Chapter 3, Unwelcome Visitors and Change of Plans

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – August 1

What a bizarre night! I’m still trying to sort it all out this morning. It started out with us going over to Harry’s house for an ordinary dinner and ended up with him back here sleeping in our guest bedroom right down the hall from me. I have no idea what will happen now.

The evening started out nice enough. Harry couldn’t take his eyes off my new sundress. It’s a light blue print with spaghetti straps and fits very snugly up top. It comes down to just above my knees and I also wore a cute pair of strappy sandals so my legs looked pretty good too. It took Harry a while before he noticed that though – he stared at the top so much I started blushing.

I couldn’t stop smiling when I first saw him and I held onto my welcoming hug quite a while. Everyone was polite with the introductions and Mrs. Dursley told us Dudley wouldn’t be joining us for dinner because he was having tea with his friends and then going out later. Harry later told me what they really did was go out and vandalize the park and terrorize the kids in the neighborhood, but we all smiled and said it was too bad we wouldn’t get to meet him. Personally I was relieved that he wouldn’t be there to eye me up and try to look down the top of my dress.

After dinner the adults retired to the living room to discuss things about Dad’s club and Mum suggested Harry and I go out for a walk. As soon as we were out the door there was a loud bang like a car backfired on the street and Harry grabbed my hand and pulled out his wand. I teased him about being jumpy and he calmed down, but he asked me if I had my own wand. I showed him how I had it tucked away in a hidden pocket of my dress and he was impressed. It also gave him a chance to look more closely at my dress again, which was fine with me. And neither of us let go of the other’s hand, so we walked down to the park holding hands in the warm summer evening. It was wonderful. I think we both know that something is happening between us, but neither of us want to push it too fast. That’s fine with me; we’ll probably be more comfortable if it develops gradually.

When we got to the park we sat on the swings for awhile, just talking about the things we had been doing this summer and our reading, and I sympathized with him again about how frustrating things were for him. Then Dudley and his gang showed up and things started going wrong. Harry and I decided to leave before they could come over and harass us, but halfway back to his house we heard them split up for the night and then Dudley started to overtake us. Harry really didn’t want to run into him and turned down an alleyway to avoid him but before we had a chance to get away something horrible happened.

Harry and Hermione stopped abruptly as soon as they entered the alleyway. The sky had suddenly become pitch black and the warm summer evening had turned bitingly cold. Hermione wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm and Harry instinctively put an arm across her bare shoulders and pulled her close as they both darted their eyes anxiously around the alley. Neither wanted to voice it aloud, but each knew where they had felt this before. It was the night that the dementors had attacked them and Sirius out by the lake at Hogwarts.

Dudley’s terrified voice broke the silence. “Wh … what are you doing, you freak? St … stop it!” Both of them turned toward the intrusion, wands out and ready.

“Shut up, Dudley,” Harry hissed, “we’re trying to listen …” He was cut off and staggered as Dudley, running toward them following the sound of his voice, crashed into him in the dark even as Hermione gasped beside him. But not before they had both heard the telltale raspy breaths accompanied by feelings of dread as they felt all the happiness being sucked out of them.

“Expecto Patronum!” Hermione called out while Harry scrambled around on his hands and knees, searching for the wand that had been knocked from his hand by the collision with Dudley. She had read up on the spell after she and Harry had encountered the dementors at the end of third year, but while she knew the incantation and wand movements she had not yet become proficient with it.

A thin white mist streamed from Hermione’s wand but failed to take shape. Dudley, completely misreading the danger, shouted, “No! Get away from me!” and turned to run away from whatever spell the witch was casting at him. He didn’t even make it to the end of the alley before they heard a terrified scream. At the same time the other two felt a creeping chill behind them and instantly realized that there was more than one dementor.

“Expecto Patronum!” Hermione cried again, but with the same result. The thin mist briefly halted the advance of their new attacker, but a stifled scream from Dudley indicated that it had no effect on the other one.

Frustrated with his futile efforts to locate his wand in the pitch black darkness, in desperation Harry called out the illumination spell. “Lumos!” To his amazement it worked, and his wand tip lit up inches from his hand. Quickly he snatched it up, and still on his knees he turned and saw a hooded figure right before him. It was reaching for Hermione who had slumped to her knees beside him, weakened from the effort of attempting the two spells.

“Expecto Patronum!” A silver wisp now issued from his own wand and the dementor backed off briefly, but resumed its horrible quest as soon as the mist faded away. Desperately, Harry tried to focus on a happy memory. Then he had it – the day he had spent with Hermione two weeks previous.

“Expecto Patronum!” This time a bright silver stag erupted from his wand and charged the dementor, crashing into it and hurling it away. Before the stag could make a second attack the dementor fled, disappearing into the black sky.

“Hermione!” Still on his knees, Harry wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to himself in a panic, while the silver stag wheeled around, sensing another foe, and charged down the alley toward the dementor attacking Dudley. “Are you all right?!”

“I … I’m OK,” Hermione panted against his chest. “But what about your cousin?” Both of them looked up just as Harry’s patronus reached the struggling boy. He had curled up in a ball, his massive arms wrapped tightly over his head, and the dementor had just pried them away when it was struck by the antlers of the charging stag and thrown into the air. Like its companion, it quickly faded into the night, fleeing from its powerful foe.
 

After that the sky lightened up again and we hurried over to Dudley. He was curled up on the ground shaking, but we could see right away that he hadn’t been Kissed. Then all of a sudden an old woman came running up to us. More surprises – she was Mrs. Figg, a lady who used to look after Harry when he was younger, and it turns out that she was a squib who was assigned by Dumbledore to keep an eye on him while he was growing up! She was going on and on about wanting to kill some bloke named Mundungus who apparently was supposed to be ‘on duty’ watching Harry tonight. Honestly, why didn’t these people tell Harry about all this! What good is it doing anyone to keep him in the dark about everything?

Anyway, Harry and I mostly had to carry Dudley back to his house, and when we got there everything went crazy. Harry’s uncle started screaming at us for whatever we were supposed to have done to Dudley, then my dad stepped in because it looked like he was actually going to take a swing at us and that gave us a chance to tell what happened. It didn’t help though, because Mr. Dursley started screaming about unnatural freaks and how he wasn’t going to put up with this unnatural behavior any more.

Somewhere about this time an owl arrived from the Improper Use of Magic Office and that set him off again. But we weren’t really listening because the message was just awful – it said Harry was being expelled and having his wand snapped because he violated the Statute of Secrecy. But that didn’t make sense because I cast the same spell and the letter didn’t say anything about me. It was almost as though they were waiting for a chance to catch Harry at something to get him in trouble.

Well, then things really turned bizarre. Harry panicked and started talking about running away, but then another owl arrived from Mr. Weasley telling him to stay put and not let the Ministry take his wand. How exactly he was supposed to accomplish that wasn’t clear. Mr. Dursley continued blustering and screaming, Dudley finally recovered his wits and started telling about the dementors, and that set Mrs. Dursley off. She seemed to know more about the wizarding world than she had previously let on, blaming her sister and ‘that awful boy’ (presumably Harry’s father) for telling her about things. And then another owl arrived from the Ministry.

This one rescinded the threats of the first one, but said Harry has to go to a hearing and that until then he was suspended. This was the last straw for Harry’s uncle and he started screaming at Harry to get out. It didn’t help when another owl showed up, this one with a message from Sirius telling Harry not to leave the house, whatever he did. That just made Mr. Dursley more adamant though. Once he found out that Dudley had been attacked by dementors, he concluded that they were after Harry (actually, I’m fairly certain that he was right about that) and that Dudley was almost killed because of him. When Harry said he thought the dementors’ attack was related to Voldemort being back, Mrs. Dursley went pale. I guess she recognized his name as the one who killed her sister. Then Mr. Dursley told Harry to get out and never come back.

At that point, my dad stepped in and told Harry he could come home with us. Harry was pretty anxious to get out of there as well by that time, and only hesitated because of Sirus and Mr. Weasley’s letters. Then the Howler came. I don’t know who had the dumb idea to send a Howler to the Dursleys, but it was the worst thing they could have done if they wanted them to keep Harry there. Well, all it said was ‘Remember My Last, Petunia’. That’s it. Everyone just stared at it as it burst into flames. Then Mr. Dursley started yelling again. “Remember my last? What the hell is that supposed to mean? My last what?” For the first time all night I actually agreed with him. Whatever it meant it didn’t have any effect on his determination that Harry leave, so Harry finally gave in and he and I hurried up to his room to pack his things. Harry and Dad hauled his trunk out to the car, Harry sent Hedwig with a message to Sirius to tell him where he was going, and we drove away as quickly as we could.

And so now here we are. Earlier this summer I would have been thrilled to death to have Harry staying with us, and I’m still glad he’s here and not in that awful situation with his aunt and uncle, but with this cloud hanging over him we’re all pretty subdued. Like I wrote before, we have no idea what’s going to happen next, but we do know that he has a hearing in ten days.

I’m scared.

-0x0x0-

“Don’t you dare, Albus Dumbledore,” hissed an irate Assistant Headmistress the next day. “Don’t you dare take away that girl’s prefect badge. She earned it and you know it. She had every right to go and visit him if she wanted to. And there was nothing wrong with their decision for Harry to leave those awful muggles. Since you’ve never explained why he had to stay there you can’t expect them know why it was so important. It’s bad enough you overrode my recommendation of Mr. Potter for the male prefect …”

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – August 5

Harry’s gone.

It finally happened tonight. After waiting and wondering for four days (Harry didn’t even unpack his trunk the whole time and we couldn’t go out and do anything because we kept expecting someone to show up at any minute) a group of witches and wizards appeared and announced that they were going to fly us to a place called ‘headquarters’. The only one I knew was RemusLupin. Alistor Moody was there, too, but I can’t say that I know him since the ‘Professor Moody’ we had last year turned out to be an imposter. There was also an imposing looking black wizard named Shacklebolt and a friendly younger witch with purple hair who went by her last name – Tonks. There were nine of them in all. They were all there as sort of an honor guard, although Moody treated it like a dangerous clandestine mission. They even all disillusioned themselves before they took off. That was eerie.

It turned out they expected me to come along, but with the way Moody kept making it sound so dangerous my father said no, I couldn’t go. I don’t really blame him but I wish I could have gone along with Harry. Now it will be almost a whole month before I can see him again. Hopefully we can at least meet in Diagon Alley when we go buy our books. I made him promise to owl me straight away when he has his hearing to tell me how it turned out, and he asked me to try not to worry. Like I could ever not worry about Harry. It’s a full time job with that boy!

It was in some ways the most relaxing and in other ways the most tension filled four days of the summer. The warm and welcoming atmosphere at the Grangers was the exact opposite of the open hostility Harry faced from the Dursleys. The whole family engaged in pleasant conversations at mealtimes, and they all helped prepare and clean up after the meals. Dan and Emma were honestly interested in getting to know Harry and made him feel as comfortable in their house as he had ever been anywhere. Best of all, Harry and Hermione were able to be together, from the time they rose in the morning until they turned in late at night, talking about everything, anything, and nothing at all. Harry listened without complaint while Hermione speculated about the upcoming school year and what OWLs would be like. She smiled while he expressed his delight with the books she had given him to read and tried to guess how the saga would turn out, but she refused to give anything away. They both discussed the lack of news, both in the muggle papers and in the Daily Prophet, trying to work out what was actually going on and why the paper was painting Dumbledore and Harry in such an unfavorable light. And sometimes, they just quietly enjoyed each other’s company.

But the time was also full of uncertainty. They didn’t know if Harry should just hide in the house, or if they could go out and do things. They ended up playing it safe and either stayed inside or in the back yard. On the day after the attack Hedwig returned with a message from Sirius.

“What’s it say?” Hermione asked anxiously as she watched his face fall.

“He says some people there are pretty upset with me for running off like that,” Harry replied sadly. “It doesn’t really say where ‘there’ is.”

“Well, honestly, what did they expect you to do?” Hermione demanded in an affronted tone. “It’s not like your uncle gave you any choice.” Harry smiled gratefully for her support and gave her hand a squeeze before continuing.

“Well, the way he said ‘some people’ makes it sound like he understands, at least,” Harry suggested. “He also says that someone will be coming by to pick me up, but doesn’t say when or who it would be.”

“What is the problem with those people!” Hermione fumed. “What are we supposed to do? Is there some invisible person here watching you like there was back at Privet Drive? Why can’t they tell us anything? It’s so infuriating!”

“Welcome to my world,” Harry said somberly, then smiled at her again to try to break the mood. Hermione huffed once more but allowed herself to be led outside where they walked around the garden while pondering the things that hadn’t been said in the letter.

It went on like that for the entire time Harry spent at Hermione’s house. When they tired of sitting in the comfortable living room, they went out and reclined on the deck chairs on the porch, or wandered around the back yard where they might lie out on the grass under a tree and look up through the green canopy of leaves at the cloudless blue sky. As it was still sweltering outside, they didn’t stay out long, but it did give Hermione an excuse to wear her new tank tops and shorts. Harry noticed these outfits appreciatively, and Hermione appreciated his notice. More than once she had to repeat something she said when Harry’s attention drifted to her bare shouldered top or her nicely tanned legs. Their final afternoon together found them sitting out on the porch swing where he got up the nerve to put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned her head up against his shoulder. They remained that way for nearly an hour, neither daring to say anything to break the spell. A few hours later they were waving goodbye to each other as Harry disappeared and Hermione was trying not to cry.

-ooo-

Dear Hermione,

We arrived here safely – but I can’t exactly tell you where ‘here’ is. I understand a bit now why Ron’s letters were so vague. We’re not at the Burrow. The house is protected by a charm so that I ‘can’t’ tell you, but it’s where Snuffles grew up. It’s a dark, dreary old house. Mrs. Weasley has had Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George cleaning it for the past month, but it’s still dreadful. There are other former associates of my parents (you may remember Dumbledore referring to them as the ‘Old Crowd’) here occasionally too, as well as the people you met yesterday.

Ron and Ginny both wish you were here (of course I do too!) and don’t understand why you didn’t come. I tried to explain that you wanted to spend the time with your parents, but they can’t seem to believe that anyone would want to live in a muggle house if they didn’t have to. I decided not to argue with them. Ron gave me an odd look when he found out that you’d visited me and that I’d spent four days at your house. I think he felt left out. That’s something I think we need to watch out for if we – well – I guess I mean that we just need to take his feelings into account.

I guess that’s all for now. I’ll be able to tell you more when we see each other again.

Yours,

Harry

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – August 10

Today is Harry’s hearing. I’m so nervous I can scarcely breathe. I’ve researched the law and it’s quite clear that he should be acquitted. If the charge is underage magic there’s an exception for self-defense, which that night clearly was. If it’s breaking the statute of secrecy, the only witnesses were Dudley and Mrs. Figg, both of whom already know about magic. I’m worried though, that the whole thing was a setup and they’re going to find him guilty regardless of the evidence. Oh, I dearly hope that I’m wrong.

Oh, here comes Hedwig, but he’s early – Harry’s hearing shouldn’t be over yet. Please let that be a good sign.

-ooo-

Dear Hermione,

I GOT OFF! I figured I should say that straight away so you’d start breathing again. Breathe, Hermione. And you can stop crying now. That phrase also came to my mind because Fred, George, and Ginny have been jumping up and down shouting ‘He Got Off!’ ever since I got back.

The whole thing was just weird. Mr. Weasley took me with him to the Ministry this morning. The Ministry is a strange place, but I’ll tell you about that later. Things went badly at first – they changed the time and location of my hearing without telling me and it was only by luck that I even made it there on time. It was supposed to be at 9:00 AM in Amelia Bones’s office but it ended up in a large courtroom in front of the whole Wizengamot at 8:00. They didn’t tell Dumbledore either, he showed up just as the trial was starting.

At first Fudge kept interrupting me and not letting me explain, but eventually Dumbledore took control and insisted that it was legal for me to cast that spell. He brought in Mrs. Figg to testify that she saw the dementors too, since Fudge was claiming that I made that up. I wondered why he didn’t get you to testify, but I guess he figured if they didn’t believe me they wouldn’t believe you either, since you’re my best friend. And if you’d testified you would have admitted that you used magic too, so you might also have been in trouble. What clinched it was Madam Bones, who was very fair and supported Mrs. Figg’s testimony. At the end she called for a vote to clear me of all charges, and it passed easily. Out of about 50 Wizengamot members only about a half dozen voted against me, including Fudge and his assistant. But the final strange thing was that Dumbledore left without talking to me, or even looking at me. I reckon he’s still mad at me.

I’m sure you’re anxious to get this so I’ll send it off right away. Too bad I couldn’t tell you in person. I reckon I might have got a hug out of it.

Yours,

Harry

-ooo-

Dear Harry,

Oh my God, I’m so relieved! That’s such wonderful news. I couldn’t stop shaking while I was untying the parchment from Hedwig’s leg. And yes, I was crying when I read the first line, you prat! I’d like to say of course you got off and I knew it all along, but I’m not so sure. I still think it was a setup and someone was trying to get you into trouble and what you said about them changing the time at the last minute supports that. But that’s all over and done with now and you’ve been cleared. I can’t tell you how much better I feel. I was so worried that you wouldn’t be coming back to Hogwarts with us this fall. I would have missed you so much.

I’m glad that Dumbledore was able to get there in time. It sounds like he knew what to do to persuade the Wizengamot – he’d been Chief Warlock for a long time. Of course I would have testified if I needed to, even if it would have got me in trouble too. You know I would do that for you, don’t you? Oh, and I think the Amelia Bones you mentioned is related to Susan Bones. She’s in our year, in Hufflepuff.

OK, I’ll send Hedwig back now so you can tell me more about what you’ve been up to. For example, you’re making sure Ron has his homework done since I’m not there to nag him about it, right? Let me know when you’re going to Diagon Alley and I’ll make sure we go the same day so we can meet you there. Mum and Dad send their congratulations as well. And you better believe you would have got a hug if I’d been there. I guess I’ll just have to save it for the next time I see you.

Love from,

Hermione

-ooo-

Dear Harry,

Did you get your Hogwarts letter today? I got mine and I’m a prefect! You’re the other one, right? I’m sure you must be, you’re the obvious choice. Oh, I’m so excited. We’ll be able to patrol together and everything. I’m making this short because my parents are taking me out to dinner to celebrate. Please write back right away.

Love from,

Hermione

-ooo-

Dear Hermione,

I’m sorry to disappoint you but I didn’t make prefect. Ron got it instead. I was trying not to say anything because I didn’t want to make it look like I was jealous of him, but when I got your letter I figured I could talk to you about it. Please don’t tell Ron I said this, but I feel really bad. I don’t understand why it wasn’t me. I just thought I – you know – had done more to deserve it. But then I feel guilty for thinking that I’m better than him. I don’t know what I should think now.

It helps a little that I’m not the only one. You, of course, seem to agree with me, and Fred and George said it right out. They joked that there’d been a mistake; said no one in their right mind would make Ron a prefect. Then they said they thought it would be me for sure. Later Ron said pretty much the same thing, but I tried to brush it off and said that I’d caused too much trouble and congratulated him for getting it. We had a big celebration dinner here too. Mrs. Weasley was almost hysterical she was so excited.

The adults were talking about it later. Tonks (she’s the one with the purple hair – it turns out she’s a metamorphmagus) said she wasn’t made a prefect because she couldn’t behave herself. Sirius said Lupin was the prefect in their year because he and James were in detention too much. Then Lupin said he reckoned Dumbledore made him prefect to keep Sirius and James under control. Do you suppose that’s why Ron was picked? Does Dumbledore think I need to be kept under control? Anyway, I also heard Lupin and Shacklebolt (he was the tall black man who came to pick me up) talking later and Shacklebolt didn’t understand why Dumbledore didn’t give it to me, to show confidence in me what with everything the Daily Prophet’s been printing. Lupin just said Dumbledore would have his reasons. If he’s trying to make some sort of point I wish someone would tell me what it is.

The other disappointing thing is that I won’t be able to meet you in Diagon Alley. Mrs. Weasley’s going to go in and buy all of our books and supplies. I guess they think it’s not even safe enough for us to do that. I don’t know why not. All the other students will be out getting all their stuff. She’s also going to get Ron a new broom for being made prefect. I’m happy for him for that at least.

Well, I guess that’s it. Thanks for being the kind of friend that I can say all of this to. I really feel like I’ve let you down and I’m so sorry. And now I won’t be able to see you again until we go to King’s Cross.

I miss you.

Yours,

Harry

-ooo-

Dear Harry,

Oh, I’m so sorry. I feel like I made it even worse by what I wrote. Please don’t feel like you’ve let me down. This has nothing to do with anything you’ve done wrong. I’m disappointed, but I’m not disappointed in you , if you can understand the distinction. If anything I’m upset with McGonagall or Dumbledore or whoever made the decision. I’m disappointed that you won’t get the recognition you deserve. I’m disappointed that we’ll lose the opportunity this would have given us to spend more time together. But I’m proud of you and everything you’ve done. I’m also proud of the way you’re handling it. And don’t worry, I’ll keep what you wrote in confidence between us. In fact, what you wrote about Dumbledore having his reasons has given me something to think about. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it yet, though.

I’m sorry about not being able to get together with you guys in Diagon Alley as well, but I guess there’s nothing we can do about it. I’ll for certain be looking forward to seeing you at King’s Cross. You better be ready for a really big hug then because I really miss you too.

Love from,

Hermione

-0x0x0-

From the Journal of Hermione Granger – August 30

This has been one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever had to make. I talked it over with my parents, and although they were shocked they told me they’d support me either way. I hope I’m doing the right thing. I also hope Harry understands and doesn’t blame himself for it. For that matter, I hope Ron doesn’t get angry with me either. I can see how this might hurt his feelings. But sometimes you need to make a stand for what you believe in.

-ooo-

Dear Professor McGonagall,

I’m sorry to write this at so late a date, but it’s taken me a while to make this decision. I want to thank you and Headmaster Dumbledore for offering me the Fifth Year Prefect’s position but I’m afraid I’ve decided to decline. When I first received the letter I was thrilled, but since then I have reconsidered my response. Initially I was under the impression that prefect positions were awarded based on merit, including things like academic achievement, responsibility, and leadership. When I discovered who had been named to be the male prefect for Gryffindor, however, I realized that this was not the case.

Everyone who is familiar with our class knows very well who the obvious choice for prefect should have been – Harry Potter – and he was not chosen. Not only that, but even though he is a close friend of mine, I can’t think of any boy in our year who is less suited to being a prefect than Ron Weasley. This caused me to ponder what the real criteria are for filling these positions. The only thing that Ron and I have in common is that we’re Harry Potter’s best friends. That being the case, it appears that we have been selected either as a reward for being close to Harry or with some expectation that we will keep him in line. I’m afraid that I must reject either of these reasons. Even if there is some other agenda behind this decision, I still must protest the injustice being committed against Harry.

Again, I’m sorry to put you in the difficult position of having to pick another prefect at the last minute. But one of the things the headmaster said at the end of last year was that the time would come when we had to make a choice between what is right and what is easy. The easy thing would be to overlook my doubts and accept this badge. But it wouldn’t be right.

Yours,

Hermione Granger

 

The heated discussion between the Headmaster and the furious Assistant Headmistress that resulted from the receipt of this letter was so impressive that it was the subject of conversations among the castle portraits for several days.

-oooOOOooo-

Hermione closed her journal and turned to her wide-eyed daughter.

“Mummy! Are you serious?” Rose asked in amazement. “You turned it down? But that’s what you always wanted! How could you do that?”

She wrapped an arm around the young girl and hugged her to her side. “Like I said, I thought it was the right thing to do,” she answered. “And with everything that happened that year, it turned out to be a good decision.”

“Ooh … let’s read some more then,” Rose begged.

“Oh no, young lady. You still have some homework to do.”

“Muuuum!”

“Go on now. We’ll read some more tomorrow evening.”

-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-