I love the whole Dung-Moody interaction in the books so there's gonna be alot of that in this fic. Especially the next few chapters. Enjoys!
~Chapter 3~
A month of eerie silence passed, without even a whisper of the mysterious witch's presence before the Order had any luck.
Moody dragged a struggling Mundungus along the streets of Hogsmeade, into the 'Three Broomsticks', yanking him hard by the collar. "You idiot! What the hell is the matter with you? Stealing on a mission…… Lucky for you I was here to keep old Stabler from cremating you! Not that it would have been much of a loss….."
"It wasn't me! I never touched Stabler's cauldrons! 'E must've been imagining things!"
Moody rolled his eye and reached into Mundungus's robes, withdrawing three golden cauldrons. He growled and whacked Dung on the head with them.
"Ow! What the-? Oh, heh heh….Wonder how those got in 'ere." Moody vanished the objects , ignoring Dung's aghast expression at the loss of his "hard work"
"Come on you fool!" he dragged Dung into the pub. "Now keep your damn mouth shut and let me do the talking!"
"Alastor Moody! It's been ages since I've last seen your face!" exclaimed Madame Rosmerta as she put down the mug she had been cleaning to greet her old friend.
"Indeed. Although I'm sure that this face wasn't the same one you've last seen." He chuckled, gesturing to the missing bits of flesh.
Dung pouted. "So you can joke about your ghastly, hideous appearance with her but not with me?"
Moody glared and raised his arm to strike him, causing Dung to recoil and immediately shut his mouth.
"Well, eitheir way, it's lovely to see you dearie. Can I get you anything?"
Moody and Dung walked across the pub to the counter. Moody's eye circle 360 degrees, ensuring that no one was listening before he proceeded, leaning closely to the witch.
"Rumour has it that there's a certain witch whose been hitting the pubs, Any new customers lately?"
Rosmerta frowned. "Alastor you know how it is in this pub. New faces everyday. Especially with the summertime and all sorts of old biddies visiting friends and family"
Moody shook his head. "The girl I'm looking for is young. Young but extremely powerful. No one sticks out in your mind?"
Rosmerta paused for a moment, hesitant to share this piece of information. "Well…..there was this one witch who stuck around for a while.. Can't have been more than 25. Very beautiful. Many lads, both young and old, had their eyes on her. Rather intimidating she was. You could practically feel the power radiating off her."
"So where is she now?"
"Haven't seen her sincecouple of weeks ago."
Moody sighed. "Anything out of the ordinary occur when she was here?"
Rosmerta looked back and forth, ensuring that no one else was listening, then lowered her voice into a softer whisper. "You know one of my bartenders Pippin Brandybuck? Nice bloke but rather dimwitted?" seeing Moody nod in recognition she continued. "Tripped over his cloak one day, spilled firewhiskey all over her top. Instead of just flicking his wand or leaving her be the poor fool yanked out his towel and started wiping up his mess, sticking his hand down her top and all. In all my years in the pub business I've never seen a more angry witch or wizard. She stood up really fast and slapped him hard across the face, whispering something in his ear before storming off."
Moody raised an eyebrow. "Can't really blame her. Having a lad stick his hand down her front….I'd box his ears myself."
Rosmerta shook her head fearfully. "That's not all. Later that evening, Pippin suddenly doubled over in pain, clutching the side of his face. I-I didn't know what to do. He kept tossing around and moaning in agony. When he finally passed out from the pain we moved his hand away from his face and, and, oh merlin, Alastor!" she began to weep at the memory. "H-His face, the side she slapped, it, it was gone!"
"What do you mean gone?"
"All flesh was gone. Only decayed, rotten bones lingered."
"Dark magic?" Moody inquired as Dung reached into his pocket, withdrawing a filthy looking handkerchief. He handed it to Rosmerta who looked absolutely revolted. Moody rolled his eye and knocked it out of Dung's grasp.
"Oi! This 'ere is a valuable heirloom! Don't you know that this belonged it Astinos the Great himself?"
"Shut up you idiot. Go on with what you were saying Rosmerta." He conjured a clean, white handkerchief.
"The healers did everything they could but they couldn't find any trace of dark magic. Or any magic for that matter. It was as though the girl herself carried acid and destroyed everything she touched."
"Did Pippin ever go to the Ministry?"
Rosmerta let out a harsh bitter laugh. "Those bastards? All they ever care about is finding You-Know-Who. Not like that's going anywhere. No, they told Pippen straight to his half-face that they had no time to settle, I quote, 'civilian disputes' and sent him out."
Moody shook his head disapprovingly. "So where's the poor chap now?"
"Locked away in his home. Mad with grief and far too ashamed to come out. Lost his mind he has."
"It's worse than I thought? Would you mind giving me the memory?"
"No trouble at all. Bit of a relief really." Rosmerta flicked her wand, withdrawing a silvery substance which Moody bottled up instantly.
"Believe you me. She'll stand out the moment you find her. You'll be able to sense her the moment you get close enough. She's not like all the other great witches and wizards. Her aura isn't a warm welcoming feeling like their's. It's a cold, dark one, but just as powerful. It'll be like encountering a blizzard in July."
Moody nodded. "What does she look like?"
"Like you said. Very beautiful. Pale, almost deathly, with long dark hair. The most noticeable feature would be her eyes though. Gorgeous blue they are. Probably a hell f a lot more prettier if it wasn;t coated with dark eyeliner. I've caught a few glimpses of her around Hogsmeade from time to time. Normally alone but occasionally with a few others. His lot mostly." She gestured to Dung.
"So she must hang around Hogs Head then?'
"Most likely."
Moody patted her on the shoulder. ":Thanks for everything Rosmerta."
"Anytime love."
Moody glanced over at Dung who was just about to grab at a witch's heavy looking money purse. He let out a growl as he grabbed him by the collar. "Come on you buffoon. We need to get to Hogs Head!"
AN: For a visual of Pippin's injury, just think of Two Face from "Dark Knight"
