Chapter Four
Unexpected
Harry didn't think he could take this much longer. He'd been stuck in this room with Russell Tipton, one of the suspects that they'd captured the previous evening. Tipton wasn't saying much of anything. He'd kept his answers to Harry's questions short and simple, not muttering more than a "yes" or "no" to anything Harry asked.
Of course, he hadn't expected Tipton to be forthcoming with information. These people were loyal to a fault, Harry had to admit. He'd been with Tipton for nearly three hours and hadn't accomplished much of anything. Well, that wasn't exactly true. Harry had determined without a doubt that Tipton had to have the worst breath in the free world. It reminded him of Fluffy, the three-headed dog who had guarded the Sorcerer's Stone.
"Okay, Tipton," Harry began. "The way I see it, you have two options. The first being that you can tell me what I want to hear and have guaranteed immunity."
"And the other?" Tipton asked.
"The other is the less desirable one. You could spend the rest of your miserable life holed up in Azkaban with nothing but Dementors for company. Now, I don't know about you, but I know which one I'd choose," Harry said.
"I've already told you that I don't know anything," Tipton said.
"We both know that's not the truth," Harry said.
"Okay, say I do know something," Tipton said. "How can you guarantee that they won't find me and punish me for such an act of treason?"
"We can set you up in the Wizard Protection Program," Harry said. "You can get a new name, a new identity, a new life. What other choice do you have, Tipton? You can end this dismal life of yours and start things over. We can guarantee your safety, if you can guarantee us information. Quid Pro Quo, Tipton, Quid Pro Quo."
"You can do that?" Tipton said, taking the bait.
"We can do that," Harry said. "You have my word."
"Okay," Tipton said. "What do you want to know?"
"We know that the Ministry was the number one target of your group, but what other places did they have in their sights?" Harry asked.
"Not just places, Mr. Potter," Tipton said. "People."
"People?"
"Yes," Tipton said. "Namely Albus Dumbledore."
"You'd never be able to get into Hogwarts," Harry said. "That place has too many hidden protections."
"We knew that," Tipton said. "We were going to try and get him while he was at the Ministry, the plan was to send him an emergency owl saying that he was needed immediately at the Ministry."
"Well, the Ministry has protections, too," Harry said. "Almost as many as Hogwarts."
"We had someone on the inside," Tipton said. "And before you ask me who it is, no, I don't know who it was. All I know is that we had someone on the inside."
"You expect me to believe that?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Tipton said. "I'm telling you the Merlin's honest truth. We have a number of people stationed at both Hogwarts and the Ministry. Moles, if you will."
"Okay," Harry said. "But you have no idea who these people were?"
"No, besides, I was just a drone, Mr. Potter. A goon, a stooge, if you will. They weren't going to let me in on the big details, you know? All I knew was that there were people on our side stationed throughout both places just waiting to make a move."
"And they are still there, right now?"
"Yes, as far as I know," Tipton said.
"Okay, so Dumbledore was a target," Harry said. "Who else?"
"There are a couple of researchers in the Ministry who we were also looking at. Namely, a Dr. Granger."
"Hermione Granger?"
"Yeah, I think that's her name," Tipton said. "The Dark Lord was always impressed with her. Before he died, he used to say that she would have been great use to us on our side. He used to say a mind like hers was a terrible thing to waste."
"Tell me what the plan for her was, now," Harry said, firmly. He could feel the anger rising up in him. A little voice in the back of his head told him that he'd better keep cool. He couldn't let his emotions get the better of him, not now. Not now, when he was so close to having the information he'd been after for so long.
"I'm not really sure," Tipton said. "All I know is that she's been working on some top-secret research that some of our higher authorities wanted. She and her assistant, Dean Thomas."
"You better not by lying to me," Harry said. "I swear to you, if anything happens to Hermione Granger because you didn't tell me all that you knew, I will personally hunt you down and you'll wish you were in Azkaban."
"I am telling you the truth," Tipton said. "You know all I know. Honestly."
………..
Ten minutes later, Harry walked out of the room. Sirius was sitting on a couch drinking a butterbeer.
"Any luck?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah," Harry said, sitting down. He took off his glasses, and rubbed his eyes. "I offered Tipton immunity and he spilled his guts."
Harry recounted everything Tipton had told him. Sirius listened, attentively.
"Hermione?" he asked when Harry finished talking. "Well, what are you going to do?"
"Me?" Harry said. "I can't do anything. Besides, I think we need to get someone to brief Hermione on the situation and have her on 24-hour surveillance."
"So do I," Sirius said. "And I think it should be you."
"Someone else could do it," Harry said. "Besides, you know that she's not going to want to see me."
"She might," Sirius said. "She needs you, Harry."
"I can't. It's been too long. Too much time has passed."
"You've never been one to back away from a challenge," Sirius said. "And I'd say you've got a pretty big one here. Besides, you said your biggest objective was to keep her safe. She needs you. You might be the only chance she's got. We have no idea who's on the inside plotting against them. You're the one, Harry. There's no other option."
"Sirius, you have no idea what you're asking me to do," Harry said. "I can't."
"Yes you can," Sirius said. "I have faith in you. You can do this. She needs you, Harry."
Harry just sat there. He knew Sirius was right. Truth be told, he wanted to go. He wanted to see her. She, on the other hand, probably had no desire to see him. She'd probably slam the door in his face.
"Okay," he said. "I'll do it."
"I knew you would make the right decision," Sirius said.
"Yeah," Harry said. "So when do I leave?"
"Immediately," Sirius said. "The sooner Hermione knows her life is in danger, the better off we'll be. I'm going to send an owl to the Ministry requesting wizard surveillance of her flat. You better get your things together quickly."
"Okay," Harry said, following Sirius. "What have I gotten myself into?" Harry thought to himself. "What have I gotten myself into?"
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Later that night, Hermione and Ron were walking back to her flat. It was nearly one o'clock in the morning. Ron kept teasing his fiancée about the yawns that she kept trying to stifle.
"Hermione," Ron said. "Weren't you the same person who told me she wasn't too tired to walk. The same person who said it was too nice a night to just apparate back to your place."
"I'm just sleepy, not tired," she said.
"What's the difference?" he asked.
"Well, you can be sleepy and not be tired," she said, yawning.
"Well, that settles it," he said. "I know that you are tired because you're starting to not make any sense at all."
"I'm too tired to even begin to argue with you," she said, laughing.
"Ah-hah!" Ron said. "Further proof that you are too tired. You have never been too tired to argue with me."
"Okay," she said. "I am tired. I give up. You were right and I was wrong."
"What was that?" he asked. "Could you say that again? I think I'm going to need to hear that one more time."
"You heard me," she said. "Don't get used to that---that whole you being right and me being wrong. I don't think it's apt to happen too often."
They had finally reached the front steps of Hermione's flat.
"You want me to go up with you?" he asked.
"Nah, you don't have to," she said. "I'm just going to crash, anyway. How much fun could that be?"
"I love watching you sleep," he said, sincerely.
"Well, after we get married, you can watch me sleep all that you want to, but for now, you have to get home and get packed and I have a warm bed calling at me."
Ron was a professional Quidditch player for the Chudley Canons. He was a keeper and the Canons had a three-game road trip starting tomorrow in Ireland.
"Yeah, I know," he said. "You can't blame me for trying, though."
"Yes, you get an A+ for effort," she said. "Now get out of here."
He kissed her softly. "Okay, okay."
"I love you," she said.
"I love you, too," he said. "Now go upstairs and go to bed, that's a direct order."
"You do realize that they took the word 'obey' out of the whole, 'love, honor and cherish' thing?" she asked, teasingly.
"I thought that was just a rumor," he said, turning to leave. "Good night, Hermione."
"Good night, Ron."
Hermione had only been inside her apartment for a few minutes when the doorbell rang.
Thinking it was Ron making another attempt to stay the night, Hermione laughed as she walked toward the door.
"I told you that you should go home, Ron," she said, opening the door.
It wasn't Ron standing outside her door, however. It was Harry.