The Unknown of the Order (Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

Back to England

Sarah and Merula left the next morning after breakfast. Penny and Sophia stayed behind, along with Diego. 

"Caplan's staying here to be wrapped up in his mother's arms?" Merula muttered, when Diego's family finally let them go with many hugs and goodbyes. "I always knew he was a coward."

"Shut up, he is not."

"What's gotten your knickers in a twist?" said Merula, squinting angrily at the sun as they walked down the winding road, disguised in muggle clothing. "Upset at leaving the boyfriend behind in paradise while you do the dirty work?"

"Diego and I have decided to discontinue our relationship," said Sarah coolly, deciding it was better for Merula to tease her about that, rather than about Diego's cowardice.

"Ahhh, I see. Well, that's good. One less distraction. You've always let your relationships steer you away from your full potential."

"And you've never been as strong as you could be because you've always insisted on going it alone."

"What a pair we make."

The girls spoke little on the trip back to England. Merula sneered and turned her nose up at the muggle buses, but Sarah believed it was the safest way to travel without the Death Eaters being able to track them. They sat at the back of the buses, and rows of empty, faded seats lined up in front of them like solemn, polyester soldiers. Not many muggles were traveling to the UK nowadays; though they didn't know the name Lord Voldemort, they knew the area had become dangerous. 

Sarah tried to reach out to Barnaby again. He sent her an image of bowtruckles climbing up and down his arms. She couldn't tell if this was an old memory or not, but she hoped he had found a safe place to visit creatures again. 

"So what's the plan?" Merula asked, once they'd been dropped off by their last bus in London. 

"Well, we have a few options," said Sarah. "Since you're wanting to take a more aggressive approach, we could just say You-Know-Who's name and then try to take out whoever shows up before they kill us."

"I said I wanted to be more intentional, not stupid."

"We could try to track down Harry Potter and help him with whatever he's doing."

Merula made a face like she'd swallowed a lemon. "While I've no doubt I could succeed where all the Order has failed in trying to find him, I don't have any faith in Potter. He's just a kid, and he's running scared. He won't be the one to kill the Dark Lord."

"Well, with the Order in disarray, we really only have one lead."

"Please don't say what I think you're gonna say," Merula whined. 

Sarah stopped in her tracks. They'd turned down a less used alley. Here, posters littered the stone walls--posters whose occupants moved. 

They were wanted posters. Many of them were muggleborns wanted for questioning for the crime of stealing magic. Sarah also recognized the faces of several Order members who had supposedly committed treason. Lupin gazed down at her with sad eyes. He was wanted dead or alive, but his wife could only be taken alive. Sarah wondered why Tonks was useful to them. 

Some of the faces had large X's marked over them, signifying they'd been captured already. Sarah read their names, apologizing to their friends and families that she could do nothing to help them, that she was alive and they most likely were not. 

But by far the face that peered down at them most often was that of young man with dark, messy hair and glasses. 

"Undesirable Number One: Harry Potter."