Hidden Riddle

Chapter 58: Disappearance

Delphini hesitated before entering the sitting room. Mrs. Weasley was sitting in her chair by the fire, listening to the wireless and working on her knitting. "Good afternoon, dear. Are you feeling better?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "Oh, yes," Delphini replied, settling on the couch across from Mrs. Weasley, she cradled her cup of tea in her hands. Gesturing to the knitting, she asked, "What are you making?"

Lifting her knitting to show her Mrs. Weasley responded, "I'm making a blanket for the Lupins' baby. I decided to make it green and yellow as Tonks doesn't know if she is having a boy or girl. When my babies were being born, I got so used to making blue blankets. When Ginny was born, she had all blue for the first few months until I had time to make her some pink things." Laughing softly, Mrs. Weasley continued, "Of course, my baby girl doesn't like pink." Delphini laughed. "No, she doesn't."

A knock on the back door interrupted the two of them. After greeting Remus and Bill, Ron joined them in the sitting room. He was surprised to see his mother still there. He opened his mouth before he realised he couldn't exactly ask his mother to leave. "Delphini, thank god you're okay." Bill said embracing her in a hug. "Don't try and scare us like that again. I thought you was dead!" Fleur said also embracing her in a massive hug. "I'll try" Delphini said. She then looked down. 

"What's wrong?" Mrs Weasley asked. "She knows she's my mother" Delphini replied. "She'll tell him and he'll be looking for me, wont they." Delphini hated herself for letting it be known. "We wont let them" Fleur said putting her arms around her shoulder. Ron sat awkwardly on the couch next to her and put his arm around her shoulder, awkwardly.  Bill sat on the other seat across from Delphini and Ron. Remus walked in the room and looked around at the group. "What is going on?"

"I think we may have given you the wrong impression about what happened," Delphini began carefully, avoiding eye contact with everyone. "We have been helping Harry with his mission that Professor Dumbledore left him. You know the rumours that the Daily Prophet was printing last year, that Harry is the Chosen One?" When everyone nodded, Delphini continued, "Well, he is the Chosen One. There was a prophecy given before Harry was born that basically says he is the one who can defeat You-Know-who. Unfortunately, You-Know-who is not entirely human at this point in time. He created ..."

Delphini trailed off. She tried again to explain about the Horcruxes, but was unable to force the words out of her mouth. Ron, seeing her distress, jumped in. "You-Know-Who created..." Ron was unable to finish the sentence either. Realising what was going on, Hermione let out a frustrated growl from behind them before she took a seat on the rug. "I can't tell you what we are doing. Harry must have put a jinx on the information so we can't tell anyone."

"Don't fight it," Bill said. "Harry or even Dumbledore may have put a jinx on anyone but Harry talking about your mission in any detail." "We haven't pushed you, but can you tell us what happened?" Remus asked urgently.

Delphini looked over at Hermione, who had just entered the room. She gave you a small nod. "We've been travelling looking for the items we need to kill You-Know-Who. It started out well. We found the first thing we needed when we broke into the Ministry. B-but lately it hasn't been going that great. We've been living in a tent and moving almost every night. W-we heard a group of people talking about how Ginny, Neville, and Luna tried to steal the Sword of Gryffindor."

She chanced a look over at Ron. He was looking down at his hands. Placing a hand on his arm, you continued, "Ron and Harry got into an argument-" Ron interrupted you. "I got angry at him. He...I thought he would have had more of a plan or that he had more information to complete our mission. We were hungry and tired and that night...I just snapped. I started yelling at him and he started yelling back. Hermione ended up putting a shield between us and he...he yelled at me and I just had to get out of there."

"Anyway me, Harry and Hermione tried to find out how to destroy more horcruxes.. and Ron returned and we were all happy again." Delphini added. "But then Snatchers smelt my perfume and we got found out and were sent to Malfoy Manor.. we're Delphini got tortured and stabbed by Bellatrix.., I mean her mother.." Hermione finished but was interrupted by Remus. "WHAT did she do to you?" Remus yelled getting closer to Delphini. Remus had become a father-like figure to her in the past few years. "She tortured me." She said which made her burst into tears. Delphini felt arms around her neck pulling her into a deep hug. She pulled away and saw Tonks smiling down at her. "It's okay sweetie" She said to Delphini.  "That son-of-a bitch!" Remus shouted.  "Remus!" Molly shouted. "Not in front of the children."

It was Hermione who spoke up again. "Ron had been injured by the Snatchers and he needed to heal. Plus the lure of spending the night in a warm, clean bed and eating real food was too strong," Hermione explained. She could hear herself trying to justify their actions. "So we came right here- just after Dobby died and Delphini got stabbed. Harry disappeared after that sometime in the afternoon, when everyone was trying to heal Delphini, and didn't return." Hermione finished and looked over at Delphini who hadn't noticed that Harry wasn't in the room. "Gone?" Remus asked. "Where did he go?"

"We don't know," Hermione whispered. "He'd talked about going to Godric's Hollow so we spent almost a week there, but he never showed up. We figured he would come back here or go back to Grimmauld Place. We didn't go back to Grimmauld Place because the day we broke into the Ministry...as we were leaving, one of the Death Eaters grabbed onto me and I brought him to Grimmauld Place. I was afraid he may have left some traps there." Remus sprang to his feet and began pacing in front of the fireplace. "Why didn't you say anything earlier? I thought maybe he was planning to meet you here."

Hermione and you looked up with tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Remus. I really thought he'd come here. I don't know where he is or what he plans to do." Hermione said between sobs. 

...

Hermione set aside the book she'd been reading when she heard Remus and Bill enter the kitchen. She hurried into the kitchen to join them just as they sat down at the table. Delphini was still upstairs asleep, resting. After exchanging greetings with the two men, Hermione asked, "So what did you find out?" Remus sighed. "We checked Grimmauld Place. It was pretty well trashed out, we are assuming by the Death Eaters. There were several traps and nasty charms set that Bill was able to counteract. I didn't see any sign of Harry. We checked Godric's Hollow. No one has seen him around. The house is warded so that only a Potter can enter. We did check magically and there were no people in the house. I have no idea where he may have gone."

Guilt swamped Hermione as she listened to Remus. "I'm so sorry, Remus. I wish I knew where he might be. I can't think of anywhere else he might have gone." To her anger, Ron let out a derisive snort as he joined them in the kitchen. "He will come back when he is good and ready, Hermione. It's no use feeling guilty about it." Remus glared at Ron, but to Hermione's relief, he didn't say anything. Things had been very tense between Remus and Ron since the truth had come out. Ron was channelling his guilt into anger at Harry and Remus was taking any criticism of Harry badly.

Delphini had woken up from her nap and was now sitting next to Hermione playing with her hair, as she knew it calms her down. Glaring at his youngest brother, Bill said harshly, "Please don't share your opinions, Ron. You know they are not shared by the rest of us. You really need to keep quiet when Ginny gets home. You know she will not put up with your comments."