'len wilnun daiin osanjo ziinlit'
"Why are you mad at me now?" Harry asked as he and Theodore collected water the following morning.
"Are being foolish." Theo answered shortly.
"Maybe, I am." Harry told him sternly. "But if he showed up I'd still have my wand up. I wouldn't trust him on my assumptions alone."
"Good to hear." Theo growled.
"I don't want to fight." Harry stopped him from leaving. "Please...I...there's too many good things that just happened for us to be fighting already."
Theo's anger immediately washed off his face and Harry saw a tinge of guilt and shame enter his eyes before they were masked. "Am sorry, Harry. Just worry about you...a lot...and I don't want you...can't bare the thought of...you being tricked...of you getting hurt...of the same thing happening to you that happened to Dumbledore..." His voice had become very wet and he cleared his throat. "Would kill me, Harry."
Setting down the jug, Harry reached out to pull Theo's face to his own and kissed him.
By the time he pulled away, Theodore was in tears, but he quickly turned to mask this and Harry didn't comment as he composed himself.
"Harry!" Cedric called from the tent and they both turned to see him waving them over, a book in hand. "I've got something here you might want to read before someone tells you and it comes as a shock!"
What Cedric wanted him to read, Harry wished he had never read. Dumbledore had been anti-Muggle and had been best friends with Grindelwald, a dark wizard rivaled in power and evilness only by Voldemort. He felt sick and disturbed and angry. Everything he believed about Dumbledore seemed to crash around him. Had he been wrong? Had he really known nothing? Had Dumbledore really been evil?
"Looks like his opinion changed." Theo said calmly, flipping through Skeeter's book to the page with the picture of the letter. He took one look at it and closed it quickly to set it on the table. "Must have had some kind of falling out."
Harry picked up the book, but Theodore snatched it from him. "Hey..."
"Think you've read enough of this." Theo said, standing and reaching for his bag. "Look upset enough."
Harry took the book back before Theodore could drop it into the bag and he stepped out of reach of the other boy while Cedric watched with interest, but silence. It took him only a moment to find the page with the letter and glance over it. Then...
"It's that symbol again." Harry said, staring at Dumbledore's name where the "A" had been replaced with the strange mark. Cedric leaned over to look at it, but offered up no explanation other than, "I've seen that on Mr. Lovegood. He wears it on a chain."
"That's it." Harry sighed, clapping the book shut. "We need to figure out what that means. It's clearly important. It keeps popping up! Lovegood. The grave. The book...and now here."
"Perhaps Dumbledore would have said something about it if he thought it was so important." Theo pointed out in a bored tone that Harry recognized too well. Theodore was hiding what he was really feeling. "Mentioned other things, didn't he?"
"He didn't have time to tell me everything." Harry stated sternly, knowing better than to call Theo out on his bluff, but he was definitely anxious now. "And somethings he couldn't pass on either, like the sword. Maybe this is one of those things. He left us clues for a reason."
"Think he'd be more direct than normal considering he's relying on all of this to destroy the Dark Lord." Theodore tried again, clearly wanting to persuade Harry from pursuing this endeavor.
"He also had to be careful so that this information didn't leak out to the wrong person." Harry insisted. "Because if the Dark Lord knew what we were up to, he'd make it even harder to complete. He'd hide everything even better."
"He has a point." Cedric tried.
"Shut up." Theodore glared at him. "Don't even know what we're talking about."
"We should go see Mr. Lovegood." Harry said and Theo stiffened.
"What good..."
"He'll know what this symbol means." Harry didn't let Theo finish. "It'll be the first lead we've had since the sword."
"Doesn't sound like a bad idea." Cedric said, earning himself another glare from Theo.
But Theo was outnumbered and without a legit reason not to go. Sighing, he consented. They'd leave in a couple days, giving Theo time to rest from his trip for the Dark Lord and Harry time to organize his thoughts and the questions building inside him. Sadly, he wasn't thinking about Horcruxes.
Why was Theodore being so obstinate? Why wasn't he being helpful and trying to figure this all out with Harry? Harry didn't think for even a second that Theodore was working for the Dark Lord, but there were moments when it sure felt like it. Theodore clearly didn't like seeing progress. He didn't want Harry to complete this task. He was trying to stop what they were doing? Why though? It didn't make sense.
Why would Theodore not want the Horcruxes destroyed?
The trip to Lovegood's proved disastrous. Finding it had been easy since Cedric lived not far from the Lovegoods and had a general idea where it was. Theodore had disguised himself as Hermione Granger (he seemed to have acquired hair from many different people during their stay at the Burrow) and, when Lovegood had called Death Eaters to the House, Hermione-Theo and Harry had been seen by the Death Eaters while Cedric hid beneath the Invisibility Cloak.
They were now safely away and Harry was enraptured by the idea of the Deathly Hallows. He was sure that the Resurrection Stone was in his Snitch and that his cloak was the Invisibility Cloak from the story and that he was a descendant of the Peverell family. Theo seemed to think this was all plausible, but Cedric was adamant that the story was just that: a story. They ignored him and began to discuss how to acquire the final Hallow: the Elder Wand. It was probably the easiest of the Hallows to trace because of its long and bloody history, which had been seen throughout time. Cedric left them to it, muttering about how he didn't see how this was going to stop the Dark Lord.
It wasn't until they all lay down to get some much needed rest that Harry realized he had fallen into Theodore's trap. Theodore didn't want to find Horcruxes and the Hallows presented him with an excellent opportunity to sidetrack Harry without it looking like he was. It took Harry forever to fall asleep as he thought this over. If Theodore was really trying to sidetrack him, maybe it was all the more important for Harry to focus on Horcruxes...right?
They kept moving over the next few days, too nervous to stay in one place, especially after such a narrow escape from the Lovegood house. He fretted over the Deathly Hallows, listened to Theodore seemingly obssess over them and dragging Harry with him, and also to Cedric trying to get a particular channel on the radio.
"I've got it!" Cedric called them over. "I've found it! Password was 'Albus'! Get in here, Harry!"
"...apologize for our temporary absence from the airwaves, which was due to a number of house calls in our area by those charming Death Eaters."
"Who's that?" Harry asked, with pinched brows. "Sounds familiar."
"Lee Jordan." Cedric said quickly.
"...now found ourselves another secure location and I'm pleased to tell you that two of our regular contributors have joined me here this evening. Evening boys!"
"Hi."
"Evening, River."
"Lee's nickname." Cedric explained briefly.
"But before we hear from Royal and Romulus." Lee went on. "Let's take a moment to report those deaths that the Wizarding Wireless Network News and Daily Prophet don't think important enough to mention. It is with great regret that we inform our listeners of the murders of Ted Tonks, Dirk Cresswell."
Harry's heart leaped up into his throat.
"A goblin by the name of Gornuk was also killed. It is believed that Muggle-born Dean Thomas, Muggle-born Hermione Granger, a boy by the nickname Beagle (as we can't give away his identity here) and a second goblin, all believed to have been traveling with Tonks, Cresswell, and Gornuk, may have escaped. If Dean or Beagle are listening, or if anyone has any knowledge of their whereabouts, their families are desperate for news."
He went on about a Muggle family found dead and of a dead Bathilda Bagshot before they took a moment of silence.
"Thank you," Lee's voice broke the hush. "And now we turn to regular contributor Royal, for an update on how the new Wizarding order is affecting the Muggle world."
Royal, who was Kingsley, urged wizarding families to help protect their neighboring Muggles as best as they could to be protected from the Dark Lord and his followers. Romulus, who was Lupin, spoke next. He was insistent that Harry was alive and he encouraged Harry to follow his instincts, which were good and nearly always right. Harry glanced at Theodore, who had blanked his features determinedly. Lee informed them further that Xenophilius Lovegood was currently in Azkaban and that Hagrid was in hiding in the mountains for holding a "Support Harry Potter" party at Hogwarts. Fred came on and gave them information about the "Chief Death Eater" (the moniker caused Theodore to give a yelp of a laugh that was both amused and frightened), who was using his elusiveness and mystic as a way to strike fear and gain a level of control over everyone. Finally, they signed off and Cedric turned to Harry, grinning.
"Good, huh?"
"Brilliant." Harry agreed.
"Not bad..." Theodore consented. "Though they could think of better nicknames."
"Made you laugh." Cedric snorted.
Theodore turned to Harry, "Did you hear what Weasley said? He's abroad. He's still looking for the Wand."
"Certainly sounded like it." Harry agreed, but Cedric was shaking his head in disbelief.
"You two are unbelievable! I don't see how getting a new wand is going to stop Vol..."
"NO!" Theo yelped.
"...demort..."
"The name is TABOO!" Theodore roared, rising to his feet as a loud crack sounded outside the tent. "Protego Tota..."
"Come out of there with your hands up!" A rasping voice interrupted him and Theodore reached for his bag, knowing he was too late. "We know you're in there! You've got half a dozen wands pointed at you and we don't care who we curse!"
Theodore had drank the Polyjuice Potion in a moment's time, but he didn't have time to grab a new one and pass it to Harry. A second later, he had cast a spell at Harry's face, stinging him.
They were dragged outside, Cedric, Hermione-Theo, and Harry to find Fenrir Greyback and a group of Snatchers. Things had gone very bad very quickly.
Translation: 'You made my dreams true'. :)