stardust ⋮ george weasley

eighty-three :

E I G H T Y - T H R E E

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Addie,

I am gone for less than SIX HOURS, and you found yourself a way to get yourself into mortal danger.

When Mum showed up in mine and Fred's flat at one in the morning, I thought she was there to yell at us for dropping out of Hogwarts. But no, you – along with half the DA apparently – had snuck into the Ministry, encountered a bunch of Death Eaters, you somehow dueled with BELLATRIX LESTRANGE, and now you're in the Hospital Wing with injuries I'm terrified to learn about.

Honestly, if I wasn't worried sick about you, I'd be impressed. I still am, don't get me wrong. But I'm more worried about you than anything else. You've called me impulsive before, but this is like a whole new level.

If it weren't for the fact I'm currently banned from entering Hogwarts, I would be over there in a heartbeat. Since people finally believe You-Know-Who is back, they've ramped up security on Hogwarts to the point where even I'm a little worried about sneaking in. And that's saying something.

I also heard a little rumor that Harry and Hermione messed with Umbridge so bad that she never wants to go near Hogwarts again. While I had no idea what they did, please be sure to give them some Cauldron Cakes from the huge package I sent you.

Freddie and I have been setting up the shop for the past few days, so we haven't been able to open up yet. It's a lot we still have to do, but it already looks like everything we've been dreaming about for years now. I would've sent photos in the package, but I want everything to be a surprise for when you get here.

Write me back if you get the chance. Hopefully you haven't already forgotten about me (not sure how you could, but you always continue to surprise me, Addie).

Love,

George

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Adeline found herself, once again, spending several days in the Hospital Wing. As she had predicted, the curse Bellatrix had sent had caused the wound to become infected. It had taken Madame Pomfrey hours to even figure out what was going on with Adeline's injury.

Very few people knew about Adeline's battle with Bellatrix. Most people figured she had gotten hit by a random spell in battle from some Death Eater and that's how she ended up in the Hospital Wing. Tonks and Sirius had told a few members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and Adeline's friends had all seen her go after Bellatrix. Adeline preferred it this way – she wanted to keep the duel as secret as possible.

Additionally, after several high-ranking officials encountered Peter Pettigrew at the Ministry Battle, they were forced to admit Sirius Black had been wrongfully imprisoned all those years ago. While everything was still in the works, Sirius was finally on his way to being a free man who longer needed to worry about changing into a dog in order to go out in public and could properly send letters and packages to Harry, who was happy to have something else to distract him.

When shown a picture of Pettigrew, Adeline identified him to the Ministry officials who had come to visit her in the Hospital Wing as the man who had tortured her in the graveyard that previous June. She had claimed that she had not known his name, only his face, but it still helped Sirius's case in proving that Pettigrew had faked his own death years before.

Adeline fortunately hadn't had to face the whole of Hogwarts just yet after what happened at the Ministry. The combination of the blood loss and infection from the dark magic caused Adeline to be practically bedridden and spend a longer period of time in the Hospital Wing than her friends, the only exception being Harry. It had been difficult for her to walk without becoming extremely fatigued or having massive pains in her side.