Chapter Fifteen: That Old Red String

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU TWO THINK YOU'RE DOING!"

"!" they jumped from the bed, onto the floor and onto each other.

"Harry?" Hermione gasped.

"Hermione?" he asked confusedly, his glasses were missing.

"What're you doing in my bed!" They demanded in unison, "Your bed! That's my bed!"

"It's actually Harry's bed," Ben voice broke in, steely, "Hermione what were you doing in it?"

"I—I don'—Oh!"

THE PREVIOUS NIGHT

"Harry, why're you still up?" she had come down for a drink of water and found him sitting up in front of the fire, or at least the embers.

"No reason." He told her.

"Liar." She called his bluff, coming to sit next to him, withdrawing her wand, pointing it at the fireplace and muttering, "Incendio," to relight the flames. "What's wrong?"

"Can't sleep…"

"…are you having nightmares Harry?" she asked softly.

He reluctantly nodded.

"About what?"

"Everything." He whispered, "About the chamber, the spiders, about the stone, that awful Quidditch match when Snape hexed my broom, that troll, about my life…"

"You won Harry," she assured him gently.

"No I haven't Mione, he's still out there; he's still alive somehow and now he has a servant and…"

"Ssshhh, Harry; you've won the previous rounds, you'll win the next. You've got backup now. You're not alone, you've never been and you never will be…"

"This time's different Mione, I can feel it—"

"Hush, let that be tomorrow's problem; you need to go to bed…"

"I don't wan—"

"You're going to bed. Now."

"Stay with me then, until I fall asleep…"

"Don't you have a plushie?"

"No…"

"Fine," she stood up, hauling him up and smothering the fire, "let's get you to bed…"

She let him lead her up the boys' staircase and into his dormitory. She got him comfortable, underneath the covers, before climbing in herself, on top of the covers, and conjured her own blanket. She felt him settle down and sighed almost silently. As soon as he fell asleep she was going back…to…her own…bed….

"Apparently I fell asleep here." She concluded her story. As she didn't look 'corrupted' Ben sighed, deciding to take it easy on them.

"Alright, alright; cold showers the both of you and I won't tell Gwen…"

They looked at each other before looking up to him, "and if we don't?"

"Cold showers, chaperones everywhere you go every second of the day, temporarily sterilizing birth control vaccines, a very embarrassing conversation, the teachers will be alerted, and she will write to Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Granger and Mr. Granger…"

They looked horrified, jumping up and racing out and to the showers. Or at least Hermione did and Harry tried to…he had forgotten his glasses. There were several small thuds before a very much louder one and then Hermione's shout of, "Ben! He broke his back!"

Ben sighed, calling, "I'm coming, don't move him." He grabbed the boy's forgotten glasses, pocketing them, and headed down. "We need Gwen," he stated simply as he stepped over the severely injured student and up the third staircase, saying calmly to the monk portrait, "Tandenite."

The monk allowed him entrance, he walked through the common room and kitchen to the fourth staircase and was then stopped by a muggle door which he pounded on, calling calmly, "Hey Gwen, Harry took a nasty fall down the boys' staircase and broke his back…"
The door opened to reveal a very angry looking Gwen. She was dressed only in her silken bathrobe. "Be back in a minute Kev." She stormed down the staircases and to Harry, healing him quickly but perfectly before storming back to her room.

"What's her problem?" Harry asked as Hermione helped him to his feet and gave him his glasses.

"It is five am, Saturday morning, on Valentine's Day, she and her fiancé have a private apartment with no supervision…" Ben replied.

"Oh."

"Right, off to the showers you two…"

"Fine." They marched off.

"And they better be icy!"

"Fine!"

When they came back both were blue tinged and shivering, teeth chattering. They clambered into the armchair, huddling together under a very thick conjured blanket.

"I hate you." They spoke in unison to their tormentor. He shrugged, "Trust me, in the long run you'll thank me…"

"Whatever," Hermione yawned, setting her head on Harry's shoulder, "can you relight the fire?"

"I've got it Mione," Harry said softly, drawing his wand, aiming, and muttering the needed spell before stowing his wand.

"Thank you Harry." She snuggled down against him, seeking and giving warmth. Harry, not thinking about what it may or may not look like, rested his temple against the crown of her head after taking off and pocketing his glasses.

They soon fell back to sleep. Ben smiled, they were so cute together. He then kicked up his feet and settled down for a nap of his own.

He woke up to Julie moving his feet to where she could sit down.

"What time's it?" he muttered.

"About seven. They're still asleep in the chair. What happened?"

He repeated the story, still a bit tired, moving himself to have his head in her lap.

"Go to sleep Ben," she muttered, stroking his bangs from forehead.

"And miss this view?" he grinned up at her cheekily.

"You little perv."

"I love you."

"I love you too Ben."

He fell asleep for the next hour and then the entire group went to Hogsmeade. They had breakfast in a lovely little 'Mom&Pop' shop before deciding on what stores to visit.

"We're visiting the toy shop, Harry," Hermione told her friend sternly.

"What for?" Harry and Ron asked. She leant close to Harry, "To get you a plushie. I do not like cold showers, do you?" she hissed in his ear. He shook his head.

Once again they split, with Ron going to Honeydukes with Julie in tow again. Everyone else headed to the toy store. Once again, once they entered the shop Kevin took his leave, whispering something to Gwen as he so.

Harry and Hermione went up to the old wizened shop owner. The old man chuckled, pointing them to the stuffed animal section of his store. There were many mundane plushies, there were many fantastical ones and there were all different colors and materials. "Ooohhh! How's about an Acromantula Harry?" she held up the large mottled brown stuffed spider.

"Ah, no." he laughed, "It would give Ron nightmares…"

She grimaced, "I swear that boy isn't fourteen!" she put the spider down.

"A billywig then?" she pointed out the hovering, spinning electric blue insect like stuffed thing.

"Too weird."

'Howzabout Cerberus?" she pointed out a stuffed Fluffy that panted like a real dog.

"Nah. I still get the willies about him."

"Chimera?" The chimera teddy roared, baaed, and hissed.

"Is it venomous?"

"…A Crup?" the fork tailed Scottish terrier plushie activated, barking.

Harry shook his head no and then noticed a vicious looking stuffed dragon, "What's this?"

He held up the black scaled, yellow eyed, bronze spiked miniature monster. It hissed and roared and flapped it's stiffened felt wings irritably

"A dragon, Harry, the most dangerous kind; a Hungarian Horntail."

"Huh," Harry's eyebrow rose, "I like him."

"Alright." Hermione took it and they bought it under the guise of it being for her and the group left the store.

As they walked down the street way Gwen suddenly froze, spun about and sprinted off into the alleyway with the order of, "Ben with me! Kev get the kids back to the castle!"

They split up appropriately, Ben running into the alleyway to find Gwen trapping a man in a manna box, "Holy shit! Is that really—?"

She nodded, eyes narrowed and tone icy as she replied, "Yes. Peter Pettigrew in the flesh. I saw him turn into Scabbers of all things…"

"But Sirius Black—"

"May really be innocent. We need to get the rat back to Dumbledore…"

Safely in the headmaster's office, surrounded by Ministry of Magic 'Aurors' (special wizard police), Plumbers, and the entire human staff of Hogwarts, divested of his wand, bounded to a stiff high-backed chair by cords of both magic and metal, Peter Pettigrew was force fed Truth Serum and, with a Plumber tape recorder recording, interrogated by Ben (he was the ranking Plumber…);

"Who are you?"

"Pe—Peter Pettigrew." It was obvious he was fighting the Veritaserum.

"Did you kill those twelve civilians twelve years ago?"

"Y-Yes."

"Did you do so to escape?"

"Y-Yes."

"Why was Sirius Black after you?"

"I-I-I betrayed the Potters to the Dark Lord."

Muffled gasps were heard but the most affected seemed to be Snape and Lupin, both of whom had helpfully positively identified Peter Pettigrew as Peter Pettigrew.

"You—"

"Professor!" Gwen cried out, "Hold your tongue! Please!"

"Why did you betray them?"

"The Dark Lord will rule all, all challengers are to be killed."

"So, you betrayed your best friend and his family, his wife and baby son, to a sociopath for some eugenic ideal that you yourself fail…" Ben looked disgusted.

"Do you have any information that will lead to the capture of Sirius Black?"

"Yes."

Lupin stepped in, "So do I; James, Sirius and Peter became Animagi in order to be with me on the night of the Full Moon, when I am a werewolf. James was a stag, Peter a rat, and Sirius a great black dog."

"Right." Ben looked to his comrades and the Aurors, "APB: Sirius Black is to be found, told of the changes to his circumstances, and brought to Hogwarts alive. The Newspapers are to rerun his wanted posters with this new rule underneath them. Understand?"

"Yes."

"Yes sir."

Ben then took Peter's wand and grounded it into a very fine powder before activating his com-link to Plumber headquarters, "Yes, this is Benjamin Tennyson of Bellwood USA North America of Earth. We need a Level A Prisoner Transport please from the Headmaster's Office of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Hogsmeade, Scotland. Prisoner: Peter Pettigrew, Species: Human, abilities: Magical abilities including turning into a rat. Charges: twelve counts of murder, two accessories to murder, one accessory to attempted murder, one attempted murder and more to come I'm sure…Yes, he's ready…"

Within a moment seventeen senior Plumbers phased into the room, bound and gagged Peter so thoroughly that not even a rat could escape from them. They then caged him in an energy transportation cell that robbed him of his powers. They phased out, the leader of the group taking the taped interrogation with them.

In Gryffindor Harry paced restlessly; he was cooped up and he didn't like it at all.

"Calm down Harry," Hermione told him.

"I can't," he replied, "They're not telling us something, Mione. They've penned us up and aren't telling us why…"

"They have a good reason, I'm sure."

"Maybe they've gotten Black," Ron suggested helpfully.

"Hey guys!" Julie came walking in, "Good news. That Black guy probably isn't an insane murderer after Harry!"

"What?"

"They've found Peter Pettigrew and he's confessed to betraying the Potters to Voldemort. You'll never guess where he's been hiding this entire time…"

"Where?"

"With the Weasleys!"

"What?"

"He's an unregistered Animagus! He was Scabbers!"

"What!"

She laughed, "That was our reactions! Anyways Gwen found and caught him out in Hogsmeade. We're still looking for Black but he's an innocent man… So, Harry's free to go wherever the hell he wants again."

Harry turned to Ron, "Hedwig's eggs hatched, you can have one of the owls 'cause your rat was really a murderer and Errol's probably on his last leg."

"Thanks mate."