Chapter 5
Harry fled the grounds heading to the one spot he could hide that no one would ever look in. It took him several minutes of searching to find a branch, and poke the whomping willow, the tree seized up and he slipped beneath it into the tunnel leading to the Shrieking Shack. Harry had to get his priorities in line. If anyone hung the hand all of the Weasleys would know, including the one he had been following the past few months.
Harry entered the shack to find things as he had left them, the room he was staying in was clean, and the furniture had been repaired to make it useable. He lay back on the bed and began to think about his next move.
In London a young couple was preparing to Disapparate to meet with their friend. Ron looked up the stairs and saw Hermione struggling with her scarf. The November afternoon had been quite cold, and they had a lot to tell Harry. Ron considered that a moment, he had been against it, saying that it wasn't the same, but over time he could actually feel Harry's presence now, and it did feel good to tell your secrets to someone, even if they weren't really there.
Hermione finally got the scarf on and the couple held hands and vanished, appearing at the entrance to the fairly heavily guarded wizard cemetery. After the recounting Harry had given of Death Eaters using corpses to gain information that the witch or wizard had known in life, the Ministry had ordered guards placed on all cemeteries of magical folk. It had turned out to be a wise move. This one in particular had had several attacks on it in an attempt to get to the grave of the Boy Who Lived.
Ron and Hermione were met by Charles Kosterman, he had been sorted Hufflepuff, and had graduated just three years ago. Hermione spoke. "Chilly afternoon Charles."
"Aye, that it is Mrs. Weasley." He opened the gate, and let them in. "See you later Mr. and Mrs. Weasley." He turned back to his paper, and the gate sealed behind them.
Harry watched his friends come up to his gravestone. Ron removed the old flowers he and Hermione had left last time, and replaced them with the small wreath. "It'll be Christmas soon mate." The young man brushed his eyes with a gloved hand. "First one without you in seven years. It was supposed to be our first one together after Hogwarts. Ginny's coming home for the holidays, and honestly I had hoped you'd be there to tease me and Hermione about still not telling my parents we eloped." His voice seemed to run out.
Hermione continued no less emotional than her husband. "It didn't seem the same Harry, you should have been there. That's why we did it you know, because mum and dad Weasley would have wanted a whole big ceremony, and we couldn't not have you as best man." Harry felt horrible, it was worse than the last time, they were trying to assuage their pained souls and he was causing them more pain.
"I finally got an owl from Ginny; she seems to be getting better. I know how much she cared for you, and we know how much you cared for her, but… Harry, I don't think she'll ever move on." Harry looked at his hands grasping the edges of the cloak, if he moved them just so, they'd see him.
Suddenly an owl flew down and perched on the stone, holding its leg out. Harry groaned, it was looking at him, and only one owl in the world had been able to find him when he didn't want to be found.
Ron grinned. "Hedwig. How are you old girl." The owl looked at him and shifted it's eyes to Harry, clicking her beak at him and she hopped closer, and held out her leg fir him to take the parchment.
Hermione frowned and pulled out her wand. Bloody hell. Harry thought as the beam struck him, knocking him to the ground. He awoke looking at two very confused faces.
Ron was speechless, his mouth working, but no sound came out. Hermione had her mouth covered by her hand, and rapidly recovered him in the cloak. Harry stood groggily, and looked around a small family was passing by his grave. The young woman dropped a single yellow rose on his site and said a short prayer, the family moved on.
Hermione said "Quickly now, follow us." She shoved a small bit of parchment in to his hand beneath the robe. "Apparate to this location in London or else." They walked out, with Hermione dragging Ron behind her. Harry looked at the parchment and closed his eyes willing himself to see the place, he cast the spell and felt the world twist around him, he opened them to find himself in the balcony of a flat overlooking muggle London. The door opened from the inside, and Harry stepped in.
He sighed and resigning himself to the fate he had allowed to happen, dropped the invisibility cloak. The cloak had no more hit the ground then Ron hit him, both of his arms were wrapped around his friend, and he was crushing Harry in the most powerful hug he could imagine. "Ron…need…air…" Harry gasped.
Sheepishly Ron let go, and Hermione took his place, holding him every bit as hard. When she finally let go Ron poked him in the chest. "Now sit your underfed arse down and start talking Potter. You've a bloody great amount of explaining to do." Now that they were both over the initial shock they were glaring at him.
Harry took a seat in their comfortable living room, and began to retell the tale of how he had come to not be dead. He conveniently left out the fact he had been sleeping with Ginny. Hermione understood, and quite rapidly so did Ron.
"So what now?" Ron asked.
"I don't know guys. I've been so lost, and now I found that your mum and dad had a hand made for me, and are putting it on the clock, you know what will happen if that happens."
Ron nodded slowly. "Of course it'll show you are still alive."
"And Ron, there's more." Harry looked down at his hands and twisted them in his lap. "Percy can never know."
Ron's eyes narrowed. "Why not Harry?"
"Ron, I – I swear I checked on it as a fact several times. He – he's a death eater Ron. He joined of his own volition a month ago." Harry sat feeling defeated already.
"Yeah, Fred and George reckoned that already, and me and dad have been checking in on him." Ron opened up a courier's satchel on the table and produced documents, and handed them over to Harry. Harry rapidly read through them and saw that they had guessed more or less as he'd seen with his eyes.
"That looks about right." He handed the documents back over. "So now you know why that hand can not be reconnected to that clock until later."
Ron nodded, and packing up the documents said. "We are going to be late to dinner and mum'll have our hides. Harry, you know you are more than welcome, and I know why you are going to refuse." He laid a hand on Harry's shoulder. "You don't need…"
Harry cut him off. "Yes Ron, I do."
"Why Harry? Why can't we stand with you?"
Harry glared in the direction of Hogwarts, and then as if coming to a decision looked around for a bit of parchment, and wrote a note. "Go see Dumbledore, give him the note. Make him explain everything to you."
"Will you be here when we get back?" Hermione asked.
"No, I was on my way to visit an old friend and just stopped by the graveyard to speak to my parents first." Harry hated lying.
"Well, it's a good thing you were there. To think all this time I was pouring out my soul to a frog." Ron smiled sadly. "Well at least that's one ritual we can stop doing."
"No!" Harry and Hermione said almost at once.
"Well it's not like…" Ron started.
"But don't you see Ron? It has to be this way until Harry is ready to become visible to the world again." Hermione explained to him. "We have to keep going back there and telling all the same trivial stuff to his grave like before. We could use it to pass on information as we find it too." Her eyes shone brightly with scheming. "It'll be perfect."
"It'll be bloody cold." Ron said but Harry could see the workings behind Ron's eyes. He looked at the clock. "Bloody hell Hermione! It's past five! Oh are we in for it now!" Harry threw on the invisibility cloak and walked to the balcony Disapparating away. Ron and Hermione were just behind him.
Harry landed in a field about seven miles from the building he'd been staking out. He waited patiently, careful to conceal even his breath in the dimming light of the day Almost as if he had willed it; a figure appeared walking his way in the crisp dusk. Harry pulled out his wand and remained crouching on the ground.
The figure stopped and lit a cigarette, took a deep drag and slowly exhaled. Harry pointed his wand at the figure and stunned the young man. Quickly Harry bound him with ropes, and quietly drug him away from the building to a small dilapidated shack about three miles from the original spot he had abducted the death eater.
Once in the shack, Harry cast a series of charms and wards including a heating charm. Then he revived the young man. "Welcome back to the land of the conscious, Mr. Malfoy."
Draco Malfoy's face paled even more than before. "YOU! N – no, there's no way. You are dead I saw it!"
"You, more than anyone else should know Draco, appearances can be deceiving. Now, I'm going to need to borrow something from you." He reached up and cut some of Draco Malfoy's hair. "That should do nicely." He reached into the rucksack and produced four sealed vials. Quickly and carefully, he placed one hair in each vial and shook them.
"What do you think you are doing Potter?" Malfoy snarled.
"Funny, Snape always said you we so good in potions. I figured you'd know what I was doing, and therefore wouldn't need to give you a lesson in fourth year potions." Harry looked at him, mock sincerity in his tone, and a look of false pity on his face. "You see Draco, this" Harry said swirling a vial of the potion, "is Polyjuice. I take a hair from your nasty, greasy head and place it in the potion. Then, and believe me this is the hard part, I need to drink it to look like you."
"What then Potter? You know I'll spill my guts the minute I am able."
"I only have a need for you until I am done in the manor you arrogant ass, what makes you think you are going to live long enough to tell anyone anything?" Harry lifted the vial in salute "Cheers." He downed the potion and made an exaggerated show as to how vile it was. "Ugh, worse even than Goyle." He then opened the door to the shack and left.
Malfoy lay there looking at the ceiling. It wasn't that there was much interesting on the ceiling, more like it was a case that he had no where else to look. The passage of time for him became odd; it seemed like days before the door opened up again.