Till the End of the Road.

Chapter Fifteen

When Erin opened her eyes again she saw that the door to Monty’s house had been blast off, the frame was even smoking, she stood there once more confused but then heard a pop that sounded much like the noise she had just made, they had been there too.

She knew they were gone now and so she went racing up the hill and through the steaming door hinges, the place was a mess, everything seemed to either have a hole in it or was just blown up, she wasn’t liking where this was leading, the last time she had walked through a torn up house she found two auror’s dead, had Monty just suffered the same fate? She walked into the hall and into the room she assumed was his, no one was there. She had her wand pointed in front of her as she turned around and went down the hall even further to the room she had, she walked over the threshold and saw a shivering man lie on the floor, rolled in a ball as if he were hibernating.

“Monty…” the old man said nothing, this worried Erin even more, he always had something to ramble about, yet she could hear his slow breaths and whimpers, what had they done to him? She looked around her room and saw that it too was a blown up mess, a sinking feeling then hit her, she went rushing over to her trunk, and it had been ransacked, things blown up. Her heart raced, as she went through the mess to find that one thing she was looking for, if it had been burnt or blown up she wouldn’t know what to do with herself, she could still hear Monty whimpering in the background, she didn’t know what to do for him, she didn’t know how to help him she didn’t know if she should stop looking for her beloved drawing, it couldn’t be gone. She finally felt a paper, a rather old feeling paper; she pushed things out of the way to see it had been the only survivor, but as she pulled it something pulled back and the drawing tore in two. Erin stood there, she had just found it, her heart had just stopped racing, and now it was torn, torn in two, torn like her heart, it felt like it was ripping, just like the old paper had.

“No” her voice was barely above a whisper, she felt like she had lost him again, that damn paper was the last she had of him and it was gone. She felt the tears leak out of her eyes as she pulled the other half of the drawing out from under her trunk, she placed both halves on the dresser and turned away from it as if the paper had just stung with an insult. She looked back at Monty, he didn’t move, just lay there groaning, she still had no idea how to help him, and with the loss of her drawing she was to broken up to think of any ideas, And so she walked over to the old man and heaved him up by his middle, he moaned in pain as she dragged him, feeling guilty the whole time, but she couldn’t keep him there. They got to the living room and she laid him on the couch, where he began to move, but only slightly and still he kept his eyes closed, he was still shaking, and groaning. Erin had never felt so helpless before, she couldn’t go back to the Burrow, Remus had told her to stay, if she had gone back she could be killed by the Death Eaters, but there Monty lie on the couch, that now had a black burn on the white cushion. He lay there in pain and she did not know how to be rid of it. And so she did the best she could, she cleaned up the living room area as she talked soothingly to the old man, in the few hours that it had been he had stopped groaning, but was yet to open his eyes or stop shaking, Erin thought she knew what they had done to him, he had been tortured with the Unforgivable curse to try to get information out of him, either it be on her or Harry she didn’t know and she also didn’t know if Monty had told them anything, and so that is why she kept her wand clutched in her hand for those hours she spent trying to help Monty and trying to forget about the fact that Remus could have been killed during this battle, or the fact that her one last bit she had of Sirius had been torn. Erin had lost track of the hours, it seemed like a life time, but suddenly she heard a pop come from outside and she went running out, her wand drown high, but saw the familiar sight of redheads. She rushed to the twins and bombarded them with questions.

“What the hell took so long? What happened? Where’s Remus? He told me he would come and get me…did he get hurt? Please tell me he didn’t get…. Why won’t you answer me?” she shrieked.

“If you’d shut the ruby hell up for a minute” spat Fred, Erin gasped for air and began to cry again. “Listen, Lupin is fine, everyone’s fine, a bit shaken up, they questioned us, but anyway, he told us to come and get you… he had to go see Tonks’ parents…”

“Oh, great, so let’s just have you two come get me, right?” Erin barked, feeling hurt, Remus had said he would be the one to come and get her, she felt like she really needed him at the time, but he was off doing something with Tonks, his wife. “Well, guess what, the Death Eaters…or whoever they were, came here too, Monty’s out of it on the couch right now, shaking and won’t open his eyes, he’s not napping either.”

The twins shared worried looks and then fallowed Erin inside where they saw the shaking man for themselves.

“We’ve got to get dad…” trailed off George, looking wide-eyed and concerned.

“We’ve got to get Erin out,” said Fred. “Lupin’s orders.”

“Someone’s got to stay here, he could be dying” said George.

“Alright, you stay here, I’ll go back with Erin and get dad” said Fred, George hesitated but nodded.

“Wait!” Erin yelled as Fred tried to grabbed her arm, she then rushed down the hall into her room and took the torn remains of her drawing folded them gently and then sprinted back out where both Fred and George were staring after her. She grabbed Fred’s forearm as they walked back outside, George watched at the demolished door as they apparated back to the Burrow.

Once there they rushed into the house where the chaos was still taking place, people were running around, Erin could see through a window that the white tent had fallen, they caught a glimmer of Mr. Weasley’s reseeding redhead and both Fred and Erin rushed to the backyard where he was.

“Dad, they went to Monty’s to, he’s gone rigid, George is with him now, you’ve got to come back with me, I reckon Monty’s got to get to ST. Mungo’s.”

Mr. Weasley looked ambushed but nodded, taking one last look around the messy backyard, Fred and Mr. Weasley then left, apparating back to the hill Monty lived on. Erin went running back into the house, she didn’t know where Mrs. Weasley was and she had to find her, Erin wished she would have asked if Mrs. Weasley was alright, thought she would think someone would have told her by now is she wasn’t. Erin now stood in the kitchen, Order members were rushing around, she could hear the sounds of apparatoin going on outside still, she wondered where Bill and Fleur were, she felt bad their wedding had been ruined. Suddenly Mrs. Weasley, rather whited faced and teary eyed walked in.

“ Oh, Erin, dear” she rushed over to Erin and hugged her, Erin hugged back, quickly. “Ron…Ron Harry and Her…Hermione got away, we don’t know where they are, but they’ve gotten away, that’s what they wanted anyway, but as long as that lot stay hidden….”

Erin watched as fear flashed in Mrs. Weasley’s eyes, Erin felt so bad, she muttered something about wanting to use the bathroom and left the room, something didn’t feel right about Erin being the one to comfort Mrs. Weasley, Erin after all had been too concerned with her own selfish problems, like the fact that Remus said he would come and get her, yet he did not, maybe she should just be happy he was alright, but yet it still hurt, like she wasn’t important enough for him to concern himself with personally. And what really got her was the torn paper in her hand, her drawing of Sirius had been torn into two, and now she had nothing…

She saw Ginny in the hall, staring out of an upstairs window, Erin didn’t want to be alone, if she were alone she would go back to crying over the ripped drawing. And so she walked over to Ginny and stood next to her, looking at the redheaded girl then out the window to see what she was staring at, it turned out Ginny had been staring at nothing, just the night sky and the tree’s.

“Your mother told me Harry, Ron and Hermione got away… that’s good, isn’t it?”

“Yeah” said Ginny, not looking over at Erin.

“It’s a shame, I didn’t even get to say hello to Hermione, she was so nice back at Grimmauld Place…” Ginny said nothing in return and so Erin went on. “It’s just best they got away, I mean, if…whoever they were got Harry then he would…”

“What does it matter to you?” Ginny suddenly yelled.

“What do you mean?” Erin asked back, confused.

“You just left….back when they came, you dissapparated, just left us all to die” yelled Ginny, Erin just stared at her, she was right, Erin had just left them all, but it wasn’t her idea to leave them. “I don’t know what Dumbledore was thinking letting you be in the Order, but he was wrong…”

“Ginny, I…I didn’t…”

“I saw you, when I was trying to find George, I watched you, you dissapparated.”

“I did…but…”

“It was I who told her to leave,” came a voice behind them, they turned around to see Remus standing there, he looked tired, nowhere near as tired as near a full moon, but tired all the same. “I asked her to go find Monty Wang, he is old, he could not take a tutor like he has gotten tonight, Erin would have never left if I hadn’t told her to, she was only fallowing Orders.”

Ginny looked slightly ambushed, her face turning a pink color that clashed with her red hair. Erin wasn’t mad at Ginny, she saw the sorry look Ginny was now sporting, Erin knew that if things were the other way around Erin would have said the same thing to Ginny.

“Erin, I didn’t ….I’m sorry...”

“No, it’s alright, I know how you feel… but you know, your mother is pretty upset, you should go comfort her… it might help you too.”

Ginny nodded and walked down the stairs, Erin then turned away from Remus and stare out the window again.

“Monty has been taken to St. Mungo’s, but I’m afraid I don’t know anymore, someone like me isn’t very welcomed in a place like that now-a-day’s,” he said from behind her. “It was a good thing you were there, I don’t know what you did, but if you hadn’t been there he very well could have died.”

“I didn’t do anything” she said, in a bit of a nasty voice, he seemed to notice this.

“Fred told me you were…er...upset I did not come and get you myself…”

“Oh, he did, did he?” Erin wheeled around, and barked.

“Yes, but Erin, you’ve got to understand I had other…”

“Other things more important?” she cut him off, crossing her arms over her chest.

“I wouldn’t say more important, but…”

“No, it is... Tonks is your wife… everything else is just pushed to the back burner so she gets everything she wants.”

“Her parents were tortured for information,” said Remus, with an edge in his voice.

“Well, so was Monty” she shot back. “And he’s old… and what in the name of Merlin where you thinking letting me stay with someone like that? He’s freaking old, do you just not care? I thought Dumbledore put you in charge of me… but yet all you did was put me with some old guy…. At least with Sirius I was safe…. The Death Eaters could have come in there and kill us both at any moment while you were off being Mr. Husband…”

“I can understand why you’re upset,” said Remus, his voice calm again. “But I didn’t think anyone would expect you or something the Order is hiding to be with such an old…”

“An old coot who doesn’t know how to defend himself….”

“I told you, I thought you would be safe there… just until Harry left the Burrow. “

“Well, I guess I wasn’t… but how would you know? You didn’t come there one time, just sent Fred and George…. Dumbledore said it was YOUR job to watch over me… yet your making them do it… if you just don’t care enough then forget about your word to Dumbledore and stay the hell away from me for good.”

“I’m not going to go against my word!” he finally shouted at her.

“Why not?” she shouted back. “Dumbledore is dead… he won’t care now…”

“That’s not all it is….” Remus trailed off. “I was trying to protect you...”

“Well, you’re doing a really awful job… because while you’re so busy trying to protect me” Erin shouted, using air-quotes when she shouted the word ‘protect.’ “That you fail to realize the only thing that’s really hurting me is you!”

He stood there, staring at her vaguely; he didn’t seem to know what to shout back, his mouth hung open slightly. Erin growled loudly and stomped down the hall, to the Weasley Twins room, once inside she slammed the door shut and whipped around staring around the room, she wondered who had been using this room and if they would mind if she stayed in there, to be honest she really didn’t care if they minded or not. And so Erin sat down on the bed and looked down at the torn paper, letting the tears slip from her eyes again.