Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [7]

⚡️ Chapter 3 ⚡️

When Vega walked outside of the Burrow and ended up yet again in the dark yard, she found Kingsley striding backward and forward, glancing up at the sky every time he turned just as she had been doing before her friends started to arrive. Harry, Hagrid, Hermione, Ginny and Lupin stood shoulder to shoulder, gazing upward in silence.

None of them looked around when Vega walked over to them but she stopped behind them, her grey eyes set upon the sky, waiting with bated breath for Dora, Ron, Bill and Fleur to arrive as well as Moody and Mundungus – the stress was too much for her.

The minutes stretched into what might as well have been years. The slightest breath of wind made them 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 –

"It's them!" screamed Hermione.

Dora landed in a long skid that sent earth and pebbles everywhere, and she cried out "Remus!" 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 Vega, Harry and Hermione.

"You're okay," Ron mumbled, before Hermione flew at him and hugged him tightly.

"I thought –" Hermione stammered. "I thought –"

"'M all right," Ron assured, patting her on the back. "'M fine,"

"Ron was great," Dora said warmly, relinquishing her hold on Lupin and throwing her arms tightly around Vega. "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?" Hermione asked, gazing up at Ron with her arms still around his neck.

"Always the tone of surprise," Ron replied a little grumpily, breaking free. "Are we the last back?"

"No," Ginny answered. "We're still waiting for Bill and Fleur and Mad-Eye and Mundungus. I'm going to tell Mum and Dad you're okay, Ron –" She ran back inside.

"So, what kept you?" Lupin asked, sounding almost upset with Dora. "What happened?"

"Bellatrix," Dora replied and Vega's fingers clutched into fists. "She wants me quite as much as she wants Vega, 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. Vega held onto Dora's hand, trying not to dwell on the thought that her cousin could've been killed by her aunt. She didn't want Dora to be hurt over something like this.

Her mother was clearly trying to get to her.

"So, what happened to you lot?" Dora asked, turning to Harry, Hermione, and Kingsley, still holding onto Vega's hand in return and Vega was grateful for that.

Everyone recounted the stories of their own journeys and Vega felt much worse as they did, but all the time the continued absence of Bill, Fleur, Mad-Eye, and Mundungus seemed to lie upon them 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," Kingsley said 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. Vega was sure that she 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 Dora and Lupin.

"Thank you," Mrs. Weasley said. "For our sons,"

"Don't be silly, Molly," Dora replied at once.

"How's George?" Lupin asked.

"He's okay," Vega answered quietly. "He just needs some care,"

"What's wrong with him?" Ron piped up.

It was Mrs. Weasley who replied, "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. Vega looked ahead expectedly in wait, and she watched as Bill and Fleur slid from its back, windswept but unhurt.

"Bill!" Mrs. Weasley shouted. "Thank God, thank God –"

The Weasley Matriarch ran forward, but the hug Bill bestowed upon her was perfunctory. Looking directly at his father, Bill said, "Mad-Eye's dead,"

Nobody spoke, nobody moved.

Vega froze, her fingers going slack and letting free of Dora as the black-haired girl stared at Bill in shock and horror – there was a strange feeling in her stomach, and she felt like the buildup in her body had collapsed, falling, falling through the earth, leaving forever.

"We saw it," Bill confirmed.

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," Bill explained. "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.

"Of course, you couldn't have done anything," Lupin said, clearly trying to comfort the two.

They all stood looking at each other.

It was hard for Vega to imagine, to understand, to comprehend that someone like Mad-Eye Moody was dead – he was so tough, so brave, the consummate survivor. She suddenly felt guilty for being upset that he had been the one to order her in staying behind – that she was too volatile and might get hurt because of her own emotions due to the stress in the journey.

At last, it seemed to dawn on everyone, though nobody said it, that there was no point waiting in the yard anymore, and in silence they followed Mr. and Mrs. Weasley back into the Burrow, and into the living room, where Fred and George were laughing together.

"What's wrong?" Fred asked, scanning their faces as they entered. "What's happened?" He noticed Vega's watery eyes and knew something was wrong. "Who's –?"

"Mad-Eye," Mr. Weasley answered. "Dead,"

The twins' grins turned to grimaces of shock. Nobody seemed to know what to do. Dora was crying silently into a handkerchief: She had been close to Mad-Eye, Vega knew, his favourite and his protégée at the Ministry of Magic.

"Dora..." Vega mumbled, rubbing her elder cousin's back to try and comfort her but she knew that it would be a long time before recovery set in.

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 Firewhisky and some glasses for everyone.

"Here," Bill said, and with a wave of his wand he sent thirteen full glasses soaring through the room to each of them, holding the fourteenth aloft. "Mad-Eye,"