CHAPTER 16 – THE INFORMANT
Harry led his three friends through London most of the morning before they bothered to ask where they were going. He knew how they were feeling. They had just left their families to embark on a journey that, for all they knew, would be one that saw the death of all four.
"We're going to the Leaky Cauldron," Harry told them. He knew they were confused.
"But Harry," Hermione asked, "I thought we were trying to keep a low profile. How are we going to do that?"
"Yeah," Ron said, "no offense mate but five minutes after we leave there everyone will know that Harry Potter was in the Leaky Cauldron." Harry flashed a smile back at them before he spoke.
"Don't worry, just trust me." Obviously they did because no one said anything else.
About an hour before lunch they arrived at their destination standing on the street beside the Leaky Cauldron. Harry saw his friends looking at him waiting to find out what was going on. Harry, on the other hand, was waiting for someone. Someone he knew had been following them since they left Grimmwauld Place. He smiled as she approached.
"Hedwig," he whispered into the air. This got more confused looks thrown his way before his snowy owl swooped down, landing on his outstretched arm. He stroked a finger down her beak before letting her fly off. She landed on a perch outside of a window not more than ten feet away from them.
"Harry what are we doing?" Ron asked impatiently. "Are we supposed to just sit and have a staring contest with your ruddy bird?" Hermione gave him a small elbow in his side as Harry smiled. He was actually surprised there weren't more questions.
"Just wait," he told them. They did. They waited for five minutes before the corner door of the Cauldron opened. Tom came out, looked up at the sun, yawned as he stretched and then went back inside, apparently not noticing the four youths staring at him. Harry grabbed Ron's wrist to check the time and then went about leaning against the wall, watching the people buzz around the busy square like a bee hive. Ron and Hermione were standing in front of him with their backs to the street.
"Harry," Ron said as his stomach growled, "seriously, what are we doing?"
"Just wait," he told them again. Ginny, who had been leaning against the wall next to Harry, sighed loudly and grabbed his hand in hers. He hated when she did this because she knew that he would fold.
"Look," Harry said, "Hedwig told Tom that I was waiting out here. The stretch and yawn thing he did told me to wait a few more minutes before I enter. It's a system we have so that I don't draw too much attention."
"You've done this before?" Ginny asked him.
"Yeah, several times in the summer when I was on my own," Harry told them. "When we get in there don't interrupt us when we're talking, I'll let you know everything when we leave. Also, I'd advise eating something because it might be the last hot meal you get for a while."
"But Harry," Ron started, "we got the tent that has a full fledged kitchen in it."
"Oh yeah," Harry said, "I didn't have that last time." He thought quietly to himself for a moment. "I'd eat anyway. Four people in a restaurant not eating is a little suspicious. Not to mention it'll be a while before we stop again." They nodded their heads as he slipped a muggle camera over his neck and let it hang on his chest. He could tell they were confused but they didn't say anything. He grabbed Ron's wrist to check the time. "Alright, let's go in."
He led them inside to a four person table next to the bar where they sat down. Harry had to stop himself as he went to pull out Ginny's chair for her. She saw what he was about to do and smiled saying that she understood. Instead of eating with his party though, Harry sat at the bar right next to the table. When the bar tender came up to him he smiled and ordered soups for everyone.
There were only two other people in the restaurant sitting at different tables. One was drinking tea while he read the Daily Prophet while the other one, a woman, sat by the window eating her soup. She blew on a spoonful before she ate it. Something struck Harry oddly about this woman but he dismissed it as Tom took a seat next to him at the bar.
"Hello Tom," Harry said, "how're things?"
"Could be better," Tom replied. "We just got in more firewhiskey than we ordered and, well, we already don't have the business anymore to use up our regular order, let alone more. And people are still begging us to buy more, it's a mess. But how're you doing today sir?"
"Fine Tom," Harry said with a smile. "I was fancying a little watching lately (as Harry tapped the camera) and I wondered if you heard of any good spots around the country?"
"Heard of a couple," Tom said. "There were two or three flocks of ravens around Surrey. One of them was quite close to where you used to hang around. There were some bears sighted coming out of the woods just outside of town here, about five miles north."
They continued to talk about different animals and where they have been seen lately, mostly on the outskirts of London. Tom also spoke about different comings and goings around the pub. To onlookers, and indeed to Harry's friends, it was a very unimportant conversation involving things that nobody cared about. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny ate their soup quietly as they listened to the conversation. None of them had any idea why Harry was talking about animals and Cauldron business to Tom, who seemed like a man talking to an old friend.
"How is the tourism at Buckingham?" Harry asked.
"They had a big tour a couple weeks back, some celebrities or another walked through. But since then just a handful of minor tours. Nothing too bad but enough to keep them in business." Harry saw that his friends had finished eating so he clapped Tom on the shoulder.
"Thanks Tom, I think me and my friends will take up one of those tours." As he stood up he dropped some coins in Tom's hand.
"Hope you have fun, not a lot to see though," Tom said as he pocketed the coins.
Harry grabbed his bag off of the empty chair at the table and walked out of the restaurant, followed closely by the other three. As he passed the front window he caught another look at the lady inside and his stomach twisted ever so slightly. Why was I getting a feeling from this random person? Harry thought.
They rounded the corner and stood in an alley behind the Leaky Cauldron. Harry set his bag on the ground and searched frantically through it. He pulled out a map of the local region and began marking areas with a red marker.
"Harry," Ron said, "what the hell was that all about and why are you messing with that map and why are we standing in this stupid alley instead of getting on with this and why the bloody hell are you smiling at me."
"I know you're confused," Harry said, "but I was just thinking about how that conversation must've sounded to you. It was code." Hermione nodded as if she already knew and Ginny gave a little smirk in Harry's direction. Ron, on the other hand, still looked confused.
"What were you talking about?" Ron asked.
"The animals stand for different 'enemies'," Harry said as he checked to make sure no one was around. "The ravens are death eaters, the bears are dementors and so on. When he spoke of the snake… that was Voldemort himself." Their eyes widened as he said this. "This is how I got a lot of my information over the summer. Everyone thinks Tom is touched in the head so they feel like they can talk around him without any danger. He picks up on what they say and lets me know."
"What was the thing about Buckingham?" Ginny asked.
"Buckingham is Hogwart's," Harry told them. "That tour he talked about with the celebrities must've meant when Hogwart's was broken into because their had to be some high profile Death Eaters in that group. It's both good and bad. The 'minor tours' mean that the Death Eaters are still coming back to look into the school. This is the bad part. The good part is that this means we must be on the right track." Harry paused as he marked another section of the map. "That's not the worst part."
"What's the worst part?" Ron asked. He had looked pale since the first mention of Death Eaters and he looked close to panic now.
"The firewhiskey part?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah," Harry replied surprisingly. "How did you know?"
"I've never heard Tom mention business with anyone, let alone to a boy. No offense."
"None taken," Harry said. "Yeah, the thing with the order of firewhiskey, it means that more bad people have been coming than usual. Not Death Eaters, mind you, but people known to associate with them. They seem to be trying to pump the customers for information. I imagine it started right after we escaped the Burrow."
A hoot from above them paused the conversation as Hedwig floated down with a package. Harry took it and sent her off again. "These are provisions," he told the rest of them.
"That's why you gave him so much gold," Hermione said.
"Yup, some for the food, some for the information. Okay, look at this," he said as he turned the map around to show them. "We're here and Hogwart's is here," he pointed to two different places on the map. "The things we want to avoid are marked in red so we are going to have to go up through here," he traced a line up the map, "and then go east from there," he traced another line straight to where Hogwart's was previously indicated.
"Why don't we just apparate?" asked Ron.
"You – can't – apparate – to – Hogwart's," Hermione hissed as she slapped his arm with each word. "Don't you ever listen to me?"
"Not really," Ron said with a smirk. He had to duck quickly to miss an open hand where his head would have been.
"We also want to keep a low profile so we're going to be traveling the muggle way from now on," Harry told them. He received three groans in return and attempted to quell the dissent. "Well we could always walk around doing magic whenever we wanted but we might as well just send up flares that spell out 'Here we are, come get us'."
"We could apparate to Hogsmeade couldn't we? And then walk to Hogwart's?" Ron asked hopefully.
"Ron," Harry started, "all magic, no matter how big or how small, leaves a trace behind. I don't know how but Dumbledore could sense it and I'm sure Voldemort can. No matter how careful we are someone is going to find out that we were here and I don't want to take the chance that we could be tracked. Which is why we don't do any magic from here on out unless it's necessary." Receiving three nods in agreement he continued.
"I reckon it'll take us five…" he looked at the map, "maybe six days to get there. We're going to take a bus to the edge of town and then we start walking. If anyone asks you we're going camping." Everyone seemed to soak up his words and he finally started walking to the bus stop, leading the three people behind him.
As they waited for the bus Ginny crept to the side of him and hugged him affectionately. She added a peck to his cheek and a huge smile.
"What's that for?" he asked her.
"All the time I've know you and sometimes you still amaze me," she replied.
"Yes," Hermione started, "that whole thing was rather good. I'm very impressed Harry." Harry could feel himself sticking his chest out a little more than normal.
"You know mate, sometimes you're scary," Ron told him, "brilliant… but scary."
The bus came and, after Harry paid for everyone, they took a bench in the rear. They all sat in silence, deep in thought. Harry was wondering if he was doing the right thing as questions started to form in his head. Did I analyze the map correctly? Should we just apparate and get there quicker? Who was that woman? Was someone hiding in the pub? And then he remembered how people have been telling him to trust in himself. It's so hard though, Harry thought. He had to calm himself down if they were going to complete this mission but couldn't help dwelling on the feeling in the pit of his stomach. It was a feeling of impending danger. And it scared Harry to death.