Redivivus
Chapter 5: Ante prandium, post prandium

It was Sunday evening when three Malfoys, one Lestrange and one Potter sat down by the table in the dining hall of Malfoy Manor. As usual, dinner would be excellent. As usual, the one Harry spoke most to was Draco. And as usual, Bellatrix did not waste a moment before getting to the point. Harry had hardly the time to sit down on his chair before Bellatrix turned and spoke to him.

"So what's this I hear about a girl?" she asked suddenly.

Everyone else ceased to speak and instead turned to Harry for an answer. Harry forced a smile while trying to look at puzzled and unknowing as possible. He had known that Bellatrix would bring the subject up sooner or later, although he wished that it had been later for him to come up with a good excuse.

"What girl?"

"Dear, I know that you are perfectly capable of figuring out which girl I'm talking about so please answer my question," Bellatrix retorted and hide a smirk with her wine glass.

"Bella, don't torture the poor boy," Narcissa scolded lightly and then turned to Harry with the same kind of smirk on her painted lips. "Now Harry, there's no point in trying to hide it from us. I saw you with Miss Lovegood at the ball and I believe we have all seen the picture."

Harry looked to Draco for some kind of assistance, but all his friend did was to lean back in his chair and watch Harry with amusement. Harry shot him a glare and promised himself to show Draco the latest hex he had learned after dinner.

"She's just a friend," he murmured and played around with his fork in order to not have to look at Bellatrix or Narcissa.

"Yes dear, but is she not a little more than that?" Bellatrix asked as the house elves brought in the food. "I've heard that Witch Weekly publishes quite amorous stories about you and Miss Lovegood, although I thought I'd ask you about how much truth there is in them."

Harry did not take his eyes or attention away from his fork, yet he was painfully aware of the fact that the current topic was not about to go away for quite a while. With Draco, stories about him in the tabloids were a part of everyday life. With him, everyone in the family made it something to talk about. Lucius, who was sitting at the end of the table, appeared to enjoy watching the whole thing. Like father, like son.

"Well?"

Harry looked up to see dinner perfectly served, yet no one was taking a bite. Instead everyone was staring at him, waiting for him to say something. He dropped the fork and it fell clattering to the floor. A house elf instantly came running, picked up the fork and replaced it with a new one that he quickly put on the table. As the house elf ran out of sight, Harry noticed that no one had moved a muscle over it.

"Well, what?" Harry asked. He wished that everyone would just start eating instead of talking and staring.

"I guess it would be a good match," Narcissa said cheerfully. "I heard that her father is very influential man in Sweden. But of course Harry… I think you could do a little better if you picked another girl here…"

Harry tried to resist rolling his eyes at his aunt.

"Aunt Narcissa, we are not…"

"In every lie contains a bit of truth," Lucius murmured just before he sipped his wine, interrupting Harry. Harry just shot him a quick glare, then turned back to Narcissa again.

"…a couple," he finished. "The press is blowing things out of proportion."

"At least it's good publicity," Draco teased with a smirk. "Not everyone ends up on the front page of Witch Weekly."

"Except you?" Harry mocked.

Draco had not stopped being mentioned in the gossip column of Witch Weekly since he turned fourteen years old. Each week there were rumours of pictures of him with new girls, it was a wonder that he had not run out of girls to be seen with. Harry knew that it was quite the contrary, the more girls Draco was seen with the more girls came throwing themselves at his feet.

"Really Harry, we were talking about you," Bellatrix said from the other side of the table. "I'm actually a bit surprised that you have chosen to let yourself be seen with a girl for the first time. You have been known to be a little shy…"

Holding his hand under the table, Harry made a fist and gritted his teeth.

"I'm. Not. Shy."

"Of course you're not," Bellatrix assured him as if he was six years old.

Harry reached for his goblet and drank a mouthful of his wine. This was going to be an excruciating long evening.

"Anti-apparational grounds. Figured."

Parvati rolled her eyes and put out the scanning spell. It was only to be expected, they were entering the grounds of the Minister of Magic after all. Lucius Malfoy would have been an idiot to not put up all kinds of protections around his home. Still, there had not been a mission that Parvati Patil had failed and she did not plan on this being the first one.

Having donned the traditional wizarding robes for the sake of moving around easier, Parvati could not help feeling a little cold. She shivered slightly as a gust of cool wind blew, rustling the leaves of the bushes and the tree she was hiding behind. There were a number of things she could imagine doing on a night like this but if Hestia said that breaking in and finding the Death Eaters' files about Sirius Black, it probably was.

"So… are you going in now?"

The words came from Terry Boot, who stood behind Parvati freezing as much as she did but did a poorer job of hiding it. She had asked him to assist her for the mission and if anything happened to her, report back to Hestia.

"Soon," Parvati replied, looking towards the manor. Light came from most of the windows, it was difficult to tell which part of the house was being used at the time.

"Shouldn't you be wearing an invisibility cloak or something?" Terry questioned curiously.

"I doubt they'd work," Parvati responded and tried to resist rolling her eyes. "Malfoy Manor has wards against invisibility cloaks."

"Oh… but doesn't it ever scare you?" Terry asked and looked towards the manor as well. "I mean, we hear about things you do all the time. Breaking into places, going undercover, fight Death Eaters on a daily… or nightly basis… You're practically a legend."

"Don't be silly," Parvati muttered. She walked right past Terry and to a small bag she had brought earlier. "We were in the same year at Hogwarts."

She opened the bag and started to go through all the things in there. Powders and potions in small vials, gadgets and devices that could come in handy. Parvati picked a few of them and stuffed them in a large, wide belt with pockets that she wore around her waist. At the same time she heard Terry speak to her again. Much to her annoyance, it was with a bit of admiration in his voice.

"Yeah but still… you do more than most people our age in the Resistance. I heard Hestia telling McGonagall that you have become a great soldier and asset. If Padma could see you now, I'm sure she'd be very pr…"

"Padma is dead," Parvati cut off briskly. "She can't see anything."

Terry said nothing but she could feel the weird look he gave in the back of her neck. Sighing, Parvati put down the bag on the ground and grabbed the two broomsticks she had brought with her.

"Hold this," she ordered and left them in Terry's hand. "If I don't come back in an hour, get out of here as soon as you can. Use one of them and smash the other."

Accepting Terry's nervous nod as an answer, Parvati turned around and headed quickly but quietly towards the manor. At first she stayed behind the bushes, moving crouched down along them until she found a small spot where the woods almost met the manor. After checking one last time that she was still unnoticed, Parvati carefully parted a bush and stepped over it, barely making a sound as she treaded out. The grass, evenly trimmed of course, felt soft underneath her as she snuck over to the side of the manor.

Even when she was on her way of committing a crime that could end with her death, Parvati thought to herself that the Malfoys could only have hired the best of the best to take care of their precious grounds.

Still crouched, Parvati pressed herself against the stone exterior of the building. The dark clothes she wore almost made her blend in with the shadows, but she remained in a low position to avoid being seen if anyone happened to look out the windows. Almost lying down on the grass, Parvati quickly observed the windows above her.

Second floor… all closed, she thought to herself. Third floor, one room is lit. Fourth, two lit. Fifth…

There it was, one window opened by just a small crack. Someone had probably forgotten to close it properly. But one small crack was enough for her.

Parvati reached into one of the pockets on her belt and out of all things she pulled out a pack of gum. Taking a rather small piece she put it in her mouth and started to chew slowly. It was sweet and tasted of strawberries. In the corner of her eye she could still see Terry behind the bushes, looking absolutely clueless about what she was doing. She ignored him, it was not her fault that he had not received the proper information.

The chewing gum finally felt soft in her mouth and she spit it out on her hands. Splitting the soft and chewed gum in four different pieces, she attached each piece to her hands and shoes. An almost laughable thought came to her as she did that, only a few years ago she would have cringed and wrinkled her nose in disgust, a lot like Parvati imagined that Terry was doing right now. It was funny how much one could change.

Once the chewing gun was properly spread out over her hands, Parvati slowly got up on her feet. Standing with the bushes and woods to her back and facing the stonewall right on, she reached up both of her hands and put them against the wall. The gum between her hands and the stone made a quiet, squishing sound before the gum suddenly hardened.

Trust the Weasley twins to invent something like this, Parvati thought and almost smiled to herself.

Her hands now firmly attached to the wall, she lifted herself up from the ground and steadied herself by pulling up her gum covered feet as much as possible and putting them against the wall. They made the same squishing sound before hardening and fastening her feet to the stone. Parvati pulled a little at her right hand and the gum softened again and loosened until she placed her hand on a higher spot.

Repeating the same motions, she climbed up the wall almost like a spider, unnoticed by anyone except for Terry who was still watching her with a half open mouth. She climbed up all the way to the fourth floor, avoided being seen by one of Lucius Malfoy's guards and then diagonally climbed to the window on the fifth floor that was slightly opened. Once she got there, she stopped and carefully pulled the window open without as much as a creak being heard. Releasing her grip on the walls, she slipped into the room of the manor.

Her feet landed on the wooden floor with a squish rather than a large thud thanks to the gum. Parvati pulled out her wand, her senses going on a red alert in case there were any surprises. Not that there was any. The room was dark but she could see that all that was in there was a bed, a wardrobe and a few decorative objects.

A guestroom, how typical. Must be one of fifty.

"Evanesco," Parvati whispered, flicking her wand and making the gum on her hands and shoes vanish.

Then she approached the door but rather than opening it and heading out to the hallway she reached into her belt pockets again and this time her hand had caught on to another Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes product. Parvati held the Extendable Ear right next to the narrow opening in the door. The string snaked out into the hallway on its own and Parvati held the end close to her ear and tried to make out all the different sounds she heard.

Dessert. Squeaky voices were talking about desert somewhere far away. There were a few dark, grunting voices mumbling about the result of the latest Quidditch game but those were also distant. House elves and guards, but all of them scattered around the lowest floors.

Pulling the Extendable Ear back, she quickly stuffed it in her pocket and pulled out her wand instead. It was well used and tattered and Ollivander would have a heart attack if he saw its condition, but Parvati preferred her old used wand before anything else. A more pessimistic part of her was convinced that a wand, old or new, could not save her in situations where she could not use it.

Like Padma.

Slipping out into the hallway, she was met only by the dim light of burning torches and the eyes of a snake from a painting that was hanging on the wall. Parvati moved on quickly, not even giving the snake in the painting a chance to hiss at her. Her mind briefly flashed back to a few hours earlier, when she had vigorously studied a map of the interior of Malfoy Manor. According to that map Lucius Malfoy's study was on the ground floor but there was also a second study, smaller but probably more personal on the fourth next to the master bedroom. If there was a place where secret reports about Sirius Black would be stored, they were more likely to be there.

Parvati moved across the hallway close to the walls, rushing quickly but at the same time careful to make as little sound as possible. She reached the staircase and rather than going down the normal way, she leaned heavily over the railing first and took a long look to see if there was anyone nearby. When the coast seemed clear, she leaned even more and brought her feet up in the air, rolling over the railing and hanging from it briefly before letting go. The carpet on the floor minimized the sound of her landing to a soft thud. It was hardly noticeable compared to the noise that came from the lower floors but not wanting to risk anything Parvati hurried to the right where the second study was located.

She walked past countless doors and paintings until she reached on at the far end of the corridor. After passing a wide door that probably went to the master bedroom she found herself standing in front of a smaller one, located right where the second study was on the map. The door looked like any other, except something about it screamed, "LOCKED!!" to Parvati. Kicking it open would probably not work, neither would Alohomora.

For the third time that evening, Parvati pulled out another gadget from her belt pocket. This time it was in the form of a dark hairpin. The Weasley twins must have created it after watching a Muggle movie or something because when Parvati held it to the lock on the door, it crawled into the keyhole on it's own. She heard a few clicking sounds, then the door automatically opened for her.

The moment she stepped inside the study she shivered out of cold. The room was not that cold but clearly it was not magically heated like the other rooms in the manor. There was no fire burning in the fireplace either. She noted quickly that there were no windows in the room and that in the case of an emergency she better make a quick run. Parvati closed the door behind her and cut off all the light coming from the hallway, enveloping the study in darkness.

"Lumos…" she murmured as she pulled out her wand.

The tip of her wand emitted a faint glow, which was enough for her to find her way around. For being a second and smaller study the room was not that small. It was about the size of the small apartment that Parvati lived in. Bookshelves were lined up against the walls, containing books about obscure things and most of them Parvati had never even heard about. She traced the line of books with her wand, looked quickly at the titles and concluded that there was nothing relevant to her mission.

Instead she turned around and walked over to the wooden desk at the other end of the room. She opened up the drawers and quickly went through them. Empty parchment sheets, quills, ink, candle wax… all in perfect neat order. But there were no documents, no owls addressed to Lucius Malfoy. Sighing, Parvati shut the drawers and looked around.

Where would I hide messages that I wouldn't want anyone to read?

Her eyes turned towards all the bookshelves again and thought that it would take an eternity for her to go through all of them to see if any of them contained valuable information. But it was when she looked from one bookshelf to the other that she caught sight of something else. The fireplace.

She left the desk immediately and bent down on her knees in front of the fireplace. Holding her glowing wand over it, she could see that among the ashes were bits and pieces that could have been parchment that had failed to burn up properly. Gathering as many of them as she could, she held them all in her left hand and used her other hand to tap her wand over them.

"Reparo," she whispered.

The pieces floated up in the air and swirled around quickly in a small circle. Then with a small poof they merged into one small note that dropped back into Parvati's hand.

There.

She held the tip of her wand closer to the note to read the handwriting on it. To her dismay the writing was only a few sentences short, but the content of it was so much more than that. Her eyes widened as it dawned to her what she had stumbled upon.

"There! There! I saw someone going into the master's study!"

The squeaky voice of a house elf raised the alarm in Parvati and she immediately jumped to her feet. The light spell was put out and the newly restored note tucked safely in her belt pocket. Outside the study she could hear voices, several of them as well as heavy footsteps. A house elf had seen her and warned the guards. Cursing herself for not being more careful, Parvati looked around, hoping to somehow find some kind of emergency exit.

But when none was to be found, she plopped another piece of chewing gum in her mouth.

Seconds later the door to the study opened and both senior Crabbe and Goyle entered with their wands raised. They looked around suspiciously, eyes narrowed and ready to take one whatever enemy who had been stupid enough to break into Malfoy Manor.

The only thing was… there was no one there.

"I thought you said someone was in here," Crabbe hollered at the shaking house elf who stood behind him.

Goyle stepped further into the study, still suspiciously looking from side to side.

"But there was!" the house elf whimpered.

"You stupid…" Crabbe started and raised his wand.

He never got a chance to finish the sentence as the next moment a loud thud was heard. Crabbe turned around, only to notice that Goyle crashing down on the floor as something dark fell on top of him. Parvati looked up, instantly jumped off and Crabbe barely had the time to acknowledge that she was there before she raised her leg and kicked his wand out of his hand. His wand flew several feet away and Parvati raised her own and pointed it at him.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

The spell struck Crabbe with full force, even freezing his surprised expression, and he fell backwards to the floor with a thud. The house elf behind him jumped in fright and ran out of sight before Parvati could raise her wand towards her. Wasting no time, Parvati bolted towards the door and at the same time quickly banished the chewing gum off her fingers. She jumped over Crabbe Sr's still body and tumbled out into the corridor.

Just as she was about to turn around and run, she felt the sharp tip of a wand poking into the small of her back.

"Look, what do we have here?"

Parvati flinched. She recognised who it was even without looking.

"Roger Davies," she spat in disgust.

"Drop your wand," Roger ordered, poking his wand further into her back. Frowning, Parvati released her grip on the wand and it fell clatteringly to the floor. "Now that's a nice girl."

"You're wrong about something, you know?" Parvati said stoically.

Roger just laughed at her.

"You Resistance rebels… always trying to convince people that they're on the wrong side! Well, I'm not the one breaking into people's houses and…" He took a glance at the elder Crabbe and Goyle who were still out. "…hexing old defenceless men."

Parvati felt him push the wand harder against her flesh and she only winced slightly, refusing to show any kind of weakness. Suddenly she felt something warm against her waist and only when looking down she realised that it was Roger's hand. He pulled her closer towards him and leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"Seriously… we have to stop meeting like this," he whispered with a smirk and sending shivers down her body. "Here we are again, you with your Resistance nonsense missions, wanting me to catch you. If you wanted to get my attention you could have just owled me."

Roger's fingers played with the hem of her shirt, teasing and coaxing her by slipping them barely an inch between the fabric and her skin. Parvati stood completely still, not saying anything or her face did not even change to a different expression. She did not even move when she felt Roger's lips brushing her ear.

"Now be a nice girl and tell me what you're doing here."

"See… that's where you're wrong again."

Even though Roger was right behind her Parvati could practically feel his confusion that manifested on his face when she spoke up. If it had not been for the severity of the situation she would have almost enjoyed it.

"I'm not a nice girl."

Parvati brought her head forward slightly, then slammed it with full force into Roger's. Turning around, she raised her right fist and struck it hard against Roger's cheek. Already taken by surprise, he practically stumbled into the wall from the impact of her punch. She brought her leg up and kicked him across his face, sending him falling backwards to the floor.

As he lay there, more bruised than surprised, Parvati walked over to him and scoffed. His wand was lying beside him and she put one foot on its tip.

"Nice girls don't do this, do they?" she teased.

Bending down, she grabbed the other end of the wand and pulled it up as hard as she could. A second later she heard a crack and Roger's wand snapped into two pieces. Parvati dropped the broken wand careless, stood up straight and turned around to retrieve her own wand that was lying just a few feet away.

Her fingers were merely an inch from picking it up when she suddenly felt the world literally turn around and she fell to the floor face first. Groaning, she instinctively rolled over on her back only to see Roger stand behind her. He was grinning at her, the roles had been reversed again.

"Not really, but then again I wouldn't like a goody two shoes either," Roger responded.

Parvati's eyes narrowed and she reached out for her wand but suddenly Roger was next to her, one hand grabbing her throat and the other picking up her wand. He twirled it around with his fingers like it was a mere child's toy, and then threw it aside. Parvati raised her right fist to punch him again but this time he caught her fist in midair.

"C'mon love… fight fair."

"As you wish…" Parvati growled and instead gave him a well-deserved left hook across his face.

The punch was not nearly as powerful as one with her right arm would have been but it was enough to make Roger loosen his grip on her right hand and throat. Taking advantage of it, Parvati pulled at Roger and rose up quickly to headbutt him again on the nose. She felt the pain and dizziness of it but forced herself to rise up and push Roger's hands away from her.

They both stood up, Roger a little slower than Parvati, facing each other and neither with a wand. Parvati caught sight of hers but it was behind Roger. She had to get past him in order to get the wand and to the nearest window to get out of the manor.

"I have to admit… back at Hogwarts, I'd never knew you'd have it in you," Roger revealed, still sounding as if she was a fun pastime.

Parvati did not even bother to answer. She lunged at Roger, throwing one punch at him after the other. He duck and dodged them, but she forced him to retreat back a few feet. Turning around in a circle, she tried to round kick him but he caught her foot easily before it struck. Jumping up, she brought her other leg up and kicked him across his face. Roger lost his grip on her foot and stumbled back, while Parvati fell to the floor. She rolled up on her feet and wasted no time landing another kick right in his chest.

Despite her attacks, all Roger did was to stumble back a little. He was still standing, even though there was a large bruise on his face where Parvati had kicked him.

"I think you've had just about enough fun now," he growled angrily.

"I think not."

Reaching out, Parvati grabbed one of the burning torches hanging off the wall. She swung the torch at Roger and he jumped back out of fear of the fire. Following him, she stepped forwards and swung the torch at him again. This time he blocked her arm abruptly with his own, causing her to accidentally drop the torch on the floor.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion to them. They both saw how the torch fell to the floor, heard the clattering sound and they both jumped back a step when the rug between them suddenly caught on fire. The flames out, creating a small wall of fire that separated Parvati and Roger from each other.

"Where are you going to go now?" Roger teased.

Parvati did not even have to look, she knew that escaping from her part of the corridor would be practically impossible. There were no windows in the study and although she could try the other rooms she had passed, she doubted that she would have the time to try to unlock them all before Roger called for more backup. There was also no telling of when the elder Crabbe and Goyle would wake up in the back. Looking around, Parvati quickly searched for something to use. In the corner of her eye she saw Roger turning around to pick up her wand. Her eyes narrowed and a split second later she was running, taking large strides and then finally throwing herself through the fire.

Her skin burned and stung from the intense heat and she saw nothing but red and orange light. She wanted to let it out in a scream or bite her lip, but her body seemed paralysed and she could not move a muscle. Suddenly she felt a strange coolness to her skin and the next moment crashed right into Roger on the other side of the fire. Her body struck him with full force and sent them both rolling into the wall.

Her mind felt numb and her skin screaming for something to cool it down, Parvati could barely think properly. She shut her eyes tightly and dug her fingernails into something soft that she felt underneath her hands.

Breathe Parvati, breathe, she ordered herself.

She took shallow breaths, finding the air a nice and cool distraction from thinking and feeling the heat on her skin. It was not until she opened her eyes that she realised that she was laying on top of Roger. He was lying underneath her, with her wand in his hand and not looking that uncomfortable. At first he just stared at her, but when the confusion wore off it was replaced by a wide grin on his face.

"So you like to be on top, don't you?"

Parvati blinked, stared back at Roger for a few seconds then raised her right hand and punched him one last time. Prying her own wand away from his hands, she forced herself up on her feet. Leaving Roger where he as he was, probably unconscious after all the punches, she slowly started to make her way towards the nearest window.

"Accio broom!" she called out with whatever strength she had left.

The broom she had left with Terry came flying and crashing through a window moments later, shattering the glass and leaving glass splinters in its wake. Catching it, Parvati dragged herself over to the broken window. After kicking it open, she lazily hauled herself up on the broom and flew off into the night.

"Of course, she'd have to be properly introduced to us… And we must get to meet her parents."

"I believe her mother died, at least that was what Witch Weekly said."

"Then we'd have to meet her father. Find out what sort of man he is and what kind of family the girl has. Does she have any brothers or sisters?"

"Could we please talk about something else?" Harry muttered for what felt like the fiftieth time that night. By the way everyone kept talking, it would not surprise him if his guess was not that far off.

He had spent most of the evening hiding behind his wine goblet, wishing that Bellatrix, Narcissa and Lucius would just talk about something else. In fact, anything else that did not involve him or Luna would be great. Not that any of them paid any attention to his grumpy complains and Draco was just watching with amusement how his best friend was tortured with embarrasement. Harry had spent one third of the evening begging them to talk about something else, one third suffering in silence and the rest glaring at Draco and wishing that some kind of higher power would create some kind of disaster for him.

Fortunately for Draco, the disaster went to another Malfoy.

Halfway through desert a house elf slowly snuck up to Lucius. After getting Lucius' attention, he was rewarded by being held up in the air by his throat.

"How dare you interrupt…" Lucius started angrily.

But the house elf started to make weird sounds, one that Harry assumed could be heard as words if one listened carefully enough. He shifted in his seat, looked down at the cake in front of him but concentrated fully on trying to hear what the house elf was trying to say to Lucius.

"…mashtah… theres… fire…"

After a while Lucius ruthlessly dropped the house elf on the floor although the look on his face made Harry think that the house elf's interruption was no longer an issue. If Lucius had been angry before, he was furious now and his face had become pale. Then again Lucius was naturally pale, but he seemed at least a few shades paler than usual.

"Lucius, what's wrong?" Narcissa asked curiously.

"Bloody Resistance rats!" Lucius shouted very suddenly and startled his wife. He turned around and striding towards the nearest exit. "Took out Crabbe, Goyle, Davis AND started a fire!"

That was the only thing they could hear him saying, once he was out of the dining room he slammed the door hard behind him although they could still hear distant shouting and swearing. All was quiet for a while, the remaining four in the dining room looking equally confused. Finally Narcissa cleared her throat a little and broke the silence.

"Who wants more cake?"

Closing the door to the nursery behind her, Hestia breathed a sigh of relief. Children could be a blessing and joy but convincing her young daughter to get some sleep was not exactly Hestia's favourite part of raising a child. But after a lot of fuss, Emily had finally fallen asleep and for now the apartment was quiet.

On her way to the kitchen, Hestia glanced quickly at the sleeping form in her bedroom through the open door. The other child was resting there, not a child by society's standard nor was it Hestia's, but Parvati was still young and by Hestia's standards she needed to be taken care of sometimes. A smile formed on Hestia's lips as she imagined how Parvati would react to being seen as a child. When Parvati had return to report to Hestia, she was bruised, burnt and exhausted. Overall it was not that serious but Hestia had managed to convince Parvati to stay and get some rest rather than apparating back to her own apartment.

Quietly sneaking past the bedroom, Hestia soon walked into the small kitchen. The lights were on there and the smell of tea was both warm and comforting. Also, sitting by the kitchen table was none other than Professor Minerva McGonagall.

"They're both asleep," Hestia told and sat down on the other side of the table.

"Good," Professor McGonagall replied and sipped her tea. Her cup was almost empty. "Miss Patil came back safely, that is the most important thing. There will be other chances at retrieving the information about Sirius Black."

Hestia nodded slowly in agreement.

"There is just one thing…" she started suddenly. "Parvati didn't get the information we asked for. But she didn't come back empty handed."

Professor McGonagall gave Hestia had curious look. Hestia brought her hand forwards and revealed a small note with singed edges. On the note was a message, written in a thin and crooked handwriting.

Lucius,
Our sources were wrong. Flamel no longer has the Philosopher's Stone. He and his wife have been taken care of. We will continue our search.
- Rodolphus

Author's Notes: I didn't want to spoil the chapter so I put this here in the end instead. I thought that I'd finish this chapter just to let people know that I'm not dead or that I haven't discontinued this fanfic. It turned out that I really enjoyed writing the fight scene between Parvati and Roger and wrote it all in one sitting. To think that originally I was just going to throw in a random Malfoy Guard so make things a little more difficult for Parvati. Also, sorry for the lack of Luna in this chapter but she'll absolutely be in the next one.