Chapter 21:
Into Action
Long thought to be an invalid, the article began, Lucius Malfoy - a Death Eater in whose home the followers of Lord Voldemort made their camp - was seen last night in Diagon and Knockturn Alleys, in London, apparently in good health and attempting business with the venerable Dark Arts shop, Borgin and Burke's. The new proprietor of the shop after the tragic death of his parents earlier this year, Maurice Burke, was able to put him off, but has very quickly become an outspoken skeptic of the idea that Lucius is in any way incapacitated. "He did business with Borgin for years," Burke says, "and he's probably been doing it all along. He just assumed I'd pick it right up. I'm not Borgin." Of reports that Malfoy used a wand, Burke simply raises an eyebrow and says, "Unless he's learnt to point his finger and create knife-shaped fireworks to threaten me, I should think he's picked one up somewhere." Whilst popular reports that Malfoy is under house arrest are incorrect - he is free to walk about as he chooses, though his wife and son claim to have kept him at home for unidentified health concerns - he is, in fact, prohibited from carrying a wand, and has been since the end of the war. Reports that this particularly dangerous, and reportedly unrepentant, Death Eater is once again armed are causing alarm among the wizarding populace. Harry Potter, head of the Auror Division, is clearly spooked by the re-emergence of his old enemy, despite his attempts to advise calm. "Lucius is the responsibility of the Aurors," he says, his well-known face pale and drawn. "Anyone attempting vigilante justice will be dealt with severely. He is not to be harmed in any way. Do I make myself clear?" When reached for comment, Narcissa (Black) Malfoy is coldly angry. "My husband is ill," she says. "He had a moment of recovery, but I assure you, he is not at all well. And quite frankly, if he
The article continued on the inside of the paper, largely quoting those whose lives Lucius had impacted rather negatively. The old paranoid theory that Lucius had been "let off" in a deal with Aunt Narcissa that allowed Uncle Harry to keep Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place - it was based on the idea that Sirius's will couldn't have been legally binding, as he was a convict - resurfaced in several comments. It couldn't have gone better for the plan if Rita had actually been in on it. Teddy, in fact, wasn't convinced that she wasn't; the angle of the photo was from Borgin and Burke's. She'd been attacked by Cresswell as well. Uncle Harry might not have got her involved, but Teddy wasn't entirely convinced that Maurice wouldn't do so and forget to mention it.
It was exactly what they'd anticipated, but Teddy thought of the feather in the alley, of the sense of being watched, and shuddered.
There was a slight thud on the bench next to him, and he turned to find Donzo, a copy of the Prophet in his hands, his face grave. "What's Maurice doing?" he asked.
"Why would I know?"
Donzo didn't bother to answer that. He looked at the article again. "Your godfather seems touchingly worried about Malfoy's safety."
"You know Uncle Harry. He worries about everyone."
"Mm-hmm. Is the damned shop safe? And Maurice in it?"
Teddy nodded. "For no reason whatsoever, I have a lot assurances on that subject."
"I don't understand why he doesn't close it." Donzo sighed. "Wendell could re-open it. They could spend a few years re-inventing it." He shook his head. "Never mind. I do understand."
"You do? Well, I guess, it's for Wendell..."
"It's more than that. He hates that shop, but it's who he is. Maurice Burke-yes-as-in-Borgin-and. I think he'd have kept it open whether Wendell wanted it or not. He wouldn't know who he was, otherwise."
"That's a bit creepy."
Donzo glanced at Dad's wedding ring, on its chain on Teddy's neck, but said nothing.
Classes seemed surreal that week, but oddly easy. There were no missteps. The next Sunday afternoon, he Flooed to Maurice's flat.
Ruthless was there waiting when he got there. "Maurice and I are having a tawdry affair," she informed him. "Ask anyone in the know in Diagon Alley."
"Yeah, sorry, Lupin," Maurice said, coming out of the kitchen with a bowl of grapes. "I couldn't resist."
"Who could?" Ruthless asked dryly.
"Either she seduced me, or I'm looking for someone to cover up my real private life, which presumably exists though I've seen no sign of it," Maurice said. "The gossips haven't decided yet."
Teddy blinked. "Er..."
"It's a joke," Ruthless said. "Well, here, anyway; the gossips really do think so. I'm a loose woman, after all, and he's just short of a Dark Wizard. But it's convenient, as I can come and go as I like, and keep you updated."
"Oh."
She sat down and Summoned a briefcase, from which she pulled out the white peacock feather. It was now protected by a Charmed bubble that glimmered over it. "This," she said, "was picked up outside of the Manor gates. That's the good news - no one has broken the security there."
"I hadn't even thought of that."
"Hmph. Here I was set to dazzle you with my deductive skills, and you weren't even worried." She smiled. "Anyway, they have ivy growing on the outside of the wall, but not the inside, and there was a dead leaf stuck on the back. It was probably caught by the wind and tossed over."
"Good."
"The bad news is that you Disapparated from Wiltshire."
"Yes..."
"You can't follow someone through Disapparition. It's possible that Sam was watching Malfoy Manor and guessed where you'd go, but it's also possible that he's been stalking Knockturn Alley, and someone else saw you go. Someone who then sent him the feather."
"Are you sure it didn't just fall off my cloak?"
"Positive." Maurice took a seat on the sofa and put his feet on a frayed ottoman. "I went back there - "
"You did what?"
"He went back there," Ruthless said. "Very much against Aurors' orders. Harry's livid."
"I saw the feather. I went to check. I didn't go in far, but I saw footprints in the mud. Then whoever it was ran out the back of the alley. Must have been Disillusioned or in a Cloak."
"He was in there with you?" Teddy asked. "Are you mad?"
"Apparently so. I had my wand drawn, and I wasn't planning on observing niceties, and I've already had this conversation with Ruthless, Ron Weasley, Hermione Weasley, Harry Potter, and the Minister for Magic." He gave Teddy a curt smile that indicated he had no plans to have it again.
"Hence, the beginning of the Grand Affair," Ruthless said.
"She's babysitting me," Maurice added.
Teddy absorbed this. He felt quite out of things at school, and quite suddenly wished, not that he was out of school, but that they were back. That this was all some elaborate Hogwarts game, and the Prophet was really the Charmer, and the worst that could happen was expulsion. He rubbed his head. "All right. So they're taking the bait. When I go out tonight..." He stopped. "They'll be suspicious if Aunt Narcissa lets me - him - out again."
"We have a lot of defense, you'll have to slip through it..."
"I should let her stop me this time." Teddy reached up and pulled Dad's ring off from around his neck. "I forgot this last time. It's a sure identifier, and I don't really like the idea of people thinking Uncle Lucius would wear it, anyway." He handed it to Ruthless. "Take care of it?"
She nodded, started to put it around her own neck, then put it in her pocket instead.
Teddy gathered himself, then said, "Maurice really does have school work. I need to get him caught up in Defense."
"Clearly," Ruthless said. She got up, gathered her things, and went to the door. "Burke, I'm going to be lurking in the shop. And don't think I can't watch you from there." With that, she left.
Teddy pushed it all away, got out his school books, and started to walk an unwilling Maurice through the detection spells Robards had been working on this week.
He took the convoluted route to the Malfoys that he'd taken previously, through Uncle Harry's place. The Malfoys had been putting on something of a show all week, with Draco Charming his appearance to float by windows as "Lucius" and Aunt Narcissa telling the various reporters and Aurors around the Manor that they needed to go away, as they were only troubling her husband. She agreed immediately that it would be impossible to "sneak out" this week, so they simply put on a pantomime in which Teddy tried to slip out the back, came face to face with a reporter, and was pulled back in by Draco.
"Would you like to stay for supper?" she asked. "You'd have to stay in costume, naturally, in case they're watching..."
"Oh, no thank you."
Aunt Narcissa, who looked significantly healthier this week than she had last, but still tired, nodded. "I suppose I understand. But after this is all over..." She smiled. "I have a great many regrets, Teddy Lupin, but the greatest is shutting out my family."
Teddy wasn't sure what to make of that; she hadn't simply shut Granny out - she and Bellatrix had actively injured her, making it impossible for her to have any children after Mum had been born. But if Granny had forgiven her, Teddy supposed it wasn't his business not to. Still, he didn't care for the oppressive sense of bad memories at Malfoy Manor, and didn't want to spend more time here than was necessary.
Draco, apparently picking up on some of this, smiled faintly. "Once it's over, Mother," he said, "Teddy will need to be at school on Sundays."
"Right," Teddy said.
He let himself be led to Lucius's bedroom, and from there, Flooed back to Uncle Harry's, where James was waiting for him with a fairly well organized plot for the book he wanted to write. Teddy promised to try the first chapter as soon as he got a chance.
"When you catch the Needle's Eye?" James asked, rather morosely. "That's when Dad says we can do everything."
Teddy shook his head. "When I finish my Potions homework. I'll write something tonight. I can't promise it'll be good."
"I can fix it later," James said, smiling.
He did manage to write a few pages that night, and they weren't terrible - it was largely an introduction to their pseudo-Marauders, taking place, on a whim, in a barn that resembled Great-Grandfather McManus's hawk roost. He also wrote to Uncle Harry, telling the owl to deliver it at work, to gently let him know that James felt he was coming in second to a serial killer. Later that week, he had a note from James saying that Uncle Harry had taken the family out to a Muggle film (the Potters tended to relax in Muggle venues in London, as no one knew who they were) - "and we sat in the parlor talking about it for an hour after!"
As March drew toward April, the weeks began to blur into one another. Hogwarts, London, Wiltshire; his face, Lucius's face; Ruthless and Maurice; increasingly long bursts of writing for James, who was turning in much better chapters in return than Teddy had expected; a brief renewal of his romance with Laura, which fizzled just as quickly as it started; classes, flying as a hawk in the moonlight, reading Honoria's pieces on the Ravenclaws. Sometimes, after his outings as Lucius (once the reporters got bored, he was able to make a few more forays), he dreamed of Death Eaters. He put his crystal ball out beside his bed, and the dreams went away, replaced by more pleasant images of Mum and Dad and Sirius. Fred Weasley sometimes made an appearance.
Each week, Ruthless told him what was new. Nothing ever seemed promising, though they were tracking some unpleasant ranters who vandalized the Ministry and several Diagon Alley shops.
Two days before his eighteenth birthday, an owl appeared at breakfast. It was carrying a soft pink envelope - something of a surprise, given that his name was on it in Ruthless's handwriting. The paper inside was the same color.
Dear Teddy, she wrote, I borrowed some paper from Lavender Brown, who was in Frankie's office last week (Fifi LaFolle is considering changing publishers, which may signal a crack in the foundation of the universe; you'd best look into it). Anyone who looks over your shoulder will see a mawkish letter fretting about what happened last year - don't worry, nothing too personal, and if you want to read it, just use Revelo. I assure you, it's horrendous and weepy. I got quite drunk before I sat down to write it, because I wanted it to be a convincing cover if anyone happened across it. The real reason I'm writing is that Maurice has been carefully planting clues for the last two weeks, that Lucius has something of great value to trade. Maurice has gone out of his way to bewail his financial situation, and in the last two days, has made a great fuss about how all will be well Monday morning. I have ears on the ground - Extendable ones, from Weasleys, of course, disguised - and there's been chatter. The message has got through. Sunday night. We take him down. I will be very close by - don't do anything stupid. Love (the real sort, not the mawkish pink paper sort),
Ruthless
Teddy knew Ruthless well enough to know that she wouldn't have told him how to see through her Charm and read her "cover" letter if she hadn't wanted him to do so. He waited until after his morning classes and went back to his dormitory. She was right - she'd obviously been a bit drunk, and anyone who'd seen even part of it would have looked away quickly, but he read all of it, except for a few places where the ink was too smudged, and she'd obviously cried on it, leaving it illegible.
Teddy... It's almost a year now, isn't it? Since I came to you, and you pushed me away. Well, I suppose you didn't, but I felt pushed away. I felt like an idiot, if you want to know the truth. I know you'll never be mine, not really, and
Here was one of the smudge marks. It obscured the left half of two lines, and when she picked up, she was talking about how she ought to have realized he was too honorable to hurt her as he would have had to, and then there was something about how she ought to have known that Sam wasn't honorable, as he didn't push her away, and...
Teddy got out his quill and wrote her a very short note back:
Ruthless,
I love you and I trust you, and you are worth both. I'll see you soon.
Always yours (in whatever way we need it to be),
Teddy
His birthday fell on Thursday, and Wednesday night, he used Dad's ring, letting it bring him to the memory of the day he'd been born, when they were both happy and at peace. Dad had held him after he was clean and Mum had fed him, and he could feel the small, warm weight that had been himself, and he could feel Dad's heart beating. The fear he'd had through Mum's pregnancy was entirely gone, and, though he couldn't put it into words, Teddy felt a sense of belonging, of being exactly where he was meant to be, of knowing that this was right.
In the portrait the next morning, they had set up a party in the kitchen at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, bringing in bits of other paintings to decorate. Sirius delivered a happy birthday from the Potters, and Phineas Nigellus came down from the Headmistress's office (he pretended disdain for all of it, but as he had to have come willingly, Teddy cheerfully ignored it). Teddy had a feeling that Uncle Harry would have had to remind Sirius, who would have had to come in and set things up in whatever way the portraits did things - they had no particular sense of time passing, after all - but that was all right. He toasted them with a goblet of water, and they sent him down to breakfast.
His friends had got to the Great Hall before him, and he found them at the Gryffindor table, with presents. Neil Overby and Celia Dean gave him a basket of food from the sanctuary in France; the younger Weasley girls - Molly and Marie had actually collaborated, along with Aimee - gave him a set of good office things, to use at work next year. Victoire said she had something for later and whispered that it had to do with Martian's Mistake (it turned out to be a very good framed print of the garden scene, which Teddy decided to hang up next to Mum and Dad's portrait, so they could go outside from time to time). Corky and Honoria gave him a new stand for his crystal ball. The owls brought presents from home, as well - new work clothes from Granny, books from Hermione and Ron (and Bill and Fleur), hand drawn pictures from Al Potter, biscuits from Lily, and a basket of Wheezes from James. Uncle Harry said that they'd get together on Sunday, and he had a present then. Teddy gathered that this would be something related to the case.
Donzo gave him two cubes of condensed Floo powder - the same thing Donzo's father had once given him, to get away from Greyback in the need arose. It had. Teddy frowned.
Donzo raised his eyebrows.
Teddy couldn't very well tell him anything, so he let it drop.
He took a Sleeping Draught on Saturday night to make sure he was rested - there was no way he'd have been able to sleep normally. Sunday morning, he wandered the halls until he found the Fat Friar praying in an empty classroom that had once been a chapel, and asked if he could hear a confession. It was the first time Teddy had done this formally, but it seemed like a good idea, given that he was planning a rendezvous with a killer later. The Friar was delighted at the request, and walked him through the ritual elements of it. He spent the rest of the morning with his friends, at Hagrid's, currying the hippogriffs.
At two o'clock, he gathered the books that would be required for tutoring Maurice, though he didn't think he'd be able muster the concentration to do it, let alone to force Maurice to the task. He Flooed out through Professor Longbottom's office (Professor Longbottom didn't bother pretending not to know that anything was happening; he just said, "Come back to us safely, Teddy"), and landed in Borgin and Burke's, where he found Uncle Harry and Ruthless presumably interrogating Maurice. They both looked up when Teddy slid into the shop.
"Uncle Harry!" Teddy said. "What a surprise."
"He thinks I'm up to Borgin's tricks," Maurice said.
"Well, you've been talking about getting gold."
"I put a flutter on the Harpies game. Your wife said they were sure to win tonight. Was she wrong?"
Uncle Harry rolled his eyes - from a distance, it would look natural, but up close, Teddy could see the stress lines in his face - then looked at Teddy. "I'd have come anyway. Your birthday."
"Oh, right."
"Hope it was happy."
"Yeah, mostly."
Uncle Harry twirled his wand, and a brightly wrapped present appeared. This, however, was cover - as the present spun down in front of Teddy, it was between Uncle Harry and the window. He whispered, "Muffliato." As he spoke, he continued to smile and laugh, like the Muggle game in the box was the subject of the conversation. The others followed his lead. "Listen, Teddy," he said, "we have everything set up, but we can still call it off."
"Like hell," Teddy said, inspecting the gift. "I'm ready to go. I want this son of a bitch."
"I thought you might say that. Your Charmed cloak is in Wiltshire. Maurice will leave a candle in the window if everything seems clear."
"Two if it doesn't!" Maurice exclaimed, making a face at the instructions for the game.
"One good tug," Ruthless said. "That's why I put the charm on the buttons - whether you tug or he does, we'll be there. If you can't move your arms, try to run, so that he'll yank you back."
"All right."
"I won't let anything happen to you," Uncle Harry said. No matter what, you'll be all right."
"Thanks."
Outside, something clattered.
Ruthless - maybe a bit too quick on the draw, but not unreasonably - ran out. She came back in, shaking her head. "Cat in the alley," she said. "It knocked over a rubbish bin."
"Are you sure?"
"I saw its tail when it ran away from me."
With that, Uncle Harry and Ruthless left. Teddy and Maurice had to put on some sort of show of studying, and, to Teddy's surprise, they actually got some work done. When he'd finished, he Disapparated to Grimmauld Place, then Flooed to Wiltshire to make the transformation. Granny was there, but to his surprise, didn't try to stop him. She gave him curt instructions to be careful, but helped him into the cloak and held Dad's wedding ring for him.
"You'll pick it up later," she said.
Teddy nodded.
The number of people outside of Malfoy Manor had dwindled over the passing weeks, as people had got used to "Lucius" being out and about, but tonight, probably because of Maurice's rumor-building, there were more curiosity seekers. Teddy had to be careful as he sneaked out of the manor and along the wall. The peacocks were getting used to him, and he fed them a few treats Aunt Narcissa had provided for a realistic view (apparently, Lucius did enjoy feeding them) as he went past. There were neighbors watching the gate from across the road. Teddy stopped on the Manor side and stared at them defiantly.
A young witch screamed, "You're the devil!"
Teddy looked at her coldly, then, in a moment of inspiration, made a crude, aggressive gesture toward the crowd. They stepped back.
He opened the gate, looked at them coldly, and Disapparated.
Back in Knockturn Alley, quite a lot of shopkeepers seemed to have found business to do in their display windows. They watched him pass with avid interest. He could feel their eyes on him. And he knew they were not alone. As he walked he swore that he could see movement from the corner of his eyes - gone when he looked straight on, but there nonetheless. As the shadows grew deeper, the eyes in the shop windows grew less frequent. In fact, when he passed a shop selling what it euphemistically called "human elements" for potions (mainly hair, nails, eyelashes, severed digits, and menstrual blood), the witch tending the display looked at him and seemed entirely oblivious to his presence.
He's Hexed the windows, Teddy realized. Hexed them, so they can't see out anymore. That's how he got the others. No one saw them.
He entered an inky spill of darkness between lit windows - again, something seemed to move at the edge of his vision - and suddenly, everything stopped.
His legs lost their strength, and he crumpled to the ground. He reached for the cloak to give it a tug, but his arms were frozen.
From the depth of the darkness, a voice said, "Lucius Malfoy, you're charged with crimes against the wizarding world and everyone in it. It's time for some justice in the world."
Teddy tried to force his legs to move, or his arm, hoping that Cresswell would grab him by the cloak. It felt like he was in a block of ice, except that he could feel every cobblestone pressing into his knees.
A tall pale form appeared from the alley, his eyes crazed in the pale starlight. Cresswell. He was dressed as an executioner. He gingerly took Teddy by the arm, not pulling on him at all.
"Now, we're - "
Something barreled out of the darkness, a small cannonball. Teddy felt a tug on his cloak, and a button fell off entirely. The thing grabbed onto Cresswell's arm, and then all three of them were pulled away, into the dark, into a world where nothing else existed.
The pinched, airless world of mid-Apparition released them, and Teddy felt himself slip out of Cresswell's grasp. They were in an old stone building, with gaps in the walls. Cresswell yowled, and Teddy saw that something large and brown and black was hanging from his arm: a raccoon. Blood was flowing from his wrist.
Teddy saw what would happen only a second before it did, only long enough to yell "Mask!" before Cresswell flung out his arm, dislodging his attacker violently against the wall.
The raccoon fell, and as it did, it lost its shape, grew bigger, became Donzo McCormack. His nose was bleeding and his arm seemed to be at a strange angle, but he drew his wand, pointed it at Teddy and yelled, "Finite Incantatem!" before collapsing onto the floor.
Teddy felt the strength rush back into his arms and legs. Cresswell raised his wand.
Teddy didn't think about it - he transformed, pulling himself up as he did, the world breaking into the sharp, non-Euclidean lines of hawk-sight. He flew at Cresswell, striking out with his talons, grabbing for the wand. It clattered away as Cresswell beat at him blindly, and he grabbed it, flew to a gap in the wall, and tossed it out.
He flew back inside, transforming again as he came close enough to the ground to land nearly on top of Sam Cresswell, knocking him flat.
"You're not Malfoy!"
"Yeah, that was getting old," Teddy said.
Cresswell's arm flashed out like a snake, and Teddy felt something sharp slash across his arm. His hand opened in reflex, and Cygnus Black's wand skittered away. Cresswell stomped on it, shattering it. He ran over to Donzo and stomped on his hand, and Teddy heard both bone and wood crack. Donzo screamed.
Donzo managed to flail his arm out, flipping Cresswell backward. Teddy registered the knife in Cresswell's hand in time to stop it from coming down in a brutal, killing arc, but he couldn't break the murderer's grip on it. Whatever else Cresswell was, he was madly strong, and it took all of Teddy's natural strength to hold onto him.
Cresswell pushed him toward the far wall, where Teddy could see that there were shackles welded to the stone.
"Is this where you killed them?"
"It's where they killed my father!" He laughed wildly. "Don't you recognize it? It's in your family. The old Tonks household. Your grandfather's grandfather built it. I've hidden it, with spells even Potter doesn't know about it. Your grandfather brought them here to be safe from the damned Death Eaters, and you... you come here in the face of one of them. I guess your pure-blood side won out." He grinned a scimitar. "But maybe we can clear all that out of you. See if you have enough of your grandfather's blood to keep breathing when I've drained out the rest." He leaned closer. "And then, while your godfather is distracted by your corpse, I'll pay a visit to the real Malfoys. And whoever happens to be in the house with them."
Teddy went cold. Granny had been at the Malfoys nearly every time he'd gone, nursing Narcissa back to health and trying to rebuild a long-severed tie. He tried to stall. "Where is everyone else?"
"Everyone else?"
"Your family. Whoever else has been hiding you."
He laughed. "Oh, they'll come out of the shadows when it's time. I always make sure they're away when I have a sentence to enact - wouldn't want them to get into trouble with the quislings - but trust me. They'll come around. "The quislings will catch me," he said lightly. "I know that. But I can do a lot of justice before they do."
Teddy shoved back with all of his remaining strength. The gash in his arm where Cresswell had already cut him was draining his energy more than Cresswell's was being drained by Donzo's bite, but the floor was uneven, and Cresswell teetered on the edge of a plank and fell backward, nearly on top of Donzo. The knife hit the wall and clattered away.
"Donzo," Teddy said. "Can you hear me?"
"Yeah..." His voice was weak with shock. "I can..."
"Can you reach the buttons on my cloak?"
"What...?"
"Just grab one. Pull. Hard."
Cresswell tried to throw Teddy off, but Teddy held on grimly.
Donzo's good hand came up, and Teddy felt it weakly snag on a button. He jerked to one side, and the button tugged, just a little bit, before it slid from beneath Donzo's finger's.
There was a series of pops, and a swirl of red cloth. Ruthless jabbed her wand forward, and Cresswell flew back against the wall.
"What's this? How...?"
"Your damned concealing spells can be broken from inside of them," she said, and the shackles he'd used on his victims flew up and bound him.
Teddy felt a hand on his arm, then a bandage wound itself around his cut. Uncle Harry crouched beside him. "We got to the alley fast enough to see you disappear. I thought - "
"I'm all right," Teddy said, and pointed. "But Donzo..."
"We're taking you both to St. Mungo's. Ron?"
Ron appeared at his side. "You want me to process this piece of rubbish?"
"You, Williams, Goldstein. No less than three on him until he's locked up."
"What about me?" Ruthless asked.
"Help me take statements."
"But - "
"Ruth, that's an order."
From his place shackled to the wall, Cresswell shouted, "They're illegal Animagi, both of them!"
"We'll see to it that they pay a hefty fine," Ruthless said dryly.
"You won't do a thing, you whore, and you know it. Hell, you'll probably have them transform just so you can - "
She jabbed her wand at him, and he fell mercifully silent. Ron and the other two Aurors Uncle Harry had assigned pulled the chains from the wall, and a moment later, they were gone.
There was another pop, and Granny appeared, carrying her Healer's bag. She looked around, wide-eyed. "This place... how could I forget... Ted died here..."
"It's a spell Sam invented," Ruthless said bitterly. "Partly a distraction spell, partly a concealing spell - it makes a place invisible to the memory. Concealing things was his specialty."
"Granny," Teddy said. "Donzo. His hand."
"We have to get them to St. Mungo's," Uncle Harry repeated.
"I'm Healing the breaks before we move him," Granny told him, kneeling down. "Don't worry, Don. I know this is your chord hand. I won't let it get jostled anymore, and we'll get it Healed."
Donzo passed out when she touched it to reset the bones. She managed to get the major breaks Healed, examined her work, then decided he could be - carefully - moved. She took him by Side-Along Apparition.
Uncle Harry frowned. "Is this it?" He looked to Teddy. "You didn't think he was alone."
"He was the only one here."
"Where are his brother and his mother?"
Teddy blinked. "I don't know. He said he sends everyone away when he kills."
Ruthless glared at the knife on the floor. "Someone's looking after them for him. Somewhere else. Someone who knew what he'd done and didn't care."
Uncle Harry nodded. "We should get to St. Mungo's," he said, and Disapparated. Teddy and Ruthless followed.
Maurice was at the hospital already when they got there. His face was white as he looked on at the team of Healers working on the finer points of Donzo's hand - the muscles and ligaments and whatever else was in there to have been shredded by the sharply broken bones. He glanced at Teddy, Ruthless, and Uncle Harry as they came around. "It wasn't meant to go like this," he said.
"They'll get him Healed," Ruthless promised.
"If he hadn't come, Cresswell would have killed me," Teddy said.
"And on that note," Ruthless told him, "I think I'd best do my job and get your statement."
Teddy spent the next ten minutes telling her what had happened after Sam had pulled them all away from Knockturn Alley. It seemed longer in the re-telling than it had happening.
She nodded, transcribed his answer, and had him sign the statement. "I'll wait for McCormack's." She ground her teeth. "I thought that might be him in the alley. I haven't seen a lot of striped-tail cats. I should have just brought him into it."
Teddy shook his head. "He wouldn't have let you. Cresswell was obviously watching the shop. He'd have noticed you having a conversation with a raccoon, I think, and then he'd have lost the element of surprise, and we'd both be dead."
Abruptly, Ruthless put her hands to her face and began to sob. She didn't cry often, and didn't do it gracefully. It came out in huge, braying howls.
Teddy put his arms around her. "It's all right."
"I could've killed you both."
"Cresswell could have."
"It was my idea! And I should have known before and I should have stopped him and I should have stabbed him in his sleep..."
Teddy held her and patted her hair while she cried.
It finally faded off to hitching breaths, and she pulled away. "Sorry, I - "
"It's all right," Teddy said.
"Ahem."
Teddy looked up over Ruthless's curls. Donzo, Uncle Harry, Maurice, Granny, and Aunt Narcissa were all gathered. Donzo's hand was enmeshed in a stabilizing spell.
"Er," Teddy said. "I think I lost the wand."
Aunt Narcissa nodded. "Then I'm very glad it wasn't your mother's you were carrying."
"You're not to let him play the guitar for three weeks," Maurice said, looking at Donzo's hand. "If he does, he might not play again at all."
Ruthless wiped her face vicious and turned around. "Sorry, McCormack. I - "
"I had absolutely no one's go ahead," Donzo said. "I just rode Dapple off school grounds and made some guesses."
"I'm glad you did," Teddy said. "Though we may have to face the terrible, unheard of consequences of our illegal magic."
Uncle Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, I think we can let the Animagus bit go. I'll arrange something - "
"No," Granny said.
Teddy looked up. She, Aunt Narcissa, and Maurice all looked horrified. "What is it?" he asked.
"Whatever you'd normally do," she said to Uncle Harry, "do it. It can't be that horrible."
"Well, it's a fairly large fine, or two weeks in Azkaban, which is ridiculous, but every time I try to change it, they accuse me of playing favorites about which crimes matter, and - "
"Teddy has money, and so do I. We'll pay the fine."
"Andromeda..."
"Harry, think. This isn't over. You can't bend the rules right now." She shook her head at the uncomprehending stares she was getting. "The trial, Harry. There's going to be a trial, and Cresswell is going to turn it into a three ring circus. Don't provide him with an extra act."