Sorry for keeping you guys waiting for so long. Yes, it was rather evil of me to just stop like that after saying Hermione is leaving…
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Hermione's Plan
Three days had gone by and Hermione had still not breathed a word to anyone that her father was not only planning on pulling her out of Hogwarts but out of the country as well. She had considered keeping the news to herself but not only was it not fair to Ron, but he was bound to notice her mood change. He had gotten quite good at reading her and if he asked her what was going on she knew she wouldn't be able to lie to him. In a way she was desperate for him to know, so she wouldn't have to go through it alone, but the selfish part of her wanted to keep it from him. Things were going so unbelievably well right now she didn't want to risk messing it up. For a change in recent weeks, the logical part of her brain won out and she made the decision to tell him that night – but not until later when it was just the two of them alone together. She wanted him to be the first to know before she told anyone else.
At the moment, she and Ron were locked in an intense chess match against Harry. Four hours earlier, it had just been Ron and Harry playing, and she had been sitting by Ron's side curled up with a book, not really paying attention until it became obvious that Harry had the upper hand for a change. After winning two straight games (which rarely ever happened against Ron), Harry was becoming rather cocky and Ron decided to make things a bit more interesting. He challenged Harry to take on her and himself, which Harry gladly accepted. He knew what a horrible chess player she was and that was why she normally refused to play.
She let Ron control most of the game, not wanting to impede their chances of winning. By the looks of the chessboard, Ron had Harry's pieces exactly where he wanted them and it was only a matter of time before Harry was forced to make a move he didn't want to make.
Harry placed his elbows on either side of the board and held his face in his hands. "I knew I never should have let you two team up against me," he moaned, though there was no hint of resentment in his voice.
"You're just a sore loser, Harry," she teased.
Ron chuckled beside her and Harry shot them both feigned dirty looks.
Hermione was glad to be able to joke around freely with Harry again. For a while there she thought he was going to stay angry with her about what she was trying to do – and because of what she had said to him. He was still strongly against her doing anything, but he had made it clear that if she was going to try anything she had better tell him before she did it. And of course, he wanted her to tell Ron what she was planning. He was probably hoping that the two of them together would stand a better a chance of convincing her of the dangers of her plan. This was yet another thing she needed to talk to Ron about and soon. There was no doubt in her mind that he would react as badly as Harry had, probably even more so. Ron had never had much success when it came to controlling his temper.
While she watched the game unfold in front of her, it didn't take long as she had predicted for Ron to check Harry's knight and then his Queen, ending the game.
Harry groaned in frustration, while Ron smirked at him in triumph. "You think he'd be used to losing by now," Ron said to her. He closed his hand over hers on the table, which came as bit of a shock to her. Since coming to Grimmauld Place, they had been careful about touching in front of Harry. Ron had obviously decided he was tired of that and if Harry had any sort of problems with them he should come to them and deal with it. It was one less person for them to hide from. They were very careful about how they acted in front of everyone else. Hermione was beginning to think they should just bite the bullet and tell Ron's parents, but Ron had quickly put an end to that line of thinking. He had explained to her that if his mother knew, she would make it her job to see that they didn't spend one minute alone together. After that she felt inclined to agree that maybe now wasn't the best time to let anyone else know. She was thinking they would have to do something about the summer when she caught herself and remembered they wouldn't be spending the summer together. She wouldn't even be in the same country as him.
"I think I'm going to turn in," announced Harry, rising to his feet.
"You sure you don't want to play again?" Ron goaded him.
Harry made a comment about leaving with his dignity intact before saying goodnight to the both of them and heading upstairs. With Harry gone, it was the first time they had really been alone since leaving Hogwarts. It didn't take long for a few kisses to turn into a full-fledged snog session on the couch in the den, where anyone could walk in and see them. After awhile Hermione suggested they go upstairs, and since Ron's room was out of the question because he was sharing with Harry, hers became the logical choice.
She wasn't sure what had even possessed her to suggest going upstairs in the first place. When she was around Ron she seemed to lose her sense of rational thought, much like she was right now, lying together on her bed, letting Ron kiss her and touch her. Guilt stabbed at her because she knew she was going to break his heart when he found out she was moving away, and even more so because she was going to put off her plans for telling him until tomorrow. Yes, she was probably being selfish, but she and Ron had already wasted so much time fighting and denying their feelings, was it really going to hurt if she waited a few more hours to tell him?
Ron, who had stopped kissing his way down her neck when he felt her tense up, asked, "is this okay?"
She nodded and caressed his face with the back of her hand.
"Because I'm not trying to pressure you or anything. We don't have to – I mean I could go back to my room right now if that's what you wanted."
She cupped his face with her hands. "If I want you to back off you'll be the first to know."
That was a good enough response for Ron, who put aside all his hesitations, trusting Hermione enough to tell him when to stop.
When Harry came downstairs for breakfast, he was well aware that it was too silent for a Tuesday morning at the Black House. He remembered from the summer that Tuesday and Friday mornings were characterized by meetings in the dining room, which would include every Order member who was available to attend.
He walked into the kitchen, but there was only Ginny there, sitting alone eating toast. He wondered if she had plans for the day because she was already dressed and had her hair pulled back in a ponytail, while he was still in his pajamas.
"Morning," Ginny said when she saw him. "Mum made breakfast earlier if you want some."
There was indeed plates of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast sitting on the counter. He helped himself to a little bit of everything. The food was still hot, so Mrs. Weasley must have put a heating charm on the plates.
"Wow… I can't remember the last time I saw you eat that much at once," said Ginny.
Harry shrugged. Once he had swallowed the eggs he had been chewing, he said, "I hadn't really noticed my appetite was off."
Great. Now a casual observation on her part had been turned in to making it look like she followed his eating patterns at every meal. Maybe she had done that in the past, but she wasn't an eleven year old anymore, staring at Harry in hero worship awe.
"Where is everyone?" He asked her.
She pointed to the closed dining room doors. "They've been in there for a while now, the whole lot of them. Someone put a silencing charm up so we can't hear anything," she added grumpily.
"That's odd," he said, frowning slightly. "They've never done that before."
"They started doing that in the summer before you got here. Things are either a lot more serious now or they just don't want us listening in anymore," said Ginny. "It's completely unfair because no one will tell us anything anymore. At least when we could use Fred and George's extendable ears we had some idea of what was going on."
"Are you going somewhere?" He asked abruptly.
"I'm meeting Dean in Diagon Alley today," she told him.
"And your mum's just letting you go?"
"Why wouldn't she? It's just for one day. It's not like anyone wants to kill me."
"You should be careful," he cautioned her.
"Of who? Dean?" She said, giving him a strange look. Harry never acted this way towards her. He was always overprotective of Hermione and Ron, but never with her.
Harry stared down at his plate. "So you just took him back?" He said, pushing the food around with his fork.
She felt a flush creep in to her cheeks that had nothing to do with embarrassment. "You make it sound like I'm some sort of a tart."
"That's not what I meant."
She glared daggers at him. "Then what did you mean, Harry?"
Just one look at her eyes and he could see how furious she was with him. It was the strangest feeling knowing he had been the one to make her that way. He had never gotten into an argument with her before but it was easy to see then that she shared the same infamous Weasley temper that Ron displayed on many occasions. What confused him was he didn't even know what he had said to make her angry in the first place. She was the one who had put words in his mouth and had turned everything around to make it look like his fault. He was saved from having to say anything though when Ron walked in.
"Morning," he said cheerfully, strolling into the kitchen.
For the moment, Ginny seemed to forget she was angry at Harry, allowing herself to marvel at her brother's strange behaviour. "Someone's in a good mood this morning," she noted.
"Is there anything wrong with that?" He said, pouring himself a glass of juice and joining them at the table.
"Nothing, except you're always a right grouch in the morning, no matter what time you get up at. Would I be correct in assuming that Hermione will be equally chipper as well?"
Ron gave her his deadliest stare. "Shut it, Gin. I mean it."
Growing up with Fred and George as brothers had taught her to press matters as long as you knew you had the advantage, and she most certainly had the upper hand. "So that wasn't you I heard leaving her room at the crack of dawn? My room is right across the hall, I could hear – "
"Isn't there somewhere you need to be?" He growled, his good mood fading rapidly.
She was almost shocked that Ron was acting so casual over her spending the day with Dean. She almost felt bad now for teasing him but not quite. "Have a good day, Ron," she said sweetly, getting up from the table and putting her dishes in the sink. "Bye, Harry," she said before walking out of the kitchen.
When she was gone, he and Ron sat there in silence. Though Ginny had said what she had to mercilessly tease her brother, Harry also knew it was the absolute truth. He was a very light sleeper and when he had heard Ron come to bed it had been close to four in the morning.
"It sounded like you and Ginny arguing about something before I walked in," said Ron, breaking the silence.
"It wasn't anything, really," Harry said to him.
Silence settled in between them again, and this time Ron decided to broach the subject that was making them both uncomfortable. "You know what Ginny said – I mean she doesn't know when to shut up – "
Harry cut him off there, not needing to be given any details about last night. "Ron, it's all right, you don't owe me any explanations."
Ron looked to be relieved at that, but there was still one more thing troubling him. "So, are you okay with what's happened with Hermione and me?"
"I'm fine with it, really. I'm happy for you two."
"You could try and sound a little more convincing, Harry," said Ron.
Harry looked down at his plate. He meant what he said, even if it hadn't sounded all that convincing. It was just the idea of his two best friends getting together was going to take some getting used to, especially when he hadn't sorted out his own feelings for Hermione. Did they end at friendship, or was there something more? After his conversation with Ginny before the Christmas break, he really wasn't sure about anything, except that he valued his friendship with Ron too much to do something that stupid – again. "When I kissed her, she pushed me away. She wants you, Ron," he said, forcing himself to look at his friend as he said it. He owed Ron that much. "I just thought you should know that," he finished, breaking eye contact.
If the silence between them had been uncomfortable before it was unbearable now. The topic of him kissing Hermione was still a touchy subject for Ron. Neither had broached the subject before now, but Harry felt it was finally time to clear the air between them. If Ron still felt the need to hit him for his mistake, then so be it. Ron, however, was surprisingly calm. It almost had Harry worried because he wasn't saying anything. Before the silence could get too excruciating, their mutual best friend walked into the kitchen.
She said good morning to them both before joining them at the table. She and Ron exchanged this look that caused Harry to take an immense interest in the remaining uneaten food on his plate.
"You going to eat anything?" Ron asked her.
"Maybe later," she answered. "There's something we need to talk about first."
Ron dropped the hand that had been reaching for his glass of juice. The sheer seriousness of her tone told him this was not going to be a conversation he liked. He was reminded of earlier in the year when Seamus had told him that anytime a girl wants 'to talk' no good could come from it.
Hermione noticed the panicked expression on his face and quickly said, "it's something that I've been working on for awhile now."
He breathed somewhat easier after that. How bad could it be then? It was probably another SPEW campaign or the like.
Harry got up to leave them alone, but Hermione stopped him. "You need to hear this too, Harry." She looked at the closed doors to the dining room and knew that Order members could start walking out of there at any moment. Aside from that, there was always so many people coming and going at Grimmauld Place they couldn't be sure who would drop in on them. "We can't talk about it here," she said, purposely lowering her voice. "Let's go up to my room."
Ron was beyond curious at this point. He didn't know what she could possibly want to talk to them about that would explain why she was acting so secretive.
When they were all inside her room she closed the door and faced them. "I've been doing some research for the last month, but I didn't say anything before now because I didn't have any real evidence that it would work."
Ron glanced at Harry, who didn't seem surprised at all by Hermione's words. In fact, he looked like he knew exactly what she was referring to. "Enough with the suspense, Hermione, just tell us what it is already."
"I've been looking into the different kinds of sacrificial magic," she started. "I think it's possible to recreate one similar to the one Harry's mother performed on him.
Ron stared at her blankly before turning to Harry. "You knew about this?"
"I wanted to be the one to tell you, Ron," Hermione interjected before Harry could say anything, "because I knew how you would react."
"Then why are we even having this conversation? Because you obviously knew I would never agree for you to do this."
"It wouldn't be just me – it would be the three of us. The three of us would have be involved in order for it to work."
"This is crazy," Ron said, shaking his head. "You're talking about dying – "
"No one has to die," she cut in. "As I was trying to explain to Harry before there are different types of sacrificial magic. Your willingness to give up your life for the other person is what builds the spell. The stronger that intent, the more powerful the spell would be."
"So the more willing I am to die for you or Harry, increases the chances of it working?"
"That's a part of it, yes," she replied. "But the protection spell Harry's mother put on him was built on love. Magic centered around love is one of the strongest there is and therefore the hardest to break."
"Tell him what the spell entitles," Harry said.
Hermione gritted her teeth. Perhaps it had not been such a good idea to try and explain her plan to the two of them at the same time. They were more interested in teaming up against her then listening to what she had to say. "To save the life of someone, you would need to be willing to give up the strongest part of who you are – a part of your soul." She watched as Ron's eyes widened at this, but plunged on before he could have an opportunity to interrupt. "The spell is meant for two people, but since for obvious reasons that won't work in our case, I think I could extend it to include a third person. Once the spell is completed you wouldn't feel anything. The only time you would feel the spell was if one of us died or was near death." She said the last part without looking at either one of them, but she could tell their expressions regardless. "Once the spell is cast, a person can be kept alive for a time until they can get help. If the injuries are too severe, we would have to use the power of the spell to heal them our self. At least one of us would have to be with the injured person in order to sustain their life."
Ron rubbed a weary hand against his forward. "Did you get all that?" He said, turning to Harry. "Because it all went right over my head."
"I can show you the research I have so far on the subject," she told them.
"Why are you still talking like we're going to do this?" He said to her. "Hermione, this magic is way beyond you – way beyond any of us."
"I can make this work," she stated unflinchingly.
"Look, we've heard enough, and I think I can safely say both Harry and I agree we're not going to do this. There's too many uncertainties. I mean, giving up a part of your soul? You don't even know what the effects of that could be, do you?"
Hermione bit her bottom lip. "I haven't found any evidence – "
"And what about being able to heal the person? We could end up doing more harm then good and I bet there's a good chance the people doing the healing are putting themselves at risk. Not to mention that you're changing the spell to accommodate a third person – that could completely screw everything up."
Those were all valid points, and Hermione's silence told him that. "Would you at least look at the spell I mapped out?" Without even waiting for his answer, she pulled out a very ragged looking book from under her mattress, opened it to the correct page and dropped it in Ron's hands. "We only need a few ingredients but they may be hard to acquire. Performing the spell that essentially binds our life forces together shouldn't be that difficult." It's just making it work may be a bit more complicated, she added silently. She had to take this one step at a time, she reminded herself. If she wanted them to commit to this, she was going to have to tell them everything.
Ron let out a low whistle as he skimmed the page. "Difficult? I'd wager every one of ingredients would be next to impossible to find, not to mention illegal. Where do you think you're going to – " He stopped in mid sentence, his eyes blazing. "That's why you agreed to detention with Snape, isn't it? You think you'll just be able to steal whatever you need?"
"I'll be alone in his office long enough to take what we need. We won't need a lot so he shouldn't notice anything missing," she reasoned.
"Hermione, do you realize how fucked up this whole thing is? You want us to risk our lives on something that will probably end up doing more harm then good. Did you even bother to think about that, or did you just ignore it altogether because Hermione Granger knows everything?"
"I wouldn't have even proposed this if I didn't think it could work. Do you really think I want to put any of lives in danger?" She shouted back at him. "I think knowing the potential the spell has makes it an acceptable risk."
"Not to me it doesn't," Ron said, his eyes still blazing. Completely fed up and frustrated by the whole thing, he stormed passed Harry out from the room and downstairs. He could hear Hermione's footsteps following after him, but he didn't stop until he was at the front door pulling his boots on.
"Ron, where are you going? We need to talk about this."
He didn't need to look at her face to know she was furious – he could hear it in her tone. Instead of responding, he grabbed his coat and yanked the door open, letting it slam loudly behind him. Once it was shut, not even Mrs. Black's screams could penetrate it.
When Hermione made the decision to go after Ron, she kept in mind that it was probably not the best thing to do. Ron needed time to clear his head and arguing with him was only going to make things worse. But if she hadn't learned that yet in the six years she had known him, she wasn't about to start listening to that voice in her head that was telling her this was a bad idea.
It was freezing out. Of course if she had known she was going to go chasing after someone in the freezing cold she would have dressed warmer. She knew where he was heading even if she couldn't see him, since there weren't many other places to go that were nearby. Her hope was to get the both of them back before the Order ended their meeting and noticed they were gone.
Sure enough she came across him standing by the now frozen over lake, with his arms crossed over his broad shoulders. The sound of the snow crunching under her boots gave her presence away.
"I don't think you want to talk to me right now," Ron warned, keeping his back to her.
She didn't back off. "Ron, we need to go back. If your mum finds out we're gone – "
"I really don't care about that. I'm sick of being stuck inside that god damn house for days at a time," he scowled.
"Now you have a better understanding of what Harry's had to endure his whole life, being shut up at the Dursley's," she said, coming to stand beside him.
He glared at her briefly before turning back to stare at the ice-covered surface.
"Ron, I know you're upset," she began, softening her voice. "But if you stop to think about it, you'll realize how important this spell is."
"It's rubbish. We're doing fine keeping ourselves alive without magic."
"Things are getting worse. It might be the best defense we have."
The hardened look remained on his face, but he didn't protest. "There's something else I have to tell you," she said slowly. She couldn't put this off any longer.
"Bloody hell…" he groaned. "What else are you planning?" He asked, turning a suspicious look on her.
"I'm leaving," she said before she could lose her nerve. "Leaving Hogwarts."
Ron stared at her in her disbelief for several long seconds, positive that he had misheard her or it was some sort of a joke – one of those ill-timed, inappropriate jokes that tended to be his trademark. The expression on her face told him otherwise. "You're – you're serious?"
"My dad's pulling me out. He doesn't think it's safe here anymore. I tried talking to him, but he wouldn't listen. He doesn't understand the magical world and it frightens him everything that I've been exposed to. He thinks this is the only way to protect me."
"You can't leave," he said.
She reached for his hand and squeezed it tight. "I don't have a choice."
"You always have a choice," he said, turning his powerful blue eyes on her. "Tell him you won't go. You could become your own legal guardian – "
"I can't do that to him," she cut in gently. "Not after everything he's been through. Now that my mum's gone, I'm all he has left."
"When are you leaving?" He braced himself for the answer.
"I'm not sure, probably the end of January. He still has to find a place for us to live."
That meant they had little more than a month left. Not much time at all. "Where are you going to live?"
She hesitated, but only for a second. Her father had not wanted her to tell anyone where she was going, but this was Ron, she had to tell him – but he wasn't going to like the answer. "Luxembourg."
"You're leaving the bloody country!" He exclaimed. He was going to have trouble accepting her leaving Hogwarts, but leaving England altogether? He couldn't handle that. "You're going to have this whole other life. We'll never even see each other." He realized he was shouting. He wasn't angry at her, but he needed to vent his frustrations.
"I don't want to spend the next month fighting," she said to him.
He almost picked a fight with her then, just so she would feel some of the frustration and anger he was feeling, but he stopped himself. It wouldn't be fair. She didn't want this any more then he did. "I guess this doesn't matter any more then," he said, removing a small rectangular box from his jacket pocket.
She looked questioningly at the box, not understanding what he was getting at.
"I wanted to get you something really nice for Christmas, but I couldn't really afford anything," he mumbled embarrassedly, "so I thought maybe you would – but I don't know – " he stopped his rambling like an idiot and just handed her the box.
She pulled off the top lid. There was a shinny silver badge glinting up at her. Her prefect badge.
"I know you said you didn't care about it, but I know you better than that. I know how much being a Prefect means to you, and I couldn't stand by and let Snape take that away from you because he gets some sort of sick twisted pleasure out of torturing Gryffindors," he said, trying to justify his actions because she hadn't said a word since she had seen what was in the box. "I went to see McGonagall, and had barely said two words about what happened before she got up and marched down to Snape's office to get it back. I wish you could have been there to hear what she said to him. You're not angry, are you?"
He looked so worried that she was going to berate him for going to McGonagall, she felt bad for him. "I'm not angry with you. It's just I can't believe you did this for me. It's so – I don't know what to say." There were unleashed tears in her eyes. She couldn't believe barely five minutes ago she had been furious with him, and now none of that really seemed to matter.
He shuffled his feet in the snow. "I guess it doesn't mean as much now, with you leaving and all – "
She silenced him by placing a finger against his lips. "It means everything to me," she said, her voice barely above a whisper now.
Ron came to let his forehead rest against hers. "I don't want you to go," he said, his voice raw with emotion.
"I don't want to go either," she said, feeling the first tears slip down her cheeks. She had held everything in for so long, it felt like she was coming undone. Ron didn't say a word, he just held her close.
The next month was going to be terribly hard on them both.
Happy holidays everyone!
I'll try to have the next chapter up later this week.
