A/N: I am soooooooooooooooooooo sorry!!! I never intended there to be such a long time in between chapters of this story. What can I say, real life interferes, being a full time college student as well as a mom and a wife doesn't leave a lot of room for writing (unless it's a paper for class of course). This story WILL BE FINISHED!!! I promise. I'm at about the 2/3rd point right now. By the end of the summer the story will be completed. I had hoped to get it done before DH, and I will aim for that, but I don't know if it will happen. I hope those of you that were such devoted readers and reviewers before stay with me although I understand if you don't. I abhor unfinished stories and here I am committing the same sin. I apologize again and hope you like the latest chapter, it's not terribly long, but I had time to write and wanted to write so….enjoy!
Harry was noticeably quiet as he and Ron went about making repairs to the rooms.
"You know I'd do anything to protect her, right?" Ron said, thinking Harry's silence implied he was still upset. "I mean, she's like my sister and my best friend and something more all mashed together, I don't think there's a word for it, but I know what it is and I know what it means." He trailed off, not sure he was making sense.
Harry jerked his head around, startled out of his thoughts and confused for a moment about what Ron was saying. "Wh..no, of course. I was out of line before, I just….I was just thinking about how it's only been two days. Two days since we found her, it seems like it's been so much longer." He ran a hand through his hair and sank heavily into the nearest seat. "Why now? Why after all these years? Whoever we are dealing with is miles ahead of us right now."
Ron sat across the table from Harry and began doling out of the contents of the once mangled take out bag. "We're going to figure this out. Look…we may be playing catch up, but not for long." He wiped his slightly greasy hands on his pants and began ticking points off on his fingers. "Fact: Voldemort is dead. Period. This is not him. Fact: The famous Auror Partnership of Potter and Weasley has never been bested, and its not about to happen now. Fact: The bad guy always makes a mistake. Fact: Nothing else will happen to Hermione. Fact: We will get this bastard and he will pay for what he did." Ron dramatically concluded by taking a large bite of his sandwich and then pointing it at Harry for emphasis. "You'll see."
"Honestly Ronald, I know your mother and I know she taught you better manners than to talk with your mouth full." Hermione chided as she entered the room.
Ron swallowed his food with a large gulp and grinned at her. "Sorry Hermione."
"So, have you started this strategy session without me?" she asked, sensing that she had walked in on something.
"Not yet luv, just fixing some of the damage." Harry said lightly hoping she wouldn't push any further.
Hermione nodded and pulled her food closer to her. "I'm famished, three attempts on my life in as many days will do that to a girl." She said with a nervous laugh, obviously attempting to cover her real feelings.
Ron caught the blanch that crossed Harry's face and inwardly winced, hoping Hermione's glib comment wouldn't set him off. But Hermione saw it too and spoke quickly to diffuse the situation.
"I'm sorry! I'm just…I shouldn't have said that. I'm just tired of being two steps behind and not knowing what we're dealing with. I feel like I've hardly taken a breath the last few days, but we can't stop. I'm sorry." she shook her head slowly and picked at the food in front of her.
Harry knew this was hardest on her and he reached a hand over to cover hers. "Hey, it's alright. I know this is difficult but you can't let it get to you."
She gave him a tight smile and took a deep breath. "Alright, so, where do we start?"
Ron took the hint and jumped in. "Donnegan's a big player in all of this, we've got to find out who he was working for and why. How long had he been developing the spell, and if he had worked it out before or after he was recruited."
"Well, as far as I know he had been working on it for at least a year, but probably much longer than that. That apothecary shop we were at must have known about him, we should go back there." Hermione suggested
"No, the shop and its owner play a part in this as well, I just don't know what yet." Harry interjected.
"I agree, we know the shop owner was lying, we just don't know why and we know the son is involved somehow. What I really want to know is who the hell that bloke was that was just here and where did he go." Ron stated
Hermione got a funny look on her face and jumped up, heading towards the other room. "I can't believe I forgot." She mumbled to herself as she walked away.
The boys exchanged confused looks before following her. "Mione, what is it? Are you ok?" Harry asked, concern in his voice.
"Yes, I'm fine. A complete idiot, but fine." She replied, exasperated.
Hermione approached the area of the room where the stranger had been held against the wall and drew her wand. She concentrated for a moment before nodding and turning back to Harry and Ron. "It was a portkey. A time specific portkey to be exact. Local transport only though, so he couldn't have gone far. I don't think he was sent here to kill me, I think he was sent her to take me back."
Harry's eyes shut hard as he fought to control his magics. When he opened them Hermione was right in front of him. "I'm ok." He whispered as he gathered her to him. "And so are you, and its going to stay that way."
"You uh…you couldn't maybe figure out where it went locally, could you?" Ron asked
She shook her head "No, if we were back home, then I probably could, but I'm not familiar enough with this place. I can't tell you beyond the fact that the portkey wasn't designed for distance, he didn't go far."
"So, lets go over what we've got. We've got the Dark Mark, a copy cat obviously, but why? We've got one dead spellmaker, who was or wasn't being coerced to work. We've got one shop owner with a weird son who knows more than she's letting on. We've got a dead desk clerk who must have seen something she shouldn't have. We've got multiple attempts on Hermione's life because she is now the only person capable of uncovering the Unforgiveables. And, we've got a mystery person in Donnegan's hotel room. Did I get everything?" Ron asked as Harry and Hermione looked on.
"No, I think that's about it." Harry said resignedly "It just seems that there is more to it that we're not seeing. I want to go back to the shop tonight, see if we can't get in and…"
But Harry was cut off as there was a sharp rapping on the door. "Open up!"
Harry was at the door in two long strides and opened it to reveal a very pissed off Inspector Caige.
"You have a lot of explaining to do Potter! Leaving the scene of a crime. Tsk tsk. Is that how they train aurors across the pond?" she spat, pacing a short distance away, a chaotic energy about her.
"I'm sorry Inspector but you'll have to be more specific." Harry said, feeling the other two come up behind him now.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about! You three were seen entering the Green Goose Inn but no one saw you leave and only a few minutes later the desk clerk was discovered to be dead, and you three were no where to be found. Is that specific enough for you?" Her eyes gleamed, triumph showing clearly on her face.
"Inspector I can assure you we were not at the Green Goose today. We had lunch in town and then came back here to rest, its been a trying few days." Harry lied smoothly, knowing there was no way for her to prove anything
"You were there! You're lying!"Caige screamed, enraged that he would be so bold
"And what evidence do you have, other than a `witness'?"
"My witness is credible, and I will prove that you're lying!"
"I have already informed you that I will answer any questions you may have. I've even offered to take veritaserum if it will help and that offer still stands." Harry heard Hermione's small gasp and felt her grab the back of his robes, he hoped she trusted him enough to not say anything right now.
"Yes! Veritaserum!" Caige turned towards one of her officers "Get this set up, right away!"
"Harry!" Hermione hissed as low as she could in his ear "What are you doing?!?"
He turned towards her and lowered his head as if to kiss her "Trust me, she won't find anything out." He said softly before pressing his lips to hers.
"Let's go Potter!" Caige demanded "I'd like to see you get out of this one." Then she turned to Ron and Hermione "You two will stay here, I think there's been enough Ministry interference for now."
They started to protest but were cut off by Harry "It's fine, don't worry. I'll be back soon." He hugged Hermione quickly and caught Ron's eye before following Caige from the room.
Hermione stepped closer to Ron as Harry left, confident in whatever he was planning but nervous all the same. Harry turned back towards them and threw them a wink that went undetected by Caige and her officers.
Once they were out of sight Ron shut the door and braced himself for the barrage Hermione was sure to send his way. "What is he up to?" she demanded
"Well, uh, I don't know if Harry's mentioned this to you or not, it's not something that comes up in everyday conversation exactly, but Harry can kind of throw off the effects of veritaserum." Ron said quickly, hoping her reaction wouldn't be too loud.
But Hermione was quiet, which actually worried Ron more. "Uh, Hermione…."
She smiled ruefully "I'm not surprised, nothing he does surprises me anymore. How?"
"During some of our advanced Auror training we had to be put under veritaserum, to see how it affected us and if we could attempt to fight it off. No one really can, just like no one can really fight off the Imperious, but you still try to. But our boy Harry, well, he was able to fight it off, just like he's able to do all the other things that no one is supposed to be able to do." Ron shrugged and waited for her response.
"Well, then we've got some time on our hands don't we."
Ron quirked an eyebrow at her, confused "What are you getting at?"
"If Harry can fight off the veritaserum like you say then all he's going to accomplish is making Caige even more infuriated than she is right now, she's going to test him over and over again to try and get what she wants. He's going to be there for awhile."
Ron could tell she was leading up to something and he was fairly certain he wasn't going to like it. "And…"
"And, so, we shouldn't waste this time. Caige is otherwise occupied along with half of her staff. We should go back to the apothecary shop and see if we can get in and get some information on our mysterious proprietor and her son."
Ron pinched the bridge of his nose "Harry is not going to like this Hermione. What do you think he's going to say when he finds out? He'll have my head!"
But Hermione didn't seem to be hearing him, she was racing around the room gathering items before coming around to face him. "Oh he will not. He'll understand that we had to take the opportunity presented to us. We can't waste any more time, he said so himself. Besides, you're with me and I am a fully trained witch, we'll be fine." And with a whip of her hair she was out the door.
Ron sighed before speaking to the empty room "Why do I have a feeling this is not going to turn out well."
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