Harry Potter and the United Power

Note: I'm heading into an exam period soon so updates won't be as quick as these last few have.

Chapter 5

“He's not coming, is he?” Hermione asked Ginny as she stood on the white sand of the beach with her new broom.

“You never know, let's wait a little longer and see,” Ginny answered her, though knowing in her heart that Harry wasn't going to show up.

Hermione was having a really tough time coping with the abrupt departure of Harry from the wizarding world. She just couldn't cope with it. She missed him terribly, and wrote letters to him everyday, hoping that he'd write back. Most of the days since Harry's departure she'd spent in her bedroom crying or up in Harry's bedroom gazing out the window. This was the first time they'd organised for her to learn to fly. She'd written to Harry telling him about it, but she now knew he wasn't going to show up. “No, forget it. He's not going to come. I can't fly without him,” she eventually answered as she turned and headed home.

***

Harry sat on the bed in his room in the Leaky Cauldron with every one of Hermione's letters to him laid out in front of him. He hated not being able to tell her what was going on. He read over some of them and heard her desperate cry for him to come back. He couldn't, though. Voldemort would kill her if he did. He picked up Hermione's most recent letter. He knew she'd be at the beach now waiting for him, but he wouldn't come. No matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't see her, not yet. He glanced over at the stack of parchment on the desk, which contained numerous letters he'd started writing to Hermione before he remembered it wasn't safe. “I'm sorry, Hermione,” he whispered silently to himself. He bundled all the letters up and moved them to the desk. “I miss her,” he muttered to himself. “I can't stand not seeing her. She means everything to me,” he continued speaking to himself. “That's why I have to do this,” he reminded himself as he flopped down on the bed.

Harry woke and watched the light bouncing off an object in his trunk. Harry continued staring at the object. He couldn't work out what it was. He sat up and pulled the object out from his trunk. It was the two way mirror Sirius had given him. “Oh, how could I do something so stupid? I completely forgot about this,” he muttered and opened it up in the vain hope that he might see the face of his godfather. However, all he saw was his reflection. His thoughts went from Sirius to Hermione. He wanted more than anything to have Sirius back. He needed someone to talk to about Hermione and to ask what to do. He missed Hermione so much and needed to find a way to communicate with her which couldn't be tracked by Voldemort. He knew when school started he could use the Floo network, but that was still monitored, though they wouldn't know who he was talking to. The answer was staring him right in the face, but he couldn't make the connection. “Sirius, what am I going to do?” he whispered to the mirror, knowing full well that he wouldn't get an answer. Just then an owl fluttered in the window.

Harry,

I don't know why you didn't show up tonight. I miss you terribly. I can't fly without you. Please come back. I need you here.

Are you at least coming back to Hogwarts?

Why aren't you writing back?

When can I see you?

Harry, please tell me. I love you and I can't keep going without you.

Please, Harry.

~ Hermione

“I wish I could, `Mione. Believe me, how I wish I could speak to you,” he spoke after reading her letter. Then he threw the letter over to the table with all the other letters he'd gotten from her. He then turned around and noticed the owl hadn't yet left. “I'm not writing back, sorry,” he explained and headed over to the chair in the corner of the room. The owl was still sitting on the bed and continued to stare at him. “Come on, go back. I can't write back to her,” he said. The owl still didn't move. “I'm stuck with you, aren't I?” he asked the owl. The owl hooted and fluttered over to him. Harry began to wonder whose owl this was. Hermione didn't have her own owl and all the other letters normally had come by Pig. He sat wondering for quite sometime and dozed off.

He awoke to the owl pecking him. “What are you doing?” he asked the bird, feeling rather irritated. “Stop that,” he ordered the owl. The owl didn't stop, though. Eventually, Harry fought the owl off. “That little cheek,” he exclaimed after realising what was going on. “She's giving me a taste of my own medicine,” he muttered to himself as he grabbed Hedwig's cage and forced the owl into it. “I'll have to find somewhere else to put Hedwig when she gets back,” he muttered as he turned and lay down on the bed. “I wish there was some way I could communicate with her,” he whispered as he lay down. Just as he lay down, the two-way mirror caught his eye. He picked it up and looked at it. “That's it,” he spoke with a sense of achievement. “I wonder where I can buy a set of these mirrors. I'll ask Tom later,” he said and, feeling better, lay down and slept.

***

“He'll come round, Hermione. Just you wait, he'll be in contact soon,” Ginny comforted Hermione as she sat staring out her bedroom window. “How long can he put up with that owl tormenting him before he gives in and writes?” she tried to comfort. Hermione didn't say a word; she just kept staring out the window. Ginny, seeing she was getting no reply, stood up “You should eat something,” she told her. “Do you want me to bring you anything?” she asked and, getting no response, left.

***

Harry wandered around Diagon Alley early the next morning. He was heading towards a little shop at the end of the street called `Magical Devices.' It was the shop that Tom had told him would sell two-way mirrors. The shop was a small old and faded looking shop. Despite the fact that Harry had wandered these streets many times, he'd never once noticed this little shop. It seemed to be concealed in some way; maybe it was because of the lack of space. Diagon Alley was quite a crowded place and it was amazing that all the shops fitted onto the alley.

Harry entered the shop through the small, silver door at the side of the shop. “Hello, young sir, how may I help you?” the shop keeper greeted.

Harry walked over to the counter. “I was wondering if you sold two-way mirrors here,” he told the man.

“Ah yes, the communication mirrors. They've been quite popular lately with the rise of the dark lord, you know,” the man told him as he headed to the back of the shop to get the mirrors. Harry nodded in agreement as the man turned back and headed towards the counter. “There you are, young man,” he said and placed the two mirrors in a bag for him.

“Thank you,” Harry said as he took them and handed over the money to the shopkeeper and turned to leave.

Harry returned to his room in the Leaky Cauldron and sat on the bed wondering how he could get the mirror to Hermione without actually writing a letter. He didn't dare write a letter in case Voldemort was reading his mail. He didn't want him to know he loved Hermione. He couldn't put her in that sort of danger.

***

“Is she alright?” Ginny asked as she knelt by Hermione who was lying passed out on the floor. She didn't know what had happened she'd just walked in to get a book from the room when she noticed Hermione wasn't in her chair. She turned around the room, worried something had happened and then noticed her lying on the floor with the chair knocked over beside her.

“Yes, she'll be okay. Tell Ron to get the healer from St. Mungo's. I think she'll have to stay there for awhile,” Dumbledore told the young girl without taking his eyes off Hermione. Ginny nodded and headed out the door.

“What's happened to her?” Luna asked as she entered the room.

Dumbledore looked up at the young girl who'd just entered. “She's just having trouble coping with Harry's disappearance,” Dumbledore answered the girl. “I didn't know it was this bad. I knew it had hurt her, but I didn't know it had already got this bad.”

“What's going to happen to her?” Luna asked and came in and stood above Hermione. “I heard Ron go to St. Mungo's,” she told him. Dumbledore just nodded. “She's going to be okay, isn't she?” Luna inquired.

“Yes, yes, she'll be fine. She needs to go there though so they can watch her. She hasn't been eating and is suffering badly from depression,” he explained.

Luna nodded, “She misses Harry,” Luna said, knowing that everyone already knew that, but feeling that it needed to be said.

“I know,” Dumbledore nodded. “Yes, I'm going to see him once Hermione is safe,” he told the girl. “Would you write a letter to him and see if you can get him to come now?” he instructed the girl. Luna nodded and ran off to write a note.

***

Harry was sitting on the bed when Pig came fluttering in. “Oh, what is it this time? I'm not writing back,” he said getting rather annoyed at the fact that she just kept writing. Even knowing he wouldn't reply, he took the letter from Pig and this time Pig flew off straight away. Harry opened the envelope and noticed the writing wasn't Hermione's. “Hmm, what is this about?” he wondered and opened it up to see a very hurriedly scribbled note.

Harry,

Come quick. It's Hermione. She's unconscious.

Luna

Harry knew this letter was real. Hermione was in danger and he had to go help her no matter what it meant would happen to him or her as a result. The letter was so short and written so frantically that it had to be important. He grabbed his broom and opened the window. Then he flew out and headed toward Grimmauld Place.

***

The healer arrived from St. Mungo's only minutes after Luna had sent Pig off to Harry. “She's up here,” Ron told the man and led him to the room.

Dumbledore looked up as he heard the footsteps approach. “Hello, Martin,” he greeted the man and allowed him to come and examine the girl on the floor. Martin pulled out various instruments from his bag and examined Hermione. “She'll need to come to the hospital. You'll need to get a hold of her parents. It's quite a severe case of depression she's got. Can you get Harry, too?” the man asked and conjured up a stretcher for Hermione. “I have to take her now, or it'll be difficult to revive her without the boy,” Martin told Dumbledore and with a nod of approval from Dumbledore floated the stretcher down the stairs, hopped in the fire, and flooed back to St. Mungo's.

“Alright, I'm here! What's happened to her?” Harry called from up in his bedroom. Getting no reply he raced down to the girls' bedroom. “What's happened? Where is she?” he screamed in alarm as he got down there and saw everyone but Hermione.

“She's at St. Mungo's, Harry,” Dumbledore answered as he ushered them all out the door.