Notes:
Hello my lovelies!
It's time again for another chapter! Nothing much to say other than I hope every single one of you is still safe, especially with this week's chaos. I'm not based in the States, but I do hope you'll get some good news soon.
In the meantime, I hope this will serve as nice distraction!
Lots of thanks to my friend for helping me check this chapter :D
I hope you guys enjoy!
Chapter 41: A Glance into the Pensieve
There wasn't really a way to describe how Hermione felt about the last month or two. After she and Kakashi talked things out about their bond and her fear after Dolohov's torture, a lot changed. For one, every time they found themselves alone, Kakashi would touch her in places, all over her body, asking if she was okay with it. Nothing too intimate, of course. Just certain places on her arms or back. Innocent touches, really. She'd accused him once of mentally mapping her body, which he of course denied. With a smirk.
He had made sure to not wear his mask when they were alone, making all her nightmares less believable. He was never maskless in her nightmares after all. All these little moments they shared, all the touches and kisses they shared made her feel more and more at ease. Made her trust him even more. Hermione had been quite surprised, pleasantly so, to find that Kakashi quite enjoyed kissing her. It was such a shame they couldn't do it more often, because Hermione would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy it just as much.
The time she didn't spend with Kakashi, usually when he was on missions, she spent it with Teddy, Sirius and the Yamanaka's. And after her first try, she'd tried the mirror again a couple of times during the weeks that followed until she finally made contact. She cried when she saw Aberforth Dumbledore on the other side. It was nice to see a familiar face, besides Sirius' face of course. Apparently he had no clue she'd been missing, which made her wonder what on earth had happened while she had been here.
While the older man had been calm, she had noticed his surprise as he noticed Sirius sitting beside her. Then came the speculations she'd had before, regarding the Veil. Because how did that work? She still didn't know. Hermione would need to research it and there's no way of that happening while she was in Konoha. Unfortunately Aberforth could not give her any information on it either. Maybe it's something that someone else could answer. She did make a mental list of all the things to check if she ever had the chance to. Or to ask someone who had.
Currently she was adding a few more things to that list as she waited with Kakashi and Inoichi in the hallway outside of the Hokage's office. It was time for her weekly meeting and lately they had been discussing the events around her kidnapping. It had been hard for her to talk about it and today was the first time both Kakashi and Inoichi would be there as well, making her even more nervous. In her bag, she carried Remus' pensieve. Sirius had finally managed to unlock it from the package and they had already tried it with a few memories to see if it worked. It had actually been Sirius' idea to bring it with her, suggesting to use this to prove she's speaking the truth. While they had given her no indication that they didn't actually believe her, having a visual of everything couldn't hurt. She just hoped they'd be willing to give it a go.
Suddenly Kakashi and Inoichi stood up, snapping her back to the present. "The Hokage will see us now." Inoichi said with a soft smile. With a nod, she got up and followed the two men into the office. As they entered she noticed the Hokage sitting at his desk. She saw Shikaku standing to his right, who gave them a nod.
"Ah, right on time. Please, sit." The Hokage said as he signalled for them to sit down. "I'll get straight to the point. We all know what this is about. While I've already spoken to you, Hermione-san. I feel like there were still bits and pieces being left out and I need to know everything in this case. We'll need to go over it once again, make sure you haven't forgotten anything."
"Right, of course, Hokage-sama." Hermione said while fumbling with her bag.
"Yes?" He said as he sensed her hestitance.
"Well, um." Why was this so hard to say? "I may have a way for you to get all the information you need without the chance of me forgetting to mention something." She said. "I mean, I could just show you."
"Show us? How?""I have something here," she said as she put her hand in her bag, feeling around for the object. As she pulled it out, she continued. "It's called a pensieve. We, um, use it to review our memories."
"And how would that work?" Shikaku asked as he eyed the object.
"I take the memory of what happened and put it in the bowl. You can then relive my memories, sort of. You can't change anything, of course. But it'll give you the information that you need, hopefully." She explained. "And in order for you to see that, you'll need to put your face into the liquid." Hermione looked at all of them, trying to decipher the looks on their faces, but naturally she had no idea what they were thinking.
"How many of us can watch it at the same time?" The Hokage asked.
"Oh, um, well, as you can obviously see it's not that big when it's like this. But I can enlarge it. It could easily fit four or five people then." Hermione said, eyeing everyone in the room.
"Very well." The Hokage said. "I'm intrigued to see how this works. Shikaku, keep an eye out while we delve in."
"Of course, Hokage-sama."
"Inoichi, you will join in as well." The Hokage said, looking at her left.
"Hokage-sama, I'd like to watch it too. It'll help clarify some things for me too, regarding the mission." Kakashi spoke up from her right. She could feel the determination coming from Kakashi. She knew he wanted to know exactly what had happened to her, especially because a big part of that caused her issues with him now. If he were to see what had happened to her, maybe it would be easier for her to let go.
"I'm not sure if-"
"If I may, sir. I think it'd be best if he joins us, Hokage-sama." Inoichi interrupted. "He'll be able to support Hermione in ways we might not be able to. And knowing what I know so far, I think it can't hurt to have him there."
The Hokage sighed as he looked at the silver-haired shinobi next to her. "Very well. Keep yourself in check." He warned. Kakashi only nodded in return.
"Do you need anything else to make it work, Hermione-san?" He then asked her.
"Just my memory, sir." She replied. She stood up, placing the pensieve on the Hokage's desk. Taking out her wand, she whispered an 'Engorgio'. The pensieve tripled in size, easily fitting herself and the three shinobi joining her, just as she had said it would. She then pointed the tip of her wand against her temple, closing her eyes to focus on the memory she'd be showing them. Scrunching up her eyebrows, she felt the memory materialize as she moved the wand slowly away from her temple. Guiding the memory-string towards the pensieve, she dropped it and watched it swirl around. "Okay, it's ready."
Hermione felt Inoichi and Kakashi come up behind her, taking their place next to her. The Hokage stood up as well. With a wave of her wand, the pensieve started to hover a little, making it easier for everyone to access it. She noticed all of them were waiting for her to make the first move, which she decided to do. This was going to be weird for all of them, her included. She'd only used the pensieve once, after the war, during one of her holidays when she visited Remus.
Bending forward, she put her face into the liquid and let herself be transported into her memory. A short second later, the three shinobi stood next to her, looking at their surroundings in surprise. They were in Kakashi's home and someone easily fit into the room while being able to see everything clearly. "So, now what?" Kakashi asked.
"Now we watch," she said as she pointed at herself when she was still living at Kakashi's house. Hermione watched herself sitting, reading a book. A moment later she sighed and closed the book, looking at the clock. They all watched her make her way towards the backroom, knocking on the door. She felt Kakashi stiffen next to her, remembering as well that he had left the lights on when he was called away for a mission. She grabbed his hand and gave his hand a soft squeeze. "It's not your fault." She said before turning back to her memory. He didn't say anything, but gave her hand a squeeze in return.
They watched as her memory continued, until everything turned black as she lost consciousness due to the hit on the back of her neck.
Kakashi wanted to track down those Root-operatives as they took both Teddy and Hermione from his house. He still wasn't sure how he could've messed up like this. A small voice in the back of his head said he wasn't to blame. He'd gone on a mission after all. Yet he felt responsible for this.
It took a small moment for the dark to dissipate as Hermione woke up again. It only dissipated a little, the entire room was barely lit. It wouldn't surprise him if she couldn't see anything at all. Looking around, he noticed they were in a cell. Past-Hermione sat up suddenly, looking freaked out as she looked around in confusion. They watched her move around, getting a feel for where she was. Past-Hermione reached into her pocket and took out the wand of her friend and whispered something. Suddenly light came from the tip of the wand, showing all of them where she was. There wasn't a lot of information to be gathered from their surroundings. Nothing stood out to him. If he hadn't found the building with his team, he couldn't have guessed where this was. They all watched her look around as she whispered another phrase, but nothing happened.
"It's a spell that reveals humans if they're near," Hermione explained to them. She smiled as they all looked at her. "I figured it couldn't hurt to clarify." She said with a shrug.
"If we speak, nothing happens?" Inoichi asked as he looked at Past-Hermione.
"We're not in the past, Inoichi-san. It's a memory. There's nothing you can change." Well, that made sense, Kakashi thought. "You could even walk around, if you want. It'll give you different views on a single memory. It's what the pensieve is used for, really."
With a nod, Inoichi stepped away from the group and moved towards the bars. He hesitantly touched them, before he walked straight through them. "Hm, interesting." He said to himself. A loud clang got the attention from all the visitors, as Past-Hermione whispered something again, killing the light on the tip of her wand.
They watched as the memory progressed, from her meeting Danzo, to Hermione biding her time before she escaped with Teddy. She explained to them what it was she had done to the guard that had given her her food. Explained that she had the ability to enter one's mind and gather information like that. Kakashi was lying if he said he wasn't surprised at that. Obviously, it made sense that the wizards would have a way to do so, especially if they had a device to view memories. The part that felt unsettling to him was her being able to change the guy's memories. If she could do that, supposedly without the guy knowing.. Did that mean she had done the same to him? He'd like to believe she didn't. But he couldn't be sure, could he?
His attention then focused on the new guard that manhandled her, again knocking her out. It was frustrating that they couldn't see anything happening every time she lost consciousness, which made sense of course, but still. The next time they could see again, they were standing in a small room, Hermione dumped into a chair. He was surprised to see they hadn't bound her , which meant they hadn't known what she could do at all. The door opened, causing everyone to turn their heads to see who entered. Kakashi felt his eye widen at the sight of himself standing there. It wasn't him, of course. He was on a mission so it couldn't have been him. But he could see how she would think it was, given their rocky relationship at that time.
It was a bit weird watching someone who clearly didn't know him very well pretending to be him. He was immensely proud to watch her try and take a swing at him. It had no use, of course, but it made him think he should probably teach her some small stuff. It couldn't hurt either way. She then proceeded to elbow her attacker and then took out her wand, saying another spell. After a long pause, the henge was undone. Another Root-operative stood in front of them. He smirked at the confusion of the man and when he lunged for her, Past-Hermione disappeared from the room and it was incredibly weird to see the sensation of her way of teleportation. Suddenly they were in the next room, Hermione had already fired another attack and the nin in that room stood frozen in place as she took the small boy into her arms and disappeared once again.
Next, they watched as she ran for cover, hiding herself and the boy. It wasn't long until they had chased her into the forest. The same forest where he had found the boy. Up until now, none of them had really spoken, The Hokage hadn't even made as much as a sound. He spared the old man a glance but his face didn't betray anything as he as well took everything around them in. Kakashi clenched his jaw and curled his free hand into a fist in anger as he watched Hermione fight for her life, yet not standing a chance. It was like they were toying with her and he couldn't wait to get his hands on them, returning the favor.
As they followed Hermione in her memory, he turned his head to watch the tree she had used to hide Teddy. He knew he would find the boy shortly after, but he couldn't help but worry about the little boy being left there. She did it to protect him, of course, and she was lucky he went after her. But what if he hadn't? What would've happened to the boy? It wasn't long before the memory picked up again, after yet another blackout. The sight of her strapped in a chair absolutely pissed him off and he had to remind himself he couldn't do anything other than watch as he saw that foul man walk in with a smirk on his ugly-ass face.
While he had heard her screams when he was outside of the building, it was absolutely nothing compared to standing in the room with her. Kakashi could feel her gripping his hand and shortly after his arm tight. It was odd to see, really. The man, Dolohov, wasn't inflicting any physical damage, which they knew. She had told them this much. But to see it... Fuck.
"How much more?" Kakashi asked through gritted teeth. He couldn't handle any more of this. He was just about to smash everything. Anything and everything. It was a shame he'd already killed the man, he'd gladly do it again only then he would take his time. Make the man suffer. He'd show him torture.
"Not long," Hermione assured him. "I'm sorry." She then said.
"Don't apologise. This is not your fault."
And she had been right. It didn't take long. While she had been groggy when he had appeared, somehow they saw him clear as day, a hand plunged through Dolohov's chest. The vision then disappeared, the memory ending as all of them stood back up. He was surprised to find his face dry, while he definitely had his face into the liquid of the pensieve. He no longer held hands with Hermione, that too had only happened while they had been inside the memory. Interesting. He wondered how much time had gone by during their trip to memory lane.
"Everyone alright?" Shikaku asked, causing Kakashi to turn and look at him. The man was eyeing all of them, checking to see if there was anything off.
"We're good, Shikaku." The Hokage assured. "It was just… a bit disturbing to watch, is all."
Kakashi knew the Hokage wasn't a stranger to torture. It was a part of their lives after all. But watching someone who wasn't a shinobi get tortured like that. It didn't sit well with him. Movement to his left caught his attention as Hermione shrunk the pensieve again, carefully pocketing it again.
"Inoichi, please stay behind, I want to discuss a few more things with you. Shikaku, you can go. Kakashi, you too but stay with Hermione for now."
With a nod, he guided Hermione outside. A quick glance at the clock told him only a few minutes had passed. That was even more interesting. Hermione didn't speak all the while they walked through the village. Instead of leading her towards her new home, he took her to his. He figured she'd need time to process all this information. He would too, but he'd rather not lose sight of her. Not after what he saw. If it were up to him, he wouldn't lose sight of her ever again. He'd protect her with everything he had.
"Please, Mr. Dumbledore, have a seat." Harry let the man into his home, guiding him to the sitting room. On his way there, he passed Ginny who gave him a confused look. With a nod, he told her to join them.
"Thank you, Mr. Potter. I apologise for coming by unannounced." The older man said as he sat down on one of the seats in the room.
"Please, don't. You're welcome anytime." Harry said. "You said you had information about Hermione?" He sat down across from him. "Tea?"
"Maybe something stronger is better," Aberforth said in response. Harry nodded and with a flick of his wand he summoned a couple of glasses and a bottle of Fire Whiskey. He poured each a generous glass and gave one to each of them.
"Hermione?" Ginny said as she joined the men, sitting down as well, "do you know where she is?"
Aberforth hummed as he took a sip from his drink. "Not exactly. But I have spoken to her, which is why I'm here now."
"Spoken to her? You've spoken to her? Is she alright?" Harry knew he was firing question after question but he had never expected this news to come to him. There were so many more questions running through his mind. Where was she? Why didn't she contact him? Why didn't she come home? Was she in trouble?
"I understand you have questions, maybe this will answer a few of them." The man said as he took something out of his pocket. Wait, was that…?
"A mirror?" Ginny asked. What are we supposed to do with a mirror?
"I have one of those," Harry said. "Hold on." He stood up and went to his bedroom. He had kept the piece of his father's mirror hidden away. And as he searched he realised he may have hidden it away too well since he couldn't find it. "Damn it. Accio mirror!" He said, trying to summon the mirror, but nothing happened. "Shit."
Running back down he looked at Aberforth with a frown on his face. The man patiently looked back at him. "You knew I didn't have my mirror anymore, didn't you?"
"It had crossed my mind, yes." Aberforth said calmly. "Seeing as I have the other one and I know I haven't been speaking to you this past week."
"Then who?"
"Seriously Harry, I love you, but sometimes I wonder how the hell you stayed alive all this time." Ginny said with a sigh. "He means Hermione, of course." She said before turning to Aberforth. "Right?"
"I'm glad someone is keeping a cool head here," he commented after nodding in affirmation. "But yes, I've been speaking to Ms. Granger."
Harry opened his mouth to fire another barrage of questions, but was stopped when Aberforth raised his hand. "Before you ask any other questions, how about I explain some things first, hm?"
"Right. Of course, yeah. Sorry." Harry moved towards where Ginny was sitting and sat down as well. He picked up his glass and downed the Fire Whiskey in one go.
The pair then listened to Aberforth Dumbledore as the man explained how he noticed his mirror connecting to the piece of its twin. At first he had thought it had been Harry, and was only mildly surprised when he saw Hermione instead. That was until she explained what had happened to her, which Aberforth didn't say. Saying instead that that was up to Hermione to say.
"So, it's only fair that I inform you of this as well."
"But why didn't you come here straight away?"
"She asked me not to." The old man said calmly. "She wanted me to reach out to you as soon as she was ready. There's a lot she has to say."
Harry wanted to pull his hair out. What the hell was happening? Why wouldn't Hermione want to speak to them straight away? Had he done something wrong? He knew he hadn't been there for her as much as he had wanted to, but... shit. Shit. What the hell was he going to do now? Were they going to just accept this? Damn it, he needed to talk to her. And he would have to talk with the others- Merlin. He needed to tell everyone else about this too. Everyone was worried sick, he couldn't not tell them. With that thought in mind, Harry shot up.
"What are you doing, Harry? Where are you going?" Ginny worriedly asked as she shot up as well.
"We need to tell the others, I mean, they need to know!" He called as he moved to leave the room.
"Harry, wait. Wait!" Ginny called. "Stop and think for a moment. Mr. Dumbledore just said Hermione didn't talk to us straight away because she needed to be ready. We don't know what's happened to her and we don't know in what kind of state she is. I know the others need to know, but she didn't ask for the others, did she? She asked for you. So let's just see what she has to say before we overwhelm her with all the questions everyone will have."
Ginny was right, once again. He appreciated her being so level-headed. "Damn it. Okay, yeah. You're right of course. I'm sorry, love."
"Please," Ginny jokingly scoffed. "You'd be lost without me. Now, come on. I think we should hear Mr. Dumbledore out some more."
Harry followed Ginny back into their sitting room, "I'm sorry about that. It's just- I've been worried sick and trying to find Hermione for weeks on end now. To just hear about it now, out of the blue, is a bit unexpected."
"That's already. Still rash as ever, hm?" Aberforth commented with a knowing smile.
"Eh, yeah." Harry responded sheepishly. "So, well, I'm happy to hear we at least have some information now, about 'Mione. When can we talk to her?"
Aberforth took out a pocket watch and checked the time. "Hm, well, I had arranged to meet in about fifteen minutes or so. So not too long, now. How about you calm yourself down a bit more. We don't want to make it any harder for her than this will already be."
"Right. Yes. I'm going to freshen up and I suppose then we'll wait until she calls, right?" Harry said as he moved to go to the bathroom to do just that.
"Sound plan."
He would get to see his best friend again. Finally.
"What do you think?" Hiruzen asked as he looked out of the window of his office. He hadn't expected young Hermione to have such an item in her possession and it apparently was a very handy item. The events that happened in her memory had been known to him, but only in ways of someone telling him. Seeing it was different. He saw the fear on her face, the pain. She wasn't a shinobi and it was not something he had wished for her to go through. Despite that, she handled herself extremely well. He knew she'd been to war, of course. Inoichi had told him what he had learned, and she had mentioned it before. Hiruzen just hadn't expected her to be that brave when being tortured. She hadn't been lying when she had said she would do anything to protect young Teddy.
"I think that was worse than I had initially expected." Inoichi confessed. "I mean, she obviously didn't tell us everything, especially regarding what she could do. We expected that. But I didn't think she would downplay what had happened to her."
Hiruzen hummed at that. "Well, at least now we know for certain that Danzo was responsible for taking her. This, combined with the camera footage we have, should definitely be enough to keep him detained. And we can definitely link this to the disappearances of those, what did she call them, Death Eaters?"
"Yeah, that's still an issue. I still haven't found the mole in T&I. I've worked through most of them, but it takes time. We don't want to raise any flags in case Danzo is still getting information on that." Inoichi explained.
"And no idea where the body of her friend is either?"
"No, nothing. Which concerns me too."
"Well, it's unfortunate we cannot use her memories as evidence, but it helps that we've seen it as well. We'll just have to find a way to convince everyone of it." The Sandaime said. "Alright. Keep an eye on her. I'd rather not have her alone at the moment. And make sure the boy is protected as well."
"Of course, Hokage-sama."
"And would you mind informing Black-san that I need to speak with him? I'd like to know what he can say about all of this." Surely the man could shed some light on the spells Hermione had used. Of course, he'd rather ask Hermione, but she was in no state to do so right now.
"Yes, Hokage-sama. I'll let him know. Anything else?"
"No, that's all. Dismissed." He heard Inoichi leave the room, leaving him alone with his thoughts. His mind went over all the events again. He'd have to ask Sirius if shinobi would be able to use the pensieve as well. It would make interrogations a lot easier. Then again, he doubted it worked like that.
Thinking about everything else, it saddened him immensely to learn his old friend had fallen so deep. He knew Danzo had different beliefs regarding the way Konoha should be led, but this? Had he really been so blind? It was like he didn't even know his own friend anymore. It also made him wonder if anyone else was involved in this. He'd have to carefully investigate this. Suddenly there were a lot less people he could trust. It was important to rule everyone out before trusting them. After all, you could never be too safe in this case, especially if it concerned the abilities that both Hermione and Sirius possessed. It was something out of this world, to them, and something that could definitely be used against them if it were to fall into the wrong hands.
His gaze shifted from the view of the village towards the Hokage Rock. And not for the first time he wondered if he should've elected someone else to take over his seat. He was getting too old for this.
End of chapter notes:
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