Chapter Thirteen
Harry washed out their clothes in the nearby stream that ran past their latest camp site and lay them out over nearby bushes to dry in the baking sunshine.
There were a few sheep in the field with them but they stayed up the other end mostly near the hay feeder.
Draco was inside, curled up in a chair reading a very large pile of books trying to find them something, anything, that might help.
All three of them had read the books on Horcruxes together, it seemed a little less terrifying when they weren't alone. It didn't make what they read any less horrific though.
Currently the main issue they had was they had no way to destroy the Horcruxes once they got them. There were ways, fiendfyre would destroy them but was far too dangerous to actually use. Basilisk venom, but they happened to be all out of helpful basilisks. Freezing and then shattering could also be used to destroy a Horcrux, but the magic needed to freeze something enough to shatter it was difficult and involved a potion they had no way of making or getting. They suspected any elemental force would work, but getting it strong enough would be either dangerous or beyond their abilities.
They had all agreed that Slytherin's scram sax would almost certainly destroy them. Draco knew enough about goblin made things to know that they would absorb anything that would make them stronger, that would include basilisk venom that it came into contact with when Pansy managed to kill the Hogwarts basilisk at the end of their second year.
Of course they didn't have the scram sax, either.
Draco stood and stretched, walking out of the tent to find Harry, "I'm going to go and take over for Hermione."
Harry sighed and nodded. It had been nearly two weeks of one of them being in Grimmauld Place, hidden all the time and so far there was no sign of Mundungus. They had to keep trying though, at least another week, then they would look at tracking him down another way.
Draco gave Harry a pat on the back before casting the disillusionment charms over himself and leaving with a pop.
Hermione heard the tinkly sound of the intruder charms she'd set up ring clearly in her ears and uncurled herself from the sofa she'd been crouched behind.
They always waited in the same space, behind the first sofa in the sitting room, so they would be able to find one another.
She was just about to say she was heading home when another tinkle sounded in her ears. Hermione reached in front of her, grabbing Draco's arm when she found it and giving it a tug.
"Someone's here." she whispered.
Draco and Hermione crept through the house, trying not to make a sound which wasn't easy as the house had quickly grown very old and creaky with no one living in there.
"Stupefy!" Hermione yelled, sending the hooded figure sprawling onto the hallway floor.
Draco rushed over and quickly bound the unconscious Mundungus, taking his wand from him, "Should we question him here? Or take him back with us?"
"I…" Hermione took a deep breath and clutched at her side, it was killing her after being hunched over for so long.
"You all right?" Draco asked with a frown.
Hermione nodded, "Yeah I'll be fine. I'm not sure if we should keep him here or not. I don't want him to be inside our wards but at the same time I know that Harry will want to help us question him."
Draco scratched the back of his head, "Let's blindfold him and then take him back with us. We'll drop him back here when we're done."
Hermione nodded and grabbed a thick napkin from the dinning room. The touch of the fabric sent her mind reeling back to meal after happy meal she'd had here, laughter and not a care in the world. That was all gone now.
Between the two of them they managed to cover Mundungus's eyes and heave him to a standing position.
"Harry!" Draco yelled, unable to see the camp through the wards they'd set up, "Petrichor." he huffed, saying their code word to prove it was them.
Harry reached out a hand, allowing Draco and Hermione through, along with the still unconscious Mundungus, letting him drop to the floor on the other side of the barriers.
"You found him!" Harry said, suddenly feeling far more hopeful than he had been five minutes before him.
"Yep." Draco smiled, "Don't think he knew what hit him, Hermione was brilliant."
Hermione blushed and gave him a playful pat on the shoulder, "Thanks."
Harry looked over the almost peaceful heap that Mundungus was and nodded, trying to think of the best place to keep him.
"We've got his wand." Hermione said, stretching, "I figured we could tie him to the tree at the back of the tent?"
Harry nodded and helped them drag him to the tree, fastening his hands to it securely behind his back.
The three of them settled themselves down on the grass and watched while Mundungus slowly came round. He struggled against the ropes at his wrists and tried to shrug of the blindfold.
"That's enough of that." Harry hissed, making sure the blindfold was in place still.
"Harry?" Mundungus asked, looking around, "Is… is that you?"
"Yes." Harry said, earning him worried looks from Draco and Hermione, "You might have guessed you're not at Grimmauld Place any more."
"Well where the hell am I then?" Mundungus spat.
"We're not going to tell you that." Harry said, forcing his voice to stay calm, "We've taken your wand. It will be returned to you if you help us. We'll also take you back to Grimmauld Place. But only if you help us."
"If you don't, we will snap your wand." Draco told him firmly, "You wont be able to get another one at the moment, Ollivander has been missing for months already. We'll dump you, alone, in the middle of no where."
"Hey, hey, hey!" Mundungus protested, "Who said I wasn't goin' te help? Making threats already!"
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Right. At least you know all your options."
"What is it you bleeding want?" Mundungus snapped.
"You've been stealing from Sirius's house." Harry said, barely able to stop his anger from bubbling over.
"I-"
"We know you have so don't lie to us now!" Draco snapped.
"I'll give yeh back everything I took, that I've still got, if that's what you're after." Mundungus said quickly, "I don't know. Bleeding war on! You-know-who running around the place and all you care about is a few old nick-knacks!"
"Will you shut up!" Harry hissed, "We don't care about all of the 'nick-knacks', although you bet your ass those will be returned! We care about one thing; a locket that when you stole, Kreacher was really upset about. It's golden, heavy, with a snake or an S on it."
Mundungus knew what they were talking about, his head snapped towards the sound of Harry's voice.
"You remember it then?" Draco said.
Mundungus nodded awkwardly, "Weird thing it was; tried it on for a bit but it made me feel all… weird."
"Very descriptive." Harry said, rolling his eyes, "What did you do with it?"
"Sold it." Mundungus said sullenly, "Worth a pretty penny it was! Gave her a little bit off though, what with her top going down to there."
"That's disgusting." Hermione said, wrinkling her nose.
"Who? Who did you sell it to?" Harry said, trying to keep the desperation from his voice. Dealing with Mundungus seemed to be like swimming through treacle.
"Dawn Selwyn." Mundungus said quickly, sensing the anger radiating from Harry's voice.
"Why does that name seem really familiar?" Harry whispered to Hermione and Draco.
"She's the editor and chief of the Daily Prophet." Hermione whispered back.
Harry closed his eyes, this was going to be even more difficult than he'd feared.
"Does she still have it?" Draco demanded, "Don't pretend you don't know, you've made it perfectly clear that you keep an eye on her."
Mundungus struggled against the ropes again, glaring at the three of them from under his blindfold, "Yeah… she wears it everyday to work."
"That's something." Hermione muttered under her breath.
"You need to tell us everything." Draco said firmly, "We need to be able to get that locket back."
"You what?" Mundungus snorted, "She paid good money for that, she ain't going to want to just hand it over to Britain's most wanted."
"What?" Harry said, exchanging worried looks with Hermione and Draco.
"You're all over the news!" Mundungus snorted another laugh, almost as though he was pleased they were wanted, "Most members of the Order are but you three are to be stunned on sight."
"And we need to walk into the Prophet offices, where they're printing all of this crap." Hermione said, rolling her eyes, "Why can't anything ever be simple?"
"Look," Mundungus said, "I can barely feel me hands, and I've told you everything I could possibly know so let me go!"
Harry ground his teeth, "We can't keep him forever."
"We should alter his memories." Draco suggested, "You know he's going to run off and rat us out the first time he gets himself into trouble. Anything he tells them will be too much."
"Now wait just one minute!" Mundungus snapped.
Harry and Draco both looked to Hermione, ignoring the cries from Mundungus as he struggled against the ropes yet again, swearing and calling them every name under the sun.
Hermione let out a loud sigh, "I don't want to have to do this again."
"I know." Draco said, chewing his lip, "You don't have to, it's just you've done it before. You're the least likely to mess up his mind… not that it could possibly do that much damage."
"Don't you even think about messin' up my mind!" Mundungus said, letting out a sob at the end for good measure.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "Fine."
She waved her wand over the still swearing figure of Mundungus until he finally fell silent. Draco stunned him again, leaving him slummed against the tree for a moment.
"Well at least we know who has it." Hermione sighed, rubbing her aching temple and wanting nothing more than to curl up under her blanket for a while.
"I'll go dump him back just outside Grimmauld Place." Draco said, "I don't like the idea of letting him back into your house."
Harry smiled, "Thank you."
They watched Draco, not with much grace, pick up Mundungus and leave the barriers they'd put up before apparating away.
"I removed his memories of where Grimmauld Place is, so he wont be going back there any time soon." Hermione smiled, "I didn't think it was fair that he was going to keep stealing from Sirius, and you… I let him keep the feeling of returning all of the things that he stole. He'll have his first wave of honesty in his life."
"Thanks Hermione." Harry said, giving her a quick hug, "I… I know it sounds silly, with everything going on, but I hate how upset Kreacher was. Sometimes I… I forget there was a whole war that went on before we were born."
"Or at least we were too young to remember it." Hermione agreed, "I know what you mean; so many people going through what we are… we'll end it this time. I'm not letting my children go through this."
Harry nodded, "I agree, this has to end with us."
Draco arrived back, looking around for them, Hermione helped him back through the wards.
"I dumped him on that scraggly bit of grass outside Grimmauld Place." Draco said, "He was just coming round when I left him and left his wand in his pocket. It was more than he deserved after stealing from you for so long."
Hermione stretched, "I need coffee."
She wandered back into the tent and put the kettle on. Draco doubled up the spells hiding them from the world before wondering in and flopping down on the sofa.
Harry grabbed a notebook and set of pens from under his bed, and settled down next to his friends in the small, but surprisingly cosy, sitting room, especially for a tent.
"Time to come up with a plan then." Harry said, clicking his pen open and starting to write.