Chapter 8 - Thin Broken Line
Harry shivered at the feeling of wet mud soaking through his clothing, but tried to shake it off so he could remain focused on the task at hand. Several muggles had died in very mysterious and violent ways in the area surrounding Harry's location, which after five days of horrible searching had led him to his present discovery. Various magic detection wards had forced him to forgo using his wand for any of the normal comforts he was used to while he crept up on the hidden base.
After initial outrage in the Daily Prophet the Ministry had backed off their public condemnation of Harry's actions, which were never attributed to him or the Light Bearers directly but instead to unnamed vigilantes, and had also refrained from further interference in Light Bearer activity. Tonks had told them that the Ministry was trying to walk a delicate balance between retaining the loyal pureblood support that it had and at the same time allow Harry the leeway he needed to combat Voldemort's forces.
Now on one hand it was a very risky proposition for Harry to be out by himself, exposed, in the middle of a heavily fortified and patrolled area using an invisibility cloak to avoid detection. On the other hand if they wanted to find out what was going on there was no other person except Hermione or Dumbledore which could do this task with any degree of safety. Unfortunately, Hermione and Dumbledore were both in the middle of other things that they alone could do, effectively, which left Harry doing this most unpleasant investigation work.
Harry was situated on a hillside looking down on an open space about the size of a muggle football field. Set into another nearby hill was a few openings of various sizes that obviously led to some sort of tunnel complex. All around the area was trails used by Death Eaters to make sure no wizard just casually walked in like they had done during the raid on Malfoy's estate. Even worse, all the Death Eaters were sporting eyepieces that looked suspiciously like those the aurors or Light Bearers wore. The result of all this security was Harry having to crawl around on the ground just in case the eyepieces that Voldemort's followers were now wearing could penetrate his cloak.
However, now that he'd finally found the entrance to the base he didn't know what to make of it. There was no way he'd ever get any closer than this because even if the Death Eater eyepieces couldn't see through his cloak their naked eyes would still detect his approach. The area surrounding the entrances to the hillside was made up entirely of soft wet earth that would show his footprints very distinctly. It was clear that the Death Eaters had designed the area for just that purpose because the terrain was much different than the natural ground and they had four sentries eyeballing the soft patch of earth at all times.
Harry's stomach growled and he wished for the umpteenth time that he had given Hermione her flask so he could use his too. He could be drinking soup and pumpkin juice right now had he done so. Harry grimaced as the sun started to beat down on his black garbed figure making his back as hot as his stomach was wet and muddy. It made him sleepy too, even though he dared not go to sleep in case he should make some noise, toss off his invisibility cloak, or just get stepped on.
It was late afternoon when the base started showing some signs of activity beyond the routine. Two strange looking oriental men appeared along with an escort of four Death Eaters. Harry's jaw clenched as he recognized one of them as Lucius Malfoy. Lucius was talking and gesturing smoothly while the two oriental men merely nodded. The visitors were dressed in long, single piece green robes that fit much more tightly than the robes of English wizards. The back of their garb was emblazoned with a big yellow circle containing an illegible symbol or perhaps some type of writing. Their hair was long and swept back into a single braid held together with small white sticks that Harry thought could be bone. They had no visible wands, but instead carried long thin staves at least two meters tall.
Lucius yelled something out and waved his hands toward the Death Eaters near the entrance to the tunnel complex. They in turn relayed the message to someone that Harry couldn't see. Harry leaned forward expectantly to see what would happen next before feeling his gut wrench at the sight unfolding before him.
From deep within the hillside came dozens of men and women in tight formation. They appeared motley at first, but Harry immediately understood why because of the banner the leader was carrying. On a midnight black background was the outline of a silver wolf's head superimposed over an unmistakably full moon. Each werewolf was dressed in awkward wolf's head shaped helmets, claw shaped gauntlets, and shiny bronze metallic bands that were clearly designed to accommodate a werewolf's body to protect it from silver weapons or spells.
Harry didn't see any wands or other visible signs of magic. Suddenly it hit him that this must be a nearly entirely muggle based army of werewolves. They could be easily controlled by Voldemort and were no doubt being manipulated into fighting for him once a month. Harry realized the magnitude of the disaster that they had averted when they captured the stockpile of Wolf's Bane potion ingredients at the old base this army had been using. They were much more prepared to face this threat now than they were even a few short weeks ago.
Harry decided that he had seen all there was to see after the demonstration ended and Lucius led the visitors inside. At least the crawl back would be a lot easier since he finally knew where he was going, more or less.
Hermione poked her head out into the loo into the hallway to see if anyone was nearby. She still felt a little queasy after breakfast had disagreed with her, again, but there was nothing to be done about it. Quietly she sneaked down to the main room where she and Harry had set up a makeshift workspace for their experiments. It was early morning but Hermione was still very tired. With Harry gone she had been pulling double out in the field going with the routine patrols and responding to dark creature incursions. Dementors especially were becoming bold in muggle neighborhoods and the Ministry was less inclined to respond to attacks that didn't risk exposing wizard kind to the rest of the world.
Hermione's thin hands darted around the rough wooden surface of the table they had conjured specifically for this project. She found a rack of small vials and selected one of the few that was still full. Fatigue washed away as Hermione drank the restorative potion and just like that she had bought herself another handful of alert hours.
Hermione chewed her lip anxiously while staring at the various metallic bits in front of her. After much consideration and cross checking with notes she tapped two of them with her wand. Actually, on reflection it was Harry's wand but Hermione thrust those thoughts out of her mind. She had been out of contact with Harry ever since he crossed the ward boundary into the Death Eater base. They had no idea what their form of telepathy might set off were they to use it actively.
The two bits of metal sagged into shiny puddles before wiggling about the table and combining into one solid piece. Hermione picked the piece up with a pair of large tweezers and studied it for a while. Maybe it would work this time.
"Avada Kedavra," Hermione chanted. There was a bright green flash and the newly formed bit of metal shattered into dust.
Hermione scowled at it and scratched some new notes describing this latest attempt. She knew that this was possible because she had seen the metal in action at Malfoy's mansion when it was used as an armored door to protect that mysterious lab. Now Hermione wanted to enhance its properties by combining it with a morphing substance she had developed accidentally during the research into the Sorcerer's Stone.
"Hermione dear, don't you want something to eat?" Sarah Granger asked worriedly. Erwin was right behind her with another tray of breakfast. The Grangers had been taking advantage of Hermione being back at Grimmauld Place for a few days to spend time with their daughter. Sadly, they usually only got to sit and watch her wrestle with some magical or administrative problem.
Hermione brushed her bushy hair out of her face and eyed the platter. "I'm not too hungry right now."
"Darling, are you feeling all right?" Sarah pressed. "You've been working awfully hard lately and you've not been eating good. Are you ill?"
Hermione grimaced, "I'm fine mum, really."
Hermione contained a sigh as her parents looked at her sternly for a moment before digging in to their own meal. She hoped that everything at Hogwarts was going fine with both Heads gone. Ron and the other prefects were performing all the mundane Head duties in addition to their own work.
With great care Hermione resumed her work while her parents went about their daily activities. There wasn't much for a couple of muggles to do except read in a magical house. The Dursleys were lurking around somewhere, gravitating between outraged at having to say in a house full of freaks and fear every time someone did even the most mundane magic. Hermione increasingly wondered how such idiotic people could exist.
The morning turned into afternoon, which began to fade into evening without anything happening to break the monotony when everything happened at once. Hermione gripped a tiny pockmarked piece of metal in her hands. It had just withstood three castings of the killing curse in a row. Before the realization of success could settle in though she felt a presence in her mind that had been missing for nearly a week.
"Harry!" she said with a mental equivalent of a shout.
"Hermione," Harry replied happily, clearly having missed her too. "I'm portkeying in now."
Hermione jumped up and bounded over to the spot where the portkeys were fixed to appear at. As soon as Harry materialized he found himself nearly bowled over by an oversized hug. The Grangers smiled and greeted Harry when Hermione drug his worn form into the main room.
"My, you have had a tough time of it," she said. Hermione cast cleaning charms and switched his clothes
with comfortable muggle attire.
"Yeah, its pretty bad," Harry said glumly, the reality of what he had discovered catching back up to him. "Voldemort has an entire army of werewolves just like we feared and it appears that he is finally ready to unleash them during the next full moon."
"How many?" Hermione asked. She waved her wand and summoned a variety of foods from the kitchen.
"Don't know, it was hard to tell, but there might be hundreds. They were all muggles too," Harry said. "There were some Asian wizards there too taking some kind of tour or something."
"Ron said in his last report that Voldemort was reaching out to foreign wizards," Hermione said worriedly. "Looks like this confirms it."
"We're quickly going to be out numbered at an impossible ratio if this keeps up," Harry added. "The twins say that we're reaching the upper limit of how many people we can recruit. A lot of people still look to the Ministry for a solution."
"Then it's a good thing my idea is a success," Hermione said, trying to raise Harry's spirits. She flicked her wand and retrieved a small silvery metallic triangle. "Behold my armored arm piece."
Hermione attached the triangle to her clothing on her chest right where the arm attaches to the shoulder. Tiny strands of metal shot out and clamped down to anchor the triangular piece before it morphed outward to cover the entire arm. From shoulder to hand Hermione's entire left arm was covered in a thick multi-jointed metallic sleeve that still allowed for a full range of movements. It looked somewhat like a picture of a knight's armor, except with more parallel joints running up and down the arm and with extra appendages of metal attached to the forearm.
"It will stop multiple hits from the killing curse and can even expand into a sizeable shield," Hermione explained. A section of the armor detached from the forearm and unfurled itself like a fan until it formed a large circular shield that would hide the wearer's upper body.
"It's also fitted with modified levitation charms like a trunk so that heavy loads or sharp impacts won't be felt by the wearer. The side effect is a limited form of enhanced strength that should even the odds against creatures that use brute force and melee attacks like werewolves." Hermione said.
"We should get to work on making as many of these as possible," Harry said enthusiastically.
"It's simple now that I've discovered the proper mixture of metals," Hermione replied. "See, I told you alchemy was good for more than just the Sorcerer's Stone."
"I never doubted you," Harry grinned. He finished eating as hurriedly as possible while Hermione created two more of the armor sets and gave them to her parents. She was thinking about making them entire suits out of the material since they didn't use magic. An unfortunate side effect of a metal that could stop the killing curse is that it interfered with many other spells too. Any mage wearing more than just an arm piece would find their ability to perform magic severely hampered.
"Now that you're back we've got another possible base to check out, but this time we should both go," Hermione said. "The twins think it may be abandoned, in which case I should be there to inspect it too."
Erwin glanced at his wife before talking. "Are you sure Hermione? I mean, Harry just got back and you've been feeling ill now for a while, maybe you two should get some rest."
"Are you okay Hermione?" Harry asked worriedly, not bothering to wait for her answer to her father. Now that he mentioned it Hermione did seem to be rather pale looking.
"I'm fine Harry," Hermione replied tartly. She was getting annoyed at everyone inquiring about her health every little bit. "I've just been out in the field a lot too you know. For that matter you're not looking overly hale and hearty yourself."
"I'm sorry, I just worry," Harry said, eyeing her closely. "I've got something that might help for the field business though. Let me go get something I found for us last time I went to Diagon Alley."
A few minutes later Harry returned with the still wrapped goblin wrought flasks and presented one of them to Hermione. She turned it over in her hands to admire its seamless construction.
"You can store up to five separate liquids in it," Harry explained, showing her how to access each different compartment. "It also holds more than its outward appearance would indicate and it even preserves the exact temperature of whatever is placed inside it."
"Wow Harry, this is amazing, it must have cost a load of gold," Hermione said.
"Nah, not really, I figured something this useful was well worth the price. We can store food in it without having to worry about it spoiling. Maybe some of the less stable potions too." Harry said. It would definitely be an improvement over their hats when it came to perishable foods.
"We'll ask Molly to whip us up some good soups later," Hermione said. She summoned two more of her metallic armors and handed one to Harry. Even though the armor appeared to be rather loose fitting on his arm it in fact was quite snug. "First we need to go check out the twin's information and give this armor a good testing."
"Then let's go now before it gets too dark," Harry replied. The Grangers watched them disappear behind their invisibility charms before apparating away silently.
Almost instantly they reappeared at the location that the twins had provided. Harry had quit asking how they came up with all their intelligence sources. He knew most of what they found out was a mix of bribing the right people, investigations of the right people, or sheer luck. However, this time it was due to interrogation of prisoners from their attacks that led them to this place. Harry suspected that this site had been abandoned for that very reason and was wary of a trap even though the anti-wizard wards to prevent apparation or to detect magic use had been taken down.
"I think they were right about it being abandoned," Hermione said.
"It could still be a trap though," Harry replied. Wand out, Harry cautiously lowered his invisibility charm. He swept the area around him with the pale yellow light of the jinx detection spell, but didn't see anything dangerous.
"I don't think so Harry, but just in case I'm going to set up anti-apparation and portkey dispersion wards." Hermione said. Harry stood guard while she worked to ensure that no one else could pop up on them suddenly.
As was the common theme for all Death Eater hideouts the base was set into a tunnel complex that snaked through an entire hillside. Harry noticed that the area around the entrance was heavily disturbed and several trees nearby had been taken down for some reason that he couldn't imagine.
"All right Harry, I'm done, lets take a look inside," Hermione said. Hermione reactivated her armor as she took the lead into the scary looking tunnel. Harry just knew there would be some kind of annoying magical critter floating about to gnaw on his ankles or something. These kinds of places always attracted magical pests.
The tunnels were magically enlarged and branched off into at least three distinct levels. Unfortunately the tunnels were mostly empty of anything that would be helpful in determining what had been taking place when they were in use.
"It looks like something heavy was sitting here," Harry pointed. A rectangular indention in the ground attested to something having been sitting against the wall for some time.
"Looks like crates or maybe a platform. They could have had virtually anything there." Hermione noted.
The tunnels became more like caves the deeper they went. Large cavernous rock walled chambers interconnected by rather spacious connections. Some of the walls looked scarred too, like something had scraped across them.
"Harry, look at this," Hermione said as she pointed to a deep gouge on the far side of one of the biggest openings. Rivets of once molten rock had hardened as it ran down the wall from the gash. "This wall has been melted here."
"Do you think the Death Eaters have dragons now?" Harry asked worriedly. He didn't know exactly what good dragons would do them, but if they wanted to use the beasts then Harry was worried.
"I don't know, maybe. We should get Charlie to take a look at this, he might spot something we've missed since dragons are his specialty." Hermione replied thoughtfully.
Hermione just nodded and continued to wander around. Harry knew she had some kind of method to her examination of the abandoned base but he didn't waste his time trying to figure it out.
"We should probably be leaving," Harry said finally. "We can send a team back to take another look around if you want to, but don't we have more important things to see to. The full moon will be up before much longer now."
"Yeah, you're right Harry," Hermione said. They had to create enough armors to equip all their followers so that they'd have something with which to defend themselves should a werewolf get within melee range.
Hermione suddenly felt her knees buckle. She staggered into Harry right as they were preparing to portkey back to Grimmauld Place.
"Oi, are you all right Hermione?" Harry asked, his voice laced with concern, after he had steadied her properly. "Your parents said you weren't feeling well, maybe you should rest. From what you've told me I should be able to make more arm pieces now that you've perfected the alchemy requirements."
Hermione didn't reply, instead she activated her portkey. Harry hurriedly followed and after the usual hair raising ride found himself back at Grimmauld Place.
"Really Harry, I just tripped, its no big deal," Hermione said. Inwardly she was cringing though. The potion was far harder on her physiology than she had anticipated.
"You're getting some sleep," Harry said firmly when Hermione started to head toward the main room.
Hermione started to sputter, but wilted upon seeing Harry's determined expression. "All right Harry," she said with a sigh, "We could both use some rest. I suppose we've got enough time before the next full moon."
"Kreacher?" Harry called out softly. The little elf appeared as prompt as ever. It looked admiringly at Hermione, as if waiting for her to command him instead of Harry.
"Kreacher," Harry repeated. The elf finally looked to its master. "Are there any empty rooms?"
"Kreacher is keeping Master's room empty now that there are not so many," Kreacher replied eagerly.
"Thank you Kreacher, is there anything to report on the condition of the house?" Harry inquired.
"No Master. Master's guests are behaving themselves nicely now, even the loathsome round faced muggles." Kreacher said.
"Very well, carry on Kreacher," Harry said, dismissing him. Harry insisted that he escort Hermione up to his room and she didn't protest.
"Thanks for looking out for me Harry," she said, kissing him lightly on the lips while they stood in the doorway to the bedroom.
"You always did work too hard, remember third year?" Harry said, grinning.
"How could I forget? My back still reminds me," Hermione joked, mimicking herself carrying an oversized load of books.
Harry sagged wearily, his own fatigue catching up with him, as he made his way back down the stairs to the main room. He had originally harbored some scheme of working on the armor without Hermione's help, but his body decided falling asleep was a better idea.
"Harry," a voice called out to him. Someone was shaking him.
"Harry, you silly, I thought you were going to go to sleep too," Hermione said exasperatedly.
"Uh-nuh," Harry grumbled. "I did go to sleep, I just didn't make it all the way to a bed before it happened."
"Well, seeing as how you didn't get any work done I suppose. But if you try to send me off so you can do my work for me again I'll have to hurt you." Hermione teased.
"I'm glad to see that getting some rest agreed with you so," Harry muttered, still groggy. He was not a morning person. Hermione sat down next to him and began working on one of the armor pieces, adding the enchantments that would allow it to function properly.
"I wasn't that bad off," Hermione said, avoiding his gaze for a moment and…tittering. "These last few days have just been stressful what with you completely out of contact. I don't fancy having to go through that again."
"What about me, I was deprived of my intelligence, you were just relieved of some quiddich statistics and leftover Voldemort induced nightmares," Harry said.
"Posh, I won't believe that, not after how you modified the elemental lightening spell," Hermione said. She was of course referring to the black lightening that acted to remove energy instead of adding energy to the target. Harry felt himself warm at her compliment, especially since he couldn't explain how he had done it. When Hermione came up with something new, like her killing curse resistant metal, it was the result of research and analysis. When Harry came up with something new it was usually an instinct. Basically, Hermione was an engineer, while Harry was an artist.
"So who are we handing these out to first?" Harry asked. He held up one of the finished armors and inspected it in the bright rays of light filtering into the room from outside.
"I've already send messages out to Neville and his team. They're likely to be on the front lines of any attack so they need as long as possible to become familiar with these. After that we should probably hand them out to our most capable fighters, so in other words the old Order." Hermione said. She flipped another finished piece of armor into a little sack that she had conjured to hold them.
"I'm going to go take a bath and get something to eat, how about you?" Harry asked as he stood up and stretched.
"I'm fine, I took care of that before I woke you up," Hermione said dismissively.
Harry nodded and headed out of the main room toward the stairs. He noticed how well Kreacher was taking care of the house and marveled that even Mrs. Black was being unusually silent. Either the curtain covering her painting was made of some sound proof material or else the little elf had somehow coaxed his former mistress' picture to behave itself. Considering how obnoxious it had been during fifth year that was no small feat.
The warm shower felt good after having missed one for nearly a week. Harry wasn't used to an opulent lifestyle by any stretch of the imagination after being under the Dursley's roof for so many years, but one still appreciates the small conveniences much more when one goes without them even for a little while. Breakfast was much the same, warm food being far superior to dried leftover things stuffed hastily in a hat.
"Harry are you about ready to go?" Hermione called from the kitchen doorway.
"Yeah, ready when you are," Harry mumbled back hurriedly. He stuffed his buttered toast into his mouth and grabbed his cloak off the back of the chair he had dropped it on. With his cloak twisted around his own bracelet portkey Harry used his free hand to grab Hermione's and piggybacked along her ride.
"Lazy," Hermione said, smirking the instant they landed in the Gryffindor common room.
"I can't help it, my hands were full," Harry protested. He struggled to put on his cloak and scamper after Hermione's normal brisk pace at the same time.
"We'll probably have to wait a while, everyone should be in class right now and most of Neville's team won't arrive until the midday break." Hermione said. She wasn't entirely correct though; they found Luna sitting in the Light Bearer situation room, as it had been dubbed, reading the Quibbler upside down. Her arm was still wrapped up, but it was no longer in a sling.
"Hi Luna," Harry said cheerfully. "We figured you'd be in class."
"Ravenclaw doesn't have anything right now," Luna replied in her soft detached tones.
"Well, nothing to do but wait then," Harry said. He sat down at the table next to Hermione, who had already taken a seat and started to read one of the many papers that was scattered about.
"Take a look at this Harry," Hermione said quietly.
"Why do you torture us by reading the Daily Prophet?" Harry asked. The headline was not from the Ministry run Prophet though, but from the Diagon Daily.
Potter's Race Wars
In a new round of bloody escalation Harry Potter, also known as the Boy Who Lived and the Chosen One, has begun attacking prominent wizarding families, many of which he has had personal conflicts with in the past. While the Minister of Magic has refused to comment, unnamed Ministry sources have indicated that this may be a part of some personal vendetta on Potter's part. The same sources stated that Ministry aurors tried to intervene but were unable to deter or capture Potter and his accomplice Hermione Granger. Granger, a formidable witch in her own right, is part of a militant elf rights group, which she founded, and is a known associate of giants, and werewolves, in addition to being muggle born…
"Well, its good to know that I'm not the only deranged wacko out there," Harry joked. He knew that purebloods, possibly Voldemort supporters, had written the article, but it still stung.
"Daddy was furious," Luna said dreamily. Harry noticed that her eyes were unusually sharp and focused though when she looked out over the top of her Quibbler. "He told me to tell you that he's not going to hold back anymore."
"He doesn't need to do that," Harry said quickly. "What happens if Voldemort targets him?"
"I gave him a portkey and he's had lots of practice evading assassins over the years from all the things he's reveled, like Fudge's fire monster army," Luna replied calmly. Hermione twitched slightly, but decided to change track. After all, they needed the good press and it was doubtful that the eccentric editor of the Quibbler would back off of something that he really wanted to do.
"Since you're already injured we thought it best if you were give on of these first," Hermione said. She took one of the little metallic triangles out of the carrying sack and pushed it across the table to Luna. After Hermione explained how it worked Luna attached it to her school blouse and activated it. Harry thought that she looked rather comical in her Hogwarts uniform sporting shiny silver colored armor down her left arm, but Luna really liked it.
"This is so nice, and fashionable, when it isn't in use it makes a little lapel pin," Luna cooed. "You've always had such good taste Hermione, I bet you designed this."
"Er, yeah, thanks," Hermione replied. She was unsure whether or not to be insulted that a girl who wore radish ear rings and bottle caps approved of her fashion sense.
"How was class Ronald?" Luna gushed suddenly as the red headed teen entered the room along with his sister and Neville. Hermione looked relieved, like she always did after dodging an extended chat with Luna. It wasn't that Hermione disliked Luna, but their personalities were so different that Hermione hardly even found common ground with the blonde.
"It was boring and long," Ron said cheekily. He dropped into a seat next to Luna and gave her a light kiss on the lips. Harry nearly fell out of his seat. He knew that Ron and Luna had been getting close, but it was still surprising to see shy, socially awkward Ron kiss Loony Luna. This, the same Ron that had to have Harry of all people get him a date to the ball in fourth year.
"Look at what Hermione gave me," Luna said proudly, pointing at the little silver triangle on her upper chest. It extended out into its full form when she tapped it.
"Woah, bloody awesome, what is it?" Ron asked.
"It's basically our solution to the werewolf problem. If one gets too close you can fend it off without getting bitten," Harry said.
"Also, it can unfurl into a shield that will give some limited protection against the killing curse," Hermione added. "Provided you don't get hit too many times."
"We're going to be demonstrating them as soon as Neville's team arrives," Harry said. Hermione passed out the little metal triangles to Ginny, Neville, and Ron. They immediately put them on and started trying them out excitedly.
"I told Raver Harp to send me a message when they're ready," Neville said. He had returned his armor back to its original lapel pin form. "He's got the day off from the Ministry."
"Has he had any insights into the Ministry's latest round of activities?" Harry asked, referring to the Prophet's allegations and the auror attempt to impede their attack on the pureblood power base.
"No, not really, he still a junior auror, like Tonks, and they're not privy to nearly as much information beyond their own immediate assignments," Neville reminded him.
"So are you two going to be back at Hogwarts for a while now?" Ron asked.
"I suppose," Harry said slowly. "We've got to make a lot more sets of armor before the next full moon. We might as well do the work here as at Grimmauld Place."
"What Ron is asking is will you be resuming your Head duties so he can have more snogging time with Luna," Ginny needled her brother.
"Yes, that's it exactly," Luna said promptly. Everyone nearly burst out laughing except for Luna, who had been serious, and Ron, who had turned an inhuman shade of red.
"We'll see what we can do Ron," Hermione giggled.
"Maybe we should get down the dungeon and wait for them," Ron said hurriedly. With much prompting on his part they all spilled out of the situation room into the halls. Since most students were in class they didn't meet anyone along the way except for Filch and his cat, Mrs. Norris.
"Oi, I was just about to send you guys a heads up," Raver said. The auror immediately struck Harry as a brash, loudly dressed young man, but in a different vein than Tonks. Whereas Tonks' personality was normal, Raver's attitude was as off color as Tonks' hair.
"Everyone is here then?" Neville asked.
"Everyone that can show." Raver replied.
"All right, but you're going to have to demonstrate the new equipment to everyone who isn't attending, I can't get out of Hogwarts right now," Neville said.
Everyone gathered around at the mention of new equipment and Hermione quickly passed out armor to everyone. It only took a moment to show them where to affix it and how it activated.
"That's the easy part," Hermione said once everyone was familiarized with the armor's basic function. "Like you, we've never used this before in actual combat so for now all its uses are merely based on logical extrapolation. Unlike you I built this, so I know exactly what it will do. Harry and I will demonstrate the range of abilities that the armor grants its wearer so that you will know too. Any uses beyond the ones that we discuss here today that you might improvise should be shared with us so that everyone can be kept informed. Don't be afraid to think outside the box and if you have any ideas don't hesitate to tell us."
While Hermione was busy with her introduction speech Harry was busy conjuring up some large granite blocks of varying weight. He also took a slab of the metal that made up the armor and set it atop a pedestal so they could safely demonstrate its effectiveness.
"All right Harry, why don't you show them what it can do," Hermione said once she had finished talking.
Harry started out by hitting the stone blocks a few times. It was rather impressive actually how the armor could dig big gouges out the blocks without sustaining any damage to itself. Next he tried lifting one of the blocks to demonstrate the effectiveness of the levitation charms but found it to be pretty difficult to balance the cumbersome object with only one hand.
"That's basically it as far as its operation is concerned," Harry concluded after furling and unfurling the shield a few times. "Now lets see how it stands up to the killing curse. I think you'll all be surprised, I know I was."
Hermione waited until Harry was safely back by her side, well away from the target. She took careful aim and sent three killing curses at the same spot on the armor. The first two vaporized surprisingly small chunks of metal and the third broke a small hold in the bottom of the crater that had been melted out.
"As you can see, three shots in the same place will almost always open up an exposure where a fourth shot could get through," Hermione said. "Now obviously you'll want to keep from getting hit in the exact same spot so you can stretch out the armors effectiveness as long as possible."
"I'd recommend not getting hit at all if you can keep from it," Harry interjected cheekily.
"You'll also want to make sure that you keep track of the status of your armor so you can replace it when its effectiveness is degraded too much," Hermione continued. "While the main purpose of the armor, when it was originally conceived of, was to give everyone an easy defense against the killing curse a recent discovery has added to this devices' uses. From Harry's demonstration I'm sure everyone can see how well the armor can be used against melee opponents."
"We're only days away from what could be our biggest and most decisive battle," Harry said. Hermione gave him a mental nudge to do some heroic rally the troops, but she'd have to settle for him laying out the facts. He couldn't inspire his way out of a paper sack. "This armor is a last ditch defense against werewolves. It should protect you from their claws and teeth as well as allow you to match their enhanced strength, at least in one arm."
Hermione picked up again. "That's why you, our best team of fighters, have been given these first. We're counting on you to train others with what you learn here today while Harry and I devote our time to creating a sufficient supply of the armor. Now, Harry has set up plenty of targets, everyone get out there and get a feel for the armor."
Harry and Hermione leaned back against the smooth cool stone surface of the dungeon wall so they could watch all the activity. Hermione hadn't exaggerated about Neville and his team being their best fighters. They all took to the armor and were soon using it just as easily as Harry or Hermione could, not that it was terribly difficult to operate.
"Oi, Raver, don't do that," Harry yelled, pushing off the wall to run over to the flamboyant auror. He had taken out his wand with his armor covered hand and was somehow managing to shoot curses with it. While such a feat demonstrated the remarkable magical skill one would expect of a trained auror it was also quite dangerous.
"What's wrong Harry?" Raver asked.
"Hermione said to never use a wand while you're wearing the armor. It can blow your arm off," Harry explained.
"Eww, why would it do that?" Raver said, disappointed.
"Er, well, I didn't really understand it myself, I didn't make the metal, Hermione did that," Harry said. "The way she explained it to me was that basically the metal resists the killing curse in part by absorbing and dispersing energy. She said it was like a muggle super conductor."
"Conductor?" Raver said, puzzled, "like a train conductor?"
"Ah, no," Harry said, searching for a better explanation. "Basically the metal is super dense and can store a lot of magical energy if it builds up slowly. So when you use your wand the power that the armor bleeds off your spells is stored as energy until it overloads and explodes."
"So that's why my spells were acting so weak, the armor was absorbing some of the power from them," Raver said, finally getting it. "So does it interfere with other magical devices then, like sneakoscopes?"
"That's a good question, hold on a sec." Harry said, before shouting out to Hermione. "Can you come here a second, we've got a question."
"Sure Harry," Hermione said. Harry noticed with concern that she was suddenly looking rather pale again.
Terror wrapped icy fingers around Harry's heart as Hermione swayed in place after taking only a few steps. He started to move toward her, but before he could reach her she fell forward onto her knees and vomited up a large amount of thick black bile.
"Hermione!" Harry yelled, breaking into a run. He reached her side and tried to help her up, but she was only interested in getting something from her hat. Harry saw it was a large golden goblet filled with a green substance. Hermione didn't have the strength to drink it though, or no longer wanted to, because she let it fall to the floor.
"Wrong…it shouldn't be wrong," Hermione mumbled weakly.
"Ron, go get Snape," Harry said urgently as everyone crowded around. He effortlessly scooped up Hermione into his arms and used an acceleration charm to zip away toward the hospital wing.
"Luna, follow them," Ron said. "Everyone else stay here. No one leaves until we figure out what just
happened."
Ron and Luna both accelerated away leaving a shocked group in silence. Everyone looked around at each other hoping that someone would have an explanation.
"Did the armor do that?" Raver asked dumbly, still looking at the mess in the floor. "Should we take it off?"
"Poppy!" Harry yelled. He gestured violently with his wand and the doors to the hospital wing flung themselves open. "Poppy, help!"
"Good heavens Potter, what's happened this time?" Madam Pomfrey asked hurriedly as she bustled out of her side office. "What's wrong with her."
"I don't know, she was fine, then she fell over and threw up some nasty black looking stuff," Harry babbled uncontrollably. With Poppy's help he got Hermione onto a bed.
"Did you bring a sample of it?" Poppy asked.
"No, I'll go get some-" Harry said, but was cut off.
"Don't worry Harry, I'll do it," Luna called from the doorway where she had just appeared. A flick of her wand sent her accelerating back in the opposite direction.
"Hold her down Potter," Poppy said. Thin tendrils of smoke were emanating from Hermione's mouth and she seemed to be in pain. "I need to get this potion into her."
"My, my, what have you an the illustrious Miss Granger gotten yourselves into this time and why would it possibly require my presence?" Snape's drab monotone asked mockingly. Ron glowered at him, but said nothing. Harry could barely hear Snape's taunts as he clutched Hermione's hand and stroked her cheek.
After what seemed like an eternity Hermione stirred and opened her eyes. "What happened?" she asked mistily.
"I was kind of hoping that you could tell me," Harry said softly. "You started throwing up and then passed out."
"Oh Harry, I think I made a mistake-" Hermione began, but stopped when Luna reappeared carrying a small vile.
Poppy took the sample and started running some kind of medical revelation enchantments over it to determine its makeup. When she was finished she turned away with a frown.
"Professor, could you take a look at this please," Poppy said. She sent a messenger charm flitting away. "I think the Headmaster should look at this too, if that's all right with you Hermione."
Hermione nodded and let her head sink further back into her pillow, too overcome with exhaustion to continue. Snape meanwhile was looking over Poppy's shoulder at the sample, nodding occasionally as she pointed out one thing or another she thought to be of importance.
Snape's head rotated sharply at the sound of swishing robes. "Headmaster, so good of you to come. It would seem that Miss Granger has gotten herself in quite a dilemma. This is a very unusual potion remnant, but from what I can tell it must be some kind of shaping potion."
Dumbledore frowned. "That is most disturbing indeed."
"I needed to," Hermione said sullenly, having caught her breath. "It isn't easy fighting an avatar. I could never have killed Tram without it. I'm sorry Harry, I know you depend on me to hold my own. I couldn't have you worrying about me in the middle of a fight. You've gotten so much stronger than I have. I was afraid I couldn't keep up anymore."
Harry shushed her with a tender embrace. "I trust you, I know you're only doing what you think needs to be done, but please, don't ever think you can't keep up with me. You can do things that I can't even comprehend, like alchemy, and have you forgotten our duel? Our strengths are different, that's all."
"As touching as all this sentimentality is," Snape said sardonically, interrupting Hermione's reply. "Shaping is not something that a child, even an insufferable know it all wonder child like Granger here, can go out and do at a whim."
"It wasn't like that," Hermione retorted weakly. "I didn't make the potion myself, we discovered it during our attack on Malfoy's estate."
Hermione's self defense broke off with another fit of coughing. Poppy wove a series of spells over her and took on an alarming expression.
"Where are these plans at?" Snape growled eagerly. "I must see them, they could explain many things."
"Severus, show some respect," Poppy snapped.
"I think she's dying," Harry said hysterically. He felt Hermione sink back into unconsciousness via their link shutting down. Poppy didn't reply, but Dumbledore broke in.
"We're all dying Harry, some of us faster than others, but Miss Granger still has plenty of time left. She just needs a little help," Dumbledore said serenely.
The ancient wizard held out his arm and an instant later Fawkes appeared in a burst of flaming feathers. Gently Dumbledore leaned forward so that the bird could reach her mouth. Giant tears spilled out of Fawkes' eyes and down to Hermione's lips causing more steam to erupt as the magical liquid performed its almost miraculous healing.
Luna and Ron were holding hands, Luna's head resting on Ron's shoulder, feeling somewhat like intruders. Even Ron realized that as deep as his friendship was with Harry, he had at last been eclipsed by the bushy hair girl that he had grudgingly followed Harry to rescue from a troll so many years ago. He supposed in retrospect that it had happened some time ago, probably in fifth year, but it had never been more apparent to him than right now.
Then again, Ron thought to himself as he looked down on Luna, Harry probably wasn't his first priority anymore either. Luna looked up at him with her big-eyed expression and smiled widely as if she could sense what he was thinking.
Hermione's eyes blinked rapidly before coming wide open again. Harry breathed a sigh of relief as he took in her gentle features, though they were laced with weariness.
"So where are these plans you found for the potion," Snape asked with a bored tone. "If we want to make sure there is no lasting damage I need to see the original potion so it can be compared with Granger's alterations."
"Back at Grimmauld Place," Hermione said.
"I'll go get them," Harry said quickly. He gave Hermione a quick kiss before vanishing away via portkey. Thankfully, no one was around to ask awkward questions. Harry knew Hermione wouldn't want everyone to know about something like this.
The potion lab down in the dungeon was as overcrowded with ingredients and equipment as ever. Even with Hermione helping him through their link it took Harry several minutes to find her hiding spot and retrieve the papers.
A few moments later Harry was standing back in the hospital wing at Hogwarts after portkeying back to the Gryffindor tower and then using an acceleration charm. He tapped his foot anxiously as Snape's long nose sifted through the various diagrams and notations in the file.
"Well," Snape said grudgingly, "Granger wasn't quite as foolish as thought. This is a power enhancing potion that must be very similar to the one the Dark Lord used during his rise to power."
"Voldemort did something like this?" Harry asked. He had known that Voldemort had performed dark experiments on himself, but he hadn't really considered the full implications of such activities.
"Voldemort has done things that no other wizard has ever done before. The potion that Professor Snape is holding was probably an original invention of his," Dumbledore said.
"I find that highly unlikely," Snape replied. "Voldemort would only be interested in enhancing his own powers and as Granger is now painfully aware this potion isn't compatible with a witch or wizard."
"Wait a minute," Hermione said, finding herself in the rare position of being confused, "I know that the potion is designed to increase a person's natural magical powers. I only altered it to try to undo some of the negative side effects."
"Let's be specific shall we," Snape sneered, "You didn't want the cursed half life from the unicorn's blood. Pity that nothing else has sufficient power to catalyze the effects, not even dragon's blood. How did you get that by the way, the ministry has designated it as a controlled substance."
"Fine," Hermione said coolly, ignoring his question, "I didn't want a cursed half life, who does?"
"That isn't the point, you can't gain power without sacrifice," Snape said.
"I thought Voldemort wanted immortality though," Harry said. "Why would he do anything to destroy his physical form or decrease the natural span of his life."
"Voldemort planned on attaining immortality by seizing it with his strength," Dumbledore said softly. "Long before your first year at Hogwarts, Voldemort had laid plans to steal the only thing that could grant his deepest desire…the Sorcerer's Stone. Unfortunately the Stone was guarded by some of the most powerful wizards in the world, including myself, and was also under strict Ministry regulation. His desperate rise to power, the alterations to his body, the first war against the Ministry, everything was done to become strong enough to seize the Stone."
"So that's why you didn't want the stone resurrected," Harry whispered. "You're afraid that its existence will create another Voldemort."
Dumbledore nodded, but Hermione objected heatedly. "That's preposterous," she said, "Besides, it's been done before, it can be done again whether we create one or not. Voldemort may even be trying to create another one for himself right now."
"Very few wizards have the knowledge needed to make one. Far more could develop the power to seize one though," Dumbledore said.
"Hermione's right," Harry said roughly. "We can't live our lives based on what someone else might or might not do. The Sorcerer's Stone can help a lot of people if used properly."
Hermione smiled gratefully before continuing. "Now I want an answer to my earlier question. If this potion isn't supposed to increase a mage's magical power then who or what is it made for?"
"Muggles of course," Snape replied. "Though I wouldn't expect that to be obvious to someone other than a master of potions like myself."
"Muggles, but how…why…?" Hermione sputtered. Harry too looked dumbfounded. Ron was typically clueless, but the usually placid Luna was wider-eyed than normal.
"All living things have some tiny bit of magic," Dumbledore explained. "Surely you've all heard of muggles living through terrible accidents that should have killed them, or perhaps performing incredible physical feats under emotional duress. That kind of thing happens when they accidentally tap into their limited connection to magic."
"I thought muggles didn't have any magic at all," Harry said.
"Well, for our intents and purposes they don't, but magic is a part of this world just like all other elements. Even though your body is mainly made up of specific materials it doesn't mean that you don't also have trace amounts of all other materials." Dumbledore said.
"Why would Voldemort want to increase muggles' latent magic?" Harry asked. He had a creeping suspicion that this was another situation where something far more sinister was going on than it appeared on the surface.
"Voldemort wouldn't," Snape said. "But there is one person in the Dark Lord's service who would. Some time ago, before the Dark Lord's setback, he enlisted the aid of an eccentric master of potions and shaping named Vance Vitter. Vitter is the kind of man who pursues knowledge for the sake of it and if experimenting on muggles would further his latest research then undoubtedly he would do so."
"So Vitter is a Death Eater?" Harry said. He glanced at Hermione, but she seemed to be concentrating on something else. The way she was chewing her lip Harry decided it must be important.
"I did not say he was a Death Eater, I said he worked for the Dark Lord." Snape hissed. Snape seemed to be continually angry with Harry, especially when he had the misfortune of interrupting him. "Vitter used to be an Unspeakable with the Ministry but his research got too, distasteful, and his grant was terminated. Vitter creates the potions that the Dark Lord needs and in exchange he is given funding to continue his work."
Hermione's head snapped up, her eyes gleaming like they did when she solved a problem. "Wait a minute, you said earlier that all of Voldemort's actions were originally intended to gain for him the Sorcerer's Stone. That he didn't care if he had a cursed half-life so long as he could gain immortality. Tell me, if someone were under the influence of the Elixir of Life would they survive avada kedavra?"
"No," Dumbledore said shortly, "Of course not, nothing can survive the killing curse."
"Wrong," Hermione said tartly, "Two people have survived it, Harry and Voldemort."
Dumbledore said nothing, but instead tugged his beard thoughtfully.
"I suppose Potter did, but that was a special circumstance, one that isn't entirely understood," Snape said, distaste obvious in his voice. "The killing curse strips your soul from your body. There is no stopping it."
"The way that the killing curse works is not entirely understood," Dumbledore reproved gently.
"However it seems possible that it has to break through one's natural magical power before stripping your life away," Hermione said. "Not only that, but apparently even if your body is stripped away you can still be alive. Returning from death is impossible, whatever Voldemort was reduced to, death was not it."
"Ah, I see," Dumbledore said. "If indeed raw power can foil the killing curse then Lily's sacrifice imbued Harry with enough magical energy to deflect the curse while Voldemort's own dark experiments had made him strong enough to resist death as well."
"So I could still stop a killing curse then?" Harry asked eagerly.
"No," Hermione nearly shouted. "Not anymore. What your mother did for you was based on her own powers added to yours if my theory is correct. Without her still being alive her powers would have faded long ago though."
"Miss Granger is unusually perceptive, as usual," Dumbledore said. "However, this leaves us with the inescapable conclusion that Voldemort, who is now even stronger than he was before his first defeat, may be completely immune to death by any means except aging."
"Then the Sorcerer's Stone would grant him the immortality that his invincibility is missing," Hermione said. "We should stop working on it immediately, at least until he is defeated."
"Yes, if we are correct about this." Dumbledore said, his eyes glinting in victory, "But for now I think you need your rest Miss Granger."
One by one everyone except Madam Pomfrey, who lived in the hospital wing, and Harry, filed out of the room. Harry sat holding Hermione's hand until she fell asleep before crawling into one of the empty beds nearby. As unsettled as he was about the idea that Voldemort could already be invincible he was more than anything just glad that Hermione was going to be all right.
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