Picking Up the Pieces Chapter Seven A Night with Gred and Forge & Narcissa's Dirty Little Secrets --
"Nice place you've got." Ron looked around the apartment approvingly.
"Thank you, we know." Fred flopped down on the couch,
looking over the day's earnings.
Hermione set down her twelve shopping bags full of materials, shooting Ron a reproachful look.
"Thanks for all the help, Ronald." She muttered,
starting to unload everything.
"How are we going to mix all this, Hermione? It's not like they just have a cauldron lying around."
"We could have a cauldron. Maybe I like to take baths in a big me-sized cauldron." George grinned.
"I bought us a smaller one, remember? We only need enough for three people to drink the anti-tracking potion."
"So you're just mixing something so Mummy and Daddy can't find you?" Fred asked, still flipping through the daily ledger.
"Yes, essentially. Nothing can compromise this once we get started."
"What about the Horcruxes? You said there'd be a way to find them." Ron looked over at her, eating from a box of cereal that was sitting open on the counter.
"I said I thought there'd be a way to find them."
"Yeah, but you're Hermione Granger, so odds are, if you thought it..." Ron smiled at her.
"I had to get Professor McGonagall to authorize this at the end of last year, but well...before the funeral, she and I administered Veritaserum to Slughorn to get him to tell us absolutely everything he knew about Horcruxes. And he mentioned that if you can acquire one, there's a spell called Revelio Fracturis that will show where the next Horcrux is. So we can find them all if we just start with one."
"But...Hermione, we don't have one. The locket Harry found was a fake."
"I know, Ron. But think back. We know where one is."
"Where?" Ron looked at her blankly.
"Malfoy Manor. A certain diary your little sister got possessed by...ring a bell?"
"But Harry already destroyed that one."
Hermione sighed.
"I KNOW he did, Ronald, but it's the only way we're going to find the next Horcrux."
"Oh."
Fred and George looked over from where they were preparing dinner.
"Wait a minute...let me get this straight...you three are traipsing off to Malfoy Manor? The home of evil incarnate?"
"I'm not scared of Draco. And his dad's rotting away in prison." Ron said defensively.
"What about his dear mum? I mean, she may be a M.I.L.F., but she's still completely evil. Plus, I'm sure there's all sorts of defensive spells protecting the house. Or manor, pardon me." Fred plopped down on the couch again.
"We'll have Harry with us. He's gotten through worse"
Hermione said, but her voice was shaking slightly.
As if on cue, Harry's head suddenly appeared in the fireplace.
The three Weasleys and Hermione nearly jumped out of their skin.
"So I see you haven't taken the anti-tracking potion yet." Harry said, grinning.
"We were just making it--how did you know we were here?"
"You're very predictable. And how many places could
you possibly be in Diagon Alley? I didn't really
figure you two for getting a hotel room together"
Harry said, smiling suggestively.
"So...where are you now?" Ron leaned down by the fireplace to talk to him, his ears reddening slightly.
"A wizarding hotel outside Godric's Hollow. It's pretty crappy, but it was hooked up to the Wizarding Network."
"Do you want to just apparate over here?" Hermione leaned down as well.
"What do you think this- rooms for lease?" Fred shook his head.
"Sorry, Fred, George- do you mind if Harry stays as well?" Hermione looked over her shoulder at them.
"No, no, invite the entire British navy, you know,
whatever suits you." George said, laughing.
"All right, hold on." Harry's face disappeared from the fire.
A few moments later, he apparated into the room,
rather unceremoniously tumbling to the ground.
"How are you so good at that? You haven't even taken the apparitition test." Ron shook his head, helping him up.
"It's a gift." Harry said, brushing off his track jacket.
Hermione looked over at him.
"Everything go all right?' She asked in a would-be casual voice.
"Yes...it was nice." Harry said, obviously not wanting to discuss it further.
"Well, good. Here, Ron, take this over and start it at
a boil- I'll explain to Harry about the Horcruxes"
Hermione handed Ron the small cauldron.
Ron looked at it, slightly confused. George pointed his wand at it, muttering something and it set to a nice simmering boil.
"The Malfoy Manor, huh?" Harry leaned back against the couch, crossing his arms.
"It's the only way I could think of, Harry. We don't have a chance if we don't destroy them all."
"No...I know. Never thought we'd get to see the inside of dear Draco's house." Harry said his name with more than a trace of bitterness.
"He's probably not even there. Probably too busy traveling around as Snape's lackey." Ron pointed out.
The mention of Snape seemed to galvanize Harry.
"When are we leaving?"
"As soon as we can get this anti-tracking potion done.
It has to set until morning, so we might as well just
relax until then."
"So you three are not going back at all this year"
Fred looked over at them.
"No. I think this is more important."
"So little Gin is the only remaining Weasley at Hogwarts. That's kind of depressing--it seemed like we'd never run out of siblings to inhabit those hallowed halls." George sat down in the armchair next to the couch.
"Ginny's going to be bored to tears, sitting on her hands while the rest of us are fighting." Fred said with an affectionate smile.
"Nah, Fred, she'll get some new boyfriend to keep her
company. She's really racking them up, apparently"
George laughed.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione shifted around awkwardly.
Fred and George noticed.
"What?" They asked in creepy twin unison.
"Well...Ginny does have a new boyfriend." Hermione said rather lamely.
"Who? Say anyone from Slytherin and she's disowned."
"Harry." Hermione said.
Harry looked determinedly at his feet.
"Harry what?" Fred looked confused.
"Harry and Ginny are going out." Hermione said,
exasperated.
The twins looked at each other, shocked expressions on their faces.
"No way."
"How did we end up in one of Ginny's fantasies?" Fred laughed.
"How did this happen?" George sputtered.
"He snogged her in front of everyone in the common room after Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup. It was very disturbing." Ron shook his head.
"You said you didn't mind that we were going out"
Harry looked at him, affronted.
"Yes, but snogging in public?"
"Oh, yeah, you'd know all about that, wouldn't you,
Won-Won?" Harry shot back.
"Whoa, boys, no need to break out the pet names for each other." George looked between them, smiling.
"It's what Ron's girlfriend called him." Harry explained.
Fred and George started laughing so hard they nearly fell out of their chairs.
"This friendship's over." Ron looked at Harry, but Harry could tell he was about to laugh as well.
Hermione didn't look that amused.
"Well, cheers, Harry. If you ever break her heart,
we'll kill you and all that." Fred laughed, raising a
glass of Wizard's Wine he'd poured himself.
"Agreed." Harry said.
He really hoped that Ron and Hermione wouldn't mention that he'd already sort of broken up with her. It wasn't a break-up so much as a break. So he didn't think that counted. Never mind that he hadn't ever properly said good-bye.
No, he didn't think Fred and George would much appreciate that particular fact.
--
"Find anything of interest?"
Tonks backed up slightly, her heart thudding. Narcissa
Malfoy was a woman she had often heard of but never
actually encountered. She was creepily pretty- her
features so perfect that Tonks instantly felt very,
very ugly.
"As a matter of fact, I did." Tonks put the picture in her shoulder bag, keeping her other hand firmly on the wand.
"Give that to me." Narcissa said, her teeth gritted.
"What's the big deal? It's just a picture." Tonks shrugged.
"GIVE IT BACK!" Narcissa said, the vein in her forehead starting to throb, her beautiful features contorted.
"Keep your shirt on. What's so bad about me finding
some stupid picture? So you were friends with Sirius'
little brother and the greasiest Slytherin in
existence. Who cares?"
"You shut up. You have no idea what you're talking about. You have no idea who you're dealing with."
Tonks snorted.
"What, is your big bad husband going to get me fired from the Ministry? Oh...wait, he can't do much of anything right now, can he? Rotting away in some prison cell, it's really hard for me to be scared of him."
"Who the hell are you?" Narcissa said, so angry that she looked positively frightening.
Using a non-verbal spell Narcissa clearly wasn't anticipating, Tonks stunned her. Narcissa hit the ground, a shocked expression on her face. Tonks used another spell to bind her ankles and wrists with magically-bonded chains.
She stood over her, grinning, her arms crossed.
"Nymphadora Tonks. Ministry Auror. At your service."
--
Demetrius and Tonks stood outside Narcissa's cell,
looking at her chained and bound to a hard metal
chair.
"So you think she knows about Regulus Black AND the possible location of Severus Snape?" Demetrius looked at her skeptically.
"I'm telling you, sir, they were friends. At Hogwarts.
I found a picture of the three of them. Maybe they've
kept in touch."
"And you imprisoned her on a hunch?"
"I always trust my hunches, sir. You know that." Tonks grinned winningly.
"Well, any woman who would marry a Death Eater and even go so far as to produce a miniature one...yes, my dear. Go ahead and question her."
"I was actually thinking of doing the Cognitive spell,
sir."
Demetrius looked surprised for a moment, rubbing a hand through his closely-cropped gray hair.
"Are you sure about that, Nymphadora?"
"Yes."
"You know the risks involved?"
"Of course, sir."
He took her arm, leading her away from the window into the padded cell.
"If you go into her head with that spell, you know she can also come into yours. You can read her thoughts...her innermost secrets. But she can also see everything in your mind."
Tonks looked at her feet for a moment.
"If there's anything you wouldn't want her to know"
He said softly.
Tonks looked up.
"I'm not hiding anything."
"You could use a Pensieve before administering the spell."
"There's no time for that, sir. Finding Severus Snape
is imperative to the Ministry." She said,
uncharacteristically serious.
"Very well, Nymphadora. Whenever you're ready, she's all yours." Demetrius patted her shoulder, and walked away.
Tonks squared her shoulders, taking a deep breath.
"How many times do I have to tell him to call me Tonks?" She muttered, her hand on the door to the prison cell.
--
A/N- Next time--we get to take a trip down Tonks' and Narcissa's very different memory lanes. Please leave me a review!