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.
I may from this point onward borrow a few places and names from the fabled 7th book by J. K. Rowling including but not limited to the given name of Luna's Father. I do this for convienience and not as a Spoiler or an indication that I agree in any way with that book's outcome.
Coming soon:
The first part of my Christmas Story. With the permission and cooperation of MissAnnThropic and the kind assistance of the_scribbler, I will bring you a continuation of "Vox Corporis", entitled Vox Corporis: A Very Voxie Christmas. My story will begin after the second Epilogue (Chapter 70) of Vox Corporis and takes into account as far as possible the_scribblers in progress story Vox Corporis: Rebirth.
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36 - Skirmish in the Alley
Robbie asked, "Dan, have you been holding out on us … is Hermione really a Witch?" Meanwhile Emma and Janet were looking between each other and each others daughters and occasionally at the young man standing beside Hermione, holding her hand.
"Gabrielle Delacour will not stop talking about 'ow 'e," Jeannette was now pointing at Harry, "Saved 'er life een zee Tournament."
"Oh for Merlin's sake … Gabrielle's life was never in any real danger during the Tournament," said Harry, "I simply took the instructions too literally … the Merpeople would have brought her back safely. Not that it mattered in the end." Harry looked very sad … he was thinking about Cedric again and how he died … 'kill the spare' that's all Cedric was to Voldemort, a spare, and for that, Cedric died. Hermione sensed his remorse and found her arm wrapping around Harry's waist ... she looked up at him as if to say 'you can't take the blame for everything that happens', and pulled him closer, tight against herself.
"Merpeople?" Janet said in a surprised, curious voice.
"Yes, certainly … they live at the bottom of the Black Lake …" Hermione began. Hermione knew for certain that Jeannette was also a Witch, but what of her parents.
Emma interrupted, "The food is getting cold, and we can finish this discussion at the table." There were some exasperated sighs, but everyone found their place at the table. Hermione had to magic her cousin over to sit between Jeannette and Harry. In a whispered warning that followed, Hermione told her cousin in no uncertain terms that Harry was 'Private Property' and she would get 'Burned' if she thought otherwise. Between bites of food the conversation continued and just like Dan and Emma, Robbie and Janet were not allowed to tell anyone that their daughter was a Witch. They were given a made up story to tell others about a Swiss Boarding School.
Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, it seemed, were almost as well known in the French magical world as they were in England though the French had their own Wizarding villages and shopping areas. Jeannette wanted to go there so they all agreed to go there the following morning … just to look around.
- - - - - - - -
Later that night, in Oxford, sleeping arrangements were re-organized. Robbie and Janet used Harry's room, Jeanette was in Hermione's room, presumably with Hermione, and Harry had the sofa in the living room. When asked by Emma, Harry said he was fine with the sofa, it was comfortable and with a pillow and blanket he would be content. The house was a comfortable temperature and certainly not draftee like the old castle. He could have, but didn't, say anything about missing Hermione's comforting presence.
- - - - - - - -
Tues Aug 26th
After Harry did an enlarging charm on the inside of Dan's car, they drove in from Oxford. While passing through London they briefly stopped at a few of the tourist traps on their way to the Leaky Cauldron and arrived near enough to mid day that food was the first topic of conversation once Robbie and Janet were assisted inside. Dan and Emma had been there many times before and knew the drill … just follow Hermione, she could see the door. Once inside they were past the anti-Muggle wards and made their way to some empty tables. Harry hovered three tables together using his wand. Once they decided what to order, Harry made his way up to the Bar and spoke to Tom, placing the order.
Harry turned and was about to return to their table when he heard the unmistakable sounds of spell fire coming from the archway entrance to Diagon Alley. A Witch he recognized from his first trip here with Hagrid stumbled into the tavern, it was Doris Crockford, and she whispered, "Death Eaters … a couple of dozen," before collapsing to the floor in an expanding pool of blood. Harry grabbed a dirty glass from the bar, starred at it a moment while muttering 'portus' under his breath. He placed the glass in Doris' hand as the blue glow faded and a few seconds later she was gone to Hogwarts hospital wing.
In a mad panic, the Pub's patrons made a dash out the door to Muggle London. Harry couldn't see Hermione in the chaos, but tried through their mind link to have her keep her relatives calm and seated at the table. After Doris had left Harry had conjured a thick stone wall between the Pub and the Alley entrance to give them some time to organize.
"Dobby," Harry called, and seconds later when the Pub was mostly cleared out the little House Elf appeared. Hermione got everyone up and together while Harry hustled Dobby over to them.
"Aren't you all leaving too?" Asked Tom as he was about to head into a back room.
"In a minute Tom … you go ahead, we'll be fine." Harry replied at the receding back of Tom the barman. He then turned to speak to the Elf, "Dobby, will you please take these five to the Gryffindor Common Room at Hogwarts where they'll be safe?" Harry indicated with his hands the four parents and Jeannette. "Then tell the Headmistress that there are Death Eaters in Diagon Alley and I've sent a victim to the Hospital Wing."
The teens saw the look on Dan and Emma's faces and Hermione took her Mother's hand saying, "We'll be along in a few minutes, Harry just wants to be sure a couple of friends are alright." She didn't say that those friends were at the far end of the Alley, in a joke shop, and they would probably have to fight their way down to them.
Hermione let go of her Mother's hand as Dobby said, "Theys will all be safe for you Master Harry and Miss Grangy." With a snap of his fingers and a loud 'crack' Dobby and the five were gone.
"That was what you had in mind … wasn't it dear?" Hermione said as she jabbed him in the side with her elbow.
"Oww … something like that, yes dear" responded Harry, "Do you feel like testing our new skills on a few Death Eaters?"
"I'm certainly not going to let you have all the fun yourself," she replied, "we stay together, side by side."
"I'll block, you attack, break their arms and summon their wands," Harry said as he banished the stone wall blocking their way to the entrance of Diagon Alley. The archway was open and Harry could see several bodies lying on the cobblestone walkway along with overturned tables, chairs and shopper's purchases lying abandoned. Harry pulled up his strongest shield, not knowing what spells were being cast, they both had their wands in one hand and a conjured replica in the other so as to not give away their use of wandless magic.
Most of the Death Eaters were near the entrance of Knockturn Alley suggesting they were entering through a shop in the dark alley. It didn't take long after Harry and Hermione cleared the archway before they were noticed. Hermione, sending reductor curses, bone breakers and stunners at the Death Eaters attracted their attention very quickly and the loose wands all summoned in her direction pointed at their problem. The DEs retaliated with a vengeance, Harry was blocking what he could and levitating the rubble around him to intercept the spells he couldn't block. The DEs formed a ragged line across the alley and focussed their attention on the two teens while reinforcements trickled in through Knockturn Alley. As fast as Hermione could take them out, their reinforcements were keeping their numbers fairly constant and they were advancing on the pair. Harry hadn't recognized Bella or Lucius or any of the other senior Death Eaters, but they could very well be orchestrating this from behind the lines. Harry lost his concentration for a moment when he was running short of items to block the unforgivables that were sporadically coming their way and a pair of curses got through. Hermione blocked one, but didn't see the blue beam that deflected off the storefront window until it was too late.
Hermione went down and Harry was pissed … supremely pissed … he could feel her mind and he could sense her injuries were not too severe, but he needed to end this quickly and get her out of here. First he needed to borrow some magic from her.
Harry severed the bits of grass from the ground between the cobbles and around a tree near him and levitated the grass to chest height. He increased its mass a thousand fold then sent the sharp blades at bullet like speed towards the wall of Death Eaters. While the grass was still moving, small and large rocks, the cobbles from the street, lifted into the air to follow the grass at the same breakneck speed. Magical shields work well enough against magical spells and most of the Death Eaters thought of nothing else, but projectiles, similar to muggle bullets need physical intervention to stop their progress. The Death Eaters robes were not nearly adequate to stop the blades of grass that sliced through them and cut deeply into their targets. The rocks that followed, from bullet size to bludger size cobbles, in combination with the grass, took out more than half of Tom's troops.
Aurors and Order members started to appear on both sides of the alley and kept the remaining DEs busy while Harry summoned Fawkes and conjured a thick stone wall to shield the two of them from more harm … then he bent down to check on Hermione. He carefully turned her over as Fawkes arrived, there wasn't much bleeding, but through her torn shirt Harry could see a large bruise on her left side and figured there were probably some broken ribs under it. Fawkes did what he could do with his tears and Harry knew that Poppy would have to set the broken bones. Harry returned the magical energy he borrowed from Hermione and a few seconds later her eyes fluttered open, followed shortly after by a groan from the pain of the broken ribs. When Hermione tried to focus on Harry her gaze was redirected to the scowling Headmistress standing over them.
"If you two ever pull a stunt like this again, I'll have you mopping dungeon floors for a month … do I make myself clear?"
"Yes Ma'am, perfectly," said Harry, "Hermione needs to see Madam Pomfrey, I think she has some broken ribs."
Minerva turned to Fawkes who was on the ground beside Hermione and gave him instructions to take Hermione to the Hospital Wing and make sure Madam Pomfrey knows she is there. Hermione took hold of Fawkes proffered tail feathers and was gone in a flash of red flame.
"Professor, I … I'd like to be with Hermione …" Harry stuttered.
"You're not injured too, are you Mr. Potter?" Asked the Headmistress.
"No Professor … I'm fine." Said Harry.
"Good, I'll let you go in a minute … did you conjure this stone wall?"
"Yes Professor," he replied.
Without telling him that she tried to banish it already and failed, (Harry was starting to give her an inferiority complex) Minerva asked, "Will you please remove it … it's safe out there, most of the DEs left when the Aurors and the Order arrived … other than the twenty or so that the two of you incapacitated. The Aurors are taking them away now."
Harry's gaze ran across the base of the wall before returning to the centre and following the wall to its top. The wall began to vanish from the bottom up like someone slowly raising a blind. Minerva shook her head in amazement before noticing that Harry now looked exhausted. He had pushed so much of his energy into Hermione to bring her around and then banishing the wall, left him wasted. Minerva located Hermione's wand amongst the thirty of forty wands scattered around their feet, summoned it and handed it to Harry. She then summoned what looked like a piece of broken window frame and turned it into a portkey, Harry watched the distinctive blue aura appear and vanish. "This will take you to the Gryffindor Common Room, I'm sure her parents are worried about both of you." Minerva said as she handed Harry the portkey. After she let go of the portkey, Harry felt the familiar tugging sensation behind his stomach and then the inevitable crash landing that, fortunately, was cushioned by a familiar old armchair. Minerva collected the remaining Death Eater's wands and handed them off to Mad-eye who had by then approached her.
Before he had taken more than a breath he was surrounded by those he thought of as family and they were asking questions so fast he could barely understand, 'Where have you been?', 'Where's Hermione?', 'What took you so long?', 'What happened?', and again 'Where's Hermione?'
Harry managed to extricate himself from the mushy armchair as he said, "Follow me to the Hospital Wing, she'll probably be trying to escape from Madam Pomfreys' clutches by the time we get there." Emma squeaked in horror and Janet gasped, Jeannette looked quite shocked, the two men groaned, but they all followed him as he made his way out through the portrait of the Fat Lady. Tired as he was, he desperately wanted to see Hermione for himself, he slowed for nothing, and the others were jogging to keep up. When he burst through the Hospital doors, Hermione was sitting up on a nearby bed, the one Harry usually ended up on, bright eyed and bushy haired as if nothing at all had happened. Someone had found her a clean top to replace the bloodied, torn one. Harry knew that was a good thing, because Dan and Emma wouldn't see the dramatic evidence of his failure to protect their daughter … the love of his life. Harry ran to her as fast as his tired legs could carry him … and as they neared each other their arms stretched out in anticipation. He gingerly wrapped his arms around her shoulders expecting her ribs to still be tender, he knew from past Quidditch experience that his ribs would still be tender. Harry often wondered if Madam Pomfrey left them that way on purpose, as a lesson, not painfully sore, just tender. Words weren't necessary between them, they could read each other like open books. Harry was trying to apologize to her for letting her down and not keeping her safe while she was trying to tell him it wasn't his fault and she would never have let him go out there alone without first having to fight her into submission. Hermione proved to be more stubborn than Harry; he finally gave up and crawled onto the bed, lying down behind her, holding her hand.
Madam Pomfrey was busy a few beds away hovering over the only other patient, the older Lady that burst into the Pub announcing the Death Eaters, Hermione didn't know her name. Madam Pomfrey had said that a portkey had brought her in earlier and she was in very serious condition.
Until now, Hermione was concentrating on Harry so much she wasn't able to pay proper attention to her parents and family until Harry crawled around behind her and dozed off. Since they hadn't been getting any answers they were now all talking at once and demanding responses. Hermione raised her hand and began to shower them with red and gold sparks … they quickly quieted and backed away, Jeannette was extremely impressed … of course she had no idea what her cousin was actually capable of. Hermione began explaining, "We got into a little skirmish in Diagon Alley and I got a bit careless …"
Unnoticed, Minerva had walked up behind them and interrupted Hermione's fairy tale with some of the truth, "The two of them," she said indicating Harry and Hermione, "Had taken on over forty Death Eaters by the time I and others arrived to help. We now have half of them in custody thanks entirely to their efforts, and most of those need far more medical attention than Hermione here needed. They probably saved hundreds of shoppers from death and injury. 'Little Skirmish', you call it … If you're going to tell tall tales like that to your parents young lady, I may have to revoke your Head Girl status." Minerva had a smile on her face as she walked over to inquire of Poppy, the condition of her old friend, Doris, the other patient.
The exasperated looks on the four adults faces was embarrassing her. "Alright," she started again, "Harry is very good at duelling and magical fighting …"
Minerva happened to be coming back past them at that time and caught the new beginning that Hermione was spouting. The Headmistress cleared her throat quite loudly as she walked past, interrupting Hermione's marginally more accurate tale.
"Oh alright then … we're both damn good at duelling and I wouldn't even consider letting him have all the fun by himself!" Emma was shocked at her daughter's language, but more surprised when Hermione spoke louder and asked Minerva, "Are you happy now?" Minerva turned her head, nodded her approval, and smiled back before leaving the Hospital Wing. Hermione continued on with the bare naked truth until she got to the point where she was blind sided by a curse that Harry wasn't able to block.
Hermione told them that Madam Pomfrey wasn't going to let her out for an hour or so to give the potions time to finish their work. She could ask Dobby to find them some food to replace the lunch that was so rudely interrupted and then maybe show them around the castle a bit until she was released, then they could continue their trip to Diagon Alley. Everyone agreed and Hermione called for Dobby.
A few minutes later Dobby had happily trundled the family off to the kitchens to find food, Madam Pomfrey had apparently done all she could for Doris and before leaving, told Hermione to lie down and rest for a while. As soon as Poppy was out of sight Hermione willingly complied, she twisted around, pulling Harry's hand that was holding on to hers around her neck as she settled into her favourite position. Her good side was on the bed, the rest of her was leaning over Harry with her head resting on his shoulder. He was warm and comfortable to rest against, she didn't intend to fall asleep, but the rhythm of his breathing and the rise and fall of his chest soon lulled her into unconsciousness. She dreamed of her and Harry and their statistically probable two point six children.
Her dream had managed to migrate into Harry's subconscious mind and after Poppy woke them up, checked them both over and kicked them out, Harry had to ask, though in a soft, tender voice, "Where in the world did you come up with two and a half kids?" He remembered from the dream, a little boy with brown hair and green eyes and a bubbly little girl with long black hair and chocolate eyes, then a third child that appeared to be wrapped in an invisibility cloak from the waist up.
Hermione's eyes opened wide, "You saw that dream?" she questioned.
"I think you were pushing it at me, but I liked it." He said while squeezing her hand and smiling back at her. "Can I talk you into a full Quidditch team," he said with a smirk on his face, he figured he was treading on thin ice, but he couldn't resist. "We have two castles to fill up you know … well, actually three if you count this one." He added still smirking.
"If you want a Quidditch team, you can jolly well go out and buy one … and if you think I'm going to fill up this castle for you, you're going to quickly loose your man-bits … besides you probably won't want to put up with an irrational, pregnant wife more than once anyway, unless you're completely insane." She countered.
"Then I'm madly in love and completely insane." He responded and laughed maniacally.
Hermione frowned, laughed, then they hugged and kissed, and continued their journey to find their family. Jeannette had found the Library, it was easily twice the size of the one at Beauxbatons, she ran in and started looking through the titles, shelf by shelf.
Madam Pince, who was unpacking and cataloguing new books looked up and asked, "May I help you?"
"Are there any dangerous books on these shelves?" Queried Jeannette as she looked around the corner.
"No," responded Irma, "They are all in the Restricted Section at the back … you'll need permission to get any of them. The original question concerned the parents and the answer, thankfully, eased their minds considerably until the noise level in the back of the Library increased. Madam Pince noticed it as well and announced, "Someone is coming." The books used to act up when Albus was passing by, but now it was when Harry or Hermione were near. Irma sighed; this would be something new to get used to. Once the newcomers entered, the silence was deafening … the books knew, the pair didn't even have to enter the Restricted Section any more to quiet the old tomes.