The next hour in mine and Fred's apartment felt like ten. I paced back and forth across the living room carpet as Fred sat on the sofa, watching, burying his face in his hands, or attempting to reassure me. 

And I say 'attempting' because every time he tried to tell me that my brother was fine, that my girlfriend was going to be okay, that Sirius was absolutely still alive, I ignored him and paced even faster. 

To make matters worse, about ten minutes after we had entered the apartment I noticed a huge slash across my stomach that was bleeding down my high-waisted skirt. And I only noticed it because the faint twinges of pain I had been feeling since the battle at the concert had suddenly increased tenfold, and I buckled over in pain. Fred tried to guide me down onto the sofa, but I continued furiously pacing back and forth. He tried every healing spell that he knew of, but nothing worked, and he voiced his concern that my Grace wasn't healing me automatically. 

But I didn't care about me. His constant reassurances didn't make me feel any better either, because my friends and family weren't right in front of me for me to see that they were fine. The panic kept building up inside me, and I didn't say anything at all, until - 

I jumped as a knock came at the door to the shop, two floors below. Immediately, I rushed over to the window. I whipped back the curtains as Fred joined me, and we both peered down into the street below. 

"Stay here." Fred told me firmly, and hurried out of the apartment. 

"Where else am I gonna go?" I grumbled to the empty room. 

I watched as the group of people huddled around the doors, a tall, long-bearded, pointy-hatted person in the middle, and a moment later they were all crowding forward and they vanished. 

I sighed, crouching down to pick up what must be one of the twins' hoodies from the floor. I Summoned a cloth from the kitchen, wrapping it around my bleeding stomach, and pulled off Kylie's sweaty tank top, laying it across the sofa, and pulled the hoodie on. Sorry, Kylie, but my chest is too big to be constricted by your size smalls. 

I took a deep breath. The hoodie smelled of marshmallows and vaguely of gunpowder. 

The door to the apartment opened, and I jumped. Dumbledore strode in, followed closely by Fred, who did a double take at the hoodie I was wearing, going a delicate shade of pink; Sirius, Harry, Terry, Kylie, and George bringing up the rear. 

"Daze, you're okay -!" Harry ran towards me, enveloping me in his arms. I felt a few hot tears leak out of my eyes as I squeezed him back, hard. Relief was sweeping through me at the sight of my loved ones. They didn't die. They're okay... 

"W-what about the others?" I lifted my head from Harry's shoulder, looking at Dumbledore and Sirius. "Draco, and Emily, and Cedric, and Ginny, and -" 

"Thankfully," Dumbledore raised a hand to stop me, "no concert-goers were fatalities. Only three Aurors were killed. There were plenty of injuries, but they are all at St Mungo's now, healing nicely, and no lasting damage will be done. All of your classmates, Cedric, Lee Jordan, and Emily are fine and either suffered minor injuries, or did not get injured at all." 

I let out a huge breath I don't know I was holding in. 

"Thank FUCK." I said wearily. Terry and George chuckled, and half the tension in the room seemed to fade. "What about - about my...?" 

Dumbledore noticed my hesitation, and a hint of a smile appeared on his face. "Your Grace sent your cousin Dudley and your Muggle friends back to Little Whinging, where they were soon met by Professor McGonagall and Remus Lupin, who explained the situation to them and assured them that you would be alright. They were escorted home, and an Auror patrol has now been stationed around your neighbourhood." 

"Sir -" I started. "Professor - I realise now that bringing Muggles to -" 

Dumbledore held up another hand. I blinked as I stared at it; it was blackened, and a heavy ring with a cracked stone set into it was on his ring-finger. He lowered it as he noticed me staring. 

"There is no time to discuss trivial rule-breaking at this current hour, Daisy. We must move on to more pressing matters." 

"Come on, let's sit, sweetheart." Sirius muttered to me, wrapping an arm around me and guiding me down onto the sofa. Harry, who had been glancing around the room with interest, sat on the other side of me. Kylie perched on the arm of the sofa next to Harry, while the twins took the armchair next to the fireplace, and Terry the other. 

Dumbledore stood in front of us, waiting patiently for everyone to get settled. Once everyone had sat, he said, "Daisy, I would like you to remain in this apartment for the next six days. I know that you were to join Miss Ford at her manor this week then your godfather at Grimmauld Place next, but you will have to push them back a week. I would like you to stay here and not venture outside of these walls. You will need this week to recover from your wound, that I can see is the result of an invention of Antonin Dolohov's." 

Sirius sat up. "What? What wound, Dumbledore? Where?" 

My godfather turned to me, placing his hands on my shoulders and twisting me back and forth to search. 

"Under the hoodie." I muttered, and Sirius whipped up the bottom, exclaiming as he saw the blood-soaked cloth wrapped around me. 

"Dumbledore - can't you -?" 

"I cannot." Dumbledore said calmly. "We will have to wait for the wound to heal. It seems Antonin is quite the inventor. He must have experimented with Lord Voldemort's serpent's venom in creating this spell. It will heal over a period of roughly a week if tended to carefully." 

Dumbledore flicked his wand; the cloth dropped off me, and a fresh, thick bandage was wrapped around me instead. Another flick, and a small pile of medical supplies appeared in the corner beside Terry. 

"Daisy, I would appreciate it if you stayed here like I asked. It is simply not safe for you to venture outside just yet. Mr Weasley has been very clever in performing the Fidelius Charm on this apartment. Very clever, indeed." 

Fred grinned at Dumbledore's comment. 

"The regard for your safety, Daisy, is very noble and thoughtful." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled at me. "However, I know what you are thinking. No, you should not even venture into the shop below. It is crucial that you do not leave this apartment, even for a second, before your six days are up." 

"What?" I protested. "C'mon - this apartment is tiny and gets really fuckin' hot! I'll go mad cooped up in here!" 

"Well, I suggest you find something engaging to do. I, personally, enjoy knitting when I am forced to remain indoors." Dumbledore said, smiling slightly at my indignation. "I must be getting on. Do I have your word that you will remain inside, Daisy?" 

I huffed. "Fine." 

"Thank you." Dumbledore turned on his heel, and he was gone. 

~~~ 

The next few days went by excruciatingly slow. I had nothing to do all day but watch tv on the sofa, lounge in bed reading or scrolling through my phone, or attempt to cook in the kitchen, scoffing my shitty attempts at making bread or fried mozzarella sticks. 

Of course, I slept in while Terry and the twins went down to work (Terry was staying with us while I was here); but I usually woke up around twelve, and while that was late for most people, it was early for me on the basis that I was injured and all my energy was being slowly drained out of me. 

Then, for the next five hours, I dawdled around the apartment, attempting to amuse myself or do chores such as cleaning up or doing the laundry. The twins and Terry always scolded me when they caught me doing this, and sent me back to lie down. They often took it in turns to check up on me during the work day, and always randomly, so I couldn't schedule when I was going to do chores. 

The three also took it in turns to tend to my wound. Terry tried to cheer me up as he did it, telling stupid jokes and dumb stories about the customers downstairs, and it always worked. George was overly cautious, always asking me if it was okay to touch me somewhere, if I was feeling any pain, and to tell him to stop if anything he did hurt. And Fred was gentle but weirdly silent during his turns, lightly touching my skin and turning bright red when he had to lean over me to patch me up. His eyes would often flit up to meet mine, then dart immediately down again, his fingers trembling as he redid my bandages. 

And on the topic of awkwardness, I sometimes grew incredibly bored and tried to find different ways to pass the time. One of these ways was masturbation in my bunk; I would rub one out with the door shut and myself under my blanket, so that if one of the boys decided to make a surprise visit like they usually did, I would have time to pretend I wasn't up to anything. 

But on the fifth day, I was wearing one of the twins' hoodies again, and the scent of Weasley combined with the sight of Kylie's hot muscular arms on the pictures on my dresser, made me stick my hand down my pants and sink into my personal world of pleasure. 

I wasn't even thinking about one specific person. Many flashes of different people I found attractive and visions of them fucking me went through my head as I rubbed harder and faster, and I let my head fall back onto my pillow as I bit my lip, moaning into the air... 

A noise at the door to my room made my eyes fly open. I glanced quickly over. Fred was in the doorway, holding the door half open, his face the picture of 'deer caught in the headlights.' His eyes were wide, and a faint pink tinge was spreading across his face. He looked frozen in place, as if he had been in the middle of entering the room when he had spotted me. 

"Oh Godric, Freddie, just shut the door!" I groaned, covering my face with my hands, my cheeks also now a flaming mess. 

"Right! Yeah. O-okay." Fred stuttered, shutting the door behind him a little too hard. 

"FUCK..." I sighed loudly into my hands. 

The weeks passed quite quickly after my wound finally healed. The weeks after, I visited Kylie's mansion, where she lived in an annex bigger than the street of Privet Drive off the side of her parents' main house. It was a week filled with luxury, hot tubs, luscious gardens, expensive food, hundred-year-old wine, and lots and lots of toe-curling sex. 

And after that, Harry and I stayed with Sirius and Emily. We helped them redecorate Grimmauld Place, painting it with pastel blues, yellows, and purples, getting rid of the elf-heads on the walls, bringing in soft and comfy furniture. We lined the walls with photos of our parents, Sirius, Emily, Lupin, me, and Harry. Colourful vases were brought in and filled with flowers in full bloom, and the windows were thrown open, with the thick curtains thrown out and replaced with light, breezy lace ones. Light filled each room like it had never before, and each room now felt roomy and cozy. 

Then Harry and I spent a few more days at the Dursleys', pranking our neighbours with Dudley, Piers, Hannah, Megan, and Sasha, while we recounted our experiences of the concert to each other. My friends didn't blame me for bringing them to a deadly concert; to the contrary, they were grateful that they got to experience something so cool, and asked me eagerly when the next one was. 

"Um, probably not for a while." I told them truthfully. 

Dumbledore collected me and Harry from Privet Drive not long after that. He took us to visit some fat old guy called Slughorn, and apparently mine and Harry's mere presence convinced him to come back to teach at Hogwarts. 

Then Dumbledore Apparated us again. We were standing in a country lane beside him and looking ahead to the crooked silhouette of one of my favourite buildings in the world: the Burrow. My spirits could not help but lift at the sight of it. Fred and George were in there, back to visit their parents... and so was Mrs Weasley, who could cook better than anyone I knew...

"If you don't mind, Daisy, Harry." Dumbledore said as we passed through the gate. "I'd like a few words with you before we part. In private. Perhaps in here?" 

Dumbledore pointed toward a run-down stone outhouse where the Weasleys kept their broomsticks. A little puzzled, Harry and I followed Dumbledore through the creaking door into a space a little smaller than the average cupboard. Dumbledore illuminated the tip of his wand, so that it glowed like a torch, and smiled down at us. A tiny spider was crawling up his hat. 

"I hope you will forgive me for mentioning it, Daisy, Harry, but I am pleased and a little proud at how well you seem to be coping after everything that happened at the Ministry and at the Weird Sisters concert. Permit me to say that I think your mother and father would have been proud of you."

"Thanks." Harry said. 

"I like to fight. It seems I would have to, anyway, what with them always coming after me now. Even if I go down... I'll make sure I take as many Death Eaters with me as I can, and Voldemort too if I can manage it." I said fiercely, looking straight into Dumbledore's blue eyes gleaming in the wandlight. 

"Spoken both like your mother and father's daughter and Sirius's true goddaughter!" Dumbledore said, with an approving pat on my back. "I take my hat off to you - or I would, if I were not afraid of showering you in spiders. And now, twins, on a closely related subject... I gather that you have been taking the Daily Prophet over the last two weeks?"

"Yes." Harry said. 

"Then you will have seen that there have been not so much leaks as floods concerning your adventure in the Hall of Prophecy?"

"Yes." Harry said again. "And now everyone knows that Daisy is the one - 

"No, they do not." Dumbledore interrupted. "There are only three people in the whole world who know the full contents of the prophecy made about her and Lord Voldemort, and they are all standing in this smelly, spidery broom shed. It is true, however, that many have guessed, correctly, that Voldemort sent his Death Eaters to steal a prophecy, and that the prophecy concerned you, Daisy.

"Now, I think I am correct in saying that you have not told anybody that you know what the prophecy said?"

I had immediately told Harry, but I hadn't told anyone else, and Harry swore not to tell either. 

"No." I said.

"A wise decision, on the whole." Dumbledore said. "Although I think you ought to relax it in favour of your friends, Mr's Fred and George Weasley and Mr Terry Boot, and your partner Miss Kylie Ford. Yes," He continued, when I looked startled, "I think they ought to know. You do them a disservice by not confiding something this important to them."

"I didn't want -" 

"- To worry or frighten them?" Dumbledore said, surveying me over the top of his half-moon spectacles. "Or perhaps, to confess that you yourself are worried and frightened? You need your friends, Daisy." He continued, "On a different though related subject, it is my wish that you both take private lessons with me this year."

"Private - with you?" Harry said, surprised out of his preoccupied silence.

"Yes. I think it is time that I took a greater hand in your educations."

"What will you be teaching us, sir?"

"Oh, a little of this, a little of that." Dumbledore said airily.

I waited hopefully, but Dumbledore did not elaborate, so I asked something that had been bothering me slightly.

"If we're having lessons with you, we won't have to do Occlumency lessons with Snape, will we?"

"Professor Snape, Daisy - and no, you will not."

"That's great." I said in relief. "Because they were a shitshow. Or, well -" I hesitated, aware that Dumbledore might not approve of my coarse language.  

"I think the word 'fiasco' would be a good one here." Dumbledore said, nodding.

Harry and I laughed.

"Now, two more things, Daisy, Harry, before we part. Firstly, I wish for you, Daisy, to keep your Invisibility Cloak with you at all times from this moment onward. Even within Hogwarts itself. And I want you, Harry, to keep an eye on your sister at all times as well. Just in case, you understand me?"

Harry and I nodded.

"And lastly, while you stay here, the Burrow has been given the highest security the Ministry of Magic can provide. These measures have caused a certain amount of inconvenience to Arthur and Molly - all their post, for instance, is being searched at the Ministry before being sent on. They do not mind in the slightest, for their only concern is your safety. However, it would be poor repayment if you risked your necks while staying with them."

"We understand." Harry and I chorused quickly.

"Very well, then." Dumbledore said, pushing open the broom shed door and stepping out into the yard. "I see a light in the kitchen. Let us not deprive Molly any longer of the chance to deplore how much you both need fed."