Emma Potter; Going to War

5: Flying

Harry sat bolt upright, listening intently. The Dursleys couldn't be back, it was much too soon, and in any case we hadn't heard their car. There was silence for a few seconds, and then we heard voices.Burglars, I thought, sliding off the chair onto my feet — but a split second later it occurred to me that burglars would keep their voices down, and whoever was moving around in the kitchen was certainly not troubling to do so. 

I snatched up my wand from my bedside table and stood facing our bedroom door, listening with all my might. Next moment we jumped as the lock gave a loud click and his door swung open.Harry and I stood motionless, staring through the open door at the dark upstairs landing, I was straining my ears for further sounds, but none came. 

Harry hesitated for a moment and then moved swiftly and silently out of our room to the head of the stairs, I was following. My heart shot upward into my throat. There were people standing in the shadowy hall below, silhouetted against the streetlight glowing through the glass door; eight or nine of them, all, as far as I could see, looking up at me. 

"Lower your wands, boy, before you take someone's eye out," said a low, growling voice. My heart was thumping uncontrollably. I knew that voice,but Harry did not lower his wand. I gripped mine harder.

"Professor Moody?" he said uncertainly.

 "I don't know so much about 'Professor,' " growled the voice, "never got round to much teaching, did I? Get down here, we want to see you both properly."

 Harry lowered his wand slightly but did not relax his grip on it, I didn't do either. Nor did we move. We had very good reason to be suspicious. We had recently spent nine months in what we had thought was Mad-Eye Moody's company only to find out that it wasn't Moody at all, but an impostor; an impostor, moreover, who had tried to kill Harry and me before being unmasked. But before we could make a decision about what to do next, a second, slightly hoarse voice floated upstairs.

 "It's all right, Harry, Emma. We've come to take you away." 

My heart leapt. I knew that voice too, though I hadn't heard it for more than a year.

 "P-Professor Lupin?" I said disbelievingly. "Is that you?" 

"Why are we all standing in the dark?" said a third voice, this one completely unfamiliar, a woman's. "Lumos."

A wand tip flared, illuminating the hall with magical light. Harry and I blinked. The people below were crowded around the foot of the stairs,gazing intently up at us, some craning their heads for a better look.Remus Lupin stood nearest to us. Though still quite young,Lupin looked tired and rather ill; he had more grey hair than when I had said good-bye to him, and his robes were more patched and shabbier than ever. Nevertheless, he was smiling broadly at Harry and me,who tried to smile back through our shock. 

"Oooh, he looks just like I thought he would," said the witch who was holding her lit wand aloft. She looked the youngest there; she had a pale heart-shaped face, dark twinkling eyes, and short spiky hair that was a violent shade of violet. "Wotcher, Harry, Emma!" 

"Yeah, I see what you mean, Remus," said a bald black wizard standing farthest back; he had a deep, slow voice and wore a single gold hoop in his ear. "He looks exactly like James" 

"Except the eyes," said a wheezy-voiced, silver-haired wizard at the back. "Lily's eyes. And her--" he smiled at me "It's like looking at Lily's sister. Regardless of the hair and eyes" Don't know how I feel about that 

Mad-Eye Moody, who had long grizzled gray hair and a large chunk missing from his nose, was squinting suspiciously at Harry and me through his mismatched eyes. One of the eyes was small, dark, and beady, the other large, round, and electric blue — the magical eye that could see through walls, doors, and the back of Moody's own head.