The Search-Chapter 18
It had been several weeks since Harry had to try to sleep with the warmth of Hermione next to him. He lay awake pouring over his speech at Hogwarts. He regretted only referring to Voldemort as a mudblood. He was better than that. He'd let his hatred of Voldemort get the better of him. He had simply wanted to show people the hypocrisy of those who wanted pure blood supremacy. His eyes felt heavy and soon he had drifted into a deep sleep.
His dreams came with unusual frequency. Short dreams with seemingly no point to them rolled through his subconscious. Until one, slowed and caused him to awake with a start. He tried desperately to remember where he was and figure out what it meant. He was sweating profusely.
"Harry, are you okay? You're sopping with sweat," said Hermione scooting over a bit. "Ewww," she said playfully until she saw the blank look on Harry's face. "Really, are you okay, Harry?"
"Shsh, please Hermione," said Harry as he strained to remember. "I just had a dream of the house that I saw in one of Professor Dumbledore's visions. It was the house where that cup and the bracelet were stolen. At least that's what I think it was. I can't for the life of me remember the vision or the dream. I can just catch parts of it."
"Can you describe it for me? I mean in as much detail as you can remember Harry. Every little detail will help, because I will ask you questions. I read somewhere that it's possible to reconstruct dreams by making the person look for details they may have overlooked," said Hermione.
"What? What do you mean?" Harry was tired and he knew he was being harsh, but he hated this feeling more than almost any other.
"I'm sorry, Harry. I mean, how was the woman in the dream dressed? I am assuming this is the vision you told me about before, right? Those kinds of details Harry are what I need you to tell me. It will make you see the dream again in your mind's eye. Or, so the theory goes," said Hermione in a soothing voice. She got up and put on her robe.
"Hermione, that's just it. It faded so quickly. It couldn't have been that dream that made we sweat like this. There must have been something else," he said sleepily. "Please, shut the light and come back to bed. I'm too tired for this."
"If that's what you want, Harry. But sooner or later, we're going to have to push through it," said Hermione impatiently.
"Okay, Hermione. Just not tonight. I'm exhausted," said Harry not wanting to debate the issue as he drifted off again.
Harry awoke feeling disoriented and uneasy. He felt in the bed next to him for Hermione. She wasn't there. He slowly raised his head from the pillow and saw her sitting in her robe staring at him with glassy eyes. "Hermione, what are you doing up so early?" He assumed it was early because he still didn't feel rested.
"Early?" she said with a faint smile. "Harry, it's nearly ten in the morning. I've been watching you toss and turn in your sleep for two hours. It's been quite frightening really."
Harry noticed now that even the faint smile had been forced. "Why didn't you wake me up?"
Hermione's eyes widened as if she were going say something, but she only sighed and said nothing. She got up and whisked across the room to the electric kettle as it began whistling. Then she turned and said, "Harry, I didn't want you to blame me for interrupting your dreams."
Harry understood now. He had offended her by going to sleep instead of trying to figure out the dream. "Hermione, I'm sorry if I offended you. I was just so tired."
"Well, I'll remember not to tire you out anymore before you go to sleep," she said rather coldly. "I mean, honestly Harry, you acted like I was begging for more sex in the middle of the night. I will just wait until you wake up screaming again." The tears in her eyes didn't get a chance to run down her cheeks as she wiped her face quickly with the sleeve of her robe.
"Hermione, Sweetheart, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to be rude," said Harry.
"Well, it's over with now, Harry. I know you didn't and I'm just a little upset too, because I know that I really can't help you," she replied. "I watched you Harry, it was like you were possessed or something sometimes. I mean you looked peaceful one second and then all hell would break loose. You would kick the covers off, say something unintelligible and then roll back over peacefully again. I put the covers back on you three times."
"I don't remember a thing, Hermione. Honestly, I don't," he said. But it did explain his uneasiness. "If it makes you feel better, I feel like I was run over by a truck." He smiled. "At least, you got that much revenge for getting treated badly."
Hermione finished pouring her tea. "Do you want some tea, Harry? I don't want revenge. I just want this crazy life of ours to be more normal. I know I signed up for this, but a night like that will make anyone a little mad."
"Mad, crazy or mad, angry?" asked Harry trying to keep things light for the moment.
"Both, you jerk," she said with a smile. "Tea in the cup or hot water on your head?" She ran at him with what he thought was the steaming kettle with a wild-eyed look.
"Hermione, what the bloody hell?" he exclaimed.
"Oh, settle down. It's empty. I feel stupid. I made so many cups for myself this morning the kettle's empty and I'm offering you tea," she giggled. "I'll put the kettle on again. I'm surprised I haven't had to have a pee every ten minutes this morning."
Harry laughed. "You don't drink much tea either, do you?" he asked.
"No," she replied. "I imagine that even though there isn't much caffeine in it, I drank enough of it to make me hyper."
"Come here, Hermione. Forget the water for a second; it'll get hot on its own. You can help me, you know. You just don't realize you're doing it. You help me by being here and not giving up on me. So, even if you can't make the dreams stop or help me interpret them, don't get down on yourself," said Harry as she sat down next to him on the bed. "I don't want you angry at yourself or me over something like that."
She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "What could have caused that kind of behaviour though, Harry? It wasn't normal by any stretch of the imagination."
"I have had brief nightmares before Hermione. I mean ones where something happens and I almost roll out of bed. I know they happen because that same thing happens a few times in the same night. But the dreams aren't enough to wake me up completely. In the past I think I awoke because of the feeling that I'd roll out of bed," he explained. "Maybe it was one of those nights." He had just remembered those times. They hadn't happened for a quite some time though and they only happened when he was at the Dursley house.
"Why haven't you ever mentioned them?" asked Hermione.
"I suppose, now that I think about it, they only happened when I was on Privet Drive. There was no one to tell and it didn't happen that often," said Harry. Maybe, thought Harry, it was just a reaction to being in a strange place.
"Well, maybe this is part of those dreams your mother alluded to in the vision?" suggested Hermione.
"You know, maybe it is," said Harry. "Or it could be that I'm just weird."
Hermione had to smile when she saw the cheesy grin on Harry's face. "Yeah, weird, I'll say." The kettle whistled again. "I'll get you some tea and I'll get in the shower. We need to get cracking I think."
"Doing what? I want some more, you know…" he said winking.
"Not a chance there, Potter. You have to learn not to piss off your girlfriend by being rude. And, that will teach you," she said pouring the tea. "See if I'm kidding." She grinned and looked at him sidelong nodding in playful way. "Seriously, see if I'm kidding."
"Oh my God, you're serious. You're going to hold out on me because of that?" asked Harry dumbfounded.
"No, Harry, I'm not serious and I'm not mad. I just think that today we need to really look at what we need to do. We'll have plenty of time to fool around later. You really scared me with those dreams and I think we need to sit down and go over things carefully," said Hermione.
She pulled off her robe and walked naked into the bathroom. "You are welcome to come in and wash my back though."
Harry jumped up like a cannon shot.
By mid-afternoon, Harry was exhausted with Hermione's questions. "Hermione, Sweetheart, baby, honey, please stop," he begged. "My brain can only go like this for say-three hours. It's been four."
Hermione looked up at the clock and realized that they had been going over everything since shortly after lunch at noon. "I'm sorry, Harry. It's just like a study session to me. My body clock must say I'm back at Hogwarts."
"I know and I appreciate what you're trying to do. But by now, you and I should be working on what we already know, not still interrogating me like a prisoner of war," laughed Harry.
Hermione smiled. "I do get a bit carried away, don't I?"
"The only one with a more one-track mind is Neville with Herbology. Although, you can understand it in Neville's case," said Harry fondly.
"Do you want to go for a walk?" asked Hermione. And then, a frantic look of horror swept over Hermione's face. "Harry! We've done it now! Bill and Fleur needed to leave like hours ago and we didn't even make an appearance like we were going anywhere!"
Harry was upset for a moment too and then he thought of something. "Whoa, whoa. Wait a second. How many times have you seen Mr. Weasley leave the Burrow and return from work?"
"What does that have to do with anything, Harry? Come on, let's get a move on," said Hermione.
"Listen, Hermione. What I'm saying is that wizards travel by so many different methods that it's possible that no one would ever see them. He must have left for work at least a dozen times with us close by and we never thought a thing of it," said Harry trying to prove his point.
"But Harry, we need to make sure that the story is completely believable. Do you think Rita Skeeter will take kindly to Bill outing her in front of Mrs. McGonagall? You don't think that she'll follow up on it?"
"Well, you have a point there, Hermione. The problem is that it's too late for us to nonchalantly pretend we just got a late start. So we have to live with the current situation. If she decided to start asking questions now, we'd have to make something up. Just relax and let things be, please," said Harry not feeling as calm inside as he was trying to portray to Hermione.
Hermione came and sat down at the table again where she'd started taking notes of the answers to the questions she'd asked Harry. "Honestly, we have to stop acting like we're the ones on the honeymoon. I'll end up pregnant before I'm eighteen," she said in an almost exasperated voice.
"We do have to pay more attention to our roles as Bill and Fleur though. But who knows, maybe the primal screams of passion are what the neighbors are used to?" joked Harry. "You aren't worried about getting pregnant, are you?" He hoped that didn't sound to Hermione like it just sounded to him.
"Well, I'm not ready to have a baby by next May, if that's what you're asking. As far as having your baby, I don't think that bothers me so much. I just can't go home to my parents looking like I'm carrying a beach ball under my shirt," said Hermione. "And, yes, I'd better be careful because the pills I got from the doctor ran out this week."
Harry was glad she hadn't taken it wrong even though he knew he'd said it badly. "Sweetheart, I don't want that to be on your mind too. I don't know how to stop you from asking me to take a shower with you though." He smiled.
"I know that, Harry. That was a stupid thing to do when I know I should be more careful. It's just that sometimes…," she stopped.
"Sometimes, what?" asked Harry.
"Harry, it's just a thought that pops into my head when I realize what we're doing here is an attempt to ensure that there is life after Voldemort. Everything today is about finding his Horcruxes so that with any luck, one day I can have a baby with you and know you will always be with me. That's not what's always on my mind, but if we're talking about it now, I might as well use that as the example," said Hermione.
"I guess I just need to press on a little harder then," said Harry looking at the piles of notes stacked in a way only Hermione could ever decipher. "I'll try harder."
"Harry, I know it's hard to concentrate. So, let's do what you said and go over the notes we've already made. Maybe it will be easier to fill in blanks from what you're already told me than it is to try to think of the whole thing all over again," said Hermione putting a hand on Harry's. "We can do this."
By seven, they were looking in the kitchen for something to eat. There had been enough lunch meat, sandwich bread and soup in the cupboards for lunch, but there was little in the way of main course items anywhere in the house. "Hermione, here. I found this," said Harry. It was a menu from a local Chinese restaurant that advertised delivery. "Do you fancy Chinese? I can take the potion and wait for them. You don't have to."
"Harry, they're not supposed to be here," said Hermione. "You have to start thinking about stuff like that."
Harry realized that he needed to concentrate more on the task at hand. "Well, let me use one of the disguises and I'll pick it up and Apparate back here."
"Harry, no offense, but maybe we should just Apparate to the Burrow and beg Mrs. Weasley to feed us," said Hermione with a sheepish grin as if she knew it was a cop out. "I don't feel like taking any chances tonight. I think we need to move to another place. We're acting like a couple of randy teenagers and we can't afford to act our age right now." Hermione giggled. "It's not all your fault either."
They agreed and went to The Burrow. That evening's meal was just what they needed. "I wish I'd brought Crookshanks from home this summer. I miss him now. I mean, Mom absolutely adores him. But like you said Mr. Weasley, his ability to detect evil wizards and just generally bad people is a good thing for my parents to have. I just hope they pay attention to what I told them. They tend not to believe all of this magic stuff. Sometimes I think they think I'm mad." She smiled half-heartedly.
That was the second time today that Hermione had mentioned her family. He wondered what was happening inside her pretty little head to make her so conscious of her family all of a sudden. "Herm, what's going on with you? Is something bothering you?"
"Huh?" said Hermione. "Wow, I don't think you've ever called me that before Harry. That's what my Dad calls me. His little Hermie is what he used to call me when I was little."
"I won't if it makes you homesick or sad," said Harry. "That's just it though; you've mentioned your family more today than you have in a month."
"No, you can call me that if you want." She paused for a second. "But I prefer Hermione only because it does make me a little homesick. And, I guess I just have had a lot of thoughts about how close to facing Voldemort we are and I'm a little unnerved," she said shakily. "No, I'm pretty well unnerved to be honest. I think I started thinking about it watching you this morning, Harry. I don't want the fairy tale part of what we're living to end, but I don't want to miss seeing my parents' faces when they see their grandbaby or my wedding because of the nightmare portion either. I'm afraid to go to sleep tonight, Harry. I'm sure I'll have nightmares." Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had been sitting in the living room with them just then, but they moved to the kitchen to give them space.
"Hermione? Please look at me," said Harry he felt his heart pounding in his ears and his chest was about to explode. "You know, all Voldemort wants is to kill me and all muggle-born witches and wizards who refuse to give up practicing magic-well, maybe all muggles, but that's a long way off. You could go back to your parents and find another wonderful guy. There are lots of them out there. Just don't practice magic and I don't think he'll ever find you. You can still have all those things. It wouldn't kill me if that happened, but it would kill me if you regretted being with me in the future." Harry lied the best he could. He would die inside if she left, but he'd survived real death before. He could live with someone leaving him that did so to have a life or the prospect of one.
There was a long silence as Hermione tried to gain her composure. But suddenly, out of nowhere, she turned toward Harry and almost yelled, but didn't as she calmed herself. Yet Harry knew it was the angriest voice she'd ever used toward him.
"Harry, shut up! I'm not leaving, but you're just going to have to get used to the fact that I want my life to be good…no, it was going to be perfect…and I'm not going to go down easy. It may be painful, but these are the reasons I can fight. I want to be with you. And to have you, I have to risk things that are almost way too scary to me. Don't you ever say you could let me go again, do you hear me?" Hermione's face was red and her tone enraged. "Some other wonderful guy? Are you serious? That's ridiculous. The only other guy I'd ever consider is Ron and he's not the right one, now is he?" She took Harry's face in her hands. "Did you hear me, Harry? I'm not going anywhere without you."
Harry's eyes were as big as dinner plates. He couldn't think of one thing to say other than to feebly answer with, "Now that that's settled." He got up and walked toward the fireplace unsure of what just happened. He had to ask. "What was that?"
Hermione sat sobbing at the end of the sofa. She took a tissue from the box on the end table. "That's my last nerve finally being exposed, Harry," she said through the tears with still a hint of rage at him.
Harry could see her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. He started to speak, but Hermione beat him to it.
"I think that had to come out…from both of us. I needed you to say what I knew you felt. I knew you would rather me leave than to be there for the wrong reasons. Part of me wanted to run away today when I saw you writhing in bed with those dreams, especially after you kind of told me to leave you alone last night. I love you too much though. Do you feel like I do when you can't see any future at all? And, because of that, nothing matters in your past if what you're doing doesn't work out? Doesn't it make you feel lost?"
"That's it exactly, Hermione. Welcome to my world ever since I found out about the prophecy," said Harry. "You've arrived. You now know why sometimes I'm over-the-top joyful with things and in another moment, so down it seems like I'm the most depressed person you ever knew. It's not what I want for you, but if you're there now I can't stop you from feeling it."
"Well, Harry, this isn't going to work for me. We've got to succeed. You know. We have to," said Hermione pulling another tissue from the box and blowing her nose. "I'm not giving up my dreams of a happy life to live like you've been forced to do. And, I'm not letting you live there either."
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Mrs. Weasley hug Mr. Weasley. And once again, he had the feeling about Hermione he'd had the other night. There was more to her than he'd ever imagined and he loved what he already knew. "Err, well, okay then. That's settled too."
Hermione laughed through the tears. "Yeah, listen to me. Six stone dripping wet and I'm acting like I'm a heavyweight boxer going to beat the champ. I must look a mess."
"Nah, you look like someone who's tired and needs to unwind. Maybe we need to see if Mrs. Weasley has a sleeping draught handy that we can both use. It keeps away the dreams and let's you sleep like a baby. Worked wonders on me loads of times," said Harry with a smile. He sat and put his arms around Hermione and gave her an awkward hug.
"I sure do, I keep one handy. It's one of those remedies every mother should have for one of her children when they have nightmares. You two may not be flesh and blood, but you're my kids," she said with a smile.
"Molly and I have talked," said Mr. Weasley. "If you kids promise that there'll be no hanky-panky, you can sleep together here by the fire. By the way, I'm going to enchant the bed to turn any part of your body that's naked blue if it touches the sheets." He raised his wand and conjured what looked like a bearskin rug on a thick mattress. "We don't have another place that we feel comfortable letting you two lovebirds spend the night together in, so this will have to do. Just kidding about the sheets, but you do promise, don't you?"
Hermione blushed. "Why of course, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. If I didn't already know you wouldn't believe me I'd profess my innocence, but somehow I don't think that would work."
"Well, you two need to get some rest. You will feel much better in the morning. And, once you take this, I'm sure that any fears we have will be completely unfounded," said Mrs. Weasley. "Besides, we're sitting out here until we see you pass out on that mattress. Arthur, honestly."
"Molly, wake up. They probably know more about sex than we do," said Arthur with a wink toward Harry when Hermione wasn't looking.
"Oh, my God," said Hermione. "I want to die. Harry, kill me right now." Hermione hid her head under her pillow.
Harry was embarrassed too, but he knew Mr. Weasley meant well. "Arthur, you just embarrassed the life out of Hermione. I'm really upset with you."
Harry snuck in close to Hermione's exposed ear. "Can you believe this?"
Hermione was laughing. "No. But I hope this is a bad dream. I don't want Mrs. Weasley thinking of me as some loose woman who moved on to her son's best friend."
"Now, you two take that potion before Arthur says something else that makes me have to hex him into next week," said Mrs. Weasley with a disgusted look.
Harry and Hermione looked at one another. Each had a small vial the size of the ones they used for the Polyjuice Potion. "Bottoms up," said Harry.
"Cheers," said Hermione.
They were asleep so fast that each of them was still clutching the vials at their chest when Mrs. Weasley turned back toward them.
"Arthur, do you think they can pull this off?" asked Molly.
"Do you mean the deception or defeat Voldemort?" asked Arthur. "I suppose it doesn't matter which, because the answer to each is yes. Harry knows more about the specifics of what he has to do, but we know what's going to turn the tide. It's their love for one another. Good or bad, their love will do it."
"That's what I'm asking, Dear. Will they pull it off and live a long life together?" asked Molly. "I so want to see that for them."
"That, I don't know Molly. Dumbledore once told me that miracles happen everyday. Imagine the greatest wizard of our age believing in miracles when he himself could almost create miracles. If there is any decency in the world, yes; but, I've long given up on that where Voldemort's concerned. All we can do is hope, Molly."
Harry and Hermione awoke completely refreshed the next day and decided that The Burrow was a far better choice of a hideout than the flat. They brought most of their stuff and occupied separate rooms: Hermione in Ginny's room and Harry in Ron's. They worked tirelessly, occasionally trying to find ways to ask questions of the Weasleys that wouldn't give away anything they shouldn't know. By the end of the first week since the opening of school, Harry realized that there was only a very few details worthy of keeping secret.
The middle of the second week brought the first real breakthrough. Harry had gone to bed earlier than Hermione. She had stayed up to write a letter from the both of them to Bill, Fleur, Ron and Ginny. Harry and Hermione had been going over the pensieve visions from the last few weeks of Dumbledore's life when Harry thought of something that he'd never put together before. He brushed it off after thinking about it for a minute or so as he and Hermione talked, but now somehow it arose in a dream.
Tom Riddle was walking toward someone he vaguely recognized. It was a woman. But Harry realized that this was not the same Tom Riddle that he'd thought of that evening. It was a slightly older version, a version still very much human in appearance compared to that night in the cemetery three years before. Yet, somehow, while older he was younger. Harry's heart raced as he was confused. Soon, he understood. It was the early days when he still had not undergone the hideous transformation to what he was now, but he was older than the night he'd taken the cup and locket from Hepzibah Smith's home.
Harry had felt this before. It was a dream, but he seemed conscious and able to see and hear everything. Was he connected to Lord Voldemort again? He couldn't be, he thought.
"My Lord, how are you this evening?" asked the woman. The voice tore at Harry's heart. He knew it. It was Bellatrix Lestrange. The woman who had killed Sirius and had barked at him that he'd have to do better than he'd been able to do to use one of the forbidden curses.
"Dispense with the niceties, Bella. I have something that you must do for me. You must not fail. As you know, I believe in the old power of things. I have an old relic that belonged to one of the founders of Hogwarts. It must be returned to her grave for the power within it to be made whole again. The years it has been possessed by muggles and blood traitors have stained it. I trust you and only you to be the one to return it for me. I may ask you to retrieve it for me in an hour of need, for it possesses power beyond your imagining."
"Yes, My Lord, it will be done tonight," said Bellatrix.
"You shall carry it to the place where Helga Hugglepuff is entombed and place it inside with her within this container." For the first time Harry got a good look at the object. It was the cup from the pensieve. He recognized its ornate handles. The box it was in was glass and contained several vials with stoppers connected to the top and sides. It was obviously booby-trapped just as the fountain where they'd found the locket had been.
"What is this on the container, My Lord?" asked Bellatrix confusedly.
"My trust in you for the moment is complete, Bella. But times and circumstances change. I have learned that those we trust in our youth may not be as trustworthy years later. I have another who will do this for me if you do not. But I judge that you would not be so hasty as to deny Lord Voldemort's orders for such an important task," said the Dark Lord. "Therefore, I offer the explanation of what the container does for an unbreakable vow of silence. Regulus, you will take the vow as well, for you will take another prized possession to its keep."
Harry watched as the ritual for the Unbreakable Vow was taken in-turn by Bellatrix Lestrange and this man named Regulus.
"If you divulge the location or substance of the contents of your prize, you shall encounter a most horrible fate similar to what this container does," said Lord Voldemort. "Since you insist to know what the container does, I shall tell you. It will leave the intruder wailing in pain grossly disfigured with neither hope for death or means of salvation. No sound shall ever escape their lips for eternity. Death will come when the spirit is dead."
"My Lord, surely you don't think me capable of betraying you?" asked Bellatrix.
"Only your actions and devotion will tell," said Lord Voldemort. "Show them." He added pointing to someone Harry couldn't see.
From the dark reaches where Lord Voldemort had first appeared, a young man was being dragged by two men who seemed only to do Voldemort's bidding. The boy was Harry's age and was put on his hands and knees. An identical container was placed before him. He screamed. "No, please. I take it back. Whatever I said, I take it back."
"Imperio," cried Voldemort.
The young man slowly reached out and opened the container by removing one of the pains of glass. As Harry had guessed, it released some sort ofgas cloud aimed directly at the boy's face. For a brief second, Harry could hear the scream but it went silent as ghastly tears in the skin of his face opened and slowly oozed blood. The boy tore at his face furthering the damage as he screamed silently.
"Avada Kedavra," cried Voldemort. "This traitor would have survived only a matter of minutes. He bored me with his pathetic claims that I was nothing but a man. I am much more than that. I am master of all who oppose me as well. Remember that."
"Who was that? He seemed familiar." asked the man named Regulus.
"He was your neighbor's son, Mr. Black. He was the one who refused to tell me where you lived when I came to call last week. I wonder if he thinks I'm just another `git' now?" laughed Voldemort. Voldemort turned his wand on the two men who brought the boy out and said, "Avada Kedavra." In turn, they fell dead without expression or moving to avoid the curse.
Harry awoke without screaming. He expected his scar to be on fire. "Hermione, where are you? "
Hermione was sitting in Ginny's room and vaguely heard Harry's call. She noticed the urgency. She wrapped the robe's belt around her waist tightly and walked up the stairs.
By this time, Harry was sitting in the chair next to the bed pulling his shoes on. "Oh, there you are. I thought maybe you'd gone to sleep. I had a dream," he said more calmly than he felt. "I know more now. It was Regulus Black, but we knew that. He may have died from a curse that was put on him by violating an Unbreakable Vow…."
"Harry, hold on. I can't follow all this as fast as you want me to do," said Hermione. "Meet me downstairs and we'll talk at the table with the notes."
He smiled. "Hermione, your plan worked. I just didn't know it this evening. Thank you for keeping me thinking," he said as he tugged on his other shoe and sat back.
"Well, you'll have to explain that too when we get downstairs," said Hermione. "I'll be there in a minute."
It took Harry almost a half-hour to explain everything he saw in that dream to Hermione. He knew she didn't see what he saw, but she understood what she needed to get from it. "Harry, we should wake up the Weasleys and get word to Remus or someone."
Harry looked at the gleam in Hermione's eye. He knew that brain of hers was working overtime. He was happy in a strange kind of way. His heart ached for those people in his dream, but he thought that somehow they would bring detail to the picture he and Hermione were trying to paint. He thought about what Tonks might find in the missing wizard vault or in the unexplained murders from that time. He had hardly noticed Hermione leave the table run upstairs and run back down.
"It's in here. I know it is. Maybe not exactly like we need it, but close enough I'm sure," said Hermione. "I don't want to say it without checking first."
Harry looked at the huge book she'd put on the table-Hogwarts: A History. Harry felt the chills run up and down his spine. His girlfriend was the most brilliant person he ever met. He looked at his watch. It was just a little after midnight on the twelfth of September. It was exactly one week to her birthday. That excited him too as he looked at her reading. Suddenly, he thought of Viktor Krum and how he'd watched her study their entire fourth year. Now he knew what the fascination was. She was beautiful when she was doing what she loved.
"Okay, here it is," said Hermione. "Of course, the book was written years after the founders had passed on, but there is a map of each of the places where the author thought the founders might be buried. For Helga Hufflepuff…oh, my gosh."
"What is it, Hermione?" asked Harry.
"I don't believe this. It's in one of the areas described as having the most graveyards and mausoleums in all of Great Britain. It describes some of them that go back to the time of the founders as being uncovered by archaeological digs done in the 1920s. As of this edition, some of that area is still regarded as unstable land due to the extent of erosion from the gravesites," said Hermione.
"So, what does that mean?" asked Harry.
"It means that the area could collapse at any time. It also means that most of the graves there are over six hundred years old," said Hermione with a shiver. "I hope the ghosts there are friendly."
Harry looked at her in stunned silence.
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