The Choices We Make ∆ Harry Potter Sister

Chapter 5.8

It was the longest night that Remus had endured, full moons included. He could do nothing to help with the blood and wound on George, and neither could anyone as his ear was cut clean with a curse. The curse. Chilled to his bones, he kept watch as the Weasley matron wept silently as she worked on her son, healing him as best as she could. Remus almost dropped to his knees when his wife appeared within eyesight, bruised and scarred, but mostly unharmed. He cried her name in relief, as he brought her into the house.

They had lost Moody. Mad Eye's dead, Bill had announced the second he entered the house, quieting all sounds within the Burrow, even the breeze around it seemed to halt to a stop. He let himself dropped to the floor, back resting against the wall, as he assessed everyone in the house, taking in their grim face. He scanned every face, and that was when all colour washed off his face.

"Where's Elle?" he asked quietly to the whole house, and a sickening silence fell upon them. In the midst of the chaos of George's injury, Mad Eye's death, and the rest of the order assessing each other's minor injuries, they had overlooked the fact that there was an eight Potter flying through the night, and only seven had made it to the Burrow. One was still missing, along with the two wizard supposedly bringing him, or her to be precise, back to safety.

Half a second later, he was chasing the boy who lived out of the Burrow, through the open fields, prepared to get past the wards, when a figure landed hastily in front them and threw his broomstick as far as he could before collapsing on his knees. The last time he had seen his best friend in such a state- well, he couldn't even remember when that was. He could only imagined that this was what Sirius was like the night he vowed to avenged James and Lily, because the man was truly mad. Mad like a man ready to be chucked into Azkaban, knowing he'd have the last laugh. If Sirius was in such a state- no, no. He kept repeating the word no like a charm as he approached his still kneeling best friend.

"Padfoot," pleaded Remus as he knelt in front of the silently sobbing man. Sirius kept shaking his head, muttering I'm sorry over and over again. Remus wanted to shake his best friend, demanded where their goddaughter was, but it would do neither of them any good. He wanted to turn the world upside down, burn everything down, but it would not bring their goddaughter back. No, he scolded himself, Elle is not gone. She might be injured, or even captured, but she was not dead. She simply couldn't be. He pulled himself together, because out of the two of them, someone had to. He gestured to Harry to help him with Sirius, and the three of them walked back into the Burrow.

It was near the crack of dawn when a trail of silvery mist filled the room. It took him a second to realised that the trail of mist was in the form of a bird, a raven if he guessed correctly. A patronus, but none that he recognised.

"That's Xenyk's," blurted Fred from where he was sitting on the floor with his back on the side of the couch that George was laying on. The poor lad looked as beaten as Harry himself, and his twin did not look any better.

Heavily lidded eyes narrowed on the silver raven in the room, waiting for the it to deliver a message, any message. Remus did not even dare himself to think of what the message would be. Sirius and Xenyk were Elle's escort, though Sirius had lost her. Xenyk was his only hope, their only hope, to be their lifeline towards Eleanor Potter. Yet, the message never came. The raven hovered silently in the middle of the room, and after a few seconds it swooped around the room in perfect circle thrice before flying out straight through the ceiling.

Remus was about to unleash his anger upon the non-existent raven, when the twins started hugging each other. Although, with a peaky George still laying on the couch, it looked more like Fred tackling his twin brother. Every pair of eyes in the room shifted to the twins, demanding an explanation to whatever knowledge they had learned.