WE'LL TAKE ON THE WORLD ; h.j.p.

6 | Back To Hogwarts

The next morning, Allison got woken up by Hedwig tapping the window with her beak in a steady clattering noise. Ginny groaned and pulled the bedding further over her head as Hermione stumbled out of bed. Crookshanks hissed from under the window.

"No, stop that. Bad Crookshanks," she reproached him. "Here, Allie, hold him for a moment, will you?"

In the next second, an orange ball of fur landed on Allison's stomach, and Hermione opened the window to let in the white-plumed owl, which had a letter from Hermione's parents attached to its leg. She unrolled the paper and quickly read over the page.

"They send their greetings to both of you and -" she said but got interrupted by someone knocking on their bedroom door.

"Girls, are you up?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "Get dressed and bring your luggage downstairs! We don't wanna be late, alright?"

"Alright, Mrs. Weasley!" Hermione called back immediately, and Ginny muttered under her breath, so only Allie could hear her, "Crawler."

Surprisingly, Ginny was the first to be ready and left the bedroom while dragging her heavy trunk behind her over the floorboards. Allison and Hermione carried their trunks down the stairs as well, then went back up with some toast in their hands - or in other words the poor excuse for breakfast that Tonks had made, which meant it was completely burned on one side - to pick up their hand luggage and Crookshanks.

Hedwig, who had waited on top of one of the wardrobes, came flying down and landed on Allison's shoulder, digging her claws a bit tighter than necessary into the flesh and directing her yellow eyes at Allison's half-eaten toast.

"I don't like you either," said Allie, regarding the strong grip. Hedwig hooted as if to agree and nodded her head at the bread. "Yeah, here. Tastes like shit anyways."

She loosened her grip a bit and began to nibble at the toast as a thud echoed through the house, followed by the cries of Mrs. Weasley and Sirius' dear mother, both screaming at the top of their lungs.

Allison and Hermione shared a look and hurried out into the hall. Apparently, Fred and George had bewitched their trunks to fly downstairs to save the bother of carrying them, with the result that they had hurtled straight into Ginny and knocked her down two flights of stairs into the hall.

"- COULD HAVE DONE HER A SERIOUS INJURY, YOU IDIOTS -"

"- FILTHY HALF-BREEDS, BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS -"

While Remus fought to silence Mrs. Black, Mrs. Weasley was scolding her sons for their reckless behaviour, pointing at Allison's mother who kneeled in front of Ginny to check her for any bruises, and Mad-Eye impatiently walked up and down the stairs, the other Order members talking insistently to him that they could surely leave without Sturgis Podmore. Mad-Eye however was under the impression that they would all definitely die if the guard was short of one man and refused to listen.

"- WE HAVE TO LEAVE NOW, WHERE IS EVERYBODY?" Mrs. Weasley shouted, turning to find the girls standing on the top of the stairs, which gave Fred and George the chance to flee their mother. "Hermione, Allison, would you please, for the love of Merlin, get the boys down here or I WILL LEAVE THEM HERE!"

Hermione flinched. "Yes, ma'am."

Allie followed her up the stairs into Ron and Harry's bedroom. Harry sat on his bed, tying his trainers as they walked in.

"Mum and Dad just sent Hedwig back" - the owl fluttered obligingly from Allison's shoulder and perched on top of her cage - "are you ready yet?"

"Nearly - Ginny all right?" Harry asked, shoving on his glasses.