Chapter 19 Visitors From Days Gone Bye.
***************************Hogwarts Library****************************
January 30, 2005
"Harry, I can't bloody well stand this any more." Ron growled as he threw down his parchment containing a half completed essay for Snape on the uses of Widow's breath in healing potions. They, along with Hermione, were cloistered once again in the Library, working, an act that had driven both Ron and Harry to distraction. Ron glanced towards the stacks were Hermione had disappeared into after she had completed her essay, many minutes ago, "I just don't understand her, can't she relax for a day?"
Harry rolled his eyes and replied in a harsh whisper, "Ron she did help plan and execute the largest series of pranks since my father, Sirius and Lupin were here." Harry heard his own words, and frowned a little at them, and then with a visible shake, he went on, with a sigh. "Let her be."
'That may be, mate, but I'm going spare, I'm headed to fly a bit, coming?" Ron stood, and motioned to the door as he started stuffing his materials into his bag.
Harry shook his head and rubbed his left shoulder, "No go ahead, I pulled a shoulder working with Remus this morning, you go have fun." Ron nodded and headed for the door. Harry watched him go, and with a slight groan, reached into his bad for a bit of muscle relaxing potion he kept there for emergencies, this was after all, far from the last time he had been recovering from an injury, however slight, while at Hogwarts. As he reached into an outside pocket of his pack, his fingers brushed an old, folded piece of parchment, curious; he pulled it out. As he examined the winkled parchment, with a shock, he recognized it as the one he had removed from his vault at Gringorts, somehow he had never read it, with the incident with Umbridge and all, and must have stuffed it in his bag and forgotten about until now. Harry gently unfolded the parchment, spread it on the table, and as his eyes caught the first few lines, a gasp of surprise escaped his lips, all thoughts of pain medication suddenly vanishing as he recognized the handwriting.
June 20, 2002
Harry, if you are reading this note, then I have passed from this realm to the next. Just in case, you are not, I would read this note in private if you were not doing so already.
Harry glanced around and confirmed that Hermione had not yet returned, and that he was otherwise alone.
As I am writing this, you and Hermione have just saved my life a few days ago. You already will have heard my will, and know that you are my heir, however what is in these boxes was not mine to gift, only mine to safeguard. In the boxes that have appeared in your vault, along with a pile of gold, I guess you know where the firebolt came from now, don't you? Are relics that are as precious to me as to you. In the two larger boxes are Lily and James' wands. In the smaller one, Lily's engagement ring, along with their wedding rings await you. As you know, unfortunately, I arrived too late at Godric's Hollow, I saw Hagrid leaving with you on my motor, as I arrived. I entered the house and managed to save their wands and rings, as I knew that someday they would be as precious to you as they were to them.
Harry looked at the parchment in shock, privately amazed that he had not opened the boxes when he had the chance.
Lily's engagement ring is particularly special, as it is an old-style Wizarding engagement ring. The ring is simple, but yet beautiful, just like your mother. At the moment, the ring will have set on it a center diamond, with two side stones, one will be a ruby, for your birth month, the other would be the stone of the birth month of your betrothed should you choose to give it and your heart to another. Knowing Lily, I know that she would be honored immensely if you choose to do so. I have an idea of who will gain your heart in the end, but I will not spoil the surprise, just in case. Harry no matter what, no matter under what circumstances I was forced to leave you under, please take these things to heart. First whatever happened, it is not your fault, I know you, you are like your parents where it counts and you probably feel responsible, don't, I knew what I was doing. Second, as to the ring and which witch to give it to, follow your heart, there is one who has already given hers to you. Hopefully by now, both of you will have realized this. If not, wake up, bloody hell, boy...finally, remember always Harry that I am watching over you. In the end, nothing can stop a Marauder.
Sirius
"If only that were the truth, Sirius" Harry choked out quietly, tears falling from his eyes. Silently, he refolded the parchment, and carefully replaced the parchment in his bag. As he sat there, tears staining his robes, Hermione came of the stacks, clutching a thick tome.
"Harry, look what I..." Hermione started joyously, but then as his face registered, she gasped slightly and ran over. Carelessly flipping the book she had just found, on the table, she crouched down beside him and pulled him into her shoulder, "What?"
"Memories," Harry replied, with the truth but not the whole truth. After a minute more, "I'm ok Mione." Hermione nodded and let go of him. Harry gave her a funny look; as if he wanted to say something then, but in the end he just gave her a little pained smile and went back to studying. Hermione just nodded, but glanced over at his bent head every few minutes. Harry just gave her a slightly tired grin when he caught her at it. Suddenly, a tiny, light scraping sound caught his attention, his head snapped up, and his gaze swept the room.
Hermione looked up at his sudden change in demeanor. "Harry, what..." Harry's eyes grew wide, and without a word of warning, Harry leapt from his chair, and dove at Hermione, sweeping her along with him, away from her table, and into a roll on the floor, careful to take the impact on his own back. Behind them, one of the huge bookshelves crashed directly down on the chairs that they just had left in such a hurry. The table instantly collapsed under the weight, and Harry closed his eyes for just a second as he imagined if Hermione had been trapped under the falling bookshelf. In his arms, Hermione glanced back, trembling slightly as she looked back at the table, thoughts similar to Harry's except that he was the one trapped in her mind. "Honestly, Harry I can't take you anywhere; can I."
"Glad you think its funny, Hermione" Harry replied, though the post danger adrenaline was getting to him too. "That shelf didn't fall by itself." Harry stated the obvious as he pulled her to her feet as Madame Pince ran to the back of the room to check on them.
"Miss Granger, Mr. Potter...What happened here." The Hogwarts librarian shouted in an odd librarian whisper. Pince paced around the area, inspecting her precious books, not really paying attention to the students that where almost killed. Taking that as a hint, Harry summoned their things, which thankfully hadn't been trapped under the falling bookshelf for the most part, and covertly taking Hermione's hand, he lead her out of the library, making sure to walk past the place where the bookshelf had just stood a few minutes before. Hermione noticed his nostrils flaring as they walked past the site, but said nothing until they got into the hall.
Still holding his hand, she pulled him into a convenient cubby, away from prying eyes and ears, but not before, a passing Slytherin, who just happened to be Pansy, noticed their disappearance with a hardening of her eyes. Hermione glanced around and seeing no one who could see them now, she whispered, "Ok mister, I'm the embodiment of Gryffindor house in my illicit animagus form, who was it, I saw you sniffing as we passed."
"Caught that huh?" Harry replied, with a slight smirk, "You know that normal animagi aren't supposed to be able to use their enhanced senses in human form."
"Like you are normal" Hermione retorted, a touch annoyed beyond the whole almost getting killed thing, that was almost to be expected as the mudblood friend of Harry Potter, Hermione thought grimly, as she beat the thought deep, deep inside so no trace of it could escape her lips. Harry would feel guilty enough, just because, without knowing she was beating herself up again.
"And you can't?" Harry looked at her queerly.
Hermione gave him a little smile, "I never said that...but the enhanced eyesight, I have to sort of shift between ways of seeing, consciously in human form, and it wouldn't have done anything in that case. I don't have to use omniocculars at Quiddich matches anymore though." She finished in a self-satisfied tone. "Harry...I didn't say anything, because..."
"Its ok, I wonder if Ron or anyone else, can though." Harry muttered, as if summoned to answer their questions, they heard the distinctive footfalls of their other partner in crime thundering down the hall.
Glancing down, Hermione noticed that she was still holding Harry's hand. Quickly she dropped it, and stuck her head out into the hall and stage-whispered, a talent picked up in six years of classes discussing schemes with these two. "Ron...over here." Ron's head snapped over to the cubby, and seeing her wave, he hurried over.
"What happened..." Ron snapped, and then quieted at a gesture from Hermione.
"Why do you ask Ron?" Harry replied sarcastically, "Maybe we were just snogging." Harry's unthinking offhand remark, got two very different responses, Ron gave him a quick glare, before deciding that Harry had been joking. Hermione's eyes flicked towards him, with a betraying look of hope. But that look was carefully blanked before either of the boys spotted it. Harry however, was oblivious to both reactions.
"Well, mate..."Ron replied as he perceptibly flared his nostrils, "Maybe the stink of adrenaline coming off both of you, and the fact both of your heartbeats are racing."
"Well Hermione, that answers your question." Harry said, looking over at her with a knowing expression. She just shrugged, and Harry answered Ron's question, and Hermione's original one. "Some one tried to kill us Ron...a normal day at Hogwarts, all in all." Harry rolled his eyes as Hermione snorted, even she was starting to see the humor in it after six years, not that she didn't worry still. "It was some Slytherin, I could smell that odd dungeon odor, which I guess that you notice now Ron."
"Not usually, Harry, I have to concentrate to use my animagus senses in human form, so I never really noticed, but yeah now that you mention it..." Ron murmured, answering several questions at once.
"However, now matter how good we think the evidence is...we can not tell the Professors." Hermione said in a low, slightly lecturing tone, the one she fell back on when she was thinking out loud, and the one that occasionally echoed in Harry's head. "We would have to tell them..."
"And we are keeping our abilities, secret for now?" Harry asked, and the other two friends reaffirmed their decision, with identical nods. "Ok, so once again, we maraud. Hermione, what do you think, who?"
"I don't know Crabbe or Goyle, I'd guess...."Hermione paused for a moment, as she ran though their list of enemies in her head. Long enough to give Harry, time to feel guilty once again, about making his friends subject to a group of enemies long enough to cause even Hermione's prodigious intellect, to have to take a moment to process. "Pansy's not strong enough to push that over, and we didn't hear any incantation, which she would have had to use?" She asked and Harry shook his head, "and I doubt even Draco would droop that low, he would much rather use magic, than resort to the muggle method...maybe one of the others, I don't know Harry..." Hermione looked guilty that she didn't know the answer to Harry question.
So Harry responded consolingly, "its ok, Hermione, I know the list is getting rather large..." He shrugged.
"Mate, we can't let them get away with this." Ron put in. "If we do, they may try to hurt Ginny, or some other Gryffindor." Ron's cornflower eyes glittered, dangerously at the prospect, Harry nodded and grimaced.
"We won't" Harry's eyes glinted in the light from the torches illuminating the halls. "I think its time to show, our friends," He drawled sarcastically, "that we are never safe to fool with."
***********************Great Hall, Hogwarts*******************************
February 10, 2005
Noon
Over the last two weeks, Harry, Hermione and Ron, with the help of the rest of Harry's inner circle, had tried to determine the culprit. But even their prodigious talents had not been able to find out who had tried to kill them. So, they just fell back to normal, and assumed that basically all of Slytherin house wanted them dead. Which was more or less the truth anyway.
"So mate" Ron choked out though a mouthful of food, "Are we going to have Moody again tonight, at DA?" Ron reached over and grabbed the last of the Shepard's pie, he had devoured the whole dish and Harry, Hermione and the rest hadn't had a bite of it.
"I don't know, Ron." Harry replied, as he took a bite of his sandwich. He pointedly chewed and swallowed the bite before he responded. "He mentioned the other day that he wanted to work with you and Neville on your weapon skills." Harry gave him a wry smile, "you could take me on in a duel mate, I need to get you back for that last chess match." Hermione caught the conversion, and shook her head ruefully.
"Or, if you really want, Ronald, you could duel me...I haven't jinxed anyone in at least a week." Hermione teased, as she took a bite of pumpkin pie. Her eyes glittered; just enough to make Ron wisely just shake his head and not comment. He pointedly ignored the quiet laughter of his two friends.
"Oh leave him alone, Hermione" Ginny put in, with a huge smile, "he's obviously feeling his inadequacies. She caught the thrown roll from Ron, and ostentatiously took a huge bite of it.
After another fifteen minutes of eating and joking, Hermione stood and grabbed her bag. "I'm going to go read over Transfiguration for today, are you two coming?" She threw her bag over her shoulder, staggering a bit as she did so, and looked at them expectedly.
"Sure, Hermione" Harry replied as he rose, slinging his pack over his shoulder. "Do you think McGonagall, really will go over the transfiguration of bats to pigeons? "
"I don't know, why?" She replied as Ron climbed to his feet with a groan.
"I keep getting the pigeons mixed up with crows." Harry muttered in reply, to the accompaniment of a chuckling best friend. As the trio reached the hall and started down towards the transfiguration classroom, Ron looked odd. His eyes suddenly looked glassy and he started sweating.
"Harry, Hermi..." Ron whispered, and as they turned to him, "Ughhh" Ron collapsed to the floor, sweating and shaking.
"RON," Harry snapped, and glanced over at Hermione.
"I'm already going," She yelled as she sprinted off towards the infirmary. Harry grabbed Ron and held him as he stared shaking. A moment later, Hermione returned with Dumbledore, McGonagall and Pomfrey in tow, she had run into them coming out of the Great Hall.
"POTTER, what happened," McGonagall growled as she came up to them, and Pomfrey knelt down by Ron.
"I don't know Professor, he just collapsed." Harry replied, worry in his tone. He stood a little shakily and walked over the Hermione. She stood close to Harry, and they both turned to watch Poppy. She ran her wand over Ron and muttered an odd charm. Ron's stomach glowed; a putrid green and she gave a slight gasp.
Without getting up, Pomfrey turned to Dumbledore and the rest, and in a choked voice, "Mr. Weasley has been poisoned, Albus." Beside Dumbledore, McGonagall let out a gasp, Hermione leaned into Harry, shaking a bit and he unthinkingly wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Dumbledore just gave a brief, grim nod, and with a wand flick he levitated Ron up from the floor and headed off towards the infirmary, the rest of the group following along, forlornly.
************************Riddle Mansion*******************************
"Malfoy, how does our plan proceed?" Lord Voldemort hissed, as he looked down on his chief minion, cowering on the floor. He turned and surveyed the remainder of his minions, looking for any sign of weakness. The room, dark with evil, and illuminated only by occasional torches and a fire in the corner was cold as death. The old stone room, still stunk of the various dark rituals performed there.
"Sire, it proceeds. Our sources confirm that Potter is still grieving the animagus Black's death. And that he cares deeply for the Mudblood and the Weasel, his feelings are his weakness." Lucius replied, a glint in his eye as he looked up at Voldemort from his knees.
"I still do not understand this plan, my Lord." Bellatrix said from the side, a nasty smirk lighting her face. "Baby Potter is just that, a baby, and his friends even less powerful than he. Why not just destroy him and be done with it, wait until they go to Hogsmeade, away from that old fool's protection.
"He shall die, Bellatrix, that is all that you need to know, and know that it pleases me to make him suffer before he dies." Voldemort replied in a hiss, and turned back to Malfoy, "What progress Lucius?"
"Our factors inside Hogwarts have acted twice, now. They missed the Mudblood the first time, due to Potter once again saving her, but the Weasel is lying in the infirmary even as we speak. Our factor, tells Wormtail that they will act against the Mudblood, in a time and place, that will ensure that she dies in front of Potter." Riddle nodded slowly, to Malfoy's response.
"And your Son?"
"He has served his purpose as a stalking horse, Potter will concentrate his attentions to him, and allow our strike to take place." Malfoy replied, darkly.
"Good, Good. If he survives he may be an asset yet, if not..."
*********************Hogwarts Infirmary*************************
February 20, 2005
10:00 pm
"How is he Harry?" Hermione whispered as she came in. She sat down softly on the bed next to Harry, and leaned her head against him. Ron was lying in a hospital bed, the same one that he normally occupied during his frequent stays. Harry and now Hermione sat on a neighboring bed, the infamous "Harry-Potter bed" as Madame Pomfrey was now referring to it in her monthly student illness reports. Ron had not yet awakened from the poison that had he had fallen victim to ten days ago.
"The same Mione..." Harry replied. "Any news on who did it?"
"No..." Hermione muttered something under her breath that Harry pretended he didn't catch, and continued grimly, "The poison was in the food, though...Dumbledore has emplaced charms to remove any poison in the future, but we aren't even sure how they got it in the food. It looks like only Ron had any." Hermione and Harry sat there for another fifteen minutes, before Hermione glanced down at her watch with a groan. "Harry we have to go on patrol. You did agree to cover for Ron until he got better." Hermione shrugged helplessly.
Harry gave her a slight frown but rose anyway. With a heavy sigh, he placed a hand on Ron's shoulder, "Hurry up and get out of this bed mate, I...we miss you, Mione and me."
"Yeah Ron, we do." Hermione leaned over and kissed Ron on the cheek, a tear in her eye. Without another word she walked out into the hall, Harry following somewhat robotically.
The pair did their normal rounds, starting at the Astronomy tower and working down. After they ran the usual plethora of snogging students out of the tower, Hermione sat down heavily on the steps leading from the tower. Sensing her mood, Harry leaned against the wall looking down at her. Glancing up at Harry, he could see just a touch of fear in the cinnamon orbs, and his heart sank even lower than it already was. "Harry", she whispered, "why?"
"Me" Harry replied, tonelessly.
"You know it's not, Harry...Honestly, this every thing is an attack on me..." Hermione replied flatly, only to be interrupted by her companion.
"And it's not Hermione?" Harry spat, and then at the hurt look in her eyes, he groaned under his breath, and slid down the wall to her eye level. "Isn't it obvious Hermione, I mean the library, the poison...It's attacks on you and Ron...If you two, hell all of you would just leave me...renounce me..."
"What Harry, so we can die a week later than we would if we were at your side?" Hermione asked tartly, as she glared at him; then with an eyeblink, her expression softened. "We've had this argument, how many times? This is obviously someone trying to drive us apart. I'm not leaving Harry, and if Ron was awake he'd say the same." Hermione replied firmly. Then as she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye, she stood suddenly, and in a heartbeat, her wand was pointed at a high corner of the staircase. Harry's wand followed hers as if they were connected. "Peeves," she spat, "Don't you even dare..."
Peeves grinned hugely, and held the vase he was holding behind his back, He sang instead, nastily, "Potter, Potter, what a rotter...Potter sickens even the weasel...Potter, Potter, even the Mud..."
With a sudden glint in his eyes, Harry snarled, and Hermione could swear that the temperature in the room dropped several degrees. "Peeves," Harry's growl froze the poltergeist in his tracks and he stared down at the students. "I swear to God, if you finish that sentence..." Harry didn't complete his thought, but without another word, Peeves passed though a neighboring wall, the vase he had been carrying falling to the floor and smashing.
Hermione looked over at Harry, with an odd look, "Harry you didn't have to say anything...I'm used to it...unfortunately."
"You shouldn't be." He replied as he vanished his wand inside his robes. Hermione followed suit, sliding her wand into a holster behind her back as she started down the stairs, Harry following once again. As they reached the seventh floor hallway, they once again reached for their wands, as they heard a pair of footsteps thundering down the hall. The footsteps were soon identified as friendly, as Ginny came galloping around the corner. With a gasp they both replaced their wands with identical sheepish expressions.
Ginny didn't even seem to notice the wands, she just looked at both of them, panting, "Ron's awake."