Molly found Hermione in the Department of Mysteries library. The place unnerved Molly; unnatural creatures and objects that had no right to exist, even in a magical world, were mounted in displays lining the walls. In a tank, a large fish was devouring itself by the tail, growing at the same rate as it fed, never stopping. Molly shuddered.
Hermione was hunched over a battered old table, dozens of fat books opened at odd pages strewn across the tabletop, sheets of closely written parchment piled in front of her. Her hair was frazzled, a rarity these days, and her eyes bleary from reading in the poor light and from frequent tears. Her movements were jerky and she jumped when Molly sat down beside her.
"Have you found anything?" Molly asked. Hermione just shook her head.
"You have to leave it, Hermione. Ron needs you beside him, not here."
"What if I find something that will save him, Molly? I have to try."
"You have tried, Dear, and Merlin knows this is your sharpest weapon, how you best fight," said Molly waving at the books and the parchment, " but Hermione, the best brains in St Mungo's are working on an answer and so is the Auror Office. You though Hermione, are what Ron loves more than anything else in the world, even more than his own life. I'm convinced you'll do him more good being with him than being in this unnatural place."
Hermione nodded. She looked into Molly's eyes. "I'm so afraid Molly."
"Me too, me too," said Molly, hugging the daughter-in-law she had long loved as a daughter.
Hermione allowed Molly to lead her away and apparate her side-along back to St Mungo's.
oOo
Ron and Ginny had been moved into a single room in the Spell Damage ward large enough to accommodate five visitors at a time as well as medical staff. It was barely enough. As news spread that Ron and Ginny were in a dangerous condition, friends and family flocked to St Mungo's. So did the press. The Weasleys were, these days, among the most famous and influential families in wizarding Britain. Security had been set up so that only close friends of the Weasleys could gain access to the ward.
By evening, some people, mainly Harpies fans, had set up vigil outside the hospital. Ginny was the rising star of the Hollyhead Harpies and some of her growing band of fans had begun to dub her the Queen of Quidditch, something the press had taken up, much to Ginny's embarrassment. "There are at least 4 or 5 female players in the league as good as or better than me,' she had said. "Besides Gwenog Jones will always be the Queen of Quidditch as far as I'm concerned,"
Hermione and Molly popped out of apparition in the crowded corridor outside Ron and Ginny's room. Hermione almost tripped over little Victoire, who was on the floor, prodding a toy duck with a play-wand. Fleur grabbed her daughter and smiled apologetically at Hermione who barely acknowledged her before hurrying into the room.
Hermione took a good long look at Ginny, becoming distressed by what she saw. Harry wasn't there but Arthur and Bill were sitting beside Ginny, watching over her. Hermione sat down beside Ron and was shocked at how much he had deteriorated since she last checked in on him an hour and a half ago. His apparent weight was now down to 65% of normal, the level that Healer Aradia Liland had described as critical. His flesh no longer looked solid and his cheeks had sunken, making his face look hollow. Molly was right. She wasn't going to leave Ron again.
A little while later, Harry arrived and went to Ginny, taking her hand in his, closing his eyes and bowing his head. He looked up and noticed Hermione.
"Did you find out anything useful?" he asked her.
Hermione shook her head. "Everything I looked at lead nowhere."
"You need to get back Hermione. You need to keep looking. Ginny and Ron are depending on you."
"I tried Harry, and Ron needs me here."
"You didn't try hard enough. You have to go back."
"Stop it, Harry," Arthur said firmly. "Hermione needs to be here, and so do you. Ginny needs you here not gallivanting around the countryside playing auror. You're not the only auror, but you are Ginny's only husband. You're needed here."
Harry glared at Arthur but then his face fell. He slumped in his chair and held his head with his hands, fighting to keep a grip on his emotions. "Sorry Hermione," he said at last.
"Any news from the Aurors," asked Hermione gently.
"Yeah, we have a suspect, a dark wizard wannabe called Abner Skoog. He was sacked from a janitor's job in the ministry for over enthusiastic support for Voldemort's regime, mainly wanton cruelty to the muggle-born awaiting trial before the Muggle Born Registration Commission. Anyhow, he has been hanging around underground groups for some years now vowing vengeance."
"That's pretty thin," said Bill. "What makes you suspect him?"
"He disappeared about nine months ago. We recently got intelligence he was training with a German group of dark wizards calling themselves the Knights of Wolfenstein. They're bad news and they know their stuff. They've been implicated in a number of grizzly and baffling murders in Germany and Poland. We now find out Skoog has returned to Britain and has been boasting he is going to bring down the Weasleys."
Harry took out an indistinct photo of a gaunt wizard, perhaps about thirty. The only clear feature was his long blond hair. There was silence in the room as the photo was passed around.
"Do you know where he is?" asked Bill at last.
"No, but we're chasing down a number of leads. Everyone is working around the clock. They know time is critical." Everyone went quiet at this reminder. They had been told that Ron and Ginny wouldn't survive if their apparent weight dropped much below 60% and even at 65% they could not last forever. Time was ebbing away.
oOo
"Of course you're pregnant," said Ron, laughing for the first time since had had woken in this strange place, "and whining about it just about every day of the last six months."
"But how?"
"I never thought I'd have to explain the facts of life to you, Ginny, even when you were a kid but after you've been married for three years and are six months pregnant?"
"Married?"
"Are you telling me you have not only forgotten being pregnant, you have also forgotten being married?"
"Who am I married to then?" asked Ginny, beginning to panic again.
"I'll give you one guess Mrs Ginevra Molly Potter."
"Harry? I'm married to Harry Potter? That's ridiculous. I haven't seen Harry since your wedding."
"My wedding?"
"Oh come now Ron, you're not going to tell me you have forgotten you're married to Hermione?"
"I'd think I'd remember if I was married to Hermione. I've only wanted to be with her since I was fourteen. You're just trying to get payback." Ron was becoming more and more agitated and not a little frightened.
"Ron, where do you live?"
"I've got a little apartment in Oxford."
"And are the walls covered with bookshelves?"
"Yes, you know that, you've been there often enough."
"So tell me why are you living in Oxford and why have all those bookshelves when you only own about 20 books?"
Ron opened his mouth but could find nothing to say.
"You are living at Oxford, dear brother, because your wife, Hermione Weasley, is doing a degree at Oxford University reading muggle history and politics."
Ron slumped to the floor, unable to speak. Ginny joined him gingerly.
"What's happening to us, Ginny?" he said at last.
oOo
It was 2:00 am on Sunday Morning. St Mungo's had found beds for Arthur and Molly and they were trying to get some sleep. The rest of the Weasleys had returned to their homes to get some sleep, promising to come in again early in the morning. Only Harry and Hermione were still with Ginny and Ron. Their condition had stabilised but was still critical.
It was quiet in the room. Occasionally a mediwitch would come in, run some tests with a swish of her wand then quietly disappear. From time to time either Harry or Hermione would drop off to sleep only to wake a little while later.
Harry chuckled to himself.
"What's funny, Harry?" asked Hermione.
"I was thinking about that article in Revelio." He had been incensed about it earlier. Revelio was a daily gossip sheet of the worst kind. They had published the picture taken yesterday morning of Harry hugging Hermione in the hospital ward. The accompanying article more than hinted that they were having an affair even while their spouses lay stricken.
"What's funny about that?"
"I was thinking of how many times over the years the papers have tried to marry us off or suggest we were lovers. They never seem to tire of it."
"Rita Skeeter was the first, wasn't she, back when we were in fourth year at Hogwarts?"
"Can you imagine what it would have been like if we actually did get married?"
Hermione laughed. "We'd both be neurotic wrecks by now. We're both too driven and too focused. We would have become obsessed with some narrow cause and burnt ourselves out. Ron keeps me grounded and gives me a sense of proportion. Ginny does the same for you."
"You and Ron still argue a fair bit."
"Nowhere near as much as we did before we came to our senses and got together. The thing is, Harry, most of the time if Ron and I argue, it's because he thinks I'm doing something that will hurt me or I think he's doing something that will be bad for him. We are fighting for each other, not against each other."
"Well, at least the sex would have been good if we got married," said Harry jokingly.
Hermione laughed. "You don't half have tickets on yourself, do you Mr Potter. I'm not as easily pleased as Ginny. I need a warm funny man with strong arms and gorgeous flaming red hair. Besides, sex with my brother, Yuk."
"I'm warm!"
"Only when you get out of the bath. Face it Harry, you're like me. We're either hot or cold. We don't do warm."
Harry gave a half laugh. "Well, I can agree about the red hair. It is a bit of a turn on. We really got lucky, you know, Hermione. We're like two lonely and uptight kids who got absorbed into the messiest and most loving family in England."
The two friends smiled, momentarily happy, but then they remembered where they were and sadness and fear returned.
A bright light appeared, hovering in the air near the foot of Ginny's bed and rapidly grew into the form of a shimmery mongoose. Neville's patronus had the habit of standing erect on its hind legs and looking straight at you when he spoke through it, giving the unnerving impression of a talking animal. This time Harry didn't care.
"We've located Abner Skoog. He's staying at a house in Clapham Common. We're planning to raid the house in half an hour. Assembly point corner of Hill and Stormont." Neville's patronus faded away.
Harry looked apologetically at Hermione.
"Go Harry, go and catch the monster. I'll let you know if anything changes."
Harry reached out and gently brushed Hermione's cheek and then disapparated.
It took Harry's eyes several seconds to adjust to the semi darkness. The nearest streetlight was out and the moon, though three quarters full, was behind clouds. The scene that emerged was of quiet, determined activity. Ten aurors were methodically, though briskly, preparing to assault a house that was around the corner from their current position, careful not to make any unnecessary noise or cause any stray flashes of light.
"Auror Potter, I thought I made it clear you were not to be in the field," said Adam Gristlewaite who now, somehow, was standing right in front of Harry.
"Ginny may not last out the day if we don't get this bastard. Where else should I be?"
Gristlewaite grimaced, he looked tired. "You are not to take part in the arrest. If you must stay, make yourself useful and grab one of those brooms. You can act as perimeter guard."
"Perimeter guard? But-"
"It's that or go, Harry." Gristlewaite turned on his heels and walked away.
It was standard arrest procedure, especially in urban environments, for one auror to ride high on a broom above the scene for the unlikely event that the target had prepared some means of escape, perhaps a tunnel, that would enable them to evade the enclosing ring of aurors. The aurors always laid down an anti-disapparition field, closing off that means of escape. The job of perimeter guard was regarded as a doddle, a sideshow. Harry was chaffing to get his hands on the culprit. He wanted to extract all the information he could and then wring the bastard's neck. Muttering to himself, he grabbed a broom from the supply pile and shot into the air. At least he would have a good view.
Harry watched the aurors move into position. The target house was one of seven, all of identical design, jammed together in a row. Stealthily, an auror entered each of the two adjoining houses while another two moved into position at the rear of the target house, which opened onto a small lane. A dim red flash appeared above the building, the go signal. Immediately two aurors flew through the front upper window which moments before had shattered in a spray of glass. Four aurors rushed through the front door.
Harry could see the house slowly light up, but could hear nothing. Harry was distracted by the sound of an electric motor further down the road. A garage door had partially opened and Harry caught a glimpse of a figure with long blond hair fly through the narrow opening and shoot skyward.
Harry had no time to waste. If Skoog got out of range of the anti-disapparition field he could escape anywhere. He had to get within 200 meters of Skoog so that the field surrounding his broom could stop the dark wizard disapparating. Fortunately he had an initial altitude advantage and Harry used that to close the distance. Skoog hadn't noticed him yet and was flying straight. Harry was gaining on him but he wanted to get a little closer before trying to hit him with a spell.
Suddenly, Skoog jerked left and shot higher. The manoeuvre cost him ground, but he now knew Harry was there. He fired a stunning spell at Harry and commenced a series of random zigzags. The spell went way wide, buy Skoog's irregular flying meant Harry couldn't hit him in return. He concentrated on closing the gap.
Skoog wasn't interested in letting Harry get closer. He went into a sharp spiral dive and Harry followed. He was gaining on Skoog but not as quickly as the ground was rushing towards them. It seemed they would both crash but Harry wasn't going to let Skoog out of his sight, not when Ginny's life was at stake. At the last possible second Skoog pulled out of the dive and shot back into the air. He got so low that the straws of his broom brushed the street surface. Harry didn't have time to admire the move, he was too busy avoiding a collision with a parked London bus. He almost cleared it but his foot hit the side at high speed, sending a jolt of pain through his body. He put the pain out of mind and concentrated on gaining altitude. He was frantically searching for Skoog and soon spotted him diving toward Harry, firing spell after spell. Harry executed a rapid series of sidestepping manoeuvres but it wasn't enough. A stunning spell glanced his shoulder paralysing his left arm.
Skoog had converted the momentum of his dive into horizontal speed and was now trying to make his escape. Harry chased after him. He was gaining, but far too slowly. The paralysis was spreading through his body and very soon he would be unable to use his wand. He would tumble from his broom to his death. If only he had Ginny's Firebolt Supreme he'd make short work of the chase, but he didn't and he was going to lose Skoog and Ginny. Without allowing himself to think how crazy it was, he turned off the anti-disapparition field surrounding his broom and apparated to a point in mid-air, a hundred metres in front of Skoog. By the time he had twisted around Skoog was right on top of him and Harry hit him point blank with a full body binding curse.
They were both tumbling through the air, the ground once again rushing towards them. He summoned his broom using an Accio spell and managed to climb onto it one handed. He dived towards Skoog who was now only meters from the ground. He flashed his wand shouting mollis superficio. It was the cushioning spell that Hermione had used to save them at Gringotts six years earlier. Skoog landed softly still in a full body bind.
Harry landed but couldn't stand. He fell beside Skoog. With his last remaining strength he sent his patronus to Gristlewaite. Then he blanked out, the paralysis spreading ever closer to his heart.
oOo
