Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Seventh Safeguard

Chapter 11 ~ The Man from the Order

At these alarming sounds from upstairs, Harry snatched up his wand and flew from his chair. The rest of us followed; Sherlock making sure to run over and grab his pistol.

Up in the foyer, we found the twins standing upon the doormat with a lean, tired looking man in a dark cloak. As we came in, one of the twins cheerfully called out:

"It's okay, Harry. We've checked him."

The three rushed eagerly forward to greet the visitor who they evidently knew quite well. As he turned to meet them his eyes fell upon Sherlock and I, then flashed up to the landing above, where Mary must have been standing. For a moment he stared in shock.

"Harry," he said quietly, "Who are these people?"

"Ahhh ... they're sort of ... allies. Who have been helping us ... fight Voldemort." said Harry awkwardly. "Um, this is Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, that's Dr. Watson's wife Mary up there. She's here to hide from the Ministry officials who're after her ..." He turned to Sherlock and I. "This is Remus Lupin. He's a member of the Order and was a professor at Hogwarts for a while."

"Hello, Mr. Lupin." said Sherlock, at his most affable, extending a hand to the rather disturbed looking wizard. "I am sorry to see that you had such difficulty getting here. Did you manage to lose your pursuer, or were you forced to more extreme measures?

"Ah ... No, I managed to lose him." said Mr. Lupin, taking Sherlock's hand rather reluctantly, as if he wasn't sure how to avoid doing so.

"Wait, lose who?" asked Ron.

"I would have been here earlier, but I had to lose a Death Eater who was trailing me. ... Harry, can I talk with you a minute?"

"Yeah." said Harry, and followed him out of the room. For a minute the rest of us were all silent. Then the twins burst out laughing. They seemed to think the matter immensely entertaining.

Sherlock too seemed cheerful, and was chuckling to himself in his quiet way. I myself thought that this had complicated matters.

"Well, Mr. Lupin didn't look any too pleased to find out that Harry had been trusting Order secrets to strangers." I said. "Harry didn't seem too keen about your combined strike-team idea, and I suppose he'll harder to convince now."

Sherlock shook his head.

"No. I think precisely the opposite. Remus Lupin has shown up just in time. He isn't just displeased, he's angry. And he's already put Harry on the defensive. Harry will defend his own actions by defending their outcome. That is, by defending what has been accomplished. And by the time that he and Mr. Lupin have argued the matter out, Harry will have argued himself into stubborn agreement with me." Thus saying, he lit his pipe, stretched out his legs, and settled down to wait for Harry to argue himself into reason.

We were waiting for some time. Harry and Mr. Lupin talked and talked, and a couple of times we heard raised voices. Sherlock smoked silently. The twins played with Shirley, and chatted with Mary. But I became rather impatient. The delightfulness and busyness of the evening had not effaced the problem of Harry's wound from my mind. I wished to be doing something, and chafed under the inaction.

When the door finally opened and they came out, Harry was looking decidedly cheerful and confident. Lupin still looked wary, but no longer appalled. I saw now that he was a younger man than I had supposed at first; he could not be past his middle years yet. The prematurely greying hair and the haggard, tired face were deceptive. When he spoke, his voice was serious and it brooked no argument; but there was no hostility in his tone, merely caution.

"Mr. Holmes, I would like to talk with you for a minute." Lupin looked from Sherlock to me. "With both of you, actually."

"Of course." said Sherlock agreeably.