Yes, a Curse!

Harry Apparated to his living room to avoid waking Ginny in case she was already asleep. Of course, she wasn't. When Harry entered the bedroom, she put aside the book she had been reading.

"Didn't I tell you not to wait for me?" he said with loving reproach before embracing and kissing her.

"Since when do I do what you ask me to?" she replied with a grin. She waited until Harry had undressed, returned from the bathroom and laid down by her side.

"Now tell me," she said, cuddling up to him.

Harry was dead tired after the long day with all its trouble, but he knew it would have been useless to put her off until tomorrow.

"First of all:" he began. "Roy MacAllister is truly and sincerely Albus' friend. I overheard a conversation between him and a friend, and he said to her ..."

"To her? His girlfriend?" asked Ginny, who wanted to know exactly.

"His best friend. I think their relationship is about like Ron's and Hermione's used to be at the time. Best friends, actually feeling more than just friendship, but not daring to speak because they don't want to put their friendship at risk, and therefore unable to show their feelings but in the form of jealousy."

"I see," Ginny said with a smile, "and what did he say to her?"

"She asked him why he was so fond of our son. Want to know what he said? He said it's because Albus is exactly how he would like his little brother to be if he had one."

"Oh, how cute!" Ginny was quite touched. "And that's the boy Hermione thinks is a Death Eater?" she chuckled.

"As I say, Hermione is becoming obsessed with that idea. By the way, I invited him and Julian Lestrange to visit us on Sunday afternoon. I told him you'd probably like to meet them too. – I hope you don't mind," he added when she looked at him in surprise.

"Not at all," she said, astonished, "I just don't quite understand it. If you tell me he's all right, I trust you."

"It, err, wasn't quite my real reason," Harry said, slightly embarrassed. "I want to stay in touch to keep an eye on him."

Ginny sat up and looked at him questioningly.

"Hermione's Death Eater obsession," Harry explained, "is nonsense, of course. He and his friends are young people who are worried about the future of the wizarding world and thus also about their own. Not without some reason, I think. But they are not quiteas harmless as McGonagall believes they are. Imagine, they ..." – he hesitated for a second – "they were seriously discussing killing Hermione."

"What?" whispered Ginny, her eyes widening in shock.

"MacAllister obviously spoke very vehemently against it, not least out of consideration for Albus, by the way. He told his girlfriend the issue was definitely off the table, and she didn't contradict him."

"Yes, but just even thinking of that ..."

Ginny could hardly calm down.

"As I say: They are not really harmless. And what they've come up with instead sounds friendlier but has some downsides."

"And what?"

"They are assuming, just like Albus," Harry replied, "that Hermione is under a curse, and they want to find out what it is, and how it might be lifted by a counter-curse."

"Indeed, it sounds much friendlier, actually really nice," Ginny said. "That's to say, they now regard Hermione as a kind of patient rather than an enemy?"

"Yes and no," Harry said hesitantly. "MacAllister told me quite frankly that he's going to do some research about control spells. What he didn't say – but he's far too intelligent not to know: If he can't find anything to neutralise with a counter-curse – and we don't even know if she actually is under a curse – so if he doesn't find anything, he's still delved deep enough into Dark Magic to manipulate Hermione on his own initiative. And this guy is highly gifted! He showed me a spell he developed himself, which is really genius. And apparently, he has worked out more of them. I wouldn't like to see him on the other side. To think that he might target Hermione, even if he doesn't kill her – I'm sure he won't, but it's enough to get worried."

"I see," Ginny said understandingly, "and as you can't investigate him as long as he doesn't do anything more forbidden than to spy in the Forbidden Section at night, you want to keep in touch so that you can at least have an eye and some influence on him if necessary."

"That's right," Harry confirmed.

They were silent for a while.

"Are you going to tell Hermione about it?" she finally asked.

"For God's sake, no! I'm not going to fuel Hermione's paranoia. You know I'd sacrifice my life to save hers, but I don't think she needs to know everything."

"But you can't just do business as usual now," Ginny objected.

"That's not what I am up to do. I will review all protective measures for Hermione and tighten them if necessary. Even if our Slytherin friends won't do anything at all, the day has taught me how deep the trenches through the country have become. Who knows how many other small circles there are who might not shy away from an assault. And then ... well, I'll have to try and find out for myself what kind of curse she's under."

"You also believe there's a curse?" she asked, shuddering.

"You asked me about my feeling tonight. And what I feel is: There is."