The night fell quietly over Kent, in particularly over the number 23 Cottenham Close, a mid-class, two story house, where two persons approached the front door.
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She was tired, after having a full day working, and arriving home to make dinner, she deserved to relax a little. So she turned the TV on and settled down to enjoy a movie.
Not long after the door bell rang, but before she could stand, she heard her husband leave the office to answer.
"Who is at the door at 10pm? We're not expecting anyone, and the Greys should still be on Spain on holiday, and are due to return in 5 days, maybe they had to cut their trip short for some reason and came to pick up their cat Spot which they were taking care while the Greys traveled"
Wondering what could possibly have happened for them to return early, she made her way to the door.
Opening the door her husband was greeted by a man and a woman which looked like in their early twenties.
The man was around 6'3 (1.9m) tall with short brown hair and dark brown eyes, while the girl was 5'6 (1,68m) with long coal black hair and onyx eyes.
"Hello, you must be Mr. Granger, my name is Isabel, and this is Bruno, is Hermione home?" Isabel said
"Yes she is, do you want me to call her?" Mr. Granger said, but before they could answer she came downstairs
"I'm already here, what do you want with me?" Hermione said
Isabel and Bruno both noticed the wand half hidden on Hermione's hand ready to defend her family.
"Professor McGonagall sent us to pick up you for a meeting with her, here this letter should explain everything, if not ask us and we'll try to explain" Bruno said
After she read the short letter, she invited them in to further explain what McGonagall wanted to do with her, but not before she took their wands for safety.
"First things first, who really are you? Why did she send you and not someone from the order? Why are you picking me up in the middle of the night and not during the day? Why should I go with someone I just met, what guaranties I have that you're taking me to Hogwarts and not to the middle of Voldemorts den?"
"What we said early is true, my name is Isabel and he is Bruno, the professor sent us to pick you up because she trusts us, but more so because no one would guess two foreign muggleborn students would be entrusted to do this"
"We came during the night because our last destination before Hogwarts would have been…. Troublesome so to speak, during the day, we can't give you any other guaranties other than we're taking the knight bus to get there and that we have no dark mark on our arms" said Bruno
"What other destination is this? The letter didn't say anything about going somewhere else before Hogwarts"
"McGonagall could have just sent you a letter to get there that you would have done so, you can apparate, but our next destination can't, and would not have trusted us at all." Isabel said
"That, and the fact that if the letter falls on the wrong hands, they won't have the full info. You are the best student of Hogwarts, she is the Headmistress, there is a lot she could wish to speak to you about, you could even be asking to be her apprentice." completed Bruno
"Every single piece of information you gave so far while true may easily be acquired by anyone" stated Hermione
"Very well, do you recall your meeting with McGonagall when you received your time-turner?" after a nod Isabel continued "She asked you what your true reason for doing all courses was, and you answered that you were afraid of not fitting in after you graduate, that you saw that the prejudice and old ways did nothing to help a muggleborn, and that this way you improved your chances."
Hermione eyes were wide, she remembered the fear of not fitting in, a fear that was pushed aside in order to do what it takes to help Harry defeat Voldemort and fulfill that damned prophecy.
"We know that is personal, and we promise to keep it that way, but the professor said it might be the only way for you to trust us."
After a pause Hermione responded "I appreciate that, just let me get my pack and we can go get Ha... I mean him"
A short trip in the knight bus later with Hermione temporary ilusioned to look like Isabel they were at Privet Drive.
"I still want to know what you said to the conductor that prevented him from asking questions, or even wondering what were we doing Bruno" asked Isabel
"All I can tell is that you looked like twins, and were going somewhere in the middle of the night, and we wanted it to remain secret" said Bruno with a smile on his face
"I will castrate you later, but now we have more important business to attend" said Isabel "and remember we cannot use magic here, and we shouldn't disturb the Dursley's"
"But then how are we going to get him?" asked Hermione
"You'll see, but first we'll need to wait your illusion to drop" said Isabel
Once Hermione's Illusion had ended they approached the front door and Bruno took out a key and opened the door
Hermione looked stunned, of all the methods she thought, the simple fact of having the key to the door never came to her mind
"I'm getting too used with magic"she thought while shaking her head
"Now we need to find out which room is his" whispered Bruno while they quietly made their way upstairs
The first thing they noticed upon reaching the next floor was a door with multiple locks in it, locks that were meant to keep someone in, not out
"They couldn't have come this far? Could they?" asked Isabel
Bruno just shook his head with disgust evident on his face and started working on the locks
Meanwhile Hermione was having trouble sorting her mind, part of her wanted to torture the Dursley's if this was Harry's room, killing was too quick, too humane for these…. people, part of her couldn't believe someone could do this, that his room was really one of the others, but her heart knew better, this was it, she could feel it.
"Its open" stated Bruno
They entered the simple room and noticed harry sleeping on the bed, Hermione came near him to wake him up, while Bruno stayed watching the end of hallway for any sign that someone else was awake
"Harry wake up, it's me, Hermione"
He woke startled, but stopped reaching for his wand when Hermione's voice registered on his still sleeping brain
"What are you doing here Hermione?"
"It's a long story, but for now all you need to know is that we have somewhere to go"
Before Harry could have questioned why, Isabel interrupted
"You're injured!" she said coming closer
Upon hearing this Bruno came in the room.
"It's nothing but who are you and how did you knew I was injured?" Harry asked while aiming his wand at them.
Hermione lowered his arm with hers saying: "Don't worry they're friends"
"I'm Isabel and he is Bruno, and I can't tell you how, at least not here"
"Will he need to come back after the meeting?" Asked Hermione
"Don't know, but I don't think he will have to" said Bruno
"What is going on Hermione? Are they from the order?"
"Harry do you trust me?" once he nodded she continued "They will tell us everything once we meet with this someone, we both know and trust this person, that's all I can say"
There was no hesitation in his response
"When are we going?"
Hermione hugged him and said "As soon as possible Harry, and thank you for trusting me"
"Grab all your stuff if you don't want to return, even if you can't stay where we are going, we'll find somewhere for you to stay" said Bruno
Harry started to grab his stuff, including those he most cared for under the floorboard, meanwhile Hermione helped Harry in what she could, but did not miss a conversation Bruno and Isabel had outside the door.
"Did you notice too?" whispered Isabel
"Yes, both of them" answered Bruno
"What are we going to do?"
"Don't know, but we must hope for the best"
Hermione was worried now, and while Harry was busy she went outside to get some answers
"What should we hope for the best?" asked Hermione
Somewhat startled they answered "We had suspicious before leaving to get both of you, we just confirmed them now, but you both might not like it" seeing her worried look they quickly calmed her "Don't worry, its not Death Eaters or something like that, its more of a long term thing"
Before she could ask what it was Harry had finished packing and was ready to go.
"How are we getting there?" asked Harry
"We're getting the knight bus, but not here, we need you both disguised first, and we can't use magic here"
They took the muggle transport to get them to London, there they all disguised themselves and got the knight bus to Hogsmade, during which Hermione tried to know more about what were they suspecting but had no luck finding anything as they always said they couldn't tell them, but her mind was trying to connect the little pieces of info she gathered from them.
They said they were foreign, and that they were trusted by McGonagall, but I don't think they're from the order, also they look quite young to have the professor's trust, maybe she knows them from somewhere, they could be family perhaps. But most of all I'm worried about what they said 'we must hope for the best', something is going on that they don't want us to know, and it's about Harry and me, but what could it be?
Her mind kept thinking of all the possibilities, but so far none that perfectly fits the picture.
Meanwhile Harry was going trough something similar.
My day has gone upside down, first Hermione shows up at the Dursley's with two persons she said were friends, then they've said he didn't need to return if he didn't wish to, and now they were going by muggle transport to London so then they can get to a unknown place meet with someone he and Hermione knew and trusted.
The first person to cross his mind was the Weasleys, but it didn't made sense, one of them could have come and get him, it was no secret that he was friends with them, so they probably were not this person they were going to meet, Remus was the next in his mind, but it was full moon and he would be 'indisposed'.
He kept thinking about this person, with Mad-eye, Tonks, Hagrid, McGonagall, and up to Neville and Luna being distinct possibilities.
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"Here we are, now follow me" said Bruno while making his way to the Shrieking Shack.
Once inside the disguises were removed Isabel said "now we can tell you, we're here to see Minerva, but she cannot be seen talking to us which is why we are taking this path"
"Why?" asked Harry
"You'll understand better once we meet her, but we know you have a mission Dumbledore left you, and we'll give you all the help we can, that's why this meeting must be hidden, no one must know about it, or our connection with the professor"
"How much do you know?" Hermione asked
"Not much, we know you have a mission, and that McGonagall knows its details, but she said it was up to you if we should know them or not" Isabel said
"Why are you doing this?" Asked Harry
Taking a deep breath Bruno answered "Voldemort is a threat, and needs to be dealt with, but also he's responsible for the death of both our parents"
"I'm sorry"
"Don't worry about it" Answered Bruno
Not much was said after that
They got to the castle and up the Headmistress office without being noticed
"Professor here they are, but we got bad news, the potion was keyed to them both" Said warily Bruno
"This will complicate things, but at least we found in time" McGonagall said, and before Hermione could ask the professor spoke "Before Isabel and Bruno left to get you, I asked Ronald Weasley to be present also, and he arrived by floo, but upon arriving they detected the faint remains of a potion on his hands and clothes, we stunned him as soon as we discovered it was Amortentia, but unfortunately it was too dissipated in order to discover the target person, or if it was only remains of his brothers work, but they have means to discover it…"
She paused here and gave a look at Isabel, she glanced at Bruno who nodded, she turned to Harry and Hermione
"The means she mentioned is the ability to smell blood, not only smell it but notice the difference it them, we can distinguish one's blood as if it is their fingerprint"
"Once we met you we were sure you were the traces we found on him"
"Wait, Harry was injured but I wasn't, how do you know it was me?"
Bruno looked to Isabel with a pleading look, but she shook her head while smirking, and with a defeated look he spoke
"Well… every woman has a tendency to bleed once every twenty eight days or so…"
Hermione's eyes widened while she blushed a deep shade of red
Trying not to laugh at Bruno's situation, or Hermione's red face she changed the subject "Anyway, the reason for this ability is that we're not fully human, both our fathers were vampires, while our mothers were witches." said Isabel
"So you're half vampires?" they nodded
"What does that imply? I mean, what differences from a non-vampire you have?" Hermione asked
"Well, aside from the one we told you, only some of the bloodlust, even though we cannot drink blood"
"Bloodlust?" Asked Harry confused
"The urge to drink blood once we smell it, while to a vampire its almost incontrollable, to us its more mild, its like smelling your favorite food being made while hungry"
McGonagall while worried of the Amortentia consequences, was proud of their attitude once they discovered their real nature, they were curious, not afraid of them, but this was getting too sidetracked, there were other matters to resolve tonight, and they didn't have much time to do it
"While this is interesting we must get to the matter at hand, I believe both of you should go see Poppy and ask for a solution for a possible Amortentia ingestion, while I go fetch Mr. Weasley and see if he knew about it, or not" said McGonagall "I'll meet you there latter to show my findings"
Seeing they were being dismissed Harry and Hermione left and made their way to the hospital wing, both of them thinking about the Amortentia.
"Maybe it was another one of Marietta's, but that would not explain the potion on Ron, maybe they've detected the twin's potion, but that wasn't keyed to anyone, and even if they could have been, why would he do it?" Harry could not find a reasonable explanation for it
He was broken from his mind by Hermione
"Do you think Ron could have done this?"
"I don't know Hermione and that scares me, if he did it, then the last six years he was not our friend, and the worst of all is he knows all about our mission, and we don't know where his loyalty lies"
"He might very well tell about it to the wrong person and we're all screwed"
"All we can do now is hope for the best" said Hermione while thinking "Now I understand what they were on about"
Once they arrived in the hospital wing, they were ushered inside by Poppy.
"Minerva already told me what you need, just get on a bed and I'll get the antidote" Said Poppy
After climbing the beds Poppy returned with two vials with a sickly yellow liquid inside.
"This is the antidote to amortentia, it should not take long for the potion to be removed of your system, but during that time it will be painful" at their worried looks she calmed them "nothing worse than a strong cramp, or a broken bone, but I can't give you anything to help because it would nullify the antidote"
"How long exactly will it take?" asked Harry
"I cannot say, it will depend on how long you've been receiving the potion, but it normally takes around 5 minutes to eliminate 6 months of the potion, the longer you've been receiving it, the longer it takes to eliminate"
Harry looked at Hermione and with a nod they both took the potion, at first nothing happened, but not long after the pain arrived…
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McGonagall having just confirmed her worst fears when she questioned the Weasley boy, he knew what he was doing, and was doing it on his free will, and as far as he knew Ginerva was also involved. They were doing it for the last 3 years.
"This makes sense, both Harry and Hermione got very close to each other in the end of their third year, but in the next one she expected they to go together to the ball, but that didn't happen, at the time she thought they decided to remain as friends and not thread beyond that. But now she knew of the potion, and it could have prevented anything from happening. But one thing still bugs me, only last year they showed feelings toward the Weasleys, could the potion be mistakenly made so that it only has partial effect?"
She decided to consult with a potions master at another time, as she made her way to the Hospital wing to see her lions, She smiled at the thought as Pomona once told her that she was like a Lioness, she would care deeply for her cubs, but would protect them with claws and teeth if necessary.
Upon arriving she stopped in her tracks at the scene she saw
Harry and Hermione were curled up in their beds screaming in pain while Poppy was waving her wand frantically to no use, once McGonagall saw her face her heart stopped cold, she saw fear in her eyes, something she never once saw in her eyes. But before she could ask what's happening she answered her.
"I don't know what's happening" she said on the verge of tears
To be continued
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AN: as I promised here is the new beginning of Seven Surprises, hopefully I'll be able to write a chapter every week or so.
My thanks go to:
ElldenStorm
starboy454
twylla
gravacor
Harmonee
loren1989
Ichigo Sanero
Especially to Kurishii, He was the one to kick start my story, Thanks man (or girl) for your review.