Close To Truth

When they got back to the House of Black, Alicia immediately sat down at the table and requested a huge dinner from Dobby, complaining that watching Harry and Neville eat had made her ravenous. “I noticed your attention wasn’t always on your food though, was it?” she said teasingly to Harry, tilting her head towards Ginny, and laughed uproariously when Harry blushed bright red. Ginny just smirked and stuck out her tongue.

Harry and Ginny thanked Alicia for her help, and told her not to mention any of what she’d heard to anyone else, even other D.A. members. Then they took back the Invisibility Cloak she’d used, and headed quickly upstairs to the third floor. They headed toward the room Ron and Hermione shared, but Harry pulled up short; “Hang on a minute,” he said, and knocked on another door.

After a minute Pansy opened the door, and looked at Harry like he was something foul. “Well,” she said sourly, “Here to tell me off for hexing that prat Jordan, are you?”

“What? No,” Harry said; he’d completely forgotten about that. “I need to ask you something, Pansy: Did you ever shag Neville down in the Potions lab?”

Pansy’s eyes went round before she narrowed them, confirming Harry’s suspicion. “Don’t you dare tell anyone or I’ll do double to you what I did to Jordan!” she hissed furiously.

“I won’t, I swear,” Harry said. “Well, Ginny knows and Ron and Hermione—er, know already too,” he lied, not wanting to argue about whether it was okay to tell them. “But we’ll keep it a secret, I swear; I just had to know if it had happened for real.”

“For real?” Pansy repeated scornfully. “As opposed to a pipe dream of Longbottom’s you mean?”

“Something like that,” Ginny said smartly. She peered at Pansy. “Thanks for going to Hogwarts with Harry,” she said. “It made me breathe a bit easier knowing someone was watching his back, since he’s so prone to getting himself almost killed.”

Harry scowled at Ginny as Pansy snickered. “My pleasure,” Pansy drawled.

“Oh, Pansy,” Harry said, “remember the phoenix feather we used to leave Hogwarts? Don’t tell anyone what it can do. Anyone, understand?”

Pansy frowned at Harry before nodding shortly. “Right. Anything else?”

“No—” Harry said, and Pansy shut the door in his face.

“Come on, Harry, we have to talk to Ron and Hermione now,” Ginny said, fighting back a laugh at Harry’s indignant expression.

They knocked on Ron and Hermione’s door, and Ron opened it fairly quickly. “Hey,” he said. “Everything go okay with Neville?”

“Kind of,” Ginny said, shoving past her brother into the room. “Harry stumbled onto a problem, though.”

Harry quickly described to Ron and Hermione the ‘dreams’ Neville had talked about, and Ginny added her own observations. “It can’t be a coincidence,” Harry said finally. “One dream, maybe, but Neville described three dreams that were all accurate, and all three are things he was supposed to forget under the Memory Charm! I just don’t get it…Can Memory Charms leak?”

“Yeah, they can,” Ron said, surprising everyone. “Remember the Muggle bloke at the Quidditch World Cup? He saw Dad ask Harry for help with the Muggle money, and it made him kind of remember that a lot of people had the same problem that day; then a Ministry wizard showed up and Obliviated him, and told dad that the Muggle needed a dozen Memory Charms that day. Sounds like he was leaking to me.”

Hermione stared at Ron, apparently deeply impressed he’d remembered such a small but significant detail. “There’s someone else we know of whose Memory Charm was leaking,” Ginny said. “Lockhart. When we saw him in St. Mungo’s ,he was all on about signing autographs, and that Medi-witch said they hoped it was a sign that his memory was coming back a bit.”

“That’s right,” Hermione agreed, looking chagrined that she hadn’t thought of that. “Hmm… Why do you suppose they didn’t just restore Professor Lockhart’s memories with the counter-charm?”

“I’d say because what he did was more serious than a normal Memory Charm,” Ron suggested. “He tried to cast the Charm really strongly, and he did it with my broken wand, and the Charm hit someone other than who it was intended for. I bet all that screwed it up too badly to be undone properly.”

“This is all interesting, but we’ve got a bigger worry now,” Harry said. “Neville’s memories are leaking; we can’t be sure why, but it’s fairly obvious it’s happening, and that’s dangerous. What if the wrong person hears him talk about something and knows it happened? They’d know Neville had information that Voldemort could use. And Neville didn’t think twice about talking about his dreams, so he’s liable to keep talking about it until he says the wrong thing at the wrong time.”

“This is bad,” Hermione said needlessly, chewing on a fingernail. “What are we going to do?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Ginny said. “Padma, Sally-Ann and Terry have been working on figuring out how to undo the Memory Charm, right? So we need to make that our top priority. Restoring Neville’s memories just became the most important thing we have to work on.”

The others nodded, recognizing that Ginny was right; the safety of the entire D.A. was at stake. “Okay. Hermione, you’ve been working with the others on the Memory Charm; from now on, that’s what you should concentrate on. Forget about the ledgers from the Black vaults for now. Get together with Padma, Sally-Ann and Terry first thing tomorrow and explain the situation to them—but tell them not to spread it around. Within a few days I want to hear about your progress, all right?” Hermione nodded.

“What about me?” Ron asked.

Harry hesitated. “Hermione, do you need Ron’s help while you’re working with the others?”

Hermione bit her lip. “No,” she said reluctantly. “I want his help,” she admitted, blushing, “but I won’t really need it.”

“Then you keep working on the ledgers for now, Ron,” Harry said. “We’ve only got two more Horcruxes to find, plus Nagini… If one of them’s in the vaults, I want to know about it sooner rather than later.”

Ron nodded shortly, looking a bit unhappy. But then he brightened. “I wish I could have seen Pansy’s face when you asked her if she’d shagged Neville,” he chortled. “Bloody hell, Neville and Pansy? Who’d have thought it?”

“Don’t tease her about it, Ron,” Harry said sharply. “Pansy’s really good at hiding her emotions behind sarcasm and sharp jokes, but she’s more upset than she lets on about everything that’s happened to her. When she came out of the Slytherin girls’ dorms she’d been crying, I’m sure of it. And in the secret passage on the way to Hogwarts she said that—well, that we’d ruined her life. And I guess we have; she’s lost everything, even her way of life, and she’s a target now. I really wish we could do something for her, but the one thing she really wants is out of reach.”

“Draco,” Hermione said with a sigh.

“Yeah,” Harry said. “Even not accounting for Pansy, there’s some good reasons to try and capture Draco: he could be a huge asset in the war, based just on the information he could provide. But it’s just not going to happen! I keep racking my brains trying to think of a way even to find him, let alone free him, and I can’t come up with anything! At this point the best we can hope for is a genie to pop up and tell us where he is!”

“A gee-nee?” Ron asked, his brow furrowing. Ginny looked confused too.

“It’s a Muggle fairy tale,” Hermione said wearily. “A magical genie lived in a lamp, and would grant three wishes to anyone who rubbed the lamp and freed him.”

“Muggles have some weird ideas about how magic works,” Ron stated, shaking his head.

“It’s completely possible,” Hermione huffed. “If a single tiny tent can have an entire mansion inside, there’s no reason that a lamp couldn’t hold a person.”

“Yeah, but what’s a gee-nee anyway?” Ron asked. “And why would it get stuck in a lamp in the first place—”

“Harry?” Ginny said, causing Ron and Hermione to stop bickering. “Are you okay?”

Harry was staring blankly at his hands with an astonished expression. His jaw was working but nothing was coming out. “Harry?” Ron said, waving his hand in front of Harry’s face. “What’s up?”

Harry looked up at Ron. “Popping up,” he said weakly. “Popping up and telling us…”

“So you know where we can find a gee-nee, then?” Ron asked innocently.

“NO,” Harry said, shoving himself to his feet. “But almost as good.” He strode quickly to the door and opened it. “Kreacher!” he said sharply. “Kreacher, show yourself to me right now, at number twelve, Grimmauld Place!”

There was a loud crack, and the ancient little house-elf appeared right in front of Harry. He looked up at Harry with a sour face. “Master called me?” he said in an unctuous voice.

Harry shoved Kreacher into the room and shut the door behind them. Kreacher looked around at Ron, Ginny and Hermione, who stared back, shocked. “Harry?” Ginny said, seeking an explanation.

“Master is still associating with Mudbloods and traitors,” Kreacher muttered, glaring at Hermione. “Master continues to sully the home of my poor Mistress, oh, the shame—”

“Shut up,” Harry snapped as he came around to scowl down at the house-elf. “Kreacher, last year I gave you orders to follow Draco Malfoy,” he stated.

“And Kreacher did it, master,” Kreacher insisted, executing a low, mocking bow.

“I never rescinded those orders,” Harry continued. “Have you disobeyed me, or have you been following Draco Malfoy since then?”

Kreacher glanced shiftily over when Ron, Hermione and Ginny all gasped. “I have not, Master,” he said carefully, eyes darting everywhere.

Harry took a moment to realize that Kreacher could have been saying that he hadn’t disobeyed, or that he hadn’t been following Draco. “Do you know where Draco Malfoy is?” Harry snarled.

Kreacher paused, clearly trying to figure out how to answer and not answer. But he couldn’t avoid the direct question, and eventually muttered “Kreacher knows where Master Draco Malfoy is.”

Harry turned to grin at Ginny, Hermione and Ron. “And could you show us where Draco is?” he asked.

“Kreacher…Kreacher could,” Kreacher muttered, sounding almost ashamed.

“And does anyone else besides the people in the room know that you’ve been following him?”

“Yes,” Kreacher said nastily.

Hermione let a shocked sound slip, but Harry was watching Kreacher carefully. “Who else knows you’ve been following Draco?” he asked.

Kreacher glared at Harry. “Dobby the house-elf knows,” he muttered. “Disgrace of house-elves, betrayer of secrets, a shame upon our—”

“Does anyone else know?” Harry interrupted.

“No,” Kreacher snarled.

“Right,” Harry said. “Listen up Kreacher, because I’m amending your orders. From this moment on, you are to continue following Draco Malfoy; you are not allowed to let anyone besides me, Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley or Hermione Granger know you’re following him. That means Draco isn’t to know either. You are not allowed to reveal yourself or communicate in any way with anyone except me, Ron, Ginny or Hermione. Oh, you can show yourself and communicate with Dobby as well. Exactly three days from now, you’re to come back to this house, and I’ll give you more instructions then. Understand?”

Kreacher again tried to figure out a way around his new orders, but Harry had been very specific. “Kreacher understands,” Kreacher said resentfully.

“Go on, then,” Harry said, opening the door. “Get to it.”

Kreacher gave them all one last glare, and disappeared.

“That was brilliant!” Ginny exclaimed ecstatically as Harry shut the door again.

“I don’t approve of your abusing Kreacher like a slave, Harry,” Hermione said with a frown. “I know this is significant, but—”

“Significant!” Ron exclaimed, as though that were the biggest understatement he’d ever heard. “Hermione, this is more important than bloody House-Elf rights! We’ve got a way to look directly into Voldemort’s activities without him knowing!”

“We have a way to look into Draco’s activities,” Harry corrected. “We don’t know for a fact he’ll be anywhere near Voldemort. In fact, I hope he isn’t; we’re not ready to take on Voldemort yet, and he might be able to detect Kreacher. But we have a way to Draco now,” he said with a triumphant gleam in his eyes, and even Hermione had to acknowledge that what Harry had just begun was monumental. “We can spend a while gathering information from Kreacher, and if we can learn enough about Draco’s activities, his movements, and where he’s hiding, then we can make a plan…and we might be able to kidnap Draco out from under Voldemort.”

All your life you live so close to truth it becomes a permanent blur in the corner of your eye.
And when something nudges it into outline, it's like being ambushed by a grotesque.
- Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

*****

Eleventh story here: http://hp.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600007154