A/N: After a ridiculously long break...
Chapter XXVII: Hope Is The Last to Die
Avery and Nott considered themselves fortunate that Lestrange had not placed someone to tail them. They were still angry and frustrated about the task they had to accomplish. Failure would be paid with their lives, and neither one of them was keen on that...
What they needed was a strategy to warn the Order of the plans being hatched under Bellatrix. Without Remus, it would be much more difficult to obtain access to one of the members, but they had to try. A foolish, but perhaps a plausible idea, was to hang around Grimmauld Place, until Potter, or Malfoy, or one of the others noticed them and had the sense to meet them.
If only Remus were still alive, Avery thought with contempt, or now he wouldn't have to risk his neck to think of ridiculously risky ideas of communicating with the order, and literally hanging on a chance that he wouldn't be martyred to the designs of a madwoman...
What's more, that Longhorn character, who had had the ability to destroy them all this time, and neither him, nor Nott ever knew; the fact Avery him even more.
Walking along the streets of London, they came to a consensus to try to attract the Order's attention under cover of a patrol path that they had persuaded another superior of theirs to assign to them, which passed by Grimmauld.
They were well blended with the London crowd, which meant any prying eyes would be hard-pressed to find them. It was with that knowledge that Avery and Nott feverishly walked towards Grimmauld Place.
**
Back at the house in question, Harry was sitting by himself in the kitchen, thinking over what he was about to do - kill himself, so he could bring Remus back to the living. Without him, the Order was quite vulnerable, and what worried him most was that the Fidelius Charm did not protect against attacks of the mind...
It was precisely what he feared had killed Remus - in his final hours, it was evident he was not in control of his faculties. It annoyed and angered him greatly how vulnerable the entire Order was to whim of her ability to influence minds. He had been a target more than once, but Lestrange knew of his power and that she was unable to overcome it.
Hermione walked in without him noticing. She walked up behind him, and embraced her hands around his neck.
"Harry?"
He turned his head towards her. "Mmm?"
"What are you thinking about?" she inquired quietly.
In an expression of frustration Harry slammed his fist on the wooden surface of the table, and stood up. Startled, Hermione retreated.
"I'm frustrated," he growled, "The way they killed Remus - anyone in the Order can be made a target."
"Few can project that kind of power," Hermione observed, now recovered from her shock.
"I know, but it still doesn't specify who it was that killed him. Could have been Lestrange, Dolohov, or some other former lackey of Voldemort's we don't know about."
"Do you think Avery or Nott would know better?" Hermione could not help but sound sceptical.
"Possible," Harry replied after a few seconds of thought. "We should talk to them."
"Good plan," Hermione told him. "Only, it was Remus who was our contact with them. I don't think they'd trust anyone less than you."
Harry knew she was ultimately right about that. The only way to seek the cooperation of the Death Eaters was to wait for them to try to initiate contact - something Harry was finding difficulty conceptualizing, because there was no direct way to go about it.
He sat back down. "And how do we ensure the security of the Order while I'm on the other side to retrieve Remus?"
"An emergency training session in Occlumency?" Hermione shrugged. "We are covered against physical attack, but not against a mental one."
"That means I'll have to be as quick as possible," Harry replied distantly, talking more to himself than Hermione. "I don't want to leave anything to chance."
"We don't really have that option, now do we?" she asked him rhetorically.
He remained quiet and depressed. Regaining Remus' presence was invaluable, but what would be the cost?"
The silence was broken quite abruptly by Ron's voice. "Hey!"
Abandoning his seat along with his thoughts, Harry rushed in the direction of his best friend, closely tailed by Hermione. He was in the foyer, peering through the curtains of the window next to the front door. Draco was already behind him, and Luna and Ginny could be heard coming up behind.
"What's going on?" someone shouted.
"Look there," Ron pointed out in front of the house, and the six pairs of eyes turned to look at the figures of Avery and Nott pacing around nervously on the street. The reason for their distress was a mystery, but if they were there to begin with, a meeting with the Order was imminent...
Without a word, Harry opened the door, and stepped out. Ron and Draco followed closely, while the last of them motioned to the others to stay behind. As it happened, the Weasley clan had moved up to investigate the commotion.
"Harry Potter," Avery exclaimed when he saw the bespectacled wizard approaching. "Thank heavens!"
Beside him, Nott's expression only became more clouded. Despite the partial relief they expressed, however, Harry, nor the others, took down their wands.
"Avery," Harry rejoined, "why are you here?"
"We have to talk, away from prying eyes," the former said shakily. "And quickly!"
"What is this about?" Ron questioned him even louder, when Avery proceeded forward to shuffle Harry in the direction of the housing complex.
"Details when we're safe inside," Nott said from behind. "Come on!"
Deciding to cooperate, Harry, Ron and Draco formed a ring around the two Death Eaters, and escorted then towards the Order's headquarters at number twelve.
The moment they stepped through the threshold, someone let out a loud squeal of surprise. Mrs. Weasley's eyes had widened, fury began to form on her features, and she reached for her wand with surprising speed...
"Mum!" Ron tried to cross her efforts. "Wait!"
She had her wand trained on Nott. "Step aside, Ron. They are dangerous. Prisoners must be dealt with!"
At that moment, Mr. Weasley stepped in front of her. "Molly, hang on," he said calmly, "just listen for a bit."
Jaw still stiff, eyes looking past Arthur towards the two perceived intruders, Molly Weasley slowly lowered her wand, but her face quite plainly said she did not trust the judgement of those around her.
"Come on, now," Harry turned to Nott and Avery, pushing them in the direction of the living room. "The sooner we talk, the better."
"Agreed," Avery shot off right away. "It's about Lestrange."
At last, the entire occupancy of 12 Grimmauld Place was assembled in the living room, with the exception of Tonks. She hadn't been seen all day, and according to Mrs. Weasley, she had locked herself up in her room, and was not receptive to anyone today...
"Fine then," Draco prompted his father's former allies, "what have you found?"
Taking a deep breath, Avery revealed the gravity of the situation. "Lestrange knows of our meeting on the bridge and that you modified mine and Nott's memories. She also is informed of the ploy to bring Remus Lupin back from the dead. Along with that, she sent Nott and I to prevent that from happening. The reason we're still alive is that we're useful in terms of contact with the Order, and can bring back valuable information. Else we'd be dead by now."
Shocked silence met those words. Everything they had done, aiming to be as clandestine as possible, had failed...Bellatrix was aware of just about their every move!
Harry, however, did foresee something which could be presently addressed. "As you two might already know, this is the house where the Order of the Phoenix is housed. With that, you become a liability to our security, simply because you can't defect entirely from Lestrange and have to keep going back and forth."
Nott smiled ironically. "Severus Snape was better at the double-agent game, the old dog..."
Harry nodded. "That's why you need to make a pact with the Order, of a more serious nature....that if you divulge the address, by any means, your memory, as well as that of the person you told the information to, will be wiped clean..."
Avery and Nott looked at one another. By silent agreement, they knew much was at stake, and any chance of success rested on the Order's location remaining secret.
"We'll do it," Nott said shakily. "After all, Death is a constant companion these days..."
A murmur of consent went through the room. Ironically, Death did not need a door to come.
"Ginny, you'll cast the spell," Harry instructed her, "I have to seal the bond."
"Alright," she agreed. "Let's do it fast."
"Nott, you'll be first."
He nodded, and kneeled down on the floor. Ginny sat across, and Harry between them. Nott professed forward his right hand, Harry put his around Nott's wrist, and Ginny placed her hand atop both.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Yeah," Nott's reply was trepid with breathlessness.
Ginny waved her wand and murmured several incomprehensible words under her breath. The room watched on, as a bluish light enveloped the interlocked hands, and remained there for several minutes. The party of three rose off the ground of its own accord, and under the influence of the spell, spun a full circle in the air, before being set down gently. Right after that, the blue light disappeared, and the charm ended.
Nott raised himself to his feet, and sat back on the couch. Without a word, Avery took his place, and the charm was repeated all over again.
Once the proceedings ended, the discussion started up again.
"So, this will work on anyone who tries to retrieve the location of the headquarters," Nott tried to reaffirm the principle of the charm.
"On most people," Hermione intervened. "If the recipient wizard or witch is powerful, they can overcome the charm."
"That's a comforting thought," Avery muttered.
"Now about Lestrange," Ron pressed to the issue at hand. "Can you tell us in more detail what's going on?"
"Alright," Avery began, "at the basis of the whole plan is Antonin Dolohov. We all know he is exceptionally good in many aspects of magic, especially penetrating minds undetected. He informed Lestrange of Ginny Weasley's susceptibility in being infiltrated by way of her mind, because of her experiences with You-Know-Who many years ago. That left a permanent weakness that can be exploited by those powerful and smart enough to do it."
"And...what are the implications of that?" Harry asked, even though he could see where this was heading.
"Dolohov does the dirty work for Lestrange," Nott commented. "It is her intent to kill young Miss Weasley while she's performing the ritual, much the same as she did with Remus Lupin. Our job is to delay the ritual for Lestrange to be able to kill Ginny."
"And with you gone," Avery added, "she'd be able to locate the Order, eliminate what's left of it and proceed to resurrect Voldemort."
Silence prevailed once again. This was indeed an unpleasant situation. Maybe bringing Remus back later was an option, but that'd only delay the inevitable.
"Question now is, do we do your bidding, or Lestrange's?" Avery let the heavy question fall.
"Can we come up with an alternative plan to bring Harry and Remus back later on, if we do become compromised?" Ron asked the room at large.
"What about Ginny?" Draco voiced himself defensively. "The whole scheme rests on her shoulders."
"Couldn't Hermione cast the spell?" another voice piped up.
Slowly, the whole room was overtaken by argument, as increasingly ridiculous ideas were shot down one after the other.
"Excuse me!" a very loud, unfamiliar voice suddenly startled the party into silence.
All gazes turned towards the direction of the disembodied voice, and every wand very soon became directed at it.
An invisibility cloak rippled in the air to reveal the frail figure of an old man, hawkish and sneaky by sight.
"Longhorn!" Avery breathed.
A/N: Let's go for the shocker...once again, apologies for the long update...
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