Back at Grimmauld Place over the next few days, things went by too quickly and even I found myself dreading that the kids were going back to school.
The last evening before their departure was a quiet one. I was sitting in the lounge, finishing up the book Remus had given me while he and Sirius played a game of Wizard's chess.
"You lasted much longer this time," Remus said.
"That's what she said," I put in from the couch.
"Well, look whose mind is in the gutter," Sirius said. "How's your book coming?"
"Oh, it's 'coming' alright," I said.
"What?" Sirius asked as Remus laughed. "What the hell are you reading?"
I looked over to Remus. "Your mind is so horribly filthy," I laughed.
"Okay, seriously tell me what you're reading," Sirius said.
"The book 'climaxes' at an orgy. That is hilarious and so wrong," I said.
". . . Perfume. Murder. An orgy. I believe I'm going to want to read that book when you've finished," Sirius said.
Just then, off the landing upstairs Ginny rushed out of her room looking horrified. She looked down to us and without any words motioned to us to come quickly. Before we could even ask her what was going on she was at Harry's door banging on it as loudly as she could.
We sprinted upstairs as Harry ran as fast as he could into Hannah's room.
"What's going on?" Molly asked as she and Arthur walked out of their room.
"It's him. He's here," Ginny said going back into her room.
It felt as though ice were coursing through my veins. Him? Here?
The only person she could be talking about was Voldemort.
"Get out of my sister," Harry said pointing his wand at Hannah, Ginny and Ron at his side.
"Ah, just the boy I've been waiting for," Hannah said. But I could tell this wasn't Hannah. It looked and sounded like her, but the way she was now carrying herself, the way she addressed Harry, Voldemort had control of her. "But where have your manners gone? Last time we spoke you were so. . . polite."
"I'm through being polite god damn it! Give me back my sister," Harry said.
"Or else what? You'll jinx me? Well, you should know that that would be moot. You'll only be harming poor Hannah and I'll be able to retreat safely to my body," Voldemort said.
A moment of silence passed and a looked irritation washed over her face.
"What are you doing here?" Harry asked.
"Well, actually I wanted to talk to you," Voldemort said. "But I'll give your sister some credit. She didn't make it easy for me."
"That's because she's been practicing Occlumency," Ginny said.
"Oh, really?" Voldemort asked.
"I read about it in a book. After she asked me for her help once she realized you were getting into her head the same way you got into mine we decided it would probably help her," Ginny said.
Thank goodness Hannah was a smart girl.
"Well if she had been more skilled it may have worked," Voldemort said.
"Leave her alone now," Harry said.
"I will, but I give you this warning—I will be back for your sister and when I do come back there will be no stopping me and if you interfere I will kill her," Voldemort said.
Hannah dropped to her knees and her hands grasped as her head.
Harry walked over to her and dropped down to his knees.
". . . Hannah. . ." he said hopefully.
". . . Harry. . . It hurts. . ." she whimpered pathetically.
With a sigh of relief Harry took me into his arms.
"She said. . ." Hannah started.
"Don't worry about it, Hannah," Harry said.
"No. . . He said. . . He said he wants me to do something," Hannah said.
"What?" Harry asked.
"I don't know. . . He said using me to funnel information out of the Order was only part of his plan. That he wanted me for something else," Hannah said. She looked past Harry and looked directly at us. She looked each of us in the eye as if to say she was sorry. She knew now that she was responsible for the information leaking out of the Order to the death eaters and that she'd put us all in danger. "But I don't know. . . I don't know what he wanted."
We all exchanged glances. From the look on everyone's faces I could tell that I wasn't the only one horrified from what had just happened and feeling completely helpless about what to do now, aside from the accepting the fact that Hannah was okay and that it was a blessing considering things could've been worse.
"Are you alright?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Hannah replied. "I think I just need to sleep."
888
"How the hell did this happen?" Sirius asked. "Why didn't we see this coming?"
"I don't know," I said. "There's hardly anything we can do about it now. Things could've been worse."
"Much worse," Remus replied.
We weren't able to sleep after that, and so we'd been sitting in the kitchen, awake, talking.
"At least she's okay now. I'd better stop thinking over it before I drive myself insane," Sirius said. "Onto other things, it's her isn't it?"
"What?" Remus asked.
"She said Voldemort wanted her to do something. That just about solves the mystery of which of them he's after doesn't it?" Sirius asked. "He's going to use her to try to get the prophecy."
"Dumbledore said they're so similar that he would more likely go after her didn't he?" I asked.
Remus nodded.
"So what do we do now?" I asked.
"Keep an eye on her obviously," Sirius said.
"If we try to keep tabs on her and everything that she's doing she's going to go mental," I said.
"We haven't got much of a choice. She could get hurt," Sirius said. "It's only natural that we're going to be overly concerned about her now, whether she likes it or not. She's smart enough to realize that on her own."
888
I'd gone to work after we dropped the children off at Hogwarts the next day. There wasn't much for me to do except catch up on some filing.
I hadn't even been there an hour when, who should appear at my cubicle but good ol' Lucius Malfoy.
"Well if it isn't the auror Tonks," he said.
"Can I help you with something?" I asked.
"How was your holiday break?" he asked.
"Just fine thank you. Again, can I help you with something?" I asked.
"Am I to understand that you spent your holidays with the Potters?" he asked.
"I spent it with the Weasleys who happened to have the Potters along for the ride," I said.
"How interesting," he said.
"No, you know what is interesting is that you seem to loathe the Potters, but I heard through the grape vine that Hannah is just so smitten with your son," I said. Lucius leered at me. "I also hear tell that this relationship isn't very one sided either. I heard Draco is a regular Casanova. You must be so proud of him dating a girl who people think is loony."
"Who my son is dating is none of your concern," he hissed at me.
I nodded. "I completely agree. But it is your concern isn't it? So what's more important—your job or your son?"
Lucius glared at me—oh, if looks could kill.
He raised his hand and tossed a file down onto my desk.
"I came to inform that we are reopening Hannah Potter's file. She is actively being investigated for the murder of Cedric Diggory."
My stomach twisted itself into a knot. I looked up from the file to Lucius. "Guess it's your job takes precedence over you own son. . . Pity."
888
"As if we weren't dealing with enough problems," Sirius said when I came to see him after work the next day. "She's actually going to go crazy if this keeps up."
"Well it's not as if she knows they're looking into her, do they?" Remus pointed out.
"But how long does that last? The further into her they get the more public this is going to be made. The very fact that Lucius even bothered to tell me they were looking into her again shows that there's some new evidence on her," I said.
"What could they possibly have? She didn't do anything," Sirius said.
"Someone is setting her up," I said.
"Who would set up a 15-year-old girl for murder?" Sirius asked.
"A crazy person," Remus said.
"We know plenty of crazy people who don't like Hannah in the Ministry," I said.
Molly walked into the kitchen at that moment, holding two letters in her hand.
"Sirius, you've got a letter from Hannah," she said.
"Already?" he asked.
"Well, I've already gotten a letter about Ron causing trouble at school so why not you?" she asked.
"What could Ron have possibly done?" I chuckled.
"Well he didn't do anything exactly. Apparently Hermione and that Brown girl he used to date got into a row and it escalated," Molly said.
"Oh, my," I said. "Poor, Ron, just has all these girls throwing themselves at him and has no idea how to handle it."
"Oh. . ." Sirius said sadly as he looked over his letter. "This is bad."
"What happened?" Remus asked.
"Hannah obviously, neurotic as always," he said. "She says none of this is her fault and she really did try to stay out of trouble, but Umbridge put her on a student contract, she has detention for the rest of week and has to write 'I will not say werewolves are good teachers'-"
"Didn't she get in trouble over you the last time?" I asked Remus.
He shrugged.
"Oh, you didn't let me finish that little gem. She has to write that in her own blood," Sirius said.
"Surely you must be joking," Molly said.
"Don't think so. Harry might've said something along the same lines when he had detention with Umbridge," Remus said.
"That woman is mad. Mad as a hatter," I said.
"And she knows about the investigation and wants come back," Sirius said.
"Take a good long look at that letter, Sirius. That's probably the last sane piece of communication you'll have for a long time," Remus said.