Chapter 3: Earning Money

The four of them spent that night in a couple bedrooms that were left mostly undamaged from the fire, in some of the softest beds that they ever had. Though for some of them, the beds that they were used to sleeping in were hard and lumpy, so even the worn stone floors of the palace were softer than what they were used to.

In the morning, they went through the palace, trying to find anything that they could sell for a good price.

"You think that this is a good idea?" Hermy asked nervously as she looked at the carpet. "It's like we're grave robbing. It doesn't seem right."

"Not right?" Ron asked as they examined a flowered vase. "I'll tell you something that's not right. When me and Ginny were little kids, our dad and older brothers were part of the palace guards and staff. The night of the revolt… they were all killed."

Hermy stared at him. "Killed?" she mouthed, looking a little green.

"I'm sorry," Harry said who had been looking through the closets.

"Yeah," Ron muttered, putting the vase down and went to examine some pictures. "Just the two of us and our mother."

"Not that it lasted long," Ginny sighed. "Mum died a while back. We've been stuck living here ever since."

"We've been forced to sell a lot of things just to get food," Ron muttered angrily.

"Hey, it hasn't been easy for us either," Harry said bitterly, having found a fur coat in the back of the closet.

No one said much of anything else as they continued to search. Soon, once they felt that they gathered everything of value in the bedroom, Ginny and Ron both left to search through another. Harry was about to follow, but noticed that Hermy was acting very strange.

"Hermy?" he asked as he watched his friend kneeling on the carpet, and breathing in the scent.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked her.

"Lavender…" she whispered.

"What?" Harry asked confused.

"The carpet smells like Lavender," she sighed, her eyes turning dreamy—as if remembering something from a long time ago. "I can't explain it, but it feels like I smelled it somewhere before."

Harry put down the coat and went to sit with her. After a few minutes of sitting there, the red-heads came back in to see what was taking so long.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

Hermy didn't say anything for a few minutes. "This place…" she finally said. "There was so much love here… I… I just…" she then trailed off, as if unable to find the right words.

The red-heads stared at her before they all joined each other in a square on the floor.

"You really don't remember anything before your life at the orphanage?" Ginny asked her, as Hermy closed her eyes, breathing in the scent.

"Nothing," she answered screwing up her eyes in concentration, "I told you. The furthest memory I have was when I was little and I woke up alone in the middle of a train station. I didn't know who I was, or where I came from. All I know is that they found me after a couple days of wandering the streets, trying to remember something and then they brought me to the orphanage."

She looked to Harry, who nodded. "That was when we met and stayed for ten years."

"And you don't have any idea where you came from?" Ginny asked her.

"Nope," Hermy sighed, looking at her. "Heck, I don't even know what my real name is. Hermy was one of the only few things that I did know… but I don't know where that came from."

"And you're trying to find your family, too?" Ginny asked, turning to Harry as she reached over to touch his knee. He looked a little surprise at her sudden closeness, something that she noticed as well and blushed.

"Sorry," she muttered, pulling her hand away.

"No, that's ok," he said. "Anyway, my parents and I were visiting this country when I got lost from them during the revolt. I don't know anything else. I don't know where they are, or even if they're still alive. But I know that I'm from Godric's Hallow. So if they are still alive, they'd be there wouldn't they?"

"But why didn't they ever come back and look for you?" Ron asked.

Harry shrugged. He thought all that over plenty of times. "I don't know," he muttered. "But there's a chance that I might have some family there. At least my godfather…"

"Godfather?" Ron asked, leaning in.

"Sirius is his name," Harry said, shutting his own eyes and thinking back. "I don't remember too much, but I remember that he was always so happy and laughing every time he came over. He was like a second father to me. If my parents aren't there then maybe…?"

"You think that he might still be there?" Ginny asked softly.

"Dunno," he answered, opening his eyes and rubbing the back of his head. "I don't know why they never came looking for me. I know that… I know that there's a chance that they could've gotten killed in the revolt and that's probably the most likely reason why they never found me. But… but Sirius didn't go with us on our trip. If he is still alive… if any of them are alive… then that's where they'd be. That's where I need to go."

Ginny gave him a sad look. "And what if you can't find them?" Ron asked.

He shrugged. "At least I'd know I tried."

Hermy sighed, fiddling with her necklace.

"What's that?" Ron asked, noticing it.

"Nothing," Hermy said, tucking it back under her clothes, "I don't know when I'm playing with it, sometimes."

"But what is it?" Ron asked her.

"Nothing you need to know about," she said, giving him a dark look. "Look, it's the only thing I have left from my family."

"Well, that's a bit girly," he said, and Ginny groaned.

Hermy gave him a nasty look as she stood up. "Maybe that's because I AM a girl!"

"Whoa now!" Ron said, standing up, holding up his hands. "I didn't mean anything like that. I only think that…"

"Well, I don't care what you think, whether it's girly or not it's the only connection I have!" she yelled and march away. When she was out of the room, the other two were glaring at him.

"What?" he asked them, not understanding what he did. "I was just asking."

"You still act like an eight-year-old," Ginny said, shaking her head as she got up. "Hermy?" she called out, "Hermy wait! Let me tell you something about my idiot brother!"

Ron watched as they went through the door and turned to Harry. "What is up with them?"

Harry just looked at him. "You just had to kill the mood didn't you?"

*Later*

After Ginny calmed Hermy down and they came back to help go through the rest of the things they had.

They all found some clothes that would fit, and some old trunks. "This should work," Ginny said in an upbeat voice. "All we got to do is sell some things for the tickets and then get out of here."

"Great," Harry said, still looking at some of the things they found. "But there really isn't much."

"Yeah," she sighed. "The fire destroyed most of the good stuff, and me and Ron had to sell a lot of things just to survive this long. So, the castle is pretty much picked over."

"That's ok," Ron said, forcefully as he packed a bag of trinkets. "Hopefully, this will be the last time that we stay here. If the bargaining goes good, then we'll have enough for a trip out of here."

"I hope so," Ginny said as she pulled out a map.

"What's that?" Hermy asked.

"A map that I took from the train station," she answered, "It shows all the places, and the costs. Now…" she traced her finger along a road. "To me, this seems like the best way."

Hermy leaned over to look as the boys came over to look as well. "I see," she said, looking where Ginny was pointing to. "Even if we take the cheapest tickets we can find and leave on this particular train tomorrow, then we'll be at the docks to hop a ship sometime tomorrow late afternoon."

Ron also leaned over to look at the check marks that had been put in several places. "But according to this, we'll have to stop in three different places before we get to Hogwarts," he stated confused, "Why not just take one straight to Hogwarts and save the time?"

"Because one of these stops will be at Godric's Hallow," Ginny said, smiling at Harry, who grinned back. "And second, if we want a ship to take us straight to Hogwarts, I know for a fact that is completely out of our price range. Really, if we do manage to get a pretty knut with all this junk, we'd be lucky to go on as baggage."

"I think we can live with it," Harry nodded. "So it will take us a few days longer, so what? I've waited ten years, I think I can wait a little longer."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Ginny asked, rolling up the map with a grin on her face. "Let's see how bartering goes."

But as they headed to the exit, Hermy couldn't help but notice that Harry seemed to be spending more and more time with Ginny. When they climbed out of the hole, she left Crookshanks on a few pillows and told him that she'd be back soon, she turned to Harry and asked, "You like her?"

"What?" Harry asked startled. "She's just a new friend, we barely know them."

She just smiled as she watched him follow her. Though she couldn't help but feel as though she was losing her best friend as she followed as well.

*Hours later*

"Ten galleons?" repeated Ginny in outrage at a man. "For that locket? That's chicken feed! This locket once belonged to the royal family! It's clearly worth a lot more than ten galleons!"

"Look," the man snapped. "I think that's a reasonable price. How do I know that this isn't just made of cheap metal?"

"Oh, I'll give you cheap," she snarled as she began arguing with him.

Hermy held back a laugh. The four of them set up a booth in the center of town, and piled all the treasures they could from the palace. Harry was speaking to a woman about trading for a slightly burnt tiara as Ron had just sold a large and cracked ring. She looked down at the recent item she was trying to sell, a small golden cup, and was wondering how to do so. But the sun was setting and were trying to get rid as much as they could before they were forced to return to the castle.

"Fifty galleons," Ginny snapped, folding her arms determinedly and glared at the man. "Nothing less than fifty."

"Deal," he man snapped, reaching into his pocket and dropping a small pouch onto the table. "Take it and be grateful you little brat."

"And I hope that it strangles you someday!" Ginny shouted after him after he picked up the locket and walked away.

"You think that's the best way to get customers?" Hermy asked her, her eyebrows raised.

"I've dealt with losers like him all my life," she said, taking the pouch and putting it into her pocket. "You can't let them walk all over you. You got to show them you mean business. We've got to get as much as we can out of these things here. We've got to by train tickets, ship tickets, along with food or anything else we might need. Besides, he was a jerk anyway."

Hermy thought that over and nodded in agreement, so when the next person to come up and ask about the cup, she wouldn't let him go without buying it, and making another sixty galleons. Their sale ended when the boys both got rid of their final pieces and everything else they bought with them. Taking their sacks of gold and silver with them, they ran back to the palace and counted out all their loot.

But they didn't need to count it to know that they were holding more money than they ever held in their lives.

"More than enough to get out of here," Ron said grinning from ear to ear as he bit down on one of the gold pieces. "And hopefully anything else we may need."

"We don't need to worry about clothes," Hermy said at once smiling. "We've got plenty of nice things here." And indeed, she had changed into a very pretty, midnight blue robe she had found in one of the closets.

"We can get a quick dinner and some food for the morning, and take the first train out of here," Harry grinned as well. "And then we'll be on our way."

"Well," Ginny said jumping up. "What are we waiting for? Let's get packed with whatever we've got left and get a good night sleep!"

And that's how they spent the evening there. Ginny took a few coins and went down to the market for their dinner and Harry took another small bag of coins and went down to buy the tickets while Hermy and Ron finished packing.

They filled the trunks they found with whatever they didn't sell. The nice robes they found, Hermy found some unburned books that she wanted to read during the trip, and even found a basket that she will be using for Crookshanks.

"What's with you and Harry?" Ron asked suddenly.

She looked up as she finished folding a black cloak. "What?" she asked.

"You and Harry?" he repeated as he closed the trunk and sat on it so he could talk. "You both grew up together?"

"Oh," Hermy said as she also closed the lid of her trunk. "Yeah, see after they found me, they sent me off to the orphanage. The Shrieking Shack they called it. That's where I met him. At first, we pretty much ignored each other, but after this bully tried to pick on me, he stood up for me. You know, he looked like a troll that bully."

"So he saved you from a troll?" Ron asked, looking at her.

She laughed, "Well, I'm the one who saves him by telling him to keep that temper of his. But since we're adults now, we were thrown out of the orphanage. We were told to go to a village called Grunnings for jobs, but we decided to come here instead. And we met you both."

She sighed as she glanced up at him. "You really think that I'm this Princess Hermione?"

He shrugged. "You sure look like her. And you're the same age she would've been if she's still alive, and you don't remember anything before the revolt. That would explain why no one's ever found you."

"I don't know," she said, folding her legs up and underneath her. "When I left the orphanage, I had no idea that that anything like this would happen. But now…?"

"We'll be out soon," Ron nodded determinedly. "And good riddance."

"What about you?" she asked.

"What about me?" he questioned.

"Sorry, I just… wanted to know," she said softly. "What was it like? Having a mother?"

He toyed with the helm of his dusty robes. "It was great… at least it was. See, we used to live here as servants, but after dad and our brothers were killed, we moved back with mum. She raised us for about six years… but… she got sick… and just couldn't get better. At least that's what the Healers all said."

"So you've been taking care of your sister since then?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I try. But I think she's the one who's looking after me most of the time. After we lost mum, we were kicked out of our house and were on the streets for awhile. But one day, when a man was eyeing Ginny in a bad way, we ran in here and hid." He then held out his arms to the giant ballroom that they were currently sitting in. "We've been in here ever since. We liked the clothes, but if we go out in them instead of rags, people come up and try to rob us. So we just wear these old things so people tend to leave us alone."

He pointed to the tattered bits of garments that they'd been wearing until a little while ago.

"That's makes sense," she said. "But what will you both do when you leave here?"

"Well," he shrugged, he didn't want to tell her about the award money, "You know. Anywhere has got to be better than here."

She smiled sadly, her fingers going to her necklace again.

But before she could think of anything to say, they heard footsteps and when they looked up, Harry and Ginny were back. Ginny held up the bags of food, and Harry flashed the tickets.

"We're all set," he grinned as he sat down next to them and took a loaf of bread that Ginny passed him. "We'll take the train at exactly eleven o'clock tomorrow. And by tomorrow night we'll be at the docks getting on a ship."

Ron clapped his hands as he reached in and took some pumpkin juice. "A toast!" he called out. "To getting the hell out of this dump!"

"Cheers!" they all laughed as they drank to that. After that, they had a bit of a party, dancing, singing, and feasting—none of them could ever remember having such a good time.

But when it was time for bed, Harry tucked the tickets into his trunk and announced that it be best if they woke up as early as possible. No one complained, but when Hermy went to sleep, she couldn't help but feel a sense of Déjà vu.

She couldn't explain why though… but it happened when she went to her room. She had been sleeping in, what appeared to have been a young girl's room—with a large bed, some toys, a little dollhouse, and shelves full of books. It was the kind of room that she would've loved if she had been little…

She just flopped down onto the dusty bed, her hand around the hourglass once again. Though most of the palace was gone… it all… felt so familiar.

When Crookshanks meowed and jumped up onto her bed, she couldn't help but feel sad when she thought about leaving this place forever. When she slept, she dreamed about an old woman humming a song to her… one that made her laugh.

(End of another chapter. What do you all think? Hope you enjoyed it!)