Chapter 10
The neighborhood looked exactly like any suburban neighborhood. To the normal muggle maybe, but not to the wizards that roamed the streets. Harry found the unplotted house quite easily. There were no defenses at that point that was strong enough to hold him at bay, especially when the stakes were high. His family was at stake and no power hungry wizard or witch was going to stand in the way of his new beginning.
He told everyone involve what the plan was. They were to guard the outer perimeter that surrounded the house. In order for the plan to succeed, they needed to work together and in sync. It would be Harry and Ron who would infiltrate the actual house invisibly. Since there was only one cloak and Harry, only one person was needed to cover Harry. Ron volunteered. When he gave everyone else a glare, no one tried to talk him out of it. He pointed out that he was the godfather after all and it was his responsibility.
Harry gave them all a coin he'd use to signal them when it was time for them to put up their own shield around the house. Timing was everything. Ron sole priority was to get the children and Hermione out safely.
"Mate, you're sure this time aren't you?"
"Yes, Ron. Something else threw me off before, but this time I'm betting my life that this is the right place."
"It looks so normal, doesn't it?"
"Remember, Grimmauld Place. It looked normal as well, didn't it?"
"Yeah, you're right. I'll go around back and wait for your signal."
"Thanks Ron."
"No need mate. That's what family is for."
"I want to. I know I owe you more than my thanks, but right now that is all I can give."
Besides he knew that Ron's pride would not take anything more. He wouldn't accept anything materialistic or anything monetary.
"You don't owe me anything. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here now and you know it."
"Such is our destiny mate. We'll just keep it at that."
He told Ron to keep it down and not to go yet. He tried to reach Hermione mentally.
"Hermione, you there?"
From inside the house, Hermione busied herself with the boys. She bathed them and fed them just as she would normally do had they been at Hogwarts. For weeks she restrained herself from lashing out at her captors. She knew that going along with them would buy some time until Harry would come to the rescue. She was positive he would come.
The first thing they took away from her was her wand. Then they threatened her children if she would not cooperate. She thought letting her children's power destroy their captors, but she didn't want to introduce them to any more violence at such a young age. Their false sense of security would give her more leverage.
She was startled at the sound of Harry's voice inside her head. She looked around thinking maybe she was just imagining things. She'd forgotten about their mental connection. She knew it only worked in certain proximities, so she knew instantly that he was nearby. She didn't know exactly how close, but at least he was nearby.
"I'm here Harry."
"How are you, love?"
"Fine. The boys are fine. They miss you."
"Yeah. I miss them too. I miss you."
"Oh, Harry. I miss you too. Will you please hurry so that I can show you how much."
That was more than enough incentive for Harry. He signaled for Ron to take his position out back. "How many are there?"
"Right now there are only two in the house. Two guards, but the boys are with me and I don't want them to see any violence."
"Don't want them to see a mean mommy huh?" He joked. It was good to have some sense of humor back in his life. It's been too serious.
"Shut it, Harry. Just hurry."
Little did Hermione know that he'd already disabled the two guards while he was communicating with her. He and Ron met up at the hall. Ron had already removed the cloak and Harry revealed himself. He opened the door to where Hermione and his sons were being kept.
"Already here, love." He told her as he popped his head into the room. She ran up to him and gave him the most passionate kiss she could muster up at short notice.
"AHEM," Ron cleared his throat.
"Sorry, Ron." She hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. Harry was already walking towards his boys. It took a lot of control on his part not to take Hermione then and there, but he knew the threat was far from over. They still needed to deal with the master mind.
"Hi, boys." They already knew he was near as soon as he entered the house. They'd been jumping up and down with their hands up wanting to be carried. Harry lifted them up to his arms and kissed each one of them. "Oh, I missed you so much." They all told him how much they missed him too. They told him how glad they were when mommy joined them, but that they didn't like the way the man was treating her. They told him how much they wanted to hurt the man for hurting mommy, but they knew that it would make their mommy sad if they did something bad to the man.
Harry told them how very proud of them he was for doing the right thing and not making their mommy sad. He told them that he would take them to their grandfather, but they'd have to go to Hogwarts first and that he and mommy would join them later.
He already knew that Hermione would refuse to leave. She wanted to be able to have a little revenge.
Hermione joined the group hug while Ron stood guard at the door.
"We have to get them out of here. Will you go back to Hogwarts with them?" Hermione looked at him with the `Are you crazy look.' "I didn't think so."
"Glad to know that you still know me so well."
"Ron, you'll have to go with the boys." Ron gave him a glare. "I'll bring you right back. Just give the boys to Lavender and Madame Pompfrey."
"Lavender is not here?" Hermione asked.
"No, she lost the draw. She, Fleur and mom played a variation of Rock, Paper, Scissors. You know that muggle game you all showed us."
"Better hurry Harry. The people will be home soon. They always come home at the same time every night."
He gave the boys a few instructions and leapt Ron and them out to Hogwarts. Then he leapt to where Dumbledore waited to let him know what was going on inside. The plan still remained. The spells needed to go up at the same time in order to trap the prisoners and keep them from disapparating out of the house.
When he went back into the house, he leapt Ron back into the house. He gave him the invisibility cloak. Ron put it over him except for the hood. It looked as if Ron's head was just floating around as he paced back and forth while they waited.
"What about the kids? They'll notice they aren't here."
"I'll take care of it," Harry waved his hand and three images of sleeping babies appeared in the cribs. Hermione hadn't seen that side of Harry's powers before. She knew he could conjure any inanimate object, but never had he conjured up live beings. She was amazed.
Ron was too. His mouth was still opened. Harry never seized to amaze him thus far. He knew that he was not invincible, but at the top of his game, he was awesome.
"Hermione, do you know who the house belongs to?"
"I'm not really sure. I hear voices, but they don't allow me to go out of the room. If we need a walk or anything, someone changes the appearance of the room. You know like the room of requirement back at Hogwarts. The only person we see is Simon." Harry stiffened at the sound of the name.
"Harry, I don't think he's himself if you know what I mean. I think he's under some kind of spell. Not really an imperius curse, but something similar to it. He seems normal, but if you look into his eyes, he just has a far away look that lets you know he's not really all there."
"There is no such curse, Hermione." Ron piped in.
"How would you know, Ron? You're an expert on curses then?" It seemed like old times, Harry thought. He was in the middle of what could turn out to be another argument that could easily be blown out of proportion. He decided they didn't have time for it.
"I love you both, but now is not the time to argue about it. I'll ask grandfather."
They were both quiet as Harry closed his eyes to contact his grandfather. He didn't need to close his eyes, but he might start laughing if he kept looking at the silly faces his friend and wife made. They looked absolutely shocked. It was probably the first time that Harry actually stopped them from arguing. Usually he'd let them argue it out until they finally ask him about his opinion.
Harry kept his eyes closed and concentrated on communicating with his grandfather.
"I have a question grandfather," Harry intruded in his grandfather's mind.
"Well, now. This is the first time you've talked to me this way. I didn't think you had it in you. I should have known better. What can I answer for you my boy?"
"Is there a curse that is similar to the imperius but allows a person the ability to function close to normal?"
"Is Hermione under such curse?"
"No sir, but she thinks someone might be under such curse. She says the person has a far away look in the eyes as if the person wasn't really there completely."
"You do know that the imperius is an unforgivable curse, do you not? Of course you do. Well, in order to go around such restrictions, many witch and wizards try to come up with a similar curse in order to take control of a person without performing an unforgivable curse. I believe that there was a witch who'd been successful in creating such curse. I don't know how often it's been used because there really haven't been reports of such incidents. But the reasons may be because the people can go about their daily lives looking as if they were normal when in fact their thoughts are being dictated by someone else."
"Is there anyway to reverse this curse?"
"I'm not sure Harry. But maybe eliminating the source may be one way. You have to understand, however, that a person that can be under such a curse must have a weak will and mind or a person may have subconscious fantasies if you will of doing some of the things they are doing when under the curse."
"I don't understand. What do you mean?"
"For example, let's take you for example. Let's say your subconscious and your secret wish is to rule the world. You may not show it while you're awake or you try to fight those urges, but when you're asleep you dream of being the ruler. When a person puts you under the curse, you might not know you're actually acting out what you wish subconsciously. You may think you were still dreaming and not really doing what it was that you were doing. You're more susceptible to the curse if the person who cursed you orders you to do something that you wanted to do anyway, but in your subconscious mind."
"I think I understand. What is this curse called?"
"I believe it is Adstringo."
"Thank you, grandfather. I will give you the signal as soon as the parties arrive."
Harry opened his eyes to see his wife and friend staring at him expectantly. He wanted to laugh again when he saw their faces.
"Well, what did Dumbledore say?" Ron asked. He wanted so much to prove Hermione wrong. He didn't think there was ever a time that she was wrong, but he could hope.
"He confirmed Hermione's suspicions. There is a curse called Adstringo that puts a person under some kind of state similar to the imperius, but not unforgivable. He also thinks that since the person under the spell acts normal and seems normal under normal scrutiny, a lot of wizards and witches are not aware of it and do not report it. He also said that the person under the curse must also have a strong subconscious drive to do what the person is doing. Sort of like a secret wish or fantasy."
"What do you think Simon's strong subconscious emotions are then?" Hermione asked. "He treated us great. He played with the kids as if nothing was wrong and he comforted me a lot, always told me everything would be okay."
"That's simple isn't it?" Ron piped in. "He wants what Harry's got. A beautiful, intelligent wife and three strong talented kids."
Harry and Hermione looked at Ron mouths agape. "What? It's true. Hermione, you should look at the way he looked at you when you're not looking. Come on. He probably thought he was making headway towards a meaningful relationship with you until Harry came along."
"That's sick Ron." Hermione didn't want to believe that she could have been duped.
"May be love, but I think Ron is right. Remember when he visited you. I felt all his emotions. I knew what he wanted from you."
The clock chimed to signal the arrival of her captors. "Hush, they should be arriving in a moment. What are we going to do with the guards."
"Let me leap Draco and Tonks in."
"What for?" Ron asked. Hermione and Harry looked at him again. Sometimes they wondered how he could be so aware about some things and completely oblivious about other things.
"Because, they could morph."
"Oh," was all Ron could say. He covered himself with the invisibility cloak to hide the redness creeping up his cheeks. He was thankful that his friends did not laugh at his occasional mental lapse.
A/N: Almost done. Bear with me for one or two more chapters. Thanks for your reviews.
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