They made their way, eventually, to what seemed to be the only house still standing. On the way there, they'd glimpsed Robby a few times, half-hiding behind rocks and trees and looking increasingly alarmed as they got closer, but he hadn't approached them again. Hermione knocked on the door.

"Leave."

Harry stepped forward, not quite daring to push Hermione out of the way, but definitely moving her aside. "Bill, what happened here?"

There was a long pause before Bill shouted back, "Nothing. Leave."

"Bill!" Hermione couldn't contain herself. "We found the graveyard, Bill! We found Ron, we found all your family! Something happened!"

The door swung open, revealing Bill. His hair had been inexpertly cut short, and he was sporting a goatee that he hadn't worn when the Settlers had left. "All right," he said with a sigh. "If you've seen the graveyard, then I suppose I don't have much choice. Come inside." He turned his head and shouted over his shoulder, "Tea, Gin! We have visitors!"

"Visitors?" a familiar voice called back from somewhere further inside the house. "Really? Who is it?"

"Nobody important! Stay in the kitchen!" Bill glanced back at the small crowd outside his front door, flashing a smile. "Sorry about this, but I don't want her getting her hopes up that we'll be able to leave... Robby will get the water and tea leaves for her, but all the same, I expect it'll be a few minutes. Come on in. The living room's this way."

Once they had all found seats in the living room, Draco deliberately choosing a chair as far from the rest of the crew as possible, Harry spoke again. "Bill, we're here to take you and Ginny home, but if it was an illness that - that killed everybody..." He left the sentence unfinished, hoping Bill would understand, would realize that a quarantine might be necessary.

"It wasn't," Bill assured him as Robby scurried in with a tea tray balanced over his head and distributed the steaming cups. "Anyway, they all died a long time ago. The last of them-" He looked down for a moment, wiping at his eyes, then fixed his gaze on Harry once more. His voice was hoarse. "Fleur was the last to go, just after Claudette. She didn't die the same way as the others. I think it was heartbreak more than anything else. That was three years ago. If there was any illness then, it's gone by now." He swallowed hard before saying in a more normal voice, "Anyway, Ginny and I are better off staying here. We're not in any danger, I assure you. You might as well just go back and tell Dumbledore that there was no one left at all."

"Ginny sounded so eager to see visitors," Neville spoke up. "I find it hard to believe that she really wants to stay here. Let her come out and see us, and then she can make up her own mind what she wants."

"Even if she does want to stay here, I don't think we can just leave you," Hermione said, sounding rather nervous. "I mean, we have orders to bring you back. We can't disobey them."

"You haven't changed a bit, have you, Hermione?" Bill laughed before adding, "You know, it is safe to drink the tea. Even if you don't trust me, it was Ginny that made it."

The crew glanced at each other. "I don't think we ought to," Harry said at last. "The water and leaves came from here. For all we know, they could be connected to the way the other Settlers died. Until you tell us what happened-"

"All right," Bill said softly. "I'll explain it, but you won't believe it. There are monsters here - monsters you can't see unless you're the one they're stalking. They took the others, one at a time. Starting at sundown, someone would see something - usually it was some sort of animal, a wolf or a tiger or something, but whatever it was, it was always something that scared them out of their wits. The rest of us could only hear it - heavy footsteps, animals roaring." He swallowed. "Sometimes we could hear them screaming. And then the next morning, we... we'd find them."

Hermione lifted her teacup, looked into it, and then set it down again. "People saw monsters that no one else could see, all of them some kind of wild animal, and every attack lasted for exactly one night..." She sighed. "All of it sounds like delusions of some kind. An illness, maybe, or a hallucinogen, causing increasing paranoia leading to suicide. Tell me, how were they found? Were their eyes gouged out? That would be consistent-"

"It wasn't anything they could have done to themselves." Bill's voice was hard. "They were ripped limb from limb. And maybe there's some people who can tear their own heads from their shoulders, but you tell me, Granger, how a man can set his own head out on the doorstep, and lock the door neatly behind it, when the rest of him is still lying in his bed!" The last sentence crescendoed to a furious shout.

"Bill, stop!" Ginny ran into the room. "Don't talk about - oh. Oh, I'm sorry." She lowered her gaze and blushed brightly. "I got carried away. I'm sorry." With that, she turned to disappear through the same door she'd come in.

"Wait!" Hermione leapt up from her seat on one end of the couch and caught the younger woman by the arm. "Ginny, don't go. It's all right. We've come to take you back."

"I've told you," Bill said harshly. "We don't want to go back, and you're not going to force us to go. I don't care what your orders are. If the wards are broken, the monsters could find a way out. I will not let that happen."

Hermione looked Ginny in the eye. "Do you want to go back, Ginny?" she asked softly. "If you do, we'll take you. Just say the word."

"I... I don't want to," Ginny said, turning pink and looking down again. "I want what Bill wants. He's my only family."

"Thank you, Ginny." Bill stood up. "Gentlemen, Hermione, I hope you're all satisfied as to our wishes. The sooner you leave, the better. The monsters will begin to prowl at nightfall."

"I don't think we're ready to leave just yet," Hermione said smoothly, stepping between Bill and the door he was ushering them toward. "There are some things I'd still like to discuss with you about the deaths-"

"No." Bill glanced over at his younger sister. "Not in front of Ginny. She was only a child when they started. I won't have you reminding her of those days."

"Then we can talk in private," Neville supplied quickly. "Is there another room that would be suitable?"

Bill sighed. "Ginny, go and walk in the garden," he said, and his voice was weary.

"Alone?" Malfoy got to his feet indignantly, leaving Neville the only one still seated. "I will not allow a young lady to walk unprotected in an area that may harbor the kind of monsters you've described to us. Miss Weasley, may I escort you? I'm sure I'm not needed here."

"Malfoy, I don't think-" Harry began, but Bill waved him down, saying, "It's all right, Harry. She won't need any protection as long as the sun's up, Malfoy, but if it makes you feel better to walk with her, go on."

"But what if I don't want-"

"Ginny, please." Bill shooed her out toward the kitchen, Malfoy followed, and a moment later, they heard a door slam and Bill fell back into his chair. "That's those two got rid of, then," he said with a sigh. "Sit down, relax. What were you still wondering about, Hermione?"

"Well, I thought that perhaps-"

"Manners!" Bill sat bolt upright and clapped his hands. "Robby, come into the living room! Would any of you like something to eat or drink? If there's anything you want, Robby can conjure it."

Neville frowned. "He can conjure? I didn't think house-elves were allowed that kind of advanced magic."

"Well, most aren't, but when Mrs. Bones left Robby to me, I did a bit of research and lifted most of the limitations on his powers." Bill shrugged. "He can do just about anything they teach you at Hogwarts. Robby, I'd like a glass of Old Ogden's, please... anyone else? No? All right, then." The house-elf bowed, clapped his hands, and handed his master a glass out of the air, and Bill smiled. "Thank you, Robby, that's all. Now, Hermione, what were you saying?"