Chapter 17 - Collateral Damage
Neville ushered everyone inside, giving Hermione a moment to steady herself.
"What is it? Tell me," she said.
"You know how I finally managed to isolate the rest of the ingredients used in the parchment you received," said Draco. "Well, the Aurors compared them against the samples taken from all the suspects they had. None of them even came close to an exact match."
Harry nodded. "They thought they'd hit a dead end until they noticed there was an exact match to one of the elimination samples. The sweater Margaret wears in your office."
"Surely that's because she was there when the parchment arrived," Hermione said.
Harry shook his head. "If that were the case then we'd have found the same thing on your clothes or Neville's. You were much closer for far longer."
"But - but why on earth would Margaret want to hurt me?"
"That's what my office wanted to know. Seamus and Kingsley pulled together a team and went to her flat straight away. They got there and..." Harry struggled to find the right words.
Draco gave him a moment then finally took pity on the man. "What Potter is trying to find a delicate way of saying is they got there and your secretary was dead. Murdered."
Hermione's knees buckled and Neville grabbed hold of her as she whispered, "What?"
"I'm sorry, Hermione," said Harry. "She'd been hit with a killing curse. If it's any consolation it appears as if it happened quickly."
"But why? Harry, what's going on?"
"It appears Margaret had a flat mate who has now disappeared. They'd tried to clean up but we found enough trace evidence to conclusively prove that this person is the one who brewed the potion found on the parchment."
"Who? Who is it?" demanded Hermione.
"Does the name Lyssa Furnese mean anything to you?" Harry asked.
"No. Never heard it before."
"She's a British witch a couple of years older than us. Lived in Europe from age five until she turned nineteen. Homeschooled by her father after her parents split up. She moved in with Margaret about seven months ago in an attempt to get close to you. Soon after she began dating Cormac McLaggen, giving her access to Ministry events at which you would be present."
He showed her a picture. Hermione squinted. "She looks vaguely familiar I suppose. Certainly not someone who stood out to me in any way."
"Exactly what she was hoping for."
"But to what end? Why would someone I've never met hate me enough to go to these lengths to kill me?"
"Because even though you don't know her I'm certain you're going to remember her younger sister. A girl who got sent to live with her mother and took her maiden name after the parents split. A girl that Lyssa was - by all accounts - incredibly fond of."
Harry produced a photo of a young girl with curly, reddish brown hair.
"Marietta Edgecombe. Picture taken just before her second year at Hogwarts," Draco said. "That's the girl who ratted you out to Umbridge then got struck with the uncurable boils that spelled out 'sneak' on her face, isn't it?"
Hermione stood speechless, staring at the face from her past.
Harry nodded. "Both parents are now deceased so Marietta went into seclusion with Lyssa after the war. The two had been separated as children but remained close through letters and occasional visits. They apparently had dreams of reuniting and travelling the world once Marietta came of age and graduated. Instead, they ended up living pretty much as hermits until about a year ago when Marietta became ill with a form of dragon pox. It should have been easily treatable but she refused to see a healer and passed away two months later. Lyssa is convinced all of their problems stem from the jinx you placed on the DA registration form."
"How do you know all this?" asked Neville.
"Found the remains of a diary. She'd tried to burn it but must have been in a rush. Ernie's team were able to piece together the basics from what was left."
Hermione reeled back as if she'd been punched in the stomach.
"Hermione? You okay?" Harry asked.
She managed to gasp, "I'm going be sick."
Neville quickly rushed her into the nearby loo and held her hair back as she dropped to the floor in front of the toilet. She dry heaved several times then leaned back against him.
"It's my fault. This is all my fault."
"Hermione, don't..."
"It is, Neville. Margaret, my neighbor, that Muggle child, you, everything... All because of a rash decision I made."
"Stop. You can't think like that."
"Why not? It's true."
He had never seen her so defeated and it broke his heart.
"Listen to me," he said. "You're not the only one who regrets choices made during the war, okay? We all wish we could go back and change things."
"Your decisions didn't permanently maim someone who died as a result which then drove her sister to hurt – to kill - innocent people."
"No. Mine got one of my dearest friends kidnapped by Death Eaters and tortured for three months."
"What?"
"Luna. What happened to her was my fault."
"No, it wasn't."
"Yes, it was."
He stared at a chipped tile on the floor, unable to meet her gaze.
"We'd just left for Christmas break. There were only three of us in the train compartment. Ginny fell asleep before we'd even left the station but Luna was so excited about going home. She kept going on and on about all the things she was going to do with her father over Christmas and I was tired and hungry and worried about Gran and thinking of all the things I'd NEVER get to do with my father and I just wanted five minutes of quiet, so I asked Luna to go see where the trolley witch was..." His voice caught "...except she never came back. The bastards snatched her right off the train and it was my fault. If she'd stayed with us we could have..."
"Stop, Nev. You couldn't have known what was going to happen."
"Exactly. Same with you. You couldn't have known what was going to happen to Marietta."
"No. Not the same. I meant for that curse to hurt someone if they told. That's why I deliberately made it so it couldn't be reversed. I wanted something bad to happen to whoever revealed the DA...no matter who it was or what the circumstances were..."
The realization that the curse could have just as easily impacted Neville or Luna or any number of her friends caused another wave of nausea to hit her.
Neville tightened his grip on her. "Hindsight is an illusion, Hermione. We only see what we want to see when we look back. You gave everyone fair warning when we signed that list that bad things would happen if we snitched. She's lucky it wasn't an unbreakable vow. At least she had a shot at a life afterwards."
"Some shot I left her with," Hermione scoffed.
"I'm not going to lie and say it was the best decision you ever made, love, but it was a war and hard choices were necessary. The fact is there are no more time turners - no way to go back and change the past. And if you can't go backwards then the only option is to look ahead and find the best way of moving forward."
"Sounds like something Luna would say."
"Yeah, well, just because she sees things different from the rest of us doesn't mean she isn't right most of the time."
They sat wrapped in each other's arms until Hermione said, "What now?"
"Now? Now we stand up and we go back in there and figure out what our next move is."
He helped her to her feet and gave her time to collect herself before they rejoined Harry and Draco.
"You okay?" Harry asked, giving his friend a hug.
"As good as I can be, I suppose."
Draco stood uncomfortably to the side, hands in his pockets. "I know you don't believe it right now, Granger, but this isn't your fault. It was a war. Bad things happened. It doesn't excuse what this woman is doing and it doesn't make her actions your responsibility. Don't beat yourself up for choices someone else has made. It doesn't help anything. I know."
"Thank you, Draco. I appreciate that." She took a deep breath then asked, "So, what's all this?" as she gestured at a pile of stuff now spread out on a table in the sitting room.
"Items we found in Margaret's flat that had Lyssa's fingerprints on them. Thought you might see if there's anything meaningful in what she touched that could help track her down."
Hermione reached for a book but Neville stopped her, glancing nervously at Harry and Draco.
"It's safe," assured Draco. "Gave everything a good going over with my best detection spells. Only thing on them is fingerprints. See?" He ran his hands over the items and even picked up the book and rifled the pages, causing a store issued bookmark to fall out. "Perfectly fine."
Hermione picked up the book mark and gasped, causing Draco to panic. "Damn! Did I miss something? Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine, Draco. It's not magic. It's just…" Hermione began pawing through the stack, pulling out a sample size box of chocolates, a postcard of a Van Gogh painting and a small desk calendar adorned with pictures of flowers.
"That's how she did it."
"Did what?" Neville asked.
"That's how she found us. Margaret came from a pure blood family but she was fascinated by the Muggle world. On Mondays when I'd come into the office she'd ask so many questions about where I'd been and what I'd done that I started to bring her back a little something from every place I went. A volume of poems from my favorite bookshop, a box of sweets from the candy place next door, an exhibit at the National Gallery." She picked up the calendar and looked at Neville. "Kew Gardens."
"She knew where you'd been so she probably set up invisible detection spells that would alert her if you crossed any of those perimeters again." Draco gave a low whistle. "Clever. You know, if this bitch weren't a psychopath, I might actually be impressed."
Harry elbowed the man and gave him a stern look before shifting his attention back to Hermione. "Anything else? Do you see anything that might tell us what she's planning next?"
Hermione stared hard at the items before reluctantly shaking her head. "Sorry. Nothing jumps out at me."
"It's okay. We'll figure it out. I promise," Neville said.
"He's right, Hermione. We're all here to help," Harry said. "So - what's our next move? Any ideas?"
"Yes," said Hermione. "I have an idea but we'll need Ron to make it work. Ask him to come over and I'll tell you all at the same time."
She looked at Neville. "It is okay if we do this in the library?"
"Good idea. You want to get things set up?"
"Okay. Thanks." She gave him a quick kiss and went to make the necessary preparations. As soon as she had left the room Neville's expression changed. He turned to Harry and fixed him with a cold stare.
"We find this woman, Harry," Neville snarled. "We find her soon and we end this. Do you understand me?"
"Yeah, Nev. I think I do." Harry nodded solemnly as he left to collect Ron.
It was then Neville noticed Draco studying him with an odd expression on his face.
"What's that look for?" challenged Neville.
Draco wrinkled his nose and shook his head. "Honestly? At this moment, I find myself dangerously close to actually finding you tolerable, Longbottom and I'm not sure how I feel about that."
"Oh, don't worry," Neville said, walking towards the door. "I'm sure by the time today's finished I'll have done or said something that'll change that for you."
"I certainly hope so," sulked Draco, following after him. "This entire incident has been tedious enough. Don't need to have to change my opinion about you on top of everything else."