I've been working on this story for a while now. I love to read crossovers but couldn't find exactly what I wanted. So I decided to do it is not my first language so even if I've checked the story 5 times already I'm sure there are still a lot of mistakes, but please be gentle, this has been a huge learning exercise for me.
This is not a story for Shane, Lori or even the Weasly family fans. Hermione and Harry are not super heroes, they are normal wizards with good abilities but they haven't even finished their education. They have defects and trauma, and that's what makes them special.
I hope you like the story and let me know what you think of it.
1.
I could see Harry was sending me weird looks. He would look at Molly, smiled and then look at me intently. After months of living isolated my social skills were rusty but I was pretty sure he was trying to tell me something. Maybe a secret? Maybe that's why he was trying to avoid Molly's inquisitive looks? Did something happened?
After the war I traveled with Harry as my only companion – Ron was too tired to come with me, his own words- to look for my parents in Australia. I sent them there right before the war started, not only to protect them from Voldemort but also because they finally screw their lives up. Only Harry knew about this. My parents, the two successful dentists, the loving parents, had been hiding a secrets from the whole world for years and years. Not from me of course, they needed me to keep going.
Being a doctor, even a dentist, makes it very easy to get drugs. Most of them are legal on one way or another. They started it as a side business and not long after they got hooked up on them too. There's nothing more dangerous than a addicted dealer, right? After I went to Hogwarts to study and live there for most of the year they had to find out different ways of delivering their stuff, they couldn't use their kid anymore. So they partnered up with some londoner drug lord, but again a dealer with addiction is not a great combination. So right before the war I forced them to move, I didn't harbored much love for them in my heart anymore but they still were my parents. The war was the perfect excuse for everybody except for Harry, the only person who knew the truth about my life.
The trip to Australia was short and painful, only 3 days after we arrived I found out my parents had died during the war. I protected them from a magical war, from psycopaths and violence, but I lost them to a good old car accident. Or what looked like a car accident because the detective on charge of the investigation was pretty sure they were actually murdered. The car had fell off a cliff and burned for so long that their bodies were almost unrecognizable, along with all the possible clues. It didn't really mattered, they were dead. I wasn't really a surprise, I knew since a was a kid that they would died because of something similar, but still…
I don't really remember the trip back to The Burrow, I remember I cried in Harry's arms, I yelled and cursed. I yelled for my lost parents, for the ones I lost when I was a kid before they started everything, and for the ones that just died. I cried for our lost childhood. I cried for the friends we lost to the war. But after a few days all of that was over, all that was left was an empty shell.
The next few weeks went by like a blur, I remember Ronald asking me to marry him and me nodding in agreement. I don't really know why. And Molly taking all the preparations and decision in her own hands. I heard some conversations that I stupidly chose to ignore, like when Molly said how I would probably start to behave like a normal person again after having my first baby next year, and Ronald and Arthur agreed. I had been stupidly ignoring everything for weeks, too deep in my grieving. But they had taken advantage of the situation.
Molly served the tea on the coffee table in front of the big chimney in the the small and crowded living room and as soon as she sat down she jumped back up again.
-I forgot to check on the scones! – she said on a low overly sweet voice. She wobbled back to the kitchen and Harry jumped from his seat quietly, push a pile of newspapers in my hands and said.
-Take this and hide it! No! Don't look at it now! -he told me completely freaking out, his eyes swimming in fear- Wait a few minutes and go to the toilet, we will talk about this later. Don't. Say. Anything.
He sat down hurriedly, trying to keep his breathing under control when we heard Molly coming back with a full plate of fragrant scones with cream and jam.
-Thanks Molly.- said Harry on a whisper. -You didn't need to.
The house was quiet, weirdly quiet for this time of the day. Usually you could heard voices traveling up and down the stairs, explosions from the twins bedroom -after the war they came back home to spend some time with the family-, fights between Ron and Ginny accompanied with a few calming words from Harry and orders to come down to eat or to tidy up something from Molly. But today, and the last few days, the house had been eerily quiet. Were was everyone?
-Where is everyone? – I asked no being able to hold myself after so many days without talking at all.
Harry and Molly looked at me surprised, but I could see a different kid of surprised in their eyes. Harry was happy and hopeful while Molly looked tired and concerned…
-They are in the Ministry, dear.- she said, trying to hide her surprise.- They needed to filled some forms… for the weeding.
Of course, the weeding. My weeding. MY weeding WITH Ron. I could feel the panic filling my lungs, trying to burst out with a deafening scream. I willed myself to calm down, to don't yell, don't react. Breath in, breath out.
-Of course.- I said in a raspy voice.
We finish our tea in silence, Molly and Harry talked just a few times and it was clear they didn't expected me to be a part of the conversation. When we were done and Molly was levitating all the cups and plates to the sink in the kitchen I went upstairs. I could feel Harry's look on the back of my neck, after so many years of being friends, fighting together, damn even running away together, I could almost hear his thoughts. "Don't run, look normal, pretend to be normal"
The steps to the bedroom I shared with Ginny in the second floor of the Burrow where the longest ones I ever climbed, not even the astronomy tower felt that high. When I finally got to my bedroom I throw myself to my wand. Months before when we got back and Harry left me in my bed in my semi unconscious state, he left my wand in my bedside table and it still was there. Waiting for me to pick it up again. When I grabbed it I felt my power surging again through my veins and I smiled for the first time in a long time. My parents graves were still on my thoughts every minute of the day, but Harry's tension has woken me up to reality.
I blocked the door with a sweep of my wand and quietly got the stash of news papers from under my oversize jumper. They dated to 2 months ago up until the day before, I started with the oldest one like if it was a good story. An excitement I thought I had lost boiling in my stomach. But soon after I started reading my excitement died. The news I was reading went from shocking to simply crazy.
A new virus was wiping the muggle world leaving thousand, maybe millions of victims behind. The reports were talking something similar to the bubonic plague in terms of numbers of victims in the first few papers but in the last few they went straight away to complete annihilation of the muggle world. Moving pictures of muggles cities on fire, people running away from what look like other people. Looking closely I could see how they look very similar to inferis, some of them were missing some of their limbs and I could swear one was dragging their insides all over the ground.
I had to sit down on the bed and put the paper aside. Is this what Harry was trying to show me? Why no one else had told me about it? I could remember Molly, Ginny and Ron whispering behind me like if I was deaf or simply a broken doll. They were talking about attacks but I thought it was the last few death eaters.
I took a few minutes to breath, to try to analyze the situation. I was good at that, I was great. Harry was alive thanks to me, thanks to how good I was at that. But it made no sense, if a catastrophe at this level was happening in the muggle world, why we weren't helping some way or another? Or maybe we were, maybe I just didn't know. It was probably that, right?
I took the papers again and read every single column and report I could find about it. Not only the magic world wasn't helping the muggle world, we were ignoring the problem and the victims. The orders from the English ministry -and almost every ministry of the world- was to close borders, keep them away from us and wait until this was over. Incredibly foolish, thinking we could just shelter ourselves away from this kind of illness, and cruel. And not surprising at all.
The reality struck me again. My only blood family alive was in America, close to Atlanta if I remembered right. I looked desperately across the papers for any information coming from that part of the country. The result of my search wasn't hopeful, the last few reports talked about the army bombing big cities when they were defeated by the dead and the cities were turned into a walking graveyard.
I looked around my bedroom, the permanent mess that was Ginny's side of the bedroom and the tidy one that was mine. My weeding dress -chosen by Molly, something between a nun convent costume and a white pomeranian- some of my books on the bookshelf next to my bed and my sequin purple bag hanging from the post of my bed. Why were the Weasley trying to hide this from me? Were they trying to protect me in my fragile state?
No, I didn't need to think for too long to know that they were just protecting themselves, and the news of the papers gave me all I needed to confirm my guesses. There it was, a picture of all of us, Molly and Arthur in the back holding Ginny and Ron in a protective way but smiling like saying "nothing is happening, everything is normal", Harry and I were in the middle, looking uncomfortable and out of place. The column next to the picture was of course written by Rita Skeeter, it said to every wizard and witch to stay at home and follow the ministry guidelines. No muggle live was worth the risk of one of us going out there to help them out.
After the war only Harry and I were considerate war heroes, for some reason Ron was ignored, like if he wasn't even there in first place. Which was kind of fair, he abandoned us out there. But they needed us because fame meant money and influence. Something that they unfortunately lacked of.
My mind was rushing between our options and rage, they were using us as propaganda for the ministry. Our faces were there, telling every body to stay at home and forget about the muggle world. I fought a war, risked my life and suffered torture so that now they could use my face to abandon them.
A knocked at the door interrupted my train of thought and I heard Harry whispering in the corridor. With a quick flick of my wand I let him come inside, blocked the door again and silenced the room.
-What the fuck is going on, Harry? – I wasn't one for cursing but that felt great.
- I know, Herms. I found out this morning. They've been hiding the papers from me for weeks, telling me to build my relationship with Ginny and that I should relax after the war. That I earned it! This morning I was fed up, so I called Twinky -sorry for using a house elf- and she brought me all of these. I supposed they didn't want us to go anywhere. They need us here.- said holding the paper with our picture.
-My uncle Harry, and my cousin… they live in America. I need to check on them, I need to help them. My f…. my father would want me to help them….
-And that's probably why they didn't want us to know, because they knew you would want to go. If not your family, you would want to help someone. And that I would follow you, as always.
-Ron knows my family lives there, Harry. I showed you the pictures, remember? The picture of my uncle and my baby cousin.
-I remember Herms, but honestly I don't think Ronald listen to anything other that his mum calling him for dinner.
We spent the next 2 hours planning our runaway and as usual there were so many things that could go so wrong. But we were running out of time, who knows were my family could be now. I stop myself of thinking that, they weren't dead, I could feel it in my bones. My uncle and my cousin were alive and I was going to find them.
We duplicated a knife from the kitchen while Molly was taking an afternoon nap, one of the last reports said the only way to stop these inferis was destroying/damaging the head as much as possible. We got some potions from the bathroom downstairs and a few more things to complete a first aid kit. I enchanted two backpacks to expand indefinitely just like I did with my sequin bag for the war and put inside clothes, books of every topic we might need in the close future, a pair of broomsticks and the knives. And we were ready to flee.
Our plan was to run away in the night, when everybody was sleeping and we would have a few hours of advantage to put distance with them. We only needed to survive one more dinner. And that was probably the most uncomfortable dinner of my life. The whole family was there, eating slowly, no idle chatter, no jokes from the twins. It was obvious something was happening and I had spend so much time inside my own grieve, I couldn't believe I didn't see. I could see Harry's self control was slipping away, he was moving side to side, grunting every time someone said something and chewing loudly, almost as loud as Ronald.
And he exploded, damn Harry… you just have to contain yourself for a few more hours.
-Were you ever going to tell us? Or you were waiting until we couldn't go away?
The table fell in silence and everyone looked at him.
-What are you talking about, babe? – said Ginny in an overly sweet voice, very similar to her mother's.
-We know what is happening.- I said very slowly, trying to make my voice sound calm and failing.
-Harry, Hermione...-Molly said in her best tone of a loving mother, but for some reason her voice didn't sound like a loving mother to me anymore. It sounded fake and aggressive, full of lies. -We need you here, the magical society needs you here. At home, save and sound. Making your own life as an example for the rest of the magical society.
-To pretend that nothing is happening? The muggle world is dying in our doors and you are playing dolls house.
-The muggle world is not our problem!- Molly yelled, surprising her older kids.
-Do you really believe the virus wont reach you here?- whispered Harry, I could hear the hurt in his voice. He was seeing one of the few maternal figures in his life for what truly was and it was disappointing.
-Is a matter of time. Molly.- I said quietly, this wasn't a fight, it was a goodbye.- And I truly hope you get ready for when that happens, because it will. And when that happens I hope you find someone willing to help you.
-Stop being naive- the vitriol on her voice was sickening.-The muggles will die because they don't have the power to survive and then the magical world will be finally able to rule like we should.
Several gasp filled the house, the twins, charlie and Bill were looking at his mother like if they didn't know who was talking to them. Arthur looked down but didn't say anything against his wife and Ginny started to give arguments to support her mother while Ron kept eating.
We left the house among the chaos of Molly yelling at everybody – Lower your voice, dear said Arthur. The dead ones will hear you- and her sons yelling back at her, disgusted by her arguments.
When Molly had turned into a wizard supremacist?
We used the floo powder over the chimney and travel to Diagon Alley. It was empty at this time of the day and we could feel the fear in the air. Some of the shops were permanently closed, never opened again after the war, and the very few that remain open had doors and windows blocked by spells and wood planks.
We covered ourselves with our cloaks and hurried to Knockturn Alley were one of the shops, one of the few shops that were still open to the public, used to sell illegal portkeys. Exactly what we needed. The door was open to the public and the smell of dust and moss emanating from inside the shop made me take a step back. Entering in silence we waited for a few seconds until an old hunched man came out of the back.
-Well, what Mr. Potter and Ms. Granger might want from my humble shop? A serum to make yourself cast spells faster? Maybe a mummified hand that detect and catch thieves? My name is Otto Stetson, at your service.
Harry looked at the man for a few seconds, recognising something I didn't know, but we couldn't lose time.
-We need a portkey.- a simple truth would have work this time.- To Atlanta, leaving now.
-Haven't you heard, Ms. Granger? The ministry recommends to stay at home. No travel, no contact with the muggle world. I'm afraid I'm a sticker to the rules.- he smiled with a mouth full of golden teeth.
Harry rummaged trough his backpack and after a few seconds got what he was looking for. A small tinkling pouch full of galleons. He trow it to Otto who caught it with surprising quickness. Otto shook the pouch, appreciating what was inside by the sound, delaying the pleasure of checking the amount of coins with his own eyes. And the delay was worth it, as soon as he took a quick look to the money he pocketed the pouch inside his tunic and made us a sign to follow him to the back of the shop.
The back of the shop was much bigger than we were expecting, it looked like a train station waiting for passengers. Otto started to work on a standing desk in the corner while we seated on a metallic bench against the wall. He was grunting and murmuring things while we waited for around 20 minutes until with a creepy smiled he turned towards us and came holding an old burgundy handbag that had seen better days. Before we could take it he snatched back.
-We already paid you more than enough.- grunted Harry, his patience thinning every passed minute.
-Mr. Potter, Mrs. Granger, just because I like to take care of my customers I would like to give some advice. For free, of course.
He smiled again, flashing his golden teeth.
-You will arrived to a safe place around 20 miles away from Atlanta, don't hang there for too long. Do you know where are you going? No, don't tell -he interrupted me before I could answer- The less I know, the better. As soon as you get out of there you'll be by your own, stay away from the dead and I would say, stay away from the living too. They might be more dangerous than the dead. If you ever find yourselves in need of… making business with me again you can call to my floo. Now be ready, the portkey will activate in 3 minutes.
Harry and I grabbed the handbag tight and looked one last time at Otto who was leaving the back room already. And then the portkey set off.
A trans ocean trip was not a minor thing and we didn't really how long would it take. Just like many other things in the magic world, we would now when we would know. Something that for my analytic mind was what felt like years of flying across the ocean, going back to daylight -it was dark already in England but still light in America-, the wind rushing around us with a thunderous noise and the waves of the ocean crushing in the distance under us, the portkey started to slow down. We were almost there. And the ocean gave space to the land and an unnatural quietness. We flew over big cities but couldn't see any movement or noise, like if we were the last humans alive. And for the first time since we made our plan I though that this was a bad idea and I had drove Harry to his death.
The landing was easy, smoother than the first time we used a portkey to go to watch the quidditch final. I looked at Harry and new he was thinking about the same thing. The place we landed on was very similar to Otto's back shop, it looked like an abandon train station with a couple of wooden benches, a map and a sign in the wall saying "Please make sure nomags can't see you leaving or entering this place. Thank you". The map -Merlin blessed Otto- had marked were exactly we were and it took us just a couple of minutes to find the small town where my uncle used to live.
-We should fly there – said Harry - Charm ourselves invisible and start looking from there. It would be around 30 minutes of trip and even if any muggles sees us flying… they are probably busy trying to survive.
He was right, the sooner we got there the better. We charm ourselves easily, one of the perks of having survived a war was knowing all this spells, charms and potions that would help us to survived.
We opened the door and cover our eyes. We were more used to rainy and cloudy days, but this was actually a beautiful day. The sky was of a clean light blue, not even one cloud on sight, a gentle breeze moving my bushy hair and the chirping of a couple of birds in a nearby tree. Suddenly the breeze changed directions and a foul smell got to us. Rotting corpses. Human beings are design to identify that smell and run away from it, unfortunately in this new world it looked like we wouldn't have much of a choice.
Around the corner 4 of those inferis appeared dragging themselves in various states of decaying, one of them was missing an arm, other was almost losing what looked like their intestines, the 3rd one had a big chunk of his neck gone and the last one was surprisingly intact, probably bitten in the back. Seeing those things in real life was so different to seeing them in the papers, a feeling of panic run along my spine. And for some reason, maybe it was the adrenaline kick, I left like myself again.
-We should practice now.-whispered Harry next to me, trying to stay hidden to the dead.
He was right, it was better to practice now with no one around us. The papers were adamant, we had to go for the head. So first we tried a bombarda which was very effective but noisy, it made the noise of a small bomb so we would have to use it as a last option. Depulso was great, nothing like trowing a rotting corpse against a wall smashing their brain, extra useful if we use it against more than one dead. And finally slicing spells, fast and clean and easy to do even without a wand. We had to thank the war for that.
At the end of the test we were a mess of sweat and blood splashes -bombarda was really messy- but I felt good. I felt alive. Maybe I was sick, maybe I needed problems to drive my life and violence to make me feel alive. Not wanting to give it too much though for now we jumped in on our broomsticks and flew to my uncle's town.
And the views from up there were devastating, we could see the roads fulled of car crash after car crash and dead walking around making that horrible sound. Like a cacophony of moaning.
I remembered the town from a few years ago. I had visited with parents twice before. The first time when my cousin was born, a beautiful little pink thing, and again only 3 years ago, my last trip with my parents. Back then I thought they were clean, I thought they finally saw the light and stopped all of that nonsense. But we had to leave early because they got in trouble here too... My cousin was a nice little kid with manners and full of playful energy, my father and my uncle were so happy sharing some time together after years apart and even my aunt -who clearly didn't like us for some reason- looked happy sometimes. It was good, but now everything was gone.
It wasn't too hard to find their house, a small detached house in a medium class neighborhood painted in white. The street was the same as I remembered but now there were cars scattered everywhere, some of them crash into other cars, street lights or houses and a couple of dead people walking without any particular direction. Still under the invisible spell we sign to each other to land on the front garden to take a quick look inside the house. By the looks of the place it was highly unlikely we would find them there but it was a good way to start our search.
We landed at the same time the invisibility spell wear off, it was hard to keep that kind of spell for that long hiding not only images but sounds on movement, all at the same time.
We got the knives from the backpacks and went for the door when Harry stopped me, we could hear a sound from inside. Someone or something was moving inside, not too loud but enough to hear it from the front door. I pushed the door gently and took a few steps heading to the source of the sound in the kitchen, with my knife and my wand ready just in case. When I turned the corner to enter the kitchen a found myself pinned to the wall by someone.
No, not someone. My uncle Rick.
So this is the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you think, any advice or suggestions are welcome.