This week had been the worst for Hermione in a long time. She had been stopped multiple times on her quick dash out of the castle by several Professors. But when she finally managed to get home, she was delighted to hear Ron's voice in the other room. At least he wasn't out at work or something and she'd have to hunt him down too.
She started walking to the bedroom so she could let him know she was safe, and hopefully talk with him about her feelings without hurting him too much. That is until she heard another voice. Someone else was here. A female. In the bedroom with Ron.
"Ronald... could you please come here" she said softly. Hearing a crash and a loud thump as she assumed he fell to the ground.
When Ron came out, he was red all over and without a shirt. She had to swollow the pain she was feeling, trying to remind herself that she felt it was over between them anyways.
"Hermione.. uh what are you doing here? Why aren't you at work?" he said.
She raised an brow and pointed her thumb to their room "I could say the same thing"
Ron couldn't think of any way out of this. He knew how smart his girlfriend was. But before he could think of something to say Hermione spoke up again.
"Listen.. I just wanted to let you know I was safe and not to worry. But it seems you didn't even know I was gone" she said and held her hand up to Ron as he was about to speak, "I also wanted to talk about how I don't feel this can go on any longer, our relationship. I just don't feel the same for you anymore" she took a deep breath and tried to compose herself "but it seems that we don't need to have that talk. I will come back later for my things Ron" and with that she walked right back out the door.
"Professor.. in the prophet this morning, it uh said something about a breakout at azkaban. It also said something about these creatures patroling certain areas like Hogwarts.. Could you tell us what a dementor is?"
This was not at all what Harry was teaching his class. But he expected one of them to ask about it. He had read the paper this morning too. But he however did not know how to explain it to a lot of second years.
"Well Anna, a dementor is a dark magical creature. The Ministry has had their help with guarding our prison for decades. Does anyone here know anything about a dementor?" he spoke to his class.
When a hand shot straight in the air he could help but start busting out laughing. He had to hold on to his desk to keep from falling over. Once he was finally composed he looked at the student who looked nothing like his best friend but reminded him so much of her. "Sorry.. Yes miss Vance? What do you know about Dementors?"
"Well sir, I know they cause the air around them to go cold"
"Yes, ten points to hufflepuff. That is usually a tell-tale sign that one is near by. Does anyone else have anything to add?" he said. But when no one said anything he continued "Non-magical people can not see them. But can still feel the effect they put off. When a dementor gets close enough, they will feed on the happy memories of those around it. They leave nothing but dispair left of their prey ". Another hand had come up, "yes mister longbottom?"
"What happens when they run out of happy memories to feed on?"
"The worse imaginable thing..." Harry began, and wasn't sure he should be telling kids about this. But thinking back to when he was young, all the things people kept from him for his own good, he continued "The dementor will suck out the soul of their prey. It's called a dementors kiss".
The whole room was silent after a few gasps. Harry was looking down at his desk. He couldn't be sure telling them was the right thing to do, but he was adament with not keeping things from others. "But... There is a charm that will protect the caster from a dementor"
"Isn't that a patronus charm? My dad was telling me about your stag once"
"Yes mister longbottom. Please raise your hand in my class" Harry was now looking over his students, they seemed releaved to hear the news. "It is the patronus charm. Expecto Patronum", Harry's stag went around the room once and stopped at his side staring down the students.
The class got loud for a few moments. But then Harry spoke. "But can't expect any of you to handle that spell yet. If you would like to look it up and practice on your own, it wont hurt you. If you want to ask questions, you can always come to my office. But now back to the leasson. Which of you can tell me which spell to use to sheild yourself?"
Once again miss Vance's hand was quickly up. Harry sat back at his desk thinking far too much of his best friend Hermione. Remembering his last encounter with her, and how he kissed her before walking out quickly. What would she say to him next time they meet? or would she forget about it? Hermione, probably not..
Then the girl was waving her hand in the air, making Harry think even more of his friend. Smiling he said "Yes.. miss Vance?"
Ragnok couldn't believe his eyes. Looking over the papers in front of him again and again, but he couldn't come to another conclusion. For the first time in his living memory, his accountant would be loosing more money than he was making this year. The wizard had plenty of money to make up for it, but something must be wrong. Gringotts must some how have some sort of security problem.
He will have to contact his accountant right away. He pulled out a parchment and quill, 'Urgent matters Mister Potter...'
Harry was sitting at the staff table eating breakfast when an owl dropped a letter next to him.
Harry,
"I went home to speak to Ron as you had suggested. Why wait? Well things didn't go exactly as planned, but I did manage to get my point across. But I still need to collect my things. I am living with my mum for a short time, do you think you could help me move it all here this weekend? I was wanting to spend some time with you afterwards as well. Maybe we could spend the day at the pool or go out somewhere. Let me know asap.
Love Hermione."
Harry was excited to hear from his friend so soon. But something didn't seem right about this. She is a very capable witch, why would she want me to be there with her to collect her things? and what kind of git is Ron for just tossing her out like this?!
He stashed it in his pocket until later. He would write back to her after his first class. He got up heading out of the Great Hall when another owl nearly pelted him in the back of the head but instead landed at his feet right in front of him hooting loudly and jumping around.
Harry then knelt down to take the letter, but the owl didn't leave. So he quickly read the letter,
"Urgent matters Mister Potter,
I have recently discovered that your account will not be receiving more interest than has been spent this year. It is important for us to meet asap. This has not happened in the 48 years I have worked with this account. Please respond when and where would be good for you.
Ragnok, Gringotts Accountant."
Harry was looking at the still jumpy little bird. "Well come on little guy, we have to go to my office before I can write back" he then picked the bird up and continued on.
Neville was rushing to the greenhouses for his next class. Luna has tried to keep him in bed today, and nearly managed to pursuade him. That is until Lucas started banging on their door and yelling at them to get up. His adopted son liked ruining the mood, and knew if his dad was still in bed, then the mood was ripe to be ruined.
Neville was now head of Hufflepuff house and Luna was the editor of the Quibler now. The Quibler sells a lot more than it did a couple years ago, since they've posted a lot of truth the the prophet hadn't for decades. But she has a couple people that work for her in a small office and doesn't need to be there all the time. She comes into the office twice a week to check on how things are going, and once on the weekend to give the thumbs up before the publish it on Sunday.
So Luna has been spending most of her time with her boyfriend Neville. Neville had decided to adopt this boy who had lost everything in the recent war. So now Lucas goes to Hogwarts, and is in his second year as a Hufflepuff.
But in his rush to get to his class on time he ran right into Harry who was just turning a corner. They steadied each other so neither would fall. "Sorry Harry, I uh- I'm late for class"
"Neville... You can't let Luna win mate" Harry chuckled as he knew exactly why his friend was late for class. "These students depend on you not to fall to pursuation"
Neville was red as can be now. "Stuff it Harry, Luna and I will see you for lunch ok?" he said while starting to walk away.
"I wont be able to make lunch, I have a few things to attend." but Neville simply nodded and kept going. Once he got to the greenhouse he tried to settle down before walking in. The moment the door opened a pail of water dropped right in front of him, getting his pants and shoes wet. "LUCAS"
It was now lunch time at Hogwarts. Harry had managed to write Ragnok back, and was suppose to be meeting him soon. But while he waited for him in his office, he decided to write Hermione back.
"Yes of course I will help you with your things. I can't help but notice something is off here. I hope that you'll tell me about it tomorrow morning when I meet you at your mothers house. Please wish her well for me. I'll see you soon. Love Harry."
Just as Harry sent the owl off to find Hermione there was a knock at the door. "Please come in". Ragnok and two other goblins walked into his office. "Come now Ragnok.. Your guards must wait outside the office, I'm surprised you even manged to get them on the grounds"
"Yes of course Mister Potter" the goblin said as he waved off the others, and the left.
"Thank you. Now what is this about? I already knew about what you wrote me about but you seem to have some problem with it I suppose?" Harry said.
Ragnok looked shocked.. for a goblin at least. "Mister Potter, this has never happened before, and we are concerned that maybe someone has gained access to your vault some how. It has been secured around the clock while we figure this out."
Harry was now laughing to himself, this was greatly offending the elf. "I'm sorry" he then took a deep breath to control himself. "I did tell you I already knew about this. I spent a lot of money recently"
"Excuse me sir, but you could not possibly spend that much in the entire year.. Unless you made a few major purchases"
"Well that's exactly what I did. If you took a moment to look around my classroom, you would see many bookshelfs with countless books of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Given my new position I wanted to have something for my students to use here in the classroom instead of having to buy all these books themselves"
"But why would you do that? They're expected to buy their own books each year"
Harry smiled moving his attention to the sky out his window. "It's expensive to buy school books. I grew up knowing a family that couldn't afford it. But this is a subject that can never be over looked again. All students passing through my teachings will be expected to know how to defend themself when they leave this castle"
The goblin then looked stern as his mind came to the same conclusion as before, "but that could not possibly cost your entire interest base. Someone must have taken something from your vault"
"Ragnok please, don't worry about it. Don't you think at this point I would be concerned if I really thought there was a reason to be?"
"But- "
"Look. When I left for Hogwarts, I purchased the flat I was living in, along with many others in the area. I furnished every one of them and will be renting them out once I find time to get all the paper work done. I had planned on staying in one of them when I leave for the summer"
"A FLAT?! Mister Potter, you can not possibly think me to believe you live in a flat!"
"But I do. I don't like to live in that huge mansion. It's family memorbilia, but not my home. I keep it cleaned and anything important enough gets moved in. But I like to live in a simple home"
Ragnok was just getting more and more confused. He couldn't figure out if this wizard was really that great of a man or just completely stupid.
Harry stood up and so did the goblin. "If you have any more concerns please bring them to my attention, but as for this specific concern, don't worry about it Ragnok"
Harry walked the three goblins off the grounds and walked directly up to the Headmistresses office. How could she allow ARMED goblins to walk the grounds of Hogwarts with all these children here.
"You may enter" was all that was heard from a tired old woman before the storm hit.
"HOW COULD YOU LET ARMED GOBLINS INTO THE GROUNDS" Harry was yelling as he opened the door to the Headmistresses office.
"Excuse me Harry? I would never allow such a thing" she said as McGonagal stood up, her anger quickly rising.
"If you didn't let them in, then how did my accountant and his two ARMED guards manage to walk all the way up to my office?"
She was shocked at the way he was talking to her. "POTTER, let me advice you against talking to me in such a tone"
She closed her eyes taking a deep breath and then walking over to her window. "I had seem them from here. You had told me to exect them. But I had no idea they would be armed. I certainly wont let that happen again. Anyone coming through those gates will be escorted to the castle from now on"
Hermione was sitting drinking coffee with her mom waiting for Harry to show up. He only said he'd be there in the morning and wasn't sure how early he would be. Being a teacher now, it could be quite early.
"So Hermione, what happened with Ron?" her mother asked.
"What happened with Dad?" she shot back at her.
There was silence for a few moments.
"What happened between your Dad and I is unfortunate, but people drift apart"
"I'm sorry mum. I just don't understand what could have happened, you two always seemed so happy together" she sighed and put her head on the counter.
"Sweetie, once you grew up and moved on with your life, things just started to drift with us. We tried to be spontanious and do crazy things. But we're too old for that. I think your Dad didn't know how else to impress me or something and it made him feel less of a man"
Hermione was stareing at her mother with her mouth wide open at this point. She'd never thought any of this could happen between her parents.
"I tried to reason with him honey, really I did. But I guess he wanted to be with women he could handle. So he moved into his own flat and has spent nearly every night out at clubs and bars"
"I'm so sorry mum!" Hermione has come across the the counter to hold her mother tightly.
Both of the women jumped and screamed as there was a huge explosion outside their front door. Hermione was quick to draw her wand and put her mom behind her. They started backing up towards the other door.