Disclaimer: Not mine but JK Rowling's.
A/N: Thanks to all who reviewed. If you've enjoyed the story, let me know.
Chapter 14. The Muggle Experiments
"Nice to finally shake your hand, Ron. Jane's in the shower," Ritchie told Ron as they shook hands. Then, flipping his phone open, said, "I'll be back shortly; I just have to return a few phone calls."
Ritchie went into the study just as Hermione walked into the kitchen. Ron set breakfast on her counter.
"Good morning," she said to Ron as she took one of the two prepared cups of coffee beside the percolator.
She sat next to Ron and grabbed one of Mrs. Weasley's famous pastries. Harry sat in front of her across the counter. She looked beautiful.
"How did the rest of your evening go?" Ron asked, looking at her.
Hermione's expression was unreadable as she sipped her coffee, "It was good, and yours?"
"Fantastic," Ron was exaggerating of course, "So, he spent the night?"
Hermione turned slightly towards Ron and watched him for a while.
"He did," and she continued to look at him, as if trying to gauge how Ron was going to react.
Harry felt like he was dying; like somebody punched him hard in the chest. His heart was now aching constantly and while he wanted to move away and not hear the rest of this particular conversation, he owed it to Ron to listen in. Ron wanted him to know this for a reason. It surprised Harry that Ron was not livid; he was more concerned.
"Are you okay?"
She nodded. Harry wasn't.
"Did you..." Ron seemed to have difficulty asking the hard question. Hermione spared him the trouble but Harry knew the answer before it escaped from her lips.
"Yes."
"And?"
"It was a relief to be able to feel that way again. I never thought I could, anymore," she answered quietly, a bittersweet expression on her face, then she hesitated. "It's just… never mind."
Ron pressed her, "No, tell me, what is it?"
"It's stupid really," she started, looking over to Ritchie to make sure he was still on the phone. "I know I shouldn't, but I feel as if I betrayed Harry."
Ron was unusually sombre, trying to put things in perspective.
"We haven't seen or heard from him in two years. We don't even know if he's still alive. You shouldn't feel that way. You deserve to be happy."
She sighed, "That's why I said it was stupid."
Harry brushed off a few tears on his face. Ron was right. She had no idea how he felt. She had nothing to hang on to. And if he had not had that dream she could have waited, possibly forever, for nobody. Harry never imagined she would go through this hardship thinking Ron would always be there for her to fill that need. He never thought they would break-up. He never thought Hermione would end up with someone else.
"Is it going to be serious?" Ron asked.
"I don't know. I don't think he knows either. We have no expectations, no demands and we'll just see how it goes."
"Just don't fall too hard this time, okay?" he suggested as he put an arm around her shoulder and kissed her forehead.
"Don't worry, I have learned my lesson," she planted a peck on his cheek. "Thanks, for looking out for me."
Then Ron just realized something; "You mean to say that last night you slept with someone with no demands and no expectations whatsoever? Well, you should have said you wanted that, I could have done that with you, no problem!"
Hermione laughed at Ron's suggestion, "But you're my best friend, I swore I would never do that again."
"It's a cursed title for sure. You should warn him that if he breaks your heart I'll hex him until he dies a miserable death," Ron said and he was serious.
Hermione was still laughing when Ritchie walked in.
"Okay, I'm ready for your questions," Ritchie said as he took the other coffee cup and sat across the counter from Ron, briefly meeting Hermione's gaze and acknowledging with a knowing smile.
Harry wished he would not notice such little nuances because they were all painful reminders of his mistake. He only had himself to blame. And though Ritchie seemed to be a decent guy, for now, Harry had an utmost dislike for him and it was all personal.
"Is there anything that's unusual about this case?" Hermione asked.
"Well, it baffles me that no one has come forward to claim responsibility," Ritchie replied. "And one other thing which I would like you to keep to yourselves for now," he paused allowing for Ron to affirm and Hermione to nod, "Two of the victims were already dead when they were stabbed in the heart and they had the most curious expressions on their faces."
Ron answered, "One of intense rage and the other of unnatural bliss."
They had Ritchie's undivided attention.
Hermione took out the list of Muggle victims she had copied on a piece of parchment. On it two of the ten names were checked. She handed it to Ritchie.
"Yes, these are the two. What can you tell me?"
"Not much I'm afraid," Hermione answered. "I received two notes, each shortly after the murders of these two victims, from someone going by the name of the 'Cardinal'. Ron works with our Ministry's Law Enforcement and they are not aware of this. As far as the Ministry of Magic is concerned, these are not murders by magic and they will not intervene."
"Do you need proof from me to get them to investigate?"
Ron replied, "Yes, and no. If we can prove that at least those two murders you have were by magic, we can investigate. But, a full-blown investigation at this point would create more problems for us in our world."
"What do you mean?" Ritchie asked Hermione.
"If we are to believe the Cardinal, he or she is using a set of very rare curses. We don't really know how to stop these curses, and if word gets out that the Cardinal is using them, we may have more Cardinals coming out of the woodworks, not to mention a very terrified public."
"Why are the notes being sent to you?"
"I do research for the Ministry and I designed the curses in the process of designing counter-curses. The Cardinal got a hold of my report and applied the theory that I submitted into practical use. The murders you have in your hands are trials; experiments. So far, a 20 percent success rate and it will only get worse as the Cardinal figures out how to make them work. This character is crazy; either thinks that I would be happy to know that the curses I designed work, or wants to be challenged."
At this point she took out a list of witches and wizards.
"Suspects?" Ritchie looked it over.
"Hermione and I cannot do the curses, that's why her report was just a theory on submission. The reason why the curses are so rare is because only certain witches and wizards can perform the curses. An act of self sacrifice enables their ability," Ron said, "There may be others who should be on that list but are not. But the list is a start."
Harry quickly looked over the list with Ritchie; it contained names of wizards and witches and how Hermione thought they were enabled. Harry browsed quickly. There were a lot of familiar names on it, from the war with Voldemort. The fifty or so names were divided into Probable, Highly Probable, and Definitely Enabled. At the very bottom of the list there was only one name under the last category.
Definitely Enabled - Harry Potter
Ritchie read it too, "The Boy Who Lived?"
"The Chosen One, the Saviour," Ron added. "How do you know about him?"
He looked over to Hermione with an embarrassed expression, "I have a confession. I went over to your parents' house four years ago and borrowed a few reference books to learn about magic. I think I read about him in Modern Magical History."
That certainly came in handy. An obvious attempt to impress her and Ron, Harry thought, and he succeeded, at Harry's expense.
"Blimey, you read Modern Magical History?!" Ron exclaimed.
"All 197 chapters," and he had a laugh with Hermione seeing Ron's shocked expression, "But you read that too at Hogwarts, right?"
"Yeah, but only because it was required reading!"
"I apologize if you think that's obscene. So do we start with Harry Potter?" Ritchie asked Hermione, who momentarily froze.
Ron covered for her, "That would be difficult. He disappeared two years ago; nobody has seen him since. And, he's definitely not the Cardinal. A few years back there was a wizard war. Harry almost died saving our world from this evil wizard Vo…Voldemort, hence his other title, the Saviour. He would be the last person on earth to do something like this."
"You guys knew him well," Ritchie guessed right and he was observing Hermione with keen interest.
Ron answered, "We were best friends in Hogwarts. Hermione and I helped him get rid of Vo…Voldemort. I guess you read an older version of Modern Magical History."
"I guess I did," Ritchie said quietly with a perplexed look on his face. "So if it's definitely not him then who should we start with?"
"There's Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape," Ron said. "They are at the top of my personal list."
"We can start with them but my gut says neither is the Cardinal. The notes just don't sound like them. You don't mind if we look at your evidence, do you? We might see something that makes more sense to us," Hermione asked.
"Drop by this afternoon around three," Ritchie offered.
"There's one other thing, Ritchie," Hermione said, then looking at Ron so he would not disagree, added, "And you can refuse if you want."
"What is it?"
"As you may or may not know wizards and witches have a way of getting information from others that they may not necessarily be willing to part with."
"I read about a truth serum."
"There's also mind reading," Ron added. "We think it's best if you are not able to discuss this with any other wizard or witch in our absence. There is a law that makes it illegal to expose our world to your world so we'd like to prevent you from sharing what you know about Lumos and us to non-magical folk. And we also want to protect you from being Obliviated."
"Having your memory erased," Hermione clarified as Ron lost Ritchie.
Harry thought erasing Ritchie's memory right about then was such a good idea. Too bad Hermione didn't think Ritchie was lilac potion-worthy.
"Sounds unpleasant. And you both feel strongly about this?"
Hermione and Ron nodded.
Ritchie looked from Ron to Hermione.
Then he smiled at her, "No offence, but all this talk about some Cardinal using dark magic is freaking me out much less compared to the time you told me you were a witch."
Hermione smiled back, "None taken. It's quite understandable. Men are typically more willing to go to war than commit to a relationship."
He chuckled, "That's probably because death in war comes swift. But the older we get, the more we realize commitments are much more rewarding."
Ritchie paused, maintaining eye contact with Hermione as he contemplated to accept or not. Harry could tell that despite what Hermione said, Ritchie was quite clear about where he wanted their relationship to go.
"Okay, let's do it then."
Ron performed a spell to protect him from Obliviation. The image of Ritchie signing a magical contract blurred and Harry was back in his study.
Harry was emotionally black and blue. He looked at the last paragraph of Ron's letter. If you still love her, fight for her. He now understood why Ron wanted him to see those memories of Hermione's and Ritchie's relationship. Harry was almost sure that at the time Ron wrote the letter, Hermione's involvement with Ritchie had become more serious. Ron didn't want Harry messing it up unless he felt strongly enough that he could do a better job loving her.
At this point, Harry had to do a better job of finding her. He had to find out if she and Ron had solved the problem of the counter curses. And the list, he needed that list. Maybe Hermione would have one in her apartment.
He looked at the time-teller. It was only 5pm. He organized his thoughts on what he needed to do.
Harry was pressed to see the two remaining memories so he could talk to Remus, Tonks and Kingsley about the case. He would drop by Hermione's apartment later tonight to look for the list and then, tomorrow, he would go to the Yard to see the boyfriend. Any decent boyfriend would know where his fugitive girlfriend was.