Sleepless Nights
Sleep was a bitter endeavor, wasted hours as the mind drifted through the subconscious in a nonsensical maze, never to reach the end. Sherlock could not sleep, it simply was not possible as he stood eyes glued to the web of truths he has sleuthed out to try and discover the whereabouts of the missing girl. How did a clever girl disappear without any witnesses; someone knew something but no one was talking.
The girl in question a curious study. A gifted child that attended a gifted school that did not exist. No records of her after primary school, and curious enough Cassandra did not seem at liberty to say what school the girl attended. The school was not important, Sherlock- was his brother's reasoning when he phoned Mycroft two days ago. But during said phone call Sherlock had been able to obtain more names of potential witness from the night in question. He had barley been able to contact a fourth of the list, the others seemed to exist no more that the girl or her elusive school. It seemed that everyone involved was a suspect and Sherlock simply could not get a handle on any of it. He had obtained pictures of the girl in question by way of Cassandra, distant snap shots taken through a long rang lenses. She was a pretty enough girl, and small in stature, it was logical to see how an average sized person could easily over power her.
It was perplexing to Sherlock, how Cassandra had not noticed her sister's absences sooner. Everything that the detective had uncovered so far, simple did not add up to Cassandra's story. It was apparent there are secrets of the relationship between the two women than the blatancy of estranged sisters suggests. Sherlock was frustrated by those secrets, how was he supposed to find something if everyone was withholding evidence. He even had his homeless network on the prowl- pictures of the missing informants spread throughout London, to no avail.
Sherlock could not fathom the girl still alive, after such a long time it did not bode well, so he did as Mr. Malfoy suggested and had Molly check multiple morgues in and around London- it was only a matter of time before something turned up.
Sherlock's phone rang just as John walked in with breakfast.
"Do you have useful information, or are you just going to hinder the investigation you hire me for?" Sherlock practically yelled into the phone.
Cassandra's voice was calm collected, "I am calling to let you know your services are no longer needed."
Sherlock gripped the phone and his lips turned into a disbelieving scowl. "Why?" He asks too calmly there is an edge to his tone but woman on the other end of the line simply sighs.
"She turned up two nights ago." Cassandra tells him obvious unwilling to explain further.
"Alive?" Sherlock can't help the shock radiated off his words. How this girl he was beginning to question even could existed, turn up alive after so many months of missing.
"Yes, Mr. Holmes, Alive. Thank you for your services but you are no longer needed." Cassandra's tone is too business like her emotions teeter on the edge of her words.
"Who..." Sherlock begins to ask when she cuts across him.
"Good bye Mr. Holmes." She says before the line goes dead. More secrets from the British government, but Sherlock is in too deep, he has lost hours of sleep to this case, this crazy nonsensical case that has polluted his brain for the last month, and he needed to know. To know who was behind such a masterful abduction and why, what had they wanted with the girl and where she had been kept, a place that existed in the same light as the girl and her elusive school. Sherlock needed answers. Knowing that for him: this case was far from over.
Faith and the Faithless
"She has lost her damn mind, Harry. Can't you see that? Ever since she came back into our lives, Hermione is not Hermione."
"I know Ron. That's why we have to help, can't you see that?" Harry was begging.
"No I can't. If it is such an emergency why wouldn't she ask for both our help? Why is it always you?" Ron was bitter over Hermione's apparent preference between her childhood friends.
"Probably because you have made your position quite clear." Harry bits out, his patience wearing thin of emotional Weasleys
"What position?" Ron asks his eyes flashing with his internal hurt.
"The one where you think yourself betrayed and your impatience for your own inability to understand what Hermione tries to say but does not have the word for."
"Right, she shows up out of nowhere, completely mad after months having gone missing, without any clue of what exactly happened to her, don't you think that peculiar? I mean we all put our lives on hold to try and help her, then just as I am trying to move on she shows up out of nowhere frightened by the very sight of me…me… her bloody boyfriend how am I supposed to take it, Harry?" Ron seethes, looking to Harry like he truly might have the answer. Harry sighs because in many ways Ron is right everything about Hermione is now peculiar, from her burst of unusable magic, to the way she can't string words together, and how she simply knows things in a scary perceptive way without being able to function like a normal girl or in the very least function in the way she had before her abduction. But that is not what Ron is taking about, like Ginny Ron has the emotion range of a tea spoon unable to see outside of how things affect him and his nice and neat little world.
"That right there is your problem, Ron, it's always about you. Always. No matter what is happening it always comes down how you are involved and the inconvenience it presents to you." Harry seethes turning his back, no matter how old they got it seemed Ron Weasley was always going to be a sub par friend.
"Harry?" Ron's tone is injured, Harry turns allowing his expression to soften, and neither of the Weasley's seemed to understand.
"I turned in my resignation, you should be getting your promotion by the weeks end." Harry says shaking his head, because that is what Ron really cares about, his consolation prize.
"That's not what I ..." Ron started but Harry cut him off.
"No, again you never did." Harry bites out Disapparating with a telling crack.
He found her at the Lion's Claw, a small bed and breakfast owned and ran by old school mate, Luna Lovegood.
Hermione was playing her piano, loud and passionately as she often did when she was running from her thoughts. There was progress from when he first found her, a bridge that had begun to mend after that first night, after the night she pulled him into her mind and he gave her the peace of her own music. He greeted Luna with a kiss to the cheek, "I have tea ready will you take her a cup?" Luna asked, knowing that Hermione still had her peculiar tendencies even with her growing progress.
"Chamomile?" Harry asked taking the tray.
Luna nods with a small smile. Harry climbs the stairs two at a time. The music stops and Harry can hear Hermione muttering to herself. "Two, then five, a red head, why a red head?"
"I have tea." He announces before walking in. She is sitting on the piano bench the floor littered with papers her hair a wild mess and her face unnaturally pale. This was what the Hermione Granger had been reduced to a raving mad woman addicted to the dark and Mozart.
"How are you?" He asked noticing the video logs of the pub she had been abducted from, video logs he had been refused months ago with time stamped pictures.
"Persuasion." Hermione tilted her head answering his unspoken question.
"God, Hermione! I don't need to know, I am an Auror." He shouted clearly upset over what he perceived as a confession to using an unforgivable.
She looked up at him wide eyed looking confused for mere seconds, it was the first time in days that she actually stopped and looked at him. He shifted his feet looking down at his shoes feeling exposed under her searching gaze.
"Was…I didn't use an unforgivable." She reassures him, with clarity.
"I didn't suggest…" Harry started, his voice trailing off, he couldn't lie to her not even over something like a misunderstanding, which is something he seemed to do a lot of lately. Once second she would be focused and he understood everything she said and did and the next she would be foggy eyed and clueless a little more than how she had been when he found her.
She rolled her eyes at him, "There are other ways to persuade, Harry. Nothing a short skirt and a little lipstick couldn't accomplish." She smiles, it was the first time in days and it made Harry's heart constrict and him grind his teeth.
"Did Ronald accept your resignation?" She asked with that pull on her lip that let him know she already knew the answer. She had always been a reader but there was something incredibly unnerving about how in tune she was to him and those around her. Like she could read them just as easily as she could on of those complicated tombs she use to check out in the restricted section at Hogwarts.
"Have you eaten today?" Harry asked, knowing the answer.
"Luna made me lunch." Hermione smiled sweetly and Harry glared at her.
"I asked if you ate it." He tells her with a raise eye-brow.
"What did Ginny say about your resignation?" Hermione inquired picking Crookshanks up from the piano ledge and adjusting him in her arms.
"Stop changing the subject." Harry orders.
"Pot or kettle?" Hermione asks, standing and cooing at her cat.
"You need me more than then the ministry." Harry tells her letting his eyes soften, she was beginning to shift, her attention no longer on him- he had to keep her focused.
"What did Ginny say?" She repeated petting the cat that was purring loudly.
"How did you know?" He inquried hoping she would look at him again he could not watch her mind shift, falling back into that childlike void of sorrow and sadness.
"You're angry and sad. More than usual. The mud on your shoes is red and still wet you just came from the ministry, you have not gone home yet have you. Poor girl... You came here first .Why?" Hermione asked setting Crookshanks up on the mantel above the fire place her back to Harry.
"You know why." Harry tries to not let his anger pollute what is between them, but sometimes when she leads him like this- forcing him to say aloud what he doesn't want to, it hurts. But she expects his honesty and what's more important she deserves it.
"Doesn't count you didn't tell me." Hermione tell him setting Crookshanks down before moving to wrap her arms around him, hugging him tightly, her head on his shoulder.
"Where is it?" Harry asks, if she wants his honesty then he deserves hers.
She nodding towards the bathroom knowing what he is referring to. He hugs her back placing a kiss on her head.
"Why didn't you eat it?' He asks hoping she will answer, though she never does.
"You'll laugh." She tells him pitifully, stepping out of his embrace.
"At you? Never." He looks at her letting his anger diffuse, he needs her to put to words what he suspects, he needs the explanation of why she won't eat, why even after all his hard work of putting weight back on her, now here on her own she is back to a state of deteriorating health.
"Yes you will. I see the way you look at me. The pity and heart ache. Why are you here?" Her tone is hard and she looks upset. Good that means he has prolonged her lucidness.
"I'm worried about you, my sister- whom was kidnapped and tortured to the point of insanity. Then let loose on the world with no body to trust but me. You need my help. I can't disappoint you, not again." Harry has lived with his own guilt for too long, guilt for not finding her sooner, for not protecting her the way he should have.
"Why would you help me?" she asks looking earnest in her inquiry.
"Why would you help me, Hermione? Why would you put your life on the line again and again? How could you believe the crazy shit I said, when, when the war was going on. You never waived, Hermione, never...now I will not waiver." Harry vows.
"Poisoned." She whispers like confessing sins, her eye brows furrow together like she is not sure if she is lying or telling the truth. But Harry understands the one word and the magnitude it brings. The confession behind her confusion. Whoever had her, had been drugging her food, that is why she was half starved why she didn't trust anyone's cooking but his own, because whoever had taken her she had trusted, and even if she could not form a name or remember a face, her subconscious connected the dots, to be free she had to starve herself.
"What should I make?" He decides to not push it, now that he understands it will take time for him to build from that knowledge. But her confession only reinforced what he already had decided. Hermione was now his full time job, and in time he will help her recover.
"Breakfast, eggie in a basket and bacon?" Hermione asks beseeching. Harry smiles knowing out of all meal times breakfast was her favorite, and even if it was dinner time he truly didn't care as long as she ate.
"Of course, tea?" He asks already knowing the answer, he simply wants to keep her focused, any conversation was better than none. The silence always calling to her puzzled mind.
"Coffee with a bit of cream." She requests as Harry shoots her the: what kind of English woman drinks coffee, look?
"I acquired my afflictions in France." She defends, he smiles. This an ongoing joke between them.
"I'll be in the kitchen." He says watching as her eyes shift back to her piano, her solace.
Harry is surprised that she joins him in the kitchen. Hermione sets at the table her coffee in hand as she watches him cook, with apparent interest.
"You cook?" She asks clearly confused, Harry's eyes sadden as he turns his body so she can't see his face.
"You taught me." He reminds her. The silence stretches between them and he racks his brain for anything to say, once more feeling her drift.
"Ginny?" Hermione asks she is back to single words and Harry turns to look at her glossed over eyes. She understands well enough though her internal struggle is written on her face. The quiet was not Hermione's friend.
"She will know by now." He tells Hermione flipping the bacon on to a plate.
"Stay?" Hermione asks taking a sip of her coffee, functioning like a normal girl on the outside.
"You tell me." Harry asks, knowing she already knows, another peculiar trait since she has returned, she simply knows things.
"Belonging." Hermione says her eyes shift to the open window, her eyes squint against the natural light.
"Hermione?" He says her name watching as her eyes snap back to him.
"Accommodations." She says all this like code, like he should understand the single word like it is common knowledge. He looks flabbergasted unsure if he truly understands what she is saying.
"I have a house. Why would I want to live here? With Loony as my land lady."
"Safe." She seems to be reassuring him, but she begins to hum a sonnet.
"The Lion Claw is safer than my house?" He asks disbelieving.
She smiles no words, she is gone, and Harry is left with only the company of her humming.
They ate dinner together, she cleared her plate and with a peck on her forehead he said his good bye.
Hermione smiles at him an almost lucid knowing smile as he calls out his destination throwing the floo powder at his feet.
Harry materialized within second through his own hearth at Grimmald Place. Thanking Merlin for his seeker reflexes as he ducks miss the plate that his girlfriend threw at his head.
"You sneaky little twat! You are a damn bastard." Ginny screamed picking up another plate and chucking it at his head.
She missed and he stood there with his hands out in front of him. "What did I do?" He asked watching her drop the third plate and pick up her wand.
"I asked you to quite you're job, Harry Potter, after that last case, the one you closed six months ago. Do you remember what you told me?"
"Ya?" He looked confused her knuckles turned white and her wand was now pointed him with a shaky hand. "Needed my job, my connections to help find Hermione." He said out loud remembering the conversation very clearly.
"Today! You quit your job. Today."
"I thought you would be happy. I quit for you." He tells her, still not understanding her distress.
"For her." Ginny corrects with a sob.
Harry is still confused he takes a step forward to pull Ginny in his arms but she steps back with a hurt expression. Her wand still trained on him. "You quit your job for her, not for me. You found her and…" Ginny's voice trailed off as tears roll down her cheeks.
Jealousy. Harry shook his head he really didn't need to hear this. As always the Weasley's simply did not understand never easily pleased. "Hermione didn't ask me to quit." Harry says still not understanding why Ginny is so upset.
"No, she didn't need to." Ginny was full out sobbing now her face red and snot running out her nose, she wiped it with the back of her hand in a quick violent gesture.
"Ginny...I don't understand." And Harry truly didn't.
"No, and why would you, Harry Potter, the chosen one a damn bleeding heart. I can't watch her make a full out of you too. She had us all fooled... Strung poor Ron along at least he grew wise. But you, she still owns you." Ginny accuses being the pretty little fool that she is unable to see past her own pain and rejection. Or what she perceives as rejection.
"You make it sound like Hermione is some kind of evil temptress. It's Hermione your best friend. I didn't quit my job just because of her, I quit because you asked me to. And now that she is safe I can do what you asked I had thought you would be happy. I was going to surprise you."
"I look happy don't I? But I'm certainly not surprised. I have a bag packed for you." Ginny motioned to the duffle by the door. Harry sighed completely lost on why Gin was making a mountain out of mole hills.
"What? Are you seriously kicking me out of my own house?" Harry asked disbelieving his own tempter rising.
"We need some time apart. I will move out as soon as I find a place." Ginny tells him, but he looks at her clearly disbelieving her audacity.
"Bullocks, this is my house you go find somewhere else tonight." Harry demands, she had parent, this place was the only home Harry had.
"Don't make this any harder than it already is." Ginny tells him motioning to the packed bag. He stalks over grabbing the bag. He sees there will be no reasoning with her tonight. He walks out the front door his own anger not making him think straight. He just needs to get away from her before he does something or says something they both will regret. Ginny shut the door in his face. Harry is too angry to do anything but stand on his stoop and shake with anger. A pop and Kreacher is standing in front of him with an umbrella. "Not to worry master Kreatcher will have her out by tomorrow." Harry can only nod taking the umbrella. That is when it starts to rain. He curses loudly, opening the umbrella and starts to walk. Not really knowing to where.
By the time he reaches the Lion Claw he has calmed down quite a bit. The rain has stopped and the moon is high in the sky. Luna answers the door, she is wearing a house coat but looks to be awake. "Hermione implied you would need a room tonight. Been waiting up for you." Luna tells him welcoming him in and motioning for him to follow her up the stairs. Harry looks at the clock hanging on the wall, it's a quarter to midnight.
Luna shows him to his room and Harry pulls out his wallet. "No need for that. She already paid for you, Harry, She was certain you'd be back tonight."
"How could she, I didn't know?" He asked looking at the clean room with blue shutters and a full bed.
"You are asking me that?" Luna asks looking shocked. "Told me this morning before you even came over. She knows you well, doesn't she?"
"I have a feeling she knows us all very well." He says setting his bag on the bed. "I'll make breakfast tomorrow, Luna."
"Perhaps she'll eat it, then. She won't touch anything I make. I do worry about her." Luna's sad eyes look pensive and Harry smiles appreciating her taking care of Hermione in his stead.
Harry nods understanding before shutting the door behind Luna and placing a few wards before going to bed.
He awakes to Hermione playing the piano- it is not an arrangement he recognizes. Harry walks sleepy into the common room that he and Hermione will be sharing. It's a large room with cherry wood moldings and nearly every wall from ceiling to floor is book shelf filled to the brim. A small fire place in in the east corner with a plush looking sectional and the grand piano has made a home directly diagonally from the fire place, a balcony door to the left of the bench though the entry way has been covered my long velvet curtains obscuring any natural light. He can see her from behind her bare feet working the petals as her fingers glide across the keys. Her chocolate curls bouncing to her movements and she appears to be wearing a teal robe of silk with orange and red flowers pattern. Cookshanks is lazily draped across the music shelf, the Kneezer's tail was twitching in the air keeping time like a metronome as it swished back and forth. The single action seemed all the animal could manage Harry noticed its eyes were closed a paw hanging over the edge its head resting comfortably on the other paw.
Harry stops three feet from her, right outside a ring of salt that has been drawn around the piano and its player. He crouches down pitching the salt and the music suddenly cuts off, Hermione turns in a quick action staring at him patiently, her robe now angled over a bare shoulder.
"Why salt?" He asks, not remembering salt meaning anything in the magic world.
"Spilled." She says not bothered by his distress. She looks more lucid than he had left her the night before, mornings seem a better time for her. Her legs have been brought up on the bench ankles crossed, her robe rides up and Harry's eyes are drawn to her shapely legs.
"Please tell me you have knickers on." He states more for his own sanity.
"Define knickers." She has that serious innocent tone that lets him know she is willing to tell him exactly what she doesn't have on just to see him squirm. But her eyes shine playfully and his heart swells, appreciating the fact that she is with him, even if for a few moments.
He pushes his glasses up and closes his eyes hoping he is not tuning red. "I'll go make breakfast." He states turning to leave without looking at her again. Her music filling the house with calm serenity.
Surveillance
The text was received late last night just before midnight, one of Sherlock's spies had spotted a Mr. Harry Potter enter a bed and breakfast just off Nightingale. Sherlock's response is quick forwarding the text to Jon before making his way across town.
The business was closed reading: No Vacancy, but the restaurant part would open in the morning to serve breakfast. Sherlock sat himself on a park bench across the street waiting for any sign of life. He was not about to lose trail of Mr. Potter after weeks of trying to locate him.
Harry Potter was the missing girl's best friend, the one that she trusted the most, is what Sherlock was told by those he had interviewed. Even Mr. Malfoy had mentioned the boy's name.
Cassandra had confirmed her familiarity with the boy, Mr. Potter and Miss Granger had gone to the mysterious school together. Cassandra had even spoken with Mr. Potter initially but shortly after all traces of him vanished, though she had not seemed to concern by this development.
There was a warring interest in this case the perplexing aspects lathered in all the secrets and the fact that he had been fired from the case without any real conclusion made it impossible for him to leave it alone. He wanted answers.
As Sherlock sat outside the bed and breakfast waiting for Jon, he contemplated the missing girl, herself. He wanted to see her with his own eyes: the physical embodiment of the enigma.
She had to be the key. Simply by having the opportunity to meet her would tell him all he wanted to know about this case. Sherlock was sure the clever girl would have all the answers that plagued his mind.
John showed up coffee in hand at the same time a black van pulled up in front of the bed and breakfast. Sherlock had been distracted he hadn't even seen three large men marching up the stairs not bothering to knock but busting the door open, a woman screams and it is that the draws the two men's attention who immediately drop their coffees and attempt to run across the busy road. Moments later two people are being drug out of the house bags over their heads and stuffed into the van.
Sherlock and Dr. Watson are not fast enough, with traffic and the time it takes for them to reach the other side of the road the van has already sped off. Jon is at Sherlock's heels and they are hailing a taxi, Sherlock's eyes on the van, as they climb into the back seat of the yellow cab. "Follow that van." Sherlock demands. The cabby obeys nodding clearly recognizing the detective. They drive for nearly an hour when a tire blows forcing them to stop, losing the van. Sherlock is cursing while the cabby apologizes getting out to examine the damage.
Sherlock and John climb out of the cab, Jon going over to help the cabby with the jack while Sherlock paces along the side of the road, fuming in his disappointment.
It is twelve minutes of silence when Sherlock hits his head with his palm. "Idiot," He exclaims turning to John and the cabby as they finish up.
"What?" John asked.
"Mycroft, the men, they are Mycroft's men, and they are going to Brighton." Sherlock yells, pulling out his phone while giving the address to Mycroft's country estate to the cabby.
Forbearance
The bags were left on their heads when they are thrown into the back of the van- their hands left untied. Harry rips his off moving over to Hermione pulling hers off as well.
Her eyes are wide and there is a small smirk on her lips. She appears calm and amused about their current situation, surprising Harry. "Road trip." She says turning towards the front of the van. There are bars covered with a black cloth so they can't see whoever is driving let alone the road.
"Where are they taking us? Who abducted us?" Harry asked franticly, sitting beside an eerily calm Hermione.
"Quiet now, Mr. Potter. We have a long ride ahead of us." a man yells and the voice is so distinctive Harry immediately knows who abducted them. He had told Cassandra he hadn't thought it a good idea to spring a manipulative lying sister on Hermione in her delicate condition. Apparently Cassandra did not agree. Harry shook his head trying to calm down; what idiot abducts a girl out of her home, just a few weeks after she is found from her last kidnapping. Cassandra had a lot to answer for- she is the one that gave up the rights to any decision making when it came to her sister the moment she let Hermione believe her dead.
Hermione craws over and settles herself next to a glowering Harry, taking his hand in hers, her fingers working out Morse code on his palm. Mystery- she tells him.
Harry responds with the word Disapparation. Hermione shakes her head spelling out Resurrection. This telling Harry that perhaps Hermione already knew that Cassandra was behind their current situation and perhaps she was eager to see her sister again.
A.N: It has been taken with great personal insult that Harry would allow Ginny to kick him out of his own house so I feel the need to explain. First it is a plot device to allow Sherlock the means to stalk Harry to the Lion Claw and second it works because of how emotional Harry is right now, with his concern over Hermione and his bewilderment over the Weasley's attitude, Harry is not in a state of mind to think rationally. Harry is a nice guy and he is stressed, he wants things to go back to how they use to be and he wants to make people happy because he cares. Another reason he doesn't push the rights to his house, yet, is because with him staying at the Lion Claw it allows him to keep an eye on Hermione in an environment she feels safe in.
I hope this clears the air- Also for those that have read this story over before, I changed Hermione and Harry's age from seventeen to eighteen. This has nothing to do with making Sherlock and Hermione's relationship 'Legal' it is because of a miscalculation on my part in terms with Hermione's birthday. Hermione was abducted about a month after Harry defeated Voldemort, then she was held captive for approximately eight months, making her eighteen- not seventeen. My mistake...I apologize... and even though this is fanfiction there are facts that I like to keep cannon and a character's birthday would be one of those.
Since I was already going through to correct my own plot error, I tried to change all of the Jon to Johns, Sorry if I missed any.