Chapter 5
Maybe some Earl Grey this morning. Sugar, honey, lemon, milk? Decisions, decisions. There was a peck at the glass. It
was still dark, 5am to be exact, but this was an expected guest. She opened the window and greeted an owl. She put 9
Knuts in owl's money pouch, offered it some water and toast, and fondly remembered when the Daily Profit used to
only cost 5 Knuts. The owl took a drink, pecked at the toast a bit, and then went on its way.
Solonge Malfoy finished preparing her tea, deciding on honey as usual, and then thought about how best to spend her time today. She worked from home, and in fact, she rarely left her home, tending to only use her private floo connection to the archives at the Ministry of Magic, but her work was amazing and fulfilling, even though she did miss human contact sometimes, but mostly she liked the quiet. She used to have neighborhood Halloween parties, but she went a bit overboard one year with the wizard sweets rather than the standard Muggle variety...that had been problematic!
She had a special lifetime contract with the British Ministry of Magic to document, archive and protect every ancient magical tome still in existence. Though magical restoration had many advantages to the kinds of restoration projects Muggles had to do, it was still difficult, painstaking work for other reasons. Muggles had to deal with acid based paper, foxing, and disincarnation; she had to deal with that plus curse breaking and knowledge of languages thought long lost to the ages. It had been difficult to negotiate a contract that allowed so much privacy and autonomy, but her work was so groundbreaking and accurate, after the first project or two the strange conditions and high expenses were never questioned again. Her identity had been trickier to convince them of before she began her first assignment, which was on a much smaller scale, but with the chaos of the war, even the most steadfast of bureaucrats could be convinced to bend the rules with no monetary or physical inducements.
There was an important project that she had been putting off for years, but since she had just finished a large volume, maybe now was the time to take this on. She thought about the materials in a special climate controlled room in her home, the hand written notes to the first version of Hogwarts: A History, as well as every known edition, and wondered if enough time had passed to look at it. The Ministry never questioned her, but there seemed to be some curiosity as to why she put this important work off for so long. They must have figured it was an old school rivalry issue since as far as they knew, she was educated at Beauxbatons. She had to smile at that. When she did officially get started on Hogwarts: A History, she would have to make sure not to finish the definitive version too quickly having memorized all of the 19-21st century versions that were available. She had also read most of the older versions.
She decided to read the Times, then the Daily Profit while finishing her tea and breakfast before making her decision. The Profit had a touching photograph on the first page and she thought to her self, "Has it really already been a year?" It showed the world famous Harry Potter in silhouette at sundown as he performed the ritual releasing of the ashes of his former wife in hills behind Ginny's childhood home, and the removal of his black armband, officially marking the end of the ritual wizard mourning period. So many publications had been jumping the gun, already putting him back on their list of most eligible bachelors within a few months of his wife's untimely death. Witches Weekly pretended to be more upstanding by printing a statement from Harry asking the media to respect traditional wizard ways, but invalidated the spirit of the statement by putting an unbelievably attractive current photo of him next to a working clock that counted down the months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds until his official mourning period was over. She did not own a copy of this, but she shuddered to think of what happened when the clock hit zero and imagined it involving filibuster fireworks and perhaps a John Phillips Souza march.
Over the past year Solonge had been wondering if she should now reveal her true identity to the wizarding world. She had been 'Solonge' for so long, that even when she thought of herself in the third person, that was the name she used. No, she had decided. It wasn't like she had any family to return to, they had all died because of her in the war. And how could she explain it now anyway? She had made such a petty, selfish decision to disappear as a teenager after overhearing a private conversation between Harry and Ron where they had each declared their love for Hermione Granger, but were too far along in their current relationships to do anything about it. In the back of her mind, there had always been this outline of a plan, but now that the circumstances were correct for it to happen, it just seemed ridiculous. "Hi Harry. I didn't really die. I was just upset because I heard you say you loved me far more than you could ever love Ginny and didn't ask me out because you thought Ron liked me and even after you found out he was going out with Luna, you weren't going to do anything about it because you didn't want to hurt Ginny's feelings even though you admitted you loved me more..."
She knew this day was coming, but she had no idea how hard it would hit her. She cried and continued her thoughts..."and I've spent my adult life waiting for something like this to happen, but when I look at the reality of the situation, I can't find a way to approach it that doesn't make me look pathetic." She tried to drink more of her tea, but she was too shaky. She tried to remember if she had read anything that could help her feel better now, but only a vague thought popped into her mind, "try to relax, and just let your self cry." She wasn't sure if it was good advice, but at least it was advice she would be able to follow.
Hermione wept.
Hmm, she hadn't been 'Hermione' to herself in years. She thought back to when 'Hermione' died...
*****
It would have been towards the end of 7th year if classes were still in session. Hogwarts was a very safe place to be so it had been opened up to younger children as well. In the case of a family with very young children, the parent that was the stronger fighter went to war, the other stayed to help with all of the kids as well as his or her own. Most 5th years and up had already joined the fight, but some had stayed behind to teach the younger children. At first Hermione had been asked, and then finally begged to stay behind; all of the teaching staff firmly believing that the next generation needed her to remain alive and they wanted her in charge of the facility. Hermione was flattered, that would have made her the youngest acting Headmistress in the history of the school, but she wanted to fight. She was strong and resourceful and she felt she was valuable in the field.
The light was strange. The remaining Death Eaters had been casting dangerous Elemental spells that had the effect of making everything look like one was looking through a filter of some sort. This had to mean that they were getting desperate, Ron explained it as more of a 'destroy the world,' rather than a 'take over the world,' move and Hermione had to confess that she couldn't come up with a better way to put it. This was supposed to be their rest period and even though her sleeping bag had a warming charm and was quite comfortable and their location was secluded and protected, she couldn't relax after that evening's meeting. Professor Snape had given each of them a small vial of a very fast acting poison and instructions on hiding it. Everyone knew of the reports of torture and dismemberment coming from the Death Eater camps, so the real use for the poison was not a mystery, but there had been some light hearted denial humor about sneaking it into Voldemort's pumpkin juice.
Since she couldn't sleep, she looked around to see if anyone else was awake. Ginny was curled up in a little ball sound asleep, Colin was also sleeping looking lost without his camera, and Luna was snoring so loud that Hermione instantly cast a silencing spell! The adults all seemed to be asleep; Neville was sleeping, but he seemed to be having a dream involving Trevor that she did NOT want to know anything more about, then she noticed that both Ron and Harry's sleeping bags were empty. She smiled to herself. It's been such a long time since it's been just the three of us; I hope I can find them. She thought for a moment. Their bags are on the west end of camp, they wouldn't risk waking people so they most likely went west, and if not, at least I know they wouldn't go outside the wards. Well, Ron might, but as long as Harry is with him they won't.
Hermione quietly got out of her sleeping bag, pulled on her boots, then put her robe over her nightgown and put a warming spell on it so she didn't have to take the time to get fully dressed. She quietly worked her way around to the west side of the camp and it didn't take long before she could hear Harry and Ron's voices. She would have called out to them, but even with the wards, there was still the danger of spies. As she got closer, she had no excuse. She had to listen no matter how rude it was. She hid behind a tree. Harry was sitting on a rock in a tiny clearing drinking a Butterbeer and Ron was wandering nearby and appeared to be looking for something.
Harry had to ask, "Why are you always poking around at the ground, Ron?"
"Muggle bottle caps." Ron stated as if that meant something.
Harry looked puzzled and luckily Ron wasn't so lost in his expedition to notice this.
Ron blushed, "Luna collects them. She gets quite excited if I find a new one."
Harry's grin lit up his whole face, "So, you and Luna, huh? How long has this been going on?"
"I can't tell you what a relief it is to tell you!" Ron confessed. "We've been together since before we left school, months."
Harry suddenly felt sick. He had to ask, "What about Hermione?"
Ron grinned, "Well, this kind of frees her up for you then, doesn't it?" Ron shrugged. "I have to admit, I'll always be in love with her, in some ways more than I love Luna, but she deserves someone that understands her the first time she says something. I don't think I'd be able to say this if it wasn't the middle of the night and there wasn't a good chance we could die soon, but I know you love her more."
Hermione had never heard Ron say anything more serious. She wanted to run from her hiding place and hug Ron then hug Harry and tell him that she loved him too, she always had! She just couldn't move, having ones dream come true was too exciting.
Harry began laughing. It was very strange, not happy, not quite maniacal, but very eerie. "Oh what great friends we are," Harry stated with a slight touch of melancholy mixed with sarcasm. "We both fall in love with the same woman, then we sneak around looking for another relationship because if we find one, we can present our friend with the prize, the Princess Hermione. It's not like she's even ours to give. Did we ever think to ask her?"
Hermione was very afraid when Harry spoke about 'we' and 'looking for another relationship' in the same sentence. She felt a confession coming on and didn't like the sound of it. She wished she could tell him that yes, she was his, she always had been.
Ron got tired of waiting, "Spill it, Potter."
Harry's voice went back to normal. A 17-year-old boy with messy black hair spoke, "Yes, I am in love with her. I can't imagine having stronger feelings for anyone one or anything." Harry sighed and then continued. "Here's the problem. I started going out with Ginny about the same time you started dating Luna. I have feelings for her."
"Are you taking advantage of my sister then, if you don't really like her as much as Hermione?" Ron asked protectively, which was funny because he was always pushing Harry to date Ginny.
"No, nothing like that." Harry replied. "She's like a boy...a Quidditch buddy, with benefits...and don't look at me like that there are plenty of benefits I haven't tried out! Besides, Ron, we don't know if Hermione feels anything other than friendship for either of us."
Ron shrugged. "I'm officially out of the running, mate. Luna and I are good for each other. I've also already told her that I love her."
Harry spoke quietly, "I told that to your sister the first time the other night." Harry sighed. "She's said it to me so many times, it didn't seem right to leave her hanging."
"Do you?" Ron asked.
"I'm not sure if I do in the way she wants me to," Harry replied.
By this time Hermione was in shock. She just wanted to go back to her sleeping back and get someone to wipe her memory, but she was too afraid that she'd be heard if she moved. By this point the conversation wasn't registering anymore.
Ron looked thoughtful for a moment. "Harry, this isn't right. Don't lead my sister on like you're doing. Tell Hermione how you feel!"
Harry looked at Ron like he was an idiot. "And have a big Soap Opera in the middle of a war? We can't go into the next battle with Ginny in tears and Hermione having whatever kind of reaction she'll have to this!"
"You've got a point." Ron admitted. "Ginny would be a disaster. We'd better get back, big rescue mission in the morning."
Hermione watched them walk passed her, waited a few minutes, and then slowly walked to the rock where Harry had been sitting.
It was still warm.
*
The next morning, the group went over the hostage situation they were observing. This was an unusual assignment, but it was a bold new move by the Death Eaters. They had taken over an exclusive Muggle pre-school where the children of many of the members of Parliament and other heads of state attended. The Death Eaters had attacked Muggles before, but this was their first political move and it carefully selected to show their ruthlessness.
Harry was not to be visible at all. This wasn't the "big battle" and he was too important to risk. They would wear simple Muggle clothing under their robes, so they would need to make sure their wand holsters worked with their selection. They would be checking in with Muggle authorities and Aurors when they arrived and their goal was to either provide or gain information depending on who the Death Eaters inside at the time were.
Once they arrived, Harry was placed inside the Muggle communications van. He could see out and monitor communications. The Death Eaters were already aware of the Auror's presence because anti-Apparition wards were already in place and to their chagrin; even most of their Portkeys were no longer functioning. Hermione listened to a conversation between Professor Snape and one of the Aurors discussing the advances in Portkey blocking. She thought to herself that it seems like a good idea for trapping Death Eaters, but not a great idea for rescuing live hostages. Her thought was punctuated by the body of a four year old thrown out the door and a demand to remove the wards echoed in the communications van.
At that point, Hermione made a decision. She opened her vial and smelled it to double check the contents, then she swirled it a bit to see if it looked extra concentrated. Then she looked around to see if anyone was watching; she was in the clear. She guessed the right amount to pour out, then resealed the vial. The rest of her plan was easy, she just needed to be visible for a moment. She walked to the communications van crossing in front rather than in back and wore her robe.
By the time she got to the open section of the van, she heard Lucius Malfoy on the speakers stating, "Do not lie to me again or we'll have to show you another demonstration of our sincerity. I highly suggest a different response this time. Was that Hermione Granger, Mudblood extraordinaire I just saw walking by your little police van?"
Hermione took them by surprise and grabbed the microphone. She answered before anyone could stop her. "Yes, Mr. Malfoy, it is I."
Once she let go of the talk button there were cries of, "What do you think you are doing?" from both Muggle and Auror alike.
All she had time to answer was, "What ever I have to," before Malfoy spoke again.
"You are just so well mannered for a Mudblood. Hmm, and I thought there was nothing of value here we could possibly want. How about a trade, Miss Granger?"
Hermione swallowed, "It needs to involve no more dead or hurt children and verification of that, Sir."
"Just a moment," Malfoy stalled for a bit, "in the spirit of full disclosure there is one young man that will be needing a cast on his left arm, but nothing else besides that. What we want in exchange is you."
"Done." Hermione answered. Once Hermione let go of the talk button teachers, friends Aurors and Muggles alike either tried to talk her out of it or said they wouldn't allow it.
Snape motioned for silence, "Miss Granger, I have no doubt that you have read all of the horrors that have been performed on female captives over the ages, but have you truly considered the consequences..."
Hermione quickly showed him the vial, making sure her hand covered the amount of liquid in the container. "They're not getting me alive."
He started to argue, but Hermione motioned for silence because Malfoy had been making demands. She picked up the microphone again and pressed the talk button, which also muted the speakers. "I'm sorry, I hope you weren't saying anything important. Here is what is going to happen. I'm going to stand outside the daycare center and I will have my wand. This is when you will begin releasing the children. When you have the last child signal the Aurors and they will clear the building. Once the Aurors give the all clear, you will exchange the last child for me. At that point there will be time for the child to get a safe distance away, then the wards will be removed. Listen carefully to this important detail. While the children are being released, my life has no value. If you try to capture me earlier than the specified time, my life will end by either Muggle or magical means, is that clear?"
"Crystal clear, my dear Hermione." Malfoy replied almost erotically. "Are you sure you just haven't been waiting for an excuse to defect? I know, I know, you can't answer that now. Well we're ready to send the kids home so we can get home ourselves...we expected the Portkeys to work, clever technology...I hope you know something about that. Well, the children will be on the way as soon as you are in your place."
Shock didn't even begin to describe the looks on everyone's faces. She looked at the Aurors, "You understand this, don't you. The wards aren't coming down. This is your chance to get some of the highest ranking Death Eaters at once."
Hermione was being careful not to look at anyone she knew. Harry tried to get her attention as she started to head toward the pre-school. She ignored him and thought, it's a bit late for talk. She also let herself get angry about it. It would help her forget about the fear.
*
Hermione stood to the left of the entrance, half way between the door and the van. Once she had stopped for 15 seconds, the children began leaving the building. The first was a boy holding his arm. Hermione couldn't believe that she had been thinking, "Oh, what nice Death Eaters, releasing the boy whose arm they broke first..." War changes you. She noticed that some of the children started to walk to her. She had to continue to gesture to them to walk straight ahead and she also kept count. There had been about 75 kids in there; she wanted to make sure she had an idea of how long she had. So many things could go wrong. There could still be enough potion in her vial to kill her. Maybe she misjudged and it wasn't even enough to make her sleepy. Perhaps they would think she was dead but decide to put her head on a stick as a warning as in medieval times. She shivered. If she had counted correctly, 78 children had passed her.
The door opened, and Lucius Malfoy exited the building holding the hand of a three-year-old girl. Hermione was quite certain that she was the Prime Minister's granddaughter. He stood in front of the building to the right. At this point, the other Death Eaters exited the building and stood against it behind Lucius. Lucius raised his other hand for a moment to signal the Aurors.
Two Aurors walked to the door and make sure to speak loud enough for Hermione to also hear. "All children and employees were accounted for, so we're just going to make a very quick sweep through the building." She watched them go in.
She focused. She thought about all the fear the children and their parents must have felt these past few days and she let it get her angry, but she stayed in control. The Aurors finished their sweep and walked back to their positions.
Malfoy walked to Hermione with the little girl in hand. "Send her on her way, Mr. Malfoy, Sir."
"As soon as you drop your wand, Miss Granger." He sneered.
Hermione gave a slight smile; "There are twenty Death Eaters with their wands pointed at me. I just want to make sure this last little one gets away safe."
Malfoy rolled his eyes, "Oh, as you wish." And he let go of the little girl's hand. "Run along now...quickly. I have places to go." They watched her go and he eyed Hermione, "So you're not defecting, I can tell that. What is your motivation, little Mudblood? It can't just be because you felt sorry for the rich spoiled brats. It's going to be so much fun getting it out of you."
Hermione didn't answer. She checked the vial with her tongue to make sure she would be able to bite down on it, yet still be able to speak.
Malfoy looked in the direction the child had gone. "Well, I can't see her anymore, why don't you drop that...."
Hermione tossed her backup wand behind Lucius and he instinctually followed it with his eyes. Within seconds Hermione pulled her usual wand from its holster and yelled "Avada Kedavra!" her built up emotions gave her all the power she needed.
As soon as she knew he was dead, she bit into her vial, and fell into a very deep sleep. It was so deep that the Muggle paramedics that had been doing CPR on her on the way to the Muggle hospital had told the doctors to just mark this one DOA.
Hermione woke up under a sheet in an empty hospital room and later figured out that it was about 7 hours after the battle. Luckily the hospital had been busy so she hadn't been transferred to the morgue. Later research showed that they lost no one but her from their team, one Auror and a few Muggle police. No Death Eaters got away. It was after much research that she decided to take the identity of a Malfoy. She did speak fluent French, so that worked for whole non-evil French branch of the family. Also, she figured, in a way Lucius Malfoy helped her start her new life. Away from a 17-year-old boy that said he loved her and couldn't imagine having stronger feelings for anyone one or anything, yet wasn't willing to leave his Quidditch buddy with benefits.
***
For someone so smart, it took her so long to figure out that Harry hadn't been the only one being immature about the situation. But then who says love stories can't start at age 52?