Marooned - Fred Weasley

Chapter 58: Firewall

"I'm just saying, it's shady," commented Harry, "Sarah agrees with me."

She had a mouthful of mulled wine that she almost spat out. "Thanks, Harry," she mumbled.

He raised his shoulders apologetically, Remus, Tonks, Arthur and Molly shot her a quizzical look. And she took a second to remember she was a member in the Order and she did have a say in this.

"Harry was there, Remus, we weren't," reasoned Sarah. "And the Malfoys don't exactly have the precedent of being anything but untrustworthy."

"Hey, Harry," said Fred and George in synch, "Come on over," George gestured for him to get up and Sarah reached up a bit, exchanged an inquiring look with Fred who just winked at her and along with Ron, took Harry outside.

"I don't like talking about this over the holidays," said Molly, "The children-"

"The children are already involved whether we want to or not," said Remus, he'd taken on some of Sirius' view since he'd left them all, and he fought relentlessly to get his points across whenever it came to it, now.

"Harry and I are on the front lines either way, Molly," Sarah whispered, tapped her forearm and they all understood. "Do we have any news about the bombing? Or just...anything new?"

Arthur shook his head, "No. But we have taken back all members around, Dumbledore reckoned  whatever happens, it's better to concentrate on you and Harry, keep you out of harm's way in any way we can."

"Right. Dumbledore reckoned" mumbled Sarah, clearly holding back some resentment.

"Sarah-" Remus started and her eyes shot up at him, "He knew. I asked him about it, because I trusted him, and he lied."

"It was a delicate situation," Remus cautioned, and it only made her clench her jaw.

"It doesn't matter. The threat's getting closer, I can feel it at the back of my neck," she retorted, crossing her arms. "And whatever Harry told us about Snape and Malfoy doesn't exactly sound reassuring."

Everyone exchanged uneasy looks, "I'm with Sarah on this one," said Tonks pursing her lips.

"There's surely an explanation to it, all right?" Remus looked between the two women most important to him with a frown, ready to fight them on this, when Arthur interjected, "Let's press pause on this, shall we? Molly's right. We should keep these conversations for the Order's meetings."

"You're right," Remus nodded, got up and reached Sarah, "I understand your reluctance, darling. There's few people we can trust, they're standing around us right now," he looked around the living room and the kitchen, parceled with said people.

"Exactly," said Sarah pointedly, "They're around right now. There's more to it, more to this than Shnaps could tell me because he's on the other side of England and had no idea who I was before I went to him. It's frustrating. I have a right to know."

"Yes, you're right, which is why we told you everything we knew," urged Remus.

"You did." Sarah nodded and added in a final tone, "Dumbledore didn't. And that's why you're not changing my mind on this."

Remus sighed and shook his head looking down defeated, he didn't know what to say to that, made Sarah fidget nervously, "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to ruin Christmas. This conversation took a wild turn, I wasn't prepared for it."

"Don't worry about it," he gently squeezed her arm and pressed a soft kiss atop her head, rejoined his place next Tonks.

Sarah walked outside, joining Fred, Harry and George to see what it was about, discovered they were snickering about some new inventions that blew up into multiple mechanical toys that croaked around the grass and turned in circles, so she left them to it, smiled endearingly while she joined Ginny and Selena.