Hermione noticed Harry's reaction to the cheering crowd almost immediately though Dumbledore appeared to be ignorant of the fear that had begun to shine in Harry's wide, emerald eyes.
"Albus, now's not a good time," she whispered imploringly, gesturing with her eyes to her shell shocked husband. "I'm going to take him to our quarters..."
Dumbledore looked upon Harry with a saddened expression clouding the twinkles that had nearly quadrupled at the sudden return of his long-lost friend. "Very well, take him away quickly," he said in a hurried whisper. "The spells they've used on him are far more insidious than I expected."
Hermione nodded and gently took Harry's arm in her hands. "Come, Love, let's get some privacy..."
Harry could only nod dumbly as the blood in his face continued to drain away, leaving him with a deathly white complexion. As the two of them hurried away, the cheers died down to a low rumbling of astonishment.
"Where's he going?!" a young boy yelled incredulously. "He can help get me mam back!"
"Or my brother!" an older girl shouted angrily.
"SILENCE!" Dumbledore's voice broke against the wave of sudden anger that had sprung forth from the once cheering and happy voices. "You will all please finish your evening feast! All will be answered in time!" he bellowed in the same commanding voice that triggered something deep within Harry's mind.
"Troll?" Harry whispered in a terrified voice. "A Troll in the dungeon..."
"Shh," Hermione cooed as they turned down another corridor. "That was long ago, Love, the castle is warded against them..."
Harry didn't know what was happening to him; his world seemed to be slipping away. If he was really Harry Potter, how could he have withstood the crowds that cheered him on during Quidditch matches? How was he able to function at any of the Tri-Wizard Tournament tasks? If the books were really from his journals, how could he truly be the hero that saved them all from Voldemort?
"Hermione and Harry Potter," Hermione spoke in a clear voice. Harry thought she'd stepped three feet shy of sane when he realized she'd spoken to a bare stretch of wall.
He jumped when said wall pursed its rocky lips and spoke in a gravelly voice. "Welcome home, Mr. Potter," it said in what could only be the most cheerful voice a stone wall could emit. Then it opened wide, its lower lip sinking beneath the floor and its gray teeth elongated into a door. A large knob appeared and Hermione turned it with the familiarity of a woman holding her child. Harry stared in awe as she pulled him into the gaping maw of an archway and into the most luxuriously decorated room he'd ever seen.
"Welcome home, Love," Hermione said with tears welling in her eyes and a wide, beaming smile dominating her beautiful face.
Harry had recovered enough from his initial shock in the Great Hall and, with hands that were still trembling, turned and pulled Hermione into a desperate hug.
"Are you ok now?" she asked softly, beginning to rub his back in soothing circles. "Why didn't you tell me you suffered from Enochlophobia?"
"What? You mean my fear of crowds?" Harry asked with a shuddering breath, not wanting to give up the warmth the woman in his arms provided. Annie never made me feel like this... he thought sadly before shaking his head...
"You never had it before, could it have been implanted?" Hermione asked aloud as she led Harry to a sofa that sat in front of a roaring fire. She absently set her bag on the floor next to the end table and Harry set his luggage close by as well.
He sat with a grateful sigh and watched as Hermione gracefully took her seat next to him on the plush furnishing. As his eyes scanned her lithe form, he finally stopped at her face. Her rosy lips were pursed and her eyes had taken on a special gleam. Instant recognition sparked in his mind at the sight of Hermione's 'analysis face,' the one where she was trying to piece clues together.
She turned to him and smiled almost immediately. Her eyes roamed his face hungrily, taking in every curve, color, and hair. Hermione lifted her hand to his cheek with a maddening slowness and Harry could feel the trembling, chilled fingers gently caress his face.
Harry's eyes closed as a sigh escaped his lips and his much warmer hand covered that of his wife's.
"I've missed you..." she whispered as her voice hitched at the onset of a sob.
"I'm sorry I was gone so long..." he replied as his eyes fluttered opened, revealing the woman before him as no longer the specter that haunted his dreams for so long. "I've always felt that something was missing... I never thought I would find that piece again..."
The anguished relief that was welling within her suddenly exploded as Hermione rushed into his inviting arms. The empty spot at the back of Harry's head seemed nearly filled, his soul feeling more complete than he had ever felt in his life. Within seconds, he found himself desperately trying to devour her lips as a hunger he'd only dreamt of suddenly overcame him.
"Harry, it's been so long..." Hermione panted madly in his ear as he made short work of her long, graceful neck. "I've needed you so badly..."
Harry pulled back to regard Hermione's face. "I'm sorry-"
"Shh," she whispered softly, her finger darting to his soft lips. "No more apologies, Love..."
"No more apologies," he breathed huskily as his lips covered hers once again. Within moments, his shirt was discarded on the floor and Hermione was divested of hers as well. With one fluid motion, Harry had her in his arms and he began a stumbled walk towards the bedroom just as a knock sounded at the door.
"Bloody hell," Harry hissed in frustration.
Hermione sighed in defeat as she motioned for him to let her down. He did so with hesitation, but the soft look on her face quelled any anger at the interruption. The two of them retrieved their discarded clothing and donned the garments hastily.
Hermione brushed her hair out of her face and smoothed her blouse before approaching the door. "Yes?" she asked tentatively.
"Hermione, it's me," Ron's muffled voice wafted from the other side of the portal.
She looked back at Harry quickly before letting their redheaded friend into the room. "Where did you go?!" Hermione asked in both anger and relief. "When you left to scout the area and I scanned for you, you didn't show up!"
"Remus almost got me," Ron admitted with a breath of relief. "I had to apparate or Luna would've lost a husband."
"YOU APPARATED OUTSIDE THE WARDS?!" Hermione screeched. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?!"
"Tonks intercepted the apparation report before it hit the duplicating memo!" Ron shot back quickly, trying to calm the enraged woman before she went completely spare.
"It's lucky for you that she was at the Ministry, Ron..." Hermione said with a glare.
"Hermione, Love, calm down," Harry said soothingly and set his hands gently on her shoulders. "It's in the past, everything's ok for now..."
"That's right, Hermione," Ron said apologetically. "If I didn't have to apparate, I wouldn't have."
"I-I know," Hermione said with a resigned sigh, her anger having ebbed from her body through Harry's contact. She reached up and took his hand in hers before slumping back into his arms. "I'm sorry, Ron..."
"Don't apologize, Hermione," Ron said with a slight grin. "I wasn't thinking and should have found another way..."
"Where did you apparate to?" Harry asked quickly, trying to change the subject to something more palatable to soothe the tension in the air.
"Diagon Alley," Ron said with a shrug. "From there I used my Order ring to get back to the castle. I had to wait for a few Aurors to pass by first. I don't think I'll get used to the number of hops this ring puts you through..." Ron shook his head then slumped on the sofa as if he owned the place, not noticing the incredulous stares of both Harry and Hermione. "So, have you remembered anything else?"
Harry sighed inwardly and looked to his wife who was sharing the same thought he was. "Only bits and pieces from the night I disappeared... and a brief memory of Luna," he admitted, purposely leaving out any great detail. "I still have all of my... Scott's memories in my head though."
Ron nodded, absorbing the information and saying nothing for a few moments. "Nothing else then?"
Harry shook his head and sighed. "I really wish I could..."
"I know, mate," Ron said with a frustrated sigh. "When I get my hands on Lockhart, I'm going to rip him to shreds this time!"
"He removed part of the charm," Hermione said from Harry's side. "Every time Harry would remember something, the charm began killing him... If Lockhart hadn't done what he did, I don't think Harry would have been with us much longer..."
"But why this elaborate cover-up?" Harry asked suddenly. "Why hide me in the States when they could have just killed me outright? Why block my memory and my ability to use magic by killing me if I remembered anything or attempted a spell?!"
Ron looked Harry square in the eyes, his own wide and holding a look of disbelief. "They used a blocking charm on you?" his voice echoed dryly in the semi-dark room.
Harry and Hermione nodded in chorus. "Even if I try to do something in my sleep..." Harry said evenly. "I dreamt I was casting the Patronus charm before the Dementor attack and shortly after that I started having the same problems I did with the memory charm."
Ron looked to Hermione, the two of them sharing a silent word while Harry looked on. He knew what they were saying and he cleared his throat. "I'm right here," he said dryly.
His wife and his best mate turned to him with guilty looks on their faces and it was Hermione who responded first.
"I'm sorry, Love," she said as she went to his side and wrapped him in her arms. "Ron has been helping us for so long, it's become second nature to talk with glances like you and I did..."
"Do," Harry corrected quietly. "I know what you were saying and it won't come to that, the counter is being researched, isn't it?"
Ron sighed in relief. "It was caught on the diagnostic then?" When Harry and Hermione both nodded a smile spread across Ron's lips. "That should make things easier... I wouldn't want to try to blindly counter that curse..."
"You better leave that to the charms experts," Hermione said with a snort of laughter. "I don't want a repeat of seventh year!"
Ron laughed heartily and shook his head. "I can still remember the look on Neville's face..." Ron's voice trailed off and a troubled look settled in his eyes, all laughter in the room dying down.
"What happened?" Harry asked quietly, suddenly feeling like a third wheel in a group of people who shared far more than he could hope to.
"Neville," Hermione sniffed. "Poor Ginny..."
"I've been meaning to ask," Harry said softly. "Why doesn't Ginny know about the journals? Surely she's read the books? Weren't we close at one point?"
Hermione looked into Harry with haunted eyes. "You were... but she and Neville-"
"She's in St. Mungo's," Ron said sullenly. "So is Neville... Some curse that he'd taken trying to save a newly found Muggle-born set of twins... The family was able to get here safely with a Portkey, but Neville hasn't woken up yet, they don't know what to do at the hospital..." Ron stopped as his voice broke and he wiped away a set of tears that started cascading over the stubble on his cheeks.
"He... he and Ginny had just gotten married," Hermione said softly. "When she found out about the curse and his condition... she had a nervous breakdown and doesn't even recognize her family anymore..." Hermione held onto Harry as tightly as she could. "She couldn't know because that's when we'd finally gotten the books published."
A tear had slipped from Harry's eye at the news. He couldn't remember the two friends he'd supposedly had during his life before he'd been abducted but it hurt all the same.
"Ron, do you have a room here?" Harry asked quietly.
"Yeah," Ron said after a moment.
"Is Luna there?" Harry asked without inflection in his voice.
"She is," Ron said, a spark of realization floating along with his words. "I'll see you two in the morning, I need to be with my wife," he whispered after he'd gotten to his feet. "It's good to have you back, mate," Ron said with a brotherly hug then left the room silently.
When the door was closed firmly behind their friend, Harry looked to the woman in his arms. Her shaking shoulders had finally come to a halt and he lifted her face to his.
"Close your eyes, Love," he whispered quietly. Without protest, Hermione's eyes fluttered closed and Harry bent to kiss her tenderly. "I love you," he whispered even as her arms tightened around his neck.
"I love you too," she choked out and kissed him more passionately.
They both decided to ignore any further visitors as they stripped off their clothes and staggered back to their bedroom, finding it difficult to walk while still holding one another as if they'd both vanish.
The smirk on Sirius' face fell away as the curse hit him in the chest. Harry strained against strong, unseen arms as he watched his godfather fall backwards in a perfect arc and past the veil into the darkness beyond.
He kicked and screamed as he tried to follow after, to pull Sirius back through the gateway but Remus kept him held fast to watch helplessly as his godfather left his life for the last time.
"SSSSIIIIIIIIRIIIIIUU-"
"-UUUSSSSS!" Harry sat bolt upright, startling the already teary-eyed Hermione that had been shaking him by the shoulders in an attempt to wake him.
"Harry! It's ok," she said quickly, wrapping her arms around him tightly. "It's ok..."
He looked around the room in confusion and panic, wondering why everything was blurry. When Hermione held him to her, his senses returned. "Th-that was a... a dream, right? Th-that was just a dream..."
"Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry..." Hermione said sadly as she cradled his naked form to hers.
"That was a memory then, wasn't it?" Harry said softly, returning her embrace. An overwhelming sense of sadness overcame him as the scene played itself in his head once again. "Tonks was thorough, wasn't she?" Harry whispered into her bushy brown hair. Tears were leaving warm trails down his cheeks even as the voice of a young boy's began echoing in his head. It was my fault that he died! it cried over and over, full of remorse. Harry recognized it as his fifteen year-old voice.
"It wasn't your fault, Harry," Hermione whispered as she smoothed his hair, her warm breath floating across his ear. "It wasn't your fault..."
"I-I know..." Harry said hoarsely, having a hard time swallowing the ball of guilt that was welling in his throat. A sudden thought occurred to him and he ran his hand over a very faint scar that lay across Hermione's midsection.
"That wound was healed a long time ago, Love," Hermione cooed again in the same voice she'd been using to calm and reassure him.
"I need to read my journals," he said softly.
"I know," Hermione whispered in return, kissing him tenderly on the lips and stroking his sweat and tear soaked cheek. "Tonks is bringing them and your pensieve later this week when she can get away from the Literature Faire in Edinburgh."
"I have a pensieve as well?" Harry asked in surprise.
"It helped you so much after the war," Hermione whispered lovingly as she ran her fingers through his hair. "I can still remember how storing just a few of your memories in it helped you sleep. After you'd had time to examine them from a different perspective, you split them all, leaving copies in the pensieve."
"Did I leave all my memories there?" he asked with a slight bit of hope woven in his voice.
"No, you didn't," Hermione sighed sadly. "If you had, we could have overridden the memory charm," she explained as she cradled his head to her breasts and felt his arms slip around her waist. "You pulled every dark memory you'd ever had and studied them... I hadn't seen you so at peace with yourself before then, Love..." Hermione kissed the top of his head gently then continued running her fingers through his hair.
"It's a start," Harry said sleepily from his comfortable position.
"Please take your time sorting through them..." Hermione cautioned. "There's a lot there that will open old wounds and you'd worked so hard to heal them..."
"Love... about Neville-"
"I've done as much research as I could with our limited library," Hermione said softly. "All I know is it's somehow connected to the same phenomena as the Dementor's kiss. There's no known cure..."
Harry nodded slowly as a yawn escaped his lips.
"Sleep, Love, I'll be right here," Hermione whispered as if her breath were but a zephyr. In her arms, Harry felt warm and safe even as unconsciousness descended upon him the tendrils that nightmares extend couldn't reach him.
Harry woke to the sound of chanting outside his bedroom window. Not the shouting of one person, but the combined efforts of several hundred. He immediately noted that the woman he loved, his wife Hermione, was still cradling him to her. Harry tried not to wake her, but his eyelashes flicked across her bare breast and she started awake.
"Hmm? Harry, are you ok?" she asked sleepily then immediately snapped to full cohesiveness.
"I'm fine, Love," Harry said quietly as he stretched then placed an arm around her waist with the other propping his head to better see her. "How did you sleep?"
"I've not slept so soundly since after we were married," she said with a satisfied smile spreading ever so slowly across her rosy lips. "I've missed you so much..."
"I know," Harry said with a gentle kiss. "I'm home now..."
"And I'm not letting you leave me again!" Hermione said with a wicked smile.
Harry grinned in return when the sounds that had woken him rained in from the window once again. "What's going on outside?" Harry asked curiously, glancing at the paned glass.
"Training," Hermione said with a sigh. "Everyone that we could save or that wanted to fight against the new government is learning the ways of the Auror, Unspeakable, and Healer as a preliminary requirement."
"All three professions?" Harry said with a shock. "That's a hell of a lot of information they have to take in, not to mention the basics!"
"Its necessary," Hermione said with a sigh. "As soon as the sorting hat determines that a new witch or wizard has been born or discovered, an envoy is sent to escort them here," she explained quietly. "Especially Muggle-born children... though there've been a few leaks about whom we're trying to save; that's how Neville was caught unawares..."
Harry nodded quietly, mulling over the other questions that had come to him the previous night. "The castle...?"
"Yours," Hermione said with a slight smile. "One of the contingencies you'd planned... I didn't even know it existed until Hedwig delivered her message. It was hell trying to find her with that blasted disillusionment charm on her..."
Harry's eyes widened yet again. "We own a castle?" he asked incredulously.
"Technically, it's yours..." Hermione said with a shake of her head. "We're married but you're the lord of the place, it seems the inheritance charms were created well before women could own property..."
"So, I'm guessing the instructions I left were to use it as a new base-"
"Partly," Hermione interrupted with a smile. "There are literally thousands of safe houses that are scattered across the globe. I always wondered what you were up to on your missions abroad..." she said with a soft chuckle. "Anyway, when we realized how dangerous the new laws the Ministry put into effect were, we decided to move the school here."
"What about Hogwarts?" Harry asked inquisitively. "What about all the students before?"
"It was during break," Hermione explained softly. "It was the first time that there weren't any students in the castle so it wasn't difficult to evacuate. With the Ministry's approval, the Aurors were able to slip past the wards on the grounds and storm the castle. They found it empty and we couldn't take enough with us...
"After that, Albus set his agenda into motion," she smiled and shook her head. "You're not the only paranoid wizard out there, Harry... apparently he'd planned for this possibility. Envoys were sent out secretly to contact all the families and students to warn them. Seamus and Dean were instrumental in getting the word out to many of the Muggle-born witches and wizards. Minerva and the other professors, save Snape, were all able to contact the rest."
"Snape? What was he doing?"
"We don't know," Hermione admitted with a frown. "Apparently he'd been on a mission for Albus... We still haven't heard from him. When Hedwig caught up with us and we'd discovered what was happening," she continued, "we started sending people to safe houses. Just after that, Mundungus turned on us and Justin was captured along with several Muggle-born and their families. Kingsley killed Dung not long afterwards and went into hiding with Moody.
"Your letter revealed the castle and it accepted me as temporary steward while you were away. Albus, Minerva, Ron and I decided it was the best place to hide everyone. You don't know the scope of protective wards and charms on this place..." she smiled sheepishly and laughed. "Well, I guess you did know at one point..."
"So that's when you decided to train everyone?" Harry asked with a slight smile.
"Not long afterwards," Hermione conceded. "Remus volunteered to roam the moors each full moon to keep the legend going and the people out... The Ministry doesn't care about werewolves anymore... It's almost as if Voldemort were in charge."
Harry frowned at that statement. "But I thought I'd destroyed him... The books-"
"You did... We did," Hermione said confidently. "It was a terrible fight and I'd almost lost both you and Ron that day... But you'll see that soon enough," she added in a whisper. "I'm not sure what happened at the Ministry. I do know that Draco had somehow helped our side towards the end by killing his own father..." Harry nodded that he'd read about that in the final book. "But I think something snapped in him that day... He disappeared for quite some time before becoming an Auror. Nobody knows where he went..."
Harry buried his face in Hermione's hair and drank of her sweet scent. He felt her arms tighten around him once again and he reciprocated her embrace willingly. They lay in each other's arms for some time before Harry pulled away to kiss her slowly.
"I think we need to move Ginny and Neville here," he said quietly. "Before you say no, I think it would be safer for the two of them if they were among friends and family. It's already started to help me... I can't use magic, but I'm going to break this memory charm if it's the last thing I do..."
"I agree with you, Love," Hermione said with a smile. "The problem is getting them out of St. Mungo's... Ginny could easily go by Order ring, but Neville could die during transportation..."
"What about Susan? Could she get him out? Say, if she were to take him to a specialist?" Harry asked quizzically.
"You've gotten sneakier," Hermione said with a twinkle in her eyes. "I suppose she could, she's his mediwizard... She's also Ginny's."
"Well, we have a plan, let's see if we can get the others to agree with it," Harry said with a smile as Hermione slid closer to him.
A seductive smile spread across her lips as she gently pushed him to his back then straddled him. "We have some time before anyone is free from lessons," she purred as his hands cupped her cheeks and brought her down for a long, passionate kiss.