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The Bat Returns From Hell
- Chapter 2: A Toe In The Water
"I am not going to fail at this job," she told herself after another ten minutes. "I can succeed in this world, just like I can in any other." Having thus steeled herself, Harmony Farmer did something paradoxical. She punched into her mobile the number of her only remaining contact with that "other" world.
It rang until going to answerphone. She gave the secret code that indicated her need for the most urgent possible response. "Wolfsbane and Homorphus not enough, add silver colloid to save a life and make a human."
It paraphrased something she had done in her Seventh Year.
Harmony hung up. That was as much as she could do on that end for now. Taking a deep breath, she thought about how to handle the fallout on this end from what she was planning. The last time she had been desperate enough to initiate contact, she had been forced to go on sabbatical for a year - hiding out in the mountains to avoid his people.
She snapped her fingers. She'd come up with something that would work. She dialed another, much more familiar number. "Nigel, it's Harmony. There's been a slight change of plans. I need you to have Ms. Beastley's helicopter fly to Battery Park City Heliport and stand by…. Yes, immediately. You know how she is. Yes, of course this has to do with this afternoon's Staten Island Ferry shoot…. Now do it, please."
Emily flounced into the room, all high cheekbones and style. The tension between the two was palpable. Before, Emily had been First Assistant and Harmony the Second. That was starting to change as the newcomer became more acclimated to the demands of the job. That new girl had started from zero in so many ways, but she was so clever … once she learned something, she never forgot it.
This time, she informed rather than asked. "Emily, I've been handed an urgent assignment by Ms. Beastly. I might have to take the rest of the afternoon off. Bye…."
As soon as Harmony was alone in the elevator, she Transfigured those engines of torture that Nigel laughingly called "shoes" into something more sensible. Even though she had given up her wand years ago when she fled the Institute for Advanced Magic only hours ahead of his agents, she was very accomplished with wandless magic. Back then … that kind of magic had saved her life more than once. Now, its primary advantage was its untraceability.
Another wave of the hand, and the elevator changed direction, heading for Runway's rooftop penthouse. The heliport was there, but she was not planning on hitching a ride to the Battery. It was just a handy secluded spot to wait for a return call.
She did not have long to wait.
Within ten minutes her mobile's annoying summons began sounding - but not with the distinctive ringtone reserved only for her boss.
"Nymph, is that you?" she said without formality.
"Hermione…? After all this time? Are you in danger?" the breathless voice of Nymphadora Tonks flowed from the mobile phone.
"Relax, Nymph. Yes, it's me and no, I'm not in danger - not like the last time I had to initiate contact. I just need a favor … a huge favor."
"All right," the now Senior Auror replied. "For security, tell me something only Hermione Granger would know."
"On Twelve September, 2001, Harry Potter was with his wife in the Xanadu Pleasure Dome in Tibet."
"Not good enough Hermione," Tonks told her. "Harry knows that, and Ginny too, not to mention I don't know how many goblins. And it would be just like Harry, if he learned your passcode, to try to trick me into revealing your whereabouts…."
"But he doesn't know why I tried to reach him…," Hermione replied. "I needed him to come and play the bloody hero. I wasn't strong enough. I hadn't done wandless magic on that scale in years, if ever. There was nobody else. It had already been fifteen minutes … and you have no idea how big that building was…."
"He knows that too, Hermione," Tonks admitted. "And it's just the kind of thing he'd try to trick us with."
"But why, Nymph? Why did you tell him?" she hissed into the mobile.
"I had to. He was going crazy. The pictures were all over the Muggle tellies. The message got garbled by the goblins…. He thought you'd wanted him to rescue you, and that you'd died in there - not that you'd been trying to keep the bloody thing standing. He thought he was seeing you die over and over again. You know he can get…. It was tell him the truth or there'd be an international magical incident. He was set to lead a goblin takeover of Afghanistan all by himself!"
"At least he'd have done that job competently," Hermione Granger, n/k/a Harmony Farmer, spat. "I know, the fallout forced me to take a year's sabbatical, and then transfer to Brown from Columbia … ironic, given his … well, you know…."
"I have no way of confirming that fact on short notice," Tonks replied. "If this is urgent, then time's a wasting. Tell me something that I can confirm that only you know."
"All right," she said, getting back to the business at hand. "Two years ago … the last time you called me … I became Patient 2203 at the Prairie Pothole Witches' Medical Centre in Thunder Bay. I had tests, and then an operation. As a result, I had a falling out with Parry, and I cut Healer Huxley off my contact list, leaving you as the only one."
"Hermione, what can I do for you?" Tonks asked.
"Thank you, Nymph," she said with relief. "As much as I know I'm going to hate it, I need a copy of the advance manuscript of JKR's `Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince,' and I need it in the next three hours. It's in my contract that I'm entitled, and you already have my written proxy in such matters."
Tonks had not been expecting that. Unseen by Hermione, her hair went bright blue in puzzlement. "But why, Hermione? Why that?"
"Don't ask - it would take more time than I have to explain," she said.
"All right, I'll do it. Give me an hour, then turn on your ring. I'll have the manuscript sent by international fast owl."
"You're a life saver, Nymph," Hermione thanked her.
"Well you saved Remus' life - and indeed everyone's," Tonks replied. "I'm happy to return the favor…. But you know what's going to happen."
Hermione took a deep breath. "I know," she replied.
"You know I have to go to Blackie Howe to get this done."
"I know."
"You know if I go to Blackie, Harry will find out. He's his biggest client, after all."
"I know."
"You know what will happen once Harry finds out."
"I know."
"You're prepared for that?"
"Nymph, I'm really good at being a Muggle now. It's a big city, and there are lots and lots of Muggles - and I have a lot more resources at my disposal now then when I was a starving student. He won't be able find me."
"Okay," Tonks replied, "but don't say I didn't warn you."
"Thanks, Nymph. You're the best."
"Dammit, Hermione, why?"
Every bit of lightness in Hermione's voice vanished. She was deadly serious as she said, "I've already been over this too many times. Harry made his choice. It was the only one he could make, being the honorable man he is, after … what happened. I just couldn't stand it. I made my choice, and I've made a new life. I'm not going to come back and wreck everything for both of us."
"All right, girl, but I have to tell you something - something that I'd tell you even if Harry Potter never existed…. Something you really need to know."
"Go ahead, then," the girl on the New York City rooftop said.
"You'd best be sitting down," Tonks instructed.
Hermione flopped heavily in a nearby gray, institutional Formica chair. "All right, I'm sitting. This better be good."
"I think it is," Tonks hinted. "I don't believe anyone's ever told you why you were asked to be a bone marrow donor after that Magicoencephalogram and the Charmonium testing in Thunder Bay two years ago."
"I was told - both by you and by Healer Huxley - that it was a matter of absolute life and death for Harry. I trusted the both of you, so that was enough. More, I didn't need to know then, and I don't need to know now, especially after Parry said he couldn't ethically keep my whereabouts confidential anymore. Please don't you go down that road, too!"
Actually Hermione had a pretty good idea why - she just never asked and did not care to be told. There are only so many reasons one is asked to be a bone marrow donor.
"I'm not," Tonks reassured her. "I'll never betray you. Harry knows that, and as a result, we're barely on speaking terms. But you need to know this, Hermione. Those tests … they showed … well, that you're a mother…."
"What! That's crazy!" Hermione screeched. "If there is one thing that I would necessarily know it would be that. After all, I'd have to be there for that, wouldn't I?!?"
"Hermione, hear me out!" Tonks yelled back. "You know as well as anyone about the unpredictable consequences of that bloody spell - especially with the odd manner that the three of you ultimately carried it out…."
Hermione deflated. "You … you know about that? I thought nobody but…."
"Harry told Remus when the test results confirmed things," Tonks revealed. "I've waited two years for you to contact me."
Hermione was flabbergasted, "But … but how…?"
"You were going to be a Healer once, so maybe you'll understand what I'm going to tell you better than I do. Molly … that's Harry's little girl's name, had something life threatening … fulminating magical something-or-other…."
She did not know the name, but the involvement of Harry's child had been pretty easy for her to figure out. It was why she had agreed.
Hermione thought back…. It had been such a long time. She had stood first in her class at the Institute before Harry's people had tracked her down, and she'd fled. "Probably fulminating magical rhabdomylosis…. It's 100% fatal if not treated properly within two lunar cycles of symptoms. But that's a Part-blood's condition."
"I can't help you with that, so just listen," Tonks said. "All I know is that Remus said Harry was told that the diagnosis didn't make sense because the little girl was a Pure-blood and the disease, it's - well, I guess you're right…. Anyway the proper treatment was something Muggle-related, but…."
Hermione realized where this was going. "She'd need Charmonium dialysis and a bone marrow transplant," she said. "But while that would save her life if she was a Part-blood, if she were a Pure-blood, the diagnosis would be erroneous and the treatment would have fatal consequences."
"That sounds like it," Tonks agreed. "Parry insisted that both you and Molly be tested. The tests confirmed that - magically speaking - Molly is a Part-blood. They also confirmed that, while Ginny's the birth mother, somehow you're the magical mother of Harry's child…."
She definitely had not deduced this. It was simply beyond her comprehension.
"Oh, dear Merlin," Hermione groaned. "Nymph, I just can't take any more of this right now…. I have to do a lot of thinking. Just get me the blasted manuscript…."
She terminated the call.
* * * *
Harmony dashed out of the cab at the Battery. She found a relatively out-of-the-way bench under a tree and wandlessly cast a Muggle-Repelling Charm - her first since leaving England. Also for the first time since leaving England, she turned on the locating function of her Auror's ring. Then she waited.
The minutes seemed like hours. Partly it was the deadline set by her Boss from Hell - but the traceability of her locating charm added to her tension. Harry had people just about everywhere in the world.
Finally, she heard a rustle in the tree above her, followed by a soft hooting. She looked up to see a sleek black stealth owl with a large package firmly tied beneath its rear end. More wandless magic loosed the package, which bore the distinctive wand logo of Blackie Howe's law firm.
Now she had to make herself scarce - fast. Fortunately Battery Park City was just across the street. In five minutes she had cut the queue, flashed her ID, and reached the rooftop heliport by express elevator.
"Back to the Runway building - quickly," Harmony Farmer instructed the helicopter pilot.
"Ms. Beastly's not with you?" the pilot asked, a little surprised. Nevertheless, he goosed the engines and the baby blue Bell jet turbine chopper lifted off.
"No," she told him over the throbbing engine. "Unfortunately the shoot has to be cancelled. Something's going on down there and everything's all snarled."
"I'll say" the pilot agreed as he circled the bird around and headed for Midtown. "Whatever's happened looks like it's stopped both traffic and the subway. I wouldn't want to be down there right now."
"Nor I," Harmony concurred. She could see what the pilot could not. Scores of goblins were pouring from the subway exits and sewer grates.
As the towers flashed by below, she pulled out her mobile and dialed. "Nigel, it's Harmony. You'll have to cancel the Ferry Shoot. Something's happened at the Battery … nothing's moving…."
"What!" he exclaimed nervously, "That's a half a million dollars down the drain. The dragon lady won't be pleased."
"It can't be helped," Harmony said. "Just turn on WCBS."
- 8 -
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\HP & The Fifth Element.Bat from Hell Ch 2 Toe in the Water.doc.doc 12/28/06
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