Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Five: Reunion
Daphne's feet touched the ground in the patch of grass she'd also landed on when she'd arrived at Grimmauld Place for the first time. She and Ginny looked around, wands drawn, and Daphne realized that it hadn't even occurred to her to cast a Disillusionment Charm or anything of the sort prior to using the Portkey; if Grimmauld Place was being watched, they'd be spotted it immediately.
Indeed, there were two people in long cloaks, watching the houses, who leapt into action when they saw Daphne and Ginny materialize. Fortunately, all their training had made them ready to act at a moment's notice and they split apart, each casting a Disillusionment Charm as they did so.
While moving, they shot Stunners at their opponents, who stood back to back so as not to be surrounded, and who attempted to keep their Disillusioned enemies in view despite the difficulties. Daphne and Ginny, however, were faster and had done things like this with the Order of the Lightning Bolt several times, soon managing to Stun their two adversaries.
"Now what, though?" Ginny asked, looking at the two unconscious people.
"I'll Confund them," Daphne said, speaking even as the plan formed in her head. "I'll make them believe they saw something, only to Stun each other by accident. Both will believe they screwed up, and I doubt either of them will dare to admit what happened."
"Why not use a Memory Charm instead?" Ginny asked.
Daphne shook her head. "I hate those and I refuse to ever use them unless there is no other option. Besides, I doubt Chuckles will have a hard time believing that his henchmen are incompetent. He's not going to pry further," she said.
Ginny shrugged. "Have it your way, I suppose. If they're out here, at least they probably won't be inside, though…"
Daphne aimed her wand at the first Death Eater and said, "Confundo!"
Though unconscious, his body jerked a bit when he got hit. Then she did the same with the second Death Eater.
"Alright…now to revive one of them…" she muttered. She looked at Ginny. "We'll need to get to the House silently immediately after I do this, get ready." Then she pointed her wand at one of the Death Eaters and whispered, "Rennervate!"
Without waiting for the Death Eater to fully awaken, Daphne and Ginny began to sneak away, still hidden by their charms. Daphne looked at the gap between numbers eleven and thirteen, and like a strange, stone balloon, number twelve began to inflate between the two houses.
She and Ginny made their way up the stairs, and Daphne tapped the door with her wand. She heard the sound of chains retracting and bolts sliding back as the door opened and she stepped inside, followed by Ginny.
Almost immediately, she felt her tongue curling up into itself for a moment, making her gag, but it quickly unrolled afterward.
"Yuck," she whispered.
Ginny nodded.
Then, ahead of them, something rose out of the carpet. A dusty figure, tall, imposing, and looking vengeful, a wraith that looked like Dumbledore began to advance on them, extending an arm in their direction.
Ginny took a step back, but Daphne stood her ground. The real Dumbledore had known he was going to die, and Snape and he had agreed on it. This figure had clearly been placed here to unnerve Snape, in case he showed up, but it likely wasn't anything but psychological warfare on the Order's side. Inspired, yet hardly threatening.
She walked forward, ignoring the fact that the dust wraith really did look terrifying. When it touched her, it exploded into a cloud of dust.
"Who's there?" a very familiar, very welcome voice called. "Show yourself!"
Daphne lifted her Disillusionment Charm. "I am Daphne Cyrene Greengrass, Seer, the Slytherin who acts like a Gryffindor, and I'm your girlfriend," she said.
Ginny lifted her own Disillusionment Charm as well. "And I am Ginevra Molly Weasley, Chaser, I opened the Chamber of Secrets in my first year at Hogwarts and I am also your girlfriend," she said.
Daphne stepped forward, through the settling cloud of dust, grinning widely at the faces of Harry, Hermione, and Ron, halfway up the stairs.
"We're back," she said.
The reunion was ruined a bit by Sirius's mother ranting loudly at them throughout, but Hermione pointed her wand at the portrait and forced the curtains shut, and Daphne and Ginny joined the others in the living room, where they finally got the chance to properly reunite with their friends.
When she hugged Harry, she pulled him close so strongly that she could almost hear his ribs cracking, after which she quickly let go and kissed him. Even though it had only been a few days, it was almost odd how different it felt to kiss Harry as opposed to Ginny.
"I'm so glad to see you both again," Harry said after he'd also hugged and kissed Ginny, who was now embracing Ron.
"Yeah, after you vanished from the wedding, we were afraid you'd run into trouble," Ron said.
"What have you been up to?" Hermione asked.
Daphne and Ginny quickly explained about their flight, discovery of the Taboo, and their trip to Wales to get Ginny's Trace broken, after which Harry told them that they'd discovered the identity of R.A.B., who turned out to be Sirius's brother Regulus.
Realizing this, they had asked Sirius to order Kreacher to obey Harry as well, and they questioned him on the current whereabouts of the true Horcrux, which turned out to have been stolen by Mundungus after Kreacher had stolen it from Sirius, who had attempted to throw it away when cleaning up the house for use by the Order.
The Order had abandoned it after Dumbledore's death, but the Death Eaters did not seem able to enter. Perhaps Snape had been tongue-tied in time to prevent him from revealing the address, but the Death Eaters did know something was there. According to Harry, this was because they'd still been using Voldemort's name until Sirius had told them about the Taboo.
"So we've just been calling him Riddle ever since," Harry said.
"I never even thought of using his real name," Daphne said. "I just went with You-Know-Who or Chuckles the Dancing Clown."
Ron snorted. "Why that one?" he asked.
Daphne shrugged. "Because I thought it was funny and Riddle Tabooing his stupid nickname annoyed me," she said. "I could only use that name to Ginny, though; no one else would get it."
She grinned at Harry. Just being able to see him again made her feel incredibly happy. Not that having Ginny with her didn't, of course, but the relief to see Harry safe was immense.
"So…now what?" Ginny asked.
"We've sent Kreacher out to look for Mundungus, because we need to find that locket. We haven't really made any plans beyond that, yet, because even if we get our hands on the locket, we don't have a way of destroying it yet. Fiendfyre seems to be our only option, but according to Hermione it's incredibly hard to control," Harry said.
"Couldn't you just Apparate out into an empty field and cast it there? Or a deserted beach or something?" Daphne asked.
Hermione shook her head. "Fiendfyre is cursed fire that will simply keep on burning until the countercharm is used. The problem is that it's semi-sentient and will turn on its caster when they try to use that countercharm. It takes incredible skill to command it enough to make it usable. Typically, it is taught to people by someone already skilled in its usage, so that it can be extinguished before the novice caster is killed by it."
"That makes fighting a Basilisk sound like the easy option," Ginny said with a shudder.
"Yep," Ron said gloomily. "Which leaves us with either trying to find a way to get our hands on Gryffindor's sword, or trying to feed the locket to a Dementor somehow. Since it contains a piece of soul, a Dementor's Kiss could kill it. Of course, since the Dementors are on Riddle's side, that's not really the cleverest option aside from, y'know, being around Dementors at all being far too dangerous."
"For the time being, we need to wait for Kreacher anyway," Harry said. "For all we know, he sold the locket to a foreign wizard. If so, we're in deep trouble." He smiled. "But for now, I'm just glad to see both of you again, and that you managed to find a way to break Ginny's Trace. I'm glad we'll be able to go on our Horcrux-hunt together after all. That reminds me…"
He took out his two-way mirror and said, "Sirius Black."
Moments later, Sirius appeared in the mirror. "Harry? Everything alright?" he asked.
Harry nodded. "Better than alright."
He turned the mirror around to Daphne and Ginny, who grinned and waved.
"You're back! Did you succeed, then? Bill's anxious to hear from you," Sirius said.
"I'm Trace-free," Ginny said, "so I couldn't be better."
Sirius looked impressed. "I'll be damned. I didn't think it could be done. I'll inform Bill that you're safe. I'll leave it up to him to tell Molly."
Ginny grinned. "Good idea. Are Dad and the others still okay?"
Sirius nodded. "Watched, but safe, as are the rest of us. Well, those of us who are still in their homes, anyway. I'm traveling around a lot, causing trouble for the Death Eaters."
He grinned wickedly. "Being a nuisance was always one of my strongest points, so I feel like I'm fulfilling my destiny. Too bad James isn't around to see it."
"Just don't get yourself killed," Harry said. "Who else is going to be such a bad influence on me?"
Sirius laughed. "Don't worry, I won't. I'd have to justify myself to Lily in the afterlife and she wouldn't let me hear the end of it, nor would James," he said. "Anyway, Harry, I need to get going again. I'll let the Order know Daphne and Ginny are safe. You guys keep on your toes. We'll stay in touch." The mirror went blank again.
The rest of the evening, they simply relaxed. Being reunited was something that made all of them so happy they didn't care to worry about anything else for a bit, no matter how dire things might be getting in the world.
Harry had shown Daphne and Ginny the recent Prophets, and she'd learned that Snape was now Headmaster at Hogwarts, while the Carrows were in charge of Muggle Studies and Defense Against the Dark Arts, meaning Hogwarts well and truly belonged to Voldemort, though privately she knew that Snape would likely be trying to protect the students as much as he could.
That evening, Harry, Daphne, and Ginny went up to the room Harry and Ron had shared last time they were here — Ron and Hermione would share the room that had been the girls' — and Daphne used an Engorgement Charm on the bed to make it big enough for the three of them.
"I've missed this," she said with a contented sigh as she snuggled up against Harry.
"Wasn't I good enough for you?" Ginny asked jokingly from Harry's other side.
"I'm glad both of you are safe," Harry said. "And I was beginning to feel like the odd one out here, with Ron and Hermione being together and all."
"Well, now we're here again," Ginny said. "Did you cast Muffliato on this room, or don't you mind Ron and Hermione hearing that we're back?"
Harry chuckled. "I didn't cast anything on this room," he said. "But let's just say they didn't bother to, either, so I think a little payback is in order…"
Very short chapter today, sorry. Thing is, I need to write tomorrow's chapter now as well. I just don't have time for long chapters right now, and the narrative doesn't demand long expositions anyway for the time being. On Tuesday, chapter length should at least exceed 2k words again.
Oh, and the 'Dementors can destroy Horcruxes' thing is something I took from Oh God, Not Again. It just makes sense to me that they'd be able to.
