A/N- I do not own Harry Potter- This disclaimer will apply for the rest of the story.
Harry Potter was in a quandary.
He had recently made promises to himself in regards to his best and truest friend in the whole wide world and the promises had been playing randomly on a loop throughout his dreams, which kept said promises fresh in his mind when he awoke.
Whispers of oaths such as: I, Harry James Potter will now and forevermore listen to Hermione Jean Granger as if my life depended on it, because it usually does and she's always right and I'm an idiot a fair bit of the time…
As well as: I will protect Hermione with everything that I have even if it means dying before I get Voldemort-the fucking batshit crazy bastard- and leaving the wizarding world without a savior. Other oaths came into play as well, and one that had been secretly sworn by the young man had created the quandary he was now facing: I, Harry Potter, will be level-headed and logical; I will not lose my head, I will think things through and listen to reason and explanations.
The last oath of rationality and his other very important oath of protecting his best friend put him at odds with himself. Mainly because his best friend was sprawled half on a Slytherin, both asleep and very peaceful looking he might add.
What was a Gryffindor to do?
Hermione had her head buried in the crook of Blaise Zabini's neck, her arm wrapping around his chest loosely and her leg hitched on his. Meanwhile, Zabini had an arm under Hermione's head that curled around her arm, pressing her closer even in his sleep. His other hand lay atop the wrist that lay on his chest.
If Harry were Ginny he might have found the situation endearing and let out an involuntary, "Aww." As it were, Harry was not Ginny, he was Harry Potter and wasn't sure if he should hex Zabini and apparate Hermione out of wherever the hell they were or gently nudge Hermione awake and ask her what in the hell was going on.
What to do, what to do? Harry thought dramatically, feeling a second away from pulling out his unruly black hair. Luckily for the wizarding world's reluctant hero, the door opened and a small boy scurried in and jumped on top of Hermione and Zabini, startling them awake.
Harry felt himself fly backwards off the bed as Hermione jumped as the soft body of the small boy came in contact with her and her human pillow. She reacted quickly and kicked the nearest person(thankfully not Gabe, but unfortunately Harry took a tumble) all the while twisting away from all human contact and giving herself time to catch her bearings. Blaise on the other hand simply gave his little brother a hug and tossed him gently to the side, in Hermione's previously occupied spot.
"Breakfast time!" The young boy cried out suddenly, too suddenly for Harry's delicate nerves it seems for when he heard the boy's words he jumped up from his position on the floor with his wand pointed at the Zabini boys. Hermione flung herself in front of Gabe very suddenly and it startled Harry so badly he shot off a Stupify out of pure instinct. Directly at his best friend. Oops.
The jet of red light was stopped suddenly by an invisible shield, a variation of the Protego charm, that had been cast wandlessly and wordlessly by Hermione. The Zabini boys smiled angelically at their protector behind her back and inched closer to the young woman subtly. Well, Blaise tried to be subtle, Gabe just hugged her from behind. Hermione gently laid her hands over the arms that wrapped around her middle, all the while staring Harry down half glaring and half willing her calm to pass from her to him. Harry noted the stubborn set of Hermione's jaw, her calm but fierce eyes and the way that she used her body to shield the Zabini siblings and lowered his wand arm quickly. He knew better than anyone; no one messes with Hermione or someone she cared about.
"How long have I been out? Months? What in the fu-world happened while I was asleep?" Harry quickly cleaned up his language at Hermione's fierce death glare, that screamed, There are children present, Harry James Potter! The youngest Zabini peeked out from behind Hermione's back and smiled crookedly at Harry. A small, involuntary smile bloomed on Harry's confused face, as if he had no control over it.
"Harry, you remember Blaise Zabini. Of course you do." Hermione continued, not waiting for acknowledgement. "And this flying monkey is Blaise's younger brother, Gabriel. We are staying with them for a bit I should think. Now as the little monkey has said, breakfast is ready and I'm famished so let's go boys!" She picked Gabriel up and began to carry him out of the door with no other explanations for poor Harry.
"Bossy witch," Blaise mumbled fondly, a sly smile on his face.
"I heard that!" Hermione called over the shoulder Gabe wasn't using as a pillow.
"I meant for you to, love." Blaise called back, jumping off the bed with a leonine grace and following after her with a skip in his step (thank Merlin he wasn't literally skipping, otherwise Harry might have passed it all off as a particularly vivid dream).
And Harry Potter watched it all, finding himself in yet another quandary. Food or flee?
Then like a lightning bolt remembrance smacked him on the head, his first oath! Listen and trust Hermione at all times! Feeling calmer Harry Potter thanked his lucky stars that in this instance, listening to Hermione meant food.
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"Would you like some more bacon, Harry darling?" Alana Zabini asked as she placed another three strips on his plate. Harry was stuffed but one look at the beautiful woman and with memories of Hermione's meager meals and he nodded dumbly and stuffed some more food in his mouth.
Harry chewed carefully, listening in on the conversation that was surrounding him. Zabini- Blaise, he mentally corrected himself, after all they were all Zabini's- was quietly eating while watching his father question Hermione. Mrs. Zabini was quietly instructing Gabriel on table manners and Hermione was gazing between himself and with her lower lip between her teeth.
"So you were in England before you apparated straight onto our property?" Galileo Zabini was asking a nervous looking Hermione. Hermione glanced at Harry and communicated that she would give the family that was harboring them the bare essentials- out of courtesy.
"Yes, sir." Her voice was clear, but she kept glancing at Harry to make sure he didn't mind her explaining themselves a bit. Harry understood and trusted that Hermione wouldn't put their secret mission on display, so he nodded to her faintly.
"And you had never heard of Zabini Manor, and had no idea where it was located?" Mr. Zabini's eyebrows were pulled together in confused concentration.
"No, sir. I was desperate at the time and only thought of a single word before I apparated us out. I am as surprised as you to have ended up in one piece, let alone in your back garden. I'm sorry." She looked down at her nearly empty plate and pushed a lone grape around the perimeter of the fine china.
"Nonsense, dear. I meant not to make you feel bad or unwelcome. I am merely trying to ensure that there are no faults in the wards." Galileo's light brown eyes shown with compassion as he looked between Hermione and Harry.
"I understand sir, and if you would like I can help you fill any holes in the wards? I've gotten quite good at them, actually." She was referring to their extended stays in the woods. They had become invisible thanks to Hermione's skill.
"Oh, I would love the extra brain on the wards situation! May I ask you a question, though?" Galileo's face shifted from a brilliant smile to serious in two seconds flat. Hermione met his gaze and the conversation at the table ceased. She nodded tentatively.
"What had you so desperate, dear?" The single question had Hermione and Harry both rolling in one of their worst memories to date. Vicious red eyes, the hiss of a gargantuan snake, blood flying everywhere… A shudder broke Hermione from her thoughts and the family noticed her hand shaking as she reached for her coffee. She took a sip and gave herself time to gather her thoughts and check Harry's reaction. She saw the barest hint of a nod and shifting in his upper body. She knew what that meant: the truth-well, the abridged version anyway.
"We were in someone's home, after being invited to enter by the owner. The owner was someone we needed to speak to about some important things. We knew it could be a trap, but we decided that it was worth the risk. Harry followed the owner upstairs, and I assumed it was to have a private conversation. I stayed downstairs…I didn't feel right about being there… It wasn't like it should have been…" Hermione seemed to lose herself in the recollection and Harry decided to jump in.
"I followed her-the owner- upstairs and was excited about finding the answers to questions we have. I ignored my instincts and well, that's when it went badly wrong. The owner wasn't the owner at all and the thing that was wearing her popped out from her skin and…" Harry could remember the blood splashing over him and the sound of bones hitting the filthy hard wood floor.
"He was in a trance. I heard something very wrong- bones falling on the floor make one jumpy- so I ran up the stairs and saw him locked in a trance with that vile snake. I knew who the snake belonged to and I knew we had very little time. So I grabbed Harry and jumped through the window. The snake struck me just as I reached the window…It was stuck in my side as I prepared to apparate...I saw him right before I thought of somewhere to apparate to, and he looked so angry- but confident. It hurt so badly, but I couldn't scream, could barely think…" Her eyes were watching the steam rise from her strong coffee.
Gabriel looked close to tears and Alana looked torn between crying and getting up to hug Hermione and Harry in turn. Blaise was wearing a carefully composed mask of neutrality but his eyes were dim and his brow creased almost imperceptibly with something akin to pain.
Galileo was serious when he asked, " Who did the snake belong to? Who did you see before you apparated?"
Hermione was silent.
"Vol-" Harry started to say, but was abruptly cut off by Hermione.
"Harry!"
"What? They should know that this isn't some game! We are Undesirable Number One and Two, for Merlin's sake! I don't know what's going on, all I know is that I woke up and found you wrapped around a Slytherin and now I'm eating bacon made by his mother and I'll be damned if you get hurt again so they should know that we are being hunted by the darkest wizard of all time! They should know that we had to flee from him right before we got here, however long ago that was!" Harry threw his hands up and finished his rant feeling better.
Hermione glared at him but softened her gaze when she realized there had been little time to explain her reasoning for staying here for a few days. She knew that if there was one thing that Harry couldn't stand besides Voldemort it was being left out of important decisions and information. She sent him a look of compassion and her eyes conveyed that they would talk privately as soon as possible. Harry sighed and looked down.
"I'm sorry for that. I am a little tense at the moment. Please accept my apology and thanks for your care and food." Harry looked at Alana and Galileo with sincere remorse for his rudeness. They smiled softly at him and nodded.
"Don't worry m'boy. Understandable, that is, no doubt about that. " Galileo munched on some toast and looked thoughtful for a moment before looking at Hermione with curiosity painted on his features.
"My dear, I would very much like to know what it was that you thought about as you apparated. It may help us figure out if there are loopholes in the wards."
"Safety." Hermione mumbled.
Blaise looked up from the eggs he was poking at and stared at her, awe and happiness lighting up his green eyes. Hermione noted his gaze and smiled slightly before turning to Alana as she questioned her about her announcement.
"Saftey? That was the only thought in your head?" The beautiful woman clarified.
"Yes, ma'am. There was no picture, nothing except that word. I remember vaguely thinking I would splinch us or end up in the middle of the ocean somewhere because of my lack of firm destination in mind. Imagine my surprise at waking up in a nice bed with a precious little boy playing with my hair." Hermione sent a wink to Gabriel who blushed and smiled at her sweetly.
"That is something to think on." Galileo murmured before jotting something down in small leather bound book, sipping on his espresso noisily.
Breakfast ended shortly thereafter.
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"So you think we should…stay here?" Harry questioned almost hysterically. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"I just explained to you the reasons why I have concluded that the Zabini's genuinely want to help, and will not be a threat to us, Harry!"
"But Hermione… They are Slytherins. We can't know if we can really trust them!"
"They were neutral and now are taking a chance to help us. Im not saying we need to tell them everything. Im just saying we should use this opportunity to gather more information, maybe even a means to destroying the locket, maybe even have an opportunity to find more of his...you know!" Hermione pleaded with her stubborn best friend.
Harry could sense the logic in her words and decided that staying in a nice warm house with a constant supply of meals and showers really was the best route to take; after all he promised himself he would be logical and listen to Hermione. He would be cautious and watch out for Hermione and enjoy the perks of being away from that blasted tent.
"Alright, Hermione." He sighed and leaned back against the couch in the room they had woken up in earlier. The cushions were soft and he felt deliciously full from his breakfast, causing his eyes to droop and close. Hermione watched him pass out on the couch with a smile on her lips. She hadn't seen him relaxed enough to nap in months.
Hermione got up from the couch and lifted Harry's legs so that he could stretch out and covered him with the brown throw that was over the back of the couch. She ruffled his hair fondly before exiting the room feeling stronger than she felt in months. She had a sneaking suspicion that their food had been laced with the nutrition potion Gabe had mentioned that Blaise was brewing for her.
After breakfast was over Hermione politely excused herself and Harry and dragged him to 'their' room to explain everything that she could. She even told him about Mrs. Zabini's poking fun at herself and the rumors that circulated about her. She thought that he took it rather well, considering that he usually blew up at the idea of any Slytherin contact. Maybe he was growing up. Lost in her thoughts she wandered the halls of Zabini manor, vaguely wondering where the family had gotten off to.
Her thoughts blanked out completely in shock as she stepped into a giant room filled from floor to ceiling with books.
Books. From floor to celing. On shelves. That smell of aged parchment. She wondered if she had died and gone to heaven and everything that she had gone through since waking up was just limbo.
She tiptoed into the sacred room and wondered where she should start. Should she look up different ways to destroy Horcruxes? Should she try and look into Hogwarts history to get an idea on what the other Horcruxes could be? Should she look up new defensive spells to use in battle? She was skimming the books with her fingers as she passed and decided to use a spell that she had read about that would summon books that had mentions of a keyword or phrase in its pages.
Using the key word of Horcrux she saw at least seven books fly towards the single table in the room. They stacked themselves neatly before her eyes and she quickly became giddy with excitement. She had only managed to summon two books from Dumbledore's office after he died and she had certainly felt the loss of more information regarding the cursed objects she had been hunting for months.
She sat down reverently in the cushy chair that was set before the table and reached for the book on the top of the magically made pile. Her hand stopped mid-reach when she noticed a pile of clippings under the spine of a potion book. She gently lifted the potions book instead of the Horcrux tome and fingered the clippings below it.
Potter causes an Uproar in the Ministry of Magic
'Trio' spotted near Muggle London, According to Keisha Talltale
Bellatrix Lestrange Boasts that there is No Threat from the 'Trio'
Similar Headlines and by-lines stared up at her from the pile of clippings clutched in her hand. The Daily Prophet had certainly been taken over by Death Eaters, she mused to herself. She wondered if Blaise had clipped the articles, to what? Keep up with the war? To keep up with the 'trio'? To keep up with her?
She blushed, placed the clippings back where she found them and opened up the first book that had mentions of 'Horcrux' within its pages, quickly getting lost in it.
IMPORTANT A/N- I have noticed that I have thousands of views for this story and not even ONE percent of the viewers are leaving reviews. That makes me sad and makes me believe that my readers DO NOT LIKE THIS FIC. If that is the case, then I have other stories that could use and update and I will not be focusing on this story.
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