Pack!

Chapter Twenty-One
Harry skipped back inside the castle, heading back to where he could hear Sirius’ voice. “But… but… you’re not going to have time to-” He broke off in relief when he saw Harry. “Harry, tell them! Tell them they don’t have time and would have to just up and leave and they have lives here and, and …” Harry stared at his godfather. Then at the middle aged couple and two young men standing at a respectful distance from the Queen, who was looking at them with an sad sort of smile. “They have chosen, Mr. Black, and we will offer them the respect of knowing their own minds on this.” She spoke with an air of command that may not have been intentional, but carried an implicit order nonetheless. It was clear the Queen would never have asked them, and Harry could understand this kind of loyalty. He couldn’t fault them, they’d just hope their determination withstood the new situation they’d find. He got the quiet part of what Sirius wasn’t saying, though. They were acquiring more and more people, and as time shrank, individuals would be less and less able to be prepared.
Sirius figuratively bowed to the inevitable and sighed, although he did so discreetly. “Understood, we’ll do our best to assist. Harry, these are members of the Balmoral staff that wish to accompany Her Majesty. The others offered best wishes to the Queen and have agreed to hold up whatever story the Prime Minister publicly releases, they’re on their way off the estate.” Turning to speak to the staff, do any of you have belongings here that we can retrieve for you? We’re incredibly short on time, I think we have about six hours left before everyone should be ready to go, even if we wind up with some bonus time available to us. If you have family, we will see what we can do.”
The slightly plump older woman nodded in agreement, relieved that Sirius had finally seen sense and stopped talking. “We’re eighth generation servants to the Monarchy, sir, we’ll not be leaving her service for love or money. This is our family, we’ve no one else to worry about. I’m Mrs. Waters, the housekeeper, and when we have reduced staff, I’m the cook as well. This is my husband Mr. Waters, who’s head of maintenance and our two sons. Brody is a stablehand and Tom works with my husband in maintenance. We have a cottage on the grounds that we live in, give us half an hour and we’ll have bags packed and be ready.”
“No need for that, Mrs. Waters. If someone will accompany me, we’ll retrieve your home entire, and bring it with. Give me twenty minutes and I’ll be back. Sirius, Pack! her up if your ready. Oh, here, use this trunk give me the other one back when I get back.” He dropped his “The Queen” trunk for Sirius to use. “Who wants a broom ride?” To his shock, Mrs. Waters immediately stepped forward, with a delighted smile.
With Mrs. Waters riding pillion, and cheerily pointing him the right direction, he located their cottage. Landing softly, he said “Mrs. Waters, if you have anything you’ll need for the next few days, please pack it as quickly as possible. Let me know if you need me to run and retrieve things. “No worries, young master. The boys always keep overnight bags ready, as they’re often tasked with trips to London. Give me five minutes and I’ll have one for myself and the mister done as well. An astonishing actual five minutes later, he carried the three bags out to the lawn. Walking back inside, and closing the door behind him, he Pack!ed the house, picking it up and handing it to a wide eyed Mrs. Waters, who couldn’t stop looking from her front garden to the boxed cottage in her hands. He shrank and pocketed her bags, then mounted his broom, holding the cottage as Mrs. Waters pulled herself together, then once she was again sat sidesaddle behind him, he handed it back to her.

Back at the castle, he asked if anyone wanted to floo through to Hogwarts. The other options were the carpet, his broom, his calling for volunteers with more brooms, or calling for volunteers to side along apparate everyone. After explaining how each worked, the Major and the Waters family elected to floo and get the process over with as quickly as possible, a bit of time to acclimate themselves to their new surroundings before the Queen’s arrival would be appreciated. Harry sent a Charlie a Patronus, asking him to have the incoming floo monitored for five incoming non-magicals, four were first time flooers, and he sotto voiced for Charlie’s ears only, one was wearing a dress, and resuming normal voice, that the Major would need to be in the room within the next 20 minutes in order to be on hand for a VIP arrival. Harry didn’t feel right leaving the Queen to Sirius’s sometimes dubious notions of propriety and was determined to escort them. As the Hogwarts floo was open, they encountered no issues in sending them off, each saying Sanctuary with a bit of disbelief, only the Major confident in his actions. One by one they vanished, with only Sirius, the Queen, and Harry remaining in the room.
“Your Majesty, I suggest we find you a comfortable and sturdy chair with arms. Sirius, gimme the trunk and the rug, give us ten to get outside then Pack! ‘er up.” Harry gave his arm to the Queen and assisted her to the front door, one of the library chairs she’d directed him to levitating along behind him. He laid down the carpet, then stuck the chair to the front end. “Would you care to have a seat, Your Majesty?” Harry gently handed her into the seat, her bright eyes taking in her surroundings, perhaps she was mentally saying a goodbye to familiar surroundings. Despite that, it was clear she was tired. They’d have to take better care of her, he thought with a bit of shame.
A quick Tempus charm had his anxiety ramping up several notches. It was 10:45, and the first day drum beat of “time, time, time” was making itself felt again. His plans for the day, and the previous as well, had all gone awry. Each time he started a task he found himself having to turn it over as other needs were discovered, those needs growing like a Hydra into several more tasks, and they were faced with a shrinking time frame. Simple solutions were becoming complicated due to the constricting window. He couldn’t deny he was afraid, really afraid, of what they might discover they missed. If they missed an opportunity to save people, they’d be living with guilt that for a long time.
Harry drew himself back to awareness, having tuned out the present as he dwelt on his spiraling fears. He blew out a breath, this wasn’t something he could concern himself with right now, they all needed to be plowing ahead, not stuck in the mud of what if’s. Sirius was approaching, the Balmoral box tucked under an arm.
“All right there, Your Majesty?” He opened the trunk and stashed the castle, pulling a couple bags from his pockets as he did so and adding them. He shrunk the trunk and turned it over to the Queen, who tucked it away. Harry had trunked the Waters’ home and bags, sending it with the family as they flooed out.
“Indeed, Mr. Black. I have my castle, now let’s see to yours, shall we?” Her Majesty smiled, and Harry could see the lovely young girl she had been briefly shine over the years she’d accumulated.
Harry leveled an entirely necessary stern look at Sirius, narrowing his eyes in unspoken warning to take things easy, and off they flew to Hogwarts. It was a short trip that Harry could have done in ten minutes at speed, but they took a gentle twenty, Harry flying alongside the Queen to ensure she was comfortable, not chilled or troubled by the height. Sirius kept up a running chatter to distract her should it prove needed, but she gave every appearance of being in love with flight, and Harry recognized a budding flight fan. He would have loved to introduce her to broom flight were she younger, he thought with a pang of regret.
Harry moved to the front, leading the way to the open window where he saw Taddy watching for them and waving. Neatly swooping in and landing, he shifted to the side, looking for Remus. Sirius settled the carpet inside once he saw a clear area, landing with a gentle touch.
Harry pulled Remus up, having spotted him still working at his desk, fingers flecked with ink as well as smeared across one cheek, two quills and a pencil tucked behind an ear, and hair thoroughly rumpled as if he’d plowed both hands through it more than once. “V V VIP, Remus. Come on, you can get back to work shortly, but you need to meet her first.” Dragging Remus behind him, who was still muttering numbers to himself, he led the way back to the carpet. The Major was moving through the crowd as well, the Waters family also coming forward.
“Remus, I’d like to present you to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth. Ma’am, this is Remus Lupin, owner and Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and while I’m thinking about it, Remus, don’t forget you have the ability to rename it, but I beg you, please keep the motto. Remus and his group are our planning team and are currently working to cover the basics and sending out various acquisition teams.” Her Majesty was silently doing her best to restrain a grin at Remus’ appearance, but her laughing eyes betrayed her. “And I do hate to introduce and run, but Sirius and I still have quite a bit on our to-do list. Remus, you … Remus. Remus!”
A thoroughly gobsmacked Remus turned a stunned, wide-eyed, jaw-dropped gaze to Sirius. “You- you- Sirius Black, what have you done? You take her back right this minute, Sirius, she’s going to be missed any second and I am not posting bail for you. A) I don’t have time and B) I don’t have time. Your Majesty, I am so very sorry and I apologize on Lord Black’s behalf, we’ll…”
“Remus!” Harry broke in again, hauling Remus to a verbal stop. “Remus, she’s a magical, and she’s here because she’s going with us. I sent you a Patronus, did you even listen?” Remus’ bewildered look was all the indication Harry needed to know that the Patronus hadn’t even registered. He sighed. He guessed Taddy had overheard the message and asked for the open door.
“Fred, where are you? Fred, please make her Majesty comfortable, this is Major Smythe and the Waters family, please keep them near the Queen, it will be easier to have a bit of familiar around when surrounded by the completely not familiar. Your Majesty, please don’t hesitate to ask Fred questions, or if you have ideas. Fred should be up on what we’re currently covered or have covered, but we’re desperately trying to close holes in our plans, so any thoughts are welcome. Very sorry, must dash. Fred, you’re good? Your Majesty, Major?” Barely waiting for their wry smiles of agreement, he and Sirius, who’d paused to roll up the rug, now sans chair, headed out at a jog.
“Plans, pup?” Sirius asked as they headed for the stairs.
“No point in waiting, let’s Pack! Diagon now, then I’m thinking we head for the biggest of the Manor houses we know about and keep going until we have to return or someone sends us off in a different direction. Crap. Patronus message to Linmy, Sorry Linmy, should have told you. Sirius and I are off to Diagon and then off to go manor house hunting. Will check in periodically.”
They flooed into the Leaky Cauldron, walking through the empty building that echoed their footsteps back at them. It was viscerally disturbing, and they moved a bit quicker to leave it behind, heading for the courtyard and tapping the bricks to open the door. “It’d be interesting to see what happens when the charms go. The Prime Minister may own the Leaky, but this is quite a bit of extremely valuable London real estate that’s going to be a surprise,” Sirius commented. Harry agreed.
Harry doubled down on the here and now, ready to get things done. “Okay, I’m thinking the goal is speed. I’ll run in and Pack! each building as I get to it. Here’s one of Dorea’s trunks, you collect the buildings and trunk them. I’ll get this side of the Alley, catching Carkitt Market on the way, then Gringotts, then switch and come back up the other side. From there, you’re the guy who knows most of the manor houses, you get to figure out a plan for us to hit what we can, and how we get there. Let’s get moving, we’ve got a theoretical train to catch.”
For once things were going according to plan, thought Harry. Said thought, of course, thoroughly jinxed them. They’d been moving in sync, Harry would dash in, Pack!, dash in, Pack!, rinse and repeat. Sirius moved steadily behind him collecting and stowing. And then Harry got to Gringotts. He did his usual dash in, then skidded to a halt.
“Finally! We’ve been waiting for hours, and three of us have already been cleaned out of Geléhallon by our resident card sharp. We’re probably going to be unhappy about that later and I’m sure we’ll deal with him appropriately at some future point, but for now, where are we going?”