A/N just in case you are wondering, the exchange rate is 5 pence for 1 Knut and cannon exchanges for sickles and galleons from there. So 1 galleon is worth £24.65.
It was an emotionally exhausted group that left the bank after their meeting with the head of the Goblin Nation. All of them were flabbergasted with the wealth that Harry would gain access to when he was eleven as well as the titles that made the three kids heirs of the four founders and owner of the only magical school in Brittan. The main problems were from the betrayals that they had uncovered while they were in there; Harry, Hermione, Molly and Ginny were all having their notions readjusted to take into account that the person that they had looked up to as a mix of saviour and guide had been stealing from Harry while paying for him to be abused with Harry's own money. While Jane and Dan had not known the man for long, they really didn't think that he would be someone who would steal and promote abuse.
They had stopped at the tellers on the way out and grabbed a few galleons from the Weasleys and Harry's vault so they were looking at shopping a bit before they went home. The first place they went was Madam Malkin's robes to get clothes for Harry and some robes for Hermione in case they needed to do some formal things. Just as they were coming out they spotted Mr Weasley standing outside Fortescues. When he spotted them he waved and they headed over.
"How did it go?" Molly asked immediately.
"Good," he responded. "There were some cursed artefacts he had in and around the place but they were removed without any trouble. Oh and by the way, we found You Know Who's wand on Pettigrew when we got him. There is no way he is getting out of this; Malfoy's confession, the mark on his arm and You Know Who's wand, that would give him life if not the kiss."
"Good," Hermione said. "That rat is the reason Harry was alone so long. He will pay."
The Grangers were surprised by the level of passion in Hermione's voice; she had never spoken of anyone like that, not even the people who had once made her school life a misery. She spoke with anger and more than a little hatred and there were no illusions that she would try to carry out the punishment herself if given the chance.
"that he will," Arthur said. "And there is talk of an Order of Merlin for you Dan; catching old Lucy in the act set off a chain reaction that has seen more than thirty Death Eaters named and arrested as well as half a dozen high up staff in the ministry that took bribes and that number is set to climb."
"What's the order of Merlin?" Dan asked confused.
"It would be like an Order of the British Empire in the non magical world," Hermione said.
"And it would give you certain rights in our world," Molly said. "The receiving of one award, even third class makes the family a full Wizarding House, meaning that you have some entitlements in regards to property and certain liberties in the ways you live your life, including the right to negotiate marriage contracts with any party."
Arthur picked up from there. "Many families attain that status through staying magical for three generations. It is only a few that receive that honour in the first or second generation. If a house receives more than one order of Merlin, one of which was a first class award, they attain the status of a Nobel house, which gives them protection under law. Receiving Three First class honours gives them the title of Most Noble."
"Oh," was all Dan had to say.
"So that is what that Ragnok fellow meant by that Most Noble stuff," Jane mused. "And Most Ancient?"
"When a family reaches 500 years of the name being carried in magical people they are made an Ancient house and after 1000 years they become Most Ancient," Arthur replied.
"So what are the Weasleys?" Dan asked curious.
"We are a Noble house," Molly said with a hint of pride. "Arthur's great grandparents helped put down a vampire uprising in the early 1800's and his father was a fighter in the war against Grindelwald, both were decorated for their parts. We don't really go on about it much but the rights and so on are there if we need to use them. Other than that we do as we need to get by.
"And speaking of things we learnt in Gringots," Molly continued, her voice hardening. "We need to speak of this at home, in private. Is the house ready for us to go back?"
"Yes it is," Arthur said. "Why what did you learn there?"
"It's about Harry growing up with his relatives and his finances," Dan said grimly.
"I'll just call Dumbledore then, he should be involved if those Dursleys had done anything else," Arthur said as he started to rise.
"NO," all of them said forcefully raising their voices and causing a few people to stare at them.
"Dumbledore is at the centre of this so we don't want him to know yet," Molly whispered to her husband urgently. "We need to discuss this without anyone outside the families knowing."
Arthur stared at his wife for a few seconds before nodding. "Very well, shall we go home now?"
"Yes please," the kids said in unison, all three soaking up the information from the talking, though none more so than Hermione of course.
It was an uneventful flu trip home and they were treated to a storm of questions from the rest of the Weasley children.
"What was that all about?"
"What did they do with my rat?"
"Were those-"
"-Curse breakers dad?"
"Why did they have to come here?"
"QUIET!" Arthur shouted. "Those were curse breakers and aurors from the ministry; they were here because your rat happened to be an unregistered animagus and a death eater." There was a more complete silence now that the Weasley boys all showed that they would make a good set of novelty fly traps. "We discovered him after Lucius Malfoy tried to curse Harry but was caught and questioned. The curse breakers were needed because he had a variety of dark objects on him that needed to be disposed of. Now if you could Molly dear, would you be able to make a quick snack to tide us all over till dinner? It looks like we will be eating late as we have some urgent matters to discuss. All of you will eat in your rooms and if I catch any of you eavesdropping there will be hell to pay understood?"
The whole Weasley brood nodded looking unnerved at his proclamation as well as the look on his face; none of them had seen him look that serious since he caught Fred and George trying to get Ron to swear an unbreakable vow. Molly then quickly knocked together a platter of sandwiches and pumpkin juice and sent the rest of the children away, leaving the Grangers, Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Arthur and Molly alone in the sitting room.
"Now what was it that you found out in Gringots?" Arthur asked.
"It seems that Dumbledore has been playing us for fools for some time," Jane said with a frown.
Molly agreed and then went on to explain the theft of some three quarters of a million galleons from Harry's vault, sealing and disregarding the wishes of the Potters as written in the will he witnessed and placing Harry in an abusive household. By the time she finished Arthur was white.
"you can prove all this?" he asked.
"Yes, we got everything from Gringots," Dan confirmed. "That Dumbledore was a witness to the will, financial statements that show him taking ten thousand a month, him paying the Dursleys to take Harry in, the works."
"Do you have a copy of the will?" Arthur asked.
"No we haven't actually," Molly said. "We were so shocked that we didn't ask, we'll have to go in tomorrow and ask for one. In the mean time we need to work out what to do about all this."
"It's simple," Jane said. "Give the papers to the courts, get him charged and thrown in jail, done!"
"It's not that simple I'm afraid," Arthur said massaging his temples. "This isn't the muggle world where people are charged, regardless of who they are and what they've done. In our world trials of high profile people would be fraught with politics and bribery; Lucius Malfoy was caught red handed in death eater robes with the mark on his arm and having just finished killing a small family, yet with a payment to the right people he avoided justice up till now. Only with his testimony getting his friends and the people he bribed arrested gives us a chance to get justice now. If we went after Dumbledore, the Wizengamont would be highly unlikely to convict him, due to his stature and his previous deeds; hell he is the head of the court! The media will show that a group of people are trying to defame and attack the hero of two wizarding wars; that would make even the fence sitters in the wizengamont more inclined to acquit rather than convict. If we went up against him he would probably get at most a slap on the wrist and told not to be a naughty boy again. And if we did that we would get a lot of bad publicity for attacking the 'leader of the light'.
"Put simply if we took him to court we could get maybe a fine, at most a month in minimum security. For that we would get our names dragged through the mud and we would lose any support we might have later on."
"Couldn't we make it look like he was trying to control and manipulate Harry? Isn't he supposed to be the 'Boy Who Survived' or something?" Dan asked.
"He is the Boy Who Lived yes," Molly said. "But despite that until it is proven it would be front page of the media that we were after Dumbledore's blood and that would mean the whole thing would be a media circus from start to finish. If we bring it up we get buried."
"Do we have to bring it up?" Harry piped up. All the adults turned to face the kids who were listening in with serious faces, paying close attention to the plans the adults were trying to make to get justice for their Harry.
"What do you mean?" Molly asked.
"If it came up some other way would that change things? Like if the Dursleys told people how they took money from Dumbledore to keep me there, wouldn't that bring up where he got that money from?" Harry explained.
Dan and Jane both nodded thoughtfully, pondering whether or not it would work, while Molly and Arthur both looked at each other.
"That could work," said Arthur slowly. "If we aren't the ones to bring it up then we can act as if it is news to us and ask them to investigate further, then bring out the source of the money and show his theft and disregard for Harry's parents wishes at the same time." He beamed down at Harry. "Brilliant Harry!"
Harry smiled shyly and looked down as Hermione and Ginny both tightened their hold on him drawing him into a hug.
"The only big point in that would be the length that would pass between now and the Dursleys trial," Molly said. "They would certainly put death eaters before a group of muggles."
"So how long?" Jane asked.
"Several months," Arthur said. "But that would be a good thing. Dumbledore, as much of a right bastard he-"
"Language Arthur!" Molly cut in sharply.
"Sorry dear," he said sheepishly before continuing. "Despite what he has done, Dumbledore is still a very powerful and knowledgeable wizard. He has offered personal teaching of the kids in wandless magic and we should take advantage of that. It is also possible that he regrets his actions and those months would give us time to find out."
"So we do nothing," said Dan looking annoyed.
"There really isn't much we can do at the moment is there?" Jane said, half question half statement.
"Not without harming our own position no," Arthur confirmed wearily. "Right now we just wait and see."
"Wait and see," the other adults and kids chorused in agreement.
...
One month had passed since the trial and subsequent finding of Dumbledore's misdeeds. That month had been spent productively by the combined families; the Grangers had begun the process of opening a new practice in Exeter, a historical city fifteen miles from Ottery St Catchpole where the Burrow was. They had contacted a magical construction company and gotten them to build a nice little home within walking distance of the Burrow itself which was now complete and they even got the power and internet hooked up. The home itself was a masterpiece of magical and muggle lifestyles; the water was run the same way wizarding homes had it: conjured by runes on the taps and vanished in the pipes heading out and the electricity was made by a generator that was charmed by Arthur to stay running without needing any petrol. When he was confronted by his wife about that he pointed out a loophole in the laws: the charming of muggle artefacts needed to change the nature and function of the artefact and be intended for use. That charm didn't change its function as it still only produced electricity; all it did was make the generator not need fuel.
The wiring of the house with electricity was done by Dan and Arthur, well mainly Dan. Arthur spent most of the time squealing with glee at any object Dan was using and generally running around like a hyperactive toddler. They also managed to hook up satellite TV, telephone and Internet alongside the floo connection, with the large dish placed in an enclosure a few metres from the house itself giving them access to all the muggle comforts and a large fireplace on the ground floor. The land itself was the site of an old flour production facility that had fallen into disrepair and been abandoned; the hardest part of purchasing the land was finding out who owned the place after it had switched hands several times, leased to a company or two as storage space and even been foreclosed on a couple of times in its two hundred year history, only a hundred of those as an actual production centre. They left a fair bit of the structures standing, though they were shored up so they were safe to be around and provided great places for the kids to play in once the machinery was stripped out. Jane and Molly were not particularly sure what happened to all the old metal behemoths that the men had pulled from the buildings but they knew that at least some of them had ended up in Dan's shed, where the two fathers would spend many hours on the weekends happily tinkering away, the sounds of clanking, laughter, swearing, squealing of both men and machine and the grinding of metal issuing from the building. A week after the property had been bought Arthur and Bill who had been studying warding as a preparation for going into curse breaking after school, had placed ward stones around the property and erected a large selection of wards, augmented by some of the goblins who had been hired to build the house itself adding their own particular brand of wards.
Both Jane and Dan were astonished by the drop in their expenses once they moved into their new house; they now had free water and power, Arthur had placed a similar charm on the Grangers family car to the one on the generator meaning they didn't have to buy petrol, their only real expenses were the telephone and internet bills and food. The adults from both families brought this up in their discussions once.
"The majority of the things muggles need, eklectiricity-" Arthur started.
"Electricity," Jane and Dan chorused in unison correcting him.
"Yes," he accepted. "Water and transportation we all use magic to either get them or as a substitute and you can't put a price on magic. That is a natural thing. The only real transport expense we have is floo powder and that isn't very expensive."
"What do wizards use for transport?" Jane asked.
"Well you've experienced floo travel," Molly said. "That's from one fireplace to another and is fixed. Portkeys I think you experienced as well and are able to transport as many people as can touch them anywhere in the world but are difficult to make properly and you need ministry approval to use one. Apparation is more common and transports a single person with maybe two passengers to any point within around 300 miles instantaneously. Apparation needs a licence to do though as it can be painful or in rare cases fatal to get wrong. There is also the Night Bus, which you can flag down anywhere and it will take you to most known points for a fare and finally brooms, which can travel up to 100 miles an hour and so are the slowest form of travel we have. Of these floo is the most common as you don't need any magic to use it and you don't need a licence. People usually floo from their house to near where they need to be and walk from there and is usually used by families with children."
"What about massed transport?" Dan asked curious. "For transporting large numbers of people; I mean, there would be only so many people you can take with those portkeys and a bus can hold only so many and the floo can only handle one person at a time."
"Really we don't have any large scale transport like muggles have," Arthur admitted. "We really don't have the need. There are only a few million magical people worldwide and most of those stick to their own countries for most of their lives, only leaving for work or the occasional holiday. There isn't anything like the aroports you have because there isn't any use for them, only a few thousand leave and enter Brittan every year."
"Things like the Quidditch world cup are the biggest things we do," Molly continued. "And they only take up to 100,000 people. Those are a huge organisation challenge for the ministries involved as portkeys would only take practically about twenty people, so usually people with cheap tickets arrive a few days or weeks before. The last one we went to just after bill was born we camped for a week in Greece before the game."
The topics continued through flying and different attitudes to brooms vs. cars for Dan and Arthur, while Molly and Jane began with cooking and household stuff as well as the ways they raised the kids.
While their parents were discussing the ways of the world, Harry, Hermione and Ginny were outside building structures from the ground and sand using magic. They had passed the second stage of their bond a week after Dumbledore's betrayal was realised and had begun the third stage. By this time they had full access to each other's thoughts and memories and were loving every minute of it. They had all missed the feeling of knowing and being known and accepted by their bond mates and feeling that acceptance. Hermione was happy that although her bond wasn't the total meshing as with Harry and Ginny she still was there and able to hear and feel them. Harry and Ginny always made it clear that even if the bond with her stayed partial she would never be less to them; she was in the bond and that made her equal, as important and needed by all as much as Harry and Ginny were.
Despite what Dumbledore had done he had made good on his promise of training in magic. After three weeks of work they had managed to perform quite a few first year spells and a few second and third year spells without a wand, though Hermione was always on the lookout for more that they could do. At the time of the discussion the levitation charm was the spell of the day, lifting branches and dirt to form the shapes they wanted. They also mixed in some of the transfiguration they had figured out on their own, changing wood into metal like a match into a needle only on a larger scale. This tired them out a fair bit though and they saved the rest of their project for later. They were trying to make a sculpture of the symbol of their bond in the yard; the transfigured metal would be coloured gold, wood and dirt would be used for two of the globes and emerald leaves for the third. By this point the rest of the Weasley children knew of the bond; it had been quite hard to hide all the nuances of the connection from bright people like the twins and Percy. They had voiced their observations at dinner one time and that led to the revealing of the bond. Charlie and Percy looked surprised and a bit concerned for Ginny but quickly calmed when they learned that she was happy and quite thrilled with the bond. The twins eulogised over the different ways that they could use their bond for pranks while Ron seemed indifferent, though that was probably because of the large pile of food that he had put on his plate.
Through Ginny's thoughts and memories they built up their opinions of the Weasley family together: Bill was the confident achiever, he could go into just about anything and would pursue his career to the best he could. They were all sure that he would become a very successful curse breaker (his chosen profession) after a few years. He was skilled and hard working yet he didn't lord it over people. Very protective of his family, especially Ginny, who he cared for perhaps more than anyone else in his family as her biggest brother.
Charlie was a magical creatures fanatic, with a particular passion for dragons. All three knew that it was a foregone conclusion that he would be on a dragon reserve somewhere within three years, five at the latest. He knew what he wanted to do and was good at it and would do what it took to get there even if dragons were one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet.
Percy was an aspiring politician, dedicated to the rules and laws of society. He would do as the rules state, to the letter, though they had to admit this would make him rather dull to be around and rather inflexible. Regardless they could see him in the ministry fairly soon after, in the department of law or even going into the minister's office. He would do what it took to achieve his ends, though the cost would be something they needed to look out for.
The Twins were undecided though anyone could see they were geniuses in magical substances and spells; just a few weeks prior to meeting Harry the twins had gotten hold of one of Bills books on potions detailing reactions between substances and by the time Ginny was meeting Harry in St Mungos they had made a powder that could be placed and made whatever touched it vanish and appear several feet away and a meter up. They had used it on Ron, making his dinner reappear right above his head with predictable results. Whatever field they went into they would get on like a house on fire: devastation, screams and people running for cover while the twins cackled manically.
Ron was also undecided but for different reasons. He was the antithesis of Percy; he wouldn't care much about anything that wasn't food, quidditch or chess. He certainly had his strong points; when he found something he liked he would pursue it with the dedication of Percy, the fanaticism of Charlie and the skill of Bill. They could see him in professional quidditch, as a manager or coach perhaps but they knew that he was still yet to grow up and only time would tell what he would do.
Molly was a fiercely protective mother, who loved nothing more than caring for her brood. They knew that she was a brilliant witch; she had fought in the war as an Auror for a few years before she got pregnant with Bill and retired. Her skills and power were now turned to keeping her children in line and teaching the basics to those kids not in Hogwarts.
Arthur was a very skilled wizard. He held a fascination of the muggle world and had a very open mind, as shown with his plethora of muggle gadgets in the shed. Despite his fixation with the mundane world and his career that seemingly had ground to a halt as head of a tiny department with very little work that needed to be done, he was a brilliant charms and transfiguration man, as shown by the car he had made. The vehicle was actually made during the war and they got the tale from him one night.
"At that point in the war things were looking very bad," he began while the trio and the Drs granger listened intently. "The ministry was in disarray and the Death Eaters were striking at will. We Weasleys have always been staunch supporters of the light and Molly and I had tackled many death eaters in the early stages of the war. We knew that we were targets and so we needed some way to escape that they wouldn't expect and that is why I got the car.
That thing had the speed to easily outrun any broom that tried to chase it; it had a metal frame and body so it would absorb even a killing curse without much trouble; only a direct hit to the engine would bring it down. It was a perfect getaway vehicle, even if the floo was cut and anti apparition wards were up. We could jump in the car and be off in seconds, protected from spell fire and with the ability to go invisible at the touch of a button. Fortunately we never needed to use it. Near the end of the war, in early 1981 they Death Eaters sent a small probing party here and we got rid of them quite easily. They never really attacked here. Of course by Halloween, the war was essentially over, the entire Death Eater corps without the terror spread by You Know Who were in disarray and were picked up by the aurors en mass. Some didn't go without a fight, Rosier, Dolohov, Mulciber, Travers, the Lestranges, though they were taken by wards around Harry. The attacks were sporadic and few but they continued for a few months after You Know Who was vanquished."
The trio themselves used their separate perspectives to see their own faults and strengths.
Hermione was a brilliant book smart girl, and could get to the twins level of inventiveness with a bit of work. Her mind was formidable though she didn't have many social skills and hid behind books and her own intellect to keep people at bay to avoid their taunts and bullying. This manifested in a habitual bossy and know-it-all attitude that even she had to admit was quite off-putting. The simple fact that she was in a bond where her bond mates supported her had diminished her need to spout facts recite a textbook whenever asked a question, though she often instinctively reverted to the previous methods when she encountered the same attitudes that she had seen in her schools, read, when she is in the same room as Ron.
Harry was chronically shy and had very little self esteem. He centred his whole being on helping Hermione and Ginny in whatever they did and would make the earth spin backwards if it made them happy. The reverse side of this was he accepted criticism as fact and wouldn't stand up for himself unless he was truly pressed. His curiosity and will to learn had been severely repressed though his bravery was still rock solid and with help from the bond, again his faults had been diminished.
Ginny was bright and outgoing, with boundless energy that had led to the trio forming up for a marathon session of quidditch with the rest of the Weasleys that lasted several hours. The trio made an incredible team of chasers and even though Hermione and Harry were not particularly good shots they still got well ahead and had Charlie raving by lunch. She was naturally curious about everything though it wasn't in the realm of Hermione's near fanatical pursuit of knowledge and learnt quickly. If she had a fault it was her temper, which could easily be roused and usually needed the logic and soothing of Harry and Hermione to calm her. Then Harry would pulp whatever upset her.
Hermione's parents were very similar people; both viewed Hermione as the best thing that ever happened to them, loved what they did and lived their lives the best they could. Dan was a sports fan while Jane had a love of books and shopping, which had led to a very well stocked private library at home. They both had troubles accepting the bond at first; it was a shock to have their daughter right as rain the one minute, thrashing in agony the next they pulled into a three way bond with a magical noble who was just exorcised of a portion of the most powerful dark wizard of the century. They had gotten over the culture shock fairly quickly and now supported their daughter though her obvious joy at her new life played a big part in that. They were nothing if not adaptable.
On the whole the month had been a pleasant one. Up until the day after that talk.
The day had started fairly normally with the kids leaving for Hogwarts for the morning to practice under the headmaster's guidance. However they were an hour late getting back.
"Why are you late we were worried?" Molly asked as they climbed out of the fireplace one by one.
"I had a look in the library," Hermione said. "It was HUGE! The place was amazing, so many books!"
"I was wondering when you would find it," she chuckled. "Are you three hungry? Arthur's coming home early as it's a slow day at the office."
"Good and yes we are hungry," Ginny said. "I think we need to have a sit down soon about Dumbles; if we're right he might be up to something."
That got Molly's full attention. "What do you mean?" she asked sharply.
"Do you know about Occlumency and Legilimency?" Harry asked as he sat at the table.
"I know of them but I never really had much experience with them, your father would know, he is quite good at them."
A bowl of soup and some bread later and Arthur arrived home. They spoke while he ate.
"Dad, is there any age you have to be to learn Occlumency?" Ginny asked.
"Not really, most people only start in their teens but you can learn from as young as five or six if you have the right mindset, why?"
"We remembered the Unspeakables talking about it when we took those tests and apparently we are naturals at it," Hermione began. "I asked Dumbledore about it but he said that it is only possible to learn when you are in your late teens at the earliest."
"That is worrying," Arthur admitted. "I know for a fact that Dumbledore started learning when he was eight years old himself, some old families do that. The only reason he would try that would be so you have little or no mental shields which implies some form of intrusion."
"I'll call your parents Hermione," Molly said. "We need to talk about this as soon as possible."
"In the mean time, is it all right if I check your defences to see what is there?" Arthur asked.
"Sure," the kids chorused in unison. He met Ginny's eyes and pushed out a probe.
Inside their minds.
Arthur found himself in a blank plain, in the middle of a swirling blizzard. The cold was hideous and he needed to conjure a cloak in the mindscape to shut out the worst of the cold. He pressed on and had gone about twenty metres when he was hit out of the blue by a horrible memory. A vast man loomed over him, a belt coated in his blood in his hands while pain wracked his body, broken arms and a leg sending jolts of agony to his mind. Just as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone. Five minutes and half a dozen memories later, each as hideous as the first the memories he was hit with changed. Where before they had been pain, now there was despair; an air of defeat and desolation that made him almost give up then and there. Again the flashes of memories continued in this vein until yet another change came across. Then came the worst. Ripping agony and loss, desperate searching for a part that had not been there before yet now was as notable by its absence as missing all his limbs. Something was taken away and he was lost. The memory vanished again and he pressed on, only the thoughts that he needed to see everything to know their defences. The safety of his children and they were indeed, all three his children.
Finally the blizzard ended and he found himself in a mountain valley. About a quarter mile down the valley was a town and in the centre was a temple with well known symbol on top; the trinity eternal rune of their bond. He started towards it thinking it was where they had their memories and conscious minds until a silhouette caught his eye and he saw the fortress. A curtain wall, surrounded it where it was, perched on the highest peak in the range. That was his goal but as he started he was surrounded by red eyed fiends. Wraiths that leapt at him though when he tried to throw them away his hands and magic passed through like smoke. It took him some time to see them off, love forcing them back enough for him to approach the fortress. As he approached he heard a voice boom out.
"STOP." He recognised the voice as Harry's. Three streams of smoke appeared form the fortress and transformed into the kids.
"This area is mined," Hermione said. "Muggle explosives that go off if you step on them." She explained upon seeing his blank look. "Watch." She threw a small snowball at a patch of apparently flat snow, there was a click and the surrounding three metres of dirt and snow were ripped apart and thrown into the air.
"We will take you to the walls," Ginny said. "You can try to get in from there."
She took his hand and they were at the walls before she faded. An hour passed with Arthur trying everything to get in before he conceded defeat. He was brought in past the walls to the inner sanctum, to face the final mind puzzles. At these he was well and truly stumped. Then he finally gave up.
Back outside.
Arthur slumped in his chair mopping the sweat from his brow and shaking.
"I have to say those are the best defences I have ever seen, bar none."
"Were their walls too thick?" Molly asked, handing him a cup of tea. He looked around and saw the Grangers there.
"In a way, how long was I in there for?" he asked.
"an hour and a half," Jane said.
"Wow," he breathed. "And to answer your question dear it wasn't just the walls that stopped me, in fact walls were among the last thing I encountered. They guarded their minds with their most horrific memories and a blizzard. They would hit you out of the freezing cold with no warning and you would be in agony and then fine. Next line was despair, if I weren't doing this for the kids I would have been stopped there."
"That soon?" Molly asked shocked.
"Yes," he confirmed with a nod. "The third line was the worst, what was that by the way?" he posed the question to the children.
"It's what we felt at the beginning when we were separated," Harry said quietly. Harry, Hermione and Ginny joined Arthur in a shudder at the thought.
"After that was a huge landscape," Arthur continued. "a mountain range, with a valley and a small village with a temple to their bond in it. I started for it when I saw the fortress up high. When I went for the fort these wraith things, like the horcrux we got out of Harry attacked and were eventually driven off with love. The kids had to stop me from treading on a minefield before the walls and took me to the walls. Those I couldn't get passed either and the final puzzle was completely beyond me."
Everyone looked at the kids.
"The minefield was pretty straight forward," Hermione began. "There was a path in the shape of our trinity rune through it. The walls you needed to sing the song of our souls to get the gate to appear and open. Inside up top was just a ball of false memories, you needed to jump into the hole in the middle. Next you unravelled a mobius strip and all three of us would need to take our places on the trinity rune to get our memories. It takes all three of us to get past."
"Wow," Molly said again.
"That should hold out against any comers long enough at least to get help," Arthur said. "Now to the matter of Dumbledore. With whatever he is planning I think that now is the time to act; before he can try anything."
"I agree," Dan said. "We've waited long enough and the implications of this are worrying, he wouldn't tell a blatant lie like that if he didn't want them to be vulnerable."
Both the women nodded.
"We'll get the documents and such from Gringots tomorrow morning while you three are in training; you will need to go for at least a little while so he doesn't get suspicious. It is vital that we get these filed and charges levelled before Dumbledore becomes aware of it or he could make them disappear into the ministries bureaucracy. Jane, you and Dan will stay here and make sure the kids get back all right. Everyone clear?" There were nods all around. "Good."
...
In his office Dumbledore looked down at the simple black book on the table before him, the name Tom M Riddle embossed in gold on the cover. He sighed as he contemplated what he would have to do on the morrow, the death of the Granger girl had to happen to mould Potter and the Weasley girl into the tools he needed to win this war and get the Potter heir he needed to pull the rest of the wizarding world into a new age. There was a glimmer of guilt at the thought of arranging for a little girl to be drained of life and her soul damned forever, but it was a small price to pay. It was all for the greater good.
...
The new day dawned as many others had for the bonded children. All three were curled up together in a ball, Harry in the middle and his arms around the two girls who cuddled him like a large teddy bear. They washed and performed their morning routine before a breakfast of kippers, toast and hash brown. The hash browns had been a recent addition to the morning fare at the Weasley household and it was taken to with great deal of enthusiasm from everyone.
Finally it was time for action; Jane and Dan saw everyone off, Molly and Arthur to Gringots and the kids to Hogwarts. The kids got to the school and placed their bags of books on the benches outside before walking down to the lake where they usually practiced. They sat there talking in their minds and idly going over the spells they were going to learn today: a transfiguration spell for non solids to solids. They were going to change water into wood.
Half an hour passed and there was no sign of Dumbledore, only a cloaked man walking towards them. They quickly identified him from the controlled oil slick that he passed off as hair and the look that he gave Harry that suggested that he would happily maim him given half a chance.
"Professor Dumbledore sends word," he said with his Snape SneerTM on full. "He was called away for wizengamont proceedings this morning and is unavailable to instruct you. You are to return home."
"Ok," Ginny said looking slightly surprised.
"Wait here Miss Granger," Snape drawled. "Dumbledore asks that you take this book for study and wait while you ask any tedious questions you want to ask."
Hermione gave the others a gesture to go on ahead and took the book, flicking to the title page before asking several questions. The last one was, "why did Dumbledore want us to read this? Is it important?"
"Yes he said that what's in its pages will change your life. Goodbye," With that he turned with a swirl of his cape and stalked away.
Hermione idly flicked through the book as she walked into the castle, eventually finding a small diary nestled in the pages. Something about it prickled at her magic but she didn't take much notice, books were her fifth love, after her parents, Harry and Ginny. Just before she touched the pages she heard the panicked shouts of "DON'T!" in her head. Her fingertips brushed the leather cover and everything went black.
...
Near Professor McGonagall's office both Harry and Ginny recognised the magic seeping from the book Hermione was about to touch. They knew it from the feeling of the magic that had been driven out of Harry, a horcrux. Their suspicions were confirmed when the warning was too late and Hermione was ripped from their bond and they all collapsed in agony.
...
In the burrow, the two Grangers snapped their heads up as they saw the hands on the clock, the two most recent ones and another less recent one spin. Harry and Hermione had both been given a hand on the Weasley family clock as a sign that they had joined the family. Both Doctors hearts stopped when they noticed the hands now pointed to Mortal Peril.
"Get to Hogwarts!" Dan shouted. "I'll get the others!" they both ran to the floo and seconds later both had disappeared in a blaze of green fire.
...
Harry and Ginny, in their pain immediately snapped their minds into their bond space. The scene they saw terrified them; their blizzard was piled on the drifts and the memories lay scattered like discarded paper. The wraiths had been destroyed utterly and the minefield was a charred ruin. Their temple and village was nothing more than ash and glowing embers but it was their fortress that sent terror into their hearts. The walls, impenetrable or so they thought had been ripped apart and melted by whatever had charged through their minds, taking with it Hermione. Even part of Harry's bond to Ginny felt shaky and barely there, this had ripped the foundation of their lives apart, the bond was everything to them. The inner sanctum, beyond the strip, with the trinity rune though they could see was intact and quickly flickered in.
Lying on the floor on her sphere was Hermione, curled up and sobbing, holding her knees to her chest and shaking in fear. They both went to her and took hold of her breathing a quick sigh of relief when they felt each other again.
"I'm s-s-sorry," Hermione sobbed. "I didn't hear you in time! It's all my fault!"
"No it isn't Hermione," Harry said. "It's Dumbledore's; I'll bet anything that he gave you the horcrux for this reason. Let's all stand on our places; I can feel it in the fake chamber, trying to get in our memories up there."
They all took their places on the rune and with a pulse some of their defences returned as well as a bigger part of the bond.
"Harry," Ginny started. "See if you can get control of both your body and mine and try to find Hermione's. It looks like it's on the second floor bathroom, moaning Murtle's bathroom the one Bill and Charlie told me about. I'll help Hermione here."
Harry nodded and his form in the bond closed his eyes and slumped.
"Hurry Harry," Ginny whispered.
...
In the real world, Harry opened both sets of eyes and quickly got to his sets of feet. He noticed that all this wasn't too difficult. He just acted on instinct, like he knew exactly what to do to protect Hermione and Ginny. He quickly broke both bodies into a quick jog, heading to the bathroom and on the way heard Ginny's faint voice in his heads.
He's hissing at a tap, it sounds like Parseltongue. Hurry Harry, Hermione can feel her link to her body fading; he's taking her away from us, please hurry!
At that he broke into a full run with both bodies and found the entrance closing. Without hesitation he flung both bodies down the pipe, sliding through the muck and slime until he got to the bottom.
Running along the passageway, bones crunching under him he kept both sets of eyes peeled for any sign of Hermione, not even stopping to look at the massive snake skin he passed. Finally he entered a large chamber, the walls and columns covered in jewelled snake motifs, though he had eyes only for the bushy haired figure that was walking towards a massive statue.
"YOU CAN'T HAVE HER!" he shouted to the fleeing figure as he willed both bodies to sprint, only wanting to get the bloody thing he could see in her hand away from her. "SHE'S OURS, NOT YOURS!"
"She's mine now," came her voice, stilted and with a hissing high pitched quality to it, not at all her smoother gentle voice. She turned to the statue, raised her hand and hissed; Speak to me Slytherin greatest of the Hogwarts four!
The mouth of the statue opened with a grinding of stone on stone and from the hole came a hissing voice with a lust for blood.
"Soon you both will be dead and this girl will be mine," came Riddle/Hermione's hissing voice. "My basilisk will see to that."
Then Ginny spoke in Harry's mind, Harry, Hermione and I are going to hit the thing in the bond with everything we have, you get that book out of her hands, ready? Now!
Riddle Hermione visibly spasmed as the mental attack hit, crying out. At the same time Harry made Ginny's body tackle Hermione's to the ground trying to wrench the book from the older girl's death grip. The rest of him was focussing on the massive snake that had slithered out of the hole. Knowing from Ginny's vague memories of comments on various species hide Harry knew that it's skin would be essentially impenetrable. But it's mouth wasn't. Calling on all the might of the bond, he reached a hand to the ceiling and imagined with all his might a vast hand gripping a stalactite and ripping it from the ceiling. He then poured magic into the stone, changing it into steel and sharpening it before hurling it with all his might at the mighty serpent which was rearing up in front of the statue. The massive block of steel whistled through the air with the speed of a F1 car on a straight, ripping straight through the serpents mouth and brain, killing it instantly before slamming into the statue and obliterating it's face.
Inside the bond Ginny and Hermione were engaged in a huge battle of wills with the horcrux in the chamber above. Both girls leapt on it landing punches backed by their magic and love for Harry and each other. They were each thrown back many times but it was never able to concentrate on one at a time, having its attention split between the attack in the physical world and the mental world. It quickly became a test of strength and speed where the girls had the home turf and raw strength but Riddle had a huge experience advantage. They tussled over the ruins of the castle they had built in their bond until finally a break came when Ginny's body under Harry's command wrenched the book from Hermione's rigid fingers and threw it aside. His link to his host degraded the horcrux Riddle was badly weakened and thrown from the bond completely. Both slumped in the ruins on their spheres of the rune and relaxed into a deep sleep there in the bond.
On the outside Harry watched as the snake reeled from the death blow and noticed the diary wrenched from Hermione's grip. With a scream a spectre was thrown from her body back into the book. Harry noticed a shadow growing on him and he flung himself aside as the head of the basilisk crashed to the ground, a fang spearing the horcrux to the floor. Rolling away from the snake he came to rest next to the two girls and exhausted drifted into a deep sleep.