Last Time:
The tough old woman was worried. Why was the real Issac bruised?
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Cherry heard the fax machine start, but he was worried about Harry/Issac, "I need to check to see what arrived, ok? Just give me a second." He said softly.
Harry, at least, had the presence of mind to mumble an answer into the pillow and move slightly so Cherry could get by. Considering everything it was good to see that Harry wasn't too stressed to lose his politeness. Of course, Cherry still didn't feel right about leaving him for too long. He quickly got up and grabbed the first set of papers and came back to the couch. The last few pages were still being spat out, but he used the ones he had to snap Harry out of his daze.
"It's information on Petunia Evans ... Did the people who pretended to be her look like her and her partner? Knowing that might help grandma." Cherry said, not really sure about that, but he wanted Harry to focus on anything that wasn't the pillow.
Suddenly Harry heard a bunch of chattering and Professor Snape's voice. The sound was coming from the snow globe. When he peeked out from behind the pillow he heard the potion master, Lucius Malfoy and saw the Voldemort guy ...
Harry and Cherry shifted their attention to the snow globe. Going by the angle they figured that Loretta was peeking in from outside a window. The faxed information was momentarily forgotten to watch the panicked Death Eaters.
"I almost had that bastard. Just when I was about to take their invisible garment they cut themselves free and fled down here." The potion professor snapped, but he seemed more worried than anything else.
Harry glared as the man named Tom came into the chaos. It was only when Tom took the potion master's hand that he realized the potion professor was bleeding.
Lucius could be seen rushing over into view of the snow globe, "Everyone is guarding the exits, one downstairs floo, stairs and we removed the floo powder for the downstairs floo. They won't be able to get anywhere without us knowing so ... Could you let someone heal your hand?" The Malfoy pleaded softly, not liking the look of the painful cut on Severus' hand and neither did the kids secretly watching them.
The simple act of Tom healing the cut made Harry think twice. Maybe it was the softness in the dark lord's eyes or the gentle kiss on the hand after the healing was done. Whatever it was, Harry started wondering about the pair.
Were they really his parents?
That's when he realized that if he wanted to know what's going on he should help in any way he could. With that in mind Harry looked at the papers in Cherry's hands.
"Do you mind if I ..." Harry trailed because his throat was sore from the screaming he did into the poor pillow earlier. Cherry immediately understood despite that and cheerfully handed the papers over. "This picture ... It doesn't look anything ... like the woman I grew up with." He croaked, trying to ignore the pain in his throat.
Yes, Harry understood his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon weren't even his relatives, but that's not all. Now he knows that they didn't bother fully taking the original Petunia's family appearance. According to this information Petunia was blonde and brown eyed unlike Lily Evans, who was red haired and green eyed. As an added odd detail, Petunia had a girlfriend named Veronica, not a husband named Vernon.
Why bother getting close to completing the illusion, but not all the way? It didn't help that he knew so little about the people involved. Harry knew nothing useful about the Potter or Evans, except what other people said and they only made those points because of his appearance at the time. Sadly, the green eyed face he knew for so long wasn't even real.
Cherry noticed that the fax machine finally stopped, but his attention was snagged by something else, "Can you draw a picture of the aunt you grew up with? ... I wonder why they kept you hidden, let alone as Harry Potter." Cherry mused out loud.
When Harry nodded, albeit weakly, Cherry went to grab a blank paper and some pencils. He was so distracted by the thought that he forgot to get the last papers the machine spat out. Now he was watching Harry sketch out a picture of the Petunia he knew. Thankfully, both boys were focused on Harry's sketching to see Loretta sneak into the cellar and find the blood remains of the grumpy attacker who was captured before.
"You're pretty good at drawing." Cherry commented before remembering the last papers waiting on the fax machine. He quickly got up and ran over to collect them, but the first thing he saw was the big red scrawled word 'RUN' that was on the page right on top. "Harry!"
At this moment Harry adorably zoned out while drawing the evil aunt. The calls from Cherry went unheard as he mulled over the name 'Issac' many times. How was it spelled? With an 'aa' or an 'ss'? As he pondered it he started liking the name and wanted to know more than anything if he truly had a family.
"Harry!" Cherry snapped, throwing in a good shake to the shoulder for good measure.
Finally, the red eyed teen came out of his thoughts, "I think I want to go by Issac." He said, not fully grasping the urgency in Cherry's voice.
Cherry smiled, "Ok. Hi, Issac! We need to run." He said and quickly shoved the last set of papers in Issac's hands.
"What-" Issac immediately shut up when he saw the single word warning written in red. "How do we get out of here? Your grandma locked us in, right?" Issac asked, now really worried that he accidentally put Cherry in danger.
"Umm ... I don't know." An embarrassed Cherry admitted. "I only helped in a couple lockdowns when I was little and normally that meant I played games with my mother and the guests until the door was opened up again. When I started training in self defense I wasn't allowed to participate until ... right now." Cherry mumbled, feeling bad about not being more helpful.
Issac smiled, trying to make Cherry feel better, "Everything happened so fast and no one is really sure what's going on. Let's try to get out first and, if we can't, we can then try to talk to your grandma when she's alone." He said softly, noticing that Loretta was currently following a Death Eater up the stairs of what might be to the second floor of the Malfoy manor.
The first thing that came to mind was breaking the door down. He ran over and took a heavy book off the shelf. Granted, Issac didn't think that a book would be enough, but they had few options. This would, at least, be a decent test before he tried something else.
"I'll try first. Could you look for any other option as I do this?" Issac asked Cherry, who quickly started searching for anything else that could force the door open.
Just as Issac swung the book at the door he felt stupid. This might've been a perfect chance to use the items on his necklace! Unfortunately, before he could change tactics the book connected with the heavy wood door. Of course, the book bounced back and clocked poor Issac on the cheek.
Cherry heard the pained groan and ran out of the kitchenette, "Issac? ... What happened?! Are you hurt?" The non magical boy exclaimed and saw Issac holding his cheek. "Let me see." Cherry demanded in a gentle tone as he tugged at Issac's arm.
After a moment the red eyed wizard moved his hands and revealed his bruised cheek. Without any hesitation Cherry dragged Issac to the kitchenette and placed a cold bag of ice on the bruise. It may have been a painful detour, but it did calm things down enough that they realized that Loretta was calling them out.
"Damn brats! What's going on?!" The annoyed voice of the old woman disguised as Issac was heard coming from the crystal snow globe.
Cherry gasped, "I'm sorry, grandma. Some information was faxed-"
Loretta snorted, "Good. Sam decided to not be lazy. What did the information say?"
"It said to run!" Both boys exclaimed remembering why they were freaking out before.
"Huh. That so?" Loretta commented thoughtfully, but it almost annoyed the boys since there wasn't any urgency in her words at all. "Sam's handwriting is on the same level as a doctor so you probably wouldn't be able to read it if it was his. Besides, he'd just tell us to hide, not to leave the safety of the rune room. It's not like he knows the full situation. This probably is those idiots trying to scare you out of hiding." The disguised old woman explained dismissively, effectively getting the boys a reason to calm down. "Cherry, there should be a little bottle of whiteout next to the fax machine. Spread it over the word."
"Umm ok." Cherry said and went to find the bottle in question.
"And you!" Loretta barked to the remaining brat.
Issac jumped, not expecting to hear himself yell at himself despite knowing the image of the person in the was really Loretta, "Yes?! Oh!" Issac gasped in horror when he saw the bruise on the cheek of the disguised old woman. "You're hurt-"
"I'm not. You are!" Loretta muttered, getting exasperated. "The hair ties reflect your looks and voice on to me. I don't feel it because you're the one who is hurt and how did that happen?"
"I tried to open the door." Issac said sheepishly as Cherry rushed back with a little bottle of whiteout.
Loretta deadpanned, "With what? Your face?"
Issac half heartedly chuckled, "A book ..." The young wizard said softly and the old woman face palmed.
"The word isn't going away!" Cherry exclaimed, catching everyone's attention.
Issac jumped a little in shock in surprise and looked over to see what Cherry was doing. Out of disbelief Cherry dipped the whiteout in the bottle and spread another layer over the word 'RUN', but nothing happened. While the two boys looked surprised, Loretta nodded in understanding.
"Someone very powerful cursed this set of information. It sent a warning to scare away people who looked into the real Petunia." Loretta mused out loud.
Issac's eyes widened, "but ... the real and fake look nothing alike ..." He said and in a dazed state he held up the picture of each Petunia including the one he drew. "Wait ... Curse information? That can be done? Does this mean your friend who looked into it is in trouble?" Issac gasped, very worried that he put Sam in danger.
"Sam can handle himself." Loretta said dismissively, but really she didn't want the boys to worry about things they can't control. She planned to check with Sam soon. "I'd be willing to bet that the people who pretended to be your relatives know you're free though."
Issac paled as fear flooded his body, "They know?"
Loretta frowned, "There were two other spies in this organization besides the two who were chasing you. That actually explains how they got the blood arrows. Your mother made them and the spies stole them before handing them to those idiots. They may be screwed now it doesn't change the fact that they had time to report that you were found before they were caught. Stands to reason that something big will happen soon."
Cherry nodded, realizing that they weren't in danger right now, "What will happen now? Who's doing all this to Issac?"
The old woman just shrugged, "I'm going to find out and get Issac's parents on the same page ... but first, I need you two to send me all that information."
"Ok." Issac said and glanced at Cherry, but the other boy didn't seem to know how to proceed either. "Ummm ... How do we do that?"
The disguised old woman sighed, "Right ... This mess came out of nowhere and there's no team. Oh well! Issac, go to the fax machine and touch your hair tie to the button above the tray where the paper comes out. Cherry, feed the papers through once I find something ..."
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Loretta looked around the bedroom for anything with blank paper. She didn't find a book or anything so she tried to go find some paper. This time she didn't even bother to sneak around. Of course, she stayed alert, but as Issac she doubted she had to worry after those spies were caught.
"Parchment paper ..." The fake Issac mumbled to herself as she walked out of the room only to freeze when she saw the large serpent right near her door.
'Parchment? There's some in the lab. Follow Aunty. Nagini!' Nagini hissed happily and began slithering away.
Loretta suddenly heard Issac's voice through the earpiece, 'That snake said there's parchment in the lab ... I talk to snakes.' Issac added sheepishly.
Loretta scoffed, "Thanks." She said, noticing that the snake seemed pleased with being thanked.
'Master will be so happy that you can talk to snakes too.' The snake hissed, but Loretta didn't understand and simply stayed quiet.
Severus, or mama bear as Loretta dubbed him, was in the lab the serpent led her to. Not only that, but he seemed to be irritated about something as he brewed some potion. Of course, she didn't think it was wise to bother the mama bear even with this disguise so she focused on quietly picking up some parchment and ink. However, she did smile when she heard Issac's voice. It was hard to hear it exactly, but the boy definitely wondered out loud if his dad was actually nice.
'You should probably go back to bed now. I'm told what's going on isn't appropriate for hatchlings ... I don't get it. No one is even mating, but I'm a snake. What would I know?' Nagini hissed sarcastically, clearly not understanding that animals and humans had different levels of modesty.
As they returned to the bedroom Issac told Loretta what the snake said and the old woman nodded. However, out of the corner of her eye she spotted a few shirtless Death Eaters downstairs.
It definitely caught her attention, but she couldn't leave with Nagini right there. After the snake went to her own room, leaving the fake Issac alone, Loretta shut the door. With a little bit of explaining the hair tie was removed allowing her to take her real appearance once again.
The old woman placed the hair tie on the pile of parchment paper and on the neck of the ink pot, "Ready? Start putting the information through." She said to the boys, who were listening in.
As the mirror hair tie projected the information onto the parchment and used the ink to basically act as a makeshift printing press. The whole process was fairly quick. Now she just had to read through everything after the ink dried.
"You boys go to sleep. I need a rest too." Loretta said as she removed her glasses and was pleased to hear the boys agree.
Instead of getting ready for bed she started planning her next move, which definitely involved figuring out what was going on downstairs ...