Disclaimer: Harry Potter ain't mine…
Nightmares had prevented him from sleeping well and the next day Harry woke feeling as though his head was stuffed full of Bubotuber Pus. He groaned loudly as the early morning sunlight streamed in through the window and hit him across his closed eyelids.
"Bad night?" mumbled Ron from his bed across the room, sounding half-asleep himself. Next moment, however, both Harry and Ron jerked fully awake as a loud Crack! split the air, and Hermione appeared in the room, a disorientated-looking Ginny clinging to her arm and giggling.
Harry and Ron both jumped and instinctively clutched their bedcovers around themselves, which only made Ginny laugh harder.
"Shy, boys?" she teased. "We decided to come and say good morning."
"Couldn't you have just knocked, like, the normal way?" muttered Ron, his ears slightly red.
"I thought I'd practise Side-Along Apparition," said Hermione briskly, settling herself comfortably on Ron's bed. "It might come in useful one of these days. Which reminds me, Harry, you can take your test now. Ron's going to, too."
Ron sat up, forgetting his embarrassment. "Yeah, I think Mum's booked us in for sometime next week. You'll have no trouble though, mate, blimey, you've already Apparated, er - a lot…" he trailed off, looking awkwardly at Harry. Harry knew he had been about to mention Dumbledore, and shrugged.
"You can talk about Dumbledore, you know," he said lightly. "We can't just avoid it. Besides, I think we need to talk about him. What did you think of Aberforth?"
"I never realised!" said Hermione, and they all looked at her. "Oh, come on, didn't you recognise him?" When Ginny and Ron shook their heads, she sighed impatiently. "Harry? Please don't tell me you didn't know who he was - you've seen him enough times."
"I thought I did," said Harry slowly. "But then I reckoned it must've just been that he looked like Dumbledore. The goat smell was familiar, though."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "I should think so – The Hog's Head reeks of goats."
"Oh..." said Harry, realisation dawning. "You don't mean - not the barman?"
But he didn't really need to ask - now he thought of it, the tall, thin man behind the bar with his straggly grey beard and deep eyes did bear a vague resemblance to Albus Dumbledore. And Harry wondered why he had never noticed it before.
Harry sat there digesting this surprising piece of information, and as he sat, he began to think what an idiot he'd been. Of course, he'd seen Aberforth that day of the first meeting of Dumbledore's Army, not to mention, he saw him again the next year in Hogsmeade, talking with Mundungus. And now, he thought, mentally kicking himself, hadn't Mad-Eye Moody pointed Aberforth out to him in the old photo of the original Order of the Phoenix? He ought to have recognised the barman the first time he set eyes on him - Harry supposed he had been too disturbed by the shock of seeing his parents in the picture to think much of it.
"The barman?" Harry heard Ron saying, sounding confused. "That stinky old barman's Dumbledore's brother?"
And Harry had a sudden thought. "He could have been spying on us," he said slowly. "Dumbledore used to get information from him - I saw, in the Pensieve – Dumbledore said he was friendly with the local barman, that's how he knew all Voldemort's followers were waiting for him in the bar, that time he went to ask for a job at Hogwarts."
"We need to go and speak to him," said Hermione as soon as she heard this, and Ron and Harry nodded in agreement. Dumbledore might have given his brother some information about the Horcruxes – hadn't Lupin said only last night, Aberforth knew more than he let on?
Ginny was looking slightly lost. "Harry, I don't understand – why do you need to talk to Dumbledore's brother?"
Harry chewed his bottom lip nervously as he looked at her, Dumbledore's warnings to him ringing clearly in his mind, "I am going to ask you to ask them not to repeat any of this to anybody else…" Harry knew he could trust Ginny with his life. But would this put her life at risk? Was it safe for her to know?
"Look, Ginny." He took a deep breath. "There's something I haven't told you. And I don't think I can tell you. I'm sorry. But it's because I don't want to put you in danger, don't you see? Dumbledore told me to keep this to myself – and Ron and Hermione - because it might be the only chance of destroying Voldemort we get." Harry stopped there because the frustrated look on Ginny's face was more than he could handle at that moment.
"Harry!" she burst out. "Do you think I would go around telling everybody – "
"No, Ginny," Harry interrupted her quickly (he knew that, as with her mother, it was dangerous to let Ginny work herself into a rage) "I know you wouldn't ever, not intentionally. But we're talking about Death Eaters here, and about Voldemort. If you know what we know, it could - it could kill you. I'm pretty sure one other person has died because of it already," he added, thinking of R.A.B.
Ginny looked about to argue but Hermione crossed the room and sat down next to her on Harry's bed. "Ginny," she said kindly. "Harry knows what he's doing. It really is best for you to stay out of it. We may be talking life and death here."
"And you think I'll be all right sitting comfortably here, or at Hogwarts, just waiting to hear if one of you has been killed?" said Ginny fiercely, eyes flashing. "You don't want me to know anything, so I'll never be able to help you! Surely the more of us, the better? And I couldn't stand it if – if anything happened, to any of you – " she broke off, blinking furiously as she held back tears, and Hermione patted her soothingly on the back.
"Ginny…" Harry began, awkwardly. He never knew what to do when girls started crying. "Look, I can't back down over this, I just can't. How do you think I would feel if you – if you died, because of me? Too many people have already. It's not that I don't want you in my life, that's just stupid. But not yet. Not until the war is over. If you stayed here, safe, I would be much happier than if you came with me, wherever I'm going."
"We dunno what we're getting into, Ginny," said Ron quietly. "But we do know it'll be dangerous. And besides," he added, trying to lighten the mood, "What would I tell Mum?"
Ginny made a small noise, between and sob and a laugh. "Fine. Alright, I'll stay here," she said, looking at the floor. "But Harry, oh Harry – watch your back… and you too, Ron, Hermione… I want you all back here in one piece after you finish off Voldemort," she said, half jokingly, though shivering slightly.
Harry smiled regretfully, wishing it could be that easy. "Thanks, Ginny," he said simply, relief flooding through him, and he felt another burden drop from his shoulders.
But Ron was looking at his sister with an uncharacteristically shrewd expression on his face. "Promise us, Ginny," he said suddenly. "Swear you won't go following us or anything."
Ginny glared at her brother, twisting her fingers in her lap, and seemed about to retort angrily when she caught Harry's eye, and faltered. "I – oh, alright…I swear, I won't follow you," she said, half-defiantly, throwing her long red hair over her shoulders, and standing up.
"I'm going to have breakfast," she said, walking quickly out of the room, and they heard the sound of her footsteps clattering, not downstairs, but in the direction of her bedroom. Harry felt wretchedly guilty, sure that Ginny had left so they wouldn't see her cry. But it did not shake his resolve. He couldn't, and wouldn't, lead any more people into danger, just for him.
His thoughts were interrupted by Hermione saying gently, "Harry? While Ginny's not here, I think we need to talk. About – about You-Know-What…" Harry sighed, but got up, and she watched him as he crossed the room and dug out the fake Horcrux from his chest of drawers.
The locket lay innocently on the bed, illuminated by a ray of sunlight sneaking through a crack in the heavy black curtains. Hermione frowned, staring at it thoughtfully. Ron leaned over Harry's arm and prised it open, and the note from R.A.B. fluttered out. Harry caught it instinctively, and he and Ron both scanned it again for further clues. But Hermione was still looking at the locket as though she was trying to remember something, and after a while, Ron looked over at her.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Hermione jumped slightly and glanced at him.
"I don't know…" she said slowly. "There is something – but I'm not sure – and I think, I might be right –" Ron rolled his eyes at Harry, before saying irritably, "When you remember us, we're here waiting patiently, as always," and Hermione shook her head slightly, as though trying to clear it.
"It's seeing that locket here, I – I just get a feeling I've seen it here before," and Harry and Ron raised their eyebrows at each other.
"No, really," she said, biting her lip. "Harry, what was in all that rubbish we cleared out of the cupboards when you first came here?"
Harry stared at her blankly.
"What, you expect me to remember that? From two years ago? I dunno…er, there was a box of Wartcap powder, er – an Order of Merlin…"
"And a locket?" she prompted eagerly. "Was there a locket?" Harry racked his brains, but he couldn't remember. If there had been…if there had been a Horcrux here, all the time…
"I don't know, Hermione" he said finally. "But I trust you. If you think there was, you're probably right." And Ron nodded emphatically in agreement.
"Yes…I don't remember exactly, but I'm almost sure. What did Sirius do with all the stuff?"
With a sinking feeling Harry remembered the many bin bags they had spent the summer filling with old Dark objects and rubbish from the cupboards, and beside him he heard Ron groan.
"It could be anywhere," said Ron, casting his hands up in a hopeless gesture. "Sirius probably just threw it out."
"Back to Square One," Harry said grimly, already casting around for ideas, but Hermione was shaking her head, a gleam in her eye.
"I don't think so," she said, in a low voice quivering with suppressed excitement, and Harry and Ron stared at her. "R.A.B." she said quietly, and Harry frowned, puzzled.
"Where are we?" she said excitedly, and Ron gave a half-laugh.
"Er, Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, remember? Or had you forgotten?"
"Oh, don't be stupid," she snapped. "We're in the house of one of the darkest wizarding families – 'The Noble and Moste Ancient House of Black.' Well, what if R.A.B was a Black? 'B' would be the initial of his surname, right? So, what if he brought the locket back here?" And Harry gazed at her, mouth slightly open, marvelling at her brilliant mind.
"Hermione, you're a genius," he said sincerely. Ron was simply gaping at her. Hermione smiled, blushing slightly, and stood up.
"Where're you going?" said Ron, finding his voice.
"To look at something that will tell me exactly who this R.A.B. is, if he really was a Black - the tapestry. The family tapestry with all the names of the Blacks on it," she clarified, as Ron looked blank. Harry stood up too, excitement coursing through his veins. "Let's go," he said, striding across the bare boards and opening the door, and together they made their way to the tapestry room.
A/N: I know it's short, but please review!
