To Sweet-Lemmon: Since the sex was only referenced without any detail, the lesser rating seemed to suffice. If the moderators disagree, I'll up the rating and apply the same principles to similar scenes in future stories. And yes, leprechaun, I created the Orate out of simple need. That's the beauty of HP fiction. Nearly any problem can be solved by creative use of magic. Of course, magic also comes with trapdoors that need blocking if a story is to stay on course. The excitement lies in the challenge. And on that note, the next chapter awaits. Happy reading.
Harry's heart was in his throat. He felt like he might choke on the words that spilled out of his mouth.
"Are you serious?" he gaped. "How?" As if following an unspoken command, his eyes fell on his mother's ring on Hermione's left hand. "The ring?" Harry shook his head, feeling momentarily dizzy. "Are you sure? Is it really possible?"
Harry had said all this very quickly, his repressed excitement making him tremble.
"We have to go, Harry," Hermione said suddenly. "Time is growing short, and the spell won't work in this room."
"What spell?" Harry said numbly, his mind still refusing to function.
"The Portkey Charm, of course," Hermione replied as she started for the door. "This whole pub is protected against people coming and going magically. Too easy for someone to duck out without paying his bill. If this is going to work, we have to go out into the open."
Hermione unlocked the door and handed the key to Harry.
"Give this back to Tom," she said. "This time, we won't be coming back."
Saying no more, Hermione hurried down the stairs, Harry following as his mind echoed with her parting words. "This time, we won't be coming back." He hoped that the deeper implications of that statement did not come to pass.
When they reached the foot of the stairs, Harry pulled his room key out of his pocket and sent it toward the bar with a Banishing Charm. With an easy twist of the wrist, Harry sent the key unerringly toward a row of brass hooks, where it impaled itself on the appropriate number and swung back and forth a couple of times before coming to rest. Pocketing his wand with a satisfied nod, Harry dashed out the back door and saw that Hermione was already opening the wall so they could enter Diagon Alley. Her wand was in her hand, and she thrust it into her pocket hurriedly as the stones parted before her to reveal the ominous shadows lurking beast-like in the silent, narrow street. She plunged through the portal without looking back, and Harry had to accelerate his pace to catch up with her.
"Where are we going?" Harry asked as he loped alongside Hermione, his longer legs having closed the distance between them easily.
"Somewhere private," Hermione said. "We can't afford to be interrupted."
"Would someone try to stop us?" Harry asked. "Someone spying for Voldemort?"
"No," Hermione replied, though, in fact, that thought had occurred to her. Knockturn Alley was not far away, and it was certain that the merchants who inhabited that dismal canyon were at the very least sympathizers with Voldemort's aims, if not outright supporters. But her immediate concerns lay elsewhere. "It's growing dark, and the street will soon be filled with magical folk celebrating the holiday. The shops may be closed, but the buildings are far from deserted. Most of these merchants live just above their premises, as Tom does. Any one of them could disrupt our plans simply by bumping into us at a crucial moment."
"So, where are we going?" Harry repeated.
"A place I heard some of the girls talking about a couple of times," Hermione said between sharp intakes of breath. "It's a deserted shop where couples go to...be alone. They call it the Shag Shack."
Harry snorted involuntarily, his short bark of laughter purely reflexive.
"Since it's abandoned, there are no wards around it," Hermione said. "Actually, I'm not entirely sure it will be uninhabited in this era. But one of the girls said her mum used it when she was still in school, so I'm thinking it's been empty for a long time. I only pray that 'long time' is at least sixteen years."
"Are you sure you can find it?" Harry asked logically. Darkness was falling quickly, and the magical torches that began to ignite one by one cast flickering shadows over the storefronts, making even such familiar shops as Flourish and Blotts appear strange and unrecognizable.
Either Hermione did not hear Harry's question, or she was too busy scrutinizing the shadowed storefronts to spare the time needed to reply. She stopped suddenly, and Harry nearly tripped as he pulled up beside her.
"This is it," she said tonelessly, which lack of certitude led Harry to suspect that she was not as unequivocal as she came off. She pressed her face to the filmed, web-festooned glass and peered inside. She appeared to have satisfied whatever lingering doubts she had been harboring, for she drew her wand, looked around and behind her quickly, and stepped before the front door. At a softly spoken "Alohomora," the door opened silently, surprising Harry, who had expected some sound of protest from the old, rusted hinges. But this in itself swept away the last crease of doubt from Hermione's brow. "These hinges are well-oiled," she said, her words both statement and final argument. As Hermione pushed the door open and stepped over the threshold, Harry put a hand on her shoulder, making her jump.
"Sorry," Harry said as Hermione chastised him with a quick look. "But I just thought, wouldn't tonight be just the sort of night when someone might want to use this place for…you know…"
"Good thinking, Harry," Hermione said, a smile replacing her stern expression of a moment before. Pulling Harry inside, she closed the door and pointed her wand again.
"Colloportus!"
Harry heard the door lock click. Hermione's smile tightened triumphantly.
"I put an extra bit of magic behind the locking spell. If anyone tries to enter using an ordinary unlocking spell, the door won't open straightaway and we'll hear them fumbling with the handle, giving us time to hide. But I hope we won't be here long enough to test it. In fact, I pray to Heaven we won't."
Harry felt foolish asking the question perching on the end of his tongue like an owl tensed to take wing, but he knew he must. "You'll be using the Rebound Portkey Charm on my mum's ring?"
"Yes," Hermione said softly over her shoulder as she turned toward the center of the room. "Lumos!" Her wand-tip ignited, and she cast the light before her in a sweeping arc. The back wall was covered with empty shelves standing behind a long counter. A thick layer of dust covered everything in sight. No, not everything, Harry observed with a brief smile. When Hermione's light-beam passed over a flight of stairs, he saw a dark, slightly irregular path leading up the steps. He saw Hermione nod at this as well.
"See those footprints in the dust on either edge of the stairs? This place is used often. We'd better hurry."
Hermione led Harry behind the counter. She sat down on the dusty floor, Harry following her example. When their heads dropped below the edge of the counter, the torchlight struggling to penetrate the grimy glass was cut off from their line of sight. There was no chance of their being observed from without.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Harry said anxiously. He watched as Hermione removed the ring he had placed on her finger only minutes (and, it now seemed, a lifetime) ago and held it out before her.
"As sure as I can be," she said. "It all depends on the accuracy of Sirius' account in the Orate. If this ring has followed the exact path you described, the Rebound Charm will send it straight back where it came from."
"Back to my parents' house?" Harry said, his voice sounding almost childish.
"Yes," Hermione said. "But maybe 'straight back' wasn't the best choice of terms."
"What do you mean?"
"There's a very long 'string' connected to this ring," Hermione said. "It's a lot like a shoelace, threaded through one eyehole, over to another, back through the next one, and so on. When you pull out a shoelace to replace it, it has to pass through every hole through which it's threaded, in the reverse order in which it was threaded."
"Like the Priori Incantatum," Harry said.
"Yes," Hermione nodded. "So, as far as the ring is concerned, when we tug on the 'string,' the last place it's been is the first place it will return to. Gryffindor Tower. You slept with it around your neck for two months. That's long enough for a link to be established."
"But that was in 1997, not 1981," Harry said.
"The magical aura surrounding Hogwarts is over a thousand years old," Hermione said. "It should be essentially the same now as in the future."
"And if it isn't?"
"But it won't actually go to Gryffindor Tower," Hermione continued as if she had not heard Harry's question. "It won't be able to penetrate the protective wards. It will bounce off. We'll bounce off."
Harry could now see Hermione's line of reasoning.
"Before Dumbledore gave me the ring," he said, "it sat in Sirius' vault for sixteen years. When it bounces off Hogwarts' wards, it'll go straight to Gringotts."
"Give the Head Boy an 'O,'" Hermione said approvingly. "And when it gets there, it will bounce off the bank's protective wards. And when that happens, it will continue to follow the string straight back to the place where Sirius got it in the first place."
"My parents' house," Harry said with a sort of fearful eagerness. "But what about those protective wards? The ring will pass straight through because that's where it came from. But what about us?"
"Harry," Hermione said with a touch of exasperation. "Don't you see? That house isn't just your parents' house. It's your house as well! Do you really think that your mum and dad would have structured the spell not to include their son? You may not be a baby, but you're still Harry Potter, and the spell surrounding the house will recognize you as such and let you pass."
"What about you?" Harry said with a chill of realization. "You said it yourself, the spell will only let a Potter pass! How will you get through? If there's a chance you'll be harmed - "
"I've thought about that," Hermione said quickly. "How was it that we were both hurled into the past when it was only my Bonding Ring that was enchanted with the Inversion Charm? The Bonding Charm creates a magical link between our rings. When we're close together, the way we were when we went up the Floo, our auras mingle until it's as if we're a single person. In this case, I'm banking on it working the other way around. If we cling to one another very tightly, the Charm linking our rings should allow your aura to flow through and around me, allowing us both to pass through as if we were one person, namely you."
"That sounds kind of dodgy to be risking one's life on," Harry protested. "If it doesn't work, you'll just go shooting off to Merlin knows where - and you said yourself, every ricochet increases the risk, and that would be the third deflection. I don't like it."
"There's something else," Hermione said. "You and I are 'married' now, at least in the wizarding sense. In essence, we're now a single spiritual entity. 'The two shall be as one,'" she quoted. "The wards around your house should now recognize me as a Potter, just as it recognizes your mum. So, if we add that to the Bonding Charm - "
"If!" Harry said sharply. "I'm hearing too many 'ifs' and 'shoulds' for my liking. I don't fancy you risking your life on a bloody if!"
"There's one more thing," Hermione said very softly. To his surprise, Harry detected an unmistakable note of apology in her voice. "When I made up my mind to do this - when you were busy returning the room key - I used my wand..." She paused, averting her eyes from Harry's searching gaze. "I...removed the Contraceptive Charm and substituted a Fertility Charm."
"You what?" Harry shouted, heedless of their need for secrecy as the empty shop reverberated with hollow echoes. His voice immediately softened as he said pleadingly, "Why? Why did you do that? Why now?"
"Because..." Hermione said through the beginnings of tears, "...because when...when we..." She swallowed heavily, stifling a sob. "Because if I'm carrying the seed of our child...of your child...inside me, then..."
"The protective spell will let you through," Harry finished, "because an actual, physical part of me will be living and growing inside you. Oh, Hermione..."
Harry took his new wife (as she truly was now in every sense of the term) in his arms and held her tenderly as she trembled against him in silent anguish, her hot tears wetting his robes. The wedding ring slipped from her nerveless fingers and fell to the floor, its metallic report muted by the thick layers of dust.
"If there's even the smallest chance you're carrying our child," Harry said, "then I really don't want you to go. Bloody hell, Potter! Of all the witches in the world, why did you have to fall in love with the stubbornest...thick-headed...infuriating..." Harry buried his face in the tangle of his wife's bushy mane, which absorbed the tears streaming down his cheeks as quickly as they escaped his eyes. "Don't go," he pleaded. "Just Charm the ring and I'll go alone. It'll only take one of us to warn them. I promise, if I can't save them, I'll come back. You know nothing in Heaven or on Earth can keep me from coming back to you."
Hermione drew back slowly, wiping tears from her eyes. Her smile was pale and thin. "I know you, Harry. Better than you know yourself. If you went alone, and you were unable to warn your parents in time, you wouldn't run away and save yourself. You'd stay and face Voldemort with them. You'd die with them rather than live with the knowledge that you failed to save them...again. And if that happened, I wouldn't want to go on living. I'm sorry, Harry. I know you want to keep me safe...especially now. But I meant what I said before. A day - an hour - as your wife is better than a hundred years as your widow.
"I love you," she said in a hushed whisper that yet rang against Harry's soul with the force of a hammer on an anvil. "Your road is my road. Wherever it leads, we'll travel it together."
Making no sound, Harry bunched up the sleeve of his robes and wiped Hermione's cheeks, which burned darkly in the dusky twilight upon the pale oval of her face. With a strange, unnatural calm, he removed his glasses, wiped them on his sleeve, and replaced them. He then reached down and picked up his mother's wedding ring, which lay a few inches to his right.
"You'd better Charm the ring," he said evenly. "If Voldemort puts his barrier up, neither one of us will get through."
Hermione smothered her husband's mouth in a quick, hot kiss, then snapped back, her shoulders squared, as Harry placed his mother's ring in her hand.
Harry sat still and silent as Hermione closed her eyes and concentrated. She lifted her wand, touched its tip to the ring sitting on her open palm.
"Portus Reciprocus!"
Harry watched as his mother's ring glowed a pale blue in the semi-darkness for a few seconds. The pallid light faded quickly, leaving dancing spots before his eyes. Without waiting for instructions, he placed his hand flat over his wife's, feeling the hard circle of the ring pressed between their palms. Hermione returned her wand to her robes smoothly. Harry slipped his arm around Hermione's waist and held her firmly against him, the hands sandwiching the ring pressed between them against their stomachs. Hermione's free arm clung to Harry like a band of velvet steel, sealing the ring between them.
"I love you," Harry whispered into Hermione's ear as his cheek nestled against her bushy hair.
It happened in an instant. Harry felt a sharp jerk behind his navel, and in a rush of wind the deserted shop vanished. With an effort, he managed to loop his legs around Hermione's and lock his ankles fast. His robes whipped about him. Hermione's hair danced in front of his face. Time had no meaning as they flew through the air on the magical wings of the portkey-ring pressed firmly between them.
Without warning, Harry was rocked by a sharp jolt that momentarily stole the breath from his lungs. He heard Hermione gasp, felt her jerk in his grasp. Nothing was visible through the fog rushing by in a frenzied blur, but Harry concluded that they had impacted with, and rebounded from, the wards protecting Gryffindor Tower. He clung to Hermione more tightly, his arms aching.
Their flight seemed more erratic now. Bouncing off of Hogwarts had affected their stability, as Hermione had predicted. Once they tumbled heels over head, and Harry felt his stomach lurch. Thank Merlin they'd had no time to eat before leaving.
A second impact, more jarring than the first. Gringotts! Harry squeezed his eyes shut, praying, "Please let it work. Please let it work."
It was a mad flight, Harry thought in the back of his mind. From London all the way up to Scotland, only to return to London not two minutes' walk from their starting point. And from there - where? For all his earlier bluster, Harry did not truly know how far away his parents' house was. Would they have to go all the way back up to Scotland? Had his parents perhaps sought refuge in Ireland? Had they fled the U.K. altogether? Were he and Hermione streaking across the continent, or even spanning the ocean? Distance meant nothing to a wizard who could Apparate. How he wished he could! But what would that have gained him if he did not know where to Apparate? But the ring-turned-portkey knew where it was going. He would have to place his faith in the ring. And in Hermione.
Harry's stomach lurched again, but it was different this time. Were they slowing? Were they even now approaching his parents' house? Harry clung desperately to Hermione, determined that his arms would be torn from their sockets before he let her be separated from him. She's got to get through, he thought desperately. She's got to!
WHAM! Harry felt himself strike solid ground. Unable to keep his feet (his ankles were still locked together in a death-grip), Harry tumbled and rolled. He heard Hermione yelp. She was still with him! They had done it!
Harry sat up slowly. His glasses were hanging off his left ear. A quick examination revealed that they were undamaged. Thank Merlin! Bad enough the prospect of facing Voldemort, let alone facing him half-blind!
Hermione was struggling against Harry. He had used his left hand to check his glasses, releasing the ring in the process, but his right arm was still holding her against him. He relaxed his arm, and Hermione sighed, groaned, and rose to her feet with a grunt. Harry found this simple action a bit more difficult. Hermione's legs had been relaxed throughout their journey, while his were now cramped from having been tensed for so long. His feet tingling with returning circulation, Harry stood up beside Hermione.
She was not looking in his direction. What was she looking at? Harry eased up beside her and followed her gaze downward. He nearly cried out. His hands gripping the railing of the crib, Harry looked down onto - himself!
One-year-old Harry Potter was sleeping peacefully, his tiny body curled up, the diminutive fingers of his left hand clutching the arm of a stuffed Paddington Bear. It was by far the strangest thing Harry had ever experienced. He was literally in two places at once!
Hermione snapped him out of his fog. "How are we going to present ourselves to James and Lily without panicking them, or getting ourselves attacked? We can't fight back. We're here to save them, not hurt them."
"There's no time to be subtle," Harry said as he strained to see the tiny luminous numbers on the face of his watch. "Follow my lead."
Harry drew his wand and carefully opened the door of "his" nursery. Hermione followed, her own wand before her. Abruptly a soft gasp escaped her lips. She spun around, caught up her fallen wedding ring and slipped it back on her finger next to her Bonding Ring. In an instant she was back at Harry's side. They trod lightly through a short corridor until they heard muted voices engaged in a pleasant conversation. They stopped at the edge of a doorway beyond which lay a small dining area. As Harry tensed to surge forward, Hermione placed her hand on his arm.
"Try to stay in the shadows," she said softly. "If they see your face..." Harry nodded.
"Stunning spell," Harry whispered. "Ready? Go!"
Harry and Hermione leaped out into the dining room. Lily and James Potter jerked their heads toward them, their youthful faces masks of horror. Both moved swiftly, precisely, their movements smooth and practiced. James fell back in his chair, reaching for his wand in a lightning motion. Lily threw herself sideways, drawing her own wand as she fell. Harry had fully expected them to be carrying their wands on their persons, even in the supposed safety of their home. He would expect nothing less of picked members of the Order of the Phoenix. Their reactive movements were calculated to give them the precious moments needed to repel just such an attack as they were faced with now. And it would have worked against any other opponent. But Harry, having studied basic Auror strategies with Tonks and Moody for more than a year (and honing those skills in practice sessions in the Room of Requirement throughout Sixth Year), recognized their moves, and he essayed the counter-move without a moment's pause. He leaped away toward his father's right, forcing the man to twist around to point his wand at Harry. It was a delay of only a moment, but a moment was all Harry needed.
"Stupefy!" he shouted. A beam of red light hit James square in the chest, and he fell back, insensate.
In the space of the same instant, Hermione had flung herself at Lily. The red-haired witch had fallen in the direction opposite her husband, rolling onto her side as she drew her wand and whirled like a cat crouched to spring. Though Hermione was not technically training to be an Auror, as was Harry, it was she with whom her fiancée had practiced all last year in the Room of Requirement. She recognized Lily's move, and she could have countered it smoothly did she not have a surer course of action. Trusting that Lily would not use a dangerous spell with her baby son sleeping in the next room, Hermione stood boldly before her and pointed her wand with an exaggerated flourish.
"Expelliarmus!" Lily cried.
Hermione smiled inwardly as she felt her Bonding Ring hum lightly. The Inversion Charm reversed the disarming spell, fusing Hermione's wand to her hand. Lily gaped for a moment, and in that moment, Hermione acted.
"Stupefy!"
Lily Potter fell back, stunned to insensibility. Hermione calmly walked the length of the room and picked up her defeated opponent's fallen wand. She turned to look at Harry, who was now holding his father's wand.
"Now what?" she asked, indecisive for one of the few times in her life. "We can't haul them away bodily. Even using magical stretchers, we'd be moving much too slowly, especially with a baby to carry. We'd need to get out of range of the Fidelius before hailing the Knight Bus, even assuming we could convince Ernie to take us aboard - we'd have to do a lot of fast talking to explain away an unconscious witch and wizard, not to mention a baby. But without some form of magical travel, we couldn't get far enough away that Voldemort couldn't find us easily. We can't use the ring, because unlike ordinary portkeys, a Rebound Portkey only works one way. And there's no time to find a suitable object to make another." Her eyes fell desperately onto the unconscious witch and wizard as she asked, "What do we do with them now that we've got them?"
Like Hermione, Harry was staring down at his parents, particularly at his mother. This was the first time he had seen her in the flesh. His first glimpse of his parents had been in the Mirror of Erised in his first year at Hogwarts. He'd seen them more clearly a few years later in Snape's memory, which he'd visited in Dumbledore's Pensieve. These images had been augmented by the photos in the album presented to him by Hagrid, and, later, by his dreams, the most recent of which had been barely an hour ago. But these shadows paled now in the stark light of reality. His father was much like the picture Harry had nurtured in his mind, but he was mildly surprised to find his mother's hair a shade darker than he'd imagined. It reminded him of Hermione's hair, though it could never match Hermione's bushy fullness. He saw again the fearful scene of Voldemort hurling the Killing Curse - the burst of green light - Hermione falling -
"Harry?" Hermione repeated. "What do we do now?" Harry shook himself and turned to face Hermione.
"We convince them," he said, sounding more confident than he felt as he forcefully swept away the terrible scene he'd just re-imagined.
Harry pointed his wand at his father. Hermione did likewise with Lily. Nodding, they chorused, "Ennervate!"
James and Lily Potter rose from the floor, shook their heads to clear their thoughts before coming instantly alert.
"I wouldn't have believed it," Lily said in disbelief. "How could he do it?" Harry knew she was talking about Wormtail. "How could he betray us like this?"
"What does it matter why he did it?" James spat. "He has. That's all that matters." He turned to face Harry, who was standing in a shadowed corner, his features a gray blur. "Voldemort didn't have the bollocks to come himself, then? He sent a couple of mangy dogs to do it for him? Gone soft, has he? Or is he simply too cowardly to kill a baby himself?"
Lily's lovely face instantly contorted. "Please," she whispered. "Not Harry! I'll do anything!"
Hearing these desperate words not in a dream, but from his mother's own lips, Harry felt as if a knife had been plunged into his heart.
"We didn't come here to kill anyone," he said. "We came here to stop a killing."
James regarded Harry cynically.
"Right. That's why you invaded our house, attacked us, and took our wands. Would that all our guests had such manners."
"We're not Death Eaters," Harry said. His eyes never leaving his father's, he jerked the left sleeve of his robes up, baring his forearm. Thrusting his arm into the light while keeping his face hidden, he said, "See? No Dark Mark."
"That proves nothing," James said acidly. "Voldemort's spies would be worthless to him if they couldn't hide the Dark Mark at need."
"If you aren't working for Voldemort," Lily put in, "how did you find our house? Only Peter knows where we are. If he were still loyal, he would have told no one without our permission. And if he did betray us to Voldemort, the only way you could have overheard was to be in Voldemort's sanctum when Peter told him."
"Beautiful and smart," James said with a loving glance at his wife. "Well?" he said sharply to Harry.
"Snape," Hermione said suddenly. James and Lily turned their heads as one. "Snape got word to us as soon as he heard. He - he forced Pettigrew to write your address on a piece of parchment, which he smuggled out to us."
"No one inside Voldemort's circle knows Snivellus is working for us," James said doubtfully. "Unless," he added slowly, "Voldemort's found him out..."
"Damn it!" Harry rapped impatiently. "Voldemort will be here any minute! He'll place a barrier around the house to keep you from leaving via magic! You have to take Harry and go, now!"
James and Lily exchanged a worried look, and Harry lowered his voice pleadingly.
"Go to Dumbledore. Tell him Wormtail betrayed you. Tell him - tell him that Sirius is innocent."
"Sirius?" Lily said. "How did - of course. Peter told you."
"No," Harry said. "Sirius told me. He said it was his idea to use Wormtail as Secret Keeper instead of him. If anything happens to you, he'll never forgive himself."
As James and Lily continued to vacillate, Harry glanced at Hermione, who had fallen silent, following Harry's lead.
"What do we do now?" Hermione whispered.
Harry thought a moment before a small smile appeared on his face.
"Remember the Shrieking Shack?"
Hermione nodded, smiling. They produced the wands they had taken from James and Lily. They tossed the wands back to their owners, who caught them and, hesitating not an instant, immediately pointed them at Harry and Hermione. Harry heaved a ragged sigh.
"It worked out better when Remus did it."
"Remus?" James said, his head jerking up. He was still pointing his wand at Harry, but his arm did not seem as tense as it had been a moment ago. "What's Remus got to do with this?"
"Never mind Remus," Harry said urgently. "Voldemort is on his way to kill Harry! For Merlin's sake, just take him and go!"
"James?" Lily said, lowering her wand marginally. "I think they're telling the truth. Voldemort's supporters never call him by name. But it's more than that...there's something about his voice...I don't know...but I believe him."
Harry nearly wept. Maybe it was something in his voice - or maybe it had to do with the aura Hermione had gone on about - but his mother seemed to sense that he was something more than the stranger he appeared to be. Nevertheless, his father's suspicions were not yet fully quelled. A forthright man, James Potter would not trust anyone until he had looked directly into his eyes. If this stranger were what he claimed, why did he continue to lurk in the shadows? What was he hiding?
"Step into the light," James ordered.
With a resigned sigh, Harry stepped forward, and Lily cried out.
"It's - it's you, James!"
"Explain yourself," James demanded, his wand arm steady once more.
Thinking quickly, Harry said, "Polyjuice. D-Dumbledore took some hairs from everyone in the Order. I was acting as a - decoy tonight, trying to lure Voldemort away. It didn't work. Wormtail told him that you're all here. So please, go! Go before it's too late!"
James paused before he said slowly, "Even if you're not working for Voldemort, that doesn't necessarily make you Dumbledore's man. If you're working for Dumbledore, tell me something about him. Something personal. Something only his friends would know."
Harry screwed up his face as he thought hard. "He's...very fond of Muggle sweets. Favors sherbet lemons. Hates Bertie Bott's Beans, though. Got a vomit-flavored one as a boy."
Harry saw James' arm relax ever so slightly. He strove to think of something else, but Hermione spoke again.
"Did he ever tell you about Aberforth and the goat?"
James and Lily both looked intently at Hermione.
"But, you know," Hermione said thoughtfully, "he never did tell us the precise nature of those 'inappropriate Charms.' He didn't happen to tell you, did he?"
Lily laughed out loud. "He never did, though Merlin knows we pressed him often enough."
The tension seemed to flow out of the room like water down a plug hole. Lily was now regarding her former adversary in a completely new light. Her eyes fell on Hermione's left hand, darted quickly to Harry's, then back again.
"Bonding Rings?" she said with a smile that lit up her whole face and made her green eyes dance like emerald flames. "You're married, then?"
Caught off-guard, Hermione stammered, "Um, yes...newlyweds, actually."
"And is that a Muggle wedding ring you're wearing? You're Muggle-born, too?" Hermione nodded. James and Lily both laughed, their wand arms relaxing. The day Voldemort engaged Muggle-borns as Death Eaters, elephants would nest in trees and the Thames would flow backward into the Irish Sea. "It's beautiful," Lily said, her eyes on Hermione's ring. "Very much like the one James gave me. You must tell me where - "
But James suddenly exploded to life, the terror in his eyes magnified by the lenses of his glasses.
"Bloody hell! Voldemort is on his way, you say?"
Lily's humor vanished instantly. "Harry!"
Harry nearly responded before realizing that his mother was referring not to him, but to her one-year-old son who was sleeping in the next room. He dashed to the front window and parted the curtains a crack to see out. The street lights shone on an empty street.
"No sign of him yet," he said. "Hurry! Go to Hogsmeade! Tell Dumbledore! If he can rally the Order in time, maybe we can sort Voldemort out for good."
Lily dashed into the nursery and returned seconds later with a tiny bundle cradled in her arms. She tugged the blanket over little Harry's face and looked up.
"How can we ever thank you?" she said, her emerald eyes glowing with inexpressible gratitude.
"Time enough for that later, Lily," James said. "We'll thank them properly after we've seen to Harry's safety." He caught up two traveling cloaks from a coat rack and draped one over his wife's shoulders. "You two coming?" he said to Harry and Hermione as he threw his cloak over his shoulders. "How did you get through the anti-Apparation barrier, by the way? Lily's Charms are usually foolproof."
"Long story," Harry sighed. "Go!" he said urgently. "We'll be along."
Their eyes communicating their gratitude more eloquently than words, James and Lily, the latter holding her one-year-old son to her bosom, vanished with a soft popping sound. A hush fell over the Potter house as Harry and Hermione looked at each other in dumb astonishment.
"We did it," Harry said disbelievingly. "I can't believe it. We did it!
"And I couldn't have done it alone," he added, his eyes brimming over with love.
"Now all we have to do is get ourselves safely away," Hermione said. "How are we going to do that?"
"Actually," Harry confessed, "I didn't think that far ahead."
"Men," Hermione grunted. But she smiled a moment later, and Harry fell on her and hugged her.
"Let's go out the back way," Harry said. "Blimey, I could use a good night's sleep after all this excitement. I almost wish we still had our room key at the Leaky Cauldron."
"Not me," Hermione said as they walked through the kitchen toward the back door. "We have Muggle money now. There must be a good hotel somewhere around here - wherever the bloody heck we are. We'll get a nice room. With a big, soft bed." She winked at Harry, who grinned through crimson cheeks. "But that's for later," Hermione announced. "Tonight is Halloween! I didn't get to go to the Ball at Hogwarts, but I'm sure there are some good parties out there that won't notice a couple of last-minute crashers."
"Smashing!" Harry said. "But take it easy," he added, suddenly serious. His eyes fell onto Hermione's abdomen, and it was her turn to blush.
"We don't even know if I am, silly. Fertility Charms aren't foolproof, you know."
"Until we do know," Harry said, "we'll act as if you are. I'm your husband now. You have to obey me."
"I don't remember promising that," Hermione said, her eyes narrowing with amusement.
"It's part of the Muggle ceremony," Harry said bluffly. "Everyone knows that."
"Delusion is the first sign of insanity, Potter," Hermione said as she pointed her wand at the door lock. "Alohomora!"
The clicking sound each expected to hear was not forthcoming.
"Try again," Harry said, his levity melting quickly.
Hermione repeated the spell, with no better results.
"Everyone always said my mum was a whiz at Charms," Harry said in as light a tone as he could manage. "My dad said so just a minute ago."
"There's no such thing as an unbreakable Charm," Hermione said confidently. "All it takes is time."
But time was the one thing they did not have. As Hermione pointed her wand at the door lock once more, the silence was broken by a gentle knocking on the front door.