Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter 26, Aftermath Part Deux

********************Hogwarts, Harry and Hermione's dorm**************

January 28, 2006
7am

It was a long, long night for many in the ancient castle. At the top of Gryffindor Tower, Harry and Hermione had held each other the entire lingering, cold night. In her dreams, Hermione relived a series of jumbled images, of the desperate running battle in the Ministry, of the purple flame coming from Dolohov's wand towards her, many, too many images of Harry lying broken or unconscious, of her parents broken on the floor, of the death mark hovering over her childhood home, and of the infinitely slow fall of Dolohov's body as his head separated from his body. With a gasp, she awoke, glancing over at Harry with an instinct born of hard won experience. He was also shaking in his sleep, muttering her name almost desperately. With a soft moue of disquiet, she hugged him tighter, kissing his forehead as he slept fitfully.

For Harry it was just another restless night in a long series of nightmares. Since Christmas, and Hermione's now permanent co-occupancy, he had been able to sleep without the constant dreams. That was gone. Dolohov's comments had taken their toll, striking back from the grave. Images of Hermione's families funeral, Molly lying in St Mungo's, that Death Eater falling to his blade on the roof, and the truly heartbreaking images of his parents dieing, of Sirius falling though the veil and finally, and most terribly, of Hermione laying lifeless on the floor of the Ministry, this time with Neville just looking at him, horror in his eyes. He almost woke up at the last, but as he felt her arms around him and her lips on his forehead, his dreams quieted, and he slipped into a peaceful slumber.

An hour or so later Harry was still peaceful, so carefully slipping to their shared bathroom, Hermione stood under the shower. Leaning her head against the cool tile she started to cry at first gently, then after a moment, outright bawled, her shoulders trembling, the tears mixing with the spray. Without warning, a pair of welcome arms suddenly surrounded her and held her tight. Looking back, she saw Harry, still in his pajamas, holding her under the shower. "You're getting your clothes all wet," Hermione muttered, relishing his embrace.

"I have more, anyway I can always take these off." He replied softly.

Leaning her head back onto his shoulder, she replied in a harsh whisper, "Thanks love, but if you do that we'll never get out of here and your clothes will still be wet."

"Ok then?" the concern in his voice almost was physical in its intensity.

"For the moment anyway."

Harry leaned forward and kissed her shoulder. He slipped out of the shower muttering a drying charm as he went.

After a couple of more minutes Hermione finished her shower. She dried her hair with a towel, magic just made it frizzy. Slipping on a fresh pair of jeans and the same sweatshirt that she had worn to pick Harry up from the Dursleys so many months ago; she padded back to their shared room. Harry was sitting up in bed; he was dressed similarly to her. He was absently staring at the wall across the room, while he flipped an odd silver knife open and closed with flicks of his wrist. Sensing her presence, he performed a single hard opening and in the same motion snapped the knife in an overhand toss to stick in the closet door. She walked over and pulled the knife out. The blade had a butterfly etched on it, with the words bali-song across it. Hermione flipped the knife closed and silently walked back to Harry, plopping down on the bed next to him.

"You know that's Sirius'?" Harry asked morosely.

"Yeah"

" I wasn't going to hurt myself, it's like twirling a wand or a quill between your fingers." He explained.

"I know, dear."

"When I found it back in Sirius' old bedroom, Lupin related the story about how, he and dad and Sirius had gone on a road trip to America the summer before their seventh year, and Sirius found it in some little shop in Oregon. He thought it was cool so he bought it. Why do they call it a road trip anyway they apparated?" Harry finished, a slightly perplexed look in his eyes.

"Hell if I know" She replied, softly chuckling.

"I didn't even like Vernon, no strike that, I hated and despised Vernon, you know what he did when he thought I couldn't strike back. That day you came for me was a wakeup call, I had already not so subtly reminded him that I was of age, and that his arse was grass if he wanted to push it. He had come up to shut me up...I had been having nightmares again, of Sirius...."

"And me..."

"Yeah...The thing is I don't hate my aunt, I don't know if I love her even as some sort of distant familial thing, but I didn't really want her hurt." Harry trailed off and she leaned her head against his. They sat there like that for a while, fortunately it was Saturday; they didn't have to be anywhere. Though neither could help but remind themselves that less than fifteen hours ago, they were talking about the Hogsmeade trip that the majority of their housemates would be leaving for soon. After a few more minutes they decided to get up and try to choke something down at breakfast.

Descending the stairs from the Head's rooms, they spotted Ron, Luna, Ginny and Neville waiting for them in the common room chairs nearest the fire. Ron and Luna looked particularly anxious; they had been at the Dursleys along with Harry and Hermione. Ginny and Neville were less flustered, but they had already been told what had happened. Ginny came up and grabbed Hermione in a hug while Ron looked at Harry expectantly. "You guys ok?" He said softly, voicing the other three's concerns, as well as his own.

Harry just nodded slowly, Hermione broke out of Ginny's hug, "I'm fine Ginny; I just did what needed to be done." Ginny just gave a slight frown and nodded, the battle at the Ministry and everything that had happened in the year and a half since, had convinced her of that. A fact that broke Harry's heart a little. It was the tired realization that his family, and that's de facto what they were, if not de jure, had been forced into this war. At one time this renewed realization would have caused him to pull away from them, to push them away for some perceived extra degree of safety. But a conversion with Hermione, after they had finally admitted their feelings, had at least kept that from occurring. It was truly as she said, he may be the one in the prophesy that would in the end have face Voldemort and kill or be killed, but many more people than just him had a grim in the fight. If they failed to stop Voldemort, the world was his, and as Hermione had said if that happened all of their lives were forfeit anyway.

Ron broke the uncomfortable silence, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm hungry, is breakfast still on or do we need to flitch something from the kitchen?"

"It's over" Hermione responded absently, glancing at her watch, she wasn't sure that she could keep anything down anyway.

With a soft CRACK, Dobby appeared, a small grin under his pencil nose, "Would Harry Potter and his companions like some breakfast? Dobby and Winky were concerned when Harry Potter and his miss did not show up for breakfast."

Harry gave an involuntary chuckle at Dobby, "Ok, then," glancing around the room at his family, "I'll have some eggs, bacon and coffee?" Dobby was perhaps one of the oddest house elves in the history of the Wizarding world, he had bound himself to Harry out of loyalty and gratitude after Harry had freed him from sheer slavery at the Malfoys. Dobby and his companion Winky actually drew a salary of 20 galleons a month from Harry to work at Grimmauld place, but they somehow ended up working at Hogwarts too when Harry was here. Harry had tried to pay them much more but they wouldn't take it, though Hermione had appreciated the effort.

"I'll have the same as Harry" Ron put in then at a nod from Luna, "Make that two please."

"Me too" said Neville.

"Can I get just eggs and coffee, Dobby?" Ginny muttered as she watched Hermione out of the corner of her eye.

"Just coffee, Dobby" said Hermione, though after seeing Harry's expression she added, "add some toast too please."

Dobby just nodded and snapping his fingers he disappeared with a crack, only to reappear a couple of minutes later setting the food on a convenient table. "Will there be anything else Harry Potter Sir?"

"Just Harry..." but before Harry could complete his normal refrain Dobby had vanished again. Ron attacked his food, with the rest of them eating at a more sedate rate. Except for Hermione who seemed to be nibbling at her food, though at a look from Harry, she forced the toast down. Thank you, I don't want you to collapse.

It's hard, why doesn't it bother Ron?

Anytime, Hermione Jane Granger.

Ron had glanced at them, immediately figuring that they were having another silent conversation, but for once he said nothing, just nodded at them and finished his coffee, his food was long gone.

Before anyone could ask the question on everyone's mind "What will we do today?" Hedwig swooped in with a note for Harry and Hermione. Hermione had installed charms on the Gryffindor tower windows some time before to allow them to automatically open for Hedwig and close after her. She settled on Hermione's shoulder and extended a leg so that Hermione could pull the note from her leg. The note was addressed:

Harry and Hermione
Gryffindor Common Room

Hermione handed the note to Harry, at the same time absently feeding a leftover crust to Hedwig who took it gratefully. Harry opened the note and held it so Hermione could read it as well:

Harry and Hermione,

Please come to my office at 10:00 am today. I am sorry to interrupt your morning, however like myself, I feel that your plans to attend Hogsmeade today, have been changed due to yesterday's events. If your friends still want to go to Hogsmeade today, I do not feel that would be dangerous.

Albus Dumbledore

Harry looked at Hermione, then at the others, and answered their unasked question, "Dumbledore wants us to meet with him this morning. You all go ahead to Hogsmeade; we'll let you know what happened, if we can, when you get back. Anyway if you don't mind, I think Mione and I need you guys to pick up supplies for us."

"Sure mate," Ron responded agreeably. After taking a quickly scribbled list from Hermione they said their goodbyes and walked out to the portrait hole. They were probably too late for the coaches, but there was always the secret passages.

*******************Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts**********************
10:00am

Hermione and Harry walked up to the stone gargoyle and stopped. But before they could even utter the password, the passage opened and the gargoyle said in a gravelly voice, "Dumbledore told me to expect you two and let you up when you get here." They rode the stairs and stopped once again before the door to the office and knocked. "Enter" came from inside the office in Dumbledore's deep voice.

The office was in fine form today, perhaps all the shiny gadgets were doing...something, at least half the portraits were muttering to each other or the occupants were walking from one portrait to another, pursing arguments with each other. Fawkes was also present, shining brightly, but instead of his usual perch, he was riding Dumbledore's shoulder. Dumbledore for his part was setting behind his huge desk. Today there was only one chair, and it was occupied. Harry raised an eyebrow at this; usually the only reason for there to be too few chairs was if they were in trouble and were going to get chewed out, but surely that was not the reason they were here today. Dumbledore, witnessing their confusion, shook his head and motioned them to come around to his side of the desk. Harry leaned on a corner of the desk, with Hermione perching on the edge beside him.

As Harry's gaze encompassed the chair, he received yet another in a long series of shocks in this office. Filling the chair was none other than Aunt Petunia. Even more amazing in a way than her presence, was the fact that she was not looking around at the insanity that was Dumbledore's office. Even Harry, who by now probably had the student record for appearances in this office followed closely by Hermione, Ron and the original Marauders, always at least glanced around to see what had changed. Petunia on the other hand, seemed to be totally incurious, almost as if she had seen it all before. She was slightly puffy-eyed as if she had been crying, but she also almost seemed resigned to something.

"Good, Harry you are here." Dumbledore commented as he glanced over to his left, to see the pair waiting. Glancing over at Petunia, who pursed her lips into a slight scowl, "I wanted you here for this Harry; I promised you that I would try to not keep anything from you following my mistakes of your fifth year. But there are some matters that I was not at liberty to relate to you, not because I did not want to, but at the request of those involved." Dumbledore finished, looking at Harry, obviously trying to apologize for keeping something from him again when he had promised that he would not. Harry just shook it off, he had a feeling that Dumbledore had made a promise, and if nothing else, he was an honorable man, he would have told Harry if he had been free to do so.

At Harry's nonverbal acceptance of the apology, Dumbledore went on, "I think that this is a time when actions speak as much as words." With that odd statement, he reached into the back of an upper desk drawer and took out a rectangular oak box about 14 inches long. Reaching across the desk he placed it in Petunia's non-resisting hand. Harry and Hermione looked on with just a little bit of shock, for they and all their friends also had boxes just like those upstairs in their rooms.

Petunia finally spoke her first words, still without looking up, "You told me that my past would be forgotten if I took the boy Dumbledore!" She stated accusingly, and then slid the cover back on the box. Nestled in the velvet-lined box, a 10-inch ash wand lay quiescent. Taking a deep breath, she picked it up; suddenly the room was briefly filled with a charge of magic, ruffling their hair before it settled down. Everyone in the room recognized the effect when a wand was united, or in this case reunited with its proper owner.

"I took great pains to keep my bargain, Petunia. Voldemort..." Harry noticed that his aunt was now openly cringing at that word, "had other ideas."

"Because of the boy..." though this comment was more introspective than accusatory.

"Because of me..."Harry started flatly, Hermione leaned her head against his shoulder in silent support, looking daggers at Petunia.

"No Harry," Dumbledore responded, "there were other reasons." He turned to Petunia and fixed her with the look that wilted many a miscreant at Hogwarts over the years, "I think it is up to you to explain yourself to your nephew."

"Not in front of her..." Petunia spat, she still remembered the incident at Kings Cross, now several months past.

"She stays," Harry and Dumbledore stated flatly at the same time, then Dumbledore continued, "She also deserves the truth for many reasons."

"Oh...all right...As I sure you've already figured out, I'm a witch Harry; your mother wasn't the only muggle-born in the family. I was two years behind your mother...I was in love with a boy, who was I think in love with me...I was never beautiful like your mother, but he liked me for me, you know? You have to understand, the hatred for muggle-bornes was much more pronounced back then. You-Know-Who was on the rise to power and he had many supporters more or less in the open, especially in the Ministry.

She paused as if organizing her thoughts "I was walking to class with...Nick..." Petunia trailed off and for several moments silence was heard in the office, then she slowly continued, with a shuddering breath. "Nick was walking with me to class, and another boy, Albert McNair, jumped out of a passage and knocked my books out of my hand. He laughed, saying that mudbloods couldn't even walk straight. Nick always had a temper and he challenged him to a duel right then. McNair was never too good at dueling, but he couldn't very well back down...to a mudblood lover, he accepted and he fired at Nick before they were even ready. Nick cursed him back and McNair fell and hit his head. He died in St. Mungo's two days later. The Aurors came and took Nick away, McNair was a pureblood, and Nick was only a half-blood. The court convicted him to ten years in Azkaban...He hung himself after a month."

She stopped again and wiped away some tears. "I couldn't take it and ran up here and slammed my wand down and said I couldn't live in this world. I demanded that Dumbledore let me leave, which he did. I was mad at your mother because she was staying, she was in love with your father at the time and wouldn't dream of leaving. Why didn't you snap my wand Albus, I wanted you to."

"Lily hoped that someday you would return." Dumbledore answered softly.

"Figures...I met Vernon, after I had been back at a Muggle finishing school for a year, and I married him after we graduated a year later. He was nice at first, especially after Dudley was born. But after you came he changed. He had never liked your parents; he met them at our wedding. Your mother tried to get me to reconsider, saying that I could come back, but I refused. Vernon for his part didn't like James, he was having problems at the time finding employment and hated your father for having no visible means of support."

"He was an Auror," Harry muttered flatly.

"I know, and I knew then, but for some reason Vernon was deathly afraid of magic, or anything that could possibly be magic. To this day I don't know why, I always figured that he saw something when he was young, and was never obliviated, I didn't ask. I never told him of my past, until your mother died, and Hagrid showed up on our doorstep with you. That night was...rough, and it ended with Dumbledore performing a memory charm on Vernon, and making a bargain with me, that my past would remain hidden as long as I sheltered you under my roof.

Still Vernon, resented your parents, and their dumping you on us. I know I should have stopped his excesses, but it was like with you, he was so much bigger than me, and I had renounced magic. When your Hogwarts letter arrived, I knew with the first owl...that's basically it. I'm now homeless and my husband is dead, because a maniacal madman is on a purity quest. I estranged my last remaining blood relative because I didn't have the courage to stand up to my husband, and I have a fat lazy son, who is probably right now in the kitchens eating or trying to pick on a house-elf if someone has shown him where they are. And I'm a thirty-some odd year old half-trained witch. Happy Albus?"

As Petunia finished her explanation, Harry was immediately filled with competing emotions: anger, pity, disgust, sadness, "I can't say that I can forgive you right now Petunia, but know I never truly hated you...Professor Dumbledore if that is all?" Harry asked, hopeful to escape.

"No Harry, the two of you please tarry here a moment longer. Petunia, please go to Minerva's office, I believe she is waiting for you there." Petunia got up without meeting Harry's eyes, and walked out of the office quickly.

After she left Dumbledore motioned to the two still perched on his desk. "Harry, I believe that you have some other familial relations to tell Miss Granger. I feel that in light of yesterday and today's events everything that can be related should be to those who should know..."

With a slow glance over at Dumbledore, Harry received a slight, reassuring nod. He looked forward again, not wanting to meet Hermione's eyes, as he felt guilty for not telling her as soon as he could have. "Mione, I, er..."

Grabbing his chin, Hermione forced him to look into her eyes however, "You mean the part about Dumbledore being your Great-Great-Great-Grandfather. I already figured that out, dear, remember I am the smartest witch of my age, I believe you said that yourself." She finished with a half smile, leaned in and kissed him softly, mindless of the audience. "Now as to when you should have told me..."She backed off and punched him in the arm lightly. With a quiet snort, she leaned against his shoulder once again. "I'm sure you have reasons, your family seems to have this odd propensity for secrets." Hermione stated, referring to more than one person in the room.

For his part, Dumbledore leaned back in his chair with a sigh of relief. I'm glad that I didn't manage to foul that up as well. The relieved thought crossed his consciousness.

After a moment Harry broke the silence once again, "Granddad, what about Dudley?" as a question popped to the front of his mind suddenly.

Dumbledore immediate figured out the partial question and answered honestly, "We don't know Harry. As you both know, down in the one of the dungeon rooms, Hogwarts has a magical quill that records the names of all magical children born in Great Britain, it used to record all of them in the world, a thousand years ago, but there's too many now. When he was born the quill recorded his name, just as it did the both of yours and mine for that matter. However, when Minerva and I first saw him, all those years ago, we couldn't detect a trace of magic, so we never sent him a letter. Besides, I do have some say in whom I accept in my school,"

Harry coughed something that sounded suspiciously like 'Crabbe', but Dumbledore studiously ignored him, though with a slight grin about the eyes, He shrugged, "Poppy examined him, he has the magical markers in his genes, but it's as if they haven't expressed themselves. As you know until the very first onset of puberty at eleven or so, it's very difficult to control or express magic, if not outright impossible, normally if a child is brought up by wizards, they will have some magical abilities by the time they receive their letter. Muggle raised magical children often don't show any abilities at all until eleven or so hence when you start school, or if they do, they are relatively minor expressions of involuntary magic. Of course, yourself and Hermione are noted exceptions."

"I sorta got locked in the tool shed by accident one afternoon and well, I blew it up." She muttered, embarrassed, to which he just kissed the crown of her hair in response.

Dumbledore went on, " Like I said previously, we do not know what is happening with Dudley, we even put Petunia's wand in his hand before I gave it back, it should have at least reacted, given that he is her son. Nothing."

***************************Riddle Mansion********************************

2pm

KNOCK, KNOCK, a small, greasy man with a silver hand knocked reticently on a heavy oaken door carved with a relief of a coiled serpent. The door was at the end of a long dark hallway, lit only occasionally with torches. There were many portraits on the wall, however all seemed dark. The man was holding a twelve-inch square box in his hands; there was a card in an envelope attached to the top lid of the box. The silver-handed man trembled slightly as he waited.

"ENTER" a flat hiss commanded.

"Master," the small man began, "This box was left at Malfoy Manor addressed to you."

With shaking hands, he extended the box to a man in dark robes, a slight red glow coming from the depths of the raised hood. Voldemort took the box, set it on a convenient table and pulled the card from the top.

Tom Riddle, hell

Snarling at this insult, he opened the card and read the inside:

Since you were so kind to send your lackeys to help us, we thought we should kindly return them.

Love and kisses,

Hermione Jane Granger, the Mudblood

Harry James Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived

Screaming in rage, Voldemort swept the box off the table to send it crashing to the floor. The box came open and the head of Antonin Dolohov rolled to a corner of the room. Eyes fully blazing, he found Wormtail, "CRUCIO".

*********************Hogwarts*******************************

A sudden pain burned though his scar, and Harry's hand flew up instinctively to cover it.

"Harry?"

"I think he just got our reply." Harry replied to his other half with grim satisfaction.

A/N; there you go. The road isn't easy. Next chapter, Draco meets Dudley and Dumbledore shares a dark reveleation.

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