2/5/04: My goodness! I'm very sorry for the long time since an update. So I don't bore you here, my reasons are at the end. You can thank Akuma-sama and Facade1 for kicking my butt in gear and getting this chapter out.
17. Changing Venues
The ride home from the Bones' residence was spent mostly in silence, as Harry and Hermione were occupied with their own thoughts. Though Harry had hoped for some decisive action, he could understand the Minister's predicament: not only did he have to think about public safety, he also had his own career to worry about. Harry could imagine the Minister sitting at his desk, basing the decision on which option would damage his career the least if things went bad. Soon enough, they arrived in front of Harry's building.
"Well, here we are," said Hermione.
"Yeah." Harry paused, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. "Well, um…do you want to come up for a bit? Talk about it?"
Hermione looked uncomfortable as well. "I can't – I have an early morning tomorrow."
"Okay, thanks for ride. Good night Hermione."
"Good night Harry."
Harry stood on the curb and watched as Hermione drove away, his shoulders slumped. Just a few years ago, his invitation, and her acceptance of it, would have been second nature. Just a few years ago, they would have spent hours talking about the horrible thing they had just learned, their opinions, their fears, everything. But things were still strained between them. As Harry stood by the empty street, he suddenly realized how much he missed her friendship. Ron was great, but he was a guy. He was someone Harry could joke around with, have fun with, and get drunk with. But he wasn't someone with whom Harry felt comfortable sharing his feelings, his innermost thoughts – that person had always been Hermione. Years of angsting had allowed him to forget all of that, but now, standing on a lonely sidewalk with a heavy burden on his shoulders, Harry missed Hermione's friendship very much. Thus, with a heavy heart, Harry made his way to his flat and climbed into bed, pausing only to remove his robes and the protective amulet.
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Harry was awoken the next morning by a loud ringing. Rolling over, Harry opened his eyes and blearily peered at the alarm clock, which read 12:14pm. A momentarily twinge of panic ran through his chest until it was replaced by relief when he remembered that he didn't have to go into work today. Relief was then followed by severe irritation at the ringing that had interrupted his day to sleep-in. After five fruitless minutes of hoping the caller would give up, Harry pulled himself to his feet and, after a quick stop at the bathroom, rummaged through his robes until he found his mobile. He flipped it open, but no head appeared in the fire. Annoyed, Harry placed his mobile on the kitchen table and slumped into a chair.
"All right, I'm here!" he called out grumpily. After a minute (which did not serve to improve his mood), his caller appeared. Harry immediately sat up straight, unconsciously running a hand through his hair.
"Madam Bones," he said politely.
"Ah, Mr. Potter. While I do understand that it is your day off, I expect my Aurors to be more responsive when called."
"My apologies. You see Madam Bones, I uh, was busy, er, fixing breakfast – I mean lunch!"
Madam Bones seemed to give him a once-over before shaking her head slightly. "Anyways…a decision has been made."
"Yes ma'am?"
"For the meantime we will keep our discussion to ourselves. I want to take care of a few things before we take action. I will let you know more tomorrow. Understood?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Good." Madam Bones seemed about to sign off, but reconsidered. "I've already contacted your friend…fortunately she was not too busy making lunch and answered her floo. Plus, she had somehow found the time to change into new clothes."
Harry fidgeted. "Um, yes, er-"
"I'll see you tomorrow, Potter," she said, and then disappeared. Harry groaned loudly, hoping that his appearance wasn't as slovenly as he feared. One look in the mirror, though, dashed away any of those hopes.
After making himself more presentable, Harry threw some floo powder into his fireplace and called out, "Hermione Granger!" He had debated with himself whether or not he should call her. On the one hand, he really wanted to see her, but on the other had, he didn't want to seem overly desperate to be with her. Besides, she was probably out with Rick. In the end, Harry decided that he should call her if only to make sure she got Madam Bones' message (ignoring the fact that Madam Bones already said that she had). And if Hermione wanted to talk or meet up later, well, that would be nice.
After a few seconds, while horrid images of her and Rick flashed through his brain, he heard her voice through the fireplace. Harry kneeled on one of the cushions and stuck his head into the green flames.
Hermione face suddenly filled his vision as Harry realized she was using her mobile. "Hi Harry," she said in a tired voice. She seemed somewhat harried.
"Hi Hermione. Did you talk to Madam Bones?"
"Yeah, she called this morning."
"Good. So…"
"Sorry Harry, but I have to run. Lots of work to do here. I'll talk to you later."
Before Harry could respond, she flipped her mobile closed, and Harry had no choice but to pull his head back. He sighed sadly, and then got to his feet.
The rest of the day passed in a slow haze of frustrating inactivity. Normally, Harry would either be relaxing the day away, reading the Sunday Prophet and perhaps a light lunch with Ron. Or, he would be hard at work, making the world safe for wizardkind. But today, Harry desperately wanted to work, but he could not until Madam Bones took care of whatever she was doing. And with the knowledge of what was happening, Harry found he couldn't relax. He did try his best though. After lunch, Harry went to a wizarding park where he flew for several hours on his broom. Though his injury from his final battle with Voldemort precluded him from the rigors of Quidditch, he could still fly lazy circles in the air. It wasn't the same, but it was better than nothing. After a small dinner of take-out (A/N: I know it's called something different in the UK, but I can't remember what), Harry went to bed, grateful that the day had finally ended.
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The one thing Harry hadn't expected to see was in full force when he arrived at the Bullpen: normalcy. It was as if it were a regular Monday morning, and not as if the most disturbing discovery since the return of Voldemort had occurred two nights before. In fact, Harry spent the entire morning stuck deep in normalcy, reviewing case files that were to go to court, filling out paperwork, and getting an update on the Tway accident (confirmed magical involvement, no suspects). Harry was very curious if Tonks had managed to track Tway's last owl, but she was nowhere to be found. Finally, halfway through the afternoon, Chief Kaye entered the Bullpen. "All right, listen up! Toms, Potter, Clarke, Price. Follow me."
Robert gave Harry a suspicious look as they walked out of the Bullpen. As they followed the Chief, Robert leaned over and whispered, "You've been acting funny all day. You knew this was going to happen, right? You were expecting this." Harry only shrugged, prompting a hard stare from Robert. Chief Kaye led them to a conference room where Madam Bones, Chief Shacklebolt, Captain Perry, and Tonks were sitting.
Madam Bones looked up as soon as they entered. "Good. Find a seat quickly, we don't have much time." Harry took the chair nearest to him and sat down. Madam Bones waited a few seconds to be sure everyone was seated before she continued. "Mr. Potter has made a rather frightening discovery this weekend. The details are not important, but I have taken it upon myself to devise a new plan." Harry tried valiantly not to look down or squirm as he felt the weight of several unfriendly eyes upon him. Madam Bones must have noticed it too. "All right, let's address that now. Pay attention," she said loudly, ensuring all eyes were now back on her. "Potter came across his discovery while at the memorial for an old classmate at Hogwarts this weekend. I happen to be there as well. Since I was there, Potter ran his theory by me. I listened, and I explicitly ordered him not to tell anyone else, not his Chief, his Captain, or even his partner. Furthermore, I have ordered him not to divulge his discovery without my authorization. No further discussion on this point will be entertained. Everyone understand?"
Nods and sounds of affirmation followed, as Harry gave Madam Bones a grateful smile. Harry knew that without Madam Bones little white lie, he would have been in a world of trouble for going outside of channels, and especially for not telling Robert. Madam Bones gave him an excuse as well as a way out of answering future questions.
"Good," Madam Bones continued. "Now, I have every reason to believe that Malvagita is responsible for the murders." Madam Bones ignored the murmurs that her sudden and rather surprising announcement caused. "I have spent the weekend talking to my counterpart in America. Though they do not believe they can pinpoint his location as yet, I believe that with S&I's trace of Tway's owl we can find this self-proclaimed dark lord." Harry looked over at Tonks, briefly wondering what she had found. Madam Bones continued. "As such, I am sending you five" – she pointed at the four detectives and Tonks – "to America to find and arrest Malvagita. You will be working closely with the Americans on this; a representative of their government will meet you at their floo'port. Madam Bones produced five small envelopes and tossed them in their general direction. Harry reached over and grabbed the one with his name. "Floo tickets," Madam Bones explained as Harry opened the letter. "You will be leaving late tonight, so go home, pack, and attend to any personal business. That's all. Good luck. Dismissed." Madam Bones stood (causing everyone else to stand) and left the room, leaving a rather bewildered group of Aurors behind.
"Er…yeah," Robert said, looking over his ticket.
"All right then," Chief Kaye said, "you heard the lady. Get going."
"Good luck," Chief Shacklebolt echoed, and then the two Chiefs left the room, Captain Perry trailing behind.
After a few seconds of stunned silence, Robert spoke up. "Okay, you heard the boss. Everyone go home and do what you have to do. Meet at the airport at" – Robert checked his ticket – "11pm. After we get to America and get a good night's sleep, we'll meet with the Americans and find out what the heck is going on." With that, the meeting ended, and the Aurors filed out of the room, Tonks towards the S&I floor and the others towards the Bullpen. Harry hung back a little until he could speak to Robert without the others hearing.
"Listen Robert," Harry said softly, "I hope you understand why I couldn't tell you-"
Robert held up his hand, cutting Harry off. "Believe me kid, I've been in this business long enough to know when to mind my own business. It's okay."
Harry smiled, relieved. "Thanks Robert."
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For many years, wizards and witches had to rely on Muggle methods for international travel, much to their collective embarrassment. The fact was that apparating across an ocean was impossible (not that many magicals could apparate in the first place), and the floo network was really reliable for short distances only, especially considering how dizzy one would become if stuck in the floo network for a long trip. Flying a broom over the ocean wasn't much better, as not only would it take hours, but flying across miles and miles of endless ocean was a harrowing prospect. Besides, neither method would allow for much baggage. That left ships and airplanes.
All that started to change about seventy years ago when a witch by the name of Elissa Andrade discovered a method to expand the size of a floo corridor, allowing large objects to be sent through the network. This, of course, required some rather large fireplaces to be built, and the immediate benefit was realized by businesses that could now transport large objects through the network rather than rely on concealed magical transports. However, since the object would still spin rapidly, very delicate objects still had to be sent normally.
Then, just ten years later, to solve this particular problem, Margaret Sutherland devised a capsule that would prevent its contents from spinning – the outer shell of the capsule itself would still spin, but inner shell and objects within would remain still. From there, it was only a matter of time until the capsule could be applied to larger and larger objects. Attempts were made to create capsules for individual travel, but these failed due to the high cost of a capsule and the coffin-like atmosphere it caused. Later on, someone realized that if a capsule could be built that could contain something the size of the Knight Bus, then perhaps it would be possible to use the floo network to transport several people at once in comfort. This eventually led to the creation of an international floo network and several floo'ports in each country, essentially enormous fireplaces that were connected to the international floo network. It was to the floo'port in London that Harry arrived at 10:50pm.
Packing took next to no time at all for Harry. He always had a bag ready just in case, and he simply had to add extra clothes for the trip. After packing, he briefly spoke with Ron and let him know that he'd be gone in America for a while and promised to bring him back something, preferably something with alcohol. He tried, and failed, to contact Hermione, but planned to try again later. With several hours yet to go, Harry had a light dinner and a quick nap before apparating to the floo'port.
The floo'port was busy as always; not only was it used for international travel, but many magicals used the floo'port to travel across the country, deciding that the price of a ticket was worth the smooth and quick travel. Harry checked in at his gate, where he found he was to floo to the city of Chicago, and then found a seat to wait until his tube (the common name for their capsule) was called. Pulling out a Muggle book (he still preferred Muggle fiction to wizarding fiction), Harry prepared himself to read until a sight caught his attention.
"Hermione?"
Hermione Granger, loaded down with a very large bag, came up to him, a bright smile on her face. "Harry!"
Harry stood and refrained from trying to give her hug. It was still too soon. "What are you doing here?" he asked, confused.
"Same as you, silly! Aren't you excited? I've never been to America before!"
"Whoa, hold on a second. What makes you think you're coming with us?" Harry asked sternly.
Hermione just smiled and plopped into the seat beside him, her bag landing at her feet. "Oh Harry, still the same…" she said tolerantly. "Madam Bones called me Sunday, and we talked about, well, you know. She asked me to come along since I'm the expert here."
"We'll see about that," Harry said as he started to rise to his feet.
But Hermione was faster. She instantly jumped to her feet and stood in front of Harry, placing her hands on his shoulders and forcing him to sit. She straightened and put her hands on her hips, striking a formidable pose. "Harry Potter, just what do you think you're doing?" she demanded. "One: I'm fully capable of making my own decisions. Two: I'm fairly certain that once Madam Bones decides something, she won't change her mind. I'm the only one familiar with the, er, thingie, and she didn't want to tell someone new. Three: You need me. Don't even try and tell me you think that you or any of the others would recognize the thingie if you saw it." Then she softened her posture and sat down again, placing her hands on Harry's arm. "And four," she said softly, maintaining eye contact, "you don't have to protect me. I'll be perfectly safe, and I'll stay out of the way if anything dangerous happens."
Harry looked at her for a long moment. "Promise?"
She nodded. "Promise."
Harry sighed. "I'm sorry, Hermione, I didn't mean to imply that you couldn't take care of yourself. I guess I still worry about you."
"It's all right Harry, I wouldn't expect any less from you. But it has been several years since Hogwarts, y'know. I'm a big girl now."
Harry managed a weak smile. "Yeah, I suppose so, but…you're still my Hermione. I have to make sure-" Harry froze, horrified once he realized what he had just said; Hermione was, in fact, not his any more. Harry looked down at the floor, afraid to see her reaction to his slip. "Um, I mean, er, I mean you're Hermione, and I'm used to-"
Hermione placed her hand on his arm again, stopping his babbling. "It's okay," she said. "You're still my Harry too."
Harry looked up and met her eyes. They shared a small smile, and then all of sudden Harry grew uncomfortable. He cleared his throat. "Er, yeah." He retrieved his book and started to read, but stopped when he saw Hermione dig into her bag and pull out two books, a bunch of parchment, and a quill. As he watched in wonder, she somehow managed to create a workable environment from within the confines of the chair, able to access her books and write legibly on a parchment at the same time. She worked diligently for a few minutes until she noticed his gaze. "What?" she asked.
Harry shook his head. "Nothing," he said, a smile on his lips.
She squinted one eye at him in a lock of mock suspicion before returning to her work. After a few minutes of companionable silence, Robert walked up to them.
"Ah, see you made it Potter. We should be able to board the tube in a few minutes."
Harry nodded. "Great. Oh, Robert, this is my friend, Doctor Hermione Granger. She'll be joining us."
"Ah, yes," Robert said smiling as he shook Hermione's hand. "Madam Bones owled me about that…something about an expert joining us, though she told me not to ask any questions and just do whatever you said."
Hermione grinned. "Ah, just the way I like it: unquestioning obedience."
Robert laughed. "Good to have you on the team Dr. Granger."
"Please call me Hermione."
"All right, Hermione then."
Just then, a Sonorus'ed voice announced the boarding of their tube. After holding a few of Hermione's parchments while she re-packed her bag, they stood and entered the tube together.
A/N: And now, off to America! To tell you the truth, I'm not exactly sure why I had Malvagita in America. It makes more sense to have him in Italy, but I dunno anything about Italy. Ah well.
You may have noticed I changed the style a bit here. I mean, two days (Sunday and Monday) passed within this short chapter, while my previous chapters covered one full day. Basically, I'm gonna try and speed this story along and finish it. I've been itching to write my sequel to DoF, but I have to finish this first.
Okay, so where was I? Here's my long story: a few days after I posted the last chapter, I met with my old employer about getting my old job back (more money!). It's now been a month, and they still haven't sent an offer letter (I have the offer, just not the official letter), so I'm waiting. In the meantime, my current employer offered me a new position when I tried to quit, but it involves a relocation. I'm definitely thinking about it. And just this week, I got an interview with a third company (today actually). So, I haven't been exactly busy, just very, very distracted.
Thanks to everyone for responding to my question!
Alex20: very interesting…your review definitely made me pause and think. You're right, I revised their break-up scene because I thought it made it look like it was all Hermione's fault, and I wanted Harry to have some culpability. Then, I revised the make-up scene (in my head only) because, again, I wanted Harry to have more to apologize for. I wanted it to be both their faults, but somewhere along the way it turned into Harry's fault. My only defense (and I just thought of this now) is that since this is from Harry's POV, you get his somewhat biased viewpoint (the viewpoint that everything sucks in his life), and you never get to see Hermione's feelings on the matter. I suppose at this point in the story it's a moot point. Besides, Hermione is a saint ;)
