Disclaimer : Harry Potter - Not mine but JK Rowling's.
Chapter 19. The Impractical Third Counter Curse
Hermione had to turn away from Harry for a moment to wipe off a tear just before it could stream down her face.
She asked him, "How much do you know about Lumos?"
Harry told her about Ron's memories, finishing just as Ritchie got off the telephone and joined them.
"He has killed again, a wizard this time, and he did not cover this one up for the Muggles to find. How do you know Lyle Franks?"
Ritchie answered, "He got to Lyle?"
"He was found this morning, definitely for the wizards to see," Harry took a photo of the dead man's body and showed it to them.
"In my handwriting, and very informal as I would have done if I were writing to you," Hermione noted, "Lyle was helping us with the counters. He could do the curses."
That explained all the meetings in Franks' appointment book.
"You trained him? I thought…"
Ritchie interrupted, "It was my idea. We really had no choice. Ron and Hermione were not getting any help from your Ministry or your previous allies. The Cardinal was getting stronger and more skilled, we had to do something."
Hermione continued, "It took a couple of weeks to get the first curse out of him and after a few days, Lyle had had it. He was a teacher and he said he couldn't continue throwing curses at us. These are similar to the Unforgivable curses in that it takes a lot of dreadful emotion to conjure them, and someone as sweet as Lyle just didn't have enough meanness in him to continuously do it and be unaffected. He said it was eating him up inside and changing him. So he begged off and asked us to obliviate him."
"From the crime scene it didn't seem like he fought for his life at all," Harry thought that he would have at least thrown a curse or two.
Hermione answered, "For one thing, the Cardinal at this point is not really challenging anyone; he's creating perfect examples of murders using the curses. He's probably stunning his victims first then taking his time to kill them when they are somewhat defenceless. And even if we did not wipe his memory, Lyle would have died had he used any of it. He vowed not to use the curses outside the trials."
Harry knew what she meant.
"But I still can't believe Kingsley and Tonks would not help."
"Ron and I tried several times, even handing in an official request to the Auror's Office to investigate," said Hermione.
Harry chose his words carefully to avoid breaking another house rule, "When I talked to them earlier this week, they seemed okay. They did help me help you escape."
Ritchie looked at Hermione, "You always suspected Dorner had a hand in that. Maybe something has changed since his death. It might be worthwhile going back to them. You are going to need allies in the Ministry not only to catch the Cardinal but to clear your name."
"Ritchie's right. It will unlikely be the Minister and definitely not your new Department Head."
"I guess we can try them again," Hermione agreed.
Finally, Ritchie asked Hermione a question Harry had wanted to ask.
"Jane, what happened that night? With Ron?"
Hermione spoke to them both, "Ron and I were checking out the background reports on the murdered Muggles when we received a note from the Cardinal. He said Dorner was dead and when we got to my lab, he was long gone. There was another note there, instructing me to meet the Cardinal at my apartment, alone."
"So Ron came up with a plan. He was going to send out an Auror alert that someone had been murdered and that the killer was at my place. We argued about whether or not I should go. Then he petrified me and left."
She paused as a few teardrops fell quietly. Harry wanted to comfort her but Ritchie was closer. Ritchie put one arm around her shoulders and held her hand in his.
"You understand why, right? He didn't want you anywhere near the creep," Ritchie said so softly to her Harry could barely hear it.
She nodded and continued, "When his curse lifted, I went to my apartment. There were several unconscious Aurors, including Ron. The Cardinal was waiting for me. He said his personal invite was to celebrate his wizard murders of Dorner and Lowes with me alone, before he started destroying my life. He said Ron was foolish to call in the Aurors…and even more foolish to offer his life in exchange for the Cardinal to leave me alone when…he was clearly already going to die that night…"
She barely finished saying the last few words as tears started flowing freely from her eyes and she broke down weeping. Ritchie pulled her closer to him to soothe her. Harry's heart cried with her.
After a while, she finally calmed down enough to be able to speak, "He must not have realized Ron was still alive. As the other Aurors arrived he disapparated, and they took me in."
"Well, that night he framed you for Dorner's and he was hoping, Ron's, deaths but he must not have anticipated you would get arrested. Your escape was necessary for him to continue blaming more murders on you," Ritchie pointed out.
"You're saying that if I was sent to Azkaban, the murders would have stopped."
Ritchie replied, "Probably not. He would still do them anyways. I think it makes it more convenient for him that you're not in Azkaban. Nobody is looking for him because everyone thinks it's you."
Harry had a thought, "Things may change when he's done with the seven. I'm guessing, that's the time he'll link you to the Muggle murders and help in any way to get you arrested. How do you think he got your wand?"
"I honestly don't know," Hermione said.
That did not surprise Harry at all. If she had not used her wand for an entire month as the Ministry said, the Cardinal could have had it for days and she would not have noticed it was missing. He stopped himself, as he was about to say something to Ritchie about his stupid rules, thinking about being nice and civil, for her.
"How do the Cardinal curses affect you?" Harry asked.
Hermione replied, "Think Dementors. Dementors suck all the happiness out of you and make you relive your most horrible memories. The Cardinals keep the mind pre-occupied with negative emotions and feelings, in a most severe case, to the point of actually dying. Imagine rage within you increase a thousand fold such that it occupies every nook and cranny in your mind. You can't think of anything else but that self-feeding angry thought."
"Do the counters work on the same principle as the Patronus Charm?"
Hermione answered, "In a way, the first set does."
Hermione took a small computer from her backpack, keyed in a password as any Muggle would and opened her Lumos report. She gave it to Harry after she found him the page that summarized what he just asked. He quickly browsed Hermione's Lumos report.
Possible counter-curses:
1. Use of the seven Cardinal traits - patience for anger, humility for pride, generosity for greed, chastity for lust, diligence for sloth, moderation for gluttony, charity for envy
Advantages - uses positive energy
Disadvantages - must know the Cardinal curse in use to invoke counter-curse and have strong previous use of specific Cardinal trait
2. Use the same Cardinal curses against the invoker as Merlin reportedly had.
Advantages - opponent's negative energy is used
Disadvantages - will be difficult to harness, results unpredictable.
3. Disable the enabled.
Hermione went on, "Of course, the best defence against any curse is not to get hit by it. But if you do get hit, you'll know which curse right away so you have to think of a corresponding contrary memory quickly before you lose your mind; like for anger, think of a memory when you showed patience and hope that it's strong enough to break the curse."
"The seven counter curses using the Cardinal traits, being positive by nature, do not have to be conjured by an enabled person. They are purely defensive spells and will allow one to disengage from a curse. But since neither Ron nor I are enabled and we couldn't do the actual curses to test them until Lyle helped us. They're almost ready."
Ritchie added, "But even if you break the curse, there is still the task of trying to bring the Cardinal into custody and that will be the real challenge. The second set of counters is basically fighting fire with fire. Jane can't trust anyone with it hence the vow."
Harry looked at number three; there was no description, "Tell me more about the last one."
Hermione hesitated, "Stick with the first two. The third one is a wash, it's not even on the report I sent Dorner."
"That's even better. The Cardinal is not going to expect it. If we disable the Cardinal, it will be easier to catch him," Harry insisted, common sense and insatiable curiosity working against Hermione.
Hermione tried to downplay its significance; "It's just an out-of-the-blue theory with no factual basis whatsoever."
"We're testing the other two. So what's the third theory? Let's test it," Harry pressed on.
Ritchie muttered under his breath, probably not meaning to think out loud, "We can test it on you."
Hermione heard Ritchie and gave him a most severe look.
He hurriedly gave her his excuse, "Sorry, I didn't really mean that."
Hermione was still thinking about whether or not to tell Harry.
Harry was getting a bit impatient, "Okay, so don't tell me. I just hope that when I face the Cardinal, the first two sets of counters will be enough because I'd really hate it if the last thought that comes to my mind before I die was 'Geez, knowing that third one sure would have been handy'."
"Harry does have a point. If he's about to die anyway, why waste his life," Ritchie said. Harry could sense Hermione was more annoyed by Ritchie's suggestion of Harry's death than Harry was. She stared at Harry.
You're not going to try this.
How can we test it if I don't try it?
You're never going to use this.
What good is it if we don't?
You'll let someone else be a hero.
I told you, I'm done being a hero. Totally overrated.
Remember, you promised not to get yourself killed.
I remember. Now. will you tell me already? I think Ritchie is beginning to wonder why you're staring at me. He might think there's something going on between us.
He tried his best not to smile.
Resigned to the fact the she had to, Hermione explained the third hypothesis, "With the exception of the Cardinal curses, opportunistic magic made possible by sacrificing one's existence harnesses positive energy to create positive outcomes. I found it ironic that such a precious gift of sacrifice, of complete positivism, can be used to murder. So I came up with the third theory, which is not really a theory. It's more like a wish, a hope, that it is possible to take away that gift because it is not being used as it is supposed to. The premise is that for any opportunistic magic applied to the Dark Arts, if there is an enabling condition, there has to be a disabling condition. And if this disabling condition does exist, logic dictates that it will be of an equal or greater magnitude compared to the enabling circumstance."
Harry understood, but Ritchie paraphrased Hermione's textbook-like description of the hypothesis for clarification, "In other words, in theory, the Cardinal can be disabled by sacrificing one's life, or doing something of greater magnitude, if there is such a thing."
"Interesting theory. That is kind of hard to test in the lab," Harry deadpanned. How could he think disabling the Cardinal would be easy? Hermione had this most worried look on her face he wished he could do something about.
Harry shifted the conversation, which he just realized wasn't any more cheerful than the previous topic, "And the three murders to go before me?"
Ritchie answered, "He's going to do the same thing he did with the Muggles; one curse for each murder. Look at it this way, Harry. If he gets to you, you'll know what curse to defend against."
"That's reassuring," Harry countered, "So we have three; Lowes was sloth, Dorner pride, and Franks, I couldn't figure out from his expression."
Hermione answered, "Gluttony. He was a recovering alcoholic. I was just wondering if there was another reason why he picked Lyle. I still think each person he picks as a victim is someone significant. It can't be random. He had to get rid of Dorner and Lowes, but why Lyle?"
Ritchie thought, "Do you think he's trying to eliminate enabled wizards from your list?"
"He might know I'm asking for help. Lyle was number four on my list. Or it may just be coincidence. Professor Snape declined, by the way. But Malfoy is in."
"You're teaching this to Malfoy?" Harry could almost not believe what he heard.
"I trust him, and besides, having two of you will give you both the opportunity to learn the counters."
Harry didn't argue but thought Hermione was crazy to even consider having him and Malfoy curse each other; especially with something that could be lethal.
"Do you know if there was a third Unspeakable working on Dorner's special projects?" he asked Hermione.
She shrugged, "Dorner never mentioned a third. If there was you're not going to be able to know which one unless they come forward and admit it, which hasn't happened so probably never will."
"We need to check out your list, Hermione," Harry said. "If Lowes took your ideas, I'm guessing he picked his enabled from your list too. We need solid suspects and potential victims."
"Ron and I went through the entire list a few times but we can go through it again. There are a couple on the list that we couldn't track down so Ritchie is giving us a hand. Ritchie also is helping us with Muggle background checks on the list as well as top Ministry officials. The Cardinal definitely has Muggle ties and connections with someone higher up in the Ministry."
Ritchie spoke, "We have a few new leads on the victims. We've had fifteen murders; all victims were, to say the least, not well liked and were of ill repute. There was also occupational clustering. Fourteen victims worked, at one time or another, in orphanages, schools, or social services. One was a foster care parent. It seems our murders were of a very personal nature."
"Makes me feel kind of sad for our Cardinal," Harry said, "So we're looking for an orphan or an unwanted child?"
Hermione frowned, "Possibly. How many foster kids did this parent have?"
"Twelve, not all at once but over her lifetime, all adults now" Ritchie replied, knowing Hermione thought that would be the place to start too, "We cross-referenced these twelve names to known students and clients of the other fourteen victims. Not one matched to all fourteen. The best match was to nine deaths and there was one who knew eight. But between them, all the victims were known."
"Which could mean the choice of Muggle victims was their combined wish list," Harry noted.
"There's more," Ritchie continued, "I took the names on your enabled list and tried to see if they ever had contact with any of our victims. One of them matched up to eight victims too. Curiously, it's one of the two that you and Ron were not able to track down. Between your missing enabled and each of those two foster children, all fifteen victims were also known."
"So we're saying that these three are suspects, and that at least two of them chose which Muggles to kill," Hermione summarized, "Good, at least we have some names to work on."
Harry asked, "Have you talked to any of them? Do we know if any of our suspects knew each other?"
"We're working on that. The problem is we're having difficulty tracking them down. One of the foster children just dropped out of the face of our world shortly after he turned eleven, the same age your missing enabled did. That would be around the time they would have started attending Hogwarts and I'm wondering if they just never came back to their old lives. We're still chasing leads on the other foster kid."
"Which name on my list was it?" Hermione asked.
"Number five, T.M.Didler."
Then something struck Harry about the name, "Can you spell out that last name?"
Hermione did and just realized what Harry was thinking, "That's interesting. Why did I not see that before? It's an anagram for Riddle."
Ritchie caught on, "Hmmm, T.M. Riddle. Tom Marvolo Riddle. Voldemort."
Harry mentioned how the Cardinal sounded like Voldemort.
"But isn't Voldemort dead?" Ritchie asked.
"Very much so, unless he has found a way to become un-dead, which is not really beyond him."
Hermione shook her head, "No, I don't think it's Voldemort. Maybe someone related, though we know he doesn't have any known living relatives. Or, it could be a coincidence and we're reading too much into it. I think the Cardinal is someone we might know, maybe from the Ministry or from Hogwarts. Probably someone familiar so he needs the disguise."
Harry said, "You and Ron couldn't find Didler in our records either. We can try Hogwarts. If Didler attended or got an invite to Hogwarts there should be records. And I can look and see if your foster kids did show up in our side of the world."
Ritchie wrote two names on a piece of paper and handed it to Harry.
Harry continued as he folded the paper and put it in his pocket, "Let me work on this and on Tonks and Kingsley for a possible meeting with the two of you tomorrow. If we can convince them, we can try resurrecting the Order. We need to arm as many wizards and witches with at least the ability to disengage from the curse. Then we can go to Scrimgeour."
He said to Ritchie, "It might also be worthwhile cross-referencing Dorner, Lowes and Franks with your three names. The Cardinal may have known them, particularly Franks, from the past, " then he turned to Hermione, "And if you trust me not to become another Cardinal, I'd really rather not make an Unbreakable vow. The ability to perform the curses against him might be helpful."
Ritchie replied on Hermione's behalf, "She trusts you with her life so it's settled. We may have a lead on the other foster kid, something about him now being a famous painter who lives in the area. I'm meeting one of the Chief's personal informants later tonight, and no you're not coming with me," he said to Hermione and the hopeful expression on her face became a frown.
"But it could be dangerous," Hermione persisted.
"All the more reason why you shouldn't come," Ritchie said dryly, "Even Harry will agree with me on this."
"Most definitely," Harry concurred. "You've been on the run for a couple of days. You need to rest, Hermione. And I have to get going."
Harry was beat.
Ritchie pulled out something from his desk drawer and threw it towards Harry who caught it. It was a Muggle mobile telephone.
"My number and Jane's number are on the speed dial. You think you can figure out how to use it?"
"I'll let you know if I can't, thanks," he replied, though truthfully, he would rather grow hair out of his ears. Harry didn't mind Ritchie's sarcasm as much anymore after overhearing his and Hermione's conversation.
"I'll show him out," she said to Ritchie as she grabbed Harry's wand from her backpack, handed it to him and they walked in silence back to where they apparated.
She looked exhausted and Harry felt an overwhelming regret knowing he said so many things that night that hurt her. He spoke to her just as he was about to step outside the service entrance. "Hermione, the things I said earlier tonight, I'm really sorry. I…"
Hermione cut him off, "It's not your fault, Harry. You couldn't have known. I haven't been totally honest with you."
Harry felt a bit of rawness about her that he noticed when he first saw her a few days ago at St. Mungo's, and then he recognized it. It was like that of a wounded animal just trying to survive, trying to protect herself from further harm.
He held her eyes with his and asked, "Are you okay?"
She did not answer but had a pained expression on her face.
"It's me, Hermione, it's still me. After all these years, I'm still Harry; the boy you met on the train; your best friend at Hogwarts; the guy whose life you've saved so many times you're literally the reason I live. I know I haven't been around in a long while but I'm here now. I'm here if you need me."
Hermione walked towards him and they embraced, like they used to while they were still at Hogwarts. And as much as Harry didn't want her to, with her face buried in his chest, Hermione started crying again. She broke down uncontrollably, sobbing hard, Harry thought, likely for everything she felt in her for the past week, for the past month, possibly for the past two years. He was her friend first and foremost, that was what she needed at the moment.
He stroked her hair and whispered softly in her ear, "Sssh…it will be all right."
When the tears finally ran out, she stepped back and said, smiling weakly, "Despite all the hexes I've thrown at you lately, I am kind of thankful you're back"
"Kind of?" he smiled with her, though perturbed that she still had mixed feelings about his return, "I shouldn't have left in the first place."
"Goodnight, I'll see you tomorrow," she said. They leaned into each other and as if it was what they always did, kissed each other sweetly on the lips.
Harry asked, trying to ignore the bittersweet ache he was feeling in his gut as she ended their kiss sooner than he wanted to, "Does he kiss better than I do?"
Hermione answered, "It's not a contest."
Before she pulled away completely, he begged, hopeful, "Stay with me, tonight…"
She replied almost in a whisper, "I'm sorry, Harry."
And Harry saw her quickly disappear behind the door.
There were so many things he still wanted to say. He wanted to say, he loved her now as he loved her then and wished he could hold her in his arms tonight like he knew Ritchie would. How he longed for them to kiss and make love as they did during that one night of idiocy. He felt a tug in his heart. When he thought his heart was broken enough, it broke again. Maybe, she just needs more time.
He disapparated to Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Alone in his room that evening he thought about what sent him away and what brought him back. He thought about what he really wanted to do, knowing what he knew now about Hermione, about Ron, about Ritchie, about this Cardinal.
For sure he wanted to stop this Cardinal. Ron, he could not really do anything about. He definitely was going to do his best to get her back but decided that even if Hermione wanted to be with Ritchie, he would stay this time to face his fate and maybe make it a bit more interesting. That night, he wrote his good friend Oliver Wood, thanked him for the past two years. He would use an owl service in the morning to send it. He wrote him that Philip Horton, Quidditch Seeker and World Series Champion, was retired and would never come back.
Weary, Harry emptied his pockets out onto the table. What a day he just had. First there was Lyle Franks' dead body, then Ron's memories, and then Hermione. He sighed as a piece of paper caught his attention from the pile of stuff he just dumped on the table.
He opened the fold and looked at the names on Ritchie's note. Maybe the names of the foster kids would ring a bell. The first name briefly caught his interest. Dean Gray. The only Dean he knew would never hurt a fly, though he did recall Ritchie saying one of the foster kids was now a painter. It must be coincidence. There could be a few painters in the area named 'Dean'. And was Ginny's Dean an orphan? Harry realized he didn't really know anything about Dean's childhood and made a note to ask Ginny. He just thought it was kind of embarrassing not knowing that about your friends.
Harry froze as he read the second name on the list. He recognized it instantly. Hermione would have too had Ritchie said his name. This can't be a fluke. It was such an uncommon name in this part of the world for too many people to have. He must have read the name three times just to be sure. The second name on Ritchie's note was Miguel Gomez, current Head of the Department of Mysteries.
XXXXXXXXXX
The Cardinal was looking over the deceased body of the latest victim, somewhat amused that death did not make the man's face paler than it normally was. There was a feeling of satisfaction as blood oozed from the dead man's mangled left arm. The mark that had been etched there for years was no more, forcible sculpted out of the undeserving individual. The message for Harry Potter read.
Thank me for killing this traitor on your death day. The next one will be family.