I do not own Harry Potter. I don't even own the house I'm stuck in.
Chapter 6 – Off the Grid
The Minister for Magic was having a difficult morning. Potter evading capture yesterday was especially embarrassing considering the press had been briefed about a major announcement. Luckily, he managed to spin the announcement being about Madam Bones becoming the Chief Warlock, but he wasn't sure if anyone believed him. His Ministry was hanging on by a thread and he knew it. If Dumbledore somehow managed to convince the public of his You-Know-Who nonsense, he was done for. The Ministry needed something to bring the public back on their side. Short of capturing Sirius Black he couldn't think of anything.
Dolores Umbridge was in the Ministerial office for an early briefing. "Minister." Umbridge nodded as she entered the office. "I think we can turn the Potter situation around."
"How Dolores?" Fudge asked. "We need something."
"We use the press against Potter." Umbridge suggested. "He is unlawfully evading the Ministry after all. "
"But what about the public?" Fudge objected. "That boy is beloved."
"This time last year that might have been the case." Umbridge said "But his approval ratings since the Skeeter interview last year, have been circling the toilette."
"All right. But we do this from a distance." Fudge said. "No official statements but leak it to Skeeter through the usual channels."
"Yes Minister." Umbridge said, having already done it.
Remus and Sirius apparated to the outskirts of Keswick and transfigured their robes into Muggle hiking gear and wandered down towards Kendell Cottage. Parked out front of the cottage was a large Range Rover. "The Grangers must do all right." Remus remarked as they approached the door. Remus knocked.
"Hello?" Mr Granger answered.
"Ah, Dr Dan Granger I presume?" Remus said extending his hand.
"You seem to have me at a disadvantage, mister?"
"Professor actually." Remus corrected. "Professor Remus Lupin. I taught your daughter and Harry at Hogwarts."
"I see." Mr Granger said. "I suppose you had better come in then." He stepped aside allowing them into the house. "Is this about the business at the Dursley residence? Because I can testify that Hermione acted in defence of Harry."
"What was happening to Harry?" Sirius demanded.
"Sorry, who are you exactly?" Mr Granger demanded.
"This is Sirius Black. Dr Granger." Remus introduced them. "He is Harry Potters Godfather."
"Look." Mr Granger said. "The kids aren't up yet, but I think there are some things you ought to know. Please come through." Mr Granger led them into the kitchen and explained to them the events of the previous day.
"I will murder that fat fuck!" Sirius snarled.
"I'll help." said Mrs Granger softly. "To abuse a childlike that is utterly barbaric." They talked for a few minutes before Hermione and Harry finally came in.
"Sirius? What are you doing here?" Harry asked.
"I came to check up on you pup." Sirius smiled. "I heard you may have gotten yourself into trouble."
"You know me." Harry smiled.
"But Harry didn't cast the spells Professor Lupin." Hermione objected. "It was all me."
"I know Hermione" Remus pleaded. "and please call me Remus by the way. When it comes time for the disciplinary hearing that will all come out and you will more than likely be exonerated or at most get a slap on the wrist and maybe even a fine."
"Then why are the Ministry coming in so heavy handed?" Harry asked.
"Because you said Voldemort's back." Sirius explained. "It's simple. They want to discredit you as the attention seeking glory hound." He continued. "They went to arrest you and perp walk you in front of the entire press corps."
"Dirty buggers." Mr Granger interrupted.
"Welcome to politics." Sirius interrupted.
"So, what do we do?" Harry asked.
"Right now, we do nothing." Remus said. "The Ministry doesn't t know where you are, and they won't find you here. Dumbledore is up to something as well, so I say we sit on it for now."
"But I can promise you one thing Harry." Sirius said. "You absolutely will not be going back to the Dursleys."
"I'm going to live with you?"
"No, I'm still on the run and it would be too dangerous. I've got something else in mind." Sirius said. "But we can't do anything about it yet."
The conversation continued for a while and they enjoyed their breakfast. Talking over what they may or may not do that day. And while Harry and Hermione where talking quite normally to each other the adults couldn't help but notice they couldn't quite look each other in the eye without blushing.
After Breakfast Sirius and Remus took their leave. Mr and Mrs Granger went to get some shopping done leaving Harry and Hermione alone with their embarrassment.
"Hermione," Harry began. "About this morning."
"Don't worry about it, Harry." Hermione smiled. "you where the perfect gentleman."
"But I was rubbing my erm, my…"
"Wand?" Hermione suggested, enjoying his embarrassment more than she should.
"Right, yes." Harry agreed. "I was rubbing my wand up against your… well you know?" He was getting red in the face at this point.
Hermione saw and tried to suppress a giggle. "My arse Harry." She said matter of factly. "Your erm, wand was rubbing against my arse."
"Oh Merlin!" Harry exclaimed. "I'm sorry Hermione. You came to help me last night and then I repay you by taking advantage of you."
"You did no such thing Harry." Hermione said firmly. "What happened this morning was nothing more than an accident of biology. And quite frankly I quite enjoyed it!" She finished getting embarrassed herself now. "You do know how to make a girl feel good about herself Harry." She added.
"So, we are OK?" Harry asked.
"Yes Harry. We are more than OK." she confirmed. Harry seemed to relax. "But at some point, we are going to have to talk about this. It feels like we are becoming more than just friends."
"Hermione, we have never been 'Just Friend's'" Harry replayed. "You have always been the most important person in my life."
"What about Cho Chang?" Hermione asked. 'Why did I ask that?'
"Cho was a distraction Hermione." Harry said. "I always thought you and Ron…"
"Me and Ron?" Hermione exclaimed. "Me and Ron what?" She could feel herself getting mad.
"Well it's common knowledge that he has a thing for you" Harry said. "You must know about it? Well it's just generally assumed that you two would work it out and get together."
"Generally assumed?" She demanded. "And just who is making these assumptions?"
"Well Dean is running a book." Harry told her. "Fred had the Yule Ball, but obviously Ron was such a prat about that all bets were refunded. Now the smart money is Ron will make his move either this summer or on the train."
"For merlin's sake!" Hermione cursed. "I don't have any feelings for Ron. He is my friend, and yes I care for him but let's face it Harry, I don't have any thing in common with him." She explained. "In fact if it wasn't for you, I don't think Ron and I would be friends at all."
"Right." Harry said. "But I always assumed you had a thing for Ron. Opposites attract and all that. Basically, I didn't think you would be interested in me, so I started to look around and that's how I got interested in Cho."
"So now you know I'm not interested in Ron. What are you going to do with that knowledge?"
Harry simply smiled and started to lean in towards Hermione. Once again, their lips merely inches apart.
"HARRY? HERMIONE?" Mrs Granger called "Can you come and give us a hand with the shopping?"
"Coming Mum." Hermione called pulling away and standing quickly rushing off.
"Son of a Bitch!" Harry swore.
Albus Dumbledore stood at the head of the table, in the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters. "My friends." He began. "We have much discuss today. We will first turn to Arthur Weasley who will update us on things within the ministry." Dumbledore sat down.
"Thank you Albus." Mr Weasley began. "Our source within the Ministers office continues to provide us with intelligence from the very top levels of the Ministry. It would seem the Minister is getting desperate. He has ordered the underage magic detected at the home of Harry Potter be leaked to the press, in particular Rita Skeeter. It would appear, that he is hoping to capitalise on her already biased opinion against Harry to discredit him before he even brings to light his claim that You-Know-Who has returned."
"That is unfortunate but not all together unexpected." Dumbledore said waiving away his concerns. "Do you have anything else?"
"Yes." Mr Weasley continued. "Sticking with Harry, Madame Umbridge has for some reason taken a particular interest on Harry's case. She is in fact pushing for his tribunal to be carried out before the end of July and it would appear, she intends to act as Inquisitor herself."
"Do we have any evidence of this?" Mad-eye Moody asked.
"Umbridge is scheduled to take the Inquisitor examination this morning and she is already petitioning the Chief Clerk to give her the case." Mr Weasley confirmed.
"Which of course he will in the hopes of currying favour with The Minister himself" Dumbledore lamented. "If there is nothing else? Then we shall move onto Severus. What is happening inside Voldemort's camp?"
"The Dark Lord has his sights firmly set upon the Ministry." Snape drawled. "As we know there are already several Death Eaters in the employ of the Ministry. He has ordered MacNair to somehow ingratiate himself with a top-ranking witch in the hopes of being able to gain access to the very top of our government. He has also ordered Lucius Malfoy to try and recruit from the pure bloods within the Wizengamot." Snape continued. "And not just on the benches of the noble houses. Malfoy hopes to bring the Parkinson family into line with an arranged marriage between his son and the Parkinson girl."
"This is indeed disturbing news." Dumbledore conceded. 'The time may be close to where Harry will have to denounce Malfoy and supporters of Voldemort."
"But Albus." Professor McGonigal objected, "The press would eat Potter for breakfast if what Arthur said is true."
"Be that as it may Minerva," Dumbledore argued. "I see little choice in the matter. I will meet with Mr Potter on Monday and I will explain the situation to him."
'Good luck.' thought Remus. 'We made him unplottable this morning.'
DAILY PROPHET
evening edition
HAS POTTER GONE POTTY?
Rita Skeeter (Special correspondent)
Harry Potter (14), hero to many, and suspect winner of the Triwizard Tournament has apparently been breaking the rules again.
According to a source within the Ministry of Magic a series of underage spells where logged at Potters home in Surrey.
An unlocking charm, a stunning spell and perhaps most worrying of all three, memory charms.
"These series of spells constitute a serious breach of the Reasonable Restriction for underage magic laws." Mafalda Hopkirk (45) of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement told this reporter when we reached out for confirmation. "More worrying still" Hopkirk "Is the memory charms which, to me, is an indication of Muggle Baiting."
Even more disconcerting still when ministry officials were dispatched to Potters home address, they found that Potter had fled the scene and a high-ranking Hogwarts Professor trying to cover the whole incident up. We reached out to Hogwarts for a comment but as of our deadline no one has responded to our owls.
It is expected that Mr Potter will face a board of inquiry in the coming weeks to answer for his crimes…
Harry spent the day hiking around the lake district with the Grangers. They walked for miles around the countryside. After dinner the elder Grangers took themselves off to the pub leaving Harry and Hermione alone for the first time all day. Hermione was sat on the decking reading the Pawn and the Prophesy by David Eddings. Harry came out carrying two glasses of Coke. "Hermione?" He said getting her attention. "Can we talk?"
Hermione slowly and deliberately finished reading her page, gently placed her bookmark, closed the book and set in down. "What would you like to talk about?" she asked. "Biology?"
Harry went red. 'Carpe Diem Potter' He thought. "No, chemistry." He replied leaned in and kissed her lips ever so genteelly.
"Smooth Potter." Hermione replied trying to hide her own embarrassment.
"This morning, we were talking about how we felt right?" Harry asked.
"That's right." Hermione confirmed. "You thought me and Ron being together was inevitable, so you tried to distract yourself with Cho Chang."
"Something like that. But before your parents called us in, I was about to ask you a question."
"Were you?" Hermione replied. "And what was that question? Were you going to ask if I fancy Neville Longbottom?"
"Well who wouldn't fancy Neville?" Harry smiled. "Hell, I fancy Neville. It's the ears you see." He went on. "But assuming Neville isn't interested in me, I wanted to ask you if you would be interested in being my girlfriend?"
"Are you serious?" Hermione laughed. "All day. I've been waiting for you to ask me to be your girlfriend. All bloody day and that's how you ask me?"
Harry moved closer to her, took her hands and pulled her to her feet.
"Would you, Hermione Granger smartest witch to have ever graced the halls of Hogwarts, prettiest girl I know and my best friend, like to be all that AND my girlfriend?"
"Yes Harry." Hermione smiled. "I would love to be your girlfriend." They sealed their relationship with a long and passionate kiss.
Aurthors note: Thank you for staying with me for another chapter. Thank you for all the favourites and likes from everyone.
I hope you are all staying safe and obeying your local lockdown laws.
A big thank you goes out to Gin-Sensu for being my Beta.
Jkarr: Thank you for your review, I'm glad you like what I'm doing with Sirius and Remus.
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