Some names, locations, characters, and objects described in this work are © J.K. Rowling. In these cases, the names, locations, characters, and objects are used without permission under the Fair Dealings provision of the Copyright Act of 1976, USC 17 §107. Other names, locations, characters, and objects that are referenced, implied, or alluded to are © their respective owners, and are used under the same conditions. The remainder of this work is licensed by the author under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California 94105, USA.
Chapter title attributed to French theologian and mathematician Blaise Pascal: "The heart has its reasons, of which reason knows nothing
Chapter 6: Of Which Reason Knows Nothing
With the combined efforts of three of-age wizards (and witch), though it was hardly necessary, Harry's trunk was packed within moments. Of course it was getting late by this time, so Harry decided to move his belongings the following day. That morning he got up bright and early (key word in that sentence: early) and went downstairs, only to find Hermione waiting for him. "What are you doing up at this hour?" he asked. Whether or not he was actually asking her, as opposed to himself, is a mystery that may never be solved.
She looked at him like he had grown a couple of extra heads. "I'm coming with you of course." She stated matter-of-factly. Harry smiled, that stubbornness was why he…loved her. Did he love her? A question for another time.
He shrugged. "Alright then, the form gave an address, but there are some kind of security wards up. You'll have to side-along for now." Note to self: get those damn things changed. Or at least make some people able to get through them.
Hermione frowned. "Are you sure you should be apparating over such a large distance? You did only get your licence two days ago, and you haven't practiced once since then." Typical Hermione, always trying to look out for him.
Harry shrugged again. "Any way we go, you have to be with me. Floo's out just for that, and I don't think the Ministry will be pleased if I set up an unauthorized portkey. We could fly there though, it's up to you." He extended his arm to her, an open invitation.
She considered it. Damn manipulative boyfriends. She took his hand. "Alright, you win. But this had better not be an excuse to feel me up." She warned grumpily, much to Harry's amusement.
"You wound me." He wailed dramatically. "If I had wanted to feel you up I would have done it much more subtly." With that he spun her into his arms and disapparated. The two of them found themselves in front of a rather large manor house. It was more or less square, two stories, and built out of dark grey stones. A tower on the rear-facing side added another few levels. A glass conservatory was visible just below, and slightly in front of, said tower. A square stone pergola covered the main entrance, high double doors made of polished mahogany. The doors were emblazoned with the Potter family crest: two horizontal black bars, the upper bearing two five-pointed flowers and the lower bearing one, cushioning a white bar with a pattern of black three-headed flags. Atop the shield was perched a blue helmet, bearing a black and white mantling, bearing aloft a golden hippocampus. Beneath the whole kit and caboodle was a banner reading 'Cautus Rare Erro' Harry and Hermione glanced at each other with raised eyebrows. It certainly was an impressive affair. "Shall we?" he gestured towards the door.
The inside was even more impressive than the outside. An enormous white hall greeted the duo, a marble staircase to the right of the entrance (their right). Harry glances at Hermione, both of them in states of mild shock. "Home, sweet home." He joked, deriving no small pleasure from the smile that threatened to creep through her wide-eyed amazement. They spent no small amount of time exploring the house (okay, castle), and discovered an underground swimming pool, many extravagant bedrooms, a second tower, and secret passages from the first-floor study to the wine cellar in the basement and the second-floor hallway. Most important, as far as Hermione was concerned, was the enormous library just off the main hall. All that, and it was only the tip of the iceberg.
"Maybe we should leave the exploring for later." Hermione suggested, a tendril of mirth creeping into her voice. He only nodded. Together they levitated Harry's single trunk up the grand staircase, down the oak-walled corridor, and into the largest of the bedrooms.
Midway through depositing the piece of luggage onto his new bed a brilliant thought struck his mind. "You know we're all alone in a massive house, and almost nobody knows where it is." He hinted suggestively. Subtle, at least for a seventeen year-old male.
She flashed a flirtatious smile. "So we are." She closed the small gap between them. "And what exactly did you have in mind?" her voice was practically a purr, layered in desire as it was.
Harry's only reply was a contented grumble before pulling close to his no-longer-platonic best friend. Moments before their lips met a loud crack echoed through the cavernous manor, followed by the crashing noise of running footsteps. The two only just had enough time to reluctantly pull apart before Sirius appeared in the doorway. "So here's where you two went off to. Molly's been working herself into a frenzy looking for you." Harry and Hermione exchanged guilty looks, but Sirius was still wearing his ever-present grin. "Well you aren't dead, so no harm done. Come on, Hogwarts letters just arrived." With no further words Sirius apparated out. Harry and Hermione shared another look, Harry shrugged, and the two of them simultaneously apparated back to The Burrow.
***
The Hogwarts letters contained little new information. They contained little, in fact, besides a book list and class transcript. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were each taking Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Potions and Herbology. Mad-Eye, or Professor Moody as they were beginning to call him, had called for a new textbook, as had the mysterious Transfiguration professor. After much pleading on Ginny's part, a rather odd occurrence in Harry's opinion, Mrs Weasley had agreed that the four could go to Diagon Alley, provided they were under heavy guard. Remus and Tonks were walking with them, while Mad-Eye and various other members of the Order had disguised themselves as innocuous passers-by. Harry was even sure he had seen the glow of a cigarette in one of the alleys, but it may just have been his imagination.
At some point during the sextet's visit to the Apothecary, Ginny approached Harry. It did not escape his notice that she was acting even more nervous than usual. "Harry, can I uh…talk to you for a minute?" she jerked her head towards a deserted aisle, making it clear that she wanted to discuss whatever it was in private. He cast a questioning glance at Remus, who was examining some dittany nearby. Not getting any sort of reinforcement, save a slight smile curling the werewolf's lips, Harry followed his one-time girlfriend into the aisle.
"So, how can I help you Gin?" he asked politely, upon reaching a relatively secluded spot, despite dreading that she was going to try and rekindle whatever had occurred between them the previous year.
The fact that she was nervously shifting her weight from foot to foot certainly lent credence to his disquiet. After a moment of uneasy silence Ginny grew some inner strength. "I've been thinking, about what you said back in June." Harry stifled a groan. Here it comes. "I was mad at you for a long time for pushing me away to go and fight Voldemort, but then I realized why you did it." Harry's eyebrows shot skyward. This was not what he had expected at all. "I was only a fifth-year, I hadn't even taken my O.W.L.S. yet. What use could I have possibly have been? But now, with the three of you coming back to school, I figured, well…" Shit, here it comes. "Well you may not want to take the risk, but I'm not going to give you the choice." And then, without warning, she kissed him, hard. For a split-second Harry was going to react, push her off of him, but the longer his lips were pressed against hers the more he questioned how he could have ever loved anyone else, how he could allow himself to have such contact with another woman, especially someone he had known for seven years.
And then Hermione's face appeared in his mind's eye, and that was all it took for him to remember everything. Everything he had ever wondered about Ginny, and everything he loved about Hermione. Then something happened, something that had not happened for almost a decade: Harry lost control of his magic. A powerful shockwave spread from him, having no effect on the surrounding area but to force Ginny from his face. "No. No Ginny, I need to be honest with you. You probably would have been able to help fight Voldemort, but I stopped our relationship because I wasn't sure about us. In the five or six years I've known you, I couldn't remember ever feeling attracted to you until last year." He knelt next to where she had landed on the floor, her shocked and fearful eyes following him down. "I just need time, can you give me that?" Silently she nodded, eyes wide and mouth gaping. Without another word he rose and strode out of the Apothecary.
What had happened to him? He couldn't remember the last time he had released that much magic. What had Ginny done to him? As usual Harry had no time to ponder the day's latest mysteries, he remarked on the irony of this as he went in search of Hermione.
He finally found her, on the muggle side of the Leaky Cauldron of all places, talking to a hunched-over man in a hooded brown robe. "May I ask who you are?" he queried during a lull in the chatter. The man looked up at him. He was an old fellow; he wore small round glasses over his dark brown eyes. Much of his face was obscured by an enormous bushy white moustache, though Harry could see plenty of laugh lines around his eyes. His robe was the simple garment of a holy man, tied around the waist with a length of rope, a small golden crucifix hanging from his neck. On his feet he wore only a pair of simple wooden sandals, and he leaned heavily upon a tall pine staff in his left hand.
"Of course child. I am Father Rhys Llwyd, you must be the mysterious Mister Potter I've heard so much about." His eyes darted to Hermione, who blushed, and his moustache quivered. The Welsh holy man extended a heavily lined hand to Harry, who took it. "I was the minister who married Miss Granger's parents. Now if you will excuse me, I have some business to attend to. It was nice to meet you Mister Potter." The monk bowed, Harry and Hermione returned the gesture, and he hobbled off.
"What a strange man." Harry remarked. Hermione silenced him with a good-natured jab in the ribs.
"Yes he is, but he is a monk after all. He hardly ever has contact with humans, in fact…" Harry was never permitted to find out any more about Father Rhys, since a very sallow-coloured hand protruding from a black robe grasped Hermione's hand.
"Miss Granger, for all your alleged intelligence I should have thought that you would have enough sense not to wander off on your own." Harry and Hermione turned to come face-to-face with the hook-nosed, greasy haired countenance of Severus Snape. Harry made to lunge at him, but he was grabbed from behind by a second Death Eater.
"I still owe you for the Ministry you little runt." His captor hissed in his ear, identifying himself as Avery. Harry felt a hand closing around his throat, but a sharp word from Snape made it stop.
"Enough Avery. The Dark Lord wants Potter unharmed. But that doesn't mean we can't have some fun with his mudblood whore first." The evil man's dark eyes landed with a leer on Hermione, who began to struggle against his grip. The whole thing seemed like a terrible nightmare to Harry until…
"Severus? Is that you?" a familiar Welsh accent called out from an alley behind them. Shortly thereafter, the bent figure of Father Rhys emerged from the shadows. Snape seemed frozen in shock, and Avery wouldn't do anything without orders first. "I've been reading about you Severus." The priest's voice had acquired a tinge of anger. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
Apparently nothing; the greasy-haired potions master was frozen in shock, hand halfway to his wand.
Father Rhys looked over the scene with clear disapproval. "Looks to me like you were planning on hurting these two children. Is that right Severus?" Snape didn't respond, but Avery released Harry to jump the old man. Father Rhys swept the Death Eater's feet out from under him with the end of his staff, then brought it down hard where Avery's neck and shoulder met. The Death Eater instantly slumped to the ground. Snape didn't spare a glance backwards, he simply ran for it. Unfortunately for him, Mad-Eye Moody chose that moment to pull off an invisibility cloak. The two men collided, with Snape rebounding off Moody's solid build. The ageing Auror busied himself with transporting the unconscious body to the Ministry, but Harry saw little of that. His eyes were looking at the priest, now innocently leaning on his staff, with respect and shock.
"You hit him? Aren't holy men forbidden from violence?" he managed to sputter out.
Father Rhys shrugged. "I'm a monk, not a saint. God bless." The monk winked at harry, his moustache quivering with a smile, and then he was gone again, replaced with Mad-Eye's frowning face.
"What in the hell were you two thinking? Wandering off alone, and fraternizing with strangers no less. Didn't my doppelganger teach you anything? CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked.
Hermione was not swayed. "Mad-Eye, the 'stranger' we were talking to is an old friend of my family, and a priest. Besides, he saved us from Snape and incapacitated Avery." The aforementioned Death Eater began to stir, but Mad-Eye kicked him in the side of the head.
"Could have been a ploy for all we know. If I hadn't shown up when I did he could easily have whisked you two off to God-knows-where." The duo were spared the losing battle of arguing with Mad-Eye by the timely appearance of Tonks.
"Come on you two, time to go. Remus has already got Ron and Ginny back to the Burrow. Mad-Eye, I guess you can take care of things here?" Moody made a dismissive gesture with his hand, before stumping off down the street with Avery's body floating behind him. "Just let him be. He does care, in his own way." Tonks advised. "Now let's go. I don't know if there are any more priests to save you from Death Eaters." She joked, leading the two of them in the opposite direction.
"I saw you talking to Ginny you know." Hermione whispered in his ear. Had he been eating or drinking anything, Harry would have choked on it. As it was, his jaw slackened and eyes widened. "Don't worry." She soothed, "I saw everything, everything." She stressed that last word strongly, and Harry relaxed. "That was quite some accidental magic though."
Harry nodded. "I don't know what happened, when she kissed me it was like nothing else existed, until I thought of you. It was like…like the sun breaking through the clouds after a heavy rainstorm."
Hermione looked thoughtful. "Maybe she…no, Ginny wouldn't do that. But it would explain a lot." She trailed off without explaining her mind.
"You know it's really annoying when you do that right?" Harry remarked with a grin.
Hermione flushed. "Sorry, but I'd rather not say anything until I'm sure." Harry just shook his head. She would never change, and he never wanted her to.
Potter Manor is based on Casa Loma in Toronto, Canada. The crest is a real Potter family crest, but the motto is all mine.
cautus rare erro is Latin for 'the cautious seldom err', a quote from Chinese philosopher K'ung-fu-tzu (commonly known as Confucius)