The Unbreakable Vow
by
Ash Darklighter
It all belongs to JK Rowling and I thank her for her inspiration – There are no galleons to be made from me. This little story is my first Harry Potter fic. It is AU and of course comments are welcome. My thanks to Tad and Mona for their help.
Part 14
Diagon Alley was busier than it had been for some time - the weak autumn sunshine making the shops look more enticing than they had since Voldemort's return. But the mood of the witches and wizards scurrying from place to place was one of haste and fear.
"Oh, come on, Ron," Harry pleaded. "We don't have to go straight home." He was sick of being cooped up in Grimmauld Place. "A quick trip in past 'Quality Quidditch Supplies…" He let the tempting offer hang and knew that his red-headed friend would be hard pressed to say no.
"You'd better not say anything to Hermione," Ron warned. "She won't be pleased. We're to go to Auror Headquarters and then I have to accompany you back to Grimmauld Place before returning to The Burrow."
"Would I say anything?" Harry asked mock-innocently. "You are so under her thumb."
"I am not," Ron retorted and then blushed. "Okay, so I am…a bit."
Harry chuckled. He was embracing his inner Slytherin side with a vengeance. "I won't be alone because you'll be with me and I'll even wear my invisibility cloak. No one need know I'm even there. I'll be quite safe. They've got a new Nimbus model coming out. I want to see if it's as good as they say it is."
"A new Nimbus," Ron echoed. "Lead the way."
It was fortunate, Harry concluded as he threw his invisibility cloak over his head, that Quality Quidditch Supplies was very close to Madam Malkins. Just as he and Ron approached the door to the Quidditch shop, he spotted Lucius, Draco and Narcissa Malfoy waiting impatiently outside Madam Malkins.
"Ron," he hissed, glancing at his watch. It wasn't that he'd forgotten about Ginny's appointment. He just hadn't wanted to think about it. Had he subconsciously wanted to see Ginny today? "Get back."
His red headed friend had no heed of Harry's warning and glared at the Malfoy family from behind a display case of pewter cauldrons. "They' must be waiting for Ginny," he muttered. "Blimey, I didn't think they'd all stand outside the shop and wait for her like that. It's not very pure-blooded of them."
"They want to be seen. They're powerful enough not to be afraid of V…" Harry let out an irritated sigh at the look on his friend's face. "Oh, okay, Ron. You-Know-Who. Is that better? They're on his side. Until You-Know-Who is defeated we can't touch them."
Ron, shrugged, his face reddening.
"Go inside," Harry urged. "Hurry! We better not let them see us. Or rather," he muttered bitterly. "They better not see me. I shouldn't be within so many miles of your sister and Merlin forbid, in the same street. As if I would do anything to harm Ginny. It's not me that's harming her…"
"Harry…"
"Its okay, Ron." He took a deep breath, letting his anger drain away. "I'm sorry. Just go into the store and wait for me. I want to try and hear what they are saying."
"Why would you want to do that?"
"They're supporters of V…" Harry stopped at Ron's wince. "For the hundredth, millionth time, it's just a name, Ron. Get used to it. Voldemort," he said firmly. "The Malfoys may let some information slip. Yes, I know that it's unlikely but…"
"Five minutes, Harry," Ron warned. "We shouldn't be out in the open like this without Tonks or someone else from the Order with us."
"Yes, I know what the directives are. I'm not stupid, despite what Professor Dumbledore obviously thinks. There's nothing we can do at the moment anyway and this is not the time or place to challenge Malfoy. We wait until your sister's in real danger." His mouth turned down at the corners. "Which in my opinion, she is. Have you looked at the hands on your mum's clock recently? But Moody would tell us to choose our options wisely."
"Harry!" Ron groused. "I'm standing in the middle of Diagon Alley talking to myself!"
"Okay, okay!" he said irritably. "Five minutes." Moving closer to the Malfoy family, he could see the bored look on Draco's pale pointed face.
"She's late. Why did I have to come, Father?" Draco whined.
"To greet your betrothed," his mother answered, glancing at her wristwatch. "You will show her how fortunate she is allying herself to a better class of family."
Draco sneered. "I suppose that anything is better than being a Weasley. But I still don't understand why you couldn't you have let me marry Parkinson? She knows how a pure-blood witch should behave."
"Miss Weasley," Lucius drawled, "…will be shown the correct way to behave as befits the bride of the Malfoy heir."
'Not if I have anything to do with it,' thought Harry, his mouth firming, the tingling in his hand where he had Ginny had mingled their blood making itself felt. He clenched his hand into a fist. If he had his way, Ginny would never be the bride of the Malfoy heir.
"Why has the marriage to be brought forward?" Draco asked. "Pansy's not going to be pleased when she finds out."
"You told me your liaison with Miss Parkinson was at an end," said Lucius, his forehead creasing in a frown.
"It will be when she finds out that I'm getting married today," Draco muttered. "Why does it have to be today?"
"You know why," his father answered sternly.
The marriage was to be brought forward! Harry's heart stopped. 'Shit,' he thought. 'Today! They're going to get married today! But she still has three weeks left. They said that she had a month. I have to warn Ginny. How can I warn Ginny?' The thoughts tumbled around and around inside his head. 'She's got to get away immediately and I have to make myself scarce. Ron and I must be seen somewhere else.'
"A family wedding always aids those in the public eye," Lucius lectured stiffly. "The wizarding world will realise that our Lord is no threat to those who go about their lives in the proper fashion."
"Really," Draco said cynically. "Nothing to do with the rumours kicking around the Ministry that our Lord has somehow been severely…damaged."
"What do you know about those?" Lucius demanded, whirling abruptly to face his son.
"Nothing," Draco muttered sulkily.
"Our Lord is recuperating," Lucius declared. "He will call us to his side when he desires our counsel and services."
About to turn, collect Ron from the quidditch shop and get out of Diagon Alley, Harry froze in place at the sound of Draco's words. He was stuffed and he knew it. Someone had put all the pieces together and Harry suspected that it might have been Snape – the man was no fool. Snape would have informed Dumbledore of his suspicions. The headmaster would have then discussed the matter with Mad-Eye or Shacklebolt. He could just see the speed that such a rumour would spread to the Ministry and beyond.
He shouldn't underestimate Lucius Malfoy either. The man was clever, he would give him that.
Suddenly several faint pops were heard just metres away from Harry's position and Percy Weasley, Ginny and several Aurors appeared in front of the robe maker's establishment.
"Thank you, Auror Shacklebolt," he heard Ginny say. "I'm so glad that I had the chance to visit my mother today. You were so thoughtful making it possible and I know she appreciated it."
"You were supposed to be meeting Mrs Malfoy," snapped Percy, incensed that his family still wasn't taking his position in the Ministry seriously.
Ginny sent her brother a look of dislike. "I am about to meet Mrs. Malfoy. She is standing in front of you. Excuse me, Percy." She moved past her fuming brother and immediately swept into a deep curtsey. "Ma'am."
"Miss Weasley," Narcissa said stiffly. So the little blood-traitor had been taught the correct wizarding customs. It was unexpected. Perhaps this situation would turn out better than she had thought and the young witch would be suitable after all.
Percy swivelled sharply and immediately his voice took on a fawning, ingratiating tone. "Lucius, Narcissa."
"Weasley," the Malfoy patriarch said slowly in a tone that barely held tolerance. "I suggest we leave the ladies to their affairs while we discuss changes to the wedding arrangements."
"Is there a problem," Percy asked, his eyes narrowing.
Lucius bared his teeth in an approximation of a smile. "No, no problem."
"What is it," asked Ginny, narrowing her brown eyes suspiciously at Lucius. "Something's wrong?"
"Not at all, Ginevra," Draco declared, his eyes sparkling maliciously. "It's not a problem at all -merely a development."
"Shall we?" Narcissa extended her arm in a graceful arc towards the entrance of Madam Malkins. "We are expected."
Ginny blinked as her feet began to move reluctantly towards the door. For a moment, just over Lucius Malfoy's shoulder, she'd seen Harry's head appear and then disappear. Harry was under his invisibility cloak.
And in that one brief glimpse, he looked as if he was trying to tell her something important.
For the next hour Ginny spent her time being 'helped' into one bridal robe after another. Yet none of the robes appeared to please Narcissa Malfoy.
"No," the aristocratic witch said, shaking her blond head dismissively at the saleswitch. "This is the bride of the Malfoy heir. Not some tasteless half-blood or classless muggleborn. We need something appropriate which will indicate her new station in the wizarding world."
Ginny rolled her eyes and turned away. What had Harry been trying to tell her? It was then that she felt her hand throb - a sharp hot pain which disappeared as fast as it had appeared. When she glanced down at the palm of her hand, she found only the thin white scar. And then she understood. There was trouble ahead and without seeing Harry again she knew that it was time to go.
She hadn't expected to have to escape from a dress shop but it would be almost impossible to get away from The Burrow. She thought that the Aurors might still be outside waiting with Draco and Lucius but there were other witches and wizards going about their normal affairs and that could provide her with some sort of cover.
This reminded her of some of the lessons Harry had taught them whilst still at school as members of the Defence Association. Look at your surroundings and analyse where there might be weaknesses. She assessed the area in which she was standing. The large changing area was windowless with hooks for hanging up robes on one side and mirrors along the other two – a curtain stretched across the fourth. It would be difficult to vanish from here. She'd passed her apparition test but suspected that Percy may have asked for a non-apparition bubble to be placed around the shop. It was probably better that she escaped another way.
Slipping back on her mother's blue velvet dress, Ginny stepped out of the changing area and approached the saleswitch, enquiring if it might be possible to use the ladies room.
"Of course, dear. It's this way." The saleswitch chattered brightly as she pointed Ginny towards a door at the back of the shop. "Just go through there and you'll find that it's the third door on the left. You must be so excited about your wedding – a pity that in these troubled times it has to be so hurried."
"Hurried?" Ginny asked.
"Yes, Mistress Malfoy tells me that the ceremony is to be held later on today and that's why we have to find you the perfect bridal robes as quickly as possible. We've never let a young witch down yet, you'll see."
"Yes, thank you," Ginny muttered, her mind in a daze. The charm that had bound her and Harry together had warned her of trouble ahead, of that she was certain. Draco may have been a Slytherin born and bred but he certainly lacked the subtlety his house was supposed to possess. Add all this to Tonks and Kingsley's information earlier on that morning. "I'm sure you haven't let anyone down – the robes are beautiful. It's been almost impossible to choose."
"You'll be able to find your own way back to the changing area, Miss Weasley?" the witch asked kindly. "Mistress Malfoy would like to see you in that first set of robes again."
"Of course."
No time to think, she just had to slightly alter her plans. Getting out of here immediately was paramount. The only other way she would be leaving the shop would be escorted by the Malfoys, the Aurors and Percy, straight to the Ministry to be married.
Setting up the imperturbable and silencing charms were easy. Transfiguring her clothes into something more casual wasn't difficult either. Her marks in Charms and Transfiguration had always been good. She deduced that the lavatory was at the back of the shop and would lead out into a small lane. If she was lucky it would have a window big enough for her to get through and wasn't too heavily warded.
She was in luck – there was a window but it was quite small. She lifted her wand and performed the intricate movements that Harry had shown her would reveal any unusual warding on the building. There was none. Moving inside the tiny cubicle, she locked, and for good measure, warded the door.
There were only two more things to do and then she could get away. Thankfully, the first on her list was easy. She picked up her bag and found a small twist of paper. In it was a selection of small brightly coloured sweets. "Thank you, Fred and George," she mumbled fervently as she brought one to her lips and kissed it, before popping it inside her mouth. "Metamorph Munchies it is."
The ticklish feeling she'd experienced the night before as they'd tested the Weasley products at Grimmauld Place lasted as long as it took for her body to morph into shape. She had approximately between five and ten minutes before she would change back into herself if she was lucky. It was time to go and with her heart suddenly thumping loudly in her altered chest she took a deep breath. "Alohamora!" The catch on the window swung open. Ginny bit her lip. The window was quite small and it could take her time to wriggle through it – time that she simply didn't have. Circe, there was no time for subtleties. There was no going back on this one – nor did she want to. After making sure that the silencing charm was in place she held out her wand. "Reducto!" she shouted. And watched with satisfaction as the window and part of the wall blew out with chunks of brick and mortar flying everywhere, yet not a sound was heard. Moments later a small black-haired boy in baggy Muggle clothing slipped from the lane behind Madam Malkins and disappeared into the witches and wizards going about their business, past a group of waiting Aurors and one Percy Weasley.
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"But Harry, why do we have to go to the Ministry now? I thought you wanted to check out the new Nimbus. It's really something."
"I know but it's time you did this, Ron," he said as they moved from the floo into the Atrium. "Plus, I didn't want to be near Malfoy any longer. He makes me sick."
"I can understand that, Mate," agreed Ron. "He's going to be my brother-in-law."
'Not if I can help it', thought Harry darkly.
Ron ducked to avoid a swooping paper memo as it flittered crazily across the atrium. "But we've been here already today. It was great working with Moody but I can only take so much. That eye…"
"Gives me the willies, too but he's good at what he does, if a bit paranoid." Harry gave a look of dislike at the restored Fountain of Magical Brethren. They still hadn't got the statue of the house elf right. However, the goblin appeared more lifelike than before and was gazing out at the passers by with sneering disdain.
"Time for what?" his redheaded friend asked.
Harry thought fast and said quietly, "Your apparition test." He couldn't believe such a convenient…perfect excuse had suddenly entered his head.
Ron scowled. "I can apparate."
"I know you can apparate and everyone else knows that you can do it. But you have this block inside your head when you have to do it during your actual apparition test and therefore you don't have the little piece of parchment that gives you the right to apparate anywhere you want to. So we're doing it now. Or to be correct, you're doing it and I'm going to wait outside."
"But Harry…"
"And when you've passed you can go home and tell Hermione. She'll be really pleased." Merlin, Harry decided that his Slytherin side was currently working overtime.
They both moved automatically into the line to get their wands checked and Harry, as usual, ignored the eyes of the wizard checking their wands when it automatically flicked up to the scar and away again. The whispers would start that Harry Potter was in the Ministry and then Fudge and possibly Scrimgeour would make an appearance. It was almost predictable, he thought. Perhaps he hadn't been so bad at Divination after all. But it might be enough to act as an alibi if Ginny did her disappearing act. He knew Ginny had seen him outside Madam Malkins and he'd felt the tiny throb through the scar in the palm of his hand. He trusted her to know when it was the right time to go.
They took the lift up to the apparition testing centre and Harry pushed Ron towards the witch at the desk. Her eyes flicking briefly to the scar and away much as the others had. "This is my friend, Ron Weasley," he stated clearly.
She checked her list and frowned. "Ron Weasley?"
"That's me," Ron said hoarsely.
"I'll wait for you out here," Harry said, giving him a push. "You go in."
"He's not…" the witch began to say and then stopped as Harry gave a minute warning shake of his head. Sometimes it did help being 'Harry Potter'. "Yes," he said brightly. "He is extremely nervous, but he'll be fine. I have every confidence in him."
"Thanks, Harry." Ron gave a nervous grin and disappeared through a set of double doors ahead.
"He's not on the list, Mr. Potter," the witch hissed quietly.
"I know but couldn't you just slip him onto today's list for me? I told you the truth. He gets so nervous. He only left his eyebrow behind him the last time he failed. I thought if it was a surprise then he might do better. No time to get so worked up…"
"Oh," the witch said. "That's very considerate of you, Mr. Potter." And with a tap of her wand Ron's name immediately appeared upon the list and also presumably on the examiner's timetable.
"Call me Harry," he murmured with as charming a smile as he could muster under the circumstances. He could already hear Fudge's voice as it came along the corridor. Yes, perhaps he should have done better in Divination. It was a gift possessing the inner eye. He stifled a snort of laughter. He'd just achieved exactly the result he'd wanted and he now had to deal with it.
"Aah, Harry!" the ex-Minister said a little too brightly. He'd lost his position as Minister not long after the fight in the Department of Mysteries for Harry's prophecy, but had remained in the government and had been awarded a post as one of the senior advisors for the new Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour.
"Fudge," Harry said curtly.
"We didn't know that you'd be visiting us today, Harry," Fudge said genially.
Harry looked at the portly man in his striped cloak, without smiling. "I'm not visiting you," he said bluntly. "I'm here with Ron Weasley. He's taking his apparition test today." Harry smiled kindly at the reception-witch. "Miss…" he quickly read her nameplate. "Miss Melinda Arrowroot has been most helpful."
Fudge ignored the witch, his entire focus on Harry. "But you'll have time to come and have a little chat with myself and Rufus?"
"No, I have to get back…home. Things to do," Harry said shortly.
"Like…?"
"It's really none of your business, Minister," Harry replied firmly. "What I do should not concern you."
"I'm not the Minister these days," Fudge said with what he assumed was a jovial expression on his face but all he succeeded in doing was making himself look totally disgruntled and rather peevish. "Rufus is the Minister for Magic now and he wants to work with you just as much as I did."
"By calling me a liar and not believing anything I said?" Harry arched an eyebrow in a manner reminiscent of Snape. "Interesting."
"Now, Harry…"
The swing doors opened and a jubilant Ron hurried through clutching a piece of parchment. "I passed. Harry, I passed. My eyebrows survived intact this time."
"Wonderful," Harry said, a smile lighting up his face. "Hermione will be thrilled. Let's get out of here. We can apparate home. Good day Minister Fudge…Oh, sorry, Advisor Fudge. I have no desire to discuss matters with Minister Scrimgeour today or any day." He turned his best smile on the reception-witch. "Thank you for your help, Miss Arrowroot. You were most kind."
Ron glanced at Harry and then at Fudge deducing that his friend did not want to talk to the man any longer He also knew that Harry was past being polite to Fudge's successor either. The days when Ron was impressed by the former Minister were long gone. "Come on, Harry. The apparition point is just along here. I can't wait to see Hermione's face when she finds out that I passed."
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