Harry Potter and the Last Recourse

“Harry Potter and the Last Recourse”

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Chapter Three – The Tie-Breaking Vote

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Four smoking chimneys atop a crooked house signaled the end to their one hundred mile journey. Fred climbed over Harry to get to the van’s sliding door before it came to a complete stop.

“Be careful, Fred,” warned Harry to the blur racing toward the front door.

Harry was a little concerned that no one came out to greet them. Surely, Percy, Ron and Ginny would have heard the arrival of four cars. Max had given Harry a quick shooting lesson before they left the shop, and although he still had never fired a gun, Harry felt confident enough to jump out of the van after Fred, remove the pistol from the holster on his leg, and aim it at the front door of the Burrow. If anyone other than Percy, Ron or Ginny opened that door, he was prepared to pull the trigger.

It wasn’t any of them, but luckily Harry was patient enough not to blow Mrs. Weasley’s head off.

“Mum!” screamed Fred, embracing his mother for the first time in three months, after being certain that he never would again.

“Fred, what’s gotten into you?” asked Mrs. Weasley, pleasantly surprised. “What are you all doing here? Is everyone all right?”

Before anyone else could take in what happened, Harry yelled, “It’s a trap! It’s a trap!” His eyes were darting everywhere, looking for any sign of Draco, Pansy or McNair. “Max, get the guns! Everyone in the house – NOW!”

They did what they were told. The six younger children ran by Harry, screaming, with two Muggle adults not far behind. Bill, Charlie and George ran in to check on their family. Neville helped his grandmother inside. Lavender, Parvati, Padma and Dean followed them. Hermione’s parents were ushering her toward the house, but she was trying to talk to Harry.

“Just go!” he told her. Reluctantly, she allowed her parents to card her off.

Left outside with Harry now was only Max, who was running past Harry with his very heavy guitar case.

“Go to Ron’s room on the top floor,” instructed Harry. “Be on the lookout.”

And now Harry was alone. It was noon and the summer’s last sun was burning his skin. He could hear the commotion on the other side of the wall. Despite the heat, a light breeze picked up and sent a chill down his spine. It was time to go back inside the Burrow.

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“Let’s recap, all right?” said Ron Weasley loudly, waiting for all the murmurs to stop. “Two days ago, Harry woke up and he can’t do magic. Then last night, someone used magic to blow up your tellyvision. At half past nine this morning, you get an owl that says to come here right away, that Mum’s dead, and that McNair’s heading for you. Right?” Several nods allow him to continue. “Then on the way, you hear on the radio that the gun shop was robbed by people fitting the description of Draco and Pansy, and that they killed Max’s dad. Right?”

“Right,” said Max, looking out the kitchen window.

“So that means that . . . that Draco and Pansy sent that owl – or McNair if they’re all working together – to get you guys out of the shop . . . so it would be easier to rob it?”

“But they could rob any gun shop if they need weapons,” said Hermione.

“And if they can do magic, why do they need weapons?” said Dean.

“Look, we’ve been over this a million times,” said Harry, his finger still on the trigger of the gun pointed at the floor. “They must have known our whereabouts for a long time. They were probably bugging the shop. Not the shelter, but it would be pretty easy to spy on the floor above. They were waiting until I came to. Remember, they’re just as anxious to find out what’s going on with the magic as you guys are.”

Harry paused there, making sure he didn’t say too much. He and Hermione decided to keep their suspicion that Harry’s children would be able to do magic a secret for now. Harry just wasn’t ready to tell the group, and he wasn’t really given a chance with all that had occurred.

“They must not have had any Muggle weapons, and they figured they could kill two birds with one stone by getting all of their enemies together in one location and stealing all the fire power they would need to kill us,” he explained. “They must have had this plan in the works for a while, just waiting for me to wake up, so they could possibly find out how to bring the magic back while listening in on us. So when they found out that I don’t know how to do bring the magic back, they decided to have their revenge.”

“But they can do magic,” said Lavender. “I saw it!”

“We don’t know how that happened or who did it. We may never find out. But that’s not our biggest concern right now,” Harry said. “The question is what are they waiting for. It’s been six hours now. It’ll be dark soon. . . . They must have robbed the shop right after we left it, which means they could have been following just a couple minutes behind us. They probably assumed that we’d all get together outside, since there’s obviously not much room in here for twenty-seven people, and that we’d be easy targets for them to drive by with their machine guns and shoot down. . . . They didn’t count on us hearing about the robbery on the radio, so they’d think that we wouldn’t be worried about an attack.”

“Maybe they changed their mind when we all ran inside,” said Hermione.

“Maybe,” Harry said, nodding, glad that someone understood his earlier panic. Many of them thought he overreacted. “Or maybe they were caught by the police. That’s what I’ve been hoping ever since we heard the report on the radio.”

It seemed as if no one else had thought of this, as it sparked a lot of chattering.

“Are we ready to vote now?” asked Hermione’s dad, holding his daughter’s hand.

“I believe we are, Mr. Granger,” said Percy, “although I want to state again that as Minister of Magic I should decide the position of the wizarding community.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ron said, “you can decide if there’s a tie.”

“But there’s an odd number of people – there can’t be a tie.”

“Oh, really?” said Ron in mock puzzlement.

The matter to be resolved was if they were going to all split up and leave the Burrow, since it was clear that Draco and Pansy knew they were there, or if they would stay – and possibly have to fight. Neither option was very pleasant. One, continuing a life of hiding out, never knowing if you’re truly safe; the other, a sitting duck for the bad guys, but at least with the odds in your favor – twenty-seven to just two or three.

No one really seemed to have a firm stance either way, except for Max, who was dead set on staying. Percy kept going on about how it should be his call, but when asked what that would be, he hadn’t even made up his mind.

They had started to vote – orally, one by one – an hour before, but stopped when the third person, Lavender, just couldn’t decide and needed to talk some more about it. She wanted to know how the groups would be divided if they did choose to leave, so they figured that out. Mrs. Weasley insisted that all seven of her children would go off with her; Dean, Lavender, Parvati and Padma would join Neville and his grandmother; the two Muggle adults and the five youngsters would set off together; and Harry decided to go with Hermione and her parents. Max refused to even entertain the idea of leaving. He said he’d stay at the Burrow no matter what.

Everyone was looking around, not sure what to do.

“Should I start it again?” asked Padma, who voted to stay last time.

“Yes, please do,” said Percy.

“Go,” voted Padma. And everyone looked at her sister now.

“Go,” said Parvati.

“Go,” said Lavender.

“Go,” said Neville.

“Go,” said Neville’s grandmother.

“Go,” said Dean.

Hermione was next in line. She looked very tense.

“That’s six in favor of going and zero for staying,” Percy announced.

“Stay,” said Hermione, peeking at Harry for some kind of reaction.

“Stay,” said Hermione’s father.

“Stay,” said Hermione’s mother.

Knowing the Grangers, thought Harry, they probably left the decision up to Hermione.

Max was next, and he took a very long time, to everyone’s surprise, before saying “Stay” as if it were the most obvious thing to do in the world. His six friends had all decided to vote however Max did, and after the two adult Muggles went along with that as well, the total was now twelve in favor of staying, and still just six who wanted to go.

“Harry?” said Percy.

Only him and the eight Weasleys were left, and Harry knew that they were all going to vote for leaving the Burrow, which would up that total to fourteen, ensuring everyone’s departure and effectively making Harry’s vote obsolete. He hadn’t voiced his opinion to the group, but Harry was very much in favor of staying. Even though he had been in a coma for the first three months since they went on the run after he performed the spell, he felt like he had been hiding out from the death eaters all his life, which he basically had been. He wanted it to stop. He wanted the remaining death eaters to show up for a final duel. He wanted to kill them. He wanted the waiting to be over.

“Stay,” said Harry.

Mrs. Weasley never liked to disagree with Harry, but she knew that her children would be safest if they left, and that was all she cared about at the moment.

“Go,” said Mrs. Weasley.

“Go,” said Percy.

“Go,” said Bill.

“Go,” said Charlie.

“Go,” said Fred.

“Go,” said George.

“Go,” said Ron, shrugging his shoulders to Harry and Hermione.

Ginny was last. She had been looking at Harry for the vast majority of the past six hours, and she was looking at him when she opened her mouth to say “Go” – but that’s when he looked at her. She stopped herself before making a sound and she stared into Harry’s green eyes. He wasn’t trying to influence her in any way from the outside – there was no distinct expression on his face – but he knew that she would side with him from the moment they locked eyes. Maybe it was just the fact that Ginny had never shared this long of a look with Harry, but she wouldn’t turn away.

“Um, the tally is thirteen to thirteen, Ginny,” said Percy. “You have the deciding vote.”

She still wouldn’t turn away, and neither would Harry.

“Ginny, we have to go,” Mrs. Weasley said, with a hint of anxiety in her voice. “It’s too dangerous to stay.”

Ginny’s bottom lip started trembling and she couldn’t stop it.

“We agreed that the discussion was over,” said Hermione. “It’s her decision to make.”

“She already agreed to go,” said Mrs. Weasley, watching her only daughter try to compose herself.

A tear slid down Ginny’s cheek as she held her gaze on Harry. Before anyone could act on their concern, she said, “We’re staying.” She looked down and wiped her eyes as the group stirred. Raising her face, she repeated with conviction, “We’re staying.”