As Harry waited outside The Rookery, at precisely nine thirty in the morning, on a grey chilly day with Luna, he let himself think about what might happen today. When he had been getting angry about not being invited and then agreed to take a vow it hadn't really been important exactly what was going on. His best friend was doing things he didn't know about and now it turned out she was doing it with people he didn't know about either.
It had been unspoken while she was at the Ministry, his not asking questions. She told him things sometimes and usually when she had too, like the curse. Or needed his help, like the things she called magic sensing exercises. Learning to apparate together has been exciting. It felt good to be doing magic with her, that no one knew about. Like the old times. She had always tried to be a step ahead for him. A step ahead of him when she could manage it.
When she told him that she didn't want to come to their weekly dinners with Ron, he had panicked. Knowing that she was proposing the parole bill and that she planned to drastically change her life. When Hermione Granger decided to change things, she could make nearly anything happen. He knew. Had seen her do it. Done it with her too. There seemed to be a chance that he would be too much for her. Somehow be expendable in her quest for freedom. She had only used that exact word once when speaking of her quitting her job. There had been no real indication that she was trying to cut him out of her life.
Still he had wondered. Hermione was the closest thing he had to family. The person who had taught him that you could make a family. Build bonds, and be there for another person. Forgive their mistakes even. When he thought back to Hogwarts there were so many things he should have done. Things he should have said. Times he should have been there for her and countless times that he should have stood up for her.
He was determined to be the friend she deserved. That was the decision he had come to late last night as he lay in his bed and couldn't sleep. Whatever happened today. Whomever he met or whatever he saw, Harry would support her. That had been the only solution to him.
Hermione wasn't alone. Wasn't like him anymore. Well he had her, but she also had others besides him. When she had told him that Dolohov had met her at a field they knew, after she had been tailed, it was a shock. Not a pleasant one either. Even then, he could be rational and appreciate that when she needed him, the wizard had showed up. Probably not alone either, things were not as they seemed. Hermione hadn't known what was going on and set out to be able to figure it out. Of course, she had succeeded handily and he bemoaned the fact that she didn't want to come be his Auror partner. Maybe today would explain some of the drive she had that he didn't really understand.
He had never seen magic used in the way she spoke of it. How she knew who was coming, or the way she spoke of magic, as if it were something you could manipulate without the limits of spells and magic use as he understood them. As they had been taught at school. Hermione had viewed magic mostly the same way, until she found that paper. That paper had changed their whole lives. That sounded dramatic but without it many things wouldn't have happened and that couldn't be argued away. He had only argued with himself, trying to justify his dislike of the situation. The DA coins, their survival on the run. Even the refuge she took in learning, stubbornly refusing to bend when pushed or derided.
So much was wrapped up in this day. Not specifically the date, but the look he would hopefully get into the life of his friend. It was clear that few knew more than him. Even Luna knew different things, not necessarily more of them. Dolohov knew different things about his friend. Knew the witch instead of the woman, better than Harry himself did. It was humbling. Standing there he didn't feel impatient anymore and looked over at Luna.
Her light blue eyes were on his face and not absently or as if she could see things on him. They were direct and he wasn't sure how he hadn't noticed before. Whatever she saw made her relax a little bit and she shifted her weight and cocked a hip. Her turquoise sweater stood out in the gray landscape and her long mane of silvery hair flowed over one shoulder. He seemed to be surrounded by gorgeous witches. This one was like his best friend, just didn't see him that way. Which was all good with him, it made things more comfortable.
"I'm glad to see that you've realised the opportunity of today. That is why I wrote you." Luna was serious and he suddenly thought that if he hadn't calmed down, she wouldn't have brought him with her. The witch was an enigma to him, loyal to Hermione and even to Harry himself. He liked and trusted the witch. Didn't argue with a lot of what she said, the amount of things she was right about always made him wonder about the things he was sure she couldn't be.
"Since I've come to my senses, can we go now?" He let his wry tone speak for him and they both shared a small smile. Then she nodded and pulled out a coin. One of Hermione's and since he didn't feel his own heat up, it wasn't connected. Of course it wasn't.
The crack of apparition brought Rabastan Lestrange into view, and Harry let himself appraise the man. Cataloguing the changes and the mannerisms he could see. Then he filed it away for later and watched the two before him. Who clearly knew each other and Harry had his second epiphany of the day.
Luna Lovegood and Rabastan Lestrange was close. So much passed between them and the emotions was nearly palpable. Merlin's saggy socks. He blanked his face immediately of the giggle eyed expression it had certainly had and then waited for whatever this was to her to be over. A greeting surely and some words that didn't make sense at all.
Then they both turned to him and he felt out of place. Then Luna raised a hand to him and he walked over to her before taking it. She looked him over carefully and then to the wizard behind her.
"It is as good as it will be." She offered and it must have been enough for Lestrange, as he held his hand out for Luna's free one. Just before he was pulled away he thought that Luna's smile made him a little bit nervous.
Hermione bit her lip for a moment as Dolohov's attention was on Yaxley, and refused to meet Rowle's eyes again. She had nearly run to him, or cried, or laughed excitedly when she had last time. Something was going on and she didn't know what. It felt a bit like one of those game shows, where you agreed to something crazy and unnamed, then won money if you actually went through with it. She had seen a show like that on television when she was a child. Whatever they had been silently arguing about was settled with Yaxley walking away about thirty feet to stand with the blond wizard watching them. He smiled excitedly at her and winked. Winked at her. Merlin, maybe this was a bit how Harry felt before the Triwizard Tournament, like anything could happen.
"Malyshka." As usual that brought all of her attention to the wizard in front of her. The tone said pay attention, and she immediately began smoothing her magic and focusing her concentration. He waited until he judged her settled enough to continue. It was clear that he didn't like her erratic tendencies any more then during their first meeting years ago.
Then the look in his eyes changed and so did his posture. It wasn't dramatic but it was enough to tell her that it was time to begin. When she let her wand fall into her hand he immediately said a word in Russian.
"Nachat." Begin.
For a moment she just stood there and wondered what exactly she should do. Then a feather floated into her line of sight from the sky and she assessed it with one part of her mind while the other part questioned what the hell a feather had to do with anything.
Deciding the best she could do was figure out what it was, all of them were watching it, so it wasn't some stray feather, and the dull shimmering blue of what looked like an eagle feather wasn't normal. As she cast a third spell in rapid succession, she realised the second had told her what it was and she chastised herself immediately. The only instruction he had given her was to conserve her magic. She didn't look at him and knew he would have noticed. The best she could do was not make the same mistake again.
It was nearly to her, and even though she should have been able to get a sense of the direction it would take her from the fourth spell she shot at it, there was nothing and she knew that she would have to take it. Be portkeyed to wherever it might take her without any hint. As it got to head height she let some of her excitement out and reached for it. Meeting her mentors gaze as she spun around the magical object.
Darkness. Her first instinct was to use lumos but in a second she wondered. This was a challenge and those were never safe places for assumptions. For a second she stood still and then decided. She would light it to her alone. This bracelet was an excellent idea, one of those that benefited from the time it took to actually make it a reality.
One wand swish and suddenly she could see around her. Slowly and carefully she turned. This was new. The dangerous location part. She was on a stone pillar five feet wide and around her was what appeared to be an endless chasm for what looked to be three feet. The walls were stone blocks and tapered above her head. As she looked up she could see nothing but darkness and sensed great height. She shivered and then released her lip from its bite. Then she heard it. Rushing water. As she honed her senses with another ward on her bracelet she could tell that it was below her. It wasn't an endless chasm but something that could be filled with water. Water that would eventually rise around her.
So she couldn't stay here. She had only been here maybe thirty seconds and already wanted out. Then she looked around again and knew she would have to figure out how to get out. Then she grinned a little bit, unable to completely quell her adrenaline fuelled excitement. This explained Yaxley's grin. And they were watching her, she was sure. Harry and Luna too.
It was not as scary, knowing they were there and that this was supposed to be fun, sort of. All of them, the four of them anyways, enjoyed using magics and exploring their uses.
Several jets of light and two wards on her surroundings showed the basic outline of the task. The pillar had the most magic on it but it was tied to a trigger. Something has to happen first. The walls were the beginning and she took a minute to get the deciphering charms right and then when changing her vision didn't work she tuned the magic of the wards on the walls until it showed clear enough to read.
It was runes and so didn't make complete sense grammatically. Quest. Air. Movement. Those were separate and the rest required her to tune the wards magical pitch again and the first set blurred. This was a runic arithmancy question and she carefully read it twice. Then began using her wand to solve what she could in the first lines. The sound of the water stopped her from getting hung up and she only checked each step once. Then she had the variables or their representations. It wasn't what was needed to unlock whatever she was standing on so she tried two things before the sound of the water gave her an idea.
Knowing that actually spraying the walls would not be something Dolohov would condone, it was inelegant. She decided to try the moisture levels of the air. They had been working with climate wards in a few different areas. Keeping in mind her magic expenditure, she limited the area of the ward that basically created fog. A heavy one and then the could see the patterns on the stone blocks. They created a sequence and she did some calculations in her head. Using them as they were didn't work out so she tried mirror and then finally reverse. That was it and she could hear the water sloshing much closer now. As she filled the necessary variables in for the answer to the equation, she stared it for a moment before torrents of water began flooding down the walls.
Ignoring the rising water and dispelling the fog, she thought over her options and then decided she would try this and if it didn't work, she would try the harder way.
Using the arithmetic answer didn't give her the access point for the wards so she tried translating it to runic and was thankful when that worked. As the ward on the pillar opened, it lit and began to move like a wave. Without a thought she began searching through the moving magic with her own loose magic and could feel the points where magic swirled and made the whole motion one of cracking turbulent waves. It was disorienting and she knew that it wouldn't be as easy as just taking them out one by one. It would have to be all three at once. Just to make sure, she did a mental calculation and knew that the waves would get bigger if only two were moving instead of the pull each exerted on the other with the three of them. Without thinking any further, spray was hitting her pant legs from the water rising around her, she gathered enough to breach the resistance of the magic moving and not much more.
Then, waiting for the targets to reach the places they would need to be in order to be hit with the movement she intended, she spun slightly and directed her magical darts of power toward the moving targets.
There was no sound of the magics hitting each other but they glowed. Each one a different blue, from medium to navy and then the water stopped crashing down and filling up around her. It was quiet after the rush of water and she stood for a moment. Before a light above her alerted her to a falling feather. Another one and now she understood her instruction to conserve, there would be another. She smiled a bit and cast a drying charm on herself but nothing else. Incase it was cold, wherever it took her.
