A Ghoul's Warning

Ghouls and Elf

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The enchanted fabric raced into his hands and he noticed a message ...

XXXXXXXXXX

Goremace was just finishing with personally scanning the letters he was given to secretly send off. Three letters were from Slytherin students to Harry. The fourth was a letter from the Weasley twins to Harry. Protocol gives the goblin to thoroughly examine everything for his client's safety. Therefore the goblin checked for spells and for anything threatening in the letters themselves

"Very good." The goblin said and prepared to send the letters off. That was until another goblin rushed in. "What is it?" He asked, but was quickly handed a letter instead of getting a response.

An emergency token was stuck to the front, which explained the rude entry. Goremace swiftly used his claw to slice the letter open. After quickly reading it he immediately summoned a team of people to officially arrest Sirius Black ...

As the team prepared to leave, Goremace pondered the tidbit Severus brought up about the house elf. He summoned something from the trinkets that were recently discovered in the Malfoy manor. To be precise, it was the mini house trinket with emerald shingles.

The goblin followed the team with the trinket and letters in hand ...

XXXXXXXXXX

Severus felt a shift in the air and stiffened when saw a dead Harry right behind Harry in the reflection in the sliding glass door. It was different from the first eyeless ghoul. This ghoul had no jaw as if someone sawed it off leaving jagged flesh and bone around its gaping hole. Even the tongue was gone ...

The pale being went completely unseen by anyone besides Severus. The potion master tensed as the ghoul held up a finger. That pale digit moved and a trail of blood followed it. In the end two words in blood were written on the glass.

'Tracked cloak'

The potion master immediately understood, "Harry, is there anything hidden in your things? I ask because I didn't spot any trackers and Hedwig doesn't have one so I'd like to know how Black found you. Anything tucked away or a cloak with hidden pockets ..."

Harry pondered that as Dobby took the dinner plates away and his eyes suddenly widened, "The headmaster gave me an invisibility cloak!" In an instant Dobby was heard popping away from inside the home and reappearing next to Severus a minute later. The house elf had a cloak in its hands. "I didn't see this when putting your things away ... It definitely has a tracker."

"Don't remove it!" Eileen exclaimed the second she saw her son inspecting the cloak as if he was planning to remove the tracker. Her instinct was correct and Severus froze, but she noticed her grandson looked confused. "Gringotts should analyze and drain the magic. This could be useful."

Severus sighed in frustration, "I know ... The goblins better hurry." He muttered, not liking that there was something that could track Harry and that they couldn't just destroy it.

"He said it belonged to James ..." Harry mumbled distastefully.

The potion master frowned, "Perhaps we should have dessert inside. At least, until this is over-"

Just as the potion master said those words a sharp buzz zipped through the air. There was no mistaking what was. Everyone except Harry knew it was an alarm ...

Someone broke through the runes ...

Without a second thought Severus scooped up Harry. Eileen immediately went to open the door. As that door slid open, Severus saw that the ghoul wasn't in the glass anymore. However, he paid it no mind and rushed to get his family inside.