Chapter Twelve
"that he came to deceive thee, and to know thy going out and thy coming in, and to know all that thou doest." 2 Samuel 3:25
Hermione apparated straight to the Malfoy Manor front door. She rang the doorbell impatiently and checked her watch. To her amazement, a full day had passed. Suddenly her stomach growled.
A House Elf came to the door and let her into the foyer. Two minutes later Luna came in with a genuine smile. "Hi Hermione! Why are you wearing such heavy robes?" she asked curiously.
"Is Draco here?" Hermione asked anxiously.
"Yes, he's in the grounds talking to the gardener," Luna answered with a frown, picking up on Hermione's urgency. "Follow me."
They walked through the vast (and rather grim) Malfoy Manor and out through a door that led into the gardens. Draco looked up when he saw Luna and Hermione approaching but his expression was unreadable. Rather like those fae creatures under the ice, Hermione reflected with a sudden jolt of recognition.
"Hermione wanted to talk to you," Luna said as they got close enough to be heard. Draco dismissed the house elf head gardener and they wandered back to the manor as a group.
"Draco, I need your help. I followed the mission to the North Pole but got thrown off course - how doesn't matter now - and I fell through the ice into a country below it. The people there look exactly like you Draco. They have your bone structure, your eye colour, your hair, your build - everything. They must be your ancestors. They wouldn't give me any information about Voldemort but they said they would talk to one of their own. Please, I need you to come back with me and speak to them. The information you may get could be vital to helping the mission," Hermione explained tersely but clearly.
Draco was watching her with narrowed eyes. "Trust you to follow that mission when you knew perfectly well everyone was against it," he drawled but began walking more rapidly towards the manor. "We can get warm robes in the house. We have some from the ski-ing holidays we used to go on in Switzerland," he remarked.
"Trust you to have had ski-ing holidays in Switzerland!" Hermione said rolling her eyes. Luna laughed.
"Are you going to come, Luna?" Draco asked her when they got to the right wardrobe.
"Of course, I'm dying to meet your ancestors," she said honestly. "It might explain a lot," she added wryly. Hermione laughed then.
"I'm glad you're not going to tyrannise over Luna and make her stay here," Hermione muttered pointedly as the other two got changed quickly.
"Luna is in no danger from Voldemort. If she was, she sure as hell would be staying here," he said bluntly.
"What makes you think you're alone in this?" Luna asked Hermione with raised eyebrows.
"So I can see. Maybe bossiness is an inherent trait in men," Hermione postulated.
"Well, that doesn't explain you," Draco said coolly, raising his fair brows.
"Remind me why I like you again," Hermione said as they apparated, holding hands over the crystal.
They were in the ice cave for only a second before the crowd apparated again. Luna gasped when she saw so many people identical to Draco around her. Even Draco looked taken aback and he rarely showed emotion explicitly.
The man who had spoken to Hermione before and who was obviously the leader there, examined Draco with his colourless eyes. "Yes, you're one of us even though you have a great deal of wizard blood too."
It was then Hermione noticed the subtle differences. She had always thought of Draco's hair as white but it had just the barest touch of yellow near the roots which showed up only against the icy whiteness of these people's hair. His eyes also had a touch of silver grey whereas these people had no eye colour at all, rather like clear water, which made their unblinking stare completely un-nerving. Although very slender, Draco looked almost robust next to the fragile slenderness of this race too.
"Do you have some information about a stranger in these parts and the red Aurora Borealis?" Draco asked, cutting straight to the chase.
"Yes, perhaps. Would you care to join us for a meal?" the man invited politely. Hermione nodded subtly to Draco and Luna. Refusing hospitality would be rude and besides, she was hungry.
To their amazement, the food was quite typical of the variety of food available in England itself. "We use our magical abilities to procure decent food for these regions. We regularly leave the Arctic for supplies," the man explained seeing their surprise.
He had led them to a smaller cave off the main cave which was furnished with stone tables and chairs, covered in white velvet and gold brocade. As they ate, the man told them what he knew. "The red Aurora Borealis is a fake," he said without preamble. "The real Aurora is still lighting the night sky in its more usual yellow greens. We have seen a dark figure but he has never spoken to us and he only comes out at night. My people have been watching him to ensure he did not intend to either invade or attack our kingdom. He has been here for many years but no-one recalls when he actually arrived. It was as though he suddenly appeared from no-where."
"Or from pure vapour," Hermione murmured, remembering the dark vapour that Voldemort had disintegrated into on the moors and how it had quickly disappeared over the landscape out towards the North Sea.
Draco looked at her sharply, his pale eyes clearly warning her not to give away too much of what they knew. Although these were obviously ancestors of his, he was not naturally trusting.
"What have you observed of his activities?" Luna asked the man seriously.
The man shrugged. "He only comes out at night and usually only on the nights that the fake Aurora appears. It's almost like it's a signal of some kind. However, lately it has looked as though he's making plans to leave. He has been seen sending some of his belongings elsewhere via owl."
Hermione and Luna exchanged alarmed looks but Draco remained impassive. "So he can't be signalling for someone to come to him with the fake Aurora," Hermione deduced. "How odd."
"Unless he wanted to draw someone here while he escaped elsewhere to do his dirty business and thus wouldn't be interrupted by them," Draco said tightly, his pale lips thinning angrily.
Hermione's lips parted in sudden understanding. "Of course," she whispered. "It's a decoy. He wanted to draw all of Dumbledore's most powerful allies to the end of the earth while he went back to London to create havoc," she said fearfully. "The mission isn't in trouble at all but everyone at home is."
"We need to find the mission and get them home as soon as possible," Luna said with a frown. "All our best Aurors and strongest wizards are out of the country, and there's not enough left at home to protect the rest of the wizarding community."
The man watched this discussion impassively and merely nodded when they thanked him for the information and his hospitality. "There's nothing else you can tell us?" Draco asked, as they made their way back into the main cave.
"No, that is all the information we have," he said solemnly.
Hermione got the information on the Pole's current exact position from them and they used this to apparate close to it where Hermione guessed the mission was planned to gather and make camp. They soon found themselves in the midst of a blizzard out in the middle of nowhere and it was dark.
"Can't see a damn thing," Hermione muttered as the stingingly cold wind bit into the tender skin of her face. "Lumos."
"Lumos," the other two repeated, holding up their wands.
Suddenly seemingly out of nowhere a huge polar bear lumbered up to them and into their small pool of light. Great, Hermione thought, I'm going to die by being eaten by a polar bear. Well, there's no dignity or glory in a death like that. She pointed her wand at the bear threateningly but waited.
As they looked anxiously at the magnificent white animal, it stood up on its huge back paws. Hermione's legs went suddenly weak and she took a breath to mutter the petrificus totalus spell.
Then, before she could say it, she noticed it was shrinking and changing shape into a man. She let out her breath. It was an animagus. A grizzly faced, bearded man stood there in heavy brown robes. "You're not part of the mission," he said in English but with a thick Norwegian accent.
"No, are you?" Draco asked him.
"I'm the guide," he replied.
"We know everyone on the mission. We've come to give them some information we've found out by accident," Hermione explained. "It's about Voldemort."
"Follow me," the guide said and turned back into a polar bear suddenly, dropping back on all fours.
They followed the massive beast for a good ten minutes before seeing the dim lights of the camp ahead. By then they were all freezing despite their heavy winter gear. Hermione performed a warming spell over them.
They entered the main tent in the camp, glad to get out of the blinding blizzard. Inside there was Severus, Ron, Harry, Remus, Lupin, Hagrid and several Head Aurors having a meeting. When the three pulled back their hoods, Hermione heard the unmistakable hiss of Severus sucking his breath in sharply. Severus' heart gave a terrible, painful thud of alarm deep in his chest when he saw it was Hermione there at the North Pole, so close to her bitter enemy's location. She glanced at him apologetically, knowing he would be unhappy to see her there. He was looking at her with a deeply shocked expression and fear in the black depths of his deep-set eyes. She went and stood next to him immediately and felt him put one shaking hand on her back.
"I know we're not supposed to be here but we do have important news that needs to be acted on immediately," Hermione said with authority, taking control of the meeting with that one simple statement.
Hermione, Luna and Draco outlined what had happened in the past 48 hours since the Auror mission left. The group gathered in the main tent listened with a mixture of fascination and eventually horror when they realized they had been duped.
"So really, we're in the safest place at the moment. It's most likely that Voldemort is well on his way to London by now," Hermione finished up.
Severus breathed more easily once he heard this than he had since Hermione had appeared there. However, it did mean that the mission had to get back to England immediately. Everyone ran out of the tent to tell the others to pack. Hermione stood in the circle of Severus' arms for a moment. He was too grateful for her safety to be angry that she'd ignored her friends' wishes and put herself in so much potential danger.
Ron and Harry were grilling Draco and Luna about the people who lived in the ice caves while the camp got packed up. Due to the use of magic, they were ready to leave again within the hour. Some senior Aurors had volunteered to carry on to the source of the false Aurora Borealis to see if they could find out more information from Voldemort's base near the Pole and how he had generated the false lights.
Less than two hours after Hermione, Luna and Draco arrived at base camp everyone was back at the Ministry and sending urgent owls out to important contacts.
"that he came to deceive thee, and to know thy going out and thy coming in, and to know all that thou doest." 2 Samuel 3:25
Hermione apparated straight to the Malfoy Manor front door. She rang the doorbell impatiently and checked her watch. To her amazement, a full day had passed. Suddenly her stomach growled.
A House Elf came to the door and let her into the foyer. Two minutes later Luna came in with a genuine smile. "Hi Hermione! Why are you wearing such heavy robes?" she asked curiously.
"Is Draco here?" Hermione asked anxiously.
"Yes, he's in the grounds talking to the gardener," Luna answered with a frown, picking up on Hermione's urgency. "Follow me."
They walked through the vast (and rather grim) Malfoy Manor and out through a door that led into the gardens. Draco looked up when he saw Luna and Hermione approaching but his expression was unreadable. Rather like those fae creatures under the ice, Hermione reflected with a sudden jolt of recognition.
"Hermione wanted to talk to you," Luna said as they got close enough to be heard. Draco dismissed the house elf head gardener and they wandered back to the manor as a group.
"Draco, I need your help. I followed the mission to the North Pole but got thrown off course - how doesn't matter now - and I fell through the ice into a country below it. The people there look exactly like you Draco. They have your bone structure, your eye colour, your hair, your build - everything. They must be your ancestors. They wouldn't give me any information about Voldemort but they said they would talk to one of their own. Please, I need you to come back with me and speak to them. The information you may get could be vital to helping the mission," Hermione explained tersely but clearly.
Draco was watching her with narrowed eyes. "Trust you to follow that mission when you knew perfectly well everyone was against it," he drawled but began walking more rapidly towards the manor. "We can get warm robes in the house. We have some from the ski-ing holidays we used to go on in Switzerland," he remarked.
"Trust you to have had ski-ing holidays in Switzerland!" Hermione said rolling her eyes. Luna laughed.
"Are you going to come, Luna?" Draco asked her when they got to the right wardrobe.
"Of course, I'm dying to meet your ancestors," she said honestly. "It might explain a lot," she added wryly. Hermione laughed then.
"I'm glad you're not going to tyrannise over Luna and make her stay here," Hermione muttered pointedly as the other two got changed quickly.
"Luna is in no danger from Voldemort. If she was, she sure as hell would be staying here," he said bluntly.
"What makes you think you're alone in this?" Luna asked Hermione with raised eyebrows.
"So I can see. Maybe bossiness is an inherent trait in men," Hermione postulated.
"Well, that doesn't explain you," Draco said coolly, raising his fair brows.
"Remind me why I like you again," Hermione said as they apparated, holding hands over the crystal.
They were in the ice cave for only a second before the crowd apparated again. Luna gasped when she saw so many people identical to Draco around her. Even Draco looked taken aback and he rarely showed emotion explicitly.
The man who had spoken to Hermione before and who was obviously the leader there, examined Draco with his colourless eyes. "Yes, you're one of us even though you have a great deal of wizard blood too."
It was then Hermione noticed the subtle differences. She had always thought of Draco's hair as white but it had just the barest touch of yellow near the roots which showed up only against the icy whiteness of these people's hair. His eyes also had a touch of silver grey whereas these people had no eye colour at all, rather like clear water, which made their unblinking stare completely un-nerving. Although very slender, Draco looked almost robust next to the fragile slenderness of this race too.
"Do you have some information about a stranger in these parts and the red Aurora Borealis?" Draco asked, cutting straight to the chase.
"Yes, perhaps. Would you care to join us for a meal?" the man invited politely. Hermione nodded subtly to Draco and Luna. Refusing hospitality would be rude and besides, she was hungry.
To their amazement, the food was quite typical of the variety of food available in England itself. "We use our magical abilities to procure decent food for these regions. We regularly leave the Arctic for supplies," the man explained seeing their surprise.
He had led them to a smaller cave off the main cave which was furnished with stone tables and chairs, covered in white velvet and gold brocade. As they ate, the man told them what he knew. "The red Aurora Borealis is a fake," he said without preamble. "The real Aurora is still lighting the night sky in its more usual yellow greens. We have seen a dark figure but he has never spoken to us and he only comes out at night. My people have been watching him to ensure he did not intend to either invade or attack our kingdom. He has been here for many years but no-one recalls when he actually arrived. It was as though he suddenly appeared from no-where."
"Or from pure vapour," Hermione murmured, remembering the dark vapour that Voldemort had disintegrated into on the moors and how it had quickly disappeared over the landscape out towards the North Sea.
Draco looked at her sharply, his pale eyes clearly warning her not to give away too much of what they knew. Although these were obviously ancestors of his, he was not naturally trusting.
"What have you observed of his activities?" Luna asked the man seriously.
The man shrugged. "He only comes out at night and usually only on the nights that the fake Aurora appears. It's almost like it's a signal of some kind. However, lately it has looked as though he's making plans to leave. He has been seen sending some of his belongings elsewhere via owl."
Hermione and Luna exchanged alarmed looks but Draco remained impassive. "So he can't be signalling for someone to come to him with the fake Aurora," Hermione deduced. "How odd."
"Unless he wanted to draw someone here while he escaped elsewhere to do his dirty business and thus wouldn't be interrupted by them," Draco said tightly, his pale lips thinning angrily.
Hermione's lips parted in sudden understanding. "Of course," she whispered. "It's a decoy. He wanted to draw all of Dumbledore's most powerful allies to the end of the earth while he went back to London to create havoc," she said fearfully. "The mission isn't in trouble at all but everyone at home is."
"We need to find the mission and get them home as soon as possible," Luna said with a frown. "All our best Aurors and strongest wizards are out of the country, and there's not enough left at home to protect the rest of the wizarding community."
The man watched this discussion impassively and merely nodded when they thanked him for the information and his hospitality. "There's nothing else you can tell us?" Draco asked, as they made their way back into the main cave.
"No, that is all the information we have," he said solemnly.
Hermione got the information on the Pole's current exact position from them and they used this to apparate close to it where Hermione guessed the mission was planned to gather and make camp. They soon found themselves in the midst of a blizzard out in the middle of nowhere and it was dark.
"Can't see a damn thing," Hermione muttered as the stingingly cold wind bit into the tender skin of her face. "Lumos."
"Lumos," the other two repeated, holding up their wands.
Suddenly seemingly out of nowhere a huge polar bear lumbered up to them and into their small pool of light. Great, Hermione thought, I'm going to die by being eaten by a polar bear. Well, there's no dignity or glory in a death like that. She pointed her wand at the bear threateningly but waited.
As they looked anxiously at the magnificent white animal, it stood up on its huge back paws. Hermione's legs went suddenly weak and she took a breath to mutter the petrificus totalus spell.
Then, before she could say it, she noticed it was shrinking and changing shape into a man. She let out her breath. It was an animagus. A grizzly faced, bearded man stood there in heavy brown robes. "You're not part of the mission," he said in English but with a thick Norwegian accent.
"No, are you?" Draco asked him.
"I'm the guide," he replied.
"We know everyone on the mission. We've come to give them some information we've found out by accident," Hermione explained. "It's about Voldemort."
"Follow me," the guide said and turned back into a polar bear suddenly, dropping back on all fours.
They followed the massive beast for a good ten minutes before seeing the dim lights of the camp ahead. By then they were all freezing despite their heavy winter gear. Hermione performed a warming spell over them.
They entered the main tent in the camp, glad to get out of the blinding blizzard. Inside there was Severus, Ron, Harry, Remus, Lupin, Hagrid and several Head Aurors having a meeting. When the three pulled back their hoods, Hermione heard the unmistakable hiss of Severus sucking his breath in sharply. Severus' heart gave a terrible, painful thud of alarm deep in his chest when he saw it was Hermione there at the North Pole, so close to her bitter enemy's location. She glanced at him apologetically, knowing he would be unhappy to see her there. He was looking at her with a deeply shocked expression and fear in the black depths of his deep-set eyes. She went and stood next to him immediately and felt him put one shaking hand on her back.
"I know we're not supposed to be here but we do have important news that needs to be acted on immediately," Hermione said with authority, taking control of the meeting with that one simple statement.
Hermione, Luna and Draco outlined what had happened in the past 48 hours since the Auror mission left. The group gathered in the main tent listened with a mixture of fascination and eventually horror when they realized they had been duped.
"So really, we're in the safest place at the moment. It's most likely that Voldemort is well on his way to London by now," Hermione finished up.
Severus breathed more easily once he heard this than he had since Hermione had appeared there. However, it did mean that the mission had to get back to England immediately. Everyone ran out of the tent to tell the others to pack. Hermione stood in the circle of Severus' arms for a moment. He was too grateful for her safety to be angry that she'd ignored her friends' wishes and put herself in so much potential danger.
Ron and Harry were grilling Draco and Luna about the people who lived in the ice caves while the camp got packed up. Due to the use of magic, they were ready to leave again within the hour. Some senior Aurors had volunteered to carry on to the source of the false Aurora Borealis to see if they could find out more information from Voldemort's base near the Pole and how he had generated the false lights.
Less than two hours after Hermione, Luna and Draco arrived at base camp everyone was back at the Ministry and sending urgent owls out to important contacts.
