the gentle moon / george weasley

how dare i?

"You told me to always tell you when this happens," Harry whispered. He was in his pajamas, and everyone was mostly asleep or in their rooms for the night, except August. George was snoring too loudly, so she escaped to the study on the first floor. She was laying on one of the couches reading a book.

"Is it hurting again?" She put her book down, "Your scar?"

He nodded. "Nothing to worry about, though... Old news right? We know he's back."

"I guess," August said with a worried tone. "Is just hurting now?"

"It's kind of tickled a few times this summer... But after your trial, it hurt."

"Have you told Sirius?"

"Told me what?" Sirius entered the room, "Why are you two up so late?"

August lifted her book at him, smiling.

"Couldn't sleep." Harry shrugged.

"Do dreams make it hurt?" August asked, Sirius, looked between the two, "Harry, you have to tell him."

"Is it the scar?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, but like I said, we know he's back." Harry sighed, "Nevermind, it's not that big of a deal."

Harry sighed loudly, "Okay, It happens all the time now..."

"What are the dreams?" Sirius asked, pushing August's legs over so he could sit on the couch.

"Nothing crazy, sometimes I'm like locked behind doors... Mum and dad come around. Once Mrs. Weasley was crying over Kreacher's dead body."

August's eyes went wide, "Yeah, definitely not crazy..."

Sirius pinched August.

"I am also just so angry." Harry admitted, "All the time, and not at anyone in particular."

"Okay, Harry . . . what do you want to know?" August asked, "I know you want to know what's been going on in the meetings."

Sirius leaned back on the couch, his hands in his lap.

Harry took a deep breath and asked the question that had been obsessing him all summer. "Where's Voldemort? What's he doing? I've been trying to keep up with the Muggle news," he said, "every time Jade and I pop down to the shop, the newspapers have nothing in them, and there hasn't been anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything —"

"That's because there haven't been any suspicious deaths yet," said Sirius, "not as far as we know, anyway. . . . And we know quite a lot."

"More than he thinks we do anyway," said August.

"How come he's stopped killing people?" Harry asked.

"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself at the moment," said Sirius. "It would be dangerous for him. His comeback didn't come off quite the way he wanted it to, you see. He messed it up."

"Or rather, you messed it up for him," said August with a satisfied smile. "We messed it up."

"How?" Harry asked perplexedly.

"You weren't supposed to survive!" said Sirius. "Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. But you survived to bear witness. I'm curious to know if Peter is even alive for not killing August then."

"And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore," said August. "And you made sure Dumbledore knew at once."

"How has that helped?" Harry asked.

"Are you kidding?" August laughed. "Dumbledore was the only one Voldemort was ever scared of!"