The next couple of days went by in a more relaxed atmosphere at Grimmauld Place. After Leticia came back with the news from the Burrow, they immediately tested the connection and it was working just perfectly. It did all of them good to be able to talk to their families and learn that they were fine.
On Saturday morning, after breakfast, Harry left the house under the disguise of his Cloak to meet Remus in Muggle London. The older wizard was just about to leave for a mission to Ireland, where, rumour had it, a fairly big number of local wizards went underground upon hearing the news from the UK. His task was to try pursue them to join the fight against Voldemort. Since some of them were practising the ancient and powerful magic of the Druids, gaining their alliance would have meant a slight shift in the balance of forces in the war and every little bit counted. He didn't want to leave, though, before talking to Harry first and pass him the latest news.
Last night Leticia had left for her first mission as well. The Order got word about recently increased activities of one of the biggest vampire clans in England and she volunteered to check out the reason behind all that stirring. Having more than two hundred adult vampires join Voldemort was an idea none of them liked and – even if it was a dangerous mission – they all understood that Leticia would be the perfect spy in their midst.
In the meantime Ron, together with Dobby and – surprisingly - Kreacher, was cleaning out the basement. There was a fairly big room there, around one thousand square feet, which, they reckoned, was just perfect to make a training room of it. Researching the Horcruxes and find ways to their possible destruction was only one item on their to-do list; an imminent war was coming their way and the four of them were determined to survive it. Getting rusty with their spells, they decided it was time to catch up and Remus gave them some really useful books on advanced spells, some of them bordering Dark Magic. At first, Hermione was not too keen on learning how to liquify one's internal organs or break one's bones with one single curse, but finally she saw reason. Being an intelligent person, she understood all too well that the other side would not be picky in their methods.
This morning, Ron and the elves were putting the finishing touches on the training room. The old furniture and other stuff they had currently no use for went up to the attic. They conjured some mattresses and placed several training dummys. After having discussed Dobby's brilliant idea with Kingsley, last night the Auror sent them some Auror training wands to be placed in the dummies' hands. When in the room, Dobby was able to animate the dummies and channel some of his magic through the wands, making them perfect sparring partners and the room the perfect place to simulate a live battle. Both Ron and Dobby were equally proud of the results and decided to have Remus, Kingsley and Arthur have a look at it as soon as possible.
So, after breakfast, Hermione was as good as alone in the huge manor. Helping herself to a second mug of coffee, she just sat there for a while, staring out of the window. She was not really aware of the outside world, though; her head was filled with millions of thoughts in a chaotic mixture. Thousands of pictures were rapidly replacing each other before her eyes. Ron's warm lips as he gave her a good-morning kiss, making her heart want to jump out of her chest. The huge, honest grin on Harry's face upon seeing her every time. Last night's talks with Leticia filling her in on vampires. Then, for some strange reason, she remembered their sorting and their first Charms lesson with Flitwick. Her thoughts, however, always returned to a certain house in Buckinghamshire where she was born and lived the first twelve years of her life and to that day, less than a month ago, when she, unknowingly to them, saw the Wilkins' off at Heathrow as they boarded the plane to Australia.
Curling up on the chair she was occupying, she hugged her knees and a sole teardrop went down on her face. Without her parents, even if she'd been spending the bigger part of her last six years away from home, she felt incomplete. "I miss you, Mum, Dad, I miss you so much!" she thought, closing her eyes and fighting her emotions. "I hope you'll ever be able to forgive me for what I'd had to do. Be pissed with me, shout at me, just please understand everything had been done to protect you; you might have been killed if you'd stayed here." There was nobody there to listen to her silent prayer, yet, she felt somewhat better after emptying her heart.
Shaking the thoughts away, she rose from the chair and rinsed her mug in the sink, leaving the kitchen afterwards. Not really having anything particular to do this morning, she decided to check on Ron's progress in the basement and lingered there for a while. Then she resumed her aimless stroll in the corridors, from time to time opening the door to a particular room, not even knowing what she was looking for.
Some time later, she ended up on the fourth floor, curiously eyeing a heavy mahogany door opposite the wardrobe room. It was a marvellous piece of art, so to say, with an intricate carving of the Blacks' coat of arms at eye-height, but there was something odd about it Hermione at first couldn't place. It was radiating something dark, something powerful; a strange presence, causing a tingling sensation on her neck. Drawing her wand, she raised a shield, just in case, and stepped closer.
"Curioussss, are we?"The voice, muted and somewhat distant, yet clearly understandable, almost made her jump. Turning around and raising her wand, she searched for the source of the voice, but she was completely alone. There were no portraits on the wall on the fourth floor either, and the voice didn't belong to anyone she knew, she was sure as hell about that.
"Curioussss little Mudblood, what are you doing here?" The hissing was louder this time as if the speaker moved closer to her. Shrugging at the thought of having to be around somebody invisible, even being accustomed to Harry wearing his cloak, scared her a bit, and she decided not to take a risk.
"Oratoris Ostendo!" she pronounced, not paying attention to the verbal insult, and her wand emitted a bluish wisp of vapour, somewhat similar to the effect of the Patronus charm. The fog, however, dissolved quickly, leaving no trace whatsoever, bar one spot.
Suspiciously eyeing the doorknob, now flickering with an eerie blue light, Hermione stepped closer. It was an exquisite piece of art again, a king cobra cast of pure silver, her eyes inlaid with genuine emeralds; even if she hadn't known about the loyalties of the former owners of the manor, she would've gotten an answer to her question right now.
Suddenly, the cobra stretched his neck and opened his mouth, letting his tongue slip out and sense the air around him. The emeralds, his eyes, lit up and the startled girl gasped.
"Get rid of thissss misssst, Mudblood, sssso that I can ssssee you," the cobra whispered in his chilling voice and Hermione piped up.
"Let me see, I can Silence you, I can lock your tongue, but I can also blast this door into oblivion together with you. If I were you, I would mind my words," she hissed back, and pointed her wand at the doorknob, just to stress her intentions. With a quick flick of her wrist, she ended the incantation and she saw the muscles of the snake tense as he was following her wand movement with his head.
"Who are you, anyway?" the girl inquired, pocketing her wand.
"I'm Cereussss, the guardian of my Masssster'ssss ssssecretssss," the cobra answered with certain pride in his hiss. "My magic lockssss the door and nobody getssss passsst me unlessss invited by my Masssster or giving the correct passssword."
Carefully considering her words, Hermione paused for a short while. "Your last Master was Sirius Black, correct?" she pressed further.
Shaking his head irritatedly, the snake spat. "By Birthright only. Ssssiriussss betrayed the Black family and their idealssss, yet, being the lasssst living male desssscendant, he wassss my lasssst Masssster. Luckily, I've had the quesssstionable pleassssure of sssserving him only for a sssshort while."
Hermione silently thanked Heavens for not having Harry around for a change, knowing that Sirius' death was still painfully etched into his memory and he could get violent upon hearing such tactless references about his deceased Godfather. Suddenly, she got an idea and grinned at the doorknob.
"Do you know, Cereus, who your new Master is now?" Her eyes twinkled playfully, knowing that the Guardian – just like Kreacher – would rather swallow his tongue than answer this question.
"You refer to the Boy-who-lived, Mudblood? With my Masssster'ssss lasssst will, thissss housssse, together with all sssservantssss and belongingssss are hissss now."
"And the password to the door you are guarding?"
The snake emitted a short laughter. "I'm afraid it will be losssst forever if Ssssiriussss failed to passss it onto the Boy-who-lived."
Hermione could not miss the sarcasm in the victorious voice of the Guardian and the failure to call Harry his Master. Good, she thought, drawing a sharp breath, it comes down to me again.
"Do you mind if I try to guess it?" she looked into the the emerald eyes of the cobra.
"Go ahead, be my guesssst," the short answer sounded. The snake curled up in his original form and cast a somewhat bored, yet expecting glance at her.
A good observer could have probably heard Hermione's brain changing gears as she, frowning her brows, silently thought for a while. "The room has bonded himself to the current Master. I wonder if the password is automatically set in this case."
"Harry James Potter!" she cried out victoriously. The snake closed his eyes, as if dying from boredom. He didn't even bother to turn his head towards the girl.
"Nice try..." she thought, with a lopsided smile on her face. "Maybe Harry should have been here to finish the bonding first. Sirius Black!" she intoned suddenly. This time, the snake answered, silently shaking his head.
Hermione wasn't the type to give up so soon. "Names... must be a name of someone, a realBlack, someone the house would fullyaccept..." she collected her thoughts and, closing her eyes, recalled the tapestry with the Black family tree from her memory and started to name the Heads of the family, one after another.
The snake emitted a sarcastic laugh. "I ssssee you're familiar with the hisssstory of the Noble Housssse of the Blackssss, but no, Mudblood, you're wrong."
Hermione lost her temper and drew her wand, pointing it at the doorknob. "I warned you to shut it, you Pureblood bigot... piece of furniture!" Suddenly, she heard several locks click in the door and saw the eyes of the snake emit a faint green glow. The magnificent cobra stretched his muscles and his head was now level with the girl's eyes.
"You have provided the passssword, little girl, sssso I will have to let you in, even if I completely disssstasssste the idea. Misssstressss Walburga would blow me into piecessss for thissss, but unfortunately sssshe hassss no authority here whatssssoever any more."
Hermione was slightly taken aback. Has she just provided the password? "Wait a small sec, Cereus. What was that blasted password?"
"For the ssssmartesssst witch of your age, you are ssssurprissssingly narrow-minded. 'Pureblood' issss it. Wassss that sssso hard to figure out, knowing the ideassss thissss Housssse had been sssstanding up for for agessss?"
Hermione had enough. "Listen, Cereus, I'm just about getting fed up with being taught morals by a doorknob. I'm going into that room, now, and it would do you good to keep your split tongue to yourself before I stick it to the ceiling with a Permanent Sticking Charm."
The snake didn't show any signs of being frightened or hurt. Lazily curling up again, he yawned, letting the candlelight glister on his venomous fangs for a split second. Hoping that the girl got the hidden message, he absentmindedly added.
"Very well, you may enter. Pleasssse refrain from touching me, however. There'ssss no one here to clean me after your touch."
The door opened and Hermione entered the study, but not before she'd cast a Full Body-Bind curse at the irritating doorknob. This was a magnificent room; spacious, maybe 30 by 30 feet, and also much higher than the usual rooms in the manor. The wall opposite to the entrance was covered with portraits, portraits of Blacks, as Hermione suspected; Masters and Mistresses of the House of Blacks during its centuries-long existence. An enormous fireplace, intricately carved from a greenish sort of marble Hermione'd never seen before, adorned the interieur; from the magical green flames Hermione deducted at once that it was still connected to the Floo network. She silently hoped that it wasn't a direct connection to Malfoy Manor or some other Death Eater headquarters.
There was a prominent smell of dust and old books lingering in the air and the rays of the morning sun, having found their way through the shutters, illuminated millions of specks of dust, dancing in the air. A casual flick of Hermione's wand threw the shutters ajar letting the sun in its full glory in, and the young girl gasped in awe. The other walls, every square inch of them, were covered with bookshelves, loaded with books of different ages, sizes, themes. Feeling in her element again, she slowly wandered around the study, pulling an odd book from a shelf checking its title and author or just opening it at a random page.
"I wouldn't bother with that one. Leave that bit to Ronald Weasley. Besides, it's been two hundred years; the methods of courting have most certainly changed since the times of the French Revolution."
Hermione, deeply immersed in her thoughts, emitted a high-pitch shriek and dropped the book she was holding, the first edition of "Bewitching a witch and stealing her heart" written by one Jacques Motsdoux, from her hands. Her heart pounding in her chest, she momentarily produced her wand and frantically looked around herself, searching for the source of the voice, so distant, and yet, so painfully familiar.