✓ | RECKLESS AND BRAVE | Draco Malfoy

80 | BOKETTO

BOKETTO
(v.) the act of gazing vacantly into the distance without a thought

IT HAD BEEN A COUPLE HOURS AFTER HARRY BURIED A GRAVE FOR DOBBY AND MOURNED FOR HIM. The sun had already begun to rise when he set off back to the house. They were all sitting in the living room, listening to Bill who was talking. Harry lingered by the threshold, not wanting to dirty the carpet with the muck on his shoes. He let his eyes flicker around them, eyebrows furrowing when he realized neither Tessa or Nikolai was there.

". . . lucky that Ginny's on holiday," Bill was saying. "If she'd been at Hogwarts, they could have taken her before we reached her. Now we know she's safe too." He glanced up and caught sight of Harry. "I've been getting them all out of the Burrow. Moved them to Muriel's. The Death Eaters know Ron's with you now, they're bound to target the family — don't apologize," he added at once before Harry could open his mouth. "It was always a matter of time, Dad's been saying so for months. We're the biggest blood-traitor family there is.

"Well — us and the Valentines," Ron piped up, "except the only known living ones are Tessa's grandparents."

"How are they protected?" Harry asked Bill.

"Fidelius Charm," Bill explained. "Dad's Secret Keeper. And we've done it on this cottage too; I'm Secret-Keeper here. None of us can go to work, but that's hardly the most important thing now. Nikolai will promptly return to Romania when he's recovered, and once Ollivander and Griphook are well enough, we'll move them to Muriel's too. There isn't much room here, but she's got plenty. Griphook's legs are on the mend, Fleur's given him Skele-Gro; we could probably move them in an hour or —"

     "No," Harry said. "I need both of Mr. Ollivander and Griphook here. I need to talk to them. It's important."

     Nobody said anything to Harry.

     "I'm going to wash," he said, looking down at his hands covered in grime and streaked with Dobby's blood that dried. "Then I'll need to see them, straightaway." He still made no move to walk away from the threshold. "Where's my sister?"

Hermione pointed at the kitchen. "She's there — she just woke up half an hour ago. She's with Nikolai, he's cleaning off the blood and dirt on her."

Harry paused, eyebrows knitting together at that. They must've sensed his discomfort of his sister being alone with a male she's never met before because Ron said, "Harry, it's okay, mate. She's the one who asked to speak with him alone."

With a jerk of his head that passed off as a nod, Harry walked away from the living room and down the corridor before entering the kitchen. He lingered by the corner when he saw the two of them, his heart plunging to his stomach as guilt overcame him on how he couldn't protect his own sister.

Tessa was sitting on a chair pulled up near the sink, her eyes gazing at nothing with a faraway look as she spoke with Nikolai who appeared to be healing. There must've been something with the sun and the ocean, because the color was returning to his pale, gaunt face.

"Your brother was a very brave man," Tessa was saying, "he tried to stay for as long as he could with us, but I couldn't let him be in even more danger. So I sent him back to Romania."

Nikolai wrung water from the towel rag before leaning over to delicately clean Tessa's face and neck where Bellatrix had sliced ever so lightly. "That's Bash for you — stubborn as hell."