Chapter 13
It was worth noting that Victoire and Dominique had examined all the other options long enough to dismiss them before they decided that going to break into the old Yaxley manor was the best course of action.
“Can I explain why this is a bad idea now?” MJ asked. They were sitting in the Room of Requirement again, but their numbers had decreased. Rose had put her foot down on Hugo being involved, and MJ had raised an eyebrow at Jamie and told him she didn’t want to risk her best chaser. Victoire had no idea if she meant that or not, but it had the benefit of not having Victoire’s most reckless cousin along, so she’d take it. Eli and Freddie were off distracting the general Hogwarts population from the absence of the Weasleys for the second time in a week. After the first time Victoire had been asked three times if they were finally scheming to kill the Sinclairs, not to mention the other ten people who’d asked her what trouble her cousins were getting into now. Never mind that she and MJ had had a civil, if stilted, conversation in public.
“No,” Lucy and Dominique spoke in unison. Lucy looked like she’d already heard the list. Victoire knew Dominique had made her own list, and was still trying to convince herself this was a good idea.
“I’m telling you anyway.” MJ declared. Lucy sighed.
“You’re against telling the aurors because you don’t trust them, you don’t like telling Uncle Charlie things, and now you’re against this. I almost feel like you don’t want to find Mum and Dad, MJ.” Lucy raised a brow at her sister, and grinned as MJ spluttered. Lucy had some sass, Victoire had learned, and had no qualms about using it against her older sister.
“You know that’s not it!” MJ exclaimed. “Just, this is super unsafe.”
“So was running a secret organization during the war, we came by these instincts honestly.” Lucy deadpanned. MJ glared at her.
“And,” She added, dramatically. Victoire wondered if all Weasleys had the flair for the dramatics. The stories her father told made it seem like Uncle Percy didn’t, but upon further reflection he stormed out and didn’t speak to his family for twenty years because of a girl and a job so was probably a Weasley thing. Darn. “I am the only one of age here,” MJ glanced at Victoire. “Unless your birthday passed while I wasn’t paying attention?”
“Not until May,” Victoire confirmed. MJ continued.
“So I could technically be convicted of, like, child endangerment if one of you gets hurt.”
“What if we sign a waiver?” Georgie wondered. He was the only one of the three main culprits here, but had promised to update them later. Victoire kind of hoped he left to update them sooner rather than later, because he was currently lying on the floor doodling battle plans like he was five. Fortunately, Rose shushed him.
“That would never work, you’re underage.” She said, as if she too wasn’t underage. “You’re forgetting one thing, MJ.”
“What’s that?”
“Our parents pulled this all the time, and they never got in trouble for it. If they start giving you a hard time just pull Grandmum in. She’ll be pissed we did something stupid, but she’ll never be pissed we did it with family.”
“That’s like, her number one rule.” Georgie cut in. “Don’t do anything stupid, but if you do, don’t bring anyone else into it. Keep it in the family.”
“That is so not Grandmum’s number one rule,” Dominique said. Victoire nodded in agreement. Lucy sighed.
“Can we get back on topic please?” She asked, strained. “When do you want to do this fun break in?”
“Funny story,” Victoire said, sharing a look with Dominique. They’d had trouble with coming up with a good way to break this to a Sinclairs, and so Victoire had decided to just do it. “Tonight.”
MJ’s face dropped. “No way,” Victoire held up a hand before she could continue her protest.
“You and Lucy were both scheduled for patrol tonight, so we have until 1am.” She explained. “It’s 7pm now, who knows when we’ll get that chance again.”
“Next week,” MJ told her. “That was Uncle Charlie’s compromise.”
“Do you want to wait until next week to find your parents?” Victoire asked. MJ bit her lip. “Look, I got Teddy and Aisha to cover you two tonight. We can check out Yaxley manor. Either there will be nothing there, and so we come back to Hogwarts before you’re picked up, or there is something there, and we call the aurors, and you’re back at Hogwarts before you’re picked up. Piece of cake.”
“There are so many logical flaws that I don’t know where to start,” MJ said flatly.
“I’m in.” Lucy interrupted. MJ turned to gape at her sister. “You can choose to not go, but I’m going.”
Victoire shared a smile with Dominique. MJ would go if Lucy did. Sure enough, a few seconds later MJ recovered her voice. “I’m not letting you go alone,” She said, as if it was obvious. And it was, she wouldn’t even let her sister enter the custody of their uncle alone. “When do we leave then?”
“Right now,” Victoire said. “Georgie, you can come with or go find Eli and Freddie, but we need them to keep running a distraction.” That was the other reason Victoire wanted to go right now, if all three of the menaces came it would get messy.
“I’m coming with,” Georgie rose with the rest of them, discarding his ‘battle plans’. “They’ll forgive me.”
“So what,” MJ said, following them outside of the Room of Requirement. “The seven of us are just going to floo there?”
“Don’t be silly,” Victoire turned to face her. “We’re flying.”
“Flying.” MJ said. “To Yaxley manor. And where, pray tell, is that?”
“Funny story actually,” Victoire replied. “Dom looked it up, the only one they still have is in Scotland. Vacation manor. The other was seized by the ministry after the war.”
“Rich bigots with multiple properties,” MJ muttered. She looked at the ceiling, and then at the floor before she spoke again. “Fine. How far from here is it?”
“About an hour as the crow flies.” Victoire handed MJ one of the brooms she’d had Georgie grab from their dorms and the quidditch storage closet and set up in a side closet. “And we’re faster than crows, on these.”
“I’ve added a reason why this is an awful idea to my list. I’ll tell you it on the way.” But MJ accepted the broom without further protest, so Victoire was pretty sure she was joking.
“And!” MJ had been going since they’d jumped out of the window in the hallway they’d been in, to Lucy’s horror. Turns out, she was afraid of heights. So was Rose. Another thing Victoire was beginning to wonder if it was genetic. “I don’t know about your parents, but Lucy and I will be grounded until we’re grandparents if we get caught doing this.”
Rose hummed as she landed. “Mum and Dad will probably be mad, but every time they try to yell at me for something, I just bring up something from their schooldays and they give up. Maybe try that with Department 14?”
Lucy shook her head. She glanced around, then placed her broom carefully against the outer wall of the garden. “That won’t work. Nice thought though.” She turned to gaze up at the dilapidated building in front of them. “This is it?”
“Yes,” Victoire said, joining her. “Were you expecting something else?”
“Something more opulent, actually.” Lucy glanced at MJ, who nodded her agreement.
“It’s been abandoned for twenty years.” Dominique noted. “But it doesn’t look like that’s the case anymore.” She pointed to the third story, where a pinprick of light could be seen in the window. A candle, maybe. Victoire swallowed, and suddenly agreed with MJ’s list on why this was a bad idea. To her surprise, MJ was the one to speak after that.
“Right, we need a lookout. Slash somebody to call the aurors when we send up the signal.”
“I’ll do it,” Georgie volunteered, not taking his eyes off the light in the window. “Um, what’s the signal?”
“Either someone comes tearing out screaming, you receive a patronus, or something explodes.” MJ replied. “Really, any sign of struggle or life from that building, outside of us.”
“Okay,” Georgie said. “I can do that.”
“Thanks George.” Victoire patted him on the shoulder as the girls padded past him. “We’ll be in and out, quick as can be.” She followed her sister and cousins into the building, Rose leading the way. They slipped in a side entrance, and quietly made their way through the darkened halls.
“Where d’you think they’d be?” Rose asked. “Dungeons, or upstairs?”
Lucy bit her lip. “This whole place is a dungeon,” She murmured back. “I say we go to where the light is.”
Dominique nodded in agreement. “Dungeons will be dank, and probably unlivable by this point.” She added. “I think the main and upper floors will be in the best shape, as long as we avoid the south half of the building.” Victoire thought back to recall the south half of the building actually crumbling.
“Let’s go upstairs,” Victoire agreed, before freezing. There were voices, somewhere in the building. Distant, but still close enough that they could be heard. She and MJ shared a look. “Your call, MJ.” She said softly. “We can go check it out or give Georgie the signal.”
MJ rolled her shoulders back. “Might just be the owners taking it back,” She replied, even softer. “I think we’re legally obliged to check it out before involving law enforcement. Make sure we’re not wasting their time with something actually legal.” Victoire grinned despite herself. She knew they were related.
“Off we go then,” Dominique led the way towards the voices. “Rosie, in the back.”
“What, why?”
“Because you’re thirteen and lucky we let you come along,” Dominique replied.
“You’re fourteen!”
“Right, but my sister planned this. Also I started leading the way.”
Victoire rolled her eyes. “Rose, Dom, you’re in the middle. Lucy, you take the back. MJ and I will be upfront.” There were soft protests, but everyone did as Victoire said. She shared another look with MJ. “Ready?”
“No. Let’s do it anyway.” MJ started down the hall without waiting for a response, leaving the others to catch up. They slowly got closer and closer to where the voices were, and Victoire began to realize it was people arguing. She couldn’t make out any of the words though, and right when she was getting close, MJ stopped.
“Let’s go upstairs,” She said suddenly. Victoire frowned.
“Those voices are definitely on this level,” She pointed out. Dominique shook her head.
“Yes, but we’ll be able to spy better. If this is a proper pureblood home, and those voices coming from where I think they are is, that’s the ballroom, or main room, or whatever they call it. There will be a balcony overlooking it.” She glanced at Rose. “Higher ground gives us the best ability to defend ourselves.”
MJ nodded in agreement, before pulling out her wand. “Expecto Patronum.” She cast her spell softly. A fully formed weasel appeared, and Victoire had a moment where she wasn’t sure she could stifle her laughter. “Go tell Georgie to call the aurors.” MJ ignored Victoire, probably for the best. “Tell them there’s people here and they aren’t happy about it. Try to make it anonymous, hide when they get here.” The weasel shot off, and MJ was about to slip her wand away, before she paused.
“I’ve got a really awful idea.” She told them. Victoire blinked.
“That’s all we’ve got here,” She said. “What is it?”
“I could try summoning my parents’ wands.” MJ said. “Odds are good they’re being kept in a random room somewhere in here, they’re definitely not on them.”
“And what if you’re wrong and they’re on the person who kidnapped them?” Lucy shot back, her voice low. MJ shrugged.
“We’d have a few seconds head start to start running.” She replied. Victoire snorted. “I won’t do it if you think it’s a bad idea.”
“It’s not a good one,” Dominique said. “But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Rose? Vic?”
Rose sighed. “I say go for it. Worst that happens is we get caught, aurors are already on their war.”
Victoire made eye contact with MJ. “Do it.” She said, firmly. MJ nodded, and cast the accio. A few moments later, two wands came flying out a side room. The voices did not pause or change in the slightest. MJ caught the wands, and swallowed as she stared at them.
“They’re definitely here, or they were.” She muttered, turning the wands over in her hand. “These are 100% Mum and Dad’s.”
“Are the rest here?” Lucy asked, and then cast her own accio without waiting for an answer. “Accio Aunt Penny, Aunt Liza, Uncle Oliver, Uncle Ben, and Aunt Gwen’s wands.” Victoire ducked as those five came flying out of the same room the others did.
“No Foxx’s?” Rose asked. MJ and Lucy shared a look.
“No.” MJ replied, and said nothing else. She started towards a hole in the ceiling. “Give me a boost,” She ordered no one in particular.
Victoire replied by casting a levicorpus, and lifting the girl up to the second floor. From there, MJ levitated all of them up. She and Lucy pocketed their parent’s and their parent’s friend’s wands, and the five of them hurried down the hallway. Dominique was obviously right about the balcony, because the voices got more muffled, but continued to grow stronger as they headed in the same direction. Soon, Victoire could make out full words, and began to piece together the conversation.
“Wait,” MJ whispered as the came to a corner. “Wait here,” She cast a quick disillusionment charm on herself and then swept around the corner, returning a few moments later. “The balcony is right there,” She informed them, her voice impossibly low. “Cast a disillusionment, it’s pretty open.”
The girls all did so, and then they slipped around the corner, and piled quietly, very quietly, onto the balcony. Victoire blinked as her eyes adjusted to the light, and she took in the scene in the room below her.
The voices seemed to mainly come from three people, although there were twelve in the room. The first was the man she recognized from Rose’s research as Corban Yaxley Jr, while the second and third were both female. One of them was Annie Foxx, she was the only one untied other than Yaxley. The rest of the people were bound to columns in the room. That didn’t stop one woman from still speaking, and wow, that had to be MJ and Lucy’s mom. Never mind the fact that she looked just like them, same dark skin and curly hair, but she held herself like her daughters did, even while tied up. Beside her was a red-headed man who could only be Victoire’s missing uncle, but he looked out of it, with a reddening bandage tied around his head. The other people reported missing, Oliver Wood, Ben Proudfoot, Gwen Olson, Erik Foxx, Penelope Clearwater, Marcus Flint, and Liza Ouray-Flint were scattered across the rest of the room, also tied to columns. None were as close together as Percy and Audrey were.
“Please, Annie, if you have any heart at all at least look at him.” It took Victoire a moment, but she realized the person speaking was Audrey Sinclair. “He’s lost too much blood, if you’re telling the truth and don’t want any deaths you need to take a look.”
Annie folded her arms and glared at Audrey. “I’ve already checked him out, he’ll be fine, I know your tricks.” She snapped.
“Besides,” Yaxley spoke. “It isn’t her call.”
“Oh, for Merlin’s sake.” Oliver Wood spoke next, shifting in his bonds. From her viewpoint, Victoire could tell he had almost sawed himself loose. “Can you just tell us what you want from us, it’s been over a month.”
“Revenge.” Yaxley said. Annie shifted. “I want revenge for what you did to my father.”
Uncle Percy stirred, and Victoire heard Lucy breathe a sigh of relief. “To be fair,” He spoke, and Victoire winced, his voice sounded like it’s been through a meat grinder. “We didn’t do anything to your father.”
“You turned him into a shellfish!” Yaxley bellowed suddenly, making the spies on the balcony jump. Victoire watched as Audrey’s eyes shot to them, she must’ve seen something. Victoire swore in her head. Her disillusionment charm wasn’t strong, she knew that, and she suspected the only one with a good handle on it was MJ. The five girls froze as Audrey deliberately moved her vision away from them to avoid suspicion, but Victoire was sure the damage was done. “And then you left documents detailing everything he did during the war. It was your actions, Percy Weasley, that put my father in prison, and you’re the reason he died there.”
Percy shifted again, and Victoire felt a thrill of pride as he stared the man threatening him full in the face. Weasley family trait, she was sure. “It was,” He drawled, “your father’s own actions that put him there. As for his death, I am deeply sorry, but he did kill a lot of people.”
“Percy,” Victoire heard Audrey mutter, and she was briefly surprised at how well she could hear her from where she was crouching. “Maybe we don’t piss off the man who’s decided on a whim to hold us captive for three months.”
Uncle Percy didn’t answer his wife, instead choosing to maintain eye contact with Yaxley, who appeared to be foaming at the mouth.
“If I didn’t have other plans, you’d be dead right now, Weasley.” Yaxley sneered. Percy rolled his eyes, and look, that must be where MJ got it from!
“It’s Sinclair.” He started. “And what, pray tell, are these plans? And could we possibly get a move on? It’s my daughter’s seventh year, and I’d rather not miss all of it.”
“We’re not taking suggestions from you, Percy.” Annie spoke. Percy sighed.
“Can we make it to her graduation, at least?” He asked hopefully. “What if we did a little situation where you let us go if we promised really nicely to come back.” Annie sneered, but Yaxley answered.
“No, because there will be no graduation.” Yaxley spread his hands. “You want to know my grand plan, Percy Sinclair? Here it is: after my father’s death earlier this year, I nearly went mad with grief. I knew I had to get back at you, but I didn’t know how. No one knew where you were after all. But then I went digging, and I found your connection to this bunch, and they led me straight to you. Well, Marcus did, and Annie certainly helped after a bit of… persuasion.”
Marcus Flint muttered what Victoire was fairly certain was a swear word, but she couldn’t tell. MJ gasped as she put the dots together. Yaxley ignored all these things, or, ignored the first one and hopefully wasn’t aware of the second. “And so I grabbed you, with full intentions to kill you, but then I saw how your little group responded, and realized you weren’t the only ones to blame. So I grabbed a few more of you, and a few more, and then I fell in love with the way Wizarding Britain was responding to it. You all made the front page by the way. Eventually, Annie told me I needed to stop, she was going to the aurors, this wasn’t what we agreed upon. So I grabbed her and Erik too, just to make her come around. And, full disclosure, what we agreed upon was your death, but I got too caught up in the power, and then I wanted to find a way to make you hurt like I did.” Yaxley grinned as he stalked over to Uncle Percy, who raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him. “But I couldn’t go after your father like you did mine,, you hadn’t spoken to him in twenty years. So I decided to go after your daughters.”
“My daughters,” Percy said, ignoring his wife as she started wiggling and hissing threats at Yaxley. “Who are very clever, and at Hogwarts, the safest place for them right now?”
“Yes, it was a problem when no-one told the aurors about your secret group, or about you two missing” Yaxley nodded at Percy and Audrey, “ it certainly made it more difficult to grab the girls when they reported it. Wish I’d done it that first night, when Annie stunned your youngest, but that wasn’t the plan back then, so alas. No, it started looking promising earlier this week, when Ms. Emilie Ellis reported you missing, and the aurors, including your younger brother, programmed a portkey for them. It was simple for Annie to slip into the ministry today, disillusioned of course, and change the destination of the portkey. But it wasn’t necessary, was it?”
“What?” Percy said, clearly caught off guard. Victoire’s eyes widened in alarm as Yaxley swung around the face the balcony. “Oh, merlin.”
“Might as well come out now, ladies! The wards alerted me as soon as you entered the property!” Yaxley grinned a yellow grin. “Reckless Sinclairs.”
MJ sighed, and then removed hers and Lucy’s charms. Victoire hissed in protest, and she heard Audrey Sinclair start yelling from down below. MJ made eye contact with Victoire.
“They don’t know about you,” MJ said lowly. “Stay put. Don’t reveal yourselves until we need help.” She stood, pulling Lucy up with her until they were more visible, and Victoire heard the reactions from everyone below. “You said this will take us down there?” MJ called down, holding up the portkey.
Yaxley frowned. “Well, yes.” He replied, clearly off guard. “But you won’t need it now. You’re already in the building”
MJ shrugged, placed Lucy’s hand on the portkey with her own, and said the activation word. The two vanished, only to reappear below. “I didn’t want to walk,” MJ told him, before pushing her sister towards their parents. Victoire was looking for it, and so she noticed her slip their Mum and Dad’s wands to Lucy as she did so. Audrey cast her eyes to the sky as Lucy stumbled into her.
“What are you doing here, Lucy-love?” Audrey asked, blandly. Lucy shrugged.
“Rescuing you.” She replied. Yaxley barked a laugh.
“Rescuing?” He asked, “No, none of that. Turn over your wands.”
Lucy hesitated, but then tossed her wand over to him, MJ doing the same. Yaxley picked them up with a grin. “Go put them with the others,” He told Annie. “I won’t make you watch this.”
Annie paused, but accepted the wands and left. Victoire realized they were about to be in a lot of trouble, and slipped into the hall before her sister or cousin could stop her. She peeked through the hole in the floor, and stunned Annie as she passed. Then she accioed her wand, used a charm to tie her up, and rejoined Rose and Dominique. Dominique glanced at her as she rejoined them. Or at least, Victoire thought it was Dominique. She was still disillusioned.
“He’s monologuing again,” Dominique said, confirming her suspicions. Lucy’s freed her Mum, it looks like it’s about to get interesting.”
“Hopefully in our favor,” Victoire muttered, scanning the area around them for the quickest way down there. It turned out to not be necessary, because two things happened all at once.
One, the balcony, which had up until that point shown no signs of disarray, collapsed. And two, Yaxley cast the killing curse at her older cousin.
The balcony collapsing of course threw off Yaxley’s aim, but what really made it miss MJ was Oliver Wood lunging across the room to tackle Yaxley as he cast the spell.
The room fell into even worse chaos from there. Victoire, Dominique, and Rose rolled out of the collapsed balcony, Dominique was bleeding and Rose’s wrist didn’t look right, just as Audrey broke free and lunged towards Yaxley. She pulled out her wand to stun him, and narrowly avoided a blasting curse from him instead. Another part of the ceiling started to crumble, and Victoire realized with horror that the whole manor had decided to come down.
“Daddy!” Lucy stumbled towards her father and untied him as the column he was tied to started to crumble. “Mum, MJ, help!”
MJ hurried to her sister’s side, and Audrey stunned Yaxley viciously. “Got him!” She yelped. “Oliver, grab him! The rest of you, let’s go!”
“What about Annie?” Erik Foxx disentangled himself from the column, Victoire wasn’t entirely sure how that happened, but it must’ve been while she was disentangling herself from the rubble.
“Stunned in the hall,” Victoire gasped. Everyone’s heads shot around to face her, and she raised a hand in greeting. “Um, I’m Victoire.”
“Bill’s oldest?” Uncle Percy said, from where his daughters were holding him up. “What are you doing here?”
“Helping your daughters rescue you.” Victoire sniffed. She flinched as another part of the ceiling broke apart. “Aurors are on their way, we should probably go.”
“Sorry,” Uncle Percy said as they hustled out. Erik stooped to retrieve his wife as they ran past her. “What is happening? Is the head wound making it hard for me to understand things?”
“No darling,” Victoire heard Audrey reply. “None of this makes sense to me either. Although the head wound probably isn't helping."
“We’ll explain later,” MJ grumbled. The group burst outside just in time to see a spectacular lumos light up the yard. Victoire glimpsed Georgie dive under a bush as about ten aurors turned towards them.
"Hello," Victoire greeted when no one said anything. "We're the ones who called you."
“Victoire? Rose? Dominique?” Uncle Harry was one of the aurors on duty, because of course he was. “Sorry, Percy?”
“Hullo, Harry.” Uncle Percy said tiredly. “My apologies, it’s been a long three months. Oliver’s got your man, Erik’s got your girl, can I please sit down now?”
“And get him some water,” Audrey added as she helped her daughters ease her husband to the ground. Uncle Harry blinked.
“Sorry, who are you?” He looked completely baffled, which wasn't unusual, but was certainly understandable right now.
“That’s Percy’s wife, Audrey.” Rose told him helpfully. She peered around Uncle Harry. “Any chance my dad isn’t here?”
Uncle Harry looked like he deeply regretted a lot of life choices. “He’s not currently,” He snapped, “but he will be soon. Yours two.” He nodded at Victoire and Dominique.
“He doesn’t even work for you!” Victoire protested as she was ushered to a bench, where a blanket was thrown over her shoulder. “Hey, I’m not in shock!”
“You will be when your dad’s done with you.” Uncle Harry muttered. “Please, just, stay put?” He looked like he didn’t believe that would happen as he turned towards the Sinclair family, who were huddled on the ground with three medi-wizards around them. “I’m begging you to listen to me this once.” A few medi-witches crowded around the girls, healing Dominique and Rose quickly, and prodding Victoire with her wand. Victoire watched Uncle Harry as they did so.
“Do you want me to call your brothers-in-law.” Somebody Victoire didn’t recognize asked. Uncle Harry nodded.
“If you’d please,” He said. “Just Bill, Ron, and Charlie for now.”
“And Uncle Fred.” Rose winced as her wrist was healed. “Um, Georgie’s under that bush.”
Uncle Harry sighed deeply as Georgie was pulled out by another auror. “Ouch! Hey, Rosie, what’s with blowing my cover?”
“Please tell me my son isn’t here too?” Uncle Harry pleaded. Victoire rolled her eyes.
“No, you have MJ to thank for that.”
“I’ll send her a fruit basket,” Uncle Harry glanced at where the Sinclairs were. “Were they hurt?”
“No, we were the only ones on the collapsing balcony,” Dominique said. Uncle Harry sighed again. “At least, I think they’re okay.”
“It really wasn’t that big of a battle,” Rose agreed. “Kind of anti-climatic, if I’m being honest.”
“Yeah, you can tell your dad that.” Uncle Harry muttered. “Oh look, there they are now.”
Victore turned to see her father apparating in. “Victoire? Dominique? Why are you here and not at Hogwarts?”
“Are you alright?” Victoire’s mother was also there, which was probably a good thing. “I’m going to kill you both.” Victoire winced, maybe not.
“We’re fine, Mama.” Dominique said. “We needed to help Lucy and MJ find their parents.”
“Lucy and MJ, like Percy’s kids?” Victoire’s father said, scanning the yard. Victoire saw the exact moment he caught sight of his younger brother. “Is that Percy?”
“Yes, with his wife. I’d tell you to go say hi, but I think they’re busy right now.”
“Trent’s actually just finishing up,” Uncle Harry cut in. “Percy’ll be fine, bit of blood loss but some fluids and he’ll be good. Audrey just declined Mungo’s treatment, said they just want to get home.”
“Absolutely not,” Uncle Charlie was there now, and Uncle Ron too. Victoire glimpsed Uncle Fred crouched beside his son at the bush a little beyond them, and wondered if they were going to have a full Weasley family reunion in the garden of a crumbling Yaxley manor. “There’s no way they’re planning on going home to a ransacked house.”
“Technically, the girls cleaned it up after the attack,” Uncle Ron said. Uncle Charlie pinned him with a look, and he backtracked. “No, you should definitely go tell Percy and his wife they should go to the Burrow, that’ll go over well.”
“Maybe not the Burrow,” Uncle Harry mused, “but the safe house could work.”
“Please, no, I hate that place.” Uncle Charlie muttered. Uncle Fred scowled at him as he came over with his son tucked under his arm.
“Do you want him to take off for twenty years again?” He asked peevishly. Uncle Charlie shrugged. “Harry, am I good to go with Georgie?”
“Yeah,” Uncle Harry said absentmindedly. “I’ll collect your statement later.”
That felt super against the law to Victoire, but she knew if she spoke up and brought attention to herself, her mother would start yelling again. Right now she was just stroking her hair thoughtfully, which was way better.
“Bill, go with Charlie to talk to your brother.” Her mother spoke. Her voice was stony, which made Victoire wince. “I will stay here with the girls and Ron and Harry.”
Victoire’s dad looked at her mother, “Are you sure?” He asked. “Because this might take a while.”
“Take as much time as you need,” Her mother said. “I can get the girls home.”
“But-” Victoire started to protest, she wanted to know what happened with the Sinclairs. She caught sight of her father’s face and fell silent. “Okay.”
Uncle Ron shook his head. “Owl me with what happens,” He said before turning to his daughter. “Up you go, Rosie, you feeling alright?”
“I’m fine now,” Rose replied. Uncle Ron grinned.
“Good, because you won’t be after your mum gets to you.”
Rose’s face fell. “Can I go back to school, please?” She begged. Uncle Ron shook his head. “Dad, please.”
“Your mother gave me strict orders to bring you home.” Uncle Ron told her as he tucked her under his arm to apparate. “And I’d rather watch you get yelled at than get yelled at myself.” He glanced up. “I’ll see you later Fleur, Harry.”
“Bye, Ron.” Uncle Harry said. “Have a nice night. Call your sister and tell her none of ours were involved for once, would you?”
“Sure thing.” Uncle Ron apparated out, leaving Victoire and Dominique with their mother. Victoire turned, saw her mother’s face, and immediately turned back to face Uncle Harry.
“Sorry, maman.” She muttered. She heard her mother sigh.
“No, I get it.” She said, “Too much Weasley in you to counter it, I should’ve sent you to Beauxbatons. They don’t put up with this there.”
Dominique sniffed. “But then we’d have to find other people to get in trouble with, not just our cousins.” She gave a small smile to Victoire. “I feel like it’s better to keep the trouble in the family.”
Their mother muttered something unsavory about Weasleys, and Brits, and large families before pulling them up. “Harry, are they good to go?”
Uncle Harry nodded. “I can tell Bill you went home,” He said. Victoire glanced at where her father and uncle were speaking with Uncle Percy. Uncle Percy was still on the ground, his wife beside him, and Lucy was talking animatedly with Uncle Charlie. As she watched, her mother stooped down and pulled Uncle Percy into a long hug. Uncle Percy looked surprised, but lifted his arms to hug him back.
“Please,” Victoire’s mother said. “Tell them the Sinclairs will be coming to our house, we’re not sending them to some random safehouse.”
“Will do,” Harry replied. “Might be a bit, gotta get their statements.” He waved a hand at the aurors milling around the yard, providing food and water and talking to all the other people who were missing. Victoire’s mother must’ve nodded, because suddenly Victoire was being given instructions to stay put while her mother apparated Dominique home. Uncle Harry promised to keep an eye on her, and Victoire observed the garden as they waited for her mother to come back.
“This adventure thing is addicting,” Victoire commented softly. Uncle Harry glanced at her.
“Please don’t make a habit of it,” He said. “By the end of it you’re just hoping for a normal year.”
“Oh, I won’t.” Victoire tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Adventure found you, I have to look for it.”
“That’s what I thought the first few times too,” Uncle Harry replied. “It’s like a drug.”
“What’s like a drug?”
“Nothing, maman.” Victoire said quickly. “Is Louis up?”
Her mother pinned her with a stern look. “No, and you will not wake him. You can see him before we send you off to class tomorrow. Ready?”
Victoire sighed. “Are you going to yell when we get home?”
“Loudly,” Her mother agreed. Victoire’s shoulders slumped.
“Let’s go then,” She said sullenly. Her mother grabbed her hand, and the yard disappeared. The last thing Victoire saw before her kitchen was MJ glancing up, and smiling at her as her mother wrapped an arm around her. That image made all the yelling afterward worth it.