Published 8th of November, 2020
Hermione's apartment
5:20 pm
Two Aurors were standing by the windows in the living room and kitchen and Harry was sitting on the couch watching Hermione, who was practically running around the house, with a strange expression on her face. She had just forced them to change their plans - she wanted to go to Azkaban immediately and only after pack her most necessary items. Harry tried to reason her, but she said that everyone didn't care whether they would watch her packing for an hour and then wait a quarter of an hour for her at Azkaban, or in the opposite. Theodore and Mich actually agreed with her, Ginny as well, so now he watched with resignation as Hermione changed into winter clothes in a hurry while his girlfriend made bread and butter and then they both wrapped pieces of magic chocolate and vials of potions in protective parchment. Indeed, they didn't care but Hermione seemed to care a lot.
As Hermione ran into the pantry to get bottles with water, Ginny sat down next to Harry.
„Tired?" She asked, studying the scars on his face. "It will be necessary to heal it properly."
"Please, Ginny, please tell me she didn't fall in love with him" Harry replied, still staring at the pantry.
The Redhead snorted with anger and pity.
„Of course not!"
"Are you sure? Because she's acting like..." words failed him.
"Like who? Don't be silly. It has nothing to do with love."
"So with what?"
Ginny looked at her friend as she came out of the pantry and was trying to put two large bottles of water in her pocket.
„She cares about him. And worries. He really must be in bad state, so she wants to help him."
Harry repeated silently "cares and worries", making an incredulous expression so she lowered her voice.
"Tell me, wouldn't you help a girl who was attacked by ordinary Muggles? Though they wouldn't be Death Eaters? Yes? Exactly. Because you are an Auror and you want to defend the weak. She is a healer. So she wants to help him, especially since she cannot help the people in the Clinic. And besides... It would do good for her to finally save him. Perhaps she would finally recover completely."
„But she recovered. The Mind Healers let her go home." Harry was surprised.
Ginny shook her head.
„Not completely. Look, we succeeded to get on with our life. Ron got married and moved to America, George also has a family. We are together. And she? She hid in her parents' house, she leaves it only to work, she doesn't even want to hear about having a boyfriend or even friends. As if all the time she was repenting for what happened five years ago. Maybe if she saves Professor Snape now, things will start to fall into place?"
"Now" Hermione said as she walked over to them and pulled on a winter cloak that was way too big for her. "Thank you so much, Ginny."
The Redhead smiled gently at her and adjusted the bottle in the left pocket of her colorful winter jacket.
"Why don't I stay here and start packing your things?" she suggested.
"No way" Harry objected immediately. "Neither of you will stay alone here."
"So I'm going with you!"
Hermione hugged the girl tightly and shook her head.
"This is not a place for people. But if you want to help..."
"Just tell me what to do?!"
"Ask Kreacher to cook something nutritious. I'll pick it up when I drop by after I pack my things."
Harry, who was just reaching into his bag for Regalium, started in surprise.
„You won't sleep at Grimm?"
"I have to clean up a little there. The house has been empty for almost a week, I can imagine what a mess is there."
Harry refrained from commenting and handed Hermione the Regalium.
„All right, let's hurry up."
Ginny muttered the password to open the Floo connection and returned to Grimmauld Place, while Harry, Hermione and Mich and Theodore held hands and the girl Apparated them to Azkaban.
Hermione's apartment
5:30 pm
Swearing with rage, Gratus looked around the street. It was still empty, only much further away there was a large group of laughing teenagers.
Shit, maybe she also cast Repulso Mugoletum on the whole neighborhood ?!
When he managed to open the door to Granger's house, instinctively stepped forward and just ran into the inner wall of her house! He banged his head against the wall and he was just feeling a monstrous lump growing on his forehead.
Goddamn it! Bloody bitch.
No spells he knew had worked, not even the black magic ones, the goddamn wall hadn't moved an inch and simply there was no way to enter her house. The Apparation attempt was also unsuccessful, he just spun on his heel and stayed in the exact same place.
He was staring at the wall since long time, when suddenly a postman on a bicycle came down the street, stopped in front for opposite house, took a package out of a large bag and rang the doorbell. Gratus watched closely as an elderly woman opened the door for him, picked up a package, signed some paper and headed home while the guy got on his bike and drove away to the next house.
This gave him an idea.
Maybe her spells only work on wizards ? After all, if she had cast Protego Horribilis or Salvio Hexia and a Muggle came to her and saw the wall in the door ... that way the existence of magic could have been exposed!
He had nothing to lose. He cast a Disillusionment Charm again and went out into the adjacent street looking for any Muggle.
A block away a man was getting into a car. Gratus ran to him and waved his wand.
„Imperio! Get out! Come here to me!"
The man froze for a moment, then slowly got out, closed the door and looked around uncertainly. Gratus immediately grabbed his sleeve and pushed him towards Granger's house.
„Be silent and come with me!"
The Muggle got a bit of difficult to go on the other side of the gate and stepped awkwardly into the poop, so Gratus used the Disillusionment Charm on him as well, just in case and led him to the door to the house.
"You are to come in. Go to the kitchen and get me any open bottles you can find."
Just behind the door there was a papered wall and a fragment of a painting. He pushed the Muggle at it and breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that the man entered without problems.
Gratus, you are brilliant!
As he waited, he watched the surroundings. Sometimes a car passed down the street, very rarely people did, but near Granger's house they crossed the sidewalk and only after passing it as far from it as possible they returned.
Suddenly, three bottles appeared in front of him and were pushed into his arms. Wonderful, just great!
"Stand here and wait" he ordered the unseen Muggle.
He took the poison from the bag quickly and poured a good dose into the milk bottle, into the orange juice and into the nearly empty mineral water bottle. He didn't care about dosing - he didn't know and didn't have time to check exactly how many liquids there was in which one, so he just poured about the same amount as he did for the condensed chocolate on Diagon Alley.
The dose was certainly much higher, but that was no problem. The sooner the girl dies, the better.
Then he ordered the Muggle to put the bottles back in their places, then walked him all the way to the car, removed the charm, told him to get in and cast Avada Kedavra.
North Sea Azkaban
5:30 pm
Hermione almost fell over, landing on the flooded rock in front of the fortress and Harry had to steady her.
"Watch out for the dementors" he warned her as she finally regained her balance. "They'll probably be furious today."
A wave crashed against the shore next to them, a fountain of boiling foam shot high upwards and Hermione instinctively shielded her head from the water.
„Why today?" She asked and suddenly understood. "Because you postponed that sentence yesterday?"
Harry nodded and looked at Theodore and Mich. And he saw a view that made his blood run cold.
Several dozen yards above them, a whole horde of dementors hovered in the air. There were so many of them that they seemed to obscure even the strange glow that always illuminated the fortress. At the sight of the four people, some creatures moved slowly towards them. The shreds of their robes formed one dense wall and a gust of wind brought the stench of rot and hopelessness.
"Oh, shit" Mitch said, alarmed.
Hermione felt sadness and despair envelop her slowly as if the feelings were an invisible cloak, so without thinking she grabbed Harry's hand.
„Patronus!" She screamed. "Conjure your Patronus!
Harry unconsciously rubbed his thumb and shook his head.
"Hermione, give me some potions."
"What?!"
"Give me the potions! You have too much magic with you!"
"Conjure the Patronus, Harry!"
The girl squeezed her eyes tight to cut herself from the terrifying view of the approaching dementors and focused as much as possible on the memory of winning the Battle of Hogwarts. She enjoyed her victory for a moment, almost overwhelming relief and peace and only then summoned her Otter.
Its glow illuminated the bare rock at their feet and cast a pale glow on the flowing ragged rags.
Harry instantly conjured his Stag and a second later a slender Unicorn appeared next to him and an Eagle burst out of Mitch's wand and made a protective circle over them.
„Statis Patronum!" Mitch shouted.
They all repeated the same spell immediately, the Eagle soared higher and a row of dementors stopped in place. At the same time, the Stag gave a great leap forward, lowering his head and after a while there was a terrible bang that made the whole rock tremble. Immediately Harry put his arms around Hermione's head and at that very moment a violent blast shot through them, carrying a wall of tiny scraps of rotten flesh and cloth.
"What ... what ..." Hermione choked.
The boy covered her with his robe, squeezed his wand and looked around carefully.
„The Dementor exploded."
„Wwhat ?"
The girl looked with obvious disgust at the remains hanging on her cloak and was already wondering how to shake them off as one by one the scraps fell off and swirling drifted somewhere into the darkness. The same thing happened with the scraps on the garments of the others.
"They're pissed off, fucking goddamn hell" shouted Theodor. "But they stopped!"
"I wonder what pissed them off that much" Mitch replied.
"Me" Harry admitted grimly, gestured for the Stag to follow him and walked toward the black crack in front of them.
Everyone followed him.
"What did you do to them?"
"I'll tell you later, guys. Hermione, I was serious, give me some potions" Harry turned to the girl, casting Lumos Maxima.
"I don't think it would be a good idea for you to come with me to the cell" she objected.
"I'm not going to any cell. You just have to give up something because it's too..."
"There is no option!" Hermione stopped abruptly.
"... dangerous. You saw by yourself."
"I do not agree!"
The girl lit up her wand and ran along the familiar corridor. Harry groaned in despair.
"Bloody hell, wait!" he started running after her. "You don't know what's in there !"
Immediately the Eagle flight forward and overtook the girl, followed closely by the Otter.
Hermione burst into the large room and jumped to the side at the last moment in front of a large rock that hadn't been here yesterday. Harry did not make it in time and fell to the ground and right behind him, two Patronuses burst out of a narrow gap and two Aurors ran in.
The entrance to the prison was guarded by four dementors. Immediately the Otter lunged at them, pinned them to the wall with its presence and froze. And as if it became… bigger. Swollen.
"Merlin! What happened here?!" Mitch blurted out.
Hermione looked at the dementors and avoiding larger and smaller stones she walked over to the flat stone. Part of her mind noted that it was split in two, but she wasn't going to care. Not now.
With a loud thud she placed the Regalium on it and, stepping back, called her Patronus to her side.
One of the dementors jerked and moved to pick it up.
Everyone froze as the creature pressed a piece of wood against it and searched for the prisoner's mark with its finger. And frozen.
„Hermione, I told you. Give me something" Harry said in an undertone without taking his eyes off the dementor.
„And I told you no!" The girl snorted. "He needs everything!"
"Even if they let you through here, they can attack you down there!"
The girl turned sharply to him.
„I would like to see them try!" She growled through clenched teeth.
"Hermione, these are dementors! They are dangerous !"
"SO WHAT?!" Hermione yelled at it and before Harry could catch her, she walked over to the stone and, without waiting for the dementor's approval, pulled the Ministry register to her.
The creature let out dangerous hiss and leaned over her violently, but at that moment an Eagle flew up and hung between them and the hiss immediately ceased.
"Oh my God" it was heard in the sudden silence.
Hermione had a very strange feeling. It was supposed to be a terror, but surprisingly distant, like a storm passing over the horizon. She felt it, but at the same time the anger raging inside her left no room for any other strong feelings.
She wasn't going to give up any potion either bread nor water! Somewhere down there was a man waiting for it, man dying of thirst and hunger and all she could think about at the moment was that she had to get to him as soon as possible !
Squinting her eyes against the sparkling glow of Patronus, she signed her name as Klaudia Hopkins, put her wand down with a clatter and took a step forward. Immediately the Otter and the Stag stood next to her and the dementor gave in and backed away to prepare the torch while the rest moved outside.
Hermione grabbed the torch as soon as the creature moved away from the stone, told 'I'll be back soon!' to Harry and the Aurors and ran down the stairs. It was a bit like the Dementor was running away from her and she was chasing it.
Darkness fell in the room, lit only by the light of the three wands and the Patronuses.
"Merlin, this is the first time I've ever seen anything like this..." Mitch said.
Harry leaned back against the wall.
„God, let nothing happen to her there!" He said pleadingly.
Theodore summoned the Unicorn and sat on a rock.
"Don't worry, Harry. I heard that not only Patronuses protect against dementors, but also exceptional rage. This feeling terrifies them."
"If so, meeting Hermione could prove dangerous for themselves" Mitch said.
.,.
Running into the corridor below, the girl hardly noticed the disgusting smell that seeped into her lungs. She went to the cell and, through the rusty grille, she immediately saw a familiar figure sitting against the wall, wrapped in cloaks. At the sight of it, her heart ached.
The man shielded his eyes from the torchlight and cringed as if in fear, so she entered the cell as quickly as possible, put the torch aside and, without even looking at the dementor behind the bars, fell to her knees beside him. The Otter clung to him on the other side.
"It's me" she said, trying to make it sound reassuring.
Despite the two cloaks, Severus Snape was trembling terribly, so without thinking she covered him with her cloak, pulled out the bottle of water, unscrewed the cap and held it against his cracked, parched lips.
"Drink it, please" she whispered.
He lunged hungrily at it, grabbed through his thick cloak and choked, but tried to keep drinking, so Hermione withdrew it from him and only when the worst cough had passed, she held his head down and tilted the bottle gently.
"Easy… I still have a lot of water... Easy... it's okay..."
Every few seconds she withdrew the bottle so that he could breath and after a dozen or so sips he calmed down a little, loosened his tight grip, leaned against the wall and let himself be watered like a child.
Hermione pulled the potions vials out of her pocket and gave him one by one to drink. Seeing the last vial of pain-killing potion that she'd just stolen from the Clinic, she tried to push away the guilt. She could cast Imperius at those people, here it was impossible.
Then she gave him Calming Draught, Pepperup Potion, Restorative Draught, Warming Potion, Diastolic Potion and Fever Reducer Potion. Finally she gave him a Healing Potion and Severus took a deep breath, opened his eyes and looked at her. He hadn't seen very well yet, but he couldn't confuse that voice and smell with any other.
Hermione unwrapped a few pieces of magic chocolate and...
And then there was a whistle from the corridor and the Dementor waiting in the corridor moved sharply to the iron bars and began to open it.
It sensed magic! It will take away everything... ! And it will hurt him... !
The still suppressed rage erupted in Hermione with redoubled force and the girl jumped to her feet, pounced on the iron bars and pushed them with all her force. It closed with a loud bang. With one leap the Otter got between them; its warmth was burning.
The dementor sucked in a deep breath and backed into the corridor, so Hermione shook the grid once more and, panting hard, rested her head against the rusty bars.
„Get out!" She screamed. „Leave him be!"
Severus couldn't even name the feeling that suddenly filled him. He shifted under the cloaks and tried to speak.
"… Er-mone…" his own voice terrified him.
The girl froze, gasped and turned slowly in total disbelief.
„Cal-down."
Oh Merlin .. ! He called me by my name ...
She walked slowly up to him and knelt beside him.
"It's okay now" she said, her voice trembling.
"I-know."
Holding back overwhelming urge to ask him to call her again, she reached for the pieces of chocolate strewn at her feet, cleaned them against her jacket and handed them to him.
„Take it"
He opened his mouth obediently and scowled at the sweet taste.
„I'm not eating..."
"It's magic chocolate" she replied immediately, hesitated and added. "Severus, please, eat it."
Severus swallowed chocolate and immediately a blissful warmth and serenity spread over his chest. Strongly contracted muscles began to relax, the omnipresent pain slowly weakened and he began to feel like a human again. As with her previous visit.
Hermione pulled a sandwich bag from her jacket pocket, hesitated a second time and summoned her courage.
„Severus, are you hungry?"
„No."
„When you feel better, eat it. Fresh bread with butter."
She put the bag next to him and reached under his cloak to check for a pulse, but he must have misunderstood her because he grasped her hand tightly. Hermione returned the grasp, but as he hadn't withdrawn his hand, she entwined her fingers with his and smiled.
„I have wonderful news. You'll be free tomorrow morning."
Severus froze. He felt as if he had misheard.
"We'll come for you around nine in the morning. It's only in dozen or so hours."
„How...?"
Hermione squeezed his hand and continued in a soft, gentle tone:
"As soon as I leave here, we'll do Regalium for tomorrow. And then I will go to Spinner's End to prepare a house for you. You will finally be able to sleep as long as you like, in a soft bed and warm linens. Maybe I will even change the colors of the pillow and duvet from green to orange?"
She said whatever she thought, just to talk and give hope to the man sitting next to her. Even if it was only for a moment and the dementors would take it from him as soon as she left. It mattered here and now and in strange way it calmed her down as well. And Merlin knew she needed it.
Severus snorted strangely and lifted the corner of his cracked lips in the shadow of a smile. With dirty black hair stuck to his pale face, he looked so pathetic that Hermione instinctively brushed it away from his face with her left hand and he involuntarily leaned into her and found the scent of flowers and ... soft smell of almonds.
„Once you recover, I'll tell you everything. It's a long story. At the moment, the most important thing is that you know that you will be leaving in a moment. You only have to hold on for a few more hours. You can do it, can you?"
He didn't answer, so she ran her hand over his unshaven cheek.
"Severus?"
The heat that spread in his chest had nothing to do with the potion. Not even with magic.
"Thank you."
Hermione felt her eyes sting, but with no free hand she blinked her eyes a few times.
"The Dementors for sure will be very angry, but don't give up hope" she said in a tight voice. "For nothing in the world. Just believe that you will come home tomorrow, you will see the sun, your lab, the fire in the fireplace and no one will ever hurt you again."
The grille opened and Hermione looked back and saw a dementor waiting in the corridor. At the same time Severus gripped her hand tightly and straightened sharply.
"No... !"
The girl hugged him tightly, almost desperately and stroked his hair softly.
"I'll be back. Tomorrow morning. In a moment. Believe me, Severus. It will be all right now" she whispered in his ear, as if to hide it from the Dementor.
She hugged him again, jumped up and ran out without looking back. She didn't want to see the lonely, terrified man she was leaving behind bars.
Grimmauld Place
Before 6 p.m.
Gratus stood in front of the long house with a row of windows and doors and looked at numbers 11 and 13. There was no gap between them, nothing.
„Are you looking for twelve?" He heard and suddenly an old woman stopped next to him. "Some moron numbered it, I don't think he could count."
„There is no number twelve?" He asked irritably. He had hard day today!
"There isn't. It never was. I live a few numbers away from the war and it has always been like that. It is curious for everyone, even tourists come here" she replied, shortened the leash and pulled to her very small Pekingese dog. "Five? Maybe six years ago, a lot of oafs spent all days here. I don't know, maybe some journalists or something like this. And you? What you are looking for?"
Gratus didn't react at first, so the woman repeated her question in a much more insistent tone.
"What?" He replied. "Nothing. I just… look. What's in such a house? An attic, basement?"
"Brutus, heel" the woman snapped and yanked on the leash. "Of course there is an attic and so is the basement. Do you see these tiny windows? In the past, coal was thrown there, but now everyone has a decent boiler. Do you want to buy? Then don't take thirteen, because they still have some problems with water consumption. Unlucky thirteen, I tell you. Sometimes they get very big invoice, they complain, everything is correct for a while and then again someone in the administration miscalculates and it starts all over again. The Americans are right not to use this number."
Gratus didn't know where this conversation was leading to, but the topic suddenly interested him.
"How possible? Maybe just the tube broke?"
The woman looked at him with disbelief.
„Oh God, are you stupid? It would be pouring down the street! The tube is under the pavement, I know because they were digging here recently. And there are connections from it to to every number, with a water meter everywhere. And up front, somewhere there" she waved her hand towards the end of the street "there is collective water meter. During the war, someone connected to the tube illegally and pumped water and didn't pay a single pound for it, but now it's impossible, everything can be calculated. Brutus, heel, I said!"
Gratus smiled and bowed to the old lady.
„I won't keep you any longer. Thank you for the nice conversation!"
She wanted to say something else, but he run off quickly.
At first he was going to lurk outside hoping that either Potter or Weasley would show up so he could cast Imperius and have her or him bring a bottle of poison home and put it in soup, tea or whatever, but that could take a long time. And Tylor was obviously in a hurry. But talking to that stupid woman gave him another idea. He just needed to refine it.
Hermione's apartment
Before 6 p.m.
The girl Apparated Harry, Theodore and Mitch right in the middle of the living room and gestured to the couch.
"Sit down, it will take me some time to pack."
Usually, when she entered the house, she smelled a faint scent of cedar, but this time, even though she had left Azkaban, she could still smell the light, sweet smell of excrement. Damn, just a few minutes there and all my clothes stink! The best launder everything.
She quickly kicked off her jacket and laid it down by the cellar door.
Harry also smelled a strange smell, but he didn't think of Azkaban. He looked around and out of the corner of his eye he noticed brownish spots on the pale plank. Which surely weren't there twenty minutes ago!
He cast non-verbal Muffliato in an instant, jumped up to Hermione and covered her with himself.
„Mitch, cover the rear!"
Without hesitating, Mitch rested his back against her back and, gripping her waist tight, stretched his wand in front of him and looked carefully from side to side.
"Harry, what's going on?!" Hermione called, trying to free herself from their grip.
"Protego Maxima" Harry pointed his wand at the four of them and the air shimmered around them. " Do not move! Someone is in this house!"
"Homenum Revelio" said Theodore in the same time, but nothing happened. "There's no one here. I start to check, watch out! I undo Muffliato for three! One two Three!"
Impossible! Nobody can't get here without a password! This...
Suddenly Hermione saw the marks on the floor, so she instinctively tightened her fingers on her wand and started towards them, but Harry pressed her against him.
"Don't move" he whispered, tapping the top of her head with his wand and at that moment icy trickles ran down the girl's back and breasts and she began to disappear.
Harry tugged on Mitch's sleeve and pointed to the brown stains. The man nodded, flicked his wand at his feet and followed the tracks completely silently towards the kitchen. At the door he stopped, cast another spell and a moment later he visibly shook his head and ran in the opposite direction, following the stains.
"Harry ... Basement!" Hermione whispered. „Behind us!"
The boy nodded and without loosening his iron grip, cast Gradus Silencio and noiselessly pulled them back to the corner by the door. Hermione stuck her wand out from behind him, but Harry immediately pushed her into the corner, covered with his whole body and with a few movements of the wand opened the door and cast Homenum Revelio.
Only a deaf silence answered him.
„Empty!" He whispered and stepped back a little. "I'll check the bathroom. Whatever happens, don't move from here, okay?"
Hermione could finally take a deeper breath.
"But..."
„Goddamn it, YOU MUST STAY HERE!" Harry exploded and though he was speaking in a whisper, Hermione immediately stopped talking and nodded.
The boy gave her one last, stern look and ran to the bathroom. The door was a little ajar, so he pointed to it and whispered Homenum Revelio silently.
The wand didn't even twitch, but there was a soft rustle, so he focused hard, cast "Stupefy!", yanked the door open and rushed inside.
Something chirped and whirred at the edge of the tiny open window, Harry could make out the shape of a sparrow and it flew away in panic. Besides, the bathroom was empty.
He quickly returned to the corner by the basement and looked for Hermione with his hand.
"Nobody."
The girl breathed a sigh of relief.
"Where's the rest?"
"They should be back soon. I saw Mitch go upstairs."
"Why did you Disillusionment Charm only at me?" Hermione looked down at her legs and saw only the floor behind them. "And not all of you?"
"Because it's you we're supposed to protect. Besides, if we hadn't seen each other, we might have killed each other."
Hermione wanted to say something but was speechless. A moment later the other Aurors came. "Nobody's here" Mitch announced. "Someone came in here, but they must have left for a while ahead of us."
"This is absurd" Hermione said, undo Disillusionment Charm and sitting down heavily on the couch. "I do not know how it's possible! You can't enter here without a password to remove shields!"
Theodore, standing closest to the footprints, followed them with his eyes and shrugged.
"That someone didn't apparate or got in over the Floo network. He just walked in and out the front door."
"Muggle?" Harry guessed. "Hermione, which spells did you used?"
"Modified version of Protego Horribilis, Salvio Hexia and Cave Inimicum" the girl replied immediately. "It works on all living creatures that have even a little magic, on ghosts and Inferius. The interior of this house simply does not exist for them."
"And you said ... HE checked it?"
"Exactly! I can assure you that if he could get in here today, I wouldn't have been in one piece!"
Mitch went to the window and glanced through it at the street.
„Whoever 'HE' was, he was magical. Here came an ordinary Muggle who was not affected by any of these spells."
"I also used Repulso Mugoletum" Hermione objected.
"Indeed" Mitch replied, seeing a group of boys cross the road a bit outside Hermione's house. "But Repulso won't stop from coming in if the guy really wants to. Or he must. It's just curious, why the hell he came here."
Theodore looked at the tracks again.
"I think he stole something from the kitchen."
Hermione looked at Harry with wide eyes. Holy shit ... is it ...?
"Don't touch any food. Whether open or closed" Harry decided. "And pack quickly. I want to get out from here as soon as we can."
The girl ran to her bedroom, summoned a small suitcase, on which she had used Extension Charm when she though of a trip to Australia on her own, and simply began to send clothes and underwear into it with spells. Then she pushed fluffy fleece blankets and boots into it, summoned cosmetics from the bathroom and carried it to the kitchen, where she added a few pots. Mitch and Harry followed her the whole time and Mitch regarded the suitcase with interest.
"Nice idea" he said when they finally returned to the living room. "I'll have to do the same. My wife always takes plenty of trunks with junks with her. "Where do we go now?"
Harry looked at the suitcase and checked his watch.
"You won't take it to the Ministry. We'll Floo home, Gin has probably got everything ready, bring it to… him and then we'll go back to the Ministry.
They quickly set up secure connections by the fireplace, Hermione dropped her suitcase at Spinner's End, then returned twice with pots and bags of food that Kreacher had prepared in his cooking frenzy and finally they all moved to the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic.
Grimmauld Place
18:30
Gratus had been sitting for over a quarter of an hour on the sidewalk near Potter's house, watching what was happening in the street. Traffic at this time was not too heavy, maybe because it was raining a moment ago and the air still had a specific smell of wet, hot asphalt, dust and a sharp smell of earth. From time to time people passed by, going to take a bus that run down the street next door, a car passed by and once a boy ran past him. But there weren't any curious brats or too many old ladies with dogs.
Gratus had no memories of a Muggle administration; mother always got all administrative things done by herself. Besides, he never tried to help, he preferred to spend time with the gang of youths rather than with his parents.
During a moment he tried to invent some plausible story, but he missed proper Muggle names and phrases, so he finally decided to use Imperius again.
He took another sip of Polyjuice, climbed the steps to number eleven, rang the bell and waited patiently. A moment later he heard a click and a man opened it.
"Yes?"
Gratus smiled politely and cleared his throat as if embarrassed.
"I wanted to check the water meter. Your neighbors still have problems and..."
"Certainly it is not my fault!" The man snorted. "Go talk to them, not to me!" and closed the door with a bang.
You son of a bitch, I'll teach you to listen to when people talk to you !
Gratus pressed the bel, and when the owner didn't open it, he prepared his wand, pressed it again, and didn't stop. After almost a minute, the door flew open.
„Goddamn it, are you... !"
"Imperio! Shut up! And let me in!"
The man stopped abruptly, opened the door wider, so Gratus pushed it hard and entered the corridor. "You are alone? Tell the truth!"
„Yes."
"Show me the water meter!"
They went outside, the owner crouched down next to the steps and pushed back a small iron plate covered with concrete. Under the plate there was a copper tube with large white counter.
"Shove up" Gratus growled. "Stand next to me and cover me from people in the street and do not react to what I am doing. "
The man automatically let him pass and stood slightly astride. Gratus pointed at the meter with his wand and muttered:
"Bombard!" The counter broke into dozens of pieces and immediately cold water splashed through the hole, instantly flooded the concrete niche, overflowed the top and began to form a larger and larger puddle at the wall of the building.
"Immobilus!" Gratus growled and when the water stopped to run, he cas Evanesco, collected a layer of wet earth and some leaves lying on the bottom and filled the hole in the tube from house number twelve with it.
"Duro!"
Everything immediately turned to one uneven stone.
"Great" he said and nodded at the Muggle. "Go back home."
As soon as the man entered the corridor, Gratus hit him with green light and turned. The sound of the falling body reached him just as he closed the door behind him.
The door to the house number thirteen opened young woman and he immediately thought that the idea of talking to the owner of the house made sense. It was true that he wanted to inform that he would check their water meter. It was in case someone came in or out of the house just at that moment, but now, looking at her plunging neckline he decided that he certainly could do much more then just informing.
"Ggood morning…?" she asked hesitantly.
"I am sorry to disturb you. I have to check your water meter. One of my colleagues probably found the cause of your problems and I just wanted to write it down."
"Oh, but I don't even know where it is!" The young woman replied with a puzzled expression. "My parents aren't home yet, so maybe you come back later?"
Gratus smiled broadly at her.
„Please don't worry, I know perfectly well. I'll write down the counter and ... come back to give you my report to be signed."
He ran down the steps, knelt beside an identical iron plate and tried to move it, but it didn't move. He looked around to make sure no one was looking at him and tapped it with his wand tucked in the sleeve of his shirt.
„Reducto" - the plate dissapeared. "Bombard. Immobilus!"
As a moment ago, he emptied the concrete niche of water. Then plugged the hole in the tube on the number fourteenth side and turned it to stone. With a few more spells he bent the other piece of tube and removed the debris of the broken counter, the dirt and concrete around it and touched the poison bottle to the hole.
„Impulsare!"
Just in case, he pumped the contents of two bottles into the tube, stuffed dirt and whispered again "Duro". Now it was enough to wait for Harry Potter to turn on the water...
Feeling his pants starting to tighten, he walked over to the front door once more.
"Already? That fast?" The young woman was surprised and let him inside.
Gratus flicked his wand, cast Silencio and tore her shirt open.
"Come on, sweetie, let's have some fun."
Ministry of Magic, Workshop
18:30
The room that Harry and Gawain called "Workshop" made Hermione look terribly depressing. There were no windows, the walls were covered with dark gray striped wallpaper and two narrow, tall cabinets on the right side and a large table in the center were painted black. The low ceiling, rounded by the walls made the impression even worst. Even gas lamps on the walls seemed to glow black.
The girl flinched as she immediately remembered Azkaban.
Apart from her and Harry, Gawain asked for help Roger White and Klaudia Hopkins, who just finished watching Paul's apartment.
"Miss Granger..." Roger told her. "I am terrible sorry. Please believe me."
Hermione nodded sadly.
"Aren't you mad at Harry for suspecting you? And arresting?"
"Mad?" Roger called and kicked the wall. "Of course not! Merlin, that son of a bitch was my partner!" "Roger, come on" Gawain said, closing the door.
He opened one of the cabinets and began opening drawers and peering into them as if they were terribly deep and wide. Finally he levitated long, thick tree trunk from the fourth drawer. Harry took it and carefully lowered it against one wall while Gawain pulled a large, flat, black bowl on a decorative stand from the other cabinet.
"Get the cauldron ready, Roger" he said, setting it on the table.
A thin spiral was engraved inside the bowl, with the center a little on the right side of the bottom. Ancient runic signs gleamed in gold between the spirale's lines.
Hermione approached it with curiosity. If she was right, it was Affectus Claudare Capsa, a vessel to store feelings. It was much less popular than the Pensieve, perhaps because it was much more expensive, because it was made of Tennantite, a very rare mineral, and encrusted with pure gold. She had read a lot about it, but had never seen it before.
She ran her finger across the black surface until she reached the golden marks.
"Eihwaz, Fehu, Jera..."
"Can you read ancient runs?" Klaudia asked, standing next to the girl.
"Generally yes, although sometimes I can't translate."
Klaudia touched the first sign with her finger, clearly thinking about something different.
"I wanted to thank you. For what you did in the Clinic ... and to stop it" she finally said softly. "When Gawain told us what's really going on..." She trailed off and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Excuse me."
"You don't need to" Hermione replied and ran her hand over Claudia's shoulder in a gesture repeated hundreds of times today. "Thank YOU for your help."
Klaudia lowered her head and turned to face the wall. Hermione wanted to say something, but at that moment Kingsley entered the room and the sight of his broad, warm and calm face made her feel instantly better. As if the sun suddenly came out from behind the clouds.
„Ready?" Gawain asked. "We must prepare Regalium to free the man sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss from Azkaban. You can imagine how our friends would react to this. From what Harry told me, they are already furious and tomorrow will be a thousand times worse."
Everyone instinctively looked at Harry, who still had scars on his face and hands and Roger cursed under his breath.
"I called you here because each of you has some strong motivation to stop this madness and that's exactly what I need."
"What message should we prepare for them?" Klaudia asked. "Should we ask them to release this man?"
"No" replied Gawain. "We won't ask. This must be a clear command, power, fury and threat. I'm fed up with their disobedience, so this time I want Regalium to scare them."
Kingsley was first, followed by everyone else conjuring up chairs, so Hermione did the same. They all sat around the table and Gawain rolled up the sleeves of his robe.
"Miss Granger, before we begin, I will explain to you what this will be. Messages in Regalium are simply feelings that, when extracted, remind a little of memories. We will prepare them one by one. You have to focus on each of these feelings, draw out using Adimotus spell and deposit them in Affectus" he pointed to the bowl in the center. "It's a bit like focusing on happy memories to conjure a Patronus, but the feeling has to be much stronger and you have to remove it and that weakens. Only when we combine all feelings, we will pour them into a piece of wood. In this case it is more of a tree trunk" he added with a bitter smile. "I want to shake them. Strong."
"I suggest dividing the feelings in two groups" Kingsley said in a deep, calm voice. "We will designate Main and Support Donors for each of them."
Gawain watched everyone present for a moment.
"Then I propose you, Kingsley, myself and Harry as Main Donor to the order. Same for power. The others are Support Donors. And to the rage and threats I propose Roger, Claudia and Miss Granger. Are you agree? So let's start with the order."
There was complete silence in the room. Hermione looked for a few seconds at the people seated around the table, then she did the same. She sat back, closed her eyes and thought about tomorrow. The Dementors HAD TO free Severus Snape. There could be no objection on their part, no hissing or any attempt to frighten her and those who would be in Azkaban tomorrow.
She focused on this feeling as much as she could, forced herself to feel it with all of her and let it swell more and more within her.
When she decided that she couldn't feel it stronger, she put her wand to her temple and cast the non-verbal Adimotus.
Something leaked from her, but to her surprise it wasn't a cold ribbon flowing from her head, but a warm haze that rose from her head, chest and stomach and swirling slowly it formed a streak of light. Hermione pointed her want at Affectus and the streak flowed slowly towards it, trailed down to the bottom following the spiral marks and froze, forming a pale hazy ball.
A few seconds later, a similar, slightly stronger luminous haze rose from Klaudia's body and spiraled down past Hermione's ball.
As she waited for the others, the girl rested her head against the headrest of the chair and watched Kingsley and Gawain through closed eyes. They were both breathing heavily, their faces twisted with a terrible grimace and their hands, clenched on the armrests, were shaking with the effort.
A moment later Kingsley pointed at himself with a trembling wand and a scintillating mist rose from his whole body; it looked like it was steaming out of him. It was so dense that he drowned completely in it. When it condensed, it became a large ball of light that flowed into Affectus and with a soft movement floated to the bottom.
When Harry, Roger and Gawain pulled out their feelings, Affectus was no longer a dark vessel - it turned into a simmering cloud of dazzling light, golden runes glistened at the edges, casted dancing, glittering spots on everything and everyone around. The spiral groove lit with strong glow on the top and tourned into a glowing point, blazing like the sun.
The whole room has changed. The light from Affectus was much more stronger that gas lamps and plunged all corners into a mysterious, velvety darkness, reducing everything to two colors: black and white. Their bodies and their souls melted into this blackness and only faces and hands were visible. The white hands, illuminated by Affectus' glow, looked as cut off on a black table.
"Enough" Gawain said suddenly and Hermione jerked violently, as if awakened from a deep sleep. "Roger, carry that feeling to the cauldron."
As soon as Roger cast the Wingardium Lewiosa, the simmering and glowing white turned gray and collapsed, the gas lamps recovered and everything was back to normal. Roger levitated the gray mass into the cauldron and sit down at the table.
Preparing the feeling of power was similar and Hermione began to worry that her feelings were definitely weaker than those of the Aurors. Maybe it's because of a lack of training? Or maybe because you are already very tired?
Roger poured a second feeling into the cauldron, moved to the table and there was silence again.
Hermione closed her eyes and immediately images from the past few days flashed into her eyes.
Suffering, dying Danny, the young girl she had failed to save that afternoon, dozens of other sick people. The shadow of a man lying on dirty floor, among rotten remains of food and excrement, dying of thirst and sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss. If she hadn't known where he was, he would have be dead now! For nothing!
The absurd from a few hours ago, when someone in the Ministry was able to give her disciplinary trial for imaginary charges and at the same time delayed granting the Healers the right to cast Imperius so that they could at least release from pain sick, dying people!
And all this because of some insane man who usurps the right to take life of other people and deny them the right to die in dignity!
Oh, if only she could catch him...!
Anger exploded in her violently, just like a flame bursts in a resin-dipped torch and she shook furiously. The feeling was so overwhelming that Hermiona felt as it grabbed her heart, her throat and squeezed it painfully. And it kept growing, getting stronger, more powerful, until she was running out of breath in her crushed lungs.
But Hermione didn't try to hold back, quite the contrary. She focused with all her strength, making the feeling swell even more, harder, more violently, until it turned into a wild, enraged, uncontrolled fury that literally blew up in her, inflamed all her nerves, devoured her body and mind, but she wanted more! Much more! Blood became liquid fire in her veins, her heart sped up and pounded as if it wanted to break out of her chest, she ran out of air, something began to howl in her head and every shaky part of her body ached, until she felt that in a second she would break!
"Adimotus" she heard from far away and suddenly everything began to drift away and she was drowned in a bright, dazzling light.
She slumped limp in the chair, let the light rise and felt completely… empty. As if someone had let all the air out of her. She was only able to feel her tears, dripping down her cheeks and leaving hot wet lines.
"Hermione ... how are you?" Harry whispered to her from nearest chair.
"I do not know. Oh God" she sobbed.
"Cry out. It gets better soon."
The girl hid her face in her trembling hands and began to cry. And although at first she thought she probably would never stop, she felt better after a while, as if the tears had washed away all other feelings and brought peace.
"I'm better now" she finally said, wiping her eyes and nose with her sleeve.
Klaudia hand a paper handkerchief up to her, so Hermione leaned to the side, wiped her nose and tucked it into her sweater pocket.
"It happens very often" Gawain smiled at her. "The stronger is the feeling, the more you need to unwind it. I'd say you must have gotten really angry."
Hermione felt terribly uncomfortable despite these explanations.
"None of you cried" she objected.
"As I said, each of us has our own, more or less strong motivations."
Harry gave her a strange look and looked at the table.
„We still have a threat to prepare? He said to Gawain.
His boss nodded and moved Affectus farther to the center with a soft scrape.
"Let's begin."
The threat was much easier to feel than rage. Since her first visit in Azkaban, she still had remembered the terrifying howl of a prisoner who was screaming so long that he lost his voice, an equally hoarse voice next to her and she was even afraid to think what those monsters must have done to him. And today, since leaving Azkaban, she still had in her mind this horrible view: a dementor who tried to enter the cell, most likely to throw her out of it, take away potions and perhaps try to punish the defenseless Severus. And the further she was from the prison and more time passed since the incident in the cell, the more she felt like going at this creature, tearing off that lousy hood, dig her nails into its lichen-faced face, scratch it and tearing it to shreds with her bare hands.
She imagined that she had taken all the Aurors of the world with her. And everybody attacked these monsters and destroyed them all, wiped them off the face of the earth with spells and pure force, Every single one of them.
Her fingers gripped the back of the chair ferociously, dug into the soft fabric and began to tremble with the effort. Hermione tilted her head back, squeezed her eyes shut and focused completely on the dream of getting rid of the dementors and her breath became deeper and more even with every exhale.
And when all the creatures had disappeared, the heavy clouds parted, the sun came out again and warmed the lonely rock in the middle of the sea with a joyful glow. Flowers bloomed on it, the grass turned green, the birds arrived… Everything started to live. And when the waves smoothed and began to murmur, washing gently the stones, the girl smiled triumphantly, relaxed her muscles, took a deep breath and touched her heart with her wand. "Adimotus" she whispered.
She opened her eyes and saw that everything around was bathed in warm, soft light. She felt as if she was sitting inside a huge Patronus, radiating happiness, joy and power. Slowly, the light swirled around her, formed glistening ribbons and sparkling streamers, flowed to Affectus and mingled with the glow of the other wizards' feelings.
Gawain summoned the vials containing the Restorative Draught from somewhere, uncorked it with a spell and sent it to each of them. The girl grabbed her vial with difficulty and drank it to the bottom. Slowly she began to feel that she had the strength to do more than just passively breathe.
"I wish I had drunk this potion earlier" she said a little more flatly to Harry.
"Unfortunately" the boy replied in an identical tone. "Feelings must be pure. Without any ... extras. I'll tell you later" he added heavily and closed his eyes for a moment.
It took everyone a while to recover. Roger nearly lay down on the table, Klaudia was tilted in her chair, Kingsley stared at the ceiling and breathed steadily while Gawain closed his eyes and looked as if he were asleep.
Several minutes later Kingsley got up and with a wave of his wand made his chair disappear.
"Thank you. I'll see you here at nine o'clock tomorrow morning. Get some rest."
Hermione got up, stretched and almost staggered into a tree trunk against the wall. It reminded her that Regalium wasn't ready yet.
"Can I stay and help you?" She asked Gawain.
"Miss Granger, it's very nice of you, but you better get home now" he answered and nodded to Harry. "You go home as well."
Harry tugged at Hermione's sleeve and they made to the door.
"See you tomorrow then. Good night!"
They walked silently to the elevators and went down to the Atrium. Hermione, still unaccustomed to the hard jerks when starting and stopping, fell on the grate and then to the floor.
"Can you prepare a secure connection for me?" She asked Harry.
"All Floo connections from the Ministry are safe" he assured her. "You can Floo to ... him without any risk."
Hermione hugged him tightly.
"Thank you. For everything."
Harry nodded with resignation and stepped back so as not to hear his friend say the address of Snape's house. He didn't want to know where exactly he lived.
When she disappeared into the fireplace, he waited a few seconds, thrown a little powder into the still roaring green flames and strode into them.
"Grimmauld Place number twelve."
A moment later he fell onto the kitchen floor. Ginny helped him up.
"So what?! You made it? All right? Hermione is safe?!"
The boy smiled and slumped on the chair.
"I won't tell you anything if I don't drink something."
Kreacher was gone, so Ginny made strong tea for both of them and sat down next to her boyfriend.
"Take it, drink and talk!"
Harry took a long sip from the cup and grimaced slightly.
"What did you pour into it? It has a weird taste."
Ginny tasted her tea and added more sugar.
"I've said so many times that Kreacher can't make decent tea. The tea must be strong. Now don't complain, just talk."
Harry gave up his protests, took another sip and began to talk...