Chapter Two
Morning Light
Light slowly filtered into the dormitory through the windows to fall upon the two lying close together on the four poster bed.
Harry opened his eyes first and found himself staring at the bed hangings overhead, his recollection of the previous night returning to his waking mind. With a slight jolt he realised that the soft touch on his cheek was Hermione's hair, her head now tucked into the crook of his neck, both her hands holding one of his, with her body pressed against his side. She breathed evenly, still fast asleep.
He stayed completely still, looking around the room at the other empty beds. He grimaced a little, thinking of the picture they would make to anyone coming in the door- why they hadn't thought of shutting the curtains of the bed last night, he could only put down to their extreme tiredness. Now, he didn't want to move to wake her, but he suspected she'd be mortified if they were discovered like this. He experimented with shifting his weight to reach for his glasses but she didn't stir. He squeezed her hand a little.
"Hermione?" he spoke softly.
"Mmm." She pulled her head back on the pillow, and he turned to look at her. He gently touched her shoulder and her eyes came slowly open.
"Harry" she whispered in a hoarse voice. Then her eyes shot wide open and she threw herself violently backwards away from him, almost falling off the bed until Harry caught her by her hand. She sat up on her knees, staring at him in surprise and he couldn't help but laugh.
"You right?" He made every effort to suppress his smile.
"I'm fine…I just …forgot where I was." she said quickly recovering, shifting back a little way from the edge and gripping his hand firmly. "How'd you sleep?" she asked, brushing her other hand self consciously through her hair.
He was still smiling at her flustering as he put his glasses on. "Great actually. I was out like a…" he cut his sentence short as he took his glasses off again and stared confusedly at them in his hand, his head tilted. He put them back on again only to repeat his actions, taking them off and staring at them.
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked.
"I don't know" he said slowly, still examining his glasses. "They're not… working."
Hermione grabbed the glasses from him and looked at them herself. "What do you mean, 'not working'?"
Harry continued to frown in thought. "They're just all blurry…"
He was cut off as Hermione dropped the glasses on the bed and grabbed his face roughly with her hand, turning it to hers, holding him inches from her face and peering into his eyes. She noticed he was looking at her like she was crazy but she continued to hold his jaw, examining him.
"Uh… do you mind telling me what you're doing…?" Harry said in a voice muffled by her fingers pressing on his cheeks.
She dropped his face but continued to look at him with a worried frown. "I'm guessing you've inherited more than one present from Voldemort."
He watched her, confused as she leaned over him and grabbed a book. "Here, read this" she said as she opened a page at random.
He scanned the words for a while before looking back at her in astonishment. "Perfect. I can see it perfectly."
"We've got to get to the bottom of all this" she said as she moved to get off the bed. Harry stood to follow, but knocked straight into her as she had frozen in her tracks.
"What is it?" he asked, coming around to see her face.
She looked up at him almost apologetically. "It's just that… how are we going to get this through this day Harry? There's times where… we're going to need to be alone."
"Ohh" he replied. "Well, we're going to have to try it sooner or later." He pulled back from her a little looking at his feet and slowly let go of her hand.
They both waited, barely breathing in anticipation. Harry looked up at her slowly.
"I think it's…"
He stopped talking abruptly as his heels and then his toes rose slowly upwards from the floorboards. Simultaneously they lunged for each other's hands again and sure enough, Harry found himself settle on the ground.
"You have to really concentrate Harry" she said, and again they tried it, this time with him focusing on the floor, willing himself to stay grounded. This time it took longer before he succumbed and she nodded her approval before taking his hand. "That's it; we can do this you know. I'm sure it'll come right." He nodded, grateful again for her confidence -a confidence he wasn't so sure he shared.
They tried this again a few times, until he could achieve a full minute fixed to the ground without her help. Satisfied, Hermione led them to the bathroom where she went quickly about her morning routine with him on the other side of the door, only having to rescue him once. He did the same but with less success, Hermione having to stand with him while he brushed his teeth and washed but eventually they worked it out. She performed a quick charm on his glasses to replace the prescription lenses with clear glass so as not to attract attention with his newly improved vision. Shaking his head as they came down the stairs to the common room he gave a shaky laugh.
"This is so humiliating" he muttered, more to himself than anything.
She turned and looked at him frowning. "It is not Harry; it's only me you know." He met her eyes and she held his gaze. "We'll work this out. There's not much in these books about it, it seems sort of …mythical, like there's a lot of skepticism, but we know that it's possible. Dumbledore will know what to do, and until then…we'll work it out." She led him purposefully to the couch and set to work leafing through the books from the library again. She cast an eye at him as he sat next to her on the squashy couch. "Make yourself useful and get us some breakfast" she teased.
Grateful to have something to do, he summoned Kreacher.
The old house elf appeared with a deafening crack, looking wide awake and eager to help, so unlike his previous nature at Grimmauld Place that Harry found he was fondly reminded of his old friend Dobby. Kreacher was wearing a new crisp white towel and holding a brown sack as large as him.
"Master?"
"Harry, Kreacher, just Harry will do fine."
"Yes Master" he replied and Hermione shook her head faintly as she was reading.
"Uh…okay well, we're after some breakfast if that's alright." Harry said.
"It's on its way Master. Also, this is the mail sent to you this morning- I've checked it all" he said proudly. "And this one is most important." He handed Harry a red envelope before cracking in and out of the room within the same second, returning carrying food. They both ate without hesitation, suddenly remembering how hungry they actually were.
Afterwards, Harry tried to open the red envelope with the hand that wasn't holding Hermione's, but sat back as it sprang into life and spoke in a quiet voice.
"Harry, Hermione, you are invited to Fred Weasley's funeral, followed directly by Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin's at Godric's Hollow, tomorrow, 9am. An informal gathering at the Burrow will follow after. Please reply for details of official Portkeys. Much love, the Weasleys."
They both watched as the envelope disintegrated in mid air, the silence filled with too much emotion to express. Hermione returned to her books again with renewed vigor, now knowing how difficult tomorrow would be in many ways.
They passed the morning there in the common room, Harry getting Kreacher to open the letters for him to read while Hermione buried her nose in different books. The mail was from all over the world, letters from wizarding families expressing their gratitude, mail from people wanting things from him like the Daily Prophet and Witch Weekly already vying for an exclusive conversation. He tossed those aside along with the perfume laden love letters from witches of all ages, ignoring Hermione's teasing nudges. Kreacher got rather irritated after opening one that contained a trace of a powdered love potion that enveloped his large nose and caused him to sneeze uncontrollably. He left then, after confirming that Harry no longer needed him.
"Ok, here we go" said Hermione finally. She pulled a small and tattered book with a purple cover off the pile and on to her lap, flicking through the pages. "It's hardly a textbook, but we might be on to something here" she said as ran her finger down a page she'd marked.
"This is from 'Spiritual Powers of a Numinous Nature… for the Enterprising Witch" she said with a hint of disdain. Reading aloud she continued.
"Wilda Liddlestein, famous Seeker of the Caerphilly Catapults Quidditch Team found she woke up with flying powers which seemed to come and go on any given day, her husband commenting that he had to literally hold her down at times. She was reported missing after her last Quidditch match; the famous Unfinished Match of 1903 versus the Holyhead Harpies, and it is thought that she simply floated away."
Hermione threw a quick glance at Harry at that, then bent lower to the book and rushed ahead to the next bit.
"Well known mystic Sapphire Storm mentions that knowledge of ones self and ones mind is essential to control this discipline once acquired. She notes that Wilda, at age 23, would have had difficulty mastering the self control needed to prevent herself becoming involuntarily airborne."
Harry, listening intently, raised his eyebrows and sat back, blowing out a breath. "Well…that was… cheery."
Hermione shrugged apologetically. "It's the only thing I've read about flying without objects that says anything specific, everything else seems to treat it like legend - like something that can't really be done." She squeezed his hand as he looked down, discouraged. "But we know it IS real Harry, we know Voldemort could do it. And I think it's all within you."
He looked into her eyes again, and saw the determination there. "So what do you think I should do?"
She seemed to be waiting for this question and pulled him up to stand. "We practice."
Together they worked on her theory for hours, alone in the common room - Harry using all his concentration to control his body to do his bidding and ignore the impulse to rise. Frequently getting frustrated he'd curse every time she had to touch him again to keep him grounded but small improvements became visible and by lunch time he could walk around the room by himself for some time before giving in to the sensation. Hermione clapped her hands together in glee when he had managed to sit on the couch for a full five minutes, and though he was hot and tired from his efforts Harry felt fairly proud too.
Their celebrations were cut short by a crackling sound coming from the fireplace, looking over; they saw the outline of Minerva McGonagall's face in the embers. Hermione quickly strode across the room to sit next to Harry, and pressed her hand discreetly down on his between them as they leaned forward to listen to the Professor.
"Hermione, Harry, how are you today." She nodded at each of them in turn as they answered they were fine. "I gather you got the news about the funerals tomorrow?"
Hermione nodded. "Yes Professor, we'll be going."
McGonagall nodded again. "Well I'm letting you know I have a Portkey booked for you in my office tomorrow morning at 830, a few of us will be there to take that." The sadness was evident in her eyes even through the medium of the fire. "And of course, you're both welcome to stay here as long as you like, well, until the Board of Directors confirms the future of the school. It does seem likely we'll go ahead with finishing the school year and exams, and if that's the case I'd like to speak to both of you about seeing out your schooling." Seeing her adopt the slightly stern manner they knew her best for gave them both an indescribable comfort. "I am certain we can work out some dispensation for yourselves and Mr Weasley to bring you up to speed with your year." Hermione nodded enthusiastically. "And over the next few days some of the staff and I are setting about repairing the school- we could certainly use your help if you'd like to of course."
Harry cast a sideways glance at Hermione and then answered for them both. "Of course."
"Just find myself or Professor Flitwick when you're ready, but take your time - you've got a lot of recovering to do, both of you." She smiled at them warmly. "Let me know if you need anything at all."
They nodded and said their goodbyes as her image faded into the darkness of the grate.
Hermione rounded on him. "How are we going to do that?" she said a little sharply.
But as it turned out, the repair work was just what they needed. After a bit more practice, they decided to get out of the common room and luckily Professor Flitwick assigned them a classroom with one wall missing to work on - just the two of them alone. They were able to work hand in hand replacing the bricks with their wands, both of them finding that the repetitive work was a relief to their overloaded minds and emotions. By the end of the day Harry was able to spend longer periods by himself too, leaving them more optimistic about tomorrow than they were before.
They even ventured to the Great Hall for dinner, sharing the one house table with the dozen or so others staying at the school, staff and a few of the older prefects who'd returned to help with the restoration work. Sitting next to each other they managed to attract no attention with the occasional contact they had to make. By the end of the day, they'd become quite in tune with each other and the easy routine they'd developed to stay in contact. Hagrid nearly caused a problem when he came in late to dinner and picked Harry up off his chair, blubbering over him again as he held him in a rib bruising embrace. But he released him fairly quickly to drop him back in his chair with no one the wiser to Harry's predicament.
As they got more tired however, Harry's concentration started to slip. Hermione nudged him that it might be a good time to retire so they slipped away, and if anyone noticed their linked hands, they didn't comment on it.
Mounting the stairs from the Entrance Hall, Hermione addressed Harry cautiously.
"Uh… Harry, don't you think we should tell a few people what's going on? It would make it a lot easier getting around."
Harry frowned and shook his head. "No, we can't." She opened her mouth to protest but he went on. "Not until we talk to Dumbledore. I wanna know what this really means and I… I guess it's stupid but, I'm not ready to be the freak again yet." He avoided her eyes as she looked at him but she left it at that.
Back at the common room their bedtime routine was less awkward this time. Getting comfortable lying side by side in the darkness Hermione closed the curtains of the bed with her wand.
"Harry?' she asked into the inky silence. She was lying on her side facing him, holding his hand with both of hers again.
"Mmm?"
"Do you think… I think maybe we should have the Invisibility Cloak out too, just in case, you know?"
She felt Harry move as he retrieved the cloak from his pouch. "Yeah, probably."
The weight of the gossamer like fabric was only just discernible as Harry laid the cloak over her legs. She couldn't see him but felt his breath near her ear as he leaned over to pull it up to her shoulder and make sure it was covering her. "How's that?"
"Fine, thanks" she replied and they lapsed into silence again. Sure that he was still awake a few minutes later, she spoke up again.
"I think we should tell at least… Ron and Ginny." The names seemed to echo in the quiet bedroom. Hermione felt Harry shake his head before he spoke.
"No." He turned over on to his back again. "I'm sorry, I know it could make it difficult tomorrow, but they've both got enough to deal with at the moment without me laying my problems on them."
"But I don't think they'd see it like that Harry - they care about you, and they'd want to help."
"Exactly" he replied. "And I just think they should be thinking about themselves at the moment, not trying to work out my problems again." Hermione made to protest again but he cut her off. "Look, don't worry Hermione. If it gets too difficult …with Ron I mean, then we'll tell him okay? I just don't want to if I can help it."
Hermione nodded quietly in the darkness. They both lapsed into silence again, each one lost in their own thoughts until they eventually fell to sleep.
~*~
Harry opened his eyelids a crack to a room bathed in morning light, but he knew instinctively that the light wasn't what had woken him. He found out what had a moment later when he heard them again.
Footsteps.
His eyes flew fully open and he turned to Hermione, still sleeping soundly next to him, making for a slightly odd sight with only her shoulders and head visible, her lower half still covered with the cloak. As quietly as he could, he reached over with his other hand and pulled the cloak up gently over her head, checking it also covered their linked hands. Then he heard a voice.
"Harry?"
Neville. Harry breathed a silent sigh of relief as the imagined images of Ron throwing back the bed curtains in a rage faded from his mind.
"Yeah, Neville?" he answered and Neville's hands appeared on the edge of his curtains, his head popping in behind them.
"Y'right Harry?"
"Hi Neville." Harry stayed stock still as he spoke; gripping the hand holding Hermione's firmly, willing her to have worked out what was happening if she'd woken - and hoping that nothing about him lying in the bed, apparently by himself, seemed strange.
"Are you taking the Portkey to the funeral? I just got in this morning; Hermione's here too isn't she?"
Harry had a wild impulse to laugh but managed to keep his voice even. "Yeah, we're both going."
"Great" finished Neville as he whisked back the curtains of Harry's bed, opening them to let the light in. "Well, I better go call out and wake her up, the Portkey leaves in half an hour." He strode away towards the door, Harry only just catching him by calling out.
"No, I think…I think she was flooing home early this morning to pick something up… I think she's coming back just before we leave."
Neville turned at the door. "Alright then, well I'm off to get a quick breakfast."
Harry waited until well after Neville's footsteps faded away to turn to Hermione and slowly pull the cloak away from her face. Her eyes were wide open and she looked like she was still holding her breath. He raised his eyebrows.
"That was close."
She nodded but didn't move, as if still afraid of Neville reappearing. "Too close" she said quietly. "Quick thinking of you though." She shook her head. "We've got to track down Dumbledore and work this out - more people will come back every day and I can't sleep in here with a room full of boys" she said, frowning.
Harry smiled. "I dunno, I'm getting kind of used to having you around… I'd miss you not lying next to me now."
Hermione's face froze and Harry's smile evaporated as he realised what he'd just said. "I mean, I just meant…" he stammered then stopped and looked at her. "I don't know why I said that…I'm sorry" he finished.
She shook her head and a very small smile played across her lips. "Its okay" she said, though she didn't meet his eyes. "Come on"
They got up, keeping Hermione under the cloak as they went about getting ready. Harry put on a black shirt, rolling up the long sleeves a little so Hermione could take his forearm or wrist if she needed to, although Harry was quite pleased to see he needed no help from her as she waited for him on the other side of the door while he showered and dressed.
They made it to the stone gargoyle at the Headmasters office 5 minutes before departure. Rising up the staircase, he looked down at Hermione, in a black sleeveless dress under her black traveling cloak; her hair tied back revealing silver earrings. "You look nice" he said.
"Thanks" she murmured to her feet and then they dropped hands just as they walked through the oak door and in to McGonagall's office.
Both of their eyes flew to Dumbledore's portrait but they were disappointed again to see it was empty. Snape's portrait was also vacant, only a few Headmasters were actually in their frames, and the majority of these were sleeping.
Professor McGonagall greeted them with warm embraces as they joined the circle gathered around a brown Beater's club, lying on the desk. Harry found it difficult to swallow when he realised this must be the Portkey in honour of Fred, its presence serving to remind him he'd never play Quidditch with him again. Hermione took his hand and squeezed it and he squeezed back.
"We're just waiting on Miss Lovegood and then that's everyone" said McGonagall to the circle which consisted of Neville, and Professors Flitwick, Sprout and Trelawney, who was already crying fat tears from behind her thick glasses. Luna entered the room at that precise moment, giving Neville, Hermione and Harry hugs.
Luna stepped back from Harry and held him at arm's length. "What's wrong with you?"
Harry looked down at her, eyes wide in surprise. He looked over at Hermione involuntarily who looked equally stunned. "Uh…nothing…why?"
Luna continued to study him closely with her big silvery eyes. "Hmm" she mused, apparently to herself. "Something about you." She turned her steady gaze to Hermione and studied her now. "And you too" she said simply.
Hermione looked at the assembled group, unnerved, but relieved to see no one was really paying attention to Luna's observations. Luna stared a little longer before shrugging her shoulders and staring off into space.
Harry and Hermione caught each other's gaze and held it as they all reached forward for the Beaters club as one.
~*~