The Sight Of Eternity With You

Matchsticks

"I smell honey in your hair
I see longing in your stare
All I know is that you care
And all that I have left
Is only what I built here
Oh, Won't you break me open like the sky at the sunrise
Holding on to the hand that was here when you would stay
Cold as I lay here
Oh, it took me by surprise
All the hunger left your eyes
You never told me why
Only that it spends
Try just to forget
And I'm not feeling scared"
-Honey, Magic Man

*****

George sat between Fred and Ginny at the kitchen table of the Burrow, Joy sat across from him beside Fleur and Bill. It had been four days post the astronomy tower battle, Moody sat at one end of the table with Arthur at the head with Molly and Lupin sitting on either side of him. Celeste flipped her hair over her shoulder as Moody finished his tirade, an agitated expression on her face, having come to the Order meeting to hear the update on Harper since she was found a few days ago.

"She will cause trouble for us," Moody stated firmly. "I don't trust it. Tossing a seer to the side like that doesn't sit right. Lestrange will be sure to be sniffing around for her."

"Oh and like having Harry here next month will be any better?!" Fred scoffed.

"Alastor, I asked you to keep the conversation away from that while my children are present," Molly said, pointing her fork at Moody with a stern expression. "I don't want Ginny or Ron to hear-"

"-Mum, they've been through enough to hear this conversation now," Fred muttered, ripping apart his bread with a scowl. "And the seer has a ruddy name. Use it while bashing her, would you?"

Molly refrained from talking, slightly speechless at Fred's comment, George kept his eyes downward. Looking at the mashed potatoes Molly had made with an intense gaze that could potentially ignite them. Moody grunted in response, tucking into the dinner Molly had been kind enough to make before the meeting began.

"How is Harper doing?" Fleur asked quietly, turning toward Joy Hastings who had not touched a single thing on her plate, her mind elsewhere. She had come to Harper's aide two days ago with an arsenal of potions that still didn't cover most of what the girl needed, but she quietly waited by Harper's bedside, checking her vitals as the girl was sedated under a heavy bought of sleeping potions.

Joy looked exhausted, the dark purple bruises under her eyes evidence of the lack of sleep she'd been experiencing the last few days. Her blonde hair was slightly dull and she looked skinnier than the boys remembered, a comment that George had made to Celeste when they had sat down to dinner.

"Should we be-"

"-Muttering," Joy spoke quietly, cutting across Bill, "she's muttering a lot in her sleep."

"How comforting," Moody snorted into his food.

"Like you said, she's a seer. It's in her nature to have visions," George growled. "Moody, you saw her memories! Are you really questioning what happened still?"

"Memories are fickle, you can alter your own memories before extraction. Wasn't she trained by Severus in Legilimens and Occlumency? It wouldn't be hard for her to replicate memories and alter them perfectly to go undetected."

George's knuckles turned white around his fork, the urge to flick it over at Alastor igniting like an inferno in his chest. The man was as delusional as George had imagined an ex-auror who'd been active during the first war would be, but this was bordering on paranoia levels.

"If you lot hadn't taken my wand away, this would've never happened," George finally commented. The anger in him was boiling over, he was ready to burst at the seems as he kept his eyes down, his potatoes at the mercy of his death glare. "Honestly," giving a cold laugh. "It would've been a suicide mission, but at least I would've attempted something."