Authors Note: Some more canon repair in this installment. I'm back to my regular-length installment now, but this is a very long scene so I had to break it into two parts.
The Third Day - Part 2
As Harry neared the Potions classroom a strange, acrid smell grew stronger and stronger. When he opened the door billowing black smoke came pouring out, choking him and stinging his eyes.
"It's all right, Harry," said Slughorn's reassuringly. "I've opened all the windows. This'll clear up in a minute."
"Evanesco"-the dispelling charm rang out in Professor McGonagall's determined voice. The smoke quickly vanished and Harry could at last see the two professors at the front desk, the knife laid out on an iron trencher in front of them. Slytherin's knife was no longer shiny or silver. It was dark gray, almost black, as if it were made of wrought iron or lead.
"We know what the poison is, Harry. Professor Slughorn and Professor Sprout tried every test. They all came out the same."
Harry looked at the cauldrons on his right and left, filled to the brim with a thick black liquid. He walked toward the front of the classroom, looking at a dozen more cauldrons on his way. The same black liquid-in all his years at Hogwarts he had never seen any potion like it.
"What is it, professor?" Harry asked.
"It's the Odiosa poison, Harry," McGonagall replied. "The poison of Undying Hate."
A wave of panic clenched at Harry's stomach so he could barely speak. He reached for the chair behind him and sat down. Head bowed, looking anywhere but at his two professors, he asked, "What does it do?"
"It is a way to kill your enemies after you yourself have died," Slughorn explained.
"I've never heard of it. Never. Are you sure?"
"You wouldn't have heard of it, Harry. It was a poison invented by Salazar Slytherin and, as far as we know, the secret died with him. However, Narcissa Malfoy told us tonight that her sister was trying to rediscover all the lost poisons and curses of Slytherin-we believe that Voldemort gave Bellatrix the knife for exactly that purpose. And yes, we're sure."
"So what's the antidote? Will the Elixir work?" Harry asked, already fearing the answer.
"The Elixir is keeping Hermione alive, but barely. She slipped into unconsciousness a few hours ago, just before you returned. There is no known antidote-remember this poison has not been used for hundreds of years."
"But there has to be something we can do," Harry shouted, standing up and staring furiously at the knife. "You can't just give up!"
"We're not giving up, Harry." McGonagall said firmly. "We've been examining every encounter Miss Granger has had with Dark Magic since she came to Hogwarts. She has overcome much, Harry. We need to see if there's a way to help her overcome this as well," McGonagall said.
"Of course there's a way," Harry said.
"This is what we've pieced together so far, Harry. You know Hermione best. Correct me if I have something wrong-or leave something important out."
Harry nodded.
Professor McGonagall turned to the blackboard and began to write. Basilisk.
"The enormous reptile revived by Tom Riddle. Very Dark Magic, no doubt about that," Slughorn said.
"But she was cured-by the mandrake root," Harry insisted.
"Yes, she was," Professor McGonagall replied. "But were there any lingering traces? We don't know."
Harry looked down at his hands and cast his mind back to one of his most vivid memories of Second Year. "What about the Polyjuice? Hermione accidentally used a hair from Millicent Bulstrode's cat, remember?" he said quietly.
"No worries there, Harry," Slughorn said reassuringly. "Though terribly ill-advised on Miss Granger's part, her half-transfiguring was self-inflicted. And the cat was…just a cat. No, she did not come face to face with Dark Magic again until-"
Dolohov's curse. Hands shaking, Professor McGonagall scratched out the letters on the blackboard.
For an instant Harry froze, as he flashed back to the horrifying moment when he had watched Hermione fall in the Department of Mysteries. "Neville found a pulse. I was useless," he said.
"But she recovered, Harry," Professor McGonagall said gently.
"However…" Slughorn stood up and walked to the board. He drew a large question mark next to McGonagall's last entry.
"What?" Harry asked.
Slughorn turned around and looked at Harry intently. "Did you ever notice-did you ever think-that Miss Granger behaved-strangely-afterwards? In your Sixth Year, perhaps?"
"What do you mean?"
Professor McGonagall glared at Slughorn, who ignored her and pressed on. "Did she ever seem to …lose control? Do something cruel…violent even?"
"No, Horace, this is not going to get us anywhere," McGonagall said, turning back to the board.
"Actually, Professor, well…I don't know," Harry faltered.
"Harry, you must tell us," Slughorn pressed. "We have to know everything if we are to help your friend."
Harry gave a quick nod, as images of Hermione's erratic behaviour the previous year flooded his mind. "Most of the time she was as she always is. Helping me-keeping me out of trouble. But I couldn't believe it when she…um…rigged the Quidditch tryouts so Ron would make Keeper. And then she was cruel to Ron sometimes. Really cruel." Harry paused. "You asked about violence. There was one time-she conjured a whole flock of yellow birds and made them attack him. He had cuts all over his hands and face."
"Why was this not reported?" Professor McGonagall said furiously. "This is not the Hermione we know-maybe we could have done something-long ago. Why didn't Ron report it? Why didn't you? Couldn't you see something was terribly wrong?"
"Because Ron knew he deserved it," Harry muttered under his breath before looking directly at the Headmistress. "We didn't want to get Hermione in trouble. And Ron got better."
"It's too late to fuss about this now, Minerva," Slughorn said. "Anything else, Harry?"
"I dunno, maybe this is just a girl thing, you know? But she was awfully...moody. She'd roll on the floor laughing at-really-nothing. And she'd cry at the drop of a hat-or not talk at all," Harry said, reliving the tense evening when Hermione and Ginny had quarreled over his use of the Sectumsempra curse.
"But then, after Professor Dumbledore's death"-and after I broke up with Ginny, Harry remembered-"she was back to normal. She and Ron were friends again and they decided-they insisted -on coming with me to find the Horcruxes."
"What do you think, Minerva? Perhaps all this is normal for a teenage girl?" Slughorn asked.
"No, I'm afraid not," Professor McGonagall replied. "I noticed bits of odd behaviour too but I'm ashamed to say I refused to see it. The students were safe and not under attack-that's all I considered. And I didn't know about the birds," she said, looking at Harry sharply.
There was an awkward silence, as Slughorn nervously flipped the pages of an ancient Potions book, collecting his thoughts.
"So Miss Granger was fighting the effects of a Death Eater curse all through her last year here. We can presume that when she was under stress, she cracked…but…She bends, but she doesn't break."
"Hermione is a fighter. She's the strongest person I know," Harry said.
"Hermione is strong, Harry," Professor McGonagall agreed. "But she isn't alone. She never faced anything alone. There is no greater power against Dark Magic, against evil of any kind, than love. What helped Hermione was the support-and love-she had from you, her friends, her family. Always, through every trial she has faced she had your friendship and Ron's. As well as the affection of her teachers-and I include Professor Dumbledore, who knew her worth-and myself." Her voice faltered on the last two words, but she wrapped herself tightly in her long robes and continued firmly: "And she's always known she could count on the unconditional love of her parents."
"But she lost that. She gave it away," Harry said.
"What do you mean, Harry?" McGonagall asked sharply.
"Last summer, before we went searching for the rest of the Horcruxes-she modified her parents' memories and moved them to Australia, to protect them," Harry explained. "They don't even know they have a daughter anymore."
"Gracious!" Professor McGonagall exclaimed. "What a terrible-and foolish-sacrifice! But that would explain one thing-why I haven't been able to reach them these past two days. Because she needs them, now more than ever. Hermione needs to be surrounded by all the people who love her, the people she loves."
"What about her sister, then?" Harry asked anxiously. "I know they aren't close-her parents almost disowned her when she lied about her age and went off to university. But she's still her sister, her blood relative-couldn't she help?"
"Yes, I hope so," McGonagall replied. "So Hermione told you about Imogen, then?"
"Yeah. Not much though. Just that she was absolutely brilliant and went up to Cambridge to read physics when she was fifteen or something-same year Hermione came to Hogwarts. And that her parents were furious."
"Imogen Granger is now a distinguished research scientist at Trinity College," Slughorn added. "And barely twenty-two. Pity she never came to Hogwarts. She would have been a great addition to my Club."
"As far as we knew she was a Muggle, Horace. But that's not what's important now. Harry, Imogen should be on her way here soon. I told Mr. Krum to go to Cambridge and fetch her, when he Flooed from Avebury to find out whether you and Beaton had come back-and tell us about Draco."
"How is Draco?" asked Harry, embarrassed that he had not thought about him at all since he came back to Hogwarts.
"He's going to be fine, we think," McGongall replied nervously, wringing her hands. "But he lost a lot of blood, so the Aurors took him to St. Mungo's for a Replenishment Potion-and to watch for-any other effects."
"Great. That's great," Harry said, managing a half-hearted smile. "But what about Hermione? What can we do while we wait for Imogen?"
"We need to finish the list," McGongall said, turning back to the board. "Where were we? Ah yes, Dolohov's curse. What was Miss Granger's next encounter with Voldemort's Dark Magic?"
"I think it had to be the locket-you know, the Horcrux we nicked from Umbridge at the Ministry. I wore it around my neck for safekeeping but it…it affected me….so Hermione volunteered to wear it…said we should take turns."
"And how did it affect her? Did you notice any strange behavior-irritability, any more violence?" Slughorn asked, as Professor McGonagall added Locket Horcrux to the list.
"We were all pretty cranky…and depressed. But she seemed to bear it fairly well. Better than…"
"Better than before, do you mean?" Slughorn interrupted.
"Yes, well no, I mean, better than Ron. Ron actually…um…left for a bit-we think because of the locket. But he came back when he could," Harry said hastily. "In fact Ron was the one who destroyed the locket Horcrux in the end."
"So again. Hermione, despite all the stress, all the deprivation, without the support of her parents, her friends-except for you and Ron-she persisted and defeated the Dark Magic trying to overwhelm her," Slughorn said, the admiration clear in his voice.
"I think so, yeah," Harry responded.
"So then what comes next-Bellatrix?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"Yes. We were captured and taken to Malfoy Manor. Hermione was separated from the rest of us-and tortured."
"How?" McGonagall asked gently, as she added Bellatrix - knife slowly, unwillingly, to the list.
Harry looked down at the floor. "Bellatrix demanded to know where we'd got the sword-Gryffindor's sword." Seeing the professors' confused expressions, Harry explained: "Snape sent it to me. Bellatrix used Crucio over and over. But Hermione said nothing."
"And she threatened Hermione with the knife as well?" Slughorn asked.
"Yes, when we escaped from the cellar and rushed everyone upstairs she held the knife to Hermione's throat-to make us drop our wands."
"Did she cut Hermione?" Harry gasped. "I'm sorry, Harry, but we have to know," McGonagall added.
"She pressed the blade into her throat-she pierced the skin. I saw a few drops of blood," Harry closed his eyes trying to banish the horrifying sight from his mind.
"You're sure you saw blood, Hermione's blood?" Slughorn persisted.
"Yes," Harry said, barely above a whisper. "But then Dobby came and made the chandelier fall and we all escaped. Hermione was perfectly fine after that, at Shell Cottage."
"Did you ever see her injury-was there a scar at all?" McGonagall asked.
"I never saw a scar. And she never said anything, never complained."
"That's our Hermione though, isn't it? Brave to a fault," McGonagall said proudly.
"Wait a minute," Harry said. "Yes, I did see it once. At Shell Cottage she showed the cut to Griphook, the goblin from Gringotts. It was just a thin line, but it was red, bright scarlet-like the scarlet scar the locket made on my chest, now that I think of it."
McGonagall and Slughorn looked furtively at each other, struggling to mask the look of horror that had crossed their faces at Harry's last words.
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