Hi again my faithful readers,
Here is another Chapter for you.
Hope you like it,
Sirius xox
Chapter 9
The following weeks were busy but Hermione was contented. Harry stayed at the castle during the week and only went home every couple of weeks. Harry stayed in her bed and they were getting used to waking up next to each other again. The other staff noticed the change in Hermione and were constantly asking who her new beau was. Ginny had written to her a few more times about the wedding and she was very tempted to tell her that her and Harry were back on but she was worried something would spill and she would have to explain why she was seeing a married man.
Hermione could not get the story about Harry's family out of her head. She asked him plenty of questions about it and he seemed happy to tell her everything he knew. It was a relief that he could speak to someone about everything that happened to him and he felt that it brought him and Hermione even closer together.
Hermione was invited over to the Weasley's one weekend when Harry was at his house. She thought she should go since she hadn't seen them for quite a while. She apparated over and after a choruses of where have you been? And what are you doing? Everyone settled into some nice conversation. Hermione was sitting in the lounge while Mrs Weasley chatted to Ron about the wedding which was going to be in the backyard from what Hermione could make out. Arthur was sitting reading his paper when Hermione interrupted him.
"Arthur, can I ask you a question?" Arthur smiled and folded up his paper.
"Of course Hermione what is it?"
"Well I have a friend who needs some information actually." Arthur looked at her and prompted her to go on. She looked in the kitchen and when she was satisfied that everyone was busy and she wouldn't be interrupted she continued on.
"Well Arthur, the information I am going to tell you may change your opinion of me but I find I have no-one else to turn to. Please understand that every thing I am going to say is the truth but I need help finding out what really happened." Arthur nodded and stood up to walk into the kitchen. Hermione looked at him and wondered what he was doing.
"Molly, Hermione and I have to talk business, won't be too long love." Molly told him to hurry as dinner would be served in half an hour. He nodded and turned around to Hermione and motioned her to follow him. They walked outside into the garage and he sat on his stool. He folded his arms and waited for Hermione to start.
"OK I don't know if you know anything about two Aurors who were killed about twenty years ago, the Potters?" Arthur nodded
"Yes Hermione I do remember them, it was all over the papers everywhere. At first they said they were connected with the dark arts then they said that their partner, oh what was his name?..."
"Sirius Black."
"...Yes Black, apparently he was charged with their murder and it was found out that he had framed them. Why do you ask?" Hermione walked over to the other side of the garage and took a chair, she carried it back and sat in front of him. She put her hands in his hands and he could feel her trembling.
"Hermione what is it?"
"Well you know Harry, the man I brought over a month ago?"
"Yes."
"Well his name is Harry Potter, the Aurors son." Arthur didn't think anything was wrong with that so he nodded for her to continue.
"Ok, well Ok how to say this... OK Arthur he is married." Hermione saw the shock on his face and she thought she had better continue on.
She told him how his parents were going to a job and how Sirius went around to stop them going in and then all the story related to Julian and Elizabeth. It took a while and they found they were being called for dinner.
As they walked back to the house, Hermione continued on.
"Arthur, a lot of things just don't add up. Harry was an Auror himself before he came here. He was conveniently retrenched and he came out here to start again. But I think he was retrenched because he started finding things and someone was afraid that he would uncover something. I have looked into the Potters history before their deaths and every listing I find, lists them as being very wealthy whereas Harry has nothing, his in laws hold everything over his head."
"Has he tried to talk to Black?"
"Well that's another mystery in itself, Harry has the fondest memories of this man before his parents death and for him to kill them just didn't add up. There are a lot of unanswered things Arthur and I need some help in uncovering the truth." The two of them approached the back door and Arthur held it open for her, he touched her arm and she looked at him.
"Hermione, sometimes when we uncover things, we find more than what we were looking for." he whispered to her. She nodded and walked inside.
The term was coming to a close and Hermione and Harry were looking forward to a well earned break. Hermione had seen Arthur once since she told him what had happened and he admitted to her that whoever was covering this up was doing a very good job. Every time he followed a lead, he hit a brick wall. He ended up enlisting some help from some friends whom he trusted with his life. She was getting ready to meet him at the Ministry tonight while Harry did Quidditch practice. She looked out of her window and she felt a rush of guilt flow over her body. She had wanted to tell Harry that she was looking into his parents death but then she decided he may get his hopes up and if she finds nothing he would be so disappointed. She huffed out a breath and finished dressing and then apparated over to the Ministry of Magic.
She walked inside and found Arthur pacing with a worried look on his face.
"Oh Hermione come up to my office I need to speak with you." Hermione hurried after him and her stomach was tied in knots. They approached his office and she walked in to find another man, she didn't know, sitting in a chair in front of Arthur's desk. He had silver grey hair and was probably as old as Arthur. He was quite tall with brown rimmed glasses and had tanned skin.
"Hello, Miss Granger, my name is Mark, Mark Spelling, how are you?" Hermione shook hands with him and then spoke to him.
"Mr Spelling, is that an American accent?" He nodded and had a little laugh.
"Yes Miss Granger, I am American, I work in the Ministry and I was once Harry Potter's boss."
"OH really, well then maybe you can explain to me why my boy... my friend, was sacked?" all niceties were gone.
"Umm well he was actually retrenched, not sacked..."
"Don't gloss it over Mr Spelling, I am far from an idiot. Was it because Harry was getting to close to finding out some information?" Mark looked at Arthur and Arthur nodded..
"Hermione, Mr Spelling volunteered his time for me, please try and be patient." Hermione looked at Arthur and nodded curtly.
"Harry worked in the ministry for about five years. He started off minding his own business, I would say because of his upbringing. St John was not a patient man, and he was worse with Harry as he was such an inconvenience. Anyway, Harry was reading over some work that some Aurors had just completed and he happened to come across a familiar name, Black. He started snooping and needless to say I received a visit from St John himself. He told me if I didn't move Harry out, I would loose all funding that we had for research. At first I thought he was bluffing, but then people's job's were lost, and when one wing of the research lab caught on fire under 'mysterious circumstances' we had no choice but to move Harry out. We were all shocked when we found out that Harry married the daughter, that woman is evil on legs. But it was all to keep him closer to St John so he could watch him." Hermione had sat down while Spelling was speaking and couldn't believe what she was listening to.
"Listen Mr Spelling, I need to see Sirius Black.."
"Are you out of your mind Miss Granger, that man is a murderer, he is in Azkaban because of the vicious murder of the Potters, he slaughtered his friends so much that they were only identified by their wedding rings."
Hermione shivered but held her position.
"That may be so but I want to speak to him." Spelling looked at Arthur with disbelief on his face.
"Is she serious Weasley?"
"My adopted daughter is very serious Spelling, now, can you authorise it or am I wasting my time?"
Everything was set.
Hermione was going to Azkaban in three weeks time and hopefully she could get some answers. She researched Sirius Black before the incarceration and as much as she could after it. It was very difficult to find any unbiased information but she figured she would have to trust her own intuition when she met him. Hermione had always believed she was a good judge of character and she need it now more than ever.
The following weeks were hard, she felt as if she were keeping the biggest secret from Harry, which she was, and he started to pick up on it.
One night at dinner, he tried to start up yet another conversation, but to no avail. He was getting very worried, his worst fear in the world was that Hermione would find someone else and leave him and it had been dwelling on his mind for the past few weeks.
He approached her after dinner one night a week ago, when they were getting ready for bed.
"Hermione, I feel like something is wrong, please talk to me?" She looked at him and said her normal response.
"Nothing's wrong Harry lets go to bed." This particular night he pushed the issue.
"No Mione, something is wrong and I want to know."
"Harry, I'm just tired that's all, please come to bed, I need to cuddle you." she got out of it that night Harry followed her up to bed and he didn't speak at all, he stopped outside his door while Hermione continued over to her own door. She said her password and the door swung open and she turned around and noticed Harry was not behind her. She saw him standing over by his door with his hand on the door handle.
"Harry, aren't you coming in?" Hermione looked at him and he noticed how tired she was and how disinterested she looked and it strengthened his suspicions.
He didn't answer, he just walked into his room and slowly closed the door. Hermione looked at the sealed door and sighed. She knew she was acting weird but she wanted to see Sirius Black and then she would explain it all to him. She walked into her room and sat down heavily on her bed. She knew she shouldn't go to bed like this, she should go back and at least kiss him goodnight but she was interrupted by an owl tapping at her window.
She walked over and untied the note, it was from Arthur, he wanted to meet at 6am. This worked out to be her in favour. She changed into her pyjamas and went to bed without saying goodnight to Harry. She knew if she went to him, she would stay with him tonight and then she would have to come up with a reason to leave so early.
It was better this way.
She set her alarm to wake her at 5am so she could shower and be at the Ministry at 5.45am. She decided on leaving a note for Harry because the last thing she wanted was for him to start panicking and then start looking for her.
Harry had the worst night sleep he had had in months. He couldn't fall asleep at first as his mind was constantly running through the possibilities of Hermione leaving him. He realised it had been a gradual drift, small things that he had noticed but put out of his mind. Then the signs became more and more clearer. He would come back from his weekend at home and she would not be as responsive as he hoped she would be.
He finally convinced himself to get some sleep and he would speak to her in the morning, they had the whole weekend together anyway. Harry awoke early and went to her room and he slowly opened the door so he wouldn't wake her.
He looked over at her bed and he stopped dead.
Her bed was made and she was gone.
