Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever own Harry Potter. It is the property of JK Rowling and her associates. No monetary or material profit was gained from this story.
Inheritance of the Elves
Chapter 8
An Unforeseen Opportunity
Hermione sneered at her surroundings. The alley was dark and moldy-looking, the walls wet with recent rain and slime. Here she was waiting for the death-eater spawn to show up. If this was not for such a good cause them there was no way she would be working with this lowly scum.
She started to tap her foot, slowly building steam. Ron and Ginny could only cover her absence so much longer. If he didn't show up soon the Order would come looking for her. Growling lowly, she nearly left when there was a slight, nearly inaudible pop from behind her. Hermione swung herself around and yanked her wand out of her pocket. There standing in front of her was Malfoy junior. He was pristine looking; he stood out in the dinginess of the alley in his perfect white shirt, dark slacks, and open robe. When he saw her, his expression changed to match her own.
"What do you want, Mudblood?" he hissed. The disdain was practically dripping from his lips as they curled back.
"I want to make a deal, Ferret. We have something you want," Hermione stated scathingly. Maybe it wasn't exactly what they wanted but it would strike a low enough blow to the Light for them to be content.
"Trust me, there is nothing you could give us that we would want, Granger!" he spat. And for the most part he was right. The only thing he wanted was to torture the Mudblood and the Weasel long enough that they ended up like the Longbottoms.
"Oh, really? So you don't want to destroy Potter? My bad, I'll just go now," Hermione turned to do just that when there was a "Wait!" from behind her.
"What did you have in mind. Granger?" Malfoy said in what he might have meant to be a amicable tone. Hermione smiled a cat's grin. Everything was working out in their favor.
OoOoO
Nimbus and the others slowly walked outside the wards, when no pops or cracks or whooshes that signaled any port keys or apparation. No Order members where arriving. That was a good sign at least. It meant that they had not been found out yet. Breathing a little more evenly, Fred quickly gave George then Harry quick hugs. He told them to be safe and tried to keep the worry out of his voice. Fred had drawn the short straw. Nuvain would be taking him to the shop so that he could check on the shop. It wasn't that they didn't trust Lee, but they just couldn't leave him there in charge until all blew over. Who knew how long that might be!
Harry would go with George, Kylan, Kama, and Nimbus to get his school things. Each person had their own emergency portkey and then a group portkey that they would take together at the end of the day. Fred smiled slightly when Harry smiled back he felt slightly better. He sighed heavily, then turned a took hold of one end of the chain that Nuvain was holding. She smiled sadly at him before saying the key word, "Monkey." And they were off.
OoOoO
Harry stumbled as he landed, his arms pin-wheeling for a moment as he tried to regain his balance. Strong arms wrapped around his waist, pulling him back into a lean toned chest. He had never felt as safe as did at that moment. But though it was gone in the next moment, he knew it was George. He had seen the light dusting of red hairs and the freckles. Harry should have known better though, George was his brother and would have reached out and steady anyone he considered family, whether it was him or if it was Bill.
He shook off the thoughts. He need to focus on getting his supplies and getting out. Nimbus and the others gathered around him and George as the left the abandoned building and made their way to the Leaky Cauldron. By the time they had entered Diagon Alley he had read over his list and knew it would take a while to get the entire list. And that worried him. Order members may not be expecting him to come today, but that didn't mean that one of them wouldn't be around. In fact, several would be, because that was just Harry's luck.
Harry and George stood at the mouth of the Alley, looked at each other then dived into the fray of bustling shoppers. The entered Flourish and Blotts to get his seventh years books. They were quickly gathered up, they were the same as last year's with a few exceptions: The Ultimate Guide to NEWT Defense by H. Caldwell, What Have You Forgotten? NEWT Charms by B. Holbert, and Potions to Pass by D. Hice. After that they quickly made the rounds to the other required stores, the elves staying further behind in order to call less attention to the group. He and George were in the middle of paying for their purchase at Eeylops Owl Emporium, when they were spotted by Alastor Moody who immediately started to fire spells at them. Seconds after he started the elves who had been following them sprung into action. Kama, realizing that he would have to go and inform Fred and Nuvain about this, darted out of the shop and down the Alley towards Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.
Nimbus and Kylan got to Harry and George; each grabbed an arm of the wizards and were gone seconds later. When he and the others were back behind the wards, Harry started to panic. Fred was still in the Alley. Fred was still in the Alley! With only Nuvain to protect him! Normally, this wouldn't worry him, but this was his mate. And he was in danger. His power was slowly leaking from his skin. The air was whipping around him, like he and George were the eye of a storm. Nimbus and Kylan ended up across the large room from them as Harry's magic sought to protect the one mate that he could.
OoOoO
Kama was racing through the crowd of people that were frozen in place when the well-known man started to fire spells on someone. The mindless crowd froze with indecision before panicking and racing in the opposite direction from Alastor Moody, which helped to better camouflage Kama as he tried to reach the twin's shop. He burst through the doorway, in spite of the flow of people fleeing towards the entrance of the alley.
"What is going on?!' Nuvain asked in a slightly hysterical tone. The entire shop had her on edge. It was too easy for the Order to get into the shop, after all it was run by two people who had family in the inner most circle. She shivered. When it was put like that it sounded like they were with the Dark Lord.
"Alastor Moody saw Harry and George in one of the stores. He started to fire spells. I came to tell you and Fred," he stated, panting somewhat.
"Okay, let's go!" she said, quickly moving to the counter and grabbing Fred before saying the activating word and being whisked off.
OoOoO
"Did we get it? Did we get it?" Ginny said eagerly. It sounded like she was asking if they had gotten her favorite candy or if they had won a free supply of beauty potions from an ad in Witch Weekly and not if they had gotten what was necessary to destroy her brother's lives.
"Yes, Ginny, we got it. We even got lucky. Fred came to the shop and had some of George's hair on his shirt. No need to hang around and get his hair now," Hermione told the red-head with no measure of humbleness about her. She was quite proud of herself.
"Does this mean that you have to see the ferret again soon?" surmised Ron with disgust in his voice.
"Yes, I will have to meet with Malfoy. But the sooner we have to do that, the sooner that we can put Potter in his place. And everything will be as it is supposed to be," Hermione felt compelled to point out though what the boy said was rhetorical.
She lifted up the muggle test tubes that held the final piece of the puzzle to beating that arrogant Potter back in the mold that he had left. Hermione grinned and made her way to the room where the potion was bubbling.
OoOoO
Moody clunked into Head Quarters, rushing as fast as he could into the dining room to find Albus. This was news worth reporting. He had escorted the children to go shopping so that when they went to catch the Potter brat and the Weasley twins, Hermione and the others would not be in the way. He saw two of them in the owl shop, and they got away. This was bad. The Order had assumed that the boys would wait and go at the last minute. Not only would they have had Potter they would also have had a bargaining chip so he would stay in line.
"Albus!" he exhaled in relief when he saw the headmaster.
"Alastor? What is it?"
"Potter and the twins! They were in the Alley today. They got away before I could get him. And it looked like he got all of his supplies, too. They won't be going back to the alley for a while at least," Alastor said grumpily. The boy was the savior! Why couldn't he just follow the plan?
"Well, this is most worrying. Come, let us call a meeting. Everyone needs to know about what happened today," the headmaster said whilst moving towards the kitchen and the burning hearth that lay within. He was going to making a lot of floo calls that night.
A/N: So, things are picking up towards the end. This one wasn't edited as heavily as some of the others, but I'm still happy with it.