WHO: Caroline Dufort-Podmore, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet & Bill Weasley WHAT: Finding curses! WHEN: backdated to January 16, evening WHERE: Angelicia's flat
It wasn’t her bed.
It didn’t make her feel any safer. It didn’t stop her skin from crawling as the two cursebreakers searched her belongings, ruling out the contents of her room one by one, but it wasn’t her bed.
Folding her arms around herself, Alicia glanced at Angelina. “Maybe we should check the whole flat after this. Just to be safe.”
“I haven’t had any nightmares,” Angelina said. “Not like yours.” She glanced down at her feet and the old battered trainers she’d picked up at her mother’s, wiggling her big toe against the weak spot in the toes of one. “But I mean, yeah, probably.” She gave a humorless laugh.
A little louder and directed at the two cursebreakers, Angelina asked, “If that’s okay?”
“Of course. What we’re here for.” Caroline had always intended to check the flat entire, given that not only had Alicia been experiencing nightmares, but she had found the two girls to have tracking charms on their clothing yesterday; charms that had led to the discovery of an Order safe house. She tucked back a strand of hair, turning to survey the living room and the couch that Alicia had been sleeping on.
“I’ll start with items that you regularly come in contact with first,” she added, then turned to Bill. “Does that sound good?” It could be something as simple as Alicia’s towel—the bathroom would be an ideal place to leave a curse without being interrupted.
From across the room, the other cursebreaker nodded. Bill had spent the previous night in the grips of an intense -- and surely utterly justifiable, given the circumstances -- bout of paranoia, the discovery of the safe house making the memory of the wedding stand out in sharp contrast; but save for a hint of darkness beneath his eyes, he seemed as casually collected as ever. It wouldn't help anyone if his own baggage spilled over; it certainly wouldn't help Alicia and Angelina.
"Where's your linen closet?" Words that would make him mum proud, surely. "And shoes, where do you keep them?"
“It’s over there,” Alicia answered, motioning to the closet nearest the loo. Then she gestured toward the door to their flat. “And the shoes are mostly over there. I’ve got a few pairs in my room I don’t wear that often.”
“I’ll check those out,” Caroline volunteered. Obviously they wouldn’t be what was giving Alicia nightmares, unless the young Gryffindor had very unusual sleeping habits. But they may have other tracking charms on them.
Great minds -- "Trackers," Bill said to Caroline as he passed her; shoes were almost laughably easy to plant things in. Still, they didn't explain the nightmares, which was why he was inclined to head back into Alicia's room and have another look around.
Pausing by the bedroom door, he glanced at the two younger women as he tugged on his dragon-skin gloves, making sure they fit snugly before he started touching anything that might be holding a curse or two. "I'm going to have another look inside, if that's okay. Have you changed your bed clothes since the nightmares started?"
Alicia nodded, glancing over her shoulder at Caroline before she followed Bill back into her room. “Kind of had to,” she said, sounding a little sheepish. “Gets a little gross when you’re waking up in a cold sweat all the time.”
“And my mum can sense when I’ve not changed mine,” Angelina added, a step behind Alicia, “so I’ve changed mine, too, and I’ve really not had any nearly as bad as hers. So it’s gotta be something that’s always in here.” She glanced cautiously around the room.
Not the bed. They'd already excluded that. And not the linens -- something so frequently in rotation wouldn't have been able to cause such a sustained effect, and he doubted most Death Eaters would bother with going through every individual item. Bill moved further into the room, careful not to touch anything, wand loosely held out in front of him as he made a slow circle around, pausing for a moment by a chest of drawers, where he cast a quick checker spell before stepping away; nothing to see there.
Eventually he ended up back by the bed. His gaze dropped down to the small dresser to its left. A couple of stuffed animals, some picture frames, a phone charger.
"Tell me about this? Have you had all of these things for long?"
Stepping closer to give her belongings a more scrutinizing look, Alicia’s eyes swept over the frames and lingered on the photos beneath the glass. “I’ve had these here since September,” she said without mentioning that she’d framed the pictures of her parents when they’d had to leave home. “Charger’s old. So’s everything else, except the turtle’s from my birthday. And I got the bunny for Christmas. They were both gifts.”
“From Eddie Carmichael,” Angelina supplied.
But then, Angelina narrowed her eyes slightly at the two stuffed animals, remembering the note that’d come with the bunny. The chocolates that’d been sent to Fred had come with a note that used their relationship to get him to trust it. “Actually, the turtle definitely was. He gave that to her in person. The rabbit was sent by owl.” An uncomfortable realization was dawning and now she was thinking about what Professor Lupin had said. “The note was an apology for something Eddie had done. It wasn’t signed, but we assumed it was Eddie. Maybe it wasn’t.”
Alicia drew in a sharp breath and cut her glance to Angelina. “But who else would—” She cut herself off as her thinking caught up with her friend’s. She gave the bunny another wide-eyed look. “Oh.”
Oh, indeed. Bed, linens and shoes forgotten, Bill trained his attention on the soft little rabbit, some of the more obvious curses excluded by a perfunctory spell -- given that the stuffed animal had been handled up until now, it likely wasn't going to kill someone just through touch, but it was always important to check (he remembered that lesson well enough).
"Have you kept it here since?" He levitated it over and kept it hovering meekly in the air before him as he checked it for any active hexes. "And did you keep the note?" Pause. "There's something… I think there is something on it."
Alicia nodded her response to his question and swallowed before tearing her eyes away from the stuffed animal. “I might have,” she said, and crossed the room to rummage through the pile of post she’d given Caroline earlier. A moment later, she emerged triumphant and held the square of parchment out to Bill.
Sorry for making a mess of things. You're a great friend.
Angelina couldn’t stop staring at that little stuffed bunny, her hands clenched into tight, white-knuckled fists. “It’s like what happened to Fred,” she finally said out loud. “But way more personal. They know us really well.” Tearing her eyes away, she added, faintly, “Professor Lupin was right.”
“Yeah,” Alicia agreed quietly. “He was.”
At which point Caroline re-entered the room; she had found tracking charms on a collection of accessories. The announcement died on her tongue at the tense scene before her, and her eyes fell on the bunny, two and two making four. It was as much as expected, though she still felt badly for the girls. Trust was a hard knock to take, especially during a war.
Turning to the two young women, her tone was almost apologetic as she added, “There were charms on your scarves and gloves.”
Alicia let out a weak sigh and nodded again. She took a step closer to Angelina. “We’ll have to make sure it’s nothing you wore to Fred’s.”
“Yeah, I’ll let him know to check,” Angelina replied. “He should probably check over his things anyway.”
“We can clear the flat of those,” said Caroline with a glance at Bill, who nodded. “But you two need to talk with Remus what to do from here.” He had appeared to be taking point on dealing with the girls and she wasn’t about to intrude. Or add salt to the wound, even if she and Sturgis had griped privately on how incredible it was to be members of the Order and invite friends not in the organization over to your unregistered address.
Innocence was always the first casualty of war.
“Thanks, Caroline,” Alicia said as the woman left the room again, trying no to sound as defeated as she felt. Turning back to Bill and the bunny, she didn’t manage it. “Do you know what it is?”
The cursebreaker, suppressing a sympathetic look (their home had been invaded -- he could relate), shook his head. "Not yet," he replied, conjuring up what looked to be a small, reinforced briefcase which, when opened, would house cursed items in relative security until they could be examined in peace. With a flick of his wand, the bunny floated in, followed by the unsigned note. "But I suspect it's something that isn't constantly active, otherwise it would have pinged off our sensors."
After closing the case with a firm click, he met their gazes. "I'm sorry, this is… I don't know, 'beyond shite' doesn't quite cover it, but." Pause. "Do you have anything that Eddie's written, that you know is from him?"
Alicia shook her head, “Nothing I can think of.” She gave him a rueful grin. “Everything’s hexts nowadays.”
Despite himself, Bill chuckled, gesturing once more with his wand to seal the case. "Maybe that's why us millenials are doomed," he said dryly, trying to lighten the mood, even if by half a degree. He vanished the case, then stepped out of the room, pulling off his gloves as he headed towards the door. "We'll get to work on this straight away," he called back -- and hopefully, he'd have some answers for them. Sooner, rather than later; he already had some ideas.
“Thanks, Bill,” Alicia said, her voice thick with gratitude even as she smiled after him. This was far from over, but she was relieved to have at least this much behind them.
When they were alone again, Alicia looked at Angelina with a heavy sigh. “I can’t believe it was a stupid stuffed animal.”
Angelina’s shoulders sank now that it was just her and Alicia, her fingers falling out of fists at her sides. She glanced around Alicia’s room again, seeing it and the flat with new eyes. It didn’t feel like home anymore, but then, neither did a lot of her friendships now.
“Yeah,” was all Angelina said at first, before dragging her hands over her eyes, through her hair, and then down her face. And then, sad and defeated, “I can’t believe I’m going to have to strangle one of our friends.”
Biting her lip, Alicia stepped in closer and wrapped her arms around her friend. “I know,” she said in a quiet voice as she ducked her chin against Angelina’s shoulder. After a pause, she mumbled, “What if Eddie really did send it?”
“I really wish I could say he wasn’t and mean it,” Angelina said, looping her arms around Alicia and giving her a squeeze, “but I don’t know.”
“He’s been acting weird, too,” Alicia pointed out. That, and she already knew he’d been hiding something from her. She’d let it go until now, but maybe it was time to demand an explanation. She let out a soft groan and buried her face in Ang’s jumper. “I’m so paranoid now. I hate this so much.”
Angelina breathed out a sigh over Alicia’s hair. “Me too.” She looked up at the ceiling and there was finally some heat to her words when she added, “If this was supposed to shut us up, they’ve gone about it all wrong.”
Alicia pulled back to look her in the eye. When she spoke, there was a matching flare of anger in her own voice. “You’ve got that right,” she said. “They haven’t even begun to hear the last of us.”