"Maybe we should give him some time to calm down," Grandma said.

I shook my head and replied, "I'm going to check on him."

I slowly walked up the stairs and came to a stop at the door outside the room. Taking a deep breath, I slowly and as silently as possible pushed open the door. Albus's back was to me. He sniffled and picked up the flask from the desk. "James," he whispered, "I wish you were here. How did you do it? I can't take care of Lily. Not all by myself."

I decided to heed my grandmother's advice and closed the door quietly to give him some time alone. Was that really what he thought? That he needed to take care of me? I was worried about him.

When I came back downstairs, Ron said, "Well? How'd it go?"

"I think he needs some alone time," I replied.

The rest of lunch was solemn with Aunt Hermione sniffling over her mashed potatoes. Uncle Ron's hand trembled as he gripped his fork. After a while, the fireplace in the living room came to life with green flames. Professor McGonagall stepped through.

"Kids, out," Uncle Bill demanded.

There was an uproar of protest and Bill only responded with, "This is adult business!"

The kids, including me, stomped out of the room indignantly. "Why are they so keen on hiding things from us?" Fred yelled angrily, throwing his hands in the air in frustration and then said much quieter, "Luckily, I have these." He pulled out a strand of flesh colored string.

"Extendable Ears!" Rose exclaimed, "One problem, wouldn't they have put some charm of the door so we couldn't hear?"

"I don't think they did," Fred said, "They tend to forget some things these days under all that stress. Let's find out."

He handed us each a strand of the string. The taller ones either squeezed theirs through the door cracks on the side or in the lock. Those of us who were unfortunately short, like me, laid on our stomachs, one end of the string under the door and the other to our ears.

"Professor," I heard Ron say, "How's Hogwarts?"

"Death Eaters are swarming the place," Professor McGonagall said, "Members of the staff who are not Death Eaters are closely monitored and I had to sneak away to come here. The students are miserable and Hogwarts is the absolute opposite of what it used to be. He-Who— I mean Voldemort— has an iron grip on the school made of fear."

"That's horrible," Mum sighed, "That's probably worse than what we had in my sixth year."

"Yes, well, if you were the other side, wouldn't you have taken extra precautions after the children of your adversaries seemed to have escaped from right under your nose?"

"Is there anything else we must know, Professor?" Uncle George asked.

"Yes," she answered gravely. "Your children are in danger, all of them. You can't protect then forever from what will come. From what I heard, they will be in the midst of the war itself. It's inevitable."

Aunt Hermione squeaked pathetically, "So there's no way we can keep them from it?"

Professor McGonagall replied ruefully, "I thought you were a smart girl, Miss Granger— I apologize, old habits, you see— Mrs. Weasley. Yes, that is what 'inevitable' means. They will have fight in the war and there's no use trying to stop them. They're just as stubborn as all of you when you were their age."

I pulled my Extendable Ear out and said to Fred, "We're supposed to fight in the war?"

He nodded, "Sounds like it."