Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

Dislocation	By : LinguaMagus Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female Views: 2823 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. I do not own Harry Potter or the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
Chapter 11:
Harry spent hours planning the ambush that night of the man in the cloak. He, Ron and Hermione sketched out the layout of the street, where the alleys and corners were, and a big circle around Number 12. Hermione marked four positions where they would need someone, and dotted an outline around the space where they would need to put the anti-apparition charm.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Ariana asked quietly.
“Actually,” Harry grimaced, “We kind of need you to be… bait.” He pointed at the X in the center of the street, right outside Number 11.
Ariana went blank for a moment, then smiled. “Okay. I can do that. Don’t worry. I’ve been dead once already, after all.”
Harry winced. “Right. Well, I’ll take up a spot at this corner,” He gestured at the X towards the end of the street. “It’s the place where he disappeared before, so he’s likely to go that direction again.”
Ron nodded. “I’ll watch for him here,” He indicated the X at the other end of the street. “Then I’ll tail him towards the ambush spot.”
Hermione looked resolute. “I’ll try and petrify him from here, then.” She pointed at an alley across from Number 11 where the final X had been drawn. “I’ll try and get to him before he reaches you, Ariana. But don’t worry because Ron will be on him the whole time.”
“Right, piece of cake. He goes for his wand and I’ll blast him.” Ron grinned crookedly and Ariana giggled.
Hermione stared at him disapprovingly. “Don’t hurt him, Ron. We don’t even know who he is. He could just be a nosy neighbor. He doesn’t deserve to end up in hospital over that.”
“Whoever he is, we have to find out what he knows. I don’t want to hurt him, but if it’s between that and him escaping, we can’t hesitate. The whole Order is at risk while he’s out there.” Harry said simply. Hermione reluctantly agreed.
“Okay, but what do we do once we actually have him? It’s not like we can bring him in here. That’s worse than him just looking from the outside. We can’t exactly just tie him up and interrogate him in the middle of the street.” Ron pointed out.
Hermione chewed on her lip for a moment. “He’s right, Harry. Where can we take him that would be safe?”
Harry shrugged. “Well, we could always just take him to Dumbledore’s house. We had planned on staying there anyway. We know it’s empty, and no one would think to look for him there.”
“So, what? We stun him, tie him up, drag him to Dumbledore’s house, make him explain who he is, then we just ask him nicely not to tell anybody about us?” Ron asked.
“Well…. Yes.” Hermione admitted. “More or less.”
“Let’s focus on grabbing him first. We’ll figure it out as we go,” Harry said.
“Suits me. I mean, if it’s a Death Eater, we’ll just fight everybody that comes looking for him,” Ron said sarcastically.
“Do you have another suggestion, Ronald? Someone is watching us, and we don’t know who. Should we just wait and see who he tells?” Hermione snapped.
“Guys, come on. It’s a good plan. Let’s just let it play out and see what happens. There’s no use fighting over what might go wrong,” Harry said soothingly.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully. Ron and Hermione bickered about the plan a few more times, but none of them could think of any other plan that was likely to be more successful. Looking over it, the plan was really very simple. Harry couldn’t think of anything that was likely to go wrong. As long as Ron stayed close, Ariana shouldn’t be in any danger. He debated trading places with Ron, but he was sure the man would try to run and he wanted to be right in his way when it happened. Ron wasn’t bad at defensive spells, but he just wasn’t quite as quick as Harry when it all came down to it.
Tension was running high during breakfast the next morning. Even normally placid Ariana seemed to be buzzing with anticipation. Harry and Ron took up opposite positions in their room and were practicing stunning spells and trying to shield them. Harry had forgotten just how much better Ron got during his time with the DA. This Ron was only getting his shield up one time in five, and even then, Harry had shattered it with a stunner twice. Meanwhile, Harry had successfully blocked all of Ron’s charms and one of his shield spells had been so aggressive that he knocked Ron over onto his bottom.
They finally stopped practicing when Hermione came in and surprised Harry with a full body-bind curse and hit Ron with Incarcerous. “Dueling is all well and good, but you both need to be aware of your surroundings. If someone surprises you, you’re still vulnerable.”
She cut Ron loose first, and then he stood over the frozen Harry and barked, “Constant vigilance, Potter!” He cackled while Hermione tutted and released the curse.
Harry rubbed his forehead, chagrined, and nodded. “You’re right. I guess we’re probably about as ready as we’re going to get. Is there anything else we should do before we take up our positions?”
“Well, a disguise for Ron wouldn’t be the worst idea. I’m sorry, Ron, but if he’s watching the house, your hair is pretty identifiable. He could easily spot you when he walks past.” Hermione reasoned.
Ron pouted. “S’not my fault. I didn’t ask to be ginger.”
“Well I’m sure there’s a hat around here somewhere.” Hermione said, ignoring him.
They poked around and found a dusty old Homburg in one of the bedrooms upstairs that made Ron look like a street vendor.
“That’s perfect. You’re barely noticeable now.” Hermione announced.
“Great, now can we please get this over with? This thing is already starting to itch. I think it’s infested.” Ron grumbled.
Harry laughed, Hermione sighed, and they gathered up Ariana and headed out into the street, wands at the ready. Hermione muttered the anti-apparition charm, “Pachysaerio,” paused for a moment, then cast a muggle-repelling charm as well. “It’s possible he’ll notice that none of the muggles are going down this stretch of road, but I think we have to risk it. We don’t want any bystanders getting hurt.”
“Good idea. Plus, if he is just a nosy muggle, this will make sure we don’t ambush him.” Harry said. He turned to Ariana, “I’m going to take up my spot just around that corner, but if anything happens, you just yell as loud as you can and I’ll come running, okay?”
Ariana nodded, and everyone turned to go find their spots. Harry disappeared around the corner, Hermione crouched behind some bins in the alley and peered over the top, and Ron leaned against the wall up the street and pretended to be examining a newspaper. Then they waited. And waited. And waited.
For nearly two hours, they just stood around and waited for something to happen, not daring to change position in case he turned up right when they risked it. Finally, right when Ron started to get restless and had to re-start his newspaper for the third time, the man appeared. Walking onto Grimmauld Place from the adjacent street, his eyes fixed on a spot right between Number 11 and Number 13 that he couldn’t see, but knew must be there.
He wasn’t a large man, nor particularly intimidating. He looked to be about middle-aged, a little grubby, in need of a shave and probably a cup of coffee, and the cloak looked as if it had been chosen for its ability to keep out wind and rain rather than any style considerations. All in all, he was not an especially worrisome adversary, but Ron still kept his guard up, just in case.
When he was maybe five metres ahead, Ron detached himself from the wall and followed casually behind. The man didn’t give any sign that he had noticed at all. Ron tailed him for a few minutes when things went suddenly very complicated. Screeching down the street like a purple lightning bolt, the Knight Bus came to an abrupt halt right outside Number 11 and Luna skipped happily from the door. She spotted Ariana at once and ran over to greet her with a hug.
Ron cursed under his breath, and the man in the coat altered his course slightly, so that he would pass close to the bench where Ariana had been sitting. The Knight Bus zipped away. Ariana was quietly and frantically trying to explain the situation to Luna, to whom the idea of deception and stealth did not come naturally. She looked up and stared directly at the man in the coat and started to circle the bench to approach him.
“Hello, strange man! I’ve seen you around here a lot. Are you trying to spy on us?” Luna asked pleasantly.
The man tensed and then bolted, passing right between Luna and Ariana and heading to the other end of the street. Hermione’s body-bind curse flashed out of the alley and splashed harmlessly against the bricks. Harry rounded the corner, wand already out and prepared, but the man was still too close for him to get a clear shot off. However, as soon as he saw Harry, the man spun on the spot and tried to apparate away. He did an awkward little pirouette and then fell over, the charm holding him in place. He swore loudly and charged back towards Luna. With a flying rugby tackle, Ron bore him to the ground and pressed his wand against the man’s red nose.
Harry and Hermione closed in. Luna smiled and greeted them. “Oh, hello! Are we taking this man prisoner? I’m afraid I may have spoiled the surprise a bit. That was quite an impressive tackle, though, Ron. Did you mean to press your knee into his penis like that? He seemed to not like it very much.”
Harry gave Luna a perfunctory hug and approached the man on the ground, “Hi Luna, I guess we forgot to expect you. Would you mind staying over there with Ariana for a moment?” The man did not look at all familiar, and with Ron currently kneeling on his crotch with a wand in his face, he didn’t seem likely to put up much resistance.
Hermione hurried over and waved her wand, “Incarcerous!” Thin cords shot out and wrapped the man from shoulder to knee. Ron eased up on his pressure slightly, but kept the wand trained on him.
Harry stared down hard, “Okay, before we go anywhere else, why don’t you tell us who you are and why you’re following us?”
“Bugger off! Jumped by a bunch of school kids. I should be bloody ashamed. What are you going to do, torture me? Hah! I’m not scared of you lot.” The man grumbled and spat, losing just a bit of his defiance when red sparks shot out of Ron’s wand and singed his eyebrows.
“Right, well, that’s to be expected, I suppose.” Hermione sighed. She gave a few waves of her wand to lift the charms she had placed on the street.
Ron rolled the man over and pulled him into a fireman carry, “accidentally” kicking him in the stomach. “Okay, how are we getting him to, y’know, the place?”
Harry grunted unhappily. “I can apparate us there. I don’t know how many people I can do at once, though, so I’ll have to take us in ones and twos.”
“Right, well let’s get the smelly bloke out of here first before he makes a fuss. Somebody’s bound to turn up soon.” Ron pointed out.
Harry nodded and walked over to Ron, “I don’t want him there alone, so I’m going to try and take you both at the same time. Make sure you don’t let him go. If he gets splinched, I don’t know how to put him back together again.”
Ron chuckled unpleasantly and grabbed Harry’s forearm tightly. With a twist, they vanished. Barely a minute later, Harry was back and he was alone. “Okay Hermione, you’re next.” Hermione nodded and grabbed his arm. He vanished, and again, he reappeared. This time, when he came back, he was looking noticeably green around the gills. “Ugh, I hate apparating. I don’t know how people do this all the time. Luna, your turn, come on.”
When Harry finally came back for Ariana, he looked almost ready to puke. He stood with his hands on his knees for a few moments before shaking his head and walking over to Ariana. Just when he was preparing for the final jump, he saw another man in a heavy cloak rounding the corner up the street. He pulled Ariana quickly behind a tree and drew his wand. He waited and counted under his breath. Then, ducking and spinning out from behind the tree, he stabbed his wand out. It flew neatly out of his hand and into the heavy mitt of Mad-Eye Moody.
“Too slow, Potter. Always assume that an enemy you’ve seen has also seen you. If you’re leaving cover, an attack is always coming. Now explain. Why are you jumping out from behind trees trying to jinx me?” Moody growled at him.
Harry took a deep breath. “Sorry, sir. I thought you were another spy. We captured somebody who has been spying on us here. We tied him up and I was just getting ready to take Ariana to join everybody else when you showed up.”
Moody was suddenly focused intensely on what Harry was saying. “A spy? How did they find us?” He was already handing Harry his wand back and picking his walking stick up from the ground where he had previously discarded it.
“He hasn’t told us yet, sir. He will, though.” Harry said determinedly. Mad-Eye gave an approving nod.
“Lead on, Potter. Where’s he being held?” He asked.
“We’re using Dumbledore’s house for now. It seemed like the place no one was likely to check.” Harry shrugged. “Do you know where it is, or do you need to apparate with me?”
“Sensible. No, Potter, I know where Albus lives. I’ll meet you there.” Then, with a twist and a crack, he vanished. Harry held out his arm for Ariana, and they followed suit.
When they turned up on Dumbledore’s front porch, there was shouting inside. Harry ran in, checking from room to room before finding Hermione and Luna holding back a furious, red-faced Ron from the man in the cloak, who was laying bloody on the floor. Moody found them moments later, and with a flick of his wand, pushed Ron back against the wall.
“Take a breath, son. Tell me what happened.” Moody said calmly.
Ron processed Moody’s arrival with fading alarm, and started to explain. “The dumb bastard tried to escape, so I tripped him. On his way down, he bloody bit me!” Ron cocked his head, displaying a streak of blood going down his chin from a ragged bite high on his jaw.
“Hermione, put some dittany on the boy’s face to take care of that bleeding before it makes a mess. And you!” He turned to the cloaked man with a vicious smile. “You know who I am, yes?”
The man gulped in terror. Clearly, Moody’s reputation proceeded him even into whatever seedy circles this man ran in. “Yeh, what of it. I ain’t even done nothing ‘cept try to get away from these bleeding kidnappers. What business is that of the aurors?”
“I think I’ll ask the questions and you answer them. How’s that for a plan? Let’s practice. What’s your name?” Moody asked politely.
“You’re a bleeding lunatic. I’m not telling you nothing.” The man shrieked.
Moody flicked his wand and the man flew into the air and spun upside down, hanging face down over the rug and turning purple. “You’re not very good at this yet. That’s okay. Sometimes practice takes time. Let’s try again. What’s your name, scum?”
“Withel! Spooner Withel! I’m just an investigator, that’s all!” The man choked out in panic. Moody rotated him right-side up, but kept him hanging in the air.
“There, now wasn’t that easy? Withel, Withel… Ah, I know you. You’re one of van Pew’s lads, aren’t you? Investigator my arse, you’re a stinking thief is what you are.” Moody growled.
“I gave all that up, I promise! Now I just watch people. I get an envelope and a bag of galleons, and I report back what I find. Nothing illegal, I swear.” Withel panted.
“Uh huh. Who are you watching, and who is paying you?” Moody barked.
“Nobody! I’m not working, I was just mindin’ my bleeding business when these lunatic children jumped me.” Spooner sobbed.
Luna chimed in, “I’ve seen him around an awful lot lately, but he never really seems to be doing anything. He just sort of walks around and looks at things.”
He blanched and coughed violently. “She doesn’t know what she’s on about. I’ve never seen any of you before. First time I’ve ever set foot on that road before.”
Moody roared and set the man to spinning like a top, his head wobbling sickeningly off-axis. When he slowed, he had turned a pale green color and looked ready to vomit. “Don’t lie to me, scum. I won’t tolerate lies. Now tell me the truth or it’s going to get ugly.”
“Borgin! That bleeding skinflint Borgin hired me to tail the girl. Some ‘Lady Eymerich’ or something. He wanted me to follow her and report back. That’s all.” Spooner said weakly.
Mad-Eye shot a sharp look at the girls. Hermione nodded, “He’s talking about me. I bought something from Borgin and Burke’s and used a false name.”
“You paid him, right? The transaction’s over? Nothing outstanding?” Moody confirmed.
“It all went very smoothly, I thought. I placed the order, we sent the payment, that was it. I didn’t hear anything more from him.” Hermione explained.
“Hmph,” Moody snorted. “Tail her, huh? Go on, tell the girl your real job, scum.”
Spooner whimpered and began to protest, “N-no, really! I…” He started to bounce rhythmically off the floor like a toy ball. Moody waved his wand like a conductor, causing him to bounce and spin and bounce and spin. “Wa— urgkh— wait! Okay, I’ll tell you.” He slowed to a halt. “Borgin hired me to steal back some important book. I was supposed to wait until the girl left the house, and when I saw the book, I was supposed to nab it and bring it back to him.”
Moody smiled in grim satisfaction. “That’s more like it. Telling the truth is its own reward. What have you told Borgin about us, thief?”
“Nothing, I swear!” Spooner raved. “I was supposed to give him a full report when I came back with the book. I wasn’t supposed to come back until I had it, but the girl wasn’t coming out. It was just the other girl, the weird one. So I tried to wait until she would show up to see if anyone came out to meet her. But then she would vanish behind whatever charm you all have set up.”
Moody grunted. “Lucky break, Potter. I believe him. We just get rid of this one and the secret is safe.”
Hermione gasped. Withel screamed and sobbed in fear. Harry rubbed his scar and held out his hand. “We can’t kill him, Moody. He’s a criminal, and I’m sure he would happily have robbed us, but I don’t think he’s actually hurt anyone. We’ll just modify his memory.”
“Memory charms can be broken, Potter. What he knows puts the whole Order at risk.” Moody said.
“We’ll just have to risk it. We don’t have to wipe everything out. Just modify a few things so he thinks he followed Lady Eymerich, ran into her security, and got scared off. That should be believable enough that Borgin doesn’t bother digging any deeper, right?” Harry proposed.
“Hmm, well, I doubt anyone is going to assume a worm like this knows anything useful. We’ll put a little spin on it. I’ll drag him in on a charge, let DMLE process him and kick him back. Nobody will think much of a low level crook like him getting caught.” Moody added.
Apart from Withel, who stared on in fascinated horror as they debated whether he would live through the night, they all agreed that this would probably be the cleanest way to handle the situation. Ron lobbied for five minutes alone with him, but they agreed it would probably attract less attention if he got turned in without any serious injuries. Moody vanished the blood off of his face and propped him up against the wall.
They went over the story a few more times to make sure everybody agreed on the details, then Moody modified Spooner’s memory and the familiar glassy stare slid over his face. Moody hefted him into the air, bid them good night, and apparated away.
When he was gone, Ron turned to Hermione. “You know what this means, right? Borgin tried to steal something back after he sold it to you, and you caught him. If you play it right, he’s in your pocket.”
Hermione looked thoughtful, but Harry was uncertain. “Do we really want to try and get in bed with somebody like that? He’s already proven to be dangerous. We don’t even know if he has other people following us. We can’t trust him.”
“I think Ron is right. It’s not just that we can get an advantage, it’s that he’ll expect reprisal. If Withel was caught and there’s no backlash, he might get suspicious. We need to at least threaten him, even if we don’t plan on doing anything.” Hermione said thoughtfully.
Harry grudgingly saw the logic in this. The people that Borgin was used to doing business with would not tolerate this level of disrespect. Retribution was just part of the culture in failed business dealings. “Fine. But let’s at least figure out what we’re going to ask for before we talk to him again. I don’t want to overplay our hand and expose ourselves as anti-Voldemort. He’s not going to jeopardize his trust with the Death Eaters just because he’s afraid of you.”
“You’re right. We need to be cautious. I just don’t want to lose the opportunity to maybe be able to find other dark objects we need later. Borgin could be a useful resource while we’re hunting horcruxes.” Hermione reasoned.
Ron mulled it over. “Harry, didn’t you say that Borgin had one of the horcruxes a long time ago?”
Harry considered it. “Sort of. He had the locket before it was a horcrux, and he sent Voldemort to buy Hufflepuff’s cup before it was a horcrux, but I don’t think he ever got the cup back after. I don’t think Voldemort would have wanted it ending up back in the hands of someone who would give it away to the highest bidder.”
“Who would You-Know-Who trust with something like that? I mean, he hid the locket and the ring. Is everything else hidden as well?” Ron asked.
“Well, he gave Malfoy’s dad the diary. So we have to at least consider that one of the other Death Eaters has another horcrux. Voldemort himself has the snake, so either the goblet or the diadem or both could be with one of his followers. The question is, which Death Eater would he trust enough to protect something that important?” Harry thought through the options.
“Well what Death Eaters do we know about?” Hermione considered. “Rookwood, Dolohov, the Lestranges, Malfoy, Barty Crouch Junior…” She counted them off on her fingers.
Harry continued, “Avery, Crabbe, Goyle, Mulciber, Nott, Peter Pettigrew, Snape, Travers.” He struggled to recall all of the Death Eaters he had seen. There were others he knew by sight, but he couldn’t remember their names.
“Okay, so does he trust any of them? I mean, it’s You-Know-Who we’re talking about. Not exactly the warm and cuddly sort, is he?” Ron asked.
“Well, we know he trusts Snape. He wouldn’t let him play double agent otherwise. But does he trust him enough to give him a piece of his soul? He trusted Malfoy enough to give him the diary, but I doubt he would trust him with two horcruxes at the same time. We know Dolohov and the Lestranges were in his inner circle. There’s no chance he would trust something as pathetic as Pettigrew.” Harry closed his eyes, trying to picture the position of the different Death Eaters in relation to Voldemort in the cemetery.
“So Snape, Dolohov, and the Lestranges are the most likely.” Hermione concluded. “We have no idea where Dolohov and the Lestranges are hiding right now, but we know exactly where Snape will be in a month.”
“That’s right! We can keep an eye on him and see what we can find. We need to find evidence to get him arrested before… well, we just need to get rid of him, that’s all.” Harry said bitterly.
“We’ll take down all the Death Eaters, Harry.” Hermione said confidently. “We just can’t let that get in the way of taking down You-Know-Who.”
Harry sighed. “Yeah, I know. It’s just frustrating. I know so much about what’s going to happen, but I can’t change any of it yet. If I start messing with things too early, the timing might be wrong and I might end up making things even worse. I know how to stop Malfoy once he becomes a Death Eater, but he’s not even a Death Eater yet. If I do something now, he may never become a Death Eater at all, and then Voldemort might choose somebody else to become his agent at Hogwarts and I wouldn’t know who.”
“Let’s just focus on what we can do right now. This is going to be a busy year for all of us, but if we know how to prepare, we can make things go better than they did last time.” Hermione said comfortingly.
Harry rubbed his face vigorously. “Okay, yeah, you’re right. I just need to focus on today. We’re handling things. We’re doing better than we ever could have expected. We’ve already destroyed a horcrux that we didn’t even know about. Sure, it was just luck, but I’ll take all the luck I can get.”
Ron patted him on the back. “We’ll get there, mate. There’s nobody else I’d trust more to have with me trying to save the world than you and Hermione.”
On that note, they finally relaxed from the day’s adventure. For all the ways it could have gone wrong, they had caught and interrogated someone who was stalking them and could have exposed the whole Order. They had solved the problem without anyone getting hurt, and now he was in the custody of the Ministry and they had leverage over someone who was intimately connected with a dozen or more members of Voldemort’s circle.
For the rest of the day, they explored Dumbledore’s house. As simple as it seemed, there seemed to be little surprises around every corner. Ariana found a photograph of the Dumbledore family from when she was a little girl. A young, smiling Albus and a surly Aberforth stared out from either side of a very stern looking witch that Harry assumed to be their mother Kendra. Harry opened the frame, pulled the photograph out, and handed it to her. She clutched it to her chest and then slid it into a pocket.
- 10
- 11
- 12
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Dislocation

Chapter 11: