A/N: Just a reminder, since it's been months since the last chapter was posted.
Dick=Derek
Tim=Tommy
This is not Beta'd so all mistakes are mine (feel free to point them out, by the way, so they can be corrected )
Chapter 8: Flare Up, Cool DownThis…This could be a problem.
Tim looked at the wizard who's wand remained level at his breastbone, the green eyes frustrated and hard and then at his unconscious friend sprawled out around the breakfast dishes. He couldn't run. There's no way he'd leave Dick behind.
Okay, then what did he know? Dick would have sent that genealogy book to Babs to be scanned into a computer. Somehow that involved the book vanishing in front of Harry, although Tim doubted magic had been involved in any way. So, what actually happened?
He looked back at Harry and saw that both Ron and Hermione were also staring at him with questions in their eyes.
He mentally shook his head. What actually happened was irrelevant. He needed something plausible. He needed to bluff.
He raised his hands again, this time in a calming gesture. "Harry, not all situations are about you. After all, your problems are the only ones in this world that need attention. Derek and I have helped out other people in the past and if you recall, one of the thing Derek told you we could provide is connections. I don't know what exactly you think you saw, but neither of us are going to do anything that will betray you or your friends." Tim paused to gauge their reactions and saw how Hermione's expression turned contemplative, although both Harry and Ron didn't seem soothed, "Derek knows a lady who works in a library and he mentioned he was going to ask her to scan those pages you gave us into a computer. Having a computer do the work would be so much faster than doing anything by hand."
"They disappeared." Harry insisted, unwilling to let the point drop.
Hermione licked her lips and laid a hand on Harry's arm, "Under the truth potion Derek did say he wasn't working for Voldemort."
"I didn't say they were!" Harry told her, shaking off her touch, "We got attacked by some Death Eaters and –"
"What?!" Both Ron and Hermione exclaimed, but Harry continued talking right over them.
"-and Derek managed to kick one of them into a wall and they definitely didn't know who he was and then they escaped. So I know he's not with them. But that's not the point!" He looked over at his friends for the first time, "We didn't ask if Derek was working for anyone else. What about the Ministry? Or," he waved his hand expansively, "there's probably other groups out there, someone who'd like to have a spy close to us." His eyes returned to Tim and filled with determination, "And I want to know who you are working for."
"No one." Tim returned emphatically, "We're not here to spy, we're not here for any other reason than to help you stop that megalomaniac who wants to take over." His mind worked furiously trying to think of some evidence he might give that would be acceptable. He didn't want to offer himself up for another truth serum if he could help it. He probably wouldn't get as lucky as Dick had under questioning.
An idea struck, "What about if I can prove that Derek was just calling the librarian? We could call her up and see if she can confirm the story." And Tim would have to cross his fingers that he could give Babs enough hints so that she could cover for them without Harry getting suspicious.
There was a tense pause as Harry seemed to consider the offer. "How did he make the papers disappear?" He seemed unable to let that point go.
Tim wanted to point out that perhaps Harry had missed something or that he perhaps wasn't paying close enough attention, but he'd had enough experience in confrontations to know that you don't hint that the aggressor is at fault unless you want to trigger a more belligerent defensive action, so he just simply admitted, "I don't know."
Harry seemed to deflate at that. "Well…fine." He transferred a glare over to Dick's unconscious form, but it was less heated. "Fine, call back that woman and let us talk to her. Prove that he just called a library and sent those papers there for," He wrinkled his nose, "whatever the computer does."
Lowering his hands, Tim moved towards Harry and his hovering friends, "I'll need to grab my phone from upstairs." He didn't have much hope that Harry would let him go alone, but it was worth a shot.
Hermione stepped aside, looking worried and uncertain, her eyes darting between Harry, Dick and Tim as if unsure of who to focus on. Ron, on the other hand, crossed his arms over his chest and stayed put, with narrowed eyes as if Harry's suspicions had awakened his own.
Harry, wand still steady on Tim, moved pointedly to block his exit, "Just use his," He said, jerking his chin toward Dick.
"I can't." Tim replied, only partially honest, "It's password protected." Which was true enough, but Tim could probably get around that if he needed to.
Harry let out an explosive breath, grimacing in frustration. "Fine." He stated and finally moved aside.
As expected, Tim wasn't allowed to wander away on his own and everyone followed him up to his room where he retrieved his ordinary-looking phone from a side pocket on his bag. Everyone may have followed him up to his room, but they hovered in the doorway leaving Tim to retrieve the phone by himself. He took the opportunity to hide his left hand from view as he fumbled with the bag and had ample time to snatch up a few other items that might help even the odds if it came down to a fight.
"We need to get out of the house for the phone to work." Tim announced as he casually pocketed the throwing stars and knock-out gas.
All of them, minus the unconscious Dick, trooped out the front door and into the street. They probably looked ridiculous, if anyone was actually paying attention – three nearly adult teenagers escorting a younger teen at 'stick-point' out onto the sidewalk.
Tim carefully turned on his cell phone, moving slowly enough that no one would get trigger-happy (hopefully). Then he dialed Babs and pressed the button to enable the speaker so everyone could hear the recording start up. A bland male voice intoned, "We're sorry, but no one is available to take your call right now." Tim let the recording play out, not interrupting to cue Babs in that she should pick up. Assuming she wasn't actually away from the office, she should be listening in to any messages, so Tim could let her know she needed to be in character when they talked.
Tim cleared his throat, "Hello Mrs. Orburro, this is Tommy Malone. Would you please call me back when you get the chance?" He hesitated, then added, "It's not an emergency or anything, but the sooner the better. Thanks." He rung off and looked at the others. His message was as innocuous as it could possibly be and unless Harry was completely paranoid, he wouldn't suspect anything at all. After all, what was the likelihood that anyone would have protocols set in place for this kind of thing?
Well, even Batman didn't have a single code word set in place for 'Nightwing's unconscious and I need a Librarian to call me back to substantiate our story before I'm turned into a toad', but he'd work with what he had.
The name 'Mrs. Orburro' would tell Babs that he needed corroboration for something from her, and giving his name as Tommy would hopefully tell her enough about his alias and their potentially compromised situation that she might be able to make the right connections. It was his code name, so she'd need to treat him as his under-cover name suggested. There should have been enough back-ground noise to indicate he was on speaker-phone, so she'd know others were listening in. She was brilliant, but it wasn't a whole lot for her to go on. He'd have to cross his fingers and hope he could drop a few more hints when she called back.
Even as he thought it, his phone vibrated. He answered and a raspy female voice, completely different from Babs usual clear one spoke, "Tommy! What can I do for you?"
Feeling Harry's eyes boring into him, Tim carefully began in a apologetic voice, "Mrs. Orburro, thanks for getting back to me so quickly." And now Tim had to word things such that Babs gave him the correct response, but it didn't sound like he was feeding her the words. He hoped his apologetic tone would cover him, "I know you're usually manning the reference desk and all, so I don't want to take you away from anyone if you're busy, but I was wondering if you'd heard from Derek lately?"
"Oh, yes! Lovely boy, called just this evening." It suddenly occurred to him that it was probably the middle of the night in Gotham, and late enough that a library might not even be open. He'd have to hope no one else thought of that little detail. "Have you lost him again?" There was an obvious note of fond exasperation, as if Tommy was constantly losing track of his brother and calling the library for him was a common occurrence. Considering the fact that both Tim and Dick looked more like they ran a car-jacking ring than were regulars at the library, Tim hoped that Babs words didn't make things worse. Between the timing and the incongruent descriptions of the Malones, this wasn't a promising start.
"No, no," Tim reassured her. He knew exactly where Dick was and didn't need Bruce to come tracking them down. At least not yet. "No, I've just got some…" He couldn't use the word 'friends' as that was code for a hostile and despite his suspicions, Harry wasn't quite there yet, "people here that were a bit concerned about what he'd been doing earlier. Would you mind answering a few questions for them?"
There was a pause on the line. He really hadn't given her much except a lack of code-words for danger and the hint that she should be a librarian, which should be all she'd need to state the truth, but Tim hadn't been there earlier when Dick had talked to her, so he couldn't be completely sure that she'd say what he wanted her to say.
"Why of course! Put them on the line for me."
To Harry's surprise, Tim held out the phone to him. Since it was on speaker, technically, Harry didn't need to hold it, but as Tim had expected, Harry lowered his wand as he fumbled for the phone. Neither Hermione nor Ron had their wands pointing at him and now neither did Harry, putting Tim in a much better position if things when sour.
"Er, hello?" Harry was holding the phone as if it were something delicate that might leap out of his hand at any moment.
"Hello dear, what did you want to know?" Babs' raspy cheer seemed to be the perfect choice for the situation – it was probably making Harry picture a sweet little old lady, someone who'd never try to hurt a fly.
Harry gave an awkward cough, "If you wouldn't mind, ma'am, could you just tell me where you're at?"
"Do you need directions to the library?" Babs was probably sending out a signal to Black Canary or Batgirl that they needed to head over to the nearest library right away disguised as a wrinkly, cheerful librarian. It was a rather amusing image, actually.
"No, uh, thanks though. You said Derek called you earlier? What did he say?"
"He was sending me a package."
Short and sweet. Bruce would approve.
"How were you going to get it?"
"He said someone was dropping it off. Now what seems to be the problem here? What are you looking for? Is Derek or Tommy in some kind of trouble?"
"Oh, no," Harry reassured her, "We just had some miscommunication is all. What were you going to do with the package?"
Another short pause before she answered somewhat vaguely, "A bit of scanning, that's all."
Hermione interjected, "Thank you for your time Mrs. Orborro, we do appreciate it." She took the phone from Harry and handed it back to Tim, before lowering her voice and hissing at Harry, "Everything sounds fine, let her get back to work. If you want to know anything else, let's wake Derek up and ask him."
Tim had no doubt that Babs had picked that up. The phone was beyond top-of-the-line, after all, but she didn't say anything except, "Tommy?"
"Everything's fine." He assured her, because it looked like it would be. Hermione was starting to whisper facts like 'the Ministry wouldn't employ muggles' and 'they brought Hedwig, remember?' which appeared to be soothing the doubts Harry'd found. It looked like they'd wake Derek up and move on to the real issues.
Conflict resolved without a fight? How unusual. He'd keep the throwing stars in his pockets until he could get his full gear on later though. Just in case.
He gave Babs another reassurance, this time using an 'all-clear' code-word and hung up the phone.
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Ron scratched his elbow and leaned back in his chair, balancing it on the two back legs, trying to look casual and not quite pulling it off.
They were in the kitchen again, the breakfast dishes cleared away and Hermione was fussing over Derek as if being stunned were some sort of major ordeal.
Ron could feel the annoyance tightening his shoulders.
Harry didn't need to apologize for his actions. The muggle had been stupid, wandering out of the house without telling them what he was up to. They could have avoided the whole problem if Malone had just said something beforehand. He still wasn't sure exactly why the Malones sent off that stupid book in the first place. To get it scanned? What did that even mean? How can someone scan something without magic? All a muggle could do is read the book. Did they mean that their librarian friend was a speed-reader? She could 'scan' the pages faster than Derek and Tommy could?
Muggles. He snorted. They were totally illogical.
Harry had tried to interrogate Derek the instant he was awakened, but Hermione had shushed him, found the man a pain-reliever and hovered over him describing the entire missunderstanding, shooting Harry disappointed looks at every pause. Harry now looked a strange combination of defiant and ashamed.
So Harry was a bit paranoid. It wasn't exactly a surprise. With everything he'd gone through, it'd probably be surprising if he wasn't. He'd been right about Malfoy when neither Ron nor Hermione would listen to him, so Ron was inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, but in this case there wasn't much behind Derek's action other than simple muggle strangeness. They should just drop the whole thing and move on.
"Were we going to the Ministry today or what?" Ron asked into a lull in Hermione's monologue, diverting everyone's attention. They hadn't made any kind of decision, but it seemed like something they'd probably have to do at some point.
Straightening in his seat, Harry said 'Yes! We need to know where Snape lived."
"No!" Hermione finally settled in her own seat at the end of the table looking like the bridge between the two opposing forces of the Malones and the wizards. "Harry, you can't go anywhere near the Ministry. It's too dangerous! If we need the address, we'll get it somewhere else."
Ron agreed. The last thing they needed was a mob around the Boy-Who-Lived – every move they made would be in the paper the next day. "Harry, you shouldn't go to the Ministry, but Hermione and I could."
Already shaking his head, Harry disagreed. "You're just as recognizable as I am. If it's too dangerous for me, it's too dangerous for you."
"No it's not. We're not nearly as well known! I could visit my dad and then we could find the Office of whatever-its-called and look up whatever we needed." He looked over at Hermione for support and found her frowning.
"If we did go to the Ministry, we probably couldn't get what we needed through the proper channels," she started slowly and Ron found his eyebrows winging upward. She caught his expression and pursed her lips before waving her hand as if brushing something aside, "I know, I know, and I'd like it if we could do things the proper way and fill out all the correct forms and everything, but that's what I was doing this morning before…" Her eyes darted over to the Malones who were listening silently, "well, before. Anyway, the department of Property Management has an extremely convoluted procedure for inquiries. We can't prove ownership in the land we're interested in or even a disputed claim, so the easy methods are already out."
"Can't we say we're disputing Snape's claim or something?" Harry asked.
She shook her head, "We'd need to bring a whole legal case-file for that. And we're not exactly old enough to be taken seriously on something like that. After all, the Ministry was designed to be confusing to muggles in order to remain separate and prevent muggleborns from being involved..." She trailed off, thoughtfully, then continued, "An interesting fact about muggle governments -"
Harry cut her off, "Yeah, thanks. That's very interesting and all, Hermione, but back to Snape's property. How are we going to find it again?"
Hermione gave him a pinched look, but returned to the topic at hand, "The system is just not set up for someone to be found who doesn't want to be found. Apparently privacy is more important to most families than ease of access." She shook her head, "The information will be there, but…" She bit her lip, "I think we may have to borrow it." Her face flushed as she suggested it and, knowing Hermione, Ron had to admit to some surprise and no little admiration that she'd even come to that conclusion.
Harry's eyes gleamed, but he remained tactful, "You may be right Hermione. I'm sure that filling out all the paperwork would be the best way to do it, but we just don't have time for that kind of thing right now. And we're not going to actually destroy it or anything."
"Right." Her skin returning to its normal hue, she nodded decisively, "We'll just borrow it long enough to see the address. We don't even need to take it out of the office."
"This seems a bit complicated for just an address," Tommy muttered.
Hermione nodded her head in fervent agreement, "It's ridiculous, but that's the way it works around here. We could probably get it at Hogwarts..." She trailed off at Harry's dark look then sighed, "Perhaps with a polyjuice potion we could sneak into the Ministry."
Harry's dark look morphed into a serious scowl. "That'd take forever!"
"We could buy some. Maybe" She suggested a bit weakly. And Ron just shook his head. If they could find a polyjuice potion for sale anywhere, it'd be of very dubious quality. He didn't really want to grow extra arms or something worse. Hermione seemed to be thinking the same thing as she sighed again. "Well, perhaps your invisibility cloak?"
"Wait," Derek interjected, "Do you just need someone unrecognizable? What about Tommy or me? We could go, unless there's some sort of magic-detector that'll go off if we get close."
Ron snorted, "You? You wouldn't have a clue what to do! If you reacted to the flying memos or the lifts or any of the hundreds of other spells that are so common no one else would even notice them, you'd stick out like a sore thumb."
Tommy sighed, "Really? That's the argument you're going with? Have we reacted poorly to anything so far?"
Ron scowled at the kid, not willing to admit his point.
"No wait," Hermione's hands moved as if to hush Ron, "He's got a point. The Ministry has muggles come in every now and then. There are lots of families with squibs or muggle relatives that need to see some department or other. They wouldn't stick out any more than any other visitor would."
Both Harry and Ron looked at her incredulously, "You're not serious?" Harry blurted. "They couldn't – they wouldn't -"
He didn't seem to be able to form a coherent sentence, so Ron jumped in, "What would happen if they were discovered? And how would they even get the file? It's probably in one of those magically expanding cabinets and you need a wand to open those."
Hermione folded her arms, "Do you have a better idea?"
Harry glared down at the table, but didn't reply.
"You said you had an invisibility cloak, right? I think you were wearing it earlier?" Derek asked, tone cautious, as if Harry would lash out at him for speaking. Harry grunted and Hermione nodded, "Well, why don't one of you come with us then? Tommy and I could be the visible hands and voice and one of you could both keep an eye on us and keep us from doing anything too idiotic."
Harry looked up at that, his black expression fading into thoughtfulness. "That – that might work." He chewed on is lower lip and glanced at both Ron and Hermione. "I want to go though."
Hermione opened her mouth, but Ron beat her to it, "No! Harry, this is a stupid little information-gathering stunt. It's not even all that important." He ignored the disagreement he could see brewing behind Harry's eyes and plowed on, "It's something that would be bloody insane for you to risk yourself over." He took a breath and then admitted, "It should be Hermione anyway."
Harry rolled his eyes in frustration with his friend's efforts to constantly protect him, but Ron continued, "She knows the departments and regulations and probably has the whole building mapped out in her head." He glanced at the witch who looked a bit abashed, but didn't contradict him, "She would be the best person to make sure everything went smoothly."
A gusty sigh signaled Harry's defeat and Ron felt a sense of satisfaction at that, although it vanished into a knot of dread when he looked over at the woman at the end of the table. The ministry was hardy the most dangerous place in Britain at the moment, but it wasn't exactly the most friendly either and he didn't really like the idea that she'd be going in alone. He glanced at the Malones. Well, mostly alone.
"Okay," Derek rubbed his hands together, expression bright, "Now that that's settled, I was wondering if we could hop on over to that alley down the street. The one where those Death Eaters were hanging out. I thought I saw something that might be helpful, but didn't get a chance to collect it when I was there last." That was said with a touch of irony, but no one commented on exactly why that was.
"You saw something?" Harry asked. "What?"
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A/N: Hello! Sorry about the wait. Again. But I'll say once more that I have no plans to abandon this story, despite the long wait between chapters, so if you enjoy this, please stick with it and eventually we'll reach the end. Maybe even sometime this decade! We can hope.
I do want to mention something about this chapter. Ron may come across with a touch of condescension towards Muggles, and that was intentional. The way I see it, he's never been around any before for any length of time (Hermione doesn't count in his eyes any more than Harry or any other Muggle-born would). Ron is continuously fed the contemptuous attitude toward muggles by his culture, his father finds them 'quaint', and I just can't imagine he'd have any reason to think of them as anything other than slightly backward, pathetic creatures. He's not anti-muggle and if asked would never say he's prejudiced towards them, but I do think he's picked up an unconscious attitude of superiority. Well, at least that's my take on the whole thing
Finally, a huge thank-you to everyone who has reviewed! I can't express how motivating it is to see those reviews show up in my inbox. Thank you, thank you!
