Chapter 4
The hand moved back to traveling and the whole house took a sigh of relief. Arthur put a hand over his heart and tried to breath. The family was gathered around the clock, watching it anxiously, as they had been for a solid hour. What Percy had been doing that landed him in an hour of mortal peril, Arthur wasn’t sure.
“What’re we going to do?” Bill whispered. “How’re we going to find him?”
“Dad needs to put in a missing persons report.” Ron piped up in his squeaky voice. “It’s best that we act as normally as possible for the time being. If he was really missing, that’s what Dad would do.”
Arthur’s stress must have shown in his face, because from beside him Molly squeezed his hand. “He’s right, love.” She said softly.
“I’m not a very good actor.” Arthur tried to explain.
“Then don’t act.” Fred said. “You are worried about him, so just focus on that.”
Arthur swallowed, and nodded. “I can do that.”
“In the meantime,” Ron cleared his throat and stood up straighter, “we need to talk about our priorities. I think we should rescue Harry first.”
“No, we should tell Dumbledore first.” Molly corrected him gently. “He’ll know better what to do.”
“No!” Shouted Ron and Ginny at the same time.
“We can’t tell anyone.” Ginny continued. “Least of all him.”
“Now listen here young woman,” Molly began, but Ron cut in.
“She’s right, just listen! He knew about the Horcruxes this entire time!”
Molly paused, and Arthur felt his breath catch.
“The entire time?” She whispered.
Arthur took a seat. He remembered being ordered to the battlefield. He remembered fighting, and watching his friends all die, his brothers all die, his classmates all die. He remembered Dumbledore’s reassurances that if they just fought a little harder, went a little longer, that everything would be okay.
It had all been for nothing, apparantly.
“So we don’t tell Dumbledore.” Molly said faintly. “Who do we tell?”
“No one.” Arthur responded. “No one can know.”
“Except for Harry and Hermione.” Ron followed up.
“And Lee Jorden!” George added on. Fred nodded furiously beside him.
“What about Tonks?” Charlie asked.
“And Fleur.” Bill said, and then wrinkled his nose. “She’s so young right now.”
Everyone looked to Ginny. “Luna probably already knows.” She shrugged.
“That’s probably true.” Molly said fondly.
“No one can know!” Arthur insisted, but was met with blank stares. He sighed. “Oh, well, I suppose a few people can know.”
“The more people who know, the worse the risk is that the secret will come out, so no telling people until after we know we can trust them.” Ron insisted logically.
Arthur wondered when his son had become so smart.
“We should make a plan.” Bill said. “Like Ronnie said earlier, a list of priorities.”
Ron scowled. “Don’t call me Ronnie.”
“Okay Ronnikins.” Fred teased.
“Enough! Boys, please behave. I’ll grab some parchment.” Molly scolded, and went off to fetch the parchement. The rest of the family obediently settled down, though Arthur pretended to miss some tongues sticking out at each other pointedly.
Molly returned, and wrote a few things down and underlined them.
“List of Priorities.” She dictated. “Number one, rescue Harry.”
There were some general nods of agreement.
“Why are we rescuing Harry?” Bill asked, confused.
“Dumbledore left him with his horrid relatives, who beat him, starve him, and lock him in closets.” Ron explained succinctly.
Arthur exchanged a horrified look with Molly. “They did what?” He asked, bewildered.
“I knew they weren’t, well, ideal.” Molly followed up. “But I didn’t realize it was that bad. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I thought I did!” Ron shouted defensively.
“We told you about the bars on his windows, right?” George said.
“I didn’t hear anything about this!” Arthur exclaimed. “How dreadful. We must make a report right away.”
“A report? To who?” Ginny asked. “The Ministry can’t be trusted.”
Arthur had to hide a smile at his five-year-old daughter. Hearing those words come from a five year old was just too precious.
“Amelia Bones is an old friend of mine. She’d help.” He explained. “She has a great amount of power in the ministry, and if we turn it into a media spectacle, we may be able to keep Dumbledore from putting him back.”
“That’s probably our best bet then.” Ron said seriously, his little hands clasped in front of him in thought. “Next, we need to rescue Sirius Black.”
“He never recieved a trial, if I anonymously let Amelia Bones know, she can get him one. They’ll find him innocent so long as we turn in Peter Pettigrew…”
The whole table froze. Bill stood up, and marched to the door to the stairs, presumably to check Percy’s room. Everyone turned to watch him go, and waited with bated breath for him to return.
“He’s gone!” Bill called and barreled through the door back into the kitchen. “They’re both gone!”
“So either Pettigrew kidnapped him, or Percy’s planning something.” Molly got up and started pacing in stress. “I hate not knowing where he is. He’s in so much trouble when he gets back, just wait until I put my hands on him…”
“We need Pettigrew!” Ron interrupted. “What are we going to do without him?”
“Alright enough!” Bill said loudly. “We can’t worry about it now. We can only deal with things under our control, so let’s just wait for Percy to get back, and then we can handle all that. Let’s move on to Horcruxes. Those are our next priority, right?”
“Yes.” Ron took a deep breath. “The first one we can’t get without Sirius.”
“Why not?”
“We need Kreature.”
The whole family groaned.
“Why would we possibly need Kreature?” Molly asked.
“He has a Horcrux.”
“I might be able to summon him.” Arthur mused.
The family turned to look at him as one.
“My mother was a Black, and he seemed to listen to me on occasion.”
“Well go on then,” Molly urged him. “There’s only one way to find out.”
“Kreature!” Arthur called with authority. A beat passed, and then two. Finally, a crack sounded, and Kreature appeared, just as miserable as he’d ever been.
“Who dares summon Kreature? A blood traitor? Filthy mudblood lovers. Mistress would be upset, yes she would.”
“Kreature, bring us Slytherin’s Locket.” Ron said quickly, cutting off whatever mumbled rant that would have followed.
Kreature’s already too wide eyes widened comically further. “How does the young blood traitor know about that? Tell Kreature now!”
“Enough, Kreature. Bring us the locket now.” Arthur said in his best stern fatherly voice. He rarely used it.
“Kreature will not!”
“If you bring it to us we will destroy it.” Ron cut in quickly.
There was a pause.
“The blood traitors can destroy it?” Kreature asked uncertainly. “How?” He demanded.
“Fiendfire or a basilisk fang can destroy it. We happen to know where a basilisk lives.” Ron said evenly in his child-like voice. Charlie perked up from his spot at the table right as Arthur’s stomach swooped.
Before he could jump in and squash any stray ideas of going after basilisks, Kreature began weeping loudly.
“Master will be avenged at last.” He cried, and dramatically threw himself to the ground. “The blood traitors will end the evil reign. The young master will rest at last. Poor Master Regulus.”
“Yes, Kreature. So you must bring it to us.” Ron continued to coax the house elf.
Kreature sniffed. “Once the blood traitors have the fang, Kreature will bring them the locket.” He snapped his fingers, and disapperated.
The house was silent for a moment. Then, Ron heaved a massive sigh.
“That went better than I thought it would.” Arthur commented, and rose. He turned to look at the clock one last time to see if Percy was still traveling, and suddenly he could hear his heart in his ears. “Mollywobbles, dearest.”
“Yes love?”
“Percy's at the ministry.”