Is it Ever Enough?
Disclaimer: The characters are not mine. Anything you recognize is owned by J. K. Rowling! I receive absolutely no money from writing fanfiction.
(The authors note is at the bottom.)
Harry Potter awoke quite abruptly to a noise in his room.
He blinked sleepily before grabbing his wand from under his pillow and summoning his glasses. He stretched his aching muscles and wearily turned his head to watch Hermione attempt to work quietly.
The dim light of a candle bathed the room in a flickering glow. Harry observed the seventeen-year-old girl as she mumbled to herself, tip-toeing across the room to grab various items and jostling things accidentally. She looks very pretty in candlelight, Harry thought to himself drowsily. It made her golden brown curls shine softly and it threw enticing shadows across her heart-shaped face.
Hermione stumbled a little, bumping the chair Harry lay sprawled in. Her chocolate eyes widened in shock as she noticed the state of his awareness.
"Oh, dear Merlin, I'm so sorry Harry! Did I wake you up?" the witch whispered to him with a worried tone. The loud snores of Ronald Weasley coming from the bed on the other side of the room almost drowned out her words. Her chocolate eyes glinted with worry and tiredness. Harry felt a rush of concerned affection for his friend.
"No," Harry lied, not wanting her to feel bad. "I can control that pretty well now. I just had a... bad dream, that's all." Harry immediately regretted his lie when Hermione turned her alarmed stare in his direction.
"Was it... did you see him again?" She urgently whispered. Her forehead was furrowed in worry and her soft pink lips were pursed together. Harry denied her idea with a shake of his head.
"Just a nightmare, Hermione," he said through gritted teeth before struggling to sit in a position that wouldn't hurt his neck. "It was nothing really, I just - wait, what time is it?"
"I'm not sure," Hermione said, glancing distractedly at the ground. Harry followed her gaze lethargically, struggling to keep his eyes open. A cauldron was sitting above one of Hermione's perfectly controlled blue flames, bubbling away merrily next to various ingredients spread across the floor.
"What - Hermione, what in Merlin's name are you doing?" Harry demanded, momentarily forgetting to whisper. The witch and wizard froze as the sound of snoring paused before continuing louder than before. Hermione smiled softly at Harry.
"Just go back to sleep Harry," she said soothingly. "I'll explain everything in the morning."
Harry wanted to argue, to demand that she needed rest, but he knew it would be a fruitless attempt. She hadn't slept much these past nights anyways. His eyes slid shut of their own accord.
"In the morning..." Harry agreed. He heard Hermione chuckle and felt her soft hand brush his cheek as she slipped his glasses off his face.
"In the morning," she promised before continuing to brew her potion. Harry listened to Hermione's soft breathing and clumsy movements as sleep came and gently carried him away.
"We're so sorry Luna," Harry tried to apologize five hours later over the sound of Ron's chewing. "You should have woken us up; we're so sorry about making you sleep on the couch." Ron enthusiastically nodded his head in agreement, his mouth being otherwise occupied.
"It's fine, Harry," Luna said in her oddly distant voice. "The couch was quite comfortable, actually. You and Ron can sleep in my bed anytime." Harry choked on a sip of water at that last statement while the boy on his left blushed so hard that his ears turned as red as his hair. Dean let out a guffaw while Mr. Ollivander sent a fond glance at his previous cell mate. "Besides," Luna continued, oblivious to her slight faux pas, "Hermione offered to let me sleep on her bed and said that she'd take the couch, but it would probably annoy the blibbering humdinger if I split you three up. He's been following you guys lately. I think he finds you amusing."
Harry was saved from having to respond to this statement by Fleur and Bill. Fleur swept into the kitchen gracefully, leading an irate husband ladled with plates of breakfast.
"'Ere is ze breakfast," said Fleur with a strained smile. Harry felt a sudden surge of guilt; first he had dragged Hermione and Ron with him on his Horcrux hunt which had caused them to be in danger multiple times, then he said Voldemort's name out loud which led to them being caught and Hermione tortured, then Dobby died and now he was imposing on the newlywed owners of Shell Cottage. He was trailing misery around with him like a cloud, infecting everyone that he came in contact with. This was his fight, between him and Voldemort, but he kept dragging the people he cared about into this mess. Harry's eyes strayed to the ceiling, where he knew Hermione was currently laying. He and Ron had awoken to the sight of the frizzy-haired witch lying passed out next to her cauldron. Ron had gently lifted her and set her on her bed before the boys crept downstairs.
Breakfast was a quiet affair. Bill stared suspiciously at Harry and Ron while the latter male resolutely avoided his older brother's stare. Much to Bill's chagrin, Harry couldn't share any of their plans with him. Fleur spent the meal glaring at Griphook while continuously placing food on the plates of the starved-thin Luna and Mr. Ollivander. Dean was the only one who tried to break the silence, but he gave up after the lack of cooperation from the rest of the cramped table's occupants.
The tension-filled silence was broken by Hermione, as it had been for the past few days. Harry and Ron routinely stood up to go to her. Ron went up the stairs without a word, but Harry looked back at Griphook to say, "Come upstairs when you're done," before following the youngest male Weasley.
As Harry entered the smallest bedroom that Hermione and Luna were currently sharing, a strange smell hit him. Ron stood in the door, blinking in a confused manner.
"I... is that... Hermione, why do I smell diapers?" Ron asked. Hermione stirred the potion in the cauldron for a few moments before lettin git simmer and looking up at the red-head.
"That is the smell of me fixing our plan," said Hermione with a distinctly righteous air around her.
"Fixing our plan?!" Ron bellowed. Hermione hushed him, worriedly looking at the floor as if she could see the curious expressions on the people at the breakfast table below. "The plan doesn't need fixing!" Ron continued in a harsh whisper. "It's taken us days to construct! It's perfect. We don't need to fix it!"
Harry realized Ron's cause was a lost one before Hermione even opened her mouth. If she wanted to change the plan, he'd change it for her. The big white bandage wrapped around her left arm reminded Harry of how much he owed her. Besides, this was Hermione; she only ever improved her work.
Harry was proven right as Hermione hurriedly explained her new idea. The original plan was for them to break into Gringotts with Harry and Griphook under the cloak, Hermione taking Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Bellatrix Lestrange and using multiple charms to completely transform Ron's features. The goblins were what made her nervous, Hermione explained. She always thought that they knew much more than they ever let on, and once a scholar named Collin Carthridge theorized that certain creatures such as house-elves and goblins had a heightened awareness that caused them to physically see magic in their near vicinity. It also explained why house-elves used special magic, a kind that is so different from that of humans'. Carthridge's theory was never proven as witches and wizards were even more prejudiced back in 1916, and the idea of beings such as goblins or house-elves being more in tune with magic was simply laughable. Since then Carthridge's theory has attempted to be proven, but house-elves questioned claim to not have this talent while goblins refuse to answer when such a topic is brought up.
Hermione pointed out that all house-eves used in this research were working for Pureblood families such as the Blacks and the Notts. The house-elves could have easily been ordered to show no superiority to wizards in terms of anything - especially magic - and would have been forced by their master's orders to lie to anyone curious. Hermione had read about all this after she had upset all the house-elves in Hogwarts, and could only question Winky (who couldn't usually walk straight, let alone have a conversation on magical awareness levels) and Dobby (who had always skillfully avoided the subject with the curious young witch).
If Carthridge's theory was correct, Hermione explained to her two closest friends in the world, then Ron's disguise could cause them trouble. Using so many spells to change his features would create an obvious agical aura that would be impossible to miss, assuming goblins can see "magical auras". They would know something was wrong with Miss Lestrange's so-called friend and their entire expedition would be for naught.
"I'll still take Polyjuice Potion to be Bellatrix," Hermione said. "Harry will also take Polyjuice to disguise him as some muggle man. We can figure that out later. Now, because Ron is the worst of us at acting - sorry, Ron - it's probably best that we give you a potion to become younger. Children aren't very suspicious, after all, and it shouldn't display a magical aura because it's a potion." Ron sputtered a little.
"Potions are magical; shouldn't they show magical traces too? And what about Griphook? Are we supposed to just trust him with the Cloak?" Ron demanded in indignation.
"Carthridge's theory didn't include potions," Hermione said slowly. "He said that charms and spells, which are preformed by the personal magic inside a witch or wizard, has a different layout than potions, which are merely magical items mixed together for a certain outcome. Because charms and spells are used by the magic inside of a magical being, they leave a distinct mark. Theoretically, goblins and house-elves can see magical auras and can even recognize whose magical aura it is. But because it's only a theory, we can't be sure of any of this. I'm basing everything off of this though, and if we have to go with lots of charms or one potion, I'd choose the potion. As for Griphook; he will ride on Harry piggy-back style with the cloak. When Griphook asks why we've changed the plan, we'll tell him it's because Harry is too tall for it; if he's not careful, his feet will show."
"Okay," Harry said, trying to figure out any flaws in the new plan but finding none. "What's that you're brewing then?"
"That's an Unaging Potion," Hermione said while glancing at the simmering cauldron in the middle of her and Luna's bedroom. "It's pretty much the opposite of the Aging Potion Fred and George used for the Triwizard Tournament. I've made it so that you'll turn seven years old, Ron. I'm quite sure you'll somehow manage to act that age. Any objections?"
A pointless question. Any questions would shudder and crumble in the wake of Hermione's logic.
"Wonderful. We'll only have two more days before it's time."
The two days passed in an absurdly fast amount of time. After informing the suspicious Griphook of their new plan - "As if we're the untrustworthy people here," grumbled Ron, seeming to forget his idea of cheating the goblin of his promised sword - supplies had to be found. To Harry's admiration, Hermione had hid her beaded bag from the Snatchers by stuffing it down her sock. They borrowed a magical tent from Bill because they lost their own, they packed plenty of extra shirts of Bill's for the boys (Fleur's outfits were extremely tight on Hermione, who refused to pack anything that would "display more skin than a hairless dog"), they stocked up on non-expiring food from Fleur's pantry and sent the woman out to buy as much toothpaste and deodorant as she could carry. She came back with some shirts for Hermione - "Really, zeese are not flattering!" - and a set of pajamas for each member of the Golden Trio. To Hermione's immense guilt, she had to steal enough Polyjuice Potion from Bill's potion store to be used for their new plan. They had made everyone swear not to wake up to send them off (imagine the reaction they'd have if they saw Bellatrix Lestrange at Shell Cottage), they'd reviewed their plan close to a hundred times and they helped Hermione finish the Unaging Potion. All too soon, Harry was standing at Dobby's grave, saying his silent goodbye with a copy of Bellatrix, a seven-year-old Ron and a goblin.
Underneath a layer of darkness and seen only by the fading stars, the goblin wrapped himself tightly in the Invisibility Cloak before clinging tightly to the back of tho boy with a scar on his forehead. The three humans made eye contact and exchanged encouraging looks before turning on the spot. After three quick pops, Shell Cottage was left silent. Not a noise was made except for the whisper of the wind, the hush of the ocean and a single cricket singing its forewarning on the grave of the discriminated Elf that saved the life of the Boy Who Lived.
Authors Note: So, I've always been a huge fan of Tomione (along with other shippings, but Tomione is definitely my favorite). This story has a basic plot line set up, but the first two chapters (including this one) are going to be very familiar to two certain chapters in the seventh book. It's important to repeat certain things to make this fanfiction seem as realistic as possible in the Harry Potter world, so bear with it for this next chapter. I promise everything starting in the third chapter will ALL be events created by me, not J. K. Rowling (although I'm not saying mine are better or anything, because the Harry Potter series are the best books out there. Her events were terrific to read - I've read the entire series nine times because I love them so much! ...I'm such a fan girl. How many times have you guys read the series?)
I am not an unexperienced writer, but I am fairly new to fanfiction, so I just want to remind everyone that feedback is very important for writers. It helps us know what we did right, and what we need to work on. I'd really appreciate hearing your opinions, so please click on that little button down their and spend one minute of your time letting me know what you think. :) Please review!