"How do you plan to get Potter to open the trunk? Or can you open it from the inside?"
"I figure a Patronus message is obvious. 'Open the bloody trunk, Harry', should do it." Hermione imitated a screeching Molly Weasley.
Draco burst into laughter. "Oh, I'd love to see his reaction."
"We're taking a pensieve…" Hermione said in a sing-son voice with a bright smile.
"Hermione? You're 'elping 'Arry, right?" Hagrid asked. "Minerva said you's sendin' some stuff wif him?"
"Yes, I am, Hagrid." Hermione was exiting the Great Hall as the half-giant was entering.
"Come down an see me, will ya? I'm… I got… jest come see me… in-a hour." Hagrid stomped up the aisle to the staff table.
"Right…" Hermione sighed.
"Hermione?" Angelina appeared at Hermione's side, a notepad in her hands. "Quick update?"
"Sure. Um… let's use the Muggle Studies classroom, I don't feel like climbing five floors only to have to come back down in minutes." The two young women walked from the Entrance Chamber through the Turris Magnus and into the Castle Keep and then to the ground floor classroom. "Okay, gimme a second." Hermione dug into her beaded bad and drew out her folder and a pencil. "Fire away."
"Terry's finished with Harry's library and gone to help Luna, Padma, Parvati and Fleur on the Nest's. He's given his oath and is prepared to be obliviated, if we want." Angelina made a mark at the beginning of a line. "Charlie and Lavender have finished Harry's storeroom and have gone on to stocking the Nest warehouses with Dean and Seamus. Neville has the greenhouses up and running. Malfoy, Bill and Oliver have Harry's potions lab and storerooms done and Bill and Neville have started on the Nest's ingredient storage. George brought a load of brooms in from Cleansweep, Nimbus, Spudmore and he's done the rounds of all the second-hand shops for quidditch gear, Katie's seeing to all that. Ollivander has moved into his place, Bill mentioned something about a lost wand room and George wants you to check with Harry about its location. Harry's wardrobe is ready, we know he prefers simple stuff, but we did get a few formal robes, we have no idea if he'll ever need them, but better safe than sorry. The kitchen and bedroom are the only things left to do in Harry's trunk, and they're on the schedule, so the rest of us are concentrating on the Nest for now." Angelina tilted her head. "You know, I never thought I'd say it, but thank Merlin for Malfoy. His pocket-space is amazing."
"Yes, two-hundred-fifty-acres its quite a bit bigger than what Croaker was trying to make us." Hermione nodded. "And the fact that it's old means the interior environment is well established and the whole thing is runically stable."
"Whoever laid it out inside, covered everything. Grassland, forest, mountains and a lake with a beach." Angelina smiled. "Something for everyone, even a quidditch pitch."
"Don't go exploring yet, the Nest isn't fully stocked yet." Hermione warned.
"No, but we're getting there. We've fifteen days left, we'll be ready." Angelina assured the younger woman.
"I know we will. Now, have you had lunch?"
"No, not yet, I'm going to join Katie and Alicia for a sandwich and take half an hour to have a quick game of 'chase the chaser'." Angelina grinned and bounced away.
"Right. Harry's trunk, all but… The bedroom, which is… um… Oliver and Justin. And Justin's on muggle shopping tomorrow. And the kitchen, which is Alicia and Hannah, with Oliver driving. So, that's likely to be Thursday. Excellent."
"Talking to yourself, Granger?" An amused voice sounded from the hall.
"Of course, Malfoy, who else would I talk to if I wanted an intelligent conversation?" Hermione shot back.
Draco laughed and with a wave headed for the Grand Staircase.
Hermione snorted turned back to her folder. "Brooms, yes. Everything else is in progress. Oh, and a note to ask Harry about the wands. Great, that's as much as I can tick off, right now. Hagrid. I wonder what he wants. Oh, I hope it's not another books, the Monster Book of Monsters in third year was-" she cut herself off and darted out of the room, her folder clasped tightly in one hand.
"Malfoy! MALFOY!" She yelled, making a few people smile, that was the Hermione Granger most of them remembered.
Draco paused, his foot lifted to step off the first landing and onto the second flight of stairs, he was headed for the third floor and the transfiguration classroom, when he heard the yelling. He spun in place and took one step before he saw the owner of the voice, doing her best to sprint up the stairs.
"Granger? You yelled?" He didn't know whether to be alarmed for her or by her.
"It just occurred to me." She grabbed him by the arm and dragged him off the stairs and into the second-floor corridor.
"What?" Draco frowned.
"What are the chances that you can snatch a Malfoy library?" She asked, speaking quickly. "We've got the Potter library, the Black library, Dumbledore' personal library, McGonagall's personal library, Bill's curse-breakers books and Ollivander's personal library. The Old Bookshelf have given us a copy of everything they had in stock. Neville's given us the Longbottom's Heir library. And everyone else is bringing their books. Can you get us the Malfoy Heir's library?"
Draco smirked. "Forget about the Heir's library, I can get you the main Malfoy library."
Hermione's smirk matched his. "In that case, get me both."
"Your wish is my command, my lady." Draco gave her an ostentatious bow.
"Really…?" Her smirk became downright devious. "Oh, if only that were true…"
"What do you want…?" He wasn't all that certain he wanted to know.
"I want that de-aging potion, I've at least two people who would benefit from it and there's a possibility that another one might be able to reverse engineer the recipe from it, if they have the actual potion in front of them." Hermione replied.
"You don't want much, do you?" Draco sighed. "I'll do my best, but I might not get it until it's time to go."
She dropped the humour and spoke quietly. "If you can get it, I'd very much appreciate it, Draco."
"I'll do my best." Draco nodded back towards the stairs. "You'd best get back to it and McGonagall's expecting me."
Hermione smiled at the blonde and took his suggestion. Down the stairs, through the quad, under the clock tower and across the suspended bridge that was the temporary replacement for the covered bridge that was the access to the owlery and Hagrid's newly rebuilt hut. As expected, Hagrid sat on a stump outside his hut, a huge knife in his hands along with a piece of wood that he was obviously carving.
"Hagrid." Hermione smiled as she reached the giant.
"Ello 'Ermione. Thanks fer comin'."
"It's fine, Hagrid. I'm sorry I haven't been down, but I only have a limited amount of time and so much to get done." Hermione apologised.
"No need fer sorries. Yer doing it fer 'Arry."
"I am. What did you need me for?"
"Yer sendin' things with 'im? Right?"
"Yes…?" Hermione answered slowly.
"Can yer put sommit in fer me?"
"That depends on what it is?"
"See, it's Beaky. He turned up here a few months back, but Dumbledore had got me a new stallion, and he's not liking Beaky. It's split the herd up, some of the original mares are related to Beaky and won't breed with 'im, but the newer mares don't like the new stallion, he's a bit aggressive. Only 'cause Beaky's here an' he thinks he needs to protect 'is mares." Hagrid hurriedly added the last sentence.
"You want me to send Buckbeak with Harry?" Hermione blinked.
"An' his mares… an a coupla foals… an' maybe a nestin' mare… or two…" Hagrid rambled.
"Hagrid…" Hermione whined.
"I can't keep 'em all, 'Ermione. Professor Flitwick says I can 'ave one herd, no more than a dozen of 'em." Hagrid sighed. "Beaky was me foundation stallion, the whole herd was based around 'im. But other than me younger mares, all of 'em are Beaky's foals or 'is foal's foals. I haven't put 'im in fer breeding fer a few years, 'cause of it. Then Black stole Beaky and-"
"Actually, he didn't." Hermione cut in.
"Wha'?"
"Harry and I stole Beaky to save him from being executed and then we sent him with Sirius." Hermione grimaced.
"Oh, okay…" Hagrid grunted.
"Keep going." Hermione waved her hand in a rolling gesture.
"Right, ya sent 'im with Black. Dumbledore got me a new stallion, Firecrest's younger and weren't related ter any of the mares I 'ad then. And jus' afore he died, Dumbledore got me another group of mares, young-uns that 'ad been badly treated. They was settling in alright, not great, but alright… when Beaky flies back in."
"Ah…"
"Yeah…" Hagrid nodded. "The next few weeks were…. Beaky and Firecrest tryin' ter fight. Firecrest tryin' ter woo his ladies an' Beaky tryin' ter do the same. The older mares ignoring Beaky for Firecrest. The younger mares liking Beaky. And I ended up with two 'erds. I had ter split 'em up, Beaky and 'is herd are down are down near the station and Firecrest is just back of me hut. And that caused another problem."
"Another…?"
"Yes'm, Beaky's not talking ter me, he's insulted that I moved 'im an' 'is ladies so far away and let 'is rival have the prime nesting sites."
"Oh, hell…" Hermione moaned. "And you expect me to convince them to enter a trunk? Beaky, his mares, some foals and a nesting mare? Hagrid!"
"No, no, no. I talked ter Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall abouts it and they think the best thing ter do is ter knock 'em out and transfigure 'em ter be statues, until 'Arry is somewhere 'e can uncharm 'em."
Hermione tilted her head in thought.
"Then I asked iffen they could be shrunk. They'd take up less space."
"Oh, I know… Hold on." Hermione dug into her ever-present bag and retrieved a pencil and tore off a sheet of notepaper, she scribbled on it for a few minutes before handing it the half-giant. "A chess set, with Buckbeaks's herd as the pieces on one side."
"I can make a chess board fer 'Arry. But… what abouts the other side?"
"Use the staff." Hermione took back the paper and wrote a few more lines and showed it to Hagrid.
"Oh. Oh, I see… but… Where's Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore? Shouldn't they be on this list?" Hagrid asked.
"Probably, but Professor Dumbledore's left Harry other things and Professor McGonagall is teaching him how to become an Animagus. He'll never forget them. But the other Professors are a little more distant, this will give him something to remember them by."
"An' what about me? What have I given him? An owl that's bin killed an' a moksekin pouch." Hagrid mumbled.
"Hagrid, as far as Harry is concerned, it was you that introduced him to magic, it was you that told him he was a wizard, it was you that took him to Diagon for the first time. You ask what have you given him? To Harry, you've gave him his first ever gift, Hedwig, you gave him magic and now you're giving him Buckbeak. There's no chance he will ever forget you, every spell he does, he'll remember you. Every time he sees Beaky, he'll remember you. But if you feel the need to give him something, find a pair of pure white owl feathers and get Scribulus' to put a quill grip on them, every time he writes something, he'll remember you."
"I can do tha'. Actually… I might even have a couple from 'is 'Edwig." Hagrid began to smile again.
"There you go." Hermione patted his huge hand. "I'll talk to Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall, find out how they'd do this, if it's safe and how long Harry can keep them for. Oh, and if you could do three sets of figures all up? One set to represent the students, one set of magical creatures and one set to be the staff and Beaky's herd to be transfigured into a white wood, as the fourth. If Harry wants to, he can use any two sets, at any time." She took back the sheet of notepaper and added a few more lines of writing to it before flicking her wand and copying the list to a second sheet. "There, one for you and one for me to take to the Professors and Harry."
White Wood = Hippogriffs
Black Wood = Hogwarts Staff
Gold Wood = Magical Animals
Red Wood = Students
King
Buckbeak
James Potter
Fawkes
Ron Weasley
Queen
Nest of eggs
Lily Potter
Hedwig
Susan Bones
2 x Rooks
2 yearlings (dark coats)
Moody and Kingsley
Horntail dragon, Basilisk
Stephen Cornfoot, Anthony Goldstein
2 x Bishops
2 yearlings (pale coats)
Slytherin and Gryffindor
Dobby, Kreacher
Kellah Lindstrom, Fay Dunbar
2 x Knight
2 mares
Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff
Fang, Crookshanks
Tracey Davis, Daphne Greengrass
8 x Pawns
8 newly hatched foals
Professors Babbling, Vector,
Sinistra, Flitwick, Slughorn, Binns,
Sprout and Hooch
Post Owls
Astoria Greengrass, Su Li, Hannah Abbot,
Kevin Entwhistle, Terry Boote, Michael
Corner, Ernest Macmillan, Mandy Brocklehurst
"Oh, yeah, tha's good. But… Ron?" Hagrid asked.
"Ron… He's not… he's not handling this well. Loosing Fred… he's not blaming Harry, but he's pretty cut up about it. And then Harry's trial? No, Ron's not handling this well. Oh, don't fret, he'll come 'round, he always does. But it might be too late for him to give Harry something." Hermione hedged. She didn't want to badmouth Ron, not when he was staying, and she wasn't. Ron wasn't a bad person, he was just spoilt and had the emotional range of a teaspoon, he'd eventually grow out of it.
"Ah, I sees what ya mean." Hagrid nodded. "Well, I've got some pretty woods I kin use. A nice piece o' Redheart fer the students. Some Bog Oak for the staff. And a real bright bit of Canarywood fer the other Animals. I best get to it. Times tickin' away."
"Exactly." Hermione nodded. "So, I had better get moving, too. I need to speak to Professors McGonagall and Flitwick and, depending on what they say, to Harry." She stood and after giving Hagrid a quick hug, trotted back towards the castle.
"Hey, Kristen." Hermione greeted the trainee at the door to they were calling 'Harry's room'.
"Evening, Miss Granger." Kristen grinned back.
"You know you're allowed to call me Hermione, don't you?"
"Not while on duty, Miss Granger." Kristen Timberly shook her head.
"But-"
"Don't want people complaining about us being too familiar, we're only trainees so we have to keep it professional."
"Hmph." Hermione huffed.
Kristen just smiled and knocked on the door.
"Come in." Harry called out, his voice obviously tired. Kristen opened the door and gestured for Hermione to enter.
"Thanks." Hermione gave her a small nod and crossed to give Harry a hug. "Harry, you look tired."
"Nice to see you too, Hermione." Harry mock-glared at her.
"Oh, bite me, Harry." Hermione snarked back at him.
"You been hanging around Malfoy too much." Harry sighed.
"Harry…" Hermione warned.
"Okay, okay. Sorry. Yes, I'm tired. I did my first full Animagus shift this morning and then Robards put me through the Gauntlet this afternoon." Harry admitted.
"Whoa… Really? You did a full transformation?"
Harry smiled and shook his head in amusement. "You're not at all interested in the fact that I did the Gauntlet at seventeen."
"Harry, I have no idea what the Gauntlet is. So, no, I'm not interested."
"You should be, the Gauntlet is what everyone who completes their Auror training has to go through to graduate from a trainee to active duty." Harry said smugly. "Most people are in their mid-twenties before they complete it, to the head Auror's satisfaction."
"And you did it?" Hermione's eyes widened.
"Yep. Well within the time allowed. Tonks was the youngest trainee of this century, to finish, and I cut her time by three minutes and I did it four years younger than she was when she made her first attempt."
"Well… huh… How about that. What did Kingsley say?"
"After he picked his jaw up off the floor?" Harry asked and Hermione laughed.
"He took it that well, huh?"
"Yup." Harry gave her a cheeky grin. "What's happening out in the magical world?"
"You do know that you're allowed to go out, don't you?"
"Yes, Hermione, I know, but the last few trips were… I didn't like the way people were staring and whispering, it felt… It felt like second year and the first few days after the duelling club incident."
"Urgh."
"Yeah, so I'm sticking to the muggle world for most of my outings. Had lunch out with McGonagall, today, that was an interesting experience."
"Really? Where did you go?" There was so much she didn't know about the people around her.
"The Clarence, it's an upscale pub on Whitehall, near the Horse Guards."
"Ooh, on the corner of Great Scotland Yard?"
"Yeah, that's the place. They do the best sweet potato chips." Harry sighed. "With this sweet and spicy dipping thing. So good." He shook his head. "Back to the magical world. What's happening?"
Hermione smiled. "We're still working. There's only the kitchen and your bedroom to go in the trunk, I hope to get that done over the weekend, but no promises. The Curse-breakers have finished work on the castle keep and have started on the DADA Tower and the Viaduct Towers. There wasn't as much fighting in them, so Professor Flitwick's hopeful it won't take long. The greenhouses are all repaired, not fully stocked yet, but at least they're all in one piece. The Bell Towers, The Clock Tower and the hospital wing have been cleared of having any curses in them, which is great, we can start rebuilding them. Ravenclaw Tower is still not safe, but Gryffindor Tower is open. Slytherin is still off limits, as is Hufflepuff, the dungeons took a few bad hits, apparently. The Entrance Bridge is finally down, there were a few scary moments when one of the Curse-breakers lost his footing and took a tumble, but Professor Sinistra caught him before he fell more than a few feet. They're putting a timber suspension bridge there, until the rest of the castle is done." She paused. "There's one thing I was asked to talk to you about."
"Yeah…?"
"Hagrid's got a problem."
Harry closed his eyes. Hagrid having a problem was never a good thing. "What is it?" He grimaced.
"Buckbeak."
"Excuse me?"
"Buckbeak turned up. Apparently when Dumbledore died, the wards he put in place to keep Buckbeak in Grimmauld Place failed. Buckbeak headed back to Hagrid." Hermione started. "But in the meantime Hagrid…" She went on to explain the situation of the two herds and Flitwick's direction to Hagrid. "…so, he has to get rid of his older stallion and a herd of abused mares or a younger stallion and an established herd. Either way, he's going to lose about forty animals."
"Oh, no, poor Hagrid, they're like his babies." Harry moaned in sympathy for his friend.
"He… He… He wants me to send some with you." Hermione hesitated before finishing.
"Me? But… Why…? How?!" Harry gasped.
"I didn't bring this to you until I'll checked it out. Professors Flitwick and McGonagall believe they can stun, stasis and transfigure some of the hippogriffs into chess pieces, for you to reverse later. Not all of them, but some."
Harry tilted his head in confusion. "Why not all? If they're going to do that, why not all of them?"
"A few reasons. One, the Ministry know about them, but not how many there are, so they're going to be watching to see that Hagrid does sell some. Two, some of the mares won't accept Buckbeak as their stallion, they're too closely related. Three, there's too many males in the yearling foals, we can possibly sneak in a couple of non-related colt-foals or unhatched eggs that test as being male, but not yearling males, Buckbeak will see them as rivals."
"Oh, right, didn't think about that." Harry grimaced before frowning. "But that's still going to leave a small herd and eventually it's going to get smaller and then there's inbreeding and… I don't know, Hermione, I don't want to put one down because of they're too closely bred."
"You won't have to Harry. Just go get yourself common horse or a hawk, transfigure it to a hippogriff and you'll have a new bloodline." Hermione shook her head at him. "That's how hippogriffs were first created. And a transfigured hippogriff breeds true, exactly the same as a hatched hippogriff, they're magical creatures, after all."
"Oh…" Harry blinked a few times. "Okay… I can do that."
"Great, I'm going to put them in the smaller compartment of the trunk." She felt that this was going to be less trouble than trying to get Buckbeak out of the pocket-space Nest and it would give Harry something to look forward to.
"Talking of…? What's going in that?" Harry asked curious about it. It was the highlight of his day, getting these little snippets about the mysterious 'trunk'.
"Oh, um…" Hermione had to dig into her bag to find her folder. "Right. Um… One set of battle robes. Half a dozen changes of muggle clothes and the same of wizarding. A muggle first aid kit and a few potions, not a full medi-kit, just a few basics. A broom. A stasis kitchen pantry. And the chess set." She turned the folder so Harry could see the list.
"Great, and wasn't there a bag mentioned?"
"Yes, there was. That will have a travel lunchbox, it holds five meals. A wizard's tent. A change of clothes, muggle based. A journal. A blanket. And a plain cloak. The tent has to be empty to be transported, unfortunately, but that's why we added pocket-spaces to a trunk."
"Brilliant." He paused. "Anything from Ron, yet?" Harry asked hesitantly.
Hermione sighed. "Not yet. Bill was going to talk to the family tonight and find out what's going on. I should have an update tomorrow."
"I hope so. Dudley sent me a letter, via Mrs Figg, he wants to meet with me." Harry focused on the table.
"Are you going to?"
"I… I… I think I need to. I'm never going to see them again and while I won't miss Vernon, I'm not quite so sure about Petunia and Dudley." Harry rubbed at his knuckles. "Will… If… Will you come with me if I do?"