Well here it is… Only just got internet back up and running! Who saw this coming?
Chapter 21 – The Traitor
Choosing the appropriate slide Harry glided down to the Auror department, casually disembarking and heading straight for Moody's office. However, on his way, he almost walked straight into Aaron Shacklebolt.
"Harry," he said, his deep voice that so echoed his late father rumbling across the corridor. He stretched out his hand. "It has been too long. But Lucy's just contacted me, she says you had to move Brian. Why?"
"According to Mad-Eye your place is being watched," Harry answered, "but you know Mad-Eye, he's probably just being overly cautious."
Aaron frowned deeply. "But Mad-Eye told me this morning that we were safe… That Charlie's should just enjoy his day off."
"That's not a very Mad-Eye thing to say…" Harry said, trailing off. "Where is he?"
"Right behind you," came a growling voice. "Am I to take it, Potter, that you have just moved Brian Hinks to Charlie Holloway's house?"
"As instructed," Harry answered, mentally stopping himself from taking a step back.
"Legilimens!" Mad-Eye was so fast that Harry did not have time to employ Occlumency. Harry saw the morning in reverse, Charlie, then Aaron, but just before Moody could see the conversation with Hermione, Harry forced him out.
"What the hell was that for!" Harry yelled, drawing his wand.
"Petrificus totalus!" Mad-Eye yelled, pointing at Harry. Harry fell rigid as a board but, before Aaron could do anything, Mad-Eye had cursed him too. Forcing Aaron into a cupboard, Mad-Eye grabbed a hold of Harry and, despite anti-apparition charms within the Ministry, he apparated the pair of them to Hogsmeade. Mad-Eye propped Harry up against the wall, raising his wand. "Accio invisibility cloak!" Whilst he watched, encased within his own body, Harry tried to understand the incomprehensible truth.
Mad-Eye was a traitor. The strong Auror he had trusted, in spite of his insane paranoia, as much as Kingsley. Kingsley… had Mad-Eye caused the cave to collapse on him? Had he planted the memory in Charlie's head? Who was watching Charlie's now?
"I'm going to cover you with this cloak," Mad-Eye said, his voice agitated as Harry's cloak ground to a halt in Mad-Eye's hand. "Then I'm going to feed you this veritaserum." Harry was puzzled. What was he expecting to find out? Mad-Eye moved forwards and, drawing a small vial out of his pocket, he sat Harry down on a bench, allowing the pair of them to fit underneath the cloak. Without ceremony Mad-Eye grabbed Harry's nose, forcing his mouth open, before tipping a couple of drops of the colourless liquid into Harry's mouth.
Harry, even within his invisible prison, could feel it as his brain compressed. It was a bit similar to the imperius curse, (something, his brain drunkenly registered, as being a bit ironic given that his first experience under that curse had been from the fake-Moody in his fourth year), and he felt his mind becoming slow and the will to fight off Moody's jinx falling.
"Where is Brian Hinks?" Moody growled.
"At Charlie Holloway's flat," Harry answered, acting on a sub-conscious impulse as simple as the one forcing him to breathe.
"Which other people know that he is there?"
"Lucy, Hermione and myself," Harry responded tonelessly.
"Why did you move him there?
"Because you told me too," Harry answered, but even beneath the potion-induced state of stupor Harry could feel a tiny notion of confusion at the question.
"And who told you that?"
"Dobby the house elf: you told him to make me move him," Harry responded.
"Is that him over there?" Moody asked, pointing across towards The Hogs Head. Harry looked at the pointy ears bobbing around the corner.
"Yes," Harry responded instantly. Moody sighed, pinching his nose in such an un-Moody like way that Harry could feel the confusion even more strongly. "I'm going to release the jinx now Potter, and remove the cloak. I will not lower my wand, but I will ask you first not to jinx me. Can you do that?"
"Yes," Harry answered, the confusion now based on the honesty of his answer. He felt his body become looser, his grip on his wand correspondingly firmer, and he drew in a breath of fresh air as Moody lifted the cloak.
"You alright, Potter?" Moody asked, a question that caught Harry entirely off guard.
"That depends… am I going to be attacked again?"
"No. You're going to follow your house elf."
"What?" Harry was stunned.
"I never told your house elf anything," Moody growled softly, helping Harry to his feet. "So either he lied to you of his own accord or someone forced him to. Given what you've told me about him and how you freed him, I'm inclined to believe the latter and, unless I'm very much mistaken, you did not order him into Hogsmeade. Putting these together, we can assume that he is going to meet someone. Put the cloak back on, and follow him. I'm going to see Lucy and tell her to prepare for Brian's return, and then I'll go and fetch him from Holloway's."
Before Harry could stop him, Mad-Eye apparated away, the loud crack reverberating around Hogsmeade. Harry pulled the cloak over himself and hastened across the street, rounding the corner just in time to spot Dobby darting behind Madame Puddifoot's. Slowing to a halt Harry paused, just in time to hear a voice he recognised as belonging to a Death Eater within the lair.
"Imperio!" she said quietly. Dobby froze. "Did you get Potter to move the boy?"
"Yes," Dobby replied in a dreamy voice. "I am awaiting further instruction."
"You will return here tomorrow at noon," she said and, just as Harry was preparing to attack, he heard the crack that signalled her departure. Harry watched as Dobby tipsily moved around the corner, unsure what to do. He allowed the house elf to move past, before deciding that, although he must confront Dobby, he shouldn't do it in the street. Apparating to Godric's Hollow and collecting a stiff drink of Firewhisky from Winky, Harry headed out onto the newly built balcony (Ron's way of saying thanks) overlooking the back garden, and took a deep breath.
"Dobby?" Harry asked the open air. With the third apparition-crack in as many minutes, the small house elf appeared next to him. Harry gazed at him reluctantly. "Dobby, I am ordering you to answer all of my questions honestly. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir," Dobby replied instantly, his shining eyes dimmed under the recent imperius curse. Harry could see Winky watching out of the corner of his eye.
"Did Alastor Moody ask you to tell me to move Brian Hinks to Charlie Holloway's house?"
"No."
Harry sighed in dismay. "Have you been working for the Secret Elite?"
"Yes."
"No!" Winky cried in anguish, her own eyes not dimmed but glistening with tears. Harry shushed her.
"Are they planning to attack Charlie's house?"
"Yes."
Harry sighed again, before sending Charlie a quick patronus message informing him of the imminent danger. "How else have you helped the Secret Elite?"
"I planted memories in Master Holloway's head," he answered tonelessly. "I set up traps within the stronghold of the Secret Elite."
"You killed Kingsley?" Harry whispered, as much to himself as Dobby.
"Yes sir," Dobby answered, making Harry feel sickened by what Andromidus and his followers had forced Dobby to do.
"How else did you help them?" Harry asked, unsure if he really wanted to know.
"I exchanged your wedding ring for another. I planted a method of spying within Godric's Hollow. I stole the notes of the Fidelius charm and gave them to Master Andromidus. I helped Master Andromidus apparate out of Hogwarts."
"It was you!" Harry exclaimed, recalling the night of Dumbledore's death. He knew that he had seen another figure, but never in his darkest nightmares would he have thought that it had been Dobby.
"I also threw Master Dumbledore's portrait in the lake," Dobby continued, his words slicing through Harry's heart like a knife through butter. "And I created enmity between you and your friends."
"My friends?" Harry asked, feeling winded. "How?"
"I made you suspect Master Taylor by jinxing you in Miss Granger's classroom. I changed Mrs Potter's sweets in the library. I put love potion in you and Miss Granger's drinks last night."
Within the numbness Harry felt the smallest twinge of relief: so he hadn't really cheated on Ginny… "Have you got any further instructions?"
"To meet Miss Hallersey tomorrow at noon," Dobby answered, and Harry thought he could see his little house-elf struggling against the imperious curse. "But… I… I must tell you… I'm…" He took a step forward. Harry, unsure whether or not Dobby was going to apologise or, in his imperius induced state, attack, drew his wand, but he was too late.
"No!" yelled Winky, manically, her arms raised high above her head. Then, in a strange echo of Dobby in Harry's second year, she cried: "You shall not harm Master Harry!" An electric beam of blue light crackled out of her palms, smashing Dobby directly in the midriff, sending him toppling over the balcony. Harry, hearing a sickening crunching noise, transformed into a phoenix, preparing his own tears as he flew down but, as he landed next to his poor, broken house-elf, he was only in time to hear Dobby's final, gasping word.
"Grindelwald…" he murmured, weak voice barely making it out of his throat, before his mouth lolled open, tongue flapping uselessly, his uneven head drooping oddly to one side, batted eyelids softly shut, his feeble body broken. Transforming back Harry could feel real, hot tears dripping off the end of his nose, and he sat pack, propping himself up with his palm, shaking with numbness. He heard Winky scuttling out next to him.
"Is Master Harry alright?" she asked, her own voice breaking and, in an instant, Harry knew he could not dismiss her. She had only been trying to protect him, and his mixed feelings about what Dobby had been forced to do and the impression that his poor elf might have been about to attack him could grant him no anger at his other servant. Harry gave her a weak nod, but asked her if she could give him a couple of minutes alone with Dobby. Mad-Eye could cope with Brian Hinks for now.
Harry looked down at the poor creature, letting the emotion overwhelm him. Little Dobby, who had served him so faithfully, was lying dead next to him, neck softly broken, his chest still. He had been forced into such terrible deeds that Harry knew that Dobby would not for a moment even dreamt of, acts that lead to the death of Albus Dumbledore and Kingsley Shacklebolt. He made a note to summon Dumbledore's portrait from the lake a bit later on, and also to reassure Hermione that their kiss really had been meaningless. He did not really spare a thought for Dobby's last word; the curiosity would come later.
But this was also Dobby who had, and Harry couldn't help a tiny smile, stolen his mail in his second year, sealed off platform nine and three-quarters, (an act that had almost got Harry and Ron expelled), and caused a bludger to chase him around the quidditch pitch. Dobby who had acted, in his own peculiar way, always and only to protect Harry, even to the point of punishing himself: Harry particularly remembered Dobby talking to him with bandages covering his palms when he had ironed his hands.
Gently burying Dobby under a veiled willow tree in the corner of his garden, Harry decided that he needed to leave Godric's Hollow for a couple of days, but first he had to reassure the weeping form of Winky. He poured her a tiny glass of butterbeer to settle her nerves and forbade her from punishing herself. However, all he really knew at that moment was that he needed something normal and simple to do and so, walking into Hogsmeade a moment later, he headed into The Three Broomsticks.