No Laughing Matter

"George!" Rowan hissed, and prodded at his prone figure, asleep under his cloak. "George wake up! There's something happening."

George opened his eyes and saw Rowan's face hovering above him; the rest of her was covered in a dark hooded cloak. She wore an excited look on her face, and he finally registered what she had just said. He sat up and let her help him to his feet, then fastened his cloak around his shoulders to ward off the frigid pre-dawn air.

They had been watching the house for any activity since lunchtime the previous day, but had not seen much of anything up until now. Rowan had coaxed George into casting a Disillusionment charm on her when they had first arrived, and she had discovered that there were wards and charms cast around all of the windows, to discourage any 'visitors' from getting too close. They had intended to camp away from the house, but had been unable to find a suitable observation point with adequate cover for them, and so they had moved closer. Too close, in George's opinion, but as he hadn't had any better solution, they found a spot that was well covered by a thicket of trees and shrubs on the eastern border of the property.

There was definite movement at the house now; someone had appeared at the southern border of the property, and was now walking briskly toward the front of the house. George pulled out the Omnioculars he had 'borrowed' from Ron's trunk before the school term and held them to his eyes for a better look. It looked as if there were two figures walking together, their faces obscured in shadow, but unquestionably the forms of a man and woman. Rowan was rummaging in her pockets for the extra-long Extendable Ears they had brought, and produced one for each of them. George took the flesh-colored string from her and handed without taking his eyes from the figures. After a moment the front door of the house opened, and he could easily see the form of Narcissa Malfoy framed in the doorway, and the two figures approaching her were washed in the light spilling from the open door. George swore so badly and loudly, that Rowan gave a start and hissed at him to quiet down, then had to grab him and clamp a hand over his mouth to keep him from jumping out from their cover and running toward the new arrivals.

"George, don't be stupid! Are you trying to get us killed?" she hissed at him, pulling her wand in case he tried to make a break for it. She didn't want to have to hex him, but if he didn't give her any choice, she'd put him in a Full Body Bind.

"It's Percy," he hissed back at her, breathing hard, but staying hidden. "And he's with Bellatrix LaStrange."

Rowan grabbed the Omnioculars from George and put them to her own eyes. She saw that the man of the group was tall and lanky, and did indeed have red hair, though she couldn't see enough of his face to make a positive identification from the pictures she'd seen of George's older brother. She could always use the Omnioculars' play back feature later to confirm what George had seen. The two women were a perfect foil for one another; one was tall and dark haired with angular, sunken features, and the other was a pale blonde, with an icy, haughty look to her. All three people in the doorway were dressed in Death Eater's robes, though no masks covered their faces, and their hoods were down. Rowan and George inserted the ends of the Extendable Ears into their own ears, and watched as the other ends snaked their way toward the house. At first all they heard was a rustling as the fleshy string slithered its way through the grass, but then they began to hear the voices of those who were standing in the doorway.

"...should be here any moment," Bellatrix was saying.

"We can wait for them in the sitting room; Pettigrew has been here since yesterday morning, working on the map." Narcissa said, standing aside to admit them into the foyer of the large house.

Something about that statement set off a vague alarm in George's head, but at that moment, Rowan gave her Extendable Ear a sharp tug and brought it back to her with a sound of disgust and frustration. The Extendable Ears could not follow them inside, and the wards and charms on the windows would not allow the ears to get near. She had settled herself down on the ground, her back propped on a thick tree trunk while she rummaged through her satchel. She produced a book, and began to mumble to herself as she riffled through its pages, apparently looking for counter-spells that would allow them to get close enough to eavesdrop.

George did not pull his Ear back, since Bellatrix had mentioned more arrivals; he didn't want to miss a word of any conversations to come. He considered going to get some sort of authority figures, they were spying on an apparent meeting of Death Eaters that included at least one escaped convict, but he abandoned the idea because he knew that Rowan would never agree to leave at this point. George admitted to himself that he did not want to leave, either, because Percy was in that house, and if he called in the Order or Aurors, Percy would surely be sent to prison. He wasn't sure he was ready to put his mother through that kind of anguish. He cursed silently to himself at the situation he found himself in, and was only brought out of his black mood by the arrival of more figures at the property line, at the same spot as before. He signaled to Rowan, who jumped up and pulled out the flesh colored string and snapped it out to travel toward the front door.

Rowan quickly put the Omnioculars to her eyes and whispered, "Right. Looks like we've got four figures, all men." The sky was beginning to pale toward dawn, and made the features on this group more easily distinguishable. "I don't recognize any of them."

George took the Omnioculars from her and had a look for himself. "I'm not sure, either," he said. The door of the house opened once more to admit the new comers, and he suspected that the front of the house was being watched, or that there was a charm in place that would alert them to new arrivals. Bellatrix was the one to meet the newest arrivals this time, and she spoke harshly to them.

"You imbeciles are late! Hurry up and get into the dining room. The map is almost finished, and it's going to need some complicated spell work if it's to be of any value to the Dark Lord."

"Was Weasley able to provide any of the missing details?' one of the men asked as he stepped inside.

"Not as many as...." Bellatrix began to answer, but turned and shut the door before George and Rowan could hear more.

"Damn it!" George murmured angrily. It was looking more and more like Percy was willingly aiding the Death Eaters.

He was working hard to master his emotions, when all he wanted to do was storm into the house in front of him and drag his brother out of there while hexing everyone in sight. Rowan on the other hand, had gone momentarily back to her book, then shut it with a snap, and pulled out her wand. Pointing her wand at the nearest window on the eastern side of the house, she tried a spell.

"Finite imperturbatus!"

There was a faint bluish glow for a moment around the window frame, and then everything seemed to be the way it had been before.

"Did it work?" George asked, tugging his Extendable Ear back and pocketing it.

"One way to find out." She said, tugging her own Ear back and snapping back out in the direction of the window. After a moment of concentration, she shook her head, and went back to her book, looking for what other spells might have been used on the place.

She tried twice more, and each time the faint glow appeared around the pane, then faded. On the third try, Rowan gave George a thumbs up sign, and he sent an Ear toward the window. There was a heated argument going on within, over the map that had been mentioned before, and he distinctly heard his brother's voice in the mix.

"You've got that part wrong." Percy's condescending manner hadn't changed much since he had left his family, "That corridor is on the fourth floor, and leads to a stairwell that comes out near greenhouse number three."

Alarm bells were definitely ringing in George's mind now, and he turned to Rowan and demanded, "Do a Disillusionment charm on me, quick!"

The urgency in George's voice made Rowan pause in her observations, and pulled out her wand. She wasn't sure what was causing him so much distress, but she didn't want him to risk getting caught by charging ahead without cover. She tapped his head sharply with her want while muttering, "Occaeco Praestigiae!" She knew by his quick shiver that he was experiencing the chill of the spell spreading over him from the point where her wand had touched.

"Remember, you aren't invisible," she admonished, and bit her lip as she watched the ripple of movement that he made as he approached the window. Because her Extendable Ear was still in place, she would be able to hear him once he got close to the house. She prayed that he would remain as still as possible once he got there, so that he would blend in with his surroundings without giving away his position.

George kept himself bent double, making as small an object of his body as possible as he hurried toward the window at which they'd been listening. If the Death Eaters were doing what he feared, then he would have to report it immediately to the order and to Dumbledore. He needed to confirm his suspicions, and to do that; he needed to see the inside of the house, even if it was just through the window. He crouched under the casement, and spotted the end of Rowan's Extendable Ear up against the side of the house, near the lowest windowpane. George reinserted his own listening device and sent it the short distance to lie flat along the side of the window.

Using the quietest voice he could manage, he whispered, "I've got to try to see the map they're working on."

Rowan breathed a sigh of relief that he was keeping her informed. She could barely make out his outline against the stone of the house, and wanted to know what he was doing, and that he was still safe. She had no way to communicate with him while he was that far away from her, and she didn't like it. When they were done here, she vowed to persuade him into invent something that would allow covert two-way communication. Feeling helpless, she put the Omnioculars to her eyes and held her breath as she watched the ripple of movement that told her George was standing upright and leaning to look into the window. The swear she heard him utter under his breath told her that the window was either still charmed, or that it wasn't affording him view he needed.

"This window is to the sitting room," he whispered, crouching low to move to the next window. "I need to move to the one just north of this one. See if you can counter spell it so I can get close."

Rowan tugged back the Ear and withdrew her wand again. She muttered the spells that had worked for the other window in quick succession, and the faint blue glow appeared again, and then quickly faded. She sent the Ear out once more toward the new window, and listened to George approach.

"That's it," he whispered, "Now if these idiots would just move a little out of the way.... Damn! It's just what I ...."

Rowan, who had been watching through the Omnioculars, never got hear what he might have said next, because she saw his form reappear in the gathering morning light and crumple to the ground in a heap. Searching wildly around for the cause of his collapse, she spotted a figure materialize from thin air; his attacker had been under an invisibility cloak, by the looks of it. It was one of the four men who had arrived at the house last that morning, and he was standing over George with his wand raised. Rowan didn't have time to think then, because several things began to happen at once.

She jumped from her hiding place and pointed her wand at George's attacker, saying fiercely, "Petrificus Totalus!" The man's arms and legs snapped together, and he fell heavily to the ground. Another figure rounded the side of the house, and pointed a wand at Rowan; she didn't hear the curse he used, but it hit her with enough force to knock her backward several feet. She heard a sickening snap and knew that her right arm was badly broken, and it was only the adrenaline pumping through her system that kept her from blacking out. She switched her wand to her left hand and prayed that it would work as well as it did in her right. The new comer had freed his companion from the full body bind she had placed on him, and were advancing on her while a third had appeared from the back of the house, and used another spell on George, who had been showing signs of life, that made him convulse terribly. Ignoring the two men coming at her, she sent a curse flying at George's assailant and watched with satisfaction as he dropped to the ground without moving.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no," became the mantra in her head, a denial that everything could have gone so terribly wrong so quickly, and a prayer for George at the same time.

She dodged the jet of red light that was shot at her out of pure luck, and screamed as she felt another curse hit her legs. Again, she didn't hear the incantation of the curse that hit her, but excruciating pain radiated through her legs and made them give way under her. Another spell followed that caught her in the shoulder as she fell, and spun her onto her stomach. She clung to consciousness long enough to see one of her attackers fall inexplicably to the ground, and the other turn to see what had happened to him. The second man fell to the ground as well, and it was then that Rowan could see a tall, dark skinned bald man advancing toward the men with his wand at the ready. There was now a great deal of noise filling the morning air, as several of the house's occupants fled in every direction to the borders of the property where they could safely Apparate away. All of the house's occupants now had their Death Eater masks in place and their hoods drawn up over their heads; the newly arrived men were giving chase, firing spell after spell at the moving targets. One or two fierce duels ensued, but in the end, most of the Death Eaters escaped. Rowan lost consciousness long before the last curse was thrown. She didn't feel a thing when she was levitated onto a stretcher by her rescuers and borne away.