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Chapter Ten: Parry, Feint, Castle

“What is it?” asked Harry, pushing himself up into a sitting position so he could get a better view.

Sirius let the medal slip through his fingers, the satin ribbon held between his index finger and thumb, slowly rotating in the ample light of the Hospital Wing, the ‘M’ sparkling.

“Order of Merlin,” he said. “First class.”

I knew it was something important! thought Harry triumphantly.

“Not something you drop in a junk shop,” said Sirius contemplatively. “Not something you’re really intended to wear, either. Some sort of message, maybe… a warning… or a threat…”

There's something he suspects, thought Harry, his stomach lurching uneasily, searching Sirius’s face studiously, noticing the slight clench of his jaw. Something he doesn’t want to tell us.

“What is it?” Harry breathed.

Sirius sighed heavily, his voice growing more and more bitter as he spoke. “I can’t be sure. But there’s one Death Eater who definitely owns one of these, one Death Eater for whom it is his crowning glory, his only achievement.”

All the time Sirius was speaking, it was as if something dark and heavy was settling on the Hospital Wing. Harry felt as if the light had dimmed, the room had darkened, a great shadow was leaning over them.

“I can’t be sure,” said Sirius again, frowning at the medal. ”But I think this may belong to—"

Dumbledore, T.M. Riddle, and Bill get to the bottom of the mysterious curse. Sirius visits Harry in the Hospital Wing. Tonks trains Mafalda for her new and dangerous mission — spying on Narcissa Malfoy. Read from the beginning at FFN|AO3!