𝘒𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 •°𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘛𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘴

[74]

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The shock of losing Mad-Eye hung over the house in the days that followed; Sara kept expecting to see him stumping in through the back door like the other Order members, who passed in and out to relay news.

Only Nico was the one who kept her going and helped her take her mind off certain things; they had a good night of sleep and were currently sitting at the breakfast table, listening to Harry and Ron's conversation; 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.

"Don't they realize how important—?" Harry asked, talking about their mission and how they had to stay for Fleur's and Bill's wedding.

"'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 the others.

"Mum's been trying to get it out of Hermione, Nico and me. What we're off to do. She'll try you and Sara 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."

Nico rolled his eyes. "She can't do anything about it anyway, as soon as you two will be 17, we're leaving whether she likes it or not. School won't be a safe place anymore, I have no doubt that they're going to infiltrate Hogwarts as well."

Sara nodded and put her head on his shoulder. "For now we're truly powerless, aren't we?"

Harry nodded, getting up from his seat and disappearing down the corridor.

Later they found out that Harry had told Mrs. Weasley their intentions, something that didn't help with their situation at all. From that moment on, Mrs. Weasley kept the five so busy with preparations for the wedding that they hardly had any time to think. The kindest explanation of this behavior would have been that Mrs. Weasley wanted to distract them all from thoughts of Mad-Eye and the terrors of their recent journey. After two days of nonstop cutlery cleaning, of color-matching favors, ribbons, and flowers, of de-gnoming the garden and helping Mrs. Weasley cook vast batches of canapés, however, Sara started to suspect her of a different motive. All the jobs she handed out seemed to keep her, Nico, Harry, Ron and Hermione away from one another; she had not had a chance to speak to the other three since the night they arrived while she and Nico would sneak out from time to time to exchange kisses and opinions about their situation.

They barely got time together otherwise, but it was perhaps luck that brought them all together to Ron and Nico's room on the third day of their stay after dinner and the work they were assigned. Sara and Hermione were studying some of the books they were going to bring to their mission while Ron was complaining about their mother to Nico. The blackhaired twin was trying not to burst into laughter since his brother seemed very serious.

Crookshanks was sitting in Sara's lap, demanding to be scratched between the ears at all times. The room was still as messy as it had been when they arrived so the redhead knew Ron's argument with his mother that night had no effect on him or Nico, who was always the organized one out of the two of them.

The door suddenly opened and everyone snapped their attention to it. Ron jumped out of bed, pretending he was cleaning up the mess.

"I'm doing it, I'm doing—! Oh, it's you," said Ron in relief, as Harry entered the room. He threw himself back on the bed, making Nico laugh so hard that he hit the roof with his head; the girls chuckled.