Chapter 41: Cressida's Plan

Sirius strums lazily over the strings of a battered guitar. He found it in the shed, covered in filth. It hurt her ears to hear him try and tune it and it still sounds a little off but she'd rather he be occupied with something that he enjoys rather than sit around looking as useless as she feels.

"You know what I've realised?"

Cressida hums, looking away from the dry field in favour of his face.

Sirius half-smiles to himself. "I'm the heir to the Black fortune. I just have to outlive my stubborn mother."

Her lips twist in subtle amusement of his thoughts. It's a bitter reminder to both of them of his brother's death, but also his way of dealing with it. "Maybe you'll afford that haircut you keep talking about."

"You're giving me mixed signals about whether you think I should be cutting it or not."

"If you want an opinion that you're actually going to listen to, you should ask Remus." She watches her words settle inside his head. His eyes drop low, fingers fiddling with the strings sheepishly. Cressida smiles widely, turning her head back towards the field, letting it rest against the single shabby pole. James was right. She doesn't want to kiss Sirius. She never has. She doesn't want to embrace him in a manner that would make her heart pound against her chest. What she wants is a source of comfort. Someone that is there for her and not because of the duty of family or even out of romantic pursuit.

James had gone but he would be returning at any moment. He left early in the morning, needing the entire day to do what he needed. And part of that was talking with Remus. They all agreed that it would be cruel to leave Remus completely blind, but drawing him in too far was unnecessarily dangerous. He would know that they are alive but in hiding.

"So terrible news!" His voice calls as an announcement of his return in the late afternoon. Cressida and Sirius glance at each other. James didn't exactly sound like he was the bearer of such a thing. He appears holding a few bags of food, letting them drop onto the small, round kitchen table. He looks at them both, planting his hands on his hips. "I just found out that my best friend and future wife are officially considered dead." Cressida simply blinks with a short nod of her head and Sirius makes a dismissing sound of nonchalance. "You should have seen the part I played. I'd make a great actor. But it did feel awful," he adds in an afterthought. "No I really didn't like it. I had to force myself to believe it."

Cressida weaves her way to him, taking his hand and presses a light kiss against his cheek.

"Moody figures that you would have been brought to in to be killed by Voldemort himself after being a spy," James adds in a grimmer tone.

"Did he at least seem upset at the notion?" she can't help but snip with a short snort. James pulls his lips to his teeth, dropping his head from shoulder to shoulder."

"It's Moody, you know how he is. Mad-eye Moody now people are calling him."

Cressida hums in acknowledgement. In the time that she hadn't been present, he had gotten into a nasty fight with a few Death Eaters. She heard them gloating about it. He lost one of his eyes completely and in a battle before that, lost his leg. They couldn't take him completely, so they were breaking him down piece by piece. She wished them luck.

"Remus knows you're both alive," he adds.

"That's good. Though it does eliminate my opportunity of pretending to haunt him." Cressida stares at a stain on the floor. "You're distracted," Sirius notes and he digs through one of the bags in search of a snack to eat.

Cressida doesn't waste time telling him not to spoil dinner. "I am," she agrees. "I'm thinking what to do next. I don't want to leave it for later."

James claps his hands against his legs. "I'll cook an early dinner then and we can talk over the…" He glances down at the pitiful chunk of wood. "…Dinner table."

Cressida tips her head to the side, flicking his shoulder. "Your posh side is coming out, my deer." She chuckles at her own play on words that she knows isn't missed by him as well when he smiles with rounding cheeks.

James cooks him the best meal that he can in the limited space. It wasn't extremely small, and many lower-class families would find her old kitchen ordinary. But her living room and kitchen barely covered the space of his own kitchen alone. She watches for a while until her eyes find the floor and a ghostly image of her mother lying there doesn't wash away.

They settle around the table, knees and elbows touching.

Cressida barely waits three mouthfuls. "We need to get the locket. The last Horcrux." At least she hopes it is. "I know where it is, all that I'm waiting on is a plan. Kreacher nearly died retrieving it alone."

"What protections are on it?" questions James.

"It's hard to find. Physically I mean. I could point it out on a map but actually getting there isn't going to be a walk down the park and I doubt that we'll be able to apparate right into it. You have to sacrifice blood to enter the cave. There's a river. A boat to cross it but it's hidden. The locket itself is protected by a potion that one of us is going to have to drink."

The boys share a shifty glance. Sirius is the one who dares ask, "What does the potion do?"

"As far as I'm aware, nothing permanent. Kreacher is still a living and as grumbling as usual last time I saw him. Regulus said it caused excruciating pain and like your inside are being burnt and dried out. But that's not going to be the hard part." Cressida breathes heavily into her nose. "The lake is filled with Inferi."

Inferi were awful creatures. The dead reanimated through necromancy. They have no thoughts but to kill and destroy as their creator demanded. And sometimes the one who created them wouldn't live long.

"We cannot disturb the water at any cost."

"But what about the boat?" Sirius says. "Wouldn't that, I don't know, shake the water."

James perks with raised brows. "What if we brought out brooms? It'd be quicker than a boat and we wouldn't need to touch the water."

Her head slowly shakes. "I doubt there won't be enchantments stopping that. Voldemort would have used the boat so I think it would be safe. Kreacher said something about the boat also having an enchantment on it. Only one wizard of age can ride in it. But it's a good idea for a way of getting there." James nods at his idea at least being used in some form.

Sirius taps his finger against the table. "Then we're going to run into a problem. If only one of us can cross at a time, are we going to be able to pull to boat back to the shore?"

"We would need someone not of age to ferry the boat," James concludes in a quiet voice. A pregnant silence befalls them at the realisation. "I mean, we could just send one person over. They'd have to drink the potion, get the locket and come back but…"

"It could go so wrong," Cressida whispers. "Easily." She has an idea, but she waits for anything else to come to light before she even suggests it.

"What about Kreacher?" James pipes.

"He's loyal to my dearest mother," Sirius bitterly dismisses. "And I wish you luck if you try and persuade him otherwise." His finger drums against the table even louder. "So we either have only person go or we bring someone under seventeen along to a cursed placed filled with inferni. We are either stupid or arseholes depending on the outcome."

Cressida clenches her fists, but she can't not state what she is thinking. "I'm going to take a risk of being the arsehole. Bastian. Bastian Jacobs. He's sixteen and I know where he lives." She feels like a horrid person for even suggesting it. "We wouldn't have him do anything but drive the boat. And if anything goes wrong, it's his life that we prioritise."

"I don't like it, but it might be our only option," James meekly agrees. His hand reaches her leg underneath the table, offering her a supportive hold. "He's also the only kid I can think of that would be brave enough to do it and close to being of age."

"I'll go and speak to him," Cressida affirms the decision.

"Maybe I should," James offers. "I'm not considered dead after all."

But Cressida shakes her head. "He looks up to you too much. He would want to say yes to impress you. And he's still scared of Sirius. But he knows he can say no to me." James whispers an, 'okay', and Cressida takes his hand, threading her fingers through it. "We have another problem though that I want to sort out. I stole one of the Horcruxes from Lucious Malfoy. He didn't say anything, but I could tell he was worried. Which just confirms what I'm anticipating will happen when Voldemort does find out. I'm certain that Voldemort is going to feel when we destroy them. He's going to be vicious, ruthless and pissed beyond anything we've ever seen." The boy shift in their seats at her tone. "But he's also going to be at his most physical weakness. This might be the only time that we are given to kill him. If we destroy these Horcruxes but not him, what is to say that he doesn't make another as soon as he regains strength? One that we can't find or get to."

Sirius swallows the growing lump in his throat. "We can't do that by ourselves."

"No," she agrees rather swiftly. "And I feel a little less guilty about who I'm thinking of."

James stares at her face. "Elias," he mutters. "You're thinking of Elias Griffiths."

Cressida smiles with a small nod of confirmation. "I am." At Sirius' sceptical eyes, she argues, "Elias has been tracking and watching Voldemort's movements since we were still in Hogwarts. Not to mention, I trust him. And he trusts me more than he trusts the Order."

"How do you know that?" James demands a little too suddenly.

Cressida stretches her back and shoulders, readjusting her grip on his hand. "Because he knows about the ring. After the whole burnt arms incident, he was there with the meeting that I had with Dumbledore. He could have given it to Dumbledore, but he didn't. And he told me that he trusted me."

Sirius leans back against his paint-flaked chair. "I suppose it's good that you went on a few stray dates with the man then. Damn, the men you go out with are either giving their entire trust to you or trying to kill you."

"Thanks for the reminder."

"No worries. Just reminding James that I have my eye on him. Don't completely trust that bugger yet." Sirius draws his lips into a smirk, sending a wink her way before narrowing his beady eyes in his friend's direction.

James, playing along, slowly drags her plate away from her. "Might not want to eat that then." Cressida smacks his fingers, tugging the bowl back towards her.

"I'll risk it."