Kreacher did not return the following day, nor the day after that. However, two cloaked men had appeared in the square outside number twelve, and they remained there into the night, gazing
in the direction of the house that they cannot see.
"Death Eaters, for sure," Ron said, as they watched from the drawing room windows. "Reckon they know we're in here?"
"I don't think so," Hermione said, though she looked frightened "or they'd have sent Snape in after us, wouldn't they?"
"D'you reckon he's been in here and had his tongue tied by Moody's curse?" asked Ron.
"Yes," Hermione said, "otherwise he'd have been able to tell that lot how to get in, wouldn't he? But they're probably watching to see whether we turn up. They must know that Harry and Rory own the house. It'll be Ministry knowledge" The presence of the Death Eaters outside increased the ominous mood inside number twelves. They had not heard a word from anyone beyond Grimmauld Place since Mr. Weasley's Patronus, and the strain was starting to tell. Restless and irritable, Ron had developed an annoying habit of playing with the Deluminator in his pocket. This particularly infuriated Hermione, who was whiling away the wait for Kreacher by studying The Tales of Beedle the Bard and did not appreciate the way the lights kept flashing on and off.
"Will you stop it!" she cried out on the third evening of Kreacher's absence, as all light was sucked from the drawing room yet again.
"Sorry, sorry!" Ron said, 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!" Rory and Harry shared a quick look before both slipping out of the room unnoticed by either of Ron or Hermione. They headed downstairs toward the kitchen.
"How can two people argue so much" Rory said quietly as they started down the stairs.
"I know" Halfway down the flight of stairs into the hall they heard a tap on the front door, then
metallic clicks and the grinding of the chain. Rory looked at Harry, quietly getting her wand out of her pocket as he nodded and did the same. They moved into the shadows beside the decapitated elf heads, and waited. The door opened and they saw a glimpse of the lamplit
square outside, and a cloaked figure edged into the hall and closed the door behind it. The intruder took a step forward, and Moody's voice asked,
"Severus Snape?" Then the dust figure rose from the end of the hall, and rushed him, raising its dead hand.
"It was not I who killed you, Albus," said a quiet voice. The jinx broke: The dust-figure exploded again, and it was impossible to make out the newcomer through the dense grey cloud
it left behind. Rory and Harry pointed their wands into the middle of it.
"Don't move!" Harry said. He had forgotten the portrait of Mrs. Black. At the sound of
his yell, the curtains hiding her flew open and she began to scream,
"Mudbloods and filth dishonoring my house" Ron and Hermione came crashing down the stairs behind Harry and Rory, wands pointing, like his, at the unknown man now standing with
his arms raised in the hill below.
"Hold your fire, it's me, Remus!"
"Oh, thank goodness," Hermione said 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 and Rory did not.
"Show yourself!" Rory called back. 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, godfather of you my little wolf, and I taught you how to produce a Patronus, Harry, which takes the form of a stag and yours is a wolf Rory."
"Oh, all right." said Harry, lowering his wand as Rory did the same, "but we had to check, didn't we?"
"Speaking as your ex-Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, I quite agree that you had to check. Ron, Hermione, you shouldn't be quite so quick to lower your defences." Rory quickly walked to Remus as he opened his arms for her. "Hello Wolf" The others ran down the stairs toward him as well. He was wrapped in a thick black traveling cloak, he looked exhausted, but pleased to see them. "No sign of Severus then?" he asked finally releasing Rory.
"No," Harry said "What's going on? Is everyone okay?"
"Yes," Remus said "but we're all being watched. There are a couple of Death Eaters in the square outside"
"We've noticed that Moony" Rory said looking at him.
"I had to Apparate very precisely onto the top step outside the front door to be sure that they would not see me. They can't know you're in here or I'm sure they'd have more people out there;
they're staking out everywhere that's got any connection with you, Harry. Let's go downstairs, there's a lot to tell you, and I want to know what's happened after you left the Burrow." They descended into the kitchen, where Hermione pointed her wand at the gate. A fire sprang up instantly. It gave the illusion of cosiness to the stark stone walls and glistened off the long wooden table. Remus pulled a few butterbeers from beneath his traveling cloak and they sat down. "I'd have been here three days ago but I needed to shake off the Death Eater tailing me. So, you came straight here after the wedding?"
"No," Harry said, "only after we ran into a couple of Death Eaters in a cafe on Tottenham Court Road." Remus slopped most of his butterbeer down his front.
"What?" They explained what had happened; when they had finished, Remus looked aghast.
"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."
"And it doesn't seem likely they were just strolling down Tottenham Court Road at the time, does it?" Harry said.
"We wondered," Hermione said tentatively, "whether Harry could still have the Trace on him?"
"Impossible," Remus said. Ron looked smug, and Harry felt hugely relieved. "Apart from anything else, they'd know for sure Harry was here if he still had the Trace on him, wouldn't they? But I can't see how they could have tracked you to Tottenham Court Road, that's worrying, really worrying."
"Moony you remember the last time he was getting powerful" Rory started, looking at her godfather.
"I do"
"I heard he made it so he could find you if you said his name. Well not long before they found us Harry said it"
"That could very well be how he found you Wolf. I'd forgotten about that"
"But we've been saying it since" Hermione said.
"Yes but there are a lot of protective wards on this house" Remus told them.
"Tell us what happened after we left, we haven't heard a thing since Ron's dad told us the family were safe." Harry said interrupting the current conversation.
"Well, Kingsley saved us," Remus said. "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," Remus said. "There were about a dozen of them, but they didn't know you were there, Harry, you or Rory. Arthur heard a rumour that they tried to torture your whereabouts out of Scrimgeour before they killed him; if it's true, he didn't give you away." Harry looked at Rory, Ron and Hermione; their expressions reflected the mingled shock and gratitude he felt. They had never liked Scrimgeour much, but if what Remus said was true, the man's final act had been to try to protect Harry. "The Death Eaters searched the Burrow from top to bottom," Remus went on. "They found the ghoul, but didn't want to get to close and then they interrogated those of us who remained for hours. They were trying to get information on you, Harry, but of course nobody apart from the Order knew that you had been there. At the same time that they were smashing up the wedding, more Death Eaters were forcing their way into every Order connected house in the country. No deaths," he added quickly, forestalling the question, "but they were rough. They burned down
Dedalus Diggle's house, but as you know he wasn't there, and they used the Cruciatus Curse on Tonks's family. Again, trying to find out where you went after you visited them. They're all right
shaken, obviously, but otherwise okay."
"Oh my god, that's awful" Rory said looking at Remus who nodded.
"The Death Eaters got through all those protective charms?" Harry asked, remembering how effective those had been on the night he had crashed in Tonks's parents' garden.
"What you've got to realize, Harry, is that the Death Eaters have got the full might of the Ministry on their side now," Remus said. "They've got the power to perform brutal spells without fear of identification or arrest. They managed to penetrate every defensive spell we'd cast against them, and once inside, they were completely open about why they'd come."
"And are they bothering 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." Harry smoothed out the paper. A huge photograph of his own
face filled the front page. He read the headline over it:
WANTED FOR QUESTIONING ABOUT
THE DEATH OF ALBUS DUMBLEDORE
Ron and Hermione gave roars of outrage, but Harry and Rory said nothing. Harry pushed the newspaper away; he did not want to read any more. He knew what it would say. Nobody but those who had been on top of the tower when Dumbledore died knew who had really killed him and, as Rita Skeeter had already told the wizarding world, Harry had been seen running from the place moments after Dumbledore had fallen.
"I'm sorry, Harry," Remus said.
"So Death Eaters have taken over the Daily Prophet too?" asked Hermione furiously. Remus nodded. "But surely people realize what's going on?"
"The coup has been smooth and virtually silent," Remus said. "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 doesn't need to, Ron. Effectively he is the Minister, but why should he sit behind a desk at the Ministry? His puppet, Thicknesse, is taking care of everyday business, leaving Voldemort
free to extend his power beyond the ministry. Naturally many people have deduced what has happened. There has been such a dramatic change in Ministry policy in the last few days, and many are whispering that Voldemort must be behind it. However, that is not the point. They whisper. They daren't confide in each other, not knowing whom to trust; they are scared to speak out, in case their suspicions are true and their families are targeted. Yes, Voldemort is playing a very clever game. Declaring himself might have provoked open rebellion. Remaining
masked has created confusion, uncertainty, and fear."
"And this dramatic change in Ministry policy," Harry said, "involves warning the Wizarding world against me instead of Voldemort?"
"That's certainly part of it," Remus said "and it is a masterstroke. Now that Dumbledore is dead, you— the Boy Who Lived— were sure to be the symbol and rallying point for any resistance to Voldemort. But by suggesting that you had a hand in the old hero's death, Voldemort has not only set a price upon your head, but sown doubt and fear amongst many who would have defended you. Meanwhile, the Ministry has started moving against Muggleborns." Remus pointed at the Daily Prophet. "Look at page two." Hermione turned the pages with much the same expression of distaste she had worn when handling Secrets of the Darkest Art.
"'Muggle-born Register,'" she read aloud, "'The Ministry of Magic is undertaking a survey of so-called "Muggle-borns," the better to understand how they came to possess magical secrets.
'Recent research undertaken by the Department of Mysteries reveals that magic can only be passed from person to person when Wizards reproduce. Where no proven Wizarding ancestry exists, therefore, the so-called Muggle-born is likely to have obtained magical power by theft or force. 'The Ministry is determined to root out such usurpers of magical power, and to this end has issued an invitation to every so-called Muggle-born to present themselves for interview by the newly appointed Muggle-born Registration Commission.'"
"People won't let this happen," Ron said.
"It is happening, Ron" Remus said. "Muggle-borns are being rounded up as we speak."
"But how are they supposed to have 'stolen' magic?" Ron said. "It's mental, if you could steal magic there wouldn't be any Squibs, would there?"
"I know," Remus said. "Nevertheless, unless you can prove that you have at least one close Wizarding relative, you are now deemed to have obtained your magical power illegally and must suffer the punishment." Ron glanced at Hermione, then said,
"What if purebloods and half-bloods swear a Muggle-born's part of their family? I'll tell
everyone Hermione's my cousin" Hermione covered Ron's hand with hers and squeezed it.
"Thank you, Ron, but I couldn't let you"
"You won't have a choice," Ron said fiercely, gripping her hand back. "I'll teach you my family tree so you can answer questions on it." Hermione gave a shaky laugh.
"Ron, as we're on the run with Harry Potter, the most wanted person in the country, I don't think it matters. If I was going back to school it would be different. What's Voldemort planning for
Hogwarts?" she asked Remus.
"Attendance is now compulsory for every young witch and wizard," he replied. "That was announced yesterday. It's a change, because it was never obligatory before. Of course, nearly every witch and wizard in Britain has been educated at Hogwarts, but their parents had the right to teach them at home or send them abroad if they preferred. This way, Voldemort will have the whole Wizarding population under his eye from a young age. And it's also another way of weeding out Muggle-borns, because students must be given Blood Status meaning that they have proven to the ministry that they are of wizard descent before they are allowed to attend."
"It's . . . it's . . . " Harry muttered, struggling to find words that did justice to the horror of his thoughts, but Remus said quietly,
"I know."
"Has anything been mentioned about me?" Rory asked finally.
"No and nothings been said about your powers either. Our assumption is that they're hoping to keep you quiet but that you'll be caught when they catch Harry and they'll get you that way" Remus said looking at her.
"They're idiots if they think I'd ever help them" Rory said
"I know that. They also don't seem aware of you and Charlie"
"Thank god for that" Remus hesitated before he spoke again.
"I'll understand if you can't confirm this, Harry, but the Order is under the impression that Dumbledore left you a mission."
"He did," Harry replied, "and Rory, Ron and Hermione are in on it and they're coming with me."
"Can you confide in me what the mission is?" Harry looked into the prematurely lined face, framed in thick but greying hair, and wished that he could return a different answer.
"I can't, Remus, I'm sorry. If Dumbledore didn't tell you I don't think I can."
"I thought you'd say that," Remus said, looking disappointed. "But I ought still be of some use to you. You know what I am and what I can do. I could come with you to provide protection. There
would be no need to tell me exactly what you were up to." Harry hesitated. It was a very tempting offer, though how they would be able to keep their mission secret from Remus if he were with them all the time he could not imagine. Hermione, however, looked puzzled.
"But what about Tonks?" she asked.
"What about her?" Remus said.
"Well," Hermione said, frowning, "you're married: How does she feel about you going away with us?"
"Tonks will be perfectly safe." Remus said. "She'll be at her parents' house." There was something strange in his tone; it was almost cold. There was also something odd in the idea of Tonks remaining hidden at her parents house; she was, after all, a member of the Order and, as far as Harry knew, was likely to want to be in the thick of the action.
"Remus," said Hermione tentatively, "is everything all right you know between you and"
"Everything is fine, thank you," He said pointedly. Hermione turned pink. There was another pause, an awkward and embarrassed one, and then Remus said, with an air of forcing
himself to admit something unpleasant. "Tonks is going to have a baby."
"Oh, how wonderful!" squealed Hermione.
"Excellent!" Ron said enthusiastically.
"Congratulations," said Harry. Rory remained quiet just observing her godfather for a moment. Remus gave an artificial smile that was more like a grimace, then said,
"So do you accept my offer? Will four become five? I cannot believe that Dumbledore would have disapproved, he appointed me your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, after all. And I must tell you that I believe that we are facing magic many of us have never encountered or imagined." Ron and Hermione both looked at Harry.
"Just— just to be clear," he said. "You want to leave Tonks at her parents' house and come away with us?"
"She'll be perfectly safe there, they'll look after her," Remus said. He spoke with a finality bordering on indifference. "Harry, I'm sure James would have wanted me to stick with you."
"Well," Harry said slowly, "I'm not. I'm pretty sure my father would have wanted to know why you aren't sticking with your own kid, actually." Remus's face drained of colour. The temperature in the kitchen might have dropped ten degrees. Ron stared around the room as though he had been bidden to memorize it, while Hermione's eyes swivelled backward and forward from Harry to Lupin.
"You don't understand," Remus said at last.
"Explain, then," Harry said. Remus swallowed.
"I–I made a grave mistake in marrying Tonks. I did it against my better judgment and I have regretted it very much ever since."
"I see," Harry said, "so you're just going to dump her and the kid and run off with us?" Remus sprang to his feet. His chair toppled backward, and he glared at them so fiercely that Harry saw, for the first time ever, the shadow of the wolf upon his human face.
"Don't you understand what I've done to my wife and my unborn child? I should never have married her, I've made her an outcast!" Remus kicked aside the chair he had overturned. "You have only seen me amongst the Order, or under Dumbledore's protection at Hogwarts! You don't know how most of the Wizarding world sees creatures like me! When they know of my affliction, they can barely talk to me! Don't you see what I've done? Even her own family is disgusted by our marriage, when parents want their only daughter to marry a werewolf? And the child the child" Remus actually seized handfuls of his own hair; he looked quite deranged. "My kind don't usually breed! It will be like me, I am convinced of it how can I forgive myself when I knowingly risked passing on my own condition to an innocent child? And if, by some miracle, it is not like me, then it will be better off, a hundred times so, without a father of whom it must always be ashamed!" Rory looked at Remus before looking at the others.
"Can you three give us a minute" Rory says looking at Harry, Ron and Hermione. They all nodded as they leave the kitchen as Remus sits back down.
"I'm sorry Wolf I know it's wrong to think this way" Remus says looking at his goddaughter.
"Moony, I understand I really do. One of the last things me and Charlie spoke about was having kids in the future"
"And you'll be an amazing mum Aurora"
"That's the thing. I don't feel like I know how to be a mum when I never had a mum to show me and I'm terrified that I might pass on my powers as well. So I get where you're coming from Moony but you were made to be a dad and if that baby is born like you then they're going to need their dad and even if they're not they're still going to need their dad. Take it from someone who misses their dad everyday"
"Rory you will make an amazing mum. You've always been like a mum to Harry and he seems fine and if you pass on your powers then they'll have an amazing mum who will understand them and a dad that will support them with it like he does you. But I know I'm not the right person to be a dad"
"Moony, you're already a dad and an amazing one. If it wasn't for you I don't know where I'd be now. Every time I need you, you're there"
"You really see me as your dad?" He looks at her surprised.
"I do. You were there when I had my nightmares which can't have been easy to deal with and when I needed help. You understood me better than I understood myself most of the time. That's how I know you are going to be an amazing dad to that baby"
"You'll always be my first baby wolf even if you're not really mine"
"I'm glad to hear that now I think you need to go back to Tonks and talk to her"
"Thank you wolf" He hugs her with a genuine smile on his face that Rory hadn't seen in a while. "I love you sweetheart"
"I love you too Moony and I'll see you soon"
"Be careful out there please I can't lose my little wolf"
"I'll try" She hugs him again before he leaves. Harry, Ron and Hermione all walked back in.
"What did you say to him?" Hermione asked sitting back down.
"just the truth"
"And he's going back to Tonks?" Harry said looking at his sister who nodded.