Dawn Rivera

The Ghoul in Pyjamas

The shock of losing Mad-Eye hangs over the house in the days that follow, and I keep expecting to see him stumping in through the back door like the other Order members, who pass in and out to relay news. I feel that nothing but action will assuage my feelings of guilt and grief and that I ought to set on the mission to find and destroy Horcruxes as soon as possible.

Mrs Weasley keeps Harry, Danny, Ron, Hermione and I so busy with preparations for the wedding that we hardly have time to think. The kindest explanation of this behaviour would be that Mrs Weasley wants to distract us all from thoughts of Mad-Eye, and the terrors of our recent journey. After two days of non-stop cutting, cleaning, of colour-matching favours, ribbons and flowers, of de-gnoming the garden and helping Mrs Weasley cook vast batches of canapés, however, I start to suspect her of a different motive. All the jobs she hands out seems to keep me, Harry, Danny, Ron and Hermione away from one another; I have not had a chance to speak to the four of them, alone, since the first night, when Harry told us about Voldemort torturing Ollivander.

We are often joined by Order members for dinner now, because The a Burrow has replaced number twelve, Grimmauld Place as the Headquarters. Mr Weasley explained that after the death of Dumbledore, our Secret Keeper, each of us whom Dumbledore confided Grimmauld Place's location has become a Secret Keeper in turn.

"And as there are around twenty of us, that greatly dilutes the power of the Fidelius Charm. Twenty times as many opportunities for the Death Eaters to get the secret out of somebody. We can't expect it to hold much longer."

"But surely Snape will have told the Death Eaters the address by now?" asks Danny.

"Well, Mad-Eye set up a couple of curses against Snape in case he turns up there again. We hope they'll be strong enough to keep him out and to bind his tongue if he tries to talk about the place, but we can't be sure. It would have been insane to keep using the place as Headquarters now that its protection has be one so shaky."

The kitchen is so crowded this evening it is difficult to manoeuvre knives and forks. Harry and Danny are crammed beside Ginny and Misty.

"No news about Mad-Eye?" Harry asks Bill.

"Nothing," replies Bill

We were not able to hold a funeral for Moody, because Bill and Lupin failed to recover his body. It was difficult to know where he might have fallen, given the darkness and the confusion of the battle.

"The Daily Prophet hasn't says a word about him dying, or about finding the hide," Bill goes on. "But that doesn't mean much. It's keeping a lot quiet these days."

"And they still haven't called a hearing about all the under-age magic Harry used escaping the Death Eaters?" Danny calls across the table to Mr Weasley, who shakes his head. "Because they know he had no choice or because they don't want us to tell the whole world Voldemort attacked him?"

"The latter, I think. Scrimgeour doesn't want to admit that You-Know-Who is as powerful as he is, nor that Azkaban's seen a mass breakout."

"Yeah, why tell the public the truth?" says Harry, clenching his knife so tightly that the faint scars on the back of his right hand stand out; white against his skin: I must not tell lies.

"Isn't anyone at the Ministry prepared to stand up to him?" asks Ron angrily.

"Of course, Ron, but people are terrified," Mr Weasley replies, "terrified that they will be next to disappear, their children the next to be attacked! There are nasty rumours going round. I, for one, don't believe the Muggle Studies professor at Hogwarts resigned. She hasn't been seen for weeks now. Meanwhile, Scrimgeour remains shut up in his office all day. I just hope he's working on a plan."