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Chapter Eight

"I'm sure we'll find a time before you have to go back to school, Minerva," Remus had said as they left through the fireplace. It had been the night after they discovered the first Horcrux location entirely by accident when he had said that. Sadly, Remus had been proven wrong. The full moon had taken away their next two days and by then Kingsley had been working on nights. Minerva had to go back to school and since then had been unable to get away. The night was Halloween and due to the festivities everyone had an evening off.

"So much for 'we'll find a time before you have to go back to school'," Kingsley said in a poor imitation of Remus as they stood in Minerva's office. Remus only gave him a cool look which didn't last long before it broke into a smile; it really had been a very poor impersonation.

"So? Anything new?" Kingsley asked once the whole group was assembled.

"I've had people watching the Riddle House ever since we went to Durmstrang," Minerva told them. "There's been no activity there at all."

"Have we had any luck locating any of the other Horcruxes?" Remus asked her and she shook her head.

"They'll be hidden in very magical areas, I don't doubt," she sighed. "We'll have a very difficult time finding them. However, I think that since we've located one Horcrux we ought to work on discovering how to destroy it."

"We'll have to search a lot of books, and most of them illegal," Mad Eye said and Minerva sighed. Searching potentially hundreds of books was not likely to be an enjoyable pastime.

"There's a large library still untouched on the first floor of Grimmauld Place," Remus said. They knew that in such a place there would be hundreds of dark and illegal books. One of them could easily contain a way to remove the Horcruxes from existence.

"The Restricted Section of the school's library, although it might seem very suspicious for us to be looking in there," Bill suggested.

"You three can do that," Kingsley said to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"And how is that going to make things any easier?" Minerva asked Kingsley coolly. "They no longer attend school."

"Yes, because of the dangers which their presence would provoke. They would still be allowed briefly into the castle to study advanced texts for their chosen NEWT subjects, surely?" Kingsley pushed.

Minerva buried her head in her hands. It could not truthfully be said that she was having much fun. It would be a nightmare trying to convince Madam Pince to let the trio and possibly other members of the New Order have the run of the library and yet she couldn't see any alternative; she did not have the time to search each of the books herself.

"Fine, but I'm not pleased about this," Minerva sighed.

"Look Mum, it's fine!" Bill cried as he stumbled backwards and almost fell over the stool behind him.

"No it's not, let me do that for you," she insisted and stepped forwards, trying to sort out his dress robes he wore for the occasion. His wedding day with Fleur had finally come after many obstacles – the main ones being their parents. It had taken until the first weekend in November to get the entire wedding sorted, although originally it had been planned for the summer. Ginny had already returned to school by this point and was rather pleased at being pulled from her studies to consort with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"I still don't like being here, Mum," Ginny complained as she scowled around at her mother. She had finally managed to escape Gabrielle, who had begun Beauxbatons that year and was full of praise for it. Now she was merely hanging around her brother. "Why couldn't we have the wedding at Hogwarts?"

"Because it's been agreed on that the wedding ought to be in France," Molly admitted grudgingly, "and besides, I've always wanted to see the school."

"I don't see why! All these magical schools are just the same," Ginny complained. "Harry told me about Durmstrang when he got back and he said that it was like Hogwarts but more gothic and now Beauxbatons is the same but made of stupid white stone."

"That's not true in the slightest, Ginny," Molly argued with her daughter, "and you know it!"

Ginny muttered something incomprehensible as she walked away and strode out of the large room they were in out to the corridor where Harry, Ron and Hermione were talking. Everyone was wearing new dress robes and personally, despite the fact that Ron had bought some sapphire robes which fit him, Ginny thought he looked like an idiot.

She hid a smirk as she glanced at her brother. "Nice robes, Ron."

"Thanks," he sighed as he tried to straighten them a bit. Harry bit the inside of his cheek hard to prevent him from laughing aloud at Ron. There was no denying it – he really did look like a fool in all forms of dress robes. Luckily, Harry didn't and his new, deep red robes looked far better on him than they had on Ron.

"Come on, you four," Molly said briskly as she followed Bill from the room. "We'll be late!"

"The wedding isn't for another hour," Ginny muttered as she followed her mother down the stairs and, after some pushing and shoving, managed to end up standing next to Harry.

They walked quickly down three flights of stairs, Ginny spending most of her time trying not to fall flat on her face in her ridiculous shoes she wore. She could easily have worn trainers and no one would be any the wiser since her pale lilac robes were that long. She glared at Gabrielle who was standing, waiting for her, at the bottom of the stairs. Being a bridesmaid was not Ginny's idea of fun, especially when the bride was Phlegm.

As they left through the large door of the house that the Weasley guests had all been staying in, Harry let Ginny walk in front of him and slipped back so that he was walking behind everyone. Ginny had been in one of the worst moods he had ever seen from her since arriving at Beauxbatons and he had no desire to speak to her whilst she was fuming.

It was easier to be alone than to cope with her fiery temper; at least he could enjoy the grounds without her bitter commentary as they walked along. Around them leaves were falling from the trees almost constantly, yet Harry could not actually see one falling from the branches themselves. He presumed they must be magical trees since, from the amount of leaves which had been lost in the last day or so, anyone would have assumed they would be wading in leaves and the trees would be bare. Neither was the case.

The castle wasn't far from the house they had been staying in and on the way there they passed more breeds of flying horse than Harry could name from all his Care Of Magical Creatures lessons. As the large castle loomed ahead, Harry couldn't help but compare it with Durmstrang. The two schools were almost exact opposites: the large, white castle of Beauxbatons was warm and welcoming with large, glass windows unbroken by lead which made most people believe they were only magical and for show. In reality no one outside the castle knew where the windows were; they all appeared as part of the stonework from the outside but from within they were perfectly transparent.

Beauxbatons had more towers than Hogwarts, far more, and it was decorated predominantly in beautiful art from across the ages. Harry could have sworn that he had seen the Mona Lisa creeping through a few paintings after him during the previous evening but before he had chance to see her she had gone.

"I'll be glad to get out of here," Ron muttered to Harry as he dropped back to talk to them. "I'm always starving!"

"Ron, you were eating constantly for half an hour this morning!" Hermione said in disbelief.

"Yeah, this food's too light! It doesn't fill you up at all," Ron complained. "I'll be glad to get home."

"How aren't you fat?" Harry asked with interest as he observed his friend try and sneak some of the sweets he had concealed in his robe to his mouth. Hermione was too quick for him and they never got close.

The next hour was spent in pure boredom for Harry who was learning just how boring weddings could be. They were spending most of their time sitting about the large hall they were using for the site of the actual wedding. Molly was fussing and trying to get everyone sat in the right places as they arrived whilst Bill was stood about, grinning at everyone he encountered.

By the time Fleur arrived Harry could have cheered. The past hour had been more boring than any he could ever remember. Beside him, Hermione was elbowing Ron hard in his ribs. Ron was paying little attention to anything other than Fleur who was looking absolutely stunning in her wedding dress. Harry wondered whether it was physically possible for his friend's eyes to fall out of his head from staring at her.

"Ouch, Christ Hermione!" Ron hissed from the left of him which earned him another jab. Harry's eyes travelled past Fleur to the two people holding the ridiculously long train from her dress: Ginny and Gabrielle. Ginny had an almost painful-looking smile plastered on her face and it was clear that she was not pleased with the position she was in.

The vows were taken and Harry found himself realising how very similar to Muggle weddings Wizarding weddings were. The only difference he could discern between the two (and he had ample knowledge on both thanks to Hermione) was that they were all dressed in robes. Once Fleur and Bill were married the room changed into a large hall for the reception.

Harry couldn't remember much after that and awoke the next morning in his bed at Grimmauld Place with a roaring headache and the worry that he had done something humiliating whilst inebriated.

"Rise and shine!" said a cheery voice and the room was instantly filled with blinding light. Harry groaned and hid his head under the duvet, hoping beyond hope that Tonks would take pity on him and go away.

"What time is it?" a groggy voice asked from under the sheets.

"About half twelve," Tonks said before tripping over the edge of Harry's trunk and landing on the floor with a loud thud. Harry wished she would either go away or make much less noise, preferably none. "Here, drink this."

The sound of Tonks placing a glass down on the table next to him made Harry glance out from inside the bed to see a transparent liquid within a tall glass. He would have assumed it was merely water but if he had learnt anything in the wizarding world it was never to take anything at face value.

"What is that?"

"It's a hangover potion that Kingsley managed to bully Mad Eye into making," Tonks explained as she sat down on the edge of his bed. "You should have seen how bad Kingsley was this morning. I'm surprised he could actually walk come to think of it."

"Really? What happened to him?" Harry asked as he reached out for the glass and poured the entire contents down his throat in one. The world instantly began to spin and Harry groaned and sank back down onto his pillows, both hands pressed over his aching eyes.

"Just give it a moment," Tonks reassured him and moments later Harry felt absolutely fine, if not a little tired. "Anyway, Kingsley drank about double what you did last night and passed out after about three hours. Mad Eye Apparated him back to Grimmauld from Beauxbatons and he threw up everywhere! It was hilarious!"

"It sounds like it," Harry muttered as he rolled his eyes. "So what happened to me? Tell me I didn't do anything stupid, please!"

"In all honesty I don't really know what happened to you, kiddo, or what you did," she explained. "I was half drunk myself but since no one's telling stories of what you did last night downstairs then I presume you didn't do much. Oh, you did almost knock Ginny down the stairs at one point but that's all."

"How did I get back?"

Tonks shrugged and banished Harry's glass downstairs with a wave of her wand. "I think Remus Apparated you back but I'm not certain."

Harry nodded and, after Tonks had left him, he showered and dressed before wandering downstairs to lunch. Most people were already seated in the dining room when Harry got there and only a few seats remained. He chose a chair next to Minerva and opposite Remus but was less than pleased when Molly chose to sit next to him. Being force-fed was not high on Harry's to-do list.

The meal was mostly uneventful. Letters streamed in with various owls throughout the meal, many of them from the Ministry. A particularly small owl flew through the window and into Ginny's hands, leaving a small letter written in flowing script.

"Ginny's got a love letter!" one of the twins screeched. A second later Ginny had sprinted from the room with the letter clutched in her hands and all her brothers chasing after her, laughing. Harry felt less than pleased that Ginny had received a love letter but then again he wasn't her boyfriend anymore, was he?

Hermione glanced at him and gave him a meaningful look whilst the rest of the house began to clear up after dinner or clear out of the room altogether.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked once the two of them were out of the room and away from anyone else. Harry shrugged and avoided her gaze. He wasn't about to say that he was debating going to see the letter himself and he was sure that Ginny was doing this to spite him. He had split up with her for no apparent reason, after all.

"Come on, kids, back to work!" Tonks said cheerfully as she walked between them and into the library. Harry gave Hermione an exasperated look as he followed her inside, Ron appearing behind them.

"How much more do we have to search?" Harry asked as he collapsed into a chair by the side of the fireplace and stared sullenly into the fire. There was a small pile of books on the table – the ones that he'd been allocated.

"We search until we find out how to destroy the Horcrux or until we've read all the books," Hermione sighed as she sat down next to him. Her pile of books had thinned faster than his and Harry was certain she'd been cheating somehow.

"Don't tell me that even you are getting sick of reading, Hermione!" Ron gasped and stared at her in amusement. Harry grinned and tried not to look at Hermione, instead burying his head in a book.

"Come on, you lot," Tonks pushed, "just finish reading the books you're on and we can do some Charms!"

That managed to make the three of them delve into their books for at least a little while whilst the footsteps of Ginny being chased by her brothers upstairs could be heard echoing through the house.

"So, what happened last night?" Harry asked, hoping that the fact he couldn't remember anything wasn't about to play a part in their conversation.

Ron turned to him and grinned. "You really can't remember a thing!"

"Nothing much as far as you're concerned," Hermione said lightly. "I mean you fell down the stairs twice and after you passed out Remus had to take you home."

"Don't forget that he almost knocked Ginny down the stairs," Ron laughed and Hermione smiled. "Speaking of Ginny, have you seen that letter…?"

Hermione tried not to hex him then and there and took a deep breath before answering. Ron had known full well that neither she nor Harry had seen the letter and the fact that Harry had previously been dating Ginny should have been enough not to make him ask.

"No, what does it say?" Harry asked nonchalantly.

"I don't know and I don't care," Hermione snapped. "It won't be authentic anyway!"

"But—"

"But nothing," Hermione said in a manner which made it perfectly clear that the matter was not to be disputed. She glanced at Harry and then back to Ron whose mouth opened slightly and a look of comprehension dawned on his face. "And to answer your previous question, Harry, last night Ron got more drunk even than you and tried to kiss a plant."

Harry burst out laughing and the look on Ron's face only made him laugh harder.

"That was not what happened!" Ron argued. "I fell and—"

"And your face landed on the plant with one of its leaves in your mouth?" Tonks asked and began to laugh hysterically. She might not have remembered all that much from the previous night but she and the rest of those gathered at the wedding reception would remember that for a very long time.

"Have you heard from Bill yet?" Hermione asked Ron who shrugged.

"They're on some stupid wizarding island so it'll take ages to get an owl," Ron told her. "We'll get one after he gets back, knowing our luck."

"Yeah, Molly was complaining that they didn't leave an address to Floo them at," Tonks elaborated, "but I guess that's because they don't really want to be interrupted by her on their honeymoon by Bill's mum!"

"I suppose so," Hermione sighed. "Anyway, only four more books to go in my pile!"

"Great, once we've all finished we can go play Quidditch!" Tonks grinned. They all read quite a bit faster than they had before after that.