Chapter 6--Answers
Harry paced up and down the small flat. George's note wasn't really helpful. He said he hadn't seen or heard from Hermione since she stopped in last week to pay him and Katie a visit.
"Usually everything I hear is through my parents and since they are visiting Charlie and his fiancée in Romania, I haven't heard squat. Although, I did hear my niece is doing very well at magic. Taught her to fly on a broomstick yet?" That was all George had to say about Hermione and had launched into how Katie was feeling and how they were thinking of opening a store overseas near the Salem School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Now, it was time to call her parents and Harry was struggling with that move. Would he worry them unnecessarily? Or, was he being a bit overbearing with his actions? Maybe, for some unknown reason, Hermione didn't feel like calling and talking to him right now.
`But', his inner voice questioned, `we have talked every night for almost eight weeks, so why stop now?'
He first placed a call to Charles, and left a message saying that he was thinking of taking Janie home to Grimmauld Place, where he could work with her on the third spell if need be.
Next, he left another message for Hermione on her cell, saying he was going to call her parents because he was worried. She had to know he cared for her and worrying was part of caring, so he didn't feel like he was unnecessarily crowding her.
He gave her an hour to call him back; to tell him that she was fine and her cell was lost or something. The call he waited for never happened so he made sure Janie was occupied with a special treat…TV in the afternoon and he retired to his bedroom, shutting the door. With a deep breath he dialed the Granger's home number. As soon as Mrs. Granger heard it was Harry she asked after Janie, obviously informed of what had happened. They made small talk and finally the opportunity was there for Harry to slip in the question he was dying to ask.
"How's Hermione doing? I haven't heard from her in awhile."
"Oh…you mean she didn't tell you? I thought you'd be the first person she would've called, Harry." Mrs. Granger's tone took on a confused note and Harry wondered what Hermione hadn't told him.
"No. I talked to her last week and she didn't say anything about…anything," Harry stammered at the end hearing Ben's laughter in the background. His heart leapt at hearing the little laugh wondering if Hermione was there right now.
"She's gone on some `drill', she called it, for work. All I was told was that she had an hour to find care for Ben, pack, get her group in gear and go somewhere for a drill that would take about two weeks."
Harry was speechless and a little angry. He had to agree with Hermione's mother that he really thought a phone call from her would've been appropriate and appreciated on his end.
"So, she left and didn't say where and now you have Ben for two weeks? Have you tried to find out where she is?"
"I asked her and she said she couldn't tell me anymore than that. And, yes we have Ben. I have to tell you, Harry, that I'm not sure if this is the best job for her. Her father and I had plans to tour Ireland next week for four days and we'll have to cancel or take him with us. I couldn't tell Hermione that because who else would be around to take care of Ben? What if this happens again and we aren't around? Who'll watch him then?"
Harry paced his bedroom, running his free hand through his hair with short frustrated movements as answers ran through his brain. He didn't like this, not at all. Every ounce of his body said he needed to come home and figure out what was going on.
"Mrs. Granger, I'm actually going to be coming home tomorrow. Why don't I stop by the Ministry and see what I can find out? Then I'll come collect Ben so you and Dr. Granger can go on your trip. It's no trouble at all and I know Janie would love to see him." Harry began pulling out his trunk and packing as soon as the words came out of his mouth. He no longer felt disconnected from his loved ones. He had a mission and was going home.
`To hell with Charles and what he said,' Harry thought to himself after he got off the phone and began packing Janie's room. `I know she's fine and I know her better than anyone.'
He called out to Janie and asked her to come help him pack. He explained that they were going home to watch Ben because
Aunt Hermione was on a trip for work. Janie squealed and moved about her room like a tornado throwing and accioing toys
from every corner of the room.
Within six hours Harry had said his goodbye's to Janie's friend, Ellen, and her parents. He wrote a note to the landlord, paying up through the end of May, saying they were leaving early because of a family situation.
And so it was around dinner time that night that Harry quietly apparated him and Janie back into their own living room at Grimmauld Place. She was tired from all the excitement and unpacking that after a quick dinner of pizza she didn't argue about going to bed a bit early. Her new owl, Fish, (a name she insisted was the correct one for him) seemed happy to see them and perched on her dresser until she fell asleep. Harry then called upon the young almost-black owl to deliver a letter to Auror Clogkey. He wrote the Auror a short note informing her that he was back in London and wanted to talk to her about where Hermione was located. He doubted that she would tell him, so he set some time aside for tomorrow to stop by and ask her face to face. Maybe she'd give him some clue. Maybe he could take a look at Hermione's office, but all of this had to be done without Janie. He managed to floo Bill who seemed happy to watch her for a bit while Harry got his life back in order as he was also interested in why Hermione would just up and leave, without telling anyone what was going on.
And it was with those unsettling thoughts that occupied Harry that evening.
Sleep didn't come easily to him that night.
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After a brief rundown about Janie's ability to do magic, Harry left Bill's house and floo'd into the ministry. He had been correct that Auror Clogkey wouldn't tell him where she was, but invited him in to talk about "future employment". He could feel anger beginning to simmer in his stomach. Some of it was directed to Hermione. He realized, if she was indeed on a drill it wasn't very fair to be angry, but she could've called and talked to him for a minute, just to give him a heads up. He was also angry at Clogkey. Here was someone that had offered him this position and now he couldn't get any answers out of her.
And he wasn't any closer a half hour later when they were still in her office.
"Look, Mr. Potter, all I can say is that this: She will be back in about ten days and at that point if she wishes to tell you who, what, where, when, why and how, then she may. Until then, I can't say anything else about it." Her demeanor reminded Harry of Professor McGonagall and he felt as if he was being reprimanded for breaking a rule. He could feel the former student in himself want to rebel but he kept his composure. Mostly.
"Fine," Harry responded shortly, effectively changing the subject and accepting a list of jobs that were only offered to qualified individuals and only at the manager's discretion. He guessed that would be Hermione now since Auror Clogkey seemed to have handed the reins over to her.
"Could you direct me to her office then? She left one of Ben's favorite stuffed animals there and he's
been having problems falling asleep without it." He was only telling half the truth; Ben did indeed have a stuffed
animal in his mother's office but had been sleeping quite well according to Mrs. Granger.
Clogkey fixed her dark eyes on Harry as if trying to see what his real intentions were. He managed to keep his face neutral and finally she gave a small nod.
"Alright. Just take a right out of here then your second left. She'll be at the end of the hall I'm not sure what her password is to get into her office, so I can't help you there."
"Right. Thank you for the list," Harry replied, somewhat relieved that he was able to get into Hermione's
office. He knew the password since Hermione had told him her first day there how hard it was to think of one that no
one would guess off the bat.
He walked down the quiet hallway towards offices that he had never seen before. All eight of the offices (he counted) were dark. Hermione's was at the very end of the hallway as Clogkey promised. This first door was open and he could see a dark hallway leading back to an office where artificial light was pouring through the "window". It eerily lit up a desk and some other large pieces of furniture he couldn't readily identify. Flicking his wand towards the hallway he muttered "Lumos" and lights immediately snapped on above him.
"If it isn't the famous Harry Potter!" a familiar voice piped up behind him. Harry's hand was poised on the doorknob to Hermione's private office when he heard the low voice. His heart leapt up into his throat and he spun around slamming back into Hermione's glass office door.
Hanging directly in front of him were two portraits.
A black framed portrait with a painted background of green grass and a blue sky.
Another one, with a similar frame, held Ron who was seated at a chessboard, casually leaning back in his chair looking quite smug with himself.
"Ron!" was all Harry could gasp feeling the room tilt under his feet. His hands went to his knees and he bent over struggling for breath. Images came racing through his head…Hermione running with the babies and ducking around the corner…Ginny's red hair laying around her head on the pavement, her eyes vacant…Ron's side bleeding, his eyes pleading with Harry to take care of his loved ones…healers' voices echoing, `there's nothing we could do. We're so sorry, Mr. Potter.'
"Deep breaths mate, you'll be okay. Hermione screamed bloody murder when she saw me the first time. Then she threw a book at me…thankfully she missed and it just messed up the chess pieces and not me."
Harry nodded slowly as he began feeling the blood slowly begin to pump through his body once again. Gradually, he straightened up and faced his best friend for the first time in a year.
"You still look as pale as Peeves."
"Well, you took me by surprise," Harry said cautiously his eyes roaming over his friend's picture. No one else seemed to be in it for the moment and an errant thought popped into his head as to how Ron played Chess by himself. "No one told me you were here."
"Really? Been here two weeks I'd guess. I thought Hermione would've told you?" Ron looked a bit quizzical and all Harry could do was shake his head, feeling a bit hurt that she'd keep something like this from him.
"I just came to get…," Harry stopped, realizing he hadn't said Ben's name to Ron in such a long time it felt uncomfortable to even think about talking to Ron about his son.
"Ben's stuffed animal. I know. There are ears all over this place. I knew you were here the moment you walked in. I was hoping you'd stop by."
Harry just nodded and continued to stare at Ron who gave him a lazy grin.
"You want to know where Hermione is, don't you."
"Yeah, I do. Do you know?" Harry took a tentative step forward, leaving his support behind and found he could stand solidly although he still felt a bit unnerved.
"Honestly I don't. I'm sure it's some kind of drill for Auror's but all that kind of stuff is pretty secretive. Portraits aren't allowed in offices, so we only hear what's going on in hallways and such."
"I see."
"At least they don't place us in the loo," Ron made a face and Harry wanted to laugh, but he hadn't worked his way up to that point yet.
"I see…yeah."
"She didn't tell you because she truly didn't have time, mate. I reminded her and she told me to sod off." Ron grinned happily. "It was great to hear her say that but really, Harry, she seemed rushed. She called her parents, took Ben there which took about a half hour 'til she had settled him in. Then she had to pack thing from home, set up the portkey, make sure she had the team she needed, and leave. It's all like a well oiled machine actually."
"I see."
"You keep saying that," Ron kidded and Harry shook his head a bit clearing his thoughts.
"I'm still trying to grasp the fact that I am standing here talking to you. I never thought you'd be in a portrait."
"Yeah, well you should see who is next to me!" Ron inclined his head to his left.
"Not Snape?"
"No way! I think because of his word he'd protect you, he managed to get a portrait at Hogwarts. At least, that's the rumor I hear." Ron explained and sat back down looking behind him at something only he could see. "Be right back…hang here for a bit."
And with that Ron stood up and walked to the very back of his picture frame and faded out of sight.
Not sure what to do besides stare at two blank picture frames he let himself into Hermione's office and looked
around. He had often wondered how she would set up such a small private space. Besides the usual furniture there was a
recent picture of Ben on her file cabinet, one of Janie and Harry that was taken on Easter on her desk and one of her,
Ron and baby Ben right next to it. Multi-colored folders were neatly stacked on one side of her desk while an
unfinished bottled water sat on the other side. A bookcase was shelved with books about every kind of magic that Harry
had ever heard of and a map of the world was up on the wall. That was it. Pretty unremarkable if he had time to really
stop and think about it. He walked behind her desk and gently took the teddy bear that was sitting on top of the
folders. He saw a notepad next to her stash of pens and saw she had scribbled a list to herself:
"Charles--2pm on the 2nd
Tell Harry about Luna's baby"
Hair--9:15 on the 3rd"
The meeting with Charles had him curious as it was two days before she left. The day after Charles had left his rented flat in Rome.
And Neville and Luna had the baby? How could someone had forgotten to tell him this piece of news? He hoped he'd find some kind of announcement in the mail when he got around to rifling through the stack at his house.
And what did the last item mean? He turned another circle looking at every wall in her office but felt just as lost as when he walked in. He didn't see any clues as to where she had gone with the rest of the Auror's, so he headed back out to the hall hearing Ron's voice singing "Weasley is Our King" but not being able to see him in his portrait yet. Harry pulled her door shut, made sure it was locked securely and place the stuffed teddy bear into his bag.
He leaned against the wall, closed his eyes and tried to gather his thoughts.
Ron had a portrait. Hermione never told him.
Luna and Neville had their baby and no one told him.
Hermione was gone and no one knew where.
And where the hell was Charles? He was supposed to be researching Janie's condition and was her doctor. Shouldn't he be checking his cell phone regularly? He had left two messages for Charles and hadn't heard back from him. He hoped with all his heart that Charles wasn't with Hermione in some capacity. This unfamiliar flame of jealousy was getting very annoying and he tried to think of other reasons Charles wasn't calling him back. None of them sounded good enough in his mind, though.
`Maybe he's with a group of wizards and witches,' Harry justified. No one but Charles' patients, that were similar to Janie, knew he had a cell phone. What would the healing community think if they found out he talked regularly on a cell phone?
His thoughts then shifted to Janie and he wondered how she would be after he picked her up tonight. Bill was the only one home as Fleur was helping with wedding preparations for her younger sister. He hoped Janie would be able to handle the sudden influx of magic and he felt guilty for just dumping her but he was compelled to figure out what had happened to Hermione. After two months of just being with his daughter, he knew she'd be fine at her Uncle's house and that she wouldn't really miss him. After all, she had jumped out of his arms and ran to Victoire, not even bothering to say goodbye to him.
Right now, he felt very disconnected from his life. He was gone for two months and now he was back and floating around, trying to grab onto a bit of his former life and those pieces kept slipping out of his hands.
"Hey, Harry?" he heard Ron's disembodied voice from the painting.
"Yeah?" Harry couldn't see anything moving in Ron's painting and waited for him to appear.
"I have someone with me." He could hear footsteps now and saw two red haired figures moving blurrily in Ron's painting.
He wondered if it was Fred. Maybe he had been visiting George and Ron went to get him. He smiled thinking of how much
he missed the twins banter. It made total sense to him that Fred would have two portraits. He never liked to be on the
outside looking in, so he'd have a portrait in the Ministry to satisfy his natural curiosity about what was
happening in the world. And across town, he'd have a second one at his brother's store. The best of both
worlds, so to speak.
"You there?" Ron asked only a tiny moving dot in the very back of his painting.
"I'm still here," Harry answered, squinting to see who was with him. He saw the second figure duck off to the side and heard rustling in the empty painting next to Ron's. Ron appeared at the forefront again and winked at Harry.
"Had to go to George's for a moment. Maybe you better lean back against that wall. You still look pale."
"I'm fine. Did you get Fred?" Harry swung his eyes from Ron to the empty frame and suddenly saw a very familiar figure appear up on the hill and begin walking down the slope taking careful steps.
Harry took Ron's advice and leaned back against the wall, his breathing suddenly ceasing as he recognized that walk instantly.
"No, not Fred," Ron answered quietly, leaving his painting once again.
The body in the other portrait came into focus and he recognized the dark green button down shirt then the jeans that flared over hips he had held many times. The face was next and suddenly his eyes were locked in a very familiar pair of hazel ones.
Just like Janie's eyes.
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