Unofficial Portkey Archive

Title: Harry Potter and the Unbreakable Link (6/20)

Author: Silvestria

E-mail: [email protected]

Category: Mystery

Keywords: Hermione Estella Harry Voldemort Aphrados

Rating: PG

Spoilers: All books

Summary: Harry loses his invisibilty cloak in a mysterious manner before his seventh year starts. Dumbledore has a past, Hermione has a dangerous secret and Voldemort is looking for someone (not Harry). Slight H/H. Rated PG. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

Chapter 6- Aïda Thompson

The next few weeks were very busy for Harry, Ron and Hermione. Harry was having Quidditch tryouts most of the time. He needed a new chaser and a new keeper. Eventually he got Ron to try out for keeper, which he did successfully. All he needed now was a faster broom. He tried to get Hermione to become the chaser, but she put her foot down, "Do you really think you'll win the cup with a chaser who can't even get off the ground without help?"

Hermione's interests lay far away from Quidditch. She concentrated on working and researching and, when she had the time, reading for relaxation. One such book she liked to read was her birthday present from Harry and Ron, A Concise History of the Teachers of Hogwarts, Past and Present.

She learned, for instance, that Circe Malediction, who had taught Astronomy in the 19th Century, had regularly turned pupils into pigs for apparently no reason. (She had later been discovered to be mad.) She found that their current Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Harding was McGonagall's sister and that she was separated from her third marriage. Her daughter, Marisa Goldfinger (1st marriage) was Fudge's deputy.

Another thing Hermione unearthed was that Hogwarts had had it's own mystery when Aïda Thompson had disappeared. Hermione had heard of Professor Thompson before. She had been in Magical Bonds in Detail. She had had the Unbreakable Link with Dumbledore. It was for this reason that Hermione read Aïda's panel extremely carefully and with great interest.

There was a picture of Aïda Thompson. She was a small lady with a heart shaped face. She had delicate features and looked fine boned. Her eyes were dark, emerald green and her hair was light gold and tied into a bun. Her expression was serene and peaceful. She looked grave without being miserable. Her eyes contradicted all this, however. There was an intensity and energy about them that frightened Hermione slightly. They hardly ever blinked. Underneath was written the following biography:-

'Aïda Thompson was best known for her disappearance and subsequent murder. However there was far more to Miss Thompson than what The Daily Prophet says.

She was born Aïda Maria Thompson to an English father and an Italian mother in 1935 in Cambridge. Her mother was a strict Roman Catholic and Aïda was brought up in that faith which she remained true to until her death. She was sent to Hogwarts when she was eleven in 1946, where she met the hero Albus Dumbledore who was then in his sixth year having just defeated dark wizard Grindelwald the year before. It wasn't until her seventh year that she began to suspect that she had any bond with the young Transfiguration teacher. What she had at first only suspected she soon discovered to be true. She had the Unbreakable Link with Professor Dumbledore.

'She became a teacher in 1956 of Defence against the Dark Arts. It was then that she really got to know Albus Dumbledore. In the latter years of her life they were inseparable.

'In 1961 the dark wizard Voldemort began to collect supporters. However, he could not hope to take control while Dumbledore and Miss Thompson were together, and as they were hardly ever out of each other's sight, to get Aïda on her own would have been impossible. Miss Thompson's powers were nowhere as great as Dumbledore's and on her own she could easily have been killed, but together they would be truly formidable.

'However, on the 2cd of September 1964, Professor Thompson disappeared from Hogwarts, never to return. No teacher or pupil knew where she had gone; if she'd been abducted, or whether she'd left of her own free will. Professor Dumbledore tried contacting her through her mind, but she refused to answer. Search parties failed to find her, and on the 17th of May 1965, almost nine months later, Professor Dumbledore announced that she was dead. He could 'feel' it, he said. Sure enough, the next day the Ministry had been notified by the muggle police force that a woman answering Professor Thompson's description had been found washed up on a beach in Cornwall, as far away from Hogwarts as possible. She had been dead about twenty-four hours. Medi-wizards discovered that she had been killed by the illegal curse, Avada Kedavra. It is believed that the rumour of the jinxed job of Defence against the Dark Arts originated when Professor Thompson disappeared. She was sadly missed.

'Aïda Thompson was mostly remembered for her very idealistic look at life. She was very religious and encouraged religion in her pupils. She was truly a good person. She had ideals and she actually tried to make them come true. She influenced many people. She was a very fair teacher. She was a good listener and she never punished anyone without hearing that person's story first.

'She was not resentful if someone had been wrong. She was determined to be a good Christian and wouldn't let this reputation go.

'She worked without tire with the poor and it was this energy which marked the deeper part of her character which you only saw if you knew her well. She was very passionate about what she believed right. She was extremely impulsive. Her lessons were made up on the spot, and once she had decided upon a certain course of action, she couldn't be put off.

'She was always loved and respected by those who knew her and it is for those who didn't that I am writing this; so all may know of Aïda's excellence.

'By Sarah Brunswick, an ex-pupil of Professor Thompson.'

Hermione was silent after she finished reading it. Eventually she sighed and said softly, "Poor Professor Thompson. She sounds very perfect. Lucky Dumbledore! She sounds a wonderful mother figure. What a pity she did not have any children. If there was such a man alive for me, I would marry him instantly!"

She turned back a page to look at the photo of Aïda. It looked oddly familiar. She frowned a bit- she felt sure she recognised the face, but she was likewise sure that she had never seen the original. What beautiful eyes! Like Harry's!! She was determined to find her likeness of Aïda. She would simply have to look carefully at anyone who looked remotely like her. Starting with Harry...

She returned to the Common Room where Harry was losing splendidly at chess.

"Can I please have a look at the photograph album of your parents please, Harry?" she asked looking into his eyes. They really were very like Aïda's, she thought. She had never really looked before. Harry frowned, and Hermione felt herself blush. Why?

"What do you want to look at my album for?" he asked.

"Just... want to make a... comparison."

"Oh!" said Ron, "You want to see how much you look like Lily Potter!"

"Do I look like your mum, Harry?" Hermione asked in surprise.

It took Harry less than a second to decide upon an answer, "You couldn't look less like my mum if you were trying. I don't what Ron meant. Why would you compare yourself to my mum?"

Why indeed? So why was she turning red?

"I know!" cried Ron suddenly, "let's watch Hermione make a prat of herself by trying to make her look even less like Lily Potter. What spells do you know?"

"Well, there is one, actually. Called Transmorphio-"

"That's what Estella Green did on her daughter!" interrupted Ron.

"Estella Green?" Hermione had never heard the name before.

"Yes of course," Harry said, "Voldemort's mistress."

"Voldemort has a mistress?!"

Harry and Ron looked at each other. Hermione didn't know!

But before either of them could say anything, however, Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, I see. Well, who is she?"

"Who is who?" asked Harry.

Hermione gave him a look, "It doesn't take a genius to work out what's biting you. You say Estella Green was Voldemort's mistress. You say she had a daughter. I'm not stupid, you know. Spit it out."

They spat it out. They repeated everything that was in Harry's dream and everything Dumbledore had said afterwards.

Hermione listened attentively, almost like in a lesson. Harry imagined that she would suddenly start taking notes.

At the end of the recital she stayed silent. Harry and Ron looked at each other nervously, "Well?" said Ron.

Hermione looked up from her hands and said quietly, "Well what?"

Harry sighed. Typical Hermione, "What are going to do?"

"Nothing," shrugged Hermione, "we wait for something to happen. Besides, you interrupted my chain of thought."

The boys rolled their eyes and waited ten minutes for her to finish thinking. At last she said, "Dumbledore said you were related to Godric Gryffindor, didn't he?"

Harry nodded. This did not seem to have any bearing on who Voldemort's daughter.

"But not his heir?" Hermione persisted.

"Dumbledore didn't say I was," replied Harry.

"Ah." She thought a minute then said, "I say, did you know Slytherin and Gryffindor were cousins?"

"Cousins!" cried Harry, "No! How come?"

"I know- it is strange! Slytherin's aunt married Gryffindor's father. How else?"

"I don't know, but isn't it weird that someone like Gryffindor's father would marry someone as evil as a Slytherin?"

Hermione sighed, "How do we know she was evil?"

"Well, it stands to reason doesn't it?" blustered Harry.

Hermione shrugged and replied cryptically, "To your reason perhaps."

Then she leaned forward a bit and said, looking straight at Harry, "Someday perhaps someone will fall in love with Elvira?"

"Why are you looking at me like that?" asked Harry.

Hermione seemed embarrassed and didn't look him in the eye, "I was just...warning you." And with that she went up to her dormitory.

Hermione was pleased Lavender and Parvati weren't in the dormitory. Digging in her trunk she retrieved a small red muggle notebook. Holding it tight in her hand she retreated to the window, which had little corners of water vapour in the corners because of a light frost. Leaning against the cold pane she looked out. On the quidditch pitch the canary yellow robes of the Hufflepuff quidditch team were visible in the dusk. In the paddock by Hagrid's old hut, Buckbeak was snoozing, his head tucked under a massive wing. Sirius and Professor Sprout were discussing some new landscaping plans on the lawn. Hermione felt rather disattached from her real self. Had she really just said all those things? And why had she blushed at Harry's eyes? Why? Could she possibly be right? What she had worked out was possible, if you had a good imagination but it was still hardly credible. Yet it was the only solution that could fit or even exist. It even made sense in a sort of mathematical way. But perhaps she had been wrong. But what could she do if she was right? Tell Dumbledore? She answered in her own words, "Nothing!" Let Voldemort make the first move, and then they would know how to respond.

In the mean time, she opened the notebook filled with Greek script. She hadn't opened it since she had copied it down in the mansion in Greece. That's when it all started, she thought bitterly. If only the guards hadn't come along and she'd needed the invisibility cloak. Then I would have never known. Her conscience told her she would have found out anyway, if she was right. Heaving a sigh, she began to read the Greek under her breath. There was nothing she could to do to stop it now: she was involved. First she had to familiarise herself with the words, then she could learn it off by heart. Then she could learn to recite it properly, then she could try it with her wand. It was the longest charm she had ever seen. She started to read and slowly began to learn the charm.

This chapter has now ended.