Chapter Fourteen
Disclaimer: Don't own etc...
I felt evil leaving everyone at that cliff hanger, so I thought I'd update quickly.
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"Hermione, hurry up!" Ron hissed from the stairway. Harry rolled his eyes. That had to have been the fifth time in the last ten seconds.
"Shut up Ron, unless you want to have a go at disabling the wards?!" Hermione retorted.
There was silence from the stairs.
"Didn't think so" she muttered under her breath, before blowing a piece of loose hair away from her face. "Right Harry, I think I'm going to need your help with this, okay?"
Harry, who had been rolling his eyes at Ron and Hermione's antics, quickly nodded and joined her at the door. "What do you need me to do?"
Hermione moved over to give him room next to her. "These wards are really complicated. I think your right about Kingsley keeping important documents in here; I mean why else would he have such a complicated warding system if there was nothing of value in his room?" Harry nodded in agreement; pleased his deductions had been right.
"I'm going to disable the first layer of wards. At the same time, I'm going to need you to disable the second layer. Another reason I think the documents are in here: Kingsley obviously had help putting these wards up. Moody probably" she continued. She shook out her weary wrist before aiming her wand at the door. "You do remember how to disable wards right, Harry?" she asked worriedly.
Harry rolled his eyes at her. "Yes Hermione. I did listen at Hogwarts" he replied patiently. Sometimes, he added silently. He copied her movement and raised his wand at the wood in front of him.
"Ready?" she asked, her voice trembling a little. She hadn't liked the idea of having to break into Kingsley's room, but she knew finding Malfoy was important. Atleast, it was to Harry and that was enough for Hermione. Harry nodded determinedly, his hand gripping the wand tighter. He knew he had done wandless magic before...but that had oddly disappeared the second Harry had calmed down. Besides, chucking objects around the room didn't quite have the finesse Harry needed to disable wards. It didn't matter how powerful the magic had been before.
"Okay, NOW!" she ordered. Harry immediately cast the spell to reveal wards. They sprung up in front of his eyes. Wow, Hermione had been right. They were complicated. Two different colours of ward lines crisscrossed everywhere across the door. Setting his mind on the task, Harry pushed his mind and focussed it on the layer of wards that was put slightly deeper that the other one. Subtly, he pushed tendrils of his own magic down the ward lines. He watched the pulsing slightly before disappearing.
Hm, he obviously needed a higher dose of magic then. He took a deep breath before send a massive burst of energy into the ward. It immediately disintegrated, but that was only one ward line down. Only another fifty or so ward lines to go.
About ten minutes later, Hermione and Harry were slumped exhaustedly against the wall...and Ron was hissing for them to hurry up again.
"Ron, shut up!" Harry hissed tiredly back, "We're going as fast as we can! You can always do this and I'll be the lookout if you want!"
"No chance" Ron snorted quietly, "He's your boyfriend!"
Harry looked stunned in Ron's general direction. His face felt like a furnace. "Don't be stupid, Ron. He's just a friend, not to mention a good asset to the Order" he retorted sharply.
"Sure Harry. Don't sound so offended though. Homosexuality isn't uncommon in the Wizarding world" Ron replied loftily, blatantly sounding pleased he'd gotten under Harry's skin. He was obviously punishing Harry for dragging him into the whole break-into-Kingsley's-Room-mess, by embarrassing Harry.
Harry leant there for a few minutes, not even bothering to give Ron a reply. Was homosexuality uncommon in the Wizarding world? He'd never seen a gay person the entire time he had been in the Wizarding world. But then again, the entire time he had spent in the Wizarding world, he had had a Psychopathic killer after him so noticing small details like a person's sexual preference hadn't been his top priority.
God, he wasn't even sure what his sexual preference was.
Wait, where the hell had that thought come from? Of course he was straight. He had liked Ginny and Cho. Why would he think he liked boys all of a sudden?
He could tell this was going to hurt his brain.
Grimly not thinking about that issue, he pushed himself away from the wall, closing his eyes as exhaustion heaped on top of him. He shook his head quickly, however, forcing himself to move. "Come on, Hermione. We should get this done fast." He held a hand out to her and pulled her upright again. She swayed a little, but kept on her feet. Harry smiled proudly at her, before facing the now open door.
He walked in quickly, checking warily for any booby traps Kingsley might have been thoughtful enough to leave. The coast was clear however, and Harry beckoned for Hermione to follow him. "Spread out" he whispered, not altogether certain why he was whispering but whispering anyway, "We'll find it faster if we look in different areas." Hermione nodded amusedly at him, obviously thinking there was no need to whisper seeing as Ron would tell them if someone was coming.
Harry flushed a little embarrassed, but nodded back at her. He headed left, checking drawers, shelves, even Kingsley's wardrobe- which contained quite a few questionable robes if Harry was truly honest. Not that his wardrobe was in a better state.
He didn't find anything in the wardrobe, so he moved on to Kingsley's side table. It held a few papers, but as Harry turned them over they appeared to be useless.
A small gasp from Hermione across the room made him turn around quickly. "Did you find something?" he asked urgently.
She was staring at a blank piece of wall, her wand making complicated looking gestures. "I-I think so" she replied excitedly. "There's an illusion on this wall. I thought there was something odd looking about it, so I tested it for glamours and wards. I was right!" Her voice sounded pleased and proud at the same time. Harry didn't blame her though. He never would have noticed that piece of wall without her help.
He hurried over, hastily winding around pieces of furniture before he reached her. "Can you dispel it?" he asked quickly, desperately hoping she could. If Kingsley had taken the time to hide something behind an illusion, it must be important. Hermione nodded decisively before changing her wand movements rapidly. She muttered hastily under her breath, before sighing in relief.
The wall appeared to melt under Harry's gaze, half of it slipping away to reveal a safe in the wall. Harry stared excitedly at it and reached a hand out to pull the handle.
Nothing happened.
"For God's sake, Harry. It's locked with a combination. Not surprising considering it's a safe" Hermione reprimanded sarcastically. "What did you expect to happen: It to open of its own accord?"
Harry tugged again angrily. They had come all of this way and for nothing! There was no way they would be able to guess Kingsley's combination! Harry hadn't a clue where to start. Oh Merlin, they were going to be too late. Malfoy was going to get into trouble...and it was all Harry's fault. He pulled the safe handle again desperately. A familiar feeling was rising through him...
And the safe door popped open.
Harry stared in surprise at the safe door. Dread flooded him. His wandless magic had done that. He glanced quickly at Hermione, only to find her looking at him with a stunned expression on her face.
"It must not have been locked" he lied, laughing nervously. The stunned expression left her face, but she was looking at him speculatively now. She didn't say anything to him though- Harry breathed a sigh of relief- and just pulled out a wad of documents from the safe. She handed roughly half to Harry, before pouring over the ones in her hands.
Harry gave her one last worried look before gazing at the papers in front of him. He flipped through the first couple. Boring, expenditure list for the Order, even more boring, Kingsley's Auror certificate, he commented to himself as he flipped through the documents. Eurgh, Dumbledore's will...
Wait, what?
Hastily, Harry scrabbled to bring the piece of paper in front of his face. Dumbledore had made a will! Oh God, he had left things to Harry, Ron and Hermione. Not to mention other Order members, including Kingsley. Tears burned the corners of Harry's eyes and he blinked them away quickly. He wasn't going to cry over a silly document. He scanned down the rest of the document. Mostly, it was objects, money to the Order, that sort of thing. Oh wait, he had left Fawkes to someone.
Harry's blood ran cold.
He'd left it to Malfoy.
Draco Malfoy.
What the hell was going on here?! Why was Kingsley hiding this? Why was Malfoy on Dumbledore's will? He had been trying to let Death Eaters into the school!
Harry quickly brought his eyes up to the date the Will had been altered and signed. He stared at it uncomprehending what it was telling him. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, and then opened them again. The date was still the same.
Dumbledore had made this will, just before he had been killed by Snape on the Astronomy Tower. He had made a will. The evidence was pointing to one conclusion: A conclusion Harry refused to believe. Dumbledore would have had to have known about his death to have made a will beforehand. He would have had to know Snape was going to kill him.
And he had left Malfoy something as well. Why would he do that? Why was he leaving Fawkes to Malfoy?
"Harry?" Hermione's timid voice broke his deep thoughts. He looked up at her quickly, hiding Dumbledore's will beneath the pile of documents he was holding. He didn't know why he didn't want her to see.
"Are you okay, Harry?" she asked concerned. "You look awfully pale..." Harry shook his head dismissively at her.
"I'm fine" he reassured her mechanically. He looked down unseeingly at the documents again.
"Harry?" Hermione interrupted again, a few seconds later. "I think I might have something."
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Harry's grip on his wand tightened as he glanced quickly at Ron and Hermione. Their faces were a little pale and scared. Harry felt awful for having to ask them to do this. He didn't want to, but he knew better than to go charging into a known Death Eater's house without any backup whatsoever.
The known Death Eater being Lucius Malfoy, not Draco, of course. Harry may have insulted Draco with that before, but he hadn't meant it at all.
Hermione and Harry had sealed up the room again with the illusion and the wards. It had taken away and Harry was fairly frantic now. Malfoy had been gone for at least an hour. He could have done anything in that time. Offered himself up to Voldemort...
Harry's thoughts were a little pessimistic at the moment.
"Ready?" he questioned. He wanted to give them a choice to back out. If not, it was basically him forcing them to go, and Harry would rather eat glass then do that to them.
"As we'll ever be" Hermione and Ron answered in unison. Harry grinned weakly at them, and they grinned back. They were never ready to go along with Harry's crazy rescue missions.
"Let's go then."
Harry swivelled on the spot, automatically taking a large breath of air before the sucking sensation swallowed him. He expected to slam into an Apparition ward- McGonagall had said the Ministry had set up appropriate defences after all- but it didn't happen.
Seconds later, Harry landed surely in a dusty ballroom. Or that's what it looked like at least. Twin cracks sounded next to him as Hermione and Ron apparated next to him. He jumped slightly, swivelling round towards the noise. When he recognised them, he smiled weakly in welcome. They returned the smile...until suddenly their eyes widened. Harry turned swiftly again and began to withdraw his wand.
But as a bright light suddenly shone in his eyes, Harry realised someone had beaten him to it.
The owner of the wand wasn't Draco either. They were taller...and smelt strongly of blood.
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Oh no! Who could they be?
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