The Road To Nowhere

Chapter Five

A Museum Caper

"If I fall along the way

pick me up and dust me off

and if I get too tired to make it

be my breath so I can walk."

Matchbox Twenty: `Bent´

Harry stepped out of the dark and smoky pub and onto the wizard street of Diagon Alley. He normally loved visiting the many shops around the bustling thoroughfare but he was still distracted.

Ginny had been gone for a month now and he was hoping that she was all right so far from home. Whatever it was that upset her so much, he hoped she had left it behind and was enjoying Paris. He knew she loved the city and was excited to be going to school there, but he missed her and worried about her constantly.

A voice sounded above the din of the crowded street as it shouted his name. He knew who it was. Anni. He was meeting her there for lunch today. Next week she was leaving for New York City. She´d written him several months ago excitedly informing him in her barely legible handwriting that she´d been accepted to a very prestigious Art History school there. She was adamant that NYU offered the best study for her interests even though her parents forbid her to go so far. In the very style that characterized his cousin, she smiled and told them both that she was leaving anyway and there was nothing they could do that would stop her. On a full scholarship, even financial support couldn´t be held over her as an incentive to stay put. She was eighteen and she would do as she pleased. Harry knew her all too well.

He smiled and walked toward the frantically waving girl. She knew how to draw attention to herself, very un-Dursley-like. She´d never fit into that family, even though she was half-Dursleyherself. Harry stopped in surprise midway across the street at the sight of her. She´d chopped all of her curls off. Her hair was spiked with bleached tips. She still looked beautiful and her sapphire eyes glowed with pleasure as she ran the rest of the distance to meet him. Harry had to laugh. Uncle Vernon would surely have a heart attack if he´d seen what his niece had done to herself. He had a term for people who had hair like that, free-loading-drain-on-honest-taxpayers. He´d pointed out leather jacket, combat boot wearing young people like that all the time and used that term on them. He´d usually received the finger for all of his trouble. Harry couldn´t fight the image. He would always cherish memories like that one. Other than that, his former family hardly entered his mind.

"It´s good to see you again too, Anni," Harry barely managed as Anni seemed to squeeze the breath out of him. To his great displeasure she was still a good three inches taller than him.

"I have the best news to tell you," she smiled from ear to ear. Harry could tell that she was having trouble containing her excitement.

"What is it then? Uncle Vernon disown you on account of your hair?"

She ran an unconscious hand through her brunette and bleached spikes and shook her head. "George asked me to marry him!" She nearly screamed, causing Harry to step back as she jumped excitedly. He´d never gotten used to her erratic behavior but tried his hardest to take it all in stride.

"Congratulations, I guess," Harry smiled, but he couldn´t get worked up enough to share her excitement. He´d had little to be excited over in the past year and a half. "Where´s George anyway?"

Anni´s shoulders slumped and her smile fell. "Harry I thought you would be happy for us. I thought you liked George."

"It´s not that, Anni. I´m happy for you both. I really am," Harry began to explain.

"Let´s talk in the restaurant, people are starting to stare at me," Annisaid pulling him to a small café on the corner. Harry knew she was not self-conscious and he knew she didn´t care if people were staring at her. She wanted to talk to him. She knew when he was bothered by something. Harry doubted she could help but he never left her in the dark. There was nothing he could keep from her.

***

"Where were you? I´ve got the investors all breathing down my neck and nothing to tell them. What´s the status? Tell me you´ve got something. I need to tell them something," Corbin asked from behind a stack of papers that hid his face.

How had he known that it was Sirius who´d walked through the door? Sirius stopped and said nothing. The little man peeked around the stack in front of him and smiled. "I knew it was you. You should think about wearing different shoes, you know? I could tell it was you coming a kilometer away. Those biker boots of yours give you away every time."

Arabella walked in and threw a copy of the Daily Prophet down on her desk, slamming a half-full coffee cup down with the other hand. It clanked on the table and both men stopped to stare at her.

"Something wrong, Figg?" Corbin asked sarcastically. There was always something wrong with Figg. Today, apparently the Prophet had hacked her off.

"I´ve got to get someone in there. There´s an inside man in that place putting a spin on every story even remotely related to dark activity. It wouldn´t surprise me one bit if half the reporters in that place had a mark on their arm." She stopped, passing a hand wearily over her eyes. "No offense meant, Severus," she called as an afterthought. A distracted voice called back from an adjacent room, "None taken."

"Has he had any contact with Dumbledore?" Sirius looked around the corner cautiously. He wasn´t sure if he could be heard and he never addressed himself to Severus personally. Like the child that he admittedly was, he used Arabella as a go-between.

"No, I haven´t heard a thing," came the voice again before Arabella had the chance to answer. He sounded irritated and Sirius left it at that. He´d taken Dumbledore very seriously when he´d asked that they put aside past differences. The alliance would need both of them. They still couldn´t hold decent conversation with each other and rarely were they ever in the same room.

That was how Sirius liked things. He knew Severus was talented in his field and had access to areas and information regarding Voldemort and his followers that none of the rest of them could hope to gain and he was loyal, loyal to Dumbledore. That was all Sirius needed to form a trust in him, whether Severus had done them same and put things aside for the time being, he could not be sure. Severus betrayed nothing. Sirius was certain that he would not trust him, however. Given the chance, he wouldn´t be surprised if Severus handed him over to the Dementors. He´d tried it once. But, then again, Sirius had nearly killed him once as well.

"Can I have a private word, Arabella," Sirius asked, pulling her into a back room.

He shut the door behind her and turned, his face was an unreadable mask.

"What´s going on, Sirius?" she said, it was evident that she was nervous about his urgency and secrecy. She unconsciously toyed with the napkin that she´d been employing previously in mopping up her spilled coffee.

"I´ve spoken with Peter," he said slowly, watching her expression go from nervous to wide-eyed with curiosity.

"And?"

***

Ginny felt almost frivolous spending an entire day doing absolutely as she pleased. The first day off in more than a month, no school, no work, just time. She had an entire twenty-four hours to dispose of, well, thirteen hours really. She´d slept until eleven to make up for another night´s fitful tossing. But she felt rested now.

She walked slowly down the pristine marble floors in awe of the remarkable works accumulated from centuries past that called out to her to take a moment and appreciate them from a closer vantage point. It was impossible to pay this compliment to every exhibit the Louvre housed, there were simply too many.

Ginny reminded herself that she would have to come back on her next day off to catch the things she would miss on this first visit. It was all so amazing.

She was so distracted by it all that she´d run into several tourists and had forgotten which wing she was actually standing in at the moment.

Her breath caught in her chest as she saw it. It was the same as in her dream. A feeling of dread came over her. It was marked on a white tag as:

Antoine le Moiturier

Tomb of Philip Pot

Painted Stone, 1330

Ginny had to shake her head at this. If no one wanted it found, she guessed the safest place would be miss-marked in a gigantic Mugglemuseum. And Ginny knew that this funerary monument housed a very important artifact. Not important to Muggles and probably not very important to most normal wizards, but it was important to her. She wasn´t standing here staring at the ancient funerary monument of Mungo Hufflepuff out of mere coincidence. She was sure it was the same one she´d seen in several dreams. It had the same knight lying carved out in stone on the lid, Mungo the Saint decked out in full black and gold funerary regalia. The lion at the foot of the departed saint was the blessing of his faithful friend, Gryffindor.

Ginny walked closer to examine the individual faces of the eight hooded figures, mourners, who supported the casket and bore it to its final resting place. Each figure carried a shield that signified their respective battalion. They were all soldiers, some with the Gryffindor red and gold shield, otherswith the Ravenclaw blue and bronze. There was no evidence of silver and green, but then again, Ginny thought, there wouldn´t be, would there?

She knew the drill. The dream had been explicit. She had to get to the sarcophagus that was roped off. There would be a shallow basin under Mungo´sfolded hands. It would be small and pewter. Nothing as grand as the one she´d seen Wormtail with in the forest. This one had belonged to Mungo´s mother, Helga.

Ginny watched the corridor. No security personnel. Two cameras, one in each corner of the hall, lots of people though, Ginny noticed frantically scrambling for an idea to inspire her. She didn´t even know it the basin would still be there after all this time. She prayed that it was. She knew none of the details but she remembered a recent dream in which it was impressed upon her the importance of recovering this precious object first before the wrong people became aware of its purpose.

It came to her in that moment.

She ran for the bathrooms praying silently that she´d brought her wand with her.

Closing herself into a stall, Ginny searched quickly through her bag. She found it.

***

"And what?" Sirius said sitting down. He barely took a breath during the ten minutes he took to explain the entire meeting with Arabella.

"And," she said, pushing herself away from the door she´d been using as support throughout the recounting of the events in Italy, "What did you do, Sirius? Did you follow him, kill him? Find out what had brought him to Florence in the first place? I know you didn´t just come back to tell me he sends his best wishes." Her eyes were wide and her cheeks were as dark red as her spiky hair. She looked aggravated. She always did, especially when it came to important things.

He smiled. "You know me so well. I neither followed him nor killed him, but I did find out why he´d been in Florence, or rather Ravenna. Through several different channels I was able to track his activity. An elderly man there told me that he´d seen a person of Peter´s exact description meeting a hooded figure just outside of an entrance to the catacombs there. I couldn´t get much more out of the man. He seemed pretty spooked by the hooded figure and well, you know Muggles." Arabellanodded taking all of this in.

"I´ll run a search on Ravenna and possible connections Voldemort might have with the catacombs there. That´s mostly early Christian burial, correct?" She asked as she opened the door. Sirius shook his head.

"I think so. I mean, I always slept through history." He smiled as Arabellatutted. He´d never met a bigger fan of Muggle history than her, well her and Remus, of course.

"Hey, Arabella?" Sirius stopped her retreat. She came back through the door.

"Are you okay with all of this?" he asked her tentatively.

"Absolutely," she said with none of the confidence that usually went with that statement, "When I asked not to be involved with the hunt for Peter, well, you know. That was before he murdered Remus. I´ll do anything to stop this, even if that means bringing Peter down with the rest of the horrid lot of them." She smiled weakly and Sirius was left with the very strong doubt that Peter wanted to help them to bring down Voldemortand his other more powerful cohorts without major concessions on their part, concessions, which they were not willing, nor were they in any position to offer him.

He would play this situation by ear.

But first he needed to know that Arabella would back him up. Then he would take it to Dumbledore.

***

"How´s Ginny doing?" Anni asked, as their food was set in front of them and the waiter left. "That´s why you´re in such a mood, isn´t it?" She raised her eyebrows knowingly.

"She´s all right, I guess. I kind of thought that we would hear from her but she hasn´t written, she´s been gone for a month," Harry admitted.

"It really shook you, didn´t it?" Anni continued, smiling comfortingly. "So what does that mean? Do you fancy her?"

Harry rolled his eyes and dug around on his plate with his fork. He knew he was killing her excitement, with the engagement and all but it wasn´t fair to drag all of this out. It was bad enough that he´d had the same talk with Hermione. Why was it so inconceivable to everyone that the two of them where just friends? He honestly didn´t see why they had all jumped to the same conclusions.

Yes, he was bothered by the fact that she´d tried to kill herself, but it wasn´t because he was in love with her, it was because he loved her, simple as that. He would have been just as devastated had it been Hermione or Ron in that situation. But with Ginny it was just a little different. Hermione and Ron had been through enough trying situations with Harry that he had no doubts that they could handle themselves. Ginny seemed a hopeless case, desperate beyond reason, he didn´t understand the way her mind worked and couldn´t anticipate her erratic behavior. It scared him a bit.

It was as if they were all just waiting for her to one day succeed, nothing they can do for her. He´d spent so much energy and worry on her. He would do anything to save her from the smallest amount of pain. He would die without a second thought if he knew it would save her. Yet he couldn´t be sure that any sacrifice on his part would help her in the slightest. And for the rest of the world that translated somehow into a shallow sort of puppy love that everyone associated with the two of them. It was well meaning, no doubt, but at the same time insulting. Ginny meant everything to him, but not in that way.

He couldn´t explain it to Anni. She saw everything through rose-colored glasses at the moment. He would sound like a hopeless romantic no matter which way he´d told the story.

"I love her, yes. She´s a big part of what little family I have left and I almost lost her, and not for the first time, either," Harry answered in a stoic tone.

Anni blinked at his clipped and frustrated answer. "I´m sorry. I should just pretend that this moping about and starving yourself is normal behavior, right?"

"I´m not starving myself," Harry answered a bit annoyed at Anni´s harsh but candid and truthful scolding.

"Oh and your not just playing with your food now? Harry, grow up. You can´t fix her problems for her but it sure as hell won´t do her any good to see what kind of an effect this has on you. You think she enjoys all of the guilt and suffering she´s brought on her family and friends? Let her get her shit together and you sort out your own. And don´t piss off your cousin in a public place where she´s prone to yell and scream and carry on in front of all of these people." She stared around at the wide-eyed expressions of the diners around her. "What are you staring at?" she shouted at an elderly witch and wizard.

Harry stared at her immovable. He´d expected this when she´d started in on him. It took her less time to silence the room this time than it normally did.

"Are you finished yet?" he asked her calmly.

"No," she shouted at him and then calmed slightly, feeling very foolish at her outburst, "If you want to be a good friend, don´t play this guilt trip on her. It´s okay to worry, Harry, but don´t torture yourself. It will only torture her to see how it hurts you. When she figures things out, I´m sure she´ll let you in. You may not understand her now, but she´s got to have some reason for all of this, even though she may not know exactly what it is at the moment. Just be patient and wait for her to come to you if it´s all over her head."

That last bit of advice rang familiar for Harry. He´d remembered Lucy saying the same thing. However, it had been somewhat gentler than Anni´s preferred yelling until it sinks in method. He did realize how his behavior must grate on everyone else´s nerves, even if Anni was the only one bold enough to point it out to him. She had a point and his self-destructive attitude would get him nowhere and most likely do more harm than good.

"I´m sorry for spoiling such a special day for you," Harry said sheepishly as they made their way from the café amid curious stares. "You´re right, you know. I´m doing no one any favors by acting like this. I just feel sort of responsible for her and for what she´s going through right now."

"I know it´s hard to deal with but you´ve got to be the strong one. Ginny can´t be right now. That would be the best way to help her and you´re a good friend, Harry. I know you only want for her to get better, back to normal and all that. But, like I tell George all the time, as much as you want to fix things for her, she needs to figure it out on her own. I hoped I helped in some small way." She smiled. Harry knew that she had.

"How is George taking your leaving?" Harry asked. A change of subject was in order right about now. He wanted no more lectures, he promised to stop acting like a child.

"He hates it. But that´s just tough. I´m going," she unconsciously glanced at the storefront behind her, Fred and George´s Diagon Alley location. They´d actually turned out to be pretty gifted entrepreneurs. "I´m going to miss you, Harry," she said, turning her attention back to him and enveloping him in a rough hug, "what am I going to do without you," she said in a mock crying tone. She was never serious when the occasion called for it.

"You´ll probably find someone else to yell at in a crowded restaurant," Harry answered in what he hoped was a dejected tone. It produced its intended effect.

"Don´t pretend to be wounded. You got some good advice in there. I only hope you´re smart enough to follow it." She thankfully released him and kissed him finally on the forehead.

"Be careful in New York. Don´t go into Central Park at night and all of that," Harry said in a bored tone.

"You sound like my father," she smiled as Harry winced. It wasn´t a compliment.

"Look me up if you´re in the area," she said with a wink and turned toward the shop. Harry watched her leave, thankful to see her go and missing her all the same. Anni was a never-ending conundrum. How was it that George didn´t find her entirely exhausting?

***

"Oh come on, Gin!" she whispered to herself, "concentrate!"

She muttered the incantation one last time and with surprise she went immediately invisible. Temporary Invisibility Charms were just that, temporary. She´d have to work fast.

With some fancy footwork and several close calls, she successfully maneuvered through the crowds to the hallway that held the sarcophagus. This would take some finesse.

No one seemed to be paying much attention to an insignificant funerary monument. It wasn´t as if she was trying to lift the Mona Lisa off the wall in front of hundreds on onlookers, but still she had to be careful.

Still no security had come down the hall and she doubted whether the surveillance cameras were directed exactly at that one artifact. She expertly dodged the ropes that marked the perimeter of the sarcophagus. This was going to be simple, Ginny reassured herself.

She used one of the knight/pall bearers for a leg up and perched herself lightly on Mungo´s legs. She mouthed a slight apology to the stone-faced man for impeding so on his personal space. But she was on a mission.

Bending closer, she saw the crease on his folded hands but could not make out how it should open. Was there a trick to it? She was searching frantically. She supposed she had about twenty minutes to figure this out before she became visible again and was subsequently escorted out in cuffs.

Damn, she thought, cursing a group of schoolchildren as they stopped in front of that very monument. She didn´t dare move, she was invisible yes, but not infallible. They could still hear her every move and the monument was still visible, it wouldn´t do to frighten a group of school children away with some mysterious tapping coming from a centuries old coffin, now would it?

She breathed a sigh of relief as the noisy children left and laid her head momentarily on Mungo´s folded hands. She was not cut out for this secret sort of spy work, breaking into famous museums and all of that. She was no Bond Girl.

She heard a click as ancient metal rubbed against stone. Her forehead had pressed some sort of lock on his hand. "Oh, how very clever," she whispered to herself. It was a very tiny lock disguised as a ring on his index finger. His hands folded out eerily revealing a beautiful but tiny chalice in meticulously worked pewter. She had seen it before in her dreams. Seeing it again and in person brought on the most uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu. She took the cup and snapped the lock shut. Mungo´s hands returned to their prayerful attitude and Ginny leapt down from the stone casket hurriedly. She´d lost count of the minutes but knew she didn´t have many left.

She made it to the bathroom where she´d stowed her bag behind the toilet of the last stall. Shoving the chalice into her bag and zipping it tightly she hoisted it onto her shoulders with care. After all it housed a cup thousands of years old and possibly a key to a very important future event.

Ginny looked down at her hands and watched as they slowly became flesh colored and life-like in front of her.

She´d pulled it off without a hitch. The museum was sure not to have noticed. She wasn´t even certain that they were aware of the sarcophagus´ full function in hiding that cup, as it was miss-labeled and everything.

The Ministry probably wouldn´t even kick up a fuss at a minor using magic either. Did they even watch for things like that in foreign countries?

Ginny highly doubted it.

She rushed from the museum and to the nearest Metro tunnel. She had to get home where she could get a closer look at this thing.