22: A Simple Plan
It was only with a great deal of reluctance that Harry, Ron and Hermione were chivvied out of the Hospital Wing. They went slowly, with many backward glances and significant looks and when Ron, his eyes slightly shifty, began to root around in the pockets of his robe, Remus made a mental note to keep his eyes open for any signs of extendable ears. Honestly. Though their interest and desire to help was admirable, didn’t they have enough to do with their NEWTS work?
Dumbledore was apparently thinking along much the same lines. With a knowing smile in Remus’ direction, he cast an impermeable charm in the direction of the door.
Tonks laughed softly. “Suspicious of your students, Headmaster?”
Dumbledore smiled in return as he lowered himself easily into the chair on Remus’ far side. “Always, Miss Tonks and rightly so. I know Harry. He has a talent for acquiring information he should not strictly speaking be privy to.”
“There’s an understatement.” With a clunk of his wooden leg, Moody deposited himself beside Kingsley on the recently vacated bed next door. “Barty Crouch Junior may have been crazy as a loon but he was damned right when he said that lad would make a first class Auror. He’s got the nose for it.”
“Let’s hope he keeps hold of it,” Kingsley grinned as he cast a sideways glance at his companion’s battered face. “He’ll be doing better than you if he does.”
Moody sniffed loudly and rather appallingly. “War wounds,” he declared loftily. “Each one a source of pride. And the mark of one less lunatic on the streets.”
“And speaking of which,” Dumbledore interjected smoothly, “There is the matter of Abraham Kane’s unexpected demise.” He glanced across the bed, meeting Tonks’ innocent expression with a knowing twinkle. “Can I take it, Miss Tonks, that you have already informed Remus of the plans we have set in motion?”
Tonks flushed slightly as she felt the weight of Kingsley’s sudden glare. “Ummm…yeah,” she admitted reluctantly. “Am I that predictable?”
Dumbledore laughed. “I would never dream of trying to predict you. But on this matter at least, I do not object. It saves us time.” He turned to Remus. “You know of our intention to infiltrate the Institute?”
Remus nodded firmly. “I do. But if we are going to do this, it will have to be before Thursday night. Given the urgency of the attempt to kidnap me, I suspect after the full moon will be too late.” He smiled grimly. “And of course, Thursday itself would be rather inconvenient for me unless you happen to need a scent hound.”
Kingsley leapt upon his words almost before his sentence was completed. “Remus, I don’t think you going is a good idea. Aside from being hit by that Crucio…”
“Which is no worse than I am used to on a monthly basis.”
“…and your duties here at the school…”
“Which would not be affected by an evening mission.”
“…there is the indisputable point that you inside the Institute is exactly what the Death Eaters appear to want.”
“We don’t know that they would have taken me to the Institute.”
Kingsley frowned pointedly. “Remus, don’t be stubborn. You know as well as I do where you would have ended up. There’s no way you can convince me that Kane’s death and your near-abduction on the same night is coincidental.”
“And if you could convince him,” Moody intervened with a growl. “I’d slap him with my wooden leg for being so damned foolish.”
“They’re right, Remus,” Tonks injected casually. “We all know it wasn’t a coincidence. But that doesn’t change the fact that you’ll be coming with me.”
Kingsley and Moody’s expressions darkened as one. “Tonks…” Kingsley declared, his voice ripe with a note of warning but the younger Auror had already raised one hand to forestall his protests. “He knows the territory,” she said, ticking off on her fingers matter-of-factly. “He knows the staff. He knows werewolves. He knows Rebekah Goldstein. And the fact that he saved my life has proved pretty categorically that he can take care of himself and even me if necessary. Even if the kids hadn’t shown up, we were through that gate and away. He can cope. I’ll be there to watch his back and be glad to know he’s watching mine.” Her voice took on a vaguely combative note. “I won’t go with anyone else.”
Surprised as he was by this morning’s emphatic turnaround, Remus couldn’t help but smile with gratitude at the young Auror as she glared challengingly across the bed at the three older men, her pale skin and dull hair almost seeming to glow with hidden inner colour. Catching his smile from the corner of her eye, he saw her lips quirk in reply.
But then Moody straightened, his mad eye whirling, his expression annoyed. “Well, then, lass. It seems we’ll need a whole new team to…”
“Alastor.” Dumbledore’s soft word nonetheless stilled Moody’s torrent of rebuttal instantly. “She’s right.”
Kingsley was shaking his head. “If anything goes wrong, we’ll be playing right into their hands…”
“I know.” Dumbledore sighed, gazing down at his long fingered hands for a moment almost absently. “But little as I like it, Remus is the best choice for the task.”
Remus quirked an eyebrow. “I feel I should thank you all for such a ringing endorsement of confidence in my abilities,” he remarked dryly. “I feel positively Godlike.”
Dumbledore’s smile was almost weary. “It is not your abilities that we doubt, Remus,” he replied gently. “We are simply concerned for your well-being.”
“So am I,” Remus admitted frankly with a slight shrug. “But if I let that stop me, I’d never get anything worthwhile done. And as I’ve told Tonks repeatedly over the last few months, I really don’t need to be protected.”
Dumbledore’s smile broadened. “It appears to have sunk in.”
The glance that Tonks directed at Remus was rueful. “Eventually.”
Remus smiled at her again. Tonks smiled back.
“So.” The Headmaster straightened in his chair as he drew attention back to business. “We have established our team. What we now need to know is how and when.”
Tonks leaned forwards over Remus’ bed. “I had as good a chat as I could manage with Felisha by coin.” She smiled wryly. “It can be a bit limited when you can only have 30 characters per sentence but we got our messages across. She says she’ll meet us when we need her behind the Three Broomsticks with her way inside; today, tomorrow or Wednesday is fine as long as it’s at night. She reckons she can get us a portkey…”
“Wait,” Kingsley raised a forestalling hand. “That wouldn’t work. I’ve studied as much as I can about the Institute’s defences and it doesn’t just have anti-apparition wards “ it’s warded against portkeys and floo connections too. The whole design is intended to insure that nobody enters or leaves except through the front door. A portkey would be useless.”
Tonks shook her head. “Felisha was pretty emphatic. I think she might have found a way around that.”
Moody’s grizzled features contorted into suspicion. “Are you sure this Felisha can be trusted?” he growled. “It’d be a fine lookout for you two to escape a Death Eater ambush but then portkey yourselves into a cell in the Institute through a lack of vigilance.”
Remus and Tonks exchanged a long glance. “I trust her,” Remus said softly.
Tonks nodded her agreement. “So do I.”
Moody’s expression eloquently proclaimed that he was unconvinced. “What about these coins?” he continued insistently. “Pretty haphazard communication if you ask me. How do you know Felisha isn’t lying dead somewhere and that you’re conversing with a Death Eater?”
Remus sighed. “Alastor, I understand your concern but I did think of that. When Hermione and I created the coins, we charmed them so that only the first three people to touch them could use them; those three people were Tonks, Felisha and me. You can try one if you like but it won’t do a thing for you.”
Moody’s wild blue eye rolled but he did not accept the challenge. “I’m not convinced,” he repeated grimly instead. “This is a big risk. And Lupin, I still say you’d do better to stay behind.”
Dumbledore mercifully intervened. “We have been over that, Alastor. And unless she has changed greatly since her school days, I do not believe Felisha Hathaway is likely to have become a Death Eater.”
Moody glared blackly. “Nobody thought Pettigrew was either. Look how that turned out. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in twenty years of constant vigilance, it’s that Death Eaters can be almost anyone.”
Remus felt his fists clench at the mention of Peter… of Wormtail’s name. Don’t think about him, this is not the time. You’ve more important things to do than dwell…
And then he felt soft and gentle fingers close soothingly around his fist. Tonks smiled at him wanly, her small hand saying louder than any words that she understood his thoughts.
She really was a wonderful friend…
“All right, fine.” Moody’s harsh exclamation snapped Remus’ attention back to the conversation. “We trust the girl and her portkey. I just hope we don’t live to regret it.”
Kingsley’s expression of mild scepticism implied he was on Moody’s side. But instead of taking up the argument, he simply shrugged. “I suppose that just leaves us to establish when you go. Tonight or tomorrow would seem logical “ it leaves less time to be found out and it’s further away from the full moon for Remus…”
But Tonks was shaking her head once more. “Wednesday.”
Remus has been inclined to agree with Kingsley “ he didn’t fancy a tiring excursion on the night before his change. “I understand not going tonight,” he remarked, ruefully picking at his bedclothes as he glanced pointedly out across the Hospital Wing. “But why not Tuesday?”
Tonks smiled slightly. “Because Felisha told me that Rebekah will be out of the Institute on Wednesday. It’s her daughter’s birthday and she heard her tell Croll that she’s going home for the night to the party.”
Moody’s eye spiralled irritably. “More hearsay?”
Tonks glared. “I am an Auror too, Mad-Eye!” she retorted abruptly. “I don’t just take hearsay as fact. I checked the school’s record of next years enrolments and it is the birthday of one Julia Goldstein on Wednesday.”
“And I think Rebekah would go.” Remus’ quiet statement cut across Moody’s half started protest. “Whatever else she may be, she cares deeply about her family.”
Tonks’ snort was incredulous. “Most of them,” she added pointedly.
Remus twisted his lip but said nothing. There really wasn’t much he could add to dispute that.
“So that’s it then.” Kingsley leaned forward with a sigh. “That’s our plan. We rely upon a woman we aren’t sure we can trust to provide a portkey that might not work so that two Order members who have barely recovered from an ambush can transport themselves into the midst of a place we know contains Death Eaters who want them either dead or in custody to search for evidence that may not even be there. Does that sound about right?”
Tonks smiled dryly. “Yep. Good summary.”
Moody gave a crooked frown. “You’re taking my invisibility cloak. No arguments.”
Remus raised his hands. “No protests. Thank you Alastor.”
Tonks was rooting in her robes, now purged of blood and draped across the neighbouring bed. “I’ll let Felisha know. We’ll meet her on Wednesday at midnight.”
“Then it seems we are done.” In one smooth motion that belied his vast age, Dumbledore rose from his chair. “I would be lying if I claimed that I am fully comfortable with this plan. But the need for action in this case is clear. Thank you all for your help.” He smiled slightly. “Now if you would excuse me, I shall go and persuade Harry and his friends to cease their futile attempts to listen at the door.”
“And I’d better get back to the Ministry,” Kingsley also rose fluidly. “Tonks, I’ve booked you into a room at the Three Broomsticks. I don’t expect to see you at work before Thursday afternoon. Understood?”
With a flourish of her hand, Tonks gave a mock salute. Smiling in spite of himself, Kingsley followed Dumbledore towards the door.
With a creak of his wooden leg, Moody was the last to rise. “I expect you two to take care,” he barked gruffly. “Especially you, Lupin. I don’t want to be the one explaining to Rey that I let his only son walk into a trap.”
Remus nodded with a small smile. “Then I’ll make sure you don’t have to.”
Moody pulled a face at what he clearly viewed as blatant over optimism. But then, with a brusque nod, he too took his leave.
As the Hospital Wing door closed behind the grizzled old Auror, Tonks turned to Remus, twirled her silver sickle between her fingers and grinned.
“Well mate,” she said cheerfully. “It looks like we’re in for an interesting week.”
* * *
Monday passed in quiet contemplation in the Hospital Wing. Tuesday and Wednesday passed in a flurry of students and classes.
It was strange how quickly three days could vanish into memory with something to dread at the end of them.
It was not that Remus was nervous, precisely. After all he had volunteered for this mission, practically insisted on his inclusion in fact. But Moody and Kingsley’s warnings had fallen on stubborn ears, not deaf ones “ and although Remus was still quite certain that he was the best person for this mission, that did not alter his suspicions that he was walking, dressed in lambs wool, into the heart of the lion’s den. He would be much happier when all this was over.
His lessons passed in a blur. Harry’s assertions about the rumours had proved unfortunately correct “ Remus had endured his fair share of jokes, giggles and expressions of amusement mingled with respect and disgust tinged mockery in the corridors and classrooms of the school. He had fronted it out the only way he knew how; with a smile, joining in the joking, shrugging off the sneers, making it nothing but laughter, pretending not to care. After all, showing embarrassment in front of Harry and his friends was one thing; but blushing in front of the rest of the student body was quite another. It was tantamount to a confession.
The only exceptions to this new, rumour-fuelled attitude towards him were Harry, Ron and Hermione. They smiled at him in corridors and acted normally in classes but the looks in their eyes rang with unspoken curiosity and silent questions that Remus could almost read. Why was he ambushed? What had he been intending to report? What had been said in his Hospital Wing meeting with his fellow Order members? Just what was going on?
But Remus ignored the questions, dodged their attempts to catch him alone and did his best to act as though nothing at all was afoot. Filling his three students in on the Imperius plot had been one thing. Worrying them yet again about his safety for no good reason was quite another.
And so the sun set, darkness fell and Wednesday evening rolled into his life with quite unseemly haste.
Gritting his teeth against the lingering taste of Wolfsbane in his mouth, Remus checked his watch again as he hurried the final few yards out of the alley behind Dervish and Banges and away from the now concealed entrance to the secret passage he had followed from a suit of armour near the Hogwarts kitchens. Moody’s invisibility cloak whispered and swirled at his every motion “ Remus was taking no chances on fresh rumours about his midnight visits to the ladies of Hogsmeade, especially given that Tonks was currently ensconced there “ as the tightly controlled ball of flame in his right palm lit his way unseen to outside eyes. It was five minutes to midnight.
Hogsmeade was oddly disconcerting by night, sparking vague and uncomfortable memories of wolfish roaming with his friends. Unnaturally silent, it lurked in the night, the black silhouettes of eaves and shop signs lit only by flashes of the heavily bloated moon between slivers of roaming cloud. The normally glowing lights of the Three Broomsticks were extinguished and invisible “ only a hint of lantern light behind an upstairs window implied any sign of life. The yard behind was a wash of shadows, the well a dull black outline, a lone bush swaying gently in a pulsing midnight breeze. In the distance, an owl hooted, its call echoing across the night with unexpected clarity.
And there was no one there.
Frowning, Remus checked his watch once more. Three minutes to midnight. He could have sworn Tonks said…
“Ow!”
The cry was muffled but the dull thump of something soft hitting hard wood gave it emphasis. The knob of the Three Broomsticks small back door rattled sharply.
Smiling slightly to himself, Remus hurried over and pulled the door open. Much as expected, he found a dishevelled and irritable looking Tonks slumped in a heap at the foot of the narrow stairs, rubbing her elbow and swearing under her breath. Her eyes darted up sharply.
“What the…” she started.
The cloak. “It’s me,” Remus murmured softly in immediate reassurance. “Are you all right?”
Tonks’ expression flashed with relief as her smile grew wry. “I hate those stairs,” she muttered in response. “They’re a bloody health hazard. Rosmerta should…”
But her sentence dropped sharply away at the sound of a creaking door and the voice of the landlady herself.
“I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about, Mrs Cornworthy. Probably just the wind…”
“Sod it!” Scrambling on her hands and knees, Tonks was moving instantly. Groping into the emptiness, her hand caught upon the edge of the cloak “ before Remus had even realised what was happening, she had ducked underneath and joined him in concealment, her small body pressing against his as she shoved him quickly backwards and out of the doorway, clinging to his arm for balance. Remus caught her waist as she stumbled, fighting a fresh surge of bewildering discomfort at her closeness as they both froze, breath held and still.
Rosmerta’s hair-rollered head peered thoughtfully out of the darkness of the entrance. Her eyes fell upon the door, flapping gently in the breeze; catching it in one hand, she shrugged.
“Just a loose door, Mrs Cornworthy!” she called back up the stairs, stepping backwards as she pulled it closed. “Nothing to worry about…”
The door clicked shut. Silence fell once more.
Remus felt Tonks release her breath with a windy sigh. She chuckled softly.
“Bit close,” she remarked wryly. “Definitely too close in fact.”
Remus withdrew his hands instantly and stepped away, although within the limits confines of the cloak, distance was difficult to achieve. “I’m sorry, I thought you might fall…”
The look that flashed across Tonks’ face by the light of his flickering flame was one of downright frustration. “I meant Rosmerta,” she stressed irritably. “Honestly Remus, when are you going to realise…”
But Remus never learned what Tonks expected him to realise. For in that instant, as the distant cloak of the Owl Post office chimed midnight, Felisha Hathaway staggered out of the empty night, shaking her head and grasping something white and glassy securely between her fingers. She caught the edge of the well for balance and breathed deeply.
“I hate portkeys,” they heard her mutter.
Exchanging a glance with Tonks, Remus extinguished his flame and stepped out from beneath the cloak into the silver moonlight. A moment later, Tonks appeared beside him, Moody’s cloak wrapped over one arm. She followed him quickly to Felisha’s side.
“Okay?” At his gentle query, Felisha glanced up and smiled. Pulling herself upright, she nodded.
“Fine,” she murmured quietly. “Just a bit shaken. Fiddling with the charms on this thing hasn’t made for the smoothest ride.”
Tonks was examining the opaque, glassy sphere gripped within Felisha’s hands. It was reminiscent of the globe lights they had last seen in the Institute.
“How did you get that to work?” she inquired curiously. “A friend of mine had it on good authority that portkeying in or out of the Institute wasn’t possible.”
“It isn’t, by ordinary portkey.” Passing the sphere to Remus, Felisha took a moment to straighten her robes. “That’s an emergency portkey. We have one hidden as a light on each level; the idea is that if the residents ever rebel, a member of staff can take a portkey and instantly alert the Ministry and the Werewolf Capture Unit in person. They have a special element within them that allows them to pass through the wards. They take you directly to the Fountain of the Magical Brethren.”
Remus frowned as he rubbed his fingers across the smooth surface. “That seems a little dangerous. What if a resident got hold of it?”
Felisha shrugged slightly. “Only Alpha and Beta clearance staff know where the portkeys are - Aylward changes the locations monthly “ and they can only be activated by a wand so the residents would have to get hold of one to use it. And besides…” Even by moonlight, Remus could see the hints of her blush. “They are charmed so that only full humans can use them. That was why it took me a little while to prepare it. I had to alter the charm so that you could use it too without rendering it useless and that took me quite a while.”
Remus winced slightly at being described as not fully human but he knew that Felisha had not intended a slight. “That must have been quite an effort. Thank you.”
She smiled in return, warm, sincere. “Don’t mention it.”
Tonks’ voice cut into the pleasantries with a hint of impatience. “Hasn’t anyone missed it?”
Felisha shook her head. “I told maintenance that I’d broken a globe in my room and asked for a replacement. Then I swapped the ordinary globe with the portkey on Level One. Aylward won’t be changing the locations for another week yet. No one will miss it before then.”
“What about the destination?” Remus knew that Tonks was not looking for flaws in the plan “ she was an Auror doing her job “ but he couldn’t help but wish that she could ask her questions in a slightly less interrogatory manner. “I’m not sure Remus appearing in the middle of the WCU would be a good idea.”
Felisha smiled slightly. “I thought the same. That’s the other thing that took a while. I’ve changed the base destination to my office and then charmed it to bring me here. If you use it again from elsewhere, it will take you to my office and return you to wherever you came from.” She grinned. “It’s a good thing my dad worked in the Portkey Regulation office for so many years. He used to bring his work home with him.”
“Impressive work.” To Remus’ relief, Tonks smiled again, although the expression looked wan in the pale light. “Well then.” She hefted the cloak. “I guess we’d best get on with this.”
Felisha’s eyes lit up with curiosity. “Is that an invisibility cloak?”
Tonks nodded. “I borrowed it from a colleague. Remus and I didn’t think being seen would be a bright idea. Speaking of which, we’d better get under.”
With a nod, Remus ducked his head as he joined Tonks beneath the swath of cloth. Only one hand each remained visible and, to judge by the expression on Felisha’s face, they made rather an odd sight.
“Hands on then,” she said quietly. “To activate the portkey, you tap it three times with your wand. Okay?”
Tonks murmured an affirmative as her hand joined Felisha’s and Remus’ against the round orb. For a moment, Remus stared at Felisha’s face, her curls washed in silver, her eyes dark beneath her brows and remembered Moody’s words in the Hospital Wing.
Are you sure this Felisha can be trusted? It’d be a fine lookout for you two to escape a Death Eater ambush but then portkey yourselves into a cell in the Institute through a lack of vigilance.
No. He trusted her. Everything would be fine.
Felisha’s wand tapped.
One. Two. Three.
And then, with a yank at the navel, Remus hurled into the unknown.