Turas Fada

Chapter Two

Lavender looked scornfully down at the host of boys arrayed in front of her. If they could not compose better love sonnets than that then they were not worth her time. It was pitiful how hard they tried to win her affection. Ron and Harry were playing lutes, badly. Dean was trying to paint her portrait, but was failing miserably. Draco Malfoy was performing a ludicrous cheer with Terry Boot and Ernie Macmillan. And why was Seamus wearing a pink bunny costume? How many times did she have to tell him it was over?

"WHEN A MA-A-AN LOVES A WOMAN!"

With a groan Lavender fumbled for her wand and pointed it, mumbling a silencing charm, at the Wizarding Wireless sitting on her nightstand. She turned over grumpily and squeezed her eyes shut, trying desperately to recapture the fleeting wisps of sleep. After a few minutes she gave up. The damage had been done, she would never get back to sleep now. Freaking Wizarding Wireless.

Moaning a little at the injustice of it all, she sat up and yawned hugely. Then she looked around the room with bleary eyes, confused. Something was not right. There seemed to be another bed next to hers. That definitely was not right. And...was that Harry Potter in the other bed!

Lavender stared in shock at the dark haired boy, sleeping in a tangle of blankets. Slowly the fog of sleep cleared from Lavender's mind and memory drifted out of her subconscious. They were at the Poodle's Potion, she had gone to get Harry from his aunt and uncle's to help her rescue...her family.

A pang of grief so intense that she thought she might be sick gripped Lavender's stomach. Closing her eyes, she willed the pain back. There was no way she could help her family like this. Not that she had any idea how she was going to go about rescuing them in the first place. A throbbing started between her eyes. This was all way too much to think about right now. Lavender was absolutely useless in the mornings until she had gotten something to eat.

With the thought of food fixed firmly in her mind, she got out of bed and shuffled out the door. She thought she heard Harry say something as she left, but she was too tired to care at the moment, so she went on down the hall to the breakfast room.

The breakfast room at the Poodle's Potion was a bright, cheery little room, lined with huge windows and cluttered with spindly wooden tables and chairs. Lavender sat down and Mrs. Davenport must have come out to take her order, because when she began to come to herself she was halfway through a large cheese omelet. After finishing off her omelet, Lavender headed back to the room, fully awake.

Inside the room she heard the shower running and she was suddenly conscious of the fact that she was badly in need of a shower herself. Gathering her things she left to go ask Mrs. Davenport if she could borrow a shower in one of the empty rooms. An hour later Lavender reentered the room after a blissfully rejuvenating shower. Cosmetic charms firmly in place hiding the dark circles under her eyes, hair dried and fixed, and dressed in clean clothes, Lavender was ready to tackle the day. Her well-groomed mask hid her inner grief.

Harry was rummaging through his bag when she came in, and he looked up at her embarrassed. He was obviously still in the middle of getting dressed. He had not yet gotten his shirt on and Lavender could see the flat planes of his torso. Long, wet black locks of hair were falling into his eyes. Harry was hot! Lavender pushed the thought resolutely from her mind. This was no time to be admiring Harry's muscle definition. But she could not suppress a little inward moan of regret when he pulled on his worn-looking blue t-shirt. Clearly Lavender should have been spending more time at the Quidditch pitch. She had had no idea Quidditch players were so finely toned.

"Well, are you ready to go?" she asked him as she made a last quick search of the room to make sure she had not forgotten anything. Nice body or not, they had no time to waste.

"Yeah, just about." Harry threw the last of his stuff into his knapsack and then, swinging it over his shoulder, he followed her out the door.

They walked to the lobby, paid Mrs. Davenport, and stepped out into the glaring sunshine. Mrs. Davenport's cheerful farewell followed then out into the bustling street. "You girls have a nice day!"

After a quick stop at Gringotts, they hit the shops. It was a bit hard to decide what to buy. What did one buy for rescue missions? They had started a random method of shopping. Entering stores and then looking around to see if anything caught their eye as being particularly useful.

Their knapsacks were already bulging, but Harry had insisted on dragging her into one more shop when he had seen something in the window that they "desperately needed." Now Lavender was staring incredulously down at the white coil on the counter in front of her.

"A rope," she said, very unenthusiastically. "And what, exactly, do we need a rope for?"

"I don't know," Harry replied, shrugging. "But they always seem to need one in movies."

"True." Lavender picked up the rope. Harry was staring at her in surprise.

"Wait, you know what a movie is?" he asked, confused. "I thought you were a full-blood?"

"Oh, I am, but my dad's muggleborn," Lavender grinned. "He's a huge movie buff. We have a TV and everything, right in the middle of our wizarding neighborhood. A Death Eater would have a heart attack if they saw." Lavender sobered suddenly. Her dad...Please God, let them all be okay, she prayed fervently, fighting back the tears. In an uncharacteristically thoughtful gesture, Harry put his arm around her shoulders.

"They'll be okay," he told her. "We'll save them, I promise."

Lavender felt comforted, despite herself. "Thanks," she smiled shakily at him. She knew they were just two teenagers without a clue in the world as to what to do, but somehow, right now, she felt like they could do it. Maybe, just maybe, everything would be all right.

"Here, let's just pay for this and then I think we're done. Then what do you say to a little ice-cream while we decide what to do next."

"That sounds great," this time her smile was real.

*****

"So, you have no idea why Voldemort took your parents, right?" Harry asked between bites of fudge ice cream. They were sitting at a little round wrought iron table, shaded from the harsh summer sun by a huge red and white umbrella, in front of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor (Lavender had bought the ice cream, so as not to risk Fortescue recognizing Harry) eating ice cream and discussing how to save the wizarding world, or at least Lavender's family. They were not making much progress. For some reason it was hard to make plans with almost no information.

"Well..." Lavender avoided his gaze uncomfortably. Then something caught her eye and she frowned. "Why is that man staring at us!" she demanded.

"What man?" Harry looked around, confused.

"The dirty, dopey looking one at the table over by the door. He's been staring at us the entire time we've been here!" Harry looked around, as casually as possible. Then a pained look came over his face.

"Oh-no..." he moaned. "Not again! Mundungus!" Lavender looked curiously at Harry.

"You know this guy?"

"Yeah. Now Lavender, remind me again why you don't want anyone to know about your parents?"

"Because, the more people who know, the more likely the Dark Lord will find out that we're looking for them. And I'm afraid if he knows then their lives will be in even more danger." Lavender told him, nonplussed.

"Good point. Okay then, we already paid for our ice cream, right?" Lavender nodded. "Well, I would suggest we leave. Now. Quickly."

"But why?"

"I'll explain later." He grabbed her hand and pulled her quickly out into the crowded street. Looking back, Lavender saw the saggy-faced man get up and start to make his way toward them. She was about to tell Harry this, but he seemed to have already noticed. As soon as they had got the cover of a large group of witches doing their shopping, he broke into a run, dragging her along behind him.

They dashed headlong down the street, receiving quite a few curious glances. Lavender kept up with Harry easily at first, but after awhile her breath began to come in sharp gasps and she felt a stitch forming painfully in her side. Finally, Harry pulled her into an alley where they both slumped against the wall. Lavender was relieved to see that he was breathing hard as well.

"What...was...that...all about?" she panted.

"Not now. We've got to get out of here, fast. Is there any kind of back exit from this place?"

"Yeah, several." Lavender looked around thoughtfully. "In fact, I think this might be one." She walked over to the wall at the back of the alley and stuck her wand inside what looked like a mouse hole near the corner. She said something Harry couldn't hear, and the hole began to expand until it was the size of a small door. She looked back over her shoulder and beckoned to Harry. "Hurry!" and they darted through the opening.

They came out behind a rack of clothes in a muggle clothing shop. The muggles, naturally, had not noticed their sudden appearance, but it did not look like they were going to be unnoticed for long. A lady was making her way resolutely toward them, searching through the clothes on their rack.

"Um, this might be awkward," Harry remarked, imagining the woman's look of surprise when she pushed through the clothes and found their faces staring back at her. Lavender giggled.

"Here follow me," she crouched down and began crawling along the wall, away from the lady. She heard Harry's voice faintly behind her.

"I feel so stupid!"

When they reached the end of the rack, Lavender stood up and, after first checking that the coast was clear, stepped casually out into the store. Harry followed her example, and after a few minutes of pretend browsing, they were out in the streets of muggle London.

"Soooo," Lavender said, looking around. "Where do we go now? We hadn't really decided when you dragged me away just now. Are you going to tell me what all that was about, anyway?" She looked inquiringly at Harry.

"I will, I promise. Later. Right now, I think we need to get out of London, it doesn't matter where to. The least expected, the better. I think the O...um...people are looking for me. So if you don't want anybody else knowing about this, we'd better lose them fast."

"Okay," Lavender agreed, sighing. She could tell she was not going to get anymore out of Harry right now. Still she could not help but grumble a little. "Of course it would be a whole lot easier for me to help us get away if I knew who was following us, but why tell me? Oh well. Come on, I know where we are. There's a train station this way." And she started down the sidewalk in the direction she had indicated.

"What was that place?" Harry asked as they walked.

"What? The muggle clothing shop? I should think that was pretty self-explanatory. Weren't you raised by muggles?"

"No, not the clothing shop. That little mouse hole out of Diagon Alley."

"Oh, that. Well, it's kind of like an emergency exit, I guess. They have them down almost every alley. Did you think that the main gate behind the Leaky Cauldron was the only way in? That would be pretty impractical, not to mention dangerous if there were ever a disaster like a fire, or something." Harry blushed. He had clearly thought just that.

At the station, they chose a destination at random, purposely choosing a location they had never heard of. This had to be the worst planned rescue mission in history, Lavender thought. She just hoped it would work.

*****

Lavender shifted uncomfortably on the hard plastic train seat. She wished they could have been riding the Hogwarts Express instead. So far, this had been the most boring train ride of her life. She was waiting impatiently for Harry to explain their sudden flight to her, but he did not seem to be getting the message. He was just sitting there, staring absently out the window as the countryside flashed by. After reading the In Case of an Emergency sign for the tenth time, Lavender finally could not stand it any longer.

"Are you going to tell me what's happening or not?" she demanded, irritably. For a second Harry looked genuinely confused, before realization of what she was talking about dawned on him.

"Well..." he began, rather awkwardly. "There are...these people, who I didn't really think of before we left, but I guess must have been watching after me. So I guess they tracked us to Diagon Alley, or something. And then that guy in the ice cream shop was one of...them. I guess he didn't recognize me at first, but he must have eventually since he started following us when we left. But, anyway, I knew you didn't want anyone else to know about this, so I thought we had better get away quick before they caught us. Or then they would know." He finished lamely. Lavender was staring at him with a very annoyed expression.

"Ooooh! Now I understand! Everything's perfectly clear," she glared at him. "What the heck were you talking about? Saying 'I guess' over and over doesn't make it miraculously make sense."

"I'm sorry! Okay there's this group that's working against Voldemort, and..."

"What group?" Lavender interrupted.

"I can't tell you." Lavender opened her mouth to protest, but just then the train came to a screeching stop. "Ah! Here's our stop!" said Harry brightly, getting up and moving quickly out of the compartment, away from Lavender's murderous gaze.

The town they disembarked at was so small that Lavender was shocked it had its own train stop. The entire town appeared to be made up of a single road and consisted of only a gas station, a flower shop, a pub, and a few more shops of unidentifiable purpose, all in ancient looking buildings. The houses next to the buildings were in even worse condition. More than half of them were abandoned and boarded up.

"Wow. This looks like party central. If it weren't my family we were trying to rescue, I'd say screw the trip; let's just stay here. What more could you want in a town?" Lavender commented sarcastically. Harry had to agree. This was the most depressing excuse for a town he had ever seen. It was not even quaint or picturesque, just tiny and falling down. "Well, should we explore?" Lavender suggested.

It took them a total of three minutes to walk through the entire town.

"So, what now?" Harry asked, as they sat down on a rickety bench on the edge of town. Lavender did not answer. She was staring intently at something in the distance. "What is it?"

"I think that's Malfoy Manor," she replied, pointing to the top of a hill where Harry could just make out a large, stately mansion. They had found the charm to fix his eyes that morning, but it had not worked perfectly, so he still had some trouble seeing. Lavender continued to stare at the mansion for a while longer, her brow furrowed. "Yes, that has to be it," she decided, eventually. "I didn't realize they lived so close to a muggle town. Bet that's what drove all of the muggles off. And why this place is so dismal."

"How do you know where the Malfoy's live?"

"They had a big Christmas party a couple of years ago. My mom's family is one of the most ancient wizarding families in Britain. I think we can trace ourselves back to one of those old queens. But anyway, they just had to invite us. Especially since my mom and Narcissa went to school together. That was before the Dark Lord was back, so Lucius was still pretending to be all reformed. It just about killed them inviting my dad, though.

"It would have been hilarious if I hadn't had to spend the whole time with that twit, Malfoy. Instead it was just insanely boring. You'd think that a Death Eater would at least throw an interesting party. But no, it was just really formal and dull. Blah!"

They sat quietly, staring at the house. Now that she had identified it as the Malfoy's, Lavender thought it looked like it was rising rather sinisterly from the bright green treetops surrounding it. It was a colossal granite structure, looking more like a fortress than anything else, but sprigged liberally with grotesque gargoyles. She shuddered, involuntarily. Harry looked over at her in concern.

"You cold?" he asked kindly.

"No. That place just gives me the creeps. Maybe it's just my imagination, but it seems to reek of evil. I bet the Malfoys know where my parents are."

"Yeah," Harry stopped, looking thoughtful. "You know, that's a good idea."

"What is?" she inquired, confused. As far as she knew, she hadn't had any ideas at all, good or bad.

"The Malfoys knowing. I bet if we got in there," he gestured at the distant manor, "we could find out where they are." Lavender laughed, and then stopped at the serious look on Harry's face.

"You're joking, right?" she asked him, nervously.

"No." He looked at her, surprised.

"Oh. Well, I just thought that since it was a creepy evil Death Eater house, undoubtedly bristling with nasty traps for intruders, we might not want to just go traipsing about, searching for clues. It's probably even worse now that Lucius is in Azkaban. Draco and his mummy will have to protect themselves from big bad muggles somehow..." she trailed off. "But strangely, now that I think about it, it doesn't seem like such a bad idea. Dang Gryffindor courage is taking over my common sense and natural instinct of self-preservation. I read somewhere that Gryffindors have a tendency to die young gruesome deaths. I guess this is why."

"So we're going?" Harry asked.

"Yep, guess so."