Harry hit the soft carpeting of the Manor , spluttering indignantly. As far as he was concerned, Floo Networks were the worst things on the planet.
"You're still struggling with this?" Draco looked irritatingly amused as he offered a palm to help him up. Ignoring the little quip, Harry heaved himself upright, moving automatically to the whiskey canter on the sideboard.
"You always have the best alcohol, Malfoy." He whistled, losing no time in chugging the fiery liquid. Blaise snorted from his place on the couch. He was a teetotaler, thought anyone who drank was a fool. Well, to each his own.
Ignoring him, Harry chugged another mouthful.
"You're one weird bastard. " Draco shook his head, dragging him to the nearest armchair and shoving him on it.
Harry raised an eyebrow at that.
"Nott's looking for you with a vengeance. The ministry's got a couple of agents looking for you as well and what do you do? You return back to the epicenter of every trouble you've caused, back to London of all places and you go shopping in Diagon Alley. Seriously?"Draco rapped him on the head, sharp and painful.
Harry rolled his eyes.
"London isn't permanent. I'll head back to Venice ." He shrugged. That was more home than any place else.
"When?"
"Soon." He said cryptically.
After I get that murderous son of a bitch into the ground.
"How soon? We can't keep-" Draco started , but Harry cut him off.
"Listen, Draco. This isn't your fight . I mean, I appreciate the heads up but I'm not leaving London for a while. At least till I get some work done. "
"Does this have anything to do with Mia?"
"What?" He rasped.
"Hermione. Does this have anything to do with her ?"
"What?! No! Of course not, why would you- Of course not!" He shook his head.
"Why? Because you've been getting pretty cozy with her."
Harry tried to keep his irritation down. But when he looked back at Draco all he could see was genuine concern. He forced down the annoyance and shook his head.
"I know how it looks but... She needs me right now. I'm just.."
"Helping her out?"
"Something like that. Yeah."
"And then you'll just leave her ...abandon her?"
Harry stared at his best friend. Draco sounded annoyed. Scratch that, he sounded furious.
"Dray, I..."
"Fuck you, Potter , the hell is wrong with you man?"
Harry just blinked, surprised. What was he supposed to do? He had lots of loose ends left untied in London. It was alright to visit once in a while but he could hardly stay here .
"Why on earth are you glaring at me?" He rolled his eyes.
"I'm not... dude, listen here alright. I know it doesn't make sense to your thick skull, but she'd in love with you. Like legit, in love with you. Know what that means? Any small sign of affection is going to seem huge to her. Not mention the fact that she's at her most vulnerable. You can't just give her everything she's ever wanted and then take it away without an explanation..." Draco swore, leaning back against the wall and running his palm over his face.
Harry stared at the blonde and shook his head vehemently.
"It's not like that...I'm not... Shit, Dray you make me sound like a monster. I'm just trying to help her out for God's sake." He muttered, wondering why they were even talking about this.
"See , that's the thing, Harry. You have a very warped idea of what helps people. "
"Come on , Harry, you don't her to be alone on her anniversary , do you?"
Harry shook his head, trying to push the guilt to the back of his mind. Was he doing it again? unintentionally hurting her? He needed time to get his head on straight.
Blaise cleared his throat.
"Draco, this isn't what we're here about. We need to get something done about Nott."
Harry looked up at the boy, grateful for the change in topic.
"Yeah, well, word on the street is he's looking for the Exemplar. " Blaise scoffed.
Harry froze, staring at him in disbelief.
"He's what?! "
"What the hell's the Exemplar?" Draco blinked.
"The Exemplar, it's a stone tablet that-"
"I know what the damn Exemplar is! Why the hell is he looking for it?" Harry said nervously.
Blaise shrugged.
"Could be a million reasons. But knowing him, it's probably to sell it to the highest bidder."
Harry shook his head.
"No way. It's way too powerful for him to pass off. Any chance he's gonna know what to do with it?"
God, he hoped not. The thought of it falling in the wrong hands was downright terrifying.
"Okay, someone please explain what the Exemplar is." Draco snapped.
"It's one of the weapons used by the Aztecs, centuries back. A stone tablet that taught mind control." Harry said quickly, giving him the short version.
"the Aztecs? They were-?"
"Wizards , yes. A few of them at least. "
"Oh..Kay. So Nott's looking for a centuries old tablet to control minds?" Draco looked at them like they were crazy.
Blaise frowned.
"Not just plain mind control, Draco. If you remember , the Imperius curse can accomplish that quite well. What the Aztecs found was a way to control a person's thoughts and actions in an intelligent manner. Not mindless following of orders, but clever logical decision making , with one end goal in sight. We don't know if it's real. Many people consider it a myth,but over the years, there have been several evidences.."
"Can we please stall the nerd speak, Zabini?" Draco rolled his eyes.
"Pompous ass!" Blaise retorted.
"Besides, if it isn't even real, why exactly are we worried?" Draco protested, looking between them with confused impatience on his face.
Harry tried not to roll his eyes. Poor naive Malfoy.
"Actually, Dray, it's as real as your ass."
Blaise snorted, reaching out to yank on Draco's belt loop.
"Not really accurate , Harry, his ass looks pretty non existent to me." He snickered, making Draco yelp in protest.
Harry laughed, watching the pair of them wrestle it out in the couch.
But his mind was elsewhere.
If Theodore Nott was really looking for the Exemplar, he wasn't the only one in danger, here.
Hermione stood outside the condo, battling the urge to turn tail and flee. The truth was she hated the thought of confronting Ron. Forget confronting, just the thought of looking at him was enough to trigger her gag reflex.
But her clothes were here. So were her medical records and all of her knick knacks. She needed to get them out.
She'd purposely chosen a Saturday, because Ron wouldn't be caught dead at home on a weekend. But as it turned out, today was the exception to his norm. The door was locked on the inside and she'd have to ring him up.
When she finally brought herself to do it, she wished Harry were here with her.
Just for the moral support.
But she'd resisted the urge to call him. Because he had no moral obligation to be there for her and it wasn't like he wouldn't have anything better to do.
The door flung open , just as she finished her train of thought, making her blink at the man in front of her.
"Hermione." Ron looked happy and chipper, like he hadn't wrecked their marriage and insulted her to boot.
"I'm only here to get my stuff."
Ron rolled his eyes, fingers curving around her upper arm, not very gently. Too tired to protest, she let him lead her inside, shrugging off his grasp.
"Don't be ridiculous, Mione. You can't stay with Harry." He scoffed.
She didn't bother correcting him, moving instead to their shared bedroom. Everything was just as she'd left it and she quickly sank to the bed, waving her wand to get her clothes neatly folded on the bed. Her travel cases were neat enough and she quickly arranged the clothes in.
"Mione, come on. let's talk this out.." He cajoled, moving to settle next to her. She looked up then, glaring at him.
"There's nothing left to talk about. I hate you, you're an asshole. end of story."
"Yeah well, I'm the one who should be furious. That child isn't even mine, you know." He snapped.
Hermione stared at him in disgust.
"Just because you don't remember it, doesn't mean-"
"I don't remember it, because I wasn't there! It wasn't me , Mione." He said quietly, shaking his head in a show of faux-guilt. She blinked at him.
"what the hell does that -"
"It was fucking Potter alright?! The night of our anniversary, it was him! I was still in Texas."
Hermione could only stare in disbelief. Of all the rotten lies to spin...
"You disgust me, you know that?" She said quietly, turning away from him. But he reached out, yanking on her fingers.
"Mione, trust me! It wasn't me. I got held up for the game and I couldn't bare disappointing you. So I told him to take my place. Only because I didn't want you to be alone on our anniversary. And then I found out the guy had used the opportunity to sleep with you. Do you have any idea how fucking furious I was?!"
She couldn't breathe for a second. Looking at him, at his stupid face she could tell that he was saying the truth.
She slapped him. Right across his face.
"How dare you?" She whispered, but her mind was already slipping. Harry... it had been Harry... All along... and he'd lied to her... he'd pretended to be...
She needed to get out. Needed to get the hell out of here.
"Hermione, I know you feel bad about this , but please, let's..."
Her wand was at his throat in less than a second.
"Don't you fucking dare... don't you fucking dare touch me... The only reason I didn't kill you was because you were my child's father . Now that it doesn't hold anymore, there's nothing stopping me from sending you to your grave. Back the fuck off and stay away." She said quietly, her voice oddly steady, considering how much she was shaking on the inside.
Ron held his palms up, looking annoyed and defensive.
"Fine, be a bitch. It's what you're good at after-"
She moved before she could stop herself, the spell hitting him solidly on his chest, sending him flying into the wall, strong enough to chip the paint off the wall. She was pretty certain she'd broken some bones.
Ron lay there, groaning.
"You crazy, bitch!" He swore.
"Careful, Ronald. Or I'm filing domestic assault charges on you. "
Ron stared at her in shock.
"What the fuck-"
Ignoring him, she quickly packed her clothes and stuff, transporting them to her store with a wave of her wand before walking out of the condo.
She needed a little time.
A little time before she confronted Harry.
Harry found the store empty when he got back from the Manor. He had a lot to discuss with Hermione and it was clear she'd gone somewhere. She had left a strawberry blonde girl at the counter who gave him a note that informed him that she would be back by dinnertime.
He smiled at the small smiley at the end of the parchment.
Looking around the store, he could see that she'd done a good job with the decorating. The nursery looked perfect too. Once she was ready, they could get a cradle, maybe paint it blue to match the walls. Or he could get her one of those muggle things that could be changed from cradle to bed to stroller.
More magical than anything in the wizarding world, if you ask him.
He had a lot of things to discuss with her. She was after all one of the leading experts on Ancient Runes. Or had been. He wondered why she hadn't pursued any of the countless things she'd excelled at.
The door swung open just as he moved towards it.
Hermione looked at him and practically froze in place, looking hunted. His smile slipped off quickly.
"What's wrong?" He said, suddenly scared. She looked... hurt.
"I need to talk to you." She sounded oddly quiet. Subdued. Unnaturally so.
"Okay. okay, let's go inside." He followed her into the bedroom and she locked the door with a bang.
"Where were you?" He asked casually, leaning back against the cupboard. She shrugged, fingers playing with the tassels at the endc of her scarf.
"At Ron's. I got my stuff." She said stiltedly.
"Oh, that's great. You could've called me , I would have-" He started, but she held her hands up.
" Harry, tell me the truth. Is there something you're hiding from me?" She said softly, eyes wide and vulnerable.
Suddenly , he couldn't breathe.
She knows, a voice whispered into his mind .
And despite the fact that he'd imagined being confronted about this, a zillion times if not more, he was speechless.
There was nothing he could say.
A/n : I've no idea if the Aztecs were wizards. And there's no such thing as the Exemplar. At least, I think not.
Reviews are love. :)