A shrieking voice greeted Harry’s ears. For a moment, he thought that it was Sirius’s mum again, but then, he realized that it was Mrs. Weasley. Though, why wasn’t Mrs. Black yelling too? That was odd.
Ron had ended up in another room, while Harry and Hermione were in the entryway. The two of them hurried towards the screaming and found Ron cowering before his mother just outside the kitchen, his face red and frightened.
“How dare you endanger yourself this way! Just because you’re of age!”
Then Mrs. Weasley noticed Harry and Hermione.
“And you two!” she screeched. “You’re not my own, but I love you as such, and you continue to have no consideration whatsoever, worrying me incessantly!”
By this time, Mr. Weasley, Lupin, Tonks, and Ginny had gathered behind Mrs. Weasley, all of them nodding in agreement and checking to make sure that Harry, Ron, and Hermione had arrived in one piece.
“Oh, Hermione, your hair!” Ginny said miserably.
Harry heard the wood above him creak and looked up to see Malfoy and his mother on the second landing, both glaring, as usual. Then Luci’s small frame peered over the banister too.
Her eyes met Harry’s. They gazed at each other for a moment, and then she smiled slightly, one eyebrow raised, as if testing the water with him. Harry had fully intended to return her smile to assure her that things were fine between them, but Mrs. Weasley was pulling him into the kitchen.
“Insensitive, reckless, all of you!” she was carrying on.
Harry was beginning to feel guilt-ridden again, but the fact remained that he was of age, and there were things that needed to be done. How was he supposed to explain that to Mrs. Weasley?
“So?” she demanded, after she’d lined the three of them up in front of her. “Why didn’t you come back with Ginny? What could have possibly been more important than your safety after Hogwarts was attacked by Death Eaters and professors were murdered?”
Harry swallowed.
“We were curious!” Hermione jumped in.
Harry and Ron both gaped at her.
“We stayed to see if we could figure out how the Death Eaters got in!” she continued. “Last time, Malfoy had let them in through a wardrobe, and we wanted to see if it was still there.”
“Why on earth would it even matter?” exclaimed Mrs. Weasley. Then she sighed and went on, “Of course, the three of you have always been too nosy for your own good, oh, the trouble you get into…”
Hermione nodded in agreement. Harry was still stunned at how much her lying had improved.
“Well, did you find what you were looking for?” asked Mr. Weasley. Harry had almost forgotten that there had been anyone else in the room.
“No,” said Hermione. “So we hurried back as quickly as we could, knowing you’d all be worried.”
Mrs. Weasley scoffed, then snapped, “And don’t encourage them, Arthur.”
“A healthy bit of curiosity never hurt anyone,” he replied.
“Please!” groaned Mrs. Weasley. “These three have always found a way to get themselves hurt!”
Then she seemed to realize that this line of accusation was getting her nowhere, so she said, “Well, you’re stuck here until the school reopens, so that’s enough punishment for you. Hermione, what are we going to do with your hair? What happened to it?”
“I got it caught… in a door… and we couldn’t get it open again, so Ron had to cut it,” Hermione lied.
Mrs. Weasley sighed. “Go get ready for dinner, then come see me before you sit down to eat.”
The three of them, with Ginny tagging along, hurried up to the second landing and shut themselves up in Harry and Ron’s room.
“Thanks, Ginny,” said Ron. “What’d you tell her when we didn’t show up?”
Ginny shrugged. “Said I’d lost you in the commotion to get out of the castle and didn’t know where you were. Mum looked as if she might not believe me, but she didn’t ask any more questions.”
Harry, who suddenly felt very tired, collapsed onto his bed.
“What were you doing, anyway?” asked Ginny.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged glances.
“Oh, I see,” huffed Ginny. “I’m always left out.”
She appeared as though she might become enraged, so Hermione came to the rescue again, saying, “You knew about Ron and me before anyone else. Harry knows now, but you were the first one in on it!”
“That’s only because I walked in on you two snogging,” Ginny countered.
“Yes, but still,” replied Hermione.
“I’m going to wash up for dinner,” Ginny said curtly, and she left the room, slamming the door behind her.
“Maybe we should tell her,” proposed Ron.
“No,” said Harry. “Dumbledore said just you and Hermione.”
Harry had already disobeyed this, of course, but his best friends didn’t know that.
“Listen, Hermione, Hagrid told Ron and me about a letter that Dumbledore had left for my Aunt and Uncle, and I need to have a look at it. I know we’ve been imprisoned here, but I need to go to Privet Drive and see if I can find it. Any ideas?”
“What’s in the letter?” she asked.
“Hagrid said it was all of the stuff about Voldemort killing my parents and my Aunt and Uncle having to keep me safe. I just want to know what Dumbledore could have said to make them scared enough to put up with me for all those years.”
“Well, couldn’t we just take the Cloak and go have a look ’round the house?” suggested Ron.
“Too risky,” said Harry. “I need a distraction so that I have time to search for it.”
Ron laughed.
“What?” Harry and Hermione asked together.
“We could have Hermione hit on Dudley some day when your Aunt and Uncle are out,” said Ron, grinning. “That’d make a good distraction.”
Hermione smiled. “I appreciate the vote of confidence, Ronald, but I don’t think I have a universal appeal.”
Then Harry remembered something.
“But you know who could distract Dudley…”
“Who?” Ron asked.
“Luci,” answered Harry. “He was practically drooling when she came with your dad to pick me up.”
“I don’t know, Harry,” said Hermione, like she always did. “I’m not sure how much we can trust her, and, really, would she even do it?”
“How much do we need to trust her to have her entertain Dudley for awhile? She’d have no reason to sabotage that.”
“No, I suppose not…” Hermione said hesitantly. “But he’d wonder why she was there.”
Harry thought about this for a moment.
“I’ve got it!” he exclaimed. “If she came telling Dudley that I was in trouble and she was looking to arrest me, he’d be thrilled to let her in!”
“But Dudley saw her come to pick you up,” said Ron, “so why would she be looking for you?”
“I escaped or something.”
“But your family would have no idea where you were, so, logically, wouldn’t Dudley wonder why she’d look for you there?” Hermione pointed out.
“Right,” said Harry, “but Luci could pretend that she doesn’t know that, like she thinks I might hide out with relatives or something. And you give Dudders way too much credit. He’s pretty thick.”
“I’m starving,” Ron interrupted. “Let’s go eat and talk about this later. We don’t even know if she’ll do it yet.”
“She will,” said Harry.
“How do you know?” asked Hermione.
“I just know.”
Downstairs, Mad-Eye Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolt had joined the group for dinner. They both greeted Harry, Ron, and Hermione with apologies about Hagrid. Lupin joined in with these regrets, recounting a humorous story about Hagrid’s fascination with dangerous creatures. Everyone laughed warmly, but there was heartbreak in the sound too.
Harry and Ron walked past Luci, who was across from Malfoy and his mother, on their way down the table, and she didn’t even acknowledge Harry. It made him feel as if his heart had dropped a few inches in his chest. As Harry sat down across from Ginny, he saw that she was now ignoring him too.
Meanwhile, Hermione was in the back of the kitchen with Mrs. Weasley, who was trimming her bushy hair with the tip of her wand.
“I could have regrown this,” said Mrs. Weasley, “but I think you need a reminder of your bad judgment.”
Hermione was whimpering sadly as she watched her locks fall to the floor at her feet.
Tonks was bustling quickly along the table, conjuring Butterbeers. In her haste, she bumped into Malfoy, who glared hatefully at her and accidentally knocked over the glass bottle in front of him. It shattered, spilling amber liquid onto his clothing.
Malfoy stood, jumping back from the table.
“Clumsy,” he muttered, with a disgusted look at Tonks, and then he left the room. His mother followed, as she always did. It was as if neither of the two was courageous enough to be alone with the Order.
Luci leaned across the table and began to pick up the pieces of the bottle.
“Ouch!” she exclaimed, dropping a shard of glass and retrieving her hand rapidly. Harry instinctively got to his feet and was immediately beside her before he’d realized how obvious this move had been.
Mad-Eye had also moved towards her. “Let me see.”
“No, no, I’m fine,” Luci insisted, covering the hand that she had cut. “Really, it’s fine.”
Harry, who was looking over her shoulder at all of this, saw a drop of blood spill onto the table.
“Let me see it,” Mad-Eye said again, firmly.
Luci begrudgingly held out her hand to him. “There’s nothing to see.”
She was right. There was blood, but Harry couldn’t see a wound.
Mad-Eye looked into Luci’s face with a mixture of astonishment and suspicion.
“Just a tiny cut,” Luci said coolly, retracting her hand.
Harry narrowed his eyes. Yes, it must have been a very tiny cut.
Tonks was apologizing profusely.
“No, I’m sorry,” Luci was saying. “Sometimes I forget that there’s magic for these things.”
Mad-Eye, still looking doubtful, said to Luci, “You’d better get that cleaned up.”
She nodded and hurried from the room.
Harry watched her go, noticing her long hair billowing behind her, and smiling dreamily in spite of himself.
“So that must make things confusing,” Mad-Eye murmured to him knowingly.
“Sorry?”
“Miss Keegan there.”
Harry felt himself growing hot, but countered, “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” and went back to his seat at the table.
“What got into you, Harry?” asked Hermione, who had joined Ron. Her hair was very short, hardly past her ears now, but it did look tremendously better than it had before Mrs. Weasley had cut it.
Harry’s face was still flushed, but he replied nonchalantly, “Just wanted to make sure she wasn’t hurt.”
Hermione was frowning at him and Ron wore a surprised expression. Ginny had moved down the table, near her mother, and was refusing to look at any of them.
“She’s still mad at us for keeping secrets from her,” muttered Ron, nodding his head towards Ginny. “But she’ll get over it.”
Hermione sighed. “I hate this. I can’t wait until this whole thing is over!”
“No pressure, Harry,” grinned Ron.
“Right,” Harry smiled back.
“Oh, my poor hair,” Hermione was whining.
“You look beautiful,” Ron assured her, and she forced a smile, though she seemed thoroughly depressed.
“Yeah, it looks fine,” agreed Harry.
“Fine?” she sighed. “Oh, everything is just awful! My hair is ruined and the school is closed and we’ll have to repeat our seventh year and Ginny is mad at us!”
“There are worse things,” said Harry glumly.
Hermione stopped and looked at him. “Yes, of course, there are. I’m sorry.”
He shrugged.
Tonks was tidying up the spilled Butterbeer with her wand, while Lupin tried to reassure her that she may have been clumsy, but she was lovely, nonetheless. She didn’t seem to be encouraged by this. In fact, she tripped inelegantly before she’d finished the cleaning (on what they’d later discover was a piece of the glass that had fallen), and upon standing again, ran from the room with tears in her eyes.
That night, Harry was staring at the ceiling again. It wasn’t that he couldn’t sleep, because he was actually quite tired, but he was toying with the idea of going to the drawing room, in hopes that Luci might have the same idea. He envisioned himself entering the room, and in his mind, she smiled at him, telling him that she’d missed him. At the thought, his heart began to race.
Harry sighed and pushed the idea from his mind, focusing instead on the ceiling above him. The cracks looked deeper, if possible, than they had before. He put on his glasses, but he didn’t move from his position on his back. Yes, the cracks in the ceiling were longer and more pronounced.
He lay there for a while, arguing with himself, before putting the glasses beside him again and rolling onto his side. It was unlikely that Luci would be in the drawing room anyway.
It wasn’t long before he’d drifted to sleep. He dreamt that Voldemort had found his way into Grimmauld Place. Tonks had hidden Harry in Kreacher’s cupboard in the kitchen. He was sitting there alone, listening to the screaming of the people that he loved as Voldemort was killing them. Yet, he made no effort to rescue them. He felt tired and helpless. Then, Mrs. Weasley came for him. She told him that she was going to cut his hair off, so that no one would recognize him. She took her wand to his head and said that he had always had very bad judgment. When Harry was nearly bald, Mrs. Weasley seized his hand and led him from the kitchen, but Voldemort spotted them. Harry recalled wondering why Mrs. Weasley had taken him from the cupboard when he was unlikely to be found there. The last thing that he remembered before he awoke was Mrs. Weasley’s command, “Run, Harry!”
“It’s Saturday,” Harry said, a few days later. “I have to ask her today or I won’t have another guaranteed chance until next week.”
Ron was getting dressed to go down to breakfast.
“You really think Luci will help you without asking any questions?” he asked. “No one’s that uninterested!”
“I’m not worried,” replied Harry.
“How’re you gonna get her alone without Malfoy?” Ron asked.
“That’s a better question.” Harry didn’t know the answer to it himself.
When they joined her in the kitchen, Hermione was equally doubtful about Luci’s participation. Harry was beginning to become annoyed with the both of them. He didn’t know why they were so opposed to her. Hermione was carrying on about how it was dangerous for Harry to be alone with Luci and how either she or Ron should go along too, just in case.
As always, Luci entered the room with Malfoy and his mother, and the three of them sat together, a bit separated from everyone else. And, as always, Narcissa ate silently, while Luci and Malfoy laughed together. Harry continued to find this one of the oddest things he’d ever seen, and this was quite a statement, because he did live in the wizarding world, after all.
Harry waited until the three of them stood to leave the kitchen. Then he walked towards Luci, who watched him as he approached, as if she thought he might continue right past her. When, instead, he stopped before her and said, “Can I talk to you?” the look on her face clearly said that she was surprised that he was speaking to her at all.
“What could you possibly have to say to her?” sneered Malfoy.
“That’s none of your business,” Harry replied.
“She doesn’t want to talk to you, do you, Luci?” continued Malfoy.
“Of course, she doesn’t,” Narcissa agreed.
Luci, silent, seemed to be trying to figure out a way to talk to Harry without it appearing that they were friends.
Finally, she said, “I have better things to do, so make it quick.”
“What?” Malfoy spat.
“Go ahead. I’ll be right up,” Luci said to him.
Malfoy pouted, but then said, “I wouldn’t associate with that kind of riff raff, if I were you.”
“You’re a prat,” said Harry casually, as though he was commenting on the weather.
“Who asked you, Potter?” Malfoy said, retrieving his wand.
“Put it away, Draco,” Luci scolded.
Malfoy ignored her and, instead, addressed Harry. “Why don’t you just stay away from her, huh? Keep with your own kind?”
Harry scowled. “Did I miss someone putting you in charge, Malfoy? We’re not at Hogwarts and you’re not a prefect here.”
“And I’m free to associate with whomever I please,” Luci interjected.
Narcissa took Malfoy’s elbow and said, “Let’s go, Draco.”
Malfoy glanced at Luci, and then sneered at Harry. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He pocketed his wand and continued past them.
Looking back at Harry, Luci sighed, “Sorry about him.”
“I’m used to it,” Harry shrugged.
“That’s no excuse.”
“Why are you apologizing for him?”
“Someone should apologize for him. And I didn’t mean the ‘make it quick’ thing, you know.”
“I know,” smiled Harry. Then he nodded towards a corner of the kitchen and she walked with him until they were out of earshot.
“How’s your hand?”
It was dim, but he noticed that her cheeks flushed. She put both of her hands behind her back and responded, “It’s healing well, thank you,” in a very odd, formal tone.
Harry shook his head. Sometimes, she was so weird.
“Listen, I need your help.”
“I thought we weren’t friends anymore?” Luci replied.
“I never said that!” said Harry, stunned.
“You left here acting like I was the worst person ever and then you didn’t respond to my letter and you haven’t talked to me since you got back. It’s been days. What am I supposed to think?”
He frowned. “I’ve been a little busy.”
“Oh,” she said tartly.
“I appreciated the letter, especially the Pass, but I had things to do. You know that.”
“OK.”
He raised his eyebrows at her. Why was she being this way?
“I’m sorry,” she said with a sigh, but she didn’t explain herself. “I just thought, after the way you left, and then I hadn’t heard from you, and I was… worried, I guess, and…”
“Luci, I told you, I just don’t like people hiding things from me,” he interrupted.
“There are things that you don’t tell me,” Luci countered.
“Like what?”
“Like, you told me about Voldemort’s orphanage, but you were gone for two days, so I know that there was something else, but I never demanded that you tell me. And, oh, let’s talk about Ginny. That always seems to derail you. What’s going on there?” Luci nodded towards the pretty ginger-haired girl who sat with her ginger-haired parents at the kitchen table.
Harry blushed and turned his eyes to the floor.
“That’s what I thought. And you and Ginny has nothing to do with me, so I don’t need to know. Do you get it? Does that make sense to you?”
“Fine,” he muttered.
Luci exhaled wearily.
“So what is it that you need?”
“I need you to come with me to get something at my Aunt and Uncle’s house.”
“I can’t leave,” she scoffed, as if this was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard.
“You leave all the time!” Harry said, in an elevated whisper.
She averted her gaze. “I can’t just go anywhere.”
“Why not?”
She hesitated and then answered slowly, “There are people who can’t know that I’m here.”
Harry wanted to ask her exactly what that meant, but he had to focus on getting that letter.
“We’ll take the Invisibility Cloak. No one’ll see us.”
Luci gaped at him. “You have an Invisibility Cloak?”
He nodded.
“I don’t know, Harry…” She sounded like Hermione, and it made him want to shake her.
“Please, Luci. You’re the only one who can get me in.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re beautiful,” he said, before he could prevent the words from tumbling out of his mouth.
Luci raised an eyebrow, and Harry was sure he’d never been more mortified. Ginny was only a few yards away. Could she have heard? No, she couldn’t possibly have.
“I mean… Dudley thinks so,” he stammered. “I… I saw the way he looked at you when you came to get me with Mr. Weasley. You’ll be able to get us in.”
Harry looked down at his hands, wishing that the heat would just go away. Of course, thinking about it made him feel even hotter, so he just started wishing that she’d speak instead. Could his friends see his face, which he imagined was completely inflamed?
Finally, she broke the silence. “I’m not beautiful.”
He looked up in surprise.
“What? Of course, you are!” It was another elevated whisper.
Luci shook her head.
Harry didn’t have time for this.
“Will you help me or not?” he asked impatiently.
“You can’t crawl through a window or something?”
He was beginning to get frustrated. “No! I need to get Dudley there alone and then I need you to distract him so that I have time to search the house. Can you do that?”
Luci took a deep breath. “All right.”
“You’ll come?”
She nodded. “But we have to Apparate and we can’t be seen. And we can’t be gone long.”
“Right,” Harry said. “Let’s go then.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now. I can’t really do anything in a leisurely fashion, under the circumstances.”
She glared. “No need to be sarcastic.”
“Sorry. You’re just making things difficult.”
“I’m a difficult girl, in general.”
He sighed. “No, you’re not. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“How do you know that… what’s his name? Dudley? How do you know he’ll be there alone?”
“On Saturdays, my Aunt and Uncle always go out for brunch and Dudley watches the telly.”
“And what am I supposed to tell Dudley to get us in there?”
Harry had thought this out and decided that it would definitely work. “Tell him that you’re looking to arrest me for some horrible thing and you need someone who will testify to my awfulness.”
“What?”
“Trust me. He’ll love it and be very cooperative. I’ll be under the Cloak; he won’t even know I’m there.”
“What are we looking for anyway?” asked Luci.
“A letter, from Dumbledore to the Dursleys.”
Luci tilted her head to one side. “I need to tell Draco I’m going.”
“Why?”
“Because he’ll worry.”
Harry laughed. “Malfoy? Worry?”
Luci frowned at him.
“Look, just don’t tell him where we’re going,” sighed Harry.
“I’ll tell him I’m going to Hogwarts. If he knew I was going anywhere with you, he’d kill us both.”
It sounded as if Luci was joking, but Harry knew that it wasn’t entirely unlikely that Malfoy would do just that. He figured Malfoy must be in love with Luci by now, after spending all of this time with her, and the Slytherin boy was very possessive. Then Harry wondered to himself if a Death Eater was capable of love at all.
“Okay, I’ll meet you in the alley where we Disapparated before,” said Harry.
Luci nodded and left the kitchen.
Harry, avoiding Ginny’s gaze, gave Ron and Hermione a nod that said he’d been successful, and then he left the room as well. When he was sure that no one could see him, he Disapparated.