Raised By Wolfstar: Slytherin Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows

Chapter Nineteen: Xenophilius Lovegood

Harry had not expected Tracey's anger to subside overnight, but was pleased that while she was still moody and not talking directly to Allison, that she at the very least wasn't yelling at her anymore. Allison accepted that this was the status quo for now and returned to her normal stoic demeanour. With the two girls not talking much, whenever all four of them sat together at the table Harry felt like he was at a poorly attended funeral.

During the few moments Allison spent alone with Harry, however (collecting water and searching the undergrowth for mushrooms as after Godric's Hollow they were taking a break from villages), she became shamelessly cheery.

'You realize that someone helped us,' she kept saying. 'Someone cast the doe. We have a secret ally. Now there is one less Horcrux to worry about.'

Bolstered by the destruction of the locket, they set to debating the possible locations of the other Horcruxes, and even though they had discussed the matter so often before, Harry felt optimistic, certain that more breakthroughs would succeed the first. Tracey's sulkiness could not mar his buoyant spirits; The sudden upswing in their fortunes, they appearance of the mysterious doe, the destruction of the Horcrux, and above all, Allison's return, made Harry so happy that it was quite difficult to maintain a straight face.

With a raised eyebrow from Theodore that Harry ignored, late in the afternoon he and Allison escaped Tracey's baleful presence again, and under the pretense of scouting the bare hedges for nonexistent blackberries, they continued their ongoing exchange of news. Harry had finally managed to tell Allison the whole story of his, Tracey, and Theodore's various wanderings, right up to the full story of what had happened at Godric's Hollow; Allison was now filling Harry in on everything she had discovered about the wider Wizarding world during her weeks away.

'...I'm surprised that with you all avoiding villages with higher wizarding populations that you managed to learn about the taboo,' she said after explaining the many desperate attempts of Muggle-borns to evade the Ministry.

'The what?'

'You, Theodore, and Tracey have all stopped using You-Know-Who's name!'

'Oh, yeah. Well, it's just a bad habit we've slipped into,' said Harry. 'But I haven't got a problem calling him V—'

'STOP!' roared Allison, causing Harry to jump into the hedge and the other two to stick their heads out of the tent to look over at them.

'Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you all,' looking a little embarrassed from her outburst but still very serious about what she was saying, 'but his name has been jinxed. While I was gone I had access to more Order information and they've learned that's how You-Know-Who and his followers find people now. By saying his name it breaks every nearby protective enchantment, and alerts You-Know-Who and his followers of your location, it's why Potterwatch refers to him as chief Death Eater now—it's also how they tracked us on Caring Cross Road to the convenience store!'

'Because we used his name?' asked Harry.

'Correct! If it wasn't putting our lives in danger I'd appreciate their cunning, only people very serious about defeating him use his name, people like Dumbledore and those loyal to him. Now there is a Taboo on the name, anyone who says it is trackable—a nearly foolproof way to find us and the members of the Order. They very nearly got Kingsley—'

'Kingsley? No! Is he ok?' asked Tracey from the tent entrance, a friend's safety overriding her anger towards Allison.

'I think so, he accidentally said the name and a small army of Death Eaters cornered him, Tonks told me, but he managed to fight his way out. He's now on the run now just like us, I think he's staying wherever Colin is because they both still make appearances on Potterwatch,' said Allison, causally letting them all know both were ok. A thought popped into her head. 'Do you think it's possible Kingsley sent us the doe?'