Chapter Thirty-Five: The Potter Legacy
Lottie could see her hands shaking”could see the diary’s pages quiver, but she couldn’t feel anything. All she saw before her was Hermione, who froze so suddenly that, for a moment, Lottie thought she had been petrified.
A streak of white lightning ran across the swirling storm clouds. The roar of thunder that followed seemed to begin at the very pit of the castle and run like a shiver up its walls. Rain thudded against the windows and the glass rattled to a breaking point. Groans and shouts from disgruntled students wafted up from the grounds. This wasn’t the half of it though, Lottie knew. The real storm was still to come.
“You,” Hermione stuttered. “You’re””
“Dudley Dursley was my grandfather. He”he died long ago. I hardly remember him. He was murdered.”
“They probably found out who he was,” Hermione said. Her eyes were fixated on Lottie.
“But why””
Hermione shook her head. “You don’t know what it was like, back then, right after Harry died. The Death Eaters killed anybody”everybody who had some relation to Harry. Only a few of us escaped. It’s a miracle that they didn’t find your grandfather sooner.”
“But what does this mean”for me and my family?” Lottie asked. Feeling was slowly returning to her; accompanying it was a bone-freezing chill that slowly crept up her spine, one vertebrae at a time.
“For your family, it means they must not tell anybody their true identities. They would be taken directly to Voldemort.”
Lottie froze, her eyes thrown open and yet somehow immeasurably heavy. “And”and for me?”
“I couldn’t say,” Hermione said, staring at the worn top of her desk. Her eyelashes shook with the weight of the moment. “Though I would guess you will become a new rallying point for the rebellion.”
“Me?” Lottie drew the diary into her chest. “But”but I”what would I be able to”I’m not”I can’t. I’m fourteen.”
“I’m not saying I expect you to,” Hermione explained. She glanced at Lottie with a curious, heavy look: her brown eyes darkened and her mouth moved into what almost appeared to be a smile. “I doubt others will agree with me, though. Harry was the center of the war. A prophecy made him so. People will think you’re destined to destroy Voldemort.”
Lottie winced. The name and the thought hit her chest like a brick. “So I”I’m Harry Potter’s””
“First cousin, twice removed, I believe.”
“But why”why could I open the diary?” Lottie asked. “It said he made it so only friends could.”
“You had to spill a drop of blood on it to get it to reveal itself?” Hermione asked. Lottie nodded solemnly. “He must have enchanted it to only open for the blood of certain people”his friends. I’m sure if I tried, it would open as well.”
“But he couldn’t have known I would open it.”
Hermione frowned thoughtfully. “Well he had to make it so he could open it,” she began. “It must have recognized your blood as his.”
Lottie flipped through the pages of her book blankly, taking in everything. The bell for the next class reverberated through the corridor. “I”I need to go… go to Defense Against the Dark Arts,” she said numbly.
Hermione nodded stiffly. Lottie didn’t need to use Legilimency to see that a lot of difficult memories were surfacing in her mind. Her eyes were muggy and her voice dull, like distant thoughts prevented her from the present. “I will tell Naesa about this,” she said. “I am sure she’ll want to know. Due to the nature of… your actions earlier, I will, however, need to give you detention. Tonight”after dinner.”
Lottie rose to her feet. What did she care about detention when she just found out that she was related to the Harry Potter?” She nodded silently and made her way toward the door.
“And Rowe?” Hermione said as Lottie turned to doorknob to leave. “Don’t forget the book.”
Outside, Andrea stood with her arms crossed. “So?” she asked, her tone hushed. “Are you expelled?”
Lottie shook her head. “No”no I”I’m… We’re late for class, aren’t we?”
“Oh! You’re right!” Andrea took off down the corridor. “Well I can only guess,” she said as they ran, “that you got detention at the very least.”
Lottie shrugged. Her legs pounded against the ground, jolting her awake with every step. They burst into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. “Sorry,” Andrea apologized. “We”we were””
“Late,” Professor Dewitt finished. “Next time there will be consequences,” he added with a smarmy smile.
Still apologizing, Andrea found her seat; Lottie followed. The class turned around to stare at Lottie. “Alright, class.” Dewitt flicked his wand. From his desk, what looked like white sticks flew and landed before each student. He flicked his wand again and tweezers flew to everyone as well. “If you look in your book, you will find several symbols that you can carve”each with its own meaning. They will illuminate and detect certain types of magic around you. It is particularly useful in sticky situations “for example, if Dark magic is being used in the vicinity.”
Andrea stared at her desk. “This is a bone,” she whispered. “Human bone.”
“Oh I doubt that,” said Sophie casually next to her. “Probably dog or something.”
Lottie flipped open her book and began carving silently”she didn’t care which symbol; it really didn’t matter anyway. She was so absentminded that her hands got a little ahead of themselves. Little shards of bone flew like tiny daggers in every direction. Andrea flinched as a particularly jagged one broke the lens of her glasses.
“Ow, Lottie, you’re doing it all wrong.” Andrea assumed a slightly too-loud tone as she took off her glasses and mended them with a quick incantation. “Here. Let me help you.” She leaned in and whispered, “So, what’s it all about? What is that book?”
“It”it’s the diary of Harry Potter,” Lottie said under her breath.
“What?”
“Sshh!” Lottie leaned in so close that the tip of her nose brushed against the bone. “He made a journal so future generations could learn how to defeat the Dark Lord.”
“But where did you find it?”
“Grimmauld Place.”
“You mean you’ve had it all this time and you haven’t told me?”
“I didn’t know what it was until a few weeks ago.” Lottie finished carving the first symbol. “I just managed to open it last night. It”” Lottie looked up.
Professor Dewitt towered above her, arms crossed. “Enjoying your conversation, Charlotte?”
“Er”no”erm”sorry.” She returned to carving and mouthed, ‘Later,’ to Andrea.
At the end of the class, Lottie packed up her bag and followed Andrea to the Great Hall for lunch. “So.” Andrea sat down and put a sandwich on her place.
“The diary,” Lottie whispered, scooting farther away from the seventh year on her other side. “It’s kind of like an autobiography. I haven’t read that much. I only got to when he defeated the Dark Lord for the first time”when he was a baby.” Lottie sighed at the sandwich on her plate. There was nothing she wanted less than to eat. “But it said he lived after that with his cousin, Dudley Dursley.” She paused significantly.
“So?”
Lottie swallowed a swig of water. “Dudley Dursley was my grandfather,” she whispered.
“WHAT?”
A sixth year grunted with disapproval at Andrea’s outburst. “Sorry.” Andrea blushed furiously. “I”I saw a hair”erm”in my food.” She turned back to Lottie. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah,” Lottie breathed. “Dead. And I’ve got detention with Herm”er”Stainthorpe tonight.”
That evening, Lottie knocked on Hermione’s office door; the diary was tucked safely under her arm. A nervousness”or excitement, she couldn’t tell”filled every part of her. She wanted to learn more about Harry Potter”her newfound cousin, but the way Hermione had looked at her when she found out made her stomach squirm. Hermione said she didn’t expect Lottie to lead the war, but the grief hidden in her eyes betrayed her.
“Come in,” Hermione called.
Lottie cracked the door open. There it was again”that look. She placed the diary down on the table. “Hi,” she said, sitting in the straight-backed chair across from Hermione.
Hermione’s stare unnerved Lottie. For a moment, Lottie thought she was doing Legilimency and put up a hasty block, but she then realized there was no magic involved at all. Lottie looked away.
“Well.” Hermione broke the silence. “Let’s take a look at this, shall we?” She handled the book like a treasure, gently lifting it from the table. Fondly, she ran her fingertips over the cover and flipped through the yellowing pages.
“A lot of stuff I’m sure you already know,” Lottie said, staring at her lap to avoid Hermione’s gaze. “I only got to right after he defeated the Dark Lord for the first time.”
Hermione smiled; her eyebrows furrowed and her face seemed to contort as she stared down at the familiar handwriting. Lottie watched as tears ran down her wrinkled face and pooled on the desk. “I’m sorry,” she said, her eyes scanning the tiny print before her. “It just brings back all of these memories.”
“It’s”er”no problem.” Lottie felt the urge to smile back, but stared at the shelves of dusty books instead.
“This is so detailed,” Hermione went on. “Everything is here. The troll on Halloween”oh, I had forgotten this.” She put the book down. “Now, I must tell you why I really asked you to bring the book,” she said seriously. “Because I’m sure you know that I know a lot of this already”I was there after all.” Lottie nodded, keeping her eyes on the desk. “I confess it is somewhat of a sentimental thing,” Hermione went on. “You can only imagine how much I miss him and Ron. But you see, Harry had plans. I’m sure of it; he wasn’t the kind who would run us into a journey without knowing what he was doing. They went wrong, though. Voldemort”sorry”tricked him”caught him”before he could execute any of his ideas.”
“And you think he wrote them in this diary?” Lottie asked.
“Exactly. Or at the very least it will jog my memory. Give me more to report”more details. So I hope you don’t mind if we skip a few years. The early years, while interesting, don’t hold much information.” She turned the pages to near the very end. “And as much as I hate to do it”well this is detention after all”would you copy it down as I read it? Let’s think of it as lines. I will need my own copy to show Naesa, after all.”
Lottie looked up. “You”you mean I can keep it?”
“I don’t see any harm in it,” Hermione said carefully. Lottie didn’t need to use Legilimency to see what that she desperately wanted to keep it, to hold onto that little part of Harry left. “There is no more hidden magic in here”and after all, what is important is the words.” She cleared her throat. “Are you ready?”
“Oh.” Lottie rummaged through her bag and pulled out a roll of parchment, a quill and ink. “Ready.”
“Here we go. ‘In my sixth year, Professor Dumbledore had me for private lessons several times. In each lesson, we would watch a scene from Voldemort’s”’”
Lottie dropped her quill. “I can’t…”
“Nonsense,” Hermione said. “Dumbledore and Harry always used to say, ‘Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.’ It’s not going to hurt you.”
Lottie picked up the quill. Her fingers shook so badly that she could hardly write. Each letter seemed to sting, heightening her anxiety until the word was finally on the page. She cringed at the sight of it.
“Ready? Okay.” Lottie continued. “’We would watch a scene from Voldemort’s life in a Pensieve”’”
“A what?”
“P-E-N-S-I-E-V-E. It’s a device used to store and view memories. Ready then? ‘The first scene…’”
The diary went on. Lottie scribbled along as it described each story, each vignette in detail. The clock struck eight, each chime beating fear farther into Lottie’s mind, when Hermione closed the book. “I think that is enough for you tonight,” she said. “I’m sure you have homework you need to do. And I should report this”” she held up the copy of the diary “”to Naesa.”
“Okay.” Lottie stood up and took the diary.
“Oh, and Lottie? I spoke to Naesa about your”erm”newfound relative.”
“Yeah?”
“She will be having a conversation with you about it shortly,” Hermione said as Lottie made her way to the door. “In the meantime, she made it clear that you are not to tell anybody.” Guilt plunged into Lottie’s stomach; she had only told Andrea”and Andrea wouldn’t tell anyone, right? But how could she be sure? Hermione raised her eyebrows knowingly. “Same time tomorrow,” she said. “Goodnight.”
The door clicked shut. Lottie waited until she was safely out of earshot before breaking into a run. Her boots thudded against the floor and echoed down the entire corridor. She looked down at the old journal clenched in her fist. If she had found out she was related to Harry Potter in the camps, she would have loved it, would have bragged about it, but now all she could think of was Voldemort, the hood of his billowing cloak hiding scarlet eyes, searching for her, torturing her, killing her.
She stopped at the Palmyitor clock and clambered inside after setting the time. The common room was packed. Everywhere she turned, somebody was laughing or shouting across the room. Lottie felt sick to her stomach. Her vision was a blur of bodies and quills, the fire crackling hazily in the corner. She spun around, searching for an armchair, rubbing her forehead furiously.
“Well, how was it?” Andrea shouted from behind a tower of books so high that it would have put Babel to shame. “The detention?” she asked, poking her head around her fort. The tower wobbled precariously.
“I’ll tell you”erm”not here. Is the dorm empty?”
“Yeah”Julianne and Sophie are over there.” Andrea pointed to a table near the entrance to the common room where the two fourth years sat side-by-side scribbling essays.
“Let’s go then.” Silently, they slipped out of the crowd of screaming teenagers.
Once the door shut, Andrea asked, “So what’s up?”
“We read the diary.”
“What? You attack a teacher and you get to read a diary for detention?”
“Well that’s not all. I mean”I had to copy it down too.”
“Oh you poor thing.”
“Shut up,” Lottie snapped. “I have something important to tell you.”
“Okay, okay, I’m listening.”
“So in the diary”we read about these scenes that Potter and Dumbledore watched”memories from the Dark Lord’s past.”
“Yeah?” Andrea leaned in, interest sparkling in her eyes.
“Yeah. We read about his mum. Can you believe it? Turns out the Dark Lord is a half-blood. His dad is a Muggle. His mum was mad and gave his dad a love potion. Once baby Dark Lord was born”Tom Riddle Jr.”she left him off the potion and he ran away. But the really interesting part is that his mother is the great-great-great something of Salazar Slytherin”one of the founders of Hogwarts.”
Andrea let out a low whistle. “Did you read anything else?”
“Yeah.” Lottie leaned in so that their foreheads almost touched. “His mum died”right when he was born. He grew up in an orphanage. He didn’t know he was a wizard, but he was kind of aware of his powers. Harry wrote about how he said he could make things happen. Dumbledore went to visit him when he was turning eleven to tell him.”
“Did you read anything else?”
Lottie shook her head. “There wasn’t time. But I’m going back tomorrow. Oh”and”well. Hermione said that Palmyitor told her to tell me not to tell anyone about Harry being””
The door creaked open. Sophie poked her head in. “Oh thank Merlin,” she said. “It’s so crowded up there.”
Lottie raised her eyebrows at Andrea. “Well you know what I mean,” she said. “Just…keep it to yourself.”
The next night, Lottie found herself back in Hermione’s office, carefully avoiding her gaze. The room was small and cramped with spell books and photo albums that were older than Alsemore itself. There was only one tiny square window in the corner, beside Hermione’s desk, which seemed gigantic compared to the size of the room. Hermione read every memory and described what she remembered Harry telling her while Lottie took notes.
“’Voldemort has split his soul into seven pieces,’ she read. ‘He has hidden the pieces in artifacts called Horcruxes. Before Voldemort can be killed, all of the Horcruxes must be destroyed.’”
“Horcruxes?” Lottie repeated. “What do they do?”
“They will keep you alive,” Hermione explained. “Since part of your soul is preserved. But it’s extremely Dark magic and your soul is unfixable after. Most Dark wizards are content with one, but Voldemort made six.”
“I thought there were sev””
“The last part is himself. Harry led us on an expedition to find one”that was when Voldemort attacked.”
“Did he know what artifacts they are?”
“He had ideas,” Hermione said. “And I think he was right. Let’s see. There was the ring”” she counted off on her fingers. “”the diary, the snake, Hufflepuff’s cup, something of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw’s and Slytherin’s locket.”
“Slytherin?” Lottie asked. “Like the founder of Hogwarts?”
Hermione nodded. “See here? ‘Voldemort collected things”he searched for objects as old as Hogwarts itself from the founders. He got the locket of Slytherin and the cup of Hufflepuff; I think he took something of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw’s as well.’”
“So”in order to kill the Dark Lord for good, we’d need to destroy all of these Horcruxes first? All six of them?”
“Oh, Harry destroyed the diary,” Hermione said with a casual wave of her wrinkled hand. “In second year. He killed it with a basilisk fang. And Dumbledore destroyed the ring, though not without consequences. It killed his hand.”
“Killed his””
“Hand, yes. It decayed. So we must be careful when dealing with them”very dangerous, you know.”
“Wow.” Lottie looked back at her desk and inspected her notes.
“So, I think we’re done for the evening,” Hermione said suddenly. “Thank you very much for letting me see this. It means so much to me. And I will see you in class.”
Lottie forced a smile. “Yeah,” she said, stuffing the diary in her boot. “See you in class.”
Once again, the common room was packed when she got back to the Palmyitor dungeon, but Andrea didn’t need a signal to follow Lottie down the stairs to the dormitory. “What’d you find out tonight?” she asked once the door was safely closed.
“So he”the Dark Lord”has these things called Horcruxes. They’re bits of his soul kept in little trinkets”objects, you know.”
“So if he dies,” Andrea began with a furrowed brow, “he’ll still have part of his soul preserved”so all he needs is a new body.”
“Exactly.”
“How many are there?”
“Six. He’s the seventh bit.”
“Oh that makes sense.” Andrea nodded and sat on her carefully made bed.
“Why?”
“Seven is a very magical number, isn’t it? Splitting it into seven probably made each part more powerful.”
“Great. Just what we need.”
Andrea stared with little amusement at Lottie. “Well, what are they?”
“Oh, well there’s”” Lottie imitated Hermione and ticked each one off on her fingers “”his pet snake, the locket of Slytherin, the diary and the ring”but they’ve already been destroyed. Oh, and Hufflepuff’s cup…and something of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw’s”they think.”
“Wow. He sure did protect himself.”
Lottie gazed around the common room heavily before resting her face in her hands. Of course the responsibility was hers”it was Harry’s first, and as his only magical relative, naturally, she inherited it. She sighed, imagining herself trying to destroy all of those Horcruxes.
Andrea pushed her glasses farther up her nose and reassumed a businesslike stance. “Right. So what are we going to do about this?”
“We?”
“Well”that’s what we do, isn’t it?” She blushed. “I mean Palmyitor always gets irritated with us butting in, but I thought””
“Oh! That’s brilliant!” Lottie beamed. “So what do you want to do?”
“Well, I was thinking,” Andrea began, “that we could go to the library and have a look around”read up on the end of the war and see if we can find what the Death Eaters were trying so hard to protect.”
Classes the next day could not have gone slower. As soon as they were let out from a particularly frustrating Occlumency class, which consisted of Professor Breckenridge’s fond tales of his childhood experiences with Legilimency, Lottie and Andrea made a beeline for the library. It was a dusty Friday afternoon. The library looked deserted.
Andrea carried a large stack of yellowing parchment to the table while Lottie pulled out the diary. “There aren’t any books written about the end of the war,” Andrea explained. “Well, none that aren’t biased toward the Dark Lord. These”” she gestured to the pile of pamphlets “”are all firsthand accounts of people who were alive.”
“Well that’s even better. Here, you read those and I’ll start looking through Harry’s journal for stuff about Horcruxes.”
They sat in silence for ten minutes. Andrea discarded rolls of parchment so quickly that at first Lottie thought they must have been blank. Lottie flipped through the end of the journal, scanning for any familiar words.
“Here, look at this.” Andrea pushed her glasses up. “This is the account of Dean Thomas.” She shrugged. “Apparently he was the same age as Harry. ‘Once You-Know-Who took over, everything was shrouded in darkness. Even Death Eaters didn’t know who to trust. Draco Malfoy had joined the Order shortly before it was destroyed. Rumor has it, Dumbledore convinced him the night he died, but I won’t have any of it. Draco Malfoy is as evil as his father and twice as powerful. I haven’t seen him since the Order dissolved and some people seem to think he was killed. I’ve got a feeling that he’s still out there, waiting for it to be safe so he can poke his overly bleached head out again.’”
“Hm. Sounds interesting,” Lottie said without looking up from the diary. “We should ask Hermione about that”wait.”
“Did you find anything?”
“Did I? Listen to this. ‘On the night of Dumbledore’s death, we traveled to a cave where V”the Dark Lord”had hidden a Horcrux”the locket of Slytherin. We traveled over a lake filled with Inferi to a tiny island with a stone basin filled with liquid. It wouldn’t disappear, so in order to get to the bottom, Dumbledore had to drink it. It made him see horrible things, though I’m not sure what they were. He reached the bottom of it and we got the locket”only I discovered later that it wasn’t the real one. The real thing was stolen by someone who calls himself R.A.B.’”
“So somebody got to the locket before Harry did?”
“Guess so.”
“Well that’s good, isn’t it? Hasn’t it been destroyed?” Andrea asked.
“I don’t know. Harry made it seem like it wasn’t.”
“Definitely something else to ask Hermione,” Andrea said as she put the parchments back onto their shelves. “Let’s go see her tomorrow, right after breakfast.”
The grey sun was just peaking over the horizon when Andrea and Lottie knocked on Hermione’s door. “Professor Stainthorpe?” Andrea called. “Professor, it’s us”Lottie and Andrea. We have a question.” The door opened, but instead of Hermione before them, stood Neville.
“Neville!” Lottie said, startled. “We’ve you been?”
He chuckled. “Just been doing some Order business. Come in, Hermione and I were just having some tea.”
The door shut behind them and Hermione looked up from her saucer. She seemed to have grown more wrinkles overnight. Her eyes drooped with tiredness, but still a contented smile stretched across her face. “Good morning,” she said. “Is anything the matter?”
“No.” Lottie pulled out the diary from her duffle bag. “Andrea and I just had some questions.”
“Maybe you could help too, Neville,” Andrea added.
“Yeah.” Lottie opened the diary to the flagged page and placed it on the table. “Here.” Neville and Hermione crowded around the book. Neville leaned in close, as though examining every inch of Harry’s handwriting. Lottie read them the passage again. “So this R.A.B. person”could he have destroyed the locket?”
“That’s a thought,” Hermione said, quickly scanning the text. “Though for some reason I don’t think so. I remember Harry talking about it as well. We couldn’t figure out who it was. I doubt if he”or she”still has the locket or even if they figured out how to destroy it.”
“Blimey.” Neville leaned back on his chair. “So we need to find R.A.B. before we can destroy the Horcrux?” Lottie stared at him with, her eyebrows furrowed. He chuckled again, and said, “Hermione explained it all to me this morning.”
“We also found,” Andrea said, raising her voice, “a first hand account of the end of the war, written by Dean Thomas.”
“Oh Dean,” Hermione repeated softly. “He made it through the final battle beautifully, but when the Death Eaters found out he was”well maybe was”a Muggle-born, they took him straight to Voldemort.”
Neville dropped his head in a moment of bereavement.
“It”it talked about Draco Malfoy,” Andrea said.
Hermione hummed thoughtfully while Neville made a noise that sounded quite like a hissing cat. “Yes, Malfoy disappeared right after the war ended,” Hermione explained. “Everybody in his family was a Death Eater. He was too until he tried to kill Dumbledore””
“WHAT?”
“Yeah,” Hermione said with a shaky laugh. “Voldemort had told him to kill Dumbledore, even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to do it.”
“Then why””
“He wanted him to fail,” Hermione said. “He wanted to punish his father. But Dumbledore offered him safety with the Order”and he took it. He disappeared right after that and we haven’t seen him since.”
“Dean seemed to think he was still alive,” Andrea said thoughtfully.
“As do I,” Hermione agreed. “I think he’s just hiding. He’s afraid that we won’t accept him; the Death Eaters definitely won’t.”
“It’s fine with me if he’s dead,” Neville said moodily.
“Neville!”
“Do you remember how horrible he was to me?” he went on. “In first year, he did the Leg-Locker Curse on me.”
Hermione chewed on the inside of her lip. “I might… I might know someone… I need to go to the library.” She stood up suddenly and darted out of the room.
“Typical,” Neville mumbled. “She used to do that all the time. I guess we’ll find out what this is all about soon.”
Sure enough, the next day when Lottie and Andrea showed up for breakfast, Hermione met them at the Palmyitor table. “Once you’re done,” she said, “I have someone to introduce you to.”
Lottie and Andrea exchanged glances. Immediately, they both began to shovel food into their mouths as fast as they could. Within minutes, they followed Hermione to her office.
“Lottie, Andrea, I’d like to introduce you to Caractacus Burke,” Hermione announced. “Mr. Burke, this is Lottie”Charlotte Rowe and Andrea Woolbright; they’re both students.”
“How do you do?” the man sneered. He was an odd, old fellow. Even in his extreme age, he gave off the air of undeniable unpleasantness. His hair was so white that it was nearly transparent. Spots lined every inch of his skin, so that Lottie couldn’t tell what its original color was, though at the moment, he looked a bit purple. To top it all off, an extremely thick monocle magnified his left eye.
“Erm… hi,” Lottie said with a quivering smile.
“How do you do?” Andrea asked faintly.
“We were wondering,” Hermione said in a near shout, “if you had any idea where Draco Malfoy could be hiding.”
“Draco Malfoy?” wheezed the old man. Lottie could see his ribcage rattle with every breath. “Yes”the Malfoys were loyal clients of mine. Even in my age when dear Mr. Borgin took care of the shop, I kept close tabs on the Malfoy family.” Lottie noticed a gold ring on his pinky that looked like it was worth more than the entire Palmyitor common room. “Lucius never did appreciate his transactions with Mr. Borgin”he often called me into his private quarters to avoid Borgin all together. I am sure young Draco is in one of his family’s many hideouts.”
“But wouldn’t his father find him there?” Hermione asked. “Lucius Malfoy is still a Death Eater.”
“I’m sure young Draco knows how to not be found.”
“Thank you so much, Mr. Burke,” Hermione said. “If you could tell us the location of these hideouts””
“Oh that would be a severe betrayal of trust, Ma’am,” Mr. Burke said. His monocle wobbled dangerously.
Hermione looked at him curiously. Lottie could see some sort of nonverbal exchange happening, but couldn’t understand what was going on. Soon enough, Neville joined in as well, and the entire silent conversation ended with him giving Mr. Burke a firm handshake. Lottie thought she could see the glint of something gold between their fingers.
“Very well,” Mr. Burke said after casually slipping whatever he was holding into his pocket. “If you wish to speak with the young Master Malfoy, I will find him for you and bring him here.”
“Oh thank you so much, Mr. Burke.”
“Yeah, thanks!” added Lottie.
“I will send you word”” the old man hobbled toward the door “”when I have found him.”
Halfway to Infinity by Eponine
Chapter Notes: This was a long wait--thanks for sticking with me everyone! Now that the summer is approaching, it should be much better. A million thanks to my beta, TheBird, for flying halfway across the country to see me and help me finish this chapter!
This chapter is dedicated to the cast and crew of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Great show, everyone!