Chapter 11
Christmas evening started out with everyone gathered around, sitting or lounging near the fireplace, roasting chestnuts, drinking egg nog and just relaxing. Shortly before nine, a loud sound reverberated throughout the house. It sounded like a large gong, not just being struck, but being struck with enough force to knock it crashing to the floor. Remus and Harry jumped up and ran into the office, where, like the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts, there were several unusual devices located. Harry took one look at a swirling device and ran from the room.
Bursting into the room where everyone was gathered, he shouted, "We are under attack! Get to your brooms. Now!"
"What is it?" shouted several voices.
Remus, who had just walked in, replied, "I think it is a couple of giants and maybe some trolls."
Everyone sprang into action. Harry summoned his bow, and much to his consternation, the longbow appeared.
"The wards should hold!" shouted Remus as he ran off to summon the Order.
"That's not what I'm worried about !" shouted Harry, to his retreating mentor.
Turning to the others, he said, grabbing his broom, "Let's go."
Ron, looking at Harry carrying the bow in one hand and the broom in the other, said, "Umm...Harry, maybe you should grab that carpet. It would make a better shooting platform."
Harry paused in mid stride, dropping his broom, "Accio flying carpet."
The carpet came whistling through the hallway. He jumped on it and wandlessly threw open the front doors. Those on brooms mounted them and were airborn before they left the house. Harry quickly gained altitude and started dipping arrows into the sleeping potion. The group converged on the main gate to the property. From a fair distance, Harry noticed at least three giants, one much larger than the other, and one was a female, not totally unattractive. There were also a half dozen or so trolls milling about bashing the gate with their clubs whenever the thought to do so struck them, which, surprisingly, was rather often. Harry, took aim and fired the first arrow, striking the largest giant. He maneuvered the carpet to stay well out the giant's range, but still give himself a clear shot. The twins, Ron, Hermione and Ginny converged on him. There were several more brooms approaching from the direction of the house.
Also, at the first bend in the lane several people appeared, along with one large three headed dog. The largest of these people was carrying a crossbow. Bill, approached on his broom, bow in hand.
"Bill, hop on here with me. I already have about two dozen arrows ready. Ginny, go get more of the potion for Hagrid. Ron, get everyone else set to use stunners when we get enough arrows into them."
Soon the arrows were flying thick and heavy, neither Bill nor Harry bothering to carefully aim. Hagrid was shooting as fast as Ginny was preparing bolts for him.
"Now!" shouted Harry, noticing the largest giant starting to act sleepy.
The concerted attack byf the Order members, with at least six stunners being cast per giant, brought all three of them to the ground quickly. Ron, remembering the ease with which he had dispatched the troll in his first year began levitating large boulders, from the dry stacked wall.
Harry and the other teens noticed and copied Ron's actions. Ron gave a three count and they each dropped a rock on a troll's head. All six of them hit the ground, knocked out. The order members began to restrain the giants and trolls.
Several minutes later, Tonks and Thadeus arrived.
"Tonks, where did you go? I thought you were here with the rest of us?" asked Harry.
Grinning, she replied, "I was, but when I saw that you all had them well in hand, I went off to roust up this lay-about. We do need someone to write this all up."
"Can't say it's a pleasure to see you tonight, Potter." said the Auror. "But six trolls? And three more giants, though that one isn't too bad of a looker." He nodded at the female giant, who was not only less loathsome but much smaller than the other two. "Bet she cleans up well."
"She wasn't doing any of the attacking," said Hermione.
"Well now," replied Tad. (Tonks had finally started calling him that, and when he didn't say anything Harry and the others started to also.)
Moody stomped over them, "I wonder, that one is sure large enough to be Gurg. And that female, she's probably not much older than Ginny. Hmmm..."
Moody stood thinking for a few minutes, before Harry ran out of patience. "What are you getting at?"
"Remember, right of conquest? I bet that one is the Gurg's daughter. This fight was staged. Not enough of a force to do any real damage. I wonder if he didn't set you up to win. And in a giant's way of thinking the trophy you'd take would be her."
Hermione let out a gasp.
Hagrid approached, scratching his beard, "Yeah, he's the Gurg. Dinna ken he had a daughter, tho."
"But losing his daughter in battle, that's..."
"For a giant, it is a great honor," said Remus, cutting off Hermione's tirade.
Tad, shaking his head, said, "Damn paperwork, I know I don't have a form for this, but Moody is probably right. We should probably wake one of them up and find out for sure. As to the rest, Potter, I think you can corner the market on giant's blood. That is at least another three gallons of it. As for the trolls...who gets the extra ears?"
"Ears?" asked the teens, disgusted.
"Well it is either ears or teeth. Although there are some people who take other parts...like noses. There aren't really any magically valuable parts on a troll, so pretty much anything goes. There is also the clan badge, but most of the time all that does is just make you an enemy of the clan." Then he looked at Hermione, who was looking a bit green. "Besides, trolls have about a dozen sets of teeth and their ears grow back, smaller than the originals, but they do grow back. The size of the ear is how you know whether you've defeated a champion or not. Big ears mean he hasn't lost a battle."
"I wish I knew that six years ago." muttered Harry. "That one had pretty tiny ears."
"Yeah, but a really big nose," laughed Ron.
Hermione looked at both of them and shook her head.
"I guess we get one each and Ron gets the extras for figuring out an easy way to dispatch them."
"Fine, and since two of them are dead, I don't suppose you want the bodies buried here?"
"No."
Remus, Hagrid and McGonagall were all working on reviving the Gurg. Once he was awake, it took a great deal of effort not to put him right back under. He had nothing nice to say to any of them and he refused to speak in English or any other human language, even though everone knew he knew at least three of them. After an extensive session of interrogation, it was decided that the wasn't going to tell them anything. They then switched tactics and woke the young giantess. She was much more willing to speak. She told them that it was really her plan to stage this fight, mainly in order to escape her father and Voldemort's influence. She spoke a little English and rather crude but passable French. So she was moved off to one side while Fleur, Tonks and Moody continued to interrogate her. The other two giants were prepared by Bill, Arthur and Tad to be taken by a Ministry team. The trolls were all portkeyed to an undisclosed location.
A short while later, Moody approached Harry, "She seems to be telling the truth. We'd better let her inside before the rest of the evacuation team shows up. Tad is going to cover for us."
"Inside where, not the house?" asked Harry.
Moody replied, "No, just inside the gate. Then we'll figure out the resat later, lad."
"Yeah, fine, do I need to do the blood ritual with her?"
Remus replied, "She is willing to do it, as a pledge of her truthfulness."
"How does that work?"
Moody took over, asking,"Has anyone told you that those who go through the ritual can't actually harm you while on your property?"
"No, that wasn't ever explained to me."
"It wouldn't actually prevent someone that is from your family from doing you harm, but any outsider it would. Basically the way it works is what ever they do to you they do to themselves."
"So if someone who has gone through the ritual kills me, they die too."
Moody grinned. "Right, so that tends to keep things a bit more civil."
"So, that is something like what my mother did?"
Remus replied, "Probably, but we'll never know for sure. And with those damn Horcruxes he came back."
With the female giant inside the wards and the others in Ministry custody, almost everyone returned to the house. Harry, Hagrid and Moody stayed behind. Harry had been practicing his French with Fleur over the last couple of months, so he felt capable of holding a conversation with the giantess. He found out that she was just nineteen and had a bit of a crush on Grawp. This somewhat surprised Hagrid, who just mumbled about his little brother getting a sweetheart. She also told them a number of Voldemort's plans for the giants. She was very worried about her race and the fact that she had been the only female born in over fifty years. The group of giants that her father was the Gurg of was possibly the last remnants of the eight western European clans, and maybe even more. She had heard rumors of a couple of clans that made the wastes of northern Europe home and that there were maybe a hundred or so giants, that lived mostly isolated lives in the Himalayas. Her father had thrown his lot in with Voldemort because of a promise of spoils and plunder, namely large human women.
"The fool," said Moody, "that would never work. Yeah, he'd breed a race of partial giants..."
"So you decided to break away?" asked Harry.
"Oui, but I just couldn't leave. I found out, from a small rat like man, that you would likely be here, and I decided to persuade my father to attack. I even talked him into letting me be in on the raiding party."
"How did you know I would listen to you?"
"From that rat man."
"Pettigrew said I would listen?"
She nodded, "He also said that if this worked that you are even."
Grinning, Harry said, "I don't think it works quite that way, but that is his problem, not yours."
Remus rejoined them, after making sure everyone was settled back in.
"Is there anything you need?" he asked.
"No, I don't deserve anything else. I can make do with what I have."
Harry, a little unsettled by her response, said, "I know the 'I'm not worthy' bit just a little too well. I can't really invite you into the house, not quite a large enough door, but I can offer you the barn. It is warm and dry. What do you like to eat?"
"Merci, you are too kind. I am used to sleeping in a cave and eating venison, so anything to eat really, but I don't really like salad...grass is not to eat, it is meant to feed food."
Moody laughed, "I like her, already. Never could understand why it seemed that the bigger they were, the the less brains they had. To me it always seemed the womenfolk were the smart ones."
After showing her the barn, Hagrid excused himself saying he needed to call Maxime. Remus, Moody and Harry made their way back to the house. Walking through the door the trio was inundated with a large number of questions, which they spent the next half hour trying to answer.
The next morning, Hermione, with the help of several elves found four fur cloaks, that when combined, were sufficient to make a warm cloak for their newest guest. She also found out that the giantess's name was close enough to Katarina that she agreed to be called that or Kat. Kat was also grateful for the heating charm that Hermione cast upon the watering trough. Hermione had the elves combine several towels so that Kat was able to dry off. Harry found enough clothing that the elves were able to provide her with at least one change of clothes, after working some of their magic on it.
Hagrid and Madame Maxime showed up after breakfast. Maxime and Kat walked off through the woods and spent several hours talking. When they returned it was decided that it was too dangerous for Kat to go anywhere, but that Maxime would spend a few days with her to help her adjust to the area.
Hermione was unusually quiet that day. In the evening, Ron, Harry and Ginny were enjoying a soak in the pool when Hermione finally started to tell them about what she had spent the day pondering. She started off by stating that unless something were done, that giants would probably be gone in the next fifty to one hundred years. She knew that, for the most part, the problem lay not with the giants themselves but with the various Ministries and Dark Lords that forced them into the least hospitable areas while either bad policy or active participation forced them to breed themselves into stupidity.
Harry exploded. "Hermione! I don't need another cause! You are not turning the giants into another spew. I don't have time for this, and frankly, neither do you. You signed up for this, I tried to get you not to. This is the third time I am saying this in the past few weeks. I just don't have time for this!"
Hermione turned and fled from the room, crying. Ron turned on Harry. "Where the bloody hell do you get off yelling at her like that. This whole damn thing is not about you!"
"Yes it is, or haven't you noticed that Riddle believes that stupid prophecy. He made it him and me. So, yes, it is about me. And I can't take much more! Every time there is an attack, every time something like last night happens I feel as a part of me is dying."
With a loud crack, a flash of flame and a puff of smoke, Harry vanished. Ginny rounded on Ron, before disappearing on her own. She appeared in Harry's room. He had dressed in warm clothing and was now throwing more clothes into his enchanted pack. A few books and other items followed the clothes.
"Harry, what are you doing?"
"Leaving, Gin. I need to get out of here. I need to find that damn Horcrux."
"Then I'm coming with you."
"No."
"Why the hell not?"
"Because...dammit, I can't think of a reason why not! How about not tonight? Meet me in London tomorrow, at ten?"
"I'll be there. Just take care."
Harry gave her a quick kiss and wiped an errant tear from her cheek, before Apparating again. A few seconds later, she heard the roar of an engine as Harry took the motorbike down the lane. Ron and and tearful Hermione walked in a few seconds after that.
"I hope you both are satisfied with yourselves. Harry's gone. He is hunting the next Horcrux on his own." she then slapped Ron across the face, before storming past him on the way to her own room. Stunned, Ron watched as his sister slammed the door. A faint blue glow let him know that she had magically locked and warded the door.
A few minutes before ten, Ginny entered the Arrival room and set the portal door to Grimmauld Place. She entered the door and found herself in the small closet in the hall near the first floor drawing room. She stepped from the closet, drew her wand and made her way down to the front door. There were tracks from the motorbike. The motorbike was sitting at the end of the hall. She entered the kitchen to find Harry seated at the table with his head down on his crossed arms. She quietly filled a teakettle and set to boil. Pulling out a skillet, she gave a flick to her wand and set the now clean pan on to heat. She reached into her bag and drew out a couple of boxes. The first she set on the counter and opened it. Taking some bacon, eggs, a couple of potatoes and a loaf of bread out of it, she began to cook. The teakettle began to whistle.
Harry stirred, "How long have you been here?"
Shrugging her shoulders, she replied, "You said meet you at ten, I got in about two minutes before."
Yawning, Harry said, "Sorry about falling asleep."
"I also brought a few things you forgot about..."
"The picnic hamper and the tent?"
"Very good, Mr. Potter, the cold hasn't totally frozen your brain," she said, plating the now finished eggs. Soon the toast joined the rest of the meal on the plate.
"Looks good. What is everyone saying?" he asked, grabbing a cup and pouring himself some coffee.
"I wouldn't know, after I clubbed Ron, I didn't stick around to find out. I put an imperturbable charm on my door and set the anti-Apparation wards on my room. Then this morning I didn't come out until it was time to leave."
"I see," said Harry, digging in to his breakfast.
After a couple of minutes, Ginny asked, "So, what's the plan?"
Harry paused, his fork halfway to his mouth, before he replied, "I don't have one...yet."
"Yet?"
"I was kind of waiting to see if you'd show up. If you hadn't, I think I would have stayed here a couple of days and then returned."
"Hmmm."
Grinning widely, he said, "Or I could have just gone off larking around."
"And then I could be serving up your vitals on a bed of lettuce instead of breakfast."
"Right, you are scary at times, you know that?"
She laughed, before kissing him.
"Umm, you know, maybe that should wait until after you brush your teeth." she said.
"Sorry."
"Yes, you are sorry." she winked. "As a certain someone used to say, you've got a bad case of the 'zacklies'."
"Zacklies? Now you're starting to sound like Luna."
"Not quite. The zacklies are when you wake up in the morning and your breath smells exactly like a dog's arse."
"Let me guess, Sirius and it would be 'smells exactly like my arse'."
She nodded.
Harry gulped down the last of his coffee and made a brushing motion with his wand. Then he leaned over and kissed her again.
"Much better. Now let's figure out what we are doing."
"First, I think we need to leave here, before someone comes looking for us."
"I agree," Ginny replied.
They left, Ginny riding pillion. After leaving London, somewhere in the small towns of Surrey, about an hour later, Harry found a small inn.
"This place is supposed be one of the best places to eat around here. And their room rates are pretty cheap, too. I think we can spend a couple of nights here before we head out. Did you bring your passport?"
"Remember, after the wedding when you told us to keep all that stuff handy? I guess you didn't notice I started carrying a bag then?"
"Yeah, I noticed. I just never asked what all you had in it. It's not polite."
"True, but I am prepared for just about anything."
"Good."
They decided on a single room, checked in and settled down to lunch before continuing any more discussion of their plans.
"Where are we going?" asked Ginny.
"Germany."
"Why?"
"That is where Grindlewald was from and I need to find a wizard named Otto Brecht."
"Why Germany? And why Brecht?"
"Remember what Bob said, about Horcruxes?"
"Yeah, something about a Third Reich."
"When Grindlewald was active the Muggles in Germany were also at war. The Nazis are sometimes known as the Third Reich. Grindlewald was helping them, if not secretly in charge."
"This Brecht knows something?"
"All I have are a couple of Dumbledore's memories, but I think he does. More than he was willing to tell Albus, even though he was Dumbledore's right hand man in Germany at the time."
Ginny frowned. "How does this fit?"
"What do we have so far?"
Looking confused, she asked, "What do you mean?"
"Okay, the diary was something personal to Riddle, right? He never owned much so it was valuable to him."
She nodded.
"The next two were jewelry. His family's signet ring and a locket belonging to Salazar."
"Okay, so two of them were...were what?"
"That brings us to the cup. I think they had it right when they called it a christening cup. I don't why, but I do. In a way that is jewelry too, or at least decorative."
"Okay, so you think this next one will be decorative too?"
"Yes, but that isn't the only reason I think there is something in Germany. The ceremony we witnessed, from your memory, was only useful to make a clean split in half. I think Riddle learned how to make more than a single split under Grindlewald and Brecht knows something about that."
"Makes sense. Now why don't we go back to our room?"
"Good idea, but we have a couple of things we need to do."
Once back in the room Harry took out his passport and charmed it to read Harcourt Jason Evans. He charmed Ginny's to read Virginia Marie Evans.
"We have to pretend we are newlyweds on our honeymoon."
Ginny looked at him with a gleam in her eye, "That won't be too hard."
Harry gulped, "Right. I said pretend. Your brother will be mad enough at me as it is. We don't need to give him another reason."
"Fine, we can just snog. But you are sleeping in this bed with me." she said twirling her wand.
They spent the rest of the afternoon reviewing the notes that Harry had made while he was viewing Dumbledore's memories.
"Harry? If we are going to Germany why are we traveling away from London?"
"If I were looking for us were is the first place I'd look?"
"Oh, right. So how are we getting there?"
In answer Harry pulled out a rail timetable and pointed to a section he had circled.
"When did you come up with all this?"
"Last night, on the drive to London. I just clicked. I couldn't stay around anymore. They were driving me round the bend."
"You're right, something is going on. If I didn't know any better I'd think Hermione was pregnant, she's been too moody lately."
Harry snorted tea through his nose. "What!"
"She isn't. Her and Ron haven't done anything. But I do think that she is near to cracking up. She needs a holiday, probably a long one at a sunny beach."
"I agree with you there."
"Let's pack and catch that train."
Arriving at the rail station, Harry tapped the motorbike in a complex pattern and it shrank to the size of a toy. He put it in his bag. A couple of hours later they were in London, again, waiting to catch the train to France. Once in France they had an overnight stay to catch a train to Germany and then another long delay to catch the train to Berlin.
Four days after they had left, Harry was sitting in a small pub, at least that is what he thought of it, waiting to meet the man that Dumbledore had been sure knew something about how Riddle made the Horcruxes. Ginny was sitting at another table, hidden in shadows.
A few minutes before noon, a rather shabbily dressed old man walked through the door. He was slightly stooped and was sporting a long flowing beard. He spotted Harry and nervously approached his table.
"Herr Potter, I presume?"
"Herr Brecht?"
The old man nodded. "Please sit down."
The man sat. Harry continued, "What were you doing in 1945?"
"I was a spy for the British Muggles and I was working with Albus Dumbledore."
"More specifically."
"I had infiltrated Grindlewald's ranks and was supplying information to Dumbledore."
Satisfied that this was at least the man he sought, Harry started to ask more specific questions, gleaned from the Pensieve memories that Dumbledore had given him. At the end of an hour, Harry had much more information about Grindlewald than ever wanted to know.
"That is all well and good, but I need to know what you know about Tom Riddle."
Otto laughed, nervously, "Other than he is thoroughly evil, I don't know much."
"But I think you do. Or at least Albus did. Would you be willing to give me all you memories of him?"
"Yes, yes, but copies only. Meet me back here, tomorrow at the same time?"
Harry nodded.
The next day, Harry was seated at the same table. He looked at his watch and noticed that it was a couple of minutes past noon. He was about to get up from the table when he heard the screech of tires outside the door. It was followed by a horrible crash. Knocking over the chair he ran out the door. A delivery van was crashed into a lampost and lying in the street, in a pool of blood was Otto. Ginny came out the door and Harry buried her head to his chest.
"Go back inside, Gin."
He walked her to the door. "Stay safe."
Harry nodded. He walked back to the scene of the accident. The police and other emergency workers were arriving. Harry spotted a small glass bottle, lying away from Otto's body. He walked over and picked it up. Inside was a swirling silver, gray mass. Glancing about, he slipped it into his pocket. One of the police officers approached him.
"You know thins man?"
"He was a friend of my grandfather's. I am in Berlin on my honeymoon and he was going to show us the sites."
"I'm sorry."
"Thank you. May I go back to my room?"
"Yes, but we may have a few more questions to ask, later."
Harry nodded and entered the taproom. Ginny was waiting for him.
"I think he did it on purpose," Harry whispered to Ginny. He showed her the vial of memories.
"That is horrible, why would he do that?"
"Probably afraid that Riddle would find out he knew something. They said he died instantly. Better than the Cruciatus. They will probably explain it as he was old and never saw the van."
Harry and Ginny returned to the hotel they were staying at. A few minutes after they arrived an officer knocked on their door.
"Herr Potter?"
"Yes?"
"I told you that we may have a few more questions."
Half an hour later, the officer was satisfied and Harry was free to go. The first thing he did, though, was pull a Pensieve from his bag and dump the contents of the vial into it. He entered the swirling mass and two hours later rejoined Ginny on the bed.
"We are off to Albania."
Several hours later, Harry and Ginny were on a train bound for Albania. It was night and they were huddled together in a private compartment.
"Why are we going to Albania?" she asked, wondering, not for the first time.
"Otto knew of an old wizard there. This wizard was deep into many 'lost' arts. He was sure that is where Riddle disappeared to after Grindlewald had been defeated. Between the time he graduated Hogwarts and the time he showed up, looking for the Defense job, Albus lost track of him. We do know that he worked as a procurer for Borgin and Burke. He had already made four Horcruxes by then, so I think that the next one was made either while in Albania or right after that."
"Isn't Albania where he went into hiding after being disembodied?"
"Yes, that too."
"Any ideas as to what the item we are looking for is?"
"No, but I am beginning to think I know where it might be."
"Where?"
"You don't really want to know."
"But I do...oh! It's in the Chamber!"
Harry nodded. "He could have put it there when he was at the school for that interview. That could be why the diary compelled you to open it."
"But he never had me look for it."
"I think he didn't want you to. He was saving it for after he regained his power."
"So what would it be?"
"I think it is another piece of jewelry. A ring or a pendant. One of Otto's memories shows Riddle wearing a ring on each hand. I recognized the one on his left hand. It was the one Dumbledore destroyed, the Gaunt ring. The other one had an eagle on it."
"The house symbol for Ravenclaw is an eagle."
"I know."
They left the train in Italy to catch a ferry to Albania. Once in Albania, a long bus ride led them to Tirana. Spending a few days in a hotel, Harry studied the memories in detail. On a gray morning, in the middle of January, they set out for the small town of Skavica.
They had little news of what was happening in Britain, so Harry decided that they would spend no more than two weeks exploring the area around Skavica. The first day in the area, they found that this was where Voldemort had been hiding during the time he was disembodied. The forests in the area were full of magical creatures. The local population, for the most part kept out of the deep forest.
After two days of exploring they found an abandoned cottage deep in the woods. Harry knew, from both Otto's memories and from Dumbledore's that this was likely the place that Voldemort had used. It was confirmed when he found a shallow grave behind the cottage. A silvery form was sitting at the grave.
"Who are you?" he asked, approaching the crying ghost. "You are related to Bertha Jorkins?"
The ghost nodded and began wailing. She made to leave.
"Don't go. We're here to help you," said Ginny.
"It was Peter. He is alive. I knew him too," wailed the ghost.
"Who are you?" asked Ginny.
"I am Bertha's sister. I always went everywhere with her," replied the ghost.
Harry and Ginny tried to talk to the ghost, but she would not talk about anything that happened to her or Bertha after Bertha had found Pettigrew.
Exploring the cottage yielded nothing, except a few shed snakeskins that Harry knew belonged to Nagini. Two days later, Harry decided that it was time to return to Applegate. The return trip, by Muggle means, took over a week.
