"Y/n, Harry, stop." Hermione said.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked. They had only just reached the grave of the unknown Abbott.
"There's someone there. Someone watching us. I can tell. There, over by the bushes."
Y/n moved his hand from Harry's back as the three stood quite still, gazing at the dense black boundary of the graveyard. Y/n could not see anything.
"Are you certain?" Y/n asked Hermione
"I saw something move, I could have sworn I did..."
Y/n moved to draw his wand.
"We look like Muggles." Harry pointed out.
"Muggles who've just been laying flowers on your parents' grave!" Hermione said back. "Harry, I'm sure there's someone over there!"
Harry thought of A History of Magic, the graveyard was supposed to be haunted, what if... But then he heard a rustle and saw a little eddy of dislodged snow in the bush to which Hermione had pointed. Ghosts could not move snow.
"It's a cat." said Harry, after a second or two. "Or a bird. If it was a Death Eater we'd be dead by now."
"It could be an Animagus..." Y/n said. "Let us get out of here, and we can put the Cloak back on."
They glanced back repeatedly as they made their way out of the graveyard. Harry, who did not feel as sanguine as he had pretended when reassuring Hermione, was glad to reach the gate and the slippery pavement. They pulled the Invisibility Cloak back over themselves. The pub was fuller than before. Many voices inside it were now singing the carol that they had heard as they approached the church. For a moment Harry considered suggesting they take refuge inside it, but before he could say anything Hermione murmured. "Let's go this way." and pulled them down the dark street leading out of the village in the opposite direction from which they had entered. Harry could make out the point where the cottages ended and the lane turned into open country again. They walked as quickly as they dared, past more windows sparkling with multicolored lights, the outlines of Christmas trees dark through the curtains.
"How are we going to find Bathilda's house?" asked Hermione, who was shivering a little and kept glancing back over her shoulder.
"I am not sure, and it is not as if we can just ask the local residents without causing suspicion." Y/n sighed.
"Harry? What do you think? Harry?" Hermione asked but when he did not respond she tugged at his arm, but Harry was not paying attention. He was looking toward the dark mass that stood at the very end of this row of houses. Next moment he had sped up, dragging Y/n and Hermione along with him, she slipped a little on the ice as Y/n caught her.
"Slow down..." Y/n said to Harry.
"Look...Look at it, Y/n, Hermione..."
"I don't...oh!" Hermione said sadly and Y/n looked ahead.
He could see it, the Fidelius Charm must have died with James and Lily for he could see the cottage they had died in.
The hedge had grown wild in the sixteen years since Hagrid had taken Harry from the rubble that lay scattered amongst the waist-high grass. Most of the cottage was still standing, though entirely covered in dark ivy and snow, but the right side of the top floor had been blown apart, that, Y/n was sure, was where the curse had backfired. He, Hermione and Harry stood at the gate, gazing up at the wreck of what must once have been a cottage just like those that flanked it.
"I wonder why nobody's ever rebuilt it?" whispered Hermione.
"Maybe you can't rebuild it?" Harry replied. "Maybe it's like the injuries from Dark Magic and you can't repair the damage?"
YOU ARE READING
Grindelwald's Burden (Books 1-7)
FanfictionY/n Grindelwald is boy born into a powerful but feared wizarding family. At the age of 11 he has received his invitation to learn magic at the famous Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. What awaits this boy in his seven school years? Uncerem...
