Chapter Three: The Meeting
Hermione was just setting the table when Harry rolled out of the fireplace, traces of "the Den" still on his lips. There was a small clatter as she dropped the silverware she had been holding on the table and ran over to where he was brushing ash off his cloak.
"Harry!" was the only warning Harry got before he was pulled into a hug so strong the wind was knocked out of him.
"Hermione. You're looking well, as always." 'Well' did not really describe Hermione. Rose, Hermione and Ron's first child, had been born a few weeks ago, and yet she still had not lost the glow of a newly-made mother. "Can I help with anything?"
Hermione mock glared at him. "You and Ron, still treating me as if I'm going to collapse at any minute! You go see Ron, he's upstairs with the baby."
Harry grinned. "Still hasn't gotten over the shock, has he?"
"I think he's wondering how he finally managed to get something right," Hermione laughed.
"Now, I'll have you know I get quite a lot right!"
Harry turned to the figure standing in the doorway frowning at both of them with a frown that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Hey, Ron," he called over to his best friend, moving out of Hermione's way as she went back to setting the table.
Harry's eyes briefly scanned the place settings already laid out. Five. That was two place settings too many. He opened his mouth to ask about the extra two settings, but Hermione beat him to it.
"I've been meaning to owl you about Rose's naming ceremony. You will be there, won't you?"
Harry started to say that of course he would be there, but the words stuck in his throat. "I'll try, Hermione," was all he said.
Both Hermione and Ron froze, as they often did whenever something about Harry's work loomed over them.
"I was given an assignment this morning, and I don't know if I'll be back in time."
Hermione's lips pursed, but she went back to setting the table. "Well, then we'll delay Rose's naming ceremony until you get back," she said briskly, as if this sort of thing happened all the time and wasn't a problem.
"Speaking of which," Harry turned to his best friend. "Ron, I need to talk to you for a bit. About work."
Ron and Hermione shared a knowing look and Harry internally crowed in triumph. They had known. He was sure of it now.
"Come on then, mate," Ron said. "We'll talk in the sitting room."
He closed the doors to the kitchen behind them, although Harry didn't care if Hermione heard them or not. It was purely the principle of the matter, he supposed.
"So you got the case, then?" Ron asked, fiddling with the framed picture of baby Rose already sitting on the nearby coffee table.
"You knew I would," Harry replied.
"I suspected. Especially once you knew who it was about."
"How long have you and Hermione known?" Harry asked, and they both knew it was not work they were discussing now.
"Since after the war, mate. It was rather obvious, wasn't it? What with you begging Hermione and me to testify for Malfoy, and then you testifying for his parents. Moved your own sessions around and all to do it, if I remember correctly."
"Yeah, I did. I always thought it was strange that you and Hermione didn't press me about it."
"Well, we figured when the time was right, you'd tell us. Or you'd repay whatever it was you felt you owed the ferret and be done with it. Obviously you haven't done that yet." Ron looked curiously over at Harry. "Since it's out in the open and all now, what exactly do you owe him?"
Harry shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure. I keep remembering what happened in Malfoy Manor-"
"But surely you repaid that, mate!" Ron interjected. "We all did, during the battle. We actively saved his life twice! If anything, it's him owing us."
"Do you feel he owes you anything?" Harry asked, curious.
Ron shrugged. "No. Feels all square to me and Hermione. You sure what you're feeling isn't him owing you?"
"Pretty positive."
Ron sighed. "Well, that's why I requested you get the case. I figure this ought to settle it."
"That's why you didn't tell me about what happened to Malfoy's parents too."
"Yeah. Unspeakable or not, you have to follow protocol too, right? Hermione and I weren't sure if you still felt like you owed him something or not, but we decided we wouldn't tell you until you got the assignment. You're really the only one the Unspeakables could send."
"Yeah, that's what they said anyway. Because of Malfoy Manor."
"That is one freaky house, mate," Ron muttered. "Even worse than the House of Black."
"What did you find when you looked for it?" Harry asked.
"Nothing!" Ron flailed. "That's the freaky part! I knew I was in the right spot, apparated right to where the doorstep should be, but there was nothing there. Not even an empty field or two, and the Ministry records show that Malfoy Manor has acres of fields surrounding it! It was a bloody forest! I apparated right next to a tree – nearly apparated into the tree. No house, no grounds, not even a bloody peacock! It's just not there."
"You can't just pick up and move an estate like that, though," Harry murmured. Ron's report in the folder had said as much, but it still made no sense to him.
"I know. But something's going on with it. And whatever it is, it's no spell that I know of." Or Hermione knows of, went unsaid, as well as the conclusion that could only be drawn from that: so it means it's Dark Arts hiding the house.
"Well, I'll just have to drag him out of whatever rock he's hiding under, I guess," Harry muttered.
"You'll be back in a few days, then," Ron agreed, though Harry wasn't so sure.
Ron turned to head back into the kitchen, but Harry spoke again before he could open the doors.
"Hey, Ron? Who else is coming to dinner tonight?"
Ron looked sheepishly over his shoulder. "Ginny is bringing Teddy to dinner. Says he misses his godfather."
Harry's eyes rolled skyward. "Ron, you know I visit him every Friday afternoon. That's just an excuse."
"I know that," Ron muttered, fingering the golden wedding band on his finger – a nervous habit he'd picked up only after his marriage to Hermione almost a year ago. "But-"
"But what, Ron?" Harry nearly growled at his friend. "Once, I remember you telling me – vehemently – not to lead your little sister on. So why, then, does everyone keep shoving her in front of me?"
"Harry, the war is over," Ron shot back. "You may be an Unspeakable, but that doesn't mean you can't have a family. You're always telling us about that Axel guy and his-"
"Maybe I don't want a family, Ron." Harry's reply was sullen, and it stopped Ron mid-sentence. "Not right now. And I don't want her waiting for me. So whatever everyone keeps telling her, make them stop."
"No one's telling her anything, Harry." Ron's reply was just as soft as Harry's. "She's waiting for you by herself."
Harry opened his mouth to reply, but the kitchen doors swung open, and a blur that could only be his godson ran into the room, arms outstretched. "Harry! Harry!"
Harry's sullen look dropped away in an instant as he scooped the seven-year-old up into a hug, ignoring the young red-haired woman that stood in the doorway.
Dinner was a tense affair for everyone involved except Teddy, who was only interested in telling his godfather about how he'd mastered the thing that Harry had done on his broom the Friday before, and how he'd scared his grandma doing it. Almost instantly after dinner was over, Harry volunteered to take Teddy back home, and the two of them disappeared into the fireplace faster than if they had apparated out.
As she helped clear the remaining dishes, Ginny kept shooting hopeful glances at the fireplace, as if waiting for Harry to return.
"I don't think he's coming back tonight, Ginny," Hermione said at last. "He was given an assignment this morning and-"
"That's not why he's not coming back, and you know it," Ginny interrupted her. "He's avoiding me."
"Perhaps," Hermione agreed, sadly. "Or perhaps he's trying to give you some space so you can move on."
"But why?" Ginny asked, looking in that moment like a lost little girl and not the secure woman she had grown up to be. "The war is over; what is he waiting for now?"
Hermione sighed. She'd had this conversation over and over with Ginny, once it had become apparent to her what Harry was doing. "He's not waiting for anything, Ginny," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"He doesn't want a family right now," Hermione explained. "I heard him tell Ron that tonight."
"We don't have to be a family," Ginny muttered, and Hermione stared at her in shock.
"Ginny, don't say that! Your mother would skin you both-"
"Mum doesn't have to know," Ginny nearly shouted, before realizing what she had just said and hastily adding, "Not right away, at least."
Hermione shook her head in amazement. "You know the minute anything happened, your mother would find out. But that's not the point, Ginny. Harry doesn't want further attachments right now."
"And he told you that?" Ginny challenged.
Hermione thought back to what she'd heard Harry and Ron talk about only moments before Ginny herself arrived. "Yes," she replied, not wanting to tell Ginny exactly what Harry had said.
Ginny frowned, the plate she held in her hands slamming down on the counter with a bit more force than necessary. Hermione quickly spelled the small crack this had caused closed and added it to the sink where two brushes were scrubbing the dishes clean.
"Then what does he want?" Ginny huffed, sitting down at the table. "His job? I think being an Unspeakable is bad for him."
"Ginny, Harry loves being an Unspeakable," Hermione said gently, sitting down across from her.
"He can do the same things as an Auror as he does as an Unspeakable!" Ginny spat.
"No, he can't. You remember what it was like when he was an Auror. He was miserable because no one wanted to give orders to Harry Potter."
"But Ron's in charge now. He wouldn't have problems giving Harry orders-"
"Ron was the only Auror they could partner Harry with. Now that he's Head Auror, they'd need another partner for Harry. It wouldn't work, Ginny, and you know that. Besides-"
"So you wouldn't like to see him switch back?" Ginny challenged. "If he wasn't an Unspeakable?"
Hermione's eyes hardened as she stared Ginny down. "Of course I would love for Harry to be an Auror again. But I know that Harry would hate it, and I don't want that for Harry. If being an Unspeakable makes Harry happy, then Ron and I will support his choice. No matter what oddities Harry being an Unspeakable brings into our lives."
Harry poured over the thin folder's contents until long after the stars had begun to fade from the night sky outside his bedroom window – almost until dawn.
Speaking with Ron had both confirmed and added to Ron's own report, and the first thing Harry did was add notes to what Ron had written.
Malfoy Manor was hiding itself, but even Harry – who was about as far removed from specializing in the domestic magics as could be – knew that there was a limit to what even the oldest, most magical of wizarding houses could do.
This was no mansion pretending to be a summer cottage so that muggles wouldn't see it. In fact, according to what documents the Ministry had, Malfoy Manor had never indulged in pretending to be any less ostentatious than it was. And, no matter how loyal it had become to the Malfoy family over the centuries they had lived within its walls, Harry highly doubted that even a Malfoy could convince it to do such now.
The forest Ron had mentioned troubled Harry. When he had first read Ron's report, he thought he had understood the forest from its description. If the House of Black could pretend that that Number 12 did not exist, he saw no reason why Malfoy Manor couldn't – in its entirety – pretend to be a forest.
But Ron's adamant protest that he'd nearly apparated inside a tree had shot that thought down with a bludger. Ron had known where Malfoy Manor was – he could not have been fooled by any illusions the house might have made to hide itself.
Which all pointed to the fact that the forest was no illusion.
Which was impossible. Land was one of the exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, arguably one of the most confining as 'moving' land was also considered 'creating' land. There was no way that Draco Malfoy could have taken his house and his house's grounds anywhere. Nor could he have put a forest in their place.
So the forest had to be an illusion. An illusion of such quality that one could see, hear, and touch as real. Harry had to agree with Ron that an illusion of such quality could only be obtained through the use of highly advanced Dark Arts.
Not that Harry had expected anything less from Draco Malfoy.
But that conclusion had to narrow it down somewhat, Harry hoped. Nothing had entered Malfoy Manor since Malfoy's trial. So, whatever it was that was sustaining this illusion that Malfoy was using was something that didn't have to be replenished. Even Malfoy Manor – especially right after Voldemort's defeat – could not have had stores enough for seven years worth of any one item.
That ruled out all potions and any complex spells that used a perishable ingredient.
That had to count for something – how many other such advanced Dark Arts illusion spells could there be?
Harry had no idea – Dark Arts research wasn't his specialty.
It wasn't Zexion's specialty either, but he could find whoever's specialty was Dark Arts research in the Web.
On Harry's bedside table, he'd placed a ratty, muggle agenda book from the year 2002. Harry opened it and began to write the conclusion that he had come to along with his reasoning all over the calendar for March with the tip of his wand. His words turned a dark blue and stood out in sharp contrast to the faded black lines of the page, as if Harry wasn't writing on the page at all, but just a hair's breadth above it.
Satisfied, Harry lay back on his bed and placed his wand beside the still-open agenda book. Kreacher – ever vigilant – doused the lights as Harry allowed sleep to finally overtake him.
One eye cracked open in amusement when there was a bright blue flash from the agenda book and the words disappeared as if Harry hadn't written them at all.
Apparently he wasn't the only one working late.
Additional Notes:
1. Dedication - I just have to say that this chapter is dedicated to QianYun, who will understand my reasoning for this dedication.
2. This Chapter - I just wanted to put a quick note here that this chapter would not have appeared without the influence of my reviewers. I have a few other chapters that I want to get done this summer (in the.. er.. week I have left) but I was motivated so strongly by my reviewers that... well... here it is. I couldn't think of a way to thank you all as much as I wanted to but to give you an extreemly early chapter (it would have showed up like the second week of September otherwise). So here it is. I hope you liked it. Thank you all!
status: beta'd by Ayeshah Harvey-Lomas