Here we go again, and yes I just thought up the chapter title right before I posted. Thanks once again to Lady Starlight, without whose hard work this fic would probably be gibberish.
Chapter 13: Of Ferrets and Howlers
**************************Grimmauld Place*******************************
August 14, 1997
3:40 am.
Harry awoke with a sudden feeling of loss. He reached over and finding only a fading warmth left were Hermione had been, he sighed and rolled out of bed, after feeling around on the nightstand for a good minute for his glasses. Jerking on a long-sleeved t over a pair of workout pants he found on the floor, he slipped his wand unto the waistband and set out looking for her.
His search didn't take long.
He smirked as he leaned against the door coming of the Library, and rolled his eyes. It was only through their link that he could tell that Hermione was actually buried somewhere in the general vicinity of the couch, behind a stack of books, a pile of parchments, a flock of used quills and a single, highly annoyed, half-Kneazle who looked up at Harry beseechingly as if begging him to drag his mistress back to bed at such an unholy hour. Harry gave him an, "are you kidding look?" as he settled on the tattered couch next to her, moving aside a stack of books as tall as him from the seat.
Hermione gave him an aggravated sigh and a reproachful, upside-down glare as he dropped his head into her lap. She gave up a second later, bent double to kiss him and went back to her book. "What are you doing?" Harry asked in a childish, sing-song voice.
"Working on the scroll, that the library Guardians let Tonks and I have," she replied softly as she scratched a note on a clipboarded stack of parchments that she was balancing precariously on the arm of the couch. The original scroll was spread out on the coffee table in front of her, while a thick tome, was floating at eye level in front of her. She occasionally gestured with her quill at it, it turned the page as her other hand had somehow ended up playing with his hair.
"Can I help?" Harry asked seriously, his voice back to normal.
"You can keep me company," Hermione replied. She scribbled down another sentence on the parchment before she continued. "It looks as if this really is just a list of the known artifacts of Rowena and Godric. Godric's we pretty well already knew...I mean honestly, we have the sword and the daggers with us, and the hat is at Hogwarts and none of them are a Horcrux."
"So the remaining one is something of Ravenclaw's?" Harry muttered as he glanced up at Crookshanks, who seemed to be jealous. He stuck his tongue out at the cat; who returned a baleful, amber stare before giving up and curling up on the top of the couch next to Hermione's head. "Does it say what she left behind?"
Hermione paused in her scribbling, to brush a loose curl behind her ear, "Umm...a spellbook, of course, a ring that might have been her engagement ring, it's unclear there isn't a direct translation from this Rune dialect, and a stick?"
"Staff," Harry corrected with a yawn, even as his stomach lurched as she mentioned the ring.
You right...what's wrong Harry?
Nothing. Harry replied a bit too quickly "Why are you awake?" he grinned, "I thought I'd tired you out." Hermione giggled.
"You'll just have to work harder next time dear." Hermione sighed as she reached forward and placed the Ancient Runes reference that had been floating in front of her and her notes on the coffee table. She inched down on the couch until she was lying next to Harry and grunted contently. "No really, Team Red Moon needs to lean just what the hell a Silencing Charm is." Harry laughed softly.
"Are you ok, Mione? After today?" He asked after a instant of contemplation. "Did we do the right thing?" His hand ran up and down her back absently, pausing for a moment, "Ron and I didn't even give them a chance..." Hermione didn't say a word, as he continued, "am I turning into Tom...I'm supposedly almost the same, I..."
"No you're not, Harry" Hermione whispered fiercely, "Not as long as you can lay here and hold me, and wonder about it." She leaned into his chest, "Not as long as I'm here." Harry shrugged slightly, and grunted, as Crookshanks used him as a springboard to launch off of to go chase a sudden squeak. Hermione giggled again as Harry rubbed sore ribs. "Don't look at me, I just feed him."
"You are just a Familiar Crooks," Harry said loudly enough for the Kneazle to hear him, "I can buy her another." Crookshanks flitted out of the room, with his tail high and Hermione chuckled.
They curled up together, quietly for a long moment, "Harry, we should let Draco go." Hermione mentioned out of the blue. Any other person in the universe including her parents would have been shocked, not Harry.
"Question him under Veritaserum, Obliviate him and let him go somewhere?" Harry replied thoughtfully, "I would really like him dead Hermione." Harry finished softly.
"Me too...but..."
"We place a tracking spell on him, and let him lead us to Moldie..."
"Better, I would bet his contact is Snape." Her voice toughened, "we find him, and we go with you, me, Ron, Tonks, Remus, maybe Luna and Neville, and we kill the bastard. And I suppose that Draco will have outlived his usefulness by then."
"Alright."
**********************Hogwarts***********************************
7:45 am
Hermione dropped a huge book with a correspondingly loud thump on the table next to Harry's hand. He didn't even flinch from his breakfast at the sound, or when she sat down next to him and took a muffin off his plate. She absentmindedly fed him a bit of it as she started to glance through the book, her lips moving slightly as she read to herself.
"Ignore me over a book?" Harry asked quietly after she had read at least a chapter, or in normal people's terms of time, about three minutes, she was reading slowly. She rolled her eyes, grabbed his chin and kissed him thoroughly before returning to her book for another long moment. She closed it and leaned against him with a sigh.
"I'm going to miss being able to do this when school starts." She muttered as Harry put an arm around her shoulder.
"We aren't violating any school rules...I did read the entire regulations book, Mione." She kissed his cheek.
"Good Boy," she replied, her face fell as the Daily Prophet owl delivered the morning news, and Hedwig delivered a large package from Mrs. Weasley. Harry passed it to her without a word, a quick wand flick and she cursed under her breath as it glowed red. She ripped it open to find a box of chocolate chip cookies, "Damn and those were good cookies."
"Give them to Ron," Harry muttered as she pushed them away, "he already loves Ginny."
"Yeah," Hermione responded darkly. She took his hand and watched it closely as she ran her thumb over the veins and tendons in the back, "That's it Harry."
"What's it Hermione?"
"Ginny has until the end of October to stop this, and then we stop pretending in front of her. If we are still
here at Christmas, I'm bloody well kissing your arse under the mistletoe."
Harry laughed, but there was little overall humor in his voice. "I would rather you kiss me somewhere else,
then..."
"You know what I mean Harry," Hermione snapped peevishly, Hedwig looked up at her, from her plundering of Harry and Hermione's shared plate, as they were distracted from it. Harry gave the owl a glare and she took flight unashamedly.
Harry and Hermione watched her go, with equally perplexed expressions. Harry glanced down at the Prophet, which held a headline about another attack on a Muggle village in Wales. The article next to it spouted a tired diatribe about the "Chosen One" and him being spotted in Diagon Alley yesterday:
Just what is the Chosen One up to?
By Rita Skeeter
Yesterday, the former apprentice of the late Albus Dumbledore was spotted in Diagon Alley, but was the one whom rumor credits with having the responsibility of saving us all looking for Death Eaters? No, Harry Potter the former Tri-Wizard champion and if reports are correct, one of the ones involved in the Battle of Hogwarts, the night that the former Chief Warlock died, was spotted going to a reputed joke shop, after stopping by Gringotts, no doubt to continue with his playboy lifestyle.
For it seems Mr. Potter is only concerned with his happiness at a dire time like this. In recent years, Mr. Potter has been romantically associated with several witches, most notably his bushy haired friend Hermione Granger and current Auror trainee Cho Chang, but in this last year he was associated with Ginny Weasley in a torrid romantic affair that was marked by a heated breakup at Dumbledore's funeral....
"You know you don't want to read this tripe, Harry," Hermione replied bitterly. She took the paper from his hands, and it vanished in a flare of fire. "We actually have work to do-" she glanced around the Great Hall. McGonagall was sitting at the restored Professor's table, with it being so close to school starting, she had had the House Tables restored. Tonks and Remus were sitting next to her; Remus was leaning over talking to Flitwick with large, humorous hand gestures as if he were telling a joke. Which he evidently was as the diminutive Professor fell off his pile of cushions laughing. "Where is Ron?"
Harry looked slightly...sheepish. "I might need you to save me love." The crooking of an elegant brunette eyebrow was his only response. "I sorta got him up while he was up..."
"You didn't?" she giggled.
"Yeah, I did, got even for waking you and in a way, me up."
"Harry James...what did you do?"
Harry glanced around to make sure no one was near. "I used the twins' voice changer to change my voice to Molly's and beat on his door. Ron came out of there, in only his boxers and red as his hair." Harry took a sip of his coffee, "and then not a second later, Luna comes out in his shirt from last night, and very possibly only his shirt from last night and goes 'hi Harry, you're not Molly?' and then she turned right around and went back to bed." Hermione covered her mouth as her eyes danced.
"Where are they now?"
"Well right now, Ron is down glaring at Malfoy, while I guess Luna is still in bed at Grimmauld. I bowed to the inevitable and added her to the access list for Grimmauld." Hermione nodded as she finished their shared muffin and stood up.
"Let's go talk to the Ferret, dear." A low feral sound came from her throat as she took Harry's arm and they left for the Dungeon.
******************Somewhere under the Hogwarts Dungeons*******************
"About bloody time you two showed." Ron snarled. He was pacing outside of a barred door, through the bars; they could see a platinum-bland head of hair bent low over his chest. "Wake me up and make me miss breakfast-"
"Are you not a wizard?" Hermione muttered with the same exact tone one had while pounding their head against a metaphorical wall, her wand flicked and a small table, with a large plate filled with eggs, bacon, sausage, a muffin and a large goblet of pumpkin juice appeared. "Honestly." Ron muttered something under his breath and started eating.
"Mrofya, raumgph whn I rumohed hn" Ron said through a mouthful of food, and Hermione pointed her wand at the plate. A link of sausage rose off the plate and began beating Ron upside the head. He glared at her before swallowing purposefully, "He woke up and was annoying me so I stunned him." He finished his breakfast, "Can I go now?"
"No, mate, we are going to question Malfoy, and then we will Obliviate the both of them before tossing them back with their friends." Harry replied as he opened the cell door, his wand flicked and Malfoy stirred. After a moment, Malfoy glared at the three of them from the floor.
"Potter, and his...entourage." Draco mused; he glanced around the room before looking up at them. The cell that Dobby had found for him was actually rather comfortable, for a cell under Hogwarts. The room was dry, and secure. The remnants of a meal sat on a metal plate next to a cot set with clean sheets. All in all, it was better than most of Harry's accommodations had been for the better part of his first eleven years. "Are you doing to torture me...maybe have me watch as you and the Mudblood make out...or will you have your pet Weasel..."
He fell silent at an irritated gesture from Harry. His lips continued to move for several moments before closing. "No." Harry replied flatly, "No Draco, you are going to answer some questions that's it. You have no option, no hope. Just like you and Snape left Dumbledore." His wand flicked and Draco flew up and onto the cot, petrified, with his mouth gaping open. Harry watched silently as Hermione approached Draco and drizzled a clear liquid down his throat. He waited the required minute and unfroze him, canceling the Silencing Charm with the same gesture. Harry waved at Hermione, who conjured a clipboard with several questions already listed on it and a quill.
"Draco," She began, "where is Voldemort?" The trio watched as Draco shivered at the name. He glanced around the room, frantically before allowing his head to droop to his chest.
"I don't know, I was not allowed in the Dark Lord's presence." His response was in the form of an utterly flat monotone.
Hermione's eye crooked at Harry, "Why were you allowed to live after your failure to kill Dumbledore?"
"Snape told him, I was delayed from executing the mission. He told him that he had to perform the mission...Snape has kept me from the Dark Lord's presence."
"When were you and your team expected back?" Hermione inquired after scribbling a note to Harry that read, "Interesting, why is Snape protecting him?" Harry shrugged, before mouthing back, "teacher's pet?"
Draco gave a small shrug, "there was no set time; I was supposed to send an owl to a address in Edinburgh by tomorrow at the latest."
"Is that where Snape is?" Harry asked levelly.
"No," Draco replied, "It is a mail drop for the Dark Lord's upper echelon. A initiate is used to collect the messages for security."
Hermione glanced back at Ron, who was leaning menacingly against the open cell door. He has like another five minutes on this dosage, Harry; I can't give him any more, without frying his mind. Harry nodded understandingly.
Let's get what we originally came for, then you program him, you're better at it than me. Hermione nodded. "Draco, whom among the Hogwarts population is a Death Eater?"
Draco looked as if he were trying not to answer the question. Veins popped up in his neck, and his eyes bulged for a
moment, before the potion took hold once more. Names began to spill from his lips, "Zabini, Parkinson, Crabbe,
Goyle, Nott..." Harry and Ron both turned as one to look at Hermione, she shrugged as Draco continued without
pause, luckily her quill had been writing by itself the entire time. "Elliot, McGovern-"
"Who is not a Death Eater in Slytherin, Draco?" Hermione interrupted the monologue.
"None under fifth year." Draco replied softly, "Though several such as Nott, have younger brothers who will carry on the tradition, above that, Greengrass, she and her family are in defiance of the Dark Lord...they will die."
End it Hermione. Harry ordered softly, she nodded, a flash of red lit the cell and Draco slumped to the cot. Her wand tracked to Draco as she started to mutter something under her breath.
"Have him remember that he was caught by Aurors and they put him in with a whole bunch of chickens and they..." Ron said happily.
Harry...Hermione pleaded. Harry turned and glared at Ron, until he shut up, Thanks... "Obilivatium remonstrance confundatum" A brilliant yellow cone of light shot from Hermione's wand and as it faded, Draco looked at her with an absolutely blank expression on his face. "Draco," Hermione began slowly and distinctly, "you will wait thirty minutes...you will find that Dobby has left the cell door open, you will escape, taking Flint with you. You will remember only that a group of Aurors headed by Tonks caught you and they put you here as she was based here, before transport to the Ministry. They did not question you. They did not have time. At some point, when you know for certain the location of Severus Snape and that he will not leave for at least a day, you will send an owl to Harry Potter telling him where Snape is. You will not remember doing this immediately after doing so. If Snape or anyone tries to probe beyond these memories, you will develop a blinding headache." Her wand flicked once more and Draco fell back to sleep.
She motioned Harry and Ron out of the cell, "Let's go, I'll program Flint and we'll go watch them, 'escape.'"
Like clockwork, thirty minutes later, Draco's eyes slipped open and he crept to the door of his cell. He pushed on it hard, and it swung open. "Stupid house elf." He mumbled gleefully. He slipped next door to Flint's cell, and after several minutes work with a small implement, he pulled from a loose heel of his boot; he got the cell door open.
Invisible presences crept after him as the duo slipped out a heretofore unknown vanishing cabinet that was placed in an unused storage room off the Slytherin common room.
An instant after they had vanished, six presences appeared from various locations around the Slytherin common room. Hermione and Harry appeared as one, as Harry swept his cloak off them. Tonks appeared next, as she removed Hermione's borrowed cloak, while Remus shimmered into view as he canceled his Disillusionment Charm, the combination of his Lycan characteristics and the dim dungeon lighting making it easy enough for him to vanish, and Ron, who was quite too tall anymore to fit under a cloak with anyone else faded into view as he pulled his cloak off and started to fold it tightly to fit in a pocket.
A final member joined their group as a small gray and black tabby padded from out of the shadows and SHIFTED, growing and stretching until Minerva McGonagall stood glaring at the gaping hole in her security. Her wand flashed and the cabinet shattered into a million tiny splinters. "DOBBY!" Harry snapped, and the elf appeared with a soft pop, "Get the other elves, if it's alright Headmistress?" She nodded. "I want to know every way in and out of the castle, in every part of the castle, unused or not, and I want to know by sundown." Dobby vanished and a moment later, soft pops rang out as almost five hundred house elves started to hop here and there about the castle.
The group left the Slytherin common room, and fifteen minutes later, Dobby and Winky appeared. "Dobby is sorry sirs, ma'am" he bowed to Harry and Hermione, and Ron once again barely kept from laughing. "That it tooks so longs to find...here is a list." He handed Hermione a slightly crumpled parchment, in which an impossibly long list listed everything from the windows in the Owlery to small mouse holes.
Harry's eyes met Hermione's and they gave a perfectly synchronized sigh. Harry closed his eyes for an instant before waving Ron over, "Ok, Ron, Mione we need to find a way to..."
"No, Potter...Harry." McGonagall said softly with a tired warmth filling her burr, she motioned to Lupin, "Remus, Nymphadora, I would appreciate it if you would look into this. Harry, I think that you three have other matters to look into..." Harry nodded and led Ron and Hermione away. As soon as the trio was out of earshot, McGonagall turned back to her two newest Professors. Her eyes grew hard as her lips thinned. Her words came out soft but utterly resolute, "you will make sure that those three have a safe home here. The only way another Death Eater is coming into my school is in chains or dead."
Remus nodded as he looked after Harry, "and what about those students that Draco named?"
McGonagall frowned. "Harry is much like Albus, he would rather have them here...Remus..."
"Oh they will learn little from me. Except, perhaps, to fear the night, if they cross the line openly." She nodded and the three headed off, leaving behind only the dim, empty stones of the Dungeon.
***************************The Burrow*********************************
August 20, 1997
"Mum," Ron objected exasperatedly, "we are doing what we have to do." He paced up to his room, and started to place several books, and his current year's set of school uniforms in his pack. He shrunk a set of books before tossing them into the bottom of the decrepit, leather pack. He frowned over a set of dress robes before shrugging and packing them.
"There is no call for this, Ronald Weasley..." Molly hissed as she paced over and started packing for him. Ron stood back and leaned against the wall next to the head of his bed, the bright orange color of the poster next to his head, contrasting drastically with his hair. "There are adults that are trained and ready to fight, you and Harry and Hermione need to finish school first and then maybe Auror training, you always wanted to be an Auror... when you three headed off last month, it almost killed me, and where are you staying? Just you three at Grimmauld, who is looking out for you..."
"We can handle it mum, or are you really asking who's chaperoning?" Ron shot back as he picked up his pack, seizing it from her hands and storming out of the room. Molly followed on his heels. "We are fully qualified wizards mum, we can take care of ourselves."
"But..."
Ron ignored her as she fumed and headed out onto the lawn. He fought to not roll his eyes, as he found not only his girlfriend, which it had just so happened that he had yet to mention to anyone else in the family was a certain blond neighbor, and who had just happened to come over, but his sister, who was even now interrogating Luna. "Hi Gin, Luna."
"Hello, Ronald..." Luna greeted him with a small smile, and Ginny did roll her eyes.
"Ron," Ginny looked over at Luna meaningfully, "you don't have to pretend...brother; I know you two are sleeping together."
Luna's eyes flared. "There's no reason for that Ginevra," Ron growled. He frowned at her as she drew up to her full height of 5' 2." "Let's go Luna," he sighed as he held out his arm to co-Apparate her, "You needed a lift to your father's office?" She nodded at him, but before they could vanish Ginny placed her hand on Ron's other arm.
"Ron, I want to come along...I can help." Ginny demanded.
Ron shook his head, "I'm just taking Luna to her dad's office; I'll see you on the first." With a hard jerk of his arm, he vanished along with Luna. Ginny took a deep, noisy breath in and out through her nose, and grunted angrily. She slammed the door of the broomshed open and pulled out her new Firebolt. She headed off towards the Quidditch pitch, with her broom trembling in her hands.
"I guess I can tell mum about Ron and Luna." She muttered as she kicked off from the ground and motioned for the charmed Quaffles to rise to her hands from the ground.
******************************Grimmauld Place***************************
August 31, 1997
7:35 am
Ron looked on with undisguised loathing as Hermione came into the kitchen with a stack of five, three-inch thick books hovering after her and directed one each to land in front of him and Harry on the table. She stopped to give Harry a kiss on the cheek as he began to page through it. "Come on Hermione." Ron whined, "We haven't even woke up yet." He took a bite of bacon.
"Oh let me have it..." Luna replied softly as she took the book from Ron and started to read. She glanced up at Harry, "So we are to start the DA as soon as we return?" She paused and looked down at her book, in an uncharacteristically small voice, "I can fight Harry..." Luna glanced over at Ron, "I can go along..."
Harry ran his fingers through his hair. "Luna, I...uh..." A soft flutter of wings interrupted them by Pig appearing, having flown in through the Owl door. A slightly smoking red envelope was clutched precariously in his talons. Pig dropped the envelope in front of Ron and left the room in a blur, heading for cover.
"Oh. Bloody. Hell." Ron closed his eyes as he reached out for the envelope. Hermione gave Harry a concerned glance, and looked at Ron supportively. Ron opened the envelope...
"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY..." Molly's voice shattered several dishes in the sink; Hermione quickly threw up a shield around the remaining crockware as Molly continued. "HOW CAN YOU? THAT GIRL IS UNDERAGE...NEVER IN ALL OF MY YEARS HAVE I EVER HAD A SON OF MINE ACT LIKE THIS...I AM CONTACTING HER FATHER...WHAT ABOUT HERMIONE, DID YOU EVEN THINK OF HOW THIS MIGHT..."
Hermione flicked her wand and the Howler vanished. "Thanks Hermione." Ron said as he stuck a finger in his ear and waggled it back and forth, trying to restore a bit of his hearing. "Oh by the way, are you hurt?" Ron gave her a small grin.
"I'm just shattered," Hermione replied dryly as her brown eyes twinkled. She crooked an eyebrow as she turned to Luna, "that is one point though, Luna, just how are you staying here...you are underage after all, doesn't your father..."
Luna shrugged as she turned a page, "Daddy pretty much lets me do as I like." Her gaze turned to Ron and Harry and Hermione could swear that her eyes glowed softly, "I told him that I was with my future husband; he just asked what's for dinner." She got up and walked to the door, "I am going to go pack; I hate for the Kneazles to place their talismans in my trunk...takes days to get the spells out." She left and to her credit, Hermione held off laughing before Luna left the room. She was still shaking her head as she turned to the sink and started the dishes washing themselves.
Behind her, Harry mouthed "Future husband?" Ron flipped him off and retorted; he mimed slipping a ring on his finger while looking back and forth between Harry and Hermione's turned back. Harry tapped his wand, which was sitting on the table next to the open book, with one long finger.
"BOYS" Hermione said warningly, without turning to look at either one. She returned to the table cradling her coffee, and sat down on the table next to Harry. She sighed as Luna came back into the room, Hermione waved towards Ron and they watched as Luna leaned on the back of Ron's chair. "I thought you were packing?"
"I forgot, all of my stuff is already packed into Ron's trunk." She smiled, "Hermione can I borrow your book on Arithmatic Transforms? I need to check some homework for Vector."
"Sure Luna." Hermione took a sip of coffee and leaned back as she thought of something, she looked at Ron, before looking directly at Harry. "We need a plan, both for tomorrow and for checking out that possible Horcrux in Nottingham, or Sherwood rather to be more precise."
"You found one?" Harry asked, his voice rising slightly. He started to get up, but stopped as Hermione pushed him back down in his seat.
"Hold on, Harry." Hermione shook her head, "I need to do a touch more research. There is some mention of a strange book emblazoned with a blue and bronze eagle being mentioned in a listing of Robyn Hode artifacts, in Mixed World Artifacts Quarterly. It was first noticed in the collection about twenty years ago, when a certain Gaunt family donated several artifacts to the museum there, including a very old longbow and a otherwise blank book."
"Just like a spellbook would appear to Muggles?" Ron put in thoughtfully. He frowned, but who is this Robyn Hode character. Seems familiar somehow."
Hermione laughed, "probably because you've heard of him as Robin Hood. Hode was actually a contemporary of the Founders. He was a wizard that took a dim view of some of the practices of the Muggle government of the time. They couldn't ever seem to catch him, probably because he'd Apparate away every time they got close. He also happened to hold a minor title in the aristocracy. The book itself is at a museum in Sherwood."
"So what's the problem?" Ron asked, slightly puzzled, "it's just a Muggle museum, we Apparate in, grab the book and Disapparate out." Both Hermione and Harry groaned.
"Oh because it could be a trap...does the timing make you wonder Ron?" Hermione covered her face for a second, "twenty years ago Ron...right when Riddle was at the height of his power."
"So what Hermione, set to trip if a magic user tries to take it?"
She nodded "yeah Harry, the museum is in the middle of Greenwood, in the center of Sherwood, it would have been perfect to set another trap with buried Inferi set to spring, with maybe an ward set to raise an anti-Apparation and Portkey field the instant its touched." Harry groaned slightly.
"Then don't touch it," Luna piped up without looking up from a complicated drawing she was scrawling on a parchment. Harry, Hermione and Ron all looked at her slightly dumbfounded. She looked up at them and held up the parchment. "Have Hedwig do it. It's just a book, right? She can lift it. If it's in a case use a rock and smash the case, and then have her pick it up. Simple, and we can go for ice cream...I like chocolate, but the newer chocolate can have coco weevils...so I usually just have vanilla." In the picture she had illustrated, a small, rather well drawn likeness of Hedwig watched as a rock soared from somewhere off the paper, smashed a glass fronted cabinet, and the owl swooped in, took the book and flew off the other edge of the parchment before the drawing started again.
"Um...ok," Hermione said finally, "that could actually work. Owls are a nightmare, you can't set wards to spring up against them, or they'd be going off all the time. Since they are literally everywhere. But I still want to hold off trying for it, until we are settled for a week or so at Hogwarts, we need to secure our base first."
"Yeah." Harry agreed as he looked up at Hermione and took both her hands in his, "and we need to discuss your parents, love." She frowned at him, but nodded warily. The kitchen grew quiet as even Crookshanks who had been sitting in the corner working on his own plate, looked to Harry. "We can't keep them at Hogwarts any longer Hermione, not with school starting, there will be too many Death Nibblers there waiting to let Tom know where they are, and I won't see you get hurt." He sighed and let go of one of her hands to run his hand through his hair, "Remus has agreed to act as the Secret Keeper Hermione...so even when he tells us where they are, we won't be able to tell anyone, even if Voldie breaks into my head or yours through me." In the background Luna pursed her lips as something just said confirmed a thought of hers but said nothing. "I trust him to die before he tells Hermione. He has to tell voluntarily, or write it down, so even Leglimency or Veritaserum won't get it out of him. I thought we would go to Hogwarts today so you can say goodbye to them, for a while." She nodded as she ran her teeth over her bottom lip. Harry could see tears in the corner of her eyes but she did not shed them.
"What about Tom's minions at the school?" Hermione said after a moment, in a tight voice, "what do you want to do about them?"
"Well I was thinking of feeding them to Fluffy." Harry replied honestly, Luna giggled and Harry turned and looked at Ron, "Just what have you been telling her Ron? Anyway, I suggest that we use tomorrow night after the Sorting to...introduce ourselves to Slytherin House, to let them know, that the Head Students will be actively looking out for their best interests."
"They'll probably take that as a challenge." Hermione replied in a tone that let him know she wasn't disagreeing, just pointing out a fact.
"Then so be it," Ron replied for all three of them, "we return whatever they try against us ten fold, they shoot a trip jinx, we stun them, they try anything worse, we drag their arses out for a duel..."
Hermione muttered something under her breath in French, "yeah, Ron, but that will only work for the sixth and seventh years, if they start using the younger ones as their minions..."
"Then we come up with something else," Harry finished and looked at the other three in the room, at his two oldest friends and the newer one, that in the span of weeks, seemed to have expanded the trio by one. "Something." He repeated.
A/N: There you go, next chapter...A train, some toads, several surprises, and an long overdue talk to Hagrid...along with some other stuff.