A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am so glad that you like that Theo is coming along on the horcrux hunt. Lots of things to get through and lots of things to change! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-six and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-seven soon!
Things had never felt so topsy-turvy in Hermione's life, not even when she had found out that she was a witch all those years ago. For once in her life, she'd had no idea what to do next. It had been crushing for Harry to realize that they had not retrieved a genuine horcrux, but rather, just a copy left there by a mysterious R.A.B.. They had spent their second night in Grimmauld Place drinking firewhiskey that was far too expensive for any teenager to be drinking, commiserating that they were back at step one and that Dumbledore's death had been for nothing at all.
Theo had opened up to the trio of Gryffindor about his friendship with Draco Malfoy, telling them bittersweet memories of going to Quidditch matches with the blond. There had even been a moment when Hermione thought that things might be turning a corner with Ron and Theo, after they wistfully recounted some amazing save by the Arrows' keeper in 1988.
Harry had listened on the edge of his seat as Theo recounted how he'd been brought before the Death Eaters to receive his father's punishment and that Draco had done the same. Only Draco had been given the dubious honor of being branded against his will. "He was set up to fail. The only reason he tried was because he is trying to protect his mother," Theo murmured, taking sips of the amber colored liquid.
In the end, she wasn't sure if Harry wanted to believe it or not.
The following day, Ron had excitedly announced that he'd figured out the identity of R.A.B., and before Hermione knew it, they were extracting a tearful confession from Kreacher, the Blacks' elderly house elf, of how he'd failed his master, and had been unable to destroy the locket. And, it had been stolen by Mundungus Fletcher.
Dobby and Kreacher had only been too happy to be commanded to bring the man back to Harry, and in the blink of an eye, the group of teenagers was threatening the Order of the Phoenix member, trying to determine where it could have gotten to. Hermione felt a chill up her spine when Mundungus announced that he'd handed it over to none other and Dolores Umbridge.
"Right," Harry said, pressing his hands together as soon as they had gotten rid of the thief. "We will just have to go and get it from her. At the Ministry," he said, as if it was rather matter-of-fact.
Once he was gone from Grimmauld Place, she began nibbling on her lip, trying to come up with a plan. "I do have some polyjuice prepared," Hermione said cautiously, thinking that their best bet would be to just impersonate some Ministerial workers to avoid detection. They certainly couldn't waltz in looking like themselves.
Theo groaned, rubbing a hand down his face. "Of course you have polyjuice in your bag," he said, sounding resigned to their fate. "Please tell me you aren't just going to walk into the Ministry of Magic? Did you forget that you are all currently top of the wanted list?"
Ron shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it's not like we've got really much choice," he countered, annoyed to have a voice of reason for a change. "So unless you have some better plan..."
As it turned out, Theo did not have a better plan, and so the four teenagers found themselves flushing themselves in to the Ministry with absolutely no idea who they were meant to be or what they were meant to be doing. Regrouping in the atrium, Harry spoke quickly. "Okay, let's meet back here in an hour. The polyjuice will last that long, right, Hermione?"
Hermione - or the witch she was polyjuiced as - looked extraordinarily anxious, but there was no mistaking the doubt in her eyes. "I - I don't know," she whispered furiously.
Theo was looking around, trying to gain his bearings and quickly became aware that they were attracting attention. "Everyone is staring at us," he said through clenched teeth. "We must not be the type to hang out with each other usually. We need to separate now."
Swallowing thickly, Hermione nodded, turning on her heel and marching off in search of...what she wasn't entirely sure. She couldn't believe her luck when she stumbled into Dolores Umbridge herself, wearing that blasted locket around her neck. There were too many people around them for her to try and take it, but Umbridge seemed to need Mafalda's assistance, so Hermione tagged along happily.
As it turned out, she was some sort of court recorder, tasked with keeping track of the trials that Umbridge was conducting. Feeling her stomach roil in anger, Hermione had to listen to muggleborn after muggleborn beg and plead, promising that they didn't steal their magic. The only thing that helped her keep her calm was when she saw the wizard the Theo was polyjuiced as slip in the back of the room, back pressed against the wall as he watched the proceedings, idly playing with his wand.
But, things didn't grow out of hand until Harry and Ron stumbled into the scene at precisely the right moment. Hermione was blessing their luck, wondering if Harry still had some of the Felix Felicis in his possession. Harry, always with a flair of the dramatic, had honed in on the presence of the horcrux immediately, not bothering to moderate his behavior, and began stalking towards the odious Umbridge.
Words were exchanged between the pair, and the next thing she knew, Hermione was snatching the locket off of the stunned woman's neck, and sprinting with the boys back to the floos as a horde of dementors were unleashed. Spells were whizzing past her as she felt Ministry officials...Death Eaters, hot on their tails. Desperate to get them out of there, Hermione wouldn't stop until they got through back to the relative safety of Grimmauld Place.
To her dismay, she felt someone grab her leg at the last minute, following them through the green flames. She kicked and struggled, but the damage was already done. Yaxley, the Death Eater who'd grabbed hold of her, had seen where they had gone to, and she knew that they couldn't stay. Sprawled out on the floor, Hermione shoved her foot into his face, getting free of him, and immediately apparating the three boys again.
The strain of it all - getting herself free from Yaxley and then apparating again so quickly - must have been far greater than Hermione could have anticipated. For the first time since she'd gotten her apparition license, she made a mistake. Her momentary relief of being safely away in the middle of the Forest of Dean evaporated when she heard Ron's gasps for air and realize that she'd splinched him.
Tears sprung to her eyes while she tried to keep a handle on her mind. If she could just think clearly for a second -
Bloody hands searched wildly in her bag for dittany, sighing in relief when she finally found it. Ron was bleeding so much and she knew that she needed to put a stop to it as soon as possible. She was so focused on her friend she almost didn't hear the commotion behind her.
"Hermione, what the hell happened there?" Harry demanded, watching Ron with his face white as a sheet. "What did you do?"
"What did she do?" Theo exploded, shoving the shorter boy back a few paces. "Don't you dare put this on her, Potter! She did everything in her power to get us out of there safely."
"Yeah, but Ron -" he stuttered, shocked by the amount of blood that was sinking into the ground. "And where the bloody hell are we?"
"Yaxley had me by the leg and we couldn't stay, Harry," she tried to explain, her voice quivering with unspent emotion, unable to focus on what she trying to get out. Her fine motor skills were gone to shit while she tried to get the stopper out of the vial of dittany, her fingers shaking so bad she was nearly useless.
Theo, sensing her difficulty knelt next to her and took the bottle from her, before removing the stopper and handing it back to her.
Hermione was grateful for him, then, more than ever. Knowing that Ron needed his bleeding stopped as quickly as possible, she dumped the whole vial on his wound, wincing in horror at the scream that was ripped from his throat as his skin knitted itself back together slowly. "I'm sorry, Ron," she cried, giving him her hand to hold. "It's better to just get it over quickly."
Harry had not finished his angry tirade. "So, what, now we are just out here in the middle of nowhere? How is this any safer than Grimmauld Place?" he questioned.
Theo was unable to hold back his snarl. "How dare you talk to her about being safe, when it was you who put us all in this situation in the first place, barging into the Ministry like that? And there were many better ways to handle Umbridge. You did not have to go announcing yourself to the whole bloody Ministry!" he shouted at the bespectacled boy. "Hermione is the only one who has done any sort of preparation for this little excursion you are dragging us all on. Salazar, did you and Weasley even bother to learn how to apparate?"
Harry was silent, ashamed at the truth that Theo was telling him. Had he really not realized how much he relied on her?
She could hear Theo panting in anger. "Why does every bloody thing have to fall on her shoulders, Potter?" he asked, knowing that he wasn't going to receive an answer.
Ron's cries were beginning to die down as his body tried to process the pain that he was going through. Hermione felt herself relax a miniscule amount, wiping her hands on the pencil skirt she'd taken from Mafalda.
Behind her, Theo had raised his wand and begun putting up protective charms. "What are you doing?" Harry questioned, his own wand held tightly in his hand.
She could practically hear Theo rolling his eyes at her friend's question. "Putting up wards, Potter. We can't just be out in the open like sitting ducks," he sneered, before resuming his work.
Knowing that Harry would be unable to join in until he was taught the wards, Hermione pulled out the expandable tent she'd packed and handed it to him. "Here, you can set this up," she said, awkwardly.
There was no denying the new tension that now existed between Theo and Harry, after the werewolf's furious outburst. Hermione figured that Harry was not expecting the normally taciturn Slytherin to be quite so vocal about his displeasure of the way that she was being treated by her two friends. Her belly twisted in concern, and she gave Harry a half smile to smooth things over. "He's just protective of me," she said softly. "He was worried about my safety."
This was what Remus had been warning her about when he cautioned her not to go along with Harry and Ron, telling her that Theo was too young a werewolf. Being a teenager was difficult enough, but the added strain of being around his mate was probably pushing him to the breaking point. He had flown off the handle. She supposed she should be grateful that more serious fighting hadn't broken out.
Knowing that Theo was probably feeling a bit insecure himself, Hermione moved to stand next to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. Now that he had returned to his normal height, the pants he wore were painfully too short. "I'm okay," she told him, honestly. "Just a bit shaken up. Let's finish with the wards and then we can clean up in the tent."
Theo looked at her with wide, concerned eyes, searching her face for any deception on her part. When he determined that she really was unharmed, he gave her a curt nod.