Chapter Six - Bondus Averto
When she woke up again, daylight was streaming through the window, and a pair of intense
green eyes was staring at her. "Hey, sleepyhead, what are you doing in here?" he whispered.
"Mum said it would be alright, " she whispered back. His eyes widened.
They were interrupted by a groan, "You guys make me sick. I thought mum said separate rooms?"
"Well MY mother said it would be alright, " answered Hermione. "Besides, it's not like we
did anything but sleep."
"Ewww," said Ron, "I don't even want to consider that."
Hermione reached down, grabbed her dressing gown from the floor, and then slipped it on
under the covers.
"What, you starkers?" asked Ron with a grimace, "Double eww..."
"No, Ron, " she said primly, "I was wearing a nightgown, I simply didn't want to dress in
front of you." She slipped out of bed, gave Harry a kiss, and went out the door.
"We need to get you a girlfriend, " said Harry, with a grin.
Ron groaned. "That's all I need. I have a hard enough time understanding her--and she's
not my girlfriend."
"Ron, mate, " said Harry seriously, "are you really okay with this?"
Ron sat up and looked at Harry. "Harry, I meant what I said yesterday. Hermione and I
weren't meant to be...hell, I knew that last year. But if you hurt her, well, what that bond
will do to you will be NOTHING to what I do to you, got me?"
Harry nodded.
"Good. Now can we drop it? I'm hungry." He got out of bed, and started to dress. "Let's
hurry up and get downstairs so you two can moon at each other while I'm eating."
He wasn't expecting that pillow that knocked him on the floor while he had one leg in his pants,
and the other out.
-*~*~*~*~*-
When Harry and Ron finally thumped downstairs, they were both laughing and acting like nothing
had changed between them. They both knew that things had changed in a rather significant way,
but neither felt that it was worth worrying about.
They came into the kitchen and found the Grangers, Ginny, Remus, and Molly sitting around the
table eating breakfast. Harry flopped down into the open chair next to Hermione, and Ron sat
next to his sister, across from Harry.
"And how did you two sleep last night?" inquired Mrs. Weasley.
"I slept great, " said Ron with a laugh, "but it was kind of gross waking up and seeing those two
lying in bed staring at each other. And that is ALL they were doing."
Hermione and Harry both turned bright red.
"Oh, really, " inquired Mr. Granger. He eyed Harry and Hermione thoughtfully for a moment,
and then smiled. "Don't worry, sweetheart, your mother told me last night what she told you."
Molly Weasley raised an eyebrow and said, "That better have been all they were doing with
you in the room."
If Harry and Hermione could have turned any redder, they would've. "Mrs. Weasley, "
choked out Harry, "please..."
She laughed. "I know you wouldn't do anything, either of you. But it was fun to see your
expressions."
There was a burst of flame from the kitchen fireplace and Dumbledore stepped through.
"Professor!" said Harry, "Are Tonks and Mad-Eye okay?"
"They're fine, Harry, " answered Dumbledore. He looked at the Grangers. "However, I do
have some bad news."
"What?" asked Mr. Granger, paling slightly.
"When Voldemort and the Death Eaters realized that you had successfully escaped last night,
they took out their frustration on the only thing available...I'm sorry, but they destroyed your
home."
Mr. and Mrs. Granger turned white, while Hermione gasped. Harry grabbed her hand and
held it, but his mood was shifting from the happy one he'd been in earlier to...
"Harry James Potter, " said Hermione, "Don't you do it! This was not your fault!" She
started crying, "Harry, please, I need your support, not you feeling guilty about something
you had nothing to do with!"
The table went silent at Hermione's outburst.
"'Mione, honey, they were only there because they were looking for me. If I hadn't been there..."
"Harry! That's not true, and you know it!" She paused, "Harry, what am I?"
"What?" he said completely confused.
"What am I?" she insisted.
"I don't know what you mean, " he said.
"To them, I am nothing but a dirty mudblood, and my parents are nothing but Muggles!
That is what I mean." She quieted. "Harry, they would have done this regardless of whether
or not you were there." She looked fiercely at him, "But the difference is, because you were
there, my parents are still alive. Love; don't you know how much that means to me?
The house can be replaced, but they can't!" She stared down at the table, her eyes suspiciously wet.
Mr. Granger spoke up. "Harry, speaking as the owner of the house in question, she makes
a very good point." He squeezed his wife's hand. "Yes, we had a lot of memories tied up in
that house, and some things that meant a lot to us, but things can be replaced. Our lives can't."
"Harry, " said Mrs. Granger, "Bob's right. We had insurance, although I suspect that
they'll
probably tell us it was an act of God and refuse to pay. But that isn't your fault either."
Harry looked embarrassed for a moment, and then turned to Hermione and hugged him to
her while she finally gave in to her feelings and cried in his arms.
"That leads us to our other problem, " said Dumbledore. "For the present time, your lives
will be in great danger. I realize that you are not going to want to take time away from your
dentistry practice, but I believe I can arrange adequate protection for the times that you are
there. However, unless Harry objects to the idea, I think you should continue to reside here
until the danger has passed."
Harry looked up at that and said, "No, I have no problem with that. They can stay here as
long as they want."
"Thank you, Harry, " said Dumbledore.
"Harry, thank you," said Hermione, wiping tears out of her eyes.
He patted her hand, and smiled. "Can't very well throw my future in-laws out on the street,
now can I?" he joked, "What kind of impression do you think that would make?"
She giggled.
Dumbledore looked at Hermione's parents. "I suggest you take the rest of the day off today,
and adjust to your new surroundings. It can be quite surprising to non-magical people when
they live in a magical household-and this house in particular."
"We can't just stay here all the time though," said Elizabeth Granger, "Our patients depend
on us."
Dumbledore smiled at her. "I have no doubt of that. Tomorrow, I will have a couple of
Aurors arrive to escort you to work."
"Aurors?" asked Mr. Granger.
"Magical policemen, daddy," answered Hermione.
"You have that kind of pull? I thought you were just the headmaster of Hermione's
school," said Mr. Granger.
Dumbledore smiled slightly, "You might say I have a few contacts in high places."
Ron snorted.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he said, "Yes, Mr. Weasley?"
"Nothing, Headmaster," Ron replied and he went back to shoveling food in his mouth.
"Oh, one more thing. While I realize that you children are not supposed to use magic
while on summer holidays until you are of age; I just thought you might like to know
that the Ministry can't detect it here. Feel free to help Mrs. Weasley clean the house."
Dumbledore smiled and flooed back to Hogwarts.
-*~*~*~*~*-
After breakfast, Harry and Hermione wandered out to the front hall where the annoying
picture of Mrs. Black had hung and found nothing there. Instead the wall looked scorched
and blackened, and soot covered the ceiling above where the painting used to hang.
Remus wandered out after them. "Wondering where it went?" he asked.
They nodded.
"Finally decided to try a Muggle method. Doused it in gasoline and then tossed an incendio
after it. Singed my eyebrows, but it got rid of the painting." He sighed, "I wish I'd done it
earlier. I think Sirius would have enjoyed it."
Harry nodded. "Yes, he would've. That was the sort of thing he liked to do."
Hermione squeezed Harry's hand and looked at him reassuringly.
"You take good care of Harry, Hermione," said Remus.
She blushed.
He studied them for a moment. "You know, you two seem to be good for each other. Harry
seems less brooding and worried about what's coming, and you Hermione, are suddenly
more open about your feelings and you spend less time with your books."
Hermione looked at him, "My priorities have shifted slightly, Harry's happiness is now most
important, with grades a close second of course." She laughed, "I haven't changed that much."
"That's pretty much the same with me, Professor Lupin," said Harry. "Hermione can't be happy
if I'm brooding and unhappy, so I try not to be."
Hermione looked at Harry for a moment, "I'll be right back, okay?"
"Sure," he answered.
She went back into the kitchen.
"So, how's bonded life, Harry?" asked Remus with a smile.
"Umm, this is only day three, but I'm enjoying it so far. I think we're still trying to figure out this thing."
"You really love her, don't you?"
"More than anything," said Harry. He suddenly grinned and said quietly, "Except maybe Quidditch,
but don't tell her I said that." Remus grinned.
"I heard that, Harry Potter!" said Hermione from the kitchen.
Harry looked at the kitchen entry in amazement. "How the...oh, the bond. Arrgh."
Hermione came out of the kitchen. "Come on you," she said. "We need to talk." They went
upstairs
to the library. "Mrs. Weasley said she'd keep Ron and Ginny occupied for a while, so that we could
have a talk about a few things," said Hermione.
"Okay," answered Harry.
"However, I suggest we clean as well. We're going to be spending some time in here studying, and
I for one would prefer a clean study area."
"We are?"
"Harry, we both have assignments due, and I would say that you probably haven't even been able
to get started on yours because of the Dursley's, am I right?"
He nodded ruefully, "Yeah, I remember hearing Snape in my head saying something like 'too busy
answering fan mail to do your homework, Potter?' when they made me put my trunk under the
stairs this summer."
She smiled. "He really has it in for you, doesn't he?"
Harry sighed, remembering what he'd seen in the pensieve.
"What's wrong," asked Hermione, concerned.
"Umm."
"Harry?"
He looked at her. "I can trust you to not tell anyone this, right? I...I don't want to violate Snape's privacy."
"Violate Snape's privacy?" she exclaimed.
Harry nodded. "It's something I learned when he was trying to teach me Occlumency-it was a memory
he tried to keep from me by putting it in a pensieve, but I looked at it when he wasn't in the room."
She looked at him. "Harry, of course you can trust me. I won't tell anyone about it."
He smiled, and said, "I should have known that without even asking. Snape doesn't exactly hate me;
it's
my father he's mad at. Apparently my father teased and tormented him unmercifully while they were at
Hogwarts, and since dad is dead, he takes it out on me."
"That's hardly fair, Harry. Haven't you tried to do something about it?"
"Like what?" he inquired, "Until Snape gets over his anger at my father; which isn't bloody
likely, he's
not going to see anything in me except my father."
"Harry," said Hermione with concern.
"Let's just drop it, okay? It's not something that we can do anything about." She sighed, and
then
nodded. She looked away for a moment, and then looked critically at the dusty, heavy, black
drapes covering the windows. "You mind if I change these to something else? I was thinking
something in a flower print-this place is depressing."
He laughed. "Making your mark on your home already?" He came up behind her where she stood
looking at the drapes and drew her into a hug, her back pressed up against him. He playfully
nuzzled the back of her neck with his lips and she giggled.
"Harry, if we keep this up, we'll never get anything done." She stepped away from him and drew
her wand from the pocket in her robes. "Go dust books or something."
"Yes, ma'am," he said fondly.
It took her almost ten minutes of transfiguring the drapes before she settled on one particular print.
Harry had to admit that it distinctly improved the room's appearance.
"That looks nice, Hermione," he said.
"Thank you, Harry," she said absently, as she moved onto transfiguring the black tablecloth covering
a small, round table that sat next to one of the reading chairs into a lace doily. "Harry," she said, as
she waved her wand.
"Yes, love?" he asked, as he sent a scourgify shooting along the row of books he was currently cleaning.
"What else had you so upset this summer? Besides Sirius, that is..." She could feel the sudden turmoil
and fear that the question generated along their bond, and she turned to him in concern. "Harry?"
He looked at her tiredly for a moment, and then flopped down in one of the chairs, hiding his face in
his hands. After a moment, he looked up at her and said, "You know, I'm so used to depending on
myself for everything that it gets overwhelming at times." His face darkened. "But I absolutely refuse
to make my friends, much as they want to, carry any of my load. You've suffered enough because of
me. The Weasley's aren't speaking to Percy, your parents have lost their home, and all of us have to
live our lives in hiding because of me."
"Harry," she said.
"No, let me finish. I love you, Hermione, and if there's one thing I know about love it's that you
don't
hurt the ones you love." His mood darkened even further as he continued. "I...I don't know how long
you and I are going to be together, but we're going to enjoy every minute of it."
Really worried now, Hermione walked over to in front of him, knelt down, and took his hands in hers.
She looked earnestly up into his suddenly tired looking face. He looks so old, she thought briefly.
"Harry, talk to me please. I didn't confess my love for you just so we can think it's going to end at
some point. We're forever, so you might as well get used to the idea."
He looked at her angrily for a moment, "Don't promise things you have no control over. Sirius
promised me a home away from the Dursley's and look what happened to him. He's dead."
He paused, "There's no guarantee that I'm going to survive this war. I probably only have a
couple more years before I screw up and get myself killed, and I don't want to do that to
you." He frowned. "Why did I ever ask you to marry me? You need somebody that's going
to be around after all this is over-that can take care of you properly."
Hermione said nothing for a moment trying to control the emotions that raged out of control
in her heart. She reached to the back of her mind to the bond with Harry and tried to identify
what she felt there: grief, anguish, fear, and an overwhelming depression that threatened to
drown everything. But the depression didn't seem natural, almost as if it was being created
externally. Interested, she tried to follow the depression back to it's source.
"Hermione? What are you doing," asked Harry.
"Shh, sweetheart," she replied, "There's something not right here, and I'm trying to figure it out."
Harry's mind was an interesting collection of colors, feelings, and memories. She tried to stay
away from those, as she didn't want him to feel any more violated than he already did. She
was here without permission, and she didn't want him to raise his defenses.
Eventually, she found what she was looking for; a thin tendril of virulent green shot through
with purple and black overtones that seemed to be feeding Harry's depression.
"What is this?" she thought.
"What is it, Hermione?" thought Harry, having caught her interest through the bond.
"Can you see this?" she asked in her mind.
"Yes, what is it?" He replied.
"It seems to be causing your depression", she replied. "Of course, I'm not Madame Pomphrey..."
"Madame Pomphrey has never done anything like this before", he replied wryly.
"She'd better not," shot back Hermione.
"What do we do about it?"
"I'm not sure," she replied. Mentally, she pictured herself casting a finite incantatem at
whatever
it was, and was rewarded with it changing color. It was now shot through with streaks of red.
"Ow!" said Harry, out loud.
"Sorry," she thought.
"Whatever you're doing, hurry up and finish please," he said. "That hurt!" Encouraged,
she
looked at it again, and saw that the streaks of red were beginning to dissipate, and it was
returning to it's normal coloring.
"Harry," she thought, "I'm going to have to hit it harder. I suspect that this will hurt."
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" he thought back.
"Harry, this is not natural. The closer I get to it, the more evil I feel radiated from it," she sent to him.
Okay, Hermione, she thought, you're supposed to be the strongest witch of your generation,
so let's just see how strong you are. "Finite Incantatem," she thought fiercely, putting as much
of herself as she dared behind it.
She was dimly aware of Harry jerking away from her hands as he gasped in pain. The
whatever-it-was was now shot through with bright red streaks, and seemed to be dissipating
around the edges as she watched. But as the moments passed, it slowly returned to its normal color.
Something is feeding this thing, she thought.
Gingerly, she mentally reached out and touched it, and for a moment was overwhelmed with feelings
of depression. However, because it wasn't intended for her, she could push those feelings aside. She
found a thin tendril of energy that was linked to it and followed it back.
She became aware that she was leaving Harry's body, and thought back to him, "Harry, can you pull
me back if I get lost?"
"I think so, Hermione," he answered. "Maybe you shouldn't be doing this though, it's probably very dangerous."
Ignoring that, she plunged on, left the confines of number 12 Grimmauld Place and was soon seeing the
English countryside from the air. The tendril of energy was leading her towards a house next to a
graveyard that she'd never seen before. The transit was getting easier, and she almost felt as if
something was pulling her along.
She suddenly felt a wave of fear and horror from Harry. "Hermione!" He mentally shouted, "Stay
away from that house, Voldemort is there!" Horrified, she tried to pull back, but was no longer able to,
something had her in a tight grip.
"Harry," she screamed, "help!" Suddenly, he was there beside her. "Okay," he said
grimly, "we're going
to face this together. If he wants you, he's going through me first."
"We fight him together," she said. "Together, we're much stronger than by ourselves."
Harry nodded.
They were drawn down into the house, and into a sitting room lit only by the glow of a fireplace.
"Well," came a sinister voice, "Wormtail, we have guests. Please ensure that we aren't disturbed."
"Yes, master," said an obsequious Peter Pettigrew as he bowed his way out of the room.
Voldemort turned towards Harry and Hermione. "Mr. Potter, and the mudblood Granger, your
girlfriend," he said snidely.
"You can see us," asked Harry.
"Of course I can see you, foolish boy!" snapped Voldemort. "What, that bumbling idiot
Dumbledore didn't explain this to you? Did the mudblood discover in one of her books how
to travel out of body, and you just thought you'd come see what I was doing?"
He rubbed his hands together happily. "It's just as well, when they find you both dead without a
mark on you, they won't know how it even happened."
He pointed his wand at Hermione. "I think we'll start with her. It will please me no end to see the
expression on your face, Harry, when she dies from the pain. Crucio!" he shouted.
Hermione gasped as an incredible wave of agony rolled over her body, and then she was
screaming, unable to stop herself.
"Stop it, " yelled Harry, "It's me you want, not her. Leave her alone!"
"Oh, my dear boy," laughed Voldemort, "You are really dense aren't you? By hurting her, I am
hurting you, much more so than if I just tickled you with Crucio."
Desperate, Harry tried to throw a mental block between Hermione and the pain, and was amazed
when it worked.
Hermione suddenly stopped screaming, and instead floated next to Harry, gasping.
"Hmm," said Voldemort, "figured out a way to protect her from it, have you? I wonder if you can
do that when you yourself are...Crucio!" He shouted, this time at Harry. Harry felt only the briefest
instant of pain before Hermione blocked him from it.
"How are you doing this?" snarled Voldemort.
Hermione, meanwhile, had found the tendril of energy linking Voldemort to the spell in Harry's mind,
and with a whispered "Finite Incantatem" had severed it at the source. Voldemort's attention was so
distracted by what was going on that he never noticed.
"Harry", she whispered mentally, "We can go back now."
"What could be giving you the strength to..." Voldemort held up his wand and muttered the same
words that Dumbledore had muttered a lifetime ago in the kitchen at the Weasleys.
"A betrothal bond! With a mudblood!" muttered Voldemort as he saw the scintillating rainbow
colored link appear between them. "And a particularly strong one at that. There are ways to deal
with those, though."
"Harry, we can go now," whispered Hermione urgently.
"I'm trying," he muttered back, "but I don't know what I'm doing."
Voldemort had meanwhile, taken down a book and was paging through it quickly. "Yes, here it is.
Yes. Yes. This should work quite well." He looked up at Harry and Hermione, "and the best part
is that it is very painful. Bondus Averto!" he yelled, with a complex wave of his wand.
Harry and Hermione suddenly felt as if they were both dipped in molten lava. "Harry!" screamed
Hermione, as she reached across the distance between them.
"Hermione!" he screamed back.
Suddenly, something snapped them both back into their bodies at Number 12 Grimmauld Place,
and they both looked up with tear streaked faces at a very concerned looking Albus Dumbledore.
Madame Pomphrey was hovering over Dumbledore's shoulder. Remus Lupin and Molly Weasley
were clustered around them. The Grangers were hovering in the background.
"Harry," said Dumbledore, "Hermione."
"What were you thinking, you foolish children!" shouted Molly Weasley, "We almost lost you!"
"What happened?" asked Dumbledore.
Harry took a breath, "Could you cast that spell?" he said, "You know, the one that reveals bonds."
"Certainly, Harry. Why?" asked Dumbledore, as he waved his wand.
Unfortunately, as soon as Dumbledore cast the spell, it was obvious why Harry was worried.
Instead of the bright, scintillating, rainbow color it had been earlier, it was dull and fading. As they
watched, it suddenly began to retract from Hermione, and she gave a gasp, cried "Harry!" and
collapsed. Harry swept her up into his arms.
"Hermione!" he shouted.
"What's wrong?" asked an anguished Mrs. Granger.
"Hermione!" shouted Harry again.
Madame Pomphrey looked at Harry's face, and then waved her wand over Hermione's body.
She looked at Albus and shook her head quietly, while tears formed in her eyes.
Harry looked at this interplay with grim determination, "She's not going to die," he growled.
"If you think that I'm going to let Voldemort take her away from me now, you don't know me
very well."
"Voldemort!" gasped Mrs. Weasley.
Harry, holding Hermione in his arms, pushed his way through them, kicked open the door to
the library, and went down the hall to his bedroom. He laid Hermione down on his bed, kneeled
beside it, and took her hand in his hands, and kissed it.
"You know," he said to her in a conversational tone of voice, "When I woke up after almost
dying, I woke to the voice of an angel telling me she loved me." Tears started to run down his
face, and he was dimly aware of other people coming into the room. "I don't have any other
memories like that. All I can remember is Aunt Petunia telling me how much trouble I was, and
how I was a freak. But you changed all that, Hermione. You made me realize that I was
deserving of someone's love." He could hear Mrs. Granger and Mrs. Weasley weeping.
"You can't leave me, love, not now that we've just figured all this out." He laughed
miserably,
"You know, we could've avoided all this if I had just talked to you in the first place; but no! I
had to be all noble and try to protect you from what I thought you couldn't handle. And now
look at us."
"Please Hermione, come back to me." He felt a hand descend on his shoulder.
"Harry," said Remus quietly.
Harry looked up at Remus, and at that moment a tear, running down Harry's face, dripped
onto Hermione's ring. The ring burst into brilliant color, easily outshining the room lights. As
Harry looked down in amazement, he could see Hermione's breathing stabilize, and color
return to her face. He gave a startled gasp.
Madame Pomphrey was immediately by his side, examining Hermione. After a moment or
two, she smiled and said, "She's going to be alright, Harry. She's going to be alright."
Harry sighed in relief, and bowed his head over Hermione's hand. "Our bond?" he mumbled.
"It's growing Harry," said Dumbledore's calm voice.
Harry nodded in relief. In truth, he was again aware of Hermione's presence in the back of his
mind, which hadn't been there since the horrible moment when the bond shrank.
Hermione coughed, and then opened her eyes. "Harry?" she asked weakly.
"Right here, love," he answered.
"Oh, Harry, I'm so sorry," she whispered.
"For what?" he asked.
"I should've listened to you when you said it was too dangerous."
He squeezed her hand tightly, and then looked at her. "So, you're going to listen to me next
time I tell you something is too dangerous?" He grinned at her. "I suppose I'll have to do the
same for you, since you're much better it than I am."
She laughed weakly.
"What happened, children?" asked Dumbledore.
"We were talking," said Harry, "and she asked me about what else had me so upset this
summer...besides Sirius dying...and I gave her this big speech about how I didn't want to lay
my problems on her."
"It just didn't seem like him, he was so down and depressed" she whispered, "So I used the
bond to look inside him, at his feelings, and I found something that didn't belong. His depression
was being magically created."
"She tried to remove it, but it kept regenerating itself, so she decided to track down it's source,
which led her outside of the house," continued Harry.
Hermione started to cry. "Harry warned me it might be dangerous and not to do it, but I love
him so much, and I hated to see him that way."
"Following the source led us to the Riddle house," said Harry with a grimace, "But even though
I warned her not to go in it, she couldn't turn back-Voldemort had already trapped her. I wasn't
going to let her face him alone, so I went with her."
Dumbledore looked at the two of them with concern. "What happened then, Harry?"
"We figured out pretty quickly how protect each other from the Crucio's he threw at us. Apparently
we can protect each other through the bond." He swallowed, "It took him awhile, but he figured out
the bond, and then he cast something that sounded like bondus..."
"Bondus averto, yes, I am aware of the spell" said Dumbledore. "We teach you about the three main
unforgivables, but there are a number we don't mention because their use is so rare that many are
thankfully forgotten. That is one of them. It shatters the bond between bondmates; however, it is possible
to defend against it, and I think that will be part of your training once you return to Hogwarts, especially
since Tom is now aware of your bond."
Harry nodded.
"Whose this Tom you keep referring to?" asked Mr. Granger, "I thought it was Voldemort that was the problem."
"They are the same person," said Dumbledore, "Voldemort's original name was Tom Riddle." He
turned back to
Harry and Hermione. "I hope you realize how lucky the both of you were. If Mrs. Weasley hadn't come in to
check on you, and then summoned me, you'd both be lying dead in the library."
They both nodded, and said at the same time, "We're sorry, professor." They then looked at each other.
"Well, I see you two are going to be alright. If you feel the need to explore more of the bonds abilities at a
later
date, feel free, but please, stay within the bounds of the house." He looked at Hermione. "Ms. Granger,
were
you successful in removing the psychis curse from Harry?"
"Is that what that was?" she asked, suddenly interested. "I've read about them, but I'd never seen one before."
"You're not likely to again," said Madame Pomphrey, "Unless you go into medicine. They are very
difficult to
cast, and require an intimate knowledge of the person involved."
Hermione nodded, "I think I was able to, Professor. We had a few minutes while Voldemort was occupied
with trying to figure out why we could block Crucio. I severed the connection between Voldemort and the
spell."
"Hmm. Poppy?"
"Let me see." She waved her wand at Harry. "Yes, there's where it was, but it's gone now."
"Good," said Dumbledore. He smiled at Hermione, "You know Ms. Granger, there are much easier ways of
dealing with
a psychis curse than the way you chose to."
She smiled ruefully, "I'll keep that in mind."