Her wand returned to the holster as she stepped into the back room of the large, though aging shop. Borgin and Burke held a lot of items of questionable repute, she could see that from the shelves, yet she'd found nothing within its walls that was truly illegal. Harry had been correct, Burke was careful when it came to his dealings, leaving out enough things to taunt the Aurors but not enough for them to step foot into his establishment with any regularity.
Fleur frowned. She felt guilty for using Harry the way she had, pretending to have no knowledge of Knockturn and Burke to see what he'd reveal. Their lunch had been fantastic, and they were planning on seeing each other again soon, but the voice in the back of her head had spoken to her the entire meal, chastising her for the deceit.
She justified it by telling herself if Harry knew why he wouldn't have a problem with it.
Now was not the time to get distracted, she thought, shaking her head. It had been child's play getting into the building. Burke may have set up an extensive amount of wards, but nothing she hadn't dealt with before. Many of them were old, likely erected when the business was established and never maintained properly. She smiled at the thought.
Her biggest ally in everything she'd done had been time and laziness.
It was shocking to her how few people really knew how to maintain wards. Most were under the misguided assumption that you set a ward and that was the end of it. That line of thought led to ward decay, especially if there was no runestone to anchor the wards to. You need to maintain and re-strengthen your wards, keep your runestone in good condition, otherwise you give people like Fleur the opportunity to do what they do best.
Not that she was complaining.
She quickly began going through the filing cabinets, slightly impressed by how orderly Burke kept his records. Everything was arranged alphabetically by year, making it easy to go through. She found nothing in the cabinets, Though his own records had all the hallmarks of the store being a front for something else. Harry was right, Burke knew he was skirting a line with perfection and he had no problems showing the Ministry that he was well aware of that fact.
An additional ward on the desk in the far corner caught her eye as she moved to it. She unholstered her wand and began waving it in a practiced motion. In her experience, specific locations within a building that had their own wards were either important or decoys. He wand pulsed rapidly as it provided her the necessary information. It was a crude spell on the desk, a simple sparking ward that would ignite the contents within if crossed. She detected no fail safes or trickery. Likely cast with haste as someone was leaving.
Sloppy work. Trivially easy for her to get through.
With the ward bypassed she rummaged through the desk, going over various papers until she paused on one specific page dated a week back. It was a receipt for an old Egyptian artifact she recognized. It had been in the manifest from one of the locations she'd tracked back in France. There was a small handwritten note at the bottom.
Nott's group is getting impatient regarding the remaining items, specifically the ashes. They're meeting soon and want an update. Said their boss is unhappy and has asked if they need to get involved personally. Bought myself time.
She stepped away from the desk and reactivated Burke's ward, making sure to include the subtle flaws she'd found while testing it. She repeated the process for the main wards as she retraced her steps out of the building. Luc would want to see what had been found, but that could wait until the morning. She looked around and saw no one milling about. She readjusted her hood and, with a slight smirk, popped away with no noise.
Another success for the Shadow.
.
.
Harry sighed and his shoulders tensed as he walked through the entrance to Knockturn, the natural light of the adjoining Alley quickly leaving. He spotted Burke standing in the doorway to his shop, arms folded across his chest in anger. The man was unpleasant to interact with on a good day, so he was sure to be a joy today. As Harry got closer the older man's eyes narrowed and he huffed.
"About damn time you showed up," he said, "Fat lot of good you are."
Harry sighed again.
"Good morning, Mr. Burke. You reported a break in?"
"What gave it away?" Burke replied sarcastically. "Could it have been the fact that I've been standing here waiting for you? You sure took your sweet time making your way over."
"Mr. Burke," Harry tried to keep his voice level, though his temper was rising. "You reported the break in less than an hour ago. The last time you reported a break in you accused the Auror who responded of committing the theft themselves."
"I did no such thing you filthy liar!" Burke said indignantly, uncrossing his arms and standing up to his full height. He was shorter than Harry, and not a true threat, but also not one to fully relax around. The shorter man waved a finger into Harry's face. "You Aurors will say anything!"
Harry glared down at him.
"Mr. Burke, I was the responding Auror last time, so I know damn well what you said. Now, are you going to let me investigate your break in or do you intend to keep throwing a fit in front of your shop? If it's the latter please let me know, I've got far better things to do with my time than babysit a grown man."
The bluster left the slimy man and he turned around swiftly, muttering under his breath about useless Aurors as they moved into the shop. Silently, Harry cursed Burke for being a pain in the arse. Stepping in, he expected to find broken items and shelves. Overturned potions and doors hanging by their hinges. The typical scene of a breaking in.
What he found was a shop in pristine condition.
Well, as pristine as Borgin and Burke got.
Which was to say, all the dirt and grime was exactly where it usually was.
They walked all the way to the back of the shop before Burke stopped in the doorway to the connecting room, spinning around and glaring at Harry.
"See? Someone broke in!"
Harry raised an eyebrow.
"How can you tell?" he asked.
"How can I tell?" Burke repeated in disbelief. "I just know!"
Harry pinched the bridge of his nose and counted to ten. Burke was a reasonable man, shady, but reasonable, yet he wondered if perhaps the man was having some sort of episode. There was no sign of a break in at first glance, though appearances could be deceiving. He looked around again, stepping between the various shelves and inspecting them, hands clasped firmly behind his back lest he be accused of stealing. Finally, after finding nothing, he returned to Burke.
"Mr. Burke, do I have your permission to cast some diagnostic spells on your wards? They will not tell me the nature of your wards, simply provide me details on if they have been breached or not."
The man nodded and waved dismissively. Harry took that as confirmation and began casting a few spells, waving his wand towards the four corners of the main shop space. His wand tip glowed green, then pulsed blue, before finally returning back to green. He looked back at Burke.
"Do you have a runestone?"
"What kind of question is that?" responded Burke. "Of course I've got a damn runestone!"
"Have you inspected it for damage?" Harry asked.
"Of course I have you dimwit. It was the first thing I did when I arrived. It's in perfect condition."
Harry gestured around the shop.
"Mr. Burke, I'm not finding anything that indicates there's been a break in. The wards are not giving any indication that they've been breached, and your items all seem to be in…perfect condition."
Burke gestured for him to follow and Harry joined the man in the back room. He looked up at Harry impatiently before gesturing down at the desk in the far corner of the room.
"See?" he said, pointing again to the desk, "someone was in here!"
Harry looked around the room. It was a standard office room, a row of shelves lined the back wall containing various books, though none jumped out at Harry as particularly noteworthy. One of the other walls had a row of filing cabinets along it, likely where Burke kept all his business records. The desk that the man was pointing at was littered with loose sheets of parchment, no particular sorting or reason to their placement.
"What am I looking at here?" asked Harry.
Burke sighed as if he were speaking with a child. Harry resisted the urge to growl, his impatience at the man growing with each passing minute.
"These papers are in a completely different order than they were yesterday when I left."
Harry tilted his head to the side.
"What order is that? It just looks like a bunch of papers scattered across the desk."
"That's exactly it!" Burke said, snapping his fingers. "They were scattered in a different order when I left yesterday."
Harry dropped his head and exhaled slowly. He was convinced that Burke was having some sort of medical incident.
"Mr. Burke, I can't investigate anything based on papers being scattered differently," he explained.
"And why exactly not?"
"There's no indication of a break in here, Mr. Burke," Harry repeated with a sigh. "The shop is in perfect condition, your wards are fine, and you checked the runestone when you arrived. This room looks to be in order. I can't help you, Mr. Burke."
"Typical," Burke spat, "I don't even know why I wasted my time. What good are you lot if you can't even help a business owner who has had their privacy invaded? Hmm?"
Harry turned around and began walking out, sending a wave behind him as he passed through the shop.
"Have a nice day, Mr. Burke. Perhaps take the day off, you seem stressed."
He walked quickly out of the building and didn't slow his pace until he was back in Diagon Alley proper, letting out a slow exhale as the sun hit his face. He hated Knockturn, not for its content like many thought. There were legitimate businesses operating in its confines, mostly from people who just wanted to ply their craft or sell their wares. No, he hated Knockturn for the lack of light and the way it brought his mood down.
Reaching into his robes he pulled out the small mirror.
"James Potter."
After a few seconds the image of his father appeared.
"How'd the check in go?" James asked, peering at him through the mirror.
He'd insisted that Harry bring the mirror with him to Knockturn, a compromise for letting him go alone though Harry had argued against it. He'd always hated the fragile mirror, mostly because he had the sneaky suspicion it could open the connection without acknowledgement. As such, he always felt like someone was spying on him when he carried it. Unfortunately, he understood his fathers concern. An Auror should never go into Knockturn alone.
"Pretty sure Burke is losing his mind," he replied with a sigh. "No sign of anything missing, no property damage, nothing that would indicate someone was there."
James raised an eyebrow. "You check the wards?"
"Did I check the wards?" Harry repeated. "Do I look like a rookie? Of course I checked the wards."
"I'm just making sure," the elder Potter replied with a chuckle. "So what triggered the call?"
"The papers on his desk were rearranged."
Silence.
"I'm sorry, I think the mirror might have had an issue," James said with disbelief, "it sounded like you said the papers on his desk were rearranged."
"Yeah, like I said, I'm pretty sure he's going senile. Or he's working on something super illegal and someone's got him spooked. Maybe it's not going all to plan?"
"Eh, that's just guessing at this point, though Dawlish and Tonks do think they can connect him to another investigation soon, if not directly then indirectly," James explained. "Are you coming back to the office?"
Harry shook his head.
"No, I'm headed to the bank. I've got to do my monthly check-in with our Ministry liaison."
"Right, that stupid Ministry/Goblin enrichment program." After a moment James smiled. "Are you perhaps planning to liaison with another Gringotts employee after?"
"I'm dropping the mirror off with Fred and George before I head into the bank. Tell Sirius he can come get it himself."
"What? Why?" protested James.
Harry rolled his eyes.
"Because I hate this stupid thing and I don't need you listening in on my conversations, regardless of who I'm liaising with."
Harry killed the connection and slipped the mirror back into his robes. James Potter was a talented Auror and a fantastic dad, but he had an annoying habit of being able to guess Harry's intentions when it came to dating. He did plan to see Fleur after speaking with the goblins, she'd invited him to see her work a few times and this morning had proven to be the perfect opportunity to stop in and surprise her. He was curious, after all.
He tried to ignore the feeling of her lips on his that passed over him as he walked towards the joke shop.
.
.
Harry strolled down the hallway of the bank, quietly whistling as he did. The Minister had created a new initiative several years ago to "improve the relationship between goblins and humans in the magical world." Harry had, somehow, ended up being selected to be the Ministry liaison to the bank. He wasn't sure what he had done in a previous life to be subjected to this, though he suspected someone in the Minister's office didn't like him.
Regardless, his responsibility as liaison consisted solely of meeting with his goblin counterpart once a month and, for the most part, trading insults for a few minutes before leaving. He smiled as he reached his destination, knocked twice, and entered without waiting for a reply.
The goblin behind the desk scowled at him as he entered.
"Will you ever learn proper manners, Potter?"
Harry smiled.
"Come on Ironshield, I'm your favorite wizard and you know it."
"Bah," the goblin said, curling his lip in disgust. "You're a pain in my ass and a nuisance."
Harry held his hand over his heart.
"That hurts, my friend. I thought we were really starting to get to know each other. I was even going to invite you to my next birthday party."
"Is there a reason you're bothering me?" Ironshield demanded.
"The Ministry just wants to check in to see if there is anything the goblin nation needs that we can be of assistance with?"
"Can you never darken my door again?" the goblin said, looking up over his half moon glasses.
"Afraid not, my friend. My hands, like yours, are tied," said Harry with a smirk of amusement.
"Then leave."
Harry remained where he was, hands clasped behind his back. He knew Ironshield had, like him, been forced to take this position by his superiors, though he doubted very much that the goblin got as much fun out of it as he did.
Ironshield looked back up and scowled.
"Why are you still here?"
Harry rolled his eyes.
"Ironshield, you know I can't leave until you ask if I can help. It's in the contract signed by our respective governments. Wouldn't want to be in breach of contract."
A distinct growl could be heard.
"Can the goblin nation be of assistance to the Ministry in any way?" Ironshield ground out.
Harry nodded.
"Yes, actually." Harry smiled. That got the cranky goblins attention. "Where is your curse breaking division?"
Ironshield raised an eyebrow.
"Around the corner, second door on your right. Why?"
Harry shrugged.
"A friend recently transferred here, thought I'd pay her a visit."
Ironshield's eyes lit up.
"Then by all means, go bother Ms. Delacour, please."
Harry nodded his head and stepped out of the office, not surprised that Ironshield knew who he was talking about. He suspected every goblin in the building was aware of any new human employees that made their way to the bank. He had seen a gradual shift over the years as more human employees had been brought into positions within the walls of the building. As he made it to the door of the curse breaking division he wondered if that was a product of demand or simply not enough goblins to fill rolls that weren't out in the field.
He opened the door quietly, not wanting to disturb anyone or break their concentration, though he had no idea what awaited him on the other side. Not a lot, it turned out, as he stepped into a wide room with workbenches along all walls. Various tools and measuring devices, big and small, littered the tops of the benches. Hanging above all the workbenches were bookshelves, completely stuffed with tombs of various sizes.
In the center of the room was another, smaller workbench, though there was no clutter on it. A single book lay open below what looked like a necklace suspended in the air by an odd pink mist. Next to the workbench stood Fleur, brow creased as she chewed on her thumbnail, apparently deep in concentration. She wore a brown apron over her robes and her hair had been tied back in a messy bun. She looked down at the book, completely unaware of the door opening.
"Knock, knock," he said to catch her attention.
She looked up and a smile spread across her face.
"Harry? What are you doing here?" she asked before her smile was replaced by confusion. "Are you allowed to be back here?"
He shrugged.
"I had a meeting with Ironshield. He kicked me out and told me to come bother you."
She smiled again as she walked over to him and gave him a brief hug.
"He can be a bit…gruff, can't he?"
"Sirius thinks that all goblins are incredibly pleasant to be around when they're born but are taught from an early age to perfect the grumpy yet dismissive attitude they all share," Harry said, looking past her towards the floating necklace. "I figured I'd come see where you spend your days. You always talk about how much it relaxes you so I thought I should check it out."
He gestured towards the necklace.
"Anything interesting?"
She nodded and returned to the workbench, motioning for him to follow.
"Yes, very, though I'm not sure how interesting you'll find it," she said as they stopped in front of the floating necklace.
"You'd be surprised what I've got floating around in my head," Harry teased, tapping his index finger against his temple. "It's not all quidditch and pranks up here."
"This is a piece that was found at a dig site in northern Africa," she explained, pointing down to the book. He looked down and saw that it was a tomb of old African magic. "I'm trying to determine how old it is."
"Why does age matter?"
She gave him a smirk.
"Because it's cursed."
Harry laughed and nodded.
"Right, stupid question," he admitted. "So, you're trying to determine the age so you can see about lining it up with prominent curses from that time period?"
Her eyes lit up at his words and he couldn't help but smile as the excitement in her eyes was almost infectious.
"Exactly! If I can just figure out how old it is then usually I can find a way to break the curse on the object."
Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Why'd they have to bring it here? Couldn't they have broken the curse in the field? I figured that's why you were out in Egypt with Bill, yeah?"
She shook her head.
"Non. Egypt is unique in that there are far more cursed objects found versus any other sites in the world. So, instead of just having an excavation team and then a curse breaking team at the bank, Gringotts combines them and sends the curse breakers with the excavation team. It cuts down on the time it takes to process new pieces."
He nodded.
"That makes sense. You've got so much being found that it just slows down the machine. I'm guessing everywhere else in the world just sends their pieces to the local branch?" he asked.
She nodded. Harry could see the pride in her face and a smile spread on his face once more. He'd never spoken to someone who had so much passion for what they did. Who was so excited by their line of work. Even people who loved what they did, like his mum and dad, never spoke of their work with such enthusiasm.
It was honestly kind of refreshing to him.
"Oui. Though there is a branch closer to where this piece was found, they sent it here for me to look at."
"Oh?" he asked. "Why's that?"
Fleur smiled sheepishly.
"I have a reputation for getting results. Most of the pieces I work on are from other branches around the world."
Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise. He hadn't been aware that Fleur was such a known entity in the curse breaking circles. She'd always struck him as someone who was good at what they did, but he wasn't aware of just how good she was.
"Am I in the presence of a real-life celebrity?" he teased, nudging her elbow with his as he looked at her with a smirk. "Should I ask for your autograph?"
She swatted him lightly.
"None of that," she dismissed before going back to the book and turning a page. "Bill is, in all honesty, a better curse breaker than I am."
"Yet he's still in Egypt and you're here, which is a promotion from what you've told me."
Fleur shrugged casually, but he could tell that she was being modest.
"I have a certain…tenacity to my work. Bill has an uncanny ability to break curses with ease, but doesn't have the patience for things that might take longer. Give me the right tools and a stack of books and I'll hand back an uncursed object in time."
Harry gestured towards the necklace.
"So, what's this one's story?"
She shrugged again.
"I don't know," she admitted. "They found it in a dig in Africa and it had a pretty nasty reaction to the first breaker who tried to remove the curse. It's been dangerous to touch since then."
Harry raised an eyebrow.
"So what's the weird pink mist? I've never seen anything like it."
She smiled, though he would classify it more as beamed.
"A bit of magic of my own design."
"Merlin's balls," Harry said as his mouth fell open, "you know how to create your own spells?"
She laughed and nodded.
"Some spells and charms, yes. I've got a mastery in charms, actually. It sometimes becomes necessary to bring in a new spell or charm to the process. Like this one." She gestured towards the mist. "The mist holds the object up without magic directly touching it. The last time magic touched this object it blasted the person two metres back. Though I think I've just about solved that issue."
She pulled her wand from the apron and began moving it in a small circle, muttering under her breath as she did. She briefly glanced back down at the page before making a triangle with her wand and then jabbing it at the necklace. The object glowed a soft, pale green before pulsing orange. After pulsing for several moments the light faded and Fleur reached out and grabbed the necklace, the mist immediately dissipating as her hand closed around the golden chain.
She smiled at him.
"That seems to have worked."
"Did you know it was going to work?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
She shook her head.
"Non, not with certainty."
Harry pinched the bridge of his nose.
"And if it hadn't?" he asked.
She shrugged and smirked at him.
"You would have been here to save the damsel in distress."
He shook his head and sighed. He'd been around cursed objects before, seen them go off, and knew that she was playing off the severity of the situation with a joke.
"So, what now?" he asked.
She held the necklace up for him to take.
"Would you like to help me remove the other curse?"
"Um, this thing isn't going to explode if I touch it, right?"
"Don't worry, Mr. Auror," she said with a wink, "I'll be here to protect you."
Harry grabbed the necklace and held it up at eye level, arms slightly extended away from his body. He trusted Fleur's words, figured that she knew what she was doing after so long, but there was a part of him that was raging in his mind to drop the damn thing before his hands melted or met some other gruesome fate.
He ignored that part of himself.
She turned the page in the book and read a short passage before turning back.
"Now, we determine the age," she explained and again she began a series of intricate wand motions while muttering under her breath. As she did, several noises escaped from the necklace in succession, though Harry hadn't the faintest idea where they had been trapped at. Finally, it began to vibrate slightly and glow a deep purple before returning to normal.
He placed the necklace down on the bench as Fleur pulled a small notepad out of her apron, flipping through the pages in rapid succession.
"Another spell of your design?" he questioned.
She nodded.
"One of the first I ever developed. The noises, colours, and behavior upon casting it help me determine the age. To confirm, it vibrated, yes?"
Harry nodded.
"Yeah," he confirmed before rubbing the back of his neck. "Not going to lie, had it started flashing red I'd have probably dropped it and ran away."
"And leave me to my fate?" she asked with mock offense. "How terribly rude."
"I think you could have handled yourself." He looked at the notepad. "What's the word? How old is this piece of jewelry?"
Fleur wrote something in the notepad before widening her eyes and looking up at him.
"It appears it's from the ninth century. This piece is old, yet it looks so…"
"Well preserved," he finished.
She nodded her head as she rapidly flipped through the book on the workbench, stopping after several moments. She ran her hands along the page as she read and once again Harry found himself impressed by her. He understood fully why she was good at what she did. Creating spells, researching history, and bringing it all together to break curses? It was enough to make him wonder if he shouldn't be doing more at his own job.
He dismissed that thought. There were enough bad guys out there without the need for more work.
"Step back," she instructed and he did so without hesitation, the shift in her tone sounding much like his dad when they were out in the field.
She began another series of motions with her wand, though these were slower than the last. As she began to mutter the necklace began to shake violently before it was encased in what looked like a glass bubble. Just as the bubble closed the necklace shot to one side, hitting the invisible barrier. It continued to try to escape, each attempt coming faster and faster, before it was eventually a continuous blur of motion. Fleur's wand motions had gotten faster, but she had stopped muttering.
"Send a blasting curse at the bubble," she commanded.
Instantly his wand was out and the words on his lips. The spell traveled the short distance and struck the barrier, shattering it. Everything seemed to stop as the necklace fell back to the workbench. Neither of them moved.
"Is it…still alive?" he asked lamely. Fleur tilted her head to the side as she looked at him.
"That was just the curse attempting one last act of rebellion. It's just a necklace now."
He nodded and approached the workbench, grabbing the object and letting it hang from his fingers. Such a delicate object, yet the magic of the curse had been almost hateful in how it raged against being forcibly removed from the place it had been for so long. He looked down at Fleur as she wrote notes on a piece of parchment she had retrieved from one of the benches along the wall.
"Come here," he said.
She looked up at him with a questioning gaze but moved towards him. He slipped behind her and undid the clasp on the necklace, slipping it over her head and around her neck.
"Harry, that's not-"
"Just let me," he said, "I promise, you'll look good."
He summoned a mirror and she gasped as she touched the thin golden chain around her neck.
"It's beautiful," she whispered.
He nodded.
"Knew it would look good on you." He smiled. "I bet you had a line of guys begging you to go on a date with them back in France."
She nodded, though he caught a small hint of sadness flash through her features before she looked at him in the mirror.
"I did," she confirmed before unclasping the necklace and turning around to face him. "I turned them all down."
"Ouch," he said with a smile as she turned and placed the necklace in a small box she had summoned from the wall. "'Fleur Delacour, Breaker of Curses.' She's world renowned for her skills in charms and making objects safe, but who was she before all that?"
He smirked before continuing, eyes sparkling with mirth.
"Before that she was 'Fleur Delacour, Breaker of Hearts.' The boys never knew what they were getting themselves into." He struck a dramatic pose as he finished.
She threw her head back and laughed, causing him to laugh as well. The tension in the room evaporated as their laughter filled the space, making them forget about the dangerous curse that had just been shattered. She made her way back to him for a hug as her laughter died.
"Thank you, Harry," she said sincerely. "Not even my family has taken much of an interest in my work and…it was nice to have someone outside of the bank want to learn about it. I was pretty lost on what I wanted to do after school but once I found this it was like something clicked into place. So thank you."
He shrugged.
"Anytime. Honestly, I find all of this incredibly fascinating. Who knows, maybe when I'm ready to stop being 'Harry Potter, Handsome Auror' I'll become a curse breaker?"
She raised an eyebrow.
"It sounds like I'm to protect you from dangerous necklaces and other objects," she pointed out, though her eyes were shining with humor.
"That sounds like a promise," he replied, his own eyes holding the same mirth.
She smirked.
"Sure, I'll protect you, it's the least I can do after you so gallantly held up an almost-normal necklace."
.
.
There was an owl waiting for her when she returned home, perched patiently in her window. She removed the letter and provided the owl with some treats before the bird flapped its wings to take off. She tore open the letter and read the short contents.
Fire call me when you're back
She burned the letter and banished the ashes before walking over to the fireplace. She grabbed a bit of powder and threw it into the fire before sticking her head in.
"Luc? Are you there?" she asked.
"Ah, Fleur, I've been waiting for you," he responded, "Are you alone?"
Fleur had to suppress the urge to roll her eyes.
"Yes, I'm alone. What's so important?"
"I found it," he said triumphantly.
Fleur raised an eyebrow.
"Found what?"
"Details on the meeting. The one you found out about at that git Burke's place."
She nodded her head.
"Well?"
"Burke's reference to 'Nott's group' seems to be referring to, from the outside, a group of like-minded investors who all pool their money together to increase their collective wealth," Luc explained.
"And the actual purpose of the group?" asked Fleur.
"My contacts weren't able to give me any specifics, but it sounds like they're all part of some cult. They've been hearing whispers of Nott and Malfoy working for someone with more influence than both of them."
"What did you find out about the meeting?" she asked, realizing that the specifics of their entire organization structure were less important to her than getting the results she'd been working towards.
"Sounds like the elder Nott is hosting a gathering at his family manor in two weeks. My contacts say that Nott never hosts any public events, but that these meetings have a tendency to make waves in the black market."
Fleur bit her lip as she thought. Nott was clearly their next lead, but how to approach it was another matter. They'd been smart about their moves, it would do them no good to get sloppy now.
"So the Shadow should pay the manor a visit before their little meeting?" she asked.
Luc shook his head.
"No, that won't be possible," he replied with a frown. "Malfoy's wards were child's play owing to him being such a prominent public figure who loves to entertain at his home. Nott uses traditional pureblood blood wards. We won't be able to get in until the night of the meeting when he adjusts them to let in visitors. My contact will have the exact date tomorrow."
Fleur nodded and pulled her head out of the fire, standing up to her full height before moving towards the bedroom. It was unfortunate that they had to wait, but she knew this was never going to be a short process. The people she was dealing with were careful to stay off the radar of the Aurors and that meant working at a set pace to ensure no mistakes.
She shook her head.
It didn't matter how careful they were, she would find their boss eventually.
.
.
.
AN: Thanks for reading!