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@SaphireStark @Missy Clara Oswald
Chapter Five: Preparations for the Hunt
The shock of losing Mad-Eye hung over the house in the days that followed; Harry kept expecting to see him stumping in through the back door like the other Order members, who passed in and out to relay news. Harry felt that nothing but action would assuage his feelings of guilt and grief and that he ought to set out on his mission to find and destroy Horcruxes as soon as possible.
'You can't leave to go look for you-know-what until at least the thirty-first, unless you plan to begin the hunt without magic,' said Tracey, and Harry had to admit to himself that she was probably correct. 'Speaking of the hunt, in the last month have you thought of any other locations some might be?'
'No,' Harry admitted.
'That's ok, while I was staying at Mould-On-The-Wold Cottage I noticed Theodore has basically non stop been studying different book the entire last month, it probably has to do with our mission. He wouldn't tell me though as he said he wanted to be sure he was right before he revealed anything.'
They were sitting at the breakfast table; Mr Weasley and Bill had just left for work. Remus had thankfully arrived home safe and had agreed to stay at the Burrow until after the wedding, along with Canini and Theodore, and was currently unpacking upstairs. Mrs Weasley had gone upstairs to wake Hermione, Ginny, and Canini, while Fleur had drifted off to take a bath. Tonks, Tulip, and Allison had returned to their home until the night before the wedding.
'The Trace’ll break on the thirty-first,' said Harry. 'That means I only need to stay here four days. Then I can—'
'We're here five more days,' Tracey corrected him firmly. 'Harry I'm ready to go on the hunt now if we could, I know the others are ready to, but we have to attend the wedding. I want to see Terence one last time before we're gone for who knows how long, he's arriving the day before as my plus one, and they will track you down and kill you before Voldemort even can if you're not at that wedding.'
Harry understood 'they' to mean Fleur and Mrs Weasley.
'It'll only be one more day,' said Tracey, when Harry looked mutinous. 'Its an important day too.'
'But don’t they realize how vastly more important what I'm—?'
'They do, you know they do,' said Tracey. 'But without the specifics they don't realize why you have to go as soon as possible, and they really don’t understand why all three of us have to go with you. Speaking of which, prepare for an ambush.’
Tracey glanced toward the door into the hall to check that Mrs Weasley was not returning yet, then leaned in closer to Harry.
‘Mrs Weasley has been trying to coax out of Theodore and I what we’re all up to, she’ll probably go after you next. Remus casually asked Theodore what we’re all up to but when he responded that it was something important from Dumbledore that could solve the war he didn’t ask any further questions. Mrs Weasley though is on a mission.
Tracey’s prediction came true within hours. Shortly before lunch, Mrs Weasley detached Harry from the others by asking him to help identify a lone man’s sock that she thought might’ve come out of his rucksack. Once she had him cornered in the tiny scullery off the kitchen, she started.
'Theo, Tracey, and even Miss Allison seem to think that the four of you are dropping out of Hogwarts,' she began in a light, casual tone.
‘Oh,’ said Harry. ‘Well, yeah. We are.’
The mangle turned of its own accord in a corner, wringing out what looked like one of Mr Weasley’s vests.
‘May I ask why you are abandoning your education?’ said Mrs Weasley.
‘Well, Dumbledore left me…stuff to do,’ mumbled Harry. ‘Theodore, Tracey, Allison, they all know about it, and they want to come too.’
‘What sort of “stuff”?’
‘I’m sorry, I can’t—‘
‘Well, frankly I think the Order and I have a right to know, or at the very least Remus and Mr and Mrs Davis!’ said Mrs Weasley. Harry had been afraid of the ‘concerned parents and guardians” attack. He forced himself to look directly into her eyes.
‘Dumbledore didn’t want anyone else to know, Mrs Weasley. I’m sorry, the other three don’t have to come, but all three chose—‘
‘I don’t see that you have to go either!’ she snapped, dropping all pretense now. ‘You’re not even of age yet, and the other three barely are! It’s utter nonsense, if Dumbledore needed work doing, he had the whole Order at his command! Harry, you must have misunderstood him. Probably he was telling you something he wanted done, and you took it to mean that he wanted you—‘
‘I didn’t misunderstand,’ said Harry flatly. ‘It’s got to be me.’
He handed her back the single sock he was supposed to be identifying, which was patterned with golden bulrushes.
‘And that’s not mine, I don’t support Puddlemere United. The Tutshill Tornados have been my favourite team for over five years.’
‘Oh, of course,’ said Mrs Weasley with a sudden and rather unnerving return to her casual tone. ‘I should have realized. Well, Harry, while we’ve still got you here, you won’t mind helping with the preparations for Bill and Fleur’s wedding, will you? There’s still so much to do.’
‘No—I—of course not,’ said Harry, disconcerted by this sudden change of subject.
‘Sweet of you,’ she replied, and she smiled as she left the scullery.
From that moment on, Mrs Weasley keep Harry, Tracey, and Theodore so busy with preparations for the wedding that they hardly had any time to think. The kindest explanation of this behaviour would have been that Mrs Weasley wanted to distract them all from thoughts of Mad-Eye and the terrors of their recent journey. After two days of nonstop cutlery cleaning, of colour-matching favours, ribbons, and flowers, of de-gnoming the garden and helping Mrs Weasley cook vast batches of canapes, however, Harry started to suspect her of a different motive. All the jobs she handed out seems to keep him, Tracey, and Theodore away from one another; he had not had a chance to speak to the two of them alone since the first night, when he had told them about Voldemort torturing Ollivander.
‘I think Mrs Weasley believes if all four of you are never in a room together again, then you can’t make the preparations necessary to go,’ said Canini quietly to Harry as they were washing dishes together after lunch. Harry turned to her in surprise.
‘You know?’ he asked.
‘I’m not a fool Harry, Theo’s been packing a bag for over a month with way more stuff than he’d need for a five day stay at the Weasley’s, and Tracey wouldn’t ask to stay with us for a month unless she needed to be closure to you and Theodore,’ said Canini. ‘I know wherever you’re going it’s for an important reason, something stupidly noble, but Mrs Weasley just sees it as stupid.’
The last little bit made Harry laugh, and Canini smiled to for a moment, but then her smile faltered and Harry could tell she was holding back a great amount of worry.
‘Deep down though, I think she’s just worried about you. She’s known you since you were a toddler, she and the rest of the Weasley’s are like family, and she is scared something terrible is going to ha-happen to you w-while you’re out there alone on y-your journey,’ the longer she spoke the more her voice trembled. Canini’s live rivalled Harry’s own for tragedies, in some ways maybe even surpass, such as her having been old enough at the time to remember her own parents murder at the hands of Fenrir Greyback, and while Harry has had to deal with unbearable pain from his scar a couple dozen times, she’s had to deal with similar pain every single month when she transforms for nearly twelve years. After also witnessing Sirius’ death a year ago, Harry could understand that Canini more than anyone was afraid of losing another family member, and yet she wasn’t trying to convince him to stay.
‘I’ll be alright,’ said Harry, trying to sound confident. He put down the dishes he was holding and gently but firmly placed his hands on her shoulders. ‘I can take care of myself, but I also won’t be alone. Theodore has libraries of useful knowledge in his head, Allison is an excellent strategist, Tracey knows multiple healing spells, and all four of us can handle our own in a fight. We have to go, but we’ll be ok, I promise.’
And with that said she gave him a hug, it wasn’t her normal rib crushing tight hug, but one where you try to make a memory of that moment in your head. After a while they let go and Canini look a tiny bit more relieved.
‘I just wish we had more time to spend together, I didn’t get to see you all month and now you’re going to be gone in a couple days. We haven’t had any time to catch up,’ said Canini.
‘Well, then, let’s catch up, what’s been happening in your life while I’ve been stuck in the Dursley’s?’ asked Harry.
‘Well, when Tracey was staying with us long term we all decided to switch beds. Moony magically disassembled Theodore and your bunk bed and moved it into my room which I’ve been sharing with Tracey, Theodore got my old bed. It’s been fun having Tracey around, it’s been like them summer we were all stuck in Grimmauld Place, she’s helped bring some light into these dark times.’
‘That’s great to hear,’ said Harry.
‘Then I’ve been helping Remus stock up on things, incase we have to hide in Mould-On-The-Wold for an extended period of time. Preserved food, toiletries, potion ingredients even though neither of us are the best at brewing, and—‘
‘Oh, that reminds me, I read in the paper that there is a mass shortage of Fluxweed Syrup. That’s a main ingredient for your Casition Potions, isn’t it, people are buying it in a hope to use as last minute disguises to escape Death Eater’s. Have you stocked up on Casition Potions as you seem to still be looking like any other girl?’ said Harry, he knew his wording wasn’t quite right but hoped she’d know what he meant and forgive him.
‘I’d still be a girl whether I ever took those potions or not, they just were to help me more closely be who I am, but if you can keep a secret I’ve actually been off those potions for nearly a month,’ admitted Canini. ‘When the shortage first started Remus sat me down for a long private conversation, he told me that the next two years until I’m seventeen were going to be long and uncertain, and that he knew that ever since I told everyone I was really a witch that not once had I ever showed doubts that I might still be a wizard. He said if I was absolutely sure with who I am he’d hunt down a bottle of Feminalex Potion for me to take so I wouldn’t have to add worrying about morphing back into a boy-like body to my already long list of anxieties in these dark times. He got the bottle and I drank it and I’ve felt amazing ever since, it’s like I’ve become whole.’
‘I’m so very happy you got to take the Potion, it must really lift a pressure off your chest,’ admitted Harry, slightly happier than he had been before talking to his sister.
It was a tiny moment, but a happy one.
They were often joined by other Order members for dinner now, because the Burrow had replaced number twelve, Grimmauld Place as the headquarters. Mr Weasley had explained that after the death of Dumbledore, their Secret-Keeper, each of the people to whom Dumbledore had confided Grimmauld Place’s location had become a Secret Person in turn.
‘And as there are around thirty of us, that greatly dilutes the power of the Fidelius Charm. Twenty times as many opportunities for the Death Eaters to get the secret out of somebody. We can’t expect it to hold much longer.’
‘But surely Snape will have told the Death Eaters the address by now?’ asked Harry.
‘Well, Mad-Eye set up a couple of curses against Snape in case he turns up there again. We hope they’ll be strong enough both to keep him out and to bind his tongue if he tries to talk about the place, but we can’t be sure. It would have been insane to keep using the place as headquarters now that its protection has become so shaky.’
The kitchen was so crowded that evening was difficult to maneuver knives and forks. Harry found himself crammed beside Remus and Theodore, although the fact their arms were touching he wished he had more space. He could barely cut his chicken without elbowing someone in the arm or side.
‘No news about Mad-Eye?’ Harry asked Remus.
‘No, sorry Harry,’ answered Remus.
They were postponing holding a funeral for Moody in the hopes they could find his body, but there had so far been no luck. Bill and Remus had failed to recover his body. It had been difficult to know where he might have fallen, given the darkness and the confusion of the battle.
‘The Daily Prophet hasn’t said a word about him dying or about finding the body,’ said Bill. ‘But that doesn’t mean much. It’s keeping a lot quiet these days.’
‘And they still haven’t called a hearing about all the underage magic I used escaping the Death Eaters?’ Harry called across the table to Mr Weasley, who shook his head.
‘Because they know I had no choice or because they don’t want me to tell the world Voldemort attacked me?’
‘The latter, I think. Scrimgeour doesn’t want to admit that You-Know-Who is as powerful as he is, nor that Azkaban’s seen a mass breakout.’
‘Yeah, why tell the public the truth?’ said Harry, clenching his knife so tightly that the faint scars on the back of his right hand stood out, white against his skin: I must not tell lies.
‘Is nearly the entire Ministry full of cowards?’ suddenly asked Theodore quite harshly, although Harry suspected this out burst was brought on by Theodore learning his abusive Death Eater biological father was likely free from Azkaban.
‘Yeah, isn’t anyone at the Ministry prepared to stand up to him?’ asked Ron angrily.
‘Of course, Ron, but people are terrified.’ Mr Weasley replied, “terrified that they will be next to disappear, their children the next to be attacked! There are nasty rumours going around; I for one don’t believe the Muggle Studies professor at Hogwarts resigned. She hasn’t been seen for weeks now. Meanwhile Scrimgeour remains shut up in his office all day. I just hope he’s working on a plan.’
There was a pause in which Mrs Weasley magicked her empty plates onto the work surface and served apple tart.
‘We must decide ’ow you will be disguised, ‘Arry,’ said Fleur, once everyone had pudding. ‘For ze wedding,’ she added, when he looked confused. ‘Of course, none of our guests are Death Eaters, but we cannot guarantee zat zey will not let something slip after zey ’ave ’ad champagne.’
From this, Harry gathered that she still suspected Hagrid.
‘Yes, good point,’ said Mrs Weasley from the top of the table, where she sat, spectacles perched on the end of her nose, scanning an immense list of jobs that she had scribbled on a very long piece of parchment. ‘Now, Theodore, have you and Ron cleaned out Ron’s room yet?’
‘Er, no, not yet,’ admitted Theodore.
‘Because it doesn’t matter,’ exclaimed Ron, glaring at his mother. ‘Why does my room have to be cleaned out? Harry, Theo and I are all fine with it the way it is!’
‘We are holding your brother’s wedding here in a few days’ time, young man—‘
‘And are they getting married in my bedroom?’ asked Ron furiously. ‘No! So why in the name of Merlin’s saggy left—‘
‘Don’t you talk to your mother like that,’ said Mr Weasley firmly, ‘And do as you’re told.’
Ron scowled at both his parents, then picked up his spoon and attacked the last few mouthfuls of his apple tart. It was clear the stress of the was a lot on Ron, and the added stress of the Wedding wasn’t helping.
‘I can help, some of it’s my mess.’ Harry told Ron, but Mrs Weasley cut across him.
‘No, Harry, dear, I’d much rather Theodore sticks with Ron, you help Arthur muck out the chickens, and Tracey, I’d be ever so grateful if you’d change the sheets for Monsieur and Madame Delacour with Ginny, you know they’re arriving at eleven tomorrow morning.’
But as it turned out, there was very little to do for the chickens, ‘There’s no need to, er, mention it to Molly,’ Mr Weasley told Harry as they stood outside the coop, ‘but I actually just tell Molly the coop is messy so I can get an hour or so to myself each day. You can go have a little time for yourself to relax.’
When he returned to the house, Mrs Weasley was nowhere to be seen, so Harry slipped upstairs to Ron’s attic bedroom where he, Harry, and Theodore were staying.
‘We’re almost done, almost don—! Oh, it’s just Harry,’ said Theodore in relief, as Harry entered the room. Theodore lay back down on his caught, which he had evidently just vacated. The room was just as messy as it had been all week; the only change was that instead of Ron in the room with him, Tracey was now sitting in the far corner, sorting books, some of which Harry recognized as his own, into two enormous piles.
‘Oh good Harry, you’re here,’ she said, as he sat down on his own camp bed.
‘And how did you manage to get away?’ asked Harry.
‘Mrs Weasley didn’t remember that she had Ginny and I to change the sheets already yesterday, so Ron and Hermione are relaxing with Ginny in her room,’ said Tracey. She threw Flesh-Eating Trees of the World onto one pile and Practical Defensive Magic and Its Use Against the Dark Arts onto the other.
‘So, what’s with all the books Tracey?’ asked Harry curiously. ‘I thought you said it was Theodore going through books?’
‘His are in here now too, and I asked Allison to bring the ones she deems most important when she arrives before the wedding,’ she replied, her small emerald purse beside her. ‘Right now we’re deciding which books we’ll have to take with us on our journey.’
‘Yeah, we don’t know what we’ll encounter, so it’s best to have a little bit of everything,’ agreed Theodore.
‘Listen,’ said Harry.
He had sat up straight. Theodore and Tracey looked at him with similar mixtures of resignation and defiance.
‘I know you said after Dumbledore’s funeral that you wanted to come with me,’ Harry began.
‘I saw this coming,’ Theodore said to Tracey, rolling his eyes.
‘Alli said he would,’ she sighed, turning back to her books. ‘Should I take all seven volumes of The Standard Book of Spells, or just the last two as well as Advanced Charm Casting?
‘Listen!’ said Harry again.
‘No, you listen to us, Harry,’ said Tracey. ‘We all agreed on this a month ago—years ago actually.’
‘But—‘
‘Shut up, Harry,’ Theodore advised him.
‘—are you sure you’ve thought this through?’ Harry persisted.
‘Are we sure!’ said Tracey, slamming Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes onto the keep pile with a rather fierce look. ‘I’ve bought supplies and have had everything packed for a month now, as well as have over five hundred gallons and two thousand-five hundred pounds for emergencies. I’ve been studying a few different healing spells in case one of us gets hurt. I have done something I am not proud of in preparation for our journey. And I should go with you anyway as I don’t have a home to go back to, my muggle father has taken my mother and brother somewhere hopefully no one magical will think of and I asked them not to tell me where. If we succeed with our mission we’ll hopefully be able to find each other again, but if Death Eater’s find them or Voldemort gets me we’ll never know what happens to each other.’
Her voice was becoming shaky, so Theodore picked up where she left off.
‘Harry. You, Sirius, and Remus saved my life years ago from my father and his ideology, but now if we don’t put a stop to this war everyone we know and love would be forced to live how I was,’ started Theodore. ‘And Allison’s not here, so I’ll speak on her behalf. She literally chose you and the rest of us over the traditional views and expected associations of a Slytherin. We all made sacrifices, we all know the risks including that we might not all survive, but we also all know that no one we love or care about will survive if we don’t do something. We’re coming with you.’
‘At the start of our fifth year we all made a promise to each other. That we’ll stick with each other no matter what, that no one is getting left behind. I am not breaking that promise now,’ said Tracey firmly.
Harry could not think of anything to say, he had thought they would understand why he wanted to go alone, but they did bring up good points on why they should go even though he wouldn’t admit it.
‘I—guys, I’m sorry—I didn’t—‘
‘Didn’t realize we knew exactly what we were signing up for when we volunteered to join you after Dumbledore’s funeral?’ said Theodore with snark, his face than sank. ‘I had to tell Colin to take Dennis and the rest of the Creevey’s and go into hiding, it’s not safe for Muggle-Borns anymore. Terence will probably be safe a little longer because even people like Umbridge believe he’s half-blood, but everyone and their Crup knows Colin’s parentage…I needed to make sure he was safe. He might be halfway to New Zealand for all I know.’
There was silence in the room, broken only by gentle thuds as Tracey threw all seven volumes of The Standard Book of Spells as well as Advanced Charm Casting into the keep pile.
Harry looked from one of them to the other. The measures they had taken to protect their families and loved ones made him realize, more than anything else could have done, that they really were going to come with him and that they knew exactly how dangerous that would be. He wanted to tell them what that meant to him, but he simply could not find words important enough.
Through the silence came the muffled sounds of Mrs Weasley shouting from four floors below.
‘She must have found a tiny gum wrapper or something somewhere,’ said Tracey.
‘Well, while she’s still distracted there are some things the three of us should discuss. I’d prefer if Allison were here so it could be unanimous, but we’ll have to fill her in once she arrives back at the Burrow,’ said Theodore. ‘We need to decide where in the world we’re going after we leave the Burrow. Harry, you’ve suggested Godric’s Hollow, to visit your parents graves, but I really doubt there’d be a Horcrux hidden there.’
‘Except we don’t know where any Horcruxes are, so given that we have no other first places in mind to go I say it’s as good as anywhere else to go,’ said Harry, who did not believe that Theodore really understood his desire to Godric’s Hollow. His parents grave were only part of the attraction: He had a strong, though inexplicable, feeling that the place held answers for him. Other than a couple dozen visits to the graveyard as a child Harry had never explored the village, he had never even seen what remained of the house he was born in. Perhaps it was simply because it was there that he had survived Voldemort’s Killing Curse; now that he was facing the challenge of repeating the feat, Harry was drawn to the place where it happened, wanting to understand.
‘It might be dangerous though, Harry,’ protested Theodore. ‘Voldemort knows that you’re connected to that place, that you have a history there. He might be expecting you to go there at some point and have some sort of trap set.’
This had not occurred to Harry. While he struggled to find a counterargument, Tracey spoke up, evidently following her own train of thought.
‘The R.A.B. person,’ she said, ‘The one who managed to find the real locket and take it under Voldemort’s nose?’
The other two nodded.
‘They said both that they were going to die, but that they also believed they would succeed in destroying the Horcrux,’ she continued.
Harry dragged his rucksack toward himself and pulled out the fake
Horcrux in which R.A.B.’s note was still folded.
‘“I know I will be dead long before you read this—I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it as soon as I can”,’ Harry read out.
‘So, do you think it’s possible he or she did succeed in destroying it? That was have one less one to worry about?’ asked Tracey in a hopefulness that Harry couldn’t tell was real or not.
‘If they got far enough that they beat Voldemort’s challenges and swapped the lockets than its not out of the realm of possibility that they destroyed it, but we have to find evidence that they did follow through with what they wrote, otherwise Voldemort will still have a Horcrux protecting him,’ said Theodore, dead serious.
‘Even if the locket, diary, and ring are destroyed, that leaves three that are not. How do we vanquish Horcruxes?’ asked Tracey.
‘That’s where I might be of some help,’ said Theodore smugly. ‘I’ve spent the last month researching Horcruxes as well as Voldemort as a whole.’
‘How?’ asked Harry. ‘I didn’t think there were any books on Horcruxes in the Hogwarts library?’
‘There aren’t, at least not for several decades,’ said Theodore, his smugness now becoming a little hesitant. ‘Do you all remember how at the end of our second year Dumbledore admitted to removing just about all mentions of Tom Riddle from the main body of the castle, well he did something similar with books that covered Horcruxes, he moved them to his office.’
It took Harry and Tracey a moment to understand what Theodore was implying, but then Harry’s eyes widened and Tracey’s jaw dropped.
‘What? We’re Slytherins, if the worst thing I’ve stolen is a handful of books I think that’s pretty tame…and if we survive what’s to come I plan on returning them,’ Theodore admitted.
‘How’d you get them out of his office?’ asked Harry, who could only assume something that important of Dumbledore’s would have powerful spells preventing them from being stolen.
‘Oh, it was super easy, hardly any trouble,’ he said with a nervous laugh. ‘I just was very specific while using the Summoning Charm, and they immediately flew out of Dumbledore’s study window right into my hand. I did the same with three library books I thought we might need.’
‘But when did you do this?’ Harry asked, regarding Theodore with a mixture of admiration and incredulity.
‘Just after Dumbledore’s funeral ended,’ said Theodore. ‘Immediately after all four of us agreed to go on the hunt for Horcruxes with you. I told Remus I had to use the bathroom before we left so I snuck back into the castle and went to the courtyard. I knew I probably wouldn’t get the chance to do deep searches at Flourish and Blotts, the secondhand shop, Tomes and Scrolls, and I definitely wasn’t going to be allowed to go searching through Knockturn Alley, so I knew the only shot of getting the books I needed was from Hogwarts. I did a few Summoning Charms, and the books I needed flew right out his office’s window or through the library door.’
There was silence, and then Theodore spoke once more. ‘Do you think Dumbledore would have been mad?’
‘No, I think he’d understand,’ answered Tracey, in a quite serious tone.
‘So, what are in these books?’ asked Harry.
Theodore began rummaging through Tracey’s keep pile until he puled out an old book bound in faded black leather. He looked a little nauseated and held it as if it burned his skin to touch it.
'I took Magick Moste Evile just in case, but this was the only one I could find with detailed instructions on how to create a Horcrux. Secrets of the Darkest Art—I thought Magick Moste Evile is revoltingly dark, but this book makes it look like a bedtime story. I can't believe this used to be in the Hogwarts library, even if in the restricted section, because this is almost certainly the book Voldemort used to create his Horcruxes.'
'If the instructions are so clear, why did Voldemort have to go to Professor Slughorn with questions?' asked Tracey.
'He only approached Slughorn to find out what would happen if you split your soul into seven,' said Harry. 'Dumbledore was sure Riddle already knew how to make a Horcrux, and maybe had already created one, by the time he asked Slughorn about them. I think you’re right, Theo, that could easily have been where he got the information.'
'And the more I learn about those horrible things,' said Theodore, 'the more sick I feel, and the harder I find it to believe he was able to create six. Even in a book this dark there is a warning inside that states how unstable you make the rest of your soul by ripping it, and all that is just for making a single Horcrux!'
Harry remembered what Dumbledore had said about Voldemort moving beyond 'usual evil.'
'Do you know if there's anyway to remove the sole piece without destroying the Horcrux, it might be easier,' asked Tracey.
'Technically yes, but it isn't something we can do,' said Theodore. 'Voldemort would have to willingly want it back, and he would have to experience unbearable remorse over what he has done to do so, the remorse is so bad it can be deadly. So I don't see Voldemort doing any of those steps.'
'Yeah, neither do I,' admitted Tracey. 'If destroying them is the only option we have, how do we do so?'
'Well,' said Theodore, now turning the fragile pages as if examining rotting entrails, 'the book warns potential Horcrux creators that destroying a Horcrux is near impossible to do so once its done there really is no going back. We know the "near" part is accurate as Harry discovered one way to destroy a Horcrux at the end of our second year.'
'What, stabbing it with a basilisk fang?' asked Harry. 'Much good that'll do us, I doubt the Weasley's have any lying about the house or that they could be easily in Diagon Alley or even Knockturn Alley.'
'Thankfully the fangs are just one way, not the only way,' explained Theodore patiently. 'Substances or spells that are so powerful and destructive that they can eliminate something with little to no chance of reversing the damage are the Holcruxes weakness. The venom from a basilisk fang is only one example of what can destroy a Horcrux because it only has one exceptionally rare cure which is—'
'—phoenix tears,' said Harry, nodding.
'Correct,' said Theodore. 'The problem we're up against is while there are a handful of potential ways we could destroy a Horcrux, all are to dangerous to carry around or deadly to cast. We preferably don't want to die in the process of destroying them.'
'If we do manage to find a way to destroy the items that contain them,' said Tracey, 'what prevents the soul fragment from finding a new host?'
'A Horcrux in a host is not the same as a soul in a person,' said Theodore, trying to explain it the best way he could. 'I could blow Harry up with the Bombardment Spell, leave nothing recognizable behind, but his soul would be fine. For a Horcrux, if you destroy what its encased in, you kill the soul fragment inside, but that's why the host is so hard to damage.'
'That diary sort of died when I stabbed it,' said Harry, remembering ink pouring like blood from the punctured pages, and the screams of the piece of Voldemort’s soul as it vanished. 'Also, you used blowing me to pieces as an example?'
'Sorry, first way that came to my mine on how to describe the destruction of a Horcrux,' shrugged Theodore.
'I wonder how Dumbledore destroyed the ring?' said Harry. 'Why didn’t I ask him? I never really...'
His voice tailed away: He was thinking of all the things he should have asked Dumbledore, and of how, since the headmaster had died, it seemed to Harry that he had wasted so many opportunities when Dumbledore had been alive, to find out more...to find out everything...
The silence was shattered as the bedroom door flew open with a wall-shaking crash. Theodore yelped and dropped Secrets of the Darkest Art. Tracey jumped off the bed, tripping over her piles of books, and smacked her head on the opposite wall; and Harry instinctively dived for his wand before realizing that he was looking up at Mrs Weasley, whose hair was disheveled and whose face was contorted with rage.
'I’m so sorry to break up this cozy little gathering,' she said, her voice trembling. 'I’m sure you all need your rest...but there are wedding presents stacked in my room that need sorting out and I was under the impression that you had agreed to help.'
'Right, sorry,' said Tracey, looking terrified as she leapt on her feet, sending books flying in every direction, 'We’ll be right there...'
With an anguished look at Harry and Theodore, Tracey hurried out of the room after Mrs Weasley.
'These unrelenting chores are starting to make me feel like I'm back with my father...minus the beatings,' said Theodore. 'I barely even know Bill and Fleur, I can't wait for this wedding to be over.'
'Yeah,' said Harry, 'then we’ll have nothing to do except find Horcruxes...It’ll be like a holiday, won’t it?'
Theodore chuckled slightly at Harry’s sarcasm, but his laughter ceased at the sight of the enormous pile of wedding presents waiting for them in Mrs Weasley’s room.
The Delacours arrived the following morning at eleven o’clock. Harry, Canini, Tracey, Theodore, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny were feeling quite resentful toward Fleur’s family by this time, and it was with ill grace that Theodore stumped back upstairs to brush his teeth, and Harry attempted to flatten his hair. Once they had all been deemed smart enough, they trooped out into the sunny backyard to await the visitors.
Harry had never seen the place looking so tidy. The rusty cauldrons and old Wellington boots that usually littered the steps by the back door were gone, replaced by two new Flutterby bushes standing either side of the door in large pots, though there was no breeze, the leaves waved lazily, giving an attractive rippling effect. The chickens had been shut away, the yard had been swept, and the nearby garden had been pruned, plucked, and generally spruced up, although Harry, who liked it in its overgrown state, thought that it looked rather forlorn without its usually contingent of capering gnomes.
He had lost track of how many security enhancements had been placed upon the Burrow by both the Order and the Ministry; all he knew was that it was no longer possible for anybody to travel by magic directly into the place. Mr Weasley had therefore gone to meet the Delacours on top of a nearby hill, where they were to arrive by Portkey. The first sound of their approach was an unusually high-pitched laugh, which turned out to be coming from Mr Weasley, who appeared at the gate moments later, laden with luggage and leading a beautiful blonde woman in long, leaf-green robes, who could only be Fleur’s mother. Harry had seen Fleur’s family once in the distance during the final task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, but had never met them himself.
‘Maman!’ cried Fleur, rushing forward to embrace her. ‘Papa!’
Monsieur Delacour was nowhere near as attractive as his wife; he was a head shorter and extremely plump, with a little, pointed black beard. However, he looked good-natured. Bouncing toward Mrs Weasley on high-heeled boots, he kissed her twice on each cheek, leaving her flustered.
‘You ’ave been tru too much trouble,’ he said in a deep voice. ‘Fleur tells us you ’ave been working very ’ard.’
‘Oh, it’s been nothing, nothing’ trilled Mrs Weasley. ‘No trouble at all.’
‘Dear lady!’ said Monsieur Delacour, still holding Mrs Weasley’s hand between his two plump ones and beaming. ‘We are most honoured at the approaching union of our two families! Let me present my wife, Apolline.’
Madame Delacour glided forward and stooped to kiss Mrs Weasley too.
‘Enchant ́ee,’ she said. ‘Your ’usband ’as been telling us such amusing stories!’
Mr Weasley gave a maniacal laugh; Mrs Weasley threw him a look, upon which he became immediately silent and assumed an expression appropriate to the sickbed of a close friend.
‘And, of course, you ’ave met my leetle daughter, Gabrielle!’ said Monsieur Delacour. Gabrielle was Fleur in miniature; eleven years old, with waist—length hair of pure, silvery blonde, she gave Mrs Weasley a dazzling smile and hugged her, then gave Harry a hug as well that he hadn’t been expecting. Though he had nearly forgotten about Gabrielle, he had not forgotten that he had once saved her life…at least in Fleur and Gabrielle’s minds.
‘Well, do come in!’ said Mrs Weasley brightly, and she ushered the Delacours into the house, with many ‘No, please!’s and ‘After you!’s and ‘Not at all!’s.
The Delacours, as it soon transpired, were helpful, pleasant guests. They were pleased with everything and keen to assist with the preparations for the wedding. Monsieur Delacour pronounced everything from the seating plan to the bridesmaids’ shows ‘Charmant!’ Madame Delacour was most accomplished at household spells and had the oven properly cleaned in a trice; Gabrielle followed her elder sister around, trying to assist in any way she could and jabbering away in rapid French.
On the downside, the Burrow was not built to accommodate so many people. Mr and Mrs Weasley were now sleeping in the sitting room, having shouted down Monsieur and Madame Delacour’s protests and insisted they take their bedroom. Gabrielle was sleeping with Fleur in Percy’s old room, and Bill would be sharing with Remus and his brother Charlie, his best man, once Charlie arrived from Romania. Opportunities to make plans together became virtually nonexistent, and it was in desperation that Harry, like Mr Weasley, volunteered himself, Tracey, and Theodore to feed the chickens just to escape the overcrowded house.
‘We didn’t have this many chores when we were at Grimmauld Place, and it hadn’t been cleaned in over a decade!’ snarled Tracey, as their second attempt at a meeting in the yard was foiled by the appearance of Mrs Weasley carrying a large basket of laundry in her arms.
‘Oh, good, you’ve fed the chickens,’ she called as she approached them. ‘We’d better shut them away again before the people arrive tomorrow…to put up the tent for the wedding,’ she explained, pausing to lean against the henhouse. She looked exhausted. ‘Millamant’s Magic Marquees…they’re very good. Bill’s escorting them…You’d better stay inside while they’re here, Harry, just incase. I must say it does complicate organizing a wedding, having all these security spells around the place.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Harry humbly.
‘Oh, don’t be silly, dear!’ said Mrs Weasley at once. ‘I didn’t mean—well, your safety’s much more important! Actually, Remus, Arthur, and I have been trying to plan your birthday and I’ve been wanting to ask you how you want to celebrate, Harry. Seventeen, after all, it’s an important day…’
‘I don’t want a fuss,’ said Harry quickly, envisaging the addition strain this would put on them all. ‘Really Mrs Weasley I just honestly am looking forward to Allison, Tonks, and Terence arriving. A normal dinner would be fine…It’s the day before the wedding...’
‘Oh, well, if you’re sure, dear. I’ll still make some of your favourites. Oh, and how about I invite Hagrid over for the evening?’
‘That’d be great,’ said Harry. ‘But please don’t go to loads of trouble.’
‘Not at all, not at all...It’s no trouble...’ She looked at him, a long, searching look, then smiled a little sadly, straightened up, and walked away.
Harry watched as she waved her wand near the washing line, and the damp clothes rose into the air to hang themselves up, and suddenly he felt a great wave of remorse for the inconvenience and the pain he was giving her.