Harry tried to guide Hermione into the chair closest to them but she resisted. She needed to be able to show them on the map. She needed to ground herself in the facts and the tangibility of her books in order to get through this.
She Accio'd the magical bag and stuck her wand in forcefully, summoning `Hogwarts, A History'.
"Bloody well figures," she heard Ron say, but she didn't so much as spare him a raised eyebrow.
By memory and touch she flipped frantically to the section she was looking for and then began reading, trying to calm her voice as much as possible.
`While Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry services the children of Great Britain, there are other magical institutions of learning around the world. They are as follows:'
She didn't dare look at either Harry or Ron. She was fairly certain Harry knew where she was going with this and she didn't want to risk them interrupting or interjecting until she had a chance to finish. She took two steps closer to the map and pointed her wand at it, balancing the large tome in one hand. She swallowed heavily before continuing.
`Beauxbatons Academie de Magie- France
Durmstrang Institute- Sweden
Akadamie von Merseburg- Germany
Forheksing Skolen av Milorg- Norway
Zirnitra- Russia
Mahoutokoro- Japan'
As she read each school she flicked her wand and the corresponding location lighted up on the map. After she got to Germany she heard Ron gasp and she knew he had caught on. At the end, there were six bright stars showing the other schools of magic outside of Hogwarts, and they were right next to the dots they had put up earlier from the suspicious articles. They had found their connection.
"Sweet Merlin!" Ron exclaimed and sat down heavily.
Harry was silent, and when she found the courage to look at him the blank expression she saw was more frightening that anything else.
She closed the book and slid it to the table, then re-holstered her wand, but Harry still remained motionless.
Hesitantly she reached a hand out and like a flash he latched on to her. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and brought herself up flush against him.
"It's the schools, Harry. Whoever this is, they're going after the schools," she said quietly
Harry was still, his muscles tense, and her fingers tingled slightly where she touched him, as if she could feel his magic.
Ron lurched forward and began digging through the bag. She could hear clanks and thuds as various items hit the table. She assumed he was selecting items from their WWW stash but she couldn't look away from Harry.
Harry's grip tightened on her hand. "Harry," she said carefully, "What do you want to do?"
She saw Ron freeze at her words, and as the silence stretched on, the icy pit in her stomach grew.
Harry sucked in a great gasp of air and then began moving. He circled the room, looked at the map, and rifled through the equipment Ron had laid out, selecting some and discarding others.
His hands patted his pockets frantically before he spun in a circle and then stalked purposely towards the chair where he had haphazardly tossed his cloak hours earlier. Hermione had no idea what he could be searching for and moved forward to see if she could help when he pulled the mirror out.
"Hello! Is anyone there? Hello!" Harry shouted into the mirror, the crack in his voice betraying the calm she knew he was trying to show. She came up behind him and laid a hand on his back, anxiously awaiting a response.
The blankness of the mirror disappeared and was replaced by the sleepy visage of Arthur Weasley. "Harry!" he shouted "Is everything alright?"
"No time. You need to call a meeting of the Order. Everyone you can get, including Kingsley. We'll be there as soon as we can," Harry said quickly, his face hard.
"Of course, Harry, of course," Arthur agreed immediately.
"Tell Kingsley I need everything he has on every Death Eater that survived the war." At Harry's words, Ron's eyes flew to hers and she could do nothing but stare back at him wide eyed.
She saw Arthur visibly gulp. "Death Eaters, Harry? Surely..."
"Yes, Death Eaters. All of them. Stay safe, we'll be there when we can," Harry said and then put the mirror back in his pocket, breaking off the communication.
Harry turned to her. "I'm sorry, I just have to ask this once..." he said uneasily, running a hand through his hair so roughly she knew it must have hurt. "Are you sure, `Mione? Absolutely sure?"
"I'm sure. It's right there on the map. This has been planned very carefully and very quietly. There is absolutely nothing else that links those locations except that they are all sites of magical schools. What else could it be?" she responded, certainty making her voice shake with the reality of what she was saying.
"Ok," Harry said almost to himself, and then his eyes shut tight for a long moment, but when he reopened them they were blazing with determination.
"We're leaving in five. Ron, I want those on us," he said, pointing to the small, but effective collection of delayed explosives, darkness powders, and portable swamps. "Everything else goes in the bag and then we're heading for this...Forheksing...this Norwegian Hogwarts," Harry stated.
"Do you know where it is?" Hermione asked, already gathering the papers in as orderly a fashion as she could manage under pressure.
Harry looked unsure for the first time. "No, but we know the town it's near. We'll apparate there and then...I'm sorry, I don't have a plan, but we can't just let them...it's a school, `Mione, full of kids...and they don't even know."
She knew he was seeing Hogwarts burn, seeing the dead bodies of friends and teachers and the broken walls of his home. "I know, Harry. We'll figure it out. We always do," she said tightly before launching herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck like she had so many times when they were younger; she needed the hug as much as he did.
She was the one that finally pulled away, wiping her wet eyes on the back of her hand as she went to the map once more.
"There's a small village outside the school. I assume it's like Hogsmeade, but I'm not sure. We could apparate in...maybe ask around? Or maybe we'll see the school from there," she suggested with a small shrug.
"There's not enough time to contact Kingsley and have him get word to the right authorities. If we had more time he could send a group of Aurors or we could liaise with the law enforcement offices there, but I'm worried whatever they're planning…it's going to happen today," Harry stated, his eyes fixed on the glowing dot that represented the school. "Peter and my other contact giving us the exact same information, at the cost of their lives...something will happen soon."
"It may be easier to get in if it's just the three of us," Ron said. "Trying to go in there with an army may tip them off. They could get careless if they feel like they're being threatened. Besides, we don't even know if anyone is at the school; could just be this mayor bloke we need to find and keep away."
Harry mulled over what Ron had said and nodded. "You're right. Without any more information we have to go on what we know, which is the school and the mayor; anything else is conjecture and that's dangerous."
With a snap, the map vanished and Harry turned to Hermione and Ron. "Ready?" he asked unnecessarily, and Hermione slipped her hand into his. She led him out of the tent and crowded to the side as Ron emerged. With few flicks of her wand, the tent was returned to the bag and they were in the claustrophobic room with barely enough space to turn around. Harry took her hand again and gave it a squeeze, she held her arm out for Ron to grab, and in a blink they were gone.
They landed at a pre-determined apparation point in the small village. The sun was bright and her eyes narrowed automatically as she tried to take in her surroundings.
They were at the end of a street. A narrow dirt road continued into a forest and the other direction clearly made up the main street. A half dozen shops on either side of the road was all there was to see. Signs were in Norwegian, and although she couldn't read them, it was easy enough to suss out what they sold; an owl post, dress shop, books and supplies, one pub, and randomly enough a cheese shop. Two of the buildings were empty and the others just seemed to be private residences; they had traversed the town in its entirety in less than ten minutes.
It was early still. Their breath fogged the cool air and Hermione zipped her jacket up all the way to ward off the chill. Only one other wizard was out, and he paid them no mind.
"Anyone speak Norwegian?" Ron asked sardonically.
"I'm sure some of them speak English as well," Hermione answered. "We could try the pub if they're open. A town this small, they probably know how to find the mayor."
Harry didn't say anything; he was still scanning the area around them and then something must have caught his eye as he broke off from them, heading towards a small footpath that led into the woods.
"What is it?" Hermione asked, jogging after him.
Harry answered by pushing away a pine bough heavy with a late snowfall. Underneath was a wooden signpost with a symbol and an arrow carved into it, pointing up the path.
"That's the crest for the school!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Guess we don't need to ask around after all," Ron observed, "unless you want to find the mayor first, Harry."
"No. We should go to the school and talk to the headmaster. If we're lucky we can convince them to evacuate the school and maybe that will buy us some time," Harry stated, his voice certain, although his eyes were hard.
"Come on then. If they're anything like Hogwarts they're probably serving breakfast soon," she said and began to head down the path.
Harry and Ron fell in beside her and she could already see that it wouldn't take long to reach their destination. The path was only a couple hundred feet long, and a large building was already visible at the end.
As they walked, Harry took his wand out and began casting for wards. "Are you finding anything?" Hermione asked.
"No. They don't seem to have any of the protections that Hogwarts does. The anti-apparation wards are up, and quite strong, but there is no anti-Muggle security, and the bare minimum of security wards." The frustration he felt at this revelation was palpable.
"That doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't they have any wards?" Ron commented
"It doesn't. Even out here where the chance of a Muggle accidentally stumbling upon the place is next to zero you would still expect something. Hogwarts is isolated as well, but we had much more security than this," Harry replied, swiping angrily at a low tree branch that was in his way.
They emerged from the tunnel of trees into an open grassy field. Directly opposite was a long, low building, with five great pillars across the front. From where they stood it wasn't possible to tell how far back it went, but it certainly was not as big as Hogwarts. Another sign sat in front of the block of stone steps that led to the double wooden front doors. Like the sign on the path, this one also held the crest of the school and what Hermione could only guess was the name of the institution in Norwegian.
Harry's wand was out again, although he had it low by his side, and she saw him cast a few more spells before shaking his head. "Nothing. There is nothing here; no wards to speak of at all, just anti-apparation."
She halted two steps up and turned back to Harry when Ron suddenly pulled away and went towards his right. "What is it?" she called after him.
"Hang on, I see something," he said, holding his hand up.
Harry followed and she waited. Ron headed towards the end of the building, his wand now by his side as well. Harry caught up and was at his elbow when both of them froze. She could see them speaking quietly to each other but couldn't make out what they were saying.
Suddenly, she saw movement coming around the end of the building and heading down another path towards the forest that circled the compound. A line of green robed wizards was making its way from the side of the school, and down the dirt path.
Harry and Ron hurried back towards her. "Who are they?" she asked in a hushed voice; the wizards had their backs to them and seemed intent on their destination but she didn't want to take any risks.
"I think they're the professors." Ron said. "They all have that same symbol on their robes and they're too old to be students."
"The professors?" she repeated. "What on earth could they be doing? Shouldn't they be getting ready for their classes?"
Harry hadn't said anything yet. Ron shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe they do it differently here. Maybe they have some sort of professors only meeting every morning."
"Come on," Harry said suddenly, passing her on the stairs. "The headmaster may still be in."
Hermione and Ron moved to follow, but they only made it a few steps before there was a deafening explosion from their left.
She didn't hear anything after that. It was just bits of blue sky, dust, rubble, and the ground flying up to meet her. The world tumbled, and she felt like she was moving in slow motion. All the breath was knocked out of her when she landed, and it took everything to draw another lungful of air.
She wasn't unconscious. Although she was awake and could see, that was all. Her head felt hollow and there was a great roaring in her ears, like angry ocean surf that wouldn't dissipate. Her body was numb, and there was a heavy weight across her legs, but she couldn't see what it was.
Nothing else existed right then but the rush in her ears and the sky above. Her vision blurred, and she fought to push it away. On the edges of her brain she knew there was something important; there was something she was forgetting. But everything felt rattled and jumbled. It was like a dream she was trying to remember, but it was just out of reach.
Then suddenly there was a figure breaking her field of vision. Ron.
She remembered. Harry and Ron and the school.
Ron's hand gripped her shoulder tightly. His face was covered in dust and ash, and blood ran from his ear, down his neck and disappeared into his collar.
His mouth was moving, but she couldn't make out the words at first. He raised his wand and then the oppressive roar in her head began to abate and it sounded like he was talking from very far away.
"Are you alright?" she was able to make out, and she slowly nodded her head yes. She leaned up halfway, Ron supporting her when she saw Harry.
Harry was what had been pinning her legs down. His form was sprawled over hers, her knees in his chest. His head rested on the ground by her feet, glasses long gone.
A whine of panic was beginning to unfurl within her when he shifted and pushed himself up on one elbow, shaking his head. Her heartbeat was still frantic, but she was relieved to see he wasn't seriously injured.
Then with a jerk he scrambled to his feet and began to look around wildly before he caught sight of her and Ron behind him.
Harry crashed to his knees beside her, and she could hear him a bit better now as he repeated what Ron had said. His hands cupped her face and she felt him reach up and rub what must have been blood off of her forehead. She grabbed his wrist and pulled it down. "I'm alright," she assured him. "My hearing is a little off, but I think I'm fine."
With some help she was upright and then it struck her at how far they had been thrown and how big the explosion was. They were in the middle of the green, a good thirty yards from where they had been climbing the steps.
Her stomach clenched as she realized what must have happened. She raised a hand to cover her mouth in horror, but it couldn't keep in the low moan. "Oh gods. The children."
It struck Harry then as well and she saw him go white. The professors had known the explosion was going to happen; that's why they left.
Ron cursed violently and turned around for a moment so he didn't have to see the carnage that lay in front of them.
Other than the crackling of the burning building there were no other sounds, and then Harry was making his way to the steps again.
"Harry!" she cried out.
"There might be survivors," he replied without turning back, and then she and Ron were right behind him.
Hermione hastily conjured a new pair of glasses and shoved them in Harry's hand when they reached the doors. "I hope I got the prescription correct," she said. He slipped them on and gave her hand a squeeze.
One of the great doors hung lazily on its hinge, still swaying slightly. Their wands drawn, they made their way inside cautiously.
There was a large central foyer with a grand double staircase and two long halls going off in either direction. The hall to the right was relatively unscathed. The explosion seemed to only go as far as the center, and other than dust and some debris there was nothing too terrible that way.
The hall to the left was completely destroyed. Beams and plaster littered the way, and the further down they went, the harder it was to discern what they were looking at. Most of the doors seemed to lead to classrooms, if the jumble of desks and textbooks was any indication.
Hermione moved around a massive crush of stone and looked up to where a second floor balustrade had caved in.
"Sweet Merlin," she heard Ron say and turned to see him using his wand to lift away a large slab, underneath which lay a dead girl. Her blond hair was matted with blood and her blue eyes were still open.
Ron knelt down and closed her eyes, not looking at Hermione or Harry when he stood, his jaw clenched.
Hermione took a shuddering breath and kept moving. The hallway opened up and the damage was the worst they had seen; bits of sky could be spotted through some of the holes.
Suddenly Harry stopped and after a few flicks of his wand she could begin to feel the magic rise in him. She scrambled over a pile of rubble almost as tall as she was and made her way to his side. "What is it?"
He couldn't answer her at first. "They locked them in," he said with a tone she had never heard before. "There were doors here, and they locked them in."
Her blood ran cold and as she looked closer she could see what he meant. The end of this wing housed a large room, most likely the main hall where the students had meals. The ceiling had almost completely caved in. A long wooden table splintered in half was blocking their way. She used her wand to cast water over a fire burning close and saw the boys doing the same.
Going around the table to the left she gasped in horror at what she saw.
The room was not nearly as big as the Great Hall at Hogwarts. From what she could tell this school normally held around two hundred students. Now, it was a blackened shell. Fires still licked the walls, multiple tons of dark, stained wooden beams no longer supported the roof; they were now in too many pieces, and had crushed anything they had fallen upon.
That included the students.
She didn't see them at first. The smoke was thick, and mortar dust had settled over everything, painting the room a uniform grey. As she stumbled forward her boot caught on something and she looked down to see a thin arm outstretched, the rest of the body hidden from view.
She could hear Harry and Ron working their way through the room behind her but she didn't spare them a glance. Tramping down the bile that was threatening, she focused on her task; finding survivors.
Methodically, and carefully she began moving debris. After ensuring that the corner closest to her had nothing but rubble she added to it, first uncovering the young boy whose arm she had almost tripped over.
He couldn't have been older than eight, much younger than any student at Hogwarts. The room spun for a moment as she considered that with such a low magical population in the country, this school very well could include all ages.
Her eyes cut across the room and she saw that Harry and Ron had split up and were doing the same; moving debris, searching for survivors, but most likely only finding bodies.
Her knees were wobbly when she stood and she had to blink several times before she could see clearly.
She returned to her task. A scrap of fabric let her know there was someone else near the boy and she kept moving stone.
Harry shouted from across the room. "Hermione! I think this one's alive."
Scrabbling over the mess between them, she reached his side where he had uncovered a girl who looked to be in her final year. Her right arm had been crushed, but her chest was rising faintly.
"Finish uncovering her and then I'll see what I can do," she said quickly.
Ron and Harry moved the last of the stone. Without any bone re-growing potion she couldn't do much, but she was able to heal the more serious lacerations and take the majority of the pain away for when the girl woke up.
Hermione wiped a hand across her forehead, wincing at the gash there she had forgotten about. "Is there someplace we can move the injured?" she asked, looking around but not seeing an adequate area.
Ron moved back out into the hall and then returned after a few minutes. "I cleared a spot. We can conjure some blankets to lay them on..."
"Great. That's perfect," she said and watched as Ron carefully floated the girl out into the hallway.
"You alright?" Harry asked, his hand skimming down her arm.
"Yeah, it's just..." she blinked rapidly. "Harry, I think this was a full school, not just for older kids. I found a boy...he was so young..."
Harry didn't say anything, but the look in his eyes let her know he was already aware and she allowed herself to fall forward and rest her cheek on his chest for just a moment.
Before she could get too comfortable she pushed away and headed back to the section where she had been working.
They continued on. Hours passed. Some of the injuries she saw were so horrific she couldn't actually look; she'd just check for signs of life and move on. Every time a beam settled or rock shifted she'd jump and her heart would race as she remembered the battle at Hogwarts and all the people they had lost there.
Harry and Ron would call for her occasionally as they found someone still alive, but it was few and far between. They hadn't found more than a dozen students who had survived.
The last time they called for her, the child had died as she was working on him and Harry had to pry her wand out of her hand to make her stop trying to save him. She glared at him and snatched her wand back before stalking off.
Finally she had reached the far back corner. This area appeared to have taken a harder hit. Large stone statues were in the four corners and the one here had fallen forward, taking out the table below. It took time to move the oversized carving, and when she did there wasn't much to see besides the pulverized remains of wood.
Then she saw them. The tiny bodies. She could see six. They couldn't have been older than five years, and a flash of little Victoire, her chubby arms wrapping tight around her neck before they left Grimmauld went through her mind. Hermione couldn't stop the strangled scream that tore from her throat, it was too much.
She turned away from the horrible sight and saw Harry and Ron heading towards her and she moved to intercept them.
"Hermione! What is it?" Harry yelled, gripping her by the shoulders when he reached her.
She shook him off and put a hand to Ron's chest. "No, Ron, no. You have to listen to me. Stay away. Harry and I will handle this section. Please. You have to listen to me." She was sobbing as she spoke, and she knew Ron had no idea what she talking about, but knowing how close he was to his nieces she was afraid that seeing those little ones would kill him. Her hand fisted in his shirt, and with the rubble she was standing on she was almost at eye level with him. "Please Ron. Please just tell me you won't come over here."
Harry's arm wrapped around her middle from behind. She knew he was worried about how she was acting, but she needed to make sure that Ron stayed away.
Ron's eyes had been locked on hers, but as her words sunk in, they slid over her shoulder. He must have seen something because he blanched and staggered backwards, the handful of shirt she had was the only thing that kept him balanced forward.
"Don't. Please," she pleaded in a whisper and he nodded vacantly before stumbling away from them. She watched him hurry from the room and the sounds of retching reached them.
Harry turned her slowly and forced her to look at him. "What is it?" he asked.
She shook her head. She couldn't say it aloud. Instead she gripped his hand and lead him back to the corner, taking deep breaths and trying not to fall apart again. She knew when he saw them because his hand fell away from hers and he crouched down, his head in his hands as he tried to process what he was looking at.
"How?" he finally managed to get out. "Why were they here? They're so young."
"They must have run a day school for the local children." It was the only thing she could think of.
"You were right to send Ron away; this would break him," Harry said
Hermione just nodded, wondering how she would get through it without it breaking her.
With unspoken agreement they cleared what they could. A shifting rock made smaller ones fall down and land on one of the little girls, and Hermione almost lost her composure, what small amount of it she had left. From that point on they moved everything by hand.
Harry didn't say anything to her as he scooped up the first one and moved her so they could get to the rest. He could have moved her with his wand like they had all the others, but she knew why he hadn't.
The only way she could keep working was by shutting something down inside of herself. She couldn't talk, she could't think, she could only dig through the debris, moving rocks and scraping her knuckles; that was all she could handle right then. Harry must have been in the same place as her because he wasn't saying anything either.
The last one they uncovered looked so much like Victoire that the world spun for a moment. The same eyes, same colored hair, same braided pigtails Fleur was so fond of using.
She collapsed on a piece of fallen statue and took great gulping breaths of air. "It's not her." Harry was saying over and over again, and she could see the fear in his eyes too; he had thought it was Vic as well.
Hermione nodded, and with tears making tracks through the grime that coated her face, she forced herself back up. She approached the girl and knelt next to her, reaching a shaking hand out to brush stray hair out of her face; she was perfect, not a scratch on her that Hermione could see, it just looked like she was sleeping.
Without realizing it she kept stroking the girl's fair hair, although she avoided touching the too cold skin. Hermione couldn't help but think how this little soul had sat down to eat with her friends like she had every other day, and then had a horror enacted upon her.
A sudden shouting behind her made her jump and she turned to her right to see three men enter, their wands drawn, shouting in what had to be Norwegian.
Harry had already fished out his badge and identification and had his hands up, although his wand was out.
"I'm Special Auror Harry Potter with the British Department of Magical Law Enforcement," he said calmly, and the first man approached Harry and took his badge before inspecting it closely.
"What are you doing here, Auror Potter?" he said in clipped English.
"I'm here under special orders from my Minister. Your head of department should have received a message from him that we've been investigating a possible attack in your country."
The man stepped back and spoke to one of the others, and as much as Hermione wanted to go join Harry, she didn't want to bring attention to herself.
"I believe we should talk, Potter," the man said.
"I'd be more than happy to, but you have some survivors here. You'll want to get them some assistance. We've done what we could," Harry suggested.
"Reinforcements are coming and should be here shortly. Your associates can wait here. If you'll follow me," he said and held a hand out, indicating that Harry truly had no other choice but to go with him
Harry turned back to look at her and she nodded that she would be fine. He gave her a tight smile before following the Norwegian wizard from the room.
Turning back to the little girl, she ran a hand over her head once more before whispering, "I'm so sorry this happened to you."
Hermione clambered to her feet and wouldn't let herself look back as she picked her way carefully through to where Ron was waiting. She had no intention of staying in that room any longer than necessary.
Ron didn't say anything, but wrapped an arm around her shoulders as she came up beside him and steered her back to the central hall. A group of what she had to assume were healers raced past them on their way out.
Ron just kept walking when they made it outside, down the steps, across the grass that was littered with debris. With every step she felt more and more numb as the adrenaline wore off and the reality of what they had just had to do began to sink in. Ron just kept walking until they came to the far end of the green, almost to the forest. They were far enough away that the voices of the rescuers were faint and she could no longer hear or smell the fires.
She stumbled when he finally stopped and looked at him questioningly, but his expression was stony and he wasn't meeting her eyes. His arm tightened around her and she leaned in until she could hear the reassuring beat of his heart.
Letting her eyes slide shut had been a mistake. As soon as she did, the exhaustion, hunger, and stress caught up with her. Her knees buckled slightly and all she could see was a repeating slideshow of dead students.
The sobs shook her entire body, and she lost track of everything but the grief that she felt. Ron was the only thing keeping her from completely falling apart. Another set of arms came around her and then it was Harry who was holding her up.
"Hang on, `Mione," he whispered into her hair. "We're going home."