Necessary Monsters

Chapter 7

Summary: "For all her exceptional achievements, the people around her tend to forget she is merely 17. As does the Curse-breaker herself."

Unable to wheedle an address from Penny, and forced to wait while she and Rowan complete the thousand and one rituals necessary to girls before they can appear in public, it's noon before Felix finally escapes the Khanna grounds and grudgingly apparates alongside the younger Hufflepuff. Directly into a clump of large, prickly bushes. Grumbling under his breath about the apparition skills of teenagers, Felix attempts to disentangle himself from the clinging branches. A sharp tug at his sleeve yanks him deeper into the foliage.

"Ouch! Haywood, what the-"

"Shhh!" Penny holds a finger to her lips and gives a vicious shush, then peeks cautiously between the leaves.

Fortunately, Felix now has several years experience maintaining awkward positions in unpleasant undergrowth. He crouches as still as possible, peering over Penny's shoulder to determine where they are. He can see a wrought iron grille just in front of their bush and behind it the occasional passing muggle motor car.

Rowan shifts noisily next to him, trying to achieve a more comfortable position and dislodging a rather large, spindly-legged spider from its web in the dense leaves. And Felix is grateful once more for the years he's spent in Peru where he's learned to suppress a particular phobia he'd prefer to keep private. Still, he's unable to prevent his body tensing in alarm as the spider scrambles up Rowan's arm just centimetres away from his face.

"Is this really necessary?" Felix hisses.

Without replying, Penny pokes her wand through the branches, muttering a spell under her breath, and Felix hears the noise of creaking metal.

"C'mon," she whispers, and pushes through the tight greenery. Rowan follows quickly, knocking the spider from its perch, and Felix has to fling himself forward to avoid it, scrambling gracelessly through the newly parted grille and into the road.

The three of them cross the street, packed with expensive-looking parked motors, and stride as casually as possible down a walk in front of a row of stately town-homes. Penny leads the way, pulling leaves and twigs from her hair, until they reach the very end of the street the plaque declares to be Chester Square. Glancing up and down the walk, Penny taps her wand against a jet-black gate. It swings open soundlessly, and Felix pushes to the fore, sprints up the steps, and raps hard on a door the same gleaming shade of black as the gate. It takes several more successively violent knocks before it finally swings inward.

"Wotcher," says the pink-haired Tonks in mild surprise. She looks from Felix to the girls waiting in his shadow, then makes an exasperated movement with her shoulders like a sort of full-body eye roll. "This a kidnap, then?"

"Where is Juniper?" demands Felix.

In answer, Tonks nudges the door open more fully, then walks away without a word, leaving the three on the doorstep to invite themselves in. Without waiting for Penny or Rowan, Felix follows on Tonks' heels, past a wide staircase and down an elegantly decorated corridor. The Hufflepuff girl is clad in an interesting assortment of mismatched garments Felix can only assume serve as pyjamas, in spite of the hour, and in stark contrast with the understated hallway and the magnificent kitchen it leads into.

A glittering white candelabra illuminates counter-tops of pristine white marble facing an enormous fireplace bordered by a pure white mantle. There's hardly any other colour to be found in the entire room, except Tonks' clothes reflected over and over again in the mirrored cabinets.

"Who was it?" asks the girl seated in a high-backed white chair at the counter. Felix vaguely recognises Tulip Karasu, the renowned Ravenclaw trouble-maker.