A/N: Loving the reviews! Thanks so much, I'm reading every single one of them. There is a bit more mystery here, so I hope you like it. I love reading all the different theories so keep them coming. Also, a little heads up. This will most likely be the last new chapter until late tomorrow (Monday) night. Bummer I know, cause this story is just pouring out right now and I don't want to stop, but I kinda have to sleep. Enjoy!
Harry and Ron waited patiently for Hermione to collect herself. Finally, when she was sure she had no tears left she lifted her head from Harry's chest gave them a watery smile. "Sorry about that." Wiping furiously at her face.
"Don't worry about it `Mione." Ron said gently, while rubbing her back. "I think you get a free pass in the crying department today."
"Thanks" she whispered and dared a glance at Harry. "I'm ok now. I mean my head still hurts but other than that…"
"Are you sure?" he asked, smoothing wet hair out of her face for a better look. She nodded and then looked down, noticing for the first time what she was covered in and that she was naked under it.
Ron caught her look and suddenly felt like he was back in fourth year again. "I…I uh..I didn't look Hermione! I swear I didn't. Really. Not a peek." He stammered and flushed bright red.
Harry hid a smirk and confirmed Ron's words "It's true, he was a complete gentleman. And I was too worried about getting you out of there to appreciate the view."
Hermione smiled at both of them and put Ron's mind at ease. "It's alright, I'm a lucky witch to have such noble and decent men in my life."
Harry squeezed her to him again and then took both her hands in his. "'Mione, I hate to do this, but I think it's time we talked about Max, about why you two were meeting. I think that's the key to this, or at least the starting point."
"I understand Harry, it's ok." She took a deep breath to center herself before starting her story.
"Max had contacted me several times before this conference. I was always too busy to meet with him, or I would be out of town when he was in England. I guess it was almost a year ago that he first owled me. Anyways, he never said exactly what it was he wanted to talk about, just that we were working on similar spells, I wasn't sure which spell until earlier this week. He approached me the first day of the conference, and again asked to speak with me. I told him that I should be available sometime during the week and that we could set something up. He wanted to do it immediately, and by immediately I mean, wanted to skip the rest of the seminars for the day and leave right then. I thought that was odd, but chalked it up to him being eager. I refused to leave then and he seemed rather anxious but understood. The next day, Tuesday, he stopped me after the last seminar and asked me if dinner that night would be possible. I told him it would be fine and we agreed to meet at his hotel around seven." She stopped to take a breath before continuing. "This is where things start to get hazy. I remember arriving at Max's hotel. He met me in the lobby and suggested we go to his room because all of his notes were there. I agreed. I'm not sure how long I was in there. He was working on a spell almost identical to one of my own. But his purpose for it was decidedly different. I know I argued with him over the ethical ramifications of his spell. He never got angry though, he was actually very calm, but in a bizarre way. I remember that he gave me a bad feeling. I began to not trust him. He had offered me tea and after that is when I draw a blank. The rest is what I know from the flashback I had." This is when Hermione began to fidget, wringing her hands and chewing on her bottom lip.
Harry grabbed her chin in his hand and tilted it up so that he could catch her eyes. "I know this is hard, but we need to know what you saw."
She nodded and blew out a breath she had been holding before going on. "There was someone else, someone other than Max, I'm sure of that. There were loud voices, shouting. It sounds like I'm hearing it from the bottom of a well though. I know I drew my wand but I lost it at some point. I saw Max's face, beaten, bloody. Someone is coming after me. I fight, kicking and punching. I'm trying to get to my wand but it's too far away and then I'm jerked back by my hair. My head is slammed into something hard, the fireplace maybe. After that I'm even more disoriented. A knife is coming at me but I trip the person. When I fall I land on my hand, I think that's how my wrist got hurt. I can't see any faces though. Finally I get to my wand and I apparate out of there, back to my room. I remember stumbling, knocking into the table, hearing things break. I know I fell in the bathroom, I think that's how that mirror broke and I think I hit my head again. That's all I know until you found me." She sat back against the headboard and shut her eyes, exhausted after recalling everything.
Ron had gotten up half way through her recount and had begun pacing the width of the room. Harry had moved away from her slightly, only leaving one hand on her knee. Hearing what had happened to her had been painful and it was taking every ounce of control he had not to leave immediately and tear the city apart inch by inch to find out who was responsible for hurting her.
Harry was broken from his thoughts when he felt Hermione slipping her leg out from under his hand and begin to curl into a ball. He thought he heard her say something but couldn't quite make it out. Leaning in closer he could see she was trembling slightly and then he heard what she was saying "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough" over and over again, she repeated it.
Harry felt like all the air had been forced from his lungs. He grabbed desperately at Hermione's shoulders and pulled her up to face him. "No. Don't you ever think that." His voice sounded strangled "You are the strongest person I know, don't you ever think that you could have ever done anything different."
Hermione heard his words, but part of her still felt like there was something else she could have done. She was, except for having the badge, a fully trained Auror and she found it hard to believe that Harry or Ron would have been taken the way she had.
She raised her eyes to meet Harry's and was about to speak when a loud crash from across the room sounded. Surprised to see the shocked look in his eyes and to have not sensed that magical crack that was always around when Harry lost control she spun her head and saw Ron with his fist buried in the wall.
Both hands flew up to cover her mouth. "Oh! Ron!"
Ron looked over at both of them, looking sheepish. "Ow?" he said with a shrug of his shoulders.
Harry leapt up to help him get his hand out and Hermione beckoned him over to the bed. "Let me see it." She said softly. "Why must you boys do such silly things all the time." She admonished as she waved her wand over his hand, healing it as best she could. Ron stayed quiet and let her fix him up, but she didn't let his hand go when she was done.
"Sorry `Mione, just got a bit pissed off I guess." He explained
Hermione squeezed his hand and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "Thank you."
She settled back against Harry and knew what was coming next. "You want to know what the spell was, don't you?"
"Well, yeah, sounds like it's important." Harry said "Is there some reason you don't want to tell us?" picking up on the fact that she didn't seem to want to share.
"It's just…it's just that it isn't finished yet and I wanted to surprise you." She explained.
"Surprise me? What do you mean?" Harry questioned
"Well, it's because of you that I came up with the idea in the first place. You were the inspiration, if you will, and I wanted to make sure it was perfect before I shared it."
"I..inspired a spell? How is that even possible" he asked, with genuine confusion in his voice.
"One day, a few years ago, you mentioned that you wished you could go back to your parents house in Godric's Hollow but that all the Dark Magics that had been used there had left it tainted. That nothing would grow and that it just left an overall pall over the place and that good magic wouldn't work there. After that, I started visiting some of the major battle sites from the war and noticed the same thing at all of them. So, I started working on a theory of being able to cleanse an area of dark spell work. To purify it. It's taken me all this time to get it to it's working form and I think I've about got it figured out. Max's spell was almost identical but his purpose was so that dark wizards would be able to cover their tracks. That there could be no trace that Unforgiveables had been done." She shuddered with the thought "Max was so sure that his idea was virtuous. It was frightening. I mean, think of the ramifications, if you couldn't trace Dark Magics. I realized that night that I was going to have to shelve my spell. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if it was used for the wrong reasons." She looked at Harry apologetically.
Harry for his part looked shell shocked, that she would have put years of effort into creating a spell of such importance for him. It blew him away that she had cared so much about him. "Thank you. You truly are brilliant, don't ever doubt that."
"Why are you thanking me? No one can use it." She shook her head, dejectedly
"Hermione, I'm thanking you because you cared enough to come up with it in the first place, that means more to me than anything." Harry needed her to know how important this was to him.
She smiled up at him "Well, when you put it that way."
Ron had been silent, thinking of the implications such a spell could bring, both good and bad. "Wait a minute, you mean that if the spell worked, then…" he trailed off, not wanting to voice his hopes
Hermione smiled sadly. "Yes Ron, the Burrow would be able to be rebuilt. Don't think that wasn't also behind my drive for this. I wanted to give you that too." The Burrow had been destroyed in a Death Eater attack right before their seventh year had started.
Ron just shook his head, still amazed at what she had created.
For the second time that morning Hermione realized the state of her clothing, or lack of really. "Umm, if you don't mind I think I'm going to finish that shower I started. Then maybe we can get out of here and check some places out. Max's spell had a potion component so he may have gone to a local shop to get supplies. There may be a receipt in his room."
"I don't remember seeing any receipts, but it won't hurt to look again, you may find something we don't." Ron stated.
Hermione got off the bed, Harry's robes completely engulfing her. He grabbed her wrist before she disappeared into the bathroom "I'll be right here, if you need anything just yell."
"Like I need to yell. You still haven't told me how you keep showing up at exactly the right time." She said lightly, not wanting to see the worried look in his eyes again.
"So sorry my dear Dr. Granger, some secrets are for keeping." He joked before kissing her on the nose and swatting her rear as she turned away from him, enjoying the shriek she let out.
"You'll pay for that Potter!" she yelled out right before shutting the door.
Harry's head was spinning from all the new information they had and knew Ron was thinking the same thing. "Caige can't know about this. She'll immediately assume that Hermione killed Max because of a threat of competition. She won't buy that there was someone else there, we haven't found any evidence that there was another person in the room." Ron could see that Harry was anxious about something, something that he wasn't telling him.
Ron leveled a look at him "What aren't you telling me?"
"Umm, well…I kind of did something I shouldn't have" Harry began "I searched the room for any blood evidence. Obviously I found a lot of Max's, but I also found someone else's."
"Well, that's good. That's most likely our culprit." Ron cut him off, relieved it wasn't anything bad.
"No, Ron. You don't understand. The blood I found…it was Hermione's." Harry waited a moment for that to sink in "And I kind of erased it." He added quietly, hoping Ron wouldn't hear that.
"Hermione's! You found Hermione's blood and you didn't say anything? You know that's the evidence Caige has been waiting for. Hell, if this were any other case we would have the person in custody by now." Ron had resumed his pacing, and was repeatedly raking his hands through his hair as well, until he stopped suddenly and Harry winced, knowing what was coming next. " You erased her blood?!?! You erased it? First how is that possible, and second, do you have any idea what this means?"
Harry looked at his shoes and hoped Ron would understand. "I know what it means. I know if anyone finds out we are off this case and back toEngland. As to how, well I'm not sure about that. I just know that I found it and identified it as Hermione's and then I remember thinking `That can't be there anymore.' And then it wasn't. It was just gone. I'm sorry Ron, I didn't mean to, it just…"
"happened…" Ron finished the sentence for him, all too familiar with Harry discovering a new power that had no name because no one else had ever had it. "This is a big deal mate. I mean, if this gets out, we're through."
"I know, and Hermione can't know either. I don't want her to worry about it." Harry said calmly, but his eyes were pleading with Ron.
With a resigned sigh Ron sat down next to Harry and drug a hand over his face. "This is big. If Caige gets a whiff that we found something….we can't stop anything then."
"I know. But we have to. You know she didn't do this. You know something else is going on." Harry stated. "We have to protect her from this, and find the bastard that hurt her. I'm serious when I say this Ron. I may just kill him."
Ron felt a small shiver run up his spine because he believed Harry right then, he really thought he could do it. "Don't worry. I'll protect her with my life if I have to and I know you will too. Besides, what other choice do we have, she's Hermione."
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