Disclaimer: JKR owns.
Lost Daughter
Chapter 25: Suspicion of Secrets
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Both Harry and Hermione had taken copies of Ambrose Casteel's information and put it in their robes as they entered the lift. Hermione's lunch break was over but they had both decided on their next plan of action: Hermione would go back to Hogwarts while Harry researched Casteel's whereabouts, then once he had found him they would go confront him together. Of course, Harry had had his reservations about letting Hermione tag along on this possibly dangerous mission. But he couldn't deny that his relief for her still wanting to spend time with him overpowered his desire for her to stay put safely at Hogwarts. Secretly, he was thrilled that they were back doing the sleuth-work they were so used to being caught up in back when they were kids.
As Harry was letting his mind wander back to certain, specific events that happened during their hunt for horcruxes, Hermione was shooting very inconspicuous looks at him out of the corner of her eye.
The lift ascended two levels before Harry met her eyes. He gave her a confused expression.
"So… were you busy last night or something?" she asked him nervously.
Harry frowned, "What?"
"I just thought that you'd stop by… I waited…"
Suddenly he was fumbling, "I-I thought you said you didn't want me there anymore?"
"I never said that," Hermione denied, now frowning herself.
Silence passed through the tense lift but only for a second. Harry could hear his heart pounding as he tried to explain himself, "I didn't really find anything new out. So I figured there would be no reason to stop by."
He watched as she bit her lip, "Oh. Okay."
"Hermione-"
"It's fine. I mean you do have a wife to go home to," she said quickly, obviously not wanting the attention. Her cheeks were already a faint red.
This confused the hell out of Harry. Hadn't she told him he needed to stop spending so much time alone with her? What had been the purpose of their argument the other morning if she had still been expecting him? Harry had thought it was clear that Hermione didn't want him to be that close to her, but now he had no idea what her feelings were...
"I would've been there if I'd known you were waiting," he resolved to say after the lift opened and a couple memos zoomed in over them.
She shook her head, "I shouldn't have said anything. It's fine. I can't expect you to come every night. Honestly, this is just me overanalyzing things. As usual."
She looked like she was kicking herself a thousand times for saying anything. Harry had no clue where this was all coming from. A part of him was a little annoyed at her for causing all this confusion but there was no way he was going to distance himself further from her by calling her out on her contradiction.
So instead, he opted to put himself in the middle. If she was going to play on the fence then so was he. Hell, he'd all but admitted his love for her yesterday but he didn't want to admit how much he needed her presence if she wasn't going to give him anything in return.
"Hermione… with everything that's happened… I-I feel like we're finally starting to become friends again. And I like it. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself but… I like spending time with you." It was hard but he forced himself to end it there.
Hermione nodded, looking shy. Her quietness made Harry feel like shit.
"Look, I'm sorry," he said gently, "I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable. That was never my intention."
She sighed, "You confuse the hell out of me sometimes, but I don't feel uncomfortable with you. Quite the opposite actually- that's what seems to be the problem."
Harry frowned but his heart skipped a beat, "Why is that a problem?"
He watched as Hermione began to shake her head wearily, "We've been over it, Harry. I-I…" Though she stopped short of herself.
Harry was barely aware of his hand reaching forward to wrap around hers, "What?"
Hermione looked nervously into his warm, ever-encompassing eyes. It felt like ages before she had the courage to speak, "I don't want to be the reason you and Ginny divorce."
The breath he'd been holding deflated faster than a popped balloon. He felt like all of his hopes had been rejected immediately. His hand released hers, "I guess I understand."
Though he wish he didn't. He wished they both didn't have to worry about his wife.
Just then the lift opened to the atrium, revealing a mass of ministry workers moving about, doing their days' work.
Hermione wiped at something on her face before stepping out of the lift and turning to face Harry.
"I'll find out what I can about this bloke and then be over after work," he told her before she was forced to say anything.
Her eyes suddenly seemed more confident looking at him. She was emanating relief, "Alright. Thanks."
He nodded and the lift began to close. Neither of them broke their gaze as the doors sealed off.
…
Lunch at Hogwarts was turning out to be quite a riling occasion. As it turned out, Professor McGonagall had been correct in her assumption that some parents would pull their children out of school due to the attack. About all of the Gryffindor and Slytherin's remained but there were a few noticeable Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw's missing. By now everyone knew why the Head Boy wasn't present at the mealtime.
Among the gossip of those who were missing, students were also speculating at Amia sitting in the middle of the Gryffindor table, surrounded by a wall of her eager housemates. Everyone wanted to know what being cursed had been like and if there were any still lingering effects, but only a couple younger students were stupid enough to ask her directly.
"Shut it, will you?" James and his mates would yell in Mia's defense along with Rose's occasional glares, letting everyone know that they should stop breathing down her neck. Amia, absolutely hating the attention, could only think to hunch lower and lower over her half-eaten sandwich.
While the California girl hid behind her fortress of fruit bowls and juice goblets, Rose was staring searchingly up at the staff table. A frown was dead set upon her face as she did laps tracing over the feeding professors.
"Hey Mia," Rose said after another minute of staring, "My mum was in class today, wasn't she?"
"Yeah, why?" Mia replied, mistakenly glancing at a group of younger students down the table, all of whom erupted into a frenzy of whispers and blushing cheeks at the older girl's eye contact.
"She's not at lunch," Rose mumbled, back to picking at her own food with her fork. Clearly there was something more on the girl's mind though, because after a couple pokes at her salad with her fork, she dropped the silverware and looked back to Mia.
"Has she been acting weird to you at all?"
Amia frowned, "What do you mean?"
"Like in general- have you noticed my mum acting a bit odd lately?"
"No… she seems fine to me," Amia responded hesitantly, her insides twisting. She could see the cloud of wandering confusion behind Rose's undeterred eyes- what was the 15 year old starting to piece together about Hermione's whereabouts, or lack thereof? Amia was worried for her teacher; she knew Hermione wasn't ready to tell her kids about her divorce and Mia trusted that the older woman knew what she was doing. Yet, checking back to the determination wrought on Rose's face, she could sense the forbidding draw of a looming drama.
"Maybe she's eating in her room," Mia offered, picking up her sandwich and taking a bite in hopes to resume normalcy.
Rose nodded but only half-aware of her friend's comment. She was back to checking at the staff table.
"I swear there's been something off about her lately…"
"There's been something off with the entire school, really," Mia interjected, "I mean unless break-ins and attacks are the norm around here…"
Rose again shook her head absentmindedly, her teeth clenching on to her lower lip as she pondered.
Amia sighed. She felt guilty; she felt like she had some sort of responsibility to calm her friend down but the last thing she wanted to do was spill Hermione's secrets.
Just as Mia was thinking of something to say to ease Rose, the redhead started packing up her bag. "Where you going?"
"I'm going to go check her class… I just want to see where she is."
Another sigh escaped Mia as she watched her friend's terse shoving of her books into her book bag. She was about to say something to rationalize her but a small voice appeared outside of the girls' conversation.
"Excuse me," a Hufflepuff girl- perhaps a fourth year- squeaked as she tapped Mia's shoulder. "I'm a huge fan… could I have an autogra-"
"I'll walk with you," Mia imposed, looking at Rose and standing up with her own bag in one single, swift movement.
…
Amia hadn't intended to go with Rose to confront Hermione but the two girls found themselves on the Transfiguration floor faster than they realized. Nothing had been spoken between the two girls; Rose was clearly wrapped up in her own thoughts while Amia was thinking back to the irksome lunch and how she could avoid it in the future.
They were just turning the corner to finish the last leg to Hermione's classroom when Rose suddenly shoved both of them into the side of the wall. Mia, immediately alerted, jerked her head to Rose for clarification. The fifth year was glued, hands flat at her sides, to the wall. A petrified look had paled her face.
"Rose what are you doing?" Amia asked flatly, coming to stand off the wall.
The redhead closed her eyes and shook her head for a second. She took a couple breaths before opening her eyes wide and pointing them straight into Amia's skeptical stare.
"Look around- see that tall blonde bloke down the corridor?"
Amia gave her a warning look before taking a step over and barely poking her head around the corner, just enough so that she could spot a tall, middle-aged man standing in the middle of the corridor. She raised an eyebrow as she observed the man; he was dressed in fine onyx robes, and had a head of white-blonde hair slicked back over his scalp with perfection. The stranger was reaching in his robes for something, but his head and posture were still upright, as if to assume a casual appearance at any time. With his movements Amia could make out a flash of a dark green metallic ring on his right hand.
She nodded after a moment of observance, "The creepy one, yeah."
"That's Scorpius's dad…" Rose whispered, the anxiety evident in her tone.
"No shit…" Amia whispered back, again glancing around the edge. She frowned and looked back, "He's coming out of Hermione's class."
"What?" Rose blurted, no longer anxious. The frowning look from lunch was back adorning her features. She too now stood off the wall.
Amia shrugged but nodded, looking back at the classily robbed man, now retreating down towards the opposite corridor. He must've found what he was searching for, Mia figured.
Both of the girls watched until the older Malfoy disappeared from sight. Once he had rounded the distant corner, Rose took off from their hiding spot with renewed pace. The determination in her step worried Mia so she trailed behind her, somewhat nervous that she was about to inadvertently throw herself into clash between her good friend and her favorite teacher. Seriously, whatever Hermione was doing with that bloke wasn't any of her business but she felt obligated to be there in case Rose needed relaxing.
Rose reached the classroom door first and didn't hesitate before throwing open the door and entering. Mia lingered in the hall for a second, waiting for voices to erupt before she went in. When silence resounded from inside the room though, she felt prompted to enter.
Slowly, she walked in. Rose had already trooped up to the front and was walking through the door to Hermione's private quarters. Again, Mia waited but no voices came. No sign of surprise from Hermione.
Rose came back out, looking just as confused as earlier.
"She's not here," she muttered, still checking around the empty class. "This is so weird…"
"She might be in the staff lounge or something Rose. Honestly I think you're over analyzing things. She seemed perfectly fine in class today," Amia reassured her, even though the latter was a lie. Hermione definitely was acting strange during their class on animagi earlier that morning. Mia along with the whole class noticed the professor's brief slip, followed by forty-five minutes of quiet, sidetracked lecture. Mia didn't have the chance to question her about it because right as the bell rang for lunch Hermione excused the class and sprinted for her quarters, slamming her door shut. At the time Amia just figured she had something she'd forgotten to do…
Rose was up at her mum's desk, shaking her head, "Yesterday, I came down to lunch late and found Scorpius waiting for me. He said he didn't go to Hogsmeade… Did you know his dad used to be a Death Eater? He was in the same year as my parents- he was one of the first students to turn to the other side…"
Amia felt her heart beat suddenly drop to an agonizing pace, "What are you trying to say?"
Rose was shaking her head, staring off towards the door to the class, "Death Eaters hate muggleborns. What was he doing in my mum's class?"
Amia sucked in a disquieting breath. Suddenly the tone of the afternoon had changed from confusion and distress to something much more serious. Admittedly, Mia didn't know much about the Death Eater's legacy besides what she'd read in History of Magic so far, but Rose seemed genuinely worried.
"Do you think that guy had something to do with Saturday?" Amia asked, almost nervous to hear the younger girl's answer.
Rose shook her head in unknowing, "I have no idea what's going on anymore."
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Next chapter: An abundance of confrontations; Harry vs. Ginny, Amia vs. Hermione, and James notices two names awfully close together on the Marauder's Map.
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