By Scarlet
rohansmummy@yahoo.com
The next morning came far too early. As Hermione woke up she could tell from the light that it was just a little after dawn. Their was no sound of movement from the adjoining cells so she lay quietly thinking of the day before. She still didn't quite believe all that had happened to her. She got up, wanting to know the time and walked over to the door, her muscles reminding her that she had slept on a hard cot. '5.45 a.m., Alan won't be here for another two hours,' she thought to herself. She could feel a slight buzz from the cell walls reminding her that she had not only been physically, but also magically locked in the dank room. She lay back down on her lumpy cot and wondered whether Severus was awake and whether he had got Alan's owl.
The sound of a key in the lock jolted her awake again. Alan and Edwards were both entering the room. Alan had brought her some fresh clothes and more toiletries. She got up slowly to greet them.
"Can I shower and change please?" she asked, feeling somewhat humbled for having to ask.
Edwards shook his head, "Not yet, we have a lot to sort out first. Let's go back to the conference room so we can talk freely." He muttered a quick release from the binding spell he had used the night before and then the three of them walked back to the conference room.
Once inside the room Edwards once again sealed the room before sitting down opposite Hermione and Alan. He cleared his throat and explained that he was able to sort out the transfer of her case and that now it would be covered by him as an auror.
"What exactly does that mean to me?" she asked.
Alan replied, "It means that you will be able to leave the police station for a start. If we can find someone who is willing to be responsible for you that is."
Hermione chewed on her lip. "I don't know who to suggest... perhaps my boss?"
"No that wouldn't do," said Alan. "Not unless you want him to accompany you home."
"What?!?"
"We don't use bail in the wizard world," Edwards said "If you are released into someone else's custody we bind you to that person much like I bound you to the cell last night. If you and Alan can suggest someone suitable and the Ministry agrees to release you then you will have no choice but to stay within a couple hundred yards from that person at all times."
"Hey I thought of someone," Alan interjected. "How about Dumbledore? I'm sure the Ministry would consider him a responsible party."
"Let's go to my office to check with the Ministry and then we can contact Dumbledore to see if he would be willing to be your custodian."
They walked together to Edward's office. Alan asked him, "James, how did you manage to convince the Constabulary to let you have a fireplace?"
"I didn't."
Alan looked questioningly at him.
"It looks like a bookshelf to muggles."
Hermione asked Alan whether he had managed to reach Severus last night while Edwards was getting authorisation for Dumbledore to be her custodian. He told her he hadn't wanted to worry her but it appeared that Severus was missing.
Edwards broke into their conversation. "The Ministry ok'd Dumbledore, let's contact him and see if he'd be willing to act as your custodian."
Alan stood up and walked over to the "bookshelves" threw some floo powder into the fire and said 'Albus Dumbledore'. Albus's head appeared in the fireplace.
Dumbledore greeted Alan, "Good morning Alan," and then he saw a very subdued Hermione sitting to one side of him.
"Hermione, thank goodness, have you seen Severus this morning?"
"No I haven't. Albus, I have a very big favour to ask of you."
She was about to ask him if he would be her custodian when he interrupted her and told her that Severus had been missing since yesterday lunchtime.
"He has missed several of his classes which is not like him at all. No-one seems to know where he is and the last time he was seen was by some Hogsmeade locals who were glared or sneered at by him near the Three Brooksticks. Apparently he was in an even worse mood than usual."
Hermione winced. She was pretty sure that she was the reason for his bad mood.
Edwards walked around the desk and said, "mind if I interrupt? Professor Dumbledore, I'm James Edwards, I'm an Auror for the Ministry. I don't know if you remember me?"
Albus smiled at him. "Yes James, aren't you Duncan's younger brother?"
Edwards nodded. "Yes Sir."
"Ravenclaw if I remember rightly."
"Correct," replied Edwards. "We need to ask you an important question Sir."
"Go ahead," said Albus, "and please call me Albus."
"Hermione is in my custody Albus. We are looking for a custodian for her so that she can be released from Auror custody. Would you be willing to act as custodian until the investigation is completed?"
Dumbledore readily agreed and he flood through to the Police Station to be bound to his new charge.
Dumbledore and Hermione agreed to return to her flat so that she might shower and change and so they could try and track down the missing potions master. Despite the cleansing charms she performed she still felt like she needed a good hot shower to get rid of the grime from the police cell. Cleansing charms were fine in the field but nothing compared to a steamy shower when you really wanted to get clean.
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She came out of the bathroom wearing a pair of jeans and a comfy looking faded tshirt. Albus put down the newspaper he was reading, took off his glasses and looked at her.
"That looks a lot better. Now you look like the Miss Granger I know."
"I certainly feel better."
"We should get on with trying to sort this little muddle out," Albus said.
Hermione laughed to herself. Severus was missing who knows where and she was suspected of attempted murder and he called it a 'little muddle?'
"While you were showering I tried a some location spells. I was unable to find him. I'm hoping perhaps you might have more luck than me and perhaps track him down."
"What makes you think that I could come up with something when such a powerful wizard as Albus Dumbledore couldn't?"
"You underestimate yourself Hermione. Have you forgotten your ingenious golden sickle?"
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Hermione went and got the GPS locator and her A-Z map of Cambridge and sat down at the kitchen table to try and find Severus. Albus leaned over her shoulder.
"Amazing things the muggles come up with," he commented. "Would you mind if I got a little something to eat while you are working with that? I was about to have breakfast when you and Alan called this morning."
"No, not at all, why don't you get us both something? I'm famished."
"What is this Hermione?" he asked prodding at leftovers of a sticky toffee pudding on a shelf in her fridge.
"Try it," she replied.
"Hmm, oohhh, this is good!" he said between mouthfuls "We must have this at Hogwarts, what is it called?"
She told him and he asked a few more questions about it before she realised that she had forgotten a pen and some paper. When she came back into the room and sat down she found Albus surrounded by various types of icecream and all sorts of sauces. Some of them she was sure she had never seen before.
"I think I like this one best!" he said gesticulating with his spoon towards a lemon one with bits of lemon sherbets in it. "This one is very good too though," he said waving at the chocolate chip cookie dough icecream. He was obviously in his element trying all the different desserts that he had found in her flat.
"I didn't much care for this icecream," he said pointing to an ancient frozen tub of gravy left over from a Christmas or two ago with a couple of spoonsfuls eaten out of it.
Hermione grabbed it and threw it in the bin. "That's because it was gravy. Very old gravy," she said.
"Gravy? Muggles eat gravy frozen?" he asked.
"Hmm," said Hermione with her head bent over her map and a bowl of cereal beside her. She was absorbed in the book in front of her.
"I think I've found him," she said cautiously. "It looks like he is at Addenbrookes."
"Addenbrookes? Is that near here?"
"Its the local muggle hospital."
They sat in silence for a moment before she said, "I don't know why he is there considering his opinion of muggle medicine."
Albus agreed.
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Sticky Toffee Pudding does exist and is heavenly. There are lots of recipes for it on the web, if you'd like to make it try a search in google.
Thank you for continuing to read, I hope you are enjoying this as much as me.