17 Ashes

The first thought that came to my mind was the assumption that Death had decided not to limit himself to verbal intimidation, but to back up his displeasure with something more serious. The second was to go to my flat as quickly as possible. I was ready to apparate, forgetting for a second that the only way to get around in this house was outside, and that I was standing there in my underwear. Luckily, my dying mind had time to signal me, telling me that hasty and reckless decisions had to leave my life as quickly as possible.

It wasn't easy. Standing in the middle of the room and realising that somewhere in another country your house was burning down at this very second. On one side of the scale there were a lot of wise thoughts: my weak aguamenti can't put out the flames, there are probably arsonists there that I can't deal with, there's nothing valuable in this flat anyway, and the furniture isn't worth it. On the other hand, there was only one phrase, literally burnt into my skull in big letters: "Your house is on fire, and you stand there and do nothing!"

Having made an extremely hard decision, I decided to initially get the information I needed and help Dobby, who was still standing there staring at the floor. Walking over to him, I put my hand on his shoulder:

- Dobby, calm down and tell us exactly what happened. And unfortunately, we'll have to wake Fleur up because you need help, I'm not very good at healing magic and we shouldn't panic the house.

Dobby, realising that I wasn't going to scold him, burst into tears, and I had to carry him to the bed. After that, I had to do the most unpleasant thing of all:

- Honey," I stroked Fleur's shoulder sticking out from under the covers, "wake up. We've got a little problem.

She opened her eyes and focused her gaze on me. It was clear from the look on her face that she was about to tell me what she thought of guys who woke their brides in the middle of the night, but then she saw Dobby and sat up abruptly, realising that the problem wasn't as small as I was trying to make her believe.

- Dobby, what's wrong? - She noticed the wound on his side and grabbed her wand, doing some silent manipulation.

- Mistress Fleur-" The houseboy sniffled. I decided it was better to say something like that myself:

- Fleur, someone set fire to our flat. There aren't many possibilities of who it could be, but there are some. - She looked at me with eyes wide with shock. I wonder if she's shocked by the situation itself or by the fact that the carpet she's just brought in has been damaged.

- No, not the flat, the house. Shell," said the houseboy, who was definitely feeling better.

- What?! - We exclaimed at the same time. I didn't even realise it wasn't a flat, but a Shell. Of course it was, because Dobby was in the cottage! The situation in my eyes had long since passed the critical mark and now had an exceptionally foul name. I'd burnt down the house Fleur's parents were buying. I couldn't think of a better engagement present. And I had no doubt that I was the cause of it all. This was the kind of thing Death had warned me about - the easy life was over.

- Oh, well, that's all right then. Tell me, Dobby, are you in any pain? - Fleur began casting diagnostic spells on the housekeeper as if nothing had happened, and I felt my eye twitch. I think a couple of blood vessels had burst. Fleur waved her hand, noticing that I was rapidly drifting away from reality:

- 'Relax, Harry. The shell, unlike your flat, is fully insured. My father's the first person to think about that sort of thing. Dobby and Ricky moved it into the flat as soon as I moved in. It's a shame, but we can get it back up and running before the summer, or we'll think of something else. You might want to think about why someone would want to set fire to the house in the first place. If someone wanted to kill us, it was a very strange attempt, because they had to make sure we were home beforehand.

I just didn't know what to say to that. The number of things that had happened recently had completely shut down my ability to think straight, and as a result I couldn't come up with a single normal idea, jumping from one extreme to another. And Fleur once again surprises me with her rationality and ability to keep her cool when the situation calls for it. A true champion who deservedly earned the right to represent her school at the Tournament. Not only that, but she saves me from making rash decisions. When I calmed down a little, I realised it was Harry's temper that had me so wound up. I'd had too few personal possessions in my life that hadn't come from my cousin. And here I had a whole flat to myself at once. Of course, it was vital for me to protect my property by any means necessary. When Fleur saw me coming round, she smiled and stroked my head.

- 'Don't worry, love, I know you'll sort it out and I'll help you with that. After all, it's only a house. It wasn't fit to be our family nest anyway," she winked, and then laughed when she noticed I was blushing a little. - Yes! I knew you were still blushing!

I only smiled at that statement. I was relieved, and I took advantage of that by telling Fleur that if she remembered what had happened on that bed a few hours ago, she would blush more than I did. In fact, she blushed as soon as I said that.

- Okay, I'll need to talk to your father in the morning. I hope I can break the news to him before he finds out about the fire from other sources. Now," I turned to Dobby, who was still sitting quietly on the corner of the bed, "tell us exactly what happened.

***

Dobby's story took over an hour. What was there to tell, you'd think? But the houseboy was seriously bewildered by the events, so every sentence had to be practically forced out of him.

As we tossed aside all the self-deprecating epithets and assurances of his own uselessness, Fleur and I were once again convinced that we had a very brave houseboy, capable of making unconventional decisions when the situation demanded it. As it turned out, Dobby had spotted suspicious people near the Shell a few days ago, but they hadn't come close to the house or shown any signs of aggression, so he hadn't bothered us. The fact that they wore long black robes and appeared only at night, he also decided to keep silent - there was no telling what those people could think of. Why had they never approached him before, but today they suddenly decided to burn the house down? Dobby decided to switch on the porch light to get a closer look at the guests.

Soon I had a pretty good picture of what had happened, and when I discussed it with Fleur, I realised that I wasn't the only one. Apparently, it was as follows:

Having heard from Snape that the tenacious Harry Potter was around again, the Lord had sent several groups of Eaters to patrol the places where Harry might be. I don't know what places he had in mind first, but I'm sure that Hogsmeade, Grimmo Square, and Godric's Hollow were also the places where you'd find small groups at night, pretending to be there by accident. At first I, in my naivety, thought that the Lord only needed to capture me, as usual, but then I realised what had happened to the house and I felt uneasy.

In fact, everything developed quite trivially - while the lights in the house were off, the devourers logically assumed that there was no one there, and then suddenly the lights came on, and immediately the surroundings were illuminated by powerful Incendio. Or maybe something worse. The realisation tingled unpleasantly in my chest:

- You know what this means, don't you, Fleur? They weren't even going to check who was inside. What if you'd just decided to look behind things? - The burning of the Shell, coupled with the conversation with death, completely wiped out any pleasant memories I had of the previous day. I can't imagine how Harry had to cope with such rapid events over the course of several years.

- No, Harry Potter sir," Dobby beat Dobby to the argument, "they didn't set the house on fire right away. First three people were joined by five others and they tried to get in, but Dobby wouldn't let them. Dobby thought they were burglars and used magic.

- What exactly did you do? - I was really curious what a houseboy could do in a situation like that. He hesitated again, but then he continued:

- Dobby doesn't like to fight. Dobby likes to do housework. Dobby is good at cooking because he can handle several knives at the same time..." The last words were spoken in a whisper, but the meaning was clear. Perhaps the eaters had no orders to kill everyone inside, but when you are suddenly attacked by flying knives, orders are the last thing on your mind.

- Dobby managed to seriously wound three or four people, but then the burning house started to collapse and Dobby apparated away.

- Well done as always, Dobby. - Fleur had long since finished tending to his wound and now just sat beside him, listening intently to the housekeeper's confused story. - You are a very brave elf.

I hastened to confirm her words so that our comrade would not lose his presence of mind. In fact, not only was he able to get out of the mess virtually unharmed, but he wounded several of the Lord's supporters, and that was definitely a success.

As we tidied up the houseboy and listened to his story, it began to lighten outside the window. Sleep was out of the question, of course, but I still couldn't decide what to do next. On the one hand, I should wait for Fleur's parents to wake up and tell them what had happened. On the other hand, I didn't want to do that. Not only would I be dragging them into my own problems, but I would also be confessing my own weakness. If I didn't say anything, it might also seem like weakness. How hard it is to be a teenager playing adult games!

I was distracted from my growing dilemma by a sharp knock on the door. Without waiting for an invitation, the door swung open and Sebastian Delacourt appeared on the threshold. He glanced round at Fleur, raising an eyebrow in mute question, and then at Dobby.

- 'By the looks of it, you're already aware of it. - I hope he thought Fleur's appearance in my room was recent.

- Yes, we already know, but how did you know, Dad?

- Fleur, I was buying this house. - Sebastian managed to say it so reproachfully that even I felt embarrassed. - Of course, I couldn't leave you completely unsupervised. The signal spells alerted me to the fact that the house was on fire.

To Fleur's credit, she didn't say anything about parental control and only recounted what we'd heard from Dobby. After that, Sebastian listened to our speculations about what had happened and agreed that it was probably the work of the eaters.

- I don't think they had orders to kill you like that, Harry. In fact, the Dark Lord risked putting himself in the position of not knowing whether you were dead or alive again. And this creature, as far as I can tell, is much smarter than that to step on the same rake again. I guess the housekeeper's rebuff coupled with the inexperienced devourers played a part. You should be grateful to your House elf.

I had guessed that I should be thanking Dobby for the outcome. However, I was only now beginning to realise how serious the events in this country were. More than that, these events directly affect me and my family. The burning shell in my imagination was a symbol of the words that Death had spoken to me: I had taken this world too lightly, enjoying a fairy tale. But it's not a fairy tale. It's not.

- I need to go there, to assess the scale of the accident and see what else can be salvaged. - I pulled myself together and squeezed Fleur's hand on my knee. - I realise it's of little use, but there might be some of those Eaters left behind, the ones Dobby hurt. It's a good chance to question them.

- I'm coming with you. - Fleur looked not at me, but at her father.

- You can go together if you want. - Sebastian was even calmer than my fiancée. Judging by his demeanour, he had a couple of houses on fire every day. But the explanation was more logical: "My men have already checked, there's no-one there. But I'll ask you not to stay there too long, for whatever else might happen.

We just nodded and started packing. As I got dressed and checked my Invisibility Cloak, I wondered for the first time who Fleur's father was.

***

- What else did you expect to see here? - Fleur knew exactly what was in store for us at the Shell site. She'd decided to come with me solely so she wouldn't let me go alone. I was grateful to her for that, for the sight of the ashes all around was seriously depressing. The sea wind had scattered the ashes for dozens of metres around, and only the pillars of the foundation pointed to where the structure had originally stood. Magic fire is a scary thing after all.

- I don't know, Fleur. Honestly. I just couldn't sit still, stay away from what happened. You know that's one of Harry Potter's traits, always wanting more than everyone else.

- It's good that you realise the illogic of your own actions," she looked at me seriously. - Let's finish up here soon. It's really cold.

Harry had seen a lot of destruction in his life, but usually it was at Hogwarts and didn't affect him as much. This place was different. The remains of my fiancée's house, even after all of Fleur and Sebastian's words, still evoked an unpleasant feeling in my chest that I couldn't quite explain.

"And it was about the same way the house in Godric's Hollow burned more than ten years ago." - The thought did not add to the optimism.

After rummaging through the ashes and finding nothing worth noting, I left Revelio one last time, checking the area for other people, and was about to leave when I heard the distinct pop of an apparition through the sound of the surf. I mentally patted myself on the head as I realised that my wand had taken off even faster than Fleur's, who was standing next to me. The man who had appeared a few metres away from us was alone and not exactly hiding. After looking around, it was only a couple of seconds before he noticed the wands pointed at him, and he jerked involuntarily when our gazes crossed.

I'd only seen him a couple of days ago, but the change in his appearance was striking. He was no longer a hunted beast, scrounging for food and afraid to leave the house. Now he was a confident predator, one of the strongest wizards of his generation.

Keeping his gaze on me, Sirius slowly raised his wand and squinted.