Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe belongs to JK Rowling
Unexpected Truths
Chapter Two
Mr. Granger slowly regained consciousness during the examinations a couple of paramedics were performing on him; Apparently, one of the neighbors has seen the fire and called for help. In a few minutes, the Fire Brigade, Policemen and an ambulance arrived on the scene and quickly set to work.
His body ached all over 'Damned curses', he thought and immediately remembered what happened.
"My wife and my daughter, how are they?" he asked, trying to get up, but the same paramedics that helped him kept him down on the stretcher.
"Your wife is still unconscious, although we do not know why: her vital signs are normal, but she just won't wake up. As for your daughter... we don't know where she is." One of the doctors told him.
"...told you, it seems there was a fight, and we have scorch marks on the walls, but I'm sure it's not bullets, sir... No, the daughter is not here, sir... we think the tugs took her..." a Policeman spoke into his radio, evidently talking with a superior.
"What do you mean Hermione has been taken! I remember those bastards surrounding and then storming the house, then being hit with something and losing consciousness. I don't remember seeing someone taking Hermione!" Mr. Granger heard part of the conversation the policeman was having with his boss and became frantic looking around for his cell phone.
Having reached it, he began punching the buttons furiously "Come on, Come on! Harry answer the phone!" Fortunately, Harry Potter's cell phone number was on speed dial #4 on his mobile, otherwise he would never have been able to remember the young man's number.
After two or three rings, the other end picked up, "Hello, Harry Potter speaking." Harry seemed slightly worried, but nothing like he would be after he heard what had happened.
"Harry, it's Mr. Granger! The Death Eaters... they attacked us and kidnapped Hermione! Please, you have to help us!"
"What! Mr. Granger, I'll be there as soon as I can!" Without another word the line went mute, but the anger and worry in Harry's voice had been coming through clearly.
Suddenly, the fireplace in the Grangers' household roared with green flames where a moment before it was not even burning. Looking like an angel of vengeance, with his eyes already bloodshot and radiating power in all directions, Harry Potter arrived at the Grangers' House.
Mr. Granger became instantly worried "Harry, the Statute of Secrecy!" he almost shouted.
"At the moment, Mr. Granger, I don't give a damn about that. How is Mrs. Granger?" Harry added, seeing the woman still on the floor.
"She seems to be OK, but the doctors aren't able to wake her up."
"Of course, if it's the aftereffects of a dark curse, anything they did would not help her and she would wake up on her own when the remaining dark energy of the curse is cleansed. Any idea of what they cursed her with?" Harry asked at last.
"If I'm not mistaken, from what Hermione said, it should be one of the Unforgivables, the Cruciatus? Is that its name?" Mr. Granger's answer was not completely confident but it was more than enough for Harry.
Approaching Mrs. Granger, he addressed the doctors: "You! Get out of my way!" Harry spat at those who where still working busily around her.
"What do you want, young man? Do not distract them from their job! They are trying to save that woman! You have no right to tell them to move! And where did you come from? I saw you pop out of that fireplace, but that's not possible, what's going on?" One of the Policemen retorted.
"Explaining that to you and your friends would be wasting time, you would never remember it after our people come to do some cleaning up. Now step aside, before I do something I would regret later!" And pointing his wand to the still unconscious Mrs. Granger he said "Enervate!" Harry had his wand out of his holster even before he stepped through the fireplace and at this point he had no qualms using it in front of a bunch of muggles. Luckily, Mrs. Granger immediately showed signs of awakening.
The moment she woke, however, she started convulsing "Oh, crap, the bloody Cruciatus! I should have known." Harry swore and set off running to the fireplace. Throwing some floo powder in it he called "Madam Pomfrey! I need to take the Grangers at headquarters! Mrs. Granger is convulsing due to the effects of the Cruciatus and the muggle doctors here can do nothing about it!"
"Agents, please try to stop that kid, I don't know what he is talking about, but I won't let my patients be taken anywhere!" One of the paramedics yelled at the policemen.
"Harry, I'm sending Shacklebolt, Tonks and Moody to your side, because from the sound of things, they also have some cleaning up to do. Then we will take the Grangers here." As usual, Madam Pomfrey had an immediate and very solid grasp on any emergency situation, a skill honed to perfection in many years on duty in the hospital wing at Hogwarts, and had already started giving orders like a general.
Twenty seconds later the three aurors flooed to the Grangers' and, with some difficulties, Moody started obliviating every muggle around, while the other two and Harry helped the Grangers go to Headquarters.
Some time before Harry was still playing with Ron when he felt the first flash of pain, and was puzzled about what could have caused it. What he knew for sure was that it was not his usual brand of pain, the one coming from his scar and, ultimately, from Voldemort. That had been 10 minutes earlier.
The next two bursts made him realize that the source of this pain was the partial mind link he shared with Hermione, and that immediately put him on edge.
'Damn, I hope Hermione is all right, it's the first time I got pain from her side...' thinking about that had him spacing out on Ron to mull over that strange mind link that Harry and Hermione had with each other and what they had found it allowed them to do: they were able to share their strongest emotions, some partial thoughts and could even get an idea of where the other was relative to oneself.
"Hey, Harry, you still there?" Ron asked, snapping Harry out of his contemplative state.
"Uh, yeah, just a lot on my mind, nothing to worry about."
"OK... I think I mopped the floor with you enough for one day, I'll leave you to your funk." The smirk on Ron's face for his unbroken row of victories at chess was anything but small. Still, Harry did not even notice it and just nodded an affirmative to his friend.
The first time Harry and Hermione shared their 'minds' they became concerned about privacy issues: both of them were pretty reserved people, and even trusting each other completely, there were some things they preferred to keep private. Fortunately, their link allowed them to do so without much trouble, because in order to share anything they had to explicitly allow the other to connect, use enough power to perform the link and be not too far away from each other. They had decided to not tell about this ability to anyone, not even their current significant others, because it was really something that concerned only the two of them.
'Those experiments Hermione insisted on doing were really weird, but useful too... we thought we had a pretty good idea of what we could do with the link, but it seems that we can share more than positive things, and we never even considered that...'
Harry's musings continued at an increased pace now that Ron was not there to distract him. Harry and Hermione had practiced on the link for about a month before term's end and again for the few weeks they had been staying at Headquarters. They even tried while Harry was at the Dursleys' or Hermione at her parents', but apparently they were too far from each other to connect. About three miles was the limit they could push it without loosing contact, but they had hopes to be able to go much further than that, because when they started they could not even reach a hundred yards.
Just as Harry was about to go and get some tea from the kitchen, his cell phone rang, startling him. He had bought it to be able to talk to Hermione when she was at home, but did not expect any call today, as she had gone to her parents' just a few hours before. To his surprise it was Hermione's father calling him, and this, added to the pain twinges he had felt a few minutes earlier had him even more worried.
With a movements that seemed slowed down, he answered the call on the third ring. "Hello, Harry Potter speaking..."
After a brief pause to listen to Mr. Granger, he exclaimed: "What! Mr. Granger, I'll be there as soon as I can!" and just like that he hung up.
Rushing to the nearest fireplace, he grabbed some floo powder, threw it in the flames and with a shout of "Granger's residence!" was gone even before anyone else could ask him what the problem was.
The Order members that were present at headquarters clustered near the fireplace, waiting for any news, curious about Harry's hasty departure.
A few minutes later Harry's voice came from the fireplace calling for Madam Pomfrey; upon her inquiry about what the problem was, he told her that he needed to take both Mr. and Mrs. Granger to Grimmauld Place because Hermione's mother was convulsing due to the effects of the Cruciatus, about which the muggle doctors present could do nothing.
'Muggle doctors! He went there via the floo with muggles around! What was he thinking?' Madam Pomfrey was not happy about the situation and not just because someone had just been attacked with one of the Unforgivables, but also because Harry totally disregarded the Statute of Secrecy in his haste to reach his destination. To make things even worse, it seemed that the muggles were about to interfere and she could not allow that.
"Harry, I'm sending Shacklebolt, Tonks and Moody to your side, because from the sound of things, they also have some cleaning up to do. Then we will take the Grangers here." The three aurors acknowledged Madame Pomfrey's orders even before she could turn her head and bark them out: in a few seconds the 'cleanup team' was on its way to solve the problem. Harry and the Grangers came out of the fireplace just moments after she had finished giving instructions and were immediately rushed where the Mediwitch could look them over.
Not long after Harry's return from the Grangers', the three aurors came back too, reporting that the "situation" had been addressed. Everyone gathered in the drawing room, because they wanted to know what had happened and if there were any clues as to where Hermione could have been taken.
"Mr. Granger, can you tell us what happened to you and your family?" Harry's voice was almost hysteric while he asked a question he dreaded to have answered.
"Yes, I have been able to stay conscious for most of the time, so I can certainly tell you. The three of us where in the sitting room having a chat about something Hermione decided to do in the next weeks" and here Mr. Granger shot a furtive look to Harry "when suddenly we heard a noise coming from the outside. Hermione realized something was wrong and took her wand out, but when the bastards surrounded and stormed the house, she couldn't do much and was overpowered quickly. Then they cast a few curses at us, yelling something like 'Crucio', is that something you know?" brief nods were all the answer he got "more at my wife than me. After that, most of them left with Hermione while one told me to be sure to tell you that the Dark Lord would be pleased with his new plaything, at least for the time being. He then went outside and shouted something before disappearing. I lost consciousness when one of them hit me again with that blasted curse before leaving; when I woke up some time later I found the police, fire brigade and the ambulance already there. You know the rest."
Mr. Granger's voice fell silent and everyone sat stunned around the room to digest the news. Everyone, that is, except Harry Potter, who got up and began pacing around the room, anger and worry for Hermione radiating off of him in great, thick waves of raw power.
