BOOK II
Chapter Three: Kreacher's Tale
Sirius had grabbed hold of her hand and was refusing to let go but Gienah kept her eye trained on Ginny who did not run, but stood there, welcoming the chaos. Sirius was pulling her away from her, grabbing Alyssandra's hand who held Althena tightly. Gienah could feel the beginning of an apparition but she teared herself away from him and the next second there was a horrible SQUELCH and Gienah was staring at her shoulder, her arm had apparated along with her father but the rest of her remained standing in the marquee. Gienah forced down the bile rising from her mouth and with a deep breath she managed to seal the wound so she was no longer breathing but the pain was atrocious. It felt like a severe rope burn and her bone was sticking out, her entire armpit gone. As soon as the wound was closed she gritted her teeth and again looked around for Ginny. Guests were sprinting in all directions; many were Disapparating; the protective enchantments around the Burrow had broken.
"Ron!" Gienah heard Hermione cry from the other end of the tent. "Ron, where are you?"
Gienah saw cloaked and masked figures appearing in the crowd; then she saw Charlie and Tonks, their wands raised, and heard both of them shout, "Protego!", a cry that was echoed on all sides.
"Gienah!" Hermione called, half sobbing but Gienah was attempting to run against the direction of the crowd, towards Ginny who remained standing still in the madness surrounding her. Mrs. Weasley attempted to grab her but she was burnt at her touch. Someone dragged her away from her daughter and she was apparated away. Mr. Weasley and Mad Eye were at the front, wielding their wands back and forth. Sirius reappeared looking sickened by the appendage in his hand. Gienah placed a disillusionment charm on herself and accio'd her arm, looking at the slender, pale slab of skin and bone and nails with disgust. Gienah made her way to Ginny, she needed her blood, she needed her. The one tangible piece of her puzzle. People were still running, in slow motion and she lost sight of Ginny for a second as the death eaters began to bind their prisoners. An anti-apparition ward was fixed, she could feel its magic as it was cast. Lucius Malfoy was duelling Mad-Eye and losing. Gienah sent a hex towards him but it missed, it caught another death eater who crumbled onto the ground with a yelp.
"Gienah!" Sirius was running around, looking desperately for her. Any death eater in his way felt his wrath, his one goal was to find her. He left the marquee and finally the crowd had thinned. There were people on the floor and others had ran out, five men remained - it seemed- duelling to their death. She saw one figure at the centre, lying eagle spread on the ground with blazing red hair.
"No!" Gienah cried.
"Someone's there." A death eater said urgently.
Gienah hexed him and ran over to her, ignoring the burn in her arm socket. She felt her wrist- there was no heartbeat, her face was pale and then someone yelled "Finite Incantatem" having seen the limp body rise on its own accord. Gienah was found, on her knees, holding her left arm under in the crook of her right and feeling the dead pulse of Deyanira Riddle. Gienah needed her blood if nothing else. Gienah instinctively turned and jumped to her feet pointing the ground and allowing a blast of wind to spring her upward, in the air she watched as if in slow motion as the death eater looked around him, surprised by her choice of escape and let his wand hand down.
Bad move, Gienah smirked, disarming him with a flick of the wrist as she came down upon him, her legs tight around his neck as he flailed around trying to remove her. Gienah used the height and the jerking movement to her advantage, the dagger she'd attached to her garter free. Though she was unable to use both hands, she placed her wand between her teeth and threw the dagger to her first mark, the man fell as it hit his knee, while it returned to her she wandlessly hexed the death eater attacking Moody with his back turned. Arthur and Charlie were duelling Alecto Carrow who ran as she realized she was outnumbered, Gienah caught her with a trip jinx and Charlie tackled her into the ground. It must have last all of thirty seconds until her death eater began clawing at her legs. Gienah hissed and brought her dagger to his neck.
"Move, and I'll kill you."
The death eater froze.
"On your knees." Gienah ordered.
Gienah stunned him once she was back on ground level. Only Moody and Malfoy remained. Gienah was torn between Ginny's body and defending Moody. Gienah made a split second decision and ran towards the two left under the canopy, though she saw death eaters returning from the distance.
"Expelliarmus!" Gienah shouted as she joined Moody by his side.
"A disarming spell Black?" Moody grunted, shielding them from a nasty looking hex.
"Yes, well he is family." Gienah said grimly, looking at Malfoy when she said so and for a second he faltered, just enough time for Moody's stunning spell to catch him off guard.
But there was no time to celebrate, two death eaters were prowling towards them and one immediately threw a killing curse at Moody.
"NOOO!" Gienah shrieked, jumping to catch the spell, changing just as the green shot of light hit a phoenix. She was a ball of fire. Gienah relished in the feel of rebirth and seconds later she appeared once again.
Gienah saw the shocked expressions on the death eaters faces.
Fuck.
Gienah used up precious few seconds of their gaping to obliviate them but in those few seconds she'd allowed herself to become vulnerable to the stirring Carrow twins.
"Adava-!"
"No! Don't touch her." Someone cried.
Gienah looked around and saw Moody was on the floor.. No. Not Moody. Gienah didn't have time check but her body felt vitalized, the dismembered arm had gone, all of her was whole again. Gienah spent three seconds staring at Moody, five seconds to note that there were five death eaters present, two injured and half a second to throw a shield charm around her.
Gienah whipped her dagger out, flung it to Alecto Carrow while her wand made a sharp slashing movement, injuring a death eater she did not recognize quite severely. She ducked and threw a stunning spell to Amycus Carrow and a dagger to Yaxley. Gienah then wandlessly disarmed the fifth cloaked figure and finished the other four off with her stunning spells.
Gienah narrowed her eyes at the last death eater and muttered "Gemini".
The death eater laughed and Gienah saw with a wave of his wand they disappeared and she was left vulnerable, she hurtled her dagger at him but he froze it mid-air. Gienah growled and slashed her wand back and forth, but he met each blow with an accurate defence but never did he draw his wand. Gienah transformed into a chameleon, scurried to the left, transformed again and began making a complicated movement with her wand. When the death eater had located her it was too late. The entire marquee was shimmering in a barely there magical globe. They were trapped in a glass bubble.
Gienah dropped her wand and placed her dagger back into its sheath and ran forward, her arms wide open and hugged the death eater. Gienah felt his arms tentatively wrap around her.
"Black" He said urgently. "The dark lord is coming.
Gienah nodded in understanding.
"Can I kill them?"
The question was not dignified with a response as the death eater ran to Moody. Gienah felt her heart trill as she awaited the verdict.
"Alive, only just.." He muttered. He pointed his wand at him and performed what Gienah recognized to be a basic diagnostic spell. "His hearts been slown down with an internal impedimenta" he said with astonishment. "Fascinating.."
Gienah coughed.
"Right." He said, his voice returning to neutral. "Finite Incantatem."
Moody immediately began breathing.
"Brilliantly simple." Gienah gasped.
"I'll have to learn that one." He agreed. "Gienah, hurry."
Gienah grabbed Moody and dragged him over to Ginny.
"When will I see you again?" Gienah asked, stopping still to look at his mouth. The only part of him that she could see.
Then, the glass bowl shattered.
Gienah was spurred into action. Gienah stunned him and then transformed into a thestral. Gienah ran for flight and beat her wings, lifting the two limp figures with her claws. Gienah looked down to see Voldemort looking up at her. Gienah felt her mind being invaded but she thought of only the motion of flying and dodged the curse that sped her way. Voldemort raised his hands and he flew after her but Gienah transformed and apparated once she left the wards.
Moody was panting once she managed to get the two bodies inside the house. As Gienah closed the door behind them, the old-fashioned gas lamps sprang into life, casting flickering light along the length of the hallway. It looked just as Gienah remembered it: eerie, cobwebbed, the outlines of the house-elf heads on the wall throwing odd shadows up the staircase. Long dark curtains concealed the portrait of Sirius's mother.
"Severus Snape?"
Mad-Eye Moody's voice whispered out of the darkness.
Moody waved his wand and the cold air left them in the stuffy warmth.
"Homenum revelio." Moody growled. No shadows returned and Gienah exhaled.
"Kreacher!" Gienah called.
Kreacher appeared in front of her with a CRACK.
"Pepperup potion for Moody please Kreature. I also need you to remain silent about my whereabouts should my father ask."
"Lord Black is-"
"Yes, yes, but he won't demand you unless he suspects that you know." Gienah said. "Be vague, and don't act like you don't know all the loopholes."
Kreacher left slowly and made his way towards the kitchen. Moody was looking at Ginny, oking her with his wand.
"The Weasley's- we need to tell them." Moody growled, summoning a firewhiskey. "I need to go back to the Burrow."
Gienah looked at him warily.
"I'm sorry" Gienah sighed.
"What you sorr-"
Gienah wandlessly stunned him as he unscrewed the bottle. Gienah couldn't have them knowing they were here. Gienah retrieved her dagger and cut Ginny's arm and caught blood flow with an empty vial. Corking it she placed an unbreakable spell on it and placed it inside the heel of her shoe.
Gienah then healed the cut and sadly looked at Ginny Weasley or Deyanira Riddle. She had been a friend for a good four years and she did feel a loss. But she also felt a relief and it made her feel a little sick when she imagined the reactions from her surrogate family.
Gienah oblivated him, held onto Ginny's arm and apparated to the outskirts of the Burrow. Gienah saw from the distance that the Order had regained control. Gienah kissed Riddle's cold cheek and apparated away and tried not to the think of the how the Weasley's would respond to their first familial loss in the war. Dumbledore was a symbol. Ginny was their blood. Or so they believed.
When Gienah returned she saw the door had just been closed. Her heart sped as she turned into a bird and flew into the open window on the third floor. She had appeared in her father's old room.
Gienah changed and silently opened the door. She looked down the staircase and saw a bushy head and sighed in relief.
"Hermione!"
Gienah ran down the stairs.
Harry had hugged her first.
"What happened?" Ron said.
"Is everyone ok?" Hermione said nervously.
Gienah breathed deeply before she looked at Ron and said "Ginny's dead."
Ron's skin turned pale.
"No" Harry said defiantly.
Hermione fell to the ground. Gienah offered her her hand but she was staring at the troll leg. Gienah pulled her up and helped her into the living room, seating her on the sofa. Gienah summoned glasses and poured firewhiskey into four glasses. Hermione leaned forward and took the entire bottle and proceeded to gulp the whiskey down as if it was water.
"Hermione", Gienah said weakly, trying to pry the bottle out of her hands.
Hermione let go and drew her knees close to her body and began rocking. Giena could hear her sobs and hated herself for not feeling the same kind of loss.
Kreacher returned with the pepperup potion.
"Is there any food in the kitchen?" Gienah asked Kreacher.
"Yes."
"Could you cook us some dinner please?" Gienah asked.
Kreacher nodded.
Gienah put a few drops of potion in the glasses and mixed it with the alcohol. She passed one glass to Hermione who drank without really responding. Harry came in, tears streaming from his face and hugged her. Gienah stroked his hair.
"I'm so sorry." Gienah said again and again. "I'm so so sorry."
An hour later Kreacher brought dinner into the living room at her request. It wasn't much. She supposed he had to work with what he had. A bowl of lentil soup and homemade flatbread followed by an eggless chocolate cake. They ate in silence and when Kreacher surprised them with dessert Ron finally spoke.
"How?"
"A killing curse I think. There was no other trace, but her heart stopped beating. I left her with Moody and left to find you." Gienah hated lying to him and so she spoke the truth, thought it was veiled and selective.
"Who?" Ron choked out, his body shaking. His soup was untouched.
"I have no idea Ron, I found her dead when I got to her."
A silence fell again.
"How come you only arrived now?" Gienah asked.
"We-" Harry's voice was rasping and he coughed to speak again. "Hermione apparated us to Tottenham Court Road. Went into a cafe. Dolohov and Rowle appeared. Duelled. Obliviated them and came here."
"We thought maybe Harry still had a Trace on him" Hermione said.
Harry cried in pain, everyone looked at him.
"What did you see?" Ron asked, advancing on Harry. "Did you see him at my place?"
"No" Harry said, looking at Gienah. "You. He's- you- thestral."
"But that could be at the Burrow," said Ron desperately. "What else? Didn't you see anything? Was he cursing someone?"
"A thestral in the sky, with Moody and Ginny in her claws." Harry said. "Gienah you didn't say he came to the burrow."
"You saved Moody's life." Hermione gasped.
"I barely saw him" Gienah said quietly.
"Yes well he's fascinated with you now!" Harry shouted. "You really think he won't start joining the dots."
"Riddle underestimates the power of other creatures Harry" Gienah sighed. "It is his greatest weakness."
"But if the dementor incident-"
"Sirius was thorough." Gienah interrupted him. "Only the healer knows."
"We need to obliviate the healer." Harry said, standing up. "What was his name?"
"Harry really-"
"If you don't tell me I'll find out which healer specializes in dementor attacks and stake the hospital out in the cloak until I find him."
"Edward Swann."
"I'm coming with you." Hermione said, sounding stronger now and more composed. "Harry's right to be diligent. He can't know about you. He may find out about Lyra and Pandora. The entire Black family would be in jeopardy. Let him believe shapeshift is all you can so. He cannot know that you are Nagual."
Gienah glowered at them before saying "Fine. But both of you are taking polyjuice potion."
Then Hermione shrieked: Harry drew his wand again and spun around to see a silver Patronus soar through the drawing room window and land upon the floor in front of them, where it solidified into the weasel that spoke with the voice of Ron's father.
"Ginny's dead. Everyone else alive and safe. Do not reply. Being watched."
The Patronus dissolved into nothingness. Ron let out a noise between a whimper and a groan and dropped onto the sofa: Hermione joined him, gripping his arm.
"Everyone else is ok. Small mercies." Hermione whispered.
"Hermione we need to go. Now." Harry said sharply. Hermione glared at him but obeyed.
"We'll need to get some hairs first." Hermione said.
"Be back in an hour at the most." Harry said. "Keep an eye on Ron."
Gienah warmed the soup and spoon fed him as he stared into the distance.
"My only sister." Ron said after he'd finished his bowl. "She was my only sister."
"I know." Gienah said, not really knowing what else to say.
"Did you see her before..?" Ron asked.
"She- seemed to be in shock. She wasn't moving." Gienah said, having not had a chance to question her odd behaviour. "Molly grabbed her but she was stung. I don't know what she was thinking. Whether she wanted to fight them or-"
"Or if she willingly looked for death." Gienah confessed in a small voice.
"Ginny's not suicidal!" Ron yelled.
"How else do you explain her standing there?" Gienah said weakly. It was the only conclusion she could draw.
"Why would she want to-?" Ron began.
"Her and Harry hadn't been talking." Ron growled.
Gienah hated to say it but she suspected the same thing.
"It isn't his fault." Gienah cried for the first time. "He said he needed to finish this before being in a relationship. That he still wanted her." Though she did not recall him saying this.
Ron stood up and left the room.
Gienah walked into the kitchen for a lack of things to do. She had changed already and placed a few additional wards around the house. Gienah opened the cupboards and saw that they had a hell of a lot of shopping to do. Leaving a note on the table she decided she may as well do everything she could in the time they had spare. Gienah flew out the window and looked for the nearest grocer's. She found a corner shop five minutes away and broke in through the back.
It was eery being in a shop alone, after dark. Gienah lit her wand. Gienah froze the cameras and brought her bag out and began filling it up with the limited ingredients in the store. Butter, eggs, milk, onions, peppers, yeast, tomatoes, cream, herbs, cheese, a bag of apples and two boxes of cereal. Gienah left a twenty pound note and some change and quickly left.
Gienah returned with the groceries feeling a little more settled having completed a basic household chore. After checking that Ron was alright she went into the kitchen and began making a bread dough. Waiting for the dough to prove she found herself making a quiche. Rolling out the pastry and putting in into the oven to blind bake, she wringed her hands, looked at the time and saw the hour was almost up. To keep her mind off their delay she began preparing an upside down apple cake. As she cored the apples she heard the door open. Gienah ran to the hallway in her apron and a spoon in her hand. They were fine. Their polyjuice were wearing off.
"You've been baking?" Harry said, looking about ready to collapse.
"Stress baking." Gienah said. "Did you find him?"
"We had to go to his house." Hermione sighed. "Set the wards off and got into a skirmish, but he and his girlfriend are safely obliviated now. Where's Ron?"
"On the roof," Gienah said.
Hermione ran upstairs.
Gienah walked back to the kitchen and Harry came with her.
"I need to talk to you before Ron." Gienah said. "When I saw Ginny at the wedding, after the death eaters came, she wasn't running."
Harry blinked.
"She must've been in shock-"
"Mrs. Weasley tried to grab her but she couldn't touch her."
"Someone must've hexed-"
"I saw her Harry, and she wasn't in shock." Gienah continued calmly. "She looked as if she was waiting for it. Like she was welcoming it."
"What are you saying?" Harry hissed.
"I think we need to consider that perhaps she wanted to die." Gienah said fearfully, looking at his flashing green eyes, so much like her own.
"If you accept that perhaps you won't blame yourself so much." Gienah whispered.
"Ginny isn't suicidal!" Harry said. "And either way it was my fault!"
"No, no" Gienah wept, shaking her head. "Even if you hadn't been there, they would have went to capture you. To push their weight around."
"See!" Harry choked out. "My mere existence threatens them!"
"Well of course it does!" Gienah screamed. "When you become the embodiment of hope, when you're the fucking Chosen One, the messiah of the Wizarding World! What do you expect? It's inevitable."
"Not it's not." Harry said coolly. "Go home Gienah."
"I beg your pardon?" Gienah said in a high pitched voice.
"Get out." Harry repeated. "I'm not placing you in any more danger. You are a mother."
"Yeah? Well, you're a godson." Gienah spat out. "In fact! If you want to play this game let's be utilitarian about it-"
"Not bloody philosophy-"
"If we did a ballot, I reckon the world would rather I died instead of you. So maybe you should go home. I'll finish the horcrux hunt with Hermione and Ron. Don't see why it needs to be specifically you - you've told us everything he's told you."
"What?" Harry shouted.
"Yeah, see how stupid it sounds!" Gienah agreed. "How do you expect us to back out now? We want him gone as much as you do Harry. And you're right. I am a mother. If anything, I think my will outweighs your own. I wish to murder him for the sake of my children above all else."
Harry sneered.
"That's right… Drop the mother card when it suits you."
The blood drained from Gienah's face.
"Blaise and Missy have practically raised your children-" Harry continued.
"Harry." Hermione's voice came from the door. There was an edge of warning to her voice.
"And you don't even love him. It was the same with Cedric. Ask Hermione. Ask Ron. You're a man eater Gienah. I didn't blame Ron when he said what we were all thinking. Malfoy- falling in love? Ha!" Harry said cruelly. "That had to be the cherry on your achievements."
Gienah had nothing to say. Her worst fears of what people thought of her was being realized- by her own brother.
"That's enough." Hermione said coldly.
"How dare you attack your sister? Harry, you have such a victim complex you feel the need to attack when someone tells you how it is." Hermione snapped before she caught on to what she was saying.
Harry smiled grimly.
"Looks like we're all getting a dose of home truths." Harry laughed. "What about you Hermione?"
Hermione froze, pleading with her eyes.
"Enough Harry." Gienah growled.
"The sanctimonious friend." Harry continued. "Can never do no wrong huh? Well, she's had you all fooled."
Gienah then saw Ron lurking by the open doorway. Gienah silenced him wandlessly.
"I want to hear what he's got to say." Ron said, looking at Hermione wearily.
"Harry.." Gienah pleaded.
Ron removed the spell.
"Hermione was sleeping with Krum throughout fourth year." Harry said blankly.
Gienah stopped glaring at Harry and now looked at Hermione with her mouth gaping.
"Oh don't look at me like that." Hermione said shrilly. "I really doubt that you of all people can judge!"
"You slept with Krum." Ron said slowly, as if trying to process this information.
"Because you weren't fucking Lavender every chance you got last year." Hermione hissed. "Really Ron? Never heard of silencing charms."
This was news to Harry and Gienah. No wonder Hermione couldn't stand him last year.
"You actually slept-" Harry began.
"Ew." Gienah said, wanting to get rid of the mental image.
"Just coz you're the only virgin under this roof" Ron laughed. "Even Kreacher-"
Gienah hit him with a silencing charm while Harry turned a delicate colour of pickled beetroot.
Hermione waved her wand.
"Even Hermione-" Ron was saying angrily. "The frigid-"
Gienah silenced him again.
Harry waved his wand.
"-opened her legs. Not that I'm complaining. I guess I should thank you for not taking her virginity-"
Gienah snorted.
"And taking her life instead-"
Harry's jaw dropped.
"What?" Ron said coolly. "You can blame yourself but I can't blame you? If Ginny had a death wish. you drove her to it."
"Ron.." Hermione squeaked.
"I'm sorry - what was that?" Ron said, looking around the kitchen. "Did you hear a liar Gen?"
"Liar?" Hermione said, looking around her. "Because I decided to keep one thing a secret-"
"Oh by the sounds of it, more than once darling." Ron laughed.
"You filthy hypocrite!" Hermione shrilled. "You never told them you weren't a virgin but I suppose seeing as I'm the girl-"
"I'm not the one that goes around with a stick up my-"
"Ron!" Gienah said. "Why the hell are we ripping each other apart?"
"Oh I don't know Mistress." Kreacher's voice came from somewhere in the kitchen. "I is finding it entertaining. Kreacher never knew the mudblood was a-"
Gienah silenced him.
"There is a war on." Gienah croaked, her voice sore from all the shouting. "We don't need one between us too."
Harry walked off. The door slammed behind him.
Hermione and Ron were standing looking red in the face and a little sheepish.
"That was low." Gienah sighed.
Ron's anger was draining away, he slid down the door and choked up with tears. Hermione's face softened and she walked towards him and knelt down in front of him and took his face in her hands.
"It was only twice." Hermione said in a whisper. "It just-"
"You don't have to explain yourself to me Hermione." Ron said quietly, unable to look her in the eye.
"Ron." Gienah said softly, joining them on the floor. "You need to forgive him… It'll kill him. He'd isolate himself. You know how he is. He'll think he's doing the right thing and leave."
"I just - I can't believe - she's gone" Ron said, between hiccups. "If he'd said he loved her-"
"You start obsessing over what-ifs Ron, and you'll forget what-about-nows." Gienah said.
"I'm so sorry Ron but your sister's dead. You can't bring her back. You need to accept that and mourn. If you're looking for someone to blame it's not Harry. If you want retribution we need to work together and tear them all down."
"I- I think I'm going to go to bed."
"I don't want to be on my own. Could we use the sleeping bags I've bought and camp in here tonight?" Hermione said, as they all got to their feet.
A chink of sky was visible between the heavy curtains. It was the cool, clear blue of watered ink, somewhere between night and dawn, and everything was quiet except for Ron and Hermione's slow, deep breathing. Gienah glanced over at the dark shapes they made on the floor beside her. Hermione's silhouette was raised above his. Her arm curved to the floor, her fingers inches from Ron's.
Gienah looked up at the shadowy ceiling, the cobwebbed chandelier. Less than twenty-four hours ago, she had been standing in the sunlight chasing Althena and Cassiopeia around the marquee. It seemed a lifetime away.
Ambrosia… Sirius.. Eridanus…
Gienah didn't remember when she had become a mother but when she was apart from Ambrosia those three months she was faced with that wonderful, glorious and terrifying truth. She was the mother of three children. She couldn't explain how it felt. It became a part of her breathing. Waking up, seeing to them, feeding them, changing nappy after nappy, bedtimes, teaching them the alphabet, numbers, watching their first steps. It was as if her heart had stopped beating to one drum. Now there were three pulses and her own was drowned in their love. When she had made her decision to join Harry it wasn't a decision, it was the way it had to be. She avoided thinking what it would mean to be apart from them. Sure, she's left them at the manor for a few days at a time throughout the summer, but this was nothing like that. Then, she could count down the days. Now she had a stretch of unpredictable darkness ahead of her. And there was a very real chance that she could die.
Gienah could not stand lying there with nothing but bitter thoughts for company. Desperate for something to do, for distraction, she slipped out of her sleeping bag, picked up her wand, and crept out of the room. On the landing she whispered, "Lumos," and started to climb the stairs by wandlight.
Gienah entered her late uncle's room. She didn't know why that room but it felt appropriate. Gienah sat at his desk and brought out the three journals. Gienah opened the heart of the journal and withdrew the vial of blood. Heart racing she opened the cork and tilted the vial.
"Gienah?"
Gienah gasped and the entire vial dropped onto its pages, she picked the vial up but it was too late. Gienah watched as the page began to fill with writing.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked suspiciously walking up to her. Gienah shut the book, her eyes feverish with excitement.
"Private." Gienah whispered, looking at the empty vial. There goes her decoder for the two other journals and she really really didn't want to upturn even Deyanira Riddle's grave. "Where did you sleep?"
"Next door." Harry said. "I wanted to apologize."
"No need." Gienah said, last night already a distant bad dream.
"You are doing what you have to do." Harry finished quickly before she could interrupt. "I knew that and I-"
"Really Harry" Gienah said. "It's fine."
"Right.." Harry said. "Coffee?"
"I'd love some." Gienah gave him a small smiled.
When he left she immediately returned to the journal. It wasn't a Dear Diary journal at all. It resembled her own journal. Filled with newspaper articles, and dates and names and locations. It was a treasure house of information on the first rise of Voldemort and even his history.. at times there were entries. Gienah hungrily read.
8/12/1979
I didn't know what to make of the werewolf. He was a member of Oldbeard's pack but he was no vicious, bloodthirsty monster. I watched him for hours. He sat with his companion who became increasingly drunk. I caught his name when he introduced him to another local. Marcus Blott. An outcast. A werewolf but independent of any pack. Lupin spoke but he never did reveal anything about himself. I am convinced there is more to him.
Gienah flicked through the pages but there was nothing more on Lupin.
2/1/1980
I had to service him again tonight. He forgot to perform the contraceptive charm. Is it possible that I could conceive our child? I dare not raise my hopes.
So she had been in love with him and Voldemort really had no idea… until Tom Riddle entered her life. She wondered if she knew her father had never known and she wondered how the imprint had fathered her. No doubt he'd seduced her with the talk of power.
Gienah went downstairs. It was still dark outside. Hermione and Ron continued to sleep. Harry had set two mugs of coffee down on the table and was poking through the cupboards looking for breakfast foods. Gienah pointed to the cupboard by the window and Harry brought out the box of cereal.
"There wasn't much else in the shop." Gienah said looking into the cupboard she'd stocked the night before. "I'll make something."
"I'm good with cereal." Harry said.
"It keeps my mind off things." Gienah said quietly. "How are you feeling?"
"For a few moments after I woke up I forgot." Harry said. "Then it all came back. The wedding. The patronus. I didn't love her Gienah but she made me happy. I didn't feel so lonely."
Gienah didn't know what to say to make it better, so she didn't say anything at all. Harry ate his corn flakes in silence while Gienah bustled around the kitchen and brought out a cookery book. An hour later the whiff of her baking had woken Ron up. He walked into the kitchen rubbing his eyes and sat opposite Harry. Gienah poured him a coffee and placed a jug of milk and a bowl of sugar in front of him, followed by a platter of croissants.
There seemed to be a silent agreement between them not to mention their conversation last night.
"I need to go to the funeral." Ron eventually said when Hermione eventually joined them later.
"I'm not sure-" Hermione began.
"I can't not go." Ron said.
"You'll need the cloak." Harry said.
Ron nodded.
"I think we should begin looking in your uncle's room, Gienah." Hermione said, after a moments silence. Her voice had a forced enthusiasm to it.
"Diary, ring…. locket, cup, snake and something Ravenclaw or Gryffindor." Harry murmured. It almost sounded like a song. "It keeps going round and round in my head and I have no idea where to start with the other two."
"We'll leave the snake till last." Hermione said. "And in the meantime, we follow up anywhere he had an attachment too."
"The chamber of secrets, his mother's childhood home and a cave at a seaside." Gienah listed off. "Oddly nostalgic for an evil lord."
"Do you think.. maybe the orphanage?" Hermione said.
"He hated it there." Harry said. "I doubt it, and I doubt that it's still standing after fifty odd years."
"Worth a look." Hermione said, her voice growing stronger. "What else are we going to do?"
"We can't stay hiding." Gienah said. "I can't stay hiding anyway. We need.. something more."
"What are you thinking?" Harry said, a familiar glint in his eye.
"Borgin and Burkes." Gienah smiled darkly. "I hear they're hiring."
Ron was on his hands and knees, searching under the wardrobe. Gienah looked around the room for likely hiding places and approached the desk. Somebody had searched before them. The drawer's' contents had been turned over recently, the dust disturbed, but there was nothing of value there: old quills, out-of-date textbooks that bore evidence of being roughly handled, a recently smashed ink bottle, its sticky residue covering the contents of the drawer.
"There's an easier way," said Hermione, as Gienah wiped her inky fingers on her jeans. She raised her wand and said, "Accio Locket!"
Nothing happened. Ron, who had been searching the folds of the faded curtains, looked disappointed.
"Is that it, then? It's not here?"
"Oh, it could still be here, but under counter-enchantments," said Hermione. "Charms to prevent it from being summoned magically, you know."
"Like Voldemort put on the stone basin in the cave," said Harry.
"How are we supposed to find it then?" asked Ron.
"We search manually," said Gienah glumly.
"That's a good idea," said Ron, rolling his eyes, and he resumed his examination of the curtains.
They combed every inch of the room for more than an hour, but were forced, finally, to conclude that the locket was not there.
The sun had risen now; its light dazzled them even through the grimy landing windows.
"It could be somewhere else in the house, though," said Hermione in a rallying tone as they walked back downstairs. "Whether he'd manage to destroy it or not, he'd want to keep it hidden from Voldemort, wouldn't he?"
"Remember all those awful things we had to get rid of when we were here last time Harry? That clock that shot bolts at everyone and those old robes that tried to strangle dad; Regulus might have put them there to protect the locket's hiding place, even though we didn't realize it at ... at ..."
Hermione, Harry and Ron looked at her. She was standing with one foot in midair, with the dumbstruck look of one who had just been obliviated: her eyes had even drifted out of focus.
"... at the time," she finished in a whisper.
"Something wrong?" asked Ron.
"There was a locket."
"What?" they said together.
"In the cabinet in the drawing room. Nobody could open it. And we ... we ..."
"Kreacher nicked loads of things back from us," said Harry. "He had a whole stash of stuff in his cupboard in the kitchen. C'mon."
He ran down the stairs taking two steps at a time, the other two thundering along in his wake. They made so much noise that they woke the portrait of Sirius's mother as they passed through the hall.
"Filth! Mudbloods! Blood-" Walburga began screaming. "Oh Gienah dear."
Gienah groaned and stopped before her portrait and curtsied.
"You haven't visited in so long." Walburga said sternly. "What is my good-for-nothing son been up to? How are my grandsons?"
Gienah refrained from rolling her eyes.
"They are doing well. As are the rest of your grandchildren, and great grandchildren." Gienah smiled glassily.
"Hmph." Walburga said, frowning at her. "Have you married the Zabini boy yet?"
"No grandmama." Gienah said, itching to get away.
"It won't do child." Walburga remonstrated her. "It is the only way you can recover your own unfortunate birth and your childrens. He is a boy of a worthy station Phineas tells me. Pureblood. Of respectable society despite his mothers.. chequered past."
"Yes grandmama." Gienah said obediently. It was the gist of their past conversations.
"You have a duty to your children Gienah." Walburga continued. "I'm pleased, in any case, that your father has relocated to our ancestral home. Perhaps he can now begin to rebuild our legacy. I hear you continue to call the werewolf a father?"
"Yes grandmama."
Walburga flared her nose.
"Shameful child." Walburga spat out, her exterior calm lost completely. "I suppose it is the blood of your mudblood mother which has made you such a disappointment-"
"And whose blood made father such a disappointment?" Gienah asked sweetly.
Walburga gawped at her, her pale complexion now splodged with patches of red.
"Goodbye" Gienah said, pulling the curtains over the portrait and ran into the kitchen, cursing under her breath. Disappointment indeed.
Kreacher was standing near the stove with three wizards fixed on him.
"Gone?" said Harry, "What do you mean, it's gone?"
The elf shivered. He swayed.
"Kreacher," said Harry fiercely, "I order you-"
"Mundungus Fletcher," croaked the elf, his eyes still tight shut. "Mundungus Fletcher stole it all; Miss Bella's and Miss Cissy's pictures, my Mistress's gloves, the Order of Merlin, First Class, the goblets with the family crest, and -"
Kreacher was gulping for air: His hollow chest was rising and falling rapidly, then his eyes flew open and he uttered a bloodcurdling scream.
"-and the locket, Master Regulus's locket. Kreacher did wrong, Kreacher failed in his orders!"
As Kreacher lunged for the poker standing in the grate, he launched himself upon the elf, flattening him. Hermione's scream mingled with Kreacher's but Harry bellowed louder than both of them: "Kreacher, I order you to stay still!"
He felt the elf freeze and released him. Kreacher lay flat on the cold stone floor, tears gushing from his sagging eyes.
"Harry, let him up!" Hermione whispered. Gienah ran forward. Of course.. why hadn't she thought of it before. There Kreacher had been the entire time while they had mulled over the whereabouts of Slytherin's locket.
"So he can beat himself up with the poker?" snorted Harry, kneeling beside the elf. "I don't think so. Right. Kreacher, I want the truth: How do you know Mundungus Fletcher stole the locket?"
"Kreacher saw him!" gasped the elf as tears poured over his snout and into his mouth full of graying teeth. "Kreacher saw him coming out of Kreacher's cupboard with his hands full of Kreacher's treasures. Kreacher told the sneak thief to stop, but Mundungus Fletcher laughed and r-ran ..."
"You called the locket 'Master Regulus's,'" said Harry. "Why? Where did it come from? What did Regulus have to do with it? Kreacher, sit up and tell me everything you know about that locket, and everything Regulus had to do with it!"
The elf sat up, curled into a ball, placed his wet face between his knees, and began to rock backward and forward. When he spoke, his voice was muffled but quite distinct in the silent, echoing kitchen.
"Master Sirius ran away, good riddance, for he was a bad boy and broke my Mistress's heart with his lawless ways. But Master Regulus had proper order; he knew what was due to the name of Black and the dignity of his pure blood. For years he talked of the Dark Lord, who was going to bring the wizards out of hiding to rule the Muggles and the Muggle-borns ... and when he was sixteen years old, Master Regulus joined the Dark Lord. So proud, so proud, so happy to serve ...
And one day, a year after he joined, Master Regulus came down to the kitchen to see Kreacher. Master Regulus always liked Kreacher. And Master Regulus said ... he said ..."
The old elf rocked faster than ever.
"... he said that the Dark Lord required an elf."
"Voldemort needed an elf?" Gienah repeated.
"Oh yes," moaned Kreacher. "And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It was an honor, said Master Regulus, an honor for him and for Kreacher, who must be sure to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do ... and then to c-come home."
Kreacher rocked still faster, his breath coming in sobs.
"So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord did not tell Kreacher what they were to do, but took Kreacher with him to a cave beside the sea. And beyond the cave was a cavern, and in the cavern was a great black lake ..."
Gienah felt her palms become sweaty and her breath catch in her throat. This wasn't the first time she'd heard this story.
"... There was a boat ..."
"There was a b-basin full of potion on the island. The D-Dark Lord made Kreacher drink it ..."
The elf quaked from head to foot.
"Kreacher drank, and as he drank he saw terrible thing ... Kreacher's insides burned ... Kreacher cried for Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress Black, but the Dark Lord only laughed ... He made Kreacher drink all the potion ... He dropped a locket into the empty basin ... He filled it with more potion."
"And then the Dark Lord sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the island ..."
"Kreacher needed water, he crawled to the island's edge and he drank from the black lake ... and hands, dead hands, came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under the surface ..."
"How did you get away?" Gienah whispered.
Kreacher raised his ugly head and looked at Gienah with his great, bloodshot eyes.
"Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back," he said.
"I know but how did you escape the Inferi?" Harry said impatiently.
Kreacher did not seem to understand.
"Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back," he repeated.
"I know, but- "
"Well, it's obvious, isn't it, Harry?" said Ron. "He Disapparated!"
"But ... you couldn't Apparate in and out of that cave," said Harry, "otherwise Dumbledore-"
"Elf magic isn't like wizard's magic, is it?" said Ron, "I mean, they can Apparate and Disapparate in and out of Hogwarts when we can't."
Hermione then spoke voicing Gienah's thoughts, and her voice was icy.
"Of course, Voldemort would have considered the ways of house-elves far beneath his notice ... It would never have occurred to him that they might have magic that he didn't."
"The house-elf's highest law is his Master's bidding," intoned Kreacher. "Kreacher was told to come home, so Kreacher came home ..."
"Well, then, you did what you were told, didn't you?" said Hermione kindly. "You didn't disobey orders at all!"
Kreacher shook his head, rocking as fast as ever.
"So what happened when you got back?" Gienah asked. "What did my uncle say when you told him what happened?"
"Master Regulus was very worried, very worried," croaked Kreacher. "Master Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden and not to leave the house. And then ... it was a little while later ... Master Regulus came to find Kreacher in his cupboard one night, and Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind, Kreacher could tell ... and he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave, the cave where Kreacher had gone with the Dark Lord ..."
"And he made you drink the poison?" said Harry, disgusted.
But Kreacher shook his head and wept. Hermione's hands leapt to her mouth.
"M-Master Regulus took from his pocket a locket like the one the Dark Lord had," said Kreacher, tears pouring down either side of his snout like nose. "And he told Kreacher to take it and, when the basin was empty, to switch the lockets ..."
Kreacher's sobs came in great rasps now. Gienah was now sobbing silently alongside him. And they had thought he'd been a coward. That he'd run away and all this time…
"And he order - Kreacher to leave - without him. And he told Kreacher- to go home- and never to tell my Mistress -what he had done -but to destroy - the first locket. And he drank- all the potion - and Kreacher swapped the lockets ¨-and watched ... as Master Regulus ... was dragged beneath the water ... and ..."
All this time he had given his life towards defeating Voldemort.
"Oh, Kreacher!" wailed Hermione, who was crying.
The elf lay on the floor, panting and shivering, green mucus glistening around his snot, a bruise already blooming on his pallid forehead where he had struck himself, his eyes swollen and bloodshot and swimming in tears. Gienah was on her knees, watching him with her own obscured vision.
"So you brought the locket home," Harry said relentlessly. "And you tried to destroy it?"
"For Merlin's sake Harry!" Gienah screamed. "And Ron's meant to be the one without tact."
"Gienah.." Hermione said, her cheeks wet with tears.
"All this time I thought he'd ran away.. I looked at him as a shadow of my father and he did the bravest thing of all. He admitted his mistake and he attempted redemption and died in his efforts." Gienah sobbed.
Kreacher wailed in grief and Gienah felt it too. Gienah conjured a handkerchief and offered it to him. Kreacher blew loudly and returned the snotty handkerchief her which she promptly scourgified.
"Nothing Kreacher did made any mark upon it," moaned the elf. "Kreacher tried everything, everything he knew, but nothing, nothing would work ... And his mistress was mad with grief, because Master Regulus had disappeared and Kreacher could not tell her what had happened, no, because Master Regulus had f-f-forbidden him to tell any of the f-f-family what happened in the c-cave ..."
Kreacher began to sob so hard that there were no more coherent words. Tears flowed down Hermione's cheeks as she watched Kreacher, but she did not dare touch him again. Even Ron, who was no fan of Kreacher's, looked troubled.
It was several minutes before Kreacher hiccupped himself into silence. Then he pushed himself into a sitting position again, rubbing his knuckles into his eyes like a small child.
"Kreacher." Gienah said softly. "I need your assistance. We can grant his dying wish together."
Kreacher looked at her with a sparkle of hope.
"Could you find Mundungus for me?" Gienah said, her voice hardened. "Find Dung and bring him to me."
"Find Mundungus Fletcher?" he croaked.
"Yes." Gianah said coldly, her chin raised, Hermione saw her natural aristocrat flair within her.
Kreacher smiled darkly at his mistress and with a deep bow he disappeared.