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Chapter 38 – The Patronus's Testament
The tenseness in the Riddle living room the next morning could be chopped into chunks and thrown into a stew it was so thick. Ginny felt even worse than she had when Remus had thought she'd fallen for Regulus and had been ignoring her. Remus packed their things, grunting every other time he shoved a magically shrunken book into a pocket or a piece of clothing into a bag. Quietly sitting on the edge of the sofa with her hands folded in her lap, Ginny studied the long gashes on his blank face. They were dark and clearly had been deep and Ginny wondered what he'd done to himself after she'd brought Frank home and obliviated him. Remus had not allowed her to help tend to his wounds when he arrived back at dawn. During those long few hours Ginny had remained awake, waiting for him. He'd begun packing their things without a word once he'd magicked some bandages over the worst of them. Hours later, he was nearly done packing and he'd still not said anything to her, regardless of her apologies.
"I'm sorry," Ginny said again, this time more firmly, although she felt like she spoke to a wall. Remus grunted in reply, which turned out to be the most acknowledgment she'd received all morning. "Will you please talk to me? Please tell me what you're thinking, I can't take this silence."
Remus turned on her. "I want to know what you were thinking, last night, when you were scavenging the shack, when I specifically told you not to. I asked you to stay here!" he exclaimed pointing to the ground. "You promised and you deliberately disobeyed me. Not only that, but you allowed Frank to follow you there!"
"I know, I was trying to sleep and I couldn't and I figured I'd try to distract myself and I'm sorry," she replied, almost desperately. She searched his eyes for sympathy but found none. "I found the Horcrux," she said hopefully, offering the box.
He gazed at it almost curiously, and took it from her hands. He inspected it for a long moment then turned slowly away from her. He walked toward the table and slammed it down hard, making a loud bang! which startled Ginny. Remus turned back to Ginny as if he'd never seen the box in the first place. He resumed packing, without another word.
"Remus I'm sorry! I don't know what else to say."
"I don't think you understand the meaning of the word 'sorry,' Ginny!" he yelled, throwing down the bag which he had begun filling with her things.
Ginny took a calming breath and stood. "I already feel horrible enough, you don't have to lecture me."
"Lecture you? I will lecture you if I bloody feel like lecturing you, Ginny Weasley," he bellowed, shocking Ginny to a seated position once more. "Horcruxes. You know about horcruxes. So I don't question you. I listen to what you say and follow it because I understand that you know best when it comes to looking for them. I don't even say anything when you catch yourself in lie when you're trying to keep something about the future from me. I know you're doing it for a reason. But I'll be damned if I don't lecture you on going outdoors when you know there's a goddamn werewolf out during a full moon. Because that is what I know. I know the consequences of being a werewolf. I know that Wolfsbane is a temperamental potion and we're damn lucky that it was especially potent last night. I know that I am not like your brother, I was not just scratched!" He leaned into her and his hands grasped her arms forcefully. "I am a werewolf," he said and she felt that truth now looking into his eyes even more than she had the evening before. "Do you know how easily I could've killed either of you?"
Ginny let her mouth fall open as if to say something but she remained speechless. Remus breathed deep and sat beside her, burying his face in his hands. "The meaning of sorry Ginny is so beyond your imagination. Do you know how sorry I would've been if I knew that it'd been I that did that to you? Sorry doesn't even begin to explain…"
He trailed off, kissed her forehead, stood, and continued packing. Ginny helped him now, both in silence, until they finished and Apparated away together.
They made camp just outside a Muggle town far on the outskirts of the country so that they could concentrate in relative peace. In the town, they shopped for food that they cooked over an open flame that Remus conjured every evening. They were protected by a few simple spells that Ginny put up. Without a tent, they slept side by side beneath the night sky. Ginny stayed put for the next few nights of the full moon but was glad to have Remus back at night when the moon became lightly lemon shaped once more.
Remus did not bring up the shack incident again and Ginny left it alone. He seemed to forgive her now that he had expressed such a fear of hurting her, but at night when they kissed it reminded her of Harry's kisses and how their needy forcefulness showed an obvious fear of loss.
They spent their days trying to open the box with no success. No spells, charms, or even curses opened it. In fact, it still looked good as new, protected somehow from everything they could think of. After they'd tried everything, Ginny figured opening the box had something to do with Parseltongue. She remembered that was the only way to open the Chamber of Secrets and recalled from Harry's memories that was how he'd opened Slytherin's locket. A couple weeks of trying to open the box passed and Ginny had lost some hope in how quickly they would find and destroy the horcruxes. She was on the verge of suggesting they leave and head for Hogwarts, as loathe as she was to actually go. They needed Dumbledore's help and if they were to move on to the other horcruxes, they needed not to be wasting time trying to destroy this one.
"Why don't we just move on and look for another? We can take this one along with us and figure out what to do with it along the way," Remus suggested one evening. They were at the Muggle town's local coffee shop sitting in the back corner, sipping from warm mugs. They held hands.
"Because I think we'll have to break into a Death Eater's home and that puts this Horcrux at risk. We cannot lose it."
Remus raised his brows. "Break into…who's?"
Ginny shrugged. "Either the Lestrange's or the Malfoy's. Although Malfoy seems hugely less intimidating. There's something about the Lestrange Manor that irks me."
"Bellatrix," Remus reasoned with a chuckle and Ginny smiled.
"Woman is mad. Even worse after more than a decade in Azkaban. But I don't want to cart around a Horcrux in front of Death Eaters. It could be stolen or lost and then we'll never be able to find it again. I'd rather have it destroyed and we need help to do that obviously."
"Then Hogwarts it is. I expect you'll want to waste no time."
They paid their bill and headed back toward the clearing in the woods nearby on the other side of town. They circled around the fountain at the center of the small town as the sun was setting. They spoke softly of other things, just to have a bit of normalcy. Where they were, everything seemed normal. Voldemort's reach had not extended so far and the quiet nearly lulled Ginny into a sense of security, like it all went away. It was a pity they needed to leave so soon. She could almost forget her responsibilities and just live a life with Remus here. But they needed to leave tonight.
The woods were not thick enough to block out the orange and red light of the sun but provided enough cover to be invisible from onlookers on the forest's edge. As they got deeper they expected darkness to envelope them. But when they reached the center of the clearing that they'd made their temporary home they found a bright gallant lion, shimmering.
"Regulus…" Ginny breathed. Once they'd stopped walking, still hand in hand, it turned to them as if it had been waiting simply for their arrival. The lion spoke with their friend's voice.
"Dorcas Meadows is dead. Voldemort murdered her himself. Her body was found in her home." The lion paused, as if bracing itself for the next piece of information it was about to impart, or perhaps to allow them a moment to comprehend that a fellow Order member was dead. It bowed its head. "Caradoc Dearborn has been missing for three weeks. We hope to find his body soon." Again, the lion took a beat before continuing. "Whether by purpose or by mistake, Death Eaters have begun targeting members of the Order. We fear they may be instigating a Giant War and if that happens, the Ministry will have hell on their hands between trying to protect our secrecy and protecting families from Death Eaters. Dumbledore says they're doing this with the purpose of ousting those that are working against him. Aurors will be extremely busy and the Order will need to be considerably more active, making it clear to Death Eaters who we are.
"Lily and James have already fought Voldemort once more and it's no doubt they're considered targets. But you must remain incognito. Your invisibility will be your greatest weapon and ally. The less they know of you, the less they will be concerned with you. I beg of you to not engage in duels unless you must. Hogwarts is not safe: Dumbledore is sure there are students in the employ of their Death Eater parents. You must stay away from Death Eaters. You must remain hidden at all costs. People are untrusting and I advise you be just as vigilant."
The lion evaporated and the clearing was dark. The sun had set.
Disbelief and shock enveloped them both. Regulus had made it clear that Hogwarts was not an option. If they tried to go to Dumbledore, they would lose the gift of anonymity they'd somehow been granted.
So much had happened since they'd been away. It felt as though she and Remus had been on a floating cloud, in love and living on the run, even if they were hunting horcruxes along the way. She thought of Lily and James and wondered how they'd managed to escape him this time. And how had they escaped and Dorcas not? She'd been older, more experienced than most of the Order members.
Ginny remembered how she felt when Mad-Eye had been killed and she felt even worse now. Then, she'd known Mad-Eye had the serenity of death. Caradoc being missing was most disturbing of all. Regulus's hope that they specifically find his body, not him alive, was unsettling. Missing meant his body hadn't been found and that it was very possible he was still alive. They could be torturing him at that very moment for information. Ginny thought of Alice and Frank and what had happened to them and prayed to Merlin that Caradoc was dead. She had never liked him, but there was difference between her distaste of Caradoc Dearborn and her eternal abhorrence of Bellatrix Lestrange and every other Death Eater. Ginny sat on the ground where she normally would begin lying out her sleeping bag and Remus sat beside her.
"We need a new plan, Gin. I don't think we have a choice anymore, we need to find the other horcruxes and we'll have to take this one with us. Regulus wouldn't warn us without reason."
"I can't believe they've fought him again already," she said, hardly listening to Remus. "And Dorcas, gone. It feels like everything is happening so quickly."
"Ginny, I know you said we have to go to the Malfoy's or the Lestrange's but Regulus said we should stay away. He's right. The only reason we're not being chased is because we've stayed out of sight."
Gathering her wits, she leaned into Remus and kissed him. "We can't stay out of sight for long. We have to go, they have two of the Horcruxes. We need to go." She stood and held out her hand to him.
"You mean now?" he asked and stood. Ginny nodded.
Ginny knew the town the Malfoy mansion was in and thought of the name very clearly in her mind before Apparating. Although night had fallen, it didn't take them very long to find Malfoy Manor, a large domineering building with an impressively tall brick wall surrounding it.
"There's a gate over there," Ginny said apprehensively and Remus shook his head, illustrating her own feelings.
"We can't exactly knock at the front door. We've got to get over the wall somehow," Remus said. He walked along the wall's perimeter studying its properties. He lifted his hand to the wall and removed it in a moment, although Ginny couldn't see why. "I don't think we should use magic." Ginny held up her wand to a red brick and instantly felt like electricity shot through her wand arm. A small spark emanated from where her wand tip had made contact with the brick.
"I definitely don't think we should use magic.
"But how are we going to get over this wall without it? Isn't there somewhere we can climb?" They both looked up at the intimidating height.
"Doubtful. Clearly, the Malfoy's aren't a very welcoming family," Ginny said flatly.
"Too true. I'll have to boost you up. Think if you get on my shoulders you'll be able to pull yourself over?"
Ginny stopped. "But how will you get in? I can't lift you from that high up."
"I'll figure it out. But we don't have much time, I'd rather get out of here sooner rather than later. You can have a head start. Besides, I don't even know what the diary looks like. And I can signal you from here if there trouble. Here, take the Cloak." Remus wrapped the Invisibility Cloak around her and she vanished.
Remus felt hands on his shoulders. He held out his palms face up and felt an invisible foot step into them. Lighter than he'd anticipated, he easily pushed her upward toward to wall. He felt a foot on his shoulder for only a moment before Ginny pushed herself up and all invisible pressure left him.
He gave a quick wave, wondered if she'd looked back to see it, and then left to scale the wall for another way to get in.
Ginny wasn't sure how she felt about splitting up but she knew that for now, this was the only idea they had. From her perch at the top of the wall she saw him wave and then travel down the wall. She didn't like the idea that if there was trouble he'd have to direct attention toward himself, especially because he didn't have the Cloak.
She looked on the other side of the wall and thankfully there were bushes she could fall into from this height. The strong fabric of the Cloak protected her because before she'd realized, she'd dropped right into the thorny clutches of rose bushes. White roses, she thought, the ones they have at funerals. How fitting.
Quickly yet quietly she disentangled herself from the bush, hoping no one saw the bush sporadically moving of their own accord. But she didn't see many windows on this side of the Manor and used that to her advantage.
She kept herself up against the wall of the house, peaking in every window, looking for a study or a library. It didn't take her very long. The third window she glanced into had a wall of books along the opposite wall. With her wand, she unlocked and lifted the window quietly, crawling silently inside.
Lucius Malfoy's study looked as prestigious and vile as the man made himself out to be on a regular basis. Silver moldings of snakes slithered within the dark wooden crown molding and footboard. Everything wooden had unique hand-carved artwork, from the frames on the walls of the portraits to the wooden back of the tall chair at the grotesquely large desk. A dark green carpet lied itself on the floor.
The portraits, of whom she assumed were Lucius's ancestors, were asleep and Ginny planned to keep it that way. Ginny first inspected the bookshelves. Though Lucius prided himself on his intelligence and novelty his personal library was small and rather childish. What she had originally thought were books were merely trinkets or decoration. None of the books that were present however, were bound with a black leather cover and those that she picked up all had pages covered in words. It didn't take much time to examine all of his books. She glanced around the study. His desk was clean of anything but a cup of quills and an unlit lamp. She let her hand run over its smooth wooden surface.
She slipped her wand from her sleeve.
"Accio diary," she said with a flick of her wand and the bottom desk drawer began to shudder horribly. She crouched, holding it tightly to dampen the noise. The portraits remained in their slumber. The drawer was locked. She knew a simple Alohamora would not conquer the lock and Ginny's eyes scanned the room for a hiding spot, hoping beyond hope Lucius had not harbored the habit of carrying it with him. She found on one of the shelves a trinket box made of what looked like paper mâché. Heavy in her hands, she lifted the lid lightly and among a mishmash of things a bronze key lay.
With some excitement she hurried over to the desk with the key. It fit inside and slowly she turned it, praying to Merlin it would not stop. But it didn't and the desk drawer opened.
On top were papers from the Ministry. Hearing papers and crimes papers that were for Death Eaters, never to be seen again by the Ministry, long forgotten. Crimes that would disappear. Ginny dug past them carefully so as to not alter their order or appearance. At the bottom of the drawer was a diary. A leather bound brown journal. Not the Horcrux. As curious as she was to read into the everyday ponderings of Lucius Malfoy she was disappointed. She gently returned everything to the drawer and the key to its box and back on the shelf.
"Accio Horcrux."
Nothing happened.
Frustrated, she exited the study and crept slowly into the corridor, making sure it was clear before committing.
She followed the wall closely, looking around her at every moment to make sure no one was around.
"What are you doing here?" Ginny heard a rather angry, yet frightened voice call and her breath caught, fear seeped into her center. She'd been seen.
"To see you of course," another voice answered. "You are expecting aren't you? I wanted to congratulate you. Give some big sisterly advice since we both know Bellatrix will be no help."
"It was foolish of you to come without first advising me. You're too lucky Lucius is out and Bellatrix isn't here."
Ginny took a chance look around the corner of the wall and saw a beautiful lady, whom she recognized to be Narcissa Malfoy. She also saw the back of another woman, who she would've at first impression believed to be Bellatrix Lestrange with her dark unruly hair if Narcissa hadn't said otherwise. Simply then she deduced this was Andromeda, her other sister, by now married to Ted Tonks and with a toddler named Nymphadora.
"Luck hasn't anything to with it. I checked both were out of sight. Tell me, are you excited? When are you due?"
"I don't even know how you heard. But no it was merely a scare."
"I'm sorry to hear it. You're still trying I assume?"
Narcissa seemed truly upset that she had been having trouble conceiving. Andromeda murmured some comforting words to her younger sister. Ginny smiled. In a short while Narcissa would become pregnant with Draco. Though the woman would produce the horrid child that would one day torment Ginny and Harry and their friends, something about Narcissa, maybe her continued secret relationship with her sister, or her true sincerity over something Ginny had once thought of herself, made her happy that she would soon get her wish.
The sisters' conversation died away as they walked down the corridor. If they were on the other side of the mansion Ginny was nearly free to roam the opposite and that's where she went. Luck had graced her even if it had not yet touched Narcissa. Without Lucius and Bellatrix, this task would be so much easier.
Every door along the corridor was closed but one and upon scrutiny Ginny found that it led to a downward staircase. She snuck down slowly, making sure that her footsteps made no sound. The staircase was closed in by stone walls with a tall ceiling where floating candles fluttered with slight flames above her.
At the bottom of the staircase another door, wide open, invited her inside a dark room with many bookshelves along the walls. A large clean table made of marble dominated the center of the space. Right behind the workspace was an open cupboard with multiple cauldrons of various sizes and metals. On top were hundreds of vials, organized by size.
The room reminded her severely of the pain that potion making had been at Hogwarts. Whoever worked here was quite meticulous about order and cleanliness. Ginny closed the door behind her. In this hidden away study it was likely that the Horcrux could be hidden away here too.
There were no portraits on the walls so Ginny removed the invisibility cloak and laid it carefully on the table. A part of her felt disturbed in the room without the protection of the cloak and though she felt it coldly, she interpreted her discomfort as a good sign that the Horcrux was near.
She searched slowly and deliberately. There were many more books in this room, nearly all of them potions books, but several them were bound in black leather and resembled the diary Ginny had become so familiar with.
It might've been minutes or half of an hour when Ginny heard the footsteps and the door handle being turned. The cloak was too far for her to get to and she was right by the door. She extinguished the light at the tip of her wand and immersed herself in the dark corner by the door.
Ginny pressed her back against the wall so that she was as slim as possible, hopefully unnoticeable in the dark room. The steps came closer and she turned her face toward the door and gripped her wand with anticipation. Readying herself to hold her breath, the door inched open and she smelled the unmistakable odor of grease, sweat, and musty cauldrons.
The door had only opened a moment before the person stopped. "Who's there?" a snide voice asked. The person did not turn on the light but she sensed him passing her as they entered the room. She cursed herself for having taken off the cloak. Remaining silent, she inched herself along the wall toward the table where she'd left it. "Homenum revelio."
Ginny had made it right under the cloak just as a low swooping came over her. She dropped to the ground and pressed herself flat.
"Petrificus totalus!" The spell missed her, but narrowly. The lights flicked on by some nonverbal spell and she saw the menacing figure of Severus Snape towering over her.