A/N: Here we go, catching up with a few old friends, along with a few plot clues...To those in the US, A good Memorial Day, take time to remember those who gave their all for you. Thanks as usual to Lady Starlight for her work on this chapter, and as usual I really own only the plot, OC's random electrons, and possibly in some universe everything else...but probably not this one.
Chapter 21: A Flicker in Time.
***************************London************************************
November 13, 2015 (Friday night)
9:25 pm
Hermione slipped through the thick, milling crowd, ignoring the occasional looks of admiration, hate, or even lust directed towards her, as she sipped from a crystal flute handed to her by a passing white-suited server. Brown eyes slowly scanned through the crowd, watching carefully for any hint of raven hair moving through the clustered throngs of wizards and witches, most of who were here to be seen, rather than for any actual support of the cause celebrated tonight.
She sighed faintly, taking another sip of her beverage, as she stood in the midst of another unwanted Ministry event. Though as this one was ostensibly a charity event for the Foundation of Interspecies Cooperation, one of the Potter charities, she couldn't escape, especially since all the leads of the recent attacks had dried up. Hermione nodded as Gryphold Norton, a member of the Ministry's council on Interspecies Relations waved and turned back to the small blonde, thirty years his junior, who was evidently his date.
A faint snort disturbed the air, and Hermione stepped back, pulling a curtain of air around her and vanishing from plain view. She stood back, out of traffic, and sipped her drink. She smirked and shook her head as she scanned across the room, and found a large knot of young males, along with more than a few young females gathered together.
One of the young men moved, and Hermione found whom she had been expecting, having talked to her just the other day when she got back into London.
A young woman with long, silver-blonde hair stood in the center of the group, laughing at some comment one of the other young women said. The brunette who had made the joke took a step forward, the blonde took her hand for an instant, and the brunette seemed to melt into the floor. A long, floor-length silver dress was painted onto the blonde's curves, baring her shoulders and her entire back, to the very top of her bum, revealing a small tattoo of a phoenix with its wings spread at the small of her back. A long slit slipped up the left side of the dress, exposing just for an instant, a battered leather wand sheath.
She turned and looked around the room, and nodded faintly in Hermione's direction, and Hermione saluted her with her glass. Gabrielle smiled brightly, and took the brunette girl's hand back in her own, and then reached over, grabbing the hand of a tall, dark-haired man in her other.
A visible sigh seemed to manifest itself on the air, and the crowd dispersed around her, leaving Gabby alone with her two suitors. She kissed the girl, and turned, kissing the dark-haired man, pulling him down to her with force of will alone. She stepped back and the other two fell into each others' arms. Gabby squeezed their joined hands and made a vague motion in Hermione's direction and the pair nodded, dancing together as Gabrielle moved off with a small, happy smile.
Hermione relaxed back into the arms that wrapped around her from behind, black sleeves that crossed the fall of emerald silk that was her gown. Alright there, Love? Harry asked as his hands joined on her lower belly, possibly a touch too low for polite society, but neither cared about convention.
She looked up and back with small grin, reached backwards to grab his hair for a moment as she kissed him hello, Just Gabby, Hermione replied. She got back Wednesday from Tibet.
Harry nodded. Gabrielle Delacour had followed in her brother-in-law's footsteps, and had stepped beyond them. The diminutive girl had become Gringotts' premier "recovery expert", specializing in finding lost treasures and occasionally people, regardless of where or how they were lost or hidden. And there wasn't a riot this time?
Hermione reached up and back, and tapped him lightly on the back of the head, just as Gabrielle stepped around a large man deep in conversation with himself, and into view. "Hello, Hermione, Harry," Gabrielle greeted in nearly accentless English, courtesy of a year of intense training.
"Hi, Gabby," Harry replied, stepping away from Hermione long enough to receive the part-veela's hug. Hermione hugged her as well, causing a few annoyed looks to slip their way as the See-Me-Not Glamour had dissipated, and stepped back into Harry's embrace. "I heard that you just got back?"
"Oui," she replied, shrugging, "ever since that solicitor, Armbruster's, ledgers came out after his death, I've been tracking things all over...It's amazing the things that he had hidden, for his...less reputable clients, and you know how the Goblins are about getting back their property?" She smiled helplessly, and took a flute from a passing server, giving him a smile in return. Gabby looked back to the Potters and missed the vague look in the server's eyes as he staggered away with a loopy smile on his face.
"You need to tone it down, Gabby," Hermione said softly.
Gabrielle flushed faintly, "Sorry, I've been in the wilderness so long..." She took a breath and held it, and a beat later a beautiful girl stood where an almost ethereal beauty had shone a moment better. "Better?" she asked. Hermione nodded. Gabby looked around; back towards the pair she had been with, and back to Hermione. "I heard about Molly's little tantrum, from Angelina."
"Yeah," Hermione sighed, "is she still at it? I haven't talked to anyone from the family since this last weekend."
"Hell if I know, Molly has barely said two words to me since Anita and I kissed at the Victory Ball last summer."
Hermione looked back over at the brunette girl that Gabrielle had left across the room, "You don't charm her, Gabby?" Hermione said lowly.
"Oh, Merlin, non, non..." Gabrielle said softly, just a touch of pain in her eyes, "I would never..." She shrugged, "I just hadn't seen either of them until tonight, Anita was out of town trying to negotiate the new supply agreement for Acromantula silk with the twins' suppliers in Brazil, and Micah was up in Edinburgh for some patient of his-It doesn't really affect them anymore...so I didn't notice."
"What'd you mean it doesn't affect them?" Harry smirked, "she sure seemed affected," he added with a raised eyebrow.
Gabrielle sighed and a happy, distant look filled her eyes, as the fingers of her free hand unconsciously pressed against her belly, just below her navel. "I...we were planning, something." A faint blush dusted her cheeks as she looked across the room.
"Then why are you here?"
"Goblins said that their "Tomb Raider" needed to be seen in a public event, after that little incident with the Welsh Green...How was I to know that there was one in stasis under Webley Stadium?"
"Has anyone ever explained to them that name?" Hermione asked after a laugh.
"Non, but Anita bought me the outfit for my birthday," Gabby's eyes twinkled devilishly.
A soft, chirping sound cut her off and she frowned, lifting a finger to hold Harry's comment. She made a small folding mirror appear from somewhere, before flipping it open and stepping back to listen. A hard look filled her eyes, and she sighed, and shot an apologetic look across the room to her roommates as she closed the mirror. Anita sighed and shrugged back, before Gabby quickly grabbed her wand from the garter under her dress, unheedingly giving a nearby elderly wizard a bit of a thrill.
She flicked it, and a shimmering cone dropped from the ceiling, isolating them from the rest of the room. "I might get in trouble...Fuck it," she sighed, "You know that Gringotts had me on retrieval since Bill is out of the field these days?" Hermione nodded. "There were certain ledgers and items that I retrieved from Armbruster's caches, with a whole bunch of Dark Artifacts among them." Harry crooked an eyebrow, "I know that I was supposed to turn them in, but I was told not to...and we all know that there are Merlin knows how many Dark Artifacts hidden away in some of the vaults..."
Her fingers reached up, running though her hair, and disturbing her careful coffiture, "Someone broke in and stole several crates."
"Someone broke into Gringotts?" Hermione growled, and Gabby shook her head, sending her hair flying.
"No, the Goblin in charge of recovered assets wanted the stuff stashed at the East-End sub-office, there is some sort of legal challenge on some it from Armbruster's heirs." Gabby frowned, "I need to go...I'll let you know." Harry nodded, and he and Hermione watched as Gabby walked across the room, slipping through the crowd like a hot knife through butter. Her innate gifts could repel as well as attract, if she really wanted them to. She stopped next to Anita and Micah, and said something with rather large set of annoyed gestures. Micah kissed the top of her head, and she left with an annoyed swing to her stride, moving rather quickly for one wearing three-inch heels.
You want to wait here?
Hermione looked up and back, Of course not, let's go.
**************************Hogwarts*************************************
10:35pm
Emilia glanced up as Justin stood from the table and bent down, kissing the top of Rain's head.
"Later, luv," he murmured and she grinned up at him, watching as he walked backwards to the Portrait hole, and slipped out with a small wave.
Rain sighed helplessly as the door closed quietly behind him; before she crossed her arms before her on the study table her and Em shared and dropped her head to them. Her hair fell forward, hiding her face.
"You alright, Rain?" Emilia whispered, reaching across the table to brush back her hair from her face.
Rain shrugged, "I don't want him to go," she sighed. They both glanced over to the couch, as Harriet stirred, with Gaheris crowding her into the back of the couch. Harriet settled back down, just as Emilia's brother dropped into a chair across the coffee table from the couch, and started to read. Rain snorted and looked back to Em, before dropping her head back to her arms.
"What's wrong?"
Rain lifted her head, and gave Em a half-hearted glare for the span of several long seconds. She shrugged, "Every night...when you slip out to go to Xander...I love you, Em...but I damn near hate you then, too...Stupid fucking hat," she added feelingly.
Emilia smiled for a millisecond, "That's what you get for dating a younger boy..."
Rain smirked slightly, "Oh...he's a man, dear."
"Rain," Em snapped lowly and her hand flashed. A shimmering curtain surrounded them for an instant, before fading from normal sight. The soft murmur of the Common Room vanished and Em took a quick breath, "You haven't...please, Rain, tell me you haven't," she pleaded, reaching across the table and grabbing both of the other girl's hands in hers.
"Of course not, do you think that I want to end up preggers and a squib?" Rain growled...and shrugged, tiredly, "It's possible that he's close enough to his sixteenth for it not to matter, that the charm would still work well enough to keep me from getting knocked up, and I'm old enough to carry it if it didn't-probably-but I don't want to take the chance."
"I'm sorry, Rain, I..."
"I watched you last year...watched you and Xander every day from Christmas to your birthday...It's the same thing, Sis," Rain went on, quietly. "We won't screw up...no matter how much it hurts."
"It's worth waiting for," Emilia smirked.
"It better be," Rain groused, and then giggled. Her face reddened, and she looked down, "We've come close a couple of times...but I won't let you down, Em."
"I know," Em replied and dismissed the charm with a vague gesture. She looked back up and towards the girls' stairs. She stood and leaned close to Rain, "Let's go see if we can do anything about that pesky ward, shall we?"
Rain grinned hugely and stood, following Em as she discreetly flicked her wand about, watching the flickers of color in her expanded vision, and noting the responses to each gentle probe she sent at it.
**********************Ministry of Magic***************************
November 14, 2015
8:20 am
Harry stared in the depths of his coffee as he sat in the rather dim conference room he found himself in this fine Saturday morning. He had originally meant to travel to Hogwarts to catch the Slytherin/Ravenclaw match and take the "kids" to dinner, a vague description that might be as many as eight or ten these days, sometimes more.
Hermione was slumped in the chair next to him, her head pillowed on her crossed arms as she stared at the white ceramic mug in front of her, as if trying to conjure some bit of arcane knowledge from the picture of Crookshanks holding up a sign labeled, "World's Greatest Mum." Em had "purchased" it for her when she was three, for her birthday, and it had been repaired at least three times.
Harry reached over and slowly petted the back of her head, the pair of them having long since given up on any sort of limitations on displays of affection, other than those that might prove...embarrassing. Or at least give Remus and Tonks ammunition in their never-ending war of pranks and jokes that had been going on since the Potters' seventh year.
She turned her head to rest her cheek on her arms and gave him a faint smile, leaning into his hand slightly as he ran his fingers down her cheek. Lunch at Sumalee's? he murmured, stoking the back of her head lightly.
Why, she smiled tiredly, did you do something...I didn't notice the house on fire when we left.
Ha, Ha...
They both looked up as the door to the conference room opened, and Remus stalked in, leading another pair of disparate beings, both of whom looked almost as irritated as Remus. He sat down at the head of the table, and gestured annoyedly at the empty chairs.
A rather tall goblin stomped in, and jumped up to the chair specifically for him, set opposite Remus and discretely lifted so as to give him equal height to the humans-or Homo Magicus, as the most recent papers out of Stonehenge proclaimed. He pulled a crystal from a pouch at his side and slid it down the table, towards Remus, "There," he growled.
Remus said nothing as he reached forward and took the crystal from the table, setting it in a silver, three-pronged holder on the table. He started to touch it and looked over at the other newcomer, "Sit, Gabrielle."
Gabby sighed and crossed her arms, tapping her foot idly. As opposed to last night, she was dressed for work: battered jeans worn low on her hips under a tight black t-shirt that almost reached her waistband and a black dragonhide jacket. A pair of dark, Muggle sunglasses were set on her forehead, over her hair, which was pulled back into a tight braid. Remus gave her a look, and she sighed, dropping into an empty seat, and tossing her combat-booted feet up on the table. She played with the wand strapped to her left thigh, before looking back at Remus.
"Comfortable?" he asked wryly.
Gabrielle's eyes flared, before she took a breath, "Non...What do you think, Remus...I am quarter-veela...and I have not seen my...mates in a month, and that was just for a night...You are, lucky...that I do not do the crone thing." She dropped her boots from the table anyway and leaned forward with her elbows on the table.
Remus nodded, and touched the crystal with his wand. Instantly, flaming letters appeared in the air, spelling out a listing of items. He looked over to Gabrielle, "Some of that is what I brought in...the part of the stolen list anyway," she shrugged.
Remus slowly drummed his fingers on the tabletop, "You brought in, a Chair of DeSaud, and a bloody Soul Scepter, Agent Delacour, and you didn't feel it necessary to tell the Ministry."
"Gringotts is not accountable to the Ministry," the Goblin shouted suddenly, cutting off any objection that Gabrielle might have voiced. "It is enough that we are telling you now..."
"Mister Longclaw," Hermione replied firmly, "we are not trying to pry into Gringotts' business, however both of those items should have been secured in the Department of Mysteries, or destroyed."
Longclaw growled, and Gabby shot him a look, and amazingly the Goblin silenced, "I am sorry, Hermione, it was my fault, I should have destroyed them on site. Despite," she glared at Longclaw, "what the wishes of certain families may have been. I got sloppy."
Remus accepted her apology not in so many words with a nod; he looked at her nominal superior, "In the future, Mr. Longclaw, any such artifacts will be reported to the Ministry...there are several dark wizards that would...and very possibly have, give their left stone for some of these items." He took a breath and grabbed the crystal from the stand cutting off the projection, "We will inform you if we recover any of the other items, good day." Remus' tone was more than sufficient to communicate that this interview was over.
Gabrielle and the goblin stood from the table, he stepped out the door, grumbling all the while, and she had just reached it when Remus' voice stopped her.
"Agent Delacour, a moment."
She turned back and gestured to the Goblin, he looked annoyed but nodded and continued on, towards a floo to Gringotts. Gabby shut the door and looked back at Remus.
His face softened, "I'm sorry, Gabby," he shrugged, "If they sack you, I will make it up to you."
"It's alright, Uncle Remus," she smirked, despite what Molly might think these days, he was as much a part of the family as any of them, "Longclaw is not my greatest fan, but I doubt his boss will let them sack me, I've been too profitable over the years." She frowned, "I am sorry, I was honestzy going to destroy them and a few others...but I had oversight with me..."
"I understand...the offer is open, any time you want to get away from them...even though they pay you more than I could budget." Gabby laughed softly, a silvery sound, and Remus snorted. "Would you like to grab lunch with Tonks and I, she is going to meet me at the Lucky Cauldron," he jabbed his thumb towards Harry and Hermione, "I can tell from the looks on their faces that those two are going to go somewhere...else."
Gabrielle sighed, and her face became serious, "Any other time, Remus, I would...but I, really," her voice softened, "need to get home." She nibbled the side of her lip, watching the, these days, mostly grey-haired Chief Auror. He nodded and she bounced across the room, kissed his cheek and vanished from the room in one almost-blurred movement, waving to Harry and Hermione on the way out.
"I remember when she was eight..." Harry said wistfully, watching the door as it swung closed behind Gabby. "What do you want to do about this, Remus?" he waved towards the now absent projection.
Remus shrugged, "We'll look into it, but from the list of things stolen, I doubt that there is much, true danger...Unless," he fell silent, and looked beseechingly at the Potters as if begging him to tell him what he wanted to hear.
"We've thought of it, Remus," Hermione said quietly, glancing over to Harry as he took her hand openly on the top of the table. "Neither of us, nor Albus could conceive how he could have split his soul further than he did."
Remus did not quite sigh in relief, the secret terror that Voldemort might still be revivable, while seemingly impossible, still held sway in many hearts including his own. He nodded and gave Hermione a patently fake smile, "Get out of her, you two, you still might have time to make the game."
Harry gave him a quick grin; grabbed Hermione and they vanished without a sound, leaving Remus alone with his thoughts, and a now cold cup of coffee.
******************************Hogwarts**********************************
November 20, 2015
5:30 pm
Harriet sat alone on her bed, in the room she shared with Emilia, Rain and their mostly absent roommate, whom they had only seen for showers once in the last two days. She propped her chin on her lifted knees and wrapped her arms around her shins, as she looked across the room to watch as Emilia and Rain modeled their new gowns for the Yule Ball.
A fall of red silk decorated the foot of her bed, and Emilia looked over from the mirror, her hands still holding her mass of hair free of her neck, "Aren't you going to try it on?"
Harriet shrugged as she looked over at her roommates. She gnawed on her lower lip absently and shrugged again, before looking down at the bed. Emilia glanced at Rain, and gestured to her back. Rain unfastened Em's dress, and she let it slide off her to the floor. She gestured towards her armoire, and it rose from the floor, floated across the room and hung itself up, even as Em quickly redressed in jeans and a jumper.
She dropped onto Harriet's bed, and sat cross-legged, watching her for a beat, "You should try it on, Harriet," she urged softly, "just in case we need to alter something."
"I doubt I'm going," Harriet replied tiredly, and flopped back onto her bed, rolling to her side as she curled up into a small ball. She closed her eyes and snuggled into her pillow.
"He's an idiot, Harriet," Emilia muttered exasperatedly. She reached forward, to slowly stoke Harriet's loose hair from her face, and sighed faintly as Harriet refused to look at her. "There are other boys who would love to take you, maybe if he saw you with them, he'd get a effing clue."
"Don't want to go with them," Harriet mumbled, and Emilia looked helplessly towards Rain, who shrugged.
"You still have a month, to go, hun," Rain said, sitting carefully on the other side of the bed. "He'll come to his senses." She looked up at Emilia who was twisting a small braid around her finger, watching the colors shift in the beads on the end. Em looked back at her, and reached down to stoke Harriet's arm, not knowing what to say.
"What if he doesn't?" Harriet whispered painfully, opening her eyes to look up at Em.
Emilia smiled softly and reached forward, brushing off a tear from the corner of Harriet's eyes. "If he doesn't...then he's an idiot, and you can beat the Merlin-living shit out of him on the mats over the entire Christmas hols." Em brushed her hair back out of her eyes again, noting absently that it was wet with tears or sweat, "Why don't you go get cleaned up for dinner, sis?"
Harriet did not look totally convinced, but rolled back off her bed, and after grabbing a towel and a change of clothes, to replace the uniform she was still wearing, she vanished into the hall, closing the door behind her.
Rain paced over to her bed, and stripped out of her own dress, "What are you going to do, Em?" she asked, her voice muffled as she pulled a Ravenclaw team sweatshirt on over her, and shook out her hair.
"I don't know if I can do anything," Emilia said helplessly, flopping back onto Harriet's bed and bouncing a couple of times, after at least five minutes of silence, and Rain's exasperated hunt for her favorite jeans, the ones with holes worn through on both knees and a new one threatening to bloom just below her bum. She looked at Rain without moving, "What do you want me to do, use Imperio on his dumb arse? Putting aside the whole point of it being illegal as all hell, and probably wouldn't work anyway as he's as powerful as me..."
"We could just lock them in a room together until they admit it."
Em snorted, and then frowned. "I honestly don't think that is the problem, not really." She flopped her head to the side, and looked at Rain through an obscuring sheet of hair, her left eye only visible as green shards, "She's already given her soul to him, Rain," Emilia announced quietly, Rain's jaw dropped slightly, "They're not bonded, not yet, but when they do admit it...they'll go in a heartbeat, there won't be that pesky three, or sixteen year, wait like there was for Xander and I." Em licked her lips, "They might not even have to shag to do it."
"Your Mum and Dad didn't."
Emilia watched her best friend for a moment, "Occasionally, it's scary how much you know about my family, luv...No, they didn't, but they were different...and I don't particularly want my other sister's bond to be established by her or Sirius getting damn near killed."
"As I was saying," Emilia went on, petting Hipper as her Familiar leapt from the floor and laid down conveniently next to her hand, "She's already there and-I think-so is Sirius."
"Then why?"
"Because he's terrified of what might happen, even more now than he was. He's so afraid, possibly not even consciously, that if she's with him, she'll get hurt, and what happened to Xander on the train sure as fuck didn't help his mindset."
"You and Xander are ok."
Emilia snorted, "I'm bloody terrified every morning, that somehow something has got past me in the night and taken him...Even though I know better, even though I know that I'd know if something happened to him, it's still there...I've laid there before for minutes before I could make myself open my eyes."
The door opening back up cut her off, as Harriet slipped in, her hair still wet, and falling over the back of the green jumper she had grabbed from the communal pile. Harriet tossed her damp towel at the hamper, which hopped and snapped it out of the air before it could fall to the floor. "I'm hungry," she announced, with no outward trace of her prior distress, "let's see if we can get something."
"Alright," Emilia replied, rolling from Harriet's bed and summoning her trainers to her with a gesture. She stepped into them and started towards the door even as they finished lacing themselves, "Let's eat."
*************************Ministry of Magic*******************************
November 21, 2015
10:15 am
"You do realize that this is a serious step, Mrs. Weasley?" Pleasurance Blake, asked with the faintest hint of a smile on her face. The thin blonde woman walked around her desk and perched on the corner of it, looking down at Molly in the plush leather guest chair before her seat. "You realize that you are, in effect, questioning the actions of the 'Chosen One'?"
"Harry is a dear boy," Molly replied, setting down her tea on a table next to the chair, "but I am only thinking of Harriet's best interests, and that she would be best served in the proper environment."
"As you say," Pleasurance smiled and stood. She watched as Molly stood from her seat and shook her extended hand briefly, "I will file the papers with the Committee on Underage Welfare, but I would expect that it will be some time to process. It will also be very difficult to keep this from your husband, he is a very active Minister."
"Yes, well...Arthur is very busy, and I would hate to bother him with this...Please let me know when we can retrieve my granddaughter, I am sure that she is safe at Hogwarts, but when she returns to the Potters for Christmas...I just worry so with her in such an unsuitable and dangerous environment, she has almost been killed twice, through no fault of their own of course, they are just children, by associating with Emilia and Sirius. It's not their fault that they were raised with such a loose attitude towards certain realities..." Molly trailed off as the solicitor nodded.
"I will let you know by secure owl as soon as I can," Pleasurance smiled, a solicitors' smile as she led Molly to the door.
Molly left and a side door opened, letting in a small, brown-haired man. Pleasurance turned to him as he cleared his throat. "Are you sure this is wise, Pleasurance, this is the Potters...even if you manage to get the court to rule in Mrs. Weasley's favor, too many owe them favors...And beyond that, do you think that they will give her up?"
She smiled and walked around her desk, dropping in it and crossing her legs, "It doesn't matter, either way this can be a career making case for me, and besides, the Potters need taken down a peg or two, don't they?"
A/N: There we go. Next time on this Owl channel, a disastrous duel, illicit affairs, bureaucratic power building, and a walk...hold the toast.