the gentle moon / george weasley

go slowly, my lovely moon, go slowly

George, Fred, and Ginny were doing a kind of war dance to a chant that went "She got off, she got off, she got off —" when she walked into the kitchen that afternoon. Sirius could tell by the looks on August and Remus' faces, the trial took a dark turn.

"Moon!" Sirius beamed, "I need your help with something."

August looked at her mother, who sent her a comforting smile. "Arthur and I need to go check on those toilets, but I'll be back for dinner."

"Okay..." August sighed.

"We'll figure it out." Jade hugged her, "This isn't the end... They let you back in school, that's a good thing even if you don't believe it. It means laws can change." She whispered.

"Laws can be changed..." She repeated Fudge's words.

"Come, love." Sirius smiled, "Moony, you too."

Remus grabbed August's shoulder and pushed her towards Sirius and the three left the kitchen. Harry watched the twins and Ginny skip around the kitchen still chanting and decided to follow the trio out of the kitchen.

"She got off, she got off, she got off —"

"That's enough — Fred — George — Ginny!" said Molly, as Arthur and Jade left the kitchen. "Harry dear, come and sit down, have some lunch, you hardly ate breakfast. . . ."

"Oh, I'll be right back..." Harry said, "Just need to use the loo, real fast."

"She got off, she got off, she got off —"

"What happened in there," Sirius asked. August was pacing the room, running her hands through her hair.

"I might have threatened them..." August admitted, "Kind of..."

Sirius laughed, "How so?"

"Turns out there were a few unregistered animagus in that courtroom." August said, "Before they could vote, I kind of asked what would happen if someone didn't register themselves... And then I looked at every single one of them, that I could tell was one."

"It was a good call." Remus admitted, "Smart. If they think werewolves are scary, they clearly haven't been blessed with the presence of your brain."

Harry was outside the door, listening in.

"They said Greyback isn't a werewolf." August admitted, "Told me I chose this, I let this happen. I was fucking 3 years old, why would I want this?"

"They were protecting themselves." Remus said, "They let him go, even though my father asked them to keep him until the full moon after his trial. They don't want to be the blame for this."

"But it is their fault!" She yelled, "I mean, they're lying about everything! Like with Harry too, saying he didn't see Voldemort that night... That my attack from Peter was merely our imagination."

"Malfoy was there." Remus admitted to Sirius, "After we left, I saw him talking to Fudge. They went up to his office."

"Dumbledore ought to know," August told them.

"Absolutely," said Sirius. "We'll tell him, don't worry."

"If Fudge is meeting Death Eaters like Malfoy if he's seeing them alone, how do we know they haven't put the Imperius Curse on him?"

"Don't think it hadn't occurred to us, Moon," muttered Remus. "But Dumbledore thinks Fudge is acting of his own accord at the moment — which, as Dumbledore says, is not a lot of comforts... Best not talk about it anymore just now," Remus looked up at the mirror above the mantle and saw Harry's head peeking behind the door frame, "You might as well come in Harry."