Chapter 26 – Winter
True to their words, Tonks and Hermione kept much closer contact than the year before. When Hermione went back to Hogwarts they wrote frequently back and forth. The owls didn't have to travel far, either, since Tonks was stationed in Hogsmeade.
When Christmas came Harry went to the Burrow with Ron over the break, which ensured Hermione's return home to London. She was not happy with Ron and they weren't on great terms lately. What exactly did he see in Lavender Brown? Sure, she was usually okay, but she seemed extremely clingy now that she was with him. They were constantly making out everywhere, except it looked more like they were eating each other. Ron was quite unbearable and Hermione and him had already had a number of fights this year.
So when Mrs Weasley had invited her and Tonks over for Christmas, Tonks declined politely as she apparently didn't want to go either. She and Hermione decided to stay home and spend Christmas Day just the two of them. They got a tree, decorated the apartment and bought too much food for Christmas dinner.
"We're going to have to eat leftovers for weeks", Tonks said as they loaded it all into the refrigerator.
"At least it'll be good", Hermione said. "Even if it'll be a bit repetitive."
"You don't know that it's going to be good, though. We're going to cook it, after all. I mean, you'll be fine, but we both know my talent in the kitchen is questionable."
"I'm sure it's going to be delicious."
"We'll see."
There was a peck on the window, and Tonks went over to open it. An owl landed on the windowsill and delivered its letter. He flew off before Tonks could offer him anything.
"Who's it from?" Hermione asked.
"Bill Weasley", Tonks said as she scanned the letter. "Just normal 'how's it going'-stuff. His job is still okay, he and Fleur are spending Christmas at the Burrow, and he's wondering if we'll be there. I'll write him back later."
Hermione nodded absently. Tonks put the letter on the table and went back to the fridge to continue unpacking.
"Tonks", Hermione said and handed her a bag of sprouts. "I know why I don't want to go to the Burrow, but why don't you?"
Tonks stayed quiet for a second.
"Remus is going to be there", she said in the end.
"He is?" Hermione said, surprised. "Isn't he on a mission?"
"He was. He's back for a while."
"Oh. But why don't you want to see him?" I thought you were in love with him?
"He doesn't want to see me."
Hermione stilled.
"What makes you think that?"
Tonks made some sort of pained grimace at the potatoes.
"He walked into a dangerous mission to not be with me. It's quite obvious."
She continued with their task, but stopped after a while when she noticed that Hermione had not moved.
"It's fine!" she said.
Hermione looked at her pale face, mousy brown hair and thin body. It wasn't fine. But Hermione couldn't do much about it. So she smiled slightly, handed her sister the next packet and changed the subject.
There were two large, soft presents that they hadn't seen before, waiting for them on Christmas Day morning. Tonks smiled as she realized what it was, but Hermione was frowning in confusion. She picked up the one labelled Hermione and opened it. She stood and held up the gift. It was a gold-ish sweater with a lion on the front.
"It's from mrs Weasley", Hermione said, shocked, and looked it over.
Tonks nodded and opened her present. This sweater was purple with little sparks over all of it.
"That's very kind of her", she said.
"Yeah", Hermione mumbled, slowly tracing the lion with her finger.
Mixed emotions, Tonks guessed. Hermione really wanted to hate Ron at the moment and he was obviously closely connected to mrs Weasley and a Weasley sweater. But they both loved mrs Weasley and the sweater was really nice, almost as nice as the gesture in itself.
Tonks had to remember to write her a thank you letter from the both of them later. For now, she put the sweater on and reached for a small box wrapped in blue paper, which she handed to Hermione.
"Merry Christmas", she said.
Hermione put her own sweater away and accepted the gift. She grinned before carefully unwrapping it with an annoying precision.
"Come on, hurry up a bit", Tonks whined impatiently but Hermione just laughed and continued doing it her way.
In the end she had revealed a black box.
"Open it!" Tonks encouraged.
She did and instantly gasped.
"Do you like it?"
Hermione didn't even reply. She picked up the golden watch with careful fingers and took in all of its details.
"It's tradition to receive a watch on your seventeenth birthday", Tonks said. "But since you were at Hogwarts on your birthday this year, I decided to wait until Christmas to give you yours."
"It's beautiful", Hermione breathed. "Thank you!"
She got up to give her a hug.
"You're welcome", Tonks grinned. "I'm glad you like it."
"I love it!"
"Good."
Not until much later, after a surprisingly good Christmas dinner, did the subject of the watch come up again. They were sitting on the sofa by the fire, full and tired.
"Did you get one?"
"What?"
"Did you get a watch?" Hermione asked. "When you turned seventeen?"
"I did", Tonks nodded. "Not a very fancy one, but for the gesture. Remember miss Devlin? Caregiver at the orphanage?"
"Yes, of course."
"She sent me this silver watch…" Tonks got up with a groan and went over to her bedroom. In the top drawer in her dresser was a little fabric bag, which she got out and brought back to Hermione. She opened it and out in her hand fell a small silver watch. It was a little scratched, but was still ticking faithfully.
"Miss Devlin worked at the orphanage the whole time I lived there", she said. "I was the most attached to her. She was very nice to me. I still write her now and then."
"You do?"
"Yes, but not very often. Once a year, maybe."
A couple of days after Christmas, Tonks and Hermione went to Diagon Alley. Hermione needed new ink and feather quills and Tonks also had a couple of things to buy, including owl treats for Betsy. They stopped by Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, Fred and George's joke shop on their way back. Hermione had been there once with Harry and the Weasleys that summer, but Tonks hadn't.
She loved it! The boys had done a fantastic job. It was so different from the other shops in the Alley, which of many had closed down and others were rather empty and dull. Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was loud, colourful and fun. While most shop owners tried to keep a low profile, Fred and George had done the opposite.
They had showed her around, telling her about the different things. The magic and innovation that went into it was astounding. Even though the country was plagued with war, the Weasley twins were as cheerful as always. Afterwards, Tonks realized that she had laughed more this Christmas than the whole autumn.
"They're brilliant, those two", Tonks said as she and Hermione walked back to the Leaky Cauldron.
"They are quite clever", Hermione nodded.
"You're not one for jokes, are you?" Tonks grinned at her.
"Not so much", Hermione said and held up the door to the pub for her.
Tonks went ahead inside, but her grin dissolved at the sight in the pub before her. It was empty save for Tom behind the counter and two other people. One of them, a man, turned towards them and Tonks recognised him as one of Voldemort's followers. She had encountered him and another man on a mission earlier that year. The other man had been captured but this one had gotten away. Until now.
Tonks saw his hand fly to his pocket and reacted. They both drew their wands at the same time and a purple light crashed into Tonks' shield. Hermione gave out a shriek next to her, but the second later Tonks saw her wand in her hand with a steady grip. The man took another shot and Tonks ducked before recounting. He blocked and took a daring step forward.
He was a good dueller and Tonks couldn't more than see in the corner of her eye how the woman accompanying the man had gone into attack against Hermione. Two duels, side by side, had broken out in the dingy pub.
It was insane, fighting next to her little sister. But Hermione was doing good. Really good, actually, and Tonks was beyond impressed. She'd never seen Hermione duelling before. She'd never seen her do much magic at all before, save from accidental ones when she was little. But she was seventeen now and could practice magic outside Hogwarts. Funny how it turned out that most of the first magic Tonks got to see her do, was duelling one of Voldemort's followers.
The two of them stayed close together, but with enough space between them to be able to move around freely. The man was an attacker and Tonks kept diverting, but she was skilled enough to do that while still reading his moves and figuring out when and where she could strike. The moment came and she hit him square in the chest with her silent stupefy. Beside her Hermione managed to knock the woman off her feet. She landed with a heavy thud and a groan. Tonks quickly stepped forward and seized her wand.
"Tom!" she called and the man stood up from his crouched position behind the counter. "Do you have any rope or something?"
He nodded and scurried off through the doorway behind him. He showed up a second later with a good piece of rope. Tonks tied the man and the woman's hands together behind their backs before she stood up to send a message to the Auror Department. She watched sadly as the shimmering werewolf hurried away, but shook her head before she lost herself.
She turned around to her sister, who had pulled out a chair and sat down.
"Someone will come get them soon", Tonks said before smiling at her. "You did really well."
Hermione looked between her and the two half-conscious people on the ground. She smiled a little.
"Thanks", she said.
"I mean it", Tonks said earnestly and bent down to check the tightness on the ropes. "I'm impressed. You took down a fully grown woman by yourself! I know you probably don't want to, but you really could become an auror one day."
She knew that was a really big compliment to her sister; Hermione looked both touched and proud of herself. And it was the truth. It also made Tonks feel a tiny bit better about Hermione's involvement in this war that was going on. She now knew she could handle herself.
"Who are they?" Hermione asked. "Why did they attack?"
"They're two of You-Know-Who's followers", Tonks said. "I recognize the man. I captured his buddy on a mission, but he slipped away."
"So he recognized you as well and that's why he attacked."
"Yes, probably."
Aurors Dawlish and Proudfoot soon showed up. Tonks gave her professional statement and Hermione and Tom got to retell what had happened. It took a while and when Tonks and Hermione finally were free to go home, the man was awake and swearing like crazy. Tonks ignored him and slammed the door behind them on the way out.
Hermione was ready bright and early a couple of days after New Years to return to school. The Ministry had put up a floo connection so that the students could all return to Hogwarts safely.
"Stay out of trouble", Tonks said and hugged her.
"Of course", Hermione said. "I'll write later."
"Looking forward to it. I'll be in Hogsmeade in the next few months as well."
"Alright, good."
She stepped into the fire.
"Love you", Tonks said.
"Love you too", Hermione smiled before shouting: "Hogwarts!"
When the spinning stopped she stood in the fireplace of a familiar office. Professor McGonagall looked up from her desk.
"Miss Granger."
"Hello, professor", Hermione said and carefully stepped out on the rug. "Did you have a good holiday?"
"I did, thank you", she replied with a small smile and added: "miss Granger, the new password is abstinence", before waving her off.
Hermione nodded and exited her office. She walked up to the Gryffindor Tower to put away her things. The common room was rather empty; Hermione guessed she was one of the first to come back. She looked around for Harry or Ginny but neither were there. Nor was Ron, of course.
It was a beautiful day out. It would be a shame to stay inside. So instead of picking up a new book in the library, like she'd planned to, Hermione went to get her hat and gloves.
The grounds of Hogwarts were covered in a thick layer of snow. The lake had frozen over and even the Forbidden Forest looked less unappealing in its frosty glory. It was cold but beautiful. Hermione walked around for a bit, gathered her thoughts. In the end she decided to walk down the path to Hagrid's hut and say hi. He would probably be out and about, getting ready for all that came with the students' return.
Sure enough, she found him caring a heavy stack of poles over to the fence of a pasture. The hippogriff, Buckbeak – or Witherwings, as he was now called, was watching him.
"Hello, Hagrid", Hermione said.
"Hermione!" Hagrid said cheerfully.
He dropped the poles on the ground, stood back up and patted her hard on her shoulder.
"Doin' alright?" he asked.
"Fine, thanks", Hermione said. "And you? Did you have a good Christmas?"
"Good to hear. Yes, it's been nice."
"How's Buc- I mean Witherwings doing?" Hermione asked and bowed down to the creature. He responded instantly with a bow of his own and let her walk over to pet him.
"He's good. Lovin' the snow", Hagrid said fondly.
"I can imagine."
They chatted for a little bit longer before Hermione excused herself and went back up to the castle to escape the cold. She climbed the many stairs up to the Gryffindor Tower but as she rounded a corner she heard a familiar voice exclaiming: "What do you mean, 'no'?" She hurried up her steps and soon saw two redheads and a dark-haired boy standing by the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Harry! Ginny!" she shouted.
They greeted her happily. She asked them about their Christmas and pointedly ignored Ron.
"Oh, and the new password is Abstinence", she told them and the portrait swung open.
They climbed through.
"So how you've been?" she asked.
"Good", Harry said. "I've got loads to tell you. Let's go sit down."
"Won-Won!" came an exclaim from across the room.
Lavender Brown came bouncing up to Ron and kissed him fiercely. It looked quite ridiculous and a few people sniggered. Hermione included, even though the sight of them twisted her heart a little. She ignored the feeling and turned back to Harry.
"There's a table over there", she pointed to a free one over by the windows. "Are you coming, Ginny?"
"No, thanks, I said I'd meet Dean", Ginny said.
She didn't sound overly excited, though. Hermione knew her feelings for him had staggered a bit lately and made a point to ask her about it later. But for the time being Ginny waved goodbye and Hermione followed Harry.
"So what was it you wanted to tell me?" she asked as they sat down.
Harry instantly went into a recap of what he had overheard from a conversation between Malfoy and Snape right before Christmas break. He was still convinced that Malfoy was a Death Eater and what he had heard had apparently only confirmed it more for him. Hermione had to agree it sounded suspicious. Malfoy was up to something and Snape wanted to help him. But something didn't sit right with her.
"Don't you think…?" she began carefully.
"… that he was pretending to offer help so that he could trick Malfoy into telling him what he's doing?" Harry finished for her.
"Well, yes", Hermione said, as that was exactly what she'd been thinking.
"Ron's dad and Lupin think so", Harry said in a way that sounded like he didn't really want to admit it. "But this definitely proves Malfoy's planning something, you can't deny that."
No, that she couldn't deny. It seemed that Malfoy really was planning something.
"No, I can't", she said.
"And he's acting on Voldemort's orders, just like I said!" Harry insisted.
Hermione thought about it. It would make sense, but she still couldn't see how Voldemort was using Malfoy, a sixteen-year-old, for anything.
"Did either of them actually mention Voldemort's name?" she asked.
"I'm not sure", Harry frowned. "Snape said 'your master', though, and who else could that be?"
"I don't know", Hermione admitted.
She tried to think of any other possibility that seemed reliable, but came up empty-handed. She sighed and decided they needed to talk about something else for a bit.
"How's Lupin?" she asked, not sure on what answer she would prefer to get.
"Not great", Harry said. "Apparently he's on a mission among the werewolves to convince them not to join Voldemort."
"I know", Hermione said absentmindedly, wondering if the mission was the only reason for Remus not being great.
"You do?" Harry asked, surprised.
"Yes, Tonks told me."
"Oh, right. So how was your Christmas?"
"Fine, nothing much happened", she answered by reflex before remembering. "Oh wait, yes it did! We were attacked."
"What?!"
She hastily told him everything that had happened. It seemed a bit unreal when she talked about it out loud. Like it hadn't actually happened.
"Why didn't you tell me that sooner?" Harry said after she was done.
"Slipped my mind", Hermione said.
Harry shook his head, like he couldn't believe her.
"Who were they?" he asked.
"You-Know-Who's followers", Hermione said. "Probably not very high profile, but Tonks had seen one of them on a mission once. He recognized her and probably panicked. The woman just followed his lead."
Harry nodded.
"Well, now my Christmas seems uneventful in comparison", he said. "Although, I did have a row with Rufus Scrimgeour."
"You did?"
"He came to the Burrow! Asked me to be the spokesperson for the Ministry."
"The nerve of him", Hermione exclaimed. "Asking you for help after more or less declaring you insane last year."
"Right?!"
Hermione sighed and shook her head.
"So how was the rest of Christmas at Won-Won's?" she asked.
"It was good", he replied. "Look, Hermione, can't you…?"
"No, I can't", she interrupted before he would ask her to make up with Ron.
"I thought maybe, you know, after Christmas…"
"No, Harry. There's no point in even asking. I'm not going to talk to Ron."
Then, a couple of months later, on Ron's birthday, she got the scariest news she'd ever received. She ran with her heart in her throat down to the hospital wing where she found Harry and Ginny. She came to a halt in front of them, retained herself from grabbing the front of Harry's robes and instead demanded to know what had happened. Harry told her about how Ron had accidently eaten some chocolate spiked with a love potion that may or may not had expired. Harry had taken him to professor Slughorn, who had helped him. But then, after a glass of mead the professor had offered them, Ron had fallen down in spasms.
"He was poisoned", Ginny concluded with clenched teeth.
Hermione stared at him, not believing her ears. Who would poison Ron?
"I put a bezoar in his mouth and that helped", Harry said. "But I don't know how bad it is. Madam Pomfrey won't let us in yet."
He and Ginny began discussing who might have done it and why. Hermione did not contribute; she stood still, staring at the door, willing it to open. She hoped to Merlin Ron was okay, that he would be okay. What if he…?
The door opened. Madam Pomfrey poked her head out.
"You can come in now", she said and left the door open for them.
Carefully and silently the three stepped into the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey told them in a hushed voice what was wrong with Ron, but Hermione honestly didn't hear anything beyond: "He'll be alright."
They sat with him all day, and Harry got to retell what had happened a bunch of more times. Fred and George had been in Hogsmeade when they heard, so they were the first to arrive. Mr and mrs Weasley came a while later.
Harry was very interested in where the poison had come from. A lot of strange things had happened through the year and he was convinced it was all connected. Hermione barely listened to him, though. Not until Ron woke up and was equally interested in the subject. Harry's theory involved Malfoy, of course, but there really weren't any proof.
Ron got better gradually and was mostly angry about not being able to play quidditch. He was back to his normal self, much different from the jerk he had been for a lot of the year. Then, after a few weeks, he broke up with Lavender, which made the tension in the girls' dormitory thicker than ever. But Hermione didn't care too much about that. She and Ron were friends again and that was all that mattered. Sure, it wasn't just the Lavender-thing they had fought about, but after the poisoning, when Hermione realized just how stupid their fight was, and after the break-up everything else seemed to fade away.
It was a relief to have both Harry and Ron when things continued to get direr. Harry had since the beginning of the school year had private lessons with Dumbledore. Afterwards, he always told Hermione and Ron everything about what they had talked about. Hermione and Ron had been kept in the loop since the beginning, but one day Harry came back with some considerable news. Dumbledore had had suspicions that had been confirmed. They now knew why Lord Voldemort wasn't dead and what had to be done to kill him.
Voldemort had split his soul into seven pieces, one of which was still in his body and six that were out there in the world somewhere, embedded in objects. Only, Dumbledore had managed to kill one and Harry had unknowingly destroyed another one four years ago when he'd saved Ginny from the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. But four of these objects – horcruxes, as they were called, were still out there and no one knew where.
"Dumbledore says he might know of one", Harry told them, "and he told me I could come along when he figures out where it is."
Both Hermione and Ron were very impressed.
"Does he know what it is?" Hermione asked. "What kind of object?"
"I don't think so, he didn't say", Harry said. "But he figures the objects are things of importance to Voldemort. His diary was one and the ring that Dumbledore destroyed this summer belonged to his grandfather on his mother's side. Then looking back into Voldemort's past says that it is very likely that two of the remaining four are Slytherin's locket and Hufflepuff's cup."
Hermione nodded, having read about relics of the founders of Hogwarts in Hogwarts a History.
"Is it possible that other tokens of the founders are horcruxes as well?" Hermione asked.
"Yes", Harry said. "It's possible that at least one of the remaining horcruxes are something of Ravenclaw's or Gryffindor's. Not Gryffindor's sword, though. And Dumbledore believes the last horcrux is Nagini."
"His snake?" Ron questioned loudly. "Can you really put a piece of your soul into an animal?"
"Apparently", Harry shrugged.
They sat quiet for a moment, all of them processing the information.
"So to kill Voldemort one has to track down and destroy four pieces of his soul, that he probably has hidden quite well?" Ron said.
Harry nodded.
"Well, good luck to the poor guy who has to manage that."