hand away from his. "You try now."
Ron put his hand back to the ivories and played the melody exactly how he had the first time.
Harry looked over to where Rebecca had her legs pulled up under her in a chair on the far side of the room. Though the rendering Dumbledore had left her was in her hands, her attention was miles away. The rendering was abandoned for her wand at the thump coming from the hall and suddenly, Harry found there was no more time to be observant.
Kreacher was on Mundungus Fletcher's back with the figure of another house elf hooked on the man's leg hidden in the shadows.
"Harry Potter!" Dobby cried out, stepping into the light. "So long, it's been!"
Mundungus fell forward with a clatter and a grunt while Kreacher picked up the very broomstick Ron had tried to beat him with earlier and hit Mundungus roughly. "Kreacher, as requested," he growled and raised his hand to hit the man again. "Brings the thief."
Mundungus' wand shot out from his pocket as Hermione cast it away and caught it in the air. Mundungus sneered up at them, still on his knees. "What you playin' at? Settin' a pair of bleedin' house elves on me?"
Dobby hopped up onto the table and Rebecca motioned for Mundungus to stand and follow. "How are you, Dobby?" She asked him.
"Dobby is working, Rebecca!" Doby smiled up at them. "Dobby was only trying to help. Dobby saw Kreacher in Diagon Alley which Dobby thought was curious." A triangle formed around Mundungus with Hermione, Harry, and Ron at the points. Rebecca kept her attention on Dobby's retelling of how he managed to find himself in Grimmauld Place. "Then Dobby heard Kreacher say Potter! Dobby knows two Potters, both good! Dobby had to help then, with the thief-"
"I'm no thief!" Mundungus snapped. "You foul little git!" The short, round man made a move to strike Dobby, but four hands in the room going to their wands stopped him. "I'm a purveyor of rare and wondrous objects."
Sirius threw open the window that looked from the kitchen to the dining room. "You're a thief, Dung. Everyone knows it." He had his wand tucked into the messy bun on his head to cook, but the joining of the conversation made Mundungus know that it would be another wand against him if he tried anything.
Dobby ran forward and jumped onto the counter to greet Sirius and Remus. Remus smiled down at the eager house elf and leaned closer to check out his shoes. "Smart trainers, Dobby. Very smart, indeed."
Mundungus, now cornered by the children and under the subtle threat of Remus and Sirius who continued to listen, spoke louder. "Listen, I-I panicked that night! Can I help it if Mad-Eye fell off his broom?!"
Ron stepped forward and jutted his wand towards Mundungus' throat. "Tell the truth. When you turned this place over, did you find a locket like this one?"
Rebecca held the fake out and saw the recognition flash across Mundungus' face. "He did!"
"Where is it?" Harry demanded.
"Is it valuable?" Mundungus asked before shaking his head. "Practically gave it away. There I was, flogging me wares in Diagon Alley when some Ministry hag asks for me licence! Said she's minded to lock me up--nearly did, too." He looked at the copy of the locket again, sensing the potential sale he had lost out on. "That is, if she hadn'a taken a fancy to that necklace. Gaudy witch, pink from head to toe."
Rebecca's hand fell to her side with the locket held all the tighter. "No."
"Oh yeah, she was a right terror! Kept going on like cough, cough." Mundungus squeaked a little throat clearing cough that could only belong to one person.
"The pink demon." Rebecca breathed.
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