Even though they'd heard the front door being slammed shut, the teens and the elf spent a good half hour to search the mansion throughly just to make sure Harry was not in the house. Having convinced themselves that Harry'd indeed left the building, they came back to the kitchen, clearly not knowing what to do.
"Do you think he went to Hogwarts?" Hermione asked for the umpteenth time, on the verge of breaking into hystery.
"Well," started Ron cautiously, "he can't have gone back to the house he used to live with those awful Muggles, can he?" Seeing the others shaking their heads, he went on. "We can tick off this one. As for Hogwarts, I'm not that sure."
"I can take care of that, Ron," nodded Dobby and disappeared with a loud crack. Ron went up to Hermione and protectively hugged the girl to himself. "It's not your fault, Hermione," he whispered into her ears, gently stroking her hair. Hermione didn't answer, only burst out in silent sobs, snuggling closer to the boy's warmth she needed so much.
In a mere few minutes, Dobby returned. "He's most certainly not in Hogwarts. The elves hadn't seen him, neither had the portraits or the Headmistress and staff he could have gone to. Hagrid is away and the Shrieking Shack is empty. He can't be in any of the not-so-secret passages as well. I spoke with the Come-And-Go Room," he continued, getting Hermione's full attention, "but his presence there hadn't been noticed either."
"Which means by this time he can be just about anywhere on the planet," finished Leticia the thoughts of the elf.
Hemione knew better than that, though. "Harry still doesn't have an Apparition licence, and, most probably, since the Department of Magical Transportation is in Voldemort's hands now, he wouldn't risk Apparating knowing that he can be monitored. Which makes me realize that the last several days we have also been Apparating meaning we could easily have been traced as well!" Realizing what this would mean to all of them, she let out a frustrated shriek.
"He's taken his broom and his cloak," Dobby plopped back, "so he's still somewhere in or around London. Not a pleasant perspective to search such a huge human city for a needle in the haystack, I need to admit."
With a mysterious smile on her face, Leticia stood up. "I think I have an answer." Raising her hands to the sky, she momentarily transformed into a giant bat and flabbered out of the open window. Ron's jaw dropped as he watched the scene and was just staring into the spot the girl had just vacated.
Time went by and still no news from Harry or Leticia. Hermione was pacing up and down the kitchen, nervously writhing her hands, silently cursing herself for the thousandth time. Suddenly, they heard the flapping of huge wings and out of the nothing a huge bat appeared, carrying the unconscious body of Harry. Sweeping the remnants of the breakfast on the floor, they placed the body on the table and Leticia transformed back.
"Harry's OK, don't worry, Hermione. I had to stun him to bring him back. He was clearly not himself and very much upset," she explained, pointing her wand at Harry and muttering "Ennervate". The boy's eyes opened and he drew a few deep breaths, while climbing off the table and shakily getting on his feet. When he realized where he was, he lowered his head in shame.
"Damn you Potter!" cried Hermione and forcefully slapped him across his cheek, her fingers immediately leaving a red trail on his face. Then, she jumped at him and started frantically kissing his face. "Damn... you... Potter... leaving... like this... could have been killed... you bloody idiot..." Ron was watching her with a strange expression on his face. Having felt his stare, Hermione disentagled from Harry's embrace, cupped Ron's cheeks and planted a firm kiss on his lips, leaving him completely out of breath.
"You're my boyfriend and Harry's my brother. I want you to understand and accept that, Ronald. I love you and I love him, but what I feel for you is totally different from what I feel for him," she said, kissing him once again. Then she took Harry's hand and pulled the boy with her, out of the kitchen.
Once in the anteroom, she plopped down on the sofa and patted it indicating Harry to sit down. Still holding his hand, she put on her stern Hermione Granger-look. "Now spill! What on Merlin's saggy pants made you rush off just like that? There could have been Death Eaters outside waiting for you!"
"Hermione, I don't know what to say. I have never had a proper family and the mere thought of having one, belonging to someone came too sudden. Not that I'm unhappy with all this; I've always considered you my sister and I wouldn't have given this feeling away for anything else," he admitted. Feeling that there was more to it, Hermione urged him to continue with a questioning look. Drawing a sharp breath Harry obliged.
"There was a time in our fourth year during the Triwizard Tournament, with you spending practically all your time helping me to survive the three tasks, when I felt something different towards you." Completely missing the pretty blush on Hermione's face, he continued. "I don't know if it was love, I've never known what love, real love was, not even after kissing Cho, until Ginny and I have got together. But then, I watched you two idiots dancing around each other and understood you were destined to be together. I'm completely happy with you being with Ron and completely happy and flattered at the same time by having you as a sister. I couldn't have dreamt of more, Hermione."
"Harry, I... I did feel something for you in fourth year and if you'd asked me to be your girlfriend, I would have most probably said yes. But then, at that thrice blasted Yule Ball, I realized that I loved Ron with all of my heart even if he was thick and tactless and had the emotional range of a teaspoon." Both of them laughed as they recalled that talk in the Common Room, the evening after Harry'd kissed Cho.
Harry suddenly went serious. "Hermione, tell me one thing. You practically lost your parents by fiddling with their memories and sending them to the other end of the world. I'm sure when all this is over we'll find them and you'll be able whatever charms you've done on them and reunite with them. What made you have them adopt me instead?"
"Harry, everybody needs a family. A proper, loving family. You haven't had the chance to have one, not counting the short time you'd managed to spend with Sirius, before he... before he..." Hermione started crying and Harry gently drew her into his embrace, his hands making small circles on her back.
"Shhh, don't cry, big sis," he whispered into her ear, eliciting something which could have been qualified as a nervous laugh. Still, the girl slowly came to her senses and raised her tear-stained eyes to meet the boy's equally wet face.
"When it's over, James Wilkins, you will have a proper, loving family, I promise," she nodded. "Besides, in the Muggle world you're still considered a minor and having a guardian may come in handy sometimes."
"You truly are my guardian. My guardian angel. Saving my sorry arse more often than I can recall," murmured Harry and stood up, pulling the girl up as well in one smooth movement.
"My soon-to-be brother-in-law," he said, stressing the last word, "will go berserk if we don't join them very soon. Why don't we just get back to the kitchen and continue what we were doing?"
Upon entering the kitchen, Hermione immediately went up to Ron and settled comfortably in his lap, draping her arms around his neck. The boy, protectively hugging the girl to himself, quickly assessed the situation, and, seeing on their blood-shot eyes that both had cried, drew a sharp breath.
"Are you both... I mean OK?" he inquired cautiously.
"Yes, we are, Ron," answered Harry, just a fracture of a second ahead of Hermione. "We had a talk with Hermione and she opened my eyes to things I'd never realized before."
"Good for you, you two," murmured Ron barely audibly, "is this 'brother' stuff now real?"
"Yes, Ronald, it couldn't be more real than that. My parents – their new identities, that is - have really adopted Harry," confirmed Hermione.
"Bloody hell woman!" cried the boys in unison. "How long did it all take for you to arrange this?"
"alitlbitmorthanayear" mumbled the girl, flushing red.
"Pardon me?" raised Harry his head.
"My parents have started the adoption process shortly after the events at the Department of Mysteries. Basicall we just arranged for transferring Sirius' guardianship over Harry to them, which was a piece of cake really, and immediately started the adoption process. I just interfered at some places and changed some minor details like names and addresses, placed some Confundus charms on the necessary people, arranged for James Wilkins' birth certificate, ID and school certificates, bank account, and debit card," Hermione counted on her fingers as if she was discussing the ingredients of tomato soup with them.
Amazed at the gigantic amount of work she'd done, Harry watched her in awe. She must have been the smartest witch of the century, maybe even the millenium. Meeting her eyes, now beaming at him, he let a huge grin form on his face, as he slowly understood what it all meant.
"Thank you, dear sister, for everything," he said simply, making an emphasis on the word "sister", though.
"Not a problem, dear brother," she answered.
Ron was getting rather unconfortable at this point, seeing that the two were sharing now something he had nothing to do with, so he tried to direct the conversation away from this theme. "Leticia, where did you find Harry?" he turned to the other girl.
"Well, it wasn't that hard. I just had an educated guess of what other places Harry might have ever called 'home'," she admitting, with a playful twinkle in her eyes.
"Godric's Hollow!" shrieked Hermione. "You Apparated to Godric's Hollow, you idiot, knowing that there might have been Death Eaters, knowing that your Apparition could have been traced!"
"Amazing what a good broom can do, Hermione," smiled Harry. "With a little tweaking, I can fly twenty miles in a quarter of an hour, which I'd just done. Then I Apparated to a village another ten miles from Godric's Hollow and covered the rest by broom."
"This was irresponsible, dangerous, foolish, hazardous..." Hermione ran out of adjectives. "Just promise me you'll never scare me again like that!"
"I, Harry James Potter, solemnly swear on my life and my magic..." started Harry, drawing his wand, but Hermione interrupted him. "Leave the bull, if you would. Just promise."
"Promise," Harry gave in. "I promise that the next time I tell my parents what a wonderful sister I have, I will take aforementioned sister with me."
Happy that the talk's been done, he went silent for a minute.
"Guys, I think we have a little problem to solve. I was thinking about it last night but it's kind of tricky. It's been five days since we disappeared and the Weasleys and the Order still don't know what happened to us. We have to notify them somehow," he spoke up finally. "What do we have?"
"We have no owls," started Ron. "Besides, owls can be intercepted."
"Talking Patronus? I don't know the incantation and there's a chance that there are Death Eaters at the Burrow," continued Hermione. "The Floo network is probably monitored as well so we can't even contact Kingsley or Remus or whomever else, which leaves us with nothing."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," smiled Leticia again. "Who do you want to pass a message to and what would that message be?"
Arthur, Molly and Remus have just finished to clean up the rest of the mess the Death Eaters had left behind and sat down in the kitchen to enjoy a fresh mug of coffee, when they heard a soft knock at the kitchen window. A tiny bat was sitting at the windowsill and knocked again, this time more impatiently. The three adults drew their wands, while Arthur opened the window and let the tiny creature in. It flew into the kitchen, landed in the centre of the table and spoke in a girl's voice.
"Mollywobbles, your youngest son and two surrogate children are fine. Twelve is a beautiful number. Ickle Ronniekins finally found his courage to ask Ms. Wilkins out. The-boy-who-must-be-hyphenated sends his love to Firefly and says he's missing her. If the sky is clear, it will be cold at night, so they'll light a fire. Greetings to Gred, Forge, Dragonman, Billy the kid and Phlegm."