Weasley Charm | Fred Weasley

Chapter 7-5: The Unexpected Visitor

Days had gone by, and none of them had heard anything from the Order. Delaney knew that even if everyone made it out safe from the attack, they would be in hiding now, making it nearly impossible for them to send the word out that they were alright.

As for Harry, Delaney, Hermione, and Ron, they had been staying in Number 12 Grimmauld Place. While staying there, they began to notice that Death Eaters were beginning to stand outside of the house, almost as though they knew they were in there. Thankfully, the Death Eaters took no further action. This let the four begin to form a plan on how they would retrieve the first Horcrux, the locket.

The first Horcrux was proving to be hard to form a plan to retrieve, because thanks to Kreacher finding Mundungus, the four learned that Mundungus sold the locket after he pickpocketed the house when Sirius died. And, the person he sold it to was none other than Ms. Dolores Umbridge herself. The four's only hope to get the locket would be to break into the Ministry. Which could either prove to be a success if pulled off correctly or a death sentence with even the smallest mistake.

"Delaney?" Hermione asked, slowly approaching Delaney, who was laying across one of the couches, staring at the ceiling.

"Yes, Hermione?" Delaney turned her head to face her.

"I was trying to see how you were feeling. I can tell the wedding took a toll on you," Hermione sat down next to her with a sympathetic look on her face.

"I'm better than I was, I know that I need to focus. I keep telling myself that he's fine, but I can feel a pit in my stomach when my mind flashes the question, 'what if he's not?" Delaney admitted, feeling another pit in her stomach since she brought up Fred being harmed in any way.

"How do you do it? I mean I'm nearly going mad every day with just the worry that Ron's going to get hurt when he's watching the Ministry," Hermione asked.

"I just know that he would have my head if he knew I was worrying about him like this instead of giving all of my focus on our tasks. It doesn't make it any easier, you just have to keep moving for them. But as for Ron, are you ever going to tell him?" Delaney sat up to meet Hermione's eye level with a knowing look in her eye.

"That does sound like something Fred would say to you. But as for Ron," Hermione's cheeks blushed scarlet just with the mention of his name, "I don't know what to tell him."

"Hermione, just tell him how you feel. It's obvious he feels the same way."

"I don't know. I feel like with everything going on, I should wait. I mean, we have Death Eaters just waiting for us to make a wrong step on the porch for Merlin's sake."

"If that's what you think is right then just do that. The point is that you do tell him eventually," Delaney grinned, squeezing her hand.

"I will...maybe," Hermione grinned, a blush slowly creeping up on her face.

"Hermione," Delaney chuckled. It was like pulling teeth to get her to admit her feelings for Ron.

"Hey guys, sorry to ruin the fun but dinner's ready," Harry announced, peering in from the door frame.

"You don't have to tell me twice, I'm starving," Delaney chuckled.

The three quickly made their way down to the kitchen. Their senses were filled with the wonderful aroma of Kreacher's cooking. Ever since Harry scolded Kreacher for his treatment towards Hermione, and the four learned of Regulus Black—Delaney's uncle—Kreacher had been much nicer towards them. He had surprisingly taken a liking to Delaney. Likely because she was the real heir to the Black family fortunes, even though they were given to Harry.