Chapter Nineteen: The Parting of the Ways
For the very first time in his life, Ron did not want breakfast.
He lay on the blankets Hermione laid out the night before. Malfoy'd gotten up about thirty minutes ago, and made a point to "accidentally" kick Ron on his way out. Hermione was still fast asleep, Ron could hear her snoring. Downstairs he could smell bacon in a frying pan, his stomach roared traitorously, but he did not want to go down.
That would mean that he'd have to face James again, and he wasn't ready for that. He didn't deserve to be there, safe and warm. Ron heard the snap of a portkey, and Andromeda's voice from downstairs. He sucked in a deep breath, maybe she would know something …
Ron braced himself as he sat up, aching from sleeping on the floor all night. He shut the door quietly so he didn't wake Hermione. The smell of food became overwhelming as he made his way downstairs. Malfoy and his mother were sitting together on the couch, a faraway look in Narcissa's eyes. But she looked far happier than Ron had ever seen her.
"Draco is starting Hogwarts next year," she said to Malfoy, with no indication she knew who he was. "Lucius and I are so proud, naturally he'll be in Slytherin. Such a cunning boy …"
"Thanks, mum." Malfoy flushed pink when he noticed Ron was watching. Lily and Sirius were also eating in the living room, making forced conversation over their meal.
In the kitchen, Ron saw Lupin furiously working on the stove to make flapjacks. He was doing it the muggle way, no magic involved, Ron wondered if he was trying to keep his mind busy. Andromeda, James, and Snape were crowded around the breakfast table.
"Morning," James croaked, he looked like he hadn't slept at all.
"I brought you this for you," Andromeda pulled out a copy of the Daily Prophet. "I managed to pay the owl before the aurors burst through my door this morning, took them long enough to dissolve the wards …"
Ron rushed over to read over James's shoulder, his heart pounding. On the front page was a picture of Riddle at a press junket, Bellatrix Lestrange and Barty Crouch stood behind him, along with a third man Ron didn't know.
MURDER AT THE MINISTRY
Rita Skeeter, senior political correspondent for the Prophet, attended a press conference this morning in response to a break in at the Ministry of Magic. The Minister himself delivered official remarks this morning on the attack.
"We believe last night's break in to be a direct, and meditated personal attack, in response to the recent seizure of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I have already privately extended my condolences to the families affected by this senseless violence." Tom Riddle said in an exclusive with the Prophet.
Prophet investigators discovered that one of the ministry employees killed was none other than Mr. Riddle's eldest daughter. Although it seems the plot against the Minister ran much deeper than cold-blooded murder, as several of the suspects were thwarted in the Department of Mysteries in an apparent attempt to abduct the Minister's younger son as well—
"WHAT?" James yelled out loud as he was reading. "He's the kidnapper!"
"I don't understand anyone who sees it fit to bring another man's family into these matters." Tom Riddle said in response to questions. "Rest assured, they will be dealt with swiftly, and with prejudice."
The Minister for Magic's office has referred all questions to High Wizengamot Inquisitor, Rodolphus Lestrange. This reporter must admit that in times of crisis, it is a relief to have a Ministry unafraid to take action—
Ron stopped reading, there were just several more paragraphs of Skeeter fawning over Riddle. He assumed the third wizard in the picture was Bellatrix's husband, Rodolphus Lestrange. The man looked boredly into the camera, he dwarfed Crouch, who was standing next to him. Ron's blood curdled looking at Riddle in the photograph, Ron knew better than to believe Riddle was capable of grieving the events of the previous night.
"He can't get away with this," Ron hissed. "People will know. We're trying to help everyone."
"I wouldn't hold my breath." Snape said, flipping through the rest of the paper. "He's had a significant head start to convince them otherwise. See? I've been placed on suspension without pay." Snape threw the paper back on the table, with a significantly smaller article stating that Snape was currently under investigation, a witch named Alecto Carrow was named the temporary headmistress to the school.
"Better Carrow than Umbridge," Snape smirked. "I made sure to leave Dolores an appreciation gift before I left, although I doubt she recognized a hint of cyanide in the wine. Sometimes there are benefits to muggle methods."
"Perhaps we shouldn't discuss your proclivity towards homicide at the breakfast table, Severus—" Andromeda pursed her lips.
"Come and get some flapjacks!" Lupin cut her off, sliding another perfectly shaped pancake onto the serving plate in front of him. Ron saw Hermione groggily stumble into the kitchen, she was beaming as if she'd gotten her first night's sleep in weeks.
"Morning," Hermione said as she grabbed some bacon.
"Ron you need to eat something, you'll feel better." Lupin flicked his wand and a plate of food landed in front of Ron.
"I'm not hungry." Ron said quietly, feeling his throat tighten. He'd desperately wanted to find more answers in the Daily Prophet, the portkey had saved their lives, and he'd thanked Harry by leaving him behind. Lupin lightly smacked James in the back of the head with a wooden spoon.
"Ouch! What—" James waved Lupin's hand away. Lupin whispered something quietly that only James could hear, Ron couldn't stand to look at him. He stared numbly at the plate of food in front of him.
"Look, Ron, I erm—" James started, stumbling to find the right words. "Neither of you should have been put in that situation." Snape shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "It's my job to protect you, not the other way around. You saved my life last night."
"They'll torture him." Ron hear Tonks's words echoing in his head, orders are orders …
"That's very unlikely," Snape interrupted, shaking his head. "For information at least, the Dark Lord is an expert legillimens, and there are very few people he considers worthy enough to avoid doing permanent damage to. He gets more erm—creative—so to speak." Snape took a sip of his tea, as if he considered what he said to be of some comfort to Ron.
"Thank you, Severus," Lupin shot Snape a warning glance, James had also gone pale again. "Ron, there are parts of this that are out of our control right now. It does you no good to dwell on all the things that could go wrong."
Ron felt his ears burn red in anger, they weren't listening to him … Lupin put another flapjack on his plate. He reluctantly took a bite.
"I'm not packing up any leftovers, so eat up." Lupin said, fixing himself a plate. They ate in silence for a moment, the meal felt like cardboard in Ron's stomach. He was no stranger to an overly crowded breakfast table, but he wanted nothing more than to be alone for once.
"Andromeda, would you mind sending Mad-Eye a message via patronus?" Snape asked. "I'm not accustomed to hosting so many people at once."
Andromeda's eyes narrowed as she looked between Snape and James, but she understood the hint. She nodded and swept from the room. Lupin sat down in her place at the kitchen table.
"Ron, we've talked about it," James said quietly, as if he didn't want the others in the living room to hear. "And … we don't think any of the other Order members need to know about any of the horcruxes right now. We already let Draco and Hermione know not to say anything last night."
"Wait, why?" Ron asked. If anything, it was an exoneration for lots of the things Harry did at Hogwarts. He hadn't realized it at the time, but Riddle outright told them that he could possess people in the forest, one month to kill James Potter or … I would.
"Because it scares people," Lupin added on, Ron wondered if they'd discussed what they were going to say ahead of time. "This is really advanced dark magic. People don't even know there was a prophecy about defeating Riddle, they wouldn't understand."
"Not to mention, you might give someone the idea to take matters into their own hands like Black did," Snape said gravely. "There are plenty of Order members that now believe Harry and Nagini are in a line of succession to take over parts of the Dark Lord's inevitable empire."
"Were they?" Ron couldn't imagine Riddle sharing power with anyone.
"Well, she wasn't—" Snape began, Andromeda tapped on the entrance to the kitchen.
"Are you quite finished?" She asked. "Moody is ready for us whenever; he says that there's been an incident he'd like help on."
"Yes, of course." Snape cleared his throat. "We will discuss this later."
Ron helped James and Lupin clean up the rest of the kitchen, Lupin seemed much more willing to use magic while washing the dishes than he had while cooking. ("When all this is over, I need someone to invent self-cleaning dishes," Lupin said). Ron was thankful to do something mind-numbing. James explained that Lupin was going to stay down in Surrey to help the Order reorganize, while Sirius and Lily helped James figure out a way to defeat Riddle.
"It's ultimately up to you where you want to go, of course." James pointed out to Ron. "Either me or Lupin will be happy to look after you, but I don't want to put you in any more danger. We'll be going back and forth between both safe houses, so you'll still see us a bit."
Ron understood what he was saying, but it still stung. They'd all been through so much together, he knew he was holding everyone back. He wasn't even good enough for the Quidditch team back home, why would he be any good in a war? Harry and Hermione were much better at magic than he was. He couldn't even figure out how to get the mirror to work when he had the chance, he'd never figure out how to get home. Ron forced himself to smile, he could at least pretend to be brave.
"No, it's okay," Ron said quietly. "I'll go to the safe house."
James nodded gratefully, and pulled Ron into a hug.
"It's just temporary," James said, patting him on the back. "I made a promise to get you back home, and I intend to keep it." Ron felt tears stinging in his eyes, the entire time James made him feel like he was an actual part of the marauders. But he knew deep down still that he was a burden.
"You just figure out a way to break Riddle's nose," Ron tried to joke, James laughed half-heartedly.
"I'll do that," James said. "For all of us."
Thirty minutes later, Ron held a knapsack filled with the very few things he owned in that world, and some clothes he borrowed. He'd be going to the safe house with Lupin, Hermione, Narcissa, Andromeda, and Lily. Lily was just going to help Snape, as he'd left before them to help Moody with something. Malfoy came back downstairs, Hedwig sat perched on his arm.
"Bloody bird hates me for taking her yesterday," Malfoy coughed, as Hedwig nipped at his fingers. "Could you look after her? I've got enough going on right now, Harry might actually kill me if anything happens to her."
"I—sure—" Ron held out his arm, expecting Hedwig to fly to him. She ruffled her feathers and hooted loudly in Malfoy's ear.
"Erm, yes—I hear you—" Malfoy winced. "But I'm not giving you a letter to take home to your master." He rolled his eyes. "I'll just get her carrier … thanks Weasley …"
And so, Ron added a small carrier cage with a snowy owl to his pile of belongings. Malfoy'd drawn the curtains around Hedwig to try and quiet her, but Ron still saw the fabric move as the owl tried to nip the bars. The others gathered to see them off, Ron felt his heart pound as he took Lupin's arm. He'd never side-along dissapperated before.
"Just try not to lose your breakfast." Lupin instructed Ron, helping him with Hedwig's cage. The other extended their hands into the circle. Ron thought, as if it were in another lifetime, of the portkey he used to go to the Quidditch World Cup. But this was a thousand times worse.
Lupin twisted, and Ron felt his body ripped from the space it previously occupied. It was as if his body were ripped into noodles, and squeezed through a keyhole. And then it was over, Ron's feet slammed back down on the ground. His head spun, and he lurched forward. Lupin grabbed Ron by the scruff of his shirt to keep him from falling.
"Well done for a first attempt." Andromeda said, nodding in approval.
They stood in what could conceivably once been a living room, although it'd been a long time since it was used for that purpose. A large war table was placed in the center of the room, with tiny red flags planted all over a map of England. On the right wall, Ron saw well over a dozen sketches of people. As he looked closer, he realized he recognized several of them, their surnames were scrawled across the bottom. The faces of Bellatrix Lestrange, Barty Crouch, and others Ron presumed to be in Riddle's inner circle stared back at him. Above the fireplace was a drawing of Riddle himself, although someone'd taken the time to drive a knife through his head. None of that bothered Ron, it was the two sketches directly below Riddle that troubled him. A large red X was drawn over Nagini's portrait, but directly beside her Harry scowled back at Ron.
"I'll be needing some evidence that you're all really you." A deep voice growled. Ron turned around to face Mad Eye Moody. He pointed his wand between Lily and Lupin. "What did I give to you at your wedding, Remus?"
"You gifted us a foe glass," Lupin said. "Sirius said it was too ominous to have in our sitting area." Mad Eye nodded.
"What about her?" Moody waved his wand at Lily. "It wouldn't be the first time in the past month that you've been deceived by one of Riddle's puppets."
"I can vouch for every person in this room, including Lily," Lupin's voice firmed. "After what we pulled at the ministry yesterday, I doubt any remaining spies would hesitate to turn us in." Moody gave a barking laugh.
"So that was you then?" Moody said. "I never thought I'd see the day. Tell me, how does one go about solving a Riddle?" Ron didn't like the way Moody said that, he saw Lily take a sharp breath.
"I don't actually know, it was an accident." Lupin tried to explain himself. "I didn't mean to kill her—"
"YOU did it?!" Moody laughed. "And here I thought it'd be James. I ought to buy you a drink, Remus!" There was a muffled cry from upstairs, Ron felt his blood run cold. Lupin immediately pointed his wand at Moody, but the ex-auror shook his head. Moody lowered his wand to show he wasn't a threat.
"That's why I'd called for Snape," he growled. "I've never seen anything like it—I told her it reeked of dark magic."
"Don't—" Moody tried to catch Lily's arm, but she slipped through his grasp and up the stairs. Ron followed her with Lupin, he could hear the thud of Moody's metal leg behind him. But Moody did not stop Lily. She came to a halt on the landing, in front of a door. On the other side, Ron could hear the dull thud of something repeatedly hitting the wall. Lily grasped the door handle and pushed.
Inside the room was dark, someone boarded up the only window outside. Faint rays of light shone through, making the room feel more and more like a prison cell. There was a bed in the room, but no sheets on it. Beside the bed, Ron saw the remnants of chicken soup that someone'd thrown at the wall. And standing at the far corner of the room was a woman with filthy blonde hair, repeatedly hitting her head against the wall.
"Tunie?" Lily asked, stepping into the room. But Petunia Evans did not answer her sister. Ron saw a small bronze diadem sitting atop Petunia's head.
"Tunie," Lily tried again, her voice shaking now. "What are you doing?"
"Is it not obvious?" Petunia's voice rang clear, pleasant even. If Ron didn't see the ring of dried blood around her face, he would not have suspected she'd injured herself from the way she spoke.
"I am going to crack her skull in."