The Girl Who Hid | ✓

|115| (seventh year)

Being separated from Harry, after this horrible year, was worse than any other. Then, on top of that, I had to watch as my friends leave to go get him while I wasn't allowed to go.

"Mrs. Weasley, please," I cried. "Let me go with them. I can't bear it."

"Maisey, they are going to retrieve Harry, to bring him here," she said. "There is no point in leaving just so you could come back."

"But Fred and George and Ron and Hermione— they all left, they were here, too!" I said.

"But they are of age, you are not. And you are in danger as well," Mrs. Weasley stated. "Stay with Ginny in the living room while I get ready for the incoming people."

Mrs. Weasley took me into the living room, from outside, and I sat next to Ginny. Since Ginny and I are both underaged witches, we were not allowed to go to rescue Harry. The plan was for the Order, Ron, and Hermione to get Harry from our aunt and uncle's house and bring him to the Burrow where he could be safe. They would disguise themselves as Harry while bringing him here. We turned seventeen in a few days and Harry will no longer be safe at the Dursleys.

Anxiety soared through my body as I waited for everyone to come back. Seconds turned to minutes and minutes felt like hours, no one came. Ginny was shaking, terrified of the idea of something going wrong as was I. Mrs. Weasley was looking out the window at the back door.

Portkey after Portkey came back empty, no one attached.

After what felt like hours, Mrs. Weasley screamed. Ginny and I shot up to see Harry and Hagrid stumbling in the field.

"Harry! Harry?" I cried, running past Ginny and Mrs. Weasley.

"Harry? You are the real Harry? What happened? Where are the others?" cried Mrs. Weasley.

"What d'you mean? Isn't anyone else back?" Harry panted.

"N-No," I breathed.

"The Death Eaters were waiting for us," he told us. "We were surrounded the moment we took off— they knew it was tonight— I don't know what happened to anyone else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort caught up with us —"

"Thank goodness you're all right," Mrs. Weasley said, pulling him into a hug.

When she let go of Harry to attend to Hagrid, I jumped into Harry's arms.

"I thought..." I sobbed, not being able to finish my sentence.

"What happened, Maisey?" Harry said, pulling away from me.

"Ron and Tonks should have been back first, but they missed their Portkey, it came back without them," I said, pointing at a rusty oil can lying on the ground nearby. "And that one," I pointed at an ancient sneaker, "should have been Mr. Weasley's and Fred's, they were supposed to be second. You and Hagrid were third and," she checked her watch, "if they made it, George and Lupin ought to be back in about a minute."

Harry nodded, but didn't hug Ginny. Just as Mrs. Weasley came out from the house, with a bottle of brandy for Hagrid, Ginny shouted, "Mum!" pointing to a spot several feet away.

A blue light had appeared in the darkness: It grew larger and brighter, and Lupin and George appeared, spinning and then falling. I knew immediately that there was something wrong: Lupin was supporting George, who was unconscious and whose face was covered in blood.

I gasped as Harry ran forward and seized George's legs. Together, he and Lupin carried George into the house and through the kitchen to the sitting room, where they laid him on the sofa. As the lamplight fell across George's head, Ginny and I gasped and I felt my stomach lurched: One of George's ears was missing. The side of his head and neck were drenched in wet, shockingly scarlet blood.