Chapter 21: Potter Manor
AN: Soon you'll see whether your suspicions are correct regarding Dumbledore's two other helpers.
lsmd1994 – I'll add that pairing to my list, if you check my profile you'll see the list of fanfics I've been requested to write, it may take a while but I will get to it, I promise.
SereniteRose – I have plans for Dumbledore, at the minute I am going to keep things quiet with him after what just happened, but something will happen in the future.
padfootsgrl79 – I agree, Narcissa should not be messed with, after all, she did lie straight to the face of Voldemort regarding Harry's death.
Malfoy Manor – Wednesday 17th March 1982
It has been five days since Hermione's torture at the hands of Dumbledore. Five days since she had been moved from St. Mungos to Malfoy Manor and under the care of the Malfoy's private healer. Five days of her boyfriends' overbearing protective behaviour, never leaving her bedside. Five days of constant chaperones. Five days of bed rest. The healer had deemed her perfectly healthy two days ago for Merlin's sake.
The entire Weasley clan had even visited. She had no idea how since they couldn't risk being caught with her, but they assured her it was safe for them. Bill had immediately began fawning over her, Charlie spoke about dragons, the twins looked upset that she was hurt and couldn't make fireworks with them and Percy watched her over his book. She had loved them visiting but she was now losing her mind.
She had had enough of it. Even in the apartment she had space to herself. At the Manor, they wouldn't even let her go to the bathroom by herself, and once she had finished she was ushered back into bed.
She was beyond annoyed, Dumbledore had barely been there long, half an hour tops. He had only Crucioed her twice. She had suffered ten hours of torture under Bellatrix, and she was a lot more skilled and experienced at torture than Dumbledore had been. She needed some time away, some time for herself, time to breathe. With that in mind she turned her attention to the house elf that was guarding her, if someone wasn't with her, a house elf was.
"Gultri?" Hermione called.
"What cans Gultri dos for the Miss?" he asked with a bow.
"I would love a cup of tea, if you wouldn't mind" Hermione smiled at the young elf.
"Gultri bes back" he said, smiling at her smile and he left the room.
"Time to make a break for it" she said out loud.
She climbed out of bed and headed for the open window. It was a lovely spring day and she breathed in the clean air and smiled. She pulled her wand and pointed it out the window. She whispered a spell and rope shot out of the tip of her wand and tied to the balcony on the floor above her. She climbed out of the window and climbed down the rope, being on the second floor it was too far for her to jump without injuring herself.
When her feet touched the floor, she pocketed her wand and promptly changed into her fox and she ran across the large grounds, heading for the forest.
Everyone was gathered in the main lounge, the three toddlers playing together peacefully and the adults discussing Mia's plans for the White Lions, when Gultri appeared in the room.
"Gultri is sorry Mistress" he said distressed and everyone turned to him. "The Miss is gones from her rooms"
"WHAT?" Sirius bellowed, causing the adults and the children to jump in shock.
"Miss asked for a cups of teas and whens I returned shes was gone"
Sirius and James immediately ran to her room, Remus and Lucius behind them and Narcissa stayed with the children.
When they reached her room they looked around and Sirius stopped and sniffed the air when he caught the scent of something. He headed to the window and stuck his head out and looked down, before catching the sight of the rope hanging from above and blowing in the breeze.
"Clever witch" Sirius mumbled. He turned to face the others. "She's still on the grounds"
"I'll have the house elves organise a search party" Lucius spoke.
"It won't work, she in her animagus form, you'll never find her"
Remus chuckled. "She really is a genius, how did she do it?"
"Climbed down a rope" Remus burst out laughing. "Sounds like something she'd do"
"We'll head into the forest, that's where she'll be" James said.
"We'll let the others know" Remus spoke and they all went their separate ways.
Sirius and James climbed out the window and down the rope, before turning into their animagus forms and taking off at a run, following the fox's scent.
It took them fifteen minutes until they found her in the middle of a clearing in the forest, laid down on her stomach, her feet tucked under her.
'You should be in bed' Sirius' voice entered her mind. Hermione sat up and turned to face the stag and large black dog. She growled at them and they stopped on their way towards her, staying back a good few feet and out of reach.
'I am fine'
'You were tortured. You are not fine' Sirius said angrily.
'Yes, I am. Healer Dunning gave me a clean bill of health two days ago. I am sick and tired of being on bed rest. I am sick of everyone fawning over me. I am sick of being treated like fragile china that could break at a single touch. It's not the first time I've been tortured, if you remember. Dumbledore Crucioed me twice, Bellatrix tortured me for ten hours. What Dumbledore did practically tickled' she yelled in their minds. 'Stop being so protective. I know that you care and that you're worried for me. But I've been trying to tell you for days that I am fine. I need space to breathe. I need to get back to work. I am not hurt in any way, shape or form, I don't even have a scar' she said softly, her anger gone. 'Please just stop. I appreciate everything you have done, you have been amazing and attentive, the type of boyfriends any witch would wish for, but please, for me, stop'
'We're sorry, Mia' James entered her mind. 'We should've seen that our actions were affecting you this way. We were just worried for you; we'll listen to you from now on. I promise'
'That's all I ask' she replied softly.
The stag moved over to her and nuzzled its nose against hers and he plopped down next to her on the ground. The dog looked at her for a few seconds before cautiously moving forward. When he was close enough the fox nuzzled her nose against his and she felt the tension leave him and he sat down on her other side, sandwiching her between the stag and himself.
'I'm sorry for snapping at you'
'We're sorry' Sirius sighed. 'We should've known you were fine. Harry hasn't been kicking up a fuss and it was wrong of us to keep you in that room. We know how much you hate being confined to one place; it goes against your nature as a wild animal to be free'
'I forgive you'
They sat in silence for a little while before Hermione broke the silence.
'I want to go home'
'We can't, it's not safe' Sirius said sadly.
'I can't stay here. Don't get me wrong, the manor is beautiful and I love the Malfoys and little Theo, but I can't stay here. I've been having flashbacks to the night of Bellatrix torturing me. It seems being here for so long has affected me. I feel like bawling my eyes out every time I even think of the drawing room'
'There's nowhere else to go that's safe' James pointed out.
'That's not true; there are loads of places. We simply cast a Fidelius, making the property unplottable and inaccessible to anyone we don't wish to have access'
'It takes a hell of a lot of magic to cast the Fidelius, Dumbledore did it for us on the cottage and he had to rest for two days afterwards' James spoke.
'I can cast the Fidelius, I researched it and I originally planned to cast it over the Burrow but I run out of time'
"I'm not going back to that flat and neither are you. Harry is not getting anywhere near that place either" Sirius said. The fox nodded sadly. 'What about a Black property?'
'No, Kreacher has a big mouth and he hates you. You could order him not to tell anyone that we're staying in a Black property, but he could still write it down and send it to someone'
'House elves can't read and write' James said.
'Yes, they can, Dobby told me in fourth year. That rules out a Black property' she said thoughtfully, suddenly a though hit her. 'Potter Manor'
'That's genius, I completely forgot about Potter Manor. I haven't been there since my seventh year' James spoke.
'What about the blood wards?' Sirius asked.
'They're should be fine for us. You and Remus already have access from years of visiting, you're keyed into the wards. Harry will automatically be allowed through the wards with him being a Potter and Mia should have access with her bond to Harry'
'Is it alright with you James, using your family's manor?' Hermione asked.
'Of course, you won't have to squeeze all of your books onto one book case and your potion lab into your bedroom. I honestly don't know why I didn't think of it before' a look entered his eyes and he quickly changed back into James, Sirius and Hermione followed confused.
"Merlin" he whispered and then looked at Sirius. "You don't think, do you?" Sirius looked at him confused until James spoke again, standing up, followed by Hermione and Sirius. "Honey" he called.
A house elf popped into the clearing.
"Master, I knew you would never forget Honey" the house elf cried and she flung herself at him and wrapped her arms around his legs.
"I could never forget you, Honey" he said softly and the house elf pulled away with tears in her eyes.
"Lord Black" Honey said with a smile and Sirius grinned.
"It's been a while Honey"
"Honey, do you know what's happened?" James asked.
"Yes, Master" James nodded, not going further on the subject. "Honey, this is Mia, our girlfriend" Honey turned to Hermione and looked at her shyly. Hermione smiled softly.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Honey"
"Miss Mia, is pretty" she said to James and he and Sirius smiled and nodded.
"Honey, we will be returning to Potter Manor" Honey's eyes gleamed with joy.
"Honey has taken good care of Master's Manor in his absence"
"I didn't doubt that you did" he said and Honey beamed. "Remus, Mia, Sirius and my son, Harry, will be joining me. It is not safe for us to return to our previous home. Will you please head over to Sirius' apartment, pack up all personal belongings and set them in their correct places. You may leave the food and furniture behind. Mia has a very dangerous and priceless collection of books and she will need a room to put them in, I would suggest the library but these books shouldn't be mixed up by accident. She also has a potions lab that will need packing up, along with rare potion ingredients and potions"
"Yes, Master, Honey knows where to go"
"Oh, James, honestly" Hermione huffed. "Making her do all of that by herself. I'll go with her. She won't be able to get to my books anyway; it's warded against anyone but me, including house elves. I'll be back shortly, tell the others our plans"
Before they could argue with her, Honey took Hermione's hand and they disappeared from view.
Sirius' Apartment
When they arrived in the apartment the place was trashed and definitely not the way they left it. It looked as though Dumbledore had sent people to search the apartment for anything on their plans. Luckily Hermione never wrote anything down and if she did, she hid the notes and plans behind the books on the book cases, the wards protecting them.
"Honey will do the Master's and Little Master's things, Lord Black's, Mr Remus' and the bathroom" before Hermione could argue with the house elf she had walked down the corridor to the bedrooms.
Hermione shook her head amused and headed to her bedroom. It had been trashed as well. Clothes flung about the room, the bed over turned and covers on the floor and drawers emptied and on the floor. But the book case was untouched. She took her wand and waved it over the book case and she found that some of the wards had been breached but they had held strong and nothing was missing. She headed into her potions lab. The tables, cauldrons and stools were over turned. It was a good job she hadn't been in the process of brewing a potion and that she had burned all pieces of parchment with potion recipes on from the future. She was glad to see that the wards she had around her storage cupboard for the completed potions and the ingredients hadn't been broken either. She sighed annoyed.
'At least they didn't get anything' she thought before she went about conjuring cardboard boxes and sending spells, shrinking everything down and putting them into the boxes. She boxed up her potions lab, her books and research and her clothing. She grabbed her beaded bag from the book shelf, also protected by the wards and put the boxes inside.
She found Honey in the living room, picking up the last of Harry's stuffed toys in the room and she put them in a box and clicked her fingers, the box disappeared.
"Honey is done" she told Hermione. "Honey will return Miss Mia to Master"
Hermione nodded and cast a few extra warding spells to stop thieves from getting in and Honey grabbed her hand and they left the apartment.
Malfoy Manor
They landed outside of the room everyone was in and Hermione handed her beaded bag to Honey.
"Be very careful Honey, there are very rare and irreplaceable books in this bag. A lot of them extremely dangerous and dark. The same for the potion ingredients, some of them are volatile as are the completed potions. I don't want you to get hurt"
"Honey will be careful Miss Mia" she said with a wide smile and she popped out of the room.
Hermione walked into the room and everyone turned to look at her. Sirius and James sighed in relief and rushed to her, hugging her between them.
"I'm fine, no one saw us" they reluctantly broke the hug. "The apartment was a tip, someone's been back there and it's obvious they were looking for something"
"Your plans, research, books?" James said panicked.
"Didn't get any of it, luckily I hid everything important behind my books" they sighed.
"That's good, your book case is warded like Gringotts" Hermione snorted at him.
"They were definitely interested in my book case though, I detected several breaches but the wards held and they got nothing. Honey has returned to the manor, no doubt unpacking everything"
"We should leave soon, it's already getting dark" Sirius commented.
"Are you sure you can cast the Fidelius?" Remus asked.
"With the moon up, I should be able to. Harry will be close by as well"
"What about Harry? He can't read"
"He's a child and a Potter, the Fidelius will automatically include him" Hermione answered.
Potter Manor
They arrived outside the wards of Potter Manor and Hermione stared in shock. James, who was carrying Harry, Remus and Sirius immediately stepped forward, passing through the wards but Hermione was too busy staring at the manor.
It was large, aged and beautiful. It had mismatched grey stones, much like Hogwarts. Ivy and vines had grown up some parts of the building and they had little flowers blossoming. She could tell from the positioning of the large windows the manor had three floors, and she couldn't even guess the number of rooms and what other secrets it would contain. And she didn't even want to think about the size of the grounds.
"Mia" James called, she tore her eyes away from the manor and looked at James who looked at her amused. "You coming?" he asked her.
She took a deep breath, shut her eyes tightly and stepped forward. She could feel herself tingling, her magic buzzing, the wards had accepted her. She opened her eyes and beamed.
"You were right, they let me through" they chuckled at her. "Right, may as well do this now"
She pulled her wand and pointed it at the Manor. She looked at Harry and gripped her necklace in her other hand. Harry unconsciously tugged at the necklace around his neck, the necklace that he never took it.
She took a deep breath and started waving her wand in a complicated pattern and she muttered the incantation under her breath. They could visibly see the wards around the manor as they glowed a bright blue. She dropped her wand and walked over to Harry and held his hand.
"Siblings we are and siblings we will stand. Together we will protect the people and the land" she spoke softly and then she looked up at the moon.
Her necklace started glowing silver and she lifted her wand again. Waving the wand and muttering under her breath, they could see sweat beginning to form on her forehead and her face set in determination.
"He is my brother but not of blood, he does things I wish I could. We've been like siblings since the day we met, and I will forever be in his debt" she spoke and the grounds of the manor started to glow blue, along with the wards.
"So take his life and meld it with mine, so together we may share a blood line" she spoke as she continued to wave her wand.
"Siblings we are and siblings we will be. Together we'll stand for all eternity" Hermione spoke loudly. The manor began to glow blue, much like the grounds and wards. James gasped and Sirius and Remus followed his line of sight to the moon. The moon that suddenly seemed bigger and was glowing brighter.
"She's summoning magic from the Moon Goddess" Remus said awed and they stared at Hermione. Sweat was now running down her face and she was panting heavily. She suddenly gasped and stumbled backwards, everything stopped glowing and Sirius caught her.
"You did it" James said awed.
"That was amazing" Sirius said softly as he held her up.
"The wards are still accepting us, but we can't see the Manor" Remus said in wonder.
Hermione reached in to her pocket and pulled out the piece of parchment that had appeared in there. Written on the parchment was 'Potter Manor, home to Sirius Orion Black, Remus John Lupin, Mia Jean Granger, Lord James Charlus Potter and Harry James Potter, is located in Worcestershire, England'. Hermione passed the parchment to each of them and they read it out, afterwards Hermione burned the parchment.
Sirius supported her weak frame and helped her towards the now visible Manor.
"Welcome home everyone" James said and Hermione smiled.
Yes, it was home. She could feel it; somehow she knew she would have many happy memories in Potter Manor. They would be protected and nothing could break through the defences she had put into place, when doing the Fidelius she had also strengthened the wards.
They were stood in a large corridor that opened up to rooms on either side, a beautiful chandelier hung over them and a grand staircase was the first thing that caught your attention. Portraits of the Potter ancestors lined the walls and they smiled as they walked further into the manor. Unlike Malfoy Manor, the flooring was dark and wooden, there was a dark red carpet leading to the stair case. There was the main lounge off to the right, with comfortable looking couches and arm chairs, dark wooden tables and a large fireplace. Off to the left was the dining room. It had a dark wooden table set in the middle with twenty chairs. There was a large glass cabinet filled with delicate china and silver cutlery.
"We'll give you a tour later on Mia, you should rest for tonight" James said. Hermione agreed with him. "Honey" he called and she popped in front of them.
"Master is home" she beamed and they smiled at her.
"I assume we have our old rooms"
"Master is in the Master suite on the second floor, Lord Black in his old room, Mr Remus in his old room, Little Master has the room opposite Master's and Miss Mia's room is opposite Mr Remus'" Honey explained.
"We're all on the second floor, next to each other really" Sirius whispered in her ear as an explanation.
"Thank you, Honey"
"Would Master like dinner, Honey will have Tinkle, Ziggy and Lynn make dinner"
"They're still here?" he asked in shock.
"Yes, Master, Honey knew you would return and so they stayed" she said proudly.
"We would love dinner Honey; we will take it in Mia's room"
"Of course Master" she popped out of the room and James led everyone up the grand stair case, to the second floor and he took the left corridor.
"Okay, each room has a bathroom; there are seven on this floor. The other two are down the right corridor, along with the study, sitting room and the library, you'll have to wait Mia" he said chuckling when she scowled. "Padfoot's Room" James pointed to the first room they came across. "Moony's room" he pointed to the room adjacent to Sirius. "My room" he gestured to the room next to Remus'. "Harry's is opposite mine, and your room Mia, is next to Harry's" he stopped at the door and opened it.
Hermione's mouth dropped open when she saw inside. It was huge, almost three times bigger than her room at the apartment. Like her room at the apartment, it was decorated in black and white. Three black walls, one feature wall with a black and white pattern. The large king size bed -actually she thinks it's bigger than that- sat against the feature wall with brilliant white bedding and pillows. A white beside table and a beautiful lamp sat on it. A soft white carpet covered the floor, with two white arm chairs and a glass coffee table and there were large windows that showed beautiful views of the grounds and there was a large white vanity near the windows, with a comfortable chair to match. There were four doors that lead to separate rooms.
Sirius helped her to move forward so she could see inside the rooms. The first door led to a walk in wardrobe with all of her clothes already hung up and ordered neatly and correctly and her shoes on the built in shoe rack. The second door led to her bathroom. It had a large shower and bathtub and she practically groaned in appreciation -she couldn't remember the last time she had a relaxing bath- and there was a transparent bathroom cabinet above the sink and the toilet was nearby. The bathroom was decorated in the same black and white.
The third door opened up to store all of Hermione's books on shelves and when she looked closer, she noticed they were organised the same way they had been at the apartment. There were two overly large arm chairs and a writing desk, along with a corkboard for Hermione to pin up important notes and plans. It was like a mini version of a library. The final door opened up to a potions lab, and once more, it was set up how it had been at the apartment. Hermione marvelled at everything. The only thing that was missing was a kitchen and she would've had her own apartment.
"How?" she whispered.
"Honey's tricky, she knows everything. You get used to it" James shrugged.
"This room is huge" she muttered.
"It's the second largest bedroom in the manor, of course the master room is the largest. It used to be on the third floor but the elves moved it so we are all together. Padfoot's and Moony's rooms are one room smaller. I knew Honey would find you a room that would suit your needs. You won't have to ward your books anymore"
"I'm still going to with Sirius under the same roof" they laughed when Sirius huffed indignantly and he let go of her, and pushed her onto her bed and she laughed. Harry giggled and James put him on the bed and he crawled over to Hermione.
"Welcome home, Harry" she whispered to him and he grinned.