These Hallowed Halls

Aunt Muriel's

She doesn't stop running for a long time.

Audra made it to the edge of the cornfield before turning around, giving one last glance before she plunged into the middle fo the corn stalks, and even that glance was enough to make her itch to go back- the tent was tumbling to the ground, collapsing in on the tables and chairs, and the guests that were left were being lined up at the edge of the lawn, forced onto their knees with their hands behind their head, and she can catch sight of someone that must be Ginny, her flaming hair whipping around her head and golden dress glittering as she fights. It was taking two of them to push her over to the lawn with the other, and Audra could hear Molly screaming the whole time, begging them not to hurt her, to please not hurt her baby girl.

As far as she can tell, Harry is not there, or Ron, or Hermione. If they had been, she doesn't think she could stop herself from going back for them.

But they weren't there, which meant that George was right- there was nothing she could do for them, no way to protect them, and if she did go back, that would only give the death eaters reason to drag them all in for questioning, and Merlin only knows if they would let any of them back out again.   Maybe Voldemort would keep all of them, just so she knew it was her fault.  Mad-Eye hadn't been lying- the Dark Lord wants her, and he wants her to hurt.

The tree house, she thinks, turning and running instead of going towards the twins like she wants to, the mud splashing up through the gaps in her heels.  It doesn't take long before her dress is ripped and muddy, and her legs are covered in mud up to her thighs.  Audra had been trained to fight in any situation, but she wasn't much good at running, let alone running through a muddy cornfield in a dress and high heels.  Just get to the tree house and he'll come find you there.

It takes her hours, long enough that the light fades until it really is the middle of the night.  There's no moon, which leaves her to pick her way through the edge of the cornfield by memory, dashing across the clearing until she's under the cover of the trees again.  She's got her wand clutched in her hand, her clutch having been abandoned somewhere in the middle of the field.  Her hair, which Ginny had painstakingly curled and pinned up with the emerald studded pins that Audra's grandmother gave her, had come undone and was curling up against her neck, plastered to her skin with sweat and mud.

She didn't look like someone who could fight, or someone who used to be beautiful.  She just look scared, probably.  Scared, and lost, and alone, standing in the clearing beside the skeleton of what used to be a falling apart tree house, hoping that one of the twins would come to find her, with no way to tell if they really would.

It takes them until sunrise.

Audra had finally given up on thinking it was going to be a short wait and had sat down on a fallen tree, using her wand to cut away the ragged edges of her dress.  By the time anyone did come for her, she was drifting in and out of sleep, her wand held loose in the palm of her hand, jerking back away every time she heard so much as the rustle of the leaves.

"Audra!"  The voice is too loud in the quiet, and female.  Definitely not the twins.  "Audra, are you here?"

Audra stood up and circled around the trees, coming up behind whoever was standing in the middle.  "Don't move."  She had her wand pointed at the back of their neck, and she knew that they could feel it.  "Turn, slowly, with your arms up."

"It's me."  Tonks turned, one arm stretched out to her, placating, and the other covering her stomach.  "They sent me to find you.  The twins had to go home, they couldn't come back- the entire family is being watched, now, but he said-,"