Brontide

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Hello? Is this thing working? I suppose there's really no way to tell if it is or not, um...this is Cassie."

I was face to face with a silvery-blue bat of some sort. It was flapping its wings rapidly and waiting for me to continue speaking. Rather hesitantly, I kept talking into the end of my wand.

"It turns out my Patronus has changed, though I really had no idea until I started practicing this. Fred and George think it might have to do with the shock of...you know. Anyway, we had to move locations recently because our position was compromised. As it turns out, saying You-Know-Who's real name will result in a squadron of Snatchers showing up on your doorstep."

I paused again and looked at Rae from the kitchen doorway. She had the telly on in the sitting room, the volume low while she and the twins whispered to each other.

"Remus said you were due sometime this month, so hopefully you'll get this while you're at home resting. If either of you needs anything or want to relay information, we're at Rae's family home in Morpeth now. I'd send Nestor but we don't want to look suspicious since her neighbors are quite nosy. Hopefully, I did this right...I'd really like to see you both soon. I hope you're well and I can't wait to meet the baby."

I lowered my wand but my new Patronus continued to hover in front of me. I stared at it with my brow furrowed, trying to figure out how to make it leave.

"Er...go to the Tonks residence?" I said uncertainly. That seemed to do the trick, and a moment later it disappeared through the wall.

I plopped down in an armchair and turned my attention to the telly. The newscaster seemed to be going on about the wet weather again, but this was nothing new. The previous few weeks had brought nothing but a lot of rain. As per usual, the muggle news told us nothing of importance, but that didn't mean we were going to stop searching for information. Every day we watched the news and picked up the local newspaper from town in the hopes of finding some shred of useful information.

"I really hope Tonks and Remus get that message," I said quietly, "because I can only imagine the mess we left behind at the other place and I'd hate for them to think something happened to us."

"Well, seeing as none of us has ever successfully communicated with our Patronuses I think you did alright," Rae piped up from the sofa. "We'll just have to wait and see, yeah? Why don't you and Fred go pick up some breakfast in the meantime? And the paper, while you're at it. I'm gonna try giving Georgie here a haircut." She reached over and ruffled his messy red hair.

"Oi, what's wrong with my hair?" he protested, trying to lean away from her.

"Have you not seen yourself recently? You're starting to look like a caveman," she giggled.

"I do not!"

"It's never been this long before. I thought you said that you didn't like yourself with long hair?"

"Well, I've changed my mind."

She scoffed. "You've only changed it out of spite."

They were poking at each other and being far too cutesy for me so early in the day. The general mood between the four of us had improved since leaving the shelter, but that didn't mean I wanted to upchuck the previous night's supper.

Fred and I grabbed our raincoats and an umbrella, the two of us apparating to a field about a quarter mile away from Morpeth's town square. It was a place that was usually void of any people and the walk wasn't bad. I pulled up my hood and Fred popped the umbrella open, holding it over our heads while we walked along the side of the road.