Muggles, Horcruxes and Elephants – Oh My! (Part One)

"Good morning everyone!" Lily said with a bright smile on her face. She looked over her students trying to figure out with a glance just who was taking the course solely to see her and who was genuinely interested. Her lips twitched briefly into a frown as the number seemed rather extremely biased towards the former. It wasn't much of a surprise, but it was still exceptionally frustrating. Well, at least it got them in the door. Now they were hers.

"Professor, is it true – " The fifth year Ravenclaw boy cut off as Lily held up a hand.

Wide smile firmly planted on her face and a sickeningly sweet tone, Lily answered the kid. "Before you finish that statement I want to make sure that it's relevant to the topic of this class. Questions such as 'Is it true that the Muggles can destroy cities with a single push of a button?' or 'Is it true that Muggles can turn on lights without candles, gas, oil, runes or magic?' or 'Is it true that Muggles can communicate over long distances instantly?' are completely appropriate!" Her smile widened taking on a distinctly dangerous appearance despite her continued feigned cheer. "On the other hand questions such as 'Is it true that you died?' or 'Is it true that your son is the Chosen One?' will see the questioner in detention for a month. With Filch."

The Ravenclaw gulped and slowly lowered his hand. Lily swallowed the chuckles that threatened to boil over and sent a pointed look at Harry who wasn't even trying to hide his quiet laughter. Lily noted with amusement that Hermione was alternatively rolling her eyes at Harry and glaring daggers at the Ravenclaw.

Su Li raised her hand and Lily nodded to her. "Professor Potter, could you elaborate on what you mean by Muggles destroying cities with a button? I've heard about that from family in China, but details are hard to find in this country and many magicals seem to regard it as exaggerated rumors."

Lily blinked a few times before slapping her hand to her face and groaning. "Exaggerated rumors? Seriously? Oh dear, please tell me you've heard of World War II at least…All Muggleborns and Muggle-raised put your hands down." Lily groaned louder as a grand total of two Purebloods had their hands still in the air. The look of complete confusion on the Purebloods' faces were only matched by the incredulity of the Muggleborn/raised. "I knew this course had needed updates but…Merlin this is going to be harder than I had thought."

"Please," Zacharias Smith scoffed. "We all know that Muggles can't do that. Wizards and giants can destroy a small town in about an hour, but even we can't wipe out a city that fast!"

"Professor Potter, perhaps we should jump ahead in the syllabus to the atomic bomb lecture?" Hermione said wincing. "It might encourage the others to pay more attention to the rest of the course."

"Unfortunately I think you're right, Ms. Granger. Especially considering current events." Lily clapped her hands together and turned around to rummage behind her desk. Letting out a short exclamation of victory she moved to the center of the classroom and plopped an old projector onto Harry's desk. "This, everyone, is called a 'movie projector'. Think of it like an advanced version of wizarding photos, but with sound added. The specifics of how it works will be covered later on."

Harry snorted in amusement and lifted an eyebrow at her. "Guess it's a good thing we got the Tech Assist working last night, huh?"

Lily just smiled at him and patted him on the head. "Good boy helping your mother out before she even knew she needed it!" Lily put a roll of film onto the reels and turned down the lights in the room. "Alright everyone, pay attention. While many sections of the wizarding world have somewhat stagnated, the Muggles have chugged right along outright surpassing us in a surprising amount of areas. Watch. Watch and learn why following – or allowing – Tom Marvolo Riddle to provoke these people into attacking us is a supremely bad idea."

The movie was a short one. She'd picked a half hour documentary on nuclear weapons that spliced together footage from the initial tests to the reasons for their deployment to the actual usage at Japan. She felt…odd showing that film to the students. On one level, that it was even necessary was supremely disturbing. On another, she felt some small amount of satisfaction showing sheltered magicals just what the supposed 'inferior' Muggles could do.

As the movie reel finished playing, Lily noted with a pleased warmth that Smith was as pale as a sheet. "So, Mr. Smith, still think that the Muggles can't destroy a city with the push of a button?" The boy just swallowed and shook his head mutely. "Good. Now, that was a highly destructive use of Muggle technology and is quite shocking indeed. They have a great deal of other inventions as well that are just as good as magic and not nearly as dangerous or devastating as bombs. Even with such explosive technology as bombs, these items can be turned to good or scientific pursuits. Rockets are the only way to get to the Moon after all!"

Millicent leaned forward grinning widely. "Oh, oh, Professor Potter! I read about that over the summer! The Muggles have actually walked on the Moon?! Why did they even want to do that?"

"Wait, what!" someone shouted from the back of the room. "The Moon?!"

Lily smiled and jumped up to sit on her desk with legs crossed as some of the Muggleborns started to proudly affirm Millicent's declaration.

This. This was what Muggle Studies was supposed to be like.

Fleur shivered wrapping her arms around herself even tighter. It was times like this that she wished her fireballs could be conjured just hovering in the air beside her and providing a bit of warmth. The wind was strong enough, but the addition of the icy cold ocean spray borne by said wind made things so much colder. Fleur couldn't even appreciate the way that the cold caused Tonks' nipples to stand at attention she was so miserable. Not she had much chance to glance back and notice that anyway, Fleur noted with a scowl. This stupid rock path was both slippery and treacherous so she couldn't afford to take her eyes off it for long at all. Sirius had already nearly fallen into the sea. He'd only managed to avoid that fate by Kingsley's quick reactions.

Tonks' leather jacket effectively covering her wonderful assets also might have had a slight hand in preventing Fleur's gaze from wandering.

"Oh thank Merlin! Finally!" Remus exclaimed from just around the next bend. "We made it folks! Fingers crossed now."

Fleur turned the corner and let out a breath of relief. The cave system ahead of her was somewhat small. It looked like the entrance would be at least partially underwater with high tide though they could wade through it with little difficulty at the moment. Unfortunately, it seemed to reach a dead end rather quickly ruining any accomplishment Fleur had been feeling. "Yet another location zat is a ruse. Wonderful."

Tonks pushed forward frowning at the wall. "Hang on there, babe. Shack, you feel that?"

"I do…" Kingsley leaned forward and peered at the same rock wall that Tonks was examining. "There is some sort of ward on this section. Could it be a hidden door?"

"If it is, be careful," Remus cautioned. "And Tonks keep your ears open for any more parsel magic like the Gaunt Shack."

Sirius narrowed his eyes and started to reach out to the wall running a single finger over it. "This is Black family magic. It needs a sacrifice to open. Bloody hell, we got the right cave people."

"Sacrifice?" Fleur asked scowling at the wall/door. "Perhaps we should go find a Deaz Eater and zrow zem at it."

Sirius snorted. "As nice as that suggestion is, it's nothing that dramatic. A sacrifice ward of that magnitude would be sending out waves of magic felt for at least a mile. Good old Tom didn't seem to want to advertise this place that well. This just needs a bit of blood." He ran his hand over a sharper section of the rock and pushed in hard enough to leave a small trail of red on the stone. Fleur felt the ward touch the blood and the wall seemed to fold inward.

Frowning Tonks looked between the now open door and Sirius. "That was it? A simple first level healing spell would fix a cut like that. What was the point? To be an arse?"

Remus lifted his eyebrows and shrugged. "This is Voldemort we're talking about. Brilliant and powerful he may be, but nobody is going to hand him a sanity award. He might well have done it just to spite anyone coming along."

"Whatever the reason, we should press forward before any further uninvited visitors show up," Kingsley commented moving into the new chamber with wand out. Fleur followed along behind him and gaped slightly at the view. The inner chamber was far more like what she had been expecting. It was large and circular with a small bank leading down to a lake of black water. The water was glassy enough to be visibly unnatural. "Don't touch the water in here." Fleur nodded her agreement with the Auror's statement.

"Should we go back and get brooms?" Tonks asked looking at the water with suspicion. "I don't think I'm a good enough flyer to get down the cliff on them."

Sirius shook his head. "There's going to be something here to get us across. Voldemort would have protected the thing, but he's paranoid too so he'd want to be able to check on it relatively easily I'd imagine."

"Perhaps we should use the chain?" Remus said pointing to a rock outcropping with a chain wrapped around it that disappeared into the water.

"Worth a shot," Sirius said. He stepped up and started hauling the chain in. After a few moments a small barely stable boat appeared floating closer to the shore on the end of the chain. As it bumped into the shore, Fleur stepped up and started running several diagnostic charms.

"Merde, zis boat is cursed," she said. "Only one of us may go at a time. Unless we wish to go get 'arry or someone else underage."

Tonks glared at Fleur. "Not funny. I don't like this. There's an anti-apparation ward in this place as well. I doubt Portkeys would work either. That island is a perfect for an ambush."

Kingsley sighed. "Unfortunately there's not much we can do about it. Unless Fleur is willing to fly us to the island we have to go one at a time. However, I agree – this is hitting nearly every alarm bell I have."

Fleur eyed the boat before turning to the lake and gauging the distance to the island. After a long moment she nodded and turned back to the others. "I can take Tonks to ze island. I may be able to carry Remus zat far as well wiz a featherlight charm applied, but I would razer not take ze chance of dropping you in zat lake."

"Yes, let's not drop the werewolf in the middle of the ominous lake please," Remus said raising his eyebrows. "I think I'd rather be safe than sorry. Tonks, Fleur, if you two fly, we three could stay and stand guard on this side. Then we wouldn't have to worry quite as much about being stuck."

"I like it," Sirius nodded. "Any objections? Okay. Fleur, whenever you're ready. Girls if you need help call immediately and one of us will hop in the boat."

"Will do," Tonks said saluting. She turned and, holding her arms out wide, grinned at Fleur. "Try not to drop me, babe."

"And lose my little pink minx? I zink not." Fleur shifted enough that her wings grew out and took off. She'd really have to find the tailor who had designed these Veela specific clothes and thank them properly one day. Avoiding ripping her shirts or jackets was definitely an improvement. She gently picked up Tonks and started flying towards the island.

Barely a few seconds into the flight Tonks' hands tightened around Fleur's forearms. "Hey, uh, Fleur? Any chance you could fly a bit faster?" she asked her voice very strained and higher than usual.

"My wings are designed for my weight not a passenger. I am going as fast as I can, Nym." Fleur glanced down in concern and noticed Tonks' hair had shifted to her natural mousy brown. "Nym, I'm not going to drop you."

"Good. Because that lake is filled with Inferi, love. Please hurry."

Fleur nearly skipped a wingbeat at that. "What?"

"Saw a body float just below the surface. Please hurry. I don't like zombies – magical or mundane," Tonks said. Her voice was so incredibly calm that Fleur knew her partner was barely holding it together. Tonks was never that calm.

Fleur increased her speed as much as she was able and after a few more seconds she squeezed Tonks' arms. "We're there, mon amour." Gently Fleur touched down and hugged Tonks who shuddered for a few moments before she pulled back.

"Sorry, hon. Really don't like zombies. And there are at least hundreds if not thousands down beneath the surface." Tonks gave one final shake before turning and walking towards the cauldron sitting in the center of the small island. "Let's just get this done and head back."

Fleur frowned, but nodded and followed behind her partner. She cautiously peered over the edge of the cauldron. Inside was a partially transparent, greenish potion with a glint of gold at the bottom. "We might have – "

"Shhh!" Tonks exclaimed clamping a hand over Fleur's mouth. "Don't finish that sentence! Don't even think that sentence! You'll curse us!" Fleur chuckled into the hand over her mouth and calmly nodded. Tonks sighed and removed her hand. "Okay, let's get this potion out yeah?"

Five minutes later, Fleur and Tonks were both quite annoyed. The recalcitrant potion was being very uncooperative and simply refused to vanish. Spells didn't work, spooning it out didn't work, soaking it up didn't work…they'd even tried to tip the cauldron and the potion and Horcrux stayed firmly inside.

"Zis is stupid. What type of potion can be spelled to require someone drink it?" Fleur huffed glaring at the solution.

Tonks threw up her hands. "Screw it. Let's just conjure a donkey or something. Then we can feed Voldemort's potion to an ass."

Fleur shook her head in exasperation. "Zat pun works better in ze United States, mon amour. Let us hope zat Voldemort's potion has a sense of humor zough." Fleur raised her wand and quickly transfigured one of the nearby rocks into a small goat. It seemed real enough…whether the ephemeral nature of the thing would fool the potion though…

"No donkey?" Tonks asked raising her eyebrows.

Fleur winced. "Donkeys…zey don't like me. A goat will have to do."

"Babe, it's a transfiguration, it does what you want for the most part…"

"But zis way we can make fun of ze Old Goat, no?" Fleur said conjuring a pair of glasses and plopping them onto the goat's head along with a large purple wizard's hat. "Doesn't he look like Dumbledore now?"

Tonks snorted in amusement shaking her head at her partner's misdirection though appreciating the irony inherent in using a Dumbledore Goat to try and retrieve a Horcrux. She reached down with the provided ladle and with Fleur's assistance fed the first spoonful to the goat. Nearly immediately, the poor thing dropped to the ground completely paralyzed. Tonks cringed. "I know it's not technically alive but this still sucks; despite the fact that the paralyzing thing is somewhat hilarious. Goats are weird. At least it's not screaming."

Fleur nodded and held the goat's mouth open as Tonks poured a second mouthful into it. Tonks had gone back for another scoop when the goat stopped playing dead and decided to start screaming instead. Tonks winced and glared slightly at Fleur. "See, told you we'd be cursed if we finished fate-tempting thoughts. I never should have said that…Hold the bloody ass still."

The goat kept trying to flee from the potion and binding charms didn't seem to work on it. Finally after another ten minutes, the cauldron had been completely emptied. The transfigured creature was lying on the ground breathing hard and Tonks was holding up a shiny locket with a triumphant grin. "Got it!"

"Excellent. Let's turn zis zing back and get out of here." Fleur tried to reverse her transfiguration, but like the earlier attempts at immobilizing the creature, it appeared that the transfiguration faded just before touching it. "Or we can leave it and let ze magic run out. Stupid potion."

Fleur extended her wings and turned back to Tonks. She froze seeing her partner's white face. "Trouble," Tonks murmured. "Fuck! Bella is back! Fleur, Sirius just commed, we need to get back over there now!"

"Hang on!" Fleur jumped, grabbing Tonks under her arms and lifting them into the air. "Disillusion us, Nym." She flew as close to the ceiling as she felt comfortable doing and soared back over the lake as Tonks' spell flowed over her. As soon as they had gained some height, the light of spells could be seen illuminating the area near the door into the room. Fleur cursed and pushed her wings for more speed.

Tonks dropped to the ground on the bank a split second before Fleur set down next to her. "Why haven't they dropped the ceiling on us?" Tonks questioned.

"Why does your Aunt do anyzing? She is insane and enjoys causing suffering." Fleur scowled as she saw Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange peering around the pillar with the boat's anchor chain. She uttered a silent prayer thanking god that they hadn't landed there. Rookwood and Dolohov were standing with Bellatrix back near the entrance. Remus, Kingsley and Sirius were clustered behind a rock outcrop only a short ways away. "We have to – " Fleur cut off and her eyes widened as the lake behind them visibly rippled. She squeezed Tonks' hand and both of them whispered, "The goat…"

Panicked screaming tore through the continuing sounds of battle and everything stopped. Fleur caught a glimpse of the Lestrange brothers peering in confusion around the pillar. A moment later the entire lake seemed to jump into the air from a massive underwater wave and then crash back down. A wave of pale, scrawny bodies suddenly poured out from the water's edge. The Inferi were completely silent as they started to swarm out seeking all intruders. Fleur stood, pulling Tonks to her feet as well and tried to run towards their friends. She made it half a step before being jerked to a stop.

Turning around and expecting the worst Fleur was surprised to see Tonks' outline simply standing rooted to the spot. There were no Inferi clinging to her preventing her from moving, she was simply frozen. "Nymphadora! Move zat arse! Now!" A shimmer in the air near where Tonks' head should be shifted and without any more hesitation both girls started running.

A gurgling scream resounded throughout the chamber. Fleur's mouth twisted into a predatory smile as she watched the Inferi horde overwhelm Rabastan and Rodolphus. Both brothers disappeared under the bodies. One bleeding arm was flung free from the pile and into the mass. She couldn't tell which brother had just died but it didn't particularly matter as the other one was flung by the Inferi over their masses and into the lake, promptly vanishing under the surface of the rippling water. Bellatrix let out a scream of range and started firing spells into the Inferi horde. The remaining Death Eaters quickly followed suit.

Fleur and Tonks jumped behind the rock outcropping with the men and dropped their disillusionment. "Time to leave!" Tonks yelled.

"Any ideas would be appreciated," Sirius scowled. "They have the exit and knowing Bella she's going to switch to Fiendfyre any moment."

Kingsley flung a whip of fire towards a group of Inferi heading their way. "Can your elves get through? Riddle is notorious for marginalizing nonhumans. Their method of travel works differently than ours; perhaps he missed that!"

"Better than my plan of charging forward, wands blazing!" Sirius muttered. "Kreacher!"

"Winky!" Tonks yelled. Both House Elves popped into the cavern right behind their masters. Tonks twisted to grin at her elf. "Winky, get us back to Potter Manor, now!"

"Kreacher, same location!" Sirius ordered.

Fleur watched as Winky nodded and grabbed Kingsley's arm to pop him away. Kreacher on the other hand simply stared around the cavern with an expression of utter hatred and vitriol on his face. Fleur really couldn't blame him. Inferi were vile, evil creations – some of the worst possible uses of magic in existence.

"Kreacher, now!" The ancient elf shook his head, nodded and grabbed Remus disappearing with a pop while Winky blinked back in. She grabbed Tonks and vanished again.

Fleur conjured several fireballs in each hand and launched the passionfyre towards the closing Inferi. Beside her, Sirius vanished via a returned Kreacher. She was left alone as a scream of rage came from Bellatrix. The last thing Fleur saw of that horrible cave was the entrance caving in as Kreacher popped back in and whisked her away to safety at Harry's home.

The receiving hall resolved itself around Fleur and she let out a relieved breath. "Well, zat was exciting. Zank you Kreacher."

"Kreacher happy to help Harpy Seductress escape. Kreacher hate Evil Cave. Kreacher would destroy Evil Cave if he could. Kreacher would burn them all to ash to avenge Master."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I appreciate the surprisingly enthusiastic loyalty, Kreacher, but I'm not dead yet. You can head back to the house." Kreacher nodded and he vanished.

Winky stood off to the side of the room wringing her hands. Tonks moved over and gave the little elf a large hug. "Thanks for that, Winky. I hate zombies. You saved me!"

"Winky did good?" she asked softly.

"You did very good. Head on back to my Mum okay? Make sure she gets you anything you ask for…for the rest of the month!"

Winky gave a shy smile, nodded and vanished. Remus collapsed into a chair nearby and pulled off his damp boots. "Please tell me you two managed to retrieve the Horcrux prior to the ambush?"

"We got it right here!" Tonks said holding it up. "Looks like it should be Slytherin's Locket. Funny, I kinda figured a Horcrux would…I don't know, radiate evil or something."

" 'arry doesn't," Fleur stated shrugging.

Tonks shrugged. "Still seems…weird…Morgana's tits…you've got to be shitting me!" she snarled. The others quickly stood and clustered around Tonks as she held the open locket in one hand and a note in the other.

Kingsley grimaced. "Another fake?"

"Worse! Someone beat us to it!" Tonks thrust the note at him. " 'I have stolen the real Horcrux and intend to destroy it' bloody freaking hell! How do we know if he managed to do it? How do we know if he found any others?"

"R.A.B." Sirius frowned. "Dammit, he could have at least left a real name. Voldemort would know who this was instantly so stealth isn't really important. Shite. Now we have to try and track him down too."

Fleur sighed and sat down rubbing her head with her hands. "Perhaps ze locket could be a clue? Does anyone recognize it?"

Remus, Tonks and Kingsley shook their heads. Sirius shrugged. "It looks vaguely familiar, but I was dragged to a ton of high brow parties as a kid where everyone was all dolled up in their finest. I could've seen the bloody thing on anyone's neck back then. It's not like I paid attention to that stuff beyond breasts and arses at that age."

"Like that's changed much now," Tonks muttered. "I can't believe this bullshite! One bloody break! I'm going to take a shower. We can try to figure out where to go from here later."

Sirius sighed and nodded. "Yeah, I need to head back to the school anyway. See you guys later."

Remus exchanged glances with Kingsley who returned his look with a nod. "We'll both stay and try to find any pictures that have that necklace while collating a list of any potential enemies of the Death Eaters with those initials."

Fleur smiled at them and moved to follow Tonks out the room. "Zank you both. I will try to calm her down."

She found Tonks peeling off the last of her clothing and jumping under the steady stream of water cascading down from the shower head. Discarding her own clothes, Fleur climbed in behind her and wrapped Tonks in a hug. "Talk to me?"

Tonks leaned back into the embrace and shifted her height so that she molded better into Fleur's arms. "I'm sorry, it's just…between the Inferi and Bella and another dead end…it's just…what are we supposed to tell Harry now?" Tonks murmured. "He's losing it with the Horcrux and he needs something to test his rune on…What if we have to watch while he takes Su's death potion?" Her voice was quiet but filled with emotion. Fleur could hear her partner fighting back tears and the tension in her arms was evident.

"It will not come to zat," Fleur said softly. "We will find ze real Horcrux. We will get it to our man and we will watch him beat ze odds yet again. It is what 'arry does. We will all get zrough zis, mon amour. For now, you need to relax. We will tell 'arry later tonight. Just relax."

Fleur squeezed Tonks tighter and moved around to the front to pull the older woman into a kiss. After a moment Tonks reciprocated, deepening Fleur's kiss. She pulled back shortly after. "Thanks, Fleur. I know I don't actually say it often, but I love you too."

"I know. I am Veela and I am brilliant," Fleur said mock preening. "What is zere not to love?"

Tonks laughed and Fleur joined in. The mission may not have been a resounding success, but it could have been far worse indeed.