Ch 7 Dedicating Hallowed Ground
As usual, Dumbledore was right on the mark. When Harry and Hermione awoke in the morning, neither felt very well rested and both complained of aching muscles. After a few days of light sightseeing, their bodies began to adjust and they convinced Saldar to put off the daily physical training until they returned to England two weeks later.
Realizing that her parents, especially her mother, suspected something, Hermione had another discussion with them. She explained that because of everything her and Harry had gone through, and all of the talents they had developed, there might be other times when she and Harry might have certain duties and responsibilities to fulfill, and she might not be able to keep her parents fully informed about her actions. Though not very pleased that their girl seemed to be growing up so fast or that she might be in danger again in the future, they seemed to understand and accept it, although very reluctantly. Not completely satisfied either, Hermione realized that was the best she could probably expect.
When they finally left Greece behind them, Harry stayed with Fred and Stella Granger, Hermione's grandparents, for a couple of weeks. During their stay there, Hermione and he took short day trips into London to see some of the places she had told him about, but that he had never had the opportunity to see for himself. They also began their intense physical practice sessions with Saldar. Telling her grandparents they were just off for a morning run, Harry and Hermione would find a secluded stretch of woods in which they could actually practice the various skills and techniques Saldar had been teaching them during their sleep after their morning run. Harry had already had some training in unarmed combat, but for Hermione it was all brand new. Even so, she learned quickly and the sparring matches between the two quickly became fairly equal. Harry was stronger and quicker and had a longer reach, but Hermione was better defensively than Harry.
One morning in early July following one of their morning workout sessions, Hermione shoved a copy of the Daily Prophet across the table to Harry. Frowning for a minute, he was unsure what she wanted him to see until he saw the article titled, "Arthur Weasley to Dedicate New Wizarding Monument Tomorrow." As he scanned through the article, his eyes lit up and he looked across at Hermione.
"What do you think? Bored of vacation yet?"
"I'm game, Harry. But you know that the place will be crawling with politicians and reporters, right? And if you just show up, without having answered any of the invitations they've sent you, well-I'm sure some of them will be hounding you for some answers. Are you ready to deal with that?"
"Yeah, I know," sighed Harry. "But I would love to see the monument. And most of our friends will be there, too. Besides, I can't keep hiding here with you forever-much as I might like to do that."
"Alright, well, I'll just owl Molly and Arthur to let them know we're coming and…"
"Who said we were going to tell anyone?"
"Harry, we can't just show up unannounced. Besides, they'll have tons of security and…"
"But Hermione, that's half the fun. Let me worry about the security." Nodding her head, Hermione reluctantly agreed. They spent an hour or so packing their things and then the rest of the day in London seeing a movie, walking in the parks, and having dinner. While Harry was packing, Hermione sent off a short note to Molly, letting them know they would see them tomorrow-Hermione didn't want Molly to get overwhelmed with emotion when they showed up the next day.
After their training session and a light breakfast the next morning, Hermione and Harry finished readying their bags and said their goodbyes to the Grangers. Harry sprinkled liberal doses of the Weasley's Sprinkle `Em, Shrink `Em powder over their luggage, and they put their shrunk bags and trunks in their pockets. Putting on Harry's Invisibility Cloak, Hermione reached out and grabbed Harry's hand as he cloaked himself with invisibility. Ready, Harry teleported them both to the Weasley living room, where they were nearly ran over by a frantic Molly Weasley who was rushing around chaotically and bellowing at her children to finish getting ready for the dedication ceremony.
"Wow, they sure rebuilt this in a hurry. I thought it would take longer."
"They can build much faster in the wizarding world when they want to, Harry," laughed Hermione.
"Well, the house looks nicer, but still the same, does that make sense?"
"Yeah, it still feels like a home."
Glancing at the family clock, Harry noticed that all of the hands pointed to home, all of them that is but Percy's. With a tug on Hermione's hand, he led her slowly up the stairway, brushing by a rushing Ginny tumbling down the stairs and barely ducking out of the way as Ron came charging down from the hallway at the top. Harry froze a moment as he looked at the clothing Ron was wearing. Though he couldn't name a single fashion designer, Muggle or magical, and his knowledge of fabrics comprised four categories-denim, cotton, wool, and other; even Harry could tell that the outfit Ron was wearing was very nice and probably very expensive clothing by the look of it. Moving quickly to Ginny's room, they set their luggage in one corner.
"Did you see what Ron was wearing?"
"Yeah. He must have hit the lottery. Those Surrain shirts cost a small fortune. And you have to special order them from Paris. And those pants-hand stitched by Liz Courdelle herself. And here I always thought all of his taste was in his mouth. He must have been secretly reading some of Lavender's Stylish Witch or Bewitching Wizards magazines when we thought he was just rereading old Quidditch magazines."
"Huh?"
"Oh, never mind. By the way, Harry, I'm still hungry. Would you mind…"
"No problem, Hermione. I'll just run downstairs and grab us a pancake or two. I'm still hungry, too. And it smells like Molly is fixing one of her huge breakfasts."
Harry quietly made his way downstairs to where he could hear the family congregating around the massive kitchen table. Padding softly through the open doorway, Harry paused to take in the wonderful smells of a Weasley breakfast before he started moving stealthily towards a steaming plate of pancakes. Suddenly he leaped back as a blaring alarm started ringing and a cloud of dust exploded around him. He realized a split second too late that he had somehow set off an alarm spell. He then noticed that the Weasley boys were all throwing small spheres in his direction. Throwing himself flat on his back, he managed to elude them. Rolling back to his shoulders, he front flipped to regain his footing again and raised a deflecting shield in front of him. Too late to dive out of the way, he realized there was one more globe coming at him from behind, only a moment before it tagged him right in the lower back. Immediately, he was caught in a very powerful webbing.
"You might as well uncloak yourself, Harry. They knew you were coming."
Jerking his head to one side, he realized that he could only look forward-the incredibly strong webbing had completely immobilized him. All of a sudden, he caught a glimpse of Hermione stepping gingerly around the webbing that had caught him in place as she ran to give Molly a huge hug at the table. Ron, the twins, and the other boys were struggling to stay in their chairs as their laughs deepened. Feeling his cheeks flush, Harry uncloaked his invisibility and the laughter increased tenfold.
Hermione picked up a thick pancake, tore off a piece, and returning to Harry's side, stuffed it in his mouth. "You were looking for one of these, I believe?" she asked laughingly.
Wiping tears from his eyes, Ron exclaimed, "That was one of the best pranks I've ever seen Hermione!"
"A stroke of genius!" added George.
"Brilliant! Inspirational!" concluded Fred. "We might have to make her an honorary Weasley for this."
"I thought I was an honorary Weasley," joked Hermione.
Swallowing his pride and the pancake, Harry thought "Hermione, would you mind getting me out of this?"
"What was that Harry? I couldn't hear you." Hermione's eyes were filled with mirth.
Harry mumbled low, "I said, would you mind getting me out of this?"
Spinning her wand in her fingers, Hermione posed in front of Harry. "I don't think I should do that right now. I'm not sure you've learned your lesson just yet."
"Yeah, never try to outtrick a Weasley!" shouted Fred.
Pointing her wand at Harry, Molly announced, "Oh, I think the poor dear has suffered enough. There you go, sweetie." And she dispelled the webbing.
Looking sternly for a moment, Harry announced, "You do realize that you've all moved to the top of my prank list, don't you? You're all right below Miss Hermione Granger. She has even managed to bump Snape and the Slytherins down a notch or two on the list." Softening at the laughter that erupted, Harry continued. "But I guess I had that coming." Giving Molly a big hug, he added, "Hermione was right, I should have let you know we were coming today. But she already did, didn't she?"
With a wide smile, Hermione nodded and took a bow. "I confess. I suggested that we plan a little welcoming party of our own for you. So the twins planted several of their motion detectors around the house."
"But why didn't the family set them off, then? Why only me?" asked Harry curiously as he finished off the pancake Hermione had given him.
"We set them to detect only the motion of invisible parties, old chap. We knew if you came here like Hermione had hinted that you wouldn't be walking around in plain sight," explained Fred.
"But why didn't I sense them? And why didn't we set them off when we first arrived?"
"Were you looking for active spell wards?" asked George. When Harry shook his head, he continued. "Hermione signaled us when we should activate them and then we just waited for you to show up. I must say, the dust worked perfectly, making you a very visible target, even if you were still too quick for the five of us to hit you. Good thing we had some back up, eh Hermione?"
"Yeah, good thing," muttered Harry as Hermione laughed out loud. "I'm going to need to take another shower, you know," he complained.
"Poor boy." she replied as she drank her pumpkin juice.
Ignoring the continued laughs, Harry happily took the plate Molly handed him and heaped several warm pancakes on it.
"Now eat up, Harry. You're still too thin, if you ask me," muttered Molly. Harry just smiled at Hermione and let the warmth of the family around the table envelop him. It was good to be home.
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Arthur had several extra tickets which allowed Harry and Hermione to attend the dedication without having to resort to more drastic measures. Harry continued to decline Arthur's invitations to be part of the ceremony however.
After breakfast and Harry's quick shower, Hermione and Harry accompanied the Weasleys to the battlefield where the monument had been placed. Harry altered his appearance and the guards just assumed that they were either Weasleys or clerks from the Ministry since they arrived with Arthur's group. They were early enough so that they could walk around the battle site for a while before the arriving politicians and news reporters began arriving and made it too crowded to move freely. It was the first time either Harry or Hermione had returned to the battlefield.
Though several months had passed, and it was now close to midsummer, there was not a speck of green to be seen anywhere. Just dry dust everywhere. The forest on one side, once so vibrant and alive, now appeared grim and stark, skeletal branches stretching forth searching for life. On the other side, the once calm blue waters appeared grey and stagnant, and emitted a bitter smell. In the center of the field stood the large circle of statues facing inward where a smaller group of wizards had made their final stand against Voldemort and his remaining allies. Where Voldemort's body had fallen, there was now a silk curtain, hiding whatever monument had been placed there until after the ceremony. A large stage was set on one side, with seating for several hundred facing it and on the sides.
Refusing a place on the stage, Harry and Hermione sat among the crowded onlookers with the rest of the Weasleys when the ceremony began. Most of the stage seemed to have been reserved for various officials from the Ministry. Harry nodded briefly to Dumbledore, who he saw on the stage with several other Hogwarts professors. Fudge and several other officials gave their dull, self-serving speeches. Harry noted ironically that not one of them had actually been present at the battle. Finally, it was Arthur's turn. He stood and crossed slowly to the silk curtains. He tugged on a golden rope, and the curtains came crashing down to reveal a huge block of transparent crystal. A murmur passed through the crowd and several of the officials on the stage frowned severely. Arthur stood to the side of the block, pointed his wand at his throat and intoned "Sonorus."
"Wizards and Witches, if I may have your attention for a moment. I wish to apologize to you all. This monument is not quite finished. In fact, it may never be finished." The murmuring exploded into barely checked anger and several of the Ministry officials, including Fudge, rose to their feet with extremely angry looks on their faces.
"Please, let me explain the concept behind the monument and then you will understand why it may never be completed. This block you see here is a memory crystal, the largest that has ever been created. It completely encases and protects the broken halves of Voldemort's wand, preserving it as evidence of his defeat. You can also see the silver dagger that not only restored Voldemort to power just over two years ago but also helped defeat him once and for all. But we wanted this monument to do more than just remind us of his defeat, we wanted it to remind us of the lives that were taken to further his evil goals and the lives that were given to prevent his success. So we have created a magical display with the memory crystal of every human and magical creature that lost their life opposing Voldemort. We have included everyone we know of, but the sad fact is that we may never know every life that he destroyed. That is why this monument will never be complete." Arthur looked around at the crowd now nodding in astonishment and locked gazes with Harry.
"What does he want, Hermione?"
Hermione paused for a moment and then replied, "He wants to know if you would be willing to be the first one to view one of the monument's images."
"Tell him yes."
Arthur then announced, "I would like to invite Harry Potter to be the first person to view an image of the monument." The crowd exploded at the mention of Harry's name and everyone looked around up on the stage to see where he might be seated. If possible, Fudge's facial features became even darker with rage.
Harry removed the metamorphmagus transformation that concealed his features, and pushed back the hood of his cloak as he slowly walked forward from the seated crowd towards the crystal monument. The buzz of conversation grew louder and Harry was momentarily blinded by the round of flashes from wizarding cameras that were going off all around him.
Arthur directed him to stand directly in front of the crystal block and to place his hand upon the front of the block. A voice asked softly, "Whom do you wish to view?"
There was a hush of anticipation from the crowd, many expecting him to mention his parents, and then Harry's voice rang out. "All of them. I would like to see all of them, please." Harry stood back, his back straight as a rod and looked up as the image of a small boy, perhaps six or seven, materialized upon the stone. "I am Rolfo Finnes. I caught Tom Riddle stealing food I had hidden under my bed in the orphanage where we both lived. He…" The minutes grew into hours as the images each told their own brief story. As word of Harry's presence spread throughout the day, and the incredible request he had made, the field itself began to fill with wizards and witches who wished to see for themselves if the rumors they heard were true. Throughout it all, Harry stood still as a rock, his face focused on the parade of images before him. The only time he moved was to squeeze Hermione's hand as she stood by his side and gently put her hand in his.
After dusk, when the final image had finished speaking, Harry awoke as if from a trance, and looked around in astonishment at the vast gathering around him.
"I'm sorry for keeping everyone here so long," started Harry. Realizing that only those closest to him could hear him, he spoke quietly to Arthur for a moment, who then pointed his wand at Harry's throat and spoke the command word "Sonorus."
"Thank you, Mr. Weasley. And thank all of you for coming and staying so long. I'm sorry for keeping all of you here so late. This is a wonderful monument, as wonderful as such a monument can be. Thank you. Thank you." With tears still running down his face, Harry ignored Arthur's outstretched hand and gave him a huge hug instead. Harry then shook hands with the remaining officials from the Ministry-conspicuously absent was Fudge, who had left some time ago. Dumbledore, too, got a bear hug from Harry.
When several reporters pushed forward to ask additional questions of Harry, he declined, in a voice still amplified by the Sonorus spell, "Please, there is nothing more I can add. Arthur Weasley and the others who worked on this project have done more to honor the memories of those who have fallen than any mere words of my own can do. Those statues you see surrounding us here tonight, and the images that appear above the crystal represent those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for the world. They're the real heroes. Honour them." Reaching for Hermione's hand, he shook his head at the next round of questions. "Good night." Then he and Hermione simply vanished.
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Harry and Hermione were relaxing around the dining table, finishing off a meat pie with the rest of the Weasley boys while they waited for Ginny and her parents to come home.
"Geez, Harry, you still know how to steal the spotlight, huh?" scowled Ron through a chicken leg he was gnawing on.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked a puzzled Harry.
"Nothing. I'm beat. I'm heading to bed." And with that, Ron tossed the leg on the table and stomped upstairs.
After he was gone, Harry turned to the twins and asked, "What's his problem?"
"Haven't you noticed the swelling in his head?"
"It's amazing he can still put his new fancy shirts on in the morning."
"What are you two talking about?"
"Haven't you been reading the papers? He must give two or three interviews a week."
"Interviews? About what?"
"About you. Well, actually about how important his role was in helping you defeat Voldemort."
"It's quite disgusting actually."
"Revolting."
"Umm, I think we've got the picture," cut in Hermione.
"We're glad you're back now. Maybe you two can talk some sense into him."
"Yeah, he doesn't seem to want to listen to us."
"Well I'm sure that you two have been very diplomatic about it," remarked Hermione.
"Why of course. It's a shame the self-annointed all-important One can't see that."
"Yes, Mr. the-world-revolves-around-me has been fairly full of himself as of late."
"Uhh, is there anything else of importance that we ought to know about?" ventured Harry.
"Well, business was a bit off there for a while, but is doing much better now. We're thinking about opening another store, maybe in Diagon Alley. We're looking into it."
"And we've got some new items we'd like to try, er…show you. Even better than the one this morning." Both twins and Hermione started laughing.
Ignoring them, Harry asked Charlie how the dragons were doing in Romania.
Several puffs of smoke and the murmuring voices in the living room announced the arrival of the returning Weasleys.
Entering the kitchen with his wife and daughter in tow, Arthur boomed, "Well, Harry, you certainly know how to make an exit. It took me forty-five minutes to finish off the remaining questions from those reporters."
"Yeah, somebody already mentioned that. Why didn't you just Apparate? You didn't need to stick around just to answer their questions," offered Harry.
"Well, as a ministry official, and apparently the only one you seem inclined to associate with, I did need to stay and deal with their questions. Especially since Fudge had left early."
"I'm sorry, Arthur, I didn't mean to…"
"Oh hush, Harry. It's no problem, Harry. I think you handled it very well, Arthur. I am very proud of you. Now it's very late and it's been a long day. Finish eating, the lot of you, and then off to bed with you," urged Molly.
Half an hour later, after the grumbling, but no longer hungry Weasleys had all gone to bed, Harry laid back and though concerned about Ron, fell asleep quickly.
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