Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 15

"The Ministry being after us is not very shocking," I admitted. "This is not the first time that they've been against us, and I'm certain now that You-Know-Who is back in full power that he's going to use every source he can to make sure that we're found so he can finish what he's started."

Neville took the Prophet next and began to flip through the paper while we discussed Voldemort's use of the Ministry when he interrupted us with some more unfamiliar news. While it didn't seem to shock Lupin, it was the first we were hearing about it.

"A Muggle-born Register?" Neville asked as he read from the newspaper.

"What is that?" Hermione asked as she stole the paper from Neville's hands.

"They want to sort out all of the Muggle-borns," Lupin sighed. "This has just started happening. It's You-Know-Who's way of seizing power away from the people who he has always considered beneath him from the start."

"It's absolute madness," Hermione said with a pale face as she read through the article. "They don't honestly believe that Muggle-borns stole magic, do they? This has to be some kind of joke."

"Unfortunately, it's not," Lupin said. "And I doubt that most people actually buy into this claim, but most of the prejudices against Muggle-borns come from the Death Eaters that have taken over the Ministry. People are terrified, and that makes the common person turn against the other because they don't know who else to blame. The Prophet and other Ministry officials have been talking about this enough that they've convinced some of the population that it's the Muggle-borns who are the problem."

Hermione shifted around uncomfortably in her seat as we talked about all of this. A system that concentrated on the discrimination of Muggle-borns by the Ministry of Magic was something that directly affected her entire existence. We were on the run, so it wasn't like she was going to be observed herself, but the mere existence of people like her was being put into question by the law enforcement that was already against us in the first place.

"That's not all I have to show you," Lupin told me as he reached for something else.

One of the other newspapers he was holding showed a more recent date, but that was not the first thing that caught my attention about this edition of The Daily Prophet.

Plastered on the front page was a photograph of Severus Snape. The photograph showed him in his usual dark attire with the same grim look on his face as he looked toward the various flashes from the cameras that all wanted his photograph for the huge news that was breaking the surface.

PROFESSOR SEVERUS SNAPE STEPS UP AS NEW HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS

I felt all the color draining from my face as my eyes continued to linger on his and I felt like everything was melting away from me. This man who I depended on for so many years had not only committed the murder of Albus Dumbledore right in front of my eyes, but he now sought to take over the school to ensure that he could hold control over Hogwarts in Voldemort's place until we were found. Nothing in the news article suggested this - not that I would have known this because my brain was so unfocused that I was not capable of reading any more words in the article after reading the headline with Snape's printed eyes looking back into mine. But this was undoubtedly what Snape sought to do to aid his master. He wanted us dead just like Voldemort and he was going to stand alongside him while he conducted his manhunt for us.

The rest of the group continued to talk about this, but I was too numb to be able to speak about it. Instead, I excused myself to the bathroom so I could gather myself without drawing too much attention to myself. As I exited the room, I considered how ridiculous I must appear to the others. It was no mystery that I had a good relationship with Snape while at Hogwarts, but I wondered if Harry and the others expected me to have come to terms with all of this by now. It had been months since his betrayal, but I still could not just accept that Snape had been on Voldemort's side the entire time. After all we'd been through, it was just too hard for me to accept.

Not only was this new piece of information weighing on my mind, but I now had to consider all of the danger that everyone around us was in now that we were officially missing in action. I seriously doubted that Voldemort expected us to just step onto the Hogwarts Express like it was any other year, but he was setting up his guards and trying to prepare for our every move. While I could keep my eyes on the people who elected to come with Harry and me, it was difficult to determine what could happen to any other person I knew. Even though I knew that it was better that he wasn't with me, I began to wish that George was with us now so I could know that he was safe. Every argument we had where I told him that he needed to keep his distance to stay safe seemed to fade away as I realized how much I was going to miss him now that there was a chance that I would never see him again. Not only him, but anyone I knew. Our existence was putting everyone in danger, and I could only hope that Voldemort and his Death Eaters didn't get a hold of any of them.

Rather than going back into the other room with everyone else, I decided to make some tea in the kitchen to busy myself while staying out of the conversation. Once I got the tea kettle going, I stood by the stove and listened to the quiet of the kitchen. I could still vaguely hear the others speaking in the other room, but they weren't loud enough for me to understand what they were saying. Only a few moments past before Neville walked into the room looking like he was searching for something when he caught my eye.

"Oh, I thought I heard you in here," Neville said as he stepped over to stand next to the stove. "Is everything okay?"

"It's fine," I sighed. "I just needed a moment. He was giving us a lot of information at once."

"That's fair," he admitted.

"Anything else new that I should know about?" I asked.

"They were just talking about the Death Eaters going to the Burrow after the wedding," Neville said. "They didn't find anything they wanted, and everyone was okay."

"Kingsley's warning must have given everyone time to get out of the area," I said as the tea kettle began to squeal.

My thoughts were immediately with the entirety of the Weasley family. The home that they have had for so many years had just been taken over by Death Eaters just because they knew that there was a chance that we could have been harbored there against the wishes of Voldemort. It dawned on me then that I could never go back there as long as Voldemort was alive because it would put every one of them in danger.

"Do you want some tea?" I asked.

"Sure," Neville said. "Are you sure everything's okay? Is this about Snape?"

"I said that I'm fine," I said a little too aggressively. "Not everything that bothers me is about him."

"Emily," he said quietly. "It's not a secret that it's bothering you. You don't need to be defensive about it."

"Severus Snape is not the only problem that we have right now," I said angrily. "Believe it or not, he is not the only person on my mind. We've just been dragged out of Burrow and we're on the run - we might not ever see some of these people again, and you honestly believe that he is the only problem that is on my mind."

"I know he isn't," he said. "Snape is not your only problem, but he seems to be the only problem that you feel like you cannot talk about."

"What do you want me to say, Neville?" I asked. "He was one of my best friends and now he wants us all dead. He wanted this all along - how exactly am I supposed to act?"

"I don't know," he told me. "Just…I know that we don't understand what you're going through with Snape, but just know that you can talk about it whenever you're ready. Holding it all in and thinking about it all the time isn't going to help you."

Just as he said that, I started to notice that voices were starting to be raised outside of the room we were in. Harry and Lupin were clearly arguing about something that was only getting louder with every word through Hermione's adamant protests. Neville and I set down the tea that we just made and quickly walked into the other room where we found Hermione crying as Harry and Lupin stood together with their faces in a twist and their wands drawn at each other as Ron held them apart.

"What is going on?" I demanded when I saw them.

"This prick wants to leave his child," Harry said through his teeth. "He wants to use us as an excuse to run away from his family."

"Don't you dare twist my words," Lupin yelled.

"Wait - your child?" I asked, trying to catch up. "Is Tonks pregnant?"

Hermione nodded and I looked back between Harry and Lupin with a new confusion. Lupin's face was gradually getting redder with each word that came out of his mouth and I realized that I had never seen him this angry since I had known him.

"And he is too terrified to deal with his life at home and thinks we'll be the perfect scapegoats," Harry seethed.

"I don't understand," I said looking at Lupin. "We would love your help, Lupin, but you should be with with your wife if she's pregnant - she needs you."

"Tonks will be fine," Lupin said without taking his eyes away from Harry.

"I'm sure that you all said that about our parents too, but look how that turned out," Harry said.

There was a brief moment of tense silence where they glared at one another when Lupin suddenly turned away from us all and left the house with a slam of the door. I don't know what I'd missed while I was out in the kitchen, but there had clearly been more to the conversation that I didn't understand. Instead of talking to me about it, Harry elected to exit the room and went barging up the stairs so he could be by himself.

"Where were you?" Hermione demanded suddenly of me. "You could have stopped him."

"Hermione, this isn't her fault," Ron said.

"How was I supposed to know that the conversation was going to end like that?" I asked. "I thought he was just here to keep us updated with what all has been going on."

Hermione and Ron the proceeded to fill Neville and me in on everything that led the the argument in the first place. From what I could gather, Lupin was sent running in our direction because he was terrified of what would happen to his unborn child because of his genetics that could potentially turn him into a werewolf as well. He was feeling guilty for putting that fate on someone else, and that ultimately led him to make a rash decision to flee the situation.

After Lupin's brief visit to the house, we awaited Kreacher's return with Mundungus Fletcher without any other solid strategy to move forward. This left us walking through the house aimlessly as we attempted to have short conversations about potential plans on what to do when the house elf return. It also helped to highlight how difficult this entire situation was going to be since Dumbledore gave us little to no guidance on where to go with all of this.

"I can't believe he didn't say anything," Hermione spoke to Neville and me in sitting room two days later while Harry and Ron rummaged around the house elsewhere.

"To be fair, I don't think he planned on having us do it all by ourselves," I told her.

"He did write it in his will," Neville said. "So he did think there was a chance."

This wasn't the first time that we would have a conversation about this, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. We were completely out of our depths and we could only dream of a situation where we came out on top at this point in our planning.

"So what does this mean for us if Mundungus has the locket?" Hermione asked me.

"It'll be another Horcrux down," I said. "But I'm not really sure where that'll bring us about what we could do afterwards."

"But what if he doesn't have it?" Neville questioned.

"Kreacher would have known who took this from this house," I told him. "He spends an awful amount of time keeping tabs on the little amount of possessions that he places value on in this house, and I seriously doubt he would have mistaken who took this. Besides, if Mundungus doesn't have it, then chances are he knows where it is now. He might not know the significance, but he knows that it looks like something that he could get quick money off of."

"I noticed that the pendant that you're wearing hasn't changed colors," Hermione pointed out. "Which could be a good sign with all of this."

"I suppose so," I said as I looked down at the piece of jewelry that I wore around my neck. "We are moving forward. I just can't think of where to turn to next no matter how this turns out."

"Dumbledore said that there are seven?" Neville asked.

"Right," I said. "And we already took care of the ring and the diary. Which leaves us with five more - four if this locket turns out to be the real thing."

"And they have to have value to the person who made them?" Hermione asked.

"In his case, they seem to be," I said. "The objects that he's chosen so far don't seem to be accidental."

From the other room, I heard a loud pop and some scuffling around the house. There was brief yelling and more loud bangs when I heard Harry's voice coming from the other side of the house as we all stood up in a panic. The portrait of Sirius's mother began to shriek nonsense as Mad-Eye's trap came out again. Once the false voice of Albus Dumbledore faded away, my brother called over to us.

"Emily!" Harry called. "Kreacher's here! Get in here!"

We all ran into the room where Ron and Harry were already standing and Kreacher stood by looking toward the man who we had seen not that long ago at Privet Drive who now looked more panicked than ever to see our faces.

"What the hell is going on?" Mundungus demanded. "Who sent this beast after me?"

"First of all, Kreacher isn't a beast," I spat toward him. "And we sent him after you because you've taken something of ours."

"I haven't taken anything!" Mundungus shouted as he cowered away from us.

"Oh, come on," Harry said. "We know that you took some stuff from Kreacher when you were last here. What have you done with it?"

"I didn't - " he started.

"Listen, you lying rat," I said as I pointed my wand at his head "You're lucky that we're the ones that found you after what you've done to Mad-Eye - so just answer our questions and we'll let you go."

"I didn't know what was going to happen to Mad-Eye," Mundungus said pitifully. "And I didn't take anything worth value here - "

With that remark, I noticed Kreacher jump up from behind us as he moved toward Mundungus with a twisted look on his face. He went to go hit him, but Ron and I quickly grabbed his sides to pull him off of the man to stop him from beating him over the head with his fists. Mundungus yelled in pain just as Ron and I attempted to pry Kreacher off of him.

"Kreacher - please stop!" I demanded right when we managed to pull him from the man.

"Get that thing away from me!" Mundungus spat.

With that remark, I looked over at the house-elf that was looking maliciously up at the man who he had just attacked.

"Just wait until we question him," I said. "Then I'll help you knock him out if he keeps it up."

For the first time, I saw Kreacher make a face that almost resembled a smile.

"Thank you, Mistress," he nodded.

"Now," Harry said turning our attention back to our investigation. "We know that you took some things from this house - don't bother denying it."

"What does it matter?" he demanded. "No one was using them anyway. Can I just leave now?"

"Just answer the questions and we'll let you go," Hermione said calmly.

"Did you happen to run across a locket?" I asked as I pulled the fake locket from my pocket. "It would look something like this."

"Yeah, what's it to you?" Mundungus asked.

"Do you still have it?" I continued.

"Well…." he mumbled.

"You sold it, didn't you?" Hermione asked.

"What is it worth?" he asked.

"Who did you sell it to?" Harry asked.

"I don't know who it was," he said defensively.

"What did he look like?" Ron asked.

"It was some woman," Mundungus said. "Said she worked for the Ministry."

I had a sinking feeling when I heard this. Any person in the Ministry had the chance of being under the control of Voldemort. Having their hands on anything that we needed placed it in a position where it was more at risk than it was to begin with to go after it.

"What did she look like?" Ron asked.

"Short woman…" he said. "Nearly blinded me with how much pink she was wearing."

"She didn't happen to look like a toad, did she?" Neville suddenly spoke up.

"You know what, she did," Mundungus said.

My heart felt like it came to a halt when I realized what Neville was asking. As if we weren't having trouble enough figuring out how we were going to get through this, the only Horcrux that we had a lead on was in the hands of Dolores Umbridge.

Thanks for reading!