A/N: Alright, this is supposed to be a double post and an excellent chapter of weeks of interruption. Emphasis on the word "supposed". I'm not sure if I like how this chapter turned out, however I'm completely satisfied that I've conveyed what I wanted to. That said I would also like to say that you are not allowed to start humming Beyoncé's track while reading this. The two things, though of the same name, don't really go together. Then again… I'm already singing away with my iPod.
On a side-note: This story may be paused in November as I have insanely decided to enter the NaNoWriMo competition and my insane British-based story idea will require writing time and research. Hopefully though, I will be well into this story by then. Cheers.
Disclaimer: JKR would not write this travesty of a chapter. Also, she has said that there is something crucial about Dumbledore-James's Cloak. I don't know what that is, hence, this isn't mine.
*****
Déjà vu
One week later, their school letters arrived at breakfast. Harry didn't realise he was dreading them though, until he saw the owls at the window and Hermione suddenly became vastly interested in her toast. He knew at once the problem. This time, instead of OWLS results, she was wondering whether or not she got Head Girl, knowing full well that if she got it, she might not be able to accept it.
To think, just a week ago this was a concern furthest from their minds. When she was refusing it though, they would have to find a way to do it quietly, as far as the Order and the Weasleys were concerned they really were going back to school.
Ron and Ginny seemed not to notice a thing. Ron's letter, like his, was sure only to contain notification on whether or not Professor McGonagall had accepted the terms they had carefully dictated in their letter to her the night they announced their changed plans. They might have agreed to go back to school after all, but they were not going to do it without conditions. Otherwise, they were to use the same books as the year before, only really needing new stationery and the odd uniform adjustment. But Ginny, on the other hand, was finally receiving her OWLS results weeks after the usual time because of some obscure Ministry delay.
Somehow though, Mrs Weasley managed to incorporate Hermione's worries along with her daughter's OWLS affairs, saying reassuringly as she went to let in the post, "I'm sure you got it, dear, you deserve it far more than anyone. The only person who should be concerned here is Ginny."
Ginny paled immediately, she apparently agreed. But Hermione did not respond, and instead poured herself another glass of juice and buttered two more slices of toast.
Poor girl, thought Harry, she must have been dreaming about being Head Girl before she even entered Hogwarts. Thanks to him she had almost missed on the chance, and now that she had it again didn't want to be too excited in front of him.
Suddenly, Crookshanks who had been sitting in her lap while she ate jolted and sank his claws into her thigh, causing her knees to jerk into his. Harry was so startled he dropped his spoon with a clatter and nearly spurted his juice all over Ron before him. But instead of being sympathetic, or amused (though Hermione achieved this, tittering slightly while rubbing her thigh) Ron narrowed his eyes into a suspicious look. He looked as if he was going to say something too, but Mrs Weasley was back and dropping their letters before them.
One each for him, Ron and Hermione-they dragged them aside and left them there-and two for Ginny. Ginny snatched up hers and tore open the first at once. After a tense moment where no one said a word, just stared at her over the bowl, she visibly relaxed with a smile. Mrs Weasley snatched away the letter, and quickly grinned broadly too.
"Oh thank goodness, nine OWLS! And four Os! I've got to tell your father, and your brothers, they'll be so proud of you Ginny! I'm so proud of you!" she exclaimed and after stopping to tightly hug and kiss her only daughter, hurriedly left the table again for the living room.
Ginny, now a dark shade of red from embarrassment sheepishly took her second letter and began to open it. Ron couldn't help snickering quietly though, and even when both Harry and Hermione poked and glared at him. Eventually, she broke the moment by asking, "Did you get Head Girl, Hermione?"
He stopped laughing then to look down to Hermione's as yet unopened letter on the table beside her. Hermione looked down at it too, as if seeing it for the first time then took it up and opened it. As she was drawing out her letter though, something fell out, collided with her plate with a soft "clink" and landed silently on the table. There was no mistaking it; she had gotten the badge, she was Hogwarts' newest Head Girl.
"Hey, congratulations," smiled Ginny across the table.
"Yeah, you got it," agreed Harry, with a grin.
Hermione merely gave them mild smiles, but made no attempt to pick up the badge. Harry suspected that within it must be killing her to have received it, and that touching it would probably break through the carefully built barrier she had drawn up.
He was being very thoughtful about Hermione today, hmm….
Ron though, mumbled something incoherent and then tore into his letter as if in search of something. But whatever it was he didn't get, for after discarding the letter, he turned the envelope over and nothing fell out. Undeterred, he snatched up Harry's without asking and repeated the process, to the same result. It was only then that he said, "So who got Head Boy?"
The other three just looked at him.
He rolled his eyes, and said meaningfully to Harry and Hermione, "It's good to know who it is."
Unfortunately, all three caught on, and Ginny asked, "Why? What's so important in knowing who Head Boy is? It's only Hermione who's got to worry…."
"Mind your business, Ginny," snapped Ron.
Her eyes narrowed dangerously, "This is my business, you three are up to something, we all know it, and I want to know what it is."
"No!" declared Harry and Ron simultaneously.
Ginny looked to Harry directly, "Why not?"
"Because…" was his reply, and he said no more.
And then Mrs Weasley was back again and shrieking with joy when she spotted the Head Girl badge. Hermione only barely finished her breakfast after that, and then went off to tell her parents leaving Harry alone to the others. But it didn't take him long to leave as well, retreating to the room he shared with Ron. The excitement and breakfast was pretty much over anyway.
For much of the past week he had been going off on his own to think though. He couldn't help it, Professor Dumbledore's words kept resonating in his mind: "Would you have believed me if I had just told you that Severus had been in love with your mother…?"
At every opportunity he got then, he would go off with his mother's old notebook, desperately perusing the pages for signs that it wasn't true. There was no way that she could have been anything with Snape, he had called her a "Mudblood", he had betrayed them… there was no way.
But on more than one occasion he had fancied that he saw Snape's writing in the margins. After an entire year unwittingly receiving his help in Potions, how could he not know his hand if he saw it?
He never bothered with his old toys. They had remained in his bag even to his last trip to Hogwarts, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to take them out. What would he do with them if he did anyway? Leave them out on the night table for whatever grandchildren the Weasleys were to have? He was not going to be playing with them, that much he was sure, but he didn't want to leave them behind.
It took him less than half an hour to give up with the Potions book. It always did. Though the book would have been a useful, and probably safer, thing to have instead of Snape's (and maybe in Charms as well, for his mother seemed to have been experimenting with a few) there was really nothing to see. It was wonderful at times to sit and wonder over the fact that her hands once turned the pages, scribbled the instructions and results, and touched it, but then so painful that he could not bring himself to go further. He had to put it aside for another day.
But this time when he did, he looked up and found Hermione in the doorway looking at him. And when she noticed him she seemed torn between embarrassment at discovery and the desire to say something. He spoke first and freed her from further internal conflict, "You told your parents?"
She looked visibly relieved and replied, "Yes, they're very proud. It's some-"
"-thing they can understand, I remember," he said.
She gave a weak smile and then walked into the room and took a seat on the bed beside him. For a time after that they both just sat in silence, watching the sunlight stretch lazily across the floor while birds idly floated by the intermittently. What a brilliant day it was outside, but since they had changed their plans, now more than ever did they avoid the outside. The Order guards were still there of course, but the danger of others watching too, waiting for a chance to repeat the Little Whinging siege was too great to risk it. But oh what a beautiful day it was. Eventually Hermione asked, "So… find anything useful?"
He glanced back at the notebook and shook his head, "It's just a notebook, filled with notes, nothing…."
"Oh Harry," she sighed. "It's not 'nothing'… there must be something in there that might help."
"But what good is that? Thanks to Dumbledore we know how many Horcruxes there are and even where they might be, we don't need to know anything else. The job is pretty straightforward beyond that: find Horcruxes, destroy Horcruxes, k-kill Voldemort…" he replied, and mentally cursed himself for stammering over the word.
"Don't you want to know what happened between your Mum and Snape?" she asked, ignoring his interrupted linguistic performance.
"No," he said, coldly.
"What about what your aunt might have to say?" she asked.
Surprised and confused, he asked, "What?"
"Remember that she wanted to talk to you?" she replied.
"Oh," said Harry, and then shook his head, "No, I don't want to know."
"We're going to London tomorrow, to get our school things, you know, we might just see her," she continued, as if he had not just refused.
"Hermione…" he began, warningly.
"You could just talk to her for a few minutes and then go to the Alley," she said.
"No, Hermione, no I couldn't and I can't believe you're suggesting that I should," he told her, looking for all the world like she had just told him that she was really Stubby Boardman under Polyjuice.
"I'm not asking you to excuse your history with her just because your uncle's dead and she seems repentant, I'm asking you to find out what she had to say because it might be able to help us," she replied.
"And how, Hermione, how could anything she could possibly have to say be of any use?" he demanded. "She's a Muggle, and a mean one at that, and probably knows nothing. She might really just want me to attend the funeral so that the neighbours wouldn't talk."
"Has she ever wanted you to appear so that the neighbours 'wouldn't talk'? Isn't this the same woman who used to tell you to keep quiet and stay out of sight?" she challenged.
"I don't want to talk to her and I'm not doing it! Tomorrow we're just going to Diagon Alley to get school supplies and maybe pop in on Fred and George, I'm not going to have her ruin my day!" he declared, his voice rising with his temper the more he spoke.
Hermione made to protest, but just then Ginny's head appeared in the doorway and she asked, "Oy, what's all the hullabaloo?"
"Nothing," they replied simultaneously.
She didn't look convinced, and a dark look in her eyes told that she clearly suspected something else, but Harry didn't care. He couldn't believe Hermione sometimes, what made her think that after he left the Dursleys he would ever want to see them again? And even and especially after he witnessed his uncle's murder? He always knew letting Hermione and Ron along with him was going to be trouble. There was simply no way he was going to do it.
*****
He couldn't believe he was actually doing this. But then, he also couldn't believe that Aunt Petunia had actually agreed to meet him in Diagon Alley. He had been hoping she would refuse so that he could get out of it. It made giving the Weasleys and his Order guard the slip difficult and dangerous, of course, but she had wanted to talk and he agreed. After years of silence, he had to admit that he wanted-no needed-to know more about his parents, and at this point she was one of the few who could tell him.
Hermione, between him and Ron under the Invisibility Cloak, was doing well to conceal her delight at the fact that he was going along with the idea. But he knew she was quite pleased, for whatever it was worth. As far as he and Ron were concerned this meeting was a waste of time that was better spent putting forward the image of innocence. If he was caught away from the others shopping without a solid excuse, the carefully built illusion that they were going back to school as normal would be shattered. Not to mention that the Weasleys themselves would be greatly displeased that they had slipped away in the first place.
But Hermione would have her way.
Or at least, she almost had her way… until, of all people to be walking in the Alley, Harry spied Draco Malfoy sneaking off to Knockturn Alley.
He couldn't believe his eyes.
There was a manhunt, an extensive one, out for him. There was the chance of being caught up accidentally in one of the now many Ministry raids in Knockturn. There was the utter stupidity and absurdity of the whole thing to be considered, but there was Malfoy-Harry would know that pale blonde hair and pointy face anywhere-slipping into the Alley as the year before as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
And so, also naturally, Harry had to follow him.
He started to do just that… and then was quickly reminded that there were two others beneath the cloak with him when his sudden movement shifted the material half off of them. Hermione squeaked and yanked him back while Ron secured them again and hissed, "What are you doing?"
"I just saw Malfoy," replied Harry.
"What?" Ron and Hermione asked, surprised and understandably not convinced.
"I just saw Draco Malfoy, walking into Knockturn Alley," he repeated.
"That's impossible," Ron protested. "There's over a hundred Aurors looking for him and Snape, not to mention the Order."
Hermione protested as well, "Harry, are you sure? Maybe you think you saw him and it was really-"
"-someone who looks like him or my eyes playing tricks on me? I don't think so, I know what I saw, that was Malfoy, and we've got to follow him," he replied, and started walking again so that they were forced to follow to keep themselves under the cloak.
"What about meeting your aunt?" Hermione asked, trying to keep pace with him and Ron.
"She's a Muggle, it'll take her a while to get in here anyway, and I don't care if I'm late, this is more important," he told her.
With the number of people in Diagon Alley then, mostly current and future Hogwarts students and their parents, it was almost impossible to move without bumping into someone. It seemed that they had all planned to go shopping on the same day, as if their sheer number would deter Death Eater attack. But for the three it became an advantage, for in the crowd no one could tell who was who.
This was of course lost in the more deserted Knockturn Alley.
Just as the year before no one apparently wanted to be caught dead wandering its streets and of the few who dared to be there, anyone they bumped into would probably turn to look, and possibly pull off the Cloak. They took care then, to huddle closer and give all they passed a wide berth.
The person Harry thought was Malfoy was well ahead of them but very much within their sight. Harry made sure of it, not wanting to waste time searching for him again. But even if they did lose them, with a profound sense of déjà vu, he had an idea of where they were headed… and it was not long before he was proven right. The person kept stopping and turning off and changing direction along the way, at times even pausing to stare at the many closed shops and stalls he encountered before his destination, but eventually he walked right up to it and went in. He had gone to Borgin and Burke's.
And Harry, Ron and Hermione, as they had done the year before, went right up to the window to listen in.
Malfoy though, didn't seem to care that he might have been followed. With nonchalance others would have seen as foolhardy, he swept his hood off his head and irritably worked the bell on the counter. Hermione and Ron gasped, shocked, but could not say a thing for just then Borgin appeared and he did not look too pleased.
"What are you doing here? Are you mad? What if you are seen? Because of you my establishment has been searched three times by the Ministry looking for you," he told him, with more gusto than he would have dared the year before.
"You would have been searched on principle," said Malfoy, still casual, and then seriously, announced, "I need another favour."
Borgin refused point blank, "Absolutely not. I'm not afraid of your father, Greyback has been captured, and you are in the same boat as them and therefore powerless. Right now you're just an insolent boy who needs to get out of my shop."
"I have more powerful people behind me now," drawled Malfoy, looking very much as if he wanted to yawn. "I need a favour and you are going to grant it."
Borgin tried his best to look disbelieving but failed miserably, he knew that he was most certainly speaking the truth; after all he was the one who fixed the cupboard. So, thoroughly unsettled by Malfoy's announcement, he asked, "What is it?"
"I need a place to hide something, someplace heavily protected and well out of the way of the usual and unusual visitor," Malfoy replied.
Borgin knitted his brows, confused, and suspicious, "Why do you need this place?"
"I have to hide something, it's no concern of yours what!" he snapped, authoritatively.
Borgin stared at him a while, and then replied, "There is a place, actually, if you wish to hide. It's been abandoned some time now; I used to use it for storage but with the Ministry-"
"Where is it?" demanded Malfoy, impatiently cutting him off.
But before he could reply his words were drowned out by a scream, and then the sound of mass Apparition. Harry felt his blood run cold as he and Ron and Hermione turned to the source.
Behind them a group of Aurors had appeared at the entrance to the Alley, surrounding the entrance of the Leaky Cauldron. The woman who had screamed was with them, and it was a sinking heart that Harry recognised Aunt Petunia.
Hermione whispered the obvious, "We have to go help her."
Harry sighed heavily, and looked back into the shop. Malfoy and Borgin were nowhere in sight; they must have fled when they heard the Apparating Aurors. Accepting defeat then, he replied, "Come on…."
Aunt Petunia was neatly dressed in black, but apart from that she was unrecognisable. Her eyes were puffy and red, her hair slightly wild-her hat struggling, and failing, to contain it-and worst of all, she looked distinctly distressed at the state of the Alley and its inhabitants. As the Aurors tried to interrogate her, some even attempting to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, she withdrew further into the doorway. Harry couldn't believe that he was actually going to have to "save" her, but he couldn't just stand there and let her be. If the Aurors couldn't get a proper answer she would probably end up in the Ministry, which would be much, much worse. And he was sure that Hermione would have a lot to say about that.
Throwing off the Invisibility Cloak as soon as they were clear of Knockturn Alley, he called to them, "Hey, she's with me! She's my Aunt, she's with me!"
An Auror sharply turned to him and asked, "What's wrong with her?"
Coming to a halt just before them he said, nearly breathless, "She's a Muggle, it's her first time in the Alley… and she's just a little upset…."
"She's a Muggle and you just left her to wander through Diagon Alley alone, in times like this?" asked another he thought looked slightly familiar.
"She was waiting on him," spoke up Hermione, now joining them. "He went off to get something, but as we were going we heard the scream… you beat us here…."
"Who are you two… three?" asked the first, just as Ron brought up the rear, the Invisibility Cloak secured in his backpack.
It was a question Harry had been dreading, not wanting to draw attention to himself, but then he was saved from answering by the arrival of Arthur Weasley himself, saying, "It's okay Braddock, they're with me… shopping for school supplies…."
"The boy said that he was with his aunt, this woman," said the second, indicating Aunt Petunia with a jerk of her wand.
Harry had to be thankful then that Mr Weasley had met Aunt Petunia on numerous occasions before, for he said casually, "She was actually coming to meet us, she's with us too."
The Aurors did not look completely convinced, but then with a warning to Harry, ("Keep a closer eye on your relatives next time,") they turned and left. Aunt Petunia looked quite relieved, and surprisingly, grateful, to Mr Weasley, but Mr Weasley was another story.
Glaring at them all, he said to Aunt Petunia kindly, "I'm sorry about that, when you first come here it can be a bit overwhelming."
Aunt Petunia continued to shock, as she replied, "It's my fault, I bumped into a little man…."
Mr Weasley gave her a sympathetic smile and then said, "How about we go to sit somewhere, these three have some shopping to do…."
"But I came to speak to Harry," replied Aunt Petunia, looking warily to him.
"Oh? Well then we can all go have a seat, we have a lot to discuss," he said.
Harry had a feeling it wasn't going to be good, and from the look on Ron's face, he was sure of it.
*****
When they met up with Mrs Weasley and Ginny in WWW half an hour later, Harry was too, well, shocked, to be worried about fall-out. For one, Aunt Petunia had been nice, and not only to them but also to Mr Weasley, who was about as wizard as you could get. Two, she had been open, very open with him about a number of things, all of which, as he suspected, were connected to Snape. Hermione might have been disappointed to learn that there was nothing more to tell that Harry didn't know, but Harry was the one left feeling vindicated.
Of course, all vindication vanished when Mr Weasley, as soon as they had seen her safely out of the Alley again, declared, "None of you-I don't care that you're all adults-are to leave the house for the rest of the summer!"
"But that's the next two weeks!" protested Ron.
"I know, but what you three did this morning was reckless and hurtful. You could have told us that you were going to meet your aunt, Harry," said Mr Weasley, sternly.
"I didn't really set out to," he said, with a cross look to Hermione.
She ignored it.
Of course Mr Weasley was right though. They should have told them that they were going to meet Aunt Petunia; Lupin had basically announced that she wanted to speak to him weeks before. But all reflection on the matter disappeared when Fred and George both greeted them at the doorway of their ridiculously cheerful shop with a smile and a large duffel bag.
Mr Weasley slipped on into the shop to give them some privacy.
"Good afternoon, Harry," began Fred, grinning broadly.
"And to you Hermione, and Ron, dear brother," said George, also grinning.
With good reason, Harry, Ron and Hermione all drew back a bit into the doorway. Whatever made the twins smile like that could not and never usually was good for them or anyone else, and they all knew it. The twins though, tried to reassure.
"No, no, don't worry, we're not up to the usual mischief," said Fred, quite unconvincingly.
"Yes, we're just delivering on that promise," continued George.
"What promise?" asked Harry.
"The promise that when next you came by the shop we would have something worth your while, and here it is," explained George, and he presented the duffel bag.
None of them made a move to take it.
"Oh come on!" exclaimed Fred, and tore open the bag before them, revealing it to be filled, not with stink-sap-or-whatever-spewing bottles, but an assortment of odds and ends from their workshop. A quick glance to the shelves around them also revealed that none of this stuff was for sale.
"What do you think?" asked George, with a winning grin. "Since we know that you three aren't really going back to school-"
"-and that whatever you're going to do will be dangerous-" continued Fred.
"-we've decided to give you a few of our new inventions that we thought you might find useful," finished George.
The three still looked sceptical, Fred sighed heavily and dipped into the bag. When he took his hand out though, Ron made a rather girlish shriek and stepped behind Hermione, who immediately rolled her eyes.
"Oh Ron," she scoffed, "it's just a fake spider-isn't it?"
George nodded at once, while looking at his brother disdainfully, "Yes-are you sure you want him to go along with you?"
Knowing that lying would be futile, Harry replied almost unnecessarily, "Yes, he's plenty braver than he looks."
Ron stepped away from Hermione and for a moment looked undecided on whether or not Harry was making fun of him, before finally settling on "not" and said, "But that thing's moving."
"Well of course it is," said Fred, sighing again. "We've charmed it to move like Chocolate Frogs do so that you can release it wherever you need to and after a moment, say when the baddies have surrounded it, it'll explode-"
"-covering them in a well-earned serving of bubotuber pus, Stink Sap and purple dye," finished George, again.
Harry laughed, "Brilliant."
Ron seemed willing to give laughing a go too, but Hermione had already moved on, digging into the bag to look at the rest. A moment later she drew out a shrivelled, skeletal hand and asked, "Is this-is this what I think it is, a Hand of Glory?"
Fred looked it over, "Oh no, this is much better. If you ever meet Malfoy and make a little switch, he probably won't agree, but it will be effective-"
"-and most important of all, funny," said George.
Satisfied with this answer, Hermione returned to exploring the contents of the bag. That was, until Mrs Weasley showed up and demanded angrily, "Where have you three been?"
They all turned to find her and Ginny standing on the pavement behind them looking thoroughly upset. Thankfully though, Mr Weasley decided to save them, again, stepping into view in the doorway and replying, "With me dear, have you gotten everything?"
She looked him over sceptically, not entirely sure if she wanted to accept the simple explanation, but replied, "Yes, we're done."
"Well then, let's get going," he replied.
At this Ginny protested, "But we just got here."
"It's not safe to be out any longer than necessary, we have to go home and some of us especially," he said meaningfully to Harry, Ron and Hermione.
Ginny looked on the verge of protesting, as were Fred and George, but before they could vocalise any of it, Mr Weasley bustled the three out of the shop to them and from there to the Ministry-sent car that would take them back to the Burrow. Harry did not miss that he took care to collect the duffel bag from Fred and George, or the curious, wistful look after the store window that Ginny gave, before they were set back into the car and driven away.
Well for them the day hadn't been a total bust; they had seen Malfoy and gotten some free stuff. Of course, they were also "grounded".
Pshaw, it wasn't like they were going anywhere for the next two weeks anyway. And in time to come, they would come to appreciate the benefits of that "grounding" more than anything.
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