New Romantics | Hermione Granger Book IV

|17| Chapter Seventeen

S E V E N T E E N

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Saffron didn't know what could have Sage in such a state but she knew it had to be something bad. Hence, she followed her without any hesitation. Once ushered out of the tent, she exhaled in fear as they had been thrown out into utter chaos. Something had happened in the few minutes that had passed since they entered the Weasleys tent, something major, as people were running towards the forest, with screams, cries and bangs coming from an all too near distance

Feeling stuck to the spot, Saffron didn't know what to do. She merely looked at Sage for instruction which she gave the second that the last person, Ginny, walked out of the tent. 

"Sirius is going to take you all to the woods---" she began but Sirius cut her off.

"I'm not, I'm going with you to help," Sirius interjected firmly. Sage looked as though she wanted to argue but didn't, as Mr Weasley had opened his mouth to give orders, as Saffron saw Bill, Charlie and Percy all rush off in the opposite direction to the one that everyone was running in. 

"Right, Maya," Sage turned to the eldest girl. "Bring them to the woods, stay out of sight, don't talk to anyone, if anyone comes to you that you don't know, get away from them or stun them if you have to. We're going to go and help the Ministry, so just stay together, okay?"

Maya nodded and Saffron got distracted by Hermione tapping her on the shoulder. The girls trembling hand pointed to a clearing not too far away. Saffron squinted to make out what she was looking like and the second she realised what was going on, her stomach churned.

A relatively big group of masked wizards were marching in a pack, starting fires and sending curses flying in all directions. But what was the most sickening of all was that there was a family being hung in the air, being spun around and twisted by the group of wizards. Saffron felt on the verge of throwing up at the sight. How was no onlooker putting a stop to it? Were the group of wizards truly that hard to stop?

She gulped. They would be that hard to stop if they were the Death Eaters.

The Deaths Eaters were a group of wizards who were in Lord Voldemort's inner circle during the war. Her own father, Oscar, had been murdered by one in addition to numerous other people. They were a force to be reckoned with and seeing as they had attacked without warning, they were going to be hard to combat as very few were ready to fight back against them. The prospect of Sage, Sirius and the Weasley men fighting against them was a frightening one. Saffron had only just grown accustomed to the prospect of having a new family and she didn't want them ripped right out from under them. She didn't want them to have to suffer the same fate as her own parents. 

"Fred and George, do the same," Mr Weasley nodded at Sage. "Look after each other,"

"Now, go," Sage thrust her arms in the direction of the forest and Saffron watched as she, Sirius and Mr Weasley sprint into the oncoming stampede, running against it. 

"Okay," Saffron heard Maya say to herself, trying to mentally prepare herself for keeping such a large group together. There were eleven of them in total and it would be very easy to lose one of the littlest ones, like Rachel, Rowan, Ginny or Noah. "Okay, Noah and Rachel stay on either side of me. Saffron stick with Rowan. And I guess Fred..."

"I'll take Ginny," Fred grabbed Ginny's hand and started to drag her in the direction of the woods. There was a seriousness in his voice that Saffron had never heard in the three years she had known him for. That marked the severity of the predicament in which they found themselves. "The rest of you stay close. Come on,"

They wasted no more time in making their way towards the forest. However, the further they got away from the vividly illuminated campsite, the harder it became to see. Saffron could sense that Maya and Fred were leading the pack. Rachel, Noah and Ginny were around them, with George right beside them. Saffron didn't let go of Rowan's hand and could feel Hermione beside her. By the sounds of it, Harry and Ron were right beside them.

The real issue came when they were completely out of the campsite as the sheer amount of people crashing into them made Saffron scream, as a burly man walked right into her and Rowan. She felt his hand escape hers and heard him moan as it did so. 

"Rowan," said Saffron urgently, looking over her shoulder before shrieking as a teenaged girl walked right into her causing the pair of them to fall over. "Rowan!" 

Not caring that she fell, Saffron quickly lifted herself up off the ground and sighed, reaching into her jeans pocket to take out her wand. She muttered: "Lumos!"

The tip of her wand was lit and she was able to see more clearly. To her relief, she saw Rowan stood static by himself, trying to see if he could see her. He then started to call her name and Saffron responded by pointing her wand in his direction. He ran towards her and took her hand again.

"Where's everyone else?" He asked Saffron loudly, perhaps hoping that everyone else would supply him with an answer. One person did as Hermione called out to them, holding her illuminated wand up. She was stood beside Harry at the edge of the forest, just away from where the masses were going. The pair of them were stood over Ron, who had tripped over a tree root after being shoved by someone in the crowd.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked Saffron and Rowan, taking Saffron into a one-armed hug as Ron tried to get to his feet.

"Just about," said Saffron breathlessly, returning the hug and feeling her whole body shake with fear. Fear at the fact that it was only the five of them. She was initially going to ask them where the others were but instead pointed out the obvious. "We've lost the others then,"

"It appears that way,"  Harry frowned, tugging Ron to his feet, as Ron winced citing that his foot was sore and he had twisted it. "I doubt they could have gone too far away, everyone's dispersed now so it should be easier to---"

Harry didn't finish his sentence as a deafening explosion went off and Saffron saw the reflection of what looked like of a large bonfire in Rowan's eyes. She followed his gaze to the campsite and saw that a large section of it was getting engulfed in thick flames. She shuddered at the thought of people who had put their children to sleep already or who had gone to sleep themselves. Had they gotten out on time? She tried not to think about that answer.

"Are you okay?" Saffron asked Rowan carefully, seeing that he was clutching his forehead and scrunching his face up in concentration. 

Rowan's lip started to tremble as Saffron watched him turn around to face her, hand still clutched over his forehead.

"Heard who?" Saffron asked confusedly, hoping that maybe he had heard Maya, Rachel or Ginny somewhere in the vicinity. 

"Rachel," Rowan answered simply. His eyes suddenly started to lose their focus and his hand dropped to his side. "I heard her, in my mind. It was like she was standing next to me,"

With that, he collapsed to the floor and Saffron stood with her hand clasped over her mouth as she watched her younger brother's consciousness move from his physical body into the Grey.