"So, what do you reckon?" Fred spoke quietly, with a furtive look at the kitchen door. Though the kitchen was empty, the house wasn't; they could hear footsteps upstairs. They were back in the old, stony kitchen at Grimmauld Place. Hermione and Ginny were sitting at the table, and Ron, Harry and the twins on top of it.
Harry raised his eyebrows. "Well, are Moody and your dad in the habit of breaking into Ministry departments in the middle of the night? If they are, that would help..."
"Maybe the Order have found out something about a Horcrux that we don't know," suggested Ron. "Maybe they're going to get the necklace!"
"Scrimgeour was in there," Hermione reminded him. "Maybe they just needed to speak to him."
"Funny way to go and have a natter with someone, under an Invisibility Cloak,” said Ron. “Hello, Minister, I’ve been wanting to see you so I thought I’d creep up on you, invisible, from behind “"
"Well, it was just an idea," said Hermione testily. "I doubt the Order's going to send people around stealing stuff from the Ministry. And it's risky “ I mean, your dad works there, Ron!"
"Really?" said Ron. "I hadn't noticed “"
Harry raised his voice. "When you two have finished biting each other's heads off “?" Ron and Hermione fell into an irritable silence. "So, anyway," continued Harry, "what are we going to do about the necklace?"
"Even if we do manage to get it back, I hate having that thing near me." Ginny shuddered. "Didn't you say it had killed seventeen ex-owners? Oh “ eighteen now, I s’pose..."
But she was interrupted by a loud Bang! as the kitchen door flew open. They all jumped, Harry nearly slipping off the table as his hand instinctively jumped towards his wand “ but only Bill stood in the doorway, hair pulled back as always into a ponytail, and a suppressed grin on his face.
"What are you looking so happy about?" Ron said suspiciously, as Harry regained his balance. "And where's Fleur?"
"Did I hear you mention curses?" said Bill, ignoring Ron. "Great things, curses; Britain’s a bit boring, though, don't get half such sinister ones here as in Egypt."
"You want to bet?" muttered Harry under his breath.
"Harry!" said Bill, only just noticing him. "Aren't you supposed to be in Mungo's?"
"Oh - my leg's better now," lied Harry quickly. "They “ er “ let me out early."
Bill, casting Harry a sceptical look, seemed about to protest, but at that moment Hermione gave a sudden odd, excited squeak and everyone looked at her.
"Bill!" she said. "You, you can, you’re a curse-breaker! You do “ Gringotts “ Egypt “ you break curses all the time!"
"She's sharp today, our Hermione," said Ron, raising his eyebrows. After a moment in which Harry wondered if Hermione had accidentally swallowed a Babbling Beverage, he jumped and nearly slid off the table again.
“That’s right!” he yelped. Hermione was on the right track “ why on earth hadn't he thought of it before?
"Bill," he said quickly to the mystified man standing before them, making his mind up quickly (well, it was all over the papers now anyway), "Bill, d'you “ do you know anything about Horcruxes?"
Bill stopped looking perplexed and frowned. He lowered himself slowly into the chair next to Ginny.
“It's my job, Harry, mate," he informed him. "I've dealt with them before, yeah “ well, in theory only, but I might be able to help. What do you want me to do?"
"Destroy them?" said Harry tentatively. "Er “ preferably without burning off any flesh," he added quickly, thinking of Dumbledore's blackened hand.
Bill thought about this for a few seconds, then said casually, "Should be able to, yeah. If I had a bit of time and knew a bit about the person whose Horcrux it was. I’m assuming you mean You-Know-Who?"
Harry nodded and looked at the others, a wide grin splitting his face.
"Amazing," he said fervently. "Could you do it now?"
Bill looked slightly taken aback. "Now? Hang on, Harry," he said hastily, scratching his ear so that his fang earring trembled. "I'll need to look up the incantations and background stuff, it's not that simple...and I only came down to grab a drink. I'm a “ a bit busy right now. In fact, I should really be getting back upstairs “"
"If I fetch one now, when will you be ready?" Harry asked impatiently, then noticed Hermione's reproving expression. "Sorry," he said. "We've been waiting for this for a long “"
"Fetch one now?" repeated Bill, frowning. "Hang on. You have a Horcrux here? One of You-Know-Who's?"
"Yeah," said Ron casually. "It's in Harry's bedroom."
Bill whistled.
"I'll get it," said Harry, jumping off the table.
"Wait!" Bill half-rose from his chair and blocked Harry’s way, looking suddenly anxious. "Don’t go upstairs just yet “"
Harry, Ron, Ginny and the twins looked at him suspiciously.
"What've you been doing up there?" George glanced at the ceiling, a slow grin spreading over his face. "Not something Mum wouldn’t approve of, I hope..."
“It’s not something you need to know about,” said Bill shortly, standing up properly and making an almost imperceptible movement backwards, towards the doorway.
Fred clapped his hand on his elder brother's shoulder, pulling him forwards. "C'mon, Bill, let us know “ we won't tell anyone.”
“Anyone you don’t know, anyway," said George.
"You'd damn well better not," said Bill quickly, shaking Fred’s hand away, a crease in his forehead kinking one of the scars on his face as he spread his arms across the doorway. “Stay in the kitchen, what’s happening upstairs is none of your business “ I need to get back up there, but you all stay here or I’ll hex you to the floor “”
“Bill was always the softie,” Fred informed Harry, sliding casually off the table.
“Yeah, he likes to think we listen to him,” added George, jumping with a thud to the floor.
The chairs clattered as Bill pushed them back. "Listen to me, don't you dare go upstairs, any of you, I'm serious...Oi! Fred! George!" Bill made a grab for the twins as they ducked one after the other under his arms, but missed. "Ron, Ginny “ Harry!" he yelled, as they sprinted, grinning, for the kitchen door. Bill pounded after them as they chased after the twins. "Get back down, you lot “ Mum's not going to like this “ don't “"
"Bill? What ees going on?" Harry skidded to a halt outside a large door on the first landing, behind which Fleur's anxious voice floated out to them. Fred and George had gone past it; returning hastily, they appeared behind him. Harry hesitated, his hand on the doorknob, but Fred threw him an exasperated glance, and shoved it open as Bill came hurtling up the stairs behind them.
All of them took an involuntary step backwards. The bare, bleak room was bathed in a flickering green light. A magically extended fireplace was host to a roaring emerald fire, and Fleur Delacour stood before it, her silvery-white hair reflecting the green glow of the flames. She was pointing her wand at the heart of the fire, as though she were waiting for something to burst through, and she gasped, her beautiful face bewildered, as they sidled cautiously into the room.
"Idiots," muttered Bill, pushing his way past them. "So much for a secret mission," he added, shaking his head and looking very odd with his scarred skin tinged green.
"What's the Floo for?" asked Hermione, cautiously eyeing the flames.
"Why are zey up here, Bill?" asked Fleur, seeming to only just recover her voice. "Did not your muzzer say, keep zis quiet from zem...?"
"I know what she said," said Bill testily. "It's not my fault “"
"Why does no one ever tell us anything?" demanded Harry. "We can cope, you know...We’re not weedy little first-years now, you know..."
"I never said you were, Harry,” said Bill calmly. “It wasn't my decision to keep you lot in the dark about this; we're doing something worse than illegal here and were hoping to surprise you, as well as protect ourselves...and you really should get out of this room before Mum gets back." Bill finished this all in one breath, looking harassed as he tried to shunt them backwards out of the door.
"Worse than illegal?" said Ron interestedly, sidestepping his brother easily. "Cool, so what are you doing?"
"That's it, get out!" ordered Bill, exasperated, reaching for his wand.
"C'mon, we've seen this much," wheedled Ginny. “You might as well tell us the rest.”
"And if it's anything to do with Moody and your dad," added Harry, "We already saw them in the Ministry about twenty minutes ago."
"You were in the Min “ what the “ I don't “ you're lucky I'm not wiping your memories!" spluttered Bill angrily, waving his wand slightly aimlessly so that a few sparks shot out. “Now I’ll give you ten seconds to leave “”
"You were much more fun before you joined the Order," said Fred regretfully. "I dunno why, it didn't affect us."
"What, you're in the Order now?" Harry asked Fred, surprised. Of course, there was no reason now for them not to be, but Harry had had so much on his mind that he'd not even thought about it “ and come to that, he was of age now, too...
"Yeah," said Fred, interrupting Harry's thoughts. "But if it makes us as grumpy as Bill, I'm going to quit."
Bill was looking exasperatedly from Fred to Harry as they talked over him. “That’s it,” he said, irritably, flicking his wand. Next moment, something heavy seemed to hit Harry in the stomach, knocking him forcibly backwards, out of the room. From the muffled “oofs” and groans around him, it sounded as though Bill had got them all square in the midriff. But before the door shut in their faces “
"Too late," said Fred, gasping from breath but grinning, as the green flames glowed brightly and leapt higher than before: a sure sign that someone was about to come through the Floo network.
Bill swore and whipped around, wand raised, not noticing the others pile straight back into the room as he stared into the flames.
"Come on," he muttered, pointing his wand cautiously at the fire. "Come on “" Bill broke off as the indistinct forms of at least a dozen people appeared, spinning, in the grate.
"Bill, it's safe “ it ees zem!"
Staring eagerly at the fast-appearing group, Fleur and Bill lowered their wand. Harry and the others stepped backwards as what looked like a good three-quarters of the Order of the Phoenix stepped out of the fire, several more appearing from underneath Invisibility Cloaks. Charlie Weasley, Mad-Eye Moody, and Kingsley Shacklebolt were there, among many others.
Bill, who had been scanning the group with anxious eyes, stepped forward, his wand hand dropping. "Where's “" he began worriedly.
"Right here, Bill," chuckled an invisible voice, and Harry’s breath caught in his throat. Hermione let out a little shriek of amazement as a bright-eyed, pink-cheeked Tonks swept off an Invisibility Cloak, Remus Lupin hanging onto her arm. He looked thin, pale and exhausted, with dark and almost bluish shadows around his eyes “ but he was smiling widely, and seemed to be suppressing an urge to laugh.
Harry sank back against the wall. "Professor Lupin?" he said weakly, staring at his beaming ex-teacher in stunned disbelief as Mr Weasley threw some glittering white powder into the grate; the flames hissed and shrank to their normal size.
"Harry?" said a sharp voice, as Lupin looked over at him. Mrs Weasley appeared from behind Kingsley's broad frame. "What are you doing out of St. Mun“"
“And, for that matter,” added Mr Weasley quietly, “What on earth were you doing in the Ministry earlier?”
Mrs Weasley looked at her husband in surprise, then back at Harry and the others, and began to swell.
"It's okay, Mum," said Ginny hastily, before Mrs Weasley could start interrogating them. "We'll explain later...Professor, they didn’t, did they?" she asked Lupin, her eyes shining. "Break into Azkaban?"
Harry looked at Lupin for confirmation; still smiling, Lupin nodded. Mrs Weasley threw them a sharp glance but kept quiet.
"Operation successful," growled a familiar voice. Moody stumped forwards, pulling off his travelling cloak, his gash of a mouth twisting upwards. Lupin looked as though he still couldn't believe where he was, and the beaming Tonks wasn't taking her eyes off her husband as she hugged him closer to her side.
"But “" said Harry, the strangest sensation rising up in him, like a huge, melting bubble of relief and shock, "I “ I can't believe it." He laughed oddly, feeling strangely unreal. Was all this a dream, was he still in his bed in St Mungo's?
He was about to pinch himself when Lupin assured him, "It's really me, Harry." He reached over and patted Harry on the shoulder. "I can hardly believe it myself...one moment I was sitting quietly in a cell in Azkaban feeling “ er “ well, let’s say, not my most cheerful. The next moment, this lot turned up. How in the name of Merlin did you manage to get the keys, by the way?" This question was directed at Mr Weasley, who was absent-mindedly turning the huge, dark-metalled keys to Azkaban over in his hands. Harry could almost feel the power radiating from those keys “ he supposed that they must be bound up in some terrifically strong enchantments.
"Oh," said Mr Weasley, with an embarrassed glance at Harry and the others. "Er “ later, Remus. That reminds me," he said hastily, as Harry, Ron and the twins opened their mouths to protest, "We'll need to send these back to the Ministry...by an untraceable owl, of course..."
"You did “ er - lock up behind you, didn't you, Mr Weasley?" Hermione asked, looking slightly anxious.
"Oh yes, yes, it's all secure," Mr Weasley reassured her. “Just minus one prisoner! Yes, once we'd got the keys, it was easy; just connect the Azkaban Floo to Grimmauld Place, and hope that no one escaped while we were at it. We left guards, don't worry, Hermione," he added, gesturing at Bill and Fleur as she raised her eyebrows.
"Arthur, this was supposed to be a secret!" said Mrs Weasley exasperatedly. "For your protection, Harry dear," (Harry had begun to object again) "because, really, the fewer people that know about this the better. Now," she said fiercely, quelling all protests. "Why are you out of St. Mungo's, Harry, and Bill, why is this lot in the room at all?"
Bill raised his hands defensively. "Don't blame me," he told his mother. "They just ran up here, I couldn't help it."
"And I left Mungo's early," said Harry truthfully, though evading Mrs Weasley's eyes. "My leg was, well, nearly all right. And we needed to do “ er “ some things “ in the Ministry “ which we can’t really talk about," he added slightly lamely, thinking of Umbridge and the storm of multicoloured Chaotoballs, while ignoring the still-throbbing pain in his leg. Evidently thinking along the same lines, the twins sniggered. Harry strove to keep his face straight as everyone in the room looked at him.
"Well, as long as you're feeling all right, Harry, and forget everything you've seen in this room," said Mr Weasley, smiling, "then I think the most important thing to do right now is to go downstairs and get Remus something to eat “ and a strong drink. Come to that, I wouldn’t say no to one either."
With a grateful glance round at the Order members, Lupin spoke again.
"I haven't yet thanked you," he said. "For all of you to come like that, to help me “ you don't know how much it means to me “"
A jumbled roar of exasperated protest cut him off.
“You don’t need to thank us!” said Tonks indignantly. “I’m your wife!”
“What did you think we’d do, Remus, leave you to rot “ or worse?” asked Bill. "Not on our watch. Come on, let’s get downstairs. I haven't eaten for hours."
In a rush of noise and cheerful chatter, the Order of the Phoenix moved toward the door. It was only slowly that it was really beginning to hit Harry “ Lupin was at liberty again; Umbridge hadn't got him; there would be no trial, no death sentence! Harry saw his feelings mirrored on Ron's face, but Hermione was looking strangely pensive and worried as they made their way down the stairs.
"What's wrong, Hermione?" said Harry, his grin fading slightly as he looked at her. Hermione sighed.
"It's wonderful that Professor Lupin is back, of course," she said, "but we've still got to tell them what Neville saw...Professor McGonagall...you know." Hermione's voice wobbled.
"Yes," said Harry gently, as Ron patted her on the arm. "I hadn't forgotten. But leave it a couple of hours, it'd spoil the celebrations."
"No “ Harry - they should know as soon as possible!" said Hermione quickly, but Harry and Ron didn't reply; already Mrs Weasley was at work with the frying pan, and the enticing smell of sausages and bacon filled the room. They didn't notice Hermione slipping out of the kitchen, taut-faced.
"Cheers to a safe return!" Mr Weasley was shouting, as he bewitched several bottles of champagne to pop open and glide around the room, filling people's goblets with slightly too much enthusiasm; Harry’s hand and sleeve were soon sopping wet with champagne. "And for getting the better of those old Ministry fools!"
Laughter and hearty applause filled the room. Tonks pulled Lupin forcibly towards her and kissed him, forgetting she still had her drink in her hand (he, too, was soon dripping with champagne). Harry and Ron cheered them on, grinning. Fred and George gave a celebratory whoop, clinking their crystal goblets together so hard that they smashed, and soon the sound of Mrs Weasley's yells added to the noise and confusion as the fizzy liquid rained down upon Ginny, Mundungus Fletcher, and all others close by.
"Sorry!" Fred apologised, mopping Ginny's drenched hair with a tea-towel he grabbed from the sink “ the indignant Ginny fended him off with a slap “ but at that moment someone grabbed Harry's arm and dragged him out of the room.
"Hermione!" said Harry, bewildered, as she yanked him, wild-eyed, into the hallway. "What's going “"
"Snape!" Hermione said breathlessly, wringing her hands, "Professor Snape, he's just come through the Floo “ he's upstairs right now!"
"What?"
"He told me to get the Order, it's really urgent, but “ but we'll need to explain that he's innocent!"
Harry stared at her. "He's really upstairs? You're not kidding me?" She shook her head, but before she could speak, a familiar voice reached Harry's ears.
"Hurry, Potter, get a move on!" Looking up, Harry saw with a jolt the familiar sallow-face and greasy black hair of his ex-Potions teacher. "Alert the Order," Snape hissed, leaning over the banister. "I'm saving all your skins here, so I'd appreciate it if you'd tell them not to attack upon sight. Now go!"
But Harry's legs seemed to have frozen to the ground. "What's happened?" he asked quickly, suddenly filled with cold dread. "And how did you get in?"
"Harry, come on!" Hermione moaned, tugging his arm.
But at that moment, the kitchen door swung open and Mrs Weasley come into the hallway. "Harry, Hermione? What are you “" Then she screamed.
"Snape!" she shrieked, horrified, grabbing Harry and pushing him into the safety of the drawing room. "Severus Snape! Oh my “ Arthur! Alastor! Kingsley! Protego! Stupefy! STUPEFY!"
Suddenly every member of the Order of the Phoenix was in the hallway. Snape swiftly withdrew his head, as Mrs Weasley’s stunning spells bounced harmlessly off the banister, but it was too late: alarmed shouts filled the hall, and soon every wand was drawn.
"STOP!"Harry bellowed at the top of his lungs, pushing his way in panic out of the drawing room. "Wait, don't do anything “ he's on our side! He’s ON OUR SIDE!"