Come Back
Chapter Fourteen
Potions and Funerals
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"Lucius Malfoy?" Mr. Weasley asked.
Harry had just spent the whole of Breakfast explaining to everyone at the Burrow what he and Ginny had done just a few hours before. Surprisingly no one seemed upset that Harry had escorted Ginny on a dangerous late night trip to dig up a casket. Most of them seemed more concerned with the bottle of polyjuice potion and the note now resting in the middle of the kitchen table. Ron and Hermione however seemed to be a little aggravated with Harry.
"Why didn't you wake us up too, we could have went with you." Ron said to Harry while pointing to Hermione. "You used to always take us on things like this."
"I'm sorry mate; I just figured that Ginny would want to come because I've been talking to her about most of this." Harry said not looking at Ron.
"That's not the problem right now guys, let's get back to this Lucius Malfoy business. What makes you think it was him and not someone else?" Mr. Weasley asked trying to turn the conversation back to the casket.
"Well, once again, I'm not completely sure, but I don't think it was Mr. Malfoy that had been chasing me all those years. I think it was Draco and I think that Mr. Malfoy faked my death in the hopes to bring Draco home and stop chasing me." Harry said. "But what has me troubled now is who did I kill while on the run? Because that note said that I will never find him, I'm assuming he means Draco. I think Draco must still be alive and that the real Lucius Malfoy died at his manor two nights ago."
Everyone was staring at Harry while he tried to work out his own thoughts. Harry was now sitting with his head in his hands, mumbling so low that know one could make out what he was saying.
Hermione who had been reading today's Daily prophet suddenly dropped the paper and looked excited. "Well, we may be able to solve one part of this mystery, Harry. They are holding a service for Mr. Malfoy, maybe we can find out if it's really him or not."
Harry looked up at Hermione with interest. "Well, that's great Hermione but if it's someone else using polyjuice potion or something how are we going to tell if it's really him?"
Hermione sat in thought for a moment then jumped out of her chair, ran into the living room and could be heard in the distance running up the stairs.
"She really hasn't changed has she; she never bothers to explain what she is up to." Harry said to Ron, smiling.
"She never explains anything to me, you sorta get used to it." Ron replied.
Instead of just sitting and waiting for Hermione to return to finish their conversation Harry choose to finish eating his breakfast, he was half way through his porridge when she finally returned with several large books in tow. She looked thoroughly pleased with herself as she slammed the books down on the table and sat down. Crookshanks who had been sitting under her chair hissed loudly and ran away.
"I think I can solve your problem Harry, I found away to find the true identity of a person who is using a disguise like the polyjuice potion." Hermione said happily.
"How?" Harry asked eagerly.
"By using a revealing potion, it's really rather simple the only tricky part is having something that the person touched, but lucky for us, we have this note. If Mr. Malfoy is really being laid to rest and this is his letter, we will find out with this potion. It will only take me about two hours to brew it."
Harry stood up, ran around the table and gave Hermione a hug. "You're the best Hermione; I've missed having you around. Come on…I'll help you make it." Harry released her and helped her up from the table, Ron and Ginny followed as they headed for the living room.
Hermione sat down on the floor in the middle of the room with her legs crossed. She opened up her book and began to read off instructions for the revealing potion. "Let's see, we need a medium sized silver cauldron, dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, stewed horned slugs, porcupine quills, and diluted Bundimun secretion. Then of course a bit of that letter, I think I have most of this but I know I don't have any dried nettles so one of us will have to run into Diagon Alley. But we don't add that until last so we can at least get started."
"I'll go get what we have from our cupboard." Ron said standing up.
"I'll run to Diagon Ally and get dried nettles." Ginny said.
"I guess I'll stay and help Hermione get started then shall I?" Harry said.
"That would be great Harry, let's get to it." Hermione said taking a hold of Harry's arm and following Ron, excitement filling the air.
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"What time is it Ron?" Harry asked for the four-hundredth time that night.
"It's four-thirty; I say that we will be safe to leave in about ten minutes."
Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Harry were all looking nervously at each other, sitting around the Weasley kitchen table. Each of them were dressed in black from head to foot and wearing long billowing black robes. Their plan was to arrive at the Malfoy funeral, as late as they could but right before the casket was placed into the ground and place a few drops of Revealing potion on to the body. They needed to do this without being seen and they knew this was going to prove tricky because there was bound to be a large amount of people at the service.
"Harry, stop being so nervous, your making me nervous." Hermione snapped.
"Well, you can stop jumping on Harry, that's making me nervous!" Ginny said to Hermione.
"I think we all need to take a deep breath, it's not like we can't take care of ourselves if something happens." Harry said.
Ron and Hermione were eyeing each other from across the table; Hermione reached out and took a hold of his hand without speaking. Harry knew how they felt, he was more afraid for Ginny than he was for himself, he was sure the same thoughts were going through Ron's head too.
"Alright guys, let's get this over with." Ginny said and she pushed her chair back and stood up.
Harry followed her lead and stood up, "Ginny can I talk to you before we leave?"
"Sure, let's go outside." Ginny said and she walked out the Kitchen door, Harry followed.
Harry motioned for Ginny to come and sit in the garden, to make sure that Ron and Hermione couldn't hear them. "Ginny, I just wanted to tell how much it means to me that your coming with me. You know that this is dangerous, it could even be a trap and you're still willing to be with me."
"Of course Harry, I'll always be there to protect you, but you know that I want to figure this all out as much as you do. These bloody idiots ruined my life for three years and I want revenge."
Harry could see the fire in her eyes, she was completely determined to make these people pay, whoever it is. They made her believe that Harry was dead, the man she loved, the man she wanted to protect more than anyone. She wanted to hurt them all for doing this to her and Harry.
Harry placed his arms around her waist and hugged her tightly, "Ginny I love you, you're so wonderful. I'm so sorry that we lost three years, but I will make it up to you, I'll make up every second of it." Harry said then leaned down and kissed her passionately.
Harry was quickly forgetting that they were about to embark on a dangerous journey until Ron interrupted his now wondering thoughts of Ginny.
"Ahem, sorry to interrupt and all, but we are supposed to be squirting potion onto some dead guy." Ron said.
Ginny and Harry quickly separated and turned to Ron and Hermione who were both smiling.
"Sorry about that, just having a moment." Harry said cheekily.
"We can see that. Are you ready to go now?" Hermione asked.
Ginny took a deep breath and said, "Let's get this over with." Harry took a hold of Ginny's arm and they were gone.
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It was still fairly light outside but because it was a grey, gloomy day it was darker than normal for the time of day. Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Harry were now hiding behind a rather large headstone putting their hoods up on their robes. The casket they were looking for was sitting on the ground waiting to be lowered into the ground and it seemed that most of the guests had gone. There was only a few men left outside and Harry assumed these men were waiting to lower the casket.
The plan was to stay completely hidden. They were going to use magic to open the casket, levitate the potion over, dump it in, then Hermione was going to slip on Harry's invisibility cloak and go over a see the results. His skin would turn purple if it was Mr. Malfoy and green if it was someone else.
"Ok Harry, no one is looking, open it up." Ginny said. Ginny and Ron were to keep watch while Harry and Hermione worked.
"Alright, Colloportlag" Harry whispered as he pointed his wand at the casket. It slowly creaked open and they all held their breath hoping no one would hear it. When no one did, they carried on.
"Alright Hermione, give me the vial." Harry took the potion and said, "Wingardium Leviosa."
The little clear vial filled with orange potion floated over to the now open casket, all that was visible of the person inside was his shoes. The vial floated over and stopped above the person inside, Harry had to stand up to make sure he poured the potion in the right spot. He stood up slightly and could see Lucius Malfoy's body. His hands were folded on his chest; this was the spot Harry was aiming for. He gave his wand a slight flick and the potion fell, spilling all over Lucius's hands.
Harry knelt back down, now it was up to Hermione to finish the task. Harry pulled his cloak out of his pocket and slipped it to Hermione. Ron reached out a hand and placed it on her shoulder.
"Be careful, keep yourself covered. And I love you Hermione." Ron said as he stared at her with passion.
"I'll be fine Ron; I love you too, keep a look out and don't forget the signal."
"I know, I let off a single Wildfire Whiz-Bangs firework." Ron said as he patted his pocket.
"Right, let's go then." Hermione said as she slipped the cloak over herself. "I'll be back in less than thirty seconds."
Harry could feel the air in front of him become suddenly cold as Hermione left. They sat there waiting for what seemed like hours; of course it was only a few seconds. Harry was sure that Hermione had to be on her way back when it happened. After a sudden sharp gasp, Ron started to panic, he reached into his pocket, grabbed the firework and set if off with his wand. Ginny turned to look at Harry, her eyes were huge.
"Come on Harry, there coming!" Ginny grabbed a hold of Harry's arm and apparated.
"Ginny what about Ron and Hermione!" Harry yelled when they reached the Burrows back yard.
"They can take care of themselves. Harry, it was Narcissa and Bellatrix, I think they seen us!" Ginny said still looking scared.
"I'm not afraid of them, I can…" Harry was interrupted by the sudden appearance of Ron followed by another loud crack.
Hermione suddenly appeared after taking Harry's cloak off. 'Well, that was close!"
"Man, my heart is racing." Ron said half laughing. "So, Hermione what did you see?"
A sinister smile spread across Hermione's face, "It was him alright, it was Mr. Malfoy."
"Well that solves one part of it, now who did I kill and where is Draco?" Harry asked.