Runaway

by Jiwwy
 
 

Chapter 8
Ginny Freaks + A Bit from Moony and Padfoot
 

At breakfast Brooke kept staring at Ron out of the corner of her eye, but of course this wasn’t the

kind of staring Ron would have liked to be subjected to, especially from her. Fred and George made
no move to explain the kisses, indeed they pretended they weren’t there at all, like ‘good’ little
children trying not to laugh at a dirty joke they aren’t supposed to understand while their parents are
standing right in front of them.

(A/N- I just watched the first few seconds of American Pie 2 with my mother with a very straight face

before she kicked me out of the room. *sigh*)

Ginny only cocked an eyebrow and glanced at Fred and George when Ron entered the room before

getting what had happened.

The table sat in silence over their pancakes for a good five minutes.

“Mom! What’s George doing with lipstick on his face! He’s not a girl!” Halie suddenly shrieked,

hurling most of her upper body on the table, pointing at Ron in an urgent need to single him out.

“My… name’s… Ron.” Ron looked so horrendously mortified even Brooke felt a bit sorry for him,

but George and Fred let out huge barks of laughter.

“I love this girl!” Fred breathed, his eyes going misty as he watched Halie shrug and go back to her

pancakes. “Let’s take her back to the Burrow.”

Ginny, who’d been smirking at Ron, suddenly gasped shakily.

“Gin… I’m sorry.” For once in his life Fred looked regretful as he sputtered his words. Ginny nodded

fervently and returned quickly to her own pancakes, but missed her mouth with her fork as she shook.

Brooke and Nancy bit their lips, but Halie, full of tact as usual, yelled, “What’s the Burrow?”

Ron spoke quietly, eyes on his plate. “That’s our house. In Britain.”

“Oh.” Halie said loudly. Fred took Ginny’s hand, trying to comfort her. This was about as comfortable

to him as it was to Draco Malfoy.

“It’s okay Fred.” Ginny said forcefully. She snapped her hand off the table to her lap. “I’m not a child.”

“I know that Ginny, I’m trying to help…”

“I don’t need your help…”

“Ginny…”

“I don’t! I’m fourteen! I can handle things on my own dammit!” She slammed her chair against the wall

as she stood up. Tears were brimming in her eyes. “I can handle things! I know in my first year I didn’t
do so well, but this is different Fred. We’ve never been on our own; I can handle it just as well as you
can! Just get off my back!” She stormed out of the room, and the Weasleys gaped at one another.
Everything was silent again.

***

Hermione-

                Not good, Hedwig’s back already… she doesn’t have anything. I’m so sorry.

                                                                                                                                    Harry

The day after Draco discovered the joys of popcorn, Hermione sat, staring at the note Hedwig had

just brought to her, her hand shaking. She glanced at Hedwig as her eyes welled up with tears.
Hedwig clucked soothingly, hopped to Hermione’s shoulder, and bit her ear comfortingly.

Draco came in from the kitchen with a bowl of cereal in his hands. The boy could eat. He’d only

been there two days and already Lorelei had had to go for more Froot Loops and extra-buttery
microwave popcorn. “Waswrong?” He said through a mouthful, his eyebrows knitting in concern.

Hermione held up the letter and sat back down on the couch. She set it down and put her face in

her hands as Draco leaned over the back of the couch and read Harry’s spindly scrawl. He blinked.
“Er. That’s… bad, right?”

She nodded slowly, not taking her face out of her hands.

“I’m sorry.”

She nodded again, and then froze. “Wait. There’s no… there’s no way.”

She suddenly jumped up and went to the other side of the room, stopping at the bookshelf. She

picked a book out and carried it over to the desk, already flipping through it before she sat down.
It was an encyclopedia, the O. “Says… A great horned owl can fly as fast as 40 miles an hour.
There’s no way Hedwig can fly far faster than that.”

Draco nodded, very slowly. “Yes. Okay.”

“There’s no way Hedwig could have flown to America, back, and then to my house in… twelve

hours! Totally impossible.”

He stared.

“Ron may still be alive, half-wit!” She was starting to look quite exasperated.

“Oh!” She sighed and smiled sideways at him then started another note.

 

Harry-

                No way Hedwig got to America. She knew she couldn’t make it and probably turned

back. Now how will we get to know if they’re there or not? Have you heard from Remus or Sirius?

                                                                                                                                            Love,
                                                                                                                                            Herm

P.S. Draco’s fine. Has a cereal fetish.
 


***

Sirius brushed his hair out of his eyes and grimaced slightly as he leaned over the paperwork covering

Remus Lupin’s desk. Dumbledore had asked the pair to try to get the Order of the Phoenix- a group
of select Aurors chosen as Voldemort gained power years before- back together, a task that proved
far harder than either of the men had first suspected.

Just looking at all the old names brought back memories of before Azkaban. They were horrible times,

yes, but Sirius took pride in them. He, Moony, Prongs, Lily, and Wormtail had all been selected when
they graduated to join the Order. Before then they’d all only heard legends about this group. Supposedly
Dumbledore headed the Order when it was founded in 1942 to battle against Grindlewald. After 1945
not much was heard of it, and especially the Marauders didn’t think much of it.

Anyway, it took three years of difficult training… While Voldemort gained power himself, these newest

recruits worked hard to be Aurors. Neither James nor Sirius had wanted to be one, they were both
quite intent on playing Quidditch for Britain, but Dumbledore easily convinced them to join the fight,
alongside the Longbottoms, Fletcher, Figg, the Bones, and the other great wizarding names of the time.

A year after their training was over Lily and James were murdered.

No Sirius, farther back. Not so close. He sighed again. “Lupin, I can’t find Arabella anywhere, I think

she’s disappeared.”

“Cabby?” Lupin peeked into the room with two mugs of coffee.

Sirius laughed. “Yeah, her. Can you believe how much we teased her?”

“We? Don’t you mean you Sirius? I swear you were the most immature Auror I’d ever heard of.”

Sirius grinned.

“Why thank you, Moon-”

Sirius was caught short by a loud bang against the window and a faint ‘hoo?.’ The men exchanged

looks and Lupin went to the window. He reached out to the ground and his hand came back with a
gray ball of owl fuzz that had a beak.

“Hoo!” Pig announced joyfully. He bit Lupin’s finger, jumped out of his hand, and commenced in the

finest owly routine he’d done so far, a quite amazing series of skipping, jumping, and much waving of
the wing and spinning of the head. Quite a sight to see. He’d most likely been working on it the whole
time since he’d left Harry’s house.

After a few minutes he collapsed on the desktop, apparently very pleased with himself, and let go of

Hermione’s note.

The men stared at the owl. Sirius started to applaud when he recognized the owl. “That’s the one I

gave to Ron Weasley two years ago!” Pig hooted half-heartedly. Lupin took the note from Pig and
read it aloud…

“Oh my.” He said quietly when he finished reading. “… I haven’t heard anything about Molly or

Arthur, have you?” Sirius shook his head.

“I do think… that there is a certain potion that could fix Draco’s amnesia… It’s so complicated

though.” Lupin went over to the bookshelf. Like Hermione, he seemed to like having a nice store of
books available in every room. He flipped though the pages of a particularly long one, mumbling to
himself. “Yes. Yes, here it is.”

“Wait, what exactly are we going to do?” Sirius watched Pig’s chest heave up and down as he said

this. Every time he exhaled a soft hooting sound emitted from him. Rather cute, if not very annoying.
“We’ve still got to get everyone back together.”

Lupin thought. “Okay. I think… You Apparate to America and see if the Weasleys are alright, and

I’ll have to go to Hermione’s to see how Draco is and see if I can get this potion done. We can send
him to Dumbledore explaining the break.”

“Sounds good.” Sirius mumbled. “But I really don’t think he’s going anywhere soon.” Sirius poked

Pig with his wand and jumped as Pig hopped up quite suddenly and started flying around the ceiling.
Lupin and Sirius exchanged looks again before Sirius called “Accio Owl!” and Pig flew to his hand
like a hyperactive paperclip to a magnet with a loud, angry hoo.

 
 
 

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