A/N: Updated a few spelling errors here as well… I need to proofread these better, methinks….

Chapter Four

A Veiled Threat

Hermione breezed into work two days after she had been to Ollivander's. The previous day she had been working with the wand, and was amazed on how fast she became used to it. She felt better than she had for a long time. She was quietly humming to herself and smiling when Gavin entered her office.

"Well, I see that the two day holiday went well for you," Gavin said. "So, what are you so happy about?"

Hermione smiled to herself and recalled the previous day. The spells she had cast required only about a quarter of the concentration she needed with her old wand. Simple levitation charms had resulted in her slamming her couch into the ceiling. Her flat had been fairly messed up while she was experimenting. She had gone to a remote field and practiced the wand there, until she could figure out how to control how much effort she put into her spells. The one spell she did not tone down however, was her patronus charm. The resulting otter that jumped from the wand, actually made some footprints in the grass as it bounded about. She returned to her flat that night and repaired everything in record time.

"My new wand, Gavin, is what has me so chipper today. I can't believe how much easier it is to cast with it. It's like I found a long lost friend. The strangest thing is, I hear phoenix song when I cast with it," she said.

"Well, may I see it?" Gavin asked. She held out her wand and he reached for it. When his hand touched it, it felt like he had grabbed a red hot piece of metal. He dropped it straight away, and glared at it. "It seems to only like you Ms, Granger."

"Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry! Here, let me see your hand," she said. Gavin's hand looked like it had been in contact with a hotplate. He had blisters forming already, and it was starting to ache. "Let me try to heal it."

She picked up her wand and aimed it at his hand. She muttered the basic healing charm she knew, but nothing happened. He raised his eyebrow at her, and she seemed to be staring at her wand, almost like she was convincing it to work. Finally, after a few moments, she aimed again, and this time a beam of magic hit his hand, and he felt instant relief.

"I'm so sorry Gavin. I guess…" she started to say. She looked up at Gavin and blushed a bit. "You will probably think I am nutters."

"Hermione," he started to say as he put his hands on her shoulders. "We work in the Department of Mysteries. Nutters and weird things are our job. I would like to think I would have an open mind."

Hermione blushed a bit, and nodded. How could she say this? How could she explain that the wand basically would not do anything to help him unless she promised it that he was a friend?

"I think the wand is partially sentient. You see, it has two cores. A phoenix feather and a dragon heartstring. I don't know how this is possible, as Mr. Ollivander said that the last known wand maker that could successfully utilize two cores when constructing a wand was his grandfather. Believe it or not, this is the product of an apprentice!" she explained. "I guess it is rather protective of me."

Gavin snapped out of his gaping stupor. His mind reeled with the possibilities. If this apprentice came to work for the Department of Mysteries, it might be a godsend. He would put this person in a team with Hermione, and he was practically salivating at what could be accomplished. His train of thought was halted when Hermione was waving her hand in front of his face.

"Gavin? Are you alright?" Hermione asked, her eyes full of concern. He nodded and cleared his throat.

"Yes, Hermione. I'm just dandy. I was thinking, what are the chances of meeting this person who made your wand? I was just thinking of what could be accomplished with you and this apprentice in a team together," he said. Hermione sighed.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Ollivander would not give me the man's name," she explained.

"Yet another mystery for us to unravel, hmm?" Gavin asked. Hermione rolled her eyes and silently mouthed his exact words.

"Gavin, would you please come up with a better phrase? And by the way; what's with this putting me into a team? You're not happy with my work?" she said feigning a hurt look. Gavin laughed at that look she had on her face.

"No, Hermione. I meant that with the two of you on a case, it would be unraveled in no time flat," he reassured her. He started to get up to get back to his cases he was working on. "Oh, I guessed that you would want to get back to working on the Veil. I have assigned an Auror trainee to watch over you while you work on it."

She rolled her eyes in exasperation, but she nodded anyways. As long as she was able to work on it, she did not have a problem with someone watching over her. Gavin said goodbye and went back to his office, instructing her to wait for the Auror trainee to arrive. Just as she had finished gathering her parchment and other items together, there was a knock on her door. She opened the door and her heart leapt. She threw her arms around Ron's neck and smothered him in a bear hug.

"Hello to you too Hermione," Ron laughed. "Guess what? I'm your bodyguard for today!"

Hermione scowled at that comment. She fixed her stern glare at Ron, and he visibly gulped. His hands started sweating and he suddenly found the ground very interesting, knowing that Hermione too offense when someone insinuated that she could not take care of herself.

"Ronald Weasley!" she said darkly. She was really enjoying watching him squirm like he was facing one of his mother's howlers. "If you think you are getting away with not writing to me, you have another thing coming!"

Ron visibly relaxed when she said that. He was almost expecting a curse to be thrown his way for his comment. He smiled and reached into his robes. He pulled out a package, and handed it to her. She raised an eyebrow at him, and he just shrugged. She took the package and began to open it.

"I missed your birthday, so I thought I would make it up to you," he said. She finished opening the box and stared at the item he had given her. She looked sharply at him, and he looked down at his feet. "Gavin had to tell me everything. So I thought I would make it so the issue never happened again. That is a standard issue Auror wrist holster. This way, you won't have your wand in your cloak. Also, it has anti-summoning charms on it, so no one can take your wand if it is in the holster."

Hermione smiled at the thoughtful gesture. But then her face darkened quickly, and she fixed a steely look at Ron.

"If you breathe a word of the real reason I got a new wand," she started to say. He held up his hand and gently stopped her.

"Trust me Hermione, I won't tell a soul about it. You have my word on that," Ron said.

Hermione sighed. They made their way to the chamber that held the Veil. She was a bit jittery to be this close to the Veil, especially after what happened. With Ron being there as well, bad memories flooded her mind of what happened there in their fifth year. Ron's voice snapped her back to reality.

"It's so creepy being in here, especially after when—" Ron started to say, but he was silenced by Hermione.

"Ron, please don't bring that up. I have to keep focused, and if you start talking about it again, we might as well leave since I can't be in here alone anymore. So just let me work, and keep an eye on me. I don't know exactly what happened last time. All I know that is if I start to get pulled in again, you better drag me back," she said. Ron nodded his head and drew his wand, staring at the Veil.

Hermione took the next two hours and finished copying the runes she had been working on. She was just finishing when the howling started again. Her eyes grew wide and she scrambled back, stumbling down the stairs. Ron was at her side in a second, his wand trained on the Veil. Hermione pressed her hands to her ears, yelling at the howling to stop, but it only grew to a painful volume. Ron looked at her nervously, as she noticed he seemed to not hear it. He dragged her back and tried to cast a silencing charm on the Veil. Hermione shook her head to answer his questioning look if it stopped or not. Ron then rounded on her and cast a spell she could not hear over the howling. She tried to dodge it, thinking he was out of his mind, but he was too fast. The last thing she saw was a red burst of light hitting her in the chest, and her world faded to black.

She woke sometime later, and took in her surroundings. She was not where she was before, so she reached for her wand in the wrist holster, and sat up quickly. Ron was standing with his back to her, apparently keeping guard over her. He whipped around with his wand drawn and lowered it when he saw it was just Hermione stirring. He looked relieved to see her awake. She slowly lowered her wand, looking at Ron with a questioning look on her face.

Ron walked over to her bed and reached for a pad of paper. He started writing something down. It was then that Hermione realized that she could not hear the quill scratching on the parchment. She looked around in a panic and started to get out of the bed quickly. Ron put his hand gently on her shoulder and slowly pushed her back down. He handed her the parchment after he finished writing. She looked down at the note, and her eyes welled up with tears as she read it.

Hermione, I am REALLY sorry I had to stun you. But when the silencing charm did not work, I turned around to find your ears bleeding. You nose was also starting to bleed, so I took the most effective action to stop the noise you were hearing. I had to shut you down as fast as possible. The healers say that your hearing will return in a few weeks, as they had to almost completely rebuild your eardrums. I don't know what you heard, but I know it was hurting you, so I had to do something fast. The healers said that if I hadn't stunned you, you could be dead. They said the sound was overloading your hearing and it was starting to affect your brain as well. I hope you are not mad at me.

Hermione threw the note down and grabbed him into a big hug. Ron patted her back and stroked her hair while she cried. He pulled away after she had calmed down a bit, and handed her a potion. She recognized the light sleeping potion by the color of the liquid inside on the vial. She drank it fast and made a face at the taste. Ron settled her back down and she drifted off to sleep. Ron stayed and watched over her until he was confident she would be alright.

Hermione's hearing returned almost three weeks after the incident. She returned to her office to the sound of applause. When she reached Gavin's office, she had been patted on the back and she had received many well wishes from people she hardly knew. She closed his door and turned around to see a big smile on his face.

"Hermione, welcome back!" he said as he got up and rushed to her and pulling her into a crushing fatherly hug. "We were so worried when Ron came out of the Veil's chamber screaming for help. Now that you have healed, can you tell me what happened?"

Hermione bit her lower lip a bit as she reflected on the thoughts that had consumed her mind while she was recovering. She remembered that it had started when she copied the runes down. The only thing that did not fit was that she had not copied all of them down. Most of the previous people who had worked on the Veil had used a wizarding camera to capture the runes to study them. But Hermione liked to copy them down on parchment, to practice writing runes.

"I think that since I copied the runes down by hand, that is what triggered what happened. I'm not sure what the runes mean, as they are pretty old and obscure. I would need to translate the half that I wrote down before I know what caused this," she explained. "To be honest, I suspect that the runes, when fully written or said out loud, will trigger the Veil to do something. What it'll do, I don't know. But I would like to find out."

Gavin sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose looking down at his desk. He didn't want Hermione to be exposed to that again, but he did not have another person that could translate the runes as well as she could. He knew from her records at Hogwarts and from her work at the Department, that she would not stop until she had translated the runes to absolute perfection a few times before she was convinced she did it correctly. He nodded to himself and stood up in front of his desk, and looked at Hermione sternly.

"Very well. You can work on what you have right now, and use the previous photos of the Veil to get the other half of the runes and get them translated before you even set foot in that room again. Bodyguard of not, the chamber is off limits to you for the time being," he said roughly. She made a protesting huff, but he cut her off sharply. "No. That is my final word on this issue. I will not risk one of the Department's best people just to translate some runes. When you have translated them all, we will make a decision at that time."

Hermione looked at him angrily, frustrated that he was being so protective. They argued over his decision for about an hour. Other department employees were looking at the door to Gavin's office nervously while the argument got a bit heated. They all jumped when Gavin's office door slammed open and Hermione stormed out of the department muttering under her breath. Gavin stepped out, and leaned on his doorframe heavily.

"That woman is going to get the better of me one of these days. I just hope it's not sooner rather than later," he muttered. "Alright everyone, show's over. Back to it."

Hermione stomped out of the ministry's front gate fuming with anger. She knew that Gavin watched out for her like a daughter, but he had gone a bit too far with the latest Veil incident. 'After all, I came out just fine after a bit of a rest!' Hermione thought to herself. Before she knew it she had ended up at the back entrance of the Leaky Cauldron. She tapped the bricks with her wand in the certain pattern that was needed and entered the pub. She plopped down on a stool at the bar and covered her face with her hands.

"What'll it be?" she heard a voice say. She ordered a butterbeer, and took a good drink of it. "Rough day at work?"

She looked up at Tom, the same bartender that had been there when she had first come into the magical world. She nodded and downed the rest of the butterbeer. She ordered another and slowly sipped that one. She explained quickly what was bothering her to Tom. They chatted for a while, eventually drifting off of the subject. He was helping another customer, when she noticed someone sat down next to her.

"Hermione, I overheard what you two were talking about at first," Ron said. He cautiously looked over at her to see her in deep thought. "I know you might hex me, but I agree with Gavin. I know you don't want to hear that, but I remember that day when you got hurt. I never want that to happen to you again." Hermione huffed at that comment, as her eyes flashed. Ron audibly gulped at her response, and braced himself.

"So, just because I got hurt once down there, I'm just a little girl who can't watch out for herself?! Honestly, you don't trust me to be able to handle whatever may happen? I'll have you know, that I think you two are just way too overprotective. You two don't understand that to know what it is requires a certain bit of danger. I know you remember that day when we first saw it!" Hermione said hotly. "Now, if you will excuse me, I'm going to a private table!"

She stood up from the stool suddenly, and it clattered to the floor. Hermione cursed under her breath and angrily shoved it back into place. Ron was still staring at the bar, thinking about what she said. He followed her over after ordering a drink from Tom. He plopped himself down and she did not even look at him. He sighed loudly and set his drink down. He looked down at the table and slowly rubbed his palms together, clearly trying to think of something to respond with that would not anger Hermione more than she was.

He opened his mouth and started to say something when she cut him off.

"Don't Ronald. I know you are just trying to smooth me over, but I don't want that right now. I just want to be left alone for the night. Let me think about things, and we can continue tomorrow," she said with a slight edge to her voice. "Just let me be for now, and I will talk with you tomorrow."

Ron bowed his head for a moment, and silently left her alone. Hermione sat there mentally berating herself for yelling at Gavin and Ron. She knew they were just watching out for her, and she was glad they were, but on the other hand, they were interfering with her work. She thought things over for several hours. She finally noticed that Tom was getting ready to close up for the night, and realized she had not touched her drink. Without thinking, she grabbed the nearest glass, and finished it. She regretted do this in an instant, when she felt her throat burn like it was on fire. She coughed and sputtered, falling off of the chair. Tom was at her side in a flash, helping her back up. He lifted the glass she had drunk from, and sniffed it to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. His eyes widened as he placed the scent in a second. He looked down at Hermione and noticed her starting to get a bit off balance.

"Ms. Granger, did you have anything to eat recently?" he asked. She looked at him with a bit of a goofy smirk and lazily shook her head. He sighed and set the glass down. He was about to help her to a room, when the doorway from muggle London opened. He gently let her sit down as she started to giggle and waver. "Sorry, young sir, but we are closing down for the night."

The cloaked stranger walked swiftly towards them, and Tom tried to stand in the stranger's way as the mysterious man made a bee line for Hermione. Tom was quickly and gently pushed back by a spell he did not know and the stranger quickly gathered a positively smashed and dizzy Hermione.

"Now sir! You can't just waltz right up and take strangers from a bar! Ease her down, or I shall call the Aurors on you," Tom said threateningly. The stranger gently lifted Hermione in his arms like she was made of air. The stranger slowly turned around at stared straight at Tom. Tom was frightened and worried for Hermione. She was still giggling and trying to pull the stranger's hood off, but the man kept her at bay while he stared Tom down. "Put her down, and leave quietly." A deep and powerful voice answered him.

"I am just taking her home," the stranger said.

"Right, and I'm the bloody Minister of Magic. Un-hand her sir, or you will be spending the next few night at the hands of the Aurors. I know for a fact that she has a close friend that is an Auror," Tom said.

"I have no wish to fight you, Tom," the stranger said with a hint or warning in his voice. Tom shivered at the sudden burst of power that emanated off of the man. "I saw what happened. She grabbed the wrong glass and drank an entire glass of firewhiskey. She will be more comfortable at her home." Tom stood in the stranger's way again, and squared his shoulders.

"There is no way you will take her out of here, and do who knows what to her. This is my last warning. Put. Her. Down."

The man just sighed, and shook his head. He stepped forward again, and Tom swung his fist at the stranger. His fist did not connect, and his swing was stopped by a solid magical shield. He gasped as Hermione finally managed to get the stranger's hood down. There, standing right in front of Tom, was a legend.

"Mr. Pot—" Tom started to say when a silencing spell hit him within a second.

"Not a word!" Harry hissed. "You don't know who is listening!"

Tom nodded mutely as he felt the spell release. Tom rushed over to Harry, and started to apologize. Harry waved him off.

"Not a word to anyone, Tom. No one can know I was here, let alone in contact with Hermione," Harry whispered, frustrated that Hermione has blown his cover. He slipped Tom a few galleons, after obtaining Tom's promise that he would keep this quiet. Tom put Harry's hood back up and opened the door. Harry nodded mutely, and he walked quickly down the street. Tom shut the door after he could not see him anymore due to it being dark and Harry's black cloak seemed to disappear into the shadows.

ooo

Hermione woke up with her head pounding. She cringed at the sunlight coming through her windows, and stumbled her way into the bathroom. She noticed she was still in her clothes the she had on the previous day. She could not remember how she had gotten home; let alone what happened the night before. She had a vague memory of a dark cloaked stranger. She had just left the bathroom when she noticed a note under a vial of potion. She picked up the note, and read it.

Hermione,

This potion might be useful after you wake this morning. Do try to stay away from Ogden's best from now on, or at least eat something before you have some.

Oh and by the way, you are pretty cute when you are smashed.

H.

Hermione gasped when she finished reading the note. Harry had been there! 'I was drunk? But how did that happen?' she thought to herself. Realization hit her as she thought back on the previous night. 'Ron's drink! I can't believe that I did that!' she screamed in her mind. She eyed the potion before taking the stopper out and downed the potion. She looked at the vial as her head cleared. She smiled at the thoughtful gesture. She would have to thank Harry when she finally saw him again. She walked back into the bathroom to shower, and looked into the mirror. Her eyes widened at what she saw. Her hair was pink! She looked down at the vial and saw a small sticker on the bottom. She held it up close and saw Harry's writing.

GOTCHA!!!

Her eyes flashed, and she clenched her fists. Her temper flared, and some of her trinkets rattled back and forth. She threw the vial against the wall. 'Harry is so going to get it when I get my hands on him!' She forced herself to calm down, and looked back into the mirror. To her horror, her hair shifted color again. The colors settled into green and silver, Slytherin's house colors.

"HARRY POTTER!!!!" she bellowed.

Outside on the street, a cloaked man pumped his fist in the air, finally having got one over on Hermione Granger. 'Today is a good day!' Harry thought to himself. He walked down the street, whistling a happy tune, his troubles momentarily forgotten.

When Hermione got to her office, she glared at the people who dared to snicker at her predicament. Gavin strode out of his office, and he stopped suddenly when he saw her hair. He slapped his hand to his mouth and darted back into his office. The day got worse, as Ron stopped by to apologize for the night before. He opened his mouth, but he was stunned speechless when he saw her. He gaped like a fish for a few moments, and finally spluttered something out.

"Bloody hell!" he said. "Hermione, who did that to your hair?"

"Harry did it. Ohhhh, he is so dead when I get to him!" Hermione growled. Ron looked like he wanted to laugh, but his expression turned pained very quickly.

"Harry was here? When?" Ron asked. Hermione explained what happened the previous night, and finished with her drinking the potion. Ron started to laugh at her story, and he soon regretted it. After being glared at by Hermione, he ran from the office, but not in time to avoid the stinging hex that crashed into his rear end. When Harry did return, Ron was looking forward to the coming confrontation, as it would be a sight to see her take on Harry. He was sure that Harry would win, but Ron knew that Harry was in for a lot of pain.