Chapter 38 the first line of defense
Harry went into Honey dukes, mentally kicking himself. He had told Neville about bringing his defense teacher without planning on how his friend would react.
How could you do that to me?! He could ruin everything and go to the headmistress or the ministry. Neville was right of course, but Harry had made all the proper restrictions and the teacher had found out without him anyway.
Still, he should have used more tact.
Harry left those doubts behind him and tried to put on a casual face; they didn't need any more interruptions with their short timeline.
Misgivings aside; Hermione had all their backpacks in her handbag to keep people from asking odd questions. Who really took a heavy book bag with them on a daytrip?
It would have looked strange to have a teacher with them so they planned on meeting Weatherwood at their jump point. Who really took a heavy teacher with them on a daytrip?
He quickly gathered a bag of candies and raced Ginny to the checkout; the line there was getting large. They had to do a little shopping and looking first or people might get the right idea about them.
For the second time ever, Harry did not take in the rainbow of colors and odd dispensers that delivered your selection via wind up little people or twisting, high speed rollercoaster's that made your candy scream. The first time had been when he used the secret tunnel under the basement floor of this excellent establishment.
They felt time slipping by as they waited in line. Several people had chatted them up as they too waited their turn, making both of them so nervous that they dumped their other misdirecting plans. They moved into the winding alleyways they had planned to use to lose hang on friends and practically ran to the hogshead.
They passed a few odd people on the rarely used path, which made Harry think of the way his teacher often changed his appearance to suit his mood. If they chose to cut the man out of their plans, now would be the best time. He wondered if this had crossed his teachers mind as well.
A toothless, chubby old man was sitting at his ease on a battered chair at one backdoor; fragrant pipe smoke coming from a corncob pipe and a middle aged woman in a worn muggle dress was taking in a line of laundry behind the short fence of her yard. Was it just because of his notoriety that they looked at them?
A man stood in the shadow of an upper widow holding a chocolate frog card that he was facing towards them as if showing it off. Was his teacher watching to make sure they didn't bolt on him? This man stood out as odd; he wore a cloak indoors that had many pendants and tiny chains attached to it in a hodgepodge of random placement. Of course he could just be a nut being nutty.
Harry mentioned it to Ginny and she confirmed with a quick glance. "This way", she whispered and pushed him around a corner with their hardened boots clunking on the paving stones.
They were jumpy and on their guard from the moment they left Hogwarts; why? The death eaters were no more, the snatchers had all been snatched, so what were they afraid of? Done too many things on the sly, he thought ruefully.That could be it, only he just could not shake the feeling off.
The man in the window had something sinister about him, other than being in a shadow, but what? He reminded Harry of something from his defense class; it was just evading him for the moment.
He let Ginny lead them while he thought and sighed when the answer came five minutes later. One of the other students had researched a theft for his class project and the case had been about a shipment of stolen chocolate frogs.
Harry gave a quiet chuckle and waved a hand to dismiss Ginny's worried look. "I think we just spotted the sweet tooth sneak."
Ginny gave him a "be serious" look so he told her about the frogs being stolen right after the new card set came out. "Voldemort is in that set; maybe someone wants to take vengeance on his image."
Ginny started to give it thought and tossed it aside; one problem at a time. Harry was glad due to his own sudden unease, thanks to the dropping of the name of their biggest advisory of the last few years.
Neither of them was surprised to see that most of the others had arrived before them; only Hermione and Ron showed up after. "We had to fake like we were kissing to get rid of a tail we had picked up."
Hermione gave Ginny a bland look. "I didn't see anyone."
George pulled Ron into an odd hug; he had his large backpack on. "Sacrifices made with the best of intentions, I'm sure." He watched the streets as he waved them to the alley behind the bar. "I passed three of our less than secret defense class members on my way here and they all gave the impression that you three were going on a mission."
That brought everyone up short. Had someone blabbed about the mission? Now that they heard that; all of them remembered students watching them. Well not Luna. She voiced that the students had a secret gambling ring that revolved around Harry, Hermione, and Ron. "They have bets for what they will try to solve and who will end up missing a limb." She told them this in the manor of revealing a little known fact that was profound in meaning and importance.
Ron smiled at his brother with a sardonic tilt to his head until George fished a voucher out of his pocket. He brandished it; smiling without a hint of guilt. "Now that I will be in the thick of it, I can confirm wounds before repair. Some people might question my honesty…" He hastily tucked the voucher away as everyone tried to get a look at what he had bet on.
Their defense teacher nodded. "I overheard someone placing a bet two weeks ago; that's how I caught wind of your plan."
Harry wondered if all of their adventures were gambled over. The sorcerer's stone was secret, but everyone knew they had gone into the forbidden zone. He must have been more than fun to bet on during the tri-wizard tournament. There was probably a betting ring on his chances of getting knocked off his broom during quidich.
"Enough on that; has anyone seen anything strange that would point to us being followed?" Harry could have spent an hour on finding out who bet on what, but time was making fools of us; to coin one of Dumbledore's sayings.
Other than the students, nobody had really paid much attention other than trying to get away from friends. Weatherwood scratched his bald head; he was once again his oriental self. "Someone was leaning against the owl delivery post. She had her cloak pulled out on one side revealing a huge broach that had a tinted glass center. I thought she was trying to show it off, but now her actions after she saw me are suspicious." He moved his own muggle jacket to show how she covered it. "I thought she was embarrassed to be caught showing her jewelry off, but now…"
Harry mulled the news over in his head; was this enough to put off the mission? He thought not; there was too little to go on. Besides Neville would possibly try it alone if he had to wait for a better opportunity. He was reminded of the letter placed outside his home by this, but kept that connection to him. "We should go quickly now to avoid any more chances of discovery; Hermione?" He stepped aside to let her start the apparition.
Hermione stepped forward and grabbed Ron and Harry. "It will be colder there, so be ready. Any last plans before we jump?"
"Bags first, Hermione" Neville said, pointing to her new hold all bag.
She gave a shake and released the boys. "Sorry, just a sec."
Five backpacks later she took them, in small groups; to the spot they would begin their run.
After the hated squeezing of apparition, Harry rummaged in his bag for the binoculars he had from a boot sale. They were in a grassy dip in the land that had a small patch of snow in its shadow and he wanted to know if they were in fact alone out here.
As Hermione returned from her second jump, Harry and Ron were reaching the edge and crawling forward in the tall dead weeds.
Ron cursed quietly as his khaki pants got damp from kneeling in a wet bit of grass. "Anything on radar?" His voice was hushed and, wet pants aside, he looked like he was starting to enjoy himself.
Weatherwood came up next to them and gave a sound of exasperation. The grass really was wet here.
Their teacher removed an ancient pair of glasses and clipped something to the right lens. He gazed to their right and took them off to offer them to his students. "They are like light houses for detecting magic in use."
Ron put them on and seeing what he was talking about then handed them to Harry who traded them for his own glasses. The structure had the base of a light house, but instead of open windows the detectors were topped with a triangle that spun on one of its points. There was a vertical line of glass blocks that put out a small amount of light; highlighting everything it hit. From clouds to grass, the light was unbroken.
"Your eyesight is not as bad as mine; these are little better than having no glasses on at all." Harry traded back quickly and crawled over to where Hermione had a jar of blue flame burning.
Ron explained what they had seen while he attempted to dry his pants with his reed wand. "You did good Hermione; we are on the edge like you said."
Harry nodded his agreement. "Last chance for spells." He looked at Weatherwood. "You are sure they won't detect our magical items?"
They would have a harder time of it if they had to go magic free, but he had informed them that they had nothing to worry about.
"The lighthouses are for active or in use spells. Mrs. Granger's bag or George's charmed items are passively active and are not risking the revealing of our world." Neville raised a hand, but Weatherwood answered before he could be interrupted. "Brooms release magic as they are being flown. That sort of magic is too close to wand use to be ignored."
Harry wondered if the others were trying to downplay the danger by treating this like a school project. Everyone kept raising their hands. "Time to run guys," he told them in a quiet voice, "hopefully this will be the hard part."
They set off with considerable jangling and thumping as the items in their packs began to move up and down as they ran. Weatherwood had taken rear guard and called a halt after five minutes. Neville had his knife sticking thru his pack; he had not acquired a sheath for it.
That was their first delay. They repacked his things in a different pocket and rapped the knife in bandages. They could not mend the bag with magic so they just had to keep an eye on it.
A short time later they approached a battered dirt road they would need to use to cross a mile long bit of swampy land.
They didn't want to use the road; it took them south of their destination and it was mostly flat so the few trees that dotted the swamp were the only cover from oncoming cars.
Harry held them in the tall grass while he listened for cars. He thought he had seen dust from the direction they were headed.
They had all left the grass when Ron spied more dust and rushed them all back in; pushing the grass back as best they could to hide their passage. The sound of an automobile was heard before they had the grass moved.
A small truck came into view between the weeds and Harry could feel his group tensing up. What if this was a hunter? Would he see where the tall grass was moved and think it was deer?
To their horror, the truck stopped fifty feet from their hiding spot and a graying man of fifty spilled out of the door. He was saying something as he got out and repeated it over and over.
To Harry it sounded like yitty or possibly kitty. Maybe he lost his cat.
The thin man was fumbling at the front of his trousers and headed around so he was facing the grill of his truck. He laid one arm along the hood and put his head down as well.
The sound of running water drifted over to them and Harry put a hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing. To make it worse, the man was hooting and saying yitty several times for each hoot.
Ron had his arms over his knees, head down as he shook.
Ginny had grown up with many brothers had heard the same many times, but still was smiling broadly. She almost lost it though when the man lifted a leg and made a sound like a tuba blast when they thought he was done, only to restart when his leg was down; now saying ohma over and over.
Professor Weatherwood gave no sign that he had heard anything; he just sat on his haunches while looking the other direction for more trouble.
Mr. Yitty Ohma finished his business, got into his truck and drove off to the welcome sighs of the whole group. He never looked to either side. "Check the ground for lost items, we need to move fast and there isn't time to backtrack." Harry demonstrated what he meant by checking around his feet before moving to the road after the truck had faded from sight.
"Past the first hurtle," Harry muttered to himself as he skirted the dark patch on the road.