He crawled out of the pond and stu
m bled toward the great dark mass on the ground that was Hagrid.
"Hagrid? Hagrid, talk to me Ц "
But the dark mass did not stir.
"Who's there? Is it Potter? Are you Harry Po t ter?"
Harry did not recognize the man's voice. Then a woman shouted. "They've crashed. Ted! Crashed in the garden!"
Harry's head was swimming.
"Hagrid," he repeated stupidly, and his knees buckled.
The next thing he knew, he was lying on his back on what felt like cushions, with a burning sens a
tion in his ribs and right arm. His missing tooth had been r e grown. The scar on his forehead was still throbbing.

"Hagrid?"
He opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on a sofa in an unfamiliar, lamplit sitting room. His ruc k
sack lay on the floor a short di s tance away, wet and muddy. A fair-haired, big-bellied man was watc
h ing Harry anxiously.
"Hagrid's fine, son," said the man, "the wife's se e ing to him now. How are you fee
l ing? Anything else broken? I've fixed your ribs, your tooth, and your arm. I'm Ted, by the way, Ted Tonks Ц
Dora's father."
Harry sat up too quickly. Lights popped in front of his eyes and he felt sick and giddy.
"Voldemort Ц "
"Easy, now," said Ted Tonks, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder and pushing him back against the cushions. "That was a nasty crash you just had. What happened, anyway? Som e
thing go wrong with the bike? Arthur Weasley overstretch himself again, him and his Muggle contraptions?"
"No," said Harry, as his scar pulsed like an open wound. "Death Eaters, loads of them Ц we were chased Ц "
"Death Eaters?" said Ted sharply. "What d'you mean, Death Eaters? I thought they didn't know you were being moved t o
night, I thought Ц "
"They knew," said Harry.
Ted Tonks looked up at the ceiling as though he could see through it to the sky above.
"Well, we know our protective charms hold, then, don't we? They shouldn't be able to get within a hu n
dred yards of the place in any direction."
Now Harry understood why Voldemort had va n ished; it had been at the point when the m
o
torbike crossed the barrier of the Order's charms. He only hoped they would continue to work: He imagined Voldemort, a hundred yards above them as they spoke, looking for a way to penetrate what Harry visualized as a great tran
s parent bubble.
He swung his legs off the sofa; he needed to see Hagrid with his own eyes b e
fore he would believe that he was alive. He had barely stood up, however, when a door opened and Hagrid squeezed through it, his face co v
ered in mud and blood, limping a little but m i
raculously alive.
"Harry!"
Knocking over two delicate tables and an aspidi s
tra, he covered the floor between them in two strides and pulled Harry into a hug that nearly cracked his newly repaired ribs. "Blimey, Harry, how did yeh get out o' that? I thought we were both goners."
"Yeah, me too. I can't believe Ц "
Harry broke off. He had just noticed the woman who had entered the room behind Hagrid.
"You!" he shouted, and he thrust his hand into his pocket, but it was empty.
"Your wand's here, son," said Ted, tapping it on Harry's arm. "It fell right beside you, I picked it up…And that's my wife you're shou t
ing at."
"Oh, I'm Ц I'm sorry."
As she moved forward into the room, Mrs. Tonks's resemblance to her sister Bellatrix b e
came much less pronounced: Her hair was a lightТ s oft brown and her eyes were wider and kinder. Neverth e
less, she looked a little haughty after Harry's exclam a tion.
"What happened to our daughter?" she asked. "Hagrid said you were ambushed; where is Nymph a dora?"
"I don't know," said Harry. "We don't know what happened to anyone else."
She and Ted exchanged looks. A mixture of fear and guilt gripped Harry at the sight of their expre s
sions, if any of the others had died, it was his fault, all his fault. He had co n sented to the plan, given t
hem his hair . . .
"The Portkey," he said, remembering all of a su d den. "We've got to get back to the Bu
r row and find out Ц then we'll be able to send you word, or Ц or Tonks will, once she's Ц "

"Dora'll be ok, 'Dromeda," said Ted. "She knows her stuff, she's been in plenty of tight spots with the Aurors. The Portkey's through here," he added to Harry. "It's supposed to leave in three mi
n utes, if you want to take it."
"Yeah, we do," said Harry. He seized his ruc k sack, swung it onto his shoulders. "I Ц "
He looked at Mrs. Tonks, wanting to apologize for the state of fear in which he left her and for which he felt so terribly responsible, but no words o c
curred to him that he did not seem hollow and insi n
cere.
"I'll tell Tonks Ц Dora Ц to send word, when she . . . Thanks for patching us up, thanks for ever y
thing, I Ц "
He was glad to leave the room and follow Ted Tonks along a short hallway and into a be d
room. Hagrid came after them, bending low to avoid hitting his head on the door li n tel.
"There you go, son. That's the Por t key."
Mr. Tonks was pointing to a small, si l ver-backed hairbrush lying on the dressing t
a ble.
"Thanks," said Harry, reaching out to place a fi n ger on it, ready to leave.
"Wait a moment," said Hagrid, looking around. "Harry, where's Hedwig?"
"She . . . she got hit," said Harry.
The realization crashed over him: He felt ashamed of himself as the tears stung his eyes. The owl had been his companion, his one great link with the magical world whe n
ever he had been forced to return to the Dursleys.
Hagrid reached out a great hand and patted him painfully on the shoulder.
"Never mind," he said gruffly, "Never mind. She had a great old life Ц "
"Hagrid!" said Ted Tonks warningly, as the hai r brush glowed bright blue, and Hagrid only just got his forefinger
to it in time.
With a jerk behind the navel as though an invis i ble hook and line had dragged him fo
r ward, Harry was pulled into nothingness, spi n
ning uncontrollably, his finger glued to the Portkey as he and Hagrid hu r
tled away from Mr. Tonks. Second later
, Harry's feet slammed onto hard ground and he fell onto his hands and knees in the yard of the Burrow. He heard screams. Throwing aside the no longer glowing hai r
brush, Harry stood up, swaying slightly, and saw Mrs. Weasley and Ginny running down the steps by the back door as Hagrid, who had also collapsed on lan
d ing, clambered laboriously to his feet.
"Harry? You are the real Harry? What ha p pened? Where are the others?" cried Mrs. Weasley.
"What d'you mean? Isn't anyone else back?" Harry panted.
The answer was clearly etched in Mrs. Weasley's pale face.
"The Death Eaters were waiting for us," Harry told her, "We were surrounded the m o ment we took off Ц
they knew it was t o night Ц I don't know what happened to an
y one
else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort caught up with us Ц "
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 Ц
"Thank goodness you're all right," she said, pul l ing him into a hug he did not feel he d
e served.
"Haven't go' any brandy, have yeh, Molly?" asked Hagrid a little shakily, "Fer medicinal pu r poses?"
She could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back toward the crooked house, Harry knew that she wanted to hide her face. He turned to Ginny and she answered his unspoken plea for info
r mation 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 oil can lying on the ground nearby. "And that one," she pointed at an a
n
cient sneaker, "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 aught to be back in about a mi
n ute."
Mrs. Weasley reappeared carrying a bottle of brandy, which she handed to Hagrid. He u n
corked it and drank it straight down in one.
"Mum!" shouted Ginny pointing to a spot se v eral feet away.
A blue light had appeared in the darkness: It grew larger and brighter, and Lupin and George a p
peared, spinning and then falling. Harry knew imm e diately that there was something wrong: Lupin was suppor
t ing George, who was unconscious and whose face was co
v ered in blood.
Harry ran forward and seized George's legs. T o g
ether, he and Lupin carried George into the house and through the kitchen to the living 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, shoc k ingly sca
r let blood.
No sooner had Mrs. Weasley bent over her son that 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 Ho g
warts?" he said, giving Harry a small shake. "Answer me!"
"A Ц 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 pe o
ple who could have told him were d i
rectly involved in the plan. You might have been an impostor."
"So why aren' you checkin' me?
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