Chapter 19:
At seeing Charlie and Arthur Weasley again at the door step freaked out Harry and Hermione, they thought something bad happened so instead of greeting them they both rushed outside the door to look for Ron…
Turning back to look at Arthur and Charlie they both asked with obvious panic, "Where's Ron?"
Charlie and Arthur Weasley by this time were inside the house and were quite confused with the antics of the two teenagers. When they heard the question … it was Charlie who grinned first, "Ahaan sooo that's why you two were getting hyper, Ron is at the Burrow, quite safe, we just came back for some other business." By this time Harry and Hermione were back inside the house and relaxed and gave each other a contended look forgetting all about the argument that just took place between the three. Arthur Weasley went towards the kitchen, not really part of the conversation.
"We are awaiting some other order members here to…" Charlie never finished as they heard some rapid knocking…
"Oh for the love of God…I am going to get rid of the stupid door…", came the voice of Mrs. Figg whose presence was yet to be acknowledged by the three members in the room.
Once the door opened…there was Tonks dressed as a muggle and for a change had her hair black and up in a pony tail.
"Hi kids…What's up Charlie? And You Mrs. Figg? ", seemed like Tonks wanted to greet everyone in one breath without indulging in any formalities. Tonks held the door open as in awaiting some more company, finally she closed the door. The minute the door closed three more figures appeared – they were none other than Professor. McGonagall, Remus Lupin and Moody. Harry and Hermione quietly watched and finally once the grownups were done putting down their cloaks…they went and greeted them all. Prof. McGonagall took Hermione aside to ask about her injuries and asked if she needed any help with them…
"Hmm well Harry and Hermione this is what I was about to tell you about but now you know…we are going to secure this house with charms and all so Harry you can get your lessons without any trouble…" Charlie said this and ended up looking at Hermione with a smile and asking silently if she had any questions, to which she only shook her head.
Moody, McGonagall, Charlie, Tonks and Arthur Weasley all got busy, some went in the attic, Charlie and Tonks went outside the house to put protective spells and jinxes. It left only Hermione, Harry and Lupin in the room. It seemed they all left Lupin with Harry for a reason.
"So Harry how have you been and you Hermione?" Remus asked affectionately looking at both the teenagers.
"Good thanks" uttered Hermione politely.
"I am well … sooo what's up with you Remus? What's the update? Anymore attacks or sighting of Voldermort?" asked Harry
"Well now I can't really say all's good now … can I Harry? I'll be honest with you, with Dumbledore gone; we are all trying our best to come up with strategic plans to fight this war." Saying this Remus looked very seriously at Harry, and continued…
"You see Harry we really need to know what Dumbledore was working on, if we could just find out then it will help us to finish his business…I know that you were told not to say anything to anybody but I really think you can relax some information with me but only if you want to otherwise I can not force you…"
After a little while Harry looked at Hermione first who apparently was too silent and was staring at the floor fearing that she might give out some information that she is not suppose to.
"No Remus…I am sorry I just can't tell you. Whatever Dumbledore was doing – he allowed me to share it with only two people and he made it clear that other than these two people nobody else and if he wanted to … I am sure he must've told someone from the order himself…" At this Hemione finally looked up and stared at Harry as if asking him to continue,
"And these two people are none other than Ron and Hermione. I have told them everything and I don't think I want to tell it to anybody else. I am sorry but I just can't" Harry turned his stare from Hermione, back to Lupin.
Lupin sat for a while and then smile; "you truly are determine or should I say stubborn and I am really really Proud of you Harry, you have no idea how much. And I couldn't have picked better candidates than Hermione here and Ron to be your confidants…"
Lupin decided to change the subject and told them about what they have been up to…"Well after the attack on Hogwarts, things have been quite chaotic…we have done everything we could with the help of some ministry officials to secure Hogwarts for the last year…Lets hope that Voldermort doesn't use another teenager to step in Draco's shoes…Though we doubt that there will be many students this year coming to Hogwarts…lets hope for the best!"
"Prof. Lupin … I was wondering about something … if I may ask…" asked Hermione politely.
Remus looked at her with a knowing smile silently saying what's new about that…"You may ask Hermione and please call me Remus"
"I was just wondering why did Voldermort really needed Malfoy's help to get in to Hogwarts…I mean he does have Peter Pettigrew on his side … doesn't he? What I mean to say is, he probably knew all those short cuts that you all mentioned in the map so why didn't he direct them through one of the passageways. I can understand why he would assign Malfoy, he obviously wanted Malfoy to be a full fledge deatheater or to redeem his father's failure whatever…Ohhhh have you secured all those hidden paths mentioned in the map??" Hermione asked this with her eyes all round and as if she was mentally picturing everything.
Harry sat there with an amazed look on his face…why didn't he think of all this…
"Yes Hermione I had to secure those areas personally with Charlie and Tonk's help. As for the other part…I am not sure why Peter didn't give any of those hideouts away but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that he was never really part of writing about it, he use to be there but Sirius and I always had to force him in to paying attention while James would always tell us to go easy on him…I guess he doesn't remember any probably that's why…" This explanation to some extent solved Hermione's curiosity.
Remus stood up with a yawn … "I am kind of hungry, what for food? Ohhh Harry I hope you are all set for your lessons with Moody and Hermione did you manage to work those books out…the ones you asked me to get…you know those books have some really advanced spells, I am sure you will learn them, you are the most brilliant person I have ever come across…" He smiled at Hermione and moved towards the kitchen, Hermione followed with a huge genuine grin on her face.
Harry forgot to answer his question as he was too busy staring at Hermione, it seemed like this was the first time she genuinely smiled at anything. He still dared not speak to her until or unless he had some sort of apology ready for her, he too then followed the other two to the kitchen.
"Thanks for the compliment, Remus But I think those spells are really dark and the three of us will need some guidance, I was hoping you could spare sometime and show us some. Do you have a pensieve???" Hermione replied and asked him the last part with a hesitation.
Remus turned towards her immediately…"Why? What do you need a pensieve for?"
"Oh well I just thought that since Harry's lessons are starting, I think he should be able to preserve his time with Dumbledore in a pensieve so Prof. Moody doesn't read in to his thought during the lessons…I know he should be blocking his thoughts but I think Harry has plenty of other thoughts that he wouldn't want anybody to invade in to.." Hermione directed this conversation towards Harry as well but was still not ready to address him directly.
Lupin and Harry both stared blankly at her and were actually flabbergasted that in this short while Hermione has thought of something that probably didn't cross anybody's mind and she was stating something very important and true in nature.
"You can never fail to amaze me Hermione Granger…never. I will arrange for one, I am sure Sirius had one so I will get it for Harry." Remus shook his head … muttering something like unbelievable…
Hermione blushed over this and seemed embarrassed for some reason. She moved towards the fridge to make sandwiches. They all sat quietly while she worked on making sandwiches for everyone…Harry moved towards her to help her out but tripped over Hermione's walking stick that was leaning against the counter…Hermione instantly moved forward to help but Harry had already crashed in to her. They fell down with Harry on top of Hermione who winced with pain. Harry didn't really notice her wincing and just brought his hands forward to brush the hair away from her face. Without thinking what he was doing he just kissed her on her forehead and didn't remove his hands from the sides of her face. Hermione was not staring blankly at Harry not knowing what to do. They were interrupted by Lupin who peeked at the two from the counter,
"Hey get off her Harry…she already has enough wounds so don't make them worse…" Remus said in a mock tone. He knew that he interrupted something of an intimate moment or something of the sort, he couldn't help himself from embarrassing them more about their position.
Harry immediately got up and bent down to help Hermione up, he put one arm around her back and other on her arm to lift her up without stretching or jerking her. She uttered small thanks and went back to business. Harry grabbed a knife and started helping her with the sandwiches. He kept steeling glances at Hermione, while Hermione's face was downwards and her hair falling on her face. Remus looked at the two with amusement, especially Harry.
"So Harry you still going out with Ginny? You must be missing her…If you want I can personally arrange a meeting without endangering anybody…what do you think? Remus asked Harry pretending not to be bothered much about his reply while deep down he hoped the answer was negative. He knew he shouldn't interfere or form any opinion about Harry's love life but he personally loved Hermione and wanted her to be with Harry.
"Err no…no need to do anything like that, Thanks but no thanks, I …ummm I kinda broke up with her end of this term and don't really plan to get back together…" Harry was giving his reply to Remus but was again stealing glances at Hermione to see her reaction but he couldn't tell anything.
Hermione after finishing excused herself so she could go and see Prof. McGonagall about something. She didn't once look at Harry during her announcement. Remus thought there was something wrong between the two…he could sense it. He looked at Hermione's back and then turned to Harry.
"She is one amazing person Harry, you are really lucky to have her as your friend…" waiting for some sort of answer from Harry, who just silently agreed with her and said
"I know and I am proud to have her as a friend…she just great, caring, humble…well she is just really great and like you said a brilliant person…"
"I know … the other day some of us were discussing the same thing…actually we were kind of delving in to Bill's tragic wedding scene…everybody was upset about neglecting Hermione like that…" Harry tried to interrupt … but Remus held up a hand to indicate that he wasn't done talking…
"You see she saved Charlie and me from couple of attacks…so obviously we were guiltier about not able to save her, so this brought up her subject and you know the amazing thing, everyone owes her something. She has favored most of the people or if not favor, she has cared for everyone at some point of their life that once we started talking, one by one every other person came up with their share of Hermione story … you would be amazed how much Fred and George were upset about her…they said she was the only one who cared about us during their last year, she kept reminding them about their exams, cared enough to warn them about getting expelled, they said it wasn't because she was a prefect but she genuinely didn't want them out of the school while Ron and Ginny least bothered about what they were up to and didn't really care if they were expelled or not. She helped Ginny with her exams, Hagrid shared his half as well…like buckbeak case, her attempts to plan his lessons to save his job….he said he felt really loved whenever he was upset and she would turn up to pat him or provide encouraging words …hey don't think that he doesn't like you or Ron any less…he just thinks Hermione has never failed him and would never fail him…well I can go on and on about all those facts … so you see its like we all owed her something one way or the other and we failed…Even then she is all sweet about it and not giving us a guilt trip…She truly is amazing…" Remus said all this and wanted to continue but stopped as he heard some footsteps coming their way.
Harry was in his own thoughts and realized how many lives his best friend has touched and yet she is not conceited and still cared for everyone. If he could just begin to start his part of Hermione episodes…it would take hours and hours and same goes for Ron's end.
All the order members entered the kitchen; Harry moved the sandwiches plate towards them. Hermione came after a little while followed by McGonagall. They all ate and finally flood out of Mrs. Figg's house…leaving Moody, Charlie and Lupin behind. Charlie went and sat next to Hermione, the two of them got involved in some hushed hushed conversation. While Moody briefed Harry about his lessons Lupin joined in with Charlie and Hermione. It seemed the three of them agreed upon something. It was nearly 11 p.m., when the three adults offered to escort Harry and Hermione back to the Dursleys. They saw the guests leaving from the window; once the coast seemed cleared they made their move. Each thankful to Mrs. Figg and left under the invisibility cloaks for the Dursleys.
Harry and Hermione went silently up the stairs to his room. Hermione left for washroom to change in to her night suit while Harry remained in room. Then came Harry's turn, after he changed he entered his room to see Hermione once again reading a book and not really acknowledging him. She finally stood up and bid him good night in a cold tone and moved towards bed. Harry immediately moved towards her and got hold of her in a hug from her back…he wrapped his arms around her from the back and started talking in a deep voice…"I am Sorry Hermione…I really am. I didn't mean to upset you…both Ron and I … we didn't mean it…" He wasn't sure what else to say, Hermione was too quiet and was taking deep breaths, she was taken a back with Harry's affections of late. He has never been that affectionate with her…it was always her who hugged him or kissed his cheek or held his hands etc…this all confused her a little but she liked it all the same. In her heart she in fact loved the attention.
"Not now Harry… we'll talk in morning…I am sleepy…don't worry I am not going to stop being your friend, I just think we need to talk and we'll do it tomorrow. Now go to sleep. Good Night" … She un-wrapped Harry's arms from her body and turned around to see his embarrassed face. She ran a hand through his hair in an affectionate way and finally settled down in bed. Hermione kept thinking about Harry's hug and that kiss on her temple, she was overwhelmed but then she stopped herself from feeling too happy about it. Stop it Hermione, they were friendly actions and nothing more. She already embarrassed herself with Ron…she thought herself to be interested in Ron only after his actions showed he was interested in her, he was jealous of Krum and then after that jealousy episode she thought back on the time when he defended her from Malfoy, he sort of stood up for her whenever someone bad mouth her and his jealousy resulted in her crush on him but now she wasn't sure about her feelings. She didn't want to go down the same path with Harry just because he was affectionate towards her. I am only a friend to them … but she still couldn't help herself from smiling over the hug and the kiss.
"Good Night Hermione" … said Harry interrupting her chain of thoughts and turned off the lights but kept staring at Hermione's sleeping form. He didn't know where all his affections for Hermione were coming from…were they guilt driven or feelings driven…he was confused and with these thoughts he finally dozed off in to a dreamless sleep.