I thought that Kreacher would be back in a few hours, considering he escaped a lake of the dead—but it'd been almost three days, and there was no sign of the elf.
It didn't help with morale when two cloaked men appeared in the square outside, remaning there until the night, gazing at a house they couldn't see.
"It's Cameron and somebody else." I said, twitching the curtain aside to make sure they hadn't noticed anything, made that I wasn't able to kill him. "Oh, and Cameron's eating an orange as if it's somebody's flesh."
"Can't we just kill him through the window," Ron said, looking out of the window as well, where Cameron was staring at the empty space with a murderous look in his eye, bandages covering his leg and face from where I'd hit him with sectumsempra on two separate occasions. "Do Cole and his sisters a favour."
"Sadly, I think that would be giving ourselves away." Hermione sighed, trying to transfigure a piece of mouldy bread into a non-mouldy piece. I suggested I go out as Lena to get food, but we thought that would be too suspicious with Cameron and other death eaters lurking around.
"I don't think they know how to get in," Harry said, joining us at the window. "Otherwise they would have sent Snape in."
"They probably know we own the house," I said to Harry, nudging his arm. "They're waiting for us to arrive, the morons."
However funny it was that they didn't know we were inside, it added an ominious mood to the house. We hadn't heard anything from anybody since the first night, and everybody was slowly getting anxious from the lack of news.
I kept scratching at my scars from Umbridge and the prophecy scars, which was getting on Harry's last nerve; he kept slapping my hands when I did it. Of course, Ron was getting on Hermione's nerves by lighting and re-lighting the deluminator when she was trying to study Beedle the Bard.
"Will you stop it!" she cried on the third evening of Kreacher's absence, as all the light was sucked from the drawing room yet again.
"Sorry, sorry!" said Ron, clicking the Deluminator and restoring the lights. "I don't know I'm doing it!"
"Well, can't you find something useful to occupy yourself?"
"What, like reading kids' stories?"
"Dumbledore left me this book, Ron—"
"and he left me the Deluminator, maybe I'm supposed to use it!"
"Ugh, shall we see if Kreacher is back?" I muttered to Harry, who nodded, seeing that another domestic was brewing between Ron and Harry.
We slipped out of the room unnoticed and went to the kitchen to see if Kreacher had miraculousy appeared with a full Sunday roast and Mundungus. Sadly he hadn't. Sighing in defeat, we left the kitchen, but halfway up the stairs the door chain grinded open.
Harry placed a finger on his lip and nodded at me to follow him. Straightening out my posture, I took to a defensive stance, wand pointed. We moved into the shadows behind the kitchen door, waiting.
A cloaked figure edged into the hall and closed the door behind them. They stepped forward, and Moody's voice spoke, the dust figure rushing at the figure, who didn't flinch.
"It was not I who killed you, Albus," said a quiet and oddly familiar voice.
The jinx broke: The dust-figure exploded again. Harry leapt out from our hiding spot, pointing his wand at the intruder, "Don't move!" he shouted. I leapt from the shadows as reinforcement, ready to aim to kill.
As Mrs Black's portrait began to scream, noise was heard from above as Ron and Hermione came thundering down the stairs, wands pointed at the figure.
"Hold your fire, it's me, Remus!"
"Oh, thank goodness," said Hermione weakly, pointing her wand at Mrs. Black instead; with a bang, the curtains swished shut again and silence fell. Ron too lowered his wand, but Harry did not, I left my wand in my hand, slightly pointing at the apparent Remus.
"Show yourself!" Harry called.
Remus moved forward into the lamplight, hands still held high in a gesture of surrender.
"I am Remus John Lupin, werewolf, sometimes known as Moony, one of the four creators of the Marauder's Map, married to Nymphadora, usually known as Tonks, father to Genesis Lupin and I taught you both how to produce a Patronus, which match, being a stag and a doe."
Sighing in relief, I lowered my wand, tucking it into my pocket. "Right," Harry said. "We had to check though, didn't we?"
"Speaking as your ex-Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, I quite agree that you had to check. Ron, Hermione, you shouldn't be so quick to lower your defences."
Approaching Remus, he looked exhausted, but not hurt. "No sign of Severus?"
"No, but somebody was here before us." I explained. "What's happening? Is everyone okay?"
"Yes," Remus said, and I sighed in relief. "Everybody is being watched."
"What about Gennie and Cole? Are they okay?" I asked, the question that had been haunting me for the last few days.
Remus nodded, and the pressure lifted off my heart. "Thankfully, I saw them apparate out of the tent. I highly suspect they're the house left to them—Gennie made me and Tonks become secret keepers the morning of the wedding."
Realising he didn't know of Gennie and Cole's plans to finish Sam's list, I didn't reply, just nodding. They were safe as far as we knew, that's all that mattered.
"I'm very lucky I got here," Remus said. "The death eaters outside almost spotted me. The death eaters are out for anybody with connections to the both of you. Now, let's go downstairs. There's a lot to talk about."
We went back down into the kitchen, where Hermione lit the fire with her wand. The kitchen looked warmer now, more homely, like it did two summers ago. Remus pulled butterbeers from his robes, and we all sat down.
"I'd have been here three days ago but I needed to shake off the Death Eater tailing me," said Lupin. "So, you came straight here after the wedding?"
"No," said Harry, "only after we ran into a couple of Death Eaters in a cafe on Tottenham Court Road."
"What?"
We explained what happened (leaving out the argument me and Harry had) and when we finished, Remus looked appalled.
"But how did they find you so quickly? It's impossible to track anyone who Apparates, unless you grab hold of them as they disappear."
"Well it wasn't a coincidence, let me tell you." I shuddered at the memory, swigging a gulp of butterbeer.
"Tell us what happened after we left, we haven't heard a thing since Ron's dad told us the family was safe." Harry said.
"Well, Kingsley saved us," said Remus. "Thanks to his warning most of the wedding guests were able to Disapparate before they arrived."
"Were they Death Eaters or Ministry people?" interjected Hermione.
"A mixture; but to all intents and purposes they're the same thing now," said Remus. "Apparently they tortured Scrimgeour for where you both were before they killed him, but he didn't give you up."
"Nice of him," I said quietly. I hadn't liked the man very much, but the fact he protected us before death was incredible.
"The Death eaters searched the Burrow from top to bottom." Remus continued. "They interrogated everyone left, and they tried to break Hollie, as they saw she was young, but she just said 'Rory is my sister, I'm not saying anything' and wouldn't speak again until they left."
"That's my girl," I smiled, a hole in my heart forming from where I missed Hollie. A thought came to mind, "They didn't hurt her, did they?"
Remus paused. "One of them did slap her and throw her to the ground—but another death eater stepped in and stopped them before they tortured her. Why, I'm not sure."
"Who was the death eater?" I asked, a person coming to mind.
"They were masked, I don't know." Remus shrugged.
A gut instinct told me it was Draco who had protected Hollie, like he had when he got her out from her kidnap.
"And are they bothering to give an excuse for torturing Harry's whereabouts out of people?" asked Hermione, an edge to her voice.
"Well," Remus said. He hesitated, then pulled out a folded copy of the Daily Prophet.
"Here," he said, pushing it across the table to Harry, "you'll know sooner or later anyway. That's their pretext for going after you."
Leaning over Harry's shoulder, I saw that large photographs of our faces were side by side on the front page.
WANTED FOR QUESTIONING ABOUT THE DEATH OF ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
Ron and Hermione started shouting about how disgusting it was, Harry said nothing, and I felt sick. We were the only ones—apart from Draco—to know what happened that night, and yet they were painting us as killers.
"They've taken over the Prophet... Should have seen that coming," I said, my voice far away. "Next thing, they'll have Rita Skeeter doing interviews and books about how awful and dangerous we are. There's nothing more dangerous and motivating than fear."
"The official version of Scrimgeour's murder is that he resigned; he has been replaced by Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse."
"Why didn't Voldemort declare himself Minister of Magic?" asked Ron.
Remus laughed. "He effectively is, but doesn't need to sit behind a desk. Thicknesse is his puppet, taking care of the business Voldemort needs done. Now he can extend power beyond the Ministry without being tied down."
"Well, we were symbols for rebellion, right?" I said. "Well now they've linked us to Dumbledore's deaths, people who supported us are going to be doubting us, and be afraid...."
Remus nodded. "Meanwhile, the Ministry has started moving against Muggle-borns. Look at page two."
Hermione turned the pages with disgust. "The Muggle-born register!" she read aloud. "The Ministry are undertaking a survey to understand how they possess magical power. It is believed that they then have stolen magic by force, with no magical ancestors to speak of.... So now, all Muggle-borns must present themselves for interview."
"People won't let this happen," said Ron.
"It is happening, Ron," said Remus. "Muggle-borns are being rounded up as we speak."
Looking at the article, there was a long list of muggle-borns that hadn't gone forward yet. Hermione's name was on there, and so were Colin and his brother. I thought of how happy Alia was with him when I saw her last and hoped he was hidden away.
"You can't steal magic, otherwise there'd be no squibs." Ron said angrily.
I nodded, "Yeah, Lacey tried hard enough to try and get herself magic but she couldn't do it. It's impossible!"
"In any case, you have to prove you have one wizarding relative, otherwise you've obtained magic illegally and must face punishment."
Ron glanced at Hermione, then said, "What if purebloods and halfbloods swear a Muggle-born's part of their family? I'll tell everyone Hermione's my cousin—"
"You couldn't get married then," I teased, but nobody seemed to find it funny.
Hermione squeezed Ron's hand, "Thank you, Ron, but I couldn't let you—"
"You won't have a choice," said Ron fiercely, gripping her hand back. "I'll teach you my family tree so you can answer questions on it."
Hermione gave a shaky laugh. "I don't think it matters considering we're on the run. It'd be different if we were going back to school. What is planned for Hogwarts?"
I looked up—Hollie was starting next month.
"Attendance is now compulsory for every young witch and wizard," he replied. "It never used to be. You could send your child abroad or teach them at home. Voldemort can have the young ones under his eye, then. And Muggle-borns can't attend now."
I felt sick and angry. Hollie had been so excited to go for Hogwarts, since she was seven years old, and now the school was under a dictatorship and going to be full of propaganda and fear. They'd be so excited, but they might not even see Hogwarts, or their family again.....
Harry felt sickened and angry: At this moment, excited eleven-year-olds would be poring over stacks of newly purchased spell-books, unaware that they would never see Hogwarts, perhaps never see their families again either.
"Harry, Rory," Remus hesitated. "The Order is under the impression Dumbledore left you a mission to do."
"He did." Harry said. "Ron and Hermione are coming with us."
I glowed, considering Harry was finally accepting I was in this with him.
"Can you confide in me what the mission is?"
Harry and I exchanged a look. I spoke. "We can't unless Dumbledore told you."
"I knew you'd see that, but I can be of use. You know what I can do, being who I am. I can provide protection. You wouldn't need to tell me anything."
I narrowed my eyes at my Godfather. "What about Gennie—I mean, I know she's with Cole, but she'll come home to you and wonder where you've gone. And Tonks, I mean, she's your wife."
"What about them?" Remus said in an odd voice. "Gennie is an adult now, and so am I, we make our own decisions."
"Well Tonks is your wife, what does she think about this?" Hermione said, puzzled.
"Tonks will be perfectly safe," said Lupin, "She'll be at her parents' house."
He sounded almost cold speaking of his wife, and I felt uncomfortable. "Remus," I said quietly. "Is everything okay—"
"Everything is fine, thank you," said Remus sharply. Then he sighed, swallowing as if about to say something unpleasant. "Tonks is going to have a baby."
"How wonderful!" Hermione squealed.
"Excellent!" Ron added.
"Congratulations," Harry said.
"That's great, I know Gennie's always wanted a baby brother or sister to coo over," I grinned, thinking about how excited Gennie would be.
Remus gave an extremely fake smile. "So, do you accept my offer? Will four become five? Dumbledore wouldn't have disapproved. We will be facing incredibly dangerous magic."
Feeling my heart in my stomach, I felt uncomfortable at his tone. "So you want to leave Tonks at her parents' house, and come with us?
"She'll be perfectly safe there, they'll look after her," said Remus. He spoke with finality. "Rory, I'm sure James would have wanted me to stick with you."
"Well, I'm pretty sure our father would have wanted to know why you aren't sticking with your own kid." Harry said slowly.
The temperature in the room dropped, a tense silence passing over the five of us.
"You don't understand," said Remus
"Explain." I snapped.
"I—I made a grave mistake in marrying Tonks. I'd already made the mistake all those years ago with M—Marlene, and I've regretted it ever since."
"You're dumping your kid—Gennie's younger sibling—to run off and have adventures with us?" I said, my voice rising.
Remus leapt to his feet.
"Don't you understand what I've done to my wife and my unborn child? They'll be outcasts—after Gennie, I promised, I promised I wouldn't put a child through that!"
"Gennie is fine," Harry said coldly. "Sure, she likes raw meat, but she's fine."
"Are you saying you wished you'd never had Gennie to begin with?" I said my voice dangerously calm.
Remus was silent, before saying, "I love my daughter. But yes, she was a mistake."
I felt disgusted. I'd always seen how close Remus and Gennie were, but now, he was saying he never wanted her?
"There—there was a point, after Marlene died, I considered giving her up." Remus said. "But it was your father who told me to keep her, and I'm glad I did—she doesn't have my condition."
"Yeah, well are you going to love your child any less if they were a werewolf?" I bust out. "If you aren't prepared for the person your child could become, you shouldn't be a father!"
Remus kicked his chair aside. "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" he shouted. "You have only seen me in the Order, or at Hogwarts! The rest of the wizarding world, they see me as a monster! When they learn of my affliction, they barely talk to me! Gennie said it happened when she visited me at one of my early jobs in the Ministry, and it will happen to my other child!"
Remus' voice cracked. "Tonks' family is disgusted by our marriage, what parents what their daughter to marry a werewolf. And the child, the child—"
Remus seized his hair. "My kind doesn't usually breed! It will be like me this time, I'm certain! How can I forgive myself for bringing another child into the world? I was lucky with Gennie, but I promised to never have another child, because no innocent child should have that condition! And if they are like Gennie, they will be better off without me!"
"Remus!" whispered Hermione, tears in her eyes. "Don't say that—how could any child be ashamed of you?"
"Oh, I don't know, Hermione," said Harry. "I'd be pretty ashamed of him. Gennie's probably ashamed."
He got to his feet, and the two of us stood side by side. Remus looked as if Harry had hit him.
"Our father died protecting us, and you reckon he'd tell you to abandon your own kid for an adventure?" Harry said coldly.
"How—how dare you?" said Remus. "This is not about a desire for— for danger or personal glory—how dare you suggest such a— "
"You fancy stepping into Sirius's shoes, that's what it is." I said, wanting to hit Remus where it hurt.
"Rory, no!" Hermione shouted.
"The man who taught us how to fight dementors, a coward." Harry said.
"Pathetic." I spat.
Remus drew his wand so fast that Harry had hardly reached for his own, and Harry went soaring into the kitchen wall and slid to the floor. Remus gave me a disgused look, before he sped out of the kitchen, the front door slamming moments later.
"How could you both?" Hermione wailed, as I helped Harry off the floor.
"Easy," Harry said, grunting as I helped him stand. He was shaking from anger, a lump on his head. "Don't look at me like that!" he snapped at Hermione.
"Don't you start on her!" snarled Ron.
"Don't start fighting, Harry and me know that's no good!" I shouted.
"You shouldn't have said that stuff to Remus about Gennie." Ron said to us.
Images came to mind. My mother's scream, the thought of Marlene McKinnon sacrificing herself for Gennie, Jenna falling through the ceiling with Mark in the fire; Mark himself being struck down by Hollie for all of the hurt he'd done.
"Parents shouldn't leave unless they have to." I spat. "If they can't deal with the commitment, they shouldn't have sex."
"I shouldn't have called him a coward." Harry said at last. "But he's acting like one."
"If he goes back to Tonks, him hating us will be worth it." I said softly.
After managing to find a tin of tomato soup and four slices of bread with only two tiny dot of mould on, I made us all soup, which heightened spirits as we read through the Daily Prophet.
I'd just stacked the now empty bowls in the sink when a defeaning crack was heard, and in shock I dropped a bowl, which shattered on impact. Struggling limbs appeared out of thin air, and Kreacher was in the kitchen.
He saw me first, and bowed low. "Kreacher has brought Mundgus Fletcher, Mistress."
Mundungus scrambled up and pulled out his wand; Hermione, however, was too quick for him. "Expelliarmus!"
Mundungus's wand soared into the air, and Hermione caught it. Wild-eyed, Mundungus dived for the stairs. Ron rugby-tackled him and Mundungus hit the stone floor with a muffled crunch.
"What?" he bellowed, writhing in his attempts to free himself from Ron's grip. "Wha've I done? Setting a bleedin' 'house-elf on me, what are you playing at?"
"You're not in much of a position to make threats," said Harry. He pointed his wand at Mundungus' nose, and he looked terrified.
Ignoring the mess I'd made, I followed Kreacher over to the others. "Kreacher apologises for the delay, Mistress." He croaked. "He knows how to avoid capture, but Kreacher cornered him in the end."
"You've done really well, Kreacher," said Harry, and the elf bowed low. "Right, we've got a few questions for you," Harry told Mundungus, who shouted at once.
"I panicked, okay? I never wanted to come along, no offense, mate, but I never volunteered to die for you—
"For your information, none of the rest of us Disapparated," said Hermione.
"Well, you're a bunch of bleedin' 'eroes then, aren't you, but I never pretended I was up for killing meself—"
"We're not interested in that." I said shortly, sitting on the table, and watching the pitiful and stinking man.
"Well then, why the 'ell am I being 'unted down by 'ouse-elves? "
"Shut up and listen," I snapped. "When you emptied the house of valuble things—"
"Sirius never cared about any of the junk—"
With a rush of air and shining copper, Kreacher flew at Mundungus, hitting him over the head with a saucepan as the small man screamed.
"Kreacher, no!" shouted Harry.
Kreacher's thin arms trembled with the weight of the pan, still held aloft. "Perhaps just one more, Master Harry, for luck?"
Ron laughed.
"We need him conscious, sadly, Kreacher." I told the elf, trying to stifle a laugh. "But if he needs persuading, you may have the honour."
"Thank you, Mistress." Kreacher said, bowing low.
"You took a large ornate locket," I started up again. "Where is it?"
"Why?" asked Mundungus. "Is it valuable?"
"You've still got it!" cried Hermione.
"No, he hasn't," said Ron shrewdly. "He's wondering whether he should have asked more money for it."
"More?" said Mundungus. "That wouldn't have been effing difficult...bleedin' gave it away. No choice."
"What do you mean?" We said together.
"She comes up to me in Diagon Alley, asking if I've got a license. She was gonna fine me, but took a fancy to the locket and let me off."
"Who was she?" Harry asked.
"I dunno, some Ministry hag." Mundungus frowned in concentration. "Little woman, bow on her head." He paused. "She looked like a toad."
My heart jumped into my throat, and the scars on my hand I will not disrespect authority figures suddenly tingling. The only thing that came to mind was, "The Umbitch has reared its ugly head."
——————————-
A/N This took a while, but I wrote it at a comfortable pace I might take from now on. Now, I've got something serious to say.
If any of you follow me, then you'll know that at the weekend and the start of the week, myself and a number of other fellow writers (some HP fic writers) were targeted by a troll account posting spoilers and sending hate through private message to me and on message boards. Thankfully the account was taken down, but as this is my first experience with a troll, I have advice to you:
If a troll account or if anybody on this site is rude or threatening to you, don't hesitate to mute and report them. Same for twitter, tumblr etc. because then the problem will go away. But, myself and the others who reported the person (one of them was EliseMalfoy I remember) have solved the problem, proof that blocking does work! Just stay strong and keep your head high because you are the better person!
On a positive note, the next two chapters take place in the Ministry, and things get MEGA EXCITING and don't worry, very soon we will be seeing Draco, Hollie and Cole again :)
I won't be on this weekend at all because: I'M GOING TO SEE ONE DIRECTION ON SATURDAY AND 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER ON SUNDAY (8 ROWS FROM THE FRONT FOR 5SOS!!!) WHICH IS AMAZING BECAUSE THEY BOTH HAVEN'T BEEN TO WALES SINCE 2013 AND ITS MY FIRST CONCERTS WITH THEM OMG
I'm a bit excited.
Anyway, Obliviate is edited up to chapter 16, so I'm going to be posting the edited chapters soon, which I advise you check out. I've changed things slightly in the chapters and the quality is much better!! Keep your eyes peeled for that (I'll post a thing on here when the edited stuff is up)