What is Love?
A/N: Here you go! Next chapter. The start of the end! :D Happy reading!
CHAPTER XXIII
The old gang
All that we were is gone we have to hold on
When all our hope is gone we have to hold on
All that we were is gone but we can hold on
Were in this together now
None of them can stop us now
(.- We're in this together
by Nine Inch Nails)
2004 - Hermione's flat, outskirts of London
"How did you come across this information, Hermione?" Harry asked, the ephemeral feeling that things might just turn out fine gone with the wind.
"I- have an informant, and he asked me to tell you and the others."
"Why would someone contact a reporter and not the Department?" Harry asked, a little annoyed.
Good Merlin, exactly the same trail of thought as me, she laughed with herself for a split second and immediately shrugged it away, wondering how the hell she could be thinking something like that in a moment like this. "He was told to contact me, I have a lot of information, you said it yourself, remember?" she responded defiantly, catching on Harry's annoyance.
He shook his head, knowing that if he continued with that track of conversation, he would be in for a long while with an annoyed Hermione, and he certainly did not want that. "Fine, sorry. What did your source tell you?"
"You're being picked one by one," she explained, relaxing at his try to make a smooth trip of this.
He rolled his eyes. "Please tell me something I don't know."
"Would you stop being a know-it-all and let me talk, Harry?" she retorted between gritted teeth. Harry stayed silent. "Thanks," she sighed and started. "There is a relation between the killed; it's not just the two top divisions. Ginny is also in danger." Not to mention me and Ron as well.
Harry stared at her, bewildered. "That is not possible; they have only killed people from the divisions."
"Except for Kingsley."
Silence.
"There is more to it."
"No, Hermione, you're getting it all wrong, Kingsley was killed in action," Harry contradicted, not wanting to believe there was a connection he hadn't seen.
"Stop with the Prophet information, Harry. I write it, remember?" she reprimanded.
"Hello? What am I missing?" Ron interrupted the tense moment.
The two turned to their friend at the same time and apparently noticed him for the first time. "There have been-" the two of them stopped at the same time. "Aurors are being-" they stopped again. "You go on-" For the third time they quieted after speaking at the same time.
"Hey! One at the time. Ginny is involved here too!" Ron saw how both started to talk and he motioned Harry to not talk. The young man obliged.
Struggling to contain the smile, Hermione sobered when Ron mentioned Ginny in danger. "Not only her, but you and me as well. And Luna."
"What do you mean, you too?" Harry interrupted before Hermione could continue.
"That's where I was trying to get to," she said with a slight glare to her former lover; the trio had sure lost their ability to know when it was time for each to speak and the particular -and extremely functional- way of discussing how to proceed in each occasion. She turned her attention back to Ron and continued. "In the past three months, high-ranking aurors have been killed systematically."
"And what's that got to do with my sister?" he asked, his overprotective brother temper rising.
"Calm down, Ron, I am sure Ginny is all right," Harry started.
"For the time being at least; she is not next in the list for two more names."
"What's that mean?" Now it was time for Harry's frustration to get the best of his temper.
"That indeed there is a list, and you and Remus are at the top of it."
"Exactly. The two heads of Division 1 and 2." Harry said, hanging on to anything to deny that he'd put his loved ones, once again, in danger. He glanced at Ron, no one was supposed to know of this. The fact that Hermione knew was already a danger.
"He's already in too deep, Harry, it's ok," Hermione provided, reading his look.
Getting increasingly annoyed at the fact that Hermione could still read him so easily, Harry had to calm his own emotions before continuing. "Fine. Eleven aurors have been killed so far. All except for Kigsley were part of two of the highest, most secret divisions of the Enforcement corps. There are four of us left and we thought we had it figured out, but apparently not," he finished the explanation.
"I repeat. What's that got to do with my sister?"
"And you, and me, and Luna. We were all at the Ministry, remember?"
"But that doesn't make sense, Mione, you are talking about two completely different groups of people."
"No, not at all. This is something I came across when I was investigating on Albus' disappearance. Remember how the day of the final battle, Voldemort and his Death Eaters attacked Hogwarts before we left for their quarters?"
"Of course, how could I forget?"
"Right, well, the attack was much better planned than we imagined. There were actually four more groups from the Enforcement department in line for the battle; each was supposed to come from a different direction so they could siege Voldemort's quarters."
"I don't understand," Harry continued, this was too much information for one night and his head was already buzzing from all of it, trying to make sense out of the pieces Hermione dropped on him.
She sighed. "We were divided, remember?"
"Three groups, yeah. One with us, one with Neville and Ginny, and one with Ron and Luna."
"And the aurors were supposed to come before we left so we wouldn't go alone."
"Right." Harry followed Hermione's explanation and Ron tried his best to do so as well while remembering how angry he was that Harry got to go with Hermione and not him.
"Well, the aurors had a whole other plan. They were divided into four groups, with two leaders apiece. Each group was supposed to take a cardinal point, north, east, west and south."
"Yeah, yeah, we know the cardinal points, Hermione, we're not stupid."
"Fine, I was just trying to keep it simple because it is anything but!" she retorted angrily.
"Hey! Stop it. And continue," Harry directed Ron and Hermione respectively.
The two grunted and Hermione went on with her explanation. "All right, so we have our six leaders. The aurors had their eight leaders as well and their scouts. The Death Eaters… well, the Falange nowadays," she glanced at Ron to see if he was still with her and with satisfaction she saw he was. "They knew those twelve would be the vertexes in the auror organization up till now, so they started in the obvious place: the scouts; three of them had already retired from the force, so evidently you weren't informed-"
"Hold on one second. Ginny was in sixth year when the final battle occurred…"
Amazing, she continued to marvel at how alike they had always been in their ways of thinking; only that Harry always used to choose the emotional over the logical, unlike herself. Hermione shook herself mentally and proceeded. "Ginny had been possessed by young Riddle when she was 11; she always knew more about him than she thought. My informant told me she was the one to crack the weak point. Is that true?" she asked, unwillingly jealous that it had been Ginny and not herself who gave Harry the final weapon against Voldemort.
"Yes, she told me how to channel my mom's magic so the spell Dumbledore taught me would work."
"Oh, ok," she simply said and immediately, Draco's voice echoed in her head: who do you think he chose to cast the spell? She smiled and the jealousy was gone.
A second later, Harry's sight got lost in the far corner of Hermione's flat, where the picture of the three was located. Two pairs of eyes on him; they wondered what the hell was going on.
Harry gasped and started, more to himself. "Bloody hell! We've been going the wrong path all the time!" He turned his green eyes to his two best friends. "And now you are in danger too! Bloody hell!" He started pacing. "Not again, for crying out loud. Bloody hell!" He kept repeating, seemingly too engrossed in his own thoughts to notice the other two.
"Harry, Harry! For Merlin's sake, stop it!" she nearly screamed and took the auror by surprise, who stopped and glanced blankly at her. "What are you thinking? As much as I can legilimens, I am not that good," she said exasperated.
The young man continued his ranting. "I specifically told Remus I didn't want you involved in any of this anymore, and now I've led them to you, again! I've to get out of here," he said quickly and started to turn towards the door.
It was Ron's time to step in now and for the first time in over five years. "Oh, no mate, you're not doing this again," the redhead took him by the arm; he knew exactly what Harry was about to do. He would set off in yet another aimless mission and 'play it by ear'. And that was one thing he wasn't going to let his former best friend do to him and Hermione again.
"What are you talking about? How is it that you suddenly want to be part of it all again?" Harry responded rather heatedly; not really thinking what he was saying.
"I don't," Ron responded, his ears turning bright red with anger. "I just don't want to get killed."
"Then let me go," Harry retorted, fury clearly emanating form his intense eyes and things around the flat starting to vibrate from sheer magic in the air.
"Not without knowing what the hell you plan to do."
"I don't have to-"
"Quiet! Now! And Harry, get a grip, you'll bring my flat down!" a hormonal Hermione screamed over both men's exchange. Harry looked around, surprised, and took a deep, calming breath. After the things around them settled, she continued, "Harry, you are NOT leaving this place without at least telling us what to do and Ron, I can worry about myself as well. So speak."
He was taken by surprise by this outburst and knew better not to push this further. He sighed and began. "I have to go tell Remus and then-"
"That much we knew, tell us something we don't," she reprimanded, echoing Harry's words from earlier without even realizing it.
"If you let me speak, I could," he retorted and met a look that could bring many to their knees in fear. He continued, ignoring the shudder that traveled through his spine. "We've got to gather the ones left and let them know everything," he saw both Ron and Hermione's mouth open to speak and raised his voice. "All the aurors, so we can protect the others."
"We're not some witness you can bring into your house for protection, you know?" she referred to the way Harry and Lariana got to live together after the breakup and closed her mouth so quickly that she missed a breath and coughed in return.
Harry was shocked; that wasn't like Hermione to burst out something like that. And then it hit him. Oh crap! She's pregnant. He remembered and made a mental note to be careful on what he said when around her.
"You all right?" Ron reacted, oblivious to the reference, and put a hand on her back when Harry didn't.
"Yes, yes, fine," she said quickly, waving her hand dismissively and flushing bright pink at Harry's reaction and the surprise of having made that comment. "Point is, Harry, you cannot push us away again, we're not kids anymore."
"It's not pushing you away, it's just trying to protect you guys," he explained, much more carefully and meeting a glare from his brown-haired friend.
"Of course it is! Just like back at school! We were perfectly capable of doing everything you did and yet, you preferred to go on your own," Ron continued with Hermione's objections.
"Yes, you are right in that. You most definitely were," Harry said, looking at each straight in the eye, much to their surprise. "But this is five years later; when was the last time you were in a wizard's duel?" Silence. "See? These are the same Death Eaters we faced back then, but they have been in action, whilst you haven't."
"It's not like you forget it, Harry…" Ron tried, less convinced now.
"But you lose practice."
"Even so, you will need us… at least me. I have the passes you need; the ones Lariana could not get."
"What? How did you-" the astonishment in his face was unmistakable.
"My informant's got connections. And you will need him as well."
"I am not liking this, Hermione."
"Too bad," she replied defiantly.
"Well, if she goes, then I go too." Ron said with finality.
Harry sighed. "Fine, we've got to go to Grimmauld Place first, then," he said at last and turned to Ron. "D'you remember how to get there?"
"Of course I do! We pretty much lived there for three years, remember?"
The young man smiled at his former best friend. "Off we go then. You must apparate outside and I'll open the door for you. We'll get you apparition passes as soon as possible," he said and disapparated.
The two smiled in spite of themselves. To both their surprise, it felt amazingly good to be back like this again. It only felt right.