Harry Potter and the Serpent's Eye by Marauder9744
Chapter Notes: Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed thus far! I can’t tell you how glad I am that so many of you are enjoying my story! I’d like to thank my beta, Priya, who is doing an awesome job with this story “ I couldn’t do it without her! Hope everyone likes this next chapter!
Chapter 16 - Harry, Ron and Hermione meet with Lupin, Moody and Mr. Weasley; Harry witnesses a haunting event.
“Well, here you are,” said Aberforth, handing Harry a stack of books that he had brought from the Hogwarts library.
Harry took the bag and muttered a thank you before spilling the books onto the pub’s back table.
Harry had awoken only a short while before and had left Ron and Hermione asleep before making his way down into the pub’s main room, where he had asked Aberforth to collect a few books for him.
Harry hadn’t slept much the previous night and had instead attempted to devise a plan of action. He came to the decision that he, along with Ron and Hermione, would find where the orphanage that Harry had visited in Dumbledore’s Pensieve was located, and that would be their starting point. Harry didn’t know whether Voldemort had hidden a Horcrux at the orphanage but, going by what Dumbledore had said, Voldemort was likely to hide his Horcruxes in places where he felt a connection. Harry was hoping that the orphanage would be one of these places.
“Did you have any trouble finding the books, Aberforth?” Harry asked.
“Nah, but Irma wasn’t too helpful, mind you… never liked her,” Aberforth replied frowning slightly and handing Harry a glass of pumpkin juice.
Harry smiled, imagining Madam Pince and Aberforth fighting over the library books, and opened the first reference book in front of him. It wasn’t long before Ron and Hermione came trudging down the stairs.
“Good morning, Harry,” Hermione called, accepting a glass of juice from Aberforth. “Any luck in finding the orphanage?”
“Well, I’ve narrowed it down to four,” Harry answered. “We’ll have to check them all out before I can tell which one it is, though.”
“But what if it’s been torn down or remodeled since you last saw it?” Ron asked, taking a bite out of a piece of toast Aberforth had made for them.
“No… I don’t think that’s happened,” Harry replied matter-of-factly. “And if it has then there’s no sense in us looking there. If Voldemort did use the orphanage as a hiding place then he would have made sure that it wouldn’t be torn down or altered.”
Ron shrugged in agreement and stuffed another piece of toast in his mouth. Hermione gave him a quick, reproachful look before turning back to Harry.
“When do you plan on leaving?” she asked, taking a piece of toast for herself and taking a bite, yet much more civilized than Ron had.
“As soon as we can,” Harry replied.
“London, eh?” Aberforth asked, grabbing the piece of parchment that Harry had been scribbling his thoughts on. “Are you planning on staying at Grimmauld Place?”
Harry had thought this over and, as much as he would love to see Mrs. Weasley and the rest of the Order, he knew that staying there was not the best idea.
“No,” he answered shortly, earning quizzical looks from Ron, Hermione and Aberforth, but they said nothing. “Look… going back there will only bring questions.”
“He’s right,” said Ron, stuffing a biscuit in his mouth, “Mum wonleusaddaeright.”
“Swallow your food before you speak, Ron,” Hermione said with an exasperated sigh.
“I said, ‘Mum won’t let us out of her sight.'”
“Still, we should at least let them know that we’re alright,” Hermione said, sounding a little desperate.
“I can handle that if you’d like,” Aberforth said with a shrug. “I’ll let Molly know that you’re safe.”
“Thanks. Oh, and I’d like to meet Lupin while we’re in London too. I’ve got some things I’d like to ask him,” Harry added to Ron and Hermione.
Ever since he had seen Godric’s Hollow, there was so much that he wanted to know about his parents.
They finished their breakfast and went back up to their room, where they packed up most of their things. Harry threw his clothes in his trunk and shut the lid with a snap before sitting down at a small table and scrawling a quick note to Ginny, letting her know where they would be, and gave it to Hedwig, who left immediately.
“Ready?” Harry asked, shrinking his own trunk and sliding it into his pocket. Ron and Hermione nodded and did the same with their trunks before the three of them made their way back down into the bar where Aberforth was waiting for them.
“Take care,” he said, giving them each a warm smile, “and if there’s anything you need, let me know.”
They thanked Aberforth and walked outside into the cold, October air where, thankfully, there was no one in sight. They made sure that they had not forgotten anything and then, with one last check of the surrounding area, they Disapparated.
They appeared outside the Leaky Cauldron a moment later and Harry, Ron and Hermione trudged inside took a seat at a nearby table.
“Mr. Potter,” said Tom the barman enthusiastically, “what can I get for you?”
“Three butterbeers please,” Harry answered, reaching into his pocket to pull out some money.
“Oh no, Mr. Potter, you will not pay while you are here,” Tom answered, handing each of them their drinks.
“Wicked,” Ron exclaimed as he took one massive swig of his drink. “You know, mate, if you don’t count the constant threat of death, being friends with you really does have its perks.”
Even Hermione could not help but laugh.
* * *
“And you’re sure you don’t mind if Arthur and Alastor accompany Remus tonight?” Tonks asked Harry through the two-way mirror.
“No, I’d like to see them as well,” Harry answered.
He, Ron, and Hermione were sitting in their room at the Leaky Cauldron, waiting for Lupin, Moody, and Mr. Weasley to arrive.
“Great, I’ll let them know and they should be there in not too long. Oh, and Harry, you had better talk to Ginny,” Tonks said, with a very serious expression.
“Why?” Harry asked, feeling slightly alarmed.
“Well, she sent me an owl today asking if knew any proper ways of magical birth control.”
Harry did a double take, while Ron fell off the bed where he was sitting.
“What!” they both cried.
“Kidding,” Tonks replied, giving them both a wink. “You lot are way too easy to fool.”
Hermione was beside herself with laughter, and both Harry and Ron were stark white.
“That was not funny, Tonks,” said Ron, recovering slightly.
“Oh, yes it was. See you lot later. Bye.”
“That really wasn’t funny,” Ron said again, “and Harry, if you ever, well… just don’t do that with my little sister.”
Harry didn’t say anything and merely stared at Ron, whose face was now growing red.
“You haven’t… have you?” Ron asked.
Harry remained silent, staring into Ron’s face. He was clearly messing with Ron while Hermione was laughing so hard tears were streaming down her cheeks.
“Well… have you?” Ron asked again, this time much more angrily.
“Oh, Ron, of course he hasn’t,” Hermione answered through her laughter.
“Well, it had better stay that way,” Ron said. “I mean that, I never want to even think about that again, let alone hear anyone talk about it, I’m warning you, Harry.”
Harry was now laughing along with Hermione.
“Don’t worry, mate, when we do it, we’ll make sure you don’t hear about it.”
* * *
Harry, Ron and Hermione returned to the now crowded bar and waited patiently for Mr. Weasley, Lupin and Moody. The bar was so busy that Harry, Ron and Hermione easily slid through the crowd and were able to sit at a table near the back while they waited. They soon spotted Mr. Weasley entering the pub, followed by Lupin and Moody, all of whom had their scarves held tightly against their faces due to the cold.
They noticed Harry at once and moved towards the back of the pub where Harry sat.
“It’s not safe to talk here,” Mad-Eye growled, his magical eye spinning in all directions. “Too many people… good chance of being overheard.” Harry agreed, and they made their way to one of the empty rooms at the back of the pub.
“Harry… Ron… Hermione, how are you?” Mr. Weasley asked once they were safely within the room.
“Fine, Dad,” Ron muttered. “How’s everyone else?”
“Not as bad as you’d think. Your mother has been worried sick, but I believe she spoke with Aberforth this morning and she’s been slightly more up-beat since,” Mr. Weasley answered.
“Am I to take it then that you’ve been in Hogsmeade?” Lupin asked, taking a seat in an empty chair.
“You might say that,” Harry answered, doing his best to sidestep the question.
Lupin, Moody and Mr. Weasley each raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.
“Have you had any luck?” Lupin asked, after a moment or so.
Harry looked at him in the light and saw that even more of his hair had turned prematurely grey and he looked thin and tired. The dark circles that had been so prevalent under Lupin’s eyes during Harry’s third year had returned.
Lupin smiled after noticing Harry’s worried gaze.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine.”
“You look, well…”
“Awful?” Lupin offered in almost a bitter tone. “I’ve gone back underground, interacting with other werewolves. Greyback has been making difficulties, as would be expected.”
“But I thought you wouldn’t be able to go back underground because your cover had been blown?” Hermione asked nervously.
“Well, I’ve been able to slip through some of Greyback’s agents by keeping to the shadows,” Lupin replied.
“What’s Greyback been up to?” Ron asked.
“I don’t know if you heard of Gawain Robards’ murder, the Head of the Auror Office?” Lupin asked, looking between the three of them.
“Yes, it was in the Prophet. It said that they suspected a small group of Death Eaters and, possibly, Voldemort himself,” Hermione answered hurriedly.
“Quite right. It seems Voldemort was present, but we believe Greyback carried out the murder. I don’t believe the Prophet reported how the body was found,” Lupin said, his smile fading and a grim look appearing.
Harry, Ron and Hermione shook their heads.
“When the Ministry arrived at his home, they found each of his limbs in a different room. They didn’t find his head,” Moody growled.
“They took his head!” exclaimed Ron, his eyes open wide.
“More or less,” Moody answered, taking a swig from his hip flask.
“How are you, Harry?” Mr. Weasley asked, putting a comforting arm on Harry’s shoulder.
“I’m fine,” Harry responded quickly, and he looked back up at the group. “So, where else have you been?”
That was a rather weak question, but he did not like the fact that Lupin, Moody and Mr. Weasley were staring worriedly at him and he desperately wanted to divert their attention. Lupin gave him a knowing glance and then answered.
“As I said, I’ve been underground for a long while, and I did travel up to Hogwarts once or twice.”
“Oh, about that, Profess… er,” Harry began before realizing that he really could no longer call Lupin ‘Professor’ anymore. Lupin, however, was grinning.
“You can call me whatever you’d like, Harry… except Remy. I hated when Sirius would call me that,” Lupin answered with a grin.
“Moony?” Harry asked.
“Your father would have liked that,” Lupin answered, giving Harry another warm smile.
“Well, er, Moony, I just… I’m sorry for getting you into trouble with McGonagall. Ginny told me she heard McGonagall yelling at you for not telling the Order where we went and well… I’m sorry.”
Lupin, however, had already waved Harry off.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about, and besides, I’ve been in my fair share of, shall we say, delicate situations with Professor McGonagall.”
Everyone laughed again.
“I wish I could have seen some of the things that you lot got into,” said Ron, smiling, “I reckon the four of you would’ve given Fred and George a run for their money.”
“Well, James and Sirius would have for sure. I’m not so sure about myself though. I never did much to put a stop to them,” Lupin answered, frowning slightly.
“Speaking of them,” Harry said, remembering the main reason why he wanted to talk to Lupin, “have you ever seen this before?”
He reached into his pocket, pulled out the silver locket he had found in Godric’s Hollow, and handed it to Lupin.
Lupin examined it for a short while with a puzzled expression.
“No, no, I haven’t,” he finally said, frowning slightly again, “let me think. The only jewelry your mother ever wore was a gold necklace that James gave her for Christmas during our seventh year and, of course, her wedding ring. Hmm… I wonder.”
Harry could tell Lupin was thinking hard. He had hoped that this had been a present from his father and that Lupin would be able to tell him the story behind it. Lupin brushed off some of the mud and dirt and opened the locket.
He held it so Harry could see his mother’s picture inside the locket. She was very beautiful.
“This looks to be a picture from, at the earliest, spring of our sixth year because she isn’t wearing the gold necklace. Hmm… I suppose James could have given her this locket after they had gone into hiding. Alas, I didn’t see much of them after that,” Lupin said, handing the locket back to Harry.
Harry suddenly realized that he hadn’t ever asked Lupin this very interesting question.
“Why did they think you were the spy?” he asked off-handedly.
Mr. Weasley and Moody quickly glanced at Lupin. Lupin looked up at Harry and Harry saw his eyes flicker slightly under the candlelight. He took a moment before he answered.
“It was a dark time… and at the time I had just begun working underground with the werewolves, which made it all that much easier for James and Sirius to believe I had switched sides.”
“Were they that quick to suspect you?” Hermione asked in a rather timid voice, “I mean, you’d been best friends for all those years.”
“As I said, it was a dark time, Hermione.”
Harry took this to mean that Lupin did not want to talk about it and Harry could hardly blame him for that. Voldemort “ Harry thought to himself. Voldemort was responsible for ruining the Marauders. Harry made a silent vow to not allow Voldemort to ruin his own friendships. He had to stop Voldemort; he had to find those Horcruxes.
“Have you been able to learn anything new about Snape’s progress on the Draught of Life?” Harry asked.
“No,” Mr. Weasley answered shortly, sounding grave. “Our best guess is that it’s coming along nicely, though.”
“But, Mr. Weasley, how can you tell?” Hermione asked.
“Well, we’ve yet to intercept any communications between Snape and Voldemort. Either they're using a new form of communication or there is nothing to report,” Mr. Weasley answered.
Harry nodded.
“How are you doing?” Mr. Weasley asked for the third time, leaning in closer to Harry and looking the young man in the eyes. Harry thought for a moment before answering.
“Not too bad, actually,” he said.
“Well, unless you count almost being eaten by Greyback,” Ron added, trying to lighten the mood. Harry smiled at him and then turned back to Mr. Weasley.
“Have there been any arrests? We haven’t seen anything in the Prophet.” Mr. Weasley glanced sideways at both Lupin and Moody before he answered.
“Well… there haven’t been any arrests. The only attack that has been published has been, as we mentioned, the Robards murder. There have been other murders that Scrimgeour hasn’t wanted the Prophet to get wind of.”
“Scrimgeour hasn’t been very forthcoming lately,” Lupin said. “From what Kingsley and Tonks have been able to find out, three members of the Wizengamot have been killed or are missing “ prominent members, that is.”
“Some say old Scrimgeour’s lost his edge,” Moody growled, looking somewhat satisfied, “and what with Robards’ death, well… Scrimgeour’s gonna be in for a long year.”
Harry felt no sympathy for Scrimgeour. He had been so keen, mere months ago, to have Harry stand beside the Ministry in an attempt to make it look like the situation was improving. Now, it was quite clear that things were not improving. It all came down to Voldemort; they had to find the Horcruxes and defeat Voldemort.
“What’s your next move?” Mr. Weasley asked, drawing Harry from his reverie. Harry wanted to be able to tell the Order what he was going to do, but it still was his responsibility. Dumbledore had entrusted him with the information… no other Order member knew of the Horcruxes.
“I wish I could tell you, I really do,” Harry said. “We won’t be far, not for a while anyway.”
The three elder members of the table nodded… that would have to be good enough for them.
“If you need anything…” Lupin began but Harry cut him off with a small smile.
“I’ll let you know if we do,” Harry answered, “thank you.”
“Be careful, Potter,” Moody said, giving him a crooked smile, “and if you happen to run into any Death Eaters, give’em a good hex for me.”
Moody’s magical eye spun around in his head so that he could see out the closed door as Ron looked on queasily.
“We’ll always be here, Harry,” Mr. Weasley said and he hugged each Harry, Ron and Hermione in turn.
“Take care,” Lupin said shaking Ron and Hermione’s hands before looking at Harry. “You’re more like your parents than you know, Harry. You have no idea how proud they would have both been of you. Keep that locket safe. For it to have survived the destruction of your parents' house as well as the last seventeen years is not something any ordinary locket could have done.”
He gave Harry a one-armed hug.
“Thank you,” Harry said.
Lupin pulled away from the embrace and, with a small smile, exited the room along with Moody and Mr. Weasley.
“They really care about you, Harry,” Hermione said as they walked up the stairs to the room Tom had prepared for them.
“That’s why it’s so hard not to tell them what we’re up to,” Harry answered. “They’d be of so much help to us but… it just seems to me that if Dumbledore didn’t tell any Order members about the Horcruxes, then I shouldn’t either.” Hermione nodded in agreement while a small smile crossed Ron’s face.
“Besides, after what happened with Wormtail, I’d be surprised if Dumbledore even told any Order members his favorite color.”
* * *
Harry’s head hit the pillow and within minutes he was fast asleep. He was drifting through the clouds, as if he were a bird, or maybe an owl. He was soon soaring over a wide river that meandered between two large sets of mountains. Suddenly, Harry’s vision was bathed in darkness and he felt as if he was falling. When his vision returned, he found himself kneeling in front of Lord Voldemort and twenty, or so, Death Eaters. He didn’t know where they were but the place felt oddly familiar.
Harry could feel a cool breeze coming from somewhere behind where Voldemort stood, but the tight circle of Death Eaters prevented Harry from seeing anything. Harry soon noticed that he was not the only person in the center of the circle, and it also seemed that neither Voldemort nor any of the Death Eaters knew he was there. Their gaze was instead fixed on a petite figure cowering to Harry’s left…. It was Ginny.
“I shall only ask one more time,” Voldemort said, advancing on Ginny with his wand raised. “Where is the boy?”
Ginny recoiled slightly, but did not look away from Voldemort; it was clear that she was not going to let him intimidate her. When Ginny spoke, however, it was clear that Voldemort had achieved the desired effect.
“I… I… I already told you,” Ginny said, stuttering, yet still staring Voldemort in his blood red eyes. “I don’t know where he is. I haven’t… I haven’t seen him since the summer.”
A twisted smile crossed Voldemort gaunt face. He moved in closer to Ginny and aimed his wand at her, square between her eyes.
“Liar. You choose to suffer pain beyond belief for what? A boy?”
“Y-yes, I would,” Ginny said, shifting further away from Voldemort.
She bumped into a Death Eater who was standing over her. Harry could see that it was Greyback. Greyback opened his mouth slightly allowing for a small trickle of what appeared to be blood to run down his chin and land on Ginny. Ginny jumped forward, away from Greyback, and the surrounding Death Eaters erupted in a cackle of laughter.
“I would do anything for H-Harry,” Ginny said, “I… I l-love him.”
Voldemort chuckled to himself.
“You… l-love him,” he said, doing his best to imitate Ginny. “Well then, my dear, we mustn’t kill you just yet. When dear Harry discovers your lifeless body we want him to know that you were tortured… that you were forced to beg for mercy before the end.”
Harry wanted to yell out something, to warn Ginny somehow. Harry saw Voldemort’s mouth curl into a wicked smile before he cried, “Crucio!”
Ginny began instantly thrashing around on the ground as her screams pierced the cool breeze. Harry reached out to her, trying to hold her, trying to save her, but he could not.
Voldemort finally withdrew his wand and Ginny lay in a heap on the floor, sobbing.
“Had enough, my dear?” Voldemort hissed, leaning his head down towards her. “Ready to tell us where Potter and his friends are hiding?”
Ginny raised her head slightly so that she could look directly into Voldemort’s eyes. She spat in his face. Voldemort recoiled with a look of disgust and raised his wand again, for what Harry knew would be the last time. There were no words of warning, no audible sound could be heard except Ginny’s ragged breathing.
“Avada Kedavra!”