| A white hand held it steady, prevented her shutting him out \a133
"I want Gregorovitch
"\iEr wohnt hier nicht mehr!\i" she cried, shaking her head"He no live here! He no live here! I know him not!"
Abandoning the attempt to close the door, she began to back away down the dark hall, and Harry followed, gliding toward her, and his long-fingered hand had drawn his wand
"where is he?"
"\iDas weiff ich nicht!\i He move! I know not, I know not!"
He raised his handTwo young children came running into the hallShe tried to shield them with her armsThere was a flash of green light -
"Harry! HARRY!"
He opened his eyes; he had sunk to the floorHermione was pounding on the door again
"Harry, open up!"
He had shouted out, he knew itHe got up and unbolted the door; Hermione toppled inside at once, regained her balance, and looked around suspiciouslyRon was right behind her, looking unnerved as he pointed his wand into the corners of the chilly bathroom
"What were you doing?" asked Hermione sternly
"What d'you think I was doing?" asked Harry with feeble bravado
"You were yelling your head off!" said Ron
"Oh yeah \a133 I must've dozed off or - "
"Harry, please don't insult our intelligence," said Hermione, taking deep breaths"We know your scar hurt downstairs, and you're white as a sheet
Harry sat down on the edge of the bathI've just seen Voldemort murdering a womanBy now he's probably killed her whole familyAnd he didn't need toIt was Cedric all over again, they were just \ithere\i \a133 "
"Harry, you aren't supposed to let this happen anymore!" Hermione cried, her voice echoing through the bathroom"Dumbledore wanted you to rolex oyster watch use Occlumency! HE thought the connection was dangerous - Voldemort can \iuse\i it, Harry! What good is it to watch him kill and torture, how can it help?"
"Because it means I know what he's doing," said Harry
"So you're not even going to \itry\i to shut him out?"
"Hermione, I can'tYou know I'm lousy at OcclumencyI never got the hang of it
"You never really tried!" she said hotly"I don't get it, Harry - do you \ilike\i having this special connection or relationship or what - whatever - "
She faltered under the look he gave her as he stood up
"Like it?" he said quietly"Would \iyou\i like it?"
"I - no - I'm sorry, HarryI just didn't mean - "
"I hate it, I hate the fact that he can get inside me, that I have to watch him when he's most dangerousBut I'm going to use it
"Dumbledore -"
"Forget DumbledoreThis is my choice, nobody else'sI want to know why he's after Gregorovitch
"Who?"
"He's a foreign wandmaker," said Harry"He made Krum's wand and Krum reckons he's brilliant
"But according to you," said Ron, "Voldemort's got Ollivander locked up somewhereIf he's already got a wandmaker, what does he need another one for?"
"Maybe he agrees with Krum, maybe he thinks Gregorovitch is better \a133 or else he thinks Gregorovitch will be able to explain what my wand did when he was chasing me, because Ollivander didn't know
Harry glanced into the cracked, dusty mirror and saw Ron and Hermione exchanging skeptical looks behind his back
"Harry, you keep talking about what your wand did," said Hermione, "but \iyou\i made it happen! Why are you so determined not to take responsibility for your own power?"
"Because I know it gucci fabric wasn't me! And so does Voldemort, Hermione! We both know what really happened!"
They glared at each other; Harry knew that he had not convinced Hermione and that she was marshaling counterarguments, against both his theory on his wand and the fact that he was permitting himself to see into Voldemort's mindTo his relief, Ron intervened
"Drop it," he advised herAnd if we're going to the Ministry tomorrow, don't you reckon we should go over the plan?"
Reluctantly, as the other two could tell, Hermione let the matter rest, though Harry was quite sure she would attack again at the first opportunityIn the meantime, they returned to the basement kitchen, where Kreacher served them all stew and treacle tart
They did not get to bed until late that night, after spending hours going over and over their plan until they could recite it, word perfect, to each otherHarry, who was now sleeping in Sirius's room, lay in bed with his wandlight trained on the old photograph of his father, Sirius, Lupin, and Pettigrew, and muttered the plan to himself for another ten minutesAs he extinguished his wand, however, he was thinking not of Polyjuice Potion, Puking Pastilles, or the navy blue robes of Magical Maintenance; he though of Gregorovitch the wandmaker, and how long he could hope to remain hidden while Voldemort sought him so determinedly
Dawn seemed to follow midnight with indecent haste
"You look terrible," was Ron's greeting as he entered the room to wake Harry
"Not for long," said Harry, yawning
They found Hermione downstairs in the kitchenShe was being served coffee and hot rolls by Kreacher and wearing the slightly manic expression wholesale tiffany jewelry that Harry associated with exam review
"Robes," she said under her breath, acknowledging their presence with a nervous nod and continuing to poke around in her beaded bag, "Polyjuice Potion \a133 Invisibiliity Cloak \a133 Decoy Detonators \a133 You should each take a couple just in case \a133 Puking Pastilles, Nosebleed Norgat, Extendable Ears \a133"
They gulped down their breakfast, then set off upstairs, Kreacher bowing them out and promising to have a steak-and-kidney pie ready for them when they returned
"Bless him," said Ron fondly, "and when you think I used to fantasize about cutting off his head and sticking it on the wall
They made their way onto the front step with immense cautionThey could see a couple of puffy-eyed Death Eaters watching the house from across the misty square
Hermione Disapparated with Ron first, then came back for Harry
After the usual brief spell of darkness and near suffocation, Harry found himself in the tiny alleyway where the first phase of their plan was scheduled to take placeIt was as yet deserted, except for a couple of large bins; the first Ministry workers did not usually appear here until at least eight o'clock
"Right then," said Hermione, checking her watch"she ought to be here in about five minutesWhen I've Stunned her -"
"Hermione, we know," said Ron sternly"And I thought we were supposed to open the door before she got here?"
Hermione squealed
"I nearly forgot! Stand back -"
She pointed her wand at the padlocked and heavily graffitied fire door beside them, which burst open with a crashThe dark corridor behind it led, as they knew from their careful scouting trips, into an louis vuitton replica china empty theaterHermione pulled the door back toward her, to make it look as thought it was still closed
"And now," she said, turning, back to face the other two in the alleyway, "we put on the Cloak again -"
"\a151and we wait," Ron finished, throwing it over Hermione's head like a blanket over a birdcage and rolling his eyes at Harry
Little more than a minute later, there was a tiny \ipop\i and a little Ministry witch with flyaway gray hair Apparated feet from them, blinking a little in the sudden brightness: the sun had just come out from behind a cloudShe barely had time to enjoy the unexpected warmth, however, before Hermione's silent Stunning Spell hit her in the chest and she toppled over
"Nicely done, Hermione," said Ron, emerging behind a bin beside the theater door as Harry took off the Invisibility CloakTogether they carried the little witch into the dark passageway that led backstageHermione plucked a few hairs from the witch's head and added them to a flask of muddy Polyjuice Potion she had taken from the beaded bagRon was rummaging through the little witch's handbag
"She's Mafalda Hopkirk," he said, reading a small card that identified their victim as an assistant in the Improper Use of Magic Office"You'd better take this, Hermione, and here are the tokens
He passed her several small golden coins, all embossed with the letters M which he had taken from the witch's purse
Hermione drank the Polyjuice Potion, which was now a pleasant heliotrope color, and within seconds stood before them, the double of Mafalda HopkirkAs she removed Mafalda's spectacles and put them on, Harry checked his watch
"We're running late, chanel logo earrings |
| 