The Harmony bond, chapter twenty-one.
Disclaimer:-
To anyone who has been on another planet since 1997, this is to let you know that Harry Potter belongs to J. , her various publishers and Warner Brothers. This story and any new characters belong to me.
In the previous chapter...
Miss Collier was obliviated after a row between the Grangers and Professor Dumbledore.
Despite the fact that the two children had obviously had a good night, breakfast in the kitchen had been a subdued affair. After Harry and Hermione had gone to school, Jean Granger had done the washing up and was quickly tidying the house before leaving to join her husband in their dental practice when she discovered the book, lying on the tea table in the lounge.
International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy
1692
94ª revision: 1964
Frowning, she lay the feather aside, picked up the book, and a note fell out.
"Dear Mr. and Mrs. Granger and Hermione. Please forgive me for sending Fawkes with this book. As I said last night the law was written for good reason. I have borrowed this book from our History of Magic teacher. I hope it will help you to understand the reasons I had to act as I did. Please understand. There are times when even I have no choice."
Sending the book had been the result of a frantic meeting the night before between Professor Dumbledore, Professors Flitwick and McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey and Remus.
"I seem to have offended the Grangers again," Professor Dumbledore began. "It seems that no matter what I do, I cannot earn their trust. Now Mrs. Granger is threatening to keep Hermione from school. Professor Flitwick, Madam Pomfrey, you've seen more of them than anybody. Do you think she was serious?"
"Albus, it would help if we knew what had happened," Professor Flitwick replied.
"Remus?" Professor Dumbledore nodded.
"A teacher saw us practising and fainted. Hermione objected to her teacher being obliviated. In fact she and her mother were angry even when I kept the teacher unconscious for longer so that I could call Professor Dumbledore."
"And when I obliviated her," Professor Dumbledore took up the story, "Mrs. Granger commented that I was quickly losing their trust and that she might consider not allowing Hermione to go to Hogwarts. Harry, of course, said that he wouldn't come without her."
"Sir, to be honest, it didn't help when you virtually admitted that if it wasn't for the bond, you would have obliviated them as well."
Professor Dumbledore sighed, his hands in a helpless gesture, but Remus hadn't finished. "Hermione was right, wasn't she?"
"About what?"
"That Harry is important somehow. That's why you're so worried about him not coming here.
"I'm sorry, Remus, there are some things I cannot answer."
"Albus. You don't have to bear the weight of the world alone, you know," said Professor McGonagall.
"Yes, Harry is important, Minerva. However, aside from me, only five people knew why. Two are dead, two are as good as dead, one I have managed to protect so far only because nobody else knows."
The tone of sad finality in his voice indicated that that subject was closed.
"Albus," said Madam Pomfrey. "You have to look at things from the Grangers' point of view. They still understand almost nothing of our world. They don't take things for granted that a wizarding family would, like you are a great hero that most of us would trust with our lives. To them you are the man who abandoned Harry to be abused and never checked on him. You are the man who nearly killed both Harry and their daughter by separating them. Now you have gone into their home, which traditionally Englishmen think of as their castle, and obliviated Hermione's teacher against their will. Did you even try to explain why?"
"I did," said Remus.
"That may make a difference in how they see you, Remus, but it's not the same as if it had been Albus. Now, Albus," Madam Pomfrey said, turning to him, "you can't rely on your position and reputation with Harry or the Grangers. You need to earn their trust."
"Do you think Mrs. Granger was serious about keeping Hermione from Hogwarts?" Professor McGonagall asked, frowning. "Would she do that?"
"If she doesn't feel Hermione is safe, of course she would," the mediwitch replied. "I'm not saying that she would necessarily keep Hermione away from the wizarding world, but it wouldn't be hard for them to find out that there are other wizarding schools she could be sent to."
"So what options do I have?" Professor Dumbledore asked heavily.
"There are charms you could use," said Professor Flitwick, "to make them more likely to trust you. You could only use them on the parents, not on Hermione. It would be too risky with the bond."
"You can't really be suggesting..." objected Madam Pomfrey, obviously appalled.
"No. Don't misunderstand me," Filius added quickly. "Albus asked what he could do. This is one option regardless of whether it is good or bad. Apart from the fact that it would be highly unethical, Hermione would never trust you again if she ever found out what you had done. But your biggest problem would be Harry."
"Harry?" Professor Dumbledore asked.
"Yes, Harry. You've seen how ready he already is to jump to Hermione's defence. Hermione at least wants to be able to respect authority, it's the way she's been brought up. With Harry there is no such desire."
"What do you mean?"
"Remember I told you that I hit Hermione with a stinging curse aimed at Harry, being fairly sure that she would try to protect him?"
"Yes."
"When I explained why to Mrs. Granger, she accepted the explanation, rather more readily than I had expected, to be honest," Filius admitted. "She had obviously spoken to Hermione as she was quite ready to accept me again the next day. Harry wasn't though. Even after Hermione explained why I'd done what I'd done, he was wary of me. The only reason he accepted me again was because Hermione did."
"Where does this leave us?" Dumbledore asked.
"Don't underestimate Harry is all I am saying," said Filius. "But for now, treat Hermione and the Grangers as people with whom you have to earn their trust."
"Albus," said Minerva McGonagall forcefully. "I go to meet parents of muggleborns all the time. They don't know our world, they don't know you. They don't have anything for which to respect you. Your titles mean nothing to them. Defeating Grindelwald means nothing to them." She smiled wryly, "Even your chocolate frog card means nothing to them. You need to explain why you do things instead of just expecting them to trust you as if it is your right."
Professor Dumbledore sighed, and nodded at his Deputy Headmistress. They all knew the argument had hit home and, nodding at each others, all decided to leave the old man to his thoughts. Remus flooed away, while the others returned to their respective quarters.
Professor Dumbledore took his time before he called his phoenix, Fawkes, to him.
Hermione had been watching Miss Collier all day until Harry asked her why.
"I wanted to see that she was all right," she explained. "After last night, I mean..."
Harry understood her worry. He'd had another reason for paying extra attention to Miss Collier all day: He wanted to see how she treated Hermione in class. He needn't have worried, though; while she didn't go out of her way to involved Hermione, she called on her from time to time, this time making favourable comments. Although Hermione had mouthed "Thank you" to him, seeing the happy look on Hermione's face was all the thanks he needed.
It had been a pretty good day, the only downside had been that the three bullies from Tuesday were back in class. So far, however, they had restricted themselves to glaring at Harry and Hermione. Harry wondered how long that would last.
During her lunch break at work, Jean Granger had begun reading parts of the book Professor Dumbledore had left. Many of the pages had stuck together and she wondered how long it had been since anyone had read the book.
The first, and largest, section had been the historical background. She had only skimmed through parts of it, filled with witch burnings and other horrors, when she reluctantly admitted to herself that Remus may have a valid point.
The second section, the law itself, which dated back to 1692, was short and appeared to be written in English from the middle ages. She could barely understand any of it. Luckily it was followed by a commentary in far more modern English, which had been written in the 1940s. Again, what Remus had explained was correct, at least as far as he had gone. This was a lot more detailed.
The next section was two short, but detailed guides, "Deciding whether to obliviate or to leave the memories: guide to evaluation" and "Obliviation procedures, reversal of obliviation and the potential dangers of each."
The book finished with a whole section on "Magical/Muggle friendships and associations." This section had the clear warning that "the contents of the articles in this section are the experiences and viewpoints of the authors only and should not be taken to be the official viewpoint of the Ministry."
Mrs. Granger thought wryly that going by the article headings, they might be more interesting than the official Ministry viewpoint as well. "My friend the muggle, what should I say?" "I'm in love with a muggle! Help!" and "My husband just erased my sister's memories! What can I do?" There were also addenda with "The law on obliviation, Proposals for reform" which seemed to date back to the 1920s and a more recent "Obliviation and Human Rights, with special emphasis on current muggle human rights legislation in Europe" which was dated 1963.
"Hadn't you better get home to meet Hermione?" Her husband's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Oh, it can't be that time already, can it? Why didn't you disturb me? I've been reading since lunchtime!"
"It's been a quiet afternoon. I managed on my own, and by the look on your face, it looked important."
"It is," she admitted. "I think I may have been a little hasty with Dumbledore."
"Really?" The surprise showed on his face. "That's not like you."
"I just don't trust the man."
"Don't trust him, or are you worried that in a few years, he'll probably be responsible for Hermione instead of us?"
"I don't know. I suppose there might be some of that. Is it wrong of me?"
"Don't ask me. I just wonder how long it will be before we lose her." Seeing the shocked look on his wife's face, David Granger added quickly, "I don't mean it like that. But it's a different world from ours. Whether we like it or not, it's her world, and we're not part of it."
After arriving home from school and having something to eat, Remus had arrived to take Hermione and Harry to the Burrow for a training session. Hermione had been given the book Professor Dumbledore had left and she took it with her.
Of course the twins didn't miss anything. "What's that?" Assuming they were wearing their correct jumpers, that was Fred, as his jumper had a big letter "F" on the front.
"A book on Wizarding Secrecy," Hermione explained. "Professor Dumbledore borrowed it from the History of Magic teacher for me."
"Binns?" exclaimed George, looking at the book. "He had a book from this century? According to Charlie he never does anything except old goblin wars. He's probably so ancient he was in some of them."
"Shouldn't that be Professor Binns?" said Hermione sternly, expecting Remus to back her up, but Remus was only smiling.
George was saved the trouble of answering when Ron and Ginny burst in, quickly followed by Mrs. Weasley.
"Ron, Ginny, come out of there. They are training and don't need you two interrupting them."
"Why can't we train too?" asked Ginny.
"You're too young," she replied.
"I'm older than Harry," Ron pointed out.
"I don't mind them joining us if you don't," Remus offered. "I can just as easily teach six as four."
Mrs. Weasley didn't look pleased at the prospect. "Well, maybe Ron, but not Ginny. She's too young. No arguing, Ginny. Come on. Ron, you can watch. I'll have to ask your father when we can manage to get you a wand."
"That won't be necessary, Mrs. Weasley. If they are helping me train Harry and Hermione, I'm sure Hogwarts will foot the bill."
"Ron then, but not Ginny."
"Mu-um," Ginny cried.
"That's my final word."
"Please Mrs. Weasley," said Harry. "Can't you let Ginny join us? When I lived with the Dursleys I was always left out of everything and it's horrible."
Seeing the earnest look on his face, coupled with what she had been told of Harry's background, made Mrs. Weasley cringe at the mere thought that anyone could have treated him like that.
"All right, Ginny. You can join them. But you do exactly as Mr. Lupin tells you. That goes for all of you."
"Today they can only watch," Remus replied, "but if it's all right with you, I can take them to Diagon Alley to get wands tomorrow, once I've got funds from Professor Dumbledore."
Late that night, Harry lay awake thinking for a while. The look of joy on Ginny's face when he'd persuaded her mother to let her join them had made him almost as happy as Ginny. And Ron had pretty obviously been happy for her as well.
Nobody had ever been happy with anything he did at the Dursleys, no matter how much he had tried. He decided that he definitely liked making people happy and went to sleep thinking what he could do to make Hermione and her parents happy. He thought he had just the thing.
Author's note...
Anonymous reviews. I don't mind them, even critical ones, but if you expect me to answer what you say, your review can't be anonymous as I can't reply.
My thanks to LordDarQuing for spotting that on one occasion I changed Miss Collier's name in the last chapter (now corrected).
Thanks, as usual to my beta, Nachoman1, a.k.a. Ignacio Ramírez, especially for his idea about the book and some of its contents.
Please review,
Brian