8After Antonin and Harry left the breakfast nook, Cyrus extended his arm and pointed to the chairs. "Please, everyone sit down, and make yourselves comfortable."
Ron promptly stole Antonin's seat, plopping himself down, right next to Hermione. Astoria glared at Ron. After last night, she hoped Ron would want to sit with her, but apparently not.
Sophia glared at her eldest daughter. "What was that about young lady?" she demanded to know.
"Nothing. Antonin knows I had a crush on Harry for a long time. I think he just assumed I would take him to my room last night," Daphne said.
"Did you," Cyrus asked Daphne with too much of a grin on his face.
This didn't go unnoticed by Hermione. She remembered what Antonin had said about how Daphne would try to charm the pants off Harry and Cyrus seemed to approve. Now she believed this was literal, not just figurative like she had thought. She couldn't help thinking this was messed up parenting.
"What the hell, dad?" Astoria said in a raised voice. "You give me hell for being extra friendly with Ron, but you act like you want his to happen between Daphne and Harry?"
Thanks to Antonin, Hermione knew the answer to her question. Ron was deemed not good enough for his daughter according to Cyrus because his family lacked wealth, while Harry on the other hand, was because he stood to inherit a fortune. For now, she would keep her mouth shut about it because she still wanted a favor from Cyrus, but later she might talk to Harry and Ron about it.
"No more outbursts out of you, young lady," Cyrus demanded.
"Dear, she is right. We shouldn't be encouraging this," Sophia said.
"I admit to the temptation, but I didn't," Daphne lied very convincingly.
Ron was shocked at how well Daphne managed to lie. Purely out of loyalty to his best friend, Ron wanted to keep his mouth shut, even though his natural reaction to hearing Daphne straight-up lie would be to laugh out loud. Thankfully, somehow, he managed to keep a straight face. He also didn't want to call out Astoria on spying either, which was the only reason he knew for sure.
Hermione disliked the double standard and decided to show her defiance to Cyrus in a very subtle way. She rose from her seat and offered it to Astoria. "You two probably want to sit together."
"Thank you." Astoria smiled at Hermione and accepted the seat right next to Ron. Hermione simply took another seat.
As for Daphne, Hermione was unsure what to think. She was so sure Antonin was right when Daphne stuttered at the accusation, but her denial of it now was extremely convincing. Of course, she also realized it was none of her business. It isn't like Harry is her boyfriend.
Sophia folded her arms across her chest and glared at Cyrus with a look very similar to the one that earned Daphne the nickname ice princess around Hogwarts.
"We will discuss this later," Cyrus said to his wife, then he looked at the couch where he expected to find Hermione and briefly grimaced as if he just choked down on something very bitter at the sight of Astoria chuckling after Ron whispered something in her ear. He wanted to say something about it, but then remembered his promise to Antonin to not say another word. Then he located Hermione in her new seat. "You wanted to borrow some Polyjuice potion. I think your plan might work if Antonin went with you. I don't know if he would be willing to do that, but it wouldn't hurt to ask."
Ron couldn't care less if he was willing, there was no way he would accept that. Everything about this just screamed trap.
"Maybe I could offer him something in exchange for his help like helping him with the Patronus charm, for example," Hermione suggested.
"You already helped him plenty with that. Unless you have a spell that can restore his forgotten memories or create an extremely positive new one, I don't think there is that much more you can do," Cyrus said.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Hermione said sarcastically.
"Look it isn't you. He was ecstatic the day he learned that he and his cousin's wands shared the same core. What is he going to remember about that day? Not wanting to do a practice duel against his favorite person in the world. He will forget that she didn't want to do it either. Of course, he doesn't remember the spectacular light show, the Prior Incantato, that had them both in awe. It confirmed what they already suspected all along. Even their wands were best friends. They knew when they worked together on spells, it always worked much better than it should. I even tried to refresh his memory by showing him Elina's wand, but that didn't work. His memories are like that across the board, a real cherry picking of only his worst memories. Since there is no spell that can restore over a decade of damaged memories, he would need to have an extremely positive new memory. That is why I made that radical suggestion," Cyrus snickered. "The one about Bellatrix. Speaking of which, she was told to help him if he was going after Harry, but if he seemed to have no intention of coming back, she was to seduce him and persuade him to return. Like I said, if Antonin went with you, the plan could work."
"No way," Ron declared rather loudly. He trusted Dolohov about as far as he could throw him without using magic.
"I think it is not a bad idea. Harry could come with us pretending to be a prisoner and," Hermione said.
Ron's jaw dropped as he was about to explain what was wrong with that plan, but Cyrus beat him to it. "No, there is only so much you can control in the risk department. If Harry showed up there, he would probably be shot on sight, before the three of you have a chance to do anything. It would be best if it looked like you basically seduced Antonin into coming back."
"I think I could do that," Hermione said. Daphne snickered. "I mean, fake that."
Then Cyrus looked at Ron. "Maybe you and Harry could follow using some cloaking spells, so you are not seen. If you don't know those spells already, I could teach them to you and Harry."
"We got that covered," Ron said. That helped reduce his anxiety about Cyrus as he was making sense on caring about the risk to Harry and surprisingly even to himself.
"Perhaps Antonin and Hermione could distract Voldy and his followers while you and Harry kill the snake," Cyrus suggested.
"What if the real Bellatrix shows up when we do this," Ron asked.
"You might have to find her and detain her first," Cyrus said.
"Hmm, I doubt Antonin would agree with that plan," Sophia said.
Hermione was the first to notice when Harry and Antonin returned. "So, how did it go?" She asked the two of them.
"It went fine," Harry said.
"Too good to be true," Antonin said cautiously. He right away noticed the obvious that he lost his seat. Of course, he was disappointed by that, but understood and didn't want to make an issue out of it. "Except for one thing," he admitted feeling ashamed, his gaze shifted to the floor with a deliberate effort to avoid Hermione's gaze.
Harry looked down at the floor disappointed. He truly meant everything he said to Antonin, but if he regarded it as 'too good to be true,' clearly, he didn't believe him. Ron passed Harry's wand back to him.
"Hermione, could I talk to you in private?" Antonin requested.
"Me first, please," Ron requested. He passed his wand off to Harry. "No wands of course. I…"
"Keep yours if it makes you feel safer, kid. To me, it's just a token gesture anyway, since I can summon my wand anytime I want," Antonin declared with a little bit of a sly smirk. "Besides, if your previous performance was any indication, I think I don't have anything to worry about. So, shall we go?"
Ron rolled his eyes and couldn't help wondering if Antonin knew he had an inferiority complex to his best mate with a deliberate attempt to get under his skin. Antonin showed strong reservations over having a private chat with Harry but seemed genuinely unconcerned this time around. Instead, Ron forced a smile and accepted the invitation.
Ron and Antonin departed the room for a private chat. "There was something I promised I would ask you for my mother."
"Which is," Antonin asked with just a hint of disdain in his voice and his arms folded across his chest.
"Before I get to that, did you watch the memory extraction, the one Cyrus let me watch," Ron asked.
"No, and I really don't want to," Antonin answered.
"Do you remember getting the crown, the one the dark lord wanted," Ron asked hopefully.
"Yeah, one of the guys I was working with simply used the summoning charm," Antonin said. "I just assumed incorrectly that it was protected against such things, but of course not, because the crown was nothing but a trap anyway. He put the crown on, and it shot acid all over his head, killing him on the spot. The lady that was working with me at the time, thought it was hilarious."
"Bellatrix," Ron interjected much to Antonin's annoyance.
"Yeah," Antonin admitted reluctantly feeling a bit annoyed that Ron knew that. "She thought it was funny, but I didn't," Antonin said.
"So, you do remember it was Bellatrix," Ron said. "Did you remember that already or was that something you were hiding?"
"If you are expecting me to give you names, short of using some form of magic that forces me to do so, that is not going to happen, but yeah, of course, I remember the girl I was crazy about not cooperating with me and laughing about the death of another friend of mine," Antonin admitted sounding a bit angry about it.
"The other guy only accio'ed the crown after it was already taken, do you remember anything about that," Ron asked.
"No, I suppose you know who took it," Antonin speculated.
"You did," Ron said. "Do you remember the blond witch you took it from?"
"No, I don't," Antonin answered honestly. "Please don't tell me I killed her too."
"You didn't," Ron said, very surprised he didn't correct his deliberate mistake on his mother's hair color.
"Thank Merlin for that," Antonin said. "Who was this blond witch?"
"You won't give names, neither will I," Ron said.
"Fair enough," Antonin said with a nod, then he took on an almost playful tone. "Was she pretty?"
"She was my mother for Merlin's sakes," Ron spat, then he bit his lip wishing he didn't say that. "I don't look at her that way, and boy am I ever glad you didn't look at her the same way you looked at Bellatrix, you lech."
"Lech, not really, just trying to figure out why I don't remember that," Antonin said.
"You probably don't remember…" Ron began to say. "Never mind."
Antonin straightened up and took on a far more serious demeanor. "Well, for what it is worth, I hope I didn't hurt her either."
"That was the thing that surprised me the most about that memory. You easily could have, but you didn't," Ron admitted.
Antonin breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Anything else?"
"I guess not," Ron said.
Ron did his best to try to see this from Antonin's point of view keeping in mind what Cyrus said about the cherry picking of bad memories. Everything Antonin left out is what went well from his point of view. Of course, he doesn't remember the encounter with his mother. He got exactly what he wanted. Bellatrix finally helping him was totally forgotten. He didn't even remember that he was supposed to be in charge, yet still remembered the lack of cooperation from Bellatrix. Somehow, he even managed to remember losing the crown despite not remembering getting it in the first place. "Cyrus was right, about everything," Ron blurted out.
"He is rarely wrong," Antonin said. "Probably the smartest person I know."
Ron and Antonin returned to the others. "Looks like it went better than I expected," Hermione admitted with a nod. "At least Antonin didn't need to call for his wand."
Ron snickered having serious doubts that he could even pull that off. "I would really like to see that though. Call for your wand," Ron said with a bit of a smirk on his face.
"You don't think I can actually do it, do you?" Antonin asked with a bit of a snicker.
"I know you can, but I would love to see it, so please show us," Astoria requested. She clapped her hands together.
"Sure! Accio my wand," Antonin called out.
A wide grin spread across Ron's face, where at first nothing happened. "I guess he isn't…" Those words died in his throat as the wand did, in fact, appear in Antonin's hands.
"I knew you could do it," Astoria said with a big smile.
Only moments later, much to everyone's surprise, another wand appeared in Antonin's other hand.
Nobody was more surprised than Antonin. "I don't think this one is mine. Is this one of yours?" he asked Cyrus.
Pure shock prevented Cyrus from answering. He knew exactly what wand that was.
Hermione's jaw dropped as she looked at the second wand in Antonin's hand. "Is that the wand I think it is," she asked.
Harry nodded. "I think so."
"That was something Dumbledore gave to me to keep away from Voldem…" Cyrus slapped his hand over his mouth. "The dark lord."
"Oh," Antonin said. "You do that better than anyone I know." He passed the extra wand to Cyrus.
Harry went over his wand lore knowledge in his head. Draco disarmed Dumbledore that night at the Astronomy tower, thus making the wand his until Harry disarmed him at Malfoy manor. Antonin defeated him in the vault, making him the current owner of the elder wand.