By the time Harry returned to Hogwarts, dinner was almost halfway through. He entered the Great Hall to see everyone with their face buried in the Daily Prophet. Wait a minute, why had it arrived in the evening?
"Harry!" Ron shouted when he saw his best friend. He leapt out of his seat and raced to the front of the Great Hall.
"Harry…look at this…the Daily Prophet just ran an emergency issue. Someone attacked Hermione's parents!"
Ron showed him the paper, and Harry looked at the cover on the front page. Sure enough, there was the Granger household smoldering in a towering inferno. The picture then changed to show the house lying in ruins. Harry's face remained expressionless, but his eyes scanned the room for Hermione.
"Ron, where is she?" He didn't have to say her name.
"When she heard what happened, she ran up to her room and locked herself in; I can't even begin to think what she's feeling right now," he said sadly.
Harry looked up towards the professors' table, and he found Dumbledore gazing at him intently. The older man nodded his head, and Harry had the distinct impression that he knew what was going on. He nodded in return before turning back to Ron.
"I'm gonna go talk to her; all I can do for right now is be there for her."
Ron nodded with a sorrowful look in his eyes, and Harry turned to exit the Great Hall.
As Harry headed up to Gryffindor Tower, he had the feeling that he was being watched. Halfway up the next staircase, he stopped and turned his head.
"All right, who's ever following me, you better come out now; I'm not in the mood for games right now!" he growled.
Cassandra stepped out front behind a suit armor with confident smirk on her face.
"Hello Harry, how nice to see you?"
"What do you want, Cassandra?"
"Oh, I already made it perfectly clear what I want," she said with a seductive smile.
"You're the one who destroyed Hermione's house aren't you?" he accused.
"Yes, she is…" another voice laughed, "…and quite a pleasant site it was."
Malfoy came out of his hiding place, and the anger in Harry's eyes tripled.
"I should've known you'd slither out from somewhere. I knew that Cassandra couldn't have found Hermione's address without help. After all, Hogwarts students' information is only accessible by the Ministry of Magic."
"True, I did give her the Mudblood's address, and it was so nice to see the barbecue she made of the place!" Malfoy laughed sadistically.
Harry clenched his fists, and the flames on the torches on the wall began to flicker wildly as his power roared through his veins.
"I swear, I will personally see to it that you two rot in Azkaban for the rest of your lives!"
"Very funny, but you can prove nothing. You better come down off your high horse, or you'll lose everything. Then again, you're going to lose it anyway," Malfoy snickered.
"Don't worry, my plan will come to its full fruition in a matter of days, and then, you will be mine, and that stupid girl will be nothing more than a memory."
The pair laughed happily and headed off in the opposite direction. Harry had been about a millisecond away from hexing them both into next year, but he had to control his temper. A small grin actually crossed his face as he saw who was floating high up in the rafters - Moaning Myrtle.
"Myrtle, am I glad to see you? Tell me, did you just here that whole conversation."
"Of course, Harry, those two sound like they're up to no good."
"They are, and I need your help. Don't tell anyone about what you heard. Just keep it a secret for now. Cassandra and Malfoy didn't see so they don't know that you heard them talking. I need you trust me on this, Myrtle."
"Sure, Harry, I won't say anything; I promise."
"Thanks. You better go; I'll come find you when I need you."
The ghost flew off, heading for her bathroom, and Harry continued of the stairs to Gryffindor Tower.
Harry took a deep breath and opened the door to Hermione's room. The young woman was curled up in a fetal position on her bed, crying her eyes out. Her body was shaking, and Harry felt his heart break for her; she didn't know the truth.
"Sweetheart?" he said softly and sat down next to her. She didn't respond to him right away, and he reached for her.
"Hermione," he said soothingly and wrapped his arms around her.
The young woman heard her lover's voice, and she slowed uncurled her body. Opening her eyes, she saw his emerald spheres glowing with love and concern.
"Harry!" She dove into his lap and bawled into his chest.
"Shh…everything's going to be all right."
He ran his hands through her chestnut locks and let Hermione cry herself out. Eventually, her tears came to a halt, and she looked up at Harry with a face of utter despair.
"Why…why did she have to destroy my house…and…my parents? Why? Am I so horrible that I made a person hate me so much?"
Harry was mortified at her words; she thought this was her fault!
"Hermione…don't you dare think that you had something to do with this. Cassandra did this because she's jealous of what we have; she'll do anything to get what she wants. You've done nothing wrong, my love."
"Harry…I have nothing now…no home…no family…"
"That's not true, Hermione."
"Yes, it is!" she countered vehemently, "I have nobody now…well…except you, but it's not the same thing!"
It wasn't meant to sound insulting to Harry, and he didn't take offense to her comments. She was right; he could never replace her parents - nor did he want to. In fact, he began to chuckle.
"What's so funny, Potter?"
"Hermione…what would you say if I told you that both your parents and your house are perfectly fine?"
"I would say that you've lost your mind."
"Then call me crazy, Herm, because they are. Your parents are safe, and your house is still in one piece."
The hope in his eyes almost convinced her.
"Harry, this isn't funny; it's on the front page of the Daily Prophet."
"Oh that, you mean the ruined house…well…I had a hand in that."
"What are you talking about?"
"You see, Herm, I got to your house just after Cassandra arrived. She'd hexed your parents pretty badly, but they were still alive. I apparated into your kitchen and saw them lying on the floor. I could sense Cassandra casting her spell and did the only thing I could to deceive her; I used the phoenix."
"What are you saying?" Hermione asked with hope in her voice.
"Cassandra launched a giant fireball at your house. So, what I did was wait till just before it hit the roof and released the phoenix. Its flames expanded out until it reached to just outside the structure, and the fireball impacted with them. It exploded, and the flames from the phoenix made it look like the whole house was on fire, but nothing was damaged. Your father was a little nervous about sitting in middle of a blazing fire, but I assured him that everything was fine. I waited until Cassandra used her portkey to leave, and the phoenix's fire died down."
"So…my parents are alive!"
"Yup, they were a little banged up, but they'll be just fine."
"But, what about the house? If you said that it wasn't damaged, then why does it look destroyed in the paper?"
Harry grinned widely at her.
"Oh that…well…I figured that Cassandra would be suspicious if your house didn't look destroyed so I threw a large glamour over the whole area to make it look ruined."
"You mean an illusion?"
"Exactly."
Hermione was absolutely speechless; Harry had done the impossible again. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his lips to hers.
The young man was caught off guard when Hermione smothered him in her embrace. She pushed him onto his back and practically sucked the life out of him.
"Wow!" he gasped when she finally let him go.
"Thank you…thank you…thank you…" she rattled off a thousand times in a matter of seconds.
"I made you a promise, Hermione, and I'm not about to break it."
"So…mom and dad…they're really okay?" she asked with a hopeful smile.
"They're fine, my love, an old friend of mine is looking after them."
"Oh Harry," she sighed and gave him another long, hot kiss.
"Herm, would you like to see your parents?"
"Really? Well…I…yes, I actually would. Is that all right?"
"Of course, sweetheart," he sighed and helped her to her feet.
"Come on, I'll take you to them."
Hermione stepped into his arms, and Harry pulled her against his chest. Then, with a slight twitch of his eye, the two disapparated out of their dormitory.
Author's Notes: Just a quick little interlude chapter here. I'm keying up for the final act to begin so stay tuned.