Shannon jumped up as Hermione screamed, looking around frantically and motioning for her and Verity to get down so they wouldn’t be seen. Verity grabbed Theodore from Shannon’s arms and crouched down on the floor. The masked Death Eater blasted the window with his wand and vaulted into the house as the dust settled. Shannon’s wand was already drawn, and she fired a jet of red light at him that he blocked, making Shannon duck as it bounced back at her. Verity began scuttling out of the kitchen, staying low, as a second Death Eater leapt inside, distracting the first Death Eater long enough for Shannon to stun him. Shannon began fighting the second Death Eater and shouted to Hermione, “Go!”
Verity made it to the door and jumped out, and Hermione ran after her, first shooting out a charm to make the ceiling directly over the Death Eater’s head to detach itself and fall down. The Death Eater was whacked over the head with it, but the ceiling chunk wasn’t big enough to knock him out, though it did give Shannon a chance to get in another spell at him. Hermione was out of the room before she could see what happened next. She ran to catch up with Verity and followed her down the hall.
“What should I do about Theodore?” Verity panted. “I put a silencing charm on him, but he isn’t safe in the middle of a fight. I’d Apparate out, but I don’t know how to do side-along. I’d probably splinch us!”
“Find Albert!” Hermione gasped in return. They ran into the front room and found Albert frantically trying to strengthen the front of the house against a handful of Death Eaters. THe Death Eaters were slowly starting to break through the wards preventing them from entering with a constant barrage of spells.
“They’ll be sneaking in through the sides of the house any minute, but I can’t leave here!” Albert told them when he saw them come in, his brow furrowed with concentration.
“They’re already coming in the back, Shannon’s fighting them off!” Verity said quickly. “What do we do about Theodore?”
A tall Death Eater broke through Albert’s spells, leaving a gaping hole in the wall behind him which Albert sealed behind him quickly. Albert shouted something unintelligible to Verity and Hermione that sounded like “Get him!” or maybe “Get out!”- his accent had grown too thick to understand under pressure.
Verity was afraid of drawing spells in Theodore’s direction, so Hermione attacked with a Stupefy as Albert spared a second from his wards for a quick Impedimenta. The combined effect broke through the Death Eater’s shield temporarily, but the spell lost strength in doing so. The Death Eater was merely knocked backwards a few paces and quickly fired back something nasty and purple at Hermione, who barely shielded in time.
Summoning up tricks she remembered from the DA, Hermione cast a hex at him, which he ducked. Verity contributed a jinx and hurriedly cast a strong shield around Theodore and herself. He was about to send something at Verity when Shannon came running in and knocked him out from behind.
They all sighed with relief, and Shannon joined Albert in blocking the Death Eaters outside.
‘I blocked the back windows up, but we need to get out of here, and fast,” Shannon told them.
Verity opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted as five Death Eaters burst in all at once. Shannon knocked a blond one unconscious as he aimed at Hermione, and Albert sent another flying backwards to smash his head against the wall. One of the remaining ones sent a spell at Theodore, recognizing him as a weak point. Albert jumped in front of the curse, and gasped as the spell sunk in.
He collapsed as Shannon, shrieking furiously, bashed his attacker over the head with a nearby chair she was levitating. Verity attacked another one, and he sent something nasty-looking her way, which just missed her- though the force of it knocked her over. She was still clutching Theodore tightly, and he looked like he was crying at this point, though he wasn’t audible.
Verity shouted, “Stupefy!” from where she lay sprawled on the floor. The Death Eater hadn’t expected this, and he fell, unconscious. The last Death Eater shouted a spell Hermione had never heard that sent orange light at Shannon, who retaliated by sending it bouncing back at him and following that with a full body-bind that finally got him.
Shannon wiped her hair out of her face- her formerly tidy, stylish ponytail had come undone and was flopping messily in tangles. “Verity,” she said breathlessly, “can you make a Portkey? Albert’s in a bad way, I think.”
Verity looked uncertain. “I’ve only done it once, but I think so. I’m generally good with that type of spell.”
Shannon took the ribbon out of her hair, and grabbed a vase from the floor that had been knocked off the table.
“Here,” she said, pointing her wand at the vase, “Portus! Hermione, you take Albert to St. Mungo’s with this one.”
Verity quickly made the other for her and Theodore, to a street near the hospital, just in case of problems. Before either could use it, one of the Death Eaters on the floor mumbled something and rose jerkily to his feet.
“You can’t escape now,” he hissed, “Crucio!” Shannon dodged just in time. She would never have made it if his aim wasn’t so unsteady from his dizziness after waking up.
“Hurry!” Shannon yelled at Hermione and Verity. “Three, two, one…”
Verity grabbed the ribbon and pressed Theodore’s hand to it at the same time as Hermione grabbed the vase and put it on Albert.
“Go!” Shannon shouted and sent a golden rope spinning through the air at the Death Eater. The last thing Hermione saw before the Portkey jerked her away was a spell hitting Shannon in the shoulder, while a spell of Shannon’s twirled the Death Eater around in a gust of wind. It looked like a closely matched battle, and now there was no one else there to help Shannon out.
Hermione and Albert landed hard in the lobby of St. Mungo’s. A mediwitch on duty hurried over to them, took one look at Albert, and called over a team of healers. They levitated him onto a stretcher floating in midair, and hurried him and Hermione to a small room, where they set to work examining him as Hermione sat nervously in a stiff white chair in a corner, shaking from the aftershocks of the battle she’d been through.
A few minutes later, Verity came hurrying in and collapsed into a chair next to Hermione.
“I left Theodore at a friend’s house near here. I hope Shannon will be safe- I sent a message to the others. If there’s anyone available, they’ll go bail her out. I feel so guilty about leaving her there, but I’ve got to obey her orders. What’s going on? Are you all right?”
“I have no idea, sorry, they’re checking Albert, I suppose," Hermione said worriedly. "I’m all right, just rather shaken. How are you?”
Verity sighed, a long, weary release of air. “I’m better at research and work like that than battles. I’m no Auror, and moments like this remind me why I didn’t want to be one. I’m not injured, at least, and Theodore’s all right. Demetria would’ve killed us if anything happened to him. It was all so scary.” She shivered a little, and Hermione put a hand on her shoulder.
“Everything will be all right now, we’re safe. You did a great job protecting Theodore- for someone who doesn’t like fighting battles, you’re pretty good at it,” Hermione told her admiringly.
“Thanks. You weren’t bad yourself. I hope Albert will be fine- I’m not sure what that was- the spell that hit him. He’s the one who really saved Theodore,” Verity said, and Hermione nodded in agreement.
They settled in to wait. Once or twice they tried to ask a Healer what was going on, but none would say more than, “We’re working on it,” or “Don’t worry, ladies,” or other noncommittal answers.
The wait was interrupted when a loud knock came on the door, sending Healers scurrying over to shush the visitor. George Weasley burst into the room and dashed over to Verity and Hermione with a worried expression on his face.
“Verity, they said you were in a fight- are you all right? Remind me never to let you do that on your off-day again. Did you ever get my message?”
“I’m fine, Mr. Weasley, and yes, I got the message from Charlie.” Verity smiled reassuringly at him.
“Hermione!” George said, noticing her. “What are you doing here? Is everything all right?”
Before Hermione could answer him, Fred Weasley rushed in through the open door, followed by Angelina Johnson.
“Verity, what happened? What’s going on?” Fred asked.
“I’m quite all right, honestly, it’s Albert that got hurt. We’re just waiting around here,” Verity told him.
Fred turned to Hermione, “Oh, hello, Hermione. You look a bit confused.”
“Hello Fred, George, Angelina. Verity, you know the Weasleys, then?” Hermione asked her.
“Oh, I work at their store. You know, Wizarding Wheezes. Then on my day off I help out wi- you know, Albert.”
“Oh, I see.” Hermione looked at Fred and George, and said, “You started a store?”
They told her a little about it, impressing Hermione greatly. She had no idea that the twins' collection of tricks had gotten extensive enough to produce and sell to so many people. Angelina chimed in now and then, adding details of the twins' successes and mistakes (some of which were pretty extreme).
Hermione noticed that Angelina looked exhausted, with huge circles around her eyes. When Hermione asked her about it and Angelina replied, “Oh, I’m training for professional Quidditch, the Holyhead Harpies. They think new recruits should practice just about all day.”
Fred added, “Yeah, she has no free time, just one day off every couple of weeks. Today she got leave, though, to work on something, and when George told us about Albert getting hurt and Verity being here, we came along with him. Do you know what’s happening to Shannon?”
“I’m afraid not. She was fighting a Death Eater when we last saw her. Did anyone go to help her?” Verity asked.
“Yeah, a couple of others should be there by now. I hope.” George said morosely. “I guess we just wait, then.”
They all sat down to watch. There were only two Healers near Albert now. After quite a while, one wearily plodded over to them. His nametag read Bernard Anders, and he was slightly stooped with a lined, rugged face that looked like it had been through a lot. He spoke to them in a quiet tone, “He’s sleeping now. He should be all right, with a bit of luck. That was one nasty jinx he got hit with there. You all should leave, get some rest.”
They all stood and thanked the Healer. Hermione noticed George whispering something in Verity’s ear while her face remained carefully blank. Fred yawned and stretched.
“Why don’t we all go down to the lobby and Floo to the shop?” he suggested. “There’s space upstairs for us to rest. Unless anyone has a better idea of where to go?”
Hermione suddenly remembered something. “I haven’t called my parents!” she exclaimed. “Do you have a Muggle telephone near you that I could use?”
“There’s a payphone outside the Leaky Cauldron somewhere, I think, but you’d better go with someone else to watch your back. It’s a bit dangerous around there,” George said helpfully.
“I guess so. Are you volunteering?” Hermione asked.
“All right. If it won’t take too long, that is.” George grinned at her. “I’ll stand there like a security guard, think on ideas for the shop and keep an eye out for trouble. Sounds like my cuppa tea.”
Hermione smiled back at him. “Thanks, then.”
“No trouble is too great for Hermione the prefect, defender of first-year prank victims, and occasional unwitting guinea pig for Canary Creams or worse,” said George, sweeping her an elegant bow. “Let’s be off then, shall we?” he said to everyone.
They headed down to the lobby and Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron.
Hermione's Summer by Leahr
Chapter Notes: Sorry about how long this took. Please enjoy- and review.