No, I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, though I do own copies of all the books and films. The people who do own the Harry Potter franchise are JK Rowling, Bloomsbury, Warner Bros. and a few other publishers. Thank you to JKR for letting us play about in the sandbox of the Wizarding World
Thanks for all the reviews, I have decided to not let the people who choose to hate me get to me anymore. It's their loss. Also, in order to shut them up and prevent them clogging up my mail box, I have altered the story summary. I am hoping that that will stop them… but then again they were warned of the exact same thing at the bottom of chapter one and they ignored that, so…
On with Chapter 11!
Harry: The Forgotten Brother.
Chapter 11: Recovery
"The blood is not hers." said Luna, after running some diagnostic spells over Hermione.
Harry nodded "Alright, Luna, I think you know what to do with our unexpected guest. I'm going to get Hermione to the bed."
Hermione clung to Harry's shirt as he lifted her up and carried her out of the room.
Luna cast a few cauterising charms at Snape to stop his bleeding and then turned to Padma and Sally-Anne "Come on. I know just where to stick him." she said.
With another flick of her wand she cast "Mobilicorpus", causing Snape's bound body to rise up into the air. Luna then led the way into the garden at the back of the house. Through the stables, past the pigsty, the cows, the pond and the vegetable plot and around the back of the greenhouses they went, to where a small trap door sat.
Padma drew her wand and gave it a flick, which opened the trap door. Luna then unceremoniously allowed Snape's body to drop through the opening and down deep into the ground. After hearing the body reach the bottom with a satisfactory thud, Padma closed the trap door and followed Luna and Sally-Anne back into the house.
In the kitchen, Luna cast warming charms on their dinners, conjured covers to go over the tops of the plates, and then led the way to the bedroom
"Dobby, Winky." Harry called out after he placed Hermione on his bed.
The two House Elves appeared with simultaneous pops.
"Master Harry is calling Dobby and Winky?" asked Dobby, before he noticed the apparent situation "What's wrong with Mistress Grangy?" he cried, tugging on his long pointy ears in worry whilst Winky looked horrified.
"I don't know yet." replied Harry "Look, could you two fetch us some medical supplies? Particularly a calming draught?"
"At once Harry sir." squeaked Winky as she and Dobby gave a bow and then promptly vanished.
Many miles away, Daphne Greengrass, a well-known potions mistress was working on a standard blood-replenishing potion when her work was interrupted by two pops caused by two house elves appearing in her workroom.
"Mistress Greeny-Grass," said Dobby the House Elf, turning to address her "Master Harry is requiring healthy-making potions."
Daphne nodded "Alright. You know where they are. Who's hurt?"
"Mistress Grangy." replied Winky, sadly.
That surprised Daphne; Hermione Granger was not someone that one could ambush easily.
"Is she ok?"
"Dobby thinks Master Harry thinks so." replied Dobby. Fortunately for Daphne, she had long ago learnt to understand House Elf speak.
"Alright, well take what you need, and tell Harry that I'll be over in the morning for more." said Daphne, before going back to her work.
Dobby and Winky took what they needed, and then went back to Harry's cottage.
When they arrived, they found Hermione propped up on some pillows, which Harry sitting next to her, an arm around her as he whispered comforting words to the shocked witch. Alongside them, Sally-Anne was casting cleaning charms to get rid of the last of the blood, and Luna and Padma were running more diagnostic charms.
"Mistress Greeny-Grass says she'll be bringing more tomorrow." said Dobby as he handed Harry a calming draught, who thanked Dobby before feeding it to Hermione. From then it only took a few minutes to calm her down.
"Hermione?" asked Harry in a soft voice "Hermione, can you tell me exactly what happened?"
Hermione took a few deep, calming breaths before answering.
"I was on my way to the Three Broomsticks when they ambushed me outside Tomes and Scrolls. There were nine of them; seven Death Eaters and a Werewolf. I killed two and incapacitated a third with a fire whip. I blew another's head apart, end tore holes into two others. I drove an aspen stake into one of the Werewolves, and killed the other with a silver knife. Then the leader attacked."
"Snape." growled Harry, earning a nod from Hermione.
After a few moments she said "I think Dumbledore knew."
Silence filled the air in the room as each of its occupants took in that piece of information. The possibility was there, that much they all knew.
"Hermione, I want to see a memory of this." said Harry.
Hermione nodded her consent.
"Winky, could you fetch-" the little House Elf popped away before he could finish his request, and returned moments later with a pensieve.
With a little cooperation from Hermione, Harry was able to extract the memory from her mind and place it within the pensieve before entering it.
As Harry was busy watching the memory, a ginger cat trotted into the room and jumped up onto the bed.
Hermione smiled and scratched the cat behind his ears "Hello Crookshanks,"
Technically this cat was Crookshanks III, but that was too much of a mouthful. He was the grandson of the half-cat/half-kneazle that Hermione had obtained just before her third year of education and, like his father and grandfather before him, Crookshanks III was a very loyal, and very smart cat; the perfect familiar for the loyal and smart Hermione Granger.
A few moments later, Harry left the pensieve, and he had a grave look on his face.
"Yeah, the bastard knew alright." he growled. He rubbed his forehead wearily before turning to two of the witches in the room.
"Padma, Sally-Anne, are we alright to take a rain-check on our meeting?"
"Of course." replied Padma.
"Absolutely." confirmed Sally-Anne "Listen, I'm sure that you three will want to spend a little time together, so we'll head off."
As Luna saw the two witches out, Harry got back on the bed and wrapped Hermione up in his arms.
"I was so scared." said Hermione, in a small, frightened voice.
"I know." said Harry "But you were wonderful, and I couldn't be more proud of you."
"But I killed eight people."
"And if you hadn't killed them?"
After a few moments, Hermione nodded in acceptance.
"Hey, do you fancy some dinner?" Harry asked after a few more quiet moments "I cooked."
Hermione actually managed a smile at that "You're the best cook."
"Is that a yes to dinner then?"
Hermione nodded "Ok,"
Both stood and headed into the kitchen. Luna joined them as Crookshanks III stretched out on the now vacated pillows of the bed.
"I gave Padma and Sally-Anne their dinners to take with them." said Luna, taking her seat as Harry and Hermione took theirs.
Harry nodded in reply and they settled in to eat their dinner.
After a good few minutes of silence, Hermione spoke again "I don't think I could go back to Hogwarts now."
"Hey," said Harry, reaching out to take hold of her hand "No one is going to ask you to do that. I think that Dumbledore won't argue against that, knowing what he knows. And anyway, that means you can be here more."
"Here with us." added Luna, reaching out and taking Hermione's other hand into her own.
Hermione smiled at the gesture, and then the three continued their meal in silence.
Once the food was finished, Hermione announced that she was tired. Harry and Luna decided that it was best to stay with her, and so all three of them headed off to the bedroom, leaving Dobby and Winky to clear up the mess.
After taking another calming draught and a dreamless sleep potion, it was not long before Hermione was sound asleep. Luna joined her soon after, but it took Harry a while to fall asleep. Instead he just laid there, enjoying having Hermione cuddled up to one side of him, and Luna cuddled up against his other side. Crookshanks III was curled up in the top corner of the bed, behind Hermione's head, which was resting on Harry's right shoulder.
As far as Harry Potter was concerned, with one girlfriend on either side of him, all was right with the world… for now.
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"I told you not to trust the greasy-haired bastard" Mad-Eye Moody was saying.
"You've subjected years' worth of students to that man, always overriding us when complaints were raised-" Minerva McGonagall was saying.
"No amount of insisting on your part is going to save that bastard this time, Albus…" Amelia Bones was saying.
"…told you he was never on our side, but would you listen…?" Sirius Black was saying.
"I'll personally skin him alive if and when I can get my hands on him…" Rufus Scrimgeour was saying.
"…never repented and you were a fool to believe it…" James Potter was saying.
"If I find out you knew anything about this in advance, I'll tear that beard out by its roots and shove it so far up your arse…" Filius Flitwick was saying.
"You're a fool, Dumbledore, nothing but a senile old fool" Cornelius Fudge was saying.
"… no telling how many Order missions were compromised by him…" Remus Lupin was saying.
"Better search the rest of the school's staff and Order for Dark Marks…" Kingsley Shacklebolt was saying.
"…should've retired years ago…" Lily Potter was saying.
"…board of Governors will be meeting to discuss your future at the school…" Augusta Longbottom was saying.
Nothing was right with Albus Dumbledore's world. Getting rid of the jumped up mudblood that was Hermione Granger should have provided two outcomes: one, securing the position of Snape the spy amongst Voldemort's ranks for a few more months, and two, remind the divided light side of what was important and reunite them under one banner.
Well that last one was certainly achieved, though currently they were united under the 'blame Albus Dumbledore for the state of things' banner.
The mudblood had proved to be unexpectedly powerful; she had handled her attackers with surprising ease, dealing out deadly blows that instantly killed half the group, and meant that the other half would die before aid could be administered.
And on top of that: Snape was now missing, and known to have been involved in the attack. After her brutal display of self-defence, Dumbledore was left wondering just what kind of torture Snape was currently enduring at the hands of Hermione Granger.
Of course, Dumbledore currently could not focus too much on Snape's fate, as it seemed that everyone was out for Albus' blood. He could see their point, after all he had personally vouched for Snape for years, and now the man was a known participant in the plot to kill Hermione Granger, one of Wizarding Britain's most prominent Muggle-Born witches, second only to the famous Lily Potter herself.
The problem was that these people did not know all the facts. They did not know that the murder of Hermione Granger was supposed to keep Snape safe in his position. Of course, had these people known that, they would be even angrier at Dumbledore. They simply did not see the Greater Good as Dumbledore saw it. They would never understand why Dumbledore would sacrifice Granger for Snape.
But none of his reasoning mattered now, because the assassination attempt had failed, costing six people and two werewolves their lives, and costing Dumbledore his spy, and possibly a lot more besides.
In his eagerness to make a martyr of Hermione Granger, Dumbledore had overlooked her apparent popularity. In fact he had never noticed her popularity really; he knew she was liked by the Muggle-born students, but beyond that he was unaware of just how well-known the first generation witch was. It was a sign of just how out of touch with the rest of the world he really was.
Few in the room could really image the scale of the impact of this event when it made the news the following morning: all that could be said for certain was Albus Dumbledore would be lucky to survive the fallout.
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Early the following morning, Potions Mistress Daphne Greengrass made good on her promise and arrived at Harry Potter's cottage with a few more potions to help Hermione recover from her ordeal; though spending the night in Harry's arms seemed to have helped a lot with that already. Daphne was not alone when she arrived, however.
Accompanying her was her sister: Astoria Malfoy, née Greengrass. Harry raised an eyebrow at her arrival.
"What brings you here, Lady Malfoy?"
Astoria sank into a respectful bow "My Lord, I bring news. I am with child."
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Feeling like he had been run over by a rampaging herd of Hippogriffs, Severus Snape woke up and took in his surroundings. He seemed to be in a hole of some kind, probably below ground. Wondering just how he was going to escape from this, he failed to notice the body of Ryan Spinks until he accidentally placed his hand on it. Quickly he moved away from the body and sank down to the ground as far away from the body as he could get.
Remembering the last time he saw Ryan Spinks, he realised where he might be.
Harry Potter.
So Granger had known of him. An interesting development. But now how to report this to Dumbledore? Well, Snape would have to get out of here first; whatever and wherever here actually was.
A/N: And I'll leave it there. Sorry for the delay in getting this up, but there have been things preventing me from finishing this chapter: you don't care what they are, so I won't bore you with them. Anyway, hopefully this chapter makes up for the delay, what with confirmation of who Hermione's master from chapter five is, the arrival of Crookshanks (well, his grandson, anyway), the beginning of tough times for Dumbledore, the arrival of Dobby and Winky on the scene, and, at long last, the long-awaited appearances James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, Kingsley and Mad-Eye Moody. I know that they were barely cameos, but that's just the way the chapter came together.
Also finally, confirmation that Harry and Hermione are in a relationship together. Together with Luan that is. I know I pissed off some people when I introduced Luna as Harry's girlfriend before, but that's just the way the story went. They are together now, so stop bugging me about it!
Oh, any by the way, any of you who are confused about whom Hermione's master is, and why Astoria comes to Harry's home, read chapter five again. I think that nearly everyone missed something. Well, everyone who reviewed did, anyway.
See you next time!