Rounding up Weasleys
Rounding up Weasleys
I practically fell out of the fireplace when I arrived at the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary. As I took in my surroundings, I thought it was lucky no one was around to witness ungraceful arrival. Then I wondered for a minute if I'd even come out in the right place. I appeared to be inside an enormous dining tent with rows of picnic tables and a large opening on one side. There hadn't been anything like that when I'd been there before. I recalled a memory of our sixth year field trip to the sanctuary. We'd pitched a tent on a cliff and made a fire, but that'd been it for amenities. I remembered that night fondly as I walked out of the tent into the silent early morning. It was still dark outside but the sky had a few streaks of lighter blues and greens on the far Eastern horizon. If I hadn't been in a rush I thought I'd have liked to stay and watch the Romanian sunrise. I'd seen it once before and it had been breathtaking, but I didn't have the luxury of time.
I moved quietly through a field of small, one man tents, not knowing where to start looking for Charlie. I didn't want to shout or start waking people up, so I conjured my Patronus messenger and gave it whispered instructions to find Charlie. It sprang off and disappeared, leaving a faint silvery glow in its wake. I followed it for a few steps before I heard a startled shout from several tents down.
"Argh! Get off me!" I recognised Charlie's voice and quickly ran over to the tent it had come from. I found him sprawled face down on the dirt floor, one leg in and one leg out of his sleeping bag as if he'd just tripped trying to get out of it. I giggled, "Morning Charlie."
He stared up at me. "Samhain? Blimey, was that massive cat thing yours? What the hell are you doing here?" As he managed to wriggle free of his sleeping bag and stood up I noticed he was wearing only his pants. I quickly looked away, mortified. "Oh! S-sorry Charlie! Yikes, I hate to burst in on you like this, but it's an emergency. I need you to get dressed and come with me, like right now. I'll explain when we get to Egypt."
I could hear him fumbling with the belt on his trousers as he pulled them up. "Egypt? What, is Bill okay?" I risked turning around slightly before I answered, he was still shirtless but it was a little less embarrassing now he was half dressed. "I assume he's okay, I haven't heard anything from him for a few days. We're going there to pick him up, it's Ben who's in trouble. Well, actually Ben is the trouble. Look, we really don't have a lot of time, can we just get going and talk when we get there?"
Charlie nodded, grabbing his wand. "I'll just pop into the camp directors tent quickly on our way out and let him know I'm going. Don't want him to think I was eaten by a dragon in the night or something, you never know what might happen out here." He chuckled fondly as he said it, Charlie would never say a bad word against a dragon, not even if one ate him.
I followed him to the directors tent to confirm it was an emergency that we go immediately to Egypt. The director was more than half asleep and waved us away without really acknowledging our words. Charlie just shrugged and lead the way back to the dining tent I'd arrived at. He offered me the jar of floo powder, indicating I should go first.
I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, tucked my elbows in and said "Gringots Giza camp" before I was sucked along the floo network, spinning madly. When next I opened my eyes I was in another tent, but a much smaller one. I stepped nimbly out of the gate so Charlie would have room to follow and looked around. Everything was the opposite to the sanctuary camp. There it had been meticulously neat and orderly, almost to a military standard. Here, it looked like a bomb had gone off, and everything was caked with dust and fine golden sand.
I spotted the likely culprit of the mess just as Charlie arrived behind me. A rather fat niffler was busy digging through someone's trunk, throwing anything it didn't deem valuable out onto the floor. I could have caught it easily, but through a flap in the tent I saw that the sun had already started to rise in Egypt. I calculated that we had maybe an hour, two at the most before dawn broke back home, so we needed to hurry.
Charlie and I exited through the tent flap to a scorching hot morning. It was a dry heat with a warm breeze, and I loved it. I thought longingly for a moment of how happy I could be there. Living in a desert climate, working for Gringots breaking curses and enjoying the glamour and excitement of bringing home treasures. But it was a pipe dream, one that I'd given up. And not the reason why I was there. I pushed those thoughts to the side and followed Charlie over to a canteen area. Under the shade of a pair of lonely looking palm trees, several hammocks had been strung up haphazardly. Most of them were empty or were being used as makeshift drying racks for clothes or general storage. One of them however, housed a sleeping wizard with a book over his face. And flaming red hair visible above it.
I prodded him gently and whispered, "Bill, wake up Bill." He didn't stir. Charlie brushed past me and grabbed Bill by the shoulder, shaking him roughly and said "Oy, Billy! Mum said she's going to cut your hair." That worked. Bill bolted upright, one hand immediately running back along his ponytail. He grinned when he noticed who'd woken him up. "Alright you two?" He asked as he swung his legs out of the hammock and pulled on his heavy, dragon hide boots. "No, not really Bill, we've got a situation back at home and need you to come back with us." I told him. His smile faltered as he stood up, brushing sand from his clothes.
"Samhain, you said you'd explain when we got here." Charlie reminded me. I checked my watch again, it read 4:15am London time. "Alright but then we have to hurry." I replied. "Ben has gotten it into his head that Alexi and Chiara are evil, or that all Werewolves are, but it started with them. He cursed Alexi last night at the Leaky Cauldron, like really cursed him with dark magic. He nearly killed us both. Tonks took him back to her parents house for the night but he's not changed his opinion. He said he would go to the Ministry at first light and report Alexi and Chiara as dangerous Werewolves to the WCU. We sort of have an intervention planned for this morning, as soon as possible, to get everyone together for one last try at convincing him he's wrong. But if we can't, well, we've got a back up plan to Obliviate his memory and perform a Fidelius Charm so no one ever tells him again. I know it sounds bad, I actually hate the idea personally. We wanted to get the whole Circle together to vote on it before being hasty. I'm definitely open to other ideas but like I said, we just don't have much time. We're probably going to be the last ones to arrive as it is." I finished, hoping they actually would have some better ideas.
Bill and Charlie looked at each other for a few seconds before Bill spoke. "That's so messed up. What Ben's done and what he's planning to do. I don't like the idea of magically messing around in his head but if he's become dangerous, well you've got my vote." Charlie nodded along with his brother and added, "Yeah, I don't see what else we can do here. Can't let him ruin people's lives. I don't know what we'll do with Ben after though. Kick him out of the Circle? We obviously can't trust him anymore."
I admitted I hadn't thought that far ahead yet. "I'm not sure honestly, but we can discuss it with everyone when we get back. We're still going to try talking to him first, so maybe figure out what you want to say to him now." Bill lead the way back through the messy tent to the fireplace. I went first again, saying "Penny Haywood's flat" as I stepped into the flames. Moments later I was there, and I'd arrived to find my friends shouting at each other.
"Absolutely not, I won't be a part of this! Your plan sucks and I seriously can't believe you're all just going along with it!" Badeea raged furiously. My gentle, studious friend was standing alone near the fireplace, hands on her hips glaring at the rest of the group. Charlie and Bill who had followed me out after she'd said her piece both looked confused at the awkward tension.
"Badeea none of us want to do it! And it's a last resort, we're going to do our best to talk to him first. But you have to understand, Ben almost killed two of our friends tonight and he has no remorse whatsoever. He thinks it's a shame he wasn't successful, and he's going to do his damnedest to destroy people's lives if we don't stop him." Merula wasn't shouting, she was talking more reasonably than I'd ever heard her.
Badeea sat down in an armchair, looking utterly devastated. "You just don't understand. This is someone's free will you're talking about taking away. We don't have the right. If we make him forget one thing what's stopping us from making him forget more? Or making someone else forget whatever suits us. It's not okay. Obliviation shouldn't even be legal."
I moved closer to Badeea and perched myself on the arm of her chair. "You're right, it's not okay. And we don't have the right to tamper with his memories. None of us are in favour of it Badeea. But if he won't listen, and we do nothing he's going to ruin Alexi and Chiara's lives. And if he attacks them again he's going to ruin his own as well. I don't want our friends in danger or Ben in Azkaban. I know you hate this, but we need you with us. Everyone needs to agree or we can't do anything." I said it gently, pleading with her to understand.
Finally she nodded. "Alright, if we can't change his mind I won't be the one to stand in the way. But you need to promise me, what you take from him will be only what's necessary. Just the knowledge that Alexi is a Werewolf and absolutely nothing else."
I looked around the room at my friends, most were nodding in agreement. Ismelda was the only one shaking her head. "That might not be enough. We should take his whole bigoted belief system. What about Chiara? It'd be pointless to make him forget she's a Werewolf too, since she's registered. But if we leave him with his hatred she could still be in danger."
My exhaustion had caught up with me again and I could hear Badeea's strong opposition in her thoughts clear as day. But before she could speak I said it for her. "No. Chiara is out by choice, Ben can report her all he wants it won't make any difference. We're not taking anything else from him. His feelings about her, about what she is, and her being with Alexi are his own problem. He had months of knowing what she was and didn't do anything to her. It was only when he learned about her having a relationship with another Werewolf that he became dangerous. And mostly to Alexi. We remove only the memory of him finding out Alexi is a Werewolf. Let's vote."
It was unanimous, although Badeea was extremely reluctant. Our conversation finished just in time, moments later Tonks Apparated into Penny's living room. She gave us a quick heads up that Barnaby was going to bring Ben on side along Apparition and told us to be ready to disarm him quickly. He was apparently still dead set on going to the Ministry as soon as possible.