The next morning, Anne woke to find that Hermione was no longer in bed. The curtains were drawn tightly, letting in no light, so she rolled over to the other side and checked the watch on the nightstand.
7:17 AM.
Anne sat up, slipping into her slippers and rubbing her hair sleepily. After freshening up, she grabbed her wand and opened the door. The living room was empty. Tilting her head thoughtfully, she headed downstairs to the basement kitchen.
Sure enough, Hermione was there, holding a book in one hand while glancing occasionally at the cauldron floating above the fireplace flame. White steam billowed from the cauldron, filling the room with the mouthwatering scent of food.
Hearing footsteps behind her, Hermione turned to see Anne. She closed her book, and only then did Anne notice the wand in Hermione's other hand.
With a flick of her wand, Hermione raised the cauldron slightly, moving it away from the flame. It hovered in mid-air, rotating gently.
"Did I wake you?" Hermione asked, hugging Anne. "Want to go back to sleep?"
Anne kissed her forehead. "I woke up on my own. Actually, I slept better last night than I have in days."
Hermione's ears flushed pink, and she leaned in for a quick kiss.
"What are you doing, making breakfast?" Anne sniffed curiously. "I smell beans, carrots, chicken, fish, and maybe some seasoning?"
Hermione chuckled and pinched Anne's nose. "Yes, I'm making breakfast. I was worried someone with a sharp nose and picky tastes wouldn't like anything I made. Luckily, I brought a book."
Anne glanced at the book on the table, Delicious Magic Meals.
Pouting slightly, Anne said, "I'm actually pretty easy to feed..." Yet she still leaned over to peek inside the cauldron.
"Lots of meat, not many vegetables," Hermione remarked with an amused look.
Anne scratched her nose and sat obediently at the table. "As long as it's made by you, I'll eat everything."
"Really? In that case, I feel like we might need more vegetables. Maybe another jar of carrots?"
Anne immediately gave her a pitiful, pleading look.
Hermione laughed softly and lowered the cauldron back down. A spoon began stirring its contents automatically.
When Hermione showed no sign of adding more carrots, Anne chuckled with relief. She glanced at her watch. "Are they still not up? Should we wake them?"
"No need. They usually come down around eight," Hermione replied.
"Ugh," Anne said, resting her chin on her hands. "That means I'm getting the short end of the stick, huh?"
Hermione looked puzzled as she set plates on the table.
"I'm your girlfriend," Anne declared dramatically. "And I've barely had any of your cooking. Yet those two lazybones get your breakfast every day!"
She pouted like she'd been gravely wronged.
Hermione burst out laughing. "Well, if it makes you feel better, usually I wake up around the same time as them. And breakfast is just canned food, biscuits, cake, and some instant juice or coffee."
Anne tilted her head, studying Hermione's face. "I guess that's a bit better, but, " She stood and wrapped her arms around Hermione's waist. "I'm greedy. I want more."
"More, huh?" Hermione said slowly.
"Mmhmm," Anne replied with a smile, her eyes twinkling, waiting to see what Hermione would say.
Instead of responding immediately, Hermione calmly ladled food from the cauldron into a plate and set it in front of Anne.
Then she looked into Anne's eyes and said, "You already got it, in the words you just said."
Anne blinked. What did I say...?
Then it clicked, and she smiled warmly, hugging Hermione tighter.
"You're right. My girlfriend."
⚡︎━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ❖ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⚡︎
When they left the house, Hermione kissed Anne on the cheek and reminded her, "Don't forget to eat lunch."
"I won't." Anne smiled and Disapparated from the top step of the front porch.
⚡︎━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ❖ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━⚡︎
Time always seemed to slip by unnoticed inside the house. Two hours before dinner, the trio were still deep in conversation in the living room, debating whether Harry should go to Godric's Hollow and meet Bathilda Bagshot, who had written A History of Magic and was once a close friend of Dumbledore.
That's when Anne's Patronus, a silver fox, burst into the room.
"We've caught Mundungus. Be right back."
The three exchanged looks of excitement and relief. They might finally be close to finding a real Horcrux.
"Hermione, get the Sword of Gryffindor. It's finally going to be useful!" Ron said eagerly.
"No!" "Bad idea!" Hermione and Harry said at the same time.
They looked at each other, and Harry explained, "We can't bring it out now. What if Mundungus sees it?"
"And it's the only thing we know for sure, besides basilisk venom, that can destroy a Horcrux. We can't risk anything happening to it."
"Right," Ron said, calming down. "Guess I just got carried away."
The three moved toward the front hall without waking any of the portraits. Skoll appeared suddenly, carrying a large paper bag.
"They'll be here soon. Let's head to the kitchen," she said.
As they walked, Skoll handed the bag to Hermione. "Some good food." Hermione smiled as she took it, it was heavy, and tucked it into the cabinet when they reached the kitchen.
"Is the Order of the Phoenix involved too?" Harry asked.
"In a way," Skoll replied. "You'll see in a moment. But let me ask the question first."
No sooner had she said that than a loud crack echoed from the corner. All eyes turned to see Dobby and Kreacher, Dobby clutching Mundungus's neck, and Kreacher gripping his legs.
Mundungus raised his wand when he spotted Skoll, but she was faster.
"Expelliarmus."
His wand flew through the air and into her hand. Skoll tossed it onto the table and sat down, twirling another wand in her fingers.
"Let him go, Dobby, Kreacher. He won't run."
Dobby jumped down immediately. Kreacher looked at Harry for confirmation.
"It's fine. Listen to Skoll," Harry said.
Kreacher dismounted, gave Harry a low bow, and rasped, "Kreacher has brought back the thief Mundungus Fletcher, Master."
"Well done, Kreacher," Harry said. The elf bowed again.
"Dobby helped too, Harry Potter!" Dobby beamed. "Dobby's part of the Order now! It's wonderful! Dobby is happy to do it!"
Kreacher didn't seem to like that and shot Dobby a glare.
The trio stared at Skoll in surprise. None of them had expected Anne to recruit house-elves into the Order. Ron looked shocked, Hermione looked quietly touched, and Harry was just impressed.
"What a joke," Mundungus muttered, his robes filthy and reeking of sweat and smoke, his hair a tangled mess.
"Not your call to make," Skoll said coldly. "Start talking."
"Talking about what?" he tried to bluff.
"You know what. Don't make me waste Veritaserum on you."
Mundungus flinched. "I only sold them stuff they mostly already knew! I only made 150 Galleons!"
Skoll paused in her wand spinning. Her voice turned colder. "So, I should thank you, is that it?"
He gave a nervous grin. "No, no need, "
"List what you sold," she cut him off sharply.
"Will you let me go after that?" he asked, sneaking a glance at Harry.
Catching the look, Skoll said, "Depends on your attitude."
Mundungus perked up and pulled over a chair to sit.
Ron looked furious and opened his mouth, but Hermione tugged his sleeve and shook her head. He sat quietly.
"I didn't sell much. I got kicked out right after stealing stuff from this house. You're not like Dumbledore, so I bailed. Slept under a Muggle bridge the first night, figured no wizard would look for me there…"
Skoll tapped her fingers on the table. "Get to the point. Don't make me remind you again."
"See, Dumbledore would've let me finish…" He trailed off at her glare. "Okay, it was info on some older members, back when Dumbledore was in charge."
"Names."
"Dumbledore, Arthur and Molly Weasley, Professor McGonagall, that big oaf Hagrid, "
Ron punched him in the nose.
"Oi!" Mundungus shouted, clutching his face. "Aren't you gonna stop them?"
Ron looked furious. Hermione hadn't stopped him, in fact, she looked quietly pleased. Harry looked supportive too.
"No," Skoll said coolly. "So, talk, or, "
"I'll talk!" Mundungus backed off quickly. "Dedalus Diggle, Arabella Figg, Alastor Moody, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Dorcas Meadowes. That's it. All of it."
Skoll snorted. "Not much? Sounds like everything you knew."
"I told you, I only made 150 Galleons!"
Skoll gave a dismissive wave. "Fine. My questions are done. Now it's their turn."
She looked at Harry and nodded for him to begin.
Mundungus dashed over, smiling ingratiatingly.
"Mr. Potter! The brave and kind Harry Potter! Ask me anything, I swear I'll answer honestly! It was all my fault, I swear. I'll even return what's left from what I took, tonight!"
Harry glanced at Skoll, who looked entirely uninterested.
"All right," he said, thinking for a moment. "When you were taking things from this house, "
"I'll give you the money I made, too!" Mundungus interrupted.
"I don't want it!" Harry snapped. "Just answer me truthfully."
Mundungus nodded quickly.
"Did you happen to take a locket from the kitchen pile, something you couldn't open?"
"You mean that locked locket? Is it worth a lot?"
"It's still with you?!" Hermione cried.
Harry and Ron stared intensely at him.
"No, no, it's not!" Mundungus winced. "I regret it now, look, I was selling in Diagon Alley, and this woman showed up demanding to see my license for magical goods. Stupid cow. She was gonna find me, but then she saw the locket and said she'd take it instead. Said I was lucky."
"Who was she?" Harry asked.
"No idea. Just some old hag from the Ministry. Short, wore a bow on her head…"
He squinted in thought.
"Looked like a toad."
Silence fell.
Skoll laid a newspaper on the table, pointing to a front-page photo. "Is this her?"
It showed a short, squat witch in a pink cardigan and huge pink bow, seated in an office surrounded by kitten plates.
The headline read:
New Head of Muggle-Born Registration Commission: Dolores Umbridge
"That's her!"
The trio's faces darkened with fury and disgust.
"All right," Skoll said, turning to Harry. "Any other questions?"
Harry shook his head.
"So, do you want to let him go or… something else?" Skoll asked. "I'm asking Harry only."
Mundungus looked hopefully at Harry. "I'll return everything! And the money! Please, Mr. Potter!"
As he moved closer, Harry stepped back, and Ron stared at Skoll in confusion. Hermione, however, glanced between Harry and Skoll, seeming to understand something.
"I think… you should let the Order decide what to do with him," Harry said.
"No! " Mundungus groaned.
Skoll raised an eyebrow. "Good. Dobby, take him to the Grey Cottage."
After Dobby Disapparated with Mundungus, Skoll turned to Harry.
"Harry, can you have Kreacher leave for a bit? Upstairs, maybe?"
"Kreacher, go to the fourth floor for now," Harry said.
"Yes, Master." Kreacher bowed and left.
Anne removed her earpiece, ring, and glasses, then took off her gray robe and backpack. She walked over to Hermione, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and pulled two boxes of sushi from the cupboard bag.
"Anne, why'd you make Harry decide?" Ron asked as he pulled out a chair. Harry did the same.
Anne fed Hermione a piece of sushi, then took a bite herself. She pushed one of the boxes toward Harry and Ron, and sat down.
"Harry, do you know why I made you decide? Or let me ask it this way, why didn't you let Mundungus go?"
"Because he leaked a ton of Order secrets. He knows I'm here. And he's a scumbag who can't be trusted. I realized our mission isn't just about finding Horcruxes. If someone finds us, it could bring trouble. A lot of it."
"Exactly," Anne said. "Let's eat first. Then we'll talk about the change of plans."
"Okay." Harry nodded. Ron had already stuffed three pieces into his mouth.
"Mmm, Anne, what is this? It's good."
"Sushi. It's a Japanese dish. Don't ask me where Japan is, I'm not your geography teacher. Just know it's a country in the Far East."
The complete release can be accessed through Patreon.com/Crimson_Lore