Harry's POV

My heart dropped to my throat at the sight of the injured Potter as my feet slammed on to hard ground and I fell on my hands and knees in the yard of The Burrow. Before I could get my bearings I was met with screams of fright.

Throwing aside the no longer glowing hairbrush, I stood up, swaying slightly, and saw Mrs Weasley and Ginny running down the steps by the back door as Hagrid, who had also collapsed on landing, clambered laboriously to his feet.

"Harry? You are the real Harry? What happened? Where are the others?" cried Mrs Weasley. "What d'you mean? Isn't anyone else back?" The answer was clearly etched in Mrs Weasley's pale face. "The Death Eaters were waiting for us," I told her.

"We were surrounded the moment we took off – they knew it was tonight – I don't know what happened to anyone else. Four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort caught up with us –"

I could hear the self-justifying note in my own voice, the plea for her to understand why I did not know what had happened to her sons, but she just said "Thank goodness you're all right," pulling me into a hug I didn't deserve.

"Haven't go' any brandy, have yeh, Molly?" asked Hagrid a little shakily. "Fer medicinal purposes?" She could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back towards the crooked house I realised that she wanted to hide her face.

I turned to Ginny and she answered my unspoken plea for information at once. "Ron and Tonks should have been back first, but they missed their Portkey, it came back without them," she said, pointing at a rusty oilcan lying on the ground nearby.

"And that one," she pointed at an ancient plimsoll, "should have been Dad and Fred's, they were supposed to be second. You, (Y/N) and Hagrid were third and," she checked her watch, "if they made it, George and Lupin ought to be back in about a minute."

It was (Y/N), of course it was, 'decoy for the decoys' my foot, he was a guard for me! Moody had probably sworn him to secrecy. It was him who was injured, it was him who I had left behind.

To make my guilt worse, out of the Burrow bobbled along Winky, smiling happily with a familiar black cat balanced between her two batlike ears.

"Hello Mr. Harry Potter, Hello Mr. Hagrid the gamekeeper of Hogwarts." She said in a happy tone, as if the fact we were just attacked by Death Eaters had gone over her head. Like we had just returned from a pleasant jog.

"Why are you here Winky?" She looked up at me and smiled brightly "Master (Y/N) is saying that Antonin Dolohov may be coming to visit the mistresses house and he is not wanting Winky to meet him" she said again as if she didn't really know what that meant but was repeating something she had heard.

"Is Master (Y/N) not coming with you to the Burrow?" she asked plainly as Bones sniffed the air around her and began to lick some of the dried blood from my hand.

The sickness in my stomach came back until Mrs Weasley reappeared carrying a bottle of brandy, which she handed to Hagrid. He uncorked it and drank it straight down in one.

"Mum!" shouted Ginny, pointing to a spot several feet away. Lupin and George had arrived, but something was wrong, there was blood, and lots of it.

Hermione's POV

Worry overcame me as Kingsley and I anxiously held our portkey. Our journey had been, eventful, to put it lightly, we had been attacked by several Death Eaters almost immediately and were left behind as the other pairs flew on.

There were a few times that I didn't think we would make it, but lucking Mr. Shacklebolt kept a level head and got us to our safehouse on time, but I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the others.

As we spun into the Burrow clutching a bent coat hanger I began returning to my normal appearance, I felt some relief in the sight of Harry and Ginny smiling back at us. But it was a rather harsh landing.

After I brushed myself off, I flung myself into Harry's arms, unable to hold my relief at seeing him back, but Kingsley showed no pleasure at the sight of any of them. I was confused for a second until he raised his wand and pointed it at Lupin's chest.

He asked a question and I understood what he was doing, "The last words Albus Dumbledore spoke to the pair of us?" "Harry is the best hope we have. Trust him," said Lupin calmly.

Kingsley turned his wand on Harry, but Lupin said, "It's him, I've checked!" "All right, all right!" said Kingsley, stowing his wand back beneath his cloak. I hadn't thought to check for impostors, silly of me really.

Kingsley spoke first. "Somebody betrayed us! They knew, they knew it was tonight!" "So it seems," replied Lupin, "but apparently they did not realise that there would be eight Harrys." "Small comfort!" snarled Kingsley. "Who else is back?"

"Only Harry, Hagrid, George, and me." I stifled a little moan behind my hand, my anxiety spiking. "Didn't (Y/N) portkey in with you?" I said to Harry, trying to keep my voice from trembling, to my horror, he shook his head.

"I saw him though, just before we left." He said quickly, trying to calm me. "He was okay?" I asked, "He was bleeding a bit, but standing and...breathing" he said bleakly.

My mind conjured up horrible images of the worst possible scenarios for him to be in, all while I was here unable to help him. "So you left him!" I said in disbelief.

His mouth flew open to explain quickly. "No! The Portkey left before he could get to us and Voldemort was right on our tail so we had to leave-"

"SO YOU LEFT HIM INJURED WHILE VOLDEMORT WAS WAITING FOR HIM!" I shouted before I could hold it back. He continued to try to make excuses as Kingsley and Lupin discussed what happened,

"What happened to you?" Lupin asked Kingsley. "Followed by five, injured two, might've killed one," Kingsley reeled off, "and we saw You-Know-Who as well, he joined the chase halfway through but vanished pretty quickly. Remus, he can-"

"Fly," supplied Harry. "I saw him too, he came after Hagrid and me." "So that's why he stopped chasing the decoy, to follow you!" said Kingsley.

"I couldn't understand why he'd vanished. But what made him change targets?" "Harry behaved a little too kindly to Stan Shunpike," said Lupin.

"Stan?" I repeated, " But what happened to you, Remus? Where's George?" "He lost an ear," said Lupin. Yet again I repeated that, thinking I had misheard, "Lost an-?" I said in an admittedly in a high voice. "Snape's work," said Lupin. "Snape?" shouted Harry. "You didn't say-"

"He lost his hood during the chase. Sectumsempra was always a speciality of Snape's. I wish I could say I'd paid him back in kind, but it was all I could do to keep George on the broom after he was injured, he was losing so much blood."

Silence fell between the four of them as they looked up at the sky. There was no sign of movement; the stars stared back, unblinking, indifferent, unobscured by flying friends. Where was (Y/N)? Where was Ron? Where were Fred and Mr. Weasley? Where were Bill, Fleur, Tonks, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus?

"Harry, give us a hand!" called Hagrid hoarsely from the door, in which he was stuck again. Harry pulled him free, then headed through the empty kitchen and back into the sitting room, where Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were still tending to George.

I couldn't go inside, I remained rooted to the spot, scanning the sky for any sign of my friends, I had to wait for about five minutes before something happened. Mr. Weasley and Fred appeared in the garden in a flash.

As they arrived Lupin quickly explained what happened to George, trying to hurry him inside so he could see his son, but Kingsley went to interrogate him, and for the first time, I saw Mr. Weasley look absolutely furious.

"I'll prove who I am, Kingsley, after I've seen my son, now back off if you know what's good for you!" I had never heard Mr. Weasley shout like that before, it was quite frightening, but I think my nerves were just on edge.

He burst into the living room, his bald patch gleaming with sweat, his spectacles askew, Fred right behind him, both pale but uninjured. "Arthur!" sobbed Mrs. Weasley. "Oh thank goodness!" "How is he?" Mr. Weasley dropped to his knees beside George.

I barely registered when Harry and Ginny joined us, Kingsley was striding backward and forward, glancing up at the sky every time he turned. Hagrid, Lupin and I stood shoulder to shoulder, gazing upward in silence.

The minutes stretched into what might as well have been years. The slightest breath of wind made us all jump and turn toward the whispering bush or tree in the hope that one of the missing Order members might leap unscathed from its leaves,

And then a broom materialized directly above them and streaked toward the ground, Tonks landed in a long skid that sent earth and pebbles everywhere. There was another cracking sound as she dismounted.

I assumed it was her damaging the broom on impact, "Remus!" Tonks cried as she staggered off the broom into Lupin's arms. His face was set and white: He seemed unable to speak. Ron tripped dazedly toward Harry and I.

"You're okay," he mumbled, before I hugged him tightly. " 'M all right," said Ron, patting me on the back awkwardly. " 'M fine." "Wait...where's my hug...?" said a voice in the darkness. (Y/N) stepped out into the garden, Firebolt in hand.

A wave of relief hit me, but Lupin drew his wand, catching myself, I did the same. But my hands were shaking...he was bleeding. "How do we know you are who you say?" I asked. "Why didn't they get twenty questions?" he complained.

There was a bandage obscuring half of his face. "Just answer!" said Lupin "I don't know, because I'm a prat" he said with his normal smirk, as he clutched his eye and threw the Firebolt to the ground, then he went to take another step towards me with outstretched arms.

"Not good enough" Lupin said, sparks appearing at the end of his wand, "What animal is (Y/N) (L/N)'s patronus?" As he went to open his mouth to answer he looked behind me as Winky sprinted out of the Burrow, her little legs darting across the garden.

"What is you doing!" she squealed as she ground to a halt "You is not harming the Master (Y/N)!" she said, her own magic pointed threateningly towards us. "Winky we aren't sure it's him" I tried to explain gently.

"You think Winky is not knowing her master when I is seeing him!" she said angrily, my wand arm faltered but then (Y/N) said, "Winky, it's fine love, thank you and Professor, it's a cat, its Bones."

Lupin dropped his wand to his side and sighed heavily as Winky frowned at him and her own house elf magic dissipated in her hand, (Y/N) smiled at me and said "Give me another, this is fun!"

Then speak of the devil, a flash of black fur scurried past me and jumped up into his arms, "Hello princess" she cuddled into him and turned to hiss at Remus for pointing a wand at him. "It's him" I confirmed.

Bones then jumped down and ran back inside, most likely to see the commotion, brushing past my legs affectionately. I rushed towards him and pulled him into a hug, holding him tighter than I ever have before, "I'm glad you're ok" he said in a soft voice, he leaned down and stroked my cheek.

"I thought — I thought —" was all I could say. "That I couldn't get more handsome? I know right" He said as I looked over the bandage on his eye. "Mrs. Tonks' work, she patched me up after Harry left"

"How did you get back?" He began explaining. "I disillusioned myself, managed to sneak out of the Fidelius and apparate far enough to try and catch Muriel's Portkey, it was the only one I knew about, didn't know it left first though, when I got there she said Ron and Tonks had already missed it too so I came here instead."

"She didn't like me very much" He grumbled something unhappily, but he held my hand as we made it inside. "Oh, this is one you owe me" he said, pulling me into a firm but desperate kiss.

I suddenly became very aware that we had an audience, Winky was still staring between us, Lupin, Tonks, Harry, Ron and Ginny were all stood awkwardly waiting for us to stop. As we finished he turned to them, not an ounce of shame in him.

"What? I almost died, cut me some slack." They all turned to each other and changed the subject as Winky greeted (Y/N). "Ron was great," said Tonks warmly, relinquishing her hold on Lupin.

"Wonderful. Stunned one of the Death Eaters, straight to the head, and when you're aiming at a moving target from a flying broom." "You did?" I said, genuinely surprised, he shrugged and turned to Ginny, "Are we the last back?"

"No," said Ginny, "we're still waiting for Bill and Fleur, MadEye and Mundungus. I'm going to tell Mum and Dad you're okay, Ron" She ran back inside. "So what kept you? What happened?" Lupin sounded almost angry at Tonks.

"Bellatrix," said Tonks. "She wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, she tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I'd got her, I owe Bellatrix. But we definitely injured Rodolphus...Then we got to Ron's Auntie Muriel's and we'd missed our Portkey and she was fussing over us."

A muscle was jumping in Lupin's jaw. He nodded, but seemed unable to say anything else. "So what happened to you lot?" Tonks asked, turning to us. We recounted the stories of their own journeys.

But all the time the continued absence of Bill, Fleur, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus seemed to lie upon us like a frost, its icy bite harder and harder to ignore. "I'm going to have to get back to Downing Street, I should have been there an hour ago," said Kingsley finally, after a last sweeping gaze at the sky.

"Let me know when they're back." Lupin nodded. With a wave to the others, Kingsley walked away into the darkness toward the gate. There was the heard the faintest pop as Kingsley Disapparated just beyond the Burrow's boundaries.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came racing down the back steps, Ginny behind them. Both parents hugged Ron before turning to Lupin and Tonks. "Thank you," said Mrs. Weasley, "for our sons." "Don't be silly, Molly," said Tonks at once. "How's George?" asked Lupin.

"What's wrong with him?" piped up Ron. "He's lost-" But the end of Mrs. Weasley's sentence was drowned in a general outcry. A thestral had just soared into sight and landed a few feet from them. Bill and Fleur slid from its back, windswept but unhurt. "Bill! Thank God, thank God"

Mrs. Weasley ran forward, but the hug Bill bestowed upon her was perfunctory. Looking directly at his father, he said, "Mad-Eye's dead." Nobody spoke, nobody moved. Shock gripped my heart and I turned to (Y/N), who looked confused at the words.

(Y/N)'s POV

"We saw it," said Bill; Fleur nodded, tear tracks glittering on her cheeks in the light from the kitchen window. "It happened just after we broke out of the circle: Mad-Eye and Dung were close by us, they were heading north too. Voldemort...he can fly...went straight for them."

"Dung panicked, I heard him cry out, Mad-Eye tried to stop him, but he Disapparated. Voldemort's curse hit Mad-Eye full in the face, he fell backward off his broom and...there was nothing we could do, nothing, we had half a dozen of them on our own tail..." Bill's voice broke.

My breath started to quicken, my heart started to race, I could feel my blood go cold in my veins. This couldn't be true, not Mad-Eye, he was too strong, I mean, I could stop the Killing Curse, surely he had his own ways around it too right? Like Dumbledore at the Ministry.

All rationality flooded out of my head and I agreed with myself, of course he could, he was stronger then I was, he was the one that trained Mum and Tonks, he was one of the strongest people I'd ever met, of course he wasn't dead, that's a silly thing to say, he was too careful to die.

I couldn't find my voice; I couldn't raise it enough to dispute the stupid joke Bill had just told. Dung's a scumbag, but even he wouldn't leave Mad-Eye to die, not that he had. I just shook my head, trying to tell Bill he was wrong, he looked to Lupin, who spoke again.

"Of course you couldn't have done anything," he said. It was when Hermione looked to me and squeezed my hand that it at last it seemed to dawn on everyone, though nobody said it, that there was no point waiting in the yard anymore.

Hermione led me in by the hand as I looked into the sky hoping to see another broomstick, we followed Mr. and Mrs. Weasley back into the Burrow, and into the living room, where Fred and George were laughing together.

"What's wrong?" said Fred, scanning our faces as we entered. "What's happened? Who's — ?" "Mad-Eye," said Mr. Weasley. "Dead." The twins' grins turned to grimaces of shock. Nobody seemed to know what to do.

Tonks was crying silently into a handkerchief: She had been close to Mad-Eye, his favourite and his protégée at the Ministry of Magic. Hagrid, who had sat down on the floor in the corner where he had most space, was dabbing at his eyes with his tablecloth-sized handkerchief.

Bill walked over to the sideboard and pulled out a bottle of fire whiskey and some glasses. "Here," he said, and with a wave of his wand he sent full glasses soaring through the room to each of us, holding his aloft. "Mad-Eye."

"Mad-Eye," they all said, and drank. "Mad-Eye," echoed Hagrid, a little late, with a hiccup. I seemed to regain my breath as the cold glass touched my hand, I gripped it with both to stop the shaking, I put the glass to my lips and whispered "Mad-Eye."

The fire whiskey burned as it went down my throat, even the aftertaste seemed spicy, I had always wanted to try it, but not like this, not for this. He should be here; he should be shouting at me for dulling my senses...

I didn't pay attention to any conversation after that, Hermione remained at my side, but I only tuned in once I heard a certain name. "So Mundungus disappeared?" said Lupin, who had drained his own glass in one.

The atmosphere changed at once. Everybody looked tense, watching Lupin, both wanting him to go on, and slightly afraid of what they might hear. "I know what you're thinking," said Bill, "and I wondered that too, on the way back here, because they seemed to be expecting us, didn't they?"

"But Mundungus can't have betrayed us. They didn't know there would be eight Harrys, that confused them the moment we appeared, and in case you've forgotten, it was Mundungus who suggested that little bit of skullduggery."

"Why wouldn't he have told them the essential point? I think Dung panicked, it's as simple as that. He didn't want to come in the first place, but Mad-Eye made him, and You-Know-Who went straight for them. It was enough to make anyone panic."

"You-Know-Who acted exactly as Mad-Eye expected him to," sniffed Tonks. "Mad-Eye said he'd expect the real Harry to be with the toughest, most skilled Aurors. He chased Mad-Eye first, and when Mundungus gave them away he switched to Kingsley. . . ."

"Yes, and zat eez all very good," snapped Fleur, "but still eet does not explain 'ow zey knew we were moving 'Arry tonight, does eet? Somebody must 'ave been careless. Somebody let slip ze date to an outsider. It is ze only explanation for zem knowing ze date but not ze 'ole plan."

"Well while you lot decide who's the rat, I'm off to bed." I said before I even realised I had opened my mouth. I was halfway up the stairs before anyone could protest, I didn't even say goodnight, I was too busy promising myself that Mundungus Fletcher had just become a walking dead man.

I walked into Ron's room and closed the door, my usual spot in the attic was now reserved for Ron's stunt double, plus it smelled putrid so Mrs. Weasley rather mercifully allowed me to stay downstairs.

For about ten minutes, nobody bothered me, they knew I was grieving and respected me enough not to, so I was sat in Ron's room stewing over very bloody and violent ways to murder a thief when the sadness hit me.

I had tried to hold back from crying, knowing that he wouldn't have wanted me to cry, but that was much easier said than done. Several different thoughts waged war in my mind.

Part of me wanted to head back downstairs to mourn with the others, part of me wanted to rush out of the Burrow on a manhunt for Fletcher and part of me wanted to stay here alone and never leave.

I didn't know what to do, it was like my body was disconnected from my mind. I couldn't believe this. Why did it always end like this? Before the thought even crossed my mind, I was already mid swing towards the nearest inanimate object, in this case it was the closet that the Ghoul usually stayed in whenever the Burrow had guests.

Then I hit it again with the other hand, once, twice, three times each. Until I couldn't feel my fist and blood splattered to the floor from my torn knuckles and cracks spidering along the foe-glass on my arm.

There was a groan from the stirring creature in the attic, I just shrieked "SHUT UP!" as I began to hear noise, I couldn't even process what was making the noise, all I knew was that it ended as soon as it began.

I looked down at the foe glass, I found the snivelling face of Mundungus Fletcher reflected back at me. My face burnt with hot rage, I wanted nothing more then to find him and leave him in such a state he'd be begging for Azkaban.

As I was imagining all the gory ways I could get revenge for Moody my thoughts were jarred out of my head by a noise.

There was a knock on the attic door, "Yeah?" was all I said, assuming it was Hermione going to say goodnight or Harry and Ron. But then some pink hair peeked around the door.

"...Can I come in?" said Tonks softly, I shrugged, she stepped in "Taking that as a yes." She took a step inside and tripped over a discarded pyjama top that I had threw to the floor this morning as I got changed.

She looked at me disbelievingly, I just shrugged. She spoke gently "Remus and I are going out to search for the...the body, if you want to..." she was clearly thinking it would bring me some kind of closure.

I shook my head immediately, remembering how much grief seeing Dumbledore's body had brought me a few months ago. I wanted to remember Moody as he was, not how they left him.

"We completed what we were meant to do, it's what he would have wanted, but nobody would have expected You-Know-Who to be there in the flesh."

I chuckled, wiping tears with my sleeves, "He probably did, he was ready for anything, it makes sense it was Voldemort who finally put that old git down. He was too stubborn for it to have been anyone else." Tonks nodded.

"It's strange, I always thought he'd outlive us all, thought he was too stubborn to die" I explained. "It's what he would have wanted though I think, to go out fighting" she countered.

I nodded back, "Yeah, reckon he's got bragging rights now, 'It took the darkest wizard in all of history to take me down you pansys! What's you're excuse?'" I chuckled. She laughed along with me.

For the next ten minutes we laughed and cried and reminisced, I cant really remember it much, I was too tired and upset to. Or it might have been the blood loss, but she soon headed downstairs and I followed.

I found the others still talking amongst themselves, but I couldn't face them so I headed outside. I found myself scouring the night sky for any signs of Moody at first, then Hermione joined me, and it became more of a stargazing session.

She barely said a word, only a brief "Hi" in an oddly timid voice, then she sat down next to me, looking up at the sky with me at nothing in particular, occasionally she would point out some constellations, then we would go back to gentle silence.

Even as we laid there and the cold night air brushed against us, neither of us was cold, even still, within the hour she was basically lying on top of me, resting her head on my chest as we stared into space, I don't know how long we were there but Harry wandered outside at some point, though I don't think it was to stargaze.

He just kept walking until he got to the gate to the garden, I called out to him but he blanked me, it was like he was sleepwalking. Ron came walking out the Burrow looking for him.

He looked to us as if to ask what was going on, having no idea ourselves, we all just shared a look and shrugged. Hermione approached him first.

She pat his shoulder gently "Harry?" Harry stood shaking in the darkness, clutching the gate into the garden. It was several moments before he snapped out of it and realised we were at his side. "Harry, come back in the house," Hermione whispered.

"You aren't still thinking of leaving?" "Yeah, you've got to stay, mate," said Ron, thumping Harry on the back. "Are you all right?" Hermione asked, close enough now to look into Harry's face. "You look awful!"

"Well," said Harry shakily, "I probably look better than Ollivander..." Harry started acting really weird, explaining that his wand acting of his own accord, personally I'd believe anything at this point, it sounded mental enough that it was probably true.

But I did find it kind of annoying, so now he's the chosen one and he has a wand that has it's own free will, what next? He's secretly a millionaire...oh wait

"Olivander? The wand bloke? I thought he was dead" I said in confusion as he finished his story. So he started telling us about a dream he had, Ron looked appalled, but Hermione downright terrified.

"I don't buy it. It might be Voldemort in your head again, we can't trust it." I shook my head, remembering the consequences of the last time I listened to Harry's so called 'dreams'

"But it was supposed to have stopped! Your scar, it wasn't supposed to do this anymore! You mustn't let that connection open up again, Dumbledore wanted you to close your mind!"

When he did not reply, she gripped his arm. "Harry, he's taking over the Ministry and the newspapers and half the Wizarding world! Don't let him inside your head too!" With that thought, we all stumbled off to bed.

Waking up the next morning felt very strange, the comfort I had as I drifted to sleep was gone, when I managed to pull myself out of bed I noticed Harry and Ron where sleeping beside me on the beds Mrs. Weasley had assigned them and I had to step over them to get out of the room.

But as soon as I tried my body gave me a firm "Nope!" in response, my muscles were aching and creaking, my bones felt heavy, it was a struggle to even move. And due to the fact my eye was wrapped in bandages I had no depth perception.

Nevertheless after a few minutes I was able to stumble down the steps into the kitchen in relative silence. Looking at the darkness outside, I realised it must have been early in the morning, so I began occupying the time.

First, I used the Muffliato charm on the others, trying not to wake them, then I passed the time by doing anything I could think of. By the time someone came downstairs I had pretty much cleaned the entire Burrow.

It was Mrs. Weasley of course, always the first on up and ready so she could prepare for the day, she jumped upon seeing me, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you" she smiled softly and waved it off, "Not to worry dear, it's just there aren't usually many early risers in this house"

I shrugged, knowing my early bird attitude wasn't by choice. If I could I'd be in bed until the wedding. "Lets take a look sat those bandages of yours shall we?" "Please" I said, noticing they had gone a deep red in the night.

She pointed to the same couch that George was bleeding in last night, I took a seat and she passed me a small face mirror and sat down in front of me with her wand at the ready and a book on Healing spells.

I stared in the mirror with my one uncovered eye, Mrs. Weasley said the damage was extensive, but she could probably save the sight. Much to my relief.

As much as I admired Moody being a half blind badass, I think I liked having all my vision more. As I unwrapped the bandages Mrs. Tonks gave me, I was horrified.

The left side of my face was burnt badly, the skin looked as if it had been exposed to some sort of acid or chemical, as if it had began to bubble but stopped halfway, and in the middle of the large burn was a deep gash as if a whip had struck my face.

Where my skin split from the impact of the explosion it was like half of my face had been torn from the rest of my skull.

It looked as if something with claws had grabbed my cheek and pulled away from my face. It was not pretty, but not as mangled as I had envisioned, especially as Mrs. Weasley was finished with it.

Not that she didn't get her moneys worth, knowing I couldn't escape, she started an interrogation of sorts. "So...looking forward to going back to Hogwarts this year?" she said in a scarily sweet voice, I almost laughed at how obviously she was fishing for information.

"I'm not going back to Hogwarts this year Mrs. Weasley, I thought I told you" She sighed disingenuously "Oh, that's right, must have slipped my mind." "So what are you doing instead dear" she smiled.

Now I understood, she was pressing for information about Dumbledore's instructions about the Horcruxes. "Oh, I'm thinking of joining the Death Eaters, hunt some muggle-borns, kill a few muggles, as you do nowadays...probably my best career choice in the current climate."

She tutted at me and slapped my wrist. "Why so curious?" "Just thought I'd ask...have you thought it all through?" I nodded "Yes" She sighed again and just finished fixing the piece of skin she was working on.

Once she had administered her surprisingly gentle treatment the burns had faded completely and my skin looked as good as ever, well, apart from one part.

"Now, let's get rid of that nasty scar, shall we?" she said cheerily, looking into her book. As she skimmed through some pages, I assessed the remaining damage.

There was a scar that barely grazed my left eye traced its way downwards from just above my eyebrow to the tip of my chin, luckily it didn't go through my eye but instead traced just beside it, following a line of my temple downwards.

"Actually, I'd like to keep it please Mrs. Weasley." I said before I thought about it. She looked at me strangely and paused for a second, so I explained "A memento." I smiled.

She went to speak but her voice caught in her throat, so she nodded, "Of course dear, if that's what you want. Let's get you cleaned up though."

It was a way to remember the day Moody died, as a small way to keep a part of him, his face was always sporting war wounds after all, why not mine? It might have not been as impressive as his, but I think he might have liked it.

Breakfast later in the day was interesting. Mr. Weasley said "Blimey!" upon seeing me Fleur smiled when she saw the scar, Ron said I was just trying to look hard, Harry, Ginny and Bill just shrugged.

Winky almost had a breakdown about letting her 'master' sustain such an injury. To my surprise Hermione seemed perfectly fine with it. "I think it suits you" she smiled, tracing her finger along the scar.

The shock of losing Mad-Eye hung over the house in the days that followed; I kept expecting to see him stumping in through the back door like the other Order members, who passed in and out to relay news. Telling us it was all a ruse to get the Death Eaters off his trail.

Harry felt that he ought to set out on his mission to find and destroy Horcruxes as soon as possible. "Well, you can't do anything about the" Ron mouthed the word Horcruxes "till you're seventeen."

"You've still got the Trace on you. And we can plan here as well as anywhere, can't we? Or," he dropped his voice to a whisper, "d'you reckon you already know where the You-Know-Whats are?"

"No," Harry admitted. "I think Hermione's been doing a bit of research," said Ron. I nodded, "She said she was saving it for when you got here." "Yeah, we got a few theories down so far, but nothing major obviously, got nothing to test it on."

We were sitting at the breakfast table; Mr. Weasley and Bill had just left for work. Mrs. Weasley had gone upstairs to wake Hermione and Ginny, while Fleur had drifted off to take a bath. "The Trace'll break on the thirty-first," said Harry.

"That means I only need to stay here four days. Then I can —" "Five days," Ron corrected him firmly. "We've got to stay for the wedding. They'll kill us if we miss it."

We all understood "they" to mean Fleur and Mrs. Weasley. Whom over the past few days had been encouraging us to help with anything that needed to be done for the special day.

"It's one extra day," said Ron, when Harry looked mutinous. "Don't they realise how important-?" " 'Course they don't," said Ron. "They haven't got a clue. And now you mention it, I wanted to talk to you about that."

Ron glanced toward the door into the hall to check that Mrs. Weasley was not returning yet, then leaned in closer to Harry. "Mum's been trying to get it out of us all. What we're off to do. She'll try you next, so brace yourself."

"Dad and Lupin've both asked as well, but when we said Dumbledore told you not to tell anyone except us, they dropped it. Not Mum, though. She's determined." Ron's prediction came true within hours.

Shortly before lunch, Mrs. Weasley detached Harry from us by asking him to help identify a lone man's sock that she thought might have come out of his rucksack.

I had been assigned the remarkably interesting job of de-Gnoming the garden, for the fifth time this week, but I did have help, as I discovered after I took a well-deserved break in the kitchen.

Bones presented me with a ginormous carrot that was about the size of her, she had clearly wrestled with a gnome to get it. She was caked in dirt and grime, but she looked so proud of herself, tail swaying and head bobbing along happily as if she was dancing.

"What have you got there Princess? Spoils of war I imagine. Wait...where did you even get that, I haven't seen the Weasleys growing carrots." She purred at me and rubbed her head along my hand to dodge the question.

"Yes, I'm very proud of you for defending the Burrow and providing food for all of us." I relented, rubbing the back of her neck and behind her ears.

"Whatever would we do without you?" she mewled at me in a way that sounded distinctly like the words "I don't know" and swayed off back onto the battlefield.

I smiled at seeing it, but a little pang of my heart came when I reminded myself, I would have to leave her here.

After I had successfully de-Gnomed the garden, Fleur had the idea to plant some new stuff there and basically give the garden a well needed refurbish, so for most of the day I found myself planting new flutterby bushes and pulling weeds.

A few hours in, Harry came out of the Burrow, telling me that he had let some stuff slip to Mrs. Weasley and she was determined to stop us.

So from that moment on, Mrs. Weasley kept us all so busy with preparations for the wedding that we hardly had any time to think. Let alone plan for afterwards.

The kindest explanation of this behaviour would have been that Mrs. Weasley wanted to distract us from thoughts of Mad-Eye and the terrors of their recent journey.

After two days of nonstop cutlery cleaning, of colour-matching favours, ribbons, and flowers, of de-gnoming the garden and helping Mrs. Weasley cook vast batches of canapés, I finally snapped.

Screaming out of frustration I took a running start at a gnome and kicked it about twenty feet to vent my anger. Fleur who came gracefully walking out of the scullery said "Remember, you 'ave to make zem dizzy first" I sighed, "I know."

I was just so irritated because all the jobs she handed out seemed to keep us away from one another; I hadn't been able to talk to Hermione for more then twenty seconds since my arrival. I didn't come here to be free labour.

So I sat in protest, storming up to Ron's room. Double and triple checking that my bags were packed for the journey. I found Bones sprawled out on his bed with Crookshanks next to her, it brought me an odd comfort that she'd have company.

Winky checked up on me after a few minutes, explaining Fleur had told her of my outburst. She shivered when she mentioned the gnomes, she didn't like them and they were exceptionally mean to her.

It hit me finally that Bones wasn't the only person 'd leave behind if I followed after Harry and a part of me was considering calling it off and going back to Hogwarts.

But then I caught a glimpse of my newly scarred face in that weird mirror Harry kept on his bedside and remembered why I was doing this.

It was probably the most important mission I'd ever undertake and it would be an insult to Moody to give up now. I steeled myself and was overcome with emotion upon seeing the house elf in front of me, "I'm gonna miss you Wink" I said, pulling her into a hug.

She was very flustered and very confused, her ears flapping as she turned her head unsure what to do. "Where is you going? I must be coming with you, it is Winky's duty to keep the young master safe. The mistress is saying so!"

"Yes, I imagine she did, don't worry, I'm not going anywhere for a few days and I promise I'll stay safe. Now c'mon, still loads to do. Otherwise Mrs. Weasley will have my head." I smiled, forgetting my frustration and wanting to change the subject.

I wasn't prepared to say a real goodbye yet, I was going to wait until after the wedding. So that meant I had a few more days of peace before I would have to leave this all behind.

But the closer the day was the closer I got to breaking down, and I couldn't help but wonder if I was in way over my head.

This feeling stayed with me for every blissfully normal day I spent mucking about in the Burrow, waiting for the trial ahead. My only solace was at least for now, I had some time before I had to say goodbye to the rest of my family.