Again – I own nothing. JK Rowling owns all of her characters, and I own mine.
This was revised, beta-ed, reviewed, reconstructed, revamped, etc. etc. by the wonderful PallasAthene17.
This was updated on: 24 Feb 2003
Chapter 2
LondonRon Weasley was fast asleep with his wife, Susan, in a cozy little home in London. He had just returned after a 2-week assignment from the Ministry, and was making up for the past few weeks with Susan. He loved his job as an Auror, and was able to travel extensively throughout Europe, Africa, with the occasional jaunts to the US. His last assignment had him tracking some rogue Dementors in Malta. He was able to detain them, but he was unable to ascertain who was behind their defection.
"RON WEASLEY" – Ron awoke immediately after he heard his name screamed through the fireplace downstairs. The voice was familiar. "This bloody better be good, Hermione," thought Ron as he dropped a kiss his wife's forehead. He picked up his dressing robe from the chair, put it on and went downstairs to see what she wanted.
Hermione was standing in the Weasley living room in the
dark, since she didn't have a wand to light the candles with. "Ron, where are you? It's 9:30, don't …"
"Hermione! Shhhhh, Susan is
asleep!" Ron interrupted Hermione's
yells as he entered the living room and flipped the light switch.
"Sorry, I forgot you have electricity. Why are you two in bed so early?"
Ron gave her a knowing look. "Oh" was all Hermione could say.
"What is so important that you felt the need to barge in like a screaming banshee?"
"I was attacked tonight. Our place was trashed. I think whoever did it was looking for this." Hermione pulled the diskette out of her pocket.
"Do you have any idea who might've done this?" Ron asked, gritting his teeth. If someone was after Hermione, they might as well have attacked a Weasley. Family comes in all forms after all, and Ron saw Hermione as his sister, and would do anything to protect her. "Are you OK? Is Monique?"
"We're both fine. I don't know who stunned me and trashed the flat, but the voice was familiar, only I can't place it. I've been trying to figure it out, and it's going to drive me spare until I figure out who it was!" Hermione practically screeched as she nervously paced across the living room, then finally slumped down into the wingback chair in the corner. It seemed her calm exterior was quickly crumbling as the day's events finally sunk in. Ron relaxed his stance a bit when he heard both Hermione and Monique were ok.
"Is that the only copy of it?" Ron asked looking at the diskette Hermione was holding, knowing that it was probably research that no one knew about save himself, Harry, Sephe and Neville.
"Yes. Have you mentioned this to anyone?"
Ron went into the bar and pulled out a bottle of whiskey. He spoke quietly, "No, but if you are working on it at the ministry, someone must know. You can't keep anything a secret there for long, you know that." He poured two glasses, walked across the room where Hermione was sitting and knelt before her and handed her the glass. "Have you noticed anything suspicious these past few weeks?
Hermione thought carefully about this project from its beginning. She had gathered Sephe and Neville together and threatened them both with obliviates if they opened their mouths about the project. Neville helped her with identifying the plants she needed in exchange for Hermione's help with identifying a cure for his parents. He was so full of hope that Hermione couldn't bare to tell him that twenty years of research had found nothing, and she could very well fail too. She knew Sephe wouldn't tell anyone, and if she did, people would think she was crazy, ranting and raving about a magical realm that didn't exist. Hermione had too much dirt on Ron and Harry that if they opened their mouths, a slip to the Daily Prophet would make their lives a living hell. They were working in a basement so far removed from the rest of the Ministry, that everyone knew their research was just to give surviving family members the reassurance that everything was being done to reanimate their family members.
"Not really. I've been doing the usual researching." Hermione hesitantly dropped her eyes from Ron and added, "And I, and I owled Dumbledore last week" as she drank the whiskey in one gulp.
Ron spitting out the whiskey in his mouth, "You did WHAT?"
Hermione slumped down in the chair, "I know, call me an idiot. It's just we are so close to creating the antipotion, and I thought…"
Ron stood up, "You thought what? That he would give 1000 points to the famed Gryffindor swot? Have you gone completely potty? How did you send the letter Mione? By owl post? Did you send him some of your research as well? Do you have any idea how many people could have intercepted that letter?" Ron was practically yelling at this point.
"No, I didn't send him some of my research. I sent him the letter via owl, MY owl. She is perfectly reliable. Besides, I spelled it so the words would appear on the parchment only for Dumbledore, no one else. " Hermione said in a huff, and then added quietly, "I indicated that we have created a potion that will eradicate all magical abilities from a wizard and render them a muggle."
"Bloody hell Hermione – this is not good." Ron went back to the whiskey bottle and looked at his glass, "Sod it", he said and brought the bottle to his lips and took a swig. "Did you indicate who was working on this with you?"
Hermione muttered "No," as she stared into her empty glass. "How much trouble am I in?"
"I don't know – but whoever it was knows what you can do – we need to put you in hiding – but you must continue your research – you have to find the counter-potion before another madman like Voldemort gets his hands on the research and tries to turn us all into muggles. Otherwise, that diskette is your ticket to an early grave. Let's not tempt the fates. We need to get this sorted straight-away."
Hermione looked at him as he spoke, and said, "I know. They broke my wand, Ron." She pulled the remnants of it out of her pocket. "I think I need another drink."
Ron passed her the bottle; she took a swig, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and set it on the table.
Hermione looked at him with fear in her eyes, "Can you go with me to find Sephe? I need to make sure she's safe."
"Just give me a minute to change, and tell Susan, then we'll be off." he said as he walked out of the room.
Picadilly CircusSephe Mills was with her friend, Ronnie, and their dates Michael and Nathan for a night on the town. Sephe was thrilled about how the research was going, and having not gone out in the past few months, had convinced her friend Ronnie to go out celebrate.
It was fascinating working with Hermione and her "wizard technology" as she called it. She and her little cousin were having fun, and putting their brains together on something that just blew Sephe away. She knew that Mione was a witch, but thought that the two different "realms" were the same: same housing, clothing, government, judicial system, etc. Sephe just thought that the only difference was a wand – boy was she wrong.
When Hermione approached Sephe on a project after she graduated from Oxford, she had no true picture of the magical realm or their problems. Hermione explained that with Sephe's knowledge of Biochemistry as a pharmaceutical researcher and Mione's own knowledge of Charms and Potions, they might be able to work together on some secret research. Sephe was a little hesitant. She wasn't sure if stripping a person of magical power could be done without killing the person. That was before she heard of Voldemort and Death Eaters.
Hermione told her of how her seven years at Hogwarts were spent: how Harry was the "boy who lived", defeating Voldemort year after year. She heard the stories from Professor Quirrell and the troll to the end of Voldemort where Harry, Hermione, Ron, Charlie, and Professors Snape and Dumbledore cast him to hell in one incantation. And how almost all of them died during this fight. It took weeks, and for a few of them, months, to finally awake from their magically induced comas.
She told them how many had sacrificed themselves for the Golden Trio – Professor Flitwick, and Madame Hooch, to those who have spent the next few years recuperating from the final battle. It was the aftermath that infuriated Hermione the most.
The Death Eater trials were the same this time around as last time: those who had enough power and wealth got away with it, and those who didn't were expendable, and ended up in Azkaban. Dumbledore never liked having Dementors, evil beings, as the jailers. It worried Hermione more so that the person in charge of Azkaban was none other than Claudius McNair, a known Death Eater. Claudius was so ruthless that he sacrificed his own brother and fellow Death Eater to Azkaban without a blink of the eye. It was all about power to him. He was never one to get his hands dirty, he had his Dementors for that job.
After hearing these tales, Sephe immediately agreed to working with Mione. They had been working on and off again for 2 years, and finally had a breakthrough. They could strip the power safely and efficiently. Only, they couldn't put it back once they did it. "Oh well – one problem at a time," thought Sephe, "Celebrate our breakthrough tonight, and back to work on Monday."
Sephe and Ronnie's original plan that evening was to go with some friends of Ronnie's to the movies after dinner, but opted instead to go to a trendy coffee shop with live entertainment. They were unaware of the two figures following them since they left the restaurant.
As they found a vacant table, the girls stood up, "Gentlemen, will you excuse us? We need to powder our noses," Ronnie said as Sephe added, "Please order me an espresso". "Same for me" Ronnie said. Nathan replied, "Why is it that you women can never go to the restrooms alone? You always go in packs." Sephe replied, "In case you didn't realize it, we need to grin on you in a most unladylike fashion, so we do it in there, instead of out here. Now, may we go?"
Michael laughed, "Sure, but if you two aren't back soon, we'll have to find ourselves some new dates." They were all laughing as Sephe and Ronnie turned to go to the restroom. The girls didn't notice the table towards the back of the coffee bar. It was dark there, and partially hidden by the entertainment's sound equipment. They also didn't notice a person following them from this table to the restroom.
"So, what do you think they talk about when they are in there?" Nathan asked Michael.
"Us, of course. Sephe was spot-on about that, except they talk about how cute we are and what gentlemen we are. Too bad they don't know the truth." Nathan laughed, "I guess they'll find out when we escort them home."
A server approached their table, "What can I get you?"
Michael replied, "Two espressos, and two teas." As their server left, Michael scowled when he noticed the table in the back, "Looks like we have company – go get the girls from the bathroom, I'll cancel the order." Michael got up to cancel the order and Nathan went towards the restrooms.
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Thanks.