My Eldest Weasley

Mortal Peril

Bill

The quiet stillness of the castle was unnerving, to say the least. I couldn't help the unease crawling over my skin like a dozen spiders, as I paced the sixth floor corridor, keeping a vigilant eye around me.

I knew Remus and Tonks were stationed somewhere around the castle. There was also an auror standing guard at the entrance and the teachers were spread randomly throughout the school.

That was the routine protection detail Dumbledore had assigned to us all this year, whenever he left the castle.

But tonight felt different somehow. My insides were unsettled, even before I had left for tonight's guard duty. That was why I had asked Fleur to spend the night at the Burrow.

The thought of her alone in our Diagon alley apartment made me nervous, possibly because of all the recent disappearances happening there.

Usually, she'd have waved my concerns away saying she can take care of herself. But she must've felt the disquiet turning my insides and my need to have peace of mind, so she had easily agreed, leaving home with me before disapparating for the Burrow.

Just as I made to go and check up another floor, the silence of the castle was broken by loud footsteps echoing down the corridor, getting louder as someone drew near. I lifted my wand, lighting it's tip up and a moment later saw Hermione running up to me, red-faced and breathless.

Seeing fear on her face, I rushed to her as she struggled to say, "Bill! Prof-professor Snape s-sent me. There's something wrong- at the-the seventh floor. Ron, Neville and- and Ginny are there!"

She was turning back before her sentence was fully out of her mouth, and on impulse I ran alongside, her words registering in my mind a minute too late. Ron, Ginny and Neville? What, in the Merlin's name, were they doing out here at this time of night?

Before I could raise this question though, we were already up the seventh floor corridor, running up towards the Room of Requirements entrance I was well familiar with.

I rushed to the concealed entrance, blocking it before turning around and putting my back to it, as I searched for others.

The second I saw a flicker of long, red hairs hunched behind a suit of armour close by, utter darkness swept around us. It was as if someone had switched off the lights in a window-less room, plunging everything in utter blackness.

I heard the door that previously wasn't there behind me creak and instantly knew the door to Room of Requirements was opening up.

On instinct, I pushed Hermione away, who stood next to me, tightening my grip on my wand and turning around.

All of this didn't take more than a split second, but it was enough for whatever came out of the room to run smash into me, tackling me to what felt like the other side of the corridor from impact.

My back hit the wall, and one huge hand wrapped itself around my throat, nearly cutting off my breathing, while the other held my wand arm away, against the wall, preventing me from casting any spell.

All my combat training with Mad-Eye kicked in and I threw my leg out, kicking a thick shin, hard. Whoever it was probably wasn't expecting me to fight back, because I heard a surprised growl - growl? - before something like a boulder hit me in the stomach, making me double over.

Still unwilling to give up, I raised my wand, blindly pointing it in front of me, but a kick at my ankle made me lose my balance and crash to the floor.

I faintly heard my wand clatter somewhere close by, before a huge body climbed up on me, and what felt like 4-5 knives, slicing my face, from forehead to throat. I screamed in pain and rage, trying to push the body off me, but whatever it was, didn't budge.

Instead, I felt knife sharp teeth penetrate the skin on my neck, throat and face, the monster ravaging where ever it could find the skin.

I felt my shirt getting wet with my own blood and the darkness around me was fading into a thick blanket of oblivion, where no sound or pain could reach me.

I selfishly welcomed it. Anything can feel better than this. Anything to get away from the unbearable pain searing through my body.

Just as I completely gave into the blackness, a rough voice registered in my conscious, "Enough Greyback. The passage is clear. Its time."

Fleur

The distant rumbling of the thunder sent a shiver through me as I walked into the kitchen of the Burrow.

It was very late to be awake, much less walking around a near dark house, but I couldn't sleep. There was some unnamed emotion curling in the pit of my stomach, an overwhelming feeling of wrongness settling over me, and no matter what I did it wouldn't go away.

I briefly wondered if I was sick, and so I had ventured out of Bill's childhood room that I was staying the night in, to make some tea.

Just as I stepped into the dark kitchen of the Burrow, a loud scraping noise startled me and I whipped my wand out, pointing it at the source of the noise, only to find myself at the end of Molly Weasley's wand.

After freezing for a moment, we exhaled together and lowered our wands. She gave me an irritable look before asking, "Good gracious. What are you doing out at this time?"

Drawing myself up, I answered, "I could ask you ze same. Besides, I only wanted to make myself some tea."

Moving to the hearth, I flicked my wand and a kettle full of water hung itself from the hook. Another flick started the fire, and I took a seat at the table, waiting for the water to boil.

Molly looked indecisive for a moment, before coming to sit in the chair opposite to me, flicking her own wand and replacing my kettle with a larger one, and summoning tea bags and sugar from a cupboard to float and sit between us on the table.

I didn't comment as we sat in silence, my eyes on her and hers on the weird clock she had made a habit of carrying around with her.

After a moment, she sighed and turned the face of the clock towards me, silently allowing me to gaze at it for the first time.

Curiously, I took in the nine golden hands, one for every member of the family. In place of hours there were a series of possible locations, like, "home", "school", "work", "travelling", "lost", "hospital", "prison", and "mortal peril".

At the moment, all the nine hands were pointing at mortal peril. "It's been like that for more than a year now," she confessed on a sigh, her worried eyes meeting mine for a moment before dropping to the clock again.

Maybe it was my own unsettled feelings, or my memory of Bill's eyes from this evening that had looked desperately at me when he had asked me to spend the night here or simply empathy for the woman in front of me. Whatever the reason may be, it made me cover her hand that was holding the clock with mine in a silent reassurance.

We sat quietly for a few moments, both lost in our own world of worries, holding hands. Silently lending support to each other.

The moment was broken by the sound of kettle signaling that the water was ready. I summoned the kettle and cups to the table, and Molly's wand made a short work of tea bags, serving two steaming cups before us. We shared a small smile, having done something together for the first time without bickering.

"You two really would make a formidable team, you know," spoke a voice making us both jump, followed by Molly reproachfully exclaiming, "Goodness Arthur! Am I to be killed of a heart failure tonight?"

Winking mischievously at me, Arthur opened his mouth to reply, but whatever he was going to say was drowned by our gasps and screams as a silvery, glowing light entered the kitchen from the closed window, casting an eerie glow around.

As we watched, the light transformed into a glowing, pearly cat and a vaguely familiar, urgent voice emitted from it. My whole world stood still as we heard the patronus say, "The Death-Eaters attacked Hogwarts. Bill is injured by Greyback. Hurry."