Lockwood Part 6

Benji just wasn’t sure, it didn’t feel like Angie had actually thought this through and he had enough on his plate to be getting on with. He was being sent to Italy at the end of November to chase up on the Black lead, which he actively knew would go nowhere and she was talking about taking a detour to the Alban Hills.

‘Look, if you can give me a detailed plan, I’ll consider it.’ He said as they wandered around near the dock at the front of her house, the only safe place to discuss anything seemed to be a Lockwood house or Grimmauld Place. After telling Jocelyne everything he knew about the goings on of the Order, the ministry and Angie, he was worried his home may have been watched after that. ‘But I can’t just turn up and say to Dawlish, “oh by the way, we’re going to a random spot on the other side of Italy for a bit of sight-seeing”. He won’t buy it and he’ll report back to Kingsley, who will report back to Dumbledore and so on.’

‘Benji, I’m just asking you to take me with you,’ she implored. ‘I won’t need long, just overnight will be enough to get what I’m looking for and then I’ll be heading to Bulgaria to see the Park again. Why can’t you just use that as an excuse? Say the back up would be useful and I’m heading that way anyway?’

‘Because someone will suspect something and I’m already treading on thin ice with Dawlish. Why can’t you just go without anyone knowing? Why do you need me to get you into the country?’

‘Because I might need you.’ Angie snapped, she took a breath and looked out at the almost frozen lake. ‘I don’t actually know if I can step foot in that place again without alerting the She-wolf to her son’s presence, she’s trying to get back to him and I can’t start something I don’t know I can finish.’

Benji just watched her for a moment. ‘You need me to go into the village.’ He realised, his anger was already bubbling, he knew most of it was stress, but some of it was directly related to Angie.

‘I would have asked David, he’s muggle-born so he’s technically got less magical blood which shouldn’t aggravate her too much, but with Umbridge at the school and generally getting in my way, I can’t ask him to leave for any reason.’

‘She’s already started checking up on all the teachers.’ Benji nodded, suddenly seeing that Angie had in fact thought this through.

‘Look, I didn’t want to ask you, but I can’t ask Remus for obvious reasons, Sirius is on house arrest, there’s no way I’d ever ask Jocelyne, she’s the only one of us whose position is relatively safe and David is stuck at the school.’ She explained and Benji just sighed, rubbing his worn face and looking at the snow-capped mountains.

‘Fine.’ He eventually said. ‘What is it you need me to do?’

As far as Benji could understand it, Angie was looking for a set of coins, she had delved into Felix’s memories and found out that they worked like portkeys, but they were linked to specific people or places. She figured she could use them to stay in contact with everyone and if any of them were in trouble or needed help, the coins would be able to alert them to it and take them straight to the point of conflict.

‘… I also need you to look at the statue of the She-wolf,’ Angie suddenly had a much graver look to her expression. ‘Last time I was there, I felt like I was being watched and the symbols on the statue seemed to be some kind of heavy duty containment charm, at least that’s what Remus was able to find out. If that’s really the case, then-‘

‘Then there’s a great big bloody wolf inside that statue!’ Benji was exasperated and sat down on one of the seats close to the dock. ‘You’re asking a lot.’

‘I’m going to ask a lot more of you if we don’t put a stop to this soon.’ Angie turned to face him. ‘From what I can gather from Felix’s memories, there is a way for the statue to break open of it’s own accord, but I haven’t figured that out yet. Wizards fly over that spot all the time, if she was going to be affected by a single one wandering around, it would have broken already.’

Benji thought on what she was saying, he would need a lot more detail than that and would not spend a second longer than he had to in that place, but he would do it for his friend and for his family. He would go to the Alban Hills for them.

Remus was upset as I imagined he would be, he didn’t speak for a while and simply sat staring a hole into his tea as the rain began to pick up outside.

‘Angelina, you’re asking too much of him,’ his voice was quiet and low. ‘You’re asking him to go to a place you yourself fear and retrieve something that you have no understanding of. What if he gets hurt? What if you’re right and there is a wolf inside that statue, and it wakes up while Benji is there in the dead of night? What if your friend is in trouble and you cannot help?’

‘I’ll know if he’s in real trouble and I will go and help him.’

‘At greater risk to yourself!’ Remus snapped before quickly regaining his composure. He took a breath and watched me for a moment. ‘Angelina, I understand that you are in a position that you find difficult and extreme by nature, but I implore you to really think about what it is you are asking of others, especially your friends.’

‘Benji can say no if he wants to, if he feels he can’t-‘

‘But he won’t!’ Remus was now more than upset, it was close to the full moon and I could understand it, but I wasn’t going to back down on this one. ‘Angelina, you will convince him to do it because he thinks it will help his family survive, but all this trip will really do is put his life in danger for the sake of something you do not fully understand. I can’t see any good coming from this.’

‘That’s why we have to do this,’ I was getting fed up now. ‘Because I don’t fully understand how to put an end to the brothers, I’m sorry to say that some of this will be trial and error, maybe these coins mean nothing, maybe I am putting Benji’s life at risk for no reason, but if he is successful, I will be able to use his memory to see the statue and find out what those symbols mean and if she will wake up any time soon… I need you to see that Remus.’

Remus sat back and observed me quietly, I could see him playing unconsciously with his wedding ring, before nodding very slightly.

‘Fine.’ He said. ‘I can’t condone your actions, but I won’t stop you, just make sure you aren’t forcing Benji to do anything he is unsure about, if he is hesitant do not push him, promise me that.’

‘I promise.’

‘Good… Dumbledore has asked me to do a few things anyway, so please stay safe for me and give my best to Aleksander and Kasha.’ Remus stood up without saying another word and went upstairs, presumably to read somewhere he wouldn’t be disturbed. I could understand that.

I remained in the kitchen for a while and thought about how happy we had been only a few weeks before. The wedding was beautiful, the honeymoon was bliss and now this was the life we were living as husband and wife. Surely, things would get better at some point, wouldn’t they?

Benji remained as patient as he could be and chose an opportune time to suggest taking her with them to Italy, Fudge was immediately suspicious at first, but he soon came around on the understanding that Black hadn’t been sighted anywhere else and if he was still there, the back up would be appreciated. Fudge eventually agreed and Benji allowed Angie to show him a direct path to where the coins were hidden. He would have to dig them out of the ground, without magic aiding him, but she was sure it couldn’t have been buried that deep. No one was looking for them after all.

‘You’d better be right about this.’ He warned, quietly as Dawlish got ready to leave the office. ‘And you better have told Remus where you’re really going.’

‘I did.’ She nodded. ‘It didn’t go well as you can imagine, but he’s got things to do for Dumbledore so it’s not like he can stop me.’

‘No, it doesn’t seem like many people can stop you doing anything.’ It was a small snap on his part, but luckily Angie didn’t say anything, she just sighed and they waited for Dawlish in silence.

Dawlish wasn’t happy with the arrangement that Angie was going with them, but she had assured him she would stay out of his way and it would only be for two or three days max. They arrived and began working immediately, going to find witnesses and do a sweep of a few places Black had apparently been seen, but as Benji knew would happen, they found nothing. Part of him just wanted to scream that Black was hiding at Grimmauld Place in London and part of him just didn’t want to talk at all.

Angie was surprisingly helpful in suggesting a few other spells they could try, knowing full well that they would find nothing, but she wanted to at least appear as though she was helping, possibly so that she could go on other trips abroad under the façade of helping the ministry, she was clever and Benji respected that.

By the time the night came in, Benji had offered to patrol. It was a good cover to get Dawlish to sleep while Angie apparated them both to the base of the Alban Hills. She was worried and Benji could see it so clearly on her face. She looked up at where the village was located while Benji got her broom ready, they didn’t risk taking his in case Dawlish checked on Benji’s room for whatever reason, it was just safer this way.

‘Right, can I use lumos?’ He quickly asked, suddenly realising that the cover of the night would not allow for his sight to actually find the coins. He was getting nervous as well.

‘Should be fine.’ Angie nodded. ‘Like I said, witches and wizards fly over here all the time, so a little bit of magic shouldn’t do anything extreme, but you will need to get a clear look at the statue so that I can see it when you get back.’ They had already agreed for Angie to use a pensieve to look at the memory of Benji in the village, it would prevent so many things from getting out in the open and with the risks they were already taking, it wasn’t worth it.

‘Okay.’ Benji swallowed and took a deep breath.

‘Don’t forget you won’t be able to apparate when you’re up there, so if you do get into trouble, use my broom and fly straight back to the town and I’ll meet you there.’ Angie placed her hand on his shoulder and managed to take away most of his fears, he almost loved that she had the power to do that.

‘I will.’ Benji nodded and gave his friend a half smile, before mounting the broom and beginning the ascent towards the village. He was on his own now.

Benji had been gone for almost two hours and I was getting more and more nervous. It shouldn’t have taken anymore than an hour to retrieve the coins, I’d shown him exactly where they were buried from Felix’s memory, the exact way to go and where the She-wolf sat in the centre of the village. So, where was he? I couldn’t risk entering his mind to find out and alerting the wolf to what he was really doing, he was on his own.

I waited another hour at the base of the hills, before I finally saw a broom flying towards me. Benji was covered in mud and sweat, he was panting harder than I’d ever seen him before.

‘What happened?’ I said, taking the broom from him and helping him sit down in the long grass.

‘I’m never going there again.’ He said, it was only then I saw he had been crying. ‘Angie, please, please don’t make me go back there.’

‘Alright, alright, it’s okay.’ I wrapped my arms around him, but before he could take any comfort, he drew his wand and extracted the memory. I had almost forgotten and quickly took the vile out of my pocket to collect it. ‘Thank you, Benji.’ I hoped he could feel that I meant it. ‘Come on, let’s get back to the safehouse and get you cleaned up before Dawlish finds out where we went.’

I gave Benji all the time in the world to get up, but instead he took a small wooden box out from his coat and handed it to me.

‘They were buried a lot deeper than you thought.’ He said, sadly. ‘Regardless of what you thought Felix might have done, he was definitely a Lockwood.’ Benji half laughed. ‘Always hiding things with unnecessarily high safety measures.’

I couldn’t help but smile and opened the box. It was full to the brim with the wooden coins I had seen in the memories. He did it.

‘Remind me to never underestimate you.’ I smiled and tucked the box away for safekeeping.

Benji showered and got cleaned up in my room at the safehouse, I’d put a silencing charm up just for good measure. We lay down on my bed and waited for the morning to come in so that Benji could get back to his room safely. I kept a vague eye on what was going on outside so that Benji wouldn’t have to actually patrol anywhere, he could actually rest.

‘You’re tired.’ I said into the darkness, it was too risky to put any lights on.

‘Yeah.’ Benji sighed. ‘Everything about me is tired… I told Jocelyne everything by the way.’

‘I had a feeling you would.’

‘You’re not angry about it?’

I half laughed. ‘She’s your wife and my best friend, either she was going to figure it out on her own or one of us would have to tell her. I’m just glad it was you.’

It was the first small sign of joy I’d seen from Benji in a long time, in the form of a small chuckle. Jocelyne was some woman and Benji knew that.

‘We’re a team, she and I…’ Benji said, I could hear him swallowing back any emotion he was feeling about it. ‘She has to remind me sometimes, but we’re a team and our priority is Jackson and Harper, we have to protect them at all costs and above everything else.’

‘It’s the way it should be.’ I knew what Benji was saying, if I asked him to do anything that would take him away from his duty as a father, then he would refuse.

‘We were children once, do you remember when we were innocent…?’ I could feel Benji turning towards me slightly.

‘I don’t think I know what innocent is anymore.’ I confessed. ‘Seems like a far off dream that never really happened.’

Benji turned back to look up at the black ceiling, we didn’t say another word until the dawn broke. I knew Benji had fallen asleep, I didn’t bother waking him, knowing he needed to rest whenever he could.

I stayed awake and tried to think about the coins and why I was so desperate to get my hands on them. I’d seen them in the brother’s memories and couldn’t quite understand why he felt the need to take them, given that they didn’t look important to what he was retrieving, but something made me pick up on them.

Felix’s memories had very little information in the way of the coins, it was really only the location of where they had been buried and the fact that Felix was keen for them to stay hidden from the people around him. I suddenly had a very bad feeling about what was sitting in my coat pocket.

Dawlish hadn’t suspected anything and we continued to search for Black around the area, Benji and I knowing full well that Sirius had never actually been to Italy in the first place, and soon I was catching a Portkey to Bulgaria. I said my goodbyes to Benji and thanked him once again for his help. I made a mental promise not to ask him to go back to the village, whatever happened had scared him beyond what I thought him capable of feeling and I wasn’t about to put my friend’s life at risk like that again.