Harmony barely registered the doors of the Great Hall slamming shut behind them. Fennec didn’t stop walking until they were well clear of the entrance, past a row of cold stone statues and into a quieter stretch of corridor. He looked… wrong. Not angry. Not jealous… just shaken. “Alright,” Harmony said, folding her arms tightly across her chest. “What’s going on?” Fennec ran a hand through his hair, then pulled a crumpled letter from his pocket. His fingers trembled slightly. “Harmony… there’s no easy way to say this.” She rolled her eyes and dropped onto the base of a nearby statue. “You say that every time you’re about to overreact. Just say it.” “No,” he snapped, then immediately steadied himself. “This isn’t about us. Not this time.” His voice dropped. “This is about you.” Harmony frowned, annoyed. “What about me?” Fennec swallowed. “You’re not who you think you are.” A short laugh escaped her. “Oh, brilliant. We’re doing this now? Let me save you the trouble. Daughter of Lucius and Narcissa. Sister to Draco. Apparently Delilah Narcissa Malfoy. Harmony is my name I go by. There. Identity crisis solved.” “But you’re not,” Fennec said, more quietly now. “Please. Just… listen.” She hesitated, then sighed. “Fine. You’ve got five minutes.” Fennec nodded quickly. “A few days ago… Professor Snape gave me a book.” Harmony laughed. “Why would he give you a book?” “I don’t think he meant to,” Fennec cut in. “Or maybe he did. He just… told me to return a book to the Restricted Section. Didn’t explain anything.” “And you read it,” Harmony said flatly. “Of course I did,” he shot back. “It was about Horcruxes.” That word hung in the air. Harmony frowned. “Dark magic bedtime reading. Lovely. What does that have to do with me?” Fennec took a slow breath. “It said Horcruxes aren’t just… containers. They hold pieces of a person. Not full souls, not exactly, but… traces. Thoughts. Patterns. Like something of them is still there.” Harmony shifted slightly on the pedestal, impatience returning. “And?” “And those pieces don’t just sit there,” he said. “They… repeat. Echo. Like something stuck in a loop.” She opened her mouth to interrupt, but he kept going. “I didn’t think anything of it at first,” he admitted. “But then I started thinking about you. About how when Snape used Occlumency, when he checked your mind, he didn’t just confirm things. He hesitated. Like something didn’t line up.” He held up the letter. “I wrote to the orphanage.” Harmony blinked. “You what?” “I asked for records. Dates. Intake logs. Anything. They sent this back.” He stepped closer and handed her the letter. Harmony scanned it quickly, her expression unimpressed at first—then slowly, subtly, it shifted. “…infant girl, five months old,” she read under her breath. “Left anonymously… during the night…” Her eyes flicked up. “So? That doesn’t prove anything.” “There’s more,” Fennec said. She looked back down. “Second infant girl discovered… same night…matching physical characteristics…” Her grip on the parchment tightened. “…deceased upon discovery.” Silence stretched. “I didn’t stop there.” //Of course you didn’t,// Harmony thought. “I asked my sister Eliza to go,” he continued. “In person. She’s better at… getting people to talk. She found the grave.” Something cold slid down Harmony’s spine. “And?” she pressed. “She lied,” Fennec said. “Told the groundskeeper the dead baby was her sister. Said she’d come to bring her home. He believed her. Or didn’t care enough not to. Either way… he talked. He said there were two babies that night. Not brought together. Separate. The first one,” Fennec went on, “was left earlier. Evening. By a young woman. Plain clothes. Nothing unusual. The second…” He hesitated. “What?” she demanded. “The second was brought later,” he said. “By someone else.” “…someone else,” Harmony repeated. Fennec nodded slowly. “He said he saw them. From a distance. Didn’t approach right away. He said the figure was… wrong. Cloaked. Didn’t move like a normal person. Just… appeared. He placed the baby down next to the first one,” Fennec continued, voice lower now. “Side by side.” “And then?” Harmony asked, barely above a whisper. Fennec swallowed. “He didn’t leave. He stood there, for minutes. Just… watching them. Then he took out his wand.” Harmony’s head snapped up. “And he pointed it between them.” “No,” she said immediately. “No, that doesn’t mean-” “It glowed,” Fennec cut in. “Just for a second. Bright. Then it went out. The man left,” he said. “And when the groundskeeper finally went over…” Harmony’s chest tightened. “One baby was dead,” Fennec finished quietly. “And the other,” he added, “was awake.”
Helloooooooooooooo my favourite peoples!!! I have missed you all lots and lots and lots!! So here is the very long awaited Chapter 29!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I promise I will be around writing a lot more, I'm aiming to finish this fanfic and then do a MASSIVE rewrite... perhaps turn it into a actual book!! but don't worry, that's a while away!! So please share it around and get people reading again (sadly, I've been gone so long that people have gone inactive :( But anyway, let me know if you like this chapter (there is more to it, so don't worry if you're confused just now, go read Chapter 30 which I'll put up after I post this one!!!) Much love, ~Harmony xx <33