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Harry Potter and the Mark of Ingravesco

Ship: Harry Potter/Hermione Granger | Chapter Words: 4893 | Last Update: 6 Jan 06 | Rating: PG-13
Hermione Granger is the next target of Lord Voldemort what ends will he go to in order to get to Harry Potter, and is this latest attempt going to have the effect he wanted?

Chapter 3: The Golden Key

Harry woke suddenly the next morning but didn't really understand why. He was about to move when a small thud to his right made him turn his head.

Sitting on top of the dressing table on the opposite side of the room was Dobby, his little elf legs were swinging under the dresser as he looked around the room and every so often he gave an exceptionally hard swing and hit his ankles on the bottom of the desk.

Harry made to sit up, but was stopped by the weight of Hermione Granger who, as Harry suddenly remembered, had spent the night in their new room with him. She was lying up against Harry's right side, her head resting on his chest as if it was her pillow and her right arm was draped across his stomach. She moved slightly in her sleep and Harry could feel her right leg resting across both of his, completely pinning him to the bed.

'Dobby,' Harry croaked with a dry early morning throat. 'why didn't you wake me?' he asked.

'Dobby was afraid to wake Miss,' Dobby replied in a whisper, obviously still afraid to wake Hermione. Harry took a glance down at Hermione's sleeping face, even at this odd angle he could easily get lost in her relaxed features and dream smile. 'Harry Potter, sir,' Dobby said, breaking Harry from his thoughts. 'Dobby wanted to give you this, sir,' he added, holding out a small white box that was haphazardly tied with a light blue ribbon. Dobby jumped from his seat on the dresser and quickly made his way around the bed to give Harry the gift. 'Dobby made it last night, sir, after Dumbledore told the elves that you and Miss would be staying here instead of Gryffindor Tower, sir.' Dobby's ears suddenly pricked up as if he were a cat hearing movement from a mile away. 'Dobby must go, sir,' he said and vanished before Harry's eyes.

Harry glanced at the clock to his left, 8:00 in the morning. It wasn't too early to wake Hermione, and besides, he needed his right arm to open the present Dobby had given him. He placed the white box on the bed beside him and gave Hermione a gentle shake. 'Hermione,' he whispered. She stirred and Harry shook her again. Hermione stretched and looked up at Harry smiling.

'This is nice, waking up with you,' she said, causing him to smile. He couldn't help but agree; she was right, it was nice.

'Dobby brought me a present,' Harry told her, resting the small box on his chest in Hermione's view.

'What is it?'

'I don't know, I need my right arm back to find out,' he said with a small laugh. Hermione smiled and rolled onto her back and off Harry's right arm, which she had managed to trap behind her back during the night. Harry flexed his arm, enjoying the feeling of blood flowing around it again, then picked up the white box and tugged at the ribbon. Hermione watched as he popped the lid off and peeked inside, then quickly put the lid back on and looked at her.

'So, what is it?' she asked. Harry didn't reply, instead he smiled and handed her the box and while she opened it, he put the ribbon on the bedside out of his way. 'Aww, they're so cute,' Hermione said pulling a very small sock out of the box. It was white and had little lightning bolts on it. Hermione gave a chuckle as she pulled out the other, also white only with books on it. Hermione gave another laugh, put the box on the bedside and climbed out of bed. She was halfway to her trunk to get her clothes out when she realised that she should still be wearing her clothes.

'Harry,' she said slowly turning to face him, 'when did I manage to get changed?' Harry smiled.

'You didn't, you feel asleep in the open room,' Harry said continuing to watch her. 'I moved you in here and I changed your clothes so you wouldn't get too hot in the night,' Harry finished, then climbed quickly out of bed. 'We should go get some breakfast,' he added pulling his trunk open, a slight amount of guilt for undressing her the night before now playing on his mind.

'Harry,' Hermione said softly and waited until he looked up at her. 'thank you.' She smiled and Harry smiled back.

They changed, not afraid to show themselves to each other and left the room together heading to the Great Hall. At the top of the stairs to the Entrance Hall they had to stop; a long line of house-elves were making their way down the stairs and into the Great Hall.

'I wonder where they're going?' Harry mused aloud, smiling at Dobby and Winky as they passed them.

'I don't know, but its nice to see Winky settling in. She looks happier now,' Hermione added, spotting the end of the elves line and finding it followed by all the school teachers, Lupin, Tonks, Moody and the Weasleys (except Ron and Ginny), including to Hermione's amusement, Fred and George. Dumbledore was last, and stopped before the stairs.

'Join us for breakfast,' he said, motioning that they should take the stairs before him.

It seemed unusually packed in the Great Hall over breakfast. The conversations going from person to person and topic to topic and the only thing that remained constant was the quality of the food. From Harry's first day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the food served at every meal was always the best he had eaten. This, however, hadn't been a hard thing to accomplish as Harry's previous home was with the Dursleys back in Privet Drive.

The plates emptied slowly, as did the room, as teachers returned to their summer holidays or school holiday duties. During the course of the meal, Harry and Hermione discovered that the elves and teachers had been given new rules to enforce during the school year, but they heard nothing more about the Golden Keys they had in their pockets.

All the teachers had left the table and Harry and Hermione where left completely alone. They had been in the middle of a conversation as the last person (Professor Snape) had got up and left.

'What now?' Harry asked.

'Might as well go for a walk. Or we can go and ask Professor McGonagall about the key!' Hermione suggested, but they both knew only too well that Professor McGonagall would find them when it was time to tell them about it, so they left the Great Hall together and automatically turned to leave the castle.

Harry found it relaxing stepping into the quiet grounds in the middle of summer. The hot sun shone down on the pair as they strolled towards the lake and started off around the edge. They said nothing for a while, just enjoyed the summer morning and each other's company. It was Harry who found he couldn't keep from asking Hermione to do something that was going to be very difficult.

'Hermione,' he started, wondering how best to say this. 'Can you... not plan how we could do this?' he asked and Hermione stopped walking.

'What do you mean?' she asked, looking around for somewhere to sit down.

'Well, you always have a plan or a schedule for things, can you just not do it this time, just let things happen naturally?' Hermione had found a place to sit and was now looking up at Harry questioningly.

'Some things I'll need to plan Harry, like after the baby is born and we have to do our homework and study for our NEWTs.' Hermione sighed, the thought was terrifying but she didn't want to worry about it. She knew the teachers would help, well most of them anyway.

'Well, that you can plan. In fact, that would be the best thing to plan,' Harry said exasperated, and joined Hermione on the hollow log that she was sitting on. 'But things like where we are gonna live after school, getting supplies for the baby and naming it, can you leave those till later, much later?' Harry said and turned to look at her. She wasn't looking back at him; her head was hung low and she was looking slightly in the opposite direction. 'You haven't, have you?' Harry asked. 'You haven't already picked names, Hermione?' She raised her head a little but didn't turn to look at him.

'I thought, you know, as... well...' Hermione seemed to be having trouble with what she wanted to say. Harry waited. 'To spite him, Voldemort, if it's a girl, we could call her Lily and if it's a boy, James.' Harry bit his bottom lip, reached out and took hold of her chin turning her face to look at him.

'I knew there was a reason to love you.' He smiled before leaning forward and kissing her softly on the lips.

'I do beg your pardon,' Professor Sprout said, standing a few steps away from them, 'but I need to deal with the plants in the water and Hagrid...' she indicated to Hagrid who was looking out over the lake instead of at Harry and Hermione, '... needs to deal with the animal. It will get quite wet out here, so you will probably do better to go back inside or around to the other side of the castle,' she told them and Harry stood up and pulled Hermione up next to him.

'Swimming is a good idea in this heat, but I would like to be prepared first. Thanks,' Harry said, causing Professor Sprout to smile at them as they walked away. When they thought the pair were out of earshot Hagrid gave out a muffled sob and muttered.

'Aren' they cute?' and received a look from Professor Sprout before they turned to do their duties.

Wherever in the grounds they went, they were always pushed out by a teacher, or Hagrid would show up, soaking wet the first time, and turn all mushy at the sight of them. So they made excuses to stay away from him. It would be a long 9 months if every time he was near them he would turn into a blubbering mess because he found them "cute" together.

It wasn't even lunchtime when they had given up retracing their steps trying to find somewhere to sit out of the way and resigned themselves to going back into the castle. Again they wandered everywhere and found nowhere that wasn't in anyone's way. Professor McGonagall became very annoyed when, for the fifth time in an hour, she found them sitting in a classroom she needed to be in.

Apologising for the fifth time, they left and headed in the direction of the Great Hall, hoping that lunch would be served soon.

Lunch was another uneventful affair; no one mentioned the gold keys and once again Harry and Hermione were reluctant to bring it up. At the end of lunch, Dumbledore stayed sat at the table with Harry and Hermione deep in conversation about what he had told the teachers and elves.

'So, the elves will make sure your quarters are properly cleaned. I've assigned a few to do nothing else at nighttime except your room. The teachers have been told of new rules like no magic after lesson times, and that the 'no magic between lessons' rule be more enforced. Any student who attempts to hurt you, Miss Granger, will find themselves in rather a lot of trouble.' He smiled at them. 'Now what do you two have planned for the afternoon?'

'We don't know, sir, we haven't found anywhere all morning where we can just sit and talk. The teachers always need to be where we are,' Hermione told him. Dumbledore gave a little chuckle.

'We even tried sitting in our own room, but the house elves wouldn't work properly while we were in there. They kept asking if there was anything we wanted or needed.' Harry added.

'Indeed.' Dumbledore stood up. 'Then if you will follow me, I have just the place for you.'

Harry and Hermione followed Dumbledore from the Great Hall, into the Entrance Hall, up the staircase (turning right at the top) and along several corridors. It was only when they found themselves outside the gargoyle to the Headmaster's office that Harry and Hermione actually paid attention to where they were going.

Dumbledore gave the password, 'Canary Creams,' and stepped onto the revolving stairs, followed by Hermione then Harry. At the top, they expected him to stop and say they could stay up here, but he didn't.

Dumbledore crossed his study, stopped to stroke Fawkes for a moment, then started up the stairs behind him. Harry and Hermione exchanged looks, they were going to sit in Dumbledore's private chambers? Looking back up, they saw the tall, crooked nosed Albus Dumbledore looking back down at them.

'This way please,' he said and pushed open the door for them. Harry started up the stairs, patting Fawkes as he passed, followed closely by Hermione, who also patted the flaming red and orange feathers of the phoenix, and stopped dead looking through the door Dumbledore had opened.

They had expected to see his private room, with bed and dresser, just as they had been given, but the sight that greeted them instead was completely different. Instead of a single room, they found themselves looking down a extremely long corridor, so long in fact, that neither of them could see the end.

'What's at the other end?' Hermione voiced what Harry was wondering.

'You know, I don't know. Shall we find out?' Dumbledore said, stepping inside and beckoning Harry and Hermione to follow. Stepping inside they noticed the doors along either side of the corridor were exactly the same as the one they had just used to enter the passageway. As they started walking, the door closed behind them and the lamps along the walls lit up suddenly. They must have walked for five minutes before reaching another door at the end of the passage. Dumbledore pushed it open and stepped though; Harry followed and his jaw dropped as he found himself back in Dumbledore's study. They hadn't turned around at any point, Harry thought looking behind him down the corridor, there were no corners or curves, it was a straight passage, so how had they come back here?

'Amazing, isn't it? I could walk out of any room, turn in either direction and be right back here.' Dumbledore smiled seeing the shocked looks on not only Harry's face, but Hermione's too. 'Anyway, this way,' he said, stepping passed them and back into the corridor. It took a moment before Harry and Hermione followed and they turned back to the corridor and saw Dumbledore standing six doors down waiting for them. They joined him and Dumbledore looked in both directions at the doors either side of him. 'I'm afraid I don't remember which door is the right one, so if Miss Granger would open this one...' he indicated to his left, '... and you Harry could open this one...' he indicated to the right, '... we could find the one we want,' Dumbledore instructed with a glint of laughter in his eyes.

Harry and Hermione exchanged looks again before turning back to back and opening the doors. Harry found himself in a very large round room, the ceiling of which was the night sky, a complete naturally moving version of the night sky. Harry assumed it was what was currently in the sky at the moment, but being as it was daylight outside, they wouldn't have seen it.

'Wow,' Hermione's voice travelled across the room and Harry looked to the opposite side to find her looking amazed around the room. A sudden thought hit him, as sudden thoughts do when in very strange situations like this, and Harry jerked his head from the room and looked at the door behind him. Hermione was standing in the doorway examining her room, and from what Harry could see, it was the exact same one he had been looking into. Dumbledore gave a laugh and indicated that Harry should go back in. Harry walked in, the door behind him closing with a loud echoing 'click'. He looked across the room to see Dumbledore, his hands pushing Hermione forward a little, stepping into the room.

'All the rooms along this corridor have a different use...' Dumbledore said, his voice carrying oddly across the dark room, '... one of which is my private chambers, and all the rooms have two doors, both of which, as Harry has discovered, lead back to the corridor. I would not presume to ask you to remain in this one, but I do ask that if you do explore the other rooms, that you do not enter the ones at either end of the corridor, or the one directly in the middle,' he said before turning and leaving.

Harry had the sudden urge to find out how many rooms were down this corridor. He crossed the room, took Hermione by the hand and pulled her though the door she had moments ago walked in through. He pulled her down the corridor back towards Dumbledore's study and stopped before the door.

'Harry?' Hermione questioned.

'I just want to know,' Harry said, walking along the corridor and starting to count the doors. Hermione leaned against Dumbledore's study door and watched him disappear down the corridor. '26, 27, 28... ' Harry stopped, he had caught sight of the end of the corridor. He turned suddenly around to look back, that couldn't be right. He turned back again and found himself face to face with Hermione.

'Why are you counting both sides?' she asked him, only to receive a puzzled look.

'I didn't,' he said confused. 'I've counted the doors on this side of the corridor all the way from that end to this end, how did you get here?'

'I haven't moved Harry, and you started counting that side.' she said pointing to opposite side of the corridor, Harry looked back again now completely confused. '35,' Hermione said suddenly. 'There are 35 doors down one side. If you stayed on that side of the corridor then there must be a reversing spell somewhere, either that or we're in a very confusing sphere!' she said. 'We can't touch either doors on the ends of the corridor, they must be Dumbledore's room, and the one in the middle, door number 18....' Just as Hermione said the door number, small golden numbers appeared on each of the doors on either side of the corridor.

'Excellent,' Harry exasperated, then grabbed hold of the handle to door 2 and pulled it open. Stepping though, Harry found himself outside, but not in the Hogwarts grounds. He was in the middle of a field, with a house about 8 yards from where he stood. In the distance, was nothing. He couldn't see any more houses or roads, no sign of movement at all. He turned back and stepped back into the corridor. 'Your turn.' He smiled at Hermione.

Hermione wasn't sure about the door searching, but she joined in regardless. They found that the room Dumbledore had shown them was number 7, and this was by far their favourite. As well as the room with the field, they found rooms in a desert, with a similar house, on the beach and even on top of a mountain surrounded by a circling river. Most of the other rooms, however, where just normal bedrooms with connected bathrooms, with the odd room now and again that give them a nasty shock because stepping though led back to the corridor without opening the opposite door.

They had stuck to orders they had been given and had not opened the doors either end of the corridor or number 18. When they finally reached door 17, they had started to guess what was behind the doors, but neither of them expected to find themselves in the Great Hall.

'Ah, I wondered if you would reach that door in time for dinner,' Dumbledore said, sitting at end of the single table that had been shared for dinner every day so far. 'Come join us, the food will arrive in a moment,' he added, beckoning Harry and Hermione to sit down. The only other teacher at the table was Professor Sprout, who looked as though she had taken a second attempt at the water creatures, as she was soaked to the bone and draining the water from her hat into a goblet on the table. Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, Molly and even Arthur Weasley were also sitting there waiting.

As the pair sat down, still recovering from the shock of finding themselves somewhere else in the castle, the doors to the hall opened and several other teachers entered and took their seats just as the food arrived.

Harry found he enjoyed the holidays at Hogwarts; the conversations were a lot more interesting than those held by the students during school term. It was a shame, he thought to himself as the meal came to a close, that this was his last year at school, and soon he and Hermione would be in the real world, just the two of them and their baby. Assuming, his mind seemed to add by itself, we survive the year and Voldemort didn't do anything to hurt Hermione and the baby.

As usual, the teachers and guests dissipated from the table along with the food, and for the second time in the last few days, Harry and Hermione found themselves alone with Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall.

'I trust you two found some interesting rooms to show Ron and Ginny for the remainder of the holidays and somewhere you can site alone if you wish?' Dumbledore asked as Professor Snape finally left the hall.

'Definitely,' Harry said, with a slight glee of excitement at the thought of the rooms, then hastily added, 'but we didn't look in the ones you asked us not to.' Dumbledore smiled.

'And your plans for this evening?' Professor McGonagall questioned.

'We... don't have any,' Hermione said, hesitating before adding 'Probably just going to sit in one of the rooms and talk.'

'Oh, so you would't want to help me in Hogsmeade this evening? I have already asked Mr and Miss Weasley to help and they have agreed, but I could always use a few more pairs of hands.' Harry and Hermione exchanged looks before Harry replied for them.

'Sure, we'll help,' he said, hoping that while they were there, they could visit Honeydukes, the sweet shop, and the Zonko's joke shop, but somehow doubting it.

Leaving the hall with her, they separated. Professor McGonagall gave them half an hour to get ready and collect Ron and Ginny before they left. As Harry and Hermione turned the corner at the top of the stairs, Professor McGonagall shouted, '... And don't forget those Golden Keys,' before vanishing from sight. Harry and Hermione had frozen smiling at each other before taking off again at a run.

Ron took the longest to get ready, owing to the fact that he spilt pumpkin juice down himself when Harry jumped though the portrait hole, shouting for them to get ready and made Ron fly out of his seat in shock and tip the drink down his front. Hermione had gone back to their room to 'visit the little girl's room' as she had put it, before collecting their keys and moneybags (just in case), and would meet them in the Entrance Hall with Professor McGonagall.

Extremely excited that they were going to find out about the Golden Keys, Harry and Hermione told Ron and Ginny about their new room in the school, and promised to show them the whole room when they got back. The four of them entered the small town of Hogsmeade a little way ahead of Professors McGonagall and Snape, who had also agreed to help. They had started down their usual route when Professor McGonagall called to them to wait.

They had stopped just before a turning to another street, where they carried on discussing the room back at Hogwarts and the key that no one else could use, when McGonagall and Snape over took them and started down the street. It was at this point where Hermione got a good idea of what their keys did; but she didn't say anything, as she didn't know if they would be shown their keys before or after helping their Head of House.

About halfway down the street, McGonagall and Snape stopped. They were standing outside an extremely beautiful house; it was separate from the rest of the street, a small alleyway between it and the houses on either side. The house stood two stories high, made of a pale blue stone with cream front doors and a black metal gate surrounding it.

'No way!' Ron exclaimed as he looked up at the house taking in the full building from front lawn to chimney.

'Way!' Professor McGonagall replied with a large smile on her face, 'Mr Potter, if you would care to let us in,' she added to Harry.

Harry tentatively pushed open the black gate, and walked to the front door followed closely by Hermione, who had hold of his arm in anticipation. He inserted the key, turned it slowly teasing himself as well as Hermione, but received a rather hard squeeze for it, and pushed the door open, then moved to let Hermione in first.

Inside the house was, in Ron's words 'wicked,' fully furnished and decorated and, surprisingly clean. Professors McGonagall and Snape sat themselves in the family room, which was furnished in pine wood furniture and the most comfortable chairs Hermione had sat in, with a fireplace of red brick. The next room was a small kitchen, just barely big enough for Harry and Hermione to stand in; they suspected that wizards usually made small kitchens, as most of them would use magic to cook. Exploring the rest of the ground floor they found several storage cupboards, a toilet and a room full of empty bookshelves that Hermione deemed HER library.

The upstairs had 4 bedrooms, to which Ginny explained the need for a master bedroom, a guest room and 2 rooms for more kids; a bathroom, a few more cupboards and a small version of the open room they had back at Hogwarts.

'Bloody hell,' Ron said following Hermione into the open room. 'This is a posh wizard house. Mum always has her eye on these things, she loves these rooms.'

'They're common?' Harry asked.

'Yeah, all the richest wizard mansions have them, and then the few posh smaller houses like this one,' Ginny explained. 'I knew there was somewhere in Hogsmeade that had houses like this, but I didn't know where!' she added, running her hand over the solid invisible wall at the edge of the house.

'Then why do we have a room like this back at the school?' Hermione asked, receiving several shrugs.

'Who cares,' Ron said eventually and Hermione couldn't find a reason not to agree with this statement.

After a while Professor McGonagall had to remind them, by shouting up the stairs, that they had work to do, and they left, locking the door with the Golden Key as they went.

Back at the school later that night, they entered the Entrance hall with their arms full of supplies for the kitchens, to find Professor Dumbledore waiting for them.

'You do realise, this is the first of several shopping trips,' he said with a smile, causing all four students to groan, and head towards the kitchens to deliver their bundles. Harry and Hermione stopped before Professor Dumbledore.

'Thanks,' Harry said with a larger smile than usual, 'for the house, its great.' Dumbledore smiled.

'I did nothing Harry. Before you were born, that house used to belong to your parents. They were forced to move to Godric's Hollow when you were born.' He smiled before adding, 'All I did was give you the house-elf Dobby, to keep it clean. Assuming, that is, that you will pay him.' Then he turned and disappeared up the stairs.

'Dobby!' Harry said with a little fear in his voice as well as a little relief. 'Hermione, can you handle having a house-elf?' he asked, as they vanished though the doors to the kitchen.

The remainder of the school holidays passed quickly. Harry and Hermione showed Ron and Ginny everything, from the cupboard behind the portrait of Lycia Mecconstaff on the fourth floor, to the rooms beyond Dumbledore's study. They spent large amounts of time in Harry and Hermione's open room and the rest either in the fields down the corridor or in the night sky room that Dumbledore had originally showed them.

Harry and Hermione also got to spend a large amount of time together every few days, when Ron and Ginny, seemingly following their mothers instructions, would give them time alone without being asked.

Before they knew it, the first day of term and the return of all the school students was upon them.

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