Rune stone path

Defenses and countermoves

"Wotcher, hon. Wotcher, Remus," Tonks said as she dropped into the only cushion not covered with papers. Remus lifted his hand in acknowledgement while Fleur briefly looked up and smiled before turning back to her papers.

"Bonjour, mon amour," Fleur said before scribbling a notation on a photograph and nodding happily. "Did you have success?"

Tonks shook her head and let out a sigh of frustration. "Nada, zip, zilch. The elf dropped off the map completely. I couldn't even find out which family Hokey went to after the Ministry trial. Dumbledore found her, this shouldn't be that hard."

"It's likely a dead end anyway," Remus said flipping a page one of the old newspapers in front of him. "We already know that Riddle framed her for the poisoning. It is very unlikely that the poor creature knew of any further details."

Tonks grimaced. "It probably doesn't even matter since she's almost definitely dead by now unfortunately. If Dobby was remotely capable of stealth I might ask him to pop around and check but…yeah you're probably right. How about you guys? You fare any better?"

Fleur picked up a photograph with a large red circle on the bottom corner and held it out grinning largely. "I believe so. We zink zat zis could be one of the cave systems zat Riddle may have used to hide a Horcrux in near ze orphanage. We cross-checked several maps of ze shoreline as well as any potential magically significant sections of ze coast."

"There are about four or five caves that we think he might have used," Remus said frowning. "I think we're going to have to check each one individually as it seems unlikely we can narrow the list down any further."

Tonks perked up and looked over the few photos smiling. "Excellent. Hopefully we'll get lucky this time. Fleur, you want to go check if Sirius can get free on Saturday to go spelunking with us?"

Fleur nodded emphatically. "I zink zat is for ze best. You never know how many of ze locations will be trapped as ze Shack was. Sirius would be useful in a fight."

Remus smiled at the two girls. "And getting to see Harry and Hermione has absolutely nothing to do with going to see Padfoot in person of course."

"Of course," both girls responded with matching grins. Remus just rolled his eyes.

"One moment," Fleur said raising her hand and pointing to her ear. "Hello, Hermione. No, 'arry has not spoken with me yet. Nym, has 'arry spoken with you recently?"

Tonks shook her head. "Nothing since telling us yesterday about Daphne. He hasn't already gotten into trouble has he?"

Fleur shrugged and turned her attention back to Hermione. "He hasn't reached her yet eizer. Okay. Okay." Fleur's eyes darkened and she scowled. "Daphne is alright? How bad? Zat…zat does not sound promising. What did zey try to do? Please tell me it was not what I am zinking…Ces fils de chiens galeux! Ils devraient être castrés et jetés dans le plus sombre et plus profond des cachots sur le continent!" Tonks' hands clenched at Fleur's tone and she felt her throat close up as feathers rippled down her partner's arms before disappearing again. "Apologies. I said they should be castrated and imprisoned in the worst place imaginable."

Tonks could keep quiet any longer. "Did they kill her?" she asked softly.

Fleur gasped and looked up hurriedly shaking her head. "Non, no, she was assaulted, but help arrived in time. She is recovering. Hermione, what is being done to ze animals? Zat is good but I still say…oh, well at least zat is something. We will be over shortly anyway so we will stop in and see how she is in person. Zank you letting us know Hermione." Fleur frowned again and Tonks felt her hair shift several colors at the concern that flashed across the Veela's face. "Zat is…not good. We are closing in on a potential hiding place so hopefully he will have one to experiment on shortly. We should begin exploring other options beyond ze rune. If he cannot get it working we will have to be prepared for drastic action. I agree. Take care, Hermione. We shall see you soon."