"A four out of ten?" Fred exclaimed as him, Alanna and Alexandra filed out of Transfiguration.
"Well what did you expect? You only finished it the morning it was due," Alanna pointed out.
"This is at least six work," Fred mumbled.
Alexandra laughed. "Well, I spent two whole hours on the assignment and only got a seven, so I'd say you've got me beat."
"Come on," Alanna said. "We're going to be late for Care of Magical Creatures if we don't hurry."
The three crossed the grounds to Hagrid's hut, with Fred still fuming about his paper. They were one of the last to arrive, and when they finally sat down with the rest of the class, Hagrid began the lesson.
"Mornin'," he said happily to the class. "Now, I hope you all enjoyed the unicorns from last lesson, but we'll be studying a different creature today. Follow me."
The students followed Hagrid behind his hut where there was a rather large patch of dirt.
"I've hidden some leprechaun gold in there," Hagrid told the class. "And you're going to use yer creatures to help you sniff them out."
He nodded over to ten large crates standing near the dirt. The students took a closer look and saw that each box contained two fluffy creatures with long snouts.
"Nifflers!" Hagrid said happily. "Dead useful for sniffing out treasures and valuables. We'll be having a bit of a contest today. Each of you will get a niffler. Whoever's niffler digs out the most gold will be the winner."
The students, even the Slytherins, seemed excited about this.
"You can go and pick them right out of the crate!" Hagrid instructed. "They won't bite you. Very friendly creatures, nifflers are."
Alexandra took an instant liking to the nifflers. They were soft and reminded her of badgers.
"Place them on the edge of the dirt patch!" Hagrid told them. "I'll tell you when to release them!"
Once everyone lined up at the edge with his or her niffler, Hagrid told him or her to let the nifflers go. It was amazing to watch the small creatures move through the dirt with such ease. The nifflers brought the fake gold back to their respective owners and would then hurry back to find more. Once all the gold had been found, Hagrid had everyone count his or her coins. The winner turned out to be a boy Fred shared his dormitory with, Christopher Stealson, and was rewarded with a large box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans.
"We've still got twenty minutes left," Hagrid said. "You lot can play with yer nifflers 'till the end of the lesson. Don't let them out of yer sight, though!"
"They're so cute!" Alanna said, scratching her niffler's back.
"I wouldn't mind having one as a pet," Fred agreed. "Better than Roxy's cat we're stuck with at home; bloody thing hisses at me whenever I walk into a room."
Alexandra was about to comment, but her niffler broke free from her grasp and began running in the opposite direction.
"Oh no!" she exclaimed, jumping up.
"Quick, go after it!" Fred told her.
Alexandra sprinted after the niffler. Thankfully, she was a fast runner, but she still was having trouble catching up to the creature.
"Gotcha!" she said triumphantly, tackling the niffler. She struggled to get to her feet, but the niffler was still squirming in her arms. Suddenly, though, it got very still, and buried itself in Alexandra's robes.
"Well, that will work," she said, bringing herself to her feet. Once she got up, though, she saw why the niffler had gone still.
She was almost face to face with a dementor; its hooded face was locked on hers. Alexandra still didn't feel what the others were talking about. If anything, being this close to a dementor made her feel happier, not as if she would never smile again.
"Alexandra!"
She turned to see Hagrid running over to her. He grabbed her wrist and quickly pulled her away from the dementor.
"Thought I was going to be too late," Hagrid said. "Came looking for you after you ran off and didn't come back. Saw it getting closer to yer…They isn't supposed be that close to students…when Professor McGonagall hears about this…Come on, I'll get you some chocolate…you must be feelin' dead awful."
Alexandra nodded. She didn't think being so drawn to dementors would look good in anyone's eyes.
…
"Scores just came back!" Teddy said proudly, walking into Ron and Harry's office. "Passed all my N.E.W.T.'s with flying colors. Now I can go out on the field with you."
"Congratulations then," Harry grinned, patting his godson's back.
"So when can I go?" Teddy asked eagerly.
"Right now, as a matter of fact," Harry said. "Ron and I were just about to head over to Russia to look through the house Claridina was using as a base. See if we can find anything."
"Brilliant!" Teddy said happily, his hair turning a vibrant red.
"We've just got to run something up to Hermione and then we can go," Harry said. "Come on, Ron."
"Since when were we going back to Claridina's place?" Ron asked as him and Harry headed towards the lift.
"Look, he's not going to stop until he gets to go somewhere in the field," Harry said. "And I'm not going to have that first time be during actual combat. He's just out of school."
"So were you when you got this job," Ron pointed out.
"Remus and Tonks asked me to keep him safe," Harry said. "He's an amazing wizard, I'm not denying that, but I'd just like him to get a bit more experience before he goes out for the real stuff."
"I suppose," Ron said. "But what makes you think Teddy won't tag right along the next time we get a sighting of Claridina? Harry, he wants to be an Auror."
"He can't go on things like that until he's a licensed Auror," Harry said. "Which he won't be until I'm done training him and he passes the test."
Ron nodded and dropped the subject.
"Any luck on identifying Claridina's workers?" Harry asked Hermione as they entered her office. Each one of the workers that had been caught that night in Moscow had been thrown in Azkaban. As Harry figured, none of them were talking. Interviews with Veritaserum were being scheduled, but in the mean time, the wands of the workers were all the Ministry had to go on.
"Let me guess, those wands were stolen as well," Ron said.
"No, it's not that," Hermione said. "They aren't registered. They weren't purchased at Ollivander's or from any other wand maker in Europe."
"Keep working on tracking them," Harry said. "Ron and I are off to search through the house in Moscow with Teddy."
"Really? When did you decide to do that?"
"It's a long story," Ron said.
"We were going to have to do soon anyway," Harry pointed out. "We caught her off guard that night, which means she didn't get a chance to clean up."
"That's true," Hermione nodded. "Well, good luck there. I'm going to see if I can find a record of any sort of Black Market on wands and see if I get anything…"
Harry and Ron headed back down to their office where Teddy was still waiting eagerly.
"We'll be apperating there," Harry told him. "You'll just side-along with me, since you don't know the exact location."
Teddy nodded.
The three walked down to the lobby, and Harry took Teddy's hand. With a loud pop, the party arrived in Moscow.
"Where is it?" Teddy frowned, looking around.
"This way," Ron said, walking over to a large empty space in the middle of the field they apperated into. "Hold out your hand."
Harry, Ron and Teddy held out their palms, as though they were reaching for something. At first, if felt as though they were touching a glass dome, but upon they're touch, it dissolved, and the cottage Claridina was using as a hideout materialized in front of them.
Harry and Ron led Teddy into the cottage. It was still messy from the initial attack. Papers were strewn about everywhere and furniture was overturned.
"You begin going through this room," Harry told Teddy. "Ron and I will be upstairs. Yell if you find anything."
"Got it," Teddy nodded.
"At least her arm still isn't here," Ron muttered as him and Harry entered the room where Harry had Claridina cornered. "I see that thing in my sleep, you know."
"She was in the middle of brewing something when I came in," Harry said, looking in the cauldron on the table. "Looks like Polyjuice potion."
"Nah, it's not thick enough," Ron said. "It's kind of watery."
"We'll bring it in," Harry said.
"This sort of makes you wish you paid attention in Potions, doesn't it," Ron grinned. He opened one of the desk drawers. "Hey, come look at this."
Harry looked over Ron's shoulder as he scanned a bit of parchment.
"Is that her will?" Harry frowned.
"Looks like it," Ron said. "Well, at least you got her spooked enough to start planning for her death."
"She's leaving her gold to her son," Harry read. "No surprise. I suppose she's leaving everything to him as well."
"No, look down here," Ron said. "It said that she's leaving her entire library and wand to someone else, but she only wrote their initials."
"A.M.D?" Harry read. "Who's that?"
"No idea," Ron said. "What is it with people and just leaving their initials? First we have the whole R.A.B fiasco now this?"
"Harry, Ron," Teddy said, running upstairs into the room with a handful of papers. "I-I think I found something."
He handed Harry the papers.
Harry felt his blood grow cold. "Ron," he said. "Take a look at this."
Ron took the papers from Harry. "Is-Is this a family tree?"
"Yes," Harry said. "The Riddle family tree."