Disclaimer : Harry Potter and his world belong to JK Rowling.
Author's warning: The Chapter contains sexually explicit language. It may not be appropriate for all readers.
Chapter 16. A Few Curses Between Old Friends
The information from the last two phials made it necessary for Harry to find Hermione first before sharing Ron's memories with anyone. It was obvious that the Cardinal was either a Ministry official or someone with very close ties to the Ministry so he had to be extra careful whom to trust.
Harry decided to check out Hermione's apartment first for a copy of the list of suspects. He was guessing she was trying to find the Cardinal and chances were she was going through her list.
There used to be two sentries from the Magical Law Enforcement Squad assigned to guard her apartment. There was protest amongst the guards as Hermione's alleged skill at sending law enforcement officials into St. Mungo's became widespread. If it took seven Aurors to subdue her the last time and if she made mincemeat of ten Aurors during her escape, not enough galleons in the world could make two lowly sentries agree to keep her away from her apartment.
He talked to the building ambassador and he let him in. The apartment was a mess, likely a result of the battle with the Aurors. He went into her office knowing that was where she spent most of her time and on one of the few intact bookshelves he noticed a framed picture flopped on its face. As he picked it up, he recognized the same picture he had in New York. The only difference was he wasn't in it and Hermione had her back turned, Ron was trying to comfort her.
The room was now dark except for a computer monitor flickering in the far corner of the room and the light coming in from the balcony. Hermione's oak writing desk just beside it seemed like the most logical place to start looking. But before he could open any drawer, a sudden flash of red light caught the corner of his eye and reflex made him dive behind the desk. A curse flew just barely over his head and smashed the shelves behind him, books cascading onto him as he crawled away to safety. He had his wand drawn out in an instant.
"I thought I was clear when I asked you to leave!" A female voice sprang off from a distance.
It was Hermione.
"Oh, hi. I'm so glad you're here. I was actually just about to look for you," he said as cheerfully as he could, still crouched under the table and tried to inch his way to the edge to get a glimpse of where she was.
"Crash!"
A vase near his head broke as another curse from Hermione narrowly missed him. The tiny pieces looked familiar. Great! That was his housewarming gift.
"We need to talk about this! Can you stop hexing me long enough for us to have a civilized conversation?" He wondered when her newfound sport for throwing jinxes at him would end.
"There is nothing to talk about," she replied.
Books from the opposite shelves started flying across the room and dropping on Harry. 'She loves books; she must really hate me', he thought. He contemplated allowing her to hit him with a curse. He was starting to feel like a coward hiding behind the desk. This was Hermione; what could she possibly do to him?
"Look, I can understand why you would be angry at me."
"Who said I was angry?"
With a spell she made all four legs of the table disappear, almost crushing Harry's fingers in the process. If she wasn't angry, then she was going mad. This was getting to be irritating.
"If the plan is to curse me until I leave, I'm telling you now it won't work," Harry threw his wand out towards the direction of her voice, "There's my wand. I'm coming out, then I'm going to walk over to where you are and we're going to have a conversation."
"Don't come near me!"
Harry ignored what she said and stood up. A red beam of light sprayed from Hermione's wand heading in his general direction. Harry closed his eyes expecting to feel the worst any second. It hit the desk and smashed a portion of it, sending splinters everywhere. Harry breathed a sigh of relief.
There she was, just inside the door to her office, her wand pointed directly at him like the last time they were face to face. Despite the current animosity she was expressing towards him, Harry felt the familiar ache in his chest. He had to make this right, he thought as he began to approach her.
"Don't make me hurt you!" She started taking a few steps back to put more distance between her and Harry.
"If it will make you feel better, go ahead," he said quietly, and he meant it. He continued walking towards her.
After a few steps, the wall behind Hermione prevented her from moving back any further. Harry closed the gap and finally found himself right in front of her. He took her shaking wand wielding hand and coaxed it with some difficulty to point to the ground.
"Let go!" she said, defiant.
"No," he said firmly, "Talk to me."
"There's nothing to talk about!" Hermione struggled to extricate her hand and wand from Harry's firm grip without much success.
"Ask me why I left!"
"I know why you left! But that doesn't change the fact that you did!"
"Tell me I'm a jerk!"
"Why waste time stating the obvious!"
"Tell me you're angry!"
"I'm not angry!"
"THEN TELL ME ANYTHING! I CAN'T STAND THIS! JUST TALK TO ME!" he was shouting without realizing it.
They stood there, glaring at each other. They fell into an eerie silence and Harry noticed that Hermione's eyes were brimming with tears. He could tell she was trying to choose what she was going to say and how she was going to say it.
Then finally, as a few tears could no longer be contained, Hermione said in a calculated and deliberate voice, "You think you can pick up where you left off. Time didn't stand still when you left, Harry! I have just managed to move on and I can't go through that all over again! It's a most cruel fate I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy! Why did you have to come back?!"
Harry was taken aback; he did not expect to hear that.
"I…I had a dream, about Ron and about you, I had to..." Harry replied with hesitation, in a calmer tone, trying to explain, though he knew it was a question that needed no answer.
"And you come back, not six months ago when everything was fine, not even two months ago when things were manageable! But you had to come back this week, when all hell is breaking lose! I can't deal with this with you around! I need you to leave!"
Really, how could she think he could?
"I can't leave, not right now!" Harry pleaded for her understanding.
"Why not? You left so easily the last time!"
"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry I left, I'm sorry I didn't owl, and I'm sorry I hurt you!"
"You don't have to apologize! It was just one stupid night a long time ago and I am so over it!"
His green frustrated eyes met her equally upset brown ones. His mind and emotions were going in a rapid downward spiral! She had moved on, he heard her say! She was over their one stupid night! She could be infuriating when she wanted to be! But he had not moved on and he wasn't over that one night! It can't be too late to make things right! He felt despair knocking at his door, as he was about to lose the woman he loved all over again! Didn't desperate times call for desperate measures?
Hermione's flowery scent quickly flooded Harry's senses. With nary a thought, he moved forward and pinned her up against the wall; Hermione's slight body could barely budge against Harry's muscular frame.
Before Hermione could protest, Harry devoured her mouth, kissing her savagely. He heard her wand drop to the floor beside them. Almost immediately after, he felt her lips and her body give in and she was returning his kisses even more ferociously. His mouth was as insatiable as hers; neither cared that their lips quickly became raw from the rough physical force.
"I shouldn't be doing this," she said, breathlessly in between their kisses.
"You shouldn't kiss me back," he replied as he felt her feeling him up under his shirt.
"I'm seeing someone," Hermione confessed, not heeding Harry's suggestion.
"I don't care," Harry answered back, his caresses sent shivers up and down her spine.
"We should stop," she pleaded, in a desperate small voice that seemed to take a considerable amount of energy for her to say out loud, though the rest of her body betrayed her and was saying otherwise.
Harry heard her and paused. They were feverish, breathless and he could feel her heart beating as fast as his.
He gazed deep into her intoxicated and confused brown eyes and said, "Look at me. Tell me you don't want this and say it like you mean it. Then we can stop. But if we do this, know that I will never chose to forget it, like I chose not to forget the last time."
It did not take long for her to decide as he saw her confusion change to annoyed resignation. Leaning in towards him, her lips barely touching his, she asked, "Does that mean that if we do this, you're not drinking any potion?"
"Not a chance," he replied, lightly touching her lips with his as he did.
"That's good to know."
And she kissed him with a longing and passion that matched how he felt for her. He returned her kiss with equal fervor as his desire for her erupted and could no longer be suppressed. He felt her tongue seek its counterpart, and as they found and caressed each other, it kindled an already unquenchable thirst to do more. In no time at all, their pace became frenzied again. They could not wait and they started making out on the office floor.
Harry just missed her so much. He could sense Hermione's urgency, too. He felt this crushing need to feel as much of her as he could all at once. He ripped the front of her blouse; buttons flew off in every direction. He freed her breasts from their harness and didn't even notice his shirt was no longer on him. Harry just lost himself completely to the moment as he felt his bare torso come in contact with her soft hot skin. Hermione's hands were exploring his body and caressing his manliness that was already aching for the warmth that was inside her.
His lips slid away from hers and ravaged her jaw, her neck, finally settling on her left breast, sucking and teasing her nipple with his tongue. She was arching her back, offering it up to him to do as he pleased. His hands were elsewhere, touching, stroking, fondling, a soft moan confirming when he found a good spot. He would go crazy if he didn't take her then and there. His fingers expertly loosened the buttons of her jeans and started slipping it down with her underwear. Hermione seemed to have the same idea, and he was sure she had magically unbuttoned his trousers. Her fingers raked through his raven-colored hair as Harry shifted to pull Hermione's pants down further.
Beep beep…Beep beep…Beep beep…
A soft but fast beeping sound immediately made them both freeze. It was from a small contraption that was flashing red at the very corner of her office. Still flushed and winded, Hermione pushed Harry off to one side and silently summoned her wand. Fixing the damage to her clothes, she went over to her computer desk and tapped the monitor. The beeping sound stopped. Harry dressed and followed her to see what she was up to. The monitor showed the lobby of her apartment. The building ambassador was talking with Hector Aimes and about six other Aurors.
"Aimes," Hermione knew him, "Your shadow found you."
With a wave of her wand, a backpack let itself out of the closet and a few personal items started going into it. Harry thought it would have been nice had they come just ten minutes later; he actually would have been happy with five.
"We really need to talk, Hermione," he said as she packed and he retrieved his wand.
She took the laptop that was in a hidden compartment in her desk, shoved it into her pack and swung this over her shoulder.
"I'm kind of busy at the moment, you know, trying to avoid Azkaban. I'll take a rain check."
"I know about the Cardinal, about Lowes, about the curses! Let me help you!"
"No, but thanks for offering."
"There's been another murder. The Cardinal is framing you as he said he would!" Harry said as she pried a loose board underneath her couch and pulled out what looked like parchments. Harry guessed they were the notes from the Cardinal.
"It doesn't concern you!"
"My name was written in blood on the victim; it definitely concerns me."
Hermione paused, a worried look on her face, "The victim, was it a Muggle?"
"No, a wizard. He said there's three down and that there's three to go before me."
"Lyle?" she had this look that she knew the answer already.
"So you did know him," he noted how she referred to the victim by his first name.
"Unfortunately for him, he knew me."
"We have to find the Cardinal," Harry pointed out.
"There is no 'we' because you're not staying," she said as she walked past him, closing the blinds to the balcony. Now the apartment was pitch black.
Almost simultaneously they lit their wands, and it illuminated their faces.
"Well, I'm not leaving either, so one of us is going to be wrong about that."
"It's me he wants. Ron almost got killed and now the Cardinal wants to kill you, Harry," her eyes and her voice were trying to reason with him, "You don't have to be here."
"We've been through this before, Hermione. I'm not going away."
"We don't know how to stop the curses!"
"Then like before, we'll figure it out. You said I could do the curses. So teach me how and I'll help you with the counters," he paused, briefly seeing the familiar look of worry in her expression, "I'm staying whether you like it or not, so you can let me help you or risk my being in the way. Your choice."
After a few seconds, she finally relented, "Fine. But I need you to promise me one thing."
"Anything."
"Don't get killed."
Harry could not do that, "I'll definitely try my best not to."
"You know what I mean! Let someone else be a hero this time."
"I don't think I've ever volunteered."
Hermione pointed her wand at him and on instinct he grabbed her hand and pushed it away.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"They'll know I was here. They will be less suspicious if I hex you."
"No thanks, I think you've jinxed me more than enough for today. I'm coming with you. I'm not letting you out of my sight until you answer all my questions and we come up with a game plan." And maybe finish what we were doing earlier.
They could hear voices just outside the apartment door. Hermione hesitated briefly, then marched off into her bedroom with her backpack slung on her left shoulder. When she noticed that Harry had not budged from his position, she turned and impatiently hissed, "Well, are you coming?"
He joined her at the front of her closet and followed her lead shutting off the light on her wand. She opened the door wide and shoved Harry into the closet packed with clothes. Why were they going into the closet? Probably hiding to spring a surprise?
Harry decided that while it was a good thing she was allowing him to tag along, he had to ask what the plan was, "There's only six or seven of them. You take the three right most and I'll take the rest."
"Keep you wand in your holster, cowboy. The last thing we need is to get you in trouble with the Ministry, too," then she muttered under her breath, "I just know I'm going to regret this. I should have just petrified you."
"Where are we going, I mean besides in your closet?"
Hermione squeezed in beside him and closed the closet doors just as they heard the Aurors file into the apartment. In the dark, she whispered, "I haven't seen Ritchie since they arrested me."
Ritchie. Her boyfriend. Something hot and unpleasant came over him.
"What's the matter? Feeling a bit guilty snogging behind his back?" Harry was being sarcastic and said it before he could stop himself.
Harry could feel her scowl at him in the dark. He thought, 'Good move Potter; you can start guessing how long before she allows you to kiss her again.'
An Auror was in the bedroom and he was approaching the closet. Hermione grabbed his arm, tighter than he thought was necessary, her fingernails digging into skin, and they Disapparated.
xxxxxxxxx
Ginny Thomas was worried. Today, she got an owl from the twins' daycare that Dean forgot to pick up the kids again. That was the fourth time in two weeks. It was not like Dean to forget like that.
She talked to Dean about it the last time it happened and he could not tell Ginny where he was or what he was doing at the time the kids were supposed to be picked up.
Dean also seemed more distant over the last few weeks, and more so since Harry's return. She thought she was imagining things, being too busy at St. Mungo's and her schoolwork. But her witch's 6th sense was telling her something was not right. She wondered if her husband was having an affair.
When they were married after she graduated from Hogwarts, everything was perfect. Dean earned a good living doing portraits for Muggles and magical folk alike and was developing a good reputation. They decided to and got pregnant soon after. The twins came and she went back to school.
The thing was Ginny thought Dean never got over the fact that she used to be with Harry, and she felt he was constantly trying to be better than Harry at everything. It was foolish really, to prove that she ended up with the better man, because she really ended up with the man she loved. Somehow, Dean thought that wasn't enough for her.
When Harry disappeared, Ginny was as devastated as any other Weasley. Dean took her period of bereavement as a sign that she cared more about Harry (who was now gone) than him (who was still there).
Ginny resolved to put a traceability charm on Dean and follow him the next time he left the house unscheduled. It would be difficult and painful, but she wanted to see for herself if what she suspected was true.