And once more into the breach my friends...it's been a bit, but this one is long. Thanks as usual for Lady Starlight and her terrific work on this chapter.
Chapter 27: Leo in Waiting
*********************Hogwarts********************************
December 1, 1997
2:11 am
Hermione woke to a soft, skittering, noise from somewhere nearby. Without opening her eyes she rolled over slightly, and found only a warm spot in the sheets guarding her side. Frowning, she opened her eyes and looked around the room. Over by the fire, which was low, but still burning, Harry was sitting on the couch, staring into the flames as if expecting some great revelation to occur.
The sound was explained as she watched Harry rolling the hilt of the Gryffindor Sword back and forth between his hands. Sparks were flying up from the tip as it effortlessly drilled through the stone at his feet.
Frowning, Hermione rolled out of bed, slipped on a long t-shirt of Harry's from the floor and padded silently over to him.
Harry did not react to her, as he continued to drill a divot in the flagstone floor near the fireplace, other than to scoot all the way down to one end of the couch, allowing her to lie down on it with her head on his leg. He stopped after another period of sparks and laid the sword under the edge of the couch and sat back. His fingers slipped though her hair, pondering, "I didn't want this," Harry stated as he ran his fingers along her jawline for a moment before returning to her hair. He paused, and a soft smirk danced across his face, "Well, yes, I did want you with me like this," he admitted and Hermione smiled, her eyes dancing in the light from the fire. "But I just wanted to be normal...I'm the bloody Heir of Gryffindor, the Boy-Who-Lived, the fucking Chosen One...I just want to be Harry."
What brought this on, Baby? Hermione whispered lovingly as she settled her cheek more comfortably against his sweats.
I don't know...I just can't stop thinking about it, about how fucked up our lives are, Harry explained and Hermione nodded and kissed his thigh, I mean that...look at us, I'm the Heir of Gryffindor through my dad, which in this world means I might as well be a Prince...of course that would make Tom one too... Hermione shuddered slightly against Harry's leg, not from fear, but purely from loathing. I'm seventeen Mione, I don't want a war to fight, one that I have to win if we are to have a chance at a life, even putting aside that damn prophesy. And right now...I don't know that we are.
Hermione nodded slightly, I know...Did you hear that Fleur is pregnant? Hermione asked softly, the tone of her thoughts, odd. Harry nodded, knowing what she didn't say. Let's go back to bed Harry, Hermione added, flowing back to her feet and grabbing his hand to pull him up. Which she did without so much as grunt of effort.
Pretty strong there, Mrs. Potter, Harry smirked silently, and laughed as Hermione made a rather impertinent gesture towards him. She knelt down next to the couch, her eyes laughing as she watched Harry's eyes watch the t-shirt she had on ride up. She picked up the sword to hand it to Harry, when all at once she froze as images both from her memories, of gigantic glowing yellow eyes, and Harry's, of a giant serpent, of a flaming bird bringing salvation in the form of the sword in her hands and of the image of a sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle, already calling himself the "Flight of Death".
As one, their eyes met and heads swiveled towards the direction of the lake. Oh, damn, we were stupid.
It's probably not there Mione, Harry replied as he crossed to their closet and tossed her a dark jumper and a pair of black cargos. He slipped on a matching rig, watching her as she doffed the t-shirt and replaced it with the jumper. He watched as she flung out her hand and her daggers, already sheathed in their twin sheath, soared over to her hand. She bent at the waist, her hair falling forward to hide her face as she strapped the sheath of her wand on her thigh, before toeing into her boots and flicking her fingers at them to cause them to lace themselves.
We should have looked there, I should have thought of looking there. She buckled a small pack to her left leg as she watched Harry slipping the Gryffindor Sword on his back and looking around for something. He found it and slipped it into his pack.
Harry found his boots next to the door and slipped them on, No, Hermione, I should have thought of it. But why would one be there? I already destroyed the Diary? Harry reached for his mirror; I'll get the others.
Hermione shook her head and pushed the mirror back into his pack, No just you and me Harry...we can handle it.
Alright.
*************** Moaning Myrtles' Bathroom/Chamber of Secrets*********
Harry frowned as he watched Hermione looking at him, he stood next to the joined sinks and knelt down, , he hissed. They stepped back quickly as the center sink ground slightly before sliding back and out of sight. Carefully, they eased up to the dark, gaping hole in the floor as Myrtle looked on silently. Harry glanced back at her, "Myrtle, if we aren't back in three hours, get Ron or Lupin." The ghost nodded, Harry looked at Hermione as she held out her hand and a ball of blue, blazing fire appeared in it.
She leaned over and dropped the fire down the shaft, the blue flames light eerie on the walls of the tunnel. Hermione turned and attached one end of the Acromantula thread to the wall near the open hole with a Permanent Sticking Charm and clipped the spool to her repelling harness, which the Twins had thoughtfully included in her, Harry and Ron's more than normally equipped kits. She waited as Harry did the same.
He nodded and jumped into the hole, Hermione following an instant later as the sound of the spools unwinding was the only sound in the room. An instant later, the soft crunch of boot soles on animal bones echoed as they touched bottom. Wand tracked around the room, questing for targets in the pale blue light cast by the ball of fire burning merrily on the top of a particularly large pile of rat bones. You take me to the nicest places, honey.
Don't I though, Harry agreed, as they started to move forward, covering each other. In his mind, Harry could not help but compare this to the last time he was down here, with Ron. At that time however, they had had the spectacularly useless Lockhart with them, and both of them were rushing headlong into danger without a thought. Unfortunately they had learned better.
Harry could feet her disgust as she bumped against the huge skin of the Basilisk, she bit her lip and rolled over the top of it, fighting down her unease as she waved Harry forward with her free hand. They advanced another several hundred yards and stopped as they were blocked by the same fall of rock that had stopped Ron so long ago. It didn't significantly slow them however. With several odd swishes of her wand, Hermione conjured shining steel reinforcements for the tunnel ceiling. She stepped out of the way as Harry pointed his wand at the rock fall, DISSENDIUM, Harry muttered and the rocks turned to dust.
Harry led Hermione through the newly opened gap. They slipped along the corridor, and stopped as they reached one last corner. Harry focused for an instant, forming a glowing ball in his hand and spun around the corner and flipped the ball of light into the corner, lighting the whole entry to the chamber. Harry's wand panned around the area, finding no one or nothing greater than several rats scurrying in the corners.
Hermione walked up to the stone portalis, and stopped. She reached out and ran her fingers over the carved stone snakes on the door. An atavistic shudder ran though her body as she stepped back and ran her hands over her arms as if she were caught out in a sudden blizzard. She stepped back, bumping into Harry. "Are you alright?"
Hermione shook her head, "No Harry, it's evil, I can feel it. Things...people have died here," she added unnecessarily. Harry squeezed her hand once, before walking to the door and whispering , the Parseltoungue words translating automatically in both Harry and Hermione's heads.
A steady drip of water echoed in the vast, dim chamber as the pair of them entered slowly, with all of the hesitation inherent in almost five years of nightmares. A curious, sourceless red glow provided what illumination there was in the chamber besides the twin beams of wand-lights. They passed innumerable tall stone pillars, each carved with serpents spiraling around the columns. Hermione muttered something sharp as the beam of her wand crossed the desiccated corpse of the Basilisk. She approached it slowly and poked it with her wand as Harry sniggered. "Oh, shut up, last time I saw this damn thing I spent months in the Hospital Wing."
"I'm not saying anything, Mione, remember the damn thing nearly killed me too," Harry replied softly, placing his hand on her shoulder as he passed her on the way to the front of the chamber. Harry looked up, and up at the statue of Salazar, before looking down at the feet of the Slytherin Founder. He knelt next to the giant stone feet and placed his palm on the water-stained stones.
"This is where it happened?" Hermione asked in a whisper. She knelt next to him, looking down at a small depression in the stones. A lingering dark presence remained, readily visible to their magical senses.
"Yeah...When I first came in the door, after I left Ron and Lockhart behind, I saw Ginny laying here. I thought I was too late, that she was dead... I remember it being cold, just like it is now, even though it was June then. I looked up and I saw Tom there, from the book." Harry sat down heavily, remembering, "I should have known," Hermione crooked an eyebrow in the dim room, and Harry shook his head, "not then maybe, but later, last year...I just repeated history."
Hermione looked at him, stunned for a moment, before she breathed in his ear, "You didn't do anything the rest of us didn't do Harry. I knew too, I screwed up too." She paused heavily, "We just can't do it again." Harry nodded as he stood.
"Yeah...let's take a look about this place," Harry replied gratefully, he gave her a brief smile before walking over to the statue and starting to look it over. He looked back as Hermione raised her wand over her head, muttered a spell and flaming white tendrils shot out, searching around the room. The sudden light from the spell drove rats to the tunnels surrounding the chamber with a chorus of annoyed squeaks. Hermione's eyes were glowing slightly as she followed the seeking spell around the chamber, searching, while Harry reached out with the link to Voldemort. Hermione's gaze flicked to him, as he dropped the shield protecting his mind, for a brief instant, trying to find a link to any Horcrux.
Her heart raced for those brief instants before she felt his mind protected against all but her...there was no real shield between them any longer. Harry shook his head. "Me too," Hermione confirmed bitterly, "not that I thought it was here, it was too easy."
"Yeah," Harry agreed, "but maybe there's something else here, lets look for a bit longer," he glanced at his watch, "we've only been down here forty-five minutes." The look on Hermione's face was classic as she rolled her eyes at him but agreed. Harry turned, and started to examine the wall near the stature more closely when he spun back as a loud splash behind him and over to the side.
Hermione's head was sticking up above a pool of water as Harry sprinted across the room in a blur of motion; sliding to a stop. "You alright, Mione?" He asked, as she glared at him for a moment before taking his hand to pull her out from the pool that looked for all intents and purposes to be a puddle.
"I'm fucking wet and cold, Harry, how do you think I am?" she snapped irritably, before shrugging slightly, apologizing. She still took great pleasure in pulling him into a hug, soaking the front of his jumper though. She swept drenched locks from her face, pulling her hair back and wringing out the water the best she could before looking back at the pool she had fallen in.
Hermione annoyedly flicked her wand behind her, casting a vanishing charm on the water; Harry froze as he caught sight of something. She turned to follow his gaze to find it fixed on a second, sealed stone door. This one was emblazoned as well with carved serpents. "Oh, this is...interesting." She said slowly. She squinted slightly examining the area around the door, "Harry, it looks like the water used to be even higher...I don't know if this door would have been visible fifty years ago."
"Well," Harry tapped his wand on the side of his leg a couple of times, "I suppose I should open it," he said dubiously.
"If you must," Hermione took a step to the side, and pointed her wand at the door, and nodded to Harry.
, Harry hissed and jumped back and to the other side. Twin wand beams probed forward as the portal ground open, small stones fell from the walls around the door, as it slowly opened. A waft of stale, dead air came from up the tunnel, and Hermione sent a air-renewal spell up the tunnel. I knew there was a reason that I married a genius, Harry sent over.
Hermione grinned for a microsecond, No dear, you're the genius...I'm the super genius, get it straight... she teased, and took a breath, "Harry, well shall we..." He nodded and slipped into the tunnel, dosing his wand and touching the frames of his glasses with it. The black tunnel turned to green-tinged twilight as he looked over to see Hermione had donned her Cat's Eyes as well. The pair of them slipped down the long tunnel, periodically switching sides, and scanning for traps.
A soft click sounded and Harry reached out and pulled Hermione to him and down as several silver darts shot out from the side of the tunnel to impact on the other. A viscous, slightly smoking potion dripped down from the darts and Hermione took a deep breath and kissed his cheek.
They eased on, climbing for a long bit, almost an hour as the tunnel dog-legged back and forth. Hermione pulled Harry back as a crackling bolt of lighting shot between a pair of half-concealed orbs, and he reciprocated a moment later as the floor of the tunnel fell away. She fixed the floor with a spell and after another series of long, tense minutes, they finally came up against another door. This one however, was emblazoned with a rampant Lion. Six slots were spaced around the edge of the door, each about the width of a dagger blade, with wider slot set directly above the head of the Lion. Harry looked at Hermione; she shrugged as he drew the Gryffindor Sword and slid it into the slot.
The Lion came alive, sitting on its haunches as twin; ruby eyes regarded him and Hermione. The Lion let out a silent roar, and the door slid open, grinding slowly against the stones.
A waft of frigid, mountain air greeted their faces as the door finished t opening. Soft choruses of night owls greeted their ears. Harry followed Hermione and heard her soft gasp as she swept off her spectacles as they looked up together at the Castle looming up over, across the lake. They looked down to see the gas streetlights of Hogsmeade spread out below them. "We're near Sirius' cave," Hermione said thoughtfully. They spun as the door ground closed behind them, revealing the same slots and lion on this side as well.
"Try your daggers, Hermione," Harry said softly, and watched as Hermione slid hers in the slots on either side of the wide one for the sword. Nothing happened. Harry stepped forward and slid the sword into the central slot; the lion came alive, and roared, but shook its head and looked pointedly at each of the empty slots. "I guess you need them all to open it from the outside."
Hermione bit her lip as she resheathed her daggers and ran her fingers over the carved mane of the lion. It acted as if it enjoyed the petting for a moment, before it returned to its frozen appearance. She stepped back and the entire door vanished, its image wavering into the appearance of the surrounding mountain. "I guess that Godric wanted to be secure."
"This means that Tom and his cohorts didn't know about it, to get into the school," Harry mentioned, and looked down at his watch, "It's been two and a half hours since we gave Myrtle her deadline."
"Yeah, we better get back," Hermione agreed and took his hand. They stepped around an invisible corner and reappeared in Myrtle's bathroom, causing the ghost to shriek and dive into a toilet with a great splash. Hermione looked down at her watch, shaking her head, "Its too late to go back to sleep now, we have Potions in a bit over two hours," she closed her eyes tiredly, "and training with Tonks in about fifteen minutes."
"Great..."
***************************Potions/Creatures*************************
9:15 am
Harry gratefully took the Pepper-Up Potion that Hermione slipped him and palmed it, drinking it in one draught as he glanced around the classroom. Her hand lingered in his, under the table for a moment before she dropped it and returned to her notes. Of course the dual facts that Harry and Hermione were Slughorn's star pupils and that he really didn't want to cross either didn't hurt, as the rotund professor ignored the fact that the Heads were sitting with their sides literally touching. Ron glanced over at them and rolled his eyes, muttering something to Neville next to him. Neville shook his head and leaned back slightly, gathering his robes about him in the chilly Dungeon classroom.
Another fifteen minutes passed while Slughorn droned on about specialized shrinking potions, how they could be used to hide objects, disguise them as something else, when the bell rang and the class gratefully, more or less, got up to leave.
More or less, as the very next class for many of them was Hagrid's. Hermione stopped at the door, and paused, looking out into the snow falling over the grounds. She waited, as the rest the desultory class that had Creatures with them next headed out onto the grounds. Do you think Hagrid will be annoyed if we don't show up? Hermione muttered plaintively.
We should go, Hermione, especially after last year.
I know, I just want to go back to sleep...you are done after this, while I still have Arithmancy, Hermione retorted as she took his offered hand and let him lead her out into the snow. They carefully picked their way down the icy steps to the grounds, following several black shapes as they approached closer to Hagrid's hut. They stopped, waiting with the rest of the class for Hagrid to appear, it generally wasn't a good thing when Hagrid wasn't waiting for them. It normally meant a "special" beastie was in store.
You know damn well that I will wait for you, Harry replied as they crowded in with Ron, Neville, Parvati and Susan in the lee of Hagrid's hut. A loud booming sound came from the forest, causing trees to shake and snow to fly everywhere. A horrible, discordant growl came from seemingly a pack of huge dogs and Neville, Susan, Parvati and Ron's wands filled their hands almost instantly. The four subtly drifted to form an arc around Harry and Hermione as the ground shook and a huge furry head appeared around the corner of the hut.
The class barely had a second to release their held breaths before another three heads followed Hagrid's. The teens stepped back, several raising wands shakily as three identical heads, like that of three large dogs, if dogs were fifteen feet long and had three heads, sniffed the air. A loud growl escaped the center one's throat as red, glaring eyes focused on Harry and Hermione. The growl died in mid-'grrr' as four eyes flared, just a touch, and the huge dog took a step backwards. "Sit, Fluffy', Sit'" Hagrid said happily, and looked out over his audience.
Several soft giggles accompanied Hagrid's command to the giant, three-headed dog as he turned and petted Fluffy. Hagrid stepped back as he tossed a large, greenish steak to the dog. The left head snapped it out of the air, and an instant later the other two had
Can we keep him, Mione...Harry whined, grinning. She turned enough to whack him behind the ears, before turning back to Hagrid as he started in on the use of Cerberi for herding Australian Fire Sheep.
Only if you walk him, Hermione replied with a silent laugh. She let out a loud, "Eep" as his fingers wormed their way into her robes and tickled her ribs. She blushed slightly and elbowed Harry as several of the rest of the class looked at her oddly. The remainder of the period passed easily as Hagrid only assigned them with a labeled drawing of Fluffy, due next week. Harry, whom still, occasionally, saw the beast in his dreams, knew that he wouldn't have any problem with that particular assignment.
The class dismissed, Harry took Hermione's hand, once again grateful that at least they could be open about seeing each other, even if the full depth was hidden until that day when Tom Riddle would rest forever next to his hated father. She smiled at him, shaking snow from her hair as they the entrance to the castle and stopped. A gaggle of second-years swarmed past, headed for Slughorn's lecture. "Going to walk me to class, Harry?" Hermione teased as she pulled on his hand slightly, leaning towards the direction of the Astronomy and Arithmancy wing, where the two classes were housed.
"Of course," Harry replied with an air as if he would have rather chewed off his arm than not walk with her. She smiled, already knowing the answer to her question. She swung their joined hands merrily as they started off down the hall. "Do you want to take the bridge or the passage?" Harry asked as they attained a fork in their path. Hermione reached out and pushed a protruding stone in a certain alcove, and tucked herself into Harry's chest as the entire alcove spun around, replacing itself with an exact replica.
Hermione let go and stepped back from Harry slightly. Incendio, Hermione whispered and the hallway lit as an endless line of torches lit with a cascading series of soft whooshes. "It's too cold outside to take the bridge," she explained and headed off, him trailing as they walked. Torches lit and extinguished themselves as they traveled, leaving them in a soft pool of light surrounded by darkness. Finally after several minutes, they reached a tapestry of a large, six-legged cat, he bleeked at them, before scampering off as Harry pulled it aside; to reveal the backside of another tapestry. "Bye," Hermione muttered as she pecked him on the lips and vanished through the revealed tapestry.
Harry smiled before taking a left in the passage and heading up towards the Library.
He exited out onto the hallway near the Library entrance, from behind a large statue of a wizard in a top hat, named Robert the Quizzical. He took a step and glanced to either side to make sure that no one had seen him. Even now, only Hermione knew the passages as well as him...or rather, of the current students only Hermione knew as well as him, he was rather sure that Lupin and the Twins were just as knowledgeable of the secret ways around the castle.
Harry passed past a half-full forward section of the Library, with students of all ages working on assignments, gossiping quietly or reading up on something totally unrelated. Madame Pince was slowly moving through the tables, looking over shoulders to see if any were desecrating her books by eating, writing in the margins or ripping out pages. Harry nodded to her as she caught his gaze; she frowned at him but didn't say a word as he headed back into the stacks towards Hermione's normal study nook. As he passed out of sight he could hear her sudden, hushed yell as she berated some poor girl for spilling ink on a periodical.
Harry dropped his bag on the table and headed back into the Restricted Section, his casual wave of a hand deactivating the charms that Pince had placed on the door to the section. He paced back to the back, passing Troll Herding, Addictive Potions Vol. 2: Aphrodisiacs, Extenders and Enticement Draughts, and A Comprehensive Study of the Binding Geas Used to Control Summoned Daemons. Harry frowned at the last one, and noted its title for Hermione, he didn't think she had read it; it might still hold some needed spell. They still had one crucial task that they still had not quite figured out, even with two of the three people ever to destroy a Horcrux and survive, which was quite handy to the quest, especially as they were leading it in fact, was that they still had no safe way to destroy a Horcrux and the soul fragment within. They didn't need the first two books for any reason that he could think of, Trolls were better off dead in his honest opinion, and as Hermione had said the other day, her merely breathing was probably enough to get a rise out of him.
Harry shook his head ruefully at the thought and retrieved Dastardly Jinxes, Hexes and Lethal Curses from the shelf and headed to the front to see if he could pick up anything new. He returned to his seat, flipped the book open to a chapter on modifying the standard Incarerious spell for more, lasting, effects, muttered a spell over a quill retrieved from his pack and began to read as it took notes for him from what he was perusing. Harry's fingers flicked absently as he read through the spells, working through the wandless transformation as he looked over an interestingly nasty variant that replaced the ropes or cables normally produced with razor wire. He shuddered slightly as he looked over the pages and agreed with the decision to put this book in the Restricted Section.
With a loud sigh, he pulled his Advanced Potions text from his bag and opened it, diving into his pack for a roll of empty parchment; he set it out, and started to write, working on the assignment due next week. The sound of students being berated from the front of the Library carried to the back, and he rolled his eyes, as he continued to work on the assignment on the use of poisonous plants in Healing Potions, Harry jotted down a line about dilutions of Hemlock and checked with Hermione on the use of Lackspur, she confirmed he was right with a invisible smile as he grinned and wrote on.
His eyes glanced up as he distantly noted the Clock Tower chimes chiming, almost expecting Hermione to be there, though she couldn't have possibly arrived that fast after class, unless she cheated, and besides she was almost always the last one out of class. Are you still in Vectors' class, Mione? Harry muttered, continuing to work on the assignment so he didn't have to this weekend.
Just leaving, do you want me in the Library, Harry? Hermione asked, Harry's grin grew wider, You know what I mean...
You're closer to the Great Hall, you can nick us some lunch and join me up here to work if you want, or I can come down there to meet you for lunch, your call, Hermione, Harry replied, adding, we can work on the other as well if you'd like.
He felt the eyeroll four floors up and hundreds of yards distant. I'll get us something, I'll be there in ten, twenty minutes, Harry, she shot back, and Harry smirked as he carefully noticed that she hadn't really discounted the possibility of the other. He returned to his parchment with a long-suffering sigh, once again questioning his sanity of becoming an Auror, when the scuffle of feet caused him to look up.
Harry caught the worried look of Patience, as she ran into the back, her eyes were wide and fearful as she pulled on his sleeve and urged him to come with her, "Harry...Harry."
"What, Patience?" Harry asked good-naturedly/tolerantly. He stood and looked down on the small, first year as she pulled on his hand, urging him towards the entrance to the Library.
"It's Gabrielle...they are..." she said worriedly.
"Where, Patience?" Harry replied urgently, kneeling down in front of the girl.
"Third floor, by that painting of the giraffe," she replied, not meeting his eyes. The girl wrung her hands, and stood back as Harry pushed her towards the door.
"Go back to the tower, Patience," Harry commanded, putting his hands on her shoulders and pushing her towards the entrance, "I'll help her." Harry didn't look back to see if the girl followed his instructions before he hurried out of the Library, gathering a shouted admonishment from Pince as he did.
Harry headed down the hall, checking his pockets as he went, cloak, wand, map. He passed several students on the way, almost knocking down a Hufflepuff third year in his haste. He felt Hermione running from the other direction at his silent call, and slid to a stop as he reached the third floor landing, just out of sight of where the giant, three-story painting hung. Harry glanced up as he felt Hermione come up behind him, and slid in against the wall next to him. He glanced over and raised an eyebrow, and gave her an odd look as she shook her head. Wait, Harry.
Hermione reached into the pocket of his robes and snapped open his cloak, she whirled it over both of them and they vanished. Not that I have any complaints, Hermione, but...
I have a feeling we should watch this first...trust me, Love. It's something Fleur said. Harry gave her a doubting glance under the cover of the cloak, but let her pull them around the corner. As soon as they rounded it, it was all she could do to keep Harry from working on his human to animal Transfiguration.
Five Slytherin boys, all seemingly four or fifth years, in other words, too young to really punish were standing over a small, blond haired girl as she knelt on the flagstone floor of the nearly abandoned hallway, which was a prime shortcut between Gryffindor Tower and the Great Hall below. The girl's bag was ripped, with ink from several smashed inkbottles staining the stones, several books torn to shreds and a large picture of the Weasleys and Harry and Hermione at Bill's wedding lying half-burnt at her feet. In the picture, she was being held in Charlie's arms, protectively. Gabrielle's outer robes were ripped, along with her sleeve and Harry felt his vision start to redden.
"What's wrong?" mocked Malcolm Reynolds, a dark, sneering fifth year Slytherin, "what's wrong little half-breed, your bag torn...your little picture of blood-traitors destroyed--" He laughed as he reached out and brushed her hair back and she whipped her face away from his hand. The rest of the Slytherins chortled as Gabrielle started to back away, fearfully. Their laughter faded as the girl visibly looked down at the torn and burnt picture of the wedding, of the kind face of Charlie Weasley looking up at her, and the fear vanished from her eyes, a curious light dancing in them.
They watched as the bedraggled girl stood to her full height and locked her gaze to the Slytherins'. A soft, knowing smile, one much too old for an eleven-year-old, slipped across her lips and Harry felt the very air in the room change. He felt Hermione's hand in his as he suddenly knew what the young...Veela was about to do.
For an instant before it faded, Harry saw a faint, golden glow surrounding the girl, as she smiled and looked over the Slytherins... "What iz you doing...silly boyz..." a dark, chuckling grin crossed her face as she stepped back to the edge of the landing, and looked down at a book, two stories below that was probably hers, having been thrown down there by the young minions, "Oh look, iz that, my bookkz...I zeemed to have dropped eet. Pleeze can you geet eet for meeze?" She smiled, her eyes glittering, and with five, identical blank looks on their faces the Slytherins started to walk towards the edge of the landing like Lemmings off a cliff.
Reynolds had his hand on the railing, about to vault over when Harry whipped off the cloak and a bolt snapped from his wand, immobilizing Reynolds and causing him to fall backwards onto the landing. The spell broken, the other four Slytherins started to turn, but collapsed as a wave of red swept over them. Gabrielle slid to the floor, drained, as she looked up accusingly at Harry and Hermione, "They'z dezevered eet..." she cried, holding the Heads' gaze for a long moment before she dropped her eyes and began to sob softly.
Hermione picked up the small girl in her arms, flicked her wand to repair her torn sleeve and robes from where the Slytherin proxies of Zabini, and ultimately Tom Riddle, had damaged it and held the girl to her chest. Soft cries came from the girl's throat, as Hermione looked at Harry, nodded and led Gabrielle off, towards Gryffindor Tower and family and safety. Harry didn't need her help for five fifth and four-years.
He watched them pass out of slight and flicked his wand at Gabrielle's bag. It rose in the air, the tears mended themselves, and quills, inkbottles, and her books, including the one tossed far below flew back into the back. The picture slowly became unburnt, the straightening out before settling back into the bag. He flicked his wand again and it vanished with a flash of light. Harry crossed his arms as his fingers flicked and five bodies floated up to stand against the nearest wall. He snapped the fingers of his right hand and ropes appeared and bound all five, and with a final wave of his wand, all five awoke, slowly and groggily.
"Wha..What the bloody hell?!" Reynolds yelled; he looked around to find Harry leaning causally against the rail of the nearest staircase, "Let us go Potter!"
"No," Harry replied flatly.
"You'll pay Potter you and your..." another of the Slytherins, a brown-haired fourth optimistically named Julius Caesar McDermott, growled only to be silenced along with his fellows as Harry glanced their direction and eyes flashed.
"No," Harry repeated, his voice a rather close approximation of the Headsman as he denied the condemned permission to go for a walk, "we need to talk gentlemen." He grinned slightly, "Rather, I suppose that I will talk, and you will listen." Harry pushed off from the wall, "Let us pretend, just for a moment, that you five decided...all on your own...that you should go and find some little Gryffindor swot and make her life hell. Let us further pretend that you had no idea that I considered that girl family, that I made a promise to keep her safe. I keep my promises gentlemen, and I tend to, shall we say, permanently end problems, and I will not tolerate any attacks on me and mine...and that includes any student, especially those that can't defend themselves. If you want to go pick on each other in your common room, fine, but do not come into this school looking for trouble. Any questions?" Harry asked with a small smile, and waved his hand at Reynolds as he saw the boy's mouth flapping uselessly.
"The Dark Lord will..." he hissed, only to be cut off by another, annoyed wave.
"Consider one fact if you will," Harry replied softly as several of the other Slytherins flapped their gums uselessly, "you may very well be afraid of Zabini, the Death Eaters and Tommy," Harry rolled his eyes at the blank look on several of the serpent house's finest, "honestly, the bloody, Half-Blood prat who calls himself Voldemort," they shivered at the name. "Really if you are going to give your souls to the arsehole, you really shouldn't cower at his name, but back to my point. Voldemort," he said the name slowly, drawing it out, taunting, "and the Death Eaters are out there...I am in here, consider that fact next time, I am not warning you again." Harry spun on his heel and grabbed a staircase as it separated from the landing and began to lift away. He never looked back at the still restrained and silenced Slytherins.
*************************Hogsmeade*********************************
December 6, 1997.
10:00 am
It had been a long, long week for Harry, Hermione and the rest. The attacks and pranks by Zabini's and by extension, Tom Riddle's, proxies had struck throughout the week, some of them humorous, some most definitely not. Three Gryffindor third years had mysteriously "tripped" down a flight of stairs, earning them overnight stays in the Hospital Wing. Several of the Hufflepuffs' pets had vanished only to be found later, hairless and caged in an abandoned classroom on the fifth floor. A Ravenclaw Chaser had had her hair charmed green, with glowing, neon letters floating above her head spelling out, "GO SLYTHERIN," but that could have been as much attributed to the fact of the Ravenclaws playing Slytherin a week from today as much as any grand nefarious plot. Those had been the highlights, of course. In the main, the younger Slytherin minions of Zabini had perpetrated a series of actions that danced just on the safe side of an outright declared war with the supporters of the light, in particular an odd emphasis seemed to be on incidents with younger members of the DA and younger siblings of older members.
The finale of the week, yesterday, would probably have turned out a tad bit better for the Slytherins if they had chosen someone else for their 'prank'. At the end of dinner, Parvati Patil, who was already in a quite annoyed mood after yet another letter from her parents, was the latest victim of Zabini's planned assault. Her sister had left already in tears, heading towards Ravenclaw Tower, muttering imprecations under her breath, as Parvati came out of the doors of the Great Hall in the company of Neville, Seamus and Honor. Parvati had turned to answer a question from the Gryffindor sixth year when, with a rush of air, she had found herself standing nude in front of a hundred students.
Unfortunately for Kimberly Wandsworthy, a blonde Slytherin sixth year, Parvati was not embarrassed enough to stop to cover herself before she looked up, saw the wand in the girl's hand and, after crossing the intervening distance in three strides, breaking Wandsworthy's nose in a spray of blood. Only after watching the girl on her knees holding her hands to her face to try to stop the streams of blood for a good, satisfied minute, had Parvati taken the robe Neville offered her.
Parvati had taken the week's detention with a small smile, after all Kimberly was the one now stuck with cleaning out the Thestrals' stalls for two weeks, while she was inventorying the supplies of the Charms and Transfiguration departments. Normally this was an arduous task, except that Professor Lupin had mistakenly omitted to tell Parvati that she could not use magic.
Today all of that was hopefully in the past, or at least held up at the castle, as Harry dismounted one of the carriages to step out onto the High Street to head into town. He smiled slightly as Hermione took his hand and leaned back against him for a moment, before reaching up to adjust her winter hat worn over twin braids. Harry glanced around as Neville nudged him and pointed towards the eves of a nearby building. "OI, Ron," Harry yelled, laughing, "you can do that inside, it's cold out here. Come on."
Ron looked up, then down at Luna as she smiled up at him with her hands in Ron's back pockets. He grinned, took her hand and started to lead her away, "We'll catch up later."
"Oi, Luna," Parvati smirked, "you better have Weasley cast a Warming Charm, you don't want to explain to Pomfrey how a bloke can get frostbite on his-" She was silenced as Neville picked her up, placed a hand over her mouth and started to carry her off. He set her back down after a few paces as they headed down the street, and she smirked back up at Neville, "Well if you're going to carry me..." Neville's only warning was the soft crunch of snow under Parvati's boots as she ran around behind him and jumped up on his back, throwing her arms around his neck. He rolled his eyes, but picked up her legs automatically anyway and started walking with his new, not unwelcome, burden.
"That's no fair Par," Lavender whined, leaning up against Neville, "where will I ride?"
"You guys can figure that out for yourself," Hermione laughed, grabbed Harry's hand and they vanished, only to reappear on the hill leading to the Shrieking Shack and overlooking the town. Far below, spread out amongst the streets of the small village, they could see the small dots of a flock of third years headed to Zonko's. Ron was readily recognizable due to his size, even at a distance, as Luna tumbled him to the snow and ran off laughing.
The crowds were lighter than usual, even this far north under the very shadow of Hogwarts, the townspeople were few and sparse, tending not to linger on the streets, but to scurry from shop to shop as if they were afraid of being caught out in the open. Even the students, who seemed to compose the majority of the population on the streets, were fewer than on a normal Hogsmeade weekend. Many of the parents of the students who had remained in Hogwarts had rescinded the permissions of their children to attend Hogsmeade, even such as the Patils, who as they were of age, where it was a gesture only.
Hermione leaned against him, her head tucked against his shoulder and sighed, before she looked down at the town and pulled on Harry's hand, "Let's go Harry, we need to get our shopping done."
"I don't wanna," Harry whinged, pulling back, "It's a stupid idea to go to a ball..." he grinned and started to pull her up the hill towards the Shrieking Shack, "Let's go check out the Shack." Hermione smiled at him, a touch regretfully, but shook her head in the end.
"Yes, it is," Hermione agreed, "but the Ministry is bound and determined to have it, to show that they are not afraid and, in some ways, that is about the only thing that they have done right. Since McGonagall convinced us to go to see if we could gather allies, we need to dress the part. If I'm going to be on the arm of the handsomest wizard there, he really needs to look his best. " She concentrated for a second and they vanished, to reappear in a familiar alley next to the Three Broomsticks. She pulled him out onto the High Street and headed out.
"But can't you pick out both our clothes?" Harry looked at her, his eyes wide and pleading, and she sighed.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "If you're good, you can pick out what I wear under the dress." She smirked, as Harry paused, considering.
"But I already know that nothing is best, really," Harry retorted, grinning. He started to pull her towards Honeydukes and the line of students congregated there. Across the way, they could see Luna leading Ron into Zonko's, his red head bobbing in answer to something she was saying.
"You can be horny later, Harry," Hermione shot back with a small grin and pulled him down the street in the opposite direction of where he wanted to go.
"Hermiiiioneeee"
An hour and a half later, Harry held open the door of the Three Broomsticks for Hermione and stepped inside, following her. They paused for a moment, as their eyes adjusted to the relative gloom inside the packed pub as compared to the bright, early winter day outside. Seemingly the entirety of Hogwarts older than thirteen along with much of the town was crowded into the room, drinking, talking, flirting and eating.
In a corner to their right, Slytherin House seemed to be isolated from the rest of the patrons; Blasé Zabini was holding court with other members of his house crowded around. Pansy was sitting in his lap, laughing at something, while his inherited bookends, Crabbe and Goyle stood to either side, looking out. The rest of his house was packed in about them like sardines, as if they were afraid of contamination from the rest of the school. Zabini sneered at Harry as he stepped forward and started to wind his way through the crowded pub. Harry just ignored him. Daphne was seated at a table on the very fringe of Slytherin occupied space, looking nervous as she talked to an auburn haired fifth year, Andrea Crenshaw who had been identified as another possible recruit if not to the light, then to the grey line in the middle.
"OI," Ron yelled from across the pub and waved as Harry and Hermione came into his sight from around behind the pot-bellied stove in the center of the room. Harry nodded and he started to lead Hermione towards the back corner of the pub directly opposite the main door. As he did so, he noticed with not a trace of surprise that unlike Slytherin house, the remainder of the school was scattered throughout, intermingled with the townspeople, visitors and guests, with no real division save that similarly aged students tended to sit with one another. Harry paused to exchange a greeting with Hagrid as the half-giant held down a good quarter of Rosmerta's scarred, oak bar. He patted his friend on the shoulder and continued back, finally reaching the far back corner where Ron had called to them from.
Hermione stopped as they reached the booth, her hands on her hips and regarded Ron with a gimlet eye, "And just where are we supposed to sit?" The booth, which looked to be designed to hold maybe eight, was packed to the gills. Besides Ron, Luna, Seamus, Dean, Parvati, Padma, Lavender, Susan, Ernie, Honor and a friend of Susan's, Sasha Thurston, were crowded into the booth.
Ron grinned, "Well there is always the floor, I'm sure that Harry would let you sit on his lap, Herms."
She rolled her eyes, "Honestly, Ron, you grew up with magic." Harry?
Harry waved his hand over the booth, and suddenly, without it taking up an inch more floor space in the crowed pub than it had before, the tight, cramped booth was abruptly spacious and roomy. Dean scooted over to let them in, as Ron slid a pair of butterbeers over to the newcomers from a large bucket of them in the center of the table. Hermione stuck her tongue out at Ron as she slid in next to Harry and more or less sat on his lap anyway. "So Harry, what are you doing for Christmas?" Dean asked after a moment as he took a sip of his beer and leaned back in the booth.
Hermione glanced up and caught Ron's eye. He looked down at his stew and did not comment as Hermione bit her lip slightly and shrugged, "Stay here I guess," she replied softly, "Harry and I don't really have anywhere to go to." Ron nodded without looking up, he knew that the Grangers were in hiding...just in case, but he didn't comment. Several other heads gave brief, knowing nods, the most that they would acknowledge of the still simmering conflict between the Potters and the Weasleys, or more specifically and to the point, with Molly Weasley, whose intransigence on the point of contention, Ginny, was unabated.
"Well, I guess that can be-" Dean's comment was cut off as a witch near the outer wall commented loudly about how cold it was in here and for someone to stoke the fire. Harry glanced automatically towards the potbelly stove in the center of the room to find that not only had it gone out, but also that ice was starting to form on its surface as well. He glanced towards the windows to the High Street to see them start to glaze over. A sudden, suffocating, all pervasive feeling of dread and bone-chilling cold settled over the bar as Harry and Hermione slipped to their feet almost casually.
Harry leaned over the table, if he were just making a particular point, "We have company," he muttered, drawing his wand covertly as he did so, and every face at the table nodded. Harry glanced back to find Hagrid at the bar, already pulling back his moleskin coat to reveal the hilt of a Bludger-bat-sized wand. Harry had had a new, proper wand procured for his oldest Magical friend to replace the one snapped by dint of one of Riddle's earliest crimes over the summer. It had been remarkably easy for one of Harry's newfound resources to grease the proper palms in the Ministry in order to acquire it for Hagrid; and with the addition of a muttered spell over it by Hermione, it was untraceable as well. Hagrid gave Harry a small nod, finished his mead with one, large swallow of his bucket-sized goblet and stood as if to stretch.
"Dean, Honor, Susan, Ernie," Harry whispered urgently as he glanced around the room as Hermione flicked her wrist where her hand hung down next to her leg and her wand appeared inconspicuously in her hand with a flicker of motion, "go out the back, get the youngsters out, use the Honeydukes tunnel or whatever." The four of them edged to their feet and slowly started to slip towards a nearby door set in the back wall that led to the kitchen and through it to a door into the back alley.
"DEMENTORS!" a witch seated near the windows to the High Street screamed suddenly and Harry's desperate, hasty plan to keep some semblance of calm fell apart. Several Wizards vanished with loud CRACKs of Apparation, knocking their chairs, tables and mugs askew. The teens fought to get to their feet to get at least free enough to Apparate away to get more room to fight when the door to the room flew inward with a huge BOOM. Green scaly hands shot out from the ends of tattered sleeves and grabbed a short wizard just as he reached the door, and started to pull him to a faceless hood.
Harry desperately reached out with his magic, yanking the unfortunate wizard to safety just as "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" A huge silver otter shot past Harry's ear driving the Dementor, along with a couple of others that had started to push into the pub, back with a horrible, terrible keening sound from somewhere beneath their hoods.
"GO!" Harry screamed and vanished, reappearing in the High Street outside of the Three Broomsticks. "EXPECTO PATRONUM," an immense silver stag, fueled by memories of the expression in Hermione's eyes when she said, "I do," shot out, its antlers impaling a Dementor that was starting to charge Harry. Prongs circled, driving back another half-dozen foul ones as Hermione appeared at Harry's back sending her otter slashing out to drive away another group headed towards Zonko's.
With a moment to breathe gained, Harry looked up and down the street. Fortunately there were few visible casualties so far, he saw three lifeless bodies sprawled along the street, but none looked to be younger than thirty. He saw at least as many Dementors as had threatened him and Hermione third year and he muttered a curse. Harry looked towards Honeydukes to find Ron suddenly standing there, and watched as his wand flicked and a large, rather huge actually, hedgehog appeared, rolled into a ball, and started to fire ethereal quills at the Dementors. Ron stood his ground as rainbow flashes started to light the windows of the candy shop and Harry nodded as he watched the evacuation of the younger students start to take place. He pointed his wand at another clump of Dementors that were approaching Hermione from the rear, and Prongs leapt to her defense as Hermione's own otter raced though the air towards the hill housing the Shrieking Shack where another ten Dementors were gliding towards them.
A soft hoot sounded from Harry's pocket, Harry flicked open his mirror to see Dean's panting visage, just as a large spectral lion ate a Dementor that was approaching Ron from behind, Luna slid in behind Ron as Harry looked down at his open mirror, "Harry," Dean shouted. From the background behind him, Harry could tell that he was near Hogsmeade Station, "we have the thirds and fourth years out, Ernie's down, Dementor got to him, but he'll live." Harry just nodded as he looked up and whistled. A hundred yards away, in the midst of a flock of Dementors Prongs' head perked up and he galloped back to Harry's side.
Hermione twirled her wand in an odd, spiral pattern and her otter started to swim, faster and faster around the two of them and Prongs, driving back approaching Dementors. Harry took a breath and pointed his wand at Prongs, PATRONUM EXTRANIUM DELLATRIUM. Prongs' already glowing, silver eyes lit like searchlights as he searched out his natural prey, Go back to hell, Harry muttered as Prongs' hoof hammered down onto the snow-encrusted, hard-packed earth. A shimmering wave of energy shot out from the impact of his hoof, ripping into the packed Dementors. The closer ones seemed to fold in on themselves and shimmer before vanishing into nothingness with terrible, horrible howls. The ones further away ran, flitting away as fast as they could before disappearing back to wherever they came from. Prongs pounded his hoof on the ground once more and another ring of light snapped outward tearing at the darkness and the misery, driving even more back.
The day suddenly brightened once more, as the sun seemed to come out though it had never gone behind the clouds. A blanket of warmth settled over the town as the shadows were driven away. Harry staggered slightly and Hermione's hand unthinkingly shot out to catch him. He gave her a tired smile as Ron resheathed his wand and walked over slowly from his post outside of Honeydukes, "Bloody hell, Hermione," Ron muttered tiredly as the last of the foul shadows escaped to the nether regions they came from, "why hasn't your Patronus changed from fifth year, like Tonks' did?"
Hermione rolled her eyes as her husband leaned into her as he muttered something into his mirror, checking up on the rest of the teams, "Honestly, Ronald...can you spell....add a P to otter...." Harry chuckled softly as his arms slipped around her.
"Ron, we'll head back to the castle and talk to McGonagall, make sure the rest of the DA are alright and find us," Harry said, Ron nodded and watched as his two best friends vanished without a sound.
Several minutes later, after Ron had already made sure that the remaining students, composed mainly of the DA and a few other older students were on their way back to the castle on the Orders of the Head Boy and Head Girl, several loud CRACKs of Apparation were heard on the High Street. Ron walked causally out of Honeydukes, with a large bag of candy. "About time Kingsley, we already drove them off," he said idly, as he started to walk back up towards the carriage stop, with Luna feeding herself Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans from a large sack at his side. She tossed one in his mouth, "Damn...Ralph," he griped and spit it back out.
Ok there we go, next chapter, A ball, and a reunion