Dark Pasts { A Harry Potter Story }

Chapter 87 - The Plan

"Could I have a word with you?" Remus asked me as I was walking down the stairs.

"Er, sure," I said and followed him out into the garden.

"It came to my attention that you would be leaving with Harry, Ron and Hermione after the wedding, is that correct?"

I frowned. "Yes, that is correct."

"I was wondering if you could tell me what it is you will be up to?" he said.

"I can't do that," I said. "I'm sorry."

"Elizabeth," he said in a patronizing tone.

"Look, Dumbledore left Harry things to do. And he told him to keep it a secret —"

"But he told you?" he said.

"That's different! We have to help him," I said.

Remus shook his head. "The four of you are barely of age. Don't you think that if Dumbledore wanted things done, the Order could take care of it?"

"It has to be Harry," I said.

"Well I don't see why you have to go with him in any case," he said.

"I don't have to," I said. "I want to. I'll be at his side through all this. No matter what."

He seemed to want to retort, but after a moment, he simply sighed and walked away. I walked back inside the house where I found Ron and Harry talking in the living room.

"Hey," I said as I sat down between them.

"Hey," Harry said. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "It's just, Remus was trying to get me to tell him what we'll be doing when we leave."

Harry looked away, a guilty expression on his face. I frowned but had no time to question him about it before Ron spoke up.

"Yeah, mum's been trying to get it out of Hermione and me," Ron said. "She'll try you next, so brace yourself," he told Harry.

"Well, the Trace'll break on the thirty-first," Harry said. "That means I only need to stay here four days. Then I can —"

"Five days," Ron corrected him. "We've got to stay for the wedding. They'll kill us if we miss it."

Harry looked mutinous before he reluctantly nodded.

"D'you reckon you already know where the You-Know-Whats are?" Ron asked after a moment.

"No," Harry admitted.

Ron and I shared a look.

"Hermione and I have been doing a bit of research," I said and they both turned to me. "We'll tell you later," I whispered as I saw Mrs. Weasley walk past us.

Mrs. Weasley kept us busy for the rest of the day with preparations for the wedding. At first, I thought she was doing it to distract us from having lost Mad-Eye or from the terrors of our upcoming journey. But after two days of barely having any time to speak with Ron, Hermione and Harry, I began to suspect that she was trying to delay our departure, or simply stop us from leaving at all.

We were often joined by other Order members for dinner now as the Burrow had replaced Grimmauld Place as the headquarters since after the death of Dumbledore, their Secret-Keeper, each of the people to whom Dumbledore had confided Grimmauld Place's location had become a Secret-Keeper in turn.

"And as there are around twenty of us, that greatly dilutes the power of the Fidelius Charm," Mr. Weasley explained to us over dinner. "Twenty times as many opportunities for the Death Eaters to get the secret out of somebody. We can't expect it to hold much longer."