Death the Kid and the Broken Soul.
Chapter Four.
Deathly Report.
"At the end, it was a good thing that those Dementors attacked us, right? Now everybody will know that Voldemort is back," Harry commented with a smile as he, Mr. Weasley and Moody followed the Dursleys back to Private Drive.
"Use your head for a second, boy," snarled Moody. "He didn't send the Dementors after you. For starters, he wants to finish you himself. And even if he'd decided to take you from the picture, he would do it in a more subtle way; not leaving your soulless body behind so everyone would question what had happened. Besides, it's not the right time to kill you off."
Harry quirked an eyebrow. "And when would that be?"
"Not when the whole Wizarding World has their eyes glued on you thanks to those Prophet articles."
"What Prophet articles?" Potter frowned.
"Dumbledore believes it was someone from the Ministry," informed Mr. Weasley. "Someone with resources and connections; probably a Death Eater that wanted to please You-Know-Who."
"A rather stupid Death Eater then," spat Moody. "Voldemort has absolute power over his idiots; none of them would dare to mess with someone their dear lord has publicly claimed for killing."
Now, that was reassuring…
Mr. Weasley shook his head. "I know the Ministry has been rather irrational lately, but to send Dementors to attack Harry? No one is that insane!"
Moody raised an eyebrow. "Are we talking about the same Ministry of Magic?
"Well, doesn't really matter… There will be changes soon enough… Hope the new Minister isn't a complete idiot, by the very least."
"New Minister? Is Fudge quitting?" asked Harry wide-eyed.
"After upsetting Lord Death and forcing his child come to England?" Moody huffed and rolled his eye. "Not to mention Azkaban new management issue… He'll be lucky if he lasts to the end of the week."
The rest of the trip back to Number 4 was rather tranquil; the Dursleys were almost running, both to escape their guards and to avoid their stirring neighbors catching them with such companions.
-o-o-o-
After a long, twisted and rather confusing trip involving a Disillusion spell, broomsticks, the Knight Bus –which they had used to cross a mall-, a few portkeys, some decoys, a secret guard (consistent in two or three disguised wizards and witches that kept rotating and taking turns to jump from behind corners, trashcans and even dog houses…), some fake flu powder, a visit to London Tower dungeons, a short cut through Cornualles, hiding in a public bathroom for what Harry deemed as an eternity, and reading the address from some piece of paper… The-Boy-Who-Lived and his protectors made it to a dark, gloomy house by the name 12 Grimmauld Place just in time for lunch.
Mrs. Weasley was more than glad to feed Harry farther away than he thought was humanly possible.
"I'm so glad you finally made it," stated the woman while serving him another piece of kidney pie and potatoes and sending daggers to Moody.
The old Auror just shrugged, took a gulp from his hip flask's content, stabbed his own piece of kidney pie, inspected it very carefully and threw it in his mouth.
Mrs. Weasley sighed and rolled her eyes. She then poured some more pumpkin juice in her husband glass.
The kitchen door bursted open and Sirius, Hermione, and the Weasley progeny came in.
"Harry!" Sirius' greeting was almost a bark.
"How went your Hearing, mate?"
"It wasn't a Hearing, Ron," corrected his father. "It was a mere investigation."
"Yeah, of course!" growled Sirius gloomy. "A trip to the park with the Reaper's spawn! I bet you had fun!"
"The Reaper's spawn?" repeated George with a deep frown.
"Not important," Mr. Weasley quickly dismissed. "Kids, once Harry is done, would you show him his room? Harry, you'll be sharing with Ron…"
"Arthur."
That sole word sent the entire room in the utmost silence.
Mrs. Weasley's face was contorted with anger, fear, resentful and worst of all, hurt.
Frowning deeply, her head slightly tilted to the side, Mrs. Weasley regarded her husband with a stern look. "I'm sure when Sirius said 'Reaper' he didn't mean 'the Grim Reaper'…"
"Of course not, Mum," Fred rolled his eyes. "Everybody knows it doesn't have children."
"He has at least one," said Moody, bathing the food in his throat with a good gulp of whatever he had in his flask.
The statement was welcomed by an eerie silence… that didn't last long.
Molly turned sharply –and quite frenetically- to her husband -her face was twisted with fear and denial- and continued talking, actively ignoring Moody's comment: "And if you, by some stupid and crazy idea, ever go to the encounter of such a creature, you would certainly told me, wouldn't you? SO I'LL BE ABLE TO SMACK SOME COMMON SENSE IN THAT THICK SKULL OF YOURS!"
Mr. Weasley stuffed his almost whole forth piece of kidney pie in his mouth.
"AND YOU DEFINITELY WOULD NEVER DARE TO BRING A CHILD LIKE HARRY TO THAT THING…"
Mr. Weasley half swallowed, half chocked.
"ARTHUR!"
"Molly! Dearest! You really outdid yourself this time! This pie is the best I have ever had! Truly when I think you can't be anymore perfect…" Mr. Weasley spoke quickly, not even stopping once to take a breath,
"Arthur…" Mrs. Weasley's hiss made her husband flinched. "You certainly didn't!" She turned to Mad-Eye. "And you! How could you allow my husband and Harry near that thing?!"
Sirius had the decency of looking ashamed.
…Until Mrs. Weasley's wrath found him.
"And you knew about this… AND YOU ALLOWED THEM TO TAKE HARRY TO HIM! YOUR OWN GODSON!"
The argument was quickly escalating, or I should said that Mrs. Weasley screams were quickly rising while the men in the kitchen cowarded at a corner, praying for it to end.
"Hey! I didn't want to, but Dumbledore said it was completely safe!"
"Safe?! To meet Death?! How can that ever be safe?!"
"It wasn't Lord Death, but his son," muttered Arthur helplessly. "He must be around Ginny and Ron's age… And Dumbledore was there also."
"WAIT!" George cried. "You mean Dad and Harry met a Grim Reaper?!"
"You'd said you'll be accompanying Harry to the investigation! You never said anything about Death's child being there!" accused Fred pointing to his father.
Ron stared at his best friend wide-eyes and open-mouthed; Hermione was extremely pale and trembling (Harry didn´t know if it was due to fear or the possible knowledge she could gather by cornering and questioning him inmisericorde, though he was pretty sure the latter would prevail eventually); Ginny was also paled, so paled, she had had to take seat; the twins stared at their father and then at Harry and back to their father anxiously as did their mother, though her anxiety was very well hidden under a mask of murder intent.
"You met a Grim Reaper?" asked Fred accusingly, stabbing Harry with his index finger.
"I guess so," shrugged Harry, rubbing the abused area. "Though, to be honest, he didn't seem such a big deal.
"Sure, he did a pretty cool spell to show what happened in the Alley with the Dementors, but either than that, the weird looking skull of dark magic, the skateboard that came out from his hand and the girls that turned in guns, he seemed pretty normal."
"But he was a Grim Reaper?"
"Oh, yes, he is," grumbled Moody, becoming the target of everyone's eyes. "Back when I was Head of Aurors the first time Voldemort raised," (trembling and shivering from the Weasley family, inserted here), "the boy was often with his father whenever the current Minister asked for help; not that it happened frequently: you don't speak to Lord Death unless you have to."
"You said he hadn't changed at all in twenty year," pointed Harry.
"He hasn't."
The kitchen door opened with a squeak, revealing Professor McGonagall and Snape, making the cheery party gathered in the room jumped with a start.
Sirius was the very first one to recover. "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?!"
"Wait! Your house…?" frowned Harry remembering the gloomy hall, but his question was ignored.
Snape smiled in disgust. "You should ask the Headmaster, Black, since he is the one who called me to attend to your… lovely house."
"Severus…" warned McGonagall. "You too, Sirius."
The Transfiguration teacher then turned to the still fuming Molly Weasley.
"Molly, what's wrong?"
"They went to Death's encounter!"
The older witch frowned and glared to Moody and Mr. Weasley.
"You didn't tell her?!" She admonished in a voice that made Harry and Ron flinched for its familiarity.
While Professor McGonagall and Mrs. Weasley scoled the two full grown-up men with the ease years of practice confer, the door opened once more and Remus Lupin entered; he eyed both Sirius and Snape who were contently staring at each other with murderous intention from opposite corners of the kitchen and sighed.
"Kids," he nodded smiling to the young wizards and witches before taking seat at the table. "How has been your summer so far?"
Before any of them could utter answer, a scream –mix of anger and horror- resonate from the hall.
Harry stood dumbstruck; he knew that voice, he had heard it that very same morning.