Chapter 7
Guides
"Hey! You won't believe this! I swear, there are human beings out there!"
Lupin looked up. Tonks was shocked. "Seriously, Sirius?"
"Yes!" Sirius cried, waving his arms wildly, and, for the first time since the barrow downs, looking excited. "There's a little town and everything! I went inside…actually, it's not just humans. There's these weird midgets…Anyway, you have got to come on! You should have seen the looks on their faces when I walked in wearing all this armor, too. They thought I was some sort of knight…But a few of them didn't really care, so I guess there really are people who look like this somewhere in this world…and from what I saw of the town, I'd say they're medieval Muggles."
"Medieval," Lupin repeated. "And you're sure they're Muggles?"
"I didn't see any wands or magic."
"All right," Lupin said. "We should go and at least spend the night there…I'm sure we can find some sort of inn for travelers. But first things first. Tonks?"
"Yes?"
"Your hair."
"Oh!" Tonks cried. If these people were medieval, they wouldn't know what to think about Tonks's spiked purple hair. To both Sirius's and Lupin's surprise, however, Tonks didn't screw her face up in concentration to get her hair to change. In a flash she was different.
But her hair wasn't the only thing that changed. Her eyes, which had been bright blue, turned brown like her new brown hair. The shape of her body changed as well.
"Well?" Tonks said, sounding a little embarrassed.
"Well, what?" Sirius asked.
"Well, haven't you ever wondered how I really look?" Tonks asked.
"This is how you really look?" Lupin said, surprised.
"Yes," Tonks mumbled. She blushed.
Sirius raised his eyebrows.
"Strange," Lupin said, shaking his head.
"What?" Tonks asked nervously. She had thought Sirius would be the one making unnecessary comments on her appearance, not Lupin.
"One wonders why the gift of changing appearance was given to someone already so beautiful," he replied, smiling.
For a moment nobody spoke. Tonks broke the silence. "Thanks," she said quietly.
"Can we go now?" Sirius asked.
"Certainly," Lupin said.
"One moment," Tonks said. "How are we going to pay for three rooms to spend the night?"
"We only need two rooms," Sirius said. "I wouldn't mind sleeping on the floor in Moony's room."
"Never mind that, how are we going to pay for even one room?" Tonks asked.
"We will have to figure that out when we get there," Lupin said with a shrug.
The three friends proceeded to a large blocking the town. Sirius went to the gate-window.
"Hello?"
The window slid open. "You wish to enter?"
"Yes," Sirius said. "Remember me? I was in here, what…five minutes ago?"
The gatekeeper's eye squinted at him. "Oh yes…" it surveyed the others. "Brought friends, I see."
"Yes. Let us in."
The gate creaked open. Sirius, Tonks, and Lupin stepped inside.
"I'm surprised he speaks English, Moony," Tonks whispered to Lupin. "I was afraid for a second there that we would have to learn some strange new language."
"Yes, it is quite fascinating," Lupin said, staring at the buildings. "As are many things in this town…"
"It's strange…they speak English, but the writing is in these strange runes…" Sirius said, looking around at all of the buildings. "We have to find a place to stay, but I don't know where to go."
"There are a lot of people going into that large building over there," Lupin said, pointing.
The three walked inside. There was a fat man at the front desk who smiled at them. "Welcome to the Prancing Pony Inn!" he said cheerfully. "My name is Barliman Butterbur. Would you like to rent out a room for the night, or do you just want to go into the pub?"
"We don't have any money," Tonks reminded Sirius with a whisper.
"We'll just…er…walk around," Sirius said. They stepped into the "pub."
For about ten seconds, Sirius, Tonks, and Lupin were the center of attention.
With ancient swords at their belts and daggers glistening in the candlelight, they sharply contrasted the drunk, ragged men of the pub at the Prancing Pony. But, being drunk, the men took little interest in them. All but three.
Two men, sitting at a table, were conversing about business they had been doing. When they saw the three, they were quite interested. Anything that looked profitable caught their eye, and these three people were, judging by their weaponry, most definitely rich.
The other man who saw them sat in a dark corner. He had rushed to Bree as fast as he could when he had been told to, and now he sat and waited for someone he didn't know would even show up. But anything out of the ordinary was welcome, and these people certainly weren't ordinary.
The other two men quickly began talking again. Sirius had noticed their interest in him and his friends and slowly edged forward in their direction, listening in on their conversation while he made sure to look around in other places. He couldn't pick up much, but what he did hear was enough to give him cause to approach them.
"Do you think Saruman might have sent them over here to…"
"…you know how wizards are…"
The word "wizard" was just what Sirius had been hoping to hear. He ran over to their table and faced the two men. "You know a wizard?"
"Yes," one of the men said slowly.
"Do you know where he is? Is he here?"
"No," the other man replied.
"And why do you care?" the first man asked.
"I…I need to speak with a wizard," Sirius said quickly.
"Come with us," the second man said. The two stood up from their table and started to walk away. Sirius began to follow.
"What are you doing?" Tonks asked angrily, walking over to him.
"Stay behind," Sirius whispered back. "I'll deal with them. They might help us."
"Just don't do anything stupid," Tonks said. She and Lupin stayed back in the pub, while Sirius and the two men went to the other side of the inn, where the rooms were.
The two waited a few minutes, but nothing happened. "He'd better come back soon," Tonks said. "Otherwise I'll go and get him myself."
"He'll be back, Tonks," Lupin said, "but I don't know how long it will take." He glanced around nervously at the disgusting men drinking all around them.
The man in the corner stood up. Now is my chance, while they are alone…
But, before he could reach them, Sirius and the two men returned. Tonks was not happy to see that all three were staring at her. The look in the strangers' eyes as they continued to approach her was more than a bit frightening, and her own eyes kept darting back to Sirius, who was trying to signal something to her but sighed hopelessly and stopped.
One of the men reached out a hand as if to grab her, but Sirius stayed his hand and gently pushed it back. Tonks was outraged, but before she could yell her opinion Lupin shot her a warning glance. Tonks closed her mouth.
One of the men said, "All right. We'll do it."
"Great!" Sirius said. "Now, Lupin, Tonks, I would like you to meet Bill Ferny. He and his friend Deadeyes are going to show us the way to Isengard. There's a wizard named Saruman who lives there."
Bill Ferny told them that they would set off early the next morning. Surprisingly, he even paid for a room for the three to stay in. It wasn't until nightfall that the three finally got some privacy in their small room.
"What is going on here?" Lupin asked Sirius, before Tonks could.
"I already told you, we're going to visit a wizard," Sirius said. "I picked up a few things from our conversation. Apparently wizards aren't common at all. There's only a few of them in this whole country called Middle-earth, and Bill Ferny made it sound like they're all old men. And everyone has heard of them, but because there are so few, not everyone believes in them. Still, there isn't any secrecy like in our world."
"Sirius," Lupin said, "am I to believe that these two generous men paid for a room and offered to take us to this wizard free of charge?"
"I have everything taken care of," Sirius said. "We don't have to pay them anything."
"Oh really?" Tonks said, putting her hands on her hips. "So you didn't offer them anything?"
"Well…I…er…offered them something, yes, but they're not going to get anything. You know, it's one of those deals where they don't get anything until they take us to Isengard…after we get to Isengard, we can ditch them, and we won't have to worry about it anymore."
"What exactly did you offer them?" Lupin asked.
"Er…well, it was difficult!" Sirius said. "They said that they do services for Saruman and he pays them, so they wanted something really…really expensive…"
"We don't have anything expensive," Tonks said. "What if they find out we don't have what it is you offered them and they try to kill us!"
"Well…you're missing the point," Sirius said. "I…well, I…er…I had to show them something or they wouldn't do anything for us, and they wanted proof, and my weapon wasn't good enough, even though Bill Ferny liked it a lot and offered to buy it off of me. So…so I had to…think of something we had that might…you, know, that…er…that they would like…"
"Sirius, you didn't," Lupin said sternly.
"Didn't what?" Tonks asked, looking from one man to the other.
"I told you, we don't have to worry about it!" Sirius said nervously. "I'll kill them when we get to Isengard if I have to! And, I'm telling you, this place isn't close, and there aren't any other wizards around! We would never have found it ourselves, and I had to offer something good or they would have just ignored me…"
"What did you offer!" Tonks asked wildly.
"Well," Sirius said, trying to think of some way to stall, "er…you haven't figured it out already?"
Both Lupin and Sirius were staring at her. Tonks was about to say she hadn't when it hit her. "Wait a second," she said, looking hard at Sirius. "You didn't…"
"Sorry," Sirius said. "It…well, it was the only way…"
Tonks didn't take it as well as Sirius might have hoped. She punched him hard in the face.
Sirius could be very violent when he was angry and Tonks's punch had certainly hurt. He was about to hit her back when Lupin grabbed him. "Sirius, no!" Lupin said. "Don't hit her! You deserved that."
Sirius sighed. "Yeah, okay, fine," he said, rubbing his jaw. "Sorry," he added truthfully. "But I swear, if they try to do anything, I won't hesitate to kill them, okay?"
"All right," Tonks said, rubbing her hand. She didn't want to admit it, but she figured her hand hurt just as much as Sirius's face after that punch.
"Even though I don't approve of this," Lupin said, "I am glad we are actually going somewhere now rather than blindly setting off again. Maybe it is better this way…"
The man who had sat in the corner the night before was in the pub again the morning after, and he watched as Bill Ferny and his companion led the three strangers off. But, once again, he wasn't the only one watching. As the five walked down the road in Bree, two others were looking out of a window.
"Father! Look!"
"What is it?"
"That's…I don't believe this! That's Professor Lupin…and…no, it can't be…"
Lucius Malfoy hurried over to the window and barely saw the three being led around a corner by Ferny and Deadeyes. "Dumbledore and Potter are not with them."
"What could that mean?" Draco asked nervously.
"Dumbledore could not have been ahead of us," Lucius said, shaking his head. "And I know we did not miss him…these three must have been sent out ahead. Dumbledore and Potter should follow."
"But what if they don't? What if Dumbledore sent them out here while he went a different way?"
"The Dark Lord seemed very confident that Dumbledore and Potter would stop here. Besides, in his message he clearly informed us that if they had not arrived in another week, we could leave."
"Well, I hope they come soon," Draco said, folding his arms. "This is so boring."
"They will come," Lucius assured him. "And when they do, we will carry out the Dark Lord's wishes."
