"ᴅᴏᴇꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʟᴋᴇʀ ᴄʜᴏᴏꜱᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀᴛʜ, ᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴀʟᴋᴇʀ?"―ɢᴀʀᴛʜ ɴɪx, ꜱᴀʙʀɪᴇʟ
Chapter Twenty: Chasing Ghosts
Ruby's eyes flew open to meet the dark gloom of the dormitory. Had she overslept? Still half-asleep, she rolled over and squinted at the clock, which read quarter to seven.
That meant she'd only had five hours of sleep, and none of that had been particularly peaceful, and there was no chance of her getting to sleep again when what she really needed to do was to re-read her Charms notes.
What she wouldn't do for some Invigoration Draught.
Ruby dragged a hand down her face and sighed before shifting the sheets and getting out of bed.
"Morning," said Daphne as Ruby reached for her shoes, startling her.
"Uh," was all she managed. Daphne had somehow gotten up and changed out of her nightclothes, her hair brushed neatly away from her face, and was leafing through her Charms textbook with an unhurried air while Ruby stumbled towards the bathroom, still half-asleep.
Washing her face woke her up the rest of the way, and Ruby somehow managed to stumble out of the common room with the other Slytherin fifth years.
"—Charms'll be a breeze, my father says it's the soft option, anyway," Draco bragged, Crabbe and Goyle nodding along.
You'll have to pass first, thought Ruby, crossing her arms as she trailed behind them. Theodore kept turning around to look at her, which she returned with a glare. Pansy kept her mouth shut for once, but was incessantly playing with her hair, which led Ruby to suspect she might have hidden notes in her plait. Only Daphne looked completely unperturbed, humming under her breath as if it was a normal Monday.
"You've got fire spells down," said Blaise in what he likely thought was an encouraging tone, "that's something."
"Thanks," said Ruby. It wasn't as helpful as he thought it was, but at least he was (slightly) less annoying than everyone else.
Breakfast, if anything, was even more uncomfortable. Draco and Theodore took turns practising for the practical section (or, in Ruby's opinion, showing off) by charming the salt shaker to change colour, float, do a jig, or sing. Unfortunately, Ruby found she had lost her appetite. It was impossible to eat anything with her stomach tied in a dozen knots. The very smell of food was nauseating.
About half-an-hour into breakfast, Snape swept past the table, lingering near their group.
"I expect none of you will embarrass me today?"
"Yes, Professor Snape," they all chorused, Daphne first, Crabbe and Goyle slow on the uptake as usual.
His black eyes bored into each of them in turn; Ruby flinched when they got to her, but she didn't look away. Had he heard about what had happened in Ancient Runes last week?
"Good luck, Potter," said Snape, before turning to move down the table.
"Good luck, Potter?" asked Pansy, her voice rising to a squeak. "What about the rest of us?"
Ruby, too, was stunned. Since when does Snape do anything but sneer and snark at everything Harry and I do? Maybe he was terminally ill or something and trying to make up for it before it was too late.
Somehow, they managed to get through the rest of breakfast without incident and trailed into the entrance hall with the other fifth years and seventh years while the examiners prepared the Great Hall. Ruby tried to tune out Pansy loudly making Millicent quiz her as she looked over her notes one last time.
When they were finally called back into the Great Hall, all of the House tables had been removed and replaced with two groups of desks separated by a wide aisle; the left side faced by an enormous, floating blackboard reading N.E.W.T. Charms Written Section and the right reading O.W.L. Charms Written Section. Feeling as if she were going to throw up, Ruby pushed through the crowd of people flooding into the hall until she found Parvati and Lavender.
"Want a Toothflossing Stringmint?" asked Lavender, fishing in her pink, beaded bag as they weaved through the desks. Ruby made a face.
"They're all I've got, and they do make you feel a bit better."
She was willing to try anything at this point, even the green string that Lavender had dropped into her hand.
"Oh, these are horrible," said Ruby as they sat down, wincing at the splintery, cold sensation.
"Almost makes you forget where we are," said Parvati, drumming her fingers on the table. The tiny bits of gold tinsel woven into her hair shimmered as she moved her head.
They all looked up as Professor Flitwick flicked his wand at the blackboard, and a piece of chalk began to scrawl out, 120 minutes.
"Here we go," Parvati muttered, turning around to face the front as Flitwick began to speak, his voice resounding all through the Great Hall. The wizened examiner in front of the N.E.W.T. students had started speaking as well.
"Welcome to your Charms O.W.L. In a minute, I will begin handing out exam papers, but first, let me make some regulations clear that you should already know. Anti-Cheating Charms have been applied to your examination papers. Use of Auto-Answer Quills, Remembralls, Detachable Cribbing Cuffs, and Self-Correcting Ink will result in an immediate Troll. Nothing should be on your desk except your exam, your quill, and your ink. If you need additional scratch paper, come up to the front. You have two hours to complete the exam. Any burning questions?"
Silence rang throughout the hall. Lavender was biting the nib of her quill.
"Good luck," Parvati whispered.
With another flick of Flitwick's wand, a stack of exam papers appeared on every desk, yellower than printer paper but whiter than parchment and lying upside down.
"Everyone has an exam? Then, turn it over to the first page… now!"
Flitwick turned over an enormous hourglass, and the hall filled with the sounds of paper hitting desks and scratching quills in an instant. Ruby's heartbeat picked up as she started reading the first question, a) Give the incantation, and b) describe the wand movement required to make objects fly…
She knew this one. Turning the page, she read question two. This one, too. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, after all? She lowered her quill to the paper and started to write.
After the written section, they went back into the Great Hall to eat lunch with the rest of the school, who seemed unbearably lighthearted. To Ruby's further misfortune, she kept thinking about question twenty-seven and was almost certain she had gotten it wrong, going off what Draco and Theodore were saying. She'd just have to make it up on the practical section. Maybe she could sneak off somewhere to get some practice in before—
"Look!" said Pansy shrilly, jabbing a finger. "What are Weasel and Granger doing over here?"
Ruby looked up to see that she was right — Ron and Hermione were approaching the Slytherin table.
"Come to ask for help, Granger?" asked Malfoy, as Theodore's eyes followed his, face alight with interest. "I thought that might be too much for you to manage. I'm sure you didn't get question thirty-five."
Hermione threw him a disgusted look as she made her way up to Ruby, Ron close behind.
"Where's Harry?" asked Hermione, looking around as if expecting him to appear out of thin air.
"I haven't seen him all morning," said Ruby, only just realising it as she said the words out loud. Surely he'd been in the Great Hall during the Charms exam? "I thought he'd be with you two."
Ron and Hermione exchanged a look which indicated he definitely wasn't.
"You don't think he's overslept?" asked Hermione.
"I thought he'd gotten up before me," said Ron. "His bed was empty."
It was beginning to give Ruby déjà vu. Her stomach turned. Every time Harry disappears without a trace, something bad happens. And then that vision I had in Ancient Runes…
She pushed her plate away, standing up.
"Maybe he's with Anthony?" said Hermione. "Let's not jump to conclusions."
Ron stared over at the Ravenclaw table. "No, don't see him."
"Let's just make sure," said Ruby, starting off across the hall, past the Hufflepuff table, where she noticed a few groups of students getting some last-minute practice in. She picked out Anthony's dirty-blond head after a few seconds of searching the Ravenclaw table, but didn't see Harry anywhere near him, even as they drew closer.
"Hi," he said, jumping a little when he noticed them coming up behind him. "Did you put in the countercharm for hiccoughs for question twelve, by any chance?"
"Have you seen Harry?" asked Ruby. She glanced up and down the Ravenclaw table again.
Anthony shook his head, frowning. "No. Not since yesterday in the library, at least."
"Is Harry missing?" asked Cho from a few seats down, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. "Did you check the Hospital Wing?"
Even though she had said it with a straight face, the girl sitting next to Cho threw her head back and laughed, quite unkindly, Ruby might add. She glared at the girl and said, "Yeah, thanks Cho, we'll check there."
"Maybe he's feeling ill and went to see Madam Pomfrey," said Ron. "Merlin, wish I'd thought of doing that, too."
Hermione looked murderous, and he amended, "Just joking. Come on, let's go."
"I'll come," said Anthony, nearly tripping over his feet on the way up.
They hurried through the empty hallways, and Ruby thought this might be the only time that she could have hoped Harry was in the Hospital Wing. She wrenched the door open, startling Madam Pomfrey, who dropped the stack of medical manuals that she was levitating over to a shelf.
"Yes?" she asked, taking in the four of them with her hands on her hips. "Before you ask, I cannot provide any of you with Memory Potions, so do not even ask!"
Ron stepped forward. "Has Harry been in?"
"No, thankfully," said Madam Pomfrey, flicking her wand at a pillow which began fluffing itself. "He's already had his yearly week-long stay, Mr. Weasley, and should I see him here again—"
"Right." Ron shut the door. He was so pale that Ruby could count his freckles. It felt as if she had somehow coughed her heart into her throat, her fingers numb.
Maybe Harry had been in the exam hall after all; maybe he had gone off somewhere to study, like she had been planning to.
"What now?" asked Anthony as they turned away from the Hospital Wing, making their way back towards the Great Hall.
"We should tell a professor," said Hermione, just as Professor McGonagall rounded the corner with a cage of live iguanas, likely for the practical exam.
"Tell me what exactly, Miss Granger?" asked Professor McGonagall, raising an eyebrow.
"Harry might be missing, Professor McGonagall," said Hermione in a low voice.
Professor McGonagall looked as impassive as ever; only her voice betrayed a hint of apprehension.
"It is not unusual for at least one student per year to flee from their exams," she said. "But for Mr. Potter, I find it out of the ordinary. Do you agree?"
They all nodded their assent. Ruby's thoughts were racing, but to nowhere useful, going around and around in circles. Harry wouldn't have missed the exam unless he was ill. But then he've been in the Hospital Wing, he would have been at the exam. But if he'd been at the exam, surely one of them would have seen him by now. Maybe they just kept missing him by coincidence.
"Well, you all ought to be back in the Great Hall for your practical exam in ten minutes," said Professor McGonagall, checking her watch. "I will ask one of the sixth year prefects to keep an eye out, but my suspicion is that you will run into him there."
With that, she swept past them down the hallway.
Yes, that had to be it. It was the only logical explanation, Ruby decided, as they drew closer to the dense chatter emanating out of the small chamber adjacent to the Great Hall. Ron and Hermione were discussing the messaging device Hermione had presented for Ancient Runes — saying something about a panic button.
"Well, good luck," said Anthony, staring at the crowd and looking somewhat shell-shocked.
The other three echoed the sentiment before wading through the closely-packed bodies, the air thick with the scent of sweat and nervousness. Ruby got separated from the rest and resigned herself to using Pansy's shrill voice, which carried far and wide, as a beacon.
"—oh, I think I'd be too nervous to go last," said Millicent with a giggle, looking hopefully up at Blaise as Ruby squeezed through the last knot of people separating her from the group of fifth year Slytherins .
"All the more time to look over my notes," said Blaise with a shrug, smoothing his already-perfect hair.
The B's were already being called; Ruby turned to watch four unlucky students, including Millicent, weave their way through the packed crowd. Once they moved on to the C's, Crabbe nearly bowled her over on his way to the door, possibly on purpose. For the rest of the time, surrounded by students practising incantations and wand movements, she was caught in a haze of worry. The crowd thinned around her each time Flitwick stepped outside to call four more students off his list.
"Goldstein, Anthony — Goyle, Gregory — Granger, Hermione — Greengrass, Daphne."
"Good luck, Daph," said Theodore, as Goyle lumbered past. Ruby managed to mutter something similar. Turning to watch this next group go in, she noticed Hermione was trembling and Anthony and Daphne had started holding hands.
"Oh, they're pathetic." Theodore nudged Draco, who laughed. Despite herself, Ruby found some misplaced and macabre pleasure in their mocking laughter for the first time in her life.
And finally, Professor Flitwick stepped outside after Pansy's group, the door creaking shut behind him. He looked down at the roll of parchment that was nearly as tall as he was, pulling it through his fingers until he came to the correct place. Squinting through his glasses, he announced:
"Patil, Padma — Patil, Parvati — Potter, Harry — Potter, Ruby."
"With that group, I expect the Great Hall will be on fire before we know it," said Malfoy, who had lingered behind for some reason. Ruby had the fleeting fantasy of 'accidentally' stepping on his toes as she went past, but he danced out of the way, jeering.
By the time she reached Flitwick, Padma and Parvati were already standing by the door; the latter twisting the end of her plait and looking as if she were about to be led to the guillotine and the former muttering incantations under her breath. Flitwick glanced down at his list and called, with surprising volume for such a small man, "MR. POTTER!"
Everyone froze. The small chamber rang with silence, and Ruby waited, holding her breath, for Harry to appear, squeezing through the crowd. He would come, surely. Any minute now he would emerge, shoulders set, scowling, probably.
But he didn't, even as Flitwick ushered them into the hall and Ruby headed towards her examiner with leaden feet. Not even when the elderly wizard standing before her asked her in a kindly voice to make the eggcup in front of her turn aquamarine.
It was official. Harry was missing.
Everything after that was a blur. Ruby left her exam the minute Professor Tofty uttered a wheezy "Very well done!" and dashed out of the Great Hall, her feet finding the well-worn path to Dumbledore's office without much thought. She shouted something so incomprehensible at the gargoyle that it was a wonder he understood it, flew up the stairs and burst through the doors, panting for breath.
Dumbledore and Tee paused their conversation to look towards her, seeming impossibly calm to her racing heartbeat and sluggish mind. Her skin had gone clammy, too, a numbness seeping through her bones.
Both waited in silence for her to speak, and it took three tries for her to catch her breath.
"Harry's — he's missing."
A shadow crossed Dumbledore's face. Tee frowned, and Ruby bristled with cold anger.
Dumbledore was already getting up. "When was he last seen? By whom?"
It took a few moments for the words to find Ruby. "Ron saw him last night in the dormitory. No one's seen him since, and it's not like him to skip something important, even Professor McGonagall said so…" And now she was babbling, rambling… "I had some kind of vision in Ancient Runes last week." The very words made her feel sick. "I think Voldemort might have him."
Everything in her sagged and deflated, her surroundings dimming to a void of despair.
"How would he get in and out of Hogwarts without your knowledge?" asked Tee, turning around in his chair to stare at Dumbledore.
Dumbledore ignored him, drifting closer to Ruby. "Is anyone else unaccounted for? Mr. Malfoy? Mr. Nott?"
"No, I don't think so," she said. "Those two — they're both here."
Something similar had happened to Harry before. Then again, Theodore had had Mordred's help.
Before she could sink deeper into rumination, Dumbledore was speaking again, the calm demeanour disturbed. "I will summon the Order. You — and Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley, and Mr. Goldstein, for that matter, too, should go back to your dormitories and wait. Curfew will be strictly enforced tonight. We will want to have absolutely no one in or out of the castle once the Order arrives."
"But he could be anywhere," said Ruby weakly, even as Dumbledore shepherded her out of the door. He could be— no, she couldn't even bring herself to think it, standing on the stairs and staring at the stone ceiling.
She ought to speak to Sirius. There was no reason Harry should be at Grimmauld Place, but it was the faintest sliver of hope, and she clung to it as she marched up to Gryffindor Tower. Her heart thumped in her ears as she reached the painting of the Fat Lady, who was fanning herself and looking in the mirror.
"Hello?"
The Fat Lady looked up, her head lolling indolently. "Password?"
"Ummmm…"
"We've been waiting for you," said Hermione, coming up to her side and making her jump. "Dilligrout."
The Fat Lady scoffed before picking her skirts up and hurrying out of the frame as they climbed into the portrait hole and through into the common room itself. People were already spread out all over the floor doing last-minute revision for Transfiguration tomorrow; which Ruby couldn't bring herself to even think of.
"You really didn't see anything this morning?" asked Hermione, and Ron sighed in a way that made Ruby think that Hermione had asked the same thing five times already.
"Sometimes he does stuff like that," said Ron, turning with one foot on the stairs, looking half annoyed, half guilty. "I didn't realise he was, you know… gone."
Ruby's stomach dipped again as she followed the other three up the winding stairs, Anthony's head bobbing in front of her. Her hand went to the false Time-Turner hung around her neck — useless now, a simple trinket, the magic gone from it. It was only a small comfort.
Ron pushed open a door, and they all filed in. Surprisingly, the dormitory was empty. Everything was scarlet hung and lit by the golden rays of sunset. Her eyes searched the room until she saw Harry's bed. The sheets had been pulled down, the pillow tossed aside, and, as she approached, there was no sign of his glasses or his wand on the nightstand beside it.
"Look!"
Anthony was squatted down by the head of the bed, his fingers covered in something sticky and purple. "Smells like lavender."
Hermione brushed back Ruby to swipe a finger through the sticky puddle as well, tentatively sniffing it. "That's Sleeping Draught."
"Oh, yeah, you're right," said Anthony (who had already tried tasting the potion and was now wiping his fingers in his robes). "Why's it on the floor, though?"
Ruby peered closer. A spray of glass shards and a cork lay amongst the puddle. Someone cleared their throat, and they all turned to look at Ron.
"Harry said he couldn't sleep, that—"
"Ron, don't you think that would have been helpful to mention before?" asked Hermione, stomping away from the puddle. "You didn't hear that drop by any chance, did you?"
"No!"
As Ron and Hermione devolved into arguing, Ruby dove under the bed to search for what she'd come for in the first place — the old, dirty shaving mirror Sirius had gifted to Harry at the beginning of the school year. She swiped the sleeve of her robes over it, but it did little to remove any of the grime, and had perhaps made it even worse. Not wanting to risk tampering with the enchantment by using a Scouring Charm, she lifted the magic mirror to eye-level, and said, "Sirius! I need to talk to you!"
Her reflection blurred and swirled like wet watercolour paint, then grew clearer and clearer until it was Sirius staring back at her.
"Congrats!"
Ruby took in his smile, blinking. Her thoughts still felt sluggish. "What — what for?"
Ron and Hermione had paused their argument; Anthony looked up from investigating a crack on the floor.
"Your first O.W.L.," said Sirius, still grinning. "I'm sure you both did wonderfully. Where's Harry?"
A cold spike of fear stabbed into her stomach.
"Is that Professor Gloucester?" asked Anthony.
Sirius blanched, but Ruby said, "It's alright, it's only Anthony." Running her hand across the bedsheets to steady herself, she refocused. "You mean you haven't heard from him today? He's not with you?"
The slow-forming look of confusion on Sirius's face told her the damning truth.
"Why would he be here? Look, is everything alright over there?"
Hermione poked her head over the magic mirror, her voice shaking a little. "Hi Prof— I mean, Sirius. Harry's missing." She pulled back, exchanging an apprehensive look with Ron.
"How long has he been gone?"
Ruby heard the sound of Sirius's feet rushing down the stairs through the mirror, perhaps something shouted by Kreacher. Last night made what by now — fourteen, fifteen hours?
"Stay where you are," said Sirius, reappearing in the frame, a steely glint in his eyes. "I'm coming."
And then, the mirror swirled again, leaving only her own reflection within it. Ruby placed it on the bed with shaking hands, leaning forward and bracing her hands on her legs. It felt like she was going to throw up. The room seemed more suffocating than cosy, now.
"Invisibility Cloak's still here," said Anthony, emerging from under the bed, a silvery bolt of fabric in his hand and an apologetic look in his eyes.
They all knew what that meant. If Harry had gone off on his own volition, he certainly would have brought the Cloak with him.
"I've got an idea," said Hermione in a tentative tone, breaking the silence. "The ghosts don't sleep. Do you think they might've seen something last night?"
"It's worth a try," said Ron grimly. "You'd think they would've mentioned something, though."
They headed down the stairs and left the tower even more deflated than before. It felt as if there was a great clock ticking somewhere, and time was just about to run out. Ruby could not help but feel her thoughts draw to the prophecy — if it had been a prophecy — in Ancient Runes.
Beware, beware; the emerald stare. To follow ghosts is then to err. For enemies, you must prepare.
It was as clear as mud; as was usual for the complexities of the future refracted through the human mind. So did that mean that there had **been ghosts involved? Was it a mistake for them to consult the castle ghosts to find out Harry's whereabouts? Or did it mean that his trail was a ghost (it certainly felt like it) and it was a mistake to try to retrace his steps?
Ruby soon found herself several steps behind the rest of the group, absorbed in her thoughts. A loud, sudden POP! snapped her back into reality, nearly falling over her feet as she took the next step without thinking.
A house-elf whom she did not recognise stood before her; as far as she could tell, younger than Kreacher, clad in only a dirty pillowcase that had likely once been white but was now mostly brown, and staring up at her with green eyes the size of tennis balls, large and doleful. Ruby opened her mouth to say something, and then shut it, bewildered at the house-elf's sudden appearance.
Aren't there Apparition wards all over Hogwarts? Did this have something to do with Harry's sudden disappearance?
The house-elf pulled at his ears, screwing up his eyes as if in pain as he began to mutter to himself.
"Dobby will certainly have to shut his ears in the oven for this — no, iron his ears — If Master and Mistress ever knew—"
Somehow, his muttering was even more disturbing than Kreacher's, though.
"Um," said Ruby, not quite sure how to interrupt his diatribe. "Sorry, but who are you?"
Beware, beware; the emerald stare, she thought, but then again, emeralds didn't come in lime green to her knowledge. But since when had Divination been revered for its precision?
The house-elf swept a bow so low it nearly knocked him off his feet. "Dobby has come to warn Harry Potter's friends!"
Ruby was still not sure of what to make of the house-elf — of anything. Everything she encountered seemed to only confuse her even more.
"Warn us of what?"
Everyone else was just out of earshot now, having continued down the corridor without her. Was it curfew yet? She seemed to have completely lost track of time.
Dobby shuffled closer, his large eyes darting back and forth as if to check that the corridor was completely empty. Then, he said, in a grave whisper:
"Harry Potter is in danger!" And then, with a choked sob, he pulled away, shaking his head in his hands, and then started to slap himself in the face with the heels of his hands over and over again.
"Look — stop — please — stop hitting yourself!" Ruby reached for his flailing, thin arms with no avail. Great, with any luck, he'll attract Peeves with all this racket. What was wrong with today? Had everyone gone completely mad? She finally managed to wrench both his arms away, kneeling down to be eye level with the still-sobbing elf.
"Dobby," she said, her throat burning, "where's Harry?"
Another great sob escaped him, eyes shining with tears. Ruby was not ready to admit defeat.
"Let's do yes or no. Is he alive?"
Dobby hesitated, and her stomach squeezed, the air leaving her lungs before he nodded, and she could breathe again.
"Have you seen him?"
Again, he nodded.
"Is he—" The red eyes from her vision swam before her once more "—with Voldemort."
Dobby nodded, and it was all Ruby could do not to collapse. This — the most important thing — it couldn't be a yes or no question. She might as well be staring into two green crystal balls, begging for an answer to be reflected in them.
"Where is Voldemort?"
And Dobby's eyes dripped fresh tears, the answer half-shriek, half-wail. "Malfoy Manor!"
Ruby said nothing for a full minute, her hands fingering the chain of the salamander glass in her pocket before she tugged it out. A flame flickered above it as she cupped the monocle in her hand; the only sound in the corridor Dobby's sobs until the flame blinked out. Then, slowly, she got to her feet, staring into the dark corridor with a hard expression. Ruby went about ten paces, then turned to look over her shoulder.
"Thank you, Dobby."
Dumbledore's office, Tee thought, was not the ideal place for a war room — what with its cosy ambience, the chattering paintings, and being littered with strange trinkets on every available surface — not to mention that there just simply weren't enough chairs, and on top of that, there wasn't space for more chairs to be conjured. Still, necessity was the mother of invention and the Order of the Phoenix was just making do. Hagrid was perched on a small stool, which made him look like a chicken balancing on a pin; Tee didn't know why he bothered. Tonks was hastily replacing books she'd accidentally swept off a bookshelf. The officious librarian and Sirius Black were whispering amongst themselves in the back. Snape and Minerva were doing the same. Moody was milling about and glaring at everyone with his enchanted eye as it made multiple circuits around the room.
Well, it's nice to know so many people care about Harry Potter.
And of course, Tee was sitting in his usual chair, making no noise and pretending he didn't exist as everyone argued over his head, until Bill Weasley burst in with a wild, excited look, the oak doors swinging shut behind him with a heavy clang. **The dozen or so different conversations broke off, everyone turning around to stare at Bill, who seemed to wilt a little under the attention.
"And where've you been?" asked Moody, crossing his arms. "Now's not the time to mark papers, Weasley."
Bill didn't seem to have heard him.
"Finally got a lead, someone thinks they saw him in Hogsmeade last night!"
"Who said that?" asked Minerva, leaning around Snape.
Now, Bill looked apologetic, hesitating before he spoke. "Madam Rosmerta."
The name meant nothing to Tee. Then again, he had never been a frequenter of Hogsmeade — you needed to have some coin jingling in your pockets to get the full experience.
"Rosmerta drinks too much of her own mead," said Moody in a castigating tone. "Besides, no one in Hogsmeade can be trusted, not after the Inferi. We can't go chasing after ghosts."
"You said we needed intelligence," said Bill, his jaunty ponytail bobbing. "Well, here it is, I'm giving it to you. Mafalda says Narcissa wasn't in her office today, so there's nothing she can do right now."
So the famous Gryffindor Curse-Breaker does have a spine after all. Tee angled himself to get a better view of the obstinate expression on Moody's scarred, carved-out face. It looked like the beginnings of a fight, in his opinion. Bill was only a few inches from Moody, refusing to step down. As amusing as that might be, they really did need to get back on track.
He wondered when Dumbledore would show up. Being late to your own emergency meeting seemed unusual, if not rude.
"What else did Rosmerta say?" asked a tall, dark-haired witch who was sitting in one of the few other chairs. Tee wasn't quite sure who she was, but she carried herself like she was someone important and looked like a Black. Then again, those were two things that seemed to come in pairs. "Was anyone with him?"
There's always the possibility that he just decided to disappear himself. Honestly, I couldn't blame him. Perhaps I should take notes.
Bill turned around to face her, slotting his hands into the pockets of his robes. He looked a little relieved at the witch's intervention, his shoulders relaxing. Moody scowled.
"No, she said he was by himself, and he looked like—" Bill frowned "—like he was following something."
Snape cleared his throat. "I am afraid I have to agree with Moody, Andromeda. Rosmerta's 'account' sounds rather like storytelling. Besides, all of Hogsmeade knows that students are banned from the village and have been for years. Why wasn't this reported immediately?"
Tee wanted to ask why Bill hadn't brought this 'Rosmerta' here so they could all judge the veracity of the story for themselves. But before he could, everyone swivelled around to look at Bill again, who looked quite helpless.
"She said that he disappeared when she looked out into the street again, and she thought she'd imagined it until I mentioned a student went missing."
"Oh, of course," said Moody. "It's no slight to you, Weasley, but when you've questioned as many wizards and witches as I have, you'll learn that some sightings are nothing but ghosts."
"Then I disagree."
Tee had been expecting Sirius to speak sooner. He was surprised he'd managed to hold himself back for so long; since Tee had stepped foot in the office, he'd noticed the furious energy radiating off of Sirius. Perhaps Lupin had been trying to talk him down; a fool's errand as far as Tee was concerned. Sirius had certainly kept Tee at arms' length (if not barge-pole-length) for the weeks he'd been at Grimmauld Place, but that was enough to know that man was an unstoppable force that simply didn't believe in the existence of immovable objects.
"Harry's missing, and we can't leave any stone unturned!"
Why, why, why. Tee was a little light on blood magic (that was to be expected with it not exactly being a Hogwarts-approved subject) but though that protective charm was undeniably powerful, the rules of Arithmancy were inexorable. That charm would die in just over a year. If it truly was Voldemort behind Harry Potter's disappearance (yes, no one wanted to say it, but who else?) then why couldn't he wait a little longer, when he had already waited fifteen years since that prophecy had been pronounced? Surely—
The double doors banged open again, and by the way that everyone stopped arguing in an instant and turned towards the entrance, Tee knew it must be Dumbledore.
Well, he's twenty minutes late to his own party.
Just like him to make a grand, dramatic entrance. Even at a time of crisis.
Perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised that Ruby Potter was trailing in Dumbledore's sapphire-blue, star-spangled wake. Her hollowed-out, red-rimmed gaze swept over the crowd, accusing eyes landing on Tee, her mouth pressed into a thin, furious line. He glared back. What was she staring at? Harry's disappearance was hardly his fault.
"I apologise for leaving you unattended," said Dumbledore, turning around before the desk to face them all. Tee saw Sirius place a hand on Ruby's shoulder and whisper something to her.
"We have a location," Dumbledore continued, folding his hands in front of him.
Where did he learn all these little gestures of humility? Tee wondered, half-fascinated, half-scornful.
"Since when?" asked Moody, his nose — or what was left of it — twitching.
"We're not going to like it, are we?" murmured Andromeda.
While everyone was paying attention to Dumbledore, Tee found Ruby far more interesting at present. He glanced over his shoulder; it looked like she had been crying. Not from despair, either, but anger. As proven by the look of deep loathing she cast at him while moving closer to Sirius. Perhaps he'd been unnecessarily blunt about the Valentine's Day incident. Still, he could honestly say that whatever this, was, it had nothing to do with him.
Dumbledore winced, as if acknowledging her comment. "Malfoy Manor."
If Tee had thought Bill's 'intelligence' with Madam Rosmerta had been polarizing, well, he'd been presumptuous. The room exploded in chaos and cacophony. Tee could barely bring himself to pay mind to the overlapping arguments as even the paintings chimed in with their own opinions, Phineas Nigellus Black bellowing, "Out of the question!" and stately Dame Phyllida Spore from the fifteenth century murmuring, "Now, now, I'm sure we can all come up with a sensible plan." Sirius and Moody were having some kind of verbal battle that made it seem like wands would be drawn.
"We have to get inside—"
"It's not possible, Black, when will you listen? I know you snuck into Hogwarts and you believe that makes you clever, but—"
"But what? You don't care enough to try, so no one else should?"
Dumbledore kept trying to cut in but was thwarted, eventually sharing a long, weary look with Tee. There was nothing to it but to wait for all of them to calm down.
Finally, Moody turned to Dumbledore, his prosthetic eye still fixed on a fuming Sirius.
"Dumbledore," he said coldly, "how do we know he's at Malfoy Manor?"
Ruby cleared her throat, and the whole room turned towards her, as if not expecting her to be the one to speak. She didn't seem to notice the attention much; she looked to have settled into a listless fury, if anything, her voice dull and low.
"A house-elf named Dobby came to tell me."
The words had a hollow ring to them. No one but Sirius looked convinced. Tee had to confess that he hadn't spent a lot of time — none at all — amongst house-elves, but he thought the timing a bit convenient. Obviously, the sentiment was shared.
"That's Narcissa's house-elf," said Andromeda, clasping her hands in her lap. She looked at Moody and Sirius in turn, the latter's chest heaving up and down, and then last of all to Ruby.
"So?" said Ruby, the word as venomous as a poison apple, glare twice as so. "He's got first-hand knowledge then."
"He's probably doing his mistress's bidding then." Moody crossed the room to stand by Dumbledore, facing the rest of the Order. "Another useless lead."
"It's not useless," said Ruby, her hands balling into fists at her sides. "He was telling the truth. He went against orders."
Tee found this the most impressive staring match as of yet. Moody large and grizzled, the electric-blue eye locked in place, Ruby not even up to his shoulder with those terrible, red-rimmed Seer's eyes.
Which wins? The unstoppable force, or the immovable object?
Tee cleared his throat, and the slip of eyes towards him was strangely thrilling. Most of them had not acknowledged him at all; to everyone here, if they did notice him, it was as Dumbledore's shadow. A fixture. One of those silver instruments he liked to collect. He wondered if Tom Riddle would have liked the idea. He did not know. Every day, he felt further from that boy.
"Of course it's a trap. If the whole point was to kill Harry Potter, Voldemort would have done it immediately and paraded his corpse through the streets."
Ruby started like she had been struck. Tee saw Sirius's hand advance towards his wand, and he stifled a laugh. The stares were no longer welcoming.
"So either he hasn't got Harry and he's only bluffing, which is unlikely — who else would kidnap him in the dead of night? — or he isn't planning on it and just using the idea of rescuing him as a carrot on a stick — or is planning on it and wiping out the Order is just the cherry on top. The real question is, do you like your odds?"
Moody stared at him a while — that eye was truly disconcerting — before answering.
"Put simply, I don't. We lost good people in the war, and we just don't have the numbers or the skill anymore to match them. Whereas Voldemort's still got Bellatrix, the Lestrange brothers, Dolohov…"
"So that's it, then?" asked Ruby. "You're just going to leave him to his fate?"
An uneasy silence filled the room.
The tyranny of the many over the few, thought Tee. But he remembered that none of them must know the prophecy, the prophecy repeated to him and Ruby on a cold night in Godric's Hollow by Bathilda Bagshot.
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… Leave him to his fate, and who knows? He might rise to the occasion.
This puzzle was incomprehensible. But Harry Potter was truly — surely — the most important piece.
"I think we ought to at least do our due diligence, Alastor," said Andromeda.
… "A vision would confirm the house-elf's sighting, do we agree?" Dumbledore stepped between them, looking around at the gathered members of the Order, who all murmured their assent in turn. Only Moody averted both his eyes, muttering under his breath,
"I don't go in for palm-reading, but in for a Knut, in for Galleon…"
Dumbledore gestured to Ruby, who was holding the monocle cupped in her hand, framed by the moonlight streaming from the window behind her, like the haloed subject of a painting. "Then by all means, be my guest…"
But Tee knew one thing, watching the flame sputter and spark in her hands, her focused expression lit by golden strands. Regardless of the Order's deliberations, regardless of what she scryed, Ruby would not rest until Harry was safe. That, after all, was the reason why he was here, breathing, moving, alive, not still losing every shred of his sanity in that white hellhole. He shuddered at the thought, limbs prickling with cold. Yes, it was the truth. The truth that had wished him out of salt and blood and sulphur. The only truth. His truth.
The only question was, what part would he play?
A/N: Hey all! Happy Holidays!I was planning to post this last Saturday (aka on schedule) but there were some things that weren't sitting right with this chapter so I decided to let it sit and come back to edit and I added a few things.
I've also been working on Part II/III of the finale and I decided it needed to be split into two, bumping the final chapter count to 22.
Last thing: FFN is having its annual year-end glitch but I thinkkkk it's mostly fixed so I'm going to cross my fingers and post this. Yesterday it wasn't even letting me create documents, so we'll see.