Thicker than Water (Marauders Era) PART II

27 July, 1997 - Trust (III)

The sky was cloudless. The night was quiet. And for perhaps the first time in her life, Lavinia hated it. She wanted clouds to give them cover. She wanted the sound of their voices on the air to convince her they were alive. She wanted them to be here already. She wanted them to be safe.

Which was ridiculous of course because there was still nearly an hour before the first of the portkeys was expected. Not that that knowledge was doing anything to prevent Lavinia, Molly and Ginny from standing at the door of the Burrow, staring at the sky like they could see all the way to Surrey and the battle undoubtedly occurring there.

It had been barely more than a week since their initial plans had been laid to get Harry permanently out of his aunt and uncle's house and only a few days since those plans had been completely and utterly changed and Lavinia was no less stressed about that reality now than she had been when it had first occurred. It wasn't the change of plans that she kept getting stuck on - the Ministry had gotten so thoroughly in the way of the original plan that it was undeniable that they had needed to adapt. No, it was where the plan had come from. Mundungus Fletcher. Who was, in Lavinia's estimation, far from the cleverest man alive. And yet... and yet the plan was clever. Not just clever, but brilliant. Very brilliant. And yet it had come from Mundungus Fletcher. It made Lavinia feel awful every time she thought it, but she couldn't seem to get around the fact that Mundungus had never really contributed at Order meetings before now. Really, she'd been under the impression that Mundungus's presence in the Order was less to do with his interest in the cause and more to do with his loyalty to Dumbledore. Loyalty Lavinia knew ran deep.

Of course, no one else seemed quite as hung up on Mundungus's sudden flash of brilliance as Lavinia was and truly, she couldn't blame them. The idea was a godsend. And they had needed it more badly than Lavinia thought anyone was really willing to admit. But even so, Lavinia hadn't been able to stop herself from being on edge about the whole thing from the moment he had proposed it to now. And now... well now Lavinia sighed. This was a useless line of thought. A waste of time and she knew it. Not that she had anything useful to think about at the moment. Or to do, really. At the moment, all there was to do was wait. And wait. And wait.

The first flash of blue that shone through the darkness on the Burrow's lawn caused all three of the waiting women to straighten and lean forward, pulled from their by now glassy contemplation of the sky and halfway to running to the landing point before realizing that it probably wasn't a good idea to be too close to an arriving portkey. Especially since neither Ron nor Tonks was exactly the most graceful under the best of circumstances, nevermind when being released from a spinning magical teleportation. So instead all three of them stood, waiting, breaths held for the moment when Tonks and Ron became visible.

Only they never did. The blue light shone bright and then faded and all that was left was the afterimage burned on Lavinia's eyes and a rusty oil can, sitting on the grass with no sign of any of the people it should have brought safely home.

Lavinia felt something tight inside her threaten to snap even as she heard Ginny whisper "no" with the quiet desperation of someone who knew exactly what the most likely explanation for this was and couldn't bear to admit it. Because she did know what this most likely meant. They all did. And none of them wanted it to be true.

But, Lavinia reminded herself, it wasn't the only explanation. Plenty of other things could have happened. Delays and such. Other reasons to miss a Portkey than... than that.

Lavinia let out a long breath through her nose, steeling herself. She could not fall apart tonight . No matter what happened. No matter who didn't come home. No matter who might be left to wait for them. Her job was to be the person who held it together. Who healed the wounded and reminded the living to be thankful for those things that they hadn't lost.