A Recipe for Diaster (Harry Potter Fanfic)

44

"You're telling me Mundungus Fletcher, the biggest coward since Wormtail, is the one behind this whole thing?" Ron asked as they walked around Diagon Alley. Hermione shook her head in disbelief of this. 

"I don't think he's behind this. But I think he's part of it. Somehow. He probably knows who is though." Hermione stated while they turned down into Knockturn Alley. It was just as eerie and depressing as it was the last time they were chasing after Narcissa and Draco. The stores were still a dull and black colored and seemed to merged together with the other stores. It still had its strong mysterious odor that made Hermione want to gag and vomit. They passed a few sketchy characters that gave Hermione the creeps and pressed herself closer to Scabior, who responded by wrapping his arms around her waist. 

"Everyone stick close." Tonks ordered as they walked further down the alleyway. It had seemed to find a way to get darker as they passed through even more sketchy characters, who were trying to sell things that were clearly not theirs. They kept walking till Hermione's caught something from the corner of her eyes. She paused as she turned to fully look and found Mundungus Fletcher selling a familiar coat. Hermione lightly patted Scabior's shoulder, getting his attention. He peered over to her and she motioned with her eyes where Mundungus was. Quickly as possible, Scabior scurried over towards Mundungus. Mundungus was surprised when Scabir grabbed him by the collar of his coat and pulled away from his client and towards their group. 

"Hey get your hands off me!" Mundungus growled before Scabior slammed him against the wall of one of the stores.  Hermione moved towards him as she grabbed the coat from his hand. She moved it around till she got a better look at it. Sure enough, it was indeed Hagrid's coat. She glared at him. 

"Where did you get this?" Hermione growled, holding it up towards him. Mundungus looked scared as he kept darting his eyes around. 

"Just found it about," He lied. It didn't have to take a genius to know he was lying. 

"You somehow found our friend's coats around Knockturn Alley? During the same time as he is about to go to Azkaban?" Harry asked, glaring him down. Mundungus narrowed his eyes as he glanced around each of them. 

"What are you lot getting at?" Mundungus asked. 

"You made a deal with some Death Eaters to go and attack all of us while you went to steal from the Trio's home. Then you wrote letters to get Hagrid to be informed with the attack then have the Ministry to arrest him so he'll take the fall for you." Tonks shot at him. Mundungus shook his head. 

"I didn't steal anything from your house. Nor did I make any deal with any Death Eaters to attack them while they were at Mrs. Lupin's house!" Mundungus slipped. Hermione crossed her arms in front of her chest. 

"Tonks never mentioned that we were at Mrs. Lupin's house when the attack had happened." Hermione told him. His lips dropped before shutting tight then lifting his hand up to point at them. 

"Listen, I swear I didn't know anything about it until after I left your house." he admitted. 

"So you were the one who broke in." Ron growled. Mundungus shook his head. 

"Yes, I was paid to dress up like your friend and go into your house. But I was there just to break things. Make it look like you were robbed. Told it was to scare you all a little bit for something you all did. But then when I got back, I was ordered to write these letters, you see. Claiming that the Golden Trio and Harry's Girlfriend were all dead and that Fenrir and Scabior were responsible for it and and Hagrid had robbed the place." Mundungus answered them. 

"Who paid you?" Harry asked him. Mundungus shook his head. 

"Some fancy lady all dressed in pink just walking up to me. She didn't give me her name or anything, but the way she dressed, you wouldn't picture her down here now would you? Also she had these annoying dogs with her, kept barking at me and all over the place. No manners at all!" Mundungus stated, lightly snickering. Hermione eyes widened. 

"Those dogs... they wouldn't have happened to be bulldogs? Were they?" she asked. Mundungus shook his head. 

"They were. All of them. There were five of them beasts. Two French Bulldogs and three English Bulldogs." Mundungus confirmed her suspicions.