Fleur looked at the letter she had got that morning confusedly. The sender was supposedly her little sister Gabrielle, but the handwriting was definitely not Gabrielle's.
"Bill, could you please look at zis letter?" She called out to her husband.
"What's the matter, Fleur?" Bill asked, drying his long red hair after having taken a shower.
"I got zis letter from Gabrielle, but ze 'andwriting is wrong," Fleur explained.
Bill took the letter and checked it for anything hidden. It didn't come up for any spells, poisons, potions or anything else.
"The letter doesn't show any sign of dangerous tempering. Perhaps we should just open it. But still, we'll be careful and use that charm we use when we have to open boxes that we don't know what's in them and stay a bit away behind a shield charm," Bill decided.
Fleur nodded and put the letter onto the floor and stepped behind Bill. Bill cast the spell while Fleur set the shield. The letter just opened. Bill summoned the letter out of the envelope and Fleur charmed it to unfold itself. There was a childish drawing of a golden phoenix on top of the letter and then it seemed like normal writing.
They had the letter hover in front of them to read it.
Dear Fleur,
I so miss you. I know that now that you're married, you'll live in England all the time, but that doesn't change things. Mum and Dad are great and I really like it at Beauxbatons. The classes are interesting and so far my classmates are nice. Though some of the older students compared me to you and they often talk about the Triwizard Tournament. How it was a shame that you couldn't win the Cup for our school.
I like thinking back to the second task, where I got to visit you. It was somewhat scary in the lake, but when I was back at the surface with that nice black-haired boy, I felt much safer. Too bad that even I could see that he was more interested in making sure that the girl that the Durmstrang champion had pulled out of the lake was safe. I think they make a great couple. I really don't get why that girl would like the redhead that he had to pull out of the lake, not without a love potion being involved. She seemed too smart for him.
I have asked Mum and Dad if I could come and visit you during a weekend. We cleared it with Madame Maxime that I would be allowed to spend a weekend with my family. She said that in dangerous times it was important to see our loved ones as often as we could. Well, I still have to make sure that my homework is done before I can leave, but, like you, I never leave my homework for the last moment.
We also learned a really cool charm during our last Charms class. Our teacher showed us how to charm ink to change colours. You only have to say the password and it changes to another colour. That's so cool. Anabelle and I have decided to see if we can find a way to not only have it change colours, but also have one colour be invisible. Then nobody can read our secret messages and the teachers can't give us detention when they find a note. But that's still in the future.
How do you like my drawing of a phoenix? I don't know if it's realistic, as I haven't ever seen one in real life. I heard Professor Dumbledore had one, but I never got to see it. But I like the history of the birds. Can you get the last weekend of November off from work? I would meet you in Dover. With how much unrest there is in England, Mum and Dad prefer if I take a ship to set over. Or perhaps I'll take the train.
Please answer if you agree to the meeting.
Love Gabrielle
"That letter is obviously a fake. You said your sister can't write in English," Bill said.
"I know, but who would send the letter like zat? I mean, zere are a lot of zings zat Gabrielle would know, like the zings about ze second task, but ze rest?" Fleur shook her head.
"Wait a moment, I have an idea," Bill said, "If I remember right, the charm to change the colour of ink is only taught in fifth year, not in first year. And that wouldn't be that different in France. Perhaps there is a hidden message on the letter and we only have to guess the right password. The phoenix on top could be a veiled hint that it was Order business."
"Yes, zat might be true. Try a few," Fleur agreed.
"Phoenix," Bill tried, but nothing happened, "Golden Phoenix."
He tried a few more and then Fleur spoke up.
"'Arry and 'Ermione," she said and writing appeared at the backside of the letter.
"Great work Fleur," Bill complimented.
Dear Bill and Fleur,
We need your help with the task that Professor Dumbledore set out for Harry. We chose this way of communication, as we were sure that any message in the text would go over the heads of any Death Eater that might intercept the owl. And a letter from Fleur's sister isn't unusual at all. After all, they wouldn't think anything strange that a girl would write to her sister, even if they should consider that Gabrielle is eleven and French and wouldn't know any English above the very basics.
I assume Fleur guessed our password. If yes, you just won me a galleon from Harry, who bet on Bill. We will tell you the specifics when we meet you, as it is too important to keep certain things a secret to be careless in a letter. Please come alone. We know that many people are concerned about us, but this is for the best. Our task requires stealth and that isn't possible with the Order coming out in full force. And we would rather avoid Mrs Weasley and Ron right now. Ron massively messed up and abandoned us during our task over jealousy, inconvenient living conditions and his problem to keep his stomach under control. Therefore we don't want to see him right now.
There is a motel close to the exit of the Chunnel that would serve as a good place to meet you. We can then relocate to an even better place. Constant Vigilance and all that. It will also serve to shake off any uninvited visitors. Be there at the same time that the second task started. Oh and to delete the message simply say the name of Harry's cute drawing.
Hermione
"So that is what happened with Ron. He was completely unwilling to share anything why he had left the two others," Bill commented.
"It would fit. 'E never could control 'imself," Fleur sniffed.
Bill knew that his wife wasn't comfortable around his youngest brother, because he turned into a drooling fool when she was around.
"Well, we can send him off to the Burrow then. I told him that we couldn't take him forever and Mum is going spare over not knowing what happened to him. We have hidden him for a few weeks now and it's enough. He can then be sent on to Aunt Muriel's house to not give his reappearance away. The Ministry thinks he has spattergroit after all," Bill commented.
"Yes, zat would be best. I don't feel well 'aving 'im 'ere ze whole time," Fleur agreed.
"I'm going to apparate over to the Burrow then to warn my parents. We can plan everything later. Phoenix," The words disappeared from the back of the letter and it only left the original letter.
Bill quickly put his cloak on, kissed Fleur and then went outside to apparated to his parents' home.
Bill arrived just when a Ministry official was looking around the house, probably the third time including the wedding.
"What are you doing here?" He rounded on Bill.
"I'm here to visit my parents," Bill answered easily, "As far as I know that isn't a crime."
"Don't use that tone with me!" The official demanded.
"You were the one starting it. I'm only here to invite my parents over to dinner with my wife, as we didn't have a lot of opportunities for that lately," Bill easily explained.
The official huffed and left quickly. He knew that he couldn't get them for anything right now, as he had looked through the house, hoping to be able to interrogate the youngest son about Harry Potter, but he was still sick with spattergroit, which was too contagious to be around it for too long. Which meant that he couldn't even force the boy to go to Hogwarts. When Bill was sure that nobody was around anymore, he set up a few privacy spells.
"Charming fellow," he said sarcastically.
"They simply don't give up. Thankfully there is nothing we could tell them, so they normally leave after making themselves feel more important after an hour," Arthur explained, "So why did you really come here, Bill?"
"I need you to arrange with Aunt Muriel to hide Ron," Bill said.
"Ron and the other two are at your house?" Molly asked hopefully.
"No, just Ron. There was clearly an argument between the three and Ron left them. He's been at Shell Cottage for a few weeks now and he didn't want that I told you, but Fleur and I can't keep him any longer. It's a serious strain on our marriage, as he can't control himself around Fleur. And as we have an option to hide him somewhere safe elsewhere, I don't feel bad for choosing my wife over catering to his whims," Bill stated, "And from what I could gleam, his old jealousy of Harry and his dislike for not having all kinds of comforts were the reason he left them. He didn't want to tell me about their mission, but his grumbling sounds like when he got himself in a fit, like when Ginny got a new dress when she was nine and he didn't get new clothes."
The two Weasley parents remembered that episode well. The dress had been a prize from a crossword in the Daily Prophet that Molly had won. They didn't spend any money on it. And Molly regularly sent in cards with the solutions to the riddles in hope to win a few things. She didn't succeed that often, but she got a new set of pots one time and some seeds for her vegetable garden from it.
"So he's completely unreasonable and feels sorry for himself?" Arthur summed it up and Bill nodded.
"Alright, bring him to Aunt Muriel's. I'll take over from there," Arthur stated.
None of the two noticed how Molly twitched slightly. She had kept it a secret from her family except the two youngest, who wanted to have Hermione and Harry for future spouses, that she had brewed love potions to make the two fall for Ron and Ginny. Ron had the job to keep them under the potions. They would stop working after two weeks if the dose wasn't renewed. And that would mess up all her plans to on the one hand get the Potter gold and on the other hand balance out Ron's faults with a girl that would hopefully give her acceptable grandchildren. She knew that Ron wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed and that he had massive flaws, but she hadn't managed to get him over them. How could the boy be so stupid to give up his position?
Hermione and Harry sat in a booth of the restaurant where they were to meet Bill and Fleur. They had taken polyjuice potion just ten minutes ago and it was now two minutes to eleven. They kept an eye on the door. This was going to have to be done properly. They wouldn't give up the location of their base to anybody. They had set up a small hunting lodge as a meeting point. The lodge was in a lonely part of Scotland, which would hopefully throw anybody that might try to pry any information from Bill and Fleur of their track.
Finally they saw the two coming in through the door. Hermione waited for ten minutes and two more guests had come in after them. There were also three others on the outside that would probably try to detain them. For their safety of course. As if. Bill and Fleur seemed resigned. It was probable that Molly had pried the information about the meeting out of them. Well, they had considered that part. Hermione had left small notes under notice-me-not charms on each table. Now she dispelled the one on the table that Bill and Fleur had taken.
Both read the note with surprise and Fleur told Bill that she needed to use the bathroom. Hermione also stood up and went to the bathroom. The note had told Bill and Fleur that instructions on where to meet would be left at the women's bathroom for them.
When Fleur looked around, Hermione stepped behind her.
"The next meeting place is one block away from former headquarters. Moody's safety point. Don't speak to anybody and directly go there," she said and vanished from the bathroom.
When Fleur turned around, she only saw a woman leave the bathroom. She followed and only saw her and her companion leave the restaurant after paying their drinks. She went back to Bill and whispered in his ear, to which he nodded. They both left the restaurant and went to an empty alley. They disapparated directly and were shocked when upon landing they were grabbed and side-along apparated again.
"Quick, we need to take off any tracking charms on you. You should simply have kept anything about this secret," the woman next to them hissed.
"Ron found the letter and couldn't keep his mouth shut," Bill said, "And while he bought the fact that it was from Gabrielle, Mum and Dad didn't, especially after he said that it was written in English and they thought it could be a trap. That's why we had the tail."
"They're clean," she declared after a few charms that lifted any kind of tracking charm.
The man nodded and the group side-along apparated away again over two positions.
"That should be enough. Read this," he said and handed them a small piece of paper to read.
The Phoenix's safe house is located in the hunting lodge in the wood near Kilchoan.
The hunting lodge reappeared in front of Bill and Fleur before the woman took away the note and burned it to ash.
"Let's get inside," she said.
The four entered the lodge and took seats at a rustic table.
"Good, thankfully we were prepared for something like that," the woman, whose appearance now shifted to that of Hermione Granger, said.
"Yes, especially in confirming their identities without having to ask stupid security questions," the now looking like Harry Potter again man agreed.
"What do you mean with that?" Bill asked.
"Well, Harry and I suspected that it could be that somebody was going to follow you. Either some Ministry idiots that keep watch over you, or some of the Order that think that we need to be under their 'protection'. Not that that has ever been very efficient in Harry's case. So we came up with a plan to get you here, where nobody can find and disturb us. Of course we had to make sure that you were who you appeared to be. So, as you can't use polyjuice to turn into Fleur, thanks to her veela grandmother, we only had to ensure that they didn't replace you with somebody, Bill. I created a charm that allows me to read the name of the person that has come in contact with it on a small pocket mirror. So we know that the ones tailing you were Arthur, Kingsley and outside were Molly, Emmeline and Ron," Hermione stated smugly.
"'ow did you set zat up?" Fleur asked impressed.
"We spent the day in the area yesterday to look up any kind of good hiding place and put the charms on lots of unsuspicious places all over the restaurant and the area a kilometre around it. So we always knew who was there. Had there been Death Eaters, they would have got a strong electric shock to their systems. Then we would have captured them, milked them for any kind of information under veritaserum and then arranged for them to vanish," Harry answered nonchalantly.
"How would they have vanished?" Bill asked.
"Pair of cement shoes and a bath in the sea," Harry answered immediately.
"You would 'ave killed them?" Fleur asked surprised.
"I have realised that we're in a war and that in a war people die, Fleur," Harry sighed, "And I'd rather have Death Eaters die than innocents and my friends and family. So whenever we'll get the chance, we'll take them out. Dumbledore was an idiot trying to redeem them all. Had only the Death Eaters not been allowed to buy their way out of punishment under the imperius curse excuse, we wouldn't be in this mess now. And as we don't have a proper prison for them, we don't have a choice in what to do with them. We can't dose them up to the ears in draught of living death and throw then into a basement after all. Over time that would have the same effect. And I prefer the faster way then."
"Okay, I can accept that. Now, what kind of help do you need?" Bill asked.
"First things first, we need you to sign an oath with a blood quill that you won't tell anybody about the information that we're going to give you except we give express permission to talk to that person or in case that Harry and I die. We need to ensure that if that happens to us, somebody else can take over the mission," Hermione stated firmly, "This is the oath I have prepared. Please read it and once you have signed, we'll tell you everything."
Bill and Fleur looked at each other and then read over the contract, their alarmed faces relaxing when they read the wording. It was just a very detailed secrecy agreement. The only thing that they couldn't do was telling anybody directly or indirectly, about the things that Harry and Hermione told them. That wasn't too bad. Both signed and the parchment flashed white, signalling the completion of the contract.
"Do I want to know where you got the blood quill?" Bill asked, rubbing the back of his hand.
"We paid a visit to our charming former Defence teacher's home. The Ministry might be missing an employee very soon. Such a pity," Harry smirked, "Too bad that a 'pureblood of good standing' had such shoddy wards around her house."
"The poor muggleborn registration commission, they'll have to find a replacement head," Hermione added grinning evilly.
"I'd rather pity the fishes near the coast of Hastings. I fear that they'd get indigestion from her toadiness polluting the water," Harry added, making Hermione break out into giggles.
"You're incorrigible, Harry," Hermione brought out.
Harry simply grinned proudly.
"So, you freed the Ministry of Umbridge?" Bill cleared up.
"Yes, it was so easy to get into the house. As we needed a blood quill when we realised that we could only give up information about our mission, if we ensured secrecy, we decided to get it at the one source that we knew of. Umbridge. We were honestly surprised that her wards consisted of just a muggle repelling ward, a ward to kill any kind of non-human, even part humans are included in that, with only house elves being excluded, and some basic house protection wards. We actually pretended to have a delivery of chocolate from Honeydukes for her and were let into the house without resistance. Harry stunned her and I tied her up. The questioning under veritaserum made me want to vomit. She's no loss for anybody, I'll leave it at that," Hermione frowned.
"Good, zat woman is evil," Fleur commented, "She even tried making it illegal to be married to a 'alfbreed'. So far she didn't manage and now never will."
"So, what is the big secret?" Bill asked.
"For this you need to know that over the last year at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore showed me memories in his pensieve that all centred around the history of a wizard called Tom Marvolo Riddle, later known as You-Know-Who, and yes, we know about the taboo," Harry started, "Professor Dumbledore showed me all he had found out about important events in Tom's life and those of his immediate family, the Gaunts. Tom was obsessed with the idea of immortality and tried to find a way to achieve it. In the end he decided to make six horcruxes."
"Horcruxes, why the hell would he do something that stupid?" Bill exclaimed baffled.
"What do you mean, stupid?" Hermione asked.
"Horcruxes are the biggest joke among curse breakers all over the world. We regularly come across some of them in our searches for treasures. They were invented by ancient Egyptian priests to give their pharaohs a means to be immortal. While they work partially, they don't give eternal life. Actually, after two attempts the pharaohs gave up on using them altogether. You need to know that if a person splits his soul, which is needed to make a horcrux, that person also splits his magic. More, there is a very good reason why nobody ever made more than one of them and then moved heaven and hell to have it protected.
"With just one part of a wizard's soul, you can track down and control the rest. That means, if you find one of those horcruxes, you ultimately have a weapon to destroy You-Know-Who," Bill informed the two, "The enemies of the pharaohs quickly found out what they had done to gain immortality and looked for ways to exploit the magic for themselves. And thanks to a split soul being very vulnerable, they only needed ten years after getting the information to manage it. You only need to create a special amulet to bind the soul to it. The amulet will then, if provided with enough magical power, call any other part of the soul to it. In this case that would mean that any horcruxes that still exist next to the one that you have to make the amulet, would be forced to let go of the soul piece.
"There is proven historic lore of an enemy of a pharaoh binding the pharaoh and all his magically bound servants to his will. The enemy drained the pharaoh of his magic and added it to his own. Though that was his undoing, as he couldn't handle having that much magic. His student, using the former ones research, found a better way. He connected the amulet to the wards of his home and let the energy of the pharaoh power his wards. The draining only took two days, then the pharaoh, who was diagnosed with a mysterious illness, and his magically bound servants, had lost all their magic and most died over the loss. A student of one of the priests found the reason and banned the creation of horcruxes from that moment on," Bill ended his tale.
Harry and Hermione looked at each other.
"You mean to tell me that if Dumbledore had simply asked you about your knowledge about horcruxes, we could have avoided all this mess?" Hermione shrieked, "I can't believe it! We could have been rid of Riddle before the war had truly started. The old fool had found the ring before our sixth year had even started! He could have used that to make the amulet with Bill's help and we would have been able to feed the magic of Riddle and all his Death Eaters to the wards of Hogwarts. That would have been poetic justice, but instead I have to go through a horrible year under love potions that Ron thought would be okay to feed me with, I get jealousy potions to turn me against Harry, I couldn't even think straight! And all because that old fool couldn't part with his knowledge early on and ask an expert on curses and breaking them for his opinion!"
Harry was truly impressed with the tirade.
"I could have had a normal year for once, without life threatening adventures, without having to worry about not having enough time to study, without fearing that Harry ends up in the hospital wing again over one stupidly dangerous stunt or another," Hermione continued.
"I know, Hermione, please calm down," Harry said.
"Calm down?" Hermione yelled, "I could right now sit in class and study for my NEWTs, without having to fear that I'm arrested and dragged in front of that ridiculous commission, just because I happen to be a muggleborn. I should be headgirl now, have the recognition that I worked for all of my time at Hogwarts. That title would be the one thing that could have opened my ways into the jobs that meet my grades in this bigoted world and because one old man thought he was always right and played god, all my life was ruined. I was too much under potions to realise that it was a stupid idea to obliviate my parents and send them to Australia, not even remembering me.
"And when I think about it, had Dumbledore simply done his fucking job, we wouldn't even have had to deal with the return of Riddle. Ginny had the diary horcrux all of her second year. Had he done a consequent investigation into how the chamber was opened, had he watched out which students didn't behave normally, which even the pompous arse Percy managed to do, I might add, then he could have known how Riddle cheated death back in 1992. Then again, he only needed to ask a curse breaker, and Bill was known to be a good one by that point in time, and Dumbledore could always count on the support of the Weasleys, and he could have ended it then and there. The whole Tournament fiasco could have been avoided. All the people that died would still be alive. You would have got the prefect badge instead of that bastard Ron that only sees me as his personal property. You wouldn't have been potioned probably and we wouldn't have had to run away from the bad excuse of a Ministry!" Hermione shouted herself into a frenzy.
Harry only saw one way to stop Hermione from losing it completely and stood up, caught her arms with his hands and closed the small distance between them to kiss her fully on the lips. He knew that only a shock to her system could bring her out of this and he had wanted to kiss her for a while. She first froze, then she relaxed and he could feel her returning the kiss with passion. Seemed as if he hadn't been the only one to want this. It made his stomach explode in happy butterflies. He let go of her arms and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close while not stopping to kiss her. He felt her arms sneaking around his neck and her hands playing in his hair.
After a while they needed to breathe and Harry, reluctantly, separated from Hermione. She stared into his eyes in wonder, before leaning in again and initiating the kiss herself this time. Harry was only too glad to play along. He had to say, kissing Hermione was something he had dreamed about many nights and she was much better at kissing than Ginny or Cho had ever been. It was too bad that they weren't alone and after a while Bill's coughing brought them back into reality. Hermione blushed massively at realising that they had been watched during their first and second kiss and tried to hide her face in Harry's chest. It didn't really work.
"Congratulations, you two, it's about time," Fleur was the first one to speak with a large smile on her face.
"Thank you, Fleur," Harry managed to say with a large grin. He couldn't be happier right now.
"Okay, I think you should explore your new relationship more when you're alone, but back to business. We need to find one of the horcruxes before we can make the amulet," Bill said, but he had a large grin on his face as well.
Hermione walked over to the couch and took her small beaded bag. Then she opened it and pulled out a golden locket with a large S on the front.
"This is one. Harry, Ron and I got it from Umbridge, who had blackmailed Mundungus into letting her take it. He had stolen it from Grimmauld Place, where it had been since Regulus stole it from Riddle," Hermione gave them the quick overview.
"Great. Good that you didn't destroy it already, that way it wouldn't be of any use for this. Destroying horcruxes is the much less elegant way to deal with the problem. It would leave the main body without harm and you'd still have to kill that part. And the best part is, this way you don't harm any of the items. You wouldn't think how large the fines are that the goblins demand if an amateur curse breaker does that. One reason why they only send the best ones to Egypt," Bill said.
"One question, I get from your statement that the goblins don't like the idea of horcruxes," Harry asked.
"They hate the things, because there aren't enough competent people or even those that would ask a professional to cleanse them of the taint. Priceless treasures have been lost because some idiots believed in the writing of authors that left books like 'The Darkest Arts'. That book is used as a negative example of how to not deal with certain things. Sure, the ways work, but they're nothing but a brute approach. Honestly, you can achieve the same results that those darkest arts create in other, less harmful ways and the described 'only ways' to counter them are just caused by lazy people that didn't want to do research beyond a crude but working solution," Bill informed them, "Basically a forerunner of the books that Lockhart wrote. Based on some truth, but completely useless in the long run."
"Well, you said that Riddle probably got the instructions on how to make a horcrux from that book," Harry said looking at Hermione, having his arm over her shoulder now, "and it would make sense that a book like that hadn't been completely taken out of the library before then."
"He really has to be stupid. Even if the book was in the restricted section of the library, it's common knowledge that Hogwarts' library is outdated for a good part, as the Board of Governors is too stingy to free the funds to regularly update certain sections. You can perhaps rely on books about spells, effects of potions and herbs, but I would never take anything on rituals, history and claims about being the absolute rule for full. People develop new things, new spells, new potions and new theories about use of magic all the time. It's how progress can even be achieved. Forgotten magic is brought back by researchers and improved on. To take a book from a school library as your starting point to power is just insane," Bill shook his head.
Hermione didn't like the statement, but she had to admit, with her mind now being free again, she saw some truth in it. And any good muggle library would make sure to keep an eye on new discoveries to always be up to date and take out books that had overcome theories in them.
"So, how long is it going to take to make the amulet we need?" Harry asked.
"A week," Fleur answered for Bill, "Most of zat time is soaking ze amulet in a potion in a crystal basin covered in runes of calling and binding."
"That's all that's needed?" Hermione asked astonished.
"Sure, you have to remember zat ze people in Ancient Egypt weren't really trained in all ze advanced magic. Ze most powerful wizards were ze priests in service of ze pharaoh. And zat was because zey were chosen from powerful magical families and trained from ze time zey were young children in special schools. And ze priests made very sure zat zey got all children zat showed a large talent for magic into the schools, and zerefore the service of ze pharaoh. It ensured zat zere wouldn't be any powerful opponent for ze pharaoh if zose children were found by an enemy," Fleur pointed out, "So, ze few ones with magic zat weren't in service of ze pharaoh, needed to come up with simple solutions. Brewing potions was easy and, with a bit of experimentation, you could find a way. And runes were used in the pyramids. Any good grave robber knew how to read and use runes."
"Then in a week we'll rid this country of Riddle and his followers, and then we should be able to enjoy our last year of school. We didn't miss too much yet, only two and a half months. And as the headboy and headgirl are probably Death Eaters, meaning Malfoy and Parkinson, they will be forced to leave the school as squibs aren't allowed to study there. Such a pity," Harry commented.
"You really know how to impress a girl, Mr Potter," Hermione commented happily.
"I know how to impress you, that's enough for me," Harry replied.
"Good answer," Hermione nodded approvingly and kissed him again, this time shorter though.
Bill and Fleur smiled at each other. Those two were truly good together.
Hermione helped Fleur setting up everything that was needed to create the amulet. The amulet was a basic silver pendent, bought in a muggle shop. The motive was of the Loch Ness monster Nessie. There were dozens of them on sale in the villages all around the famous Loch. The only important part was that it was made of silver, Hermione was informed. And buying a silver pendent in the muggle world was much cheaper than in the wizarding world, as silver was a limited resource, with the goblins taking a large amount of the available supply for their coins. Next to that goblin forged silver covered a major part of the market. Meaning it was crazily expensive. Nothing you wanted to use for a horcrux binding amulet.
The potion was brewed in two hours of concentrated work. The ingredients were easy to get, Fleur bought them in the apothecary without anybody batting an eye at that. They were parts of common household potions after all. Nothing the Ministry controlled at all. The harder part was engraving the crystal basin with the runes, which Bill did with Harry watching. Fleur admitted that Bill was much better with Runes than her, as her specialty were Charms and Potions.
Once the potion and the basin were ready, Fleur placed the pendent into the basin and then poured the still hot potion over it. The basin was filled up to the upper edge and then Bill tapped the runes around the basin clockwise, activating them. Now they only had to wait. They left the basin in the hunting lodge, knowing that only the four of them were able to go there, with it being hidden under a fidelius charm. They arranged to meet again in a week when the amulet would be finished.