Coup d'État
It was Wednesday, 10th January, just before half past seven, and Roy was enjoying his scrambled eggs when someone twitched at his robe. Behind him stood Albus, pale as death. His right fist seemed to be clutching some object.
"I need to talk to you right now, anywhere where no one can listen!"
Roy took a wistful look at his plate, but then gave himself a jolt and stood up. Both left the Great Hall and withdrew to a niche in the entrance hall of the castle.
"What's so important?", Roy demanded.
"Is Ulysses starting today?" asked Albus insistently.
"When Ulysses is starting, I'll tell you at noon on that day," Roy said calmly. "You know I'm not supposed to tell you before."
"If it is today, the action has to be stopped immediately, at all costs!"
Panic was in his voice.
Roy sighed. "OK, Operation Ulysses has started a few minutes ago – but we can't stop it now, the Stag is already in the Otter den."
They had got used to using the Patroni of the people involved as aliases. "Otter" was the code name for Hermione, the Otter den was the ministry.
"Oh no!" groaned Albus in despair.
"What's the matter, Albus, why do you want to stop the action?"
"That's why," Albus said tonelessly, stretching out his right fist to Roy and opening it. On his palm was the happiness barometer.
The sphere was pitch black.
Like every morning at seven o'clock, the Ministry's Atrium was bustling with comings and goings on this 10th January. Since the higher officials tended to arrive later, this was the hour of shift change for security guards, cleaning wizards, technical staff, in short: for those who, around the clock, ensured that the Ministry could work.
The bang with which Harry apparated under his Invisibility Cloak was therefore part of the normal soundscape of a beginning working day, and no one, not even the security guards at the reception desks and passage gates of the Atrium, noticed that this bang did not seem to correspond to a person Apparating.
Harry who had already taken his Polyjuice and looked like Hermione under his Invisibility Cloak, simply strolled past the controls – silently and in Sneakers that would have looked strange with Hermione's favourite scarlet skirt suit if anyone could have seen it. The high heels he would have to wear – he had trained for weeks with Ginny to get used to them – he carried in his handbag.
Harry was pressing himself against a wall where he was hardly in danger of being run into by anyone accidentally, and waited for Percy. Percy could always be counted on – rumour had it that there were Ministry officials who set their watches by him.
As Harry had foreseen, Percy passed through the entrance checks at 7.29 sharp and headed straight for the Minister's lift – loping as always, to show how much he enjoyed this privilege. Harry slid into the spacious, thickly carpeted lift behind his brother-in-law.
On the ministerial floor, Percy unlocked the door to the antechamber with a silent spell, sat down at his desk and arranged the folder for Hermione. He placed it on her desk at ten to eight sharp, as he did every day. Harry followed him silently into Hermione's office and stood next to one of the magical windows that gave one the illusion of a panoramic view of London, while Percy sat back down at his desk. He left the door of the Minister's office open.
So far, everything had gone like clockwork, Harry noted with satisfaction – no wonder really, since he was perfectly familiar with the personal security measures. Of course, he was able avoid the traps he himself had set for potential attackers. He just hoped that Cesar hadn't built up any new ones in the meantime!
Harry glanced briefly at the diary Percy had already opened in the right place for his boss: Just as Harry had guessed, she had probably reserved that day for studying the mountain of files that piled ominously on her desk. Talks with Dagobert Higrave and Susan Bones were not planned until late afternoon.
Hermione's arrival was more difficult to calculate than Percy's. If she made use of her right to Apparate directly to the office, it would be eight o'clock sharp, but Hermione sometimes also took the route through the Atrium and used the normal lifts to exchange a few more words with staff she otherwise rarely got to see. Thus, she was an extremely popular boss, especially with lower-ranking officials who were less likely to notice Hermione's authoritarian features: A minor secretary who noticed that the Minister herself took time – be it only for a minute – for him, remembered the names of his children and enquired about their well-being, couldn't help but adore her.
Finally, seven minutes past eight, Harry heard her voice from the corridor: "See you later then, Cesar!"
She's going to see Cesar again today, unlike what's in her diary, it flashed through Harry's mind, and he's already seen her today, he mustn't notice any difference then!
As she entered the antechamber, Harry could see her and cringed:
Hermione was wearing a green suit!
Ginny, using pictures in the Daily Prophet as models, had magically created a duplicate of Hermione's favourite suit in Gryffindor Red of which Hermione owned at least four. And today, of all days, she is wearing Slytherin Green, perhaps for Higrave's sake, Harry grumbled silently. It would take him less than a minute to duplicate her clothes and put them on. Not an unmanageable problem, but a complication and a factor of uncertainty.
"Good morning, Percy!", Harry heard her say. Her voice sounded a little weak and he saw that she was pale.
"Good morning, Hermione, are you all right?" asked Percy worriedly.
"Yes, I am, thank you for asking."
"Are you sure?", inquired Percy caringly, but insistently.
"I had a little dizzy spell, nothing to speak of," Hermione tried to reassure him.
"Trouble with Ron again?" asked Percy so quietly that Harry could barely understand him. He listened. As Hermione's brother-in-law, Percy could certainly take the liberty of asking such private questions, but if he, the dry office man, really did so, and in the Ministry on top of that, Hermione's marriage, as well as her health, had to be in a really bad condition.
When Hermione nodded, Percy said: "You should be careful with each other, this kind of stress is not good for you. Would it help you if I spoke to my brother?"
Harry would never have thought it possible that Percy could be so lovely.
Hermione smiled. "Don't worry, Percy, it's all going to be okay."
"Would you like a strengthening spell, perhaps?"
"Thank you, I'd love to."
Harry couldn't see Percy, but after a moment he asked: "Better?"
"Much better, thank you," Hermione smiled and entered her office. Harry was glad of Percy's strengthening charm: A Stunning Spell could be dangerous to a weakened person; without Percy's care for Hermione, he might have had to make other arrangements.
Hermione sat down at her desk and put next to her the wand that she wouldn't really need here but to send memos. Harry frowned: He knew Hermione's wand almost as well as his own. It had been made of vine wood. But this wand beside her was different.
Unfortunately, Hermione had left the door to the antechamber open this time, perhaps to have eye contact with Percy.
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong!
He stood close behind Hermione – within the magical protective dome of five feet that he himself had still ordered to be set up – and thus had her and Percy in view at the same time: Both were engrossed in their files. If he closed the door now, Percy would think Hermione herself had done it. Harry raised his wand under the cloak and made the door close with a soft click. Hermione looked up, startled.
Harry secured the door with a silent Imperturbable Charm by which he made it touch-proof and, above all, soundproof to the outside. In the second it took him to do so, Hermione reached for her wand. Harry pointed his own at her back:
"Stupefy!"
His wand shot a flash of red light that bounced off Hermione's back and dissipated into a thousand sparks. A magical armour! flashed across Harry's mind. Cesar has strengthened the protection! Hermione jumped up and blindly pointed her wand backwards:
"Stupefy!" she yelled in her turn, but Harry dodged. His Invisibility Cloak slipped. He pulled it down and pointed his wand to the face of Hermione who stared stunned at his double:
"Stupefy!"
She had the presence of mind to roll over the desk, the jinx missed her and she rushed for the door. She mustn't reach it! On his trainers, Harry was faster than her and entered the area of the protective dome – exactly at the moment she hit the handle.
"Petrificus totalus!" cried Harry. Hermione's body froze, but the momentum it still had made her bump the door. The door handle snapped back. Percy must have heard the rumbling! Harry had no choice:
He lifted the Imperturbable Charm, whispered, pointing the wand at Hermione's head, "Imperio," and with his free hand slipped the Invisibility Cloak over again. At that very moment Percy came rushing in. Harry lifted the Petrificus again.
"Hermione, for God's sake!" shouted Percy, scared out of his wits. Slightly dazed, Hermione stood up.
"It's nothing, Percy, let it go, I just tripped," she said gently.
"But you're bleeding!" Blood was indeed running from her forehead.
"Do I?" smiled Hermione, lifting her wand and pointing at her forehead: "Episkey". The wound disappeared.
"See?" she smiled again. "It's all right!"
"Hermione, you are quite dazed, you may have a concussion, I have to insist on consulting a healer," Percy called.
"That's a good idea, the best thing is to Apparate from the atrium directly to St Mungo's to get him. But please be discreet! Neither in the ministry nor in the hospital, anyone but the healer must know about this, understand? Meanwhile, I'll lay down on the sofa," Hermione said kindly and pointed to the small seating corner of her office.
Percy rushed off and Harry breathed a sigh of relief. For the time being, he was rid of him! Now hurry up, he definitely didn't have more than ten minutes!
"Give me your wand!" he told Hermione, who smilingly held the wand in the direction from which his – or rather her own – voice had come. He reached out of the Invisibility Cloak with one hand and took the wand.
Harry was thinking nervously: If Hermione's drowsiness was really due to concussion or something similar, he couldn't stun and kidnap her, then she needed a healer. However, it was probably only a consequence of the Imperius Curse. Well, it was not hard to find out!
Harry secured the office door again with an Imperturbable Charm and lifted the Imperius Curse again.
Hermione straightened up with a jerk.
"Your Invisibility Cloak has betrayed you, Potter!" she said in an icy voice roughly in his direction. "You won't get away with what you're trying to do now! I'm giving you one last chance to get out of this: Just go, and I'll forget what I witnessed!"
"Even if I took your promises seriously," Hermione heard her own voice speaking to her seemingly out of nowhere, "I couldn't go. I will never let you down, Hermione, never!"
"You dare say such a thing to me when you are about to commit the most terrible betrayal I've ever known?"
"It is not me who's betraying you, but you yourself," the voice replied. "I can see you're not dazed, though."
"Of course I'm not!" cried Hermione angrily. "I've never been as lucid as I am now!"
"In that case, I no longer need to tolerate your playing for time. "Stupefy!"
The flash of red light hit Hermione's head and she sank back onto the sofa, unconscious.
Harry hastily pulled off the cloak, duplicated Hermione's green suit and shoes, lifted her body with a Levitation Charm, moved it to the far corner of the office, threw the cloak over her, took off his red skirt suit and slipped into the green one. Then he made the red suit and his trainers disappear with Reducto, lifted the Imperturbable Charm again, opened the office door and lay down on the sofa.
Not a second too early: No sooner had he laid down than he heard footsteps rumbling down the corridor, and the next moment Percy came into the office with an old wizard in tow whose long white beard reminded Harry of Dumbledore.
"Hermione," Percy called breathlessly, "this is Professor Camillus Healman, the chief healer at St Mungo's."
"We already had the pleasure to meet," the healer said, offering his hand to Hermione – to Harry, actually. "Would you please leave the office and close the door, Mister Weasley?"
Percy bowed and left the office.
"Goodness, the chief healer!" Harry said, trying to make Hermione's voice sound a little weak, "it was just a little fainting spell after all."
"And not the first one, as I was told?" the professor asked kindly when he routinely glided his wand over Hermione's head and body.
"Yeah, I guess I've been a little overworked lately, but apart from that, everything's fine ..."
"Please leave that to your healer to find out," the old professor replied sternly. "After all, you could be expecting ..."
Harry felt his stomach cramping up. If Hermione was pregnant, he had unintentionally created a twin of her unborn child through the Polyjuice and thus was its mother-to-be! In that case, he couldn't get back his real body for the next nine months – it would mean killing that child. He would have no choice but to carry it to term ...
"Oh no," he groaned, "That's the last thing I need right now! Can't you find that out, Professor?"
"Of course I can, I'm just about to." Healman made some confusing movements with his wand. "Well, I'm afraid ..." he finally said thoughtfully, while Harry audibly swallowed.
"What?"
"I'm afraid you can't look forward to an offspring for the moment."
"Thank God," called Harry with a sigh of relief. "You have no idea what kind of situation I would have been in if ..."
"Oh yes, I have" the professor assured him. "I've been a healer for sixty years, be sure that nothing human is alien to me ..."
Harry jerked upright. "What are you implying?" he snapped outrageously at the healer. After all, his friend Hermione was not a ...
"Calm down," said the professor, complacently, "and please excuse me that I obviously misunderstood your remark. – Well, I can't find any organic disease, and you don't have a concussion either. Nevertheless, two fainting spells in one day should not be taken lightly. You say you are overworked. This is something I can imagine, given your position. Um – do you have any problems in your private life? – Remember, I am bound to strictest discretion!"
"I've been having a lot of arguments with my husband lately..."
"I see," the healer nodded understandingly, "stress in office and stress at home, these are just the conditions the body must rebel against! I think you'll kill two birds with one stone if you're going home now, lay down and also ask your husband to keep you company. Spend a nice day or two together; you will feel better and your husband will certainly feel better, too. In the meantime, I give you this."
He pulled a little bottle out of his cloak. "A strengthening potion on a bio-magical basis. One teaspoon every morning, otherwise as needed until you use it up."
"Thank you very much, Professor. Allow me, please ..."
Harry, still with Hermione's appearance, stood up and led the professor into the antechamber. While saying goodbye to the healer, he asked Percy: "The professor has prescribed two days of rest for me, please postpone all my appointments, I am going to Disapparate right away."
That's perfect! he cheered inwardly. This way I have the ideal excuse to leave with Hermione right away and not just tonight, who knows what could have happened by then ...
"Maybe I'll come back by tomorrow morning for a moment if there's anything urgent," he added. "Otherwise, you are holding the fort for me here, Percy. I know I can rely on you."
"Of course you can!" answered Percy proudly.
Harry gave him a friendly Hermione smile, went back into the minister's office and closed the door behind him. He leaned against it, closed his eyes briefly and breathed a sigh of relief. That had turned out well, in the end even better than he had expected! Now all he had to do was Disapparate into the secret room at Hogwarts with Hermione holding his hand.
He reached under the cloak, grasped Hermione's hand, concentrated, spun ...
Harry cursed in a low voice. It didn't work, he couldn't Disapparate!
Harry was thinking feverishly. He himself had set the protection spells for the Ministry a year ago, in such a way that Hermione could Apparate and Disapparate in her office, and it was enough if she Apparated Side along, she didn't have to do it herself. He had Disapparated from this office with her by the hand as recently as the summer, and he himself, not Hermione, had done the spell! Cesar obviously had tightened this security measure too!
Harry sighed. He would have to lift Hermione's Stunner and cast the Imperius on her again – for the second time today! – to force her to Disapparate with him.
He had just raised his wand when there was a knock at the door. Harry put his wand away, but before he could say "Come in", Percy was standing in the doorway.
"Percy," Harry shouted indignantly, "how dare you just burst in here?"
"I'm sorry," Percy said, his ears turning red, "but Cesar said he really needed to talk to you before you Disapparate."
Cesar Anderson squeezed his way past Percy and said:
"I still need your signature." He held a folder in his hand.
"Put the file on my desk," Harry replied, avoiding looking at Anderson lest he couldn't try to penetrate his mind. Harry knew Occlumency, but Hermione didn't, – by his resistance Anderson would know he wasn't Hermione ... "I'll take another look over it and then have the file sent to you."
He couldn't sign anything in Anderson's presence because he would have to use a Signature Forging Charm.
"We discussed everything," Anderson replied in amazement, "and agreed on the need for this empowerment."
Empowerment? Harry stepped towards him, took the folder and opened it. He read that the Magical Security Office was
"... authorised, within the scope of its official responsibilities and in order to prevent activities threatening the state, in individual cases, without further preconditions, particularly without a specific authorisation, to apply the so-called ..."
- Harry froze -
"... Unforgivable Curses."
This was something he would never sign, but he had to stay in character now!
"... without further preconditions," he murmured and added in a loud voice: "I'm sorry, Cesar, I'll have to check again. We'll talk about it on Fri... no, Monday." That would give him enough time to read through the files and find an unsuspicious reason to dismiss or promote Cesar to a position as far away as possible.
"As you wish," said Anderson, still puzzled, "but you yourself hurried me along ..."
"I don't think," said Harry sarcastically, in Hermione's haughtiest tone, while wiping over the right side of his forehead, "that your customers will complain if they're spared the Cruciatus for a few more days."
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Percy wince, while Anderson frowned.
"That's it, gentlemen," he added in Hermione's bossy tone, "would you please ..."
He couldn't complete the sentence, for at that very moment, to his horror, two wands – his own and Hermione's – slipped from the inside pocket of his cloak, drawn by a silent Summoning Charm, and flew towards Anderson, who caught them with his left hand and at the same time, in a flash, drew his own wand with his right and pointed it at Harry. Anderson cast an examining glance at the wands and then said, more sadly than spitefully:
"You said it, Harry: That's it! Realocorpo!"
Harry felt the uncomfortable tug and squeeze with which he regained his real body. After about thirty seconds, he was standing as Harry Potter, but still in Hermione's outfit and in desperately tight high heels, before his former subordinate and the speechless and stunned looking Percy.
"How did you know?" he asked Anderson.
"The cumulation of clues could simply no more be a mere coincidence," the MSO head replied. "First, the suspicious incident in which the Minister was injured – Percy told me about it when I came into his office just now. Then Hermione's willingness to go home because of a mere fainting spell; you should have known that she would rather be carried out of her office dead than neglect her duty. Then the fact that you didn't not look into my eyes, your refusal to sign a decree long since agreed upon, the mention of the Cruciatus authorisation in Percy's presence after Hermione had expressly made clear to me that he was not to be informed of it, and finally this:"
He wiped the back of his hand across the right side of his forehead, just as Harry had done a minute ago.
"I have never seen that gesture on Hermione," Anderson continued, "but on you, and that was in your last week in office as head of the Aurors. I finally identified you through your wand."
"Good job, Cesar," Harry said grudgingly. "At least I have the satisfaction of having entrusted Hermione's personal protection to the most competent man. Tell me, can you change my clothes? I look ridiculous in Hermione's suit."
Anderson hesitated briefly, then said:
"I'll do you that favour, Harry, but it's the last one."
With a few flicks of his wand, he transformed Hermione's suit, which was almost bursting at the seams, into suitable men's clothing, her high-heeled shoes into trainers and her witch's cloak into a wizard's cloak. With "Incarcerus" Harry was bound all over his upper body while Anderson dutifully informed him of his rights:
"You have the right to refuse any statement. However, should you make a statement, anything you say from now on can be used against you in court."
Harry nodded.
"Where's Hermione?" asked Anderson.
Harry jerked his head towards the corner of the room where Hermione was floating: "Under my Invisibility Cloak."
Anderson walked in the direction indicated until he came up against the invisible obstacle, took the Invisibility Cloak, let Hermione's body slide gently to the ground and ran his wand over her face:
"Rennervate."
Hermione opened her eyes and sat up. When she saw Harry, she gave him a look that could have frozen hell and hissed:
"You'll pay for that, Potter!"
She turned to Anderson while Percy helped her up:
"You know what you have to do."
Anderson nodded: "Come on, Potter." Harry had to go ahead while Anderson followed him with his wand drawn.
"Percy?" asked Hermione when the prisoner had left the office with his guard.
"Hermione?" replied Percy, still pale but assiduous.
"Send Susan Bones up here for me," she said, a nasty grin curling her lips. "We need a new law."