Chapter 53: Danger, Hermione Granger

Thursday, 3rd August 1995.

Sarah Thomas enjoyed her work.

Simple though some may consider it, filing paperwork and handling patients, it was challenging at times. Today wasn't a particularly challenging day, but that just gave her the time to reflect on matters instead.

She had worked in the dental surgery for seven years now. And both the Grangers were kind and considerate with her. With everyone, really. In all that time, she had not needed to file a single complaint from one of their patients. It appeared they were wizards with their words as well as their dental tools.

Sarah glanced up as she heard the nearby door open.

"Remember, Nigel. Twice each day. Alright?" Natalie said as the small boy hopped away from her, clearly done with the trip.

Nice as they were, the Grangers were still dentists. And children tended not to enjoy their visits.

"I'll make sure he remembers, Nat. Thanks." Tracey Holmes said, stepping after her son.

Natalie just smiled at the woman as she followed her son out the door. Sarah smiled at her on the way past as well. Given the woman's sole parent status, she was covered completely for the visit by the NHS. And had signed all the required paperwork on the way into the appointment today. So there was no need to delay the woman as she chased after her wayward child.

"That's the last booking for today," Sarah said, glancing down at the ledger on her desk.

While the Grangers did have a computer for the business, it was still easier to take the details down on paper and then enter them into the database after the fact. Plus, Richard liked the peace of mind of having a second physical copy of matters. Sarah thought it was a wise approach, given how often her own computer broke down on her at home.

"So it is," Natalie noted, looking over the desk at the book. "Shall we head off to lunch then? Shut up shop early."

The kind woman winked at Sarah but she was prevented from replying by an odd sound slapping against the brickwork outside. Both women turned towards the sound, so Sarah missed what had caused the new sound to her left.

She swivelled in her chair at the snap and saw the Grangers' daughter standing there out of nowhere, looking frantic.

"Hermione!" Natalie chastised, staring at the panting girl only a step or two away from them. "You know the rules, not in the surgery."

Hermione brought up her right hand and a slender piece of wood appeared from nowhere that she then tightened her fingers around. The girl said nothing as her eyes slipped from Sarah and Natalie to the nearby doorway. Sarah moved to track her gaze, but was distracted by the girl's left hand which had also come up.

Natalie moved to speak again right as Hermione snapped the fingers on her left hand.

"Hermione!" Natalie warned the strange new room that the pair now found themselves standing in, which was also a surprise to Sarah.

One moment, she had been sitting at her desk, the next she was standing upright. In a library, it seemed.

Natalie sighed heavily beside her as the woman's shoulders slumped.

"Sorry about this, Sarah. I'll be sure to make it up to you. And we'll explain later. For the moment, I need to go and find out what has my daughter so riled up."

Natalie turned on her heel and headed deeper into the library. Sarah, however, was frozen in place. A series of unusual events had just taken place and her brain had not yet caught up to whatever was going on.

Where had Hermione come from? Sarah knew she wasn't in the surgery that day. She had been out the back only half an hour earlier when she had led the Holmes's in for their appointment. And what was that weird stick? Or the strange noises?

"Sarah," Natalie said, poking her head from around a distant shelf. "Do come along would you."

Natalie disappeared again and Sarah quickly shook herself and followed. This was going to be a weird explanation.

ϟ

Hermione relocated immediately once the two women were safely out of the surgery.

The moment her feet touched down in her parents' home, she began to search the house for her father's location. Instead, he felt far away and another more familiar sensation was nearby. She quickly stepped from the kitchen in which she had appeared into the lounge and found Harry standing there, back to her as he fiddled about with something on the entertainment cabinet.

"He's safe," Harry said softly, not turning around. "I sent him to the Manor the moment I got here. And I'm suppressing the connection of the Door until we are sure what is going on. So they can't barge back in either."

Hermione felt the fear in her heart begin to settle. It had only been about two minutes since she felt the first splash of magic against the wards that they'd had the goblins install on the building a few streets away from the nearby Crawley Hospital. They were nothing compared to the ones that protected the house they were now standing in, but they were evidently enough to warn her something was wrong.

"Mum and Sarah were both there. I got them to the Manor."

Harry finally stood and turned to face her and she noticed a questioning look on his face.

"I know, but we can have Remus of Andi deal with Sarah later. The important thing was getting them both out. Hopefully, with no one there, the attackers will just leave. But even if they don't the surgery is insured. Now, shall we see who is stupid enough to attack my family?" She asked, the fear having been replaced by an angry fire.

Someone was indeed assaulting both her parents' dental surgery as well as prodding the outer edges of the wards laid over this far corner of Ringwood Close.

Only once before had Hermione felt someone poking at the wards on the Granger home, and she had delighted in letting the wards carry that nosy old sod out to sea. The temptation was there to simply allow the wards to carry away whoever was out there now as well, as she was certain the wards would have done before she arrived and took manual control over their response. But another, much larger part of her, wanted to teach them a lesson they would never forget. A far more permanent lesson than a swim in a dark and moody sea.

Her attention was taken up once again as sound started coming from the nearby speakers. She cocked her head as she noticed the opening notes to one of Harry's favourite songs, Another One Bites the Dust. He had become somewhat obsessed with the band after her father had mourned the death of the lead singer a few years prior. Her two boys had bonded even more over the death and the band, and Harry tended to listen to her father's albums whenever he stayed over.

"What?" He asked, with a cheeky grin. "We can't enjoy this?"

Harry held out his hand and she took it. Drawing strength from their connection. And the fact that he was calm enough to have a bit of fun with what was happening. It helped to settle her nerves back to a more manageable level. They could handle whoever was out there. They had already proven that they could take Riddle's servants once before. After all, who else would be attacking both her home and her family's workplace at the same time?

"Sure. Let's have some fun." She replied, turning towards the front door.

They did not waste their time attempting to see who was outside from the windows. The wards extended outwards from the massive oak tree under which the heartstone lay. They fully covered the street to the left of the house, off over all of Hawth Woods and much of Southgate Park in that direction thanks to the intertwining tree roots. But they only went a couple of houses down to the right of the house, and it was there that the sensations were emanating from. As that was as close as the attackers could get to the house itself.

The pair stepped out of the front door and Hermione noted the many cars dotted about the close. It was early afternoon during the school holidays, so most of her neighbours were home. There were even a few folks stepping out of the nearby flats and heading into Hawth Woods with some cricket gear in hand. She returned the brief wave they gave her before turning her attention further down the road.

Hermione walked the short distance down the paved driveway and peered around the large hedge that was the only barrier between numbers 53 and 51.

There, four houses down, was a collection of people who looked beyond strange in the quiet muggle environment. About thirty people in black cloaks and silver masks were spread over the street where it angled in closer to the houses, leaving only a slim strip of grass between the figures and the neighbours.

They looked so incredibly out of place in the generally sunny street, arguing amongst themselves as several of them prodded the invisible line that Hermione knew inside and out. She could pick out the blades of grass at which the wards ended if she had to, she could feel their structure so intimately with her magic.

"Ready?" Harry asked, stepping around her and revealing himself to the distant group, though most were too distracted to pay him any mind right now.

Hermione took a deep breath to steady herself before she nodded. "Yes." She growled through her teeth.

The pair of teens walked down the nature strip, under the cover of the few trees that the council had planted on this side of the road. As they approached, the figures finally seemed to notice them and the arguing stopped. Hermione did note that Harry hadn't turned the music up very loudly and she could only barely hear it from this distance, which made her smile out of nowhere. Her amusement seemed to unnerve a few of the figures as four of them stepped back from the two of them as they approached.

They paused about a metre inside of the wardline and simply stared at those gathered on the other side for several long moments. She found herself wondering what this would look like to any of their neighbours who happened to glance outside at that moment.

Thankfully, the assembly of a large group of strange people in weird outfits seemed to have cleared most of this section of the close. Hermione could see Mrs Alder shooing her two young ones back inside and giving the strangers dirty looks. While the neighbourhood of Ringwood Close was normally bright and welcoming, these odd folk triggered some sensation in those watching and sent them running away it seemed.

"Is this the best he could do?" Harry asked out of nowhere, focusing her back on the invaders.

"You're awfully cocky hiding in there." A familiar voice said from the front of the group.

It was only then that Hermione noticed how much shorter that figure was than the rest and she shook her head at the foolishness on display. She had hoped that by being honest about matters, Draco would be able to move past his anger. Her response to his father had been lethal, but so had been the threat that he had posed to herself and Harry at the time.

"Go home, Malfoy." She said, "This won't end well for you if you don't."

Malfoy simply raised his wand in response and fired a green spell at her. One which ineffectually splashed over the heavy barrier between them, without her needing to move at all to avoid it. She could feel the insistence in the wards that whatever had cast such magic at it be relocated, or worse, but she suppressed the reaction.

"Did you just try to kill me?" She asked, trying to ignore the fiery tempest of rage standing to her left and trying to burn Malfoy alive with his gaze.

"You murdered my father! Now it's time to pay the price, mudblood." Draco snapped back.

Draco gestured behind himself and Hermione felt a cold wave wash over her, even through the thick cover of the wards. She tried her hardest to maintain her composure. Thankfully all of her neighbours seemed to have cleared out for now, so they were safe from the approaching monsters descending from the sky.

A dozen Dementors swooped in until they met the invisible wall above their heads.

"Break it down," Draco growled at the Dementors, his eyes never leaving Hermione's face as he did.

Hermione just sighed as she could feel the oppressive force of the Dementors both directly and through the wards. They were indeed trying to collapse them down, but their efforts did not affect the powerful defences. They were so far from the wardstones that mirrored them into this location from the displaced Manor that she doubted they'd have any luck.

But Harry was quickly approaching his boiling point beside her. He had stood silently as Draco had attempted to murder her in cold blood, right there on the street. And now, Malfoy had brought a swarm of Dementors into a quiet muggle suburb. Harry was about to pop.

"Channel it somewhere useful, love." She said softly to her companion.

Hermione sent her feelings for him down her arm and into his body and Harry shuddered, drawing a laugh from the Death Eaters watching. Clearly, they assumed he was being overcome by the presence of the Dementors, and not filling up with the feeling that had destroyed such monsters more than once now.

They had to be careful here. While legally speaking, the Ministry could not touch them for any response they gave in self-defence, Hermione did not want to shatter the Statute of Secrecy in the process. Given that her muggle neighbours could not see the menacing cloaked figures grasping at the invisible magical barrier, a particularly showy case of Patronus Lightning would have to be kept as a reserve for now. She had another idea for how they could use the magic instead.

She glanced at Harry and could see the determination in his eyes as he glanced at her as well. It was clear that he understood her intention as they both raised their free hand in unison and with a snap, they channelled their feelings for one another into the wards.

The sound that followed would haunt Hermione's dreams for some time to come.

A high-pitched screeching sound came from the air above as the Dementors trying to sap the power of the wards got a full-on dose of the lethal magic that had killed their brethren. With her deep connection to the wards to control them, Hermione had fed all of that power into the wards, filling them up with her love for Harry. The Dementors that were already sucking and clawing at the magic unknowingly took it inside and began to burn up from the inside out as the Patronus energy now in the wards disintegrated them.

The black-cloaked monsters twitched and shuddered as the magic incinerated them, each finally dying with a splash of bright magic as the mighty wards cooked them away into nothing, showering the gathered Death Eaters with the sparks of their allies' demise.

"You come to my home," Hermione said, anger filling her voice now. "You threaten my family. Our friends. Try to murder me."

Several of the nearby Death Eaters tried to flee, but Harry's aura was holding them in place now. This had gone far beyond a bit of fun anymore. He was ready to step through the wards and rip the Death Eaters to pieces with his bare hands if that was what it took.

"You set monsters loose on our neighbours… No, you are monsters yourselves." Her anger and the light show occurring above their heads seemed to distract the Death Eaters from the sounds of apparition occurring further down the close. "It's time for all of you to learn that it is not Riddle that you should fear. It's me!"

Without moving a muscle, Hermione flexed her magic and half of the crowd was launched forwards, slapping heavily against the barrier keeping them out of her home. They began to scream in pain as the power of the wards zapped at their bodies, not killing them, but burning their skin wherever it touched and sapping their magic as their wands fell to the ground.

The sudden movement seemed to shock the remaining Death Eaters into action and they all raised their wands and began assaulting the wards in earnest. Some tried to pull down the powerful barrier while others simply fired every lethal or dark spell they knew at the two teens standing before them.

She watched as Draco lifted his wand once more and aimed it at her head. Despite the screaming, she could hear as he intoned the same spell again and a rush of green magic flew at the wards.

But this time, it would not hit.

This time, Harry had had enough.

He snapped the fingers on his left hand and Draco vanished, reappearing right in front of the ward. The vile boy's own killing curse splashed against his back and his body simply fell forward, going limp on the ground, his head having actually penetrated the wards now that there was no soul left in the body.

The group that had apparated in before finally arrived at the wards and they quickly subdued the distracted Death Eaters. Only a few of them had even noticed the arrival of the Aurors before they were taken down.

Madame Bones stepped up to the dead body of Draco Malfoy before she looked up at the two of them.

She sighed and pointed her finger upwards. "Can you let them down now?"

"They attacked us." Harry defended, looking just as ready to go ten rounds with the Ministry right now as well.

"Yes, I'll let them down," Hermione said, tightening her grip on Harry's hand and loosening the one her magic had on the fools who had tried to kill them.

The bodies fell out of the air and thudded onto the road, still screaming in agony at the damage the wards had done simply by being pressed against their bodies directly.

"You'll probably find a good few of your escaped prisoners in that lot," Hermione added, allowing the adrenaline of the situation to abate. Her heart was still hammering hard in her chest, but the danger, remote as it may have been, had passed.

Harry suddenly seemed to come out of his anger fugue and he glanced over at her.

"I just realized…" He said, "Did anyone get bounced by the wards?"

"A few," Hermione replied. "Before I arrived and took direct control over them. Why?"

"Because, unless you have changed it, they're still depositing intruders in the same place. I guess Riddle will learn that this was a failure directly. At least they still get cold and wet, even if they aren't trapped the same way anymore."

"What do you mean?" Bones asked as the Aurors she had brought rounded up the attackers lying about on the road.

"The wards at Azkaban are broken," Harry replied as if it was obvious.

"We're not taking this lot to Azkaban. It will take years to rebuild that place after what Riddle did to it. If that's even what we decide to do in the end. Azkaban has always been a bit controversial."

"That's not what I meant. These wards…" Harry indicated the invisible barrier between them. "... they upend intruders within the bounds of the wards covering Azkaban. Way out in the North Sea, miles from the island. At which point, Azkaban's wards would keep them trapped magically. They'd have to swim to freedom before they could apparate or portkey back to somewhere safe. Couldn't even tell you which of my ancestors set them up that way. But the Azkaban wards are basically gone now."

"So anyone that got bounced," Hermione continued, following his train of thought now, "would find themselves in the North Sea and immediately be able to magically transport away again. Not as effective as they used to be. We'll have to think up somewhere new."

"Wait a moment." Bones said, clearly not happy with what she had just heard. "Are you saying that your wards have been forcing people inside of Azkaban's wards?"

"They used to." Harry shrugged.

Bones groaned. "The Obliviators will be here in a few minutes. Maybe I'll get them to clear that from my memory too."

The older woman turned around and watched as her people began portkeying away with their new captives. Hermione felt a bit sorry that they continued to be responsible for the messes that Madame Bones was left tidying up. While matters of law were the woman's job, she doubted that Bones had dealt with this level of trouble at any other time during her tenure.

"Do you need us to give a statement?" Hermione asked.

Bones turned back towards them as the sound of further apparition and portkeying went on behind her.

"May as well." She said, with yet another sigh. "Shack, with me."

A tall Auror stood up behind her, handing the man he had just shackled to another of the Aurors and quickly moved over to her side.

"May we come in?" Bones asked.

Hermione simply smiled.

ϟ

Richard sat at his kitchen table once more, sipping from a mug of tea, amazed at how many people were currently in his home.

"We are sorry that we didn't call any of you sooner," Harry explained. "It was a knee-jerk reaction. And it wasn't really a thing, until it was and then the thing was over before we had time to think that we needed to call anyone. And then Madame Bones was here and arresting them all."

"Harry," Remus said, fixing the boy with a stern look. "You actively blocked the passage back here. Richard was hammering on it when I came by."

Richard recalled his rapid egress from his home an hour earlier. Harry had simply popped into the room and snapped his fingers without comment. When Richard had found himself in the bedroom that he had occasionally used on his rare stays at the Manor, he had been somewhat frantic. There were only a few reasons why Harry or Hermione would kick them out of the house like that.

He had rushed to the nearby door that allowed him and Natalie to access the Manor, but the door would not budge. Not even Remus and Sirius working together had managed to unseal it. Until Harry had opened it himself a few minutes ago and the pair had fallen in a heap at his feet.

Now that everyone who could had gathered together, they were all waiting to hear the full story from the two teens. So that they might ascertain just how angry they needed to be at the pair.

Richard wanted to be annoyed, as he had been while hammering on the door ineffectually, felt that he should have been. But the fact that they were both standing there fully intact showed that they had come out of whatever fight had occurred ok. And they had ensured that no harm came to him, Natalie or Sarah.

Though the Obliviators that had been mulling about when he'd been allowed through with his wife and their assistant had ensured the young girl didn't remember anything for very long. Unfortunately, without a blood relation to the magicals involved, Sarah had her memories altered and was sent on her merry way. No idea how close she had come to being killed today.

Richard was fairly certain that it was only the presence of so many magic wielders who would interfere in their defence and the short-lived presence of Madame Bones that had kept his own memories fully intact. After the incident when they first learned that Hermione was magical all those years earlier, the Obliviators were Richard's least favourite part of the Ministry of Magic.

"You promised us," Sirius said, fixing his eyes on Harry, though Richard knew that it was his daughter who had instigated this particular rush rescue.

While Harry had paid for the wards on their business, Hermione was the one attached to them. She would have been the one to feel the first spells cast there. Hence why she rushed immediately to his wife's aid.

"No. We never made that promise." Hermione refuted, staring down the old dog. "We agreed to try not to rush off without telling you. None of you were around when I felt those first spells flying. I will not apologise for protecting my family."

Richard smiled into his mug. As much as he worried for her safety, he was so proud of his daughter's fire.

"We're safe," Natalie interjected, both sides spinning to her as if they wanted to refute her statement. "And that is thanks to those two. I doubt that they needed to walk out there and taunt these folks. I'm sure the wards would have held up long enough on their own?" She finished, directing the last as a question at Harry.

The boy sighed but agreed. "Yes. The wards were barely even taxed by them in the slightest, even when they had the Dementors trying to collapse them. However, there would have been a dozen Dementors flying about Crawley right now if we hadn't. Causing who knows what kind of damage. Not to mention how much danger the Aurors would have been in from facing those two forces alone with their attention focused fully on them. Many could have died today if we had remained inside."

"And the young Malfoy?" Remus asked, having learned of the teen's demise from Bones before she had departed.

"He got what was coming to him." Harry growled.

The anger that shot through those words prevented any of the adults from questioning what the boy had done to earn such a fate. Harry's reply made it utterly obvious that he had tried to kill Hermione in front of Harry. All Richard wondered was what state young Harry had left the boy in if that had been his crime.

Natalie stood and walked over to the pair, but Richard simply sat and watched.

"I love you both dearly, so please understand we're only worried for you." She said softly, wrapping the two teens in her arms.

"We know, mum," Hermione replied. "But we are allowed to worry for you too. And we have never lied about our intentions here. We will not seek out confrontation. But if Riddle is stupid enough to bring it to my front door, he will regret it."

"I'll say," Ted added from the far corner. "Another significant drop in his numbers. You would think he'd learn the lesson by now."

Richard smiled at the other man. He was usually quiet, but when he spoke, his words held a wisdom that Richard had rarely seen from magical folk.

Harry too smiled at the comment. "You would think. And we are sorry that we worried you. But we will never be sorry for protecting you. I will keep my family safe. What I want to know the most was how they knew where to find you."

Hermione seemed to ponder the question as well. "This place is on record in a few locations these days. How else would my Hogwarts letter have made it here? But the surgery? Only the goblins knew that location to ward it up. Do they need to share warded building information with the Ministry?"

"All warded properties are required to be known to the local Ministry," Remus replied. "Otherwise they can't manage the Statute reliably. The goblins would have simply followed the rules, though they have been known to bend them on occasion when it comes to you two."

"The Ministry didn't waste any time getting here either," Harry noted, now rather calm with Hermione standing beside him and Natalie holding them both tightly in her arms. "Things had barely even kicked off when the Aurors showed up."

"Underage magic detection." Sirius had the answer to that one. "Doesn't have to be the actual minor casting the magic. Only needs magic to occur in the vicinity of a known address containing an underage magical. Most cases are ignored unless they require fixing or memory charms."

Richard shuddered at the idea of having his memories altered again. The charm he now wore was supposed to help with that. And Andromeda had done what she could to help them train to detect if such a thing had happened to them, even if they couldn't defend against it in the way true magical folk could. But the memory of how he had reacted to learning about Hermione's magic had left a scar in his mind. He never wanted to be that man ever again.

"So they can detect the kind of magic being cast?" Harry asked.

"To a point," Remus added. "They would know if it's something that a normal school-aged child might cast while forgetting about the restrictions and showing off to family. No one outside the Ministry has a full understanding of exactly how the system works, or they'd be able to figure out the loopholes. But it seems to be something around the children themselves. Somehow their monitors interact with both the child's magic and whatever magic is cast."

"Most of the time the casting is ignored as it gives off a different signal when cast near other magical folk," Andromeda added. "The purebloods are left to handle their children using magic at home for themselves. Which helps to keep the Ministry's costs down. As for when it's cast around muggles, there is an obvious difference between magic cast alone or near magicals. That's usually when the Ministry mobilise as they assume they'd need to fix something. From my understanding. Father was pretty involved with those folks when we were younger."

From the few rare stories that Andromeda told of her family, Richard assumed that the involvement mentioned was not of a law-abiding nature. He wondered how many times the man might have paid off friends in such departments to turn a blind eye to the signals coming from a muggle area. But more, he wondered if that could have happened again here, had Hermione not cut off the head of the group that had been peddling money in the Ministry's halls for such purposes that night in the graveyard.

Richard shuddered at the thought that his entire family might now be dead if it had not been for the extremely long odds of Harry Potter finding himself going to school at The Oaks and meeting his daughter there.

For it was Harry who had empowered his little girl with the magic that had allowed her to whisk her mother to safety. Harry who had dug chunks out of the magic rightly protecting himself in order to provide their home with the incredible protection it now bore. Harry who had furnished them personally with the means to escape an encounter that might occur outside of those powerful wards.

"Harry," Richard said softly, interrupting whatever discussion had continued after his mind had drifted as he stood and walked over to where his wife still held the two teens in her arms.

He knelt down in front of the boy who was as good as his son-in-law, looking up into the boy's curious face.

"Thank you," Richard whispered. "Thank you for saving me. Thank you for giving my daughter the gift that allowed her to save Natalie and Sarah. Thank you for being you."

Harry looked completely unable to process the statement. He clearly remembered how Richard had reacted all those years ago upon first learning of the elf blending. How he had overreacted due to the complete world shift that had been laid upon him in a single night.

"Thank you, Harry." He said once more, pulling the boy forward and wrapping him in a hug that the lad gingerly returned.

"You're welcome," Harry replied softly.

Richard couldn't help but smirk at the response. It occurred to him that he may have handled all of this excitement just as poorly as he had in that previous incident. Only this time instead of shouting and refusing to believe it, he was still in some degree of shock from the danger of it all.

He pulled back and held Harry by the arms, looking up into his stunned face. Richard could see Natalie holding Hermione in her arms, the two girls looking at him with pleased smiles.

"We're proud of you. Both of you. You know that, don't you?" He asked, Harry nodding in reply. "Just as much as I'm sure that Lily and James are as well. You've grown into a fine young man."

Hermione stepped forward and gently wrapped her arms around Harry, peeking her face over his shoulder and looking down at Richard.

"Thank you, dad. You and Mum are a big part of why we are who we are."

Richard couldn't suppress the chuckle that brought forward. It was absolutely true. He had been like a father to Harry for so long now that he pretty much thought of the boy as his own.

"Can I ask you a secret?" Richard queried the teens. The pair nodded, a glimmer of curiosity in their eyes now. "How do you come down from something like this?" He asked earnestly.

Harry and Hermione just smiled at him in return. "Time." His daughter said simply. "And a good bath." She added with a cheeky smirk.

"To hell with that," Sirius said. "I prefer a good stiff drink."

The adults all just laughed at the statement, and Richard felt some of the thrumming buzz still left in his veins reducing. It seemed that family worked well too.

And he was so happy to have these people as his family.