Soul Searching/End Game
SS Chapter 8 - The Game Changes
By Chem Prof
Special thanks to Old Crow on this chapter. He wrote the first draft of the battle scene for me.
Chapter 8, The Game Changes
Wednesday, June 25
Harry and Hermione had gotten into a routine, with swimming laps and running first thing in the morning, then training with either Tonks or Remus for the rest of the morning. The afternoons were taken up with studying, and in the evenings they ran again and lifted weights, then practiced Occlumency before bed.
Even though they supposedly weren’t going back to school, there was still homework to do as Remus had them writing reports on what they had learned. It really was a more effective teaching method, Harry had to admit, even though he hated the writing part.
Hermione always finished the afternoon work well before Harry, and usually headed to the pool to get in some sunning in addition to her afternoon laps. Emma often joined her. When Harry finished his work, he would come down for his laps.
He had reached an accommodation with the Granger women regarding their swimsuit preferences. As he approached the pool area he would call out a greeting, then pause before coming within view while they covered themselves up. When they called back he would continue out to the pool and get in to start swimming. The sunbathing women were not in view while he was swimming laps unless he stood up to look, so once he was in the pool they could return to their normal attire. When he finished his laps and wanted to catch some sun himself, or visit for a while, they would either cover up or lie on their stomachs.
This afternoon he proceeded as usual, and as he got to the pool he noticed that Emma had covered up, but Hermione had merely rolled over onto her stomach. With a double take he realized that today she was wearing her thong bottom.
“Hermione!” he gasped out. The women burst into laughter. Hermione slowly rolled away from him and sat up with her back to him, then stood and pulled a wrap around her waist and turned her head over her shoulder and smiled at him. After he regained his breathing he tried to glare at her but failed miserably, which only caused her smile to turn into giggles. Giving up, he jumped into the pool and started swimming.
Meanwhile the following thoughts had been going through Harry’s brain.
‘Merlin, she looks good in that!’
‘You’re not supposed to think about your sister like that.’
‘I know, but she sure does have a nice bum.’
‘Stop that!’
‘Can you imagine Ginny wearing that?’
‘Yes, I can!’
At t this point a funny feeling came into Harry’s stomach, and a physical reaction started stirring a little farther down. Hermione was smiling at him and he tried to glare at her.
‘I need to get into the water, now!’
Hermione was having a great time teasing Harry. One of the wonderful effects of them understanding their relationship was that she could tease him without him taking it as flirting or a come on. She was the older sister tormenting her younger brother.
Hermione actually had quite a mischievous sense of humor (it was not a coincidence that her patronus was an otter) which had been suppressed for too long by the serious bookworm persona she had adopted as her friendships disappeared. Now that she had a close friend who she could talk to about anything she finally felt free to be herself around him. Ironically, despite the danger they were in this summer, she was enjoying herself more than she ever had in her life.
Harry had started to develop a fun-loving side himself. Any tendency toward mirth on his part had been totally stifled by the Dursleys, so being with a family who loved to laugh was a life-changing experience for him. As the son of a Marauder, it should have been no surprise that he would have inherited a similar nature, and he had begun to come back with pranks of his own on Hermione.
He was also delighted to learn that she had such a fun side to her. He was enjoying being with her more than he had ever thought possible. He smiled to himself as he recalled an assessment he had made of her years ago: “There was a lot less fun, and a lot more studying in the library, when Hermione was your best friend.” That was certainly no longer the case.
Meanwhile, Hermione decided that she wasn’t done teasing for today. When he was down at the other end of the pool, she slipped into the pool and started swimming laps of her own. She had put her top back on, but he was about to get an up close look at her thong bottom.
It didn’t take him long to notice that she was in the pool with him or what she was wearing. He stopped at one end as she approached, trying to keep his eyes focused on her head and shoulders. Suddenly, just as she approached his end, she bent her body at a right angle with her head straight down, which brought her bottom and legs right up to him. He was left with nothing else to look at. Her legs eventually followed her under the water as her upper body twisted in the other direction. Finally, her legs pushed off the side and she was headed back to the other end of the pool, leaving Harry standing open-mouthed.
The next time she came down to his end he had recovered, and was deliberately looking in the other direction. She completed the tease by stopping and asking him if he thought he had his heart rate high enough, or if she should take her top back off and do the backstroke for a while. She couldn’t stop laughing for the next several minutes from the look on his face. When he had finally finished his laps, dried off, and gone inside she returned to the lounge chair by Emma where they both collapsed with tears of laughter.
Emma was so happy with the change in her daughter. She had not seen her like this for almost ten years. Hermione had a developed a delightfully cunning sense of humor when she was little, very much like Emma herself. She had gradually lost it when other children at school started making fun of her and tormenting her for being different. She had withdrawn into herself and become the serious know-it-all who scolded others for not behaving when they were joking around. It was hard to keep a sense of humor when you were the butt of all the jokes.
Now, having a friend who completely accepted her and liked her the way she was had allowed her playful side to emerge again. Emma fondly recalled teasing her own brother in almost the same way. In her case it was when she discovered that her brother was embarrassed at seeing her in her bra. Of course, that meant that Emma managed to “accidentally” walk in on him several times thereafter while wearing only bra and knickers. As she reminisced, she blushed when she remembered how that had ended. He really had accidentally walked in on her once while she was changing, and she had turned to find herself looking right at him while wearing nothing but her knickers. The look of sheer panic on his face had dwarfed the embarrassment she was also feeling. That particular variety of tease stopped after that incident, as she couldn’t bring herself to look him in the eye for several days afterward.
Her thoughts returned to the dark-haired young man who had so impacted their lives this summer. In a few days she and Dan would be leaving, and Harry and Hermione would continue their dangerous task. Would there still be moments of mirth for the two friends who had discovered how to make each other laugh so much the last two weeks? She hoped so; they would certainly need it.
She had nothing but admiration for Harry. He was the kind of boy every mother wished her daughter would bring home, but daughters often had other ideas. Hermione had explained that she and Harry had no romantic feelings for each other (at least not yet, Emma thought hopefully) and were best friends. Actually, more than best friends – Hermione considered him the brother she had never had and apparently Harry also thought of her as a sister. Emma could certainly understand that since Harry had come to be like the son she and Dan had never had.
-ooOoo-
Thursday, June 26
Harry and Hermione had just finished their morning run, and Harry was in the middle of putting on his dragonhide armor. Although eventually the dragonhide would conform to their bodies and feel like a second skin, it had a break-in period where it was scratchy. They had decided to wear it for a half hour each day, and Hermione liked to wear it over her spandex exercise clothes instead of over her regular underwear or her bare skin.
It didn’t matter that much to Harry, but in this case there was no reason not to go along with what Hermione wanted. And avoid an argument, the result of which would be that we would do what Hermione wanted anyway, he thought, smiling to himself.
Suddenly he heard his name being called as though being shouted in the distance. “Harry Potter!” Strange, that sounded like Ron. Then it hit him – Ron was calling on the mirror.
“Hermione!” Harry shouted as he rummaged through his stuff to find his mirror. “Ron’s calling on the mirror.” Finally he found it and responded, “Ron Weasley.”
Hermione came into his room, just finishing putting on her vest as Ron’s face appeared in the mirror, with a worried expression. Harry could hear explosions in the background as Ron began to speak.
“Harry! I’m here at Fred and George’s and we’re under attack. I think it’s the same Death Eaters that attacked Hogwarts. I’m pretty sure I recognize the big guy. We’re OK for now because they had some defensive traps set that are shooting off fireworks, but we’ll need help soon and they blocked the floo network somehow.”
“Ron, hold on, we’re on our way!” Harry shouted as he turned to hurry from the room.
“Wait, Harry!” The shout came from both Hermione and the mirror. Harry and Hermione froze as they looked at each other, then at the mirror. Were Ron and Hermione actually agreeing on something?
“Hang on a second, Ron.” Harry turned to Hermione, giving her a chance to say her piece.
Hermione shouted loudly enough for Ron to hear. “Harry, we’re not ready for this, we have to get help.” She thought quickly. “Let me at least call Remus.”
Harry nodded then turned back to the mirror. “Did you get that, Ron? We’re going to try to get Remus and Tonks, then we’re coming. What else do you have?”
“Harry, listen. We have a few minutes to plan. I’ve been reading some strategy books and you should do a flanking attack. Whoever you have coming, split up and half of you apparate to Ollivander’s old shop on one side of us and half to the second hand book shop on the other side. Do you know where that is?” Harry glanced at Hermione and she nodded. She had just got Remus on the cell phone and started relaying the plan to him.
Ron continued, “Wear your dragonhide armor and your concealment cloaks. Move as close as you can while the fireworks are going off, and attack as soon as the last one explodes. That’ll be the …” he paused while he checked with the twins, “the red Catherine wheel.”
Harry was getting a headache listening to Ron rattle off the details of the plan and Hermione repeating them a few seconds later to Remus. How on earth was she able to do that? Finally Hermione nodded to him that she was finished and leaned over to the mirror and said, “We’ve got it, Ron. How much time do we have?”
There was a slight pause and Ron came back. “Three minutes. As soon as we hear you firing spells we’ll open up from here. With any luck they’ll never know what hit ‘em.”
“OK, keep the mirror open so we can keep in touch,” Harry said, and he heard Hermione say the same thing to Remus regarding the cell phone. Without another word he grabbed his concealment cloak and they dashed to Hermione’s room so she could get hers. As she threw it on Harry said, “You know where it is, so you apparate both of us.” Hermione threw her arm around Harry’s waist and suddenly there was a pop and they disappeared from the room.
They apparated to the alley behind the Leaky Cauldron. Hermione checked once to get her bearings, then grabbed him and they popped away again. They arrived in front of the used bookstore to a scene of absolute chaos. Fireworks were going off all over the place down the street in front of the twins’ shop.
Harry noticed looking around that the street was deserted. None of the stores had opened yet, and the few pedestrians about had vanished as soon as the shooting started. This is how the Death Eaters get away with this, he thought grimly. Everybody runs away and no one fights back. They show up, blow up a building, grab the owner and are out of here long before the Aurors show up. Fred and George apparently had other thoughts, and have planned a trap.
His attention was brought back abruptly as he felt a cold sensation trickling down his body. Hermione had just cast a disillusionment charm on herself and on him.
Fred and George had been holding their own throwing out anti-apparation bombs designed to keep the attackers from getting away. There were a half dozen Death Eaters in front of the shop ducking from the fireworks. Unfortunately, what no one knew was that a few had slipped around the back.
George yelled to Lee, “Keep an eye on the back door.” He opened the front door, while Fred threw out a Confundus stick. As Fred threw, George fired a stunner at a particularly large Death Eater who had hadn’t managed do completely hide himself, but it didn’t knock him out.
-ooOoo-
Twenty seconds after finishing talking to Hermione, Remus had his shoes on and he and Tonks had apparated to the boarded up entrance to Olivander’s. The noise of the fireworks was diminishing, and they also noticed the absence of bystanders.
They carefully made their way up the street on the opposite side as Harry and Hermione were. Suddenly Hermione’s voice came over the cell phone, telling him that she and Harry were disillusioned and working their way into position. Remus worried about that, fearing that they could get hit by friendly fire. He instructed her to remove the disillusionment charm as soon as the shooting started, and trust in their shields and cover.
Harry and Hermione were creeping forward when they stumbled over two bodies. Apparently not everyone had reached safety. Hermione stifled a gasp as Harry grabbed at her arm but missed, grabbing something else instead. He hissed, “Sorry. You take the one closest to us. I’ll get the guy next to him on our left.” The final Catherine wheel went off and there was an eerie silence. “Now.”
“Stupefy. Stupefy.” One Death Eater went down, while the other had dodged Hermione’s spell. Suddenly Harry and Hermione seemed like much more interesting targets than the joke shop, and several spells came shooting their way as they ducked back into a doorway. They had gotten the attention of the other Death Eaters, who were just now shaking off the effects of the Confundus stick.
Suddenly two flashes of red light came flying into the rear of the group of Death Eaters from Remus and Tonks, taking out two more. Ron’s strategy was working! The Death Eaters were caught in a crossfire.
The enormous blonde Death Eater that they recognized from the attack on Hogwarts went into a rage again and starting shooting off killing curses, green jets of light flying all around. With a crash the front window of the twin’s shop blew inward, and another jet of green light destroyed their sign. Stunning spells had been coming out of the shop but seemed to be having little effect on him. Harry decided to try a stronger spell.
“Conjurus”. Hermione’s wand flicked and suddenly, they were behind a slab of granite. Harry glanced his appreciation at her. She not only knew her spells, she was able to quickly analyze the situation and use the most appropriate one. Granite would block a killing curse. Just as Harry was about to cast a return spell, a green flash of light blasted the granite slab apart, shredding their robes with sharp slivers of the stone. Hermione quickly conjured another one.
“Reducto. Protego.” Things were getting confusing now. Just as Harry was firing his spell, Hermione had noticed a slashing hex coming toward them and blocked it with the specific shield charm. Hermione gasped. It was obvious that the Death Eaters wore no armor. Harry’s spell had blown a gaping hole in the chest of one. Tonks had taken out another one. The big blonde was the only one left now, his back temporarily to them as he shot killing curses at Remus and Tonks, who evaded them.
“Reducto.” The Death Eater’s arm blew off at the shoulder, and he went down cursing, turning to look at them with death in his eyes. A moment later he was still.
Suddenly everything was quiet for a brief instant, but the silence was broken by the sound of Hermione retching. Not knowing what else to do Harry pulled her hair back from her face and held it with one hand, rubbing her back with the other. Remus and Tonks were moving forward, checking the stunned and dead bodies of the Death Eaters. Just then an explosion came from the twins’ shop.
-ooOoo-
Fred and George were firing out the front door while Ron had just finished talking to Harry and was now trying again to get the floo to work. Lee Jordan continued to cover the back door.
CRASH!
Everyone ducked as the front window blew inward, spraying glass all over. The dragonhide armor absorbed most of it, but George had a serious cut on his face and Fred’s arm was bleeding.
Just as they were checking themselves over it grew quiet outside. Fred motioned Ron to check on Lee as they peered out the door, only to see Death Eaters strewn across the street.
BOOM!!!
That had come from the back! The twins raced toward the back room, only to be knocked to the side as Ron came crashing through the door, blown backward by a bludgeoning curse. Fred shared a look with George, then tossed an egg shaped device through the door.
Instantly the back room was in total darkness and the twins slipped unseen through the door. Feeling their way along the wall, they could hear at least two Death Eaters cursing the darkness. George reached into his robes and tossed another egg on the floor. Immediately the room was bright again. Lee was lying on the floor in a pool of blood. The werewolf Fenrir Greyback was crouching over him licking his lips, and two more Death Eaters were blinking their eyes in surprise.
“Stupefy. Stupefy.” The two Death Eaters went down as Greyback snarled and gathered himself to leap at them.
“Impedimenta. Petrificus Totalus.” Greyback slowed, then went rigid as first Harry’s then Remus’s spells hit him, the two appearing in the shattered doorway after having raced in from the street at the sound of the explosion. “Incarcerous” snarled Remus at his fellow werewolf and a set of ropes wrapped tightly around the immobilized Death Eater. Harry turned and ran back into the other room to check on Ron. He arrived to find that Hermione had pulled herself together and was now helping him tenderly to a sitting position.
Ron ignored Hermione and grinned at Harry. “It worked mate! The ambush worked!”
“Never mind that, are you OK?” Harry interrupted, not missing the hurt look on Hermione’s face. As Ron nodded, he turned to her. “How about you?” he said in a softer voice, recalling her discomfort in the street.
“I’m OK now. It was just a shock, seeing you blow that man’s arm off.”
“You blew someone’s arm off! That is so cool.” Ron said excitedly. Harry helped Hermione to her feet shaking his head. Each of them were about to retort when multiple pops were heard from the street. Looking out the shattered window, they saw a group of Aurors move up to talk to Tonks, then look at the ruined storefront.
“We better get out of here,” Hermoine observed. “The press will have a field day if they find out you were involved in this.”
Just then Fred stuck his head through the door. “If any Mediwitches show up, send them back here right away. We have a problem. Is the floo back up yet?”
Harry tossed some floo powder into the fire, but nothing happened. Fred looked out into the street and noted, “Looks like the anti-apparation charm has worn off. You two better get going.”
Hermione was shaking a little and Harry noticed that she was still a little pale so he held on to her tightly. “Lets go back to your back garden.” Pop, they were gone.
-ooOoo-
A series of pops announced the arrival of the Mediwitches. Ron called a couple in as Fred was carrying George into the front room. He was now unconscious and bleeding steadily from the cut on his face. As one Mediwitch stopped by George, Fred motioned the other to the back room.
“Could you help my brother, Ma’am?” asked Fred who seemed distracted, glancing a few times toward the back door. They set George down and the Mediwitch vanished his shirt and trousers, exposing the dragonhide armor, and after a quick glance began stopping the blood flow from his face.
A few minutes later, she had closed the cut and examined George for any other injuries. She pointed her wand at the side of George’s head and said, “Ennervate.”
A few seconds later George opened his eyes, looked at the young woman leaning over him, smiled and said, “Thanks. Could I interest you in dinner?” Fred gave a chuckle and shook his head.
The back room was no laughing matter, Ron quickly realized. The other Mediwitch cast several quick spells on Lee and looked up at Remus and shook her head. Pulling out a portkey she grabbed his arm and they vanished.
Realization slowly dawned on Ron as he looked at the pool of Lee’s blood slowly seeping into the floor. This suddenly wasn’t a game anymore.
-ooOoo-
Appearing back at the Grangers, Harry helped a still shaken Hermione to her room and they assisted each other in removing the remains of their robes. The dragonhide armor appeared almost unscathed, clearly having done its job. Without a word being exchanged, they both knew that there would be no training session today.
As Hermone pulled off her dragonhide vest Harry realized with a start that she was still wearing her exercise clothing. Their morning run seemed so long ago. Although it had been less than half an hour, their lives had taken another turn. Harry had killed two men and Hermione had watched him do it without regret. Harry returned to his room and a few minutes later they were both dressed in regular clothing and went downstairs to try to study.
-ooOoo-
“Hermione, do you want to talk about it?” Harry had been looking at the same page for ten minutes, and noticed that Hermione had not turned a page in just as long.
“I think I’ll be OK, Harry. I’m just sorting it all out in my mind. At first I was shocked that you used that spell, but eventually I realized that I was being foolish. That Death Eater wasn’t fooling around with those killing curses, and it would have been stupid to keep dodging or blocking them without trying to take him out. By stopping those killers today, how many more lives have we saved in the future?”
Harry had crossed over to the sofa she was sitting on while she was talking, and she now reached out to take his hand and looked him in the eye. She knew that the deaths would bother him, and even more that he was worried at her reaction. “You did the right thing, Harry. I don’t think any less of you.”
When she saw the relief on his face she knew she had read the situation correctly, and continued, “I’m just not sure that I can do it. I have no trouble stunning them, but I couldn’t make myself try to kill them. That’s why I mostly did blocking and shielding after it got serious.”
Now it was his turn to reassure her about her unspoken concern. He could see that she was worried that she had let him down. “Hermione, you were fantastic out there. The way you always knew exactly what shield or block to use was amazing. That was much better than if the two of us just stood there blasting away.”
He took her hands and looked into her eyes. “We make a great team.” She smiled her appreciation and turned and picked up her book again. He retrieved his and joined her on the couch. She leaned her head against his shoulder and they went back to their studying, both feeling much better this time.
-ooOoo-
At dinner that evening, the teens related an edited version of the battle to the two dentists. While Harry was enthusiastically describing Ron’s strategy and how it had worked to perfection, Hermione carefully watched her parents’ reactions. She couldn’t fail to note that while there was admiration present for the bravery they had shown, as well as the thoughtful planning, a growing unease was passing between the two of them as they realized the danger that their daughter had been exposed to that morning.
While the light side forces had mostly focused on stunning and capturing the attackers, the Death Eaters had no compunctions about killing any of them. While intellectually, they had always known that this was true, and in fact had seen the result of the fight at the Ministry last June in the scar that had been visible across their daughter’s chest for a week, hearing about it happening that very day brought the reality of it all crashing down on them. This kind of attack was exactly what they were fleeing from, and it was exactly what their daughter was training for every day and fully expected to participate in again.
Harry, being more sensitive to the moods and feelings of those around him than he used to be, picked up on this as well, but wasn’t sure what to do about it. It was Hermione who finally addressed the gathering tension.
“Mum, Dad, I know how much this worries you. But this is why we’re doing what we are. For now, these attacks are against businesses, but they could just as well be against homes. It wouldn’t surprise me if they start going after students’ homes next. We’ll do what we can to keep this house safe, and I’ve been studying lots of charms we can put on it, but it will be much better if they attack an empty house if they come here. That’s why you’re leaving and why we’re also going to a place where they can’t find us.”
Knowing that she had only addressed part of her parents’ concern, she continued. “And as for our being involved in the attack, if more people fight back, maybe they’ll be more reluctant to go after someone else in the future. But we’re training hard so that when they do come after us, we’ll be ready for them. Between the armor Harry bought us, and the tactics Ron came up with today, and the defensive training we’ve been doing, we were in much less danger today than we have been in some of our other adventures.”
Hermione noticed Harry wince at that, and her parents did as well. “We’re obviously not going to stop having ‘adventures’ but we are taking every precaution we can.” Reaching over and taking Harry’s hand, she concluded, “We fully intend to survive this.”
Emma reached over to squeeze Hermione’s other hand, then reached across to squeeze Harry’s as well. “We know, sweetheart. We understand what you have to do and have seen how hard you’re working. But it’s always hard for parents to admit that their child is an adult and is going out to face the world without them. It’s even harder when that world is trying to kill them.” Harry noticed that Dan was still deep in thought, and remained so throughout the meal.
After dinner, Dan seemed to come to some sort of conclusion, and asked Harry and Hermione to accompany him to the basement. As they followed him down the stairs, Hermione gave Harry a shrug to show that she had no idea either what this was about. Passing the weight equipment that had just been delivered two days ago, he led them to a locked door at one end of the room. Thinking about the floor plan, Harry realized that the room that this door led to must be under the garage. Glancing again at Hermione, he realized that she was still as much in the dark as he was. In fact, she had never been through this door.
Dan had been struggling with this decision for several days, and the story he had heard this evening finally made up his mind for him. He had always been a law-abiding citizen, but he was about to commit a felony. With one last sigh, he unlocked the door.
Dan ushered a dumbstruck pair of teens into a gun range. It was a long narrow room with targets at the far end. There was heavy sound insulation on all of the walls. He went over to a locked cabinet and opened it to pull out a handgun and some ammunition. Finally he turned to them to explain.
“What I’m about to do is extremely illegal. Hermione, you know that I was in the service for a few years after dental school. But I never told you about this part. Even though I was in the medical branch, we all had to go through basic training. I became an expert marksman with the pistol. Because of this, and because of my reserve status, I have a permit to keep this handgun. This country doesn’t give out many of those.”
He handed the gun to Harry, but hadn’t loaded it yet. “This is a .45 caliber automatic, the American military’s preferred handgun for decades. Some of the other NATO countries used them as well. Consider this my last contribution to trying to keep you alive. I doubt that any other wizards would use one of these, so it may give you an advantage.”
After letting Harry hold the gun for a while, Dan took it back and showed him how to load it. “I’m giving you this with several conditions. First, you come down here regularly and practice with it, and don’t even think about using it until you are accurate. Second, and this is what they drill into police officers all over the world, you don’t shoot someone unless you intend to kill them. I know that you were only trying to stun those criminals this morning, but there may well come a time in a fight where you have to kill someone, and you can’t hesitate to do it.”
Harry caught Hermione’s eye with a quick glance, as they realized that Dan was unknowingly supporting his actions that morning. “Third, you can’t let anyone know you have this. If a muggle police officer even saw you carrying this, you’d be arrested immediately.”
Harry nodded, swallowing hard. He had never seen the affable dentist this serious, and realized how hard all of this was for him. He looked over at Hermione and saw the worry in her eyes, but she fought to control it.
Suddenly she had an idea. “Harry, we could use one of those cloaking charms from the twins on it. You could carry it around anywhere and no one would ever be able to see it.” She hurried from the room to go upstairs and get some of the small disks. When she returned, Dan was showing Harry the proper grip. He handed her some ear protectors and she watched Harry take his first shots at the target.
After going through two clips, he carefully put down the gun and turned to Hermione. “Now you.”
“I don’t think so,” she said, shaking her head nervously.
“Hermione, this is something we’ll likely only use in an emergency. An emergency that might include me being knocked out. If that happens I want you to be able to protect yourself by any means necessary.”
Dan spoke up. “Sweetheart, I heard what you said and what you didn’t say at dinner. You’re reluctant to kill someone. But if you’re going to put yourself in these kinds of situations, you have to be willing to use whatever force is necessary. It may be the only thing that keeps you alive. It hurts me terribly to say this; I never intended for you to get involved in anything like this but …”
“But I am and I’m going to continue to be,” she agreed reluctantly, and she picked up the revolver and took a few shots. She quickly realized that she would need a lot of practice at this.
Deciding they were finished for the night, Dan showed Harry how the holster would fit around his back and chest if he wanted to conceal the weapon. Hermione put a cloaking charm on both the gun and the holster, and Dan was amazed to see them disappear. It did make him feel a little better about Harry not being caught with the gun. He fervently hoped they would never need to use it.
-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-