Chapter Text
Theodora Earl sighed loudly as she stared up at the white ceiling of her bedroom, lying on top of her made bedcovers, her bright red hair pooling around her head with her ankles crossed on top of her pillows and her hands resting on her stomach. She was bored, terribly so, and growing increasingly tired of listening to her cousin, Ginny Weasley, constantly asking her question after question about one person: Harry Potter, the most famous wizard of their entire generation and one of Theodora’s best friends. It wasn’t that Theodora disliked talking about Harry to Ginny, she could certainly understand why her younger cousin would be so curious given just how famous Harry was in their world, but it was all that Ginny seemed to want to talk about. She seemed to have developed a knack for being able to turn anything into a question about Harry, and it was driving everyone up the wall.
She closed her eyes tightly and released a long breath through her teeth, absently wishing that she was outside with her brother, Jasper and their other cousins, Ginny’s older brothers, Fred, George, and Ron Weasley. She could hear them in the distance as a warm summer breeze drifted through her bedroom, making her lilac coloured curtains flutter gently as the sound of their loud shouts and cheers carried into the room on the breeze.
Ordinarily, she would have been outside with them as they played a game of makeshift Quidditch in the field out the back of her house, but not today or, in fact, this summer at all. It was her punishment for having broken so many school rules at the end of her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when she, along with her cousin, Ron and their friends, Hermione Granger and Harry, had snuck out at night time in order to stop a very powerful magical stone from being stolen by a dark wizard. They had managed to save the stone and while her mother had been very proud, she had also decided to ban her from flying for the summer, though, of course Ron had gotten away without anything more than a lecture from his mother. Theodora knew that her mother was only doing it to try and stop her from getting any more stupid ideas in her head again, but she still didn’t think she deserved to be punished after everything she went through. She did kind of help to save the wizarding world from another war; she had thought that might earn her something, but apparently her mother thought that it would be a good chance to teach her a lesson about sticking her nose where it shouldn’t be.
“Theo?” Ginny’s voice broke through her thoughts, making her eyes snap open. She turned her head slightly to look at her youngest cousin, who was sitting on her window seat with Cotton, Theodora’s grey bangle cat sitting on her lap, patting her gently.
“Yeah?” she sighed, feeling as though she knew what was coming already, but she really was trying hard not to get annoyed with Ginny. She obviously had a little crush on Harry, which was kind of sweet and a little awkward, considering that she was friends with Harry, but as long as Ginny didn’t start stalking him or anything when they got to Hogwarts, she figured it would be fine.
“Did Harry Potter really catch the Snitch in his mouth?”
“For the five hundredth time, yes. We all thought he was going to be sick, but instead he spat out the Snitch and won the game. Everyone was very impressed…well, mostly”.
“Wow…” Ginny breathed, her bright brown eyes lighting up in admiration, “And that was the same match that he almost fell off his broom, wasn’t it?”
Theodora heaved another great sigh and pulled herself upright, leaning her back against the wall with her legs hanging over the edge of her bed, “Ginny,” she said hopefully, “Why don’t we talk about something else? You’ve been here since breakfast and we’ve had the same conversation for almost four hours now, isn’t it getting a little…boring?”
“Oh, but I can’t help it!” she shook her head, sitting forward a little too quickly and sending Cotton off her lap. The cat gave an angry hiss as she landed on the fluffy white rug that covered the dark floorboards, glaring at Ginny with large eyes, before turning with an annoyed flick over her thin tail to trot outside the open bedroom door. Ginny hardly seemed to notice, her eyes fixed on Theodora, “I still can’t believe you and Ron are actually friends with Harry Potter, how could I not be curious?”
“Ginny, there’s curious and then there’s obsessed, which you’re getting dangerously close to being considered”.
“I’m not obsessed,” she protested, but her glowing red cheeks failed to convince Theodora.
“You’re kind of sounding like you are,” she replied with a shrug, lightly tapping her feet as they dangled over her mattress. She had grown a few inches over the summer and she was now an inch or so taller than her mother, who was lucky to reach five foot two. She didn’t think she had any hope of catching up to Jasper’s height, since he took after their father in that department, but she was happy that she seemed to have a good chance of being several inches taller than her mother, “Look, Ginny,” she sighed, meeting her eyes, “Harry might be famous and everything, but he’s really just like you or me. He’s humble, too, and he doesn’t really like people treating him differently because of his scar”.
“Ron said his scar really is like a lightning bolt…”
“Ginny,” she groaned, frustration lacing her tone, “Give it a rest, please? Like I said, you’re entering into dangerous obsession waters now and I’m sorry, but if you get caught trying to sneak into Harry’s dormitory or stealing his hair, not even being related by blood is going to be enough for me to save you”.
Ginny’s cheeks burned an even brighter shade of red, positively matching her hair now as she spluttered, “I wouldn’t do that!”
Theodora raised her eyebrows, toying with a loose thread on her lilac quilt, “I really hope that’s true because trying to explain something like that to Harry would be really awkward for me and Ron to have to do,” she said with a light teasing tone in her voice.
Ginny, still looking very pink, slowly sat back against the wall as the breeze drifting through the window lightly tousled her long hair, “You don’t honestly think I would do something like that, do you?” she asked after a moment.
“No, of course not, but the way you’re talking makes you sound a little like Harry’s stalker. Honestly, Gin, once he meet him you’ll calm down and see what I mean about him just being an ordinary boy”.
“I suppose so…” she said slowly, looking down, “I just…I really don’t want to embarrass myself when I do meet him”.
“Harry’s nice, so even if you do embarrass yourself, he’ll probably act like he didn’t even notice”.
“That’s not exactly making me feel better, Theo”.
She smiled at her, “You’ll be fine, Ginny,” she told her confidently, “Trust me”.
Outside in the hallway, the sound of footsteps creaking along the hallway sounded and the girls instantly fell silently, turning towards the open door, just as Ron appeared. He had grown a little bit, too, making him look even lankier and he had lost some of the boyish roundness from his face, but he was just as freckled and red haired as usual, though his cheeks did look a little more flushed and his fringe was sticking to his forehead slightly.
“Theo,” he began, glancing briefly at Ginny and back to Theodora, “I need to talk to you about something”.
Theodora raised her eyebrows curiously, very surprised that Ron had dragged himself away from flying around the field out the back with his brothers and Jasper to speak to her about something, but she felt like she might know what it was about. Harry, (what was it about this family and Harry Potter lately?), none of them had received a single letter from him in the past three, almost four weeks since they had first left Hogwarts, and she was starting to become very worried. It had been his birthday a few days ago and Theodora had sent him a card with a package of Chocolate Frogs, but she hadn’t heard back from him once, which was very odd for Harry. It wasn’t like him not to reply back or send a ‘thank you’ note. She had even received a letter from Hermione only this morning saying that even Hermione hadn’t heard anything from him, even though she, along with Theodora and Ron had been writing to him at least three to two times a week, just wanting to know that he was okay. Theodora had even asked her mum about trying to find out what was going on, but considering that Harry lived with his Muggle relatives, she really didn’t see what her mum would be able to do.
“Sure,” Theodora nodded, growing serious as she scooted herself forward until she was sitting on the very edge of her bed, her feet only just touching the floor, though she wasn’t able to be flatfooted doing so. Ah, short legs.
“Ginny, out,” he ordered, pointing back through the door as he took a step inside the room.
Ginny huffed in annoyance and stood, purposely stomping her feet loudly on the floor, “Oh, that’s nice!” she pushed passed him, her long hair swinging as she marched out of the room and off down the hallway, being as noisy as she possibly could as they heard her footsteps descending the stairs.
Theodora winced slightly, hearing her mother distantly asking what on Earth was wrong, before Ron closed the door, “Nice one, Ronnie,” she sighed, rolling her eyes at him, “You seriously do have all the graciousness of a dragon sometimes”.
He shrugged, crossing the room to perch himself on the window seat that his sister had just vacated, “What?” he frowned, “I needed to get rid of her, I don’t need to be giving her any more reason to be asking about Harry. She’s already driving us all mental”.
“Trust me, I know,” she suddenly narrowed her eyes on Ron, who was smart enough to recognise it as a bad sign and actually leaned back slightly, “Oh, and thanks a lot for completely abandoning me and leaving me to have to deal with her. Ronnie, I love your sister, but if she asks me one more time to tell her the story of how Harry got on the Quidditch team, I will throw her out the window,” she pointed to the window directly behind him, sighing heavily, “One game of Quidditch, you promised me, and then you, Fred, George, and Jasper would find something that we could all do together. Four hours later and this is the first time I’ve seen you off a broomstick”.
“You could have come down and watched!”
“Oh, yeah, because that’s loads of fun for me to do, watch you lot fly around and have fun”.
“It’s not my fault you’re not allowed to play”.
Theodora sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly as she nodded glumly, “I know,” she said quietly, her previous annoyance gone almost instantly, “And I’m not saying it is, I’m just…bored and frustrated. Plus, I’m worried about Harry. Have you heard anything from him?” she looked at him hopefully.
Ron’s expression grew grim, shaking his head, “Nothing all summer,” he leaned forward and shot the closed bedroom door a quick look, while Theodora mirrored his movements. He waited, listening for a moment as the sound of cheers and shouting continued outside, and the muffled voices of Estelle Earl and Ginny could be heard from downstairs, “Something isn’t right about this,” he focused back on Theodora, his voice low, “Fred and George are worried, too. We’ve got a plan”.
“What plan?” she asked eagerly, her voice barely above a whisper. Excitement flooded through her; finally someone was actually doing something to figure out what was going on with Harry.
“You know my dad’s got that old car? The one he’s done all those magical adjustments to?”
“Of course. You forget, I was there when your mum found out that he’d been hiding it in the shed for months. I thought your mum was about to breath fire, she was so angry”.
“Yeah, well, did you know it can fly?” he asked, slowly breaking into a little grin.
Theodora eyed him, feeling some of the excitement she had felt before starting to fad, replaced instead by an unpleasant sinking feeling, “I might have heard something about that…” she nodded warily, “And what, exactly, does this have to do with Harry?”
“We’re going to use the car to pick him up, obviously…” Theodora closed her eyes tightly and ducked her head, though Ron seemed to be too excited over the prospect to notice, “Fred and George know how to drive, so we’ll just wait for everyone to fall asleep and then borrow the car. Mum won’t even notice and dad’s going to be working tonight”.
Theodora opened her eyes and lifted her head, staring back at him with a completely blank expression on her face. Blimey, she really, really did miss having Hermione around right now, if Hermione was her cousin, she doubted if she had to sit here and listen to this completely absurd idea, though, she probably wouldn’t have nearly as much fun during her childhood if Hermione was her cousin, now that she thought about it. Hermione, for one thing, wasn’t very good at flying and that was mostly what Theodora and her cousins did when they were together, which is probably why her mother had banned her from flying. It was a good punishment.
“Ron, I’m pretty sure they’ll notice if they go to sleep and wake up to find Harry Potter standing in their kitchen. How are you going to explain that?”
He frowned at her, “I dunno,” he shook his head, straightening, “We’ll figure it out later”.
She struggled to hold back the eye roll that she so desperately wanted to give him, “Okay…” she said slowly, dragging the word out, “What about actually finding where Harry lives?”
“We know that already, he told me…”
“Ron, there’s a big difference between knowing the address and finding it correctly in the middle of the night while flying a car. You can’t see street signs or house numbers from above, and a lot of houses look very similar in the Muggle world, especially from above. Oh, and that’s not even to mention if someone sees you. You could get in so much trouble”.
“It’ll be fine, Theo,” he said dismissively, not looking the slightest bit concerned, “And who’s going to be looking outside in the middle of the night, anyway?”
“It’s a possibility”.
“You worry too much, you’re sounding like Hermione”.
“Speaking of Hermione, have you told her about this plan?” she raised her eyebrows, watching him closely.
Ron’s ears grew slightly pink, instantly making Theodora narrow her eyes, “I was going to tell her later…” he muttered, quickly looking away from her and becoming quite interested in looking down at the front garden of Theodora’s house.
“In other words, you were going to wait until after you’d got Harry before telling her because you know perfectly well that Hermione will tell you not to do this”.
“No…” he trailed off as he caught her eye and quickly turned his attention back out the window, his ears reddening even more, his blush spreading further down his neck.
Theodora couldn’t contain her eye roll any longer, Ron was honestly so easy to read sometimes, he probably knew that Hermione would lecture him and didn’t want to have to deal with it until after he had collected Harry from his aunt and uncle, that way he’d be able to do it without feeling guilty.
“I think you should tell her,” she told him, lightly swinging her legs backwards and forwards, the toes of her sock covered feet lightly brushing against the rug covering her floor, “She’ll want to know that Harry’s okay and what’s going on. She’s just as worried about him as we are”.
“Fine,” Ron sighed, looking back to her, his expression resigned, “I’ll owl her when I get home, maybe Percy will let me use Hermes if it’s for Hermione, he‘s friendly with her”.
“Percy still locked up in his room?” Theodora asked curiously. She had barely seen anything of Percy since school had ended, merely seeing snippets of him and once when he had suddenly appeared on the stairs at the Burror, scolding her and Ron for apparently making too much noise walking up the stairs. He hadn’t even come along with his siblings today, but then again, she didn’t think that Percy really enjoyed coming to her house, he usually sat in the living room and read.
“Something’s up with him, he’s been acting weird all summer”.
“Maybe he’s just studying,” she shrugged, not overly concerned. Out of all of her cousins, Percy was probably the one she worried about least of all, he was far to sensible to get himself mixed up in anything, but she had to admit, it was a little strange, even for him. She shook her head, focusing back on Ron, “Anyway, about Harry, why tell me about your plan when you know I’ll tell you it’s completely mental?”
“I thought you might want to come with us,” Ron replied, lowering his voice again with another quick look towards the bedroom door, “I figured you’d probably want to help”.
Theodora sighed, her shoulders sagging again as she looked down to her lap, “I do still think your whole idea is terribly flawed and you’ll all be lucky not to get arrested, but…” she looked back up to him, smiling faintly, “I’ve got to admit, I’d love to come along and help. Sadly, I don’t think it’s wise, not when I’m in enough trouble as it is”.
“We’re not going to be caught…”
“You don’t know that, Ron, and I’m not going to take the risk right now. Look, my mum’s working tomorrow, so Jasper and I will be spending all day with you guys, I’ll be able to see Harry then…if everything works out, anyway. I’m sure he’ll understand why I didn’t come, and he’ll have you and Fred and George”.
Ron frowned slightly, eyeing her closely for a moment, seeming almost a little suspicious, “I thought you’d try and convince me not to go through with it,” he remarked softly, still looking as though he was waiting for her to do something.
“Like that would stop it,” she rolled her eyes, smiling again. She wasn’t surprised he thought she’d be like that, she didn’t really like his plan, but at least he was trying to do something to help Harry, and that’s what mattered in the end, “Your plan might be flawed, sure, but you’re the first person around here who has actually done anything to find out what’s going on with him,” she grew more serious, her smile fading, “I’m just as afraid that those Muggle’s have done something horrible to him; it’s not like him not to reply like this. Something has to be wrong and if so, we’ve got to find out”.
He continued to eye her for a moment longer before nodding, climbing onto his feet, “So we’ll keep this between us, right?”
Theodora slipped off her bed and was pleased to find that he was only slightly taller than her, “Why do you always doubt me?” she sighed, “You know, I try so hard not to be offended, but you make it hard sometimes,” she looked back to him, finding him still staring at her, “Yes, Ron,” she said in a board, flat tone, “I won’t say a thing to anyone, I swear”.
“You can’t tell Jasper…”
“Oh, please, why would I ever tell Jasper? I still haven’t forgiven him for turning on Harry when he lost all those points with that Norbert business”.
He held up his hands in defence, perhaps realising that she was actually starting to get annoyed with him now, “Alright, just checking,” he said hurriedly.
Theodora nodded, “Good, now,” she paused, checking her alarm clock beside her bed, a present from her Muggle grandparents, “It’s almost lunch, let’s go see what mum’s got planned. I’m hungry”.
She lead the way out of her room and off down the hallway towards the stairs, Ron trailing behind her. She very dearly hoped this whole mental plan actually worked and that Harry was okay, she really was very worried about him, but hopefully those concerns would be over by tomorrow morning. She just hoped that Ron, Fred, and George didn’t end up getting themselves killed in the process.