The Unknown Witness

Chapter Ten: Time for the Truth

They ran. Sirius now had adopted the role of Claudia's guide, as if she were his sole responsibility, his sole possession, something so delicate and precious he had to protect it at all costs. And not just for himself. The guilt he felt was blazing in his eyes and hardly avoidable. He almost held himself with open disgust; ashamed of dragging the innocent into what he thought should have been his battle alone. The events of Halloween had turned him into a solo flyer, not just for his own ease but to protect those he loved the most. He didn't want anyone else hurt. He thought he had failed himself.

The group followed Draco absently, his cloak billowing out behind as he turned the corners of the lair like he knew it as well as the back of his hand. Then the thought occurred to Harry that this was probably the case. He pondered this fleetingly as he ran, the sharp corners of the time turner in digging in his pocket, bashing against his leg with every step and reminding him how they got into this sorry mess in the first place. But why was Draco helping them? What did he get out of it? Was this really the boy who only two months ago had come into his compartment on the Hogwarts Express proclaiming the rise of the dark with glee? Draco's words that day echoed round his mind... 'They'll be the first to go, now the Dark Lord's back! Mudbloods and Muggle-lovers first!' So many questions it made his head spin. It just didn't add up. Something had changed. Or so he hoped. He felt he couldn't confront anything more complicated right now. And by the blank looks of unregistered emotion that graced the faces of Ron and Hermione, Harry could tell they were feeling the same way. There was no more need for words between the three of them. Things had gone beyond that.

Remus was just quiet. He always was in bad situations, remembered Arabella who was running briskly in the werewolf's shadow. Silent and thoughtful. He'd always be quiet until the last possible moment and then come out with something that would save all our necks. He was always the dependable one. Remus was always the one to suffer the most, to always lose, to be left in the gutter until his friends picked him out again, not because he felt better down there but it was where nature seemed to place him. That always to her seemed unfair. Remus is the most decent of the lot, she thought. He deserved to be an angel. Oh why did we think he was the spy? She groaned silently to herself. It was Pettigrew. It was always going to be Pettigrew. Friendship makes us blind. And taking a sideways glance at the witness up ahead, it came to her that it made others blinder still.

Lucy on the other hand was too scared to think. She even had to remind herself to breathe. She was running from a danger she couldn't have dreamed of in the darkest of her nightmares. This place stank of it, the fumes of evil wafting along the halls, filling the air with its unnatural fragrance that made her feel sick to the bone and drained her of everything else. Every step was an effort, dragging her feet along with herself as the soles of her shoes pounded the floor. She didn't want to be here. She didn't want to face any of this. She just wanted to take her sister, wrap her in a comforting blanket that would protect her from hell and go home. Back to Rochester, back to number forty-seven. Back to Paul. Paul. Her throat seized up at the thought of him three thousand miles away, oblivious to it all. Oblivious to the magic, the danger and the drought. She wanted to see his face round the next bend, for him to smile and take her in his arms and say everything was going to be all right. She wanted to get out of here. She didn't want it to be real.

Claudia wasn't thinking either, but for entirely different reasons, and Sirius had his hand clasped tightly round her wrist and wasn't going to let go even if the world was to explode. They owned each other now. She was his saviour, as he was hers. They had a mutual dependence. And for some reason she couldn't put her finger on as she felt the damp air rush over her face as they ran, that was all she was going to need. Faith. Hope. Justice. They were the means to the end for both of them. And that's what drove her on.

The footsteps were getting closer as Draco rounded them off into a smaller side passage, barely used and even darker than the cells before. Sirius and Claudia delved in first while the others filed in behind, Harry eventually standing at the front to look Draco square in the eye to demand some answers. He could see his enemy's slate like eyes growl and narrow at him under the darkness of his hood. There was no lost love between them.

'What are you playing at, Malfoy!?' Harry almost yelled, too taken aback by the sudden turn of events to conceal his presence to the other Death Eaters. He glared desperately at Draco. 'Are you trying to get yourself killed or something?' he whispered frantically, realising the need for stealth. 'Playing double agent? I...'

'Potter...' came the hiss of a reply as Draco raised his wand. 'Are you going to shut up or am I going to have to force you?'

Draco now held his wand up high across his face, brandishing it like a lethal weapon. Harry gripped his own tighter in his right hand and took a step back, alarmed by Draco's forwardness. He soon gave up trying to understand. Draco glanced frantically down the hallway, then back to Harry again who observed for the first time that the Death Eater's eyes were alert with panic.

'Stun me,' he whispered.

Harry's face froze. 'What?'

'Stun me and then carry on down that hall,' Draco repeated, calm and collectedly. 'I can't stay with you, it's too risky. The others are getting too close. Take the first corridor you come to on the left and go up a floor at the first opportunity. The bog floor isn't far. Just get them out of here and be thankful you got lucky.'

'But Draco...' came Hermione's voice for the first time out of the darkness. It sounded just as baffled as Harry's. Harry could sense Ron step forward.

'Just do it!'

'With pleasure...'

Harry didn't even see where the spell had come from, the beam of light searing over his head, striking Draco down, his weakened form falling unconscious to the stone floor with a painful, stomach churning thump. Ron now walked up behind Harry with a mischievous smile on his face, looking at the fallen Slytherin with a fair amount of self-satisfaction.

'You don't know how long I've been waiting to do that,' said Ron, pocketing his wand and turning to the rest of the group. 'Let's go.'

And as the footsteps were increasing with alarming frequency, no one was going to argue with that. They turned and fled up the corridor, leaving Draco in a heap of darkened robes in the middle of the opposing passage, hood down, sleeves flopped back and the beginnings of a dark mark etched onto his arm exposed to the air and facing up to the darkened sky. He would not be found until the dawn.

***

The footsteps refused to fade. Harry could have sworn they were coming from every direction, intent on encircling them all until there was no where else to go, until they closed in on them with their wands raised high and told them it was time to greet their doom. The passage Draco had told them to follow had been a very good one at that, but by cutting him off so soon they were soon lost on the floor above. They found themselves feeling much more exposed as they wound their way through cavernous rooms lit by large yet dimmer lanterns that limited the amount of negotiable shadow. Their run had been reduced to a creep, and it wasn't a pace Harry felt comfortable with. The longer they were in there, the more concentrated the ache in his scar seemed to become. And it was beginning to become unbearable.

Water was dripping from the ceiling as they entered yet another meeting hall. This one was decorated with various elaborate woods, crafted into spindly chairs that were much sturdier than they looked, demonstrated by the vast pile of menacing books that were piled high on one in the corner. It was almost like their library. The idea of educated Death Eaters seemed frankly dangerous. They paused to catch their breath, Hermione running a finger down the titles that seemed to make her cringe. Hermione could cope with most things, but specialised texts regarding curses that could rip apart your soul and keep you conscious for the pain of it were enough to make her physically wince. Ron looked pained just watching her. Harry wondered not for the first time today why he made them go through this, the doubt in his own ability obviously showing in his face as Hermione quashed it with a scolding glance and Ron just raised his eyebrows. For it was then that the worst did happen.

Sirius sensed it first, the canine flashing in his eyes as he turned to face the door as the footsteps made their final approach. They had delayed too long. There was no use trying to hide. Harry whipped out his wand, Hermione too, as Sirius attempted to install Claudia and her sister in the darkest corner for their safety, his hands pushing the pair of them wildly away while Lucy simply gasped and Claudia remained deathly silent, as if she too could sense the danger. Ron, holding his own wand between his fingers as the door began to crack open, searched his pocket frantically and stumbled over to Sirius as the light from the entrance of the Death Eaters finally exposed the subject.

'Sirius!' Ron yelled as the Death Eaters began to shout their command, throwing some object across the remaining space between them that Sirius caught without taking very much notice. Everyone in the room had looked up to watch it descend in its arc, spinning in the air as light as a feather, its whitened tips somehow glowing brighter now. Sirius didn't see what it was until he closed his fingers around it.

'What the...' he muttered. It wasn't the fact it was a wand that surprised him. Sirius hadn't had a wand since Azkaban, his own being snapped into two painful splinters as the last sight he saw before the despair of the Dementors devoured him. He could recall it like it was yesterday. He knew he would never see it again. He'd had to survive on his own natural magic, what he could expel from his soul had helped him through the years, to recover his Animagus status and swim his way back to freedom to start. He'd learned to live without it. He'd forgotten the power holding a wand could bring. But this wand wasn't his. He shot Ron a very puzzled look, and the redhead began to open his mouth to explain when the wood seemed to burn Sirius' fingers and he dropped it, yelping with pain and surprise but his paling face wasn't giving anything away. One thing was certain: he didn't want to go near that instrument ever, ever again. It was evil.

But Claudia sensed it when it fell for a second time and held out her hand to receive it. It had been lurking in her room for all these years after all. She was familiar with it, but not with its intent. She even felt her lips move into a tiny little smile as she entwined the wood around her fingers, instantly feeling familiar with its grain and holding it in front of her protectively. Sirius just stared.

'Don't worry,' she said without a hint of fear in her voice. 'I know what to do.'

And they didn't get much chance to go beyond that as the Death Eaters saw the scene before them. They all had their wands raised.

'Expelliarmus!'

Harry issued the cry and it was effective to an extent. The wands of the nearest three Death Eaters soared high into the air, falling to the ground in a silent clatter as its impact was muted by the sound of battle breaking out. A rattled cry came from the other side of the room as the air was sparked alive with a shower of curses that thankfully missed their target. Arabella was back as the Auror and was truly in the job. Shooting one curse that caused a Death Eater to grasp his face with pain, she grabbed the shoulder of Remus' robes and threw him back toward the wall out of the blast of another group who'd entered the room through the back door. They were surrounded.

Sirius instantly sensed the change in atmosphere and the composition of his body reflected this. In a blink of an eye he morphed down to floor level, the dog-like form of the black haired Padfoot emerging from the dark to snarl and bite at the enemy like an evil hound of the winter moor, teeth rabidly exposed and hate alive in his eyes. He barked and snapped at Claudia's feet, keeping people away as she held the wand aloft, poised to strike.

A scream interrupted the proceedings from the general direction of Hermione. Before having to dodge a spark of blue light that seared across his shoulder scolding the skin as he fell, Harry saw her twist and twitch painfully on the ground, her hair spread out wildly as the Death Eater stood over her, satisfied with his work. The Cruciatus curse.

'Hermione!'

But then Ron made a charging assault at the Death Eater who inflicted the damage, forgetting his wand and merely going for the cloaked servant's throat, fists coming first in a desperate flurry that were enough for Hermione to recover shakily and effectively stun the offending enemy. But Ron didn't take any notice. He carried on punching - an upper cut there, a kick to the ribs - overtaken by a flight of rage and fury that scared Hermione so much she had to drag him off her attacker before his friends cast upon him a similar, painful fate. Harry had never seen Ron so emotionless. It scared him to see that this was the effect of the dark. Hermione staggered over, breathless, and slipped behind the chair next to Harry and looked across the scene with him as he allowed a second to catch his breath.

'Are you OK?' he managed to yell over the din that was Arabella and her one-woman war. Hermione nodded, panting slightly with a hand held over her heart, as if she wanted to check it was still alive and beating. Harry wasn't surprised - he knew exactly how she felt. And he knew he didn't want anyone feeling that way ever again, so he tightened his grip on his wand and prepared to rejoin the fray.

The battle was looking desperately lost. They were cornered. More and more Death Eaters were piling in both sets of doors, beginning to encircle the marauders in the centre of the room. Remus had knocked some sense into Arabella who finally allowed him to help, both working back to back with wands held out like swords, a smoky haze now filling the room as they lashed out to protect themselves from the onslaught. But it was a worthless effort. Eventually a well placed Disiunctio charm sent Arabella flying, Remus ducking for cover as dust and rock fell from the ceiling in the spell's wake, sprinkling him with a fine layer of powder that settled on the shoulder of his darkened clothes and losing his wand in the process. He recovered quickly only to be greeted by his own wand being directed straight between his eyes as he attempted to scramble backwards away from it. The Death Eater cackled as two of his friends came up to join him. It was no good. Touché. Arabella simply rolled across the floor and landed on her feet with the elegance of a dancer, not missing a single beat as she scanned the room for new hazards.

'Sirius! Look out!'

The Muggles had been spotted, and a new group of Death Eaters zoned straight in towards their corner. Sirius dove. At first the snarling dog split the pack, tearing robes and skin as he attempted to divert their attention away from the terrified sisters.

'Get him off me, get off me!'

The Death Eater Sirius was in the middle of savaging was desperately swiping at the grim like mongrel, the hood of his cloak falling back to reveal a man Harry failed to recognise. His eyes were as black as Whitby jet as they shone through the darkness in terror of the animal about to rip out his throat, his mouse-coloured hair falling haphazardly in his face obscuring it from his attacker. He cried out yet again.

Harry almost yelled out himself in anguish as another Death Eater managed to grab old Padfoot painfully by the scruff of his neck. He yanked him back out of harming his colleague and threw the dog hard against the wall, the impact a sickening, bone breaking thud that made Sirius whine with pain as he slumped slowly to the ground. For Harry that was enough. He went to attack but found he wasn't going to be quick enough.

'Claudia!'

The witness turned just in time to feel the heat of the curse soaring through the air towards her. Harry went to divert them but found himself engulfed by the enemy and unable to be of aid. Before he could utter a word he was tackled by the biggest Death Eater of the lot, a physical tackle around his waist that sent him flying to the ground with all the air knocked out of him. He gasped and could only watch as they approached Claudia with their wands raised, ready for the kill.

But somehow, she was ready. The first wave she'd managed to duck, the holes they'd sizzled in the stone clearly visible behind her and Lucy, who was whispering their positions to her sister in her ear as they began the final run. But to Harry's amazement, it was seemingly unnecessary. She knew exactly what to do. She had the sense. She had the wand. She waved it.

Whatever she did, it worked. As she brought the wand across her and Lucy, it left a trail of sparks so silver Harry couldn't have imagined anything more beautiful as he struggled underneath the weight of the attackers currently intent on pinning him to the ground. She brought the wand round in a high, elegant arc, the shower of sparks raining down in front of the pair of them and shielding them in a mist that seemed to solidify, then disappear, before their very eyes. And the next volley of curses just bounced off.

'The Shield Charm...' he heard Hermione say in a stage whisper above the din of his attackers, astounded. 'But how...?'

It brought her time. Sirius was beginning to stir. Arabella on the other hand found herself being grabbed from behind, her arm twisted up her back until the sickening crack at her elbow forced her to release her wand, the wood clattering to the ground. Harry could see her wince. Hermione's hiding place was quickly found by a flood of new recruits, her grunts of objection as she was dragged to her weakened feet by another Death Eater causing Ron to dive again. He was however quickly and skilfully silenced by an unsuspected Stunning spell from the direction of the newly arrived Lucius Malfoy. Ron fell to the floor with a thud while Lucius' anger raised the roof. Claudia's shield shook with fright, flickered and died. This was it. They were done for. There was no turning back

'Take them all down to the Master.'

And then Harry felt something hard strike him across the back of his head and he fell unconscious to the ground, to remember nothing at all.

***

'Enervate...'

Harry groaned. He felt as if his head had been beaten with a sledgehammer, puncturing his brain and letting all sane and sensible thought out. He felt vulnerable. He couldn't see. He sensed his glasses were lying at his feet, so he felt around the ground and finally recovered them, pushing them firmly back up his nose but not finding his vision improved as a result. Everything was still a blur. He could see anonymous shapes moving up ahead in their silent world, hazes of black merging in and out of the shadows that to Harry seemed more frightening that just the dark alone. And his pockets felt horribly light...

His right hand was the first to delve in, searching frantically for the eleven inches of Holly and Phoenix feather that had served him so gallantly in the face of all possible danger. But it was gone, a ghost of it sitting in Harry's pocket as if he willed it to be there, desperate for it to be there. For then at least he could face whatever his captor would throw at him with his head held high and some means to defend himself. But no, it wasn't to be. Standard procedure: remove the wand and remove the risk. They'd got him.

The haze was slowly beginning to clear and he finally was able to make out the room. He appeared to be alone, surrounded by a sea of black with no faces that looked down on him pitifully, watching his every move with a kind of invisible intent that froze the blood in Harry's veins. The Death Eaters. He struggled to his feet, taken aback as they suddenly became alive when another presence entered the room and they stepped back like a curtain, exposing him to the danger he would have to face. Defenceless.

'Missing something, Harry?'

If he'd had time to find his voice, he'd have screamed. It was as if he'd fallen into a dream world that consisted only of nightmares - it seemed that unreal. But this was real. Sickeningly real.

Voldemort sat on a jewel-encrusted throne merely feet away, holding Harry's wand within his fingers, turning the wood over and over in his hands just like the echo of Tom Riddle had in the Chamber of Secrets. But they were the same people; they held the same mannerisms and probable intent. Harry felt as if Voldemort was holding his life in his hands, the part of him that allowed his magical side to be manipulated for his own means and to its full potential merely reduced to a vulnerable point to be exploited in the hand of the enemy. A bargaining tool. Harry felt positively sick.

'You are always going to play the fool, aren't you Harry Potter?' growled Voldemort, twirling the wand with more velocity. 'You are always going to walk right into the trap. It is beginning to be a little unchallenging. You cannot pose a threat to me, Harry Potter, for I will always hold the upper hand. The night will always come. You cannot change the fates.'

Harry glanced frantically around, his brain alive with the possibility of escape. No chance. For all he could see as the fog was finally lifted from his eyes was black, a sea of black being manifested as the wall of Death Eaters come to witness the finale of Harry's tragically eventful life. They were here to see him die.

'What have you done with my friends?' Harry spoke suddenly, finding his feet despite the fear that seemed to prevent him breathing as he scanned the room yet again looking for any sign of humanity in the crowd, for nay any independent thought. 'Where are they?'

'They will be here in due course, Harry....' Voldemort hissed, his eyes alive with self-satisfied triumph. 'I wouldn't like to think of them missing out on your grand exit...'

Voldemort was giving him a stare that was brimming with a hunger that froze the blood in Harry's veins as if they knew something Harry didn't. They were nearly anticipating the inevitable. You cannot change fate.

You can't change fate, thought Harry, in the same way you can't change time. The blood began to flow freely again, filling his brain with a new surge of energy as he ignored the situation for a moment just to think, only to think. He had the time turner. He had the method. The sea of opportunity that had just opened up before him from the prompt of Voldemort's words seemed to bless him with a new sense of clarity, the excitement of the plan formulating in his mind faster and faster until its pictures merely became a blur, but yet he understood. He could use the time turner. Voldemort didn't know he had it. He could go back, he could change it so they weren't in this mess, he could...

'Harry, what you are thinking is totally out of the question,' Voldemort suddenly finished, looking Harry square in the face with those sharp, red slits. 'I am always one step ahead...'

And Harry felt the ill feeling float back and settle in his chest as Voldemort placed his wand down by his side and delved into the pocket of his own robes to produce the time turner. He pinched it between two long, scaly fingers as he felt it up to the limited light, examining the enchanted sand inside with the air and precision of a high-powered scientist. He revolved it slowly as he spoke.

'The beauty of time, Harry,' he whispered slowly and deliberately, 'is that it is so easy to manipulate. So easy to get what you want, even if you are not the one sent to get it. You can become its master without it mastering you...'

Harry frowned in his mind, mystified as to what the Dark Lord was implying, what he was implying with his delicate words and his minimal gestures. But Harry's face didn't show a sign of it. He simply wouldn't dare. He knew Voldemort would do the same.

'You make yourself so startlingly easy to manipulate Harry,' he said, his eyes glinting evilly in the half-light. 'You still are far too trusting. I suppose you could say it was a family trait.' He cast a sideways glance at a Death Eater to the left of him, the figure in the cloak shuddering at his gaze. 'Your father by all accounts was the same. No matter, history holds no relevance here. Yet it seems to deliver more than I initially planned...'

'You...' Harry stuttered, realisation creeping into his face, 'You sent me the time turner? But how? Hedwig...'

'Animals are not always there to be trusted, Harry Potter. Your peitt pet was easy to control. A variation on the Imperius curse and the package was safely in your hands. For you to do my bidding without you even realising it.'

Harry gulped a little and looked up at the throne.

'Of course my original intention became altered by circumstance, which seems to have brought me the even better option. But originally you were just the pawn in an insignificant game with my friend Wormtail here. He knew there was a witness. His departure from the scene of the crime was not as fast as people who know the truth assume and like the true Death Eater he is, he enjoys the aftermath of his efforts. Nevertheless, it came to my attention that his anonymity was being endangered by your actions. While the ministry remains disbelieving I am still able to infiltrate its ranks with my own followers, so exactly what your summer project entailed was of no secret to anyone. You do little to cover up your tracks...'

At this point, Harry sensed a shift in the Death Eaters as a few of them stepped back, heads a little bowed as one of their number was stepping to the fore. He heard scuttling and then Wormtail made his entrance in his Animagus form, the rat in all senses of the word. He felt his fists tighten automatically as Pettigrew the rat clambered up the throne to perch on his master's knee like some hideous lap dog. Wormtail's whiskers twitched a little as he relaxed into a Scabbers-like doze while Voldemort stroked his head with one scaly finger, smoothing down the matted fur as he spoke, his eyes not leaving Harry for an instant.

'Yes, Harry,' he said with a huge degree of control over his delight. 'I sent you the time turner. I charmed it to take you back to the scene of the accident so I could trace the threat down before you. We cannot have the position of our best spy compromised now, can we?' He ruffled the fur on Wormtail's head and allowed him to drop onto the floor and scutter to his feet, the rodent sitting up right and looking more alert than Harry had ever seen him. He continued. 'We had our own eyes in the past, Harry. This time turner is not only charmed to its usual purpose, but is also an invaluable reader of minds...'

He removed his wand from his robes and tapped the time tuner on its head. It uttered a scream of pain that made Harry want to cover his ears to block out its horrors. But he couldn't move an inch, his skin suddenly cold as such familiar sounds were being expelled from the wooden casing.

'Claudia Darlington...' he heard his own voice say, an echo of what had gone on merely days before. Then they became even more muffled as it seemed to project his private trail of thought, previously unspoken to anyone but himself as he'd examined the address on his way to Hermione's. 'Rochester, the Medway...' He hadn't said that to anyone, not even aloud to himself. That time turner, that thing, it had infiltrated his brain without him knowing it. It had read his thoughts. It knew everything about the whole incident and had been transmitting it back to its true master. Harry's head span so rapidly he wasn't able to take in what Voldemort was saying. It was so sickeningly obvious.

'You led us straight to the witness and the evidence she was withholding. And when we went to retrieve that evidence we came back with more than we possibly dreamed of.' He smiled and let of a cold-hearted chuckle. 'The perfect bribe. Her nearest and dearest, her sister. Once she was removed from the equation, the evidence was readily available to snatch. Everything became unhinged and therefore easy to infiltrate. So easy sometimes it cannot seem true...'

'You kidnapped Lucy...' Harry breathed as he regained any sense of feeling in his brain. 'You wanted to clear the path to Claudia...'

'And her evidence, yes. Very good, Harry, very good.' Voldemort's face split into a menacing smile. 'You are learning. I like to have a challenging foe. We now had a clear path to the evidence, you are correct. Your little afternoon tea merely confirmed our suspicions. The plan was faultless. The evidence became Ms Darlington. She held the key to everything. Initially a single stronger memory charm would have eradicated the risk. But it became painstakingly obvious there was a lot more to it than that. She became our Holy Grail, leading the gallant knights onwards towards their doom. We were delivered our wildest dreams as your foolish Gryffindor tendencies led you all to her aid. An Auror. The Werewolf. Sirius Black...' the hunger in his eyes intensified. 'You.'

Harry's mind was completely and utterly blank. He couldn't have spoken even if he wanted to. He was trapped. He had walked right into the depths of Voldemort's plan. Voldemort had truly risen again and wasn't going to let something as insignificant as a fifteen year old school boy get in the way of his quest for power.

'What do you want from us?' he finally said, almost already knowing the truth.

'Your death,' said Voldemort. 'And nothing less. What I was deprived of by sheer luck and circumstance last summer. Now we are on my terms, and this time I will win. Bring them forward!'

***

He couldn't sleep. He'd been tossing and turning all night, his wife observed, much to her own discomfort. She could, as she'd always been able to, sense his foreboding mood, as if he was waiting for something he'd much rather ignore to occur, as if it was such an implausible notion he would be locked up in St Mungo's for allowing it into his brain. As if something was back to haunt them. But she knew when things were serious, because she felt it too. They'd both felt it all through the summer and knew it was getting worse.

She tried to place a reassuring hand on his shoulder, clad in elderly pyjamas of fading blue and white stripes, but it did nothing for his mood as he suddenly awoke, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling as if he'd finally seen the light. Something had just made sense.

'Arthur?'

Molly Weasley's voice echoed through the dark as she saw her husband get up and almost run into the hall, disappearing down the stairs and into the dark depths of the kitchen. Silence engulfed them for an instant while she was vaguely aware of the ticking of their enchanted clock merely a couple of floors below. She wondered what was so urgent that it was taking her husband so long. The chill of the night was finally getting into her bones as she shivered for a moment on the wooden landing, hoping all the fuss hadn't woken any of her boys, or Ginny for that matter. She leaned over the banister to watch the kitchen door intensely, the worry beginning to etch into her face as it seemed like an eternity before her husband returned, but as soon as she did she knew for sure that something was wrong.

'Arthur? What's wrong?'

He paused and glanced back up the stairs at his wife, his face frighteningly pale in the half moonlight as its crescent form shifted peacefully through the window. He didn't reply. He rummaged through some papers that were scattered upon his desk as if he were searching for something, the search becoming for frantic in barely seconds as he eventually dragged a half dried robe off the airing rack that stood in the hallway and slung it over himself. His face was set in such a determined manner that scared Molly. But even before he opened his mouth to answer her she could tell what he was about to say. He nodded.

If she had wanted to cause alarm to her sleeping children, Molly Weasley would have gasped. But she knew better than that. She ran down the stairs, her energy even surprising herself at the obscure time of the morning as she passed the same cooling rack and drew on one of her own robes. She had to see it for herself. She didn't want to see it. As she stepped into the kitchen it conformed the truth.

The clock. A mother's gift. How many mothers could claim she always knew where their kids were? Not many, not many at all. She looked at the hands and where they all were gently resting, almost beating themselves with the rhythm of her children's hearts, of Arthur's and her own. Each steady, each reasonably peaceful, each one pointing at home and asleep. Except for one. Just that one. And for a moment it was the only one in the world.

Ron's hand was on the move. It settled on visiting, just for an instant, before swiftly by-passing school and work, briefly considering hospital before it made its final stop, coming to a halt on every parent's worst nightmare. The hand stopped on the twelve. Mortal Peril. Now she did gasp.

'Oh Arthur...'

'The Phoenix,' he said, his voice strangely deprived of the emotion Molly knew was threatening to buckle his knees. 'Let's go.'

'But what about Ginny? And the boys? We can't just leave them, but then Ron and...'

'Shush,' he said, pulling Molly in for a quick reassuring embrace. 'They'll be all right. We'll owl them when we get there. Percy will keep an eye on things. They'll probably follow soon enough, and we can't waste any more time.'

She stepped back and gazed at her husband, her eyes filling up with tears of fear, glistening in the dark. 'Do you really think...?'

But then she knew she didn't want to hear the answer, the immediate assumption. Wherever Ron was, Harry was too. Her boys. And Hermione. She shuddered at the thought, stepped into a clear space in the hall and nodded to Arthur. They had to go and help. But they knew they couldn't do it alone. She picked up the jar of Floo powder and threw it into the embers of the fire that roared ferociously in response.

'Hogwarts!'

And they were gone.

***

To be continued...