Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.

Harry's New Boggart – Chapter 8

The Secret-Keeper

The next morning found Harry and Hermione knocking on the door to Dumbledore's old office. They had all their stuff with them since they intended to go straight to the Burrow from Twelve Grimmauld Place. "Come in," they heard Ms. McGonagall say from inside.

Hermione opened the door and greeted, "Good morning," while Harry yawned.

"Yeah, good morning Prof, I mean, Ms. McGonagall."

"Good morning, both of you," she replied. "Now we've got a lot of work to do, so we should be off." She then motioned toward the fireplace. "After you."

"Er," said Harry, "I hate to say it, but could we have five minutes to talk with Professor Dumbledore?"

She looked a bit irritated, but complied. "Alone, I suppose."

"If you don't mind, Ms. McGonagall," asked Hermione.

After she'd left the office and Hermione had performed the correct charms, Professor Dumbledore's portrait smiled at them. "So what can I help you with?"

"Yesterday," explained Harry, "we found a secret passage in the Chamber of Secrets. It led us to a room that had a desk which contained an essay written by Riddle."

Dumbledore perked up, "An essay? What was it about? I don't suppose it gave all the locations of his Horcruxes."

"No, sir," answered Hermione, "but it told about his favorite experiences of his childhood, from tormenting kids in his orphanage to murdering his father. It mentions the cave you and Harry visited, as well as his uncle's home where you found the ring. We thought perhaps..."

"...Perhaps it may mention the location of the remaining Horcrux or Horcruxes if Nagini isn't one of them. I trust Miss Granger has tested your scar."

"His scar?" asked a puzzled Hermione. "No, but now that you mention it, I suppose that would be a good idea."

"Harry brought that possibility up a few days ago," explained the painting.

"Why didn't you mention it sooner?" demanded Hermione.

"It was right before we'd talked about my bond. After we found out about that, it sort of slipped my mind."

She sighed, "Well, at least I can check it now." She then proceeded to run the test on Harry's scar, and when she was finished, she smiled. "Nope, your scar is definitely not a Horcrux."

"Well, that's a relief," said Harry. "Having to destroy my head before the final battle might inhibit my ability to win."

"That's nothing to joke about," nagged Hermione. "Anyway Professor, we've decided to first check the places mentioned in the essay that aren't in your notes."

"Very clever, Miss Granger. I'm sure Tom would try to use places that no one knows about. How many places does that leave you?"

"Five sir, and actually that was Harry's idea," replied Hermione.

"She'd have thought of it eventually," asserted Harry.

"I'm sure you would have, Miss Granger. I see you have a lot of work ahead of you. Do keep me informed."

"Of course," promised Harry.

"Do you have any other questions?" asked Dumbledore.

"No," answered both Harry and Hermione together.

"Then I do believe we've kept Minerva waiting long enough.

A few minutes later, Harry, Hermione, and McGonagall found themselves inside Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. McGonagall turned to the two teenagers. "I'll begin the spell outside while there aren't many people awake. It should take about thirty minutes. During that time Miss Granger, I want you to memorize this spell, while Mr. Potter memorizes this one." She handed them each a piece of parchment. "When I come back inside, I expect you to be ready."

"Yes ma'am," promised Harry while Hermione nodded. Harry looked down at his parchment, and found that he, as secret-keeper, had very little to learn, just one sentence. After he'd memorized that, he took a glance at Hermione's three feet of spell work, and decided not to distract her.

When McGonagall came back inside, she asked, "Are you ready?" Both Harry and Hermione nodded their heads. Hermione and McGonagall performed a complex spell together with McGonagall's wand pointed at the door, and then at the walls as they slowly walked around the inside of the house. Hermione's wand was always pointed at him, while she was pretty much repeating the Latin phrases that McGonagall said, except he noticed a few variations. When they'd gone over the entire house, it was time for Harry to say his one line to complete the spell. After he'd said it, and the walls, as well as his body, glowed orange for a few seconds, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Now, Mr. Potter, if you please, write down the address of this house." She then pulled out a blank piece of parchment, a quill, and some ink, then handed them to Harry.

He wrote, "The headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix is Number Twelve Grimmauld Place." When he was finished, he handed the parchment and supplies back to McGonagall, and she neatly rolled up the parchment and stuck it everything in her purse.

"In a few days, I shall begin showing this note to the members. I don't want even the Weasleys to realize that I've kept you here today to become the secret-keeper. I'll be going now. Good day, both of you."

"Bye," they both said as their former professor flooed back to Hogwarts.

"Hermione, do you know what we haven't done yet that I said I wanted to do?"

Hermione smiled. "Of course, Harry, visit Godric's Hollow. We were going to visit that place first, but after we found the locket, we've been distracted from it." Then she looked in his eyes. "I can understand you wanting to visit there to see where your parents lived and, er, died, and we'll all go with you if you're determined to go there, but I honestly don't feel that it's part of our mission."

Harry nodded his head. "I think you're right, Hermione. As long as we have leads on where another Horcrux is, and people are dying every day, I shouldn't waste our time chasing ghosts. When this war is over I can go there, if I'm still alive."

"Don't talk that way, Harry! You're going to win! Although we seem to have stopped practicing defensive magic since we left my house for the wedding."

"You're right, Hermione. We do need to get back to practicing, and I'd like to add exercise to our practice, so that we can outrun the Death Eaters, as well as fight them. I'd practice at the Burrow, but Mrs. Weasley would probably send me to Azkaban cause I'm a few weeks short of my birthday. I just wish Ginny could practice her magic, too. I only want her to perform magic if she has to defend herself, but I want her to be prepared to do so."

Hermione replied, "I never told you before, because there wasn't a good reason, but magic performed in a house under the Fidelius Charm can't be detected."

"What?" Harry almost shouted. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

She smiled to herself. "It would have only made you do things the lazy way, like Fred and George, apparating practically every two feet. Honestly, they can't even walk down a set of stairs."

"Fine, then Ginny and I can practice here."

"I think Ron and I should be with to make sure you're practicing magic and not other things."

Harry blushed. "Anyway, I think we should all get firebolts so that if we need brooms again we don't have to use cheap ones."

"But they're so expensive," argued Hermione.

"When you're trying to escape Death Eaters, reanimated corpses, and Voldemort knows what else, you want to be on the fastest broom in the world! This isn't about Quidditch performance; this is about our lives!"

"You're right, Harry," she replied, "but I think we should get those now without Ron and Ginny. They, Ron especially, can get funny about money sometimes."

"Yeah, and we'll give them to them here where Mrs. Weasley won't accidentally find out."

"If we go to Diagon Alley now, I think we'll have time to pick them up before dinner."

Chapter end