Molly flushed red, gasping in horror. When she found her voice again, she asked the bat to repeat the message and it was all too happy to oblige.
Having heard it for the second time, the wizards understood that it was a riddle, a coded message they had to solve. Yet, they had to make sure it was not a trap, a setup of some sort and they didn't put their wands away.
"It has to do something with Harry, Ron and Hermione, hasn't it?" inquired Molly cautiosly, eyeing the messenger. Ever since the sudden disappearance of the three kids she's been on the verge and the repeating visits of Death Eaters were just pouring oil into the fire. However, there were no clashes between the Weasleys and the unwanted visitors, but they made it perfectly understandable that the Burrow was under constant monitoring.
"Yes, it definitely has," the bat answered, nodding profusely. Its small, black eyes scanned the interior of the kitchen, then they wandered over to the faces of the three wizards, comparing them with the mental images received from the teens.
"How do we know you're not Voldemort's spy?" raised Remus his wand in suspicion. There were only a handful people the Order could trust; news on murders and plunderings were no news any more and a good part of the Wizarding population decided to stay low profile or moved abroad.
Quickly evaluating the possible answers, the bat shook its head. "You don't, it's as simple as that. You just have to place a bet."
Still flushed red, Molly looked at her husband. "It's only you who call me Mollywobbles, when..."
Arthur, as always, tried to stay reasonable. "Ron knows this nickname of yours as well, dear. But if he'd been captured, any information, anything that's supposed to stay inside the family, everything he could have possibly heard or witnessed may be known to Voldemort by now."
Molly emitted a shriek and covered her face with her hands. "Arthur, please don't tell me V...Voldemort has my son!"
Understanding that he must be strong for both of them even if he was equally worried, Arthur hugged Molly to himself. "I didn't say that, dear, I only said that there was a small, but real possibility," he replied, kissing his wife on the forehead.
Letting go of her husband, Molly stood up and went to the kitchen window. Blankly staring outside, where the garden gnomes just started chasing two careless young hens, she whispered a silent prayer. "Merlin, my children are somewhere out there and the whole world is against them. Please keep them safe and return them to me!"
"Molly, they will be fine, Arthur is right. There were no signs of them being captured. Severus would have known. Why don't we just try and found out what this message is," interjected Remus and turned back to the creature.
"So, you want to say that Ron, Hermione – the surrogate daughter – and Harry – the surrogate son – are fine, right?" He was happy to receive a nod from the bat and the wizards relaxed a little in their chairs.
Mentally playing back the text of the message, Molly frowned. "Twelve... what could twelve mean? Why is it a beautiful number?" she mused, barely audibly to the others, nervously playing with her apron. "It's not a magical number anyway; three, seven and nine are."
"Grimmauld Place!" Comprehension dawned at Remus' worn face. Full moon was just four days ago and his transformation was painful as he ran out of the Wolfsbane potion with Snape not being around to concoct it. "They are currently at Grimmauld Place, and as such, relatively protected as no one except the Order knows this place. It's still under the Fidelius charm."
"Quite right, Moony," chirped the bat, completely startling the wizard.
"How... how do you know my name?" Remus asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Everything in it's own time, Moony. Now go on, I'm enjoying it," urged the bat.
"Ickle Ronniekins – wait, the twins call Ron this name... Ms. Wilkins... who on hell is this Ms. Wilkins Ron had asked out?" went on Molly, clearly confused.
"The name Wilkins is the new identity of Hermione's parents, Molly," sighed Arthur. "She modified their memories, gave new identities to them and sent them over to Australia, away from harm's way. She knew that because of her closeness to Harry, her parents might become a potential target of Voldemort and his followers."
"So, this Ms. Wilkins is no one else but Hermione? Ron finally asked Hermione out? That's a good boy!" Molly beamed, and picked away a few tears, happy tears this time.
The bat hopped over to Molly and looked into her eyes. "Yes, he did, Molly, I've witnessed it myself, although he did need a little stimulation from my side. Harry was joking about getting old and growing a beard before those two finally got together."
"That's still information which can be obtained using Legilimency or the Cruciatus Curse. I still don't trust it," interjected Remus again. "Constant vigilance, huh?" the bat laughed in her tiny voice. "Having fought so long side-by-side with Mad-Eye rubbed off on you, right?"
Suppressing a small laugh, Arthur turned to the bat. "Excuse me, how was the message further? The boy who? I didn't quite catch it."
"The-boy-who-must-be-hyphenated," repeated the bat slowly and patiently. Only now did the wizards fully understand the phrase and all of them burst out in hysteric laughter. Wiping away her tears, Molly turned to the others. "I love this new name of Harry's. Why don't we keep it? The-boy-who-must-be-hyphenated, bloody brilliant! Whose invention was it, anyway?"
The tiny bat straightened proudly. "Mine," she answered simply. They had a good laugh at breakfast while compiling the message; even Harry, who hated his various names, couldn't remain neutral to this one.
"Who are you then, little one?" inquired Molly in an incredulous voice, allowing the bat to climb in her palm.
"Later, Molly. There will be time for questions later," shooed the bat away the question.
By this time the wizards were clearly enjoying themselves. Remus suddenly got a flashback of the ten-year old himself, curled up on the sofa and reading "The Children of Captain Grant", where the main heroes were trying to decipher a badly damaged message-in-the-bottle.
"So, Harry's sending his love to ... Ginny, and greetings to the twins,"
"Dragonman is George,"
"Billy the kid is of course Bill and Phlegm is Fleur," completed the wizards the message.
"I don't get that last sentence," mused Arthur. "'They will light a fire...' means … wait a minute … fire-fireplace-FLOO!" he cried out the last word victoriously as he finished his train of thoughts.
"If the sky is clear, that is, if the Burrow is safe and if the connection is safe, we can talk to them via the Floo." Molly looked at her husband. "Arthur, do you think the connection is safe? Ours and theirs?"
Arthur stood up, pointed his wand at the fireplace and muttered a long incantation. The fire emitted several long, blue flames.
"Ours is safe now. Dumbledore made Grimmauld Place unplottable before his death, so I would assume they are in safety as well. There's only one way to test." Throwing a pinch of Floo powder into the fireplace, he called out clearly. "12 Grimmauld Place!" Seeing that nobody was answering his call, he repeated it again, indicating the others to move out of sight and raising his wand.
"Arthur!" yelled Hermione in surprise, dropping her coffee mug. "Are you all right? We were so scared for you when the Death Eaters came!"
"We are all right, Ms. Wilkins," Arthur smiled at the girl, trying to calm her, " but we aren't sure whether the Floo connection is safe. We just got a message delivered by a cute messenger and decided to check on you."
Hermione's features relaxed and she continued in a more calm voice. "Her name is Leticia," she nodded, understanding the unspoken question. "She's our friend and we completely trust her. She can fill you in on things and we can catch up later."
Storing this bit of information in his head, the older wizard turned to the others, smiling broadly. "Sounds like a plan, Ms. Wilkins. Be extremely careful. See you later then," he agreed.
"You too, Arthur, you too. Good-bye," Hermione broke the connection and the green flames died in the fireplace.
Emitting a relieved sigh, the three adults turned to the bat. "Sorry for being so suspicious, Leticia, but you must understand..." started Molly.
"Never mind, Molly, it's completely understandable. I wonder though, why you didn't simply Stun me and pour Veritaserum into my mouth instead of listening me out." Taking off from the table, the bat made two circles above their heads, excitedly flapping with her tiny wings, then gracefully landed on the floor, instantaneously turning into her human form. Stretching her arms and legs, the girl smiled at the wizards. "I don't like being in that form for a long time. It's rather inconvenient, you know, and I had a long flight."
"An animagus... at her age..." Molly was startled. Suddenly she caught sight of Remus. The other wizard jumped up from his chair, started sniffing the air and emitted an inhuman roar. Leticia's eyes, at the same time, started to glow red, and her facial features distorted. She was close to transformation. Breathing heavily, she raised her right hand.
"I came with peace, as a friend, werewolf," she said, and Arthur saw her fangs were starting to protrude from her gum. She was barely able to control herself, but Arthur realized it was more of a self defence mechanism.
"Remus, please, give her a chance!" Putting his hand on the other wizard's shoulder and applying some pressure, he managed to get Remus back into his chair, but the latter was still suspiciously eyeing the girl. Flashing her an apologetic look, he turned to his wife.
"Molly, Leticia is no animagus. She's a vampire. Vampires and werewolves have been at war for the last ten centuries, and while we don't know much about the why's and how's of this war, it's ongoing, even in our days. Their reaction to each other is understandable."
Turning back to her normal self, Leticia walked up to Arthur and extended her hand. "I'm Leticia Brown." Arthur accepted the hand and introduced her to the others. Following the others' example, Remus also shook her hand while Leticia flashed him an honest, friendly smile.
"Molly, I can smell apple-pie. Ron's praising your cooking to heaven. What about some tea? My throat is dry and sore from all that talking and I'm afraid we'll have more talking to do," Leticia offered innocently.
"Of course, how rude of me. My children's friends are always welcome in our house," Molly smiled at her. With a wave of her wand, the adults' coffee cups were refilled, with another flick she levitated a teapot and a cup in front of Leticia, and with a third movement a monstrous serving of said apple-pie appeared in front of each of them.
Half an hour later, everybody was filled in about the events of the last week and the adults were relieved that the teens were out of danger, at least for the time being. However, when asking Leticia about their plans, she wouldn't say a word. "I've given a wizarding oath," she explained. "It will be safer for all of us. What I'm allowed to tell is that it has to do with Voldemort and the prophecy that had been made about him and Harry."
"Damn that old fool!" piped up Molly. "Merlin's pants! Harry's barely of age. He would sacrifice that poor boy for his 'greater good'! When I die, the first thing I'll do is turn the old manipulator into a leapfrog."
Everybody had to laugh at her idea, but Arthur suddenly went serious. "Molly, the boy has made his choice. He decided to stand up for himself, for all of us and for everything he believes in and he has friends to help him. The only thing we can do is stand by him and give him all help he needs. Harry had faced Voldemort on more than one occasion and he's still alive to tell the tale." Screwing his face in a wry grimace, he frowned. "The Burrow, however, isn't safe, and I imagine that Death Eaters would be popping by every now and then, just to check on things, so they can't come back here. Which makes me think that Grimmauld Place is most probably under supervision as well. Seeing them there, at a safe haven, is really a good thing; it means Severus is still on our side."
"Molly, they can take care of themselves," interjected Lupin, when he saw her getting nervous. "Harry's trained them well in fifth year; they'd managed to hold off a bunch of the most dangerous Death Eaters at the Department of Mysteries, the six of them, for quite a long time. I don't know many adult wizards, who could have done the same."
Nodding her agreement, Leticia tried to calm the Weasley matriarch. "Actually, they are very careful when they leave the house and always use Harry's cloak. We haven't seen any suspicious activities until now, although they mentioned to me that two days ago a man with a badly scarred face was sitting on the bench in front of the house the whole day reading a newspaper. He seemed familiar to them but they couldn't recall where they'd seen him before of what his name was. As for me, vampire Apparition cannot be traced and I don't need a cloak to become invisible for a short time," she explained.
"In fact," she went on, refilling her cup, "I've been flying around your home for a good fifteen minutes checking if you had any unwanted visitors." Raising her head from the cup, she interlocked her eyes with Molly's. "I need to apologize to you, but I've been listening into your conversations as well; I didn't fancy the idea of running into any Death Eaters inside the house while trying to pass you the message."
"Dear, I'm glad my children have found such a wonderful friend and a powerful ally in your person. You don't have to apologize," beamed Molly, taking the girls' hands into hers.
Remus frowned, visibly deep in concentration. "Badly scarred face... Dolohov..." he thought to himself. "He was at the Department of Mysteries then. Gotta take care of him. I don't like the idea of having him around the kiddos."
Then, he spoke out loud. "I think I have an idea for a safe communication method." Looking at Arthur, he asked. "Do you remember Sirius' mirror?" The older wizard thought for a while, then a huge grin formed on his face. "Moony, you are a genius. A mad genius. You do justice to the old Marauder tradition." Conjuring four small mirrors, he handed them over to Remus. Waving his wand in a complex pattern over the mirrors, the werewolf nodded in satisfaction.
"This is as safe as can be. Leticia, can you take this one to them? The Weasleys will have one, I will keep the third mirror and I think it will be safe to bet that Professor McGonagall would also like one. I have charmed them so that they will work only with those to whom they were designated. In the hands of other people they will be just a simple mirror. Just tap it with your wand and say the password, then the name you want to talk to," he explained, visibly proud of himself.
"And what would be the password?" inquired Molly, pocketing her mirror.
"Leticia Brown," said the werewolf, smiling at the vampire.