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𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐆

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if the world chooses

to become my enemy,

i will fight like i always

have

·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .·͙*̩̩͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩̥͙　✩　*̩̩̥͙˚̩̥̩̥*̩̩͙‧͙ .

escape a lake full of Inferi, Elara was confident that the capture of Mundungus would take a few hours at most, and she and Harry prowled the house all morning in a state of high anticipation. However, Kreacher did not return that morning, or even that afternoon.

By nightfall, Elara felt discouraged and anxious, and a supper composed largely of mouldy bread, upon which she and Hermione had tried a variety of unsuccessful Transfigurations, did nothing to help. Kreacher did not return the following day, nor the day after that.

However, two cloaked men had appeared in the square outside number twelve, and they remained there into the night, gazing in the direction of the house that they could not see.

'Death Eaters, for sure,' said Ron, as he, Elara, Harry and Hermione watched from the drawing-room windows. 'Reckon they know we're in here?'

'God, I hope not,' said Elara anxiously, 'You don't suppose they'd send Snape in after us, would they?'

'D'you reckon he's been in here and had his tongue tied by Moody's curse?' asked Ron.

'Yes,' said Hermione, 'otherwise he'd have been able to tell that lot how to get in, wouldn't he? But they're probably watching to see whether we turn up. They know that Harry owns the house, after all.'

'How do they –?' began Harry.

'Wizarding wills are examined by the Ministry, remember? They'll know Sirius left you the place.'

The presence of the Death Eaters outside increased the ominous mood inside number twelve. They had not heard a word from anyone beyond Grimmauld Place since Mr Weasley's Patronus, and the strain was starting to tell.

Restless and irritable, Ron had developed an annoying habit of playing with the Deluminator in his pocket: this particularly infuriated Hermione, who was whiling away the wait for Kreacher by studying The Tales of Beedle the Bard and did not appreciate the way the lights kept flashing on and off.

'Will you stop it!' she cried on the third evening of Kreacher's absence, as all light was sucked from the drawing room yet again.

'Sorry, sorry!' said Ron, clicking the Deluminator and restoring the lights. 'I don't know I'm doing it!'

'Well, can't you find something useful to occupy yourself?'

'What, like reading kids' stories?'

'Dumbledore left me this book, Ron –'

'– and he left me the Deluminator, maybe I'm supposed to use it!'

Unable to stand the bickering, Elara sent Harry a look before slipping out of the room unnoticed by either of them. Harry joined her quickly, and they head downstairs towards the kitchen, which the pair kept visiting because they were sure that was where Kreacher wa smost likely to reappear.

Halfway down the flight of stairs into the hall, however, Elara heard a tap on the front door, then metallic clicks and the grinding of the chain. She paused on the bottom most step, every nerve in her body tautening; she pulled out her wand, moved into the shadows beside the decapitated elf-heads and waited. Harry stowed himself behind a rather looking ugly armoire.

The door opened: she saw a glimpse of the lamplit square outside, anda cloaked figure edged into the hall and closed the door behind it.

The intruder took a step forwards and Moody's voice asked, 'Severus Snape?'

Then the dust figure rose from the end of the hall and rushed him, raising its dead hand.

'It was not I who killed you, Albus,' said a quiet voice.

The jinx broke: the dust figure exploded again, and it was impossible to make out the newcomer through the dense grey cloud it left behind.

Elara pointed her wand into the middle of it.

'Don't move!'

Her commanding overshadowed the yells of Mrs. Black, who's curtains hiding her flew open and she began to scream, 'Mudbloods and filth dishonouring my house –'

Ron and Hermione came crashing down the stairs behind Elara and Harry, wands pointing, like theirs, at the unknown man now standing with his arms raised in the hall below.

'Hold your fire, it's me, Remus!'

'Oh, thank goodness,' said Hermione weakly, pointing her wand at Mrs Black instead; with a bang,the curtains swished shut again and silence fell.

Ron, too, lowered his wand, but Elara did not.

'Show yourself!' she called back.

Lupin moved forwards into the lamplight, hands still held high in a gesture of surrender. Elara moved forward quickly, her free hand clutching a dagger and the other pointing her wand at Remus's throat.

'I am Remus John Lupin, werewolf, sometimes known as Moony, one of the four creators of the Marauder's Map, married to Nymphadora, usually known as Tonks, and I taught you how to produce a Patronus, Elara, which took the form of a Hungarian Horntail, but is now a doe.'

'All right,' said Elara, lowering her wand, 'I had to check, didn't I?"

'Speaking as your ex-Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, I quite agree that you had to check. Ron,Hermione, you shouldn't be quite so quick to lower your defences. Harry, excellent job of shadowing yourself in the event I took Elara down.'

Harry snorted and moved out from behind the armoire.

"Elara can't be taken down."

Remus smiled. Wrapped in a thick, black travelling cloak, he looked exhausted, but pleased to see them.

'No sign of Severus, then?' he asked.

'No,' said Harry. 'What's going on? Is everyone OK?'

'Yes,' said Lupin, 'but we're all being watched. There are a couple of Death Eaters in the square outside –'

'– we know –'

'– I had to Apparate very precisely on to the top step outside the front door to be sure that they would not see me. They can't know you're in here or I'm sure they'd have more people out there; they're staking out everywhere that's got any connection with Harry and Lara. Let's go downstairs, there's a lot to tell you and I want to know what happened after you left The Burrow.'

They descended into the kitchen, where Elara flicked her hand at the grate. A fire sprang up instantly: it gave the illusion of cosiness to the stark stone walls and glistened off the long wooden table. Lupin pulled a few Butterbeers from beneath his travelling cloak and they sat down.

'I'd have been here three days ago but I needed to shake off the Death Eater tailing me,' said Lupin. 'So, you came straight here after the wedding?'

'No,' said Elara, 'only after we ran into a couple of Death Eaters in a café on Tottenham Court Road.'

Lupin slopped most of his Butterbeer down his front.

'What?'

They explained what had happened; when they had finished, Lupin looked aghast.

'But how did they find you so quickly? It's impossible to track anyone who Apparates, unless you grab hold of them as they disappear!'

'And it doesn't seem likely they were just strolling down Tottenham Court Road at the time, does it?' said Harry.

'We wondered,' said Hermione tentatively, 'whether Harry could still have the Trace on him?'

'Impossible,' said Lupin.

Ron looked smug, Harry relieved, and Elara excited to have crossed out that possibility.

'Apart from anything else,they'd know for sure Harry was here if he still had the Trace on him, wouldn't they? But I can't see how they could have tracked you to Tottenham Court Road, that's worrying, really worrying.'

He looked disturbed, but as far as Harry was concerned, that question could wait.

'Tell us what happened after we left, we haven't heard a thing since Ron's dad told us the family were safe," asked Elara.

'Well, Kingsley saved us,' said Lupin. 'Thanks to his warning most of the wedding guests were able to Disapparate before they arrived.'

'Were they Death Eaters or Ministry people?' interjected Hermione.

'A mixture; but to all intents and purposes they're the same thing now,' said Lupin. 'There were about a dozen of them, but they didn't know Harry and Lara were there. Arthur heard a rumour that they tried to torture your whereabouts out of Scrimgeour before they killed him; if it's true, he didn't give you away.'

Elara looked at Harry, Ron, and Hermione; their expressions reflected the mingled shock and gratitude she felt. She had never liked Scrimgeour much, but if what Lupin said was true, the man's final act had been to try to protect her and Harry.

'The Death Eaters searched The Burrow from top to bottom,' Lupin went on. 'They found the ghoul, but didn't want to get too close – and then they interrogated those of us who remained for hours. They were trying to get information on Harry and Lara, but, of course, nobody apart from the Order knew that you had been there.

'At the same time that they were smashing up the wedding, more Death Eaters were forcing their way into every Order-connected house in the country. No deaths,' he added quickly, forestalling the question,'but they were rough. They burned down Dedalus Diggle's house, but as you know he wasn't there, andthey. . . . used the Cruciatus Curse on Andromeda and Ted, Lara."

Elara launched up from her seat that her knees slightly gave and her chair clattered against the floor.

"You're fucking joking!"

Remus said nothing, but looked at Elara with a mixture of pity and sympathy that made her blood boil.

"Who was it?!" demanded Elara angrily.

The roots of her hair began to grow the all too familiar red, and Harry grasped onto Elara's arm gently. She shook her arm out of his grasp and slammed her hands on the table.

"I swear to god, Remus, if you don't tell me the motherfuckers that — "

"I can't," said Remus confidently, albeit frightened.

"And why — "

"Because you'll go after them."

"OF COURSE I WILL!" shouted Elara, the candles that lit the kitchen glowing brighter, the flames in the hearth roaring. "THEY DESERVE NO MERCY FOR WHAT THEY'VE DONE — "

"Violence for violence is the rule of beasts."

Harry grabbed Elara's arm again and rooted her back to her now upright chair.

"Judge if you want, but we are all going to die," snarled Elara, "I intend to deserve it."

The kitchen fell silent.

'The Death Eaters got through all those protective charms?' Harry asked, breaking the heavy air.

'What you've got to realise, Harry, is that the Death Eaters have got the full might of the Ministry on their side now,' said Lupin. 'They've got the power to perform brutal spells without fear of identification or arrest. They managed to penetrate every defensive spell we'd cast against them, and once inside, they were completely open about why they'd come.'

'And are they bothering to give an excuse for torturing Elara and Harry's whereabouts out of people?' asked Hermione, an edge to her voice.

'Well,' said Lupin. He hesitated, then pulled out a folded copy of the Daily Prophet. 'Here,' he said, pushing it across the table to Harry, 'you'll know sooner or later anyway. That's their pretext for going after you and Lara.'

Harry smoothed out the paper. Elara peered over to find a huge photograph of her and Harry's faces filling the front page. She read the headline over it:

WANTED FOR QUESTIONING ABOUT THE DEATH OF ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

Ron and Hermione gave roars of outrage, Elara opened her mouth to say something, but Harry gave her hand a squeeze. He pushed the newspaper away.

'I'm sorry, you two,' Lupin said.

'So Death Eaters have taken over the Daily Prophet too?' asked Hermione furiously.

Lupin nodded.'But surely people realise what's going on?'

'The coup has been smooth and virtually silent,' said Lupin. 'The official version of Scrimgeour's murder is that he resigned; he has been replaced by Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse.'

'Why didn't Voldemort declare himself Minister for Magic?' asked Ron.

Lupin laughed.

'He doesn't need to, Ron. Effectively he is the Minister, but why should he sit behind a desk at the Ministry? His puppet, Thicknesse, is taking care of everyday business, leaving Voldemort free to extend his power beyond the Ministry.

'Naturally many people have deduced what has happened: there has been such a dramatic change in Ministry policy in the last few days, and many are whispering that Voldemort must be behind it. However, that is the point: they whisper. They daren't confide in each other, not knowing whom to trust ;they are scared to speak out, in case their suspicions are true and their families are targeted. Yes, Voldemort is playing a very clever game. Declaring himself might have provoked open rebellion: remaining masked has created confusion, uncertainty and fear.'

'And this dramatic change in Ministry policy,' said Elara, 'involves warning the wizarding world against me and Harry instead of Voldemort?'

'That's certainly part of it,' said Lupin, 'and it is a master stroke. Now that Dumbledore is dead, you two – the Boy Who Lived and the Savior – were sure to be the symbol and rallying point for any resistance to Voldemort. But by suggesting that you had a hand in the old hero's death, Voldemort has not only set a price upon your head, but sown doubt and fear amongst many who would have defended you.

'Meanwhile, the Ministry has started moving against Muggleborns.'

Lupin pointed at the Daily Prophet.

'Look at page two.'

Hermione turned the pages with much the same expression of distaste she had worn when handling Secrets of The Darkest Art.

'"Muggle-born Register",' she read aloud. '"The Ministry of Magic is undertaking a survey of so called 'Muggle-borns', the better to understand how they came to possess magical secrets.

'"Recent research undertaken by the Department of Mysteries reveals that magic can only be passed from person to person when wizards reproduce. Where no proven wizarding ancestry exists, therefore, the so-called Muggle-born is likely to have obtained magical power by theft or force.

'"The Ministry is determined to root out such usurpers of magical power, and to this end has issued an invitation to every so-called Muggle-born to present themselves for interview by the newly appointed Muggle-born Registration Commission."'

'People won't let this happen,' said Ron.

'It is happening, Ron,' said Lupin. 'Muggle-borns are being rounded up as we speak.'

'But how are they supposed to have "stolen" magic?' said Ron. 'It's mental, if you could steal magic there wouldn't be any Squibs, would there?'

'I know,' said Lupin. 'Nevertheless, unless you can prove that you have at least one close wizarding relative, you are now deemed to have obtained your magical power illegally and must suffer the punishment.'

Ron glanced at Hermione, then said, 'What if pure-bloods and half-bloods swear a Muggle-born's part of their family? I'll tell everyone Hermione's my cousin –'

Hermione covered Ron's hand with hers and squeezed it.

'Thank you, Ron, but I couldn't let you –'

'You won't have a choice,' said Ron fiercely, gripping her hand back. 'I'll teach you my family tree so you can answer questions on it.'

Hermione gave a shaky laugh.

'Ron, as we're on the run with Harry Potter and Elara Tonks, the two most wanted people in the country, I don't think it matters. If I was going back to school, it would be different. What's Voldemort planning for Hogwarts?' she asked Lupin.

'Attendance is now compulsory for every young witch and wizard,' he replied. 'That was announced yesterday. It's a change, because it was never obligatory before. Of course, nearly every witch and wizard in Britain has been educated at Hogwarts, but their parents had the right to teach them at home or send them abroad if they preferred. This way, Voldemort will have the whole wizarding population under his eye from a young age. And it's also another way of weeding out Muggle-borns, because students must be given Blood Status – meaning that they have proven to the Ministry that they are of wizard descent – before they are allowed to attend.'

Elara felt sickened and angry: at this moment excited eleven-year-olds would be poring over stacks of newly purchased spellbooks, unaware that they would never see Hogwarts, perhaps never see their families again, either.

'It's ... it's ...' she muttered, struggling to find words that did justice to the horror of her thoughts, but Lupin said quietly, 'I know.'

Lupin hesitated.

'I'll understand if you can't confirm this, Elara, but the Order is under the impression that Dumbledore left you and Harry a mission.'

'He did,' Elara replied, 'and Ron and Hermione are in on it and they're coming with us.'

'Can you confide in me what the mission is?'

Elara looked into the prematurely lined face, framed in thick but greying hair, and wished that she could return a different answer.

'I can't, Remus, I'm sorry. If Dumbledore didn't tell you, I don't think I can.'

'I thought you'd say that,' said Lupin, looking disappointed. 'But I might still be of some use to you. You know what I am and what I can do. I could come with you to provide protection. There would be no need to tell me exactly what you were up to.'

"You know very well what I am capable of," began Elara slowly, narrowing her eyes, "You know I could protect us easily . . . . "

"Well, I — "

"And are you really going to glaze over the fact that you're married? To my sister?"

'Tonks will be perfectly safe,' said Lupin. 'She'll be at her parents' house.'

There was something strange in Lupin's tone; it was almost cold. There was also something odd in the idea of Nymphie remaining hidden at her parents' house; she was, after all, a member of the Order and, after knowing Nymphie her entire life, was likely to want to be in the thick of the action.

'Remus,' said Hermione tentatively, 'is everything all right ... you know ... between you and –'

'Everything is fine, thank you,' said Lupin pointedly.

Hermione turned pink. There was another pause, an awkward and embarrassed one, and then Lupin said, with an air of forcing himself to admit something unpleasant, 'Tonks is going to have a baby.'

"God, finally! It was awful keeping that quiet."

'Oh, how wonderful!' squealed Hermione.

'Excellent!' said Ron enthusiastically.

'Congratulations,' said Harry.