Chapter 27: To Catch A Thief

It was quiet outside the house. No early evening breeze rustling the tree leaves, no owls hooting in the distance--just a somber, heavy silence that made each footstep even more difficult than the last as Jack approached the door. The sun had set only a little over an hour ago, but long before it ever dipped below the horizon, the curtains had already been drawn, shielding the windows from the rest of the world. What light that did manage to filter through from within was meager and weak, as if barely holding on to life itself in these dying hours, reminding him all too well of what had brought him and his sisters here tonight.

As far back as Jack could remember, trips to Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny�s marked joyous moments in his life: birthdays and Christmases and the occasional wedding, and often visits for no particular reason other than to give his mum and dad the chance to spend precious time with family. When he was younger, this had been a place of endless fascination for him, with the excitement and mystique of nearby Hogwarts to captivate him; after he started school, it became his second home, where he found the love and security he craved from being so far away from his parents and sisters.

But now, for the first time in his life, it was not joy that filled his heart as he stood here, it was fear and dread. Fear at having to see first-hand what awaited them inside. Fear at having to learn that there was not a damn thing he or anyone could do to stop this hell unfolding.

Fear at having to let down the people he loved so very much.

As he readied himself to go in, he couldn�t help but wonder what it might be like to come to this very door in an altered future. What would become of all the happy memories he�d collected here? Would there only be emptiness instead, for which he would not even have an explanation? Time was marching on already--steadily, and without mercy. Jack knew it might not be much longer before he had his answer.

Aunt Ginny opened the door before he even had a chance to knock. She looked like hell: pale and gaunt, in a way he had never seen her before, looking badly in need of sleep, or at least a few moments of rest, something which Jack would have wagered she must not have got too much of in the last twenty-four hours.

�You came...�

Jack fought hard against the urge to flinch when he heard the sheer exhaustion in her voice. It was obvious she�d been up the entire night, and now it seemed as if the mere act of speaking was depriving her of what little energy she had left, which she was desperately trying to conserve. Without saying anything, he reached forward to take her in an embrace. It seemed like the natural thing to do, and he didn�t really know what words he could possibly offer in a situation such as this. He felt her collapse in his arms, if only for a tiny bit--and a fraction of a second at that--before she straightened again and reached behind him to gently pull Madeline and Caroline inside with him.

�Thank you so much for coming,� she said. �All of you. I can�t tell you what it means to me to have you here.�

�Of course we would, Aunt Ginny,� Madeline said. �You needed us. Where else would we be?�

Jack kept his eyes on her, wondering just how long she could keep being strong like this, when he knew any normal person would have long crumbled to pieces by now.

�Are you all right? I mean... God, that�s a stupid question-- of course you�re not all right...�

�I�ll be fine,� she said softly. �Em and Luke are hanging on, and that�s good news. That�s giving me hope.�

�And... Uncle Harry?� Jack had almost been afraid to ask the obvious, but he knew the question needed to be said out loud.

Aunt Ginny only shook her head. Jack knew by the unshed tears glistening in her eyes what her answer would be.

�It�s not good,� she said. �He�s... having a real rough go of it right now...�

�He�ll pull through, Aunt Gin,� Caroline said. �You know what a stubborn streak he�s got.�

Aunt Ginny laughed. �Don�t I know it,� she said, then she turned back to Jack. �Listen, there�s another reason I asked you to come-�

�You�re here!!�

Jack looked up, surprised to hear Elinor�s voice coming from the top of the staircase. He hadn�t expected her to be here tonight of all nights, though on second thoughts, it made perfect sense. Of course she would want to be here too. She wasn�t so little anymore, his baby sister, and she hadn�t been for a long time, now that he thought of it. Jack shuddered to think of just how much she�d had to grow up because of all the things she�d had to see and experience in her young life.

�Hey there, Short Stuff...�

He couldn�t help but smile as he watched her barreling down the stairs in the next instant, even leaping off the second-to-last step--something about which she�d been scolded enough times at home--and race towards them. She flung herself into his waiting arms, and Jack noted that she was hugging him longer and more tightly than usual.

It was obvious that even she was aware of how grave the situation was.

�I knew you�d come,� she said.

Jack smiled and tousled her hair affectionately. �So what are you doing here, then? Shouldn�t you be having dinner in the Great Hall right about now?�

�McGonagall�s letting me spend the night here,� she said. �Aunt Ginny talked to her. She said it would be all right.�

�Hope she hasn�t been too much trouble,� Caroline teased.

�No,� Aunt Ginny said, smiling, �she�s been a perfect angel, matter of fact. I couldn�t have managed without her.�

Jack was about to answer with a cheeky comment, when he noticed movement by the staircase again. His eyes shot upwards automatically; he smiled when he saw it was a familiar face.

�Em...�

He hadn�t seen her since the wedding, and he wasn�t at all prepared to see her like this. Emily had been so full of life and energy just a few short weeks ago, but now she was making her way down the staircase slowly, and with great difficulty, it seemed, gripping the banister as if it were the only thing holding her upright. Colm followed closely behind, looking ready to catch her at a moment�s notice if she stumbled even a little bit.

�You lot!� she said, obviously trying to distract them from noticing just how weak she�d become. �Don�t you know it�s rude to come by unannounced like this?�

Jack laughed.

�Lovely to see you, too.�

Jack came forward to meet her halfway and instinctively reached for her arm, but she swatted it away. It seemed she didn�t want any assistance--not from him, nor from Colm, either. She must have felt the weight of his stare, because she turned around and looked at him a few moments later.

�Well, don�t just stand there, then,� she said, laughing. �It�s been ages since I�ve seen any of you, don�t you think I deserve a hug?�

He gladly took her in his arms, shocked at just how fragile she felt, though, scarcely believing that this was the same firecracker of a cousin with whom he�d grown up, who�d shared so much mischief and adventure with him.

�You shouldn�t be out of bed,� he said.

�That�s exactly what I�ve been trying to tell her,� Colm said.

�Oh, honestly, between you and Mum, you�d think I was hopeless!�

Aunt Ginny seemed skeptical. �Em, I really don�t think this is such a good idea-�

�I�m feeling better, Mum,� Emily said. �Really. And so is Luke. He just sneaked out of his room and crawled into bed with Dad. He said it was his turn now to look after him.�

There had been a distinct spark of hope that glimmered in Aunt Ginny�s eyes just now; Jack saw it straight away when Emily said that Luke was starting to feel better as well, but her eyes darkened noticeably in the next instant at the mention of Uncle Harry.

�So he�s not feeling any better then,� she said, as if she wasn�t really expecting the answer she wanted to hear.

Emily shook her head. �He�s been quiet for the last little while, though. He�d been talking a lot in his sleep earlier, but I couldn�t make sense of any of it. Whatever it was Dad was dreaming about, it must have been pretty intense...�

Jack found it odd that Aunt Ginny didn�t say anything in response. He thought he had caught her eye for a fraction of a second just now, but before he could register the action, she�d already turned away and was watching Emily walk over to Madeline and Caroline to give them each a hug.

He felt a slight tug on his arm seconds later.

�There�s something I need to tell you,� Aunt Ginny said.

Jack guessed that by the way she had kept her voice low that this didn�t seem to be something she wanted the rest of them to hear. She nodded towards the study, and looked back on everyone else, making certain they wouldn�t notice him slipping away, then followed her inside.

�What�s going on?�

�Look, I didn�t ask you to come here to pay your final respects,� she said. �I haven�t given up. Especially not now.�

Jack eyed her carefully. �Why, has... something happened?�

�Harry asked me to get you, Jack. He�s been fading in and out all day, but he�s been clear on one thing, and that was that he needed to see you.� She took a deep breath. �He said he knew who was behind all of this.�

Jack felt the blood thin in his veins.

�He said... what?�

�He said he knew who did this all. That he needed to tell you-�

�You don�t suppose... Aunt Gin, you don�t suppose he... remembered something, do you? Something that changed in the past?�

�I don�t know...�

�I�ve got to see him-�

He had made a move towards the door, but she laid a hand on his arm to stop him.

�Wait a minute, Jack... before you go up there, you ought to know...�

�What?�

He saw her swallow hard, saw tears teetering off the edge in her eyes.

�It�s bad,� she said quietly. �It�s really bad. When I left him up there a few minutes ago, he was delirious again. He... might not even know that you�re in the room...�

Jack nodded. There were a million things he could have said at that moment, but not a single one seemed anywhere near adequate enough to ease her pain. So instead, he simply reached for her hand and gave it a slight squeeze.

�It�ll be over soon,� he said. �You�ll see... It�ll be over soon...�

She smiled, but didn�t say anything, then led him up the stairs, quietly so that no one would notice. He wasn�t sure what to expect exactly, and then he realized that nothing could have ever prepared him for seeing Uncle Harry like this.

His eyes were shut, but it was clear his sleeping was restless. He was tossing back and forth and trembling from what looked to be wicked chills that were wracking his body. Beside him, Luke lay perfectly still, having fallen back asleep, curled up by his father�s side.

Jack looked at Aunt Ginny. �Do you think... I mean, maybe I should come back later-�

�No,� she said. �He�s been waiting for you, Jack. Whatever he knows--it might end this thing once and for all.�

He nodded and turned back to Uncle Harry, approaching the bed.

�Uncle Harry, it�s me,� he said. �It�s Jack...�

�Jack...�

�Yeah, I�m right here...�

�Jack...�

He sat down at the edge of the bed. Uncle Harry wasn�t opening his eyes, though; indeed, his dreams seemed to be getting more violent and troubled.

�They stole it...�

This was it.

�Stole what, Uncle Harry?�

�They�re after him... they�re after him, so he can�t protect me...�

�Who is it? Who�s chasing you?�

�Ron... Ron has to get away... Avery is after him... Avery and Marks... They�re after him...�

Jack looked up at Aunt Ginny, but she seemed to be just as bewildered as he was.

�He�s been saying their names all day,� she said. �Do they mean anything to you?�

�No,� he said. �I don�t know who they are, I�ve never heard of them before-�

Oh God.

He felt his throat start to close. Of course. It had to be. Why hadn�t he thought of it before? It had been staring him straight in the face all this time...

�What? Jack, what? What is it?�

He shook his head, still trying to assimilate the jumble of thoughts that had criss-crossed his head in the last few seconds.

�Uncle Harry couldn�t possibly have known about... unless he remembered...�

�What are you talking about? Do you know who they are?� She grabbed hold of his wrist. �Jack, talk to me... What�s this all about?�

�He was right here all along, Aunt Ginny... Right under our noses...�

She stared back at him with held breath.

�Who?�

�The person who stole the time-turner,� he said. �A. Marks. Avery Marks.�

The nametag.

Sometimes answers did present themselves in the most unexpected ways, after all. Under an entirely different set of circumstances, Jack might have actually found this situation to be pretty amusing--in a morbid sort of way, anyway. Hell, he already did find it amusing, come to that, though admittedly, he didn�t feel much at all like laughing right about now.

His eyes must have passed over that bloody nametag at least a half dozen times since his first visit to the Improper Use of Magic Office nearly two months ago. All those times that he�d sat in that chair in that god-forsaken office, that cramped office with no windows and barely any light, and the wall-to-wall shelves with items just spilling forth from every which way... When he thought of all those times he had sat there and saw those big, bold block letters, A. Marks, and never had any sort of inkling--not one bloody clue--that he�d been sitting across the very bastard who�d set this all in motion in the first place, it made him absolutely sick.

Even now, as he crept through the labyrinth of corridors in the Ministry building, guided only by the dim light he�d conjured up with the Lumosspell, he felt the bile pooling in his stomach, acid that could burn a hole through flesh.

He was furious. More than furious, he was incensed. Livid. At this monster for the havoc he had created, but most of all, at himself for not having worked this all out sooner, when it might have made a difference. But of course, how could he possibly have known? What signs could have possibly told him that this seemingly soft-spoken, mild-mannered, lowly clerk could have actually been the one they�d been hunting for all along, who had turned their entire world upside-down?

His ears picked up a faint shuffling noise. Jack whispered a quick, �Nox!� and pressed himself flat against the wall, edging slowly across it, but stopping just before he rounded the corner. On eight o�clock on a Saturday evening, there shouldn�t have been anyone here in the Ministry building, except perhaps for the usual crew of house-elves who came out after dark to sweep up the hallways. Still, he was taking no chances. Holding his breath, he turned his head and craned his neck ever so slightly.

House-elves.

God, he�d never been so thankful to see the little creatures in all his life. He waited until they�d finished with this particular passageway before he took off once more, leaving his wand tucked in his cloak pocket, having decided that his eyes had probably adjusted enough to the darkness to be able to find his way, albeit with some difficulty.

Strips of moonlight made their way through the narrow windows in the corridors; Jack managed to dodge them, all the while watching his shadow to make sure it blended in with the rest of the shadows that blanketed the walls. If Dad had taught him anything, it was that everything had eyes and ears, and even if he were absolutely certain that he was alone, he�d still be foolish to act under that assumption.

He came upon the office at last, but not without a few more unexpected encounters with house-elves, in which he barely managed to duck out of sight before they hurried over to their next cleaning job. The door didn�t open with a simple Alohomora spell of course, though out of sheer curiosity he had tried it nevertheless. Fortunately, Uncle Fred and Uncle George had taught him an old Muggle trick when he was a young boy, something he didn�t think would have a prayer of working now, inside a top security facility such as the Ministry building, but to his surprise, it took only a few persistent tries with one of Leatrice�s spare hairpins before the lock actually clicked open. Perhaps the wizarding world did not think Muggle techniques posed much of a threat.

He�d have to find some way of thanking his lovely girlfriend for that one later.

The front office smelled of a rather obnoxious perfume--no doubt it was one worn by that plump witch who guarded the reception area like the three-headed dog Mum and Dad had told him and his sisters about when they were children. Jack wrinkled his nose when he got a whiff of it, trying his best not to sputter or cough, lest he be heard by a house-elf that happened to be nearby.

He felt his way along the wall until he reached the back office. Luckily, this door wasn�t locked, and he was able to slip in with ease. It had the stench of a room that had been closed off and neglected, and he had to hold his breath at first before he got used to the musty air.

He wasn�t even sure what the hell he was doing here in the first place, or what he had come to look for, but his eyes fell upon the piece of cheap metal on the desk, whose etchings glowed faintly under the light emanating his wand. He felt his face twist in disgust at the sight of it, and if he hadn�t reminded himself that he was here to hunt for whatever evidence he could find, he would have given into the temptation to grab that nametag and throw it clear across the room.

But there would be better ways to funnel his fury right now, and he knew he would need to be smart. He couldn�t afford to be stupid and inadvertently ruin what he�d come to do because he couldn�t control his temper.

His eyes took in the shapes in the room. His wand could produce only so much light, but it would have to do. There were so many objects stuffed into this room that it seemed overwhelming to try and determine where he ought to look first.

If only he knew what exactly what this was he was hoping to uncover.

He supposed he should probably start at the place that made most sense: the desk. There were several drawers at its side, one of them deep enough to be a decent enough hiding place for... something. Instinctively, he yanked the bottom one open and plunged his hand inside. There were things he was instantly sorry he had ever touched--he didn�t know what they were, but he didn�t even want to know at this point.

And then he felt it: the unmistakable texture of fabric. Smooth beneath his fingers, cool and slippery like silk. He pulled out whatever it was and actually heard himself gasp out loud when he realized what it was.

It was an invisibility cloak.

Bloody hell, he had him.

�I�ve got you now, you bastard,� he muttered.

�Too bad it won�t make a damn bit of difference now.�

Jack�s breath caught in his throat, and his head snapped upwards at the sound of the foreign voice. And he found himself face to face with Avery Marks.

To be continued...