PhoenixSong.net :: A Harry/Ginny Fanfic and Fanart Archive

Author: Grandma Kate

Story: Ginny's Fifth Year at Hogwarts

Part: 12:A Wedding and a Rescue - July 1-27, 1997

Rating: Everyone

Setting: Pre-DH

Status: Completed

Reviews: 3

Words: 3,033

Updated: November 23, 2008, 12:06pm

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12:A Wedding and a Rescue - July 1-27, 1997

The Harry Potter Universe belongs to J.K. Rowling. I’m just borrowing the characters for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.

Bold Face Type indicates a direct quote from Chapter Two, In Memoriam, Chapter Four, The Seven Potters, and Chapter Five, Fallen Warrior in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

A/N: This story is told from Molly’s Weasley’s point of view and parallels Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the summer after it.

It was sunny with white puffy clouds on the day of the wedding of Tonks and Remus. Molly and Arthur Side-Along Apparated Ron and Ginny to the home of Ted and Andromeda Tonks. Rounding the house, they went into the back garden where several rows of chairs faced an arbor. Molly and Arthur sat on the groom’s side with some people from Hogwarts and a sprinkling of members of Order of the Phoenix. The bride’s side seemed to be family friends and fellow Aurors along with some of Tonks’ Hufflepuff classmates. Molly smiled when she spotted Professor Sprout sitting on the bride’s side. Mad-Eye and several large Aurors stood guard on both sides of the garden.

Music began and everyone stood up. Remus, dressed in a Muggle tuxedo, walked to the arbor with Kingsley Shacklebolt, in very formal dress robes. They both faced the assembled guests. Molly turned around and smiled at Ginny and the three small children who were to be part of the wedding. She and the twin flower girls wore wreaths and were dressed in white dresses while the smaller black-haired boy wore a tiny Muggle tuxedo that matched that worn by the groom. The mother of the twin girls started them down the short aisle, and they threw white and pink petals as they walked. Kingsley smiled encouragingly at them. Ginny started the tiny boy with the rings tied on a white pillow in their direction and began to follow him. She and the flower girls and the ring bearer stood a little off to the side next to the arbor. Parents took pictures of the children.

Bill and Fleur had become very close to Remus and Tonks after Bill’s attack, and they were asked to be the official witnesses for their marriage. Bill escorted Fleur down the short aisle, leaning on her for a bit of support. He looked very fit in his Muggle tuxedo, and Fleur was lovely in a short Muggle dress that was just the colour of her eyes. Bill stood next to Remus while Fleur stood on the same side as Ginny and the children. Molly began to cry as Ted and Andromeda walked their daughter to the arbor where Kingsley and the wedding party waited. Tonks looked beautiful in a short white Muggle wedding dress with a wreath of white flowers on her bright pink hair, instead of a veil. She kissed her mother and father and clasped hands with Remus.

The ceremony was short with the traditional Wizarding wedding vows. There was a light moment when Kingsley asked, ‘Nymphadora, do you take Remus for your husband? ‘ She glared at him briefly before she answered, ‘I do.’ He used her better-known name when he posed the same question to Remus. Ginny sent the ring bearer forward with the rings, which Tonks untied from the pillow. The little boy toddled into his mother’s waiting arms. Remus promised to love and cherish ‘Tonks’ very clearly so there was no more discord as they exchanged rings. Kingsley pronounced them bonded for life and raised his wand over their heads. A cascade of silver and gold stars enveloped them as they kissed.

Molly, Andromeda, and Pomona Sprout all sobbed and said that they had never seen a more beautiful wedding. Remus and Tonks hurried back up the aisle followed more slowly by Bill, Fleur, and Ginny with the twin flower girls. The bride and groom stood and accepted congratulations from their guests and then went over to cut a three-tiered wedding cake with a pink-haired bride and a grey-haired groom on top. The waiters served it and glasses of champagne for the bridal toast.

Ron asked plaintively if there was going to be real food besides the nuts and mints on the table with the cake but had to content himself with some of them and a large piece of cake. Molly assured him that there would be more food at Bill and Fleur’s wedding.

The happy couple left for their honeymoon, and Molly and Arthur Side-Along Apparated their two youngest children back home. Hedwig was waiting for Ron in the garden. He took the parchment and gave her a nut he had left in his pocket from the wedding. She hooted and flew in the kitchen window as he opened the note.

‘Any news about when he can come?’ asked Molly.

Ron shook his head. ‘He doesn’t say any more than he did last summer.’

Molly and Ginny both sighed and went into the kitchen to make Ron a snack.

When Molly and Arthur were cuddling before falling asleep that night, she asked Arthur if he knew when Harry would be allowed to come to The Burrow.

‘We are going to meet and decide that as soon as Tonks and Remus return from their honeymoon,’ said Arthur, stroking her back. ‘Do you fancy a backrub or anything?’

*****

Ten days later, Molly and Arthur hosted a meeting at which it was decided that a few days before the end of July, the Dursleys would go into hiding at a safe house and Harry would be brought to The Burrow. ‘Our timeline is short, but I think we are better off having the element of surprise,’ said Arthur. ‘We need to get it done before Fleur’s parents arrive here on July 30.’

‘So the wedding will be at The Burrow, after all?’

‘Yes, security is much better here than it would be at the Delacours’.’

‘We’ll have to get everything ready in just two weeks,’ said Molly. ‘Fleur and Ginny will have to help me!’

Molly and Ginny did not have a chance to listen to Days of Destiny or Bedside at St Brigid’s while they prepared The Burrow for the wedding. Molly knew that Fleur did not care for either program and tried to lessen the stress she was already under. It gradually became apparent that her daughter-in-law-to-be was better at gardening spells than either she or Ginny, so Molly suggested that she do whatever she wanted to get the garden of The Burrow ready for her wedding while they concentrated on the house. Fleur immediately moved the henhouse to the side yard and had Bill build a fence to enclose the chickens. Then she began to prune and arrange the flowers growing in the garden. She Vanished unsightly things that had been on the steps for ages and put Flutterby bushes in large pots near back door. She also cleared a space for a huge marquee for the actual ceremony.

Meanwhile, the Order met to decide exactly how they would remove Harry from the Dursleys’ before he turned seventeen. Mad-Eye came up with several complicated schemes while Arthur kept promoting simpler ones. ‘Moving the Hogwarts students by Floo worked well at Christmas,’ he said. ‘I think we should arrange for the Dursley eckelectric fireplace to be hooked up. I can make the arrangements.’

Kingsley agreed with Arthur. ‘It is always best to use the least complicated means to accomplish a security detail.’

Unfortunately, as soon as Arthur tried to make the arrangements to connect the Dursley house to the Floo Network, a Ministry official named Pius Thicknesse made it an imprisonable offence to connect it to the Floo Network, place a Portkey there, or Apparate in or out. He claimed it was for Harry’s protection from You-Know-Who, but all of the Order members thought he had undoubtedly gone over to the dark side. They decided to adopt one of Mad-Eye’s plans that was more straightforward than some he had suggested.

Molly allowed Ginny to attend the final meeting about the elaborate scenario that Mad-Eye envisioned. It involved the Order obtaining a large quantity of Polyjuice Potion, conjuring six sets of Harry’s clothing and glasses, along with six cages with a stuffed toy white owl in them. She and Ginny exchanged worried looks as the supposedly less-complicated plan was explained. Seven rescuers and the six people who would become doppelgangers of Harry would ride brooms or Thestrals to the Dursley house under Disillusionment Charms. After the Polyjuice Potion had taken effect, Harry would leave with Hagrid on Sirius’s flying motorcycle. Kingsley and Bill would take Hermione and Fleur, both disguised as Harry, on Thestrals. Ron, also as Harry, would ride behind Tonks on her broom while the twins, in their Harry forms, went with Arthur and Remus. Mad-Eye was definite that he would take Mundungus, because he felt he was the weak link in the plan.

Each of the pairs would go to a different safe house and take a Portkey to The Burrow. Some locations were homes of Order members while others, like Auntie Muriel’s house or that of the Tonks family, belonged to relatives of Order members. Molly and Ginny were to stay at The Burrow and keep track of all of the participants. Ginny had argued that she should go with Mad-Eye instead of Mundungus, but her parents reminded her of the Trace, the charm that detects magical activity around under-seventeens, so she agreed to stay and help her mother.

Saturday, July twenty-seventh, was the closely held secret date of the rescue of Harry. Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle left The Burrow before most of the rest of them arrived. They were to take the Dursleys to a secure location and keep them there until it was safe for them to return. Arthur and Kingsley had made it very clear to Harry’s relatives that they would surely be killed if they remained where they were.

Mad-Eye distributed the Portkeys and gave Molly and Ginny the master list of where each pair of rescuers and Polyjuiced Harrys were to go. He listed the Portkeys they would have access to and what times they were pre-set to activate. Arthur kissed Molly and hugged Ginny good-bye. Bill, Fred, George, and Ron did the same. Tonks came over and ruffled Ginny’s hair saying, ’Don’t worry. We’ll bring Harry here safely.’

Hagrid nodded behind the goggles he was wearing. ‘Your father has put a few special features on this old bike. He even made the whole sidecar. Harry will be safe as a baby.’ Hagrid smiled at Molly and said, ‘Safe as he was when I brought him to you after James and Lily…’

‘I remember.’ Molly wiped away a tear as she thought of the toddler boys taking a nap on either side of tiny baby Ginny. ‘Be safe, all of you. Bring Harry home to The Burrow!’

Molly and Ginny watched the rescue party fly away and went back inside to drink a cup of tea and to be sure that the sitting room was set up as a place to care for anyone injured during the night. They settled in to wait for the time set for the Portkeys to return everyone.

They went outside to watch as two Portkeys arrived without those they were supposed to transport. Molly and Ginny were disappointed but went back into the kitchen until they heard a thump outside. They ran from the house and down the steps by the back door. There in the yard, they were relieved to see Harry, swaying slightly, and Hagrid trying to get to his feet.

‘Harry? You are the real Harry? What happened? Where are the others?’ cried Molly.

‘What d’you mean? Isn’t anyone else back?’ Harry panted.

The answer was clearly etched in Molly’s pale face.

‘The Death Eaters were waiting for us,’ Harry told her. ‘We were surrounded the moment we took off—they knew it was tonight—I don’t know what happened to anyone else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort caught up with us—’

‘Haven’t got any brandy, have yeh, Molly?’ asked Hagrid a little shakily. ‘Fer medicinal purposes?’

As Molly went inside to get the brandy, she could still hear Ginny telling Harry what was supposed to have happened. ‘Ron and Tonks should have been back first, but they missed their Portkey, it came back without them,’ she said… Molly knew Ginny must be pointing to the rusty oil can. ‘And that one… 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 ought to be back in about a minute.’

Molly gave Hagrid the bottle of brandy. He drank it straight down in one.

‘Mum!’ shouted Ginny, pointing to a spot several feet away.

Harry ran to where George and Lupin landed. George was covered with blood. Harry helped Lupin carry him into the sitting room and put him on the sofa. His ear was missing. Molly bent over George and began to try everything she knew to counter-act a Severing Charm. Nothing worked to restore the lost ear, but she and Ginny finally got the bleeding to stop and cleaned up some of the blood on his face, hair, and clothes.

Molly was close to being in shock. She looked at Ginny and asked, ‘Ginny, where did Lupin and Harry go?’

‘I think they went to the kitchen,’ Ginny replied. ‘Maybe someone else has come back, and they are taking care of them. I think I hear Hermione and someone with a deep rumbling voice.’

‘Kingsley, I’d guess,’ said Molly looking at the clean gaping hole where George’s ear had been.

‘How is he?’ Harry came back into the room and was leaning over George.

Molly looked at Harry and said, ‘I can’t make it grow back, not when it’s been removed by Dark Magic. But it could have been so much worse… He’s alive.’

‘Yeah,’ said Harry. ‘Thank God.’

‘Did I hear someone else…?’ Ginny asked.

‘Hermione and Kingsley,’ said Harry.

‘Thank goodness,’ Ginny whispered. She and Harry exchanged such an intense look that Molly thought they might fall into each other’s arms. But before either could act on the impulse 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!’

Arthur and Fred burst into the room. Molly rushed to her husband, and they both knelt next to George. Fred gaped over the back of the sofa at his twin’s wound as if he could not believe what he was seeing.

Perhaps roused by the sound of Fred and their father’s arrival, George stirred.

‘How do you feel, Georgie?’ whispered Molly.

George’s fingers groped for the side of his head.

‘Saintlike,’ he murmured.

‘What’s wrong with him?’ croaked Fred, looking 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?’

Molly sobbed harder than ever. Colour flooded Fred’s pale face.

‘Pathetic,’ he told George. ‘Pathetic! With the whole wide world of ear-related humor before 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.’

When George asked about the rest of the family Molly told him that not everyone had returned yet. She noticed Harry motioning Ginny to go back outside with him. They left together. Molly thought that they were probably checking to see who else had arrived and was relieved when Ginny ran in and said, ‘Ron and Tonks just got here.’

Arthur and Molly told Fred and George that they’d be right back and went through the kitchen and down the back steps with Ginny following them. Both parents hugged Ron before turning to Lupin and Tonks to thank them for taking care of George and Ron just before a Thestral landed, and Bill and Fleur climbed off. The Weasleys ran toward them.

Bill shocked everyone by announcing, ‘Mad-Eye’s dead.’ He went on to describe the ambush and how Voldemort had flown straight at Mad-Eye as though riding on smoke. Fleur’s beautiful face was tear-streaked as he described the death of the old Auror.

Molly and Arthur went back inside to the sitting room to tell Fred and George about Mad-Eye. To say they were shocked would be putting it mildly. When Molly, Arthur, and the twins came into the kitchen, Bill walked over to the sideboard and pulled out a bottle of Firewhisky and some glasses.

‘Here,’ he said, and with a wave of his wand he sent twelve full glasses soaring through the room to each of them, holding the thirteenth aloft. ‘Mad-Eye.’

Molly and the rest of them drank the toast and discussed what had happened and what needed to be done next. It was obvious that someone had informed Voldemort when Harry was being escorted from the Dursleys’. That meant that someone who knew both the timing and method was a traitor. Molly tended to agree with those who suspected Mundungus since even Mad-Eye had had doubts about him. She was suddenly glad that Ginny still had the Trace on her, so that she couldn’t have been the one riding behind Mad-Eye when he was attacked.

Finally, Lupin and Bill announced that they were going to recover Mad-Eye’s body before the Death Eaters found it. As soon as they left, Harry said that he should have gone as well. Molly and Arthur pointed out that the sole purpose of the entire plan had been to rescue him. Fred and Hagrid also argued against it. Molly had a hard time sleeping that night because she was so worried about how much guilt Harry was feeling

A/N: Many thanks are due to bookish327, the sharp-eyed pre-beta who had to deal with my appalling lack of commas, and to Trelawney 2213, the beta who pulled it all together.

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