Mass Collision

17. The Book

"Back again, the blood traitor brats, is it true their father's dying . . . ?" "OUT!" roared a second voice.

We had arrived in the gloomy basement kitchen of number twelve, Grimmauld Place. The only sources of light were the fire and one guttering candle, which illuminated the remains of a solitary supper. Kreacher was disappearing through the door to the hall, looking back at them malevolently as he hitched up his loincloth; Sirius was hurrying toward us, looking anxious. He was unshaven and still in his day clothes; there was also a slightly Mundungus-like whiff of stale drink about him.

"What's going on?" he said, stretching out a hand to help Ginny up. "Phineas Nigellus said Arthur's been badly injured —"

"Ask Harry," said Fred. "

Yeah, I want to hear this for myself," said George. The twins and Ginny were staring at him. Kreacher's footsteps had stopped on the stairs outside. I just stood there, watching all of them.

"It was —" Harry began; this was even worse than telling McGonagall and Dumbledore. "I had a — a kind of — vision. . . ." And he told us that he had seen, though he altered the story so that it sounded as though he had watched from the sidelines as the snake attacked, rather than from behind the snake's own eyes. . . .

"Wow," I said, shocked. It reminded me of a demi-god dream or walking through someone's eyes.

Ron, who was still very white, gave him a fleeting look, but did not speak. When Harry had finished, Fred, George, and Ginny continued to stare at him for a moment.

"Is Mum here?" said Fred, turning to Sirius.

"She probably doesn't even know what's happened yet," said Sirius. "The important thing was to get you away before Umbridge could interfere. I expect Dumbledore's letting Molly know now."

"We've got to go to St. Mungo's," said Ginny urgently. She looked around at her brothers; they were of course still in their pajamas. "Sirius, can you lend us cloaks or anything — ?"

"Hang on, you can't go tearing off to St. Mungo's!" said Sirius.

"'Course we can go to St. Mungo's if we want," said Fred, with a mulish expression, "he's our dad!"

And how are you going to explain how you knew Arthur was attacked before the hospital even let his wife know?"

"What does that matter?" said George hotly.

"It matters because we don't want to draw attention to the fact that Harry is having visions of things that are happening hundreds of miles away!" said Sirius angrily. "Have you any idea what the Ministry would make of that information?" Fred and George looked as though they couldn't care less what the Ministry made of anything. Ron was still white-faced and silent.

Ginny said, "Somebody else could have told us. . . . We could have heard it somewhere other than Harry. . . ."

"And what happens when we turn up with no explanation? He might not even be emitted yet, let alone that they haven't even informed your mother so how would we know?" I asked them, looking at all of the Weasley kids who looked shaken, it reminded me of right after the Battle of the Labyrinth. "It's better if we just stay here, eat, sleep some more, take a breath."

Sirius started again, "Listen, your dad's been hurt while on duty for the Order and the circumstances are fishy enough without his children knowing about it seconds after it happened, you could seriously damage the Order's — "

"We don't care about the dumb Order!" shouted Fred.

"It's our dad dying we're talking about!" yelled George.