Soul Searching/End Game
SS Chapter 9 - Moving On
By Chem Prof
Chapter 9 Moving On
Friday, June 27
The day before Dan and Emma left for Canada, Harry and Hermione moved into the new house on Turnbull Court. A moving van came and picked up the household items and furniture that had been accumulating in the Granger garage, and Emma had made arrangements for some other pieces to be delivered directly to the house. As they stood at the house watching the truck unload, Emma snickered as Hermione turned pink when the large double bed was moved into the master bedroom.
Remembering that they were supposed to be newlyweds, Harry put his arm around Hermione for a while and throughout the day they spent time holding hands or touching, trying to keep up their cover in front of the neighbors. Surprisingly, it didn’t feel all that awkward for either of them. They had become quite comfortable with each other during the past two weeks.
They introduced themselves to the neighbors on either side, and after everything was moved in treated Dan and Emma to dinner at a local pub. They waved goodbye to the Grangers as they drove away, then went into the house. A half hour later, twenty minutes of which consisted of Harry levitating furniture about the living room and study while Hermione repeatedly changed her mind, things were pretty much to their liking. Turning out the lights to make it look like they had retired early, they apparated back to the Granger house so that Hermione could be with her parents on their last night in the country.
It was an emotional night. Although they half-heartedly tried to play cards, all any of the Grangers could think about was that Hermione and her parents would not see each other for a long time. Finally, Harry suggested that they sing some songs together, since he had seen how much they enjoyed doing that.
Dan had burned a CD of their favorite songs, and they sat and listened and sang along for an hour, frequently making some comment or other about some memories associated with a particular song. The CD ended with the song they had sung at the end of the church service the previous Sunday, and once again the Granger family split into soprano, alto, and bass parts. Harry just listened, mostly to the blended melodies of their voices, but occasionally to the lyrics. The song ended with a line that he fervently hoped would be true, ‘Go my children, I will keep you and give you peace.’
That was all that Hermione could take, and she and Emma left the room holding onto each other, weeping softly. Harry and Dan remained in the room a while longer, while each tried to find the right words to say.
Dan spoke first. “Harry, I can’t think of anything to say that doesn’t sound trite or obvious. I’d like to tell you to be careful, but I know you’ll be as careful as you possibly can. I’d like to tell you to stay safe, but I know you’re going to have to do some dangerous things. I’d like to tell you to take care of my daughter, but I know you’ll protect her with your life. What I will tell you is that you are the finest young man I’ve ever had the privilege to meet, that I know positively that you are the most special person in my daughter’s life, and that there’s no one else that I feel better about saying that about. God be with you Harry.” He reached out his hand, but as Harry held out his to shake it, both men had other thoughts and embraced each other.
“Sir, there’s something I want to give you, and now seems like as good a time as any.” Harry handed Dan an envelope. “Last week, I withdrew some money from my vault and I’d like you to use it for your trip.” As Dan began to protest Harry put up his hand and continued, “Sirius said to use my inheritance to keep those close to me safe, and that’s exactly what I’m doing with it. This represents less than 1 percent of what he left me, so I’ll hardly miss it, and it’s the least I can do to repay you for all you’ve done for me the last two weeks.”
Reluctantly, Dan took the envelope. Inside were a series of deposit slips. At Dan’s questioning look, Harry explained. “Hermione said that there’s a problem taking large amounts of cash outside the country, and that you’d be questioned at customs. So she’s been making deposits to your account every day this week. There’s a total of 50,000 pounds from us in your account now. Dan was speechless, so Harry just embraced him again, and the two turned and went upstairs to bed.
-ooOoo-
Saturday, June 28
The Granger family looked nothing like a family excited to be leaving on vacation the next day. Since they had to maintain the illusion that Hermione was going with them, she hugged her parents one last time and said goodbye before they left the house. Harry stayed hidden as they walked out to the airport limo, then he apparated to the house on Turnbull Court to wait for Hermione.
Since it was an international flight, they arrived several hours before the flight to go through security. One advantage of Hermione not going with them was that they could check six pieces of luggage for the two of them. Since the air crew only counted passengers getting on the plane but not getting off, Hermione would be able to make it appear that she was also going abroad for the summer.
After they got settled into their seats and the flight attendant finished her count, Hermione turned teary-eyed to Emma and Dan, squeezed their hands one last time and made her way to back to the lavatory. Closing the door but not locking it, she quickly put on Harry’s invisibility cloak and apparated a short distance to a grassy field beside the runway. She stood there silently, tears streaming down her face, watching the plane take her parents out of her life for an unforeseeable amount of time. Finally, she looked around once and with only a small pop to disturb the insects in the field she was gone.
Harry was ready for her when she appeared in their living room. Without a moment’s hesitation he gave her a hug, dried her tears, and led her to the dining table where he had prepared a nice dinner. While she didn’t say anything, the smile she gave him and the gratitude in her eyes let him know how much she appreciated his thoughtfulness and support.
During dinner she finally began to relax, and Harry encouraged her to talk it out. She ended up telling him stories about her life growing up, remembering happier times with her parents, smiling as she told of her parents’ pride when she won her first spelling bee at six, their supportive outrage at the boy who ruined her favorite book when she was eight, and how they took her out for ice cream each time she brought home a perfect report card. She reminisced about trips to the museums of Europe and the other wonderful holidays they had together as Harry just tried to imagine how it might be to have a family like that.
Eventually, without realizing it, dinner had ended and they were on the couch together, Harry’s arm around her and her head on his shoulder as she continued her tales with her eyes sparkling in the light of the fire Harry had prepared in their fireplace. The evening finally came to an end as Hermione, all talked out and feeling much better, fell asleep on the couch cuddled up to Harry, who stayed awake staring into the fire like he had so often in the Gryffindor common room, thinking about what was to come.
-ooOoo-
Tuesday, July 1
Early in the morning a well dressed young woman with long wavy blonde hair wearing a silk blouse with an expensive tailored suit jacket and skirt was walking down Privet Drive, going up to each of the houses. She was going door to door with a petition advocating better treatment of house pets.
When she got to number four she apparently got a positive response because she went inside for a half an hour. After coming out she continued down the street and was never seen again. Some time later the Dursleys emerged from the house, got into their car, and drove away, not returning until evening.
If any neighbor had remembered, this was the day that they retrieved their nephew from the train station when he returned each year from his boarding school. The unusual thing about this trip was that they returned somewhat irritated and empty handed. As it turned out, the only witness to this series of events was Mrs. Figg’s cat.
While they were away, a soft pop in the living room signaled the arrival of Harry. With only a few changes of clothing, it didn’t take him long to settle into his room and he returned to the kitchen to await the return of his relatives.
As he waited, he thought about why he was doing this. It was something Dumbledore had wanted him to do, to renew the protection afforded him by being with his blood relatives, but that would be gone in a month anyway. Dumbledore had explained to him last year that there was also protection for the Dursleys and that it would last even after he left. In some of his more resentful moods he wasn’t sure he cared what happened to the Dursleys after the way they had treated him, but he knew he would feel guilty if they were attacked because of him. He didn’t really understand the whole blood protection thing anyway.
He sighed. In the story of his life, there were a lot of things that didn’t make sense. Did his father have any relatives? Why had he never wondered about that? Sirius had told him that all the pureblooded families were related somehow and his father was a pureblood. Sirius had even said that Arthur Weasley was a cousin of his. What if he was related to a family like the Weasleys?
Harry’s mind drifted to imagining what it would be like to have grown up with the Weasleys. Ron and Ginny would have been his brother and sister. Well, Ron was pretty much like a brother to him now, but Ginny … He smiled to himself as he decided that at least Ginny would have been able to talk to him without freaking out whenever he was around like she did when she was younger.
But then Molly probably wouldn’t have told her the story of the Boy Who Lived and she wouldn’t have had that crush in the first place. He frowned as he followed this thought to its logical conclusion. He would probably see her as a sister even now and would never have considered dating her.
He forced his thoughts away from that topic. Well, at least his and Ron’s relationship to Hermione would probably not be too much different. They were already good buddies when they got to know her. These thoughts were suddenly interrupted when he heard the Dursleys arrive home.
To his surprise, they were remarkably subdued in their reaction to him. Possibly because they knew that he would only be there for less than two weeks, they largely ignored him. After a quiet, uncomfortable dinner, he said goodnight and returned to his bedroom. Once there, he disappeared again and reappeared in the living room at Turnbull Court.
“Hermione, how did your visit go this morning with my aunt and uncle?”
“Just fine, Harry,” she answered with a grin on her face. “We had an enjoyable discussion.”
Harry raised his eyebrows at this. He wasn’t sure that he had ever had an enjoyable discussion with the Dursleys. Well, maybe last year when Dumbledore had visited. “Enjoyable?” he queried.
“Well, I enjoyed it at least.” Hermione’s grin was getting wider.
“Hermione, what did you do to them?”
“I just explained to them that you wouldn’t be at the train station, but that they needed to go anyway to keep up appearances, and that when you didn’t show up they should come back and you would already be there.” Her eyes were dancing now.
“And did you say anything else?”
“Mmm, maybe,” she said teasingly.
“And did you do anything else?”
“Mmm, maybe,” came the same answer. She was looking way too happy about this.
“Hermione, what exactly did you do?”
“You know how you told me that one summer that you blew up Dudley’s Aunt Marge and that she floated away like a big balloon?”
“You didn’t?”
“I thought your uncle was getting a bit too full of himself, sputtering the way he does, and it looked to me like he’d make an excellent balloon.”
“What else?” Harry said, shaking his head, and trying not to laugh.
“Well, I thought your cousin Dudley should know what your cupboard felt like. You know, he didn’t fit very well. I had to change his shape a little to make him fit.”
“Hermione!”
“And your aunt. You know how you’ve described her has having sort of a horsey face?”
“You didn’t!”
“After awhile they were much more willing to listen to what I had to say. They can be quite reasonable people if you know how to approach them the right way.”
Neither of them could hold it in anymore and they burst into laughter, falling onto the sofa trying to contain themselves.
Eventually a thought came to Harry, and he sat up quickly. “Hermione, am I going to get an owl from the Improper Use of Magic Office?”
“Nope. They have provisions for when adult wizards visit an underage wizard. You just have to notify the office and they ignore any spells they detect during that time. I had Tonks fill out the paperwork saying she would be at your house on ministry business this morning.”
Harry frowned, thinking. Something had been lurking in the back of his mind ever since he and Hermione had talked about underage magic last week. Hermione noticed his changed expression and asked, “What is it?”
“Hermione, how does the Improper Use of Magic Office work?”
“Well, they must have some magical means of detecting spells when and where they are cast. I’m not sure if they just detect that a spell was cast or if they can identify the spell. Why?”
“They can identify the specific spell. My owl message before second year specifically mentioned a hovering charm, and the one I got two years ago specifically mentioned the patronus charm. But apparently they can’t tell who cast the spell, since Dobby was the one who cast the hovering charm and I was the one who got blamed.”
“What are you thinking?”
“I was wondering if there was a way to detect Death Eaters, so they could be tracked down. But since they can’t tell who cast the spell…”
“Harry!” shouted Hermione, realization hitting her suddenly. “If they can identify specific spells, they ought to be able to identify Unforgivables!”
That, Harry recognized, was what had been lurking in his mind. If they could detect spells that only Death Eaters would use, they could track Death Eaters. “They can tell where they were cast, too. And they’re pretty quick about it. Those owls arrived within minutes of when the spells were cast.”
“So that worthless office could be tracking criminals instead of wasting its time harassing underage muggleborns.” Hermione was furious now, the earlier irritation she had felt when they realized that muggleborns were the main target of the underage magic enforcement returning tenfold. “This wizarding society can be so blind sometimes!”
Meanwhile Harry was trying to decide what they could do with this information. “Do you remember at the Quidditch World Cup when the dark mark appeared? Suddenly we were surrounded by about a dozen ministry wizards firing stunners because they figured out where the mark had been conjured from.”
“So you’re thinking that some sort of enforcement group could be formed from the Aurors that would apparate immediately to a place where an Unforgivable was detected?”
“Yeah, sort of a quick response team. I’m not sure I trust the Ministry to organize something like this and keep it secret, though. There are still too many Voldemort supporters there. We might have to go outside the Ministry to do this.”
“But we need the Ministry’s spell detection capability,” Hermione pointed out.
“Yeah, that’s a problem,” Harry conceded. “We’ll have to think about this some more.”
With that off of their minds, Harry suggested that they pop some popcorn and watch a movie. Hermione had checked out a batch of movies from the library in town and they watched The English Patient, then Harry apparated back to Privet Drive for the night.
-ooOoo-
Saturday, July 5
Harry and Hermione waited in the living area in the house on Turnbull Court for Remus, Tonks, and Ron to arrive. They were looking like themselves today, having decided that this was the day that the five of them would go to Grimmauld Place to establish Harry’s ownership and search for the locket.
Right on time, the trio materialized in front of them with three quick pops. Tonks stumbled forward only to be caught in a strong grip by Remus who grinned at her, and then they all turned to Ron who was just removing his hands from his eyebrows.
“Everything in the right place, Ron?” teased Harry, sharing a smirk with Hermione while Ron glared at them. While the two of them had been apparating regularly for two weeks now, it was still a new experience for their friend.
“Moody’s been staking the mansion out for the last several days, and says it looks clear,” said Remus as he got out a portkey. The rest nodded, relieved. If the paranoid ex-Auror thought it was clear, it was almost certainly safe. Just to be sure they were taking a two-way portkey. If anything was amiss they would be brought back here immediately.
Remus activated it and after the typical stomach pulling portkey experience, they found themselves standing in front of the battered old house. Quickly rechecking the instructions he had received from the goblins, Harry strode forward and put his hand on the twisted serpent door knocker on the front door and touched the door with his wand and intoned. “I, Harry Potter-Black, take possession of this house.”
The door swung open and the five of them hurried inside. If possible, the place looked even dingier than Harry remembered. He recalled that no one had been using it for a year. As they had previously arranged, Remus stepped forward and cast a Fidelius charm, hiding the house from anyone who hadn’t been informed of its location by the secret keeper.
As he cast the charm, Remus’s mind returned to another hidden house, and the unfortunate distrust among best friends that had led to Peter being the secret keeper instead of himself. He felt a stirring in his heart that Harry had trusted him unhesitatingly with this task, whereas James had not.
It had been agreed, after much resistance on his part, that he would live here at Grimmauld Place and he would control who would be aware of its location. After writing out four slips of paper with the words ‘The Black family residence may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London’ and distributing them to the others, they set out to take a look around.
“Cripes, this place is a mess!” announced Ron as they moved through the house. “And it reeks. What’s that smell?” Out of habit they moved first downstairs into the kitchen, where they had customarily gathered when the Order had been using the house. It was in even worse shape, with mold growing in places and spoiled food lying about.
Harry found himself becoming angry at how Kreacher had let the place go to ruin. “You’d think Kreacher could have kept the place cleaner than this,” he muttered. “Don’t start,” he said turning to Hermione, forestalling her criticism. “He lived here. He should have at least made it livable for himself if for no one else.”
“But he’s been at Hogwarts all year.” Hermione pointed out.
“That’s true,” Harry admitted, “but he was here for nearly a month after the Order left. He could have at least cleaned this up.
“Where is he now?” asked Ron looking around. “Did you send him back to Hogwarts after he came here for the mirror?”
“I … I don’t remember,” said Harry suddenly recalling the incident on the train.
“It doesn’t matter. He should come when you call,” pointed out Tonks. But the decrepit elf did not respond to Harry’s summons.
“You don’t suppose he went to the Malfoy’s again, do you?” asked Harry nervously.
“No, he shouldn’t have been able to, he’s bound to this house,” she answered.
A few scourgify charms cleaned up the worst of the mess in the kitchen and they moved back up to the ground level. In each room they entered, the ancient gas lamps sputtered to life, casting a spooky glow on everything. Carefully avoiding disturbing the portrait of Mrs. Black in the entryway, they moved on to the other rooms.
“I hardly remember that day when we found the locket,” Harry pointed out. “I had other things on my mind at the time.” The others all recalled all too clearly that he had been facing charges of underage magic for casting a patronus charm to repel two dementors, and had been cleared only by the last minute appearance of Dumbledore and Mrs. Figg. Fortunately, Hermione and Ron remembered more.
“It was in that room with the tapestry,” Ron offered. “I think that was the first floor drawing room.”
“It was in a cabinet with several other cursed objects,” added Hermione.
“The drawing room is at the end of this corridor,” said Remus, leading the way past one of Harry’s least favorite features of the house, the mounted heads of the Black family house elves.
Suddenly Hermione stopped with a gasp. They all quickly turned to her and saw her pointing wordlessly at one of the house elf heads. It was Kreacher.
Ron eventually broke the silence. “Well, I guess he got his wish.” The others turned to him, some of them nodding. Kreacher had made it quite plain that he looked forward to joining the other house elves in the horrible display. “No wonder the place looks even worse than it used to. You’re going to need another house elf, Harry.”
Harry winced, knowing the reaction that would get from Hermione. Did Ron ever think before he said things? He did have a point, though. It would take them forever to clean this place up and make it livable.
Hermione glared at Ron and started in. “If you think that Harry is going to buy a house elf …” She stopped as Harry grabbed her arms and turned her around to face him. It was a measure of the trust that had developed between them that she refrained from lashing out at him, too.
“What about Dobby?” Harry asked her calmly. “You know he wants to help us out any way he can. Don’t you think he might want to come here and fix this place up? I think he might even enjoy it. Can we ask him?”
She struggled to control her irritation, but eventually nodded reluctantly. “Dobby,” called out Harry and within seconds the loyal house elf appeared in the hallway with him.
“What can Dobby do for Harry Potter now?” he asked eagerly. Despite her annoyance, Hermione smiled at the enthusiastic little elf, who was bouncing up and down in anticipation. “Oooh,” Dobby said, looking around. “You needs Dobby’s help bad. Dobby will fix this place up for Harry Potter. Dobby can even get his friends to come and help. Dobby will make this a house fit for a great wizard like Harry Potter.”
Before Dobby could get too carried away, Harry calmed him down. Dobby would clean the place up, and would only make modifications that Remus would suggest. Harry assured him that there would be a lot of things he could change about the house, and told Remus that he expected it to lose the dark look and to spend whatever was necessary to fix it up. He also insisted that Dobby accept double the salary he had been getting at Hogwarts, along with a clothing allowance and days off. And he would work a limited number of hours a day.
Dobby argued vigorously on this last point, and they ended up agreeing on a number that was quite a bit higher than Hermione would have preferred, but she grudgingly accepted it, just as she had accepted the negotiations with Winky a few weeks previously. The point that sealed the deal for everyone present was Dobby’s declaration that he could get rid of the house elf heads, and could even get Mrs. Black’s picture off of the wall in the entryway.
As they entered the drawing room the conversation returned to the locket. Ron and Hermione were wracking their brains, trying to remember what had happened to it, while Harry studied the tapestry. Regulus had been killed in 1980, the same year he had been born. The timing fit. That had been when Voldemort was at the height of his power.
To Ron’s and Hermione’s dismay, they finally recalled that the locket had joined the other cursed items in a large bag that Sirius had been intending to dispose of. Remus and Tonks looked helplessly at each other. They explained to the other three that they didn’t think that the items had been sold, and suspected that they might have been magically vanished. Just as the group started to despair of ever seeing the locket again, Ron had a thought. “Maybe Kreacher stole it.”
This time Hermione was able to suppress her irritation at the disparaging comment about the old elf. Kreacher had been sneaking around taking some of the items. Then she had another thought. “Ron, Harry, do you remember Christmas that year? I wanted to give Kreacher a present and we found his stash in that cupboard off of the kitchen.”
They hurried back down to the kitchen. In the cupboard under the boiler was indeed the pile of scraps and treasures that they remembered from a year and a half earlier. There were pictures, coins and other trinkets. Being the smallest, Hermione crawled in and sorted through the pile. She emerged with a smile … and the locket!
They had all started cheering and clapping each other on the backs when Hermione noticed that Harry wasn’t joining in. Everyone quickly fell silent as he took the locket from Hermione’s hand and pulled out the fake from his pocket. They were identical. Neither of them was Slytherin’s locket.
Gloom settled in again, alleviated somewhat when Remus pointed out that the fact that they were a matched set proved that it had been Regulus that had taken the Horcrux, but that he must have hidden it elsewhere. They had made progress, just not as much as they had hoped. They would have Dobby do a complete search of the house later, but no one was too optimistic anymore.
Soon it was lunchtime and Dobby had prepared a nice assortment of sandwiches, crisps, and fruit. Harry noticed while they were eating that Hermione had finished quickly and was becoming increasingly agitated. He soon realized what was on her mind and after finishing his own lunch turned to her and casually inquired, “Hermione, what do you say we take a look at that library now?”
She jumped up, threw her arms around him in a quick hug, and raced out of the room. Harry turned with a shrug to Ron who only shook his head and offered his standard descriptor of Hermione. “Mental.”
Harry announced that he was going to join her in the library, while Ron gave him an ‘are you crazy too?’ look and decided it was time to go. Tonks had to leave as well and said she would escort Ron. They decided to leave the floo disconnected for the time being so she apparated away with Ron. Remus decided to join them in the library.
Harry mostly sat in the library and watched the rest of the day, reading things that Hermione brought and recommended to him. The sight of her excitement as she moved through the stacks, exclaiming over a particularly appealing title, or pausing to confer with Remus, brought a smile to his face. He enjoyed seeing her so happy, doing something she loved.
It occurred to him that Ron had never understood this about Hermione. That she worked so hard in her courses and studied so much, not just because she wanted to be the best in her class, or become Head Girl someday, but because she enjoyed learning new things. And by making fun of her studying so hard, he was belittling something she enjoyed doing.
While Hermione did not enjoy playing quidditch (and had greatly surprised Harry by playing with them last summer at the Burrow) she supported them by going to games and cheering for them, and only criticized what she saw as their obsessive fanaticism with it when she thought it was interfering with their school work. She understood it, she just didn’t agree with it. He grimaced as he recalled a Hermione retort from a long ago argument, ‘At least my happiness doesn’t depend on Ron’s goalkeeping ability’.
Harry’s musings then turned to his own relationship with Hermione. They had essentially been living together for three weeks, and they were getting along great. He wondered if that was what it would be like being married. This naturally made him think about Ginny. If the two of them got back together after this was all over, would they get along as well as he and Hermione did?
It was certainly true that Ginny excited him in ways in which he had never permitted himself to think about Hermione. He realized that he had never really given Ginny a chance, had never shared the things with her that he had with Hermione. He hadn’t wanted to think about all the problems in his life when he was spending time with her, and so hadn’t ever brought them up, even though she had to know at least some of what he was dealing with, just by being around him so much for the last few years.
Just thinking about her right now made him smile. He would be seeing her in a week. It wouldn’t hurt to let her know he was thinking of her and looking forward to their reunion. He reached for a quill and some parchment and soon had a delivery for Dobby to make.
-ooOoo-
Later that evening they made one of their regular visits to the Longbottoms. Mrs. Longbottom was quite complimentary on the progress Harry and Hermione were making with Occlumency, and told them that they might be able to start with Legilimency before the summer was out.
They were quite pleased with this news. They had been practicing together every night and were gratified that their hard work had paid off. They were surprised to hear that Neville and Ron had been practicing together regularly as well, although not as much as they had been. Neville had been over to the Burrow on a regular basis and told them hesitantly that he had suggested that Ginny join them.
In fact, he admitted sheepishly, he had practiced with Ginny as much as he had with Ron. Harry shrugged and said he had no problem with Ginny learning too. The more he thought about it, the more he decided that it was actually a good idea. If she could protect her mind he would feel better about sharing secrets with her.
When he congratulated Neville on his idea, he was amused to see him blush slightly from the praise. Hermione had a thoughtful expression on her face as they got ready to return home, but she disapparated before he could ask her about it. Harry apparated back to Privet Drive, and his mind quickly turned to other things.
-xox-XOX-XOX-xox-
Author Notes:
Personally, I expected that locket to be the missing Horcrux in Book 7 and that they would find it in Grimmauld Place, but I wanted to write something different than what everyone else was writing at the time. Remember, this was written almost 2 years before Book 7 came out.