Pizza and Plans...Finally

"Thanks," I say to the pizza bloke when he hands it over his counter. I grab the six-pack of Butterbeer I'd had sitting on the table while I waited. Then I head outside and start walking to the nearest Apparition point, which is a little ways, considering I'm in a pretty much all-Muggle part of London. But they make the best pizza at this place. I can smell it as I carry it, and it smells great. I've heard they even bring the pizza to where you live in some Muggle places. Chances are, though, that doesn't mean the east side of nowhere, where Harry and me are staked out in Scotland. Still.

I Apparate into the glen in the woods behind the ratty little hovel. Pretty much surrounded by woods, it is, so that no passing Muggles would be able to see. Harry and I put some basic temporary wards on our hut, just so we wouldn't wake up alone sometime with Dolohov staring down our throats. Not that he'd probably go to the trouble of doing all that research for us treasure hunters, but if he chose to, he might be able to bribe one of the locals into telling where the two new blokes moved in. Reckon I mentioned before - Dolohov's not stupid.

But he sure is bloody slow.

I walk up to the back door of the hut and try to wave my wand well enough to undo the wards and locks, even with the pizza box in my hand. Takes me twice, but I manage, then push the door open with my foot.

"Just me, Harry!" I call as I walk through. I don't even look around for him till I get everything set down on the table. Not like he can get too far away in this place. "There's Pizza! And Butterbeer!" Before I forget, I turn with my wand and reset the wards.

Harry comes out of the small room that's got two beds squeezed in there, wearing his glasses, and a book in one hand. I remember him telling me about needing more of those.. contact thingies, but for now stuck with glasses.

"Thank Merlin," he growls, plopping in the chair. "Lacey stopped by but brought no food this time."

"Thoughtful of her," I say, making a face. "What does she reckon you're living on, berries and twigs? So what did she have to say? Assuming that was more useful."

"Something about Doholov being spotted again. She didn't get specifics. She looked a bit worse for wear... she and her partner caught Xandra though."

"Yeah? Well, I s'pose that's something then. Wonder if she can get any information about Dolohov from Xandra - like maybe, how long she reckons it might be before he gets around to taking our bait."

Harry opens the pizza box and I set a Butterbeer from the bag onto the table next to him. "Might need to hit that with a warming spell, dunno."

I pop the cork on one myself and take a swig, then take a few steps across the room. I undo the clasp on my Auror cloak and and hang it on a twig sticking out of the log wall. Then I carefully sit down in one of the two chairs at the table, since the way I usually throw myself into a seat would collapse this one in single shot.

"Things as exciting as always, eh mate?"

"Exhilarating," he says dryly. "Please tell me you got something good going on."

"Same shite going on at work, that's for sure," I tell him, "so you're not missing a damn thing there. Only thing I've really been worried about is that I haven't heard anything on the twins or Mum. You know, about that whole ruddy floo business I stirred up when Kevin saw the floo call."

Harry shakes his head. "You should have told me earlier about living with a Muggle, Ron."

"Yeah well..." he starts, "just another one of those things I hadn't got 'round to yet. I mean, in the beginning, it seemed like a good idea, ya know? Bloke needed a place to live, I needed someone to make my flat sound like someone else lived there. Good match, eh? Then I find out he's a Muggle. Made me kinda take a step back, but it'd be pretty much against everything our family's ever stood for to take the invite back then. Not to mention it woulda been tough to explain what made me change my mind, even then. Reckon I'll get the hang of it. Have to."

We both hear a scratching at the window and can see gray-brown wings flapping just outside. Just another owl, I think to myself - we've had them almost daily back and forth from Dolohov, all of them just repeats of the same general thing: hand it over, I'm not paying a knut, and you don't wanna make me have to come and get it. Ho hum.

Harry stands, still chewing, and sets his pizza down on the top of the box. Then he heads for the window with his wand and unlocks everything to let the bird in.