"I'm in the Muggle Liaison Office," Mr. Weasley said. "We have to keep the Muggles informed about this war, especially if and when some of them turn up dead because of Death Eater activity. We also try to discourage witches and wizards from taking advantage of Muggles, though mostly we focus on helping the aurors protect the Muggles from Death Eaters."
"I see," Bellatrix said, her mind not really focusing on Mr. Weasley's position in the Ministry. However, she let him continue describing his job for a bit before turning the subject toward where her thoughts were running. "Mr. Weasley, if I were to purchase a Muggle car, would you be willing to make some basic modifications on it? I would pay you, of course."
"Well, I suppose I could," Mr. Weasley said slowly. "But you do have to realize that a lot of the modifications I've made on my car have just been experimental. I'm not sure it would be appropriate to magically modify a car for frequent use."
"It would be no different from me buying a car and using it without modifications," Bellatrix pressed. "And, I am only asking for some very basic modifications-enlarged interiors, maybe a little bit of reinforcement in the event of an accident, that sort of thing. Very subtle."
Mr. Weasley furrowed his brow as he considered Bellatrix's request. "What kind of car are we talking about?"
"I'm not sure yet," Bellatrix said. "I can pay by the hour or just a flat fee."
"I'm not sure that pay would be appropriate," Mr. Weasley said. "After all, you have taken the time to help increase our defenses. It would be the least I could do to repay you."
"Nonsense," Bellatrix said, "being willing to modify the car and accept the money is more than enough of a favor to repay my efforts to help protect your house."
Mr. Weasley shrugged. "All right, if you get around to buying a car, I'll see what I can do."
"Perfect," Bellatrix said. She picked up the case she had brought out from the house with her. "I was hoping that I could take down some of your wards and replace them with some others I have developed."
"Can't you just put them up in addition to what we already have?" Mr. Weasley asked.
"There's a slight chance that the new wards and the wards I want to take down would interfere with each other," Bellatrix explained. "Furthermore, the Death Eaters already probed your defenses. If they arrive and find a lot more wards than originally were present, they might retreat."
Mr. Weasley tilted his head. "I thought the purpose was to prevent an attack. If extra wards would scare them away, why disguise that there are new wards?"
"My wards have zing to them," Bellatrix declared. "Merely scaring the Death Eaters with an increased quantity of wards would only stave them off for a night or week. Letting them come in, get stung badly, and scared to death by the ghost of Ashworth will keep them away for a lot longer."
"If you say so," Mr. Weasley said, reluctantly assenting to Bellatrix's plan. "I'm not sure you'll be able to take down those wards, however. My son Bill is quite a hand at that kind of thing, and I had him put them up."
"They are very good wards," Bellatrix admitted as she began to exit Mr. Weasley's shed, "but I do not anticipate any difficulty in implementing my new ward scheme."
.....
After the wards in Village #6 were not only tripped during the night, but tripped in such a way that Harry was again not woken immediately, Harry began to suspect that he, the Malfoys, or both were being followed and observed by somebody. Harry was very careful to observe his trail and the general area for followers as he followed the Malfoys on their journey to Village #7. Unfortunately, he was unable to detect anything, and he and the Malfoys arrived in Village #7 at about the same time without any sort of incident.
Village #7 was a rather dismal sort of place. Out of all the Albanian villages he had seen thus far, Village #7 proved to be Harry's least favorite. Harry stealthily made his way around the village while the Malfoys headed for the local tavern to inquire after some rooms to rent for a night or two.
The village was small enough that every resident knew every other resident. This made Harry an undoubted stranger in their midst. The village's location deep in the Albanian forest also made it so that few if any of the villagers spoke English. The language barrier frustrated Harry quite a bit, though the hostile atmosphere led him to believe that even if there was no language barrier, the villagers would not want to speak to him.
After a suitable amount of time had passed, Harry made his way to the tavern to inquire after a room for himself. The barkeep did not speak a word of English and did not seem pleased to see Harry-or rather, the aged wizard's countenance that was Harry's disguise. However, Harry's gold spoke for him and the barkeep led Harry to an extremely small room. Harry tried to act grateful.
Deciding that he would rather not have his clothes make contact with any the surfaces in the grungy room, Harry skipped unpacking and made his way down to the back of the inn. There, Harry began laying out his usual array of detection wards, also adding a few extra twists to ensure that he was alerted if they were tripped.
Harry walked into the inn and headed for the front to see if he could purchase some dinner. There, he found the Malfoys conversing with the barkeep in Albanian. Wishing that he could speak Albanian, Harry took a seat and hoped that whoever functioned as the server in the place would take pity on him and offer to bring out some food.