AN: Realized I'd forgotten a disclaimer. The characters in this and the previous chapters are not mine. Neither infringement nor profit is among my objectives.
Resistance
Chapter Twenty: Circle
Harry and Hermione both peered around the corner, blinking their unaccustomed eyes at the low light filtering in. It seemed to be late afternoon - though it felt like they'd been down in the tunnel for years - and the light was strangely green. Hermione realized that there seemed to be a healthy screen of vegetation over the flat rectangular opening.
Their going had been slow, necessarily so to accommodate Neville and Ron, but they had encountered no signs of anything amiss. The earth had grown loose and crumbly, and old footprints were clearly visible here and there and sometimes jumbled together. Hermione had been carefully erasing theirs as they made their way down the length of the passageway.
"Send out the detection charm," Harry suggested, his breath warm in her ear with the low whisper.
"If there are Death Eaters out there, they'll see it," she countered.
"Better that than one of them blasting the tops of our heads off when we poke them out of that hole," he said in a sort of muddled way. Hermione lifted one shoulder in the concession that he was probably right, and sent the white spark racing down the tunnel. It disappeared with a soft rustle through the leaves, and, in a moment, had flung itself back into the tip of Hermione's wand. Harry looked at her, with a clear question in his eyes. She shook her head.
"No one's out there," she said. Harry nodded in a business-like way.
"Good. Then we just have to figure out where we are, and how to get back to the cave," he said, and thrust himself away from the wall, proceeding around the corner toward the shaft of light.
The opening was no more than a stone sill at chest height, with the roof of the tunnel crouching low over it, leaving no more room than was necessary for one to scramble out in a ungainly squatting position. Harry figured that with the thick tangle of hanging vines and underbrush over it, it would be very nearly invisible to the observer's eye.
Hermione was eying the obstacle with askance.
"Well, we can't Banish it, or blast our way through it either, because someone will notice," she remarked.
"P'raps it really has been a long time since anyone was down here," Harry suggested lightly.
"Maybe," Hermione conceded doubtfully. "But this feels staged to me. This barrier was put here - it didn't happen naturally."
"Well, how do you think they get in without trampling all over everything then?" he asked. Ron's eyes lit up, and he raised his wand before Harry or Hermione could tell him to stop.
"Wingardium Leviosa," he said, and the vines gracefully lifted upwards, cinching themselves like miniature, living theater curtains. Harry and Hermione exchanged bemused glances, while Ron chortled quietly, pleased with himself.
The sill was placed just high enough to make climbing out difficult, but not impossible, and Harry struggled for a moment for enough purchase to clamber up, then giving a hand up to Hermione, who had to manage using only one arm. Still crouching in the shadow of the overhang, they beheld a serene green glade, tinted gold by the low light of the setting sun, and almost completely surrounded by trees.
Other than a few random noises from forest life, there was no sound. Hermione let out a breath that she didn't know she'd been holding, as Harry turned to help Ron and Neville out.
"Point Me," Hermione whispered, laying her wand on her open palm. She watched it as it spun for a moment, stopping at true North. She could just see the glint of the Lake through the trees, the surface of the water diamond bright from the sun, and knew that Hogwarts' turrets would be just beyond. The three boys were watching her, waiting for her direction.
"That way," she said. "We need to stay out of sight in the forest, but keep the lake on our right hand. I'm not sure how far away we are from the lagoon, but it can't be more than a couple of kilometers." Ron's eyes were roving the dimness of the forest, and Harry readjusted his grip on his wand.
"Neville should go in the middle, since he's unarmed," Harry pointed out, and Hermione nodded her ready agreement, further annoying Harry by insisting that she and Ron take point and rear guard, since his magic was not yet at full capacity. He sullenly joined Neville in the middle of the formation, and Hermione heard him whisper to what had obviously been a wordless question from Neville,
"It's a long story."
~*~*~*~
They made their way through the forest, slowly and silently, as the shadows began to slant longer and lower. Hermione was periodically sending out detection charms, and they had all come back clear, but the tension was starting to manifest itself in the tightened muscles of her neck. As they entered a small clearing, she paused to work out a kink with her fingers.
When she moved forward again, something crunched noisily beneath her foot.
All four of them froze, as the sound seemed as loud as a thunderclap in the stillness of the woods. Hermione carefully lifted her shoe to see slivers of glass sparkling gold in the dying sunlight.
"What is it?" She heard Harry's hoarse whisper behind her.
"An amphora," she hissed back, recognizing the discarded stopper that lay a short distance away, undamaged. "Who would have a potion way out here in the middle of nowhere?"
"Her…mione?" The word was a nervous question from Ron, and she looked up to see his eyes flitting anxiously around the clearing. The trepidation on his face drew her gaze to follow his.
The clearing was a perfect circle, and had been kept clear of all underbrush. It definitely indicated, much as the veil of vines over the tunnel entrance had, that this was done by magic. Even the tree limbs were cut back, so that a circular window of sky winked down at them. The soft green surface underfoot was marred only by a blackened mark in the center, as if someone habitually had a fire there. There were some ominous looking stains splattered on some of the surrounding tree trunks.
Ron's face had turned an ashy gray, and one hand stole to his side. Neville's eyes were wide with alarm. Hermione and Harry exchanged glances, each uncomfortably aware of a lingering malevolence in the air, but unable to pinpoint the nuances of it, not having been immersed in the wizarding world since birth.
"This is - this is - " Ron stammered, and his voice dropped to a scant whisper, "a Witching Circle." It was Hermione's turn to pale; she had seen a few vague, troubling references to them when she was researching the horcruxes.
"What's a Witching Circle?" Harry asked. A loud hoarse cry from somewhere above them suddenly made them all jump violently, and Ron rapped out an oath.
"Look there!" Neville said, pointing upward, and they raised their eyes to see a large black bird drilling them with an all too human gaze. It hopped a little on its branch, fluttered its wings and squawked again. Hermione felt chill bumps raise the hairs on her arms. It was clear that this was not an ordinary bird.
"What should we do?" she asked breathlessly, never taking her eyes off of the raven, which now seemed like a winged harbinger of doom.
"We've broken into the Circle," Ron said. "They're going to know we're here."
"Who? Who's going to know?" Harry demanded, sounding strangely panicked. The portentous atmosphere here was making them all a little jumpy.
"Whoever made it," Neville murmured, swallowing with difficulty.
"Well, there's a likely list of suspects up there at the castle, don't you think?" Ron asked somewhat sarcastically.
"What are they used for? And why wouldn't there be one nearer the castle?" Harry queried. They began to sidle toward the edge of the Circle, but the bird called out such a shrieking protest that they all stopped again.
"Latitude and longitude can matter," Hermione said. "The positions of sun, moon, and planets have to be taken into consideration too. This is probably the closest they could get. They're very Dark magic; I haven't seen much on them, but some common uses listed were - were blood sacrifices, ritual murder to increase magical output, r - re-animation of the dead…"
"Why are we still standing here?" Neville's voice was nearly a plea. Harry lifted wary eyes up to the raven again.
"Don't you get the feeling," he said slowly, "that the second we leave, he's going to go tell someone exactly who and where we are?" Hermione nodded slowly. Her eyes flickered meaningfully to Harry's, and then over to the bird. Harry was closest, and had the best angle. The raven hopped in place again and cawed, obviously sensing that something was going on.
"Listen, I don't - " Ron began, only to be cut off by an abrupt,
"Hush, Ron," from Hermione. She did not remove her eyes from the raven. "Are you ready, Harry?" Her mouth barely moved as she spoke. She saw his fingers flex around his wand. He nodded once, his eyes also fixed on the target. "On three, then. One…two…three!" She pushed outwardly with her magic, sending it toward him as hard as she could, as Harry raised his wand and fiercely called out,
"Stupefy!"
The bird did not drop from the tree limb as expected. Instead, there was a soft-sounding squelch, and the raven simply vanished in a puff of feathers and blood on impact with the spell. The four teenagers stood, dumbfounded, looking up as a few black tufts wafted down on the light breeze.
"Did it get away?" Neville asked, after a moment.
"No," Hermione said faintly. "I - I think we killed it."
"That's nothing, Neville," Ron said, conspiratorially, nudging his classmate in the side. "You should have seen what they did when Lupin got loose during the full moon." Neville's eyes got even larger than they had been before.
"This was different," Harry interjected, his eyes still quizzically tracing a meandering path left by one of the feathers. "This was - could you feel it?"
"I felt it," Hermione whispered hoarsely, and Neville and Ron exchanged bewildered glances. "It - it was - it's this place… it - with Professor Lupin, it was pure adrenaline, like life or death, but this - I feel like it wanted us to - " She shuddered, but whatever she might have continued saying was cut off, by several cracks, sounding like twigs snapping faintly in the distance. The four of them looked at each other with expressions of mingled alarm and terror.
"Somebody at the castle must have notified somebody outside," Hermione said, her voice nearly nothing but a breathy gasp. "They've Apparated outside the grounds, and they'll be coming this way! For the love of Merlin, we need to go now!"
They quickly tumbled from the Circle in an ungainly scramble, but Hermione couldn't help but feel, even though they had blasted the infernal bird into oblivion, that sinister eyes were on them as they left. When she turned to look, just before they passed out of sight, the Circle was empty, eerily serene, and as unmarred as they'd found it, save for one long black pinfeather, exactly in the center.
Harry was the only one among them who had remained physically unscathed, but she noted that he now seemed to be moving with more difficulty than any of the other three. He appeared pale, quiet, and withdrawn, lagging behind the others, despite Hermione's hushed, but repeated pleas for him to hurry. Ron turned to look at them questioningly, but Hermione waved her hand impatiently for him and Neville to continue on, as quickly as they could. The jutting stones forming the cliff that separated the Lake from the lagoon were now in sight.
Fear was gnawing at her, and she wasn't sure if it was some kind of magical residue left from the Witching Circle, or the knowledge that Death Eaters surely hunted them not far away, or a combination of both. Her hurried stride hesitated, as she realized that Harry was no longer at her elbow.
"Harry, come on," she said, tugging on his arm, while also raising her wand covertly, cupping it in her damaged hand. Her injured fingers were screaming at her to modify her actions, but she pushed the pain to the back of her mind. She was going to have to Stun him. She couldn't explain his behavior, but there was no time to do so; Ron and Neville were already out of view.
"Expelliarmus!" came a voice, and Hermione's wand soared upwards before she could even turn toward the source. Her eyes briefly slid shut in defeat, as she turned slowly, her bandaged hand still upraised, and one hand firmly wound in the material of Harry's sleeve. Two men faced them, wearing nondescript black robes. One man - the one who had disarmed her - had the sleeves of his robes rolled up, despite the encroaching sharp chill, and the Dark Mark was clearly visible on his forearm. He had evidently been about to say something, but stopped when his eyes suddenly lit on Harry.
"Well, well, well," he remarked. "'Twould appear to be the Dark Lord's lucky day." Hermione looked at Harry, almost willing him to return her gaze. He still had his wand - they had likely only seconds before the Death Eaters realized it - and if they could do the same thing they'd done back in the Circle, they might be able to get out of this after all. She gripped his shirt sleeve tighter, twisting it around his wrist, hoping to garner his attention without speaking; his wand was completely concealed where her body overlapped his. He wasn't looking at her; he wasn't looking at the Death Eaters, but back toward the rapidly darkening woods, where the Witching Circle lay.
Dammit, Harry! Hermione shrieked inwardly, and felt a tell-tale prickle of panicked tears stinging her eyelids. Her fingers quavered, and she hesitated for only a second before sntaching his wand out of his hand. She shoved him to the ground behind her, at the same time that she raised his wand in one smooth motion. She felt perspiration break out on her forehead, and she grit her teeth when something popped in her hand as she pushed Harry down. Her set features betrayed none of the turmoil she was feeling inside, as she prayed for her desperate bid for freedom to work.
Levicorpus! She thought as intently as she knew how, and swung the first Death Eater by his ankles into the second. The response she was getting from Harry's wand was more than she could have hoped for, and the two men flew at least 20 meters in a tangle of arms and legs, hitting the trunk of a large tree with a sick-sounding thunk. She hurried across the intervening distance, and raised Harry's wand again, as she peered at the two bodies, lying entwined like discarded dolls. Thick blood had begun to trickle from the ears and nose of one, who had obviously had his skull shattered on impact with the tree, and it looked to Hermione like he was already dead.
Squelching her revulsion, she reached out two fingers and checked for a pulse. There was none. She inhaled and exhaled a deep, slow breath, and turned to the second Death Eater. He appeared to be unconscious, and she carefully lifted Harry's wand.
She hesitated, and the slender wooden shaft faltered. Just do it, Hermione. Just… Her breath came faster, hissing through flared nostrils, and the throbbing in her fingers was nearly unbearable. She wondered if she could Obliviate him instead. If it doesn't work…if Voldemort finds out that Harry was anywhere near here, they'll… She flung an anxious glance over her shoulder at Harry, who had not risen from where she'd shoved him.
A hand closed around her fingers, eliciting a shrill keen of pain from her, and she turned slowly to see malevolent eyes on her. He began to twist the injured limb, and tears of agony overflowed their bounds.
"Drop your wand," he told her succinctly, having evidently assessed her injury and determined that this would be quicker than scrambling around the corpse of his partner to find another wand, or making a possibly unsuccessful attempt at wandless magic.
"Expelliarmus!" Ron's familiar voice rang out behind her like soothing balm on her fear, and she let out a half-sob of relief. The Death Eater wasn't holding a wand, but he was holding on to her, and she shot away from him as quickly as if she'd been repelled, collapsing with a whimper as her injured arm folded up beneath her. She was still trying to get to her feet, fighting nausea, when she heard Ron say, "Sectumsempra."
She almost did throw up then, but couldn't help but recognize the necessity of his actions. I hesitated, she thought with self-loathing. I hesitated! She scrabbled across the edge of the underbrush, using both legs and one arm, to where Harry still lay.
"Harry?" she whispered, caressing his face with the tips of her fingers. "Harry, wake up!" He was breathing, but did not respond, and she was at a loss as to what had happened to him.
She finally managed to straighten up, and stood motionless for a moment, waiting for the swimming in her head to abate. When it had, she turned toward the fallen Death Eaters, and stopped abruptly when she ran into the solid wall of a chest. Harry's wand was underneath the chin of the intruder, before she even knew she'd moved her arm.
"Bloody hell, hold on, Hermione!" Ron exclaimed.
"You scared me," Hermione said fuzzily, clutching at his arm to hold herself upright.
"I can see that. What the hell happened?" He gestured toward Harry. "Did he get hit?"
"No, nothing hit him. I don't know why he - I was disarmed, but I used his wand to…" she slowed down, wondering again at the reaction of the wand. "Damn!" she said suddenly, in remembrance, and Accio'd her own fallen wand. It flew into her hand with accurate alacrity, and even Ron looked impressed.
Hermione looked over toward the forest from which they'd just emerged. The shadows under the low-hanging limbs were very thick and dark now. Anything could be watching us, she thought forebodingly, and she felt her mind become a little clearer from fear, if nothing else.
"The Death Eaters?" she asked, and Ron's face became very distant.
"They're both dead," he said.
"What happens when they find the bodies? They'll know we were here."
"They already know we're here," Ron replied, a trifle snappishly.
"They'll know those men were murdered," she pointed out, her eyes traveling over his shoulder to where their crumpled bodies lay. "You don't think they'll look for who did it?"
"What did you want me to do, Hermione?" Ron cried, sounding defensive and placating at the same time. Hermione didn't answer him, but instead gingerly walked the distance to the corpses, looking down on them as dispassionately as she knew how.
"Evanesco," she intoned quietly, carefully aiming Harry's wand. The power of the white-hot lightning that surged from the wand surprised even her, and she heard Ron swearing quietly somewhere behind her. The bodies vanished, as well as the bloodstains, a good portion of the surrounding undergrowth, and the lower part of the tree trunk, which Hermione hastily replaced. She hurried back to Ron's side, trying to ignore the pain that was now shooting all the way up her arm to her shoulder.
"Let's go," she said, looking forlornly at Harry's still face and clutching both wands in her good hand, her other arm cradled protectively to her chest. Somewhere along the way, she had lost her sling, probably when reaching to pull frantically on Harry's reluctant arm. "Where's Neville?"
"Waiting for us down by the water," Ron said. "I - I did the clone-detection charm like you showed me. He's really him." Hermione smiled a little; her focus was on her husband, but she was covertly watching Ron as he Levitated his best mate. She was nearly certain that he was more hurt than he let on; he was walking as if the muscles on one side of his torso had seized up, and he was unnaturally pale.
"Good." Her voice remained calm, although an insidious voice deep inside her insisted that something was wrong… with Ron? Harry? With everything?
Four hasty Bubble-head charms later, and there was no sign that anyone had ever been there at all.
~*~*~*~
Fred was the first one to spot them, and he sent up a cry of surprise and happiness, when they emerged from the water. It drew the rest of the Order, but their excited, jumbled questions came to an abrupt halt when they saw the state of the exhausted and bedraggled group.
"Neville?" Luna uttered the lone pair of syllables, and, out of the corner of her eye, Hermione saw Ginny go suddenly rigid. Lupin, who looked fine, Hermione noticed with another distant part of her mind, and Mr. Weasley quickly shouldered in between her, Ron, and Harry, taking over the Levitation. She felt her knees buckle, but Ron caught her under her good elbow, even though she heard the hiss of pain from him as he did so.
"What's happened to him, Hermione?" Lupin called urgently over his shoulder, as the group moved quickly into the infirmary. Ron was trying to answer frantic questions about Neville, and someone was casting drying charms on all of them.
"I don't know," she replied, despair coloring her voice. "We - it - this bird, and the Death Eaters were - " She was feeling dizzy, light-headed, and it was difficult to think clearly. She could only assume that it was the after-effects of all they'd been through.
"Death Eaters?" Fred's voice was sharp. Harry had been deposited on a bed, and Madam Pomfrey was carefully scanning him with her wand. Hermione's eyes fastened again on his pale face.
"There was a Witching Circle out in the forest," Neville put in suddenly. "It probably wasn't even a kilometer from here."
"By the Blade," Lupin swore under his breath. "Hermione, you need to tell me exactly what happened." He moved toward her, and grasped her arm in his eagerness to know, and she was unable to stifle a cry of pain. Lupin's eyes clouded with apology. "You're hurt." She shook her head.
"It's just broken fingers…maybe my hand. It's nothing. You should really see about - "
"Ronald!" The dismayed cry came from Luna, and Hermione whirled in alarm. Ron had collapsed, one hand still cradling the curve of his ribs protectively. Penelope rushed to his aid, and she and Fleur moved him to a bed.
The younger mediwitch used Diffindo to remove Ron's shirt, after a hasty wand scan, and found the jagged slash that Hermione had healed was thickened and fiery red.
"Grindylow poison," she said grimly. "It's been sealed inside the wound. Madam Pomfrey!" The former school nurse tossed a vial of something to McGonagall, who caught it neatly, and moved to Harry's bedside, deftly switching places with Madam Pomfrey. Hermione felt herself cringing with guilt, as she remembered that she had been the one to close up Ron's wound, blithely unaware of the poison that she'd trapped inside him.
Penelope had reopened Ron's wound, and a copious amount of bloody pus began to ooze from it. Mr. Weasley and Fred stood by tensely, watching, and Ginny stood ramrod straight at the foot of his bed, fingers wound through the metal railing. Hermione let herself exhale a sigh of relief, when the pinched look left Madam Pomfrey's face and Penelope began to use a cleansing charm on the wound. Ron was still pale, but his breathing seemed to be more relaxed.
There was a lot of bustling and indiscriminate shouting, as Fred detached himself from Ron's bedside, and Levitated some additional beds from the sleeping quarters. Without really understanding how, Hermione found herself on one of those beds. Struggling to maintain her focus, she fixed her eyes on Remus.
"So, you made it out okay, then?" she asked innocuously, staring stupidly at the two wands cupped together in her hand.
"I'm fine. A few cuts and scratches, but we got away just in time, thanks to that medallion of yours," he said. She allowed a slight, self-deprecating smile to cross her face, as her gaze moved to Harry lying on the bed next to her.
"Where's Seamus? And Tonks?" Remus' eyes clouded briefly at Hermione's question. She noticed the bed at the far end, almost completely obscured by dimmed dividers, and for a paralyzing second, she feared the worst.
"Mr. Finnegan's still recovering," the werewolf answered. "One of the grindylows that got him had a poison sac behind its front claws. Some of the alpha males have them, but not all." There was chagrin in Lupin's voice. "Apparently, he and Ron both got lucky. Anyway, he's had a rough go of it, but we think he's going to be okay now. We sent Tonks with Aberforth to get the rest of Seamus' team. They know the necessary charms to perform," he added hastily, as Hermione opened her mouth to advise caution. "No one will be brought down here, unless we're absolutely sure of their identity and loyalty. But if we're going to start formulating a final plan, we're going to need all the wands we can get, and Seamus' team definitely has experience in covert operations. They're also better able to disappear into their surroundings than we are."
"Let me see those fingers," Fleur said briskly, approaching the bedside. Hermione felt inexplicably annoyed and irritated, and snatched the broken digits away from the half-Veela.
"I'm fine," she said, absently noting that Fred had moved Neville to a bed as well, and Mr. Weasley was giving him some kind of nutrient potion under clipped instructions from McGonagall. "I need to be with Harry." She slid from the bed, gripping at the mattress, with what she hoped was a discreet gesture, in an attempt to keep herself on her feet.
"Hermione!" Fleur's voice was sweet, but her eyes flashed with silvery steel. "I assure you I am perfectly capable of performing a bone fusing charm and a basic medical wand scan. Get back on the bed, at once. I insist." Hermione looked entreatingly at Remus, who raised both hands and looked innocent, as if to say, you're on your own. She sagged back onto the mattress with defeat, sullenly holding her injured arm out to the Frenchwoman. It does hurt, she reflected reluctantly. Fleur neatly sliced the bandage that had once been her shirt sleeve and was holding her fingers tightly together, as well as the ones that had been protecting her burns.
"You were going to tell me what happened, if you can?" Lupin asked, almost tentatively. Hermione nodded slowly, and began to relate the entire story, careful to mention the odd transportation device, their unexpected trip to the dungeons in the bowels of Hogwarts, and their retrieval of Neville.
Fleur lifted both of Hermione's arms, looking critically at the mottled pink skin.
"Your burns are looking a lot better, Hermione," Fleur remarked. Self-consciousness overwhelmed Hermione, as she fought the instinctive urge to conceal the marred limbs. Her smile at Fleur was tight-lipped. There were no additional comments, and soon Hermione felt gentle pressure on her fingers, inhaling a hissing breath, as the bones knit together. Remembering Lupin's inquiry, she continued the tale, relating all that had happened regarding the Witching Circle, Harry's odd behavior, and the subsequent arrival of Death Eaters nearby.
"That's not surprising," Lupin said. "Witching Circles are connected to the wizard or witch that created them. Voldemort would have been aware the instant anyone crossed the threshold. The mere presence of the Circle nearby could be why that passageway was still used occasionally."
"Then - then you think that Voldemort - ?" Hermione said, falteringly. Lupin shook his head slowly, appearing deep in thought, and lifted his shoulders in a shrug.
"There may not be a way to know for sure, but if it was Voldemort who created the Circle, it might explain why Harry was acting so oddly. His and Voldemort's magic has been very closely bound for a very long time."
"You don't think this caused a setback for Harry - in - in his magic, I mean?" Hermione wondered.
"Time will tell," Remus said apologetically, obviously feeling the inadequacy of his answer. The two wands in her other hand caught her attention as she lowered her gaze, and she almost immediately looked up again, startled.
"Professor Lupin!" she said suddenly. "I - I used Harry's wand. I - it was like it was my own - better than my own. It took me three or four tries to get anything out of it before, and - I didn't have any other choice when I was disarmed, but it was - it was unbelievable, the power…"
Lupin leaned on his elbows at the foot of her bed, evidently intrigued. Fleur doled out a portion of bone-setting serum, followed by some pain reliever, and Hermione took them both absently, though she was gratefully aware when the throbbing pain finally eased. She barely noticed Fleur's cool hands moving over her burns, spreading a thick layer of healing salve and winding new bandages over the coated area.
"When was the last time you tried to use it?" he asked.
"I'm not sure. I don't think I've used it since we were at the safehouse. Not since Mr. Weasley got me my new wand." Hermione said. Fleur was waving her wand carefully up and down the length of her body, assessing any other possible injuries. A soft, whirring sound issued from her wand. "Could a - could a marriage create a - a bond that - " Hermione asked. Lupin looked doubtful.
"It's possible. But it's generally hard to create those kinds of bonds unintentionally. There's a spell, for instance, that creates a Wand Bond between the magical signatures and the life forces of two individuals. Strong feelings of love or protectiveness could facilitate the bond - make it stronger or able to be formed more easily - but it's unlikely that it could form one on its own. Of course, since you were assisting him in his magic, channeling your magic through him, it's possible that could have gradually made it easier for you to use his wand. It's like the way Voldemort channeled some of his power into Harry accidentally. Their magical signatures were likely similar, and so too were their wands. If your magic has been commingling with - and maybe taking on the characteristics of - Harry's magic, then your ability to use his wand could be heightened as well." Hermione's mouth opened in a round "o" of surprise, as she thought through all the ramifications of what Lupin had said.
"What would happen if Harry and I made a Wand Bond? Would that help him?" she asked. Lupin looked at her dubiously, but her pleading eyes locked on his face, until he offered an answer.
"Both of you would essentially be pulling from a common pool of magic. I'm not sure that your output would exactly be doubled, but it would be increased. You'd be able to cast more powerful spells, do so simultaneously if you wished, and use each other's wands interchangeably. A Wand Bond will supersede other types of magical control, so you'd be able to more easily deflect, say the Imperius or Cruciatus curses."
"But - but that would be perfect!" Hermione exclaimed, her eyes alight. "Harry could draw from my magic while his returned to full capacity. We wouldn't have to worry that he would drain his in training. And if - if Harry has trouble dueling Voldemort because of their wands, he could use mine!"
"Hermione," Lupin said paternally. He seemed somewhat reluctant to speak, as if he did not want to rain on her parade. "Wand Bonds are almost classified as Dark Magic, at best dangerous and unpredictable, and at worst a kind of mutual magical slavery. Not much is known about the mechanics of casting them, and if the slightest thing goes wrong, you can wipe out someone's free will. It helps that you're married to him, of course, but it's not just your magical signatures that are joined. I also said - "
"Our life forces would be joined. Then if I died…"
"So would Harry. The converse would also be true. It's true that Wand Bonds can sometimes pull one of the involved parties from the brink of death, but nothing can be done against curses like Avada Kedavra, for instance. If physical injuries are severe enough in one person, they can bleed over into the other person as well. You would be linked permanently. There would even be a certain distance beyond which you could not be apart without physical repercussions. I'm not sure the risks would be worth it. The Order would have two people to protect beyond all costs, rather than one, and Harry - "
"Harry would never let me do it," Hermione said quietly, her voice infused with certainty.
Fleur's wand chirped softly, and the blond woman made a soft exclamation of surprise, interrupting Lupin. Hermione looked questioningly toward her, but Fleur's brow was furrowed, concentrated on the wand before her.
And then several things happened at once.
There was loud splashing and much noise, as Aberforth pulled a spluttering Tonks from her face-first position in the shallow water, where she'd tripped and fallen. A group of people accompanied them, and Hermione was shocked at the bitter, soul-weary, suspicious atmosphere that seemed to hang over them, obvious even from her position on the other side of the cavern. They began to cast drying charms on each other.
Lupin politely asked Hermione to excuse him, and he walked over to meet the newly-arrived people. Neville was also watching the scene with intense interest, as Blaise Zabini stepped forward to greet them. The others were obviously deferring to him as their default leader.
"…ow's Seamus?" his voice drifted across to her, and she registered vague surprise that he had used their classmate's first name. Lupin clapped Blaise on the shoulder, and said something low and unintelligible, nodding as he did so. The former Slytherin visibly relaxed.
Hermione's curious eyes roved voraciously over what remained of her schoolmates. Michael Corner had one arm around Padma, and whispered something in her ear. She slumped against him with unmistakable fatigue, and her hair, braided around her head in a hasty coronet, glinted darkly in the low light. The Creeveys were impossibly skinny, even more so than before, and there was a hollow-eyed look to their faces that almost completely changed their appearance. Everyone was dressed in much faded and Reparo'd clothing, carrying small battered satchels, likely with everything they'd managed to hold on to shrunken inside. They were all thin, dingy, and battle-hardened. Susan's hair had been cropped quite short, and it appeared that Megan was leaning heavily on a walking stick. None of them had put away his or her wand.
That was when Hermione noticed her… the one without a wand. Her second thought was that there were too many people. It must have garnered Professor Lupin's attention at nearly the same time, for he approached the extra person, obviously a girl, though her head was turned so that Hermione couldn't tell who she was. Then Tonks was at his elbow to explain, one light hand going from Remus' arm to the mystery girl's. Blaise joined them, adding his commentary, and Hermione caught the phrase, "detention facility".
And then the girl looked up. Her teeth flashed white in her lightly tanned complexion, even darker now with blood and dirt. Her hair was pulled back in a sloppy ponytail, her clothing torn and filthy and one shoe gone. A half-healed slash vividly crossed her collarbone and disappeared beneath the neckline of her shirt. She alone out of all of them had no wand. Hermione felt the dread like a fist delving into her stomach; it was immediately followed by a surge of embarrassment at the ridiculousness of her feelings. The unexpected arrival was Cho Chang.
Lupin was leading them toward the infirmary, gesturing toward the sleeping areas, obviously informing them where they could stow their things, although no one moved to do so.
"Are you done?" Hermione asked Fleur, in an abrupt way that stopped just shy of sounding truly rude.
"Yes," Fleur sounded hesitant, and Hermione raised one eyebrow a trifle impatiently. "But - is there somewhere we could talk… in private?" Hermione opened her mouth to immediately decline, but her eyes flitted down to the barely detectable swell in the other woman's abdomen, and sympathy kindled in her eyes.
"It's going to have to wait," she said in a nicer voice, and slid off the mattress. She flexed her fingers experimentally. "Thank you for fixing my hand," she added with sincerity, and moved to intercept the new arrivals.
She paused to run her newly-healed hand wistfully over the rail at the foot of Harry's bed, and so was startled violently, when he sat up with unnerving rapidity, calling out her name in a hoarsely exhaled gasp, all but knocking Professor McGonagall out of the way with his flailing arm. His eyes were wide and he was breathing heavily. Hermione instantly forgot about Seamus' team.
"I'm right here," she said soothingly, moving quickly to his side. He wound one arm around hers, as if to insure that she would remain there, and she lifted her other hand to caress the sweat-dampened hair away from his face.
"Hermione… what happened?" He looked up into her face, his vivid eyes beseeching her to explain.
"We were hoping you could tell us that," she said tenderly. A brief glance up informed her that Harry had arrested the attention of everyone in the cave. "I think he's okay," she murmured, and saw Aberforth surreptitiously lower his wand.
"I don't - I just remember the - the Circle…and that bird," he said, his gaze vague as he struggled to voice the memory.
"You don't remember how we got here?" He looked up at her again, shaking his head apologetically, as he leaned into her shoulder.
Madam Pomfrey had moved from Ron's bedside, where, Hermione noticed, Ron was still unconscious, a large white bandage now swathing his midsection. The mediwitch was briskly scanning Harry with her wand.
"There appears to be no lasting damage that I can see," she said finally, looking far from pleased. Hermione figured that she would rather have concrete evidence of something wrong, something that she'd be able to put right. They still had no explanation as to why Harry had collapsed the way he did. "You're a little dehydrated, but I suppose all of you could do with something to eat." Her reproving look included Hermione, but spread outward to encompass the other former students as well. "Perhaps someone - " The rest of her sentence went unfinished, as she looked toward the kitchen to see Luna Lovegood bustling about therein. In the ensuing quiet, the clank of pans and utensils could clearly be heard.
"I'll go help," Ginny said slowly, moving carefully toward the kitchen, her steps measured and precise. The faces of the new arrivals were grim, all of them obviously coming to the same conclusion about Ginny, yet another indication that nothing would ever be the same. For a brief moment, nobody said anything at all.
"I'll help too," Hermione said practically, gently untwining her arm from Harry's. "You stay here," she told him lightly, brushing her lips across his cheek.
"Hermione, you should rest. You also are recovering from injuries," Fleur called out, the words bursting out as if against her will, but she met Hermione's gaze squarely.
"I'll rest later," Hermione told the older girl firmly, her steps taking her toward the kitchen, but her mind on the War Room, already wondering what books would likely contain information about the Wand Bond. "There's too much to do."
~*~*~*~
In the end, everyone save the four worst injured had piled haphazardly in the vicinity of the War Room to discuss what had been going on. Hermione listened with one ear, as she ate a piece of bread with one hand and furiously took notes on the book she was perusing, with the other. Even Madam Pomfrey had drifted over to join them, after assuring herself that her patients were resting comfortably.
"So, when did they find you, Cho? Seamus didn't say anything about you," Fred began, in a conversational tone. It was Blaise who answered, in a very abrasive and Slytherin way.
"We broke her out of a detention facility just a few hours ago. Seamus knew about the operation." He sounded defensive.
"Nobody's accusing you of anything, Zabini." Fred raised his eyebrows at the Slytherin's tone. "If she wasn't who she said she was, rest assured, she'd not be in here."
"How did you find out she was there?" Ginny asked suddenly, in an effort to defuse the rising tension.
"We hear things," Zabini sniffed.
"What else have you heard?" Tonks wondered, leaning forward on her elbows curiously.
"Everyone's talking about Harry, of course," Colin said, scraping the last of his food from an enormous trencher, and washing it all down with pumpkin juice. "At first, there were rumors that he'd gone into hiding, that V - Voldemort had rendered him absolutely powerless. But then, stories started circulating that he was more powerful than ever, and that it was just a matter of time before he confronted Voldemort and ended the whole thing." He blinked for a moment, and added. "The Death Eaters haven't been too happy about that."
Hermione felt a triumphant swelling in her chest, and her eyes drifted across the cave toward the gray-tinted dividers that concealed her husband and three of their housemates. Obviously, the owls from Neville's clone had at least partially accomplished their aims. As she returned her attention to the book she was looking at, her gaze crossed Cho's. She picked up her quill, and resumed writing, for a moment irrationally wishing that she was left-handed, so that her ring would glint in the light as she jotted observations.
"Has Voldemort been out of Hogwarts?" Aberforth asked. Zabini shook his head.
"Not since the last time you met with Seamus, as far as we know. Of course, we can't be sure of anything since the informant at the pub in Knockturn Alley caved. The Death Eaters broke into his home while he was at work, and killed his wife and two children. Tacked their bodies to the front wall to greet him when he got home. Mike and I barely got away from there without being caught the last time we spoke to him." Michael Corner was nodding absently, lost in thought, and Padma lifted her eyes to him worriedly, as she sat tucked into the crook of his shoulder. "They had Death Eaters watching the place, and he kicked up such a hue and cry at our arrival that we almost didn't make it out."
Hermione looked up from her notes again, intrigued by Blaise's story. Her eyes wandered to Michael and Padma, and softened as she took in their obvious closeness. She could definitely empathize with the way they were feeling: scratching off their to-do list that they'd made it through another day alive and together, unable to refrain from touching when they were in each other's presence, feeling constantly and strongly grateful/guilty at snatching moments of happiness when they happened to present themselves. Padma met Hermione's gaze suddenly, and appeared to know exactly the direction of her thoughts, because the Ravenclaw smiled, flicked her eyes up to Michael, back to Hermione, and then over toward the infirmary. Nothing had been publicly said about Harry and Hermione's relationship yet, and Hermione felt her cheeks warm as she turned back to her research once again.
Tonks made a comment about Seamus' knife and Zabini's crossbow, a large affair akin to Hagrid's that Hermione had been too distracted to notice upon his arrival. The Auror seemed to be of the opinion that Muggle devices could end up being useful. Lupin argued against it, referring to the fact that most wizards and witches could not accurately or safely operate such things, stating that it would take more time than they had to train. Zabini pointed out that his team had escaped right through anti-Apparation wards, under the very noses of the Death Eaters, in a Muggle automobile.
The War Room erupted in a heated debate, and Hermione lost the thread of the conversation for a moment, as she dove back into her book. She tried not to look guilty or surreptitious, as she flipped the pages, jotting down everything she could find on Wand Bonding. So far, she had not seen anything that made her think it would be a bad idea. If Harry died, they were all done for anyway. If Harry died, her own life would mean precious little to her. And if the Bond was successful, it could save them all. The fact that Harry would steadfastly refuse the risk to her life was unchanged, but Hermione was undeterred. I may just have to edit out the part about the life forces being joined, she thought resolutely. Once it's done, it can't be undone.
" - not sure we should be drawing Muggles any further into this," Lupin was saying patiently. "Voldemort has it in for them, as it is. Can you imagine what he'd do if he found out Muggles were helping us?"
"Remus, nobody is suggesting that we take Muggles into our confidence," Tonks replied, a hint of anger starting to flare up in her eyes. "Why can't we use what they know? It could give us some advantages that Death Eaters haven't even thought of."
"You haven't seen what this girl can do," Zabini put in, patting his crossbow fondly. "It's wand-aimed, can be keyed to specific people, and the arrows are virtually indestructible and equipped with a homing charm."
"And those are all magical innovations, aren't they?" Lupin asked politely, with his eyebrows arched. "I don't think there's any limit to what we can do if we think outside of the box. For instance, Hermione here has come up with all sorts of ingenious things - personalized medallions that can pass through wards, voice-activated portkeys, charms to detect Voldemort's clones." He looked at Tonks and sighed. "You saw what the Death Eaters did to that Muggle village in Scotland. Harry and Hermione were nearly killed trying to save them. And that was just because Voldemort's mother had lived there once. If they found out we were closely associated in any way with Muggles, their lives would be in grave peril. I'm not willing to risk the lives of innocent bystanders."
"They might've lost their status as bystanders the day Voldemort declared open season on them," Zabini put in quietly, and Hermione saw Dennis Creevey visibly flinch.
"There are rules too," Lupin said. "Enchanting Muggle objects, performing magic in front of Muggles…" Tonks' eyes now brimmed with angry tears.
"And who is going to report us? Arrest us? The government is gone, Remus. And we've had this conversation before."
"There are reasons those laws were initially put into place. This shouldn't be an excuse for anarchy," Lupin said smoothly.
"Somebody better tell that to the Death Eaters," Michael Corner said quietly.
"All the same, it is something that's going to have to be thought about, dealt with…eventually," Padma said. "Suppose we win… how are we going to get the infrastructure back into place?"
"That's rather like putting the thestral before the carriage, don't you think?" Luna asked in her trademark dreamy voice.
"It'll have to be discussed at some point," Padma reiterated.
"I think there are enough Ministry employees here that we'll have a good head start," Aberforth said with a finality that put an end to the sidetrack. "I think the cooperative is a good idea. There was an underground movement in France when Grindelwald was rampaging through Europe, and it was successful. I think the thing to remember is that there are more of us than there are of him, regardless of how it may seem."
"An Avada Kedavra from one of those clones will kill us just as easily as one from anyone else," Fred observed wryly, and Megan Jones snorted in assent.
"Which means we've got to get into Hogwarts," Hermione finally spoke up, having abandoned her studies as she became enthralled in the discussion. "The medallions can get us through the wards, but first we'd need - "
"Someone inside with a medallion," Fred finished for her. "How the hell are we going to get someone inside?" The silence in the cavern was thick and heavy, broken only by the soft slosh of water against stone. Hermione chewed on the end of her quill, deep in thought, but sprang up suddenly, her eyes on fire.
"The stationary - from the passage. I put it in - wait half a moment!" She stammered inarticulately, almost sprinting toward the infirmary before she'd even finished speaking.
There were a few bemused glances exchanged, but most of the Order members, as well as those who had been in Gryffindor House knew of the tendency of Hermione's brain to move at much higher speeds than her mouth.
Almost as soon as Hermione disappeared around the divider, there was an alarmed shriek that had Lupin and Madam Pomfrey springing for the area before the echoes dwindled away.
"Harry's gone!" Hermione cried in alarm. Her eyes cast over Seamus and Ron, deep in an artificial, magical sleep, and Neville, who had jolted awake when she shouted. "Did you hear him leave?"
"I'm sorry, Hermione," Neville responded, shaking his head contritely. "I didn't hear anything. She plunged through one of the dividers, and there was no time for it to adjust adequately to her wild movement; the entire bank of dividers came down with a resounding crash, but Hermione didn't appear to notice. Her eyes moved frantically over the features of the cavern. They had all been in one corner; there had been shouts, animated discussion - it would have been easy for him to sneak away unnoticed. But where would he go? And why?
Her eyes fell on the softly rippling blackness that led into the depths of the Lake, and she knew. Without looking back at the rest of the group, she plunged headlong into the water, gasping at the chill of it, while protesting cries rang in her ears. Paying them no heed, she ducked beneath the water long enough to release a stream of bubbles that meant,
"Accio Harry!" She broke the surface again, spluttering, her teeth clattering noisily together, dripping hair streaming into her face. When she swept it back out of her eyes, she looked up with a start to notice Zabini standing right behind her, thigh deep in the water. Nothing moved in the water, and she felt herself begin to crumple, thinking that she might welcome the Lake's clammy embrace.
"C'mon Granger," he said almost gently, gripping her shoulders, keeping her on her feet. "Let's get fitted up properly, and we'll -"
And then there was a noise like rushing air, as the surface of the water frothed violently, and something heavy collided with both their legs. Hermione floundered as she tried to stay upright, and Blaise caught her around her upper arm with a viselike grip. She reached into the dark water, finally clasping onto something, and hauling it upward with all her strength.
When Harry emerged from the water, hacking and snorting, she didn't know whether she wanted to kiss him or kill him. She noticed he didn't have his wand, and wondered if he'd truly planned to swim all the way to the shore with no Bubble-head charm in the inky blackness of the Lake.
"What were you doing?" she said, unable to keep the shrill note of chastisement out of her voice, as she and Zabini walked him out of the water. Madam Pomfrey was waiting with blankets, which she tossed around all three of them. Harry was looking at her in a bewildered way, as if he thought he should recognize her, but didn't.
"You were calling me," he said in a little-child voice. "You were calling me, and I was coming. I would always come, Hermione, you know that. I would always come for you." Hermione swallowed the lump in her throat with difficulty, making a noisy gulping sound.
"Of course you would, Harry," she said. Her teeth finally stopped clacking together, as someone - she wasn't sure who, and they had the undivided attention of everyone in the cave that was conscious - cast a drying spell on them. She eased Harry back onto the bed, as tenderly as she knew how, but he was still shivering violently, his face chalky white
"You mustn't leave the cave, Harry. Not without telling anybody. It isn't safe," she said, stroking his raven hair. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Madam Pomfrey casting several wards around his bed. Should he attempt to leave again, he wouldn't be getting far without alerting everyone present.
"You were calling me, Hermione," he said again, in that same distant, bewildered-sounding voice. She looked up and met Remus' knowing gaze.
"It's the Circle, isn't it? It has to be," she spoke evenly, not waiting for his reply. "Is he going to keep trying to go back there?" Suddenly the werewolf looked very tired, and he ran one hand shakily through his hair.
"I don't know, Hermione. The bond between Harry and Voldemort is one that we haven't even begun to plumb the depths of. But …it certainly looks that way."
Hermione gazed into middle distance, almost as if she had not heard Lupin's response, but her mind was whirling furiously. The bond between Harry and Voldemort… a Wand Bond supersedes all other magical control… She was going to have to form the Bond, without Harry knowing all the consequences of it - and she was going to have to do it soon. She felt Lupin's gaze on her face, and she quickly schooled her features to show only worry over Harry, which wasn't hard.
She leaned down to kiss him on the forehead, and he groped for her hand, twining his fingers with hers. Madam Pomfrey was standing nearby, holding a container of what was probably Dreamless Sleep potion, and she seemed to be looking to Hermione for permission.
"Good night, Harry," she said softly, and jerked her chin downward in a barely perceptible nod to Madam Pomfrey, who began administering the potion. Harry's eyes soon slid shut, and Hermione watched him pensively for a moment, moving to the foot of the bed. She tried not to think about the way her heart had catapulted into her mouth when she came through the divider and saw that same bed empty, only a few moments ago. Thank God, I came over here, or it - she stopped suddenly, remembering why she'd been in the infirmary in the first place, and moved back to Harry's side, lowering the sheets and patting around his clothing for the zippered pocket into which the portkey components had been stored. When she found them, she carefully handed them off to Fred for safekeeping. "This is how we got into Hogwarts dungeons. This is how we get someone inside." Fred's eyes lit with a knowing gleam, as he held the bundle aloft, seeming to imagine what was inside.
"But who's going to go in?" Tonks interjected. "We've got Harry's invisibility cloak, but there are probably wards or magical devices there that can see through them. There's nobody that could even momentarily pass as belonging there."
"Someone could at least go to scout out the place," Zabini said, shrugging. "As long as there isn't an attempt to go into the more secured areas of the castle, and if the Death Eaters don't know that we know about this portkey, then they'll have no reason to suspect we're there at all."
"And if the scout is caught, then they will figure out how we got in, and we won't be able to use that method again," Tonks said icily. "It might not be so easy to find another way into Hogwarts."
"The fact is," Lupin said, overriding the argument between Blaise and Tonks, "that nobody here belongs at Hogwarts, and everybody here knows entirely too much about Harry anyway. But someone is going to need to go."
"I'll go," Blaise said smoothly and immediately.
"Yeah, I bet you'd love the opportunity to get in Hogwarts and spill your guts," Fred replied.
"Now, wait just a minute, Fred," Michael Corner tried to defend the Slytherin.
"So now you're accusing me of something, Weasley?" Zabini retorted. "Is this what I'm always going to be able to expect from you?"
"Let me do it," piped up a voice that silenced everybody before the situation could devolve into a free-for-all. Neville was speaking from his bed in the infirmary. "Hermione said - they may not even know I'm gone yet. If you can send me back with the cloak and a wand…if I get caught, they'll just think I got out somehow. The passageway won't be compromised."
Everyone stared at him for a moment, and Hermione said,
"Neville…" in a quiet, admiring way.
"He should stay here," said another voice. Neville's clone stepped out from the shadows of the corner where he'd been held, his small room destroyed when Hermione knocked down the dividers. All of the color drained from Neville's face, and someone in the cluster of people swore softly under his breath. The clone looked at the rather sullen faces, but remained as resolute and determined as any Gryffindor could hope to be. "Send me instead."
TBC
Okay, this one was a little hard for me to write, because there was a lot of exposition, and I just brought a boatload of characters into the mix, but I hope you enjoyed it. I had fun with the fight between Hermione and the Death Eaters, and I hope I showed a little of Hermione's fallibility.
You may leave a review on the way out, if you like!
lorien
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