4 September 1986—Lovegood House, Devon
"Hello, sweetie," Rita said as she flooed into the sitting room of Lovegood House and eyed a tiny blonde girl in a pale blue dress reading the children's edition of Fantastic Beasts.
Hearing the voice, the young girl shrieked "Aunt Rita!" and darted towards her. Rita knelt down and the two embraced happily. Journalism often forces Rita to be tough, heartless, and cut-throat, but all that washed away whenever she took one look at her goddaughter.
"Sweet Luna, so good to see you, dear."
"Rita, is that you?" a woman shouted from the basement.
"I'm up here, Pan. Is Xeno around?"
"Meeting a source in Hogsmeade," the woman shouted amidst the sounds and smells of cauldrons bubbling and drawers being opened and closed. "He should be back soon. Gimme a sec and I'll…ouch!…I'll be up."
As she waited for her grunting friend, her attention shifted back to Luna, but the girl's changed, as if her vibrant personality had been wiped away. Her big blue eyes bore a hole into her Rita's green ones, and she leaned over and whispered, "Will you help Hari?"
"Ah, there you are, Rita!" The voice interrupted Rita before she could properly react to Luna's words. Sauntered into the sitting room, Pandora Lovegood pulled Rita into a hug. "It's so good to see you."
"You too, Pan," Rita replied, her eyes moving back down to Luna, who was silently watching the two women with a pensive smile.
Pandora followed Rita's gaze and locked eyes with her daughter. A pregnant pause followed where mother and daughter seemed to hold a silent conversation. Eventually, Pandora nodded and looked back at Rita.
"So tell me about Harry Potter."
Rita was rendered momentarily speechless. But why am I surprised?
Shaking her head, Rita said, "You two are amazing. But yes, I'm here about Harry. It's bad, but I can't find out how bad without your help. What do you know about blood wards?"
"What color?"
"Um." Rita was thrown off by the question but pressed on. "You mean what color the ward is when I view it through mage sight? Blood red—like dark, almost maroon. I can show you if you want."
"Later. Let's me make some tea and we'll talk. Pipi!"
There was a crack, and suddenly a house elf wearing a nice yellow dress was standing beside Pandora, who said, "Pipi, could you please prepare tea and biscuits for us?"
"Pipi makes tea, mistress!"
Several minutes later, as the ladies drank their tea and Luna munched on a biscuit, Rita summarized what she's learned so far.
"So I'm pretty sure it's a blood ward," Rita said, adding a lump of sugar to Luna's tea. "But I have limited exposure to those wards, and I thought perhaps you might have better information for me, what with your work for the DoM."
"I can't talk about anything in the DoM, of course," Pandora replied after taking a long sip, "but I do have a few books on blood magic that we can go through. I also have a theory about where that particular ward comes from. My guess is Lily Potter."
Hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. "So you're thinking it might have something to do with how Harry survived Voldyshorts?"
Pandora nodded. "About a month before she and James went into hiding, Lily stopped by and asked me a lot of questions about wards and blood magic. I actually copied the books I had and gave them to her. Whatever she did to make the killing curse bounce off Henry and hit Voldy is probably in those books, and that blood ward at the Dursley's house most likely links up to whatever spell she used to protect Harry. But we can find out for sure once Xeno gets home and we can—Ah, speaking of…"
With a flash, Xenophilius Lovegood emerged and walked out of the fireplace, only coming to a halt when he saw the crowd at the table. "Hello dears. And Rita, what a lovely surprise! I hear you're on vacation. Any plans?"
"Actually…" Rita began to say, but Pandora cut her off.
"Actually, Xeno, Rita needs my help with a ward."
Xeno's eyes fell on Rita. "Are you breaking into the Vatican archives again?"
Rita laughed. "Not this year—and I certainly wouldn't need help with their wards if I were! No, it's something else. I need to borrow Pandora for a bit after we finish our tea."
Pandora smiles sweetly. "Could you keep an eye on Luna while I help Rita? It shouldn't take long."
Xeno shrugged, picking up a biscuit as his tea stirred itself. "No problem. But Rita, I had an interesting discussion with a certain auror this afternoon."
Rita's journalist senses tingled. "More ex-Death Eater rumors?"
Xeno smiled. "Two death eaters and one talking kneazle! Or so my source tells me."
As Xeno and Rita talked shop and speculated on the verbal abilities of certain magical animals, Pandora quickly headed to the basement, grabbed her books on blood wards, and raced back upstairs.
"I'm assuming you flooed here from Handbag End?" Pandora said to Rita.
"Yep, and I left it hidden near the warded house with detection charms in place, and," her hand went to her wand, "my proximity alert just went off, so something's happening. Let's go."
The two women hurried to the fireplace, Rita grabbing the powder. "Take care, you two," Xeno said just before Rita called out "Handbag End!"
‡
4 September 1986—Handbag End (Current Location: Surrey)
Down the road from the Dursley's, beside a tree, there was what looked to be a large rock buried in the grass and dirt. This rock, however, was invisible to muggles and wizards alike thanks to wards powerful enough to hide a pureblood's manor from a particularly annoying relative. This was Handbag End, Rita's extension-charmed mobile house where she lived and worked. It had fifteen bedrooms, numerous dining and sitting rooms, a massive library, a potions lab, and three offices. It also had a beautiful patio overlooking a large back yard filled with trees, a rose garden, a swimming pool, and a simulated outdoor view that changed with the seasons.
The pièce de résistance, however, was the fireplace, which was likely the only portable floo connections in Britain. It wasn't technically legal, but she, Pandora, and Xeno figured out a way to attach its floo's signature to a fixed location in Hogsmeade, meaning that no matter where Handbag End was, the fireplace was fixed in place to a small, abandoned house down the street from the Hog's Head.
It was from this fireplace that Rita and Pandora gracefully emerged before quickly moving to the staircase and outside, disillusioning themselves along the way.
It was dark out, the street lamps were on, and all the neighborhood muggles seemed to have all gone inside for the night. But even from a short distance away, the two witches could hear the cause of Rita's proximity alarm: Vernon Dursley's voice.
"Now stay in there and keep your trap shut or it'll be worse for you, freak!" the man exclaimed in a booming voice that the neighbors on either side of the house should have heard, though there was no indication that they did.
Pandora was gripping her wand tightly in her hand and scowling. "Who is that beast of a man? Was that Harry he was talking to?"
"Probably." Rita sighed. "The man's name is Vernon Dursley. He works for some manufacturing company where he probably yells at his employees, he's been arrested for assault, drunk and disorderly, and several other crimes over the past few years—all of which have been quickly and quietly dismissed with no consequences. His wife is Lily's sister, Petunia, and from what I've heard, she's just as bad as her husband—if not worse. They also have a son, Dudley, who is a year older than Harry."
"And you saw Harry, right?"
"I did."
"What did he look like. Tell me exactly."
Rita took a deep breath, recalling the tragic image of the poor boy. "Tiny, frail to the point of malnourished, arms like bones. He was wearing old, torn-up clothes that were several sizes too big, and I spotted what I thought were bruises on the arms just below his sleeves and on his neck. I took a few photos but haven't processed them yet."
A flash of rage boiled out of Pandora and shot up, hitting the streetlight twenty or so feet in front of them, bursting the bulb and rendering that part of the street dark.
"And Albus Dumbledore is behind all of this?" Pandora said. Rita nodded while trying to repair the blasted bulb.
"Well, then," Pandora said, "let's get started ruining that bastard's plans."
‡
It took Pandora several hours of inspecting the blood ward and digging through her collection of books before she had an answer. But it wasn't the answer either of them were hoping for.
"First off," Pandora said as both women sat on Handbag End's patio drinking wine and watching an imaginary sunset, "the blood ward is definitely connected to Lily Potter's bloodline, which is why I'm guessing Dumbledore placed it around the Dursleys, since Petunia and the boy Dudley are Harry's blood relatives."
"I guessed that much," Rita said. "But how do we get around it."
Pandora sighed. "We can't destroy it—not without letting Dumbledore know we're onto him. And we don't want to do that anyways, since the ward is keeping Harry safe from some outside threats. You see, if someone who poses a threat tries to cross the ward-line, that person will be instantly struck with what I think is a blood curse. I'm not exactly sure which curse it is or what it does, but it's definitely not good."
"But how does the ward identify a person as threatening? Would I be a threat?"
"You would because Dumbledore considers you a threat. You see, Lily might have created the blood spell to protect Harry against the killing curse, but it was Dumbledore who built the blood ward, and it's what he considers a threat that counts. He channeled the ward through Harry's bloodline, but it's tied to him, not Harry. It guards against anything that Dumbledore considers a threat to his plans. And that means…"
Pandora's voice grew ice cold, her eyes burning red with fury. "That means Vernon Dursley is part of his plans, not a threat to those plans." Her breathing grew heavy and her red eyes teared up. "That means Dumbledore wants Vernon to beat Harry and starve him. That means as long as Harry is still alive when he turns 11, Vernon has free reign to do whatever he wants."
A crash sounded from behind them. The two women look back and see a shattered vase on a table.
"Sorry about that," Pandora said, trying to calm her nerves.
"No, I think that was me," Rita added, her own voice shaky, her own eyes bristling with fury. And oh how I wish that vase was Vernon's face.
Pandora made a hitched-laugh. "Well, either way, reparo." The vase was restored, though the flowers that had been placed in it were gone. "Anyways, Dumbledore's plans include Vernon, but they don't include you. You, my dear, are most definitely a threat."
Rita took a deep breath, trying to process all of this. "Okay, so if I walk through the ward line, I get cursed and it won't be pretty. Right?"
Pandora nodded.
"But…what happens when Harry goes to school or to cinema or the playground? How does the ward protect him then?"
"It doesn't," Pandora said, "though we don't know if Dumbledore has anyone keeping an eye on him or if he's wearing any protective enchantments. But even if there's always someone watching and even if you can't get inside the house, you should be able to use your animagus form to gather the evidence you'll need for your story."
"But the real story is in that house with those monsters," Rita moaned. "I need proof of what's happening to him. Frankly, I need a photo of Vernon hitting the kid."
Pandora rolled her eyes at her friend's callous words. "First off, journalists are sick. He's a child, not a story! That said, you're probably right. Photos of bruises or his tattered clothes or his malnourished body would be helpful, but you really do need to get inside the house and get concrete proof about what's going on. But I just don't…"
Pandora paused and stared off into space, her eyes glazing over momentarily. Moments later, though, she was back, a big smile filling her face. "Goblins."
"Goblins?"
Pandora smiled. "We need to talk to the goblins. They might be the solution to our problem. Think. What are goblins known for?"
Rita paused and considered. Unlike most of the wizarding world, Rita had a great deal of respect for goblins—in part because she shared their passion for acquiring and hoarding information.
"Well, Goblins are smart and they know more secrets than all the members of the Wizengamot combined—even more than me!" Rita smirked. "They also probably have access to the Potter's will, so we could find out why Harry was sent to the Dursleys in the first place. And…"
Suddenly, a light went off in Rita's head. "Oh, of course! Curse breaking!"
Pandora nods. "I'm pretty sure they'll have a way to get you through the ward so you can get your story, and I'm pretty sure they'll work with us once we share our secrets with them. But that'll come at a price. Are you willing to pay it?"
Rita didn't hesitate. "For this story? You bet your ass!"
"Good. I'll set up a meeting for a few days from now. Luna's been dying to meet the goblins anyways. In the meantime, stay here, keep watch, follow Harry wherever he goes, document everything, and use your mage sight to keep an eye out for any magicals or spells or enchantments or anything out of the ordinary. The more information we can bring to the goblins, the easier it will be to get them to work with us—and hopefully find a way to protect Harry."
"And give me an award-winning story." Rita smiled at Pandora, who rolled her eyes.
"Yes, and give my borderline psychopath friend the story she thinks she needs."
