A/N : hey guys, sorry for the wait. I've been piled in language homework and projects. but you know, here's chapter number 10 for those who enjoy this series.
oh, and have you guys seen the new DH stuff that's being released I just want to cry cause you know it's ending D;
Harry had just finished reading an article in the Daily Prophet about Dumbledore's past life from Rita Skeeter's new book about him and was in the process of lowering the newspaper, to ask Ron, Hermione, and Lexi on their opinions when deafening crack echoed through the kitchen.
They all jumped to their feet, and Harry for the first time in days, had forgotten about Kreacher. He immediately thought at first that Lupin had come back, and for a split second, he did not take in the mass of struggling limbs.
Kreacher bowed to Harry."Kreacher has returned with the thief Mundungus Fletcher, Master." He croaked in his bullfrog like voice.
Mundungus scrambled and took out his wand; Hermione was too fast for him though.
"Expelliarmus!" Hermione said, and caught his wand in her free hand as it soared through the air over to her. Wild-eyed Mundungus dived for the stairs but Lexi and Ron were too fast: Lexi had kicked him in the shin then Ron rugby tackled him.
"What?" He yelled, trying to free himself from Ron's grip. "Wha've I done? Setting a bleedin' 'ouse elf on me, what are you playing at, what've I done. lemme go, lemme go, or—or—"
"You're not in much of a position to make threats." Harry said as he crossed the room in two long strides then kneeled next to him, Lexi smirked in satisfaction.
Mundungus stopped struggling against Ron, now looking extremely terrified. Ron got up panting, and watched as Harry pointed his wand at Mundungus' nose.
"Kreacher apologises in the delay of bringing the thief, Master. Fletcher knows how to avoid capture, he has many hidey-holes. Nevertheless, Kreacher cornered the thief in the end."
"You've done very well, Kreacher." said Harry and the elf gave him a little bow. "Now we have some questions for you." Harry said turning to Mundungus.
"Why the 'ell am I 'eing 'unted down my 'ouse elves?" Mundungus asked. "If it's about the goblets again, I 'aven't gotten any of 'em left, if you 'ave—"
"Not about the goblets, dumbarse," Lexi said with a roll of her eyes. "But you're getting warmer. Keep thinking, if you're smart enough."
"Just shut up and listen." said Harry. "When you cleaned this place of all it valuables,"
Mundungus interjected."Sirius never cared for that stupid old junk anyways—"
There was the sound of pattering of feet, a blaze of shining copper, an echoing clang, and a shriek of agony: Kreacher had just hit Mundungus over the head with a saucepan.
Lexi started giggling wildly. Ron followed, but quieter.
"Call 'im off, call 'im off, 'e should be locked up!" Yelled Fletcher, flinching when Kreacher raised the pan again, arms trembling from its weight.
"Kreacher, no!" Harry yelled.
"Perhaps just one more, Master Harry, for luck?"
Ron and Lexi lost it, and had to leave the room.
"We need him conscious, Kreacher, but if he needs persuading you can do the honours." Said Harry.
"Thank you very much, Master." Kreacher said with a bow then retreated a short distance, his pale grey eyes fixed on Mundungus with loathing. Lexi and Ron rejoined them again, smiles on their faces.
"When you stripped this house of all the valuables you could find," Harry began. "You took a bunch of stuff from the kitchen cupboard. There was a locket there." Hermione and Ron looked at Harry. "What did you do with it?"
"Why?" asked Mundungus. "Is it valuable?"
"You've still got it!" cried Hermione.
"No," Lexi said shrewdly. "He's wondering if he should have asked for more money when he sold it."
"More?" Said Mundungus. "That wouldn't have been effing difficult...bleedin' gave it away, di'n' I? No choice."
"What do you mean?"
"I was selling in Diagon Alley and she came up to me and asks if I've got a license for trading magical artefacts. Bleedin' snoop. She was gonna fine me, but she took a fancying to the locket an' told me she'd take it and let me off that time, and to fink meself lucky."
"Who was this woman?" Harry asked.
"I dunno, some Ministry hags."
"Well we know lots of those." Lexi mumbled.
"Little woman. Bow on top of 'er head." He frowned and added. "Looked like a toad."
Harry dropped his wand, hitting Mundungus on the nose sending red sparks to Mundungus' eyebrows, which ignited.
"Aguamenti." Screamed Hermione and a jet of water came from her wand, engulfing a spluttering and choking Mundungus.
They all exchanged looks, but only Lexi said anything. "Are you fucking kidding me?
September first came quickly and by then half a dozen men were standing outside the small square all stationed in front of 12 Grimmuald Place. Lexi was sitting at the bottom of the stairs waiting for Harry to return from his trip to the Ministry.
Lexi fiddled with her thumbs until she heard the door slam. Her head shot into the direction of the door to see Harry come in, slipping off his Invisibility Cloak.
"Severus Snape?"
"I didn't kill you," Harry said and Dumbledore's dust figure exploded in front of him. Lexi stood up and was about to walk to him but Kreacher beat her to him. She sat back down.
"Master Harry, have you gotten Master Regulus' locket?" Kreacher asked, seizing the Invisibility Cloak.
He shook his head. "No." Harry said in a disappointed tone.
Lexi stood up and walked over to Harry."Did you see her?" Lexi asked, looking at him.
Harry shook his head again. "But I saw Mr. Weasley."
Lexi smiled."Really? Did you talk to him?" Harry gave her an are-you-kidding-me look. Lexi's face fell."Right, sorry." She said quickly, dropping her gaze.
"He looked good though. I guess I should tell Ron, do you know where he is?" He asked looking around.
Lexi shrugged."Somewhere in the house. Probably—wait most likely with Hermione." She said with a sly smile on her face.
"Harry we're in here!" Hermione called from the kitchen. Harry looked at Lexi who was looking at the ground and then he walked into the kitchen.
"What happened?" Lexi heard Ron ask Harry.
"I've got news that you guys won't like." Harry said then Lexi heard something, like paper, slap against the wooden table.
"Oh my," Hermione gasped.
"Lexi! C'mere!" Ron called, Lexi walked into the kitchen to see scribbled notes and hand-written maps that littered the long kitchen table but now they watched as Lexi strode into the room.
Lexi noticed the Daily Prophet that was on the table, covering a few of the notes that were laid across the table. She quickly noticed the man on the front page. He had long, greasy black hair, long hooked noise and the headline read:
Snape Confirmed as new Hogwarts Headmaster
In disbelief Lexi snatched the newspaper off the kitchen and read the headline over and over. "No way." Lexi said, shaking her head, refusing to believe it, but she did believe it, no matter how much she didn't want to.
"I'm sorry, Lex. It's true." Harry said.
"Well now I don't want to go to Hogwarts even if I could now." Lexi groaned. "Think about everyone there. Luna, Neville, Dean, Seamus! And what about all the first years, they are going to get a horrible impression of Hogwarts."
Lexi could've cried, she didn't, but she could've. She was supposed to be strong but her home, her safe place, was taken over by a back stabbing, greasy son of a bitch who would no doubt make everyone's life miserable. He would probably take 50 points from Gryffindors and everyone not in Slytherin just for breathing.
That sounded horrible for everyone else, that sort of experience especially for the first years but then Ginny popped into her head, thinking that she was going to have to endure all this. Even that didn't make Lexi feel better; it must be way worse than they can tell.
"Lexi?" Hermione asked, as Lexi dropped the newspaper on the table again. "You alright?"
Lexi nodded. But truth was she wasn't, the one place where she truly belonged was being overrun by the people she hated and the man who killed Dumbledore was running it.
"So," Lexi said staring into space. "What happened while you were on watch, Harry?" She asked.
"Didn't see Umbridge." Harry reported. "I saw your dad, Ron. He looked alright."
Ron nodded in appreciation. "Thanks. Dad did tell me a lot of Ministry workers take the Floo Network to work. Umbridge would be to important to walk into the Ministry."
"Wow," Lexi snorted, she then mumbled. "Important my arse."
Ron laughed quietly and nodded.
They all sat there in uncomfortable silence. Just staring at each other. Harry was certain he could hear a weird buzzing noise whenever they were like this.
Lexi yawned. And flipped her hair over her shoulder. She rested her chin on her left hand which was being supported upwards by her elbow. She let out a sigh.
Harry stared at her, and everyone saw him staring and smiling at her, except Lexi. Lexi didn't notice. Harry sighed under his breath. She never noticed, she never noticed how much Harry had Lexi on his mind. She never did and probably never will.
"It's weird isn't it?" Lexi suddenly said, breaking the silence.
Everyone turned and looked at her."What's weird?" Hermione asked.
"Not being on the Hogwarts Express. I mean we would be on our way there by now. I probably left like six hours ago. It's weird." She said with another sigh.
"Yeah," Ron said with a nod.
Harry imagined Luna, Ginny, and Neville all sitting in a compartment together, probably wondering where they all were and discussing Snape's new reign as Hogwarts Headmaster. And the steam coming out from the scarlet steam engine.
"Oh!" Hermione said remembering something, breaking Harry out of his thoughts. "Did you see that funny old witch and that little wizard in the navy blue robes?" She asked, turning towards Harry.
"Yeah, the bloke from Magical Maintenance." said Ron
"How do you know he works for Magical Maintenance?" Hermione asked with a puzzled look on her face.
"Dad said everyone from Magical Maintenance wears navy blue robes."
"But you never told us that!" She exclaimed. Hermione dropping her spoon, and Lexi was utterly confused about why Hermione was overreacting all of a sudden. "There's nothing in here about navy blue robes, nothing!" She exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air after grabbing a few notes and scanning them.
"Well, does it really matter?" Ron asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Ron, it all matters! Every detail is important! If we're going to get into the Ministry and not give ourselves away when they're bound to be on the lookout for intruders, every detail matters! We've been over and over this, I mean, what's the point of all these reconnaissance trips if you aren't even bothering to tell us-"
"Blimey, Hermione, I forgot one little thing-"
"You do realize, don't you, that there's probably no more dangerous place in the whole world for us to be right now than the Ministry of-"
"—I think we should do it tomorrow." said Harry.
Lexi nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we should do this tomorrow."
Hermione stopped dead, her jaw hanging. Ron choked on his soup. "Tomorrow?" She squeaked. "You can't be serious, Harry."
"Well," said Lexi. "I'm sure doing this tomorrow, would speed up everything instead of skulking around the Ministry entrance for another month. I think we're ready."
Harry nodded agreeing with her. "The longer we put this thing off, the further away the locket could be. There's already a good chance Umbridge has chucked it away; the thing doesn't open."
"Unless, she did figure out a way to open it and it now possessed like Ginny was in second year." Said Ron.
"Doesn't make much of a difference," said Lexi, crossing her arms over her chest. "She was always evil. An evil old hag."
Ron chuckled quietly.
"We know everything important." Harry said noticing Hermione was deep in thought, biting her lip so hard it was turning white.
"I don't know..." Hermione said. "Something could go terribly wrong."
"We'll take those chances!" Lexi said. "We've spent three months now on the run and done nothing but stay in this house, we need to move. The longer we stay here the stronger Voldemort gets."
Lexi noticed Ron and Hermione had scared expressions on their faces. She couldn't help but smirk. "So it's settled? We're going to the Ministry tomorrow, yes? No?"
"No!" Hermione exclaimed. "We should just prepare for a few more weeks. Please." She said her voice going quieter and quieter after each word.
Ron nodded. "Yeah, guys. Just a few more weeks of preparation." He said, putting down his spoon.
Harry sighed and nodded. "We'll spend a few more weeks preparing, then it's time to act. Alright?" Harry said. Everyone nodded.
A/N: thanks to mrs0cullen for helping out again.
and oh yeah the lines that appear throughout the story means either time change or POV change, just so you guys know.