The trip back to Grimmauld Place was sweltering as the June heat set upon them, and El was forcibly pulling off clothing items to stay chilled, using them to shade Alaric instead. Remus stayed low as he stressfully marched his way through tube stations to reach their nearest one to the house's location.
"Now, wands out and keep hushed." He ordered them as they walked up to the number 12. The two teenagers took out their wands, and even El had pushed some of her energy down into the palm of her hands as a precaution.
Remus shoved open the door, looking all around him to make sure they weren't being watched as the light of the darkened hallway flickered, revealing a somewhat disordered house. Some books appeared discarded on the floor, and coats and boots covered the hallway as if someone had performed the explosion spell. Harry moved in closer, marching up to where Remus was to get a better look. "It looks ransacked," He mumbled.
"A-HA!"
El stared up and examined a purple-haired young woman, with her wand in her hand, ready to pounce. She swiftly recognised the three of them, rolling her eyes at her not so clever plan. "Oh, it's just you three." She mumbled, stepping back to let them in. "Hi, Tonks." Harry chuckled.
The dining room was the cleanest and most-tidied part of the house as Tonks led them all in, pouring them each a cup of freshly made tea to help with their travel fatigue and stress-induced headaches. A black-suit Sirius welcomed them with open arms, thankful that they all had made it back in one piece. But El and Harry were itching to find out if the locket had been stolen or not.
"So, any updates?" Remus asked, putting down the last of their things. Sirius shook his head, "Not a clue. The useless thing won't say a word." He flung his finger to where Kreature was reorganising the china cabinet. El cocked her eyebrow, "I wonder why..." She mumbled, sipping her tea. Harry quietly nudged her elbow, "We should go check upstairs."
They were out of the door in an instant, climbing over fallen down paintings and miscellaneous objects that lined the floor before Sirius could ask them how they were coping. They didn't have time for chit-chat when something as big as a Horcrux may or may not be hiding away in El's bedroom.
As they got to the attic stairs, El had a sudden urge to hold Harry's hand though her's were sticky from the heat, she noticed, wiping them on her trousers. Harry began the climb to the top but stopped when El grabbed it in a rush of the moment, squeezing tight. Harry turned around hastily, thinking she had fallen over or needed support up the stairs, but when she reassuringly smiled up at him, he rubbed his thumb across the back of hers.
"You alright down there?" He asked as he forgot the whole point of coming up to her room. El adoringly smiled at him for a very slight moment, "Sorry- yes. Let's get going." She hurriedly apologised, looking up past her door, as Harry pulled her up, clenching his other hand around the rusty door handle and pushing it open to reveal what looked to be the worst room in the house. The bedsheets flung around apart from on the bed, all of her clothes that she left appeared draped over everything that wasn't her drawers, the majority of her books missing from the shelf, including her copy of Magical Creatures by Newt Scamander with all of her notes inside.
"No..." El whispered, her heart clenching tight as she looked around the room. The only thing left in perfect condition was Newt's tree! "Here you go, little buddy. It looks like your tree was thankfully too heavy for the robber to take." She carefully took Newt off her shoulder and placed him into his home before turning back to face Harry. "Who would do such a thing?" She whispered, barely knowing where to start when it came to the cleanup. As for her closet, the person had torn it to shreds. All of the mouldy aged boxes of Regulus' were on the floor in a giant damp heap. "It was in there." She pointed her finger to the darkened closet as both herself and Harry stepped forward to examine it. El's ears perked up as she tried to listen to the hissing noise she had heard the first time, but no sound came out from within. She huffed, rummaging through the now-empty boxes. "This was all of Regulus' things." She whined, still searching as Harry bent down to look with her.
But the Horcrux was indeed missing.
"Do you think it's possible that someone knew it was here?" El worriedly asked Harry, who stared down at the boxes, deep in thought as he ran a hand through his messy black hair. "There's a chance. But we need to speak to Kreature." He gently grabbed her hand, pulling her up as she stopped him with her hand on his chest. "Give me the fake one; we need to show him to scare him into telling us. He doesn't talk to you." Harry huffed, obliging with her as he rustled through his open jacket, pulling it off around his neck and handing it over.
Downstairs in the dining room, Kreature had finished tidying up the majority of the floor at Sirius' request when El and Harry burst in, scanning the room's base for the Elf. Tonks jumped from around the corner, "Wotcher! Are you two alright?" She asked as El ignored her and leapt forward to where Kreature was sulking by the cabinet with his broom. Sirius and Remus shot their heads up, examining El's hungry eyes.
"I know what you did those years ago, and I realise why you don't want to tell anyone relating to Sirius who was in here, but you have to." She half shouted, yet half-whispered to the taken aback Elf, wanting nothing more than to scream at him for being so utterly disloyal but understanding why. Sirius spoke up, "What are you on about, darling?" She ignored him as Kreature murmured something unrecognisable as he carried on sweeping. El groaned, slamming her fist onto the table, "Kreature!" She shouted, getting his attention again. "Recognise this?" She angrily spoke as El's hand rose straight up into the air, revealing the fake locket.
Kreature's eyes widened for a split second before his mouth curved into a snarl, "Why you-" He began to cuss, but Sirius' booming voice stopped him in his tracks, "KREATURE. Do as she says." El looked back to her father, appreciating his effort to go along with her plan, not knowing the full extent of it. She looked back as she watched the Elf's face go from anger to pain, a pain she had never seen from him before. "You recognise this, don't you?" She asked him as he carefully nodded his head. "It's not real. This is the one-" She began, but Kreature spoke over her in a low voice, "The one Master placed in the cave, yes. I was there." El looked back to Harry, who was watching with a pair of hungry eyes of his own, stepping forward to hear better. "-And this is why you need to be as honest as you can about who was here. If you helped to swap them, then you know that you placed it in my attic closet all those years ago." She began as Kreature nodded his head, slowly coming to terms with what El was trying to get across. "Whoever was here, they stole it. They stole the real one." She whispered again as Kreature's face stood shocked for a moment as his broom dropped to the side of his crooked body.
"Mun-" He immediately stuttered warily, "Mun- Mundungus... Fletcher." He gradually snarled out just as Harry stepped forward, looking him dead in the eye as his voice became stern, "Find him." Without a second thought, the house Elf apparated out of the dining room with an expression of murder written on his face, mixed with endless masses of guilt.
"It was Mundungus? That bloody moron!" Sirius snapped, feeling increasingly angered as that someone was in the Order. "What was all that about?" Remus asked as Tonks walked over to them, pointing her wand at the locket in El's hand, "What is that? What is the real one?" El breathed out, sitting down at the messy dining table, just as Harry joined her. She ran a hand through her hair as she looked at her father, "This is a fake Horcrux. Regulus swapped the Horcrux before he died and instructed Kreature to hide the real one here." Harry joined in, "It's been in this house for the past two decades. Sirius, your brother didn't die being a Death Eater; he died trying to destroy a part of Voldemort." Sirius' jaw clenched as he swallowed hard, his hand clasped around his mug, "What?" He snapped as Remus' hand discreetly moved under the table to touch his leg. "Regulus was coming back to you, dad. But he died in the cave. Here, look for yourself." El unclasped the locket, sliding the crumbled piece of paper over to him as his hands quickly took it, unravelling it and reading it as swiftly as he could.
The room went silent, letting Sirius digest his brother's writing; the tragic truth finally revealed. But he only did two things; he dropped the paper to the table as if it was merely a feather and rose out of his seat to step out of the room, ignoring El's attempts to get his attention. Remus' hand shushed El, "Leave him." He pulled the paper towards him just as both himself and Tonks read on before he huffed, dropping the paper back down. "All these years... a lie. A common theme that runs in this family." Remus muttered as he glanced back up to the two teenagers. "How long have you known this for?"
Harry spent the good portion of the evening telling the two adults what had occurred in the cave, how Dumbledore had died and who was behind it as they sipped on bottomless peppermint teas. It came as no surprise to Remus but to hear it was indeed murder was something hard to hear. There was still no sign of Kreature's return or Sirius for that matter as the clock struck 10 o'clock. "You two should head to bed. I'm sure Sirius will come around by tomorrow morning." Remus announced, collecting all of the empty teacups with his wand and placing them on a tray, ready to head down to the kitchen for cleaning. El nodded her head, slowly getting up and heading for the door.
By the time it was midnight, the whole house was silent as a mouse, and El couldn't help but keep an ear out for the heavy footsteps of Mundungus Fletcher, the ginger-haired man who had difficulty liking her at this year's first meeting she had sat in. What made him want to steal? Was that what he enjoyed doing? Was that the man's job? Or did he really know about the Horcrux?
Too significantly in her over-anxious head for sleep, El kicked off the covers, huffing loud as she tossed and turned, trying to find the sweet spot in the mattress. Still, after failing several times, she shot up, coming to terms with the notion that she wouldn't be sleeping. El wondered what Sirius was up to, whether or not he was asleep, or the thought of his younger brother kept him awake. Her mind wandered to Harry, craving nothing more than a hug to get through the sleepless night. She thought for a moment, scratching her head from the messy bed-head that entangled her roots. "Would he be up?" She whispered to herself.
On the other hand, Harry was up and had been downstairs making himself a hot chocolate to bring back up with him. It seemed as though the entire house was still awake when he sneakily walked past Sirius and Remus' room as a light was on underneath the door frame, yet he couldn't hear anything. Perhaps they had detected him coming up the stairs before he softly locked the door to his room and climbed back into Sirius' old bed, or maybe only one of them was awake.
He sipped on his drink as he delved into a Dark Magic book, one that Dumbledore had given to him before his passing so he could read up on any oncoming attack spells he might encounter just as a gentle knock appeared from behind the door. He placed the book down onto the bed, sipping on some more of his drink before he got up to open it.
"El?" Harry curiously whispered, stepping aside to let the messy-haired girl in the hallway into his room. She tiredly smiled, walking inside. "Sorry if I woke you." She mumbled, yawning a little too. Harry shook his head, closing the door behind him and walking to her. "I was just making myself a drink." He motioned towards his mug, "Couldn't sleep?" She shook her head, turning back around to face him. "It looks like I have been sleeping, doesn't it?" She laughed, referring to her hair. "But no, I couldn't." Harry sipped his drink, pointing to the bed, "Take a seat- I was just reading."
The two chatted away for a few added minutes until El's eyes eventually grew droopy. Still, she couldn't tell if it was due to listening to the obscure spells Harry had discovered, or she felt overly comfortable in his presence, enough to send her to sleep. Harry abruptly stopped his soft chatter when he noticed El was barely listening anymore. He chuckled slightly, moving his drink to the table beside him and leaning towards her, snapping his fingers in her face. "Wakey, wakey. I think you need to go to bed." He chuckled again as El's eyes fluttered wide open. "Gosh, you're right." She thanked him for staying up with her, even though Harry reminded her he couldn't sleep either and afterwards got up from the end of his bed to walk towards the door.
El hesitated at the handle, not wanting to leave but not wanting to bother him either whilst Harry got out his wand to swish out the light, transforming the room into complete darkness. She took it as a sign to go back to her own bed as she pushed the handle down and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her but stopped instantly when her sleepiness began to numb her anxious thoughts. El recalled what she wanted from him, the embrace she craved, a closeness that she missed. Her feet spun her around; her hand pushed down the door handle again, and she drove back into the room. Harry shot up, the duvet rustling as he whispered, "El? Is that you?"
She walked over to what she thought was the bed, lifting the duvet as her body clambered inside to the warmth, with Harry adjusting instantly. "What are you-" He half laughed, half asked as El turned on her side and snuggled her back into his front. He hesitated for a moment, his heart beating loudly out of his chest. This was new! He thought to himself, quickly flinging the duvet back down to cover them, making sure she was tucked away in the warmth before she could change her mind. He didn't think an opportunity to be this close with her was on the cards for the near future, but he sure wasn't complaining.
His large hands lightly wrapped around her torso, warming her up and leading her in with a gentle force so that they were spooning comfortably. His other arm slid under the pillow to the cold side, with his head cuddled into her neck, breathing in her leftover perfume. He smiled just as she did, the two of them silently remembering what it felt like to be loved by someone.
Without another word, they snuggled into each other, with Harry's protective arms wrapping around her small torso and El's hands resting on his well-muscled forearms. She smiled to herself again as a feeling crept into her heart, the same sort of feeling that appeared whenever she returned to Grimmauld Place from being at Hogwarts for a long time; Harry felt like home.