Malignantly Cursed

9

It took a couple weeks before she was trusted with Order secrets again. Remus explained on her behalf that whatever Harry experienced in her time away was not something she was comfortable speaking of for personal reasons and that they were certain she wasn't with Voldemort.

This wasn't good enough for Moody. He interrogated her.

"Where did you go after Albania?" he asked calmly, sitting across from her at the meeting table.

"Italy," Harry replied, meeting his gaze coolly. "For a month."

She took the time to learn the countries surrounding Albania.

"How did you get to Italy?"

"Some Muggle travelers let me go on their boat."

"How long was the ride?"

"Eleven hours."

He narrowed his eyes. Harry's resolve remained unshaken.

"And after Italy?" he barked.

"Then I went to Switzerland."

"Why Switzerland?" he asked.

"To ski," she rolled her eyes.

"Damnit, Potter," he yelled, slamming a hand on the table. "I'm trying my best to believe a word coming out of your mouth and you're not doing yourself any favours by being elusive! Get serious! Why did you go to Switzerland?"

Harry leaned forward, glaring at him.

"Why do you think I would move from Albania to Italy to Switzerland?! I was obviously going north, to get to England!" she shouted.

"Then why not go through France?" he countered. "Everyone knows the easiest way back to England is through France—"

"Because I had no connections to France at the time! My person was going to Switzerland and we were already in trouble so I didn't want to stay in Milan anymore so I took him up on the offer."

"Trouble?" he said suddenly. "What kind of trouble?"

"Nothing that involves us or the wizarding world," she mumbled.

"What kind of trouble, Potter?"

"Well it started out with drugs," she blurted. Hermione gasped lightly. "Then I realized it was more than drugs... accidentally got tangled with a whole crime ring, and—stop looking at me like that!" she said suddenly, dropping her gaze. "The men I was with weren't going to... No one was going to give me passage to other countries without doing dirty work for them! I told you, I'm not happy with what I was forced to do but—"

Moody dropped his head into his hands. Rubbing his good eye, he asked, "Did you give anyone your real name?"

"Of course not!"

"Did anyone, at any point, recognize you?"

"No, but if they did then I'm sure I'd be all over the Daily Prophet and you'd know better than me."

He gave a single nod, sighed deeply and sat back in his chair, scrutinizing her.

"Are you done interrogating me?" she hissed, her face turning red again as she noted that no one in the room could meet her eyes. Still, this reaction was better than if they knew the truth.

"Yes. We'll commence with the Order meeting now," he explained. "Vance, Diggle, update us on your new design."

After Vance and Diggle covered their cuff design upgrades, Kingsley gave a report on their search for Voldemort and stated that they had no new intel on his whereabouts.