AN: Thank you to everybody who left reviews this week. it's very motivating to see you guys enjoying the story, and it definitely pushes me on to keep writing. As always, all reviews, comments and suggestions are welcome!
-MP-
Chapter Fourteen: Lionesses Secrets
"I recognise these phials."
Harry pulled the double door cabinet wide open revealing rows and rows of tall twinkling glass phials, each of them individually labelled, some tall and skinny whilst others were square shaped and green tinted.
Hermione looked between Harry and the cabinet in confusion. "You know what these are?"
He let go of the cabinet door and swallowed. "Yeah, from my lessons with Dumbledore."
"The memories?" Hermione instantly replied, she studied the swirling liquid the phials contained. Perhaps it was denial that made her not connect the dots sooner, she turned her attention to her friend who was lost as he raked the cabinet's contents over and over with his gaze.
She reached out to gently lay her hand on his arm, in hope of gaining his attention but he didn't even flinch away. His eyes remained fixed, wandering up and down the shelves. He recognised the looped writing which detailed memories concerning Tom Riddle, including a few donated by himself. His stomach churned as he bathed in it, remembering the excitement of receiving a new letter in that very same penmanship completely unaware of what its true effect would be on him.
There were other phials with the same writing he didn't recognise, and the more he scanned the heavier the feeling lay in his chest emphasising the unsureness of what it meant.
The green squared bottles were new to him, so he reached out and took one from the middle shelf watching the grey misty liquid swirl around inside of it. Dust clouded the air around him once he distubed it, but his focus was on reading the label which was inscribed in emerald ink;
'Summer 1940 Caithness.'
He studied the bottle carefully in his hand before looking up at Hermione. "I've heard of this place…." He turned the bottle so the label faced her.
"You said you recognise these from your lessons with Albus?"
"Hmm" Harry nodded quietly. "Some of them, they're memories. I only recognise the ones Dumbledore collected on Riddle but the others…" He gestured to the many other bottles that still remained on the shelf. "I have no idea."
Hermione's eyes widened as she took in the sheer amount of bottles stuffed inside the cabinet. "Wow… there has to be hundreds in here. Of memories I mean."
Harry replaced the green bottle back onto the shelf and shut the doors, sealing it back up tightly with a charm.
"During sixth year, when I was having those private lessons with Dumbledore they weren't exactly lessons in the traditional sense. Instead, we would have tea and he would share a memory with me, concerning Riddle's younger years and when he left Hogwarts. Dumbledore had spent years collecting them."
He stepped back and crossed his arms, he knew the green bottles were different but why were they? Why were they stored in the same place as Riddles? His mind ruminated, carried away with itself, a callback to his younger self when similar intense thoughts would overwhelm him leaving him unsure on how to deal with them.
"Maybe these are just Dumbledore's own memories that he collected then?" Hermione offered, feeling slightly puzzled by the significance of it all.
"I guess that would make sense really, perhaps Dumbledore didn't want anybody to find them and learn from Riddle so he had Minerva hide them." She supplied. "It's what I'd do."
"No." Harry interjected. "Those memories were supposed to be destroyed after Dumbledore's death. Besides, I don't even recognise the green ones." He gestured towards the cabinet door lazily.
"I don't know anybody in their right mind who would want to go searching for Riddle's memories anyway." Harry sighed heavily. "I've seen them, and I wouldn't advise it."
He looked across at Hermione, she noted the brief sadness in his eyes which had dissipated as quickly as it had appeared.
"Well, regardless if these are Riddle's memories or not we need to find a way of getting them out of here- undetected."
Harry's brow furrowed at Hermione. "Why, undetected?"
She smirked, thinking to herself that her boys hadn't really changed from when they were teenagers, not even with surviving a wizarding war and Auror training. "If these are Riddles, then we ought not to cavort them around the castle, don't you think?"
"Ah." Harry replied, letting a dumb smile form on his lips. "That makes a lot of sense actually."
He turned around to survey the space in the rest of McGongall's private quarters. "Well, illegal portkey is out of the question." Harry placed his hand on his chin thoughtfully. "If there was only some way we could adapt the floo to sneak it out, as teaching staff have their fireplaces connected to the network as standard."
Hermione murmured in agreement, she pulled out her wand to tap the tip against her palm as she circled the cabinet slowly, taking the object in as a whole. She reached the side of it and stopped suddenly, piquing Harry's interest immediately.
"Perhaps." She said quietly, her eyes still on the wooden object in front of them. "We could combine a careful shrinking and featherlight charm. Just to give us enough time to use the floo and get it somewhere safe."
Harry smiled in agreement. "We should work together, just to make sure we don't damage the phials in any way."
Hermione agreed and pointed her wand at the cabinet, Harry copied, positioning himself on the other side with his wand arm outstretched. "In three." Harry said. "One…. two… three!"
Both Harry and Hermione's voices filled the air. "Reducio." They guided the cabinet to about half size before stopping the charm.
Immediately, Harry unlocked the door and breathed a heavy sigh of relief to see the bottles unbroken inside. "Thank Merlin." Harry exclaimed.
Hermione then set to work applying the featherlight charm, as she was the most accomplished at charms between them he left her to it. By the time she had finished the cabinet was light enough to be picked up by one hand. Which Harry did so repeatedly in childlike astonishment, much to Hermione's disdain.
"Impressive work!" Harry beamed. "Now, it's time to get this out of here."
He dragged the cabinet towards the fireplace, before turning his attention to the disorganised books and general mess the pair had left behind them. He flicked his wand, wordlessly sending all of the objects back to their rightful place and covering up the fact they had taken anything at all.
"So where are we taking it?" Hermione asked, loosening her grip on the cabinet to relax her muscles.
"To Grimmauld Place." Harry replied. "Is where I'm taking it anyway." His eyebrows rose as Hermione cast him a look of disbelief.
Hermione grasped the cabinet again. "I didn't know you kept it, but regardless, I can more than take care of myself you know."
"I don't doubt that." Harry supplied, taking hold of the other side and shuffling the unit into the fireplace. "I don't know Hermione, I'm getting a weird feeling about this. Minerva is suddenly ill and loses her memory, then we happen to find a cabinet full of memories. I… don't know… something is just off."
Hermione stepped back from the fireplace and dusted her hands off. She looked at him and sighed heavily. "Harry, I think that's just the past talking. You're being a little paranoid."
"Besides…" She added. "Nobody has heard anything of Voldemort since the battle. That was over 20 years ago."
"Just indulge me okay?" Harry said, his voice tinted with a hint of exasperation. "Let me take the cabinet to Grimmauld Place, and you can get back to your family."
He watched as her eyes scanned over him, searching him concernedly. "Look…" Harry emphasised. "You're probably right, Minerva is just ill and there's nothing more to it, but I'm keeping this safe in Grimmauld anyway."
Hermione tapped her foot impatiently, her brain dancing between two possible decisions. Sensing she wouldn't win this discussion with Harry, he offered to arrive shortly after whilst staying behind to ensure that Minerva's place was in order for when she came back to it.
After grabbing the floo pot from the mantlepiece he seized a handful of powder and wrapped his arm around the cabinet. He threw the powder to the ground calling out "Grimmauld Place." as the green flames rose around him, pushing and pulling until he arrived in a very dusty living room.
He glanced around taking in the house's innate stillness, since the war he had rarely been here opting to build his life elsewhere instead.
"KREACHER!" He called out, and with a snap the wizened house elf appeared in front of him.
"Master Harry…" He hissed, it has been such a long time.
"Sorry." Harry said almost immediately. "You've been taking care of the place, right?" He asked, flicking his eyes to the dusty surfaces around the room.
"I dol try Master Harry. But I am an old elf now." Kreacher bowed his head in shame towards the floor.
"It's okay, Kreacher. Don't worry." Answered Harry. "WYNNE!" He called out again, and with another loud crack a much younger elf appeared in the room.
"Kreacher, this is my house elf from Godric's Hollow, she can help you take care of the place. Won't you Wynne?"
Wynne, a blue eyed elf with ears that reminded him of Dobby smiled in reverence. "Of course Master Harry!"
Harry turned his attention to the cabinet pulling it out of the fireplace, unlocking it again to check briefly that the contents were safe. Once he saw that the contents were unharmed, he locked it again just as green flames burst upwards from the fireplace and Hermione greeted them all.
She greeted Kreacher warmly but cocked her eyebrow up in surprise at Wynne. "Why do you have another elf, Harry?"
Harry smiled knowingly, remembering fondly back to their school days when Hermione created S.P.E.W. He couldn't help but compare it to her achievements in equality during her time in the Ministry. "It's alright Hermione, she came to us through Ginny. We pay her, she has holiday and a room to stay in."
"Well it's not okay but that's not really why we're here." She turned around to the cabinet. "Where are we putting it, then?"
"Upstairs in the master bedroom will do." Harry gestured for Hermione to grab the other end of the cabinet, which was beginning to grow back to its normal size. "We had better get this thing up the stairs before it's too heavy!"
After much huffing and heaving, the pair had pushed it into place in what was Sirius's old bedroom. They plopped down onto the bed to catch their breath again. Hermione was turning an old coin in her hand when he heard her inhale sharply, as she looked up she still had a faraway look in her eyes.. "Why do you think Minerva hasn't really lost her memory?"
Harry fidgeted uncomfortably for a moment, unsure whether he was going to sound any less paranoid if he laid out his suspicions, but Hermione asked and he wasn't in the habit of lying to her. "When I first went to see her, she didn't seem like someone who hadn't got a clue who they were anymore. I saw firsthand when Gilderoy obliviated himself and he was like a toddler trapped in an adult's body."
"Minerva wasn't obliviated though, Harry." Hermione soothed, wondering whether Harry really was just overthinking the situation.
"It's not just that!" Harry said, his voice demanding her attention. "I visit her everyday, when I talk to her and look into her eyes. I can tell she's there. It's like she's lost in some sort of fog and can't find her way out and I can't find her either!"
Hermione exhaled slowly, wrapping her arm around his waist and tugging him close. "I know it's hard Harry, in the muggle world my Grandad had dementia and he forgot us. It was heartbreaking."
He jumped up and went to check the cabinet was locked securely. "This is different, Hermione. I know she's there." Harry fiddled with the locks until he was satisfied when his fingers felt an envelope concealed in the door. He muttered the revelio charm and pulled it away examining it curiously in his hand.
"I know she's there." He repeated. "I can feel her."
Hermione felt a great deal of sadness for her friend then, perhaps understanding the gravity of how much Minerva's illness weighed on Harry. She wanted nothing more to hug him again and abate the pain but she knew it was no use, not whilst he believed there was something other than illness at play.
For now, she decided it was best to allow Harry the time to explore other options. Deep down she hoped he would come to terms with it, and begin to heal but she couldn't be sure on how long that would take. If at all.
-MP-
