Phoenix Hawk, Chapter 16
Disclaimer: Even if I won the lotto, I doubt I could budge JKR on ownership. Just playing in the sandbox, as always!
Warnings: A mention of prejudicial beliefs, created for this story only. Not the beliefs of the author, nor the source material.
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Harry was about to leave Hermione to rest after she'd managed to eat half the food brought to her when Winky reappeared with a couple of potion bottles, explaining what they were for. Hermione readily drank down the blood replenisher, and energy restorative before accepting the minute bottle of a sleep aid.
"It's not as strong as Dreamless, and if something goes wrong, you'll be able to wake up," Harry explained as Hermione turned the bottle in her hands. The cut crystal was no longer than her index finger, stopper included. The facets caught the light as the bottle moved. "You don't have to take it if you don't want to, but I'll have to put the Body Bind back on."
That decided her. She felt it was better to be asleep than awake and unable to move. Hermione pulled the stopper and tipped the vial into her mouth before she could second guess.
"Sleep well," Harry said as he left her in the cabin, pulling the sliding door shut behind him.
Harry saw that the other four members of the archaeological team were still asleep in the main area. The elves had grouped them together in the small sitting area closest to the cockpit. One of the men twitched almost constantly; a near violent thrashing of his head and limbs. Harry called on Ril. "Can you help that man? If he keeps tossing his head like that, he might break his neck."
"At once, Harrys," the little elf replied, snapping her fingers.
The man's head was easily captured by a conjured pair of wrapped bolsters that appeared near his ears. He could still move, but with luck, would only have sore muscles when he finally woke. Harry nodded and thanked Ril, who disappeared with a smile on his face.
Harry sat in the secondary sitting area, one that had been designated as his on-board office. As soon as he was settled, a steaming pot of tea appeared at his left elbow, along with a dainty porcelain cup.
"I see. Well, it should help, thank you," he murmured to thin air. He poured a measure into the mug, and sipped to center himself. Once he'd drunk one full cup, he refilled it, checked on the Ever-Warm charm, and reached forward to the paneled bulkhead, where he'd had his office accoutrement stored. Opening up the panel in front of him revealed the tablet computer stored therein. Turning it on, Harry got to work, first updating Belfry on the job, then turning to his overdue Three Brothers commitments once that email was sent.
The work for Three Brothers was time consuming, but absolutely needed to be done. Harry had to look over proposals for new ventures in potion making, a request for funds for a safari to Central America for cataloging plants and animals of use to magicals, and a request to step up funding for a couple of Hogwarts projects. He wrote out a request for more info on the safari and Hogwarts projects, made a few edits to the proposals, and then opened a substantial file on the recent works from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.
He'd only worked for ninety minutes when he was startled by noises from the other side of the plane.
Harry spun in place and cast his eyes over the group of sleeping humans. One of them was awake, the one Ril had had to restrain. Praeter, if Harry's memory served. He stood and crossed the plane in a couple of long strides to lean down and shake the man back to full consciousness.
"Potter!" the explosive sound of his name rocked Harry back on his heels. Brown eyes snapped wide open as Praeter tried to focus on his whereabouts.
"Hansen," Harry said, in a normal tone of voice. It calmed Praeter.
"Potter, need to..." he started, trailing off. His eyes unfocused, no longer seeing his surroundings. "Help me," Praeter whined.
Harry stared at the prone man, taking in all the signs he hadn't caught before. He cursed himself for a fool. "Winky!" he called. She popped to his side before the second syllable faded. "Imperius, and I should have dealt with it earlier," he growled, angry with himself for being distracted during the job he'd been assigned. This is what he got for trying to see if there might still be sparks between him and Hermione.*
"Full containments?" Winky asked. Harry nodded.
And Praeter was thus easily cocooned behind an invisible barrier. No sound emerged as the man stilled under the effects of the stasis spell.
"Harry?" Elliott was awake and sitting up from his place across from Praeter. He'd woken to the sound of conversation, and was confused by what had just happened.
"Dealing with a minor irritation," Harry said, frowning. "This is what I get for not fixing both issues long ago," he paused to gather his next thoughts, "Belfry will be waiting when we land, Elliott, and Praeter and Ms Crosby will be taken into custody." Harry stood from his crouch, and stretched, before beckoning the team leader to follow him back to the other side of the plane. "I'm not sure Belfry's retrieval teams can get the stolen items back," Harry elaborated as he indicated one of the other seats in the alcove of his office. Elliott sat in the proffered seat.
One of the elves invisibly refreshed the teapot, and added a new mug.
"I'll talk with the others about it Harry, don't worry," Elliott dismissed the issue of the stolen personal items, while Harry made up the mug of tea for him. Elliott took the gently steaming mug with thanks and settled back to sip.
"You'll have to give a full accounting of the trip, as Belfry will need to send their own report to the Smithsonian. They'll also want to inspect your finds. Our agreement with the Russians," Harry explained.
"Correct, we give them anything that is clearly from the area we were digging in or from the area's historical culture," Elliott broke in, eyes on the cup he held.
"Exactly. And knowing the Smithsonian, they'll delay returning anything so they can get first crack at studying the object," Harry smiled, defusing any unpleasantness aimed at Elliott's employers.
The pair lapsed into silence until the flight crew called Harry to inform him of the need to land in Moscow* for refueling. He replied back in the affirmative, and told his crew that everyone was still sleeping. The plane landed smoothly and spent a couple of hours refueling before being cleared for the last leg of the flight.
Hermione woke up again not long after the plane's second takeoff, and one of the elves appeared to check on her. After a quick diagnostic, the elf helped her sit up before popping out of the cabin to get Harry.
Smiling, the wizard came into the darkened cabin, bearing another tray of soft foods.* "Well, I believe someone's feeling better!" Harry sounded very cheerful to her as he approached the bed.
"Hello again, Harry," Hermione greeted quietly. She was feeling better, and hoped that her injuries were mostly healed if she'd been allowed to sit up.
"We're six hours from Edinburgh, and Elliott is working on the report for Belfry. The others are still enjoying their naps and Praeter is being held in stasis."
"Stasis?" Hermione asked, her head tilted to one side in confusion.
"He was trying to throw off the Imperius, but he'll need some help. Decided it was safer for him to remain unconscious," Harry explained, settling the tray across Hermione's lap and then sitting in the armchair that had been left close to the bed.
Hermione picked up a slice of toast to nibble on as she contemplated Harry's explanation. Finishing the toast, she next reached for the mug of weak tea, and drank before addressing Harry. "Throwing off the Imperius requires more than you can provide?" she asked quietly.
"If they've been under as long as I suspect Praeter has been, plus there's retrieving any information about who cast it," Harry told her.
"Your company can do that?" Hermione said, surprised and curious.
"Someone on staff can manage, yes," Harry grinned a little. That at least, hadn't changed about Hermione, the nearly overwhelming need to know about new things she encountered. "You do know there's more out there to magic than that doddering old fool ever allowed to be taught, much less whispered about in the halls of Grand Ol'Hoggy Hogwarts?"
Hermione's eyes widened at the venom he inferred about the former Headmaster, but she said nothing about it other than, "Well, yes Harry. I did attend University in the States," said with all the sarcasm she could muster.
Harry laughed. The sound was loud and more free than Hermione could honestly remember, and it pained her.
"I wonder what the States teach in their universities," he finally said, when he pulled himself back together.
"So you never went after more schooling?" she dared to ask, truly curious.
"Hm, no," Harry drew out the syllable, eyes slipping closed as he recalled what happened to him after the War. The stoic face he maintained informed Hermione that this information was at best, unpleasant. She resolved privately, to wait until he mentioned anything more.
"I completed 7th year," he held up a hand to forestall the exclamation, "And then had to seek training elsewhere. Ended up in Japan for awhile, and even trained with a shaman for about six months."
"How did you complete 7th year? You weren't seen in at Hogwarts in that time," Hermione blurted, leaning forward eagerly. Harry reached forward with one hand and pulled the tray down her legs so she wouldn't inadvertently spill something.
"It was irregular, I'll give you that," Harry replied dismissively, not yet ready to talk about that year. He knew Hermione was curious, and since they had apologized for their earlier antagonism, he felt that their friendship was back on solid ground. However, he had one burning question before he'd let her pin him with questions. "What happened between you and Ron?"
Hermione sighed, and looked at her hands, currently clenched in the fabric of the duvet. Not lifting her gaze, she answered in a subdued voice, "Discovered just how prejudiced Ron was. Everything was fine after the war, he was attentive, and gentle. We went out on several dates," her voice trailed off. She never liked discussing this part with anyone she'd known from Hogwarts, but Harry deserved to know. Before she was able to pick up her tale again...
"Did you know," Harry broke in, "that with Bill and Charlie being as oddball as they are, it was Molly who wanted at least one of her children to adhere to the old standards?"
Hermione finally looked up at Harry.
"Yup, it's true," Harry said to the disbelief she showed. "Arthur is the Head of House, right?" Hermione nodded. "So his family has been mostly Pureblood, with the odd mixed blood, never Muggleborns. Squibs, up until this generation, were tossed out of the family. Anyway," he waved one hand dismissively, "That's not the problem. The Prewitt side is where is gets interesting. Always Pureblood, no mixed or Muggleborn in 200 years. The scandal of Molly marrying Arthur was only lessened by a previous scandal some 75 years prior to their marriage."
"How did you find all this out?" Hermione asked, dumbfounded.
"Easy, doing research on my own family history," Harry said offhandedly, mischief sparkling in his eyes. "Wanted to discover just how closely related the Purebloods were." He sat back in his seat with a quiet expulsion of air and watched Hermione absorb and deal with this new information.
"So what was the previous scandal?" she finally asked.
"Only information I could find involved backing an ill fated expedition to South America."
"Wow."
"Yeah. So, that's the problem with Ron and Ginny. I was only acceptable because..."
"Boy-Who-Conquered."
"Exactly." He slapped his hands to his thighs and stood. "We'll be in Edinburgh, in not too much longer. One of the elves will come and get you when we land. Do you need anything before I go?"
She requested her dig notes and Harry left her alone until the plane landed safely at Edinburgh Airport.
AN: * - I'm actually implying things occurring between chapters. I hope to go over more of this in a later chapter.
* - Fudged the distance between the job site and Moscow. Google Earth was supremely unhelpful.
* - Secondary to potions, food is a great restorative. But because Hermione was hit with the spell across her torso, soft, easily digested foods are called for.