Hermione Granger and the Amulet of Yendor
Summary: Harry believes that he is ready to face Voldemort, and he's losing track of all of the other challenges that Hogwarts has to offer. When his friends have to step in, they may find that they are more important to the future of the Wizarding World than they could have thought possible.
A/N - The Amulet of Yendor is from NetHack (and a suite of related games)
Chapter One - At Home
"Today, if you are not confused, you are just not thinking clearly." --U. Peter
Summers were a time of loneliness for Hermione Granger, except for those brief respites earned when she was able to spend time with her friends from Hogwarts. This summer looked like it would be the loneliest of all.
Her parents had spent the last year living in a strange home, which was under a charm by Dumbledore to make it nearly impossible to find. Their new home wasn't on the Floo Network, and although owls could still come and go, Hermione wasn't allowed to leave the house at all until school started in the autumn.
In a way, she couldn't blame her parents for their caution. After all, the person whose home she had lived with two summers ago, Sirius Black, had died, and this year, her friendship with Harry had resulted in her being assaulted and nearly eaten by an Arachneataur, a giant half-spider created by Salazar Slytherin. But she would have hoped for some trust on their part.
Since both of her parents worked, she spent most of her days entirely alone, with only Crookshanks to keep her company. She was able to talk with Harry by telephone occassionally, when the Dursleys were all out of the house, at least until he went to the Burrow for the rest of the summer. She couldn't talk to Ron at all, except in letters, and those were less than satisfactory.
Hermione couldn't fault Ron for his number of letters, at least. He wrote every day, in response to each of her letters. She couldn't even fault the length of his replies. He always filled at least a page -- Ginny had made it clear that she was responsible for that. There was something missing, though. Three little words that he still hadn't said out loud, or on paper. "I Love You."
He had done everything but say the words. She knew that he had spent several days by her bedside in the Hospital Ward, and that he had gone into combat against the Arachneataur fully believing that he would die as a result. Then there were the kisses that they had shared... He couldn't have done anything more to show how he felt, other than just telling her.
Hermione didn't know what she was to Ron -- was she just a friend that he occasionally gave long, lingering kisses to, or was she something more significant?
The flap of an owl's wings signalled the arrival of Hedwig. She came bearing several letters, which probably meant that Harry had reached the Burrow. Since his birthday was two days ago, that wasn't a huge surprise. She took the letters from Hedwig, and slipped her an owl treat, rubbing the beautiful snow-owl's head. She let the owl perch on the umbrella stand near the kitchen table while she waited for a response.
"Let's see what they have to say today," she said. She decided to leave Ron's letter for second, in hopes of ending on a high-note if the clueless bloke managed to say the right thing.
She quickly concluded, skimming the letter, that she had made the right choice. She murmered a few of the phrases out loud to herself as she read. "Dreaming again... saw Wormtail being tortured... interesting." Apparently, despite his Occulumancy training, Harry had gotten what seemed like a vision straight from Voldemort, although he hadn't substantiated it yet. Harry seemed concerned that Voldemort had meant him to see it, but Hermione wasn't as concerned by that. She was concerned that he was seeing anything at all.
Hermione couldn't see what seeing Wormtail being tortured would do to Harry. She knew that Harry sometimes wished that he had let Sirius kill the rat back in their fourth year, since saving his life had led to a most unfortunate chain of events. While the idea of watching anyone being tortured was sickening, she was sure that Voldemort could have come up with a better image to work with than Wormtail.
Despite that, if Voldemort was piercing Harry's defenses at all, then they had a problem. She put the letter down on the table, and pulled at her lip absentmindedly, wondering what she could do to help. Professor Dumbledore was, without a doubt, the best person to teach Harry Occulumancy, but he had declared last year that Harry had learned all that he could. Hermione wondered if that was because Harry had learned all that was possible, or if there was something that stood in the way of further learning. She thought that was probably a question that only Professor Dumbledore could address, however.
She decided to write the Headmaster right away, on Harry's behalf. She hated going behind his back, but she didn't think that Harry would even consider going. She'd tell Dumbledore herself, and hopefully he would do something about the problem. She just had one other thing to do first.
She felt guilty putting Ron's letter above writing for Harry's sake, but she hoped that there would be some payoff from reading the letter. She opened it, and a small picture fell out. It was a Muggle picture from an instant camera, with a small part of someone's thumb covering a part of the image.
Hermione looked at it, and grew almost numb with anger. The picture started to grow warm, with wisps of smoke coming from the edges. She dropped it on the table and tried looking away. She was counting, quietly, under her breath, and trying to think happy thoughts. Hermione's magic almost never acted outside her control, but Ron could make the most unpredictable things happen.
"Luv, are you alright?" Hermione's Mum, Athene Granger, called from behind her. Hermione hadn't even heard the door.
"I'm fine," Hermione responded weakly.
Athene looked at her, and then looked down at the table. "I'm not sure if I should believe that. I haven't seen you angry enough to set fire to something since Uncle Panos sent you that doll for your tenth birthday."
"Well, I had told him that I wanted a copy of the Odyssey in Latin, but he just said he would give me something I would never forget."
"He delivered on that, certainly. I know that I'll never forget the sight of a collectable talking doll melting into a plastic puddle."
They shared a laugh, but Hermione's dark mood still prevailed. Her mother looked at her closely. "It's something serious, isn't it," Athene said, but it didn't sound like a question.
"It's nothing," Hermione said, but her denial didn't fool either of them. She cast her glance on the picture on the table.
Her mother looked down at the picture, and understood instantly, "Is that Ron?"
Hermione nodded miserably. The photo was from Harry's seventeenth birthday party, which Hermione had not been able to attend. It looked like the Weasleys had felt it necessary to invite others, to make it a more important party. That might have been a good idea, but why did they have to invite Lavender?
The group of students had all clustered together in order to fit in the picture, but it looked like Lavender had taken it a bit too far. She had her arm around Ron's waist, and was leaning her head on Ron's shoulder, with a beatific expression on her face, like that kneazle that swallowed the canary. For his part, Ron looked uncomfortable at the attentions, but not as pained as Hermione would have liked.
"Hermione, we haven't really talked about Ron," Athene started out diplomatically.
"Mum!" Hermione interjected, a pained tone in her voice.
"No, I think you should listen. I know that you're really worried about what Ron thinks about you. Have you thought about just asking him?"
Hermione struggled with that thought. "You mean, just come out and say, 'Ron, do you love me?'"
"Well, you might be able to do it with a little more subtlety than that. Then again, it might not help, since he seems to be about as dense as a brick."
Hermione giggled, "You're not wrong."
"On a completely different note," Athene said, "Have you talked to him about what you're doing after Hogwarts yet?"
Hermione looked at one of the corners of the ceiling, and began to slowly compose an answer. "Well, I was planning on telling him in a letter, but I was hoping to get some of the more important topics out of the way first, and..."
Athene clicked her tongue against her teeth, a habit that Hermione hadn't inherited, thankfully. "Well, it seems to me that if you're holding back something like that, you both need to talk a little more."
"But he already knows what he wants to be. What if he decides he'd rather be with someone else who's training to be an Auror?"
"Is Lavender entering Auror training?"
"I don't think so," Hermione said, "but she might, if Ron was there."
"Well, either things will work out between you, or they won't, but you can't help them by not talking."
They were both silent. Hermione felt defensive about her relationship with Ron, but she couldn't deny that her mother had a point. Hedwig fluttered her wings, reminding them both that she was still there.
"I'm sorry, Hedgwig," Hermione said, reaching out a hand to rub the snow-owl's head. "I'll write something up right away."
"I'll work on dinner, and see if I can find a snack for Hedwig," Athene said, smiling.
Hermione grabbed some parchment from the stationary drawer of the nearby hutch, and pulled out a ball-point pen. She normally insisted on authenticity, but she couldn't see the point in stocking up on quills at home, especially with the difficulty in buying them in the volume that she would use.
She wrote Harry quickly, telling him not to worry, but suggesting that he might want to consider telling Dumbledore what he had seen, if he hadn't already. She encouraged him not to take any risks until they were all back at school, where they could face their problems together. She also, against her better judgement, asked him about his party, and about the people who had been there. She hoped that her questions weren't too transparent.
Hermione had more trouble with her letter to Ron. She was still fuming over the picture. She was sure that Lavender knew exactly what she was doing, and she suspected that Ron did, too. She didn't want her anger to show through the letter, however. She said very little, and just said that she wanted to talk to him about something that was important when they got back to Hogwarts.
As she finished the second letter, she eyed another piece of parchment. "Hedwig, would you be able to bring a letter to Dumbledore, while you're at it?"
Hedwig eyed her and cooed, in what Hermione hoped was a positive tone.
"Alright, then. Give me a few minutes." Hermione wrote a brief letter to the Headmaster, asking him if he thought there was any way to strengthen Harry's Occulumancy. She didn't tell him straight out that Harry had been having visions, but she figured he might very well guess.
Hermione gave all three letters to Hedwig, and then sent her on her way. Her father hadn't come back from work yet, but that was usual. He often worked late at night on the accounting end of the business, or seeing patients who paid extra for after-hours attention. She felt grateful for the few times that he had taken vacation or come home early to spend time with her, but she wished that he would do that more often. Even on vacations, he always seemed to take work with him -- that might seem odd for a dentist, but a small business owner always had more paperwork to do.
Albus replied the next day, sending both a personal letter and the annual Hogwarts letter. His letter was short, and Hermione could picture his eyes twinkling, as he worked on it. He said that effective Occulumancy wasn't merely a matter of power, but of being able to get Harry's emotions under control. If Harry was having trouble, he advised, then perhaps Harry needed to be less emotionally involved around bedtime. Hermione blushed as she realized what he might be alluding to, and decided that she didn't want to be the one to talk to Ron about it.
The Hogwarts letter was heavy. When she opened the envelope, a small badge fell out. Hermione had hoped to make Head Girl, she had somehow thought that it would validate her, that it would make a difference to those that looked down on her because of her non-Magical background. She didn't know if it would or not, but it looked like she would soon be able to find out.
The letter had the normal list of books and materials, as well as a list of the Head Girl's duties. It also had a small note from Professor McGonagall, informing Hermione that she had been selected for a Ministry Research Fellowship. Hermione hadn't even known that Professor McGonagall had recommended her for such a thing, but she felt grateful. While it would mean tons of extra work in her already busy schedule, at least she would be able to point to a solid accomplishment when she was done, something that was all hers.
The letter didn't say who the new Head Boy was. Hermione wasn't too worried -- as long as it wasn't Malfoy, she would be alright. Naturally, she had some hope that it would be Ron, but she wasn't sure how realistic that would be. After all, Ron had spent most of his energy last year on learning how to explode small sporting goods. She wasn't complaining, since his skills had saved her life, but it didn't seem to make him the ideal candidate for Head Boy.
Harry wrote back again the next day. He didn't mention her suggestion to talk to Albus. He went into more detail about his vision, though. He had seen Wormtail being forced to drink a potion of some kind. He had also heard Voldemort mention the Chamber of Secrets, which didn't make much sense, unless he hadn't heard that the Basilisk had been killed. The whole story wasn't public knowledge, she knew, but unless Voldemort thought that Harry had merely brought Ginny out and left the Basilisk alone, there wasn't any reason to reopen it.
Voldemort thought there was, though, and that was enough to get Hermione interested. While Harry mostly worried about his vision, Hermione wondered about Voldemort. He was early this year in formulating his plot, and they were early in learning about it, but even with their forwarning, she hadn't the faintest idea what he was up to.
A/N - This book will largely be from Hermione's point of view, hence the slightly more high-falutin' vocabulary. Let me know if it's too much.
I appreciate the reviews for the last book, including the constructive criticism. I hope that I'm addressing some of your concerns - if I'm not doing that effectively, it doesn't mean that I didn't take your comments to heart. Thanks to those who have added me to your favorites or recommended me to others, as well.