Harry Potter is owned by JKR
Chapter 66
Bellatrix paced back and forth in Hermione's living room. She'd missed her revelio on Winthrop and hit the lectern instead. She'd had a clear shot from above, and she'd missed.
"How the bloody hell did that happen?" she thought. Then at St. Mungo's, she'd barely been able to hold it together, barely able to keep herself from stumbling or falling over. Another wave of dizziness passed over her and she leaned against the back of the couch for support.
"Something is seriously wrong," she thought, and she blinked a few times, "but Yarr said I was fine!"
"Technically she said you'd be right as rain after a good night's sleep, but clearly, that's not the case," she said.
"It's the soul magic," Bellatrix thought.
Whatever the nature of the magic that had returned her to life, it was increasingly likely something had gone wrong with it. The healers obviously had no clue; all soul magic was classified as Dark, forbidden, and for good reason. She closed her eyes and placed three fingers on her forehead to try and massage her headache away. She simultaneously wanted to curl into a ball and cry herself to sleep, and run outside to blast something into oblivion.
"Maybe it's not the soul magic," she thought, "…this is about the age when Cissy said you'd changed… maybe it had nothing to do with Andy or Father at all, and it's just your time for the family madness to take over."
"I'm NOT going crazy," she said.
"You're talking to yourself again," she thought.
"Fine, but if you want to find out if its an issue with soul magic, you know what you're going to have to do," she said.
She turned so her bum rested on the back of the couch, crossed her arms, and sighed deeply.
Grindelwald. He'd created the Aevum. He most likely understood soul magic better than anyone else on the planet.
"What would allowing him that kind of leverage over me mean?" she thought, "what if the price for fixing me is swearing allegiance to him, to make an Unbreakable Vow?"
That would put her at odds with Hermione. An ache in her chest flowed to her eyes at the possibility, and tears stung, but her moment was interrupted by a loud pop as Harry Potter apparated in not more than a metre away.
"Merlin's balls!" Bellatrix said as she nearly fell backwards over the couch, "Potter, are you trying to give me a bloody heart attack?"
"Sorry," Harry said, "I'm pressed for time. I just came from St. Mungo's."
Bellatrix composed herself, but she remained leaning against the back of the couch.
"Is something wrong? How is she?" she asked, "did Yarr say when she can leave?"
"She's fine, recovering. Bored. Reading, you know," Harry replied with a grin, "it'll be another few days, but according to Yarr, it looks like the compulsion is clearing up."
Bellatrix nodded.
"That's… well, that's good," she said, "any word on Grindelwald or his followers?"
Harry shook his head.
"Nothing, we'll find them eventually," he said, though it was clear from his tone of voice he didn't have much confidence. She stared at him as the conversation stalled, and Harry shifted his weight slightly from one foot to the other.
"So… are you… okay?" he asked.
Odd.
"Fine, why do you ask?" Bellatrix replied.
"It's Hermione, she's worried about you," he said, "said you were under the weather or something. She wanted to know if you'd gotten better or worse, and if you'd come in for another checkup."
Bellatrix shook her head.
"Yarr said I was fine, and I feel okay, maybe like you said, a little under the weather, but nothing serious," she said.
"Liar liar," she thought.
"Shut the fuck up," she thought back at herself, "you're going to tip him off and then we'll be back at the hospital getting poked and prodded."
Potter's shoulders dropped slightly and he let out a breath as he visibly relaxed.
"Right, as long as you're sure. Are you okay here by yourself? Do you need anything?" he asked.
She crossed her arms again.
"I'm not a child. I am, in fact, a rather capable witch, in case you'd forgotten," she said.
He chuckled.
"Okay okay, just asking," he said, "I'll check back again in a couple of days."
"Can't wait," Bellatrix said drily.
He waved, then vanished again with a pop. Bellatrix grumbled and ran both hands through her hair.
"I need something to take my mind off this," she thought, "should I visit Cissy?"
"No," she thought back at herself, "she might figure out something is wrong and then you're going to have to deal with her questions too."
She decided to head to Diagon. There, she bought an early lunch, a hearty goulash soup, and packed the meal along with a copy of the Prophet to bring back home. She settled in at the kitchen table to eat alone and started paging through the newspaper.
'Harry Potter Working with Grindelwald All Along? Chosen One Dodges Questions'
"As expected," Bellatrix thought as she dipped bread into the stew.
She was halfway through the article when a knock sounded. She glared at the front door and debated ignoring it and finishing her lunch, but whoever it was knocked again. Halfway to the foyer, her eyes narrowed.
"Who would be visiting Hermione?" she thought. She slipped her wand into her hand and nudged the curtain aside to peer through the small window next to the door. A clean-shaven man with streaks of grey in his dark hair dressed in jeans and a red and black chequered flannel shirt stood on the front porch. He spotted the movement and flashed an Auror badge at her. The hairs stood up on the back of Bella's neck.
"Potter just stopped by this morning, so why is there an Auror at the door?" she thought.
She kept her wand hidden by her thigh and cracked the door open.
"Miss Black? Lieutenant Hawkins," the Auror said as he placed his badge back in his pocket, "may I come in?"
She spotted his wand already held in his other hand, though he hadn't raised it.
"Something you can say inside that you can't say here?" she asked.
"Very well. It's my duty to inform you that you may be under a compulsion, and I'm to escort you to St. Mungo's for a checkup," Hawkins said.
"I've already been," Bellatrix replied, "Healer Yarr cleared me to recover at home."
As she spoke, Bella scanned the area behind Hawkins.
"I don't like this, why would they be here without Potter?" she thought. Then, in the green and brown grass of the manicured lawn across the street, she spotted what she was looking for, a grey stone.
"DMLE anti-apparition ward stone, fuck," she thought. Those bloody things had always been a menace during the war. It meant there was an entire team of Aurors skulking around somewhere.
"Healer Yarr also mentioned you used occlumency during your exam, so you'll need to come in for another one," Hawkins said.
"Bloody Yarr, can't keep her damn mouth shut," Bellatrix thought, "she and I will have words the next time I see her…"
"And if I refuse?" she asked.
Hawkins sighed.
"Please don't make this difficult. I am authorised to bring you in," he said.
Bellatrix raised an eyebrow.
"You're going to try to arrest me?" she asked.
"Not unless I have to," Hawkins replied. His eyes shifted ever so slightly before they returned to her.
"Nervous," Bellatrix thought, "I would be too."
At the same time, her heart thumped in anticipation of a fight, and her headache cleared.
"So please, come peacefully," Hawkins added.
"Mmm," Bellatrix said as she tapped her cheek with one fingernail, "No, I don't think I will."
A grin spread across her face. His wand snapped up and she mirrored the action and skipped back a step so he couldn't grab her arm.
"Bellatrix Black, you're under arrest for aiding the fugitive Gellert Grindelwald, and refusing to comply with DMLE orders," Hawkins said, "throw down your wand and come peacefully."
"Why yes, please take my wand so you can throw me in Azkaban," she said, "has anyone told you you're a shit negotiator?"
The sound of shattering glass from behind interrupted her.
"Hermione's house!" she thought. Anger flared.
"Depulso!" she thought, and while Hawkins managed to get a shield up in time, he was still knocked back a few steps, and Bellatrix slammed the front door shut in his face with a quick flick of her wand, "colloportus."
She instinctively ducked and rolled towards the living room as a pair of stunners sailed over her head from the Aurors who had burst in from the rear of the house.
"These fucking arseholes!" she thought, but another part of her realised she was in trouble, caught in a Ministry ambush and outnumbered at least three to one, likely more.
"Front door won't hold him Bella, move!" she thought.
She sprinted around the living room to the kitchen and spotted both Aurors on their way to the front door.
"Immittere," she thought, and flung the kitchen knives at them in a stream of bladed metal, followed by the block of wood that had previously held them.
"Fuck!" one of them said as he instinctively threw up an arm to protect his face as a half-dozen kitchen knives glanced off his shield and thudded into the wall.
"Mistake," she thought as she hit him in the gut with a stunner he couldn't see to block. He crumpled to the ground as the second Auror in the kitchen fired a yellow blasting curse at her. Purely on instinct, she focused a protego at the tip of her wandto deflect it to the side, but time seemed to slow down as electronic appliances popped and fizzled. The potent yellow curse rang against her concentrated shield, but too late, she realised she'd angled it to deflect into the wall next to the stove. Bellatrix's eyes widened and she dove. In mid-air, the force of the resulting explosion sent her tumbling back onto the living room carpet. Windows rattled and a gout of streaming blue fire threatened to set the kitchen ablaze. The front door blew off its hinges as she crawled behind the couch and checked her clothes and hair to make sure she wasn't on fire.
"Least I still have my wand," she thought, "got to take them out quick before they wake up their buddies."
She popped up from behind the couch.
"Excorio!" she shouted, and with a snap and flick of her wand, the flaying curse jetted towards the Aurors storming the foyer, and Bella followed up with a silent curse, "oculus carirae!"
The Auror next to Hawkins deflected the first curse, but the second clipped his face, and he clutched his eyes with a scream as the conjunctivitis curse blinded him. He stumbled back outside while Hawkins stepped up to the landing. Bellatrix skipped forward to keep him on his heels, but she spotted another Auror in the front yard out of the corner of her eye. She ducked just as a bludgeoning curse sailed through the space where her head had been. It impacted the closet and blasted out splinters of wood along with several jackets and scarves. Only her enhanced reflexes narrowly saved her from being hit with a red stunner from Hawkins, and she reversed his follow up impedimenta back at him. The Auror in the front yard prepared to cast again, but with a wave of her wand, Bella sent a stream of outerwear from the closet at him.
"Vinculum," she thought, and the clothing tied itself around his head and arms. She giggled at the comical sight as he twisted and pulled to try and free himself. The distraction allowed Hawkins to finite the impedimenta and Bellatrix went on the attack, forcing him up the stairs and stupefying one of the Aurors stirring in the kitchen in the process. She was better than him, and the whites of his terrified eyes indicated he also knew the only reason he was able to hold her off was because he stood on a higher step. Black smoke from the kitchen fire stung her eyes and curled up the staircase as their duel blew chunks out of the walls, and the banister gave way to fall to the landing below. Bellatrix parried and countered, forcing him to give ground one step at a time, forcing him higher, until he reached the top step and then some. Hawkins was like so many other accomplished duellists… perfect on attack, perfect on defence, but not perfect on both at the same time. Bellatrix stood only a step below him when she put her magically enhanced reflexes to good use, moving as if to deflect his spell back at his chest, then changing direction and twisting slightly to let it pass by and wordlessly stupefy him in the thigh instead. His eyes widened as he realised the danger an instant too late, and then he too crumpled to the ground. Bella snatched up his wand and shunted his unconscious body into her bedroom, then threw up a quick protego maxima to seal the door.
"Won't hold them forever, but it'll be long enough," she thought.
"Fulgari, rennervate," Bellatrix said. Glowing magical cords bound up the Auror Lieutenant, and he inhaled as his eyes snapped wide open.
"Oh Merlin, no," he said as he realised his predicament.
"Oh Bellatrix yes. Don't be a baby," Bellatrix said, as she stood with one hand on her hip and her wand tapping her thigh, "don't fight me either, if you know what's good for you. Confundo, legilimens."
His eyes went glassy, and Bellatrix dove into his mind, scouring his memories for what had happened prior to the ambush.
"The briefing, I need to see the briefing," she thought. Befuddled as he was, Hawkins couldn't really resist, and the scene resolved into a small room at the DMLE. The slightly pudgy, somewhat balding, Head Auror Robards stood in front of a diagram of Hermione's home.
"Healer Yarr, who treated Bellatrix, said she used occlumency during the exam, I'm concerned she may have hidden some ulterior motive," Robards said, "she needs come to St. Mungo's for a thorough follow up exam, one way or the other."
"Understood sir, just one question: Why don't we ask Potter? He knows her personally," Hawkins asked.
Robards shook his head.
"Did you see today's Prophet? Seems he has some questionable links to Grindelwald," the Head Auror said as he passed a copy of the paper over, "so Lieutenant Potter is dealing with that at the moment."
"Bloody hell," Hawkins said as he scanned the article, "there's no way. He's the one who unmasked him at the Wizengamot."
Robards nodded as he took the paper back.
"I agree, something doesn't add up. What is certain is that Lestrange, Granger, and Percy Weasley were under a compulsion," Robards said, "Granger and Weasley are secure. We need to close the loop and ensure Lestrange is accounted for and under surveillance as well, that she's not continuing to work with Grindelwald, clear?"
"Yes sir," Hawkins said with a salute.
"Bloody Robards," Bella thought, "wait, he said Hermione is secure? What does that mean?"
She rummaged through Hawkins' recent memories but couldn't find any other mention of her.
"You haven't actually seen Hermione… what if they've got her locked in the hospital?" she thought, "She doesn't have her wand, and Potter could have been lying about her being okay, or maybe he doesn't really know? What if he was in on it and Robards asked Potter to try and get you to St. Mungo's first, then sent Hawkins when you refused?"
She thought it was unlikely, based on what she knew of Harry…
"Can you risk going to him?" she thought, "but what if you're wrong, and he takes your wand and forces you to go to St. Mungo's? Or worse, Azkaban."
Bellatrix considered her predicament. Potter was the wizard who defeated the Dark Lord. As good as she was, he was a wild card, and she wasn't sure if she could take him. After resisting arrest and embarrassing an entire team of Aurors, she might very well have him and the entire Corps coming after her.
"I have to leave, and I have to leave now. But… Hermione," she thought as her heart ached, "You have to make sure she's okay before you go."
Bellatrix returned her attention to Hawkins' mind and delved into the plan to bring her in.
"How many fucking Aurors did you bring with you…" she thought, "Eight, five for the house, and three brooms. Okay, I can work with this..."
She exited Hawkins' mind and he gasped.
"Lieutenant?" someone called from below. She stunned Hawkins before he could respond, then left his wand on the night table, put up a glamour over the window, and vanished the glass. To anyone on the outside, it would look like the window still remained firmly in place. Her spells would be slightly weaker while she maintained it, but she figured she didn't need much; she just had to hope she could spot what she was looking for.
"There!" she thought as she caught the tell-tale shimmer against the edge of a cloud, a disillusioned broom rider. She tracked it and aimed carefully.
"Revelio! Incarcerous!" she whispered as she let the glamour drop. The digital alarm clock on the night table popped and fizzled, but black mist sprayed off her target and ropes sprung from her wand to wrap up the broom. She looped her arm around the length of cords and yanked hard.
"Accio!" she shouted. The broom jerked to the side, and the Auror yelped and nearly fell as he clung to the shaft with one hand. Bella summoned the broom straight through the open window frame and the Auror impacted the side of the house with a loud thump and an oof, and fell to the ground. Broom in hand, Bella cancelled the protective wards and ran to the opposite side of the house. She mounted up, thought for a second about whether she'd forgotten anything, then she retrieved Hermione's wand from her pouch and stuffed it into the duelling holster strapped to her forearm.
"Fucking Aurors," she thought as she considered the blasted state of Hermione's home. The electronics alone would cost a fortune to replace, but there was nothing she could do about that right now. She vanished the window and curtains and kicked off with only one hand on the broom, urging it to top speed. A loud cackle escaped her lips as freezing wind roared in her ears, and she deflected a hastily cast curse from the ground. She only needed to make it a few metres to the edge of the wards…, there!
Bellatrix rolled to the side and used the motion to apparate, and then the warm, sterile air of the reception room at St. Mungo's greeted her for a split second before she tumbled and skidded to a stop on the chequered floor. She stood up, dusted herself off, looked around at the bewildered faces and open mouths around her, then sauntered up to the counter, broom still in hand.
"Hello, I'd like to visit Hermione Granger," she said.
"Err, one moment," the plump, middle-aged witch behind the counter said. She took an obscenely long time to flip through a file as Bella tapped her fingernails on the countertop, "Bellatrix Lestrange, is it?"
Bella sighed deeply.
"Black. Bellatrix Black," she replied.
"Right…" the receptionist said. She pressed a button on a small box in front of her, which emitted a soft belch as it spit out a visitor's pass, "Level four-"
A series of loud cracks interrupted her as Hawkins and several Aurors appeared in Reception. Bellatrix snatched the visitor pass and sprinted around the corner.
"Shit, someone must have tipped them off!" Bellatrix thought.
"Stop her!" the Auror shouted.
An alarm rang from Reception as Bellatrix skidded to a stop by the lifts, only to realise they'd stopped working.
"Stairs it is," she thought. She pushed her way into the stairwell next to the lift, then locked and warded the door behind her. She made it to level two before several white-clad hospital staff burst into the stairwell. The orderlies aimed wands at her.
"Drop it, Lestrange!" one of them said.
"I can't let them catch me here… if the hospital staff disarms me, they'll hand me over to the Aurors for sure," she thought.
"My name is Bellatrix Black, bloody twit!" Bella shouted, and she laid into them with a dizzying display of wandwork to trip them up, stun them, to force them back onto level two. Doors opened above, and more hospital security staff streamed into the stairwell. Bella cut her losses and followed the retreating orderlies onto level two, the Magical Bugs Ward.
"Got to find another stairwell…" she thought.
Hermione turned the page and continued on to chapter three of Milford's Introduction to British Contract Law. Running footsteps echoed around the corner and ran past her room, followed by another.
"Odd," she thought. Then a muffled boom vibrated up through the floor.
"That's not good," she thought, "and I don't have my wand."
She closed the book and replaced it in her pouch, slipped her shoes on, then cracked the door open to peer down the hallway. It seemed more or less normal, except for the orderlies and healers hurrying by in opposite directions. She opened the door more fully.
"What's going on?" she asked. One of the orderlies paused.
"Miss, stay in your room, you're not cleared to leave," he said, "the hospital is under attack, but you're safe, the Aurors have been notified."
A sinking feeling settled in the pit of her gut.
"Attack? That doesn't sound safe," she said.
"Just stay in your room," the orderly said, and with a wave of his wand he pushed her back inside, and the door shut and clicked locked.
"Damn," she thought, and then she heard it, heard it over the shouts of Aurors and hospital staff and spell fire… Bella, shouting, taunting, duelling. Hermione could stop the fighting, she knew she could stop it, hopefully before anyone else got hurt.
"Before Bella gets hurt, or worse," she thought.
She turned the knob and tugged at the door, but it was magically sealed.
"Of all the- Hey!" she said as she pounded on the wood, "Open the door!"
"Level four," Bellatrix thought as she stunned down another orderly and cleared the last step then parried and dodged a series of jinxes and hexes. Despite the severe consequences should she make even a single misstep, magic sang in her blood, and she revelled in the excitement. This… This was what she was meant for, not planning a gala, or researching potions. Her spells were potent, her form perfect, her reactions lightning quick, and her wand an extension of her arm. She was born to duel; none could stand against her. A bright flash blinded her left eye as she crossed the threshold out of the stairwell, but she fought on, disabling hospital staff and the much better trained Aurors alike.
"No one can stand between me and Hermione," she thought.
A bludgeoning curse clipped her hip from her blind side, and pain shot all the way from her shoulder down to her pinkie toe. She went down to one knee as a blood boiling curse zipped over her head to splash against the wall.
"You didn't get me, I can't bloody see!" she thought. But it wasn't a duel, it was a fight. A fight for her life. There was no fair, there was only winning, or losing.
"Anescere!" she said as her wand circled and thrust at the nearest Auror. Forked green lightning burst forth, and he caught it on the tip of his wand, but rather than deflecting, it exploded into a shower of green sparks, pockmarking walls, ceilings, and arms and legs.
"Oops," she thought, "well honestly, if they can't recover from that in a bloody hospital..."
"Coacto!" she shouted, her voice nearly drowned out by the screams of injured, "disable the Aurors!"
Fighting broke out between the orderly and the injured Auror team, but Bellatrix spotted a fresh team of Aurors round the corner from behind them, just as another stairwell door slammed open from below.
"Shit," she thought. Hermione was there, somewhere on that floor, and her wand arm wasn't tired, but Bella knew if she tried to take the Aurors, the wizards coming up the steps would have her surrounded.
"I can't make it to her," she thought, and her heart sank, but it wouldn't do anyone any good if she got caught. She warded the door to level four and limped up, towards the roof, "I'll come back for you, I swear."
It was only then she realised she still carried the Auror's broom.
"HEY! LET ME OUT!" Hermione shouted as she slammed her fist on the door, "HEEEY!"
More explosions rocked the floor, and the screams of the injured filtered through the door, but the wood held fast. Hermione felt a panic attack coming on, but she managed to still her mind and fight it off, ironically enough, with Schultz's training. Finally, the door clicked open, and Yarr stood there with a panicked expression beneath her green-tinted specs.
"It's Bellatrix," she gasped, on the border of hyperventilating.
"Where?" she asked.
"There," Yarr said as she pointed to the double doors at the end of the hall. A dozen Aurors and orderlies crowded the area in front of it, "she warded it closed. She's been moving up from the ground level."
Hermione thought fast.
"Is there another staircase?" she asked.
Yarr nodded and took her hand. The two of them sprinted the hallways of St. Mungo's and burst into a dimly lit stairwell. Yarr paused at the entrance.
"I…" she said, and Hermione took in the deer-in-headlights expression on her face.
"It's okay, you don't have to come," Hermione said, "Tend to the Aurors. I'm sure some of them are injured."
"Right, tend to the Aurors," Yarr said, "I can do that."
Hermione turned and sprinted up the steps.
"Aguamenti maxima!" Bellatrix shouted, and a literal waterfall gushed from her wand to flood the stairs. She leaned over to peer down the narrow crack in the stairwell to the steps below, "frigus glacio!"
A chill blue beam emitted from her wand and froze the water solid, followed by cursing as Aurors and orderlies slipped and slid on the suddenly slick steps. Several fell back down and tripped up those behind, starting a comical chain reaction of tumbling bodies and muffled cries of pain and confusion.
"Like nine pins," Bella thought with a giggle. She slammed the roof access door open and stumbled into the late autumn sunlight. The London cityscape rose around her, and sounds of lorries and car horns echoed from below. She didn't think there would be any brooms, owing to the Statute, but she scanned the sky anyway, just in case. Seeing nothing, she shut the door behind her with an echoing boom, and sealed it with another ward, then limped to the edge of the roof and peered to the streets, six stories down. She swung a leg over the broom to prepare to escape the anti-apparition wards surrounding the hospital. A bang reached her ears as another door slammed open, and Bellatrix pointed her wand, only to freeze as she spotted Hermione's bushy hair, not more than ten metres away.
"She escaped!" Bellatrix thought.
Hermione's heart skipped a beat at the sight of her, perched on the edge of the roof, wind whipping her raven hair as if it had a life of its own, blood streaming freely from a cut on her cheek, Bellatrix Black.
"Bella! What are you doing?" Hermione shouted.
A smile replaced the look of shock on Bella's face.
"Aurors ambushed me at your house. I came to save you," she replied loudly.
Hermione's mouth opened and her eyebrows came together in confusion.
"I'm… I don't need saving, I'm here," Hermione said as she placed a hand on her chest, "I'm fine."
Bella's lip trembled at that and she shook her head almost imperceptibly.
"I-I know how it looks… I'm not crazy," Bella said desperately as her eyes grew glassy.
"I know!" Hermione said, "I know you're not, but you have to stop."
Bella nodded and set the broom down.
"I can't stay!" she shouted, and she held her free hand out to Hermione.
This was it; she was out of time, and with her hand extended and her gaze imploring, Bella asked her, begged her, gave her one last chance to come with her, to run away from England together. Hermione took a single step, then hesitated.
With a loud shattering boom, the ward sealing one of the doors to the roof collapsed and the door itself blasted open and fell to the rooftop with a loud boom. Bellatrix growled and picked up the broom again as a pair of Aurors on brooms of their own zipped out of the stairwell.
"Matt and Ron," Hermione thought as she immediately recognised her friend and his huge former beater squadmate.
"Don't do it Bella!" Ron shouted as he closed the distance. Bellatrix responded with a snarl; she whipped something from her sleeve and threw it onto the roof, then rolled off the edge. Hermione ran to the lip as Bellatrix dove for the corner of the building with Matt and Ron in hot pursuit. Her cackling and shouted obscenities echoed off nearby buildings as she deflected jinxes and hexes from them. Hermione ran along the edge of the roof to follow the chase. Bellatrix twisted and juked to avoid the charms and hexes from Ron and Matt, even as one clipped the bristles of her broom and they caught fire.
"Go," Hermione whispered, "Fly… you can make it!"
Bella cleared the corner and dove away from the building, trailing black smoke from her burning broom, then with a loud echoing crack, disapparated without a trace. Hermione took a shuddering breath.
"She got away," she said with a small nod, then breathed a heavy sigh of relief, "she got away."
It was only then she realised that if she went into hiding, it may very well be the last time she ever saw Bellatrix Black.
"No, she'll find me eventually," she thought.
Hermione made her way back to where Bella had been standing and found her old vine wood wand on the rooftop. The familiar grooves comforted her hand as her fingers found their usual spots. Ron and Matt landed near her as Aurors swarmed the rooftop.
"Are you okay?" Ron asked.
"I'm fine, really, not a scratch," she replied.
"And the compulsion?" he asked.
"Mostly gone, I think," she replied, "what happened?"
Concern gave way to fury, and Ron's face looked like a thunderhead ready to burst.
"It's a complete cockup, Robards sent a team to arrest her at your house but she kicked their arses," he said, "we had to put the bloody fire out."
Hermione barely registered Aurors staring at them, and Ron didn't really seem to care either.
"Arrest her? Why?" Hermione asked, "is the house okay?"
"It's… damaged, but still standing. All the muggle stuff is twacked. I don't bloody know the why, but the situation is now entirely fucked," Ron replied, "I mean, completely. On top of everything else going on."
"This is probably going to be a Statute breach too," Matt said quietly as he motioned to the edge of the building.
Ron tossed his broom down with a clatter and threw both hands into the air as he turned and stalked back towards the stairwell.
"Come on, Harry's going to need our help," he said.