The Choices We Make ∆ Harry Potter Sister

Chapter 5.7

A warm summer breeze brushed the shrubs lining neatly along the street of Privet Drive. The sun had long set deep into the horizon, and the sky was slowly losing the last bit of violet between its deep indigo, the scattered stars began to twinkle awake, welcoming the summer night. One that would determine the turn of tide in a war brewing right under everyone's nose, if they knew where to look. Nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened here, it was as boring, as normal, as a small suburban area got. Well, as boring, as normal, as a small suburban area got where a young wizard resided. There used to be two of them, had not one be hauled into the walls of a damned house brought to life by the laughter from its occupants.

From the distant, where she stood perfectly hidden with the rest of the order, she watched as her uncle, aunt, and cousin left their beloved house, escorted by two order members. Good riddance, she wanted to shout to them, but couldn't find it in her to do so. Even without the distance hiding her from their sight, she just couldn't. Whatever had happened between her and the people she had to unfortunately call family, whoever they were to her, she couldn't find it in her to care enough to shout a simple good riddance at them. She hadn't seen them for a couple of years, and would likely never see them again, and yet she felt nothing about it. Perhaps it made her cold and heartless, or perhaps she had long since accepted that blood held nothing against her where family was concerned. She was glad of that small realisation, glad to have stolen a couple of years, no matter how short it was, to get a glimpse of what her life could have been had she lived with her godfathers from the start. She would have looked up to the lazily twinkling stars and wished for more, but those wishes were better reserved for something else tonight.

"This is ver you grew up?" asked Xenyk quietly from the front porch, taking in the front door standing in front of them.

"This old muck? You flatter yourself, Morozov," scoffed the young Potter as the order entered the house where she had grown up in. She lingered in the hallway, running her fingers along the banister until the gaps filled and merged into one solid surface, disrupted by two hinges. She let her fingers caught in one of them, her gaze dropped to the doorknob that would unveil the cupboard under the stairs. She turned the doorknob and yanked the cupboard open, revealing a too dusty and too cramped space, filled with litters and remains of her childhood, hers and Harry's.

"This is where I grew up," said Ellie over her shoulders. The cupboard felt like it came from a lifetime ago, a time where she was just Ellie, and there was nobody but Harry. Her body shuddered at the thought, how far she had come, how different she had become, when a hand squeezed her shoulder gently, reminding her of what needed to be done. Turning around, she found herself face to face with Xenyk, ducking uncomfortably at the too low ceiling of the cupboard, but his face revealed nothing except pure determination and unsaid promise. A promise that wherever she would go, he would follow, no matter the sides, the morals, none.

That blind trust did not scare her, not one bit, because she knew it wasn't completely blind. Home, he had told her more than once, he was fighting for his home, and she had found hers in him. Maybe it made them selfish, maybe they were no better than the Dark Lord himself, but she couldn't care less. Craning her neck back, she put her hands on the sides of his face, holding his gaze as sternly as she could in a cramped cupboard, and let him see the words left bare in her eyes, the measures she would take to burn the darkness over their world, if only she could have that bit of happiness for the rest of her life. His only sign of acknowledgement was his brow resting on top of hers, before he pulled away and let her led them to the dining room where the rest of the order was.

"I'm not letting you do this for me!" Harry's dulcet tone greeted them the second they stepped into the dining room. If the order noticed that she had slipped into a cupboard with an older boy, they show nothing of it. Leaning against a wall, she crooned, "Aww, how cute, my brother thinks he doesn't need protection."

Her brother whipped his head faster that he had ever whipped a broom, only then registering the presence of his sister amongst the scout that would take off to their deaths. His warm emerald eyes seemed to glow, not out of love and fondness for finally seeing her since the end of a very chaotic school year, since the lost of his great mentor. No, they glowed out of rage and anger toward the order, toward Xenyk whom perhaps he believed to be better than letting her marched to her own death with a bell jingling down her neck, beckoning every monsters creeping and lurking in the dark. "Are you all mad? She's not even of age!"

"She looked like she would hang us upside down for days end, Harry," said Fred with a light shrug from where he stood next to his twin, subtly closing in on the oldest Potter, "We really don't have a say in it."

A lie. She did nothing of the sort, she merely declared her intentions and let logic click things into place, but the remark did its job as her brother grunted in frustration, knowing all too well just how stubborn she could be. He looked around the room, where the rest of the order was standing in a makeshift circle, surrounding him. He turned not to his godfather - at least even he knew that the man wouldn't hold her back - but to Mad Eye, the one who was as close as the leader of the order, the one standing in Dumbledore's steed.

"What about the trace?"

"The devil's spawn wasn't born with one," grumbled Mad Eye, his glass eye throwing daggers at the younger Potter's way.

She bristled under the look, despite herself, and muttered to the young man standing beside her, "That's twice he called me that. Should that offend me?"

"Coming from that guy?" asked Xenyk rhetorically, as he gave the former auror a glance from head to toe, "I'd say that's a compliment."

She jabbed him hard in the ribs, and he had to bit on his lower lip to stop himself from laughing himself hoarse. With a slight jerked of a head from Mad Eye, Hermione closed the distance to where Harry stood, and pulled a handful of strands of his hair, albeit the boy's protest, and let it drop into the flask that Mad Eye held, in it the polyjuice potion the twins had brewed.

The order took turn drinking from the flask, until there were all eight Harrys standing in the dining room, all identical except for their clothes. Not that it was a problem for a moment longer, as Mad Eye hauled a bag of identical clothes, jeans and zipped tops, completely ordinary. Completely Harry.

"Potter!" barked Moody across the the room, over the thrown clothes.

"Yes?" answered all eight identical Harry Potters in unison. Perhaps not the smartest moment in the former auror's life. Proofed right as he grunts, "The bloody devil one!"

"I have a name, you know," mumbled Ellie under her breath, as she fixed the much needed glasses on the bridge of her nose, or rather her brother's nose. She never realised it before, but her brother was practically blind without his glasses. It's a wonder he could caught glimpse of the snitch every time they were on the quidditch pitch. Perhaps it being gold didn't hurt.

"Whatever happened up there, don't save anyone's life. We don't need the death eaters knowing your presence amongst us. One life spared and this whole thing is for nothing."

Because tonight wouldn't be keeping all of them alive, no. Tonight would be moving Harry into safety, with as little as hassle as Merlin's beard would grant them.

•••

Merlin's beard must had been cut short so recently, as no sooner they took off to the sky, they were ambushed. She was flying on a broom, the best ploy the order could offer as she alone could fly as well as her brother, if not better, and the death eater bought it. Even though there were other Harry's on brooms, most of them shot for her. They had put Sirius as her guard, to make her the perfect lure, and Xenyk flying just below her, in case things got very, very wrong.

And things did get very, very wrong.