No Laughing Matter

Chapter Thirty-One

The sun had barely risen above the horizon when their mother shook George and Fred awake.

"Five more minutes, Mum! Please?" whimpered George as he pulled the pillow over his head to block out the light.

"Come on, you two. It's going to be a busy day. I don't know if you boys have anything appropriate here to wear today, and Rowan and Carly want to get to their own flat to pick up some things," Molly said briskly. "The funeral is going to start at ten o'clock."

"Mum," Fred said sleepily as he swung his legs out from under the blankets and onto the floor. "Aren't we going to look strange wearing robes in a Muggle cemetery?"

"Don't you worry about that," Molly assured him. "There are Charms in place to prevent anyone from noticing anything out of the ordinary. Now hurry up! We've less than three hours."

When she was convinced that her boys were really getting out of bed, she moved along to wake the others, but stopped in the doorway to say, "By the way; Dumbledore will be coming back here to talk to the Winters family about the Order. I won't stop you if you still want to join,"

"Mum...." Fred said, not sure what he could possibly say. She had fought against them for so long on this point, they thought that she would never relent, and that they would be forced to fight and work with the Order in secret.

"It's okay, Fred. The past couple of days have proven to me that we're all in danger, whether you're members or not. I think I would be better off at least knowing what you're getting into." She said quietly. "I know you'll be careful."

George walked over to give his Mum a hug, and Fred followed suit. She wiped a tear from her eye, and left them alone. As they were pulling on robes for the trip to the girl's flat, and then their own, Fred suddenly said, "What do you say we have Harry add a few more hands to the clock when he has it rebuilt? One each for Harry, Fleur, Carly and Rowan?"

George looked at his twin thoughtfully for a moment before smiling. "That sounds just about perfect. We never did get around to having our talk."

"I think we know what it was going to be about," Fred said. "It can wait until after today."

They left the room to go and find the girls, and then ate a quick breakfast before Apparating away. They somehow found two sets of good clean robes in Fred's closet, and grabbed some that needed laundering, before checking on the shop and leaving a note for Lee. They traveled to Rowan and Carly's flat, and after check that it was safe, left them to pack what they needed while Fred and George went down to check on Eunice.

Within an hour, they were back at Nigel and Suzette's and getting ready to go to the funeral. There were people bumping into each other in the hallway, and waiting turns for the bathroom, but no one was speaking much. Fred was the fastest to get ready, and so he went into the kitchen to find Toolah busy cooking for any visitors who came back with them afterward. Harry and Ron were sitting at the table, halfheartedly playing a game of chess, while Bill had a worn, and much folded piece of parchment in his hand, and was reading it with intense concentration. The mood in the house was one of expectation, and so he simply took a seat at the table and quietly watched the boys play their game. Harry was dressed in navy blue dress robes, which were probably new, since Harry seemed to have grown about four inches since the last time Fred had seen him; Ron was wearing the set of deep plum robes that he and George had bought him last year. They still fit him well, and Fred wondered idly if Ron had finally quit growing; he was taller than bill now by about and inch.

Arthur came in and sat down as well, wearing a set of the robes that Charlie and George had picked out, and Fred asked him, "What's the plan, dad?"

"We'll all Apparate - or portkey - to the burrow," Arthur answered quietly. "Alastor, and Tonks will meet us there to be Harry's guard."

Harry rolled his eyes at this, but did not look away from the chessboard, where one of his pawns was being bludgeoned by one of Ron's pieces.

"There will be two cars waiting there for us, on loan from the Ministry, so that we don't draw too much attention on the way to the cemetery," Arthur continued.

Soon they were joined by George and Rowan, and then Carly, Suzette, Nigel, and finally Molly and Ginny. As soon as they were all gathered and ready to go, they walked as a group to the end of the front walk. Everyone except Arthur, Harry, Ron and Ginny Apparated away to the Burrow; Arthur pulled the same wooden spoon from the day before out of his robes and sent the others on their way. With a deep breath, he said a little prayer for the strength they would need to face the rest of the day, and disappeared with a pop.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*

It was early evening by the time anyone got any rest. The day had been long and emotionally draining, and now everyone who was home was gathered together around the Winters' large kitchen table. No one was speaking much; Charlie and Bill had disappeared together shortly after Dumbledore had welcomed Suzette, Nigel, Rowan, Carly, Fred and George formally into the Order. Rowan and George had also left when she had announced that she had to finish and hand in an article at work. Carly and Fred were sitting on a bench in the back garden talking quietly together about everything that she had just learned about the Order. Arthur was letting Harry distract him with a game of Chess, while Ginny and Ron worked on the schoolwork they were missing.

No one paid much attention when an owl arrived with the evening paper, and Toolah paid for it and sent it on its way. She brought the paper to Nigel and went back to cooking dinner; it was the first meal that Molly hadn't tried to help cook. Nigel opened the paper to look at the front page for news, when Carly came in with cheeks pink from the cold and announced, "Rowan's new column is supposed to be in the evening paper."

Fred came in and slipped half-frozen fingers on Ginny's neck, making her squeal, as Nigel turned to the appropriate section and scanned over the page until he found it. He eyes widened momentarily as he read, and everyone looked at him curiously. Finally Suzette urged, it's Rowans first go at her column; read it out loud!"

Everyone nodded and listened with interest. He cleared his throat and read what his niece had chosen as her first piece.

"Everyday Matters by Rowan Winters

I attended the funeral of a Death Eater today.

Sounds strange, doesn't it? Why would anyone bother to hold a funeral for a Death Eater? Because that ugly title was not what defined the man who lost his life - he had many titles, including Son, Brother, Friend. I stood at his graveside with his family, and listened to the words of grief and comfort that one always hears when a loved one passes on. I spoke sincere words of comfort myself, and did my best to lend kind words to those in need of them. Mother and Father, Sister and Brothers and a handful of family friends stood silently by and watched as one of their own was laid to rest. A final farewell for a young man who only wanted what was promised to him, but got, instead, a premature death at the hands of a man who was supposed to be a comrade.

How did he get here? That is a long tale to tell, with no clear beginning and a tragic end. According to his family, he had been an ambitious youth who had craved approval and always followed the rules. He had loved to read, and took his studies seriously. He was never one to shirk his duty, and tried to perform his duties with a precise and unwavering vision of propriety and control. During his schooling at Hogwarts he achieved top marks in most classes, and was chosen as a Gryffindor Prefect, and later, Head Boy. He had a respectable job with the Ministry of Magic, which he took very seriously and did well.

You might be asking yourself now, 'How did such an upstanding citizen of the Wizarding community become a Death Eater?' And the answer is simpler than most people realize: lies. He was deceived and caught by the people in authority that he trusted. He was lead away from his home and his family with a carefully laid trap of propaganda about purity of blood and promises of power. This young man who had shown so much promise was seduced by Voldemort and his followers into believing that all he had been taught before by his family, teachers and society was wrong.

In the end, the side that this young man chose betrayed him. He was not killed in battle, fighting valiantly for what he believed to be truth; he was not done-in by Aurors or the MLE during an attempt to flee. Another Death Eater Cold-bloodedly murdered him when he was unable to perform the initiation rite of Voldemort's followers. He couldn't bring himself to kill one of his own family members, and paid the ultimate price for his so-called weakness.

So as I stood at the graveside of this man that was a Son, Brother, Friend and even a Death Eater, I sound myself listening raptly to the words of this man's older brother, as he attempted to convey his feelings to those gathered with these words, which he read from a tattered piece of parchment:

"We are all here today to say good-bye; to mark the passing of my brother from this earth, and to remember him one last time together as a group.

As we were growing up, it was my responsibility, as the older brother, to watch over him. It felt good to be in the role of a teacher, and to have him look up to me and try to copy everything I did, and I tried to encourage him when he would try to do better than me. At times, I know I became impatient and cross with him, and resented the burden of being the oldest, always having to set a good example. But, when he followed in my footsteps and did well in school and became a Prefect and Head Boy, I knew that I had done my job well.

I suppose that I felt that I had done my job well enough that I no longer needed to look out for my little brother. After all, he was no longer a little boy, and I had my own life to lead. I stopped taking an active interest in his pursuits and, after some time away from home, began to realize that he and I had grown apart in ambition and interests. We had become different in so many ways, that neither of us recognized the other after a while, but he was still my brother, and I loved him.

I remember the day my little brother made his choice to leave our family. Angry words were said on both sides, and each side believed their judgment to be the best. I confronted my brother then, and told him that he was doing the wrong thing; I tried to pick up the mantle of Big Brother once more, only to find that it no longer fit. I told him then that if he truly believed that he was right and that we were wrong, then we had nothing more to say to each other. And we didn't. I never really got the chance to speak to him again. I never got to tell his that no matter what side he chose, he was still my brother, and I still loved him. Even then, I never would have believed that he would come to this. I can only imagine what lies and the poison was fed into his mind once he left the shelter of family and home. And so I am here today to tell him that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for not being there to look out for you and to stand up for you when things began to change inside you.

We now know that war is upon us all, and we have all made our choices as to which side we will stand with. We have already suffered losses because of it and are bound to suffer more before the end. But for today, I stand here to say good-bye to my brother. I didn't get the chance to say it to him while he was alive, and so now I must try to tell him now that he is gone. Good-bye little brother. I still love you."

Perhaps not the most eloquent words ever spoken by mankind, but still a testament to the importance of family and the choices that we all make in life. I, for one, plan to take away from all of this a simple, yet essential lesson: stand together. Don't let fear or greed or false promises rule your life and make you into someone you're not. Don't let another day go by without telling those people that are important to you that you love them.

Dedicated to the Memory of Percy Weasley (1977-1996).

They had all heard Bill's words, spoken at the graveside earlier that day. They had all shed tears and done their best to fortify each other, but it seemed that Rowan's column had achieved what all of the comforting words and sentiments had not. It opened to door to communication.

"I remember the first time we introduced Percy to his brothers," Molly said, smiling through her tears. "He was skinny and had the trademark red hair, and cried like a banshee. When Bill and Charlie saw him, they looked at his tiny face, screwed up and bawling, and Bill said, 'Is he going to do that all the time?' and Charlie just made a face at him and went back to playing as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened." Her watery chuckle was met with warm smiles from everyone else.

"I remember the first time Bill went to Hogwarts," Arthur said. "It was time to leave for the train station, and we couldn't find Percy or Ginny anywhere."

Ginny sniffled and giggled at the same time. "They found us together crammed into Bill's school trunk. We had tossed everything else out of it, determined that we were going to go to Hogwarts too," she explained. "He almost didn't make it to the train on time."

"I remember the first letter Percy sent me from school," Fred said with a crooked smile. He was undecided at to whether the memory was sad or happy. "George and I had gotten a huge tin of itching powder, and thought he might like to have some to use in pranks at school. We didn't want to part with the entire tin, though, so we just owled him a big envelope full. Needless to say it was a disaster. His first letter to George and me was not as happy as we had expected."

The others laughed at the story, but Fred merely smiled wistfully. "I remember that!" George said, entering with Rowan. "I think I've still got that letter somewhere."

Rowan looked a bit nervous as she came into the kitchen, still wrapped in her cloak, with the smell of autumn air clinging to her. "Mr. And Mrs. Weasley," she said uncertainly. "I can see you've already gotten he paper. I wanted to tell you about the article before you saw it. I hope that you're not angry."

"Angry?" Arthur looked quizzical. "Why should we be angry?"

"Well," Rowan said. "Grief is a very private thing."

"What you wrote was beautiful," Molly assured her, standing and putting her arms around her. "Thank you for sharing it with everyone. Not all of them will understand, but it doesn't matter; it was the truth."

Rowan smiled and returned the embrace, and then she and George joined the group at the table. Fred gave her his seat, and excused himself, even as Ron began to say, "I remember the time Percy caught me coming out a girl's bathroom in my second year..."

Carly, seeing the look of sadness on his face, sent her twin a look that said, 'He'll be okay,' before giving up her seat as well and following him out.