Chapter 10-New Day Dawning
The rest of the evening proved restless for everyone. Molly had not returned by 10 PM and that was a concern. Certainly, muggle medicine was better than this. Ginny had awakened wondering what they knew. Finally, at a quarter past ten Molly returned with not quite a smile, but certainly looking encouraged.
"So what did you find out?" asked Arthur who decided to stay behind. "Is it better than we hoped?"
"I don't know about better, but the news is positive. Hermione will be up walking by the middle of the week. They said they'd never seen a case where someone had so many superficial wounds. Harry wasn't that lucky, but I'm going to bet it was the wizard gene and DNA that saved him. They said the bullet should have killed him and hit him in the heart, but it hit a rib first and it slowed the bullet just enough. Poor thing is in serious condition. He will remain under sedation for a few days to help manage the pain.
The revelry in the Burrow was broken by a sudden knock at the back door. As she turned, Tonks recognized someone she had hoped not to see until Monday-Rufus Scrimgeour-Minister for Magic. Tonks opened the door and let him in. "I wondered if I might find you here Tonks. My representative spied Mrs. Weasley at the hospital during the announcement of Mr. Potter and Miss Granger's conditions. Were you going to inform me that the Ministry had two of our world's most famous citizens in a muggle hospital?"
"Of course, Minister, I thought that we'd get a good handle on the situation before we bothered you with it," said Tonks knowing that this is just the type of thing she should have taken to the Minister right away. "That's not true, Sir. I am so personally involved that I forgot my duty to the Ministry."
Scrimgeour's face was passive, yet sympathetic. "I suppose if very good, close friends of mine were in trouble my allegiance might be to them. However, I think that we missed an opportunity that may have been my fault as well."
"I'm sorry, Sir. I don't know what you mean," admitted Tonks.
Scrimgeour began, "For centuries, the Minister's office has kept plans up-to-date that address incidents that crossover between the muggle and magical worlds. They are secret and I am supposed to inform each Department Head of them so they know their options. It has never been necessary since my ascension to Minister for Magic to brief a new Department Head. So I failed you there Which is why I cannot in good conscience be as angry as I might."
The Weasleys had noticed but Tonks had not. Percy Weasley, the Minister's assistant, had accompanied the Minister. "Weasley, explain our plan please."
"Yes sir, right sir. It would be normal protocol to recall all agents of the Ministry capable of doing memory charms to gather at the Ministry. In this case, there are far more people than we have ever attempted to modify at one time. However, our agents have been able to identify every single person, including the Medevac and news helicopter personnel, who participated so far in this affair. We will modify each of their memories and return Miss Granger and Mr. Potter to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries as soon as possible," announced Percy. "This shall be done by midnight."
Remus spoke up quite confused. "There were hundreds of thousands, maybe millions who saw the whole event on television. There is no way that in the next two-less than two hours-we can modify that many memories."
The Minister looked toward his feet. "Yes, that is where better and faster communication would have been fortuitous. I am just as much to blame. We have decided on a cover story. We will modify each persons memory involved so that they believe they were involved in a massive movie rehearsal. It is a threadbare cover, so we will open a studio in a building we have long had set up as our `Room of Requirement' much like the one the Hogwarts' founders created there. It will include all the necessary equipment for a front. Neither the cover story nor the event involving our friends is what we are worried about at this point. We are doing this to ensure that Miss Granger and Mr. Potter are safely returned to our jurisdiction and that existence of our world is preserved."
"Understood, Minister," said Tonks. "However we have uncovered a rather intricate conspiracy to defame Miss Granger. The purpose of it may have been to commit murder in the guise of a crime of passion and suicide."
"Is there evidence that we need to control?" asked Scrimgeour obviously not aware of the videotape and pictures taken by police.
"Yes sir, the Metropolitan police have it. It is a videotape and a replica we believe of this letter or another made just like it. It is possible that more will surface," said Tonks.
"We will not be able to be sure who has or has not seen the tape or the pictures; however, we can cover these as props for the actor's use. Our company will pretend outrage that they were removed from the studio. If we can touch them, we can put labels on them with our company logo `H&H Productions'."
"How do we explain where the main characters went off to?" asked Bill. "Bill Weasley, Sir. I'm sorry."
"Mr. Weasley, we have not played out every scenario at this point. We are using our most talented Aurors, which will include everyone from the Department of Forensics to staff the studio. We will have to become actors until the furor over this dies down. The good news is that it is common for fly-by-night movie companies to disappear both here and the U.S. They are usually involved in pornography--or less than family fare shall we say-or at least that is what I'm told. The cover could be as sordid as you'd like to make it. Just don't let them know what they shouldn't know about our world or give them reason to pry." Rufus Scrimgeour explained. "You all will remain here, since you are recognizable today. You will not be tomorrow." A moment later, he and Percy had vanished from the backyard as quickly as they'd arrived.
"So am I to guess that the news people will be left out of the memory altering plan? They will be the ones who we tell that they ran across a fully-sanctioned movie rehearsal and broadcast it as real?" asked Remus
"This sounds preposterous, but if it gets Hermione and Harry to us safely it will be worth it. It will be the Ministries problem afterward," said Arthur. "Can I come to the studio and see all the muggle equipment? This will be the greatest opportunity for my office."
"Dad, none of us will know how to work anything and it would be suspicious if we were tinkering with it in front of reporters or whoever comes to visit," said Bill. "I can't imagine you containing your excitement enough to play the role needed there."
"I am a bit like a kid in a candy store, aren't I?" said Arthur. "There are other things Molly and I can do such as stay with Hermione and Harry."
"Now that's an excellent idea," said Tonks. "They will appreciate some company as he start feeling better."
"Do you think they'll be equipped to handle patients who have already been cut up by those muggle nutters?" asked Ron.
"I think there is a solution to that now Ron. Since the war with Lord Voldemort, there were occasions where muggles felt threatened by one of us and used their crude weapons against us. We enlisted several of their doctors to help us with those and to learn our medicine as well. One remains I believe and he is who trained my new forensic scientist John Lovington on the muggle side of things," said Tonks.
"We should go and make sure that Harry and Hermione are well taken care of this evening," said Mrs. Weasley. "Come along Arthur."
*&^%^&*&^%
By Thursday of the next week, Harry and Hermione were both awake. Hermione was walking with a cane due to injuries to her upper leg and hip, while Harry could only stand for short periods and walk to the end of the bed and back. The surgery performed by the muggle doctors had made Harry's upper body very weak and left him in excruciating pain as tissue mended itself and split near the scar tissue. The muggle doctor explained as adhesion and it would take several weeks for it to subside.
Harry and Hermione found conversation difficult during those first few days. Restoring the intimacy they'd once shared was work in progress. "So, how are you feeling today, Harry?" asked Hermione.
Occasionally the pain made Harry a little irritable. He wanted to ask her how she thought he felt as he grimaced trying to stand up straight while holding the I.V. stand. "Better," he lied. He didn't know what to say to her. All the explanations in the world about how the letter was fabricated made him wonder how she could have doubted him. His heart ached to hold her, which he could not do in any case. It did not soothe him to know she was not responsible for her actions.
"You look better than yesterday," she complimented. Harry did look better. The squinty-eyed look and grimace that crossed his face when he took the deep breaths during therapy faded more quickly now. "Those muggle doctors really…." Hermione realized that what she was saying was not coming out right.
Harry tried to make light of her indiscretion, but did not do so well either. "Yeah, it would have been more advantageous if you'd just stabbed me, they could have just stitched me up instead of cutting deeper to get the bullet." He didn't apologize, but felt ashamed for intentionally causing her grief.
They're only saving grace in those early days of recovery were the stories from Ron, Luna, and Ginny. They were working at the fake studio as extras, just walking around with documents filing things in fake files and occasionally answering questions. Ron's story about the first day never got old. "There I was with this muggle police man looking me in the eye. I have here a writ for the bodies of Hermione Granger and Harry Potter. I looked at it and sure enough it said, `Writ of Habeas Corpus' and listed their names."
"Well, I didn't know what to do. I had no bodies to give them and I certainly didn't want to wise-off to a uniformed police officer. Now remember this is the first time. I turned to Tonks who had shape-changed into an elderly woman and said, "Myra, where do we keep the corpuses? All of our Latin training flew out of my brain. The police officer looked at me with such a wicked stare."
"Young man, you know exactly what I'm looking for. This order is to bring Miss Granger and Mr. Potter to the police station for questioning," he said in an intimidating voice.
I said, "Would it have been too much to ask for you to have explained that to me in the first place? Do I look like I read Latin?"
"Then how did you know what `Habeas' meant?" he asked me.
I said, "I didn't know but I guessed that you didn't want me to make you a body for each of them." I was so nervous my tongue was swelling in my mouth with every word. Luna answered before Tonks could intervene.
"I think their making an adult film in Scotland this week, Sir. We are not the exclusive contractors for Miss Granger's services," said Luna.
"We had screwed this up so bad that Tonks had to stupefy the poor man and then alter his memory with a reasonable explanation," said Ron. "Luna saying that you were making adult films in Scotland was too much."
"Well, I thought I heard someone say that we could make it as sordid as we wished," said Luna giggling. She'd since learned that those types of statements were not what the Minister meant. He had merely said to let them infer whatever they pleased because wrapping up the business would make that one of their top assumptions anyway.
"In any case, today another police officer or private investigator came in, this time he was representing a civilian who had watched the entire thing who was claiming that she was left sleepless worrying about Harry and Hermione. She was claiming she thought it looked too real and was suing the news station and us for putting it on the air without warning viewers of adult content and violence. He presented me with another `Writ of Habeas Corpus'. So on Tuesday, Luna, Ginny and I are going to a special Magistrate's Court using Polyjuice to prove you are alive and well. Since Ginny knows you better, she's going as you and Luna's going as Ginny. It would be weird pretending to kiss Hermione knowing it's my sister." They all laughed. "We'll probably have to show some affection in public to carry it off."
Ginny shivered. "I'm not disgusted but don't get carried away."
"I kind of like the idea myself," said Luna. "This way I won't have to worry if that passionate kiss was meant for Hermione the beautiful and graceful gazelle or me the run of the mill doe. It could be confusing. Ginny will kick his ass if he gets too fresh." They all roared.
"It'll be a while before anyone will be calling me a gazelle, I imagine," said Hermione. "Give yourself some credit, you are not run of the mill." Hermione smiled wider than she meant and twitched as the injured muscles in her neck and shoulder reminded her that everything wasn't back to normal.
Luna smiled in return and blew her a kiss. "Thanks, that's sweet."
"Hey, we have to go. We saw Neville coming in to see his parents. We thought it would be nice to chat with them for a few minutes," said Ginny.
Harry looked at Hermione wishing they were that close again. He could feel her sadness too and he could not pluck up the courage to bring up the issues that stood between them. It made his chest hurt when he sighed from thinking about it.
Saturday brought the emotions closer to the surface as privately they thought of the wedding that should have happened. "I wonder what it would have been like today at Hogwarts?" asked Harry.
Hermione held back the tears shaking her head. "What do you mean? Do you doubt that it would have been the happiest day of our lives?"
"That isn't really what I meant by that. I meant the look of the place, the falling leaves, the happy faces, and the great dinner," said Harry. "No, you right today would have been a happy day." Harry didn't realize that he had sliced her to the core with words like a sharp-edged sword.
"You're not happy today. You're not happy to be alive. Or, do you mean you're not as happy with me as you once were? I mean I am a murderous witch, with a `b'." She said angrily.
Harry sat still as he felt his heart racing in distress. He couldn't gather his breath for a moment. When he did, he wished he knew what to say to express his disappointment and hurt without making it worse. "How am I supposed to feel? Someone almost made us popsicles at the morgue and even though I know you didn't have control, the one I see holding the gun in my nightmares is the love of my life. The same one who eight hours earlier I had pleaded with to believe I couldn't possibly be with anyone else. The pain in my chest tells me that you are the one who wasn't sure of our love and happiness, not me."
Hermione had been sitting in a chair at the table next to Harry. She stood crying she took his hand gingerly fitting each finger to entwine with hers. "I have no memory except the moment I saw you fall, Harry. The burning in my leg, shoulder and neck couldn't compare to the anguish in my heart when I dropped the gun and saw you bleeding." She gently raised their held hands to her cheek. "I don't know why I'm surprised you are angry and hurt. I didn't trust our love until that very moment when I felt your breath in my ear saying you loved me. It wasn't in the corporeal world; it was your heart forgiving me. I screamed and tried to crawl to you. The bullet only hit flesh in my shoulder, but my collarbone cracked and my shoulder pulled out of place as the officer tried to restrain me from getting to you. I heard you calling to me."
Ten feet away, Ginny's head was tucked into Ron's chest as Ron, Luna and Ginny listened.
"How could you ever doubt me, Hermione? How? We were childlike as we made love the first time. We were lucky to excite each other the way we did, as scared of hurting one another as we were. I know you knew at that moment you were the only woman in the world for me. I thought you felt that each time I touched you. How could you imagine that I'd risk that connection with you for anyone else. Especially, when we confessed that we'd loved Ginny and Ron, but this was where our hearts had always been." Harry tried not to let the pain stop him, but he moaned as his heavy breathing amongst his tears caused his chest to rise and fall too quickly. He stopped.
"Harry, forgive me. I'm not perfect when it comes to thinking people won't always be there," said Hermione. "I fear being abandoned more than anything else on earth. I can live without the everyday cluster of coworkers and pretend friends, but I can't live without my true friends. I felt lost without you and Ron the past three years and that pain came back again in those first few moments as I read that letter. Now, Ron had Luna and you had Ginny. Ginny, my best friend Ginny, had been the right one for you all along I thought."
Ron interrupted so the talk about Ginny wouldn't go further in front of her. "Sorry, guys, we didn't mean to interrupt." Ron pointed to Ginny crying holding him tight. "She's been like this since the afternoon it happened. You just haven't seen it."
"I'll leave so you guys can get this worked out," said Ginny briefly catching her breath and gathering her composure.
"Come here, Ginny," said Harry. He held his wired hand out to her. "Ginny, I never knew you noticed how Hermione and I were together until just a few weeks or months ago. Neither did Hermione. She knows you will always hold a special place in my heart. You were the first love I ever felt strongly enough about to risk my heart with. We talked about you. You, unknown to me, are so kind and wonderful in Hermione's eyes that she could see a relationship between us again. I am angry with her for not trusting me when I addressed that fear, but not for being human and being overcome by emotion." He tried to breathe more shallowly now that he could think. "I owe Hermione an apology for not understanding that she had no time to grieve and reason this out to come to that conclusion. Someone made sure of that."
"I'm still not happy; Hermione. The pain in my chest is too real to feel like jumping up and down proclaiming my love. Nevertheless, I guarantee that I see my problem now. I need to realize the stress you were put under after our conversation and realize that anyone would have to go home and think about something like that for a while. Forgive me." Harry said. "Ginny, don't ever give up on finding a good man. There are millions of them missing out on a really fantastic woman."
"That's right, Sweetheart. Wait until we find that bitch Julie," said Hermione. "I confided my secrets in both of you, so don't feel that you gave them to her. She used her own warped mind to create this problem."
Ginny started to say something to Hermione, but looked at Harry and back at Ron. "Nothing, I can talk to you later, Hermione. It's girl stuff."
Hermione smiled again forgetting to take care about how wide she smiled. "Will you kiss me, Harry?" she said.
"As long as you don't get me breathing heavy," said Harry lightly kissing her. "Too much more and I'll literally die of a stress heart attack."
She pulled down the bedrail on her side so that her arm would rest on the mattress, pulled the chair close, and began reading. Harry shut his eyes and basked in the softness of her hand entwined in his. Just before he faded off to sleep he said, "Before long, we'll be like this everyday."
The long road to recovery seemed longer each day. Hermione's shoulder was sore because of the cold damp weather and Harry was still getting used to the pain as his lungs expanded with more exercise. By the end of November, they were both cleared for release. Two mysteries bothered him. What were she and Ginny always so secretive about? Why could no one find the papers he had had about the house he and Hermione wanted. Hermione assured him that she did not know where they went.
It was the first of December and they day they were leaving. Harry wasn't happy with taking Hermione to her parents, when they were going to be married the next Saturday. "The last time we did this, we ended up here for our trouble." He said.
"Well, Bill agreed to drive us out to see the house. He said he was able to get a hold of Jack Whitehall to look at the house again," said Hermione. "Just when you get done with all the tubes someone comes around to stick you with another needle. Did they do that to you too?"
"Yeah, they did. Late yesterday afternoon I felt like a pin cushion," said Harry.
"Okay, guys since neither of you can drive, I'm the designated chauffeur. We are going to see that house and your parents today is that correct?" asked Bill.
"If you say so," said Harry still disturbed that he didn't have the facts and figures to get the deal done.
Harry and Hermione hadn't sat this close in months. He raised his arm slowly to make sure he didn't hurt himself or clip her shoulder. He put his arm down behind her waist. She leaned in. "You could have asked me so you didn't hurt yourself," she smiled. "We're not at movie where you're trying the yawn and fondle routine."
He laughed. "I guess the meeting went well with Ron, Ginny and Luna. They closed down the studio with no further problems on the twenty-sixth. How lucky that horrible excuse for a cover story didn't blow up," said Harry.
"Yeah, it was weak, but Scrimgeour was right about being able to find almost everyone and modify their memories. That was a good piece of magic," said Bill.
"Okay now is the road that veers off left and then curves right, correct?" he asked Harry. "Right, Harry?"
"Yes, yes it is. Oh he must be having some sort of gala there. I wonder if he decided to keep it," said Harry sadly. "There is a sold sign in front. Let's go, he's a nice old guy but let him enjoy with his new buyers."
"Sure, Harry let's do that. Considering the buyer was you a month ago, I should think it's time to shake the man's hand," said Bill who had dressed in tuxedo to look like a chauffeur.
Harry whipped his head around to look at the sign as they passed it and then back at Bill. "If you weren't a bloke and so ugly, Bill, I'd kiss you," said Harry.
"I'll kiss him anyway," said Hermione. When the care stopped Hermione got out as fast as her injuries would allow and gave him a hug and a kiss.
"I saw the note in there about a week after you guys were in St. Mungo's I explained that you had business elsewhere, contracted the solicitor, and made the purchase in the name of Harry Potter. You gave rights long time ago to do business for you if you were incapacitated," said Bill.
As Bill kept their attention, Jack walked up and further distracted them. "Harry, so nice to see you again, I heard your last bit of business was rather treacherous to say the least." Bill slipped off into the growing crowd as people arrived with portkeys and Apparation.
"Forgive me if I laugh, but your choice of words is a little to close to the mark," said Harry. "How've you been?"
"Very well, Harry. As you can see I've been busy with some last minute things before you take possession," said Jack. "Listen, we'll talk later okay?"
"Sure," he said as he kissed Hermione. Something seemed to be very familiar about the way the backyard looked as he turned again toward the house.
"Harry, I have a surprise for you too. You've been bugging me for a month to tell you, but I couldn't. I mean I promised I wouldn't. Ginny met someone while we were in St. Mungo's."
Harry smiled, "How do you meet someone in a hospital?" he asked.
"The surprise is that you know him. He visited his mother and a friend there everyday, so Ginny started coming to see us and would go to see Neville near him," she said. "She didn't know whether to trust him or not after all these years. Close your eyes. Are they closed?" she asked. Harry put his hands over his eyes.
"Yes, why would I close my eyes to meet Ginny's new beau?" asked Harry.
"Because we spent the better part of six years or more trying to kill one another," said Draco Malfoy.
Harry dropped his hands slowly, taking in the voice and hoping it was someone taking the Mickey out of him. He opened his eyes to Draco Malfoy in the flesh, "I'm sorry if don't seem excited, but you only ever helped me once and that almost got me killed."
"Point is I helped you and it turned my life around," said Malfoy. "My mother is in St. Mungo's and has been since those awful days."
"Who's your friend, that backstabber Snape," said Harry.
"As a matter of fact it is, Potter. I don't blame you for being a bit rude, but the man ended up being more than a father to me than my own. We aren't so different you and I. I learned from rogue and worthless man who was my father by birth, but I would have been better off if he'd been dead. I adored him as you did yours. You, in many ways, were as wrong to love yours blindly as I was mine. Isn't it true?" said Malfoy. "Ginny and I are going to be friends for a while before we take it further. I hope you can find it in you to trust me even if you don't understand why yet."
Harry thought carefully about Malfoy's words. He had often ignored his father's shortcomings and when he did acknowledge them, he'd understood Snape but could never like him or trust him. Snape was the first to go down that night against Voldemort.
Harry shook his head as Hermione said, "Harry, when will you two grow up? I thought just the mere fact that Ginny trusted him would soften you a bit against Draco. I've talked with him many times and he's apologized to me, Harry. He's apologized to me."
Harry smiled and felt very small all of a sudden. "This is a lot to take in today, you know. I trust him if you have learned to trust him." Harry took Hermione's arm and they slowly walked toward Draco and Ginny. When he was side by side with Malfoy, he said something he never thought he'd utter. "Welcome to the family, Draco. We have a lot of work to do, so don't invite us on double dates yet, okay?" Harry smiled. Draco nodded and grinned in acknowledgement.
"So, I heard you loaned your house out for a wedding today," said Draco. "That's how she got me out here to meet you again."
"Ahem," said Ginny. "Not a good idea."
"Who would that be?" asked Harry.
They looked up and at the steps with a minister stood Ron and Luna. "Are you guys coming?" asked Luna.
Harry looked at Hermione and realized that there were no Groomsmen or Maids of Honor. They walked up to the steps and as they did, Luna split from Ron to Hermione's left and Ron stayed to Harry's right. "Mate, we weren't letting you guys wait another week." From around the small group of people to Hermione's left Mrs. Weasley put a veil and bonnet of flowers on Hermione's head and handed her the bouquet. Ron flashed the wedding ring to Harry.
Mrs. Weasley whispered, "You couldn't wear the dress with your shoulder anyway." She smiled with tears in her eyes.
Harry and Hermione looked around as their friends surrounded them each taking a side-the men with Harry and the women with Hermione. Just inside the door, Harry saw Jack sitting at his piano as he began to play the Wedding March. Harry bowed to Hermione, "Are you ready, Sweetheart?" She smiled tearfully and said yes.
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the joining of this man, Harry James Potter and this woman, Hermione Jane Granger in holy matrimony. Who gives this woman to this man?" said the preacher.
"I do," said Mr. Granger with Mrs. Granger at his side as he stood out from the crowd. Hermione smiled so wide at her father and Harry she thought her cheeks would explode.
"If there is anyone….," continued the preacher through the vows. "I now pronounce you husband and wife." Harry was so nervous that his glasses fogged as they kissed and made Hermione laugh.
She whispered, "Last time that happened was in a Jacuzzi." They smiled and hugged again forgetting every pain they had ever had.
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