A/N: This took forever and I could do nothing but apologize. So, I am very sorry.
Thanks once again to Tome Raider who pointed out several important loopholes. ^_^ I wouldn't know what I'd do without you.
Chapter Eighteen: Soul Fragments
Hermione stirred from sleep and felt the emptiness of the bed; the coldness of the sheets. The warmth of the blanket was enough but being alone in bed brought back a familiar, inner coldness. For a moment, Harry had been dead the last seven years once more and the sadness began to creep in on her, but the memory of his whispered voice and his warm breath-"Just a bit thirsty… I'll be back,"-awakened her to the reality. Harry wasn't dead. He was back. They had fallen asleep in each other's arms.
She cracked her eyes open and squinted at the clock by her bedside table. It was a quarter to four. She didn't know what time Harry left the bed but there was no warmth left from when he slipped out of the covers.
The bed was soft, though, and she was reluctant to leave the comfort of it, especially knowing she hadn't been alone in it-in the best of ways.
She lay drowsily in the covers, waiting for Harry to return. She slipped in and out of dozing for half an hour before she realized that Harry hadn't come back.
She wondered lazily if he was downstairs, brooding. Or perhaps he had gone out for one of his "walks" to meet up with Snape again.
It amazed her that she could come to these conclusions so calmly. There was a time that seeing an empty bed, or an empty cot, whether it was Harry or Ron in a cave or at Grimmauld Place, sent her to instant awareness and panic. These days, with the threat of Voldemort seeming so far away, she could lie in bed, waking from a night of having made vigorous love to Harry, and feel no urgent need for answers.
Yet, the threat wasn't completely gone, was it? Not according to Harry.
She sighed and pushed herself off the bed. She had been too long used to peace.
Slipping into pajamas and a tank, she plodded out of her room and down the stairs.
Harry's silhouette sat at the shade-drawn bay windows. He stared out of the crack in the blinds where his fingers pried them apart and his shoulders looked so burdened that she instantly felt miserable for him.
Brooding.
It was only after she slipped her arms around him that she noticed he wasn't dressed in his pajamas. He was barefoot now, but his walking clothes smelled of the London air.
His grip on her wrists was almost needy, pulling her embrace more securely around him.
She pressed her lips to his ear. "You were out."
He nodded. "I caught Ginny watching the house. She's your stalker."
That was absolutely astonishing and she didn't know how to react.
Harry turned on his seat to face her. "I had a talk with her-asked for answers. You're not going to like what she had to say."
She stared at him and he had that dead serious look in his eyes, like nothing was going to be alright. It was unnerving and she trembled within, wondering if she should just tell him to stop-save it for tomorrow, but Hermione never was one to procrastinate.
"Tell me everything," she said bravely, beginning to brace herself for the worse.
He seemed reluctant to, at first, but slowly, with seeming care of every word he used, he told her, starting from the time he left her side to Ginny's revelations at her flat, and finally back to where he now sat.
As she listened, her emotions raged at each shocking truth, mixing with the anxious beating of her heart. Implications came to mind like hot burning flares interspersed with mixed feelings of anger, pain, and despair. Tears stung her eyes where perhaps she should be railing and screaming. Her fingers clenched reflexively when the worry was too much to bear.
And when Harry was done, everything was suddenly very quiet, like everything, even the turning of the world, had come to a grinding halt.
Her mind, after processing the many things Harry told her, was suddenly blank. She felt drained; catatonic. She didn't even think moving was necessary at the moment.
And then the world turned again, and she realized even then that while she felt anger towards Ginny, the woman hardly deserved it, though Hermione felt she wanted to be angry anyway. But she put that anger aside, hoping it would wane by the time she had to face Ginny again. The consequences of Ginny's honest-thought Hermione painfully-mistakes, though grave in the extreme, could not be taken back. There was no point on dwelling.
What worried Hermione at the moment was the stronger implication that Angelica had knowingly been keeping the Horcrux for years. What dangers had her daughter been exposed to? What reasons did she have to keep it secret? How was it that the Horcrux did not seem to have an effect on her? Or did it?
Hermione looked at Harry, terror blossoming in her chest. "Harry… you don't think that Angelica-that she could be-" she couldn't bear to say it, choking on her words. "The Horcrux?"
Harry's eyes widened in shock. "No… no, she couldn't be! The Horcrux is in this house, and-and perhaps it's been trying to possess her. She's resisting. Angelica couldn't be the Horcrux!"
"And why not?" cried Hermione. "You were one."
"We ask her first," he said firmly. "We ask her if she's been hiding something and take it from there."
For a moment, she had a fleeting, unfamiliar sense of doubt, whether Angelica, her daughter, would tell them the truth, but she stamped her doubts away, feeling guilty that she could be so distrustful of her own flesh and blood, her life and love.
Taking several deep breaths, she headed for the stairs.
Harry followed behind her, perhaps knowing exactly what she was going to do.
Hermione burst into Angelica's room and Angelica awoke with a little moan. "Is it time for school already?"
The sound of Angelica's voice sent Hermione's heart aflutter. She settled herself on the edge of Angelica's bed and switched on the bedside lamp.
She took a moment to watch her daughter's face, so innocent yet so intelligent. It pained her to think that perhaps she didn't know her daughter as thoroughly as she supposed. She prayed to God Angelica had nothing to hide. Then again, Hermione realized that there were worse things than Angelica hiding this from her. Harry's scar came to mind, about how he knew absolutely nothing about Horcruxes, yet one thrived in his body, unbeknownst to him.
"M-Mum?" Angelica blinked rapidly to clear away her drowsiness. "What's wrong?"
"Angelica," Hermione began. "I need for you to tell me the truth."
Angelica frowned and pushed herself to sit up in bed. She shot her mother a look of wonder before she turned to Harry for confirmation.
His brows knotted but he nodded. "Listen to your mother."
The look of betrayal on her face was highly astonishing. She seemed to have expected something from Harry, like he should've known exactly what she needed of him-and he had failed her.
Hermione wondered why. "Is there something-did you ever… hide anything from me?"
Angelica's face fell, but Hermione couldn't tell if it was because she considered her mother's words a false accusation or whether she was terribly displeased at finally being asked the question. Angelica's eyes turned to Harry again and there was clear disappointment.
Harry suddenly seemed confused and he opened his mouth to speak, but something in her gaze let whatever words he had to say die at his lips. Hermione saw in Angelica's gaze something akin to a flicker of light dying like candle flame, so fragile against the wind. Angelica tore her gaze from him and looked to her mother with saddened eyes. "I can't tell you."
Anxiety tightened her stomach to knots and suddenly, for the first time in Hermione's life, she didn't know what to say to Angelica.
"Angelica," Hermione began in a half-stern, half-desperate tone. "Tell me what it is, now. I promise I won't get angry."
Angelica's lips pursed and the distrust in her gaze pierced Hermione clean through the heart. "You will get angry because you wouldn't understand."
Frustration crashed upon Hermione like thick waves. "Sweetheart, I'm your mother and no one understands you better than I. Tell me what it is and we'll sort it out-make it better. Your father will help. You trust Harry, don't you?"
Angelica nodded carefully-warily. It was the most disconcerting thing to watch her be so wary of them. Hermione thought she had never given her daughter cause to doubt her, and even if Angelica only just met Harry, Hermione thought the bond between them reassuringly strong.
No, there was no reason for Angelica to doubt them, yet her eyes said otherwise, especially when they fell upon Harry.
Angelica's gaze lowered and she picked up her teddy bear, hugging it to herself. "The pendant."
Harry seemed to give a start. He seemed very surprised.
Hermione kept listening. "Yes? What about the pendant, dear?"
Angelica looked up at them, the picture of a six year old guilty of stealing candy when she very well knew how wicked it was. "I use it…"
Hermione had to admit that she was terribly confused. "Use it? Use it for what?"
Angelica looked at her father. "For magic. I use the pendant for magic. Like… like a wand."
At first Hermione couldn't process it, but when it began to dawn on her what Angelica was saying, she began to feel overwhelmingly astonished. When she looked up at Harry, his own astonishment was apparent.
Neither of them had expected this.
She had read up extensively about wand-making on account of being editor to Drew Thurston Peacock's books. She had need of knowing the real-life hows of wand-making so that she could better edit the fantasy version Drew used in his works of fiction. So she knew how gemstones could be, though rarely was, used as wandcores, or to a higher extent, the wand itself.
Competently using a raw gemstone as a wand required either great skill or odd circumstances…
Hermione suddenly had visions of the moment Voldemort raised his wand to her, and how his curse had struck without killing her.
I didn't die. Angelica didn't die. But my pendant had suffered a hairline fracture…
She didn't know if or how Angelica and the pendant could have been connected. Even being as brilliant and powerful as Angelica was, it was hard to imagine that she would have the skill to wield a raw gemstone unless she had a special bond with it in the first place.
Harry frowned, sitting beside Angelica on the bed.
Angelica looked slightly afraid, the way a child would when caught by her parents being naughty.
"What sort of magic did you use it for, Angelica?" he asked.
At this, Angelica's eyes widened innocently, but Hermione saw something else as well. Hermione could've sworn that a flash of determination had gleamed in her daughter's eyes. It was so quick that Hermione couldn't even be sure if had been there.
"Easy magic, dad," Angelica said. "Wingardium Leviosa and stuff like that. I was afraid the Ministry would figure out that it wasn't mum doing the magic, so I could only cast the itty-bitty spells, really."
Harry eyed her intently. Hermione was watching, too. Could she be lying?
Why would she?
"It's the truth," Angelica insisted, perhaps seeing the doubt in their eyes.
But is it the whole truth?
"You lied to me about the pendant, Angelica," Hermione said in a tone of voice she had never used on her daughter. "You told me you liked playing with it and so I let you."
Angelica looked chagrined, but she seemed to be less sorry than she tried to let on. "Well, I sort of was playing with it, you know. I just didn't… tell you… how, exactly…"
Hermione was not pleased and she cast her daughter a dour look, warning her to say no more. Angelica quieted and she kept her gaze turned down after that.
Hermione stood and beckoned for Harry to follow her. Harry seemed to hesitate before following Hermione out of Angelica's room.
She closed Angelica's door as they stood in the hallway.
"She's still hiding something. I can feel it," Hermione whispered. "But for some reason, she's determined not to tell us what it is."
Harry looked pained and he cast an anxious glance at the door. "We have to make her tell. There's absolutely no way we should just let her-"
"Short of coercing her with Veritaserum or Legilimens-"
Harry looked horrified and Hermione shot him a look.
"And we would never go that route," Hermione continued in a definitive tone. "I don't know what to do."
"Well," Harry began desperately. "Is there some way we can-I don't know, ground her to get her to talk?"
Hermione sighed. "I've grounded her before. It generally gets her to behave for a few months, and right now, I can ground her to so she can't go to school and that means she wouldn't be able to help Millhouse prepare for his quiz bee, but I don't know if that would help for any of this. Obviously, she's determined to keep this secret, and if it's as bad as we think it is, do we really have the time to wait for her to come clean? I know her. She can be stubborn when she wants to be. Besides, it seems to me she's done most of her mischief here at home. The more time she spends out of this house, the less time she's within proximity of this Horcrux… if it really is here."
"It's here," Harry said. "And I don't think she could bring it with her. She has it warded, probably used the pendant to put the spells on it, too. The object needs to be stationary for it to be warded so well. She can't keep it warded if she carries it around in her bag."
Hermione willed herself to say what she had to say. "And we've canceled out the possibility that-that she's-"
"There's a way to find out, but you'll have to trust me to do it."
She stared at him, her curiosity spiking. "There is? How?"
His brows knotted and finally, spoke. "We share night visions, she and I. I don't know if I've told you that."
Hermione didn't know what to say. All she knew was that she had her mouth open and that no words were coming out of it. Finally, she found the words and they were strangely inadequate. "No… no, not quite…"
He breathed deeply, as if to summon the courage to tell her more. "I've seen her in my dreams. I always have, even in Avalon. I just-I didn't know who she was back then, you understand. I had no idea, and even when I came back here and saw her for the first time, I still didn't think she was the young girl in my dreams, but now I know, and I've seen… there's an entity in her realm and right now, she has it bound. I don't know-I don't know if that makes her a Horcrux, but when I was a Horcrux, Voldemort was-he was a demon stalking the outer boundaries of my mind…"
Hermione swallowed and dread suffused her completely. "Oh… oh, no. No…."
He held her by the shoulders, knowing what she was thinking. "I couldn't be sure if it's the same thing, Hermione. Please. I need you not to be jumping to conclusions. You're my logic and reasoning right now. Listen to me. It could still mean she's keeping an outside Horcrux's influence from overpowering her. This can be as much about her being a Horcrux as it is about a Horcrux trying to possess her, so we couldn't rule out that possibility either. So until I can see into her night visions again, we should concentrate on the possibility of the latter being true, first."
Hermione wanted to break down and cry. That's what she wanted to do, but she summoned her reason and logic, just like Harry asked, and she nodded. "We send her to school today and we search the hell out of this house. If we couldn't find it before school ends, I'll have Ron pick her up and keep her at his house. We should-we should talk to Ginny later. Ask her how it was when she was being possessed. Maybe she could give you some insight…"
"Good idea. Yes. We'll talk to Ginny later. For the meantime, let me talk to Angelica alone."
At that point, Hermione didn't think she could handle thinking about any more whys, so she let Harry go without protest.
She waited until Harry had disappeared into Angelica's room before fleeing to her office and throwing open whatever book she could think of that might be useful for this latest development.
She read through her books desperately, flipping page after page through the blur of her tears.
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Harry sat in front of his daughter as she looked up at him, a stubborn frown on her face. His heart wrenched with anxiety. He needed her to be safe. He needed to protect her, but he didn't know how to make her understand-how to make her realize that if anything bad happened to her, it would destroy him and he would never be able to recover.
"Angelica, I know you're hiding something, and it's not just the pendant."
Her lips pursed, but she said nothing.
Harry put a hand upon her head, hoping that the contact would ease whatever fears or doubts she may have about all of this. "Baby girl, you know I'm only asking for your own good. You see me in your dreams, don't you? I see you, too. And so you know you can trust me."
The stubborn look in her eyes softened, replaced suddenly by regret. "I can't tell you dad. I just can't. I'm doing it for your own good. I'm protecting you."
Harry sighed. "It's more dangerous for you than it is for me-"
"No. That's not true. That's not true! I can keep it bound and quiet. So long as I don't touch it, I'm out of danger, but the sword told me that if you ever found it, you would try to destroy it-"
Harry shook with alarm. "And you don't want me to destroy it? Angelica, it's evil! Are you drawn to it? Is this why you haven't told your mother about it all these years? Because you want to keep it for yourself?"
Angelica looked horrified! "No! It wasn't like that! I-It was easy to keep quiet before. I knew it was naughty, but I… I rather liked that I could keep it from bothering anyone else. I liked performing the spells and wards on it with the pendant! You know… like an experiment. It didn't seem so terrible before. But then it got noisier, and then harder to manage, but by the time I decided to tell mum about it, Excalibur told me that it was very bad, and very powerful, and that if you destroy it, then it might destroy you! Don't you see?"
He stared for a moment, flabbergast. "The sword told you this?" he asked, shocked beyond anything.
Her brows knotted. "Not directly… the sword did say it was powerful, then I asked if it was more powerful than you, and the sword said… the sword said it was. So it can destroy you, and I can't have that daddy. I can't lose you again."
"Angelica-"
Her face crumpled and tears began to leak from her eyes. "Oh, daddy, don't make me. I only just got you back! It's not fair. It's not fair that the other kids don't have to give up their dads! I don't want to be different-not when it comes to this!"
Harry's heart broke and he took her by the face, drying her tears with his thumbs. "You listen to me, Angelica. The sword… I can defend myself better than you think; better than the sword thinks. You have to trust me. You have to believe that I can protect you and myself better than you can protect yourself and me. Sweetheart, you don't know what you're up against. I've fought this thing before. I've defeated it-"
"How can you say that, daddy? The last time you fought it… you died."
He stared at her, and he could see in her eyes the pure misery and fear the possibility of his death brought. Her gaze pleaded for him to understand and he did understand. He understood because even back then, never having met his parents, the thought that he could never have them back brought him so much pain. He understood because God forbid if anything should happen to Angelica, Hermione, or both, he'd be so devastated that he could very well lose his sanity forever.
He would have to go about all this differently. Asking his daughter to tell him, which she perceived as giving him up to whatever dark force there was, would be asking far too much of her. He couldn't let her make the sacrifice. So like any loving parent, he decided he would make the sacrifice for her
He pulled Angelica into his arms and quietly soothed her sobbing, telling her it was going to be alright, promising that he would never ask so much from her again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They brought Angelica to school together, just like before, evading reporters. Given the circumstances, the reporters were the least of their worries.
After they dropped her off, they headed back home and contacted Ron.
Ron was still at home when Hermione Flooed and the urgency of her tone prompted him to come to the house without much explanation.
When Ron walked through the door, Harry's first question was, "Have you spoken to Ginny yet?"
Ron, thinking that Harry was still trying to find her, shook his head. "No, but you'll be glad to know she sent me an Owl this morning. Said she was dropping in at my place tonight. You can come on over and-"
"I've already spoken to her," Harry said. "Tonight's talk is for you and her."
Ron's eyebrow arched and his gaze shifted between Harry and Hermione.
Hermione fidgeted uncomfortably at Ron's inquisitive expression. She couldn't imagine how Ron would feel about Ginny's revelations. She couldn't even begin to sort out her own feelings about it.
"Hermione and I need your help, Ron," was all Harry said. "Let's talk it out in the kitchen."
So excluding Ginny's revelations, Harry was somehow able to tell Ron about Angelica and Voldemort's Horcrux. Ron was horrified at it all and also intensely worried. He felt they needed to search immediately-destroy the Horcrux as soon as possible.
Hermione saw something like a shadow pass over Harry's expression. It was fleeting, but it was there.
She asked him if something else was on his mind.
He hesitated. "Just…"
There was a holler from the Floo.
She eyed Harry, insisting that he tell her.
"It's nothing," he finally said. "Someone's at the Floo."
"Sounds like Olivia," Ron muttered.
Stifling a sigh, she hurried to the Floo and answered Olivia's summons.
Olivia's head bobbed in the green flames. "Draco Malfoy Flooed a while ago. I thought perhaps I'd wait until you got in today to tell you, but I suppose I've got a conscience of some sort after all. He said he tried to catch you at home but no one was answering. I suppose now that I think about it, it was probably important."
"Probably? Was it about his revisions?"
"He didn't say what it was, but he sounded rather frantic. He just said he really needed to speak to you, but he got cut off and didn't call back. He was whispering, too, which I thought was terribly odd."
"Whispering?"
Olivia nodded.
Hermione's brows knotted. She really didn't have time for Draco's dramas today. He probably Flooed earlier while she and Harry were bringing Angelica to school, after which Draco tried to catch her at her office, thinking that she was there.
God, he's absolutely the least of my problems right now.
"Thanks Olivia," Hermione said. "Just take my messages until lunch today. I won't be coming in. My priority authors know they can contact me at home so you needn't worry about the rest of the callers this afternoon. Take the rest of the day off."
Olivia frowned. She was, possibly, the only employee in the world who didn't like to be given half the day off. "Right," she grumbled. "Thank you."
The Floo puffed off after that and Hermione got back to more important matters.
"Where do we start looking?" Ron asked once she was back in the kitchen.
"We first have to figure out how Voldemort's Horcrux could get into this house," Hermione said. "How could it have gotten here without my noticing?"
"Someone snuck it in, maybe? It's not inconceivable that your security charms could be broken," Ron said.
"Forced entry?" Hermione shuddered.
"Someone could've gotten a key, somehow," Harry suggested quietly.
Hermione knew that to be true, as well. "It's all possible-I'm not saying it isn't, but the only person I know who would do that is Bellatrix, and if she came here, she would've gotten caught. The house is specifically secured against her and Snape. I can assure you, she wouldn't have gotten through without my noticing, whether or not I was in the house."
"I thought you trusted Snape?" Harry said, grinning slightly.
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, but not that much."
"Can't say that I blame you."
Ron sighed impatiently. "So how do you think that Horcrux got in here?"
"It could have been mailed," said Harry.
Hermione nodded miserably, remembering the numerous gifts she had received, anonymous or otherwise, months and months during the aftermath of the war. She had send thank you cards for the well-meaning offerings and sent the threatening ones to the Auror department for filing and safekeeping. "Yes, it could have, but how could I have kept it all these years and felt nothing? Shouldn't I-I don't know-have felt something was wrong somewhere?"
Harry smiled wanly. "I was a Horcrux. Did you feel something was wrong with me?"
Hermione conceded the point. "No. And I kept you within close proximity, too…"
Ron rolled his eyes. "We ought to start looking."
"We won't find it," Hermione said. "Wherever it is in this house, we won't be able to find it by just looking. She has it warded, remember? We have to disable that ward before we even begin to hope to find it."
Ron looked to Harry and Harry nodded.
"Wonderful," Ron grumbled. "What an imp of a sprog you two have. A normal child would find a loose plank in the floor and stick it in the hollow. Your child has to go and ward the damn thing."
Hermione sighed. "Just shut-it and help me find a way, Ron. I've some books in my office. We'll start there. If Angelica learned to ward things, she'd have gotten the information from my library. She has very limited access to Wizarding books."
"Always with the books first… I'll go Floo Fred and George. Maybe they taught her something they shouldn't have, yeah?"
"Good idea," said Hermione.
"I'll help you do research," Harry said, already headed to her office. "Where else does she have access to Wizarding books?"
Hermione had forgotten to consider that angle. "Fleur's house. Bill was a curse-breaker, remember? I'll Owl Fleur for some help."
They proceeded to their respective tasks and Hermione felt a familiar stirring in her chest. She felt that they were back in Hogwarts again, youngsters as perfect glass figurines unmarred by scratches and cracks wrought by broken hearts and conflicting needs. Today they were of one mind, their petty jealousies set aside for love of the little girl, daughter to Harry and as close to Ron's heart as his real daughter might be. It was times like these that Hermione realized just how powerful they were against the likes of Voldemort who would never know such unconditional love.
Ron's discussion with Fred and George was quick. They were flippant and comical, as usual, but they hadn't taught Angelica warding or any trick of the sort.
The three of them were already deep within their respective books when Fleur's reply came, four humungous owls carrying a load of Bill's curse-breaking books. Many of them were highly technical, but Hermione felt equal to the task even if she could tell by the looks on Harry and Ron's faces that they'd rather ingest Bubotuber puss than sort through the gobbledygook of Bill's books.
One helped me raise my daughter and the other fathered her, and they still think homework is the bane of their existence. Some things never change, she thought, vastly amused.
They read in complete silence and two hours later, Hermione looked up to the sound of Harry's even breathing.
"Oh, for goodness sake," said Ron. "Bloke's asleep." He was just about to shake Harry awake when Hermione gently stopped him.
"Let him," she said softly. "He… he didn't get much sleep last night." Her remembrance of what Harry told her that morning about Ginny stung anew, but a new thought surfaced in her mind. What if she had been in Ginny's place? It could have been her just as easily as Ginny. Lucius could have just as easily slipped the diary in her shopping bucket, and while she might not have responded to the summons of the diary as quickly as Ginny, Hermione didn't know what sort of persuasive power the diary might have used on her. The diary had used Ginny's loneliness. It could have used knowledge to entice Hermione's confidence. Hermione might have told Harry and Ron about it, but who was to say she couldn't have fallen for the diary's whiles anyway? Hermione was made of stuff different from Ginny, but Tom Riddle was still far more powerful than them both.
It was surprising, but Hermione realized that the sting of Ginny's mistakes was beginning to heal.
"Well, you seem well-rested," Ron said. She did not miss the bite behind the seemingly innocent words.
She colored, her thoughts snapping back to the present. "Shut-it, Ron. Are you going to be like this the rest of our lives? Spiteful of mine and Harry's happiness?"
Ron's face fell and he turned back to his book. "No. Of course not. I'll be happy for the two of you some day. I know I will be. I love you enough for that, and I even love Harry enough for that, but I'm still working on it. I'm doing quite well, anyway. I'm here, aren't I?"
Hermione stifled a sigh and smiled wanly. Until that time Ron can find happiness with someone else, this would have to do.
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The door was welded shut.
Harry ran his fingers against what used to be the grooves between the door and the forest wall and it was soldered away. The runes on the door were distorted, like the magic spell to open it had been deliberately smudged and erased.
Angelica…
There was no light under the door. She wasn't asleep. He would not be able to see in her mind this time.
Behind him he could hear the faint roar of those creatures in the dark. They were far away and he felt safe from them for now.
One foot in front of the other, he began to walk, pressing his hand to the barrier between his visions and hers. He could feel the magic resisting him. He was being kept out.
He kept walking, and later, he would come upon the welded door again. He had gone in a circle.
Harry had to wonder if Angelica had done this deliberately, or whether it was some kind of natural defense, her desire to protect him erecting these new barriers between them.
The crunching of leaves disturbed his solace. It came from behind him. The sound sent him into a panic and he whirled in place. He was taken aback by the sight of a woman, her pale skin aglow like the light of the moon, her hair dark like blackened night, and the ornaments in her hair like faintly winking stars. Her eyes were bottomless wells of mystery and that was enough for Harry to think that this was some kind of new demon in his visions.
"Stay away," he said, threateningly.
Her dress rippled around her body like water, and as she moved, Harry thought he heard the sound of water lapping gently on land. He found himself frozen on his feet; unable to move away from the approaching phantasm.
Even when she stood practically toe to toe with him, he remained entranced.
She smiled and Harry knew not whether it was welcoming or frightening. She did not come any closer, but she lifted her hand to caress his cheek.
The contact made him feel an oddly familiar thrum in his palm, like the tremor of a mystical singing sword in his hand.
When she pulled away, she brought her fingers to the ruined door.
Harry watched, fascinated at the graceful movements-her fingers tracing the runes.
Her hand left a trail of mist just before it began to sink through the barrier, like a phantom passing through solid mass.
The woman was penetrating Angelica's barriers and Harry felt afraid for his daughter. "No! Stop!"
The lady shattered at the harsh sound of his cry, splashing to the forest floor like a pool of water. He could see the reflection of the moon on its glassy surface; saw the trees and the dark sky, and then he saw her face, forming then dissipating as the water seeped through the hungry soil beneath it.
Flowers pushed through the earthy gloom; blossoms of such startling beauty he'd only ever seen in Avalon. They didn't belong in his nightmares, and almost as soon as the vines began to bud more flowers, the blooms wilted and browned, dying and rotting before they could flourish.
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Harry jerked awake, startled by the realization of what his visions were trying to tell him.
He blinked his drowsiness away to the sound of Ron's sardonic comments.
"Nice of you to decide to join us, Harry," Ron said.
Harry paid him no mind. He bolted out of his chair, toppling the book that had been on his lap. The great book landed on the floor with a splat but he didn't care. "Where's Hermione."
Ron frowned. "In the kitchen making coffee. You alright? You look a bit peaky."
"I'm fine," Harry said irritably. "Hermione!" He hadn't meant to yell or alarm anyone, but the imagery in his visions was so clear to him that he felt compelled to act at once.
Hermione spilled out of the kitchen looking quite flustered. "What? Something wrong? What's happening?"
"The sword," Harry said, taking great strides towards the guest room. "The sword can break the wards."
"The sword? Excalibur? How?"
Harry didn't know, but he was going to find out. He went straight to his trunk and threw open the lid. Digging through his clothes, his old shoes, and old books, he found the sword aglow.
It hadn't been the first time the sword had spoken to him, but it was certainly the first time it had taken form the way it did in his visions.
"It spoke to me," he said, staring at the weapon as it glowed in pulses at the bottom of his trunk. It was awake and it was beckoning him to take it. "It came to my visions in the form of-in the form of the Lady of the Lake." Of course he wasn't quite certain of that. He had never seen anything more than the Lady of the Lake's arm, when she bequeath the sword to him in what seemed like centuries ago, but he couldn't forget the unearthly lady in his visions, how her hair and body reflected the sky like the glass surface of the lake at night, how she dissipated into a pool of water, and how she had brought Avalon for a brief, but distinct moment in his world of darkness.
He hadn't held the sword by the hilt since he defied Voldemort that fateful moment in the mountains of Skye. He had kept the sword close or far, depending on his state of mind, but he had never held it by the hilt. He really didn't know why. Maybe wielding it brought too many unhappy memories.
Harry dove into the trunk and grasped Excalibur in his hand.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hermione watched, fascinated, as Harry pulled off Excalibur's sheath. The blade was glowing faintly in the late morning light.
"Blimey," Ron whispered.
"The attic," Harry said. "There are answers in the attic."
Hermione blinked, her own brain foggy with the wards. It had never felt like this before, but then Angelica's wards had never been challenged until now. The fact that she could tell the difference meant they were disturbing it. Harry sighed and led the way. They could do nothing but follow.
Sword in hand, Harry went straight for the boxes in the corner of the room labeled "Gifts." He passed his hands over the boxes, as if trying to feel for something, but he looked up at them with a frustrated frown.
"I've gone through these things before," he said. "I couldn't feel anything then and I can't feel anything now but the sword led me here. Hermione, you need to help me out."
Hermione felt her own frustration blooming in her chest. She couldn't think. She couldn't piece anything together. She looked desperately at Ron who could only stare at her in wonder.
She plopped on one of the crates, running her hands through her hair. "I can't-Harry, I really don't-"
Sighing, Harry tore open one of the boxes and brought out a mini-cauldron. "For baby, with thanks, Mr. William Stuart."
Hermione shook her head. Nothing registered.
Harry took out another item. It was a book on levitation. "To Ms. Hermione Granger. Gratefully, Ms. Beth Baggins."
She shook her head again, feeling how futile it all seemed to be.
Harry was not easily deterred. One by one, he pulled out the gifts and called out the dedications and names. When he had exhausted the gifts, he went to the pile of cards, their gifts likely opened and used around the house.
Harry rattled off more names: Gregory Pinch, Lisa Hutchinson, Mary Weatherby, the Munsleys, Alberta Tilde…
"Wait," Hermione said, touching Harry's shoulder.
The sword pulsed and Hermione felt an odd vibrating current pass from Harry's shoulder to her fingertips. She jerked away from him in surprise just as her head began to spin. There was a whine between her ears, and for a moment, all she could see were bright flashes, popping and dissipating like silver bubbles.
When her vision began to clear and her hearing began to go back to normal, she realized that Ron was holding her up, an anxious look on his face.
"Hermione, say something!" Ron cried.
Harry didn't seem as worried, though his brows were knotted tightly. He held Alberta Tilde's card in his hand. "She bound you, didn't she? Angelica warded the Horcrux and bound you so that you wouldn't piece it together in your head on your own."
She bound you…
"Oh, heavens, Harry," she gasped, blinking to regain her footing. "She bound me… how could she-"
Harry shook his head, waving the card he had in his hand. "We'll worry about all that later. Alberta Tilde: does it mean anything to you?"
She paused a moment, trying to recapture her earlier train of thought. She nodded. "Yes… y-yes it does. Tilde…" It did mean something but she couldn't put her finger on it at the moment.
Whore money…
"Malfoy," she found herself whispering, her eyes widening at the thought. "Narcissa Malfoy's private nurse. Her name was-it was A. Tilde. I saw it the other day written on Draco's coin pouch. The 'A' could be anything. But-" But anything to do with Malfoy is suspect… "Oh, goodness…"
Ron's lips pursed.
Harry sat by her and held her hand. "What did Alberta Tilde give you?"
Hermione racked her brain, more of the threads of the ward unraveling as her mind began to work, slowly getting free of the warding's bonds.
She took the card from Harry, reading its contents. "To Ms. Hermione Granger. My sincerest gratitude, Alberta Tilde… it was a mirror. It was a lovely, antique mirror. And I gave it to Angelica. Oh, God, I gave it to Angelica."
She felt herself drained of blood by the realization and for a heartbeat, all she could do was sit there in horror, thinking that she had put her own child in harm's way. She turned to Harry but he had risen from his seat, pulling her to her feet in a hurry.
"Where is it? If you gave it to her, it should be in her room, yes?"
"Yes," Hermione replied in a daze. "Her dressing table. It should be there."
They rushed to Angelica's room, Ron looking vastly bewildered. When they reached the threshold of Angelica's door, Harry threw the door open and the sword jumped in his hand, light flashing from its blade and blinding them.
They cried out in unison, and Hermione shut out the light, before she hazarded a peek. The glare was gone and Harry still had the sword in his hand, but her mind was suddenly clear of the unnatural cobwebs. The sword, whatever it did, must have broken the wards in Angelica's room completely.
The clarity of thought brought forth meaningful memories. Determined, she stalked to Angelica's dressing table and headed straight for one of the drawers. She clasped it by the handle and pulled. It wouldn't budge.
"It's here," she said, almost frenziedly. "I know it is." She whipped out her wand and cast an Alohomora on it but nothing happened.
"Clever girl," Ron groaned. "Angelica thinks of everything!"
That may be, Hermione thought. "She's only six," she said. "She's brilliant, but we're experienced. She still isn't as wily as her mother." She looked at the drawer. With the wards gone, Angelica's riddle and what she was hiding made perfect sense. A mirror riddle for a mirror.
"Sums are not set as-"
If you finish the sentence…
"Sums are not set as a test on Erasmus," recited Hermione.
The drawer gave a woody little groan before it slid open.
"Merlin, how did you know?" Ron cried.
"I'm her mother. I taught her these tricks," said Hermione irritably. She wasn't irritated at Ron, but she was quite irritated at herself. At the moment, the thought that she had given her child the means to fool everyone, even her, was grating to her sense of irony. "Know-it-alls know it all."
Harry smirked, looking over her shoulder. "Is that a palindrome, too?"
"No," she replied crisply, out of humor. She reached into the drawer, diving through piles of tiny mirrors. Even the many mirrors, she knew, was calculated somehow. She piled the items on the dresser top until she got to the bottom where, sure enough, she found the velvet pouch. She grabbed it immediately, swiping it open to take the antique mirror inside it. She snapped it open and just as she turned to Harry, the sword began to come to life again. It trembled and thrummed in Harry's grip and Harry began to step away from her, a horrified look in his eyes.
"Harry?"
"Shut it," Harry rasped, his breathing suddenly heavy. The sword flashed again and Harry's eyes were suddenly glowing unnaturally red. He turned to Ron with fierce desperation. "R-Ron!"
Ron dove towards her and Hermione gave a squeak, just before he grabbed the mirror from her and snapped it shut.
Hermione stared at it all, gaping, and only when she began to gain back her senses did she realize that Ron was shielding her from Harry.
She shot a piercing gaze at Harry, but whatever it was that had happened to him, he was just now recovering from it. She transferred her glare to Ron who wouldn't look her in the eyes. Harry had looked to Ron for help, and that probably meant Ron knew something was up.
Ron pursed his lips, squeezing her by the shoulders before looking to Harry.
Harry was still breathing deeply. The sword was still in his hand, but the whitened knuckles had eased and his arms lay limp on his sides. "It's alright now. I was just-I was surprised. I panicked. The sword reacted to the mirror and I began to react to the sword…"
Hermione shrugged Ron's hands off her. "Let me go, Ron. Harry's not going to hurt me."
"You don't know that," Ron said through grit teeth.
She stared at Ron, aghast that he would even think it was possible. "Ron! How could you-"
"Because I told him so," Harry said roughly. "I told him to protect you when I got that way. You don't know that I won't hurt you and Angelica. You don't know."
She refused to be convinced. "I do know!"
"You don't," Harry hissed. "Ron understands. I made him understand, and so you'll have to trust him, because I trust him more than I trust myself. Understand what I'm saying?"
Hermione felt indignant at Harry's words and she looked to Ron for support.
Ron looked away from them both, stepping back. She would not get the support she wanted from Ron this time and that shocked her. Ron had always supported her when it mattered, and more than that, how can Ron ever believe that Harry could hurt her and his daughter? But there stood Ron, taking Harry's side.
She crumpled the pouch in her hand. "Neither of you are making sense."
Harry did not lose the stubborn jut of his jaw. "We're wasting time. We still have to make sure it's the Horcrux, and then when we do, we have to destroy it. We'll go to Avalon and show it to Snape and Priestess Morgana. If it's the Horcrux I'll try to destroy it with the sword, and then we find this Alberta Tilde. I'll bet you my fortune she's Bellatrix Lestrange. Bellatrix was the only one who could've had possession of the Horcrux that night."
Hermione wanted to rail and argue with them both, but Harry was right.
"Dibs on Malfoy," Ron said, following after Harry. "That little bugger… he's been hiding Lestrange all this time, I bet. They're family. They stick together-"
The doorbell rang. Seconds later, it rang again, and it kept on ringing persistently.
Hermione frowned, pushing past them to get to the front door.
They followed after her, telling her to be cautious. Things had changed. Events had taken place.
She shot them both a glance of impatience, though she might have told them the same thing if they happened to make for the door first.
She did not look through the peephole. She used the window and peeked around the corner. She saw Ginny and the gale of reporters barred by the gate shouting questions at her from the sidewalk. Ginny looked horribly distressed and she had a bandage plastered to her forehead. The memory of Ginny's revelations stung anew, then dissipated.
Hermione frowned and hurried to the door, warning Harry to step back from view of the reporters with a look. She pulled the door open for a bit and dragged Ginny inside the house by the wrist before shutting the sound of shouting reporters out.
Hermione saw, upon closer inspection, that Ginny's eye-the one directly below the bandage, was swollen and that an awkward portion of her hair had been cut off.
Ron looked livid and Harry's jaw dropped in surprise.
"Who did that to you?" Ron and Harry demanded in unison.
Ginny looked flustered for a moment, her eyes seeming to take account of all of them before turning to Hermione. "Where's Angelica?"
"What-in school! Where else should she-"
"You have to go get her. You have make sure she's alright."
Hermione was instantly alarmed. "Ginny, what's going on?"
"I had a meeting with Malfoy this morning," Ginny said hurriedly. "You know, for the magazine spread? You referred me to-"
"Yes, yes! What about?"
"I should've known there was something wrong when he didn't even seem to know why he was-oh! He kept asking questions about Angelica, and when I wouldn't answer him, the bloody bastard hexed me when my back was turned! I think he Stupfied me and I must've hit the corner of my desk on the way down-and when Marciano found me, I'd lost this chunk of hair… Hermione, there's only one reason someone would take someone else's hair like that-"
"Polyjuice," gasped Hermione, summoning her mobile phone.
"Malfoy did that to you?" Ron growled. "I'll kill him!"
Ginny scowled. "Shut-up, Ron! There are more important things to deal with right now!"
Hermione blocked out their bickering as she dialed Inglewood's number. She caught Harry's eyes. They were drawn with horror.
The administrative assistant answered on the other end.
Hermione didn't bother with the pleasantries. "This is Hermione Granger, Angelica Granger's mother. We have a bit of a family emergency and I'd like to pick her up in a few minutes. I would appreciate it greatly if you can just get her to your office right now, and let her wait for me to get there."
"Oh, Ms. Granger! Yes. Well, we can do that, certainly. I suppose I'll have to ask her aunt to wait with her, just so there's no confusion."
"Her aunt…?"
"Yes, the one who comes by sometimes to pick her up…"
Hermione's hand trembled as she held the phone. "Whatever you do, don't let her take Angelica with her. Do you understand? That is not her aunt. Call the police-"
"O-Oh dear."
"Now!"
"Yes! Yes, of course now!" Hermione snapped the phone shut, her mind going completely blank all of a sudden. She knew, deep in her heart, that her instructions to the Administrative Assistant were futile. Draco was a Wizard. He'd make easy work getting the Muggles out of the way. "He's already there. I don't know if he's still there, but-"
"We have to go," Harry said. There was that gleam in his eyes that Hermione hadn't seen in a long time. It was both reassuring and frightening, just like it used to be. He knew what to do-had decided on it, and he would tell everyone what needed to be done, but it would be risky, ineffably Harry-the quintessential Gryffindor. "Hermione, you and I are going to Inglewood. Angelica… Angelica probably isn't there anymore but perhaps we can track her from there. Ron and Ginny, go to Tonks and tell her what's happening. Ask for her and no one else. If we need to communicate, use Patronuses."
Just like before…
Nobody argued and Hermione felt she was working on autopilot. She felt too beside herself to think at the moment, and for now, Harry's plan seemed like a good one.
Ron and Ginny bolted out of the front door while Harry summoned his Invisibility cloak. Hermione headed out with him through the back door.
They rushed to the nearest Apparating point, and together, they Apparated to Inglewood.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Administrative Assistant, Caroline, was pale as a ghost upon their arrival. She was already surrounded by a few teachers, and among them Headmistress Kenly. The police hadn't arrived yet, which was understandable. Apparating was far faster than police cars.
Headmistress Kenly approached them the moment they burst through the school doors.
"Ms. Granger," said the headmistress in a harried tone. She looked at Harry but didn't wait for introductions. "Angelica's father?"
Harry nodded. "Harry Potter."
The headmistress nodded. "Ms. Granger, Mr. Potter, we've contacted the police. They should be here any minute. Wherever Angelica is, she is no longer in this school. We had not intended to release Angelica to the woman, anyway. During school hours, only the parents of the child may excuse her from classes without written permission."
"And yet she's gone," Hermione whispered, fighting back her tears of anxiety.
"The aunt claimed that she merely wanted to speak to Angelica and she was most assuredly watched closely by her teacher at the time Angelica and this aunt of hers were talking, but for some reason… Ms. Alderman couldn't quite explain what happened. One minute they were there and the next minute they were gone. We'll do all we can to help the police find your daughter."
Apparated…
Harry nodded and thanked her. He looked to Hermione.
Hermione steadied her nerves and tried to think. She excused them from the Headmistress and the Headmistress went back to her teachers.
"He must have Apparated in plain view of Muggles," Hermione said. "That means he would get a citation from the Ministry, especially because he's an ex-convict. Ex-convicts stay under probation for seven years after they're incarcerated and the traces on them are more refined. If they perform magic in front of Muggles, the tracing charms would know what spell he cast, and if it were an Apparition, they would know his destination. We have to contact Tonks now. She would have access to citation records and she might be able to tell us where Malfoy Apparated to. I hope to God he hadn't paid anyone off to tamper with those monitoring charms…"
"Let's go, then," Harry said, taking her hand and leading her to the door.
Headmistress Kenly called after them. "Ms. Granger! Mr. Potter! You'll have to stay here until the police-"
Neither of them even looked back. He threw the Invisibility cloak over himself as soon as they were outside and she didn't know why, but she ducked in right after him. He was mildly surprised and in the next few seconds, she only stared at him, her mind blank, but then she felt the prickle in her eyes and he seemed to understand. He took her hand and squeezed it.
"I'm scared," Hermione said, her eyes leaking. "I'm scared for my baby. I couldn't think. I couldn't keep myself together. I'm not-I'm not used to this anymore."
"You never had a daughter to think about before," Harry said in a soothing tone. "Back then it was just me and Ron, and you always knew deep down that when it came down to it, we can take care of our sorry arses. Angelica…"
Hermione nodded. "God, Harry, she's only six! I don't care how brilliant she is, she's only just a baby. I don't know if I can take it."
He squeezed her shoulders. "I'm scared too. I'm terrified, but do you remember that first time you felt so scared but knew you had to fight anyway?"
Hermione did. She remembered it so very acutely. It was in their first year, when they fell within the grip of the Devil's Snare. There was a panicky whine in her ear the moment she realized that they were going to be strangled to death by something she couldn't seem to fight, but she remembered that their lives were too important to lose to panic, so she forced herself to look back on those many books she had read and found the perfect solution.
"Devil's Snare," she said.
He smiled. "For me it was the Basilisk. It was huge and it had eyes that could kill me."
She managed to chuckle at that. "Not the Troll?"
He laughed softly. "With the Troll it was just more like, 'Oh, my God, there's a Troll in the bathroom! We're in so much trouble!'" He touched her face tenderly. "Besides… you and Ron were there. I was alone with the Basilisk. Ron had been left behind and you were petrified… and this… this-they have my daughter, Hermione. My scariest experience ever was facing Voldemort in the graveyard, Cedric dead at my feet, and I had to fight Voldemort just to survive… I'm feeling ten times as scared as that this time, but also ten times as determined. Angelica needs us. She needs us more than ever."
Hermione knew that, but she supposed she just needed Harry to tell her that she wasn't the only one who was scared, and if Harry could think through that gripping fear, she can, too.
He sent his Patronus out in advance for Tonks, informing Tonks that Angelica had been taken by Draco Malfoy, Polyjuiced as Ginny; also that they were headed for the Ministry Auror department.
With the Patronus bounding ahead of them, they made haste for the Apparition point on foot where they reappeared in the heart of London.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harry remained under the cover of his Invisibility Cloak as they weaved through the London crowds. Hermione couldn't see him as she walked briskly between human bodies and she had an urge to reach out and grab his hand, just to reassure herself that he was there, but she toughened her resolve. This was no time to be needy. Angelica needed them more.
She found the telephone box leading into the Ministry and she stepped further in just to give Harry room. Another wizard followed him and the amicable smile on his face disappeared when the box door was slammed on his face.
Hermione pressed the code on the telephone and the process of taking them to the Ministry began.
Ginny met them at the lobby. She took Hermione's hands, holding them with a warmth that Hermione could not resist. "Ron's at the Auror department filing the papers, but Tonks went ahead and launched Auror units to search the Malfoy Manor and the Malfoy Country Manor. If Angelica's there, we'll find her."
Hermione could see into the depths of Ginny's worry and guilt and Hermione's heart melted completely. There was something terribly tragic about seeing her vivacious, life-loving friend filled with regret and guilt. Hermione and Fleur-they were touched by deep tragedy, but Ginny had always been the one with the sparkling eyes, the one who had something exciting to look forward to the next day. Having that light so caged in these awful circumstances, all of them through no real fault of her own, was a tragedy in itself.
Hermione squeezed back supportively. "I'd be shocked if we do find her there, but Harry and I… we will find her."
Ginny swallowed, her eyes filling. "I know you will. It's always my fault, isn't it? Everything I touch in your lives, I ruin. I don't mean to do it but it happens. I'm-I'm so sorry…"
Hermione pulled her close in a loving embrace before pulling back to look Ginny in the eyes. "Ginny, honey, you don't ruin everything. You know, Angelica always looked forward to being with you. You always had something interesting for her, and coming from a child genius, that's saying something. So you certainly don't ruin things. Mistakes… well, we live and learn."
Ginny nodded, smiling gratefully as she swiped the tears that trailed down her cheeks. "Where's Harry?"
"Right here," came his disembodied voice. He had been quiet the entire time and Ginny jumped slightly.
"Invisibility Cloak," Hermione explained.
Ginny blinked in surprise, but she recovered seconds later, and she began to lead them down the hall. "Tonks told us to wait for now, that usually in cases of abduction, the kidnapper will send demands. Still, they'll be looking, and exhausting all leads until then, so we have to sit tight."
"I don't know if I can," Harry said. "I never had to without being forced to… I feel like Sirius did when he was ordered to stay in Grimmauld Place."
Hermione frowned. "He should've stayed put," she said mercilessly.
Ginny's eyes widened at the harsh words but she said nothing in Harry's defense.
Harry didn't respond, either, and Hermione didn't regret her tone one bit. Sirius had died because of his rash actions and she wasn't going to stand around pussyfooting the issue when it was the father of her child suggesting that he could act the same way.
At the Auror department, Ron came rushing towards them with a pile of papers in his hands. "Help, for Merlin's sake!"
There were dozens of forms to fill and Hermione, feeling that doing something was better than nothing, sat on one of the vacant desks and began filling out forms. Ginny sat with them, probably with similar feelings.
Harry didn't volunteer, and Hermione wasn't sure if it was because he didn't want to seem obvious or because he'd rather just brood. She was inclined to think it was the latter. She gently asked him to sit close, telling him in pleading tone that she needed to know he was there.
She felt him shift and his warm hand was on her knee, caressing gently. It was calming.
Remus appeared moments later looking more harried than usual. "Tonks sent me here to update you on what she and her teams have been doing."
Hermione felt grateful. "And?"
"The Malfoy Manor unit found nothing. All the dungeons and secret passages were empty. The rooms were empty. It was basically gone of any Malfoy. The paintings talked as soon as they were threatened with seizure, but they really weren't much help. Nobody knew anything," Remus reported. "They're having a bit more difficulty in the country manor. Raggedy, the House Elf, refuses to say anything. He just keeps pulling at his ears and hurting himself. He looks terribly confused."
Hermione felt her heart beat faster. "He's agitated. He's hiding something."
"He's acting like Dobby," Harry muttered, mildly surprising Remus. "He's conflicted about which master to serve. Has he told you anything at all?"
Remus shook his head. "Nothing decipherable."
"He's trying to tell you something, but there's another force preventing him. There's someone else in this picture."
"Bellatrix," Ron said. "It has to be her."
Remus seemed astonished. "Did I miss something?"
Hermione relayed their findings to Remus and Ginny.
"So you don't know for sure if it's her," Remus pointed out.
Hermione shook her head. "No, but from what I remember of what Draco told me, this A. Tilde apparently takes care of his mother at the institution. It just… seems to make sense."
"If he's been hiding Bellatrix all these years, that's a serious breach of his parole. He could do 25 years in Azkaban for that."
"Family is everything to a Malfoy…" she said miserably, quoting what Draco had said before.
"You'd think he'd learned his lesson after a year in Azkaban," Ron said.
"He's Draco Malfoy," Harry grumbled. "His parents' blood runs too thick. Dumbledore couldn't save him from that."
Hermione felt a faint sense of regret. She had to admit that she had already begun to spawn a sick, sad flicker of friendship with Draco the more she had interacted with him. In her own grudging way, she had hoped Azkaban had finally forced him to be the man who had found it in his twisted heart to save a despised classmate from rape. She fancied him reformed-or perhaps even liberated-from the corrupting influence of his family. She was disappointed at being wrong.
She didn't tell Harry this, though. She knew he disapproved of her trusting him, even in the smallest way.
She suddenly recalled what Olivia had told her about Draco's Floo that morning and she wondered-in view of the circumstances-how his frantic call fit into all of this. What could possible seem so urgent to him at that point, when he was supposedly planning to kidnap her daughter?
Doesn't fit…
Tonks burst through the Auror Department double doors, a complement of Aurors trailing behind her. They appeared to be in some kind of circle and in the middle of it were two Aurors holding an outraged man by the arms and dragging him across the floor.
Hermione recognized the whiny voice instantly. She bolted from her seat, an unbelievably strong instinct to go to Draco and slap him silly, over and over again, demanding from him her daughter, and asking him how he dared to earn her trust when he had such evil intentions.
Ron must have read it on her face because he bolted right after her, blocking her path and throwing his arms around her.
"Let me go!" she growled ferociously, struggling against Ron's hulking mass. "I want to speak to him. I want to see the look only his face when I tell him that he'll never leave Azkaban again if I have anything to do with it, and believe me, I'll have something to do with it! Let me go, Ron!"
"No! I won't let you, in the state you're in. He won't tell you a thing and he'll only act his usual arrogant self. Calm yourself-"
"I'll make him tell me," Harry suddenly hissed. "Just watch me do it."
Hermione felt the swish of his cloak as he set off and Ron cursed.
"Uh, oh," was all Ginny said.
"Someone needs to remind him that not everyone knows he's alive," Remus grumbled, hurrying after Tonks's group. They were headed to the interrogation room and Hermione watched them go as Ron held her.
It was only then she realized she was breathing deeply from her emotions. She hated to admit it, but Ron was right.
She took several more deep breaths before she said. "I'm calm, I swear. Let me go, Ron. I want to watch them interrogate Draco."
Ron eyed her suspiciously but he let her go.
She stood there, making sure she was under control before she said, "Let's go." She began to walk.
Ron and Ginny followed behind her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harry kept a reasonable distance away from the circle of Aurors, letting them bring Draco to the interrogation room. Harry tried to get a better look of his old school rival and right off, he could see that Draco didn't appear to have aged much, but that could've just been his overwhelmingly manicured and dapper appearance. Until Harry could look into Draco's eyes, Harry couldn't tell what kind of changes had been wrought in the youngest Malfoy.
"Nice way to treat your cousin, Nymphadora!" Draco hissed.
"Oh, wait 'til I get my hands on our aunt," Tonks said just as Remus approached her and whispered something in her ear.
Tonks looked around and was stopped when Remus murmured something more.
She frowned, but she didn't stop walking. Harry could almost see her thinking.
Tonks told the other Aurors to clear off, except for Draco's escorts.
With the room cleared, Harry was able to close in, though he let Draco's escorts drag him into the interrogation room.
Hermione, Ron, and Ginny poured into the viewing room.
Tonks had the two Aurors sit Draco on the interrogation chair then ordered them to leave, but as soon as the Aurors stepped away, Harry gave in to the sudden urge to throttle Draco by the throat and shake the answers out of him.
Harry dragged Draco from his seat, scraping the chair and toppling it to the floor as Harry jammed Draco against the wall.
Draco gave a terrified cry, too shocked to fight back with any considerable force.
Someone laughed and for a moment, Harry paused to figure out who it was. He was surprised when he realized that the laughter had originated from within him, rippling through his mind.
Tonks was yelling for the Aurors to stay away-to let her handle it, but for a moment, nobody did anything, and Harry had to gather his own thoughts to begin with any kind of sense.
He looked up and stared into Draco's eyes. In them he saw fear, and that hint of the Malfoy outrage, but Harry also saw the imprints of a soul once tortured-that look in a person's eyes that could have only been embedded by a prolonged ordeal.
Oh, sweet Azkaban…
Draco's jaw dropped as Harry's face emerged from the cloak. "P-Potter? But you're-oh, Salazar's snake, it really is you, isn't it? The old hag wasn't imagining things!"
Harry gripped Draco's collar harder, slamming Draco against the wall a second time.
Draco choked on his words as the breath was knocked out of him.
"Harry-let him-bollocks!" Tonks cried. "You two, get out. Stay in the viewing room and not a word of this to anyone until I file my report, and even then, I'd expect that none of this will come from the two of you, understand?"
Harry heard a moment's pause before the other two Aurors piled out, slamming the door behind them as they left.
"Let him go, Harry," Tonks said in a warning tone.
"I thought Remus had warned you I'd be here," Harry said through grit teeth, throwing a vicious look over his shoulder at her.
Tonks looked supremely irritated. "Yes, but I didn't think you'd go all Muggle Dirty Copper on me! Sit him back down and back off!"
Harry turned back to Draco, more of his Invisibility Cloak getting pushed to show the rest of him. He pulled tighter on Draco's shirt and one of the buttons popped. "You know what's going on, you slimy, in-bred-"
"O-Oy!" Draco cried. "Watch the mater-what the hell's wrong with your eyes?"
Harry laughed. "You haven't changed a bit, have you?"
"I'm about as changed a man as you, thank you very much! Now put me down or I won't answer a bloody-"
Harry kneed him in the gut and Draco doubled over, collapsing to the floor heaving and coughing with painful breaths.
"Harry!" Tonks yelled, practically pulling at her hair.
Kick him. Beat him 'til he bleeds. Beat him until he begs for mercy…
Harry grinned, unclasping his cloak and tossing it aside. Free of his trappings, he pulled back his foot to kick Draco but Tonks's raised wand stopped him midway. Harry felt himself smirk. "Are you going to hex me, Tonks?"
Tonks's lips pursed but her wand arm was steady. "I don't know who you are, but if you don't back up, I'm going to Stupefy you and arrest you. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Harry stared at her, puzzling at her odd phrasing. But then Draco's words combined with Tonks's began to register. "What the hell's wrong with your eyes?"
She's frightened… the Malfoy-spawn isn't frightened enough. You have a sword, don't you? Use it. Draw blood…
Harry blinked, pushing the voice in his head back and summoning all of his meditative powers to calm down. There was warmth on his back, growing warmer until he was afraid it would sear him, then it was cool and soothing.
You can't let Hermione see you that way…
The terrible urges in him fled and he felt that overwhelming flash of shame. He was back, and all he could think about was how Hermione must have been horror-struck by the demon that had surfaced just moments ago.
He stepped away from Malfoy, practically backing himself into a corner. The more distance there was between them, the less harm he could inflict.
Tonks's wand was still raised, but she eyed Harry with careful deliberation. After a moment, she put the wand away and Harry breathed easier for it.
She hastened to Draco's side and picked him up by the arm, dragging him back towards the interrogation table as she righted the seat with a quick levitation charm. She plopped him back on the chair and scowled fiercely. "You boys were always a handful. Now, Draco, if you don't want that coming at you again, I suggest you cooperate."
Still gasping for breath, Draco glared at them both. "I had every intention of cooperating until Dark Harry over there tried to kill me!"
"I wasn't going to kill you," Harry cried defensively, his fists clenching. That was the truth, at least. He leaned on that fact to strengthen his true self. "I just need you to tell me everything you know. You took my daughter, you son-of-a-bitch."
"I didn't! I haven't done anything! I'm a writer and the crux of my life is taking care of my mother! We're none of us Death Eaters!" Draco yelled, banging his fists frustrated on the table. "Have any of you seen mum lately? She couldn't even form a coherent sentence! She drools on her hands! She couldn't serve Voldemort if he cast an Imperius on her, let alone expect her to do things with reason-"
"You've been harboring your aunt. All these years, you've been hiding Bellatrix Lestrange."
Draco's knuckles whitened at that, his lips pursing as he paled.
Tonks's eyes widened and Harry realized that Tonks hadn't been told about that.
"That's what I've been trying to tell the lot of you dunderheads," Draco hissed. "Aunt Bella's back. I never knowingly harbored her. I had no idea she was my mother's nurse!"
"All these years you never knew?" Harry asked. He refused to believe it.
"Never. You know me Potter, how is harboring a wanted Death Eater, even my aunt, going to benefit me?"
"She's your family. She was biding her time all these years, waiting for Voldemort to rise back-"
"I didn't serve him for him all those years ago. I served him for my parents, and if you haven't noticed, these days, I'm as orphaned as you are. I even have a few scars myself. The guards at Azkaban aren't exactly the kindest of keepers, and I don't mean the Dementors, either. So if you think I'd grant safe-harbor to my aunt for her crazy promises of power through the Dark Lord's return, then you're dumber than I thought. It didn't work then and it's not going to work now, especially since she's the only one left, and especially since harboring a fugitive is a breach of my parole. You think I want to go back to Azkaban?"
Harry struggled to resist his reasoning. "But she worked for you. You paid her wages."
Draco looked extremely disgruntled by that. "Yes, well… apparently some of the Blacks are cleverer than I give them credit for." He shot Tonks a glare.
"You took my daughter," Harry said, his rage for Malfoy weakening.
Draco sighed. "I didn't. This morning, I tried to warn Granger that my aunt was back. I'd been pretending all night-making Aunt Bella believe I was going to help her. That's how she found out I had an appointment with the Weaslette today, I was supposed to kidnap your sprog Polyjuiced as Ginny. When I got the chance, I Flooed Granger, but I couldn't catch her, and Aunt Bella caught me, and so she went herself. Go check my citation files. I don't have a record of Apparating anywhere near the Weaslette's office, or at your daughter's school. You can also ask Nymphadora where in the manor she found me. Go on. Ask."
Harry looked to Tonks.
Tonks frowned. "We found him in the dungeons. Raggedy couldn't directly point us to him, but we eventually made out some of the elf's ramblings."
Harry frowned at that. "Raggedy considers Bellatrix one of his masters, so he couldn't tell on her, which means she must have been in your household for quite some time, but Draco's his master, too. The elf was conflicted-"
"Oh, shut-it, Potter," Draco hissed. "Raggedy doesn't consider Aunt Bella his master at all. Don't you see? Aunt Bella has my mother. Raggedy didn't want to tell because telling on Aunt Bella meant mum might get hurt… its what I've been trying to tell everyone. I'm a victim, dammit! I'm not working with my aunt!"
Harry hated to admit it, but he was beginning to believe Draco.
Tonks sat herself on the chair across from Draco. "Then tell us everything. From the beginning."
Draco did.
Bellatrix Lestrange first contacted him in the guise of a nurse named Alberta Tilde, offering her services to take care of Narcissa Malfoy in the institution for an extra wage. Draco, busy rebuilding his life from the horrors of Azkaban, welcomed the offer, and since then, Alberta Tilde had been under his employ.
His relationship with Alberta Tilde was strictly professional and he was pleased by how she took care of his mother. She seemed to have a genuine concern, and perhaps she did. Bellatrix and Narcissa were sisters, after all.
Alberta first began to reveal her true self when he came on Live Wizarding Wireless with Hermione Granger. She had summoned him in the guise of asking for more wages, and when he came to discuss the terms of her new wages with her, she revealed herself. She told him that she knew the Dark Lord was stirring, and that the news item about Granger and her mysterious new boyfriend first prompted her to that possibility. If Harry Potter was back, then the Dark Lord's return was not far coming.
Harry stirred at that. "She knew I was alive?"
"Apparently," Draco grumbled. "I thought she was mad, of course. Except… well, I saw your face that evening at Granger's house. I didn't believe it was you at the time, you understand. I just thought you were another one of Granger's stalkers-some Polyjuiced freak who gets his jollies freaking out the Mud-Potter's widow. Anyway, I didn't think much of it except for the fact that I had gotten attacked. I didn't seriously think you were back from the dead, but when Aunt Bella started raving, I sort of-well, something was up, wasn't it? I have to say, Potter… I never believed the hype about you before, but coming back from the dead? I hate to admit it, but I'm bloody impressed. Didn't think you had it in you."
Harry scowled. Draco smirked, and Harry had an irresistible urge to wipe the smirk off Draco's face when Tonks stood between them.
"Alright, settle down you two… that about wraps this session up," she said in a calm voice.
Draco's grin widened. "Does it? I haven't gotten to the best part. The part about how Granger got me to shut up about exposing my attacker at her front door. It was such a sweet deal. The two of us alone in my manor… had me by the wand, I have to say-"
Harry attacked and Tonks managed to push him away, yelling for her Aurors to get in there and stop them.
The Aurors piled in with everyone else in tow.
Hermione emerged from the crowd and glared at Draco. "Shame on you, Malfoy! But in case you haven't realized it, you've grown a tail and boils are erupting from you face."
Indeed, a cat's tail flopped out of the seat of Draco's pants and bulbous sores began to pop grotesquely from his cheeks and forehead.
Draco laughed as he was being hauled off. "Worth it to see the look on Potter's face!" He blew Hermione a kiss as he was dragged away.
Harry wanted to punch Draco on the nose, curse or no curse, but he was kept from doing so by two sets of strong arms.
Hermione turned to him, frowning. "Harry, calm down! You know he's lying, right?"
He scowled. "Of course I know he's lying, but d'you think I'd let him talk about you like that?"
She rolled her eyes but asked the Aurors to let him go. They did upon her gentle request.
Harry righted himself, somewhat irritated that she wasn't as annoyed by Draco's lewd suggestions as he was. "He's a complete arse. I don't know how you managed to work with him at all."
"I barely manage to," she said quietly. "But it helps when I remember that he wasn't as bad as we all thought he was…"
The meaning of her words did not escape him. "You believe the things he said just now? I mean about his aunt?"
Hermione nodded. "It's hard not to. I never thought I'd say that about Draco, but that's what I think. His story could be corroborated, at any case."
Harry pondered her words a moment.
"Harry," Ron cried from the door. "There's an Owl… and it's addressed to you."
He heard Hermione gasp. He didn't hesitate to get the Owl immediately.
The bird was an old hawk, and tied to his leg was a letter with his name on its back.
Harry took the note and read it.
~~
The Dark Lord shall rise where last he fell
Reborn by magic, darkest known
By nemesis' spawn would He compel
That nemesis bring what soul He owns
A fragment for a fragment asked
Both mirrors-one dark, the other light
Both reflects; both cleverly masked
Both hidden prettily in plain sight.
It ends where once it ended last
Where one will live while the other dies
Use the bind where the bind was cast
One life will cease so the other survives…
~~
Harry felt his hands trembling. Bellatrix had quite possibly gone mad-writing him letters in verse, but she certainly made telling poems. In parts, at least. He didn't know exactly what the other parts meant.
He didn't want to think why, but his heart beat fast and rapid at the words he couldn't completely understand.
"We have to go to Skye," Harry said. "That's where she took Angelica. And we have to bring Voldemort's Horcrux with us."