Chapter Twenty-Nine
The funeral for Percy Weasley was held a week later on a Saturday morning. After the service, they returned to Phoenix Headquarters for a quiet gathering. Harry, who wanted to be there for Ginny, but also give her some time alone with her family, had quietly slipped away into the kitchen. He found Snape in there, who was obviously trying to avoid the emotional entanglements that funerals seemed to bring.
Snape barely acknowledged his presence, which under different circumstances would have suited Harry just fine. Unfortunately for him, he needed to talk to Snape.
"Professor?"
Snape almost looked startled by the sound of Harry's respectful tone. "What is it, Potter?"
Dancing around the subject, was not going to improve the Potions Master's mood. "I need to know if Voldemort's using the link we have to gather information about the Order."
"Yes, that was partially behind Mad-Eye's reasoning for revoking your Auror status," said Snape, who sounded a bit too smug about the whole thing for Harry's liking. "What is it you want from me?"
Harry cursed inwardly. He had known Snape would be a bastard about it from the start. He just hoped the Potions Master wasn't expecting him to grovel, because Harry wasn't sure he could to do that. "You're the only one skilled enough to test my mind and be sure I'm not open to Voldemort."
"Do you remember what I said to you if you ever asked for my help again?"
"Look, I know you don't like me, and believe me the feeling is mutual. But Percy Weasley just died and Lupin is missing, and I need to know if I'm responsible."
"Potter, I've been telling you for a very long time that the world does not revolve around you," Snape said coolly. "While it's quite clear your presence was known ahead of time during the last Death Eater raid, Percy Weasley's body being there may very well have had nothing to do with you. No one had heard from him in months. It's entirely plausible that he switched sides. It's not as if he was convinced of our cause and willing to help us fight. But I doubt we will ever know for sure," Snape finished.
Harry didn't even want to consider that a Weasley could be a traitor, but here Snape was suggesting it and Harry suddenly found he couldn't be sure of where Percy's loyalties had lied.
"Come back here at midnight, Potter," Snape said a moment later. "And don't try my patience by being late," he said before walking briskly passed Harry.
Harry rejoined everyone else soon after and Snape gave no indication that their conversation in the kitchen had even happened. Harry didn't care. What mattered was he was going to have his answers soon enough.
Harry took Ginny back to Lupin's late in the evening. For Harry, the old house seemed unusually quiet, which was strange in itself because it was typically quiet around there.
Ginny led him upstairs and into her room. She shut the door even though they were the only ones home. Harry took that as a sign that she wanted him to stay.
Harry helped her out of her robes and she changed into her nightclothes. Instead of getting into bed, she laid on the covers, pulling Harry down beside her.
"I know it may sound morbid," she spoke as Harry gently stroked her hair. "But I've thought about people dying before. I've thought about something happening to Bill and Charlie because they've been involved with the Order long before us. I've worried about Ron too, but probably not as much as Hermione. She was a wreck when you both were missing. But I never thought anything would happen to Percy just because he was never involved. I know its naïve to think that."
"Gin, there's nothing wrong with wanting to think the people around you are going to be safe," said Harry.
"I don't think that way anymore. Nobody's untouchable, especially you," she said, moving on to her side to look at him.
"I'll admit I don't have the best track record, but I do have this amazing ability to make it out of impossible situations," he said, trying to lighten the mood.
Ginny didn't say anything, she just rested her head on his chest. Harry could tell by her shallow breathing a few minutes later that she was asleep.
Harry stayed with her for another couple of hours before it was time for him to go back to Grimmauld Place.
He made sure to show up early, not wanting to give Snape a reason to think he wasn't serious about this. Snape was already in the parlor waiting for him when he arrived, and made no comment about his punctuality.
"You remember how this works?" Snape said, pulling out his wand.
Harry nodded, putting some distance between himself and the Potions Master. He ran through a calming exercise in his head, getting his emotions under control before they got started.
Snape raised his wand and that was the only warning Harry had, before the older man shouted, "Legilmency!"
Harry quickly fell to his knees but by focusing his concentration was able to through the curse off before Snape could see his thoughts. When Harry had successfully thrown off the curse, they started again. They continued like this for an hour, when Harry, who was sweating heavily by this point, saw Snape put away his wand.
"It's not you, Potter," Snape told him. "Your mind is fairly impenetrable to the effects of Legillmency. The Dark Lord is not getting his intelligence from you."
Harry knew that was as close to a compliment as he would ever get from Snape. "So then there's still someone in the Order who's leaking information?" Harry didn't feel nearly as relieved as he did a moment ago.
"Most likely," Snape conceded, "and thus far this individual has avoided exposing or drawing attention to him or herself."
There was one other thing he needed to ask Snape. "I used my telepathy to fight the Death Eaters," Harry started slowly. "But after awhile, my scar would start burning when I tried to use it."
"That means you exceeded your limit," Snape said simply.
"How? I was only using it for a few minutes."
"Potter, you've only had basic training on how to control and use your powers. At your level, you probably cannot exceed using your abilities for more than several minutes at a time before exhausting yourself. Since these powers you've developed seem to be linked to the Dark Lord, that's why your scar starts burning. Your scar is how you got these powers in the first place. I would not recommend using your powers past that point or you may damage yourself permanently." Snape straightened his shoulders and said, "we're done here. You may go, Potter."
The finality in the Potions Master's tone told Harry he shouldn't press his luck and get out of there as quickly as possible. Harry left thinking that while Moody had been so quick to pin him as the one leaking information to Voldemort, the real traitor had been able to continue their activities without anyone suspecting a thing.
Harry was exiting the loo, fully dressed and toweling off his hair from his morning shower when he met Ginny in the hallway. She had still been sleeping when he had checked in on her at Lupin's earlier.
"You were gone when I woke up," she said to him.
"Sorry, I thought I'd shower here so I didn't wake you," he apologized.
"No, I mean last night. I woke up in the middle of the night and you were gone."
"I had to meet Snape," he told her. He had been hoping to avoid telling her anything but lying would have just made things worse.
That was certainly the last thing Ginny expected to hear. "Snape?"
"I was worried that Voldemort might still be finding a way to get in my head.
"You were blaming yourself for what happened to Percy," she said knowingly.
"What happened to not sneaking into each other's thoughts?" He said sharply, having felt Ginny's presence in his head.
"I didn't mean to but sometimes that's the only way to figure out what's going on in that head of yours," she said to him. "What did Snape say?" She said, changing the subject.
"He said I'm fine," said Harry, dropping the towel in the hamper. "My Occlumency skills are apparently even better than he thought."
"Good, then you can stop blaming yourself for what happened," Ginny said in satisfaction. "Percy is just another victim in this war." Something flashed in Harry's eyes then and she didn't have to know what he was feeling to call him on it. "What? Do you know something else?"
Harry sighed. "We don't know why Percy was there. Snape thinks there's a possibility Percy was working for Voldemort."
Ginny looked as if she'd been slapped. "Since when did you and Snape become such great mates? I can't believe you would even think my brother would sell out to You-Know-Who."
"I don't want to believe that but Percy's gone now, so we may never know."
The words had barely left his mouth before he felt Ginny's hand slap him across the face. He recoiled, wondering if she had left a handprint on his face she had hit him so hard.
She turned and stormed off. Harry could practically hear her scream, "Remus Lupin's!" as she stepped into the fireplace and flooed back home.
Harry walked down the hall to the kitchen, gingerly touching the spot on his face where he'd been hit. Ron and Hermione were all too engrossed with their breakfast when he walked in. He was half expecting Ron to say something about Percy, but it looked like neither he nor Hermione were going to comment on what they'd overheard.
"We should get going," Hermione said to Ron. They were supposed to meet Tonks at St. Mungo's in ten minutes. The Auror was then going to take them to see the Healer who was going to put Hermione through the procedure to recover her memories.
"You sure you don't want me to come with you?" Harry said to her.
"I'm sure," she said, giving him a reassuring smile. The truth was she wanted as small an audience as possible because she wasn't sure what was going to happen. But she felt better knowing she was going to have Ron with her.
She and Ron left a short time afterwards, apparating just outside the entrance to St. Mungo's. Tonks arrived a few minutes later and they went inside.
The Healer who was a specialist in the hypnosis-Veritaserum treatment, had Hermione seated in a large padded chair at a forty-five degree angle. There was just the two of them in the sparsely decorated room. There was a viewing room directly connected to it that allowed Ron and Tonks to see her at all times.
The Healer was currently explaining the process to her in much the same way Lupin had except in greater detail.
"Instead of making you ingest the Veritaserum, which is most common, I'm going to inject it into your arm in a diluted form so I can control the dosage more closely," the Healer said to her. "I'll start off by asking you some very simple questions, which your response should be automatic to. If it's not I'll adjust the dosage. From there, I'll start with very general questions about the day in question leading up to your disappearance. To trigger those buried memories, I may have to increase the Veritiserum dosage. But I'll be monitoring your condition the entire time. If your heart rate drops or increases too much, we'll stop. Do you have any other questions before we begin?"
Hermione looked out at Ron and Tonks standing in the viewing room before turning back to the Healer and shaking her head.
"I'm going to inject the Veritaserum now," the Healer told her, taking the syringe full of the liquid and injecting it into her arm. "I want you to lay back and relax. Close your eyes and concentrate on the sound of my voice and nothing else."
Hermione followed his instructions, dimly aware of the Veritaserum taking control of her body.
"Keeping your eyes closed, I want you to tell me your full name."
"Hermione Jane Granger."
"What is the date of your birthday?"
"September nineteenth," she replied automatically.
"What are the names of your parents?"
"Jack and Elizabeth Granger."
"Where did you go to school?"
"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
"Very good, Hermione," The Healer encouraged. "Now, I want you to think back to November twenty-second of last year. Do you remember that day?"
Her response wasn't instantaneous this time, but she spoke in the same sort of monotone voice. "Yes. Ron and I were going to this abandoned wizarding village near Azkaban where Death Eaters had been reported to be hiding there."
"Good. Now tell me exactly what happened."
"We apparated near there when Ron said he started feeling like he was going to pass out and then he lost consciousness."
"What did you do next?"
"I left him there and continued for the village."
"Then what?"
"I – I don't remember," she said, her voice sounding less sure.
"Yes, you do, it's all there in your head, Hermione," the Healer said in a soothing voice.
This time she forcibly shook her head and the Healer gave her another small, dose of Veritaserum.
"Now, concentrate on what happened after you left Ron. You went into the abandoned village, right?"
"Yes."
"What happened while you were there?"
"I – " She gasped at the searing white pain spread throughout her entire body and she convulsed right out of the chair and onto the floor.
Ron rushed out of the viewing room before Tonks could move and barged into the room with Hermione and the Healer in it. She was still on the floor but she was only shaking now.
Hermione was dimly aware of Ron gathering her in his arms, but she heard clearly what the Healer was saying.
"If that's not an example of a pre-conditioned response designed to stop her from recovering her memories by inducing high levels of pain, I don't know what is," the Healer said to Tonks.