Chapter 22
The Mysterious Letter
Harry took Ron to St. Mungo’s hospital as fast as he could. He wondered why the others hadn’t noticed he was with them. Hogwarts was pretty much destroyed after all the fights, and now Ron was hurt. There would never be a Hogwarts anymore Harry thought, and I was thinking about becoming the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Once he and Ron had arrived at St. Mungo’s, he sent an owl to Order headquarters to let them know what had happened to Ron.
When the Order arrived at St. Mungo’s a healer brought them to Ron’s room where Harry was watching over him. “How’s he doing?” Molly asked Harry as she entered the room.
“He’s sleeping right now, but they say he should be fine after a few days care. He took a Sectemsempra curse straight to his chest. I did what I could to keep him alive long enough to get here.” Harry replied. “He saved my life though, if he hadn’t disobeyed me, I would’ve been captured by the death eaters if they hadn’t just let me die.”
“Well, I am thankful you repaid your debt by saving his life.” Molly said, as she hugged Harry.
Classes were cancelled until Ron had time to recover seeing as how the students were usually at St. Mungo’s with Ron. “Harry,” Hermione said, “shouldn’t we be trying to figure out where the next horcrux is? I mean being at headquarters is kind of boring without classes or doing anything.”
“Not without Ron, we are all in this one together.” Harry replied.
“You seemed to want to do things on your own last time.” Ginny said.
“We always figured out where the horcruxes were together, and depending on how dangerous I thought it was determined if I wanted you guys to accompany me.” Harry replied, “I need you guys safe for when we go up against Voldemort.”
“Yeah, but we are useless without you Harry, if you die, Voldemort wins.” Hermione said.
“Fine you guys may accompany me everywhere else I go, I have no need to go anywhere alone anymore, everybody that was teaching me, just me anything is dead. Those few people that knew my parents and knew me are all dead.” Harry said.
“All but three.” Came a voice from the door way. Harry turned around to see who it was, it was Mad Eye Moody.
“Three?” Harry said, “Who? You are one I guess, but the Weasley’s weren’t in the order the first time so they didn’t know them.”
“Well, I never said they were on our side.” Mad Eye replied, “Voldemort of course knew them, and knows you, and your former potions master, Severus Snape.”
“Yeah, I guess they did, but I can never talk to them, they would kill me first chance they got.” Harry replied.
“Well Potter, you can always talk to me if you need to.” Mad Eye said as he limped out of the room.
Harry thought about what Mad Eye said really considering it but then something happened to distract him. There was a knock on the window from a snowy owl Harry didn’t recognize. Harry opened the window and the owl flew in and right past everybody it searched the house and then not finding the person it was looking for flew back to the room where Harry had let it in. Harry had closed the window so it couldn’t escape; they got the owl down and took the letter at a cost of a few pecks and scratches. The letter was addressed to somebody by the name of Flow.
“We probably shouldn’t look at that Harry.” Hermione said.
“The owl came here, I could tell it was looking for somebody here, what if somebody is working for Voldemort had has the codename so they could receive messages from death eaters while at headquarters.” Harry said, “I say we open it and see if we can figure out whom it was suppose to go to.”
“I’ll compromise with you Harry, if we can figure out who it was suppose to go to, I’ll let you open it.” Hermione said.
“How are we supposed to figure it out without any information?” Harry asked.
“But we do have information Harry? We have a codename, and the knowledge that the owl couldn’t find who it was looking for.” Hermione stated.
“Fine I’ll agree to that.” Harry said. Harry handed the letter over to Hermione. Hermione took the letter and placed it in her robes.
“Now let’s think who could it be?” Hermione said.
“It’s somebody in the Order who isn’t here.” Harry said. “and there codename is Flow.”
“Well, the only Order members not here are either dead or work for the ministry.” Ginny said.
“Well if they sent the letter here the person who it is meant for would still be alive.” Harry said.
“But owls don’t go to a certain location; they go to a certain person, so what if it is somebody dead.” Hermione said.
“I’d like it a lot better if it was someone from the ministry, there’s a lot less of them.” Harry said, “but if it is, it has to be somebody that died recently.”
“That leaves us the teachers, and Lupin.” Ginny said.
“And it’s been all over the papers and about the Hogwarts situation that news got around quickly so everybody would know they were dead so it couldn’t be one of them.” Harry said.
“Which leaves Lupin.” Ginny said.
“But there is no way it was him,” Harry said, “Lupin would never be a spy, so we are back to square one. I say we look at the members that aren’t here that are still alive.”
“That’s Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mr. Weasley, and a couple other ministry workers.” Hermione said.
“Well, it’s definitely not dad.” Ginny said.
“And it’s more then likely not Kingsley, and none of the other members ever come to headquarters.” Harry said.
“So let’s consider the codename, and let’s not rule out Kingsley or Lupin.” Hermione said.
“Flow” Harry thought, “What could it mean? Well flow means constantly moving, who is always on the move?”
“Kingsley and any of the other order members that work in the ministry. They are really busy these days so they are always moving.” Hermione said.
Harry thought hard about any other possibilities, he was sure he encountered something like this before. He just didn’t know when, and then a phrase appeared in his head, he hadn’t understood it until he looked at it in the mirror, the phrase on the mirror of erised during his first year. “Hermione give me the letter.” Harry demanded. Hermione handed him the letter, and Harry ran over to the mirror, he held the letter up to the mirror. Everybody looked at it “Wolf” Harry said, “who do we know that’s a wolf?”
“Just one, Lupin.” Hermione said.
“But Lupin can’t be a spy, so it must be something else, only one way to find out. Let’s open it.” Harry said. Harry opened the letter and he read:
Flow, I have news to give you about the secret you are helping the children with. I am guarding the last one, so they will have to go through me. The thing they are looking for is deep under the House of Gaunt through ten mazes below the house is the thing they seek. Help them figure it out in anyway you can as quickly as you can. I will place creatures on the correct path to the thing they are seeking. I will not hurt them, but I will have to fight for I am being watched. I have been doing as Dumbledore asked me too, and taking care of Draco, I have finally gotten through to him that he is choosing the wrong side, sometimes I think he was under his father’s imperious curse. Then at other times I think he is like that moron Peter Pettigrew and is just doing it out of fear now. I can control him well enough to stay away, but he will be with me while I protect him from the dark lord. The sooner you help the children figure this out the sooner we can defeat the dark lord and get back to our lives.
Your friend
The HBP
“SNAPE? Lupin was in contact with Snape this whole time and never told me, if he weren’t already dead I’d kill him.” Harry shouted.
“Harry, calm down now we see that Snape really is on our side.” Ginny said.
“But I saw him kill Dumbledore, I was there I watched as the spell hit him and he flew over the tower while I could do nothing.” Harry said.
“We also know where the horcrux is, and what the challenge is we have to go through to get to it. We also know that Snape has made it easier for us to get to the horcrux.” Hermione said.
“Fine we wait for Ron to get better and then we go, we’ll take a couple of Fred and George’s hat’s.” Harry said, “but I get Snape.”