Courage - Harry Potter

-122-

Book: Courage
Chapter 122
Word Count: 1077

The Room of Requirement was getting awfully crowded. Not long after Harry had left with Luna, the portrait hole they had all clambered into began opening and closing with surprising regularity; Oliver Wood, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and more had shown up, along with Remus (much to Layla's joy) and Kingsley Shacklebolt, both of whom had arrived with Bill and Fleur direct from Shell Cottage (her message had indeed gotten through, it seemed)... along with Mr and Mrs Weasley.

"Harry!" Katie Bell soon yelled, pointing at the staircase, where Harry had just appeared with Luna. He seemed completely taken aback at the extent to which the crowd had grown. Luna, of course, was nonplussed.

A hush fell over the room as soon as he appeared. Remus approached the staircase.

"Harry, what's happening?" he asked.

"Voldemort's on his way, they're barricading the school — Snape's run for it. What are you doing here? How did you know?"

"We sent messages to the rest of Dumbledore's Army," Fred explained. "You couldn't expect everyone to miss the fun, Harry, and the D.A. let the Order of the Phoenix know, and it all kind of snowballed."

"What first, Harry?" called George. "What's going on?"

"They're evacuating the younger kids and everyone's meeting in the Great Hall to get organized," Harry said. "We're fighting."

There was a great roar and a surge toward the foot of the stairs. The mingled members of the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore's Army, and Layla's old Quidditch team, all with their wands drawn, began heading up into the main castle.

"Come on, Luna," Dean called as he passed, holding out his free hand; she took it and followed him back up the stairs.

The crowd was thinning: Only a little knot of people remained below in the Room of Requirement. Mrs Weasley was struggling with Ginny. Around them stood Remus, Fred, George, Bill, and Fleur.

"You're underage!" Mrs Weasley shouted at her daughter. "I won't permit it! The boys, yes, but you, you've got to get home!"

"I won't! I'm in Dumbledore's Army—"

"A teenagers' gang!"

"A teenagers' gang that's about to take him on, which no one she has dared to do!" said Fred.

"She's sixteen!" shouted Mrs Weasley. "She's not old enough! What you two were thinking, bringing her with you—"

Fred and George looked slightly ashamed of themselves.

"Mum's right, Ginny," said Bill gently. "You can't do this. Everyone underage will have to leave, it's only right."

"I can't go home!" Ginny shouted, angry tears sparkling in her eyes. "My whole family's here, I can't stand waiting there alone and not knowing and — Lay?"

"I'm sorry, Gin," Layla sighed. "I just don't want to see you get hurt."

"Fine," Ginny said, staring at the entrance to the tunnel back to the Hog's Head. "I'll say good-bye now, then, and—"

There was a scuffling and a great thump: Someone else had clambered out of the tunnel, overbalanced slightly, and fallen. He pulled himself up on the nearest chair, looked around through lopsided horn-rimmed glasses, and said, "Am I too late? Has it started? I only just found out, so I — I—"

Percy spluttered into silence. Evidently he had not expected to run into most of his family. There was a long moment of astonishment, broken by Fleur turning to Remus and saying, in a wildly transparent attempt to break the tension, "So — 'ow eez leetle Teddy?"

Remus blinked at her, startled. The silence between the Weasleys seemed to by solidifying, like ice.

"I — oh yes — he's fine!" Remus said loudly. "Yes, Tonks is with him — at her mother's—"

Percy and the other Weasleys were still staring at one another, frozen.

"Here, I've got a picture!" Remus shouted, pulling a photograph from inside his jacket and showing it to Layla and Fleur, who saw a tiny baby with a tuft of bright turquoise hair, waving fat fists at the camera.

"I was a fool!" Percy roared, so loudly that Lupin nearly dropped his photograph. "I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a — a—"

"Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron." said Fred.

Percy swallowed.

"Yes, I was!"

"Well, you can't say fairer that that," said Fred, holding out his hand to Percy.

Mrs Weasley burst into tears. She ran forward, pushed Fred aside, and pulled Percy into a strangling hug, while he patted her on the back, his eyes on his father.

"I'm sorry, Dad." Percy said.

Mr Weasley blinked rather rapidly, then he too hurried to hug his son.

"What made you see sense, Perce?" inquired George.

"It's been coming on for a while," said Percy, mopping his eyes under his glasses with a corner of his traveling cloak. "But I had to find a way out and it's not so easy at the Ministry, they're imprisoning traitors all the time. I managed to make contact with Aberforth and he tipped me off ten minutes ago that Hogwarts was going to make a fight for it, so here I am."

"Well, we do look to our prefects to take a lead at times such as these," said George in a good imitation of Percy's most pompous manner. "Now let's get upstairs and fight, or all the good Death Eaters'll be taken."

"So, you're my sister-in-law now?" said Percy, shaking hands with Fleur as they hurried off toward the staircase with Bill, Fred, and George.

"Ginny!" barked Mrs Weasley.

Ginny has been attempting, under cover of the reconciliation, to sneak upstairs too.

"Molly, how about this," said Remus. "Why doesn't Ginny stay here, then at least she'll be on the scene and know what's going on, but she won't be in the middle of the fighting?"

"I—"

"That's a good idea," said Mr Weasley firmly. "Ginny, you stay in this room, you hear me?"

Ginny did not seem to like the idea much, but under her father's unusually stern gaze, she nodded. Mr and Mrs Weasley and Remus headed off for the stairs as well.

"Ready to do this?" Layla asked Harry, holding out her hand.

"I've been ready for this moment for years," said Harry, taking Layla's outstretched hand. "Let's do this."

Together, hand-in-hand, Layla and Harry began running towards the stairs.

"Please stay here, Gin!" Layla called back. "I love you!"

"I love you, too! Be safe!" Ginny called back.

The final fight had begun.