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The Bat Returns From Hell
- Chapter 3: Puissance d'Amour
She'd done it. She'd saved her job and astounded the Boss from Hell. Not even that woman's perfectly coiffed ice queen exterior could conceal her surprise - and a fleeting flash of admiration - when Harmony plopped an "extra copy" of the Book Six manuscript on the desk and informed her that two bound copies had already been delivered to the Twins.
Likewise, Harmony was making Emily seriously uncomfortable. While she still had "coat duty" in the morning, Harmony was receiving progressively more First Assistant's responsibilities. She - an out-of-place, ugly duckling only a few short months ago - now gave orders to the "clackers" (as she called them), and they now obeyed without question.
And the Paris event was looming - now barely over the horizon. Emily was full of plans to go, and Harmony was happy to let her. Paris was in Europe, after all, and Harmony had not been back to Europe since leaving England. Paris was in France, and France was just across the Channel … from him….
Outside of work, Harmony Farmer was hunkering down and doing very little. That was not difficult, since the Boss from Hell was quite content to dominate her life from the wee hours of the morning until late at night - and for now Harmony was content to be dominated. She had no social life to speak of, and had not since Brown…? Columbia…? Pigeon Forge…? The Institute…? Hogwarts…?
Anyway, working constantly and staying indoors otherwise also kept her well away from the Harry's goblin bounty hunters, whom she knew were scouring the Big Apple for her. Just in case, she observed a moratorium on wandless magic at her flat for over two weeks.
She did not think that Harry's minions stood much chance of success, as neither they nor Harry would have any conception of what her life had become. The Bookworm Granger in high fashion? That would simply be inconceivable to them - as it had been to her not so long ago.
It was something challenging in its own way - and it paid the rent. It also kept her well hidden in the anonymous big city.
The trouble was, "long ago" haunted her thoughts. Harmony could not come to grips with what Tonks had told her. It was so … bizarre that she doubted the information's authenticity. Had Harry turned Tonks, too? He could always inspire fierce loyalty in those he was close to. She as much as anyone had burned in that flame. He also had enough money to buy the allegiance of just about anyone else he might need.
But on balance she thought it likely that Tonks had told the truth, as far-fetched as it might seem. One huge weight in that balance had been the manuscript she received. It was brutally frank about how she had screwed things up in Sixth Year. If Harry still harbored any feelings for her of that sort, surely he would have sugarcoated things.
Also the manuscript had been entirely free of any surreptitious locating spells or other hidden magic. She had taken enough care to check. She was very thorough, and the manuscript had checked out clean. Thus, she concluded Tonks was still trustworthy.
She could not stop thinking about Seventh Year - a year that Rowling woman would have to fictionalize extensively if she wanted to keep Harry Potter a children's series. They had defeated Voldemort all right, but only by resorting to very adult magic. That adult magic not only destroyed Voldemort, but the Golden Trio as well. Its consequences had driven her out of the magical world.
They had gone back to school - reluctantly. Headmistress McGonagall had made her and Harry Head Girl and Boy, telling them that if "The Chosen One" did not return to Hogwarts in the wake of Dumbledore's death, very few other students would either. That would mean that after a thousand years, the school would have to close, perhaps permanently.
Still, he had not wanted to go. She convinced him that - with special arrangements - attending school could be compatible with the search for Voldemort's Horcruxes. Harry reluctantly agreed, probably more because he wanted her to be Head Girl than anything else (although he would never admit that to her).
The search had not gone well, and by early spring they had found and destroyed only three of the Horcruxes - the Slytherin locket (Caractacus Burke's brother Raymond had turned out to be R.A.B.), the Hufflepuff goblet, and most terrifyingly the Gryffindor cornerstone. On that occasion, she had almost died at the hands of Lucius Malfoy.
By chance she had survived. Malfoy, his son Draco, and a couple of other Death Eaters ambushed the trio at Godric's Hollow. The trio went there to consider rebuilding the house where Harry's parents had lived - and died.
The Death Eaters used a Disguising Charm that made the house appear intact, as if in a huge snow globe. Their spell included a selective ward around the building. It stopped the two boys while she passed through. The next instant Lucius Malfoy had a wand at her throat.
"This is a murder, not a negotiation," Malfoy laughed. With that, he began incanting the Killing Curse. Unbeknownst to the Dark Wizard, however, both she and Harry had cultivated Animagus abilities. At that moment, she tried Transforming into a Phoenix, and he into a Golden Griffin.
Still, she would have died, as something obstructed her magic. Ron saved her - pretty much by accident, as with the troll. Firing off the first spell coming into his head, Ron cast an Excavating Charm. He later claimed he hoped to blind Malfoy with flying dirt, but Hermione always suspected random association.
Random or not, Ron's spell worked. Fortuitously, his charm unearthed the cornerstone of the original Godric Gryffindor manor, which at one time stood upon the same spot.
Voldemort had known that. He had converted the cornerstone into a Horcrux after killing James Potter, but before turning his wand on the seemingly helpless Harry.
Ron's spell sent the cornerstone flying through the air. It struck Malfoy's wand and intercepted his Killing Curse. The Horcrux within it was destroyed, she had lived, and an enraged Harry, in his Griffin form, had sunk his leonine teeth into the senior Malfoy's leg just as he had Apparated away.
She never asked Harry exactly what happened after that, but the Order learned from captured Death Eaters that it had not been pretty. A Griffin can tear a man to pieces in a matter of seconds.
That experience took the rebuilding idea off the table. Big time.
While at Hogwarts, Harry more or less renewed things with Ginny, although it was a tentative and rather fragile relationship. Neither of them knew from day to day whether he would awake needing her desperately for some sense of normalcy, or pushing her away from all the danger.
Hermione probably committed an even greater error. After the Godric's Hollow scrape, she was so grateful to Ron that she mistook that emotion for something more and agreed to date him. This relationship was always volatile - outwardly because they were constantly at each other's throats. But a more fundamental reason underlay her long-standing ambivalence towards Ron. Harry's shadow, or more precisely the shadow of what she felt for Harry, loomed over everything, even though it went almost entirely unspoken.
He was with Ginny, after all. And she was more concerned about keeping him alive.
Then Fleur Delacour had her idea - her wonderful, awful, and ultimately successful idea.
They were recuperating at the Burrow, after another of their fruitless Horcrux pursuits.
"Dammit," Harry cursed. "We'll never get this done at this rate! He'll attack the School while he's still unkillable and everyone will die."
"Harry, get a grip," Bill told him. "Things will work out. I got a lead the other day from the Goblins that Hufflepuff's Breastplate might be in Ireland - alongside St. Patrick's in some church in County Cork. I'm going to check it out tomorrow."
"I hope it's better than the supposed badger collar that had us running all over Cornwall last month," Fred remarked. "George is still in St. Mungo's."
"Who am I kidding anyway?" Harry moaned. "There's the snake after that - if it even is the snake - and then something else we have no idea. And I can't kill anyone anyway. I can't even muster a decent Cruciatus. I have no hope of producing a Killing Curse capable of putting an end to Voldemort himself."
"Don't sell yourself short, Harry," she gently upbraided him - for what must have been the hundredth time. "You have the power of love. You love so deeply and so much. Voldemort can't even comprehend that."
"Give it a rest, Hermione," Ron scoffed. "What Harry needs now is a little more hate. Like it or not, that's what gives the AK its power. Mad-Eye said so himself."
"Oh Ronald. Fermez … er … please be quiet," Fleur intervened. "`Arry, I zink she ees right. Zee power of love, eet ees tres strong, especially eef channeled zrough zee act of love eetself…. I have seen zee references een some of my readings on zees subject. Zees is one theeng I know…."
Harry stared at the Frenchwoman like she had live bats coming out of her ears. "Yeah, right," he muttered. "What am I supposed to do, kiss him to death?"
Hermione reached over from her chair next to his and put her hand on his arm. "What's the harm, Harry? We're in a rut with these Horcruxes and maybe there's another way. It wouldn't be the first time Dumbledore's been wrong, after all. Why don't Fleur and I spend a couple of days in a library to see if there's anything we can use."
"Oh, all right, Hermione," he gave in. "Go ahead."
Fleur turned out to be more right than she knew - although it required Hermione's skill in adapting the Puissance d'Amour (or Power of Love) Curse to battlefield conditions to make everything work. That spell - used in the way they had to use it - was quite tricky and … there was no way to avoid it … physical magic.
From the moment Harry told her the prophecy, Hermione never wavered from her belief that his love was the "power" that Voldemort knew not. The Power of Love Curse provided the means to use that love to put an end to Voldemort. The curse did not involve killing, and that was the key. By making Voldemort's killing unnecessary, the Power of Love Curse rendered his Horcruxes irrelevant. Those Horcruxes existed solely to prevent his death.
The Puissance d'Amour Curse utilized the power of love to overcome evil. Hermione's thought was to take Fleur's idea and convert love into the weapon with which Harry could destroy the evil that was within Voldemort. With his evil eliminated, there was no point in killing whatever was left - assuming anything would remain within Tom Riddle's wrecked soul once all that evil was forcibly evicted.
Fleur, unfortunately, was a blabbermouth. She could not resist telling her husband Bill about her great accomplishment when the two of them were at the Burrow.
Even more unfortunately, both Ginny and Ron had been at loose ends that evening and were using Extendable Ears for some voyeuristic fun at the couple's expense.
The pillow talk they overheard ruined Hermione's life.
Once Ginny learned that the Puissance d'Amour Curse involved shagging, she was absolutely certain about one thing - she would be the witch with whom Harry would perform that spell.
Once Ron had learned that the Puissance d'Amour Curse involved shagging, he was absolutely certain about one thing - Hermione would not be the witch with whom Harry would be performing that spell.
Hermione acquiesced, and helped Harry and Ginny "train."
In the middle of May Snape left word that Voldemort was indeed planning to attack the School.
Harry came to her one evening while Ron was away on one of his periodic visits to the Burrow. Molly Weasley was very skeptical of Hermione's plan for engaging Voldemort, and he and Bill were trying, once again, to convince her.
Harry was troubled.
She looked up from her parchment when she heard the door to the Heads' suite squeak open. "Come in, Harry. You're back early…. It's not even midnight. I thought you were practicing with Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets."
"I did, but she's not really comfortable down there, and you had the D.A. training in the Room." As he spoke, Harry ran his left hand through his hair, a nervous habit of his.
"Well, as you can see, we're done, so you can use the Room if you'd like," she offered. "It's less private, though - which is why I thought we agreed in the first place that I'd train the D.A. in the Room and you two would have the Chamber."
"Doesn't matter. I told her I'd gotten a headache," Harry admitted. "I just don't want to practice … that … anymore right now."
"Harry!" she reproached him. "What would Ginny say if she knew? That's not the right attitude. To defeat Voldemort you have to train with her. Do you need a Refreshing Draught?"
"What I need…." He stopped and dropped his eyes to the floor. He shuffled his feet. He looked almost like a naughty little boy about to confess to mischief.
"Umm … Hermione? Can I talk to you about … something serious?" he said uncertainly. "It's sort of, about all that?"
She pulled out her wand. "Colloportus. Imperturbatus," she incanted. "You can always talk to me, Harry. What is it?"
"I think I'm … I'm going to die," he confessed softly. "I don't think my love is strong enough…. There's just not enough there. I've been trying and trying with Ginny. We use Long, Tall Sally…."
"What?"
"Umm … Slytherin's statue as a target…. But I just don't generate the pink beam how you tell me it's supposed to look. It's there, but … pale…. Like it's an imitation of what it's really supposed to be."
"Harry, you've got to try harder," she lectured him. "You love her; you've told me so yourself - and it's been excruciatingly obvious to me for years that she's deeply in love with you. Is it a physical issue? I can get Fleur up to Hogwarts to fix that. She's got a million and one pointers for that kind of thing…."
"It's not physical, it's mental," Harry mumbled. "The problem is … it's a lie…."
"What's a lie, Harry?" she gasped. "You've told me you're in love with Ginny - and I'm sure you've told her…. You've said it when there's no possible reason for either of you to lie. What's wrong, Harry?"
"I love her, Hermione," he said, not meeting her eyes. "But I'm not in love with her, and right now that's a crucial difference that could cost all of us our lives. I realized tonight. I did something I'd never done before…. I mentally cheated on Ginny."
"You … what?" she gasped.
"I … I thought about somebody else while trying to make the spell work with her," he confessed.
She looked stern. "Who, Harry?"
"Fleur," he choked out. "I mean she's probably the sexiest woman I've ever met."
Hermione had felt an odd flutter in her stomach the moment Harry started his confession. That fluttery feeling gave way to a heavier sensation when he mentioned the half-Veela's name. "And…?"
"Not much of an improvement," he admitted. "Maybe a bit, but nothing that could possibly make a difference."
"Well, there you go," she declared. "That's not the answer then. I think you have to concentrate instead on strengthening your feelings for…."
"I didn't stop there," Harry broke in. He was really wringing his hands now. "I thought about … about you…."
"Oh, my, Harry," she drew back. "That's really not proper. That could complicate things in so many ways…."
"Er … I'm trying not to die, here," he told her, and he reached for her hand. "I had to see what would happen…."
She swallowed hard. "And…?"
"It worked, just like I thought it would," he told her, fixing on her shocked, brown eyes. "In an instant, I singed about a thousand years of moss off old Sally's midsection. Ginny was really pleased."
She sighed deeply and turned away from him. "Oh, Merlin why…? Why now?" Her shoulders slumped. "Since when, Harry?" she asked.
He spoke very quietly, but she could tell from his tone that he meant every word. "I first used the moment you slipped the Time-Turner around the two of us in Third Year. I saw an immediate improvement in pinkishness…."
"Pinkishness?"
"You know, in the Curse I was trying to cast," he explained.
"Oh, I've never actually seen it," she remarked.
"You need to," he responded.
"Harry!" she squeaked, sounding scandalized.
"Sorry," he said. "But I'm not going to be able to do this if I don't admit the truth. Then I used the kiss you gave me before the First Task. With that, I noticed some real sizzle. So I tried the time you came to my room in Grimmauld after you'd broken off your vacation. The beam went solid fuchsia then. After that I used Neville telling me you were still alive in the Department of Mysteries; the time we both abandoned our dates at that Slug Club party and went off and talked until two a.m., and finally learning you were still alive when Malfoy tried to AK you…."
"And?" she repeated. She doubted she really wanted to know the answer. Or maybe she did.
"Burnt the bugger clean with that one," Harry said, chuckling just a bit. "Then I stopped, because I felt guilty about it. So I came down with that headache."
He put a hand on her shoulder and tried to turn her around in her swivel chair. She resisted, but he persisted, and she finally allowed him to spin her towards him.
"Tell me … please," he asked her. "Can you look me in the eye and tell me there's nothing there … inside you, I mean."
Hermione felt like she was facing a firing squad. She was damned if she did and damned if she did not.
"Harry … to be honest, I've … I've been … in love with you since First Year - since you went through the flames to face him for the first time. That's why I went with you to the Ministry even though I knew it was a trap. That's why I looked for a way to defeat Voldemort without killing him - because you're a lover, not a killer."
"I love you, Hermione," Harry told her. "I've never told anybody that before. I've never said it to Ginny."
"I love you too, Harry," she confessed. "It just … always seemed safer being friends…. That and you never really seemed interested … that way … in me."
He reached for her.
She pushed him away. "We can't do this Harry, not now. Ginny will murder me."
"Voldemort will murder me," Harry countered, "and you, and Ginny, and everyone else…."
He tried to embrace her again, and again she pulled away. "Harry Potter, we cannot be together this way. Ron will go crazy, and we need him to general the troops. He will kill the both of us.
"Voldemort will kill the both of us," Harry repeated. "And a lot more nastily than Ron."
He persisted "Please, Hermione, I don't want us all to die."
She persisted. "My parents will disown me; the Weasleys will disown the both of us, and the Order will be torn apart," she protested.
"Sirius and my parents left me more than I can ever use," he told her, "And I know you've never really cared about that, anyway…." He moved in to try to kiss her again.
"I've run out of excuses," she said. Squelching noises ensued as their lips met.
One final time, she tried. "Harry, this is a very bad idea."
"I know," he agreed. "But I can't stop - not if I want us all to live…."
- 12 -
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\HP & The Fifth Element.Bat from Hell Ch 3 Puissance d'Amour.doc.doc 12/28/06
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