Chapter 23

They waited. And waited. And waited.

While they waited, Mrs. Burton patiently tried to teach Harry the rules of bridge. He was quite polite about it, but Nell could see that he was bored silly with the game. She tried to keep conversation going, but the cheerfulness in her voice was too obviously false for her to continue for long.

Harry was an unexpected godsend. Not only was he polite about playing bridge, but as soon as Nell's efforts at conversation trailed off, he made small talk like a pro. He chattered about school, the zoo, the Weasleys -- anything that seemed to pop into his head. Nell could see her mum and Audrey being charmed by him -- as if they were meeting him for the first time, she thought, and had to close her eyes to keep back tears.

Nearly two hours of interminable bridge-playing and chit-chat later, Lupin appeared with Emma, laying her on the settee.

"Why are they always unconscious when you find them?" asked Nell in frustration.

Lupin looked up in surprise, about to wake Emma. "You can't apparate with conscious Muggles," he explained. "It takes quite a lot of effort even to take a wizard or witch with you, let alone someone who couldn't even understand the theory behind Apparation."

Nell nodded, but didn't look away from Emma. She really, really despised seeing her friends and loved ones being brought into her apartment unconscious. She dreaded hearing that this time, one of them couldn't be woken.

But Lupin pointed his magic wand and said the magic word, and it seemed to work, one more time.

Emma drowsily opened her eyes and surveyed the five people watching her: Mrs. Burton and Audrey curiously, Nell, Lupin, and Harry tensely. As soon as Emma saw Harry, she scowled horribly. "What's he still doing here? He should be--" she paused and shook her head. "--should be -- should be -- somewhere else." She trailed off in apparent confusion, pressing her hand to her forehead in a gesture that had become all-too-familiar to her watchers.

"I think it's the equivalent of a post-hypnotic suggestion," said Lupin quietly to Nell, watching Emma grimace. "They convinced her that Harry should be somewhere, and now she can't remember where they wanted him to go." He snorted. "That's the problem with Memory Charms, really. I'm surprised they used it here. In fact," he said, turning back to Emma, "Claritas!"

Emma swayed dizzily on the settee, taking a long moment to recover. She looked up and blinked for a moment, then her eyes focused on Nell.

"Nell!" she said, leaping up and catching Nell up in an enormous hug. "You will not believe what just happened to me and -- Audrey! What are you doing here?"

Audrey smiled politely. "Hello," she said. "Do I know you?"

Emma looked taken aback. "Er, yeah? We go to university together? We roomed together for two years? Best of mates?"

"Oh," said Audrey, turning back to the cards. "Whose turn was it?"

Emma looked crushed. "I'll explain in a minute," whispered Nell. In a louder voice, she added, "First, tell us what happened!"

"Well," Emma started, "I went over to Audrey's place last night like you asked. When I got there, a man answered the door, no one I knew. And he had on the strangest clothes -- a bit like a bathrobe. He didn't seem very happy to see me," here Emma looked a bit sheepish, "especially since I rather bullied my way in. Audrey was sitting with another man on the couch, and she looked awful! She was staring straight ahead, and, Nell, I almost expected her to start drooling, she looked so vacant."

Lupin interrupted at this pause. "It's interesting that you remember this so well. The other two apparent victims have no real memory of their -- encounters. Can we go back a moment and have you describe the two men?"

Emma took a deep breath. "Well, as to why I remember, I can't say." She looked mischevious for a moment. "I always was more strong-minded than Audrey, though." She and Nell grinned, but Lupin coughed.

"It's more likely simply a matter of the relative strengths of the Charms, actually --" but he trailed off at Emma's fulminous glare. "Or strength of mind, of course," he finished.

"Anyway, the men were most odd-looking," continued Emma. "The one who opened the door was tall and rather average-looking. Skinny, with dark hair, and of course those odd robes. The one inside was much odder. He reminded me of a pigeon -- he had white hair and bobbed his head a bit as he spoke. He was wearing --" Emma paused to laugh, "--pinstripes! He looked like a banker in his dressing gown, frankly. Ridiculous!"

Lupin frowned, but didn't speak. He made a note in his book, and Nell noticed that he put several exclamation marks after whatever he wrote. The pinstripes must have made an impression, she gathered.

"So they asked me in, and before I could talk to Audrey, they had given me a cup of tea. It was stupid, of course, but all of a sudden I just felt so thirsty, I couldn't help but take a sip. As soon as I did, I --" Emma looked confused. "It must have been drugs of some kind. I felt relaxed, but I kept telling them things about you and Harry -- where you lived, where you went to school, everything, even about Harry and Lord Thingy."

Harry sat up and paid closer attention, looking away from the bridge game, when he heard his name. Nell noticed, but didn't think it was quite fair to make him leave the room right when things were getting interesting.

"What was that?" Emma asked plaintively.

Lupin nodded slightly. "That sounds like Veritaserum. It's a truth potion," he explained at their blank looks.

"Ah," said Emma, and she shuddered slightly. "I -- I didn't like that."

There was silence for a long moment until Emma cleared her throat, breaking the tension. "Well, I answered their questions, and it seemed like Audrey had had a dose of the truth serum also -- when they forgot to address me specifically, she answered too. It wore off in about half an hour, but I felt awful, even though I didn't feel compelled to answer any more questions. Dozy and dull, like I'd stayed awake for a week straight. But they wouldn't let me sleep," she complained, clearly still indignant.

Lupin sat up sharply. "What did they do instead?"

Emma made a face. "They talked at me. Told me how dangerous Harry was to Muggles, how everyone would be better off if Nell relinquished guardianship, and so on. It felt like hours," she said.

Nell reached over to put her arm around Harry's shoulders. He was sitting stiffly, but though he didn't lean into the hug, he also didn't pull away.

"And then?" Lupin asked.

"Well, the next thing I remember was that I was in my apartment and Nell was talking to me. All that I wanted was for Nell to give up Harry -- don't worry," she said reassuringly to Harry, whose face had fallen slightly, "I got over it. You're a good kid." He gave her a small smile.

"Do you remember anything odd the men might have said? Any spells?" Lupin asked tensely.

"Er -- there were a couple of Latin things. But mostly they mumbled. I only caught the last one, really, and that was because the two of them seemed to disagree. The one in the plain robes, the skinny man with the dark hair, stopped the other, the one with the pinstripes, who had raised his wand. He said something like, 'don't erase her memory, she might be useful. Confound her instead.'"

"Confund?" asked Lupin.

"Right, confund," Emma confirmed. "So they said -- that -- and all of a sudden I was absolutely convinced that Nell had no business raising Harry, or even being around him. But I didn't quite remember what they'd thought she should do with him! Honestly, I still can't quite remember," she confessed.

"That's the problem with a Confunding Charm," said Lupin, a smile playing about his lips. "You don't get to pick and choose the lucid bits."

"What happened to Audrey and Mrs. Burton?" Emma asked him. "Why can't you do the same thing to them you did to me?"

He looked grim. "They didn't have a Confunding Charm. They had the full Memory Charm put on them. With luck and time, they'll remember bits and pieces. I can only lessen the effects, really; the original caster would have to be the one to take the Charms off completely."

Nell looked up with hope. "The caster can take it off? So all we have to do is find the man who did it and make him --" she gestured vaguely, "--un-do it?"

Lupin was shaking his head. "It's not that simple," he said. "I need to speak to Professor Dumbledore." He knelt at the fireplace, tossed some Floo Powder on the flames, and thrust his head into fire.

Emma gasped with alarm, but when Nell and Harry registered no shock at the sight, she subsided.

Nell expected to be able to hear the conversation, or at least Lupin's end of it, but the room was silent except for Audrey and Mrs. Burton's quiet conversation over the card game.

Lupin finally pulled his head back and stood up. "He'll be here in the morning. As long as I stay nearby, he feels that there is no immediate danger." He looked rueful. "After all, the damage has been done."

He sat down at the card table and smiled genially. "Shall we play?"

Harry finally reached the end of his patience with the game. He heaved as deep a sigh as only an exasperated eight-year-old can manage, and dug in his knapsack. When he emerged, he had a small black book in his hands.

Harry went quietly to the couch with his prize, but when Lupin caught sight of the book, he froze.