After we had sent the message to the Order, we waited in silence. I still couldn't look up at Fred. I don't know which one was worse; knowing what awaited him, or the fact that the last time we had talked, we were fighting.

But I couldn't look up at him, or worse talk to him, without breaking down into tears. But I had to remain strong. I had to.

Although after some while, Ron and Hermione suddenly said that they were leaving, asking us to tell Harry that they were going to the bathroom on the second floor.

No one quite understood, but I knew they were going to destroy another Horcrux with the Basilisk fang, inside the Chamber of Secrets.

After a short while, many others started showing up; from Kingsley, Lupin, and Moody, to Oliver Wood, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, Bill and Fleur, and eventually Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.

But chaos fell upon us all as the door to the Room of Requirements opened once more and Harry walked inside, looking bewildered at the number of people present.

"Harry, what's happening?" said Lupin urgently.

"Voldemort's on his way, they're barricading the school — Snape's run for it — What are you doing here? How did you know?" Harry blinked at him a few times.

"We sent messages to the rest of Order and Dumbledore's Army," Fred explained. "And it all kind of snowballed."

"What first, Harry?" called George. "What's going on?"

"They're evacuating the younger kids and everyone's meeting in the Great Hall to get organized," Harry said. "We're fighting."

There was a great roar and a surge toward the door as everyone took out their wands and stepped outside the Room of Requirements.

Mrs. Weasley was struggling with Ginny. Around them stood me, Lupin, Fred, George, Bill, and Fleur.

"You're underage!" Mrs. Weasley shouted at her daughter as Harry approached us. "I won't permit it! The boys, yes, but you, you've got to go home!"

"I won't!" Ginny's hair flew as she pulled her arm out of her mother's grip. "I'm in Dumbledore's Army —"

"A teenagers' gang!"

"A teenagers' gang that's about to take him on, which no one else has dared to do!" said Fred.

"She's sixteen!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "She's not old enough! What you two were thinking, bringing her with you!?"

Fred and George looked slightly ashamed of themselves and therefore said nothing else to anger their mother any further.

"Mum's right, Ginny," said Bill gently. "You can't do this. Everyone underage will have to leave, it's only right."

"I can't go home!" Ginny shouted, angry tears sparkling in her eyes. "My whole family's here, I can't stand waiting there alone and not knowing and —"

There was a scuffling and a great thump. Someone else had clambered out of the tunnel, overbalanced slightly, and fallen.

It was Percy Weasley.

He pulled himself up on the nearest chair, looked around through lopsided horn-rimmed glasses, and said, "Am I too late? Has it started? I only just found out, so I — I —"

Percy spluttered into silence. Frankly, had not expected to run into most of his family. The tension among them could be cut by a knife.

But Fleur broke the silence by turning to Lupin and saying, "So — 'ow eez leetle Teddy?"

Lupin blinked at her, startled.
"I — oh yes — he's fine!" Lupin said loudly. "Yes, Tonks is with him — at her mother's —"

Percy and the other Weasleys were still staring at one another, frozen on their spot.

"Here, I've got a picture!" Lupin shouted, pulling a photograph from inside his jacket and showing it to Fleur and Harry. It was a moving picture of a tiny baby with a tuft of bright turquoise hair, waving fat fists at the camera.

"I was a fool!" Percy roared, so loudly that Lupin nearly dropped his photograph. "I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a — a —"

"Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron," said Fred.

Percy swallowed. "Yes, I was!"

"Well, you can't say fairer than that," said Fred, holding out his hand to Percy.

Mrs. Weasley burst into tears. She ran forward, pushed Fred aside, and pulled Percy into a strangling hug, while he patted her on the back, his eyes on his father.

"I'm sorry, Dad," Percy said.

Mr. Weasley blinked rather rapidly, then he too hurried to hug his son.

"What made you see sense, Perce?" inquired George.

"It's been coming on for a while," said Percy, mopping his eyes under his glasses with a corner of his traveling cloak. "But I had to find a way out and it's not so easy at the Ministry, they're imprisoning traitors all the time. I managed to make contact with Aberforth and he tipped me off ten minutes ago that Hogwarts was going to make a fight of it, so here I am."

"Well, we do look to our prefects to take a lead at times such as these," said George in a good imitation of Percy's most pompous manner. "Now let's get upstairs and fight, or all the good Death Eaters'll be taken."

"So, you're my sister-in-law now?" said Percy, shaking hands with Fleur as they hurried off toward the door with Bill, Fred, and George.

"Ginny!" barked Mrs. Weasley.

Ginny had been attempting, under cover of the reconciliation, to sneak out of the door too.

"Molly, how about this," said Lupin. "Why doesn't Ginny stay here, then at least she'll be on the scene and know what's going on, but she won't be in the middle of the fighting?"

"I —"

     "That's a good idea," said Mr. Weasley firmly. "Ginny, you stay in this room, you hear me?"

Ginny did not seem to like the idea much, but she remained still. Although before anyone could say anything else, we heard a shout from inside the portrait hole.

We all turned on the spot, seeing Jenna hurrying out of the portrait hole and into the room as Sirius kept yelling after her as he followed her in angrily.

"I said you're going back, Jenna!" he shouted at her. "End of discussion!"

"Discussion?" Jenna repeated with a mocking scoff. "There was no discussion to begin with! I decided to come, and that was the end of it!"

I looked at her from across the room and my eyes widened when I suddenly realized that she had a rather big baby bump.

"Jenna, I swear to God, if you don't return back home right now, I'll —"

"You'll what, Sirius!?" Jenna snapped back at him loudly, causing everyone left in the room to fall silent.

"I won't hesitate to Imperio you, if that's what it takes to get you back!" Sirius shouted.

And then, in the blink of an eye, they both drew out their wands and pointed them at each other almost at the same time, that it was hard to tell who had done it first.

Jenna looked at him fiercely, whispering hoarsely, "I would certainly like to see you try."

"Jenna," Sirius started this time more gently, yet his wand still pointed at her, "if anything happens to you or that baby —"

"And what about you, Sirius!? What about Harry!?" Jenna cut him off in a loud tone. "How can I live on if something happens to you, knowing that I did nothing to stop it!?"

Sirius fell silent. So Jenna went on, her gaze turning cold.

"I won't leave the people I love when they need me the most, Sirius. Unlike you."

Sirius lowered his wand, his face draining of all color. The tension between Percy and his family was nothing compared to this.

"I've been forced to leave Harry once," said Jenna, lowering her wand as well, "I'm not doing it again."