In honor of the release of GOF on DVD, here's 36 a couple of days early...Thanks as usual to Lady Starlight for her work on this chapter.
Chapter 36: Rattlesnape for Dinner
******************************Somewhere near Manchester******************
January 23, 1998 (Friday morning)
1:10 am
Draco Malfoy slipped out of an old, decrepit brick house. He glanced to either side down the long, dirty Muggle street. He jumped at a sudden noise, his new wand looking for a target. He frowned slightly as a filthy, scraggly white cat came from behind a set of overflowing trashcans. Draco shook his head as he bent over and picked up a loose brick from the street. He touched the wand to the brick, "Mutatio."
A yellow flash of light lit the alley. As the light faded, a brick red, rather blocky looking Owl remained. Draco pulled a small parchment from his pocket, attached it to its leg, and watched as it flew away. Moments later, he walked back to the house in a daze, the last ten minutes a total blank.
*********************Hogwarts********************
2:00 am
"Harry..." Hermione's voice snapped him from a dream, which coincidentally enough, was about her, without a trace of nightmare for once. She frowned as she did so and looked down at the odd owl that had come in through the owl door to the Head's Chambers. She climbed out of bed and searched around on the floor until she found a long T-shirt and slipped it on. How we are ever going to make our kids clean their rooms... Hermione shook her head at her tired musings, stood up and pulled the note from the owl's leg. She jumped a bit as it reverted to its brick form and fell to the floor with a thud.
Mione... Harry whined as he rolled over and squinted at her. He felt around for his glasses behind him and slipped them on. He sat up suddenly, the sheet pooling in his lap. She raised a hand, and glanced over the note. He watched, concerned, as a dark, hard expression fell over her face.
We seem to have a mission, Hermione handed him the note as she peeled the T-shirt back off and crossed to their closet. A set of combat blacks flew out at him even before he finished reading, and he wasn't a slow reader. He glanced up to catch a flash of his wife's skin as she pulled her dark top on and pulled her hair out from the collar. She caught his eye and a brief smile flitted across hers before he pushed out of bed and started pulling on his clothes.
Dressed to kill, literally, Harry threw out a hand and a small, flat folding mirror shot across the room from a large pile of parchments, books, quills and assorted other detritus piled on top of their desk to his hand. "Neville, Remus, Ron, Luna," Harry said distinctly as he flipped the mirror open. Almost instantly Neville's mostly asleep face appeared in the mirror. The dim image behind him, showed the closed hangings around his bed. Neville evidentially found his wand, as a ball of pure white light appeared a second later.
After another minute the image split to show Remus, yawning and in great need of a shave. Harry held up a hand to hold off any questions. He waited for a couple of minutes and sighed. "Neville, are Ron and or Luna in his bed?" Behind Harry, Hermione sniggered softly.
Neville vanished for a minute and came back, already shaking his head, "Na, Harry. It wasn't slept in."
Harry muttered something uncomplimentary in Goblin and turned back to the mirror to see Tonks now peering over Remus' shoulder, "Fine, Hermione and I will find him. Neville grab his gear and try not to wake everyone." He nodded. "Remus, Tonks...meet us in your office in fifteen...we have a debt to call in tonight."
Hermione leaned over and dug around in Harry's pack. Finding her quarry, she pulled out an old, torn and stained piece of folded parchment. She unfolded it and placed it on their bed, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." She watched, always fascinated, as text filled in on the map:
Messrs. Moony, Padfoot and Prongs welcome Bookworm. Mister Prongs further requests that any progeny of Bookworm and Prongs Jr. not be named James or Lily, at least for their first names, as that would be just weird. Have fun, Hermione, and don't tire him out too much...
Hermione laughed as the words faded away and lines started filling in, demarking the classrooms, corridors and quarters of the school. A few marked dots were moving around the castle; Mrs. Norris was prowling on the fifth floor, with Crookshanks down on the third. A fifth year Hufflepuff, Michael Babcock and a forth year Ravenclaw, Annette Pierce were walking together down from the Astronomy tower, "We just swept that bloody tower," Hermione muttered as she continued to look for Ron or Luna.
Finally she found them together, on the seventh floor, a tower or so over, in an oddly shifting room on the map marked, "Requirement."
*********************Room of Requirement, Hogwarts***********************
Luna's eyes held a soft, sated glow as she stretched and rose on all fours. She licked her lips as she crawled over to Ron, her eyes never leaving his. He gulped slightly as she hung over him, and bent down to kiss him thoroughly. Tonight the room had decided that the environment should be something closer to a scene from 1001 Arabian Nights than anything. Diaphanous fabrics hung from the ceiling, piles of cushions were scattered about the room, and a platter of fruit was sitting next a pile of cushions. Soft, glowing orbs provided the illumination, what there was of it. She pressed herself against him, and rubbed slightly with a soft, purring like sound.
"Bloody hell, woman," Ron muttered softly, almost pleadingly, "We've already done this twice..."
"Third time's a charm, Ronnie," Luna grunted as she continued to rub up against him. She glanced down and ran a pink tongue over her lips, "and besides...it seems that you are up for it."
"Yeah, I guess I am," he agreed ruefully as he pulled her down for a kiss.
Outside in the hall, Harry beat on the door again, he glanced back to Hermione, "We don't have time...aw, screw it." His wand flicked and the door unlocked. "A Colloportus, Ron...I'm ashamed." He shook his head as he held the door open for Hermione and they entered the room slowly.
"This is different," Hermione mused as she pushed aside a silk hanging. "Ron, Luna," she called, no one answered. She frowned as she came around a stack of cushions almost as high as she was and pushed aside another hanging. "OH..." she exclaimed and jumped back slightly, hitting Harry.
Luna looked up from what she was doing and sat up with her hands on Ron's chest. "We seem to have visitors honey," she said softly as she pulled sweat-darkened hair out of her face and behind her ears with both hands. She seemed to not notice the fact that she was more than a little naked in front of the Head Students. She reached over and plucked a grape from a platter and ate it.
"Bloody Hell, do we walk in on you two?" Ron moaned as he looked up and back. He reached back and handed Luna her shirt.
Harry and Hermione looked at each other for a bare second, then as one voice, "YES."
"Consider us even," Harry commented, "get dressed; we're going on a trip." He glanced at his watch, "Meet us in Lupin's office in ten minutes." He laughed slightly as he led Hermione back out of the room and into the hall. Seconds later they were running for Lupin's. That was an interesting, moment.
It does give whole new meaning to things I would rather not know, Hermione agreed as they reached the hallway outside of DADA and stopped. She glanced down the hall, and wrapped her arms around his neck. They leaned forward until their heads touched lightly. Are you ready for this?
Harry shook his head, No. Are you? She shook her head, as her teeth ran over her bottom lip. She reached back and checked her daggers, then the thigh pack on her leg looking over her cloak, a pair of shrunken Fanged Frisbees, a couple of Instant Darkness pellets, her communication mirror, an Argentium grenade and her a pair of the new flash bangs that had yet to given names. The twins were already starting an Auror supply branch, or at least the last quarterly statement had said so. She looked back up at Harry, and nodded. Nothing else was needed as they entered Lupin's office. Tonks, Neville and Lupin were already waiting. Tonks handed them a cup of coffee each as they walked in and perched on Remus' crowded desk.
"What are we waiting for, Harry?" Tonks asked softly as if she were afraid to wake up the castle. She
scrunched up her nose, and her hair darkened from the roots out from the bubble-gum pink that she preferred to her
natural black, or at least as natural as any hair color was on her.
"Them," Harry replied, with barely a smirk as Ron and Luna came into the room. Ron's hair was still mysteriously mussed, though Luna looked rather serene. She leaned back against Ron as they took up a post next to the door. "Alright, now that we are all here..." Ron mocked laughter. Harry glanced at Hermione; she nodded. "We have Snape's location." Harry looked at each of them in turn. Neville was the odd one out, in many ways, but he looked calm, almost serene as he waited for Harry's orders. Since the start of school, he had become the near perfect subordinate, or sergeant.
Ron and Hermione, well they had been with him for almost everything since they were eleven, there wasn't even a thought that they wouldn't be there until the end, not any longer. Lupin was more than ready to perform a task that he had almost done by accident more than twenty years before, and that Snape had blamed them for ever since. With Harry's words, Tonks had slipped back into the experienced Auror that she was under the youthful exterior and behaviors she often showed. And that was what she was when she asked her next question, "You know this could be a trap, Harry?"
"I know, but we have to try," Harry let out a deep breath through his nose and ran his hand through his hair, "Anyone who doesn't want to go..."
"Oh, we're all in," Lupin replied instantly, glancing at Tonks. She nodded forcefully.
"I'm not going blind into anything again if I can help it, Moony," Harry replied softly as he looked over at Hermione. "I have too much to live for. Snivellus is dying tonight if anyone is. Let's go, we can scout the area when we get there."
*****************************Spinner's End*******************************
2:55 am
Several cloaked figures slipped through the dark night, easing amongst the run-down Muggle dwellings as if perfectly at home. They paused and the leader, a dark-haired young man, held up a hand to stop them. Harry pointed at himself and Hermione next to him, then forward towards a dilapidated old home on the banks of the river, and waved his hands in front of him as if he were a Muggle Magician vanishing a rabbit. He pointed at Luna and Ron, then to the right and then at Tonks and Remus, signaling to the left. At Neville, he just held his palm out flat and lowered it straight down. Harry held up ten fingers and then pointed again at Neville. All of them nodded, and padded out into the night.
Harry and Hermione vanished instantly under the cover of their cloaks and crept up towards the garden gate. They paused and the very tip of an ivy-wood wand appeared and a faint mist, floated out over the yard the gate was guarding. The mist slowly settled to the ground, revealing dim purple beams crisscrossing the yard. A flick of a holly wand at the gate, caused the lock to glow a low purple as well, and Harry flicked his eyes heavenward.
Silent as ghosts, the pair rolled over the top of the waist-high brick wall and carefully picked their way towards the house, avoiding the purple beams. They reached the house and crouched in the lee of the wall, Hermione tapped her wand on the ground Enimatius Revealo, but instead of the red and blue dots showing the locations of personnel, foes and friends, only the blue dots of her and the rest of the Order members crowding around the house showed. In the middle of the seven blue dots, a static, wavering pattern hovered, then oddly, a eighth dot appeared outside of the house. Even more oddly, this dot was a deep, throbbing purple. Harry, we have company, Hermione hissed.
Harry nodded, and with a soft grateful sigh at his foresight in casting a permanent silencing charm on his cloak, he whipped open his mirror and muttered, "Neville, there's someone coming up on you." In the image, Neville just nodded, not speaking. A heartbeat later, Remus' face spilt the miniscule screen.
"I've got him, Harry," he murmured and vanished as he snapped his mirror closed. Hermione and Harry, who had gotten close enough to her to pull their cloaks together, watched the tiny blue dot of Remus approach the purple one of the interloper. Their knuckled whitened on the grips of their wands, waiting. A soft, almost unnoticeable scuffle later, Remus' voice once again whispered from the mirrors, "Harry...you should probably see this."
Harry and Hermione's eyes met without a word, and she nodded, I'll stay here, you go. Harry frowned, shrugged and vanished from her sight as their cloaks pulled apart and fluttered down over them. Her eyes nonetheless tracked him unerringly as his invisible form, slipped back out through the wards guarding the house and out to where Remus crouched in the darkness in a clump of scraggly, leafless trees, over a small, slumped form.
Harry glanced at Remus as he arrived in the dark copse of trees. The lycan did not speak, just bent down and pulled back the hood of a black traveling cloak from the head of a petite female form. FUCK...Harry snarled silently.
One hundred meters away, Hermione closed her eyes for an instant and repeated his sentiment, Oh bloody hell... she took a silent, deep breath and glanced around her surroundings, checking to see if they had been compromised. They had not, so she let her thoughts piggyback on Harry's, watching as he watched the small, red-haired form start to rouse.
"Damnit," Harry whispered heatedly, "why the hell is she here..." he looked at Remus, who of course had absolutely no idea. He ran his gloved hand through his hair roughly before shaking his head, pulling out his mirror and whispering urgently in it. Mione, get ready... he felt her nod, and her sudden nervousness. Harry pulled his wand, Enervate, Silencio, two silent spells snapped out in rapid succession, both carefully regulated so as to have the minimum signature possible. Hermione tensed against her post at the wall of the house, while Remus and Neville who had crept over, pointed their wands towards the house.
Harry knelt next to Ginny, his wand still pointed at the little sister of one of his best friends, "What are you doing here, Ginny?" Harry asked in barely a whisper. Even Remus' sensitive ears could hardly discern his words. "I am going to take off the Silencing Charm now. Do you understand? Nod if you do." Ginny's eyes held an odd expression as she did as Harry requested and his wand flicked, freeing her throat.
"We're here to get Snape," Ginny whispered heatedly, looking towards the house where a single light burned in the sitting room window.
"We?" Harry caught instantly, even beating Hermione to the question in his head. He felt her presence filling his ears, waiting for the answer. Ginny shut her mouth abruptly, and Harry's eyes hardened, "Who, Ginny?" Harry barked quietly, his voice thundering in her ears though he had not seemed to raise his voice a decibel.
Ginny looked away for a moment, "Draco," the name was almost silent, the letters seemingly pulled from her lips with a crowbar, so hesitantly they were spoken. Harry's hand blurred out, snatching the youngest Weasley's wand. The tip of his wand lit a brilliant red, the pre-Stunner discharge humming slightly in the silence before Harry visibly brought himself under control.
"If Draco's in that house, he is a dead man, Ginevra..." Harry snapped, flatly. His eyes lit softly and he looked back towards the house.
"NO!" Ginny screamed, and Harry's wand flicked cutting her off as Remus and Neville dropped to the ground, and Harry fell on top of Ginny, covering her with the cloak. They waited, hearts pounding to see if anyone reacted, but no one did. After a long, breathless moment, they relaxed, Harry rising silently from his concealment of Ginny to a knee. Ginny motioned frantically to her mouth and against his better judgment, Harry once more canceled a Silencing Charm. "No, Harry, its not his fault, he was trying to work with me to capture or kill Snape...bring him in."
"Why, Ginny?" Remus growled darkly from the side, leaning in, "You know we were after him, if you wanted him so badly you should have..." His nostrils flared and he looked at Harry significantly. Harry caught his raised eyebrow, and looked back to Ginny, defocusing his vision to catch the glow...
"Because I wanted to come home, damnit, Harry, and I knew I couldn't unless I..."
"Is that the only reason, Ginny, you want to save him, why...he was helping you?" Harry muttered. Her mouth opened to object, but Harry cut her off with a snarl, "Don't bother Ginny, Remus can smell him on you, probably about as deeply as I can see his magic intertwined with yours." Harry stepped back and whispered, tiredly, "All you had to do was call in on a floo, or walk in the door Ginny," Harry said sadly, "and I am sorry for this," Somnus, his fingers of his off hand flicked and Ginny slumped off into sleep. Harry summoned a rock to his hand and touched it with his wand, Portus, the rock shook, glowed blue, jumped around a couple of times and dropped to the ground next to Ginny. He pulled his mirror from his pocket and flipped it open, instantly the four others still out there in the darkness, Ron, Luna, Tonks and Hermione appeared in the spilt screen of the mirror. "We go in one minute, Ron, Luna blow the wall on that side; Hermione, I will join you, I'll probably be setting off the wards, so be ready, Tonks, Remus will join you and you two force the door, on that side," he glanced down at Ginny and sighed, "Neville you stay here, stop anyone that comes out, and as soon as we start in, activate this Portkey, it will take her to a locked room at Grimmauld." He nodded and Harry glanced down at Ginny once more, "Don't risk yourself, but try to take them alive, whoever is in there..."
"Harry," Ron whispered urgently over the mirror, "who is there with you?"
"It's Ginny, Ron," Harry replied quietly, and cut him off before he could say anything, "later Ron, Neville is going to send her back to Grimmauld, as soon as it starts...take them alive Ron, I mean it. One minute from...now," Harry watched Ron's eyes narrow in the mirror and knew his friend was flushing with anger, but Ron just nodded and snapped his mirror closed, cutting off the image of him and Luna.
Remus touched his shoulder and loped off, as Harry felt himself get ready. He took a breath, another and as the second hand ticked to 12, he vanished in a blur of speed; a dim green trail followed him as the sprinted towards the house, vaulting the garden fence and landing in the garden. The blare of sudden, raucous alarms was lost to the night as twin BOOMS from either side of the house shattered the still night further. APPARECIUM DELATARIUM, Harry cast on the run, and a soft glow settled over the house for a moment, barring the escape of those within.
Hermione's wand fired a blue Reductor bolt, directly at the window in Harry's path, it exploded inward, glass fragments, and bits of the wall raining into the sitting room, as Harry dove face first into the new hole, landing in a forward roll and coming to his feet in one, long, swift movement. A red beam snapped from his wand, and a blond head fell away behind the couch, its wand rolling into the corner of the room. He felt Hermione enter after him, rolling to his right, her wand automatically covering what his did not. A dazed Death Eater stumbled out of a bedroom, his wandtip already glowing green...
A purple, slicing wave ripped open his chest as a blue bolt shattered his head; his body fell back into the room as Harry spun to the room. He paused, just out of sight of the interior of the room, and flipped a bright red cylinder from his pouch into the room. Harry reached out and pulled Hermione to him as a horrible, deafening Banshee scream and a flash of light; many, many times the brightness of the brightest Lumos charm cast their shadows into sharp relief out onto the lawn through the broken window.
The pair rolled into the room, and twin, red beams snapped out from their wands and two more Death Eaters collapsed, falling to the floor. He covered Hermione as she kicked open a closet, "CLEAR," she snapped and returned to his side. Several more shouts of "CLEAR" came from the other rooms and the other four appeared in doorways leading to the sitting room. Snape's tattered couch was knocked over and books were scattered everywhere.
A small fire was blazing where a candle had fallen over and lit a curtain on fire. Ron put it out absently with a flick of his wand, "No Snape, Harry," Ron growled as he paced over and kicked Draco's fallen body. "I see that we found Draco," he smiled slightly, as he turned over the prostrate former Slytherin with a toe of his boot, he extended his wand and the tip lit slowly....
"NO!" Harry roared and jerked Ron's wand from his grasp from across the room. Ron turned to him furiously, and Harry tossed it back to him, "No, mate, he may know where Snape is." Ron gave Harry a parting glare before a soft yellow light came from his wand, reviving Draco. Draco blinked several times as he looked up at Ron, whose wand was pointed directly at the bridge of his nose. Harry came to stand at Ron's shoulder, "Where is he, Draco? Don't fuck with us..."
Draco pointed at a built-in bookcase set into the wall across from him. The shelf was bare, all of the books that had once filled it, fallen into the floor. A few were smoldering slightly as Harry flicked his wand at them and pushed them away from the case. He tried to open it conventionally for a moment before giving up and stepping back across the room, waving everyone back. Hermione caught his eye and nodded, "Ron, Luna toss in a couple of those Screamers when we blow it." Twin bolts of blue, carefully modulated so as not to drop the house down around their ears, shot out from Harry and Hermione's wands and shattered the bookshelf and a significant portion of the surrounding wall.
A dark staircase was revealed leading down and twin, red cylinders went bouncing down the stairs before the smoke had cleared. Ron tugged Luna down and rolled on top of her as the Screamers went off, lighting the room with a harsh white light and almost deafening them up on another floor. Harry and Hermione blurred into movement, sliding down the stairs, Hermione on the banister, Harry almost on his bum down the stairs. A green bolt shot out of the darkness, exploding a hole in the stairs directly above Harry's head.
Twin stunners shot back in return, blowing divots into the cinder-block wall of the basement. Broken glass crunched under Harry's boots as he moved forward in a crouch. Another Kedavra barely missed him, shattering a tall, enclosed glass cabinet, and tipping over several, bubbling caldrons. Potions dripped down, hissing as they touched the floor. A cloud of vapor slowly filled the room, causing Hermione to cough. She dived out of the way as Snape fired in her direction.
"Give it up, Snape," Harry yelled, "or I swear on Dumbledore's grave that I will cut your bloody head off and place it next to your master's on a pike."
"You think I am a fool, Potter?" he sneered, and slipped from the cover of one lab bench to another.
"Yes, Snivellus, I do," Harry retorted, "it was incredibly stupid to kill Dumbledore in front of me and think that I would not find you..."
"Dumbledore was an old fool, to think he could stand against the Dark Lord..." Snape snapped back. Out of his sight, Hermione crouched behind a bench and waved Ron and Luna down as they peeked in at the top of the stairs behind the business ends of their wands. Ron nodded and eased himself down to his stomach, and eased down the stairs on his belly, carefully avoiding the large hole that Snape had blasted in an attempt to kill Harry. Harry looked to Hermione and saw that her wand was in its sheath on her thigh and twin, foot-long blades glittered in the dim room. He nodded and reached back, drawing the Gryffindor sword and inverting it, so the blade lay along the side of his forearm.
Harry stood in plain sight, "You made your decision, Snivellus..." Snape popped up and fired a Kedavra at Harry, which blew a large chunk out of the basement wall as Harry whirled and vanished. Snape took a panicked step backwards as a scurry of movement to his left drew his attention...
"AVADA KEDAVRA," the green beam missed Hermione by five feet as she ghosted past. He took a step left, and stopped as he bumped against an immovable table. "CRUCIO," he screamed as Harry stood again. He didn't seem to move, but the beam missed him nonetheless. Harry vanished from sight.
"Too bad it was a stupid one," Harry finished as the Gryffindor blade whirled in the dimness, Snape took one step, paled, and collapsed in two pieces... A head topped by a head of greasy black hair rolled into the corner of the room, finally coming to a stop on its severed neck, beady eyes open and staring in shock. "I keep my promises, traitor," Harry whispered as he slid to the floor, his sword falling from suddenly numb fingers with a loud clank.
Harry looked up as Hermione knelt next to him, and winced slightly as her daggers fell to the concrete floor with a twin, bell-like ring. She didn't say a word as she curled up on his lap, and her head fell to his shoulder. Harry dropped his to hers, not looking up as Ron and Luna appeared in the open space. Ron nodded at the sprawled, foot-shorter, corpse as Luna crossed over to Snape's head and looked down at it critically. She poked it with her wand before conjuring a black sack around the head and walking back over to join her fiancée. After several minutes of silence, Harry looked up at Ron, frowning, as Remus came down the stairs. "Tonks just took Draco to Grimmauld, Harry, Neville's still upstairs." Remus announced, with only a bare flicker of a gaze towards Snape. "She'll put him in that secure room you had Dobby install." Harry nodded. "What, will..."
"Professor," Hermione said softly, speaking for both her and Harry, "I don't think we'll be in class tomorrow." Lupin nodded knowingly, "I suppose that we will be going to Grimmauld," Hermione continued, as she looked around the room, from her perch, "Luna can you get samples of what Snape was making?" Hermione asked and Luna waved and using a pair of tongs and several unbroken vials from a box of them she spotted on a nearby counter, she sampled each of the spilled cauldrons, set them in a row on a table and vanished the samples to somewhere.
"Remus," Harry added quietly, "please let Professor McGonagall know too. We should be back by Monday," He glanced at Hermione for a moment, and a conversation passed in a glance, "It might be good if you came by this evening after classes."
"Sure Harry, Nymph and I will be by," Lupin replied and watched as Harry got to his feet. His hand stretched out and the Gryffindor sword jumped to it. He cleaned it with a quick flick of his wand and resheathed the blade. Somehow, magically, as no one had seen her move, Hermione's were replaced as well.
Harry took Hermione's hand in his and his eyes flashed. He nodded to Ron and a second later, Ron and Luna vanished with a muffled CRACK, as Harry's gaze swept back to Lupin, "Thanks Moony," Harry said softly and he and Hermione vanished silently.
Lupin shook his head slightly as he paced over to the body still on the floor, he jumped a bit as the sack containing Snape's head vanished, then relaxed, shrugging. "I knew I should have ate your arse all those years ago," Remus mentioned conversationally to the motionless body on the ground, he spit on the ground next to where the head would have been, and left, walking up the stairs to send Neville home before he burnt the place down.
******************************Grimmauld Place***************************
6:30 pm
Remus Lupin walked into a dimly lit bedroom, a crackling fire lit one corner of the room, where someone could be seen sitting facing the fire, with their back to the door. An enchanted red and gold lava lamp flowed languorously on a night table next to a large, unmade bed in Gryffindor colors. Lupin grinned slightly as he noticed the shirts, pants, a couple of school uniforms, and several unmentionables, tossed in a corner near a laundry basket, that if Sirius hadn't been one of his best friends in school, and hadn't taken a hand in his 'social development', would have probably caused a blush to rise to his cheeks. As it was he just shook his head and continued on. He was engaged to Tonks after all. As he passed the bed, he noticed that Harry's sword was hanging once more on the rack next to the bed, and that Hermione's dual dagger pack was lying on the floor next to the bed on the other side and he nodded approvingly.
Lupin came around the edge of the couch, to find Harry with his head down in a book, reading by the light of the fire. Harry was taking notes in an open notebook on the couch next to him, "Hello Moony," Harry muttered without looking up. He picked up his notebook and waved at a chair set across from the couch and watched as Lupin sat down.
"Where's Hermione?" Remus inquired as he sat back in the chair, watching the young man who might as well be his godson.
Harry rolled his eyes and shook his head slightly; "She's a touch miffed with me, right now, since we got back."
Lupin's face looked shocked, "Not about what happened at..."
Harry shook his head, "No...I left the seat up on the toilet," both men grinned slightly.
"I can't help you with that," Remus replied laughing.
"I know, I'm doomed," Harry replied with a laugh dancing in his eyes, "Yes, I know you heard that, Mione," he said to the air, and Remus crooked an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. "What's up Remus?"
"You wanted me to stop by after classes?" Remus reminded him, "and for the information of yourself and your skiving friends since you all skived off your only class today...I need three feet comparing the standard incapacitation curses and hexes, and their weaknesses by next Friday." Harry nodded and jotted a note on his pad to tell Hermione and Ron.
Harry sighed and stretched out on the couch. He waved at the coffee table in front of him, and a pair of bottled butterbeers appeared. He took one and watched as Remus took the other. Harry took a long sip, more to buy time than anything before he answered, "I want your opinion, Moony," Harry replied, he took another sip of his beer, "I don't know why I listened to Ginny, honestly, and took Draco alive, when I...didn't do so with Snape. Was I wrong with not taking Snape alive...or wrong with Draco? Ginny claims he's reformed, wants out, took the Mark because he was forced too, but can I believe her Remus?" Harry asked with just a touch of desperation, "She's fucking shagging that arsehole wanker and I don't know if I can trust her as far as letting her go free, let alone with regards to him."
Remus sat back, thinking. He muttered a long string of curses under his breath before looking back at Harry, "I don't know, Harry; I wish I did. In some ways what she did was as much a betrayal as what Peter did to us, if not quite to the same degree." He shrugged, "What does your heart tell you?"
"That's the thing...I don't know if she is just using him as a shagging buddy...or if she is, or thinks she is, in love with him," Harry scrubbed his hands roughly though his hair, and whipped his glasses off, to pinch his nose tiredly. "Because if it's the latter...then I don't think I can trust her, Remus, at all, because I know what I'd do if it were Hermione." Harry steepled his hands in front of his face for a moment as if in prayer, "Because if I needed to keep her safe, I'd cheerfully kill every living soul on this island..."
"I know, Harry," Lupin replied quietly as he stood up and placed his hand on Harry's shoulder in a silent attempt at whatever reassurance he could give.
Harry looked up at him, and Remus frowned slightly as he noticed unshed tears in Harry's eyes. Lupin glanced across the room at the door to find Hermione there, already crossing the room to Harry. She didn't say a word to Lupin in greeting as she sat on the couch next to Harry and leaned against him. Harry glanced down as Hermione placed her hand on top of his and their fingers twined together automatically, "I..." he glanced to Hermione, she nodded fractionally and squeezed his fingers, "we'll talk to Ginny again, before Ron does. Right now, he's so angry with her that Luna was literally sitting on him to keep him away from her. I...we've already chosen our lives, we won't make the same mistake that Mum and Dad made..." Harry let himself trail off, the threat, or promise rather unsaid.
Lupin patted Harry's shoulder once more, smiled slightly at Hermione as if she were his daughter-in-law in truth, and started to leave. He crossed the door, and opened it, but stopped at Harry's words, "Remus...tell Tonks no one is to know beyond those we know we can trust that we have Draco and Ginny as our...guests. Not even Molly." Lupin did not trust his voice, but just gave a slow nod in return and walked out of the room. They could hear his measured, soft pace as he retreated down the stairs towards the room that he shared with Tonks while they were both at the London house.
Hermione dropped his hand as she flicked her fingers across the room, the door shut and locked with a loud squelch and a brief white flash lit the walls. Her arms went around his neck as she buried her face in his chest. "I'm not really mad about the toilet, Harry," Hermione whispered softly.
"I know, Mione...I love you, you know," Harry muttered as he started to inattentively comb his fingers through her hair, she kissed his chest in response and settled her cheek against the spot a moment later. "What should we do, Hermione?" Harry asked in a slightly lost voice, he rested his chin on the crown of her head and looked over it at the flames.
"Oh, Harry... I don't know," she breathed, "I wish I could tell you, but I can't." She nuzzled against him, and without looking; her knew her lip was in her teeth. A heavy weight seemed to settle on them, as she carefully considered her next words, "Harry, I don't know what I think about her...but she is Ron's sister." She paused, "But, she'll leave in a bag if she hurts you again," she added painfully.
"Do we have any Veritaserum ready?"
"Yeah," she admitted with more than a hint of reluctance, "I have more than enough to for several rounds of, questioning. Do you want me to go and?"
"No, stay here with me, Love," Harry replied quietly, "We question them together then?" the question a statement, "Draco or Ginny first?"
"Ginny, I guess," Hermione replied after a long, silent moment. Harry could feel tears dampening his shirt and tightened his arms around her as she buried her face in his chest. "If she doesn't know anything," her voice tight and strained, "then we can fillet Draco's mind."
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"Damn it, Luna," Ron snapped as he attempted once more to open the door she had sealed against his attempts to exit their bedroom. He turned and glared at her, but as she had both his wand and hers, he really had no other recourse. Ron stomped across their bedroom here, a more or less exact copy of Harry and Hermione's here, and dropped onto a dark brown couch set against one wall near the corner hearth. "I just want to go talk to her," Ron growled.
"Talk to her...or yell at her, Ronald?" Luna replied without looking at him. She whistled softly and stroked Graymalkin as he rubbed up against her as she sat on the bed with her back to the headboard. Her eyes were down watching her fingers as they pulled through the long, silky white fur of the form that her Familiar had chosen today, which was probably its base form. Or as close to it as not to matter too terribly much. Greymalkin purred, as he turned odd, black on black eyes towards Ron, before looking up at Luna. She nodded at him, "Yes, Gray, he is being rather obstinate."
"Why the bloody hell you named that...whatever Greymalkin," Ron muttered, loudly, "What is it with you birds and the weird names you give pets...Crookshanks, Pigwidgeon?"
"Then explain Hedwig?" Luna challenged softly, still stroking her Kneazle-like Familiar.
"Hermione must have somehow placed a spell on Harry before she met him," Ron replied, shrugging. He looked back at Luna as she jumped up and crossed the room to the closet, peeling off the button-up shirt of his she had fallen asleep in after they got back from Spinner's End, almost fifteen hours ago. They had awoke several hours ago, but she had yet to dress.
She had brought a blush to Remus' face when he arrived earlier, though.
Luna bent over, and looked through the bottom of the closet, before pulling on a pair of torn jeans and a jumper of Ron's that fell halfway down her thighs...it was a couple of years old. She slipped her wand into her back pocket and toed into a pair of sandals before turning back to him. "Promise me Ronnie, promise me that you won't go talk to your sister unless I'm with you."
"You don't trust me?" Ron asked tiredly, softly, "Harry and Hermione don't either; they didn't want me to talk to her either." He looked up at her as her face fell for a second before she flitted across the room, and knelt down in front of him.
Luna's eyes caught the light as she rested her cheek on his lap and looked up, "I trust you more than an Antarian Snortcat, is purple with red polka-dots. More than I trust that that the NEWT examinations are really a disguised test to see who is best suited for living on the moon," she whispered. "I love you, Ronnie, Harry and Hermione love you and we trust you, more than you can imagine, honey. We don't trust your sister." Luna reached out and twined her fingers with his for an instant, before she stood up, "Promise me, Ron, go play chess, or eat, or come and help me look over those potions that we took from Snape's lab."
"I'm bloody awful at Potions, Luv," Ron replied with a small smile, looking up at her, "and can I please have my wand back," he added as he stood and looked down at her.
Luna smirked as her hand brushed the front of his jeans, "But I'm rather fond of your wand, honey," she commented huskily and giggled as he stumbled forward, as she danced out of the way. "And I never said you actually had to do anything in the lab..." Her eyes were suddenly curiously vulnerable as her demeanor changed with the rapidity that only hers could, "Just come keep me company, it's...scary down there." Ron laughed and nodded, taking her hand and letting her lead him out of the room and down the stairs towards the basement potions lab.
AN: Next Chapter a long overdue talk...and an event that will turn the game on its ear.