Disclaimer: Thanks to JK Rowling for creating Harry and his world.
Chapter 11. Project Lumos
Harry went home to Number 12 Grimmauld Place after work that night. He was pleasantly surprised that Dobby had truly done a wonderful job of keeping it standing and actually fit for habitation.
"Welcome home, Harry Potter, sir!" Dobby was all over him and he was trying to gently push him away.
"Dobby…Dobby. Stop!" he said finally but found Dobby still very excited.
Dobby immediately prepared Harry his favourite supper and on Harry's request, joined him for dinner. Harry tried to listen to Dobby's stories about how he was able to get rid of the last vestiges of the House of Black.
"Dobby knows it has been a long day for you sir," Dobby must have noticed Harry was quite distracted.
"I'm sorry, Dobby," Harry apologized, and told Dobby about Ron and about Hermione.
Dobby suddenly disappeared with a loud cracking sound, leaving Harry thinking he must have offended him. Not five seconds later, he reappeared beside Harry with Ron's familiar wizard chess set box.
"Your bestest friend, sir, Ronald Weasley," Dobby saw Harry's puzzled look, "he left this with Dobby about a week ago. He said if something bad happens to him or your friend Hermione Granger, and you come back, Dobby has to give it to you."
Harry took the wooden box from Dobby and was still baffled why Ron would give him his old wizard chess set. He lifted the cover and it made a lot more sense when he saw that it contained, not chess pieces, but several phials of silvery substance that he assumed were memories. Harry found a note in Ron's familiar handwriting. It was dated a week ago.
Harry,
If you get this then it must be really bad. I hope it's not too late for everybody. I've collected a few memories of events spanning the last five months. I'll try to add more memories as we go along. I leave it up to your discretion whom to share the information with but I suggest looking at all the memories alone the first time around.
In case we do not see each other again, I just wanted to let you know, despite everything, I still consider us best friends. And if you still love her then fight for her. We had a fun run, Harry, and I really hope we see each other in the future.
Ron
He lost himself in thought staring at the last paragraph of Ron's note. He did still love her and always would, and now he had Ron's blessing. Somehow, that did not make much of a difference at the moment.
Excusing himself from Dobby he took the box up with him to his study. He set up his pensieve and opened the box of phials which were labelled with dates. Taking the earliest one dated about five months ago, Harry poured it into the pensieve, leaned over and fell…
He fell into Hermione's apartment, in her office. He saw Ron and Hermione standing across from each other. Ron had his arms crossed in front of him, seemingly mad at her.
"You what?" Ron was starting to get red faced. It was a memory of a Ron and Hermione argument.
"I've asked Dorner to have Kingsley assign you to me."
"You want me to babysit you."
Ron's expression was dry. Harry knew Aurors hated it when they were assigned to Unspeakables. It was beneath them to be bodyguards but Unspeakables usually got their way.
"Well, on paper I have to request for protection. That's the only way I can get it approved. It will not exactly be a babysitting job."
Ron looked at her, suspiciously, "What exactly will it be?"
"I need your help to finish a project. I need you to do some spells."
"Since when did you need help with anything related to work?" Ron asked, seemingly calming down.
"Since today," she replied, "Please, Ron, you're the only one I can trust with this."
Harry hoped Ron would press a bit more but he didn't.
"I'm guessing this is not within protocol but I've always wondered what you guys did."
"Great! We can get started on some background info!"
"Hold on! The guys are going to the pitch for a game of pick-up Quidditch," Ron complained. "Can we start tomorrow?"
"Well, you said you wondered what we Unspeakables did. A game of pick-up Quidditch isn't one of them," she smiled offering him a chair beside her.
Ron was muttering his regrets under his breath.
"Have you heard of the Cardinal Curses?"
Harry had not but Ron had.
"That's all folklore. As kids we heard horrible stories about them, but they were all just that, horror stories, usually with a moral lesson of some sort."
Hermione nodded, "Legend has it that there is a set of unstoppable curses that can be used to punish those who live outside of what was considered appropriate behaviour. The curses are supposed to feed on any of the many negative emotions we all have. But some cleric a while back decided to use the legend to teach."
Ron remembered, "Yes, to dissuade kids from committing the seven cardinal sins; lust, gluttony, sloth, greed, anger, envy, and…"
"Pride. Seven cardinal sins, seven cardinal curses. I was asked by Dorner a few months ago to develop counter curses for them. That's the project I need help on, Lumos."
Harry was excited to finally be on the verge of finding out what Lumos was about.
Ron's eyes widened, "Are you telling me that these curses actually exist?"
"Well, yes and no. I had a problem with Lumos. As far as I knew, the curses did not exist and I couldn't produce the curses to create counter-curses."
"A spell Hermione Granger cannot conjure. That's a first. It's a stupid project then," Ron concluded.
Hermione concurred, "I thought so too. So I asked Dorner for more information about the actual cardinal curses and he said someone else was still working on that. I suggested that it would have made more sense if we worked together but Dorner was adamant that I continue with a theoretical model only."
"So, I did some research. Like most legends, the cardinal curses have a historical basis. There have been anecdotal reports of the use of similar curses, not named as such, but in principle, used negative emotions of another to achieve one's desired outcome, the last time about 500 years ago. A dark witch, Morgania claimed in memoirs that she had used these curses all the time to evade capture until her death in 1528. Merlin was believed to have used it to defeat dark wizards around 500AD. A Muggle-born wizard is credited with the first such curse after his wife had agreed to be executed in his stead to pay his gambling debts. In his anger, it is said that he had used a spell on the Muggles who executed his wife, focusing on their greed and his wrath, causing their deaths. He subsequently used the curses to rob and steal and was never caught by authorities."
"Three in a span of a thousand years. That doesn't sound too scary," Ron opined.
"But it can be scary," Hermione replied, "It is believed that these curses impair an opponent's ability to cast or evade spells, and make one's spells more powerful than usual; almost impossible to protect against. Can you imagine what it would have been like had Voldemort been able to perform them?"
"True, but if you can't do the curses, there won't be many who can, aside from those dead people you mentioned."
Hermione disagreed, "That may not be necessarily true. The reason I can't do these curses is because they are opportunistic."
Harry heard that word before.
"They are what?"
"Opportunistic, not everyone can perform them. If you look into opportunistic magic, different events and/or situations in life enable different magical opportunities."
Then Harry remembered, the healing spell Hermione performed on Ron the night she escaped was opportunistic magic!
"So, I had to find that commonality among those who were believed to have conjured it, you know, those dead people. I found that they all lived because of another person's willing sacrifice of their own. It's not scientifically reproducible because the enabling condition is so rare. And I suspect that they are difficult to conjure and very advanced spells to master which explains why the curses have only occurred sporadically in the past thousand years."
"Do you think I can perform the curses?" Ron asked, thinking that was what Hermione needed help with.
"You can try, though I seriously doubt that you can. I don't think you are enabled," Hermione said truthfully, "I need your help with the report submission. I've put together the theory of the counter-curses based on my theoretical cardinal curses as that prick Dorner wants, but because of the highly sensitive information I would rather the report be sealed such that only the current Head of the Department of Mysteries and the current Minister for Magic can read it."
"I didn't know that could be done," Ron said.
Hermione smiled, "That's one thing that we Unspeakables do, Ron. Find ways to do things that others say can't be done. The confidentiality spell is commonly used for short notes. Using this for an entire report is a project in itself and I can't do it alone. I need your help putting the report together from scratch."
"Why bother with it? You don't even know if the curses and counter-curses you developed work."
Harry thought Ron had a point.
Hermione smiled, "Thank you for your confidence!"
Ron replied hurriedly, trying to take back what he just said, "I didn't mean it that way. I meant…"
"It's okay, Ron. I know what you mean. I prefer to err on the side of caution, just in case they do work, and I have a feeling they will."
"Why don't you find someone enabled to test them for you?" Ron asked and the answer to Harry was kind of obvious.
"Sure, we could do that, if we were prepared to deal with another Voldemort."
Harry felt himself being pulled back up to his study. Thanks to Ron's memory he now knew what Project Lumos was and why Hermione asked Ron to be assigned to her five months ago. At least what she told Ron. It just still seemed odd that she would explain such a highly confidential and sensitive project to Ron just so he could help seal it. Maybe it took two people to conjure the confidentiality spell. Harry sensed the confidentiality spell was also confidential he probably could not look it up in a common book or ask the local librarian. He would try anyways.
Harry replaced the memory he just saw back into its phial and poured the contents of the next one into the Pensieve. He wanted to see one more memory before turning in. It was dated two months ago.
He fell into darkness. He heard Hermione shrieking at someone to get out. Then he finally saw her; she was just inside the entrance to a bachelor's pad shoving a half-naked brunette outside the door and throwing her clothes at her.
"And don't even think of coming back!" she said angrily.
"Who are you? His mother?!" the woman screamed at Hermione.
"Worse, I'm his conscience!" she replied as she slammed the door in her face.
Harry couldn't help the smile that formed on his face. Harry turned to Ron, who he could see was in bed under the sheets.
"Blimey, Hermione! Why did you have to do that for?" Ron said, then calling out to the woman at the door, "I'll owl you, Sheila!"
The woman answered back, "The name is Stasia! And don't bother!"
"Really, Ronald," she lectured him, "You should be more selective about choosing the women you're with!"
It was déjà vu. Hogwarts Hermione bickering with Hogwarts Ron. The only difference was they were older, and Hermione, he noticed, was as thin and as sleep deprived as he could remember her, including during their third year at Hogwarts when she was using the time-turner to attend more classes. She looked unwell.
"I think it's only fair that since you do not want to be with me, I can at least be with someone who does," then Ron muttered under his breath, "I must have been out of my mind giving you a key."
"Get dressed, I need your help."
"Seriously, it's my day off. I remember the last time you asked for my help, I think the spell you asked me to do still smarts."
"This is going to be much worse, Ron," she answered gravely, "It's bad, really bad."
Ron paused and appraised her request for a moment, decided that she was serious
"Well, can you just turn around?" Ron motioned with his finger.
Hermione let out an exasperated sigh, "I've seen it before you know and there's really not much to see!"
She quickly turned as he requested, tapping her toes, as she waited. Harry laughed as he thought it best to turn around too.
Hermione said as Ron passed her with a pair of jeans on, "Don't you think it's about time you cleaned up around here?"
"Nope," came Ron's quick reply, "So, what's this about?"
"Not here, my apartment," she said as she headed out the door.
Harry and Ron followed her out. Ron locked his apartment with his wand and caught up with Hermione, who was walking very briskly.
"It's a thousand degrees out, let's Apparate," Ron whined when he caught up to her.
"The exercise will do you good," she replied and walked even faster.
Ron glanced sideways to her as they walked, "By the way, Ginny's really worried about you."
"Tell her she shouldn't be," Hermione replied.
"She won't believe it unless you see her to tell her yourself. Why don't you come to the Burrow this Sunday for dinner? Mom's having the lot over."
"I'll think about it."
Then Ron said with a bothered look on his face, "You can't avoid everyone forever, Hermione."
"I know. I'll think about it, okay?"
She was trying to not give a definite answer. And Ron backed off though Harry could see Ron was still visibly concerned. Ginny had mentioned that Hermione had distanced herself from the other Weasleys. Why was she avoiding them? He found it hard to believe that after almost two years it was still because of him.
Harry estimated that Hermione's apartment was probably about ten blocks away. It surprised him that Hermione insisted to walk rather than Apparate; it was midday and the streets were packed. About halfway Hermione came to an abrupt stop and Harry went through her.
"Wait!" she said to Ron who stood beside her looking at a display of television sets in a local Muggle appliance chain. The same news story was being shown across all fifty screens.
Tenth Stabbing Victim Found
"Of course!" Hermione exclaimed loudly that she drew the attention of people walking on the sidewalk.
"What?" Ron asked.
"We have to find some Muggle newspapers," she replied and walked even faster.
Harry remembered how much he and Ron were annoyed when she did that.
Steps away from her apartment they found a newspaper stand and bought a few different dailies.
Hermione waved to the building ambassador as they passed and got on the elevator. At her apartment door, she took out a key and let them in.
"In my office, Ron," she said as she opened the fridge and grabbed them a couple of butterbeers.
"What's this about, Hermione?" Ron asked as he took one from her.
"I didn't want you involved but I have no choice; there's no one else I can trust."
She looked like she was about to cry. Ron walked towards her, swung his long arms around her shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze.
"I'm here. I'm listening."
She took two pieces of parchments from her jeans pocket. She handed them to Ron one after the other. Harry joined him as he read.
Miss Granger,
His wrath will no longer cause pain in the world. Congratulations. Utile Ira works wonderfully well.
The Cardinal
The second note was also cryptic.
Miss Granger,
Lust ravaged his soul. As a comfort, he did die quite happy. I would be so disappointed if your counter curses do not work. I know you are one not to disappoint.
The Cardinal
"Holy shit…" was all Ron could say.
It was what Hermione was afraid of.
Hermione buried her face in her hands, "I was so stupid for agreeing to do this."
"In the first place, we don't even know if this is true. It could be a prank," Ron tried to comfort her, "And if it is true, it's not your fault. You were just doing your job."
"Tell that to the nuclear scientists who created the first atomic bomb."
"The who who did what?" Hermione lost Ron.
"Never mind. Anyway, it's definitely not a prank. I have to fix this, Ron, I can't let this Cardinal use what I created to do horrible things."
"There's absolutely no proof that this Cardinal is doing what these notes imply."
"I asked Dorner to re-open Lumos."
"No, you shouldn't have, don't do this to yourself," Harry thought it was actually good that she did.
"The counters are not ready, you know that. You have to help me," Hermione was pleading with him and Harry could not remember the last time Hermione pleaded with anyone.
"Nothing has changed in three months," Ron said, "We still can't conjure the curses to see if your counters work."
"Look at the notes, Ron! What else do you see?"
Harry looked closely, and he saw what she meant. Ron's face dropped. Harry suspected he would see it too considering how much dependent they were on Hermione's notes from their classes throughout Hogwarts. The notes looked like Hermione wrote them herself.
"This Cardinal is already thinking about who to blame for this! We have to do something!"
Her outburst startled Ron and Harry. Ron relented, "Okay, calm down. What did Dorner say?"
"I came to him when I got the first note six days ago. He said that since there was no mysterious death reported it was a prank by someone who overheard me working in my lab. He said he would investigate."
"When did the second note arrive?"
"Early this morning, and I immediately showed it to him. He's still unconvinced. I told him I was going to re-open Lumos and he forbade me to do it. He said he was shutting down several special projects. I disagreed and I asked him to at least let the Minister know. I don't think he will and he is trying to sweep everything under the rug to cover his tracks so when this thing blows, he's not anywhere near it."
Ron pondered for a moment, "I hate to tell you this, but Dorner is right. We really don't have any proof that murders have been committed."
Hermione went over the desk where the dailies were, "Ron, I think the Cardinal has been practicing on Muggles."
"Well, there's an interesting thought. And you think he or she is covering it up to look like Muggle murders?"
"I certainly hope I'm wrong but we need to speak with someone from the Yard, unofficially for now."
"Explaining this to a wizard is bad enough, but to a Muggle? Now that will be a cheerful conversation, not to mention a violation of about one hundred and ten Ministry of Magic laws," Ron said sarcastically as he browsed a headline, "Or maybe it will be easier than we think. What was the name of that bloke you know at the Yard?"
Hermione frowned at Ron. Harry noted it too, how Ron had a most unsavoury expression and tone as he said 'bloke'.
"You mean Ritchie. You're right, he works at the Yard."
Ron turned the paper to let Hermione see the serial murder headline story.
"I guess it's our lucky day. Richard Tilly is lead Inspector for the case."
Then Harry found himself thrown back into his study.
Several miles away, at Spinner's End, a hooded figure knocked on the door of an old house. A sallow face of a middle-aged man appeared from behind the door and appraised his visitor before fully opening the door to allow her to enter.
"Good Evening, Professor Snape." The visitor lowered the hood to reveal herself.
"I am flattered you had the time to drop by for a visit. I heard you were very busy, 'running around'. To what do I owe the pleasure, Miss Granger?"
A/N. This is the stripped down version of what Project Lumos is about and what the Cardinal Curses are (the original was horribly longer!) Hope you're all keeping up.