Greyback and Hermione meet Reginald.
Harry munched on an apple, laughing as Greyback playfully pulled Hermione against him, soaking her with his wet clothes. Luna was smiling at the sound of her laughter. They both had missed their fun-loving Hermione. Maybe Greyback coming back into her life wasn't going to be as bad as they'd feared. Especially when it seemed like Greyback was being extra careful to not upset her. Even Harry could admit that the wolf was being as hands off as possible, only touching Hermione when she seemed ready to allow it. The more he let her lead, the more relaxed Hermione seemed to be. Certainly, he couldn't have acted as he was just now without her going into hysterics even a few days ago.
Harry threw her a couple of napkins and Hermione transfigured them into towels for her and Greyback. As she toweled herself dry, Harry mentioned going back to camp. "I guess this ghost hunt was a bust. We should go back and check in." He said.
"What are you talking about, Harry? It wasn't a bust. We met Lydia, didn't we? Which reminds me, we need to ask Mr. Mills about her. I think she might have been an ancestor of his. I'd like to hear more about the history of this cabin." Hermione mused.
"So does this mean you like ghost hunting now?" Harry teased her. Hermione laughed as she popped his arm.
"Maybe. But only if they're the nice ghosts, like Lydia." She said with a sigh. "Her history was so sad, Harry. She froze to death because she couldn't push the door open. She used all the wood inside and was unable to get more. It said poor little Olivia was only a few months old. She never got to grow up."
"Wait! She couldn't get the door open? Couldn't she just magic it open?" Harry was confused. "Oh! Oh, no! She was a muggle? I didn't think there were any muggle families in Hogsmeade, though."
"Of course, there are, Harry. Now. Not when it was first established. Since it was an all-Wizarding village, there's a very good possibility of her actually having been a squib. In which case, no she couldn't have opened the door with magic." Hermione had thought about Lydia all the way back from Hogsmeade. "I'd actually like to try to contact her again. I don't know if she'd show up in the daytime with everyone here, but she might come back tonight."
"You seriously want to stay here again tonight? To try and contact a ghost?" Harry was totally flabbergasted but at the same time not at all surprised. Hermione always had hated mysteries. It was how they'd ended up finding out about Nicholas Flamel in their first year. Hermione had heard the name and kept digging until she found him. So, it made complete sense to Harry that she'd want to stay and try to reach out to this ghost.
"Well, we do have all of this high-tech gear. It'd be a shame to not put it to its original use. Besides, you can't tell me you're not itching to run into a noncorporal ghost. After all those times we'd watch the show and talk about all the places we wanted to go to?" Hermione said, tapping on the table.
"All right. I'll go down and see if Mr. Mills will let us stay longer. How much longer were you thinking?" Harry stood up. Hermione bit her knuckle as she thought about it.
"At least two more days. Today and tomorrow should give us time to check the whole cabin. We already have the war room set up now. We can finish the rest of the upstairs rooms in just a few minutes. Unless you want to go back to camp." She reached out and fiddled with the Kinect camera, rewinding the video she and Greyback had caught the night before.
"No! I don't. This is just getting good!" Harry laughed as Luna took his hand. Greyback had gone back to the porch with the Squad. Harry looked at Hermione and tipped his head that way. Hermione cupped her chin and shrugged at him. She wasn't sure what was going to happen with him.
Harry walked out on the porch and looked at Greyback. "Oi, would you care to help her set up the rest of our equipment? I need to go see Mr. Mills and check into camp, let them know we'll be gone for a few more days." Greyback's eyes had widened as Harry started to speak. He nodded and went back to the war room. Yaxley, Dolohov, and Rowle smiled but remained seated, knowing that Greyback would need every moment of time alone with Hermione if he hoped to get her used to him being there.
Hermione was sorting through the various cameras on the table. As Greyback walked in, she motioned at three sets of tripods. "Bring those. We need to get cameras set up in the rooms upstairs." He obediently picked up the tripods and carried them up the steps. "This is the room Ron and Lavender had last night. I think the best place for the camera would be right here in the corner. It's a motion activated camera so if there's any type of activity, it'll show it." She said. He held the tripod as she attached the camera.
They went to the next room, where Dolohov had scared Neville and Ginny. "We'll see how much more candle levitation and curtain blowing happens tonight. Are you four going to stay here with us? You might as well, now that you're already here." She looked at Greyback.
"Do you want me to stay here? I thought you were scared of me. It's the only reason I stayed away so long. I had to get my mind straightened out before I saw you again. Truth be told, I'm glad they hauled me out of the country. If they hadn't, I would have come after you and you'd have hated me for the rest of your life." He leaned on the wall as they talked. She fiddled with a camera, setting it into the tripod before she answered.
"I've been thinking about it since you showed up last night. You've changed since the war. I am still scared of you but not nearly as much as I was before the war ended. You seem to be calmer, more confident. Before, you seemed like you were insecure, even though you were mingling with his top people." She led the way to the last room.
"You're right. I was insecure. I wasn't actually a Death Eater because, well, I'm a werewolf. We had a very uneasy alliance between the two of us. He knew there was no way to make a werewolf army without me and I knew he could easily set the Death Eaters on me. I was at risk of Azkaban the entire war, from both sides of the conflict. If your side caught me, Azkaban. If his side turned on me, Azkaban. Either way, I was an outcast. I was just trying to survive until I could get away. Once I caught a whiff of you, I had a reason to stay. I needed to make sure you survived. If you didn't, there was no chance of a future for me." He set the third tripod up as she waited.
"No chance of a future? Without me?" She had a feeling she knew what he meant but she wanted him to clarify it for her. It would explain why he'd seemed so obsessed with her in the last years of the war. They started out of the room after angling the camera just right. As it was still shadowy upstairs and the lights still weren't on, he held a flashlight for her. He didn't really need it as his eyes were accustomed to the shadows and night.
Halfway down the stairs, he pulled her to a stop. Pushing her down, he sank to the step beside her. "I'm ready to settle down. I've, found a mate but she's, kind of skittish. I'll need to take my time, letting her get to know me. I'm hoping to start a family with her." He looked at her sideways and bumped her shoulder, making it clear who he had in mind as his potential mate.
Hermione looked down as she smiled. 'Ok, maybe he wasn't so bad after all. It didn't sound like he intended to rush her into anything. She could handle getting to know him.' She hopped up, grabbing his hand. "C'mon. Let's get everything hooked up down here. Do you think Lydia will show up again tonight?"
"I don't know. Maybe? It probably depends on how often she's shown up before now. From the way he acted, Arthur might not have ever seen her. He sure didn't act like the owner of a haunted cabin. You and Harry might have been the first ones to ever come in here and try to communicate with ghosts." Greyback grinned proudly as the squad noticed them holding hands. While Hermione's back was turned, Thorfinn gave him a quick thumbs up.
Hermione pulled him over to her station where she began telling him all about the equipment. Greyback mused that Thorfinn had been right. He'd told him to get her talking about something she could teach him about. That would help ease her into getting to know him. "Oh, no!" Hermione suddenly exclaimed, grabbing his wandering attention. "We forgot to put the music boxes in the rooms!" She held up something called a paranormal music box. Supposedly it played around spirits. "Do you remember the spot Lydia was in? I want to put a music box there."
"She was standing in front of the window. Right in the same spot you were when I scared you last night." Greyback cringed as she narrowed her eyes at him. She handed him a music box and pointed. He quickly took the box and set it where they'd seen the ghost. They took three back upstairs to the rooms already equipped. Then they returned to the war room.
Harry was there with Ron, Luna and Lavender. Neville and Ginny had decided one night of excitement was enough and had returned to camp. Ron had asked Lavender if she was OK being around Greyback. His father had sent him a note telling him what Greyback had said. She had decided to come back just to make sure that he would really keep his word. The two of them eyed each other warily but true to his word, Greyback made no attempt to approach Lavender. Thorfinn had gone to Hogsmeade and grabbed a case of butterbeer and a case of firewhiskey from Aberforth. He, Yaxley and Dolohov seemed to have nowhere to be in any kind of hurry. They were seated at the table in the corner playing Exploding Snap. Hermione had informed them, as soon as the sun set, they'd have to find some other way to entertain themselves.
She was monitoring the cameras and showing Greyback how to connect them all to the central camera. They sat down to see if they could catch sight of any shadows on the screens. All the rooms had been reassigned. The squad had room one. Harry and Luna had room two. Greyback and Hermione had room three this time and Ron and Lavender would monitor the war room. It was almost sunset, and the squad had just finished their game. Harry and Luna were leaning on the wall. Ron and Lavender sprawled in front of them. The squad was watching the cameras now. It was Thorfinn who saw the shadowy form first.
"Granger! Granger, there's something happening in room three!" Hermione rushed over and gasped. She didn't even have to say anything. Greyback already had a flashlight, camera and an Ovilus box. He switched it on and aimed at the stairs. They went up the creaky steps and paused outside the door. Greyback cut on the camera as Hermione turned on the Ovilus box. Then they opened the door. As soon as it was cracked, Hermione shivered as she heard the music box playing. She reached back and pulled Greyback close.
They saw the form on the camera almost immediately. Hermione stepped closer. "Is it Lydia?" Greyback was frowning as he kept her from going closer still. His eyes flicked from the camera to the window and back again.
"No. The shape is different. Taller. Slightly broader." He said gruffly as the hair on his arm stood up. His Alpha instincts were suddenly kicking in. That only happened when he was around another male near his mate. "It's a man. Not Lydia."
"Hello? Can you hear me? Can you tell me your name?" Hermione held up the Ovilus box. The image on the camera wavered, blinked in and out, then solidified again. Long lines of gibberish ran down the screen before slowing down.
"Gone. Gone. They're gone. Gone. Alone. All alone. Nothing. Nothing." Hermione frowned at the box. Unlike the previous evening, this ghost seemed to have no inclination to talk, at least not to them.
"I think this might be her husband, Hermione. Remember he came back and found them. Maybe this is the room where he found them." Greyback spoke in a hushed whisper, still warily eyeing the ghost.
"Do you remember what his name was?" Hermione looked over her shoulder. Greyback's eyes narrowed as he thought back to the story he and Hermione had read.
"Reginald." He told her quietly. Hermione nodded and aimed the Ovilus box once more.
"Reginald? Is that your name?" She asked. Greyback watched the shape on the camera swirl, fade out, back in and fade out again. The music box stopped playing.
"He's gone. Guess he didn't feel like communicating." Hermione's shoulders sagged. Suddenly, the shape was back, much closer than before. The Ovilus started whirring. Gibberish flew down the screen then stopped.
"Reginald. My family. Gone. All gone. Alone. Alone." Then he faded out again. This time he didn't reappear. Hermione had fallen back against Greyback.
"Well, now we can tell Mr. Mills he has a genuine haunted cabin. But they're not violent." She said. They headed back down to show everyone the video they'd shot.
Harry was thrilled as he and Hermione watched and rewound the video about a dozen times to make sure they'd not missed anything. Hermione seemed happy to use Greyback for a pillow. Although they kept checking the monitors, they didn't go off anymore for the rest of the night. The next day Arthur Mills was amazed as they showed him the footage of both Lydia and Reginald. Then Hermione told him the story they'd found in the history of Hogsmeade. He was at once both proud and sad as he learned the history of the cabin.
As they walked back to Hogsmeade, Greyback and Hermione dropped to the back of the group. He wanted to ask her out, but he was sure it was still too soon. There was no way she'd feel secure enough to be alone with him yet. But Hermione had a different thought going through her mind. "We'll be having supper at the Three Broomsticks before we go back to camp. Would you join us? It'll be Harry, Luna, Ron, Lavender and me."
Greyback looked down and smiled as he took her hand. "I'd love to join you for supper." They went their separate ways at the edge of town. Greyback and the Squad went to the Hog's Head and the Trio, Luna and Lavender went to the Three Broomsticks in search of butterbeer. Shortly after, Greyback came in ad they were ordering supper. Harry and Ron smiled at how happy Hermione was already looking. Greyback coming back obviously had been a good thing and just what she'd needed.