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Chapter 37 - Moony

Allowing themselves to sleep in just a bit, Ginny and Remus, with wands in hand, made their way cautiously to the Gaunt Shack around eleven in the morning. They waved to Frank as they passed. He returned a slight nod and continued trimming his shrubs.

They stopped solidly at a ten foot radius from the shack. As they could last night, they felt a thick band of protective magic. It was a wonder to Ginny that the Muggles Frank had mentioned had not immediately fled the place, even if they didn't know what the cringing feeling in their hands and feet meant. But she and Remus knew. It meant curses and from what Ginny suspected, there were many of them.

Remus turned around with his back facing the Shack and whispered "Homenum revelio." Nothing happened. "We don't want anyone spying on us." he explained.

"Repello Muggletum" Ginny said. "Muffliato."

"What's that?"

She answered him as she added a few more spells that she had learned from her father. "Anyone who walks by won't be able to her anything we say. They'll only be able to hear a very annoying buzzing. Trust me, it's been used against me before. It's awful. But it works."

Remus raised his brows. "Clever."

"It was Sna- Harry… who found it in a book." Ginny felt for the bag around her waist and knew the very book she spoke of was in her possession. She looked at Remus to see if he'd caught her slip up but if he had he made no notice over it.

"So how do you want to begin?'' he asked once she'd finished. They were now within two layers of protection, one behind them, good and one behind them, evil.

"Let's just see what kind of protection is here." And before Remus could stop her, she held up her wand and called out, "Diffindo!'' The yellow light jetted toward the door where she aimed and reflected back. Both she and Remus ducked, hitting the ground hard. It bounced off the protective shell they'd created behind themselves and it continued to bounce until eventually losing its intensity and fizzling away.

"Ginny, we've got to be more careful," Remus said, standing up and holding his hand out to her to help her up but she ignored him.

"Gin, you alright?'' he asked, momentarily worried that she'd been hit by her own spell.

"Yes come take a look at this," she said urgently. Again, Remus dropped to all fours and directed his gaze where Ginny pointed for him. "What do you see?''

With his face against the ground and his eyes looking toward the shack he could see a small dark film maybe an inch from the ground. Below this film, the grass was brighter and more focused to Remus's eye. Above it the grass and shack was grayer, a phenomenon he had originally attributed to the tall dark trees. He looked back up to a gleaming Ginny. "There's a weakness to his protective spell.''

Ginny nodded. "He was only sixteen or seventeen when he made these enchantments. Either he forgot to seal the bottom with the ground, which seems unlike him, or he thought the enchantment was so great he could do without. It's a pig headed thing of him but it's extremely part of his character."

"But we can't get under it unless we transfigured one another into snakes." Remus paused. "Fitting, though, wouldn't it be?"

"That would be but I'm sure there are layers to his protective spells. He might not have sealed this one in the hope someone would do just that and get hurt between this enchantment and the next further in.

"So how does this help us?''

During her stay at Aunt Muriel's Ginny had to help her brothers and father put the Fidelius Charm over the establishment. The requirements to do the spell called for a completely unprotected home. But at the time, Muriel's home already had a shell of protective enchantments around it. So instead of disarming the enchantments already in place, Arthur Weasley unsealed the bottom of the enchantment bubble and taught his children to lift the bubble high enough above the house so that its magical atmosphere did not affect the placement of the Fidelius. Lifting it, instead of removing it completely, allowed them to drop it instantly if there were a problem and would resume its protection of the home.

"So we can lift the dome of the enchantment?'' Remus asked.

"No,'' Ginny replied making for a confused Remus. "We could only lift it if we didn't need this outer layer of protection.'' She gestured to the one they'd just erected behind them. "And on top of that we'd have to hold it up long enough to destroy the layers in between. That's a huge amount of power that even you and I together don't have."

''Not to mention we don't want to get trapped inside it," Remus said, nodding. "So that was no help."

Ginny continued to think however. "We can chip away at it though. My dad taught me a few things about disarming curses. It was part of his job at the Ministry."

"He was a curse-breaker?''

Ginny shifted. "Of sorts." Remus gave her a questioning glance. "He was Head of the office for the Detection and Confiscation of counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects."

"A mouthful. But bloody useful now."

"Somewhat. It was more about finding fake or cursed Sneakascopes and what not. But he was a bit more inventive with his spell work. My brother Bill was a curse breaker. What I learned from both of them will be helpful."

She remembered watching the protective dome that the staff of Hogwarts had built to cover the castle just prior to the Battle of Hogwarts be destroyed by the sole power of Lord Voldemort. The large blue-white beam of light that deteriorated every magical defense the teachers could erect had exploded from darkness, where, she would soon learn, a great part of Voldemort's army waited entrance to the grounds in order to kill everyone they could.

Neither she nor Remus had that sort of power, not even combined.

"My dad and brother taught me in sensitive situations it is far safer to use many, small spells to break a curse instead of one very large one which can create back fires and be seriously dangerous. We can lift it enough to hit the enchantments we've put above it. And after time, it'll crack."

Remus thought. "So instead of destroying it with one very powerful spell it'll be like hitting it over and over with many, less powerful spells. Teach me how to lift it."

"Well that's the thing. We only hovered the dome when I learned how. I think we'll need more height than that. We've got to make sure we lift it high enough to tap the outer shell."

"So we use Levioso and lift it as high as we can," Remus said readying his wand.

Ginny moved maybe ten yards away, maybe a quarter of the away around the shack. She held up her wand and nodded to Remus. She took a breath.

"Levioso," they called simultaneously.

The dome lifted very slowly and with as much force as the two of them could handle, they barely had it smack the upper dome with a small CRACK! They dropped their wands and let the dome fall. The force it produced in the ground made them take a step or two back.

When she'd regained her composure, Ginny inspected the dome closely, even too closely for Remus's liking but he remained silent so he would not alarm her. She knelt down and examined the fringe of open space at the bottom.

"I think we need to do it a few more times. This may take a while."

And that's what they did. They spent the morning repeating the spell and by lunchtime they were exhausted. Remus conjured the sandwiches they'd made earlier from the Riddle kitchen and they sat in the grass. The protection was only beginning to be visibly weakened. Ginny explained what she'd witnessed happen to the enchantment that protected Hogwarts and he could understand her frustration. Even when he compared himself to James or even Ginny herself he felt less powerful. Knowing someone could flick his wand at something this powerful and make it disappear was hugely demoralizing.

It would probably take them days, weeks even, to destroy this enchantment.

Frustration began to well slowly in Remus after they finished lunch and saw only minor improvements as the day passed. Surprisingly, Ginny was more calm than he was.

"This is taking too long," he complained close to sun down. They were tired and hungry but relentless.

Ginny sighed. "I know. I just haven't got any other ideas. It's working," she said, identifying a hairline crack that had formed from the top of the dome and extended to about her eye level. "But at this pace, we won't get anything accomplished."

"There has got to be a way to speed this up." Remus turned away from Ginny and pointed his wand at the dome. "Alarte acsendare!"

The enchantment flew upwards and crashed into the shield above it hard. But it smashed right back into the ground with a force that lifted both Remus and Ginny off their feet. They flew backwards and slammed into the shield behind them, then slid to the ground.

Remus rubbed the throbbing that he felt coming from the back of his head. He sat, in plenty of pain, with his back leaning up against the shield. He looked over at Ginny. She was gingerly attempting to stand up and brush the dirt off the butt of her jeans.

"You alright?" he asked. She turned to him and nodded. "That was stupid." He stood, stretching out his back.

"Yea," she replied. Ginny examined the tiny crack that had been there before as she pressed her thumbs into her lower back. "Or maybe not. Remus look!"

He was by her side in a sec. He allowed his face to be inches away from Voldemort's cursed dome and he could almost feel the Dark energy radiating from it. But the hairline crack that had been stubbornly thin all day was at least an inch wide. If he dared, he could probably poke a finger through it and be unharmed.

Ginny's grin was so wide and the red sun that was about to dip below the horizon hit her hair so that it brightened even the darkest corners of the woods.

There were moments when Remus looked at Ginny, his girlfriend, and had an overwhelming urge to snog her senseless. This happened to be one of those particular moments.

However, Ginny, as always, was one step ahead of him and she was rushing him, planting her lips on top of his. He lifted her up, lost his balance and they both hit the ground again. They moved so that she laid half on top of him and when he looked up at her the sunlight made a glowing halo around her.

"You're brilliant," she told him.

"As you are beautiful. I think we've had enough for the day. Let's go eat."

They spent the next few days using this more aggressive strategy. They transfigured stems of grass into mattresses and lined them around the perimeter of their protective shield and laid them down on the ground too. So instead of flying back and hitting what felt like a concrete wall, they bounced lightly into a mattress and fell quite safely onto another below them.

It took some time but with patience they were able to disarm the layer of Dark protection around the Shack.

Meanwhile, they spent their evenings in a much more subdued and relaxed setting. They spent the first night for supper with Frank from whom they learned that he'd accepted, long before their arrival, the existence of magic. It was the only way he could explain to himself the tragic ending of the Riddles' life, as loathe he was to truly believe it.

But not too long after the deaths of the Riddles did Frank witness an event he would never forget. It was merely days after the tragedy and Frank had been in and out of questioning. He had been tired and depressed and terribly worried about his future. The police did not believe his story of watching a young man climb the hill between the Gaunt Shack and the mansion in the middle of the night or of the mysterious bright green light he saw in the window. The first night he was allowed home he trekked the path that the boy had walked but in the opposite direction.

The altercation was one between Morfin Gaunt, the malicious being he'd known from town, and two official looking men in long draping robes. Frank hid behind a tree, not wanting to be seen for fear of being beaten for being a murderer like some townspeople threatened. Whatever had happened just previously he was unsure but it apparent that the younger Gaunt was being taken from his home and so a small spark of hope set in Frank. He continued to watch.

"My father is going to kill me for losing the bloody ring," Gaunt said, crazed. He continued to repeat the same sentiment in a loud ongoing mumble.

The official that was holding Gaunt with his hands behind his back grimaced. "What the hell is he on about?"

"I haven't any idea. Doesn't matter though does it? He's mad." He lifted a thin wooden stick and pointed it at Gaunt's face. "Silencio." And immediately Gaunt was silenced. He continued to speak. It was clear that he was unaware that he was no longer producing sound.

That alone was simply enough for Frank to believe in magic. It shocked him of course. Took him days to believe what he'd actually seen. But eventually he did. And after all these years it was finally confirmed.

The other nights for supper, Remus and Ginny had decided since they had it, they would make use of the large kitchen in the Riddle mansion. They cooked simple meals well enough and always cooked together. It was during this time that they really felt like a couple. They joked and teased one another. They worried over their friends together.

They remained sleeping in the living room even though the sofas were too regal to be comfortable. Bringing themselves to sleep in bedrooms upstairs was impossible. Although there were many rooms, none had two beds in it and they were too paranoid separately to sleep apart. But they were still just uncomfortable enough to agree that they didn't wish to sleep in the same bed. And besides, kissing by the light of the living room fireplace was romantic anyways. They were so engrossed in one another they found it difficult to leave the sanctuary of the mansion to greet the worry of death or madness that came with proximity to the Gaunt Shack.

It was in the afternoon when they could no longer detect any lingering piece of the dome.

Ginny stood on her tiptoes and kissed his nose. He asked her something that had been on his mind for a while. "Why do you think the Muggles could walk right through his enchantment? Frank said they all touched the shack before being affected by any curses. But we could feel the danger straight away."

She thought for a moment and he studied her features and how her nose scrunched up the tiniest bit as she pondered his question. "Maybe Voldemort was less concerned with what Muggles could do. He was more occupied with keeping wizards out because of the potential we have to destroy his Horcrux. But to trick us he made the shield so that Muggles could pass through unharmed so an unthinking wizard might think so as well."

"But then why do we feel it? The enchantment was potent I wouldn't have dared walk across it." Remus took a safe step forward, passed where the dome had once blocked them.

"What are your suspicions?''

Remus held her hand as they took another step forward. "I think we are familiar with the feeling of Dark Magic. Sad isn't it?"

A solemn expression glazed over Ginny's features. Sliding into the crook of Remus's arm, she sighed. "I pray to Merlin our children don't become familiar with darkness like we have." Remus wondered if she meant their children together or separately. His head spun at thought of having children with her. If it was even possible for him.

"Me too," was all he replied.

They found that the next layer of protection was the shack itself, where the Muggles had felt their fates. Neither of them dare touch it for fear of madness. They also rightfully kept their distance.

"My brother always used to tell me that curse breaking was terrifying unless you knew what you were doing."

"And?"

"And he was right."

"Well that's comforting."

Facing the house, they brainstormed.

"Maybe it's a good idea if we look for another weakness. Like you said, he was seventeen or so when he made the curses. Maybe there will be another," Remus suggested and Ginny agreed. "Just stand back Ginny," Remus instructed, holding a palm back to her. "The very last thing we need is you going mad."

Ginny obediently stood back, allowing the bravery of her boyfriend to shine through. A month earlier she would have taken this instruction as a bothersome act to keep her safe when all she wanted to do was fight. Now however she blushed at Remus's chivalry.

Cautiously, Remus approached the shack, his wand raised. He searched for any kind of weakness and Ginny watched with her heart in her stomach. After he'd finish inspecting a certain section, say, from the front door to the window beside it, he'd tell her it was full proof. And finally he had concluded after inspecting the circumference of the Shack that Voldemort's spell held with no weaknesses.

"What the hell should we do then? I'm too afraid to attack it. We'll both be mad by sundown," Ginny said and Remus gave her a meaningful look to which she returned an apologetic one. The full moon was that evening.

"We should attempt Spell Loosening," Remus said.

"Loosening?'' Ginny asked. She'd never heard of it before, which in her experience was rather unusual. "What is that?"

"It's a sort of dissolving technique. You have to loosen the bonds of the curse to break it apart without much repercussion. We can loosen the bonds of the curse without getting ourselves hurt. We just need to be extremely gentle."

Ginny understood. This must be the type of curse that aggression would be no good against. Like oxygen to a flame, an aggressive strategy would cause the curse to react offensively in order to maintain itself. That could potentially more dangerous than merely touching the front door.

"I just worry that as gentle as we may be, loosening this curse could be horrible as well. Because honestly, if Frank had said nothing about those Muggles, I wouldn't have realized there was a curse at all. It's hugely well concealed. It's darkness is not nearly as potent as the last was."

If Dumbledore was able to bypass this curse, Ginny thought, she knew she and Remus could too.

"Solvena cursus. That's the enchantment. You have to draw your wand back slowly and fluidly in many directions."

"Like picking apart the pieces of the curse," Ginny nodded.

They were happily surprised that not only was Remus's assumption about loosening the curse correct but the more gentle they worked at it, the more quickly the curse faded and tore apart. Ginny's spirits lifted. Once they were inside it wouldn't take long to find the ring. She twisted the copy ring she wore around her finger. Nearly two horcruxes gone. At this rate she'd have time to spare. Just as the sky was turning orange and red, they knew they'd succeeded in removing the curse.

Remus opened the door, free of harm. He turned back to Ginny and grinned. She walked forward and pecked him on the lips. He sighed, at first happily, but then wearily. '"I have to go. Nearly sundown." He stepped passed her back toward the woods, away from town. "Please promise me you won't go looking for me. I've taken my potion," he assured her, "I'll be fine."

"But if you've taken the potion then you'll be in your right – "

"No amount of potion would make me comfortable to have you there. I'll be sleeping it off any ways. Remus said firmly. "Promise. I won't risk it."

''I promise," she told him.

He closed the door to the shack with his wand and looked pointedly at her. "And wait until tomorrow to search this place for the ring. "I don't know what sort of spells Voldemort's put in there. Promise me you will wait. Promise," he said again.

"I promise."

Ginny ate dinner alone that evening, doing nothing but pensively chewing and worrying about Remus. She tried to keep her promise to Remus, busying herself with cooking meticulously, eating slowly and concentrating on each bite. She washed and rewashed every plate, pan, and glass she'd used. She tried reading but quickly got bored. Practicing spells seemed useless after the first quarter of an hour and the Riddle mansion, at least the parts they used, were clean.

She became desperate for distraction. The only thing she could think of was to explore the shack and look for the ring. Dressing quickly and slowing her wand in her sleeve, she made her way off the Riddle grounds and over to the shack. She felt guilty simply walking there but once she was inside she was properly distracted, if not by the prospect of finding the ring then by the horrible feeling she got being there in the middle of the night.

The inside of the Gaunt Shack was a rotting dump. It smelled awful. There were old rags, torn rugs, and snake bones littering the floor. The walls had ripping and peeling wallpaper. Truly, the shack looked as if someone had been in the middle of a very comfortable yet disgusting lifestyle and had just picked up and left everything behind.

Which in fact, was very close to what had happened, now that she thought of it.

The living room, kitchen, and foyer were combined into one large room so that when Ginny looked to her right two small ragged sofas sat around a broken table and to her left a reeking kitchen with a dining table with a bowl of mold at one of the seats. Directly before her was a short hall with a few doors.

Loathe to begin in the gag-inducing kitchen, Ginny went right into the living area to search for the ring. She used her wand as often as possible so that she didn't have to touch anything. She picked apart everything, from tearing open sofa cushions to dismembering the table. She did not find it in the living room and moved throughout the rest of the shack.

She searched for hours, taking apart every inch of every room. Unfortunately it was just passed midnight when she gave up. The ring could not be there. Weeks of frustration drained from her. But she was sure Harry's memory noted that it was here where Dumbledore found the ring. She whipped her wand, hard, wanting to hurt the shack for not holding the on item she desperately needed to destroy. She gauged a hole into the wall with the force and the wood flew in and hit the floor, making a quite unusual hollow sound that reverberated across the room.

Ginny walked across the room with heavy steps and knelt to the ground, pushing away the chunks of wood that had fallen. She knocked on the floor. Hollow. She knocked in a different area. It sounded cold… "Diffindo," she said easily and the wooden floor board cracked easily. She removed the pieces and was agape at what she found underneath. With her wand she lifted an ornate box made of steel or iron with a distinct wrought decoration that reminded her of the filigree that was curled into the design of her Aunt Muriel's tiara. Clearly, the box was goblin made.

She dropped it in her hands and tried to open it, with no luck. But she stowed it away in her pack, securely, more than satisfied. The ring was inside the box, she knew. Although she could not see it, she could feel it deep in her bones, a horrifying familiarity she'd recognized when they'd found the diadem.

A sharp howl pierced the silence of the night and Ginny stood upright. She froze. The howl had come from just outside. Whatever he'd been doing, Remus had definitely not been "sleeping it off."

Ginny slowly crept outside to find Remus a few yards from the front door, having just looked in and spying her inside. He stepped backwards as she walked forward. He backed into a tree and rolled himself into a ball, quite controlled but clearly livid with her. She could see it in his eyes.

She stood quite frozen maybe ten yards away from the beast that she loved. He sat rather still away from anything that looked threatening but he looked at her with a disconcerting mixture of fear and anger. The smallest whine came from him and then a sharp growl followed, making her pump.

"What on earth?"

Spinning around, Ginny found Frank with a flash light in hand, jaw dropped in awe, and staring wide-eyed at Remus. "You need to go back home," she urged.

"What is that?!" he asked fearfully and the loudness made Remus startle. "What have you two been hiding out here? Some kind of magical creature?" he asked bordering on angry. Frank took a few paces back and directed his light at Remus. His eyes flinched with the light and he whimpered.

"Stop that!" She flicked her wand and the flash light flew from his hand. Frank looked affronted and dearly shocked. It was the first time they'd used magic around him. ''The light hurts his eyes," she explained, trying to be apologetic.

"'His?' You mean... that's him. That's Cedric? He's a... werewolf?" It took Ginny a moment to register that Frank knew Remus as Cedric.

"He's harmless. He's taken potion. Just let him sleep through the night."

"He isn't sleeping now. He was howling, probably woke half the town."

"Please, we can both explain this tomorrow," she pleaded. But Frank had probably already noted her own fear of him and recognized a danger.

Frank shook his head, backing away. "You must leave. You are a danger to this neighborhood and though the Riddles were not my fault the next ones certainly will be if I allow you to stay," he nodded at Remus. "Knowing what he is…I can't do it. Be gone by tomorrow morning."

An extra-long chapter for the extra-long waits. Hope you enjoyed.