The Alliance
For minutes no one spoke a word. Then Albus ran out of the room and stormed up the stairs. Downstairs, they could hear him slamming the door of his room. Ginny stood up and followed him.
"I've no words to tell you how sorry I am about all this," Roy finally interrupted the silence. "After all, it might have been better if we had left right away."
"It wouldn't have changed anything, at best it would have delayed it," Harry said. "At some point I would have told her that we are in contact and then, the reaction would have been the same."
"At least it would have spared Albus that scene."
Harry nodded. "Yes, it would." Then he shook his head and said more to himself than to his guests: "It wasn't her. I'll never believe this was Hermione."
"If you would rather be alone with your family now ...", Julian started, but Harry interjected:
"What I do or don't want is of no interest now. There is more to talk about than ever. You stay here! Please wait."
"The list of women who don't succumb to your charms is growing longer. There are three now," Roy said dryly when he and Julian were alone.
"Indeed, a disturbing phenomenon. I'm probably getting old," Julian quipped with a deadly serious face. Neither of them felt like laughing.
"What a beast! For what she did to her nephew today alone, you'd have to hate her."
The Potters needed some time to calm down.
After a while they came back. Ginny had her arm around her son, who cuddled up to her with red eyes when they sat down.
Harry came to the point:
"When I asked you earlier if you had found a clue to the curse Hermione is under, you didn't tell me the truth, did you?"
Roy sighed. "There is a problem." He hesitated. "Indeed, we believe we have identified the curse. The clue is found in the writing of a former Death Eater living underground who describes Voldemort's methods. To find out more, especially how the curse works exactly, we would have to find and question this man. However, if we did, you'd have to arrest him. But we don't want to send him to his doom."
"Well," said Harry, "if that's your problem, Hermione has made it irrelevant. She just fired me. I can't arrest him, even if I wanted."
"And if she changes her mind again and call you back?" objected Julian. "Then you've got information leaving you no choice. You can't pretend you don't know what you actually do know. This would be against all rules, wouldn't it?"
"To hell with the rules!", snapped Harry. He took a deep breath and then continued in a low voice: "You have no idea what Hermione means to me and to all of us here. For me she's like a sister! I would do anything to save her! I would also break any law! I promise you ... I give you my word of honour that I won't bother your informant, whoever he may be, but for God's sake, tell me what you know!"
Roy and Julian exchanged a long look. Their silent conversation ended with Julian nodding.
Roy then pulled out a doll's house sized booklet and his wand from his robe.
"Engorgio." Sulphangel's book lay on the table. Roy opened it and read it from the first to the last line.
"That must be it," Harry said when he had finished. "It would explain everything! Just a question: How do you know what the author's real name is?"
"The name is an anagram of 'Rodolphus Lestrange'."
Harry checked it. Then he slowly shook his head. "Roy, you've found out more in less than a week than my Subdepartment for Dark Magic."
"The anagram was decoded by Orpheus Malagan, not me." It was not Roy's style to adorn himself with borrowed plumes.
"So what?" exclaimed Harry. "Once to the library and bingo! – you have the right book in your hand. Do you know who you remind me?"
"Please don't say it," Roy waved dismissively. "McGonagall told me the same thing the other day, and even with all the will in the world I couldn't take it as a compliment."
"You ought to! Hermione is brilliant at this sort of thing. Once she ..." His story suddenly stuck in his throat, he seemed to blink some tears away. "Whatever. But if I ever get my job back, you should become an Auror! In a certain way, you are already something like that."
"What do you mean?"
"What we are about to do, and of course I am counting on your help, is pure detective work." The Auror in him was awaking. "We now know the basic mechanism. Now we have to find out three things: First, who is it? Second, how did he do it exactly? Third, how do we kick him out of Hermione?"
"Who? Hmm," Roy mused. "One thing is strange. I mean, it's a technique that Voldemort developed and that hardly anyone but his Death Eater insiders would know about. Suppose one of them decided to hex Hermione after Voldemort's death. He should be expected to make her do the exact opposite of what she is actually doing. Plainly put: The Death Eaters wanted the wizards to rule the Muggles, but Hermione's policy amounts to the opposite."
"Perhaps the revenge of a Death Eater on the wizarding world," Harry suggested, "which had rejected him and his ideas. According to the principle: You will see what you get out of it! I know it sounds absurd, but as an Auror I have seen often enough that the human soul is capable of the most absurd things."
"Isn't there something more self-evident?" objected Julian. "Perhaps the Death Eaters told the secret to Aurors who interrogated them after the Dark Lord's death, and now one of them is using this technique."
Harry was upset: "One of my Aurors should ...?" he started his answer, then faltered. "You are right, no hypothesis should be ruled out too early. After all, it might be possible ..." he mused.
Harry stared ahead for a moment, lost in thought, then turned back to the two of them. "We have to agree on a fundamental question: Is it our common goal to free Hermione from this curse? And are we working together on this?"
"Of course," Roy replied without hesitation, "provided you can accept that for us it's not about Hermione, but about protecting the wizarding world from her madness. And you would have to accept Orpheus, Arabella and Ares to take part. The five of us have no secrets from each other as a matter of principle and have been making important decisions together for years."
Harry hesitated. Having the imaginative Orpheus with them was certainly a good idea, and there was nothing wrong with Arabella, but Macnair? In the days before, Harry had wondered who could have suggested killing Hermione ...
"Well," he finally said, "if you want to act as a group, I accept that. It also has its good side: We will have to investigate among the former Death Eaters. Firstly, to find Rodolphus' trace, and secondly, because the unknown person we are searching for possibly belongs to these circles. These people wouldn't say a word to me, but maybe they would to you Slytherins, especially if your name is Lestrange or Macnair. However, there is one condition I have to make."
"Which one?" asked Julian.
"You will have to take Albus into your group and involve him in all your decisions."
"Harry!" yelled Ginny in outrage. "You're probably fighting a highly dangerous Dark wizard who is controlling the entire Ministry through Hermione! And our boy is just eleven!"
"I myself wasn't any older when I had to stop Voldemort from seizing the Philosopher's Stone," Harry replied.
"You needed to, he needn't!" insisted Ginny.
"Mum, I'd love to join them," Albus objected shyly.
"Yes," said Harry, "he needs to. Ginny, I know it can be dangerous – it doesn't necessarily have to be, but it can be – but I must set this condition. If I'm going to work with the Incorruptibles, I must make sure that there is at least one among them who really loves Hermione!"
Ginny looked at him sadly. "Another one of those damn fights ... I lost my brother ... please, please not my son!"
The couple looked into each other's eyes in silence.
"All right," Ginny finally sighed. "For Hermione!"
She turned to Roy:
"You're watching over him?"
"Sure," Roy said like talking about a matter of course – too flippant to Ginny's taste. She stepped close to him and whispered insistently:
"You understand that I've entrusted my son to you?"
"I won't expose him to any avoidable danger," Roy whispered back, "if he nevertheless gets into danger, I'll protect his life with mine. Is that enough?"
Ginny nodded. Now she even smiled a little.
"Well, Albus," Roy said, "as I assume the others will agree: Welcome to the Incorruptibles!"
Albus beamed with pride. To him, the Incorruptibles were the coolest gang there was at Hogwarts. And since his father placed such trust in him, he silently swore to himself that, whatever happened, he would never disappoint him.
"We'll have to let McGonagall in on it," Harry said now, "if only to ensure you can leave Hogwarts for your investigations with no trouble. Also, she has more experience than all of us put together."