Cherished Memories -Chapter 9
Helping Harry
Disclaimer- I don't own Harry, Hermione, Ron or any of the other characters. If I did, I would have all the money, and definately changed that epilogue. For that reason, most of DH is being ignored.
Ron and Hermione looked up to see Harry in the doorway. "Does that make you happy?" he asked coming around the couch and resuming his earlier seat. "Does it?"
"Harry, don't blow a gasket," Ron began, but was cut off.
"I'm not going to 'blow a gasket', Ron. I just want to know if my telling you that I didn't go off with another girl makes you happy?"
"I was just concerned that maybe the reason you took off that night was because..."
"Because something happened between me and Hermione? Well, since you won't let it go until you find out, I'm going to tell you." He held up his hand when Hermione tried to stop him. "He's not going to forget about it until he knows, Hermione."
"Harry, I don't want him to find out this way. Please, don't do something you'll regret."
"Either I tell him, or you do. But we are 'not' leaving this room until it's all out in the open. Trina's gone home for the day and my front door is locked." He pulled his wand out and waved it in the direction of the living room door. It slammed shut and they heard a click as it locked. With another wave, he summoned his friends' wands and stuck them under his leg to keep them from being retrieved easily. Hermione smirked a bit as she watched him do this.
"Is that your favorite place to put things? Under your arse?"
"When it's needed, and don't try to change the subject. Am I going to tell him or are you?"
"Harry, don't be like this. Surely you don't want him to know what happened that night. Not this way."
"All right, I'll tell him." Hermione, realizing that he was going to do it no matter what she said, put up her hands in defeat and sat back on the couch. Ron, silent since their disagreement had began, cleared his throat.
"It's all right, Harry. I'm sorry, really. I didn't have the right to ask her about it. It's none of my business." Harry's emerald eyes landed on him.
"But you just wouldn't let it go, would you? Well, now I'm going to tell you, since you wanted to know so badly, so just shut up and listen." Ron imitated Hermione's earlier movements. Harry leaned forward, placing his elbows across his knees.
Before he could begin to explain, a somewhat moody tune sounded. He cursed and reached behind him, bringing out the source of the music. He flipped the phone open and brought it up to his ear. "Hello? Yes. Yes. I know."
Ron and Hermione exchanged glances as their friend continued his conversation. Ron mouthed, 'How is he doing that?' to her and she sent back, 'Explain later,' and turned her attention back to Harry
"Whatever he says, don't listen to him. I've got a lead I'm going to check up on tomorrow, then I'll get back with you. No, I can't do it today, the guy isn't going to be around until tomorrow. Well, if he calls you again, remind him of the restraining order and let him know that you will call the police if he tries to do anything." He sighed deeply. "Morgan, he cannot legally take your children out of the house. What was that! Hang up and call the police right now. Morgan, don't argue with me, do it!" He snapped the phone closed and stood. "I have to go." Ron and Hermione watched him with alarmed expressions.
"What's going on?" Hermione asked.
"The woman that I was just talking to? Her husband is wanted for possible extortion and embezzlement. His company hired me for two reasons when they fired him. One, to find the proof they need to put him in prison for it, and two, to protect his former boss's daughter and her children. The only reason this man was with the company in the first place is because he was married to the daughter of the business's owner. And I think that he's at the point where he would kill Morgan and her kids to get what he wants. Now, I really have to go." He bolted for the door, waving his wand to unlock it. Hermione stopped him as he passed her.
"We'll go with you." Harry shook his head, but Ron nodded in argument.
"Mate, it's not safe for you to be around this guy, either. Three against one is better odds when it comes to protecting children."
"I don't have time to argue with you about it. But be prepared to go really fast," he added as he magically undid the lock on the front door and led the way to his car.
"Aren't you worried about getting stopped by the police, yourself?" Hermione asked as she got into the vehicle. Harry slammed his door shut and hurriedly clicked his seatbelt as he started the engine.
"I have clearance from the police department to drive as fast as I safely can when there's a reason for me to. They work with me on a lot of my cases, and as long as I don't abuse it, using the privilage 'only' in emergencies, they won't try to stop me."
He sped backwards out the drive and headed north towards town. "They know my car by the red stripe that runs along the side. When I'm driving fast, it glows like a neon light. A little spell that I put on it." Hermione noticed this starting to happen, it caught her eye in the side mirror as they picked up speed. "They don't know that I'm a wizard, but they don't ask about how that works either, they just go with it. I believe they think it's reflective tape or heat sensitive paint or something. Hang on." Hermione and Ron braced themselves as Harry whipped his car around a corner, now taking them down High Street.
"How fast are we going?" Ron asked, looking out the window. "The other cars look like they're standing still."
"About eighty, but that's only because I'm using magic to control the car. And Muggles can't see it when I go 'this' fast, so they don't even realize we were there."
They passed the castle-like building, that Harry had explained was the courthouse for the county, and continued west out past what Hermione thought said Bryan Lanes, but she wasn't sure, they had been going much too fast. Harry took another left at the next corner, taking them south, and then a right about fifteen seconds later. He slowed down as he headed up the driveway they were now in. It led to an enormous mansion.
They stopped behind a green SUV that was parked haphazzardly in front of the house and the front door was hanging off its hinges.
"Shit!" Harry swore as he bolted from his car, leaving Ron and Hermione staring after him. He approached the house cautiously, moving to one side of the destroyed door frame, his back against it, before chancing a glance inside. Hermione opened her door to get out.
"Wait a second!" Ron blurted. "Where are you going? It can't be safe for you and I to be running around in there, we could get killed!" She spun around in her seat to glare at him.
"You think it's safe for 'Harry' to be in there? Alone? That guy could have killed everyone in the house and still be hiding. I'm not going to let Harry risk his like without someone there to help him." She swung her legs out and was gone before Ron could say another word. He groaned and followed her.
They entered the house, seeing no signs of a struggle, no one in the room. The sounds of sirens in the distance told them that Morgan had indeed called the police and they were now on their way to help. They crept forward towards a door that led into the next room, Hermione making it just to the other side of the frame when a hand clamped over her mouth and she was yanked to the side.
"Quiet, both of you," Harry hissed as Ron shot into the room, in the process of reaching for his wand, which unfortunately for him, still sat on the chair in Harry's house. He sighed in relief to see that it was his friend and not some crazed murderer that had captured Hermione.
"I should have told you to stay in the car," Harry went on in a whisper. He peered around the room, searching for any sign of Morgan, her children or her husband. All three of them raised their heads as a loud thud sounded on the ceiling. Harry released Hermione and started back out the door. "Stay here. Do not, under any circumstances, follow me. I don't want to have to send owls to the Burrow explaining why Ron comes to America to find me and ends up dead. And Hermione..." He met her eyes, then turned away and headed off. She shuddered from the electricity she'd seen in that brief moment, bracing herself against the wall. Ron stared after Harry, a worried look on his face.
"What is it?" Hermione whispered.
"Nothing, really, but except for Luna, no one knows we are here. I didn't tell anyone at the Ministry that I was going to America for a while, or that I was taking you with me."
"You mean to tell me that the two of us could have no job when we get back to London?" she hissed.
"Well, I wasn't really thinking about it at the time. When Luna and I got the confirmation that Harry was here in Bryan..."
"Wait a minute! When you and 'Luna'? The ministry doesn't know Harry's in the United States?" Ron shook his head.
"But that's not what I'm worried about. My mum doesn't know I'm gone, either."
"Oh, God," Hermione groaned, now understanding the problem. Molly had lost her husband less than five years earlier. Ever since, she'd lived in fear that something would happen to one of her children. "Why didn't you 'tell' her? You know that she's always thought of Harry as one of her own."
Another thump from overhead, and flashing red and blue lights from outside made Ron and Hermione blink. The police had arrived, suddenly and silently, having turned off their sirens to prevent their target from knowing they were coming. A series of crashes, clatters and what sounded like someone being slammed repeatedly into a wall came next, almost drowning out the hurried footsteps from several of the officers that now entered the house. Two tall men entered the room, hands on their guns in readiness.
"Are you two all right?" one of them asked softly. Hermione nodded.
"Harry's upstairs," she said, her mouth going dry with the horrible thought of what may have happened to him. "He may need help."
"No, I've got it covered." Hermione's head snapped around, and she saw that Harry stood in the doorway, holding tightly onto a man that had his arms tied behind his back and his face turning several shades of purple and a woman shivering with relief was behind them. The officers sprang into action.
"Jeffrey Mills, you are under arrest for violation of a court appointed restraint order, breaking and entering..." The rest of the policeman's words were drowned out, as well as the questions the other was asking of Morgan as Hermione stared at Harry. His right eye was starting to swell shut and his lower lip was bleeding, as well as his nose. She moved forward to him and reached up to touch his face gingerly.
"I'm fine," he whispered to her as Ron joined them. "Believe me, I've looked worse." The officers hauled Morgan's husband out to their cars, and Morgan began thanking Harry repeatedly.
"You have no 'idea' how terrified I was. I've told the children that if they see their father's car in the drive when they come home from school to go to the neighbor's house 'immediately'. And thank you for calling the police, too. Jeff cut the wires and my cell is dead."
"Morgan, I didn't call the police," he said with confusion.
"I did, Mommy," came a girl's voice. Three children hurtled themselves across the room and into their mother's arms. Harry mouthed to Morgan that he, Hermione and Ron were leaving. She nodded and waved goodbye, hugging and kissing her children the whole time. When they were on the way back to Harry's house, Hermione let out the breath she'd been holding since she'd seen him in the doorway.
"Are you sure you're all right?" she inquired, turning in her seat to examine his eye. He nodded and sighed.
"I just hope that Morgan takes my advice and moves herself and the kids out of town now."
"How come the police didn't even thank you?" Ron asked.
"They were doing their job. They're not supposed to say too much to me and give it away that I'm working with them. That would ruin it for them and put me out of business." He winced as his lip gave a nasty throb. He reached over Hermione and opened the glove compartment, pulling out a packet of tissues, making several unsuccessful attempts to open it one handed before she took it and handed over a few to him.
"Thanks," he said, holding them to his nose. "I'll fix this when we get to the house. I won't see Morgan for at least a week, so she won't ask any questions about it. When we were coming down, I told her to pack a few things for her, Katrina, Annie and Steven and go to her father's in Toledo for a while." He drove in silence for the next few minutes, then banged his hand on the steering wheel. "I 'told' her to divorce him last year, but she insisted that she would be able to handle it. When I went up there... he had a knife to her throat and was about to," he gritted his teeth and ground out, "Rape her."
"Oh my God!" Hermione gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. Ron's face turned snow white in the back seat.
"Is this what you deal with on a daily basis?" he asked, nausea apparent in his voice.
"No, thank Heaven. This is the first time that something like this has happened, but Morgan is like a sister to me. And her kids even call me Uncle Harry." A tear squeezed past the swelling of his eye and slid down his cheek. He brushed it away with the tissues that were now soaked with the blood from his nose.
"Harry, you just left a streak under your eye," Hermione said gently, taking the sodden tissues from him and tenderly wiping at it with a fresh one, careful not to put any pressure on the bruise that was forming.
"Can you stop the car a second?" Ron asked softly but urgently. Harry took one look at him in the rearview mirror and quickly pulled the car off to the side of the road. Ron opened his door, leaned out and lost his lunch on the ground. Hermione grimaced when she heard what was happening and plugged her ears to block it out. Harry sat staring out the front window until his friend sat up again.
"Better?" he asked, rummaging around in his front pocket. Ron nodded weakly. Harry found what he was looking for and handed it behind him. "Here, take one of these."
"What is it?"
"Just mints to get rid of the taste in your mouth." Harry looked over his left shoulder and pulled the car back onto the road.
Two minutes later, they turned into his drive. He turned off the car, but didn't get out. "I know how you feel, Ron," he said. "I've gotten sick a few times knowing the things that some Muggles do to get what they want. I've seen quite a few things that I 'never' saw in England. But it's worse when there are children involved. Most of my cases have to do with children in some way. The last time I threw up was last month when I found out that a guy, pillar of the community, upstanding citizen, had been molesting his ten month old granddaughter since she was born. He was sentenced to life in prison and shot himself the night before he was to be taken to jail. No one even knows where he got the gun. I just hope that little girl can grow up having a normal life."
He chuckled humorlessly.
"Sort of makes how 'I' grew up with the Dursleys look like I was living in Buckingham Palace, doesn't it?" He got out of the car and headed up the front walk without another word. Ron and Hermione could only stare after him in horror of the thought of what he dealt with in his job.
