The Heart of the Raven

Author's Notes: 10 points to whoever notices my tribute to a couple of great actors in the movie versions of Harry Potter.

Chapter 3: Chasing The Ravenclaw Line

Tonks showed up at Grimmauld Place the next morning loaded down with a huge stack of old newspapers, magazines and books. Harry and the others watched as she plunked them unceremoniously down on the kitchen table and began to divide them into three piles.

"Look at all these books!" Hermione crowed happily. "However did you find all of this stuff, Tonks?" she asked eagerly.

"David and Anna were really helpful digging up all this stuff for us," Tonks said, referring to her friends from the library. "Their library has got all sorts of obscure information like this, they pride themselves on it. Such lovely people." She smiled happily. "Now, this first pile's got all the Stratford stuff in it." She gestured to a stack of large volumes. "They've written a few books on their genealogy which should be helpful if we end up needing to get into contact with them. They're quite big though, I hope it's not a bunch of useless filler..."

"I'll take that pile," Harry offered. "I'm through finding stuff in my scroll, it's been completely unhelpful." Harry welcomed an excuse to read something else for a change. He was over Rowena for the moment.

"I'll help you," Ron offered, clearly eager to abandon his scroll as well. Ron's scroll had been about Rowena's building plans for Hogwarts, and had been very frustrating to go through because she seemed to keep changing her mind about how she wanted the school to be laid out.

"Great." Tonks nodded approvingly. "This next pile's dedicated to the Tenas." She pointed at a pile of old newspaper clippings. "Do you want to help me with it, Remus?" She looked up at her boyfriend expectantly.

"I would love to," Remus agreed. Tonks flashed him a flirtatious smile before moving on to the last pile. "And of course, this pile's all about the Rex family." The last pile was the most eclectic, containing both newspapers and books, clearly drawing on many varied sources. "I guess it'll be left to you three." Tonks nodded to Luna, Neville and Hermione.

"We'll get started right away," Hermione agreed. "Come on, you two," she added to Neville and Luna.

Once again, everyone split up and took their research materials with them. Tonks and Remus disappeared upstairs and Hermione, Luna and Neville made their way to the library, which had become Hermione's favourite spot. Harry stayed in the kitchen with Ron. Their first order of business was to divide the books up between each other. They stalled for a bit, making conversation before finally settling back into work.

"What do you make of these Stratfords?" Harry asked his friend as delved into their reading through of the materials in their pile. "They seem awfully careless, flaunting the fact that they're Ravenclaw's descendents: almost like they were asking for some sort of trouble." He shook his head in disbelief.

Ron shrugged. "These people have no subtly at all. If this big book they've written on themselves is any indication," he gestured to a thick leather-bound volume, "they're a bunch of pure-blood snobs. Old Draco would probably like them..."

"Yeah probably," Harry agreed with a smirk.

A few months previously, in the cold and rainy November, Draco Malfoy and his mother had secretly defected from the dark side and were now under the protection of the Order as spies. Despite feeling some remorse, Draco was still the same snob he'd always been. But he wasn't evil. He'd merely gotten in over his head, the same way Regulus Black had. He was willing to work towards the greater good, because he'd finally realised that the dark side was going nowhere. Luckily he didn't spend too much time at Headquarters; otherwise Harry would have a lot more trouble resisting the urge to smack his smirking face.

"I wonder what finally made Draco change sides," Ron wondered out loud. "I've been thinking about it for awhile now. It just seems so out of character. I mean, he'll always be that twitchy little ferret as far as I'm concerned."

"Who knows?" Harry shrugged. "I guess maybe Malfoy's not as stupid as he looks."

Ron chuckled.

"Or maybe he was just talking Dumbledore up on his offer," Harry considered, suddenly recalling something.

"What offer?" Ron wanted to know.

"Right before he died, Dumbledore tried to convince Draco to come over to our side," Harry explained to Ron. "He's even gotten him to lower his wand and everything before the other Death Eaters burst in."

"Really?" Ron asked. "That's really something, Harry."

"He's only doing it to save his own skin." Harry rolled his eyes. "Because he's too much of a coward to do Voldemort's bidding. And now the Order's just wasting their resources protecting him."

"But what if he really could change?" Ron wondered.

"Ron, this is Malfoy we're talking about," Harry reminded him. "He'll always be an awful person, even if he's not evil. I really don't care in the slightest what happens to him, as long as he doesn't run around and betray us to Voldemort in turn."

"He'd have a hard time doing that though," Ron pointed out. "I heard Tonks and Remus talking. They've got Kingsley Shacklebolt and a few others taking turns tailing him. If he was up to something, we'd know."

Harry and Ron both turned back to their books but Ron only managed to read a few more paragraphs before slamming the book shut in disgust. "This is completely useless. It's too bad some of Rowena's descendents turned out to be such a bunch of jerks," he remarked. "I doubt she'd be too pleased. These people deserved to get that bracelet stolen, if you ask me."

"It just seems strange, a relic like that being snatched right out of their personal collection," Harry mused. "You'd think they would've guarded something that important more carefully."

"Well it's probably just karma paying them back for being jerks," Ron commented with a shrug. "I hope the others have found something useful, these Stratfords were a complete waste of time."

That evening everyone came together to report their findings. Ron and Harry were the first to speak, keeping their revelations brief.

"There's not a lot to say about the Stratfords aside from the fact that the bracelet was one of the few Ravenclaw relics they owned," Ron told the group at large. "They used to have a pair of matching earrings but they sold them to the Rex family several generations ago, long before Voldemort, and long before the bracelet was stolen. There's little else to say."

"What did you find out about the Tenas?" Harry addressed Tonks and Remus, hoping that they'd managed to find something more useful.

"The Tenas were a fairly well-off family until they hit some hard times just before the last war," Remus told everyone. "Apparently all of their investments went bad all at once. They sold the sacred Ravenclaw cauldron to the museum in a last-ditch attempt to raise some money. The Rex family had also put a bid in for it, but the museum was willing to give the Tenas more."

"But then, just as soon as the sale was settled, the cauldron was snatched," Tonks added. "Old Ellie Tena was convinced that the Rexes had stolen it, actually," she added with a disbelieving chuckle.

"Ellie Tena might have been right," Hermione said gravely. "The Rex family could possibly be the most infamous out of all the Ravenclaw descendents. Most of them were fairly alright, but every few generations there would be one bad apple. A few decades ago, there was one brother Allan who made it his personal mission to get his hands on as many Ravenclaw relics as he possibly could."

"I guess being distantly related to someone as famous as Rowena Ravenclaw went to his head," Harry remarked dryly. "The Stratfords were the exact same."

"Unlike his parents, Allan Rex didn't share his findings with the rest of the family," Hermione continued on, her voice growing grave. "His grandparents Isafrel and Ulalume Rex had started a small Ravenclaw museum in a wizarding community in Ontario. But Allan hoarded all of his relics, refusing to put them in the gallery and bullying his other family members out of their favourite possessions with blackmail and trickery... he snuck the Heart of the Raven right out of his own mother's attic, according to his younger brother Prospero. But it all came back to haunt Allan Rex when the tiara was then stolen from him."

"Sounds like a nice bloke," Ron remarked sarcastically. "Whatever became of him?"

"His mother Sydney never forgave him," Luna picked up the story. "She loved that tiara, prizing it above all of the other relics. She even tried to make Allan hunt down the tiara again to steal it back, but he died before he could find it. Or so they say."

Harry and the others looked at her expectantly.

"Supposedly Allan Rex was very close to finding the tiara again," Luna said. "He seemed to have tracked it to someplace in Britain. But he died mysteriously before he could recover it, some sort of powerful curse..."

"No one knows what killed Allan Rex," Neville finished the story. "And the newer generations have been scarred by his misdoings for the last half-century. Nobody trusts them anymore."

"Some of their names aren't even recorded on the family tree," Tonks chimed in. "The line's gotten really blurry. The most recent generation of Allan Rex's grandchildren only lists four daughters, and none of them by name. No one even knows where they are, or how old they are. They could be anywhere in the world. Maybe even hiding from the scar on the family name." She shuddered at the thought.

"Too bad for them," Harry remarked vaguely. "But where does this leave us? We can't very well go to Spain, Canada and Australia to talk to these people."

"We'll come up with something," Neville said firmly. "The Heart of the Raven is supposedly in Britain, right? I'd say it's our best bet."

"We should try to find out the last places Allan Rex visited before he died," Luna suggested.

"Good idea," Harry nodded. "If Voldemort was known to have been in any of those places that would really help our search..."

Research began anew, but it wasn't as easy this time. The Rex family was very secretive, and there was little information about the newer generations, as Tonks had mentioned previously. Since Allan Rex's death, the family sank into obscurity and become very mysterious. Even the scrolls weren't much help, for there were no new names to go on.

"Supposedly a few of Allan Rex's grandchildren are still in the relic hunting business," Hermione reported one day. She'd been reading from a magazine article entitled Rex Granddaughter Recovers Lost Ring.

"Still searching for the Heart of the Raven as well, no doubt," Ron remarked.

"It wouldn't surprise me if they've found it," Remus suggested a few days later. He had been fully drawn in by an article called Rex Family Receives Lead on Missing Relic. "They've been so secretive the last few decades, maybe they're hiding it," Remus suggested.

"Or maybe someone else found it and they're trying to get it back," Harry considered, eagerly reading through the article himself.

Harry had become convinced that the Heart of the Raven had to be the relic they were after. He was almost at the point of obsession. It was the most famous Ravenclaw relic and Harry recalled that the woman in his dream had been wearing a tiara that looked an awful lot like a design sketch for the Heart of the Raven that Hermione had come across in her scroll. Harry had more dreams about it: always chasing the raven, or chasing Rowena herself through mazes and other obstacles. But he could never reach her. She taunted him, always being there but just beyond his reach. It was beginning to drive him crazy.

They had no way of getting their hands on the Heart of the Raven. Luna and Neville had managed to narrow down the sites that Allan Rex had visited, but getting to some of them was proving to be a problem. A lot of them were in areas heavily populated by Muggles, and others were way out in the barren countryside. They seemed to be running into more dead ends than ever. Once again, Harry and his friends had found their way back to square one.

"This isn't working," Ron sighed dejectedly one afternoon. "Even Hermione's given up." He gestured to Hermione, who was fast asleep with her head resting lightly on his shoulder. Harry suspected that Ron didn't entirely mind Hermione sleeping on his shoulder, but he didn't say anything. He just brooded on a moody silence, watching Ron stroke Hermione's curly brown hair. Whenever Harry was around his two best friends lately, they always seemed like they'd much rather be alone.

The next morning, Harry resolved to write a letter to the Rex family to ask them some questions. It was a last-ditch idea, and probably destined to fail, but it was the only plan Harry had for the moment. But he was having a hard time knowing what to say. He pondered over his parchment, twirling his eagle feather quill between his fingers, feeling pretty stupid. What exactly were you supposed to say to such a mysterious bunch? 'Dear so-and-so Rex, you don't know me, but I'd like to ask you some questions about that tiara that was stolen from you, you know the one I mean...' My, that would make for a pleasant letter.

Remus Lupin was sitting at the kitchen table across from Harry, ready to offer advice. But Harry was feeling completely uninspired.

"Where's Tonks this morning?" he asked Remus, momentarily giving up on his letter writing.

"She had to work," Remus said. He seemed a bit put off by this, but continued, "it's just hard, now that we both have jobs... we don't get to see each other as often as we'd like."

Harry nodded sympathetically. "What have you been doing lately?" He'd been wondering this for awhile.

"I've been tutoring a couple of children who will be heading off to Hogwarts soon," Remus told him. "It's a growing trend, parents wanting to give their kids a head start on magical theory before sending them off to school. Minerva helped set it up for me, offering references and such."

Harry nodded. After Dumbledore's death, Minerva McGonagall had taken over as headmistress of Hogwarts. But the school was not as full as it used to be, with many parents choosing to keep their children at home in light of the growing threat of the Death Eaters and Voldemort. Despite the decline in popularity, Professor McGonagall had been working tirelessly to keep the Hogwarts tradition alive and to keep the Death Eaters out. The school had been well-protected against further Death Eater invasions, thanks to piles upon piles of defensive spells that many people had put up around it. Minerva had been so busy the last time Harry had stopped by the school that he hadn't even gotten a chance to speak with his old Head of House. But he had caught a glimpse of her rushing by, loaded down with papers to grade and shouting angrily at Peeves, who had managed to replace all the candles in a chandelier with firecrackers.

"Minerva's been very helpful," Remus remarked gratefully. "I just wanted to be doing something. I hated the thought of Tonks having to support the both of us. She's already done so much for me. And she earns quite a bit of money at the Auror Office, but it just didn't seem right not to be contributing. But we've got everything about fifty-fifty now; saving up some money... it's been going really well." He smiled vaguely to himself, clearly thinking about his sweetheart.

"I'm glad you and Tonks are so happy together," Hermione, who had just entered the kitchen, spoke up.

"She's a very special girl," Remus said, smiling to himself. "And I feel honoured to be with her. She's the most beautiful thing that's ever come into my life, and I am so lucky to have found her." He trailed off, still scarcely able to believe how much Tonks cared for him.

Harry felt that familiar jarring in his heart, the same gut-wrenching feeling he got whenever someone deeply in love was around. And of course, there were so many of them around, which made it ten times worse. Harry seemed to be surrounded by love-struck fools. Hermione and Ron were always flirting discretely, without really realising it. It was obvious that they liked each other, but they were at a complete loss of where to go with it. It was almost painful to watch.

Tonks certainly wasn't lost though: she seemed to always be holding Remus' hand, or have her arms linked through his. Remus seemed to constantly have his arm draped around her shoulders or wrapped around her waist. Even Luna and Neville had some sort of strange mutual attraction, Harry realised. Neville was always gazing warily at her out of the corner of his eye, and Luna seemed to always be looking back. Everyone around Harry seemed to be in love, or at least attracted to someone. Only he, Harry, was alone. Adrift without the only girl he'd ever truly loved. Before Harry could sink too far into his sullen thoughts, a loud crash from the hallway signalled the arrival of Tonks. The young auror came running into the kitchen, skidding to a halt by the table, and falling into Remus' lap. He looked up at her rather startled, but grinned and slipped his arms around her waist.

"You guys aren't going to believe this," Tonks gasped. She was clutching a wrinkly magazine to her chest, looking flushed with excitement. She waited as everyone else came running into the kitchen and gathered around. "I've found the Heart of the Raven!" Tonks announced triumphantly.

Author's notes after story: I couldn't resist writing a bit of a cliffhanger.