Harry Potter and the Simulacrum Seal

Chapter Fifteen: Gone Bad

Harry waited impatiently from the bushes ten metres away from a large window of the Smith estate for the lights inside to go out. Hermione was behind him, whispering desperately that this was a terrible idea.

'Couldn't we just talk to them?' she asked in near-panicked whisper.

Ron was also reluctant. 'Yeah, I mean, Zachariah is an arse, but maybe his mum and dad could be talked into giving it up -'

'We've already discussed all of this,' Harry replied impatiently. 'One: there isn't enough money in my vault to buy it off them if Fred and George are right about what they paid. Two: if we ask them for it and they say no, we'll have to steal it anyway, and then they'll definitely know it was us -

'But Harry -' started Hermione

'Three,' Harry interrupted, 'the sooner we have the locket the safer the Smiths will be!'

'We're talking about breaking and entering, Harry! Not to mention grand theft!' said Hermione. 'I -'

'If you don't want to help, go home,' Harry replied shortly. 'I'm going in. You two don't have to.'

'Of course we do!' said Hermione desperately. 'If you get caught, who knows what will happen to you?'

'My mind's made up. I've brought some of Fred and George's stuff along, and I've got a plan for getting in and out.'

'It's not a bad plan,' said Ron, sounding optimistic. 'We might get away with this if nothing goes wonky.'

'This is wrong!' said Hermione, her voice angrily rising well above a whisper. Both Ron and Harry turned to her and made shushing noises. 'You know I'll help, but I don't have to like it at all. It might not even be in the house, you know,' she added stubbornly.

'Who would buy something like Slytherin's locket and stick it in a vault?' asked Harry. 'It's only good for bragging about.'

'And the Smiths are the biggest bunch of braggarts next to the Malfoys,' said Ron. 'They're your typical stuck-up purebloods, except for not being Death Eaters.'

Hermione didn't have anything more to say, so she fumed from her place beside Ron in the bushes. A few minutes later, Ron muttered, 'Mum will kill us if she finds this out.'

'Not to mention Remus, but they won't find out,' said Harry with a little smugness. 'We've already figured out how to disarm the wards, right?'

'Yes,' said Hermione with a sigh. 'Unfortunately.'

Harry glared at her a moment, then said, 'And getting through that giant window is easy enough if we make the glass disappear. After that, we've just got to be careful.'

'And what if they wake up and think we're Death Eaters and try to murder us?' grumbled Hermione. 'Or what if they wake up and realize who we are and still try to murder us?'

'Don't be so gloomy!' said Ron, with a tone that suggested he was trying very hard not to think of those possibilities.

'Look!' said Harry. Finally, all light in the room across from them was extinguished. 'Brilliant, let's go!'

'Wait!' said Hermione. 'We should wait here for another half hour at least to be sure that they've all gone to bed!'

Ron groaned, unhappy with the boredom that entailed, but Harry agreed, and so they waited. It was around ten minutes past the time the lights went off when they noticed a brief flash at the window.

'What was that?' wondered Harry.

Hermione bit her lip and frowned. 'I ...you didn't cast anything, did you?'

Harry turned to her. 'No. Why?'

She inclined her head. 'Look closely. The glass is gone. There's no reflection from the moon.'

Harry realized that Hermione was right; the window was gone! 'But we didn't do it!' hissed Harry. 'And there's no one else -'

'Invisibility,' said Hermione instantly. 'There's no other explanation.'

Harry turned to the rucksack behind them, which was full of all the odds and ends he'd brought to aid them in their new life of crime. In it, of course, was his Invisibility Cloak, but these days it was difficult to fit more than one of them under it. 'I'll go in alone,' said Harry.

Hermione instantly brandished her wand and said, 'I can cast a Disillusionment Charm.'

'And me,' said Ron.

'Okay then. Let's go.' Harry stuffed a few of the things from the knapsack into his pockets, and Ron did the same. Then, with all of them invisible or disillusioned, they walked closer to the house.

Hermione waved her wand and cast a ward detection spell - the same one they'd used earlier to determine which wards were operating - but it turned up blank. 'Someone took the wards down already,' she whispered.

'I'll go through the window first,' said Harry. He stepped through the window, which was indeed missing its glass, and into the room.

'Ow!' said Harry quietly after someone stepped on his foot.

'Sorry!' Ron replied. 'Invisibility can be kind of tough - hey!'

Hermione had knocked into Ron. 'This won't work at all. Ron, you grab the back of Harry's cloak, and I'll grab the back of your robes. Then we'll be able to keep track of each other.'

After some fumbling, they managed to grab hold of some of each others' clothing. Harry led the way through the room and out the open door into a dark and foreboding hall. To their right was a large foyer leading to a grand staircase, and to the left was a wide hallway with several doors on either side.

At that moment, they heard the sound of furniture screeching against a wooden floor coming from down the hallway. There was one door left slightly ajar, so that seemed the best way to go.

They slipped down the hallway and rounded the corner to the room. Harry heard footsteps and the rumbling of more moving furniture inside, but he couldn't see enough of the room through the slit in the door, so he knew he had to push it open further - but that would put their fellow intruders on guard. Harry swung his arm behind him and managed to tap Ron somewhere on the chest, then slowly backed up. Ron and Hermione got the message and backed up a little as well.

From his safer position, Harry reached out his hand, pressed it against the door, and pushed it open with his fingers. The door was thankfully well-oiled; it hardly made a sound as it swung open, but there was a sudden silence from the room.

It was a decent-sized study, with a fireplace by the right wall and a bookshelf to the left. Above the fireplace and across from it were paintings; their inhabitants were moving and pressing against the canvas, but the intruders had silenced them somehow. Displaced furniture was scattered about the room, and a large rug was scrunched nearly in half, as though overturned quickly in a frantic search beneath it.

Harry was surprised when the door was slammed shut quickly by one of the intruders. Fast, loud steps hurried to the back of the room.

'Hermione!' he heard Ron whisper forcefully. 'What are you doing?'

Harry felt Hermione's hand on his shoulder; she was feeling her way around them toward the door. 'I'll open it. You two stay back.'

'No, Hermione -' started Harry.

'Shut up,' she said sternly. Harry was surprised enough not to stop her from turning the doorknob and shoving the door open. Afterward he heard her back hit against the wall on the other side of the doorway.

Whoever was in there knew they were here.

The silence in the room was more pronounced this time. Harry had been expecting a spell or at least a word by now, but the intruders weren't playing along. He inched closer to the door; the long rug in the hallway muffled his steps.

As he looked around the door he heard a ripping sound and saw the glint of a knife as it cut through the canvas of a large painting on the wall - its inhabitant was still silent, or perhaps it had already fled to another painting.

The position of one intruder was revealed. Harry cast a silent Stunner. Hermione got off a spell only a moment before.

A Shield Charm blocked Hermione's spell, and Harry's too.

The intruder they'd fired at shot another spell back, missing both of them. No one else in the room cast a spell - it seemed there was only one intruder, and one against three were fine odds to Harry.

He couldn't cast a non-verbal spell that could beat a Shield Charm, so Harry dared to speak.

'Sectumsempra!'

The intruder made a frightened noise and moved. The spell missed. Harry leapt into the room; a hex missed him by inches, but he didn't see the source.

Feet scuffled. It was Ron, Hermione, or the intruder. The room was too dark to see through his friends' Disillusionment Charms. Harry couldn't risk a hex.

The intruder was alone. He could. He threw a hex wildly and was lucky enough to hit Hermione. She was unconscious; her Disillusionment Charm was broken.

The intruder moved again before Harry's next spell could hit its mark.

'Enervate!' said Ron's voice. Hermione bolted awake.

At the same time as Ron's spell, the intruder cast a dangerous curse at the painting he'd been ripping. It caused a minor fiery explosion. Harry heard a metallic lock ping open moments before a roaring alarm sounded through the manor.

Harry aimed a quick spell at the intruder, but it missed.

'Accio locket!' said the intruder in a panicked voice.

The voice of the intruder clicked in Harry's brain. It was Draco Malfoy.

A little black box spun out from behind the painting and landed in Malfoy's invisible hand in less than a second. 'Sectumsempra!' said Harry again.

This time his aim was true - and Draco gasped just loud enough to be heard. A knot of something like regret bundled up in Harry's stomach, but he could barely feel it over the pounding of triumph in his ears.

He moved toward Draco.

***

'And then?'

Harry stilled.

'He got away,' supplied Hermione.

'I think I'm rather clear on that already!'

'He threw a Decoy Detonator,' said Harry.

'Then Tonks came in and hexed us -' spoke Ron.

'And Malfoy made it to the fireplace -' said Hermione.

'Why didn't we think to use some of Fred and George's stuff?' muttered Ron.

'It would have complicated things more,' said Harry. 'I couldn't see where you two were, and you couldn't see me -' Harry was halted by the look on Remus's face; he wasn't interested in this tangent.

Spread out on the table before them as they were interrogated by a furious Remus was the morning's Daily Prophet. It had been delivered only fifteen minutes ago. On the front page, in bold print, it said:

HARRY POTTER GONE BAD???

At approximately 11pm last night Smith Manor was subject to a brutal home invasion possibly orchestrated by none other than 'Chosen One' Harry Potter. As of 2am this morning, Mr Potter is wanted for questioning by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

The purpose of the break-in is, as yet, unknown. However, Aurors on the scene have stated that there are signs of forced entry and of a struggle. Nymphadora Tonks, the first Auror on the scene, added that 'while there aren't any signs of a classic Death Eater attack, we're keeping our options open'.

So how does this add up to involvement by Harry Potter, one might ask? Your correspondent has word that an Auror on the scene located a knapsack in the bushes near the manor; it is believed to belong to Mr Potter. The Aurors would not release any other information on the knapsack, claiming that it is part of their ongoing investigation.

'Mr Potter is wanted only for questioning at present,' said Rufus Scrimgeour, Minister for Magic, who graciously consented to make a brief statement for your correspondent in the early hours of the morning.

The Minister also dropped a bombshell related to He Who Must Not Be Named's attack at the Ministry in July. 'We are still investigating Mr Potter's possible involvement in the Ministry attack,' he said. 'The warrant issued - for questioning only, as I said - is for both incidents. I am confident that Harry - a personal friend, as I've told you before - will walk into the Ministry of Magic offices as soon as possible to offer a full explanation.'

Zachariah Smith, resident of Smith manor, said that he knows Harry Potter personally. 'He's quite full of himself,' Mr Smith told reporters. 'He probably thinks he can get away with anything just because everyone says he's the Chosen One.'

Has notoriety gone to Mr Potter's head? Does he think he can get away with breaking and entering because the hopes of the wizarding world rest on his shoulders? Or is this a sign of a sinister alliance between Mr Potter and He Who Must (cont. page 3, column 2).

'Let me see if I understand correctly,' said Remus with an air of disbelief. 'You found someone breaking into the Smith home and went in to investigate. Inside you discovered Draco Malfoy, who you nearly captured, but the alarm he set off sent a direct alert to the Aurors, who Apparated to the house. Then Tonks, who was thankfully the first Auror on the scene, attacked you two.' He pointed to Ron and Hermione.

'Malfoy and I were invisible,' said Harry.

'And when she looked closely enough to see who you two were, she distracted the other Aurors long enough for you all to Apparate out.'

'Er, that's about it, sir,' Harry agreed. Ron and Hermione were quiet.

Remus smiled coldly. 'And there's nothing more you wish to tell me?'

Harry's heart thumped. There was one obvious hole in their story: why they were at the Smiths in the dead of night in the first place. 'Um...'

Remus waited. Hermione and Ron were looking anywhere but at the two of them.

Finally, Harry said as neutrally as he could, 'That sort of depends on what you mean by me "wishing" to tell you something. There's stuff I wouldn't mind telling you, but I don't know if I should.'

Considering Remus's justifiable annoyance at the three of them, Harry wasn't expecting Remus to purse his lips and frown thoughtfully. He was quiet a few moments, then said, '...Does this have anything to do with why you won't say where you went with Dumbledore on the night he died?'

Harry was astounded by Remus's excellent guess. Remus must have noticed, for he added, 'More important people than I have been waiting for you to discuss it for some time now. This situation strikes me as being similar.'

Seriously, Remus said, 'I can't understand your need for secrecy with so little information, and I can't allow even you to become a liability. Tonks put her own career on the line - and one of our few remaining links to the Aurors as a consequence - to make sure you three didn't end up in a Ministry holding cell.

'Now, I'm still not used to giving orders, but I know that Dumbledore, in my situation, would most certainly insist on some explanation.'

Harry swallowed. He couldn't argue with Remus's logic. Running after Mundungus Fletcher for no reason was strange, but breaking into Smith manor was criminal, and he couldn't expect the Order to cover for him without letting at least Remus know why he did it.

'Okay, I...I guess you're right...but I think it would be better not to tell the rest of the Order, just in case.'

Just in case they're interrogated and just in case they're spies went unspoken, but Remus agreed readily.

So Harry told him.

***

Narcissa Malfoy pressed a cloth soaked in a healing tonic on her son's sore, stitched-up wound. She looked like she was boiling over. 'I can't believe you could be so foolish! What on earth were you thinking?! If the Dark Lord finds out...'

'He doesn't hear anything Snape doesn't tell him,' said Draco dismissively, 'and he won't tell. I'll be fine.'

'Severus will certainly want to know why you went to the Smiths',' muttered Narcissa, moving to sit on Draco's bed beside where he lay. She smoothed back his hair from his forehead tenderly. 'I don't know why you're being so secretive -'

'Snape isn't a good enough Legilimens to make me tell, and I don't intend to.' Draco sat up suddenly, smirking briefly before his mother's eyes caught up with his face.

'Even he can't stop the Dark Lord from finding out that Potter is wanted by the Ministry!' cried Narcissa shrilly. 'He'll ask questions, he'll find out it was you -!'

'I doubt it. The Dark Lord is unconcerned with the Ministry so long as it does not inconvenience Potter overmuch,' said Snape from the doorway. Narcissa stopped cold. Even Draco looked down nervously. 'Nevertheless, Draco puts too much stock in my ability to protect him.' He looked to Narcissa, who chewed her lip and gazed back apologetically.

'Tell me, Draco: why did you go to the Smiths?'

Draco held Snape's gaze.

Snape looked again to Narcissa while still addressing Draco. 'Very well; continue on your quest to get yourself killed. So long as I've done my best to protect you, nothing else can be expected of me.'

'Severus -' started Narcissa, standing up.

'I'll let myself out,' he interrupted. He made a perfunctory bow and left the room, and presumably the lakeside cottage where Draco and his mother had been hiding since Dumbledore's murder.

Narcissa turned to her son, her face contorted in a mixture of anger and fear. 'We would both be dead by now without him! I need to find him and try to repair our relations. You stay here!'

Draco rolled his eyes as his mother flew out. 'If he's such a great friend, why hasn't he got Father out of Azkaban yet?' he muttered to himself, falling back onto the bed.

Draco was alone for the first time since he had returned from his encounter at the Smiths. His mood stormy, he grumbled, 'Like I would've gone there if I'd known Potter would have the same idea. They must think I'm stupid or something.'

'I don't think you're stupid!'

Draco turned slightly in bed at the voice, but didn't act alarmed. 'Oh. It's you. Aren't you supposed to stay at Hogwarts?'

Moaning Myrtle batted her eyelashes, trying to be coy. 'Oh, I don't have to stay at Hogwarts! I just haven't had anywhere else to go for ages.'

'How did you find me?' Draco looked worried - he glanced around the room, then got to his feet and peeked behind the curtains. 'This place is supposed to be Unplottable...'

Myrtle pouted crossly. 'If you don't want me here, I'll just go!' She was ogling his chest, and clearly didn't want to leave.

'No, wait!' said Draco quickly. 'It's really important! I, er, don't want you to go - I just need to make sure no one else can follow you here, that's all! I'll be in lots of trouble if I'm found!'

'Well...' Myrtle frowned, tapping her chin indecisively. 'I wasn't trying to find you...this is where Olive Hornby tried to hide from me before the Ministry made me stop bothering her...Hogwarts has been so boring lately, I thought I might get one more good scare out of her...but I guess she's -'

'You won't tell anyone I'm here, will you?' asked Draco sharply. He gave her his saddest look.

Myrtle giggled and floated closer. 'You sound so miserable! Of course I won't tell! Poor, poor Draco...you got really hurt!'

Draco didn't contradict her. He lay back on the bed and poked a little at his wound. Myrtle got up closer and cooed over it. 'Was it one of those bullies from school?'

Draco smirked. 'Yeah, you could say that.' He pursed his lips thoughtfully, then asked, 'Say, do you want to see something?' He was already digging into his robes, discarded on the floor, before she could answer.

'I'd love to!' said Myrtle, looking around his shoulder keenly.

'Just don't tell anyone,' he instructed her, taking out a small black box.

He opened the box. Inside was a gold locket so shiny that it looked like new.

'It's Slytherin's locket,' he explained.

'Oooh! Where did you find it?'

'I stole it,' said Draco. At first he sounded proud, but by the time he got past the word "stole", he looked as though he had a bad taste in his mouth.

Myrtle cocked her head. She didn't look upset; on the contrary, she was smiling wistfully as though it were a romantic tale. 'And that's how you got hurt, right?'

'Yeah,' said Draco. 'I didn't know Potter wanted it badly enough to steal it...' He frowned at the locket, which was still nestled in the box. 'I wonder what the big deal is about this thing, anyway...first him, and then Potter...'

'Him? Him who?'

A flash of fear flew across Draco's face. 'Never mind. I don't want to talk about him. I just saw the word "locket" somewhere. I didn't even remember it until Potter told those Weasleys about it in the back of their shop...and I figured if Potter wanted it...'

As he spoke, Draco's hand was moving unthinkingly closer to the locket. His fingers touched it, and his eyes widened. He snapped his hand away as if scorched, and pushed his body away from the box so quickly that he slammed his shoulder painfully against the bed frame.'

'Draco?' asked Myrtle inquisitively. 'What's wrong?'

He was breathing slowly but deeply in and out, a pallid look of terror stretched across his features. 'That was...' He looked down at his hand, and seemed surprised that it looked normal. 'Touching it, it was...'

He moved back toward the locket and shut the top of the box as quickly as he could without even looking at it again. Then he pushed it into the bottom drawer of his dresser, covering it with clothes. 'Father told me that there's Dark magic, and then there's Dark magic,' Draco remarked.

'That...was the Dark stuff.'