black coffee | remus lupin [2]

79. california dreaming

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

"I THINK I'M READY TO FIND those Horcruxes," Claudia said.

Regulus gaped at her. Actually, so did all of them. Because this decision of hers kind of appeared out of nowhere with no warning, and they also had no idea how to tell her that they'd been working on doing exactly what she told them not to do during the past few months.

"Hello?" Claudia asked. "Did you guys hear me, or...?"

"We did hear you," said John.

"We're just a bit surprised," David continued.

"It kind of came out of nowhere," said Regulus.

"Well, it kind of did that for me too," said Claudia as she sat down on one of the squeaky chairs next to Regulus. "I haven't been thinking about it at all, until today that is. Because, you know...I saw Harry today. And I held him and spoke to him as he was falling asleep and...as I looked at him I just got this feeling. I just knew I had to do whatever it would take for him to be okay when he grows up. And he's not gonna be fine if he's forced to hide for the rest of his life, is he? And now that Pandora's pregnant...I just know that if I can't do it for myself, I have to do it for Harry and for Pandora's baby too. You understand?"

"Yeah, we do," Regulus said, not so cheerfully. "That's great, Dia."

"Is it now?" The girl asked. "Because it looks like I just said something terrible by the looks on your faces."

"No, it is great, honey," Cora said. "It's just that..."

"We haven't exactly been telling you everything," said Ella in a properly blunt tone. "Which means that we're now all scared because we have to inform you that we've actually been looking for the Horcruxes behind your back for months."

It was Claudia's turn to gape at them.

"What's with the blunt honesty today, Ella?" Regulus asked through gritted teeth.

Ella flipped him off, but then Cora quickly slapped ber hand away with a sigh.

"She's being a grump today," Cora explained as the lovely sound of a highly amused Claudia laughing distracted all of them.

"I knew you little fuckers were hiding something!" She yelled. "I knew it! How did it go?!"

Regulus sighed, half because of relief and half because he knew Claudia wasn't going to let him live this down so easily during the next few weeks.

"If you really have to know it all kind of went to shit," he said. "We've got no Horcruxes."

"What we do have however is the idea of who might have one," said John. "Lucius Malfoy."

"Malfoy?" Claudia asked with a raise of her eyebrows. "Why the hell would he have a Horcrux?"

"We were all asking ourselves the same question," said John. "But David and Regulus here were certain that the blonde guy in that old lady's visions was Malfoy after David had looked through his bag and found a book of some sort."