The Killing Curse
It wasn't clear to Harry why she was there. He had opened the door, the rain beating against the door, the floor getting soaked in the moments it took for Hermione to get inside the house. He wasn't mad at her any more, just concerned. She had been acting out of sorts for days, since she took her holiday with Draco, and she had been furious that he and Draco had fought. Now she was there, alone in his house soaking wet and never looking more beautiful. Harry didn't want to think about it.
"Hey," She said a little huskily as she waved her wand over her clothes, drying them. She had apperated straight to his doorstep, but the rain was coming down just that hard. She managed to get soaked in the moments she resided on his front step.
"Hey," Harry said, hoping that his voice seemed even. He couldn't tell, but he thought that she might have been crying. It could have been the rain, though, so he chose not to say anything about it.
"I know you are mad at me," Hermione started. Harry shook his head.
"I am not mad anymore. What good was it being mad, other than to make me, well, not hate you but really resent you," Harry murmured as he lead her to the kitchen. Kreatcher was awake now, aware that there were guests in the house of his master and he put the kettle on for tea.
"I think, Harry, it is time for me to explain," Hermione said quietly as Kreatcher pressed a steaming cup of tea in her hands. "Thank you Kreatcher."
"What do you mean that it is time to explain?" Harry asked as he took his place across from her at the table. She was silent a minute as she observed him from the top of her tea.
"I know about Ava, Harry," Hermione said slowly. She watched his expression remain unchanged, as if he had expected her to come to this point eventually. "I know about Ava in theory, at least."
"How long have you known?" Harry asked after watching her drink a few minutes.
"Since the night that you hit Draco," Hermione said. "Well, not until a while after it, when we were in the hospital getting his face fixed up."
"That night? How? How could you know?" Harry asked her slowly as he turned her words around his mind.
"Well, I asked Draco," Hermione said. She placed the cup down on the table and took Harry's hands in her own hands. He looked at her hands on his and then she looked back at her face.
"What does Draco have to do with it, Mione?" Harry asked. She looked away a moment, contemplating how much she needed to tell him. How much did Harry really need to know about all this?
"He and I, Draco and I are partners, Harry," Hermione said carefully. Harry's face twitched slightly and he frowned at her.
"I really don't need to know about you and Malfoy," Harry said in a voice he hoped came off as indifferent. Hermione smiled for a second.
"No, Harry, it's not like that. Well... it's, no, that's irrelevant at the current moment," Hermione said as she let her smile slide from her face. "When I say he is my partner, I mean we are a team. We work together at the ministry."
"I don't understand," Harry said slowly as he pulled his hands free of hers. He raked his hands through his hair and leaned back from the table slightly. "You are an Auror at the ministry. Draco works in the Hall of Records as a clerk."
"True," Hermione said. She watched him, uncertain as to what he was turning around in his head.
"When I had you removed from my team and you were moved to the Hall of Records to replace Ginny down there," Harry said slowly as the words came to him. "That wasn't the first time that you and Draco have worked together, was it?"
"No, Harry, it wasn't" Hermione admitted. She fiddled with her bracelet a moment, trying to decided what needed to be said and how it needed to be said, so that the least amount of people were implicated.
"How long have you two been working together?" Harry asked curiously. Hermione glanced at him a moment before looking back at the table. She seemed awfully nervous for such a simple question.
"A while," Hermione said as she met his eyes again.
"How long?" Harry pressed.
"Well, almost four years," Hermione said softly. "I always wanted to be an Auror, and I was thrilled to be on your team, but then this other opportunity came up, and it was great, Harry. Stuff dreams are made of, really. It just sounded so wonderful; I took it on the spot. I didn't know Draco was my partner until we both showed up for our first meeting."
"Mione, really, this is fascinating, but what does this have to do with anything?" Harry asked a little impatiently.
"I am getting to it, Harry! You really are the most impatient twenty-something year old I know," Hermione said rather exasperatedly. He nodded in agreement. "Well, Draco and I had to sign into an unbreakable vow, and he and I were bound to the job. In the early days, it wasn't bad. We drew two paychecks and rarely had to see each other. Then came our first mission, and then our second, and our third. Before long, he and I were both so in over our heads. We were drowning, and there was no surfacing."
"What were these missions?" Harry asked curiously as Hermione's face held a look of sheer disgust.
"I can't really say," Hermione said quietly as she averted her eyes from his.
"The vow?" Harry asked. She nodded.
"The fact that I, we, have managed to find a loop hole to tell you this much is probably pushing it," Hermione explained. She stood up from the table and began pacing the kitchen. Kreatcher signaled to Harry about his own tea and began filling the cup.
"Hermione, I wouldn't want you to break your vow but I still don't see what this has to do with you, Ava, and me," Harry said quietly. Hermione didn't look at him immediately.
"Harry, listen to me carefully when I say this," Hermione said as she lowered herself back to the table. "There are departments in the ministry that no one speaks of, departments that the ministry pretends don't exist."
"The department you and Draco worked for," Harry said as the knowledge was absorbed into his brain. "It was one of these ministry departments, wasn't it?" Hermione neither denied nor confirmed.
"There are things out there that only a death eater would have access to, dark magic and uprisings," Hermione said slowly.
"Draco is still marked, isn't he?" Harry asked. Hermione didn't respond again.
"There are people that the ministry employees to diffuse situations with extreme prejudice," Hermione said slowly. Harry was watching her. She was tapping her fingers on the table a moment before she stopped and looked directly at him. "There are things that boarder on that Morally Questionable gray area."
"I know you are trying to tell me something, something very important," Harry murmured to her softly. "I am just not following you. I am really confused."
"I know," Hermione said frustrated. She took a page out of the book of Potter and forced her hands through her hair. "Draco warned me it would be a challenge. Not that he thinks you are dim, but to keep from breaking the vow, we have to be vague."
"Ok," Harry said nodding. "Ok, I get that. So can I ask direct questions?"
"You aren't bounded by the vow," Hermione reminded him as a smile crossed her face. He laughed, and for a moment they were the carefree kids there had been back not too long ago.
"So, you and Draco have been working as a team, unbeknownst to anyone other than select ministry officials, for four years," Harry said. Hermione smiled at him.
"When I told you a while back that Draco would make a great Auror, it was from personal knowledge, which I hate to say is extensive as of the past few years," Hermione said frowning slightly.
"So you have been on a lot of missions with him," Harry said, understanding slowly. His face lit up brightly. "That is why you and he keep going on holiday together."
Hermione positively beamed at him. For a moment, he smiled back, wishing that she would never stop smiling like that at him. She had always been so supportive, and he loved having her in his cheering squad. She slowly let her smile fade and she rummaged around her purse for a moment. She pulled out a set of muggle keys and placed them on the table.
"It is interesting, Harry, that every key here has a place where it was recorded into a book at it's creation," Hermione said slowly as her fingers touched the keys. She looked up from the keys to Harry's face. "Did you know that? Every key that was ever made is written in a log book, kept on record."
"No, I didn't know," Harry said to her slowly as he shook his head. "I don't understand." Hermione sighed. This really was harder than she thought it would be, and she knew it was going to be hard.
"Ok," Hermione said as she bit her bottom lip, deep in thought. "Harry, is it wrong to steal?"
"Yes, of course," Harry said immediately.
"Ok, is it wrong to steal a loaf of bread to feed a starving family?" Hermione asked.
"Uh," Harry said slowly. He had no idea where this was going, and it was giving him a little bit of a headache. "Well, in that case no."
"You just said that steal is wrong," Hermione reminded him.
"Yes, but there are instances where it is…"
"Less wrong?" Hermione completed.
"Yeah," Harry said nodding.
"So, things are sometimes done because they are less wrong, for the greater good of the people," Hermione summarized. She smiled at him. "I learned a lot during that time you banished me to the Hall of Records, they are incredible precise and exact."
"The Hall of Records?" Harry asked slowly. His mind turned it over, the keys still between them. Every key ever created was recorded in the muggle world. "Hermione, what other kinds of information do they archive in the Hall of Records?"
"Everything you could ever want to know about any witch or wizard in our world," Hermione said slowly.
"Births and Deaths?" Harry asked. Hermione nodded.
"Yes," Hermione said.
"Do you remember what happened between us three years ago?" Harry asked her suddenly. Hermione's smile faltered.
"No," she replied. "Neither do you, though?"
"Why is that? Why did they obliviate our memories?" Harry asked. Hermione had already risen to her feet to leave.
"There are things that we do, that we feel compelled to do or forced to do that we shouldn't have to live with the memory of," Hermione said slowly.
"Have you ever done anything that you wished you could forget?" Harry asked her as she turned again to leave.
"Yes, and still, they won't let me. Then there are things I wish I could remember, but that they have taken from me," Hermione said quietly as she sat back down. She looked at the tea that had since turned cold. She pointed her wand at it and heated it. She tasted it, deciding whether Kreatcher was trying to be nice because Harry insisted.
"Can you talk about it?" Harry asked. It was his turn to take her hands in his. Hermione looked up into his eyes with an almost pained look.
"I wouldn't want to if I could," Hermione admitted.
"Does it have to do with the jobs that Draco and you do?" Harry asked. Hermione looked away. "We all do things Hermione, that we regret. It doesn't mean we are bad people."
"I have done some pretty bad things, Harry. Things you could only imagine doing," Hermione said as a teardrop rolled down her cheek. She pulled free of Harry's grasp and wiped her eye. She laughed bitterly. "All for `the greater good'."
"Have you ever used the killing curse?" Harry asked hesitantly. He expected her to turn away and deny it. She looked right into his eyes, her own filled with the sadness and horrors she had to witness and be apart of. She closed her eyes for a second as more teardrops began to fall.
"Please, Harry," Hermione said slowly. Harry pulled his hands free of her.
"Have you?" Harry pressed. His voice was getting a little higher than he would have liked it to be.
"Please don't ask me something I can't answer," Hermione begged softly.
"Can't or won't?" Harry asked. Hermione turned away from him as she rose from the table.
"Harry, please," Hermione murmured as she headed out of the kitchen. Harry went after her, catching her easily in the hall.
"This whole time, you let me believe you were with Draco and I supported you, though I can't stand him," Harry said as he held her loosely by the wrist. "Even when I came to your house and saw you kissing him, and it killed me inside, I supported you."
"What?" Hermione interrupted him. "I never kissed Draco, not there."
"Yes you did. I saw you. The night I punched him," Harry said. She shook her head.
"No, I didn't," Hermione said. "I hugged him, yes, but he is my friend. I used to hug you all of the time, remember? I only let you believe what you wanted to believe because it made my job easier. It was easier that way, spending all that time with Draco without being questioned. I didn't kiss him that night."
"Regardless, I stood by you," Harry said quietly. "You have always stood by me, and I will always
stand by you. There is nothing you can tell me that would make me turn away from you."
"Don't be so certain, Harry," Hermione said in a whispered voice.
"So, what? You and Draco went around killing people?" Harry said with a growing annoyance. Hermione looked at him, frightened.
"It was for the greater good," Hermione cried. He dropped her wrist in shock, releasing her. Hermione fled out of his house to the street and apperated to Draco Malfoy's apartment. Harry didn't move to close the door at first; instead he stared at the spot where he had last seen Hermione.
After a moment, Harry closed the door and headed to his study. He sat down behind his desk and looked at the picture he had previously thrown. Kreatcher had repaired the glass and placed it back on his desk. He ignored Ron and himself in the picture, instead focusing on Hermione. He studied her face, and could see where her eyes weren't nearly as bright and happy as they had been when they were younger. By the raid, she had been in this secret department already a year.
Harry gathered his jacket and messenger bag. He was going to go to see Draco. Since he had found that Shacklebolt denied writing the letter, Harry had been itching to speak to Draco. After all, it was Draco that had brought him the letter. Surely there had to be some information. The man was the one who had started all of this, and had yet to talk with him about it. Harry regretted fighting with him earlier, he should have just talked to him, for all of their sakes. Harry shook his head, knowing it was no good. He couldn't change the past, but he could shape the future. He just needed answers. Harry wanted answers, and he was going to get them. Tonight.
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