Chapter 10: Investigating
"So, I thought if we wanted to find a Death Eater we could either find where they live or find out where Voldemort is hiding out," Hermione began as they sat down the next weekend to begin their quest for a dead Death Muncher.
"As much as we've been training we're no match for Voldy," Harry joked, "so I say we go for his Death Munchers."
Ron nodded, "Malfoy's out, he's too hard to get, and probably too smart for us."
Harry and Hermione both agreed. "We've already said Wormtail's out and the Lestranges are in Azkaban," Harry added.
"I say Karkaroff, he's not with Voldemort so, while he may be hard to find, he'll be the easiest to subdue."
Hermione found herself nodding in agreement to Ron's plan. "The hardest part will be finding him but since we've actually spoken to him I think there are some tracking spells we can use."
"Karkaroff it is," Harry agreed. "Now, I have something else I think we should do." He hesitated.
"What is it James?" Ron asked.
"I just don't want to add to our workload, we're all still slightly depressed and we're doing a lot."
"What do we have to do besides study and work?" Hermione asked, slightly confused.
"Well, ever heard of the saying 'know thy enemy'?"
Hermione nodded while Ron looked confused. "You think we should look up more information on the Death Eaters." It wasn't a question.
Ron caught on quickly, also nodding in agreement with Hermione's plan, though he was slightly confused. "That's not that much James, why were you worried about being a burden." He noticed Harry hesitate. "If you have more you want us to do then tell us, we can do anything together."
"Well, honestly we haven't done that much, yeah we've trained and we're definitely more fit both magically and physically but what have we accomplished?" He paused, "I was thinking maybe we could recruit some followers, we have Moody and Snape but what if we added others? We don't have to even recruit them to help fight, they can help take down the Ministry. If we're going to change the government we're going to need help from the inside. As much as we wanted to do it alone – we can't."
Hermione nodded. "You're right."
"I am?" Harry asked astonished she had agreed so quickly.
Ron rolled his eyes, "Honestly James, when are you going to see that you have good ideas too."
Harry shrugged, and they began to plan their group. They called themselves the Wardens, since they thought Guardians was too obvious (though Wardens was pretty obvious too). They decided to make the work the Wardens did have nothing to do with bringing down Voldemort. Right now that the Wardens just wanted to change the government. They would have to send separate letters to Snape and Moody asking them to join the Wardens Circle.
"This is going to be confusing," Hermione sighed.
"Why?" Ron questioned her.
"We may already be pretty comfortable with our new names but we also have to remember the names we told Ship and now we'll have to remember these names. What if we forget?"
"Amy, there's no way you'd ever forget anything," Ron said chuckling slightly at her.
"That doesn't mean you won't!"
Harry sighed and interrupted another one of their various arguments. "So we don't get new names," He stated simply.
Hermione started. "What?"
He shrugged, "We don't give ourselves names, we could either use initials or titles."
"You can be Captain," Ron suggested immediately.
He made to protest but Hermione stopped him. "No, how about he's the Director and you're the General."
Ron nodded in agreement, "What about you? How about the Librarian?"
"I like it."
Harry made to protest again, but was again interrupted by Hermione. "James, whether you like it or not you are a born leader. I know you like to think we're all equal, and we are, but you're still out leader. You can't change that."
"Fine," he acquiesced reluctantly. "Now we just need to decide who's going to join besides Moody and Snape and what we're going to tell them."
"We'll need to give all of them codenames and phrases."
"But if they all have their own phrases how will they identify each other if we need them too."
"The phrases can just be for our use then; we can have a main phrase that we tell everyone."
"Alright."
Moody became Eye with the code-phrase of 'The eye always spins'. Snape was Chemist with the code-phrase of 'The bat flies silently'. They decided right now to focus on the Death Eaters though. They would send the letters later, along with deciding who else would join.
"Back to our original conversation," Ron said with a grin.
"Man we sure know how to get off topic, don't we?" Harry replied, grinning also.
"I'll say, are we all agreed to go after Karkaroff?" Hermione asked as they laughed together.
"Yeah, how about we skip wandless magic for once and spend tomorrow searching for Karkaroff, it's getting late."
"Alright, night."
"Night."
"Night."
The next day they got ready to hunt down Karkaroff.
"Polyjuice with my hair?"
"Check."
"Invisibility Cloak?"
"Check."
"Extra robes?"
"Check."
"Fake wand?"
"Check, I think we've got it all James."
"Excellent, let's go then."
Suddenly Hedwig hooted loudly. Ron swore, "We forgot to let her out."
"Bill!" Hermione scolded him.
Harry rolled his eyes at them and headed over to Hedwig's perch to let her out. He offered her his arm and she quickly floated over to it. He gazed at her for a moment, a sudden thought coming to him. He turned to his friends, "Why don't we just take Hedwig?"
"What?"
"Owls can track people, why don't we just take Hedwig?"
His friends gazed at him stupidly for a moment. "That's brilliant James!" Hermione finally exclaimed. "Why didn't we think of that earlier?"
Ron shrugged, "Wizards lack common sense." They shared a smile remembering their past exploits before departing with Hedwig. Hermione had finally learned how to apparate and had been practicing all week so she would take them both one at a time.
Once outside they hurried into the woods behind the apartment building and took out their wands.
Hermione performed her spell and narrowed down Karkaroff's location. After apparating Harry, Ron, and Hedwig separately she sat down to rest. Harry conjured up a glass of water for her while Ron transfigured a nearby boulder into a comfortable chair. She smiled at them gratefully, though no thanks were necessary between the three of them.
Eventually Hermione was ready to move on.
"Find Karkaroff for us, could you girl?" Harry asked his owl kindly.
Hedwig gave a small hoot, then began flying. They walked quickly beneath her, and, every once in a while, she would execute a small circle in the air so that they didn't fall too far behind. Harry guessed they were on a mountain, due to the lack of civilization and vegetation. After about a ten minute walk they came to a small run down shack in a quiet clearing. Harry pulled on the Invisibility Cloak, entered the shack, and quickly stunned Karkaroff. Ron and Hermione entered after him – Ron pulling out the Polyjuice potion. Hermione performed a medical spell she had discovered in one of the books they had picked up the first day in Diagon Alley that spelled the potion into his stomach. They watched in silence as Karkaroff slowly turned into Harry.
The three teens hesitated a moment before Ron pulled out another potion. Again Hermione spelled it into his stomach. It was a quick and painless death.
Ron picked up Karkaroff and Harry covered both of them in the Invisibility Cloak. First Hermione apparated back with Harry, then Karkaroff and Ron. Hedwig had already started the journey home.
Ron snuck into Diagon Alley with the body and dumped it there with a note they had created to throw suspicion off of Hermione and him. It read:
He had us under the Imperious curse. We won't be coming back. We're sorry we couldn't stop him sooner.
They had left it unsigned. When Ron returned to the apartment he found Harry and Hermione sitting together in silence. "We did the right thing," he said quietly.
"He deserved it," Harry responded, just as quietly.
"We should tell ship," Hermione added flatly. Yet none of them moved for a long time.
They had done the right thing so why did it feel so wrong?
A/N: Accept that no man is sane and the world will make sense.
Thanks to 9taileddestroyer and Lily Ginerva Hermione Potter for reviewing!
4/16/11