Chapter 14: Memories and Muggle Hunts
A/N: I posted Chapter 13 over the weekend; some of you might not have seen it. At least I hope that's the case…for some reason my chapter hits dropped by 50% for the past two chapters. Any and all review comments on why interest might be waning are welcome (pacing too slow, not enough steamy romance, etc.) Thanks.
Disclaimer: Not my characters, no money being made, etc., etc.
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Harry wasn't in the mood for researching while Hermione was potentially in harm's way, so when Brian returned from his trip to the market he was more than willing to help put away groceries. He used the opportunity to thank Brian again for helping secure the safety of Hermione's parents, and for making his stay with his Aunt and Uncle the best ever (though truth be told, that was a very, very low bar to hurdle).
The two talked a bit about schedules and safety. Brian being a card-carrying muggle gave Harry some latitude when it came to describing anti-apparation wards and his mother's protections. When Brian pointed out that with those wards in place there'd be advantages for Harry to stay at Number Four even after two weeks time, Harry noted that the house was rather crowded. And as much fun as it was to put his Aunt and Uncle in their places, having them camp out in the living room wasn't going to be fun for anyone for more than a couple of days. Brian said that there might be a win-win scenario for all involved, if they looked hard enough.
Harry also expressed concern about now having two houses to potentially defend, and limited options for safe havens if they came under attack. Harry hadn't minded putting his relatives in the bathtub during the Auror incident, but didn't care for the idea of forcing the Grangers to do the same. Again, Brian thought that there might be a solution to that problem, and when asked, Harry agreed that he'd be more likely to stay at Number Four through the summer if that problem was addressed.
Fifteen minutes after she'd left Hermione rang Harry on his cell phone. He went up to his room to take the call.
"Hermione…please tell me you're safe."
"Harry, I'm safe…please tell me you're breathing."
"Yeah, yeah, can't a guy worry about the safety of his girl…erm,"
"What was that Harry? Did you call me a girlerm?" Hermione asked. "Gee, must of missed that Magical Creatures class."
"Very funny, Hermione," Harry replied. "So did you get a look at them?"
'Yes," Hermione replied. "Yes we did."
"And?"
"And," Hermione whispered conspiratorially, "underneath their clothes they were naked!"
"Hermione," Harry said with some degree of exasperation, "did they have the Dark Mark?"
"Yes, Harry, they did." Hermione replied. "Tonks downloaded the images from the omniocular to her wand and returned back to the Auror Department to show it to her boss. She's going to get back to me once they've decided what to do."
"Good," Harry said. "So where are you now?"
"At a coffee shop a couple of blocks away from my parents house," Hermione replied. "Just thought I'd call before I apparate so you don't worry when you hear my arrival."
"That was thoughtful," Harry said. "Say, speaking by the way, did you have your cell phone on when you left here?"
"Erm, I guess I did," Hermione replied. "Forgot to turn it off…funny, it seems to have survived the jump."
"That is strange," Harry said, "but useful to know….wonder if you could use it within a magical area like Diagon Alley."
"That I'd doubt," Hermione said, "but we could always try."
"Maybe so," Harry said, "but rather than Diagon, maybe you could swing by St. Mungo's? I'm feeling pretty bad that I can't visit Bill right now."
"Why Harry, that's so thoughtful," Hermione replied. "But what if Ginny or Molly are there…what should I say?"
"Erm, I don't know," Harry said. "How about, 'Nice to see you Molly and back off Ginny he's all mine?"
"So you'd want me to lie?" Hermione asked with a touch of tease.
"What part would be lying?" Harry asked. "It wouldn't be nice to see Molly there?"
"Oh, Harry," Hermione said. "I wish I could reach through the phone and hug you right now...but that's a conversation for you to have with Ginny, not me."
"Yeah, you're right," Harry replied. "But back to that hug…not like there's going to be anyone stopping us when you do return."
"Yeah, I noticed that," Hermione said with a smile that Harry couldn't see. "Have you started a list of overnight errands for Ron to run for us?"
"Hermione, you are terrible," Harry replied. "Brilliant, but terrible…now go say hi to Bill while I start on that list."
Harry played with the Xbox for a few minutes before losing all patience and heading downstairs to wait for Hermione on the front steps. He found the Grangers doing the exact same thing across the street, having received a call from their daughter right after she'd talked with Harry. Their invitation to wait with them on the back patio with a pitcher of pumpkin juice was to tempting to pass up, even with the potential for embarrassing questions. After securing his Aunt's begrudged "permission," Harry crossed the street and had an amazingly relaxed visit with Hermione's parents, taking the opportunity to fill them in on the neighbors, the neighborhood, and his life before Hogwarts.
The patio conversation was starting to show inflections of anxiety when, after thirty minutes time Hermione still hadn't appeared. It was terribly difficult for Harry to maintain his wits; he was still getting used to the idea of Hermione off on her own, without his help and protection. The wonderful way she'd handled herself with the Aurors had been reassuring, yet he still felt incredibly responsible for her well-being.
The crack of an arrival by apparation was music to their ears, once Harry told Mr. and Mrs. Granger what that sound meant. They were heading through the house to the street when Steve barreled down the stairs with the news that someone had apparently apparated. A quick call to Hermione confirmed that she'd made her arrival, and was only a block away from the house. When Harry and the Grangers walked out to the front curb, they spotted Hermione walking down the street dragging a wheeled carry-on suitcase. It was all Harry could do not to charge down the street to snog her senseless.
"Hey, Hermione, how did your 'errands' go?" her father asked, once she'd reached the front of Number Five.
"Fine, Dad," she replied, "back safe and sound."
Harry looked at the small trunk rather suspiciously. Grabbing the handle while she still had hold gave him the chance to give Hermione a small welcoming squeeze."
"Welcome back," he said. "Want me to take that?" he told Hermione.
"No thanks," Hermione said with a smile, as she wheeled it up towards Number Five.
"Did you get to see Bill?" he asked.
"Yes, Harry," she replied. "He and Fleur said hello, and thanks for thinking of them."
"Just Fleur was there?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Just them," Hermione said with a smile. By then they'd all reached the living room, where Harry and the Grangers sat on the couch and Hermione placed the carry-on on the table and unzipped it. She reached inside and retrieved the omnioculars and invisibility cloak, which she tossed to Harry.
"Thanks for letting me borrow the cloak," she replied, "Came in real handy when I slipped inside."
"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed, "you promised that you'd stay safe!"
"I was safe," Hermione replied, "Tonks had a wand pointed at the two the whole time I was inside."
"Do I dare ask where inside was?" her mother asked.
"Well," Hermione said, "I couldn't resist picking up a few things as long as I was at the house." She reached into the piece of luggage and retrieved two large photo albums.
"Oh Hermione, you shouldn't have," her mother said quietly. "You know that your safety was more important than these." The tears in her eyes, however, strongly tempered the admonishment.
"Well, with all of the teasing…" Hermione replied. She gave her parents their wedding photo album, then sat on Harry's lap. Leaning back, she placed her head on Harry's shoulder, opened the front cover of the second album, and showed Harry the still image of a two-year old child sitting on the floor, wearing a pink frilly dress and an opened book for a hat.
"Once upon a time," she said, "there was a little girl that didn't know that she was a witch…"
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The conversation over dinner that night was focused on two main topics: how silly it had been for Hermione to have snuck into her parent's house to retrieve the photo albums, and how cute Hermione had been as a child. Hermione was thankful that most of the conversation dwelt on the latter topic. It had only taken a few pages of photos for Harry to forget how angry he was at the risk she took and to marvel that Hermione was sharing with him a large part of her life that he knew next to nothing about.
When the conversation did drift back to the Granger residence the talk was centered around how the Death Eaters might have found out where Hermione lived. It wasn't as if there was a directory of witches and wizards, and even if there was it wouldn't have included muggle addresses that lacked floo connections. And while Harry suspected that Snape had, at some point in time, been part of the Order's rotation keeping watch over Number Four, neither he nor Hermione had been aware of any similar protection for her or her parents.
Harry and Hermione started to fret when they realized that the Death Eaters might know not just her home address, but the addresses of other muggle-borns as well. They decided that Headmistress McGonagall would be the best person to ask about home addresses and who might have them, but didn't want to discuss the issue with her over the floo. Harry would have owled, save for the fact that Hedwig hadn't returned from her trip to the Ministry very early the previous morning. That, Harry realized, was a separate problem.
Mr. Granger suggested that a roundabout way of determining whether other muggle-born houses were being watched would be to ring them up directly and ask. Harry and Hermione thought that was a smashing idea, and decided that Dean Thomas would be a good test, until they realized just how many Thomases there were in the London telephone directory. Mrs. Granger then suggested that Wally and Steve might be able to help, given the fact that they had somehow figured out how to contact them two weeks past. And so it was that while Roger and Emily stayed on the patio to drink some tea, Harry and Hermione had a little chat with Wally. They found him in the kitchen of Number Five.
"Wally," Harry asked, "I was wondering if you guys could help us find a friend."
"Sure, I can try, is this person muggle or magical?
"Magical," Hermione replied, "but his parents are muggles and he's probably staying with them right now."
"And I'm guessing you'll need more than a phone directory?"
"Probably so."
"Okay," Wally said, "hold on while I get my laptop."
Wally went upstairs and returned a few seconds later with his portable computer.
"It'll just take a few seconds to start up. I was trying to troubleshoot why it wasn't working across the street."
"Oh, I could have told you that," Harry replied, "once I found out you were a card-carrying muggle…you had it set up next to an activated magical device."
Wally thought for a second. "The binoculars?"
Harry nodded as he fished the omnioculars out of his pocket. "Don't worry," he said, "it's deactivated right now."
"I'd like to talk with you about that interference, some time…it might help our security," said Wally. "And by the way, we call ourselves 'c-mugs.'"
"Huh?"
"Card-carrying muggles."
"Oh," Harry said. "What is it with muggles and their love of acronyms?"
Wally flashed Harry as smile that would have been emoticon'ed in text. When the image he was waiting for appeared on his monitor he typed a few keystrokes and moved the arrow around the screen with a trackball at the keyboard's base. Harry thought Wally's hand movements weren't any less intricate than those used to cast an average-level spell, particularly when he quickly keystroked in the answers to his questions.
"Right, then," Wally asked. "Does your friend have a name?"
"Dean Thomas."
"Thomas..Thomas…Thomas. Right. Not on the list. No worries."
He opened a new window on the screen and did more data entry.
"Do you know his parent's names?"
Harry and Hermione looked at each other then jointly answered "No."
"Age and birthdate?"
"Erm…same year in school as me, birthday's March the 24th," Harry replied.
"Do you know roughly where he lives?"
"Pretty sure it's London."
"Blast it. It would have to be London, wouldn't it….bloody fools couldn't compile records if they collated themselves…so, do you know what part of London?"
"No."
"Do you know if his parents both living?"
"Pretty sure that they are."
"Still living in the same place as when he started at your school?"
"Yeah, I think so."
After a few more keystrokes Wally looked up at Harry.
"So tell me everything you can remember about his muggle life."
"Like what?"
"Anything…brothers and sisters, any schools he talked about, places he visited, names of relatives, old girlfriends…"
"Well, he loves football…still has a West Ham poster above his bed at school."
"Oh, an East Ender, most likely…that helps. Anything else?"
"Erm, sorry…that's about it."
Wally's fingers flew over the keyboard he was hunched over as his eyes scanned window after window as they popped up on the screen. Thirty seconds later, he rolled his shoulders, drew his hands back from the keyboard and sighed. "All that information, and I can't pin him down," he said. "I should be embarrassed, even working with such a common name."
"So," Hermione said, "it was a little easier to track down a girl named Hermione?"
Wally grinned at her. "Once we figured out how to spell your name, yeah…you were pretty unique."
Harry wondered how Wally had gotten Hermione's name in the first place, but held that thought. "Hold on," he said. "Why are you trying to apologize for not finding his address, when all we gave you was a name, birth date and favorite football team? Pretty hard on yourself, aren't you?"
"I need to be, Sir Harry," Wally said, "if I'm to be of any help to you and to the Crown, right?" Wally hunched back down over the keyboard, looking at the different windows opened on his laptop's LCD. "Let me take a look back…you are certain of his birthday?"
"Yes," replied Harry, "we threw him a party this past spring when he turned seventeen…woke up a bit tender then next morning."
"Right, then," Wally said. "And that his parents are both living?"
"He's talked about his mom and dad at school," Harry said.
"And I've met his parents at the train platform on the way to school," Hermione added. "Why do you ask?"
"Well," Wally replied, "there's a Dean Thomas that looks like a good match, except that he was born Dean Radcliffe."
"Why would that be a good match?" Harry asked.
"Because," Wally explained, "this boy's father died when he was only a year old. His surname was changed to Thomas when his mother remarried."
"Oh," Harry replied, "he's never said anything about a stepfather."
"Maybe he doesn't know," Hermione said.
"Didn't know that his real father died when he was a baby?" Harry asked, knowing what that might have felt like.
"You never know," Wally said. "One quick way to find out, though."
"How is that?" Harry asked.
Wally took his cell phone out and dialed a number that he read off of his screen. When it began to ring he handed the phone to Harry. When it was answered, Harry introduced himself and asked for Dean. A few seconds latter, an incredulous voice was asking questions.
"Harry??" he asked. "Harry Potter ringing me on a muggle telephone? What's going on?"
"Well, hello, Dean…erm…"
Hermione grabbed the phone from Harry's hand.
"Hi, Dean, this is Hermione. We're just making sure that all of the DA members got back safe from school and that things are alright at your house."
"Things are fine, here, though they'd be a lot better if the boys were playing better over in Germany…are you and Harry, erm, together right now?"
"Obviously, Dean, since we're in on the same telephone conversation," Hermione replied. "Ron and I are staying with Harry at his Aunt and Uncles to make sure things are safe for him there."
"Oh…of course, that makes sense," Dean replied.
"So Dean, we're trying to limit communications by owl and floo, for security reasons…is this telephone number going to be a good way to reach you?"
"Sure," Dean replied. "I'm amazed you were able to get it, but I guess you are the brightest witch, right?"
"Something like that," Hermione replied with a smile. "We'll talk to you soon, Dean." As she ended the call Harry looked at Hermione closely, trying to figure out just what Dean had said to make her smile.
Wally had been quietly typing information into the computer screen during the conversation. Harry turned to him and asked, "So, I don't know much about computers….how easy would it be for a Death Eater to do that?"
"It'd be bloody impossible, Sir Harry," Wally said, "unless he had the same security clearances and the same knowledge of on-line databases that I have."
"Don't pay any attention to him, Wally," Hermione said. "Google searching isn't high on the list of Harry's lovable traits."
"Hey!" Harry said. "Erm, well, fair enough, so long as there's plenty of other reasons to love me."
"Oh, there are, Harry, there are…" Hermione said with a smile. "So Wally, would you mind sharing with us how you worked your on-line magic?"
Wally looked at her and thought for a moment. "I'd love too," he said, "but….hold on a minute. Why don't you guys grab something to drink from the kitchen and I'll see what I can do."
Wally locked his screen and went upstairs. When he returned to the living room he found Harry and Hermione sipping cold butterbeers.
"I'm impressed," Harry said, as he raised his bottle in Wally's direction. "Who's your supplier?"
"The Palace sent over a case this morning," Wally replied. "they have a few connections."
"I'm beginning to appreciate that fact," Hermione said. "So what did you find out?"
Wally grinned sheepishly. "I found out that when it comes to magical issues you have higher security clearances than I do. Who would've known?"
"Erm, certainly not us," Hermione replied. "That's wild…I wonder why ever that is?"
"Perhaps it comes with the badge and hood?" Harry asked.
"Maybe," Wally replied. "What it certainly does mean, though, is that I can tell you exactly how I found your friend's potential home address."
"You were cross-referencing existing electronic databases?" Hermione asked.
"Yes," Wally said, "Although truth be told, I was working primarily with a highly classified database we just finished compiling a couple of months ago."
"So what does this classified database identify?" Hermione asked.
"Muggle-born students at Hogwarts."
"Excuse me?" Harry asked. "You've figured out a way of identifying magical children?"
"No," said Wally, "just those who lived in muggle society at some point in time, so no pure-bloods."
"How did you figure out how to identify muggle-borns?" Hermione asked.
"Well," Wally replied, "it all started with Sir Harry."
"And exactly how did I start you off?"
"Well, we reverse engineered you."
"You did what to me?" Harry asked.
"We used you as a confirmed data point, Sir Harry, and worked our way backwards to find out how we might identify you and others like you with the information at hand."
"And when did you find out about me…that I was a wizard?" Harry asked.
"Last August, in a meeting with our P.M., your former Minister of Magic…Fudge, right?...anyway, he told our Prime Minister about a "boy-who-lived."
"Merlin, no," Harry replied. "I'm never going to live down that nickname, am I?"
"Go on, please," Hermione asked.
"Right then," Wally replied. "In this meeting, your Minister talked about the battle against Mr. You-know-who and his Death Eaters, and the role that Sir Harry has in that battle. Well, the P.M. decided that our government that we should learn everything we could about this Harry Potter person."
"Why would your Minister want to know about me?" Harry asked.
"I've never been told explicitly," Wally said, "but I suspect that our government was keen on finding you, so that we could offer our assistance."
"And just why would the muggle government want to help me?" Harry asked.
"Because muggles are dying in your war, Sir Harry, and should, Heaven and Merlin forbid, the dark side prevail, many more muggles will die."
"Oh," Harry said quietly. "That makes sense, I guess."
"So what governmental databases did Harry turn up on?"
"Quite a few, actually," Wally said. "The most telling one was the list of children under guardianship due to deceased parents. You, Sir Harry, are the only Harry Potter on that list plus or minus three year's age."
"Fudge told your P.M. that my parents were killed?"
"Erm, yes, I guess so," Wally replied. "We didn't have a transcript to work off of…just got a summary based on what the P.M. could recall once he had the courage to admit to his Intelligence chief that he'd been visited by wizards."
"So what else did you figure out about me?" Harry asked.
"Well, from the guardianship records we learned that your parents were both killed on the same day when you were a baby, that you were being raised by your muggle aunt and uncle, and that you left the public school system at age 11 but still had residence in Surrey. That's actually far more then we needed, of course, but the extra information did provide some nice confirmation."
"So you found Harry…how did you extrapolate from him to other Hogwarts students?" Hermione asked.
"Ah, there's the deductive reasoning part." Wally said. "Harry left public schools at age 11 to attend Hogwarts, and he didn't take any GCSE's. So we compiled a list of all the students that were enrolled in the public schools at some point over the past twenty years, but didn't sit for those examinations."
"GCSE's..those are the muggle versions of our O.W.L's right?" Harry asked.
"Pretty much," Hermione confirmed.
"Why was sitting for these examinations important?" Harry asked.
"Because," said Hermione, "there are quite a few students who first attend local primary schools, then public secondary schools. [ed. note…in Britain, private high schools are called 'public'…don't ask me why] But unlike Hogwarts students, almost all of these public school students still sit for the GCSE's, right?"
"Correct, Dame Hermione," Wally said. "Even home-schooled muggle children sit for the exams. And since school attendance is compulsory until age 16, we reasoned that the only students that left public school at age 11 but didn't take GCSEs were those that moved out of the country, or died. And that information is compiled in databases as well. It wasn't a perfect screening process; mind you; we got false positives for students at a few public schools that use the IB examination program, and those that attended boarding schools outside of Britain."
"That's the excuse my parents used!" said Hermione.
"Yes, we've run into that a fair bit. But the c-mugs in our group were able to validate the model using their magical sibling's names."
"Not to be rude, or anything," Harry asked, "but why was it so important for you to identify muggle-born students at Hogwarts?"
"Because we have reason to believe that they and their families are at greatest risk for any non-random attack by the Death Eaters," replied Wally. "Should the worst occur, we have contingency plans in place to relocate any who are willing to locations outside of the country."
"Wow," Harry wisecracked, "a government that is actually trying to protect its citizenry. What a novel idea."
Hermione's eyes brightened as she raised her eyebrows a bit and leaned forward. "So why don't you back up a bit, now and tell us more about that list you first mentioned."
"Oh," said Wally, "that's just our list of all known wizards and witches, including the Hogwarts students."
"You've got a list of known wizards?" Harry said excitedly. "How in Merlin's name did you compile that list, and how many names are on it?"
"Well, to answer the second question first, we've got…" Brian scrolled down to the end of a screen window. "Five-hundred forty-seven, of which three-hundred eight are confirmed. Tip of the iceberg, for sure, but one does have to start someplace."
"Well how long have you been looking?" Harry asked.
"About nine months," Wally said. "Your name was first on the list, once we got it from the P.M."
"And who are 'we', Wally?" Hermione asked.
"Erm, let's just say a very select group within Her Majesty's Secret Service."
"So that means that you're more than just a Palace security person, doesn't it?"
"Yes, Dame Hermione, it does."
"And Steve, and Brian as well?"
"Yes," Wally replied.
"You mean that you're all spies?" Harry asked with concern.
"No, Sir Harry, it does not," Wally replied. "We gather information on magical threats to our country and its citizens."
"So you belong to MI-5, the Security Service?" Hermione guessed.
"Not quite, Dame Hermione," Wally said. "Our small group worries about both internal and external magical threats, so it includes people from both MI-5 and MI-6, the Secret Intelligence Service."
Hermione let out a small laugh. "Don't tell me…you officially don't exist, but your work involves magic and is somewhere between that of MI-5 and MI-6. So logically, if anyone in government has a sense of humor, you should call yourselves…"
"Well I can't speak for the rest of the government, Dame Hermione," Wally said with a smile, "but we certainly do."
"You do what, Wally," Harry asked.
"Have a rather twisted sense of humor," Wally replied.
"Oh," Harry said. "So who exactly do you work for?"
Hermione answered for Wally.
"Wally works for MI-5 ¾."