Here we go with Chapter 3. I hope everyone enjoyed the last two Chapters. I was made aware that Hermione's birthday is Sept. 19 and not in January, but I needed her to be younger so the whole time line would work out right. So, that mistake was on purpose, and I also apologize for the few grammar errors in Chapter 2, I was reading it over before I started this chapter, and I was ready to kick myself. For rating, disclaimer, and summary, see chapter 1.
Hermione woke with a start the next morning when she felt the bed move beneath her. She opened her eyes to see Lily running from the room. With a muffled curse, she leapt from bed and chased after her daughter. She made it out in the hall just in time to see her run into Harry and Ron's room. After seeing that it was only six in the morning, she continued her chase.
"Lily Alexandria Potter, if you wake them up you will regret it." Hermione said in a loud whisper. "Get back here."
"I wake up Daddy." Lily announced proudly, leaping onto her father. Harry woke up and sat up quicker than she had seen him move in a while. When he saw who it was that had jumped on him, he relaxed. Hermione strode over to his side of the bed and looked at Lily with her hands on her hips.
"I'm sorry, Harry. She was a little quicker than me this morning." She apologized, running her fingers through her hair in an effort to tame it.
"No problem. I had to get up soon anyway. And I imagine you wake up like this a lot."
"More times than I would like." She agreed, watching as Lily nestled into Harry's chest. For the first time, Hermione was jealous of her daughter.
Lily looked up at Hermione, "Mommy come cuddle." She demanded, kicking Ron to make him move over. Ron opened his eyes and did a double take when he saw Lily. "Scoot, Uncle Ron, make room for Mommy." Lily told him in a voice that sounded strangely reminiscent of Hermione when she was that age. Ron did as he was told and then had a six-year-old in bed beside him as Harry pulled Hermione down into his lap so that she was sitting between his knees. Aside from having Lily in bed with them, the three of them lying together brought back a thousand memories from their own days at school.
"So, Ron, how is everything in Weasley land?" Harry asked, turning his head to look at Ron.
"Great. Percy's getting married. Bill has three kids, Charlie has three, a set of twins and one girl, and Fred and George are both married and have two a piece."
"Bill has one in Hogwarts already, doesn't he? And one ready to start this year?"
"Right. Ryan's twelve, and getting ready to finish his second year, and Bryan is starting next year. The youngest one, Matt, is Lily's age. Charlie's twins, Robby and Blake, are eight, they'll be two years ahead of Lily and Matt, and Lucy, the girl, is five. Fred's kids are five and three, Mark, and Derek, and George's are six and four, Evan and Cole."
"Wow," Hermione breathed, "I knew about Bill's three, and Charlie's twins, but how is it possible that I didn't know about George's oldest if he's Lily's age?"
"Lily was born in March, Evan was born in July. You were gone before she even got pregnant." Harry supplied.
"Okay, now let me see if I came remember the names of their mothers. Bill is married to Christine, Charlie married Mia, and Percy is marrying Penelope?"
"Right. Fred is married to Katie Bell, and George is married to Alicia Spinnet."
"Wow. I always knew those two would end up with the twins."
"Yup, and they did. Now what do you two say we get ready and ho find out why in the world we are all here?" Ron suggested, getting out of bed. Only because of Lily did he go into the bathroom to get dressed. Hermione grabbed Lily and rolled off of Harry's lap. She balanced the small child on her hip and looked down at him.
"Give me half an hour to get us both ready and we'll go down to Dumbledore's office. I'm sure there's a good reason that we have to be here."
"All right. I'll meet you in the Common Room then?"
"Yeah."
Hermione gave Lily a bath, then took an amazingly fast shower herself, managing to wash her hair and shave her legs in less than five minutes. Six years of bathing between things her daughter wanted to do had given her good training. She dried Lily's hair, then her own, and French- braided Lily's. Then they both got dressed, Lily in jeans and a tank top with a puppy on the front of it, and Hermione in khaki shorts and a black sleeveless shirt. They were both wearing sandals. Hermione pulled her hair back in a ponytail and quickly applied a minimum of make up. Seeing that they were already five minutes late, she grabbed Lily's hand and they hurried down into the Common Room where Harry and Ron were waiting.
Lily ran right to Harry, who picked her up. "Okay, now that we're all here, we can head down to Dumbledore's office."
"Should we take her, or should I take her up to Braden?"
"We can take her." Harry said quickly. He wasn't in any hurry to hand his daughter over to the man who had helped raise her when he hadn't even known about her.
So the four of them headed down to Professor Dumbledore's office. Remembering the password McGonagall had used the night before, Hermione spoke. "Chocolate Frogs." She said, and the stairs began going up. All of them stepped on one and soon found themselves in Dumbledore's office. Professor Dumbledore was waiting for them, seated behind his desk. He gestured for them all to sit.
"Good morning." He greeted them cheerfully, "Did you all sleep well?" he asked, and at the nods of agreement, continued. "I trust that you're here to find out why you are here now that you all undoubtedly know that you aren't here to witness the weddings of one another?"
"Yes, we are." Hermione said, adjusting Lily on her lap. "I'm assuming that you needed our help for something?"
"Your assumption would be correct. But I will get to that in a minute. First, I owe you all an apology. I did deceive you in order to get you all here at once, and for that I am sorry. For the deception, not getting you all here. And there are two reasons I brought you here. First of all, to make you move past what happened the night of your graduation. I can't tell you the grief seeing you three split up caused us teachers here at Hogwarts. Though I imagine it was worse for the three of you, especially you, Miss Granger. The second reason I deceived you into coming here was, and I'm going to be blunt here, because I am in hopes that there will be a wedding, or three, that takes place here at Hogwarts before you three leave after graduation in two weeks." Dumbledore paused to look at the three adults, who were looking at him with mixed emotions, and Lily who was looking like Christmas had come early for her. "And now I suppose I should get to the part I need your help with. After the three of you graduated from Hogwarts, Lord Voldemort went into hiding again, regaining more Death Eaters that had been lost in the attack against Hogwarts around Christmas of your seventh year. About two months ago, I began receiving reports of disappearances. Students that had graduated from here, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang, as well as several American schools. Immediately I began to look into in, and it seems that the Death Eaters are religiously recruiting students. I am quite sure that Harry and Hermione have seen an increase in dark activity through their work at the Auror office. Am I right?"
Harry nodded. "I'm on permanent duty and they're recruiting like crazy."
"The assignments are becoming more and more singular. Hardly anyone is working with a partner anymore." Hermione added.
"I thought you two would see it. Anyway, through a spy of mine that is deeply rooted in the Death Eaters, I have received information that an attack on Hogwarts is going to take place very soon. I have been informed that it will happen on the night of our graduation dance. The Prom as the Muggle born students like to call it. And that is why you three are here, along with Ginny, Lavender and Braden. We need you to help in the fight that will ultimately take place the night of the dance. Ron, your brothers and their families will be arriving shortly. Later today I believe. And don't worry Hermione, the children will be placed far away from danger. Lily will be perfectly safe, as well as all of your nieces and nephews Ron. The dance is in one week from tomorrow. During the week that you have until the dance, I would like you to not only prepare the school, put to also teach a special Defense Against the Dark Arts Class in order to prepare the students."
"In what way does the school need to be prepared?"
"Well, all the rooms that are not being used need to be magically sealed, the Great Hall needs to be cursed so that it will absorb spells that miss instead of reflecting them, the dormitories need to be sealed from anyone but students and teachers, and all untrustworthy paintings need to be removed from the halls and placed into one of the magically sealed rooms so that the characters inside the paintings cannot leave the room. And also, you three are specifically needed for this task. The Chamber of Secrets needs to be reopened, cleared of any dangerous items either Tom Riddle or Salazar Slytherin left there and resealed. You three need to do it because, Harry and Ron are two of the only people to go down there, and you, Miss Granger are handier with spells and charms than Professor Flitwick."
Ron whistled. "I see why you need so many people. Finding all those rooms could take days, let alone sealing them and doing everything else."
"That is correct Mr. Weasley. There are parts of this school that even I have not visited in decades."
"Just how many Death Eaters are you expecting to attack?"
"I don't know Miss Granger. My best guess would be anywhere from twenty to one hundred and twenty. Maybe more, definitely not less."
"How are you going to explain us to the students?" Harry asked.
"My policy is that honesty is the best policy. You three should be well aware of that. However, in a situation as delicate as this one will become, I'd say that a bold-faced lie would work very well. We'll tell them that you are here to help chaperone the dance and prepare the castle for next year. We'll also tell them that the preparation is only done once every ten years, so none of them will question why it hasn't happened before."
"That sounds like a workable plan." Ron said, leaning back slightly in his chair. Harry looked at Professor Dumbledore.
"What aren't you telling us, Professor? There has to be a reason that you don't think that the teachers here at Hogwarts could handle the attack. They've done just fine in the past."
"You're right Mr. Potter, there is a reason. I have reason to believe that Lord Voldemort knows about your child with Miss Granger. That means that the child is in grave danger and we need her to be here so that she can be protected. You see, a child born of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger is almost undoubtedly going to become a great witch or wizard. So great in fact, that Lord Voldemort thinks that the child, even at six years old, is a threat that needs to be extinguished. So, Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, your daughter is in danger, and the two of you must come together to protect her and defeat Lord Voldemort once and for all."
Hermione's grip on Lily tightened slightly and she automatically hugged her child close to her. "You think he's going to lead the attack." She said in a manner that told him it wasn't a question and she was perfectly aware that was what he thought.
No, Miss Granger. I know he is going to lead the attack. Which is why you and Harry are here. To protect Lily and to defeat Lord Voldemort."
"Professor, who is your spy?" Harry asked, leaning forward.
"Draco Malfoy."
Hermione gave a small gasp. "Draco? Last time I checked, he was an Auror. When did he join the Death Eaters?"
"On his eighteenth birthday. At my request. He has, for the last six years, been a spy for the Order of the Phoenix, telling us what Lord Voldemort is up to so that we may interfere to save lives. It was he who told me about the attack that is to take place. Are there any more questions?"
"No, sir." Harry said, answering for all of them.
"Very good. In that case, I think we should all head down to breakfast. There have been places set up for you at the teachers' table, but if you would like, you may dine with the students."
After breakfast, Harry and Hermione were asked to proceed to a classroom where they would be beginning lessons for the older students. Ron was also helping, but had been asked to stay behind and tell the other three what was going on and to fill in his brothers and sisters-in-law as they arrived. Lily went with Professor Dumbledore back to his office to play with Fawkes while he did paperwork and kept an eye on her.
"We've got seventh years first. What should we start with?" Hermione asked, pulling herself up onto the desk. She felt oddly out of place not sitting behind the tables where the students would soon be.
"I was thinking that maybe we could do the Patronus Charm first, see if any of them can manage to produce one."
"That sounds good to me. Did you ever develop an Animagi form?"
"Yes, I did. After Sirius died, I tried to develop one, and I ended up turning into a tiger, actually. Conspicuous, but I managed to figure out how to shrink it to the size of a regular house cat. How about you?"
"A panther. I didn't like it at first, because it was big and I couldn't go anywhere as my Animagi, but then, like you, I figured out how to shrink it. Although retaining that form is a lot harder than retaining the regular sized one."
"It was for me at first, but I had to get used to it, as I'm in a lot of situations where I need to remain in Animagi form for long periods of time."
Hermione suddenly grew serious. "Harry, how are we supposed to defeat Voldemort? We never fully defeated him once in school, and we aren't exactly used to working together anymore. And I'm out of shape. All I do is sit in an office all day."
"Didn't you have to go through Auror training?"
"Well yes, but I haven't trained in forever. I chose to sit behind a desk all day so that I wouldn't put myself directly in the line of danger and leave Lily without a mother."
"Then I'll just have to work with you some this week. I'm sure you just need a little bit of practice. We'll just have to wait and see how our classes go today. You should be using some of your old skills and maybe you won't need and help."
"Maybe. Okay, here they come. Do you want to start or should I?"
"You start, you can sound a whole lot smarter than I can."
"All right. Okay, boys and girls, find a seat please and we'll get started. My name is Hermione Granger and this is my partner Harry Potter. Another gentleman who will be working with us, Ronald Weasley, will be here shortly. On behalf of my colleagues, and myself I would like to welcome each and every one of you to this special Defense Against the Dark Arts class that Professor Dumbledore has asked us to teach this week. We will be covering dueling, defensive charms, and also offensive charms, as well as the Unforgivable Curses, and the Patronus Charm and Animagi. Professor Potter, is there anything that you would like to add?"
"I think that you've covered it all. Okay, I would like you to split up into pairs, please pair with someone not in your own House, and sit with your partner. This person will be your partner for the rest of the week."
There was a rustling as all the seventh years moved to accommodate the command, and Hermione spoke again. "All right, now the first thing that we are covering today is the Patronus Charm. Is there anyone who isn't familiar with this Charm?" she asked, and when no one raise their hand, she continued. "Good. Now, Professor Potter and I are going to demonstrate, and then you can each have a try, as we will call you up one by one."
All seven classes progressed in much the same manner, with only the fifth, sixth, and seventh year students learning the Patronus charm. Everyone else was taught the Petrifying curse, Expelliaramus, faced a Boggart and were taught the Tickling Charm. After seven classes in a row, both Harry and Hermione were exhausted, while Ron, who had just been there for the last three, was hyper to the point that one or both of his friends were about to slap him.
"Well, well, well." Professor Snape said, stopping them in the hall. "If it isn't Potter, Weasley and Granger. I never thought I'd see the three of you together again. And out of dress code, my, my. If only you three were still students. Still in need of Remedial Potions, Potter?" he asked wickedly, sneering at the three of them.
"No thanks Professor, but maybe you should come sit in on one of my classes. You might pick up a thing or two."
"I don't believe I need to be taught what you're teaching. How is your daughter, Miss Granger? I suspect that she's an insufferable, intolerable know-it-all just like her mother? Or perhaps a daft, ignorant prat like her father?"
Hermione's nails bit into her palm. "Feel free to insult me, Professor Snape, but dare to insult my child again, and you will regret it." She said, turning on her heel and walking stiffly away, with one last glare at Snape, Harry and Ron turned and followed. They caught up with her as she neared the Great Hall. When they came up on either side of her, she offered them a smile, letting them know that she had calmed down. "Well that certifies it." She stated.
"What?" Harry asked.
"We're back to being the Three Musketeers." She said, laughing as Lily hurled herself into Hermione's arms, "Plus one." She added with a smile as she felt Harry's arm go around her waist.
Here you are, Chapter 3! I told you it would be out soon. Chapter 4 should be out tomorrow, but after that, they're gonna slow down a bit, because I start band camp from 8-12 every day. So stay tuned, and feel free to E-mail me any ideas at siren192005@yahoo.com, I appreciate the feedback.