Close To Truth

Harry, Ginny and Ron trudged wearily into Ron and Hermione’s room, Ron carrying Hermione. He went to set her on the bed, but she stopped him; “If you set me down on the bed I’ll fall asleep instantly,” she said.

“We only need to talk for a few minutes, and then we’ll all go to bed,” Harry told her, exhaustion slurring his words. It was almost 10:00 am, and the four of them had been up all night. They all took chairs, and Harry glanced tiredly at Ron. “Is there any news about Fred and George?”

Fred and George Weasley had been hexed the previous night by Ernie MacMillan, who’d been under the Imperius Curse. “Yeah,” Ron said dully. “They’re going to be fine; they were already stirring when I left. Mum and Dad were staying with them.”

“Thank Merlin,” Harry said softly as Ginny let out a long breath. “I guess Ernie told the truth about not permanently harming them.”

“It’s too bad Voldemort didn’t take such care with Ernie as well,” Hermione said softly, her eyes bright with tears. Voldemort had forced Ernie to kill himself right in front of Harry and Ginny. “If ever there was proof that Voldemort will kill anyone regardless of lineage to gain power, last night was it.”

Harry nodded sadly. Several members of the D.A. had been badly hurt or incapacitated since they’d entered the war – Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Pansy, Seamus, Fred and George – but the night before, for the first time, one of them had died. And Ernie’s family were purebloods. “Did…did Ernie’s parents…?” Ginny asked tentatively.

“Tonks took care of all that,” Harry replied. “She got the Aurors over there right away; they contacted Ernie’s parents and told them. They also took Amycus into custody, and dealt with Wormt- with Pettigrew’s body.”

Harry and Ginny had only survived the appearance of Voldemort himself because Peter Pettigrew, the man who’d betrayed Harry’s parents, had stepped in and prevented Voldemort from casting the Killing Curse by crushing Voldemort’s wand arm in the very silver hand that Voldemort had given him. The other Death Eater present, Amycus, had fatally Cursed Pettigrew and bought time for the injured Voldemort to flee before Ginny had managed to Stun him. Just before dying, Pettigrew had told Harry to take two of his memories, the first of which he seemed to think would help them defeat Voldemort. “So, er…did you see what the memories were?” Ron asked carefully.

“No, there hasn’t been time,” Harry said. It was true; all four of them had been working non-stop since the previous night. Ron had taken Lee Jordan, Sally-Ann Perks and Susan Bones (all of whom worked at Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes) and Flooed Fred and George to St. Mungo’s; then he’d gone to the Burrow to get his family. Ginny had taken the two memories back to the House of Black, where she’d locked them in a magical trunk and sealed the room that it was in. Then she’d returned to Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes, where Harry and Hermione were frantically directing the other members of the D.A.

Voldemort knew that Harry was working against him; that was now painfully obvious. In fact, they had to assume that Voldemort knew everything Ernie had, which was a fair bit. And since Fred and George were clearly helping, they – and their shop – had become prime targets. Harry had spent a large part of the night casting every protective Spell and Charm on the shop he could think of, even enlisting the help of several other D.A. members who knew some unique ones; meanwhile, a handful of D.A. members had stood with wands ready in case a quick retaliation occurred.

At the same time, Hermione worked feverishly on an idea she’d only toyed with, and suddenly found imperative…a special Tracking Charm she’d invented. With a solid hour of practice she’d managed to cast the Charm so that she, Harry, Ron and Ginny would always be able to find the target, and no Spell, Charm or Curse any of them could think of could cancel, disrupt or even detect it. No one in the D.A. had ever heard of such a Charm – in fact, a few were certain it shouldn’t be possible. But Harry wasn’t about to question Hermione’s impressive achievement; by the morning every D.A. member, even Neville (who was still Obliviated and they’d Charmed while he slept), had had the Charm cast on them.

“We still have a lot to do, and watching those memories is pretty far down the list of priorities. We’re still vulnerable, so after we’ve gotten some sleep it’s right back to work.” No one protested; they all nodded, looking grim. “The shop is closed; Fred and George being in St. Mungo’s is a good excuse for that. The storefront has the Anti-Apparition Charm on it, and no one but us has seen the back room so we’re the only ones who can Apparate there. I have Alicia, Katie and Dean staying in the store, and I made sure each of them has their D.A. Galleon in case anything happens; we’ll have to have someone take over for them this afternoon. Everyone else has begged off work so they don’t have to go out alone today.”

“Won’t that seem obvious?” Hermione asked. “I mean, so many of our classmates just disappearing from their jobs all at once?”

“It doesn’t really matter; Voldemort probably knows the names of every member of the D.A. after getting his hands on Ernie. Besides,” Harry told them, “no one’s going to notice everyone’s not at work, because Diagon Alley is all but closed now. When word of the attack at the MacMillan house got out, the Ministry decided that they were going to shut down access for the day, except for emergencies. Most of the stores have closed because there’s no one around to buy anything.”

“Shut down Diagon Alley?” Ginny exclaimed in shock. “But why? The attack didn’t happen there!”

“I know, it doesn’t make a lot of sense,” Harry agreed. “I heard that a lot of people aren’t too happy with Scrimgeour right now.”

“Good,” Ron snarled; not surprisingly, since Scrimgeour had practically attacked Hermione.

“Diagon Alley being empty is good for us, and bad,” Harry continued. “No one has access and the Apparition points have all been shut down, meaning there’s almost no way in. But there’s still private Floos, so there’s still a risk. So the question is, are we in immediate danger?”

“I don’t think so,” Ginny said slowly. “At least, not now. If Voldemort had meant to get fast revenge he would’ve done it by now. He has to know that at this point we’ve had time to prepare and get word out in case we needed help. And he knows that Harry has friends in the Order of the Phoenix, so we’d be able to call on some powerful help if we needed, probably in an instant.”

“Yeah, but would that stop him?” Ron asked. “I mean, with Dumbledore gone, there’s no one who’s as powerful as Voldemort…would he really stop because there were more people? He’s strong enough to beat pretty much anyone.”

“He could beat any one witch or wizard, but a group of powerful wizards could defeat him,” Hermione pointed out. “And Voldemort has never been prone to direct confrontation; he tends to work subtly. I can’t see him staging an attack on a place he knows to be well-defended unless he has no other choice.”

“That’s true, and right now he has a choice…” Harry began, but trailed off, looking thoughtful.

After a minute Ginny poked him. “Harry?”

“Sorry. I was just thinking – the one thing Voldemort hasn’t got experience with, and probably isn’t very skilled at, is direct conflict. He did all right against Dumbledore, but in the end he chickened out. Hell, he didn’t even manage to kill me when he tried to make me duel him after he was reborn. When we do finally reach the point where we need to confront him, we should force him into a direct confrontation. It sounds mad, but he’s not going to be prepared for it; especially not if we’ve got some surprises for him.”

“That makes sense, but don’t get ahead of yourself, Harry,” Ginny said with a tired smirk.

“I know, it’s a long way off,” Harry agreed. “I just thought I’d say it so we could all keep it in mind. Right now we need to decide what the most important things are for us to do.”

“Right now Voldemort knows you’re working against him, and he knows who’s helping you,” Hermione said. “He’ll want more information, which means he’ll probably desperately want to get his hands on one of us. Fred and George are fairly safe at St. Mungo’s, and they’ll be guarded by family and Aurors round the clock. So the logical step is for Voldemort to come after one of us.”

“Then I’m really glad I insisted that everyone call off work today,” Harry replied nervously. “It means that there’s one really obvious target; Neville. He’s the obvious choice; Voldemort knows what really happened to Bellatrix; the fact that he chose to make Ernie…well, to end him in the way he did makes that obvious. He definitely knows about Pansy, and that Neville’s been in the thick of everything, and Ernie will have told him about Neville’s memory being modified. It might even mean he’s more vulnerable – I’ve never been clear on whether Memory Charms make it easier to use Legilimency on someone, but Voldemort knows how to break Memory Charms anyway.”

“Bloody hell,” Ron said after considering Harry’s statement. “You’re right. Neville’s perfect from Voldemort’s point of view. Good thing Diagon Alley is closed.”

Actually, Ron…Neville went in to work,” Ginny said. “Unfortunately his work at Magical Herbs can be done even though the shop’s closed; some of the plants he tends probably need daily attention. We couldn’t just stop him and tell him not to go in. We sent Parvati and Padma to trail him in the Invisibility Cloak; they were the most rested of all of us.”

“I gave them special Portkeys that activate by touch,” Harry said. “All either of them has to do is touch Neville and the three of them will be transported straight back to the house.”

“That’s good,” Ron said. “Have Terry and Padma and Sally-Ann made any progress with figuring out how to fix Neville?”

“How to restore his memories, you mean,” Harry corrected with a weak smile. “I don’t know, but that’s the first thing we’re dealing with when we wake up. I think Neville’s as safe as we can make him in the short term, but he won’t really be safe until we bring him back.” The others nodded. “Other than that, Dean, Alicia and Katie are using Revitalizing Charms on each other until someone relieves them so they can get some sleep. Everyone else is in bed.”

“Like we should be,” Ron grumbled. “Is there anything else that has to be done before we go to bed?”

“That’s what I was trying to ask,” Harry admitted. “There’s a ton we have to do right after we wake up, but is there anything we have to do first to make sure we’re all safe?”

“I don’t think so,” Hermione said. “We’re all too tired anyway; it would be risky to attempt any magic while we’re like this. The shop is as protected as it can be, as are the few D.A. members outside the house.”

Okay,” Harry agreed. “Let’s all go to sleep then. Set an alarm for 3:00 pm; those few hours will have to do for now.”