Fic: Truth Twisters [3/4]
To: geewhiz
Title: Truth Twisters [Chapter 3: Confounding Conundrum]
Author: aggiebell90
Pairing: Harry/Ginny, Ron, Percy, George, plus a bad guy I'd rather not mention yet. :P
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~10,000 overall; ~2852 this chapter
Summary: A break-in, a missing ledger, and a new Wheeze add up to a mystery that needs solving. Good thing Ginny's on the case.
Author/Artist's Notes: geewhiz , please forgive me for taking so long with this. *grovels some more* All we've got left is the epilogue, and it's with my fabulous betas right now, so it won't be long.
Many thanks to queenb23more , rdprice29 , mollywheezy , and sherylyn for their super-speedy betaing skills, and to r_becca for her prodding and reminding (and a serious case of patience) as she waited for me to finish. *smooches them all*
Chapter 1: Perplexing Puzzle
Troubling Times
Chapter 3: Confounding Conundrum
Epilogue: Telling Truths
"Let me see that," Ron said, taking the notebook from Ginny. He frowned as he flipped through the pages. "Bugger. We're missing the final recipe for the Belching Blossoms. And…" He flipped through the pages again. "Our first notes on the Farting Fudge and the fifth trial of the Truth Twisters."
"You mean the ones that…" George asked, wincing.
Ron shuddered. "Yeah. Those."
"What did they do?" Harry asked curiously.
Percy, George, and Ron looked at each other warily and then turned back to Harry. "You really don't want to know," Percy said finally.
"Really," Ron agreed.
"It can't be that bad, can it?"
Ginny sniggered at his disgruntled expression. "I bet they could just show you, since you want to know so badly," she said. "Just don't say I didn't warn you."
"Erm, no," he said, holding his hands out to ward off the Weasleys, "that's all right. I'm okay not knowing. I was just a little curious is all."
"Wise decision, Harry," Ginny said before turning back to her brothers. "Can I take this with me? I need to do some tests on it and see if I can find any leads, and I can't do that here."
"You're not going to damage it, are you, Ginny?" Percy asked suspiciously. "Because if you are, I need to duplicate it. Just in case, you understand."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "No, Percy, I'm not going to cause any damage. Although duplicating it might not be a bad idea. I don't know how long I'm going to need to keep this."
*
Three days later, she hadn't made any progress at all, or at least none that would lead her to the culprit. She'd learned that four pages had been torn out of the notebook, all in a grouping from the fifth through the seventh of March, but that was all. There were no indications that magic had been used on the book, and the remaining pages were all done in either George or Ron's handwriting, messy, with ink blotches dotting the pages.
"Bloody hell," she muttered. She was tired of the dead ends, but it was as though whoever had broken into the shop had been a ghost.
"Weasley, my office." She looked up to see her boss standing at the entry to her cubicle.
"Yes, sir," she said, placing the notebook into one of the specially designed containers made for locking evidence safely away and tapping it with her wand. She took a critical look around at her cubicle before she left for Robards' office, trying to make sure she hadn't left anything important sitting out where anyone could see it.
She left his office fifteen minutes later, beyond furious. She'd been pulled from the case, not because she was related to the victims, which she would have understood even if she disagreed with the reasoning, but because Robards had been blind and couldn't see how the evidence pointed to a crime. She'd tried logic, laying out the clues and evidence in a calm manner (or so she thought, at least), and he still didn't buy it. So she'd tried persuasion, and he told her to get back to work.
Then she lost her temper.
She should've known better by now, really. Robards didn't take well to 'upstart female Aurors who let themselves be ruled by their emotions,' and before she knew what was happening, she'd found herself suspended without pay for the next two weeks.
Bugger.
*
I should have Flooed, she thought, waiting for Harry to open his door. What if he was still doing his workout or at the shop or just out with some girl? She pushed the sick feeling she got from that thought down, so far that it was almost undetectable, and was relieved to hear the lock click and the door open. "Can I come in?" she asked when he'd opened the door fully; he was wearing a pair of jeans and no shirt and was drying his hair with a towel. She'd been right. He was fit. She quickly shoved that thought down next to the sick feeling she'd had earlier.
"Ginny? What are you doing here?" Harry stood at the door, looking bewildered. "Aren't you supposed to be at work?"
"Please?" she asked, nodding at the door.
"Oh. Yeah. Yeah, of course," he said. "C'mon in." He looked around and grabbed a shirt off the sofa, putting it on while he kicked a pile of dirty clothes under the sofa. "It's a bit of a mess," he said apologetically, smoothing the shirt down over his stomach. "Haven't had a chance to get it tidied up yet." He blushed and tried to subtly shove another pile of clothes-this one containing a few pairs of his boxers, if she wasn't mistaken-under the armchair.
"It's all right," she said.
"Erm, tea?" he asked. "I mean, do you want some? Or I've got Butterbeer, if you prefer that."
"Got any Firewhisky instead?" she asked.
"I…yeah, I've got some," he said, turning to walk towards the kitchen. "Mind telling me why you want Firewhisky instead of tea?"
She followed him through the flat to the kitchen, wrinkling her nose when she saw the dirty pots and pans on the counters. "Got suspended," she said as she pulled out her wand and directed the dishes to begin wash themselves.
"Suspended?" Harry said. "Why?"
"Got cheeky with Robards when he took me off the case," she said, shrugging her shoulders and trying to sound unconcerned. She obviously failed, though, because Harry walked over to the cabinet and took out a bottle of Firewhisky and two glasses before he pulled his wand and flicked it at the dining table, levitating the plates and flatware to the sink. Shaking her head at the mess, she shoved a stack of parchment over and sat at the table.
"What are you going to do now?" he asked, obviously deciding to ignore her silent commentary on his housekeeping skills, and poured the drinks, holding one out for her to take as he sat down across from her. "Are you going to quit the case?" Trust Harry to get right to the point.
She took the glass from him and downed the drink in one swallow. "Merlin, no," she said. "If I do that, the boys will find themselves out of business and all needing to live in my flat with me." She shuddered, both from the Firewhisky coursing through her veins and the very scary thought of her brothers moving in with her. "No, I'm going to do my job. I'm just not going to be paid for it."
She almost dropped her glass at the look of…was that admiration... flitting across his face before it was hidden away behind his normal, 'Harry the friend' face.
"Good," he said, leaning back in his chair and tipping it back on two legs. "What do you need me to do?"
"Harry," she said, "you can't…" She put the glass carefully on the table.
"Why not?" he demanded, leaning forwards so the chair hit the floor with a thump. "I've as much right as you do to help. Hell, I may have more-" he raised his hand as she started to protest. "I'm a partial owner," he reminded her. "This affects me, too. Besides, your brothers may not be my brothers in blood, but they might as well be."
She stared at him, hard, judging his sincerity, and then gave him a grudging nod. "All right, then," she said, "we've got to go back to the shop. There's got to be something we're missing…I just don't know what."
*
They arrived to chaos. George looked unconcerned, mostly, but Ginny could see the worry lines around his eyes. Percy was staring at the door, holding a Choose Your Own Adventure Daydream Charm which, judging by the huge pile of boxes on the floor beside him, had come from what used to be a floor-to-ceiling pyramid of the things, and Ron was nowhere to be found.
"What's going on?" Harry asked as soon as he'd got his bearings and taken in what had happened.
"Roger Davies-you know, that Ravenclaw bloke-and that git Smith were here, going on about how sorry they were to hear we were losing the shop," George said.
Ginny watched as Percy carefully put the box he held in his hand down on the counter. "Why would you be losing the shop?" she asked. "You didn't do anything wrong."
"Davies said that's what happens to tax frauds," George said. "They get their property confiscated by the Ministry to pay the back taxes."
Ginny narrowed her eyes. "Really?" she said. "He told you that?" George and Percy nodded.
"Well, that's interesting," Harry said. "You haven't told anyone about the letter, have you?"
"Of course not," Percy said primly. "It's not something we want bandied about, especially since it's not true."
"Well, then," Ginny said, taking up the thread of Harry's conversation, "how did he know?"
"You think he's got something to do with it?" George asked. "And Smith, too?"
"It certainly seems possible, doesn't it?" Ginny said. George swore softly, and Ginny looked around the shop, taking it in. "What happened here?" she asked, nodding at Percy and the pile on the floor.
"Davies backed into me and I fell," Percy said, rubbing his head. "Once they started falling, there was no way to catch them. The customers went running."
"Did Davies and Smith leave, too?"
"Yeah," George said. "Percy fell into the display just before you two got here, and Davies and Smith left right after that."
Ginny nodded, biting her lip as she thought. "Where's Ron?"
"Right here," Ron said, coming out of the back office. "I was checking the office to make sure nothing went missing in all the confusion."
"Did you see anything?" Harry asked.
"Nothing's gone," Ron said, "but something's come back." He nodded towards the door. "Come and see."
They followed him back into the office, and Ginny noted that it looked the same as it had the last time she'd been there, except the desk drawer was wide open, and inside was...
"The ledger," Percy breathed, going over to the desk. He reached his hand out to grab it.
"Wait!" Ginny commanded. "Don't touch that, Percy." She turned to Ron to ask him if he'd touched it, but he held up his hands and shook his head before she got a chance.
"I opened the drawer," he said, "but that's it. As soon as I saw it, I went to get Percy and George."
Ginny let a small smile curl on her lips. "Good boy," she told Ron, walking over to the desk.
"'m not a dog," he muttered.
Ginny ignored him and pulled out her wand to start some diagnostic tests. "It wasn't here this morning?" she asked. Her brothers shook their heads. "You're sure?"
Percy huffed, sounding offended. "Of course, we're sure, Ginevra," he said. "We know what the ledger looks like."
"No need to get your knickers in a twist," she said. "I just needed to ask the question." She waved her wand, casting a spell to check for the use of any magic. "Damn," she muttered, "too much interference to tell." She said another spell, this one to record the scene.
"What's that do?" Ron asked.
"Makes a recording, kind of like a Muggle film," she replied absently, "so we have a record of what the scene looked like. It's more sensitive than photography, and sometimes we can find traces of magic that won't otherwise show up."
"Why didn't you use it last time?" Harry asked.
"Doesn't work unless you use it in the first ten minutes after the crime was committed," she said. "Even then…there's nothing guaranteed, especially in this place. Too much random magic around with all the Wheezes."
Ron looked disappointed. "So you're not going to find anything?" he asked.
"I didn't say that," she said. "I just said it's not likely. It's been too long, and there's too much magic around here for it to work properly." She cast one more look around the room before nodding at Percy.
"All right, Perce," she said, "go ahead. Try not to touch anything other than the desk and the ledger, okay?"
Harry caught her eye and winked as Percy rushed across the office to the desk, and Ginny felt those butterflies she'd shoved down earlier in the evening fluttering around again.
He sidled over next to her and they watched together as Percy carefully pulled the ledger out of the drawer and onto the desktop, examining it closely. "It looks the same," Percy said, opening the ledger to the day it went missing, "and I don't see anything out of place here, either, at least not on first glance." Percy ran his finger down the page, adding the numbers in his head, then turned the page.
"Oi, Perce," George said.
"What?" Percy grumbled. "You've messed up my addition, George. Now I'm going to have to start over."
"No, wait," Ron said. "I see it, too."
"What?" Harry asked. He and Ginny moved closer to see.
"Look at his finger," Ron said. "Go on, Percy, show them." Percy looked confused for a minute and then flipped his hand over, showing them his index finger, stained a dark greenish-black with ink.
"That's either not our ledger," Percy said firmly, "or it's been tampered with."
"How do you know?" Harry asked.
"It's the ink," he said. "It's not mine." He spread out his fingers and ran them down the page and came up with ink on the fingertips, holding them out for the group to see. "See? My ink is black-pure black-and this has a green tint to it. And my ink is quick-drying and permanent. It's a little pricey, but it's worth it." He shrugged and grinned sheepishly. "I'm left-handed, and I got tired of having stains on my hand all the time."
He examined the ledger closer now, leaning in and staring at the ink, then leaning back, a surprised look on his face. "It smells like pine," he said.
"The ledger?" Ginny asked, moving to stand beside him.
"Maybe," he said, "but I think it's the ink." He lifted his hand to his nose and sniffed, nodding. "Definitely the ink."
Ginny grinned. "Percy, you're brilliant," she said. "If we can tie the ink in the doctored journal to Davies or Smith, then we've got a good, solid case."
Harry leaned on the desk. "I don't mean to be a wet blanket," he said, "but why would Davies or Smith do this? I mean," he said, shrugging, "Smith's a git, so I can see him doing this just because of that, but Davies...he doesn't have anything against you lot, as far as I know."
George, Ron, and Percy all looked at each other and shrugged. "He went to the Yule Ball with Fleur," Ron said, the tips of his ears turning pink, "but other than that, I don't know of any connection to the family."
"We'll just have to find out, then, won't we?" Ginny straightened and leaned over to take the ledger. "Percy, where do you get your ink? I want to take this and see if they can tell me anything about the ink that was used in the ledger. When I come back-" Harry coughed, and she rolled her eyes- "when we come back" she corrected, "you're going to need to go through this page by page and see if you can figure out what's been changed."
"I'm certain I'll be able to find any discrepancies," Percy said.
"I'm sure you will, Percy," Ginny soothed, patting his arm to console him. "Can you remind me where you get your ink?"
"Ingrid's Incredible Inks," he said.
"That's over near Madam Malkin’s, right?"
"That's the one. Ask for Johanna; she's the most knowledgeable about how the ink is made. It's really quite fascinating, if you get a chance to talk to her."
"Right," she said, shooting Harry a quick glance-he looked like he was trying hard not to laugh. "We probably won't have time this visit, since we need to get to the bottom of this," she told Percy seriously, "but I'll be sure to ask her the next time I'm in there." She turned to Harry, ledger in hand. "Ready?"
"Absolutely," he said, standing straight. "I'll follow you anywhere."
She raised her eyebrow at him. "Anywhere, huh? I may have to take you up on that later," she said in her best sultry voice, grinning at the way his cheeks flushed. "But right now, we're just going to Ingrid's."
"Ingrid's. Right," Harry said, looking a little dazed. He shook his head and seemed a little more focussed afterward. His eyes glinted and there was a cocky look on his face. "Lead on, oh fearless leader."
"Stay out of trouble, you three," Ginny said as they walked out the door. "And-"
"We know, we know," George, Ron and Percy said together. "Don't touch anything."
Title: Truth Twisters [Chapter 3: Confounding Conundrum]
Author: aggiebell90
Pairing: Harry/Ginny, Ron, Percy, George, plus a bad guy I'd rather not mention yet. :P
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~10,000 overall; ~2852 this chapter
Summary: A break-in, a missing ledger, and a new Wheeze add up to a mystery that needs solving. Good thing Ginny's on the case.
Author/Artist's Notes: geewhiz , please forgive me for taking so long with this. *grovels some more* All we've got left is the epilogue, and it's with my fabulous betas right now, so it won't be long.
Many thanks to queenb23more , rdprice29 , mollywheezy , and sherylyn for their super-speedy betaing skills, and to r_becca for her prodding and reminding (and a serious case of patience) as she waited for me to finish. *smooches them all*
Chapter 1: Perplexing Puzzle
Troubling Times
Chapter 3: Confounding Conundrum
Epilogue: Telling Truths
"Let me see that," Ron said, taking the notebook from Ginny. He frowned as he flipped through the pages. "Bugger. We're missing the final recipe for the Belching Blossoms. And…" He flipped through the pages again. "Our first notes on the Farting Fudge and the fifth trial of the Truth Twisters."
"You mean the ones that…" George asked, wincing.
Ron shuddered. "Yeah. Those."
"What did they do?" Harry asked curiously.
Percy, George, and Ron looked at each other warily and then turned back to Harry. "You really don't want to know," Percy said finally.
"Really," Ron agreed.
"It can't be that bad, can it?"
Ginny sniggered at his disgruntled expression. "I bet they could just show you, since you want to know so badly," she said. "Just don't say I didn't warn you."
"Erm, no," he said, holding his hands out to ward off the Weasleys, "that's all right. I'm okay not knowing. I was just a little curious is all."
"Wise decision, Harry," Ginny said before turning back to her brothers. "Can I take this with me? I need to do some tests on it and see if I can find any leads, and I can't do that here."
"You're not going to damage it, are you, Ginny?" Percy asked suspiciously. "Because if you are, I need to duplicate it. Just in case, you understand."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "No, Percy, I'm not going to cause any damage. Although duplicating it might not be a bad idea. I don't know how long I'm going to need to keep this."
*
Three days later, she hadn't made any progress at all, or at least none that would lead her to the culprit. She'd learned that four pages had been torn out of the notebook, all in a grouping from the fifth through the seventh of March, but that was all. There were no indications that magic had been used on the book, and the remaining pages were all done in either George or Ron's handwriting, messy, with ink blotches dotting the pages.
"Bloody hell," she muttered. She was tired of the dead ends, but it was as though whoever had broken into the shop had been a ghost.
"Weasley, my office." She looked up to see her boss standing at the entry to her cubicle.
"Yes, sir," she said, placing the notebook into one of the specially designed containers made for locking evidence safely away and tapping it with her wand. She took a critical look around at her cubicle before she left for Robards' office, trying to make sure she hadn't left anything important sitting out where anyone could see it.
She left his office fifteen minutes later, beyond furious. She'd been pulled from the case, not because she was related to the victims, which she would have understood even if she disagreed with the reasoning, but because Robards had been blind and couldn't see how the evidence pointed to a crime. She'd tried logic, laying out the clues and evidence in a calm manner (or so she thought, at least), and he still didn't buy it. So she'd tried persuasion, and he told her to get back to work.
Then she lost her temper.
She should've known better by now, really. Robards didn't take well to 'upstart female Aurors who let themselves be ruled by their emotions,' and before she knew what was happening, she'd found herself suspended without pay for the next two weeks.
Bugger.
*
I should have Flooed, she thought, waiting for Harry to open his door. What if he was still doing his workout or at the shop or just out with some girl? She pushed the sick feeling she got from that thought down, so far that it was almost undetectable, and was relieved to hear the lock click and the door open. "Can I come in?" she asked when he'd opened the door fully; he was wearing a pair of jeans and no shirt and was drying his hair with a towel. She'd been right. He was fit. She quickly shoved that thought down next to the sick feeling she'd had earlier.
"Ginny? What are you doing here?" Harry stood at the door, looking bewildered. "Aren't you supposed to be at work?"
"Please?" she asked, nodding at the door.
"Oh. Yeah. Yeah, of course," he said. "C'mon in." He looked around and grabbed a shirt off the sofa, putting it on while he kicked a pile of dirty clothes under the sofa. "It's a bit of a mess," he said apologetically, smoothing the shirt down over his stomach. "Haven't had a chance to get it tidied up yet." He blushed and tried to subtly shove another pile of clothes-this one containing a few pairs of his boxers, if she wasn't mistaken-under the armchair.
"It's all right," she said.
"Erm, tea?" he asked. "I mean, do you want some? Or I've got Butterbeer, if you prefer that."
"Got any Firewhisky instead?" she asked.
"I…yeah, I've got some," he said, turning to walk towards the kitchen. "Mind telling me why you want Firewhisky instead of tea?"
She followed him through the flat to the kitchen, wrinkling her nose when she saw the dirty pots and pans on the counters. "Got suspended," she said as she pulled out her wand and directed the dishes to begin wash themselves.
"Suspended?" Harry said. "Why?"
"Got cheeky with Robards when he took me off the case," she said, shrugging her shoulders and trying to sound unconcerned. She obviously failed, though, because Harry walked over to the cabinet and took out a bottle of Firewhisky and two glasses before he pulled his wand and flicked it at the dining table, levitating the plates and flatware to the sink. Shaking her head at the mess, she shoved a stack of parchment over and sat at the table.
"What are you going to do now?" he asked, obviously deciding to ignore her silent commentary on his housekeeping skills, and poured the drinks, holding one out for her to take as he sat down across from her. "Are you going to quit the case?" Trust Harry to get right to the point.
She took the glass from him and downed the drink in one swallow. "Merlin, no," she said. "If I do that, the boys will find themselves out of business and all needing to live in my flat with me." She shuddered, both from the Firewhisky coursing through her veins and the very scary thought of her brothers moving in with her. "No, I'm going to do my job. I'm just not going to be paid for it."
She almost dropped her glass at the look of…was that admiration... flitting across his face before it was hidden away behind his normal, 'Harry the friend' face.
"Good," he said, leaning back in his chair and tipping it back on two legs. "What do you need me to do?"
"Harry," she said, "you can't…" She put the glass carefully on the table.
"Why not?" he demanded, leaning forwards so the chair hit the floor with a thump. "I've as much right as you do to help. Hell, I may have more-" he raised his hand as she started to protest. "I'm a partial owner," he reminded her. "This affects me, too. Besides, your brothers may not be my brothers in blood, but they might as well be."
She stared at him, hard, judging his sincerity, and then gave him a grudging nod. "All right, then," she said, "we've got to go back to the shop. There's got to be something we're missing…I just don't know what."
*
They arrived to chaos. George looked unconcerned, mostly, but Ginny could see the worry lines around his eyes. Percy was staring at the door, holding a Choose Your Own Adventure Daydream Charm which, judging by the huge pile of boxes on the floor beside him, had come from what used to be a floor-to-ceiling pyramid of the things, and Ron was nowhere to be found.
"What's going on?" Harry asked as soon as he'd got his bearings and taken in what had happened.
"Roger Davies-you know, that Ravenclaw bloke-and that git Smith were here, going on about how sorry they were to hear we were losing the shop," George said.
Ginny watched as Percy carefully put the box he held in his hand down on the counter. "Why would you be losing the shop?" she asked. "You didn't do anything wrong."
"Davies said that's what happens to tax frauds," George said. "They get their property confiscated by the Ministry to pay the back taxes."
Ginny narrowed her eyes. "Really?" she said. "He told you that?" George and Percy nodded.
"Well, that's interesting," Harry said. "You haven't told anyone about the letter, have you?"
"Of course not," Percy said primly. "It's not something we want bandied about, especially since it's not true."
"Well, then," Ginny said, taking up the thread of Harry's conversation, "how did he know?"
"You think he's got something to do with it?" George asked. "And Smith, too?"
"It certainly seems possible, doesn't it?" Ginny said. George swore softly, and Ginny looked around the shop, taking it in. "What happened here?" she asked, nodding at Percy and the pile on the floor.
"Davies backed into me and I fell," Percy said, rubbing his head. "Once they started falling, there was no way to catch them. The customers went running."
"Did Davies and Smith leave, too?"
"Yeah," George said. "Percy fell into the display just before you two got here, and Davies and Smith left right after that."
Ginny nodded, biting her lip as she thought. "Where's Ron?"
"Right here," Ron said, coming out of the back office. "I was checking the office to make sure nothing went missing in all the confusion."
"Did you see anything?" Harry asked.
"Nothing's gone," Ron said, "but something's come back." He nodded towards the door. "Come and see."
They followed him back into the office, and Ginny noted that it looked the same as it had the last time she'd been there, except the desk drawer was wide open, and inside was...
"The ledger," Percy breathed, going over to the desk. He reached his hand out to grab it.
"Wait!" Ginny commanded. "Don't touch that, Percy." She turned to Ron to ask him if he'd touched it, but he held up his hands and shook his head before she got a chance.
"I opened the drawer," he said, "but that's it. As soon as I saw it, I went to get Percy and George."
Ginny let a small smile curl on her lips. "Good boy," she told Ron, walking over to the desk.
"'m not a dog," he muttered.
Ginny ignored him and pulled out her wand to start some diagnostic tests. "It wasn't here this morning?" she asked. Her brothers shook their heads. "You're sure?"
Percy huffed, sounding offended. "Of course, we're sure, Ginevra," he said. "We know what the ledger looks like."
"No need to get your knickers in a twist," she said. "I just needed to ask the question." She waved her wand, casting a spell to check for the use of any magic. "Damn," she muttered, "too much interference to tell." She said another spell, this one to record the scene.
"What's that do?" Ron asked.
"Makes a recording, kind of like a Muggle film," she replied absently, "so we have a record of what the scene looked like. It's more sensitive than photography, and sometimes we can find traces of magic that won't otherwise show up."
"Why didn't you use it last time?" Harry asked.
"Doesn't work unless you use it in the first ten minutes after the crime was committed," she said. "Even then…there's nothing guaranteed, especially in this place. Too much random magic around with all the Wheezes."
Ron looked disappointed. "So you're not going to find anything?" he asked.
"I didn't say that," she said. "I just said it's not likely. It's been too long, and there's too much magic around here for it to work properly." She cast one more look around the room before nodding at Percy.
"All right, Perce," she said, "go ahead. Try not to touch anything other than the desk and the ledger, okay?"
Harry caught her eye and winked as Percy rushed across the office to the desk, and Ginny felt those butterflies she'd shoved down earlier in the evening fluttering around again.
He sidled over next to her and they watched together as Percy carefully pulled the ledger out of the drawer and onto the desktop, examining it closely. "It looks the same," Percy said, opening the ledger to the day it went missing, "and I don't see anything out of place here, either, at least not on first glance." Percy ran his finger down the page, adding the numbers in his head, then turned the page.
"Oi, Perce," George said.
"What?" Percy grumbled. "You've messed up my addition, George. Now I'm going to have to start over."
"No, wait," Ron said. "I see it, too."
"What?" Harry asked. He and Ginny moved closer to see.
"Look at his finger," Ron said. "Go on, Percy, show them." Percy looked confused for a minute and then flipped his hand over, showing them his index finger, stained a dark greenish-black with ink.
"That's either not our ledger," Percy said firmly, "or it's been tampered with."
"How do you know?" Harry asked.
"It's the ink," he said. "It's not mine." He spread out his fingers and ran them down the page and came up with ink on the fingertips, holding them out for the group to see. "See? My ink is black-pure black-and this has a green tint to it. And my ink is quick-drying and permanent. It's a little pricey, but it's worth it." He shrugged and grinned sheepishly. "I'm left-handed, and I got tired of having stains on my hand all the time."
He examined the ledger closer now, leaning in and staring at the ink, then leaning back, a surprised look on his face. "It smells like pine," he said.
"The ledger?" Ginny asked, moving to stand beside him.
"Maybe," he said, "but I think it's the ink." He lifted his hand to his nose and sniffed, nodding. "Definitely the ink."
Ginny grinned. "Percy, you're brilliant," she said. "If we can tie the ink in the doctored journal to Davies or Smith, then we've got a good, solid case."
Harry leaned on the desk. "I don't mean to be a wet blanket," he said, "but why would Davies or Smith do this? I mean," he said, shrugging, "Smith's a git, so I can see him doing this just because of that, but Davies...he doesn't have anything against you lot, as far as I know."
George, Ron, and Percy all looked at each other and shrugged. "He went to the Yule Ball with Fleur," Ron said, the tips of his ears turning pink, "but other than that, I don't know of any connection to the family."
"We'll just have to find out, then, won't we?" Ginny straightened and leaned over to take the ledger. "Percy, where do you get your ink? I want to take this and see if they can tell me anything about the ink that was used in the ledger. When I come back-" Harry coughed, and she rolled her eyes- "when we come back" she corrected, "you're going to need to go through this page by page and see if you can figure out what's been changed."
"I'm certain I'll be able to find any discrepancies," Percy said.
"I'm sure you will, Percy," Ginny soothed, patting his arm to console him. "Can you remind me where you get your ink?"
"Ingrid's Incredible Inks," he said.
"That's over near Madam Malkin’s, right?"
"That's the one. Ask for Johanna; she's the most knowledgeable about how the ink is made. It's really quite fascinating, if you get a chance to talk to her."
"Right," she said, shooting Harry a quick glance-he looked like he was trying hard not to laugh. "We probably won't have time this visit, since we need to get to the bottom of this," she told Percy seriously, "but I'll be sure to ask her the next time I'm in there." She turned to Harry, ledger in hand. "Ready?"
"Absolutely," he said, standing straight. "I'll follow you anywhere."
She raised her eyebrow at him. "Anywhere, huh? I may have to take you up on that later," she said in her best sultry voice, grinning at the way his cheeks flushed. "But right now, we're just going to Ingrid's."
"Ingrid's. Right," Harry said, looking a little dazed. He shook his head and seemed a little more focussed afterward. His eyes glinted and there was a cocky look on his face. "Lead on, oh fearless leader."
"Stay out of trouble, you three," Ginny said as they walked out the door. "And-"
"We know, we know," George, Ron and Percy said together. "Don't touch anything."