Chapter 15: An Unexpected Visitor
Harry wiped the sweat from his brow as he walked into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. He and Kreacher had spent the last five days going room by room removing the last remnants of dark spells, objects, and artifacts. Harry allowed Kreacher to only keep items that they had been able to successfully remove dark magic from without completely destroying. Kreacher had initially been very cross anytime an item was destroyed in Harry's attempts to rid it of dark magic, but once Harry promised Kreacher the spare bedroom on the second floor to live in and keep the spared items, Kreacher stayed in a much better mood. The only item that was left was the portrait of Walburga Black in the hallway by the front door. He had promised Kreacher that he wouldn't destroy the portrait but there was no way Harry could leave it there, not if Andromeda was ever going to let Harry care for Teddy.
The only solution Harry had come up with would be to use the Elder Wand to, hopefully, undo the Permanent Sticking Charm and move the portrait to Kreacher's bedroom and then place a Muffliato charm on the walls and door of the room so no one can hear the portrait's rantings and ravings. However, the plan all hinged on the ability of the Elder Wand and Kreacher's willingness to let the portrait be removed. Even if it was to be put in his room, Harry wasn't sure Kreacher would approve its removal from the hallway, not matter how their relationship had improved since they first met.
"Kreacher," Harry called out.
With a distinct pop, Kreacher appeared in the kitchen.
"Yes, Mas- Harry Potter, sir?" Kreacher asked, trying to abide by Harry's wishes to not be called 'Master.'
"Thank you for remember, Kreacher," Harry said genuinely, "I need to ask you something. I know you are very fond of the portrait of Mrs. Black but if I am to raise my godson in this house, not to mention have guests, I can't have her screaming the horrible things she does every time there is a sound louder than a whisper in that hallway. What I would like to do, rather than destroy the portrait, is to try and move the portrait to your room. This way you can still talk to her and care for her portrait. What do you think?"
Kreacher scratched his head, carefully pondering Harry's words. Harry watched nervously, hoping that Kreacher would agree.
"May I offer another suggest, sir?" Kreacher finally said.
Not expecting that question, Harry nodded for Kreacher to go on.
"While Kreacher still is deeply loyal to Mistress Black, Kreacher does not agree with all the things she says about people like Miss Granger and Mr. Weasley."
Harry couldn't hide the shocked look on his face when Kreacher referred to Hermione and Ron by their proper names and not mudblood and blood-traitor.
Regaining his composure, Harry asked, "So what do you propose we do with the portrait, Kreacher?"
"Kreacher would suggest, if Harry Potter, sir, can remove it that is, to move the portrait into the Black Vault at Gringotts."
Harry thought for a moment, and seeing nothing wrong with the suggestion said, "That sounds like a brilliant idea, Kreacher. Would you propose the same thing for the, um, house elves on the staircase or would you be alright if I gave them a proper burial?"
Kreacher, still not used to being asked his opinion on matters, hesitated for a few minutes. With his eyes on the floor he replied quietly, "Kreacher is fine with Harry Potter wishes to bury them, but… if it pleases Harry Potter, sir, could Kreacher's mother go in Kreacher's bedroom?"
"Of course, Kreacher," Harry said, his heart feeling sorry for the old house-elf. "You are welcome to move her in there and place her wherever you would like."
Kreacher gave Harry, from what Harry could guess, a genuine smile and quickly left the kitchen to go move his mother's head from the staircase wall.
"Well, no time like the present to see what the Elder Wand can do," Harry said outloud to himself.
Reaching underneath his shirt, Harry pulled out the familiar moleskin pouch he had received from Hagrid on his 17th birthday. He carefully pulled out the Elder Wand, feeling a jolt like electricity running through his body. While he still felt more comfortable using his wand from Ollivander's, Harry could not deny that the Elder Wand was much more powerful.
Harry rose from the table and walked into the hallway, contemplating the best way to go about the task at hand. He finally decided to try a severing charm and then he would worry about how to repair the wall later. Walking up to the side of the portrait he first cast a silencing charm, hoping that it would be strong enough to keep the portrait quiet until he moved it into one of the bedrooms before sending it with Kreacher to place in Gringotts. Then, concentrating carefully so as to not remove a huge chunk of the wall, cast the severing charm.
To Harry's surprise, and pleasure, the charm worked perfectly, the portrait fell from wall with a loud boom, a good portion of the wall still attached to its backside. Using the severing charm to crop the bit of wall on the backside of the portrait, Harry then wrapped it in the curtain, grateful that the silencing charm was still working. After shrinking the portrait down to a manageable size for Kreacher and writing a quick note to Gringott's, he called for the house-elf.
"Yes, sir?" Kreacher said, appearing before Harry.
"Kreacher, I would like for you to take this and the other, um, house-elves, to Gringott's and deposit them into the vault. Here is the key to Black vault, along with a note giving my permission. It has my blood on it as well, in case they need further identification. If you have any problems, just come and get me."
Kreacher took the portrait, key, and note, nodded, snapped his fingers, and then disappeared. Now completely alone in the house, Harry put the Elder Wand back in the pouch beneath his shirt and headed upstairs. He shuddered a little at the house-elf heads that lined the stairs but was grateful to know that soon Kreacher would have them stored far away from the home. When Harry reached the third floor, he walked into the room that would soon be Teddy's.
It was stripped bare at the moment. Harry had painted the striped walls a mixture of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff colors, to honor Teddy's parents, and ordered furniture and a number of other things, per Hermione's suggestion, to make it fit for a baby. Most of them were set to arrive the next day, which would give him a little over a day to set everything up before going to the Weasley's for Christmas and then seeing Andromeda and Teddy. He had already owled Andromeda to invite her and Teddy over for New Year's, with another note from Hermione explaining the newly added Fidelius Charm to the location and the address, so that she could see what Harry had done with Grimmauld Place. Really, Harry just wanted to prove to her, and himself, that he could be mature and responsible enough to raise Teddy when the time came.
Most of the other bedrooms in the house were furnished, though now free of the more unpleasant objects and artifacts of the House of Black. Harry had chosen to leave Sirius' room the same and most of Regulus' possessions were now in Kreacher's room. Kreacher was insistent that Harry take the master bedroom, especially since Buckbeak was permanently staying with Hagrid. Harry reluctantly agreed, though he didn't understand why he needed such a large bedroom. However, he did enjoy decorating the walls with scarlet and gold Gryffindor colors, along with hanging pictures of his loved ones on the wall. He also had to admit it was nice to finally be sleeping in a bed that was bigger than a twin sized bed. Harry headed back downstairs, intent on going into the sitting room and working on his lessons plan for the next semester, when he heard a loud knocking at the front door.
Whipping out his wand, he cautiously, but quickly, headed down the hallway to the front door. Outside, he could hear the rain that had been predicted earlier in the day start to pour and the knocking grew louder and faster. Taking a deep breath, Harry snuck a quick look through the peephole before throwing himself back against the wall. Realizing that he had just seen Hermione, he quickly opened the door and pointed his wand directly at Hermione.
"What was my worry after Ginny and I broke up?" He said, his wand not wavering.
"That no one could love the, as you put it, 'the weak, scarred, imperfect Harry Potter,'" she replied quickly, in a broken voice.
Harry immediately pocketed his wand and pulled a rain soaked Hermione into the hallway, embracing her tightly.
"I'm so sorry Hermione, I just had to check. I forget we had the Fidelius Charm now so I don't need to worry," he said quickly, rubbing her back to try and warm her up. "Come on, let's get you by the fireplace."
Hermione merely nodded, shaking slightly from the cold. Harry led Hermione to the couch and then quickly made lit the fireplace with his wand before using a spell to dry Hermione's clothes.
"Do you need a blanket? I can make some tea?" Harry asked.
Hermione shook her bowed head, her hands nervously fingering the bottom of her shirt.
Leaning down, Harry gently lifted her chin with his hand, his green eyes meeting her tear-filled brown eyes.
"Hermione," he said with deep concern, "what's wrong?"
"It's stupid, I know, I don't know why I came here without sending a note first. It was so stupid of me," she spat out, tears rushing down her cheeks.
Harry sat down next, placing his arm around her shoulders for support. "Hermione, it's okay, really. Now tell me what's going on. Why aren't you at the Burrow?"
Hermione, tears falling even faster, "R-R-Ron and I broke up."
"What?" Harry exclaimed. "You broke up?"
Hermione sniffled and nodded, "Remember on the train, when he was acting all weird after he got back from patrolling? Well, it turns out he didn't just think Parvati was, was, prettier. He – he – HE SNOGGED HER!" Her voice dripped with anger and sorrow.
Harry held her tightly as she flung herself into his chest and sobbed. His mind was racing a thousand miles an hour. Ron cheated on Hermione? They're broken up? Wait, does this mean Hermione and I have a chance? Harry, you git, now's not the time for thoughts like that! You're acting like Ron!
He quickly pushed those thoughts out of his head and focused on comforting his heartbroken best friend. Hermione cried silently for a few more minutes before pulling away and looking into the fire.
"Harry, " she whispered, pain and insecurity in her voice, "am I that ugly and worthless that someone who supposedly loves me would go snogging the next prettiest thing he sees? Did Ron only care about me for my willingness to do his schoolwork?"
"Hermione, look at me," Harry said, trying not to let his anger at Ron seep through, "I'm serious, look at me."
Hermione turned away from the fire and met Harry's eyes.
"Hermione Granger, you are no where near ugly and Merlin knows you not worthless. Do you hear me? You are brilliant, not just when it comes to books but you are beautiful as well. I don't know what was going on in Ron's mind when he snogged Parvati but I can assure you I will kick his bloody arse from here to the States. Okay? Don't you for one second think less of yourself because of Ron's arsehole antics. You are beautiful, intelligent, compassionate, caring, and loving. Any bloke would be lucky to have you," Harry said, tears welling up in his eyes.
"Th-Thank you, Harry. You have no idea how much that means to me," Hermione said, hugging him tightly. "I'm sorry again for imposing on you. I-I didn't know where else to go and I couldn't stay at Ron's. This was the only place I could think of."
"Really, Hermione, it's fine. I'm glad you came. On the plus side, Ron doesn't know how to get here, thanks to the Fidelius Charm, so you can have a few days of quiet. Come on, I'll make some tea and you can tell me the full story. Kreacher should be back soon from Gringott's and I'll have him make us some dinner."
"Gringott's? What was Kreacher doing there?" Hermione asked, slightly confused.
"He's putting all of the house-elf heads on the staircase into the Black Vault, as well as the portrait in the hallway."
In her emotional state, Hermione had not even noticed that the portrait was gone from the hallway wall. "But, wait, how did you remove the portrait? I thought it had a permanent sticking charm to it? Even Sirius couldn't get that bloody thing down."
"The Elder Wand," Harry replied simply.
Hermione gave Harry a look that suggested she wanted to say something, but held her tongue. When the reached the kitchen, Hermione took a seat at the dining room table, while Harry made the tea. Soon, each with a cup of tea in hand, Hermione spilled the whole story of the break up.
"Well, ever since I got back to the Burrow, Ron had been acting all weird around me. Anytime I tried to get him alone to talk … or other things …," Harry internally cringed at the thought of Hermione and Ron snogging, "he would find an excuse to be somewhere else. I tried to see if Ginny knew anything but she kept insisting that she didn't. Finally, she agreed to help me get Ron alone so I could find out what was going on. Now I almost wish we hadn't." Fresh tears formed in Hermione's eyes. Harry reached over and patted her arm encouragingly.
Taking a deep breath, Hermione continued, "While Ron was still finishing breakfast, I went up to his room and hid using a disillusionment charm until Ginny managed to convince him to go get her a Quidditch strategies book for her from his room. She followed him upstairs and as soon as he got in the room, she shut the door and sealed it shut using a spell I taught her. While he banged on the door telling her to let him out, I removed the disillusionment charm and confronted him about his behavior the past week."
Continuing she said, "He was right pissed about the whole situation. Started trying to blame me for it all. He kept deflecting my questions about what happened while he was patrolling. I guess when he finally realized I wasn't going to back down and Ginny wasn't going to open the door, he sat down and told me the truth…" Tears were falling once again down Hermione's cheeks. "He said he felt like he had been losing me all year to you because of the whole teaching bit and that he and Parvati had been hanging out more because they were both prefects. He - he had been fancying her for a while but still had feelings for me and didn't know what to do so he kept on like things were fine. He didn't say what changed on the train, just that when he went and met Parvati in the first car, he – he 'couldn't control his hormones anymore' – I still can't believe that was his excuse – and snogged her!"
"I can't believe Parvati, let him do that," Harry said, "I mean, she knew you two were dating, I just wouldn't think she would kiss another girl's guy."
Hermione, sighed, "That's just it Harry, Parvati didn't know Ron and I were still dating."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, fearing the answer.
"Ron had told her, before he started snogging, Parvati confronted him about how he had been acting around her – you know with all the flirting – and he said he had broken up with me earlier on the train ride so he could be with her! The reason he was acting all weird around the Burrow was because he didn't know how to break up with me!"
Fresh sobs escaped Hermione as she buried her head in her arms on the table. Harry quickly rushed to the other side of the table, placing his arms around her shoulders once again, and wondered how many times he could beat Ron into the ground before the other Weasley's stepped in to stop him.
Regaining her composure, Hermione sat up and finished the story, "After that, I removed the spell from the door, went to Ginny's room, grabbed my beaded bag that had all my stuff, and came here. I-I didn't tell anyone where I was going. I know Ginny heard everything because she was outside the door. I think she was still in shock from what Ron said because she didn't come after me."
"Hermione, I think we should send a message to the Weasley's to let them know you're okay. I know you're mad at Ron, and you have every right to be, but we both know Mrs. Weasley will be in a right fit and Ginny will be worried about you too." Harry said.
Hermione nodded, using a napkin to wipe the tears from her face.
"Can you send the message?" she asked, "I just don't think I'm up to it."
"Of course," Harry said, conjuring his patronus, "Take this message to Molly Weasley at the Burrow, 'Mrs. Weasley, Hermione is with me and safe. She's sorry if she worried you, it was an emergency situation. You can ask Ronald or Ginny to explain.'"
With a nod from Harry, the patronus disappeared.
