Disclaimer : Harry Potter - not mine but JK Rowling's.
Chapter 26 - Pink and Blue
The University Bookstore was extremely busy for a Saturday afternoon. All the students and teachers coming into class today must have decided to drop by to browse and buy books. And it even seemed that they told their families and friends to come, too. With Hermione the only one in helping Miranda, this afternoon was crazy busy.
Hermione loved working at the Bookstore. The job was usually quiet and was a far departure from the hustle and bustle that was her life at the Ministry. The owner, Miranda Giles, was a sprightly octogenarian who was a wonderful boss to work for. All her employees were University students and she allowed them to read as much on the job provided work was not left undone. That was easy because she usually had more staff working on any particular shift than required. For Hermione, this meant she had lots of time to start reading the required textbooks for the research associate program she had signed up to attend in the fall.
Miranda was like everyone's grandmother. She could be stern but most of the time she was very understanding, and she was a treat to talk with, as Hermione and Ritchie found out when she insisted they join her for tea one time. She was quirky, but who wasn't at eighty-one, and she could say anything to anyone without any second thoughts. Everybody loved working for her. Miranda never had a problem finding people to fill the schedule. She never had a problem until now.
Hermione called Miranda from Ritchie's house last night and she heard how Miranda's usually reliable rotating staff of twenty university students seemed to all have personal emergencies, illnesses and previous engagements that they could not work tonight. Miranda was given such short notice she had left messages on Ritchie's machine for Hermione to call her back ASAP, saying if Hermione couldn't come it would be the first day in the forty years she ran the bookstore that it would be closed on a non-holiday and that would be a 'travesty'. Despite the scheduling challenges and the recent change in her social status, Hermione was more than happy to help. She couldn't really say no to Miranda.
And she was so glad she came. The Bookstore had never seen so many customers in one day since Hermione started working there a couple of months ago. She could not imagine Miranda being able to cope by herself this afternoon had she not been able to come.
Ritchie tried to reason with her last night and Hermione knew that he had a point. She was a fugitive, and unless things got cleared up soon, it would only be a matter of time before the Ministry found her employment records and her university acceptance. Anyone with half a brain who did a quick Muggle database search would find her in an instant because all her university records bore her real name.
She had been contemplating what to tell Miranda since she came in at three, finally settling on a story about taking a long trip to visit Africa. After all, that wouldn't be too weird; Hermione did want to visit Africa. She would tell her tonight, just before closing. And it was too bad about University; before the arrest Hermione was really looking forward to going back to school again.
It was 8:30pm, half an hour before closing, when the crowds finally started dwindling, strangely, almost abruptly. In five minutes, the Bookstore was empty save for her and Miranda. It must have been the drastic weather change she noticed when she looked out the window; from the forecasted calm and mellow to the now cold and windy. It looked like it was starting to rain, too.
Earlier, Hermione had tried and failed a few more times to get her phone to work. She tried again, hoping to finally talk with Harry since biting his head off this morning. She owed him an apology and she had to ask him how the conversation with Gomez went.
No such luck. The phone was still dead.
That was really strange. Miranda's phone was the same and she just remembered how some customers were complaining how they were having phone issues within campus. Weird. The only time something similar ever happened before was when she and Lowes were testing…
She swore in her head. She should have known; staff calling in sick, phones not working, busier day than usual and judging by the sudden shift in weather, Dementors in the area. The Ministry had found her. It was a trap, a trap that on paper was set-up to send her straight to Azkaban with minimum confrontation.
As far as she knew the Magical Travel Containment Tunnel had not passed any of the safety trials. In fact, when she left the project more than a year ago, Dorner, despite protestations from Lowes, had shelved it. The purpose of the device was to send Dark Wizards straight to Azkaban without needing Aurors to subdue them, by creating a catchment area which siphoned all outgoing magical travelers into a set coordinate, like Azkaban for instance. What it was not designed for was to execute and last year, that was what it was doing to test animals.
That was the reason why she left the project. She was vehemently against testing on live subjects when they couldn't even send jello through without it exploding into pieces. That and she just couldn't stand working with Lowes anymore, even collaboratively. Gomez must have dug up the Tunnel and resurrected it. Hermione thought it would really be ironic if she were the first human to ever use it.
Summoning a University and Area map from one of the shelves, she wondered what the net radius was. She tried to recall the maximum catchment area they were able to achieve; was it five or ten miles? No, it would be a mathematical improbability to sustain a beam that massive for a period of six hours. And definitely not in London; Gomez was not that irresponsible.
Hermione looked at the map to see what would make sense. From customer conversations, it would be at least a quarter, maybe half a mile around the Bookstore. She had to leave earlier, before the Dementors were sent in to try to apprehend her. She had to talk to Miranda first and Miranda was not one to chat quickly. She hated that she had to use magic and implant a memory in the interest of saving time.
Her brain chugged frantically for an escape plan. Half a mile might be a stretch on foot trying to fight off wizards, witches and Dementors. Maybe she could use a Muggle mode of transportation, like a bicycle or car perhaps. No, she didn't want to go through the University Park that flanked the Bookstore on the east. The Park was on the edge a city forest and park system and she did not want to risk getting lost in there with Dementors in the area. Her experience in the Forbidden Forest against Dementors and amongst the herd of centaurs and Grawp came to mind. No, if at all possible, she was not going through there.
She closed her eyes, thinking, 'Happy thought, happy thought, happy thought." Just in case. She decided that if needed, she would be using the few days old memory of seeing Harry at St. Mungo's, of using his wand to talk to him.
Just as she stood up to go and see Miranda, a couple stopped outside the main double doors covered under matching yellow raincoats from head to toe, dripping wet. It was now raining cats and dogs. She watched them as they both got rid of their raincoats. Blue and pink hair immediately drew her attention. She saw the young man with the blue hair open the front door and slip into the Bookstore after the woman with pink hair. Something about him was familiar, she thought, as he closed the door, though she would have remembered if she had seen him before. Her gaze followed Blue as he walked towards the cash register and started talking with Miranda. She smiled to herself as she could almost hear Miranda telling the lad off that nobody was born with blue hair for a reason.
His partner, Pink, was just a few aisles away from where Hermione was. Alarm bells rang in her head as she noticed Pink was not browsing the shelves for books but looking for something else, likely someone else. Robbers? That would be too much of a coincidence if that were to happen tonight, too. She looked over to where Miranda was, still talking to Blue. Then she saw it, a wand, discretely aimed at Miranda. Ministry scouts.
She took her wand out and crept up behind Pink, surprising her adversary with a poke in the back as she summoned the other witch's wand silently. Hermione wanted to talk to her and maybe convince her to part with the capture plan.
"Turn around slowly," Hermione said, almost whispering, and a bit relieved as she glimpsed and saw that Blue was still talking with Miranda, quite animatedly.
As Pink turned towards Hermione, the former had a wide grin, "Nice place of work, Hermione. Though it's kind of the first place anyone with brains would look if they were searching for you."
Hermione did not let her guard down even as Pink morphed back to her usual self, "Thanks for dropping by, Tonks. By the way, pink hair isn't really you. What curse would you prefer? Your choice, for old times' sake."
She never met Blue and didn't know whether he was Ministry or Order.
"Put your wand away, she's with me," Hermione heard Harry's familiar voice behind her. What was he doing here? As she turned she was surprised to see the man with blue hair, a frown quickly formed on her face. He looked nothing like Harry. Harry showed himself briefly but kept the disguise, just in time, before Hermione could hex him.
"But how…" Hermione had questions but was interrupted, her words muffled by a kiss. She kissed him back, feeling her worries slipping away.
They reluctantly stopped after they heard repeated throat clearing in the background.
"I missed you," he said to her, softly.
"Obviously," Tonks retorted, with a huge smile on her face, "Way to go, Harry. You finally got your girl! I'm so happy, for both of you!"
Tonks gave them a very generous hug as they smiled at her, both a bit embarrassed, not so much about their openness but about their inability to control. A fleeting thought of trepidation passed Hermione's mind as it processed what Tonks just said, though she couldn't pinpoint exactly what came over her. Everything about them was dreamlike up until now. It was as if the fact that someone magical knew about them made it real. Was it fear of failure and fear of disappointing someone else if this thing with Harry did not work out?
Harry must have seen it in her eyes, "Tonks, we'd appreciate it if you don't tell anyone. There's so much going on and…"
"Hush. I can keep a secret," Tonks butted in, "We do have to start moving. Dementors are visiting in a few minutes, and it's not to buy a book."
"And Hermione, we shouldn't disapparate," Harry added.
She nodded, giving Tonks her wand back and taking out the map she was working on, "I know. The Tunnel interferes with phone signals and the phones haven't been working since I got here. I should have realized it sooner but we were so busy, I didn't put it together until a few minutes ago. Somebody must have been directing people to come in and to just buy anything."
"A couple of witches at the end of University Main St.," Tonks said, "So you know of this device that funnels disapparitionists and portkey users straight to Azkaban? They said Lowes designed it."
Hermione could not help but guffaw at the suggestion, "I don't know if Lowes ever designed a thing in his life and I don't know if the Tunnel ever sent anyone to Azkaban. Did they say what the radius was?"
"Five miles."
"That's impossible. You must mean half a mile," she said plainly. Where did that come from?
"That's what Rita said."
No wonder. Skeeter always had a flare for exaggeration.
She said to Harry, "The pest was obviously pulling your leg. She probably wanted to make this more newsworthy. I hope you did not promise her another Harry Potter interview."
"Not exactly," Harry had that look that he had done something regrettable. He quickly asked, "Why can't it be five miles?"
She told them and added, "London is too dense a city to do that; how many witches and wizards do you think disapparated within a five mile radius since three this afternoon? So, unless there have been mysterious disappearances or deaths in the area within the last six hours, it can't be a five miles. And I can't believe Gomez would be so callous and irresponsible. Dorner shelved the Tunnel a year ago because of dire side effects."
"Side effects?"
That was Tonks.
"Death by splinching."
"So you know how it's supposed to work. Is there a way around it so we can actually disapparate to where we want to go?" Harry asked.
She designed it to be wizard and witch proof. Unfortunately, that aspect of the Tunnel worked well.
"No, unless we can get someone to turn off the beam former or disable the satellite that's directing it to this area. We just need to get out of the catchment area, by foot or by Muggle transportation," she encircled what she thought the area was on the map.
"Half a mile. That's not too bad," Tonks pointed to the map, east of the Bookstore, "How about the Park?"
"I'd rather not go through there," Hermione did not share her earlier thoughts but Harry would know why.
Tonks replied, "There's going to be a bit of a problem if you choose not to go through there. Some of Dean's portraits of you were found an hour ago hidden in his London studio."
Hermione understood. Gomez must have planted the evidence, "So Muggles are looking for me, too."
Tonks nodded, "With our guys, they are positioned a quarter of a mile on the North, South and West perimeter and have started checking every individual and vehicle passing through. There aren't many to check this time of the night. You've been tagged as armed and very dangerous. Everybody has the green light to shoot and curse first and ask questions later. Ritchie suggested going through the forest to prevent a nasty encounter with Magical and Muggle Law Enforcement."
She was not thrilled about causing a massive incident that would jeopardize the secrecy of the magical world, either, but Ritchie never met a Dementor in his life.
Harry read her mind, "I'll be with you."
He obviously felt that was the best way to go, too. Hermione nodded; it was a comfort that Harry was coming with her. She hoped her happy thought was happy enough. Unlike Harry, she had never used her Patronus on a real Dementor before.
"Let me send Miranda home, first," there was no telling what mood the Dementors would be in if they didn't find their prisoner.
"I took care of that," Harry said, and muttered, "At least I tried to."
As if on cue, Miranda appeared at the end of the aisle and walked towards them, "Hermione, a word before I go."
Hermione and Miranda walked a couple of feet away from Harry and Tonks. With their backs turned but fully aware they could be overheard, Miranda spoke candidly, "I don't know what happened between you and that fine gentleman with the blonde hair he was born with. He was so perfect for you, even took me aside to say he wanted to spend the rest of his life with you," she was giving Harry a most disapproving look, "I have a bad feeling, If you have doubts about this one, please entertain them, for your sake. Tell me all about your trip when you get back. I hope the rest will replenish what seems to be a dearth of common sense."
Miranda had a point about common sense not being part of all of this, "I appreciate your concern. We'll have tea when I get back," Hermione hugged her before she disappeared out the front door.
"She was talking about Ritchie, wasn't she?" Harry had a most annoyed expression on his face when she rejoined them. Was he upset that somebody she knew preferred Ritchie over him?
"Don't take it too personally," she tried to reassure him, "Miranda would marry Ritchie in an instant if she were less than twice his age. What exactly did you tell her?"
"I wasn't too confident with my memory implantation skills. So I decided to talk like a Muggle to her," Harry tried to explain.
Tonks had transformed Hermione's hair to the same pink she was wearing and changed Hermione's clothes to what she had on.
"And? Where did you say I was going?" Hermione summoned her backpack.
"A long trip. She asked who with, and I said I was taking you. Then she asked who I was, and I said we were seeing each other. Then she asked if you fell and hit your head hard recently, to which I said no. Next time, I'm planting the stupid memory."
Hermione was laughing at how badly Harry faired in his exchange with Miranda. Harry seemed pleased she thought that was funny.
Tonks morphed to an older woman with spectacles and greying hair, and changed into appropriate clothes. She was telling Hermione what the plan was, "Guys, I'd really rather leave before they come, too."
"Wait," Hermione conjured a piece of parchment and quill, started composing a brief note to Healer Frances that she could be delayed and not to wait. She performed a spell and the words on the note disappeared from plain sight, leaving just the healer's name.
"So it does exist," Harry commented.
"Please get this to Healer Frances," she said to Tonks then turned to Harry, "What exists?"
Tonks pressed, "You really have to go."
"The confidentiality spell," Harry replied as they each went under the yellow raincoats he and Tonks arrived with.
"Of course it does," Hermione answered.
The rain was now a light drizzle and they quickly slipped off to the East of the bookstore, getting on the edge of the park past the parking lot. It was dark out. They walked briskly. Hermione did not notice anyone following them.
Harry did mention finding out about the confidentiality spell in Ron's memory of when she asked Ron's help. Did his remark imply he thought she was lying to Ron about it? "Why would you think it didn't exist?" There was a bit of edge in her voice.
Harry tried to downplay its significance, "It's just that I couldn't find anyone who knew it existed. I admit, I had my doubts but since I got back I've been finding out a lot of things that you do and did that nobody knows exists. I think that's amazing."
Hermione felt a bit warm in the face. She had a feeling he had a question, "Flattery will get you somewhere, but what?"
"I'm still curious why you asked for Ron's help. You could have done this by yourself."
She did not lie, "I wanted the report finished as quickly as possible."
Harry nodded but Hermione knew he was not convinced. Harry had always been less gullible than Ron. She sensed disappointment as he let go of the discussion.
That's one. Hermione made a mental note of Harry's question and her pathetic answer, wondering how many more of it they could endure. They should have talked about this earlier. It was only a matter of time before Harry would ask a question she knew she would choose not to answer. She preferred that they were somewhere else when that moment came because right here, right now was just the wrong place and time.
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At the same instance, at St. Mungo's, there was peace and quiet that was nowhere else to be found. Ronald Weasley lay serenely as a couple of sentries sat just outside his room. He had a visitor who was deep in meditation.
"Whatever happens, stay quiet and don't come out of the closet."
It was a familiar woman's soft voice talking with a very serious and worried expression on her face. She never looked that scared before.
"Yes, Mummy," a small voice replied as the child was hugged and kissed. Suddenly, there was total darkness save for the light coming through the closet keyhole.
There was a loud crash. Shaking, the young one peered through the small opening to see what was happening. The door to their apartment was on the floor and the woman was standing in the living room with a most horrified expression on her face. There was a man with her, a man who was taking off a turban, a man with two faces.
"My Lord, you're alive…" the woman's voice quivered.
"Of course I am!" the two-faced man's voice was harsh and terrifying, "You were one of my loyal Death Eaters, my personal Healer for many years. But you disobeyed my wishes, Elise. I was clear when I said I have no use for a child of my own because I will live forever!"
"The child doesn't have to know. No one will know."
"I will know!"
"…your flesh and blood…"
"I do not want it!"
The Cardinal felt no emotion about being Voldemort's unwanted child. Self-pity ran out a long time ago. That was just a total waste of time and there were more important matters to think about.
Granger played her cards well and Gomez had panicked, sending Potter and Shacklebolt his confidential Ministry files. Hopefully, Potter and the Aurors would not see it, but it was there, in plain sight. It would be interesting to know how Gomez planned to disentangle himself from his history with T.M. Didler.
Gomez was cunning not to involve the Aurors in the operation to capture Granger, and it remained to be seen if Gomez was going to succeed tonight. The University grounds were still being searched and she had not yet turned up at St. Mungo's where she was expected. The Cardinal was counting on Granger to elude capture. Hopefully she wasn't going to be hurt too badly.
As the Cardinal was enjoying the calm, seated beside Weasley's immobile figure, preparing for the next cardinal murder, one of the Healers came in, startled.
"Oh! I thought you were someone else. I received an Owl from the Head Auror that security is being tightened. Are you with the Ministry?"
"I'm just visiting, Healer Frances."
Healer Frances was not surprised the visitor knew her name, "Visiting hours ended fifteen minutes ago."
"Yes. I was just about to leave."
The Cardinal stood up and started walking towards the door when Healer Frances asked, "Do I know you?"
"I don't think so."
"Of course, how could I miss it!" Healer Frances was excited, "You have her eyes."
"I'm sorry. You must have me mistaken for someone else."
Healer Frances explained, "I knew your mother. Before she passed on, Elise worked here for quite a number of years. But you should remember. You used to tag along when you were about seven or eight. I must say, now that you've grown, you're starting to look a lot like her."