10 - Detecting
When Hermione arrived in the second floor parlour fireplace at Grimmauld Place, she could hear everyone gathering in the kitchen. She could make out Ron's loud laugh. Things must have gone well for him to be so boisterous. It was customary to have a debriefing after every battle. It sounded as though people were still returning from the Underground so it would be a bit before their meeting was finished.
Quietly, she slipped upstairs, wanting to see if her suspicions about Harry were correct before seeing everyone else. She halfway expected the room to be empty, but he was in the bed, apparently sleeping. Sure enough, the waste basket by Harry's desk held a couple of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes boxes. On the desk there were two glasses, one of which was empty, and one of which was half full of water. She picked up the empty one, smelled it and rolled her eyes.
She leaned back on the desk, folded her arms, and said "So Harry – has the polyjuice worn off yet?"
He sat up immediately. Of course, he hadn't really been asleep. He was obviously back to being Harry.
"How did you know?"
"First off, the timing was too convenient. Secondly, it would have been so easy to nick some polyjuice at Moody's. It was actually pretty suspicious that you didn't even suggest it. Your illness this morning was classic Skiving Snackboxes – a Puking Pastille and some Fever Fudge. I wasn't completely sure until I smelled the polyjuice." She nodded toward the glass. "So how did it go? I see you got back safe and sound."
"You're not mad? I would've told you, but it's just too dangerous with Fenrir after you."
"Except I won't smell like me with the polyjuice. No, I'm not mad, because now you have to let me go the next time or I'll rat you out." She smiled sweetly. Harry appeared about to argue, but stopped. "I assume that Ronald was in on this. Who else? Someone had to be to introduce the newest Order assistant."
"Bill helped too. I'm supposed to be a friend of his from Gringott's. He vouched for me to Kingsley."
"Of course. It would have been too suspicious to have Ron do it. Where'd you get the hair?"
"From a Muggle, in London. Bill got that too." Harry sat up and started pulling on his trainers. Other than shoes, he was fully clothed so he must have just gotten back.
Hermione shook her head fondly. "So where was the attack? Anybody hurt?"
"It was centered on Moorgate Station. It looked like there were trying to cause a train crash between Moorgate and the Barbican Station, but we headed it off. The cowards fled as soon as we showed up. Neville's the only one who was hurt, as far as I know. He dislocated his shoulder."
Hermione frowned. "What about Muggles? Surely some of them were . . . hurt."
"Yeah. At first, I thought that they'd killed a ton of Muggles, but most of them turned out to be stupefied."
"Stupefied? How strange. I wonder why."
"We might be able to find out. We got one – a Death Eater. I think his name is Rowle. He'd been stupefied too so he didn't leave when the rest of them left. The weird thing is I was right near where they found him, but I didn't hit him. Neither did Ron. We can't figure out who did."
"Where is he? Who's interrogating him?"
"Kingsley and Bill. I guess Kingsley's training Bill."
"I hope they get some good stuff off of him." Hermione smiled, glad that everyone was back safe. Then a vivid image of Barbican Station flashed through her mind. She'd been at the Barbican Station so many times with her parents. The thought of what could have been sunk in. If they had crashed two trains the carnage would have been disastrous.
"Hermione? Are you okay?" She must have blanched. She sat down quickly in the chair by Harry's desk.
"I'm fine." Hermione glanced at her watch. "You and Ron will have to tell me the details later. I've got a lunch date."
"What? With who?"
"Oh, relax. While I was at Hogwarts Professor McGonagall gave me a message from Andromeda. She's invited me over for lunch. She wants me to look through Lupin and Tonks' things."
"Wait. I'll come."
"No. You have to be convincingly sick, at least for the rest of the day. Otherwise they'll figure you out as easily as I did."
Harry groaned, but he couldn't argue with that. "I guess I'm taking a nap then."
"Maybe you can figure out what we can do about that orphanage attack. Any ideas?"
"No. All of my ideas are either too deadly or too clean. You?"
She shook her head. "Nothing." She was beginning to worry that she'd have to respond to the query with something useless like "No idea." She couldn't stand that thought, but it had already been too long since she'd received the riddle message. Giving no response at all wasn't right either.
A few minutes later she was brushing off ash as she stepped out of the floo at Andromeda's. "Hermione?" She looked up when she heard Andromeda's voice calling from another room. She could hear Teddy babbling in the background. "We're on the porch."
Hermione stepped out onto a wide porch. It had a large table elegantly set. In the center there were three platters piled high with dozens of very small sandwiches. Hermione's stomach growled at the sight of them. So far the only people there besides Andromeda were Lavender Brown and a man and woman who must've been her parents. Lavender was holding Teddy and trying to give him a bottle. He, however, didn't appear to be very hungry and was mostly playing with it.
"Hello, Andromeda. Thanks so much for inviting me. Grimmauld Place can get a bit . . . stifling. This is beautiful. Hi, Lavender. How are you?"
"Hermione." Lavender just nodded her way, then turned her attention back to Teddy.
Hermione waited awkwardly for a moment, wondering if Lavender was always so abrupt now. She still had vivid red scars on her face from Greyback's attack. Hermione knew, because of Bill Weasley, that the scars would fade with time, but they resisted magic healing.
Lavender's mother cleared her throat, and Lavender looked back up at Hermione. "Oh, I'm sorry. Mom, Dad, this is Hermione Granger. Hermione, these are my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Brown." Like most of the purebloods Hermione knew, Lavender knew how to turn on the etiquette, if she was in the mood.
Hermione got the feeling that Lavender's parents knew a lot about her, possibly not all flattering. Mrs. Brown nodded graciously, but didn't smile as she said "Nice to finally meet you, Miss Granger." Mr. Brown just nodded as he said "Miss Granger," then went back to reading a copy of the "Prophet."
"Who knows when the others will arrive," Mrs. Tonks observed. "Let's eat." She took a sandwich from a silver tray before passing it to Mrs. Brown.
"I'm surprised you're not off fighting," said Lavender. This time there was no mistaking the sharp tone of her voice.
"No, I'm not allowed to go." Hermione considered explaining about the threats made against her by Fenrir, but decided against it since he was presumably a sore subject with Lavender. "Harry and I get sent on various inventory jobs instead. Harry's taken ill today, so I was at Hogwarts by myself."
"Inventory? Is that a Muggle word?" Lavender's mother frowned at her rudeness, but Lavender pointedly ignored her as she took several sandwiches off of a tray. Hermione decided to ignore her tone also.
"I have no idea. It means to check someplace and make a record of what is there. Kingsley has asked us to go through several locations." Hermione figured that if Kingsley knew what a word meant, then other wizards should to.
"So what did you inventory at Hogwarts?" Lavender asked while putting Teddy into his high chair. There seemed to be less attitude in this question. Hermione thought for a moment. There was nothing particularly confidential about her recent mission. She might as well answer.
"Snape's quarters, but there wasn't much to do. Everything of note had already been removed."
"Who removed it?" This time Lavender's question seemed genuinely curious. That was progress.
"That's the thing. No one knows. His rooms were sealed as soon as he abandoned his post. Somehow, most of his things still disappeared."
"Did he have children?" Mr. Brown asked. Hermione started, both because she hadn't realized Mr. Brown had even been listening, but also because the question seemed so odd.
"Not that I . . . I'm pretty sure that he didn't. May I ask, why that would be important?"
"I was just thinking that when my father passed, the items that he had specifically left to me, things like his cigar collection and a rare bottle of aged fire whiskey, instantly appeared on my dining room table. This chap you're talking about, you did say he'd died?"
"Yes. . . . I suppose I should ask Professor McGonagall if she's absolutely certain that he didn't have children."
"You never know." With that Mr. Brown disappeared behind his paper again, taking a small sandwich with him.
They all ate in silence for a few moments. Hermione was just beginning to feel uncomfortable, when Mrs. Tonks said "Mrs. Brown is quite the gardener. She's going to be helping me to revive our little herb garden. I'm afraid I've let it be quite ignored."
Hermione almost pointed out that late summer wasn't the best time for planting, then stopped herself as she realized that there would be spells for that. She wondered if they'd be planting any wolfsbane, but didn't ask because she didn't want to set Lavender off again. With all the thoughts she had, then kept from saying, she wondered if she was beginning to seem quite simple.
"I think we should plant some flowers as well as the usual herbs." The welcome subject caused Mrs. Brown to perk up quite a bit. "Not everything has to be for a potion."
"No, of course not. Some of the herbs will be useful in the kitchen as well, and flowers will cheer up the whole house."
Just then a statue of a winged horse which stood in a corner of the porch cleared its throat and announced "Miss Lovegood and Miss Jones approach." Hermione was so startled she spilled some of her tea.
"I'm sorry dear. I should've warned you that we have an unusual system here for announcing guests. As we've never had house elves we've learned to adapt different methods. This is Peg." The statue bowed in greeting, then resumed its frozen position, although it did occasionally flick its tail.
Hermione's study of the horse was broken off when Luna and Hestia joined them.
"Oh, I'm so glad we're eating on the porch. The cherry plums remind me of home, even if they don't have very interesting powers. Hermione! What a surprise!" Luna hurried around the table to hug Hermione. As she drew away, Hermione plucked something out of her hair, which appeared to be a small concrete fragment. "Oh, I forgot to clean up after the skirmish." She did a quick 'scourgify' then said, "by the time we got there spells were flying everywhere."
"Did you see Neville? I heard he hurt his shoulder," Hermione leaned forward. Mrs. Tonks paused as she poured more tea.
"Yes," Hestia Jones sat across from Lavender. "He was zooming around the underground on his broom, and did the most brilliant move to dodge a curse. He grabbed a sign post and whipped around it, but apparently the sudden change of direction dislocated his shoulder."
"Anyone else injured?" Mrs. Tonks asked.
"We thought there would be so many Muggle deaths, but Healer Pye was just telling us that they found that most of them were just unconscious. There were, unfortunately, a dozen dead, but we'd thought it'd be much worse. They did have a lot of bumps and scrapes, and few had head injuries from falling or having something fall on them. They were going to have to obliviate quite a few people though."
Luna had taken the meat out of a sandwich and wrapped it around the bread before she started eating. "I saw this elderly Muggle man hit with a killing curse, then when I looked back, he was up and hobbling off. I don't think that their Avada Kedavras are working right. They never do when the whinging whipplesnaps are around."
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"We'll need to plant plenty of lovage. It's used in so many potions, and adds a wonderful touch to chicken soup," Mrs. Brown said, apparently trying to divert the conversation.
"Are you going to be staying a while Hermione? I do hope it won't be awkward." Luna said.
Hermione frowned. She wasn't sure what that meant, so she just answered Luna's question. "I'm going to go through some of the unused rooms after lunch, do a bit of an inventory."
"Oh, I'll help. That sounds like fun."
Lavender had already finished one roast beef sandwich, and was reaching for another. "What do you mean by awkward?"
Hermione had the impression that Lavender was hoping things would be uncomfortable. She and Lavender hadn't been the best of friends, but the hostility from her was amazing.
"Have you ever grown hellebore, Andromeda? I've heard the flowers are lovely." Mrs. Brown spoke with an unnaturally bright voice, and smiled at Andromeda.
"I'm partial to the purple blossoms myself," answered Andromeda.
Luna began taking the inside out of another sandwich to wrap it around the outside. Without taking her eyes off of her work she said "You know awkward because you used to date Ron, Hermione's dating him now, and I'm hoping to date him as soon as he and Hermione call it off. Well, probably after giving him some time to recover."
Hermione was glad she hadn't taken a big bite of her tiny sandwich. She did choke on it, but only for a moment. She looked at Luna to see if she was joking but, of course, she wasn't.
"Nice to know the progression's all lined up then," smirked Lavender.
"I think I'll definitely be planting a couple varieties of dittany." Mrs. Brown looked at Mrs. Tonks.
"Yes, that'll be lovely. So will you girls all be helping Hermione this afternoon?"
"I can't – I've got Dursley duty tonight," Hestia said as she folded her napkin, and stood to go. "Thanks for the lunch. I love your cucumber sandwiches."
"I've got to . . . ." Lavender started, but Luna cut her off.
"Oh, do come Lavender. I know you've got a thing against Hermione, but you and I get along just fine and once you get to know Hermione you'll see that she's really not that arrogant and she doesn't get her way all the time."
Lavender shrugged and shook her head, but her face slipped into an almost smile.
Hermione couldn't decide if she should be offended or laugh, so she just stood and said "Let's get to it then."
"Luna," Andromeda said, "You know where the room is. Can you show them?"
"Certainly."
As they headed down a long hallway, which was filled with a mixture of moving and unmoving paintings, Luna walked in front with Hermione just behind. Lavender lagged so far behind that Hermione thought she might've changed her mind about coming, but she followed nonetheless.
"By the way," said Luna, looking over her shoulder, "the answer is pigeons."
"Excuse me?" Hermione had forgotten just how bizarre conversation with Luna could be. "The answer to what?"
"To your orphanage problem. We were discussing it over pudding with Professor McGonagall last night, and in the middle of the night I realized the answer is pigeons, maybe a few squirrels, but mostly pigeons." With that, she stopped at a set of carved doors, waved her wand, said "Alohamora," and led them in.
It was after dinner when Hermione finally got back to Grimmauld Place. She flooed into the parlour, but headed toward the kitchen right away. Andromeda had sent up sandwiches as Hermione had tried desperately to get through Lupin and Tonk's quarters, but she'd been too distracted to eat much. She was starving, plus the kitchen was where the boys seemed to always end up.
Sure enough Harry and Ron were plowing through generous servings of Molly's meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Hermione grabbed a plate.
"Harry, I had no idea what an efficient partner you were, until I had to deal with Luna and Lavender."
Ron laughed. "Talk about herding kneazels."
"No kidding. Luna stopped to study every book, examine every magical instrument, or she just sat on the floor and prattled. Lavender wasn't really interested in helping and instead just encouraged Luna to dawdle over everything. Have either of you talked to Lavender lately? She seems really hostile."
"So how much did you get through?" Harry had piled the potatoes on his meatloaf, but at least he paused between bites for conversation.
"I see you're feeling better," Hermione chuckled. Harry and Ron exchanged a look that let her know that Ron knew she'd caught Harry out. "I barely got through half of the professor's office and it looks like Tonks has at least as much."
"Really?" Ron asked. "I wouldn't have thought they had that much. I still don't see why you need to do pack up their stuff. Even if Andromeda doesn't have house elves she's good enough with spells that she should have been able to clean it up in an hour."
"Ron, I think it's still too sad for Andromeda to even go in there, but I'm not just packing. I have to look through everything to see what we can use, what might have hidden properties."
"Oh? Did they have any good stuff?"
"Amazing. Professor Lupin must have the largest collection of books on werewolves that I've ever seen. Then I found a stack of his journals, but I couldn't read them. The pages appear blank, except that they were bursting with magic. I bet there's a ton of fascinating . . . ."
A door slammed loudly down the hall, followed by the harsh tones of a deep baritone cursing.
"That sounds like Kingsley," said Ron. The noise awoke Mrs. Black who started in with "Filth! All of . . . ." but that was as far as she got. A spell cracked through the hall and she was silent. A moment later the front door slammed.
"Wow," whispered Hermione. "I wonder what happened."
"I wonder what spell he used to shut the harpy up," Harry said.
The kitchen door swung open and Bill came in, then slumped into the closest chair. The others exchanged wide-eyed looks. Harry jerked his head at Ron, encouraging him to ask what they were all wondering.
"Um . . . problem with the interrogation?" he finally asked.
Bill's head jerked up. He seemed surprised to see them all staring at him. "You could say that." He got up from the table and went over to the stove to pour himself a cup of tea. Once again, silence loomed. Ron seemed reluctant to try again, so Harry jumped in.
"Can you tell us?"
"Yeah, sure. It's not like it's top secret information. In fact, the problem is we got no information. Not a thing."
Hermione looked over at Ron and Harry. The shock on their faces mirrored her own. "No wonder Shacklebolt was mad," she said softly.
"Yeah, it started off with this jerk, Rowle is his name, mouthing off, saying all sorts of stuff, clearly just trying to make us mad. Kingsley was amazing, totally calm, none of it bothered him. Rowle went on and on about how great Flat Face is, how smart, how powerful. He claimed no one can fight him, no one can hide anything from his legilimency."
Hermione shuddered. That couldn't be true or her Death Eater contact wouldn't still be alive. Still she wondered, how good of an occlumens was he?
"Rowle is one twisted creep. He bragged about the Muggles they've killed, bragged about how they . . . ." He paused, looking at Hermione, clearly uncomfortable.
"Bill, you don't have to protect me. I saw the bodies Charlie found across the street. I know what they do."
"Yeah, I know. It's just unbelievable to hear somebody who thinks that's talent, that's some kind of skill. He was probably telling the truth, judging from those poor Muggles. Actually, I guess we know he was telling the truth since we gave him veritaserum and that didn't slow him down at all. He claims that old Moldy Parts has even found a way to beat the Avada Kedavra. I could tell Kingsley was interested in that part. He asked him if the other Death Eaters have also been taught how to beat it. Before he could answer something weird happened with his Dark Mark. It started moving and glowing green. It was like his arm came alive. Rowle started clutching as his arm and laughing like a maniac. I thought maybe he'd flipped out, then he went on this rant about all the magic that Creepy Snake has invented, how we'd never understand his wonderful pureblood magic, all this garbage. Kingsley just rolled his eyes – waiting him out I guess, and then all of a sudden . . . poof! He was gone."
"Gone?" Ron asked. "What do you mean gone?"
"He disappeared, ropes and all."
"That's impossible. There are wards. You can't apparate in or out of here." Hermione was already running the possibilities through her mind. Had he wandlessly disillusioned himself? Had he confounded them?
"But he did. Kingsley was as shocked as I was. He did a quick homenem revelio – nothing. The room was still locked. We still have Rowle's wand. None of it makes any sense." He sat back and took a long sip of his tea, staring at the wall.
The front door slammed, and again they heard Mrs. Black begin to yell and then be silenced with a sharp crack. A moment later Kingsley entered.
"Good evening." Only those who knew him well would pick up the edge to his voice. "I hate to disturb you, but I've called an emergency meeting. It appears our security here may be in jeopardy."
Thirty minutes later, nearly the whole Order of the Phoenix was stuffed into the kitchen debating whether or not Rowle's disappearance meant that Grimmauld Place was no longer safe. The theories and suppositions flew fast and furious, but no one actually knew what had happened. Hermione let her mind wander and began to make lists. An hour later, Hermione had a theory of what had happened. When she couldn't get anyone at the meeting to listen, she decided to wait and discuss it with Harry and Ron.
One hour and twenty minutes later, Harry, Ron and Hermione left the chaos of the after meeting and headed upstairs to the boys' room. Harry was stomping and, after they entered the room, slammed the door loudly enough to set off Mrs. Black downstairs.
"This is ridiculous! I'm stuck here and now they're not even going to let Ginny visit until we figure this whole thing out. What if we never figure it out? Why can't anyone do the Fidelius anymore? What's wrong with these people?"
Ron and Hermione knew to let Harry rant a bit. They watched as he stomped around the room. Finally, he wore himself out and came to sit on the floor with the others.
"So. Fine. I'm done. Am I wrong? Are we ever going to be able to find out what happened?"
"No, mate. You're completely right. This whole thing is screwed up," muttered Ron as he pulled the end of the throw rug apart. Every few minutes either he or Hermione would magically reweave it and then he would start over again.
"Well, Harry, I don't know." Hermione chewed on her lower lip, trying to decide whether to throw her idea out there.
"Come on, Hermione, you've already got a theory. What is it?" Ron asked. She couldn't tell if he was amused or annoyed. She decided not to worry about it and to plunge right in.
"I just think we should focus on why did Rowle's arm glow. What did that mean? That's obviously the best clue we have."
"But how do we focus on that? Do you think we can find a book on "Glowing Arm Tattoos" that'll explain it all for us?"
"I don't recall seeing any books like that, but I do remember . . . ." She paused. She really should have told them about what she saw before, but there had been so much going on the day of the Battle at Hogwarts that at first it had slipped her mind. Later, she had remembered, but then she didn't say anything because she felt . . . strange about it.
"Out with it." Ron had never been very subtle.
"It's just that I've seen a dark mark glow like that before. I saw it happen back at Hogwarts, at the battle, and it . . . it was just before he disappeared, just before all the Death Eaters disappeared. I'm sure there's a connection."
"You lost me, Hermione. Just before who disappeared?"
Why was she so uncomfortable talking to them about this? Why did she know that Ron was going to react badly?
"At the battle, just after you reappeared Harry, I saw Malfoy. He was still over on our side, standing apart from the rest of us, but I thought . . . ." He'd looked at her and she'd been certain that he was going to join them, going to help them. When she first saw him it had been right after they'd seen Harry's body, but he hadn't been smiling. He'd looked almost as devastated as she felt. She knew he didn't want Voldemort to win. Then, when Harry had suddenly appeared, alive and fighting, she'd seen his face. It was alight with hope. She'd been distracted, focused back on the battle. It was only a few minutes later that she heard him cry out, a cry of pain, mingled with something else – fear? Despair? She found him again and he was staring, wide-eyed, in horror as his own arm writhed, glowing with a lurid green, and then he was gone. So were the rest of them.
She couldn't explain all of that to Ron and Harry. Or she didn't want to. So she skipped to the crucial part.
"I saw Malfoy. I saw his arm glow and move, just like Bill said. Just after that he disappeared. They all did. But the thing is I saw his face. He was surprised, shocked even. He hadn't known that would happen. He didn't know what it meant. That's why I think . . . ."
"You heard what Bill said, Hermione. That Rowle guy knew exactly what was going on. He was mocking them." Ron was glaring at the rug.
"Of course he would know now. This wasn't the first time it had happened. That was at the battle, at Hogwarts, at least for Malfoy that was the first time."
"Since when are you so cozy with Malfoy?" spat Ron.
Hermione gave an exaggerated sigh and held her head in her hands. "Ron. Don't be like that. I'm just telling you what I saw."
"So the rest of us were fighting and you were just ogling Malfoy."
Hermione started to answer, then changed her mind and stood up. "That's enough. That's enough, Ron. I'm done." With that she walked out of the room, went straight to her room, magically locked the door and sealed it against sound. She knew he'd be sitting there trying to figure out exactly what she meant by that.
The same thing that she was trying to figure out.
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AN – Special thanks to Hesaluti for her lovely recommendation (and, of course, for her fantastic beta'ing)! Welcome to all of you who've recently found this story. I love to hear from you. And thank you for your patience. The Dramione is coming.