Chapter Eleven: Let It Lie.

Nyssa sat in the sitting room of the safe house and she peered outside of the window. She wondered what was taking him so long.

"It's Harry, I'm pretty sure that he's fine," Ginny said. Nyssa spun around and she nearly attacked Ginny. The redhead threw her hands up. "Wow, someone's pretty high strung tonight."

"I don't know why I allowed him to me into letting him go on that mission alone," Nyssa said.

Ginny casually leaned against the wall. She wore a skintight black leather suit that clung to her body. It was zipped up currently, showing only a modest amount of cleavage.

"You don't allow anything with Harry, he just does, and you worry about the consequences later," Ginny commented, when she sat down next to Nyssa. "And besides, you did agree that he had to deal with Granger on his own. That was a huge part of his trial to become the next head of the League of Assassins."

Nyssa would have to agree, but she didn't know whether or not how long it would be.

"I'll give him five more minutes," Nyssa replied. Ginny smiled.

Boy had she had been in this position before. And if Harry stayed true to form, he would be showing up right before time was up.

The door swung open and Harry Potter entered, carrying Hermione's body.

"You brought her body?" Ginny asked.

"Darhk may have access to a Lazarus Pit, I'm not leaving anything to chance," Harry informed them both.

Nyssa nodded and looked rather pleased with what he did, "Good, you're learning."

"I figured that you'd be happy," Harry said. He placed Hermione down onto the ground and her body remained prone.

Ginny wondered if it would be inappropriate to kick her limp body. She decided to use discretion, but it really was surreal to see her body there after all of that.

"So, that's it, she's dead?" Ginny asked.

"As for Zabini…."

"His body has been burned already," Nyssa informed. "Even though I highly doubt that he would be of much value to the HIVE, given how expendable he was. Especially after he jumped the gun and tried to have you kill without any kind of consent."

Harry thought that was likely the case, but he was not going to leave anything to consent. Hermione's body was on the couch.

"So, did she suffer?" Ginny asked quietly.

"In a sense," Harry answered. He stepped back from her slain body. "I needed to kill her to be free."

Harry felt a huge weight lifted off of his chest. He wished that Hermione was the person that he thought that she was, for seven long years. Of course, parts of that memory had been compromised. There were times where she nearly became the mask, but it was all part of a greater deception.

She chose her path in life, just like he chose his.

"Do you have the diary?" Harry asked Nyssa.

"Yes, Cassandra and Ginny liberated it….along with Megan Jones, the reporter, who was also suspicious of what she was doing," Nyssa informed him.

Harry was curious regarding that.

"You brought her here?" Harry asked. He wasn't upset, just asking a question.

"Figured that she could come in handy, given that she might have access to information that might not have made the papers," Ginny suggested with a shrug. "I mean, after external interference."

"What did you find out from her?" Nyssa asked.

Harry didn't say anything. He wanted the journal. Cassandra slipped into the room, holding the bag.

"She's currently asleep," Cassandra said, answering Harry's unasked question.

Harry held the journal. He pulled exactly how to activate it from Hermione's mind before she expired. He was pretty sure that most, if not all, of the information he pulled out of her mind was contained in the journal.

The journal broke open and a holographic display appeared. Harry scrolled down the list and committed the information to memory.

"Eight HIVE strongholds in Europe," Harry muttered. "But, that's just a drop in the hat, because Darhk has had plenty of time to amass resources all over the world."

"We can put a sizable dent of in his resources," Nyssa said. "Does he have access to a Lazarus Pit?"

The Pits were all over the world. Some of them had become tainted. Nyssa knew of one in particular in the Midwestern United States that had been tainted by mysterious green meteor rocks. The League had it under careful watch, because that was a Pit that was extremely dangerous.

"Nothing in here, but that doesn't mean anything," Harry said. He looked over the information in the journal. "There's a list of at least two hundred witches and wizards throughout Europe who are working with the HIVE, in some form or fashion."

Harry recognized some of the names. A couple of them surprised him, but given what he went through, he wasn't really surprised. He knew by now after Hermione never to be surprised by anything like that.

"Could some of them know more than she did?" Ginny asked.

"Maybe," Harry said. He was willing to entertain the notion. "Damon….he was rather high up the food chain."

"But he's not Darhk?" Nyssa asked.

"No, he isn't," Harry confirmed. "At least as far as she knew he wasn't, but he might know who Darhk is given his seniority in the HIVE food chain."

Ginny knew by now that things wouldn't be that easy.

"Damon always met her at an Inn in Knockturn Alley," Harry said. "But, the only problem is that she always set up the meetings."

"And he must have found out about what happened by now, when his little worker bee didn't make it back to her station," Nyssa said.

Harry figured that might be a minor problem. Solve one problem, create two more, that was an unfortunate recurring theme that wouldn't leave him alone.

"Guess, I shouldn't have killed her, then," Harry said.

"No, if you didn't kill her, she would have escaped, and we would have had a problem of a different kind," Nyssa said. "And we wouldn't have the information that we had."

"Nyssa has a point," Cassandra chimed in. She paused and frowned. "Is that…..no….it can't be!"

Ginny was terrified because of how scared Cassandra seemed. Given how the girl was calm for the most part and held her emotions back. That's what made her such a great assassin.

"Can you make that bigger?" Cassandra asked.

Harry pressed his hand into the page and he blew up the page that was on. There was a formula flashed up.

"Okay, a bunch of chemicals, and….I don't get any of it," Ginny said.

"It's not complete," Cassandra replied.

"Access log," Harry said.

Hermione's voice gave a little more information.

"HIVE has worked in an attempt to replicate a super soldier serum first created by the Japanese during the second World War, known as Mirakuru. The serum causes enhanced physical strength, stamina, endurance, durability, agility, and an enhanced healing factor when injected. The side effects include hallucinations and a severe case of paranoia, along with increased aggression by the subject. We have not been able to replicate the full serum. The only known sample has been lost at sea, and HIVE has not been able to locate it just yet. Three attempts to recreate the serum have fallen flat. Our test subjects have all died within hours, with only three lasting more than a day. My recommendation is to double our efforts to find the original sample, because we can reverse engineer it and mass produce enough to create an army."

Harry waited for Hermione's voice to fade out.

"A super soldier serum like that?" Nyssa asked.

"Not a myth, it's real, the Department of Mysteries studied it," Cassandra answered. "And a team went to try and locate the lost sample. None of them ever returned. Legend has it that it was lost in purgatory."

The group allowed all of that to sink in.

"That's foreboding, isn't it?" Ginny asked.

"I have all of the information that the Department of Mysteries has uncovered about where the submarine was likely to have been," Cassandra continued.

"Nyssa, arrange for the HIVE strongholds to be taken out," Harry said. Nyssa nodded in response. "Cassandra, do what you can to get me every bit of information regarding that submarine. Even if it is completely irrelevant."

Harry could see a pair of brown eyes watching him from the doorway. She slipped away, but it was too late.

"And Ginny, it's time for you and I to put an old friend to rest, properly," Harry said, almost as an afterthought.

Harry and Ginny stood over Hermione's body a little bit later, when it was laid out in front of them. Ginny was a bit uneasy when she looked at it.

"After all that, I don't really know what to say," Ginny murmured.

"If it makes you feel better, I don't really know what to say either," Harry informed her.

"When do you think that she reached the point of no return?" Ginny asked.

"She was just told by Dumbledore to stick close to me at first, he was following his marching orders from higher up, and she didn't really question it, given how she lived to please older men in authority because of her strained relationship with her father," Harry said.

Ginny wrinkled her nose, "It's…..it just seems so wrong when you say it that way, you know what I mean."

Harry placed his hand on Ginny's.

"Little bits of information that Hermione found were fed to her by Dumbledore," Harry said. "She did have a gift, a photographic memory. It's just that HIVE wanted to commit their photographs to her mind….if that makes any sense."

Ginny nodded in response.

"It was not until third year where the initial betrayal happened," Harry said. "She knew about Sirius. I can't say whether or not Dumbledore knew though."

"Should we assume that he did?" Ginny asked.

"Well, Dumbledore's either not as knowledgeable as he passes himself to be, extremely negligent, or grossly corrupt," Harry said. "I think that you figured that out with the Chamber of Secrets."

"Yes, and that was somehow my fault, despite the adults who should have known better not realizing that something might be wrong with me," Ginny said. Harry squeezed her hand extremely tightly and she nodded.

"Nothing there was your fault," Harry said.

Ginny shook her head, "You know what's funny."

"What?" Harry asked.

"If I didn't notice my diary was missing, and made my parents go back for it, none of that year would have happened," Ginny said. "Guess when a butterfly flaps its wings, things change, but we're different."

Harry doubted that the compulsion on the diary would allow Ginny to forget it, and to be honest ,he didn't really want to spend much time splitting hairs over what might have been.

"I confronted her about the time turner, because it seemed a bit odd that a school student would get a dangerous magical artifact to take a couple of extra classes," Harry said. "Turns out that she used the time turner for more training….she was recruited to an exclusive magical club when she was thirteen years old, which was tied into the HIVE."

"Did you look at all of her memories?" Ginny asked.

"Most of them," Harry said. "I figured given that she did the same to be at times, and condoned others, turnabout was fair play. I caught her doing it once….during my sixth year."

"And what did she do?" Ginny asked.

"Memory charmed me, and it wasn't for the first time she did that, she did it at least three other times and dozens of confundo spells, including once after the Goblet of Fire," Harry said. He spoke in an extremely detached voice. "And she thought that she was doing it to protect me."

She did have a misguided perception of what love was. In Hermione's mind, love was nagging a person and causing them to fall into line, and if they didn't do what she said, that she felt betrayed.

Ginny allowed that all to settle in. She didn't really know the extent of what happened between Harry and Hermione.

"And that's not counting the dozens of times I told her things in confidence, that she passed to Dumbledore and her bosses in the HIVE," Harry commented. "But, I'm no longer mad at what she did. I'm not even mad at Dumbledore, really either, or even Snape, really. I'm glad that I'll never have to see them again, after all they've done."

It was over now. Harry leaned over Hermione's body. He reflected. There were some good memories there, to be honest, but a lot of it had been a façade. Hermione wore many masks, and towards the end, she deceived even herself.

"She said the HIVE would hunt me down, she said that every magical government would hunt me down as a dark lord," Harry said. "We'll see who the hunter and who the hunted is."

Ginny shivered. There was something about Harry's tone that really unsettled her to be honest. Harry touched Hermione's body and she burst into flames before them.

The ashes fluttered down to earth and they blew into the wind.

"Let it lie," Harry said.

Ginny knew by now that they were leaving. She turned around and looked down at the ashened remains of Hermione.

She felt that a new era of her life had been opened up.

Nyssa made her way forward to one of the strongholds. Most of them were straight forward and could be picked apart by the League.

Harry needed to be here with her to take out this one. And there he was, behind her, along with the small group of assassins that Nyssa rounded up.

"You haven't told your father about this," Harry murmured.

"He doesn't need to know every little detail," Nyssa said.

"Good," Harry responded.

"And the less who know about this, the better," Nyssa said. "The League might not be the perfectly tight knit group that my father assumes it to be. That's why I kept it to a small group of loyalists what we're doing, at least until it's done."

If Nyssa learned anything, it was far easier to beg for forgiveness, than ask for permission. Plus, if she was to serve Harry and his plans, she would need to put her faith in what he wanted to do.

"There's a guard there, and there," one of her assassins said.

"The guards aren't the problem, what you see aren't the problem, it's everything that's around the perimeter is what's the problem," Harry said. "When the guards switch, we can move in….follow my lead, and don't divert, for no reason."

The assassins turned towards Nyssa, if asking for confirmation.

"He knows," Nyssa said. "Follow him."

Harry made his way. He committed the exact pathway to memory from Hermione's memories. He avoided all of the blind spots.

He stopped and stepped back. His assassins copied their movement and Nyssa lifted up a bow and drew back.

"Now," Harry muttered.

Nyssa caught the assassin with an arrow to the neck and it doubled him over. Harry darted over and picked up the key, pressing it in the door.

"Disable, 0-8-3-4," Harry said. He turned around and faced the assassins. "We have twenty minutes."

Harry broke open the door and there were stacks of gold and jewels in front of them. That looked promising to be honest. Each stronghold had a small reserve of liquid assets available, and now they were under Harry's control.

They picked up a few of the weapons as well, mostly so Harry could find a way to reverse engineer and counteract him. He had no use for magical artifacts at all, because most of them were power leeches.

The interesting thing was that these weapons weren't completely magical artifacts. There was some technological components to them, he couldn't figure out exactly what they were, but he was willing to find out.

"We found it," one of them informed him.

Harry made his way down the steps and broke open. There was a glass case and inside the glass case, there was a blue artifact that resembled a scarab of some sort. The HIVE found it and studied it, but they had never been able to get it working.

He carefully had the assassins lift the case.

Harry had all that he wanted and set up an explosive device, about to send the entire complex sky high.

Most of the artifacts he left to be blown up within the next ten minutes were completely redundant and there was really no need for them to be left there. They slipped all out.

Nyssa and Harry watched the complex blow up sky high. They would move onto the next one, although this one had the more valuable resources.

The other ones had some promising items, but to be honest, this was the most profitable of all of the strongholds that Hermione knew of.

The mysterious hooded individual known as Mr. Damon tapped his fingers on the edge of the chair where he was sitting. So far, he had not heard from his favorite worker bee, and he wanted to know why.

"Hermione is many things, but not punctual is one of them," he told his assistant.

"She hasn't been seen at the Ministry of Magic," a young man in the shadows popped up. "The last time she was seen was walking to the Minister's office to give him a folder that he needed for his meeting with the International Confederation of Wizards."

"Yes, but did anyone see her leave the office?" Damon asked.

"I was caught up in an emergency, something to loose from the Improper Use of Magic office, it was an old jukebox that we were trying to troubleshoot," the man said with a shrug. "Some of our other drones in the office….they wouldn't have seen her because they weren't on that floor."

"There's no reason to assume that she's in any danger though," another drone piped up.

"The HIVE doesn't make assumptions," Damon said.

"Well, there was a rumor, but that would be making an assumption," the drone said. Damon reached forward and grabbed his shoulder hard. He felt the energy draw out of him and his knees nearly buckled.

"I kindly tell you not to patronize me," Damon said in a harsh tone. The drone nearly fell over onto the ground. "And tell me what this so called rumor was."

"Rumor has it that…..Zabini and the goblin prince got into a fight with each other, and…..ended up killing each other," the drone said, barely able to breath.

"Zabini is all used up," Damon said harshly. "What about Hermione?"

"We don't know, but….there was this other rumor that….Harry Potter….entered the Ministry," the drone said. "Or someone posing as him, but he was spotted outside of the Ministry about an hour before Shacklebolt left."

"Can you verify this?" Damon asked.

"Potter is dead," the drone offered. Damon grabbed that drone by the throat and choked him down to his knees, draining the life energy from him.

"I warned you," Damon said. "He may have escaped from the Veil….I'd…"

Damon stopped and stared. He could hear something humming in his hand. He lifted it up and he got a report that put him in an even worse mood than ever before. This was the handiwork of only one person.

"The League," Damon muttered underneath his breath. "How did they find out about this?"

Three of the strongholds had been taken out and utterly demolished. A team of drones arrived to each site, but they had arrived a little too late. All of the resources had been cleaned out.

"Ra's Al Ghul just can't let the past go," Damon said. "He doesn't realize that the HIVE is the future, and his League is a relic of the past."

Given his agents in the Ministry were being thinned out, Damon needed to regroup what they had and reach out to any sympathetic ears possible. They needed to find Hermione Granger as well.

The thought she might have turned traitor out of some guilt was pushed out of his mind. That made Damon wonder who he could trust.

He would need to move higher up the chain, to await further instructions on how to proceed from here.

Megan really hated to admit it, but she honestly felt like a fifth wheel. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot nervously on the ground.

She had been given three square meals a day and got a nice bedroom, with a bathroom built on. Su Li and Ginny both informed her that Harry was busy, but she needed to stick around at least until she spoke to.

Megan thought briefly about sneaking off into the night, but she wasn't even that self-destructive. She flipped through the latest newspaper. There was no news about the death of Hermione Granger and anyone had a clue that Harry Potter was back, they certainly weren't saying anything.

"They could still be sticking their heads underneath the sand," Megan murmured. She flipped through the paper.

She had to read between the lines. As an afterthought, negotiations had been reopened between the goblins and the Ministry. The International Confederation of Wizards were said to have made a deal with Minister Shacklebolt that would lead to a peaceful time for all of the witches and wizards of Great Britain.

Megan honestly was surprised that the ICW actually made this deal, given how Britain was the redheaded step child of the European Magical Union after the war with Voldemort. But, maybe she was wrong.

Politics always was a fun little headache. They doubted that those countries would bail out the Ministry, unless it greatly affected their bottom line.

A firm knock on the door caused Megan's eyes to look up.

"Well, this is your house, isn't it?" Megan inquired to whoever was behind the door. "Don't worry, I'm not dancing around here my underwear or less even."

"That's a real shame."

The door opened and Megan came face to face with Harry Potter. She nearly got up to her feet.

"They mentioned that you would come by to see me," Megan said.

"Well, you did get a nice little glimpse of me," Harry informed her.

Megan tried to protest, but Harry smiled when he sat down next to her.

He got a good look at the brown haired girl. She wore a black shirt that fit around her ample breasts and it rode up to show her midriff when she leaned back to get a better look at Harry. She wore a plaid skirt against her legs, going down a little bit past her knees.

"Can't you blame a girl?" Megan asked.

"Not really," Harry admitted.

"So, what really happened between you and Hermione Granger?" Megan asked.

"Really, of all the questions you could have asked of me, that's the one?" Harry asked.

Megan threw her hands back and she sighed.

"You know, it was really the first question that popped into my mind," Megan murmured.

Harry looked completely serious.

"She wasn't the friend that I thought that she was, she lied to me, and told my secrets to people when I trusted her not to," Harry said.

"Wow, that was really awful," Megan said. "I always thought that there was something a bit phony about her….I don't know why. I never got why the two of you were friends, and you were friends with Ron Weasley."

Megan paused.

"Did he betray you as well?" Megan asked.

Harry laughed.

"Ron's only crime was having an inferiority complex a mile long," Harry said. "He has some base motivations that make it really easy to see where he's coming from. Food, Quidditch, food, chess, food, and….did I mention food?"

"You may have," Megan said. "He's with the Cannons now?"

"Far as I know," Harry with a shrug. That little conversation that he had with Megan was the most that he talked or thought about Ron Weasley in years. "But, we've got a bit of a problem with you."

"Yeah, I guess I'm trouble," Megan said. "So….guess that I have you to thank for me not getting killed."

"The HIVE knows that you're investigating them, and when it comes out that Hermione is dead, they're going to be on the warpath," Harry said. "I don't think that you want to be around, do you?"

Megan nodded in response.

"The moment I leave here, I'm dead," Megan said. She actually realized that she had a dangerous job. "Just like Luna Lovegood."

"Yes, just like her," Harry said.

"Did Hermione have her killed?" Megan asked.

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose, "No, she didn't….she was actually furious when it happened."

"You mean she actually cared?" Megan asked.

"Not necessarily cared, but thought that Luna could have had potential," Harry explained. "And she wasn't the conventional type, but Luna did see the world in her own special way. And not many people understood that perspective. I'm really surprised that Hermione understood what she could see."

"If she could see what would happen, why did she die?" Megan asked.

"Well, she might have had a blind spot where she could see anything that didn't directly involve herself," Harry suggested. "Or maybe, Luna saw what happened and let it play out, because there could be dire consequences if it didn't."

"I don't suppose that you couldn't work any of that master of death mojo to call upon her shade and ask her to clarify," Megan said.

"It doesn't necessarily work the way that you think it works," Harry said. "It's extremely painful for someone who is at peace to be unnaturally brought back from beyond. Also, I think that if Luna anticipated her own death, she embraced it. She did say that one day she would see her mother again and she looked forward to it."

Megan had to admit that was likely. She really didn't know Luna all that well. She had a few polite conversations with the girl at Hogwarts, but they had been passing moments. Like two people passing through the hallway.

She really didn't start understanding what the girl came from until she delved deep into her past when investigating her murder. And she knew that the same accident which claimed Luna's mother, also was responsible for giving Luna her gift.

It was an attempt to tap into the beyond, or at least that's what Luna figured. There were a lot of things that no one was meant to tamper with though. Luna got that unique perspective.

If Megan had to hazard a guess, every one of those creatures her father talked about, was something Luna saw. They did exist, although not on the mortal plane. It was like Luna walked between two worlds.

"It might have pained Luna to be physically bound to one world and emotionally bound to another," Harry added. "I may have to discuss this with Death, when I get with her next."

"Right, over Sunday brunch, gotcha," Megan said. She was half joking, but Harry looked completely serious.

"You know, the term Master of Death is actually fairly literal," Harry commented. "I met her."

Megan opened her mouth and she closed it. She suddenly understood where Harry was coming from and she could have slapped herself.

"Well, guess that you don't do normal, do you?" she asked.

"Try not to," Harry said.

"So, you're really interesting, Harry Potter," Megan commented. "There are a few wizards who take a couple of wives, depending on their family situation, and a few mistresses on the side, but it seems like you can do much more."

"What are you implying?" Harry asked.

"Well, there was really very few wizards of your caliber," Megan said. "I mean, sure Dumbledore was powerful, but he was the biggest closet case ever, it was just a wonder that none of us have seen what was dancing in front of our faces. Rita pretty much spelled it out the best she could without crossing the line."

"Hmm, you have a point," Harry said.

"And Voldemort, he spent way too much time playing with his snake to have interest with any women," Megan answered. "And I think that many feared that you would go that way...be so withdrawn that a monk would call you prudish. Either that, or Granger wouldn't let you out to play."

"She's gone," Harry said. "And yet, I'm still here."

"Right, you're here, and I'm here, and…..well….." Megan said. She bit down on her lip, looking at him. "So your wand is eleven inches?"

Harry raised his eyebrow.

"You're getting into some rather racy territory, Miss Jones," Harry said, with a knowing smile on his face. He calmly rested his hand on her thigh.

"I mean the wood wand, the one that you performed magic with, although I'm sure you can perform some real magic with the other wand," Megan commented without missing a beat. "I'm wondering if the theory is true, where the size of the wizard's wand corresponds with his….other wand."

Harry gave her a "hmm".

"Freud must have spent some time in the Wizarding World with theories like that," Megan added, with a shrug. She could feel his hand resting on her bare thigh and she could feel a warm sensation going up her leg. "And well….that would explain why a lot of wizards when they got under start favoring a really large staff….because they're obviously compensating for something. Just like Lucius Malfoy and his pimp cane."

"I do not want to even think about what Lucius's pimp cane implies," Harry informed her. "But I do know this….my wand and my wand match up almost perfectly."

He watched when her skirt rolled up a little bit, showing him a hint of her lacy black panties. Harry scented her arousal and he looked at her breasts. Her chest lowered and rose and he saw some deliciously hard nipples poking out from behind her blouse. He wondered if she was wearing a bra or if she was that aroused.

"Almost perfectly?" Megan asked.

"It's a little off," Harry admitted. "Not by much though, about an inch or so."

"The one in your pants or the one in your hand?" Megan asked. She closed her eyes. "Yeah, that came out really well, Megan….sorry, I keep putting my foot in your mouth."

"Perhaps you'd like something else in your mouth," Harry said to her. He got closer to her, his other hand resting on her lower back.

Megan looked into his bright green eyes, which proved to be her undoing. Her heart kept thumping even harder.

"You're the investigative journalist," Harry said, his hand brushing lightly against her ass and he leaned forward. "Perhaps you'd like to investigate?"

Harry removed his hand from Megan's thigh and placed it on his crotch. That caused her to gain the confidence that she needed.

He leaned forward and gave her a fiery kiss on the lips. She returned and threw herself onto his lap, wrapping his arms around him. She smiled when his hands slowly went behind her and removed her skirt.

She was sitting on his lap, wearing a lacy pair of black panties, a garter belt, and sheer black stockings. Harry slowly ran all the way down her leg and caused her to whimper.

Megan slid down to her knees and unbuckled his pants, so she could get a closer look.

Harry pulled his away from Megan, and Ginny kissed her on the lips.

"Congratulations, you passed the test," Ginny breathed.

Megan was half conscious from what happened.

"I think you better wait until she recovers until you tell her what you have in mind for her," Ginny said. She scooted towards Harry and her naked, body pressed up against his. "I wonder what we can do to pass the time?"

"What indeed," Harry replied.

To Be Continued.