Disclaimer - Anything you recognise is not mine... the characters and many objects, places etc belong to JK Rowling, and much of the plot has been "inspired" by the work of others most notably "Back to the Future" but also many existing fan-fictions that have at once inspired me and left me wanting more from this type of plot arc. Thanks again to my Beta Katia.
Chapter 4 - Wheels in motion
That night as Harry lay in bed he couldn't get James' comments out of his mind, of course they wanted everyone to think they were a married couple but he really hadn't been prepared for the kind of assumptions that would lead to.
Hermione's mind was also working overtime, but on a completely different topic.
`Harry, are you asleep?' asked Hermione, her voice floating out into the darkness.
`No not yet, why... what's on your mind?
`I've been thinking about what you said earlier today, about you being a Horcrux,' Harry didn't respond, so Hermione continued, `Why did you say that?'
`Why else would I say it, Hermione? I've read Dumbledore's notes; it's the only thing that makes sense. I think it was an accident... but I still think it happened.'
Harry could almost feel the worry emanating from Hermione and would have bet every Galleon they had that she was biting her lip.
`Will you let me read the notebook?'
`Sure, but I don't think you'll be able to change my mind on this.'
`We'll work something out, Harry.'
`Sure.'
Seconds ticked by in the darkness before Hermione spoke again.
`You know we've messed up already don't you?'
`We did?'
`Yeah' she sounded depressed but didn't elaborate.
`Want to tell me how?' asked Harry finally.
He heard her sigh and felt her shift her weight in the bed, `we made a vow to your parents to do anything we could to protect them, to do all in our power to thwart any plans we learn of that will harm them. I think that would include what we know about Pettigrew's plans to betray them.'
Harry exhaled a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding, `Is that all?'
`What do you mean "is that all"? Isn't that enough? Harry, if we don't do everything we can to prevent your parents from being harmed as a result of that "plan" we'll loose our magic!'
He felt her weight shift and small puffs of air against his skin when she spoke, she must have rolled over to face him, but Harry remained stubbornly looking at the ceiling.
`Hermione, if I don't do everything I can to prevent my parents being harmed from that plan I'll loose something far more important than magic.'
`But that was the plan, wasn't it, Harry? Isn't that what you said before we came back here? That Dumbledore was going to save your Dad but your Mum still had to make the sacrifice so that you'd survive?'
`That was Dumbledore's plan, besides his main reason for doing that was so that I'd keep all my current abilities as a kind of reserve. Now there is no reserve. Dumbledore is dead and it's all down to me, either I figure out a way to do this or we're sunk.'
He rolled over to face her, no longer able to resist the urge to see her face. It was too dark to see her clearly, but it was enough just to know that he was facing her.
`Besides, do you really think I'd have been able to live with myself if I didn't do everything in my power to change what happens to them?'
Hermione sighed, sending another warm, gentle breeze across Harry's skin, `No, I guess not.'
`Would you really want to be friends with someone who could?'
Harry thought he saw her lips curve in a smile but it was too dark to tell for sure.
`No I wouldn't.'
`So we haven't really committed ourselves to anything other than what we would have done anyway right?'
He heard a faint chuckle of agreement, `I guess,'
`So, it's not the end of the world after all, is it?'
`No, I suppose not.'
Harry felt the bed shift again as Hermione rolled onto her back once more, and Harry followed suit. After a few more minutes of thinking in the quiet darkness he heard Hermione whisper, `Good night, Harry.'
He smiled in response, `Good night, Hermione.'
At the house across the road another couple was having a quiet conversation in the dark before they slept.
`Do you think it was really as foolish as Sirius said, to make those vows with our new neighbours?' asked Lilly, her voice full of concern.
`Well, I guess it could have been, but I think it worked out okay... we haven't promised them anything more than they've promised us and, I don't know why but, for some reason I do trust them.'
`I do too.'
`If I tell you something will you promise not to get too mad at me?'
`I can't promise I won't get mad, James, just tell me what you've done this time.' Lilly sighed heavily, apparently accustomed to this type of thing from her husband.
`Do you remember that trick I taught you, after we got married?'
Lilly giggled, `which one?'
James laughed in response, `Lilly.... I meant the trick for casting non-verbal spells.'
`Oh... that trick... yes I remember. You said it was supposed to stay within the family right? That's why you didn't teach it to me sooner?'
`Yeah... when my Dad taught it to me he said that it could be a real advantage in a battle, being able to cast non-verbally, so I should never teach it to anyone who wasn't family. He was right I suppose, it's saved my neck more times than I care to remember.'
`Did you teach it to someone, James?' asked Lilly, incredulously.
`Yeah, I didn't even realise what I had done till after I'd done it,' he said miserably, `He just seemed so embarrassed about not being able to cast non-verbally, before I knew it I was running him through the finer points. It worked, of course, and he could do anything non-verbally after that. It wasn't till he had mastered it though that I realised what I had done.'
`Oh, James...'
`I know, I know, what an idiot, right?' moaned James, miserably, ` Vow or no vow it was a stupid thing to do, he could teach it to anyone... for all we know he's at Knock-turn Alley right now teaching classes to Death Eaters.'
Lilly sighed, `Well, I really don't think he would.'
There was silence for a few minutes before James responded, `No neither do I, it might be stupid but for some reason I actually do trust the kid.'
Lilly snuggled up into James' side before speaking again, `You know, for all that he does seem familiar, I really don't remember him from Hogwarts.'
`No, neither do I,' James laughed, `but then I was a self absorbed prat for most my time there.'
Lilly laughed as well, `true,' she yawned, `still, I would have thought I'd've remembered meeting someone with the same colour eyes as me.'
James frowned but said nothing, his mind suddenly filled with an image of the young guy they'd only met that day. The more he thought about it the more he realised his wife was right, Harvey's and Lilly's eyes were exactly the same.
`Goodnight Love.' Lilly said her voice muffled and sleepy.
`Goodnight Angel.' He replied.
James did not sleep very well that night, and when he did his vision was haunted by images of green eyes.
The following day Harry again woke before Hermione did and repeated the routine from the previous morning, something told him that it wasn't going to be the routine of just a few days either.
Harry was glad he tended to wake up first; it gave him a chance to get out of bed and get himself ready for the day before Hermione started organising things. It was probably too early to say for sure, but Harry had a feeling they were going to do alright living together. His mouth twisted into a wary grimace when he thought of what it would have been like if it were Ron and Hermione. In spite of himself the thought did make him smile, they'd probably still be out by the fence arguing over whether to tap the sign with a wand or not.
When breakfast was on the table and Hermione had joined him, they started to talk about their next steps.
`I still want to read that Notebook Harry,' Hermione began, `but, for the moment, could you just summarise it for me, so I have an idea of what we're dealing with?'
`Oh, sure,' he took another mouthful of food and swallowed it before continuing, `Basically there are six Horcruxes. First off there's the Diary and the ring, which we agreed we should leave alone right? So that we've changed as little as possible,' Hermione nodded in response so Harry continued, `Good. The ones we were fairly certain of were Slytherins locket, which Dumbledore thinks is in a cave by the ocean and Hufflepuffs cup which could be anywhere. Then there are the two which we aren't so sure about. In his notes Dumbledore was pretty sure that one of those at least was Ravenclaws Diadem, though I've no idea what a Diadem is. His reasons for that are pretty sketchy, basically it comes down to his theory that Voldemort would want to use items owned by the founders of Hogwarts and the fact that Voldemort was known to have once travelled to Albania where the Diadem was last rumoured to be seen.'
`That's not exactly concrete evidence,' interjected Hermione, her brow furrowed.
`I did say it was sketchy, didn't I?' Hermione shrugged so Harry went back to what he was saying, `He doesn't really have any good theories for the last one, he thinks that Voldemort might have used the Nagini, but that wouldn't have been until after October next year,' Harry said alluding to the date on which Voldemort would attempt to kill his parents.
Hermione swallowed her mouthful of food her frown deepening, `So what makes you think you might be one then?'
Harry's mind raced back over all of the evidence he'd seen so clearly back in Dumbledore's office, but he knew that none of it would convince her. There are none so blind as those who will not see.
So he only shrugged and avoided her gaze, `I don't know, Hermione, I think for that one you'll just have to read Dumbledore's notes for yourself and make up your own mind.'
Hermione frowned but nodded, `So if we aren't going to do anything about the Diary or the Ring we'll need to focus on the Locket and the Cup first, since those are the two we know most about. I can also do a bit more research on the Diadem and see what we can find out about it that Dumbledore may not have included in his notes.'
`We also need to find out if Voldemort has Nagini yet, because if he does then we'll be able to get rid of her too,' added Harry.
`Yes, and we'll need to find a way to test you to see if you really are a Horcrux or not.'
Harry stared at Hermione open mouthed, `I thought there was no way you would believe that?'
Hermione shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, `there isn't, I just thought that the sooner we prove it to you the sooner we'll be able to put this ridiculous idea aside and focus on other possibilities.'
Harry laughed, `right, fair enough I suppose.'
`Well it looks as though there will plenty of research for me to do anyway; the only thing I'm really worried about is how we're going to do that... Do we have enough money to go out buying a lot of books?'
Harry shook his head, `Not really, we're probably going to have to live pretty conservatively as it is... I think we paid too much for the house.'
Hermione nodded, `I thought that might be the case, I suppose I could look into using Stonehenge library but we don't exist yet so that might be difficult too.'
`We could always get books from Hogwarts.' Harry suggested
Hermione raised her eyebrows and looked at him sceptically, `Only students and staff can access the library at Hogwarts Harry.'
Harry grinned, `no - only students and staff are supposed to be able to access the library at Hogwarts... but you and I have ways to avoid being seen.'
Hermione closed her eyes, took a deep breath and then spoke, her eyes still closed. `I hope you aren't suggesting what I think you're suggesting, Harry.'
`Come on, Hermione! Where's your sense of adventure?' Harry whined, `we know how to get in without setting off the wards, we won't be seen and, if you have the map, we won't even have to see anybody either.'
Hermione swallowed and opened her eyes again, `We will take the books back, won't we?'
Harry grinned broadly at her, `Of course.'
`I can't believe I'm agreeing to this...'
`Awesome, we should see if we can get the sword of Gryffindor while we're there... Oh and we can check to see if there are any Horcruxes hidden at Hogwarts while we're at it. Dumbledore did say that Tom Riddle loved to hide things in places of significance... what place is more significant than Hogwarts?'
Hermione groaned, `Harry, I thought we were just going to be in and out?'
`We are, we'll...'
`But you're talking about searching the school from top to bottom looking for something that we don't even know for sure is there, then breaking in to the headmasters office, then taking a side trip to the library to get books... that would take hours! Or Days!'
Harry smirked, it didn't happen very often but he really loved it when he'd thought of something that Hermione hadn't. `We won't need to do any of that,' he assured her, `I promise we'll be in and out, there is only one place we'll need to go to get everything we require.'
Hermione's eyes widened in surprise, `Of course... but ... do you really think that will work?' asked Hermione, her voice breathless and her cheeks pink with excitement.
`It's not called the room of requirement for nothing, besides there's only one way to find out.'
Hermione nodded, her curls bouncing enthusiastically causing Harry to smile involuntarily, her hair had so much personality. `It's a good thing I still had the map on me when we left, do you think we should use the tunnel in the Shrieking Shack or the one under Honeydukes?'
Harry smiled in relief, this was going to be a lot easier with her help, `Well, the tunnel from Honeydukes takes us right inside the school, and the place where it comes out is really close to the room of requirement so that would probably be easier, but then we'd have to break into Honeydukes and that would be a lot more risky. What to do you think?'
Hermione bit her lip while she considered the matter, `I like the idea of not having to travel so far once we're in the school, I think it probably does minimise the risk of not being caught, but I don't want to break into Honeydukes either. Do you think, if we take some food and stuff with us, we could sneak into the tunnel during the day when the store is open, using the cloak, and then just camp out in the tunnel til the night?'
`It'd be a pretty boring day,' griped Harry, unable to come up with any other objection to the plan.
`True, but I could read that notebook of Dumbledore's and you could have a look through the other books he packed.'
`I guess,' suddenly the adventure that Harry was planning sounded like a lot less fun, `or we could try apparating into the tunnel? Do you think that would work?'
Hermione looked doubtful, `I guess it could,' Harry felt his spirits rise, `But what if we missed our mark by a bit we could end up splinched under the ground, then we'd have to get the ministry involved to fix it and there would be all sorts of questions about what we were doing under there in the first place... not to mention the fact that the secret of the tunnel would be blown, years before it was supposed to be known about...'
Harry interrupted her there, `alright, I get your point; we'll do it your way.'
She beamed at him, `excellent!'
`So when are we going to do this then?' He asked resigned to his fate.
`What are you doing today?'
`I guess I'm breaking in to Hogwarts.'
Hermione got started clearing away the breakfast dishes while Harry went back up stairs to their bedroom to gather the books and things they would need for their "excursion". He opened the case and started looking through it, idly thinking as he did so that they should really put Dumbledore's clothes elsewhere. All of the books were at the bottom of the case, Harry rifled through them trying to find something that would keep him occupied during the long day ahead of him when something caught his eye.
There was one book, jammed in amongst thick and dusty old tomes that clearly did not belong there. Firstly it was much smaller, both in thickness and in height, secondly, where all of the other books were faded to the point of being varying shades of grey, this one was a bright new purple. Finally where all of the other books had only their titles to identify them, this book boasted a bright modern picture of witches and wizards playing Quidditch.
Harry immediately forgot everything else he was supposed to be doing, pulled the book from where it had been trapped and sat on the floor to look through it.
`The little book of Quidditch Statistics - For serious Quidditch Fanatics.'
Harry flipped open the cover and noticed a little hand written scrawl `for emergencies only' it read. If Harry had felt any confusion as to how a book on Quidditch Statistics might be useful in an emergency, it didn't last long. It was clearly not a book that would be of any use in the usual type of emergency that Harry faced, but it would be very useful in other types of emergency... particularly, the financial kind.
Put simply the book held the results of every quidditch match ever played, if they ever ran short of money all they'd have to do is find out when the next match was being held and bet on the winner. Harry grinned; it was so typical of Dumbledore to consider something like a book about Quidditch scores to be a useful thing to have in an emergency.
Harry was so engrossed in the book that he didn't hear Hermione's footsteps on the stairs, it wasn't until she opened the door to the bedroom that he realised she was finished in the kitchen at all. Harry jumped in guilty surprise at being caught reading Quidditch Statistics when he was supposed to be looking for useful books.
`What's that?' asked Hermione peering over his shoulder.
`Oh, it's ... um... I found it in there.' Harry said helplessly pointing at the case Dumbledore had packed.
`Is it about Quidditch?' she asked next, sounding confused.
`Well... yeah... it's all results of Quidditch games, how many goals, who scored them ... that kind of thing. I think Dumbledore was planning on using it to place a few bets if he ran out of money.'
`Oh, well that's .... Comforting I suppose. But, honestly Harry, trust you to find the one book in there that's about Quidditch!' she sounded exasperated but she was still smiling and Harry couldn't help but return her smile.
`I guess I was attracted to the bright colours and pretty pictures'
Amazingly Hermione laughed, he had expected her to be cross with him, `Books are really more my thing anyway. Why don't you fix us some food to take along with us and I'll find the books for you to read.'
Harry jumped up, so relieved that she was taking the odious task off his hands that he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. `Your the best Hermione!' he said and sprinted from the room before she could change her mind.
As he barrelled down the steps, happy that he had gotten away with slacking off, he didn't notice that Hermione hadn't respond to his comment any more than he realised he had just kissed her, albeit on the cheek, for the very first time. And he certainly didn't notice the slightly dazed look on Hermione's face as her hand hovered tentatively where his lips had just touched.
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