The Last Goodbye

"As Dedulus probably told you, we have to abandon Plan A. Pius Thicknesse has gone over, which gives us a big problem. He's made it an imprisonable offence to connect this house to the Floo Network, place a portkey here or apparate in or out. All done in the name of your protection, to prevent You-Know-Who getting at you. Absolutely pointless, seeing as your mother's charm does that already. What he's really done is to stop you getting out of here safely. Second problem: you're underage, which means you've still got the Trace on you."

"I don't-"

"The Trace, the Trace!" Mad-Eye said impatiently. "The charm that detects magical activity around under-seventeens, the way the Ministry finds out about under-age magic! If you, or anyone around you, casts a spell to get you out of here, Thicknesse will know about it, and so will the death eaters. We can't wait for the Trace to break, because the moment you turn seventeen you'll lose all the protection your mother gave you. In short: Pius Thicknesse thinks he's got you cornered good and proper."

"So what are we going to do?" Harry asked.

"We're going to use the only means of transport left to us, the only ones the Trace can't detect, because we don't need to cast spells to use them. Brooms, Thestrals, and Hagrid's motorbike." Mad-Eye said. "Now, your mother's charm will only break under two conditions. When you come of age or when you no longer call this place home. You and your aunt and uncleare going your seperate ways tonight, in the full understanding that you're never going to live together again, correct?" Harry nodded. "So this time, when you leave, there'll be no going back, and the charm will break the moment you get outside its range. We're choosing to break it early, because the alternative is waiting for You-Know-Who to come and seize you the moment you turn seventeen. The one thing we've got on our side is that You-Know-Who doesn't know we're moving you tonight. We've leaked a false trail to the Ministry, they think you're not leaving until the thirtieth. However, this is You-Know-Who we're dealing with, so we can't just rely on him getting the date wrong. He's bound to have a couple of death eateres patrolling the skies in this general area, just in case. So, we've given a dozen different houses every protection we can throw at them. They all look like they could be the place we're going to hide you, they've all got some connection with the Order: my house, Kingsley's place, Molly's Auntie Muriel's- you get the idea."

"Yeah." Harry said, looking uncertain about something.

"You'll be going to Tonk's parents. Once you're within the boundaries of the protective enchantments we've put on their house, you'll be able to use a Portkey to The Burrow. Any questions?"

"Er, yes." Harry said. "Maybe they won't know which of the twelve secure houses I'm heading for at firest, but won't it be sor of obvious once fifteen of us fly off towards Tonks's parents?"

"Ah, I forgot to mention the key point." Moody said. "Fifteen of us won't be flying to Tonks's parents. There will be eight Harry Potters moving through the skies tonight, each of them with a companion, each pair heading for a different safe house." Mad-Eye withdrawed the mud-like goo in a flask from his cloak. Polyjuice potion.

"No!" Harry said loudly.

"I told you he'd take it like this." I hissed at Moody.

"If you think I'm going to let eight people risk their lives-" Harry started.

"Because it's the first time for all of us." Ron said.

"This is different, pretending to be me-"

"Well, none of us really fancy it, Harry." Fred said earnestly.

"Imagine if something went wrong and we were stuck as specky, scrawny gits forever!" I joked. Harry didn't smile.

"You can't do it if I don't cooperate, you need me to give you some hair." Harry said.

"Well, that's the plan scuppered." George said. "Obviously there's no chance of all of us getting a bit of your hair unless you cooperate."

"Yeah, fourteen of us against one bloke who's not allowed to use magic. We've got no chance." I said.

"Funny." Harry said sarcastically. "Really amusing."