A Single Moment

Harry closed the door behind Ernie and let out a long sigh. “I am bloody tired,” he muttered. Then he turned and looked sheepishly at Hermione. “Sorry.”

“Just because I’m easily tired doesn’t mean you never are,” Hermione retorted primly.

Ginny handed Harry the notes she’d taken while Ernie was filling them in on what he’d learned from his contact with other pureblood families. “Did you notice anything important in what Ernie said?” she asked.

Harry hesitated. “Maybe. I’d like to hear what all of you heard first, though.” He looked at Ron and raised his eyebrows.

“Well, I guess it was too much to hope that he’d hear about the next Death Eater meeting,” Ron said; they all grinned. “He really didn’t say much we didn’t already know though, did he? But there was that bit about Pansy…”

Ginny nodded grimly. “Some spy of Voldemort’s in the Ministry obviously got through the Memory Charm Harry put on Rodolphus Lestrange.”

“Not necessarily,” Hermione countered. “Pansy fled her parents’ mansion that night, right after the fight; it could be they just placed the two events next to each other and realized they happened at around the same time. Anyway, Pansy’s running away and hiding was pretty much a condemnation in the eyes of Voldemort, no matter what, so it might be they haven’t even been connected yet.”

“Hmm.” Harry pondered that for a moment. “All right, let’s think about that for a bit,” he said finally. “Anything else? Hermione?”

“There were a lot of little confirmations of what we’d only really suspected up until now,” Hermione said slowly. “Voldemort’s definitely recruiting amongst the purebloods, and being a lot more open about it now that Dumbledore’s gone – the fact that Ernie was approached, even subtly, is proof of that. And they’re systematically trying to remove the people who’re most useful to the side of the Light; that’s clearly why Ollivander is gone, and Slughorn-”

She broke off and they all thought sadly of their teacher of just one year. He’d certainly never get to teach again; Voldemort had finally caught up with him, and his body had been found two weeks ago. At least they were fairly sure he hadn’t gone down easily – all the evidence suggested that the overweight, out-of-shape Horace Slughorn had put up a hell of a fight. His body had been the only one in the comfortable little muggle home, but there was blood spattered on the walls and floor from at least three people other than Slughorn.

“I’m concerned about the teachers from Hogwarts who were loyal to Dumbledore,” Harry said, breaking the silence. “I know some of them stay at Hogwarts year round, and the ones in the Order are relatively safe, but some of the others have different homes. They’re going to be targets, just like Ollivander and Slughorn were.”

“What do you want to do?” Ginny asked.

“I’m not sure,” Harry admitted. “We can’t just owl them and tell them to keep an eye out; some of them wouldn’t even listen, I’d bet. Or they’d be insulted that their students thought they couldn’t take care of themselves.”

“Harry, I’m not sure we can do anything for them anyway,” Hermione said. “Unless you want to do the same for all of them as you do for Flitwick…”

“No, we can’t spare the time or the people,” Harry answered reluctantly. He sighed. “I think we’re just going to have to forget about it for now; they’re adults, they should be aware of the danger they’re in. There’s just one teacher I think we have to do something about, and that’s Trelawney.”

Ron and Hermione looked surprised that Harry had brought up their former Divination teacher, but Ginny nodded as if she’d expected it. “Because of the prophecy, right?”

“Exactly,” Harry agreed as light dawned in Ron and Hermione’s expressions. “I don’t know if she has a memory of that night buried away in her head somewhere, but if she does Voldemort could find it, and he’ll want it. I haven’t been in a rush to do anything until now since Trelawney lives year-round at Hogwarts. But now…things are starting to happen. Voldemort’s lost his three most devoted servants – Bellatrix, Malfoy and Snape – and I think he’ll make a move on Trelawney sooner rather than later. So it’s time to deal with the memory before he does.”

They spoke about various ways to safeguard Trelawney’s memories for almost an hour before returning to their conversation about Ernie’s information, poking at all the details for some snippet of knowledge to exploit but finding little. When Harry asked Ginny what she’d heard, she said “I did notice one thing. Ernie said that the Malfoy name is out of favor, even with the purebloods. Lucius failed at getting the prophecy and then got himself killed – both because of you,” she said to Harry with a grimace, “or at least that’s what he knows, anyway. With Lucius gone, Voldemort’s probably none too happy with Draco right now, and that’s translating into the pureblood circles that are connected to Voldemort.”

“That makes sense,” Hermione agreed hesitantly, “but what does that matter to us?”

“Disfavor creates gossip,” Ginny pointed out. “The purebloods are going to be talking about Draco a lot, presumably behind his back – probably Narcissa as well. Since we’ve committed to trying to help Draco, for Pansy’s sake, we might want to cue Ernie in to listening for clues about Draco’s situation and whereabouts; there won’t be a map and a Portkey to him, but there might be clues wrapped up in the gossip.”

“That’s a good idea,” Harry said, smiling warmly at Ginny. “I’ll send a message to Ernie about it.”

“Harry, how’re you getting secret messages to Ernie?” Ron asked. “I know you’re not owling him…”

“I’m using the muggle method,” Harry replied with a grin. “A normal letter, with stamps and everything; Hedwig takes the letters and drops them in a box in muggle London, a different one each time. But I enchant the letters; when they go in the box, the postman is immediately compelled to go empty the box.”

“But where does Ernie pick them up?” Hermione asked with interest. “I doubt the postman delivers to his family’s mansion.”

“No, there’s a P.O. box it gets dumped in,” Harry said. “And it’s enchanted too, so that any time a letter gets put in the box, Ernie’s D.A. galleon heats up – that way Ernie gets the message the same day.”

“A what box?” Ron asked.

Harry snorted. “Ron, you should’ve taken Muggle Studies.”

“How does Ernie know this stuff, anyway?” Ron muttered.

“He did take Muggle Studies,” Hermione said. “He was in the same class as me third year, before I gave it up; he kept on with it, though.”

“They really should make Muggle Studies required for wizard-born students,” Ginny said to Harry with a frown. “I only got part of what you said, too.”

“Kind of moot now that Hogwarts is closed,” Harry answered sadly. He shook his head. “But you both got the gist of it, right?” Ron and Ginny nodded. “That’s good enough, there’s no point in worrying about it now. Okay, is there anything else we got from Ernie?”

“Well, you haven’t told us what you saw,” Hermione pointed out.

Harry thought for a moment before answering. “I’ve been noticing a sort of pattern in Voldemort’s activity,” he said slowly. “I first noticed when Snape and Malfoy got into the House of Black, but I went back and looked at some of his earlier stuff and it’s there too: the way he sent Draco after Dumbledore, the Department of Mysteries, even when he resurrected himself. His actions are…desperate.”

“Desperate?” Ginny asked, her brow wrinkled. “What do you mean?”

Harry groped for words. “He’s just not planning things well. The attack on the House of Black was really reckless, sending only two people when he had no idea what to expect. The Department of Mysteries…with the prophecy so fragile, you’d think he’d have wanted to be more careful. And the Triwizard Tournament was so much more complicated a plot than it had to be. Even the little things he’s doing now, like eliminating Amelia Bones and Slughorn, and apparently removing Ollivander, are really…rough. It’s like- like he comes up with a plan and doesn’t refine it, just orders people to do it. Some of what Ernie said about Voldemort’s movements and hints of plans fit in with that.”

The others considered Harry’s words for a bit. “That makes sense, doesn’t it?” Ron said. “I mean, none of the Death Eaters are going to question Voldemort’s word – if he tells them to do something they’re just going to bow and kiss his feet and then do it, right?”

“That sounds very accurate,” Hermione said to Ron. “And Voldemort is egotistical enough to believe that any plan he comes up with is flawless.”

Harry nodded emphatically. “Exactly! So his actions are hasty and unpredictable, but maybe not very likely to work. As a result, in the last several weeks two of his most dedicated supporters have died, and one disappeared – he can’t know that Snape is locked up here.”

“All right, but what can we do with that knowledge?” Hermione asked.

“Nothing immediately,” Harry said, “but we can learn from his mistakes where he doesn’t. We can have a lot of different things going on, but making things complicated and not planning well enough before we try things will get us in trouble like it did him. What happened yesterday with Bellatrix Lestrange is a perfect example; if we’d really thought about it, we’d all have had our D.A. galleons right at hand, we’d have spaced ourselves better, we’d have had more people…there’s a lot of things we could have done differently, but instead I just came up with a basic plan and we did it.” He smiled ruefully. “I know that everyone’s agreed that my decisions are final, but the result has been that not one speaks up if they see a way to improve my ideas. That really needs to change – especially among the four of us. From now on, I think we should talk out all our plans in better detail before I make any final decisions, unless we just don’t have time.”

“That’s a very wise way of thinking, Harry,” Hermione said approvingly. “The best leaders in history listened to the advice of those more experienced than them.”

“Hey, you are not more experienced than I am!” Harry protested with a laugh.

“No, but I have different skills and see things differently, as do all of us,” Hermione pointed out. “Different views will create new ideas.”

“Exactly.” Harry glanced at Ron and Ginny. “Okay?”

“Sure,” Ginny agreed, and Ron nodded. “All right…so is there anything we want to consider doing with Ernie’s information, beyond telling him to listen for clues about Draco?”

“I don’t think there’s anything we can move on now,” Harry concluded finally. “Ernie’s doing all right, but the other pureblood families don’t trust him enough yet. We’ll have to wait and see what else he can learn.”

“Harry, we didn’t get the chance to ask, what did Parvati say about Lavender?” Hermione asked.

“She wasn’t too happy, but she agreed,” Harry told them. “She’s off tomorrow, so she’ll do it then.”

Harry and Ginny also filled Ron and Hermione in on their conversation with Fred and George, and Harry told them all that Luna was okay with what they’d come up with (he omitted the part about her offer). “Tomorrow morning I’ll talk to Terry, Padma and Sally-Ann at eight,” Harry said. “At nine, I want Ginny there with me to talk to Pansy. We’ll come up and fill you two in when we’re through,” he said to Ron and Hermione.

“What?” Hermione exclaimed in shock. “You don’t want us there?”

“I want you working on something else, Hermione,” Harry said. “Tomorrow morning I’ll be getting an owl – or actually several owls – from Gringotts with complete lists of everything in the Black family vaults; there’s so much stuff in there I can hardly believe it. I want you to inventory everything in there-”

“But the goblins will have done that!” Hermione said angrily.

“The goblins told me they added to the lists as items were added to the vaults,” Harry said. “I need lists that we can cross-referenced: where each item is, size, value-”

“I can’t believe you want me to do this now!” Hermione snapped. “Why are you wasting my time on busy work when there’re so many more important things going on? I’m not an invalid, I can still help just as much-”

“Hermione, I’m not giving you busy work!” Harry shot back loudly. “We think it’s possible that Regulus Black stole more than only the locket Horcrux, but there aren’t any more in the house – what if he hid one in the Black vaults?”

Hermione’s mouth worked silently for a moment. “I- I suppose it could be,” she agreed weakly.

“If it’s even a possibility we have to try,” Harry said more calmly, “and I want you to go through the cash ledgers as well, for any unusual purchases around the right time…any indication at all. Make a list of items that possibly could be Horcruxes, so I can go and- well, and touch them and see if they rip my forehead open.”

“All right,” Hermione said quietly. “I’m sorry, Harry, that was unfair of me to assume-”

“Forget it,” Harry said with a genuine smile.

“Harry, what am I supposed to do?” Ron asked.

“Help Hermione. When I say the vaults are big, I mean you can’t even…look, the goblin I talked to said that just the list itself fills several ledgers; he said there were over sixty thousand different items.”

“Sixty Thousand?” Ron, Hermione and Ginny all yelped at once.

“Yeah, and the ledgers contain short descriptions of each,” Harry said with a grimace. “That’ll make identifying things easier, but if the lists are as random as he implied…it’s going to take forever. Ron, you’ll have your hands full too.” He chuckled at their stunned expressions. “One thing that’ll save time is, each item is dated and they were added to the ledgers chronologically. So you won’t need to go any further back than, say, twenty or twenty-one years; nothing any further back could possibly be a Horcrux, Regulus can’t have known about them before then. Since things have been collecting in those vaults for centuries, I think that should eliminate at least two-thirds of the items.”

“Great,” Ron muttered. “Only twenty thousand, that’s much better.”

“Ron, I know it’ll be tedious, and I’m sorry, but it’s too important to overlook,” Harry said apologetically.

“Forget it,” Ron said, gazing at Hermione. “It’ll just give me a good excuse to hang out up here with Hermione all the time.”

Harry and Ginny chuckled as Hermione blushed. “Yeah, but you’re supposed to be working,” Ginny pointed out with a mock-stern look.

“Sure, spoil my fun,” Ron retorted with a grin.

“Harry, aren’t owls going to be kind of…well, obvious?” Hermione asked. “We don’t want the other D.A. members finding out about the Horcruxes.”

“It won’t matter if they know about the ledgers, it’s well-known that the Black fortune came to me,” Harry said. “If anyone asks we can just say we’re looking for anything that’ll help the D.A. out – it’s even true. We just won’t mention the Horcruxes.” He raised his eyebrows at Hermione. “Even so, I’d like you to keep the ledgers here in your room, and the protection Charms up so they’ll be safe. Oh, and I arranged with the goblins for you and Ron to have full access to the vaults, so you can check things in person if you need to.” He pulled two sets of keys out of his pockets and handed one each to Ron and Hermione.

“Full access?” Hermione gasped. “But-”

“I trust you, Hermione, so why shouldn’t I have?” Harry asked, and Hermione closed her mouth and blushed.

“Harry…” Ginny looked mildly hurt. “You didn’t arrange for me to have access too?”

“I didn’t have to, Ginny,” Harry replied, surprised. “Since we’re married you have half ownership of all of it; you gained full access the day you married me.”

Ginny gaped at Harry. “Even- even the Black vaults?”

Harry nodded. “Everything I owned. The goblins gave you keys, didn’t they?”

“I- I thought they were all for your vault,” Ginny mumbled. “I thought that there were just a lot of different locks…”

“No, what you saw down there was it,” Harry told her. “Each vault has just one lock.”

“One each?” Ron exclaimed. “But there’s…” He counted the keys on his key ring. “There’re sixteen keys on here!”

“Well, yeah. Fifteen keys from the Black family vaults, and one from Sirius’ personal vault,” Harry said sadly. “I know there’s no chance anything could be in Sirius’, but why take the risk? It’s almost completely money anyway, almost no objects, so it won’t take long to go through.”

“Fifteen vaults,” Hermione murmured, looking shell-shocked. “How many vaults only have money?”

“Uh…not counting Sirius’ vault, three, I think,” Harry said. “Leaving twelve full of stuff to go through; and the goblin said that the vaults are magicked to have extra space.”

“Sweet Merlin, this is going to take months,” Ron said, shaking his head.

“It’ll take a long time, yeah,” Harry agreed. “But it’s important. If you decide it’s just taking too long, me or Ginny will try to help sometimes, or maybe Luna.”

“And take a break sometimes, right?” Ginny added directly to Hermione and Ron. “Do something besides sitting up here going through lists, or you’ll go mad.”

Harry nodded, and fixed a stern gaze on Ron and Hermione. “And use any money from Sirius’ vault that you want, and don’t argue. He liked you both and would have been proud to have you use it; he’d probably have been ashamed of me if I didn’t let you.”

Hermione nodded immediately, but Ron took a minute before answering. “Yeah… okay, thanks. Er…do you mind if I… well, if I get a few things that aren’t D.A. related…?”

“Ron, Sirius’ vault has nothing to do with the D.A.,” Harry protested. “I want you to have access because you’re my friend. Use it for anything you want; just don’t buy out Quality Quidditch Supplies.”