Chapter 30: Masculine Mood Swings

                                    

                                          
At the sound of a fireplace chime, Hermione looked up from her newspaper. "Good morning," she said with a smile as Draco stepped out of the green flames and into the kitchen of Grimmauld place.
                          
"Good morn-"
                          
"Thank goodness. You almost missed me. What took you so long?" Harry interrupted.
                          
"I only got your message an hour ago." Draco stared at Harry looking affronted. Harry didn't seem to notice as he stared at his reflection in a large shiny pot that hung over the kitchen counter. He dipped his comb into a glass of water and tried fruitlessly to tame his wirey hair. Giving up, he tossed the comb grumpily onto the kitchen table.
                          
"Yes, but I thought you'd be ready," Harry told him irritably.
                          
"Sorry, Potter, but I don't sit by my fireplace waiting for you to call," Draco scowled.
                          
"Don't mind him, Draco. He's in a foul mood," Hermione told him.
                          
"Very grumpy," Aurelian agreed. Draco looked around for the small boy and found him under the table with a plate of grapes. Draco looked at Hermione in question.
                          
"He's pretending he's a troll in the dark forest," she explained in a whisper.
                          
"I'm not grumpy," Harry argued. "I'm just in a rush and I've been waiting for you to show up."
                          
"You didn't have to wait, Harry. I could have talked to him," Hermione said, repeating what she had told him several times in the last hour.
                          
"Yes, but I wanted to ask him myself," Harry insisted.
                          
"Ask me what?" Draco asked. "And what are you dressed up for anyway?"
                          
"I have to be at Dennis Creevey's hearing today. Which means that I have to make this quick," Harry said, checking his watch again. "We were reading the paper this morning, muggle and wizard, and we found some things that interested us. Specifically, we saw that Bartolomeu Burke passed away."
                          
"Yeah, I saw that, too," said Draco, eyeing Harry curiously.
                          
"He's related to you, isn't he?" Harry asked.
                          
"Was, yes," Draco answered. "How did you know that?"
                          
"Hermione looked it up in one of the many genealogy books around here," Harry answered offhandedly. "I don't know about you, but we found it awfully suspicious that they kept his death as secret. The family says that he died of natural causes a week ago. He was never seen by a healer, nor examined by a mortician. It is, as you know, part of the law that bodies must be examined by a registered healer or mortician before being prepared for burial or cremation. The family privately buried him the morning after his death without reporting the death to anyone at all. A legal battle has now started over whether the body should be exhumed and examined or left to rest."
                          
"Yeah, I saw that," said Draco. "So what is it you're getting at?"
                          
"Well, we're wondering if there's more to it. Are they hiding something? We're looking for the possible use of a killing curse by Bellatrix to make a new horcrux. I want to know if this could be it. As you're family, I was wondering if you might be able to find out more about it. They'd only get defensive with me or any other official. But you… are you close enough to them to-"
                          
"I see what you're getting at and yes, I think I can talk to them. He was the husband of my great aunt on my father's side. My mother had mentioned that we should send them something. I'll just pop in with a gift basket or something," Draco agreed. "You want me to take care of that today then, I'm assuming?"
                          
"Yes, that and the guy from Potage's Cauldrons owled. He said that he found that information about when he sold that large cauldron and he thinks he remembers the guy a bit. He said that he's busy today, but he should have some time around noon if one of us could swing in. I'm desperately hoping that this court thing won't take that long, but I can't count on it. And, damn, I'm going to be late if I don't get moving," Harry groaned as he twisted the watch on his wrist.