Chapter ten - Shell Cottage
Words – 3,438
AN; one of two author notes in this chapter. I didn't intend to publish two chapters in the same day, but a review has haunted me since I read it. So here is a treat, - don't get use to it, updates will slow big-time when my readers catch-up to what I've pre-written before I got permission to do this.
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The first thing that Harry saw was the Ocean, he didn't know which one of course, but that didn't matter. He'd been to the coast exactly twice in his life time; once during his Hogwarts Letter adventure when he was eleven and again with Dumbledore - - just before the old man was murdered. Back again for a third visit and free for the moment of the threat of instant death, Harry found himself straightaway fascinated with his surroundings.
He felt unusually detached with the fate of Hermione - as if now that she was in Ron's arms, his responsibility for the girl was over for-good. He shook his head to clear it and this feeling of emotional remoteness only intensified. He only half listened to the conversation going on next to him as he reluctantly followed Ron and Dean as they half-trotted in the direction of an odd-looking Cottage that stood off in the distance - and away from the ocean waves behind him.
"Dean, I need you to coordinate with Dirk and write-up a post-action report." Ron ordered fully expecting to be obeyed. "Aberforth will want a head count of survivors and the butcher's-bill. Once I've settled Hermione, we'll start to portkey the able-bodied survivors to the Delacour estate.
"I'm on it chief", Dean replied increasing his pace to a full run - - quickly outdistancing his comrades.
"Idle curiosity made Harry ask; "Butcher Bill, Ron?"
"Casualties – Harry - - - ours, not theirs, I don't keep count of DE's we kill.
"You're a cold blooded killer," Harry said stating a cold-hard fact. "Lucius was unarmed – but you knew that - - didn't you?
"This is war and you're acting naïve. But no …it doesn't bother me – the thing - I've become - - thanks for asking," Ron replied un-phased by the insult. "But if what we do in combat - - when heavily outnumbered and outgunned, every single time - - offends your delicate sensitivities, don't let me keep-you. Use Draco's wand and go.
"Without supplies - - or a tent? Harry said joking, in mock-outrage.
Ron stopped short, turned to Harry and said; "What's wrong with you Potter - that crack was actually semi-funny. Did you get hexed at Malfoy manor?
"Maybe - - I don't know. I've been feeling a-bit off for a-while now.
"Tweaky - - Ron said suddenly speaking to empty air.
"Yes master," came a disembodied reply.
"YOU HAVE A HOUSE ELF? Harry exclaimed loudly - - totally, gob-smacked.
"Shut it Potter," Ron spat back. "Is Madam Pomfrey here at base-camp?
"Yes master, she is working on the wounded in the cottage.
"Is there any bedrooms still vacant?
"No master, every inch of floor space is already taken.
"I'll be with you in mere moments," Ron said resuming his careful jog - - trying not to jostle the injured Hermione more than necessary. "Tell Poppy that I have a seriously injured witch with me, tell her to drop whatever she is doing and come attend to her at once - - or I'll do the repairs myself.
"The matron does not like your white-lite magic; master.
"Then encourage her not to delay
"Where will you be master?
"Set up my small tent, in any open space - - and Tweaky, I do mean the SMALL tent do you understand?
"Master, your rank requires - - "
"- - Tweaky - - obey me!" Ron said sternly.
"Yes master;" came the sad resigned reply.
Harry looking ahead noticed that surrounding the Cottage was five or six canvas tents of the same size and shape as the one he and Hermione had been living in for the last seven-odd months - - deceptively small on the outside and much-much more spacious within. Suddenly a huge pavilion tent appeared dwarfing its neighbors and Ron cursed under his breath.
"That's small? Harry chuckled having not realized until that moment - - how much fun he had whenever Ron was around.
"Dam that elf," Ron mumbled.
Coming around a corner of an out-building Harry caught sight of the Hogwarts Matron standing next to an elderly wizard that bore an eerie resemblance to Albus Dumbledore. Without a word Ron slipped under the door-flap of the tent that Madam Pomfrey was holding open. Following Ron - - Harry saw that the small entrance foyer was decorated like a mini hospital-surgery, right down to hanging 'IV' bottles and glass cabinets filled with rows and rows of potion bottles, in the center of the room was a surgery table and it was here that Ron - gently put Hermione down. Beyond a half-open curtain at the far end of the room - was a large… lavishly furnished lounge that lead off into other rooms.
"What happened to her", Poppy exclaimed waving her wand over Hermione's battered half-naked body. "Honestly Mr. Weasley, I can't do much if I don't know exactly what spells she was hit with.
"I have Bellatrix's wand," Ron said in a worried tone, while holding it out.
"Excellent. That will do nicely, now get out of here and let me work.
"Can you save her Poppy? The elderly wizard asked.
"Maybe, but certainly not with you-lot underfoot," She huffed.
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Outside of the tent, the old wizard transfigured three bits of drift-wood into wooden beach-chairs. "Sit down Ronald, and report. I can see for myself that you found them at Malfoy manor – as prisoners.
But Ron hadn't heard the old man, his total focus was on the front of the tent, an expression of heart wrenching anxiety was painfully obvious on his face. Harry on the other hand the old-man was quick to notice showed a clearly bored disinterest in what was going on. Harry was behaving as if Hermione was only a causal acquaintance and that in itself was disturbing. The obviously distracted national hero was presently looking out to sea. The stark contrast between the two young wizards caused the old wizard to cock an eyebrow in surprise.
"Albus, what have you done this time," the old man mumbled to himself. "RONALD - - Ronald," the old wizard repeated, poking the younger man with the tip of his wand until the boy responded.
"Master,? Ron replied half-heartedly.
"Git a grip boy, your face is an open-book, your shields are completely down and you're leaking core magic all over the place. I swore that girl would be your undoing, and seeing you now - - only proves my point. Sending you to fetch the locket from them - was a huge mistake, I see that now.
"I've failed you again - master, my weakness will get everyone killed - - please forgive me.
"That's rubbish; you haven't failed me or all those that follow you - -"
"- - But Seamus got hurt.
"By disobeying your direct order," Aberforth Dumbledore retorted sternly "Mr. Thomas told me what happened. The young scamp went back to watch the Selwyn place blow-up. That boy has a gift with explosives but he also has a tendency to get caught in his own blasts. He's recovering in France, so don't worry about him.
"We've had casualties, good witches and wizards killed.
"They're all volunteers, we tried to send them to France to be safe, when we - - no …that's not correct - - when you started this resistance insanity. But they decided to stay - - to follow you. Every commander in history has lost troops in combat and every leader has self-doubts.
"What if I make a huge mistake, walk us all into a trap?
"Then you'll use your core-magic, kill a thousand DE - and get us all out of that trap without a scratched knee. So pull yourself together - - we'll get through this – war and chess are very similar games of strategy – and no one has ever beat you at chess – now have they? ". The old man said softly in a forgiving tone - - "for every strength - there is a corresponding weakness - - the greater the strength the greater the weakness - and your magical strength is stronger than I've ever encountered in anyone else. With your entire family safe in France that just left your primary weakness to fret over. I told you, that they were getting nowhere on the hunt – I told you to send them to France to hide in comfort with the others - -"
"- - they wouldn't have gone willingly into exile; Master," Ron said – Potter has a martyr fixation.
"When Granger recovers will you send them to France?
"No master – there is little point in moving them now. All the pieces are now in place, the deception scheme is in the final stages. Soon large numbers of DE will be reassigned to guard Tom's leadership cadre homes and Families. His troops will be stretched thin enough for the plan to work – For Tom has lost the initiative without realizing it as his DE are now solidly on the defensive
"Then all those military theory books I got you from Sand-Hurst paid–off?
"Yes master – Voldemort is just a very powerful bully - he's not a strategist – his followers are a mob –without true discipline. Tom doesn't understand the military concept of - - who defends everything – defends nothing. Nor would his lieutenants ever think to seek out Muggle guerrilla warfare textbooks as you did.
"Are you are sure we are ready for the next phase?
"How else can magical England be truly free?" Ron said calmly. "The taking and holding of enemy territory – especially this one - even if only temporarily will be a major physiological blow to the myth of DE invincibility. My goal is not to keep the place – my intention is to make the DE pay heavily to get it back. I want them to bleed, Master - - to suffer as they have made all Muggleborn's suffer.
"But the cost
"We have no leadership cult on our side. Potter is the only symbolic leader we have and he won't be a major part of our next operation beyond bait dangling on a hook. The cost to profit ratio favors the Plan. You and I have trained squad leaders to step up when I fall. Have a little faith in what you taught Master. Dean and Dirk will do fine.
I just don't want to go through again what happened last time – with corrupt judges being bribed – Tom's leadership cadre buying justice a second time. And I don't want my sister's children fighting another DE uprising - twenty years from now either. No - - this time we get them ALL in one massive blow. Nothing else but a total purge will do.
"But do you have it in you?
"I've used up enough of my core magic already - to make turning back impossible," Ron said sadly sitting down, his Occulmency shields once again sliding into place. "My motivation to live beyond the war is now irrevocably gone. She was never the girl I thought she was, nor he the man – the crime of gullible hero worship taken to extremes – I suppose.
"Youth is filled with mistakes, my boy," Abe countered. "You've made a few your-self as I recall," The old man said wisely. "We humans have a tendency to misjudge the people we meet –unconsciously imposing our values onto them – instead of getting to know their real personality. The hazards of young love make this error ten times worse. When it comes to love it is nearly impossible these days to be a girls first - - sexually speaking, as they appear to start experimenting at an earlier age with each generation," Abe carefully explained . - "The ultimate goal - my dear protégé - isn't to be a girl's first lover – if you truly love her; - the objective is to be her last lover.
"My father said the same thing to me during his birds-n-bee's chat when I turned twelve," Ron said with a sad half-smile as he remembered happier days. "It is not the loss of her virginity to Potter that I morn, Master – she had the right to give that to whomever she wished. She chose him - - I get that, - and he always was more important to her than me - - deep down I knew that too, - although it hurts like hell to acknowledge that I had such little value to her compared to Potter.
"But you said yesterday, that's she regretted their promiscuity? Abe said.
"Master - she found nothing honorably wrong about betraying me and the love I had confessed for her – in exchange for a sexual lark of emotionally void - meaningless sex. With a bloke she often described as a semi-sibling
"Meaningless encounters, like you and Miss Brown, eh Ron?"
"Makes me sound like a huge hypocrite doesn't it? Well - in a way I am, - by imposing my morals on others - - which I know of course is wrong on many levels. 'Judge not or by the same measure so shall you be judged.' It was one of my Vicar's favorite quotes when I was a kid. But not making judgment calls on their actions – doesn't void the basic concepts of right and wrong as I understand them. - - I deeply regret that Hermione's and Harry attitude toward the affairs of the heart are so fundamentally opposed to those held by me and my family.
Is there no middle-ground?
"I'm sincerely sorry - but this is one issue were no compromise is possible – a least not for me. it must be my way or not at all - she would have to fully embrace my concept of faithfulness. These are core values to me – unchangeable. Loyalty over anything else. In light of what I learned at their campsite the other day - I don't see her changing her attitudes to be with me. I fully intend to write my sister in France and tell of what I now know of Potter attitude's on love and fidelity - and strongly advise her - - to exercise her right of association with people of like beliefs - - and abandon once and for all - both Potter and Granger to people who share the same hedonistic values as they do – the liberal idle rich.
So you are never going to see her again.
High maintenance city debauchee versus a poor urban bumpkin church goer - I doubt it. Even if I did somehow survive the next battle we'd run in different circles. Besides her-sort are stuffed shirts law abiding gits - and following the law doesn't apply to me - now does it? As for Potter that future Auror would most-likely prefer my-sort, to be in prison for the illegal and criminal acts I committed in war - to set this country free. Marque of Queensberry rules and all that rot.
"Thankfully; Ginny is attending the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic this term - under a glamor charm and under an assumed name - after a few quick-learn French language charms. She's apparently quite the smart girl and has bounced back from Potters betrayal faster than I ever will with Granger. The last letter I got indirectly through Fleur indicates that my sister is going-out with a French student now, - her third boyfriend since Potter. With any luck she'll find a good lad, settle down in a few years - and give my Mum the grandkids she craves.
"You could still have a happily ever after your-self - didn't you say that the Horcrux declared their relationship over - - Didn't Potter renounce her? And you said legilimens indicated regret or remorse.
"Even if it is over between them, that doesn't indicate that their attitudes have in any way changed. At no time did either of them indicate to me that they were giving up on casual sex as a way of life - - with each other or total strangers until at least twenty-five. She wants a career – to live life to its fullest - she's in no rush to settle down.
"You said Harry said that; not her - - be honest, Ron - - knowing how your angry rants go - how often did you actually let her get a word in edgewise.
"Touché Master" - Ron replied in a resigned tone acknowledging another personality flaw. "But I'm working on that every-day - Master, - really I am. My Occlumency is helping loads with that, I argue less and listen more.
"Did you learn anything of value from Harry?
"Potter called me idiot for thinking of marriage before thirty – and although his parents and mine married right out of Hogwarts - - but maybe he's right – I don't know? I simply do not wish my sister to repeat my romantic mistakes, Master. Unless Ginny wishes to spend commitment capital on a proven thrill-seeking hedonist, there is now way she can trust Harry to remain faithful to her, or tell the true about it - - unless she catches him in the act - - yet again.
End tran
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AN: I'm putting my notes down here for those that don't care to read my review replies; for those that feel that way- move on there is no show here. I just don't want to leave the wrong impression
A reviewer wondered why I had Hermione half-to-mostly naked in the Malfoy great Hall. Right from the off as the Brits say – it wasn't to justify my M rating
There are many forms of torture and humiliation - for a teenage girl to be stripped in front of a room full of men is one of the worst - next to physical pain. No - she was not raped - but the threat of that by a werewolf could have been used to loosen her tongue. The book actually hinted at that with Bella offering to give her to Greyback. But that wasn't why her clothing was torn open in my story.
My readers will not learn the gory details of what happened to her and my goal wasn't for the sensationalism of Ron seeing her naked. I'm just not a good enough writer to do justice to the emotional pain of the sight of Hermione that way - had on Ron. Her nudity revealed to the person it would hurt most - the black and blue bruises - the cuts - the broken ribs - the violated and humiliated soul that Ron loves more than his own life. It was not meant to be sexual or voyeuristic – no, not at all - it was a display of a brutally-harmed Hermione for Ron to see and have nightmares over for years to come.