Teamwork

10 -- Encounters

Harry wanted to go to Remus -- and Sirius! -- right away, but after he had eaten, he forced himself to spend some time planning his visit. While he helped the twins set shelves into place in the front room, he examined the idea, thinking about what could go wrong. Sirius, he realized almost immediately, had not sworn to secrecy. Mulling this over, he found himself unable to believe that his godfather would betray him for taking matters into his own hands and leaving. If he kept his head and sounded sensible, he should be able to trust Sirius.

On the other hand, he and Remus could have guests. Harry didn't have any way to see who was in the cottage before he arrived, but if he wore the Invisibility Cloak to portkey in, he could leave again immediately if anyone else was present. That should be safe enough.

He would have to explain his reasoning for leaving, of course, and he expected Remus to think he should trust Dumbledore more than that, but Remus wouldn't go back on his word. They would want to know where he was, and he couldn't tell them that. He wondered if there was something he could tell them, by way of a distraction.

Susara moved slightly, reminding him that the snake might disturb his godfather, and with a soft hiss, he greeted her. As one, the twins stiffened, causing the charmed shelf they were lifting up along the wall to attach itself at the wrong height.

"Harry...."

"I need to talk to her. Should I go in the back room?"

They looked at each other. "Please."

Harry sat on the bed, and invited Susara out. She curled affectionately around his wrist.

"Yess?"

He smiled. "I need to go out," he said. "Alone."

If a snake could frown, she would have done. He could feel her distress. "You should not travel alone."

"I will not travel alone long. I will visit my...." 'Godfather' didn't translate. "Elder."

"I could come, yes?"

He shook his head. "Sorry. He disapproves of snakes, I think." Before her little kernel of hurt could grow, Harry stroked her shining scales. "I do not plan to hide you, beautiful, except for whilst I hide. I need that he not doubt me while I am not safe." Things still, he thought, came out oddly in Parseltongue sometimes.

Trustingly, she flowed once around his wrist before moving to the worn blanket. "I will hunt. You will be back before night?"

"Yes."

As she left, Harry wondered if all pets were as protective. It was sweet, if a little amusing. She was such a tiny thing! Still, she was busy for now, and there was no time like the present. He called out a goodbye to the twins, donned his Invisibility Cloak, and slid the Portkey out of its protective sheath. Immediately, he felt the familiar tug behind his navel and the room around him vanished.

Although the floor in the cozy kitchen of Darkmoon Den was uneven, Harry managed to maintain his balance while the room settled around him. Sirius was at the cooker, frying a mess of mushrooms, and Remus was sitting at the table, reading a letter. No one else was visible. Harry began to cross the room to check the doorway to the next, but as soon as he took a step, Remus's head shot up.

"What's--" Sirius began, but Remus snapped a hand up and shushed him.

Before matters could escalate, Harry shook his hood back. "Just me."

Sirius barked out a laugh, and Remus rolled his eyes. "Spying on us, Harry?"

"I wanted to be sure you didn't have guests," Harry corrected, swinging the cloak off completely. "You promised, and I trust Sirius, but--"

"You don't trust me?" Remus interrupted.

"Not if Professor Dumbledore's in the room." Harry shrugged. "I expect you don't approve."

"I don't necessarily disapprove," Remus countered gently. "It depends on how well you have hidden yourself."

"Well enough, I think."

"Will you tell me, so I can decide for myself?"

Smiling, Harry shook his head. "Sorry, but no. The fewer people that know the better."

"Draco Malfoy knows."

"Yes. And he shot down the first two plans as not safe enough."

"Mm." Remus folded his hands on the tabletop in front of him. "And what if something happens to you? Will anyone know to raise the alarm?"

"Yes," Harry said firmly. "I am in frequent sight of someone else -- someone I trust not to betray me."

"And do you think I would betray you?"

"Not to Voldemort." Harry cocked his head. "Maybe to Dumbledore."

Sirius laughed, but Remus did not look amused. "I do not consider Dumbledore your enemy, Harry. Do you?"

"For the next three weeks, yeah."

"Harry," Remus said steadily, "I don't disbelieve that you think you're safe. But at your age, you know, it is common to feel as if you are immortal --"

"Believe me, I know I'm not!"

"-- even when you know you're not."

"I'm being careful, sir. Really."

"Last spring --"

"Look, I worked it out, then, okay? Why I'm so important. And I talked to Dumbledore about it, and he told me what my parents had done...." Harry trailed off, unable to continue. Remus looked stricken.

"What we had done too, Harry," Sirius said firmly, taking the pan off the heat and stepping over to lay a strong hand on Harry's shoulder. "We were all involved. We got caught up in it, you know, and it seemed like such a clever idea. That's the sort of thing that has Remus worried."

"That I'll be too clever, you mean?"

"Right." Sirius smiled engagingly. "In the manner of young men."

"All of you...." Harry considered that. "Wormtail, too?"

At their nods, Harry sighed. "So Voldemort knows."

"Yes," Remus said heavily. "He knows."

"Here, now!" Sirius reproved. "What's done is done." He grinned. "And another thing that's done is the mushrooms. Will you eat with us, Harry?"

"I just ate, really," Harry said. "Though those do smell good."

"Well, I'm putting them on a pork roast, but there are extra for toast, if you want some now." Sirius nudged him. "I always make about twice what I need, or we don't end up with enough."

"I didn't know you cooked," Harry said.

"I didn't have the chance on the run," Sirius pointed out. He shrugged. "Actually, I didn't cook much before; scrounged food for that long changed the idea of cooking from a chore to a treat."

Remembering the desperate hunger with which Sirius had attacked the leftover chicken he and his friends had brought out to his cave, years ago, Harry nodded. "Yeah, I can see that."

Belatedly, Remus summoned the spare chair from the side of the room to the table, and gestured to it. "Sit down, then," he invited.

Harry did, and did not protest when Sirius set a small plate down in front of him. "So," he said, "about this spell on me...."

Remus shook his head. "It's not on you now. It was cast on you, and you still have the effect."

"Whatever."

"The distinction is not unimportant. If the spell were on you now, it could be dispelled or detected."

"Okay. I'll try to be more precise. But anyway, I don't really understand why you did it. I mean, wouldn't that be too long to wait? It turns out not to have been, I suppose, but I can't imagine putting that much effort to something that would kill him fifteen to twenty years from now. Isn't that like saying you'll live with it until then?"

Remus sighed. "It did mean that none of us could defeat him earlier...."

"I sometimes wonder if that was why Peter betrayed us," Sirius interrupted. "Was that the point where he just couldn't live with the risk? We hadn't given up, though. Other people could have defeated him -- other people can still, you just have a better chance."

"But why not choose one of you," Harry persisted, "or your strongest ally?"

Shaking his head, Sirius went back to the stove. "You can't do that to an adult," he explained over his shoulder, as he took toast from the oven, "or even to a baby, really. We changed your essential ability to manipulate energy -- his energy -- and we gave you luck, besides. A developed human can't handle that level of alteration."

"Lily wasn't willing to risk it too far into the pregnancy, actually," Remus volunteered. "The source spell we built on advised casting before the seventh month, and she insisted it be by the fifth."

"Here," Sirius said, setting a rack of toast and a bowl onto the table. "Mushrooms." He sat down and took a slice of the toast. "Enjoy."

Despite taking a slice of toast and spooning some mushrooms onto it, Harry couldn't let the matter drop yet. "How did you link it to him?" he asked.

Remus and Sirius looked at each other uneasily.

"I ..." Sirius cleared his throat. "I feigned interest. In the movement. We ... met; I had a Portkey. As he leaned close, I cut him, and then portkeyed out."

"Between the blood on his knife and what had soaked into his sleeve, we had enough."

"So am I linked to the sleeve too?" Harry wasn't sure why that, of all the questions he could have asked, came out. Predictably, Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Yes, Harry," he said. "Should my second-best dress robes have ever magically attacked you, you could have rebounded that magical energy -- of which they had none -- upon them."

Harry chuckled. "Okay. Um, do you think that made it easier for random people to believe you'd been working for him?"

Again, a look passed between the men. Harry frowned at it. Sirius poked at his toast with a fork.

"I suspect that was more my family background," he said blandly.

"Oh, yeah!" Harry exclaimed. "Draco says his mother is one of your cousins; he was shocked that I didn't know you were from an old pureblood family. He thinks I'm woefully out of touch."

"Harry," Remus said wearily, "there is nothing about being from an old pureblood family that should interest you."

"Well family interests me," Harry retorted, "and don't you dare say it shouldn't." He pushed ahead, unwilling to listen. "Oh, Sirius, I met another cousin of yours, an Auror, you wouldn't know her--"

"Tonks?" Tension melted from the room as Sirius, who had been looking worried, smiled. "I've heard of her."

"Where did you--" Remus began, and then his face cleared. "Oh. The trial."

"Right! She was Draco's bodyguard."

Sirius snorted. "He must have loved that."

"They got along quite well, actually," Harry said hotly. He tried not to think about how Mrs. Malfoy had ignored her niece's name.

Remus cleared his throat. "Well," he said. "Good."

"I still think he's going to get you into trouble." Sirius growled. "From his testimony at the trial, he already has."

"Trouble I went into willingly," Harry pointed out.

"Oh, I don't doubt that."

"Harry." In comparison to Sirius, Remus was gentle and mild. Harry didn't believe for a moment that he was easier to dissuade. "We do worry about you, and you cannot say that it is without reason. If Draco Malfoy -- or anyone -- gives you advice that you find suspect, I would be grateful if you would give us the chance to contribute an opinion."

Harry hesitated. That was very delicately put. And he had been worrying about Red Caps, not that Remus or Sirius was a Potions expert, as far as he knew-- He nearly laughed at the thought as he recalled what Remus had taught. He was an expert in Dark Creatures, which was even better.

"Actually...." he said slowly.

Although Sirius sat back in obvious surprise, Remus didn't blink. "Go ahead, Harry."

"Well, it's.... He even pointed out it was a bit dodgy, but Draco's very good at Potions, you know, and he thought that we might be able to brew something protective from Red Cap parts--"

Sirius snorted. "Not a protective creature."

"Yes, but Voldemort has tried to kill me multiple times, and did kill my parents, and he was talking about harnessing blood guilt."

They made no immediate outcry. A shared look, an uneasy shifting of position, and Sirius started.

"That would be, er, Dark--"

"But not a bad theory," Remus concluded. "You should keep it to research for now, of course -- you're not to confront him. You need to learn energy manipulation--"

"Let's discuss it when you leave school," Sirius said.

"Okay," Harry said. It wasn't lying really; they could discuss it then. "But Red Caps ... they're not intelligent, are they? They seem sort of humanlike."

Remus shook his head. "Only in form. They are entirely a magical manifestation of violence, with any thought or will borrowed from the hatred left by the dead. A Kneazle is closer to human."

"Okay." Harry relaxed back. "I just wanted to be sure, before I let him look into it." He made a face. "Actually, I can't stop him, and he probably already is, but before I agreed."

Another shared look, and Remus and Sirius both smiled. "I'm glad that you asked," Remus said. "You're a good boy, Harry."

"A fine young man," Sirius corrected.

Harry ate his toast and was glad he had reason to blush.

When Harry returned to the shop, the twins had left, but on the crate by his bed were two doses of Polyjuice, a few ginger hairs caught in folded parchment, and a note:

You should only go out as one of us while we are working in here. (Of course! It wouldn't do for us to be seen in three places!) Until then, these are only for an emergency.

See you tomorrow!

The next afternoon, while the twins were working, Harry took advantage of the offer. He was surprised to find that Polyjuice Potion with Fred's hair wasn't disgusting, just hotly spicy and a bit odd. It was the perfect time, he decided, to return to Gringotts and get the money he would need for sphinx feathers. He stuffed his Invisibility Cloak in his bag, just in case, and headed out.

He had already been to the bank, to Flourish & Blotts, and to a confectionary, when he spotted a familiar face. Blaise Zabini was sitting out on the patio at Fortescue's, eating ice cream and reading from a small book. The tables near him were empty.

Harry stopped and considered. He had wanted to talk to Zabini. Of course, now he was Fred, whom Zabini had no reason to talk to, and no one with a drop of sense would believe Fred if he said he was someone else on Polyjuice. Harry checked the time. He had less than ten minutes until his own form returned. Perhaps he could send Susara over with a note to ask for a parley?

At the thought of his snake, he reconsidered. Quickly, he crossed the street, went up the steps to the patio, and slid into the chair across from Zabini.

Zabini looked up, and the nascent welcome on his face turned to disgust. "Get lost, Weasley."

"I'm not a Weasley," Harry replied, his voice low. "I just grabbed a hair last time I was visiting."

Zabini rolled his eyes. "Right. And I'm Merlin's lost bastard."

Harry laughed. "Really? Brilliant." He turned his thoughts to his snake. "Susara!"

Zabini twitched at the sound of Parseltongue. When a torclinde wove its way from the sleeve of Harry's robes and wrapped around his arm, he sucked for a moment at his lip.

"Ah. What was my previous debt to you?"

"A bottle of cognac," Harry answered.

Slowly, Zabini nodded. He scraped up some ice cream with his spoon. "Well. What can I do for you, Weasleyish?"

Harry smiled. He could feel that it looked a little hesitant. Zabini was a real person to him -- more than Bulstrode had been when she had run into him -- and he felt shyer with him. "I want a parley. Meet me in five minutes, in the alley behind Flourish & Blotts?"

Zabini shook his head. "Too damn obvious, P-- pet. Tell you what -- there's a nightclub down Nimue Close."

"It wouldn't be open at this hour."

"Exactly. And I'm very good with locks."

Harry grinned. "Yeah? Me too."

Zabini shot him an odd look, but didn't ask. "I'll meet you there, then. Ten minutes, because I'm not leaving my ice cream, and it's a longer walk than Floor and Bore."

After agreeing to the change, Harry ducked around a corner and put on his cloak. Invisible, he returned to watch Zabini. The boy didn't seem to have moved in the few seconds he had been out of Harry's sight, and he made no move to contact or signal anyone, as far as Harry could see. When he left Fortescue's, Harry followed.

Zabini walked directly to Nimue Close. He opened the wrought iron gate at the front and stepped inside. Harry had to move quickly to get inside with him, and he was pulling in his breath to fit past Zabini in the narrow way.

There were four doors off Nimue Close, two with hanging signs. Blaise immediately set to casting charms at one, and then to working at it with two devices from his pocket. When he got it open, Harry slipped in ahead of him and looked around. He was in the front of a large room, with carpet at the edges and a smell of long-stale beer. The furniture looked solid and hard to move. On the other side of the dance floor stood a bar, bottles of liquor arrayed behind it. From a shimmer in the air before it, Harry judged it to have stronger protections than the door. He cast a quick charm to detect living mammals, and it picked up nothing other than himself and Zabini, and a few little speckles of mice.

The slight glow caused by the charm was invisible to anyone other than the caster, but it did draw his attention to Zabini, who was standing nervously at the slightly open door, presumably waiting for him to arrive. Harry put his hood down and parted the cloak.

"You might as well shut--"

Zabini whirled, wand out, and then sagged in relief. He closed the door. "Honestly, Potter! Couldn't you have warned me?"

"And not seen if you sent an owl?" Harry returned. Zabini sighed.

"A point," he said, walking towards Harry. "And don't think it hasn't occurred to me, after you came to me so readily during the trial. But I've thought about You-Know-Who, and the state of people like Malfoy and Nott, and I've decided I can do without that sort of favor." A few yards from Harry, he threw himself down on a wide cushioned seat that looked like a giant's footstool. It could have held half a dozen people if they all faced outward. Blaise leaned back, holding in one knee to balance. "So. That parley. Did you track me here?"

"No. I was just shopping. I've disappeared, you know."

From the interested flicker of Zabini's eyes, he hadn't known, which to Harry meant he was allied with neither the Order nor Voldemort -- at least not actively.

"Shopping?" Zabini asked lightly. His eyes dropped to Harry's invisible body. "Or stealing?"

Harry rolled his eyes, and settled on another of the strange seats a few feet away. "Please. I always leave money. Ask Draco if you don't believe me."

Zabini snorted in amusement. "He doesn't."

"Well." Harry shrugged. "It's something we fought about, early on. He couldn't see why I did, and I said it was important to me that shopkeepers have money to live on. He has trouble understanding how that matters, unless someone makes him think about it."

"I can't see that he'd care," Zabini retorted. His look grew more wistful as he studied Harry. "But maybe he does for you."

"Sorry," Harry said, feeling his face heat.

"No, you're not."

"Well, not that I have him. But ..." Harry dropped his eyes for a moment, but then, remembering the danger, raised them again. "I think you were at the wrong time for him. He hadn't grown up enough for you, yet. You might do for after me, but I don't want anyone after me." He knew he sounded fierce at the last, but it was half frustration. He wouldn't get what he wanted any more than Zabini had, and that already rankled.

"Don't worry about it," Zabini answered. "He was fun, but he doesn't matter to me much, in that way. I wish it had ended better, but not that it didn't end."

"Okay," Harry said with a nod. "So."

"So." Zabini smiled wryly. "That's sorted. You want that favor, now?"

"Um..." Harry shrugged. "Not really. More the other way round."

Zabini cocked his head to the side. "You want me more in your debt."

"Slytherin," Harry taunted. "Look, I'm making an apothecary purchase in Knockturn Alley, and since I saw you..." He shrugged. "Anything you want me to pick up for you?"

Zabini blinked. "You're ... what?"

"I'm going down Knockturn for potions ingredients, and there's no need for all of us to do it. I'm already picking up a few things for one of your housemates. Want anything?"

"Excuse me. Who are you?"

Harry made a face. "Harry. Take it or leave it."

"Fine. I'd like a pint of unicorn blood."

"Not on your life."

"Well, that's a relief. So you'll pick up anything that you find acceptable, is that it?"

"Yes. Tosser."

Blaise grinned. "Well, as I'm currently lacking a gorgeous lover, yes. Hm." He leaned forward, his feet coming to the ground. "Why? If I may ask."

Harry shrugged. "Well, I need some things. I expect other people--"

"Potter, I don't actually believe that you are a gormless idiot. Why?"

"If I buy things for multiple people, what I might be doing doesn't show."

"Ah." Blaise straightened. "Well, then... would you buy me a quarter-ounce of gargoyle dust?"

Harry cocked his head to the side, trying to recall anything he had heard about gargoyle dust, but nothing came to mind. "What's it for?"

"A few things, but I want it for memory enhancement."

"Is it dangerous? I mean, I don't know anyone else ...."

"If you use it constantly, yes, but the proscription is more that true gargoyles are rare. I'm not planning to take it all term -- just for a few key sessions and for N.E.W.T.s."

"Isn't that cheating?" Harry reddened as he heard the words come out of his mouth. That was a stupid thing to say to a Slytherin.

"What, do you think it would be fair otherwise?" Blaise scoffed. "I don't have a name, Potter. I don't have a family that endows places. I don't even have custom-tailored dress robes. When I leave school and look for a job, all I've got is my O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. I'm buggered if I pit merit against a Malfoy or a Parkinson. We won't even mention you."

Harry tensed. "Actually, I've worried about being too much of a security liability."

"Huh." Blaise shrugged. "All right. You're a special case, but you do see what I mean? And it's tempting to support You-Know-Who, because in theory his lot wants that I'm a pureblood to count for something, but looking at what they do, and who they kill, I'm not so sure they bear that out in actions." He scowled. "So was that a no?"

"No, just a question. I mean, I'll look it up, but if what you say seems right, fine. I'll get it. What is it likely to cost?"

Zabini laughed uneasily. "I don't know. I'll go up to 20G; don't get it if it's more than that."

"Okay. Would a smaller quantity be useful if it is?"

"Hm." Zabini's knee came up again as he rocked back. "Yes. For half that I'd go up to 15."

Harry nodded. "All right. Payment on delivery?"

"That's fine. Hogwarts Express if we can?"

Harry nodded. "Right. Some dungeon corridor if we can't."

Zabini shook his head. "Care of Magical Creatures. We can duck behind a rhododendron and no one should notice."

When Harry got back to the shop, the twins were waiting for him. They had apparently stopped working, unless they were doing the planning sort of working; he found them at the table in the back room, with two mostly empty pint glasses of dark beer. Whatever they were saying was cut short by his arrival.

"Harry!" One jumped to his feet, grinning broadly.

"Thought we'd have to come after you, mate." That was George, Harry decided, now standing too. He downed the remainder of his beer.

Harry shrugged. "Nah. I ran into a ... an acquaintance and put on my cloak to see what he was up to."

"Mm."

"Friend, enemy, or just fit?"

Harry laughed. "None, really. Well, maybe fit, but not my thing. One of the Slytherins."

"Right."

"Good to know you're not into all of them."

"One's enough, thanks. They're exhausting." Harry dropped down to a crate and yawned. "So ... I was wondering something."

"How two such witty and gorgeous men as ourselves manage to stay unattached?"

"The load-bearing capacity of jelly?"

"What's for dinner?"

"I frequently wonder what's for dinner."

Harry laughed. "Look, just ... after I go back to Hogwarts, I may need some things. Would you be willing to buy me potions ingredients and owl them to me?"

"Ah!" Fred exclaimed. "The source Outside."

"You can owl-order from apothecaries, you know."

"Yeah, but--" Harry ducked his head. "I'm likely to want a few things I won't want my name attached to."

Fred nodded knowingly.

"Any particular things?" George asked.

"Well ... Red Cap parts? Skull dust would be best."

Silenced, the twins looked at each other. Harry felt suddenly awkward. "It was -- Draco feels I can use Voldemort's blood guilt against him, and build a protection. Remus thought the theory was sound, but he doesn't want me to do it until I leave school. He's afraid I'll go looking for trouble, or something, but really, Voldemort has found me enough times that I'd like to be prepared."

Slowly, the twins relaxed. George nodded. "That would be...."

"-- reasonable," Fred concluded. "Anything else?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know, yet. Draco's still researching how to do it. And since I'll have to be nice to some of the other Slytherins--"

"You do not!"

"Harry! Think of the principle of it!"

"The principle, as Draco says, is that if he has to be nice to mine, I have to be nice to his." Harry shrugged. "He has a point. I do expect him to be civil to Hermione and Ron and Neville, so I can't really go after Zabini, right?"

George crossed his arms over his chest. "And what does this have to do with apothecary purchases?"

"Well, I don't want to seem too well-behaved. I mean, it's not natural, right? And besides, it will be stressful."

"Mm?"

"So I'll have to play some tricks on someone, whether it's Ravenclaws, or Hufflepuffs, or Slytherins that Draco doesn't like."

"Slytherins," Fred said promptly.

"Whatever. So I may need things for projects I haven't devised yet."

"Dear little Harrykins," Fred said, looking past him at George.

"I'm so proud of him."

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Harry said, heating. "You're willing to consider it, though?"

"Oh, absolutely."

"Just tell us what you want."