i "We really should get moving, the other members will be waiting for us." Ron said, refusing to reply to his mother's statement.
"You're right, come along Molly, Fred, George, Ginny." Arthur said as he led his family in traveling by floo powder to Grimmauld Place. /i
b Harry Potter and the Curse of Riddle House /b
By arukas
Hermione arrived first at Grimmauld Place, with Tonks falling out of the fireplace behind her a moment later. The old house had changed considerably even since she had been to it last a few months ago. While the rooms had steadily improved under the careful decorating ideas of Molly Weasley, it seemed like recently a new kind of life had spread through the house. Order members could be seen coming and going, monitoring the activities of remaining Death Eaters and generally keeping an eye out for any kind of possible dark magic. It was obvious on the faces of all present though how serious the current situation was.
"Long time no see Hermione." Fred called as the Tonks and Hermione entered the meeting room. The twins both sat behind an enormous round table upon which was perched a variety of jugs and glasses with different drinks in them. Also at each place was a scroll with writing and diagrams on it. Obviously Lupin considered this serious enough to call in all the major Order members at once.
"Morning Fred, George." Hermione replied politely before sitting down next to Tonks. The parchment before her posed no real interest to Hermione as she dreamily remembered the day when the dome had erected itself. So many had been lost into it, some even unlucky enough to be cut in two as the dome rapidly hardened around them. Those had been such dark times, did the fall of the dome signal a return to those times. Were the people trapped inside still alive?
Hermione felt a hand rest gently on her shoulder and squeeze softly. She lifted her own hand up and squeezed the friendly hand of Ron Weasley.
"Bloody awful time of day isn't it." Ron said light-heartedly, attempting to ease the tense mood hanging over the room.
"I didn't even know it was still legal to be awake this early." George replied as he firmly shook his brothers other hand, Fred too. Ron then moved away from Hermione and sat next to his brothers. He was keen to be as close to them as possible while he could. The general opinion at the ministry was that the Aurors would be mobilized in large numbers to investigate the possible fall out of what had occurred.
Slowly other Order members trickled in, Kingsley Shacklebolt arrived with Mundungus, Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape arrived together and finally Lupin, Molly and Arthur took their seats at the table.
"Well, it's good to see you all again and all looking well." Lupin said after all were seated. Around the table people nodded politely their agreement, though it was obvious several of the people present were not in the mood for pleasantries. "As you know though, this order does not meet for social reasons." Lupin continued. He then nodded to Professor McGonagall who sat forward in her chair.
"In front of all of you is a piece of parchment with all the information we currently have from the ministry and other sources." She began. Hermione could have sworn she saw the old Professor look pointedly at Ron as she said this. "If you'll look at the photo, you'll see the main point of focus in the area has now become the excavation of the large green rock found beneath the crater." McGonagall continued. Hermione looked at the magical photo of wizards moving around the site as the hole grew deeper and large supports were being erected to hold the rock in place.
"Why is the excavation so slow?" Fred asked after a moment. McGonagall nodded as if she had been waiting for someone to ask that question.
"The energy left behind by the dispersion of the dome has rendered all but the simplest spells useless due to the interference. Simply put, there is such intense magical energy humming through the air there now that all but basic spells become dysfunctional when you try to cast them." She explained. Fred nodded and went back to reading the piece of parchment in front of him. Hermione was just about to ask a question but Ron beat her to it.
"Were any bodies found at the crater site?" He asked. Hermione felt her insides tingle as Ron asked the question they were likely all thinking.
"The landscape was completely leveled for a radius of one hundred meters from the center of the explosion, and a search of the area surrounding it has turned up nothing." Tonks said softly. The room seemed to drop in temperature as people shifted in their seats and pretended to be interested in the parchment in front of them.
"It was unreasonable to expect anyone to have survived being inside the house for three years, let alone the explosion." McGonagall said after a while. "We determined that neither water nor air was going into the dome and the food supply could not possibly last that long." Again the room fell silent as the weight of the recent events sunk down upon the Order members. The funerals for those inside Riddle House had been held almost two years ago, at which point all but the faintest of hopes had been given up on. And now the violent explosion of the dome had destroyed even the wildest dreams of survivors walking out of the house and into the arms of loved ones.
"So does someone wanna explain to me what the point of this meeting is? We could have found this out through the papers tomorrow." Ron said coldly. Hermione sighed as he spoke, not in anger but in sadness. Ever since the battle of Riddle House he had been this way. His normally kind and old-fashioned ways had been warped and changed by whatever he had seen in there and he was left much more cold and business-like. Hermione could only guess though what it must have been like inside. She had been kept out at the last minute, unable to follow her friends into that hell on Earth…
"In short it is the rock that concerns us Ronald." McGonagall scolded. Ron didn't react though, merely waited for McGonagall to continue. This had been another noticeable change in him since that day. "We know for a fact that the rock did not exist there when the dome was created three years ago. We also know that the rock is not merely a massive precious gem."
"Isn't this something better suited to muggle geologists rather than us?" Hermione asked. McGonagall nodded, again like she was expecting the question. Hermione couldn't shake the feeling the Professor McGonagall was becoming more like Dumbledore had been.
"The rock, Miss Granger, is emitting a low resonance caused by the drawing in of tremendous natural magical energy." McGonagall explained.
"So it's… basically sucking the life outta the world around it?" Kingsley asked. McGonagall nodded, "You could put it that way yes." She answered.
The meeting continued on for a few more minutes and ended with the assigning of tasks to each member. They were however to all operate in secret, as the Ministry of Magic had not condoned their taking action.
"It is my personal belief that they are hiding something important about this rock from the public and I wish to know about it." McGonagall said. "Weasleys, this will be your task to investigate." Ron and Arthur nodded.
"Miss Granger, I want you and Nymphadora to go to the Grand Library in London and search through historical texts to try and find out if this rock came from somewhere or was created by whatever made the dome." McGonagall continued. Hermione and Tonks nodded and stood to leave as McGonagall continued to dole out tasks to the other members.
"Trust me to get grouped with Hogwarts' greatest ever bookworm." Tonks joked. Hermione gave a half-hearted smile in return as the two women pulled on their coats.
"Hermione?"
Hermione turned around and looked at Ron who was standing down the hall from her.
"Yeah?" She asked. There was a long silence before Ron spoke again as he seemed to choose his words carefully.
"I'm glad its finally resolved, even if it did have to turn out this way." He said slowly. Hermione nodded, a slight hint of a scowl on her face as she did. It was not one of anger though, merely a convenient defense to keep her composure. There would be time later in the day to be sad.
"Good luck Ron." Hermione said. Ron nodded and left for the fireplace without another word. Tonks briefly considered saying something to Hermione but decided against it as she followed the other woman out the door. Bonds of such a magnitude being broken was not something she could even think of how to fix.