A/N: Happy April, everyone! Thank you for your patience, and for all the lovely reviews and PMs you sent me after the last chapter. Writing this story and hearing from all of you has become such a bright spot for me. I so look forward to reading your reactions to this chapter.
And if you haven't started reading The Alkahest by Shadukiam, yet, you absolutely must. It is one of the most brilliant stories I've ever had the pleasure of reading and I am eagerly, EAGERLY awaiting the next chapter. Come and find me on tumblr (where I have the same screen name as I have here) and we can chat about it!
Beta Appreciation to FaceofPoe, who still puts up with me and helps me to brainstorm and not look like I failed all of my elementary spelling tests.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Headquarters
August 7, 1997
They apparated directly onto the worn doorstep of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, wrapped in travelling cloaks and wearing grim looks of determination. The Dark Lord had not been difficult to convince. When Hermione had agreed to bring back any information she could if only he would let her go to her friends… he had seemed intrigued, if not exactly thrilled, and had ordered Severus to accompany her at his convenience. Now, as they stood outside of the heavy front door, Hermione steeled herself for the encounter to come. Her feelings were in turmoil despite her best efforts to tame them. She was at once happy to be seeing her friends again, and yet nervous that they would be able to sense the change in her. Well, she thought, there really wasn't much she could do about it now. This was the moment, the test that would prove her either capable or inept as a spy. All she could do now was press forward.
She rang the doorbell, the loud clanging sound within and the shrieking of Walburga Black's portrait alerting her to the fact that it had worked. She heard someone swearing beyond the door and a pair of footsteps racing forward before it swung inward, revealing the tall, broad-shouldered form of Ronald Weasley, his bright red hair in disarray and his wand clutched tightly in his hand as it pointed towards them.
"Hermione?" He questioned, his eyes squinting just slightly as if he were trying to get a better look at her. Self-consciously, Hermione looked down at herself, taking note of the the slightly dusty cloak she wore over muggle clothes she had donned for the evening before glancing back up at Ron.
"Hello, Ron," she said, smiling despite herself. There was a warm, comforting sort of feeling blooming in her chest at the sight of him and she realized at once how much she had missed her friend. She removed her cloak, hanging it on a rack near the door before turning back to face him.
"Hermione!" The shout from down the hall was joyful and drew her attention at once. Harry had rounded the corner and caught sight of her, springing forward at once and rushing past the still wailing portrait of Walburga toward Hermione, who stepped into the house and embraced him tightly when he reached her.
"Harry!" she cried, the joy at seeing Ron again amplified by the presence of her black haired best friend. "God, I've missed you!"
Behind her, Severus stepped into the hallway, scowling at the display but saying nothing as he swung the door shut behind them and pointed his own wand at the noisome painting, silencing it and drawing the curtains shut over it. "Do you think perhaps it might be wise to move beyond this cramped corridor and into a room where I can stand a bit further from this touching scene?" he sneered, stowing his wand away and motioning down the hall. Before anyone could respond, however, Ron, who had been standing completely still by the door, launched himself forward and collided with the professor.
Hermione shouted as they fell to the floor, knocking both her and Harry to the side. She watched in horror as her friend tried his damndest to strangle her husband, eyes wide and mouth gaping until a sickening thud and crunch snapped her out of her frozen shock. Ron's fist had connected with Severus's face, and Hermione could see immediately that it had broken the latter's nose.
"Stop it!" she shouted, pulling her own wand out and pointing it at the still thrashing pair at her feet. "Ron, get off of him!" But before she could separate the two of them Severus moved like lightning, forcing Ron to his back on the floor and pinning him. There was a murderous expression on his face and the tip of his wand pointed up under the young man's chin.
"Get the hell off of him!" shouted Harry, moving forward to stand beside Hermione now, his wand drawn and pointed at his former professor.
"Harry, put your wand down this instant!" cried Hermione, reaching for him with her free arm only to have her hand shoved away.
"I'll put my wand away when he does," said Harry stubbornly, keeping both his eyes and wand trained on the dark wizard at whose mercy his friend was held.
"I don't know what holiday your mite-sized sense of self-preservation has gone on," hissed Severus, his menacing voice not at all dampened by the broken nose now streaming blood down his front and onto the younger wizard beneath him, "but I suggest you find it before I decide to take full advantage of its absence."
"Going to try and kill me like you did George?" spat Ron, his fists clenching at his side.
"If I had wanted to kill your ridiculous brother, boy, he would dead."
"You're a fucking disgusting waste of air, Snape."
"Ronald!" said Hermione in dismay.
"Petrificus Totalus!" cried Severus, and Hermione had to physically restrain Harry, blocking his wand as her husband rose and strode angrily down the hall and up the stairs out of sight.
"Finite," Hermione pronounced once he had gone, pointing her wand at Ron's still form and watching as life seemed to flow through it once more and he sat up, his expression thunderous and his cheeks red. "What on earth were you thinking, Ron!?" she continued in consternation, "Attacking a professor like that!"
"He's not my bloody professor anymore," answered Ron, practically glowing scarlet now as he got to his feet. "He's just a greasy, overgrown bat who's more of a waste of space than Gilderoy Lockhart."
"Ron!"
"He's right, Hermione," said Harry, his own voice growing steely now. "You didn't see what he did to George." Hermione restrained herself from continuing to defend Severus, knowing that doing so would not be in character with the Hermione they had known.
"What happened to George?" she said instead, though she knew perfectly well how they would answer.
"Fucking Death Eater cursed his ear off," spat Ron.
Hermione feigned surprise. "Is he alright? Were they able to regrow it?"
Harry just shook his head as Ron glared in the direction Severus had gone, taking Hermione by the arm and leading her towards the stairs she knew led to the basement. She hooked her arm through Ron's as they went, pulling him reluctantly along with them.
"They stopped the bleeding, but the ear's gone," said Ron at last. "He was making all sorts of stupid jokes about it last I saw."
"I'm glad," Hermione smiled, "Not about the ear, but that it doesn't seem to have dampened his sense of humor."
Ron, whose shoulders seemed to be carrying the tension of his altercation with Severus still, shrugged and tried to smile. "Well, not much does. I imagine the only thing that could would be Fred dying or something. Merlin knows he'd be joking over my casket."
The trio descended into the kitchen of Grimmauld Place in silence after that. As they entered, Hermione noticed that it was substantially cleaner than the last time she had been there, and she wondered briefly who had done the cleaning before a voice from beside the fireplace at the far end of the room called out to them.
"Ah, Miss Granger. Welcome."
When she caught sight of the elderly wizard sitting calmly at the head of the table, she nearly did a double take. His beard, which had always before been neatly combed, was looking quite wild as it cascaded down his chest, and the arm which she knew to be infected by some sort of curse was sitting stiffly at an angle which was just a bit odd. His robes, usually bright and ostentatious, were a sedate black which looked out of place on the eccentric wizard, seeming to throw each of his wrinkles into sharp relief and dulling the twinkle in his eye.
"Professor Dumbledore," she said, walking with Harry and Ron to sit beside him at the long table.
"How are your parents?" he asked, his voice lower than normal and quite a bit weaker than she remembered it. She glanced briefly at the boys beside her, wondering whether they had noted this decline in the Headmaster's health.
"Well, sir," she said, clearing her throat.
"I am glad to hear it. I am sorry to have been obliged to pull you from them."
"It's no trouble, really." She paused and looked sideways at Harry, who sat hunched over with his elbows on the table, looking at Professor Dumbledore. "If I'm being honest I've been worried sick about these two. I'm glad to see them." On her other side, Ron fidgeted, rubbing the spot beneath his chin where Severus's wand had been pressed. As she thought of her husband, she wondered whether he would be able to heal his own nose, or if he would need help. She was fairly confident in her ability to heal a broken bone, though she'd never actually had occasion to practice on a real person in the past.
"We're glad to see you too," said Harry, smiling at her as he leaned back in his chair.
"We've had a hell of a time," added Ron.
"It hasn't been that bad," smiled Harry, shrugging. "The fidelius charm lets us be on the run while living in the heart of London, it's not like we're hunkered down in a tent in the woods or something horrible like that. And Kreacher's been fixing us real meals whenever we want."
"Kreacher?" inquired Hermione, "I thought he hated you, Harry."
"Not anymore," said Ron, "Now he'd shine his shoes with his bum if he thought it'd make Harry happy."
"Charming, Ron," said Hermione dryly.
"Kreacher has experienced an enthusiastic change of heart," commented Dumbledore dryly. "As it happens, he was instrumental in our finding and destroying one of the Dark Lord's Horcruxes."
Her own heart leaped at the news and Hermione looked from Dumbledore to Harry, who nodded twice with a wide grin. "We found the locket," he said. "The real one. RAB was Regulus Black, Sirius'-"
"Brother," said Hermione, "I remember. How on earth did you manage to destroy it?"
"Fiendfyre," Harry answered. "It was brilliant."
"Fiendfyre! But that's practically banned!"
"Not completely though," said Ron. "And it's one of the only things we could think of to destroy the damned thing."
"I assure you, I kept the flames well under control," said Dumbledore.
"I'm sure you did," she responded, perhaps a bit too sharply as Harry raised his brows at her tone.
"Alright?"
"Fine," she said, purposefully relaxing her shoulders and sighing. "I'm just feeling a little useless I suppose. I haven't been able to find anything more about Horcruxes in my research…" She met the Headmaster's gaze as she continued. "Or anything else of much use." She was not sure whether Dumbledore took her meaning as his gaze remained thoughtful until he spoke at last.
"Your worth is not only in the information you provide us, Miss. Granger, but in the loyalty and friendship you bear," he said, his voice soothing.
The rest of the evening passed too quickly for Hermione's liking. After discussing the locket and Kreacher's tale of being abused and left for dead by Voldemort, they had begun discussing possible locations of other Horcruxes. Harry and Dumbledore seemed convinced that Nagini harbored a piece of the Dark Lord's soul, and that it was this that gave him the ability to control her to such a degree. They were also quite certain that Helga Hufflepuff's heirloom cup was another Horcrux, one which might have either been hidden as the Gaunt ring had been, or given to one of Voldemort's loyal followers for safe keeping. Unfortunately, being on the run as they were did not lend itself to collecting memories as they had done before, and with Professor Dumbledore's health declining, they were left with even less recourse for finding those fractured bits of Voldemort's soul, wherever they might be. When it came to the search, they were relegated to relying on any information brought to them by the Order of the Phoenix, and biding their time cooped up within Sirius Black's childhood home. The identification of the third remaining Horcrux eluded them completely, though it seemed to make sense that it would be something which had belonged to one of the two founders Voldemort had not already collected.
When they had exhausted their abilities to theorize and after Hermione had been taken aside by Dumbledore and asked to listen for any hint of a Horcrux having been entrusted to another follower as he had the diary with Malfoy, the Headmaster retired, heading upstairs to where she knew Severus would be waiting to make his report.
She waited in the kitchens with Harry and Ron, fixing them all tea and chatting about Bill and Fleur's wedding and the time they had spent at the Burrow before the Ministry had fallen. She avoided speaking much about her parents, making it a point to keep the conversation revolving around Harry and Ron for as long as possible. Only when it would have been suspicious to change the subject did she lie about the time she'd supposedly been spending with her parents in hiding.
"It's been mind-numbing," she told them. "Honestly I'm not sure what more I can say. When I haven't been researching I've been making tea and trying to keep my parents calm. My mum's been a complete wreck because I didn't tell her how bad things were until it came time to move them, and my dad thinks hiding my books periodically will keep me from being involved." She paused, itching to say something more but not sure how the boys would react.
"You've been keeping an eye on Snape, right?" asked Harry, "Is he staying with you all most of the time or just checking in occasionally?"
There was that decision made, she thought.
"Professor Snape has been perfectly pleasant," she scowled. "As it turns out, when you treat him politely he is less inclined to mock or maim. You both should consider seeing him as an ally-"
"Not bloody likely," interrupted Ron. Hermione ignored him and continued.
"-instead of as the professor who used to fight with Harry's dad."
"And treated us like garbage for six years," said Harry, scowling along with Ron now.
"Harry, he's a spy! What did you expect, that he'd give you giant hugs just because he wasn't within sight of You-Know-Who?"
"He wasn't a spy when we started at Hogwarts," argued Harry.
"He has always been a spy!" Hermione snapped. "Dumbledore has known since the night he disappeared that You-Know-Who would be back. Professor Snape has been keeping his cover for years, Harry!"
"A task which I must admit was pleasant to carry out where you were concerned, Potter." Severus's voice came from the kitchen doorway and Hermione jumped, whirling in her chair to scowl at him. His nose had been healed and his face wiped clean, though blood still covered the front of his robes, nearly invisible against the dark fabric.
"Professor," said Hermione, glaring at him for a moment as neither boy could see her expression and then turning back to Ron and placing a hand on his arm to keep him in place. She could almost sense the fresh scowl behind her at the contact. "Won't you join us?"
"I think not, Miss Granger," he said, stressing her name in a mocking manner that she knew would mean nothing to Harry and Ron, but which to her was a reminder that she was neither a miss nor a Granger any longer. "It is time to return you to your home. I wouldn't want your father worrying needlessly just because you can't stop coddling your little friends."
"Leave her alone," said Harry in a raised voice. Hermione put her free hand on his arm and willed him to be calm.
"It's perfectly alright, Harry. Professor Snape is right, I don't want my parents to worry. I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful tonight." And before she could say much else, Harry had her wrapped in a hug, crushing her against him for a moment before releasing her, her expression bewildered.
"Just seeing you helped," he said, voice low. "I've missed you. You're family." Hermione nodded in understanding as she swallowed back a lump in her throat.
"You're my family too, Harry."
"How very touching," sneered Severus.
"Shut your mouth Snape. You don't talk to Hermione," spat Ron, throwing off Hermione's hand and rising from his seat.
"I'll do whatever I wish to Miss Granger," answered Severus, his voice silken as both Hermione and Ron noticed the wand in his hand when he raised it to point at the redhead.
"Ron, it's fine," said Hermione, "He's all talk, really. Please just ignore him." Ron seemed to struggle for a moment with the idea of letting Severus alone, but eventually, he seemed to settle on it and nodded once to Hermione.
"So it can be taught," mocked Severus, lowering his wand as the trio made their way towards him. He swept around before they reached him, his robes billowing as he made his way up the steps and into the ground floor hallway where he continued out of the front door and onto the porch.
"Alright," said Hermione as she reached the entrance and slowed to a stop, the boys still on either side of her. "Please, please be careful. I know you're with Professor Dumbledore, but don't be lax about security. You really ought to have asked us security questions when we arrived."
"Nah," said Ron, still eyeing Severus through the doorway, "Polyjuice only works on humans, not bats."
"Ronald!" she said, hitting him on the arm as Harry snorted.
"Don't dawdle forever," Severus called impatiently, and Hermione rolled her eyes and gave each of the boys a quick hug goodbye before donning her travelling cloak, raising the hood, and making her way out onto the little porch and down the front steps to where her husband was waiting on the street, his arms crossed, expression imperious. She glanced back and was shocked to see Harry following her down the steps and into the street.
"You had better keep her safe," he was saying, his finger pointed in Severus's direction.
"Harry!" hissed Hermione, glancing around them hurriedly for any sign of someone watching, "Get back up the steps!"
"Because if I find out you're not what Dumbledore thinks you are-"
"Potter you imbecile, go back inside the-"
"I won't just stop at Voldemort, I'll-"
"Harry, no!"
The thunderous sound of half a dozen people apparating around them was deafening as Hermione lunged forward, shoving Harry hard and watching as he stumbled backwards, landing on the steps of Grimmauld Place, just inside of the protective charms hiding it from view. Hermione felt a momentary flutter of relief, but it was shattered as Ron barrelled into view and directly towards her, bellowing her name with his wand raised as the six wizards surrounding them shouted as one.
"Stupefy!"
