Chapter 36
Disclaimer: I do not own the world of Harry Potter. I only own the world inside my head, which is a little strange. Perhaps the characters (that also do not belong to me) would like to escape. Oh well. They cannot, for I have them on loan from JKR as of right now.
A/N: Since I had so many flames that I needed a fire extinguisher to save my computer, I'm writing this right now. Sorry, people, but you demanded more suspense, so that means more cliff hangers. This shouldn't be one, though. Happy?
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"Oh wow. What does it mean?"
"It took me a long time to find out. I only recently figured it all out."
"So enlighten me, Hermione."
Hermione took a deep breath, making ready to spout off a torrent of information. "Gaul, of course, is the first thing I figured out. In Roman times, France was known as Gaul. In fact, many people still mention the Gallic temper when it comes to the French. Julius Caesar himself had to conquer them.
"Now, at the end, it's obvious that Bill left the message, but the arrow and T.R. left me in a quandary for a while. After a while, I realized I'd been so stupid, not realizing what T.R. stood for. It's the initials of a name, Ron."
Ron looked at her. "Whose?"
"Think about it. It's not as obvious as it could be, for this person usually goes by another name. They despise their own name."
Ron thought for a moment. "You mean…"
"Tom Riddle, yes," Hermione interrupted. "Putting D.L. for Dark Lord of L.V. for Lord Voldemort—oh, stop cringing, he's dead—would be far too obvious. Bill wanted someone to decode the message, but he didn't want it to be just anyone. He wanted us to have to work for it."
"I see. I suppose that makes sense. If it deals with You-Know-Who, he wouldn't want the dunderhead Death Eaters to figure it out."
"Exactly. Especially since it deals with the Death Eaters themselves more than just Voldemort."
Ron looked at her in bewilderment. "What? How?"
"The arrow symbolizes the downfall or death of Voldemort. So the message is telling us that if Voldemort was killed, the Death Eaters would flee to France."
"How do you figure that? It doesn't even mention the Death Eaters, Hermione."
"No, but honestly Ron, you have to fill in the blanks. We know for a fact that Voldemort is dead for good this time. So who else would go to France after his downfall? Your brother Bill? Think about it."
Ron thought for a moment. "That's why Fred was in France wasn't it?"
Hermione grinned. "Exactly. It wasn't just by coincidence or chance. His captor wasn't just an isolated occurrence. There are more Death Eaters in France. Hopefully, they're all in Paris."
"Why?"
"Because we're going after them, of course."
Just then a crash resounded from the kitchen, followed by giggles.
Hermione sighed. "The twins. What was I thinking, leaving them to their own devices?"
The little girls had decided to have a food fight in their parents' absence. The crash was undoubtedly caused by a plate that now lay on the floor, broken into a hundred pieces.
"Jane! Molly! What are you doing?" Hermione scolded. "You are not to throw food!"
The two girls hung their heads. "Sorry, Mummy," they chimed in unison.
Ron nearly snickered. This was very well rehearsed on their behalf. This must be a common occurrence between the three ladies.
Hermione muttered a fast litany of spells to clean up the food all over the girls, the table, the floor, and the walls. She then looked at the broken plate. "Reparo. Now girls, your father and I have to go talk to Uncle Fred, okay? So I'm going to see if you can stay with Lupin, Tonks, and their kids, okay?"
"Siry?" Jane asked, making a face.
"Yes, Sirius. But you will behave, Jane. Don't pick on him."
Jane did not respond, but made quite a face.
Ron laughed. "Surely he can't be that bad."
"He mean," Molly chimed in.
"Then be mean right back," Ron suggested.
"Ronald!" Hermione scolded.
"Hey, how do you think I dealt with Fred and George all those years?"
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Twenty minutes later, Ron and Hermione left Molly and Jane with Remus and Tonks.
"They owe us big time," Tonks muttered.
"Indeed. I believe we should be able to spring a babysitting job on them a few times before we're even."
Tonks nodded. "They can have Sirius and the twins. At least James isn't big enough to cause too much damage yet."
Remus laughed. "He'll get there. After all, you're his mother."
Tonks eyed her husband. "Oh yeah, so our children get it all from me, huh?"
"Do I act like that?"
Tonks smiled. "No, but you were a Marauder."
Remus grinned at the memory. "Indeed, I was. Yes, perhaps our children have it from both sides."
"I'm going to blame more on you. You've just gotten better at hiding it."
He nodded. Then he looked at the twins, who were playing gobstones with Sirius. "What do you suppose came up that was so important? I mean, Hermione seemed out of sorts."
"Maybe they wanted a shag really badly?" Tonks suggested, her voice full of mirth.
"No, I don't think so. I hope they're not in trouble."
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Fred was just arriving back at the joke shop when Ron and Hermione apparated beside him.
"Well, hello you two. Want to buy some of our fine products?"
"No," Ron said sharply.
"I didn't think so. What is it?"
"Fred," Hermione started, "We want to know about your time in France."
"I don't want to talk about it."
"No, Fred, you have to. You see, I think Bill knew something about the Death Eaters' plan, which is the main reason they attacked the Burrow. Surely you wouldn't let Bill die for nothing?"
Both Fred's and Ron's jaws dropped.
"What do you mean, the real reason?" Ron asked. "They weren't just after me?"
Hermione shook her head. "I don't think so. I think they wanted the artifact."
"Artifact?" Fred asked. "What the bloody hell are you talking about?"
Hermione sighed. "I need to bring you up to speed." She looked around. "Can we go in to talk about it? I don't want to be overheard."
"You said a lot of other stuff out here," Ron pointed out, mildly annoyed.
"True, but I don't need to say anything more. Please, Fred?"
"Okay. Let's go inside so you can tell me about this artifact and what it has to do with me being in France."
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A/N: Well, I hope everyone's happy now. I tried to write this as quickly as I could. Now you know what the inscription means. Bonus points to those of you that figured out parts of it. Don't expect another back-to-back update like this again. At least give me a few days. After all, I am a full-time college student.
Thanks to my beta jwoods471 and my good friend JohnCardy87. Check out their stories.
PLEASE REVIEW.