Disclaimer, If I was J.K. Rowling then I would have Dropped Ron from the story, in the real world jealous, angry, greedy, people like Ron don't do well finding and becoming friends of people like Harry and Hermione.

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Marriage Contract.

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Part Nine

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The man Harry had just met on the muggle side of the Leaky Cauldron coughed and spluttered as he jerked awake. Harry and Hermione both stared in disbelief as the mans breathing quickly settled down to a normal rhythm, the shock came from the fact that the man they were supposed to meet, Mr. Ely Daley had been hit with the killing curse meant for Harry less than five minutes before. Every one knew that nobody other than Harry Potter ever survived the killing curse, every one that is except the Muggles, and the paramedic who had been driving past in his ambulance. The medic who had just performed C.P.R and given a small electric shock from a portable device, to the man who had collapsed on to the paving in front of them, sat back on his haunches and smiled, he had managed to save a life once again.

Harry and Hermione learned two very important things in the few minutes it had taken for Ely Daley to be struck down by the killing curse fall to the floor and be resuscitated by two Muggles, the first thing that was obvious was that Muggles could not see anything when a curse had been loosed right in front of them, the second thing they learned is that the killing curse was not as fatal as everyone thought it was. Hermione was in study mode as Harry helped Ely into the Leaky Cauldron and to a table, she rushed over to Tom the barman to order the drinks quickly so that she could question Ely.

Thirty minutes later three people arrived on the lawn of Gryffindor house and then quickly made their way into the house. Harry was calling together a family meeting even as they walked into the entrance hall, at the same time Ely was being greeted by a grateful Owl by the name of Hedwig; she landed on his shoulder and nipped gently on his ear affectionately.

While Harry explained to everyone what had happened, Hermione rushed off for her room where she gathered up note books pens and pencils. Five minutes later Hermione was sitting hard at work in the study as she tried to work out all that had happened that morning and why. By the time Harry came to drag his wife down to dinner she had the answer she was looking for.

"Harry the killing curse must stop or shut down the auto response system of the body, that's why when anyone hit by it always has their eyes open wide in a look of shock, now we don't have anyone we can test this on but by my calculations if we can hit the cursed person with a mild electric shock with in the first three or four minutes they should recover rather quickly, all we need now is some simple shocking spell that anyone should be capable of performing, if I can figure that out we will have a huge advantage over Voldemort's death eaters until they realise what we are doing," she said enthusiastically as Harry led her down to the kitchen to eat.

Four days later the Gryffindor Towers library was full of people all tracking through the vast number of books, some even brought back from the main black library for this specific reason. Hermione had them all looking for a spell to help them overcome the killing curse. Harry sat back and looked around tiredly as Winky brought him a butterbeer, both he and Hermione were squashed together on a couch, a large pile of books at the side of each of them, he noticed that most everyone was starting to look tired.

Richard and Helen were sat on a love seat just a few feet away while Kronos and Demeter were sat at the other end of the library searching. They had all joined Hermione on her second day searching and had hardly left the room since, Tonks and Remus had helped a little when they had some free time and were there again both going through huge books, but so far they had had no luck at all, it seemed as though electric was a power that magical people just did not know how to master.

Then a shout of "Hey everyone," from Helen made everyone look up "I think I found something."

As one they all rose and rushed over to Helen, she sat up straight and read out the very simple spell "mitis levitas, it is from 'Amazing The Muggles' by Hereward Balatro , according to this he was a 14th century clown in the kings court. Apparently it is performed without a wand with a simple waggle of a pointed finger."

Harry impatient as always pointed his finger at one of the windows and said "Mitis levitas," a small bolt of lightning shot from his finger and the window exploded outward, "Oops," he said as everyone looked at him "Maybe a little less power, don't you think."

Hermione rolled her eyes at her husband and after repairing the window, she tried the spell her self, the mild bolt of electricity left her finger and dissipated when it hit the window pane.

With a little practice all the magical people in the library could perform the spell, Hermione then set about teaching the house elves while Kronos and Demeter taught the true elves. With practice it was not long before Harry, Hermione, Remus and Tonks could all cast various amounts of lightning silently, the small amounts were practically invisible to the human eye as they travelled so fast, tiny bolts of electricity darted from their finger tips and hit exactly where they were pointing. All they needed now was some way to work out the amount of power they would need to revive someone hit by the killing curse. It was left to Hermione to work out all the final details of where they would hit someone with the spell and just how much power they should use.

They got their chance to try the spell out the following weekend when they were called to help against a death eater raid in Hogsmeade. Ten death eaters had attacked some of the Hogwarts prefects who were enjoying a quiet day away from the school in the village shops.

While Harry and Remus took on and defeated all the death eaters that had not yet left, Hermione and Tonks successfully used the spell on one death eater who had been hit by cross fire from his own side, plus four students and two shop owners, several other injuries were quickly seen too when Madam Pomfrey arrived.

While fighting the remaining death eaters both Harry and Remus used the lightening spell to stun their opponents simply because their shields did not stop it from working, hitting two death eaters with the single spell Harry noticed that while the one who got the majority of the lightening bolt was stunned, the other death eater seemed to be struggling for a few minutes before he could cast another curse. It did not seem too important at the time while they fought hard to quell the attackers.

When Minerva McGonagall arrived and heard about the lightening spell, she had Poppy Pomfrey Obliviate every one who had witnessed Hermione and Tonks perform the miracles. "We don't want Voldemort learning about it," she announced as Poppy gave her an odd look when she was told what she had to do.

Hermione's birthday, Halloween, and all the days between had come and gone, every one at Gryffindor Towers was feeling the strain of being constantly ready to fight with nothing actually happening. No trace of Voldemort or his minions could be found, it was as though they had simply dropped off the face of the earth, still they had to be ready, Harry knew that his next meeting with Mr. Tom Riddle would be his last one, he had every intention of seeing to it that Riddle would be the one who did not walk away from it.

The wizarding world out side Gryffindor Towers was getting complacent, the fact there were no attacks lulled the wizarding population in to thinking they were now safe once again.

Businesses on Diagon Alley were booming again as people started to venture out to do their shopping, decorations for Christmas were put up and still there had been no attacks. Those living at Gryffindor Towers were getting seriously worried if they could not find Riddle soon they all knew there would be a devastating attack made by his minions before much more time had passed.

Harry and Hermione received an invitation to a Yule ball at Longbottom Manor; the invite included all the family plus King Kronos and his wife. Remus received an invite for him and Tonks, and though they all thought it foolish to hold a Ball with Riddle still a threat, they all accepted the invite because they did not want Riddle winning by having them all holed up in their homes in fear of a possible attack, if anything happened at the Longbottom's then Harry and Hermione wanted to be there to help protect their friend Neville and his guests.

December was spent shopping as a group, as they all went to be fitted for new robes, and to do their Christmas shopping at the same time, they all stayed together as couples as they shopped, it seemed too risky to split up into singles just to buy presents for each other.

While they were in Diagon Alley Harry and Hermione visited an odd little curiosity shop at the very end of the Alley, neither had been quite so far along the Alley before and the shop seemed to beckon to them from across the road. Once safely in the shop they split up and began to look around, checking out the dusty collection of oddities and ancient bits and bobs. When they had finished looking around and made their way to the counter to pay for their goods Harry chuckled at his wife who had found several battered and torn old books.

Later that day as the family all sat around relaxing they were all rudely aroused from their sleepy states by a shout of triumph from Hermione, who had been quietly reading some of the ancient tomes purchased in the curiosity shop.

"YES! Yes! Yes! Yes," she shouted as she almost made Harry jump out of his skin.

As soon as their peaceful and drowsy states were disrupted everyone gathered around the excited young woman as she eagerly showed them an ancient spell and ritual to allow someone with enough power to tap into and use elemental earth magic. Magic that would allow them to find Tom Riddle and his followers as long as they were on land and not at sea.

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Harry woke up with a start at four in the morning and after thinking about what had woken him for a few seconds he woke Hermione by kissing her shoulder and then moving to her neck. After waking his wife in such a pleasant manner Harry remembered why he was awake, during one of his many dreams about Hermione a fight developed on the dance floor they were dancing on, why they were dancing he could not remember, why they were dancing in the nude was equally vague. What he did remember was the death eater not being able to cast a spell for a while after the electric shock he got from his fellow death eater turned into Voldemort who stood there violently swinging his wand around at all of them and nothing happening. Even in his sleep his brain had realized a way to stop Voldemort long enough to finish him off.

At breakfast that morning the friends that all lived at Gryffindor Towers all agreed that they would attend the Longbottom ball just as they had planned and then between Christmas and new year they would use the method Hermione had discovered to find Riddle and his hide out, they would then enlist all the help they could muster and go on the offensive against the death eaters and their maniac boss.

The day of the ball arrived, the weather was bitterly cold and it had snowed on and off all day. Hermione when she was dressed in her ball gown was, according to Harry, a vision to set eyes on, with beauty to put Venus the goddess of love in the shade. Harry having given his wife such a compliment was then copied as all the other males in the group came up with similar words to describe their own partners.

Using a portkey they left Gryffindor Towers at eight pm. Their arrival at Longbottom manor was welcomed by their old school friend Neville and his girl friend Luna Lovegood. Neville directed them to a table that was reserved for Harry Hermione and friends.