answer was clearly etched in Mrs Weasley’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 –’
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 – ‘Thank goodness you’re all right,’ she said, pulling him into a hug he did not feel he deserved.
‘Haven’t go’ any brandy, have yeh, Molly?’ asked Hagrid a little shakily. ‘Fer medicinal purposes?’
She could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back towards the crooked house Harry knew that she wanted to hide her face. He turned to Ginny and she answered his unspoken plea for information 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 oilcan lying on the ground nearby. ‘And that one,’ she pointed at an ancient plimsoll, ‘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.’
Mrs Weasley reappeared carrying a bottle of brandy, which she handed to Hagrid. He uncorked it and drank it straight down in one.
‘Mum!’ shouted Ginny, pointing to a spot several feet away.
A blue light had appeared in the darkness: it grew larger and brighter, and Lupin and George appeared, spinning and then falling. Harry knew immediately that there was something wrong: Lupin was supporting George, who was unconscious and whose face was covered in blood.
Harry ran forwards and seized George’s legs. Together, he and Lupin carried George into the house and through the kitchen to the sitting 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, shockingly scarlet blood.
No sooner had Mrs Weasley bent over her son than 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 Hogwarts?’ he said, giving Harry a small shake. ‘Answer me!’
‘A – 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 people who could have told him were directly involved in the plan. You might have been an impostor.’
‘So why aren’ you checkin’ me?’ panted Hagrid, still struggling to fit through the door.
‘You’re half-giant,’ said Lupin, looking up at Hagrid. ‘The Polyjuice Potion is designed 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 towards 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 escape?’
Harry explained, briefly, how the Death Eaters pursuing them had seemed to recognise him as the true Harry, how they had abandoned the chase, how they must have summoned Voldemort, who had appeared just before he and Hagrid had reached the sanctuary of Tonks’s parents’.
‘They recognised you? But how? What had you done?’
‘I …’ Harry tried to remember; the whole journey seemed like a blur of panic and confusion. ‘I saw Stan Shunpike … you know, the bloke who was the conductor on the Knight Bus? And I tried to Disarm him instead of – well, he doesn’t know what he’s doing, 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 himself, and if I Stunned him and he’d fallen he’d have died the same as if I’d used Avada Kedavra! Expelliarmus saved me from Voldemort two years ago,’ Harry added defiantly. Lupin was reminding him of the sneering Hufflepuff 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 witnessed that happening! Forgive me, but it was a very unusual move then, under imminent threat of death. Repeating 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 Shunpike?’ said Harry angrily.
‘Of course not,’ said Lupin, ‘but the Death Eaters – frankly, most people! – would have expected you to attack back! Expelliarmus 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 inside him.
‘I won’t blast people out of my way just because they’re there,’ said Harry. ‘That’s Voldemort’s job.’
Lupin’s retort was lost: finally succeeding in squeezing through the door, Hagrid staggered to a chair and sat down; it collapsed beneath him. Ignoring his mingled oaths and apologies, Harry addressed Lupin again.
‘Will George be OK?’
All Lupin’s frustration with Harry seemed to drain away at the question.
‘I think so, although there’s no chance of replacing his ear, not when it’s been cursed off –’
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 towards them he realised 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 pleasure 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
