OH DAMN!

I thought that I had posted this chapter up earlier, but it appears that I didn't. So again, sorry this is late, it was a simple mistake.

Sadly, I STILL haven't finished chapter 11, and i'm furious at myself.
I feel like crying, so i need a small break to catch up.
Sorry everyone ... just give me some time and i'll make it up to you all when i come back.

I promise that i will never abandon this story. Its my first ever fan fic, and i'm loyal to it. So i will come back, honest.

Anyway, special thanks to Lauren, Treck, Taylor and (?) for letting me know that you're all reading this fic..

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Chapter 10

The spell slammed into his chest, since he was taller than either Harry or George. There was a sizzling sound on contact and the force knocked him backward into Harry and George so they all fell over on top of each other.

While struggling to free himself from the tangle of limbs, Harry heard familiar shouts from the Order members arriving, and the sound of spells flying around, but he was not paying attention to anything
around him. He was more concerned about the figure on ground in front of him.

Lupin was lying there with his eyes closed.
There was a large scorch mark on his chest where the searing arrow had hit and blood was slowly starting to ooze from the wound.

Harry crawled around to his side to see if he was breathing.
Thankfully he was, but it was very shallow.

Harry tried speaking to him to check if he was conscious.
"Can you hear me?"

Lupin seemed to have heard because he half opened his eyes and looked at Harry with an unfocused gaze.

"go…run" he said so quietly that Harry had to come closer to hear.
"No, I'm not leaving you here like this, we need to try and get you to St. Mungo's"
"go…" Lupin repeated again.
His eyes slowly closed, and Harry thought for a second that he had died, but he was still breathing meaning that he had just passed out.

Harry shouted in surprise as someone from behind hit him with a full body bind curse and he fell over sideways as stiff as a board.

A masked face leaned down over him and Harry could do nothing but stare back, he couldn't even utter an insult since his mouth was sealed shut.

There was a flash of red light and the Deatheater mask disappeared from his view and was replaced by the scarred face of Mad-eye Moody, and Harry had never been so happy to see his creepy electric blue eye spinning in it's socket.

Moody muttered the counter curse and Harry became flexible once more.
"You all right boy?" he asked.

Harry didn't answer, instead he rushed back to Lupin's side.
"We need to get him to St.Mungo's! Now!"
"What happened?" Moody asked sternly as he looked down a Lupin's wound with concern.

Harry opened his mouth to speak, but Moody cut him off with a low growl.
"Never mind, it doesn't matter, we haven't got the time for explanations"

Harry closed his mouth and looked back down at Lupin.
"Right then, stand back" Moody said grimly while doing a complicated movement with his wand "Appareo stretcher!"

A floating stretcher magically appeared next to Lupin and Moody levitated him onto it.

"The Ministry's going to have my head for this, but it's for Remus's sake and I still owe him big time" he muttered under his breath whilst stooping down with great effort and picking up a fragment of loose cobble stone off the floor.

He tapped it with his wand and said the spell "Portus"
The rock glowed blue and vibrated in Moody's hand for a few seconds, then it returned to normal.

"Stay here and keep your eyes open. Most of the cowardly Deatheaters have disapparated but there are still a few lurking about that the Order haven't chased off… Oh and give a message to Molly that I've gone to St.Mungo's with Remus, it looks as though he'll pull through"

And with that, he touched the rock portkey to Lupin's hand and they both disappeared in a whirl of wind, leaving Harry alone sitting on the cold floor.

After a few minutes, George appeared at his side and crouched down to speak to him.
"Is Lupin going to be all right?" he asked looking concerned.
"I don't know…h- he shouldn't have taken that spell for me" Harry replied, his voice cracking with emotion.
"What the hell were you thinking when you stepped in front of that spell?" George added ludicrously.
"I'm not really sure…I guess…it was because you're family to me…and I didn't want you to get hurt" Harry said quietly not looking at George "I don't know why Lupin did it though"

George dropped his voice down low and leaned closer to Harry.
"Well, it's probably got something to do with the Prophecy"
Harry head snapped up and he looked directly into George's face with surprise.

"How do you know about that?"
"Need to know basis for all Order members, but I'm still finding it hard to believe that prophecies actually exist and how much everyone is counting on you to fulfil yours" he said with disbelief. "Do Ron and Hermione know yet? I tried dropping hints about it, but they're either playing dumb, or they just don't know yet"
"No, they don't know what the prophecy said, and I'm not sure if I should tell them"
"Don't worry, me and Fred won't say a thing to them, that entirely up to you" he said sympathetically.
"That reminds me, I've got to go and revive Fred" George added as he got to his feet "back soon"

Harry pulled his knees up into his chest and sat staring intensely at the floor, even though he wasn't really seeing it.
As George started to walk away, he stopped and looked back over his shoulder.
"I'm sure Lupin will be fine"

Harry just nodded dully, but then he realised something and quickly asked.
"What happened to Ron?"

George whizzed around and gave a huge grin while he puffed out his chest proudly.
"I can now admit that I am in fact related to him"
"Why?" Harry asked curiously.
"You should have seen it! He attacked Avery with everything he had!
Bit stupid really since he was completely outnumbered…but he created the perfect distraction for the Order members to sneak up behind the Deatheaters and make a surprise attack!"

"Where is he now – is he all right?"
"Mum's fussing over him somewhere down the other end of the alley because he got hit with a nasty Reducto curse"
"Ohhh, that had to hurt" Harry said cringing at the thought of being slammed into by that particular spell.
"He'll be fine" he said dismissively. "Wait a second…wasn't I meant to be doing something?" George asked looking puzzled.
"Fred?" Harry reminded him.
"Oh yeah! You had better go see my Mum about that cut on your face, but be warned, she's not in a very good mood" he said as he walked over to Fred who was lying a few metres away.

Harry got to his feet and slowly made his way down Knockturn alley in the direction of Diagon alley.

In the pale lamp glow Harry could see the devastating destruction left behind by the fight.
Massive craters were randomly scattered across the dismal scenery, blasted into the cobbled floor and leaving holes in the walls of surrounding buildings.
Every single shop window in the immediate area had been smashed leaving sparkling crystals on the floor that glinted innocently at Harry as walked over them, making crunching sounds.

A flash of pink ahead of him caught his eye and he raised his wand, thinking that it was an incoming spell.
It turned out to be Tonks, who was back in the form Harry knew best, with short and spiky pink hair.
She was busy disarming and binding a few of the unconscious Deatheaters on the floor, along with another figure.
To his confusion, he saw that it was Mr Weasley.
Harry didn't want to distract either of them so he didn't stop to ask questions.
When did Mr Weasley arrive? Harry asked himself.
Harry then realised that Mr Weasley had been close by the whole time.
Mrs Weasley had previously told him that he was staying at the Leaky Cauldron.
Now that everything made sense, Harry dismissed those thoughts and turned back to his mission of getting to Mrs Weasley safely.

As Harry neared the end of Knockturn Alley, he could distinctly hear Mrs Weasley's angry voice in the distance.
George's comment that she was in a bad mood was an understatement. She sounded furious.

Mrs Weasley and Ron came into view as he rounded the corner into Diagon Alley, and so did a whole group of people. Some of them were still in their pyjamas, standing and craning their necks to get a better look down Knockturn Alley.
Harry assumed that they were curious shop owners that had come out to investigate what all the commotion was about.
As soon as the crowd saw him they broke into excited chatter and some of them openly pointed at his scar.

Averting his eyes and flattening down his hair to cover his forehead, Harry made his way over to Mrs Weasly who was standing in a clearance, away from the crowd.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING GOING DOWN THERE?" Mrs Weasly screamed at Ron, who was cowering under his mother's fury.
Harry quickly changed his mind about letting her see him, because he didn't feel like facing her wrath at this particular moment.

He stood behind her for a few seconds having an internal struggle about his choice to either run for the hills or to face her and get it over with.
But he never had the chance to decide because Ron spotted him over his mother's head, since he was taller than her, and called "Harry!" knowing that his mother's attention would switch from him to Harry and so he could escape her clutches.

Mrs Weasley spun around on the spot and let out a muffled scream when she saw Harry standing behind her and instantly pulled him into a bone-crushing hug.
"Are you all right?" she asked him frantically.
"Mmhm…" was all Harry could say since his face was tightly pressed against her jumper.

She let go of him and Harry gratefully sucked in oxygen.
Behind Mrs Weasley, Ron was silently tip toeing away from her hoping not to be noticed, but Harry decided to re-pay the 'favour' by calling out to him.
"Where are you going Ron?"

Mrs Weasley whipped around and caught Ron by the scruff of his neck, reeling him in backwards.
"Not so fast" Mrs Weasley snarled at him.

Ron threw Harry a glare but Harry just smirked back and eventually he broke into a grin and started laughing.

"You two are going to be in so much trouble when we get home!" Mrs Weasley ranted "It's a good job that your brothers have their own place to stay" she said waving a finger at Ron "because I would have kicked them out of the house for leading Harry astray and taking him down Knockturn Alley unprotected"
"You're making me sound like a innocent little child" Harry said rolling his eyes.
"You're not a child, and as I've said before, you're not an adult either!"

Harry opened his mouth to protest but he saw Ron in the background waving his arms frantically at him and mouthing 'No! No! Don't argue!' so he closed his mouth and looked angrily down at the floor.

"Have either of you seen Alastor?" Mrs Weasly asked calmly.
"Yeah, Moody asked me to tell you that he's taken Lupin to St.Mungo's" Harry said.

Mrs Weasly turned pale and worriedly asked, "Is Remus hurt bad?"
"Moody said that he'll pull through, but Lupin looked really bad before he left," Harry said miserably "he got hit in the chest with some sort of magic arrow"

At this point Harry turned to Ron.
"George told me what happened, are you all right?"
"Oh, I'm fine, I just got a bit winded and bruised"

His mother turned to him angrily, remembering what she had been yelling at him before.
"That was extremely reckless Ronald Weasley! I still can't believe that you were that stupid to think you could take on seven Deatheaters at once! You could have been seriously hurt, or worse…you could…you could have d-died…" she sobbed, breaking down into floods of tears and pulling Ron into a motherly vice like grip hug.

Ron stood looking very shocked for a second but then he seemed to relax and returned the warm hug as he tried to comfort her.

Harry turned away feeling that it was a personal family moment, but Mrs Weasley grabbed his arm and pulled him into the hug as well.

He wanted to stay in the embrace forever…wrapped in Mrs Weasley's arms, warm and safe, clinging onto her like a life support…forgetting reality…no past, no present, and no future…was this what it felt like to have a mother?

There was a bright white flash and instantly Mrs Weasley had her wand out expecting an attack.
As she sharply pulled away the warmth Harry had experienced vanished only to be replaced by a chilling breeze on his skin making him shiver slightly.

"Excuse me! Harry Potter!" a voice shouted from behind.

As Harry whirled around another blinding flash went off in his face.
Dazed, he rubbed his eyes to get rid of the spots and looked up to see an energetic old man sporting a camera around his neck, and holding a piece of parchment and quill.

"I'm with the Daily Prophet newspaper, and I was wondering if you could answer some questions about tonight's mysterious events?"
"No he most certainly will not!" Mrs Weasley shouted at the man.
"And who are you?" The man asked rudely.
"It's none of your business!" she snapped back, as she steered Harry and Ron through the crowd of spectators' back towards the shop.
"Just ignore them dear" she said in a low voice to Harry.

Keeping their heads down all the way, they made it back to the empty shop and Harry and Ron were about to collapse into the comfy looking armchairs when Mrs Weasley pulled them to one side.

"I need to get you healed up!" she said looking them both up and down while brandishing her wand.
Pressing the tip lightly to the cut on Harry's face, he felt a slight tingle and then it healed completely.
"I know quite a few good healing spells" Mrs Weasley said with a smile on her face seemingly satisfied.
"You have to know these sort of things with seven accident prone children to raise" She said as she gestured to Ron and healed his head, whilst also making the bloodstains vanish.

Loud footsteps could be heard running up the stairs.
Everyone turned to look at the door as it burst open and in ran Ginny followed closely by Hermione.

Ginny instantly ran over to her brother and tackled him with a hug as tears of relief slid down her face.

"Are you both all right!" Hermione shrieked as soon as she entered the room "Nobody knew where you were! We thought that something terrible had happened! I-I-"
"We're fine Hermione" Ron said rolling his eyes after Ginny had eventually let him go.

Hermione seemed to be struggling with her emotions internally. She looked at Ron, then at Harry, back at Ron, and then Harry again. She looked as though she were making her mind up about something.

Finally, she smiled at Harry and flung her arms around him in a hug.

Harry stiffened in surprise and looked down questioningly at the top of her bushy brown hair.

She let go and took a step backwards with her face turning scarlet.

"Er, well, I think I ought to be getting you back to the headquarters" Mrs Weasley said trying to pretend that she had not just witnessed anything peculiar "before you can cause anymore troub-"
"Number Twelve Grimmauld Place!"

Harry spun around just in time to see Ron disappearing into the fireplace with a burst of green flame.
"Huh? Is he in a hurry to get back or something?" Harry asked Hermione.
Hermione's confused face mirrored Harry's. He had no idea what was going on, and by the looks of it, neither did she.

Looking over at Ginny, he noticed that she seemed to be deep in thought and was staring at the last place she had seen her brother before he disappeared into the fire.

Wanting to be the first to question Ron when he got back, Harry walked over to the fireplace and took a handful of floo powder.

With a last look at Hermione's confused expression and Ginny's thoughtful one, he disappeared in a whirl of flame back to Grimmauld Place.

-

Tada! Lupin lives! I just couldn't kill him off. How could any of you think that i could! I'm appalled at you all!
Nah, i'm only joking...

Sooooo, it's bye from me for a little while, but i will return!
C YA!
Lots of love
Katie