A/N - I don't own any of this...not even the plot really. This story is, rather shamelessly, the amalgamation of several of my favourite plot devices from the fandom. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Sorry there was no Friday night post, I had to amend this chapter to include a Quidditch Game. In the original version I skipped it completely and the chapter began with James' comment to Harry after the game. I just got a few people review saying they were looking forward to it so I couldn't disappoint. Again thanks to Katia, my Beta, for all her help.
Chapter 6 - Suspicions aroused.
It was a frosty grey day, not exactly ideal conditions for quidditch but Harry was not concerned in the slightest. He was going to play a game of quidditch with his dad, Sirius and Remus, as far as he was concerned they could have played in the middle of a thunderstorm and he'd have considered it ideal.
After finishing his breakfast he quickly popped over to Diagon Alley and picked up a broomstick (a shooting star) to play on and then headed over to his parents house. Hermione had re-done the spell to make his hair long again and Harry just hoped that Lilly hadn't mentioned his haircut to anyone, he had a story prepared if she did but he hoped it wouldn't be necessary.
When he got to there he could hear the men in the rear garden talking and laughing so he by-passed the house, just waving at his mum through the window as he walked went, and headed straight out the back.
`I hear you guys need a fourth for quidditch?' He called out as he came around the corner.
Sirius and Remus called out hello but James slapped him on the back when he joined them in the manly version of a hug.
`Right so we're not playing with Bludgers, Lil's has officially banned them after last time,' Remus and Sirius laughed and Harry just looked between them, hoping to be let in on the joke.
Remus started to explain, `Sirius got James a beauty right up the...', but James cut him off.
`I don't think we really need to share that story.'
`Sure we do!' cried Sirius, irrepressible as ever, `I got him right in the bum! It was bloody hilarious!' Sirius roared with laughter and James shoved him, `It wasn't funny.'
Remus was chuckling too but he added in a more subdued tone, `It was a bit but when James actually fell of his broom and went head first into the ground it could have gone very badly.'
Harry was shocked, `You weren't hurt were you?'
`Aside from the obvious brain-damage he was fine!' said Sirius between gasps of laughter.
`Anyway,' said James, having been unable to get Sirius to shut up he was now ignoring him, `We aren't allowed to play with Bludgers anymore, so we're just going to all be Chasers and we'll have one person from each team double as Keeper and the other double as Seeker.'
Remus addressed Harry again, `These games are usually James V Sirius and the winner of the previous game has to have Peter on their team, cause he's the weakest player. Are you any good at Quidditch?'
Harry grinned, `Who won the last game?' he asked rather than answering straight away.
`James did.'
`Alright so let Sirius pick who he wants on his team then, you or me.' Remus gave Harry an appraising look, as though he could tell he was up to something. Harry wanted to be on James team but he didn't want to be too obvious about it. He was fairly certain that given the choice Sirius would pick Remus, thinking that knowing his team mate would be an advantage, and he wasn't disappointed.
After the teams were chosen James approached Harry, a small frown between his brows showing that he was a bit concerned, `So Harvey, what's your strength, Keeping or Seeking?'
`I'll go Seeker,' Harry said without hesitation, `I'm crap at playing keeper, but I'm not a bad Seeker.'
James looked like he wasn't sure he believed him but he agreed anyway, `We score by getting the Quaffle between those two trees over there,' James said pointing across the field behind where Sirius and Remus stood talking. Then he turned and pointed at two trees standing at the opposite end of the field, `and they score by getting the Quaffle through those two trees.'
Harry nodded, `Got it.' The snitch was then released and the players took to the air, as usual as soon as Harry was in the air all his problems dropped away. Lilly came out onto the field and held up the Quaffle.
`Try not to kill each other,' she said and then threw the ball into the air between them.
It had barely left her hands when Harry swooped into a dive and snatched it out of the air then, before anyone else had a chance to react, he streaked off up the field and scored through an undefended goal.
`FUCK!' Sirius swore loudly, `I'm gonna friggen loose again!'
Remus retrieved the Quaffle and had just passed it to Sirius, James streaked off towards the goal and Harry went to head Sirius off when he noticed a flicker of gold in the tree behind Sirius. All thoughts of the Quaffle were forgotten as Harry went into full Seeker mode to pursue the Snitch. He darted into the trees after it, it looped left and right around tree trunks and up and over branches to evade capture but Harry followed it relentlessly.
Finally it gave up on the twists and went straight up the tree trunk. Harry had to pull hard on the broom to follow it up into the sharp steep climb and narrowly avoided hitting the tree directly. Then suddenly it flew over the back of his head and straight back down towards the middle of the paddock. Harry wrenched on the old broom, cursing its lack of responsiveness, and went over backwards to follow it.
Harry flattened himself to his broom and followed the snitch into a steep dive, rolling over in mid-dive so he wasn't hanging upside down. The ground was rushing up to meet him but the snitch kept heading towards it, Harry could vaguely hear James shouting at him to pull up. He was gaining on it though so he didn't pay any attention. He put his feet up on the back of the broom then, mere millimetres from the ground, he reached out and closed his fingers around the Snitch. The back of his knuckles brushed against the frosty grass and Harry pushed down with all his might on the back of his broom with his feet and wrenched the handle upwards.
The broom wasn't responsive enough to avoid the ground entirely and as Harry shot up into the air, the snitch now firmly in his grasp, he had grass stains down the front of his robes. He did a quick victory corkscrew and then took his broom down to land.
`Merlin Harvey!' said James, landing on the grass beside Harry, `I've never seen anyone fly like that before... why on earth aren't you playing professionally?'
Harry grinned but raised an eyebrow at his father, `I think there are more important things to do at the moment than play quidditch James.' Harry wondered a bit at his own gall in saying that to his father, of all people.
But James just nodded his head, `Yeah fair point, still maybe... once it's all over....you could? Actually I'm surprised you weren't on the Hufflepuff house team'
Harry choked and coloured, `Oh... well, I ah... I was, in sixth year. It was after you'd left though.'
By this time Sirius and Remus had landed beside James and they added their praise to his. It had been a fun game, though Harry had found the restrictions of the older broom a little hard to get used to, but mostly he'd just loved having the ability to spend an afternoon flying with James, Remus and Sirius. It had been a great day and a fairly thrilling game but Harry didn't hang around. He was eager to get home to Hermione and find out what had been occupying her mind ever since the night before.
He said goodbye as soon as he was able to and hurried back across the road, but when he got in he realised that he needn't have bothered hurrying. Hermione was still at the kitchen table, and still surrounded by books, but she was not busily reading away. Instead she was slumped over, her cheek resting against the open page of one of her books, sleeping deeply. Harry sighed and realised that she'd once again found a way to buy herself a little time before having to answer his questions.
Resigning himself to having to wait a little longer before getting answers he picked her up and carried her up to bed. He was a little surprised that she didn't stir at all during the trip up the stairs, or when he practically dropped her (by accident) on the bed, but he guessed that she mustn't have actually slept at all the night before and he wasn't far wrong.
Once she was in bed asleep Harry went back to the kitchen and had a lonely dinner.
At the house across the street Lilly peered out the living room window into the rooms of the house across the street. She felt terrible doing it, it was something Petunia did often and Lilly had no desire to be anything like her sister, but she couldn't help herself. There was something very strange about their new neighbours; it wasn't really one thing in particular that had aroused her suspicions but really a combination of things.
Harvey had said that he'd spoken with her at Hogwarts but she had racked her brains, trying to remember all of the kids she'd ever told off as prefect or as Head Girl and she was certain, almost certain, that she had none of them had looked anything like him. Even if he had changed significantly since then she was sure that she would have noticed his eyes at least. She'd spent an awful lot of time in front of the mirror since meeting him and she was confident that his eyes were exactly like her own.
Then there was Hermiah and the project she was apparently working on that was too important to take a break from but which she wouldn't talk about. Lilly had tried to act as though she didn't notice, or think it strange, that the girl had immediately vanished all of her materials about the project as soon as she'd tried to even glance at them. But Lilly had noticed and she had thought it strange.
Then there was the mystery of Harvey's hair.
This morning when she'd gone over there it had been short, it looked good like that and she'd even told him so but when he'd come by later the same day to play quidditch it had been long again. The way he'd reacted to the compliment was odd too; it was like he was afraid of something, and like she'd seen something she shouldn't have.
Lilly heaved a sigh and pushed herself away from the window. The mystery wasn't going to be solved like this, and whatever it was that they were hiding Lilly still felt somehow that she could trust them. She resolved not to say anything to James about it, he was sure to over-react, but she would keep an eye on them any way. She just hoped she didn't come to regret her decision.
The next morning Harry woke to once more find the bed empty, once again he got up, pulled on a t-shirt and trudged down the stairs. This time though, he put an illusion spell on the front windows to make it look like they weren't at home. He was not going to allow this talk to be delayed again; it was already long over-due in his mind.
When he got to the kitchen he stopped in the doorway and lent against the frame, his arms folded over his chest.
`I've decided I'm holding breakfast hostage until you tell me what you've been so frantically researching ever since we got back from Hogwarts.'
`Huh?' asked Hermione, only looking up once he'd stopped talking.
`I'm not making breakfast til you tell me what's going on.'
`Oh,' she seemed distracted, `that's okay, I suppose it's my turn anyway.' She went back to what she was doing.
Harry pulled out his wand and closed her book with a snap, `I've got no problem with making breakfast Hermione, what I want is for you to tell me what has got you so frantically reading every book we have.' He levitated the book out from under her nose and held it above her head, `who knows I might be able to help.'
`You could help by giving me my book back.' Said Hermione from between clenched teeth as she jumped up to try and get the book which immediately moved higher to hover by the ceiling.
Finally she gave up and just pulled out her own wand.
`Hermione, just tell me what's going on... I promise I'll leave you alone.'
Hermione looked at him for a moment then returned her wand to the table and sat down, `fine but don't get too excited.' She warned him waving a finger at him, `I didn't want to say anything until I was sure it would work. You see I got the idea when I was telling you about the legend of Gryffindors sword. As I told you, it's a commonly believed to have been charmed so that no evil could stand against it.'
`Yeah I remember, and I asked if I could use it against Voldemort but you thought it was too obvious and he would have protected himself against it.'
Hermione nodded enthusiastically, `Right, but then I started to wonder if he would have done the same for the Horcruxes. They are some of the darkest magic around so I was fairly sure the sword would work against them if he hadn't but I was really worried about what kind of reaction it could cause.'
Harry interrupted her here, `What do you mean, what reaction?'
`Well I'm worried that the collision of the charm in the sword and the dark magic of the Horcrux will cause an explosion or something. So I started trying to find details about the charm that Gryffindor might have used on it. I've found some good possibilities but nothing, so far, that would indicate any type of dangerous reaction'
Hermione started looking through the books she'd been reading, probably to show him the various spells she'd found, but Harry thought he should stop her before she got to the details of all the ancient and complex charms she had been researching.
`Hermione, I'm not as smart as you, we both know that. Why don't you just summarise it for me?' He asked cutting her off mid-sentence.
She looked a little annoyed but did as he asked, `I think we might be able to safely destroy the Horcrux with the sword.'
Harry couldn't help it, in spite of her previous warning; he was excited, `really? Well why don't we just test it out, I'll go and grab them. Do you think we should do this in the kitchen?'
`And this is why I didn't tell you sooner, Harry, you're great and I love you but you just don't think sometimes. Don't you remember anything at all from this year? Horcruxes are dangerous. Dumbledore lost his hand to one... remember? We can't afford for that to happen to you. We need to be as sure as we can, before we jump in with both feet, that you won't get hurt doing this.'
Harry sat down across from Hermione, his elbows propped on the table and his chin in his hands, `you know I have thought about that and, I don't think he did hurt his hand while trying to destroy the Horcrux.'
Hermione opened her mouth to speak but Harry continued so she closed it again, `I mean think about it. When I was 12 I destroyed a Horcrux by stabbing it with a Basilisks fang, which is not all that different from hitting it with a sword really, and I was completely unscathed. Now either there is something different about me that allowed me to do what Dumbledore couldn't, which would also mean my theory that I'm a Horcrux is probably right, or Dumbledore didn't just destroy the Horcrux.'
`I'm not prepared to even concede the possibility that you might be a Horcrux,' Hermione snapped.
`Fine so he did something different. The damage was to his hand, right? So, maybe he put the ring on?'
Hermione looked thoughtful, `He did say that the stone is one of the Deathly Hallows didn't he, the one that allows a person to call people back from the dead right?'
Harry nodded.
`Well Dumbledore is very old, I bet he's known more than a few people who have died, maybe when he found the ring he was surprised by the fact that the stone was one of the Deathly Hallows. I suppose he might have forgotten himself for a moment and put it on. It would explain why the damage was confined to his hand.'
`There you go, it's all explained!' Harry was practically bouncing in his seat, `So, we'll try it then, with the sword?'
Hermione sighed in resignation and Harry didn't bother to wait for her answer, they both knew that he'd just won the argument. There was no time to dwell on his victory, he dashed up the stairs grabbed the sword and the Diadem and rushed back down to the kitchen.
He laid the Diadem on the table and waited for Hermione to move out of the way. She cleared the books off the table and backed up against the far wall of the kitchen, despite Harry's reassurances that destroying Horcruxes really was very easy she was obviously still worried that it would start shooting curses around or set fire to the place or something.
Harry raised the sword up over his head, ready to strike, and looked over at Hermione.
Their eyes locked and for a moment he knew he saw real fear there, and in that moment clarity stole over his mind and he realised how much she was really risking by being there with him. Hermione broke their eye contact to look back to the Horcrux on the table but the impact of that glance stayed Harry's hand. Every moment they were in the past it wasn't just their lives that were in danger, it was their very existence. She had put it all on the line to help him and now he was cavalierly putting her life in even more, possibly unnecessary danger. Harry lowered the sword
`Hermione,' her frightened gaze moved from the Horcrux on the table to his face, `tell me not to and I won't.'
Hermione closed her eyes and shook her head, `No, you have to. There's nothing else I can find in books, I doubt any one but you and Dumbledore has ever done this anyway and as you said when you did it last time it was fine.' She took a deep breath in and out, as though to calm herself, `I'm sure it will be fine this time too. I just... I'm just scared, that's all. Some Gryffindor I am, hey?'
`Don't be ridiculous, you've got more Gryffindor in your pinkie finger than most of the rest do in their whole bodies.'
Hermione didn't respond, she just smiled.
`Well, no time like the present,' Harry smiled back at her, `or the past, in this case.'
He raised the sword once more, in a high arc over his head, and this time he did not hesitate to bring it down onto the Diadem.
A single pure note of metal against metal filled the air, and the sword quivered in Harry's hands, but the Diadem remained on the table completely in tact.
Harry lowered the sword to his side, picked the Diadem up from the table and turned it over in his hands. Hermione came up beside him and looked it over as well.
`Huh, well I guess that didn't work.'
`Yeah, now I really wish I had told you my theory sooner, I could have saved myself all that time and useless worrying.'
`Not to mention the reading,' agreed Harry with a shudder.
`No, I think the reading had to be done anyway.'
`I suppose.'
They stood there for a moment just looking at the Horcrux, until Hermione finally broke the silence, `So, you were saying something about breakfast?'
Harry nodded and went over to the ice-box, `So what's the deal with you and cooking anyway? I find it hard to believe that there is something Hermione Granger isn't good at.'
`No, it's not that.'
`What is it then, it can't be the thought of handling raw ingredients, not after some of the things we've had to handle in potions.'
`No, that's not it either.'
Harry looked up, pausing in the act of chopping the mushrooms, `Well, you've got me really curious now, what is it then?'
`You promise you won't laugh?'
Harry put the knife down and crossed his arms over his chest, `No.'
`Harry!'
`Alright, fine, I promise not to laugh unless it's really, really, funny. Will that do?'
Hermione huffed, `I suppose,'
`Well?'
`It's because my mother is a feminist who thought it was degrading and sexist that girls were all expected to be taught to cook while boys never were, so she never taught me and I've never had an opportunity or occasion to learn. Mrs Weasley taught me a few things once, but...' she shrugged slightly, `I must admit her attitude seemed to validate everything my mum had said, so I started avoiding her little "lessons". She never even tried to teach any of her boys to cook and I'm not even her daughter but she thought she had an "obligation" to teach me.'
Harry was still standing with his arms crossed an attitude of disbelief on his face, `are you serious?'
Hermione assumed a somewhat haughty air, `yes'.
`So are you expecting me to cook everything then?'
She had the grace to look a little shamefaced, `well... no, I'm sure it's not hard, I'll just buy some cookbooks.'
Harry just rolled his eyes and went back to chopping the mushrooms. Hermione wanted to tell him off for rolling his eyes at her but decided, since he was cooking her breakfast again, she should probably not tickle the sleeping dragon.
She sat down at the kitchen table and Harry spoke again, `Maybe you should try researching spells that might protect an object from a sword like that? Or you could try researching other destructive spells to see what else we could destroy it with.'
Hermione put the book she'd been reading when Harry had entered the kitchen that morning back on the table, flipped it open and began to read again.
The next few weeks slipped by with surprising ease, Hermione researched destructive spells and occasionally called on Harry to help her test one out and Harry began making plans for reconnaissance missions to find out more about what Voldemort was up to. They saw his parents, Sirius, Remus and Peter occasionally and their company helped to make up for the fact that Ron wasn't with them to lighten the mood.
Though Ron was occasionally missed, it wasn't as much as he would have thought. Not that Harry wanted to devalue his friendship with the red-head in any way just that he and Hermione did get on much better than Harry would have expected in his absence, there was significantly less arguing without Ron around. What surprised Harry more than anything, especially as the weeks tripped by and the prospect of spending two full years in the past did not grow any more onerous, was how much he didn't miss Ginny.
Ginny was his girlfriend after all yet it was only now, weeks after the fact, that he realised if he was at all serious about her it really should have been her he dragged into the past with him to pose as his wife. But pretending to be his wife was only a very small part of what Hermione was doing here and, if he was to be brutally honest, it was the most insignificant part too. Ginny might have thought of using Gryffindors sword to destroy the Diadem, but when that didn't work she probably wouldn't have had any more idea of what to try next than Harry himself did.
Harry knew what had driven him to ask Hermione to join him on this difficult and dangerous task above anyone else and it wasn't just to have a nice warm body to share the bed with.
Harry shook his head; he was definitely getting cabin fever if he was thinking about his best friend's warm body. It was time for him to start getting out of the house and doing what they had come here to do. He had Horcruxes to find and destroy and only a finite amount of time in which to do it, Hermione might be suited to reading and research but he was a man of action. He was going to track down Voldemort and follow him around all day, every day til he found out some more information. His mind was made up; now all he had to do was tell Hermione.
The next day as they again sat at the kitchen table surrounded by books, again, Harry's frustration reached an all time high. Finally he slammed the book he was reading closed and Hermione looked up in surprise.
`I can't do this anymore.'
Hermione propped her chin on her hand, `Well what are you going to do then?'
`I think it's time to get out there and do some reconnaissance, we still need to find out if he's created the Horcrux in Nagini or not and maybe even find out where the cup is.'
Hermione sighed, knowing it was futile to talk him out of it, `Do you want me to come with you?'
Harry shook his head, `Nah, it's probably safer if you don't. Do you know any spells that will make the cloak stick to me though, I wouldn't want to be given away by a simple "Accio Cloak" again.'
`Oh, sure I can do that. But also I want you to take an emergency portkey with you.'
`An emergency Portkey?'
`Yeah, it'll just be like a pin you can attach to your robe but if you touch it, it will bring you straight back here.'
The next few minutes were spent in preparation and finally Harry walked out into the back garden, his cloak spelled to stick to him, his emergency portkey pinned to his chest and a couple of vials of replenishing potion in his pocket. The potion was to help sustain him in case he was gone for a longer period of time than expected.
`Ok, well, I guess that's everything isn't it?' asked Harry.
Hermione had followed him out to the garden to see him off, `I suppose.... except...'
`Except for what?'
She flung her arms around his neck and gave him a crushing hug, her lips pressed firmly against his cheek, `Just be careful, ok Harry? Don't do anything reckless, please.' She pleaded as she clung to him.
Harry returned the hug and the kiss, `I promise, I'll be careful, besides, I've got my emergency portkey. I'll be fine Hermione.'
`OK,' she sniffled and released her grip on him, `come back safely.'
`I will, I'll see you soon, ok?'
She nodded and then, without another word he threw his cloak over himself and disapperated without a sound.
From the front garden of the house across the street James Potter had watched the touching good-bye scene. At first he'd been a bit embarrassed at being able to see such an obviously intimate moment but then he'd realised that the couple had only kissed each other on the cheek and he'd been confused. The confusion had only been compounded by what he'd witnessed a few seconds later when Harvey had thrown the invisibility cloak over his shoulders. There was not a hint of the silvery shimmer in the air that was associated with most invisibility cloaks. The only one he'd ever seen that was so perfect was the one he owned himself, and that was currently with Dumbledore.
The frown on James face deepened, Dumbledore had a lot of nerve lending his cloak to someone without asking. He had half a mind to go directly to Dumbledore and demand to know what he was playing at, but something he couldn't explain caused him to hesitate. He trusted Dumbledore, and without being sure why, he also trusted Harvey. Over the last few weeks he'd gotten to know the young guy quite well, not his past because Harvey didn't like to speak about that, but his personality and his character. In James' mind that was far more important and from what he'd learnt, while Harvey might be up to a million things he'd never speak about, you could bet everything that he had honour and integrity.
It had been weeks since the four of them had made that vow, and neither Harvey's nor Hermiah's magic had shown any signs of even weakening. The other thing he'd noticed is that however often Harvey himself now used wordless spells, Hermiah only used them rarely and only with the simplest magic. He'd asked her about it once, when Harvey was out of the room, and she'd confessed that it wasn't something she'd ever really mastered so she tended not to bother with it.
James knew then that however tempting it might have been for Harvey to do so, he hadn't broken his word to James and he hadn't even shown his wife the secret to wordless magic.
It was that more than anything that had earned James trust and respect. Harvey had made him a promise and he had kept it, to the letter, without a single exception. It was James' belief that if a person could be trusted not to reveal something simple and seemingly harmless, than they could be trusted with anything.
It was on that basis that James made an important decision; he would continue to trust Harvey and Hermiah but he'd keep an eye on them, it would be foolish not to. He wouldn't say anything to Lilly about it though, he was sure she'd just over-react.
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