Chapter 9
Hermione was having a hard time with what she had to write down. He could see her biting her lip which meant that she was having a really difficult time trying to come up with something that he would not know anything about. He had to smile because he knew that Hermione practically told him everything that went on in her life, well almost everything. She failed to tell him about her feelings for him.
He wondered if there were things he didn't know about; Things that she didn't know about because of her amnesia. At that point, however, he didn't care about what it was he still didn't know about her. He just hoped she would come up with something.
Hermione wrote on her piece of parchment and placed in into the hat. She let out a sigh of relief when the hat accepted her written words. She knew that Harry did not know yet what she wrote on the paper, but she couldn't help herself. She wasn't sure herself yet about what she wrote. She was betting on the hat to know the truth.
"Okay, has everyone put in a piece of parchment?" Fleur announced in her French accented voice.
When everyone nodded, she continued. "Okay, now. Everyone take a piece of parchment and number them as we go along. When the hat reveals the secret, write down who you think the secret belongs to. When the hat spits out a parchment, I will number them in the back so that in the end we will read them once again and have the owner of the secret step up when their secret is revealed. Ready?" Everyone nodded once again and she continued with the spell to let the hat begin revealing the secret.
One by one the hat revealed the secrets and one by one the ladies wrote down who they thought the secret belonged to. The room was quiet except for the hat who announced the written words on each parchment. Each woman wrote diligently on their parchment even though each time a secret was revealed they wanted to shout out who they thought the secret belonged.
Harry watched them bubbling over with excitement. He was awed at the amount of restraint each woman had. He knew from experience, Ginny and Hermione mostly, that women could hardly contain themselves when it came to sharing some type of news hoping that she was the first to break the news to people. Well, then again, it was mostly Ginny who was that way. Maybe Fleur and Lavender, but now that he thought about it, Hermione was different. She never once just burst out about anything that was potential news to anyone. She'd kept a lot of his secrets and he had a lot of those when they were growing up. And despite those secrets, she still loved him. His heart swelled with the thought.
After the hat wound down to the last few parchments, just as the Goblet of Fire in their fourth year, the hat started to spark and to make it known that there was another parchment yet to be read. The one that came next gave everyone in the room pause.
"My secret desire is to kill Harry Potter," the hat called out. The collective gasp filled the room. Each pair of eyes looked at the other with the obvious question running through their mind. "Did she write it?"
Harry wasn't doing too well under the invisible cloak. He wanted to reveal himself and confront whomever the person was that wrote the vile note, but he knew revealing his presence at that time would not only ruin whatever trust the people had with Hermione, but might put everyone else in danger. He looked carefully at each of the faces and saw no apparent clue as to who wrote the message. The person was either quite skilled at hiding their feelings or maybe something else was at play in the room.
He put his Auror skill at work and practiced Legilimency at all the people present. After the last person in the room had been scanned, Harry was no closer in finding out the culprit. He did notice that there were minds that seemed to be hiding something or was practicing occlumency. Whoever that was must be truly skilled because he'd proven himself a master of legilimency since seventh year without Snape's help. It helped him when he confronted Voldermort for the last time. Although Voldemort's skill in occlumency was as great as his skill in legilimency, Harry seemed to be able to get through his defenses without a problem. To this day he still marveled at how he was able to do it, but knew that somehow their connection had to do with the scar that still appeared faintly on his forehead.
There wasn't any doubt in his mind that he could feel the block, but he just couldn't pin point the person who emanated the powers so expertly. He felt defeated, but with occlumency he knew that he couldn't do well to open the barriers of legilimency when he wasn't looking into a person's eyes. That was one of his skills still under training. No one else in the Auror division had ever successfully achieved that level of intricacy with occlumency and legilimency, not even Voldermort, but everyone seemed to be confident that Harry could.
At that moment he wished he'd practiced more. He cursed himself. He knew now that what happened to Hermione was because of him. Someone was using Hermione to get to him and she is in more danger now that he was living in her flat. He should have known better.
He saw that Molly was ushering everyone out of the door that wasn't part of the family. She was still part of the Order after all. Even though the threat of Voldemort no longer existed, the Order lived on with Harry as their leader. He wanted to decline the offer, but everyone threatened to disband the group if he would not take over Dumbledore's former role. He had no choice. He knew that evil wizards still existed and if he wanted a better future, he had to agree.
"Everyone, out!" Molly demanded vehemently. She'd been Hermione's second mother for as long as Ron and she had been friends especially because her muggle parents couldn't enter the Wizarding world and were powerless to defend her from wizards. She put a protective hand around Hermione who was at the moment being held by her mother.
Ginny, Angelina and Fleur followed suit and formed a protective circle around her. Part of it was instinct to protect one of their own, and part of it because they also knew their duties as part of the Order. They've always known that Ron and Hermione were always in danger because of their close affiliation with Harry. With their wands drawn, they made sure everyone left, but with thinking placed one of Fred`s and George's latest invention on each guest. The latest invention was that of a tracker that is undetectable by magic - well by any spells like a foe finder or any spell of that nature. Since it was still in its beta testing stages, they were unsure that it would work properly, but what better way to test it than to use it.
Fred and George had expanded their joke shops and created an exclusive department - secret department - where they invent "spy" magical gadgets for the Department of Mysteries and for the Order. That was why the tracker had been invented in conjunction to what is similar to the map that James, Sirius, Peter and Lupin created for Hogwarts, there was a world map that worked with what they refer to as the tracker since it has not yet been properly named. That part of their business was not as busy as the joke shop, but certainly more challenging. Again they had Harry to thank for the opportunity since he'd asked them to make him gadgets for the final showdown with Voldermort.
After all have gone except for Mrs. Granger, Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, Angelina and Fleur, Hermione sank in the sofa. Mrs. Granger gathered her in her arms while Mrs. Weasley, Ginny and Fleur secured the area looking for anything amiss. They've learned many tricks of uncovering those who hid in the shadows or under invisibility cloak. It was actually Harry who'd taught them about uncovering anyone under an invisibility cloak. It was just too bad they didn't think of it at the beginning of the party.
"Well, if anyone was here other than those who were invited, they're long gone," Mrs. Weasley said.
"We should have interrogated those who were here first before we let them out of the door. Someone could have walked out of the door without us knowing about it," Ginny told them.
"No sweetheart, I don't think Hermione is up for interrogations," Molly said.
"We could have tried the veritaserum," Fleur added.
"Yes, we could have. But what would have that done to your friendship with those women. I think we can thank Merlin nothing else happened to anyone of us," Fleur said.
"All right there, Hermione?" Ginny asked. Hermione merely nodded and stayed still in her mum's arms. She noticed how pale she looked. She also looked very vulnerable. Not at all like the Hermione had she known before the accident.
"We'd better stay here until Harry gets home," Angelina chimed in.
"What time is he supposed to get back anyway?" Fleur asked.
"I forgot what we told him. Maybe we can just send word with Hedwig. I'm sure he'll want a full report of what had happened."
A knock came at the door. Ginny pointed her wand, and then asked who it was.
"Harry."
"How do I know you're who you say you are?"
"Dammit, Ginny! If you don't open this door, I'm going to tell your mum about that time in sixth year….."
That got her moving. She knew that only Harry knew about the time she'd snuck out of her dorm to meet Dean. He knew because he'd caught them in the broom closet. He promised not to tell anyone, especially her mother. She didn't want a howler like the one Ron received in his second year after they crashed the flying car.
When he saw Hermione still pale as when she was when he left, he was concerned. It wasn't like Hermione to be so complacent when threatened. Even in second year, he remembered her sticking up for him against Lucius Malfoy. It was as if part of her spirit had been sucked out of her.
When she saw him, her color returned. The others discreetly moved out of the way without questioning how Harry knew of that something happened during the party. Hermione finally let go of her mum and went to Harry's arms.
"You're okay," she whispered.
"Of course, I'm okay. I was never far, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. I'd forgotten. When I heard what was written in the parchment, I just lost my head. I was so worried about you."
"You don't need to be, love. I can take care of myself. It's you I'm worried about."
"Harry, if you're ready for the report, we're ready to give it to you." Molly told him.
Mrs. Granger who only found out about Harry and Hermione let her tears fall freely. She'd never understood why Hermione had chosen Ron, not that Ron was a bad bloke, but she knew her daughter well. She heard the way she talked about Harry or when her eyes lit up when his name would come up. She didn't want to interfere with her adult daughter's life, but she'd bring up Harry as many times as she could to gauge her daughter's reactions and never had she seen them change throughout the years. She felt relieved now that they were finally together, but at the same time frightened because being with Harry seemed to bring unforeseen danger in Hermione's life.
"Let me take Hermione to her room and let her rest. I think she's been through enough excitement for tonight."
"No, Harry. I want to hear the report and I have something to tell all of you as well. But first, someone should take mum home."
"Hermione, I'll be fine."
"No, you'll be much safer if you didn't know too much about what we have to discuss." She looked at her mum with the pleading eyes she'd used often when she was a child. Mrs. Granger was a bit surprised to see it now with her grown child, but she knew that Hermione would not have pleaded with her if she didn't think it was important.
"All right, but you should come by soon. Your father wants to see you. I'll try not to mention what happened tonight. I will wait for you to tell him yourself. But you know he'll know something went wrong when he sees me." She smiled at her daughter.
Mrs. Granger who'd learned to floo to and from Hermione's flat was now and expert, but still preferred to drive her car. She said it helped her relax. But with Harry's insistence, she flooed home after he set up security measures between the two fireplaces. It was the only one of the fireplaces they connected to their own private floo network - the others were Grimmauld Place, Godric's Hollow and the Burrow.
"First, I want to explain why I was practically paralyzed when the parchment was revealed. I heard a voice talking to me. It was a voice I'd heard before, but I can't seem to place it. The voice felt as if it was whispering in my left ear. Not like a voice one would hear in the head, but like someone standing next to you and whispering."
Harry cursed. He was so worried about being discovered, that he'd forgotten someone could just as well have walked in under an invisibility cloak.
"Bastard! He was here!"
"Harry, dear. You couldn't have known. We should have known better."
"No. This is because of me. I'll take the blame. We should have told you about truth about Hermione's condition."
"What's wrong with Hermione?" Ginny struggled with the hurt and the concern.
"You have to understand. It wasn't the lack of trust that we didn't tell any of you. We thought the less people knew, the better our chances of catching whoever it was that kidnapped Hermione in the first place." He looked around at his adopted family. He knew that he'd hurt them terribly. But he also didn't want them in any danger. "At first we thought it was because of the work that Hermione did for the Ministry, but I guess after tonight, it is more personal. But before you ask me anything, you first have to know that Hermione has a form of amnesia that is rare and none of the healers have been able to successfully create a potion or a spell to reverse the effects of the curse that brought it on. She doesn't remember what happened from the moment she was abducted to about a year ago. Before then she remembers everything clearly."
A unified gasp was heard in the silence. Harry continued. "Look. We didn't tell a lot of people because well, for one thing, Hermione doesn't like being looked upon with pitying glances. Second, we didn't want too many people to know because we didn't want to put anyone else in danger." When he saw Ginny and Mrs. Weasley roll their eyes heavenward, he smiled. "Okay, we were wrong, but the third reason was because the healer told us that if her memory could be altered as soon as someone change an event in the past. What I mean is that, if someone tells her about something that happened from their point of view, it would alter Hermione's perception and will not bring her closer to bring her memory back. The more her memory is altered, the further away she'll be in regaining her memory. The best advice was to let her remember on her own as a natural progression."
"But, Harry dear, we're family. We'd have protected her better if we knew and we wouldn't have insisted on having this bloody girls' night out. We thought we were going to lighten things up a bit, but had we known, we would have pushed it back or just had family members."
"Sorry, Aunt Molly. We were trying to make her environment as normal as possible to help her memories progress faster." After so many years it was still weird for Harry call her Aunt. "It was the wrong decision on my part."
"Harry, dear, I know how much you feel you have the need to try to protect us all, but you have to remember that even the great Harry Potter needs help now and again," she said with a smile. They like to point out the great Harry Potter bit when he tries to do too much. She knew that he'd had no one to depend on when he was growing up. Even when he befriended Ron and Hermione, there were still times when he felt the weight of the world on his shoulder and he carried it alone. He blushed at being reminded of his own limitations.
"I know. I'm sorry."
"That's not important now. What's important is that we know and we will more vigilant when it comes to Hermione's and your safety." She saw him open his mouth, but beat him to his response. "Okay, Hermione's safety. She's more vulnerable than you. Although, I think she still remembers a lot about kicking a bad wizard on his arse."
Everyone chuckled at Molly's last word. They all knew she was trying to lighten things up.
"First things first, we need to call the Order for a brief meeting." Harry pointed out. "However, not everyone will be invited. Only those who are family members and close friends will be in the loop with everything. Everyone else will only be briefed on a need to know basis. The core will be summoned tonight. We'll meet at the usual place tomorrow evening. Right now, I think we all need to go home and get some rest. You too, Aunt Molly."
He knew how she liked to hover when she was concerned. Even when all her children were all grown with their own families, she still grew anxious at every little sign of danger. She sighed in resignation and apparated home. The others followed.
"Okay, now that the others are gone. I need you to go over everything you remember tonight. I know I was here with you, but I have to admit, my guard was a bit relaxed because I could not sense anything amiss from the guests. It didn't occur to me that there may have well been someone under a cloak just like me."
"Harry, I left out the part about being immobilized when the person spoke to me. It was as if I the binding spell was used on me. It didn't go away until the guests left."
"Which means either one of the guests was the culprit or an instrument to bring the doer near you."
"I hope not Harry. All of the girls are my friends. I didn't feel any threat from any of them."
"I know, love. But we both know how powerful dark magic can be."
They both knew what the other meant. They were all almost killed because Ginny was under a stronger spell than what she'd undergone in her first year of Hogwarts. The dark lord had her under a very powerful Imperius curse. Had she not been loved by her family she would have been killed. Luckily for all of them that Harry was able to destroy the last remaining horcrux that ended the spell. They only hoped that the opponent will be discovered soon.
A/N: Sorry for the long gap between the chapters. I was taking classes and going to work full time, hence time was not a luxury I had. Now that it's summer, I may be inclined to go a little faster if the writer's block would just go away! Wish me luck. As always, thanks for your continued support and review.
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