This may be a confusing chapter to some, due to all the "grey line" breaks as I like to call them, but just bear with me! Thank you so much for the reviews last chapter, you guys don't know how encouraging you all are! I hope you enjoy this one, and never fear; everything is not as dire as it may seem for our heroes!
Vegar muttered a spell under his breath, and cursed in frustration when it rebounded back to him. "Snape is very good," he said between clenched teeth.
The two men were still at the border of Spinner's End. Vegar had been working almost nonstop for two days at breaking the wards, and he was nearly finished. The base ward, however, was the strongest, and by far the most difficult to break. Lestrange shrugged. "There must have been a reason why he was so valuable to the Dark Lord."
"He vos valuable because he vos a spy, I vos led to believe," Vegar snapped. "Not because he vos uncommonly skilled as a wizard."
"He was good, yeah, but no where near the Dark Lord's talent," Lestrange said. "Are you having trouble breaking the ward?"
Vegar didn't respond, instead he cursed again under his breath, and went back to muttering various counter curses and ward-breaking spells, in the hope that one would work, and soon.
Harry sat down at his desk, looking at all the files that had amassed while he spent time catching up with Luna. He sighed heavily, and pulled a massive stack towards him. All of them were reports and sightings and rumours of anything relevant to catching whomever was using the curse. All though there hadn't been any attacks of late, the Minister and himself were highly concerned as to what that meant.
With situations like these, mass attacking people, Harry knew it often meant an ulterior motive. Not many people would simply attack for the pure fun of it. There had to be a plan behind it, and Harry was starting to wonder what it was. Especially now, that the cure had been created and the attacker was laying low.
Harry bit the inside of his cheek in determination, and started to read.
"Are you prepared to try it?" Severus asked, noting the look of determination on Hermione's face. The two were sitting in their bedroom, and they had been discussing the theories behind the initial transformation into one's animagus form.
Hermione nodded vigorously. "I think I am, Severus. I mean I've been practising for weeks, and doing every mental discipline under the sun to prepare myself. I think I'm ready."
In truth, Severus thought Hermione was more than ready. He wanted to make sure she knew, and felt sure in her capabilities. The lack of confidence could be fatal in the first transformation, and that is why becoming an animagus wasn't something that most people took on lightly. And why there were so few of them. The risk was simply too high for most people to want to try turning into an animal.
Severus smirked at her eagerness. "Very well. You know how to begin?"
Hermione rolled her eyes, and got the distinct feeling that she was a first year student trying out her first spell, and Severus was her professor. It took her half a second to realise that the sense of deja vu she was getting was well founded. It was hard to believe, after all they had been through and what their relationship was now, that Severus had indeed been Hermione's teacher. She smiled. She was quite glad with how things turned out.
"Yes, I know it, Severus dear. I've only been studying for months," she said, the corners of her lips twitching as she tried to restrain a smile.
Severus arched an eyebrow. "I don't know what possessed me to question Hermione Granger's preparedness."
"It's a common mistake," Hermione replied, giving up and breaking out into a wide grin. She leaned forward and kissed Severus lightly, before saying, "Wish me luck."
Severus snorted. "I would, if I thought you needed it."
Hermione grinned to herself at the subtle compliment as she got comfortable on the floor. They had both agreed that, seeing as they had no idea what animal she would become, it would be best for her to be seated on the floor. She took a deep breath, and glanced back up at Severus, flashing him a quick smile before she closed her eyes and focused on evening out her breathing, and calming her mind.
Severus got comfortable on the bed, he knew it could be a while. He didn't let himself doze off, though. He kept himself alert and aware, wand at the ready, in case his help was needed.
Hermione sifted through her mind, clearing it out, becoming relaxed and instead of focusing upon one thing, she broadened the spectrum of her focus to ensconce the entirety of her mind. It took a few minutes of careful breathing and control to stop the flood of memories, thoughts, senses and the millions of other things the mind computes at once. Once it was down to a manageable pool of existence, she began the process of sifting down to the core of her mental being.
She had done it once before, and she knew how to, but going past that would be an entirely new experience. Theory stated that once you found the the center of your mind, one step further would produce the animal form yourself would take. Then, it's simply a matter of finding out how to become the animal. All the books refused to give information on that aspect, stating that it was a highly personal and entirely individual aspect of the process.
As she sifted through her memories, she was surprised at how often the memories of laying in front of the fireplace with Severus in his animagus form cropped up. Even though they were relatively recent memories, it was apparent that subconsciously, she focused on them often. Which made sense to her. She counted them among her favourite memories. It was really the first time since before she could remember that she felt entirely, utterly and completely at peace.
Her school years were filled with the stress of what Harry and the Wizarding world was going through, and afterwards trying to balance school and an unstable relationship with Ron was not conducive to peace. But those moments, those moments of comfortable silence and companionship and the knowledge that he enjoyed it as much as she did was peaceful.
There was a good reason why those memories kept appearing, Hermione decided. She completely blocked off the memories of the War, and that terrible moment when she had thought Severus had died in the shrieking shack. She didn't want to ever revisit those memories. She was more than content to let them remain as history.
She sifted through her childhood years with ease, those memories were fainter than the rest and easier to ignore and push aside. They didn't clamor for her attention like the recent ones did. It was odd, how the mind worked, she thought as she continued towards the beginning. She began to look for it, the brilliant pearl of her being.
It was a bit cliché, she knew. But with the way she had structured her mind for the experience, as a giant pool, it made sense that the center of her being would be at the bottom of the pool, and in the form of a pearl.
As she got closer, the memories seemed to simply fly by, and she got flashes of her mothers smiling face, and her dad laughing. Her baby years, she surmised. It was impressive to think that her mind retained those early memories, but they were hard to remember because of how the mind prioritised.
Hermione began to realise that no matter how much information was discovered regarding the mind, there would always be more they could never understand.
Before she could think on it further, however, she came to it. The shimmering pearl that was the essence of who she was, is, and would be as a person. Hermione waited there for a few minutes, wondering what to do. This was where the books had stopped explaining, this was where she was on her own. Hermione thought about it for a few minutes, but decided to stop. There was no use thinking about something she had no information on, she realised.
Mentally shrugging her shoulders, she picked it up, holding it carefully in the center of her palm. As she looked at it closer, she could make out the swirling images of memories and things that made up herself. It was mesmerizing, and she tried to focus harder on it, to pick out specific images.
As she looked deeper into the ball, a shiver ran through her, and the swirling whiteness that made up the center of the pearl suddenly cleared, and a blindingly white, tiny, but perfect animal stood there. It looked straight at her, and then it leaped at her, becoming larger and larger until it burst forth from the white pearl, and seemed to consume her.
Severus was reading a light novel when he heard Hermione gasp. He put the book down instantly, and looked at her, alert for any signs of trouble, but instead of seeing his witch sitting on the floor, a large, tawny coloured Caracal sat there instead. It looked up at him, its teeth bared in a fierce some looking snarl.
"...Well," Severus said, after some pause. "You certainly can't go wandering the streets of London in your Animagus. How conspicuous of you."
The cat let out a deep, hissing sound, and shook its head. Severus began to look for any distinct markings, things that marked the cat as Hermione, but he couldn't find any.
But then he noticed it; Caracal's had large ears topped with long tufts of black hair, but on this cat, the tufts were the exact shade of Hermione's hair. A red-brown chestnut colour. It was dark enough to be passed off as simple an odd colour, but now that Severus recognised it, it made sense. Possibly Hermione's most out-standing physical attribute was her mane of hair, which explained why it appeared as one of her personal markings.
The cat let out a loud, deep hissing sound, and jumped on the bed, and tried rubbing itself against Severus. He was nearly shoved to the floor.
"Hermione! You are not a damned house cat," he snapped as he stood up, pushing Hermione roughly. The cat let out another deep hissing noise, and rolled over with the shove.
Hermione continued to hiss, and Severus stared at her curiously. "What ever are you doing?"
The Caracal's shoulders started to shake with the hissing, and Severus realised that she was laughing. "I suppose you find attacking me funny?"
The cat glanced up at him, its yellow eyes huge. Then, if he didn't imagine it, Severus saw a spark of mischief flash in the cats eyes before it snarled again, and leapt lightly to the ground. Severus twisted to make sure Hermione wasn't up to something, but the Caracal leapt forward, snagging his cloak in its claws, hissing the entire time.
Severus grimaced as he heard the rip of fabric. "All right, enough!"
The cat released his cloak and looked up at him innocently. Severus scowled. "I rather liked this cloak."
The cat hissed again, and bounded behind him. Severus turned to keep up with it, and Hermione snagged his cloak again, tearing it once more. Severus rolled his eyes in exasperation.
A moment later, a black cat stood in his place, glaring dolefully at the large Caracal. Hermione walked slowly towards him, marveling at how much larger her animagus was than his. Caracals are medium sized cats, she knew, but still. Severus's black cat was on the small, lithe side.
It was fun to realise that for once, she more or less towered over him. Well, as much as a cat can tower over another cat. She laughed again, and Severus twitched his whiskers, making it appear uncannily like he just arched an eyebrow.
Hermione reached out a paw, and gently batted him. She was still getting used to how much strength she had as a cat, and she didn't want to overdo it. Severus, however, was prepared, and lightly bounded away, causing her swipe to swing wide, and for her to almost topple over.
Apparently, perfect feline balance didn't come with the animagus package. Hermione flicked her tail after she righted herself, and started to walk to Severus, moving slowly.
Severus eyed her suspiciously. But before he could move out of the way, Hermione had pounced on him, trapping him under her. He batted at her nose, claws sheathed, and hissed at her, but Hermione simply looked down at him, snarling. Severus smirked, and Hermione licked the side of his face before releasing him. A second later, she was in her normal form, laying on the floor, laughing like a lunatic.
Severus quickly changed back too, and stood up, glaring at Hermione as she chortled to herself. "Are you quite finished?"
"I think so," Hermione said between gasps for air. She clutched at the hand Severus offered her, and hauled herself up. She found herself looking up to him once more, and she giggled again. "Well, it's good to know I'm taller than you in some way."
"And I am sure you will never let an opportunity to show that off pass you by," Severus said with a dramatic sigh, all though the corners of his lips twitched slightly.
"Nope," Hermione replied, grinning broadly. "Never."
Kingsley shook his head as he looked at the report in his hands. "Is there any solid proof to this? At all?"
"Sir, it's a valid claim. One of the aurors we sent up north, where Lestrange was known to be, asked around and got a feel for the area. Apparently, this guy Vegar, is well known up there, but not very well liked. He used to be a teacher a Durmstrang, but he got let go because what he was teaching was too Dark even for Durmstrang."
Harry had came across this file an hour ago, and he had immediately requested to see the Minister
"Yes, but Grindlewald's son? Those have to be just rumours! Why wouldn't we have heard about it before? And the other report, that he's working with Lestrange and he's behind it all. That's practically clutching at straws!" Kingsley said. "Do we even know who wrote this report?"
"One of our undercover aurors. I stationed Auckley at St. Mungo's. It's an optimal position. If someone is behind these attacks for a reason, they're going to want to find out about the cure." Harry said. "And Snape hasn't released a paper on it, so the only way he'll get information is by the hospital."
"And how did he go from skulking around the hospital to making outrageous claims?"
"He talked to a few people at the hospital, they said a man with a thick northern accent had been in and around the hospital, asking questions about the cure and saying he was there for his wife. He never visited a room, though, and never came with anyone else."
"So Auckley thinks this man, the one sneaking about the hospital is Vegar?"
"Yes. And, he said he had something important to tell me. It happened after he sent the report, but he said it gives much more validity to his report. I've got a meeting with him scheduled for later today. He'll explain everything then."
Kingsley heaved a sigh. This all seemed so far fetched. It went from one ex-Death Eater being suspected, to Grindlewald having a son and trying to curse the entirety of the British Wizarding population. "How do we know any of this has grounds to be real? Wouldn't Lestrange and this Vegar man had seen someone trailing them? Wouldn't they have been more careful?"
"No, they wouldn't have, Kingsley," Harry said as he leant forward eagerly. "Auckley has my invisibility cloak."