Disclaimer: Any characters you recognize from the first 6 books in the Harry Potter series by J K Rowling belong to the aforementioned J K Rowling. I am simply playing with them for my amusement, and to see what kind of reaction I can get.
The quick updates you have been enjoying have nearly caught up to my writing. The next update will probably be in 2 weeks, depends on how fast I write and it's going slow at the moment. That was the bad news … the good part follows (I hope).
(25) Off Again
Tuesday July 8
"He's got a nasty headache from the bumps and bruises." Hermione said, "but otherwise he feels fine." Hermione kept the eye contact, actively searching through his mind to try to find out where the pain was coming from. As Hermione moved closer to him, only Harry could see her eyes change shape and colour. While her body didn't change Hermione was able to change the shape and size of her eyes to resemble those of a Phoenix and she was able to collect on her index fingers a couple of tears from each eye before they returned to normal. She applied one damp finger to Harry's cheek where Vernon had hit him and then she moved as much of his hair away from the bump on the back of his head as she could and applied the second finger of tears to that bump. About a minute later Harry's cheek appeared normal and the bump on the back of his head was gone as was his headache.
"What was that you did!" Poppy was almost yelling at Hermione, unsure what kind of magic she was using.
"Phoenix tears." Said Hermione in a gentle voice while she ran her hands through Harry's hair. "I looked through Harry's mind to find where the pain was coming from and applied the tears externally."
Harry said, "Thank you dear." While Poppy and Minerva looked at the teens in surprise. Both women knew she was a Phoenix, but she wasn't transformed at the time. They hadn't noticed her eyes change because she was facing Harry at the time. They would never have been sure that an Animagus Phoenixes tears contained the same healing powers as a normal Phoenix. If you could call a Phoenix normal.
There was only one police car left outside when Minerva asked the female officer back inside. Statements were taken from Harry and Hermione to corroborate the written reports that the three officers would make later. Harry asked for a few minutes to talk to his Aunt while the officer talked to Hermione.
Harry later talked to the officer and she doubted that either Dudley or Vernon would be released soon, they had too much 'attitude', unless someone put up a significant amount for bail. Harry and Hermione then asked if there was anything they could do for the officers in the hospital or the poor girl that Dudley attacked. She told them that the officers had probably been released from the hospital by now and she couldn't divulge the name of the girl, but they could try room 312 of the nearest hospital. Harry knew which hospital that was as he had been there a few times in the past when Dudley got carried away beating on him. Harry and Hermione thanked the officer and by the time everything settled down it was well past noon, allowing the teens to leave.
Aunt Petunia took them to the Hospital, but she didn't feel comfortable going in to see the girl. Harry and Hermione found their way to room 312 quite easily. No one attempted to stop them or ask who they were. The name tag by the door had 'Rose Zeller' printed on it. Hermione recognized the name to be the same as a Hufflepuff girl a few years behind them, could it be? They quickly looked around, no one was watching, so they went into the room. The girl was awake but quite a mess, Hermione asked softly, "Can you speak."
"Yes." Came an equally soft reply.
"Does the word Hogwarts, mean anything to you?" asked Hermione.
"My School." She answered. "And who are you?" She could barely see, her eyes were swollen closed.
"Harry Potter and Hermione Granger." Harry replied, "We heard about your … situation … and came to see if we could help."
"Can you find my parents?" Rose asked.
'Fawkes' Harry called out in his mind, as Hermione asked Rose if her parents were magic or Muggle. Rose replied that they're both magical so these Muggles will never find them. Hermione asked her to imagine her parents and where they would be now. Fawkes had arrived and Harry was telling him to bring Roses Parents. Fawkes wanted to heal Rose, but Harry insisted that he bring her parents first.
Hermione told Harry to go outside and lock the door so the muggles couldn't get in. She was going to have to open up Roses hospital gown to get at all the cuts and bruises.
When the Zellers arrived Fawkes hopped down to the bed and the two Phoenixes made short work of repairing the young girl's wounds. The Phoenixes moved away to allow the parents access to their daughter. Unobserved, behind Roses parents, Hermione transformed back to herself before moving closer. It surprised the parents when a hand reached over and their daughter was covered again in the muggle hospital gown.
"We can take you to see Madam Pomfrey, Rose should see a healer in case there's anything we missed, but you need to sign her out of this hospital so the Muggle authorities will have a way to contact her for the trial of her attackers. If she simply disappears from here there won't be any punishment for them." Said Hermione as she called Harry back into the room. "Most importantly, you never saw us or the two Phoenixes." Hermione pulled her wand and said, "Now I should use some glamour charms to make her look as bad as before so the muggles won't be suspicious when we take her away."
While Hermione was applying the glamour charms Rose explained what happened. The group of boys were bullying her so she pulled out her wand intending on stunning them. When the large boy saw her wand he went crazy and jumped on her knocking her down and pinning her to the grass. He took her wand and broke it before beating her and knocking her unconscious.
Hermione said, "The boys have been caught and are now in police custody. We found out because one of the boys is Harry's Muggle cousin and he had been taught by his father to hate anyone magical including Harry. When you pulled your wand, he would have recognized what it was and knew you were a witch."
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Once Rose was signed out of the Hospital they used a wheelchair to transport her to Aunt Petunia's waiting car. Petunia was in shocked horror to see this badly beaten girl slip into the back seat with her parents. Harry got into the front seat before making introductions then asked Petunia to take them all to Mrs. Figg's. Petunia looked at Harry like he was crazy before Harry explained that Mrs. Figg was a Squib and she had a magical fireplace. Then Harry had to explain what a Squib was.
Hermione said she would meet them at Mrs. Figg's, and then disappeared into the parking lot looking for a place she could hide and apparate.
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Hermione met them all on the sidewalk in front of Mrs. Figg's house on Wisteria Walk and guided them all inside while Petunia continued home. Once inside Hermione removed the glamour charms she had placed on Rose. Hermione had apparated here from the parking lot of the Hospital and explained most of it to the charming old lady who kindly agreed to the use of her fireplace.
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They used the floo connection to get to Minerva's office in Hogwarts, Hermione stayed to explain to Minerva while Harry took the Zellers to the Hospital Wing. After leaving Rose and her parents with Madam Pomfrey, the teens explained what happened, to Minerva. The Headmistress was needless to say quite concerned with the interference they had caused at the Muggle hospital and with the Muggle legal system until they explained that her parents had signed Rose out of the hospital and left contact information for the hospital and police.
As it turned out, the two Phoenixes had missed some minor internal injuries that, as Madam Pomfrey told Rose and her parents would have healed in a short time anyway. After Poppy performed her magic on Rose they were allowed to go on the condition that they see Headmistress McGonagall before they leave the castle.
Hermione was beginning to relax after a hectic morning and early afternoon when she suddenly realized that she had summoned Fawkes and given him orders in front of Muggle Police, though the Police didn't seem to question it. You don't normally see a very large red and gold bird fly into a Muggle house, let alone appear to take orders and fly back out. When Hermione fully explained her conundrum to Madam Pomfrey, the Matron merely smiled for a moment before responding. "Fawkes is a very smart old bird; he doesn't allow himself to be seen by Muggles or even us unless he wants to. The Muggles probably remember a sparrow flying in and out and your commands to Fawkes were probably obliviated by him. There is a lot more that you can learn from Fawkes besides flying, apparating and healing. Spend some time with Fawkes … there's a thousand years of knowledge and then some, in that old bird."
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It was getting late in the afternoon by now so Harry and Hermione travelled straight to Oxford and settled in while waiting for her parents to return from work. They started planning for the next few days back at Hogwarts, they needed to find Horcruxes and be able to destroy Horcruxes as well as duelling practice, occlumency and legilimency practice. Harry wondered when they were going to find time for all this.
Dan and Emma had arrived home, supper had come and gone and now it was early evening. Hermione reminded Harry that they had said they would stop at The Burrow on their way back from Surrey, they had been sidetracked by other events and evening was probably better because Mr. Weasley would also be home now.
When they arrived at The Burrow they found Molly very quickly, Bill, Fleur, Ron and Luna were there also, Ginny was visiting Neville. Fleur and Hermione wandered outside and Arthur came out of his study when he heard Harry's voice. He and Molly had a quiet discussion with Harry about his generosity while they cleared up the last of their concerns. Bill and Fleur would end up with a fabulous wedding, not too crazy, but a lot nicer than they originally planned. Arthur, Molly and Bill thanked Harry profusely before they'd let him look for Hermione.
Harry had just gone outside when he saw Hermione and Fleur, a long way off, but apparently on their way back. Harry tried to reach out with his mind and sense Hermione's feelings, all he perceived was a sense of happiness which was fine for now. He assumed they were talking about Fleur's wedding plans. Because of Bill's injuries they had moved the wedding back to the beginning of August to allow him some more time to heal and get accustomed to his new quirks. At the last full moon he didn't turn into a werewolf, but he did become quite irritable bordering on vicious. Fleur found that a calming draft eased his temper and quieted him to a normal level.
Harry wandered out to meet Fleur and Hermione. When they met, Fleur thanked Harry for his generosity and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. Harry and Hermione excused themselves and Hermione apparated herself and Harry back to Oxford. The next day they would be leaving for Hogwarts from The Burrow at eleven.
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Wed July 9 ch 25
They had both slept in, thus missing the departure of the Grangers that morning. Hermione woke up, on her own, first this time, and was quite torn between staying with her warm, lumpy pillow and the call of nature that awoke her. When she realized the lateness of the hour, she wriggled her way up Harry and kissed him. That woke him up in more ways than one and he reacted by squeezing her while returning her kiss. Hermione disapparated from his hug with a squeaked, "Gotta go." And a 'POP' that was loud, but not ear shattering.
A slightly surprised Harry flopped over onto his back and looked down at the pyramid like structure of the quilt at his hips, willing it to collapse. He heard a scream coming from the loo, "Harry get up! We're going to be late getting to The Burrow!"
Harry groaned before whining, "Forget them … come back and cuddle."
"Harry! Come on … I'm starting the shower … I'll wash your back for you."
Invigorated by the thought and with a smile on his lips, he got out of bed before saying, "You never seem to know where my back starts and stops." While moving in the direction of her voice.
"You haven't figured out where my back starts and stops either." Hermione replied with a smirk. "Maybe we need more practice?"
"I think it's the confundus charm you put on me." He whispered as he slipped into the shower with her.
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Hermione apparated Harry, with a loud 'POP', to the Weasley's back yard and they started to walk towards the house hand in hand, with smiles on their faces.
They both waved at Ron when he stuck his head out the window and yelled, "We were going to start looking for you, if you didn't show up soon." Luna slapped Ron on his bum causing him to jump and straighten up. He turned and looked at Luna as if to say 'what did I do?'
They all gathered in the Weasley kitchen and Harry called Fawkes. The large red and gold bird arrived moments later in a flash of red flame and landed on a chair back facing Harry. Harry and Fawkes traded thoughts for a moment, apparently Minerva wasn't in her office so Harry sent Fawkes back to alert the Headmistress of their impending arrival. Soon Fawkes returned passing on an image of the Head's Common Room to Harry who nodded accepting the choice. Everyone joined hands and Fawkes apparated them to the agreed destination. On arrival, Ron, Neville and Ginny looked curiously at Harry trying to understand how or if he was actually communicating to Fawkes.
Hermione caught their stares and said only one word, "Legilimency." Enlightenment dawned and a few head shakes followed.
Luna asked, "Hermione, do you have a plan worked out for what we're doing this week?"
"Well," Hermione said hesitantly, "Tomorrow Harry promised to help Professor Slughorn for a while. I could help you guys learn legilimency then, later we could proceed to occlumency when Harry returns. Today, we could do some DA practice and some research into horcruxes as we have one to destroy."
"We should also explore our Animagus forms and get familiar with their abilities." Added Harry, "Have any of you told anyone about it?"
"Harry," said Neville, "I showed my Gran and she was really happy … until I told her she couldn't say anything about it or I'd be in trouble because I'm not getting registered. She was still happy, but I think she wanted to be able to brag to her friends." Neville smiled.
"I know it's exciting, I just don't want too many people knowing since we're not going to get registered … for a while" said Harry, "Anyone else?"
"My Dad has known since last summer" said Luna, "And I'm not registered."
"We didn't dare tell Mom and Dad," said Ron, "but we showed Fred and George when we went to their shop in Diagon Alley."
"They were most impressed," said Giinny, "they won't tell anyone, we made them promise."
"I expect McGonagall will inform The Order, at least the higher ups, which includes your parents and Bill, so you might as well let them in on it first. They know I'm a Phoenix now anyway." Said Hermione.
"Oh, before we split up into couples … The Headmistress is aware of our … 'sleeping arrangements' … as long as we don't get obvious about it, she'll turn a blind eye." said Harry, "She was, however, most concerned that Ginny and Luna wouldn't get into … 'trouble'. Hermione assured her that you wouldn't. If you need any potions, let Hermione or me know."
"I was planning on using the Room of Requirement for DA as we have before and I doubt if we will be using the Gryffindor Common Room for anything this week besides relaxing in case anyone feels the need to relocate their sleeping quarters." said Harry
"We might as well fly, run or trot down to lunch," suggested Hermione, "After we sort out our 'nocturnal arrangements' as Harry put it."
Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna made their way to the Gryffindor Common Room a few paintings away down the hall. After they entered Ron's strategic mind cut in and he said, "We have to use the boy's dorms because of the stairs, but we shouldn't use our sixth year dorms in case one of us in our sleep walks in on the other couple or someone comes looking for us." So they split up into couples.
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The four met back in the Gryffindor Common Room in time to head down for lunch in the Great Hall. Harry and Hermione were already seated in The Great Hall when the four arrived.
When asked by Minerva, near the end of lunch, Hermione reiterated their rough plan for today and tomorrow. Remus had been coming to the castle to prepare for his Defence post and Minerva suggested that he and Filius check out the DA training.
"We're going to try to teach you to do wandless magic, we should all try it. In battle if you loose your wand, at the very least you may be able to get it back or cast a shield. That was the idea Harry and I started with. Let's get up to The Room of Requirement where we can practice." Said Hermione.
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In the Room of Requirement
Hermione started by explaining that the major differences were the amount of concentration to focus the magic and building up the magical energy before releasing it. Essentially the functions that your wand does for you. Your wand, because of its core and the magical wood it's made of, magnifies your magic and focuses it. Without a wand you have to build up the … reserve of magical energy … inside you, while concentrating on what you want it to do. At first, you'll have to concentrate really hard, hard enough to create sweat. When you release the magic, you have to direct it to where you want the magic to act. You can say the spell if you want, it may help you concentrate on the result and you can point your finger as if it were your wand, that may help you give it direction. Once you have some success, your mind and body will start to learn what they need to do. With practice it will become easier. Once you get to the stage where Harry and I are, it becomes more like accidental magic, you simply concentrate on the results and it happens.
"A word of warning" Hermione said, "Don't start out with lighting a candle, I nearly roasted Harry and myself with a huge fireball trying to light a tiny candle. Proportion is important. Watch this."
Hermione appeared to concentrate and a small candle appeared in mid air about 2 meters away from the group. There were three gasps, Harry and Luna only smiled. The candle stayed motionless and Hermione continued by saying, "Proportion is the first lesson, keep your eyes open and on the target." Well above the candle, Hermione conjured a candle flame that was about half a meter across at the base. It remained floating well above the candle.
"Now if I lower that onto the candle as it is, the poor candle will vaporize from the heat and ignite causing a larger flash fire."
Hermione reduced the size of the flame to a suitable size for the candle then started moving it towards the candle. "You need to hold it there for a few seconds as if you were holding a match to light the candle, then release the magic." The flame landed on the wick of the candle and remained for a second before it disappeared and the candles own flickering flame remained.
Remus had entered the room and watched as the flame shrunk and floated over to the candle. During a second glance around he was confused that no one had a wand out to do the magic. Remus stood near the door watching. Harry had noticed him, but everyone else was facing the centre of the room watching the candle with intense interest.
"Why don't you start them out with feathers, dear, they should be relatively harmless." Harry said as he conjured an eagle feather and sent it flying into the candle like an arrow.
"Harry! Quit playing around! This is serious!" Hermione said as she waved her hand, the lit candle and feather both vanished and as her hand returned a table with four large white feathers appeared.
"Whoa!" Ron exclaimed. And Remus simply nodded his head, smiled and started to move towards them.
"Hello Professor Lupin" said Harry, startling the group who hadn't heard him come in.
"For the time being call me Remus, I'm not your Professor yet and I only came to watch."