Disclaimer: I still don't own any of the 'Harry Potter' characters and, believe it or not, I don't make any money from writing about them. (Honestly, who on earth would actually pay to see the crap that I write?) I don't own the lyric bits that I use here, either.
A/N: In case you haven't been perusing the reviews for this story on Portkey.org, I want to give an extra-special huggle to PerfesserN for creating a sketch of what Kotone would look like. I hope he doesn't mind me linking it here, but I think it's rather good! (It's certainly better than anything I could have ever done!) This chapter has a bunch of important info, and it sets up what's going to happen in the next few chapters. Harry shows a bit more of what he's capable of being a Warlock. I'm sorry for the delay in posting this, but that's explained in the 'Fun Fact' at the end of the chapter. This one was a lot of work, I hope you like how it turned out! Word Count: 6916
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Chapter 39: Ministry in Turmoil
Don't you understand what I'm tryin' to say?
Can't you feel the fears I'm feelin' today?
If the button is pushed, there's no runnin' away.
There'll be no one to save, with the world in a grave.
Take a look around ya, boy… it's bound to scare ya, boy…
And you tell me
Over and over and over again, my friend…
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.
Excerpt from the song 'Eve of Destruction, by Barry McGuire.
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As soon as Harry entered the house, he set Hermione down in the floor of the foyer that was situated directly beneath the loft. He knelt beside her on the white tiled floor and quickly looked her over. His mind couldn't help but to drift back to their ill-fated trip to the Department of Mysteries the year before where Hermione laid deathly still after being cursed by Dolohov. The same panic and fear gripped him.
With the brighter indoor light, he could see that both her shirt and pants were drenched in blood that appeared to have come from her chest. He carefully pulled down the neck of her sweatshirt to inspect the wound. The limited amount of her chest area that he could reveal showed pale and blood-stained, but definitely uninjured skin. Without giving it a second thought, he grabbed the hem of her gore-soaked sweatshirt and pulled it up to reveal her entire torso. His eyes scanned her skin from her throat to the waistband of her equally-soaked sweatpants, but found no gashes, cuts or holes whatsoever. He did note that the sunburned areas on her were still pinkish, but had an eerie, ashen quality.
His mind suddenly registered what he had just done, but in his panicked state, he couldn't be bothered with thoughts of embarrassment. If Hermione wanted to get angry with him for seeing her breasts yet again, she would have to be alive to do it.
He leaned down and held his harried breath as he placed his ear against her blue, slightly parted lips. He let out a sigh of relief when he felt the shallow movement of air from between them. She was alive… for the moment.
Harry jumped to his feet and sprinted to the stairs, reaching the bed up in the loft in no time flat. His eyes were wild and his breath was coming in desperate pants as he tried to wake Kotone from her restless sleep.
Kotone's eyes drifted open and she looked distractedly around the room. She rolled over, and her eyes widened fearfully as she saw all of the blood smeared on Harry's hands, face, and clothes.
"What…?" was all Kotone could gasp out.
Kotone, please! See what you can do for Hermione!" begged Harry as he took one of Kotone's hands in his, pleading with her to follow him.
She climbed down from the bed and allowed Harry to lead her down to the main room. As soon as she saw the stricken witch, she let out a loud gasp and hurried to her side. She bent down and placed her forehead against Hermione's, but sat back on her haunches a moment later.
"Can you help her?" asked Harry anxiously.
"No," answered Kotone quietly, "She has no injury, no illness… there is nothing to heal."
Harry forced himself to calm down. He tried to think of whom to call for help, but remembered that they were four or five hours behind the time in Britain, which would make it somewhere around two or three in the morning there.
His initial thought was to floo to Hogwarts to rouse Madam Pomfrey to bring her back. His eyes flicked towards the fireplace, and he grimaced at the thought of another harrowing trip through an intercontinental floo connection, much less a round trip through it. Ron briefly crossed his mind, but what could he and the Weasleys do?
'The twins!' he thought desperately. He remembered that they had a complete potions lab set up in their shop. Maybe they had some potions on hand for when one of their experiments went awry.
He looked at Kotone and said, "I need to get help. Can you stay here with her, maybe clean her up a bit… I'll be back as soon as I can."
When Kotone nodded, Harry jumped from the floor and raced out of the house back to where he had found Hermione. Sure enough, he found her wand lying in the blood-soaked sand. He closed his eyes as he concentrated on the entrance to Diagon Alley, not really noticing the faint image of the septagram that appeared under his closed eyelids. Then with a sudden twirl, he silently disappeared from the beach in a brief flash of white light.
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Over the Atlantic Ocean just to the west of Portugal, a tiny Scops owl was flying due southwest. Suddenly, the owl ceased its frantic flapping and glided in a tight circle for a few moments before setting his course towards the northeast, back towards England.
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Harry appeared with the same kind of flash in the dirty alley behind The Leaky Cauldron. Using Hermione's wand, he tapped the appropriate brick and the familiar archway appeared. He entered Diagon Alley at a full run, but a moment later, he slowed and then stopped altogether as he looked around in disbelief.
From what he could tell in the early morning darkness, it seemed that nearly every shop in the Alley was closed down. Nearly every window was boarded up, every doorway was chained, bolted and barred, and hardly a light was to be seen from the flats above the shops. The Apothecary was closed up tightly, as were Eeylop's, Flourish and Blott's, the cauldron shop, Gambol and Jape's… all boarded up and sealed off.
The eerie sight of all the closed shops gave him a strange, uneasy feeling deep in the pit of his stomach. He moved out from the middle of the alley and began trotting along the storefronts, hardly believing what had become of the premier commercial center of wizarding Britain since he had last been there.
Soon, Gringotts Wizarding Bank came into view. He stopped once again to gape at what he saw. In front of the bank stood a battalion of Cave Ogres, each holding huge spiked clubs as they stood practically shoulder to shoulder around the bank building. On the white marble steps in front of the bank's massive, steel-bound doors stood four hobgoblins, dressed in full, red armour and carrying long, menacing halberds. Harry had only seen hobgoblins once before. They had been escorting Ragnok through the bank's lobby when he was there with Ron, Hermione and Kotone. He briefly thought about approaching the hobgoblins to ask what was happening, but he knew he had a more pressing matter to tend to.
Giving the ogres and hobgoblins a wide berth, he passed by the bank and continued on towards the twins' shop. He had just passed the boarded up doorway to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, when he felt a hand grasp his shoulder and roughly pull him into a darkened space between two buildings. Harry's wandtip was already glowing red with the stunner he had non-verbally prepared when he recognized the face of the man who grabbed him.
"Merlin's beard, Harry," came the gruff voice of Benjamin Bones, "Have you gone daft? What do you think you're doing here? Don't you know about the evacuation order?"
Ben's eyes narrowed as he took in Harry's appearance. He noticed the blood smeared on Harry's face and clothes, and concern suddenly etched in his expression, "Harry! What happened to you? Are you alright?"
Harry's racing heart was just starting to slow as he answered, "I need to get to Weasley's shop right away! Hermione's been hurt and I need to get some potions from them!"
"What happened…"
"I don't have time to explain!" interrupted Harry as he shook himself from Ben's grip, "I need to go!"
"Steady on, Potter!" hissed Ben quietly, "They're not there. In case you haven't heard, it's not safe for anyone to be out in public right now, and nearly all the shops here have been closed down." When he saw the panicked look in Harry's eyes, his tone softened as he said while opening his robe to show his utility vestment underneath, "Now listen, I was trained as a healer before I became an auror, and I have a full set of auror-issue potions here. Bring me to her, and I'll see what I can do."
The relief was immediately apparent in Harry's eyes as he held out his arm to Ben and said, "Alright, grab hold."
An unspoken question appeared on Ben's face as he grasped Harry's wrist. He was about to put voice to that question when he saw Harry close his eyes in concentration. An instant later, the suffocating pressure of Apparation surrounded him. An instant after that, he found himself standing on a darkened seashore facing a modest beach house.
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Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, a tiny Scops owl halted it's flight once again. It let out a shrill, annoyed 'Hoot!' before reversing its' course and began flying once more towards the southwest.
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"Come on!" shouted Harry as he began running towards the house. When he got to the doorway, Harry glanced back to see Ben hurrying up to him with a confused look on his face.
"What just happened?" Ben asked, "Was that a portkey?"
"No, I Apparated us," said Harry as he opened the door, "now come on!"
"But you can't do that!" Ben said forcefully.
"I know, but I can't just walk into the Ministry to get my license to Apparate now, can I?"
When Ben just stared back at him, Harry said in a clearly annoyed voice, "What're you going to do, arrest me?"
"Harry, nobody can Apparate from Diagon Alley! The wards won't allow it! It's either floo or portkey, and since portkeys are controlled by…"
"We're wasting time!" shouted Harry as he turned away and stepped into the house.
Ben just shook his head and followed him in. The first thing that Ben noticed was the trail of blood spatters that traced a path from the doorway. His eyes followed the spatters until they came to Hermione's bloodied body lying naked on the floor. The odd young girl that had taken to Harry was leaning over her next to a pile of blood-soaked clothing. The young girl's torn white robe was streaked with blood as she carefully wiped the blood from the older girl's body with a wet rag. Kotone had obviously ripped a swatch of cloth from her own robe to make the rag.
Ben had his wand out in an instant and began casting diagnostic spells over Hermione. After a few moments, he reached inside of his robes and pulled out two small potion vials. He deftly flicked a stopper off with his thumb and poured the bright orange liquid down Hermione's throat. He waited a few moments, then uncapped the second vial containing a bluish potion and emptied that one into Hermione's mouth.
With a final nod, he stood up and motioned for Kotone to back away. With a flick of his wand, every trace of blood was vanished from her body. With a few more waves, the blood on the floor disappeared, as well as the stains on Kotone's robe and the pile of clothes on the floor. With a final manipulation, a plain white nightgown appeared around Hermione's body.
He then turned to face Harry and asked, "She'll be out until later this afternoon, perhaps even into the evening, but she should be fine. Now, would you mind telling me what happened to her? I know that she's lost quite a lot of blood, but I couldn't find a mark on her. Did she vomit up all of that blood?"
"I… I really don't know. I found her out on the beach soaked in blood"
It was the truth, but not quite all of it. Ben had a skeptical look on his face, but didn't ask any more about it. He looked around the room and asked, "Where is this place? I don't think I've ever seen anyplace in Britain with palm trees."
"We don't know exactly where, but Hermione thinks it's someplace in the Caribbean. It seems that my parents built this place before…"
Ben's face fell. Ignoring the rest of what Harry was saying, he rushed out through the front door and looked up into the starry, cloudless sky. Harry could hear him mumbling to himself as he studied the stars for a minute before he turned around with a shocked look on his face.
"Alright, what's all this, then?" said Ben angrily, "You're telling me that you side-along Apparated… which isn't the easiest thing to do, mind you… out of a heavily warded area to a place that's over four thousand miles away from London! An hour ago I would have laughed at anyone if they even suggested that it was possible! Now what's going on?"
Harry was at a loss for words. He honestly didn't know that there was a problem with what he did. He had no idea that there were anti-Apparation wards in place over Diagon Alley, and he certainly didn't expect that there were any distance limitations on Apparation. He remembered being told that some of the people who attended the Quidditch World Cup had Apparated in from all over the world. He didn't stop to think that maybe they had Apparated in short steps. Even after Mundungus Fletcher Apparated away from Hogsmeade, he was told that he probably went straight to London, and considering the distance between Scotland and London, he assumed that you could Apparate anywhere as long as you knew exactly where you were going or that you had been there before.
"I did it before from Fortesque's patio a few weeks ago, I really didn't know that I couldn't do it… I mean," explained Harry nervously, "I was so worried about Hermione, that I just did it! I had side-along Apparated before… with Dumbledore back to Hogsmeade the night… the night he died." He knew that it sounded lame, but it was the truth.
"That was you who set the Alley's alarms off?" asked Ben with a dawning expression, "I wondered why they charged you with Apparating without a license!"
Harry watched silently as a series of different emotions crossed Ben's face. Finally, Ben let out a resigned sigh. He turned away from Harry and levitated Hermione to the sofa. Once the girl was comfortable, he looked back at Harry.
"Do you have any idea what's been happening back in London since yesterday when Dolores Umbridge has been found to be a Death Eater?" asked Ben.
When Harry just shook his head, Ben sighed again and continued, "Well, certain inquiries were made to select people in the Ministry about Umbridge's recent activities. One of the witches that were questioned, a Miss Fiona Crump, works as an assistant to the Junior Undersecretary to the Director of International Magical Cooperation. At first, she was giving the same answers as everyone else who was being questioned, until she was asked about the goings-on in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, specifically, what she knew about the warrant for the detainment of you and your little friend here."
Harry looked over to Kotone, and found that she was once again fast asleep on the polar bearskin rug right in front of Hermione. He looked back to Ben and asked, "What does Kotone have to do with anything? She's just another victim from the orphanage that was attacked. It's not because of me, is it?"
Ben ran his hand through his hair, saying, "We don't know yet. Miss Crump started acting strange when we asked about Kotone's citizenship status. When we asked her if she knew why the Hit-Wizard squad was so intent on arresting her, she came up with some story about how the Japanese Ministry wanted her back in their country… something to do with her being a fugitive."
"That doesn't make any sense!" said Harry hotly, "I know for a fact that they had her locked up in a cage in the Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures for over a year and they had contact with the Japanese Ministry at the time! They could have taken her at any point!"
"We know that, Harry," said Ben quietly while putting his hand on Harry's shoulder, "When we demanded to see the official correspondence from Japan about her status, she became unreasonably angry. She started saying a whole lot of things that made little to no sense, and then stared arguing with someone beside her that wasn't there."
Harry immediately remembered the way Barty Crouch Sr. was talking to no one back during the Tri-Wizard tournament and whispered to himself, "The Imperious Curse!"
Ben nodded and said, "Well, Arthur Weasley was the one making the inquiry, and he recognized the symptoms right away, but before he could react, Miss Crump stunned him and went on a rampage inside of the Ministry building. It appears that all of the people that Umbridge put under the curse had orders that if any one of them were discovered, they would all take out as many Ministry officials as they could. It wasn't pretty."
"Mr. Weasley?" Harry exclaimed, "Is he alright? I saw him at Hogwarts just this past afternoon."
"He will be. He's at St. Mungo's, but they're still trying to recover from the Death Eater attack last week. Over seventy five Ministry personnel were involved from every department except the aurors, because we're automatically screened for polyjuice and the Imperious. It seems that nearly every member of the Hit-Wizard squad was under the curse, because it was Umbridge herself that was supposed to do the screening for that unit. Even the Wizengamot had six members under the curse. By the time the aurors had the situation under control, there were over one hundred confirmed deaths. It was chaos… nobody knew who was doing the attacking and who was defending themselves."
"Needless to say, the attack made it to the Prophet's evening edition. There's mass panic in Britain. The Ministry's shut down entirely and the building's been sealed off. On top of that, all of the businesses in Hogsmeade, Snowdon, and Diagon Alley closed their shops, preferring to do their business by owl post from now on, and even Gringotts shut their doors until the crisis is over. The attack on the Weasleys' shop certainly didn't help things along. The wizarding population is in turmoil and…"
"The joke shop!" gasped Harry. His head was spinning as he listened to Ben relate the events of the previous twelve hours.
"Don't worry, Harry. The twins are fine, and so is your friend, Ron. They're all at the Weasley house… all except for Molly, she's still at Hogwarts with her daughter. They'll be safe enough when the inferi reach London."
Every new thing that Ben was saying shocked Harry more and more, "What inferi?"
Ben looked at Harry incredulously and said, "You've heard nothing at all? Well, being in the middle of the Atlantic, I would suppose not… A large group of inferi has been laying waste to just about everything they've encountered. Last I've heard they were marching through Essex just south of Chelmsford, presumably heading towards London. We've tried to discover where they came from, and best we can tell from the trail of destruction, they marched in from a cliffy area north of Clacton-on-Sea. I'll tell you, the muggles are in a right state!"
Harry's hand instinctively went to his trouser pocket where the fake horcrux was nestled. Visions of the lake inside of the cavern where the fake horcrux was found entered Harry's head. He didn't really know where the cave that Dumbledore took him to was located, but it seemed like a very suspicious coincidence. If Voldemort released the inferi from that cave, then he more than likely knew that his horcrux was gone. Harry also remembered Snape telling him about how Voldemort had Death Eaters patrolling the Clacton area. He then pictured the route between Clacton-on-Sea and London in his mind. His eyes drifted to the girl sleeping on the sofa when he realized that her home town of St. Osyth would have been directly in the path of the marauding zombies. He had to find out.
"I'll be right back," said Harry just before he closed his eyes and silently disappeared in a flash of light.
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Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, still just to the west of Portugal, a very frustrated Scops owl gave out an aggravated 'Hoot!' as he changed direction once again and started flying to the northeast.
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Harry opened his eyes and found himself standing in a dark garage next to the black Mercedes-Benz SL600 Roadster Convertible that Hermione had driven to Little Whinging. He quietly made his way into the house and up towards the second floor bedrooms. He remembered the room that Hermione had pointed out as her parents' room. He edged the door open and let out a breath of relief as he saw two people who could only be Mr. and Mrs. Granger, sleeping peacefully in a bed.
He silently closed the door, and then made his way to Hermione's bedroom with the intention of getting some spare clothes for her. When he opened the door, he was startled by a flash of white that flew from a darkened corner of the room.
"Hedwig!" whispered Harry as the snowy owl perched on his shoulder and began running her beak along the side of his head affectionately. At the same time, Crookshanks was worming his way around and between Harry's legs and purring like a furry orange motorboat.
As quickly and quietly as he could, he gathered a small assortment of comfortable looking clothes and put them in a bag he had found in her cupboard. Hermione was probably growing very tired of the black sweatsuit she had been wearing. He opened one of the drawers in a dresser, hoping to find where she kept her tee shirts, but couldn't suppress the startled gasp at what met his eyes.
All lined up across the drawer were stacks of neatly folded knickers and brassieres. They weren't the plain white sets he would have expected, but matching sets of sheer, frilly laces and thin, smooth silks, all in assorted colours… but mostly red. He carefully lifted out a pair of black silk knickers, which unfolded as he withdrew it from the drawer.
Harry stared at them wide-eyed and open-mouthed for a few moments, then a wily grin crossed his lips… he had no idea that Hermione was partial to thongs.
After stopping by an all-night convenience store, Harry Apparated back to the beach house laden with bags of clothes, food, drinks and condiments, paper plates and napkins, and plastic cups and utensils, as well as an assortment of items that he knew they could use in their temporary hideaway. It took almost all of the muggle money that he had left from the twins' loan, but since he hadn't eaten in so long, the expenditure couldn't be postponed another moment. Along for the ride were two very disgruntled creatures… a loudly squawking Snowy owl and a furiously hissing orange cat, and neither one were very pleased with the unpleasant mode of transportation.
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Somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, a tiny Scops owl let out an angry screech. Far below, he saw a Russian fishing trawler slowly chugging its way southward around the Iberian Peninsula. Pigwidgeon glided down to the ship and perched himself upon the flagmast. He'd stay there until the person he was trying to deliver the message to decided to quit changing his location every few minutes.
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When Harry opened the door to the beach house, he saw that Hermione was still asleep on the couch and that Kotone was still curled up on the polar bearskin rug in front of the unlit fireplace. Before Ben had a chance to ask, Harry told him about his checking on Hermione's parents, as well as gathering some clothes for her and picking up some much needed food for them all.
Ben initially balked at staying for a midnight snack, but when Harry mentioned a strange muggle food called 'chili dogs,' his interest was piqued. After assurances that the food contained absolutely no real 'dog' meat, and that he would be delivered back to London after the meal, he finally acquiesced.
Harry went straight to the kitchen and started storing the perishables in the magical coldbox, then set to work on making the meal. Fifteen minutes later, Harry set down upon the counter two cups of muggle cola, an open bag of crisps, and two paper plates containing four chili dogs each. He immediately sat down on one of the stools and stuffed half of a dog into his mouth while Ben stood there giving the cups of black, fizzy liquid and the plates of odd, sloppy-looking food a very wary look. Upon seeing the way Harry was relishing every bite of his own hot dog, he decided that trying one couldn't hurt.
Ten minutes later both plates were empty, as well as three-quarters of the bag of crisps. When Harry stuffed the last bite of his last hot dog in his mouth, he had to stifle a laugh to keep himself from choking at the sight of Ben's chili-stained hands, face and goatee. Surely, Ron had some stiff competition if there was ever a 'World's Worst Table Manners' award. Using Hermione's wand, Harry vanished the trash, then led Ben from the kitchen into the living room.
"I must say, I've got to get the recipe for those 'chilly dogs,'" said Ben as he wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his auror robes, "You have to wonder, though, as to why the muggles would call them 'chilly,' because my mouth is still burning."
Harry just smiled and asked, "Are you ready to go back to London? I suppose I could bring you right back to the place I found you."
"Well, why not?" said Ben with a sigh, "It's not as if there's anyone in the Ministry monitoring the Apparation Detectors, is there?"
Harry glanced back at Hermione lying on the couch, but was surprised to find Kotone standing beside him with her arms held up to him expectantly.
Harry gave her a smile and said, "I'll be right back, sweetie. There's no need to worry."
An unsure smile appeared on Kotone's mask as she said, "I need to go back to house. I made promise to Miss Eagle for something to get."
Harry's smile faltered as he said, "I'm sorry, little one, but we can't go back there. We don't know where it is."
"What place are you talking about?" asked Ben.
"My own house," said Harry flatly, "We can't get back there because of a Fidelis charm. It seems the secret keeper was never told the address, so she can't tell what she doesn't know."
"Do you mean the place where the Death Eater wannabe's attacked?" asked Ben with a furrowed brow, "I remember your girlfriend there casting some sort of ward… Hmmm… I can't seem to remember where it was, though…"
"You were there?" asked Harry, "and you have no idea where it is?"
"Well, I was assigned to look out for you. I was watching from an alley… somewhere in Soho…"
Harry looked down at Kotone as his brows furrowed in thought. He looked back to Ben and asked, "That alley, do you think that you could find it again?"
"Well, I suppose so," answered Ben, "but it wouldn't so any good. We wouldn't be able to see the place while it's under a Fidelis."
"But would the secret-keeper be able to see it?" asked Harry anxiously.
"I would imagine so, but…"
In one quick motion, Harry scooped Kotone up into her usual position on his side and reached out, took Ben's arm and closed his eyes in concentration.
Ben quickly spoke, "Harry, you do realize that you can't…"
In a silent flash of white light, the three disappeared from the living room of the beach house and appeared in the same alleyway in Diagon Alley where Harry found Ben.
-----~-----
Somewhere over the Atlantic, perched upon a tall mast on a Russian trawler, a very angry Scops owl turned his head almost completely around to face northeastward and glared at the horizon. He didn't even twitch a feather as he remained firmly perched on the mast.
-----~-----
"…side-along Apparate with more than one person, don't you?" finished Ben with a sigh, "but of course, the elementary laws of magic don't seem to apply to you today, do they?"
Ignoring Ben's obviously rhetorical question, Harry said, "Alright, now bring us to that alley."
Ben let out an aggravated sigh. He said while glaring at Harry, "First off… unlike you, I can't side-along more than one person at a time. Secondly… unlike you, I cannot Apparate through the wards here around Diagon Alley. Thirdly… unlike you, I'm on duty right now, and I've already taken enough of a chance being away for this long."
Harry just smiled, took hold of Ben's arm again and closed his eyes. An instant later, they were standing in the small, dirty alley between the Leaky Cauldron and the walled entrance into Diagon Alley.
Harry put Kotone down and grabbed Ben's wrist while saying, "Alright, then just take me to the alley. I'll bring you back to your post, and it'll be like you never left."
Ben gave Harry a stern look, although Harry could have sworn he saw a slight smile briefly appear on the auror's normally grim face. With a nod, Ben Apparated Harry along to where he was positioned right before the Death Eaters attacked. Harry briefly looked around, not at all noticing that the progression of house numbers across the street seemed to have skipped a number. Still holding onto Ben, he closed his eyes and Apparated into the Diagon Alley alleyway where they had started.
After a quick thanks and a good bye, Harry disappeared and reappeared next to Kotone. She quickly assumed her position against Harry's side and an instant later, they were standing in the rubbish-strewn Soho alley that Ben had shown him. The street looked vaguely familiar to Harry, but he couldn't quite place where he'd seen it before. He looked at Kotone and asked, "Well, can you see the house?"
Kotone looked up and down the street at the row of houses facing them. She closed her eyes for a moment, and then opened them again. Her eyes seemed strangely unfocused as she studied the opposite buildings once more. With a smile, she pointed to an area between two buildings diagonally to the left of where they were standing.
"That is the place. I can see the… I can see the house."
Harry ignored the hesitation and quietly asked, "Is there a number on the house?"
Kotone looked just to the right of the door, "Yes, it is the number twelve."
Harry looked along the row. It looked perfectly normal to him that the house numbers here seemed to skip that number. He glanced up and down the deserted street, not really expecting anyone to be up and about at four in the morning. After ensuring that the street was empty, he carried Kotone to the end of the block, and sure enough, there was a street sign hung on a lamppost at the corner that read Cavendish Street and Grimmauld Place.
Harry asked, "Can you read that sign?"
Kotone squinted up to the signs, but then just shook her head. Harry briefly wondered how she was supposed to survive at Hogwarts if she couldn't even read English.
He had no reason to believe that he couldn't name the street, so he told her, "This street is called Grimmauld Place. Did you understand me?"
Kotone smiled, nodded and whispered into his ear, "Your house is at number twelve, Grimmauld Place."
The walls that were built in Harry's mind collapsed as she finished the sentence. He looked down the row of houses and saw Number Twelve, as plain as day, even though it was the dead of night.
Harry quickly made his way back down the street and entered the grimy old mansion. As soon as they were in the door, he carried Kotone up the stairs and set her down on the floor. Kotone disappeared into the bedroom where he had been held while under the influence of the horcrux while he went into his own master bedroom. He collected some of his own clothes along with his broom and his father's cloak before returning to the other room to retrieve Hermione's overnight bag.
When he entered the bedroom, Kotone was just closing the lid to her small trunk while holding her teddy bear under her arm.
"Is that all that you're bringing with you?" asked Harry.
Kotone nodded and lifted her arm up to him. He hefted her against his side while struggling to hold onto the items under his other arm. He awkwardly reached down and picked up Hermione's bag. A moment later, they were once again standing in the sand in front of the island beach house.
-----~-----
A very cross Scops owl that was perched atop a flagmast on a ship off the coast of Portugal turned his attention to the southwest horizon. He angrily ruffled his feathers, and then closed his eyes. After a quick kip, maybe he'd find out which direction he was supposed to go, but he certainly wasn't about to spend another moment flying in circles.
-----~-----
As Harry was setting down all of the things he was carrying, he saw Kotone make a beeline towards the bearskin rug lying between the fireplace and the sofa on which Hermione was sleeping.
"Oh, no you don't!" Harry said quietly, "What is it with you always sleeping on the floor? Come with me."
Kotone obediently followed Harry into the nursery where he took out Hermione's wand and transfigured the crib into a comfortable looking twin bed, complete with a pillow, sheets and a thin blanket. Kotone looked longingly out of the room towards the rug and just sighed before she climbed onto the bed.
"Before you go to sleep, I was wondering if you'd do something for me."
The lips on Kotone's mask smiled as she nodded, "Yes?"
"Do you remember the vision that you showed me of Diagon Alley and that park? Could you show that to me again?"
Kotone nodded again as she closed her eyes. When she opened them, her gaze met Harry's and the room around faded from existence as the sense of time slowing down washed over him.
He found himself standing in Diagon alley, watching the vision of himself walking casually along. Instead of staying with his other self, he immediately left towards the park that he had seen in the vision previously with the maskless Kotone following closely behind him. He quickly walked along the line of marble busts until he came to the large fountain. He watched the bloody water cascade down through the tiers, ending up in the wide catch basin on the bottom. He was shocked to see Hermione's broken body floating just beneath the surface in the lower basin… he had forgotten about that. As he studied the fountain, he was sure that he'd seen it before outside of that vision, but he couldn't quite place where.
"Where did this vision come from?" he asked Kotone.
Kotone's ethereal voice seemed to echo around him, "It is hard to describe. This are dreams and memories, the dreams of Shishi and the memories of the Ja. (serpent) They are combined to make vision.
Harry was still staring at the fountain as he thought about that. So this was some bizarre combination of Voldemort's memories and his own dreams? He looked back across the park to see his other self looking into Ollivander's window at the horcrux wand resting within. He remembered how it held a faint glow when he looked at it. His eyes drifted back to the top of the fountain, specifically, to the geyser where the water was flowing from.
Through the dark, bloody water that was falling around the center he could just make out a glint of gold. He stood up on the rim of the bottom basin and could see the glowing, golden goblet that was the source of the dirty water. It was unmistakably Hufflepuff's cup.
He jumped off the basin and stepped back, looking at the entirety of the fountain. He recalled the conversation he had with Hermione about the places that Voldemort would find important enough to hide his horcrux.
"Well, the thing that impresses me every year is the trip from Hogsmeade in the carriages to Hogwarts, the first view of the distant lights in the majestic towers, framed by the nighttime autumn sky..."
"The boats," Harry whispered to himself, as if coming to some realization, "going across the lake in the first year… in the boats on the lake… the very first view of Hogwarts. Not from the carriages, but from the boats on the lake… that's the most impressive view I've ever seen. It was awe-inspiring… I was scared out of my mind, true… but I was excited, too. Seeing the lights from the towers reflected off the shimmering water…"
Hermione sighed, "You're right. The view of the castle from the boats is amazing, the most brilliant sight I've ever seen, but do you honestly think Voldemort would hide a horcrux in one of the Hogwarts boats?"
"Not in a boat… in the lake! At the bottom of the lake! He wanted Hogwarts to be a hiding place for one of his horcruxes, and if he couldn't get into the castle to place it because of Dumbledore, the lake would be the perfect place!"
Harry suddenly knew where he had seen the fountain before. It was during the Tri-Wizard Tournament in the second task. He was swimming through the Mer-village when he noticed what looked like a town square. It was what the ropes that Ron, Hermione, Cho and Gabrielle were anchored to. It was covered in green slime and scum, but it was definitely a fountain! If the vision was correct about the wand in Ollivander's being a horcrux, then it could also be correct about the cup in the fountain!
The room around him emerged from the darkness and time seemed to resume its normal speed. He saw Kotone looking at him expectantly.
"Thank you, little one," said Harry, "I think I found exactly what I was looking for." Harry gently ran his hand along the side of her face while saying, "Get some sleep now. We have to take care of Hermione tomorrow until she's better."
Kotone smiled as she shrugged off her robe and curled up on her side facing away from him, obviously preferring to stay above the covers. Harry briefly averted his eyes away from her nakedness, but couldn't stop his gaze from returning to the multitude of grotesque scars that covered her small body.
The line of red Japanese characters once again caught his eye, as well as the two large jagged scars that ran along her shoulder blades. He recalled the feeling of a wing being broken during the memories that she shared with him earlier, and couldn't help but wonder what had happened to them. He then looked closer at the kanji, wondering what they stood for and why they were there. In the dim light from the living room, he could tell that the characters had an odd texture to them. When he looked even closer at them, his breath caught in his throat as he realized that the characters weren't tattoos… they were actually branded deeply into her skin.
Harry was going to question her about them, but then he heard Kotone's soft, even breathing, telling him she was already fast asleep. He was certainly going to bring up the subject when she awakens.
Harry walked to the door, and after giving one last, sad look back at the sleeping half-demon, he quietly closed the door. He then made his way to one of the suspended egg-shaped chairs and silently stared at the sleeping Hermione as his thoughts dwelled on the remaining horcruxes… a wand, a tomb, a fountain at the bottom of a lake… and himself.
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Fun Fact: I wrote THREE different versions of this chapter that had very different outcomes. (In one, Harry Apparated into a heated battle between Death Eaters and Ministry aurors in Diagon Alley.) Again, I chose the version that would expedite the story towards its conclusion. (Well, that fact wasn't very fun for me! It was a lot of work!)
