Chapter 8 (Year 3) - Protecting FamilyThree days after they had come home from finishing their second year at Hogwarts, Harry and Hermione were cleaning up the remains of breakfast once their parents had left for work. Hedwig flew in the window with a letter, causing Harry to stop putting away the extra food while Hermione continued to load the dishwasher.
"Hi, Hedwig. How's my favourite girl?" Harry gently rubbed the owl's head, ignoring the quiet snort from Hermione's direction, and received a soft bark in reply. It was obvious that she was happy. Harry reached up into a cabinet and found an owl treat for her. The owl treat supply at the Granger's was used for both his owl and their own owl, Archimedes. Harry gave Hedwig the treat and pulled the letter from her leg. "Looks like Ginny's writing," he announced.
"Read it out loud," Hermione asked as she continued working.
Harry leaned against the counter and opened the letter. He held it with one hand and used the other to pet Hedwig.
Dear Harry and Hermione,
I hope your summer is going better than mine. No real surprises here, I suppose. Except for glances from my Mum, everything appeared normal for the first day. However, when Dad went to work the next day, I received the lecture of a lifetime. I did my best to say nothing, but I've told you a little about the Weasley temper. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore and reacted. Obviously, that made things worse. I'm basically grounded for the rest of the summer, or perhaps my life, and my brothers will have the easiest summer of their lives while I do almost all the chores here. I'm not even supposed to use the family owl, so thanks for sending Hedwig! I got a scathing look when she came with a letter, so please try to send her to my room next time.
Don't worry, Harry, I know that I may think of this as rough, but it's nowhere near as bad as what you told me your childhood was like. I have all the food I want and she never hits me. She just screams at me from time to time and gives me a lot of chores to do.
Mum doesn't realize it, but she is making me want to leave more and more. I'm going to talk to Dad tonight. I'm sure I can get him to talk to her and stop the useless lectures, or at least I hope so.
There's not much else to write about, other than I miss you both terribly and can hardly wait until September.
Love Ginny
He slammed his hand and the letter down on the counter, causing Hedwig spread her wings briefly in surprise.
"Harry," Hermione said softly as she came over to him and put her hand on his arm to try to calm him down. "It's their family. You can't go charging in to save her from this. She said it's not that bad, and you have to trust her."
"But she's my family now, our family, too," he said angrily.
Hermione pulled him into a hug, rubbing his back softly to calm him. "Yes, she is, but we've decided not to say anything for now. Despite the trouble we're going through trying to hide the bond and the trouble she's having there, I think we're still doing the right thing as I don't know what our parents would say. She also said she's going to talk to her dad, and presumably did so last night. Let's wait and see what happens."
Harry lightly squeezed her arm back and let go. "You're right, we need to wait and see. But I also want to look up a few things to see if there's something I can do to help her anyway."
"What? You do research?" she asked with an easy grin.
Harry blew a raspberry. "It's your fault, you know," he told her, matching her grin. "Let's finish up here and then I want to look at that book on Wizarding customs and traditions again."
"All right," Hermione said happily, befor she got a more concerned look. "Harry, can you feel Ginny from here?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Is Ginny all right? You know, she's not injured or anything, is she?"
"No. She's not injured. I can't tell anything beyond that, other than her location is at The Burrow." He looked at her with a puzzled expression for a moment. "Can't you tell where she is or how she's doing?"
"No," she told him. "I can only detect you. I guess the bond and the magic for the bond comes from you, so you're the only one who can feel all of us. We can only feel you, since we're only bonded to you. Or at least that's my guess based on what we know."
He nodded. "That makes sense. Well, let's go read about traditions so I can find a way to help Ginny."
They spent the rest of the morning looking through a few books and writing down ideas. By the time they were ready for lunch, Harry was pretty happy.
Harry looked at his bond-mate as he tapped the paper in front of him. "I think this is a decent compromise, don't you?"
Hermione sighed. "I don't want to do it, but we may have to. What will the Weasleys think of us?"
"I think Mr Weasley will understand and he's the one I care about. Mrs Weasley can think whatever she wants." He watched her think about that.
"I suppose, but if you do, at least wait until after we get back from our holiday trip. That may make Mrs Weasley never want to talk to us again."
Harry considered her request. "All right, I suppose it makes sense to give them time to work it out on their own."
Hermione looked relieved. "What about her brothers?"
"I think they'll support her, except maybe Ron." Harry ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know what Ron will think or do."
"Me neither."
"Do you or our parents have a compass?"
"For what?" Hermione asked, confused at the non sequitur.
"Remember? We talked about repaying Lucius Malfoy for what he did to Ginny, me, and to you."
"It sounds like you have a plan. What did you want to do?" she asked hesitantly.
"On the train, I put a tracking charm on Draco. Tonight, I want to fly to where it points to see where they live, as well as see how long it takes for me to get there. We also need to time how long it takes for Hedwig to fly to London."
Hermione was already looking worried. She was a little afraid of what Harry might try to do.
"Then in a few nights, I'll fly back and do something to their house and you'll send a disguised Hedwig to the Ministry with a note as if from the Malfoys asking for help. The Aurors will arrive, and in trying to help the Malfoys, I'm hoping they'll find something bad hidden there."
"Because if he had one bad item like the diary, he'll probably have more?" she theorized.
"Exactly."
"And what do you plan to do, Harry?"
"Absolutely nothing." At her glare, he added, "I think it's best if we leave it at that, because then you can honestly say you don't know anything about anything that may happen."
Hermione continued to glare at him, but Harry did not give in. She eventually huffed, exasperated. "Fine, I don't know if this is the wisest course of action, but I do agree something needs to be done. From what was said before we came home, and the lack of anything in the Daily Prophet, it's obvious that no one else is going to do anything."
Harry grinned. "Thanks! Let's have lunch and then we can send Hedwig to Diagon Alley. After we do that, we can catch the Knight Bus and then wait for her and time it."
"It won't be the same, but it should be close enough for us," Hermione agreed before she started to look doubtful. "I'm not sure we should go, but Mum and Dad didn't say we couldn't…"
"That's the spirit," Harry encouraged her with a hearty smile.
"I swear, you're going to get me into so much trouble, Harry."
He just grinned at her, before leading her back to the kitchen.
They had a quick lunch and then put Harry's plan into action. Carefully noting the time, Harry told Hedwig to fly to Diagon Alley and to find him there. They went to the end of their street and caught the Knight Bus. Ten minutes later, they were sitting down for some ice cream outside and waiting for Hedwig. The owner of the ice cream shop had told them the Ministry was about a mile from the shopping district.
Hermione finished her ice cream and went to the book shop while Harry continued to wait. Half an hour later, she came back with a few books and a compass that was made to be mounted on a broom.
"That's great," Harry told her as he looked it over.
"It cost a little more, but I thought you'd like that model," she told him with a smug look.
"Why?"
She grabbed one of the books, a very slim volume indeed by her standards, and flipped it open to reveal pages covered with maps. She turned to a page showing the southern half of England. There was a red dot on the page. Looking closer, Harry could see that it marked somewhere in central London. Her smug look turned to a smirk. "Because that compass is bound to this book, and you can know where you end up between the two of them."
"That's brilliant!" he whispered very excitedly as he looked at the two parts intently.
Hermione preened at the praise.
As discretely as possible, Harry did the spell to point to the tracking charm. After they aligned the map and compass, they saw that Malfoy - or at least his shoe - was currently somewhere off to the west. Hermione pulled out a pencil and lightly drew a line on the map.
"What's that for?" he asked.
"It should give you a good idea as to where you're going. We'll do this again at home and the second line will show you the area. It's call triangulation." She sighed. "We don't have the right tools to have the precision needed to know exactly where he is."
"Still, I can see how it would give us the right area to…" Harry stopped as the sound of flapping wings caught his attention. He looked up and raised his arm just in time for Hedwig to land on it. "Good girl," he cooed at her. "Time?"
"Fifty-six minutes," Hermione said as she looked at her watch.
Harry set his owl on the edge of the table and pulled a small cup of water over. Hedwig drank deeply out of it and Harry lightly petted her back.
When she finished drinking, Harry pulled out an owl treat and gave it to her. As she ate it, Harry told her, "That was very helpful, Hedwig. When you're done, you can fly back home, but take your time. You don't need to tire yourself out." The owl gave a small hooting bark and took off.
"Let's go, Harry." Hermione led them back toward the street where they could catch the Knight Bus. Hedwig arrived home just over an hour later.
Harry cast the pointing charm for Malfoy again, and the second pencil line intersected the first in Wiltshire, somewhere in the middle of Salisbury Plain.
Hermione looked at him. "Harry, I don't know if your plan is practical. It looks like you'll have to fly nearly a hundred miles each way. What about using the Knight Bus, even if it's only for part of the way, say to Salisbury?"
He considered that. "It's tempting to use the Knight Bus, but we can't have anyone knowing we had any part in this. Besides, my Nimbus will go nearly one hundred miles an hour if I can fly straight, or so the company advertised. So that's only about a one hour flight each way. There and back will be two hours and a little more time for scouting to find it." He looked at her seriously, "I can easily do that in a single night."
"Do your…" he stopped with a smile, "do our parents have the same schedule tomorrow?" He was still getting used to thinking of Dan and Emma as his parents, and sometimes he slipped.
Hermione smiled at his correction. "Yes. That would give you time to take a nap."
"A Pepperup potion tonight to make sure I don't fall off of my broom might be a good idea, too," he suggested while thinking aloud.
"Right, and I can watch the map to see where you end up and mark it; then you could use the map on your second trip to be more certain." She stopped and looked at him for a moment, her eyes narrowed, her lips pressed together, then sighed. "I can't believe you're talking me into this."
Harry grinned at her. "You know it's for a good cause."
Hermione shook her head in chagrin, but she did not correct him.
Hermione brewed a double batch of Pepperup potion that afternoon - one for each evening.
As dinner ended that evening, Dan said, "Hermione, Harry, we'd like to talk to you about school."
The two students looked at each other and felt a little fear. This was the conversation they had been expecting their parents to have with them and they were not looking forward to it.
"Please don't get upset," Emma quickly told them. "We want to discuss what's been happening to you and what we should do about it."
Looking across the table, Hermione realized she must be wearing the same slightly-panicked expression Harry was right now. She took a deep breath. "Mum, we know this year did not go as well as we all would have liked, but it was not that bad."
"Hermione, please don't purposefully ignore the facts, it's unbecoming of you," her father told her flatly. "You were Petrified and Professor McGonagall said it was luck that that you weren't killed, and then Harry was almost killed by having to fight some monster snake. Those are not the sort of things we envisioned when we allowed you to attend Hogwarts."
"Honey," her mother said, "we love you both and we want you to be happy in the magical school you go to; but we feel it's more important for you to be able to enjoy many more years of life. Despite what we were originally told, Hogwarts is not safe."
"But we've actually made friends at school for the first time…"
"That includes me too," Harry quickly added. "I never had friends at school before Hogwarts."
Dan looked uncomfortable, as he knew that was true for both of them. "And you don't think you can make friends at another magical school?"
"We obviously can't answer that now, but why give up what we have?" Hermione argued. "Also, my being Petrified rather than killed was not luck. I knew what kind of monster we were facing and I took proper precautions just in case it found us, knowing that Petrifaction could be cured. I was trying to find Professor McGonagall to tell her I knew what the monster was when I ran into it."
"And I knew what kind of monster it was when I went to rescue Ginny, because of Hermione," Harry told them. "I'll admit that I was surprised when Professor Lockhart brought the ceiling down almost upon Ron and me, but I knew that I could talk to snakes so I didn't think it would be that hard to get it to leave me alone so I could help Ginny. I came out of the Chamber of Secrets without a scratch on me, so it wasn't that bad from my point of view." He purposefully left out the terrifying moments when he was battling Riddle, as it would not have helped his story.
Hermione saw her mother give her father a look of frustration.
"We would very much like both of you to change schools," Dan said firmly. "While you may feel more comfortable there, please stop to consider how we feel about it. Every time Professor McGonagall comes to us, we have to wonder what she's going to tell us and which one of you is injured … or worse. That is very taxing on your mother and I'm dealing with it only slightly better. Please consider how you would feel when you have children one day and they are in danger of being killed."
Hermione saw Harry hang his head and she felt guilty as well. It had not occurred to her to think about how her parents felt about all of this. If she had children, she would want them kept safe. Sighing as she lost most of her resistance, she wearily said, "I see your point. Hypothetically, what would you prefer us to do?"
"Realistically…"
Hermione looked up to see her mother give her and Harry a very caring look.
"We'd like to look at Beauxbatons in France during our trip this summer and see about transferring both of you there. We won't ask you to give up your magic or that lifestyle as we know how much that means to you; we only ask that you be safe."
"It did look like the next best school," Dan added. "There's also a Durmstrang in Germany, but the two books I looked at didn't make it sound like a place you'd want to attend. They made it sound more like a military school."
Hermione looked at Harry, who was thinking about it all very carefully. It was not hard to guess what he was thinking, since they had already talked about this "discussion" in anticipation of it. In some ways, both of them did not care if they went to Hogwarts or not, at least far as the school itself was concerned. The major sticking point was Ginny. Harry would be thirteen this summer so they could register their bond. He could also call in the Life Debt and "force" Ginny to join them so they could all continue to go to school together. Of course, the "forcing" really applied to Ginny's parents, not Ginny, who wanted to be with them as badly as they wanted her with them. The problem was, that would essentially force the three of them to declare their bond in order to answer all the questions about why Harry was calling in the Life Debt now.
"I can see your point too," Harry said into the silence, "but it's hard to leave the first school I was ever accepted at, and my first friends other than Hermione." He looked at his parents. "Can we wait to decide until after we've visited the school?"
A gasp escaped Hermione.
"What?" her mother asked.
"What if we can't get in? I mean, it's in France and they speak French there. We don't know French," she pointed out.
Emma's mouth dropped open slightly before it closed with a tiny click. "I hadn't thought of that."
"Me neither," Dan said before he started to chuckle. "Thwarted by a small but very significant fact." He looked at his daughter. "Would there be a spell to help you learn or use another language? Magic seems to be able to do everything else."
A frustrated look came over Hermione. "I don't know." She hated to admit that, as she disliked the teasing face Harry was making at her. "But I can owl Professor Flitwick and ask him. I would expect him to know if it existed."
"That sounds like a good idea," Emma said.
"And if Beauxbatons requires French and there is no spell, then we'll stay at Hogwarts?" Harry asked.
Dan looked hesitant and Emma more so, but he finally nodded. "I guess so. Would you be willing to start learning French? We could try to find you a tutor, so that perhaps you could transfer after one more year."
"We could use a tutor during the summer holidays, but not at school. We'd have to learn on our own - assuming there is no spell to help," Hermione pointed out.
"Very well, Hermione, please write to your Professor and ask him about a language spell. After we get his answer, we'll decide what to do about learning French. A tour of the school and the information they give us will be the determining factor. How does that sound?" Emma asked.
"I suppose," Hermione reluctantly said as she looked at her bond-mate across from her.
Harry nodded and with resignation said, "I guess we have a letter to write."
Dan and Emma hugged both of them and sent them off to write the letter. Soon, the Grangers' owl was winging his way to Hogwarts.
Harry and Hermione sat down and put a movie in to watch for the rest of the evening. As the first song started, it was with amusement that Hermione realized she had randomly selected "Beauty and the Beast", which took place in France.
Dan and Emma went to bed at a little after ten, allowing Hermione to creep into Harry's room at half eleven when it was good and dark. Harry got up out of bed fully dressed except for his shoes. He put them on while Hermione made sure the compass on the broom was working.
"Fly west-southwest once you pass Heathrow Airport, and be careful not to fly too close! Hitting an aeroplane would probably get you killed," she whispered. She handed him the Pepperup potion and he downed it quickly.
Harry donned his Invisibility Cloak. "At least it's not raining." He opened the window. "I'll time it both ways, but the trip back will probably be more accurate as I'll know where I'm going."
"Once you leave the wards here, wait at least five minutes before you do any magic, so it can't be traced back to this house," she reminded him. "Good luck, I'll be watching the map." Hermione gave him a hug and then a kiss on the cheek before she crept back to her bed, more worried than she wanted him to know.
Harry stood there for a moment and thought about her. He admitted that he still did not have any romantic feelings for her yet. He was only about to turn thirteen. But the hug was nice and the kiss had been unexpectedly pleasant. He wondered how he would feel about her next summer.
With a smile, Harry noticed it was twenty-five minutes before midnight as he crawled out the window. Taking a deep breath, he took off, carefully going around the trees in the back garden.
Flying mostly straight up until he was about fifty feet in the air and still within their protected ward area, Harry got his bearings, fixing the site in his mind so he knew where to come back to. He also used his wand for some light to check the compass for the direction he needed to go. With the needed landmarks, he aimed directly west to avoid Heathrow Airport, knowing he was going to have to go around the north side of it before heading to his real destination. He leaned forward and started to fly as fast as he could.
About six minutes later, he reckoned he was far enough past the airport to make his turn. Slowing, he took a fix on Malfoy and found he was still west-southwest. Pointing his broom that way, he accelerated to top speed.
About an hour later, he knew he was getting close, as he did not have to move much for his wand to point a different direction. He really hoped that his target was Malfoy's house, and wondered if there was a way to double-check it, but could not think of a safe way to do that without drawing unwanted attention. He also decided it was time to use another spell he had learned just for this project.
Harry cast a Magic Sight charm and almost blinded himself as he looked at his broom. Putting a hand up under his eyes so he could not look straight down at his broom, he looked out. There were several domes of magic visible, but one was very near him. He flew in that direction. He wondered who the other magical area belonged to, and supposed that Crabbe and Goyle were the most obvious guesses from what he knew of their families.
The dome of magic went up about two hundred feet in the air and was about four hundred feet in diameter, or so he guessed. Harry flew at least a hundred feet above the dome to make sure he would not run into it. He cancelled his Magic Sight and was surprised by how much better his eyes suddenly felt. He had not realized how much strain that spell put on him; it had been like looking at a bright light in a dark room.
He did the Pointing spell again and flew around. His wand visibly moved to stay firmly pointing at the house in front of him. Harry smiled. Now it was time for the fun part.
Harry flew a short distance so he was still over the dome, but not over the house. He pulled a pebble out of his pocket and dropped it. Quickly casting the Magic Sight again, he watched the dome under him and saw no flare or any reaction. He pulled another pebble out and enlarged it so it was the size of his fist and dropped it. Again, there was no discernable reaction. He dropped the Magic Sight and waited a few minutes. No one came out to investigate. That also gave him time to really look at the house. It was very large and fancy, like something he would expect the Malfoys to live in.
Glancing at his watch, he saw he had left home almost an hour and a half ago. Taking a moment to look for landmarks again, Harry was satisfied he could easily find this. A very distinctively shaped pond helped to identify it. Satisfied, he checked the time on his watch and turned for home, racing the clock.
Just under an hour later, he was climbing into his bedroom window. As he closed it, Hermione walked in and closed his door.
"Well?" she whispered, very relieved to see him back.
"I found it and my tests worked. We need to allow an hour for flying, so Hedwig can leave ten minutes after me so I definitely have time to get away," he whispered back.
Hermione lit her wand with a Lumos and showed him the book. "You stopped here." There was a small "x" on the page.
He nodded.
"Are you still sure about this, Harry?" she asked worriedly. There were so many ways for this to go wrong.
"I am. No one hurts either of you and gets away with it. Lucius Malfoy will pay for what he did to us, even if Ginny wasn't a part of us until later. It almost killed me when you disappeared from our bond."
Hermione hugged him tightly. "I understand. If you had died in the Chamber, I don't know what it would have done to me, but I suspect it wouldn't have been pleasant." She paused for a moment. "That's the only reason I'm letting you do this."
"I'm sure it wouldn't've been pleasant for you, and thanks for letting me do this, Hermione." He gave her a hug and then a kiss on the cheek. In the weak light of her wand, she looked to be blushing furiously.
"'Night, Harry," she said and quickly left for her room.
Harry smiled and got undressed. He would sleep late and they would double check their plan tomorrow. Tomorrow night he would "send a message" to Lucius Malfoy to demonstrate that his behaviour was unacceptable. It would have to be an unsigned message, but he would not shy away from protecting his family.
Harry looked at his watch as he hovered in the air. It was two minutes after one in the morning and he had to wait four more minutes. He had caught an unexpected tailwind. That was much better than a headwind as that would have made him late, but it did mean he would have it as a headwind on the return flight home.
He pulled the first of five pebbles out of his pocket and looked carefully at the manor house beneath him, trying to decide what his targets were. There were no lights on in the house to show him where people might be for him to avoid. He really did not want to hurt anyone, other than Lucius, no matter how much he might dislike Draco. He only wanted to cause damage and give the Aurors a good chance to look around and hopefully find something.
Checking his watch again, Harry saw it was time. He flew over his first target on the house. Concentrating carefully on the small rock, he cast "Engorgio" and held the spell even after the rock was so big it fell out of his hand, the weight increasing proportionally with the size. He ended the spell several seconds after it had left his hand, already falling, by which point the rock was the size of a small car. He flew a little to the left, reaching a new spot just as he heard the crash of the rock as it hit the house and went through the roof. With a smile, he performed the same trick with the second, third, and fourth rocks as quickly as he could on different parts of the house.
Finished with the house, he flew over to the small outbuilding and dropped the fifth enlarged rock. His mission complete, Harry pointed his broom towards home and raced away as fast as he could go.
Wilbur Smythe was manning the Auror desk for the night. As usual, he was having trouble staying awake. He had already read the Daily Prophet from yesterday and was working on another useless report. He wondered what would actually happen if he failed to submit the report. It was not as if the earth would stop spinning or anything important.
He turned back to the report with a tired sigh just as a solid black owl came in the window. A glance at the wall clock showed it to be ten past one. It was highly unusual to receive an owl at this time of night; normally, they did not start arriving until after six in the morning.
The bird landed in front of him and stuck its leg out as it gave several barks as if to imply that the message was important. He harrumphed at the snooty bird. "There's water over there if you want it," he said absently as he opened the letter that was not addressed to anyone, written in a messy scrawl as if in haste.
Send help immediately to Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire. We're being attacked.
Smythe looked at it for a moment. "Malfoy Manor? Crap!" This was a personal friend of the Minister. He ran for the Floo to alert the on-duty Senior Auror, failing to notice the owl leaving as swiftly as it had arrived. "Gosse!" he yelled into the fireplace after he threw in some Floo Powder. His head spun for a brief moment before he saw an older man come over to the fireplace in the remote room.
"What is it, Smythe?" Gosse drawled, sounding unhappy to be bothered.
"I just got an owl from Malfoy Manor! It says they're being attacked," Smythe practically yelled in his excitement.
Gosse sighed. "Smythe, this is no time for jokes."
"I swear I'm not joking. An owl just delivered the note."
"Hold on." Gosse turned a little and threw some Floo Powder into the next fireplace. "Malfoy Manor." He watched the green flames go dark and stood there for a couple of seconds in surprise. Urgency now hit him. "Shit! They're off the network." He turned back to the first fireplace. "All right, I'll take it. Track down Moody and get him to join us there post-haste." He turned and walked quickly to the barracks.
Throwing open the door, he lit all the lights. Many groans sounded. "Up and at 'em everyone. We've got an emergency."
People started rolling out of their bunks and putting their boots on. Of the dozen people there, about half of them were Auror cadets in training; the other half were Aurors with little seniority and who had to work the night shift.
"Is anyone here related to the Malfoys?" he loudly asked.
"I am," a feminine voice answered. "Narcissa Malfoy is my aunt."
"Tonks, is that you?" he asked one of the second year cadets.
"Yes, sir."
"Right, this half of the room, you're coming with me now. Li, you come with us too. The rest of you get ready in case you're called as backups. Let's go!" Gosse ordered and led them to the Portkey area.
He quickly looked up the coordinates, picked a yardstick from the conveniently-placed bin, and turned it into a Portkey to the front gate area. Going to his group, he held out the yardstick. "Everyone grab hold!" When the seventh hand touched it, he activated it with his wand. They arrived by the gates.
"Tonks, have you been here before?" Gosse growled quietly.
"Twice, sir."
"Can you open the gates?"
"I'll try, sir." Tonks walked forward and put her hand on the gates. To her surprise, they opened.
"Excellent. Everyone follow me, and Tonks - stick next to me," Gosse commanded as he started jogging up the path to the house, where not a single light was shining.
A moment later, they all came to a halt and looked in surprise. Even in the low moonlight, it was obvious the house had been wrecked.
"Bloody hell!" one of the Aurors swore. "What did that? Giants?"
"I have no idea," Gosse said slowly. "Listen everyone. We got an owl asking for help, so there was at least one person alive. Search the structure and use your spells to locate living beings. Tonks, how many people should be here?"
"Uh, three, sir. Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco Malfoy. There should be a couple of house-elves, too."
"Spread around and start searching in pairs, and if you find anyone, bring them back here to the front. Be careful you don't get trapped yourself, the structure is probably unstable." Gosse looked at the house, hardly sure where to start. "Tonks, you're my partner and the liaison to the family."
A crunch on the gravel caused him to spin and pull his wand.
"A little slow there, aren'tcha Gosse? I had you in my sights for the last half minute," said a gravelly voice.
"Shit, Moody! Quit sneaking up on me, I'm not in the mood."
The old Auror chuckled. "Why did you call me here? I'm on first shift."
"May be, old friend, but as you can see, we need to search through Malfoy Manor for survivors. I thought your eye could be helpful, in more ways than one…" Gosse gave his old friend a sly grin.
Moody chuckled again. "Aye, I get your drift. I've always wanted to take a stroll through this house and see what I find." He walked towards the structure alone and carefully walked in.
A scream grabbed Gosse's attention. It was a little to the left. "This way, Tonks." A moment later, two Aurors came out of the building carrying a woman in a nightdress. She looked unconscious.
"Sorry, sir, she was fighting us, so we had to stun her to get her out. She says her son is still in there." The two set her down.
Gosse revived her and Mrs Malfoy looked wildly around.
"Tonks?" her superior prompted.
"Oh, yes, sir. Aunt Narcissa!"
The blonde woman looked around. "Nymphadora? Help me! Draco was in his room!"
Tonks ignored the usage of her first name with effort as she squatted down and grabbed the woman's hand. "We'll get him out, Aunt Narcissa. What about Uncle Lucius? Was he in the house?"
"He should be. I, I think he was in the study. Please, get Draco out!" she pleaded.
"Where's his bedroom?" Gosse asked.
"Second floor, that wing," Tonks pointed.
"What used to be the second floor, you mean," Gosse muttered, then raised his voice. "You two, get another pair to join you and search that wing for the boy. Tonks, where's the study?"
"Uh," she thought for a few seconds before she pointed. "It's over there on the ground floor."
"Right, I'll get someone over there in a minute. Mrs Malfoy, are you injured?" Gosse asked.
Narcissa stared at him for a moment. "Please save Draco!"
Gosse brought his lit wand a little closer to her and looked at her face carefully. "I think she's in shock, maybe she even has a concussion. Tonks, stay here and keep her calm. I'll be back in a minute." He jogged to the other side of the house and found a pair of his team and had them start searching for Lucius. If they did not find everyone in a few minutes, he'd summon the rest of the on-call Aurors to help.
Hurrying back, he saw Tonks give the woman a cup of water and some calming words. He liked her thinking. "Mrs Malfoy, do you know what time this happened?"
She looked back at him. "I think I remember hearing the clock chime one, but after that I'm not sure."
Gosse worked the timing out in his head and things did not match up. "Did you send an owl to us requesting help?"
Narcissa seemed to think very hard. "No. Please, stop asking me questions and save Draco!"
"We're working on it, madam." Gosse thought about what was happening. Their house had been destroyed and there was no possible way an owl could have flown from here to the Ministry in the time available. Did someone else send the owl or was something "sinister" going on?
"Got him, sir!"
Gosse turned towards the shout. "Tonks, keep her sitting down," he commanded as he hurried over. He cast his light on the boy as he was floated the last bit. There was blood on his right leg and both legs looked a little funny.
"Two broken legs and some blood loss, not too much. He'll survive, but he needs to go to St Mungo's immediately," Auror Li told them as he set the boy down next to his mother.
"Draco? Draco?!" Narcissa called out to her son hysterically.
"He's unconscious, but we're going to take you both to the hospital." Gosse grabbed a foot-long chunk of wood from off the ground and turned it into a Portkey. "Tonks, use this to get them to St Mungo's. As soon as you have them checked in, return to the Ministry and bring the rest of the crew here. We're going to need more help to find Lucius in all of this."
"Yes, sir." Tonks Portkeyed the two Malfoys away.
Gosse shook his head. "Keep searching. Lucius is supposed to be here somewhere," he told those standing there. He walked around the house to find Mad-EyMad-Eye.
"Moody!" he yelled.
"In here," came the faint reply.
Gosse carefully went into the house. He noticed that several of the walls had been transfigured into stone. He assumed Moody had done that to help what was above them stay up. He found his old friend in what looked like a dining room. "Why are you just standing here?"
Moody was shining his wand around the floor. "Because there's a ward on this floor that my eye can't see through. I probably wouldn't have noticed it except for this hole in the floor over here. I haven't found a way down yet and I'm not too keen to just jump into a hole, especially in a house that may or may not stay up," he grumped.
Gosse looked in the hole with the light from his wand and did not see anything, other than there was a room of some kind down there. Many houses had basements, so this was not a surprise. Then he heard something. "Wait, be quiet a moment." He cast a Sonorus into the hole. They both clearly heard moaning. He ended the spell.
"Well, I'd say we found Lucius, but either he's lost something between his legs or he has some female guests here," Moody said with a grin.
"Damn it! This is getting more complicated all the time." Gosse looked at Moody. "You might as well know now that the owl we got telling us about this wasn't sent by Narcissa."
Moody looked thoughtful for a moment. "You're suggesting this was a setup? That someone wanted us to search this house?"
"I don't know," Gosse warily admitted. "But it does seem like a possibility, and I can't think of any other reason that fits the facts I know so far."
"Lad, I'd keep that opinion to yourself for the moment. Let's get all the facts and then see what we have."
"Are you saying we don't want to point out there was foul play here?"
Moody shook his head. "No, there's no doubt about foul play. This much damage was deliberate, but if there was a secondary motive, beyond wasting some of Malfoy's money to repair a house, you might not want to be the one saying that … if you know what I mean."
Gosse considered that. "Shit, this could be a political hot potato."
"Aye, but less likely could be and more likely will be."
"I'll take your advice for now. Why don't you lower me into that hole and let me see if I can find some stairs for you."
"I can do that." Moody limped over and then levitated Gosse down into the hole.
A minute later, Gosse was through the hole and standing in what could only be a rather large work room. Support beams had come down all over the place, but there was no body visible. The moaning was louder though. He saw some stairs in the corner and went up them. A moment later, he was lifting a trapdoor that showed he was in the dining room. "Moody? I think you can make it down here."
"Aye." Moody hobbled over and came down to join the search.
Gosse searched for the moans and found two naked young women in less than perfect condition lying in what looked like cells. A quick spell showed neither had a magical core. "Aw, shit. This just keeps getting worse and worse."
A thump got his attention. "What did you find, laddie?"
"Two Muggle girls, naked and probably abused, locked up in what looks like cells. Can you believe it?"
"Oh, aye, easily. Would you believe I found a Death Eater mask and several illegal poisons, as well as enough cursed items to send him away for the next ten years or more without anything else?"
Gosse shook his head. "After seeing those two prisoners, I do. There's a few more years in Azkaban for him as a minimum. They don't look too injured, so I think I'll leave them here for a few minutes. What about Lucius?"
"Oh, I found him too, but I'll need your help. He's pinned beneath a beam but good," Moody said.
"Right, let's get him first." Gosse followed Moody back. Ten minutes later, Moody was floating an unconscious Malfoy in Auror manacles back upstairs, while Gosse went to get the girls. He would send Li and a few others back down here to get all the evidence, along with Moody to make sure they missed nothing. If he had anything to say about it, Lucius would not get away from these charges. That gave him an idea, a face-splitting grin of an idea.
Gosse conjured robes on them and then took the two girls up top. He directed Li and three other Aurors into the secret basement for an investigation, and to bring the report directly to him, Moody, or Bones, and no one else. He put Moody in charge of the scene for a few minutes and took Lucius and the two girls to St Mungo's, along with two of the Auror recruits.
The recruits stood guard over Lucius while he was getting care. Gosse took the Muggle girls to the special ward where Muggles were treated while evidence was collected, and then they would be held only until they could be Obliviated and returned to their homes. He stayed just long enough to get a preliminary report on their condition. The Healer confirmed they had been sexually assaulted.
His watch showed it to be close to three in the morning. He was going to have to hurry, but if he could make it, Fudge would never be able to get his good friend Lucius Malfoy free of these charges. With careful thought, Gosse put on a few glamours and Apparated to the main offices of the Daily Prophet, where a "senior Ministry official" had some interesting news for the people. Thirty minutes later, Gosse returned to the crime scene.
Nearly an hour-and-a-half earlier a tired twelve year-old boy had crawled into bed after a long flight, and across the hallway a relieved thirteen year-old girl had closed a map book and shut off her wand - both were satisfied and sleeping soundly.
The next morning after his broken night of sleep, a somewhat groggy Harry Potter went down to breakfast. An only slightly more awake Hermione Granger looked up from her newspaper and smiled slightly.
"No problems last night?" she asked in an innocent voice that did not make him look up.
"No," he answered as he wearily grabbed a bowl and some cereal.
"So now that you've done it and I can't stop you, what did you actually do?" she casually asked.
"I, uh, I enlarged five pebbles to the size of a car and dropped them onto his house from a few hundred feet up," he answered hesitantly, afraid of what she was going to say. "Because I didn't use that much power, it should have worn off after a few minutes so they wouldn't find the boulders. Or at least it wore off and the rock shrank back down after about three minutes in practice."
Hermione surprised him and only nodded. "Well, your plan seems to have worked, as unorthodox as it was." She put the newspaper in her hands down in front of him.
Harry stared at the huge picture of a destroyed house. It was obvious the picture had been taken in the dark and enhanced to make the details visible, but what it showed was amazing. It would be an almost total loss. Even more interesting was the headline: Lucius Malfoy's Manor and Reputation Destroyed!
"I guess I got lucky?"
"Read it," she suggested as she cleaned up after herself.
Harry found it interesting that she did not seem too bothered by it all. The article said the house had been destroyed early this morning and that Lucius Malfoy had been found with two Muggle girls in captivity, both malnourished and having been repeatedly sexually assaulted. Also found in a secret room was a Death Eater mask, along with various illegal poisons and numerous illegal Dark artefacts. If convicted of it all, Malfoy would be spending at least the next thirty years in Azkaban. It went on to say that his wife and son had suffered minor injuries as well, but both were expected to recover and be released from St Mungo's tomorrow.
"Too bad about Draco and his mum, but I'm glad of the rest." He looked at her as she calmly sat there and looked at him. "Hermione, say something." He was starting to get a little scared.
She sighed. "Harry, I do understand why you felt like you had to do this," her voice suddenly rose to a shout, "but you could have killed three people!"
Harry looked at the paper for a moment as he surveyed the picture again. "And how many people did Malfoy almost kill, Hermione?" He looked up when she did not answer. "Colin, Justin, Penny, you, me, and Ginny. That's six. I could count Ron, too, as he almost got buried by rocks in trying to rescue Ginny. Really, I'd have to count attempted murder with a basilisk on every person at Hogwarts, all the students and staff and even their pets. I don't like Draco, but I didn't want him dead, nor his mother. Lucius Malfoy didn't care who died when he gave that diary to Ginny, probably with the exception of his son. In fact, I'm almost sure he wanted Ginny to die."
"But Harry…"
"But nothing, Hermione," Harry said forcefully. "It's been over a month and no one has done a thing about Malfoy. Yeah, we can't prove it, but I bet even if we could, Fudge would get him off with a small fine at most. If they were going to punish him for it, they should have done something by now."
"But is it really your place to play judge, jury, and executioner?" she asked pointedly.
"It is my place as Head of the Potters to protect my family. I will protect you and Ginny from everyone! I'll protect our parents too. I'll also protect the Weasleys, although I might hesitate with Mrs Weasley because of what she's doing to Ginny right now. Hermione," Harry pleaded with her, "please understand that family is very important to me. As much as I want to be normal, I know I really can't be; but I can have a family and I will protect them."
Hermione sat for a moment in thought before she got up and came around the table. She pulled Harry into a hug as he sat, with his face next to her stomach, and held him tightly. "Part of me doesn't like it Harry, but I do understand. I won't say anything more about this if you'll promise not to do something like this again."
Harry held her just as tightly around her waist. "I'd like to, but I can't promise that Hermione. I will protect you with all that I am, with all that I have. I can't tell you what it was like with you not there. I could say it was like having my wand arm cut off, but even that's not enough. It really hurt, and Malfoy wouldn't have cared if you had died. He'll never know I did this, but I will. I will know that I protected my family from the likes of him, at least for the next thirty years."
Hermione lowered herself so she was sitting on his lap. Harry was surprised to see tears running down her cheeks. "Thank you, Harry. I'm sorry I forgot what it was like to be you." She kissed his cheek. "Let's compromise. First, promise me you'll be careful so I don't lose you. Second, promise me you'll let me help you plan these in the future, so if something goes wrong we'll share the blame equally."
"Always," he fervently told her.
Ginny came down to breakfast early. She had had trouble sleeping and did not know why. At some point during the early morning hours, she had wakened and felt a slight weakening, like she might faint, except it was not quite strong enough for that. The feeling had pulsed strangely several times and then simply disappeared.
On the dining table, she saw a copy of the Daily Prophet. The headline with Lucius Malfoy's name in it grabbed her attention. She snatched up the paper and hurried back to her room to read it. This was the sort of thing her mother generally did not allow her to see.
Sitting on her bed, she read the article. Her smile grew the more she read. By the end, she was exceedingly happy and she was all but certain who she had to thank for this happening. She was going to hug the stuffing out of him for doing this for her.
"Ginny? Time to get up and come down for breakfast so you can start working," her mother called.
That almost ruined her good mood, but she did her best to shrug off her tribulations here. Someone did care for her very much. Ginny hid the newspaper; she wanted to keep that as a reminder of how special someone was.
Cornelius Fudge threw the morning newspaper down on his desk in fury. Those buffoons, he thought. "A Senior Ministry Official indeed," he swore. If the news had not been published where the entire Wizengamot could read it, he probably could have buried the Auror report. As it was, there was no way he could save Lucius now.
Then the thought of Lucius on the witness stand filled him with dread. He would have to be very careful to make sure Lucius was not given Veritaserum. That could be disastrous.
He again wondered who had leaked the information…
Albus Dumbledore set the morning newspaper down as he finished his breakfast in his private chambers. A smile graced his lips and a twinkle danced in his eyes. As Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, he could make sure Lucius stood trial.
While this was a surprise and not what he would have preferred to have happened, Albus wondered if a little time in Azkaban would help Lucius to see the error of his ways and repent. He could always hope.
Albus could also read between the lines, as well as look at the picture. This act of destruction was deliberate. It was also quite probable that the destruction of the house was meant to let Aurors in to search for illegal artefacts. Having those Muggle girls locked up in the basement would be hard to get out of, especially in light of Arthur Weasley's new Muggle Protection Act passed this last year.
That thought led him to consider that to a few people, it was generally accepted that Lucius had been behind the giving of the diary to young Miss Weasley, even if they could not prove it. Had one of those few taken matters into their own hands? He considered that. He also looked at the picture again, baffled by how the damage had been done. It would take a lot of magic, perhaps as much or more than he had. Giants could have easily done that, but the article had been clear that no evidence of giants had been found.
He finished breakfast and put on his purple and yellow robes to go to the Ministry. He would ponder the mystery of "who" and "why" when he had more time. For now, he had to deal with the "what" and nothing more.
That evening as dinner was finished, Hermione pulled a letter out of her pocket and handed it to her mother. She looked at her father. "Professor Flitwick says there is no translation spell to help you speak another language or to learn it faster."
Emma finished the short letter before folding it and handing it back. "I have tomorrow morning off. I will endeavour to locate a university student whose major study is French and can act as a tutor a couple of evenings a week. I'll also see if I can find some introductory books and language tapes. How does that sound?"
Hermione smiled. "That will be a good start. We can work on it during our trip too, as we'll be surrounded by French-speaking people."
Three days later, there was a knock at the front door. A few minutes later, Emma led a dark-haired young woman in her early twenties into the living room. "These are my children and your students, Hermione and Harry. Kids, this is your tutor, Marie Bernard, who actually grew up in France."
"Good evening Hermione and Harry, I'm pleased to meet you," the young woman said in flawless English with only a hint of an accent.
((A/N: Even though Harry may be listening to Hermione more often, he's still a Gryffindor at heart: Boldly going where Aurors fear to tread. :))