*Chapter 1 – Attack*
HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED GAINS CONTROL OF AZKABAN
At midnight last night, the biggest attack ever recorded on Azkaban prison was recorded. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named along with his followers known, as 'Death Eaters', managed to overpower the guards and release all prisoners from their confines. Among these convicted criminals are many of his original Death Eater imprisoned during the last war with You-Know-Who. The Minister for Magic had this to say: "It is a terrible blow for the Ministry, I won't deny it. It is a massive set back for all those fighting against the Dark Side. His strength has grown and the numbers of His Death Eaters has also increased, making it even harder for us to fight back. But fight back we will!" Continued on pages two, three, four and five.
Hermione looked up from the front page of the Daily Prophet. Ron looked as though he was about to throw up, Ginny had taken to biting her nails and was staring at a point on the table with a look of terror on her face. Mrs Weasley was shaking, with tears forming in her eyes. She slumped into a chair forgetting all about the late breakfast she was making the three of them.
Hermione got up and put a comforting arm around her. "It's going to be okay Mrs Weasley, I'm sure Dumble…- the Ministry is trying to sort everything out now, and I'm sure that the Order will be around tonight to do something about it too." She had forgotten that Dumbledore was now dead, and no longer there to help, it was a common occurrence for everyone around the house, but doing it now, she had involuntary made the situation worse, reminding everyone that Dumbledore couldn't help them anymore. Thank God Harry isn't here she thought, I don't think he could've taken that; he probably would've broken down after everything that has happened.
The whole day was spent in a chilling silence, with everyone lost in their own thoughts about the attack and what was to happen now. After what seemed like forever, Mr Weasley finally returned from the Ministry that evening after not being home since the previous morning, with news of the attack. "The whole Ministry is in chaos," he explained as he took off his hat, and slumped in one of the kitchen chairs looking thoroughly exhausted. Surrounded by most of the current occupants of the Burrow (minus Fred and George as they were still working at the shop) he explained to them how Ministry officials, including him, were sent as soon as word came of the attack. They were met by other members of the Order to which word had also been sent, but what with the growing number of Death Eaters joining the fight, they weren't able to stop the attack and were forced to retreat back to the Ministry.
The whole table listened intently, and once the story was over there was silence for a while, before Mrs Weasley suggested everyone have a cup of tea. Hermione saw Ginny roll her eyes at this; everyone knew that Mrs Weasley's cure for everything was a cup of tea. Ron, Hermione and Ginny went upstairs for a while after that, deciding to write a joint letter to Harry about the day's events. However, they found Hedwig already upstairs. They wrote their joint letter back and reassured him that after this they would be sure that he would be able to come to the Burrow soon. A little nagging voice in Hermione's head however, told her that he wouldn't be able to leave until his birthday when he came of age, and the spells protecting him at Privet Drive failed to protect him anymore, and that wasn’t for another two weeks.
Ron and Ginny were just about to start a game of wizard's chess when they heard the familiar shout of "Dinner!" from Mrs Weasley downstairs. When they got to the kitchen they were surprised to see it was very crowded indeed. Hermione reckoned that almost all of the Order was in the Weasley's kitchen.
"Bloody hell!" exclaimed Ron.
"Mum?!" said Ginny, over the hum of people talking. "Where are you? What's going on?"
"Oh hello dears, come on, come sit down. The Order are here for the meeting tonight. They've been arriving ever since you went upstairs. Did you not hear them?" The three of them looked at each other for reassurance, before they all shook their heads in disbelief. "Well they're here anyway and that's that. Of course I said that before the meeting you must all have your dinner, as the meeting is going to be quite long for obvious reasons. I can't have you going hungry now can I! But eat up quick now; we'll want to be starting soon."
They ate their dinner as quickly as possible, like Mrs Weasley told them, before they were ushered back upstairs. "Do you think we'll be able to listen in with some extendable ears?" asked Ginny.
"Hmmm I don't think so somehow, I'll bet anything they've put an Imperturbable Charm on the door," responded Hermione. Ginny of course, refusing to be beaten went to find some Dung bombs to check anyway.
"So," said Ron trying to make conversation after she had disappeared from their midst for a while.
"So," replied Hermione. It had been very tense between the two of them since Dumbledore's funeral and their display of affection, and Hermione hated it. She hated it more than when they were arguing, as any conversation they had was forced and awkward.
"Heard from Krum lately?" asked Ron as casually as he could, but Hermione could hear the jealousy in his voice when he said Krum's name; and to think, he was once his hero. Hermione chuckled to herself.
"No actually I haven't. I haven't been writing to him for almost a year now, I think we came to an agreement that the whole long distance relationship thing just wasn't working." At this Ron's mood became much lighter, and a slightly smile spread across his lips.
"Really?" he asked. "So, you've like, broken up then?"
"I guess you could say that, we've not really seen each other in almost two years now though." The smile on Ron's face got ever so slightly bigger as he tried to hide his happiness at this fact, but he managed to fail miserably. Ginny came back at this point, and flopped down on the bed with her arms folded a sour expression on her face.
"We've no chance, the Dungbombs can't even get as close as three feet from the door," she said sounding extremely infuriated. "What are you smiling at?" she added irritably to Ron, which caught him off guard.
"Oh nothing, so, you want that game of chess now then?" This seemed to cheer Ginny up slightly. A chance to kick her brother's ass at chess was a chance she was not going to pass up.
As I Lay In Your Arms by beckz4ron
Chapter Notes: This chapter has been added before, but it got deleted. Chapter 2 is now with a BETA because of the number of times it has been rejected!