"Hagrid, TURN AROUND!"
"My job's ter get you there safe, Harry!" bellow Hagrid, and he opened the throttle. "Stop Ц S
TOP!" Harry shouted, but as he looked back again two jets of green light flew past his left ear: Four Death Eaters had broken away from the circle and were purs u
ing them, aiming for Hagrid's broad back. Hagrid swerved, but the Death Eaters were keeping up
with the bike; more curses shot after them, and Harry had to sink low into the sidecar to avoid them. Wri g
gling around he cried, " Stupefy!"
and a red bolt of light shot from his own wand, cleaving a gap between the four pursuing Death Eaters as they sca t
tered to avoid it.
"Hold on, Harry, this'll do for 'em!" roared Hagrid, and Harry looked up just in time to see Hagrid slamming a thick finger into a green button near the fuel gauge. A wall, a solid black wall, erupted out of the e
x haust pipe. Craning his neck, Harry saw it expand into b
e
ing in midair. Three of the Death Eaters swerved and avoided it, but the fourth was not so lucky; He vanished from view and then dropped like a boulder from behind it, his broomstick broken into pieces. One of his fe
l lows slowed up to save him, but they and the airborne wall were swallowed by dar
k ness as Hagrid leaned low over the handlebars and sped up.
More Killing Curses flew past Harry's head from the two remaining Death Eaters' wands; they were aiming for Hagrid. Harry r e
sponded with further Stunning Spells: Red and green collided in midair in a shower of mult i
colored sparks, and Harry thought wildly of fireworks, and the Muggles below who would have no idea what was happening Ц
"Here we go again, Harry, hold on!" yelled Hagrid, and he jabbed at a second bu t
ton. This time a great net burst from the bike's e x
haust, but the Death Eaters were ready for it. Not only did they swerve to avoid it, but the companion who had slowed to save their unco n
scious friend had caught up. He bloomed su d
denly out of the darkness and now three of them were pursuing the moto r bike, all shooting curses after it.
"This'll do it, Harry, hold on tight!" yelled Hagrid, and Harry saw him slam his whole hand onto the purple button beside the speedometer.
With an unmistakable bellowing roar, dragon fire burst from the exhaust, white-hot and blue, and the motorbike shot forward like a bullet with a sound of wrenching metal. Harry saw the Death Eaters swerve out of sight to avoid the deadly trail of flame,
and at the same time felt the sidecar sway om
i nously: Its metal connections to the bike had splintered with the force of acceler a
tion.
"It's all righ', Harry!" bellowed Hagrid, now thrown flat onto the back by the surge of speed; n o
body was steering now, and the sid e car was starting to twist violently in the bike's slipstream.
"I'm on it, Harry, don' worry!" Hagrid yelled, and from inside his jacket pocket he pulled his flo w
ery pink umbrella.
"Hagrid! No! Let me!"
"REPARO!"
There was a deafening bang and the sidecar broke away from the bike completely. Harry sped forward, propelled by the impetus of the bike's flight, then the sidecar began to lose height Ц
In desperation Harry pointed his wand at the sidecar and shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The sidecar rose like a cork, unstee r able but at least still airborne. He had but a split se
c ond's relief, however, as more curses streaked past him: The three Death Eaters were closing in.
"I'm comin', Harry!" Hagrid yelled from out of the darkness, but Harry could feel the sidecar begi n
ning to sink again: Crouc h ing as low as he could, he pointed at the mi
d dle of the oncoming figures and yelled, "I
m pedimenta!"
The jinx hit the middle Death Eater in the chest; For a moment the man was absurdly spread-eagled in midair as though he had hit an invisible ba r
rier: One of his fellows almost co l
lided with him Ц
Then the sidecar began to fall in earnest, and the remaining Death Eater shot a curse so close to Harry that he had to duck below the rim of the car, knocking out a tooth on the edge of his seat Ц
"I'm comin', Harry, I'm comin'!"
A huge hand seized the back of Harry's robes and hoisted him out of the plummeting sidecar; Harry pulled his ruc k
sack with him as he dragged himself onto the motorbike's seat and found himself back-to-back with Hagrid. As they soared upward, away from the two remai n
ing Death Eaters, Harry spat blood out of his mouth, pointed his wand at the falling sidecar, and yelled, "Co
n fringo!"
He knew a dreadful, gut-wrenching pang for Hedwig as it exploded; the Death Eater nearest it was blasted off his broom and fell from sight; his compa n
ion fell back and va n ished.
"Harry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," moaned Hagrid, "I shouldn'ta tried ter repair it meself Ц yeh've got no room Ц "
"It's not a problem, just keep flying!" Harry shouted back, as two more Death Eaters emerged out of the darkness, drawing closer.
As the curses came shooting across the interve n ing space again, Hagrid swerved and zi
g zagged: Harry knew that Hagrid did not dare use the dragon-fire button aga
in, with Harry seated so insecurely. Harry sent Stu n
ning Spell after Stunning Spell back at their pursuers, barely holding them off. He shot a n other bloc
k ing jinx at them: The closest Death Eater swerved to avoid it and his hood slipped, and by the red lig
ht of his next Stu n ning Spell, Harry saw the strangely blank face of Stanley Shu
n pike Ц Stan Ц
"Expelliarmus!" Harry yelled.
"That's him, it's him, it's the real one!"
The hooded Death Eater's shout reached Harry even above the thunder of the motorbike's engine: Next moment, both pursuers had fallen back and di s
appeared from view.
"Harry, what's happened?" bellowed Hagrid. "Where've they gone?"
"I don't know!"
But Harry was afraid: The hooded Death Eater had shouted, "It's the real one!"; how had he known? He gazed around at the apparently empty darkness and felt its me n
ace. Where were they?
He clambered around on the seat to face fo r ward and seized hold of the back of Hagrid's jacket.
"Hagrid, do the dragon-fire thing again, let's get out of here!"
"Hold on tight, then, Harry!"
There was a deafening, screeching roar again and the white-blue fire shot from the e x
haust: Harry felt himself slipping bac k
wards off what little of the seat he had. Hagrid flung backward upon him, barely maintaining his grip on the handlebars Ц "I think we've lost 'em Harry, I think we've done it!" yelled Hagrid.
But Harry was not convinced; Fear lapped at him as he looked left and right for pursuers he was sure would come. . . . Why had they fallen back? One of them had still had a wand. . . .
It's him . . . it's the real one
. . . . They had said it right after he had tried to Disarm Stan. . . .
"We're nearly there, Harry, we've nearly made it!" shouted Hagrid.
Harry felt the bike drop a little, though the lights down on the ground still seemed r e mote as stars.
Then the scar on his forehead burned like fire: as a Death Eater appeared on either side of the bike, two Killing Curses missed Harry by millimeters, cast from behind Ц
And then Harry saw him. Voldemort was flying like smoke on the wind, without broomstick or the s
tral to hold him, his snake-like face gleaming out of the blackness, his white fingers raising his wand again Ц
Hagrid let out a bellow of fear and steered the motorbike into a vertical dive. Clin g ing on for dear life, Ha
rry sent Stunning Spells flying at random into the whirling night. He saw a body fly past him and knew he had hit one of them, but then he heard a bang and saw sparks from the engine; the motorbike sp
i raled through the air, completely out of control Ц
Green jets of light shot past them again. Harry had no idea which way was up, which down: His scar was still burning; he expected to die at any second. A hooded figure on a broo m
stick was feet from him, he saw it raise its arm Ц
"NO!"
With a shout of fury Hagrid launched himself off the bike at the Death Eater; to his horror, Harry saw both Hagrid and the Death Eater, falling out of sight, their combined weight too much for the broo
m stick Ц
Barely gripping the plummeting bike with his knees, Harry heard Voldemort scream, " Mine! "
It was over: He could not see or hear where Voldemort was; he glimpsed another Death Eater swooping out of the way and heard, " Avada Ц "
A
s the pain from Harry's scar forced his eyes shut, his wand acted of its own accord. He felt it drag his hand around like some great ma g
net, saw a spurt of golden fire through his half-closed eyelids, heard a crack and a scream of fury. The r e
maining Death Eater yelled; Voldemort screamed, " NO!
" Som e
how, Harry found his nose an inch from the dragon-fire bu t
ton. He punched it with his wand-free hand and the bike shot more flames into the air, hurtling straight t o
ward the ground.
"Hagrid!" Harry called, holding on to the bike for dear life. "Hagrid Ц Accio Hagrid! "
The motorbike sped up, sucked towards the earth. Face level with the handlebars, Harry could see not h
ing but distant lights growing nearer and nearer: He was g o
ing to crash and there was nothing he could do about it. Behind him came another scream, "Your wand, Selwyn, give me your wand!"

He felt Voldemort before he saw him. Looking sideways, he stared into the red eyes and was sure they would be the last thing he ever saw: Voldemort preparing to curse him once more Ц
And then Voldemort vanished. Harry looked down and saw Hagrid spread-eagled on the ground below him. He pulled hard at the handlebars to avoid hitting him, groped for the brake, but with an earspli
t ting, ground trembling crash, he smashed into a muddy pond.

Chapter Five Fallen Warrior

"Hagrid?"
Harry struggled to raise himself out of the d e bris of metal and leather that su
r
rounded him; his hands sank into inches of muddy water as he tried to stand. He could not understand where Voldemort had gone and expected him to swoop out of the dar k
ness at any moment. Something hot and wet was trickling down his chin and from his forehead. He crawled out of the pond and stu
m bled toward the great dark mass on the ground that was Hagrid.
"Hagrid? Hagrid, talk to me Ц "
But the dark mass did not stir.
"Who's there? Is it Potter? Are you Harry Po t ter?"
Harry did not recognize the man's voice. Then a woman shouted. "They've crashed. Ted! Crashed in the garden!"
Harry's head was swimming.
"Hagrid," he repeated stupidly, and his knees buckled.
The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back on what felt like cushions, with a burning sens a
tion in his ribs and right arm. His missing tooth had been r e grown. The scar on his forehead was still throbbing.

"Hagrid?"
He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on a sofa in an unfamiliar, lamplit sitting room. His ruc k
sack lay on the floor a short di s tance away, wet and muddy. A fair-haired, big-bellied man was watc
h ing Harry anxiously.
"Hagrid's fine, son," said the man, "the wife's se e ing to him now. How are you fee
l ing? Anything else broken? I've fixed your ribs, your tooth, and your arm. I'm Ted, by the way, Ted Tonks Ц
Dora's father."
Harry sat up too quickly. Lights popped in front of his eyes and he felt sick and giddy.
"Voldemort Ц "
"Easy, now," said Ted Tonks, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder and pushing him back against the cushions. "That was a nasty crash you just had. What happened, anyway? Som e
thing go wrong with the bike? Arthur Weasley overstretch himself again, him and his Muggle contraptions?"
"No," said Harry, as his scar pulsed like an open wound. "Death Eaters, loads of them Ц we were chased Ц "
"Death Eaters?" said Ted sharply. "What d'you mean, Death Eaters? I thought they didn't know you were being moved t o
night, I thought Ц "
"They knew," said Harry.
Ted Tonks looked up at the ceiling as though he could see through it to the sky above.
"Well, we know our protective charms hold, then, don't we? They shouldn't be able to get within a hu n
dred yards of the place in any direction."
Now Harry understood why Voldemort had va n ished; it had been at the point when the m
o
torbike crossed the barrier of the Order's charms. He only hoped they would continue to work: He imagined Voldemort, a hundred yards above them as they spoke, looking for a way to penetrate what Harry visualized as a great tran
s parent bubble.
He swung his legs off the sofa; he needed to see Hagrid with his own eyes b e
fore he would believe that he was alive. He had barely stood up, however, when a door opened and Hagrid squeezed through it, his face co v
ered in mud and blood, limping a little but m i
raculously alive.
"Harry!"
Knocking over two delicate tables and an aspidi s
tra, he covered the floor between them in two strides and pulled Harry into a hug that nearly cracked his newly repaired ribs. "Blimey, Harry, how did yeh get out o' that? I thought we were both goners."
"Yeah, me too. I can't believe Ц "
Harry broke off. He had just noticed the woman who had entered the room behind Hagrid.
"You!" he shouted, and he thrust his hand into his pocket, but it was empty.
"Your wand's here, son," said Ted, tapping it on Harry's arm. "It fell right beside you, I picked it up…And that's my wife you're shou t
ing at."
"Oh, I'm Ц I'm sorry."
As she moved forward into the room, Mrs. Tonks's resemblance to her sister Bellatrix b e
came much less pronounced: Her hair was a lightТ s oft brown and her eyes were wider and kinder. Neverth e
less, she looked a little haughty after Harry's exclam a tion.
"What happened to our daughter?" she asked. "Hagrid said you were ambushed; where is Nymph a dora?"
"I don't know," said Harry. "We don't know what happened to anyone else."
She and Ted exchanged looks. A mixture of fear and guilt gripped Harry at the sight of their expre s
sions, if any of the others had died, it was his fault, all his fault. He had co n sented to the plan, given t
hem his hair . . .
"The Portkey," he said, remembering all of a su d den. "We've got to get back to the Bu
r row and find out Ц then we'll be able to send you word, or Ц or Tonks will, once she's Ц "

"Dora'll be ok, 'Dromeda," said Ted. "She knows her stuff, she's been in plenty of tight spots with the Aurors. The Portkey's through here," he added to Harry. "It's supposed to leave in three mi
n utes, if you want to take it."
"Yeah, we do," said Harry. He seized his ruc k sack, swung it onto his shoulders. "I Ц "
He looked at Mrs. Tonks, wanting to apologize for the state of fear in which he left her and for which he felt so terribly responsible, but no words o c
curred to him that he did not seem hollow and insi n
cere.
"I'll tell Tonks Ц Dora Ц to send word, when she . . . Thanks for patching us up, thanks for ever y
thing, I Ц "
He was glad to leave the room and follow Ted Tonks along a short hallway and into a be d
room. Hagrid came after them, bending low to avoid hitting his head on the door li n tel.
"There you go, son. That's the Por t key."
Mr. Tonks was pointing to a small, si l ver-backed hairbrush lying on the dressing t
a ble.
"Thanks," said Harry, reaching out to place a fi n ger on it, ready to leave.
"Wait a moment," said Hagrid, looking around. "Harry, where's Hedwig?"
"She . . . she got hit," said Harry.
The realization crashed over him: He felt ashamed of himself as the tears stung his eyes. The owl had been his companion, his one great link with the magical world whe n
ever he had been forced to return to the Dursleys.
Hagrid reached out a great hand and patted him painfully on the shoulder.
"Never mind," he said gruffly, "Never mind. She had a great old life Ц "
"Hagrid!" said Ted Tonks warningly, as the hai r brush glowed bright blue, and Hagrid only just got his forefinger
to it in time.
With a jerk behind the navel as though an invis i ble hook and line had dragged him fo
r ward, Harry was pulled into nothingness, spi n
ning uncontrollably, his finger glued to the Portkey as he and Hagrid hu r
tled away from Mr. Tonks. Second later
, Harry's feet slammed onto hard ground and he fell onto his hands and knees in the yard of the Burrow. He heard screams. Throwing aside the no longer glowing hai r
brush, Harry stood up, swaying slightly, and saw Mrs. Weasley and Ginny running down the steps by the back door as Hagrid, who had also collapsed on lan
d ing, clambered laboriously to his feet.
"Harry? You are the real Harry? What ha p pened? Where are the others?" cried Mrs. Weasley.
"What d'you mean? Isn't anyone else back?" Harry panted.
The answer was clearly etched in Mrs. Weasley's pale face.
"The Death Eaters were waiting for us," Harry told her, "We were surrounded the m o ment we took off Ц
they knew it was t o night Ц I don't know what happened to an
y one
else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort caught up with us Ц "
He could hear the self-justifying note in his voice, the plea for her to understand why he did not know what had happened to her sons, but Ц
"Thank goodness you're all right," she said, pul l ing him into a hug he did not feel he d
e served.
"Haven't go' any brandy, have yeh, Molly?" asked Hagrid a little shakily, "Fer medicinal pu r poses?"
She could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back toward the crooked house, Harry knew that she wanted to hide her face. He turned to Ginny and she answered his unspoken plea for info
r mation at once.
"Ron and Tonks should have been back first, but they missed their Portkey, it came back without them," she said, pointing at a rusty oil can lying on the ground nearby. "And that one," she pointed at an a
n
cient sneaker, "should have been Dad and Fred's, they were supposed to be second. You and Hagrid were third and," she checked her watch, "if they made it, George and Lupin aught to be back in about a mi
n ute."
Mrs. Weasley reappeared carrying a bottle of brandy, which she handed to Hagrid. He u n
corked it and drank it straight down in one.
"Mum!" shouted Ginny pointing to a spot se v eral feet away.
A blue light had appeared in the darkness: It grew larger and brighter, and Lupin and George a p
peared, spinning and then falling. Harry knew imm e diately that there was something wrong: Lupin was suppor
t ing George, who was unconscious and whose face was co
v ered in blood.
Harry ran forward and seized George's legs. T o g
ether, he and Lupin carried George into the house and through the kitchen to the living room, where they laid him on the sofa. As the lamplight fell across George's head, Ginny gasped and Harry's stomach lurched: One of George's ears was missing. The side
of his head and neck were drenched in wet, shoc k ingly sca
r let blood.
No sooner had Mrs. Weasley bent over her son that Lupin grabbed Harry by the upper arm and dragged him, none too gently, back into the kitchen, where Hagrid was still attempting to ease his bulk through the back door.
"Oi!" said Hagrid indignantly, "Le' go of him! Le' go of Harry!"
Lupin ignored him.
"What creature sat in the corner the first time that Harry Potter visited my office at Ho g
warts?" he said, giving Harry a small shake. "Answer me!"
"A Ц a grindylow in a tank, wasn't it?"
Lupin released Harry and fell back against a kitchen cupboard.
"Wha' was tha' about?" roared Hagrid.
"I'm sorry, Harry, but I had to check," said Lupin tersely. "We've been betrayed. Voldemort knew that you were being moved tonight and the only pe o
ple who could have told him were d i
rectly involved in the plan. You might have been an impostor."
"So why aren' you checkin' me?" panted Hagrid, still struggling with the door.
"You're half-giant," said Lupin, loo k ing up at Hagrid. "The Polyjuice Potion is d
e signed for human use only."
"None of the Order would have told Voldemort we were moving tonight," said Harry. The idea was dreadful to him, he could not believe it of any of them. "Voldemort
only caught up with me toward the end, he didn't know which one I was in the beginning. If he'd been in on the plan he'd have known from the start I was the one with Hagrid."
"Voldemort caught up with you?" said Lupin sharply. "What happened? How did you e s cape?"
Harry explained how the Death Eaters pursuing them had seemed to recognize him as the true Harry, how they had abandoned the chase, how they must have summoned Vold e
mort, who had appeared just before he and Hagrid had reached the sanctuary of Tonks's parents.
"They recognized you? But how? What had you done?"
"I . . ." Harry tried to remember; the whole jou r ney seemed like a blur of panic and conf
u
sion. "I saw Stan Shunpike . . . . You know, the bloke who was the conductor on the Knight Bus? And I tried to Disarm him instead of Ц well, he doesn't know what he's d o
ing, does he? He must be Imperiused!"
Lupin looked aghast.
"Harry, the time for Disarming is past! These people are trying to capture and kill you! At least Stun if you aren't prepared to kill!"
"We were hundreds of feet up! Stan's not hi m
self, and if I Stunned him and he'd fallen, he'd have died the same as if I'd used Avada Kedavra! Expe l
liarmus saved me from Vold e mort two years ago," Harry added defiantly. L
u pin was reminding him of the sneering Hu f
flepuff Zacharias Smith, who had jeered at Harry for wanting to teach Dumbledore's Army how to Disarm.
"Yes, Harry," said Lupin with painful restraint, "and a great number of Death Eaters wi t
nessed that happening! Forgive me, but it was a very unusual move then, under the imminent threat of death. R e
peating it tonight in front of Death Eaters who either witnessed or heard about the first occasion was close to suicidal!"
"So you think I should have killed Stan Shu n pike?" said Harry angrily.
"Of course not," said Lupin, "but the Death Eaters Ц frankly, most people! Ц would have expected you to attack back! Expellia r
mus is a useful spell, Harry, but the Death Eaters seem to think it is your signature move, and I urge you not to let it become so!"
Lupin was making Harry feel idiotic, and yet there was still a grain of defiance i n side him.
"I won't blast people out of my way just because they're there," said Harry, "That's Vold e mort's job."
Lupin's retort was lost: Finally succeeding in squeezing through the door, Hagrid sta g g
ered to a chair and sat down; it collapsed b e neath him. Ignoring his mingled oaths and apologies, Harry addressed L
u pin again.
"Will George be okay?"
All Lupin's frustration with Harry seemed to drain away at the question.
"I think so, although there's no chance of repla c ing his ear, not when it's been cursed off Ц "
There was a scuffling from outside. Lupin dived for the back door; Harry leapt over Hagrid's legs and sprinted into the yard.
Two figures had appeared in the yard, and as Harry ran toward them he realized they were Hermione, now returning to her normal appearance, and Kingsley, both clutching a bent coat hanger, Hermione flung herself into Harry's arms, but Kingsley
showed no plea s
ure at the sight of any of them. Over Hermione's shoulder Harry saw him raise his wand and point it at Lupin's chest.
"The last words Albus Dumbledore spoke to the pair of us!"
"'Harry is the best hope we have. Trust him,'" said Lupin calmly.
Kingsley turned his wand on Harry, but Lupin said, "It's him, I've checked!"
"All right, all right!" said Kingsley, stowing his wand back beneath his cloak, "But somebody b e
trayed us! They knew, they knew it was tonight!"
"So it seems," replied Lupin, "but apparently they did not realize that there would be seven Harrys."
"Small comfort!" snarled Kingsley. "Who else is back?"
"Only Harry, Hagrid, George, and me."
Hermione stifled a little moan behind her hand.
"What happened to you?" Lupin asked Kingsley.
"Followed by five, injured two, might've killed one," Kingsley reeled off, "and we saw You-Know-Who as well, he joined the chase halfway through but vanished pretty quickly. Remus, he can Ц "
"Fly," supplied Harry. "I saw him too, he came after Hagrid and me."
"So that's why he left, to follow you!" said Kingsley, "I couldn't understand why he'd va n
ished. But what made him change targets?"
"Harry behaved a little too kindly to Stan Shu n pike," said Lupin.
"Stan?" repeated Hermione. "But I thought he was in Azkaban?"
Kingsley let out a mirthless laugh.
"Hermione, there's obviously been a mass brea k
out which the Ministry has hushed up. Travers's hood fell off when I cursed him, he's supposed to be inside too. But what ha p
pened to you, Remus? Where's George?"
"He lost an ear," said Lupin.
"lost an -- ?" repeated Hermione in a high voice.
"Snape's work," said Lupin.
" Snape? " shouted Harry. "You didn't say Ц "
"He lost his hood during the chase. Sectumse m
pra was always a specialty of Snape's. I wish I could say I'd paid him back in kind, but it was all I could do to keep George on the broom after he was injured, he was losing so much blood."
Silence fell between the four of them as they looked up at the sky. There was no sign of movement; the stars stared back, unblinking, indifferent, uno b
scured by flying friends. Where was Ron? Where were Fred and Mr. Weasley? Where were Bill, Fleur, Tonks, Mad-Eye, and Mundu
n gus?
"Harry, give us a hand!" called Hagrid hoarsely from the door, in which he was stuck again. Glad of something to do, Harry pulled him free, the headed through the empty kitchen and back into the sitting room, where Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were still ten
d ing to George. Mrs. Weasley had staunched his blee
d ing now, and by the lamplight Harry saw a clean ga
p ing hole where George's ear had been.
"How is he?"
Mrs. Weasley looked around and said, "I can't make it grow back, not when it's been r e
moved by Dark Magic. But it could've been so much worse . . . . He's alive."
"Yeah," said Harry. "Thank God."
"Did I hear someone else in the yard?" Ginny asked.
"Hermione and Kingsley," said Harry.
"Thank goodness," Ginny whispered. They looked at each other; Harry wanted to hug her, hold on to her; he did not even care much that Mrs. Weasley was there, but before he could act on the i
m pulse, there was a great crash from the kitchen.
"I'll prove who I am, Kingsley, after I've seen my son, now back off if you know what's good for you!"
Harry had never heard Mr. Weasley shout like that before. He burst into the living room, his bald patch gleaming with sweat, his spectacles askew, Fred right behind him, both pale but uni
n jured.
"Arthur!" sobbed Mrs. Weasley. "Oh thank goo d ness!"
"How is he?"
Mr. Weasley dropped to his knees b e
side George. For the first time since Harry had known him, Fred seemed to be lost for words. He gaped over the back of the sofa at his twin's wound as if he could not b e
lieve what he was seeing.
Perhaps roused by the sound of Fred and their f a ther's arrival, George stirred.
"How do you feel, Georgie?" whispered Mrs. Weasley.
George's fingers groped for the side of his head.
"Saintlike," he murmured.
"What's wrong with him?" croaked Fred, loo k ing terrified. "Is his mind affected?"
"Saintlike," repeated George, opening his eyes and looking up at his brother. "You see. . . I'm holy. Holey
, Fred, geddit?"
Mrs. Weasley sobbed harder than ever. Color flooded Fred's pale face.
"Pathetic," he told George. "Pathetic! With the whole wide world of ear-related humor b e fore you, you go for
holey ?"
"Ah well," said George, grinning at his tear-soaked mother. "You'll be able to tell us apart now, anyway, Mum."
He looked around.
"Hi, Harry Ц you are Harry, right?"
"Yeah, I am," said Harry, moving closer to the sofa.
"Well, at least we got you back okay," said George. "Why aren't Ron and Bill hu d dled round my sickbed?"
"They're not back yet, George," said Mrs. Weasley. George's grin faded. Harry glanced at Ginny and motioned to her to a c
company him back outside. As they walked through the kitchen she said in a low voice.
"Ron and Tonks should be back by now. They didn't have a long journey; Auntie Muriel's not that far from here."
Harry said nothing. He had been trying to keep fear at bay ever since reaching the Bu r
row, but now it enveloped him, seeming to crawl over his skin, thro b bing in his chest, clo
g ging his throat. As they walked down the back steps into the dark yard, Ginny took his hand.
Kingsley was striding backward and forward, glancing up at the sky every time he turned. Harry was reminded of Uncle Vernon pacing the living room a million years ago. Hagrid, Hermione, and L
u pin stood shoulder to shoulder, gazing upward in s
i lence. None of them looked around when Harry and Ginny joined their silent vigil.
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