Some time later, a still overwhelmed and teary-faced Harry and an equally emotional Hermione joined Ron, Leticia and Dobby in the kitchen. Seeing the bushy-haired girl nod silently at his questioning glance, the elf quickly fixed some tea for them all, then the five friends seated themselves at the table.
"How was your day, Harry?" started Hermione in a forcibly casual tone. Emptying his mug in a long gulp, Harry took a refill, then, concentrating on today's happenings, started his tale in a hushed voice.
"You won't believe. Arthur and I met in front of the Ministry, then we took a walk to the Thames and had some fish-and-chips. There are some serious changes going on in the Ministry and Arthur is afraid that they won't be favourable for us. He'll try to sniff around some more, but he's under suspicion so he has to be careful."
Hearing this, Ron raised his head. "How does he know that?"
"Remember he told us yesterday that his desk had all been turned upside down as if someone had been looking for something?" The redheaded boy nodded silently, cringing on Harry's words. "Well, Kingsley came in this morning with a bandaged fist, and when your Dad asked him what had happened to his hand he admitted to have caught Dawlish rummaging on his desk and... well... Dawlish had been found in a nearby alleyway and taken to St Mungo's with a fractured cheek bone and short-term memory loss."
"That's a good man, Kingsley!" cheered Ron, raising his mug to a toast. Laughing at his antics, the others joined him as well. "Served him right. Never liked that Auror," admitted Harry, remembering the events in his fifth year in Dumbledore's office. "What's more important is that we saw Dolohov today in Muggle London..." he continued, but, seeing Hermione's pretty features wrought into a grimace, he abruptly broke the sentence. She didn't forget the Flame-cutter Curse Dolohov had hit her with in the Department of Mysteries, but neither did Harry. Dolohov was third on his list to deal with, right after Tom Riddle and Peter Pettigrew.
Breathing heavily, his hand clenched into a fist, he continued. "We saw Dolohov in Muggle London, together with Peter. They were sitting in a pub drinking beer and talking about Grimmauld Place. Bellatrix or Narcissa must have told Voldemort about the house and they're betting all-in that I'm here. Of course, they can't find the house and it's driving them mad; Peter was whining about how useless it was to spend days sitting in the square and watching a house which didn't exist. Dolohov punched him in the face telling him to shut the fuck up and do as the Dark Lord had ordered. Tonight they will be here again on the watch."
Harry lowered his voice to a dangerous hiss. "Tonight, I'm going to do something about the two. I will switch the role of the dogs and the tails for a change. Tonight, I'll have a chance to pay my debt to both of them."
"I'm NOT letting you do anything, Harry!" shrieked Hermione, slamming her mug at the table, not noticing that the hot tea burned her hands. "You are NOT going to risk your life! You'll have your chance for a revenge later, when you are much better prepared!"
Pulling his wand and pointing it at her hand, Harry murmured a quick healing spell. Then, he looked straight into her eyes, his emerald eyes sparkling with cold flames and he spoke in a calm, icy voice. "You can't and won't stop me, Hermione. I have a plan and I promise you that I'm not going to risk my life. If you calm down, I will tell you. Leticia, can I count on you?"
$$$
The night fell and the two strangely-dressed men were still sitting in the square on a bench under the old oak tree. A careful observer would have found weird why their clothes remained dry in the pouring rain. He also would have found peculiar that the newspapers the two were reading had moving pictures in them, but with this weather there was no one on the streets.
Annoyedly huffing, the smaller man irritatedly threw his newspaper on the bench and stood. "What the fuck are we doing here, Dolohov? Is the Dark Lord absolutely sure the boy's in here?"
"Sit back down, Peter," the second man answered, not even looking up from his newspaper. "Your mere sight nauseates me. The Dark Lord ordered us to watch the place, so we are doing it. What he thinks is neither your business, nor mine."
Peter took no notice of his answer or his insult, but started nervously pacing around the bench, kept dry by a simple Impenetrable ward. "I tell you this is madness. Even if this house does exist, it's invisible, unplottable, and most probably warded by the Fidelius charm. We'll never get to see it, or them, while we are here."
Dolohov slowly folded his newspaper. "Shut the fuck up and stop whining," he said almost lovingly. "Nobody knows where Potter is. Even the blood-traitor Weasleys, his surrogate family, don't know his whereabouts. I performed Legilimency on them while questioning them. If he's alive, he must be hiding his ass here knowing that we are looking for him. We just have to wait until he makes a mistake."
"Clear reasoning, my dear Dolohov. I myself couldn't have said it better." The cool, emotionless, hissing voice startled the two men, who grabbed their wands and turned to the newcomer, only to find that their wands were no longer in their hands. However, when the figure came closer and they recognized his face, they respectfully bowed their heads in front of him.
The second figure, following the newcomer two steps behind, now emitted an irritating, childish laugh, dancing around the two startled Death Eaters. "Where is your big mouth now, rat? Or have you swallowed your tongue perhaps?"
"That's enough, Bella," said Voldemort simply, not even turning back to her.
"But Master, they were questioning your orders. Please give them to me so that I could punish them properly!" Bella contradicted, ignoring the warning signals her mind was giving her.
"I said: enough." Voldemort still didn't raise his voice, but Bella abruptly and obediently closed her mouth, not taking her eyes, burning with madness, off the two.
"Let's take a stroll, shall we? It's a beautiful evening and you can tell me everything about your results and concerns," offered Voldemort in a dangerously sweet voice and not expecting an answer took off in the direction of a big street. When he saw the two hesitate, he wrought his face in a grimace which could just as well have been interpreted as a smile.
"Come on, my dear friends. If Potter is here, he won't go anywhere while we have our small talk. If he's not here, well, we don't lose anything. Let's go."
Still hesitantly, the two followed Voldemort, Bellatrix closing the small procession. As they walked in a slow, but steady tempo, her eyes constantly scanned the streets, but her ears were trained on the hushed talk between Voldemort and Dolohov.
After a few minutes' walk, the strange quartet arrived at a dimly lit, dead-end street, which was - just like every other street they'd been walking - abandoned at this time of the day. Wearing a questioning look on his badly scarred face, Dolohov collected all bravery he could muster and looked straight into the snake-like eyes of the Dark Lord.
"My lord, why have you brought us here?" he asked in a respectful voice.
"I wanted a place where I could talk to the two of you uninterrupted and in private," Voldemort answered, stopping and turning to them, a curious spark playing in his eyes. "We have a slight change of the plan." He broke the sentence, waiting for their attention.
"My lord?" Dolohov did not understand.
"Unlike Lucius and the other slime-balls, you have been serving me well, Antonin," started Voldemort, seemingly satisfied with the man. The Death Eater slightly bowed his head waiting for his master to continue.
Pettigrew, however, felt uncomfortable. The whole time, the Dark Lord hadn't spoken a single word to him. Has he fallen out of the Dark Lord's grace? His whole body started trembling. Voldemort, however, didn't miss his distress and cast an ironic glance at the small, rat-like man.
"Peter, Peter, what a pitiful thing you are. Weren't I satisfied with your service, I would have already fed you to Nagini a long time ago." Even frightened as he was, Pettigrew couldn't suppress a relieved sigh. The next sentence, however, neither him, nor Dolohov had expected.
"You've both been faithful servants," Voldemort's voice changed and suddenly became dry and cold. "The situation, however, changed and I'm no longer in need of your services."
Dolohov and Pettigrew exchanged a frightened glance, understanding the inevitable. Then several things happened at once. The two made a quick attempt to run, but the only way they could get out of the dead-end street was to get past Bellatrix. The same moment they understood they'd been trapped, the same moment the comprehension dawned in their eyes, the men were hit by jets of red light emitted from Voldemort and Bellatrix' wands and everything went dark.
"Quick, before they regain consciousness," whispered Bellatrix into Voldemort's ears. Levitating the two men behind a tree, they bound the two with magical ropes. When their victims were immobilized, they exchanged an understanding glance, then Voldemort pointed his wand at Peter's temple and muttered "Ennervate". The same moment the man opened his watery eyes, the Dark Lord sent a "Langlock" curse at him. Effectively immobilized and silenced, Peter understood there was no way out of this situation.
Bellatrix knelt down besides him and looked deep in his eyes. In a hypnotic voice, barely above a whisper, she started to speak and, Peter realized in sheer horror, her eyes started glowing red.
"You caught sight of Harry Potter in Muggle London and ran after him. You managed to keep up with him but he Apparated away the very last moment before you could stun him to bring him before the Dark Lord. While chasing Potter, you lost Dolohov and you have no idea where he can be at the moment. You won't remember anything else."
Bellatrix was breathing heavily, her irises now burning with a red flame. Peter felt her words dancing around his mind, driving away all his other thoughts and memories, then suddenly he felt peaceful and completely oblivious to the outside world and wet himself.
Bellatrix now stood and returned to the Dark Lord, still breathing heavily, trying to retain her calmness. Her rage now started to break through the Illusion charm and her facial features distorted, her fangs beginning to protrude from her gum. Voldemort followed her glance and understood the reason of her distress. When he hit Dolohov, the more dangerous of the two, the impact of the Stunner sent him into a wall and the skin on his face was ripped open, the wound still bleeding profusely. He drew a few sharp breaths, then, trying to retain his composure, drew up his shoulders, answering the unspoken question.
"I won't stop you." With these words, he walked a few yards away and turned his back on Bellatrix, waiting patiently. A few minutes later, he heard the flattering of giant wings which shortly afterwards died away in the distance, only to resume after a short while.
Feeling the gush of cold wind on his face caused by the wings, he slowly turned around. Leticia, calm and collected, silently joined him, already back in her human form. Harry expectantly turned his face to her, but she lowered her glance, saying nothing. After a minute of uncomfortable silence, she asked, her eyes full of tears, "Do you hate me now, Harry?"
Harry raised her chin with his index finger and looked deep into her eyes. "Stop talking nonsense, Leticia. You can't do anything about what you've been born. Let's get out of here."
He searched for the girl's hands and squeezed them reassuringly. Seeing her features relax, he removed the Illusion charm from them both and Leticia transformed into a small bat. Placing her into the pocket of his robe, he draped the Invisibility Cloak around himself and, holding both his own wand and Dolohov's wand at ready, he made his way back to his – now their – home and sanctuary.