Completed: 2/24/05 5:31 PM
Posted: 2/24/05 5:36 PM
A/n: Sorry it took so long. But you know. Busy, and stuff. But I got some drabbles and stuff up, so that counts, right?
Next Chapter: Trio's meeting. Shazaam – major clearer upper.
ETP: Uh...no class tomorrow, so if I can get my butt in gear (since I have nothing else to do) sometime this weekend? Saturday or Sunday maybe.
-
Hermione had completely forgotten about Harry and Ron's note to her until she was changing into her pajamas for the night. Stuffing the folded parchment into her bedtable drawer, she picked her bathrobe off its peg in the closet and shrugged into the warm terrycloth. She still hadn't regained her original build and weight so the flannel hems of her pajama pants dragged on the floor behind. But there wasn't anything she could do about that so she simply ignored it and stepped out into the common room.
It was late enough that nearly everyone had gone up to their rooms. Hermione sat down beside Ron and said a few quick words to him and Harry, who was leaning over the back of the couch between them, concerning the note they'd given her. Then the trio laughed as if a good joke had just been exchanged before going their separate ways. Harry went over to talk to Remus, while Ron and Hermione remained seated; he hurrying to come up with prophecies for Divination and she delving into a thick volume on temporal translocation.
She only needed to wait a few more moments longer until the common room had emptied, and Lily and Sirius came through the portrait hole to complete the group. Clearing her throat, Hermione tucked her book under her arm and stood up on the cushy couch cushion.
"I have an announcement to make," she declared, though looking hardly commanding in her overly large red flannel pajamas. "You're going to get your day of fun – so be ready by ten tomorrow morning."
Giving both Harry and Ron a kiss on the cheek goodnight, Hermione hopped off the couch and towards her room.
"Where are we going?" Sirius called after her.
Hermione laughed and winked at him, before twisting the doorknob and stepping into her Head Girl's rooms. "It's a surprise!"
-
"Everyone ready?"
The seven of them were all standing in the middle of Hermione's bedroom, cloaks fastened tightly around their necks and anxiously wondering just what the brunette had in mind. Each of them nodded in affirmation and Hermione swept her cloak to one side and procured a cracked earthen vase.
She held it straight out in her palm. "Everyone get a finger on it," she instructed, and by forming a tightly packed circle with one another they were able to do as she'd instructed.
"How did you get an unauthorized portkey?" Harry asked, brow furrowed. He'd seen enough of what his friend had once hidden to wonder what exactly she'd had to do to get this; and whether it was legal or not.
"Oh it's authorized," she insisted simply as they waited for it to activate. Her maple syrup eyes met Harry's emerald ones with something akin to defiance, but he was unable to press her further before Ron interrupted.
"Who?" he asked.
"Dumbledore," she said, and it was irritating when they indiscreetly looked to Remus for confirmation.
"Dumbledore signed off on us ditching the school?" James exclaimed in awe.
"Cool!" Sirius echoed, and at exactly that moment the clock struck 10:03 and the group disappeared.
-
They reappeared in a very different place.
Hermione stepped away from the circled pack and when she looked back at them they noticed she was different too. Spreading her arms wide, she spun in a circle grinning widely. "Welcome to Old Beijing."
Paper lanterns hung all around them waiting until nightfall to be lit, and from the alley in which they'd appeared they could see nothing but a symphony of red buildings. It truly did seem as if they'd portkeyed back to ancient China.
Hermione's drab apparel had been replaced by color and texture. A green Chinese silk tunic that reached to her thighs went over the matching green silk trousers that capped off just below her knees. Thin black slippers laced up her bared calves and tied somewhere unseen beneath her pants. The tunic, however, was by far the most beautiful piece. The sleeves stopped just past her shoulders and were thinly lined with golden cord that also went around the hem. The gold went around her neck in a mock turtleneck and formed two loops for ornate, jeweled buttons that clasped the collar shut. The whole tunic was decorated with tiny, intrinsic Chinese symbols in gold and silver.
Her bushy hair had somehow been contained as well and twisted up into two buns on top of her head, wrapped in emerald ribbon. Heavy kohl lined her eyes giving an illusion of them being wider and deeper than they truly were and onyx pendant earrings dangled by her cheeks. She posed for them and the bangles on her wrist jangled.
"Old Beijing prides itself on its noble heritage and they continue to hold to the Old Ways, no matter how the world changes around them. The city is exactly the way it was hundreds of years ago. The more we fit in, the more they'll accept us as better than tourists," she explained, gesturing to her outfit. "Feel free to change your clothes, I was a bit rushed."
Having truly not noticed they'd changed as well, the marauders and her friends looked down at themselves in surprise.
The boys all sported the same gray half-trousers as Hermione's emerald ones, with thin white socks tucking in underneath and flat black shoes. They were separated by their shirts.
Sirius had one of pure white that was short-sleeved and crossed over his chest and tied at the side like a bathrobe. It was cut a few inches up on either side and hung down over his waist. His long hair had been pulled into a high ponytail on top of his head by a thick white ribbon without any tails.
Ron had no sleeves to his yellow tunic, but it seemed to compensate for the fact by hanging low over his upper legs, cut on both sides up to his hips for unhindered mobility. A red sash tied around his waist and the tassels on each end were gold.
James wore white with long sleeves that went over his hands and a neckline that hung over his shoulders. The cloth crossed twice over his chest and looped through a wooden circle in the back in some precise way that kept the entire thing fastened. Underneath the heavier over shirt he wore a silk tunic that came sleevelessly up to his throat and stuck out a few inches longer around the bottom than the white.
Harry standing beside him wore a shirt of black that's inelastic sleeves reached his elbows. It crossed in the front as Sirius' had done, but tucked into the waistband of his trousers with a billow of extra silk cloth hanging over the edge that it obscured the transition and had a green cord for a belt. Beneath his unruly bangs a green bandana that matched both his eyes and Hermione's tunic covered his scar and tied in a knot behind his head.
Lily was a vision in red as she spun around in her full length kimono. It cut off around the shoulders and neck as Hermione's had done, but the red silk was trimmed in black rather than gold and it reached far past the taller girl's waist and all the way down to her ankles, embroidered with beautiful flowers. Golden gauntlets incased her lower arm as well as a short length of leg above her ankles and she wore on her feet low red heels. Her lips had been painted ruby and her pretty hair was twisted into an elegant bun atop her head and fastened with a jeweled lily comb and black chopsticks.
Remus wore white silk that came down tightly just past his elbows and over that he wore a tunic of light brown. The sleeves hung loosely short and the neckline crossed lower than the others showing the white again. The edges of the crossing material were outline in thick, darker brown and the knot they tied in hung long tails down his side.
"I feel all dressed up," Lily admitted. A shyish smile played on her painted lips as she played with the twin tails of her dress, whose slits bared the skin of her legs all the way up to mid-thigh.
James whispered something in her ear to which she flushed and giggled madly, and made Sirius roll his eyes. "Where are we off to first, pigeon?" He was tugging thoughtfully at the end of his ponytail, the style which, in all honesty, Hermione found rather cute.
"Why don't you guys take a look around, and then we'll find someplace for lunch?" She suggested, and the troop started on their way.
Stepping out into the bright sunlight of the square, the Chinese weather proved itself to be far warmer than the climate they'd left behind in Scotland. Hermione led the way, but was quickly over-passed by the Marauders as they ran from shop to shop; peering wide eyed at all the wonders like children in a candy store. She amused herself by talking lightly with Harry and Ron about this and that, none of them so enraptured as the others having been in the city already once before. Then, Harry and Ron stopped to talk to a young girl whose mother was in the Chinese Outpost of the Order, and Hermione found herself walking alone through the gilded stone square.
Stopping beside the fountain, she was allowed only a moment of peace to bask her face in the warm sunlight before she was converged upon on all sides.
"Isn't the fountain lovely?" Lily gushed from over her shoulder.
"Come look at this street performer – I swear he's putting a stick on fire down his throat!" Sirius insisted, tugging at her arm.
"You can flip like that, can't you Hermione?" James said, grabbing her other arm and gesture in the direction of an acrobatic show going on down the street.
"Hermione! You remember Mei Ling, don't you?" Harry laughed, setting the beaming child at her feet, who then promptly latched onto one of her legs.
"We have all day you guys!" She insisted laughing, but allowed herself to be dragged off all the same.
-
Lunch came and went at a small out of the way restaurant in the wizarding section of Old Beijing, where it seemed Hermione knew the owner personally. The food was good, everyone having chosen the buffet to be able to try as much as they could. It was when the boys were all slouched in their seats patting their stomachs and Lily was hiding an unladylike burp in her napkin that a sudden flashing caught their eyes.
"Hermione..." Remus started. "Your chest is...glowing."
Hermione looked at him in surprise before she became suddenly serious and looked down at the small lime green circle that was flashing between her breasts. She touched the light with the tips of her fingers and like rising out of molasses a golden chain and its attached golden coin pulled up and through the silk of her tunic. The coin looked ancient and it had odd symbols scratched into the surface, but it was the diamond shaped emerald in the middle that was emitting the earlier noticed glow.
She touched it again and the glow vanished, but her head was turned slightly to the side as if listening to something. The others all looked around curiously, but there was no sound other than the soft chattering of the restaurant's other patrons.
"She's ready to see me," Hermione murmured. The pendant flickered and disappeared again.
"Wha?"
Hermione pushed back her chair and stood up, smiling all the while but it was forced for the sake of looking apologetic. "Sorry to have fun and run, but I've got a meeting to attend to."
"You booked Order business!" Harry exclaimed, disbelieving, his chair falling back forward onto all four legs.
"'Waste not want not', Harry," she chimed, kicking her chair back underneath the table. "I haven't got the time to spare."
"I should've known that's why you picked Beijing," he growled and looked away. He seemed genuinely upset with her, and the thought made Hermione's casualness falter.
"That's how you got the portkey," James concluded, snapping his fingers. She nodded. "Damn...I thought Dumbledore was cool," He grumbled, dropping his pouting face on his fists.
"Lily," Hermione turned to face the redhead. "I'm gonna need you to come with me, is that okay?"
She glanced uncertainly at James, who grinned, then back up at Hermione. "Of course," she managed, trying to sound as casual as the brunette without knowing what the Merlin was going on.
"Hermione...can I talk to you first?" Ron asked, looking serious. A quick peek at Harry found him to be staring solidly at her.
Rolling her eyes she sighed her okay and pardoned herself from Lily, allowing her childhood friend to pull her a few tables down from the group. Anticipating the lecture that was coming, Hermione promptly folded her arms over her chest and glared at him. Ron looked at her blankly for a moment before he shrugged. "I honestly don't know why we're over here."
Hermione had to bite down on her lip to keep from bursting out laughing.
"Harry just kept knocking me in the ribs, and you know how bony his elbows are," he commented offhandedly.
Hermione, who'd been positioned so that she was facing back towards the table and Harry, had to muffle her snort of laughter lest their lack of a serious talk be discovered. Frowning at her goofily grinning friend was almost impossible, but she somehow managed and changed her position so that she was standing beside him, her back to their table.
"You're an idiot you know that," she giggled.
Ron, hands stuffed into his pockets, gave her a discreet shoulder bump. "He's just worried about you, ya know."
She scuffed at the floor with her slippers, and signed in acceptance. "I know. I know I still have a lot of explaining to do, and I'm sorry about that."
"We gonna have that meeting tonight?"
Hermione was absently twisting one of the curls that had fallen loose around her finger. "Of course – you bringing the popcorn?"
Ron chuckled. "Only if you bring those fuzzy slippers of yours."
A snort. "You wear those more than I do."
"They're comfy," he insisted.
Not even caring what Harry would say once he realized his best mates had not been having grave speaks with one another, Hermione went up on her tiptoes and kissed Ron on his freckled cheek. "Thanks Ron," she murmured. "I needed a laugh."
The lanky boy jutted out his chest proudly then was promptly deflated by a smack from Hermione. "We'll meet up with you in an hour or so." She waved Lily over, and the pretty redhead waved goodbye to her boyfriend before walking over.
"Us boys'll be fine on our own," he told her, starting towards the table.
"Hey Ron!" Hermione called; deciding last minute. He spun around to face her, continuing his walk backwards. "This is my business," she told him. "Not the Order's."
He saluted her with a grin. "An hour?"
"Have fun!" Both she and Lily waved goodbye before stepping back out into the bright sunlight.
"So what secret mission are we running off on now?" Lily asked jovially, shielding her eyes from the glare of the sun as she looked off up into the sky.
Hermione chuckled. "I think you'll like it."
Hermione took a deep breath before starting off down the street. She truly did need Lily to come with her, but this was also her chance to do what she'd told James she'd wanted to do – become friends with Lily. And she couldn't lie to herself; the thought seemed a rather daunting task. There was something about the other girl that amazed and intimidated her at the same time. Maybe it was the earthy beauty she possessed but wasn't even aware of, or maybe it was that Hermione knew she was powerful enough to keep her infant son alive against an unblockable curse.
It startled her then, when she felt another arm link with hers. Hermione must have looked as if she'd swallowed a flobberworm the way she was gaping at the slightly taller girl. Lily just smiled at her, closed eyes crinkling around the edges.
"Thanks for bringing us all here," she said sincerely. "It couldn't have been easy for you to get the seven of us out like this."
"I-It was nothing," Hermione insisted, waving her hand in front of her face. "Besides we all deserved a break."
Lily nodded, thin orange tendrils caressing her cheeks. They walked a few more blocks in pleasant silence before Lily turned to Hermione and asked "May I say something?"
Hermione all but laughed at her prudence. "Of course!"
"Harry didn't seem to think you were taking that much of a break..." Pearly white teeth gnawed anxiously on painted crimson lips, fearing she'd overstepped her bounds.
Hermione shrugged. "He'll get over it."
"Probably."
"Lily stop walking."
Perplexed, the redhead did as she was asked. Reaching out she placed a comforting hand on Hermione's shoulder and ducked her head to look into her shaded eyes. "What is it?"
Hermione swallowed forcefully. "What you have to know is...Harry's been doing this too long. He just can't do it anymore – that's why I have to." She reached up and clasped her hand over Lily's wrist. "I've watched too many of the people that I care about beaten down and nearly killed or worse. I swore a long time ago, that no matter how I felt or who stood in my way I was going to do whatever it took to keep them safe."
Hermione sighed, but her strong gaze was unwavering. "I can't ask you to understand that."
Then Lily squeezed her shoulder and those beautiful red lips curved into a warm smile. Like a switch had been turned by that simple expression a familiar emotion clicked on in Hermione's brain. Without a word being said, Hermione felt the other girl's gratitude – thanking her for telling her what she had.
Hermione had only felt Remus' power before and this was completely different than that. Lily wasn't trying to force her own emotions on top of her, but merely blowing them in her direction like flower petals caught in the wind. It was a soft caress, a whiff of lavender, a subtle taste of chocolate.
"You look tired," Lily said in a voice filled with kindness. Her brilliant green eyes, so like her son's, were awash with compassion, not sympathy. She may not have understood Hermione, but she understood what it was she was fighting for.
Relief so strong washed over her and Hermione thought she might have cried if she weren't standing in the middle of a street in Old Beijing. Sniffing quickly, she said, "You know what they say – 'there's no rest for the wicked'."
Lily laughed and Hermione gestured at a building down the way. "We're almost there; let's go."
Hermione led the way through a small back street and up to a tall bamboo constructed door. There was no latch or handle that Lily could see that would open this large door, but Hermione was one step ahead of her. With a press of her fingers to her chest, the medallion resurfaced and the emerald shot out a beam of light onto the middle of the door. Like powder blown over an infrared laser in those muggle movies, in the steady light of the emerald a shimmering doorknob appeared.
The two girls grinned at each other and Hermione nodded for Lily to go ahead and open the door. With a sure hand, Lily placed her palm over the near invisible handle, pale fingers curling around the knob and twisting it to the side. The door swung open and Hermione's necklace disappeared again.
"She likes her privacy whenever she vacations here," Hermione said, guiding the surprisingly light door open further so they could step inside.
They were stepping into a wide open square flooded with sunlight that seemed brighter than the one they'd just stepped out of. Smooth red pillars held up the stone awning encompassing the bright courtyard and provided a slender strip of cool shadow before leading out into the warm day. Sakura trees and bonsais had grown straight up through the cracked flagstones and a scattering of pink blossoms littered the path they walked to the trickling fountain that served as the courtyard's centerpiece.
Seated along it was a middle-aged woman, her hair swept back and secured with a tortoise-shell comb. Her Asian features were awash with white sunlight as the woman looked up from the folder spread open before her and looked towards the sound of their soft slippered footsteps.
"Hermione." Her English was fluent.
"Vera," Hermione smiled in return, walking up to the fountain. "This is the friend I told you about. Lily Evans, this is Vera Wang."
"Are you serious?" Lily exclaimed, reaching out to shake the woman's hand. She may have only been in the future for two months, but living in a dorm with a bunch of other girls she knew exactly who Vera Wang was.
Both Hermione and Vera laughed. "She's going to help us with a bit of a job," Hermione explained. She sounded as if she knew the designer well.
"I didn't know you were a witch," Lily remarked, jade eyes wide; impressed.
The woman's reply was a smile and a soft voice. "My clients didn't lie when they said my designs were magical."
Hiking up her tunic a bit, Hermione settled on the stone bench of the fountain and curled her legs up underneath her. "Shall we get started then?"
Vera nodded and tapped the papers of her folder with her index finger. "I have a list of all the witches who've ordered gowns for Samhain right here. Do you have yours?"
"Yes." Reaching up under the sleeve of her green tunic, Hermione retrieved a tightly folded piece of parchment. She unfolded it and handed it to Vera, all the while Lily peering interestedly over her shoulder from her own seat on the fountain.
Vera said her incantation in her native tongue then zigzagged the end of her wand down Hermione's scrap of parchment. The names inked upon it lifted up into the air, as flat and one-dimensional as they had been on paper, and she guided them with her wand down onto her own stack of parchments. The names scattered to find their matches and each pair found emitted a red glow. When the spell was finished, there was not a single name that returned to Hermione's parchment; matchless.
"Anyone who's anyone is wearing your designs for Samhain," Hermione praised. "That works out perfectly."
"Perfectly for what?" Lily asked curiously, and Hermione remembered that she hadn't explained what they were doing there.
Saying a few quick words to Vera, who began putting the files back together, Hermione turned around to face Lily, sitting with one slender leg pulled up to her chest.
"Samhain is a night of big activity for Voldemort's forces, but they're doing a very good job of keeping the Order's spies from finding out about them. Vera and I think we may have come up with a plan to change that." Hermione smiled briefly at the designer as she passed by, then went back to Lily. "Every female Death Eater and every Death Eater's wife the Order knows about was on that list I gave her. Each one has ordered a dress by Vera Wang."
"You've put tracking spells on them haven't you!" Lily exclaimed in sudden understanding.
Hermione nodded. "Very complex ones at that. I'm going to have to lace my enchantments through Vera's to solidify them."
"And the Order doesn't know about this?"
She shook her head. "No." Sensing another question coming, Hermione moved to explain the situation further. "This plan is very dangerous, Lily. If any of them discover that their dress has been tampered with they could trace back the magic signatures to Vera and myself. I want to make sure this works first before I tell the Order."
Lily's lips quirked oddly and her pupils dilated accordingly to adjust to the bright sunlight as she looked upwards. "Well, you can bet Harry and Ron certainly wouldn't approve." Her tone wasn't reprimanding – she was merely stating a fact.
Hermione smiled, but it looked as if it pained her to do so. "Yes, I'm sure you're right." She agreed, but made no indication that Lily was now "sworn to secrecy" or that the world would end if she told anyone else of the secret plane. What she said was: "I trust your judgment on this, Lily."
Patting her lap, Hermione let out a gush of air and stood up. Beaming brightly, she offered her hand to Lily and pulled the redhead up off the fountain bench. "Let's get you to the fitting rooms, so Vera can start taking your measurements while I work on the dresses."
Lily stumbled in the wake of Hermione's exuberant pace, but her longer legs quickly closed the distance. "Fitting rooms?" she repeated as her companion pushed open another light bamboo door.
Hermione looked up at her in mild surprise. "Oh, didn't I tell you? Vera's doing our dresses for the ball."
-
An hour later, the two girls were saying their goodbyes to Vera and stepping back onto the street, where Lily was surprised to find dusk beginning to settle on the ancient town.
"I didn't realize so much time had passed," she said conversationally.
"You wouldn't," Hermione replied. "Vera's ceiling is enchanted. She likes the sun."
"Thank you for taking me with you. I know you do not give out your trust easily..."
The brunette's face colored a bit, for it sounded all the more embarrassing coming from Lily, who trusted everyone. "We've grown up in two different worlds," she shrugged.
"Perhaps," she replied cryptically. "But your friends are not so protective of their trust as you."
Hermione shook her head, though not in denial of anything. "For me it's nothing personal, and Ron trusts you because Harry does."
There was a pause in the conversation, though Lily's lips parted as if she were near to speaking. Then, very slowly, she turned her face to meet Hermione's and when she spoke it was with an odd sound to it.
"And why does Harry trust us?"
Buzzers and alarms and red flashing lights went off in Hermione's brain as the deliberately pronounced words reached her ears. Their eyes were locked, and Hermione gradually stopped walking. Staring at each other, Hermione internally praised the redhead for her intelligence but condemned her tact.
Then, looking up at her through her lashes with hard eyes, Hermione said, quite clearly. "I think you already know, Lily."
A smile spread across her fading red lips and Lily inclined her head to Hermione as if to say 'touché'. Hermione let a ghostly smile of her own appear before changing the subject.
"Do you think you could find James?" she asked.
"I could try," she offered, and like being dunked in molasses Hermione felt Lily's power wash over her.
Hermione waited patiently for Lily as she tested the bounds of her power. She'd suggested James, because he was the one Lily was most connected to emotionally. Hoping that it would work so they wouldn't have to go apparating all over the place looking for them, Hermione had no problems settling in for a long wait.
Ten minutes later, Lily was blinking back the focus to her eyes and pointing down the street. "That way."
"We should hurry if we want to make it back for dinner," Hermione suggested, and in agreement the two girls took off at a run with Lily guiding the way.
When Hermione caught sight of the boys at the far end of the bazaar she quickened her pace so that she was running alongside Lily, no longer needing her to lead. They ran neck and neck throwing up their hands as they dodged street vendors to wave at the boys. That was why Hermione was completely taken aback when, while grinning widely and waving at James, Lily said to her:
"I trust you, Hermione...because we're not as different as you think."
Hermione stopped dead in tracks, startled and amazed, as Lily continued on to jump into James' arms. He spun her around laughing and kissed her on the tip of her nose. Hermione had heard of decision-altering moments, but never had she witnessed one quite like this. Standing in the middle of China, thousands of miles from home, with Harry still too upset to give her a hug of her own, she stared at a tiny puppet show performing just down the street.
She'd already calculated it in her mind.
"Hermione!" Remus was calling to her, breaking her attention. "Let's get back before these Neanderthals you brought with us start hunting for food."
Shaking her head, Hermione nodded and, with a narrowing of her eyes, re-enlarged the earthen pot that had served as their portkey to Old Beijing. She'd learned a fair few tricks with her new power; though the tracking enchantments had took her a precious few days to master. "Everyone get a hold on it because I'm not coming back for you if you don't," she said in blasé manner.
Knowing full-well she'd do just that, everyone crammed around in their bright silks and got at least a finger on the jar.
Hermione had gotten the portkey with a set departure time, but telling Dumbledore she was uncertain as to the time of her return, he'd encoded the reversal so that it wouldn't activate until a predetermined word activated it. And so, after a check to make sure that everyone was going to get taken with it, she said, quite clearly:
"Cinnamon."
-
Fifteen minutes later, as Lily brushed past her on the group's way to dinner, Hermione, looking as though she was smiling at Remus' joke, whispered softly in the redhead's ear.
"Nine o'clock. Under the girls' stairs."
